Bab 57: Chapter 57: Tis but a flesh wound.
I was awake. Or, it felt like I was awake. I was somewhere different, somewhere I had never been before. Tubes lined the walls. Inside hovered young children. I walked along the line of tubes. I stopped as I felt something tug at me. As if to gather my attention. A young Saiyan floated. A monkey tail wrapped around them as they floated in the ghoulish green light.
With a snap darkness claimed the tubes. A scream, no, a cry of a child rang through the darkness. I turned to face a single light as if a spotlight on a stage showing odd figures hovering over a small child just a few years young.
"Another pathetic monkey… worse, look at its power level. Tch."
Its words upset me. Yet, I found myself bound and unable to move.
"What do we do with it?"
"Same as the rest. If she doesn't survive, well, not like it matters."
My blood boiled as I watched them load the child in an attack ball. Time seemed to pass quickly as it flew to its destination. Moving through the stars at such a slow space, the child within sleeping all the while. A planet came into view eventually covered in dense jungle.
Wildlife screamed and the whole world seemed to watch as the attack ball crashed to earth. Timidly the child stepped out. Information had slowly been fed to her as the years went by in her sleep. Knowledge information, and a promise. Prove yourself, and you will meet your parents.
She worked at it. Killing and eating what she could. At first, it seemed fine. Until the first natives came. The child had carved out a home. A safe place where she hid from the dangers of the jungles as she gained strength. Upon seeing her, the natives responded the only way they would. With prejudice.
A foreign child. A strange alien. An ominous meteor from the sky. A destroyer had come, or so they believed. A demon, a devil. Perhaps they weren't entirely wrong. Yet would it have been that way had they shown compassion? Some humanity? Which was laughable with them being aliens, but the notion remained.
There was fear of the unknown. Persecution of the different. This was no different. They burned the home and hunted her like an animal. Days and weeks passed until she managed to kill one of the hunters. Unfortunately, the death only emboldened them. More joined the hunt. One by one the young girl was forced to kill or die.
I lost count as I watched. The number of times she laid on the ground nursing wounds that would kill lesser men, let alone a child. I watched over her. Watching and watching as she suffered and grew. Until she began to fight back. When the hunters began to fall in greater numbers they retreated.
The girl followed, yet… upon seeing their homes she hesitated. Women, children. Something in her mind told her that killing them wouldn't be good. Even if the whole race hated her, she wasn't that far gone. Not yet. They did not return that goodwill. Children with knives, women with bows. They fought and they died.
This continued and continued. The girl convinced herself that it was okay. That they attacked first. That she was in the right. Then when this was done, she could return home and see her parents. She would be praised and hugged. A warm home and a happy family. That idea was her light in the dark nights. The warmth in the freezing cold.
It didn't take long once she was resolved. Transforming, killing, and finally, total genocide of a race in just a few short years. Lumbering back to her pod she returned home. Only to be met once more with prejudice. Her dreams dashed aside by callous cruelty.
"So weak? Bah, Lord Frieza has no need for such weaklings in her army. However, you are still young. Take another mission, prove your worth monkey. Maybe then you can redeem yourself."
So, she did. This time she didn't wait. She hunted. Destroying and wrecking. Even as she felt something in her crack. Laughing over their destroyed cities. Crying over the piles of corpses. She returned, only to be sent back once more to repeat the cycle.
There was no salvation. Only more blood. More callous cruelty and prejudice. She knew she couldn't continue. Her only motivation being the vague promises of praise. A purpose. The desire to be acknowledged burned into her bones despite the loneliness.
Only for it to be naught.
"Trash. Utter trash. You're no better than a slave despite the missions you've accomplished! Your power level has barely risen. It's shocking you haven't died yet."
She was weak… too weak.
"Once more." She said with grit teeth. The figures, now shorter than her as she had grown over the years, looked her in the eyes, yet somehow, they towered over her still. Their figures were almost too large for reality in her mind. Consuming her. Overpowering her. They were the keepers of what she wanted. The judges of her worth. She needed them to acknowledge her. To give her just one last chance. The figure shared a glance with their colleague.
