Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ EFSS VS LCSF ❯ Chapter Three ( Chapter 4 )
Chapter Three
EFSS, Vegeta's camp…
Landing right in the middle of his prince's sparring session, Radditz ducked a punch then knocked away the smaller man's opponent. "Sir…"
"What?"
"She knows how strong we are and she knows that you're here."
Lifting one eyebrow, he sighed then started walking towards the communication station set up for interplanetary communications. "This could be very bad for us."
"Yes sir, it could be very bad."
"Did you learn anything about her forces?"
"Nope, just that she told Teeny she was very strong."
"How strong?"
"She wiped out one team of five veteran warriors and another team of four mixed warriors."
"That doesn't say anything."
"Each member of Sugar's team had a maximum power level of 13,000 and she killed them like they were nothing."
"So her strength could be anywhere from 14,000 to 20,000."
"Sir…I got a reading of 25,000 when that group of power levels flared in the area she killed our fighters."
He smirked. "She's still low enough that I could beat her, as could you."
"No…she has to be at least 50,000 to be Turles' superior. He takes his orders from that girl and his power was 45,000 when he left our side."
"Well, if she's that strong then you better hope she doesn't decide to go after you."
"Sir?"
Shaking his head, he waved his hand at the taller man and turned on the communicator. "Father, we're having some problems with Radditz's team."
King Vejita frowned and stopped studying the map in front of him. "What kind of problems?"
"He's lost at least nineteen fighters to the enemy."
"What's so special about that? Surely his warriors took out a fair number of the opposing side."
"No, there were only two fighters the whole time…one of them is Turles."
Sucking in a sharp breath, he growled menacingly, causing several of his Commanders to look at him in surprise. Ignoring them, he turned away from the table and walked towards a bar set up in the room. "What the hell is that bastard doing there?"
"He's with his superior."
"What do you know about him?"
"Her…"
"Her?" His eyes narrowed, a dangerous glint dancing in their depths. "What do you mean her?"
"Some girl who took down nine out of those fourteen warriors on her own."
"Dammit, why the hell didn't they kill her?"
"You'd have to review the recordings Radditz made of the groups that died, I'm not too clear on that myself."
"Fine, send me the recordings then review them yourself. Somehow we'll figure out what happened there then destroy that little bitch and her protector before she wipes out anymore of our forces."
"Yes father."
"I'll contact you as soon as I've gone over the recordings with the council. They might have some important input for us."
"Okay." Turning off his scouter, he rubbed at his face with his hand. "So what did you think about those recordings?"
"She shocked the first team…the second team was destroyed quickly and efficiently…basically she's a killing machine."
"I figured as much." Cracking his knuckles, he closed his eyes and drew in a few deep breaths then opened them again. "I guess this means we'll have to figure out a way to kill her on our own."
"You don't think your father will come up with a suitable plan of action on his own?"
"Hell no, he'll come up with the same conclusion we did."
"In that case, I'll round up my troops and meet you in the same area she killed those teams. We can assess the damage from there."
"Great, I'll get two hundred of my soldiers ready to go there."
"What about the rest of your men?"
"They can monitor the movements of our enemies if they ever give themselves away."
"Okay." Nodding at his superior, he shot into the sky and out of sight.
LCSF forces…
Standing in front of her assembled troops, she clasped her hands behind her back then started pacing. "As of right now, we're up against a force of seven hundred and eighty-three Elitists. One of who is Prince Vegeta himself. If any of you have reservations about this upcoming battle then you better squash them. I'm not going to lie and tell that everyone will make it through this battle, but I will say that we fight for our rights and our freedom from oppression by King Vejita."
All of the troops roared their approval then went silent when she held up one hand.
"However, being only three hundred strong, we need to fight in groups, keep your backs and sides protected from unwanted attacks. If we do this right then we can bring them down to numbers we can handle."
Turles nodded in agreement even as he stepped forward to start giving orders. "Everyone get into groups of six fighters then choose your leader. As soon as you do, I want you to sound off and set your communicators at the same frequency as Bulma's and mine. We'll give you orders from there on out."
The warriors quickly got into fifty groups of six and began yelling out the leaders within seconds of forming up.
Mentally taking note of the names being yelled out, she smiled grimly then lifted into the air. "All right everyone, move out. If my guess is right, and it normally is, they'll be heading to the field where I destroyed some of their forces." Turning her back on her troops, she shot away, her power level flaring wildly.
