Raze's Journey;Director's Cut Chapter 1
On A Desert Planet...
Been a long time since I bothered to write anything. I've grown away from some of the stuff that I used to like. It's nice to be back. Hopefully I'll be able to write for a long while yet. Though, nothing is set in stone. So, enjoy this Dragon Ball Fanfiction. I hope it serves you well.
A planet far out in the West Galaxy, covered in sand and looked after by four moons that orbited in its gravity. A quaint place and yet very inhospitable. In fact, so inhospitable that it was typically avoided by just about every known unit sent out by the King. That was a convenience for some as all dirty jobs need a certain amount of unsurveyed area to operate.
Being such an underpopulated route, we find a boy no more than the age of ten hobbling forward while a whip cracks into his back. One of his assailants seemed to find amusement in his pain as he screamed with each welt he would inflict upon him.
"Keep moving, runt! You're lucky we haven't killed you after that stunt you pulled!" The one with the whip ordered.
The boy turned back only to catch the whip with his face, sending him to the ground immediately. The whip wouldn't have been an issue for this particular child, but its stunning capability was unmatched considering how weak he currently was.
He tried pushing himself up, but he fell once again landing in the gritty sand that swallowed his hands and even halfway up his arms. The boy felt light headed as his blood seeped into the sand. Knowing that if he died now, he'd never save the person he came here for. The boy tried rolling over to see if he could push himself off the ground.
He tried to glare back at his attacker for a moment, but even that bit of anger couldn't be backed up with any spark. As broken as his body was after being thoroughly beaten down by this one when he'd been caught on their ship as a stowaway. What was left of his energy was being spent on the barest hope that he'd found the right planet.
His thoughts were focused on keeping himself up and determined, 'Come on, Ken! You've gotta find your sister!' As Ken finally pushed himself up with all the strength that he could muster. Ken's body shook while he stood on two legs and then the wind forced him to flop back down in defeat. He felt that this reprieve was up as footsteps through the sand could be heard.
His aggressor grabbed Ken by what was left of his shirt and pulled him up by it, "Guess you ain't got much in ya! Sushig, what should we do with him?!" He tossed the boy to the burning sand below.
Sushig chimed in, "Honestly, I'm fine with leaving him here…" He got closer to the boy while getting a better view of him, "Come to think of it. He does look familiar. Like that one half-saiyan girl we took here just a month prior. Tisho, doesn't he?" Sushig sighed, "Actually… Yeah, that's why you were on our ship, right?" Ken's eyes widened.
'I was right…' That thought trailed off in Ken's mind, but the real question after finding out that information, 'What now?'
Tisho dropped Ken to the sand, "This boy has been looking for his sister… Guess he'll never get to see her now." He then looked to his partner in crime.
Sushig looked at the boy and then back to his partner, "If this boy was able to track us, do you think he may also have brought company with him?" Sushig asked Tisho.
Tisho shook his head, "Nah! He's most likely here on his own. He's foolish." He kicked the hot sand onto Ken's back while turning away from Sushig. Ken let out a pathetic cry as he was scorched by it.
Sushig was a bit annoyed at the posturing of his partner, "Should we bring him with us? We were only ordered to bring food and supplies on this trip." He said to Tisho.
Already looking toward the direction they had to go, Tisho shook his head, "No, I'm not dragging a corpse all the way through this miserable desert. He won't make the trip as he is. Let's leave him to die." He began to trudge forward before stopping.
"Oh yeah!" He walked back to their ship and clicked a button on the side. Within mere moments, the ship was gone leaving a puff of smoke in its wake.
Sushig had already started on the path to the location they were needed at, but stopped as Tisho walked past him. He turned to look back at Ken. Sushig seemed to be weighing his options until Tisho turned around to glare at Sushig.
"Why are you stopping?! Leave him be. You've been acting weird these past two weeks." He turned away, "We've got a job to do and if we want to live and prosper… We need to get going!"
Sushig nodded, but still seemed to be slightly worried about the child in some way. Despite this disposition, he accepted his role quietly and followed his partner.
That had happened two days ago. Ken, due to sheer luck or built fortitude, was crawling along the sand. Having survived despite being left for dead. His fingertips were raw, but his determination was outweighing his hunger and making Ken a true force of will.
The sand had made Ken's eyes bloodshot and he wanted to close them. But he knew that if that were to indeed happen, he'd most likely finally pass out leaving his sister to die. The blazing heat still poured down on him, surpassing the cold of the moons that had shown on this planet only hours before.
Ken tried shrugging it off, 'Another few feet!' His thoughts blared as the nerves in his hands shrieked while tugging him forward only a few inches at a time.
