[ Contents | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 ]

Chapter 29

BOOOOMM!

The sonic boom rattled windows and shook dishes on their shelves; people looked up, but few actually saw the small, shining shape that clove the air at supersonic speeds just above ground-level. The few who saw blinked their eyes, trying to make sense out of the metallic form, far too small for an airplane, and oddly misshapen for a cruise missile.

As the hurtling object headed out to sea, the shockwave trailing it manifested as a wake on the surface of the water--a wake that pointed in a straight line toward Muten Roshi's house in the South Sea Islands.

Naranja meant to exterminate that nest of traitors and vermin once and for all.

* * *

On Jinkousei, alarms suddenly shrilled all over the ship. Nezumi dropped her sandwich and ran for the bridge, only to find Raditz there ahead of her. He cursed as his fingers danced over the control panels.

"They'll be on us before the ship can get out of range. Nezumi!" He looked sharply at her. "Take the ship up as fast as you can, don't come down until I say it's clear! I'm going to slow them down." With that, the long-haired Saiyan nearly bowled her over rushing through the hatch she'd just emerged from.

"Gah! Raditz! You don't mean for me to just.... leave you here?" Her voice trailed off; she was talking to the empty corridor. The ship shuddered as the engines roared, gathering power and lift. "I guess so."

Nezumi hurried over to the panel; Raditz had already initiated an emergency take-off. A quick glance at the threat display; the girl's eyes widened and she gasped--there was a cloud of small objects incoming--bombdroids. Bigger craft followed them. All she could do was watch as the ship lifted all too slowly--

"Damn it, why doesn't this thing have force fields and phasers or something?"

* * *

Chi-chi glared furiously at the old man sleeping in the lawn chair while she hung the laundry up. Why did her nice house have to get blown up, while that dirty old man's cottage survived robots and monsters visiting every other day for decades? If only Goku would get a job instead of hanging out with these bums, things might be different...

Or, maybe not. Gohan was such a smart boy, he studied well, he did well in school, but trouble turned up anyway, and it was good to have someone as strong and reliable as Gohan to protect her. Chi-chi set down the shirt she was about to hang. Goku... was so sweet, and she loved him, but he was never around! Always off training, or saving the world, or... or worse. Chi-chi wiped away a tear, remembering the awful, lonely years after the Cell Games.

She tried not to question the miracle that had brought Goku back in the wake of the great demon... but for how long? The gods thought highly of Goku--too highly. When would they want him back? Chi-chi sighed quietly and continued hanging laundry.

Goku slept the sleep of the innocent. Tomorrow, tomorrow he and Gohan planned to go back home and start rebuilding the house; for now, he enjoyed the serenity and beautiful weather of Muten Roshi's island, working out with Gohan, eating well, and sleeping deeply.

Gohan also took advantage of one of the hammocks; it was the heat of the day, and a good time to catch up on sleep after a hard morning's workout... especially since afternoon would be spent catching up his school lessons under Chi-chi's supervision. Chi-chi had no intention of letting Gohan fall behind academically, in spite of his enforced absence from school.

* * *

Raditz dodged another plasma bolt as bombdroids exploded all around. Where'd that one come from?

There! Another squadron of the flying crab-bots. Raditz scowled; they were hovering in formation around something much larger, blocking his view of it.

Dodging and blocking plasma bolts, Raditz plunged toward them, energy flashing from both hands. Ki lanced out to destroy warbots on either side; the others shifted position. More plasma beams.

Raditz blocked, zoomed upward and spun, flinging balls of energy in a sweeping arc.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! They all struck home; machines exploded, raining scraps of metal across the jungle.

The crab-bots scattered, revealing a building-sized flying saucer. What was this? Raditz had not seen anything like it before. It rotated, bringing a dark stubby tube on the rim of the saucer to bear.

Two crab-bots swooped in from opposite directions, firing. Raditz snarled and twisted, dodging the plasma bolts--

A beam of blackness shot out from the flying saucer. Raditz slammed his shoulder into one of the crab-bots, sending it spinning helplessly into its neighbor. The black beam narrowly missed Raditz; in reaction, he flung the tangled crab-bots at the saucer-shaped death machine.

The black beam lashed out again, slicing through the wreckage like a knife. Raditz's eyes widened; the gutted robots did not explode, they simply fell apart, sliced cleanly into pieces. Where the black beam touched, matter simply vanished.