EFSS Forces…
Studying the corpses of his dead troops, Radditz swore softly under his breath then shot a glance at his prince. "She really did a number on Marcus here…look at how the skin is torn raggedly. Her attack had to be timed so that no one saw her coming."
"Yes, but that doesn't make any sense. How did she know that there wouldn't be very many people in this group?"
"I think she was banking on the trick she pulled when she multiplied her ki."
"Hmm…" Moving away from the dead body, he headed towards the blood soaked clearing where more of his fighters' bodies were lying. "I'm still curious as to how she managed to cut up Brig's body so neatly."
"I'm not sure about that…unless she used a ki blade, that would make the kill as clean as it was."
"Yes…and that explains how she managed to kill him so easily."
Walking towards the third corpse, Radditz felt something squish under his foot then looked down and made a face. "Well…I just found Cook's heart."
"Really?" Glancing over at his subordinate, he chuckled softly then shook his head. "Always stepping in other people's body parts I see."
"Yuck…" Rubbing his foot in a somewhat cleaner patch of grass, he shook off a feeling of revulsion then turned to the final body. "She punched through his armor so hard it didn't even crack around the hole…where did they find someone like her?"
"My guess is as good as yours." Studying the burned areas of ground, his lips tightened thoughtfully. "I'm guessing that someone cleaned up the mess left behind by Sugar's team, but why didn't they take care of the first three bodies?"
"As a warning?"
"I don't know…that seems off somehow."
"Well…" He trailed off, his scouter showing a large group of fighters approaching. "Shit…it's a setup."
Looking away from the remains of his fighters, he frowned then narrowed his eyes when his scouter started showing the same information. "Smart little wench." Clicking over to his communicator, he began barking orders for his troops to get ready for the upcoming battle.
"Silver, you and Rocky go for the trailing edge of his troops, attack hard and fast then pull away until I tell you otherwise. Carmel, Gidget, Cabot, Axle, Nate, Gino, Ox, and Flicker; I want you to take your teams and strife down the middle then set up a point several miles away from where you attack. Spread out so that your teams are two hundred yards apart. I don't want you clustered so tightly together that they can wipe you out with one huge blast. If you lose any team members, regroup and let me know what happened and who is in charge. If they start overwhelming your people then don't hesitate to pull back so you can regroup again." She floated well above the opposing force while she directed her warriors in their actions. Seeing twenty more groups take off, she motioned for the rest to hold off then sent another fifteen along the leading edges of the enemy. From her vantage point, she could see her groups getting into place and ticked off the casualties they received. So far she had lost twenty-three of her fighters from the airborne attack. Watching the Elitist army begin to break apart, she frowned then started shouting orders for three other groups to join the two that were dealing with the rear of the army.
Vegeta was shouting his own orders through his communicator, although his eyes were scanning the sky for Turles or the girl that was leading the attacking force. "Radditz, send out one hundred men against her group attacking our rear, I want them eliminated as soon as possible."
"Yes sir." Clicking his communicator on, he started relaying the orders then blinked in shock when a huge blast of energy slammed against the bulk of their leading fighters. "Sir, someone's trying to wipe our men out and they're doing one hell of a job of it too."
"I can see that you dimwit, where did it come from?" His head whipped around, eyes still trained on the sky for the leaders.
"I'm not sure sir, but here comes another attack."
"Shit." Jumping back a few hundred feet into the air, he floated above the ground and looked at the charred remains of the area he'd been standing in. "Where the hell is she?"
"Still searching sir…"
Motioning for two teams to flank her sides first, she dropped from the clouds then plummeted towards the ground, her energy trail disappearing slowly behind her. Spiraling off to one side, she sent another energy blast into the center of the army then frowned when she saw her troops pulling back to regroup for a third time. Nodding to the group on her left, she sent them to fill in empty spots then landed the hundred yards away from the head of the army. Pointing off to her sides, she got the remaining six to fan out around her and take up positions to cover her back in case of a surprise attack from behind her. Then she dropped her power level completely.
Radditz's head was still spinning wildly from the fury of the attacks when he noticed warriors dropping like flies. Calling nine to him, he scanned the area before talking. "I want five of you to guard the prince, the other four of you are going to be my eyes while I finish scanning for the leader of that army."
The soldiers nodded and five shot off in the opposite direction, leaving him with four very nervous warriors.
