Post by Grisha on Aug 30, 2020 7:09:18 GMT -8
Continued from here
A Secret Meeting
Dr. Coorg sat at a circular table with the Tuffle army colonel, Colonel Monga. The colonel was seated to her left, sitting up and proper in his seat with his hands in his lap as though he were attending a board. Dr. Coorg’s legs were crossed as she rested her hands in her own lap and met the colonel’s eyes. “I have been told that your units are struggling,” she jabbed.
The colonel frowned, his lips pressing tightly together as though suppressing a retort. “No, Sir.”
Dr. Coorg arched a brow and repeated, “Sir?”
Colonel Monga blinked and stared at Dr. Coorg’s face. She watched his eyes dip to her flat-chest. The doctor closed her eyes as a vein pulsed above her brow. Colonel Monga blushed and cleared his throat. “Pardon me, Ma’am. My army has emerged victorious in every battle, but it is struggling with one. I have been losing units to this Saiyan for a while now. He is known as The Demon, and he is believed to be a high-ranking officer. I don’t feel so ashamed now that I know this man could be my equivalent.”
“He is a monkey. Naturally inferior to our intelligence. What you’re telling me is that our army may need a new colonel?”
A sweat bead descended down the side of the colonel’s head. He explained further, “The Demon has his whole army living in Sector 6. They hide among the Tuffle survivors there, knowing that we won’t attack the city for as long as they hold our people hostage. He uses our people like slaves, forcing them to feed and house his units. They then ambush our units using the urban jungle. I have mainly avoided sending a full battalion there. It’s a waste of men. I need them elsewhere. Eventually, they should run out of food and starve…”
“Or move to another sector,” Dr. Coorg added. She dropped her leg and faced the table, resting her elbows upon it. She interlaced her fingers and rested her nose against them as she began to meditate over the information the colonel had given her. “Hm…you’re right, Colonel. This one is clever.”
Dr. Coorg closed her eyes and left the officer sitting in silence for ten seconds that felt longer to him. She opened her eyes, her blue orbs rolling over to him. “Destroy Sector 6.”
The colonel silently stared at Dr. Coorg in a delayed response. Realization struck him like a glass door, causing him to tense in his seat. “What?”
“You heard me. Destroy it.”
“But our people-”
“They are serving the enemy. If they were loyal, then they would be fighting them to the death.”
“But they’re-”
“Destroy Sector 6, Colonel, or I will report your failures to the administration.”
Colonel Monga frowned at the table top. Perspiration had collected in a glaze upon his blond brow. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He couldn’t believe what the TSE was asking him to do. Those people…it wasn’t their fault. He closed his eyes and the fist on his lap tightened in his anger.
“Oh yes, The Demon, if he survives, I want him captured alive.”
Colonel Monga looked up at Dr. Coorg. “If that was possible, then we would have captured him a long time ago. They say he is capable of destroying the C0C0 units alone.”
“Send as many of your soldiers as it takes to get him. If he really is a demon, then he will make for a wonderful specimen. Yes…I think a demon is exactly what we need.”
Colonel Monga bowed his head as he hid the deep frown that contorted his face. It was wrong. All of it. Those people. Those innocent people. He was starting to believe that the true enemy was sitting before him. “As you wish…” He regretted it.
Dr. Coorg smiled at him as though relishing the sight of his emotional suffering. “See it this way, Colonel, destroying the demon may end the war sooner and save thousands of lives.”
At the sacrifice of hundreds, Colonel Monga thought. He stood from his chair and bade, “Good day, Sir.”
Dr. Coorg scowled and Colonel Monga recoiled as he quickly corrected, “I mean Ma’am!”
The Bombing
Five Saiyans were seated at a dinner table covered with meats, vegetables, and breads. Whatever the Saiyans could gather from deserted Tuffle homes was collected and given to the Tuffle family to cook. The Tuffle family had been held hostage in their own home, feeding the Saiyans who occupied their bedrooms and living rooms, sleeping where they could between intermissions in combat. They were monsters…so Tuffle propaganda would have them believe. While the family didn’t like their occupation, their leader had been surprisingly polite for a being who could rip them in half with little effort. The Tuffle mother called Grana, had noticed the discreet looks her daughter and the leader had been giving each other. She was absolutely against such an implication, but it was because of this possible infatuation that the Saiyans cooperated. Her daughter, Clemmen, was beautiful with fiery hair, green eyes, and a unique pattern of freckles sprinkling her skin. She was helping her cook, while the Neanderthals ravenously chowed down.
Their leader, who didn’t give his name, was in the other room. He was standing to the side of the window, peeking gingerly through the curtains at the sky and the streets below. Clemmen placed a pot of beans upon the table and peered into the other room at the leader’s back. Why didn’t he eat? Was he allowing his soldiers to eat first? She moved away from the table into the other room. She was careful approaching the large Saiyan from behind, creeping close on bare feet. When his grey eyes turned from the window to regard her, she paused nervously. For a moment, they stared at each other until she timidly splayed her bare small hands to him.
“I…I saw that you weren’t eating,” Clemmen said. “Do you not like my cooking?”
“There isn’t enough food,” the leader stated as his eyes returned to the window.
“I never see you eat. You must be hungry.”
“I’m always hungry.”
“Then why-”
Clemmen tensed when he turned his head and bared his teeth at her like an angry dog. He wasn’t used to being questioned so much or having someone pry so much into his life. His expression softened slightly after studying the terrified look in her dilated green eyes. His attention returned outside.
“There are no patrols,” he shared his suspicions with her.
Clemmen walked over to peer out the window with him. It was quiet, but she was too naïve to understand the implications. She turned to the leader and removed from her pocket a roll she had baked. She held it up to him, “Here. Your friends love these, and I was hoping you would try one, but they kept eating them all. I saved you one.”
The leader didn’t look away from the window. “I don’t want your food.”
Clemmen frowned. “You don’t trust me.” She brought the roll to her mouth and took a bite out of it. “It’s not poisoned. I’m not trying to kill you or any of your friends. I’m actually more scared of you killing me or my mom.”
He then looked at her, and there was a conflicted expression on his face that surprised her. She could see it in his eyes that he wouldn’t, but he didn’t say he wouldn’t. Clemmen could only stare back, her cheeks blushing red. His mouth had opened as though he wanted to say something, but then he looked away. The void of silence was then filled with a low rumbling whine that made Clemmen’s eyes grow as she stared at the leader’s stomach. She could see the embarrassment that he was trying to hide on his face and she laughed. She laughed so much that she clutched her stomach. Her mother at the stove glanced over her shoulder curiously, and the other Saiyans peered at the girl suspiciously. Their leader was frowning out the window when he felt Clemmen’s hand forcing the roll into his palm.
“Here; no take backs,” she said playfully.
The Saiyan leader gripped the roll and raised it before his face to inspect where she had bitten it. Clemmen smiled and gave him a short wave. “Don’t eat it too fast,” she said.
He watched her begin heading back toward the kitchen, and he glanced toward the window to see the sky filled with numerous lights. His grey eyes shrank in dread, his locks of hair raising like hackles. “GET OUT!” he bellowed.
The Saiyans immediately stopped eating to look at him. It was all he had time to say. The leader had raced over to Clemmen and locked her protectively in his arms when the apartment was hit. Everything went up in a wave of light and heat. He fell through the floor that crumbled around him and collapsed upon the ground. Concrete and plaster tumbled on top of him and he protected the fragile Tuffle beneath him. Clemmen was screaming. The flames from the explosion had burned her. He could hardly hear her through the barrage. He only saw her teary-eyed, panic-stricken face until another bomb struck.
The Demon
C0C0 Units marched through the fragmented and burning remains of what was once a city. The Tuffle soldiers were silent as they passed through, gazing at the charred bodies of Saiyan and Tuffle. There were women; there were children; and there were even remains of pets. What had it all been for? The enemy was gone, but the war still wasn’t over.
“There’s nothing here,” a soldier whispered. “They flattened everything.”
“Can they do that?”
“Of course they can.”
“Look!”
A soldier pointed up to a figure floating a few hundreds of feet in the sky. His body was smoking. His fur armor was charred and falling in tufts from his body. He was observing the destruction of the city sector, and he couldn’t believe it. The Tuffles had bombed their own people to wipe out his army. Were they that desperate to win? He grabbed the cracked mantle on his shoulders and removed it, allowing it to drop to the ground. The Saiyan leader’s grey eyes then lowered to the roll that he noticed was still gripped tightly in his hand. It had been crushed into a flat bread in his tense grip. The girl was gone. He clearly heard the thought above any others he had. She was just a Tuffle…but he had tried to save her. After the second bombing, she was gone and there was nothing he could have done. But who cares? What about his men? What about his whole plan? Why wasn’t he upset about their deaths and how his entire strategy had ended in an insane use of desperate force?
“Standby. The colonel wanted us to report if we found someone,” the C0C0 Unit captain ordered. He pressed the button on his scouter. A yellow light outlined the figure in the sky as the digitized readings came in: 5,345 PL.
"Kami..." the captain muttered in astonishment. He then contacted the battalion commander. “Sir; we found a surviving Saiyan in the sky. His power level is over 5,000.”
“That’s him. That’s who were looking for,” the BC replied.
“Are you sure? Is there a description?”
“TSE said he would be the only one able to survive an attack of that magnitude. That’s our guy. Capture him immediately.”
“Roger. Over,” the captain ordered, “Bring him down.”
The leader brought the flattened bread to his mouth and folded it within. He could taste the light salt, the butter, and there was the gentle sweet hint of honey. The taste made him close his eyes as he savored the taste. “Mm, that was the best,” he moaned. Slowly, his eyes opened and he saw the wink of a scope. His hand motioned in a blur, snatching a dart out of the air that was fired at him from a high-powered long-range rifle. The sniper jumped.
“Holy shit!” he cursed.
The leader turned the dart before his eyes as he inspected it. It hadn’t been a bullet but a glass device with a needle and strange liquid. Were they trying to capture him? He snapped the dart in half between his thumb and forefinger, and dropped the pieces. He was confused. The Tuffles annihilate everyone and everything, and then they wanted to capture him? His hand went to his forehead, his fingers reaching back through his dreaded hair. Were they after him all along? Everyone died because of him. All of those innocent people, and the enemy wasn’t going to generously put him down. It gave him a headache, but worst of all, it made him angry. What was all of this? Was this not war? Whose side were they even on?
“You want me?” he asked. The whites of his eyes were shining as he continued to clutch his head. He laughed, “Well then here I co-”
His vision went black and his body went limp as it dropped out of the sky. The sniper calmed as he locked and loaded another dart. He reported, “I was hoping he would crack the dart and he did. He doesn’t know the drug can seep through the skin. I’ll give him another to ensure he’s down.”
The ground shattered beneath him. It was the impact that caused his eyes to open, his vision swimming. What’s happening to me? he thought. He was fine a moment ago. He brushed the oily residue on his fingers with his thumb. It didn’t need to pierce his skin to drug him. The leader’s lips rolled back, presenting his teeth in his effort to roll onto his side. He tensed when a second dart shattered against his back. The needle couldn’t pierce his tough muscle, but just feeling the liquid wetting his back...They were trying to put him down.
“Now you done it…” the Saiyan panted as he turned onto his hands and knees. He forced himself to his feet. Fragments of rock and debris rose off the ground around him, and his dreadlocks started to rise like serpents. His shredded armor flagged at his hips and thighs and electricity flashed in a chain about his body.
