(Sometime later)
On the terrace platform just outside of the pyramid's gateway, the process of unsealing the door was still well underway. With the incredibly complex locking mechanism of the entrance having opened up even further, it revealed even more unusual bolts and latches now shifting out of the way. The central piece glowing gold thanks to the energy still pouring into it, the four warriors standing guard over Gohan's paralyzed body watched as his hair faded to black, indicating he'd reached the limits of his transformed state. That was all that was needed to bring a smile to the leader's face.
"The ceremony is almost complete," Shiera spoke, watching as gold energy continued to bleed from the teenager's pores and float towards the doorway. By this point in time, all of the latches had been revealed, and the entire doorway was now beginning to radiate with an eerie purple aura.
As the Minions of Set observed the energy flowing from the boy pulse and crackle, with the host himself jerking a couple of times as he started to come too from his state of suspended animation, the villains then picked up a series of strong energy signals approaching them and turned around. When the group's eyes turned towards the sky above, they saw several individuals appear from behind the clouds before diving towards them.
Dropping to the courtyard one after the other, Piccolo, Videl, Android 18, Krillin and Goten landed just several yards from the four humanoid dogs and locked their glares onto them. As soon as they formed up into a single line before the evil minions, they watched as the opposing group slowly turned to face them. However, in spite of them outnumbering the group of dogs, judging from the way the canine hybrids were leering in their direction, they looked surprisingly calm.
Being the most curious of the group, Krillin couldn't help but allow his eyes to wander over the area before gesturing to the temple behind them. "This is a pretty swanky setup. How old is this place anyway?"
"Not a good time, Krillin," Android 18 raid while focusing her cold gaze upon the people she immediately identified as their targets.
A wince was the immediate response from the short fighter standing closest to the center of the formation. "R-Right. Sorry, honey."
Narrowing his eyes when he spotted Gohan's body floating behind the crew, Piccolo gritted his teeth angrily and fixed his ire on the leader. "Alright you mangy scumbags; what kind of weird hocus pocus have you got going on that would require you to kidnap one of our friends?"
Tana, looking the intruders over, huffed in an unimpressed manner as she placed her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Oh, look Shiera… interlopers," she spoke in a lazy tone of voice.
Glancing towards the middle man, Kasim gave their alpha leader a questioning gaze, "Do you want us to take care of them?" He added to this by swiftly drawing the folded up spear from his belt and spinning it open. The golden weapon unsheathed itself loudly before being held steadily at the owner's side.
Analyzing the group of newly arrived Z-fighters and taking note of their power levels, Shiera allowed a small smirk to form before shrugging her shoulders carelessly. "There's no need. The gateway is almost opened. Once our master has been freed from that retched prison; justice and retribution will rain down upon all." She then looked back towards the demi-Saiyan floating in stasis as the last of the energy needed to open the seal was sucked from his body. "Just make sure they don't get anywhere near the gate key."
Spotting his brother hanging in the air behind the villains, Goten's immediate reaction was to step forward as anger filled his eyes. "You let my big brother go, right now!" the child shouted.
His exclamation earned a round of chortles from the four minions, with the biggest of the group, Daryu, throwing the youngster a smug look. "And why should we do that, little one?"
"Because if you don't… I'll… I'll…" Gulping slightly at the intimidating stare he was receiving from the massive Pharaoh hound, the child then returned fire with the only comeback he could think of. "I'll punch all of you in the nose!"
"Ha-ha. How cute," Tana laughed, grinning across at the angry demi-Saiyan. "This child is quite the comedian. I like him."
Tilting his head at the assortment of earthlings before them, Kasim also added to the exchange of words with a jab of his own. "While it is admirable that all of you have come here to save your companion, I'm afraid that your efforts have been wasted." The man then tapped his spear against the stone ground and nodded in their direction. "As strong as the five of you are, even your combined strength is nowhere near a match for the four of us."
The hulking Daryu leered at the Z-warriors, "And even if it were, you wouldn't be able to kill us."
"Oh yeah? What makes you say that?" Piccolo asked, turning his ire towards the biggest of the four and meeting the hound's glare with his own.
Flicking her headdress back a bit, Tana filled them in on the missing pieces, "Thanks to the power of our master Set flowing through our veins, there is not a being alive that can destroy us. After all; we are our lord's most loyal and devoted servants."
"Until our duty to our master is completed, we will continue to live forever," Kasim added, before taking his spear and pointing it towards the half-Saiyan floating behind him. "In a matter of moments, those doors will be opened… and as soon as they are… our master will begin the complete and utter subjugation of this universe by first killing this boy behind us and then the rest of you, until there is not a single being left to stand in our way."
While most of the defenders of earth balked at the humanoid dog's dark prophecy, Videl perked up at the statement the man made about Gohan. Obviously directing that threat to all of them, the girl's eyes fixated upon the teen floating cuffed and bound behind their formation. When she saw her unconscious friend's body jerk and spasm, his face twisted in pain, the girl's eyes shimmered with unshed tears before she bit her teeth together and clenched her fists tightly.
