Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Little Slave Girl ❯ Swarm! ( Chapter 23 )

"W-what in the blazes...?!" Goku stopped in mid-flight and spun around at the sound of Chi Chi's high-pitched scream, "Chi Chi!"

"Wait!" Piccolo grabbed his arm, stopping him from flying back to the others atop the lookout, "Do you hear that?"

Piccolo's sharp namekian hearing could pick up sounds farther away than normal humans and saiyans, but even as he listened the sound was growing louder. A distant buzzing noise. Goku's eyes widened as he heard it too. He let go of Goku's arm and pointed into the distance where a black mass, much like an airborn cattle stampede, moved steadily closer.

"What are they?" Goku asked and clenched his fists reflectively at his sides, a glimmer of comprehension suddenly flashing across his face, "They're headed towards the lookout! That's why Chi Chi screamed! She must have seen them!"

"Maybe a scout," Piccolo agreed, eyes narrowed, "Goku, you need to go after Yarrah..."

"But...!" Goku stammered, inching towards the lookout, "My-my family...!"

"I'll take care of them!" Piccolo yelled, jerking the saiyan backwards in the air roughly, there wasn't time for any coddling, "Just go!"

Ryven! He thought as he speed off, Let nothing happen to her...

Suddenly, they were all around him! They moved so fast! He barely caught a flicker before another was at him, clawing and biting, scratching and slapping with thier wings, for he caught small glimses of blade-sharp wings beating feircing. The wings were what was making the humming noise he had heard, millions of them beating together.

Every time they managed to slash him he felt strangely weaker. He didn't understand it.

A face flashed before his as he fought them off, strugging to move as they moved, to anticipate were the next attack would be, hissing white-pale features in a mock-human mask, yellowed fangs, black holes for eyes, no noise and no hair. What he saw in the eyes he could only discribe as an undeniably horrific hunger.

"Aaaaigh!" He cried, powering up, ki energy cousing through every fiber of his being, he brought his fists downward swiftly and launched a furious blast at the nearest bunch; knocking them backwards and out of sight. He saw them break off from one another and fall, lifeless, towards the earth far below. But more were coming at him from the other directions...

Gathering more energy, from the earth around him, Piccolo sent several smaller blasts in every direction, hitting most by instinct, almostly blindly, he could feel thier ki but it was sporadic, flickering in and out as they moved, which seemed insane, so he aimed for where he thought they might be rather than where he could feel they were.

He felt extremely tired, they had gotten in several attacks and each one had reeled him.

When there were only about three dozen left, they had been heading towards the lookout but he had intercepted them, Piccolo noticed that they had begun to fall back, break up and fly away.

His natural ability to heal swiftly kicked in and countered much of his odd fatigue as it had been doing steadily during the short battle.

He saw them regroup farther off and flicker in and out of sight until they had suddenly just vanished. He rubbed his eyes, blood falling into his mouth from the many cuts their claws had make across his face, hoping he wasn't just seeing things.

Exhausted, he flew back to the lookout, scanned the area for his daughter and felt a sudden surge of panic when he failed to see her or her friend; Rowyn. Then he felt her ki and calmed. She was safe. She was safe. He reached out mentally and felt where she and Rowyn were hiding together, in the room that Trunks and Goten use to sleep in.

Chi Chi was in hystrics. Vegeta was trying in vain to calm her down. To no avail.

"Oh Kami!" Chi Chi cried, sobbing, the skin of her right arm had been torn, ugly gashes across the flesh that looked like they stung, "How horrible! I never saw anything so aweful in my life! Look at what they did to my arm! If it hadn't been for Trunks and Goten we'd all be dead! Dead you hear me!"

Chi Chi had grabbed ahold of the front of Vegeta's gi and was vigorously shaking him back and forth, screaming in his face. "What are they, Vegeta!?"

"I...don't...k-k-know...!" He cried, head whipping back and forth as she continued to shake him, "W-woman...c-c-calm...down!"

"Oh my..." Tel whispered, opening her eyes from where she lay on the ground, having just been healed by Dende who stood over her with a horrified expression upon his face, "Slythwasps..."