A C0C0 Unit landed heavily on top of him. The Saiyan’s hands rose to catch it as the ground exploded beneath his feet, causing shards of rock to jut around him in a ring. The pilot and the surrounding forces were stunned. The leader looked up at the machine with white-hot eyes and growled,
Red cracks spread up the C0C0 Unit’s legs to the cockpit until the machine detonated in a plume of red energy. Immediately after, the Saiyan appeared in a blur in front of an unsuspecting Tuffle soldier. His fist struck the soldier’s face, and the force caused his skull to cave inward. The soldier’s body folded backwards and went flipping into three other soldiers, knocking them to the ground. Soldiers started firing in a panic, recklessly firing on each other in fratricide as they tried to keep up with the blurred movements of the enraged fighter. A few sizzling rounds left black streaks across his skin as they singed the flesh they grazed over. Grasping a soldier by the face, his fingers plunged into his eyes, using his skull as support as he executed a barrel roll. His body twisted, hips following and bringing his right foot around to slam down on top of the skull of one soldier, while his fingers embedded in the other soldier’s face twisted with his wrist, causing the soldier’s head to harshly tilt and neck to snap.
The C0C0 Units were trying to follow the Saiyan but were unable to shoot without risking shooting the other soldiers. Saliva was hanging in threads from the Saiyan’s mouth as he fought through the numbing sensation that started to relax his muscles. He was losing focus, swinging and clawing at nothing. Instead of shoot, one of the CoCo Units took the chance to lunge with its fist. The fist dropped on top of him, crushing him into a crater. The machine’s fingers splayed and then curled, locking about the Saiyan’s body.
“I have him!” the pilot exclaimed. “Shoot him! Shoot him quick!”
The soldiers surrounded the crater and exchanged their rifles for dart guns. They pelted the Saiyan’s body with glass. Face in the dirt, the leader could feel the liquid coating him. He was going to be out like a light if he didn’t do something. His hand desperately snagged one of his locks and he brought the braid toward him. There was a bangle on it and attached to the bangle were several small capsules. He pinched one of the capsules, tearing it free, and cracked it open. A white powdery plume billowed into his face and the Saiyan inhaled it deeply, closing his eyes and resting his head against the dirt. When he opened his eyes again, his pupils had expanded to an unnatural size. An excited grin parted his face, and the crater started to flash with a red electricity before an energy barrier started to push outwards against the C0C0 Unit’s fist. The C0C0 Unit tipped backwards as the barrier continued to swell like a bubble until it popped in a red light that bathed those surrounding the crater. When the light faded, there was no one but the Saiyan marching out of the pit with his hands clenched into fists. There was a grin on his face as red lightning crackled down his arms before forming two red orbs in his hands.
“NOW THAT’S WHAT I NEEDED!” he bellowed. “YOU WANT TO TAKE ME? THEN YOU BETTER FUCKING DEFEAT ME!”
The Saiyan started lobbing crimson, destructive energy orbs that exploded like grenades, sending soldiers scattering in the air.
“Fuck this!” a soldier screamed. “He needs to die!”
He fired upon the Saiyan with his rifle and didn’t even see him flinch when the plasma rounds left black and smoking holes in his skin. With the mixture of drugs in his system, he could feel nothing but his blood surging, heart hammering, and the endless amounts of energy that propelled him to plow through one soldier after another. A red stick of glowing energy pierced the cockpit of one of the C0C0 Units like a javelin.
“SPECIAL DELIVERY!” the Saiyan exclaimed.
The stick exploded, taking out the unit. Tuffle soldiers started fleeing before retreat was called.
The captain called up to the BC: “We’re getting destroyed! We can’t capture him!”
“Retreat. TSE says there is no need to engage the target anymore.”
“What!?”
“I said retreat captain before you are-”
“Aaargh!”
The BC listened to the transmission end and turned to Colonel Monga and Dr. Coorg who were seated in his office. Dr. Coorg rose from her burnished leather seat and brushed a hand across her robes. “Now to go retrieve my specimen.”
Colonel Monga said nothing as he bowed his head still regretting the order he had given. Specimens…was that what this war was all about? Everyone else was a contributor to the TSE’s science project.
Withdrawn
The Saiyan leader’s knees struck the ground. His hands were stained in blood from his rampage that after a while had become like a dream. He felt so mentally distanced from his body that the Tuffles who he had chased down and ripped to shreds hadn’t seemed real. His eyes were wide, head hanging, and arms limp. Was he dreaming? But he was awake, wasn’t he? Suddenly, his body heaved and he folded over, catching himself on his hands as he dumped his guts all over the ground. He coughed and hacked as his limbs shook with weakness. He collapsed onto his side as everything felt so cold. His heart was still racing. His tail thrashed about as his fingers curled, balling into tight fists as he tried to gain control over himself.
In the distance, three black vans with TSE imprinted in yellow on the side were tearing through the streets in convoy. As they neared the pickup site, the towering buildings started to shrink into piles of rubble and ruin. They drove passed downed C0C0 Units, the bodies of pilots hanging out of the cockpit as though ripped free. The vans left lines of red tire tracks before they circled around the downed Saiyan. Dr. Coorg was seated in the front seat of one of the vehicles, peering out the window at the creature she had heard so much about. She felt like a hunter having trapped a feral beast.
“He looks like he’s suffering from an overdose. How much of the tranquilizer did those idiots give him?” Dr. Coorg growled. She turned her head to regard the staff in the back of the van. “He must be stabilized immediately. Refrain from using any drugs on him. He should be weak enough for capture.”
“Yes, Sir!”
Dr. Coorg’s brows crashed together. She opened the door and stepped out of the van. She approached the Saiyan, keeping out of reach of his arms and tail. “I have heard all about you,” Dr. Coorg began. “If things had been different, then I would have preferred not to see you in such a pathetic state. The army calls you The Demon. What do the Saiyans call you?”
As one of the soldiers approached the Saiyan, attempting to wrestle one of his arms into a cuff, the Saiyan wrenched his arm from the soldier’s clutches and swung it back. His forearm connected with the chest of the soldier, sending him flying back with a pained cry. His body slammed into the side of one of the TSE trucks, denting it, and causing the truck to tip over. With that same arm, he extended it in Dr. Coorg’s direction. The scientist’s eyes grew in alarm as a second after, a red orb shot passed her head, singing the side of her face as it spiraled and impacted the turf behind her. The Saiyan’s own eyes were wide, shocked that he had missed as he watched his extended arm and the doctor double before him. He cursed. He couldn’t see straight.
“Dr. Coorg!” the TSE guards exclaimed in fright. She had nearly died.
Dr. Coorg held up her hand to stop them. Instead of a frown, she tilted her head as a sickening-sweet smile curled on her pink lips. She removed a black rod from her hip and swung it out to her side to cause it to extend a foot. “I think you will like this. I designed this stun rod specifically for Saiyans when they act out of line. For you though, I think I’ll need it to be on its highest setting.”
Her thumb turned the dial and chains of white-hot electricity started firing down the weapon. She leaned forward and lunged at the Saiyan. She whipped the rod at him, and his tail swung out, catching her legs. Dr. Coorg gasped as her legs were suddenly swept out from under her. She landed on her side next to the Saiyan and before she had a chance to escape, his hand clapped down over her face. Her blue eyes peered from between his fingers at the wicked grin twisted on his face. In that brief moment, she saw why they had called him The Demon. The expression he had given her was one that would be etched permanently into her mind. She had expected him to crush her skull, but he never did. She saw the Saiyan’s grin weaken. His grip on her face became loose, and then she heard it. The sound of shattering glass as the guards fired tranquilizers. Regaining her composure, she tilted her head out from under the Saiyan’s hand and jabbed her stun rod into his stomach before she turned it on.
The Saiyan’s body went rigid and began to convulse as electricity surged through his every nerve. He screamed wildly. Never would he had imagined to hear himself make such a noise. Dr. Coorg held her stun rod against him, allowing herself to recover to her feet. She adjusted her glasses and barked at the guard, “I said not to use drugs!”
“But Sir, he was gonna-”
“And I’m not a Sir!” she shrieked.
She jabbed the rod into the side of the Saiyan’s neck, pinning it there as he thrashed about. Her anger shifted to the creature at her feet as she snarled, “I don’t care what your name is anymore. Now, you are no one and nothing. You are my specimen.”
“KILL ME!” the Saiyan screamed.
She could see the tears, froth, and snot spilling from his eyes, nose, and mouth from the torture not only from her baton but from the side-effects of the drugs. She smiled sadistically at him and refused, “Why would I do such a thing? I have other uses for you.”
She watched as the Saiyan’s eyes rolled back into his head and she withdrew her baton, observing his silence for a moment. “Stethoscope,” she ordered.
One of the medical personnel rushed over and pressed the device against the Saiyan’s chest. “He’s still alive.”
“Good. Get him out of here.”
“Dr. Coorg, what should we do about the other van?”
“You mean to tell me this whole time you haven’t called a tow?”
All of the TSE personnel had been engrossed in the drama. “I’ll c-call a tow!”
“Idiots,” Dr. Coorg hissed. She condensed her baton and returned it to her hip before striding back over to her vehicle.
The Saiyan’s wrists and ankles were secured with magnetic shackles, and he was strapped down onto a gurney. He was loaded into the back of a van, and it was the last time he would see the sky. On the trip back to the facility, they started prepping him. They shaved his hair completely off and collected it in a specimen bag. An oxygen mask was fastened to his face and fluids were fed into his body through tubes in his nose.
When they reached the facility, he was cut from his clothing and decontaminated. They showered him with hot water and scrubbed his skin raw, and all he could do was watch from the outside-in. On the back of his neck, they needled into his flesh something he wouldn’t ever be able to see, but he figured it was their brand. With that brand, he was no longer a Saiyan. He was no longer anything but their little science project.
His journey ended upon a steel table. Overhead, large lamps showered him in light that irritated his retinas. He was strapped down again. They took no risks. He probably wouldn’t have either. It looked like an eclipse was passing over his eyes as he felt cold steel closing in around his bare skull. The device locked over his eyes and was cranked so tight around his head that he thought his brain would gush out of his crown. He heard noises of something being plugged into the helmet, and then the drilling started. His back arched against the straps that the technicians secured even tighter and his mouth opened wide to expel an excruciating cry. He felt the drills crunching through his cranium. The cold sting of pins were the last sensations he felt before he felt…nothing.
Experiment 00
How are his vitals?
Everything looks stable.
Wireless connection?
Clear of traffic. We have a strong signal.
All right; warm him up.
The aircraft was soaring thousands of feet above Saiyan-occupied city. The airship was carrying thirty Tuffle soldiers and one anomaly. The anomaly wore a black and silver suit with flared golden shoulder pauldrons. The soldiers were gawking at the being, eying the strange steel-helm which hid his eyes and the fish line-clear antennae that sprouted from its head. The soldiers talked among themselves, calling it one of the TSE’s new specimens. It wore a similar uniform to a Tuffle officer, but the belt at its waist was unusual. It was brown and fuzzy and not a buckle.
“I hear the TSE are using Saiyans to fight Saiyans now,” a soldier told another.
“What? That’s crazy. We’re supposed to trust that?”
“I know right. It’s kind of scary.”
Uncrossing his arms, the anomaly stood and bent over to plant his hands upon the floor. He then proceeded to lift his feet into the air until his body was balanced vertically. From his handstand position, he started performing push-ups.
“Wow, this guy is strong,” the operator back at TSE headquarters laughed.
Dr. Coorg was standing behind him, watching through the first-person camera in the experiment’s helmet. “He’s much stronger I assure you,” she informed.
