[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (75/?)
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.
[6 March 234 Before Age. Nat-Chezz II.]
When Zaperc led the Saiyans to Nat-Chezz II, their plan had been to defend the planet against any would-be invaders. The idea was to imitate what the Super Saiyan Luffa had achieved with her establishment of an interplanetary Federation. Instead of seeking out easy battles, they would stand their ground and try to cultivate a reputation as a force to be reckoned with. This would in turn attract even stronger invaders, giving the Saiyans a chance to become stronger themselves as they repelled them. At least, this was the theory.
In practice, Zaperc’s followers were virtually indistinguishable from the sort of invaders they pledged to drive off. Upon arrival, they declared martial law, shut down much of the planet’s communications, and helped themselves to whatever supplies and treasure they wished. The Chezzi people had endured worse occupations in the past, so they tolerated the situation for a time, but they still breathed a sigh of relief when Luffa discovered their plight and intervened.
In the weeks that followed, Luffa subjected these Saiyans to intense training, determined to mold the band into the sort of champions they had claimed to be. The Chezzi King had allowed them to keep the mansion they had appropriated, but all the treasure they had taken was returned, and the Saiyans spent most of their days drilling in the wilderness or conducting war games with the Chezzi military. When their work for the day was finished, they convened at their manor and feasted on whatever luckless animals they happened to find during their training exercises.
“That’s what I like about you, Jikama,” Lesseri said as she ripped hunks of flesh from a carcass on the table. “You may be half-Chezzi, but at least you eat like a Saiyan. I knew a mixed-blood on Siphone II. Guy had no appetite at all. Creepy.”
“Thanks... I think,” Jikama said between bites. “So, any word on when Luffa’s coming back?”
“Nothing new,” Vigurd said as she drank an entire pot of stew and wiped her mouth on her forearm. “What’s wrong, Jikama? You miss that gilded blowhard already?”
“I just enjoyed her cooking,” he said awkwardly. “Not that there’s anything wrong with this, but we’ve been roasting animals on a spit for a week now. I could go for some of that insect crumb of hers.”
“Insect crumb, my foot!” Lesseri scoffed. “Don’t listen to him, Vigurd. He just wants another pat on the head from Zattie.”
Jikama chuckled at this. Of all the Saiyans in Zaperc’s group, he had shown the most improvement in tracking Zatte through dense foliage. Luffa’s alien wife lacked Saiyan power, but she could make herself virtually undetectable, and she was armed with advanced weaponry and a talent for asymmetrical warfare. She had praised him a number of times in front of Luffa and the other Saiyans, which had earned him a lot of teasing from his comrades. Not wishing to antagonize any of them, he smiled and tried to take it in stride.
“If you asked me, it’d be just as well if she never came back,” muttered Brockle. He sat at the head of the table, nursing a flagon of ale while he devoured a plate of spare ribs.
“Please, Brockle,” Vigurd laughed. “We’ve all seen you leer at her when you think no one’s watching. You miss Zattie more than Jikama does.”
“Yeah,” Lesseri added. “Don’t take it personally, Brockle. You’re just not her type, if you know what I mean.”
The two women laughed, and Jikama tried to delicately suggest that maybe they shouldn’t make a habit of calling her “Zattie”, when Brockle slammed his fist on the table.
“I’m not talking about the damned alien,” he said. “I meant Luffa.”
“I wouldn’t let your father hear you talk that way,” Vigurd warned.
“I’ve learned all I need to know from the Super Saiyan,” Brockle insisted. “I’m getting stronger every day, and before long I’ll be powerful enough to surpass her.”
“No offense, kid,” Lesseri said, “but get real. We’ve all felt the ki Luffa puts off. You’re nowhere near her level.”
He stood up and raised his fists. “I’m more than a match for you, Lesseri!” he shouted.
She nodded and sipped her drink. “You’re right, but being stronger than me doesn’t change anything, does it?”
“I have the potential to beat her!” he insisted. “I know it!”
“Maybe so,” Vigurd said, “but until you do, you’ll have to put up with her crap like the rest of us. Unless she’s dumb enough to get killed in spaceflight. I wonder if someone could sneak an explosive on that ship of hers without her noticing...”
