Subzero Soul

By Sporanox

Chapter 11: Dreary days

Here’s a poll for all of you to answer:

1: Have you ever heard of Ranma ½?

2: Have you ever heard of Nadesico?

3: Have you ever heard of Ruri Hoshino?

4: Have you ever heard of Asuka Soryuu Langhley?

5: Ever heard of Neon Genesis Evangelion?

Heh...sorry for bogging you down with questions. Just send in the answers with your review.

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Thunder roared somewhere in the distance, and white bolts of lightning descended from the skies, striking some unfortunate bush or tree along a ridge. Black storm clouds hovered overheard, pouring water from the heavens.

A man sat outside, a solitary figure in the falling water. Rain whipped against his night-black training armor, propelled by the wind, but he didn’t so much as blink. By all laws known to Earth, he should’ve been shivering, cold, and wet by now. Instead, he was indifferent to the raging forces of nature.

Vegeta looked about him. The buildings of Tokyo were almost indiscernible by now, barely visible through the fog. This rain and thunder brought back “fond” memories...

Years ago he had gone through “endurance training”, as his father called it. He was subjected to freezing ice and snow, pelted by fist-sized hailstones, burned by desert heat, bitten and stung by countless venomous snakes and other nasty creatures, and was altogether miserable.

He could very easily laugh at those memories now; it was only a few weeks before he could scorn the protection of cave or tent and defy the elements that existed almost universally on all planets. There were many more challenges from then on; learning to ki blast, going through martial arts training, dodging gigantic boulders that threatened to squash him between them. Oh yes, there was space endurance training. One mistake and you’d be sucked into the vacuum of the inky blackness.

Vegeta’s lips formed a smirk as he recalled the memories. Back then, he’d been scared as hell of everything and anything. Now? Now he’d throw himself off mile-high cliffs or into the deepest depths of crushing oceans to just get a thrill. Even then, he was bored. He needed combat. More of it.

He was hoping that the Sailor Senshi would be a challenge to him; he needed a fight to the death. That was the greatest thrill any Saiya-jin could hope for. With his companions he could merely spar; with the Sailor Senshi he could kill. In fact, almost every second of the three millenniums he lived through had been spent training for this moment. He had a seething hatred of them.

Tap.

Vegeta acknowledged the sound by shifting his head ever so slightly to the right. He could distinguish it from the pitter-patter the rain created when it hit the ground. In his mind, he searched for an energy signature to identify the anomaly.

Now that was odd. No energy signal at all. However, judging by the sound of the landing, he could tell it was someone with martial arts training.

The Saiya-jin stood and turned 180 degrees to face the unknown. A crown of spiky blonde hair framed the person’s face, following well-defined muscles that were bigger than most Vegeta had seen before. The mouth was twisted into a smug smirk.

Saiya-jin! Vegeta realized. “But who?”

Another figure stepped out of the shadow of the stranger. This one was smaller, but held the same smirk as the former. Both were wearing blue spandex and the accompanying armor.

“Identify yourself,” was all Vegeta could say.

“You don’t recognize us?” spoke the latter, in a candid tone. “I’m surprised, Vegeta. You were the one that banished to Namek, you know. Do you even remember us after 3000 years?”

“Wha?...B-b-bro...” Vegeta stuttered, seemingly unable to form a coherent sentence.

“Yes, you’re correct, if you meant this Saiya-jin beside me. To jog your memory a bit, I’m Paragus, and this fellow is Brolly. Any questions?”

Thunder roared and lightning flashed behind the two, quite ominously.

Vegeta composed himself. “How about answering how you are still alive so many years later?”

The Saiya-jin considered the reply. “Well, to make a long story short, we found out about the Namekian Dragonballs, overpowered the inhabitants, and wished for eternal youth. Oh, and another thing, we’re here to kill you.”

He said it in such a happy, positive manner, Vegeta almost began to think he was insane as his charge. He dismissed the thought, however. Paragus had to have a good reason for acting so giddy about this. Which would mean he would have something to back his words up–

Vegeta narrowly dodged the jump kick from Brolly and kicked the huge Saiya-jin in the spine, upon which a sickening crack was heard. Satisfied, he watched as Brolly flew over a stand of trees, and threw up a large dust cloud on impact, while somehow managing to get struck by lightning.

He turned to Paragus. “And you were saying?”

Paragus shrugged. “Why don’t you look behind you?”

Vegeta did, and what he saw amazed him. Brolly was floating in the air, completely unharmed.

A confident laugh was heard from behind him. “You think Brolly could be defeated that easily?” Paragus chuckled. “What naive idiocy. You only cracked some of his training armor.”

Vegeta glared at his opponent, ignoring Paragus for the moment. Well, he’d found a challenge.

He zanzoukened to the right of Brolly, slipped within his guard, and delivered a painful spinning kick combination to the man’s chin. Not allowing the bigger Saiya-jin to recover, he slid around to his back and crushed his heel into the neck.

Vegeta wasn’t finished. A right cross slammed into Brolly’s temple, and the follow-up roundhouse kick shook the very ground they were standing on.