The operator grinned in excitement. “I wonder what else I can make him do.”
The experiment lifted one hand off the ground and continued his push-ups.
“Too easy,” said the operator. “Let’s try…one finger.”
The Tuffle passengers were all staring at the experiment, and when he started performing handstand push-ups upon a single finger, there were gasps and mutters of amazement.
“This is amazing! We should have thought of this sooner!”
Dr. Coorg smirked and nodded her head in agreement.
The experiment, balancing on his finger, lowered his feet to the floor and stood. He then executed an ariel cartwheel and performed a series of rapid back-hand-springs down the aisle of the ship. The soldiers were mesmerized. They were watching this thing flipping and performing superhuman stunts before their eyes.
“Do not exhaust the subject before the fight, and don’t test his powers on the ship,” Dr. Coorg warned the operator.
The operator sighed. “I can’t wait for us to jump. I want to kick so much Saiyan ass!”
“You’ll get your chance. Believe me. How would you like to fight a pesky elite general?”
The operator seated the experiment before he looked at Dr. Coorg with wide and eager eyes. “For real? Is this guy strong enough for that?”
“We believe 00 is a high-ranking Saiyan officer. His resting power level was recorded by our scouters to be over 5,000. His power level hasn’t been recorded in combat.”
The operator glanced down at the remote with a pinch of doubt in his heart. “Do you think I can fight well enough?”
“I was told you were ranked number 1 in all the gaming tournaments in the city. See this as a video game. We have the advantage. You are able to completely tap into 00’s potential with the push of a button. For normal beings, it takes years of training to tap into such power.”
“Wow, I wish someone could control me so that I could see my full potential.”
“You’re hardly worth the effort.”
“Ouch!”
“Focus on the mission please. They are about to jump.”
The Jump Master marched down the aisle, glancing sternly at each soldier and making sure each one had a parachute on their back. When he reached the back door, he hit the switch to open the hatch. Air rushed inside the cabin, tossing the colorful hair of each of the Tuffles.
“Line up!” he ordered.
The Tuffle soldiers stood and formed into a file.
“Now go!”
Each soldier started to jump and the drop pods beneath the ship were released. As 00 neared the hatch, the Jump Master snagged his shoulder after noticing he didn’t have a parachute. “Where are you going, Sir? Where’s your parachute?”
Dr. Coorg leaned down and spoke into the mic, “Leave us.”
The Jump Master stared at the experiment in confusion, but he released his shoulder. He had heard the voice emitted from him as though from a radio. Was this that thing everyone had said was on board? He watched it acrobatically, front-flip out of the hatch like a diver into a pool.
“Insane,” he muttered before closing the hatch.
“Woo hoo!” the operator cheered as he watched the cloud bed part to reveal open air. “He can fly right?”
“Exceptionally.”
“Yes! Let’s go!”
00 folded his arms back against his sides and a ring of water vapor burst before him as he darted through the air.
“This is like a flight simulator!”
“Protect the paratroopers. The Saiyans are bound to see them coming,” Dr. Coorg ordered.
“You got it!”
Traitor
Below the Tuffle troopers, hiding in the alleys of the city was the gathered Saiyan unit. A large Saiyan with a scar across his wide chin was watching the descent with a wicked smirk. He turned to look at his aid and cracked a grin as he said, “They’re jumping right into the fire.”
His aid rubbed his hands together as he cackled devilishly, “We’ll blow them out of the sky!”
The Saiyan General chuckled at his aid’s exuberance and pointed a commanding finger at the sky and ordered, “Shoot them down!”
Saiyans brought their hands together in various positions and fired from them beams of white-hot ki that soared like rockets toward the descending troopers. The paratroopers shouted the alarm over the howling winds: “Incoming!”
They braced for impact, but as fast as a jet, a blur swooped by and slapped each of the beams aside. The Saiyan General blinked in disbelief as he watched the angles of the beams diverting in different directions. “What the…”
The operator laughed, “Fools! They revealed their position! Now to return fire!”
Experiment 00 halted in the sky and turned to face where the Saiyans were taking cover. Holding out his hands, firing from his palms were multiple crimson sticks that impaled the ground and walls surrounding the Saiyans. They resembled pins, but the general recognized the odd technique and paled. “SCATTER!” he roared before he darted away in a blur. The sticks of ki winked and numerous red blisters bulged in an incinerating blaze.
The general reappeared in the sky, clenching his teeth in shock to have been attacked by such a power. He didn’t understand it. It couldn’t have been who he thought it was. Working for the Tuffles? With an enraged growl, he turned to face the paratroopers as the surviving members of his unit appeared around him.
“Kill them!” the general ordered his men. He then grumbled to himself, “While I locate the traitor.”
The Saiyans launched toward the paratroopers. The Tuffle soldiers opened fire on the apes, peppering them with plasma rounds. Some collapsed from absorbing too much fire, while others latched onto the paratroopers and snapped the cords of their parachutes.
The operator smirked and brought his fingers together. He gave them a firm crack and grasped the controls. “Oh yeah! Here we go. Time to wreck house!”
Experiment 00’s arms curled at the elbows. His hands balled into fists and he darted toward the Saiyans. White streaks of vapor left the ends of his feet as he soared. He came upon the first Saiyan, thrusting his fist into the ape’s jaw. The Saiyan groaned as his head twisted to the side. 00 followed up the punch with his other hand, pressing a palm to his chest to release a kiai that sent the Saiyan rapidly back-flipping to the ground. The Saiyan’s body struck the ground so hard that soil and concrete geysered into the air. Instantly, 00 darted to the next Saiyan, latching onto his shoulders and clenching the fur in his fists. He dove over the Saiyan’s back, flipping him over, and throwing him toward the ground. Extending his hand, a rod of red ki pierced through the Saiyan’s stomach, causing his eyes to bulge as his hands grasped it. The Saiyan plummeted and when his body struck the ground, a red orb billowed with a thunderous boom.
Suddenly a blur appeared in front of 00, a powerful fist connecting with his chin and sending him flying upwards.
“What the hell!?” the operator snarled. “Who is this hot shot?”
Dr. Coorg smiled with intrigue as she answered him, “A general.”
“I’m going to kick his ass!”
The general appeared above 00 and brought his fists down toward his head. 00 raised his arms, catching the fists against the palms of his hands. The general darted backwards and fired multiple yellow orbs of crackling ki at the helmet head.
“Why do you have the techniques of Oniyon!?” the general yelled.
Dr. Coorg arched a brow. “Oh? So that was his name.”
00’s hands moved rapidly in a blur, deflecting the orbs the other general threw at him. The orbs spiraled in all directions, slamming into the city below and bathing it in golden, electrical ki. 00’s hands began to exude smoke as the ki singed his flesh, but there wasn’t a grimace of pain on his face. It was as though the pain did not even bother him. The general stopped and combined his ki into one solid beam.
“LIGHTNING RAM!” he exclaimed.
“You’ll have to do better than that!” the operator yelled.
00 spiraled out of the way of the ram and closed the distance between he and the general. They then started exchanging blows at a speed so quick, the other Saiyans couldn’t keep up.
“Oniyon! Is that you? Stop this. It’s General Bok!” the other Saiyan revealed.
Dr. Coorg leaned down to speak into the mic, “He is no longer Oniyon. He is Experiment Double-O. You will address him as such.”
General Bok’s eyes shrank in shock. “Who is that? A Tuffle? You bitch!”
“Is that any way to talk to your master? I could have him spare you, General. All you have to do is surrender and serve me.”
“I would rather die!”
Dr. Coorg raised her hand to her mouth and laughed on an obnoxious and shrill voice, “That is what Oniyon said too, and he begged me to do it. It was such a pathetic sight. You should have seen him trembling and whimpering on the ground. It was wonderful!”
General Bok’s yellow aura erupted around him as he bellowed in rage, “RAAAAGH! YOU BETTER HOPE I DON’T FIND YOU! IF ONIYON CAN’T BE SAVED, THEN I WILL DESTROY HIM!”
“Not if I destroy you first!” the operator shouted back. The young Tuffle glanced up at Dr. Coorg and asked with determination shining in his eyes, “Can I unleash his potential? Please? I want to finish this quick so I can return to killing more Saiyans.”
Dr. Coorg sighed. She straightened and pushed her glasses up her thin nose. “I suppose,” she answered, pretending to be exasperated as a smile curled on her lips.
“Yes! Let’s go Double-O! End this gorilla!”
00’s expression finally changed. The mouth beneath the steel helm parted, revealing grit teeth. The motions of his fists and kicks became so swift that the general found it difficult to keep up. Eventually, a strong fist broke through General Bok’s guard, striking him across the face. As 00 attempted to follow up with another kiai to his face, General Bok’s flaxen ki erupted, sending 00 recoiling back as he exclaimed, “YOU ALREADY TRIED THAT!”
General Bok crossed his arms and extending vertically from his fists were two sword-like rods of ki. He lunged at 00, lashing out with his kali sticks. 00 dodged backwards, his shoulders twisting left and right and his body bending backwards to send him flipping back. 00 continued flipping until he became a red wheel and whirled through the air to meet General Bok’s sticks. The general growled as he held the whirling Saiyan at bay.
“General Bok!” his soldiers shouted as they charged to his rescue.
“Stay back! I don’t need your help! He’s mine!”
The Saiyans abruptly halted, watching their general struggle to hold off the wheel attack. He was being pushed back, and the wheel was growing bigger.
“I’m gonna make you road kill!” the operator screamed.
“You’re really getting into this,” Dr. Coorg noted.
The operator blushed. “It’s fun, okay?”
Beads of sweat started to descend the general’s brow as he felt the heat radiating from the attack. He saw his sticks beginning to part, allowing the wheel to inch closer to his body. General Bok’s eyes turned white and he made his two kali sticks explode in a flash. The explosion sent 00 spinning backwards and General Bok followed up with a crackling fist. His fist struck the side of the helm, ripping a chunk of it free.
“Aw no!” the operator exclaimed.
“You fool! Don’t let him rip it off!”
The triumphant grin shrank on General Bok’s face as he saw half of the face of a fellow Saiyan. His eye was closed as though he wasn’t even aware of their battle. Blood was tumbling down over his eyelid, and it seemed like he didn’t even feel it. General Bok hesitated as he felt pity. “Oniyah-”
“Ah…Aaaah…Aaaah!” General Bok rasped and screamed as a red solid beam of energy pierced through his stomach and out his back. 00 was holding the end of it like a sword as General Bok folded over it, grasping it as blood gushed from his mouth on two coughs.
“General!” his soldiers exclaimed.
“You bastard!”
His soldiers attacked. 00 flew backwards with the general still impaled on his ki sword. The Saiyans threw ki orbs at him and 00 used General Bok as a shield to absorb each one.
“Aagh! Stay back you fools!” General Bok rasped.
“No can do Sir!” a Saiyan kicking at 00’s head shouted. 00 weaved his head around the Saiyan’s leg. The second one flew in close and attempted to latch onto 00. 00 tipped his head back as a kick passed before his throat and slammed into the face of the second Saiyan.
“Agh! What gives!” the Saiyan shouted.
“Shit! It wasn’t intentional!”
“Time for my finisher. I don’t know what this is called, but I know I can add more ki to this thing and make it bigger!”
The rod in General Bok’s stomach started to grow, expanding and causing his torso to stretch. More blood gushed from his mouth and his hands grasped the pillar that was now lodged in his stomach. Baring his bloody teeth, he shouted at 00, “ONIYON! WAKE UP!”
