Potara - Chapter 3: Ruined Earth
Pan's screams faded as she passed into the portal. It felt as if her body was being torn apart and ripped to shreds. Green energy coated her sight, it was all she could see. She couldn't feel any part of her body, it felt as if she were floating, no, sprawling, falling, through an endless green expanse. She tried to cry, but no tears would fall. Tried to move, but couldn't budge. Tried to scream, but no sound came. Slowly, she felt like she was losing consciousness, losing any sense of herself.
She didn't even realize when all of the sudden she appeared, whole in body, a green aura of unusual energy surrounding her, on a hill looking overlooking a ruined, devastated town. She floated to the ground and stood there, in a daze. The green energy faded, and she fell to her knees, a ringing sound in her ears, her vision blurry. She collapsed fully, looking down at the town without really looking. She thought she heard an explosion, though she saw a flash of orange fire and black smoke.
She closed her eyes, and took in her first breath since passing through the portal. The ringing slowly faded, and other sounds became more concrete. She slowly gained back her senses. She sniffed, smelling smoke. She tilted her head, hearing booms. She rose to a knee, gripping her head.
"Ugh...," she muttered to herself.
She glance around weakly, "Where... am I?"
BOOM!
Pan yelped as a shock-wave slammed into her and knocked her back to the ground. She shook her head and blinked, fully gaining her senses back. She became aware all of the sudden of two humongous Ki signatures far away, smashing into each other, they were strong really strong, close to Goten and Trunks when they spared as Super Saiyans. Closer, nearby in the town she was looking at, she could feel small ki signatures disappearing one by one, being pursued by larger ones. What in the world was going on?
Pan rose to her feet and took off towards the town. She grew fearful, hearing screams being cut off one, by one, by one. She gave a startled cry as she came across the first corpse, burned by a ki blast. She ground her teeth, who, who had done this?
She rushed into the town, keeping close to the wall and trying not to look at all the dead bodies everywhere. She saw a older woman running with two children, one boy one girl, holding her hands. A ki blast shot out and tore through the woman's chest, killing her and knocking the children to the ground.
Pan covered her mouth to hold in her scream. She glared hatefully towards the source of the ki blast and saw a man standing there. She was surprised, he wore armor sort of similar to Vegeta, except striped and with shoulder pads. His face was hard and cruel, a wicked grin on his face. His hair kind of spiky, similar somewhat to Grandpa and Vegeta. Around his waste was a curled tail. Was he... a Saiyan?
"He he he, one bitch down, two brats to go, and the towns almost clean. This is too easy with the head bitch and the other two kept busy, there won't be a single human left by the time this day's over," said the man, walking towards the children.
Pan clenched her fists in fury. MURDERER! He was killing innocent people! Slaughtering them and looking like he was enjoying it. The man stopped and held out a hand, aiming towards the kids.
He licked his lips. "Night night kiddies."
"NO!" screamed Pan as her rage exploded, igniting her ki, and surged through the air at him.
The man gave a start and glanced her way. "Wha?"
Pam slammed a fist into his face, smashing him through a nearby building, she turned to the kids, "Run! Get out of here!
The kids didn't move, terror on their faces.
"You little witch!" the Saiyan cried out.
Pan turned back in time to cross her arms to block a devastating kick aimed at her stomach. She was sent rocketing back and slammed through a dusty street sign, snapping the top part off. She rolled along the ground, wincing painfully, before springing up to her feet and cupping her hands to her side.
"Kaaa-meeee," she began.
The Saiyan paused. "The hell? Her power is skyrocketing..."
"Haaaaa-meeee-HAAAAAAA," Pan screamed before aiming her hands and releasing the energy wave towards the Saiyan.
The Saiyan grinned. "Not bad kid."
He gave a roar and slammed his fist into the energy wave, knocking it into a building and causing it to explode. Pan's eyes went wide as the Saiyan began to power up. Oh shit, he was stronger than she was, way stronger.
The Saiyan laughed. "Intel said there were only three threats, guess they were wrong. Probably weren't lookin for little kids, I gotta hand it to you for hiding and livin this long."
Before she could react, the Saiyan crossed the distance and gut punched Pan hard, causing blood to spurt out her mouth several feet over the Saiyan's shoulder. Pan fell to her knees, wheezing. The Saiyan knelt town, took a finger, and dragged it along her blood on the ground before raising it to his lips.
"Mmmm," said the Saiyan, enjoying the taste.
