The ship landed with a final Tchhh, and the door opened to reveal a paradise. The air was pure, filled with the aroma of exotic flowers and wet earth. Huge, vibrant blue trees reached toward a pink sky, dotted with white clouds that drifted lazily by. A stream of crystal-clear water reflected the light of a golden sun. The ki of the inhabitants was the purest I had ever felt, but there was no one strong. To my eyes, it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen... and that is really sad.
Walking down the ramp that extended from the ship to the ground, it was just Vegeta and me. My mother said that only the two of us should go, so we could complete the mission however we wanted. Our feet touched the planet's blue grass, and I took a deep breath.
It's a mission. It's what Frieza sent us to do.
The thought formed in my mind, an excuse I tried to use to justify myself. But the instant the words came, the lie crumbled. I wasn't here for Frieza, or for money, or for King Vegeta. I was here for pleasure, for the promise of a transformation that, if I mastered it, would give me so much more power. The mission was just the excuse for my own satisfaction.
Sigh...
After sighing, I looked at Vegeta and asked, "Well, what now?"
He picked up his scouter. "Let's see where the strongest lifeforms are first."
Beep... beep... beep...
"I found one with 4,000 and two others at 2,500... the rest aren't worth it," Vegeta whispered with a smirk.
Before he even finished speaking, he was already a blur, flying toward the most powerful ki. But I didn't need a scouter to know the location. 'If I'm the lifeform from outside this planet, then am I the alien to them?' I asked myself, ironically. Since I was stronger and faster, I caught up to Vegeta quickly.
"EAT MY DUST, YOU MORON! HAHAHA!" I yelled, zipping past him like a bolt of lightning. With every "ha" that came out of my mouth, I imagined a vein on Vegeta's forehead pulsing with rage.
"Hey! Get behind me, you worm! I saw them first!" Vegeta's voice got fainter and fainter as I pulled away.
Then, an attack was launched. A ki blast flew in my direction. "Are you serious, Vegeta?" I yelled, doing a barrel roll to dodge the attack, which continued forward and hit the forest, carving a path of destruction.
"Yes!" he replied from a distance, his palm pointed at me.
I dodged with a smile, accelerating even more. "What's your deal, you little punk? Can't catch me without cheating?"
"Shut up! I'm the prince, I get to decide who fights first!"
"Prince, my ass! Didn't you say respect is earned with power? I'm already stronger than you, so you don't boss me around, you little prince!" I yelled, looking back and sticking out my tongue.
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, LEEKON!"
The air behind me filled with rage and more ki blasts, but I was already too far ahead to worry. Our race extended for a few seconds until, in the distance, the landscape changed. The blue grass gave way to a vast plain of hard-packed dirt, with enormous buildings of metal and concrete. The military complex was on high alert. The sharp sound of alarms echoed through the air, and hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers with energy weapons poured out of the buildings. In the background, dozens of futuristic war tanks pointed their thick cannons at us.
The soldiers were humanoid praying mantises with blue carapaces and large red eyes, with slender arms that ended in scythes. Their thin fingers held their weapons, and their eyes indicated they would not hesitate to fire.
In front of everyone, with his arms crossed, was a man in a military uniform, a warrior with a power level of 4,000. On his sides were two of his race, with bodies as big and muscular as Nappa's and a power level of 2,500.
Vegeta arrived, huffing. "You... you idiot..." He stopped when he saw the scene, with hundreds of soldiers and tanks pointed at us.
The general yelled, "WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU COME TO DO ON OUR PLANET?"
I simply laughed. "They're all here, Vegeta! We can have some fun before we get to our main targets!"
"IF YOU DON'T ANSWER, WE WILL MARK YOU AS A THREAT AND OPEN FIRE."
I looked at Vegeta, grinned, and created a ki axe in each hand. "Let's clean this place up first and save the best for last."
"Don't be ridiculous, we'll deal with them quickly."
He raised his palm and fired a burst of energy at a tank. The explosion was massive.
"FIRE!" the general screamed.
"Ah, that's no fun, Vegeta. How about this?" I said, in the midst of the rain of "bullets." "Whoever takes out more of them wins, and the loser gets the two guys with 2,500!" I blew up one of the tanks with a ki cut from my axes.
Vegeta couldn't stop laughing. "Deal! I, Prince Vegeta, will not lose to you." Then, the two of us charged forward.
The first enemy I encountered was split in half. It wasn't much different from killing a Saibaman, but the Saibamen were more fun. My axes were used to deflect shots and take down tanks. The battle became a frenetic competition, where purple blood and organs filled the ground. "COME ON, DEFEND YOURSELVES BETTER, I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!" I screamed.
In the middle of the chaos, I cut off a soldier's head, but another came up behind me. He tried to block with a sword, but my ki axe was much more powerful and sliced both the sword and his body in half.
When I turned to look at the damage I'd caused, I saw him: "Damn it... that was the guy with 4,000..."
After half an hour, the base was completely destroyed, with smoke and soot rising into the air. "Relax, Vegeta, it was an accident!" I said, gesturing to the heads of the two 2,500 men and the torso of the 4,000 one, all on top of a pile of bodies.
I had been trying to explain this to him for 10 minutes. "That doesn't make a difference, you lunatic! We had a deal!" Vegeta said, grabbing the collar of my shirt.
Argh...
I pushed him away. "It's not my fault the old guy was weak and the others jumped on me like idiots."
Vegeta ground his teeth. "I already told you that doesn't make a difference, that fight was mine!"
"Alright, Vegeta, we can't waste time on this. The main reason we came here is for the training with the Oozaru transformation. Let's not waste time arguing, and there's still a lot of the planet left to conquer."
