It was a single moment that stretched out into what felt like hours. The sound of my boots hitting the steel floor, the cries of my new opponent ringing in my ears. The sound of my heart beating, the clicks and sounds of machinery whirring away and Xenos climbing up from the hull. It all came together in a discordant melody that filled me in a way I hadn't felt in a while.
I felt my body loosen. My blood began to heat as I anticipated the fight. The creature I had just hit had an immense ki signature. Now with my mooks out of the way I could relish this fight and go all out.
"Rettas, I've went ahead and sealed the emergency bulkhead doors. Do you need help?"
I heard Doc come in over the intercom system as I stepped forward.
"No." I say, channeling the ki into my hands as I look down the ruined staircase. Countless Xenos were climbing out. I didn't get a good look at them, but I knew one thing.
"Resistance doesn't mean immunity." A single prolonged blast shot out. Filling the corridor and down the ship to the hull. The air seemed to suck in before expanding. Explosions rocked the ship as I felt countless ki signatures go dark as they were swallowed by my blast.
"Understood. I'll make sure to keep everyone away. Just try not to damage the ship too much."
"I can't promise anything." I said while rolling my shoulders. I took my time stepping into the rear most compartment. The engine deck, or would it be engineering? I didn't know, not like I was a spaceship expert. Stepping in I surveyed our battlefield. Large would be a word for it. Massive dynamos and generators hummed with shimmering fields around them. Computers and delicate electronics with walkways filled the room along with numerous vents and paneled surfaces.
In the back were where the massive engines were, massive turbines turned and vented the plasma that gave us our acceleration. What was curious though, was I could hear the engine humming to life. A quick glance gave me a possible reason. My opponent, their very form, no, something about them made me hate them on an instinctive level.
Like a strange cross of insect and simian. Double jointed back legs held up a hulking frame. A pair of arms each larger than its own torso and a massive lamprey head ending in a crunching jaw. Just looking at it made me angry. Igniting something deep inside me. A charlatan, a fake.
The moment I stepped into the section I felt our ki clash. The two of us looked at each other. Instantly, I knew.
"There can only be one."
It charged, its form dwarfing mine as it stretched to the ceiling scraping it as it screamed. It was a loud keening thing as if countless nails were scratching on glass. I stood my ground. Gathering myself, watching for the moment it will begin.
Like a gunshot the thing shot forward. Its whole body cracked as it broke the sound barrier to rush me. The old me would have struggled. The new me, after being reforged inside the gravity chamber could deal with it. Its lunge was obvious and telegraphed. It moved to engulf me and slam down on me with its massive hands tipped with gleaming claws.
I met its charge with my own. The sound of our two bodies crashing against each other, the sound barriers crashing against each other rippled and devastated the lights and numerous panels. My hit was exact, blowing whatever it had that passed for lungs clean of air. I followed through with devastating hammering blows that threatened to crack its carapace. Each hit crunched like I was driving nails into it with a nail gun as air blasted back from the force of each punch. The thing rocked with every hit, it never had a chance to recover before I launched it with a kick into a larger turbine.
"WARNING! DAMAGE DETECTED TO THE MAIN ENGINE TURBINE! WARNING!"
I ignore the sound as I slam my hands together, pulsing my ki.
"DESTRUCTO DISC x3!"
As I spread my hands out three perfectly formed sawblades appear and with a gesture they expand out. One slams into its head, the other two into its arms. The blades slam it to the turbine, the blades whining as chitin and flesh are mauled away, blood and meat spraying until I hear a final satisfying snap as it goes limp.
It wouldn't be that simple. Right? It twitches and jolts up. Its back expands out like a massive cyst before bursting into a haze of blood revealing a dozen new arms. It moves in such a bewildering way I barely manage to avoid it. A hurricane of fists and scythed claws cut into me and pummeled me. The limbs were weaker than the previous two that still hung limp at its side. I manage to break and tear off a few before the thing gets wise. It rears back its fists and hits me with singular blow and even with my own strength I'm rocketed back.
I slam through a few electronics. The announcer blares new warnings as the lights cut, red emergency lights blaze as the alarm blares. Electricity runs through me like a soft comforting buzz as I step out of the ruined electronics. I barely manage to glance at the thing forcing its way into a larger ventilation shaft.
