A/N: Jeff, I think you have Nefaria mixed up with Dabura. :) Goku and Bardock are just barely stronger than Nefaria, but no match for Dabura.
Also (of some importance) I've made a minor change to the 4th and 5th paragraphs of Chapter 34 of this saga, making some adjustments to the powers of the Tanarians of the past that I recently discovered were needed. This minor change is one of many such adjustments I'll be making slowly to several points of the series, to correct things that have sense been retconned, or that I simply no longer like as they are. Some of these changes will be small, others may encompass entire chapters or change major events. In each case, I will include a note in the newest chapter indicating what has been changed where so that anyone who cares can check to see the change.
Chapter Fifty-eight - Escalation
"You know each other?" asked Dabura.
"Yeah. I think so." said Goku. "It certainly sounds like Vegeta and, more or less, looks like him. The hair and the eyes are different, and there weren't red markings on his face, but otherwise..."
"Even ignoring all of that, he still looks different, somehow." said Bardock.
Vegeta smirked. "I am different. I'm stronger, much stronger."
"I see." said Dabura, glancing toward Malchio and frowning. "You used your magic on him, didn't you? Dark Awakening?"
"Dark Awakening?" asked Bardock. "What's that?"
"It is magic that transforms a person or object into a Demon in order to draw out any latent and untapped power." explained Dabura. "It brings the person in question up to the maximum amount of power they are currently capable of producing, and links their wills to that of Malchio's, making them his slave. But... such a thing should not be possible on a living Mortal. The Spirit Barrier should prevent it."
"Spirit Barrier?" Vegeta asked, arching an eyebrow. "That does ring a... ah, yes, the giant brain. So, that's what he and his lackey did to me. Well, it doesn't matter I suppose. I don't care how it happened, just that it has. You are wrong on one point, however. I am nobody's slave, the Sai-jin King bows to no one." He turned his gaze from Dabura, then, to Goku. "Now, Kakkarotto, we will have our fight."
Goku blinked. "What? Fight? Vegeta, I don't think now is..."
"Who cares what you think?" Vegeta interrupted, scowling. "You are a nobody! A low class! The weakest Sai-jin born in recorded history! And yet, time and again, you have surpassed me! ME! The Sai-jin King, descendant of the strongest Sai-jin line, heir of the first Super Sai-jin! You became stronger than I, became a Super Sai-jin before I, defeated Frieza when it should have been me, constantly outclassing me, mocking my power, destroying my pride!"
"Vegeta..."
"But now... now I will prove that I am the best. That I am the greatest and most powerful Sai-jin. That I deserve to be the heir of the royal family, deserve to be King. Now, it ends. Fight or die, Kakkarotto!" Vegeta cried, his purple aura flaring to life around him as he surged in at Goku. The other barely had time to react, quickly powering up and only just deflecting the punch aimed for his head.
Bardock dodged out of the way quickly, eyes wide in surprise. He wasn't sure what to do in this situation. Time was important, he knew they couldn't stand around here all day. The longer it took them to get to Quietus the greater the chance was he'd be ready for them, or that he'd send another invasion force through causing more trouble back in Shinkai. Yet, he also knew he could not fight Vegeta.
He had the power to do so, certainly. It felt like Vegeta's power had doubled from what it was before, which meant he and Goku were still slightly stronger. But Vegeta was a member of the royal family. The very idea of fighting against a member of the royal family was beyond distasteful to him. As he considered his options, trying to decide what to do, he continued to watch the on going exchange. Vegeta may have been the weaker of the two, but the ferocity of his assault was driving Goku back, barely able to keep pace. Though Bardock thought part of it might also be shock.
"So he is the current Sai-jin King?" asked Dabura.
Bardock nodded slowly. "Yeah. His father would have stepped down from the position a few years ago, when Prince Trunks turned five."
"Interesting. I thought that with the Sai-jins the strongest one ruled?"
"Originally, yeah. For the last ten thousand years that's been Vegeta's family. I suppose if any of us had wanted to we could have forcibly taken over, but we've been ruled by the same family for so long most of us don't even really consider it a matter of power anymore that they rule, but ability as rulers."