“Now what would that accomplish?” Lesseri asked.
“Oh, I’m just thinking out loud,” Vigurd chuckled. She finished her meal and patted her sizable belly with satisfaction. “People would pay a fortune to hire the mercenary who slew the Super Saiyan, wouldn’t they?”
“Not once the word gets around that she’s just a run-of-the-mill Saiyan like a hundred thousand others available for hire,” Lesseri noted. “All you’d prove is that you know how to set a time-bomb.”
“Wouldn’t someone else try to bomb your ship?” Jikama suggested. “Then they could cash in on being the one to kill the mercenary who killed the Super Saiyan.”
Lesseri pointed a table knife at Jikama. “See? He’s only half-Saiyan and he gets it.”
“I don’t know why my father put up with you fools,” Brockle grumbled.
“Because he knows he needs all the help he can get to keep his son from getting himself killed,” Lesseri said. “Maybe you were in line to serve in Rehval’s elite guard, but you fouled that gig up, and now you’ve got to scrape together a living like the rest of us merc trash. You don’t have to like us, Brockle. You don’t have to like Luffa either, or her blue-skinned devil girl, for that matter, but you still need us for the time being.”
He opened his mouth to respond, when suddenly all four of them gasped with shock and turned to look up at the sky. There was nothing to see, at least not with the naked eye, but the ki they had sensed was powerful enough to be sensed, even from outer space.
“Is that... Luffa?” Vigurd asked.
“It can’t be,” Brockle said. “It feels completely different. And there’s... two of them.”
“Jikama, contact the Chezzi military,” Lesseri said. “We’ll need telemetry on that ship.”
“Huh? Oh, right!” he said as he scrambled out of his seat. While he took off into the air, she turned to Brockle.
“Go find your father,” she said. “Looks like we finally have a fight on our hands.”
“I don’t take orders from you, woman!” he said indignantly.
“That’s right, you don’t,” she said. “We both take orders from your father, and I’d like to start taking some before whatever that is gets here, so hurry up and find him!”
He muttered obscenities under his breath as he got up from the table, promising himself that she would pay for her disrespect, but Lesseri didn’t care as long as he did as she asked.
She looked to Vigurd next. “Do me a favor and prep Zaperc’s ship for launch.”
“What?” Vigurd asked. “You want to run?”
“Right now I want to keep my options open,” Lesseri said. “Without Luffa to back us up, I don’t know if we can beat these guys, and I don’t know if Zaperc’s sensible enough to order a retreat. I don’t know about you, but I’d like an escape route handy.”
“You know, so would I, now that you mention it,” Vigurd said after a moment’s consideration.
“Yes, I thought you might,” Lesseri said after Vigurd flew off.
*******
Two hours later, Zaperc was with Hijik in the throneroom of the King of Nat-Chezz, accompanied by several high-ranking military commanders. They had been discussing plans to destroy the incoming vessel before it could deploy its forces, when suddenly an image of two women appeared in the center of the room.
Both of them had pale, almost transparent skin. The shorter of the two was almost completely concealed beneath a black cloak. Only her bare feet and lower shins were visible below the hem, and the hood of her cloak revealed only the portion of her face below her eyes. Her nose and mouth were contorted into a cruel sneer.
The taller woman was adorned in black leather up to her chest, which added emphasis to her large, muscular arms. An iron helmet concealed her eyes as well, though a dark, horizontal slot on the front presumably allowed her to see out of it. Lengths of wire hung from the back of the helmet, almost as if to serve as a crude substitute for hair. Her lips were stretched to reveal her clenched teeth, as though she were constantly on the verge of biting someone.
“Are they holograms?” the king asked.
“I think they’re some sort of ki constructs, Sire,” Zaperc said cautiously. “Hijik, can you sense them too?”
Hijik nodded, and curled his tail around his waist. Before he could give his own opinion on the images, the cloaked one addressed the room.
“Hail, King of Nat-Chezz. I am Ünderlyne, and this is Stryquethru. Henceforth, we shall be the new masters of your world.”
