Wrath Of The Dragon (part 2/3)

Summary of the previous chapter: well, you just have to click on the left arrow and read the previous chapter.

Dragon Fist Explosion!! If Bulma Can't Do It, Who Will?

The next day, Trunks came back alone in Tapion's hiding place to bring him his breakfast.

But he was surprised to find that the factory was crumbling; consequence of the short appearance of the monster's chest in our world.

“Tapion? Where are you, Mister Tapion? Are you alright?”

He was here, on a pile of rubble, always so serious and not really welcoming.

Blushing, and taking advantage of the fact Tapion was pretending not to have noticed he was here, Trunks spoke out loud, praising the quality of the food he was bringing. He asked him where he came from and how old he was. He introduced himself and told him his age. He also said that he probably was a hero too because he had fought the great demon Buu who had threatened the universe.

“Do you know Buu, Mister Tapion?”

But Tapion didn't care about these children's stories.

And suddenly, there was a furtive movement! Tapion got up, worried and distrustful. Trunks looked around, surprised.

The magician Hoi fell from the ceiling and threw himself on Tapion, snatching the ocarina that was tied to Tapion's belt from him.

“Nooooo!” screamed Tapion who suddenly seemed desperate as Hoi was running away as fast as his legs could carry him...

Wham! A great pain. Hoi screamed. What had happened?

Hoi was against the wall of the factory, quite against his will. The boy he had paid no attention of had pinned him in a second, displaying a strength that was beyond belief.

“You had stolen that thing from Tapion.” said Trunks, giving him bad looks. “Give it back to him.”

Hoi knew that there was monstrous warriors on Earth. The naïve hero that was wearing an outfit was one of them, he knew it and he had been able to witness these huge powers during the night. But that boy? How could he have guessed?

“You... you're mistaken, my boy!' he said, sweating. “Tapion isn't what you think he is! I am here to help you! The monster that had attacked the city the other night... It was him!”

Trunks looked at the hero to see what his reaction would be and was considerably surprised. Tapion was looking at the ground, looking guilty. What? But that old man was saying really incoherent things! What was Tapion hiding?

“Liar.” eventually said Trunks. “Yesterday, you told us that Tapion was a hero. You wanted to free him.”

Good damn, thought the magician. That boy isn't that stupid.

Trunks snatched the instrument from the hand of the magician who was hardly taller than him.

“It belongs to Tapion.” he said. And he walked towards the hero and gave him his ocarina.

“Thanks.” That was the first word he said to the boy. And it made Trunks happy.

Hoi left the factory in a flash, grumbling, under Vegetto's discreet watch.

Vegetto wondered if he shouldn't intervene. The city had already been partly destroyed because of that man. If he let him do what he had planned, wasn't he acting like Vegeta had? Vegeta who was fully responsible for Perfect Cell's creation, and who had put the universe in danger? But if one part or the other of the monster was to be released again, then he'd have to teleport them far away, that was all. The battle wouldn't put the population in danger. He split in two again because the two persons he had to keep watch of were already moving away from one another.

Tapion and Trunks talked a bit. That scene, and the trust that the child had showed him, had broken the ice. And when the night fell, Trunks invited Tapion to come to his house. The fleeting image of his little brother crossed Tapion's mind who accepted.

After he had shown him his toys and they had spoken about many things, Trunks fell asleep and Tapion started to make his way back to the factory. But Bulma was in his way.

“Do you want some tea, Mister Tapion?”

“No, thanks. I...”

“Some... tea.” insisted Trunks' mother, separating the two words to make him understand that he couldn't turn down the offer.

Disconcerted by his new friend's mother's order, Tapion noticed then that they were not alone. There was a man leaning on the door frame. Ruffled hair, penetrating eyes, he seemed to be the woman's bodyguard. He couldn't refuse her what she had asked.

While they were waiting for the water to warm, the couple questioned Tapion, and eventually he told his story. Vegetto didn't say much during the conversation but he was very pleased about having guessed a good part of it.

At last, the bodyguard spoke.

“You don't have to worry anymore, Tapion. That kind of monster won't be able to stand against us. I'll bring you to a remote place where you'll release your monster and we'll easily take care of it. The Time Room would have been perfect, but it's broken.”

“No!” he screamed, afraid. “You won't be able to kill such a monster. He's invincible!”

“We are invincible. You may not know it, but yesterday night, the legs of your Hirudegarn had made a fool of themselves against one of us.”

“I saw it. And I played the flute for them to go back into the magician's body. And I also saw that they weren't affected by his attacks!”

