[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (90/?)
Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.
Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.
Previous chapters conveniently available here.
[25 May 234 Before Age. Interstellar Space.]
"Here's the short version," Pozet explained. "King Rehval created me and sent me to kill Saiyans for him so he would have an excuse to ask your wife Luffa for help. Then he had me kill the detective he hired to catch me, so that you would take over the investigation while he started putting the moves on Luffa. You actually managed to track me all the way back to the Pflaume system, where I was created, and that was a bit of a problem, since that's where he planned to lure Luffa so he could spring his trap."
While Pozet was explaining this, Zatte was trying to grab hold of the intruder, but Pozet kept dodging and batting aside her hands just before Zatte could reach her. The two of them leaped all around the bridge of Luffa's star-yacht, the Emerald Eye.
"How could he possibly trap Luffa?" Zatte asked. "She's the--"
"The Legendary Super Saiyan, I know," Pozet said. "I was created using tissue samples from your body, babe. I'm not really alive, and I don't know everything that you know, but I do share your attraction to her. Master's told me all about her. I must have seen that movie they made about her a dozen times, but the actress they cast to play her doesn't do her justice!"
"What did you think of her love interest, though?" Zatte asked.
"Rax Cosmo? I wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating crackers, but the on-screen chemistry was decent en--HEY!"
Behind Pozet, one of the control consoles exploded, showering her back with sparks and shards of hot polymer. It wasn't enough to hurt her, but the distraction slowed her down just long enough for Zatte to throw a punch to her face--
Only for Pozet to dodge at the last possible moment.
"You used your energy manipulation powers to blow that thing up," Pozet said. "But how'd you do it so quickly?"
"I know the ship pretty well," Zatte said. "Takes the guesswork out of how much energy it takes to destroy parts of it. But it looks like I'll have to try harder to catch you off guard. At least now I know you really don't have my memories, and you can't read my mind or anything like that. Otherwise you would have seen that coming a mile away."
Pozet grinned. "Oh, you're good," she said. "I can see why Luffa married you. Rax Cosmo couldn't hold a candle, even if he was real."
"I identify with him a lot, actually," Zatte said. "He's an underrated character. A lot of fans think Luffa should have ended up with the Fire Prince, but I don't buy it."
"You identify with him?" Pozet asked. They continued circling each other around the confines of the bridge. "He's a man!"
"Well, you have to use your imagination a little, all right?" Zatte said. "Or do you not have one, because you're 'non-living?'"
"Don't underestimate me, honey," Pozet said. "I'm everything you are, but better! I'm as strong as you are, and I'm at least as good a fighter--"
"Computer!" Zatte called out. "Run Program Zatte-630!"
Suddenly, the artificial gravity on the bridge switched off, then on again, and Pozet found herself stumbling backwards as a result. As she regained her footing, she found Zatte leaping directly at her. She tackled her into the navigator's chair and they began to struggle as they rolled to the floor.
Pozet's sudden appearance had been unsettling for Zatte. She had expected the killer to be a Dorlun, but not a strange duplicate of herself. Pozet's face, body, and voice were all identical to her own, but her skin was red instead of Dorlun blue, and her hair was blue instead of Dorlun red. Pozet wore an eyepatch like Zatte's, but on the left eye instead of the right. This was presumably an aesthetic choice, since it hardly made sense to create an artificial assassin and purposely injure her. She needed to understand her enemy, and Pozet seemed to defy comprehension.
As she contemplated this problem, Pozet suddenly stopped resisting her. "You know, I'm not very familiar with this ship at all," she said. "But then, I don't really need to be."
Zatte realized what she was alluding to, but barely managed to escape it. Zatte had shorted out a very specific power conduit earlier, based on a plan to corral the intruder towards in when it finally exploded. Pozet now did the same thing, only she overloaded the plasma conduits in the lights and environmental controls mounted in the ceiling. Being unacquainted with the ship's design, she simply overloaded them all at once. The result was much more destructive than Zatte's diversion with the console. Hot sparks fell all over the deck, and the ship's fire suppression systems activated, dousing the room with foam. In the midst of all this chaos, Zatte lost sight of Pozet, and was unable to find any trace of energy coming from her body.
