Pt2. Warriors Unite

here’s something about the moonlight that makes you want to feel as though your part of something spectacular. At least, that’s the impression I got from staring up at the moon every night endlessly until I would end up just sitting in complete boredom from contemplating my life. I was very self-centered and didn’t care much about anyone else. One night I was sitting on the edge of one of the balcony’s of the fort where I’d been stationed on Vegeta, staring as usual at the gleaming light of the moon, when I felt a hand press itself upon my shoulder. My attention quickly changed as I turned my head to see who it was,

“Ryoko?” I said, somewhat seemingly puzzled by her sudden appearance

“Well 17, we are here on this fort together, its not like you’re the only one here. Besides, I thought you’d like some company?” She replied, staring into my face as though it was a picture of light and innocence.

“Feel Free.” I said as I began turning my head back towards the gleaming light of the moon.

She turned her head then and leant upon the rails of the balcony before speaking out to me,

“Why do you do this 17? Come out and stare at the moon every night?”

I just dropped my head slightly, looking at the ground far below myself and gave out a slight sigh of frustration.

“What do you care Ryoko?” Then turning my head to see her face, “You don’t know anything about me…I don’t know anything about me.”

She stared into my eyes then as I stared into hers, the vision seeming somewhat magical yet I didn’t know fully at the time. I was an android and shouldn’t be able to feel anything of emotional value inside my being. Yet, I could feel something there some kind of emotion inside of myself that gave off a warm feeling from the inside.

            An alarm bellowed throughout the fort calling us all to arms to meet in the great hall. Leaping from the balcony I ran through the open doorway to hear a sudden explosion emanating from behind me. A scream could be heard from Ryoko’s voice as she fell to the ground upon the collapsing balcony. Turning back towards the door I suddenly caused myself to disappear from sight and then reappear in the air under her. I caught her, but she was already unconscious with smoke from the burns of energy blasts escaping her body. Looking up I noticed a small force of dark figures within the sky, Scythe, Yamtien and Mako Ruu. Though I did not know them at the time I recognize them now as perhaps my oldest adversaries to date. Keeping my gaze fixed upon the three of them I slowly placed Ryoko down upon the soft sandy ground. Standing up I couldn’t help but clench my fists tightly, the anger that was rising through my body was intense and I could feel my circuitry at the time getting ready to explode inside of me. I could hear one of them laughing above me and so without a second thought, I leapt from the ground into the air after them, fists at the ready to deal out a taste of an androids power.

            Forcing myself into the thicket of them I was managing to move quick enough to either evade or block the majority of attacks that were aimed towards me. After a short while though I noticed that the three of them were concentrating their energies on forcing me to use up my energy and it was working I became quite tired after a short while after managing to land a few decent blows upon them. Ruu however seemed to be the strongest of the three he also seemed to be the most hyperactive and clumsy which made it quite easy to land the strikes. Exchanging blows with Ruu forced me to lose the concentration I had on the other two fighters and so ended up with two fists striking at my body one another and forcing me to the ground. Thankfully though my training over the past few months had paid off and I was able to quickly recover from it by swinging my body around into a flip so that I landed in a crouched position with a hand on the ground to support my weight.

            The three of them were floating in the air above me and I was losing energy at a rapid rate, the others were still in the main hall conversing without realizing that there was a raging fury of a battle which pressed on at the present time. I had to let the others know something was amiss and pulled from my back a circular shaped weapon in the form of a star. Its points curved anti-clockwise with shafts for something to appear through. *SHRING* was the only sound that could be heard as 5 blades shot from the shafts that shone with the bright moonlight.

            Throwing it towards them I watched as it quickly sped at an incredible speed towards Ruu whom appeared to be the leader of the three. As it reached him it was then knocked away by a Large Metal Scythe that was owned by none other than the man himself. A small smirk appeared on my face as the Glaive was sent towards the open window of the main fort. As it passed through a large open window, all that could be heard was a loud crack of wood breaking into pieces and the sudden, “Woah!” that could be heard from the fighters in the room. Within a moment, the best fighters of the guild had appeared out upon the sands outside the fort, Saruto and Gogeta. The two of them upon arrival both burst out in fits of laughter when they saw the three of them floating high in the air, and this seemed to cause up a stir of unease amongst the three of them.