"Running!?" I demand my whole being steeped with anger.
"TRY TO AT LEAST HIDE YOUR KI YOU MORON!" I slam up and through the ceiling into the shaft grabbing onto its tail. It screams and flails as it tries to avoid its new fate. With a mighty tug I pull it out and slam it into the nearest obstacle I can. I swing it around like a massive flail before throwing it into another turbine unit. This time I bring my hands forward before charging my ki.
The thing stunned doesn't move until I finish.
"GALICK GUN! BURST!"
A trio of weaker Galick Gun's burst out. Each impacting its form with devastating consequences. It blasts its carapace clean where it hits, even stripping the cover off the turbine revealing the spinning blade. I slam forward feet first and slam into the monstrosity. It's limp form jolts and gives a pained scream as I slam its head into the turbine. It's many arms move to prevent it from falling completely into the whirring blades of death. Both whine and scream from the abuse as I push.
It's form jolts as I laugh. A rush of endorphins flood into my brain blinding me to the eyes appearing throughout its form. I barely catch the glint of light as I get slammed by a blast of ki. The thing pulls itself out of the turbine with a disturbing series of crunches as it pulls away, shearing off muscle and bones that feed into the turbine blades like a bloody sacrifice in the process.
It takes me a moment to reorient, but the thing throws more ki, even managing to form a destructo disc that takes a moment to destroy. I slammed forward and grabbed its trailing tail as it tried to flee again and tried to jerk it back once more, only for the tail to detach. It drilled into the floor and this time it hid it's ki. I throw random blasts to no effect. The only sound being the blaring alarms and the high-pitched meaty whine of the turbine as I float in the center of the room.
I close my eyes, trying to catch a whiff of something, anything. I could sense the ki signatures of its kin heading this way as it buys time. It won't escape. It felt the same thing I did. It was a copy, a failed copy at that. Something told me that it contained Saiyan DNA. A hunch I was willing to believe, and that hunch told me it too would seek my death. For, my flesh and blood would perfect it.
It felt similar to Doc's creation in a way. Except, less impressive. It did feel better put together though. I mean Doc's creation fell apart as soon as I went ape. I doubted this thing could go ape though, which meant if I did transform this fight would be trivial. Not like I could on such a small ship though. The super carrier could probably hold me if they unified the various decks and such.
Still… I felt something. I wasn't sure what, but I grabbed out for it. I opened my eyes as I tugged. What greeted me was a long tentacle… TENTACLES! With a tug I tear off the tentacle from the thing. It's whole-body bursting from beneath me as a nest of tentacles wrap around me, TENTACLES!!! I avoid getting fully captured as I beat back its other hands and tentacles. Being awarded with numerous cuts along my body that bled copiously until finally it managed to wrestle my four limbs into its hold. Each limb was held by a grouping of tentacles that wound together almost like muscle.
At this point, I wasn't sure what its plan was exactly. Sure, it had me and could punch me, but the biomass in its tentacles took from the mass in its hands. The claws could hurt, but they failed to do any serious damage. The four tentacles positioned me in the middle of its body… I watched enough hentai that I knew where this was going, except… Its hands gripped around its stomach area confusing me before tearing it open with a horrifying screaming noise as it revealed a new maw with razor blades that whirred much like the turbine.
"HOLY MOTHER OF NOPE!!!" I screamed as I fought back as hard as I could, managing to bring my hands together. It had eyes covering its form and I had a stupid idea!
"SOLAR FLARE!" I scream as it tries to drag me into its gaping maw with toothed tentacle tongues!!!! WHY!!!!? The light blasts into its eyes, burning its retinae as the thing screams, briefly loosening its hold as I slam one of my hands out with everything I had and form a destructo disc mini to cut my other hand free. It tries to Consume me starting with my lower half, dragging my precious boots closer to its whirring crunching maw.
"TAKE THIS YOU LOVECRAFTIAN LOVE CHILD!" I screamed, my voice cracking as I let loose all my fear and turned it into action.
