[Quest] Ben Weeks redwizardb@yahoo.com Note: Thanks to VB for the constructive criticism ^_^ -Book Two- [Hellcats] ----------- Chapter One ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The three Super Saiya-jin warriors sped through the air as the sun slowly started to set on the far western horizon, sending beams of reddish and yellow light bouncing off their apparel. Gokou in the lead, his yellow hair jutting up powerfully from his head, his whole body surrounded in yellow Super Saiya-jin Ki flames that lent incredible power and speed to his every action. Vegeta to his right, silent, grim, ignoring the other two and instead focusing on his target, out of sight..but not out of mind: The dragonballs. Strange, he thought coldly. I never pictured myself here on this mudball planet, chasing after some ancient relic that gives immortal life not to use it, but to defend against another. Why? That's obvious, he thought. I do it so no-one besides me may become immortal. No matter how powerful I was, I could never defeat an immortal. Ever. Even the Gods are mortal...well, most of them. So it's in my own best interests I protect the dragonballs. But even as he said that, a little voice he couldn't control, a voice that had become louder since he had arrived on Earth, spoke out. Don't fool yourself like you fool the others. If that were the case, then long ago you could have wished for immortality yourself. Why didn't you do that? Because I didn't want to beat Kakarotto unfairly, he replied angrily. Just like you didn't want to beat unfairly those puppets back there? Isn't the real reason you waited until you knew you could win is so you wouldn't have to fight at the side of Kakarotto but you'd still be victorious? "NO!" he snarled, clenching his fist in anger. Gokou and Gohan looked over to him, and he looked back at them angrily. Finally, after a moment, he turned his head back towards the front and ignored them once again. Gohan sighed. Vegeta..why do you have to be so powerful? Is it because you're pure saiya-jin and I'm not? It's not fair, he thought angrily. Mr. Piccolo trains constantly, without stop, and though he's powerful, he'll never be the equal of Vegeta. Why does one with so much blood on his hands and so much evil in his heart go unpunished!? Perhaps he's paying back his debt, little by little, with all the lives he's saved. Suddenly, Gokou gasped and landed on the ground. Vegeta did the same, snapping Gohan out of his concentration. He flipped through the air and followed suit. Gokou was standing tall, his blonde hair waving in the wind, his muscular body stiff and rigid. Vegeta, his fists clenched at his side, stood on his right. Gohan took a position to his father's left. In front of them were the dragonballs; two of them. Gokou was ignoring them, however. As the sky darkened, little twinkles of light, like stars, appeared on the horizon. Three of them, all close together, of three different colours. Gohan squinted to see them, and suddenly, with shocking speed, the three flares of light were already there, landing next to the dragonballs powerfully. Gokou and Gohan gasped in suprise. Vegeta arched an eyebrow in suspicioun. Standing in front of them were three warriors, each a tad shorter than Vegeta. They were all clothed in normal human apparel, and looked exactly like humans. That was suprising enough, but what was really a kicker was they were all women. Three of them, expressionless and beautiful. They had nice form and posture, but they seemed to be ignoring the three warriors and instead looking at the dragonballs. Suddenly, one seemed to notice them, and then the other two looked up as well, their eyes lifeless and cold. Gokou said nothing, Vegeta said nothing, Gohan said nothing. Nothing needed to be said, everyone there knew what was going on and there was no explanation needed. Still, Gokou wanted to be sure, and so after a few moments of uneasy silence as the two opposing teams measured each other up, Gokou spoke, his voice steady and commanding. "Are you the Hellcats?" The lead one, a striking blonde with trim-cut hair and earth-style clothes, nodded. "And you're here for the dragonballs?" Again, a nod. "You know we're not going to let you take them without a fight." Nod. "Can you talk??" Nod. Gokou sighed in frustration as Gohan slid one foot back, tightening his stance and belt. Vegeta narrowed his eyes, his body exuding Super Saiya-jin power. The Prince subtly moved into an easily defendable position while keeping his arms crossed. The two robots behind the leader, one short, one tall, each took a single measured step forward, falling into place perfectly next to the lead female. The night sky glittered above them. Gokou narrowed his eyes slightly and frowned. He searched his opponents for weaknesses apparent in their stance, but there were none. The leader opened her mouth. "I am Alena." The short brunette to her left opened her mouth and spoke as well, all of them showing perfect control of the language, even with an English accent to boot. "I am Iliana." The tall redhead to Alena's right spoke. "I am Ifrite." Then the leader, Alena, spoke. "We are the Hellcats." Vegeta snorted, but said nothing. It had no visible effect. Gohan gritted his