Dragon Ball - Heart of the Adventurers
By LastationLover5000, and Demod20, edited by Firegod00
Chapter 22 - Faces of Our Enemy
"Pa...pa..." The word escaped Pan's mouth before anyone could stop it, at a volume far more than just hushed. Her emotional stress caused a slight shift in her ki — enough that the distant sound of a Scouter could be heard — and everyone froze the instant they heard it. That sound could easily spell their death sentence. Unable to see what was going on down below, the group was unaware that the malicious gathering was indeed far too focused on their prey to pay their Scouters much heed; indeed, with the exception of the man that Pan had mistaken for her father.
He turned his head towards the source of the Scouter's reading, the cliffside overlooking the village. His face was truly identical to Son Gokū in every sense; he merely appeared older, yet not by much. The Saiyan then looked back at his superior, reassessing the situation. No one else had given the Scouter reading its due notice. The cowering Nameccians were of both more interest and value to them at the moment.
When the lizard-like individual in the floating hovercraft spoke, his voice as smooth, a silk-like tone which belied the sharp daggers in the intention of every word spoken. "Greetings, Nameccians. You must forgive this impromptu visit, but as you can see, my people and I are here for a little...business proposition."
The eldest of the Nameccians, flanked by two children, and surrounded at other points by Nameccians who appeared at most middle-aged, stared daggers at the man, his stern expression singed with fury.
A slight chuckle escaped the dark lips of the individual. "Ah yes, I can see you're not impressed with my manners. My name is Freeza, and these fine gentlemen are my soldiers."
"ɭ๏гє๓ เקรย๓ ร๏ςเ๏รợย Շเภςเ๔ยภՇ ๔๏ภєς," The Nameccian spoke in a garbled tongue. Freeza's narrow eyes widened at first, before slipping into an expression of amused expectation.
"My friend, I would appreciate it if you would not treat me as a fool," he replied sternly. "I am quite aware that you speak the same Basic language as the rest of the galaxy. It would do you well to respond to others in the same language as which you were addressed, lest these negations turn foul before we've even had a chance."
The Saiyan who so resembled Gokū noticed that this was his chance. While Freeza and his fellow comrades were interrogating this lower-class creature, he had an ideal chance to scope out what his Scouter had picked up. Instantly, the Saiyan slipped away from the ranks, clambering over the cliffside within seconds. Pan, Kuririn, and Chi-Chi all felt the spike of ki accompanying the new arrival; for Jaco, the instinctual fear of death was more than enough to know he was in danger.
"I-I-It's..." Kuririn, admist in panic, tried to keep his voice as silent as he could. "N-No...you can't be...why do you look like Gokū?!"
"That's not my Papa!" Pan replied angrily, her ebony-eyes blazing. "Why do you look like Papa?!"
"He...he does look like Son," Chi-Chi replied, astonished.
A light smirk crossed the Saiyan's face, as he stared down at his quarry. His tail uncurled from around his waist, wriggling in the air. "And here I was wondering what had caused the Scouter reading, but it was just a group of rats," The tones of his voice itself was identical to Gokū, which only served to further everyone's confusion. "We figured Vegeta and his lot were here, yet you four...you're an unexpected variable. His black-eyes fell on Pan's face, widening in surprise.
The Saiyan bent at the knee, looking directly at Pan. He saw her tail spiking in clear irritation, and his grin widened. "Now what's this? You're a Saiyan, are you? And there's something...annoyingly familiar about your face, child."
Pan pulled at her lower eyelid, sticking her tongue out at the man. "I don't have to tell you!"
At this, the Saiyan couldn't help but laugh. "Now aren't you a fiery little brat! You're going to be interesting, I see!" Standing back up to his full height, the Saiyan snickered. "I'm tempted to kill you all now...but it would be a shame to waste Saiyan blood without reason. And besides...leaving you alive could be far more useful to me in the long run. So I suggest that, if you four want to ensure your continued survival, to keep your voices down."
"H-Hold on," Kuririn edged forward. "You're with that guy down there, right? Why aren't you killing us?"
"Are you deaf, bald one?" replied the Saiyan. "Leaving you alive will be of a benefit to me, and this young one is a fellow Saiyan. I suggest you accept my magnanimous offer, rather than inspect a gift Scivols far too closely. Keep your head down, now," The Saiyan vanished just as quickly as he had come, returning to his station behind Freeza as quickly as he'd appeared. Chi-Chi and Kuririn were left perplexed, Pan bitter with anger, and Jaco still terrified.
"What do we do...?" inquired Chi-Chi.
"Keep watching for now...we may not be able to get this close to them again..." replied Kuririn.
The Saiyan reappeared behind Freeza easily, yet his departure and rearrival had not been so easily missed. The lacterlian individual turned towards the Saiyan, turning his attention away from the Nameccians.
"My, Mr. Tullece, where did you slip off to just now?" His red eyes tapered slightly with suspicion. "Leaving me without an esteemed member of my guard is poor manners indeed."
"My Lord," replied the Saiyan, now identified as Tullece, with a slight gesture of respect. "There was a sudden reading on our Scouters, so I excused myself with haste to investigate, out of concern for my Lord's safety. Yet it seems it was only a strange avian creature. Rest assured, you may continue your negotiations with ease of mind."
Freeza chuckled. "As always, Tullece, your answers are music to my ears. Very well, we shall proceed."
