Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Avenger: A Chaotic Future Side Story ❯ Part Three: Avenger ( Chapter 3 )

I DO NOT OWN DRAGON BALL Z OR ANY RACES, PLANETS, OR CHARACTERS RELATED TO IT. GALDRIA, HEVA, TIRIS, IQUELA, MIURA, ZELLIS, SETH, CLEF, HANZO, TWILIGHT AND ALL RELATED CHARACTERS, RACES, OR PLANETS WERE ALL CREATED BY ME.

 

“Avenger.”

(Dorian's Tale)

 

- A “Chaotic Future” Side Story -

 

 

 

PART THREE:

AVENGER

 

 

 

Dorian watched.

 

The stranded Prince stood on the edge of a cliff, the wind blowing savagely through his long blue hair, which was currently pulled back into a tight ponytail. His eyes narrowed as he scanned the valley far below him, and he clenched his fists as his gaze fell upon his two soon-to-be enemies.

 

In the center of a lush, green field bordered on all sides by thick, dark forests, a slender, uncannily tall structure made from some intricately carved, cream-colored material rose high into the sky, it's top lost somewhere in the clouds above. At ground level, at the strange tower's base, the two androids 17 and 18 were taking turns delivering thunderous kicks to the narrow structure, though despite their incredible strength, the tower still stood.

 

What monsters, Dorian thought, his body trembling with outrage as the artificial humans continued their senseless game. They exist only to destroy… Who would unleash such abominations upon this world? A thin, humorless smile played momentarily upon his severe features as he realized that whoever had created the androids didn't really matter.

 

All that mattered now was that he destroyed them.

 

Nearly six months had passed since the ruin of Lant Village, and in that time little else had occupied Dorian's thoughts. Day and night he was obsessed with revenge, and the only thing that had kept him from immediately rushing off to face 17 and 18 after the survivors had arrived in the remains of West City was Erin. The young woman had been terribly scarred by the events that had unfolded that night, and her father's death was never far from her thoughts. As time had passed, Dorian had surprisingly found himself falling for the kind-hearted girl, and her emotional suffering had affected him far deeper than he could ever admit.

 

“Dorian,” she had told him just hours before, “I love you.”

 

Such a simple thing, just three short words; but it had struck the Galdrian warrior like nothing ever had before. She loved him… This girl, whose father was dead and whose village had been destroyed all because of him had somehow managed to look beyond her own grief. Erin swore that, even though her life had been ripped away from her, she would persevere, she would struggle on so long as Dorian remained by her side.

 

Leaving her to face the androids had been the hardest decision of his life.

 

Once again a strong burst of wind tore around the stationary young man, blowing his hair and long, dark jacket wildly about him as he continued to observe his opponents. Reaching into the flowing coat he now wore, Dorian withdrew a simple, eight inch long cylinder of deeply stained wood. His fingers curled around the object, feeling the intricate carvings that had been painstakingly etched into the weapon hundreds of years ago by some unknown Galdrian artificer.

 

With barely a thought, a blade of shining, blue Galdrian power erupted from the end of this hilt, stretching to nearly three feet in length and flickering ominously as Dorian looked down upon the androids. This one item, his precious energy saber, had never left the Prince's side, even when he'd been recovering in Lant Village. Until now, though, Dorian had never once had to use it throughout his entire voyage across the cosmos.

 

That was about to change.

 

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Several hours earlier…

 

Silence pervaded the small, hastily-constructed shelter.

 

Dorian stared uncomprehendingly at the old, battered radio that he had managed to obtain upon arriving in the decimated West City, unsure of the words that he had just heard. Small band communications like this one were the only real source of news concerning the androids' movements, and it was for that single reason that Dorian had struggled so hard to find a working unit. And, if the broadcast that had just been received was to be believed, he now had a rough idea of 17 and 18's current location.

 

“They were seen heading south,” he repeated to himself, as if he'd forgotten all about Erin's presence. “Flying toward a small, relatively unimportant island chain… What could they be after?” He instantly went silent as the familiar hum of static drifted eerily out from the radio's single speaker, wondering if another transmission may be trying to work its way through, but he heard nothing.

 

“Korin Tower,” Erin spoke softly into the silence, her storm-grey eyes widening in sudden understanding. “That's the only thing they could be after; there's nothing else down there, not really.” She sat down on the edge of the shelter's single, derelict chair, running a hand through her lengthening, dirty black hair. “That must be what their after…”

 

“And what's so special about this `Korin Tower'?” Dorian asked, kneeling down before Erin to look directly into her downcast eyes. “Why would they be so interested in it?”