“See ya around! Or actually, see ya never!” the operator bade.
The rod was launched, soaring toward the plant like a bomb. “ONIYOOO~N!” the general screamed. The rod struck the earth and a red light bathed the city sector. The breeze from the explosion sent the paratroopers chaotically flying backwards.
Dr. Coorg slapped the back of the operator’s head as she scolded, “I told you to protect the paratroopers!”
“Ow! I’m sorry! I’ll go retrieve them!”
00 flew away to retrieve the Tuffle troopers, while the Saiyans stared at the fiery remains of what was once their leader. “The ge-general’s gone. What do we do? What do we do!?” The Saiyans morale was shot as they started to flee.
“Aw man! They’re running away!”
“Focus on ground the troopers, and then you can chase after them!”
“Geez, all right. That’s so lame!”
Time stops cold
The accident with the paratroopers had been a disaster. It shined light on other disasters that the TSE and TAS had overlooked. The disappearance of Sector 6 was perhaps not an accident caused by Saiyans, but a certain experiment under a reckless doctor. Dr. Coorg was asked to stand before the administration for her damaging mistakes. It was deemed that while Experiment Double-O was effective, he might have been too effective. However, her technology was proven valuable but left in responsible hands. Dr. Coorg refused to have her tech claimed by another Tuffle and it was decided that she would take her experiments and leave with the expeditionary group. It was an exile, an option she chose over death.
The damage to Double-O’s helm had been repaired. He was lying in his dock, resting in darkness while scientists drafted a new prototype to test. While the first prototype had functioned as they imagined, its design was fragile to direct blows. It perhaps needed a forcefield or some sort of reinforcement.
Dr. Coorg was devastated, and she didn’t express it as emotionally as one would expect. Instead, she expressed it through her actions. Since the start of the journey, she had been drinking and staring at the schematics for her next prototype. The war was supposed to be her ideal testing grounds, but now that she was removed from the supply of test subjects she needed, she was forced to fight over the ones stored on the ship with the other scientists. It was absurd. The ship had identified Earth as the next destination. A planet full of creatures worse than Saiyans. The humans would be absolutely useless to her.
Dr. Coorg was seated at an oval, white table in her office, grasping the side of her head in one hand and a tumbler full of whiskey in the other. Her eyes were closed as she reflected on past events. She was at the top. Those idiots. The Saiyans would have submitted to her technology.
As the ship neared Earth’s atmosphere, a red, pink, and purple array swam through space. A red lamp turned on, winking overhead as a claxon sounded. Dr. Coorg cracked open her blue eyes and sighed. “What is it now?”
The wind passed over the ship, causing a turbulence so great that Dr. Coorg fell out of her chair. The whiskey had spilled all over the floor, and in an instant, the ship fell into darkness. The dying whine of the engines alerted to everyone that they were stuck.
“What is it now?” Dr. Coorg growled as she recovered to her feet.
Dim lamps began to flicker on as the ship resorted to emergency power. As soon as she was able to see, she strode out of her office, raising her wrist communicator to her mouth as she asked, “What the hell happened?”
“The ship was struck by a solar wind, Sir.”
Her nose wrinkled as though a bad taste had formed in her mouth.
“Ma’am!” the engineer answered in delay.
Dr. Coorg didn’t answer. She had to check on her experiments.
00’s fingers twitched, probing the cool tabletop. The sensation of touch was reviving through his fingers, and his tail slowly uncurled from his waist and fell limply over the side of the dock. Sound. There were people talking. Smell. They smelled like Tuffle. Tuffles! He couldn’t see. Why couldn’t he see? His head! What was happening to his head?
00’s lips twisted in agony as he felt the needles in his head, cold and stinging. What was around it? He had to get it off! His teeth parted and a gasp left his lungs. They were burning as though they weren’t used to being controlled.
Get out! Get out of here! Gritting his teeth, 00 started lifting his head, and he felt the resistance of something holding it down, pinning it to the table top. He felt the cables going taut, wrenching his head back as though a hand were pulling his nonexistent hair. His neck muscles flexed and his lips quivered. The pain was horrible!
“Aaaaagh!” 00 cried.
The scientists were startled by the scream and immediately went to go investigate, seeing 00 rising from his docking station all on his own.
“Shit! He’s not supposed to be able to do that!” a scientist exclaimed as he quickly walked over to the docking station console and tried to restart the power. As soon as the Tuffle came close, 00’s head snapped in his direction, surprising the scientist before his hand grasped his face. 00 threw the scientist across the room into the steel wall. His body left a red stain against it as he slumped to the floor with his legs folded over his bloodied head.
“We-we got to stop him!” a scientist yelled. He removed his blaster and aimed it at 00.
Another scientist jumped on the man’s arm and protested, “You can’t! This is our only experiment. Our work relies on this!”
“I don’t care! He’ll kill us all if he gets free!”
The Tuffle fired and the laser darted around the interior before ricocheting off 00’s helmet, causing his head to snap to the side. That hurt. He sucked in a pained breath, and his tail and the wires hanging from his skull began to levitate. With one large exhale, 00 screamed as a rush of red ki burst from his body to shatter the lab windows and send the Tuffles flying into walls and other steel furniture.
“AAAAH!” The cable at the back of his head finally snapped and 00’s shoulders swung forward as the cables tore free of his skull. For a brief moment, 00 tipped over off the docking table to land heavily upon the floor. He laid there like a string-less puppet.
Dr. Coorg had felt the turbulence caused by the blast and was marching toward her lab with military escort. She had a gut feeling that her worst fears were about to come true, and when she entered the lab, the sight of the strewn bodies and lab equipment told her that her hunch was true. “Search around. If you see Double-O, do not attack him.”
“And what if he attacks us?” one of the Soldiers asked.
Dr. Coorg was hesitant to answer. He was her only asset until they reached Earth, and she wasn’t sure if she would ever have another opportunity to try her device on another Saiyan. The soldiers found 00 lying on the floor. It was clear he had attempted to free himself, but he didn’t get far. One of the soldiers nudged him with his rifle, and then suddenly, 00 was on his feet, holding the soldier aloft by his jaw. The soldier dangled, rasping and kicking wildly. 00 heard the sound of blaster rifles being armed, and he choke-slammed the Tuffle to the floor. 00 crouched low, balancing upon his fingers and the balls of his feet. His nostrils wiggled as he took in the scents of ozone and Tuffle. 00 darted for the two other soldiers. Tables and other furniture were tossed from his path solely by collision. 00’s shoulder collided with the Tuffle’s chest, crushing him against the wall before he pushed off of it to avoid a beam of blaster fire. He held his palm in the remaining soldier’s direction, and an orb of red ki shot out to melt the soldier’s skull.
Dr. Coorg had been watching 00 move with inhuman celerity across the room. Even without his eyes, he was able to locate where the soldiers were and take them out. She steadied her breathing as she slowly raised her blaster in his direction. She could tell that he was looking for her. As long as she didn’t miss. No matter how smart she was, she wasn’t a soldier. Her weapon accuracy had been pathetic. She just needed to get to the door and then she could seal him inside. As soon as his head motioned in her direction, she gasped and fired. Her shot had missed completely but distracted 00 enough for her to run out of the lab. Dr. Coorg raced to the wall panel to log in the code to seal off the section of the ship. As she was shakily typing in the access code, her hand left the panel on a breeze. Her feet had left the floor, swinging in the air as fingers bit into her shoulder like claws. 00 had a hold of her and was charging down the hall. His grip was crushing her clavicle. The doctor grasped the Saiyan’s wrist to only allow her communicator to be close to her mouth.
“Close the doors! Agh! Seal him in!” she screamed.
There was a loud hum and an alarm as the doors in the hall 00 sprinted down started to lower. 00 could hear the noise, but he didn’t quite know what was going on. He continued to run with the doctor held before him like a guide. He figured if she didn’t want to die, then she would shriek or warn him when he was about to hit something, but 00 hadn’t expected that something to be descending from above. His skull struck the lowering door with a loud, iron-like resonation. The Saiyan’s feet flew out from under him as he collapsed onto his back and Dr. Coorg rolled away from his loose grip. She clutched her shoulder, watching him attempt to sit up, only to feel the heavy doors against his shoulders. Shit! 00’s hands rose to grasp the door, and he used his inhuman strength to keep it from closing over his throat. Dr. Coorg released her shoulder to grab her blaster with her only working arm. Through her adrenaline and anxiety, she started frantically shooting at 00. Plasma rounds peppered the floor and every now and then struck 00’s thighs, arms, and shoulders.
“Die!” she screamed.
“Aaargh!” 00 roared before he managed to push himself out from under the door.
Dr. Coorg threw the exhausted blaster at him and 00 grasped the gun. He listened to the clapping of her footsteps as she ran away from him, and he threw the pistol in the noise’s direction.
“Ugh!” came the cry, and then the sound of a body striking the floor. He got her.
00 was panting from the smoking and cauterized wounds in his skin. It momentarily took his mind off the pain of the helmet gripping his brain. He had to take it off. His hands rose to the helm, clutching it and flexing his fingers in his attempt to rip it free. It was like trying to peel off a band-aid but worse.
“UUUUUAAAGH!” 00 yelled.
Dr. Coorg recovered to her feet and raced over to one of the panels. She tapped in the access code and lifted the door just enough for her thin body to slide under. She dropped to her stomach and started sliding under the door until a large hand snagged her wrist.
Where do you think you’re going?
Dr. Coorg looked up from under the door to see 00—No, Oniyon grinning down at her through a mask of blood that was streaming from his scalp. It rolled into his eyes and mouth, and he didn’t seem bothered. There was a crazed look on his face as he stared down at her.
“Do I look like I’m still trembling and whimpering?” he asked with a sadistic grin.
“No! Let me go!” she shrieked. She tried to wrench her wrist from his hand to no avail.
Oniyon’s tail slowly rose to the panel and hovered over the screen. Dr. Coorg looked at it, and then him. “No! Please! Don’t kill me!”
Oniyon frowned at her as his tail tapped the button. The door hummed as it started to lower.
“No! Noo-aaah!” Splat.
The Saiyan released her limp wrist and stood. He tapped the screen to raise the door back to the ceiling. The ship jerked as it pierced Earth’s atmosphere. The emergency power started to wink and everything sounded like it was about to come apart without the power shield. He needed to get out.
Oniyon sprinted through the ship, running passed fleeing scientists and following their path to the escape pods. There were many Tuffles who were trying to cram inside one pod, some of them managed to do so, and the sight of a Tuffle’s ass pressed against the glass would have been hilarious in other circumstances. Oniyon charged one of the pods, ramming a group of scientists over and grasping another who was inside it. He tossed the man behind him and climbed into it. He glanced down at the shiny buttons and wasn’t sure what did what. He just needed it to start and pressed buttons until the hatch closed and the ship launched into the stratosphere. The freefall startled the Saiyan. The pod’s rockets were sending it streaking across the sky and cascading like a meteor.
Crash! The pod struck mountains, causing a shell of white ice to break off and collapse into the frozen lake at its base. The pod fell with the glaciers, plunging into the frigid water. Oniyon saw the sky through the window of the pod only briefly as it filled with water. Blue sky. Clouds. It was beautiful in his last moments. The water that swallowed him had been so cold that his cells froze instantly.
The Tuffle ship fell through the sky, leaving a banner of dark smoke and flames. It impacted the ocean, parts of it exploding until the ocean swallowed it into its abyss.