teeth and felt sweat pouring down his cheek. Although he couldn't sense any power coming from them, he felt that they were incredibly strong, much stronger than they looked. And they didn't look too weak, for that matter.. Vegeta tightened his stance. Gokou didn't move. The Hellcats were an interesting project on Doc's part. They used the same basis as the late Sol's Dogs, but they improved upon many of their faults. A simple upgrade? No, more than that. The 'Dogs had used a revolutionary form of energy manipulation, the unbelievably powerful Heat Sink. It required gobs of power, but it was neatly contained inside a miniature wormhole. It allowed them to manipulate the same energy that a human did, as well as constantly repair damaged systems. However, the Heat Sink did have one major flaw: It was incapable of improving. That was crucial in battle, the ability to increase that tiny bit, bringing every particle and ion together to go just a hair faster, just a fraction quicker. The Hellcats improved upon that with a Quantum Sink. Unlike the Heat Sink, it didn't need to be contained in a miniature wormhole. It could be put anywhere on the machine, required no power, and increased it's power upon command. But that was dangerous, as too much power would overheat it, since it had no energy of it's own, and then it would explode, killing anything within a certain radius. The Hellcats were also attempted to make meaner without making them evil. Doc made it so their emotional circuits would be turned on only when they reached a certain point of damage, his reasoning being that when the emotion DID turn on, the robot would be angry at the damage down to it, and thus become even more deadly without actually being evil. But there was a problem, unforeseen by Doc. Can you really control emotions once they've surfaced?? Suddenly, the two on either side, Iliana and Ifrite, lunged forward at Gohan and Vegeta, powerfully. The two Saiya-jins disappeared; so did the female bots. Gokou and Alena stood there for a moment, the sound of fighting going on around them unheeded, staring at one another. Neither had expression on their face. Nothing else in the entire universe mattered except their opponent. As the wind whistled into their eyes, however, Gokou blinked. Abruptly Alena was surrounded with Ki and in Gokou's face. Gokou was suprised at the speed, but not taken off-guard. With skill and smoothness in the extreme, Gokou brought his arm up at just the right angle to force the attacking robot to slide off to the left, which would open the robot up to a deadly offensive from Gokou. But the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray; the same can be said for llamas and saiya-jins, although what connection the two have is unknown and largely irrelevant. The same could also be said for poor Gokou, who underestimated his opponent. For what reason none can say for sure; perhaps it's a saiya-jin thing. Damn those rascally saiya-jins! The female, calmly and without expression, hit Gokou's arm, and the force of it sent the saiya-jin flying into the distance in utter shock. But not for long. As the robot came flying after him, Gokou saw that while the robot may have lots of computer training and programs to help it fight, it was largely unexperienced in actual combat, whereas Gokou was an unwilling veteran of battle. So he decided, in a matter of billiseconds, upon a course of action. The best plan for the opponent would be to... The robot suddenly appeared under Gokou and punched up, but the female suddenly found her hands empty of a target. The robot's eyes twinkled for just a second, when suddenly Gokou came out of nowhere and high-kicked the female Alena. Alena took the kick in the chin without so much as a flinch, using it's power to propel her impossibly fast through a deadly flip and bring her booted feet up into Gokou's balls. (Ben shuts his eyes as he imagines this, thinking: Power of a train, power of a train, power of a train....OWWEEEEEEE!!>.<) Gokou's face turned a variety of colours, and he was about to cry out in agony when his opponent slammed her fist into his jaw, doing a swell job of dislocating it. Gokou noticed that his jaw hurt, he was hurtling through the air at an incredible speed, his balls were screaming out and demanding a change of contract because they sure as HELL never agreed to take this kinda punishment, and his companions were most likely suffering similiar fates, all the while shadowed by the undeniable fact his opponents were far more powerful. Our hero was unphased. Gokou did a suprisingly agile turn in midair, and then thrust his foot down, digging it into the ground and halting his flight. His foot was burrowed underneath the sand, everything going in slow motion as he went from flying backwards at super sonic speeds to suddenly pushing himself forward with that one foot. The female was screaming through the air towards him, one arm raised in front of her, the other held behind, her face irritatingly neutral. Gokou slammed forward and punched her in the face, extremely hard. The robot fell backwards, but as it did, it brought up it's foot into Gokou's chin. Gokou fell backwards, landed on his hands, then flipped back up to block another punch, then launched