 

For a moment, Erin said nothing, content to merely gaze deeply into the Galdrian's iridescent blue eyes. Eventually she blushed, looking away and breaking their eye contact as she finally spoke.

 

“There's a legend,” she said, a slight wrinkle of worry marring her brow, “about the tower. Supposedly, anyone who makes it to the top will receive ultimate power.” Erin returned her eyes to Dorian's as she went on. “That's what the legend says, anyway.”

 

Those two with ultimate power? Dorian wondered, a slight chill of fear creeping slowly up his spine. If that legend is true, and the androids know about it, we're all as good as dead! The Prince of Galdria stood to his feet, his clenched fists held down at his sides as his body trembled. As if they need to be any stronger… So this is it; this is my only chance…

 

“I'm leaving,” Dorian stated, stopping in the doorway to look back at Erin over his shoulder. The expression of loss and fear that had stricken the black-haired young woman froze the Galdrian Prince in his place for several moments, and it took all of his power to simply close his eyes and turn his head away. “Erin, I have to do this.”

 

“Why?” she asked, her voice trembling.

 

“Because, Erin,” the determined man replied, stepping out into the glooming morning mist. “I promised your father; I made a vow, damn it, that I would stop these monsters, that I would avenge all of our friends who they murdered!” His voice, which had steadily increased in tone and volume, suddenly dropped to barely above a whisper. “And… And because there's no one else…”

 

With that, Dorian began to ascend slowly into the dull morning sky, mentally preparing himself for the struggle that he knew was soon to come. Before he'd gone very far, Erin's soft voice once again paralyzed the blue-eyed warrior. Her tone, so full of longing and sadness, was nearly enough to make Dorian return to the ground right then and there, and to forget about his vow to avenge her father and the other villagers.

 

“Dorian,” she said, clasping her quaking hands over her chest as her stormy grey eyes glistened with unshed tears, “I love you.”

 

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Android 18 kicked.

 

With an echo like thunder, the artificial human's foot connected solidly with the base of the slender, impossibly tall tower. A shudder ran up and down the length of the cream-colored structure, and several chunks of small stone and a rain of dust and debris cascaded down around her as she stepped back, running a black-gloved hand through her golden-yellow hair.

 

“17, this is pointless,” 18 said in an exasperated tone, rolling her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I mean, why go through all this trouble, huh? If you really want to know what's at the top of this thing so bad, why don't we just fly up there?” As her brother readjusted the crimson bandana that he wore around his neck and stepped forward for his turn, 18 let out an irritated sigh. “Fine,” she surrendered, “have it your way.”

 

“Come on, 18,” the dark-haired young man said with a wry smile. “Why would we want to fly up there when we can just kick it down? You're a real buzz kill, you know that? Just try to have a little bit of fun for once.” 17 walked forward, stopping just before the base of Korin Tower, throwing a few practice kicks before readying himself for the true strike. “You better get back, its coming down this—”

 

Before the android could finish his sentence, a bomb of pulsing blue energy exploded around him, shaking the ground and kicking up a tremendous cloud of dust and debris. Several more blasts, smaller in size but lacking nothing in ferocity, made contact, forcing 18 to jump back several feet as she erected a hasty defense.

 

Amidst this sudden chaos, Dorian moved in for the kill.

 

“What?!” Android 18 cried out in surprise as a scintillating arc of energy shot towards her from within the cloud of dust, singing through the air right where she'd been standing barely a second before. Even though she had avoided the energy saber's first strike, 18 found her reflexes being put to the test as the glowing blue blade continued to forcer her back with a dizzying combination of blows meant to keep her off balance. Suddenly, as the blonde artificial human prepared to once again dodge a saber slash, Dorian appeared beside her, knocking her off her feet with a well placed, power-charged spinning kick.

 

18 flew through the air and, using her hand to spring board off the ground, she landed elegantly several yards away, her back to Dorian. Slowly, the android turned her head to look over her shoulder, leveling a hate-filled glare on the Galdrian warrior, who felt his blood run cold. Finally 18 turned to face him, a small cut appearing on her right cheek, accompanied by a thin stream of blood.