"Hmm, I see. Your race has changed a lot since my last experience with it. Anyway, it doesn't matter. We do not have time for this, we have a mission to accomplish." he said, suddenly charging in toward the fighting pair. He slipped between the two Sai-jins an instant later, blocking one of Vegeta's punches with ease.
"Get out of my way." Vegeta growled, floating back a couple of feet.
"I don't care about your petty squabbles. If you want to fight each other, then fine, but do it on your own time. Right now these two have a job to do."
"No, it's fine." said Goku, relaxing a little and looking toward Dabura. "You go on ahead, I'll stay here and deal with this."
"This is no time for Sai-jin battle lust." Dabura said, crossing his arms. "Or have you already forgotten the plan the Kais concocted?"
"You don't need the both of us for the Spirit Bomb, Bardock can create one on his own. My presence at the battle wouldn't make that much of a difference." Goku said as he turned his gaze back to Vegeta. "Besides, I think this is something he and I have to settle. He's been wanting to fight me for years. I've never really understood it before, we've always been allies in our battles, but I think I get it now.
"Once all of this is over... who knows if Bardock and I will still be alive? We weren't revived by the Dragonballs this time, but by part of their invasion tactic. Once it's over and everything is set right again that could include us, too. He's no Frieza or Cell, but I doubt I'll be seeing him on the Grand Kai's world, either. This could be our only chance."
Dabura frowned, glancing between the two fighters, and then sighed and nodded. "Fine." he said. "You should be able to sense us once our fight starts. Finish things here and then use your teleportation skill to join us." He turned from the two Sai-jins and made his way over to where Bardock, Gohan, and Nefaria stood. "Just don't get yourself killed, you're not in Shinkai anymore. Finding your soul would be... tedious."
Goku nodded and turned his gaze back to Vegeta again. "Well, looks like you get your fight, Vegeta." he said, reaching up and popping his shoulder. "Ready?"
"Are you?"
Goku smirked. "Alright, let's go!"
As the two Sai-jins charged in toward each other Gohan turned his attention from them and toward the others standing near-by. The short being that Dabura had addressed as Malchio and the three with him. One of whom he recognized from back in Hell. "That's the Demon I fought before." he said. "If he's here, and Vegeta's here, then Videl must be here too. Or at least she was, but they'll still know where she is now. You guys go ahead without me, I'm going to try and find her."
"Alright." Bardock said, nodding. "But be careful."
"You too."
Bardock grinned. "Always."
Gohan watched as he joined Dabura and Nefaria and then the three of them vanished. He cast a glance toward Vegeta and his father again, they'd taken to the air above the planet and were currently duking it out at close range at speeds he couldn't really follow. /This Dark Awakening thing must be really powerful, he's become so much stronger than before./ he thought. He shook it off, however, and turned to find the ones he sought.
The three Demons and Malchio were standing right were they had been when he and the others first arrived on the planet, they hadn't moved at all. They seemed to be in something of a state of shock, watching the fight between his father and Vegeta. He couldn't really blame them, though. If he wasn't so worried about Videl he'd probably be in a similar condition himself. But he'd wait to awe at his father's power until after he knew she was ok.
"Alright, where's Videl?" Gohan asked, walking over to them. "I know you brought her here, too. What'd you do with her?"
His voice seemed to snap the four of them out of their shock. "And who are you?" Malchio asked, frowning.
"He's the one I fought." said Malus. "Before Nefaria interrupted us." He smirked as he cracked his knuckles. "I think it's time to finish our fight from before."
"Do you really think that right now is the time for that?" asked Paine. "With those two duking it out above our heads?"
"Bah, who cares about them?" said Malus, waving it off. "They're too wrapped up in their own fight to spare any interest in us. And those others have gone off to fight Quietus, it would seem, which means they wont be coming back. So it's just us and him."
"Look, I don't have time to play with you. What did you do with Videl?"
Malus laughed and thumbed over his shoulder, at the partly destroyed palace. "She's back in there." he said. "If she survived Princey's power-up, that is."