Paragus shook his head. “You don’t learn, do you?”

“Shut up!” Vegeta hissed, and launched himself at Brolly once again. His eyes widened as Brolly brought up his right arm with a speed almost unbelievable and uppercutted Vegeta into the thunderstorm above.

Paragus yawned, and held his palm out to stop Brolly’s reflexive ki blast. “Allow him to get his second wind. Then let’s see what kind of fighter he really is, when he powers up.”

Meanwhile, many feet into the thunderstorm, Vegeta berated himself for not reading Brolly’s stance. He could tell the man was horribly unskilled, about the level of only a blue belt in one of the fighting disciplines on the planet. His stance was flawed, and Vegeta spotted at least twenty openings in his defense. But Brolly’s sheer strength was almost unimaginable. He figured Paragus had trained him solely for power and speed, and ignored technique and skill. Well, he’d show them.

“Ahh, so he’s turned Super Saiyan,” Paragus remarked. Brolly grunted.

The Saiya-jin in question flew down from the skies, breaking the sonic barrier as he descended. Coming straight for Brolly, he dodged a roundhouse and executed an elbow to the gut, which would only delay Brolly by less than a second. Turning so that he was facing the bigger Saiya-jin, he lashed out with his fingers and tapped a series of nerve clusters on Brolly’s arms. While Brolly was still reacting to the blow, he slid between his legs, flipped so he was facing the bigger Saiya-jin’s back, and delivered a blade chop to an exact spot on the spine.

Smirking, he flew away from the other Saiya-jin just as Brolly’s limbs and muscles began to lock up. He then charged Paragus and jumped in the air at the last second, extending his right foot parallel to the ground and retracted his left in a knee position for a perfect jump kick toward the astonished Paragus’s face. The blow slammed him through the cliff face he was formerly standing in front of and the momentum carried him well beyond. Vegeta, however, wasn’t satisfied yet. He caught up with the flying Saiya-jin and jabbed his index and middle fingers into choice areas around the ribs. Satisfied, he launched a Cat Blast toward Paragus and flew back to Brolly, who was temporarily paralyzed.

“GALECK GUN!” he yelled and blasted Brolly with all the power he could muster. He wasn’t optimistic; he knew they would still be alive after that, but he had given them a good beating, which would take care of them for the moment. Now he had two challenges, and he wasn’t going to lose...

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Setsuna gazed out the window. Rain dashed against it, and the wind was audible, howling outside. She was glad that she was inside, and would normally feel very safe and cozy. Today, however, she was feeling anything but that. Any moment now, their accursed Saiya-jin enemy could crash through the glass, seizing her before she had a chance to transform, and breaking her neck–

CRASH!

Setsuna screamed and dived under a table for protection as lightning flashed outside, highlighting the perpetrator of the unsettling noise.

Hotaru backed away from Setsuna and furiously waved her hands, warding off any potential attack. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Setsuna! I know how much your antique vase meant to you but please don’t kill me I’ll make it up to you really Setsuna I have to go now!”

Setsuna visibly relaxed during Hotaru’s incessant rambling and willed herself to her feet, just in time to catch Hotaru’s arm before she ran out the door. “You gave me quite a scare there!”

“Really?” Hotaru murmured weakly, “you scared me too.”

Setsuna laughed. “I’m not mad at you. I just thought it was one of our enemies...” she trailed off. “I guess we shouldn’t worry about it, Hotaru, but it makes me tense...Maybe we should do something to ease the stress...How are you feeling?”

“Fine, Setsuna.”

“Here, let’s pick up the pieces.” Setsuna fetched a paper towel to wipe them up when suddenly, through the fog and rain, she saw an enormous dustcloud thrown up outside the city borders, followed by an immense strike of lightning. The shockwave alone shook the mansion and Hotaru screamed, like any other child would.*

Her eyes narrowed. Evidently, the Saiya-jin were playing mind games with them, trying to make them come out, investigate, and be slaughtered, or give up. As far as she was concerned, Setsuna wasn’t going to do either of those things. To the bitter end, the Senshi would stand together, with the power of their friendship holding them up as long as it could...

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What I was trying to illustrate here is the different ways the Saiya-jin and the Senshi support themselves. The Saiya-jin are militaristic, calculating, and serious. They know what it takes to win a fight and they don’t play around. The Senshi, on the other hand, hold themselves up with optimistic attitudes and emotions, which enables them to fight. They are a bit naive, inexperienced (except for Pluto), and generally fight only when they have to, and never actively train in peacetime. Just a look into the different attitudes the two sides hold.

This chapter was not made to be intentionally dark. Misty says that stuff is entirely overrated. I don’t know if I should be writing dark, anyways. I have an odd feeling that it’ll come out ridiculous...

On the other hand, this chapter was to try and make use of descriptive powers a writer is obligated to use. I tried to make a better visual image, stop horrible summary-like sentences, and overall improve my writing. Who knows, I may have found my ‘voice’...then again, maybe not. It all depends on if I can do better.

*Brolly’s impact upon the kick from Vegeta.

(Oh, and don’t forget about the poll!)

-Sporanox