Post by Pin on Aug 30, 2017 3:00:37 GMT
The Radditsu Spaceport was alive with the sounds of import and export, of travel and transport. Not as handsome or prestigious as the Cacumber Capital Spaceport, but rather more pedestrian, the Radditsu Spaceport was amongst the busiest of its ilk on the planet. It was this constant movement that enticed Pin to continue docking there with his Pixie Blue, even though he could likely requisition a private terminal in the Capital. This was like home to him, and it was also where he could keep his thumb on the pulse of his business. He was a loyal servant of the empire, but he was also a bounty hunter. Just because his White List failed didn’t mean he’d hung up his hunting gear.
This day, however, was uncharacteristically slow. The Pixie was in top condition, and there were no inspections being done by Saiyan customs officials. Nobody was coming to him with tips or jobs. It was just slow. So Pin was left to sit in his office, pretending to relax while his mind wandered to busier - if less pleasant - times.
He considered the recent battle at the Palace, with the android Vi-Poi attempting to wrest control of the empire from its people. The woman he’d fought, Tulip, had mentioned an old foe, Kizuki. The name alone got Pin’s pistons firing with a heady mix of fury and excitement. Kizuki had been the first real opponent Pin had fought. Sure, he’d been in fights before then but in pretty much all cases those battles had been decided before they even began. While Kizuki had outclassed him, Pin hadn’t been an easy conquest for the apparently ancient Saiyan. But Kizuki had expressed...opinions. Opinions that were anathema to Pin’s view of the world, and of the Saiyan race as a whole. In Pin’s mind, you were either loyal to the Empire, or you were a traitor. Sure, exceptions could be made for Saiyans not born and raised on Vegeta, but even then there was a thin line between ignorance and race betrayal.
His mind did not linger long on Kizuki, however. That had been a battle he would not forget, but it was another traitor that he would always come back to: Mizuna. His ‘mother’. Mizuna had always been obsessed with the pursuit for strength and she nearly fetishized powerful warriors - something she shared in common with Tulip Waterfield - and it was that obsession that had possessed her to murder Pin’s ‘father’ and leave the Empire behind, pursuing her own strength and goals on the fringes of Saiyan society.
Pin hadn’t always known that about Mizuna, of course. Until fairly recently, he’d only known her to be a murderer who’d hated his very being - a trait she shared with Kizuki. It wasn’t until the day before he vanished from the Empire’s ranks without so much as a post-it note on the throneroom door that he started to learn more about the woman he disparagingly called ‘mom’.
____________________________________________________________
It was an awful, hot, muggy day in the Radditsu district when Granzel, the blue-skinned smuggler Pin had become close with, came to the Pixie with a computer tablet in hand and a distressed look on his face.
“Pin,” he said, foregoing his usual shitty nicknames, “I, uh...I got something you might wanna see.”
Pin looked up from a small stack of paperwork, some administrative garbage for the White List. He put down his pen and stood up from his chair. He approached his friend and held out his hand, assuming the tablet was for him.
“What’s up? A new hunt?” Pin asked, hoping it was something worth his time. He’d been finding himself low on that particular commodity.
“S...something like that,” Granzel said, handing the tablet to his android buddy. “You know how you told me to keep an eye out for any noteworthy reports of outlaw women?”
Pin didn’t respond. He’d already started the video playback on the device, and he watched as a Saiyan woman of savage strength, accompanied by a group of other warriors, dismantled a group of workers on what looked to be some sort of mining operation. It wasn’t until the battle was over that they noticed the camera recording them, and the woman got right up close to the lens. She grinned, and spoke.
“Hey babe,” she said, “Looks like somebody’s watchin’. Wanna say anything to the adoring audience?”
She backed up, and behind her was a very large, very muscular Saiyan man. His chest was striped with scars and his tail was tatty and crooked. He grinned with a mouth of yellow teeth that had apparently been filed down to points before speaking in a deep, gravelly voice.
“Keep an eye out, folks. You high an’ mighty fucks in the Capital are gonna be hearin’ from me and my bois real soon.”
The woman laughed, and in a flash of light the recording stopped. Pin stared at the screen, gripping the tablet tight in his mechanical hands.
“Don’t tell me…” Granzel said. His voice shook, but only slightly.
“Mother,” Pin said, and his grip shattered the tablet’s screen.
*****
Moments later, Pin was fueling up the Pixie and running pre-launch diagnostics while Granzel tried in vain to calm him down.
“What do we know about these people?” Pin asked.
“Not a lot. The dude at the end, with the filed-down teeth? He’s apparently some bigtime fringe warlord named Daicon. He’s been gathering outlaws and pirates for the last couple of years, word is he’s planning on building an army, but nobody really knew why,” Granzel said, “I guess, until now.”
“So this guy wants to be king,” Pin said.
“Seems like it.”
“And we don’t know where this footage came from?”
“Sadly no, it was obtained in a major datamining operation a few weeks ago, a couple of hackers were trying to pull some corporate financial info but came away some some security feeds. When they watched this one they passed it over to a couple of guys who knew a couple of guys who knew I was looking for this sort of thing.”
“I knew I kept you around for something.” Pin clapped his friend on the back, unhooking the fuel feed from the Pixie and finalizing the diagnostics.
“Hey, listen,” Granzel said, “Is there any version of this in which you maybe don’t chase this lead?”
“Stupid question.”
“Is there at least a version where you value your own well-being over your crusade?”
“I’m a machine, so…”
“Yeah well you’d best hope that fuckin’ mining platform’s got wi-fi or something. One day you’re gonna come up against a brick wall with no way to upload that stubborn attitude of yours.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“And when that happens I’m gonna take all your shit and sell it off. I’m gonna get fat off the pickings of your wasted ass.”
“I get it, I get it.”
“Good. Now fuckin’ get out there and unleash some hell.”
Pin nodded, stepped into the Pixie, and took a seat in the cockpit. Granzel watched from the outside as the engines roared to life, and the ship began to lift off from the ground. He remembered the day Pin got his hands on the Pixie, what a miserable pile of bolts it had been. Just like the android himself, that ship was entirely different now. Stronger, faster, more dangerous. He hoped it would be enough to keep his friend safe.
