The Strange Power of Guldo's Mystic Force! Recoome Shifts Into Turbo!
"Look," Burter grumbled to Jeice in his native language while Guldo dealt with the pink weirdos, "Do you want to tell me what's bothering you?"
"Y'know what's bothering me," Jeice muttered without meeting Burter's eyes.
Burter rolled his eyes and groaned. "If I knew what it was," he pointed out sarcastically, "Why would I be asking?"
"Oh you know bloody well what I meant, ya tosser!"
"Sweet Merciful Serpentine gods, just use your words! What did I do, huh?!" While this was going on, the short one, the bald one, and the redhead charged up their power levels, making the Ginyus' scouters ping and notice the climbing number.
"Huh," Recoome said thoughtfully, "They might be stronger than Guldo. That's… a little surprising." Then again, Guldo had never been on the Force for his power as much as for his powers.
"I'll just let you three handle this," Vegeta said dryly as he took a step back and leaned against a rock.
"What happened to working together?" Suno asked out of the corner of her eye as they waited to see what Guldo was going to do. His ki didn't seem that strong but he might just be suppressing it like the Earthlings themselves had often done.
"I'll do it for one of the ones worth the effort," Vegeta shot back. Suno shrugged as she, Krillin, and Gohan charged at Guldo. She barely had time to wonder why he wasn't attacking or trying to defend himself when suddenly she was punching Gohan and Krillin was kicking her in the face while Gohan punched Krillin in the chest. The three went flying in opposite directions as Guldo snickered to himself.
"Krillin!" Suno snapped. "What the hell was that?"
"Don't look at me," Krillin shot back as he rubbed painfully at his chest. "Why're you punching your son?"
Suno realized that Krillin was correct and she had, in fact, punched Gohan in the stomach and ran to check on him. "Oh, Gohan," she said as her son had already gotten to his feet, "I don't know how that happened. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Gohan assured her. "It didn't really hurt that much." Well that hurt her pride, at the very least. Suno looked back at Guldo as he stood there smugly with his arms across his chest. She tried to communicate telepathically to Krillin and Gohan to come up with a plan but something seemed to be… boxing her inside her own mind. She looked at Guldo again and he was still smug but now there was a single bead of sweat slowly trickling down his forehead.
Suno's first instinct was to say "Son of a bitch," but there was one problem. Her mouth wasn't opening. She was able to move her eyes from side to side and saw that Krillin and Gohan were struck still, too. Guldo might not be strong, Suno realized, but he had serious telekinetic powers. Not to mention whatever he did to make them hit each other. Some kind of time distortion? That would make sense based on what that big woman Recoome had said. It also had something do, Suno knew, with his breathing. She watched as Guldo raised his arms and rocks lifted up out of the ground with bits of dirt and moss breaking off of them as they rose over his head, so maybe a good three feet off the ground? Guldo thrust his hands forward and the rocks hurtled at them with terminal velocity. However, as soon as the rocks began to move, Suno felt whatever it was that had been holding her in place slip and she, Krillin, and Gohan darted out of the way. Guldo stared in dumb shock before he finally opened his mouth for a big gulp of air.
"Seriously," Krillin asked. "Rocks? That was your big attack? Do you know how long ago I stopped being afraid of rocks? I think my incense burns were still clearly visible." He pointed at the faded white skin on his forehead as Guldo growled in irritation. Before they even had a chance to blink, Krillin had been crushed under a giant rock. "Okay," he muttered in muffled pain from underneath, "That hurts just a little bit!"
"Gohan," Suno said to her son out of the corner of her eye as she watched Guldo gasp and heave for air, "Give Krillin a hand. I think I've got this figured out. You see-"
"He can freeze time by holding his breath!" Vegeta blurted out to cut her off. Suno felt a vein in her forehead pulse as she whipped around and turned her fury on him.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US THAT IN THE TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE THEY GOT HERE?!" She demanded. Vegeta shrugged the shrug of a man who knew he couldn't actually be hurt.
"Because it amused me to watch and because it amuses me even more to take that little victory from you." He explained with a smirk, "Honestly, I was half-tempted to kick his head off just now."
