by Jamie L. Word
Zephyrrian Saga
Chapter 5
The Planet Zephyrr.
Shude was in utter disbelief at the sight before him. He had hammered the hulking brute Feng with a number of powerful attack techniques, but the brute had hardly even flinched from any of them. There was hardly even a scratch or a bruise anywhere on the giant's person, and that cocky grin and taunting attitude were really begining to get on his nerves.
"What's the matter, little man? Don't tell me you're all done now!" Feng taunted him even more, trying to provoke him to action. "All that tough talk you were doing right before we got started, and now not a peep! What's the matter? Cat got your tongue? I tell you what, you didn't manage to do all that much to me, but I'll give you a little chance to rethink your strategy a bit! Would that help?"
"Why, you!" Shude snarled, trembling in rage as he flew at Feng to attack him once again. "Just shut up!"
Shude hammered Feng with a vicious roundhouse punch to the jaw, turning his head and knocking out a couple of teeth from the force of the impact! Shude then drove a full-strength reverse spin kick to Feng's midsection, doubling him over and eliciting an audible rush of air from out of his body! Shude then frontflipped over Feng, hooked the brute's head with his hands on the way over, and used the flip's momentum to hurl Feng across the landscape and into the side of a large butte with thunderous impact! Before the dust from the crash could even begin to settle around the crater-marked crash site, Shude began charging up an incredibly powerful blast in between his two hands!
After several seconds of this, he unleased his enormous energy blast with a fierce battle cry, and it slammed into the place where Feng crashed into the butte, exploding with tremendous force and power! The cloud from the explosion mushroomed into the sky almost to the clouds, and the fury of the explosion blew across the landscape like gale-force winds in all directions from the point of detonation! Kuang and Cong seemed greatly concerned for the well-being of their teammate, and Wei's battleweary body was blown across the landscape uncerimoniously like so much debris, but he remained conscious through the horror of it all! Shude was breathing heavilly as if from a great and extended physical exertion as he waited to see the fruits of his efforts revealed!
When the dust and smoke had dissipated and settled from that terrible attack and the powerful winds had stopped blowing across the landscape, Shude was incredulous to see the brute standing there with his fists on his hips! Feng was bleeding from the mouth and bruised slightly, and his armor was blown off of his, leaving only the black spandex-like clothing from beneath the armor, and that clothing was damaged somewhat as well, but Feng seemed to be okay otherwise, despite missing a couple of teeth and his scouter! The other villains were impressed and pleased with the outcome!
"I gotta admit, that was one doozy of a blast!" Feng commented on Shude's last attack, still grinning. "I think you knocked the rest of my teeth loose with that one! You've really got some spunk there, pal, but now I'm afraid it's my turn!"
With that uttered, Feng charged up energy blasts in the palms of both hands in preparation for his attack, unleashing a rapid-fire flurry of energy blasts towards the Zephyrrian warrior after uttering the battle cry of "Sumo zumo!"
Shude exerted a great effort to dodge each and every blast Feng threw at him, and the blasts exploded all around him, some of them getting quite close to him! After about half-a-minute of this technique, Feng stopped firing his blasts and sucked in a big lungfull of air! He then gave the battle cry of "Flames of fury attack!" as he released the air with a blast of flame breath accompanying it! Shude just barely managed to dive out of the way to avoid the blast directly, but the outer edges of it singed him a bit as it passed by!
Feng immediately followed that up by closing the distance and driving a powerful punch to Shude's midsection, doubling him over and stunning him as he coughed up blood as a result of the brutal force of the attack's impact! Feng then drove his other fist down to bonk Shude over the back of the head with it, driving him to the ground with tremendous velocity and burying him so that only his legs were sticking out of the ground! Feng landed where Shude's legs were sticking up and chuckled as the rest of his team joined in on the celebratory laughter!
"Hey, look, guys! I just planted a Zephyrrian!" Feng joked as he took hold of one of Shude's ankles and pulled him out of the ground with brute strength. "I wonder if they're any good at all!"
Shude was obviously hurt and hurt badly by the attack, but he still retained enough presense of mind to direct a quick energy blast into Feng's face! The blast knocked Feng about thirty feet across the landscape, causing him to release Shude's ankle! Shude turned his body in mid-air to land on his feet as Feng slid across the ground on his back! Feng then performed a kip-up to return to his feet, and then he assumed a fighting stance towards Shude, prompting Shude to do likewise!
"Wow! Kind of spicey!" Feng joked as he grinned at the Zephyrrian warrior in the prelude to the renewal of conflict. "I like it!"