On instinct I start slamming ki blasts into the open maw. Without thought I just kept throwing them in like shooting hoops before releasing a single large blast. For a moment, it seemingly does nothing. Until blood and gore blast out from its wounds and eyes. The thing sags and seemingly deflates slamming me down on the ground covered in its meaty tentacles. I squirm out and prepare to finish the cursed thing when I get pounced on by something. I don't think as I slam my body into the nearest wall. I look back briefly to see a weird simian insect thing smashed into the wall like a fly hit with a fly swatter. Its body twitches slightly to emphasize the comparison.
Apparently, the cavalry has arrived. They streamed in and I prepared for a new fight only to be both stumped and horrified. The cursed tentacle maw thing was EATING THEM! Not just that, I could feel it absorbing their ki into itself and recovering.
Before it could recover enough, I went to work destroying what was left, and managed to stem the tide. Turning around I was greeted by the thing gobbling down the remnants of its tail. In that single moment, after slurping its tail like a noodle. I felt something in it change its ki undergoing a drastic change, purifying becoming more, purposeful.
It's body shivers and jolts before forming into something strangely familiar, almost like a mini-oozaru. This time I could barely react when it hit. My bones crackled, my teeth rattled from the force as it tore into me. Still, even as I coughed up blood from internal injuries, even as I felt bones crack. I laughed. My blood boiled, my cells were on fire. I FELT ALIVE!
Fist met fist as I felt something change. My muscles wriggled, my whole form vibrating in excitement. My eyes gleamed! We fought, or rather I tried to catch up. Noticing the sudden shift and my rapid increase in prowess the Xeno made a decision. Ignoring me pummeling it and seeing as how it still dwarfed me though it had lost nearly half its mass. It led me into a few punches as it grabbed out, gripping me to its body as it slammed back. I had no idea why until we slammed into a nearby turbine. The thing using me like a glorified hammer, disorienting me as my head slammed into the metal over and over.
I slammed my hands out as the metal bent in. Barely catching myself as the turbine sucked in the errant metal as the blades inside chipped and screamed. It tried to force me in. I got a glimpse of its now more ape mug, and I could see the vicious glint in its eye, the massive, toothed grin mirroring my own. That moment our eyes locked, Mm… It was hard to explain, but it suddenly ignited something in me. A competitiveness. A drive I never knew I had.
Was it something ingrained in us Saiyan? This feeling of needing to be top of the pack? The feeling of being looked down on was strangely exciting. If my blood was boiling, it now ascended that. Almost as if it became high pressure fuel as it rampaged through my body. In that moment My muscles screamed as I pushed my body further and beyond what I ever had before. My natural limiters released into a berserk manic frenzy.
My vision reddened and I slammed out of the turbine kicking the creature in the face as I did. In a blink I managed to beat the thing into a near pulp before it changed, a massive blast of ki slammed me back. In that moment I felt that heat recede. I felt sore. My whole body screamed as I moved. Still, I moved.
The creature worked, its body once more thrumming and vibrating. Useless flesh and bone sloughing off like ice cream in the sun. Until what revealed itself before me was something eerily familiar. It stood a good seven feet. Taller than I was by a fair margin. Mirror black carapace on it. Two glowing red eyes. A prehensile monkey tail behind it. A sort of insectile Saiyan.
It's ki moved through its body like racecars on a circuit. My own moving in response.
I stood straight. Both of us were waiting for the unseen signal. A signal I ended up voicing.
"Final Round."
I said, spitting out blood as I did.
"Heaven or Hell?"
I said cracking my knuckles. The thing opposite me doing the same.
""FIGHT!""
I ignored its voice. Our bodies impacted each other like two trains on a collision course with each other. Both of using our ki to move at absurd speeds as we slammed into each other over and over like a pair of mating falcons. Broken up by the intermittent blasts of pure ki. I slam the thing down at one point after deflecting its own blast. A barbed tongue shooting out. Without thought I grip it and wrap it around my arm and pull, ripping it out. Using its barbed teeth like some demented cestus as I slammed into its face before it threw me off. The edges dug into my skin, the pain making me hotter. My body was on fire. Fists hitting my body were pleasurable beyond belief. I was iron shaped in the forge. My ki the cooling water that quenched and hardened where it passed.
