Turbulence Chapter XIII: A Dream Deferred, a dragon ball z fanfic

Please note that this chapter needed to be reuploaded due to viewers telling me that the poll was not accessible to them as well as some minor edits. For one, I felt as if there needed to be a little more dialogue to emphasize a key theme throughout this initial saga that I will explore later down the line. Sorry for the inconvenience! You think you have a chapter just right sometimes, but then you re-read it after its publication and your perspective changes. I'd always had a mind to incorporate the theme prevalent in this edited version of the chapter, but being as focused on the ending as I was and writing Chapter 14 as well, I sort of lost sight of that. It's not that much of new dialogue... but man, is it important.

Again, I apologize severely to those of you who've already read this; if you want to read the repackaged content then I suggest you make your way down to the near end of the chapter. If you have not read this edition of Turbulence yet... well, I hope you enjoy it and will be sure to leave your feedback on this all important chapter!

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore-

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over-

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

—Langston Hughes, Harlem

Demon Saga - Part 9: A Dream Deferred

"T-Tien?" Bulma cried out in shock, though she was quick to suppress the volume of her recently regained voice for fear of potentially being heard by King Piccolo. "W-What're you doing here? We can still sense—"

"—There isn't much time," hastily interjected Tien, his glance turning to the wounded warriors. "Basically, here's the short version: Piccolo cut us a huge break by wanting all of us to come out and face him right now. Though it's not what we planned, it saves us the trouble of searching you out during the fight itself, which will help get you all back in the fight faster."

"Yeah, but what about Bulma?" Yajirobe asked, his gravelly voice almost booming around the naturally reticent atmosphere. "You, uh, you do know she's got a broken leg."

"The sight's still familiar from eight years ago, yes," Tien acknowledged, briefly pausing and recalling having inflicted that very same injury to Yamcha. Just as quickly, however, he dispelled such thoughts with the reminder that he truly had repented for such a deed. "But it's not as if we have much of a choice. We have to get everyone out in the open right now, and if Bulma's going to make any difference in this fight, it's either now or never. I know we can win if we stick to our plan..."

While the triclops did well to put up a facade regarding his current state of mind, Chiaotzu could see through it in an instant. There was no fooling the former Crane student when it came to his best friend. His stoic facial mask cleverly concealed his fright and doubt of the possibility of failure after having come so far, of perishing knowing that Piccolo was destined to rule Earth forever.

Yet behind it, Chiaotzu still saw that force that banded them altogether in hope. It was still there, buried within him. Even his best friend had not given up the possibility of victory. That, if nothing else, spurred him on. "Yeah, that's right! We can do this… even if we got through those monsters faster than we thought we would, we can still hold out a little longer."

"AAAAH-CHOO!"

Like a dog would at the beck and call of his keeper, blonde Launch sprung up and grinned. Though she had no tail to wag, her grin spoke dividends. "Damn right. I dunno about Yajirobe, but that little break got me rarin' to go again. I didn't get much of a chance to enjoy blastin' that lion to death; Miss Blue kinda got all the glory on that one… so I guess I'll just hafta make my punches on Piccolo count that much more." She'd been told of her bipolar tendencies a while back, and while it still took her time for her memories to 'shift' between her two personalities, she'd heard more than enough to know that she technically hadn't been the one to strike down Accordion. "Still kinda hurt, but it's nothin' I can't manage."

"I don't really wanna," grumbled the samurai as he stood up, wincing as a sharp pain overtook him, "but I know I gotta. As long as we're not gonna be fightin' in this condition for the whole fight, I'll be able to manage somethin'."

Tien blanched, unnerved. "I can't promise anything. Though we took out the demons, the way we expected things to go down with Piccolo were far off the mark… he's practically inviting us in to attack him. If the last point of our plan doesn't work out, then we're going to have to make our last stand as is." He awkwardly looked over to Bulma, tongue-tied as his gaze fell upon the bluenette's twisted leg. "That, uh… well, that includes you, Bulma."

An abrupt silence washed over them all of a sudden, everyone in silence. The direct threat of King Piccolo still loomed over their heads like a dark cloud on a rainy day, and each and every one of them knew it. They could hear the demon's cackles ring through the forest, building to a crescendo before suddenly dying down, and immediately Tien shot a glance toward his comrades.

"Hurry, damn it! We've got no time to lose! Make your choice and let's get moving!" the triclops uncharacteristically shouted, summoning his aura and zipping off into the air in the blink of an eye.

"W-Wow…" Yajirobe stammered, his jaw agape. "Tien ain't a guy to go ahead and lose his cool like that… this must've really gotten to him."

"Tch! Nah, he shoulda totally kept his cool when we got an overgrown slug with a hold over Earth," Launch fired back, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Then, just as quickly, she tucked her knees in and looked over her shoulder. "I'm gonna roll out too. Bulma, I don't wanna be the one to say it… but move it or lose it. We ain't got the time to worry about broken bones; we gotta worry 'bout the fate of the world." Moments later, a gust of wind was summoned as she followed in pursuit of her ally, forcing everyone else to cover an arm to protect themselves from the impromptu gale.

"Dang it…" Yajirobe coughed, lowering his arm. "Girl's got a reckless power in her… can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing… but anyway…" He stood up, a hand subconsciously going to his scabbard. "We gotta run. Chiaotzu, Bulma… if you're gonna do somethin', do it soon. Those little gremlins were one thing, but Piccolo's a whole 'nother story." Another speck of light soon found itself in the now-morning sky as it soared toward its comrades, one that Bulma and Chiaotzu watched until its light dissipated.

Then, quickly, the scientist and psychic turned toward one another simultaneously. Both looked at each other nervously for a good five seconds before either of them found it within them to speak.

"I gotta get there," Bulma declared bravely, looking up at the sky. Her broken leg still was outstretched awkwardly, weighing her down, but she refused to allow it to stop her. "I… I don't think I can live with myself if I just let my body quit on itself now."

Chiaotzu paused, hanging his head as if he were pondering something. "Listen… I didn't want to bring this up in case you felt like you couldn't push yourself any further, but I know a way I can get you back into the fight really quickly. It's gonna hurt… but I can do it if you really want me to."

"Go ahead." Bulma, her hair disheveled and her body a bruised mess, still felt as if there were more to give. "Do whatever you need to do to get me with everyone else."

"I'm going to use my powers to try and snap your leg back into place," the child-faced warrior replied. He stretched out his hands to her tight-covered leg, focusing in on the awkward bone. Then, doubting himself for a brief moment, he looked up toward the heiress. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Bulma nodded down at the imp, her determination absolute. "Everyone made the same promise that we wouldn't back down until we had nothing left to give. All of us are taking that very same risk just by being here. If I'm here now… I may as well do everything I can." She couldn't deny her cowardice at this very moment; she knew that, had she been given a chance to round up everyone and leave, she'd have taken it in a heartbeat. But she knew that this gamble was all they'd have left. 'No matter how painful this is… one way or another, this is all gonna end. I have to give it my best shot to make it so that we can make it end in our favor.'

"All right…" Chiaotzu trailed off, channeling his inner psychic abilities and focusing his gaze on Bulma's broken leg. "I have to apologize if this hurts you… I used to do this whenever Master Shen broke Tien's bones to speed up his recovery, but there's no way I can dial back the pressure. I'm either gonna be able to fix it in one go... or I can't."

Just as Bulma was about to open her mouth to reaffirm her consent, she suddenly found herself at a loss for words. A burning pain, far sharper and potent than anything she'd ever experienced before, shot through her lower leg and slowly worked its way up. She screamed in torment as the psychic energy crawled throughout the innermost part of her bonal structure, almost thrashing out in pain as it meticulously combed through each and every iota of each and every bone in an attempt to search for the outlier.

Little did she know, however, her pain was about to be magnified. Once Chiaotzu's psychic powers had locked onto the twisted and mangled bones that served as the catalysts of her injury, it wasted little time in beginning its work. Suddenly, what had been a blazing jolt of pain turned into an eruption of agonistic hellfire as her bones were slowly creaked back into place. It was a slow and tedious process, the cartilage of bones scraping past one another in a horrifying hiss, but she had to power through it…

...for as great as her pain was now, she knew that the very real possibility of losing everything near and dear to her would be all that much worse.

"You all keep coming… one by one…" Piccolo deviously grinned, folding his arms over his chest as every single fighter that had opposed him over the years congregated together in a straight line across from him. Their fatigue was dangerously apparent, yet their resolve still seemed to hold firm. "It's such a shame we all have to meet like this. I was actually hoping you'd have made it to me without as many scratches as you have."

"You know just as well as we do that you sent your kids after us first so that you could pick up the scraps," Yamcha barked back, a scowl across his face. "If you're gonna taunt us, at least tell the truth. There's been enough lies going around this world for years and years now, and I've had enough of it!"

"What can I say?" The demon king shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "You hit the nail on the head there. There was no point in sullying my hands with you vermin only to know that one of you could escape my grasp. Just as you are, humans, I am tired of this constant cat-and-mouse game. It will end here and now so that I can continue my reign uninterrupted."