Feng then flew to engage Shude in hand-to-hand combat, prompting Shude to take to the air as well! They closed quickly with each other and erupted in a flurry of physical combat techniques, and neither seemed to be able to assert an advantage over the other! Feng still wore his taunting grin while Shude grimaced in a mixture of pain and effort!
"I really must tip my hat to you, if I had a hat to tip, that is! You're really quite the accomplished fighter!" Feng said as he continued to exchange fighting techniques with Shude. "I'm just sorry I forgot to bring my camcorder along to record this fight for my collection!"
Feng hit Shude in the face with a straight punch that busted his nose, split his lip, and rocked his head back forcefully! Feng then hammered the stunned fighter with a mid-air backflip into a double-footed kick under the chin, knocking Shude across the landscape for a great distance! Shude plummeted from the sky and into a large body of water, sinking quickly out of sight! Feng looked back as he completed his flip to see the end results with a grin!
"Maybe it's all for the better," he muttered musingly to himself. "This fight really wasn't all that good anyway!"
After that comment, he began flying over to the water to look for Shude's body. Kuang and Cong laughed happily as they celebrated Feng's victory. Wei finally managed to get back to his feet, regaining enough of his composure and consciousness to rejoin his teammates.
Meanwhile, the Earth vessel had landed on the planet, and the orange-clad, noseless fighter Kenji had disembarked with the lovely lass Emiko to explore the planet. Emiko seemed calmer, more refined in her excitement, but Kenji was like a kid at Christmas going to check under the tree. He was bubbling over in his enthusiasm as he ran and jumped from place to place to see what wonders awaited him, finding far more enjoyment in the physical activity than in any effort to actually look around.
"Hey! This feels just like home!" Kenji called out in gleeful exuberance as he bounced all over the surrounding landscape like a jack rabbit on a sugar rush. "You know, I actually feel a lot stronger since we came through that wierd space turbulence on our way to this planet!"
"Well, don't get too excited," Emiko admonished him as she examined the landscape. "We haven't met the locals yet. I'm not sure if they're friendly or not until we encounter them."
"Well, let me see if I can sense any of them around so we can meet them!" Kenji answered her with unabated excitement.
Kenji focused his senses over the planet, reaching out to try to ascertain where the local inhabitants, if any, might be. After a few seconds, his excited countenance gave way to an expression of mounting terror, and his enthusiasm sunk like a stone in water. He began trembling and blubbering at what he sensed. At that moment, Dr. Sakamoto appeared at the exit ramp to the space ship.
"Hey, my instruments are picking up really high energy levels on this planet, but the dragon radar isn't indicating any dragon balls on this planet!" he called out to them.
"Yikes!" Kenji cried out in terror. "That isn't good! I can sense the power levels too, and all but one of those strong ones feels evil! We should be careful!"
"You can take them, can't you, Kenji?" Emiko inquired of her terrified companion, not yet realizing his trembling fear as she placed her confidence in him.
"What, me?!?" he shot back in abject shock at the notion, even more frightened by that notion than by the notion of the presense of the strong powers on the planet. "What are you? Crazy? These guys are way out of my league! We've gotta find some place to hide before they come over here and find us!"
"I can hide the ship from detection with my cloaking system," Dr. Sakamoto informed them with a calm voice. "We can stay in the ship until it's safe to move again."
"But we need to find out what's going on out there," Emiko countered, determined and unwavering in her resolution. "You stay with the ship, Kenji and I will look around and see what the situation is."
"We're gonna do what?!?" Kenji cried out in terror at the idea Emiko had sprung upon him. "You are crazy! A certifiable nutcase! I vote we have you committed the moment we get back home to Earth!"
"Do you want to find out just how true that old saying about a woman's scorn really is?" Emiko threatened the young fighter.
"Uhhh, ... no," Kenji replied, submitting to her wishes in this matter with rather quick compliance but still not particularly excited about it.
"Then let's go!" she ordered him before turning her attention back to Dr. Sakamoto. "We'll be back in a few hours, so watch for us."
"Don't worry about a thing," Dr. Sakamoto assured them in his collected composure. "You just take care of yourselves out there."
After a brief exchange of parting well-wishing, Emiko and Kenji set out on their mission to find out what was going on. Kenji took Emiko in his arms and took flight away from the space ship. Dr. Sakamoto reentered the ship, and, in a matter of moments, the ship was rendered invisible by his vaunted cloaking system.