“Long have we coveted your scandium resources, King of the Chezzi,” Stryquethru growled through her teeth. “You will surrender your world to us, or we shall take it by force. Doubtless you have warriors who can already sense our power approaching your world. They will tell you that we cannot be defeated. Heed their warning and surrender to us!”
“Surrender, and you shall be shown... mercy...” promised Ünderlyne, though her tone lacked sincerity. “The tender mercies of Stryquethru and Ünderlyne... Oh how we beg you to submit.”
“Resist,” Stryquethru seethed, “and your people shall suffer terribly! Woe to the defiant! For there is no refuge from our wrath!”
“Woe!” wailed Ünderlyne.
“Woe!” added Stryquethru.
“Wooooooooeeeeee!” they howled in unison.
As their voices faded, so too did their images, and the message appeared to be concluded. The king looked to his advisors, and then to the two Saiyans, desperate for counsel.
“At current velocity, we expect them to reach the planet in two hours, Sire,” said one of the generals.
“My son Brockle may be able to destroy their ship before it reaches the atmosphere, Sire,” Zaperc said. “If not, I would recommend deploying our forces here...”
“Is this a joke?!” Hijik yelled.
Suddenly, everyone in the room fell silent, and all eyes were looking to him.
“It’s obviously a trick!” Hijik said. “Am I the only one who sees it?”
“Hijik, what are you talking about?” Zaperc demanded. “We don’t have time for--”
“That was Luffa, of course!” Hijik said. “Luffa and her alien ‘partner’ or whatever she calls it! They left the planet days ago, frustrated that we weren’t jumping through their hoops fast enough for them, so they dreamed up this phony invasion as some pathetic team-building exercise!”
Silence fell upon the room again. At last, the king spoke. “Zaperc, could he be right? Would the Super Saiyan do such a thing?”
Zaperc hesitated. He had studied Luffa’s career for over two years, only to find that the real Luffa was very different from what his sources had told him. She had been testing them for weeks now. Could this be another test? If it was, wouldn’t she have informed the king? Perhaps he was aware of her plan, and he was feigning ignorance to help Luffa gauge their reactions.
“I... I don’t know,” he finally said. “Perhaps we should wait and see.”
“Wait?! Wait for what?” one of the Chezzi generals demanded. “Neither of those women looked nothing like Luffa. The shorter one was at least six inches taller than her.”
“It was a ki projection,” Hijik said. “They could have made it look any size or shape they wanted!”
“And since when does Luffa have that ability?” the general asked sharply.
“Her woman has all sorts of energy manipulation powers,” Hijik said. “Working together, there’s no telling what they could do.”
“But why go to all this trouble?” the Chezzi king asked. “Why not simply arrange a war game maneuver?”
“Because it’s a team-building exercise,” Hijik said. The disgust in his voice made it sound like he was describing the most detestable atrocity he could imagine. “You don’t understand how women think, Your Majesty. They want to humiliate us, then force us to work together against a common foe, and then they’ll reveal their ruse at the last moment, to reinforce the idea that none of us can accomplish anything unless they allow it.”
“Wh-what?” the king asked.
Hijik sighed. “I can see I’ll have to go over the basics of involuntary celibacy with you. I’ll need something to write on so I can make a diagram...”
********
On a cozy island village off the coast of one of Nat-Chezz’s larger continents, Bodi stood in a library and watched patiently while a Chezzi woman looked through an almanac.
“Sorry this is taking so long,” she said as she ran her maroon-skinned fingers down a table printed on page 702. “You’d probably have more luck calling the Royal Astronomy Society. They have a computer program that calculates things like this.”
Bodi smirked as he rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “Luck? Calculations?” he asked. “With the fate of this world on the line, there can be no half-measures. Take your time, and while you concentrate on finding the answer I need, I will drink in your beauty, and let it inspire my Saiyan power to unseen heights!”
The woman faltered for a moment, and clutched at her temples. Even the horns on her head seemed to droop slightly.
“Is something wrong?” Bodi asked. “Have you found it?”