"Maybe so… but not without us roughin' you up a bit," Launch retorted, a dangerous gleam in her eye. "Even if I'm goin' to the next world today, I'm gonna leave you a few bruises to remember me by."

"Your enthusiasm is admirable," Piccolo lauded, uncrossing his arms and allowing them to hang at his sides, "but ultimately futile. You stand no chance against me as you are, and not even with your combined…" His voice trailed off as his vision combed over each and every fighter that had shown their face to the battlefield, immediately noticing something peculiar. "There are… three of you that decided not to show your faces to this fight. I knew all of you didn't have the stomach to face me."

"We took advantage of you giving us time to set up our own strategy," Yamcha commented, grinning. "We're not about to let you call the shots anymore, Piccolo. From here on out, we're playing by our rules!"

"Do not forget who the monarch of this planet is, mortal." Piccolo's eyes narrowed. "I only tolerate defiance for so long, but luckily for your waste of a planet, I have been more than patient with your sinful kind. I can end you any time I like, so if I were you… well, I would grovel before me and try to convince me as to why I should accept you disobeying my direct orders."

"You heard the man," Yajirobe gruffly retorted, "we ain't dealin' with your kind of lifestyle no more. Go ahead an' attack us... if you think you've got the stomach for it."

Piccolo merely threw his head back and erupted in a gale of laughter, his booming voice rumbling around the city's thick atmosphere with unmatchable force. "If I hadn't seen this done before, I would almost consider it clever." Returning his head back to its normal positioning, the monster scowled. "I have a brainpower far beyond what any of you humans could ever hope to achieve. Outwitting me is out of the question."

"I don't care whether or not you feel intimidated by us," Krillin declared, his anticipation for the battle ahead building. "What matters to me is that we take you down or die trying. Your kid had a point back when I fought him, even if he wasn't entirely right…" His eyes narrowed. "Talking doesn't solve everything. Actions are just as big a part in it."

Piccolo smiled ominously, a small chuckle rumbling from his throat. "I assume that was Oboe. Defiant to the end, even against his own father, yet terribly accurate. You will never be able to dethrone me with words alone."

"Damn right we can't."

Everyone looked over to the side, their eyes registering the sight of Bulma hovering in the air with Chiaotzu in tow. Her leg miraculously looked as if it hadn't been broken in the slightest, having being restored to its natural form, but what really stood out to the rebellion was her brazen approach. Her arms folded and a scowl across her face, Bulma resembled herself from just a few minutes ago in nothing but physical appearance. It was frightening, almost, to consider her rapid shift in demeanor. It was almost as if she'd been reborn.

"But we're still going to try," she finished confidently, her and Chiaotzu floating over to join the remainder of Earth's last line of defense. "There isn't all that much left to do but fight, is there?"

"You humans seem to parrot one another every five seconds, don't you?" King Piccolo pointed out, amused. "Perhaps I really should look into you humans a little more once I finish you stragglers off. They really are fascinating creatures once you get past the layers of idiocy that plague them."

"Grgh… this… is exactly why we have to fight! We're not going to let this go down any longer!" Krillin grounded his teeth and readied himself for battle. "Somehow… someway… even if it means we die… we're going to find some way to stop this way of life! I've spent eight years trying to find the answer to this madness, but I've learned you can't discover it… you have to take it by the horns and make it yourself!"

"I swear, it really is the same song and dance every time…" Piccolo cracked his neck before extending his arm out, his taloned fingers extending forth and beckoning toward himself. "Well, no matter. We've wasted enough time. Come at me and see if your efforts truly weren't for naught."

A tense wave of emotion encompassed Central City, each and every one of Earth's heroes sharing a collective glance with one another. They knew that their final opportunity was staring them dead in the face, their adrenaline heightened.

This was truly the final battle.

Then, suddenly, Yamcha made the first move.

Piccolo watched as Yamcha charged toward him, his long hair billowing in the wind. He immediately smiled his devilish grin as he contemplated something to himself. 'So they're not attacking all at once… interesting. They must know that just blindly rushing in would result in their deaths… but I don't think I'm about to stick around and allow them to get off whatever plan they may have in store.' Swiftly, he moved to intercept the rowdy-haired fighter, moving above him within a matter of moments and slamming his opponent down with an elbow to the small of his back. He went flying down to the concrete, his body kicking up a small cloud of debris as it collided pathetically with the ground.

'Well, he certainly isn't at his maximum power,' Piccolo thought, turning to the rest of the fighters to gauge their reaction. Surprisingly enough, they didn't seem all too fazed by Yamcha's swift subduing—if anything, they looked as if they were expecting it. 'Something isn't right here… that much is for certain.'

Keeping up his confident guise so as not to make his opponents privy of his musings, Piccolo adorned a ruthless grin and brazenly uttered, "Well, what are you waiting for? I'm right here, you know."

"Stay back for a second, everyone!" Tien suddenly cried out, his arms forming an x-shape as he charged his energy. A second later, he exclaimed, "Multiform!" and shifted into what appeared to be two separate entities before the both of them lunged down at the demon king.

'Well, at least someone appears to be taking this seriously,' Piccolo thought to himself as he raised his arm to swipe at one of the two Tiens. However, he suddenly found himself halted by an unseen force, eliciting a snarl and a look around. After turning his head ninety degrees, he could see that pale accomplice of the triclops with his arms thrusted out, evidently being responsible for the sudden telekinetic force.

"Y-You! How dare you even attempt to—" His threat had been abruptly ceased by a well-aimed kick to the cheek, sending the monarch flying backward, and then out of the corner of his eye he could see the mirror image of Tien speeding around him in an attempt to try and pinball him back. 'Grgh… that may have possibly worked on my children… but not on an entity such as the demon king!'

Having regained mobility of his body, Piccolo used his momentum to turn himself over and catch the unsuspecting Tien off-guard with a devastating right hook. The other Tien attempted to charge in and capitalize on the opening his doppelganger had left him, but he too fell prey to a swift series of blows that incapacitated him. A quick blow to the stomach, a headbutt to his foe's bald cranium, and a lazy hurl over toward the other Tien put him down for the count.

He soon found himself the recipient of another dose of pain, this time on his back as he felt the searing sensation of energy roughly slam against it from above. A quick whirl around revealed the culprits to be the two females that had come along for the battle, something of which irritated him greatly. However, he made sure to conceal his true emotion in favor of a calculated sneer.

"Do you think you're funny, you two?" the demon asked darkly. "Perhaps I would've found that amusing on another day. Who knows, if it weren't for your track record, I could've even hired you as jesters. But I'm afraid the novelty on that act has worn out."

Protectively placing himself in front of his companions, Krillin stared down at the demon king with all the fierceness he could muster up. "If you want to get to 'em, be my guest. But I'm gonna make you work for it."

Piccolo had no words to fire back, instead choosing to fling himself at the triptych of warriors like a heat-seeking missile. It was admirable to him that the runt even had the gall to attempt putting up a defense; it certainly didn't help him any when a swift backhand met the side of his head and sent him spiraling down to the ground.

"Well, if that's your definition of work, I can see why the human race was failing prior to my rule. But as for you two specifically... I somehow expected a little more from you," Piccolo drawled, his tone thick with maliciousness. "A band of humans who manage to escape King Piccolo's grasp for the last eight years really shouldn't have fallen prey to such a simple plan this easily."

He suddenly felt a change in the air, immediately looking back above him to see the formerly fat samurai's blade aiming straight for the back of his neck. However, just as his opponent had registered that he had turned around to meet him dead-on, the ronin attempted to pull back his blade; however, Piccolo had already extended his fingers around the blade and neutralized it, much to Yajirobe's horror.

"As for you, clever," the demon king nonchalantly said, almost as if he were an impartial judge assessing his opponent's tactics. "Had my enhanced senses not kicked in, that could have conceivably cleaved me into two. At least you're thinking…" Suddenly, that all-too-familiar grin of Piccolo's spread his olive face once more, Yajirobe's eyes bugging out at the sight. "...but a human brain won't get you very far."

He suddenly thrust the blade back at his foe, the handle hitting him in the chest with such force that there was an audible CRACK as it made contact. The blade still in his hand, Piccolo took careful aim as Yajirobe sank to the ground, lining up his throw so that he would manage to impale the samurai where he lay…

...before he suddenly felt an extended leg strike the back of his neck, the shock behind being hit so unexpectedly forcing the monarch to drop the blade unceremoniously. As it landed on the pavement far from its intended target with a loud CLANG, Piccolo turned around to see Bulma perform a back-flip to land next to her ally. Both, while seemingly willing to defy him, could not hide the sense of fear that had overtaken them.

And needless to say, the demon king loved it.

"I think that covers everyone who's shown up, doesn't it?" Piccolo voiced, almost in a guttural growl. It was if he were a shark whose prey had been denied to it, growing progressively hungrier as time elapsed. "I think it's about time we start the true carnage... and I suppose you will serve as my first victims today."

"Grrr..." Launch growled, putting up her fists. Aside her, Bulma did the same despite surely having known their efforts would be futile. "Then go ahead an'—" She hadn't had time to finish her sentence before a concentrated, bulky fist to the side of her head knocked her straight into darkness. However, she hadn't had time to fall to the ground; Piccolo had grasped a hold on her neck and pulled her back toward him.

