The course was set to a planet another three weeks away. Puttee was holed up in her room for a day, picking Bravo apart piece by piece, before pulling Gaita inside to start working on the upgrade. In the meantime, Torta and Regal set the gravity chamber all the way up to 80G and got to work, hoping they could close the gap with Spats with another concerted effort.
Every now and then, all of the shipmates would check the radar, hoping to get a sign about Spats’s movements through the Dragon Ball she held. Though there were clearly changes on the static filter, only Puttee knew what it meant: Spats made a stop at another planet a week after leaving Zalt and finally headed towards their destination, likely to arrive soon after them.
Soon enough, the heroes arrived at their destination. The Rainbow Stocking landed on the northern continent, where it was autumn. The weather was comfortable, even if the wind was a bit brisk. The heroes emerged from the ship one at a time. The planet was covered in untamed wilderness. The trees and rocks were scarred with claw marks, and deep, gashing footprints were dug into the soil. “It’s kinda like the jungles of Kamiland,” Torta remarked.
“The reading’s coming from an active volcano,” Puttee reported, pointing to the towering, smoking volcano in the distance. It shot spurts of molten rock into the air.
Gaita giggled. “I guess it’s up to me to retrieve it this time,” she said.
Torta reoiled in surprise when he saw her sporting Bravo’s red braids. “I did not expect the hair.”
“I just wanted to try a new style,” Gaita said. Regal nodded in approval.
Torta noted that Puttee and Gaita were once more in matching climbing outfits. “It’s nice you two made up,” he said. “Your mismatched swimsuits were bringing the mood down on Zalt.”
“I mean, even if we were getting along,” Gaita said, “matching swimsuits would have looked bad on us. Our sizes are too different.” Puttee kicked the back of Gaita’s knees, causing her to stumble.
“You designed her,” Regal reminded Puttee.
“So,” Torta asked, pointing at the volcano, “you have anything more specific about the ball’s location?” Torta asked Puttee.
“It’s down in there,” Puttee said. “Gaita, please fly me to the rim!”
“If she flies you,” Regal said, “then your climbing outfit is meaningless.”
“You’re missing the point,” Puttee said. “It’s totally fine.”
Before they could set out, something surrounded them. Torta, Regal, and Gaita took stances. “What’s up?” Puttee asked. “Who’s there?”
“Don’t know yet,” Torta said. “They feel Namekian, but I can’t tell if they’re friendly.”
Spears flew past them, and soon their throwers followed. Puttee ducked and ran towards the ship. The Earthlings found themselves engaging with a group of Namekian warriors wearing animal pelts, ones with a distinctly masculine appearance. “These seem like Demon Clan types?” Torta asked Regal.
“No, they’re not made in Malacol’s image,” Regal said.
Torta, Regal, and Gaita all clashed with some of these warriors, until they backed off a second. The leader came forward. “I’m Neander, warrior-chief of the Cretaceous Namekians,” he introduced himself. “We have long been adapted to this planet of monsters and have successfully defended it from any and all outsiders. Even the guardian of the Grand Elder. You’ll never get the Dragon Ball in that volcano!”
“Gaita, go ahead to the volcano,” Torta said. “Me and Regal ought to be able to handle this.” Neander scoffed, but soon found himself overwhelmed by Torta’s barrage. Gaita flew off towards the volcano, bowing in apology to an indignant Puttee, who was not going to get to the rim after all.
“What do you think they meant about monsters?” Torta asked Regal while they were fighting. Before Regal could answer, the answer appeared from the jungle. A large group of angry dinosaurs charged through, attacking everything they saw. Neander and his men immediately backed up and began using their tried and true tactics to deal with them, while Torta and Regal were both overwhelmed by tyrannosaur-looking reptiles.
As Gaita arrived at the rim of the volcano, she activated her forcefield and prepared to descend. Out from the lava appeared a group of Cretaceous Namekians, wearing dinosaur bone armor. One of the warriors opened his face vent. “I won’t let you go any further!” he said.
Gaita sighed in exasperation. “Feel free to try,” she said. “It’s a waste of time and energy.” She flew down into the lava as the Namekians attacked her forcefield ineffectually.
“These guys are really impressive!” Torta remarked while grappling with his would-be consumer. “At 60G, they would have been a real challenge.”
“Indeed,” Regal concurred, slapping a dinosaur away. “But they’re no match at 100G.” The two powered up, using their flaring auras to repel and intimidate the dinosaurs. The entire herd dispersed.
Torta laughed. “I wish we had more time at 100G before landing.”
Neander and his warriors looked at them with wonder for a moment. Then Neander collected himself. “Such displays won’t intimidate us!” he declared. “We’re not beasts!” He and his men then charged back at Torta and Regal, and the fight continued, this time with an audience of ancient reptiles in the periphery.