"I'm right here!" Guldo snapped, clearly aggravated that no one took him seriously. Suno could take a shot in the dark that no one had ever taken him seriously.
"You're right," Suno told him as she got into her guard, "You're right there, so here I come!" She watched Guldo open his mouth to take a breath and... "Shinsoku Odori!" she lunged forward in a burst of accelerated speed with two fist-sized ki balls in each hand and flung them at Guldo. In an instant, he was gone and somewhere else on the battlefield but she rebounded off one of the earthen walls and was right on top of him again, flinging four more balls of ki. Again, Guldo would move and again she would be right there with another volley.
"Hey," Gohan pointed out as he pulled the rock off of Krillin with one hand, "Her attacks are just… floating there." Gohan was right. More than three dozen orbs of yellow light were hanging in deadly beauty, completely still in a crisscrossing pattern as Guldo did everything in his power to avoid them and Suno did everything in her power to surround him. Guldo would go to the water's edge, she'd come out of the water. He would fly into the sky, she'd already be overhead. Guldo took one last deep breath… and realized he was surrounded.
The quadriclops looked in every direction, his four eyes flitting nervously this way and that as his chest began to ache. There was no window. No pocket. Nowhere to go. As his lungs burned and the air began to slip past his lips, Suno slowly snapped her fingers at a glacial pace and spoke.
"Ki Ami!" she cried out. "Twenty meter radius!" The ki edged toward Guldo at a gradually-increasing pace, starting at the rate by which the universe was approaching its heat death and steadily growing faster. His eyes watered and his skin began to turn aquamarine from lack of oxygen as he reflected on every bad choice that had led him to this moment. As he felt the heat of the ki on his skin, Guldo realized with painful finality that every choice he'd ever made had led him here. Every single decision in his life… had been the wrong one.
As time finally moved at its proper pace and Guldo was obliterated in a glorious fireball, Suno landed in a crouch in front of Gohan and Krillin with the explosion at her back and her arms crossed at her chest.
"Holy crap, Suno!" Krillin exclaimed in astonishment. "That was amazing!" Gohan nodded enthusiastically with his mom's starry look in his eyes.
"You're awesome, mother!" Suno grinned and flicked a finger across her nose.
"Yeah," she said, "I am pretty great, aren't I?" Vegeta rolled his eyes.
OoOoOoO
"Look," Jeice huffed wearily, "I know y'like to brag about bein' the fastest thing in the universe an' all, but do we always have to rush everythin'? Can't we just, I dunno, take things easy and relax once inna while?"
"What," Burter asked indignantly as he puffed out his chest, "Just because I'm old, you expect me to be slow?" Jeice blinked in bewilderment.
"When did I… how does that…" his face, if possible, turned even redder, "You weren't listenin' to a bleedin' think I said, were ya, you stupid wanker!"
Recoome cleared her throat. "Uh, guys," she muttered politely, "I don't mean to interrupt, but they diiiid just kinda kill Guldo." Jeice and Burter looked at her and shrugged. "Oh, yeah, totally, I mean, it's just Guldo. I'm just saying, one of us needs to step in now, so y'wanna…" she patted one fist against her other open palm to imply Ro Sham Bo time.
Jeice sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Recoome," he grumbled, "We're kinna in the middle of somethin' here, so… can you just go ahead and take your turn?"
"Oh, yeah," Recoome said as her eyes widened slightly with understanding. "Hey, no problem. You guys take care of your thing, I'll be over here doin' our job." As Recoome turned around to look back at the Earthlings and Vegeta, she hoped that didn't sound too snippy. It was just that they were brought here to do a job, y'know?
"Uh oh," Krillin muttered, "We're fightin' the big gal." Big was definitely the word that came to mind as Recoome came closer to them, putting one hand across her chest while she rotated her shoulder. Chi-Chi was the tallest woman Krillin had ever met and this lady still had another foot on her, maybe a foot and a half. Not to mention the fact that she was about two Chi-Chis wide. Vegeta got into a fighting stance alongside them so apparently that meant he thought she was "worth the effort." Krillin wasn't sure if that made him feel better or worse.
"Hey," she said amiably, "My friends are kinda goin' through a thing right now, so I'll be the one fighting you guys. Hope you don't mind."
