Sorry all of this is taking so long anymore. Things are hectic and my time to write hasn't been as often lately. On top of that, my intrest keeps changing from one work to the next every couple weeks. Plus, I've been addicted to FFX-2 and Xenosaga...
Chapter Thirteen - A Stirring in the Rubble
Tien looked at the man before him quite confused. The others were as well. "Supreme... Kai?" he asked. He glanced over to Enzeru and found her looking just as confused as him, and the others. "Where are we? How'd we get here?"
"This would be the Grand Kai's world." Shin said motioning back to him. "As for how you arrived here, instead of your expected destination, that would be my doing. I... pulled a few strings, if you will. I asked the Eternal Dragon to send you here instead of to New Earth."
"You had the.. but... how?" Enzeru asked confused. "And why?"
Shin nodded his head slowly and began to walk forward. The warriors from Earth watched as he walked slowly passed them and over to the edge of a cliff. He stopped there and moved his hands behind his back, a pose that reminded them greatly of Roshi. "The Masters have been a building and growing threat for a long time." he said after a moment of silence. "We saw them merely as a mortal matter for a long time. However, they soon surpassed even my power..."
"Mortal? Your power?" Krillin asked shaking his head. "I don't get it."
"We Kais..." Shin said glancing over his shoulder. "Are the gods of the universe. This here is Otherworld, the home of the dead. Above us some distance away is Heaven. Below us, beneath the clouds of gold, is the H.F.I.L..."
"Er, H.F.I.L.?" Yamcha asked.
It was a new voice that replied, chuckling softly. "Home for Infinite Losers." the Grand Kai said. "Named it myself, thought it suited considering the bulk of the occupants."
"Gee, thanks." Bardock muttered.
Shin smiled lightly. "Yes, well, regardless, it is where you will find the dead not allowed into Heaven but still reedemable and thusly, not in Hell."
"Dead? You keep saying that... so does that mean...?" Mitsuki asked.
Shin shook his head. "No. You are all very much alive." He sighed as he turned his gaze back out over the planet. "We saw no threat in the Masters, overlooked what they could become, and allowed things to progress to where they are now. And yet, a greater threat has been unleashed upon all of existance with the destruction of the Earth."
"A threat greater than the Masters?" Enzeru asked skeptical.
"Yes. Majin Buu. An unnatural creature of immense power created millions of years ago. A wizard gathered all the evil that he could, from his world and from Hell itself, and formed Buu. His power was vast and unending. Much like Gero's cyborg creations his energy is infinite. His power is well beyond anything this universe saw before, or has seen since. He was sealed away within the Earth. It's destruction has released him. It will take time for him to reform, having been dormant so long, and then he will resume the destruction of the universe.
"It is certain that Buu and the Masters will clash. That shall make your jobs easier, thinning out those you must defeat. But to get to that level of power will take you much time, effort, and determination." Shin turned to look at them again. "You five are the hope of the universe now. It is up to you to defeat the Masters, and possibly, Buu as well."
"Wait..." Krillin started. "If the Masters are stronger than you, and you're gods, then... how will we be able to stop them?"
"With intense training beyond anything you've ever experienced before." Shin said. "That is why you are here. You've been looking for a way to train yourselves better, harder, and this is it. I have arranged for you to learn from the greatest fighters the universe has to offer. That is, if you will accept."
"Accept?" Tien asked shaking his head. "No need to ask, where do we start?"
Shin smiled and nodded. "I expected as much. North Kai, they are yours."
The five warriors turned to see who Shin was talking to and saw a very short, blue, round, catfish like man standing where there had been no one a moment ago. "Normally I would require you to pass my entrance test. However, this matter is of such importance we shall forgo that. Come, place a hand on my back or shoulders, we must go to my world to begin your training."
The five looked at each other and then started toward the North Kai. They'd only gone a few steps when all of the space around them rippled with darkness for a second. "What was that?" Yamcha asked looking around.
"Buu has begun to reform." Shin said slowly. "I do not know how much time it will take..."
"Then we need to be getting to work." Enzeru said moving over to the North Kai and placing a hand on his shoulder. The other four joined her a moment later. And then, in the blink of an eye, they vanished.
"I need to learn how he does that..." Raditz said crossing his arms.
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Tao leaned back in the command chair and finally relaxed. They'd made it a good distance from the patrol ship now and there were no signs of any more ships around for a good distance. Nothing on the radar at all. Their chances of being followed, of Frieza even knowing which way they had gone, were now non existant. "We're in the clear again. I had to re-direct our course, however. Our new destination is Xentron."
"Xentron?" Nail asked. "What's there?"