a whirlwind of melee attacks. Alena suddenly disappeared and reappeared in the sky, raising her hands and then turning them down, the entire area lit up in purple light as she sent of hail of deadly Ki blasts littering the ground below. Gokou was engulfed in the Ki blasts, and it wasn't the kind of engulfing where Gokou gets engulfed, enemy smiles smugly, enemy suddenly gasps as Gokou flies out unharmed, opponent gets the living bejeezus slapped outta him. This is more the sorta engulfing where Gokou gets engulfed, Gokou is hurt rather badly. And that's not, "Give my computer to my dog" kinda hurt badly, it's more of a "Slap me on my back again and I'll rip off your arms, beat you to death with them, slice your remains, dice them, fry them, burn them, bury the ashes and then salt the earth above so no living thing shall ever grow there again" kinda hurt badly. As you weave your way through that realm of similes and metaphors and emerge at the other end either with your head spinning, your mouth smiling or frowning, or not at all, take a moment to savour the insanity I was in to type it, as well as the caffeine rush. As well as this paragraph. Alena didn't smile or take pride in her victory. Alena continued pumping out the blasts while the air around her heated up. The ground was swamped in tiny explosions while the female robot continued her assault. Finally, after several agonizingly long minutes, she stopped, her arm hovering in midair and her face neutral. The huge cloud that had collected together on the ground, formed from dust, smoke, and debris, slowly began to dissipate. Alena scanned the horizon, and suddenly she whirled around just in time to catch Gokou punching her straight in the face. Her head jerked back, but she straightened it quickly. Blood ran down from her nose but she didn't say anything. Gokou frowned. He brought his powered fist backwards, surrounded it with Ki flames, charged it up, and then suddenly brought it forward faster than humanly possible. The robot reached up and caught the fist, then before it had a chance to do anything else, Gokou kicked out and caught the robot in the stomach, not letting go of it's hand. Alena's face was no longer neutral, now it was an expression of anger. Gokou kicked again but she brought up her knee to block it, painful thought it was, then slammed her free arm on top of Gokou's. Gokou fell back through the air for a moment, then suddenly with a flash, he was surrounded by yellow Ki power and was rocketing high into the night sky. Alena narrowed her eyes silently and followed. Abruptly Gokou stopped and she caught up with him. He kicked down at her, but she was no longer there. He narrowed his eyes and turned, suddenly blocking a punch. He swung mightily, but the air whooshed around his skin as his fist had no target to hit. With speed and agility he blocked an attack to his head, then there was a whirlwind as the robot began to launch a multitude of punches to his body. Gokou narrowed his eyes, sweat pouring down his face, as he looked for a weakness in his opponent's stance. Suddenly, with an abruptness that suprised even himself, he elbowed out and caught the robot in the face, sending her flying into the distance. Gokou surrounded himself with Ki and began to descend towards the ground, watching... Then Alena was back in his face with a punch to his chest, which he barely blocked. He flipped backwards and disappeared. She followed suit. Gohan fell to the ground, his face bloody and his teeth gritted in anger. The ground around him started to crumble underneath his powerful body as he surrounded himself with Ki flames. Iliana was hurtling down from the sky like a comet, her hands clenched in fists in front of her. Gohan abruptly screamed out with power, shaking the earth, and leaned up. Iliana slammed into him with her fist, but Gohan caught it, and as they made contact, their Ki flames rolling into each other violently, the ground around them rumbled. Gohan gritted his teeth, blood streaming down his chin and dripping onto the ground, growling. Iliana hovered in the air for a second, pushing down with all her might, and then abruptly disappeared. Gohan's eyes widened in suprise and he leapt up over a kick that seemed to appear out of nowhere, his face contorted. He fired a Ki blast but the robot dodged it with ease, spinning around and hurling a multitude of beams towards him, singing the air around his face. He felt heat burn his skin and gasped in pain as a beam tore off a tiny piece of his ear, causing it to bleed. Gohan started to fly backwards, blood streaming forward through the air from his nose, ear, and mouth, his blonde hair bending forward, his cape tugging at his shoulders. The robot followed, growing larger in his sight as the ground below him scrolled into the distance, sand... With a screech and a flare of Ki, Gohan abruptly SLAMMED forward, throwing his cape onto the robot. The robot was suddenly entangled in the cape and stopped, ripping it to shreds frantically. But Gohan was suddenly upon her, and with a roar, he punched her to the ground. The robot fell to the earth, slamming into it hard and bouncing up, and the young Saiya-jin appeared below her and threw her into the sky with all of his