"...our people either have to change or die. There's just not enough of us left to carry on the way we used to."

That gave the Prince some momentary pause. She wasn't wrong. The Saiyan people were on the brink of extinction, and them killing each other to satisfy the ego of Okura - or even Negi himself - was not making things any better for them. And while Negi's time on this planet had allowed him to reign in his Saiyan Pride considerably, he could not say the same for Okura. Indeed, his brother's stubborn pride likely only increased since that day five years ago. Negi had a sinking feeling that he would be left with no other choice but to fight, whether they liked it or not, "When this fight's over, maybe let's you and I see if we can learn a bit more about this planet. Like it or not, Earth is gonna have to become our home for the foreseeable future." he told Tabaga, making ready to continue the flight toward their enemies.

That was when Juze asked his question, "Well... I guess that's one way to put it." was Negi's response. He - and presumably the rest - were in mid-flight by now, "But that may also be oversimplifying it. Saiyans are born with an instinct to fight, its the first thing most of us thought and desired from the day we were born. It's in our blood."

Meanwhile at the Archipelago, Korun stood with his arms crossed in front of him. Soon he was tapping his boot with impatience. He wanted nothing but to take on Negi from the moment his pod crashed on this miserable little rock. All this waiting only served to make him start thinking about why he was here in the first place. He thought back to someone from his home planet, someone who should have been off planet when the Meteor struck, but instead was left behind to eventually die. Those thoughts made Korun clench his fists tightly as he felt his battle power slowly rise alongside his anger and frustration.

"Nngaah!" Korun suddenly yelled out. His patience had worn thin, "Enough waiting for that bastard! I'm going to him!" and before Po, Jagen, or anyone could protest or stop him, Korun took off into the sky and rocketed in the direction of Negi and the Earthlings he led.

"Wait, don't-" Jagen tried to order Korun to stand down but he was already gone. He shot Po a glare intended to order him to stay put, "If Korun is so eager to rush into certain death then let him learn the hard way what happens to those who cannot control themselves."

Back with the group, Negi's scouter suddenly beeped to alert him to an approaching battle power. The others almost certainly sensed it coming just beforehand, "Guess someone got a little impatient, look alive everyone!" Negi said, hoping none of them panicked or tried to rush forward. From out of the sky, a powerful Ki blast hurtled into the group, seeming to be aimed at Cheral. Perhaps they spotted her suit and mistook it for Saiyan battle armor. And then, with little other build up, Korun appeared, suddenly floating directly in front of Negi.

"Finally... I've waited a long time for this, Negi. Time for you to pay!" Korun said, almost growling out the words. These were not the words of someone loyal to either of the Princes. These were the words of someone only looking for revenge and nothing else.

"I see..." Negi said, a knowing hint of regret in his tone, "...then I guess convincing you to stand down is off the table." it seemed pretty obvious that Korun had a personal grudge against Negi that the Prince seemed to be aware of. But there were no other words. Negi immediately let loose with a point-blank Ki Blast while simultaneously moving backward to try to keep his distance.

Tah stood, awaiting the order to engage, when suddenly, he watched Korun power up and fly off "AH YEAH!!!!! ITS TRAITOR KILLING TIME!!!!" He roared with joy as a white aura burst around him wildly, beginning to power up, at that point, Jagen told Korun to stop and was ignored, Tah looked around and stopped powering up. "Ok..." he said, meekly, before reassuring himself "No, if that idiot wants to go off and get killed, that's his problem, right boss?" He asked, clearly looking for some approval, which was never coming. "You're right boss..." he turned back with a determined look on his face. "Anyway, who needs that hothead? Just gonna slow us down."

"You know, we probably should help him." Po butted in.

"What do you mean?" Tah asked. "He's an idiot that disobeyed orders... Also, he's a Moopbarak ((Saiayn word for asshole))"

"But he IS one of the few Saiyans left. If he dies, it's bad for the species."

