A/N: aco305 - To be perfectly honest, AH's powers have no correlation with Z, at all, and really haven't since the beginning. I could compare two characters in AH to two characters in Z and come up with completely different placements for them, giving the look of two different power scalings between series. Plus, fusion works slightly differently in AH than the series, giving a different level of results. But If I were to try and compare the two series and classify Quietus as a 'such and such' level fighter, I'd say he'd more than likely fit somewhere between Super Buu and Buutenks.
Chapter Seventy-two - Regrouping
"I hope things are going more smoothly for Goku and Bardock." Hotaru said. She'd tried flying back to the Sai-jin Palace under her own power but hadn't even made it half way before nearly falling out of the sky. Now Tien was carrying her on his back. Pug flew along beside them, on their right, having been woken by Tien after the battle with Gloom had ended. On their left Piccolo was carrying the badly injured Nova in his arms. Behind them were the refugees Nova had discovered during her battle with Gloom.
"They never do." said Tien. "But somehow, it rarely seems to matter."
"They'll put a stop to this." Piccolo said. "They've actually got a plan, that's more than we've ever had before."
"Yeah, well, plans don't always hold up." said Hotaru, thinking about how quickly their own plan to deal with the remaining Demons on the planet had fallen apart. "Still, if anyone can pull us out of this mess, it's them." Hotaru glanced to her right then as she felt a few powers coming toward them and saw it was Senator Vegeta and the Changelings he'd been working with. As well as another small group of refugees.
"I've contacted the other groups." the Senator said as he pulled up alongside them. "Called them all back in to the palace. We'll reassess the situation and make a new plan."
"What do you think the chances are of the Demons using more spells like the one that created Gloom?" asked Pug.
"No clue." replied Vegeta. "Which is part of the reason I'm calling everyone back. If anything else like that shows up we can't afford to have our best forces scattered across half the planet." The group descended then, landing in the courtyard of the palace where hundreds of other refugees from the city had already gathered.
"Set me down." said Nova.
"You sure?" asked Piccolo.
"Yes. I can walk on my own." replied the Changeling queen. "We Changeling's are pretty physically resilient."
Piccolo nodded and returned her to her feet as Hotaru climbed off of Tien's back. Though the Tanarian still felt weak all through her body, and Nova still felt lances of sharp pain shooting from her back, they were both able to stand and walk without real issue. So the group started its way through the throngs, toward the palace doors.
"We should still get you to a regen tank." said Hotaru.
Nova nodded. "Yes. Given the circumstances that would probably be best." she agreed. "The sooner I'm healed the sooner I'll be able to..." Her voice trailed off as a large stone, about he size of a fist, sailed past her face just barely missing hitting her head. There were cries and shouts from the crowd, part of which had closed in on the group.
A second later Hotaru caught a flash of light from inside the mass of refugees and an energy blast zipped past their small group. Then another rock came sailing through, this one clipping Nova on the shoulder, and Hotaru realized the crowd was turning into a mob. The refugees were agitated and scared from the current conflict, and Nova made an easy target for their frustrations and fears. She moved to deflect another rock she saw coming but in her weakened state knew she'd never catch it.
It WAS caught, however. By one of the refugees that had followed them from the city. One of those in the group Nova had protected. The others soon moved forward, surrounding the Changeling and glaring out into the crowd. Those who had been pressing in seemed to hesitate, unsure what to make of this sudden turn, but Hotaru worried it was only temporary. That within the next few seconds they could very well have a riot on their hands.
"That's enough!" Piccolo boomed, glaring out at the mass of people. The crowd pulled back from them, many fidgeting or glancing away from his gaze. The tension suddenly ebbing away as the Changeling elites with them moved up to surround Nova as well.
"We have enough problems to deal with right now without this nonsense. The next person to step out of line will have to deal with ME. Do I make myself clear?" The Namekian got no response, at least not a verbal one, and Hotaru sighed in relief as she saw the crowd around them breaking up and scattering. All the fight drained out of them.
"Thank-you, Piccolo." said Nova, and Piccolo just grunted as he lead the group the rest of the way to the palace.
XXX
Sai-jin Palace, Grand Hall
"For a war, this has gotten kind of boring." Trunks said. He was sitting on a ledge high up on the wall in the grand hall, feet dangling over the edge as he gazed out at the growing crowd. Cheri, Sakura, Akemi, and Goten were sitting beside him, as they had been for the last ten minutes or so. They were supposed to be in charge of guarding the palace but... all the bad guys were else where. There was nothing to guard the palace from.