'Just to see her smile!' His other hand clenched hard enough to break the skin. Ken yelled out in pain, but that's when he realized that he may not be alone. Shadows appeared to be dancing around his body in a circle. Another jolt of pain had made Ken's head fly up, the result was him noticing them. Birdlike creatures seemed to be flying overhead in a circle. They were waiting for him and he knew just how little time he had. Death was knocking and he was just the next meal.
Grief was beginning to take form, "I- I'm a s- sorry brother." He let out into the unyielding sand. Ken would have cried, but not so much as a single tear could ever roll down his face due to the dehydration he was experiencing. The desert around began to look like a sinkhole. He felt like soon enough, he'd be swallowed up. The birds were closing in and he swore that he heard the sound of knives scratching on a rock. Until…
A loud sound would pierce through the atmosphere. Ken would look up to see a bright shiny object sailing down from the upper atmosphere. His eyes widened as he recognized it to be a spaceship and he felt a jolt of energy, perhaps his last bit. The birds overhead left quickly as the ship began to soar down to the planet.
Ken felt a wellspring lighting up from deep inside his core. He let out a roar or the closest thing to it that he could manage. A small white aura appeared for only a second. The ship blasted past his location while kicking up the sand around. Ken could only hope at this point that this would be enough of a call for help as the sand began to cover his body.
~On the ship~
"Did you feel that, Brass?!" Raze asked his albino friend who nodded.
Brass had clocked in the power on an advanced scouter, "Yeah, Raze. It was a power of at least 50. It's fluctuating, whoever that is won't make it much longer."
Brass then looked at Raze, "You going to check it out?"
Raze nodded, "Yeah! Shouldn't be too much trouble. Though, with such a weak power, It's likely going to be like searching for a needle in a haystack." He then looked over at Brass, "And you don't want to go for any reason?"
Brass smirked and nodded, "Tch! Don't worry about what I want. This is a rescue mission. I'll worry about more important things. Like an actual bounty." He turned to the window on the side of the ship, "Our landing location is getting close."
Raze shrugged, "I get that you're all business, but a bounty isn't everything. Besides, I don't mind doing a rescue mission…" He trailed off while pressing a button, "We might get some info on those bounties from whoever that was dying out there." Raze felt the ship come to a sudden stop in midair.
The ship's intercom system turned on, "Landing Stabilizers Ejecting!" Raze felt it as the ship began to shake and several legs sprouted out the side of the capsule corp emblazoned ship. It lowered down until it finally touched ground and the thrusters powered off. Raze sighed as he clicked a few more buttons to make sure the ship was properly off so as to not waste fuel which they desperately needed.
Raze looked over to Brass, "You sure you don't want to come with?" He asked his compatriot.
Brass shook his head, "The way that power was fluctuating, they'll most likely be dead by the next hour. So, go ahead and get out there." He tossed Raze a circular badge-like thing and a metallic helmet.
Raze gave him a sheepish grin, "I bet the reason you don't wanna leave the ship is because you shine in the sun." Brass merely frowned.
"Get that shit on and get out of here." Brass said plainly.
Raze nodded with a grin, "Sure." He put on the helmet and snapped the circular object onto his tank top. Immediately an armor-like metallic film stretched over his body. Also, a custom cape shot out the back. He shot Brass a thumbs up as Brass shook his head.
Raze frowned, but Brass couldn't tell, "Awww… Come on. You know this looks good."
Brass gave him a blank stare and shook his head, "Wasting time here…" Raze sighed in response and clicked the ship's door latch. A loud hissing sound could be heard as the hydraulics opened up and wind shot through the opening, warming the ship's inside up considerably. Raze powered up and blasted into the sandstorm with a leap.
Brass watched him fly off and shut the door behind him. The albino namekian once again had to shake his head, 'No time like the present… Better put what little fuel we have left in the ship.' He was nothing if not efficient.
Brass walked up to a control panel and clicked a few buttons. Suddenly, a comms screen popped up and he could hear Raze's breathing.
"I've opened up comms for us. If you need help, let me know." Brass said to the flying saiyan.
~Raze's Perspective~
"Roger! I'll definitely keep that in mind." Raze returned as he began to survey the area.
He couldn't feel the energy that had come up just fifteen minutes prior. He was tapping away on his scouter, but the chance of finding whoever or whatever had let out that weak energy was rapidly becoming a pointless endeavor. Not to mention that the planet itself had very few different looking areas.
He flew closer to the ground and began to yell, "Hey! If you're here, let me know!" Raze got no response.
Brass's voice scratched over the comm link, "You thought that would work?"
"Hey! At least I tried" Raze shot back as he made a new plan up on the spot. Firing up his ki, Raze expanded it outward. A large circle of ki blew away the sand in huge chunks. Sending it flying far away from the area. Raze focused and his ki began to shrink down until finally disappearing, letting the wind die down alongside it.