Pan looked at him, horrified. The Saiyan stood before slamming his leg into Pan's side, sending her sprawling across the street.
"Hey guys! Look at what we got here!"
Pan cringed, slowly, rising to her feet to see another three saiyan's appear, two men and a woman. All four began to circle her, chuckling and jeering. Pan was scared, she was only strong enough to fight the weakest, the other three were way stronger than she was. What was she going to do?
"Kaio-ken TIMES TWENTY!" a woman's voice yelled out.
Before anyone could react a blur of red slammed into the initial male Saiyans, pulverizing him in a barrage of blows that left him a bloody mess. Pan was shocked to see her Grandpa's old technique coating the woman in a fiery red aura, but was grateful to take in the sight. The woman looked about twenty years old. Her face was tough and ragged, a few heavy scars on it. Her hair was short, almost like Pan's mother had been in her teen years. She was wearing a torn up black and white gi that had a symbol that stood for "Fox Hermit" above her right breast. Pan was curious, who in the world was the Fox Hermit?
The three Saiyans jumped the woman, trying to overwhelm her. "Kid! Get out of here!"
Pan recovered and shook her head. "No!"
Pan crossed her arms and powered up. "Haaaaaaaaaa!"
The woman shot her a surprised look before Pan surged into the fray, tackling the weakest Saiyan, a fat plump one, out of the fight. Pan hit him on the head over and over again, letting her fury over the death of the innocent people in this town overtake her. Her power ignited, surging higher and higher. She clobbered him over and over again before he suddenly opened his mouth and let out a mouth beam, blasting Pan off of him.
Pan winced and recovered, standing up only to cry out and be knocked back down as the fat Saiyan headbutted her belly hard. Pan kicked him off her and rolled, cringing and cradling her ribs. Oh man that had hurt. She glanced up, only to be kicked in the face, knocking her back a few feet and onto her back. Dammit...
"Kaio-ken Times Ten!" a man's voice sounded out.
A man surged over Pan's head and slammed a knee into the fat Saiyan's neck, snapping it. Pan watched in shock as the fat saiyan fell over dead and the man touched down and looked her over curiously. He was older, maybe fifty. He was tough looking, muscular, with a serious face. The fires of the Kaio-ken giving him an almost menacing appearance. However, all Pan had to do was look into his eyes to find a soft, kind man. He wore a gi similar to the other woman's, owning loyalty to the Fox Hermit.
Pan rose to her feet, wincing. "We have... to help her..."
The man shook his head. "Aideen can handle herself. You need to grab those others kids and get out of here, head to Haven, quickly, Odianna is holding off the main force and can keep you all safe. Stick low to the ground and don't draw attention."
Pan blinked, taking in the flurry of names and orders, she could still feel two huge power's, dwarfing either of the two humans and Saiyans in front of her, fighting in the distance. "Haven...?"
"Dammit Aneurin! Get the hell over here!" shouted the woman, Aideen.
Immediately the man, Aneurin, took off to join the fight. Pan stood there, watching in awe, as the two of them picked the two remaining Saiyan's apart. Pan blinked, her eyes narrowing, sighting another Saiyan leaning against the shadow of a ruined, burning building. He looked somewhat similar to the first Saiyan she had encountered, but, she took note that he had no tail.
Pan grew squeamish as, rather than just defeat them, the two Kaio-ken warriors killed the downed Saiyans, a beam through the back of their heads. That... that went against everything Grandpa had ever taught her. There was no honor in that act. Though, unlike the Saiyans, at least they didn't look they got a thrill out of murder like the Saiyans did. They just looked grim.
The Saiyan in the shadows began to clap and walk forward. "Well done, you took care of the trash."
Pan bristled. How could he talk about his own allies like that? Aneurin and Aideen took a battle stance and looked like they were about to attack before the woman froze. Pan felt a wave of fear wash over her.
"No tail, he has no tail!" Aideen exclaimed.
"Haaaaaaaaaaa!" shouted the Saiyan, his hair raising into the air and turning yellow.
"Shit! Super Saiyan!" swore Aneurin.
Pan shared their fear as the Super Saiyan's aura ignited around him. The Super Saiyan was upon them before they could react, clobbered Aneurin to the ground with a two handed fist. Aneurin's kaio-ken aura faded away the moment he hit the ground. The Super Saiyan rushed Aideen, engaging her in a flurry of blows.
"Times twenty-five!" shouted Aideen desperately.