As our bodies weakened, as our flaring ki dimmed, our fighting only grew that more desperate. We moved at each other with purpose. Like the positive and negative of a magnet seeking each other. Our fists and blasts began hitting with unerring accuracy as we no longer had the energy to even dodge properly. Discs sank into flesh biting into bone. Ki blasts stripped skin and laid bare the muscle underneath.
Even as blood dripped from me, even as I was laid bare before it, save for my ever-immortal boots, I didn't stop laughing. Begging for more. For it to hit harder and faster. It became not a battle of ki at that point but of wills. Our very lives were burning like a candle nearing its end. It became obvious. A flicker of wind blew as the reaper watched our flickering lives last moments, awaiting our final end to take our souls away.
We were going to die. If this continued. We would both die. This realization came like a soft breeze that chilled us to the bone. It was frigid, the brush of death itself coming to greet us. I thought of everything. My life. My past life. My current life. What it is I wanted to do. To be. What I could do. What I would do.
"Do you really want to die here?" A voice whispered in my ear. Death itself seemed to ask as they brushed my neck with their scythe.
I thought of Fera, and the fight we would never have. Of never beating Gran again. Never tasting Cooks meals again. Never training with Master again, never talking to Doc. No longer being a Captain. No longer being able to do much of anything. Would it be fine if it ended like this? Now?
The question rattled in my brain for all but a moment. Strangely. I stopped laughing for the first time. The sound of screaming turbines, of the blaring alarm and the announcer sounding totally pissed off at how many systems were wrecked echoing. Still…
I became oddly aware of a serene smile on my face. One not desperate for power, desperate to feel more in this numbing world, but an accepting one. A smile that would likely stop the hearts of men and women alike. A smile that would make hearts skip a beat even as they looked upon my ravaged form.
Dying here, like this? It wouldn't be so bad. I felt my body loosen. I relaxed. Feeling every sensation, the pain and agony, the pleasure. I didn't need to force it. I still had the tentacle tongue wrapped around my arm, but I was certain it would tear away a good chunk of skin when I removed it. It all stopped mattering in that moment. A stillness came over me. Serenity. Peace. Acceptance.
I stepped forward. Fists at the ready. That single step wasn't like a gunshot. Nor even forceful. It was a soft tap. A ripple in a calm moonlit lake. Almost like the footsteps of a lover echoing down the hall. Delicate, warm. Evoking the sensation of love and hope. A forlorn sense of whimsy and wonder. A final good farewell. In perhaps the most twisted of ways.
If I was a candle at the edge of its being. In that moment, when that breeze blew it had winked out. That small sputtering flame going dark and revealing the cold truth. Only to roar back with a sinister blaze as it ignited all there was. I could flee. I could run. There was no reason to fight this fight. Yet, like a moth drawn towards it, towards an inevitable end I understood.
This… was part of me. My path. This is the way.
"Let's finish this."
I say softly. As if extending a hand, an invitation to join me, no, for us to depart together to a glorious end. My opponent though. I could see it. It flinched as I stepped forward. As my words rang out. That burning raging fire sputtered out. Unlike me, they had shielded their flame from the wind. I understood as I looked into its eyes The spark of intelligence, the beginning of a soul. The fear of death.
It laughed at my misfortune. Relished it. The first of sins one might say. Like a child would have, but that breeze. That clarifying moment had awoken it to the truth. The reapers whisper had woken it from its childish dream. Forced it to face cold hard reality. A truth a child could never fully understand. Death.
Before it fought with a savagery befitting a beast. Lacking in thought and only fighting with an abundance of instinct. That didn't work. So, it adapted. Changing and altering. The thing likely filled with false Saiyan cells and whatever else trying to find the perfect counter to me only to do the impossible. False, became real. What beat in its heart was clearly a Saiyan heart. Yet, like a child, nay, like Adam and Eve eating the fruit.
It became aware. Aware of its death. Aware that it didn't wish to die like this. Aware, that perhaps this didn't have to be the way. Unfortunately, I knew. It had to be this way. There can only be one. I didn't say that for no reason. Its cells were degenerating rapidly. Its only hope was to push further and beyond. To overcome himself and consume me.
Only then could he be something more truly.