“Well Ruu..” Saruto said, “It looks like your attempts have failed once again, only this time at the hands of a Low Class fighter.”

Something which seemed to affect my pride more than anything else, but it was true, I was a low class fighter compared to some of them. Ruu answered him back saying,

“But I’ve not lost yet Saruto, this little predicament has merely delayed my plans. Something which I guess could not be avoided because I’m sure if I’d gotten past him it would have been more difficult to get past Gogeta and yourself all by myself” A wide smirk appearing across his face, giving off a strong feeling of Sarcasm from his tone.

Saruto merely chuckled under his breath and said,

“You can just go back to Blank and Steven and tell them you’ve failed once again. Vegeta shall hold its own against you and any other force which may come against us,” and with this in mind, Ruu gave off a quick snarl and raised his fist out towards the direction of Saruto,

“This isn’t over!” he said as he began to fly off into the dark distance of the night.

            Ryoko lay still until the next morning, bandages across her arm and forehead and as I sat at her bedside, I watched as she made some faint signs of movement in the form of a groan, one that left her in pain as he turned her head to the side. With a struggle she opened her eyes to see me sat next to her, watching over her as she had done for me some few months before. By the look on her face she seemed quite surprised to see me there and looked at herself before turning back to me with a slightly embarrassed look upon her pale face,

“Did you…” She said as she tried to hide the embarrassment that was shown in her cheeks and she finally came out with it,

“Did you dress me? My wounds I mean?”

I got off what seemed to be a slight smile, for the first time since I’d been there I’d smiled and at a comment such as this. I just slowly shook my head and continued to look at her. As the faint sound of a sigh escaped her lips, I explained that the servant, Ellissia had dressed her wounds.

            Ellissia was not the strongest of people and in fact Ryoko was by far the stronger in terms of pride and ability. She could however hold her own in a fight and had all the traits of a true Saiyan, the tail, the ragged hair, the rather bulky muscles that were very common on Saiyan females and finally, her fanged canines. I never got the chance to speak to her personally and only saw her once in a fight before she eventually lost her life in the heat of the battle. However, that is for another chapter of this story.

            It was three days later before I saw Ryoko walking again and then not until I was in the Gravity Room training with a fellow warrior by the name of Gotenks.

“Well it looks like your improving Gotenks.” I added as the battle between us raged on consistently. Sweat from the intense body heat dripping from my locks of hair

“While you’ve been looking after that girl 17, I’ve been busy training, HAHA!” He laughed as he sent a fist out towards my face at full speed and had I not caught it, I would’ve been probably knocked to the ground from sheer exhaustion because as an Android I didn’t have the advantage of my power level rising every time I had fought, so I had to train constantly in order to maintain and gain even just a small amount of new power. I returned his blow with own of my own, knocking it hard into his face. It sent him stumbling and I stood there in my stance with sweat dripping from my exhausted body, laughing nervously as I spoke,

“Not fast enough, eh Gotenks?”

He brought himself to his feet once again and with his hand, wiped from his lip a trickle of blood that had escaped its vessel from the impact of my fist. Gotenks was and always had been from when I met him a cheeky bugger, making his way up through his attitude he would give anything for a fight and would come up with some excuse if he lost one. He was taller and older than when Saruto first employed his services. But he had permanently been locked in his current form as a result of a special curse that had been placed upon him. His clothes reflected his ‘dark’ and cocky attitude with black and orange being the dominant colors of his clothing. However he was powerful and definitely a match for myself at the time, but there again so was everyone else because of my inability to gain pl after each training and fight.

Raising my hand I stopped the spar and smiled over at him, just by looking at his face I could tell he knew that I had stopped it purposely because any more and I would’ve had more than enough strain continuing.

            Training went on for days at a time, each of us growing stronger and stronger with repairs and natural healing processes. Saruto and Gogeta trained together constantly, each trying to outdo the other in a display of Strength and speed. Many is a time I spent watching the pair of them thinking that one day I could be better than the two of them as did many other warriors, but I could feel myself driven by those two, urging me to continue with my training. At the time the two of them were quite a spectacle to watch, battling each other until the point of their exhaustion and then even further as they were determined to become the best that they could be.