Raze looked around for a few moments, "I hope that whatever expended that energy out will- THERE!" He saw a hand sticking out of the sand. A bloody and bruised arm, but an arm none the less. Raze jumped at the opportunity, from a landing stumble to a run. He reached for the hand, but the sand began to rumble from below. That same hand shot in the air and Raze skidded to a halt next to where it had been.
Looking back, Raze balked at the thing holding a knocked out child in its claws. A gigantic robot scorpion with heavy black armor and a tail with a blade laser tail sticking out the back.
"That looks like it could be an issue." Raze heard Brass comment on the current predicament he found himself in.
"I don't need to hear that right now!" Raze shouted back to which Brass gave a chuckle.
"That shouldn't be an issue for you. Take care of it." Brass said while muting himself.
Raze shook his head in frustration, 'Ugh… Just going to work through it.' Looking up, Raze's eyes widened as he was slammed by the scorpion's right claw, sending him flying into the dunes opposite of them. Sand spewed into the air as dust bowled over the area. In the left claw, Ken was shocked awake for a moment. Barely able to see anything, he was entirely confused by the situation currently happening.
'Wha… Whas goin on?' His thoughts were even slurred by tiredness at this point.
Raze yelled and then flexed his body emitting a shockwave causing the dunes to blast away from his mere presence. Raze's helmet was identifying the threat to him. It then identified the lifeform in its claw.
'It's just a child, Damn! I'll kill that thing and get him outta there.' Raze flashed forward, appearing quickly before the machine. Throwing the first punch, Raze struck the side of the main compartment. Reeling backward, the Scorpion leaned forward while using its right legs to stabilize and stop its backward momentum.
The robotic menace focused itself on Raze and swung its bladed tail straight for his torso. Raze caught it with a grunt, but the downward force sent him to the ground. Raze let out a roar and a blaze of white ki blasted out from his body, stopping his descent and halting the mechanical aggressor's advance.
Raze had the blade held between his palms, "It's going to take a lot more than this to put me down!" The machine acknowledged Raze's words and began to push harder.
Raze grinned and then let out a fierce growl pushing the blade sideways and snapping it in two in the same motion. He then blitzed past the tail to rip open the claw holding Ken in two while also disappearing completely. Appearing only about ten feet away, Raze held the barely alive child.
Feeling for his pulse, Raze felt a weak, but still very much alive heartbeat. Ken for his own part saw only a blurry figure in black armor. As his eyes began to close, he could only hope his troubles were over. Raze set him down and turned back to the machine.
'Alright…It's time to finish this.' He thought to himself as the scorpion-like metallic being faced Raze.
The machine then locked onto Raze's body heat and began to charge the mounted laser cannon. Raze noticed the change in atmosphere as the energy began to affect the air. Several bracers locked deep into the grit as raw energy began to spark and dig up the sand around the mechanical menace.
"So, it's an all out attack you want?" Raze grinned from behind his helmet and gripped his right arm pointing his open palm toward the machine. Red energy began to spark and form a ball with blue sparks pulsing around it, "I'll give you a better one!"
The sparking began to grow and extend beyond his palm to affect the environment. The Scorpion seemed to be intent on sticking to its objective. The sparks from both attacks began to interact and even create a wall of wind that kicked up all the sand around them.
The tail of the insectoid machine opened up and fired off its cannon. Just as it did that, Raze shouted, "Flash Wave!" His attack seared through the air, colliding with the other attack. Sand was sent flying higher into the air as both beams clashed.
The tail pressed forward and Raze was pushed back through the grit of the sand, even sinking down into it, "Urgh!" Raze grunted as he grit his teeth to find firm ground beneath himself, but found no purchase. The force from the beam was ripping apart the metallic film covering his arms and was causing him to struggle far more as he was being pushed back instead of being the one doing the pushing.
"You actually managed to match my base power, huh? Then I'll go-!" Raze yelled from behind his mask that was amplified by the speaker, "Further beyond!"
In a flash of golden light, Raze's attack entirely engulfed the scorpion until it could no longer be seen. The sand behind where the machine had stood previously was gone. A large trench and hard glass was all there was to even tell that a skirmish between two combatants had ever happened. He turned back to the boy he had found.
Raze saw half the body of the young saiyan sticking out of the ground and instead he broke into a sprint, "Woah! Hold on, I'll get you out of there!" He ran over to grab one of the legs currently sticking out of the sand and proceeded to pick him like a vegetable.
Raze situated him carefully on his back and flew off quickly back to the ship, 'Just gotta get him back.'
~A different perspective~
"That's not good…" A voice trailed off to two guilty looking goons.
The screen was blanked out from that last attack that had been witnessed. A machine that had cost this operation a fortune was now vaporized.
"A- A- Athena! It's not like-" A glare answered the first words uttered and made him stop for a moment, "I- It's not like t- t- the k- kid saw us." Tisho felt like weights were carrying him down under that glare.