"Not at all," Gohan replied as he looked up at her. Well, up at her stomach. Recoome looked down at Gohan and his mom and grinned.
"Oh my gosh," she exclaimed, "I can't believe it! I finally bumped into more of me!"
"What," Suno asked curiously, "Humans?" She did look a lot like a human, come to think of it. Just really, really big.
"Nah," Recoome told her with a dismissive wave, "Those are all over the place! I meant redheads! I've barely seen another one in the whole Northern Quadrant!"
"Y'know," Suno said thoughtfully, "You've kinda got a point. You're the only other redhead I think I've ever met. Everyone else back on our planet is varying shades of orange."
"Tell me about it," Recoome told her with the weariness of a kindred spirit. "I almost don't wanna kill you guys now. But, I mean, y'know, I gotta. Captain's orders. Well, Freeza's orders more importantly. But seriously, another redhead! Those are about as rare as Saiyans these days, isn't that right Vege–" she had turned to address the Saiyan who had decided to word his reply in the form of a headbutt, launching himself forward in a glowing purple blur to smash against the bridge of Recoome's nose and send her hurtling end over end. Recoome managed to right herself and skid to a stop on all fours before reaching a hand up to wipe the smallest trickle of blood from her nose.
"Fear not, you enormous cow," Vegeta called as he rushed her with both fists out, "Once I've finished beating every drop of blood out of your body, your corpse will look enough like Jeice's race that you may actually be able to find friends!" He emphasized the last word by smashing up under Recoome's chin in a two-handed blow that snapped her head back before he followed with a series of right and left hooks to make her head twist this way and that before Recoome threw out a hand with shocking speed and caught Vegeta's wrist. His entire arm up to the elbow vanished in her grip.
"Heh," Recoome chuckled as Vegeta looked down at his arm, "Didn't think this one through, did ya?" She swung Vegeta over her head and flew down to the ground, flinging him forward to smash down and make a crater in the ground, before stomping down on him with both feet to make the crater even larger. Vegeta snarled as he burst forth from the ground and fired a barrage of ki blasts straight at Recoome but, with surprising agility, Recoome effortlessly spun to avoid the blasts before grabbing Vegeta by an ankle and twisting her hip to fling him through the hillside. Vegeta roared as he flew out again, this time soaring up into the sky before firing down an even larger volley at Recoome. She smirked and bent down into a runner stance as a pink aura flared around her. "Recoooome…" she said as she charged her attack before flying upwards, "Knee!" The ki blasts bounced off of her aura as she smashed a knee into Vegeta's face.
The trio from Earth looked up in astonishment as they watched Recoome completely overwhelm Vegeta. After the terror he'd inspired on Earth, they would have never expected to watch him get beaten so thoroughly.
"Hey," Krillin asked, "Shouldn't we go help him?"
"Ehhh," Suno muttered with a halfhearted shrug as Recoome slugged Vegeta across the jaw, "Give it a minute. I think he's got this under control." Part of Suno knew that if Recoome beat Vegeta to death, then the three of them wouldn't stand a chance. On the other hand, holy crap, this was cathartic. Gohan huffed and flew up towards Recoome and Vegeta while her back was to them. "Aw, come on, Gohan! I was only kidding!" Suno groaned as she and Krillin gave chase. That boy was going to give her a heart attack…
Gohan slammed his elbow into the small of Recoome's back, sending her forward and stunning her long enough for Vegeta to bash the side of her head with a two-handed blow that sent her tumbling to the ground where Krillin and Suno met her with a double flying kick to knock her flying until she dug a trench into the earth.
"You're… actually helping me?" Vegeta asked as he wiped blood from his busted lip. He looked genuinely astonished.
"I guess backstabbing doesn't come to humans as easy as it does to Saiyans," Gohan shot back as he glared at Vegeta. "Besides, for what you did to my moms and for what you did to Mr. Piccolo, no one's killing you before I get the chance." Gohan turned and flew back to the fight as Recoome pulled herself out of the dirt. Vegeta was… impressed.