"Who needs his contribution to the gene pool? If he's too stupid to follow orders, then sorry, we dont need you." Tah shrugged as he sat down, before laying down on his back and staring at the sky. "You know, boss, this planet REALLY is pretty." He smiled. "If Vegeta is truly gone, maybe we should set up shop here. King Okura does need a really pretty planet to call him home, and granted, I never saw Homeworld... Or, at least, I dont think I ever did..." He scratched his head. "But maybe this place is better. Again, after we've killed the traitor, I can show you to this nice old lady who made this "Ramen" stuff which is the SINGLE BEST STUFF EVER..." He dropped.

Interactions: @Double

---

Cheral had been seriously questioning why she had decided to tag along. It had made sense at the time, take out the root and prevent anything else from happening to her city, but it was not like it was a for sure they would go after it again. Frankly she wasn't sure what to make of her potential allies either. The Negi fellow apparently knew who the enemy was but maybe taking a stranger's word for it had been a bit premature.

While she pondered her life choices a sudden blast of ki lit up the sky and appeared to be heading straight toward Cheral. "Eh, EH!? Why me!?" Cheral protested as the blast drew close. Thankfully she had noticed it in time to react to the blast. Crossing her arms in front of her she activated her Iron Shell ability. Ki raced through her nervous system, strengthening her body as the blast found its mark. Despite her rather impressive defense combined with the suit's natural protectiveness, it still hurt, quite a bit.

"Now that was uncalled for! If I hadn't been wearing my suit...ugh I don't wanna think about it!" If the blast had hurt that much with the suit on, she really didn't want to know what it would have felt like with it off. She looked at her arms and noticed blast marks, the suit had taken damage, it was still only a prototype after all.

"Just what have I gotten myself into?" Cheral started to sweat bullets realizing just how much of a difference there was between the little green men and whoever they would be fighting now. "Well, as long as the suit remains intact I should be fine...right?" Just thinking that thought she could feel that maybe things were not going to be alright and had to fight the urge to panic.

@Double

"When this fight's over, maybe let's you and I see if we can learn a bit more about this planet. Like it or not, Earth is gonna have to become our home for the foreseeable future."

Tabaga nodded and assumed a battle stance as her damaged scouter picked up an incoming power level. A moment later two separate events occurred in rapid succession, First a blast of energy slammed into one of the fighters who seemed to be supporting Negi and a moment later, an unknown Saiyan appeared directly in front of Negi. A short conversation went on between the two warriors for a moment before Negi unleashed a blast of energy at the unknown Saiyan and moved backwards to put some distance between the two.

"Friend of yours?" Tabaga shouted at Negi as she gathered what strength she had and began to rapidly fire Ki blasts at the unknown Saiyan. Whoever this guy was seemed to hate the prince quite a bit. Tabaga was a bit upset at the fact she wasn't at her full fighting power yet. Being stuck in that pod for a number of years had more of a detrimental effect then she thought it would.

"I see," Juze responded to Negi, "That explains a lot."

A warrior race, huh? No wonder they thought so little of sending murder-imps to kill civilians. And I doubt they have a sense of honor either, given that they couldn't even bother doing the deed themselves.

Juze grimaced. I'm assuming that Negi's on Earth as some kind of escape. Either for personal reasons or societal reasons. Possibly both. I can't blame him. And...well...he gulped. Negi seems pretty capable. And there are three other warriors just like him down there. They even feel pretty strong, and are actively working against us. I hope we can deal with them. And, well...I hope we don't die.

Then came some other alien, obviously harboring some kind of grudge against Negi, flying up to engage.

Juze wasted no time. While everyone else was firing suppressive blasts, he was going to apply some more significant pressure, and immediately. This time around, he was taking no chances.

He rapidly dashed through the air, flanking Korun and making sure he'd fire at an angle that wouldn't hit any of his allies.

