Chapter 65: The Hunt Begins

An eerie quiet had spread across the planet for nearly a full day now. The constant bubbles lf resistance had finally been crushed, the noble families had once again been brought to their knees.

A gathering of the surviving heads of the families had been called, a sign that the Emperor of the Frost Demons would finally be crowned.

The death toll had been astronomical, several ancient lines had been driven to extinction. Finally though the battle was over. The survivors were gathering in the remains of the great throne room, the heads of the major families had already arrived, their heads bowed low as their new ruler made his way towards the throne.

This rise to the top had been a long time coming for Glacia. For nearly 200 years he had towed the line. Slowly rising through the ranks in his own family's political scene. Until recently it had seemed the best he could hope for was being designated as the head of the family that the next ruler came from. Now with his grandson Cooler, along with the rest of Cold's line, had vanished from the universe, it was finally his time to shine.

In the background some dignitary began droning on, reciting the ancient ritual, he looked out over the 20 or so surviving noble families. The only really established members of the old aristocracy still around were kneeling front and center. Tundra, now missing an arm and most of his tail, and Chiller, now a grotesque figure with a mechanical eye; had each done their best to try and stop his rise, of that he was sure. But they were just a bit impatient in their actions. He had managed to make it appear Ice's family had taken the lead, just like it had initially appeared their candidate, Frieza, was in the lead for Cold's game. In reality Glacia had taken a gamble, holding his own elites back until it appeared his family was on the verge of extinction. After Tundra and Chiller made their collective move against Ice, it was a simple task of cleaning up the remains.

With peace finally returning to his world, he would finally begin to look towards reestablishing control over the Planet Trade Organization, after some well-deserved celebration that is. From everything he had been able to learn so far, as expect none of the other species had been able to find a new leader capable of uniting the galaxy the way they were able to. He was sure with the ground work that Cold's line had made subjugating the galaxy, with the mere rumor of their return, the galaxy would fall into line without much resistance.

A confident smirk crossed the Frost Demon's lips as he finally took his throne.

Cell continued to tunnel moving at a speed he hoped wouldn't be noticed from above. His mind examining his options. Even at full power he doubted he could defeat this version of Android 16 in a fair fight. He needed time to heal, and to grow stronger.

Turning slightly to the right as he tunneled, he set his sights on a target that could help him with the second goal at the very least.

"Damn it! We should be helping." Caspin snarled as he slammed his drink down. He and the other members of the Blue Force were not taking being completely left out of the fight well.

The other members stayed silent, they used to be the world's first line of defense; at least they thought they were. Now they were reduced to nothing more than a hindrance.

"Calm down...we'll find a way to make ourselves useful." Meditrain responded, his fists balled in agitation. "All we can do right now is bide our time and wait for orders."

A tense silence returned to the room as the members of the Blue Force each retreated to their own thoughts.

The minutes continued to slowly tick by, the news reports continuing to drone on the background with the latest updates from King Furry's task force.

After what felt like an eternity the silence was suddenly broken by a loud crack.

All eyes turned to the center of the room, as the floor suddenly exploded outwards.

In the blink of an eye, and with perfect precision 4 members of the Blue Force were pinned, one beneath each foot, and another one in each arm. A 5th member was impaled by the creature's needle like tail.

"Hello, I'm here to give you a chance to finally be useful." The creature sneered.

Meditrain and Caspin were on their feet immediately, "M47!" Meditrain shouted wasting no time breaking out his signature attack.

The immensely concentrated attack crossed the room in an instant, but suddenly detonated several feet away from the creature.

"Wait your turn." Cell replied evenly a strange energy field surrounding both him and the other members of the force. Aden, struggling desperately with a tail stuck through his abdomen began to take on a ghastly look as if he was being drained away.

"Caspin go!" Meditrain shouted as he rushed forward.

Caspin blasted upwards blasting through the roof in an instant.