****
It was days before anything interesting showed up on the Pixie’s radar. It had been nothing but commuter craft and merchant vessels, peppered by the occasional Imperial cruiser doing patrol. Pin pressed on, hoping that the further he came from the heart of the Saiyan Empire, the greater his chances of finding some scumbag pirates or an amateur smuggler. Hell, even a black market trade envoy would have been worth his time. Finally, that was exactly what he got - only it was not just some small envoy, some little cosmic puddlejumper craft meant to dock with freighters and peddle stolen wares.
This was a fucking space station.
Pin had heard rumors of the existence of the Total Eclipse, a renegade space station for black market dealings and underhanded business of all kinds. This place was a scumbag’s playground, a scoundrel’s paradise. If the stories were true, you could buy just about anything in this place, if you had the right currency. Pin opened a communications channel, hailing the station.
“Saiyan Freighter, what is your designation?” came a voice over the receiver. There was music playing in the background - the sort of generic, exciting music you hear at a casino.
“This is the Pixie Blue, registered to the White List, transmitting the appropriate credentials now. Please advise if clear.”
“Pixie Blue, you are cleared for landing. Welcome to the Eclipse, Lammergeier.”
Pin was glad that the reputation of his fledgeling Mercenary operation preceded him, rather than his personal reputation as an enforcer for the Empire. He still had a desire to move freely through these underground spaces, and being too closely linked to the law of this particular sector of galactic space might hinder that desire just a bit.
He guided the Pixie into the station’s docking bay, bringing her down gently onto the landing pad. As the magnetic locking mechanisms fell into place, he unboarded from the ship and was greeted by a smaller, somewhat less sophisticated robot.
“Welcome,” it said in a tinny, jovial tone, “I am Luna-Seventeen. I will be your automated escort during your time on the Total Eclipse. How may I best direct your business today?”
“Happy to be here L-17. I’m looking for some information today.”
“Wonderful, what sort of information are you looking to purchase?”
“Lookin’ for a guy named Daicon. I think he may be holed up in a-”
“Processing.”
Pin grimaced. He didn’t like being interrupted.
“One match found. Follow me, I will lead you to the appropriate information broker. This way, please. This way.”
The smaller robot rolled away from Pin, away from the Pixie and further into the space station. Pin followed closely, though he suspected that Luna-Seventeen would stop and wait for him if he fell too far behind. This place must have pulled in quite a bit of money if they had this sort of internal infrastructure. He was more than a little impressed.
Inside the station was like nothing Pin had ever seen. Equal parts casino, shopping mall, and theme park, there were bright lights and loud sounds, with people of every species mingling in one way or another. In one corner, a Konatsian exchanged money with a Saiyan, who handed him a small nondescript parcel. In another, a Brenchian prostitute was giving a Zoanthrope her best sales pitch. It was almost comical, how openly this much illegal activity was on display, with no legal repercussions. Pin wondered what the security force looked like.
Down a hall, up one floor in a very fancy elevator, and three doors to the right, and Pin and L-17 were standing in front of a kiosk, behind which sat the skinniest Majin Pin had ever seen. The Majin stirred a cup of hot chocolate with a stick of Arcosian Cinnamon languidly. A short cigar sat between his lips - Pin could smell the orange and vanilla flavoring in the smoke.
“We have arrived. Feel free to commence business,” said Luna-Seventeen.
“Now what is this sweet thing that’s come walking through my door, Sugar?” said the Majin in a long, slow drawl. He raised an eyebrow at Pin, looking at him like others might eye a dessert.
“I’m looking for some information,” Pin said, choosing not to indulge the Majin, “About a man named Daicon.”
“Why would you wanna know about a guy like him, Sugar?” the Majin asked, his voice like thick, dripping honey.
“I’m lookin’ for him. I owe him something.”
“You owe him? Why do I get the feeling we ain’t talkin about a cash debt, Sugar?”
“What I owe is none of your concern. I hear he’s holed up on an asteroid mining platform, gathering pirates to his cause. Is there any truth to this?”
“There might be, but I don’t give nothin’ away for free. That should have been obvious walkin in here, Sugar.”
“Name your price, then. I’m on the clock.”
“I could tell you were all business by the way you walked in here. Fine by me, we all gotta make a little dough. I’ll tell you everything I know, but then you gotta do somethin for me, Sugar.”
“What then? A murder? A heist?”
“You,” said the Majin, leaning forward and beckoning for Pin to lean in closer. He did. “Need to GET. ME. OUTTA HERE, SUGAR.”
As the Majin finished his statement, he raised up the hand he’d not been using to stir his drink. It had been under a blanket, which Pin had assumed was just for comfort and luxury, but now understood. It had been hiding the chain and shackle that had held the Majin in place. It was at that time that Pin heard a high-pitched whining from behind him. Dodging on instinct, Pin got out of the way of an energy blast just in time. It destroyed the Majin’s kiosk, revealing that the poor bastard was in fact chained to the floor. Pin looked back to see Luna-Seventeen, having unfurled into a much larger, spider-like machine with a series of laser cannons mounted at various angles.
“Huh. So that’s what security looks like.”
Pin drew his pistol and returned fire, putting a few blaster shots into L-17’s eye cameras, and one into its main cannon. He hadn’t neutralized the thing, but he’d thrown it off its game heavily and it was now firing its smaller weapons indiscriminately, hitting the walls, the floor, pretty much everything but Pin and the Majin. It even severed the Majin’s chain. Pin and the Majin looked at each other, nodded, and made a dash for the door. With any luck, they could get to the docking bay and out of this place before the alarm was fully raised.
“What’s your name, Sugar?” the Majin asked.
“Pin. You?” Pin replied.
“Lucose. Thanks for the assist, Sugar.”
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“Saying what, Sugar?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I don’t understand, Sugar.”
“Ugh,” Pin shook his head, recalling an Earth joke about some dumb sport for losers, “Third base…”
The two ran for the elevator, and at the very moment the doors opened to reveal two more Luna robots in full combat mode, the lights turned red and a claxon echoed through the station. So much for luck. Pin didn’t hesitate, and rushed in with his pistol and Aranea Module arms, blasting and smashing the two droids before they could properly respond. Lucose stood, dumbfounded, watching the violence unfold. The Majin himself had never been much of a fighter, and after languishing in his cell here on the Eclipse, he was certainly no better off in a scrap.
