"Hmm… Something weird must have happened here. What an oddball of a planet…" Commander Zeeun stroked his chin while observing the wreckage of what was once the headquarters of the Red Ribbon Army. Now the place was consumed by radioactive fallout and only carried nothing but wreckage and decayed corpses. "There's some foul energy in the air. Hmmm… It's evil there's no doubt about it but I don't think I like it much."
"Commander, we've found a curious structure further north. It looks like some sort of a command tower. It goes all the way into the upper layers of the atmosphere of the planet even," an armored soldier reported, scratching his helmet so that it shifted over his malformed, demonic head.
"Is that so? Maybe they've blasted this military base here into oblivion from that tower? It must have a mighty super-weapon of sorts up there. Let's claim it for Lord Slug!" Commander Zeeun stood up from examining the contaminated dirt and looked up and toward the direction of the Korin Tower far off in the distance. Further than his eye could reach though the Commander did not lead based on what he could see, rather on the intelligence he had and received.
A buff, native man looked up and lifted his spear off the ground, trying to take aim at the swarms of armored enemies filling the skies but he realized that there might have been too many invaders and that they were far too high up for him to reach. Bora had never encountered assailants that flew this high up, not even when the Red Ribbon treaded into the Sacred Land of Korin with their aircraft. It was evident that these fliers intended to invade the Korin Tower itself as they adjusted their altitude for the couple of temples that the tower hosted.
"Hmm… I wonder what we're going to do with you…" Korin scratched his head when soldiers began filling up the vacant skies around his temple like clouds. Commander Zeeun revealed himself from the thickness of his platoon of space demons as he addressed the white cat watching the tower.
"You are unlike the other inhabitants of Planet Earth we've seen, furball. We've come for the valuables that this here command center has," Zeeun spoke bluntly.
"Well, aren't you gonna fight them and protect your master?" Korin turned back to Yajirobe who was pulling live fish out of a barrel and just waved his hand in dismissal.
"Wha? No way, no way, can't do it, can't be done. Those guys are too tough… I've got no wish of gettin' myself killed!" Yajirobe replied and turned his nose up.
"This Earthling speaks wisdom in surrendering to Lord Slug's authoritative rule," Commander Zeeun beamed a smile at Korin. "Now, hand us all the valuable technology you have or we'll obliterate both of you and this tower."
"Huh? You dumbass, there ain't anythin' valuable up 'ere, if there was, I'd 'ave long since taken it and scrammed…" Yajirobe sighed, realizing that he had spent entire years up on this accursed tower ever since Yamcha carried him here just hoping that one day all of this mystical mumbo jumbo he casually engaged in would yield something of value that would have made up for all this crazy trip that Yamcha made for him after taking Yajirobe away from his prairie. "Nothin' but fish and beans…"
"We Evil Tribe have no need for your pathetic food items, Earthlings!" Commander Zeeun clenched his fist, displeased by the answer. The commanding officer of Lord Slug's clan extended his arm out, unleashing a flashing blast of Ki that in his mind should have sufficed in incinerating the entire tower as well as the two dimwits mocking Lord Slug's clan.
Once the smoke and the echoing howl cleared, however, Commander Zeeun found himself distrustful of his own eyes when both the Korin Tower, Korin, and Yajirobe remained completely intact as Zeeun failed to break even a single pillar of the tower. This made Commander Zeeun feel obliged to turn around and excuse himself in front of his soldiers, all of whom opened fire at once at the tower as well as the white cat and the fat ronin living in the Korin Temple.
"You can save your strength," Korin raised up his paws, licking one of them. "This tower's protected by some ancient and mighty magic that physical strength alone won't budge. Seeing how that's the only thing you know, you will never take over the Korin Tower."
"Ridiculous!" Commander Zeeun exclaimed. "We've never counted on Earth possessing powerful sorcerers as well, then again, the female Saiyan knew just how dangerous our priestesses were as she slew all of them before escaping."
"Ey, cat, the bald-head is calling you on the barrel water…" Yajirobe pointed at the surface of the water that he was just fishing from. With a relaxed strut, Korin approached the barrel and pushed Yajirobe out of his way with a crude kick to his backside to follow. The white cat pulled himself over the edge of the large barrel and looked down at the water inside.
"Hmm… I see. I guess you guys will take it over from here, huh?" Korin mumbled before hopping farther away from the barrel and approaching the railing separating him and Yajirobe from the space demon horde. Korin pointed his finger up with the same impossible to discern expression he had all the time. "You guys have been called up to the God Temple. I guess that Kami will deal with you personally…"
"Huh? You mean you're not the real commander of this command tower?" Commander Zeeun scratched his head before wrapping his arms over his chest with smug confidence. "Then why are we dealing with you? You heard the cat, Evil Tribe, onward!"