"Huh," Vegeta muttered with the barest hint of admiration as he followed. "Perhaps the boy has some Saiyan in him after all." The pair of Saiyans returned to the fray as Recoome advanced on Suno and Krillin, descending from the sky to smash their knees down onto her from above, staggering her forward into a pair of ki blasts that made Recoome clutch at her face in pain. Krillin and Suno each threw out a kick that caught Recoome in her knee and made her collapse onto them before Gohan and Vegeta hit her under the chin with dual uppercuts which made her sail up into the air before crashing down.
"Huh," Krillin remarked with a nervous smile, "Look at the four of us, working like a te-AGH!" Recoome had recovered and launched herself forward in a blur, smashing into Krillin like a battering ram with enough force to practically send him hurtling over the horizon. She grabbed Gohan by the face and flung him into Vegeta to send the both of them flying away.
"Soooo," Recoome said as she cracked her neck and looked down at Suno with an expression like… oh God, was she trying to look flirty? "On the off chance I don't kill ya, what're you doing later?"
"Being married," Suno told her dryly. Recoome's face fell and she frowned slightly.
"Okay, see, now I don't feel as bad for killing you." Suno rolled her eyes and dove down to slide between Recoome's legs and come up behind her, hitting the giantess in the back with a spin kick. As Recoome staggered forward, however, the stabbing pain through Suno's leg made her realize that, as she should have known from watching Vegeta, fighting Recoome by herself was a terrible idea. Recoome's fist came at her with the speed and force of a freight train and Suno barely twisted out of the way in time, the blow still catching her on the shoulder and sending her skidding across the ground. As she lay on her back with the wind knocked out of her and Recoome lunging forward, Suno brought her knees up to her chest and pointed her feet up.
'I really hope this is as easy as Goku made it sound,' she thought nervously. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and forced her energy down into her feet, pushing it out and blasting Recoome in the chest. She had also, regrettably, blasted holes in her shoes and dug herself even further into the dirt but at least she'd bought herself some breathing room. She groaned as she pulled herself out of the dirt while Recoome took a knee and raised both hands over her head.
"Recoooome," she bellowed as her mouth began to blow with pink light. Suno decided that the woman definitely wasn't the most creative of fighters. "Eraser G-URK!" The move was most certainly not called the Eraser GURK but Krillin coming from above and Gohan swooping in from below to slam her mouth shut as Vegeta drove an elbow into her gut forcibly changed her pronunciation. The shockwave of the contained blast sent them all sprawling backward as Recoome fell face first into the dirt with smoke trailing out of her mouth. The quartet wondered for half a second if that had been enough to do it when Recoome popped back up onto her hands and knees. "Owwww," she groaned, "That really hurt!" Suno winced at the sight of her and had to agree. Along with burning her upper lip pretty badly, the poor woman had also had about half her teeth blasted off. "Jeeeice!" she called. "Do I still look okay?"
"Y'like lovely, Recoome!" Jeice assured her from a distance. She huffed and furrowed her brow at him.
"You didn't even loo–" Suno took advantage of her distraction to sprint forward and throw a punt as hard as she could into Recoome's ribcage. The other woman stopped her, however, by throwing out one of her monstrous arms and completely enveloping her face in it with enough force to slam Suno violently into the ground and bury her in the dirt up to her shoulders. While Suno struggled to pull herself out, Recoome staggered to her feet and Gohan charged her.
"Don't you treat my mother like that!" Gohan snapped as he leaped forward and tucked himself into a ball, spinning as he came toward Recoome and smashed into her collarbone like a cannonball. He bounced off of her chest and leaped forward to fire a ferocious and lightning-fast volley of ki blasts with Krillin and Vegeta following suit to keep Recoome off-balance. She snarled and threw out her hands to blast Krillin and Vegeta away with beams of pink ki before focusing her attention on Gohan.