"Better boring than scary." said Akemi. The group had followed the battle with Gloom with their senses but had never really been worried about that one, though they'd been wondering why Hotaru hadn't been fighting. Other than that battle they'd not sensed anything notable anywhere. All the other Demons were pretty weak, and none of them were anywhere near the palace.
"Do you think they won yet?" asked Cheri. "Goten's dad and grandpa, I mean."
"Who knows?" said Trunks, shrugging. "Dad hasn't come back yet, though, so I don't think so."
"Yeah." Sakura agreed. "Vegeta and Gohan and Videl would probably be back if they had."
"Unless they're helping out over in Otherworld." reasoned Cheri. "They could have a bunch of Demons over there to get rid of, too."
"I suppose." Sakura said. "But they've also got a..." she trailed off as her sister let out a loud gasp. "Akemi, what is it?" she asked, looking over to her.
"That lady!" the girl cried, pointing out into the crowd. Everyone tried to follow her finger to where she was pointing but none of them could see anything out there that seemed significant.
"What lady?" asked Sakura, eyes scanning the crowd.
"It was her, I know it was!" Akemi said. "I... I lost her now, but it was her! The bad lady from the other day, the one who took Marron!"
"You mean Ornja?" asked Cheri as she darted her eyes around the room, looking for some sign of the Sai-jin. "Didn't Trunks's dad say something about them being in jail?"
"Maybe they escaped?" Goten suggested, eyes widening a little at the thought.
"I don't see her." said Trunks, shaking his head.
"It was her, I know it was!" Akemi cried. "But I lost her in the crowd."
"If it was her, we'd better try and track her down." said Sakura, pushing off the ledge and floating away from the wall. "They may not be Demons, but they are bad guys, and we're supposed to protect the Palace."
"Sure beats sitting here doing nothing." said Trunks as he and the others moved away from the wall. "Where did you see her at?"
"This way." Akemi said, leading them across the room to where she'd seen the Sai-jin. She slowed to a stop as she reached the area and looked around. There weren't any doors leading out of the hall around here, but there also wasn't any sign of Ornja that she could see. "I don't see her, but I know it was her!"
"Well, nothing for it then but to split up and search." said Trunks. "Goten and I never really got a good look at her, though."
"You can come with Akemi and I." Sakura said. "Goten can go with Cheri."
"Ok." Cheri and Goten said in unison. Cheri continued, "Goten and I will go this way, you three go the other way. And keep your eyes out for the other four guys that were with her, too. If she's escaped they probably did also."
XXX
Sai-jin Palace, Conference Room
Bulma rubbed her temples and groaned, wishing she had something to help with her headache. After earlier events in the city she'd been sidelined by her guards. Following their sudden revival and Sango transporting them all back to the palace Toma, Tangerie, Mango, and Vadora had all refused to let her back into the city. Since she couldn't go out to physically help now she'd taken up residence inside one of the conference rooms and established a command post of sorts from where she was basically running all SDF operations.
In the entire galaxy.
It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Route all the data through a single, central, location. Get a bigger picture of events in the galaxy. See what kind of high level threats might be out there elsewhere, where fighters of sufficient strength weren't present to deal with them. It was information that would be needed after this was all over, for clean up operations. And at present it could help to save lives.
Only, it was a LOT of information. Even after she'd enlisted help (she'd ordered the four Sai-jins who'd stuck her with desk duty to help, and asked for assistance from Chaotzu, Akira, Yamcha, and Kavar and placed a call for assistance that had been responded to by Kazuki, Yuki, Aiko, Dubibub, Mellona, and about a dozen other Sai-jins) it was an overwhelming amount of data.
They'd managed to get a lot done. They'd restored communications with the central command posts on Earth and Tanaria. They'd helped coordinate resistance efforts against both Demons and zombies on multiple worlds. And they'd gotten a slightly better understanding of how widespread the current problems actually were.
Planet Vegeta, Earth, Tanaria, and Henka were all facing hordes of undead and legions of Demons. The most powerful, and most numerous, Demons were on Planet Vegeta but the other three worlds were dealing with their fair share. None of the Demons on Earth had yet been recorded over the two hundred thousand mark. The strongest known Demon on Henka was just over sixty thousand. And Tanaria had one at almost ninety thousand. Compared to the ones that had attacked Planet Vegeta they were barely note worthy.
But those three worlds were also short on fighters of that level. Most of the galaxy's warriors were on Planet Vegeta for the Galactic Games after all, and Henka was just short on man power in general these days. A concentrated group effort was currently underway on Tanaria, spearheaded by Order members, to deal with the strongest Demon there. Akira and Aiko were managing that set of data streams.
