[Quest] Ben Weeks redwizardb@yahoo.com -------------------- Thanks go out to: Ming-YuShih, Saiyaman, Dane_Osgood, and s4gohan for friendship. Castor-Troy and VegettoTOD for maybe not support but for being bigtime website owners that are kind to me and also posted my several stories. And of course, all the rest of those nice guys in #spiritworld, #bobmarley, #vegeta, and who can forget #MajinGohan or #fishguts. Thanks do NOT go out to: Mamo-chan: You're totally evil. Sai: However much you might wish for it, I am NOT gay. Enough of that, back to the story. ------------- Chapter Seven ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sol's Dogs were in bad shape. T-11, the scout of the group, had his sensors fryed whenever Gokou went Super Saiya-jin. T-12 was in possibly the worst shape of all, his ocular instruments dimming rapidly, his frame rocking and heaving, grease and oil dripping out from many different holes in his exterior and spraying with every lurch of his damaged hull. He was running at only 53% capability, and that number was dropping with every movement. If the battle lasted much longer, he would no longer function. T-14 was in the best shape of all, but even he had burn scars across his iron chest, choked wiring, and lost parts. T-34 had already entered Mode Execute Standby, and so was teetering dangerously on the edge of overheating. He was running at 122% capability, and that number was increasing rapidly. He was also incredibly powerful but much more of this torturous wracking of his components would result in a final system collapse. But they were all in great shape compared to Gokou. After a particularly harsh round, the Super Saiya-jin found himself on his hands and knees in the mud, coughing violently, shaking his entire frame. Blood drippped from his mouth and gathered at his chin, dripping to the earth in shades of pain, each one a symbol of his growing weakness. A painful rasping was emerging louder and louder from his lungs, his breath coming short. He dragged himself to his feet, coughing up some more blood onto his dirty boots and gulping, trying to swallow the bile rising in his throat. Everywhere he touched he felt incredible pain. After a few moments, he smiled gruesomely, showing bloodstained teeth, because he knew why that was. His hand was badly damaged and crushed, bone sticking out sickeningly, chunks of marrow mixed with the blood that was running from it like rats from a sinking ship. He could barely move it, and that only with great pain and hurt. With a grunt of pain, he fell back on the ground and held up his hand. He looked at it, rain washing over his body, and watched as the robots, all of them lethal, dived down from the sky, one bye one, all towards him. He observed this, then coughed up some blood. The end is coming, he thought. Gokou closed his eyes. "STOP!" Gokou opened his eyes suddenly, suprised. "Huh?" Above him were standing four figures. One tall, another average, one tiny, another short. "We are this man's friends, and a fight with him is a fight with us!" Tienshinhan....but...how..? "We're here, and now you've got trouble!" Yamucha... "You're cowards, four of you versus him alone!" Chiao-tzu...where did they come from...?? "You wrecked our car....now you're gonna pay. Gokou's my best friend, and you've hurt him." Kurillin! Together the four humans stood above his body, the robots stopped and hovering in the air. Gokou coughed up some blood, then with a grunt of pain, sat up, clutching his side. "Gokou! Are you okay??" Kurillin came rushing to his side, kneeling down and reaching out. Gokou smiled painfully. "Heh heh...K..Kurillin...fashionably late again, eh? heh...ow.." Gokou sucked in air through his teeth in pain as Kurillin grabbed his left hand, looking at it in concern. "Sweet Kami, Gokou, this is serious! We've gotta get you to a hospital!" "N..no time..robots...trying..trying to steal...d..dragonball..." Gokou coughed up some blood, and then with a sigh, fell back on his back. "Listen, Kurillin...they're too powerful....you..you've gotta run now...flee!" "No way, Gokou, I'm in this with you to the end!" "Yeah, that goes for all of us!" said Yamucha, flashing Gokou the thumbs-up. "No..you...you don't understand..." Suddenly, Chiao-tzu gasped, and a new voice spoke. A deep guttural voice. "We understand perfectly well." Piccolo. Gokou opened his eyes and leaned up on one elbow, seeing Piccolo and Gohan standing before him. They were both covered in bruises and blood, but were still alive. Alive. Gohan's eyes were black and one was closed shut, blood streaming from his nose like a river. But he smiled. "Papa...." Gokou gulped down some more blood, then coughed. Harshly. He closed his eyes in pain, gritting his teeth. Piccolo watched, detached. Gokou's spending all of his energy trying to remain in Super Saiya-jin. But he's in no shape to fight. "Son. Just let yourself fall out of it. You're weaker in that condition than in your normal mode." "But..." "He's right, Papa." Gokou sighed, and with the sigh went his blonde hair, his green eyes and bulging muscles. His incredible power. [T-34: That brat and his mentor are alive! And these humans are here as well! But they're all worthless in that condition. So we've won!] [T-12: Not yet....] [T-11: I cannot sense any power.] Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash. Gokou looked up, and sighed. His friends had all arrived, but it seemed there was no end to the party. Kurillin looked up and groaned. "Oh great, now there's FIVE of them.." [T-13: I have returned, it seems, in the nick of time.] [T-34: Ridiculous, we were just about to defeat them.] [T-13: Then you won't mind if I join in.] T-13, never one to waste time, surrounded himself with powerful Ki flames and roared down to the ground, landed, and then ran with incredible speed towards the group. His legs pumped, his arms whirred, and he finally arrived. Everyone scrambled to attack, but he kicked Gokou in the back, sending him flying high into the sky, up into the air where his compatriots were. Tienshinhan yelled out and leapt at T-13, but was kicked violently away. Chiao-tzu and Yamucha entered in the fray, and Piccolo did the same. Gohan leapt up into the sky to try and save his dad as the rest of Sol's Dogs pulverized Gokou's body, beating him into a bloody pulp. Kurillin was the only one not in the battle. He felt energy gathering in his body, little pinpricks of heat flowing through his blood, up through his arm and into the air directly above him. His teeth gritted against each other as a disc formed above him, a shining yellow disc that was spinning lightning-fast, growing larger and larger as he kept pumping energy into it. He tapped it once, knocking it slightly off of it's axis, letting it's speed grow and it's power expand. As Piccolo, Yamucha, Tienshinhan and Chiao-tzu were locked in a death struggle with T-13, Kurillin felt the Kienzan reaching it's peak. Finally, with a yell of power, the Kienzan topped that apex of pure energy, into the area where death becomes unstoppable. He whirled his arm around abit, and then finally, when there was nothing more to do, he yelled out: "KIENZZAAAAAAAAN!!" The disc was thrown from above his hands and zoomed unbelievably fast towards T-13. Piccolo hit T-13 in the legs, causing him to fall. As he fell sideways, his left arm, trailing behind him high in the air, was caught with the Kienzan. His body fell one way. His arm fell another. T-13 stood up quickly and tried to block Piccolo instinctively with his left arm but nothing was there except a sparking stump, cut wires hanging out and grease flowing like blood. Piccolo caught him in the neck, then Tienshinhan kicked him in the groin, Yamucha buried his fist in T-13's stomach, and Chiao-tzu fired a Ki blast that hit T-13 in the chest. T-13 fell backwards, caught himself, and then flipped above a kick from Tienshinhan, did some backflips backwards, and landed, one hand out in front of him in a guard position, his legs bent and his back arched. With an explosion of power, Kurillin rumbled towards him faster than a jet, entering into a vicious melee attack with the crippled robot. Then Piccolo and the rest of the gang arrived, and T-13 felt himself losing ground. Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled. Rain continued to fall in a torrential downpour. Gohan was in Super Saiya-jin, his damaged body trying to rescue his unconscious dad's form while holding of all of the 'Dogs. Gohan clutched Gokou's arms, trying to get away. But everytime he turned another robot was in his face, and he felt his body starting to give way under the assault. He blocked a kick and grabbed the leg, throwing the attacker away, but then three more were upon him, and he finally had to let his dad go and use all of his wit and power simply to survive. Gokou fell to the Earth, slowly, like a dead leaf, and landed on the ground, bounced once, then with a sickening thud, rested upon the mud. Then, as the rain poured onto his back and around his body, as thunder rumbled, as Gohan fell to the earth painfully next to him and with a gasp of agony reverted back to his normal mode, Gokou lay still. Water dripped down his nose and he spoke no more. It continued to rain. Sol's Dogs now turned their attention back to their comrade, T-13. He was losing to a rag-tag band of overpowering forces, but they could now come to his aid. Piccolo realized this, and he signaled for everyone to stop. T-13 stood tall and straight, his stump no longer pumping out grease or sparking. Kurillin leapt back, flipped in midair, and landed on the ground in a defensive battle posture. Tienshinhan did the same. Chiao-tzu hovered at his side. Yamucha stood next to them, breathing harshly and wiping blood from his nose. Piccolo gulped down some rising bile and watched the robots falling from the sky, landing next to T-13 one by one. Lightning flashed again, and the sound of thunder washed