Athena sighed, "You poor child. Allow me to alleviate your stupidity." she pointed a finger at Tisho and suddenly a light gouged its way through his skull finding its way out the other side.
An explosion followed as she turned to Sushig who was noticeably shaken. Athena gave him a stern look, "Clean that body up. Make sure the cloaking devices are set up. This is not something to ignore." Athena then looked to their captive audience with disgust on her face.
There was a small hole in the wall. Yet, there was one less child inside said cell. Athena's frustration was already growing again, "Now that I can think… Sushig, what have you been doing the last hour or so?!" She asked the usual guard for this cell.
Sushig sighed, "I have been doing everything I can to prepare for the arrival of our guests." Despite the fact that Tisho's body laid before him, he tried to keep up his appearance.
"Well, look where that got us! I'm missing a prisoner here! That prisoner could be the sister of the one you two supposedly killed." Athena yelled while moving back and forth with frustration oozing out of every pore.
Sushig prepared to leave while she was distracted, but Athena stopped. She turned back and looked at Sushig, "Get back here! I've got more work for you!" Athena yelled while shaking her fist.
She got close to Sushig, "Go collect my last prisoner." She pulled out a collar and handed it to Sushig.
As Sushig took the thing, Athena continued, "That is a ki collar. It should be able to not only immobilize her, but shock the brat to keep her in line." Sushig nodded as Athena motioned for him to leave which he finally did.
When he was gone, Athena turned her attention to the rest of the captive audience, "Now, which one of you allowed my last newest experiment in the last month to escape?"
The kids inside the cage tried to resist the temptation. Their last hope had been to get at least one person out, but now that they had been found out. It seemed to be a forgone conclusion of what came next.
Athena gave a melancholic smile, "Oh? You've all got a strong resolve I see. So, how many of you will have to die for me to find my culprit." While she said that, Athena raised her pointer finger on her left hand to emphasize her own resolve, light began to course out of it in the shape of a miniature ball.
The kids inside the cell were already horrified and began to move back. Tears streaming down their faces. A beam shot through one of them in under a millisecond. The next second the rest of the kids inside watched one of their own fall to the floor.
"Aaaaaaghhh!" One of them shouted, causing the rest to panic even more. Athena glowed during all this panic, happy to cause them all true hell. She began to charge another.
"Maybe I won't murder you all if the one who did it were to stand up." She stated simply with glee.
Beginning to cry once more, nobody seemed to have much more to say instead having the thought of wanting to go home. Wishing that this was all a horrible nightmare they'd been living for the past 3 or so months. Watching as another friend was dragged off to never be seen again one by one had deteriorated their hopes. Athena leveled her finger to point at another child.
"Oh well, guess I'll just write you all off as failures then." Athena's menacing glare was permeating the darkness of the area. The kid being pointed at shrieked and that's when one kid jumped in front.
"Don't do it! It was me!" He shouted, his body was shaking and even his tail twitched in cowardice, but despite all that his bravery was certain. He looked defiant much to Athena's surprise.
The light at the tip of her finger began to dissipate, "Oooooh! You're a brave one. Your name, monkey?" She asked the young teen.
"It's Kiryu! I did it! So, leave them alone…" Kiryu trailed off as the other children he'd been around quickly shook their heads.
'I'm sorry, Kira! But if anyone had a chance. It was you. Please make it!' Kiryu thought while waiting for Athena to do the deed. Yet, it didn't come. He heard a click of the bars and he noticed that she was about to open the door. Kiryu was making his last stand.
Reaching for Kiryu, the other children tried to stop the inevitable. The cell opened and that's when Kiryu sprang into action. Jumping at Athena, he smashed her in the face with his fist. The blow landed with a heavy crack and Kiryu thought he had managed something. The children that stood behind him were surprised as Athena took a step backward only for their mood to change rapidly as she returned the blow in kind, snapping Kiryu's body backward into the metal paneling on the floor.
Kiryu laid there in a daze as Athena flicked her hair to the side. She looked at the other children with an icy glare as if to say, "Anyone else?" They didn't move an inch and she was satisfied with that. She proceeded to pick up her new bargaining chip. Perhaps Athena still had a chance in all of this.
Dodging between different obstructions on the bridge. Many of which were failed experiments, old weaponry, and other various trash. Kira moved as quickly as she could. The only thing she could think of was her brother and the fact she had felt his energy not too far off alongside her newfound friend that had allowed her to escape.
Tears running down her cheeks, she vowed to try and save them. Even though it was scary and tough. Kira would find a way or die trying. Even if she wasn't aware of those concepts.
'I'll find big bro, please stay safes Kiryu!' She thought while continuing on her path to what she believed to be freedom. Whatever that exactly meant. She'd heard Kiryu say it multiple times, but just simply nodded to whatever he was saying. It sounded exciting to Kira. Exciting and scary.
~End of Chapter 1~