Her aura expanded and she screamed with pain, it was clear that level of Kaio-Ken was to far too high for her body. For a few moments though, it looked like she was driving the Super Saiyan back. All Pan had to see to crush that hope was the grin on the Saiyan's face, he was toying with the woman. The Saiyan grabbed one arm that was swinging at him overhead, grabbed another that went for his gut, locking her down. He lashed out with a knee, driving it into his opponent's stomach.
Aideen gasped and staggered back, her opponent letting go of her. The onslaught was instant and relentless, smashing fists and knees and legs and feet into her over and over again before he finally kicked her to the ground.
Aideen trembled in pain, struggling to rise to her feet. "K-k-kaio-K-ken t-times t-thirt..."
The Super Saiyan smashed a leg into her head, knocking her fully to the ground and extinguishing her red aura. "As much as I would find it amusing for you to kill yourself with that pathetic trick, I'd rather pick you apart myself. Not to mention..."
He licked his lips. "I might want to enjoy you a bit first."
"Hyaaaa!" Pan cried out, surging at his head and booting him with all her might.
The Super Saiyan staggered a few feet before turning towards her, a grin on his face. "Tsk tsk tsk, you should have run away little girl."
The Super Saiyan grabbed the neck of her gi and rammed his head into hers. Pan cried out in pain before he brutally slammed her into the ground. Pan laid there, sobbing quietly to herself, unable to move.
"Pathetic, I'm shocked you humans have lasted this long, I..." the Super Saiyan began to say.
The Super Saiyan paused and whirled around. "Shit."
Pan tried to focus and became aware of something. Of the two huge powers that had been fighting a ways away, only one, now feeling weaker, remained and was rapidly approaching. Pan weakly glanced up to see a red light streaking towards the town, stopping above them.
Floating there, glaring down with a cold, almost frighteningly wrathful face was a teenage girl, maybe sixteen years old. Her fists were clenched hard, Pan was surprised there wasn't blood flowing from them. The girl was the third one bearing the Fox Hermit Gi, engulfed in the aura of the Kaio-Ken. The girl's ki gave off a menacing feeling, but Pan was sure it was directed all at the Super Saiyan. The girl slowly turned her face, gazing over the town, stopping on each dead body she saw. Each one piled on the anger, the raw hate that Pan felt emanating from her. Pan began to tremble, feeling frightened of her. The girl glanced at Aideen and Aneurin, an annoyed look briefly crossed her face. Finally, she turned her gaze upon the Super Saiyan. Was she the Odianna the other two had been talking about? She had to be.
Odianna's anger and hatred erupted, and in a loathing voice she screamed, "Kaio-Ken times fifty!"
Pan coughed with shock. She didn't know that much about the Kaio-Ken, but she did remember Grandpa saying that is was an extremely dangerous technique to use. The highest he had ever gone was twenty, god ki or not. Going higher than twenty was asking to get your body ripped apart he had told her.
A shock-wave erupted from the woman before she launched herself at the Super Saiyan with a fury that Pan had never seen before. For a brief moment, Pan hoped what she felt was wrong. The woman had appeared just like Grandpa in his old stories when he arrived to save the day with determination to protect his friends, but mercy towards his opponents. It was clear right away that it not not the same with this woman, she was nothing like Grandpa. Each attack, each blow she threw was viscous, meant to maim or kill. Ki blasts flew from each of them carelessly, coming damn near close to hitting the three downed fighters.
"Damned Saiyan garbage! You should never have come here!" yelled Odianna.
The Super Saiyan didn't respond, desperately focusing everything he had to try and keep pace. Pan watched in disbelief, not sure if she was dreaming. She had never seen a human go toe to toe with a Super Saiyan like that, not counting the undetectable androids, but there was a clear ki signal coming from her. Then again, Tien and Krillin, even her own mother, were super strong humans. If they could use the Kaio-Ken like she could, they could probably take on a Super Saiyan with relative ea...
Pan gave a cry as a ki blast hit the ground next to her, half hitting her and sending her flying. She rolled along the ground and came to a stop, breathing heavily, her breathing raspy. Dammit... everything hurt so much...
Pan struggled to not black out, focusing her on the battle. The girl ducked under a swipe, bringing one of her hands up to push her opponent's arm up, and gut punching with the other. The Super Saiyan staggered back, coughing up a bit of blood.
Odianna swept the Super Saiyan's feet out from under him and grabbed a leg as he fell. With a war cry, she rushed forward towards the broken sign Pan had hit earlier. She swung him over head and skewered him on the pole. The Saiyan roared in agony, grabbing the pole, and ripping it out of him.