“Well, we always take our time at first.”

“Hm...” Bulma coughed a bit. “Veget...to, I do not think that releasing the monsters is always the best idea. I'm not going to insult you by reminding you that with a bit of prevention, and a bit less of.. hm... of YOU, then we'd have strangled the Cyborgs', Perfect Cell's and Buu's threats at birth.”

Vegetto gaped. It's true that when Mirai Trunks had warned them, Gokû and Vegeta had refused to track Gero down, as a precautionary measure. On the other hand, the woman directly blamed Vegeta for Buu and Perfect Cell. She still had a hard time coming to term with her man's treason, the fact that he had decided to let himself be controlled by Babidi in order to forget everything about her and his son. In his mind, that was the only way he had left to fight Gokû. They had never got onto the topic, for they had taken advantage of the fact that he had become Vegetto to never talk about that. He also had never apologized for it. Yet, that fault was the worst one in Bulma's eyes.

“Do what you wish.” he grumbled as he left the room (on foot, for once).

Bulma turned towards their guest.

“You can't sleep because the monster is released during these moments, isn't it? I know a way to solve it. We have gathered the pieces of the music box. By tomorrow, I'd have built a giant version of the box where you could safely sleep in!”

“It's possible?” asked Tapion, for once he allowed himself to hope.

“Ah ah ah! Of course! I'm a genius! You can count on me!”

And he counted on her. Tapion spent the night awake and in the wee hours, Bulma called for him.

In the workshop of the big house, a big box had appeared. People could recognize the enlarged and modified pieces of the music box. Bulma had used the same material and reproduced the same design.

Many could be in here at once and the only piece of furniture it contained was a bed. Strange black boxes hung to the wall.

“What are those...?” asked Tapion, pointing at one of them.

“Oh, that? It's nothing.” replied Bulma. “Those are loudspeakers. Something my father added.”

“But, my dear,” intervened the professor Brief, as he appeared behind them. “It's a music box, isn't it? How can you imagine such a thing without a good quality sound?”

“Well, as I was saying, it's nothing. Mr Tapion, you might be tired. So I wish you a good night.”

And Tapion, once he was left alone, went to bed and fell asleep right away.

But Hoi didn't consider things were over yet! He knew that with or without his ocarina, Tapion will eventually have to free the nine-tail demon. He just needed to be patient. He went in town again and let the lower part leave his body, in the form of smoke.

As the monster was starting to leave his body, he felt a hand on his back and fingers around his neck.

Someone was behind him and was threatening him!! Yet, he had detected no presence!

“Put your pokemon back into you.” said his attaker. “If you don't, I'm going to tear off some of your vital organs.”

“If... It you kill me, then the monster will be freed for ever!” whispered the magician.

“Really? In that case, I'll kill you now.” said the voice, sounding sure of himself.

“It... it doesn't make sense! You don't want it to be freed! You're bluffing!”

“Actually, I'm not sure about what I want. At the moment, I'm being reasonable. But a small chaos... that'd be really great. Well, go on, do as I say!”

The magician was sweating buckets. He was in a bad situation. Hirudegarn's strength couldn't help him now. He felt the fingers tighten their grip on his neck. He understood that no spell that little magician could cast would protect him against that warrior.

“I... I will get it back. But you have to move away from me. The presence of someone else would prevent the smoke from... ouch arrrrglll!”

“You're extremely funny.” Vegetto tightened his grip even more. “I'm not moving.”

Hoi panicked and the legs of the demons appeared above the city. Their first action would be to fall on the ground, destroying a block of houses in the process.

“Shit!” growled the warrior who teleported beside the legs of the demon right away. He put his hands on them and teleported again with them.

“Pheeeeeew!” sighed the freed Hoi. He felt his throat and had several deep breathes. Then he wondered where had gone his creature and his enemy.

“Let me show you my current training planet!” Vegetto told the legs that didn't listen to him. “Jupitron-9! The Kaioshins had told me about it and she's rather easy to find. I can tell you you're not going to leave that planet any time soon. You don't even know how to fly”

The legs became smoke again and, suddenly, it disappeared.

“And you'll be able to... Huh? Where are you?”

There were no energetic remains of the monster. Vegetto urgently teleported himself back to Earth.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! And shit again!”

Indeed, the legs were there. They had landed on the ground. And they had destroyed the block of houses. And killed many people as well. Come on, how come everyone knew how to teleport themselves nowadays?!? Of course, the little red magician had gone too. And he was well hidden now.