“No, I just... felt a little ill for a moment,” she said. “Could you maybe save the cheesy lines for after the invasion?”
“Very well,” Bodi said as he dramatically removed his sunglasses. “I accept!”
He had been patrolling this part of the planet when he sensed the huge powers approaching from space. With Luffa and Zatte offworld, his standing orders were to report to Zaperc and the Chezzi military command, but he knew better. There would be only one way to halt this impending doom. Only one power that could bring Bodi and his comrade the victory they all craved. Bodi would seize that power, and with it, the triumph, and with that... maybe some grateful Chezzi women...
“Okay, I think I’ve got it,” she said.
“Good job!” he cheered, pointing at her with both hands. “The location of the full moon!”
“Well, that’s just it,” she said sheepishly. “The full moon won’t be in the sky for another week. It doesn’t matter where you go on the planet’s surface. It all depends on the moon’s position in relation to the sun.”
His jaw dropped.
“What I was thinking of was a solar eclipse,” she explained. “With those, it depends on where the observer is on the planet’s surface. At a certain latitude, the moon would obscure more of the sun’s disc, but that has nothing to do with lunar phases. I’m sorry.”
He didn’t move. A pathetic squeaking sound emanated from his throat, but nothing more.
“Are you sure you need this Giant Ape form to win?” she asked. “It just seems kind of unreliable to me. You get all this power from it, but it only works under the light of the full moon. And what if the invaders managed to cut off your tail?”
He nodded slightly.
“Well, is there anything else I can help you with?” she asked. “If not, I’ll uh... let you get back to strategizing. I feel like I ought to see my family before this ship arrives. So, uh, good luck out there.”
She left him standing there, dumbfounded. One by one, the other patrons left the building, until at last the librarian at the desk shut off the lights and locked the doors. Bodi didn’t move, except for a slight twitch as a single tear ran down his cheek.
*******
“Behold, mistress! The world of Nat-Chezz. And soon it shall be ours! The domain of Stryquethru and Ünderlyne!”
Stryquethru gazed at the image of the planet on the viewscreen, admiring whatever her helmet allowed her to perceive through the slot that obscured her eyes. A tear of blood ran down her cheek as she made a twisted smile.
“How peaceful it looks!” she exclaimed through clenched teeth. “Soon, very, soon my lady--my queen, we shall have all the scandium we could ever need. Scandium enough to sate the darkest of appetites!”
Their ship had only one deck, containing a single, nearly empty room. Nearly every surface was shiny and black, with heavy chains and manacles dangling from various positions on the wall. There were no physical controls. Ünderlyne simply waved her hands, seemingly clawing at the air with the long black nails on her fingers, and the ship responded instantly.
“But hold!” she said. “We are under attack!”
“The fools!” Stryquethru hissed. “Do those spineless worms reject our kind warning already?”
“Worry not, my pet,” Ünderlyne said in a spiteful tone. “The energy beam is a powerful one, rich in vital energy, but easily avoided. Yes, we need only slip our vessel beneath normal space, into the welcoming darkness of subspace, and wait for the danger to pass.”
As she spoke, she gestured with her hands to illustrate, and Stryquethru grunted with malicious approval. Then she tilted back her head and growled.
“Do I sense... Saiyan power in that attack?” she asked.
Ünderlyne paused and considered the question carefully. “Yessssss,” she said with a gleeful cackle. “And added bonus for our conquest!”
“I would bathe in their blood!” Stryquethru insisted. “The one who fired that insolent shot! Yes, my pet, I will not rest until shreds of his viscera are lodged between my teeth!”
“Let us not be hasty,” Ünderlyne said with an evil smile. “The Saiyans make fine stock for breeding, as well as for soup. Imagine an entire offshoot of their race, toiling away to refine scandium for our dark bidding.”
Stryquethru screamed for thirty seconds straight. “Delightful,” she added. “I cannot bear to wait any longer! How long until we arrive?!”
“Soon!” Ünderlyne cried.
*******
“Now!” Ünderlyne cried as they stepped out of the hatch of their ship and onto the courtyard of the Chezzi royal palace.