"Your voice... is absolutely grating," Piccolo scowled at the unconscious human. "It's almost as if this wretched planet itself conceived you only to inflict pain upon others' ears. Now then..." Onyx eyes shifted over to the last remaining fighter on the battlefield, a smirk widening in proportion to his prey's irises. There was no doubt she knew her end was upon her. "As for you, consider yourself fortunate. I've decided not to kill you quite yet."

Before she'd even had time to process what he'd said, the monarch swiftly phased above Bulma and swung his leg down in an arc, knocking her straight down to the ground with an intentionally suppressed roundhouse kick. He was quick to follow her wounded form down, watching with faint amusement as she pulled herself to all fours, coughing and spluttering up blood as if there were no tomorrow.

And in his world, there was no tomorrow for Bulma and her fellow rebels.

Walking up behind the heiress' frame, Piccolo pressed a moccasin-covered foot down straight on her spine, careful to avoid breaking it but equally just as focused as drawing out as much pain was humanly possible. "For some reason, you seemed to have the most spunk when you and your friends decided to challenge me. To say it was amusing would be an understatement. But I wonder... will you manage to retain such a composure when you see your friend torn apart before your very eyes?"

Still keeping his shoe pressed against the base of Bulma's spine, Piccolo casually hurled Launch's limp body in front of the marine-haired fighter's line of sight. A grin soon followed despite his prey's lack of ability to see it, striding slowly toward the blonde with nothing short of the intent to kill. He knew that he was so close to expunging his foes from the world of the living; all that was left to do was to act upon his opportunity.

But he would not get the chance to do so.

Recklessly, or perhaps even bravely, Yajirobe crashed into the demon's side with all the force he could conjure up in his weakened state, Piccolo being forced to stagger back just from the sheer shock of it all.

His opponent, however, could not say he was still standing. Just a moment after their collision, Yajirobe pathetically plopped down to the ground with a sharp pain ringing through his forehead. 'O-Ow... if that last demon was as tough as nails, Piccolo's a brick wall...' His vision spinning, he was oblivious to the world around him. Perhaps it could even be considered a blessing that he hadn't been able to detect Piccolo looming over him, a vein throbbing in his forehead.

"What the hell keeps driving you people to come back here? Your death is imminent; why not just make it easier upon all of us and accept your fate?!" To say Piccolo's ire had been drawn would be a massive understatement. He'd transcended the point of rage; he was far beyond livid... there wasn't a word in the dictionary that could precisely nail the demon king's emotive state at the moment.

"We won't quit until you beat the life out of us!"

A snarl emanated from the monarch's throat as he turned to the side, seeing Yamcha approach him with a sloppily aimed punch. Needless to say, he'd caught it within his palm neatly before he twisted it, a howl of pain escaping the bandit's lips. "Perhaps I underestimated your current state. But I won't make that same mistake twice." Tuning out the howl of pain that rang potently through his eardrums, Piccolo extended his palm out to the human fighter's ribcage. "I'm afraid I'll have to decline beating your body into a pulp, but blasting you into oblivion should do you just as well."

"Heh... you might want to go ahead and finish off the other me, then," Yamcha smiled deceptively, a glint in his eye. He was then suddenly freed from his captivity a moment later as his duplicate charged in with an energy-charged fist, which sent the demon hurtling backward The two Yamchas wasted little time in fusing back together before the one true Yamcha leapt backward to create even further distance between himself and his opponent.

'I may have this here... I'm definitely not gonna be able to pick up the win all on my own, but it's better than nothing...' It only took a moment for him to charge energy in either of his palms, which he promptly hurled toward the demon king's flying frame. Just as soon as Yamcha's energy made contact with Piccolo's olive skin, both bombs of light detonated in a flare of glorious azure firepower.

'A youthful demon king... a specimen above all others... has been pushed into rubble by a mere human. A weak, classless, spineless human.'

Using his long legs to help support himself as he stood, Piccolo wiped off the excess dirt and debris that had found its way onto his demonic garbs. A scowl decorated his normally calm and sinister features as he clenched his fists, drawing blood that oozed down his vibrant green skin.

"I will kill you first, Yamcha," Piccolo spoke quietly, looking toward his blood-stained hand. Slowly but surely, his characteristic smirk slowly spread his lips. "And I will enjoy it."

Yamcha stared into the artificial crater he'd been responsible for, flanked by Tien and Krillin on either side of him. "Be careful, guys. For some reason, he hasn't decided to show up yet... it's weird. I thought getting you guys as backup would at least get his attention..."

"He likely doesn't see us as all too much of a threat," Tien bluntly pointed out, his tone as stoic as ever. "With all due respect, Yamcha, your last little attack probably did less damage to him than a mosquito bite would a human. Why would he care if we all lined ourselves up to die? He has the power to take us out easily..."

"...Don't put it like that," Krillin chided. "There's no way that it can be that much longer now... our chance to win is coming." He still insisted on holding out despite the likelihood of their plan working decreasing with every passing minute. "We just need to hang on somehow."

WHOOSH! A large explosion of light flared out from the crater, Piccolo emerging from it with a dastardly aura of a white hue. His onyx eyes ablaze with fury and anger, his irises dilated, the monster roared as he closed the gap between his opponents and himself.

"That... doesn't seem likely, guys," Yamcha deadpanned, bracing his body to take a brutal impact. Tien and Krillin followed suit by raising their arms in a defensive stance. "This may be the end right here..." It certainly seemed as such with the awesome might of Piccolo just barely a few meters away...

...and then he suddenly stopped right in front of Yamcha, descending to the ground lightly before him. The scar-faced bandit took a subconscious step back, but he immediately knew that escape was futile. The beast before him surely had vengeance on the mind for that last attack; it was doubtful he nor his allies would be able to form a counterattack despite their close proximity.

"You should be commended for managing to knock down a youthful demon king." Piccolo put his arm out and clasped Yamcha on the shoulder, not unlike a proud relative would another. Tien, to his credit, attempted to fire off an energy blast to save his friend, but Piccolo had noticed the motion before he could even gather the proper ki to formulate a blast. Twin rays of light shot forth from the monarch's eyes and made their mark upon the triclops' bald cranium, sending him off his feet and onto his back.

"Y-You..." Krillin scowled, yet did not move in the slightest. Piccolo merely glanced in his direction, not even gracing him with a full look-over, and shot off a taunting smirk. His attention returned to the bandit not long after, whose defiant stare remained firm.

"Go on," Yamcha answered calmly. "What's my reward for such a special honor?"

"Eternal damnation!" Piccolo suddenly roared, his other claw raising in the quickest of movements before aiming for Yamcha's heart. The bandit made no motion to stop it...

...for Krillin immediately spawned directly in front of Piccolo with his arms outstretched.

"Take this, you monster!" he cried, a swift barrage of energy spheres launching out of his palms and forcing him to fly backward. Though he was quick to stabilize himself, Krillin's continuous volley of attacks continued to pepper away at him, diverting his attention.

"C'mon, Yamcha, hurry up!" Krillin exclaimed. Though he couldn't divert his eyes from his opponent, the familiar hum of energy that accompanied the Kamehameha wave had hit the Turtle student's ears. "I can't pin him down forever...!"

"Don't worry, I've got this," assured Yamcha as his energy built to a crescendo. "Him not noticing your Shaolin Mirage trick really paid off... cause now he's about to feel some real pain!" He'd been building up his focus while the monster had decided to attempt and mock-praise him, halving his charge time for the attack. "Kame... hame... HAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The blue wave of light arced right over Krillin's head and swerved slightly to meet directly with Piccolo's chest, but it had been too late. The monster released his energy around his perimeter and immediately vaporized any and all of Krillin's attacks heading his way; he then noticed the Kamehameha wave and extended a palm out. "You mortals... will never defeat me!"

Suddenly, he felt a sharp blow send him forward. He didn't even need to look behind him to tell that it had been the last of the triptych in Tien that had been the culprit, and in the next moment, he had hardly the time to think as he was propelled backward by the legendary attack's stream of light. It continued to carry him back, nipping away at his skin and garments, but yet he refused to allow himself to be carried back into another explosion.

"I... as the demon king... will not allow myself to lay on my back yet another time for a measly human!" he shouted, his awesome power swirling around his body before being shot out of his already extended palm in an alabaster wave. It immediately overpowered Yamcha's attack, white shoving back blue as the Kamehameha was redirected back toward the former bandit and ex-monk.

Unfortunately for them, Piccolo anticipated their dodge. A smirk etched across his face, the demon wasted no time in firing another bolt of light into the sky from his other palm that caught them in mid-flight. Almost immediately after he saw the sky flash with yet another explosive wave of light, he turned to face the wounded Tien Shinhan, whose latest strike seemed to have knocked the wind more out of himself than it had the royal monarch. The two stared each other down for what seemed to be the longest time before Piccolo broke the silence.

"It was a nice gamble on your part to take that attack and then try and sucker punch me." His opponent's reply was a defiant growl, which got a small cackle out of the demon king. "Unfortunately, I don't think you remember how much my power can hurt. And if that's the case... allow me to jog your memory."