"Why do you persist?!" snarled one of the Nameccian elders, clearly able to speak the Basic tongue. "I've already said that said that we intend to tell you nothing!"
"You see, my dear fellow, one of your colleagues waxed bold in the same manner as yourself...yet the slaughtering of a few of his fellow men more than proved enough to loosen his tongue," replied Freeza with the faintest hint of relish. "These negotiations can end peacefully, provided you give us the information as well as what we seek...or it end in bloodshed, and we will move on to the next village."
The elder Nameccian's face worked horror. "You wouldn't–!"
"If you'd had even the slightest idea how many times I've heard such incredulous statements, we may have gotten somewhere by this point," Freeza sighed, resigned. "I will give you one last chance, fellow — where is your Dragon Ball?"
Pushed into a corner, the elder Nameccian grit his teeth. Two Nameccian children, who were with him, clung close to their elder's clothing. With the threat of the children's safety upon him, he truly had no choice but to reveal to this man the information he wanted...
...so he thought. Hope sparked in his heart as he felt of a surge of ki approaching from the west. Following this, the sharp sound of pinging! filled the air, the strange devices worn by their enemies that the Nameccians had no names for were going wild. Touching down in front of them were three Nameccians — one of stocky build, one of lanky build, and an average built individual — stood tall among their peers, their faces filled with rage at the invaders.
Seeing the Dragon Balls held in the clutches of Freeza's guard, one of the Nameccian's snarled. "So the rumours of raiders stealing the Dragon Balls from our villages is true...!"
"My brethren...!" The elder Nameccian gasped. "You felt our plight, did you not?! But I beg you be careful...these beings are monsters...!"
Leaning on the side of his hovering craft, Freeza felt his patience thin. "My my...I must admit, you sirs have such horrid timing. We have just come to an agreement about acquiring the Dragon Ball..and now you've made your way here only to die in an unfortunate accident." The pink-skinned alien inclined his head towards his bulkier compatriot. "Tell me, Mr. Dodoria, what do you make of this lot and their combat strength?"
The portly alien shifted one of the Dragon Balls to his other hand, placing a thick-nailed finger to his Scouter. Numbers in an alien script flashed before his eyes, but he could read them clearly. "Each one of 'em has a strength of 1,000, Lord Freeza."
"1,000?" chortled the tyrant. "And yet they dare to oppose us?"
A flash of intuition struck the elder of the Nameccians. Those devices on their faces...so those are how these monsters have been finding our villages...they can detect the ki of living beings with them...!
"Don't think for a second that you'll be able to get away with disrupting the peace of our people!" snarled the tallest of the Nameccians. "As a people, we together as one are stronger than any individual!" He placed his hands onto the arms of the two Nameccians next to him. "My brethren...for the sake of our people, stand with me!"
The two affirmed their decisions with a nod; their bodies began to flash, pulsating with a blinding bluish-white light. The lights of the two enveloped the third entirely, the other two Nameccians vanishing in an instant. The devices worn by the enemy began to go haywire, violently displaying numbers that seemed ridiculous.
"This...this is ridiculous...!" Dodoria's eyes went wide as saucers. "The other two vanished...and that man's Combat Strength skyrocketed from 1,000 to 17,000!"
Observing from the cliffside, shock radiated through the group. "Di-Did you guys feel that?!" Kuririn gasped, his eyes wide.
"Where did the other two go?!" Pan tried to look over the cliffside, only to be nudged back by Kuririn, who was still trying to focus himself.
Chi-Chi, however, seemed to have a slighter more solid grasp on the situation. "Did they...go inside him?"
"Well short of any teleportation technology -which I doubt a backwater world like this has- it's likely some sort've mundane tribal technique of mysticism-nonsense," Jaco muttered, placing a gloved hand to his chin. "...in other words, the angry mountain princess is right."
In clear irritation, Chi-Chi dangerously uttered what she thought was the alien's name, "Paco...!"
"I told you, it's Ja-ACK!" The alien began to protest, only for his head to be smashed into the ground from an overhead strike from Chi-Chi's fist.
Despite the clear statement his Scouter was making, Dodoria refused to pay it heed. "17,000 from a planet like this? That has to be some kind of mistake!" Angrily, Dodoria shouted an order to the soldiers. "Men! Get him!"
The various soldiers stationed around the village turned to heed the order of one of Freeza's top men. Letting out a battle cry, the group charged, having the sole Nameccian soldier surrounded in an attack from nearly every direction. In clear ignorance of what one would normally consider dire peril, the Nameccian clenched his three-fingered fist as his side..before shooting it high into the sky. The second before the soldiers approached him, ki erupted around him in a violent explosion. Every soldier was eradicated in a single blow, yet the warrior had demonstrated enough control to not singe a single blade of grass.
"...Now his power reading just shot up to 19,000!" Dodoria balked, furious. "What's wrong with this damned thing?!"
"You still think your Scouter is wrong, Dodoria?" inquired Tullece airily. "It's clear to anyone with eyes that these people can control their Combat Strength. You're letting them get the better of you, and yet you haven't stepped in yourself. Do you disagree, my Lord?"
"Not in the slightest," replied Freeza, chuckling mirthfully. "Come now, Mr. Dodoria, I know it's been a full system cycle since you've seen action...but a warrior of this level certainly can't best you, now can he?"