Unwilling to see the demi-Saiyan suffer any longer, without warning or hesitation, the girl powered up and charged forward at blinding speed. "LIKE HELL!" With a loud battle cry, she barreled towards the nearest warrior, intent of burying them in the ground with a single blow.
"Videl! Wait!" Krillin shouted, while the others watched the girl in alarm.
At first the teen looked like she had this one in the bag. It certainly surprised Shiera when she looked over her shoulder in response to the outburst. However, just as the raven haired fighter was nearing her target, Tana, smiling confidently at the human, inhaled deeply and, just like she did with Chi-Chi, breathed out sharply. The result was another powerful gust of wind being fired from her lips that slammed into the human fighter and sent her flying back the way she came.
Videl screamed out as her aura was effortlessly turned off and she was sent bouncing along the hard ground, moments before rolling to a stop just in front of the other Z-fighters. Battered with her clothes slightly torn up, the young warrior growled as she painfully glared up at the four minions staring arrogantly back at her.
The female dog that'd knocked her back chuckled and tilted her head, "Good effort. But you're going to have to do a lot better than that."
Deciding to get in on the action as well, Krillin leapt into the air and suspended himself above the terrace, "Okay then! Try this on for size!" Throwing his hand up, the former monk focused his energy into paper thin area directly over his palm. A loud humming sound filling the sky, a golden disk quickly formed above the fighter who, after taking aim at the four warriors below as his friends observed carefully, the man attacked. "Destructo Disk!" With a grunt of effort, he then pitched the monofilament attack straight down at the hybrid hounds.
His disk attack arced through the air and shot straight towards Tana. The female dog watched curiously as the blade flew towards her and, without even bothering to move, allowed the energy disk to hit her in the side. The Z-fighters looked on in disbelief when the blow carved straight through her in a single stroke, lopping her upper body off before it streaked off into the distance. The Ibizan hound's expression reflected surprise as her blood splattered through the air.
Amazed at his hit, Krillin gave a cheer of triumph, "YES! Got yah!" His celebrations were short lived however when, a couple seconds later, his expression turned into one of shock as he saw the female dog's upper body float back down to the other half and reattach instantly. Black fire surrounding the wound, it closed up shortly afterwards, making it appear as though nothing had happened.
When Krillin landed back with the others, everyone from Android 18 to Goten was just as stunned and bewildered as he was.
A smirk forming on Tana's face, the woman cocked her head, "Like we said… you won't be able to kill us so easily."
At first the group of Z-fighters was thrown by how the dog woman was able to walk away from an obviously fatal blow to the body. When someone was bifurcated, if they didn't have Cell or Piccolo's regenerative capabilities, those people pretty much died. However, judging from how quickly the female warrior healed, it was apparent that she had some sort of energy based regenerative abilities.
While Piccolo and Krillin were no stranger to fighting against a person possessing immortality, if there past scraps with Garlic Junior were anything to go by, considering how effortlessly one of them was able to shake off Videl while at the same time recover from a lethal hit to the body, it was obvious that they were at an extreme disadvantage.
The hopelessness of the situation though was then shattered when, from up above, a familiar voice suddenly shouted down to the two groups standing on the terrace. Needless to say, this arrival came as a bit of a surprise to one of the opposing parties.
"There you are you jumped-up motherfuckers!" The yell drawing everyone's eyes skywards, the Z-fighters saw a familiar, orange haired woman descend from the heavens and land directly next to them with a blast of wind. Stumped by the speed and force of the woman's landing, Piccolo, Krillin and everybody else watched as the slightly singed and burnt form of an incredibly pissed off Zangya straightened up and glared towards the minions. With dark rings around her eyes and her hair all frizzy, she looked as though she'd just spent an entire month trapped in Jumanji. "Thought you could hide from me, huh?"
The Z-fighters were baffled, particularly Krillin. "Geez. What in the world happened to you?"
Eye twitching, the Hera gritted her teeth at the hounds staring at her in surprise. "Well, I was enjoying a pleasant flight over to West City for an important business meeting. But then I was suddenly attacked from out of nowhere by these four assholes." Her hair started to waft upwards as her energy levels started to climb with her rage. If everyone didn't know any better, her power level was being magnified somewhat. "If you can't tell by the expression on my face, I'm absolutely livid at the moment."
Swallowing nervously, Krillin turned back to face their opponents, "Well… don't let any of us stand in your way. You go ahead and do what yah gotta do."
When Zangya made her bettered presence known on the field, the dog hybrids regarded her with a sense of confusion and disbelief. After several seconds of silence, it was Kasim who was the one that addressed the elephant in the room. "I could've sworn we killed this one."
"Yeah. Me too," Daryu replied, narrowing his eyes on the still miraculously alive Hera.
Spitting to the side in distaste, the blue skinned alien upped the ante on her fury. "You dumbasses obviously don't know the concept of hiding." She then cocked her head to the side and tossed back some locks of her curly hair. "The numbers were four to one. Did you honestly think I was going to come out of that battle in one piece if I'd stayed to fight?"
Looking the woman over, Shiera then threw her a smirk. "It doesn't matter how you survived. Now that you're here, you'll now be able to die along with the rest of your friends."