Commander took a swift swoop upward, accompanied by his Evil Tribe legion in space suits and interstellar weaponry. While the invaders from space had a long distance to cover, with their demonic speed it only took them a snap before they hovered over the sublime visage of the God Temple and glared at a native young man with tattoos over his chest and face and a "God" kanji on the back of his jacket, a dark-skinned djinn that accompanied him as well as a bald shorty with a turtle gi, all wishing death upon them with their glares except for the djinn who was a blank-faced enigma.
"We are Evil Tribe serving Lord Slug and we have come to occupy this command center and its super-weapons in the name of Lord Slug. We don't care if you wish to surrender peacefully, we'll take it off of you either way. Accept life under Lord Slug's oppressive fist and an eternity of life-shaving torment or die at the hand of Commander Zeeun, the choice is yours!" Commander Zeeun spoke at the trio positioned at the center of the God Tower.
"Incredible, an Evil Tribe member with Ki this intense!" Krillin grit his teeth and took a fighting pose. Sweat formed over his bald head and he couldn't shake off the expression of grim desperation as long as his opponent stood before him.
"Do you think you can win, Krillin?" Mr. Popo turned to the bald martial artist.
"Who knows? One thing's for sure, if I didn't work my ass off here this past couple of weeks, I'd have been smoked for sure…" Krillin chuckled. He wasn't leagues and bounds ahead of the way he used to be when he faced Dr. Wheelo and his Bio-Warriors but he's achieved as impressive of a power-up as he could have in the limited time he had.
It was a little sad that he trained for the sole purpose of catching up to Yamcha and Tenshinhan, maybe even standing closer to the likes of Bardock, Piccolo, or Goku but he'd end up having to test himself against something else entirely.
"So you choose death, fine with me!" Commander Zeeun smirked, raising his fist up and instructing his soldiers to raze the God Temple and its inhabitants to the ground. Upa raised his own hands up, darkening the skies in the time that it took for the plasma bolts to reach the God Temple. A howling vortex of skin-shredding gale surrounded the God Temple and deflected or dissolved the bolts into mere harmless sparks. "More magic…" Zeeun hissed.
"You should stay back," Krillin glanced back at the young Kami behind him. "Your Ki isn't anywhere near this guy's level, no matter how powerful your magic is. One mistake can end up getting you killed. I'd appreciate it if you dealt with the soldiers though."
"You!" Upa stepped out in front of Krillin, surprising the baldy as the young Kami pointed his finger at Commander Zeeun. "You will leave these sacred grounds at once! Tell your tyrant leader that Earth is under the protection of me and my champions. We've had run-ins with your kind before and the Evil Tribe has been wiped clean from the face of this planet. If you do not leave immediately, we'll be forced to do away with your filth as well."
"Hmph… What a loud little rascal…" Commander Zeeun showed his fangs with a defiant smirk. In a blink he vanished and appeared next to Upa, applying a tight hold around the body of the young man as he lifted him up in the air. His expression made it obvious that the Commander was taking sadistic glee from every moment of threatening to snap the Earth's Kami into two like a twig. "And what would you do if I did this?" he wondered.
Krillin was about to attack but Mr. Popo lashed out first, charging in and blitzing Commander Zeeun before delivering a kick to the exposed back of the space demon. It didn't look like it ended up hurting the commander of Lord Slug's forces too badly but it made him drop Upa from his bearhug and turn at the djinn with a vexed expression. Zeeun tilted his arm up, releasing a pulse of Ki from his hand to do away with the djinn but Mr. Popo merely crossed his arms and skid back, taking little to no damage from the attack.
"I am a djinn. A being of pure magic. It will take more than brute force to do away with me and I won't let you hurt Kami! I might not be strong enough to defeat you, but Krillin here is," Mr. Popo pointed to Krillin who still stood there with his right leg bent and frozen in a kicking stance, the baldy looked a tad baffled by so much faith being placed on his shoulders.
"Hmph… This shrimp? Don't you dare mock me!" Commander Zeeun cracked his knuckles. "You've done and pissed me off, I'll have my forces commit a complete genocide on those pesky Earthlings once I'm through with you!"
"Fine then!" Krillin tightened his belt and took a fighting stance, facing Commander Zeeun. "Let's fight. Just me and you. It's clear that your forces can't hurt this tower and that you don't have the magical ability to defeat Mr. Popo. If you win – you can take everything you want from it and do whatever you like. If we win – you leave."
"You dare issue ultimatums to me, Commander Zeeun!?" Zeeun pressed his arms to his side as his aura burst forth wild from the pores of the space demon. "Evil Tribe, take over this command center by force! You won't let some djinn and a puny Earthling wizard stand in your way, will you?"