"Do what you want... but I promise you I won't stand down. You can knock me around with as many fists as you like, but I'm going to keep getting back up. It's what I owe these people—it's what I owe the world!" A small white aura flickered to life around Tien, yet it was clearly dilated by at least a half of its usual sizing. It almost resembled a dying candle, but the triclops' motives could not have been further from that analogy. "And I won't stop... until you face penance for what you've done!"

Piccolo closed his eyes and crossed his arms, shaking his head amusedly. "Really...? Well, if that's the case, I imagine this battle will continue for all of eternity. Unfortunately, that's time that even I don't have... so I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

Immediately after finishing his sentence, the demon sprang forward and leveled Tien with a nasty haymaker to the jaw. His opponent was sent spinning to the side, trailing backward helplessly, before the monster caught up to him and side-kicked him straight in the ribs. The force of the impact slammed the hero down to the ground before he could even blink, the momentum behind his sudden fall sending him skidding back a few additional meters.

At this very sight, Piccolo smiled and dropped to the floor. He did not move for several moments, content to watch Tien as he writhed in pain. "Well, I'm waiting. You did say you'd be lifting yourself right off the ground, right? I would hate to be disappointed... but then again, it's not as if you humans can ever follow up on your promises."

Though his chest was still rising and falling, the triclops' heartbeat had slowed significantly. It was painfully obvious that he had little left in the tank, as evident by his slow crawl just to return to a sitting position. Even then, Piccolo watched with delight as another wave of pain flowed through his foe's body and left him unable to retain his balance. He slumped to the ground pathetically, helplessly.

"It seems you've only proven me right, haven't you?" Piccolo shook his head, chuckling. "Well then... I have a score to settle with your long-haired friend. I still haven't forgotten that blow to the back of the head, however. Don't worry about me forgetting to repay you for that little cheap shot." He began a slow stride forward, his head turning from side to side as he scoped out the area around him.

Then, suddenly, he felt a tug on his pant leg. Looking down, he saw Tien grasping onto his purple cloth in one last act of defiance. The action earned the triclops an up close and personal look at the menacing grin of the demon king. "Well, I can't say I'm not impressed by your resilience... but your power is uninspiring." His grin morphed into a sudden scowl, a leg flicking out and catching the human in the ribs. As if he were a mere rock, Tien turned over onto his back with little resistance, growls of pain forcing their way out of his throat. "If you're going to struggle, don't flop around like a fish out of water.. A peasant like you will never topple a king like me with your kind of strategy."

For all of his intelligence and brainpower, Piccolo could never have predicted that laughter would succeed his speech. The sound was as quiet as it was uncharacteristic of the triclops, his ragged breathing leading to what was an awkward chorus of chuckles. But even so, it drew Piccolo's ire just as easily.

"Ho-How... how dare you?!" Piccolo bellowed, his hand swiping down in a sudden blur and hoisting his prey into the air before the triclops even had the chance to blink. With his other arm, the demon king furiously slashed away at Tien's chest, a blade of blood suddenly bursting to life and spurting out of his body in a manner reminiscent of a geyser. Predictably, the former Crane student abandoned his laughter in favor of a pained cry.

"You have no right to laugh in the face of your king, mortal!" A knee to the wounded warrior's stomach knocked the wind right out of him; he was swiftly tossed to the ground a moment later in what could only be described as frustration. "I demand to know what you found so amusing this instant! If I don't have an answer within the next five seconds, I'll tear you straight into half!"

Despite coughing and spluttering up blood uncontrollably, Tien still found it within him to smirk ever so slightly. "Y-You... hurgh... you c-call us all the sa-same... yet your act has-hasn't changed… a-at all..." His voice wavered as all three of his eyes began to close, another spray of blood spewing out of his mouth. A moment later, his body stopped convulsing and went limp, his smirk etched onto his expression as he entered the realm of unconsciousness.

Piccolo stared down at the triclops' body with disdain, his eye almost twitching in agitation. These peons were a step below him in Earth's new hierarchy; he was the very pinnacle of the pecking order whereas they were nothing short of peasants. Yet the fact still remained that, for better or worse, they still managed to incite a reaction out of him.

'Could it be… that I am the one who is misrepresenting his title?' The thought was an incredibly difficult pill to swallow. After his reign of eight years and all the carnage he had wreaked upon the Earth, Piccolo had thought himself to be unparalleled when it came to wicked intelligence and might. 'A demon king… does he let his prey run, or does he slaughter it where it stands? Does he flaunt his power… or does he harness it and enforce his will on his own?'

His eyes never moved a single inch from Tien's limp form; it was almost if he was transfixed by the sight. Blood had oozed out of a gash on his chest and served to leak down his torso, and from what the demon king could tell, he'd left a permanent scar on the triclops. He would smile at his handiwork if these thoughts of self-doubt hadn't befallen him in that very instance. 'Perhaps these Earthlings have been right this whole time. I have been ruling incorrectly.

'Instead of taunting them over the lost souls of their friends and fellow humans, I shall send them to join them in eternal misery. Instead of claiming I will end their lives, I will rip their hearts out and feast upon them as they experience a pain unlike any other. It is only befitting of a demon king, after all.'

He suddenly turned around and looked toward the other end of the road. A tall, wild-haired figure had risen to his feet and was straggling toward him with all the might he could muster up.

"And I suppose there is no one better to start off this bloodbath with than you, Yamcha." Piccolo slowly smiled as Yamcha came closer and closer into sight. One of his eyes were sealed shut, bruises peppered across his face and arms, and his gi was slightly torn up near his shoulders, revealing the bare bones that the demon king could oh-so-easily snap.

No fleeting remark escaped the demon king in that very moment. Instead, he opted to kick off his feet and rush toward Yamcha with a demonic snarl, his left arm reared back for a blow that would surely decapitate his foe.

And it would have if it were not for the sudden interference of a metallic boot that left a firm imprint on Piccolo's cheekbone, sending him tumbling back on the concrete pavement before he eventually crashed into another abandoned home.

It took him a moment to regain his full coherency, but the moment he did his eyes immediately locked onto the new arrival. Though it was impossible to confirm an identity through the visor due to the distance between one another, he could make out that his assailant was sporting a suit of some sort.

"...Perhaps this is the third one who did not immediately show their face beforehand," Piccolo murmured aloud. "And if that is the case, there must be something of great importance to have delayed their arrival…"

The instant the mecha suit had hit the ground and safely disabled its flight programming, Chi-Chi flipped open the visor and practically dove to the ground out of it. She could hear Yamcha faintly whisper her name before collapsing to the ground in exhaustion, yet she had no time to remain wrapped up in emotion. There were more pressing matters at hand than to worry about what could've possibly gone wrong during the fight.

"Remember what Korin said," Chi-Chi thought aloud to herself as she knelt down and inserted a green bean into Yamcha's mouth, quickly helping him chew it and swallow it. "Emotion can be your greatest strength, but only when it's focused right." The wise old cat truly did have insightful knowledge to pass down other than the lore of the senzu bean, which the Ox-Princess took at face value after experiencing one of the senzu firsthand.

Suddenly, Yamcha's eyes bolted open and he flipped back to his feet to face Chi-Chi, fully recovered from all his previous injuries. A small smile graced his features as he realized just what his sudden rejuvenation meant. "So… I guess we're in full business. We did our part, you did yours… all that's left is to win."

Chi-Chi, sneaking a glance over to the rubble where Piccolo lay, scowled. The monster was out of sight, yet certainly not out of mind. "For the most part… I sorta have some bad news on that end, to be honest. See, I needed a bean after the injuries I had, and since I just gave you one… that leaves us with four more. I'll get the suit back to Bulma, so she won't need one, but… well, this is our last go-around. No more second chances after this."

"There really wasn't enough to get a few extra rounds of energy in?" Yamcha grimly asked, subconsciously already knowing the answer. Chi-Chi nodded. "Well then, we're going to have to make the ones we do have count." Wordlessly, he nudged his head in the direction of the unconscious Tien before he suddenly began to walk forward in wait of the demon king.

"Yamcha... don't die now, y'hear me?" Chi-Chi murmured softly, almost to herself. Though he seemed not to hear her, the Ox-Princess took one last concerned look at him before she sped off toward Tien. 'He's making a bold move to go ahead and stall Piccolo while I get these beans to everyone… but at the same time, he's doing something I would have to prepare myself for. He's willing to throw himself against the most powerful demon in history… just to save us.

'And I'm gonna help him do that.'

Yamcha boldly stepped forward, his footsteps light. The tension hung over the battlefield like a dark cloud, yet he still stood tall in the face of his biggest challenge to date. It wasn't long before Piccolo had risen to his feet, likely plotting... calculating.

He wouldn't give him the chance to think much longer.

Charging Piccolo speedily, the Turtle student brought down his left arm like a hammer in an attempt to knock the monster down again, yet the demon was just too fast. By the time he would have connected with the monarch's skull, Yamcha suddenly found himself flying backward from three swift punches to the ribs. The power behind those olive fists was easily enough to send white-hot waves of pain throughout his stomach, the pain great enough to neutralize him for enough time that Piccolo closed the distance between them and backhanded him to the ground with sheer force. Yamcha ricocheted off the ground, his body being driven up again only for the monster to plant him down again with a long-legged kick.

