Chapter 6- A night to remember
I was back at the airship, but it was dark and empty. Deathly blackness seeped through the walls, mixed with the day old remnants of thick red blood.
"Cherry? Hoss? Anyone..?" My shoes echoed their steps of the bloodied tiles, as I called out for any sign of life. Panic started to rise up in my throat, boiling as a bubble that needed releasing.
And then, out of nowhere. A beam of sunshine washed in from the window, getting closer and closer until my eyes were burning and my eyeballs melted...
"Cherry!" I cried, sitting up faster than I woke up. My stomach lurching upwards and threatening to bring up its sole contents, a sour apple. As panic subsided from my body, I took notice that I was on my own, on a mountain ledge similar to Gohan's. The last thing I remembered was passing out on Piccolo, so I guess he must have put me here to rest. Speaking of Piccolo, I couldn't see him anywhere. Nor Gohan for that matter. The wasteland looked the same, but then again, I bet all the others did too.
Cocking my ears to the opposite side of this morning's slight breeze (and also to keep the blazing sun out of my eyes) I heard the telltale stream of rushing water nearby. Where there was water, there was fish, and where there was fish; there was breakfast. My stomach rumbled its agreement and clenched as I tapped into my store of energy. I was shocked to find my whole body brimming with it, it's store replenished and a bit more with last nights sleep.
My stomach growled again.
"Alright alright, food first, think later" The energy flew me steadily to the ground, where a small patch of grass under an overhanging tree indicated a clearing to the river. It was surprising how close this lush tiny forest and river could be to the wasteland, it seemed that the terrain didn't work by temperature on this planet. The leafy trees provided great shade, with only the smallest rays illuminating certain leaves of the trees, creating a beautiful green glow on the lizards and birds that weaved through the trees.
And the water..it was beautiful. The sun reflected of its sparkly surface, showing how crystal clear the water was right to the depth of its bed. I tore of my clothes and set them on a rock, leaping straight in to the chilling water. Floating on my front, I gulped up the water like it was the only thing keeping me alive. Then it was time for a lazy swim. I didn't go far from my clothes, just back and forth. Not that I was worried of anyone seeing me. Piccolo was probably watching Gohan still and Gohan was probably still on that mountain crying. Just the forest creatures to see my bare body.
As I floated on my back, with the water gently caressing my breasts, something slimy brushed my foot. I jumped about a mile, inhaling half the river as I splashed about trying to climb out of the river.
From the safety of soft grass, I saw it had just been a little fish. Clearly startled by me too. Mm..fish.
"Don't worry little guy, I won't hurt you. Why don't you introduce me to some of your friends?" As if my request had been heard, a school of fish came drifting by, a sliver of their fins fanned out in the sun as if basking in it. This was an opportunity I could and would not miss. The only thing I had on offer was a slightly pointed branch hanging above me, and tearing it of; it would prove useful. With the stick in one hand, I flattened myself on my stomach by the side of the water. The fish mere centimeters away from me. If I was to get as many as possible, the timing had to be just right.
'Stab!' The stick sluiced through the water, impaling the insides of ten fish. Fresh blood dripped from their dead bodies to their friends in the water, and the rest were gone within seconds. I didn't worry. Ten was plenty. Now all I needed was a fire.
The kid was proving if nothing, that he was capable of shedding constant tears. Ever since the moment he'd woke up, he'd cried and cried complaining about hunger. At least the female didn't do that. Speaking of the female, I sensed her close by. Seemingly messing with some sort of fire. She had probably caught food and was now cooking it, unlike Gohan who was too chicken to even think about climbing down, let alone hunting. Goku's son was a massive disappointment, but giving up was not an option. He had a hidden power that could be used against the saiyans. And I'll be damned if I don't get him to release it.
Then I could hear the female, she was flying towards me with the scent of something delicious with her. The last time I had seen her was late last night, when exhaustion had forced her to sleep and I carried her and laid her out on a mountain peak. I wasn't sure why I did it, I wasn't used to company. And that was no surprise, I'd been alone my whole life. But she had looked so innocent in her sleep, and if she was willing to help in the fight with the saiyans, then so be it. She had power, that was for sure. She almost equaled him and Goku according to Raditz's scouter. And that attack of hers, the one she called White fire, it was amazing. I'd wondered about asking her to teach it to me, but with Gohan and everything, I hadn't had the time to broach it yet.