"You're technically not at the age yet for your designation to be cemented in. Which does mean we can send you out once more."
"Then please! The hardest mission! Somewhere, anywhere that I can grasp the power I need!"
She pleaded before the figures who were delighted in her reaction.
"Very well, we can hand you a system extermination. These planets are in an awkward place, so even if you die nobody will care."
Such began her fateful mission. Still, as she walked away, I heard them cackle.
"There is no way that monkey will survive."
"Naturally. We've already lost too many teams to this sector. What would one more monkey be?"
I glanced at the small back of the girl. Following in her shadow. Watching her as she once more took flight in her attack ball. Frustration. Anger. So many emotions warred inside her as she flew off. She knew she was useless. Hopeless. A waste.
Perhaps that was why, she wished. Wished with all her being.
"That I can be stronger. A true Saiyan."
I didn't need a replay to know what happened then. The world was warped, reality twisted and changed. In her sleep I took over and found myself in an alien world. It really grinds my gears having to watch this.
Darkness fell again. I took a few minutes to calm down and turned to face the shadow.
"So, I suppose that's you then. Or rather, me now." I suspected as much, but to be faced with it…
The shadows' features were vague. An outline that looked rough on the edges. It didn't reply, I didn't expect it to, but I felt there was a reason for this. A secret that must be kept. A barrier keeping us apart. She still watched me. Her hollow eyes staring back at me. Hands clutched like watching a hero on the television. What truly kept us apart was simple.
Her own inferiority.
The emotion was overpowering. Drifted off her. Suffusing her essence. She wasn't good enough. She would never be good enough.
As I stared into the darkness, I could see them. Or perhaps a representation of them. Shadows standing accusingly above her, glaring down at her. Accusing her, blaming her, cursing her. Each of them hounded her constantly. Bound her down. Prevented her from ever doing anything more.
Just watching had me bubbling in anger.
She had relinquished control to me, but… I could sense her despair. The hopelessness that slowly fed into her. The figure was small, but her shadow seemed to inflate like an engorged tick. I felt something holding me in place. Forcing me to be an observer even as I knew what would happen.
She would lose herself and become food for me. Likely pushing me to Super Saiyan or something. Her existence was little more than an emergency pack of energy for me to use for my ascension. That was what she wished. To be consumed by me. To be completely destroyed and removed. For me to truly take away everything from her.
But, was this how I wanted it? Knowing that me hitting Super Saiyan would eliminate her? If my speculation is correct, could I live with myself doing so? Or, perhaps there was another way? I had a feeling there was. I may be a monster now, an uncaring beast to some, but… I wasn't an asshole.
I stepped forward. My determination, no, my ego pushing against the binds holding me down. The figure glanced at me in confusion and wonder. Begging me with their hollow eyes to continue. To ignore them. To let them be. To let her die and become fuel. To be worthy, in some fucked up manner.
I wasn't much for listening to directions.
"Oi" I spoke out roughly. My eyes locked not just on the shadow, but the demons behind her. The featureless shadows with long fingers and glowing red eyes. Remnants of those she had killed. Ghosts that clung to her body and whispered to her. Reminding her of her failures.
I slammed my foot down. A few shadows glanced over, but not enough.
"If you're looking for your murderer, the killer of your families, of your entire races look no further than me."
More eyes turned. Their gazes put a heavy weight on me.
"You remember? I laughed atop your corpses. Murdered your children in front of you. Slew your wives as you lay bleeding on the ground."
They burned into me. Their eyes scorching into me, but still, it wasn't enough.
"That girl? She just wears a cloak of black. Whereas I'm blackened to the very core of my being."
I felt something waver.
"And, it's not like I've stopped. Sure, it's been a bit of a dry spell, but I promise you this. This world we live on?"
I grinned manically. My fangs bared for all to see.
"I am the reason for these horrors and once more I will wipe it clean of life. Because I am Rettas, not that girl. Aren't my actions more fitting for condemnation? Aren't I a far worse human being than her? You think I regret any of it? No. Not one bit. If anything, I regret I wasn't more creative with my mass murdering."