"Having trouble?" Pozet teased. "You've got the same energy manipulation powers I do. We can both become invisible, and we can both detect ki energy and heat signatures, only my body doesn't put off any heat, and I've got no ki because I'm not alive."
That didn't make sense to Zatte. Through training, living beings could increase their ki power to greatly increase their speed and strength. Pozet seemed to have a power to rival Zatte's own, so if it wasn't ki-based, then what was it?
With the main lights destroyed, the only illumination on the bridge was the monitors and consoles of the bridge stations. This wasn't a problem for Zatte, as her powers allowed her to see a wider range of colors in the electromagnetic spectrum. But this meant it wasn't a problem for Pozet either, which left them in a standoff.
"Computer," Zatte called out. "Execute Program--"
"--619!"
The artificial gravity shut off again, then reactivated at half the strength normally used. Zatte had intended something else, but since she knew this program, she was prepared to cope with it.
"I didn't know what that one would do," Pozet called out. "But I figured a random number would be better than whatever you had in mind. Looks like the computer recognizes my voice as yours, too. Makes things interesting, doesn't it?"
Zatte muttered a Dorlun profanity as she considered this development. She had expected to fight a Dorlun, but never expected one who could so easily mimic her own voice. Pozet didn't even have to try; she just naturally sounded the same, and not even the ship's computer could tell the difference. It wouldn't be enough for Pozet to take complete control of the ship, but it would allow her to confuse the computer whenever Zatte tried to use it herself. As she moved around the deck, hoping to find some sign of Pozet's presence against the fog of fire suppressant chemicals, she noticed that it wasn't just fog. Some of it was smoke.
"Having trouble breathing?" Pozet called out as soon as Zatte began to cough. "I heated up the fibers of the carpet. Not enough to start a fire, but enough to get them smoldering. Smells good, doesn't it?"
Zatte winced as the acrid smell grew stronger as she moved towards the charred carpet. She covered her mouth and nose, but could still find no sign of Pozet. And then she heard a chirp from one of the bridge stations, and she realized that Pozet must have been crouching on top of one and accidentally touched a button.
"Oh, crap," Pozet said. Before she could move away, Zatte raised her hands and fired a ki blast from the palms of her hands. Luffa had taught her to do this, although Zatte preferred to rely on conventional weapons. Her ki powers were relatively weak and imprecise for combat, but there wasn't time to find her pistol or anything else. She simply targeted the entire bridge station and fired a blast large enough and powerful enough to destroy the whole thing before Pozet could get away.
In doing this, Zatte paid a heavy price. She inhaled more of the stale, smokey air, and went into a coughing fit. She needed to get off the bridge, but she couldn't leave until she was certain Pozet was neutralized. She tried to hold her breath and search around the deck, but after several minutes, she found nothing. And then something kicked her from behind, and she fell to the floor.
"That was a lucky shot," Pozet said. The smoke was thicker on the floor, but Zatte was still able to see Pozet, who apparently now felt confident to become visible. The homunculus' left arm was badly burned, but she seemed unconcerned by this injury. If the bad air was causing her any problems, she didn't show it. Pozet only breathed when she needed to speak aloud.
"I'm not here to kill you, Zatte," she said. "My master just wants me to keep you occupied for a while. I had meant to just play with you until he contacted me with further instructions, but you're dangerous. If I'm not careful, you might just find a way around me, and I can't let that happen. Luckily, I took out the life support system, so there's nothing to stop the bridge from filling up with smoke and suffocating you. So I figure I'll relax and wait for you to stop breathing. How's that sound--? Wait, what have you got there?"
Zatte had been carrying a portable air supply canister on her belt the entire time. She had been keeping it invisible with her powers, and had refrained from using it in case she would need it later. Now, with the smoke becoming unbearable, she had strapped the face-piece to her mouth and made it just visible enough for Pozet to notice, and she used this distraction to grab her by the ankles and fling her across the bridge.