Total WC: 9,443 (not including titles or coding)
Perks:
New Member (25%)
Dragon's Share (50%)
Type: Personal Saga, Past History
A Secret Meeting
Dr. Coorg sat at a circular table with the Tuffle army colonel, Colonel Monga. The colonel was seated to her left, sitting up and proper in his seat with his hands in his lap as though he were attending a board. Dr. Coorg’s legs were crossed as she rested her hands in her own lap and met the colonel’s eyes. “I have been told that your units are struggling,” she jabbed.
The colonel frowned, his lips pressing tightly together as though suppressing a retort. “No, Sir.”
Dr. Coorg arched a brow and repeated, “Sir?”
Colonel Monga blinked and stared at Dr. Coorg’s face. She watched his eyes dip to her flat-chest. The doctor closed her eyes as a vein pulsed above her brow. Colonel Monga blushed and cleared his throat. “Pardon me, Ma’am. My army has emerged victorious in every battle, but it is struggling with one. I have been losing units to this Saiyan for a while now. He is known as The Demon, and he is believed to be a high-ranking officer. I don’t feel so ashamed now that I know this man could be my equivalent.”
“He is a monkey. Naturally inferior to our intelligence. What you’re telling me is that our army may need a new colonel?”
A sweat bead descended down the side of the colonel’s head. He explained further, “The Demon has his whole army living in Sector 6. They hide among the Tuffle survivors there, knowing that we won’t attack the city for as long as they hold our people hostage. He uses our people like slaves, forcing them to feed and house his units. They then ambush our units using the urban jungle. I have mainly avoided sending a full battalion there. It’s a waste of men. I need them elsewhere. Eventually, they should run out of food and starve…”
“Or move to another sector,” Dr. Coorg added. She dropped her leg and faced the table, resting her elbows upon it. She interlaced her fingers and rested her nose against them as she began to meditate over the information the colonel had given her. “Hm…you’re right, Colonel. This one is clever.”
Dr. Coorg closed her eyes and left the officer sitting in silence for ten seconds that felt longer to him. She opened her eyes, her blue orbs rolling over to him. “Destroy Sector 6.”
The colonel silently stared at Dr. Coorg in a delayed response. Realization struck him like a glass door, causing him to tense in his seat. “What?”
“You heard me. Destroy it.”
“But our people-”
“They are serving the enemy. If they were loyal, then they would be fighting them to the death.”
“But they’re-”
“Destroy Sector 6, Colonel, or I will report your failures to the administration.”
Colonel Monga frowned at the table top. Perspiration had collected in a glaze upon his blond brow. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He couldn’t believe what the TSE was asking him to do. Those people…it wasn’t their fault. He closed his eyes and the fist on his lap tightened in his anger.
“Oh yes, The Demon, if he survives, I want him captured alive.”
Colonel Monga looked up at Dr. Coorg. “If that was possible, then we would have captured him a long time ago. They say he is capable of destroying the C0C0 units alone.”
“Send as many of your soldiers as it takes to get him. If he really is a demon, then he will make for a wonderful specimen. Yes…I think a demon is exactly what we need.”
Colonel Monga bowed his head as he hid the deep frown that contorted his face. It was wrong. All of it. Those people. Those innocent people. He was starting to believe that the true enemy was sitting before him. “As you wish…” He regretted it.
Dr. Coorg smiled at him as though relishing the sight of his emotional suffering. “See it this way, Colonel, destroying the demon may end the war sooner and save thousands of lives.”
At the sacrifice of hundreds, Colonel Monga thought. He stood from his chair and bade, “Good day, Sir.”
Dr. Coorg scowled and Colonel Monga recoiled as he quickly corrected, “I mean Ma’am!”
The Bombing
Five Saiyans were seated at a dinner table covered with meats, vegetables, and breads. Whatever the Saiyans could gather from deserted Tuffle homes was collected and given to the Tuffle family to cook. The Tuffle family had been held hostage in their own home, feeding the Saiyans who occupied their bedrooms and living rooms, sleeping where they could between intermissions in combat. They were monsters…so Tuffle propaganda would have them believe. While the family didn’t like their occupation, their leader had been surprisingly polite for a being who could rip them in half with little effort. The Tuffle mother called Grana, had noticed the discreet looks her daughter and the leader had been giving each other. She was absolutely against such an implication, but it was because of this possible infatuation that the Saiyans cooperated. Her daughter, Clemmen, was beautiful with fiery hair, green eyes, and a unique pattern of freckles sprinkling her skin. She was helping her cook, while the Neanderthals ravenously chowed down.
Their leader, who didn’t give his name, was in the other room. He was standing to the side of the window, peeking gingerly through the curtains at the sky and the streets below. Clemmen placed a pot of beans upon the table and peered into the other room at the leader’s back. Why didn’t he eat? Was he allowing his soldiers to eat first? She moved away from the table into the other room. She was careful approaching the large Saiyan from behind, creeping close on bare feet. When his grey eyes turned from the window to regard her, she paused nervously. For a moment, they stared at each other until she timidly splayed her bare small hands to him.
“I…I saw that you weren’t eating,” Clemmen said. “Do you not like my cooking?”
“There isn’t enough food,” the leader stated as his eyes returned to the window.
“I never see you eat. You must be hungry.”
“I’m always hungry.”
“Then why-”
Clemmen tensed when he turned his head and bared his teeth at her like an angry dog. He wasn’t used to being questioned so much or having someone pry so much into his life. His expression softened slightly after studying the terrified look in her dilated green eyes. His attention returned outside.
“There are no patrols,” he shared his suspicions with her.
Clemmen walked over to peer out the window with him. It was quiet, but she was too naïve to understand the implications. She turned to the leader and removed from her pocket a roll she had baked. She held it up to him, “Here. Your friends love these, and I was hoping you would try one, but they kept eating them all. I saved you one.”
The leader didn’t look away from the window. “I don’t want your food.”
Clemmen frowned. “You don’t trust me.” She brought the roll to her mouth and took a bite out of it. “It’s not poisoned. I’m not trying to kill you or any of your friends. I’m actually more scared of you killing me or my mom.”
He then looked at her, and there was a conflicted expression on his face that surprised her. She could see it in his eyes that he wouldn’t, but he didn’t say he wouldn’t. Clemmen could only stare back, her cheeks blushing red. His mouth had opened as though he wanted to say something, but then he looked away. The void of silence was then filled with a low rumbling whine that made Clemmen’s eyes grow as she stared at the leader’s stomach. She could see the embarrassment that he was trying to hide on his face and she laughed. She laughed so much that she clutched her stomach. Her mother at the stove glanced over her shoulder curiously, and the other Saiyans peered at the girl suspiciously. Their leader was frowning out the window when he felt Clemmen’s hand forcing the roll into his palm.
“Here; no take backs,” she said playfully.
The Saiyan leader gripped the roll and raised it before his face to inspect where she had bitten it. Clemmen smiled and gave him a short wave. “Don’t eat it too fast,” she said.
He watched her begin heading back toward the kitchen, and he glanced toward the window to see the sky filled with numerous lights. His grey eyes shrank in dread, his locks of hair raising like hackles. “GET OUT!” he bellowed.
The Saiyans immediately stopped eating to look at him. It was all he had time to say. The leader had raced over to Clemmen and locked her protectively in his arms when the apartment was hit. Everything went up in a wave of light and heat. He fell through the floor that crumbled around him and collapsed upon the ground. Concrete and plaster tumbled on top of him and he protected the fragile Tuffle beneath him. Clemmen was screaming. The flames from the explosion had burned her. He could hardly hear her through the barrage. He only saw her teary-eyed, panic-stricken face until another bomb struck.
The Demon
C0C0 Units marched through the fragmented and burning remains of what was once a city. The Tuffle soldiers were silent as they passed through, gazing at the charred bodies of Saiyan and Tuffle. There were women; there were children; and there were even remains of pets. What had it all been for? The enemy was gone, but the war still wasn’t over.
“There’s nothing here,” a soldier whispered. “They flattened everything.”
“Can they do that?”
“Of course they can.”
“Look!”
A soldier pointed up to a figure floating a few hundreds of feet in the sky. His body was smoking. His fur armor was charred and falling in tufts from his body. He was observing the destruction of the city sector, and he couldn’t believe it. The Tuffles had bombed their own people to wipe out his army. Were they that desperate to win? He grabbed the cracked mantle on his shoulders and removed it, allowing it to drop to the ground. The Saiyan leader’s grey eyes then lowered to the roll that he noticed was still gripped tightly in his hand. It had been crushed into a flat bread in his tense grip. The girl was gone. He clearly heard the thought above any others he had. She was just a Tuffle…but he had tried to save her. After the second bombing, she was gone and there was nothing he could have done. But who cares? What about his men? What about his whole plan? Why wasn’t he upset about their deaths and how his entire strategy had ended in an insane use of desperate force?
“Standby. The colonel wanted us to report if we found someone,” the C0C0 Unit captain ordered. He pressed the button on his scouter. A yellow light outlined the figure in the sky as the digitized readings came in: 5,345 PL.
"Kami..." the captain muttered in astonishment. He then contacted the battalion commander. “Sir; we found a surviving Saiyan in the sky. His power level is over 5,000.”
“That’s him. That’s who were looking for,” the BC replied.
“Are you sure? Is there a description?”
“TSE said he would be the only one able to survive an attack of that magnitude. That’s our guy. Capture him immediately.”
“Roger. Over,” the captain ordered, “Bring him down.”
The leader brought the flattened bread to his mouth and folded it within. He could taste the light salt, the butter, and there was the gentle sweet hint of honey. The taste made him close his eyes as he savored the taste. “Mm, that was the best,” he moaned. Slowly, his eyes opened and he saw the wink of a scope. His hand motioned in a blur, snatching a dart out of the air that was fired at him from a high-powered long-range rifle. The sniper jumped.
“Holy shit!” he cursed.
The leader turned the dart before his eyes as he inspected it. It hadn’t been a bullet but a glass device with a needle and strange liquid. Were they trying to capture him? He snapped the dart in half between his thumb and forefinger, and dropped the pieces. He was confused. The Tuffles annihilate everyone and everything, and then they wanted to capture him? His hand went to his forehead, his fingers reaching back through his dreaded hair. Were they after him all along? Everyone died because of him. All of those innocent people, and the enemy wasn’t going to generously put him down. It gave him a headache, but worst of all, it made him angry. What was all of this? Was this not war? Whose side were they even on?
“You want me?” he asked. The whites of his eyes were shining as he continued to clutch his head. He laughed, “Well then here I co-”
His vision went black and his body went limp as it dropped out of the sky. The sniper calmed as he locked and loaded another dart. He reported, “I was hoping he would crack the dart and he did. He doesn’t know the drug can seep through the skin. I’ll give him another to ensure he’s down.”
The ground shattered beneath him. It was the impact that caused his eyes to open, his vision swimming. What’s happening to me? he thought. He was fine a moment ago. He brushed the oily residue on his fingers with his thumb. It didn’t need to pierce his skin to drug him. The leader’s lips rolled back, presenting his teeth in his effort to roll onto his side. He tensed when a second dart shattered against his back. The needle couldn’t pierce his tough muscle, but just feeling the liquid wetting his back...They were trying to put him down.
“Now you done it…” the Saiyan panted as he turned onto his hands and knees. He forced himself to his feet. Fragments of rock and debris rose off the ground around him, and his dreadlocks started to rise like serpents. His shredded armor flagged at his hips and thighs and electricity flashed in a chain about his body.