“Where is the king!?” Stryquethru screeched. “He must surrender his world to us immediately!”
“Bring us the king!” Ünderlyne shrieked. “Lest we hunt him down and devour his eyes!”
But the courtyard was empty, save for the two invaders and their black, disc-shaped vessel. Suddenly, the vessel was engulfed in an explosion.
“How dare!” Ünderlyne rasped.
“My chains!” Stryquethru howled. “All of my favorite chains were on board!”
“Take heart, mistress,” Ünderlyne said. “We shall soon forge new chains, of scandium alloy!”
“Seems your ship is much easier to hit when it’s standing still,” shouted Brockle as he flew over the courtyard. He alighted just in front of the invaders and the burning hulk that was once their ship. “Now I only need to destroy the two of you.”
“You were the one!” Stryquethru moaned. “The one who fired upon us before! Saiyan! I would have your innards!”
Brockle clenched his fists and raised his power level to its maximum. “Come and take them if you can!” he growled. “I’m going to make an example of the two of you. When I’m through, no one will dare come near this planet again!”
“Then let us do battle, fool!” Stryquethru shouted. “Let the seas run red with our blood! Unleash your power Saiyan. Bring forth your fury!”
“Wait, stop! We surrender!”
Brockle turned to see his father running out from one of the palace doors. He ran past Brockle and dropped to his knees before the dark women.
“Father, what are you doing?” Brockle asked.
“Spare my son, please,” Zaperc asked as he clasped his hands together in supplication. “He is only a boy.”
“Father, I am not a boy, I am seventeen years old!” Brockle protested.
“How touching,” Ünderlyne cooed. “The son seeks war, while the father begs for peace. Do you truly know what you ask, filthy Saiyan?”
“We’re no match for you,” Zaperc said. “We have no choice but to yield.”
“Then prove your sincerity, knave!” Stryquethru commanded. “Cut off your tail and eat it here in front of us!”
“That is disgusting, Stryquethru!” Ünderlyne muttered.
“It is the only way they will learn, my mistress,” Stryquethru said quietly.
“Father, you can’t be serious!” Brockle said. “I’m strong enough to defeat these wretches. Let me--”
“Son, your power doesn’t even compare!” Zaperc snapped. “Look past your pride and sense what stands before you! I’m not sure if even Luffa could stand against these monsters.”
Zaperc’s words were like a heavy blow to his gut. In that instant, all the confidence simply drained out of Brockle. “F-father--!” was all he could bring himself to say.
“I’ll do as you ask,” Zaperc said, glancing down at the end of his furry tail. “If you agree to let me and my son leave this planet peacefully.”
“No!”
The four of them turned, and found Hijik floating over the courtyard, looking down upon them. There was a large sphere of energy in his right hand, and he was brandishing it with look of desperation on his face.
“Hijik, what in blazes are you doing?” Zaperc asked.
“I’m rescuing your dignity from these she-beasts!” he shouted back. “We can’t defeat them, but we do have enough power to destroy the planet, or at least render it uninhabitable!”
“Are you mad, Saiyan?!” Stryquethru barked. “Put that energy away and come down here! Or do you want to kill yourself along with the rest of us?!”
“I’m not bluffing!” Hijik said. “If we can’t have this planet, neither will you! I suggest you get back in your ship and leave. This world isn’t safe for your kind!”
“They can’t leave, Hijik!” Zaperc groaned. “Brockle destroyed their ship!”
This was apparently news to Hijik, or he may have seen it happen, and simply failed to consider the ramifications. “He... did?!” Hijik stammered. “But... but...”
“We cannot leave!” Stryquethru gloated. “Nor would we wish to do so. Tell me, little man, would you hold that ball of death over us forever?!”
“No, wait!” Hijik said, thinking as fast as he could. “You could take our ship.”
“In the first place, Hijik,” Zaperc said, “it’s not ‘our ship’, it’s my ship. And second--”
As he spoke, they all sensed another Saiyan life energy moving overhead. It was Vigurd, piloting the very ship they were just discussing.
“What is she doing?” Zaperc asked.