"Hey Piccolo, you hungry?" The female dropped down onto her knees next to me, holding out four perfectly cooked fish. I was going to say something about that she should eat them, that I didn't necessarily have to eat. But there was something about that smile on her face, her happiness at seeing me. That made me take the fish with a slight tilt upwards of my lips.
"Thanks" They looked amazing too, cooked for just the right amount of time. I didn't worry about bones, and snapped each fish into half with my teeth and swallowed. She watched me the whole time, her brown eyes curious. I swallowed the final half of fish, flicking my tongue over my lips to savor the final taste. For a female that could fight, she sure knew how to make food. I hardly ever bothered myself. That apple last night being the first food I had eaten in weeks. I ate it because I didn't want to have to explain why I didn't have to eat, and perhaps a slight part of me didn't want to disgust the female by saying I was sort of like a slug, that I could live of just water. How stupid. I didn't want to disgust the female I had barely known a day. What difference would it make, maybe it would even get rid of her.
Idiot I told myself. You don't want her to go that's what it is. You want her company. I couldn't deny it. I'd been my whole life without company, and now, that was all I wanted.
"Were they okay Piccolo?" She flashed me a look of concern. Oh, right.
"They were perfect" I said truthfully, and she seemed satisfied with that answer.
We spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon watching Gohan. He would lean over the side every now and then, accessing the height and then flopping onto his back in despair. His hunger cried as well. And Gohan was getting increasingly agitated with the further his hunger went. I'd asked Piccolo if he'd take pity and let me drop some fish down for him, but he insisted I didn't.
The boys got to harden up, hunger will drive him down eventually. That was what he said. But fear was a powerful thing. And the instinct of survival was too. Those things could drive a person to die slowly instead of taking the quicker, less painful way out. It happened all the time back on Earth. Suicidal teenagers with failed attempts because instinct wouldn't let them do it. So they turned to things like anorexia instead. A slower and more painful way, but didn't trigger the human instincts as much. It was perplexing how the human minds worked.
I was getting restless myself. Wanting to do anything but this. We should be training, doing something, anything. But if Piccolo could sit here all day, then so could i. Besides, if I wanted the guy to train me, I couldn't leave him.
More afternoon passed and the highlight of the day was a stampede of triceratops. Because apparently dinosaurs never went extinct on this planet, and man just adapted to living with them. Piccolo had even said that some crazy scientist, father of the blue haired woman we saw back at the battlefield; actually kept them as pets. He'd also mentioned the planet was called new Earth. Which made a lot of sense. It was like earth, just more technologically advanced and slight difference with its planetary and universal species. Other than that, Piccolo didn't talk much. Just meditated whilst keeping a sensory tab on Gohan. But I caught him sneaking a few looks at me.
When the stampede of triceratops had run of into the wild to terrorize some other innocent species, I decided to try a light hearted approach at talking again. Piccolo was interesting, and maybe now would be a good idea to broach the idea of training.
"I'm sure glad I wasn't down there" I said with a sigh of relief, hoping it would get Piccolo's attention. He opened an eye.
"Why?" Well that wasn't much of a conversation starter but still.
"Well, I'd have just been trampled. There's no way I could fight of an entire stampede of dinosaurs" Both eyes were open now.
"You can fight, I've seen you. It just needs refining that's all. A bit of training would do you good" And he had just giving me the perfect opening.
"So, is that you offering to train me?" He shifted backwards.
"That wasn't what I meant" A grin crossed my face.
"But that doesn't mean you can't train me. Since your leaving Gohan to fend for himself for the next six months, you've got plenty of time to do so. Unless your intimidated by female charms or something" He snorted.
"Female charms, yeah right" I folded my arms and huffed.
"Well I'm not going anywhere until you agree to train me" He was silent for a moment.
"Fine…but on one condition"
"And what's that?" I smiled sweetly, knowing that I was unnerving him slightly.
"You teach me that move of yours, white fire" He wanted me to teach him that move, the used to be signature move of the fire goddess Melanie had told me about? Well, I guess it was a pretty good move.
"Sure thing Piccolo, when do we begin?"
Another night and nothing had changed. Piccolo agreed to train me the next morning, and we were still waiting on Gohan to get down from his new home. He had sat in the same spot for hours, just like we were. But at least we weren't draining out energy this time. Sitting on the rock was a lot easier than balancing my energy to stop me from falling. Still painful on the muscles though.