He stared at me with eyes full of hatred, but he knew I was right. The conquest of the planet involved the total elimination of the population.
"Fine, Leekon," he said, his voice now cold and calculating. "We'll split the planet. I'll take the northern part from our position. You take the southern part. We'll see who masters the transformation first. And the winner won't forget who caused the problem in the first place, will they?"
I smiled. "Deal, Vegeta. But don't be surprised when I finish and come help you clean up your half."
Without another word, Vegeta shot into the sky, disappearing in a blur toward the north. I turned to the south, feeling the ki of millions of lives. A new smile formed on my face, and the final hunt was about to begin. I raised my right hand like Majin Buu and unleashed hundreds of millions of ki attacks aimed at all the ki signatures I felt in my half. The ki attacks began to fall like rain, a rain brought by the grim reaper himself, eradicating millions of lives at once.
"Vegeta, you will never beat me at anything again."
some minutes before:
Argh...
I let out a groan as I stretched in my office chair, spreading my arms wide and arching my back.
Crack, crack, crack.
The sound of my bones popping could be heard by the colleagues in the small cubicles next to me. In that office, each cubicle was simple, with a computer, a few personal items, and many, many papers. But since it was already very late, few people were there.
"Oh, Mirpo, you're finally finished? Congrats, that took a very long time, didn't it?"
I looked at the owner of the voice, one of the few people who were still there, but the most special one. Vera, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life, leaned out of her cubicle, holding one of my hands with both of hers, congratulating me.
Ah, she is the most beautiful to ever set foot on this planet. Her celestial-blue skin shimmers as if it were a star itself, and her giant, red eyes are like two precious jewels that enchant and hypnotize me. Her antennae are so delicate, moving with an elegance that makes me smile just from watching.
And her body... ah, it's so perfect. The way she moves, with the lightness of a constant dance, is a harmony of movements that fascinates me. I could spend infinite hours just to admire her, the most beautiful of all Thraxan women. Yeah, I love her.
Click...
"Mirpo?" Vera's head tilted as she called my attention. "Are you okay? You didn't overwork yourself, did you?" she said as she placed one of her hands on my chest, trying to feel my heart beat, while the other still held my hand. "Why is it so fast?"
Regaining my composure, I tried to come up with an excuse: "Ye-yes, I'm great, Vera, don't worry. It's just... it was 30 hours of work in a row to finish this project. I had to drink a lot of energy drinks, so that's why my heart is so fast, haha." I said, smiling and scratching the back of my head with my free hand.
"30 HOURS STRAIGHT? That idiot boss, giving you so much work, he must be trying to kill you," she said, finally taking her hands off me and placing them on her own thin, delicate waist, making a face of indignation. But after thinking for a moment, she looked at me even more outraged and pressed her finger into my chest.
"And you, you idiot, wanting to do everything by yourself! You know you can always ask me for help whenever you need it."
"Vera, I promise that next time I'll ask for your help," I said, smiling and raising both hands in surrender.
Her gaze softened at my words, and she asked in a hopeful tone, "You promise?"
"I promise," I said with the most sincere smile I could form.
And she rewarded me with the most radiant smile that could ever exist. I would kill anyone here just to be able to see that whenever I wanted. And I really want to ask her out, but... why is it so hard? It's just a matter of opening my mouth and saying it, but the words always get stuck in my throat. I've tried so many times, but I've never been able to. We've been coworkers for 6 months. I can't waste any more time.
But what's the worst that could happen? She could say no? Yes, she could laugh. She could think I'm an idiot, and what if she's just a nice, gentle girl and never had any interest in me that way? But... what if she says yes? And what if she feels the same? What if she's been waiting for this?
I can't live with that 'what if...' I need to know. Our race doesn't live that long, I can't die with this regret.
Looking at her, I saw doubt in her eyes, so I shook my head as hard as I could. Seeing me do that, Vera was slightly startled. "What was that all of a sudden?"
"Vera," I said, now more serious, "I... I have something I want to ask you."
I took her hands in mine, which she didn't resist. Looking into her eyes, I gathered all the courage I could and said, "Vera, I like you a lot... a lot, more than anything in the world. I was wondering if you would want to go on a date with me."
She looked at me with wide eyes. "Just like that, out of nowhere? I... I..."
Damn it, did I overdo it? Was it too abrupt? Is she going to say no? I looked down with my eyes closed, expecting the worst. Then I heard something.
Splash...
Did someone spill liquid on the floor? When I opened my eyes, I was still looking down. A dark purple liquid, the color of blood, was pooling on the floor.
"VERA, YOU..."
"..."
"..."
Gulp...
When my eyes finally traveled up her body, from her blood-stained legs to her also stained torso, to where her heart should have been, there was a baseball-sized hole. The sound from before was her choking on her own blood. Then, she staggered and fell on top of me, but I still held her up.
Gulp... "M-mir... Y-yes..." Gulp...
She tried to whisper something in my ear, but her voice was too broken, too low for me to understand.
"VERA, MY GOD!!!"
Splash... My chest was also pierced, and I, who was the only thing still supporting her, fell as well. Our two bodies were now sprawled on the floor, one beside the other, with our blood mixing.
Our hands, still holding each other, slowly lost the strength that had joined them. My last thought was: 'I'll never know...'
Power Levels
Leekon:52,730 (after intense training and constant fights)
Vegeta:45,349 (after intense training and constant fights)
Vanie:9,230 (after some training with Vegeta and Leekon)
Nappa:6,340 (after some training with Vegeta and Leekon)