Gohan blinked and looked over the head of the Demon, toward the collapsed palace. /Videl's in there?/ he thought. /I can't sense her... Is it because dad and Vegeta are overwhelming my senses or...? No, I can't think like that. I have to stay positive until I find her./ He lifted into the air and started flying toward the palace but had to veer off as a blast of red energy sped toward him and nearly collided with his head.
"You want to go find her, you'll have to get through me, first, brat." Malus said, floating up to join him. "I want to finish our fight."
Gohan frowned and moved his gaze from the Demon's face to his injured arm. "You sure you should in your condition?" he asked. "This wont be like last time, you wont be invincible against me."
"It'll take more than a puny injury like this to let you beat me." Malus laughed.
/I don't have time to deal with him. If Videl's injured then every second I waste could be her last. Not that I have any way of helping her even if I do find her, we didn't think to bring any Senzu Beans with us. Either way, I'm going to have to get this lunk head out of the way first./ He sighed and shook his head and then, in a burst of gold, surged in toward the Demon.
XXX
Shinkai, Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Outside the Store
Tien ducked under a right hook from Gloom, then came up and slammed his lower left fist into her stomach, and his upper left hooked up into her jaw. The two blows forced her up and back a few feet and he quickly moved in, spun, and slammed the heel of his right foot into the side of her head. As he moved to launch another attack her tail suddenly surged in and slammed into his chest driving him back and away from her.
She had the edge in power, but it wasn't by much. He could handle her, it would just take a while. /And I have to watch out for that tail, too./ he mused, rubbing his sore chest. His extra limbs did give him something of an advantage, however. Four hands to two meant that even when she blocked or caught two blows he still had two more arms to attack with. Even counting limb totals he had one more than she did. Four arms and two legs to two arms, two legs, and a tail.
/I just have to capitalize on that. Still, it would be nice to have Mijima or Gainin here. I'm sure either one of them could take her down in a single hit. As could Nova, if she were still conscious./ He cast a glance back toward the ruined and smoldering building then. He could, just faintly, sense the Changeling Queen and Pug inside.
They weren't dead, just out. Pug never stood a chance in the blast, he just wasn't quick enough to act, and Nova's reaction time hadn't been quite enough to save her. He'd only just felt her power spiking when the blast wave hit, and by then he'd already powered up a Kinryoku and Kaioken.
/And even with both of them up, increasing my power a hundred fold from normal, I still got tossed around like a rag doll by the shock wave. The others were still mostly at rest. They're lucky to be alive./ Shaking his head he turned his focus back to his opponent. It was a good thing he'd been recently revived, otherwise he'd still be too worn from his fight with Slug earlier to stand much chance now. As it was he'd have to be careful in order to avoid being killed.
Launching in at her again he aimed a left kick for her head but she slipped to the side and blocked it with a forearm. He quickly thrust his upper right arm forward and fired a blast of energy into her face, which impacted with a satisfying crack. Then he twisted around aimed his other foot at her head, but as he came around to face her again she was gone. "What? Where did she..."
"Darkness Fissure!"
Tien's eyes widened and he turned toward the voice, which had come from behind him, and spotted Gloom bringing her arm down like an axe about fifty feet away. He quickly dodged to the side as a rush of black energy surged toward him and sped by. There was a loud screeching, tearing, grinding sound from behind him and he looked back to see the energy slice through several dozen buildings before fading.
"Well, being hit by that would have been unpleasant." he muttered, turning to face her again. /But what was that? Teleportation or something else? I didn't sense her move, and didn't sense her behind me until she launched the attack. This makes things more difficult, as if they weren't hard enough already. Well, no sense floating here and complaining about it./ In a burst of red he charged in at her again and resumed their close range high speed flurry of attacks.
He blocked a kick with his lower right arm, a punch with his upper right arm, and then thrust his left foot out into her stomach before upper-cutting her in the jaw with his lower left elbow. His upper left hand then grabbing hold of one of her ram like horns he turned quickly on the spot and pitched her down at the ground, away from where he could still sense Hotaru and the SDF recruits watching the battle.