Meanwhile, the Namek space ship had touched down on the planet, and the Namek warrior was standing outside the ship, assessing the situation. He focused his senses as he scanned the area for any signs of life. Something in the distance seemed to get his attention.
"There are several strong power signals over there," the Namek thought to himself as he took it all in. "They're fighting. There are four that are evil, and one that is not, and that one is fading gradually. There are a couple of weaker energy signals approaching the battle from the East. I don't think they're locals, but they're definitely not evil. Then there's one really huge power level a little farther away, and it's as evil as it is enormous! Whoever that is losing the fight to those other four fighters, he needs help, and he's going to get help!"
With that thought lingering in his mind, the Namek warrior took to the air, racing off into the distance at high speed. His face was of a determined sort, but there was also the hint of desperation upon his visage as well. He looked serious nonetheless.
Within the Kai's space ship, Akira was hard at training. Sweat covered his body, and his veins bulged along his rippling muscles as he exerted himself in his training. Jiani watched intently, noting his form and technique as much as his physique. She seemed enraptured in the spectacle of watching his training. He was thoroughly focused upon his high intensity training.
"It's amazing," Jiani thought to herself as she watched the Saiyan push himself to his limits and beyond in his exhausting training regiment. "His strength and skill are incredible, and he's learning all of the lessons I have to teach him so quickly. He has an enormous natural talent for this, and an unbelievable will to succeed. I've never seen anyone train like this before, and I've never seen anyone with this much determination in their training. He's such a noble creature, so full of goodness and heroicism and so capable of reaching new heights of achievement and honor as well. He's only just now tapping the depths of his inner self.
"He has now idea just how truly noble a character he truly possesses within his heart. With that noble and good character, he will find the secret to tapping into power beyond anything he has ever imagined. His great heart will give him the strength to do many wonderful and amazing things. Even now he masters twenty times normal gravity with a burning passion! What a noble creature this Saiyan is!"
"This is tough!" Akira thought to himself as he fought against the gravity settings of the training bands around his biceps. "Twenty times normal gravity combined with my work-out intensity is almost more than my body can handle! I have to be ready for the rematch with those creeps who killed my teammates, my friends, ... my Miyoko! This time around, it will be my fight to win!"
Meanwhile, back at the battlefield, Feng hovered over the water where Shude fell in. He peered into the depths in a futile effort to perceive the Zephyrrian with his eyes. The rest of the team watched the big bruiser's moment with jovial eagerness.
"Oh, c'mon! Don't be shy!" Feng called out to vent the frustration of his futile efforts. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"
Suddenly, Shude erupted from the water like a missle, slamming into Feng's midsection with a football spear-like attack and driving him further skyward! The attack seemed to knock all the air out of the big lug as it doubled him over, and then Shude began slamming his fists into the brute's midsection in a relentless flurry, fast and furious! The impacts of those punches seemed to carry some renewed steam, and Feng's teammates watched on incredulously!
After several seconds of this, Feng grabbed Shude's head in between his hands after slamming both palms into Shude's head over his ears to stun him! Feng then punted Shude's face like a football, launching the Zephyrrian skyward for a great distance of well over a hundred yards! Feng took flight and pursued the hurtling warrior as the other evil warriors watched on with glee from the sidelines!
Feng closed with Shude's hurlting form and drove him back to the ground like a shot with a two-fisted smash to the torso! Shude's body created another crater where it landed, and the crash also threw up a cloud of dust in its wake! Feng laughed at his handiworks!
At that moment, Kenji and Emiko arrived, landing on top of a large butte with an outcropping which provided some cover to hide behind. Hide they did, looking to see what was transpiring before them. Both of them were very concerned.
"I don't know who these guys are, but they definitely do not look friendly!" Kenji said in a whisper so as to avoid attracting the attention of the bad guys.
"Which one is the one you said wasn't evil?" Emiko inquired of her companion as she scrutinized the four fighters she could see.
"I think it's the one in the ground," Kenji muttered in fear as he began trembling once again at the sight of the evil fighters.
"We've got to help him, Kenji!" Emiko said to him as she watched the four evil fighters in concern. "We can't let them do this!"
"Well, we're not exactly in any position to do anything about it, Emiko," Kenji admonished her as he recognized their strength. "They're too strong for us!"
They watched in horror as the dust settled, and Shude was even more battered, bruised, and bloodied than before. He stood to his feet on trembling legs, his face contorted in a mixture of pain and defiance. The villains seemed quite impressed, even as he flew up to renew his fight with Feng.
"Hey, guys! I've found a new toy! It's a Zephyrrian yoyo!" Feng declared with a big grin on his face as he prepared for Shude's attack. "No strings attached!"