"Damn it, I'm giving you an honor, why can't anyone just cooperate." Cell let out an exasperated sigh and fired a quick eye beam upwards after Caspin just as Meditrain's fist crashed into his face, not even moving his head.

Just as he made it out into the air a burning pain cut through his chest. Before he even realized what had happened his upward momentum had ended and he was already falling back towards the ground.

By the time he landed Cell had already began absorbing Meditrain, the giant still struggling with all of his might, but ultimately in vain.

The world quickly faded out, Caspin's life was ending yet again.

Trunks hit the ground with the force of a small meteoroid. The rubble he stirred up on the otherwise perfect white surface spreading out towards infinity being one of the few distinguishing characteristics to the otherwise uniform dimension.

"Damn it! If you can't do any better than that then you are wasting my time!" Vegeta shouted from high in the sky. They had been at this for weeks and the child seemed to only be slowing him down. He could replicate several of the Androids movements to a degree, but his execution was slow. Trunks had proven useful for the first few days, since then his usefulness had dropped off exponentially.

Below the Saiyan Prince, Trunk slowly began to rise to his feet, his efforts were too slow for Vegeta's taste though as he slammed his knee into the child's stomach sending him skimming off the white surface.

"Quit wasting my time." Vegeta snarled as he unleashed a flurry of attacks towards the still careening boy.

The explosions ripped through the surface sending Trunks flying even further back into the wasteland.

Vegeta waited a moment, trying to see if the child would actually give an effort, before giving up. It was obvious to him now that he would gain more training by himself than letting the child hold him back.

Igniting his aura, Vegeta took off into the depths of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

Trunks lay still on the white floor, unconscious.

Pyros let a smile spread across his face for the first time in months as he stared up at the Tree of Might. No this time it was his Tree of Might. After destroying the pitiful Planet Trade base guarding this world, one of the lushest in this sector, he was certain he would finally begin gaining ground on Turles again. Unfortunately he would have to split his bounty between himself and his ever vigilant partners.

Despite being in Turles elite squadron he was still treated with constant suspicion, or even outright hostility by his supposed allies.

Silently he accepted it for now, he had bigger plans than being a henchman for the rest of his life though. He just needed to bide his time and continue to increase his strength. Soon he would find a chance to break free from Turles. Once the overgrown apes were out of the way, the galaxy would be his.

"'Ey Pyros how are the fruits lookin?" Jeice called from the base of the tree. Kicking a body of one of the planet's last defenders into a pile with the others.

"Another hour and I think they'll be ready." He replied back keeping his voice neutral. With any luck he'd be able to sneak an extra fruit or two before the others realized they were done.

"Damn this is going to be a good planet I can feel it." Burter practically hissed with excitement as he pulled his hand out of the corpse of one his victims. "You know I-" the rest of his sentence was cut off as a sonic boom shook the area, a lone ship shrieked across the sky in a reentry fireball as it streaked towards the remains of the base.

Jeice and Burter looked to each other briefly before a sinister grin crossed their faces. "'Ey I think found how we're spending our hour." Jeice said as Burter quickly agreed.

Without further hesitation they took off to intercept the ship before their prey realized their mistake and fled.

"Idiots" Pyros muttered to himself as his attention returned to his prizes.

"Race ya there Jeice!" Burter shouted over the wind howling around them.

"'Ey! No fair you had a head start!" The red skinned warrior shouted back.

In a few more seconds their race was over; the duo arrived just as the ship touched down in the remains of the space port.

Both fighters patiently waited, eager to see if their prey would fight, or try and flee.

Just as their patience was nearing its end the door slowly opened, and a ramp extended down the ship.

In the shadows a lone figure stood, just hidden enough to keep from being identified.

Burter began to step forward which a flash caught his eye, reacting purely on instinct he dove to the left as a green streak shot past him.

An instant later he was flung back towards the ship, caught helplessly in the resulting shockwave.

To his left Jeice landed with a thump, caught equally off guard by the surprisingly powerful attack.