Only a few feet short of hitting the ground she suddenly blurred and then vanished. Tien spun around quickly and brought all four arms up across his chest, just barely fast enough to block the kick that had been aimed at his back. /I still didn't sense her move. One second she's down below, next thing she's up here. It has to be some sort of teleportation technique, but how come I didn't sense her until after I'd already blocked her kick? If I hadn't turned around on instinct.../
He dodged to the right around a kick, then down under a punch, only to have her tail slam into his face a second later. The impact flipped him upside down and she slammed both of her palms into his back with a loud crack. He quickly flipped over and around in the air and fired off a ki blast at her, which she easily deflected as she charged at him. However, in the moment she'd been focusing on defending against the attack he brought his lower two arms up into a triangle shape in front of his chest while his upper two came up, fingers splayed, in front of his face.
"Solar Flare!"
Light flared blindingly bright from the point where Tien floated and the Demon, caught by surprise, let out a scream of pain as the intensity of it made her eyes feel as though they were on fire. She pulled to a stop in her charge for her opponent and brought her hands up to block the light and try to rub it out of her eyes. She'd only been at it for a moment when she felt a sudden power spike from the man she was fighting, and then his voice called out again.
"Tri-beam!"
Hotaru watched from below, shielding her eyes as best as she could so she could still see. Tien was in front of her, and so was the Demon, so she'd been spared the brunt of the Solar Flare, but her eyes still burned from the glare. It made it hard to visually track Tien's attack, and the Demon's position. Still, she was just able to catch the woman vanish before the attack reached her.
There was a loud crack an instant later and she shifted her gaze back to Tien to find the Demon floating there and Tien surging down toward the ground from a kick to the head. It was about a second later that she felt Gloom's ki again, in its new locattion. /What is up with her teleportation?/ she wondered. /Why does it take a moment before her ki signal changes locations, even though she moves in an instant?/
Gloom, meanwhile, had pulled back her right arm and cupped her palm. An instant later there was a spark of black energy in her hand and she smirked. "Dark Fire Destruction!" she called, pitching the ball of energy toward the point down the street where Tien had slammed into the ground. The black energy swelled and then exploded, the shockwave driving Hotaru and the SDF Recruits backward several dozen yards.
Three of the nearest buildings trembled, cracks snaking up from their foundations, and then collapsed throwing up billowing clouds of dust and hiding the shrinking dome of energy. Though she couldn't see him Hotaru could still sense Tien at the center of the blast zone. He felt little worse for the wear and Hotaru had the feeling that Gloom had held back. With any luck, she'd keep doing so until she lost.
XXX
Shinkai, The H.F.I.L.
Pikkon dodged to the right, just slipping around Doom's powerful punch. He'd already discarded his weighted clothing and powered-up to his maximum, and still he was barely faster than his opponent. In the two actual exchanges of attacks that they had made in the last sixty seconds he was wondering if the Demon might actually be stronger than him. His ki didn't feel like it was higher, but his punches seemed to carry more force, and his body seemed to provide more resistance.
/Though, the resistance could just be these scales./ he thought, slamming a kick into Doom's scaled stomach, knocking him back a few feet. /They're almost like armor. I'm not sure why his power seems greater than his ki feels, though./ He slipped around another punch and then kicked out for the side of the Demon's head, but one of his massive scaled arms came up and blocked it. /His bulky size doesn't seem to be hindering his speed or mobility in the slightest, either./
He blocked a punch aimed for his head, the impact still driving him back a couple of feet, and then lashed out with another kick of his own, which was also blocked. He was just about to attempt a punch when he caught something green surging toward him out of the corner of his eye. As he quickly dodged back and away from the Demon he realized the green thing had been its tail, the snake's mouth snapping shut right where his arm had been an instant before.
While Pikkon was distracted by the lunging tail, Doom moved in and then slammed a hard punch in the dead alien's face. The blow snapped his head back and launched him flying backwards. Or would have, had Doom not reached out and grabbed his right foot, jerking him to a sudden stop, before twisting around and pitching him down toward the ground with all of his force.