The situation was untenable. Zatte had hoped to keep their battle confined to a small area of the ship, but between the smoke and damaged controls, the terrain was beginning to shift into Pozet's favor. The air canister she was breathing from would only last for so long, and now that Pozet knew about it, she would focus her efforts on destroying it or taking it away.
So Zatte headed for the lift, forced the doors, and leaped down the shaft to relative safety. It worried her to leave Pozet unchecked on the bridge, but until she knew how to fight Pozet effectively, she had to keep moving through the relative safety of the rest of the ship.
As Zatte made her way to an access tunnel that intersected the lift shaft, she wondered just how long that relative safety would last.
*******
[25 May 234 Before Age. Planet Pflaume.]
Moments ago, Luffa believed there were only two life forms on the ice giant world of Pflaume: herself, and Rehval III, the King of the Saiyans, whom she had followed here through a mystical portal. Luffa was wrong. A third Saiyan, her own son, now stood before her, though she could not understand how this was possible.
The only habitable settlement in the entire solar system was Pflaume City, an artificial biosphere which floated through Planet Pflaume's upper atmosphere like a great fortress adrift in a storm. King Rehval had it evacuated prior to this encounter. He had gone to great lengths to lure Luffa here, in order to propose an alliance that would betray everything Luffa held dear. Rehval III was unlike any Saiyan Luffa had ever met. He was a brilliant visionary and a powerful fighter, but he was utterly devoid of honor. Rehval seemed willing to stoop to anything to achieve his goals, which all involved shaping the future of the Saiyan species for centuries to come. Lies, treachery, sorcery-- Rehval was willing to use any trick and suffer any humiliation to get what he wanted.
And now, Luffa's son had come to King Rehval's rescue.
"Are you all right, Your Majesty?" the boy called to his sovereign.
"I am now," Rehval replied. Luffa had been torturing Rehval with a compression lock on his leg. He rose to his feet slowly, painfully, but he still managed to stand, which might have surprised Luffa if he hadn't been fixated on the boy.
"My lord, your arm!" the boy cried.
Rehval nodded and gripped the burned flesh of his left arm with his right hand. "It'll be fine, Xibuyas," he said, though he couldn't completely hide the anguish in his voice."
"I know of your powers, Sire," Xibuyas said uneasily. "That you can restore yourself from injuries far worse than these, but I still wish that you had summoned me sooner!"
"The enemy is swifter than I anticipated," Rehval admitted. He looked at Luffa and smiled. "And more clever."
"And more foolish!" Xibuyas shouted. "When you told me of your plan to offer her an alliance, I expected to find her kneeling at your feet, not torturing you! Move aside, King Rehval. Let me teach her the price of her defiance!"
Rehval raised his good hand to signal the boy to stand by.
"What have you done?" Luffa asked in a low voice. She was addressing Rehval, though she never took her eyes off the boy.
"Surely you can guess that for yourself, Luffa," Rehval said. "I told you of my knowledge of alchemy. You've seen the Pozet, the homunculus I created for you. I've told you of how I increased my own power beyond what little nature saw fit to give me. And you've seen my laboratory on Planet Saiya. You've seen the gestation chambers, which nurture embryonic Saiyans so they can be born with their maximum potential."
She didn't want to believe it, but it made too much sense for her to deny it. Years ago, the Tikosi captured her, and tormented her for months for the sake of their twisted "experiments". Luffa's own father had arranged for this, betraying her so that he could benefit from the fruits of their research. What no one had known was that Luffa had been pregnant at the time. The father of her child, Luffa's husband, convinced the Tikosi to surgically remove the boy from Luffa's body. They turned the remains over to him, and when Luffa finally escaped the Tikosi, she hunted him down across the galaxy, hoping to mete out justice for her son's death.