Without hesitation both fighters sprung to their feet, auras igniting to their maximum.

Pyros's attention slowly drifted back to the spaceport in the distance. He wasn't sure what game Burter and Jeice were playing, but it was shaking the entire planet.

The area that once contained the spaceport was suddenly alive with constant red and blue flashes. Stranger still was the occasional green hue mixing itself into the strobing rotation.

As he continued to watch the blue lights slowly faded out, followed by the red a moment later. An eerie silence slowly settling over the planet.

'Finally.' Pyros thought to himself, he was already sick of the racket they were making. Without hesitation he grabbed a fruit and quickly ate it even though it wasn't fully ripe yet. A small boost was better than none at all, he'd slowly close the gap to the others, he was sure of it.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted two figures coming his way, and quickly finished the last bite of the fruit. As the power surged through him he turned around to face his comrades.

As the duo came into focus though Pyros felt a slight nervousness building. The pair were not who he expected.

'There's someone else strong enough to fight against us?' Pyros felt a cold sweat break out on his neck. At the same time though, this could be the opportunity he had been waiting for.

"Well hello there." Pyros shouted as the two figures came to a halt a few hundred feet away. Immediately Pyros felt his skin began to crawl, 'Saiyans…'

"Well at least you're more cordial than the others. They seem to have wrecked our ship." The older Saiyan muttered. "Tell me, have you seen any other Saiyans around here?" He continued.

"Possibly, why do you care?" Pyros replied, not taking his eyes off the larger silent Saiyan, covered in the blood he was sure belonged to Burter and Jeice. The apparent lack of injuries of his own was especially unnerving.

"Well you see my son, wishes to find a certain warrior who wronged him in the past and discuss the situation." The older Saiyan replied with a smile. Still his son showed no emotion, staring off blankly.

"If I knew where a Saiyan or two might be, what's in it for me?" Pyros asked

"Broly, would you show him?" The elder Saiyan said with a slight nod.

Before Pyros could even hope to react, a crushing pressure had wrapped around his head.

"Broly enough." A distant voice rang out.

The pressure died off quickly as Broly retracted his hand.

Pyros's body was frozen, as the giant Saiyan slowly returned to his position next to his father.

"Take us to the Saiyan we're looking for and we'll let you live." Paragus said with a confident smirk.

"Raditz…" a quiet voice rang out. "Raditz!..." it sounded again. Raditz stirred slightly, but continued to sleep. "RADITZ!" The voice echoed through his head.

'Shizen?' Raditz realized he wasn't actually awake, he was standing in a room in his dream again.

"Raditz, I'm sorry, I wish there was more time, but soon you will be faced with the most important decision of your life. You remember my request to keep Gohan safe, please in the upcoming ordeal do whatever it takes to make sure he survives. Shizen's voice was edging on desperate.

"You're not making any sense. What are you talking about? What do I need to do?" Raditz tried to make sense of his former commander's' words

"You'll know when the time comes. Please whatever it takes make sure he survives." Shizen's voice faded away.

Raditz was once again left alone in his own head to contemplate the suddenly dire situation he found himself in.

In the coldest stretch of space, directly between two star systems a small, seemingly insignificant piece of debris collided with a much larger body.

In the dim starlight the strange object trembled slightly upon receiving the newest arrival. The vibration continued to echo across the metallic surface as a small gap opened, a cable of some sort emerging from the surface and slowly making its way back towards its prize.

More and more cords arrived, slowly connecting into the mummified head, still locked in the creature's death scream. Within a few minutes data began to stream into below the surface into underground, as a new threat began to form.

Hey everyone I am finally back! Thank you all for your patience. First off, sorry this chapter ended up being somewhat short, I'm still a bit rusty I guess. Hopefully everyone enjoyed it anyway. I'm expecting my writing to ramp back into form over the next few releases.

I think I can definately say the GRE went better than previous attempts, my last few practice tests were at or above my target score, so fingers crossed on that. Thank you for all the support leading up to the test :) You all rock!