"WATER BARRAGE!" With that kiai, the water particles in the air were empowered with his ki and flung foward in a devastating rapid-fire flechette cone. This wasn't some basic Continuous Energy Bullet that was intended to test an enemy's defenses, wipe out weaklings, suppress an opponent, or what-have-you. The Water Barrage was a bona-fide Falcon school ki technique, roughly on par with a straight energy beam, even if split among several dozen projectiles. But each projectile was still primed to pierce flesh and rip through organs.

Juze was hoping to incapacitate, not kill outright. He wasn't a murderer, even if he did kill those (likely non-sapient) alien murder-drones earlier. But there wasn't a lot in his arsenal that would knock out a foe. He'd need to ask his master to teach him something for that. But for now, he didn't have a choice.

"Do-do-da-doooo, walkin along, do-do-do-daaaa, singin mah froggy song! Ribbit" A deep, croaking voice sang out as the trotted across a grassy field, soaking in the sunshine, having a wonderful time of it all. The birds were chirping, bees were buzzing, psychotic cabbage men were running up to him, it was just a swell t-
Wait, what?

Snare turned to see what looked like the world's angriest head of cabbage rushing him, screeching like a banshee and baring two fist full of claws. Its eyes were red like hell fire, and its grin was filled with sadistic glee. It babbled in some sort of talk he couldn't understand, if it was talking at all, and was closing fast. Snare grumbled, and set down his hobo-sack, otherwise known as a handkerchief tied to a stick to carry some provisions, and stood his ground. He gently shifted his feet, digging up the soil as his clawed, webbed toes curled and his heels dug themselves in. Snare moved a hand above his head, and waited for a few moments as the small green humanoid dashed forwards claws outstretched, thinking the froggy humanoid would be easy prey.

Snare waited until the freak entered the golden zone, just in range of his Ki Blade technique, but outside of its arm's length. With a brutal slash, Snare brought down his arm as the blade of energy formed and cleaved the Cabbage-man's arm down the center, splitting it in two. Steam rose as the wound is burnt closed as its formed, and the Saibaman squealed in pain, before raking its other clawed hand over Snare's chest, carving a nasty flesh wound. Snare winced in pain, and hissed and unleashed the backswing of his Ki Blade, but the creature is ready for it. The Cabbage leapt back, and prepared to unleash some sort of attack from its head as it split open, Snare leapt back as a splattering of acid was launched from the beast's forehead.

Snare held a hand to his bleeding chest as he judged his opponent, but he had little time to rest as the Saibaman started to launch energy attacks, small energy orbs which soared towards Snare through the steam rising from the acid spray. However, much to the Saibaman's dismay the ki attacks seemed to sink into Snare's tubby body, and be slung back towards it, like bullets rebounding from the world's most stretchy rubber. As the ki blasts were launched back, Snare used it as a screen to start closing the distance while the Saibaman was dodging. He aimed a strike to cleave the Saibaman's head from its body, and it, seeing the giant towering toad coming in for an attack, rushed forwards to impale him through his chest wound with its claws.

The two warriors passed each other as both attacked, sliding to a halt a few feet away. A large gash split open on Snare's left side, blood spewing onto the lush grass below. The Saibaman turned to continue the fight, screeching in evil joy at seeing Snare bleed. However, as it twisted its body to face back and finish the job a searing pain shot through its neck shortly before the Saibaman got a good view of its own body. "G-gek?" The Cabbage croaked, before succumbing to its decapitation, and dying. Snare chuckled a bit, and began to grab the bits of Saibaman for later food. It looked like cabbage, and if he was lucky, it'd taste like it too.

"Now, what in the fresh swampy hell was that thing? Aint seen anything like that nowhere..." Snare pondered as he shoved Saibaman chunks into his hobo-sack. The wounds ached and burned as he moved but he knew that they were superficial at best. If he kept them clean, they'd patch themselves up given time. Planting his butt on the grass for the time being, Snare started a little fire using his Ki blade, and began to roast Saibaman on an open flame.