"What?" Trunks asked, Goten's eyebrows raised an inch, "What are you talking about?"

Chi Chi was finally shoved away by Vegeta, who received a nasty look from Bulma.

"That's what we always called them..." Tel sat up, feeling groggy, as if she'd just awoken from a drug-induced sleep, she stifled a yawn but couldn't stifle the fear darkening her heart, "I thought...I thought they were all...gone...I never expected..."

"How did they get here?" Bulma asked, speaking up, "What do they want? Uh, other than the obvious, of course."

"Of course." Tel nodded in her direction, "They use a means of inter-diminsional teleportation to travel, they can all do it by instinct alone, from what we know about the species each one is born with the ability."

Tel realized they were listening closely to every word she uttered, "As for what they came for," She breathed, "Slythwasps feed on energy...what you probably call..."

"Ki..." Piccolo finished, understanding and growing extremely angry in the process, "They weren't fighting me, they were feeding off me!"

"Probably," Tel said, "They travel from one planet, one dimension, to another...sapping everything of it's essence until..."

"No!" Ryven had suddenly appeared in the doorway, holding onto the jam, "It won't happen here, Tel! Your wrong! We can fight them off and..."

Tel looked away, down at her hands. She'd seen planets, once beatiful worlds teeming with life, after a horde of slythwasps had traveled through, feeding off everything in sight, leaving the world cold and barren. No one really knew how to fight them...

"I managed to kill several," Piccolo was saying to the others, "Maybe we can defeat them..."

"It doesn't matter," Tel shook her head, "For every one you kill a thousand rise up to take it's place. No one knows for sure just how slythwasps procreate, but we only know they do it fast and in great quanities at a time."

"So what, exactly, are you suggesting, woman?" Vegeta snarled at her, "Go belly-up holding signs saying: `Come and get it, Free ki for all!' ?!"

"No!" Tel snapped, "That's not what I'm saying at all, you inbecile!"

Vegeta, mightly Saiyan prince looked taken aback. But Tel went on, not allowing him to cut her off;

"I'm just telling you all this so you have a better idea of what's in store if they have decided that your little planet would make a good might-flight snack!" She looked around at the faces, determined and angry, around her, "I have a strong feeling that you people have alot of guts and strength, possibly more guts and strength than the sythwasps have yet incountered."

"So, what, exactly, are you trying to tell us?" Piccolo asked.

"I'm just saying; Be careful." She said, feeling light-headed, "And...good luck..."

"Your still not really ready to up and about, Tel," Dende said to her, "Let me help you inside...Ryven...you should go back to sleep too...you look exhausted."

"I'm not tired." Ryven lied, but the young namek could see the dark circles under her eyes, "I need to stay awake...Papa needs me...to...help fight..."

Dende looked back at Piccolo, who looked pointedly in Ryven's direction and turned back to the young elf, "Umm, don't you think it would be a better idea to rest before a battle?"

Ryven appeared to think this over, clearly struggling over where she thought she should be, finally, she found herself swaying and yawning at the same time and had to admit that she would more of a hinderence than a help if she tried to do any type of battle in her current state. She stumbled, half-awake, back to the room she was sharing with Rowyn and collaped on the opposite side of the bed that her friend was asleep in.

"You don't seem to be worried about your princess any more," Dende said as he led Tel to another room where she could rest, "I'm sorry! When I healed you, I..."

"I know, it's okay," She sighed, "You saw what was in my head. You couldn't help it. It's no big deal."

"Well..."

"She was my future..." Tel whispered, "My last hope...the last hope of my people...now..."

"She might not be..."

"Can you feel her?" Tel asked, for she had learned how they could sense one another, "Can you feel her and tell me that's alive?"

Dende looked away. But said nothing. It was almost as good as an affirmation.

"My only purpose was to take her back, somehow, any way I could, to our world," She said, "I have no reason to be here now. After I rest I will be leaving."

"Y-your not even going to stay to help us fight off these, these..."

"Slythwasps." She said, "And no. That's your problem. Not mine. Deal with it."

"B-but...!"

Tel paused at the open door, "We all have our problems," She said before closing the door in Dende's face, "Deal with it."