As he hit the ground again, his body convulsing, the scar-faced bandit grimaced. He knew he needed to buy Chi-Chi more time, but his opponent was just far too strong. If he didn't find some way to push himself forward, not only would he die, but Piccolo would surely send his friends after him into the next dimension. And if that happened… Piccolo's reign would be eternal over the blue-green planet that the human race called home.

Fueled by these thoughts, Yamcha lit a fire under himself, a sudden wave of determination washing over him. Piccolo still loomed over him menacingly, yet the wild-haired fighter refused to back down. 'I… I stood up to him with injuries that make these look like love taps… dammit, I can keep going now!'

He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, a shock wave of pain coursing through his spine. However, grounding his teeth, the bandit pressed on and tried to pull himself to his feet…

...when all of a sudden, an olive hand was thrust in his face. A yellow light formed in it a moment later, the shimmering rays of light encompassing Yamcha's vision entirely as it grew in size and power. He tried to move, yet his body just wouldn't comply. It was almost as if his body had resigned to its owner's fate long before he did.

But he refused to share those sentiments. In one final act of defiance, though it would cause him to fall back to the ground yet again, Yamcha extended his palm and fired off whatever energy he could spare at the monster.

He certainly didn't expect Piccolo to be driven back a good twenty feet by his attack.

"W...Wha…" Yamcha deliriously asked, unable to register the sight his eyes were showing him. Then, suddenly, he saw a black-colored sole next to his skull. Following the sight upward, the scar-faced bandit could make out the ever static stoic expression of Tien staring ahead. He couldn't help but smile at the sight. "H-Hey, thanks! That was a close one!"

"No kidding," Tien dryly said, eyes never once glancing toward Yamcha. "And that's just how to sum up this next fight… close. Chi-Chi really pulled through for us, and in a few minutes' time the majority of us will be back at full power. From there… we just need to go all-out."

Yamcha took the opportunity to spring up to his feet, revitalized by the news. "All right… things are looking up for us now! It's about damn time, too!" His mind flashed back to the fact that he would be avenging his master's master in Roshi, but there was so much more to it now that he hadn't considered. Blinded by his monotonous quest for vengeance, Yamcha's eyes had only now just been opened to the opportunity to reform the world that he'd once been proud to live in. It gave him new strength, strength that he wouldn't trade in for anything in the universe. "Tien… no matter what happens, this is it, man. And… I just want to say thanks."

For the faintest of moments before it was concealed by his stoic mask, Tien smiled. "I don't need your gratitude, Yamcha. You've had just as big a part in this as I have… maybe even more of one." Then, suddenly, his triptych of eyes narrowed. "But this isn't over yet. We still need to take this guy out, and we need to do it right here, right now. His code of law is crumbling… and we just need to deal the final strike that breaks it all down."

He'd been swimming in darkness for far too long to keep track of. Seconds, minutes, or even hours could've gone by and he'd have been none the wiser. Eternal blackness had greeted him whenever he'd gotten here, and it didn't seem as if it would relinquish its hold on him any time soon.

Krillin stood… somewhere. He could hear the sound of rushing water, yet his sight granted him no opportunity to identify what kind of form it had taken. Walking anywhere seemed to prove aimless; without the use of his eyes, he couldn't even tell if he was walking in an infinite loop. Where even was he? All he remembered was being hit with a brutal infusion of ki that took him to the ground.

What happens to a dream deferred?

Suddenly, his vision was restored. It was a sensation Krillin immediately thanked the heavens for and then equally cursed with all his might.

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

Before him stood King Piccolo, bloody, broken, and battered. Both of his arms were mere stumps now, likely having been torn off by some savage beast. His face looked deformed and mangled to the point of no return; he no longer held any teeth within his mouth nor did said mouth possess any jaw. The cranium that held his body altogether, bleeding profusely, was incredibly pale and dehydrated, as was the rest of his skin.

Or does it fester like a sore—and then run?

Piccolo broke out into a sudden dash toward the river wordlessly, prompting Krillin to immediately follow him. He knew this wasn't reality—but what it was he did not know for certain. Following the demon king to wherever he planned to go was his only option.

Does it stink like rotten meat?

As he followed Piccolo's surprisingly agile trail, Krillin was hit with a sudden foul aroma. It was indescribable, yet could be affiliated with every single stench-resembling synonym in the dictionary.

Or crust and sugar over—like a sugary sweet?

Krillin continued to pursue the embodiment of his nightmares with intense fervor, but as more and more time elapsed… he was fatiguing. What was worse, he never seemed to be gaining any ground. Piccolo just continued to keep moving and moving toward the river with consistent speed while Krillin began to tire and tucker out.

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

His body couldn't continue like this much longer. All the power he had in his body was being poured into his relentless pursuit of the demon king, yet as he continued to exert more and more effort to continue, the weight just seemed to pile on further and further. What was worse, he soon began to feel an internal pressure eating away at his mind. It soon crescendoed to a point where he felt as if he had the weight of a thousand worlds on his shoulders, and it was then that the ex-monk's body just could not take any longer. The physical and mental exertion was proving to be far too much.

In what could only be described as a pitiful motion, Krillin's knees buckled and he fell straight forward. Something, however, had a firm grip on him; something would not let him fully collapse quite yet.

Finally, Piccolo reached the riverbank and stopped. It felt as if hours went by before anything happened, but then the demon king decided to turn around. His irises were now colored a demonic yellow, the bright color only serving to bring out the madness in his onyx eyes. Coupling that with his mutilated features made for the most horrifying image he'd ever seen. It was abhorrently twisted, spine-chilling, sickening, vomit-inducing, perverted, warped, devious, and disturbed all at the same time.

Suddenly, the demon king began to shift forward. Moving wasn't even an accurate word to describe it. Without even moving a single inch of his body, the demon king was translating forward to meet Krillin's exasperated form. He could do nothing but watch as the monster continued to make his way toward him, the monster's verbosely-worded grin pervading the Turtle student's very essence.

He stopped right in front of Krillin, looming over him maliciously. Krillin could see the monster in all his mangled glory now, arguably more fear-inspiring than ever. His yellow and black stare bore a hole through Krillin's bald head and his bloody, boneless structure made him want to puke up everything he had in his stomach. Yet he couldn't pry his eyes away.

The demon king spoke no more than a quartet of words, but they were ones that Krillin would remember for as long as his conscience remained with him:

"Do you fear me?"

Or does it explode?

Before Krillin could even blink, Piccolo's body completely tore itself apart in a massive explosion, each and every atom in his body being utterly vaporized. The explosive wave was quick to ravage everything in his proximity, including the ex-monk himself, before all he could see was white.

And then he saw the world.

"You're awake!" Chi-Chi almost giddily exclaimed, on her knees beside his fallen form. She was quick to put a cap on her sudden elation, however, becoming deathly serious within the span of a heartbeat. "I gotta tell you, Krillin, it took you longer than everyone else to come to. I had to wait here for a good twenty seconds before you even showed signs of consciousness, and it's supposed to have an instant effect…"

Krillin gently laid a hand on his friend's shoulder, cutting her off. "That… that's not important, Chi-Chi. We… we need to get back to the fight." Needless to say, he was a little shaken up by what appeared to be a hallucination. What did it all mean? "Is everyone else okay?" he subconsciously asked, his mind half-there at the moment.

"Errr… sort of," Chi-Chi confessed. "I only had four beans to give out, and you got one of 'em. We kinda don't have any to give out if anyone takes some real damage during this last fight, so we're gonna have to make our strikes count."

Krillin nodded. "That's fine with me. We can beat him this time, and we will beat him this time. I know we said we'd be happy with any result… but dammit, I feel like we're on the edge of a new world, and I wanna see it come to life instead of just wondering what it could've been." He looked over at the battlefield, watching as Tien, Yamcha, Yajirobe, and Launch all positioned themselves directly opposite the recovered Piccolo.

He inhaled deeply.

Piccolo crossed his arms and frowned at the sight of all his rejuvenated foes, disgruntled. "So no matter what kind of punishment I dole out to you, you all seem to keep coming back for more. Your resiliency would be commendable if it weren't so foolhardy."

"Only a fool would charge in like we have without a plan." Yamcha narrowed his eyes. "Unfortunately, I don't think you deserve to live long enough to hear it. Every second you keep on living is another second we're letting this kind of world exist."

The demon king, though quite irritated by the incessant choruses of Earth's protectors, still held his ground. He would not allow mere humans to get under his skin yet again. "If you think it's a foregone conclusion that you will defeat me, I'm afraid you are sadly mistaken. You can throw an army at me—hell, you could even throw the world at me! It will never be enough to conquer a demon king's might!"

Just as Yamcha was about to fire off another harshly-worded string of words, blonde Launch held out her gloved hand. "Ain't no point in wastin' breath on a slug like this. We can talk trash all we want, but it sure ain't gonna accomplish nothin'. Guy only understands the language of pain an' sufferin', so let's give'm the same treatment he gave us." She rolled her wrists in anticipation. "'Sides, I sure as hell wanna punch this guy's lights out!"

