- (Bonyu) -
Frieza Planet 79.
A desolate, rocky planet whose only value was its habitability. An outpost for soldiers to rest and recover in between their grunt work.
From the bridge of her ship, Bonyu watched the outpost get closer, her arms crossed behind her back.
"What's he doing?"
In response to her question, her technician began quickly working the interface, checking and re-checking what he was seeing.
"He seems to be just… floating in the upper atmosphere, ma'am. Right above the main landing pad, if I may add."
A holographic image flickered to life, displaying the rogue slave. The man, Creed, hovered in the air with a thin smile on his face. She couldn't see his eyes under that blindfold of his, but she got the impression he was utterly calm.
Too calm. He wasn't running or panicked in the slightest.
He was just staring. Staring up at her and her men with an eerie stillness.
That was not the actions of a man on the run. Alarm bells went off in the back of her mind, feeling as though this was a trap. The sheer arrogance of it was a glaring red flag.
'Then again… he has only recently escaped captivity,' She thought, thinking back to his file. 'The dumb arrogance of an upstart, maybe?'
Either way, she wouldn't be moving without further information.
"Scan him. I want his exact power level before we do anything."
With a beep, her technician replied.
"The scanner reads his power level at 37,901, ma'am."
Bonyu's lips thinned. That was a credible threat to most of the common soldiers, enough to explain why standard retrieval teams had failed. While her own veterans would struggle… they still had her. Taking him alive would be messy if she included any of the rabble, but with her and her veterans it should be quite doable.
And she didn't want those idiots to risk potentially killing the target when she could get a higher profit for capturing him.
"Maintain position. I'll deal with this myself. Send team Alpha as well for backup."
She ignored the affirmatives and saluting of her subordinates as she walked towards the ship's exit.
As the airlock hissed open and she stepped into the open air, she smirked.
'Looks like momma's getting a big payday soon enough.'
Bonyu descended through the atmosphere, a phalanx of a dozen of her best soldiers flanking her. They fanned out precisely, surrounding the target who still hovered serenely in the air.
He didn't even flinch at their arrival, despite her moving far faster than she was sure he could see.
'Just another dummy. But at least he's got heart.'
"Creed," she drawled. "Lord Frieza wishes to deal with you personally. You can either give up resistance and come with me quietly, or… or we can have a little fun. What's it gonna be, love?"
The target's head did a slow, deliberate turn as he took in each of the soldiers surrounding him. He didn't look threatened at all.
"Is this everyone?"
His voice was deeper than she expected.
Bonyu's confidence wavered for a fraction of a second. Not because she was intimidated, but because this was all wrong. Even the most stalwart warriors would have a little hesitance in a situation like this. Yet…
Creed seemed utterly confident.
She didn't reply, simply reaching up to her scouter and clicking it, rechecking his power level.
'It's the same as before… Then what has he got up his sleeve?'
Her prized intelligence, alongside her instinct, screamed at her. Her thumb jabbed a different button on her scouter, widening the scan to the 'Search' function rather than power level.
The device beeped once, then began to scream a frantic, high-pitched whine. While there were other energies everywhere flashing on the lens, one specific power level stood out.
Unknown Power Level: 78,452.
Her blood ran cold.
"Ambush!" She barked into her comms. "Disengage! Fall back to the ship and prepare for–"
"Nah."
The word was quietly said, but the effect it had was obvious. As he spoke, a crushing, invisible force took hold of the entire platoon.
"I hereby declare," Creed intoned. "Everyone within the atmosphere of this planet is forbidden… from moving."
'What?!'
Bonyu's mind recoiled in pure uncomprehending horror. She grunted, her muscles screaming as she fought against Creed's edict. Around her, her soldiers were frozen solid in their positions, trapped just as tightly as she was.
'This… this is…!'
There was only one other person she recalled in recent memory that could accomplish something like this.
'It can't be… A Guldo with a decent power level who isn't hideously ugly?!'
This was a true nightmare of an opponent. And it seemed, unlike Guldo, he didn't have any disadvantages in time limit or range. At least, none so far. They were all simply stuck in the air, unable to move as he stared at them calmly.
'With this power and whatever strong allies he's managed to accrue, its no wonder they were able to get rid of the Heeters. I should've been more careful!'
Creed ignored the rest of the soldiers as he made a subtle crooking motion with his finger.
"Come."