The tone shift in Freeza's voice was clear to anyone. Dodoria, who had been only seconds away from mouthing off to Tullece, swallowed the words as quickly as they had come. "Shall I bring him to you, Lord Freeza?"
"In pieces, if you would, Mr. Dodoria."
Placing the Dragon Balls he held carefully near Freeza, a guttural growl escaped Dodoria's throat as he rushed forward to engage the Nameccian warrior in combat. The Nameccian stepped up to face Dodoria, his face contorted in rage. It was clear that while his fellow villagers were peaceful, he'd come to do nothing but violence to those who threatened the peace of Namek. A green arm, coated in vivid white ki, clashed against Dodoria's spiked, pink forelimb. The force disrupted the grass beneath their feet, resulting in a force which spread out in all directions.
Dodoria, you are a fool, thought Tullece. You may have power but you certainly lack any measure of intellect. These people apparently posses a means to merge together...what they lack as individuals, together they make for a powerful warrior. Placing an olive-toned finger to his skin, he mulled dangerous possibilities. If this lot could all merge together as one, we would be in peril. If they haven't realised this...they may be bigger fools than you, Dodoria.
Two warriors, green and pink, fought violently in the centre of the Nameccian village. The Nameccian warrior raised both arms to his side, appearing to shape the air into a sphere of ki, releasing it at Dodoria. The spiked alien gripped the attack firmly, swinging it high over his head and into the distance.
"He's keeping up!" Pan hissed excitedly. "The Nameccian guy is super strong! He can beat him!"
In spite of her excitement, both Kuririn and Chi-Chi knew better.
"No..."
"That bulbous bastard is toying with him."
"Even I can see it," Jaco noted. "There's a definite difference in their movements; that Nameccian is putting in a lot more effort to keep up with that fat alien. He's already losing."
This grim truth was clear to the Nameccian elder as well, watching their prized fighter attempt to fend off the viciousness of Dodoria. He can't keep this up...in the end, this is only stalling for time...but we will not go silently, invader! He pooled ki into the tips of his fingers, and fired a shot directly at Freeza's face. The act itself was so audacious that it took even Freeza by surprise, the man not even beginning to think to dodge...only for his Scouter to burst into shards in front of his eyes.
Everyone was stunned, resulting in a pregnant pause in the battle between Dodoria and the Nameccian, none of whom expected this strange turn of events. Yet the Nameccian leader did not stop, releasing bolts of ki from his fingertip with pinpoint precision, targeting Dodoria, Tullece, and the blue-green skinned man, destroying each and every one of their Scouters in turn. Grinning madly, the elder of the village declared boldly. "It is done! Even if you defeat us here, you will be unable to find our villages! You have lost!"
Living beings often held to their hearts that sudden noises and unwelcome sounds signified danger. In nature, this was a fact which held true. Yet, in many circumstances, a prolonged silence could be even more dangerous — the calm before a raging storm.
"Mr. Dodoria..." Freeza spoke after a moment's deliberation, his voice seething with rage, barely managing to keep his respectful tone.
"Yes...Lord Freeza?"
"Kill them all."
As if channeling the tranquil fury of his master, the battle shifted entirely in the favour of Dodoria. The first of his victims was the warrior with whom so far he'd been toying. Roaring in rage, Dodoria thrust his arm through the chest of the Nameccian, pulling out his heart on the other side; with an easy flex, he crushed the still-beating organ, purple blood bursting in all directions. Dodoria removed his arm from the Nameccian's body with a sickening squelch. The body of the once vibrant warrior crumpled and fell to the ground in a pool of purple liquid.
Dodoria grinned maliciously, turning his attention towards the elder who had destroyed their Scouters. "Don't you worry, old man. I'm not too merciless..." He vanished, reappearing within seconds at the elder's side. A gargantuan pink hand came crashing down onto the elder's head; it popped as easily as a watermelon, and the headless corpse into a heap. His younger compatriots rushed Dodoria in a rage, and yet they were easily slaughtered in the most brutal of ways — twisted necks, collapsed spines, and other horrific methods of murder — at the hands of a rampaging soldier in Freeza's employ.
It came to the point that the only Nameccians left in the entire village were two terrified children. The two were twins, yet one of them, perhaps the youngest, and easily more terrified, began to make a break for it. Seeing the sheer disregard for sentient life on display, Pan was quivering in anger. Her lavender spikes were flowing as if caught in a light updraft — a clear sign of rushing ki — and the fur on the end of her tail bristled.
"Kid, I know what you're thinking but do not—!"
"We have to stay hidden!"
"It isn't worth it!"
Three distinct voices, muffled in the hearing of the half-alien child, tried to caution her. For the moment it was working.
BOOM!
An explosion was accompanied by a flash of light. Strewn on the ground was the corpse of the Nameccian child who had attempted to flee.
Pan's vision went red. Her body was engulfed in a brilliant aura, the young girl shrieking in rage. She launched herself from a feral crouch until she was airborne and rushing Dodoria. Had the group still been in possession of their Scouters, they would have detected Pan's massive rise in ki. She whipped the Nyoibō from behind her ear, elongating it from the size of a toothpick to double its standard weapon-length, and brought it down painfully on Dodoria's head.
"Shit! She snapped!" Kuririn gaped in horror.
"Move it or lose it, baldy!" Chi-Chi snapped. "We've got to get in there too, or Son's brat is dead!"
