Xecroas prime. A desert world of hardened peoples and ferocious beasts, a place any of its inhabitants would freely admit is a land of danger, thirst, and needless bloodshed. With most of the universe under the control of the PTO its no question under normal circumstances it would be welcomed with open arms onto Freeza's rule.
The only problem was, the world was dangerous only to it's own inhabitants, and those who would already be considered mediocre at best by the standard of the universe at large. The truth is, Xecroas prime is a world of terror and danger only to slaves and weak soldiers. Nothing more than an illusion of a real threat, one that was lucky enough to produce outliers who stood a shadow of a chance against the leadership of a low class vessel barely cleared for planetary purges.
But what becomes of those who are weak enough? What happens to those poor souls who can be over taken by the elements or hunted down by the beasts hiding in dark places? Surely the terror that the planet falsely represents to the strong would ring true in the ears of those who were weak?
Like the inhabitants of most worlds, even the weak ones, those who were in real danger would either adapt to and overcome the challenges nature presents to them, or die like the rest would. The failures would be eaten, and forgotten as the powerless often were. But those who survived long enough? Those who struggled against the seemingly inevitable?
They would grow.
In the shadows of an abandoned water processing facility, infested with those animals who lived beneath the desert surface of this strange world, a monster took its first steps into the galaxy at large. Who could say how far he would go?
The metal pipes lining the subterranean walls of my prison thundered and shook as I crashed against sharp turns and cramped spaces, sputtering and inhaling water as I blindly shot through the building. I forced myself to wait as long as I could before attempting to escape, knowing that if I was too close to the creatures inside this place I would die just the same as I would have if I laid down and let the new face of my nightmares take me like it wanted to.
It was the unthinking fear of seeing it again that gave me the strength to wait as long as I did. Somehow I even managed to keep track of the scavengers as I waited, stopping only when I was certain none of them were too close, and taking advantage of the small space to force my weight against the pipes interior on all sides. It didn't quite stop me, but it slowed me enough to press the barrel of my blaster against whatever metal this world used for piping, and fire.
I burst through in a torrent of water and no small amount of blood, gasping and heaving as I puked up whatever I had managed to inhale on my journey. I collapsed, breathing in as much air as I could, and processing everything that had just happend. I made it, I fought with everything I had for what was probably only going to be a few more minutes of life. Distantly I reaffirmed that I would do it a thousand times over if I could.
But now I was alone, uncertain of where I was, and wounded. With strength a human wouldn't have I stood shakily, before I took off my shirt. It was tattered, soaked, and bloodstained, just like me. I wrung it out a few times, searching for any approaching energy as I did. When it was about as dry as I could get it I tore it apart into a few strips, tightly wrapping the cloth against every wound I figured was too big to simply ignore. Which was most of them. If not for ki I was actually pretty sure I'd have died already.
As it was I didn't have much left. The water doing as good a job at killing my adrenaline as the monsters had at killing my friends. At the thought I turned my focus upward, looking for Shalex and Marriv. They had escaped hadn't they? The worst of our pursuers had went after me over them, and I don't think the creature that had mimicked N'lam had any friends around to chase after them.
Either way I couldn't sense them. How long had I ran? How long had I been in the water? I'd say long enough for them to get out of my range and to whatever safety they could find in the desert. Or long enough for the defenders in the city to chase them down and finish what the scavengers started. I grimaced at the thought. I was alone.
At least on the ship there were people around me. An illusion of companionship I didn't know I would want back. At least I wouldn't have to worry about keeping someone else alive, or some fool making too much noise. No familiar presence to make surviving in the dark bearable.
I froze at the distant sound of an all too recognizable scream, It was far off but quickly getting closer. For a few shameful seconds I could do nothing but wait as death came my way, before I finally managed to swallow my terror. With no time to flee, and no safe place to hide I grabbed an overhead pipe, before swinging myself around and between it and the ceiling above. It was a tight fit, but between the water clinging to me, and the desperation I squeezed in, and waited. Out of instinct and a general suspicion that these creatures could manipulate energy I kept my power as low as I could. In the end it either didn't matter or made all the difference.
I held my breath, shivering between wet stone and cold metal as it's energy finally flickered underneath me. It screamed for a while longer, waiting by the broken pipes for me to make a mistake, a sound. It hovered under me for what felt like hours, before it hissed and moved away without a sound. I didn't move even after I was sure it was gone, only closing my eyes and letting my exhaustion take me.
It was odd how easy it was to fall apart when you could barely see, when you had no one to help stave off the lonliness, when you find yourself almost too afraid to breathe. I spent my first day alone without moving a muscle, the hours flying by in a quiet but horrible mix of terror and sleep. I hid until I couldn't take another second without moving, then I hid some more.