A deathly silence falling over the area then prompted Piccolo and the rest of the team to look in Zangya's direction. When they saw the cold, unflinching gaze she currently had on her, it unnerved the Z-fighters at how calmly she responded to the leader's jab. But moments following their checking up on the Hera's condition, they saw the orange haired woman raise her hand and point at the scar-faced collie.
"Just so we're clear, that bitch is mine." It was a message well received by everyone in the area.
So far, so good. It was now six against four. But unless they did something about their enemy's immortality, the group was still a little stuck.
Just as Shiera traded with the fuming Zangya a grin, daring the orange haired warrior to make the first move, two more figures arriving on the scene once again halted all plans for an engagement. Looking to their left, Piccolo and everybody else saw Vegeta and Trunks, both of whom were dressed in their respective training gi, touch down on the terrace and rise up to full height to glare at the four weird looking aliens the rest of the gang were facing. While sparing a glance towards the unconscious Gohan floating behind the minions, the Prince of Saiyans then looked across at his teammates.
"Okay… what the hell did I miss?"
The Namekian spared the newcomer a dignified grunt, "Not much. We were just deciding who gets to fight who out of those four creeps in front of us."
"Neat," the flame haired man in the blue training uniform and white boots exclaimed as a smile formed across his face. He then began eyeing the competition eagerly, sizing them up and getting a bead on their weaponry. "Has the wench with the sword and the scar across her face been taken?"
"Yeah," Zangya spoke without taking her eyes off of her quarry. "Hands off."
"Fine. Then I call dibs on the steroid junky over there," Vegeta said, locking his gaze on the hulking Pharaoh hound at the end of the line. "He looks fun to hit."
"Feh. Good luck with that," Piccolo spoke, drawing the Saiyan's gaze over to his end as the Namekian gestured towards the four warriors. "Just to give you a heads up, the four clowns in front of you are actually immortal. So if you plan on smacking one of them around the entire day, then knock yourself out."
"Immortal, huh?" the prince spoke, chuckling darkly as he proceeded to crack his knuckles one after the other. "That sounds like a challenge."
Goten, arms held at his sides, then looked across at his newly arrived friend from West City curiously. "Hey Trunks… what does 'immortal' mean?"
The lavender haired youngster in the green gi looked back at his playmate strangely. "It means you can't die."
"Oh…" the spiky haired runt of the Son family replied, blinking a couple of times until his face scrunched up in disappointment. "Well that's a little bit unfair." As far as Goten was concerned, if you beat up an opponent enough they would eventually call it quits and roll over. Not being able to do that seemed like a bit of a cheat to him.
The Minions of Set on the other hand had their own concerns. Upon seeing another Saiyan arrive with his son in tow, the immortal warriors were once again put on alert, as the count was now eight against four. Narrowing their eyes on the new players and directing caution towards the stronger members of the group, the hybrid fighters reached for their weapons and prepared for an imminent attack. However, just as everyone was loading themselves up for a clash that was sure to come, a blinding flash of light startled everyone out of their reveries and filled the sky all around them. When the brilliant blue aura lit up their backs, the four dog warriors looked over their shoulders in surprise, with the Z-fighters also joining them.
As soon as the attention of both parties fixed upon the pyramid entrance, the very tip of the stone structure emanated a white, radioactive glow. After pulsing several times and giving off a loud humming it, it then got even brighter, before shooting a beam of energy straight up into the heavens. The rays of energy shot up through the clouds, parting them, and continued off of the surface of the planet and rocketed up into outer space.
From a distance, it looked like an ethereal pillar sent down by the Kais as a gift to the earth. But in reality, it was the beginning of worse things to come…
XXX
(Meanwhile)
In another part of the universe far beyond the reaches of planet earth, atop one of the many plateaus of the pyramid shaped world that was the home of Beerus the Destroyer, the God's teal-skinned attendant Whis had gone on a small walkabout of the oddly shaped planet's wilderness. It was while he was gazing across the enormous blue lake near the temple and meditating on his troubled thoughts that the man was unexpectedly struck by a sudden and powerful energy feedback, one that had the assistant to the Lord of Destruction look up with a start.
Eyes widening in bewilderment, the man then shot a look across the quadrant the world was drifting through and to another part of space with a gasp. In that very direction, the man sensed a very strong and very familiar energy signature blazing away, one that could only be felt by a handful of people in the universe. While he was certain a lot of the other deities would be able to sense it, he was certainly the first one to acknowledge it, as he was the only one who was the most closest to the calamity.
Irises wavering fearfully as sweat dribbled down his face, Whis gritted his teeth nervously as he stretched his senses out and honed in on the exact location the unsettling beacon was coming from.
"This celestial force… it can't be," the attendant whispered.
He was hoping it belonged to something else; somebody who wasn't the very being that caused them so much strife all those years ago. After twenty thousand years of a long and stable peace, the last thing the man wanted to do was relive the pain and torment from the moment the universe's most destructive conflict took place.
Unfortunately, all his prayers were dashed when he finally located the exact origin of the energy source. Once it pinged in his head, his heart stopped.
"No."
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