Bonyu felt the pressure shift, compelling her forward. She slid through the air, paralyzed and helpless, until she floated directly in front of him. She couldn't see his eyes, but she knew he was looking down his nose at her.
His hand snapped out when she was close enough, clamping onto her throat. He squeezed carefully but tightly, cutting off the flow of blood to her brain. As her vision began to tunnel, she put every ounce of willpower into moving just a little.
'I- I can't die here. I… I am invincible! This… shouldn't be…. happening!'
But no matter how much she struggled, she couldn't even move an inch.
Darkness swallowed her whole.
- (Ramon) -
Ramon was going to die.
Tired of both Dodoria and Zarbon's shenanigans, he requested to move squads to the one commander who seemed much smarter than the rest. She was even stronger than those two and didn't like any of that posing nonsense like the Ginyu Force did.
It was a great idea to join her. His best idea, really!
Or at least, it was until today.
Now, he could only watch, his eyes straining in his sockets, as the monster they were chasing choked out his commander into unconsciousness with ease.
'It's over.'
He wanted to put up a fight. To scream, to push through whatever technique this was, but why even bother? If even Bonyu couldn't move, then he certainly wouldn't be able to do much.
Besides, the target threw away Bonyu without killing her, her unconscious body slamming into the ground from this high up. That might hurt his back in the morning, but he'd live.
So he watched, helpless, as Creed began his… work.
A hulking brute from Planet Kila was wrenched through the air like a doll.
"Attempt number 1."
Without touching anyone, Creed twisted his hand in the air. And the man's head… popped. It vanished in a wet, crimson mist. The act was so quick and violent that he almost didn't process what he was seeing.
'Huh?'
No, scratch that, he genuinely couldn't process what he was seeing.
"Attempt number 2."
A different hand gesture, a sharp clenching motion. A different soldier's eyes burned out of his socket, falling out of his face with a wet squelch.
The man couldn't even scream, muffled sounds coming from his forcefully closed mouth.
'Oh,' Ramon had a revelation. 'This man is insane.'
It was obvious, then, that the entire platoon's terror reached a fever pitch. Anyone with eyes would be able to see tears coming out of their face, and their muffled screams were overlapping one another.
Out of the corner of his eye, Ramon could see two other figures flitting between their ships like ghosts. They tore open the airlocks, ripped out similarly frozen crew members, and seemingly sent the ships into shutdown.
One by one, the vessels fell to the ground while the frozen people inside floated aimlessly in the air.
They were being systematically tortured.
Ramon couldn't get more terrified.
After a long time of this, it finally happened. The invisible pressure plucked him from the formation and floated him towards Creed, heart hammering in his chest. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, tracing a path down his temple.
He wanted to beg. To cry. To offer his allegiance. Anything.
But nobody could hear him scream.
"Attempt number 13."
'No, no, no, no–'
Then the monster paused, a flicker of… joy? On his face? Ramon couldn't comprehend it.
"Ah. I think I've got it."
He pulled up his blindfold and stared straight into Ramon's soul. His pupils swirled with a black and red hate, like pools of tar and blood. Ramon shivered in place as the monster raised his hand and... pushed.
Internally, Ramon flinched.
Then, as the dark colors of the monsters' eyes faded to a more palatable hazel, a wave of something slammed into his mind. There was no pain, thankfully, but he could feel an irresistible command run through every cell in his body.
'SLEEP.'
His consciousness surrendered completely, and he fell into a deep, deep slumber.
The last thing he felt before the darkness took him was… relief.
- (Knox) -
The plan was simple.
First, they located and took over one of the Frieza Force's outposts. The lazy bastard named the place Frieza Planet 79, and Knox recognized it from the anime as the place Vegeta spent resting after he got destroyed on Earth.
It was the perfect place; a combination of being a planet that could support life and being a place where only those who had chosen to serve a tyrant lived.
Just to make sure, though, he checked and there were no slaves about. Just trash soldiers.
Then, after completely taking over, it was time for step two.
By lowering his power level and subtly challenging them through body language, the idiots completely fell for the bait. He hadn't expected to see someone who looked like Jeice's sister, but it didn't matter.
Once the strongest people were in his radius, he used [Psychokinesis] to freeze them in place.
While this was happening, Marzette and Granolah were tasked with breaching the ships and extracting all of the soldiers and any slaves that were onboard, shutting off the vessels to dismantle later.