I sighed. A mournful sound. I couldn't blame him. Not really. I didn't hold back. The sputtering of its fire made it weak as I slammed into him. It tried to give a resistance but failed as I beat it down. It tried to evolve to change. To even plead.
"Please, NO!"
It screamed as I beat it until its muscles degenerated, until nothing was left but a scrawny beanstalk of a thing. I looked at it with disappointment as I grabbed it. Dragging it to the nearest most excruciating method of death for it. I didn't want it to die quietly. Not after denying me something, I wanted. I wanted to know, would I really die if killed? Could I have pulled through and become more? Baptized in blood, seeking life in death. No, perhaps it was more. It was my own disgust at them for ruining such a perfect moment.
Easily the biggest blue-ball moment I ever had experienced for sure. Any excitement gone. The heat and excitement faded, leaving only scorn and anger. Like a true woman denied the best possible orgasm of their life. The thing never stopped pleading, begging. Not even as I found what I was looking for. A massive glass like tube. Inside sat a large beam, at the end was a whirring blade of death that made the turbines look like nothing.
I broke the glass after a couple of punches. Nearly getting sucked into the tube as I held my ground. Carefully I lift my charge. Its eyes looking at me, glittering like a puppy dog's.
"Please, you don't have to do this!"
It begged one final time.
"In my home country. They call this a fatality."
It looks confused before I chuck it into the weird tube. Its limbs elongate and end with suckers as they slam onto the glass holding it fast. I watch in fascination as this only makes its death that much worse. It's body slowly stretched like taffy. I watched, wondering if it would tear in half before even hitting the blades at the end. I watched and watched as it stretched slowly but surely. Until finally, the thing screamed a final curse as its tail caught in the blade. With a schlump noise it was pulled in. A grinding scream echoed and seemed to fill the whole room as the thing screamed and screamed.
Until it stopped with an abrupt grinding noise.
"WARNING! WARNING! FOREIGN MATTER DETECTED WITHIN THE ENGINE MAIN REACTOR! ATTEMPTING TO PURGE! STAY CLEAR OF PURGE VENTS!"
I felt a loud shudder. Gore and blood burst form vents on the side of the big part at the end before stopping with a loud schluk.
"ERROR! PURGE VENTS CLOGGED! ATTEMPTING TO REROUTE POWER! ERROR! TERMINAL UNRESPONSIVE!"
I blinked owlishly. My eyes gazing around the wrecked engine room that still hadn't gone terminal.
"MAIN REACTOR CRITICAL! ATTEMPTING TO REROUTE TO SUB REACTORS MANUALLY… ERROR! SUBREACTORS CRITICAL OR UNRESPONSIVE!"
Uh… That… Uh… sounded very bad… Especially when the room started getting very hot. Maybe… that wasn't such a hot idea.
"WARNING COOLING SYSTEMS DAMAGED! IMMINENT REACTOR FAILURE!"
I begin booking it as bulkhead doors start slamming shut… WONDERFUL! GREAT! I look around wildly, until I get a dumb idea. I slam through the walls as the whine increases by several octaves. The vibrations could be felt in my bones and body. I should be able to survive in space despite how badly I'm injured. Coating myself in ki I slam out of the ship. Making a good amount of space before the back half of the cruise ship sucks everything in, then explodes out.
A wave of force launched me straight towards the carrier. I adjust my course just enough that I don't splat against the hull but am aimed instead for one of the open hangars. My ki holds against the vacuum of space as I slam into the hangar magnetic field. It strips me of my last ki and more of my skin as I slam inside smoking and cooking. Alarms blare and people are shouting and screaming.
Shakily I stand.
"WHO IS THAT!?"
"IS!? IS THAT THE CAPTAIN!?"
"I think so, ain't those her boots!?"
Chaos ensues as I wobble there for a moment. I take off the tentacle like one would a glove. Blood dripping freely pools on the floor. I was delirious. Vision snapping in and out, fuzzing over like an old television playing a VHS.
"This… is your captain speaking."
They all go silent. Staring at me in horror.
"Quit… slacking off!" I say with a pointed finger. Blood splashing the man I pointed too. I laughed and collapsed. What exactly was so funny, I wasn't sure. I just really felt like laughing.