But she had only assumed the child was stillborn. When she finally caught up with her husband, Kandai told her that he had been hired by King Rehval to secure the fetus. Kandai himself didn't know what he intended to do with it. Like Luffa, he had probably never imagined that the child could have survived. But the Tikosi had keep Luffa alive throughout her captivity. Their experiments had been designed to bring her to the brink of death and back, again and again and again. Was it so impossible to imagine that they could have kept a prenatal Saiyan alive outside its mother's womb? Such technology was commonplace in the wider galaxy. Even the Saiyans used it, though Luffa found the practice revolting. To Luffa, motherhood was a sacred rite among Saiyans, or at least it was supposed to be. The idea of Saiyan mothers giving up their children to be midwifed by machines was so horrifying to her that she never considered that it could have happened to her own offspring.
Luffa wanted to believe that this was a trick, that the boy standing before her was another homunculus, or some other alchemical illusion cast by Rehval, but the boy's ki was unmistakable. The only thing that didn't make sense was his age. Her son should only be three years old by now. This boy looked closer to fifteen.
"You probably have some way to age people," Luffa muttered. "But that doesn't fit. "He couldn't have gotten so strong in only three years."
"Very astute, Luffa," Rehval said. His breathing was still labored from his injuries, but he seemed determined to remain calm and in control of the situation. "Xibuyas was not aged through some artificial means. He was trained in a special place, one revealed to me by the Guardian of Planet Saiya."
"Guardian?" Luffa repeated in surprise. She had encountered such beings before in her travels. They were supposed to be mortals who were granted the station of lesser gods. Their duty was to watch over their assigned worlds, though their power paled in comparison to mortal warriors like the Saiyans. It wasn't difficult to imagine Rehval's grandfather conquering an inhabited world, renaming it "Saiya", and destroying its indigenous population, all while their Guardian looked on helplessly.
"She was magnificent," Rehval said wistfully. "My grandfather had kept her alive, mostly to avoid any reprisal from on high, and because she was no threat to us. But where he and my father saw a figurehead, I saw untapped potential. When I was ready, I pitted my charms and talismans against her divine wisdom, and I bent her to my will. That summer I spent on her lookout was one of the happiest of my life. She showed everything to me, including a room where time passed more slowly on the inside. It was designed to seal itself after only two days of use by a single occupant, but I managed to work around that rule, and had the entrance relocated to my home on Pflaume City. In total, he has spent twelve days in that room, training with my servants. But inside the room, a year passed for each of those days."
"Then they're the ones who raised him," Luffa said bitterly. "Taught him how to be the obedient little bootlick to the Saiyan King, is that it?"
"I wanted you to rule by my side, Luffa," Rehval said. "I lied to you, but my purpose was sincere. I had hoped that even if you despised me, we could put aside our differences for the sake of our people. Perhaps you think me foolish for hoping you might accept my proposal, but I was not so naive that I didn't prepare for your refusal."
He gestured to Xibuyas. "If you insist on being my enemy, then Xibuyas will accomplish what you would not. You call him a 'bootlick', but he's far more than that. I've already arranged for him to be mated to one of my daughters."
"Like hell!" Luffa seethed.
"Whatever power he possesses, whatever secrets lie in his bloodline, they will be passed onto my grandchildren, and on down to the rest of the Rehval Dynasty."
"You know it doesn't work that way, idiot!" Luffa shouted. "If you could breed a stronger Saiyan, don't you think someone would have done it a long time ago?! Every one of us is probably descended from Chanisp, but I'm the only one as strong as--!"
"That only proves that our ancestors lacked vision," Rehval insisted. "They clung to outmoded beliefs, and useless sentiments, when they should have learned to understand the mysteries that rule our fate! Think of it, Luffa! A Saiyan nation ruled by its strongest family! Where the greatest warriors are allowed to marry into that family. Instead of waiting for gifted fighters to prove their worth, we can measure their potential before birth! A woman like you would be elevated to her rightful place, instead of languishing in the care of mercenaries living hand-to-mouth!"
"And what about the ones that don't have any potential?" Luffa asked.