Odianna flew up high and then surged down, driving a knee deep into his gut. The Super Saiyan puked up blood onto the girl, a little bit splashing her face. She grinned wickedly, licking up the blood, before she bared her fists and let into the pinned fighter. Slowly, the yellow aura of the Super Saiyan faded, but she still didn't stop. Pan felt sick, trying, but failing to look away as the girl beat the Saiyan long after he died. Finally, she stood, kicked the corpse of the Saiyan up into the air, and blew him away with a burst of Ki.
The girl's Kaio-Ken aura faded, revealing her natural brown hair and eye colors. She walked over to Aideen and Aneurin and aimed a hand at them, gifting them ki. Slowly, the two recovered and sat up, groaning.
"How many times do you two have to almost die before you listen? Don't fight Super Saiyans! Leave them to me!" yelled Odianna.
Aideen rose to her feet, massaging her shoulder. "Not like we had a choice, he jumped us."
"Pah," scoffed Odianna, "I felt another power near the Super Saiyan briefly after you fell. Is there another Saiyan I need to take care of?"
Aneurin glanced around before spotting and pointing at Pan. "No, what you felt was that little girl over there."
Odianna looked at Pan with disbelief. "Seriously? You have to be joking, that power at that age? If she was what I felt earlier she spiked higher than your times ten for a moment, Aneurin. I've never seen her before, who taught her the Kaio-Ken and what level was she at?"
"She wasn't using it at all," said Aideen.
"Eh?" replied Odianna.
Odianna slowly walked over, standing over Pan and studying her. "That power at that age isn't normal at all... her ki though, its felt almost as if... but no, she doesn't look Saiyan... and wait, that gi, who the hell is the Turtle Hermit?"
A small voice called out. "S-she saved us. The Saiyan's killed mom, and were about to kill us! But she drove him off and then got beat up."
Odianna glanced over at the two children from earlier who were peeking over at them from behind a pile of rubble. "Hmm."
"Wonder about it later, she needs a medic, we all do," said Aneurin.
"Speak for yourself," said Odianna, before she looked at Pan and spoke critically, "Can you stand?"
Pan tried to speak, but couldn't find the strength. In one way, she hoped the girl would gift her ki like she did the other's so she could move on her own, in another way though, she didn't want to feel that kind of malice in her body.
"Hmph, guess not," said Odianna dismissively before turning and walking away.
"Hey you two, want to help me carry her back to Haven?" Aideen asked the children.
The two children nodded and ran over, gently picking Pan up by her arms and putting her over their shoulders. Aideen wrapped her arms around the children and started to fly into the air, following Odianna and Aneurin.
"What about mamma and the others? We can't just leave them here," asked one of the children.
Aideen shook her head. "I'm sorry, We will send someone to bring them to the cemetary later, we can't be sure if all the Saiyans have been taken care of. We need to bunker down for awhile."
The children nodded and grew silent. It was weird, Pan would have thought that the children would have cried, but, they sounded almost resigned, as if they were dulled towards death. Pan weakly shook her head and closed her eyes, trying to relax. Oh man she felt sore and exhausted. Finally, she gave a sigh and gave in to her weariness, passing out.
Trivia/Facts: (If you guys want I can start keeping/making this section for every chapter to give helpful hints/backstory, let me know, also, give feedback on the storyline/plot and OCs! Since were moving into uncharted territory for DBZ, there's going to be a lot of OCs.)
(1) Aideen's name means 'Little Fire'.
(2) Aneurin's name I believe is welsh, meaning 'man of Honor'.
(3) Odianna is from the word Odi, which is Latin for 'Hatred', adding an "anna" at the end to try and sound female. Corney common way to make a female name, I know, but I couldn't really find a name that meant Hatred that wasn't really crazy sounding, sorry, but Hatred you will come to find is a core concept of this character.
(4) Pan has inherited a version of her father's legendary rage boosts that appears twice in this chapter. Not as potent, maybe 50% as effective, but, she can control herself and doesn't have memory loss issues from it. She doesn't have much experience with it though to maximize its effectiveness, her life had been relatively peaceful.
(5) Pan knows the basics of most of the events in Dragonball/Dragonball Z/Dragonball Super. However, any really brutal details have been kept from her. Example: Her grandma being turned into an egg and crushed by Majin Buu, things of that nature.