Night out

Another day had passed. Another day since the Queen’s squad left for Arcose and still didn’t come back. Another day since Kaula announced that she would leave Planet Vegeta to its own fate to protect a freaking island on that god forsaken planet called Earth. Another day since Natto pathetically lost to Kaula due to being caught off guard and unprepared to that fearsome attack, the Kikoho, just after he had unlocked his super saiyan transformation. The bitter taste of defeat still lingered on his mouth and made him angry and disappointed, and that disappointment would only grow as the time passed, the clock tickled and not the Queen nor Kaula came back home, to their home planet, to the heart of the Saiyan Solar Empire. He was alone, shouldering the burden of commanding the Stationary Defense Army, the burden of judging the criminals that appeared every day, having to take care not to be too soft, but also having to watch himself not to become the merciless and ruthless saiyan he despised.

”How much longer will this war on Arcose last?! And if it’s so difficult, why didn’t they call for reinforcements?! I know we cannot mobilize too many people to go to war, since it would leave the planet vulnerable… But it has been more than a month and there’s no sign of them coming back…” he sighed, rolling to the side of his bed, inside the crew quarters of the Star Javelin, his Royal Spaceship that soon would become the headquarter of Natto’s Force, the new elite squad he formed with Aspa and Tomoroko. Natto was once again unable to sleep, as his mind was too busy thinking about tons of stuff. He took a deep breath and turned around again, now with lying on top of his back, staring at the ceiling of the spaceship. ”And no signal of that little traitor…” he frowned his eyebrows as he thought about Kaula.

The image of his fight with her took over his mind. He fired his Super Spirit Cannon against that terrible technique and, even though he was also power weighted, his attack was overpowered by Kaula’s Kikoho. ”If only I could have fired my Final Spirit Cannon… No… The result would still be the same… Her attack would defeat mine… There’s something weird about that technique… It’s like… I mean… She didn’t even charge it, and it came with much more power than she had… Just like that! In the blink of an eye…” he sighed with frustration as he remembered how badly injured he got after being hit by the attack, that opened a square-shaped hole in the ground. ”If I hadn’t power weighted myself… I might have been able to dodge that attack… Trying to overpower the Kikoho is stupid… It has to be avoided, but it is too fast too… It has to be a way to defeat such a technique… I just have to think it through! I cannot be defeated by it again when we have our rematch… And we will have it! Even if I have to go to that damn Earth to beat her to the pulp!” he sighed again, feeling a vein popping out on his left temple, as he got angry with his own thoughts.

Natto touched his temple and massaged it with his index and middle finger for a while, closing his eyes as he tried to get rid of the anger that was building up inside of him. Truth be told, the young saiyan was too stressed. He never wanted to be the Commander-in-Chief of the Saiyan Solar Empire! It was never supposed to be his job! He was not even on the queen’s plans when she left the Planet onto Kaula’s care. Back then he had just been promoted to Elite, and was one of the weakest of them all, and now he was leading everyone. ”I would rather be training at the wasteland by myself… Or spending some time together with Tomoroko… This position is draining my energy like crazy… I’ve never felt this way before… it’s like… it’s like I’m personally responsible for the lives and fate of every member of the Empire…” Natto took a deep breath as he gave up on trying to sleep. He got up the bed, sitting on its corner and grabbed a bottle of water he left near it before laying down. He drank a few gulps before putting it back on the floor beside the bed.

”I don’t even know if I care about Virtual Poi attacking anymore… I won’t be able to destroy that android… I will only be able to buy some time… Well… Screw that!” he snorted, angrily as he finally got up from his bed and walked towards the door of his ship. He pressed the button and opened its door and, silently, he took flight towards one of the windows on the spaceship hangar. He didn’t flare his ki aura yet as he didn’t want anyone to notice that he was leaving. He also suppressed his power level as much as he could, since he wanted it to be quite stealthy. Natto wanted to be alone, he wanted to take a break from the palace, from the politics, from the tension of impending war and also from the anger he felt towards the people who left him alone to take care of the Planet.

The young saiyan warrior smiled as he reached the dark skies of Vegeta. The wind was blowing as he flew without his aura, messing his already disheveled black hair. The cool breeze was quite pleasant, especially because he wasn’t wearing his battle suit. Being bare chested and bare footed on the night sky was amazing. ”I can never get tired of this place… This planet… It is worth protecting!” a subtle smile appeared on his face. He really loved and enjoyed his planet and actually found it rather beautiful; red was his favorite color, and Vegeta’s skies were pretty much red during the day. The wastelands had its kind of beautiful, with the rocky cliffs and mountains painting quite a scenery on the landscape of the red planet.