"What are you thinking?" Hissed Jaco, bravely attempted to retain secrecy even when Pan had been a blatant sign announcing them. "If we go out there, we die!"
"If you stay here, you die," Chi-Chi's reply was blunt. "Die like a man, perhaps, Laco?" She and Kuririn rushed forward, Chi-Chi's red ki bubbling forth, centering around her foot. Just as Dodoria was recovering from Pan's initial strike, Chi-Chi and Kuririn both landed a perfectly timed combination kick into the alien's bulbous face, knocking him for a loop yet again. Kuririn and Chi-Chi landed next to Pan, the former resigned, the latter irritated.
"I don't know what you were thinking but now we're smack in the middle of this!" Kuririn groaned. He immediately grabbed the remaining Nameccian child, and motioned to Pan and Chi-Chi. "Let's move! Jaco, you too!" The three of them erupted in ki, blasting off as quickly as they'd come. Jaco, sensing the fact that he would be dead if he did not move, ignited his boosters and flew frantically off after them.
The quietude that fell over the desolated village was deafening. No one made a sound, yet Tullece's brain was actively working in all sorts of furious confusion. His face was set in a grimace, scowling firmly. What sort of idiots are they?! I specifically told them to keep a low profile..and yet they throw themselves into the thick of things, wasting the lives I spared. Utter fools!
Finally, Freeza spoke, addressing the green-haired alien to his right. "Mr. Zarbon...if you could so kindly explain as to what just happened?"
"I'm...unsure, my Lord," replied Zarbon, the pause in his words as he carefully selected the ones that would ensure his continued employ. "None of them appeared to be Earthlings...it would appear that we have more than simply Vegeta's lot to contend with on this planet..."
"One of them was a Saiyan..." Freeza muttered, malice lacing his voice. "With a face quite like yours, Tullece. Certainly you are not letting your child run loose?"
"Not at all, my Lord," came Tullece's quick and effectively reply. "My progeny is forever your loyal servant, as am I. I would not allow any child of mine to act outside your interests."
"Of course," a thin finger rose to Freeza's chin. "Perhaps the child of Raditz, then? No matter..." He cleared his throat. "Mr. Dodoria!"
The pudgy-alien, who was currently dazed from the repeated attacks from the offending new party, was roused quickly at the sound of his master's voice.
"This happened on your watch, did it not?" asked Freeza rhetorically. "Then see to it that you fix it! I want their heads, and ensure no stone on this wayward rock is left un-turned until you've found them! Should you bring me anything less than their corpses, I will see to it that you seek your next place of employment with the denizens of Hell!"
"Y-Yes, Lord Freeza, sir!" Dodoria took flight as quickly as if someone had lit a fire under his rear, crossing the horizon with ease, in the same direction that the interlopers had made off.
"This is bad!" The Super Elite Patrolman thought during his flight away from the most notorious face among the Galactic Patrol. "Those fools showed themselves so carelessly in front of that mad tyrant! Now nothing will stop them from hunting us-! No-No, cool your head and think! There has to be a way to survive this!"
"Are they still there?!"
"How should I know?!" Kuririn replied indignantly, his small arms clinging to the Nameccian child -whom clung to him for dear life in return- as he blanched towards the royal dressed Chi-Chi. "All I know is that we're putting distance between us and that freakishly large ki!"
"I'm not the most sensitive to these things," She huffed, scowling at the dwarf. After receiving a retaliatory tongue sticking out of his mouth, she clicked her tongue against her teeth and looked back around at Pan. She looked wide-eyed and seemed to have a faraway expression on her face. Her own expression of anger softened, realizing that the child must have been in shock over the outburst she did and was just concentrating on flying ahead.
"Son's kid!"
"Huh?!" Pan blinked with confusion, looking around at the beautiful young woman who she swore looked even younger than her own mom and sister.
"Can you tell if we're being followed? I'm not the most direct in my sensing of ki," She admitted with a halfhearted smile on her own face.
Closing her eyes, the lavender frayed bangs of the halfblooded Saiyan concentrated for a good handful of seconds. Then, she opened them and immediately spun towards Chi-Chi, grabbing her by the right arm and pulling her down with her-
-avoiding a lancing trail of orange-golden light that shrieked over their heads. Following the path of the beam they'd both see it arch over into the horizon ahead, stabbing into the bed of a lake. Within seconds, the energy wave instantly pulled the moisture downward before exploding upward with a massive plume of steam and land erupting into fire. The shockwave was near enough that they could feel a lap of wind hit them in the faces, alerting them to the unanswered question of their enemy's appearance.
"COME BACK HERE, YOU MAGGOTS!" Dodoria howled in guttural basic, his bulbous pink skinned form rocketing towards them like a meteor swathed in tangerine colored light. As if to infer the mount of impatience bursting forth, he launched his bloodied claws -still caked in the ichor of the Nameccians he slaughtered- and unleashed another salvo of lake evaporating kikoha.
Kuririn did his best to swerve to and fro with the child crying out in peril from the blasts that colored the sky in thick coral overcast. The crescendo of energy blasts continued to paint the skyline, creating a frightening meteor shower affect across the heavens for the ground level Jaco to witness with teeth bared fear. Chi-Chi and Pan themselves were doing their best to avoid the ruthless slinging of ki sent their way, their maneuvers out of desperation rather than finesse as the assault had come at them without warning or anticipation.