Korun was able to bat aside Negi's Ki Blast, but quickly noticed him pulling back, "Don't you run you coward!" he barked as he moved to pursue, but something else demanded his attention. Rapid fire blasts coming from someone who was unmistakably one of his own kind. Korun had to momentarily take his tunnel vision off of Negi just defect them, and even then the attack was surprising enough that a stray shot or two managed to hit him and scuff his armor, "I don't care if you are one of us, anyone who gets in my way dies!" he screamed and moved to rush the Saiyan woman, but then...

"WATER BARRAGE!"

This attack managed to catch Korun almost completely off guard. He spun around in time to see an incoming barrage of projectiles and only just barely managed to put up his arms guard against it. The technique was no ordinary ki blast like those used previously by his Saiyan kinsmen, these were stronger. The projectiles when the dust cleared, Korun was still alive, but not unscathed. Parts of his armor had been badly scratched, and parts of the inner body suit had been torn open and bloody cuts could be seen on his arms and legs, "Nngh... you..." Korun said through gritted teeth. It'd been a while since anyone managed to actually cause him some damage. Maybe these humans weren't so worthless after all? But his thoughts suddenly became overshadowed by a growing anger and frustration, and his battle power seemed to slowly rise alongside those emotions.

While all this was happening, Negi had shot a glance at Tabaga when she asked her question, "It's complicated." was all he had time to say. He noticed the armored woman starting look like she was afraid and so Negi moved to float in the air next to her, "It's alright if you're scared, no one will hold against you if you flee. He won't come after you, I won't let him." he told her this while offering as much of a compassionate expression as a Saiyan warrior was capable of giving, and then returned to his steely gaze and focused it back in Korun's direction in time to see the results of Juze's technique.

"Heh... you're DEAD YOU SCUM!" Korun shouted in a blood curdling scream as he rocketed toward Juze. He meant to charge into a direct melee rush but, then all of sudden he froze and looked as if something was giving him pain. He glanced behind himself to see a blue skinned person who had apparently snuck up on and was now squeezing the Saiyan's tail as tightly as his strength could muster, but was also trembling a bit, as afraid or unsure whether this tactic he was offered earlier would even work. Korun's face contorted in reaction to pain, but he struggled through it, shakily raising his hand as if to fire a point blank Ki Blast in Bururi's face.

"No!" Negi exclaimed and flew to try and stop Korun, but after having positioned himself next to Cheral there was no way he'd get there in time.

"Die you blue bastard!" Korun shakily said through short breaths and gritted teeth before his blast fired off. In a panic Bururi did the first thing that he could think of and pulled as hard as he could on the tail just as the blast knocked him back. There was a popping noise and Korun suddenly looked white as a ghost. His tail. His tail! That blue son of a bitch actually managed to rip it off! The Saiyan could feel a significant portion of his battle power begin to rapidly fall. But boy was he angry. He was more enraged now than ever and Bururi was right there for him to take it out, "You... you TOOK MY FUCKING TAIL!" Korun starting beating Bururi mercilessly. Even with his battle power significantly lowered he could still damage this blue alien man. And then he realized that Negi was coming in fast and decided to twist the knife. He held up Bururi by the hair and moved his face in very close, only to open his mouth and spew forth a beam of Ki energy. Bururi's headless body fell from the sky and Korun now held a badly burned blue-skinned head in his hand by the hair.

Negi halted and even trembled, but not with fear, "Korun, you... you BASTARD!" his own battle power began to skyrocket in that intense moment and he resumed his advance, this time much faster and a whole lot angrier. He smashed his fist into the side of Korun's head, demolishing the Saiyan's scouter and sending him flying back. But Negi just reappeared next to Korun and grabbed him by the leg and hurled down toward the ground before rushing forward in pursuit. His fist met Korun's torso just as he hit the ground, and then Negi started pummeling. So fast and hard that Korun's armored body began to dig a small crater into the ground from the rapid impacts of the punches. After another moment, Negi stopped and glared down at Korun's now significantly weaker form. He wasn't dead, and his armor kept him from being seriously injured apart from some bruised ribs. But between his tail being gone and this attack from Negi, it was clear that Korun no longer had any chance against this unlikely alliance between Saiyans and Humans.

