Brother
by Rick Spiff 
A S.E.F.U. Project

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                  Episode 8: Enter the Plan: Part Deux

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Disclaimer: I don't own Toryama-sama's characters, just James, Ed, the
TCA, and the Skeemdians (well, there's more, but that would be spoiling
the later parts of this story).

Warning: Sharp language (somewhat sharper than DBZ), violence, gore
(more than DBZ), and maybe a little sexual innuendo. I would rate this
fic a heavy PG-13, but not R. Enjoy!

Quick note:  *Stuff in here is
people's thoughts, not said out loud.*

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Nappa landed heavily, rolling away even as his first target fell to the
ground in two neatly bisected pieces. His ki cackled about his hands,
drawn into thin tendrils--ropes of raw power--that cut finer and faster
than the sharpest knife ever made.

He let a yell of anger follow as four more Skeemdians rushed him. They
were cut apart mercilessly, the blackened sky and shredded landscape
bearing witness of a whirlwind of death and destruction. His feet moved
from vegetation to rock in the course of the battle, as he danced on the
edge of a large volcanic crater, following the line between life and
death.

He slid to a stop, corpses piled at his feet like trees cut violently
felled in the wrath of a passing storm. Quiet settled over everything,
perfect and complete for a moment.

Then the sounds of distant combat came to him, slowly, as if he was
waking from a dream. The war raged on about him, distant yet oppressive,
soldiers flooding in from every direction. Closing in for the kill.
Snarling in disgust, he leapt away from a beam of plasma as it tore into
the ground beneath his feet. That had been a close one.

 He yelled, turning on them viciously. The hairs on the back
of his neck abruptly came to attention as the squad which had been
aiming for him obligingly exploded.

*I... didn't do that.* He thought quickly.

Turning 180 degrees before he landed, Nappa found himself face to face
with the larger of the two Human warriors. A grinning Human warrior. It
was not a happy grin. Not the grin found on children at play. Not a grin
of contentment. No, it was a grin completely and utterly lacking in
mirth, a gesture that showed a smile was just an old reflex that bared
the teeth.

He stepped around Nappa and fired again.

Nappa looked at the Human in puzzlement. Ed's black coat was scorched
between rivulets of alien blood that ran down his form. In places, he
could see bits of flesh that no professor of Anatomy could possibly
identify. Most of it was thrown loose as the blow-back from Ed's last
shot cast his coat about in the sudden, stiff wind. The Human turned
towards Nappa with a worn smile as the report echoed off of the distant
mountains.

 He asked.

 Nappa said, uncomfortable.



Nappa scoffed. No Saiyajin would be brought low by these... these
insects! A short bought of maniacal laughter later, Nappa shook his
head. 

Ed's grin turned vicious again. 

 Bellowed Nappa

The two charged back into battle.

----------

"YEEEAAARRRGGG-HAAAAAA!!!"

Vegeta hurled a stray aircraft into the ground, his vocal cords tossing
aside the complex notes and tones of language in favor of an open-throat
yell. The ground beneath him glowed from the ship's last barrage, and
the clouds were lit from below by its explosive demise a moment later.
Dead Skeemdians lay all about, markers of a body count rising into the
tens of thousands. They were piled two and three high in many places,
particularly visible where immense trees had been burned down to
toothpicks and ferns the size of houses had been reduced to smoldering
stalks of carbon.

James and Ed were missing. Nappa was down on the other side of this hill
and killing nasty things, which was great fun in his book.

The Saiyajin no Oji was tempted to say things were going well.

Cutting off the ki that kept him airborne, he began a slow dive towards
the ground. He was interrupted when a severed hand with six fingers flew
through the air in front of him.

Vegeta blinked. *What the hell?*

"BOOM! WHEEE!!" Exclaimed a voice from the ground. Not surprisingly, it
was followed by the report of a minor explosion.

"BITCH!" Another voice echoed from the base of the hill.

He fell immediately to the ground, crushing a lone Skeemdian underfoot
like a grapefruit under a Cadillac. Something was going wrong down here.

He hated it when things went wrong.

Another explosion shook the ground underfoot, like the fist of a giant
slamming into the ground. Vegeta rocked on his feet, his hair unaffected
by the sudden wind kicked up.

"LAST ONE!" Yelled a not-too-distant voice.

"EAST! EAST!" Commanded a more distant one.

Something not unlike a giant buzz saw cut through the undergrowth
following the clipped orders. The tall Human sprinted past Vegeta, a
chunk of distorted metal in one hand.

 The Prince demanded.

The Human warrior skidded to a halt in mid-air, his feet six inches
above the ground. 

 Vegeta queried.