Their gazes as one impacted me. I felt my soul scorching, as if before a judge and jury reading my sentence. I could feel their condemnation trying to pull me down, to warp the very core of who I was. I wouldn't let it. My ego, my will, my unformed desire guided me. Let me bend, but not break as I weathered the very storm.
"So, try and stop me you pieces' of shit!"
For a final flare. I flipped them off with a pair of middle fingers while laughing.
I felt something pulling me. My eyes flashed to the cowering figure as the cloak of shadow slowly left. Black eyes bore into my own. I had an instant a single moment to make a declaration. A single moment. A single phrase perhaps before I am pulled away.
"And you, I won't let you die for my sake. So, watch me. Witness me… Sister." I spoke those final words with conviction. The shadow shuddered. Eyes widening. A flicker of something igniting within them. I wanted to say more, to do more, but the barrier between us was an unassailable thing. Then, I felt it. Like a line that just hooked a fish yanking back I was pulled. The world around me faded and whooshed by until, like a fish on the hook I broke the surface. Consciousness itself my fisherman.
I gasped awake, a ringing in my ears. A pain in my neck. Instinct took hold as my hand slammed out hitting something and slamming through the tank beside me and crushing it into the wall. I felt… heavy. I looked around and saw the aquarium, the blurry fish inside. No… My vision was shot. Workable, but poor. I felt a grin on my face. A burning heat in my body.
I stood slowly. Feeling out all the aches and pains. That bomb or whatever really messed me up. Half my body felt numb. Empty almost. I clenched my hands into fists in time with my heartbeat, telling myself I was still alive. My senses rapidly firing and coming online as I came to the realization, I wasn't alone. Figures in the shadow hid. Still like statues, afraid of the beast that just woke up. I could hear something though, over the ringing silence. Something offbeat, dull, like a blown-out speaker.
As if underwater…
I stretched, ignoring the pain as I felt bones pop and crack. I was calm as ice. Yet, I knew I wasn't. It was burning anger. It became so very hot that it became cold. Ambushed in my sleep. A needle in my throat. My mind not quite putting those thoughts together, but realizing these people were after me was all I needed. I could still feel the spectres of the dead boring into me. Their accusing gazes demanding my death. They demanded evidence, proof. Proof I would give by the tanker. In blood.
None of them moved. As if believing being a statue would save them. The first step I took, nothing happened. Yet, the moment I took my second step they bolted into action. A figure leapt out of the shadow while wielding scintillating blades that made my senses wary. I dodged around the blows, my leg lashing out in the blink of an eye. Smashing into the person's skull, detaching it from the body and smashing against the far wall.
That single move ignited the storm. Bodies charged me as I slammed into them. Minimizing my movements as I felt wounds reopen, blood gushing from them onto the floor. My strength was too great. A punch would slam through their ribcage capturing my arm. I shoved a shadow with a palm instead of a fist and they launched back, losing their lower half against the bar counter before being separated by the glass bar shelves. My tail batted aside another assailant as they crept up from behind as I walked forward. Every step was sure. Every step was followed by their hearts thumping in their chest.
I was death.
I dismantled them. Ripped them to pieces like a feral beast. A blade whipped out and I raised my arm to deflect. It cut through my skin and into my bone with a meaty whirr before dying halfway through to the wielders shock. I pulled him and the blade back towards me and ripped his throat out with my teeth. I didn't spit as I swallowed. My stomach demanding food and meat was apparently on the menu now and very abundant.
I stepped forward, dodging a bullet and returning fire with a piece of a shadow's body. I was invincible, I was unstoppable. And as I fought, their numbers dwindled, and something splashed me in the face. I felt something burn. My vision cut. I felt a bloody scream catch in my throat as I blasted my ki out vaporizing as many as I could before slamming my head into a nearby aquarium.
The water dispersed whatever it was. An acid of sort, I suspected based on the stammering's of the shadows. Shadows who now realized they were better off fleeing. I could feel my tongue. The air upon it and my gums. I wasn't thinking as I smashed into them. Ignoring obstacles as I simply smashed through. Grabbing at bodies and limbs. Tearing them from their owners and killing whomever I could.
