“So, who was this Spats person?” Scallop asked as she and Regal launched the Rainbow Stocking into space. “I was unconscious when she showed up. Was she…important? You know, besides preventing Daikon’s wish. I gather she was related to the Earthlings.”
Regal sighed. “Later. We can talk about her later.”
“Fine, ok. I just felt so left out the whole time.”
Regal scowled at the self-centered attitude, and then set in a course towards a Dragon Ball about two weeks away. “You know, it would have been better to go to a closer ball,” she said. “The enemy is far faster and already circling target planets.”
“This is better, trust me,” Scallop said. “I need this.” Scallop settled into a chair in the lounge and rubbed her stomach wound.
“Do you think you’re just going to be relaxing for the next two weeks?” Regal asked.
Scallop pointed to her injury.
“Then meditate in the gravity chamber. Let’s go, now.” Regal got up and walked to the training room. Scallop sighed heavily and followed. Walking into that familiar training room, Regal felt small. It was not as if this was the first time she realized she had an uphill battle in defeating Malacol, but fighting Daikon was the most concrete way it had ever been put into perspective. She did not know how long this ball hunt would be, but she did feel that going on it was a distraction from the training she needed to do, yet a distraction she couldn’t abandon. She turned the gravity up to 150G and felt the force wash over her. Scallop followed and shuddered from her wound a moment, hobbling across the floor from the gravity before sitting to meditate.
Regal began going through her drills, and Scallop saw how shaky she was. Scallop chuckled. “If Daikon has you scared, you’re going to faint when you meet Malacol,” she said.
“How would you say they compare?”
“He’s a rival, for sure, but Malacol is even more terrible. Probably why Daikon went through all that training he said he did. And that’s why Malacol also has been training more recently. But maybe I’m just biased, having lived in her shadow for so long.”
Regal shook her head, putting the power comparisons out of her mind. Whatever clues she had, it was more important to assume her goal was far above the strongest she’d ever seen and reach for that. But that image brought to mind Spats, who burned her nerves to death achieving that kind of power, and she shuddered. She told herself it was the aftereffects of the Seraphim.
After a short training session, Regal wiped her brow and turned the gravity off. “That’s enough for now,” she said. “It’s been a long day already.” She left and went to the lounge. Scallop followed happily. Regal poured a couple glasses of water and set one across the table.
Scallop sat down and took a sip. “So, who was Spats?”
Regal sipped her water. “Puttee’s sister. You remember what Puttee said at the memorial. Spats was angry with Puttee for leaving, and apparently was in a position to make a spaceship, two Androids, and a procedure to make herself into an Android, so she followed us out here to kill us. She was really ruthless, wrath incarnate. I really thought she would kill us to prove her point, but after a while, I saw more of the pain in her eyes. She just wanted her sister back. I’m lucky I always had the Grand Elder at my side.”
“She sounds like an interesting human,” Scallop remarked. She checked her bandage. “I should probably change this soon.” Regal went to the first aid closet to get more tape and sponges. “Judging on the progression of the gravity chamber so far, you should probably hit 200G before you even think about challenging Malacol.”
Regal’s ears perked a moment. “Your info may be out of date.”
“Yeah, probably. Just a suggestion.”
Two weeks passed. No hunters after Scallop chased them, as before, which Regal noted as a sign that the Demon Clan’s forces were thinning out more. Scallop’s stomach healed up, though the relative rest she had meditating in the gravity chamber meant she didn’t get as much weight training in. The planet they landed on was warm and had multi-colored clouds. The soil was like tie-dye, and the sporadic trees had diverse, geometric shapes. Once they disembarked the Rainbow Stocking, Scallop marveled at the environment. “This is unbelievable…!” she said. “It’s all so amazing!”
Regal rushed her onwards, paying little attention to the wonderous landscape. She could feel Demon Clan forces on the planet, already working to uncover the Dragon Ball. Scallop glared at the philistine and followed quickly. The signal was coming from the bottom of a vast pool of brightly colored beads, made from some form of natural glass. These beads, of course, looked just like Rainbow Dragon Balls, minus the stars, making the pool an annoying location for one. A relatively small troop of mutant Namekians searched through the pool, struggling to keep the excavated beads from falling over them and erasing the downward progress they had made.
Scallop rushed right into the middle of the action, as usual, and started attacking the soldiers. A large pile of beads fell over her and two others, burying them in the neon pool. Regal sighed. “Some things never change.”
Looking over the field, Regal spotted the lead officer of this mission. She sat confidently, in an odd cloak. She smiled. “I knew I’d be seeing you,” the commander said. “See, I’m the head mystic of the Demon Clan, Limpet.” She stood up. “Normally I skip these menial tasks, but I foresaw death. I’m here to ensure it’s yours, servant of the Grand Elder!”