A C0C0 Unit landed heavily on top of him. The Saiyan’s hands rose to catch it as the ground exploded beneath his feet, causing shards of rock to jut around him in a ring. The pilot and the surrounding forces were stunned. The leader looked up at the machine with white-hot eyes and growled,
Red cracks spread up the C0C0 Unit’s legs to the cockpit until the machine detonated in a plume of red energy. Immediately after, the Saiyan appeared in a blur in front of an unsuspecting Tuffle soldier. His fist struck the soldier’s face, and the force caused his skull to cave inward. The soldier’s body folded backwards and went flipping into three other soldiers, knocking them to the ground. Soldiers started firing in a panic, recklessly firing on each other in fratricide as they tried to keep up with the blurred movements of the enraged fighter. A few sizzling rounds left black streaks across his skin as they singed the flesh they grazed over. Grasping a soldier by the face, his fingers plunged into his eyes, using his skull as support as he executed a barrel roll. His body twisted, hips following and bringing his right foot around to slam down on top of the skull of one soldier, while his fingers embedded in the other soldier’s face twisted with his wrist, causing the soldier’s head to harshly tilt and neck to snap.
The C0C0 Units were trying to follow the Saiyan but were unable to shoot without risking shooting the other soldiers. Saliva was hanging in threads from the Saiyan’s mouth as he fought through the numbing sensation that started to relax his muscles. He was losing focus, swinging and clawing at nothing. Instead of shoot, one of the CoCo Units took the chance to lunge with its fist. The fist dropped on top of him, crushing him into a crater. The machine’s fingers splayed and then curled, locking about the Saiyan’s body.
“I have him!” the pilot exclaimed. “Shoot him! Shoot him quick!”
The soldiers surrounded the crater and exchanged their rifles for dart guns. They pelted the Saiyan’s body with glass. Face in the dirt, the leader could feel the liquid coating him. He was going to be out like a light if he didn’t do something. His hand desperately snagged one of his locks and he brought the braid toward him. There was a bangle on it and attached to the bangle were several small capsules. He pinched one of the capsules, tearing it free, and cracked it open. A white powdery plume billowed into his face and the Saiyan inhaled it deeply, closing his eyes and resting his head against the dirt. When he opened his eyes again, his pupils had expanded to an unnatural size. An excited grin parted his face, and the crater started to flash with a red electricity before an energy barrier started to push outwards against the C0C0 Unit’s fist. The C0C0 Unit tipped backwards as the barrier continued to swell like a bubble until it popped in a red light that bathed those surrounding the crater. When the light faded, there was no one but the Saiyan marching out of the pit with his hands clenched into fists. There was a grin on his face as red lightning crackled down his arms before forming two red orbs in his hands.
“NOW THAT’S WHAT I NEEDED!” he bellowed. “YOU WANT TO TAKE ME? THEN YOU BETTER FUCKING DEFEAT ME!”
The Saiyan started lobbing crimson, destructive energy orbs that exploded like grenades, sending soldiers scattering in the air.
“Fuck this!” a soldier screamed. “He needs to die!”
He fired upon the Saiyan with his rifle and didn’t even see him flinch when the plasma rounds left black and smoking holes in his skin. With the mixture of drugs in his system, he could feel nothing but his blood surging, heart hammering, and the endless amounts of energy that propelled him to plow through one soldier after another. A red stick of glowing energy pierced the cockpit of one of the C0C0 Units like a javelin.
“SPECIAL DELIVERY!” the Saiyan exclaimed.
The stick exploded, taking out the unit. Tuffle soldiers started fleeing before retreat was called.
The captain called up to the BC: “We’re getting destroyed! We can’t capture him!”
“Retreat. TSE says there is no need to engage the target anymore.”
“What!?”
“I said retreat captain before you are-”
“Aaargh!”
The BC listened to the transmission end and turned to Colonel Monga and Dr. Coorg who were seated in his office. Dr. Coorg rose from her burnished leather seat and brushed a hand across her robes. “Now to go retrieve my specimen.”
Colonel Monga said nothing as he bowed his head still regretting the order he had given. Specimens…was that what this war was all about? Everyone else was a contributor to the TSE’s science project.
Withdrawn
The Saiyan leader’s knees struck the ground. His hands were stained in blood from his rampage that after a while had become like a dream. He felt so mentally distanced from his body that the Tuffles who he had chased down and ripped to shreds hadn’t seemed real. His eyes were wide, head hanging, and arms limp. Was he dreaming? But he was awake, wasn’t he? Suddenly, his body heaved and he folded over, catching himself on his hands as he dumped his guts all over the ground. He coughed and hacked as his limbs shook with weakness. He collapsed onto his side as everything felt so cold. His heart was still racing. His tail thrashed about as his fingers curled, balling into tight fists as he tried to gain control over himself.
In the distance, three black vans with TSE imprinted in yellow on the side were tearing through the streets in convoy. As they neared the pickup site, the towering buildings started to shrink into piles of rubble and ruin. They drove passed downed C0C0 Units, the bodies of pilots hanging out of the cockpit as though ripped free. The vans left lines of red tire tracks before they circled around the downed Saiyan. Dr. Coorg was seated in the front seat of one of the vehicles, peering out the window at the creature she had heard so much about. She felt like a hunter having trapped a feral beast.
“He looks like he’s suffering from an overdose. How much of the tranquilizer did those idiots give him?” Dr. Coorg growled. She turned her head to regard the staff in the back of the van. “He must be stabilized immediately. Refrain from using any drugs on him. He should be weak enough for capture.”
“Yes, Sir!”
Dr. Coorg’s brows crashed together. She opened the door and stepped out of the van. She approached the Saiyan, keeping out of reach of his arms and tail. “I have heard all about you,” Dr. Coorg began. “If things had been different, then I would have preferred not to see you in such a pathetic state. The army calls you The Demon. What do the Saiyans call you?”
As one of the soldiers approached the Saiyan, attempting to wrestle one of his arms into a cuff, the Saiyan wrenched his arm from the soldier’s clutches and swung it back. His forearm connected with the chest of the soldier, sending him flying back with a pained cry. His body slammed into the side of one of the TSE trucks, denting it, and causing the truck to tip over. With that same arm, he extended it in Dr. Coorg’s direction. The scientist’s eyes grew in alarm as a second after, a red orb shot passed her head, singing the side of her face as it spiraled and impacted the turf behind her. The Saiyan’s own eyes were wide, shocked that he had missed as he watched his extended arm and the doctor double before him. He cursed. He couldn’t see straight.
“Dr. Coorg!” the TSE guards exclaimed in fright. She had nearly died.
Dr. Coorg held up her hand to stop them. Instead of a frown, she tilted her head as a sickening-sweet smile curled on her pink lips. She removed a black rod from her hip and swung it out to her side to cause it to extend a foot. “I think you will like this. I designed this stun rod specifically for Saiyans when they act out of line. For you though, I think I’ll need it to be on its highest setting.”
Her thumb turned the dial and chains of white-hot electricity started firing down the weapon. She leaned forward and lunged at the Saiyan. She whipped the rod at him, and his tail swung out, catching her legs. Dr. Coorg gasped as her legs were suddenly swept out from under her. She landed on her side next to the Saiyan and before she had a chance to escape, his hand clapped down over her face. Her blue eyes peered from between his fingers at the wicked grin twisted on his face. In that brief moment, she saw why they had called him The Demon. The expression he had given her was one that would be etched permanently into her mind. She had expected him to crush her skull, but he never did. She saw the Saiyan’s grin weaken. His grip on her face became loose, and then she heard it. The sound of shattering glass as the guards fired tranquilizers. Regaining her composure, she tilted her head out from under the Saiyan’s hand and jabbed her stun rod into his stomach before she turned it on.
The Saiyan’s body went rigid and began to convulse as electricity surged through his every nerve. He screamed wildly. Never would he had imagined to hear himself make such a noise. Dr. Coorg held her stun rod against him, allowing herself to recover to her feet. She adjusted her glasses and barked at the guard, “I said not to use drugs!”
“But Sir, he was gonna-”
“And I’m not a Sir!” she shrieked.
She jabbed the rod into the side of the Saiyan’s neck, pinning it there as he thrashed about. Her anger shifted to the creature at her feet as she snarled, “I don’t care what your name is anymore. Now, you are no one and nothing. You are my specimen.”
“KILL ME!” the Saiyan screamed.
She could see the tears, froth, and snot spilling from his eyes, nose, and mouth from the torture not only from her baton but from the side-effects of the drugs. She smiled sadistically at him and refused, “Why would I do such a thing? I have other uses for you.”
She watched as the Saiyan’s eyes rolled back into his head and she withdrew her baton, observing his silence for a moment. “Stethoscope,” she ordered.
One of the medical personnel rushed over and pressed the device against the Saiyan’s chest. “He’s still alive.”
“Good. Get him out of here.”
“Dr. Coorg, what should we do about the other van?”
“You mean to tell me this whole time you haven’t called a tow?”
All of the TSE personnel had been engrossed in the drama. “I’ll c-call a tow!”
“Idiots,” Dr. Coorg hissed. She condensed her baton and returned it to her hip before striding back over to her vehicle.
The Saiyan’s wrists and ankles were secured with magnetic shackles, and he was strapped down onto a gurney. He was loaded into the back of a van, and it was the last time he would see the sky. On the trip back to the facility, they started prepping him. They shaved his hair completely off and collected it in a specimen bag. An oxygen mask was fastened to his face and fluids were fed into his body through tubes in his nose.
When they reached the facility, he was cut from his clothing and decontaminated. They showered him with hot water and scrubbed his skin raw, and all he could do was watch from the outside-in. On the back of his neck, they needled into his flesh something he wouldn’t ever be able to see, but he figured it was their brand. With that brand, he was no longer a Saiyan. He was no longer anything but their little science project.
His journey ended upon a steel table. Overhead, large lamps showered him in light that irritated his retinas. He was strapped down again. They took no risks. He probably wouldn’t have either. It looked like an eclipse was passing over his eyes as he felt cold steel closing in around his bare skull. The device locked over his eyes and was cranked so tight around his head that he thought his brain would gush out of his crown. He heard noises of something being plugged into the helmet, and then the drilling started. His back arched against the straps that the technicians secured even tighter and his mouth opened wide to expel an excruciating cry. He felt the drills crunching through his cranium. The cold sting of pins were the last sensations he felt before he felt…nothing.
Experiment 00
How are his vitals?
Everything looks stable.
Wireless connection?
Clear of traffic. We have a strong signal.
All right; warm him up.
The aircraft was soaring thousands of feet above Saiyan-occupied city. The airship was carrying thirty Tuffle soldiers and one anomaly. The anomaly wore a black and silver suit with flared golden shoulder pauldrons. The soldiers were gawking at the being, eying the strange steel-helm which hid his eyes and the fish line-clear antennae that sprouted from its head. The soldiers talked among themselves, calling it one of the TSE’s new specimens. It wore a similar uniform to a Tuffle officer, but the belt at its waist was unusual. It was brown and fuzzy and not a buckle.
“I hear the TSE are using Saiyans to fight Saiyans now,” a soldier told another.
“What? That’s crazy. We’re supposed to trust that?”
“I know right. It’s kind of scary.”
Uncrossing his arms, the anomaly stood and bent over to plant his hands upon the floor. He then proceeded to lift his feet into the air until his body was balanced vertically. From his handstand position, he started performing push-ups.
“Wow, this guy is strong,” the operator back at TSE headquarters laughed.
Dr. Coorg was standing behind him, watching through the first-person camera in the experiment’s helmet. “He’s much stronger I assure you,” she informed.