Then, step three—the tricky part:
Knox needed a method to put every single last person to sleep, friend or foe. The latter so he could go on with step four, and the former because… well…
He just didn't feel like dealing with a bunch of terrified slaves. It was better they just stayed asleep until the Galactic Patrol got here.
Now, he could choke out every single last one of the soldiers to make them sleep, like he did the Jeice look-alike, but that was inefficient, messy, and just plain ol' boring. So he used that time when Marzette and Granolah were busy to figure out a technique Roshi used in OG Dragonball.
The Sleepy-boy technique.
He, uh, couldn't figure it out, but this was close enough.
[Hypnosis (F)] skill acquired!
Through mental manipulation, you can temporarily overpower someone's consciousness to make them suggestible to one singular psychic command. Effectiveness scales with the target's power level and your MIND stat.
+1 MIND multiplier for acquiring a mental skill.
It probably wouldn't work on anyone of the same power level, but it was useful for fodder enemies like these guys.
Well, the main commander was nearing A-Class according to Marzette, but that's why he choked her out first.
Finally, it was time for step four.
Closing his eyes, he used his [Extrasensory Perception] and [Psychokinesis] to separate the slaves from the soldiers. The slaves were huddled into the hull of his own ship, high above the clouds, while the rest… he left them floating as they were.
When he opened his eyes, Marzette and Granolah were finally finished, flying towards him.
"All personnel have been extracted. And the ships disabled."
"You know you don't have to talk like that, right Granolah? But yes, he's right. The scene is ready."
Granolah scoffed but didn't reply.
Knox nodded at Granolah and Marzette, then looked over the sea of terrified, immobile faces.
He raised both of his hands like a composer.
Snap.
With a snap of his fingers, hundreds of translucent, black-and-red tendrils of mental energy lashed out. Each one found a different soldier's head as, with a collective sigh, hundreds of bodies went limp, their minds plunged into a temporary coma.
Knox smirked as he realized it was literally raining men. Then he turned to Marzette.
"Would you like to do the honors? It was your idea, after all."
She gave a sharp nod, her mandibles clicking.
"Gladly."
As one, the three of them descended to the barren, blood-stained ground. The gore of his experiments had to fall somewhere, after all.
Marzette reached into her armor, pulling out a certain seed. Crouching to the ground, she calmly dug out a bit of bloody dirt and planted the Tree of Might into the soil of the Frieza outpost.
Almost instantly, it began to pulse with a hungry light, its roots seeking out the vast, comatose feast laid out before it.
This, the final part of the plan, was step five.
"That was eas-"
"Don't." Knox cut off Granolah. "Do not tempt Murphy's law."
"Huh?"
"Just… shush."
Granolah, confused, shrugged and kept quiet as they waited for the tree to grow. It was rapidly doing so, but it was also supposed to be taller than the clouds so it would still take quite a long time.
With the plan complete, Knox tapped the side of his combat visor.
His HUD flickered once, twice, before Commander Sakana appeared within his vision. She was still sitting at her desk, but she looked far less tired than before.
"Creed? This is an unexpected check-in. Was there something else wrong, or…?"
"Nah, just wanted to check something." Knox replied. "Can you pull up my visor's live feed? I have a question."
Sakana blinked owlishly at the question, then typed a command on her desk. Her eyes shifted to the side as she stared at the feed from his perspective. She squinted, clearly not seeing anything noteworthy.
"...Are you messing with me?" Her tone was suspicious. "I'm not averse to blood and guts, if you were trying to spook me."
"Ah, right. My bad. Bad angle."
Knox kicked off the ground, floating upwards until the camera could capture the full scope of the horrifying scene.
Hundreds of Frieza soldiers lay in comatose piles, their chest rising and falling slowly. In the center of the grotesque garden, a monstrous tree was rapidly germinating, its thick pulsing roots snaking across the ground and taking in all of the bodies around it.
Sakana's breath hitched.
"By the stars… what… What is this? How many of them are there?"
"Enough for a big payday, I'd hope," Knox replied with a shrug. "So my question is: Can I turn in the bounty for all of these guys, even if I haven't technically killed them yet?"
"...Why? What are you doing with them?"
On the screen, he saw his own camera, showing a thick, vine-like root gently coil around the ankle of a sleeping soldier. The soldier's body gave a faint twitch, and his complexion visibly grayed, as if his vitality was being siphoned from him.
"Well…"
The Tree of Might gave a groaning shudder, shooting upward another ten meters in a matter of seconds, its bark cracking and reforming as it fed.
"Just wait a bit. You'll see."