There were currently no humans on Earth of any significant strength. There were, however, a few alien SDF members near enough in power to that Demon to have a chance, working together, to defeat it. It would be a hard battle, though. The strongest of those warriors was only just over a hundred and seventy thousand. Yamcha and Akira were overseeing that particular operation.
Henka was the hardest case. There was, of course, no SDF presence on the planet. They'd only met Nova the previous day. There hadn't been time for any kind of diplomatic activities between then and now, aside from those few things that had been done on world. So just getting in contact with the planet had been a challenge. Bulma had only pulled it off by first contacting Nova's ship which was still in orbit above the planet.
The woman the Changeling Queen had left in command of the ship, Hydra, had managed to get a connection through to Henka. It was through that link that they learned the Changeling home world was also dealing with the current war. Those forces still on the planet had fallen into complete disarray after the chaos had started. With Nova absent fear and confusion had swept through the Changeling forces leaving them ill equipped to deal with the threat.
Hydra had managed to find someone in charge on the planet, however, and had put Bulma in contact with them. She'd then explained what she knew and what she was doing, and had since been working with and through Hyrda to assess the situation on Henka and attempt to organize the force there.
To say it wasn't going well would have been severe understatement. So far they'd only managed to organize a small force, maybe twenty Changelings in total. Not a single one of them had a power greater than twenty thousand. Even working together the group had little chance of stopping the leader of the Demon forces on their world. Tracking down other warriors was proving to be... difficult. The forces had scattered after the Demons had appeared, no one was sure who was alive, dead, or maybe just hiding somewhere.
Unable to mount any sort of counter offensive Bulma and Hydra had, instead, been working to evacuate as many of the Changeling civilains from danger areas as possible. Convincing the Changeling warriors on Henka to work with her, even with Hydra invoking Nova's authority, hadn't been easy though. The Changelings were wary of her, she was the Sai-jin Queen after all.
Still, there had been some successes. They'd managed to rescue several groups and gather some more warriors to the cause. Until she could gather a force able to deal with the Demon leader, however, Bulma knew they were playing a very dangerous game of cat and mouse. If the Changelings she'd managed to gather together got caught by that threat, or one of the dozens of other Demons stronger than they were, the entire force could be wiped out in moments.
At least things weren't so dire elsewhere. It seemed that only those four worlds had any Demons to contend with. At least of those worlds Bulma had been able to get into contact with. Reports coming from other allied worlds, and some non-allied ones that were looking for help anywhere they could find it, indicated issues only with the undead. And that wasn't as widespread as Bulma had first feared, either.
Of the six hundred and twenty four worlds she'd received situation reports from, only two hundred and seventy one were reporting undead activity. She'd had those locations plotted out on a galaxy map and discovered that the undead phenomenon seemed to exist in five separate clusters. Four of them appeared to be centered around Earth, Tanaria, Henka, and Planet Vegeta. The fifth centered on a world somewhere in Cooler's former teritory. One the Sai-jins had never made contact with, and so a complete unknown to her and the people with her. Bulma suspected they were dealing with Demons as well, but if they were they were on their own.
The clustering of the undead outbreaks also told her that they were most likely, in some way, related to that hole out at the Galactic Games stadium, or the one in North City. The tears that lead into Otherworld. It made sense to her. Some sort of energy flow from the other side was coming through, causing the undead over hundred plus light-year spans of the galaxy. So what was odd to her was that undead activity seemed to be decreasing, all on its own.
The tears were still out there, as far as she was aware. So, logically, the undead activity should, at the very least, be remaining unchanged. The opposite was happening, however. More and more reports were coming in of zombies that suddenly ceased to move, to function. Her only theory was that something was jamming the pathway, blocking the energies from Otherworld that was animating the corpses. What or why, she didn't know. And it was at the bottom of her list of priorities. She'd left that up to the rest of those in the room.
"Queen Bulma?" came Hydra's voice in her ear.
"I'm here." she replied, straightening up a little. "What have you got?"
"One of the men we're in contact with on Henka had a thought." said Hydra. "He used to work in Cold's palace as a communications tech and he says there's a sort of emergency broadcast system built into the central network."
"Emergency broadcast?"
"It was meant to be used in the event of a planet wide situation such as a siege or, more likely, rebellion. Apparently it taps into every scouter on the planet and transmits whatever you want. If we could get men into the palace they could use that system to contact all warriors on the planet."
"A planet wide broadcast calling all the forces together." Bulma mused. "And we could finally get a full count of what's available."
"No. The broadcast is apparently one way only. We would be able to transmit any message we want but no one would be able to communicate back through it."
Bulma sighed. "Annoying, but it's still better than nothing."
"Agreed. There is, however, one problem."
"Of course there is. What's the problem?"
"The part of the palace where this system is located is... Restricted."