Once the robots were dispatched, Lucose joined Pin on the elevator and they rode it to the main floor. As the doors were preparing to open, Pin looked at Lucose and spoke quickly and quietly.
“This is gonna be a shitshow. If you can’t fight, just stick tight to me. I’ll clear a path to the hangar,” he said.
“How do you know you can pull it off, Sugar?”
“Because,” Pin said, smiling beneath his helmet, “I’m the closest thing to a Super Saiyan on this heap.”
As the doors slid open, Pin deployed his shoulder cannon. He was prepared for the worst - an army of spider robots, armed to the teeth, all on high alert. He was prepared to blow a hole in the hull if he had to. He was fairly certain Lucose would survive if he did. But Pin could not have been prepared for what he saw in the main lobby of the building.
It was chaos. The spider robots were everywhere, to be sure, but they weren’t waiting for Pin and Lucose to come out of the elevator. Rather, they were crawling all over the lobby fighting with the guests! The Brenchian prostitute from earlier kicked through the steel carapace of one droid, while her Zoanthrope john smashed another with his elbow. The Saiyan and Konatsian, their deal complete, now worked in harmony to reduce a small group of the things to slag with fire and ki. It was bedlam, and the robots were losing.
“Well, fuck,” Pin said, “Plan B - BOOK IT!”
Pin took off running back the way he’d come, towards the hangar, followed closely by Lucose. He fired the occasional blaster shot and even discharged his shoulder cannon once, but it was always just to clear the path. To fully engage here would be a mistake. This wasn’t a hunt, it was an escort mission.
It wasn’t long before they broke through the lobby and into the hangar. Here, more battles were underway, and one group of criminals had even gotten into their ship and were mowing down Luna robots with their onboard cannons. Pin didn’t stop to admire, there was no time. He made a beeline for the Pixie, opening the cargo bay as he approached. He and Lucose got onto the ship, and moments later they were up and away and out into space.
“I can’t believe that worked, Sugar,” Lucose said, out of breath and smiling. Pin poured them both a glass of Kabochan Redbreast.
“I had it under control,” Pin said with a hint of humor in his voice. He took off his helmet, revealing his golden mohawk.
“You! You ARE a Super Saiyan, Sugar!”
“Not quite. But maybe one day. Now, about Daicon…”
****
The Pixie approached the asteroid, the only one of its kind in this entire belt. It was predicted to be rich with rare minerals and ore, and so the Empire had set up a mining platform. This mining platform, in its heyday, had been a state of the art facility with the best equipment, highly trained staff, and constant support from the homeworld. However, as production had started to dry up, so too did that support until finally, the mining station was so sparsely manned and so far from the Empire’s list of priorities that when Daicon and his pirates attacked and took over, it went pretty much entirely unnoticed. It had been months, and there was no response from the Empire, not even from the company that owned the station. It had been written off as an acceptable loss.
Pin had dropped Lucose off on Shikk. The Majin had apparently made some connections with that planet’s organized crime, and would be able to reintegrate easily. Before parting, he’d given over every piece of information he’d had about Daicon, including his location and a recent headcount of his small, but growing forces.
Pin landed on the far side of the asteroid, not wanting to give himself away too soon. He’d considered just rolling in and shooting up the place, but without any intel on the overall power capabilities of Daicon and his men, it was better to go in quietly and get a better feel for the situation. Pin approached from the ground, laying eyes on the tent encampment that the pirates had set up outside the mining station’s main building. When he arrived, they were mostly asleep. He made short work of their few sentinels, who would have made decent soldiers for the Empire with a little more training. Instead, they were now mediocre fertilizer for a rock with no plant life. However, before Pin could dispatch all of the sleeping pirates, one of them was roused from his sleep and sounded the alarm.
They woke, and surrounded him, each armed with some sort of improvised weapon - a chain, a pipe, a sharp bit of metal. They came at him one at a time, as if their only combat training had been watching movies. Pin dispatched each efficiently and brutally, not once discharging his pistol.
Just as Pin had thinned the ranks to single digits, a voice called from the doorway of the main building.
“OI! Who the fuck do you think you are?” came the gruff voice of Daicon, baring his filed-down teeth. “You done killed me bois!”
“Wait a minute,” came a smoother, more feminine voice from within the building. Out stepped Mizuna, Pin’s mother, a cleaver as long as she was tall strapped to her back. “I know that armor. Didn’t I hire you to break my ex’s doll?”
Pin was reminded of his first real battle. He’d fought a bounty hunter, sent by Mizuna, for his life. He’d fought and he’d won, and he’d taken the hunter’s armor and flight suit as his prize.
“Not quite,” Pin said, drawing his pistol and putting a shot directly into Daicon’s eye. “Mother.”
Daicon dropped, screaming and grabbing at his eye. How he’d survived that shot is still a mystery to Pin, but it didn’t matter. He was watching Mizuna’s face drop like a ton of bricks with the realization of who he was. Had she thought her hunter successful? Had she thought Pin truly dead? Good. He was happy to haunt her from beyond the grave.
Mizuna drew her cleaver from her back with a long, sweeping motion - one that felled Daicon as he struggled to get back up. Pin twirled his pistol casually around his trigger finger. Behind his helmet he grimaced, but he wouldn’t let her see that. Instead, he would only project the casual confidence that had aided him so many times on his hunts. Showing her any fear would only make her happy. He didn’t want her to enjoy this.
She came at him, bringing that enormous cleaver to bear with surprising speed and force. Pin pulled back, dodging her first slash with panicked luck, but quickly caught his senses. He could tell immediately that she was nothing like the rest of these pirate punks. Her attacks were vicious and brutal, but each swing was calculated and thought out. On top of that, she could fly - which Pin found out when he first took to the sky to try and make some distance. He fired at her with his pistol while using his metal tentacles to keep her at bay. It became clear that she was charging her blade with ki when she used it to deflect Pin’s energy blasts harmlessly off to the side - a stray shot hitting the support beam of a watchtower, bringing it down around them. Still, Pin gave better than he got, and after a few short minutes, he stood before his mother, surrounded by the bodies of the men for whom she’d left him. She breathed heavily, tired and wounded, bleeding from several wounds. Pin, however, was mostly fine. A few cracks in his armor, a few systems in need of repair, but he was the victor.