Oh well, too bad. Vegetto will have to show him that his previous opponent was just the second strongest man of the universe. And that Vegetto was quite another level. For good measure, Vegetto transformed into super Saiyan.

As his son had done, he started with a punch on the legs. He punched it towards the sky because it was so powerful that the air all around would have caused a violent explosion that could have destroyed the entire city. The ankle bent to take the hit, but the monster wasn't thrown into the air, as Vegetto had hoped he'd be. What an incredible inertia! Due to the probably intense pain, the long tail of the monster was about to make a huge U-turn on many areas of the town, which would destroy them. But Vegetto was on the alert. He teleported himself in the tail's way and stopped it.

He teleported the monster one kilometre up in the sky and rained blows on the monster. But that was as with the music box: attacks just slid on it or were lost. He quickly attacked the monster, hitting it as hard as he could. He thought that if it was too busy, then the monster wouldn't be able to go in smoke. But the monster did it all the same.

“Oh, damn! I have to find his caster!”

In his caisson, Tapion was having horrible nightmares. He was seeing his innocent little brother being killed. He was seeing Hirudegarn being made whole again and destroying his planet. Then he was seeing himself in his gigantic music box and a huge pair of eyes were starring at him. Crushed by the small room, Hirudegarn's head was trying to come out, but couldn't do it.

And then he screamed because it wasn't a dream. The upper part of the demon was trying to come out, taking advantage of his being asleep.

“My oca...”

The scream of the beast filled the room. Tapion put his fingers in his ears. Something was wrong. He wasn't in stasis or hibernating in that room, contrary to when he was in the small music box. They were locked and Hirudegarn seemed to be unable to leave, but Tapion wasn't able to sleep anyway.

The bust of the monster kept screaming and hitting the walls with his head. And they started to crack.

Although that caisson could keep Hirudegarn's smoke, physical hit could have an effect on it. Another attack shook the entire caisson and Tapion could hear a cracking sound. One of the crack enlarged and a few inches large hole appeared. Hirudegarn went in smoke right away.

“Noooooo!” yelled Tapion who understood that the monster had gotten away. He took his flute and played. But it had no effect for there were no presence. He tried anew. Nothing. Wherever the demon was, it couldn't hear his music.

Tapion threw himself on the door and unlocked it. He left his room to find himself in one of the big room of the Capsule Corp. It was quiet and dark, as if nothing had happened. And the monster had escaped.

The musician-warrior ran towards the exit.

And the morning was coming.

Bulma and Trunks woke up to the sound of the fire engine sirens that were going all over town after the attack of the legs, which had been closer to their home that time.

Vegetto was throwing fire balls in the smoke, and they had the effect one could expect when an energy ball was thrown on a gas: none at all, except for a temporary diversion.

It used his physical form again. And there was a surprise!

Vegetto had a complete monster in front of him: legs, torso, head, arms. A big beast that seemed to have left some Godzilla movies.

In his hiding place, Hoi emitted that sardonic laugh that was the trademark of the evil guy whose plan has succeeded.

Vegetto threw himself on Hirudegarn at top speed, but as he was going to hit it, the latter went in smoke a short time and Vegetto went through it without causing any harm. Then, the giant demon spat a large fire burst on the city. Vegetto threw an energy ball on him, but it just slid on its skin. That opponent was rather frustrating.

Trunks found his hero on a balcony. He was looking at the city, gritting his teeth.

“Tapion? Are you ok?” asked the child.

No, he wasn't ok. Tapion was witnessing the demon destroying the town, the same way he had destroyed his home and civilisation back then, and he couldn't do anything about it. He had played the flute but he obviously was too far away.

He turned to face his young friend and was surprised to see him smiling broadly.

“We know about monsters, Mr Tapion. We've eliminated some incredible ones! My father is over there and he's the strongest being in the whole universe! Literally.”

“Only the sacred items will have an effect on it. Trunks, bring me closer. I have to play.”

“Of course!” said an enthusiastic Trunks. “Just as you did so long ago! You're going to play and I will cut it in half with the sword! Or in four, or eight!”

“No, no.” retorted a surprised Tapion. “It's too dangerous. You bring me there and you leave.”

Trunks transformed in super Saiyan. Tapion moved to the side when he saw Trunks' sudden change of appearance.

“Tapion,” Trunks said. “I am a hero too. And I'm several hundreds time less fragile than you. You'll see, we are going to do it!”

The boy flew a bit above Tapion and hold his hand out to him. He had no choice. The hero offered his own hand and Trunks took his idol to the battlefield.