"It's a fringe world. None of the Masters have jurisdiction as none care about it. It's mostly desert and almost no resources. A scout ship goes by once a year to check it's status but that's about it. It's a prime place for people such as us to disappear for a while. On top of that, it's got a very active black market."
Nail nodded. "So then, we have four of the artifacts, and this Slug has the other two?"
The Human sighed and nodded slowly. "Apparently so. The reports that came in earlier seem to suggest they found the last of the artifacts on Cell's world... I had hoped to beat them to it. Five to one is better than four to two. Now it's merely a matter of attaining their two artifacts."
"Perhaps a truce?" Nail said as he moved to gaze out the ship's windows. "A temporary alliance with Slug and Turles. We are after the same goal."
"I've thought of that, but I don't trust Slug. Once he and Turles have a set of Potara's they'll fuse. As things stand I am no match for either of them. Once merged... well..."
"Then, how do we get their artifacts off of them? We don't even know where they are."
"True. I'm hoping someone on Xentron has some information on them. Once we do find them... an attack to attain the artifacts is not a good plan. We would be beaten back with ease. We would need to find them, sneak on board, and steal the artifacts without notice. Locating them will be the most difficult element. So long as we keep our powers down they won't be able to tell us apart from their own crew."
"How long is this trip?"
"About five weeks. We'll be low on supplies, unless we get lucky along the way, but I'll just pick some up there. Until then, we simply wait."
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Yamcha looked around him in awe. One second they were on one planet and now they were on a very small planet. And... it was hard to stand! As soon as the world changed around them all five fighters fell flat on their asses. Still, that didn't stop Yamcha and Krillin from looking around, while the others tried to get back on their feet.
"Welcome to my planet." North Kai said. "The gravity here is ten times greater than that of the Earth. It will take you a little while to get used to it, but with your high powers it shouldn't take too long."
Enzeru pulled herself to her knees and, with a little effort, managed to stand. Tien pulled himself up a moment later followed by Krillin and Yamcha. The short Human had to help Mitsuki to her feet. "So, I guess the gravity is why you wanted to train us here? It's like wearing weights." Tien said.
North Kai nodded. "That is indeed part of the reason. I have two training partners here." He looked over the five before him that were now the last hope the universe had. "They'll help you adjust to the gravity faster, until that's done you can't train successfully. Once you've passed them I'll begin the actual training. I have several skills that I'm sure some of you can learn, possibly even master."
"So, who are these traning partners of yours?" Krillin asked looking around.
North Kai turned and faced his small house. "Bubbles! It's time we get started!" The five warriors watched on in confusion as a small monkey emerged from within the house. Before they could say anything the Kai turned to them again. "This is Bubbles. He'll be your first opponent. You must catch him to complete this phase of training. Don't underestimate his speed. He's spent a lot of time on Givindoa, five hundred times Earth gravity there, over the last twenty years. On this planet, with gravity this low... well, you'll have a time catching him, I can assure you."
"Five... hundred?" Yamcha asked in shock as he looked at the little monkey. That was very hard to swallow.
"Umm, no offense..." Krillin said turning to look at the Kai. "But are you really a Kai? I mean, you're not exactly that strong..."
North Kai nodded. "You are correct, I'm not entirely powerful by the current standards of the universe. Even though my power has grown quite a bit since the Masters became an obvious threat. There was a time, however, that only a handful of mortals matched my power. Even now the strongest mortal in Otherworld is Pikkon, and though he nears the power of the Supreme Kai, he is still not as strong even after two thousand years of training."
"But that's..." Mitsuki started. "I mean... if he's been training that long, what hope do we have of ever catching the Masters?"
"More than you might think." replied the Kai. "Allow me to inform you of the greatest secret of the universe. Human's are, in fact, one of the most powerful creatures in the universe."
"You're kidding, right?" Krillin asked looking around at their group. "We're the strongest Humans there are and we still don't match up to the Masters."
"That is true, yes. But secrets are not so easily unlocked as that. The powers of the Changelings and the Sai-jins lay open to them. Their paths are clear and distinct, with only a hidden trail here or there. Humans are different. Your paths are hidden in shadow, covered by fog, and blocked by unseen barriers. While other races can simply walk the road and access most or all of their power, Humans must search long and hard to find even the smallest fraction of what they have. On top of this they are also most adaptive creatures, easily adjusting to nearly any and all techniques. The only race more adaptive are the Sai-jins."
North Kai started pacing before them, gazing up at the five of them. "Have you ever stopped to wonder why it is that Hybrids have so much power?" he asked at last.