Rehval shrugged his good arm. "They have their uses, I'm sure," he said. "The ones who can contribute to the gene pool will be allowed to do so. The rest will have to earn their acceptance, one way or another."
"And that's the great future you want for the Saiyan race?" Luffa asked. "That's the future you had in mind for my son?!" She began to laugh. "And they call me a monster."
"You are a monster, Luffa," Rehval replied calmly. "Not because of your yellow hair or green eyes, but because you represent the chaos that has benighted our people throughout our entire history. I wanted to make a place in my kingdom for you, but I see now that I was wrong. All I can do for you now is order your execution."
"You and what army?" Luffa scoffed as she pointed to the boy. "Bringing him out here might have saved you for a few more minutes, but he's not strong enough to save you--"
She approached Rehval and raised her left fist.
"Get away from him!" Xibuyas shouted.
"Stay out of this, Katem!" Luffa shouted back. "I'll deal with you in a minute. First, I'm going to make this slime pay for what he's done!"
Despite his injuries, King Rehval was still immensely powerful by the standards of normal Saiyans. As Luffa attacked, he leaped backward to roll away from her punch. Dodging would be impossible, but by moving away from her fist as she connected, he could at least reduce the impact of her blow.
However, Luffa was the Legendary Super Saiyan, and from the perspective of her transformed state, Rehval might as well have been moving in slow motion. Though using only a fraction of her full power, she had more than enough to leap forward after him, ensuring that her blow would still hit hard enough to crush his skull.
Then Xibuyas moved. Luffa spotted this out of the corner of her eye, but thought nothing of it. As powerful as he was, he was still too slow and too far away to do anything to save King Rehval.
Except, when her fist connected, it did not land on Rehval's forehead. Instead, she was caught in Xibuyas's hand. Somehow, he had managed a burst of speed that had allowed him to get between Luffa and Rehval.
Luffa was too astonished to react. Though she had the strength to pull free of the boy's grip, she stood transfixed and watched his eyes glaze over with rage. He started to hyperventilate, and then he cried out in a voice that Luffa couldn't help but find familiar.
And then she saw what looked like steam rising from Xibuyas' body, and he was suddenly engulfed with a golden aura. She noticed that his grip on her hand was getting stronger...
"What...?! No way!" was all Luffa could manage to say.
The part of the city they were standing in was some kind of promenade, with shops and restaurants lining the walls of the corridors. These were abandoned, but their signs and lighting were still active. As Xibuyas' power increased, the electronics closest to the Saiyans began to short circuit and explode.
"Twelve years, Luffa," Rehval said as he backed away from them. "I did everything I could to make him strong enough to defeat even you. I wasn't sure it would be enough, but now that I see Xibuyas in action, I have to say that I'm pleased with the results. Destroy her, Xibuyas! Now!"
*******
Xibuyas wasted no time, leaping after Luffa and striking her unguarded face. She went flying back, and the boy chased after her. With a burst of speed, he stopped directly ahead of her, and landed a powerful kick that send her flying off in another direction. For a minute or so, he bounced her around the promenade like a rubber ball, until at last he allowed her to crash into the deckplate below. Luffa's impact was so great that she gouged a trench into the thick metal.
"You're nothing but a fraud!" Xibuyas shouted. "King Rehval was wise to prepare me for this battle, woman! But you're no match for the power of a true Saiyan warrior!"
He wouldn't fail. King Rehval had been preparing him for this battle for his entire life. Failure was simply not an option. Xibuyas would crush this impostor once and for all, and prove himself worthy. The "Super Saiyan" had a fearsome reputation, and his power lacked experience, but he was sure that he could overwhelm her. He just had to stay focused and stand firm.
He readied an energy blast in his left hand, but before he could send it down at his target, he noticed she was getting up. Too angry to analyze this development, he launched his attack, expecting it to have the same effect whether she was standing or lying down.