Setting his scanner so that it would pick up even the slightest trace of unfamiliar energy, he looked off to his right then darted his eyes to his left when one of his guards started choking on his own blood, his chest cavity a gaping hole that spilled forth even more dark blood. Growling under his breath, he watched the other three start to back up then stared, in horrifying shock, when a small girl came up behind one of them and twist his head completely around. "Oh my Kami…" Turning his communicator on, he fought an overwhelming urge to get sick before the prince answered his beep. "Sir…she's landed in here."
"Crap, I'm on my way." Blasting off towards the other man, he hoped, rather desperately, that she wouldn't kill his long-time friend.
He called more warriors to him, not wanting her to get to him any faster than she already was. His eyes kept getting larger and larger as she, with every step she took, eviscerated, decapitated, disintegrated, and mutilated, the warriors coming to his aid. Now he knew why the other groups had been so unsuccessful when they met up with her. She acted like a mindless killing machine, ruthless in her drive to reach her main objective. Seeing one final man fall to the ground, his body nothing more than a burned crisp, he fell to his knees before her and hoped his death would be just as quick.
Cocking her head to one side, she studied him then wiped some blood from her face with her shoulder. "My guess is that you're Radditz."
He nodded and watched her eyes light up with an unmistakable curiosity fringed by fury.
"I guessed as much. Strange, I had always thought of you as a larger man."
His eyes narrowed and he staggered to his feet to glare down at her. "Odd, I was thinking you'd be a little bigger yourself."
She laughed mirthlessly then narrowed her own eyes, turning them into cold steel. "You wish your death to come fast don't you?"
"You aren't going to kill me girl."
"Well…not right this second, it would be done in poor taste." Her hand shot up and an energy blast blipped away from her fingertips, catching a new warrior in the middle of his stomach. "Besides, it might do me some good to grant you a boon."
His eyebrows hiked up. "A boon?"
"Yes, something you might like before I kill you."
"I know what a boon is, I'm just surprised you know such words."
This time her laugh was heartfelt and resonated across the battleground. "You could learn much from me Radditz, I am a very multi-talented person."
"I'm sure."
"Now, do you have anything you want of me before I rip your head off?"
"I don't suppose you'd kill yourself would you?"
"No…but that was a nice try."
He sighed then shook his head. "I won't give up without a fight you know."
"Yes…more the pity too. I had hoped to make this as painless and swift as possible for you…" She looked off to one side, a frown marring her features.
Landing beside his second in command, he lifted an eyebrow then glanced at the much taller saiya-jin. "That's the one who destroyed nine warriors on her own?"
"Well…it's more like one hundred and some odd, but that's beside the point." Her eyes darted to the new arrival. "And you are Vegeta?"
He bowed mockingly. "At your service."
"Don't tempt me."
Snorting, he studied her and frowned when his body started to react to her. Envisioning pictures of Frieza in his mind, he was relieved when his blood ran cold. "I very much doubt you could make me serve you."
"Perhaps, there is only one way to tell for sure." She got into a fighting stance and smiled sweetly. "That is, if you aren't afraid of fighting a girl. You aren't scared of me…are you?" Hey eyes danced merrily with battle lust when he rushed her, one arm raised to strike.
An explosion, with the same force as a ton of napalm, rocked the battlefield; making fighters on both sides look up and shield their eyes in surprise.
Swearing loudly, and colorfully, Turles shot down towards the two combatants then pulled up short beside Radditz. "Damn her and her cockiness."
Glancing at the other man, Radditz's eyes narrowed even as he nodded in agreement. "She's going to lose."
He snorted, his eyes flicking back and forth to keep up with the two fighters. "Only if she starts to get tired."
"That killing machine gets tired?"
"Yes…but it's too early to tell if she's felt any strain yet."
"You trained her this way?"
Laughing, he looked at the heavier saiya-jin then stopped, his lips thinning into a grim line. "No…she was like this when I first met her."
"Then how the hell did she become that way?"
"Frieza…before her planet was destroyed, he visited it and chose several children to train for potential troops. She never made it past killing the defenseless and weak-minded."
"Frieza?" Radditz hissed in displeasure then turned to the fighters. "He swore that he was only making negotiations with our side."
Grinning wryly, he shook his head sadly. "That little lizard is the last person to believe about anything."
"Hmm…I could say the same for you." Darting his gaze towards the slighter saiya-jin, he frowned. "Because the last time I saw you, I still called you brother."
"I renounced my ties to the EFSS a long time ago. Besides, I found someone who needed my guidance more than you ever did."
Switching back to the two fighters, his frown lessened slightly. "She granted me a boon."
"Really?"