"Yeah." Tien said nodding. "It's always been something I've thought of, but I've never found a reason."
"The reason is simple. The Sai-jin DNA clears away some of the fog, reveals more of the path of Human power, and allows it to be reached with less work. Thus the already powerful Sai-jin is made even greater. Luckily for us the true power of the Human race still lays hidden far from the reach of the Hybrids, out of the way and ignored by their arrogance. It will be our salvation and their downfall.
"But we're getting far ahead of ourselves. Before we ever get to that point you must first walk the path. That path begins with Bubbles. Catch him or we go no further."
"Well, I'll go first." Yamcha said stretching. "Ugh, it's hard to move though..." He reached down and grabbed his boots but North Kai cleared his throat.
"The weights, leave them on, all of you. You need to move here as you did on Earth."
"Oh man..." Yamcha said with a frown. "Oh well. I guess here goes nothing..." The Human braced himself and readied. Bubbles just stood there sniffing his armpit. With a grunt the scarred warrior pushed off and leapt at the monkey. Coming down he was inches away when Bubbles just vanished and Yamcha ate dirt. "Wha, where'd he go?" he cried climbing to his feet. Hearing a sound from a few dozen yards away he turned and looked and saw the monkey standing there, pointing at him, and laughing.
"Oh, that does it monkey breath, you're mine." he said taking off across the small planet at full speed. Once more, however, Bubbles vanished in a blur of brown. This time, though, Yamcha was ready for it and adjusted his course to follow. He felt he was close and lunged at him again... and his face slammed into the lone tree of the small planet. He just laid there, his arms stretched out around the tree, his face really sore, and blinked a few times.
Meanwhile Krillin had fallen over laughing while Tien and Enzeru glanced at each other. "I can certainly see the benefit to this." Enzeru said at last. "Our speed will increase considerably before we can catch him... Well, let's see what I can do." She turned to face the small monkey and braced herself. She was about to take off at a run when she suddenly had a thought. If she flew she could move faster and wouldn't have to worry about face planting like Yamcha had done.
With that she smiled and pushed off with her energy flying only a foot above the planet, straight for the monkey. Bubbles let out a cry of shock as Enzeru bore down on him and took off quickly. The female pulled to a stop and took off in the opposite direction at top speed. A couple seconds later another loud screech sounded from Bubbles and then the monkey ran passed them all in a blur of brown. He passed by once, twice, three times... and on the fourth he came to a stop and started looking around him.
The other four were looking around as well, Enzeru had apparently disappeared. And then, suddenly, she appeared again coming from all four directions. Bubbles looked around him from one to the other not sure which way to go. Before he could make up his mind the four Enzeru's reached him, three of them vanishing and one of them grabbing him. "Ha! Got you!" she cheered grinning.
Yamcha groaned as he finally lifted himself off the ground and moved away from the tree rubbing his face. "Man, I eat tree and she catches the little furball like it's nothing."
"Don't feel so bad." North Kai said. "I figured she'd be the first, she's already faster than Bubbles. You three don't have too much work before you catch up..."
"It'll take me forever though." Mitsuki said with a sigh. "I don't know if I'll actually be any help. I'll just slow everyone else down."
"How far from the truth you are." North Kai thought. "You, more than any of the others, hold the best hope for us."
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As the days passed the four warriors steadily made progress, their speed and power increasing, while the North Kai kept a close watch on them and the events in the mortal world. After the eventful day three weeks before the rest of the passing of time seemed slow and dull. Two transformation and a Master's death in a single day, and then nothing but the basic and mundane for three weeks.
The Eawpon woman, Spear, had lasted longer than the Kai had thought too. Which, sadly, was not a good thing for her. Trunks was probably the most vicious of the Sai-jins. She'd spent almost five days total in the Regen Tanks after nearly dying at Trunks' hands eight times. Finally, after almost three full weeks, her body just couldn't take it anymore and even the Regen Tanks couldn't fix what Trunks had done.
Vegeta decided to allow the other Humans in the universe to live, for now at least. He felt that, with the most dangerous ones gone, things were safer. The other Humans could be watched and managed easier than the ones of Earth. They were all parts of different groups overseen by other races at some level. A few new restrictions thought up by Bulma and the reins were pulled tighter, the chances of Hybrids reduced.
The energy of Majin Buu had continued to grow as well. He was close to restored now. Those in the mortal world could not sense or detect his presence in any way at the moment. Not until he was completely restored would they know he existed. And by then it would be far too late for them to stop his return. North Kai sighed as he turned from watching the universe. He wasn't sure who to cheer for in the coming battle. Majin Buu or the Masters... At least the Masters weren't intent on destroying the entirety of reality.