"Then go ahead and try!" Piccolo snarled, advancing on his prey. They all tensed as he approached, though the demon king would not fire off his characteristic smirk this time around. 'Whatever the hell those fools did to restore their energy, it won't stop me! I am unbeatable! I am unsurpassable! I am insurmountable! I am a god when compared to these peons!'

Much to his surprise, his foes did not split up or try any sort of tactic. Instead, they flew toward him as one, each of their white auras flaring with absolute defiance. It seemed they were going for a straight blitzkrieg in an attempt to end the battle early, but Piccolo had other plans in mind.

'At least they've wisened up. Fighting fair will get you absolutely nowhere.' Piccolo's eyes glowed red for a brief instant before twin rays of light shot out of them, aiming right for Krillin's chest. The monk had the wherewithal to spin out of the way, but the demon king had anticipated such a movement. As the rest of the fighters soared on without him, Piccolo dove past them with his superior speed and decked Krillin right on the button with what was surely his hardest hit. He was immediately sent snapping backward, his body reeling from such tremendous force.

Piccolo immediately whirled around, knowing that the others would be upon him like hounds on a slab of meat within a moment's time. He immediately summoned all the power he could muster up as Launch threw a barrage of punches faster than bullets his way. Despite the blonde's incredibly agile movement, he evaded two straight attacks before kneeing her hard enough to force her to spit up blood. Another quick barrage of knees would follow, yet he would not be able to go for a follow-up attack due to being quickly swarmed by Chi-Chi and Yamcha from either side, diverting his attention from the now falling Launch to attend to the more immediate threats.

"When will you learn that this planet isn't worth saving?!" Piccolo snarled as he looked to his right, ducking a roundhouse kick from Yamcha. His having to divide his attention between the two skilled martial artists would cost him, however, as Chi-Chi smoothly snuck past his defenses with a charged jab to the stomach. It did little to faze him, however, and she was quickly repelled by a hastily-fired kiai.

"I'll never give up hope on Earth!" Yamcha retorted, dodging a boot to the face before a quick set of haymakers sent him barreling backward. Piccolo saw his opportunity to deliver a killing blow, yet he was once again forced to switch targets as he noticed Tien residing in the air above him with an incredibly powerful ray of light infused into his finger.

"Y-You flies…" Piccolo murmured, feeling his breaths grow more rhythmic with each passing second. He practically cursed himself for even being forced to display weakness to a lowly human, yet his inner rationale could not deny the very real issue:

He was fatiguing.

Suddenly, he was snapped out of his bemused state as he reconnected to reality and recognized that he needed to end things much more quickly lest he be damaged considerably. Just as soon as he'd heard the words "Dodon Ray!" resound around the battlefield, he took to the air to evade it; however, a strike from Yajirobe left him exposed to another Dodon Ray. Tien had flown up to accommodate for the change in Piccolo's altitude before he fired the Crane technique straight into his back with incredible potency. The attack wasted little time in burning a hole straight through the back of Piccolo's clothing and nearly pierced through his skin. It roused a growl out of the monster, but it was nothing he could not handle. A brief flare of his aura dispersed the attack's power, and a quick one-eighty turn followed by a ki blast sent Tien out of the fight.

'The sword-wielding one won't fight me on his own,' thought Piccolo as he looked down at Yajirobe, who remained paralyzed by what was most likely fear and trepidation. 'It'd be near suicide to try something like that, and he refuses to fight without a partner..' Confident that he could focus on the bigger fish he needed to fry, Piccolo turned his attention away from the samurai.

He would pay for his underestimation of Yajirobe's bravery with a full-powered blast from the ronin's maw, which, while it did not damage him critically, stung with force that the demon king didn't even know the food-loving warrior possessed. Sent forward by the momentum of the blast, a faint scream escaping his lips, Piccolo called upon his exceptional durability to whirl around in the face of the blast and force it back with energy of his own. Unfortunately for the ronin, he had clearly expelled his energy with that one trick and was left with little to no power left to escape the blast.

By the time the blast had dissipated, Yajirobe lay motionless on the ground at least fifty meters away from where he stood originally. Though it was impossible to tell from this range if he was still alive or not, such power would surely have him down for the count.

'That's one down,' Piccolo thought to himself, eyes scoping the battlefield around him. 'That means there's only… wait, what the hell is that noise?'

He was cut off by the sound of flight from above him. However, it hit his ear differently than basic flight normally did, and it should have considering that it was that of a mecha suit. It completely caught him off-guard; he was knocked to the ground by a metallic flurry of blows, and while they didn't keep him down for long, the energy volley that followed certainly did. A continuous barrage of energy, blue in color yet red-hot in power, was sent streaming down his way.

It had no right to be as powerful as it was.

Piccolo was sent underground from the sheer force of Bulma's attacks, each one burying him underneath the city street further and further. The attacks, unyielding, only seemed to flow more smoothly as time passed. Natural energy didn't have the capability of having such meticulous precision, yet the nature of that robotic suit allowed for each attack to deliver nothing short of its full intensity, each individual sphere of ki exploding against the demon king's skin with equal power. Alone they wouldn't do much, yet at such a consistent rate the damage quickly stacked up.

"To think that she of all people would have me on the ropes…" Piccolo seethed, thrusting out both of his palms and gathering energy within them. It took longer to concentrate his power due to Bulma's ki still raining down on him, yet he still managed to amass enough after an additional ten seconds of charge time. "...But the demon king will never fall prey to human technology!" With that he fired the attack, his remaining might being enough to dilute Bulma's energy volley and race toward the suit-adorning heiress. With remarkable speed, she'd dodged the attack, yet it was clear that her sucker punch had required an incredible charge time. The following energy wave that came his way, while powerful in its own right, was barely enough to draw Piccolo's attention as he swatted it out of the way...

...Which was when he truly realized how drained of stamina he truly was. It hit him in a sudden wave, his body beginning to ache and his breath now becoming fully audible to those around him. Having had to exert the power he had so many times against each individual foe had been grueling, to say the least, and now he was paying the price for doing so.

He could barely see Krillin race toward him, a fist drawn back in preparation for contact. Tiredly, exasperatedly, the monster threw up a counter, but he was soon forced into leaping backward as a missile-shaped blast came from the sky courtesy of Bulma. It did little to no damage to the surrounding area, but he wasn't about to risk anything.

Before Krillin had the chance to regroup and charge him again, Piccolo growled at the airbourne Bulma and threw a grenade of ki like a football, which directly connected with the mecha suit's core and sent her spiraling downward. He grinned at the sight. 'So it seems she attempted to exhaust all her power in those attacks… it may have done the damage, but it means little if she can't follow up on it…

'...But they can.' Piccolo, out of the corner of his eye, watched as Krillin closed the distance between the two of them again. It was harder for him to parry away his roundhouse kick; he found his attack to sting just a bit more than usual. He was forced to bring his arm down due to the throbbing pain that pervaded the appendage, neutralizing it from further use.

Then another blow came.

And another.

Soon Krillin had a chain of attacks going, beating around Piccolo like a rag doll. It was painfully difficult to believe that a lowlife such as Krillin was kicking him all over the place, yet his eyes showed him nothing short of reality. 'T-This impudent set of humans... ! I swear, I won't leave a single one alive after I deal with them! I'll end this right here and now!'

Powering through the pain, Piccolo thrust a claw forward toward Krillin's heart, attempting for an instantaneous kill. He didn't have the strength to just merely blow him back any longer; having fought as long as he had, his energy had been sapped quite considerably.

It was made all the more apparent when Krillin was able to neatly catch the demon king's claw in his hand, keeping a firm, tight hold on it as he stared into the eyes of what was – for perhaps the first time in Earth's history – a fearful Demon King Piccolo.

"No," Krillin said quietly as he lowered the monster's palm along with his own. Piccolo could only stand with his jaw agape, shell-shocked at his incredible loss of power. "No more." A swift double-legged kick succeeded Krillin's choice of words, sending the monarch stumbling and staggering back pathetically. It was a testament to the monster's durability that he could even stand, but it would not take a keen observer to tell that he was clearly at the end of his rope. His wobbly form, his bruised appearance, and the most telling feature of them all in his eyes would only support such a theory.

"U-Ugh… no more, you say…?" Piccolo growled, spitting on the ground. He tried to give off his natural air of confidence, yet it seemed harder and harder with each passing minute. He wasn't powerless in the physical sense; he could certainly put up a struggle if he needed to, but that was not what concerned him. He could feel his hold over Earth slipping and crumbling away with each passing second, and he knew that if lady luck didn't decide to affiliate herself with him on the sooner side, then he would surely be finished. That would not deter him, however. If he truly was to be finished here, he would drag these lowlife humans with him to hell as far as he could. "I'll wipe out your race until there are no more of you filthy humans!"