Reviews:

Another huge thank you to RKF22, Ben, HAX, Lorg 25, Yondu, son122, Noelesy, HavenofUmbar , Guest, Beerus101, Harry102, Omni King, KING KAI, Nick, Luke, Pro 10, Arc238, Simon150, JAYDEN 123, JOEL, thank you all for your well wishes, patience, and continued support. Hopefully you all will continue to enjoy the story as things continue :)

Guest - With good reason, he's had a rough time, and is in for a rough run still.

JOEL -

I unfortunately haven't and a few weeks later my other blind dog suddenly vanished from our back yard too so I'm sort of concerned their disappearances weren't an accident. The dog catcher hasn't seen anything, and no one in town has either which is just bizarre to me.

I'm glad you enjoyed Cell's distraction.

Hopefully you enjoyed the small sneak peak into the that duo's training.

They are preparing to at the very least, but there are other actors who have other plans.

Thank you for the well wishes. :)

EXTRA 9 -

Thank you for the review.

Turles is roughly in the 12 or 13 million range at the moment.

To a degree yes, not only is his formative experiences completely different, but he also has incorporated the likes of Gero into himself.

No they were killed by a variety of sources, in at least one case by each other.

Science 9 -

I wouldn't say scared, she join their endless fight for at the very least a couple of years. She has a extreme dislike for them though.

Yes Cepa and the Horror's backstory is going to build up throughout the story.

Cepa is roughly 1000 years old.

Spirax 570 -

I'm glad you enjoyed it :).

The chances of a complete inclusion of Super is almost 0. It did help inspire the ancient Saiyans part of the story line though so it has colored the story some already. I have yet to watch any more episodes since early last spring, but I've finally started to hear about at least a few characters I find intriguing and sort of fit a role I was planning on creating characters for so it is possible a few more Super characters appear. At the moment though i don't believe I will really be taking any part of the story line. The characters I will be using, (if I decide to go that route) are going to be pretty heavily re-written to fit the roles I have planned for them too.

But yes, those are some of the concerns I have about including the Super story line as well. As things are right now I'm expecting to be working on the story at least most of the way through my Ph.D program provided I get accepted.

super mystic gohan - I'm glad you enjoyed it :). Yes I am looking forward to Nappa and Goku's bonding time XD

Bro123 -

Thank you for the review! :)

The strongest Frost Demon on planet Frost is roughly 80 million or so. The heads of the other noble families (at least before the civil war) ranged from 40-80 Million.

Currently future Trunks does not.

Yes pretty much all life on Earth is now dead in the future timeline.

That one's a bit of a spoiler, so I am going to hold off on that for now.

Videl can do kaioken times 20 at the very least. As far as her power level I guess it really has been a long time since I gave her a specific number. I'd say after training with Goku and Piccolo for a whole 3 years she is in the neighborhood of 500,000. So with Kaioken she is capable of hitting 10,000,000.

Overdrive is going to be somewhat tricky even for Cell. Since it is a mechanical part of the androids.

They are planning on that, but there are other actors who have plans for them as well.

Chancellor5551 -

Thank you very much, I'm glad you are enjoying the story that much :), hopefully I will continue to be able to produce a high quality story all the way through :). Thank you for the support as well.

Anonymous -

Thanks for the review, and the well wishes :)

I'm looking forward to updating more too, we're going to be entering another part I am very very excited about soon so I think I should be pumping out chapters pretty regularly especially in December when I get past the first round of graduate school applications, trying to get to the part I have in mind.

If he ascends first, I'd imagine he would have a hard time keeping that a secret from Nappa.

I'm glad you are enjoying the Gohan/Raditz dynamic, that's a relationship I always worry about.

It's possible ;)

He might be, I can't say more than that but I've hinted at it a couple of times. The Saiyans of old have a bit of old Vegeta's attitude about things. Want to fight strong opponents, believe themselves superior to everything, and they use that to justify any atrocities they committed.