"All right small fry," she taunted before spitting out a mouthful of blood, "Let's see what you've got." She patronizingly got into her guard as Gohan got into his own. Gohan charged forward and bravely attacked, leaping into the air to bring a rain of punches and kicks down on Recoome. The problem for Gohan was, unfortunately, that Recoome's giant arms made it easy for her to shield herself against his assault before grabbing him by the back of the neck and ramming him down into her upraised knee. Gohan coughed and heaved as the wind was knocked out of him. Recoome smashed her knee into his entire torso again as he was stunned and this time he coughed up a mouthful of bloody spittle. As if on instinct, Suno burst out of the ground and drove a hail of rapid–fire kicks into Recoome's back while Krillin and Vegeta rushed back into the attack. Krillin blasted Recoome's chest with a blistering series of palm slaps in time with Suno's kicks while Vegeta flew high above and put his hands together, crackling with purple energy.
"GET OUT OF THE DAMN WAY!" he screamed. Suno leaped back and Krillin grabbed Gohan while the boy was still stunned to avoid the blast zone. "Eat this! Galick Gun, fire!" He thrust his hands forward and fired the blast straight down at Recoome, who looked up just in time to see the mauve malevolence slam down onto her face and blast a massive crater into the ground, blasting apart the clouds and frothing the sea. The sky flashed with a purple glow as arcs of purple lightning ripped through the air.
OoOoOoO
Nail watched the purple flash on the horizon with growing disquiet as he stood in the doorway of the Elder Guru's hut. He felt his whole body burning with energy. He was a warrior Namekian and there was a battle going on. He could feel it! He could hear the song of it humming through the air! This was what he was meant for! What he had been born for! He wanted to run off and join the fray, to show them the strength of the Namekian people! Yet he knew that he could not leave Elder Guru unguarded. If Guru were to be attacked while Nail was away, he would have no one to guard him but Dende and the Dragon Balls would surely be lost. Nail chewed his bottom lip furiously and dug his feet into the ground as he clenched and unclenched his hands.
"Nail!" Guru beckoned. Nail spun on his heels and dropped to kneel at Guru's feet as the Grand Elder spoke. "The outsiders will have need of you. Go to them." Nail stared up at Guru in shock.
"Do you truly mean that?" he asked. "What about you, Elder Guru? If I leave, there will be no one to guard you."
"And if you stay," Guru replied, "Then the humans may fail and I shall be in even greater peril. Go to them, my son. It is your calling." Nail nodded solemnly, as was tradition, and slowly rose to his feet. As soon as Nail got past the door, however, he launched himself into the air and thrust his arms out as his vest flapped in the wind. Finally, a real battle! He had long surpassed the other fighters on the planet and desperately needed a challenge. This was what he had been waiting for! His whole life had led to this moment!
OoOoOoO
Vegeta was breathing heavily as the smoke cleared and sweat ran his face. That had to have done something. There was absolutely no way she was getting up from that. They all looked down into the smoldering, blackened crater and the crumpled heap of Recoome's form at the bottom. Her armor had been blasted off and now she only had her black undersuit, which had several holes burnt in it. Then, to their horror, she got up and walked casually out of the crater and dusted herself off.
"Well," she admitted as she dug a finger into her ear and flicked out a bit of charred earth, "Not gonna lie. That kinda hurt." She shook her head from side to side like a swimmer trying to get water out of her ear. Then she broke out into a wide, toothless grin. "My turn!" She whipped her head up to Vegeta and threw her hands over her head. "Eraser Gun!" The blast flew out of her mouth and struck Vegeta dead on, sending the king down in a smoking spiral to painfully hit the ground.
"Oh," Krillin muttered nervously. "Oh that's not good." Despite all the damage that had been done to her, she had still managed to take out Vegeta in one shot. Recoome stumbled for a moment before she caught herself and made her way toward Gohan. She broke into a run with both hands outstretched and Gohan lunged forward to meet her. He tried to meet Recoome in a knuckle lock with his much, much smaller hands before the woman slammed him into the ground. To her surprise, Gohan kept the grip on and pushed up off the ground, having to fly to push himself up to his feet with Recoome bearing down on him. What Recoome was shocked to find out, though, was that the boy started pushing back.
"Wh-what the…" Recoome stammered out as she tried pushing down. "What the hell are you?!" The little bastard didn't even budge! How was he getting stronger?! Had she lost that much power from that blast? He glared up at her and Recoome felt her palms start to grow hot.