The energy sphere was more of an amorphous glob. It was mostly yellow, with swirls of red, like it wasn't entirely finished. Seconds before it engulfed Luffa, Xibuyas saw her face. He expected terror, or perhaps surprise. Instead, her expression was one of... curiosity? He wondered if she might dodge it, and then the attack made contact, and he couldn't see her at all.
Only, instead of the usual explosion of red-and-yellow light that followed his technique, it all simply faded away. He saw Luffa looking up at him, smiling. In her clenched fists were what looked like pieces of his energy glob, as if she had somehow ripped it apart.
"What have you--?!" he began to shout. "How did you do that?!"
"It...it's really you," she said. Her smile faltered as she spoke, and her eyes widened. "I don't understand it, but it's really you. Maybe... maybe I should check again."
"Fool!" Xibuyas screamed. "If you want to spend your last moments of life babbling like an old woman, then so be it!" He launched himself directly at her, leading with his fists. "Now you will DIE!"
He crashed into her, his hands charged with ki energy which he fired into her abdomen at the moment he made contact. The raw power of the blow tore the deck apart, and he fell through to the level below. Xibuyas realized he was inside a large auditorium. Wreckage from the ceiling was still spilling into the seats.
"And that will be the end of that!" he declared. "All that's left for me to do now is search for your miserable corpse! Xibuyas is no fool, woman. I know all about your tricks, and I won't allow you to slip away like a dog so you can plan your escape."
He floated above the rows of seats, then hovered over the stage, thinking it would afford him a better view. "Of course," he said to himself with a laugh, "there is the possibility that my last attack shattered your puny body into a thousand pieces! King Rehval should hire a cleaning crew to gather them all up. Pity. I would have enjoyed taking your head as a trophy, woman! You were supposed to be my first great triumph, and you barely put up a struggle. Eh--?"
At last, he noticed the hole in the stage, where he found Luffa kneeling. Around her was a pile of theatrical supplies and sound equipment. She had her back turned to Xibuyas, and she was no longer glowing yellow like before. She appeared to be muttering to her hands.
"Alive?!" Xibuyas howled. "Impossible! I don't know what you're playing at, woman, but I'll give you some free advice: Never turn your back on the great Xibuyas!"
He aimed his hand at her back and bombarded her with dozens of energy globules, each of them exploding all around her. In seconds, the entire stage was engulfed in orange ki energy, and then he sensed her moving within it.
She walked out of the firestorm, across the stage, and hopped down. Xibuyas could almost see a slight refraction of light surrounding her body. Had she shielded herself from his attack? How could she maintain such a defense without showing the slightest sign of strain? Then he realized that she was still mumbling to herself. He watched her walk up to one of the seats in the front row, where she sat down and looked back up at him.
"I see it now," Xibuyas said. "It's a trick! You're using some kind of magic spell, or maybe a technological gadget to protect yourself from my power! Well be warned, female! A Saiyan warrior won't be so easily deceived! I-- are you even listening to me?!"
"It's really you," Luffa said. "It's the same power. Rehval couldn't fake that. He wouldn't know how. Right? I-I don't think it's possible, but..."
"Enough!" Xibuyas screamed. He dropped to the floor and rushed directly in front of Luffa. "I don't know what that incantation of yours is supposed to do, but it won't save you from my wrath! Now, die!"
He threw a right hand, aiming for the top of Luffa's skull. She had lowered her head as he approached, as if she couldn't bear to look at him up close. He could only assume that the witch was overcome with fear, which could only mean her defenses were at their limit. A single blow, and it would all be over--
She caught his fist in her hand. He didn't even see her move. In one moment, she had been powered down, and despondent. In the next, she had transformed, and his hand felt like it was caught in a vise.
"L... Let go of me!" he cried.
Though he tried to deny it, he could feel the fear growing within him. He had been as fierce and relentless as he had planned, and Luffa had shrugged off his attacks like they were nothing. Worse, she didn't even seem to be paying close attention to their battle. He couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he managed to hurt her badly enough to get her undivided attention.
She looked up at him, her face showing a mixture of emotions, but none of them particularly aggressive. "It's really you, isn't it? I never thought I'd sense this ki again. It's really you, Katem."