A squirrel came out of a tiny crevice in the rock Gohan sat on, sniffing delicately at the moldy apple cores. When Gohan extended a finger to pet it, it returned the gesture with a quick nip on the tip before scampering of with an apple core and slipping back through the crevice.
The night was still young though, with a full moon blossoming across the dark depths of space.
Piccolo was missing the beauty of it though. Both eyes closed as a result of his heavy meditation. He looked very serious, and very hot. Despite the dream this morning and my worry for Cherry, I still couldn't take my eyes of this handsome creature. Besides, it was fine to look, just not touch. Although if given the opportunity, I'd be doing plenty of that. Those pants and his dark blue t-shirt would be coming of for a start. I was about to do the same to take my mind of him before I noticed Gohan. The boy was looking at the full moon, nothing strange about that. Yet he seemed entranced by it. The first changes were slight, but I noticed them alright. His nose pushed out further from his face. Brown hair sprouted in a slight layer over his face. And his features began contorting; enlarging.
"Um, Piccolo? You might wanna look at this" But his eyes stayed firmly glued shut. I was tempted to hit him where it hurts, but instead I just nudged him in the ribs. Both eyes flew open. I didn't need to say anything, his eyes were already on Gohan. Gohan was roaring now, his face and body rapidly growing up and outwards. But it wasn't human muscle that he was developing. The hair was getting thicker, and his body was becoming as though an apes was. He roared again. A giant ape…
And this giant ape was all for destruction. The mind that was Gohan's was gone. Transformation complete, he was now a giant brown ape about 20 times the size of me and Piccolo at least. The mountain crumbled under the apes tremendous weight and enraged; it began swinging its arms wildly and slicing the other mountains apart.
"Jesus, if we don't stop him he'll destroy everything!" Piccolo was up on his feet, pulling me with him.
"How could he have changed so radically?..." Then I remembered something Raditz had said. 'You fool! You know as well as I do it's the key to unlocking your full potential. I'm sure at least once in your life you've looked at the full moon' The moon…
"Piccolo! The moon! It's the key to saiyans transforming" He turned his hurried gaze to the moon, fists clenched with my hand still in one. If not for the seriousness of the situation, I'd be reveling in his soft warm touch.
It was obvious it was the moon, but what to do about it was the problem. Lessa's warm hand squirmed in mine, and I tried to ignore the feeling of warmth in my chest. Dropping her fingers quickly, I pondered what I could do about the moon. Perhaps if the full moon disappeared, the transformation would be reversed. Surely it did when morning appeared and the moon was gone behind the sun. Although that would be too long to wait. Gohan would have the whole planet destroyed by then. This was the power that Raditz was on about, the power Goku had lost. And thank god for that too.
"Maybe if we blow the moon up, he change back" Lessa said quietly, voicing the exact thing I had been thinking.
"Alright, stay back" I warned. I gathered an armful of ki and raised my aim for the core of the moon. This shouldn't be hard. The ki was complying and raced for the moon's core like lightning. It struck the core with a satisfactory bang, and the moon was then gone for good.
"Hey, it worked"
"Stay here" I told her and I leaped down to the now normal Gohan, who was naked and unconscious. Poor kid. At least he'd had parents and now one was dead and I'd taken him from the other. But I need him. Earth needs him. And once this planet is safe, I'll be the one to rise up and rule it. His fluffy brown tail was slack against his backside. That thing, I had an instinct it was part of the transformation. After all, Goku didn't have one any more and you could be certain he didn't transform at full moon. Sorry kid, but its gotta go. I ripped it out, leaving the tiniest brown stump inside his back. It wasn't actually necessary, since the moon was gone. But I didn't like the thing anyway.
Now the kid needed clothes, and a weapon. It was a good thing I knew clothes beam. Surprising what ki could be used for.
My ki washed over the kid, creating an orange jumpsuit like his father so fondly wore, but it had my symbol on the back. His weapon was a small but resilient sword. He could hunt with it. I had already done too much for the kid, it was time to leave now. But when it came to it, I hoped he survived. We needed him, that's all there was to it. At least that's what I kept telling myself.
"Come on Lessa, it's time to go" I called up. She nodded and joined me in the air. There was a wasteland far away from Gohan that would provide for adequate training. This female would become stronger, and I would learn white fire. It was nothing about the company, or the things she made me feel in my chest.
Yeah right, you keep telling yourself that. I growled.
Damn you inner voice. Just leave me alone.