After a few minutes, Gaita emerged from the volcano with the Dragon Ball, an orange ball with two stars. Her pursuers soon shot out of the lava around her, still intent on beating her forcefield in the hopes that it would break eventually. Gaita calmly flew back to the ship and showed her sister the ball to great fanfare.
Neander saw the ball and became enraged, firing his most powerful chi blast at Gaita. Torta deflected it with ease. “Look, I’m tired of playing with cavemen,” he said. With a quick series of pressure point strikes, he laid them all out unconscious.
Regal growled. “I could have done that, too,” she said. Torta rolled his eyes.
By nightfall, Neander stirred and searched for the intruders. He found the Earthlings sitting around a campfire, casually enjoying their rest, a group of five Dragon Balls sitting out on a table. He approached the group, with Torta taking notice. “We still going to fight?” Torta asked.
Neander’s men began to wake behind him. “You are the finest warriors I have ever met!” Neander said with a smile. “I would be honored to celebrate with you!” The Cretaceous warriors cheered.
Soon, a bonfire was lit, and all the Cretaceous village was dancing around it with the Earthlings, except for Regal, of course. “So, what made the dinosaurs so angry?” Torta asked Neander.
“Last week, a Demon Clan force came through here,” Neander explained. “We defeated them with ease. As we slayed one demon after the other, the dinosaurs would swoop in for the easy meat. I assume that’s what they wanted here. Nature is savage on this world.”
Neander approached Regal and offered a hand in apology. “You are a worthy ally,” he said. Regal accepted the handshake without a smile. “What world are you heading to next?”
“Cretaceous is where we make our stand,” Regal said.
“What do you mean?” Neander asked.
“So, here’s the deal,” Puttee said. “My sister is trying to kill us and really wants the Dragon Balls, because she wants to prove to me how smart she is and get back at me for running away. She’s got two balls now, so no matter what happens, it’s fight time. Hope you don’t mind having this fight on your world.”
“A real warrior would never run away!” Neander approved.
It was a full two days before Spats got close enough for an accurate radar ping. By that evening, she would arrive. “Alpha probably absorbed a lot more power, too,” Regal said.
“But I doubt Spats would ever let Alpha be a match for her,” Torta said.
“I’m a little nervous about this fight,” Gaita said. “It’s been so long since I got to really contribute.”
“You’ll do great!” Puttee said.
Right on schedule, Spats’s ship descended from the sky and landed a hundred feet away as the sun set. Neander and his men retreated, forming a perimeter in the jungle around the clearing so that their honor battle would have witnesses. Spats emerged, with Alpha following. She held up a pouch containing the Dragon Balls she had found. “I’ll get my wish tonight,” Spats announced.
Without another word, the five warriors engaged, charging towards the center of the field. Gaita was intercepted by Alpha, who had indeed increased their power rating significantly. Torta and Regal engaged with Spats, who looked less condescending as she entered the fray this time. “Try to keep them separated!” Torta told Gaita. She nodded, working to drive Alpha away from Spats. Spats was going all-out from the start, hoping to squash the Earthlings quickly. However, that was proving a difficult task. Their teamwork made them difficult to keep up with, and their increased strength was proving nearly a match for her own.
In the skies above the jungle, Gaita fought hard with Alpha. Just as in past fights, Alpha fought entirely hand-to-hand, not betraying any of the hard-won energy to a blast. Gaita found Alpha to be a difficult opponent, but not insurmountable. She smiled at the power her reconciliation with Puttee granted her.
“You’ll never beat me now!” Gaita said confidently. “I know your little secret. Spats has unlimited energy, but never fed you and Bravo endless streams of power so you’d be unstoppable. You can only absorb chi, right? Our artificial energy is useless to you!” Gaita then threw a large number of Cowboys at Alpha to get them off guard for the Chelsea she fired into their gut. “Unlike those two, I can do this all day!”
Spats was becoming increasingly frustrated with her battle. Though she knew she had the advantage of stamina over these natural fighters, she couldn’t stand the idea that her great genius was forced to deploy her forcefield multiple times in trying to contain them. She knew the two of them would train and get stronger, but she never imagined they could advance so dramatically in such a short period of time.
Alpha crashed into the ground at Spats’s side, badly damaged. “Go-Go!” Gaita was heard yelling before a pair of energy bombs blew the Android to pieces.
“YAS!” Puttee whooped loudly. “I guess my genius is pretty great after all! By your standards, sis.”
Gaita then landed at Torta’s side. “I’m free to help you now!” she said.
With increasing despair, Spats yelled out in anger. “I’ll never lose to anyone in power!” she announced. “I have infinite energy! The only thing stopping me from crushing any opponent is the risk for channeling it!”
Puttee rushed over. “Don’t do it!” she begged. “If you mean what I think you mean, don’t!”