Sometimes I dreamt of home, or what little I could remember of it. Other times I dreamt of being found and torn apart, my screams echoing throughout this place for years after my death. Once I even dreamt of who I might have been if I hadn't died. Maybe I would have had a family of my own, a wife and a child. Would I have figured it out on my own? Would I have been happy or fufilled?
Even through the dreams and the pain I practiced with my energy, keeping it low but manipulating it with a ferocity and hunger that only seemed to grow as I worked more and more. I think it was the second day when the anger started. I had finally moved from hiding place, only to scramble back when I slipped on the still slick floor, and in my terror only think of how much noise I had made. It kept running through my mind as I twitched at every sound, every feeling my ki couldn't explain. I had wanted to curl into a ball and hope that the world would get better. I knew I would just be letting myself feed the creatures I was so afraid of.
They were nothing, specs of dust beneath the fingernails of the beings I wanted match up to, and yet I had never been more afraid. As the thought grew more and more pronounced in my mind I felt it coil and curl in my guts, rising up in some twisted combination of unthinking terror, and bloodcurdling rage. It built and built in my head, eating at my mind like maggots on a corpse, somehow tightening my hold over my own power. I seethed and raged, fighting the silence with my constant anger. The thought of dying still keeping me from straying far from the safety I found, but giving me the drive to move, to plan.
On the fourth day I pulled away from my place on the pipes for the last time and let myself fall to floor, using my energy to slow my descent and let myself land without a sound. I stood fully, stretching and listening to my bones pop, listening to how they only seemed to emphasize that I was alone. I realized two things as I started to move down the hall. I have the power to leave this place and never look back. But I can't.
I don't want to. Not yet. How could I?
The realization struck me like fucking lightning. How could I leave now? The real fun hadn't even started yet. I hadn't started yet.
The idea just seemed so funny. I started laughing. I laughed long and loud, my voice ringing through the halls with all the danger and lack of caution of a madman. I felt the scavengers start to move in my direction when I finally started to yell and scream for all to hear.
"HELP ME!" I screamed."SOMEBODY PLEASE!" I yelled. It came out as a mixture of real fear and honest humor. No one was going to help me but me, myself, and I. And that didn't matter anymore.
This was all just fine with me. When the scream finally sounded off, and that thing finally started to come after me again, I answered its call just as loudly. "SAVE ME!" I roared, the sound more a demand than a request.
But what was left to save? A dead man? A slave?
Just Me. Just Dennis; and I'll see myself out when I'm good and ready.
It was the scavengers who found me first, trying to approach me without a sound, not understanding that I figured out where each and everyone of them were at all times, following every movement with eyes that couldn't see them and ears that couldn't hear them. I whipped around, firing both my blasters into a small pack that had turned the corner behind me. I caught one that managed to lunge past my blaster, tossing it away and into another that had come the opposite way around.
Another managed to bite into my arm before I could bring it down, its massive jaw almost consuming the entire limb, before I slammed it into the wall at my side. I felt its guts spill onto my feet when I fired a few shots into its stomach. Then I dodged a bladed limb as it swung around for my head, letting it burst open a pipe and send the creature flying back into the wall, just like it had days earlier. The screaming stopped with a blast of water and a rather human sounding sputter.
I turned as it struggled to stand up on its chitinous legs, tilting my head as the scavengers gave it the space to attack me on its own, just like when it had first chased me down. Only this time I wanted to fight. I stopped at the thought, before I shook my head. No, no I didn't want to fight it. I want to kill it. The smile on my face grew even more as I felt it take a curious step forward, readying to scream at me again.
I answered its renewed call with the first bit of ki manipulation I had ever learned. My power flared, for the first time in days being expanded to its fullest. Bringing direct and bright light into the eyes of dozens of nocturnal, but not quite blind animals.
It worked like a charm.
The whole room reared back, a mixture of yelps and screams filling the air alongside my own laughter. I fired into the creature as it writhed on the ground, desperately and fruitlessly trying to cover its small eyes.
"Cry for me." I grinned, keeping the light up even as I stepped forward, forcing the scavengers to back away as the creatures writhing only intensified. When I stood over it the scream sounded again, this time mixing with its own calls of terror. "SCREAM FOR ME!" It's limbs flailed blindly as it tried to strike out at me without sight, its biggest strength stolen right out from under it. I stepped back a step as its limb shot out, before I moved, taking three steps forward and bringing a ki enhanced boot down on its head.
With a crunch I felt its brains give way past whatever it used for bone, and I felt my face almost tear with the grin that brought out of me.
Now I can leave.