Then the rest of the death machine's weapons opened up: an array of heavy plasma beams slammed into Raditz, knocking him out of the sky.

Raditz shook himself as he rose out of the shattered trees, then ducked as the black beam probed for him, disintegrating a quarter acre of jungle.

Raditz snarled. "That thing... annoys me.!" One hand extended; energy flashed through the sky to slam into the flying saucer.

It staggered in mid-air, recovered, and pressed on, though still rocking violently.

"Crap!" Raditz spun and darted to one side as the plasma bolts howled in his wake. "That thing is armored!" The death machine was actually... dangerous. He'd have to use a lot more power to destroy it, and the other warbots weren't giving him the luxury of preparing the energy. "Crap!"

How many more were there? Fifteen? Twenty? The air was thick with plasma bolts, hot and stinking of ozone. Raditz had no choice, he had to destroy them, while avoiding the death machine's lethal disintegrator. Fortunately, it seemed to have a low rate of fire.

He sped low over the jungle, the robots in pursuit. Raditz jinked and twisted as he flew, throwing off the long shots of the leading warbots. The death machine trailed behind, not so fast as the smaller machines.

Raditz glanced back from time to time; his eyes narrowed as he noted the widening gap between the flying crab-bots and the great saucer. Just a bit more...

FWOOSH! Raditz spun and stopped abruptly, kinetic energy dispersing in a flash of light and sound. Two bolts lanced out from his extended arms; two more, and two more again. Six robots gone.

He zoomed upward, going for altitude, twisting and dodging the return fire. If the robots followed...

Yes! As they twisted and turned to follow Raditz's abrupt change of flightpath, the robots bunched up. Without stopping, Raditz flung two beams backwards, impaling another five robots so conveniently lined up.

Now he could count them in a glance. There were only four left, plus the big one. Raditz flew upwards; the robots fell behind. They weren't designed for high acceleration against gravity.

A plunging, corkscrewing dive. He was in among the robots before their weapons could bear, Saiyan muscles slamming Saiyan fists into their delicate mechanical innards. One, two, three, four came apart in showers of metal and plastic.

Now only the big one awaited. Free-falling toward it, Raditz gathered himself. "MAN--"

The disk pitched up slowly, trying to train its weapons on Raditz.

"KI--"

It rotated, training the disintegrator on the plummeting Saiyan.

"--BATSU!" Searing purple-white blast plunging down; black line of death snapping upward.

Raditz twisted; the disintegrator missed him by a hair's breadth. He felt the rush of air collapsing into the nothingness as it passed. A lock of hair floated free.

His own blast slammed down and through the middle of the deadly flying saucer. Something shrieked, a rising vibration that grated through Raditz's bones; the Death Machine imploded in a burst of blackness.

Raditz blinked. The flying saucer was completely gone; not so much as a screw fell to the jungle below.

"What the--?"

Pip! Raditz's scouter came to life; something with a bit of ki was out there.

"What the HELL?"

* * *

Where were they? Naranja's head turned from side to side. This string of islands matched the coordinates given by... by her sensors. No great power revealed itself; they were all hiding from her.

Very well. She tried to snarl, but felt armored metal shifting across her face instead-- guarding her eyes and other weak points from attack. Hovering, Naranja felt of her face with one steel-taloned hand, heard metal clinking on metal. How much of her had they rebuilt? What did she look like? She glanced down; the sea was too restless to show anything but tossed sky.

No matter. Only the traitors mattered; they had to be punished. Even Bardock; he was hopelessly corrupted. But the source of the corruption... she would be dealt with. Again. Yes. Naranja recognized her mistake; she hadn't killed the witch properly. She'd been too quick.

Naranja dropped silently to the sandy beach. She'd find them, even if she had to personally clear every nest of vermin in this archipeligo. They were here, she was sure of it.

* * *

"Yattuei! Yattuei! YATTUEI!" The strange words rang in Goten's ears.

"Huh? What?" He said, awakening from his nap. Goten blinked. Perejil stood over him, trying to shake him awake with insubstantial hands.

"Yattuei! Canojo kah! Kahkuureiraye! Hahyahkuu kahkuureiraye!" The ghostly saiyan boy said.

Goten rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and glanced quickly around the room. Trunks was visiting him while his father was in the hospital. "TRUNKS! WAKE UP!" Goten ran over and shook the violet-haired boy awake.

"Huh? Whazzit?" Trunks blinked and sat up. "What's up?"