Spats used a kiai to repel Puttee. “I’ll do whatever it takes,” she said. She growled with anger and pain. “I’m turning my Safety Off! The power won’t stop increasing until I’ve won!” Her demeanor started to change, reflecting the sheer agony of the power flowing across her nerves. She rushed back in at Torta, Regal, and Gaita. The now-unhinged Spats had far more strength than anyone could have imagined. Even with Gaita backing them up, the initial jump in Spats’s power proved too much for the three heroes to handle as a group. Torta began to despair, as her power was indeed inching ever higher with each passing second.
“We’ve gotta go with a Dagwood!” Torta told Regal. “I know we wanted to avoid it, but maybe I’d be able to keep up with her!”
“Fine!” Regal agreed, cursing this turn of events. She dropped back as Torta commandeered her power for himself. With the concentrated strength in Torta and Gaita running defense with her forcefield, the fight got a bit easier. Unfortunately, this ease only lasted for half a minute. With Spats’s power rating continually going up, there was no hope of overpowering her even a little, let alone to the degree needed to ensure victory. It wasn’t long before both Torta and Gaita were beaten and bloody, barely able to hold onto the fight. With each increase in power, though, so too increased the stress on Spats, who was looking more beaten up than her opponents. Knowing she didn’t have much longer, Spats used one blinding burst of speed to incapacitate Torta, Gaita, and the chi-less Regal. She then turned her Safety On and fell to the ground, ragged and weak.
Spats got to her feet and limped towards Puttee. Puttee ran back to her Dragon Balls. “I’ll never let you give the king control of the universe!” she said defiantly.
“You would want my wish to come true, too,” said Spats between ragged breaths. “You share it.”
Turning away from the fight upon feeling another powerful chi, Neander saw a Demon Clan ship descending from the heavens. “To arms, men!” he called. Torta, barely able to move, looked over and groaned at this most unfortunate turn of events. Regal cursed her weakness even more, not ready to die like her mother before her. Gaita cried, unable to move properly after her motor systems were damaged in the last attack.
The door of the ship opened, and the warrior inside instantly slaughtered the Cretaceous warriors surrounding him. As he emerged, it was clear this was no Namekian enemy. He appeared much like a human wearing some form of rubbery armor, with a furry tail wrapped around his waist. “Stealing that Demon Clan ship was worth it,” he said with a smirk. “I get to slip in under the radar, and some other bunch of rubes has done the hard work already!”
“Who are you?!” Spats demanded to know.
“I’m Hedarrow, warrior of the Saiyan Empire!” the man introduced himself. “I’m going to claim these Dragon Balls for my emperor, Daikon!”
Spats charged at him and the two fought. Though her body was still damaged by the strain of turning her Safety Off, Spats was able to overpower Hedarrow. With a laugh, Hedarrow charged his chi intensely, causing his hair to turn yellow and his power to skyrocket. With a single strike, he knocked Spats unconscious. He then removed the Dragon Balls from Spats’s waist pouch and approached the balls on the table by the heroes’ campsite.
As everyone despaired this unusual turn of events, Hedarrow dumped the Dragon Balls on the ground and scattered a strange dust over them as they started to glow. “Arise, great dragon! Grant me this wish!” he said.
The balls shot out a pillar of light, which coiled and took form as a large, rainbow-colored dragon, with long, muscular legs, a barrel-shaped torso, and batlike wings, its tail growing infinitely from the balls. “I will grant any one wish,” the dragon said. “Tell me now!”
Hedarrow smiled. “My emperor’s first wish is for there to never be another Super Saiyan!” he yelled out. “Only those that already exist can use the form! No other Saiyan may achieve it!”
The dragon’s eyes glowed. “Your wish is granted,” the dragon said. “Fare thee well!” He then receded into the balls, which rose into the air and scattered across the cosmos once more.
Torta yelled out in anger, his hopes for reviving all those he couldn’t save dashed in an instant. Hedarrow looked towards him and chuckled. “I should probably get rid of such resourceful rats while I can!” he said.
Just before he could fire a deadly finger beam through Torta’s chest, another interloper appeared, knocking Hedarrow away with a kick. He also looked like a human, a tall black man with a head full of dreadlocks. “I’ll kill you!” the new entrant said. “You’ve been a problem for too long!”
The two engaged in battle, and it appeared even. “You’ll never beat me, Dragon!” Hedarrow said. “You’re a no-tail, and I just prevented the birth of any more Super Saiyans! That means you have no hopes of defeating a Super Saiyan like me!”
Dragon laughed. “Transformations mean nothing if the user is a weakling!” he said. “I’ve been training hard since last time!” With a burst of force, Dragon managed to overpower and drive Hedarrow into the ground. Though Hedarrow struggled, he couldn’t reclaim his lost ground. “You always needed to transform just to keep up with me!” Dragon reminded Hedarrow. With a swift strike to the neck, Dragon broke Hedarrow’s spine, his eyes went blank, and his hair turned black again. After sighing, Dragon loudly cheered his victory.
All original story, all original characters! Check out Dragon Ball ‘Redux’!
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Life in the Gutters 