“This is the glory you chased all these years? This is why you killed my father?” Pin asked, gloating. He didn’t want answers, but he did want a response. He didn’t get one.
Mizuna wasn’t looking at her android ‘son’. She was looking at the sky. See, Pin had taken into account almost everything, from the layout of the mining platform to the number of men Daicon had to throw at him. In all his planning, though, he hadn’t considered one important thing - the asteroid belt where they were stationed was in a loose rotation around a moon. The asteroid would spin on its axis as it hurtled through space, so he couldn’t see it when he’d arrived...but that moon was in view now. And it was full.
Mizuna laughed, a mad grin crossing her face as her body shifted and grew. Her clothes, not designed for the Oozaru form, tore from her body leaving her naked and feral in the moonlight. Mere seconds passed before she was fully transformed, but to Pin it felt like hours. The scouter in his helmet went off the charts, then broke down with a sizzle. He’d never seen an Oozaru this strong before. He didn’t know it was possible. If the numbers had been accurate, she could easily have gone toe-to-toe will a full-fledged Super Saiyan.
With incredible speed, she reached down and grabbed Pin in her giant fist. He’d been too stunned and too slow to dodge, he hadn’t stood a chance.She squeezed him, laughing as his chassis bent and his metal skeleton began to warp and break under her immense strength.
“Not so strong now, are you?” she said between laughs, her voice thunderous and unrecognizable. “You’re nothing compared to the real thing!”
Pin deployed his shoulder cannon, which slid up and into place despite her intense grip on his body. He did the only thing he could think to do, and fired his Thermal Detonator directly towards her mouth. The little ball of energy rocketed towards her, but it was no use - she blasted it out of the sky with an enormous beam of energy from within her mouth.
“Awwww, how cute!” she laughed, “Mommy’s little doll still wants to play!”
She reached for him with her other hand, taking his left arm in between her fingers. She mocked him further, calling him ‘dolly’ and ‘toy’, before unceremoniously tearing his arm off. He made no noise, did not scream. After all, it didn’t hurt.
“Oh come on, dolly. Play along and make some noise, will you?!”
But Pin was distracted. Tearing his arm off had shifted his body in her grasp, and one of the ports for his aranea arms was clear. He launched the arm, sending it down, down, down to the ground in search of something - anything - that might be useful. He grabbed the first thing he could, and brought it back up. He almost laughed when he saw it.
It was his mother’s cleaver, discarded when she’d transformed.
He whipped the cleaver around in his tentacle arm, slashing it across Mizuna’s forearm. It bit in deeply, and she roared in pain as she let go of him. As her grip came loose, so too did Pin’s now-ruined armor, and it fell to the ground below. He’d have fallen too, were it not for his repulsors. They were still in working order by some stroke of luck. Drawing the cleaver back, Pin grabbed it in his right hand. He couldn’t hold back anymore. She wanted him to play along? Sure, he’d show her how much of a Momma’s Boy he could be.
The engine within his body roared, his pistons firing faster and faster as he threw off all the limiters. The air around his body grew hot, and his aura flared the glowing orange of forged steel. Mizuna glared at him, and fired her mouth beam once more. But when the light cleared, Pin was no longer there.
“Playtime's over!” he asked from above her head, diving down the slash the cleaver across her cheek. It drew a red line of blood, and Mizuna roared in pain and fury.
Now that he was airborne, and bolstered by the strength of his Overdrive, Pin was more confident that he could finish this. He’d lost his pistol, and his shoulder cannon was offline, but he had the cleaver and his extra arms. He put them both to good use, cutting and slashing at furred muscle as she launched punches and swats in his direction, occasionally trying to pepper him with energy beams from within her gullet. He didn’t dodge everything though, and eventually he was without additional limbs and down one leg. His helmet had been shattered along with most of his faceplate. Once again the two warriors stared each other down, only this time they were both tired, both starting to show their limitations.
This time it was Pin’s turn to lunge at his mother, and he led with her massive cleaver. She put her arms up to swat him away, but he dodged around them deftly until he was right in her face. He screamed, driving the cleaver deep into her monstrous snout. Too deeply. When he tried to remove it, he was not strong enough. It also gave Mizuna enough time to grab him again, though this time she only got him by the leg. Surely he was done for. What else did he have?
Oh right. That.
“I’ve been waiting to show you this one, mommy, so look what I can do! Burninnnnnnnnnng!” Pin cried, thrusting his palm out at her face, “VENGEANCE!!!”
A white-hot gout of flame erupted forth from his palm, engulfing Mizuna’s face and filling the air with the smell of burnt fur. She howled, letting go of Pin’s leg to try and extinguish the flames on her face. She stomped and raged, firing her mouth beam at random. In that moment, she resembled Luna-Seventeen, attacking anything and everything with no direction. He found some humor there, comparing her to a machine. Her fury brought down the mining platform, and great cracks spread over the asteroid’s surface.
Pin revved his propulsors, preparing to strafe his mother with more fire, but something stopped him. A little voice in the back of his head reminded him of something he’d heard.
“Is there a version of this where you value your own well-being over this crusade?”
He shook his head, catching his senses. There was no way he could finish this in his condition. Not without losing his own life in the process. He’d spent everything he had just to get here. Even if he could be uploaded, he’d have no means of crafting himself a new body. Besides, the odds that Mizuna would survive, blind and enraged, breaking the asteroid itself...he’d have to be content with that bet. At least for now.
****
Pin turned tail and he ran away. He ran for the Pixie and took off from that spinning rock in the middle of nowhere and he set a course for home. For Vegeta. By the time he arrived, he’d managed to repair most of the damage, and it was easy to get the rest done once he was on a proper planet.
And then one day, Granzel delivered him a package. It had no return address, no sender information. It had been sent through back channels and underground sources. Essentially, it had been smuggled to his door. After opening it, he asked Granzel for some time to himself. Granzel didn’t ask for details, just respected his friend’s wishes.
________________________________________________________________
Pin took a moment to sit in his office, amongst the ignored paperwork and hunting requests. He opened his desk drawer, pulling out a bottle of Kabochan Redbreast and a cardboard box. The same box that Granzel had delivered those weeks ago. He poured himself a drink, and once again opened the box to consider its contents.
Inside was his old pistol - the one he’d lost track of in the battle with Mizuna on that asteroid - and a note. The pistol was bent and ruined. The note was scrawled as if by someone near-blind. It read just one simple statement:
See you soon, dolly.
__________________________________
PL please!
This day, however, was uncharacteristically slow. The Pixie was in top condition, and there were no inspections being done by Saiyan customs officials. Nobody was coming to him with tips or jobs. It was just slow. So Pin was left to sit in his office, pretending to relax while his mind wandered to busier - if less pleasant - times.
He considered the recent battle at the Palace, with the android Vi-Poi attempting to wrest control of the empire from its people. The woman he’d fought, Tulip, had mentioned an old foe, Kizuki. The name alone got Pin’s pistons firing with a heady mix of fury and excitement. Kizuki had been the first real opponent Pin had fought. Sure, he’d been in fights before then but in pretty much all cases those battles had been decided before they even began. While Kizuki had outclassed him, Pin hadn’t been an easy conquest for the apparently ancient Saiyan. But Kizuki had expressed...opinions. Opinions that were anathema to Pin’s view of the world, and of the Saiyan race as a whole. In Pin’s mind, you were either loyal to the Empire, or you were a traitor. Sure, exceptions could be made for Saiyans not born and raised on Vegeta, but even then there was a thin line between ignorance and race betrayal.
His mind did not linger long on Kizuki, however. That had been a battle he would not forget, but it was another traitor that he would always come back to: Mizuna. His ‘mother’. Mizuna had always been obsessed with the pursuit for strength and she nearly fetishized powerful warriors - something she shared in common with Tulip Waterfield - and it was that obsession that had possessed her to murder Pin’s ‘father’ and leave the Empire behind, pursuing her own strength and goals on the fringes of Saiyan society.
Pin hadn’t always known that about Mizuna, of course. Until fairly recently, he’d only known her to be a murderer who’d hated his very being - a trait she shared with Kizuki. It wasn’t until the day before he vanished from the Empire’s ranks without so much as a post-it note on the throneroom door that he started to learn more about the woman he disparagingly called ‘mom’.
____________________________________________________________
It was an awful, hot, muggy day in the Radditsu district when Granzel, the blue-skinned smuggler Pin had become close with, came to the Pixie with a computer tablet in hand and a distressed look on his face.
“Pin,” he said, foregoing his usual shitty nicknames, “I, uh...I got something you might wanna see.”
Pin looked up from a small stack of paperwork, some administrative garbage for the White List. He put down his pen and stood up from his chair. He approached his friend and held out his hand, assuming the tablet was for him.
“What’s up? A new hunt?” Pin asked, hoping it was something worth his time. He’d been finding himself low on that particular commodity.
“S...something like that,” Granzel said, handing the tablet to his android buddy. “You know how you told me to keep an eye out for any noteworthy reports of outlaw women?”
Pin didn’t respond. He’d already started the video playback on the device, and he watched as a Saiyan woman of savage strength, accompanied by a group of other warriors, dismantled a group of workers on what looked to be some sort of mining operation. It wasn’t until the battle was over that they noticed the camera recording them, and the woman got right up close to the lens. She grinned, and spoke.
“Hey babe,” she said, “Looks like somebody’s watchin’. Wanna say anything to the adoring audience?”
She backed up, and behind her was a very large, very muscular Saiyan man. His chest was striped with scars and his tail was tatty and crooked. He grinned with a mouth of yellow teeth that had apparently been filed down to points before speaking in a deep, gravelly voice.
“Keep an eye out, folks. You high an’ mighty fucks in the Capital are gonna be hearin’ from me and my bois real soon.”
The woman laughed, and in a flash of light the recording stopped. Pin stared at the screen, gripping the tablet tight in his mechanical hands.
“Don’t tell me…” Granzel said. His voice shook, but only slightly.
“Mother,” Pin said, and his grip shattered the tablet’s screen.
*****
Moments later, Pin was fueling up the Pixie and running pre-launch diagnostics while Granzel tried in vain to calm him down.
“What do we know about these people?” Pin asked.
“Not a lot. The dude at the end, with the filed-down teeth? He’s apparently some bigtime fringe warlord named Daicon. He’s been gathering outlaws and pirates for the last couple of years, word is he’s planning on building an army, but nobody really knew why,” Granzel said, “I guess, until now.”
“So this guy wants to be king,” Pin said.
“Seems like it.”
“And we don’t know where this footage came from?”
“Sadly no, it was obtained in a major datamining operation a few weeks ago, a couple of hackers were trying to pull some corporate financial info but came away some some security feeds. When they watched this one they passed it over to a couple of guys who knew a couple of guys who knew I was looking for this sort of thing.”
“I knew I kept you around for something.” Pin clapped his friend on the back, unhooking the fuel feed from the Pixie and finalizing the diagnostics.
“Hey, listen,” Granzel said, “Is there any version of this in which you maybe don’t chase this lead?”
“Stupid question.”
“Is there at least a version where you value your own well-being over your crusade?”
“I’m a machine, so…”
“Yeah well you’d best hope that fuckin’ mining platform’s got wi-fi or something. One day you’re gonna come up against a brick wall with no way to upload that stubborn attitude of yours.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“And when that happens I’m gonna take all your shit and sell it off. I’m gonna get fat off the pickings of your wasted ass.”
“I get it, I get it.”
“Good. Now fuckin’ get out there and unleash some hell.”
Pin nodded, stepped into the Pixie, and took a seat in the cockpit. Granzel watched from the outside as the engines roared to life, and the ship began to lift off from the ground. He remembered the day Pin got his hands on the Pixie, what a miserable pile of bolts it had been. Just like the android himself, that ship was entirely different now. Stronger, faster, more dangerous. He hoped it would be enough to keep his friend safe.
****
It was days before anything interesting showed up on the Pixie’s radar. It had been nothing but commuter craft and merchant vessels, peppered by the occasional Imperial cruiser doing patrol. Pin pressed on, hoping that the further he came from the heart of the Saiyan Empire, the greater his chances of finding some scumbag pirates or an amateur smuggler. Hell, even a black market trade envoy would have been worth his time. Finally, that was exactly what he got - only it was not just some small envoy, some little cosmic puddlejumper craft meant to dock with freighters and peddle stolen wares.
This was a fucking space station.
Pin had heard rumors of the existence of the Total Eclipse, a renegade space station for black market dealings and underhanded business of all kinds. This place was a scumbag’s playground, a scoundrel’s paradise. If the stories were true, you could buy just about anything in this place, if you had the right currency. Pin opened a communications channel, hailing the station.
“Saiyan Freighter, what is your designation?” came a voice over the receiver. There was music playing in the background - the sort of generic, exciting music you hear at a casino.
“This is the Pixie Blue, registered to the White List, transmitting the appropriate credentials now. Please advise if clear.”
“Pixie Blue, you are cleared for landing. Welcome to the Eclipse, Lammergeier.”
Pin was glad that the reputation of his fledgeling Mercenary operation preceded him, rather than his personal reputation as an enforcer for the Empire. He still had a desire to move freely through these underground spaces, and being too closely linked to the law of this particular sector of galactic space might hinder that desire just a bit.
He guided the Pixie into the station’s docking bay, bringing her down gently onto the landing pad. As the magnetic locking mechanisms fell into place, he unboarded from the ship and was greeted by a smaller, somewhat less sophisticated robot.
“Welcome,” it said in a tinny, jovial tone, “I am Luna-Seventeen. I will be your automated escort during your time on the Total Eclipse. How may I best direct your business today?”
“Happy to be here L-17. I’m looking for some information today.”
“Wonderful, what sort of information are you looking to purchase?”
“Lookin’ for a guy named Daicon. I think he may be holed up in a-”
“Processing.”
Pin grimaced. He didn’t like being interrupted.
“One match found. Follow me, I will lead you to the appropriate information broker. This way, please. This way.”
The smaller robot rolled away from Pin, away from the Pixie and further into the space station. Pin followed closely, though he suspected that Luna-Seventeen would stop and wait for him if he fell too far behind. This place must have pulled in quite a bit of money if they had this sort of internal infrastructure. He was more than a little impressed.
Inside the station was like nothing Pin had ever seen. Equal parts casino, shopping mall, and theme park, there were bright lights and loud sounds, with people of every species mingling in one way or another. In one corner, a Konatsian exchanged money with a Saiyan, who handed him a small nondescript parcel. In another, a Brenchian prostitute was giving a Zoanthrope her best sales pitch. It was almost comical, how openly this much illegal activity was on display, with no legal repercussions. Pin wondered what the security force looked like.
Down a hall, up one floor in a very fancy elevator, and three doors to the right, and Pin and L-17 were standing in front of a kiosk, behind which sat the skinniest Majin Pin had ever seen. The Majin stirred a cup of hot chocolate with a stick of Arcosian Cinnamon languidly. A short cigar sat between his lips - Pin could smell the orange and vanilla flavoring in the smoke.
“We have arrived. Feel free to commence business,” said Luna-Seventeen.
“Now what is this sweet thing that’s come walking through my door, Sugar?” said the Majin in a long, slow drawl. He raised an eyebrow at Pin, looking at him like others might eye a dessert.
“I’m looking for some information,” Pin said, choosing not to indulge the Majin, “About a man named Daicon.”
“Why would you wanna know about a guy like him, Sugar?” the Majin asked, his voice like thick, dripping honey.
“I’m lookin’ for him. I owe him something.”
“You owe him? Why do I get the feeling we ain’t talkin about a cash debt, Sugar?”
“What I owe is none of your concern. I hear he’s holed up on an asteroid mining platform, gathering pirates to his cause. Is there any truth to this?”
“There might be, but I don’t give nothin’ away for free. That should have been obvious walkin in here, Sugar.”
“Name your price, then. I’m on the clock.”
“I could tell you were all business by the way you walked in here. Fine by me, we all gotta make a little dough. I’ll tell you everything I know, but then you gotta do somethin for me, Sugar.”
“What then? A murder? A heist?”
“You,” said the Majin, leaning forward and beckoning for Pin to lean in closer. He did. “Need to GET. ME. OUTTA HERE, SUGAR.”
As the Majin finished his statement, he raised up the hand he’d not been using to stir his drink. It had been under a blanket, which Pin had assumed was just for comfort and luxury, but now understood. It had been hiding the chain and shackle that had held the Majin in place. It was at that time that Pin heard a high-pitched whining from behind him. Dodging on instinct, Pin got out of the way of an energy blast just in time. It destroyed the Majin’s kiosk, revealing that the poor bastard was in fact chained to the floor. Pin looked back to see Luna-Seventeen, having unfurled into a much larger, spider-like machine with a series of laser cannons mounted at various angles.
“Huh. So that’s what security looks like.”
Pin drew his pistol and returned fire, putting a few blaster shots into L-17’s eye cameras, and one into its main cannon. He hadn’t neutralized the thing, but he’d thrown it off its game heavily and it was now firing its smaller weapons indiscriminately, hitting the walls, the floor, pretty much everything but Pin and the Majin. It even severed the Majin’s chain. Pin and the Majin looked at each other, nodded, and made a dash for the door. With any luck, they could get to the docking bay and out of this place before the alarm was fully raised.
“What’s your name, Sugar?” the Majin asked.
“Pin. You?” Pin replied.
“Lucose. Thanks for the assist, Sugar.”
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“Saying what, Sugar?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I don’t understand, Sugar.”
“Ugh,” Pin shook his head, recalling an Earth joke about some dumb sport for losers, “Third base…”
The two ran for the elevator, and at the very moment the doors opened to reveal two more Luna robots in full combat mode, the lights turned red and a claxon echoed through the station. So much for luck. Pin didn’t hesitate, and rushed in with his pistol and Aranea Module arms, blasting and smashing the two droids before they could properly respond. Lucose stood, dumbfounded, watching the violence unfold. The Majin himself had never been much of a fighter, and after languishing in his cell here on the Eclipse, he was certainly no better off in a scrap.
Once the robots were dispatched, Lucose joined Pin on the elevator and they rode it to the main floor. As the doors were preparing to open, Pin looked at Lucose and spoke quickly and quietly.
“This is gonna be a shitshow. If you can’t fight, just stick tight to me. I’ll clear a path to the hangar,” he said.
“How do you know you can pull it off, Sugar?”
“Because,” Pin said, smiling beneath his helmet, “I’m the closest thing to a Super Saiyan on this heap.”
As the doors slid open, Pin deployed his shoulder cannon. He was prepared for the worst - an army of spider robots, armed to the teeth, all on high alert. He was prepared to blow a hole in the hull if he had to. He was fairly certain Lucose would survive if he did. But Pin could not have been prepared for what he saw in the main lobby of the building.
It was chaos. The spider robots were everywhere, to be sure, but they weren’t waiting for Pin and Lucose to come out of the elevator. Rather, they were crawling all over the lobby fighting with the guests! The Brenchian prostitute from earlier kicked through the steel carapace of one droid, while her Zoanthrope john smashed another with his elbow. The Saiyan and Konatsian, their deal complete, now worked in harmony to reduce a small group of the things to slag with fire and ki. It was bedlam, and the robots were losing.
“Well, fuck,” Pin said, “Plan B - BOOK IT!”
Pin took off running back the way he’d come, towards the hangar, followed closely by Lucose. He fired the occasional blaster shot and even discharged his shoulder cannon once, but it was always just to clear the path. To fully engage here would be a mistake. This wasn’t a hunt, it was an escort mission.
It wasn’t long before they broke through the lobby and into the hangar. Here, more battles were underway, and one group of criminals had even gotten into their ship and were mowing down Luna robots with their onboard cannons. Pin didn’t stop to admire, there was no time. He made a beeline for the Pixie, opening the cargo bay as he approached. He and Lucose got onto the ship, and moments later they were up and away and out into space.
“I can’t believe that worked, Sugar,” Lucose said, out of breath and smiling. Pin poured them both a glass of Kabochan Redbreast.
“I had it under control,” Pin said with a hint of humor in his voice. He took off his helmet, revealing his golden mohawk.
“You! You ARE a Super Saiyan, Sugar!”
“Not quite. But maybe one day. Now, about Daicon…”
****
The Pixie approached the asteroid, the only one of its kind in this entire belt. It was predicted to be rich with rare minerals and ore, and so the Empire had set up a mining platform. This mining platform, in its heyday, had been a state of the art facility with the best equipment, highly trained staff, and constant support from the homeworld. However, as production had started to dry up, so too did that support until finally, the mining station was so sparsely manned and so far from the Empire’s list of priorities that when Daicon and his pirates attacked and took over, it went pretty much entirely unnoticed. It had been months, and there was no response from the Empire, not even from the company that owned the station. It had been written off as an acceptable loss.
Pin had dropped Lucose off on Shikk. The Majin had apparently made some connections with that planet’s organized crime, and would be able to reintegrate easily. Before parting, he’d given over every piece of information he’d had about Daicon, including his location and a recent headcount of his small, but growing forces.
Pin landed on the far side of the asteroid, not wanting to give himself away too soon. He’d considered just rolling in and shooting up the place, but without any intel on the overall power capabilities of Daicon and his men, it was better to go in quietly and get a better feel for the situation. Pin approached from the ground, laying eyes on the tent encampment that the pirates had set up outside the mining station’s main building. When he arrived, they were mostly asleep. He made short work of their few sentinels, who would have made decent soldiers for the Empire with a little more training. Instead, they were now mediocre fertilizer for a rock with no plant life. However, before Pin could dispatch all of the sleeping pirates, one of them was roused from his sleep and sounded the alarm.
They woke, and surrounded him, each armed with some sort of improvised weapon - a chain, a pipe, a sharp bit of metal. They came at him one at a time, as if their only combat training had been watching movies. Pin dispatched each efficiently and brutally, not once discharging his pistol.
Just as Pin had thinned the ranks to single digits, a voice called from the doorway of the main building.
“OI! Who the fuck do you think you are?” came the gruff voice of Daicon, baring his filed-down teeth. “You done killed me bois!”
“Wait a minute,” came a smoother, more feminine voice from within the building. Out stepped Mizuna, Pin’s mother, a cleaver as long as she was tall strapped to her back. “I know that armor. Didn’t I hire you to break my ex’s doll?”
Pin was reminded of his first real battle. He’d fought a bounty hunter, sent by Mizuna, for his life. He’d fought and he’d won, and he’d taken the hunter’s armor and flight suit as his prize.
“Not quite,” Pin said, drawing his pistol and putting a shot directly into Daicon’s eye. “Mother.”
Daicon dropped, screaming and grabbing at his eye. How he’d survived that shot is still a mystery to Pin, but it didn’t matter. He was watching Mizuna’s face drop like a ton of bricks with the realization of who he was. Had she thought her hunter successful? Had she thought Pin truly dead? Good. He was happy to haunt her from beyond the grave.
Mizuna drew her cleaver from her back with a long, sweeping motion - one that felled Daicon as he struggled to get back up. Pin twirled his pistol casually around his trigger finger. Behind his helmet he grimaced, but he wouldn’t let her see that. Instead, he would only project the casual confidence that had aided him so many times on his hunts. Showing her any fear would only make her happy. He didn’t want her to enjoy this.
She came at him, bringing that enormous cleaver to bear with surprising speed and force. Pin pulled back, dodging her first slash with panicked luck, but quickly caught his senses. He could tell immediately that she was nothing like the rest of these pirate punks. Her attacks were vicious and brutal, but each swing was calculated and thought out. On top of that, she could fly - which Pin found out when he first took to the sky to try and make some distance. He fired at her with his pistol while using his metal tentacles to keep her at bay. It became clear that she was charging her blade with ki when she used it to deflect Pin’s energy blasts harmlessly off to the side - a stray shot hitting the support beam of a watchtower, bringing it down around them. Still, Pin gave better than he got, and after a few short minutes, he stood before his mother, surrounded by the bodies of the men for whom she’d left him. She breathed heavily, tired and wounded, bleeding from several wounds. Pin, however, was mostly fine. A few cracks in his armor, a few systems in need of repair, but he was the victor.
“This is the glory you chased all these years? This is why you killed my father?” Pin asked, gloating. He didn’t want answers, but he did want a response. He didn’t get one.
Mizuna wasn’t looking at her android ‘son’. She was looking at the sky. See, Pin had taken into account almost everything, from the layout of the mining platform to the number of men Daicon had to throw at him. In all his planning, though, he hadn’t considered one important thing - the asteroid belt where they were stationed was in a loose rotation around a moon. The asteroid would spin on its axis as it hurtled through space, so he couldn’t see it when he’d arrived...but that moon was in view now. And it was full.
Mizuna laughed, a mad grin crossing her face as her body shifted and grew. Her clothes, not designed for the Oozaru form, tore from her body leaving her naked and feral in the moonlight. Mere seconds passed before she was fully transformed, but to Pin it felt like hours. The scouter in his helmet went off the charts, then broke down with a sizzle. He’d never seen an Oozaru this strong before. He didn’t know it was possible. If the numbers had been accurate, she could easily have gone toe-to-toe will a full-fledged Super Saiyan.
With incredible speed, she reached down and grabbed Pin in her giant fist. He’d been too stunned and too slow to dodge, he hadn’t stood a chance.She squeezed him, laughing as his chassis bent and his metal skeleton began to warp and break under her immense strength.
“Not so strong now, are you?” she said between laughs, her voice thunderous and unrecognizable. “You’re nothing compared to the real thing!”
Pin deployed his shoulder cannon, which slid up and into place despite her intense grip on his body. He did the only thing he could think to do, and fired his Thermal Detonator directly towards her mouth. The little ball of energy rocketed towards her, but it was no use - she blasted it out of the sky with an enormous beam of energy from within her mouth.
“Awwww, how cute!” she laughed, “Mommy’s little doll still wants to play!”
She reached for him with her other hand, taking his left arm in between her fingers. She mocked him further, calling him ‘dolly’ and ‘toy’, before unceremoniously tearing his arm off. He made no noise, did not scream. After all, it didn’t hurt.
“Oh come on, dolly. Play along and make some noise, will you?!”
But Pin was distracted. Tearing his arm off had shifted his body in her grasp, and one of the ports for his aranea arms was clear. He launched the arm, sending it down, down, down to the ground in search of something - anything - that might be useful. He grabbed the first thing he could, and brought it back up. He almost laughed when he saw it.
It was his mother’s cleaver, discarded when she’d transformed.
He whipped the cleaver around in his tentacle arm, slashing it across Mizuna’s forearm. It bit in deeply, and she roared in pain as she let go of him. As her grip came loose, so too did Pin’s now-ruined armor, and it fell to the ground below. He’d have fallen too, were it not for his repulsors. They were still in working order by some stroke of luck. Drawing the cleaver back, Pin grabbed it in his right hand. He couldn’t hold back anymore. She wanted him to play along? Sure, he’d show her how much of a Momma’s Boy he could be.
The engine within his body roared, his pistons firing faster and faster as he threw off all the limiters. The air around his body grew hot, and his aura flared the glowing orange of forged steel. Mizuna glared at him, and fired her mouth beam once more. But when the light cleared, Pin was no longer there.
“Playtime's over!” he asked from above her head, diving down the slash the cleaver across her cheek. It drew a red line of blood, and Mizuna roared in pain and fury.
Now that he was airborne, and bolstered by the strength of his Overdrive, Pin was more confident that he could finish this. He’d lost his pistol, and his shoulder cannon was offline, but he had the cleaver and his extra arms. He put them both to good use, cutting and slashing at furred muscle as she launched punches and swats in his direction, occasionally trying to pepper him with energy beams from within her gullet. He didn’t dodge everything though, and eventually he was without additional limbs and down one leg. His helmet had been shattered along with most of his faceplate. Once again the two warriors stared each other down, only this time they were both tired, both starting to show their limitations.
This time it was Pin’s turn to lunge at his mother, and he led with her massive cleaver. She put her arms up to swat him away, but he dodged around them deftly until he was right in her face. He screamed, driving the cleaver deep into her monstrous snout. Too deeply. When he tried to remove it, he was not strong enough. It also gave Mizuna enough time to grab him again, though this time she only got him by the leg. Surely he was done for. What else did he have?
Oh right. That.
“I’ve been waiting to show you this one, mommy, so look what I can do! Burninnnnnnnnnng!” Pin cried, thrusting his palm out at her face, “VENGEANCE!!!”
A white-hot gout of flame erupted forth from his palm, engulfing Mizuna’s face and filling the air with the smell of burnt fur. She howled, letting go of Pin’s leg to try and extinguish the flames on her face. She stomped and raged, firing her mouth beam at random. In that moment, she resembled Luna-Seventeen, attacking anything and everything with no direction. He found some humor there, comparing her to a machine. Her fury brought down the mining platform, and great cracks spread over the asteroid’s surface.
Pin revved his propulsors, preparing to strafe his mother with more fire, but something stopped him. A little voice in the back of his head reminded him of something he’d heard.
“Is there a version of this where you value your own well-being over this crusade?”
He shook his head, catching his senses. There was no way he could finish this in his condition. Not without losing his own life in the process. He’d spent everything he had just to get here. Even if he could be uploaded, he’d have no means of crafting himself a new body. Besides, the odds that Mizuna would survive, blind and enraged, breaking the asteroid itself...he’d have to be content with that bet. At least for now.
****
Pin turned tail and he ran away. He ran for the Pixie and took off from that spinning rock in the middle of nowhere and he set a course for home. For Vegeta. By the time he arrived, he’d managed to repair most of the damage, and it was easy to get the rest done once he was on a proper planet.
And then one day, Granzel delivered him a package. It had no return address, no sender information. It had been sent through back channels and underground sources. Essentially, it had been smuggled to his door. After opening it, he asked Granzel for some time to himself. Granzel didn’t ask for details, just respected his friend’s wishes.
________________________________________________________________
Pin took a moment to sit in his office, amongst the ignored paperwork and hunting requests. He opened his desk drawer, pulling out a bottle of Kabochan Redbreast and a cardboard box. The same box that Granzel had delivered those weeks ago. He poured himself a drink, and once again opened the box to consider its contents.
Inside was his old pistol - the one he’d lost track of in the battle with Mizuna on that asteroid - and a note. The pistol was bent and ruined. The note was scrawled as if by someone near-blind. It read just one simple statement:
See you soon, dolly.
__________________________________
PL please!