might, sending a blast that zoomed up and caught her, dragging her into the atmosphere on a rocket of heat. Gohan grinned through blood and suddenly he was caught in the side with a fist harder than rock, burying itself underneath his skin and rupturing muscle tissue. He gasped for air as pain pounded in his temples, throbbing and burning. He crumpled to the ground, looking up into the night sky at the stars and a female silhouette standing above his body. He was about to get up off the ground once again but the robot kicked him in the nuts, causing him to pass out with a gasp of pain. With a whir, his blonde hair slowly fell, and then it was black. Like his eyes once again. Iliana nodded silently, blood falling from her slightly deformed jaw onto her clothes, her face quietly satisfied. She turned up to look in the sky as Ifrite appeared in the air, her hands working up a violent storm of Ki energy that zipped into the distance like a machine gun of power, the deadly Renzoku Energy Dan. Vegeta appeared between the circle of Ki blasts that twirled and whirled dangerously after him, dodging them with practiced ease, zooming towards Ifrite with incredible speed, his bloody face contorted in anger. Ifrite saw this and began pumping out the beams twice as fast as before, her whole body shaking as her arms moved faster than sight. Vegeta flew through the rain of Ki blasts, moving towards her, then suddenly stopped and raised his arms to the sky, gathering energy, and then he bent at the waist and a wall of light erupted from his hands with a huge explosive sound, zipping towards Ifrite with the power of a comet and eating up all the smaller Ki blasts. The female bot stopped hurling the Ki blasts as the explosively deadly energy screamed towards her. She placed her hands around her face in an 'X' position and then the wall hit her. The entire area lit up and convalesced, then with a high-pitched scream of power, Ifrite slowly forced her arms down to her sides and then there was a flash as the Ki power immediately reversed directions with a loud "PING!", zipping towards Vegeta. The saiya-jin Prince, bloody and beaten, tired and sore and totally outclassed, barely dodged the beam to the side, watching in angry awe as it flew to the ground and exploded in a huge atomic cloud that could be seen for miles around. Vegeta turned around only to be smacked in the face, then with a mighty double-fisted blow, he was knocked to the ground. His bones creaked in pain as his muscles were crushed on the sand below. He staggered to his hands and knees, and then he felt himself kicked in the face, smacking him to his back. Then something hard was placed at his neck, cutting off his circulation. Vegeta gasped for air, his eyes red and his nose bleeding. His face turned red, and then with a sudden sigh, he went out of Super Saiya-jin. His eyes closed, and unconscious, his body relaxed. Ifrite, red hair matted with blood, removed her foot from his neck and stepped back onto the sand. *Vegeta is beaten* she transmitted. *Do you need help with Son Gokou?* *Negative* replied Alena, starting slowly but surely to gain the upper-hand with the saiya-jin. *Soon enough I shall have him. Tougher than the others he is, and tougher than we expected.* Gokou leapt back for a second, gathering energy at his side in a brilliant display of blue Ki power. As the area lit up under his energy, the night sky twinkling majestically, deep words echoed from his chest around the area. "Kaaaaa...." Alena stopped suddenly, narrowing her eyes. "Meeee.....Haaaa.....Meeee......." Suddenly Gokou brought his supercharged fists forward, flashing with power. "HAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!" The beam leapt out of his fingers in a blue flash of power and ripped through the air towards Alena like a rocket. Alena's eyes widened and she threw her hands forward, small red Ki flames surrounding them. The KameHameHa abruptly slammed into her hands and there was a blinding flash of power, then Ifrite and Iliana could see nothing but a brilliant white light that lit up the entire area. When the light cleared, Gokou was lying on the ground, unconscious. They arched their eyebrows in suprise. "You beat him quicker than we expected." "I caught him off guard after he had expended all his energy on that silly attack of his; what a waste." "Very well, they're all out cold and we now have the last remaining dragonballs in our posession." Alena hovered down to the ground, her face contorted as blood dribbled out her nose mouth and ears. She blinked a few times, then grabbed one of the dragonballs, tucking it under her arms. Iliana did the same, grabbing the other dragonball. Ifrite smiled. "At last, we have the last two dragonballs! Now Sol can wish for immortality and none can withstand him!" And then, with a rush of power, having defeated their opponents and left them lying in the sand, craters everywhere, blood littered on the ground, they surrounded themselves with Ki flames that lent speed and energy to their every action and zoomed off into the distance, far far into the horizon, towards the white wastes of Tibet in the looming beyond...... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of Chapter One ------------------