            The attacks and sudden strikes from the renegades known as FAV seemed to continue and there were even cases of several individuals attempting to infiltrate the sanctions of the guild. Ruu became a common enemy amongst several people, one being myself. Several times he tried to disguise himself under the use of an alias. I began referring to him after a short while as “Tear Ruu”. As he believed he was some form of Deity or Immortal Being. Backs then the times were harsh and battles were fought regularly between the two guilds.

            But something happened then which we did not expect at all. Two creatures appeared one day on the lands of Vegeta that were beyond anything I had ever seen or known. They’re power was terrifyingly intense even when suppressed. They came without reason and quickly began a campaign of destruction that would at some point lead to the end of Vegeta as we knew it. I remember one encounter by which I nearly lost my existence. The creature’s names were Grim and Corando.

            The first time we saw them, they quickly swept down upon the land, destroying everything in the way of their campaign. A large number of warriors, including myself gathered at the destruction sight soon after, missing them by a short while. By that time my skills in the use of tracking had increased drastically and my ability to sense powers was slowly developing as I became more comfortable with fighting warriors that were stronger than myself. Little did I realize at the time we were to come into close confrontation with the pair of them. They looked down at us from above and all we could hear from them was a sinister cackle of laughter, Corando being the smaller of the two yet from what I could tell they were both tremendously powerful and Brim frightened me more than anything I’d ever seen before. His appearance was dark and bandages covered the near bottom half of his face with a tattoo mark on his left cheek bearing that of a dagger drawing blood from a stone. I suppose at the time he was into some sort of ritual based cult. His clothing was loose and down to a minimum on his chest, bearing bandages on his forearms and across his stomach. A leather strap went around his body over his shoulder that on his back held a large sword of crude shape.

            This was not to be our last meeting as I quickly found out from jumping into the thicket of battle with Corando. His power overwhelmed mine greatly but as I said as the time my power level detection skills were at a minimum skill level. No one bothered to warm me of course and I was quickly beaten down to the ground in but a few short powerful strikes. I could feel my insides short circuiting and shattering within my body at the sheer brutality of a blow to my stomach and I was the first to fall to their evil.

            My time in the other realm however was ironically short lived and I summoned back to the lands of Vegeta to be greeted by not what I expected. For two warriors had come to greet me from the FAV. The warriors Yamtien and Scythe had gathered the Dragonballs secretly over the short time I had been gone and wished me back onto this plain and I can still remember the conversation we had about it,

            “I was wondering when I’d get back to this realm, although I must admit I didn’t expect a greeting from you two of all people.” I said as the words ran from my mouth at the sheer astonishment of their presence to greet me.

            “Spare us the sarcasm 17. We were told to summon you back because this fight has reached our guild.” Scythe said as he thrust his weapon of great curvature towards my face, stopping it before the tip of the blade actually touched my flesh.

            “Really?” I replied, “So why have you come to greet me back?”

            “We’re are asking for an cease-fire between us until this battle is over 17. Neither Steven or Saruto want this alliance between the two guilds, but we have no choice, else we all die.” 

            I could tell by looking in the eyes of Yamtien at the time he was being sincere and it didn’t seem at all that he was really bothered about working with the enemy and something astounded myself about him, his calm, cool nature and that third eye which lay upon the middle of his forehead. The way he dressed was something to admire as well, for he was obviously that of a spiritual man who believed more in the mental capabilities of the mind rather than the physical strength of the body. I glanced at him briefly before turning my attention to Scythe who seemed somewhat less delighted by the thought of us working together. I maneuvered the edges of my lips to bring a wide smirk across my face and said,

            “Well it looks like I’ve got no choice but to accept, if the leaders of the two guilds don’t want the cease-fire to go on, then we might as well encourage them to accept it as best as we can.” Pausing for a brief moment to catch my breath a single thought ran through my mind, Revenge. Revenge for the humiliation of the defeat at the hands of Corando. The lord knows how many he had killed by the time I’d returned or indeed how many fighters were left in existence. One thing was certain though. He was going to go down without a fight so I decided to give him one and with my new allies I didn’t think there was any chance of losing.