The soldiers all opened fire at once, darkening the sky in contrast to the intense beaming blasts that they aimed to destroy Upa and Mr. Popo as well as decimate their God Temple with. The plasma bolts only bounced off harmlessly off of Mr. Popo's chest as the magical being stood out in front of Kami with his chest blown out, serving as a body shield. Upa whirled his tomahawks, summoning pillars of mountain-sized lightning bolts that devoured Commander Zeeun's men and sent them plummeting down scorched and covered in ashes.
"Tsk… Fine! I'll just kill you lot myself!" Commander Zeeun growled, choosing to do away with Krillin first, seeing how the badly clearly challenged him first. Zeeun halted his outburst of purple aura and charged right at his opponent, vanishing in mid-motion and moving in behind the stumped martial artist with a double-arm hammer slam to Krillin's back.
After exposing the back of the enemy and managing to stun him with a successful attack, Zeeun exploited his advantage with a stout beatdown, swinging both of his thick arms like hammers and sending Krillin down on his face. A booming shockwave emanated through the entire God Temple when Zeeun stomped Krillin's back and laughed out with an animalistic growl.
"You? Challenge me? Ridiculous!" Commander Zeeun gloated. "As if a mere human could do away with an Evil Tribesman like me!"
The stalwart demon swung his foot with a weighty thud and sent Krillin flying like a football after a good punt as he chased after his opponent. Krillin grunted in pain after Commander Zeeun butted his head into Krillin's gut. The space demon had tried impaling Krillin on one of his horns though he only managed to slash Krillin's abdomen and push the Earthling martial artist further in a position for his tackle. Zeeun flexed his neck and prepared to beat down his opponent for good.
He only happened to disperse an afterimage as Krillin vanished into thin air. The baldy homed in on his opponent from the side, freezing Commander Zeeun as the demon stiffened in preparation of meeting his opponent head-on. It was clear that the invader had expected the ensuing clash to be formidable as Krillin's speed warranted nothing less than a matching level of power. However, what the demonic commander did not expect was that Krillin would stop and grimace right at him, just inches outside of his reach while sticking out his tongue.
Another fake-out afterimage as Krillin appeared behind Commander Zeeun and kicked him in the back, sending the much larger enemy flying uncontrollably. The Earthling martial artist raced right after his opponent, sliding in mid-air to slam his foot against Zeeun's legs and send the brute spinning in mid-air while Krillin ascended with a rising, spinning barrage of kicks. A couple of quick jabs from both his arms stabilized Zeeun from spinning so that Krillin could aim a good high kick and send Zeeun even further up.
Krillin vanished again, looking to divekick his opponent into an escalating fall so that he could exploit his enemy becoming an easy target with a barrage of Ki blasts but Zeeun recovered and moved away just in time, watching Krillin diving all the way down to the floor of God Temple where Zeeun soon descended also to meet his opponent in battle again.
"Hmph… I never expected a mere Earthling to put up this much resistance. Well done!" Zeeun smirked, displaying his wild, animalistic features. The bastard was enjoying it, Krillin saw it in his expression and he had every reason to enjoy this. He had a slight edge in strength and speed, as well as toughness. Not to mention the demonic anatomy that granted him a greater resistance to violent beatings compared to a human. Zeeun's Ki would degrade far slower than Krillin's in a vicious, bloody brawl so even a prolonged fight put Krillin into a rough disadvantage.
"Damn… I've got no other choice but to go all-out!" Krillin pressed his arms to his sides, releasing a powerful burst of blazing Ki from his body. Goku had once dispatched of the King of the local Evil Tribe and this method of Ki manipulation was now Krillin's crutch too. It was a risky move but it was also the only move as Krillin would either settle it or break himself trying rather than folding to his enemy in a drawn-out match.
"Hot-Red!" Krillin yelled out in tremendous physical strain that hit his body almost immediately. Still, as much stress as setting himself ablaze like this and driving himself into a state of severe dehydration would put on him, it would also make his Ki shoot sky-high compared to his previous level. Krillin shot out, punching Zeeun into an open fist as the space demon struggled to hold his own against an explosive offensive from his opponent, feeling like he was being pressured into a corner.
"Get off!" Commander Zeeun roared, erupting in a burst of Ki that formed a hefty explosive wave and sent Krillin flying back. Despite the mighty eruption of energy, Krillin bounced off the tiles underneath his feet as if it was a mere gust pushing him back before rushing right back at his opponent with a relentless charge. Zeeun extended his arms, unleashing a fully-powered Ki wave to stop Krillin in mid-rush.
Zeeun smirked as he put all of his power into his wave and managed to overpower Krillin's reckless attempt to charge right through the blast, sending the Earthling martial artist flying and flat on his back. Krillin hopped back on both feet, still burning up with a fiery aura blazing around his body and itching to return to battle. Zeeun cracked his knuckles and his neck with pure fighting joy gleaming from his eyes.