Pikkon scowled at the rapidly nearing rocky terrain for moment. Mere seconds from impact his voice rang out. "Hyper Flash Attack!" and in a glowing blue light he vanished. There was a loud crack high above the ground as he reappeared a dozen feet to Doom's left, his back toward him. The Demon was now bent double, holding his stomach. His expression a mix of shock and pain. Turning to face his opponent again Pikkon continued to scowl. "You are proving to be more of a nuisance than I expected." he said. "I guess that means it's time to go all out."
The Demon growled as it straightened up and turned to face him. "You can't fool me, Mortal." he said. "You have no more power than this, you are already at your maximum."
"That is partly true." said Pikkon, his scowl fading a little. "I have no more power. However, I am not at my maximum. When you are competing with the likes of Goku and Bardock you either quickly learn to by-pass your limits or you can forget about competing with them. I owe this technique in part to them, I'd never seen any such skills before meeting them seven years ago. It took me three years to develop this, and it's still nothing compared to the Kaio Ken, and still not nearly enough to keep up with them, but it'll be enough to deal with you."
Pikkon clenched his hands into fists, hunched over, and let out a cry as his blue aura flared up savagely around him. "Hyper Striker!" he called, his aura growing incredibly bright, flashing, and then vanishing before returning a burst of bright blue-white light. It no longer looked like a normal aura, however, but like he was some sort of machine in the process of shorting out. The aura flowed up and out around him like an electric field.
Doom's eyes widened as he felt the other's power spike up, but he didn't have time to do anything else before Pikkon suddenly surged in at him and smashed a hard right hook into his jaw. He followed it up with a knee to the stomach, an elbow to the back of the neck, and then a kick to his back that drove him forward and down toward the ground. In a flash of blue he surged down at him and pounded both fists into his back, rocketing the Demon down the last four hundred feet into the ground below, which he hit with a thunderous crash blasting out a crater four hundred yards wide.
The dead warrior landed at the edge of the crater a moment later, the flashing blue-white aura still pulsing around him. "And now, to wrap things up." he said as he began to move through a series of motions. Down in the crater Doom had managed to pick himself up onto his hands and knees and was scowling as he started to softly chant something. From where he stood Pikkon couldn't hear it and he thrust his arms out, side-by-side, hands closed into fists. "Thunder Flash Attack!"
The fire like energy surged down into the crater toward the Demon's location. However, it was not the only thing surging in toward the Demon. Pikkon caught glimpses of white wisps, and of purple energy, flowing in toward him as well, from all directions. He wasn't sure what the Demon was up to but he hoped it wasn't enough to prevent his attack from doing serious damage. The attack hit an instant later and exploded, blasting a towering column dust and debris into the air.
Yet still the white wisps and purple energy flowed toward the center of the crater. More and more of them, faster and faster. Pikkon could feel that the Demon's power had not decreased at all from his attack, an attack that should have been able to destroy it. What's more, it felt like his power was shifting and churning, like there was something seething within it. /I have a bad feeling about this./ he thought, frowning.
XXX
Shinkai, Otherworld, Yemma's Check-in Station
Zenryou sighed as he stepped out of the station and gazed at the empty path normally filled with souls. He, Kibito, and Mikomi had remained at the station a little longer than intended, after discovering the sealed door. They'd gone to speak with Yemma about his condition first, and that had lead them to helping out around the station a little. It seemed the Star Barrier hadn't been the only recent change, several leylines had jammed and a distortion of an unknown nature had formed inside the archives.
The leylines had been easy enough to open up. A little holy power shoved through them had cleared out the dark energies that had been clogging them, though it was only a temporary fix. Until the cloud barrier was restored dark energy would continue to flow up from Hell and the H.F.I.L. and continue to jam the leylines. The distortion in the archives had been another matter. It hadn't been a tear, that much they were able to determine at once. What it was had taken a little longer to work out.
It was a space fold. Nothing overly dangerous on its own, but it had forced the Oni to start emptying out that section of the archives as the fold had still been growing. All it amounted to was a small pocket of 'folded' space, an area of Otherworld that had more or less collapsed in on itself and, for all intents and purpose, didn't exist at the moment. Nothing inside the fold had been destroyed, it was just unreachable until space restored itself, which could happen spontaneously at any moment.