Elsewhere, Jagen listened to Po in stoic silence. He didn't tell the boy to stop or be quiet, his being excited for the fight to come was only natural for a Saiyan. But then, his scouter suddenly beeped and his expression changed. Korun's battle power had dropped significantly, enough so that it could have been from one cause. Jagen then glanced at Po, "Alright, it's been long enough for the lesson to be learned... now it's our turn." and his own battle power began to shoot up even higher than Korun's had ever been as he took off toward the battlefield at full speed.

"I dunno, maybe we shou-" At that point, Jagen finally okayed them to go into battle. "I can start... If you want." Po asked.

"Nah, i've got this." Tah replied. At that point, Po's hair stood up a little more as he jumped to his feet. "AWWWWWWW YEAH!!!" He pumped his fist. "NOW IS COWARD KILLING TIME!!!" A white aura exploded around him as he blasted off into the air behind Jagen. As they finally arrived, Tah floated next to Jagen. "Oh my stars, there's so many of them and i don't know who i want to beat first?" He giggled, looking around. Mostly humans, a couple of them wearing weird armour. "Oooooh!" He pointed at Negi "Look, it's the traitor! Come on, you take out the others, i've got this guy." He seemed to dance from side to side in anticipation. "YO TRAITOR!!! YOU GOTTA DEAL WITH ME NOW!!! HAND PICKED BY THE KING HIMSELF TO KILL YOUR SORRY BUTT!!!" He called. "Come on, boss, i'm ready, i can take him, i'm gonna bring his head to the King on a platter. COME ON!!! LET ME GET HIM!!!"

It was a wonderful day. The sun was shining, the clouds were floating, and the grass and wind danced along to heavily muffled music coming from the remains of a broken ship. Out of it came an odd and unusually well-built man. He crawled out, stood up, and took a long, disdainful look at his former ride.

Don't worry, li'l Betty. We'll get you fixed. Your warranty isn't over yet.

---

Canned food tasted awful. Usually, it'd taste good if you cooked it, probably with some onions and coconut oil. However, when you were stuck in some backwater planet without any access to civilization, that simply wasn't an option. Michael was eating right out of the can, barely able to hide the pained look on his face, when out of nowhere a little green alien with stumpy limbs and a disproportionately large head came to greet him.

"Hello, good citizen! What bothers you today?"

"kKkyyYYyyeEeEaAAAAhhh!!!"

Michael had trouble with alien languages. There was a translation module somewhere in his ship, but because of the crash it was beyond saving. He squinted his eyes and tried his hardest to understand this alien's language. He could make out a couple of vowels and consonants, and from what he had heard, the alien had said one word with considerable fervor. It was probably a greeting of some sort, maybe the alien was elated to see some life in the vast nothingness it called home. Maybe-

KRAKATOOSH

The alien had fired a ki blast right at Michael, who was barely able to duck under to save himself. It flew away and hit a nearby tree, blowing it to smithereens.

"Oh, no sir! I'm afraid that violates Rule Number 5 of the Space Trooper Subject Code of Conduct, do not attempt to violently coerce a fellow citizen, or Trooper, into-"

The alien leapt up at Michael and tried to use its claws to decapitate him. Amazed at the bold maneuver, Michael quickly stepped to the side and gave the alien a quick hit to the back of the head. The alien, apparently not knocked out by that, brought itself to the ground in one instant motion and tried hitting him in the knees. Michael raised his leg just in time and sent his feet down on the alien, hitting it so hard that it bounced off the ground, leaving a sizable crack on it. Despite all that, the alien stood up, and its mouth twisted itself into a sadistic smirk.

"Alright, I see that you're rather tough. Now why don't we-"

The alien's head opened up, shooting a torrent of acid from its head. Of course, Michael didn't realize it was acid until he felt the liquid slowly eating through the flesh of his arm.

"Goodness gracious!"