The bald headed monk, however, found his luck to run out as a streak of light grazed his shoulder and caused him to let go of the alien child in his arms.
"Oh shit-shit-shit-shit-shit-!" He swore in repetition, his body lunging down in a beeline to catch the boy.
"Oh no you don't!" The burly toned shout came from behind him, frightening Kuririn to release a yelp as he felt a vice grip grab hold of his whole left foot. Raised upright he'd see the ugly, spike-aligned flesh of the rotund warrior in person. Grinning with sharp teeth framed by deep violet lips, the brow-less eyes glared at him as he gripped him tightly in hand. Even as the monk formulated a plan, his mind raced between the falling child and the current crisis in hand.
Thankfully, he saw Pan's retaliation in the form of a distant, "Extend!" cry and a whooshing CRACK! impact into the side of Dodoria's right cheek. The power was enough to send his head lurching to the side, his hand immediately releasing Kuririn's foot enough that it allowed the Turtle Schooler to swing his other foot around to snap his chin with vicious vindication. Rocketing downwards to the falling boy, he'd narrowly catch him before he'd hit the surface of blue grass covered hillside just below them.
"Why you little-?!" He bellowed out, the Elite Soldier turning to look at the sight of the first offending attack. Much to his surprise, it'd be the woman of the group, lancing a pair of charging elbows wreathed in a burning burgundy outlined horns akin to a bull's. Crashing into his raised arm to deflect the strike, the bludgeoning was enough that it staggered him a step within the air. Swinging the limb around like a club pushed her back, only for a similar horned thrust veered by a pair of feet crashing into his gut, earning a heave of exasperation.
"WILL YOU JUST-?!"
"HAH-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAH!" Pan cried out in cacophony to a series of blows from her perpendicular posture of her feet smashed into his belly; using both of her hands to swing her Nyoibo repeatedly towards his face around in vicious arcs and jabs.
But their attacks were in vain.
"KNOCK IT OFF!" Dodoria howled aloud, his voice releasing a kiai that thrashed the airborne pair. As Pan bowled back and Chi-Chi spun, both of them felt their bodies grasped by a pair of clawed hands, the edges of which beginning to dig into their flesh and tear at their clothed backs. Squirming in place, Pan tried to wrench her arms free while Chi-Chi attempted but failed to muster energy to bolster her body's impending destruction.
"You two are really pissing me off!" He snarled, his mouth opening to reveal a swelling glow of light. The signature of which surpassed the like's of which any of the kikoha that he fired, and sent chills down Pan and Chi-Chi's spines. This one blast was even stronger than all of Vegeta's followers were combined, and it was going to be released at point blank!
"Oh no!" Kuririn exclaimed with horror, his body too far away to reach the two in time. But, in his distraction of the imminent tangerine light spraying from the fat soldier's face, he saw a silhouette spiral into the air through boosters and a well-timed leap. Arriving just up above where Pan and Chi-Chi could see him, Jaco descended upon the soldier with both hands reared back, curling around in an arching thrust towards either side of Dodoria's head.
Stabbing outstretched middle fingers of either gloved hand straight into his knife-shaped inner ears.
Eyes widened and mouth spread outward with a gurgling belch of surprise, pain spasming his mind as his mouth shot an upward petering blast of coral colored ki straight up into the sky. Splitting the clouds up above their heads, this allowed Kuririn to make a quick mad dash to slam his head into the larger alien's lower back, encouraging him to release his hands over the child and young woman's bodies. Once they were released, Dodoria's already stunned person turned around, just in time for the dwarf to witness Jaco lifting his lower body up and over Dodoria's...
...slamming the heels of his boots powerfully into the top of his skull, causing the eyes to nearly pop out of their sockets; sending the rotund shaped thug to careen down into lip of a lake bordering the island below.
"Wow, Jaco, that was-!"
"No time to talk," The Patrolman told them with haste, letting his jet-boosters hail him back to the ground. "A guy like that won't be down for long after a blow like that!"
"R-Right," Kuririn nodded with admission, taking only a second to glance at the rippling water where Dodoria was throttled into. Shaking his head, he grabbed Pan and Chi-Chi's hands, pulling the dazed pair along with him in a flash downwards. Scooping up the Nameccian child with his hands, the two regained clarity as they'd all boost low against the ground to avoid being spotted. Nary half a minute could go by before a massive surge of ki was felt by the fleeing squad, erupting into the sky by a plume of orange flames and a distant shout that could be heard even in the kilometers they covered by the second of hasty movement.
"YOU STINKIN' PUNKS! I'LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!" Dodoria bellowed with murderous intent. With a throbbing skull and veins sprouting across his thick neck up his spiked cranium, his energy was blasting the lake outward along with the measure of the land mass. Evaporating the bed of water he hopped out and quaked the earth with a crash landing of his smaller feet. Eyes twitching, he tried to get a bead on where they went, only for his spinning head and ringing ears making it next to impossible to tell which direction was where.
"THAT DOES IT!" He howled out, raising up clawed hands, congealing his energy in crackling orbs that spasmed with chaotic light of scarlet and red energies within them. "IF I CAN'T FIND YOU, I'LL GLASS THIS ENTIRE SIDE OF THE PLANET!"
"My-my, what's gotten you in such a foul mood to resort to that kind of flailing, Dodoria?"