He was heading towards the oasis on the eastern part of the central wasteland, the very same place where he found his significant other, Tomoroko, for the first time. He loved that place, and it was one of the spots that he visited often. As he landed there, he headed straight into the water pond there, jumping inside of it to take a good and cold shower. – Ohhh! Cold! Cold! Cold! Hahahaha! – he laughed as he swam around the water, diving for a while, stretching his body and, after a while, he let his body float on the water while staring at the stars above. ”I want to travel across the universe… I want to know more places… I want to take Tomoroko with me and explore… Fight some nice battles… Enjoy some awesome moments, stare at amazing sights… With her by my side… I could do anything! Hahaha…” he thought to himself, feeling the heavy burden on his shoulder to slowly diminish. He knew, deep inside, that he still had a lot of responsibilities, but, for now, it didn’t matter. He had to recharge his energies in order to be able to keep on moving on with the role he had.

After a while floating on the water pond of the oasis, it was starting to get uncomfortable, since it was rather cold. Places like Planet Vegeta that was pretty much a wasteland tended to get rather could at night, while being really hot during the day. Natto swam towards the board of the water bond, getting out of the water. As he got out, he flared his ghostly-white ki aura all around his body, which worked pretty well as a drier. – Now that’s handy! Hehehe! – he chucked a bit as he dried himself up. Then, Natto walked towards a tree and sit beneath it, breathing deeply as he stared at the cliffs on the horizon, far away into the center of the wasteland. ”And after travelling a lot, we would come back… I would miss Vegeta. I’ve been far away from it for too long… And even though Felucia wasn’t a really nice planet to live at, it was bearable due to its people… Argavat, on the other hand was a hellish place…” as he remembered about Argavat, he touched his left cheek, seeing some images on his head about the time he spent on that terrible planet.

Natto, 13 years old. Power Level: 2.400

”Dammit! One hundred times dammit! They are after me! At this rhythm they are going to kill me!!” tension was all over the young saiyan kid, as he ran away, in between the buildings of a now wrecked town. The shoulder pad on his battle suit was destroyed and his shoulder bleeding, meaning that he wouldn’t be able to use his left arm again anytime soon. His left cheek was also deeply injured and the lone scar now had company, forming a very deep cross-shaped scar on his face that was bleeding quite a lot. ”Why did they do that?! Those bastards! I spared them!!” he tried to understand what was going on, as tears ran down his face.

He wasn’t crying only because he was in pain and scared to die, he was also crying because he was feeling somehow betrayed.

A week ago, Natto had attacked this city, where he managed to wipe out most of their warriors. After that, the male argavatians fought against him, trying to put up a fight. It was tough but he managed to defeat them all within two long days of battle, leaving the city with nothing but its women and children. Due to their unique biology, the female argavatians were unable to fight. They didn’t even have limbs, being something like a tentacle type of weird creature. Natto decided to spare them, and gave them a chance to escape the city, which led him to make it some sort of refuge to himself. It was good enough since it still had quite a lot of food, and a good source of water nearby. However, his peace was short lived, as, after only five days another army – a very strong one this time – came to fight the invader, guided by the women he spared earlier.

For some time he thought that they would be grateful for having their lives spared, and that was a win win situation, since Natto didn’t like slaughtering people. However, that proved to be a terrible mistake, since it was already the second time he had spared the women and children, only to have a large force pinpointing his location and coming to fight him with full strength. This made things really tough, and put him into some dire situation.

– The devil is around the area! Kill it with fire!!! – the argavatian screamed as they searched the area for Natto. The young saiyan kid was hiding on the rooftop of one of the buildings, amidst the wrecks of it. The argavatians couldn’t fly, but they had guns and he was too injured to be able to try and escape by flying. If he was to be hit by a volley of shots, this could kill him for sure. ”Dammit! My only chance is to fight my way out, with a hit and run sort of tactic… It is still too risky, but that’s pretty much all I’ve got…” he thought, wiping his tears and blood from his face with the back of his formerly black-colored wristband. Some of the argavatians, a group of three were getting to the roof where Natto was hiding, and he waited patiently for them.

They arrived with two of them carrying energy guns and another one with a sharp spear. ”I have to take the guns out first!” and with that thought, he keeled over the floor, surprising them. As he stood back up, he fired two swift ki blasts, destroying both the guns. It startled the argavatians for enough time, so that he could focus on the one using the spear. The alien charged at the saiyan kid, but Natto was able to dodge his trust and rush forward, landing a powerful flying roundhouse kick to his head, that broke his neck within an instant. Immediately after the kick, he flew towards the other argavatian and sledgehammered him towards the ground, piercing right through it. Natto grimaced as he did that, since he committed a terrible mistake.