Michael opened his palms and fired a ki blast at his arm. He immediately felt the pain of his attack, as it seared through acid and flesh alike, leaving a wound on his body. It had been years ever since he'd had to fire one of those blasts, and he had forgotten how to control their power. In addition to that, firing a ki blast after years of inactivity felt like doing pull-ups with arm cramps: it hurt.

But hey, the acid was gone.

"Alright, you wanker, I've given you enough chances to explain yourself. I'll have to make you submit myself!"

The alien flew right for Michael's eyes, intent on gouging them out. It's eyes widened in shock when it realized Michael was already behind him. He grabbed the alien, slammed it into the ground, and to top things off, fired another ki blast from his palms. The ground below him opened up under the extreme force, and within moments, the alien's body was limp and unmoving.

Michael looked back at the remains of his ship. You're rather spunky today, eh? Don't worry, girl, I'll get you a proper mechanic.

He wouldn't.

Shortly after the entire scuffle, Michael began to sense odd fluctuations in the alien's ki. He'd left it alive for later interrogation, and that was going to bite him in the ass. The alien's ki began to violently ripple outside of its body. After taking a moment to take all of this in, Michael ran away like a frightened toddler, screaming into the distance as his ship was left to fend for itself. The alien exploded, abruptly stopping the music and sending the pieces of the ship throughout the grassy fields.

He wasn't going back to headquarters anymore. Micheal began wandering the plains in a drunken haze until bumping into what looked like another alien, only this time it was busy cooking himself lunch. "Do you know where I can get a good ship? Not the cranky type, those ones use up too much fuel."

Hunter had watched the scene take place before him and before he could do anything, he watched in horror as the now tailless invader brutally murder Bururi. His anger rose to a boiling point and took his gun off from around his shoulder and took aim at the killer. Before he could fire off a shot, Negi got to him first and managed to overpower the saiyan and smash him into the ground.

He was going to follow after him, but then Hunter saw that more saiyans joined the battlefield, one of them appeared to be a kid. After seeing what had happened to Bururi, he wasn't going to underestimate these saiyans even if one of them was a kid. He then heard the kid go on a psychotic rant and throw out death threats at Nagi. Hunter flew in front of Po and gave him a glare.

"You'll have to get by me first. This is an adult's game you're trying play, are you sure you want to go through with this? Choose wisely kid" he warned the young saiyan and held his shotgun firmly in his hands. He kept his guard up knowing that these saiyans posed a serious threat to all of them.

@Double

Tabaga watched in satisfaction as her attacks seemed to scuff the Saiyan warrior's armor but managed to draw his attention away from Negi for a few short seconds. Whoever this guy was he was clearly after Negi big time. Something the prince had done had really pissed him off.

She braced herself as she was about to be rushed when another sudden attack caught Korun's attention. A few moments later, the blue fighter somehow managed to pull Korun's tail off before being blasted point blank by an energy blast. For a brief moment, she was hoping he may have survived the attack but could only watch in horror as the smoke from the blast cleared and Korun was left holding the blue man's head.

"no..." She said quietly as her rage began to build up within her. "He was trying to save lives!" She shouted angrily as Prince Negi managed to beat him down. But at that moment, she didn't really care if he was on the ground and his strength had been somewhat lessened. All that mattered was that he had taken someone's life, the motivation for the murder had appeared to be to infuriate the prince.

Tabaga let out a scream of rage. It had been a long time since she had become this angry, all she wanted to do was make sure that Korun was out of the fight for a good long time. "Let's see how well you can fight with your arms broken in seven different places!" She shouted as she shot down to the ground and slammed both legs on Korun's right arm at high speed. She didn't know if she had broken his arms but she was really hoping she had.

She aimed a glowing ball of ki energy at Korun's head as she took slow and shaky breaths.

"You deserve to have your head blown off right now." She whispered to him. "But guess what? I'm not like you. I'm not a murderer like you and the others anymore. But I am going to make sure you stay out of commission for the duration of this fight." She fired a series of high power ki blasts at his other arm before standing next to Negi.