"My name is Son Gohan," he told her, "And I'm a defender of Earth!" Gohan blasted Recoome's hands to make her stumble back as her hands burned painfully and Gohan flung his hands up over his head. "Masenko ha!" A beam of crackling yellow ki hit Recoome right between the eyes and made her tumble back end over end through the air, where Suno met her with a twisting kick to the side of her head that sent her sprawling to the ground. Recoome got slowly up to a knee with a burning red mark on her forehead where Gohan had hit her and Krillin flew up at her from behind with both hands flung back for a cross chop across the back of her neck… but was met with a backhand without Recoome ever looking at him to send him skipping across the water. Recoome snarled as she got back to her feet and met Gohan's charge with a headbutt to slam him down into the dirt. Suno flew at Recoome with a series of kicks but Recoome moved her head from side to side to easily avoid them before smashing her fists on the sides of Suno's head to disorient her. Then she grabbed her by the throat and hoisted her overhead before driving her down into the ground beside her son.
"This has been fun," Recoome said wearily while gingerly tapping a finger against the burn on her upper lip, "And you guys definitely did a number on me. But it's about time to wrap this up, then I'm goin' home and takin' a loooong nap." She dropped into a squat with a smirk as the ground shook underfoot. "Not as long as the nap you guys'll be taking, of course." Her body began to burn with magenta fire as the quakes worsened and sparks shot off of her.
"Uh oh," Jeice muttered as he and Burter watched, "We better move. Recoome's doing her thing."
"Wonder how many words she's gonna add onto it this time," Burter muttered as they lifted into the air and drifted away from the island.
"Hey, Burter," Jeice said as they moved, "I just wanna… I'm sorry for snappin' atcha, alright? I shouldn't be tellin' ya how to live, if this is the pace you're comfortable movin' at."
"No," Burter disagreed, "I'm sorry. You're right. I need to learn to relax. Once we finish up this job for Lord Freeza, we're gonna take a slow week. Promise." He smiled at Jeice and Jeice smiled back. With all that behind them, they looked back to watch Recoome blow the island right the hell up.
"Recoome!" Recoome called out as she thrust her arms up into the air, her body glowing more and more and the ground shaking more and more fiercely with every word, "Ultra! Miracle! Maximum! Fighting! Spirit! Super! Bo–"
"Kienzan!" Recoome's face would be forever frozen in that moment of perplexed bewilderment, wondering just what in the hell that even meant, as a spinning razor disc of ki sliced through her thick neck effortlessly and sent her severed head spiraling into the air. Just as her head reached the highest point of its arc, Vegeta hopped to his feet from the hill he'd crashed into and fired a purple ki beam from his hand to obliterate it, as if he were shooting a clay pigeon. He had a satisfied smirk on his face as he dusted off his hands. Going by Vegeta's expression, you'd think he'd actually done something. "Man," Krillin muttered to himself as he staggered over to Gohan and Suno to help pull them out of the ground, "I have got to start remembering to try that one sooner." Suno took a moment to shake the loose dirt out of her hair before trying to fuss with Gohan's hair, which was similarly dirty.
"Well," Suno said as Gohan struggled to keep his hair unfussed and Vegeta flew back down to join the three of them, "All things considered, I think we came out okay on that one. Nobody broke anything, right?" She looked around to take stock and, while they were all pretty beaten up, they didn't look as bad as when Vegeta and Nappa had come to Earth. Suno guessed that was good for something.
"I wouldn't start celebrating too soon," Burter warned in his rasping voice as he and Jeice floated back down to stand in front of the foursome. He glared at them as Jeice cracked his knuckles.
"You slags just killed our mate," he told them, "So we're gonna be breakin' plenty of things 'fore we kill ya." Krillin swallowed nervously as Burter and Jeice got into fighting stances.
"Don't suppose she was stronger than you, was she?" he asked with a shaky laugh. They just glared silently at him. "Heh… I'll take that as a no."
"Shinsoku Odori!" Suno tried to take the initiative and dashed toward Burter and threw out a chop aimed for the serpent man's neck… and he caught her wrist without even blinking.
"What was that earlier," he asked with a malicious grin, "About the reasoning of God?" He chuckled as he watched the color drain from Suno's face. "Thought so."