“That coward!” Brockle fumed. “She’s running away! Leaving us behind!”
“Well, someone get to a transmitter and tell her to turn around!” Hijik yelled. “She doesn’t need to run away now! She can bring the ship down and hand it off to these two. Hell, she can leave with them for all I care. Just so long as they--”
Suddenly, Zaperc’s ship exploded into a fireball, and began a steep descent towards the horizon.
“Vigurd?!” Zaperc cried. He couldn’t sense her energy now. It was possible that a Saiyan of her power level might have survived the explosion, but if Zaperc couldn’t sense her ki, then that meant Vigurd wasn’t using it to protect herself, or to break her fall to the surface. If she wasn’t dead already, she soon would be.
Hijik wasted no time dreaming up another alternative. “There’s plenty of other starships on this planet,” he said.
“Enough!” Stryquethru shouted. “You’ve put up a nice front, little Saiyan, but your game is over now! Come down here, and if Ünderlyne deems you suitable, we may make use of you for our breeding experiments.”
“Breeding?” Hijik said. “You mean, me and you?”
Ünderlyne simply cackled and waved her hands with abandon.
“And perhaps I as well, dog,” Stryquethru added, “assuming there is anything left of you once dear Ünderlyne is through.”
Hijik quickly dissipated the energy ball in his hand and descended beside Zaperc. “When do we start?” he asked hopefully.
“Hijik, are you mad?” Zaperc asked. “A moment ago these two demanded that I eat my own tail!”
“What’s your point?” he asked.
“Not so fast, ladies!” called a voice in the distance.
“Oh, what now?” Hijik groaned.
The dark women were equally annoyed. The looked and found a figure standing atop one of the stone pillars in the courtyard, with his arms crossed and his back turned toward them. With a flourish, he backflipped off the pillar, twisting and flipping as he moved through the air, until at last his feet touched the ground and he struck a dramatic pose.
“Bodi,” Zaperc said. “I’m asking you to please stay out of this.”
“I’ve come to issue a challenge!” Bodi said. “We can’t defeat you ladies now, but in a week, when the moon is full, my comrades and I will be ready to fight you with all we’ve got.”
“Why should we do such a thing?!” Stryquethru asked.
“Your comrades are already surrendering to us!” Ünderlyne hissed. “What possible reason would we have for delaying our triumph?”
He rubbed his chin, then adjusted his sunglasses. “I see,” he said as he closed his eyes and smiled. “It seems I failed to consider that. Very well. In that case, all that I have left is...”
There was a long pause, and for a moment, Zaperc dared to wonder if Bodi actually had a way out of this situation.
“... No plans!” Bodi declared.
Zaperc shook his head mournfully and looked down at his tail once again.
*******
[7 March 234 Before Age. Nat-Chezz II.]
As it turned out, Zaperc got to keep his tail, at least for the time being. As sadistic as the invaders were, they seemed more interested in savoring their victory than in carrying out their threats. Thus, the first ever “Surrender Banquet” was held in the palace’s main hall. The decorations made the occasion resemble the interior design of Stryquethru and Ünderlyne’s ship. The streamers were made of black paper, the bouqets of flowers were dyed to as dark a hue as possible, and pieces of rusted scrap metal were laid upon each table like centerpieces. At the front of the room was a stage, where the new rulers of Nat-Chezz sat upon their “throne”, which was actually just a black leather sofa they had stabbed with assorted swords and knives. Hijik and Bodi stood on either side of them, each wearing heavy manacles on their necks and wrists that were more symbolic than functional.
“When do we start the breeding program?” Hijik asked Ünderlyne .
“At a time and place of our choosing, mortal fool!” Ünderlyne insisted. “If you do not stop asking, I shall carve out your tongue!”
“Oh, let him babble, my lady,” Stryquethru said. “I enjoy hearing the Saiyan whimper like an animal begging for table scraps.”
There was a loud metallic crack, and Stryquethru turned to scold Bodi. “Worthless wretch! I told you to stop fidgeting with those chains! Now you’ve broken them!”