"I say we knock him out. He may be weaker now but that doesn't mean he still can't be a threat later on." She stated coldly.

@Double

It all happened so fast. The Saiyan charged at him in a rage that made Juze's blood run cold. He put up his arms to defend himself in a high guard, but was saved by the blue fellow...who promptly sacrificed himself to rip off Korun's tail.

He'd never seen anything so brutal in his entire life. Korun executed the man.

...That was it. He hated the concept of it. But he was not going to show mercy unless they outright surrendered.

Korun was quickly backed up by incoming alien fighters, the other two who had been on the ground.

Juze's face twisted into something cold and angry. He was just focusing on the battle now, with tranquil fury.

He put out an arm in front of him, the coldness of his expression belying what would happen next, as the air in front of him rapidly began to heat up. His ki coalesced into a brilliant ball of flame-like plasma that crackled and twisted.

"Flame Sphere!"

The ball went out towards his the bigger of the two Saiyans, the one he didn't know was named Jagen, and he would make it home in on him until it got near enough to explode. Of course, if he could make contact and set him on fire, that would be nice too.

He didn't want to kill a child if he could help it.

After glancing around, Negi noticed that one of his new allies was no longer present. He managed to spot her form in the distance, having apparently decided to save herself. That was alright, Negi had told her himself that no one would hold it against. He'd also promised not to let any of his enemies give chase, and Negi was nothing if not a man of his word. He wasn't the only one that exploded at Korun, no sooner than his own barrage ended than Tabaga let loose with one of her own.

"I say we knock him out. He may be weaker now but that doesn't mean he still can't be a threat later on."

"You may be right..." Negi admitted, "...but not yet. It's about time I faced part of my past. And I need him awake and alive for that." as for what he actually meant by that, well Negi didn't get the chance to elaborate. Jagen and the Saiyan kid arrived at that time. The kid, Po, went off on what was clearly threats but at times seemed more like a rant or rave of sorts. Negi stayed quiet and let Hunter address him in his place.

"Flame Sphere!"

Juze launched a ball of fiery Ki right at Jagen. For a split moment Jagen appeared to do nothing, but at the last possible moment he made a gesture and then held up his right in a defensive stance as if there were shield strapped to it. The ball of Ki appeared to hit its mark and created a searing explosion that seemed to envelop Jagen's body. There was a cloud of smoke cloaking the Saiyan from sight, but anyone there who had the ability would still be able to sense his immense battle power. And then... the smoke cleared and there floated Jagen, seemingly unharmed and unfazed by the fiery blast. Only now there appeared to be a large, round shield of pure Ki energy emanating from the arm he held up, having clearly taken the brunt of the attack and rendering it ineffective against the man's defenses.

"Hmph." Jagen remarked as he let his Ki shield vanish, and then he himself vanished, only to suddenly reappear directly behind Juze in order to bring his closed fists down over the human's head in a sledgehammer blow, "Wasting your energy by blowing your load at the start? Such a rookie move."

"Jagen! You don't have to do this! None of you do!" Negi shouted, still apparently wishing to convince the Saiyans to stand down.

"And what makes you say that?" And then Jagen suddenly fired a Ki blast, though not at Juze but instead at Hunter. More specifically he was aiming for the man's gun. It was obvious to seasoned soldier like Jagen that the man relied on the weapon for his fighting style, so destroying the weapon would likely render him far less effective and thus less of a threat, "If you rely only on a weapon then how do you expect to survive if your enemy destroys it?"

That gave Negi some pause. If he didn't know any better it almost sounded like Jagen was... instructing them? They were supposed to be enemies, right? Perhaps it was his Saiyan pride and arrogance, but... one could never tell with Jagen's stoic personality.

"Po, forget about the Prince for now. Cut him off from his allies, focus on the Saiyan renegade who sided with him!" Jagen ordered, obviously referring to Tabaga, "And Korun... you just sit there and watch how a battle is properly fought!"