 

“18, watch out for this guy,” 17 warned, stepping out from the haze caused by Dorian's attack. The black-haired android seemed relatively unharmed, despite the severity of the Galdrian Prince's blast. “He's a lot stronger than I would have figured.”

 

Dorian remained silent as he readied himself for the next round of combat. The blue-eyed warrior shifted his stance slightly, holding his energy saber ready before him as he warily watched 17 out of the corner of his eye. Unfortunately, it seemed that the discharge of energy that should have destroyed the artificial human simply hadn't been strong enough, and now Dorian was forced to fight a battle on two fronts.

 

And, already, the valiant warrior from Galdria was beginning to feel fatigued.

 

This damned planet! he thought vehemently. How can I protect it and its people when it continues to draw all of my strength from me? For a moment, Dorian thought that the hopelessness of his situation would overwhelm him, but as he remembered the vow that he'd made to Viktor and the people of Lant Village, he felt that same hopelessness blown away on the wind. I will avenge you…

 

“I have a great idea, 17,” the blonde-haired android spoke suddenly into the oppressive silence. “Since you're the one who always says I don't know how to have fun, I've come up with a little game that we can play.” 18 narrowed her eyes as she returned her attention to Dorian, who hadn't moved a muscle since their short face-off. “Don't worry, you can play too,” she said with a false smile. “This is how it's going to work: if you can manage to beat us in a fight,” she gestured toward Dorian, “then 17 and I will leave this tower alone.” At this, Android 17 let out a groan, and was silenced by a sudden glare from his sister. “But if we win, then you can kiss the tower good-bye.”

 

“Not this time, 18,” 17 complained, crossing his arms over his chest. “Let's just kill this guy, okay? I really want to know what's up there.”

 

“And we'll find out when we win. God, you really act like a child sometimes, you know that?” 18 asked, her voice sounding like an exasperated mother's. “Don't worry; there's no way he can beat us.”

 

Suddenly, the battle was on, and Dorian found himself frantically defending against not one, but both androids. Hoping to escape his opponents long enough to formulate some sort of plan, Dorian leapt high into the air with an explosion of blue power, knocking the androids back momentarily. This slight distraction didn't last long, however, and the Prince of Galdria was soon faced once again with both of the powerful artificial humans.

 

The only way I'm ever going to win this is to separate them, he realized, gasping as he narrowly avoided a devastating blow to the head by Android 17. Here goes nothing! Using his tremendous speed to his advantage, Dorian suddenly spun around to face 18, slashing in a wide arc with his glowing saber of blue energy. The female android cried out in shock and leapt back, only to find that Dorian's attention was still focused on her. With a grunt of exertion, the black-clad warrior thrust his empty hand forward, firing off a monstrous blast of concentrated Galdrian energy which instantly enveloped 18 and drove her down toward the ground.

 

“You bastard!” 17 shouted as he rushed Dorian, who had been stricken suddenly by a bout of dizziness after loosing such a great amount of power. The Prince was caught completely off guard as the wrathful android lashed out at him with blow after blow, most of which met their mark effortlessly. Finally though, as Dorian's sense returned to him, the Galdrian warrior was able to disengage himself from 17's assault, dropping to the ground, where he hoped to have a moment to catch his breath.

 

That moment never came.

 

17 was upon him in an instant, appearing behind Dorian and crushing the Prince's ribs with a thunderous kick that seemed to shake the entire island. As the Galdrian fighter spat out a mouthful of blood, the dark-haired android followed up with another strike, this time a hammer-blow to the back of Dorian's head. The blue-eyed avenger fell to the ground, his body quaking with pain as he gasped for breath.

 

“Huh,” 17 snorted, delivering a sharp kick to Dorian's already-injured ribs. “I guess you should have just left us alone, eh? Honestly, who do you think you are anyway?” Shaking his head and running a hand through his shoulder-length hair, 17 walked a slow circle around his unmoving opponent. “I don't know where you came from, pal, but I guess no one told you: this planet belongs to us.”

 

“He's right, you know,” 18 added, walking up to stand beside her brother. Much to Dorian's shock, despite everything he'd done to destroy her, Android 18 remained mostly unharmed. In fact, other than the cut on her cheek and the dirtied and crumpled state of her clothing, 18 looked pretty much as she had when Dorian had first seen her. “You really didn't stand a chance at all, stranger. 17 and I have made shorter work out of better fighters than you.”

 

“Well, sis,” 17 asked, pointing his hand down toward Dorian, “can we just kill him now?” He looked at 18 out of the corner of his eye, awaiting her final judgment.