Bodi had been trying to scratch his back, which had strained the metal to its breaking point. He grinned and adjusted his sunglasses. “Apologies, ladies,” he said as smoothly as he could. “I suppose that I was so overwhelmed by your animal magnetism that I forgot my own strength. Best surrender ever!”
At one of the tables, Zaperc was apologizing profusely to the Chezzi king.
“We still have a chance,” he said in a low voice. “Lesseri and Jikama are unaccounted for. One of them might find a way to summon help and--”
“What good will that do?” the king whispered. “These women are too powerful, Zaperc. They could defeat an army of Saiyans, and I doubt your comrades can find us that much help.”
“There is the full moon,” Zaperc suggested. “Bodi may have had the right idea after all. If we bide our time, we might--”
The king was horrified at this suggestion. “Don’t you think they’ve already anticipated that tactic?” he asked. “In another week, they’ll either chop off your tails or destroy our moon.”
Zaperc sighed as he realized the king was right. It wasn’t supposed to have been like this. His son Brockle should have unlocked his hidden potential and become powerful enough to tackle any challenge, including these invaders. Instead, Stryquethru and Ünderlyne had taken the planet without a struggle, and Brockle now sulked in a far corner of the hall, his spirit completely broken.
"Silence!" Stryquethru screamed. "We would have music! We would see merriment! Dance, Chezzi insects! Dance for your dark queens!"
With some reluctance, most of the ’guests’ rose from their chairs and began to dance in an open area of the hall. As commanded by their new rulers, they all wore black gowns and formal wear mottled with ashes.
"Shall we?" the king said, offering his hand to Zaperc.
Zaperc was irritated by the situation, but he supposed every moment he spent playing along was another moment he got to keep his tail attached to his body. Begrudgingly, he took the king’s hand and led him through a rudimentary waltz.
"You’ve done this before," the king said with some amazement. "I didn’t think Saiyans knew how to dance."
"It was in the book," Zaperc explained ruefully.
"The book? You mean The Luffa Way?" the king asked.
"There’s a section about opening oneself to new experiences. It goes on to describe a time when Luffa supposedly taught herself to waltz in order to defeat a giant sea serpent on Planet Zeezil."
"And you resolved to learn the same steps," the king said.
Zaperc nodded. "All of it was a waste of time. The real Luffa told me the book was a pack of lies. She had never been to the Zeezil system. Her wife--who isn’t even mentioned in the book-- told me that Luffa doesn’t know how to dance."
"How gauche," the king said. "I wonder what they did at their wedding reception..."
"Luffa levitated herself an inch off the ground and let Zatte slide her across the floor like a shuffleboard disc. At least, that was what Zatte told me. She may have been joking. It’s hard for me to tell."
"That sounds rather fun, actually," the king said. "Would you care to try it?"
Zaperc frowned. "The point is that I’ve been wasting my time. I devoted years to following in Luffa’s footsteps, only to find that her feet weren’t even touching the ground! All the rumors and tall tales and false accounts I’ve studied--! All it’s won me is a life of bondage. It would all be worth it if this somehow led to a better life for my son, but look at him over there. I’ve only doomed him to the same fate."
The King glanced back at Brockle, who was still sulking in his chair. A Chezzi maiden asked him to dance, but he wouldn’t even acknowledge her presence.
"Don’t give up hope, Noble Saiyan," the king said. "My people have endured numerous conquests and occupations in our history. This too shall pass."
"How can you say that at a time like this?!" Zaperc asked. "We can’t defeat these monsters! Not even Luffa could--!"
Suddenly, there came a loud noise from the back of the hall. There was a massive double door at the entrance, made of particularly expensive and sturdy breed of Chezzi timber, and decorated with bismuth ink. These now lay on the floor, the wood splintered and cracked where they had been shorn from their hinges.
"Eh? Who dares!" Stryquethru screeched.
The newcomer stormed into the hall, walking directly toward the invaders without acknowledging the Saiyans or Chezzi. When she was standing directly in front of Stryquethru and Ünderlyne’s sofa, she extended her hand and curled in her fingers, beckoning them to come closer.
"Let’s step outside," Luffa said.
NEXT: Post Mortem