Shude threw a punch at Feng with all of his strength behind it, but Feng managed to dodge the attack and drove a devastating roundhouse kick into Shude's exposed side! There was the sound of bones breaking accompanying the impact of the kick! Shude coughed up more blood before falling from the sky like a rock! Shude seemed to be helpless to defend himself from any further attack, and Feng charged up a powerful energy blast at the end of his hands and fired it at Shude!
Emiko and Kenji almost cried out in terror, but their cries were caught in their throats as they covered their eyes so they would not witness the horror which was about to ensue! As Feng's blast closed with Shude's plummeting form, a new fighter made his presense felt on the battlefield! The Namek arrived on the scene, catching Shude's limp body in one arm and extending his free hand to fire a powerful blast into Feng's incoming blast! The blasts collided and exploded in mid-air with great fervor! The winds from the explosion blew with gale-force intensity as the explosion obscured everyone's view of the battle!
When everything had subsided, all eyes returned their attention to the battle. The Namek landed on the ground and gently lowered Shude's injured form to the ground with care. Kenji and Emiko were completely astonished at the sight, and the villains were intrigued. The Namek then cast his stern gaze towards Feng.
"Well, well, well. What have we here?" Feng inquired as he regarded the Namek on the ground below him. "You don't look so well. A little green under the gills, I'd say!"
"You talk too much," the Namek rebuked the hulking brute, his countenance one of resolute defiance. "You made a big mistake coming here. Now it's time to pay the piper."
"Who are you?" Kuang inquired demandingly of the Namek warrior with a grimace of building anger within him.
"I am called Yun, and I am a Namek warrior trained in the fighting arts of my people," the Namek replied with unwavering confidence. "Now it's time to end this."
Widening his stance, Yun tensed up his muscles until every vein bulged in his body. With a drawn-out grunt, he began raising his energy for the fight. A pale, flaming energy aura surrounded his body as he powered up for the battle. The remaining scouters of the villains began registering Yun's rising power. Yun continued gathering his strength from within, and small rocks, stones, and pebbles began rising from the ground. After several seconds, his power-up concluded, and the villains were amazed by his power level.
"Power level: eight thousand!" Cong screamed in shock as he gasped in horror at what his scouter detected from Yun. "Unreal!"
"Feng! Take him out now!" Kuang roared to the hulking bruiser in his anger. "He's as strong as that monkey Akira was! Don't toy with him! Just kill him!"
Feng summoned up more of his energy before charging at Yun with a fearsome battle cry! Feng attacked Yun with a flurry of hand-to-hand attacks, but Yun's defensive skills were up to the challenge, enabling the Namek to match the brute move for move! After several seconds of displaying his defensive skills, Yun decided to unleash his offensive prowess upon the cocky brute!
Yun started his attack sequence with a knee strike to the midsection, doubling him over! Yun then slammed an elbow thrust into the side of the head, rocking the brute's head violently! Yun then grabbed him by the wrist and began swinging him around in circles, and Feng began to cry out as he was being swung around in circles! Yun then released Feng's wrist and sent him streaking through the sky like an out-of-control shuttle! Before Feng could regain control of his momentum, Yun intercepted him with a punt-like kick that sent him hurtling in the other direction! Again, Yun intercepted him, this time with a two-fisted smash that knocked Feng to the ground with a crash!
Feng rose from the crater, looking a bit battered and bruised as a result of Yun's attacks, but he wasn't too badly hurt by the attacks! Yun noted this scene with a deep-voiced sigh of comprehension! Feng managed to put a grin back on his face as Kuang, Cong, and Wei looked somewhat relieved at the sight of Feng still up for the fight!
"You're stronger than you look, slug-boy!" Feng taunted the Nameccian warrior Yun as he prepared to attack again. "You're not too shabby a fighter either!"
"Well, you're no slouch either, but just talking about this won't win you this battle!" Yun retorted as he assumed a fighting stance.
"Well, let's just see how you fare against this!" Feng snarled as he drew back both of his hands while charging energy into them. "Sumo zumo!"
Feng launched the multi-shot attack tecnhique at Yun, but the Namek was ready for it! Yun channeled his energy into his hands and began swatting the energy blasts aside as he closed with the burly bruiser! Feng then unleashed his "flames of fury" fire breath attack against Yun, but Yun managed to narrowly evade even that technique! Feng then threw a fist at Yun, but Yun leapt out of the way of that punch and stopped his momentum a great distance away! Yun then stretched out one of his arms and grabbed Feng by the front of his clothing, and then he pulled himself towards Feng by retracting his arm back to normal size, using the momentum of the maneuver to add to the force of the punch he threw with his other hand! The attack rocked Feng's head back, and Yun then drove both feet into Feng's torso, knocking him back across the battlefield again!