The bead pit burst like fireworks as Scallop shot out of it, her last enemy soldier in pursuit. With a quick mouth energy wave, Scallop slew the saurian foe. She then locked eyes with Limpet and gasped. “This isn’t going to be a normal battle, Regal!” she yelled. Limpet laughed at her erstwhile sister, predictable as always. Scallop went right in for the fight, charging Limpet ferociously. “Limpet’s dangerous for her magics, not her battle power! Regal! Come help me end this fight fast!”
Limpet scoffed. “Tell me who’s weak again,” she asked, knocking out Scallop’s wind with a knee to the gut.
“Ok,” Scallop wheezed reluctantly. “Maybe you’ve gotten stronger.”
Regal charged in at Limpet, fairly confident that she could defeat her without much issue in a direct fight. Before she could throw a punch, however, Limpet touched two fingers to Regal’s forehead. With glowing eyes, light burst from her fingers, knocking Regal back quite a ways. When she recovered, she looked up to find a clone of herself, copying her movements like a mirror, a faint glow of energy around her silhouette. Annoyed already by the implication of this copy, Regal stood up and took a stance. The copy did the same. She threw out a few strikes, and the copy did the same, their fists, feet, forearms, and shins clashing together as their mirrored movements met. Every hit indicated it was matching her physical strength exactly. Regal charged up and fired a Jophiel, surprised to see the copy do the same. Apparently, it had some chi or magical energy to work with.
Scallop continued to clash with Limpet. Though Limpet had, indeed, become a much more powerful warrior than the mystic was known to be in the past, Scallop still felt confident that she was the superior fighter. Limpet kept pace, but cursed the degree to which she was struggling with the turncoat. Getting some distance, Limpet materialized a long sword, an axe, and some stylized armor over her cloak. Thus armed, Limpet charged back into the fight, using the reach of her weapons to keep Scallop out of range. Scallop became preoccupied with dodging the blades coming at her.
The copy of Regal came rushing at Limpet, her eyes closed. None of its strikes connected because its limbs would dissolve within a certain distance from Limpet. She laughed. “You can fight by chi sense all you want over there,” she called out, “but I’ll never allow one of my own spells to hurt me, Regal!”
During this distraction, Scallop was able to knock the sword out of Limpet’s hand, and took that momentum forward. Limpet scowled, confident she did not see death in her own fate, and aggressively swung her axe, cutting Scallop’s limbs apart. With a grunt, Scallop regenerated the lost body parts and cursed.
Regal continued to struggle against her mirror. She knew that she could simply sit and wait, but she was concerned that Scallop would need her help. In any case, trying to provide assistance was better than sitting and waiting for someone else to solve her problems. She tried several tactics to outmaneuver the mirror, but no matter what she did, the copy would meet her along a certain plane, and she could not switch places.
Scallop generated energy blades over her hands. “I was never good with blades,” she said. With these aiding her guard, she was able to counter and move around Limpet’s swords and axes, reformed after each one was knocked away or broken. “But I guess they’ll do against you!”
With a growl, Limpet changed tact. Swiping her hand in front of herself, she summoned a gout of lava from the planet’s surface. Even the molten metals of that planet were in bright, primary colors. Scallop dodged out of the way, and found herself cornered by large hands made of bedrock. Scallop continued to blast away or dodge these bursts of planetary power, but it was far more difficult than before. Fighting with the field of combat left no safe harbor to launch an attack from. Snarling, she caught sight of Limpet, who was breathing heavy from the magical exertion.
Suddenly, chi blasts rained down around them. The blasts tore through the rocky and molten creations of Limpet’s magic, and began to strike at both her and Scallop. The close placement of the different blats near one another made them harder to dodge. Scallop put up an energy shield to guard, while Limpet placed several layers of rocky barrier over her head.
“Will you stop raining bombs on us blindly!” Scallop angrily yelled to Regal.
Far away, Regal was standing nose to nose with her mirror, both firing chi blasts like rain in an attempt to use a carpet bombing to skirt the usual mirroring counter of Regal’s attacks. The bombing paused. “You can take the hits,” Regal said. “They’re not full power.”
“Not the issue!” Scallop said. “If I get hurt, then it’s not helping! Just trust me!”
Though annoyed with the scolding, Regal had to admit the conclusion was sound. She was left with no way to fight Limpet or assist Scallop, and sat down to see how pouty her mirror’s face looked.
With a grunt, Scallop dropped her energy shield. “Now, where were we?” she asked. Limpet was already on the offensive. Scallop once more waded through Limpet’s planetary assault, most focused on avoiding lava and thus getting hit by plenty of rocks. As she did so, memories of her childhood passed through her mind, of sitting with Limpet as she practiced such planetary sorcery by making sandcastles. Having been born at the same time, the two of them had spent plenty of time together.