The operator grinned in excitement. “I wonder what else I can make him do.”
The experiment lifted one hand off the ground and continued his push-ups.
“Too easy,” said the operator. “Let’s try…one finger.”
The Tuffle passengers were all staring at the experiment, and when he started performing handstand push-ups upon a single finger, there were gasps and mutters of amazement.
“This is amazing! We should have thought of this sooner!”
Dr. Coorg smirked and nodded her head in agreement.
The experiment, balancing on his finger, lowered his feet to the floor and stood. He then executed an ariel cartwheel and performed a series of rapid back-hand-springs down the aisle of the ship. The soldiers were mesmerized. They were watching this thing flipping and performing superhuman stunts before their eyes.
“Do not exhaust the subject before the fight, and don’t test his powers on the ship,” Dr. Coorg warned the operator.
The operator sighed. “I can’t wait for us to jump. I want to kick so much Saiyan ass!”
“You’ll get your chance. Believe me. How would you like to fight a pesky elite general?”
The operator seated the experiment before he looked at Dr. Coorg with wide and eager eyes. “For real? Is this guy strong enough for that?”
“We believe 00 is a high-ranking Saiyan officer. His resting power level was recorded by our scouters to be over 5,000. His power level hasn’t been recorded in combat.”
The operator glanced down at the remote with a pinch of doubt in his heart. “Do you think I can fight well enough?”
“I was told you were ranked number 1 in all the gaming tournaments in the city. See this as a video game. We have the advantage. You are able to completely tap into 00’s potential with the push of a button. For normal beings, it takes years of training to tap into such power.”
“Wow, I wish someone could control me so that I could see my full potential.”
“You’re hardly worth the effort.”
“Ouch!”
“Focus on the mission please. They are about to jump.”
The Jump Master marched down the aisle, glancing sternly at each soldier and making sure each one had a parachute on their back. When he reached the back door, he hit the switch to open the hatch. Air rushed inside the cabin, tossing the colorful hair of each of the Tuffles.
“Line up!” he ordered.
The Tuffle soldiers stood and formed into a file.
“Now go!”
Each soldier started to jump and the drop pods beneath the ship were released. As 00 neared the hatch, the Jump Master snagged his shoulder after noticing he didn’t have a parachute. “Where are you going, Sir? Where’s your parachute?”
Dr. Coorg leaned down and spoke into the mic, “Leave us.”
The Jump Master stared at the experiment in confusion, but he released his shoulder. He had heard the voice emitted from him as though from a radio. Was this that thing everyone had said was on board? He watched it acrobatically, front-flip out of the hatch like a diver into a pool.
“Insane,” he muttered before closing the hatch.
“Woo hoo!” the operator cheered as he watched the cloud bed part to reveal open air. “He can fly right?”
“Exceptionally.”
“Yes! Let’s go!”
00 folded his arms back against his sides and a ring of water vapor burst before him as he darted through the air.
“This is like a flight simulator!”
“Protect the paratroopers. The Saiyans are bound to see them coming,” Dr. Coorg ordered.
“You got it!”
Traitor
Below the Tuffle troopers, hiding in the alleys of the city was the gathered Saiyan unit. A large Saiyan with a scar across his wide chin was watching the descent with a wicked smirk. He turned to look at his aid and cracked a grin as he said, “They’re jumping right into the fire.”
His aid rubbed his hands together as he cackled devilishly, “We’ll blow them out of the sky!”
The Saiyan General chuckled at his aid’s exuberance and pointed a commanding finger at the sky and ordered, “Shoot them down!”
Saiyans brought their hands together in various positions and fired from them beams of white-hot ki that soared like rockets toward the descending troopers. The paratroopers shouted the alarm over the howling winds: “Incoming!”
They braced for impact, but as fast as a jet, a blur swooped by and slapped each of the beams aside. The Saiyan General blinked in disbelief as he watched the angles of the beams diverting in different directions. “What the…”
The operator laughed, “Fools! They revealed their position! Now to return fire!”
Experiment 00 halted in the sky and turned to face where the Saiyans were taking cover. Holding out his hands, firing from his palms were multiple crimson sticks that impaled the ground and walls surrounding the Saiyans. They resembled pins, but the general recognized the odd technique and paled. “SCATTER!” he roared before he darted away in a blur. The sticks of ki winked and numerous red blisters bulged in an incinerating blaze.
The general reappeared in the sky, clenching his teeth in shock to have been attacked by such a power. He didn’t understand it. It couldn’t have been who he thought it was. Working for the Tuffles? With an enraged growl, he turned to face the paratroopers as the surviving members of his unit appeared around him.
“Kill them!” the general ordered his men. He then grumbled to himself, “While I locate the traitor.”
The Saiyans launched toward the paratroopers. The Tuffle soldiers opened fire on the apes, peppering them with plasma rounds. Some collapsed from absorbing too much fire, while others latched onto the paratroopers and snapped the cords of their parachutes.
The operator smirked and brought his fingers together. He gave them a firm crack and grasped the controls. “Oh yeah! Here we go. Time to wreck house!”
Experiment 00’s arms curled at the elbows. His hands balled into fists and he darted toward the Saiyans. White streaks of vapor left the ends of his feet as he soared. He came upon the first Saiyan, thrusting his fist into the ape’s jaw. The Saiyan groaned as his head twisted to the side. 00 followed up the punch with his other hand, pressing a palm to his chest to release a kiai that sent the Saiyan rapidly back-flipping to the ground. The Saiyan’s body struck the ground so hard that soil and concrete geysered into the air. Instantly, 00 darted to the next Saiyan, latching onto his shoulders and clenching the fur in his fists. He dove over the Saiyan’s back, flipping him over, and throwing him toward the ground. Extending his hand, a rod of red ki pierced through the Saiyan’s stomach, causing his eyes to bulge as his hands grasped it. The Saiyan plummeted and when his body struck the ground, a red orb billowed with a thunderous boom.
Suddenly a blur appeared in front of 00, a powerful fist connecting with his chin and sending him flying upwards.
“What the hell!?” the operator snarled. “Who is this hot shot?”
Dr. Coorg smiled with intrigue as she answered him, “A general.”
“I’m going to kick his ass!”
The general appeared above 00 and brought his fists down toward his head. 00 raised his arms, catching the fists against the palms of his hands. The general darted backwards and fired multiple yellow orbs of crackling ki at the helmet head.
“Why do you have the techniques of Oniyon!?” the general yelled.
Dr. Coorg arched a brow. “Oh? So that was his name.”
00’s hands moved rapidly in a blur, deflecting the orbs the other general threw at him. The orbs spiraled in all directions, slamming into the city below and bathing it in golden, electrical ki. 00’s hands began to exude smoke as the ki singed his flesh, but there wasn’t a grimace of pain on his face. It was as though the pain did not even bother him. The general stopped and combined his ki into one solid beam.
“LIGHTNING RAM!” he exclaimed.
“You’ll have to do better than that!” the operator yelled.
00 spiraled out of the way of the ram and closed the distance between he and the general. They then started exchanging blows at a speed so quick, the other Saiyans couldn’t keep up.
“Oniyon! Is that you? Stop this. It’s General Bok!” the other Saiyan revealed.
Dr. Coorg leaned down to speak into the mic, “He is no longer Oniyon. He is Experiment Double-O. You will address him as such.”
General Bok’s eyes shrank in shock. “Who is that? A Tuffle? You bitch!”
“Is that any way to talk to your master? I could have him spare you, General. All you have to do is surrender and serve me.”
“I would rather die!”
Dr. Coorg raised her hand to her mouth and laughed on an obnoxious and shrill voice, “That is what Oniyon said too, and he begged me to do it. It was such a pathetic sight. You should have seen him trembling and whimpering on the ground. It was wonderful!”
General Bok’s yellow aura erupted around him as he bellowed in rage, “RAAAAGH! YOU BETTER HOPE I DON’T FIND YOU! IF ONIYON CAN’T BE SAVED, THEN I WILL DESTROY HIM!”
“Not if I destroy you first!” the operator shouted back. The young Tuffle glanced up at Dr. Coorg and asked with determination shining in his eyes, “Can I unleash his potential? Please? I want to finish this quick so I can return to killing more Saiyans.”
Dr. Coorg sighed. She straightened and pushed her glasses up her thin nose. “I suppose,” she answered, pretending to be exasperated as a smile curled on her lips.
“Yes! Let’s go Double-O! End this gorilla!”
00’s expression finally changed. The mouth beneath the steel helm parted, revealing grit teeth. The motions of his fists and kicks became so swift that the general found it difficult to keep up. Eventually, a strong fist broke through General Bok’s guard, striking him across the face. As 00 attempted to follow up with another kiai to his face, General Bok’s flaxen ki erupted, sending 00 recoiling back as he exclaimed, “YOU ALREADY TRIED THAT!”
General Bok crossed his arms and extending vertically from his fists were two sword-like rods of ki. He lunged at 00, lashing out with his kali sticks. 00 dodged backwards, his shoulders twisting left and right and his body bending backwards to send him flipping back. 00 continued flipping until he became a red wheel and whirled through the air to meet General Bok’s sticks. The general growled as he held the whirling Saiyan at bay.
“General Bok!” his soldiers shouted as they charged to his rescue.
“Stay back! I don’t need your help! He’s mine!”
The Saiyans abruptly halted, watching their general struggle to hold off the wheel attack. He was being pushed back, and the wheel was growing bigger.
“I’m gonna make you road kill!” the operator screamed.
“You’re really getting into this,” Dr. Coorg noted.
The operator blushed. “It’s fun, okay?”
Beads of sweat started to descend the general’s brow as he felt the heat radiating from the attack. He saw his sticks beginning to part, allowing the wheel to inch closer to his body. General Bok’s eyes turned white and he made his two kali sticks explode in a flash. The explosion sent 00 spinning backwards and General Bok followed up with a crackling fist. His fist struck the side of the helm, ripping a chunk of it free.
“Aw no!” the operator exclaimed.
“You fool! Don’t let him rip it off!”
The triumphant grin shrank on General Bok’s face as he saw half of the face of a fellow Saiyan. His eye was closed as though he wasn’t even aware of their battle. Blood was tumbling down over his eyelid, and it seemed like he didn’t even feel it. General Bok hesitated as he felt pity. “Oniyah-”
“Ah…Aaaah…Aaaah!” General Bok rasped and screamed as a red solid beam of energy pierced through his stomach and out his back. 00 was holding the end of it like a sword as General Bok folded over it, grasping it as blood gushed from his mouth on two coughs.
“General!” his soldiers exclaimed.
“You bastard!”
His soldiers attacked. 00 flew backwards with the general still impaled on his ki sword. The Saiyans threw ki orbs at him and 00 used General Bok as a shield to absorb each one.
“Aagh! Stay back you fools!” General Bok rasped.
“No can do Sir!” a Saiyan kicking at 00’s head shouted. 00 weaved his head around the Saiyan’s leg. The second one flew in close and attempted to latch onto 00. 00 tipped his head back as a kick passed before his throat and slammed into the face of the second Saiyan.
“Agh! What gives!” the Saiyan shouted.
“Shit! It wasn’t intentional!”
“Time for my finisher. I don’t know what this is called, but I know I can add more ki to this thing and make it bigger!”
The rod in General Bok’s stomach started to grow, expanding and causing his torso to stretch. More blood gushed from his mouth and his hands grasped the pillar that was now lodged in his stomach. Baring his bloody teeth, he shouted at 00, “ONIYON! WAKE UP!”
“See ya around! Or actually, see ya never!” the operator bade.