With that separation established between them, Yun unleashed his scattershot technique against Feng, a rapid-fire, multi-shot energy attack similar to Feng's sumo zumo attack! Feng crossed his forearms in front of the incoming blasts to protect himself as the scattershot blasts peppered his position! The blasts exploded upon impact with Feng's form for several seconds before Yun ceased his attack technique!
Yun placed one open-palmed hand on top of the back of his other open-palmed hand as he raised them over his head and charged energy around them into one point! The other villains were amazed at this display, and Feng was looking worse for wear after the scattershot attack Yun used on him! Cong began charging an energy blast at the end of his two extended hands as he aimed them towards the sky, and Feng crossed his forearms in front of himself to cover up and defend himself from Yun's next attack!
"Masenko ha!" Yun shouted as he thrust his arms forward and launched the ball of energy towards Feng.
Cong fired his energy blast at Yun's masenko ball as it closed with Feng! The two blasts collided in mid-air, but Yun's masenko ball powered through Cong's blast, losing a little steam on the way to Feng! The masenko ball slammed into Feng and exploded with tremendous force and fervor! When the smoke cleared, Feng had survived, but he was even more battered and pummeled in the aftermath of that attack!
"Well, it looks like your comrade mitigated my masenko ball enough for you to endure it," Yun remarked to Feng with a slight smile. "It doesn't actually help you very much though. It just means that you'll be my punching bag for a little longer. More suffering for you, more enjoyment for me. Not what I'd call a situation to your best interest."
"Cong!" Kuang shouted to his teammate in commanding fashion. "Go up there and help Feng finish that Namek slug!"
"You got it, sir!" Cong answered as he flew up to join his teammates in the battle against the Namek warrior, grimacing in determination as he went.
"Two on one? Doesn't sound like good odds," Yun remarked at the notion of facing both Cong and Feng at the same time, "but that didn't stop your previous opponent from standing up to you. If he could effectively stand up to the four of you, then I will stand against you as well!"
"You fool!" Cong shouted at the Namek warrior. "Feng beat that worthless Zephyrrian into the ground all by himself! What makes you think you can stand up to the two of us attacking you at the same time?!?"
"This!" Yun replied as he tensed himself and let out a drawn-out cry, splitting himself into two Nameks poised for battle.
The villains were amazed and stunned at the revelation of his multiform, or splitform, technique. Yun smiled eagerly as Cong and Feng recomposed themselves. Kuang grimaced in anger and concern.
"Well, gentlemen," one of the two Yun's began, prompting the other of the two to conclude the rhetorical inquiry by asking, "are you ready to begin?"
The two Yun's closed with Cong and Feng and engaged them in hand-to-hand combat, fiercely testing the two villains! Wei then took to the air and tried to attack Yun, but an orange-clad figure intercepted him with a flying side kick to the jaw, knocking Wei to the ground! Wei kipped back up to his feet to look upon the visage of his assailant, the Earth fighter Kenji!
"Not so fast, pal!" Kenji snarled as he took a fighting stance before the villain and thought to himself, "This is probably a really bad idea, and it'll probably get me killed! Why did I have to pick this moment to play the hero? If only Master Roshi was here!"
"You little funny-looking twerp!" Wei hissed at Kenji as he also assumed a fighting stance. "Who are you, and just what do you think you're doing?"
"You've got a lot of nerve calling someone else funny-looking, you freak!" Kenji retorted in his best bravado. "I'm Kenji, and I'm from Earth! I'm just evening up the odds!"
"That's all fine and dandy, you noseless cromedome!" Wei responded to Kenji's bold statements. "If this is how you wish to die, then so be it! Who's gonna save you?"
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me ... much," Kenji replied as he thought that one over just a bit.
"What?" Wei pondered aloud, a look of perplexion coming across his face as he tried to comprehend Kenji's statement, a sentiment shared by Kenji himself.
Can Kenji and Yun put down the evil minions of Frieza, or will it take something more? What part will Emiko play in this confrontation? Will Shude be okay in time to help the others against the bad guys, or will he be out of this one indefinitely? When will Akira be ready to join the battle for Zephyrria? The answers to these and other questions are answered in Chapter 6 of the Zephyrrian Saga!