"We gotta hide! Perejil says the bad lady is here!" Goten looked frantically around.

Trunks balled his fists. "I bet we could fight her! We're Saiyans, too!"

"No!" Goten echoed the frantic plea in Perejil's eyes and voice. "We'd.. um, get in Dad's way!" He crossed his fingers, hoping that Trunks would believe the excuse. Mom and Gohan used it all the time with Goten himself.

Trunks scowled. "Well, I've got to protect Mom! Father is still in the hospital."

Goten pondered that for a moment, then brightened. "We'll hide in the closet in Bulma's room!" A thought occurred to him as he scurried after Trunks. "Perejil, tell Dad--Goku--the bad lady is here!"

Perejil stared in puzzlement at his friend. Goten wanted something, but what? All he recognized was the name, Goku...

* * *

The pink house on island was the last house Naranja visited. Her eyes widened as she noted Goku, sleeping in his hammock, and the filthy half-breed nearby. There, doing the chores of a slave, there was the witch who corrupted Bardock! Naranja clenched her fists; teel claws curled into deadly talons.

Take the witch, and kill her properly. But.. she'd never find Bardock and the filth he'd spawned so vulnerable again. They had to be punished properly, too. Then the decadent Vegeta, and then cleanse this rotten planet. Metal talons scrabbled lightly against armored legs.

Naranja decided. With a bound she cleared the house and landed squarely in front of Chi-chi, one taloned hand lashing out--

Something orange flashed in front of her eyes, something blocked her arm, but the other hand was moving too, she'd been ready for this, knew the woman must be a fighter, razor-talons plunged past the block...

...deep into a muscular body. A scream of agony rent the air; Bardock doubled over, Naranja's metallic arm buried in his chest. His eyes bulged in agony as adamantine talons pushed past the shredded remains of his heart to clamp on to his spine.

Bardock opened his mouth as if to speak, stunned disbelief in his eyes. Naranja tightened her grip and twisted, crushing the vertebrae in her hand. How could she be so strong?

"Thus died Kinoko!" hissed Naranja as she let Bardock's broken corpse slide to the ground. Naranja paused to ponder the irony; she'd decided to kill the female before she could warn Bardock, and by coming between the death-blow and the female, he'd killed himself--leaving Naranja plenty of time to properly kill the witch.

Naranja blinked--no, she was being carried far out to sea in Goku's grip. She hadn't killed him--he'd blocked, blocked again, and tackled her.

"Decadent filth! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!" Naranja boxed Goku's ears with her full, cybernetic strength.

Goku yelped in pain and dropped the cyborged Saiyan. He clapped his hands over his damaged ears and shook his head from side-to-side, trying to clear his hearing.

Naranja swooped just above the waves and zoomed upward, slamming her fist into Goku's groin. As he doubled over, her knee caught his nose; Naranja's other fist swung and caught Goku square in the jaw. Blood spurted from his nose as Goku went flying--

"FATHER!" The shout of anger rang in Naranja's ears. Her head snapped around, looking at--

"MA-SEN-KO!" Blazing white energy slammed into the cyborged Saiyan, plunging her deep into the ocean.

Goku righted himself after plowing through a few waves; sea water dripped off his back and a trickle of blood ran from his nose. He grinned as his hair flashed golden. "She's gotten a lot tougher! Gohan, keep her busy while I get Chi-chi and the others out of here." Two fingers raised to his forehead, and Goku vanished.

The filthy whelp! How dare he be so powerful! Naranja clawed her way to the surface. For that, she would destroy this whole world! As she rose from the water, Naranja pointed one arm at the oncoming Gohan, willing all of her power into her attack. In response, the metal shifted and folded back, revealing a powerful blaster built into her arm--Android 16's Hellgun.

"Die, vermin!" The powerful weapon flashed, its bolt surrounded by a corona of Naranja's power.

Gohan braced himself, arms crossed in front of blazing golden hair as the powerful beam slammed into him. It staggered him; smoke rose from scorched clothing, but still he came on, zooming across the wavetops toward the hovering Naranja.

A second powerful shot, and he halted, arms crossed in front of his face. Naranja smirked; now she was powerful enough to stagger even a Super-Saiyan!