– He is up there! – Another argavatian screamed from down below. ”Crapbaskets!” he cursed himself, but he had no time to waste. Twisting his body, he charged at the last argavatian before he could even react and landed a powerful elbow strike to his temple, breaking his skull and killing him. After that the young saiyan kid ran across the rooftop and jumped towards another. The squad below fired against him, but he was too quick; the adrenalin surge on his body made him able to forget the pain of his injures and to be able to keep on pushing forward in order to survive. He had to survive, and he had to harden himself… His merciful side was going to get him killed at that rhythm, since it was already the second time he managed to get ambushed for sparing people. ”I cannot make the same mistake again…” he frowned his eyebrows and gritted his teeth, feeling completely angry with himself for being so foolish.

”They are not like Sugoro and Sukogoro… They are NOTHING like the felucians! They are devils! Just like papa said… Aliens are our enemies! They will kill us even if we are kind to them, because they hate us! Why do they hate us?! We just want to survive and protect our Empire…” he cried again, as his child’s mind was unable to read in between the lines and see that the stories his father, Douchi, told him were only half-truths and the best side of the truth for the saiyans.

There were still about twelve argavatians on the city, more than enough to kill Natto if they were to attack him all at once, but they were also scarred, they didn’t know they could kill him for sure, so they hesitate on going into an all-out attack, since he had killed the rest eighty eight of them. The platoon of one hundred men being taken out by a single saiyan child just reassured their fear and hatred towards the saiyans.

The anger started building up inside that gentle and naïve saiyans heart, and he started to actually believe everything his father said. He had to protect the saiyans from the evil aliens. The felucians were an exception. Most of the aliens were evil and had to be destroyed; otherwise they would destroy the saiyans. It was their fault that the saiyans were so evil and ruthless, since they had to become like that in order to survive. If it wasn’t for the damn aliens, the saiyans would be a much nicer and kinder race. They would still be fierce warriors, but not slaughters and murderers. Natto blamed them now, and they had to pay for that, not out of revenge, but in order to be able to restore the peace to Vegeta, and let the ruthless in the saiyans heart to slowly fade away. The youngster couldn’t be more wrong about the reasons of the saiyans being like they wore, but that lie… His father’s lie… Was a strong tool in making a saiyan with so much potential, but with an antagonizing personality, to fight for the saiyans and the Solar Empire. Most lies are told in order to induce someone to do something they naturally wouldn’t and then act in the best interest of the lier.

Don’t get the wrong idea… Douchi wasn’t an evil person. He was a little kinder than most saiyans, but was still a full-fledged saiyan warrior, that was proud and loved to battle and to taste the blood of his enemies. He liked that his kid wasn’t a ferocious animal, but he also knew that, if Natto was to betray the saiyans, he would have to kill him himself, and he didn’t want that. So, in order to avoid having to do such a terrible thing, it was best to lie and create an illusion inside the kid’s head that would adapt and evolve with time, being part of his own central motivation on his life.

The choice of Argavat was also made with that goal in mind. To be facing such terrible creatures, with nothing but bloodlust and cruelty on their hearts would make Douchi’s claims to become truth.

Back to the present time, the adult Natto sighed with that memory. Somehow his will of travelling through the space to visit and discover new places vanished. The universe was a cruel place, filled with evil aliens that hated the saiyans. To go there would probably mean battles to the death and not some pleasant vacation with his significant other, and there was another thing. ”There’s also that planet… The one that Tomoroko nearly died at… We will have to go there eventually…” he frowned his eyebrows with a thoughtful expression. ”With my current power I think it would be really easy for me to wipe those bastards out… And I would love to do that since they killed a saiyan squad and nearly killed Tomo! If the succeeded I would have never met het, and I cannot forgive them for that! But…” he sighed with his own thoughts. ”But I have to let her do it… It’s her revenge and I know she wouldn’t forgive me if I took the matter into my own hands… She is a proud saiyan warrior after all, it already bothers her the fact that she cannot protect me…” Natto laid down on the barely grassy sand, with both his hands on the back of his head. ”If I were to avenge her myself, it could shake our relationship… I have no right to do that… The only thing I can do is go with her to make sure she won’t get hurt…” he took a deep breath.

”And there I thought that a night out would let me rest my mind… This is troublesome… I should get some sleep at least, that way I won’t be thinking about anything…” he decided. And with that, Natto closed his eyes, falling asleep beneath the tree near the oasis.

At least his night of sleep was a pleasant one, and he woke up on the other day with a rather good mood.