 Vegeta answered, his mind half on the conversation. He
wondered if the other Human would need assistance. He was a violent
sort, and enjoyed this little war far too much, even for a Saiyajin. It
was one thing to enjoy the fight, but the end, finishing off his
opponent was not a moment the Saiyajin no Oji relished. Killing was
necessary at times, frequently in fact, but not something to rejoice in.

There was only the fight to live for. That was the core of a Saiyajin's
drive... not the killing.

It was a lesson that James fellow had never learned, apparently.

----------

Ed continued his up-hill dash. Below, he watched Nappa work around the
edge of the crater that had suddenly become their rallying point. None
dared to venture within its confines--that area was central to part of
their larger strategy, and would be put to use later. He poured on the
speed as a flurry of miniature ground rockets narrowly missed him. He
was down to a crowbar and the Forbidden Techniques.

He really, _really_ didn't want to use the Forbidden Techniques. Not
only were they, well... forbidden, but they were embarrassing as well.
It was a strange legacy James had left him. They practiced a martial
arts style with only a dozen basic moves and four special attacks. All
were lethal in a single blow, and none of them truly specialized. Given
the enormous boost in basic abilities that their recent ki discovery
permitted, the Forbidden Techniques would be gross overkill, yet....

Yet both had expended all of their ammunition already. Only one weapon
remained, and neither was prepared to detonate a thermonuclear bomb in
order to achieve victory. Not today.

So, it was the Forbidden Techniques.

Ed mounted the last ridge, little more than a dark line of soil, and
stood to defend for the second phase of the plan. His eyes narrowed,
crowbar held in a ready position, as a hundred screaming Skeemdian
warriors charged up the slope he now commanded.

----------

Vegeta was right. He _hated_ it when he was right. He was always right
about the bad things, the wrong things, the things that drove lesser men
to madness.

And dammit, he was _right_ this time, so much it hurt.

James came bursting from the ground cover just as Ed had done seconds
ago. James had no weapons in his hands. No fancy guns or terrible
explosives. He held not knives nor swords nor bombs. He had only his
bare hands and his wits about him.

He also had his skill. His ki... and a lot of luck.

"Detroit Fist!" He shouted, dodging to one side so fast that a normal
person would have seen only his after-image. The Skeemdian squad which
was chasing him found themselves caught flatfooted. James punched the
lead one dead in the chest. It really looked like a punch.

Vegeta did note how James' fist just _appeared_ in the Skeemdian's
mid-section. It was just _there_, without the little punching bit in
between. James wasn't that fast....

The Human flipped backwards several times. Thankfully, he launched
himself into the air first. As he landed, he drew a tiny bit of wood
from within the folds of his coat and smirked at the charging Skeemdians
like a god about to extract vengeance for a crime to terrible to name.
"BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE GREAT TOOTHPICK!"

*The _what_?!* Vegeta was thinking as James carved up the Skeemdians
like a Thanksgiving turkey.

That bought of carnage not worth description finished, he stuck the
wooden piece in his mouth and smiled broadly as Vegeta. Vegeta looked
back at the beaten, bruised, and thoroughly lethal form of James Rahn
through narrowed eyes.



 James said flatly. 

That wasn't an answer. Vegeta shook his head. He had no idea what wild
moss James had been munching on, either here or before his arrival, but
it was clear the Human was utterly, utterly cracked. 

James' gaze didn't waver. 

 Vegeta quickly checked his reserves, refusing to be worried.
He could last for a long time yet, but the Skeemdians _did_ have a giant
shield that needed to be put down. He _was_ tired, but just a little.





James sighed, a smile cracking his face. "I've been waiting to use this
line for a while now."





Vegeta took a step back in surprise. He must really be slipping if James
could... that rumbling was growing louder.

Step.

It was also growing... closer.

Step.

It was getting _very_ close.

Step.

It was on top of them.

Skeemdians came charging up the hill like ants. In a wave of life, they
simply obliterated what was in their path. Vegeta could easily imagine
the air itself darting out of their way.

Running sounded very appealing right now.

Very appealing indeed. He scowled when he noticed James was ahead of
him, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"MONTANA WAY!!!"

The wave of living death rode over the rocks, dissolving the foliage.
Vegeta ran, the Human before him, uphill. The Skeemdians may have had
them out-numbered over a thousand to one, but they obviously didn't know
the first thing about strategy.

*It's time to fry some bugs.*

Vegeta smiled.

And all was going as planned...

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Preview of the next episode: Things are finally starting to heat up
again! Is this _really_ part of the plan? How are the Saiyajin and Human
warriors to stop this horde? What secrets are they hiding?! Find out in
the next exciting Episode of Brother!

NEXT EPISODE: Enter the Massive Offensive

Author's note: Strange goings-on are happening now, and thing's aren't
as simple as they first appeared! Don't worry, it'll all work out in the
end.


First Draft: 12/09/02
Revsied: 3/19/03

    Source: geocities.com/tokyo/subway/1888/txt/Brother