"K-katem?" Xibuyas finally managed to pull free, and he took a step back to assess the situation. It was as if she were defending herself by reflex, and she wasn't fighting back at all. Was she truly so confident in her power that she refused to fight him seriously? But if she had such an overwhelming advantage, why was she so troubled?
"Who in the hell is Katem?!" he asked as he shook his right hand to recover from her grip. He didn't realize how tightly she had held him until he was free.
"You are," she said ominously. "That's what I named you. Katem if you were a boy. And if you had been a girl..."
Tears were streaming from her face, and she rose from her chair to slowly walk towards him. More confused than afraid, Xibuyas took a step backward as she approached. She started to chuckle, and soon this grew into a sort of halting, broken laughter.
"My name," he insisted, "is Xibuyas! It was given to me by the King of the Saiyans himself!"
Luffa glared at him, then turned her head and spit on the floor. "That's what I think of the king," she said.
"You dare--!"
"He's a liar and a coward and a filthy kidnapper," Luffa said in a raw, ugly tone. "I failed you, Katem. I failed you so completely that I'll never be able to apologize to you properly. But I refuse to dishonor my own son by calling you anything else."
"Then that's your game," Xibuyas scoffed. "You actually think you can gain the upper hand by pretending to by my mother?"
"I'm not pretending anything," Luffa said. "And I don't expect you to believe me. I can hardly believe it myself. I'm just... I'm trying to make sense of it all."
"Oh, by all means, 'mother', take your time!" Xibuyas said. He raised his hands and fired a blast of energy from his palms, which engulfed her and every seat behind her all the way to the back of the theater. "You can figure it out in hell!"
When the glow of his attack subsided, Luffa was still there. Behind her was only a field of ash and molten scrap where the seats had been, but Luffa herself was completely unharmed.
"Well, you seem healthy, at least," Luffa said. "I guess I should be grateful for that."
"Wh- what are you?!" Xibuyas stammered. "That attack should have...! But you--!"
"Do you live in this place?" Luffa asked. "I never sensed your presence on Planet Saiya. Not that I would have thought to check for it, but... Well, what do they feed you here?"
Xibuyas threw a left kick, but she blocked it with her forearm. "Is that a stupid thing to ask? I... I just never expected this. I don't know what to say right now. I think... I think I'm losing my mind."
Xibuyas tried a punch to her face. Luffa didn't bother blocking. His fist simply connected with her chin, and nothing happened. She didn't even flinch.
"I'm sorry," she finally said, as if rousing herself from a dream. "You're trying to fight me, and I'm just sleepwalking through it. I'm embarrassing you."
She stooped low and swung her left leg around to sweep his ankles. Xibuyas thought he read the attack quickly enough to brace himself, but she knocked him off balance with seemingly no effort at all. Before he could even finish falling, she was suddenly on top of him, grabbing him by his shirt and striking his cheek, shoulder, and chest with the edge of her free hand. Then she tossed him to the ground.
Her blows were so quick that he barely saw her move, but the pain exploded from every part of his body where she had touched him. He clenched his teeth and tried not to cry out. At last, he realized that this creature was even more fearsome than King Rehval had led him to believe. She wasn't just strong. She was... emotional. Everything she said and did was disturbing to him. It was one thing that she kept claiming to be his mother. What made it worse was that she clearly had no need to play mindgames with him. Was she just doing it to be sadistic, or...?
"Hey, that was good," Luffa said. "I didn't think you'd be able to see me coming, but you did. Rehval kept telling me he's the strongest Saiyan after me, but I guess he was lying about that too."
"You're... not a Saiyan!" Xibuyas growled as he rose to his feet. He was clutching the spot on his chest where Luffa had hit him. "And you're not my mother."
Luffa extended her arm and curled in her fingers to invite him to try again. "Convince me," she said.
He saw the tears in her eyes, and the weary smile on her lips, and Xibuyas felt his mouth go dry from terror.
NEXT: Quality Time