Mikomi figured it had only happened because the distortions around it had managed to twist the 4th dimension around the 5th. Eventually it would twist enough that, effectively, it would be back to normal again, at which point the fold would vanish. So she wasn't really concerned about it and now they were about to return to the Grand Kai's planet to aid in the routing of the remaining Demons.
As he looked out at the empty path, however, Zenryou's senses picked up something right at the edge of his reach. Stretching his mind out a little further he realized the brush he'd felt had been the familiarity of Pikkon's power. Just as he realized this he also felt another, darker, power right on top of him. One of near equal level which he found a bit surprising. He had thought all the stronger Demons had been dealt with. And then he felt Pikkon's power suddenly spike up. /Oh? Now what is this?/ he wondered.
"Ready?" Mikomi asked as she and Kibito emerged from the station as well.
Zenryou kept his mind on Pikkon's power as he glanced over to Mikomi. "Yes. And we may as well start by giving Pikkon a..." he trailed off as he felt the power Pikkon had been fighting begin to shift and change. But it was more than the shifting power that drew his focus. It was what he sensed around the Demon. Souls. Dark souls, ones full of evil energy. The Demon was, somehow, and for some reason, drawing the Souls of the H.F.I.L. to it. And then the shifting of the Demon's energy made sense.
"We have problem." he said, turning to face that direction as he felt the Demon's power growing. "We've got a Soul Eater in the H.F.I.L."
"What?" Mikomi asked. "Are you certain?"
Zenryou nodded. "They're fighting Pikkon. I can feel the souls being drawn in."
"We have no time to waste, then." Mikomi said, vanishing. Kibito and Zenryou followed suit an instant later.
XXX
Shinkai, Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Gainin's Group
"Aduro, Glacius, check that cave on the left." Gainin said, with a nod toward the cave in question. The opening, a fissure in the hard rock ground of the area, looked like it would barely be large enough to accommodate the two Changelings. The Cyborg wasn't sure if there was anyone hiding in there or not, though he thought he'd picked up a blip on his scanner just the same, so it was best to check it out.
As the two Changelings nodded in confirmation to the order and started toward the cave Gainin motioned to the third Changeling in his group to follow him toward another cave. This one had a larger opening set in the side of a small rock mountain. He knew for a fact that there were powers in here, he'd picked up six of them a moment ago, before they'd dropped out of detection range.
"Keep your eyes peeled, Frigus." he said. "There's at least six of them in..." He trailed off as suddenly three screeching Demons, a fat duck like one with green feathers, a massive one with a gorilla's body and the head of an ant, and very humanoid one that still had a bird beak for a mouth, surged out of the cave at the two of them. The two fighters reacted at once. Gainin thrust out both arms firing off a stream of blue energy at the ant headed one while Frigus launched a blast of pink energy from his mouth at the beaked Demon.
Both Demons fell at once, causing the duck Demon to hesitate. Gainin smirked, lunged in, and was about to smash his fist into the duck's bill when two streams of red energy suddenly came at him. The Cyborg veered off course and fired off two more blasts of blue energy into the cave. The explosions caused by the attacks caused the roof to cave in. Turning back toward the duck he found the Demon being held up in the air with one hand by the Changeling. A second later there was a loud crack as his neck snapped and the Frigus dropped him back to the ground.
Gainin shook his head and turned to head back to the cave the other two were searching when he picked up two high powers back in the direction of the city. /Tien and someone else./ he thought, glancing that way. /Doesn't look like anything he can't handle, though, so back to work./
XXX
Shinkai, Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Mijima's Group
Mijima pursed her lips and smiled bemusedly as she stared at the large green and scaly fist currently pressed against her face. This was the fourth Demon so far to assume that her lack of a sensable power meant a lack of strength, and thus charged out blindly at her in an attempt to kill her, only to fail to even scratch her. It had yet to get old, and she was doubting it ever would even as Gust came charging in, sunlight glinting off the pink triangular shaped plate on his head, and killed the reptilian Demon with a kick to the head.
"Maybe we should start using you as bait." the Changeling joked in a silky, smooth, and almost feminine voice that the Cyborg thought didn't fit his large and muscular body.