That definitely stung Korun in the pride. But he could do nothing for now except wince and scowl at everyone around him. Negi decided to trust the battle to his allies for now, and instead knelt beside the downed Saiyan warrior, who fought through his pain enough to spit on the ground by Negi's feet, "So what, you're going to gloat now too?" he said through gritted teeth, "I got nothing to say you you damn bastard!"

"Fine, but as long as you're just laying there then pay attention!" said Negi, sounding like he'd had enough of all this, "Every Saiyan alive is guilty of attacking and conquering innocent worlds. Every last one of us will have a mountain of things to answer for when we die and meet whatever Gods rule over this universe. That includes the two of us, even me, especially me." Jagen and Po would no doubt have begun their battles with their chosen opponents by now as Negi spoke, "But don't sit there and act like you're the only one who lost loved ones that day, because you're not. We all did. You. Jagen. Tabaga, and yes, even me. There isn't a single night that I don't remember at least one of the many people who have died by my hand or because of my decisions... and that includes her."

Korun could only glare, not having much to say in response. But he did finally say something after a moment's pause, "She was supposed to fight in your squad... been with the elites, fight beside the Prince himself. But then you left without her... if you'd taken her with you like you were supposed to..." his eyes looked a bit watery, as if he were holding back tears, "...I hated you. I hated you for all these years..."

"I meant what I said." Negi responded, "None of you are my enemy, not really. Only he is."

Jagen, meanwhile, in the midst of his battle against Hunter and Juze took note of Negi's words. He said nothing, but then all of a sudden unleashed an attack, the first he would have done since the battle started. He fired a powerful blast of Ki from his mouth but not in the direction of either of his opponents. Instead it screamed across the sky in the direction of a certain nearby cottage that Po would find familiar. Their inhabitants had sensed the battle and had been watching from a distance, but now were about to be dragged into the crossfire.

"NO!" Negi screamed and flew as fast he was able to. He exerted as much as his battle power would allow him to intercept the attack. He was indeed able to intercept, but not fast enough to deflect it or get the old lady and her student out of the way. So instead he was left with no other choice. The blast hit Negi and sent him careening into the ground. And unlike the other Saiyans, he wore no armor to help reduce the severity of the blow. His shirt and jacket had burnt to shreds and he now lay on the ground, injured and not getting up.

Tah bounced from side to side on the spot as he waited for the orders to go. He then heard Jagen order him NOT to go after the Prince. "Wait, wha- Hey, look, this is MY mission!" He pouted, before seeing the look of purest death in Jagens eyes. "A... Alright..." He groaned, putting his hands up. "HEY! SCHUTTA!!!" He yelled at Tabaga, a very crass word in Saiyan that didn't translate well, but meant something along the lines of Woman that has no problems being up against walls with slimy aliens, instead of real Saiyan Men. "Boss says i've gotta kill you first!" He then descended towards her. "Alternatively, we could go and prove me wrong." He said with a raised eyebrow and a dashing smile. "I may not look it, but i'm more man than that traitor." He laughed.

"You know, you sound a lot like Es when you talk like that." He said to himself.

"Shut it, you. Now, come on, we gonna fight or are you going to accept that you were wrong and come back with us to the Prince and beg forgiveness for your treachery?" He asked.

"HEY! SCHUTTA!!!"

Tabaga slowly turned around at the sound of that word.

Oh no he didn't. She thought to herself. She wasn't going to respond to the insult with words. But she was going to beat the living hell out of the kid so he could learn some respect.

"You know...I didn't really know what was going on when I first woke up." She commented casually. "But when you sent out Saibamen to murder innocents that's when I decided to choose sides. The Saiyan race needs to change. We can't be killers anymore, we have to be better."

She cracked her neck. "I'm going to beat that lesson into you. It may not be the best way to do so but I have a feeling that it's the only way you'll understand."

Tabaga let out a growl as she began to focus her attack power.

"Bring it, kid."