"Yes…although she wouldn't grant the one I really wanted."
"You know as well as I do, that no fighter worth his or her salt would kill themselves in lieu of a boon."
"How…"
He tapped on his scouter. "I always keep her frequency open in case she's in trouble."
"Like that ever happens."
"You'd be surprised."
"Hmm…" His thoughts were interrupted when the two fighters shot apart and stared each other down.
Breathing hard and clutching a bruised muscle, she slowly straightened then grinned impishly. "Not bad."
Breathing hard as well, he smirked and straightened and spat blood from his mouth. "That should be my line."
"Perhaps…" She struck another fighting pose. "Ready to try again?"
"Always."
They clashed again, their bodies a blur of movement to nearly half of the soldiers beneath them.
Her fist flew forward, her other hand catching his as it came towards her face. Feeling his fingers digging into her skin, her eyes narrowed thoughtfully even as she brought her knee up into his side. Noticing his expression change faintly, she grinned and pulled her hand free of his in time to deliver a devastating spin kick to his face. Within seconds of her kick, she was after him again, plowing through the sky until she reached where he'd stopped himself. Her vision doubled painfully from a blow he'd sent to the back of her neck.
Slamming his fist into her stomach, he felt her hair brush against his face when her body bent forward. Pulling his hand free, he brought his arm up again and slammed it into her back, sending her flying right into the middle of his troops.
Grunting in pain, she got to one knee then lifted her head, her lips curled back in a snarl. Her eyes were glittering with an unconcealed rage. Feeling seven smaller power levels approaching her, she stood and turned her eyes in their direction before lifting her hand. "Die."
All seven warriors had a moment of disorientation before they exploded violently, sending a spray of blood over their comrades.
Staring at the rain of blood droplets, she sneered then looked back at the EFSS prince. "Again?"
His face a detached mask, he nodded then started lowering to the ground.
Shaking his head, Turles turned on his communicator, hearing beeping over the sounds of the battle. "Turles here."
"Turles, you two need to get back here quickly, Lord Frieza is on his way and he wants her here."
Eyes growing large, he felt his entire body grow numb and wondered, briefly, how he managed to nod in reply. "Yes sir…" Turning off the communication link, he switched over to hers and took a deep breath before breaking into her fight. "Bulma, that's enough, you can fight with him later. We have to go home now."
Her head jerked in his direction, confusion and concern etched on her face. "What is it Turles?"
"Frieza."
Her pupils dilated in fear even as she turned back to her opponent. "I'm sorry Vegeta, we'll have to finish this fight some other time." Flashing him a tight-lipped smile, she gathered her energy even as she switched channels and began rounding up her troops to leave.
Looking over at his brother, Turles sighed then waited for the younger man to acknowledge him. "Don't start thinking that we gave up to your forces little brother. We wouldn't pull away if this wasn't such a dangerous situation."
"I'll look forward to the next time."
"Yes…until next time." Nodding curtly, he shot into the air.
Watching the LCSF forces disappear as quickly as they came, Vegeta sighed then looked over at Radditz. "I think…we were lucky."
"As do I sir, as do I."
"Start calling back the troops and take stock of our casualties. I want to know how many we lost and who the injured are. The second we return to the ship, I want those injured within the range of being saved to be sent straight to the infirmary. We'll try and prepared for the next time we go against her fighters."
"Yes sir." He switched on his communicator then looked at his prince one last time. "Are you okay sir?"
"Nothing a little time in the regeneration tanks can't cure."
"If you say so…"
He growled loudly and glared at the larger man. "I do say so, now get to work."
"Yes sir."
LCSF forces…
"What's the status report on our people?" Bulma looked at Turles while a physician tied a bandage around her left arm.
"We lost eighty fighters today."
Frowning, she glanced at the physician and nodded when he finished securing the bandage. "That's too many."
"Yes…should I have someone inform their families?"
"Yes, and give the others that aren't in regen-tanks a few days off for recovery."
"Fine, anything else?"
"No Turles, that's enough for now." Jumping down from the table, she winced inwardly then headed for her room. If anything, she needed the time off just as much as her men did but she had more important things to worry about than her health. Her body screamed with pain and exhaustion from her bout with the saiya-jin prince and required whatever sleep she could get so she could start healing. Entering her room, she registered the swish of the door closing behind her even as she walked stiffly to her bed. Despite the calls of sleep, her mind raced with questions about what Lord Frieza was doing back in their territories. Finally her body succumbed to exhaustion and she drifted off into restless sleep.