over them as rain dripped down all of their faces. Finally, the leader spoke. "We will give you once last chance, then we will have to kill all of you. Where are the Primary Targets?" Piccolo growled, letting them know their answer. T-34 nodded. "Very well. Death it is." "I don't think so." Piccolo blinked in shock, looking around for the source of the voice that had just spoken. He recognized it...but where had it come from?? The others looked up, pointing. "Look! It's Vegeta!" said Chiao-tzu. "What took you so fucking long?" Piccolo spat out harshly. Vegeta smiled slightly. "I was waiting for these puppets to arrive in Egypt to try and steal the dragonballs. I've been watching for some time now." As they spoke back and forth, T-34 suddenly gave the robotic equivalent of gasping. [T-34: The primary targets! In Egypt! That's where the last three are!] [T-11: Yes, I remember. So?] [T-34: Don't you see!?? We cannot beat this new power in our condition, especially with all of these others here to fight.] [T-12: But the Hellcats could.] [T-34: But they won't have to! We send a signal and they go to Egypt to get the Primary Targets while we hold off these Earthlings, and Sol will wish for immortality without ever using the Hellcats in an egagement!] [T-13: We'll be revered post-humously....our memory will live with honor.] [T-11: We shall cease to function with glory.] [T-14: Agreed. I shall send the signal.] I must have committed a huge sin in my previous life to be punished this way, thought Doc. He had thought being put in charge of the human female wife to Snag 3 would be an interesting experience. He thought it would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about the human race and their customs, as well as gain valuable insight into Snag 3's life. He was wrong. He couldn't understand how someone as powerful as Snag 3 could possibly put up with such a BITCH! Alright, admittedly capturing her and putting her under lock and key were grounds for being a bit testy. But these woman wasn't just bitchy, she was bossy too! Even as Doc was trying to fine-tune a microprocessor for a batch of firing mechanisms, she was over in her cell screaming at the top of her lungs the many and varied ways she was going to inflict incredible pain upon him if he didn't release her right now. He ignored her for as long as possible, but then, whenever a particularly high-pitched scream jolted him and caused him to accidentally smash a key component that would take over a week to fix, he snarled and stood up. Normally, Diteroc was a shy and kind person, nervous around anyone he didn't know and ESPECIALLY around women. But so help this lady..... "FOR THE LOVE OF TAMEX, SHUT UP WOMAN!" "SHUT UP YOURSELF, ASSWIPE! I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW MY HUSBAND IS THE STRONGEST PERSON ON THIS PLANET, AND WHEN HE FINDS OUT HE'S GOING TO DO SUCH BAD THINGS TO YOU, OOO, IT MAKES ME SICK JUST THINKING ABOUT IT! LET ME OUT OR I'M GOING TO BEAT YOU OVER THE HEAD WITH..." and so on and so on. He listened as long as he could stand, gaining valuable insight into the world of human curses, then finally sighed and sat back down. Rahl and he had a long-standing rivalry going for approval from Sol, and while Doc was closer personally, on a professional level Rahl was Sol's right-hand man, indispensable in all his political and military tactical strategems. Rahl would have been a much better choice for this woman, but Doc wasn't so sure he was comfortable with Rahl alone for extended periods of time with a human female. Just as he arrived at that crucial point in the creation of a new firing mechanism microprocessor, a blaring voice over the intercom overrode the female's hoarse yells. "Attention, Chief Engineer Diteroc. Prepare the Hellcats for exit and assignment of a mission." Doc's eyes bulged nearly out of his sockets and his thin frame slipped out of the black chair that was his favorite, his butt landing on the cold hard metal floor. He scrambled up and ran out the door, his mind racing. The Hellcats!? But Sol's Dogs....what was going on? Eventually, after Sol and Diteroc were informed of the situation, the three Hellcats were released out, ready to do their duty and retrieve the dragonballs. Modified Plan B was now in effect. Sol's Dogs recieved the message that the Hellcats were on their way. T-34's entire frame heaved. In the end, they hadn't failed. They would succeed, although it would cost them their lives. Vegeta finished his coversation with the others in a flourish and landed on the ground. The rain began to pour down even heavier, and he smiled. Wickedly. The forces of fate were streaming through time and space like minnows in a pond. Earth....everything was bending towards Earth. Something huge was going to happen at earth...something that would shake the entire core of the universe itself. But no-one knew what...... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Chapter Seven --------------------