"Restricted? Nova's the Queen now, so what's the issue?"
"Restricted areas are heavily secured." explained Hydra. "It's not just a matter of signs saying No Access, or locks needing pass codes. No one has had access to restricted areas since the death of the Cold family because they're dangerous. Traps and security systems, with no records of what or where they are. Delgue, the former tech, says he knows the access codes to get into the area, and to access the systems.
"The issue is that Cold activated the defensive systems when he left for Earth. Those few Changelings trusted enough to know what those defenses are, where they are, and how to disarm them, fled a long time ago. You wont find any of them on Henka, or anywhere in Changeling space, these days."
Bulma frowned. "Does he have a plan of some sort?" she asked, not entirely sure why Hydra was bringing this up if it was a dead end.
"He has a hope, at least." the Changeling replied. "In the days before going to Earth Cold had been making preparations to completely change the security throughout the entire palace. Change codes, change trap and defensive placements, the whole works."
"Why?"
"Delgue isn't sure, but there were rumors that spies had managed to get hold of detailed schematics of the entire system. Sai-jin spies."
Bulma's eyes widened a little, and then she started to smile as she realized Delgue's idea. If Sai-jin spies HAD managed to obtain that information it would be stored in the computer systems here on Planet Vegeta. If she could dig them up they could be transmitted back to Henka. The woman put her fingers to the keys and attempted to access the main computer network. She sat and waited for what seemed an eternity as her computer tried to connect. Just as she was about to try again a message box popped up:
NETWORK TIMEOUT, UNABLE TO CONNECT
"Damn." she muttered.
"What is it?" asked Hydra.
"The system is overloaded from all the activity going on." she replied. "I've got half the galaxy reporting to this room. I can't connect from here. I'll have to go down to the network core and access the mainframe directly. I'll let you know when I get there. Until then..." her eyes scanned over the others in the room for a second. "Mango!" she called, getting the woman's attention.
"Yes, lady Bulma?" the Sai-jin asked.
"I need to head to the network core to directly access the mainframe." she said. "I need you to handle the data feeds from Henka until I get back."
"Sure." she replied with a nod. "But you're not going alone."
Bulma sighed in exasperation. "There aren't any zombies or Demons in the palace, Mango."
"Then I'll be bored until we get back." Vadora said. "But I'm still going."
"Fine, fine. Come on Vadora, let's go."
XXX
Sai-jin Palace, Courtyard
Senator Vegeta had watched Hotaru and Piccolo lead the Changeling Queen back into the palace, toward the regen tanks, while the Changeling Elites that had been with them trailed after them. He was glad the confrontation had been stopped before it really started. The fact that it almost had showed that it would take a lot of time to change people's opinions about Changelings. The fact that it had been, at least in part, defused by Sai-jins showed that it would at least be possible.
After the three of them had left his thoughts turned to more current and pressing problems. The magic the Demons in the city had employed to create Gloom was problematic. They had no way of knowing if more Demons capable of that magic might be present somewhere on the planet. If they did, another Demon of significant power could yet appear. The strongest person on the planet currently, with the Tanarian Queen out of commision due to her earlier battle with Cell, was Piccolo.
While the Namek was exceptionally powerful and had handily dealt with Gloom there were no guarantees that future magically generated Demons wouldn't be more powerful. From what those on site at the battle had said, Gloom had implied her power had been tied to the SDF recruit used as her base. If the Demons got hold of someone of greater power then, logically, a stronger Demon would result.
It was a lot of guessing and what ifs, and the Senator didn't like it. Not when there was so much at stake. They couldn't afford another situation like what Cell had managed earlier. Picking them off one by one before any sort of defense could be mounted. He had little doubt that Goku and Bardock would succeed in their mission but it would mean little if everyone on the planet was dead when they got back.
"I hate to say it..." he started, looking over to Pug. "But I think we need to shift gears into a defensive posture for now."
"What do you mean?" the other asked.
"We can't risk splitting up again." he replied. "It's more important that we protect those still alive than try and drive off our invaders. At least for the moment. It may be a bad decision that gives the Demons time to regroup and mount a new offensive but in our current state I feel we're better off together."
Pug frowned but nodded. He'd been thinking the same things. "What about the city?" he asked.
"We can still work evacuations." replied the Senator. "We'll just focus on getting survivors back to the palace rather than exterminating the remaining pockets of Demons. Instead of several groups we'll just send one team. And we'll have to locate Sango, have her go into the city with the team. She can use her terepo to get everyone back quickly if a threat emerges here."
"That could work." agreed Pug. "I'll head inside and see if I can locate her."
The Senator nodded. "I'll stay here and wait for the other teams to return."