The rod was launched, soaring toward the plant like a bomb. “ONIYOOO~N!” the general screamed. The rod struck the earth and a red light bathed the city sector. The breeze from the explosion sent the paratroopers chaotically flying backwards.
Dr. Coorg slapped the back of the operator’s head as she scolded, “I told you to protect the paratroopers!”
“Ow! I’m sorry! I’ll go retrieve them!”
00 flew away to retrieve the Tuffle troopers, while the Saiyans stared at the fiery remains of what was once their leader. “The ge-general’s gone. What do we do? What do we do!?” The Saiyans morale was shot as they started to flee.
“Aw man! They’re running away!”
“Focus on ground the troopers, and then you can chase after them!”
“Geez, all right. That’s so lame!”
Time stops cold
The accident with the paratroopers had been a disaster. It shined light on other disasters that the TSE and TAS had overlooked. The disappearance of Sector 6 was perhaps not an accident caused by Saiyans, but a certain experiment under a reckless doctor. Dr. Coorg was asked to stand before the administration for her damaging mistakes. It was deemed that while Experiment Double-O was effective, he might have been too effective. However, her technology was proven valuable but left in responsible hands. Dr. Coorg refused to have her tech claimed by another Tuffle and it was decided that she would take her experiments and leave with the expeditionary group. It was an exile, an option she chose over death.
The damage to Double-O’s helm had been repaired. He was lying in his dock, resting in darkness while scientists drafted a new prototype to test. While the first prototype had functioned as they imagined, its design was fragile to direct blows. It perhaps needed a forcefield or some sort of reinforcement.
Dr. Coorg was devastated, and she didn’t express it as emotionally as one would expect. Instead, she expressed it through her actions. Since the start of the journey, she had been drinking and staring at the schematics for her next prototype. The war was supposed to be her ideal testing grounds, but now that she was removed from the supply of test subjects she needed, she was forced to fight over the ones stored on the ship with the other scientists. It was absurd. The ship had identified Earth as the next destination. A planet full of creatures worse than Saiyans. The humans would be absolutely useless to her.
Dr. Coorg was seated at an oval, white table in her office, grasping the side of her head in one hand and a tumbler full of whiskey in the other. Her eyes were closed as she reflected on past events. She was at the top. Those idiots. The Saiyans would have submitted to her technology.
As the ship neared Earth’s atmosphere, a red, pink, and purple array swam through space. A red lamp turned on, winking overhead as a claxon sounded. Dr. Coorg cracked open her blue eyes and sighed. “What is it now?”
The wind passed over the ship, causing a turbulence so great that Dr. Coorg fell out of her chair. The whiskey had spilled all over the floor, and in an instant, the ship fell into darkness. The dying whine of the engines alerted to everyone that they were stuck.
“What is it now?” Dr. Coorg growled as she recovered to her feet.
Dim lamps began to flicker on as the ship resorted to emergency power. As soon as she was able to see, she strode out of her office, raising her wrist communicator to her mouth as she asked, “What the hell happened?”
“The ship was struck by a solar wind, Sir.”
Her nose wrinkled as though a bad taste had formed in her mouth.
“Ma’am!” the engineer answered in delay.
Dr. Coorg didn’t answer. She had to check on her experiments.
00’s fingers twitched, probing the cool tabletop. The sensation of touch was reviving through his fingers, and his tail slowly uncurled from his waist and fell limply over the side of the dock. Sound. There were people talking. Smell. They smelled like Tuffle. Tuffles! He couldn’t see. Why couldn’t he see? His head! What was happening to his head?
00’s lips twisted in agony as he felt the needles in his head, cold and stinging. What was around it? He had to get it off! His teeth parted and a gasp left his lungs. They were burning as though they weren’t used to being controlled.
Get out! Get out of here! Gritting his teeth, 00 started lifting his head, and he felt the resistance of something holding it down, pinning it to the table top. He felt the cables going taut, wrenching his head back as though a hand were pulling his nonexistent hair. His neck muscles flexed and his lips quivered. The pain was horrible!
“Aaaaagh!” 00 cried.
The scientists were startled by the scream and immediately went to go investigate, seeing 00 rising from his docking station all on his own.
“Shit! He’s not supposed to be able to do that!” a scientist exclaimed as he quickly walked over to the docking station console and tried to restart the power. As soon as the Tuffle came close, 00’s head snapped in his direction, surprising the scientist before his hand grasped his face. 00 threw the scientist across the room into the steel wall. His body left a red stain against it as he slumped to the floor with his legs folded over his bloodied head.
“We-we got to stop him!” a scientist yelled. He removed his blaster and aimed it at 00.
Another scientist jumped on the man’s arm and protested, “You can’t! This is our only experiment. Our work relies on this!”
“I don’t care! He’ll kill us all if he gets free!”
The Tuffle fired and the laser darted around the interior before ricocheting off 00’s helmet, causing his head to snap to the side. That hurt. He sucked in a pained breath, and his tail and the wires hanging from his skull began to levitate. With one large exhale, 00 screamed as a rush of red ki burst from his body to shatter the lab windows and send the Tuffles flying into walls and other steel furniture.
“AAAAH!” The cable at the back of his head finally snapped and 00’s shoulders swung forward as the cables tore free of his skull. For a brief moment, 00 tipped over off the docking table to land heavily upon the floor. He laid there like a string-less puppet.
Dr. Coorg had felt the turbulence caused by the blast and was marching toward her lab with military escort. She had a gut feeling that her worst fears were about to come true, and when she entered the lab, the sight of the strewn bodies and lab equipment told her that her hunch was true. “Search around. If you see Double-O, do not attack him.”
“And what if he attacks us?” one of the Soldiers asked.
Dr. Coorg was hesitant to answer. He was her only asset until they reached Earth, and she wasn’t sure if she would ever have another opportunity to try her device on another Saiyan. The soldiers found 00 lying on the floor. It was clear he had attempted to free himself, but he didn’t get far. One of the soldiers nudged him with his rifle, and then suddenly, 00 was on his feet, holding the soldier aloft by his jaw. The soldier dangled, rasping and kicking wildly. 00 heard the sound of blaster rifles being armed, and he choke-slammed the Tuffle to the floor. 00 crouched low, balancing upon his fingers and the balls of his feet. His nostrils wiggled as he took in the scents of ozone and Tuffle. 00 darted for the two other soldiers. Tables and other furniture were tossed from his path solely by collision. 00’s shoulder collided with the Tuffle’s chest, crushing him against the wall before he pushed off of it to avoid a beam of blaster fire. He held his palm in the remaining soldier’s direction, and an orb of red ki shot out to melt the soldier’s skull.
Dr. Coorg had been watching 00 move with inhuman celerity across the room. Even without his eyes, he was able to locate where the soldiers were and take them out. She steadied her breathing as she slowly raised her blaster in his direction. She could tell that he was looking for her. As long as she didn’t miss. No matter how smart she was, she wasn’t a soldier. Her weapon accuracy had been pathetic. She just needed to get to the door and then she could seal him inside. As soon as his head motioned in her direction, she gasped and fired. Her shot had missed completely but distracted 00 enough for her to run out of the lab. Dr. Coorg raced to the wall panel to log in the code to seal off the section of the ship. As she was shakily typing in the access code, her hand left the panel on a breeze. Her feet had left the floor, swinging in the air as fingers bit into her shoulder like claws. 00 had a hold of her and was charging down the hall. His grip was crushing her clavicle. The doctor grasped the Saiyan’s wrist to only allow her communicator to be close to her mouth.
“Close the doors! Agh! Seal him in!” she screamed.
There was a loud hum and an alarm as the doors in the hall 00 sprinted down started to lower. 00 could hear the noise, but he didn’t quite know what was going on. He continued to run with the doctor held before him like a guide. He figured if she didn’t want to die, then she would shriek or warn him when he was about to hit something, but 00 hadn’t expected that something to be descending from above. His skull struck the lowering door with a loud, iron-like resonation. The Saiyan’s feet flew out from under him as he collapsed onto his back and Dr. Coorg rolled away from his loose grip. She clutched her shoulder, watching him attempt to sit up, only to feel the heavy doors against his shoulders. Shit! 00’s hands rose to grasp the door, and he used his inhuman strength to keep it from closing over his throat. Dr. Coorg released her shoulder to grab her blaster with her only working arm. Through her adrenaline and anxiety, she started frantically shooting at 00. Plasma rounds peppered the floor and every now and then struck 00’s thighs, arms, and shoulders.
“Die!” she screamed.
“Aaargh!” 00 roared before he managed to push himself out from under the door.
Dr. Coorg threw the exhausted blaster at him and 00 grasped the gun. He listened to the clapping of her footsteps as she ran away from him, and he threw the pistol in the noise’s direction.
“Ugh!” came the cry, and then the sound of a body striking the floor. He got her.
00 was panting from the smoking and cauterized wounds in his skin. It momentarily took his mind off the pain of the helmet gripping his brain. He had to take it off. His hands rose to the helm, clutching it and flexing his fingers in his attempt to rip it free. It was like trying to peel off a band-aid but worse.
“UUUUUAAAGH!” 00 yelled.
Dr. Coorg recovered to her feet and raced over to one of the panels. She tapped in the access code and lifted the door just enough for her thin body to slide under. She dropped to her stomach and started sliding under the door until a large hand snagged her wrist.
Where do you think you’re going?
Dr. Coorg looked up from under the door to see 00—No, Oniyon grinning down at her through a mask of blood that was streaming from his scalp. It rolled into his eyes and mouth, and he didn’t seem bothered. There was a crazed look on his face as he stared down at her.
“Do I look like I’m still trembling and whimpering?” he asked with a sadistic grin.
“No! Let me go!” she shrieked. She tried to wrench her wrist from his hand to no avail.
Oniyon’s tail slowly rose to the panel and hovered over the screen. Dr. Coorg looked at it, and then him. “No! Please! Don’t kill me!”
Oniyon frowned at her as his tail tapped the button. The door hummed as it started to lower.
“No! Noo-aaah!” Splat.
The Saiyan released her limp wrist and stood. He tapped the screen to raise the door back to the ceiling. The ship jerked as it pierced Earth’s atmosphere. The emergency power started to wink and everything sounded like it was about to come apart without the power shield. He needed to get out.
Oniyon sprinted through the ship, running passed fleeing scientists and following their path to the escape pods. There were many Tuffles who were trying to cram inside one pod, some of them managed to do so, and the sight of a Tuffle’s ass pressed against the glass would have been hilarious in other circumstances. Oniyon charged one of the pods, ramming a group of scientists over and grasping another who was inside it. He tossed the man behind him and climbed into it. He glanced down at the shiny buttons and wasn’t sure what did what. He just needed it to start and pressed buttons until the hatch closed and the ship launched into the stratosphere. The freefall startled the Saiyan. The pod’s rockets were sending it streaking across the sky and cascading like a meteor.
Crash! The pod struck mountains, causing a shell of white ice to break off and collapse into the frozen lake at its base. The pod fell with the glaciers, plunging into the frigid water. Oniyon saw the sky through the window of the pod only briefly as it filled with water. Blue sky. Clouds. It was beautiful in his last moments. The water that swallowed him had been so cold that his cells froze instantly.
The Tuffle ship fell through the sky, leaving a banner of dark smoke and flames. It impacted the ocean, parts of it exploding until the ocean swallowed it into its abyss.
Total WC: 9,443 (not including titles or coding)
Perks:
New Member (25%)
Dragon's Share (50%)
Type: Personal Saga, Past History