by Jamie L. Word

"Birth Of A Warrior"

  Planet Vegeta.

Inside a high-tech facility, two older Saiyans monitored the loud crying of a tiny Saiyan boy in a holding tank.  The child was sitting up on his own and screaming at the top of his lungs, and the two older Saiyan men were amazed.  One of them was an old, white-haired man, balding on top and with a bushy white beard, full and long.  The other man was a bit younger, his hair not quite white nor balding but graying, and he was clean-shaven.  One of them opened the tank up so that the child's crying would not be muffled by his containment, and they both recoiled from the volume of the baby's screams.  The boy had the traditional wild, black hair all Saiyans are known for, and he had dark, intelligent eyes as he almost glared at his keepers with a look that made them nervous.

          "My goodness, Hoshi!" the younger of the two men exclaimed as he winced and grimaced in an effort to endure the child's high-decibel tirade.  "That's quite a loud baby!"

          "That's Shuji's newborn son Koji," the older Saiyan replied as he too did his best to endure the child's wailing.  "He was born just this morning, and he's already sitting up on his own!  Those are the lungs of a mighty warrior-to-be!  You'd best keep your eyes on this one!  He'll be quite the fighter when he is older!"

          "Shuji's son, eh?" the younger Saiyan responded as he took a more discerning glance at the crying boy for a few seconds before continuing.  "Hmmm.  I probably wouldn't doubt it.  After all, Shuji is a cousin to King Vegeta as well as being one of the toughest of our elite warriors.  He doesn't allow himself to be given easy jobs just because he's related to King Vegeta.  He demands the toughest assignments and delivers with the smallest team.  I don't see how he does it and lives.  His wife Echiko is quite a fighter in her own right, I understand."

          "Yes, she is," the older Saiyan declared, stroking his great white beard with his hand as he closed the child's holding tank.  "She's a member of Shuji's team.  That's where they first met, and that's why they're married now.  This boy's going to be a great warrior with the genes of two great fighters like his parents coming together to give birth to him!"

          A door across the room slid open, and the sound of that happening drew the attention of the two keepers.  Coming through the door was a tall, attractive Saiyan woman, wearing a loose-fitting gown.  Her long, black locks hung down over her shoulders, braided like an Earth Viking's.  Her face was beaming with pride as she approached the place where the baby was crying.  Her stride was steady and controlled, and she carried herself with grace and poise, just a hint of her fighting prowess showing.

          "Echiko!" the younger of the two keepers remarked with some concern as he noted the young woman's approach.  "You just gave birth to your son just four hours ago!  You should be in bed resting!"

          "Nonsense!" she gently rebuked as she came to a stop in front of her son's holding tank.  "My son calls out for his mother, so I am here."

          Echiko opened the tank, and the boy turned his attention to his mother, still crying but now reaching up for her.

          "Echiko!" the older man responded with concern.  "Be careful that the child doesn't hurt you!  He's quite powerful - even at his age!"

          "Hush, little Koji," she said in a calm but stern voice, not answering the child's gestured desire to be held.  "You will be a mighty warrior when you get older.  I've seen the reports on you, my son.  You have great power already, and you will only grow stronger over time.  Forgive me for not smothering you with affection and physical contact.  You must be properly molded into the mighty warrior you will become.  If we cater to your cries and overindulge in our affections for you, you will grow soft and lazy.  What we must do, we do for your own good."

          With those words said, she closed the holding tank again and turned her back on the child, thoroughly confusing him.  A tear streamed down Echiko's face as she walked away, brought on by Koji's renewed crying at the sight of his mother walking away from him.

          Planet Avia.

          The sounds and fury of battle covered the landscape in the dark of night!  Giant apes with tails, dressed in battle armor, were laying waste to their enemies under the full moon!  These giant apes smashed buildings with their bludgeoning fists and fired energy blasts from their mouths at their enemies as they scattered in the streets below them!  Their enemies were humanoid in shape and approximately human-sized, but they possessed physical characteristics of avian life forms!

          The bird-like humanoids responded to their attackers by vainly firing energy blasts back at the Saiyans in their Oozaru (giant ape) forms!  Some of the bird-like people flew into the air to circle the Saiyan's and pepper them with energy attacks from above!  They fought hard and valliantly, but the giant were-ape forms of the Saiyans were just too tough for them to cause harm to!

          The horrible realization of the inevitability of their demise slowly began weighing down on their spirits as they soon recognized the futility of their resistance!  The power of the Saiyans was too great for them to stand against, but this was their home, and they would not be chased from their homes, hounded across the planet, and eradicated like petty insects or vermin!  This was their only stand, and they steeled their resolve despite the growing nauseous feeling in the pits of their stomachs!  They knew the score, but they were not about to give up without a fight!