"I've got you on the ropes, runt! That little trick was something but you've wasted too much time and now it's burning away at your own strength. It looks like your own technique's doing you in…" Commander Zeeun flexed his arms out as if challenging Krillin to take a swing at him.
Knowing that his opponent was right, Krillin was pressed to charge on. He clenched his arms by his side and rushed right at his opponent despite the ever-widening difference in their Ki. Zeeun blocked Krillin's charging punch and answered with a world-rocking smash of his own before charging at his flying opponent with a slam of his hand. Zeeun grabbed Krillin by his face and dragged his opponent's head through the ground before joining the push of inertia and throwing his opponent up in the air and unleashing a barrage of Ki blasts at Krillin.
Zeeun's arms sunk down by his side, the demon allowed himself the luxury of his worn-out muscles twitching a few times. Even with Krillin's sky-high Ki having dipped significantly, he still had to pull out all of his tricks to buy himself time against a powered-up opponent. Enough time to where Krillin would degrade to a condition where Zeeun could either hang around or dominate his opponent just like he was used to fighting.
The demonic commander had expected his opponent to fall down from the cloud of smoke he created with his Ki blast barrage but Krillin remained airborne and fully conscious, clutching at the wounds littering his body as the right side of Krillin's gi had been completely singed off. The bald martial artist descended down on the ground, halting the wild flow of Hot-Red at once. Upa and Mr. Popo exclaimed in shock. This was almost an admittance of Krillin's defeat as his Ki had plummeted down well below half of what it was and he was already struggling with his opponent, to begin with.
"Heh, admitting defeat, Earthling? Fine, beg me for a swift end and I'll deliver it to you!" Commander Zeeun taunted his opponent but Krillin merely slipped off the sash tied to his belt and flicked a bean from it into his mouth, chewing it a good handful of times before gulping it down and standing around for a few blinks, waiting for the effects of Senzu to kick in.
Zeeun could only exclaim in terror when his opponent recovered back to full strength as his wounds completely disappeared, both bruises and burns alike. Had Krillin's gi not been in tatters, Zeeun would have had no idea that the bald shorty even went through a grueling battle for life and death. By eating that magical bean, Krillin's strength had returned to its peak as the martial artist flexed his muscles and tested his regained full power.
"Now I can fight with Hot-Red again," Krillin stated, entering a stance meant for powering-up as Commander Zeeun took a couple of fearful steps back.
"Y-You mean those… Those beans possess magical healing qualities?" Commander Zeeun exclaimed.
"That's right. Comes in handy when your own techniques put a strain on your body," Krillin rubbed his own nose, feeling unable to contain a healthy chuckle as his pinch had just been reversed on his opponent. "You better get ready, I'm going to attack you with full-power now!"
"W-Wait…" Commander Zeeun pleaded. "I'll… I'll retreat, I swear. My soldiers are still alive, I can reach them on a telepathic link, I'll tell all of them to flee and tell Lord Slug to leave this planet and never return, just like you said!"
"Hot-Red Scatter Energy Wave!" Krillin pressed his arms to his side, unleashing all of his Hot-Red Ki once more. Two fiery orbs formed in each of Krillin's hand which the martial artist thrust out and toward his enemy, the orbs unleashed infernal energy waves that collided into a single wave before taking a steep plunge upward and descending upon the petrified Evil Tribesman in a scattershot from the air that rained down utter destruction upon Commander Zeeun. The demon was left as a mangled and burnt up body of whited out eyes and scorched skin with the expression of agony permanently sealed onto his face.
Krillin halted his Hot-Red and wiped the sweat off his face, realizing that he might need yet another Senzu if he was to join the trouble brewing on the rest of Earth and help his friends kick this Lord Slug off of Earth for good.
"We must depart to South City at once. That is where the biggest casualties are and where the most intense fighting is taking place. I can sense that Chayote and Piccolo aren't too far away from Earth either and they are bringing what feels like an entire army with them," Upa turned his hopeful gaze to the darkening sky over his head. "All we need is to win some time until they arrive and prevent as many casualties as we can. We cannot restore anybody that died back to life without the Dragon Balls."
"Huh? What happened to the Dragon Balls?" Krillin scratched the back of his head looking bewildered.
"I can sense that all semblance of magic is gone from them. It's as if Piccolo had died but… I think that I can still sense something similar to his Ki up on Chayote's aircraft. It's a mystery that will have to be clarified by those two but for now, we must fight with the thought in mind that there will be no returning from the dead to those that pass away," Upa replied with a grim expression before he struck the lower ends of his tomahawks into the ground and formed portals of crackling lightning in the fabric of space. Gleaming wormholes that would take them to South City just as fast as Mr. Popo's magical carpet would.