Immediately he threw out both his palms and fired off an explosive wave of light with incredible force, Krillin only narrowing dodging it by the skin of his teeth yet suffering slight burns as a result of it. Piccolo watched as his menacing blast exploded into a civilian household with delight before he zipped up and took advantage of the ex-monk's compassion by releasing another charged energy sphere into his stomach. It detonated immediately, the impact driving Piccolo back as well, but he knew that he'd at least done some lasting damage to Krillin…

...and then his theory fell flat on its face when he saw Launch in front of Krillin with her own arm extended, seemingly having cancelled out Piccolo's blast with her own. She grinned sadistically at the tyrant as she crossed her arms, Krillin beaming as he realized his current predicament. "Game over, pal. Try and weasel ya way outta this one if ya can." She jerked her head to either side of him, and as he looked around... he found himself boxed in. Chi-Chi was to his left, Tien to his right, and logical deduction assumed that Yamcha was behind him.

Piccolo blanched, realizing he was cornered. Seeing as how he was just a few feet off the ground, he realistically only had five directions to attempt moving in. Each of them, sans directly upward, were cornered by at least one of Earth's protectors. And even if he were to try and ascend upward, Krillin was already elevating himself so as to prevent that method of escape.

"D-Damn you…" the demon king hissed, clenching his fists. While he was never one to submit, his odds of escaping this trap were incredibly low. Resigning himself to his fate seemed like the only sensible thing to do, but the demon king did not have that sense of inadequacy in his beliefs. He knew he had to try something… but what was left? 'Those two… the suit girl and the samurai… I could use them as hostages if I weren't so damn far away from them. But as it stands now, there's nothing I can do… nowhere I can go to avoid them. I don't even have enough power in me to force them back, and though I still have it in me to attempt a sucker punch, they'll be able to swarm me before I can even blink...'

"It's over," Krillin boldly declared from above. "We've freed Earth from you, Piccolo. If you just quit struggling, we can end this quickly. I'm tired of all this fighting, but I know a monster like you will never change. This world still can, though, and that's what we're going to focus on after you're gone."

Piccolo paused, his eyes widening. Then he laughed a hearty laugh that seemed terribly out of place given his current predicament. "How dare you even put this world within a sentence's distance of the word change? I don't know what kind of mind you've got in your head, boy, but change will never happen after the reign I've brought down upon this world. Humanity is now irreparably damaged thanks to me… and that's something you will never be able to 'change.' You may have won the battle, but I'll have won the war… because the past can no longer be substituted in for the present! You're living in a dream if you think this world can be reversed into what it was!" He continued on his fit of laughter, seemingly content to let those words be his last.

"We don't want the past," Chi-Chi spat back. "We want the future. I want to make humanity a better place for having survived a monster like you. Like it or not, we will become better for your reign, and if you think otherwise… then you're the one who's living in your own dream, Piccolo."

"There's no use. Monsters like Piccolo can never understand us. It's a waste of breath trying to prove him wrong." Tien extended his hands, mentally preparing himself for one last attack. "The only language this guy speaks is pain, and he's incredibly fluent in it. The only way we'll get him to see that he's failed is to end his life and act upon it."

"If you want to see a monster, look no further than your pitiful human brethren." Piccolo slowly smiled, the sight still proving to intimidate the band of Earthlings despite having him cornered. "When left to their own devices, there being only minimal influence from me... look what they have become. They have become little more than savage beasts, and those in the minority will fall regardless due to their pathetic morals." He cackled heartily and jabbed a finger in Krillin's direction. "Especially you folk. You don't have it in you to control the world's populace like I have... you'd rather hopelessly try and persuade people than kill them to make a statement. That is where you failed... and I succeeded." He clenched his fist now, his body convulsing with adrenaline. "After the world I have exposed them to, do you really think they'll ever learn to trust and bond again? You'll be powerless and left to watch as my influence succeeds my reign and kills off all of humanity! This future you speak of... it doesn't exist! Hahahaha!"

"Grgh..." Chi-Chi snarled, trying desperately to convince herself the demon king spoke nothing but fallacies. She hated to admit it, but with each passing word the rush of their victory was wearing off and the reality of the situation was setting in. "If there's one thing I can promise you... it's that you won't be around to enjoy your little victory!"

Piccolo, out of the corner of his eye, sneered at the woman devilishly. "Perhaps so…" he said, his voice becoming a bit muffled with each passing second. Something was building up in his chest, slowly working its way up to his throat. "...but revenge will be mi—" He trailed off at seeing the Earth's protectors' expressions as they looked toward the sky, and he quickly pushed back down whatever he'd been prepared to spit out just in case there was a chance he could use whatever had them in awe to his advantage.

Then, suddenly, even he could sense what was heading their way. Though he could not detect energy, the sheer power behind the approaching figure on the horizon was enough to send his head spinning without a single touch. His maw dropped in what was undeniably shock and awe, his pupils dilated in horror.

"This… who…" Piccolo was at a loss for words. First he'd been defeated by a bunch of human beings, and now a being with absolutely unreal power was heading their way at top speed. He was a long-haired humanoid figure with what seemed to be some outlandish suit: a set of armor with black and brown coloring splattered all over it, a brown belt, and a green eyepiece. While Piccolo was certainly not one to follow what kind of clothing the Earthlings wore, he knew that even this kind of attire was completely out of the norm. To think he had never gotten wind of this being beforehand also rung a bell within the recently overthrown monarch.

'The only explanation is that… he's not of this planet,' Piccolo concluded with horror. 'Are worlds outside of Earth truly this powerful? This warrior… judging by everyone else's faces, this warrior makes my maximum power look like a joke! I-I am… the demon king…

'And yet…

'I am nothing...'

It was like their nightmare had been a dream all along. Never could they have expected someone with power eclipsing that of Piccolo's own to appear out of the blue, and yet as soon as they'd managed to liberate Earth from Piccolo's control, this mysterious warrior was dropped straight onto their laps.

To say they were horrified would be an understatement. Even as the figure stopped above them, his arms crossed, they were still trembling with fright and dismay. The sheer power that radiated off this new arrival was simply unreal, and he seemed to know it by what was a confident smirk. But then, as he descended to the ground, he was all business.

"So… could any of you tell me where I could find someone named Kakarot?"

Stop! Raditz Time!

All jokes aside, I am DAMN excited that Turbulence has finally crossed the final hurdle in the Demon Saga. I have been planning Raditz's arrival into this story for EONS now, and while it may be considered simplistic in terms of the plot… I can't lie, I have been anticipating writing this moment for over a year now. And to say that I finally have… it's glorious. It's damn glorious. I hope you felt that way as well when you read it. This arrival wasn't meant to be particularly obscure(heck, I thought I'd telegraphed it as soon as Tien suggested to move the attack to morning), yet I hope that it retained a sense of awesomeness about it when it did occur. Hell, I'm reading this sixteen days after I initially completed it and I still can't help but get hyped for what's to come. As you all know, I wanted to upload this on my birthday(and I think now you see why), and a special thank you to those who did wish me their good wishes already... including Supersaiyaninfinitygohan, whose cover image for this story has just been released and put as the official cover of this story! Many thanks to him, and if you're looking for some stuff to read in the interim between updates... well, I'm sure he wouldn't mind you looking over some of his stuff, and neither would I.

As a result of the wait in between updates to ensure I uploaded this here chapter today, I have actually finished Chapter 14 already. As a treat, I will upload said chapter on the 14th - the second Sunday of December. My reason for waiting so long is to get a slight jump on Chapter 15, and if I manage to finish it within that two week period like I suspect I will, then I can pump that out before the end of the New Year. I would like to get as much done before the New Year due to 2015 marking a significant swing in my workload.

Anyway, before we go on, I want to say a few things here regarding the current state of Turbulence. Now that we have reached this point in the story, there are a few things that are worthy of note:

I'd like to first and foremost confirm that, yes, the Demon Saga has reached its conclusion with this chapter. It being entitled A Dream Deferred has been planned since the very beginning, as has it ending with this particular set of events(for those of you wondering, the official theme song for Turbulence's Demon Saga is "Right Here, Right Now(HQ + Arena Effects)" since this version's just damn awesome). This means that in the next chapter, we are going to be delving into the first part of the Saiyan Saga, which is - at the moment - entitled Futility. Now, this means a multitude of things, but first and foremost it means that we have finally escaped what I considered to be the toughest saga to write for this story. It has been meant to set up this particular turn of events and lay the foundations for Earth's cast of characters, which I am proud to say it did, but it was also the one that had the least specifics planned out for the longest time. Everything from here on out is a lot more concentrated and focused, which should not only translate to better writing(as the last few chapters in 9, 10, and 11 have shown, my writing quality and confidence surges when this occurs) but also a more entertaining story for you folks.

Oh! Also, for the theme of the Saiyan Saga, it's Ticking Bomb by Aloe Blacc. Man, am I pumped up for that...

...but anyway, moving forward. Secondly, I believe that as we entrench ourselves further and further into the Saiyan Saga, there will be a change in Turbulence's scheduling. For some reason, every time I sit down and write, I find myself with at least a thousand words archived on my document. It's… it's unreal. However, despite this fantastic ability, I do fear that I will be finding myself bogged down by schoolwork sooner rather than later(and I have been, looking over this note while screening the chapter literally seconds prior to its being uploaded). For those of you who don't know, this will be my last year of college, and while my workload hasn't been anything too strenuous so far, I've no doubt that it and a lot of other elements will build upon each other and occupy my time in the future. Due to this and me wanting to see Turbulence prosper in 2015, I've decided to take a precaution so as to avoid these two things clashing alongside real life:

Turbulence will be going on a hiatus come the end of this current battle. While I will not disclose the specific chapter number that this battle will reach its climax, I will say that it's not too far off. In fact, if things go how I think it will, the last update before my hiatus will probably be in late December or early January depending on my schedule.