          The fighting continued through the night and almost until the dawn of the new morning.  When the new day arrived and the sun rose in the morning sky, the civilization was utterly destroyed.  All of the buildings were demolished, and the rubble of the ruins filled the streets along with the corpses of the vallient defenders.  The destruction was more like the end result of a nuclear strike rather than an assault from a few fighters comprising an elite battle team.  Not far from the devastation was a small makeshift camp, and the four Saiyans, dressed like the giant apes who ravaged the city and once more in their normal forms, relaxed and enjoyed a meal.  They all had scouters on their faces now.

          There was one great hulking brute of a man with a small patch of black hair on top of his head and a thick goatee on his battle-scarred face.  His attire consisted of a sleeveless tunic covered with an armored chestpiece, biker-length shorts, boots, and thick metal wristbands.

          There was a young female fighter with shoulder-length black hair tied in a braided ponytail, and she would be quite pretty if it wasn't for the fact that she was adorned with dirt and soot and bore a few battle scars of her own.  Her outfit consisted of a more feminine version of the hulking brute's outfit, with bracelets instead of wristbands and a bandana tied in her hair like a ribbon to waft in the wind.

          One of the remaining two was a "pretty boy" with a clean-shaven, handsome face, his black hair groomed as well as it could be considering his circumstances.  He was significantly smaller than the first male, and his attire was similar with the exception of having long skintight pantalons instead of biker-length shorts and leather fingerless gloves that reached all the way up to his elbows instead of wristbands like his brutish teammate.

          The final member of the four-Saiyan team was a ruggedly handsome man with wild black hair and a good many battle scars of his own, and his attire was a long-sleeved tunic, long skintight pantalons, the same sort of boots that the others wore, white gloves on his hands instead of wristbands or the like, and a majestic cape wafting in the wind.

          The caped fighter stood in their midst, one foot on a rock and one arm propped up on his knee as he ate his food with the other hand.  The "pretty boy" fighter sat on the ground leaning back against a tree broken, snapped down by force, eating his food.  The mammoth bruiser sat cross-legged nearby, completely focused on eating his food, and even the act of eating seemed to more resemble the style of some sort of bear-like animal than a big man.  The female fighter leaned back against another broken tree and only managed to eat a bit more refinedly than her male companions.

          "Hey, Shuji!" the lone female of the group called out to the fighter wearing the cape, getting his partial attention as he was still at least half-consumed with his passion for the meal he was eating.

          "What is it, Akemi?" the somewhat focused and grim warrior inquired almost impatiently but not quite rudely.

          "So, how's the kid doing?" she asked curiously.  "Have you named it yet, and when is Echiko going to be back?  I can't talk about female things with you three!"

          "The child is doing well," Shuji answered with a slight grin of amusement on his face, resisting the urge to chuckle for a few moments.  "It's a boy, and his name is Koji.  Echiko will be returning to the fold soon, then you can talk about ... female things."

          The three males chuckled almost in unison at the last comment, and Akemi just smiled as she shook her head at their teasing.

          "So, Haruki," the least scarred of the three males addressed the huge warrior.  "I wonder where we'll be sent to next?"

          "Don't matter," the brute answered, not even lifting his head up from his eating to make eye contact with his teammates.  "We'll smash the place, kick the weaklin' geeks who live there into the next dimension, 'n' make a bundle as usual.  Don't sweat it, pretty boy.  I'll be there to keep ya safe just like I always do!"

          "Hey, I can handle myself, Haruki," the teased fighter retorted with a grin at his hulking friend.  "It's just that it's hard to enjoy any sort of a social life if you never get a break from the work."

          "Haruki is only interested in battle and feeding," Shuji interjected, getting the other fighter's attention.  "I can understand your longing for a little relaxing and socializing though, Hamada.  The lure of pleasure can be strong - even for a warrior such as myself.  Between being with my wife and the hereditary love of battle we Saiyans are filled with, it is almost a maddening effort to balance both aspects of my life to my liking."

          Shuji allowed a subtle smile to cross his lips before he looked off into the distance as if in deep thought.  As the giant Haruki maintained his absolute focus on eating, having never looked up once from his feeding to make eye contact with anyone or look at anything else but his food, Hamada and Akemi looked at Shuji and then at each other before smiling pleasantly.

          "Now hurry up and finish your food," Shuji spoke almost solemnly, marking the moment with his authoritative demeanor.  "We've wasted enough time on this dump of a planet."

          Shuji discarded the nonedible remains of his food with indifference and disinterest before walking a distance away from his team.  Haruki continued with his feeding, maintaining the same level of focus as before.  Hamada and Akemi watched Shuji walk off for a time, and then they once more looked into each other's eyes and smiled almost knowingly.  With his back to his team, Shuji stared off into the sky, his eyes reflective of his wandering thoughts of Echiko and his newborn son, the son who's birth he was unable to witness for having to subdue another planet.