"Haha, very funny." Mijima said. "If Cicle and Ventos would kill them BEFORE they got to me this wouldn't keep happening."
"When ten of them come surging up at once even we can't get them all." Ventos said, brushing some dust off of the green plate on his left shoulder. "We're good but we're not miracle workers."
"Ha!" Cicle cried. "Speak for yourself! I could take them all out without trying, I just don't want to make you look bad."
"Oooh, I hear a challenge." Mijima said, grinning. "Alright, let's see who's better." She turned where she floated above the forest, scanners searching out powers. "Ah, there we go. About fourteen of them two miles in that direction. I'll draw them out and you two can take them down."
"One point for each Demon." Gust said, also grinning. "But you lose two points for each one that gets through to Mijima."
"Hah, I'll get a perfect fourteen!" said Cicle, smirking, as they flew off toward their new targets.
"How's the Queen doing?" asked Gust while Cicle and Ventos boasted about who would do better than who.
"I still haven't seen a sign of her." replied the Cyborg. She'd picked up Tien's power spike a few minutes ago, along with the arrival of that other power higher than anything out here. The fact that only Tien was fighting it had her concerned for the safety of the others, especially Nova as she'd begun forming a friendship with the Changeling Queen since their meeting in the garden. Still, if something had happened to her, again, there was nothing they could do by rushing off to the city now. Best to stick with the plan unless something happened that required they head back.
XXX
Shinkai, Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Piccolo's Group
Piccolo lowered his arm as the green energy stream faded away. He'd quickly set up a battle plan with the three Changelings who'd been assigned to his group, Pulo, Procello, and Ornado. They were the weakest of the Changelings Nova had called down to the planet, and thus the ones closest to the level of the Demons they were hunting. So they would travel ahead of him toward where he indicated.
The Demons would then come into the open, in an effort to attack them, and Piccolo would zip in and dispatch them. So far it had worked against seven groups, a grand total of fifty-one Demons. The Namek kept expecting the other Demons in the area to get wise and stop attacking but it hadn't happened yet. Either they were stupid, acting on some instinctual bloodlust, or just not paying very much attention to what was going on around them.
He'd just started checking around for another group of Demons to go after when he felt it. He'd picked up Tien's power earlier, as well as that of his opponent, and now he could feel, just faintly, Nova's power as well. It was a bit of a relief to know that she wasn't dead, again, as that would have undoubtedly caused serious problems within the Changeling nation, and thus lead to months worth of headaches for him because of his work in the Sennari.
"Looks like your Queen is back on her feet." Piccolo said, glancing back at the three Changelings with him.
"Told you she'd be up again in no time." said Pulo, smirking.
Piccolo snorted and turned off toward the next group of Demons. He was learning that Frieza hadn't been completely unique in personality. Changeling egos easily rivaled those of any Sai-jin. Still, now that Nova was awake the Demon in the city wasn't even remotely a threat. At her maximum the Changeling would have it severely outclassed. So now he could focus on matters at hand.
XXX
Shinkai, Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Raditz's Group
The three Changelings with him were the fourth, fifth, and sixth strongest of Nova's elites, though they didn't even come close to his base power. It was a fact that Raditz had to admit he liked. It also illustrated just how much beyond the average the Cold family's power had been. None of these three even had as much power in their second forms as any of the Cold Family had reportedly held in their first. Based on what he knew of Changeling power, none of them would even come close to Cold's first form power even if they were in the fourth form.
Still, the three of them were still stronger than the majority of the Sai-jin's Super Elite fighters. A fact that Raditz was putting to good use in their Demon hunting. The area they were currently in was wasteland. Geothermal vents, lava flows, and lots of sulfuric acid pools. The Bad Lands were completely inhospitable to all life on the planet. Things could pass through fine, if they were careful, but nothing lived there.
As such, Raditz and the Changelings could blast the Demons in their hiding places without concern, and that's just what they were doing. He tracked them down with his senses, pointed out the locations, and then the four of them would take turns trying to blast them all in one attack. Tempest, the strongest of the three, had made a game of it, and currently Onis was in the lead with two hundred and seven points, though only thanks to the handicap the Changelings had to compensate for Raditz's superior strength.