The voice immediately caused the rage to simmer into a cold chill. Dodoria had already heard of a fantastic ki that lit up on the planet, long before the apparent Earthlings' got the drop on him. It had taken out Cui, much to his disbelief and they all assumed whom it was; now he was hoping that it was all just instrument failure, as his dark eyes looked around with his head towards the source of the sound his ears could barely pick up.
"V-Vegeta!" He stammered out, seeing the Saiyan prince with his arms crossed and flanked by his most notorious pair of lackeys. Apart from the reported turncoat Raditz and the deceased cohorts that were nowhere to be seen, he wasn't surprised he was surrounded by his henchmen. What did surprise him was how he -along with Nappa and Aspara- all bore no sign of injury or confrontation from the vanished Cui. Was he erased that easily? Was it a matter of them all firing a combined blast, or was there something else going on he didn't know about?
"What's wrong, Dodoria?" The Prince asked again, a wry smirk present on his face as he looked at him with a pair of confident eyes, only one partially obscured by the ruby colored Scouter aligned on his face. "You look frustrated. That's not the kind of look a proud elite soldier of Freeza should have, now should he?"
"Very funny, Vegeta," Dodoria sneered, defusing the energy entirely from his hands as he faced the three fully. Arming himself with a halfhearted smirk of his own, he gestured to the three with chastisement in his voice. "You'd probably know all too well what it's like to be frustrated. How did that trip to Earth go, by the way? I notice you're a few heads short too. Did you at least get to teach your weakling turncoat and his brother a lesson?"
"Watch your mouth!" Nappa snarled, ignoring the simmering disdain Aspara had at the mention of her cousin's name brought up, taking a step forward with a brawny fist raised up with teeth bared at the incredulously grinning portly alien. "You wouldn't know a true battle if it bit you in your fat keister, Dodoria! What were you fighting out here other than some harmless insects?!"
"That's enough, Nappa," Vegeta calmly rebuked his subordinate, causing the larger of his two flanking colleagues to lean back and bow apologetically to him. Still nonplussed about the jabbing remarks sent at him, the Prince leaned his neck and stared at the scorch mark where the Elder Nameccian had blasted the Scouter off his face; the lack of any Scouter on an upper echelon soldier such as him was already suspect, but the sight of his frustration nearly wiping out a continent of the planet's surface now confirmed his thoughts. "It seems you look a bit lost. Do you even know where your boss is?"
"I would if this planet didn't look all the damn same!" The rotund elite snapped back, hands balling up at his thick sides. "But, since you're in a heap of trouble with Freeza as it is, how about I cut you on a deal. You hand me one of those Scouters," He raised a hand, grimacing as he scowled towards the Prince with a visible look of bare contempt. "And maybe I won't tell Freeza where to find your tail-behind."
"Do we even have time to deal with him?" Aspara questioned Vegeta, looking at the prince with sidelong glance as she outright ignored the presence of the irate Freeza Force soldier. "He's nothing to us as we are now. Why bother with this false pretense of formality?"
"Now be nice, Aspara," Vegeta chuckled dryly, not bothering to look her in the eyes as he closed his own. "He's right though. It wouldn't be convenient for us to have Freeza know where we are if we leave things as they are. So, to show him the courtesy that he deserves," Opening his right eye, he grinned darkly at his larger subordinate. "Nappa will hand over his Scouter."
As if he picked up on the cue of what his superior's intentions were, Nappa suddenly grinned with an even bigger smile of malicious intent.
"Sure thing, Vegeta," The largest of the three stepped forward to Dodoria. His muscular form towering even over the larger portly elite of Freeza's, though the latter showed nothing but a smirk at his approach. Taking off his Scouter, he held it in an outstretched hand while maintaining a sinister expression.
"Glad to know where you stand on the totem pole," Dodoria chuckled, his clawed hand reaching for the mechanism.
In a split second, he missed it, now a foot away from where his clawed fingers were.
"What's the matter, Dodoria?" Nappa asked mockingly, tossing the Scouter up and down within his palm in a nonchalant fashion. "Can't even grab something when its offered to ya?"
Practically seething with renewed rage, the bubblegum tinted alien snarled with veins throbbing across his arms and face, "You've got a lot of nerve talking that way to me! A lowly punk like you," He sneered, charging up a line of ki along his arms to form crackling webs of light, thrusting them straight towards the Saiyan brute at point blank. "Has no place talking back to someone like me!"
The blast wave unleashed had an enormity to it that wasn't anything to scoff at. The flames of orange with a white epicenter blew out with a radius to consume a mountain range, blasting apart the land mass and bed of water surrounding their vicinity. The shockwave quaked the ground of the serene landscape for kilometers on end, the sky spasming with a horrid of discharge of bio-energy that sent tendrils of lightning snapping to and fro to strike the earth at random.
A single mustard colored arch of five digits surged through the mass of light and fire, grasping the pudgy man by the face and digging the fingers passed the spiky protrusions on his skull down into the rosy colored flesh. The immediate effect was his dousing of his own attack and a confused, panicked cry of pain from the offending limb now holding his head hostage. Reaching around to grasp the arm and remove it, he found that it was like trying to rend a solid bar of molten heat, hearing the sizzling of his own palms' flesh cook upon even touching the solid biceps and triceps of the appendage attached to the vicious gripping hand.