Looking over the warriors he considered the progress they'd made in the two weeks since they'd arrived on his planet. Tien had caught Bubbles the previous morning and then had set about training with Enzeru while they awaited the others to finish. Krillin was the closest but it would be a few more weeks yet before he would succeed in his task. Once he did, since it would be some time yet before Yamcha or Mitsuki caught the monkey, the Kai planned to call for Gregory.
He would begin to work with Enzeru, Tien, and Krillin while the other two finished up. He expected that Enzeru would take little more than a day, two at the most, to finish with Gregory. A week, tops, for Tien, and maybe three weeks for Krillin. By then Yamcha would have moved passed Bubbles as well. He would have to wait on Mitsuki then, to catch Bubbles and to hit Gregory, before he could proceed further.
He was about to address the warriors before him when electricity like black energy began to snake through the air all about them. "Hey, what... what's going on?" Krillin cried as he pulled to a stop in his pursuit of Bubbles and looked around.
"It's done." North Kai said turning his attention back to the rubble of the Earth. "Come, put your hands on my back, quickly."
The five warriors glanced at each other and then moved over to the short Kai and placed their hands on his back. They were used to using him as a way to observe the universe, he'd shown them that the others were safe on New Earth and had managed to get operations going for settling in even though they were confused as to what had happend to the five of them.
Those on the small planet watched with interest as the energy about them faded and pink energy replaced it in the mortal world, snaking toward the rubble of Earth. North Kai followed the course of the energy and soon an odd looking pulsing ball came into view. "Buu's Egg." North Kai said. "I can feel... Buu's power is building now."
"Unreal!" Yamcha cried in shock as he felt the climbing power. It shot passed his level, passed Enzeru's, passed King Cold, passed Frieza, passed Cell, and it just kept on climbing. "N-no way!" he cried as it finally stopped going up. He could feel the power washing over and through him. "That's just... that's not..."
"Impossible..." Enzeru breathed. "How could we ever hope to fight something like that?"
"It is do-able." North Kai said. "Hopefully though, Buu will take out most of the Masters making your job easier..."
The egg in the rubble pulsed faster and faster until it became a steady glow. And then the glow pulled back, shrinking away and taking the egg with it. In it's place was a floating pink blob of... something. The blob rippled and then a pair of arms emerged followed by legs and a head. The small pink creature looked down at it's hands in awe and wonder and then began to grin and silent laugh.
A moment later it thrust it's arms and legs out and flashed pink, a bubble of energy rushing out around it. In a matter of seconds the entire solar system was nothing but dust. Buu finally calmed down from it's excitement of being free and began to look around. After a moment it picked a direction and took off.
"That... thing is..." Tien said. "It's unreal. So much power."
North Kai turned to face them again. "Come, we must resume your training."
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"Careful with that thing." Xeno ordered as his men carried the Space Pod onto the cargo ship. Brolly had already been moved into a Cryostasis Chamber and was secured, now it was only a matter of loading the pod onto the ship. He just didn't want it damaged any further than it was. It was bad enough he'd received new orders from Saiya a few days ago. He was being moved from the Geozan 7 project and had been put in charge of watching Brolly for the trip to Saiya and to make a formal report to Master Vegeta upon his arrival.
He wasn't the only one, he'd been ordered to take a small group with him as well. He'd selected to take Everfrost and Eve with him, since they were already involved pretty deeply anyway. He'd need them to help with his report. He'd also decided to bring Rain and Storm, two of the security personnel from the operation. He prefered to have guards he could trust, especially on a ship where a large bulk of the crew was Sai-jin.
The Captain of the cargo ship, a Sai-jin himself, had been rather shocked when his scouter showed that Rain and Storm were both stronger than him. Xeno was still smirking as he remembered watching the Sai-jin's gaze change from one of lust to one of apprehension. Give a Sai-jin a weak target and they'd be all over it, give them someone stronger and they'd be on their best behaviour. It's what he'd been counting on.
"How long is this trip going to take anyway?" Eve asked walking up beside him.
"Well, so long as we don't have any delays..." he said frowning. The ship had been slated to arrive a week ago but had needed to detour around an Electro Magnetic Storm. "It'll be about two, two and a half months."
"I hate being stuck in a ship that long." Rain said walking up on his other side. She and her sister Storm were nearly identicle in appearance. Same five foot height, same light orange skin, and same white hair. Rain had blue eyes while Storm's were red, the only way to tell the two women apart. "I much prefer being firmly rooted on a planet."
"Me too." Xeno replied. "But orders are orders, especially when they come directly from the Masters."