It was only as I clambered after the shadows like a wounded blood starved beast that it occurred to me. That sound. Beating in my ears. I was laughing. A mad cackling laughter filled the empty alleys. My teeth bared into a horrific visage as my lips fell away. A single, barely functioning eye that couldn't blink. My body scored in wounds and cuts showing bone and muscle underneath.
I followed in leaping bounds. Saving my ki as much as I could as I smashed through obstacles and tore through structures. Whatever I could grab was thrown out. Smashing and impaling the unlucky. Until I came to a wider alley, as one they all turned. A single movement and the alley filled with razor thin wires that I could feel vibrate like chainsaws.
Instinct versus rationality warred. The scales were weighed and balanced. A pyrrhic balance met. Ki flooded my body as I smashed into the wires. Feeling them dig into me. My fingers grasped like claws cutting into the wires and my teeth lashed out. I felt the wires dig into my teeth and gums as I broke through the barrier.
A trio of shadows launched themselves forward. They smelled of blood and experience. I could feel shadows watching over their shadows. Much like the army of spectres at my own back. Hounding me, pushing me. I bounded into them like a tiger.
The middle one wielded a pair of curved daggers they held in a reverse grip. Deflecting my blows while the blades dug into every open wound. The one on the left used a spear, its tip spinning like a buzzsaw as they spun and aimed for vital points. The right fighter wielded a pair of punch daggers as they danced and stabbed into joints and muscle groups.
The three worked in perfect tandem. Cutting and wounding me, wearing me down as more shadows prepped the next trap. I had lost so much blood, yet I felt like I was invincible. My wounds were far beyond mortal, yet, I felt my heart only beat stronger. My ki near empty thrummed as if I was at my peak.
Even my own rational mind seemed to take a back seat. Mentally it took a sip of wine while cataloging my injuries before discarding the results. Their evaluation?
'Tis, but a flesh wound.'
Nothing vital was actually dangerously damaged. Through instinct alone I managed to protect my vitals. Through sheer force of presence, I made even the assassins avoid fatal blows as they sought to bleed me with a thousand cuts like a maddened boar. However, as I grew injured that force grew. And mistakes were made.
A spear thrust, a tad deep. Missing the vital organ, that had aimed at by the smallest of margins. The flexing of muscles' harder than steel, perhaps even an iron vault of a national bank. The spear was stuck fast inside. Taking deposits, but no withdrawals. My hands, now no more than claws as flesh was shorn away, leaving only bone, reached scoring at the shadow's face. The barrier broke. A single step forward breached their defenses. Pushing them back.
A single moment to change the tides as the reformed shadows all made a last attack. I felt my ki roil like my stomach had in my last life after eating sliders at White Castle. Like greased lightning it formed into my hand. The ki was a kaleidoscope of colors. Nothing uniform as I prepared something. I always did like dancing games.
The thought seemed errant, but I launched the ki up in a ball of energy that started smaller than a baseball before expanding out into a full dome. The last-minute name hit me as I continued my laugh.
"Disco Panic!"
All the different density ki's wrapped into the high dense ball burst out like confetti from a pinata. Some blasts lanced out like lasers, others moved slow like plasma. Either way, it was glorious chaos of a myriad color that filled the area. In an instant countless shadows were cut down. More vaporized and blasted, the stragglers either ripped apart by my hand or disintegrated by the wildly varied ki techniques.
I fell to my knee as the last shadow felt. I could sense far more fleeing at the edge of my awareness. I panted, and my laughing finally stopped. I caught my breath. Feeling out my injuries. They were grave indeed. But, why did I feel so unconcerned? Even as I could see the muscle hanging from my arm.
I didn't know, but I didn't have the luxury to sit around. Not when I felt the earth rumble. Something pinged on my ki sense. I barely caught it. A massive tank, as large as the four-street main road I was on. It even managed to come up to the sidewalk on both sides. Guns all along its surface with missile launches on the back. A crew of six men inside. More men following, and even more Gene soldiers.
I guess it was time for round 3…
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone