Going Native: Eyes clenched shut (Patreon)

A short set up chapter. Things really kick off next chapter. 

...

“What’s the big deal?” Bardock asked, leaning in his chair far enough that I’m sure he was hovering to stop himself from falling over. His arms were crossed, a finger tapping impatiently against his bicep, matching the dull frustrated expression that he wore. “I lost control when he was teaching me to control my oozaru form. Wasn’t like I was trying to kill him.”

I could hear Vegeta’s teeth grinding over the sounds of distant explosions from the battles that shook the planet. We had to go inside one of the ships since there was some kind of storm raging on the surface of the planet. It was almost like a sandstorm, except with shards of glass mixed in. The squad and I were fine, but some of the aliens in the Frieza-force looked like they had been flayed alive. 

“He was a mid-class, you trash,” Vegeta snarled at Bardock, his hands curled into fists that made his gloves creak. 

“So am I, prince Vegeta. Nappa bit off more than he can chew,” Bardock reminded a hungry smirk on his face. Vegeta blinked, not believing it with a scoff. Even still, he pressed down on his scouter to make sure which got an odd look from me. Did the Frieza-force not keep up with our power levels? I would have thought since the scouters could somehow communicate halfway across the galaxy that they would automatically update our info when we did self scans. 

“6899,” Vegeta spoke, sounding like he swallowed something sour. He tsked, crossing his arms and glared at Bardock’s seemingly uncaring attitude. Everyone in this room knew better than to believe it. “I suppose you would be strong enough to defeat Nappa’s oozaru…”

General Nappa had a power level of 6500, the same as me. They would have been neck and neck...but...Nappa would have been aware. Bardock wouldn’t. With nearly identical power levels, Nappa should have won hands down against a wild opponent. 

Bardock’s gaze flicked to me as if he could see my doubts about his story. “He must have been rusty, leading armies at the back instead of getting mixed up in the thick of it. When was the last time he had a proper fight?” 

Vegeta cocked his head, considering that. “Hm. Too long, it would seem,” he answered. By that, Vegeta probably meant none. Coordinating a planetary siege and assaults was beyond complicated. It wasn’t something that you could put down for a couple of hours to get a decent fight in, then go back to grand strategy meetings. It was constant analysis, eliminating variables...hm. I wonder why Nappa accepted the position. It sounded awful. 

“As I see it, I must have come out the gate swinging. He wasn’t ready for it. From what I heard from the rank and file, it doesn’t sound like it was a long fight. Nappa slipped up and killed himself with my fists,” Bardock said, shrugging his shoulders as if to say ‘what can you do?’”

Vegeta let out a breath, accepting the reasoning with a nod of his head, even as he scowled like he swallowed a bushel of lemons. “Nappa’s death was his own fault,” Vegeta decided. “He should have been more prepared, at the very least he should have read your power level to make sure he was actually strong enough to stop you.”

That was...a little fast? I understood that it was because that Vegeta probably didn’t care that much about Nappa, but I could help but think that verdict came a little too fast. I guess it was a case not crying over spilled milk, only the milk in this scenario was Nappa’s brain matter. Despite my doubts, I held my tongue. I wasn’t going to give Vegeta a reason to kill Bardock. 

“Great,” Bardock said, pleased with his innocent verdict. Smug almost. 

A protest weighed on my tongue, a leap in logic that Vegeta hadn’t considered. Bardock’s…’case’...hinged on the fact that he was mindless when he went oozaru. Nappa was a general, rusty or not, I had a hard time seeing someone like that make the mistake of not being ready for a mindless oozaru. It stood to reason that, maybe, Bardock hadn’t been mindless. 

If Nappa was prepared for a mindless oozaru, then he wouldn’t have been ready for one in control. Nappa’s cause of death couldn’t be identified since his head was stomped on until it became mush. Entirely possible it was the naked rage of a mindless oozaru...or, possibly, covering up evidence. 

But, in the end, it didn’t matter because Vegeta wasn’t done. 

“But, a general of the Frieza-force is dead because of you Bardock. For this, I sentence you to death,” Vegeta informed, a sharp grin on his face as he raised a hand. Dark purple ki formed in the palm of his hand, lighting up the small room we were in. Bardock tensed, ready to spring into action-

“Wait,” I called out, speaking for the first time. Vegeta didn’t fire off the ki blast building up in his hand, while Bardock stilled, waiting to see my play. “Can it wait?”

“Wait?” Vegeta echoed, frowning at me. 

“We just lost a mid-class, and we haven’t even conquered this world yet. Why waste another?” I asked, seeing the ki blast dim ever so slightly. “The rest of the Frieza-force isn’t going to crack this nut, it’ll be us. If you execute him now, then that’s just making things harder on ourselves.”

Vegeta looked at Bardock, who still sat in his chair, a picture of relaxation, but I saw how tense he was. The look in his eyes only appeared when he was caught by the tail against a foe he couldn’t beat alone. I didn’t see that look very often -- I could count the times on one hand and still have fingers left over, so it really stood out when he faced off against Vegeta. 

“Hm. Tarble does have a point,” Vegeta decided after a long minute of him drawing out the suspense. “Killing you like this would be a waste. Since you made this problem, the very least you can do is help clean up your mess Bardock.” He said, lowering his hand, a smirk on his face, taunting Bardock. 

Bardock didn’t rise to the bait in favor of nodding, “and how exactly will I be doing that, prince Vegeta?” He asked, settling down so all for chair legs were on the ground. 

Vegeta pointed out the window towards the mountain of metal, the explosions around it nearly making it impossible to see as it repelled the assault on it. A particularly large explosion as the mountain was hit with a superweapon of some kind from one of the ships in orbit rumbled through the ground, shaking the ship. The window was filled with a bright light, the sound of the explosions lagging behind. 

All three of us glanced through the window as the light faded, none of us were surprised to see that the mountain was still there. It took some damage, the metal glowing cherry red, some parts giving away, only for the surface of the mountain to glide back up, undoing any success the superweapon might have had. 

“I want you to take that mountain. It’s been a day and it still hasn’t fallen,” Vegeta decided, his expression set in a glare, his gaze lingering on me as he turned on his heel to walk out of the room. He really did master the cape flutter. “You have until I get tired of waiting.”

With that, Vegeta strode out of the room, the door slid shut behind him. I stared at it for a moment, keenly aware that this was one of the few times I ever got to speak with my brother before I turned my attention to Bardock. He got out of his chair, turning his full attention to the mountain, mulling over the mess he found himself in. 

“Why did you kill Nappa?” I asked, walking over to stand next to him. Bardock glanced down at me, neither of us wearing scouters so the chances of someone picking up on the conversation was practically nonexistent. That was provided that Vegeta didn’t bug the room, but I really don’t think that was in his character despite meeting him only a few times. 

Bardock didn’t answer for a long moment, then he shrugged, “I have my reasons.” He admitted without answering my question. That was annoying. “Have you mastered controlling your oozaru form?” He questioned, and I would have thought he was trying to change the subject if it wasn’t for the fact that we now had a pretty tough nut to crack in front of us. 

“I did. You did too,” I accused without any real heat behind the words. He murdered Nappa. I mean, I didn’t really know the guy, so it would be a lie to say that I really cared that he was dead. I was more annoyed that Bardock landed us in this mess than anything.

“Hm,” Bardock nodded, confirming my words. “I’ve been trying to get a handle on it for about a decade now, but I made some nice progress the past year. I guess it gets easier the stronger you are,” He explained, narrowing his eyes when the mountain was hit with another blast of the superweapon, the outside becoming incredibly bright. 

...Huh. So, he didn’t need to trail with Nappa to master his oozaru form. Was he just trying to cover his tracks, since he would have been a low-class warrior trying to learn a mid-class skill? Maybe, but that didn’t explain why he killed Nappa, though. Unless killing Nappa was the goal the entire time. And that brought me to my original question. Why kill Nappa in the first place?

“What about the others?” I asked, my hopes falling when I saw Bardock shake his head. 

“Fasha and Tora are making decent progress, but they won’t learn it before the deadline,” Bardock said, tilting his head as the mountain wasn’t hit by one superweapon, but two superweapons at the same time. When the light faded, I saw that there was more damage, but the metal began to expand into the crater that surrounded the mountain. 

The metal rose upwards, forming guns and weapons and drones that immediately unleashed a torrent of plasma and explosives on the Frieza-force’s positions. It was expanding too. I wonder how long it would be before that metal coated the planet? 

“Should we use weapons?” I asked, watching as the mountain shot down a cruiser, the large disk-shaped ship descending from the sky with a trail of smoke marking its path before it slammed into the mountain with a large explosion. When the smoke cleared, I saw that the ship was still on the mountain, the mountain still standing, but was it...eating the...huh. 

“It’s liquid metal, so EMPs are going to be useless,” Bardock agreed.

“Antigrain?” I questioned, thinking that would be good for punching a hole into the mountain. Then it would just become an issue of, you know, those stupidly powerful scarabs inside. What were we going to do against them? I doubt that we could fit in the halls in our oozaru forms…

“Hm,” Bardock didn’t answer, to busy watching as the mountain rapidly broke down the ship, adding it to its mass. The mountain got larger, more weapons appearing-- it would have gotten even bigger if it wasn’t hit by another blast from a superweapon, the ship proved to be a lot less durable than the mountain. 

“Go round up the team. We have a mission,” Bardock said after a minute of silence. I hoped that meant that he had a plan. I didn’t question him what it was, I would learn it soon enough, so with nothing else to say I simply nodded and walked away. I spared him a glance as he continued to stare at the mountain, paying me no mind, then the doors slid shut behind me. 

A sigh escaped me as I stepped out of the ship, a large bubble around the HQ that kept the glass storm outside. It didn’t take the Frieza-force long to set up shop -- defensive positions were set up, buildings for food while others served as barracks. Turning to my left, I saw hints of an overflowing medical station. Aliens of all kinds wandering about with white bandages over them where they stood outside for too long. 

A quick look around didn’t reveal where the others were. The HQ was growing to be absolutely massive, a significant portion of the army being stationed here, so hunting them down was going to take way too much time. Luckily, scouters were handed out like candy so all I had to do was ask for one. 

“Hey, you,” I greeted some kind of lizard thing surrounded by what looked like a blue orc thing and a purple alien that had a head that reminded me of an octopus. “Can I borrow your scouter real quick?”

The three of them turned to look at me -- well, the looked up then after a few very long seconds, they finally looked down enough to see me. The Ogre narrowed its eyes, “you a saiyan?” It asked, sounding like it handing over willing hinged on that answer being no. 

“Yes. So, can I use your scouter?” I asked, glancing between the three of them. “Please?” I tacked on, getting the impression that wasn’t going to do the trick. 

“Heh, a saiyan saying please. Never thought I’d see the day,” Octopus said, letting out a teetering laugh that creeped the hell out of me. I’m not sure why it made it, its face looked normal so I figured that its voice box would be the same, but apparently not. 

“Why don’t you say it one more time, with a snorkleberry on top,” Ogre said, a smug grin on his face as he chuckled. It was moments like these that really hammered home that I was on the bad guy side. I mean, these guys were giving a child a hard time for his race. What a bunch of dicks. 

“Or, I could just take it,” I commented lightly. I guess this is what I get for trying to be polite. At that, the chuckling fell silent. Lizard tapped his scouter as he got up, all of them towering over me -- I barely reached Ogre’s knee. I shoved any stray thoughts that they could be stronger than me to the side, and if they were...well, then I had a fight on my hands. Either way, I didn’t lose. 

Lizard’s expression told me that they were weaker than me when my power level came up. I saw it swallow thickly, its dark yellow eyes going wide as...sweat?...dripped down its brow. Did lizards sweat? That was weird. I didn’t like that. Lizards were meant to be cold-blooded -- I mean, in a way beyond mass murder that the Freiza-force specialized in. 

“What is his- oh,” Ogre muttered, using his deep red scouter. All of a sudden, all three of them looked very nervous. I would be a liar if I said that it wasn’t a good feeling watching them fear me. It made me feel...strong. 

“Can I please borrow your scouter?” I asked again, holding out a hand that said the request wasn’t really a request. Lizard wasted no time taking the scouter off his face and pressing it into my hand. Its expression could be summed up as regret, twitching like it expected me to blast them. Which was fair, I guess. Most of my kind would. 

“Thanks,” I said, putting it on and tuned into the Bardock squad’s frequency. “Hey, this is Tarble. Where are you guys? We have a mission.” I said, then added, “oh, and Bardock’s not dead.”

“Always nice to hear. We’re in the cafeteria. Get here fast, they have these little meatball things and they taste great. Borgos is going through them fast though,” Tora answered me, giving me a direction. I took off the scouter and ignored the impulse to crush it out of spite for annoying me. Instead, I tossed it back to Lizard, who caught it with some fumbling. 

It opened its mouth to say something, but I didn’t care enough to hear it. Especially when I could guess what it was about to say. “Bye,” I said, flying off and leaving the three in the dust. Hopefully, I wouldn’t see those guys again. I sailed towards the cafeteria, touching down in front of it just as a handful of saiyans were walking out, their stomachs distended from overeating. 

I ignored them as one nudged the other, bringing his attention to me as I stepped inside. “Isn’t that the low-class prince?” I heard once ask as the door slid shut behind me, cutting off whatever the other was going to say. I crushed whatever annoyance I felt -- I was mid-class now. Why couldn’t people at least call me the mid-class prince?

Stupid delayed announcements. I was probably going to have to deal with it until the war ends, whenever that happened. I was quick to ignore the issue when I spotted the rest of my team sitting at a table, careless of the looks they were getting from the other aliens that surrounded them. The looks could best be summed up as scared. 

After all, excluding Leek, the entire team was made up of mid-class saiyans. 

“Tarble, try one of these,” Tora greeted, tossing me a perfectly round meatball. I gave it a quick glance before popping it into my mouth, trying very hard not to wonder what it was made of. It tasted pretty good though. “You said something about a mission?” He asked while the other chowed down, I noted that all of them were dressed in the newest armor. 

I was going to have to think of a new excuse soon. With them learning how to control their oozaru forms...it really was a matter of time before I was exposed, wasn’t it?

“Vegeta wants us to take out that mountain,” I explained, walking over and grabbing another meatball. As if to punctuate my words, I felt the vibrations of the mountain getting his with another blast from our superweapon. “Bardock might get executed after we’re done, though,” I added, paying close attention to their reactions. Fasha and Tora shared a look, Borgos kept eating, while Shugesh and Leek looked alarmed. 

“Well, I guess we’ll have to convince Prince Vegeta that Bardock’s too valuable to kill off then, won’t we?” Tora said, standing up. “Where is he?” 

The others started to get up, finishing off their meals as I answered. “Flagship,” I told them, ignoring the looks I was getting from the other aliens in the room. More than a few were not so stealthily scanning me, those that did were easy to see by their nervous expressions. It was hard to think that a few years ago, I was weaker than everyone in this room. 

“Right, let’s go,” Tora said as we took off back towards Bardock. As we touched down a few seconds later, entering the ship, it started to sink in what our next mission was. Taking out the mountain was, well, it was quite the mountain to overcome. The mountain itself...it wasn’t the real issue, it was hardly the first time that the Reach did something like this, the issue was the scarabs with nearly a hundred thousand power level. 

I lead them to the room that Bardock was in, finding that he was still standing in front of the window as if it would give him the answers to his questions. He glanced over as we entered, only speaking when the door slid shut behind us. 

“The mountain is made of liquid metal infused with nanomachines, so, with the control they’re showing over making weapons pop out of it, there has to be some kind of central command center. To take out the mountain, all we need to do it take that out, then it’s going to be reduced to a giant mountain of metal.” Bardock began, getting a nod from us. A single point of failure was becoming increasingly rare as the war progressed, but I guess when you had scarabs like the ones they did, they could afford it. 

“We’ll use antigrain warheads to make a couple of entrances to slip in and I’ve confirmed that we can get some covering fire so we can get close. But, we’ll be going in completely blind. My bet is that it's somewhere in the center of the mountain,” Bardock said, not exactly inspiring hope but he wasn’t trying to. He wasn’t trying to psych us up, he was telling us what our job was. 

“So, we’re breaking out the big guns to make sure we get it. Antimatter explosives,” Bardock said, earning a blink of surprise from me. Antimatter warheads were a lot like antigrain, except a lot bigger, meaner and not so much as an atom would be left. 

“How much of a time delay?” Tora asked, crossing his arms. An antimatter explosive, there might not be much of a mountain left. 

“Five minutes,” Bardock, making me frown. Bardock caught me doing it, turning his attention to me in a silent demand of an explanation. 

“Can’t we just hit it from the outside then?” I asked, wondering why we had to be inside to do it. Anitmatter was antimatter, liquid metal was tough and nanomachines could repair any damage it suffered, but none of that mattered when there wasn’t so much an atom left of the mountain and everything in it. It seemed needlessly dangerous to go inside, race against the clock when there was a much simpler solution. 

“We could,” Bardock agreed with a nod of his head, “but, if we do it that way, the higher-ups won’t be impressed enough to stave off my execution.” He explained, turning his attention to the entire team. “We could do it that way. The mission first, the team second and pride last.” Bardock reminded, making eye contact with everyone. His gaze had a certain weight to it that reminded me of the few times I saw King Vegeta. 

So, this was a bid to prove that Bardock was too invaluable to execute. Despite being in the army for a few years, I didn’t understand the chain of command in the slightest. Could someone overrule Vegeta about executing Bardock? I didn’t even know what Vegeta’s rank was. Hell, I didn’t know what my rank was.

“We’re going to be walking into a death trap to save your life?” Fasha asked with a fearless grin, “sounds fine to me. You’ve saved me more times then I want to count, so I guess it's finally time to even the score.” She said, throwing her hands back to cup the back of her head. 

Bardock let out a huff, cracking a smirk. “Little soon for that kind of talk. Odds are we’re going to die in that mountain,” he reminded, getting a shrug out of the team. Myself included. 

“I thought suicide missions were our specialty?” I asked with a small grin, giving myself a mental pat on the back for the line. Tora let out a bark of laughter, smacking me on the back as he sent Bardock a nod to confirm that he was in. 

“Well said,” he complimented, sounding like he meant it. “You know I’m in. I can’t wait for you to finally owe me one,” Tora said, Bardock’s smirk growing into a smile. It wasn’t the battle smirk that appeared when a plan came together and he turned a certain defeat into an overwhelming victory. It almost looked...wholesome, in a way. It also looked really out of place on Bardock’s face. 

“I’m in too,” Shugesh offered with a shrug, “I still need to pay these bastards back for cutting my tail in half.” Borgos nodded to show that he agreed, chewing a piece of meat, a bandage patched over his face. I don’t know where Leek was, but since this was a combat mission, he would be pretty useless. 

“What’s our timeline?” Tora asked the good-natured grin on his face slowly transforming to a serious expression. 

“Don’t have one beyond to not make Prince Vegeta wait too long,” Bardock answered, getting a confirming nod from me. “But, I don’t want to test the patience of royalty. We have a day to rest up, find out what we can about the mountain, maybe a less obvious way it, but then we go in.” Bardock said, his gaze sweeping over us again. 

The fact that this mission had even worse odds than our usual went unsaid. Without being able to go oozaru in those tunnels, then running into a vanguard scarab was a death sentence. Even a scout was stronger than any of us, not to mention the silver scarabs that can give them a power boost. 

"... Actually," I spoke up, a thought striking me as I pondered the issue. Without a shadow of a doubt, we would die when we fought a scarab down there. Worse, because it was an enemy base that we were flying blind into, at least one of us running into a scarab was practically guaranteed. If that member of the team was carrying the bomb, then the mission failed and we would all die for nothing. Without the oozaru form, we just couldn't compete. "I have an idea. It might take a couple of days -- I don't know if it's even possible," I admitted, catching Bardock's interest. 

"Don't stop there, what's your idea? We'll take anything at this point," he commented with a nod of his head, giving me the floor. 

"When I controlled my oozaru form, and when I saw Vegeta fight a few vanguard scarabs, I noticed a bunch of weaknesses." I started, mind dredging up a memory. A memory that had to have come from before the tank since nothing else like it existed yet. "I couldn't use my ki very well and because I was so big, I felt really slow. When Vegeta fought the vanguards, they flew circles around him." I added, getting a nod from Bardock and a low whistle from Fasha. 

"I've noticed the same," Bardock agreed. "What of it?" 

It was possible. I knew it was possible. I just had no idea how to do it. 

"What if there's a way to tap into the power of the oozaru form without transforming?" I asked, looking up at Bardock, making my face appear as serious as possible. He stayed silent even as Shugesh chortled. 

"The power of the oozaru form comes with a change in biology kid," he reminded, placing an oversized hand on my head. Even still, I stared up at Bardock to convey that I was serious. 

"Like a partial transformation, or something. Even if it's not times ten our base power, doubling it would practically guarantee that we'll survive any scouter class scarabs we run into. And we'll still be able to use our techniques," I said, picturing the form in my head. Yellow eyes lined with red, a body covered in red fur except for the chest. A primal form between oozaru and saiyan. 

Bardock stayed silent, not breaking eye contact as Shugesh started knocking on my head for ignoring him. 

It was possible. I had no idea how to do it, but it was possible. Being clueless hadn't stopped me from learning a dozen techniques that existed only in my own mind, and it wouldn't stop me now. Not when the lives of my entire team counted on it. 

"You really think that can be done?" He asked me, his tone just as serious. Shugesh stopped knocking on my head, the team turning their attention to Bardock. 

"There's no way that's possible," Fasha offered her opinion with a shake of her head. "If it was, then someone would have managed it ages ago." 

"The number of saiyans that could control their oozaru forms in our history is less than a hundred," Bardock countered, still looking at me. "It's possible that none of them ever tried. Mastering our oozaru form is supposed to be the pinnacle of our power -- what if none of them bothered to take it a step further? I can't imagine King Vegeta or that brat prince ever trying." 

I ignored a twinge of annoyance at the insult to my family in favor of listening as Bardock spoke. "Do you really think it can be done? It's a long shot and we don't have a lot of time." 

I didn't hesitate before I nodded, certain that it was possible.

"One way to find out."