“I’m disgusted to think I once called you my closest sister!” Limpet declared. “Mussel and Radula would pick on us for being weak! I showed them by becoming a master sorcerer, and you proved them right by running away!”
Scallop ignored these statements, focusing on the battle. She knew going into the fight that it would be difficult. Fighting with Limpet now felt like sparring with Regal. Part of Scallop wanted to show she was no longer playing catchup, and she focused on that as she blocked yet another pillar of stone from the ground. Getting an idea, Scallop burst through the rocky entrapments around her and flew high into the air. Charging up energy, she yelled “Forneus!” and began to fire a rain of chi blasts down over Limpet. Limpet smugly blocked this familiar Demon Clan technique, though she became alarmed as some of the blasts penetrated all of her barriers and pelted the ground around her.
After a while, Limpet began to laugh. “Your power means nothing if you can’t hit your mark!” she sneered.
The energy blasts that pelted the ground dug into the bright soil and collected into a single mass under Limpet’s feet. Once enough energy had gathered, Scallop raised her fist and said, “Azrael!” summoning the sneak energy mine to burst upwards at Limpet, devastating her.
Regal was impressed at the sight, only partially viewed as her mirror’s head was in the way. Scallop landed at Limpet’s side and grabbed her by the hem of her cloak, raising a hand to pierce her heart. Limpet looked up at her with a familiar expression, one Scallop had seen many times growing up. Closing her fist, Scallop backhanded Limpet, knocking her across the pool of beads. “Leave!” Scallop demanded. “Now! You can’t defeat us!”
Regal gasped.
Limpet smirked. “Did the goody-goody teach you compassion for the enemy?” she mocked. While Scallop snorted a retort, Limpet summoned a discarded sword from earlier, pulling it towards her so that it stabbed Scallop through her shoulder. Feeling emboldened, Limpet rose to her shaky feet and recommenced her attack, slamming Scallop with hammers of bedrock. “You’re so weak! Just because we were friends, you would spare your enemy?! That will be your death, as I foresaw!”
Regal cursed herself for thinking that her trust for Scallop meant she could underestimate Limpet. Though she was no magician herself, Regal knew that eventually, her mirror would reach a breaking point, and it would be easier to reach now that Limpet was weaker. With this in mind, Regal started fighting her mirror again. She subjected herself to the full force of her own attacks, taking a blow to the head or stomach for every strike she gave to her mirror. Hit by hit, Regal found her copy more and more cracked like glass. After a final and devastating kick to her own head, Regal shattered the magical mirror and sent herself flying through a few square trees.
She got up and groaned in disappointment. “Daikon’s attacks were way harder than that.” Holding out her hand, she generated an energy blade from the side of her fist, such that she was holding it like a sword. “Hello, my Michael.” Charging in at Limpet, Regal stabbed Michael deep through the mystic’s back, piercing her heart. Limpet spat out blood and fell to her knees. The rocky fists and weapons assaulting Scallop fell away into a rainbow of pebbles.
Turning to Regal in her last moments, Limpet gazed deeply into her eyes. “My prediction is accurate,” she said. “There is certain death in your future, and not just your own.” With the last of her strength used up, she collapsed.
Scallop flew over and gazed at Limpet’s body, conflicted. Tears welled up in her eyes as she mourned the loss of a one-time friend. “I’m sorry I didn’t kill her myself,” Scallop said in shame.
Regal clapped her on the shoulder. “I’m proud you showed restraint. Only a true demon would kill their own family without a second thought.”
Scallop found herself once more humbled by Regal’s nobility. “Still, I made more trouble for you. I’ll look for the Dragon Ball on my own, to make it up to you.”
“Sure,” said Regal. Scallop dove into the pool of beads, and Regal sat to meditate, looking over the technicolor horizon. “This world really is beautiful.”
After hours, Scallop finally emerged from the pool of beads holding the Dragon Ball, the indigo six-star ball. “Good!” Regal called out. “Thanks for doing that.”
Scallop flew up to Regal. “So, what now?”
“Like Torta and Dragon said over the radio, I suggest we train as long as we can, before the final battle. There are too few officers left to worry about; we only have one last big enemy to prepare for.”
“Sounds good. There won’t be any hunters coming after us, either.”
The two loaded back onto the Rainbow Stocking and took to the stars. For the time being, Regal set the autopilot to weave them between the orbits of the different planets in that system, and if they needed to land, they could. They made their way to the gravity chamber. “You need to stop crawling at 160G in two days, because I’m turning it up after that,” Regal announced.
Scallop groaned at her harsh but ever-present taskmaster.
All original story, all original characters! Check out Dragon Ball ‘Redux’!
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Life in the Gutters 