 

“Not yet, 17,” she replied, looking over her shoulder toward Korin Tower. “Let's knock the tower down first, that way our new friend here watch it as it crumbles. How's that sound?”

 

“I was wrong about you, I guess,” Android 17 said with a satisfied nod. With a barely concealed smile of enjoyment, the male artificial human walked purposefully toward the base of the tower, pointing his outstretched hand toward it as he gathered energy for a final strike. “You do know how to have a good time, 18.” With that, 17 fired off his blast, easily destroying the base of Korin Tower and setting the rest of the structure dangerously off balance.

 

Dorian blacked out as the tower fell.

 

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The androids were disappointed.

 

After everything they'd gone through, it seemed that there hadn't been anything of interest at the top of the tower after all. It had taken a full hour for the entire thing to collapse, and it had turned out that dashing all around the field while trying to avoid the falling wreckage had been much more fun than the actual act of knocking it down; more fun than the short battle against the blue-eyed stranger, even. Eventually, once the deadly rain of masonry, stone, and—of all things—pottery had ceased, the duo had spent the next several hours searching through the debris for anything of interest.

 

“Hey,” 17 finally asked as he kicked over another large slab of white stone, “you find anything cool yet?” He looked toward his sister, who was studying something on the ground with what appeared to be interest. “Well?”

 

“No, 17, nothing,” she replied with a sigh of disappointment. “Just a bunch of broken clay pots and a dead cat with a stick. You?” 18 asked, dusting off her hands as she walked over to where 17 stood with his hands on his hips.

 

“No, not really. Hey, how about this?” he asked, pointing to what appeared to be a human corpse not far away, crushed nearly beyond recognition. “I'm not sure, but I think this used to be a fat guy.” He laughed to himself as 18 rolled her eyes and shook her head.

 

“Honestly, 17, I told you that this whole thing was just a waste of time.” She sat stubbornly atop a large chunk of the fallen tower, running her thumb over the small cut on her cheek. “And now look, we've blown our entire day. And I wanted to go shopping, too.”

 

“Hey, we could always kill that guy with the energy sword,” Android 17 suggested as he peered toward the sunset on the western horizon. “I mean, that could be kind of fun, right?”

 

“Sure, why not?” 18 agreed. “Now, where'd we leave him anyway?” With her brother at her side, 18 began searching through the rubble for any sign of Dorian, cracking her knuckles the entire time. “I swear, 17, if he was killed by this mess you made, I'll never forgive you.”

 

“Don't worry, here he is,” the black-haired fighter responded, kicking a slab of masonry away and revealing the still-unconscious form of Dorian, lying exactly where they'd left him hours before. “Look, he's still breathing even.” Noticing the cut on 18's face for the first time, 17 smiled. “Looks like he got you pretty good, huh? I'll tell you what, 18: he's all yours.”

 

Before either android could make a move against the beaten and battered Galdrian, twin blasts of golden-yellow energy shot down from above, forcing the two of them back and kicking up a tremendous cloud of dust and debris. As the pair of androids were forced to shield their eyes, a figure dropped down from the darkening evening sky, bending to quickly pick Dorian up over his shoulder.

 

The Prince roused and, still slightly groggy from his battle against 17 and 18, pulled away from the newly arrived stranger. Without warning, Dorian staggered back, raising his energy saber and activating it with little more than a thought. It was nearly impossible to see through the concealing cloud of dust, but it seemed to Dorian that the newcomer was barely more than a child, perhaps in his mid-teens. As the figure warily approached, the Prince of Galdria felt all of his remaining strength drain from him, and he quickly collapsed back to the ground.

 

“Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you,” the stranger whispered into Dorian's ear as he was picked up and balanced precariously over the young man's shoulder. “Don't make a sound, we've got to get out of here. Those two won't stay distracted for long.” Without another word, the young man, weighed down by the exhausted Galdrian Prince over his shoulder, shot noiselessly into the sky, leaving the androids, and the remains of Korin Tower, far behind them.

 

To be continued…

 

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Coming soon:

 

Dorian has survived his battle against the androids, and he now realizes that, without his full power at his disposal, he is nowhere near strong enough to face them in combat again. However, will news from his mysterious young savior give the beaten and crestfallen Prince new hope?

 

“Avenger.”

(Dorian's Tale)

 

PART FOUR:

“PROMISE”