You will be careful to note that I never said the word "break," but rather I said "hiatus." I'll be focusing my efforts on completing chapters in advance so that I can maintain a weekly update schedule.

Yup. I just said a weekly update schedule, something that has eluded me for eons. Past readers of mine will know that I have attempted to implement this into my writing ever since 2013, but it just wasn't in the cards for me to do so due to multiple factors. That being said, I strongly feel that my new current writing pace will allow me to achieve my goal of a weekly schedule, and if I keep myself a few chapters in advance then I can conceivably pull it off(barring any vacations, in which case I would not adhere to my schedule).

Now, I know what you're thinking(especially if you know me): "Rott, won't putting yourself on a schedule end up rushing the finished product and damaging the quality of it for later readers?" My answer to this is a firm, resounding "nope." In fact, I specifically chose this point to end on for the main reason that the next few chapters following this battle's climax are so incredibly easy to write. I would've implemented this system sooner, but I honestly didn't know how long it was going to take me to get this battle done and so I thought it was best not to rush it. Having those easy chapters fill up the weekly update slot for a fair share of time will leave me with more time to get ahead and keep a steady stream of updates going into 2015. I am incredibly proud of myself for maturing as a writer on this site over the course of this year(much more than I did in 2013, which was something I didn't think I'd be able to top), and I feel as if this move will not only help my writing in 2015, but also provide you with a more consistent and enjoyable viewing experience. I don't want to look back on my writing in 2015 and see that I've only finished, say, one saga(considering that this was one of the shorter ones... well, yeah) - I want to know that I've made significant progress from where I left off the year prior in 2014. I think it can be done, quite honestly, and so I will attempt it. I truly feel there is no other way to handle my updating speed without there being, say, an occasional three month gap in between updates again, and I don't want to pull that when this fic is so close to making strides again. There's a better way of handling something like this, and having the pressure off me to upload chapters is going to help me considerably.

I will say one thing regarding the length of this hiatus: I have absolutely no idea how long it's going to be. I'm pretty confident that the denouement chapter following this fight will be done shortly after I publish its finale, but as for the others I cannot say. While I can keep arguing that inspiration has been driving my chapters now and that's the reason these go by so quickly, I am not so naive to think that it'll last me throughout the entirety of this story. By that logic, it is not fair for me to give you a proper return date for this story, but I can definitely say for certain that it will not occur any time before January's end. I would like at least a good, solid month to get ahead, and I plan to have five chapters done at minimum before returning to you all. If we're being honest(like I intend to be with you all), it could very well be five chapters, which would give me about a little over a month's leeway to keep writing content. My estimation for when Turbulence will return is likely within March or possibly even April or May if things don't go as planned... but again, I won't be able to tell you for certain. It could be February for all I know; I'll just have to feel the chapters out and decide from there. If you are interested in getting weekly notifications as to my progress over the course of this hiatus, I strongly recommend you subscribe to my blog(Rott's Reviews, powered and located on Blogger). There will be sneak peeks, previews, and many other bonus installations that you will not find here on FanFiction. The blog will essentially be 're-launched' in 2015 as well, meaning that you will definitely get more consistent projections than you have this year(which I acclaim to the ever-loving schoolwork).

Lastly, the most flexible portion of this announcement: you readers, not me, will get to select the day Turbulence updates. I have a poll live on my account as of now that will decide upon which day you see an update(which will remain accessible until about a week before I decide to return, in which case I will update the summary with the final result and then proceed to post the following week), and the reason why I decided to leave it up to you readers is because I feel this story is equally driven by you guys and girls as it is me. It is with your kindness, dedication, and loyalty to this story that I proudly announce a new era in Turbulence, and I truly hope you will be here to reign it in with me come 2015. It may be a little different, but I promise that it shall be quite worth the wait.

But that's still a ways off, for our current tale has not concluded quite yet. There is still a threat that is befalling the Earth in the form of Raditz, the otherworldly alien searching for Kakarot. Will our heroes manage to make their last stand against a threat they could've never anticipated? How will Piccolo play into all this? Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out, which will be available to you readers in only thirteen days!

-Perfect Carnage: I'll say it again: I never cared about King Piccolo and still don't, but the way you treat him and his reign makes it interesting. Treating him as a serious villain rather than a moving plot device makes it real for me, the same thing In Ashes did for the Buu saga.

I can't wait to see what you do with Frieza. Tyranny on a galactic stage should be on a much grander podium.

Haha, well, I understand that King Piccolo is not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm also incredibly happy that my writing got you interested in the Demon Saga as a whole. I diligently worked to try and include a lot of subplots and other elements that would keep things at least slightly more interesting than they would've been had I followed the prototypical DBZ saga format. Subverting the initial expectation that I would breeze by King Piccolo as quickly as I did the first half of DB was actually kinda fun, and looking back on it now and at the private messages I've received regarding Piccolo winning, it may have actually been for the better that I did it this way. I hope that I'm able to retain your general interest in the character himself as we transition into the Saiyan Saga, as I feel that I will have an approach to him that most wouldn't(considering that he's essentially the most powerful warrior to call Earth home).

As for Frieza, it should go without saying that I view him as possibly the most important villain of Turbulence. So many character arcs revolve around him right now, as does the Planet Trade. While it would be asinine to think that I'd be pitting Kakarot against Frieza so early, I do want to take this little 'space exploration' arc that's coming up to sort of put over and legitimize Frieza as this huge threat, because quite frankly, he is. We'll be seeing more of the tyrant, the Namekians, and the space crew soon enough despite the Saiyan Saga being the next up, so stay tuned!

-MartianOddity: Great chapter as always! For now I'm really glad you're focusing on the humans. Where do they stand when compared to their canon counterparts, if I may ask? And has King Piccolo gotten any stronger during these years?

I also like the Mystery plot device in that Chi Chi is searching someone out to help them. I'd laugh if that's Devilman who'd make Piccolo explode by his Evil Ray (or whatever that attack was called) 'cause that'd just be plain awesome! I am aware that there's someone else around that they'll get help from, and not neccessarily a fighter per se. Tsufuru Sennin or Tao Pai Pai come to mind (where are they, anyway, dead or just hiding under a rock? tsufuru Sennin was with Roshi when Mutaito attacked Piccolo the first time around after all, so he might have wet his pants and went into hiding).

I like how everyone has to pitch in and fight, and it seems, now and as always, that the humans' biggest strength is team work.

Just one thing to note: Bipolar doesn't mean split personalities. Bipolar is someone who has periods of mania (elation) and severe depression unless medically treated. Launch has more of a split personality if anything.", and can't be called Bipolar, really. And technically not schizophrenic, contrary to popular belief, since the condition doesn't encompass split personalities per se. You could say she has a bi-personality or something like that :-D

Well, you were right in that they were not seeking out a fighter. Rather, they found Korin and, since everyone was in the same area and there was no threat of death, were able to procure senzu beans rather easily. The magical beans themselves really wouldn't have helped Earth's warriors up until this point considering that the bulk of their battling never really produced any real results(as it's not like they were fighting an extremely strenuous battle for mankind), but as of now they were absolutely vital to the Z-Fighters because they gave them a much-needed second wind to beat Piccolo. That being said, with Raditz in the fray, things will become much more complicated…

As for the technicality behind the word bipolar: I do technically know what the word means, but I suppose I sort of let the fandom's coining of it as a Launch pronoun affect my writing. I'll attempt to tweak it in the future upon finding something that isn't necessarily lengthy.

-Unknown4804: And will the whole "Kakarot's in space" arc cross involve the DBZ movies?

Hmmm… good question. I can and will say that I have a confirmed list of movie villain characters who will be showing up(which is to say the bulk of them), but I admit there are a small few I don't have plans for at the moment. That being said, don't rule out anything and don't bank on anything. I have many plans for this arc as I do everything else, so anything can happen.

- FAQ: Can we get numbers for how strong everyone is at this point in time?

I'm a little hesitant to work out a bunch of calculations for everyone at this time. The cast is only bound to grow much stronger in the near future(likely within a few chapters), so like I said in my first chapter's A/N, you'll get them for comparative purposes soon. That being said, do not interpret them as absolutely factual unless they're directly imported from canon(such as Raditz's 1,200, which we all knew anyway). I'll be using them merely to show who's stronger than whom, and while I could use tier lists if I really wanted to... eh, I don't think tier lists do a very good job of comparison because of their vague nature. A 1 could be two times weaker than a 2, or a 5 could be two times weaker than a 6 - just not really a fan of it at all. I'm not really a huge supporter of power levels to begin with either, but I know that people do like them and would like to see them, so consider this a bit of compensation for reading my story to begin with. I certainly don't expect to be providing you with numbers for the entire story, so I implore you to enjoy them when they do show up.