"Was that it?" Nappa inquired with a guttural chuckle, continuing to apply a slow crushing grip to his quarry as the smoke petered off his body, showing not even an iota of damage was done even to his armor. However, he did raise a completely fragmented Scouter in his other hand, as if to add insult to Dodoria's continuous injury being wrought upon him. "Was that all an Elite Soldier of the Freeza Force had to offer? What a disappointment you've become!"
"L-ngh! M-ngh! G-ngh!" Dodoria attempted to demand, though his face was so tightly constricted that he only came off as sickened grunts.
"I don't see why he should," Vegeta answered for his subordinate, his arms still crossed as he and Aspara remained unmoved by the attack that -thanks to their line of sight being within Nappa's backside- were unfazed by the blast Dodoria had sent towards the bald headed companion of theirs. "You were careless enough to take us at our word, and even more foolish to cast insults at us without Freeza to protect you. Quite frankly, you're an idiot and deserve what's coming to you."
"B-But I-I c-can tell you a-about y-your p-planet!" Dodoria strangled out in stuttered gasps, barely able to even pause Nappa's consistently ruthless stranglehold on his face. At hearing this, however, the tallest of the three Saiyans halted and even looked dubiously between the pudgy soldier he had in his grip and to his superior.
"Let him go," Vegeta ordered, his eyes now losing any sign of humor as he unfurled his arms to rest at his sides, gaining a look of contempt from Aspara and one of respect from Nappa. "For now, that is."
Releasing his grip, Dodoria fell to his hands and knees, thick amethyst blood pouring off his head from multiple new orifices caused by the offensive fingers. Regaining his composure, the bloodied soldier rasped for air as he looked up at the prince with a cautious gaze. He knew if someone like Nappa could be so much trouble, then there was no way he could stand up to Vegeta; he had to play this carefully if he was going to make it out alive.
"I'm waiting."
"You all know that," He began to say, the pudgy alien pushing himself to his feet with a swaying lurch as his eyes looked between the three of them carefully, judging their reactions as he spun his tale. "A meteor destroyed the planet, right? At least, that's what everyone in the Freeza Force wanted you to believe."
"And you know the real story?" Aspara inquired, with doubt clinging to her words as she flipped her smooth hair with a free hand to emphasize her dubious state of mind.
"Know it?" Dodoria let out a raucous chuckle. "I was there when it happened; when Freeza decided to wipe out your entire lot with his own hands!"
"He what?!" Nappa reared back, almost horrified at the prospect their own highest of high bosses was at fault.
"Don't look surprised!" The spiked brute jeered, a sick smile spread across his bleeding face to show his emphatic disgust for the three. "Your race was getting very unruly in Freeza's rein, even long before he was handed control by his father. It was only a matter of time before the idea of rebellion had completely settled into your dung filled minds. Especially what with talk of that stupid legend of yours..."
"So, Freeza fears the Saiyan race that much?" Vegeta asked, a smile now present on his visage. "And the legend of the mighty Super Saiyan? I had no idea someone as powerful as that conceited tyrant could be afraid of what he has openly dismissed as a myth. It all makes so much more sense with the whole picture laid out before my eyes; Freeza is here for the Dragon Balls because he fears the Saiyans will be his downfall!"
"As if!" Dodoria rebuked, gripping his clawed hands tight at his broad flanks, eyes glaring ahead at Vegeta. "He wiped out your planet because he feared your entire race turning into giant monsters and combining their powers. Your little legend didn't save them, and you were left with nothing!"
"Don't mistake yourself, Dodoria," He dismissed, his smile darkening as his eyes shrank into dots within a sea of white and cracked red. "I don't give a damn about the lot of losers who couldn't even protect themselves from Freeza's treachery. True Saiyans don't lose their lives in such a way that shames our pride on such a collective level so completely. No, what I can't forgive," He snarled, his body snapping with bio-energy, a steady rise of cobalt energy erupting from the seams of his amethyst colored uniform and the earth shattering about where he stood erect upon. Eyes glazed over with a glowing hatred that it made Nappa stagger away from Dodoria and Aspara step back nervously as his fury overtook the air with a louder voice than they thought imaginable. "Is how Freeza robbed me of my birthright, my destiny and dared to lie to my face for years of that outcome! I'll bleed him dry for this outrage along with every one of his lackeys who follow him; starting with you!"
Gaping at the horrific sight of a monster unveiling his truest side, the bestial force was too much for Dodoria to face with a straight face. With a shaking frame, he turned tail and discharged all of his power into pure velocity. Despite his lumbering shape, he moved with a speed that even surpassed his chase against the Earthlings' minutes earlier.
But he didn't see that Vegeta hadn't moved from his spot.
His imminent destruction came with the subtle raise of his gloved hand, forming a finger gun out of curled and pointed digits. With a cocking motion, a thin streak of light screamed from his spot, spiraling towards the comet of tangerine color; before expanding into a wide column of incinerating force. A soundless howl was released from Dodoria's throat as he was completely consumed by the blast Vegeta unleashed, eradicating him past a molecular level and erasing even the dust that could've been formed from his destruction.
Exhaling with a satisfied smirk on his face, Vegeta looked to his two subordinates and noticed their troubled expressions.
"Vegeta," Nappa spoke up first, his body emitting a bit of sweat at not just the display of power that was released, but of the chilling words his longtime superior and prince had spoken. "D-Did you mean what you said, about the Saiyans-?"