Again, she fired, and again Gohan simply blocked her shots. Why didn't the fool fight back? Naranja screamed and dove toward him, taloned hands outstretched. With her full cybernetic speed and strength she tore at the half-breed--

--razor-sharp metal talons raked his flesh, tearing away great ragged strips of muscle to reveal the white bone beneath. The half-breed screamed in agony as Naranja plunged the claws lower and deeper, ripping open his belly, letting the entrails spill into the waiting sea--

--no, she was blocked, and blocked, and blocked, never so much as ripping a thread of his tunic. How could anything mortal be so fast, let alone a wretched perversion of nature like this half-breed?

Goku suddenly re-appeared in front of Gohan, too close to Naranja--and his back was to her! "Gohan, they're safe now--"

"Dad! Look out, she's--"

Naranja smashed the Hellgun into the base of his spine and fired. Goku screamed in pain as the beam hurled him several miles and exploded.

Damn! Two of them were too much to easily deal with... she needed the bots. But the machines had proved just as untrustworthy as Saiyans, turning on her when Naranja needed them most. Useless to wish for them--unless...

Yes! If any of the 'dumb' bomblets were left, they wouldn't care who she was or was not loyal too. All she had to do was transmit on their frequency, and they would come--and the transmitter was built in to her skull.

"MA-SEN-KO!" The youth's energy attack sent Naranja flying southward and into the ocean again. No matter; it would take him time to catch up with her in the ocean--she did not need air to breath, anymore. Naranja smirked to herself; the limpets and the bomb-droids had heard the call. She dove deep.

Above the sea, Goku returned to Gohan, his gi a bit more tattered than it had been.

"Dad! Where is she? I can't sense her!"

Goku frowned with concentration. "She's like the androids now. Look for her old power, not the power she's showing us in battle." He pointed down into the sea. "There!"

Gohan took a deep breath and plunged into the sea. The deeper he went, the darker it got, but Naranja's corrupt power stood out against the weak, innocent sea creatures.

Naranja's machine eyes glimmered infrared in the dark. So, the whelp dared to follow her down here? She hovered just below the overhanging crest of a seamount.

What was the foolish whelp doing? Her eyes focused on him, magnifying the details. What was the point of cupping his hands like that?

"KA--"

Wait.. some kind of energy build up--he meant to attack her again.

"ME--"

Wait! She'd seen Bardock use that attack on Vegeta! Filthy, arrogant whelp! Naranja aimed the Hellgun again and willed it to fire, even as she zoomed for the surface above.

"HA-MEHA!" The brilliant sphere of energy streaked out, even as Naranja's blast slammed into the seamount's crest and exploded, bringing millions of tons of rock, coral and mud cascading over Gohan. Still the energy sphere pursued her! Naranja snarled, feeling the armor plates slide down to guard her eyes and flung one armored arm in front of her face as the ball struck and exploded, throwing her high above the surface of the sea.

"GO-HAAAN!" Goku screamed involuntarily. His eyes flashed turquoise with rage and power; golden hair crackled with lightning.

"That's it for the whelp!" Naranja snarled. "Now to deal with you, traitor!" She pointed the Hellgun at Goku.

"You don't have enough power, Naranja!" He smirked; he could still perceive Gohan's ki, as strong as ever.

She simply smirked. "What matters is how you use it, Bardock!" Naranja laughed wickedly. "MEGATON ARRAY!"

"What the--?" Goku's eyes widened in surprise as several dozen limpet-bombs rose from the surface of the sea to envelop him. Several of the wasp-shaped bomb-droids followed them, arraying themselves in a ring around Goku, warheads pointed inward.

"Enjoy the last few seconds of your life, traitor! Each bomb will reinforce and amplify the others as they explode--the total blast should be sufficient to kill even a Super-Saiyan!" Naranja turned and flew away as the limpets clamped onto Goku's front and back, crackling with electrical discharges meant to shock and stun.

Two fingers, flicker-flash. Goku appeared behind Naranja and grabbed her about the waist. The bomb array darted forward and surrounded him again.

"I'm not letting you get away! You've done too much evil!"

Naranja shrieked. "You fool! Once initiated, the Megaton Array cannot be stopped! Even if I wanted to, I cannot spare you, traitor, not even to save myself!"

"I don't care what--"

WHAAAAMMMMM!

Gohan surfaced just in time to see the nuclear fireball blaze far to the north. Lightning crackled about him as he braced himself against the shockwave.

CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 30

[ Contents | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 ]

Disclaimer: See Credits.

Deceiver's Legacy

By Dragoness Eclectic

Chapter 29