"Alright, our next group is just over that way." the Sai-jin said, pointing toward a large jagged rock outcropping about a mile away. "Grando, you're up thi..." He trailed off and turned toward the city, frowning.
"What is it?" asked Tempest, concerned about Nova. Raditz had informed them a few minutes ago of the return of her power at the site of a battle and he was worried something may have happened to her.
"I'm not sure. It feels like that Demon in the city is... it is, it's power is increasing!"
"Should we head back?"
Raditz hesitated a moment and then shook his head. "No. The power has increased a lot but it's still lower than Nova's. She can handle it, we'll stick to our mission out here."
XXX
Shinkai, Mortal Plane, Planet Vegeta, Senator Vegeta's Group, Saiya City
The Senator hadn't been able to help but notice things hadn't gone according to plan. Of course, plans always tended to come apart when faced with the enemy. Still, he had at least assumed the basic concept would remain unchanged, and it hadn't. Hotaru's group was supposed to be in charge of escorting refugees to the palace for safety, and his group in charge of clearing the city of Demons.
Once he'd sensed the strong Demon power in the area of Hotaru's group, however, that plan had changed. The Demon was too much for him to deal with, almost as powerful as Tien, and so he'd decided to take over evacuations for the time being. They were still clearing out groups of Demons when and where possible but, for the most part, they were getting survivors to safety.
An interesting task, to say the least, when you had three Changelings with you. He'd kept them mostly away from the refugee groups, where and when possible, working as perimeter security to keep Demons away from the groups. Occasionally that wasn't possible and they'd have to be close at hand, and there was always someone in the group that would scream or try and attack one of them. It seemed that, despite Nova's standing ovation, there was still much work to do.
Still, they'd managed to get five groups to the palace already, around forty people. A pace he was quite happy with. They'd already located and rounded up their sixth group, this one the biggest yet at twelve people. Seven of them were Sai-jin and they'd been the vocal ones this group, at the sight of the Changelings, who Vegeta had been forced to leave close at hand due to the high-rise buildings in this part of the city. The other five had simply tried to avoid looking at them.
He was just about to wave the group through the next intersection, after checking with his eyes and senses for any Demons, when he sensed a group of powers flaring up around him, coming from inside the different buildings. None were that large compared to him, but there were at least twenty of them. "Everyone, group together!" he called as he launched into the air and deflected an energy blast away from the group.
He sensed the three Changelings moving into the air as well, and caught a glimpse of Tsunamo kicking an energy blast off into space out of the corner of his eye. He didn't have time to pay attention to what he and the other two were doing, however, as more energy blasts were surging out of the buildings toward their group and he had to rush off to deflect them. Still, it seemed like for each one he deflected six more came charging in.
"Senator Vegeta!" Tsunamo called. "Are there any other people in these buildings?"
Vegeta cast him a moment's glance as he deflected another attack, then smirked and shook his head. "No, there isn't. Alright you three, let's bring them down!"
The Changelings all nodded in agreement and then the four warriors unleashed a volley of attacks at the surrounding buildings. Vegeta used his senses to know where to attack while the others tracked the attack trajectories back to their sources. The detection method mattered little as, within just a few moments, the surrounding buildings had all been leveled.
The Senator was just about to unleash his last blast when he sensed a power behind him that was surging in toward the refugees. He turned to look just in time to see Tsunamo appear between the charging Demon and the three Sai-jins he'd been aiming for, blocking the Demon's fist with his forearm. The Changeling then reached out, pressed his hand against the Demon's chest, and fired a blast of yellow energy clear through him.
Vegeta gave him a nod as he cast his senses around for any further threats. However, it wasn't a local threat he noticed, it was the Demon at the location of Hotaru's group. It's power was increasing. Again. He turned and looked that way and saw a swirling, towering, black and purple tornado of energy about forty blocks away. /It's stronger than Nova now. Hopefully she can still deal with it, because if she can't we're in a lot of trouble. It could wipe out most of the city before Piccolo is able to get back here in time to help./