"Every word," Vegeta replied without hesitation, eyes coldly staring back up at Nappa, paralyzing the larger general by expression alone. "We are survivors and they died because of a foolish summons. I always felt that we were deserving of our place in the Universe because we didn't die because of a random tragedy. But now I am certain we are destined to avenge the honor and pride of our people for their weakness to fall to Freeza's hand."
"And what, you'll be the Super Saiyan of legend?" Aspara snarked with a rueful smirk armed on her own face. "Big talk coming from the guy who my cousins nearly killed."
The next instant Aspara knew, she felt her body bowl over and a boot pressed against her neck, the pressure so great that one wrong move could snap her trachea. Bulging eyes looked up wide with fear and outrage as a coolly glaring Vegeta stared down at her, his frame looking much larger than usual from this angle. The shadow of his silhouette marked over her from the hanging Suns of Namek painted a figure of fearsome intimidation and merciless charge; it was a form of command she had felt many times over, from even her own father, all her life.
"Let make one thing clear to you," He whispered, rolling the sole of his boot over her neck, eyes glimmering with barely concealed wrath within his dark orbs. "As long as you are of use to me, I will not kill you. But the moment you outstay your welcome I will not hesitate in ripping your head off your shoulders and mounting it on the front of my new palace I'll paint with Freeza's blood. I've endured your passive aggression towards me only in hopes that you'll use that petulant anger of yours to become strong enough to help slay my enemies. Until you fail in my eyes completely, you will be under my heel," He threatened, lowering his head down with hands held lax at his side, whispering even lower as his face was but a mere foot away from her pinned visage. "Understand?"
A strangled snarl was all that Aspara unleashed. Even if she could vocalize beyond the boot that held her body captive, she knew it was a death sentence at this point to defy him. Much as it sickened her stomach, the sheer distance between herself and him was too great for her to breach...for now.
Once he finally freed her, she rubbed her neck and rasped for air in a few violent coughs. Aiming a dagger filled glare at his back, he'd walk with arms crossed over his battle jacket covered chest, looking up at Nappa with an air of renewed authority.
"It seems Freeza is bereft of his precious Scouters," He deduced aloud, his neutral expression selling how prime of an opportunity this was. "As long as we have even one of these in our possession, we'll gain the upperhand in tracking down our enemies and detecting the exact presence of whom we should target."
"So who should we go after first?" Nappa inquired with curiosity, scratching his chin with forethought. "Dodoria was chasing someone before we found him. You don't think it could be those Earthlings, do you?"
"I'm certain it's them," The Prince nodded, cupping his chin with a gloved hand to rub in audible pondering. "Though, their technology on that planet is far more crude. It is unlikely Kakarrot or his brother have recovered at this point. Which means the level of fighters they've afforded are much weaker and less effective. It'll be easier to deal with them at your leisure," Placing a hand on his hip, he looked around and adjusted his Scouter on a bundle of similar bundled power levels. "It seems that Freeza's ship has the highest series of ki to deal with. He blankets his own minions whenever he's around so that's a good place to avoid for the moment. And the smallest ones belong to the Earthlings. So the next highest will be-"
"The Nameccians!" Nappa shouted excitedly.
"Yes," He acknowledged with a dark smile, shutting off his Scouter as he pinpointed the direction with his own newly acquired hidden talent. "I'm sure you two are both at least becoming familiar with ki sensing. We'll only become dependent on it when we have to abandon our devices; so for the moment, let's keep these machines close at hand until we've gotten what we need."
"Right," His bald-headed compatriot agreed, the silent third colleague standing upright while fixing a deadly look the two ultimately ignored.
"Next stop," Vegeta announced with a chuckle, rising into the air along with the other two. "Nameccian Village!"
Shattering the sound barrier, the three trails of bluish white lights soared into the horizon, leaving no trace of Dodoria beyond the destruction wrought upon the landscape.
A/N:
Demod20: This hopefully makes up for our tardiness in the previous chapter. But in all seriousness, I loved writing this bit; got to really flex out a chaotic battle sequence and showcase how terrifying Dodoria is to our heroes. Even got to give Jaco some moments to shine in delaying the big blubber bust himself. And of course, Nappa getting the one-up on him and Vegeta's declaration of intent to Dodoria (before gloriously executing him) and threatening Aspara to help set the tone of the Saiyan three going forward. All in all, this is going to be an enjoyable Arc to take full advantage of; was very pleased with how my Co-Author wrote Tullece and Freeza, very enjoyable to witness. Also the humor was great, especially with Jaco continually adding a nice layer of cynicism to balance out Kuririn and Pan's optimism. See you all in the next update!
LastationLover5000: Two chapters out so soon after the other! Quite eventful, if I have to say so myself! This chapter was loads of fun to write, as I always enjoy writing for Freeza, but Tullece was something new. And yes, this fanfic will be using "Tullece", much the way Kanzenshuu does, as the intended pun for the character the dub called 'Turles' is based on 'lettuce'. Anyway, now that we've cleared this up, as much as I loved writing my portion, my co-author's portion was so much fun to see! Now, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and we'll see you soon! Also to anyone waiting on my other projects, I assure you I will be updating soon. I've been sidetracked briefly, but the updates for the Little Miss Devil and Erased Chronicles storylines are pending!
While he's got no particular comment, but we would like to thank our editor, Firegod00, for his hard work here!
See you soon!