"Cannonball!" A child from Earth yelled as his dive into the water broke the silence of the normal tranquility that filled the atmosphere of Planet Namek.
He'd been here a few days already, tracking down the mystical 'dragonballs', crystal spheres that when gathered together, would grant the first wish (or in the case of the namekian balls, first three wishes) said, as long as it was within the dragons power. He had two out of seven currently, the first having been given to him by his current companion and guide - Cargo. Cargo was a small namekian, comparable to a toddler in terms of height, voice, and demeanor, though those only served to hide his innate strength and deep riches of knowledge about the world he lived on. The second dragonball had also been given to Meraxa, but only after he had fought the 'red ribbon army', defeated their atomic weapon turned android killing machine, and then gotten the ball back from them after they had stolen it from the namekian village - killing several people in the process. The army was probably drifting through space near the edges of the solar system right now, awaiting rescue (if anyone would bother for a rotten bunch like them). Right now, he and Cargo had tracked the third dragonball on this planet to their current location, to the exact dot. Except... well, it just wasn't there. No matter how many hills they scoured, no matter how much they dug, there was just no sign of the thing. And it couldn't have been eaten by the native wildlife (even as large as it was), since the organic tissue would block the signal of the dragonball completely, and yet the yellow dot still flashed on the radar.
Then of course, Cargo had considered something.
"What if the dragonball is under the sea?" The namekian had suggested one night as they sat around a campfire.
"Eh? Under the sea? But we're on dry land here." Meraxa had patted the ground to reaffirm such a statement.
"Y-yes I know, but this piece of land isn't technically part of the continental plate."
Meraxa spat out the fish he had been eating on that one.
"HUH?! How does that work?" Meraxa asked, utterly baffled by the logic.
"Well, a long time ago, there was a disaster on this planet, and a lot of volcanoes were set off, or so the senior elder says. Those mountains we passed are supposed to be their inactive shells." Cargo had pointed to the high rising landscape, though Meraxa almost puked. His last experience involving mountains hadn't been... pleasant to say the least. It was partly related to why he was here, actually.
"But continuing on, the volcanoes were a bit lopsided, and the lava all flowed out in one direction." And as Cargo told him, Meraxa had begun to understand.
"Into the ocean right?"
"Right. And years after the disaster, the lava cooled, making a lot of porous rock - it floats really well."
"And thats what we're sitting on eh?"
"Pretty much."
"I see." Meraxa had said, before the two of them had gone to sleep, their plan having been formulated the next morning.
Cargo was to stay and keep watch over the dragonballs, and contact Meraxa with telepathy (the revelation of such a thing would have driven Meraxa up the wall if there was one) if anything happened. Meraxa meanwhile, would dive into the ocean, and use his immense ki to survive the incredible pressure of the depths below.
And Meraxa of course, had wanted to do his dive in style, though Cargo didn't find it so much 'stylish', and more 'wet', and he would now have to dry his clothes again. Luckily for Meraxa, he was by then too deep in the water to hear Cargo's complaints. Another stroke of luck for him was that for whatever reason, unlike Earth, Namek's waters were salt free. That meant he could swim around with his eyes wide open, and not get that burning sensation he normally would. At first, he simply swam, but it soon became apparent that he was so bad at it that it wouldn't be possible for him to even get nearly as deep down as he needed. Not to mention, his air supply was limited to ten minutes (Slygush Meepshood's guide to holding one's breath, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea afterall) so he had to be quick about this. Well, maybe, if it worked in the air...
He focused his ki, before finding himself propelled downwards at incredible speeds. So yeah, apparently 'flying' worked underwater. Did ki energy have anymore tricks it wanted to kick physics in the balls with? Or would this be the last for now? Whatever, he didn't have time to worry about that - the dragonball was the main priority. And thus he went deeper and deeper, occasionally taking side glances to the creatures of the deep around him. There was a lot which similar to the animals from his own homeworld, whales, dolphins, mammals mostly. However the fish... well, if you're crazy enough to imagine a goldfish with the head of a crocodile, go ahead. Or maybe a great white with a hammerhead's... well, head, for flippers? Welcome to the waters of Namek, dear reader.
Anyways, as Meraxa went, he began to see the distinct glow of orange. In amongst all the blue, that could only mean one thing - a dragonball.
Alright, this is gonna be the easiest one yet. He thought to himself, hands stretched to grab the crystalline sphere.
Huh? Meraxa's thoughts suddenly changed their focus when he felt a large group of small, but noticeable power levels all headed his way. Harpoons shot out at him, though he was able to dodge them quite easily.
The hell? The question rang through Meraxa's head, wondering just who these people attacking him were. The answer become painfully obvious - literally - as one harpoon did indeed manage to piece his skin, digging into his right shoulder. The blood rose quickly thanks to the laws of convection at such low depths. And it weren't for the fact it was his blood, he'd say it smelled rather tasty. Maybe it was that iron he ate in broccoli... Wait, what was he thinking? He had a bloody HARPOON in his shoulder for Pete's sake, now wasn't the time to be thinking about food! But yeah, the harpoon. The two Rs grafted into the side made it pretty clear who his agressors were - the red ribbon army. Dammit, he was such an idiot. They were called an army for a reason, that obviously meant they had more than one type of armed forces. Great, he was battling their version of the navy. And look, up above, the shadowed bulks of a submarine - even better... NOT!
But what are these idiots waiting for? I'm doing internal monologue over here, so why aren't they taking the chance to shoot me again?
That was when he realised it, as he pulled the harpoon from his shoulder, nearly bringing the bones with it. The cast-iron weapon dropped to the ocean floor, Meraxa struggling to hold his breath due to the pain and shock. Yeah, exactly. They didn't want to provoke him further, they knew he was. They knew that he could kick their asses from here back to Earth if they pissed him off. But one thing they could do, that he couldn't - thanks to the wonder that is the oxygen tank - was wait. Wait until he was desperate for air, and had to head straight to the surface, or drown. What they hadn't considered however, was just what he could do in the short time before he ran out of air.
He flickered out of sight, reappearing with his fist crushing the oxygen tank of one of the men, before tossing him up towards the surface. He flickered out of sight once more, and did the same three times over, one even hitting the submarine on the way up. At this point, the divers knew they couldn't just wait, and indeed started to open fire with their harpoon guns. Too bad those things didn't have the option of a quick reload, or maybe they might have had a chance to fight back against Meraxa as he defeated them all singlehandedly. As they rose towards the surface of the water, Meraxa picked up the dragonball, and headed after the soldiers, trying to reach the surface also. However a large body blocked his path. He prepared his meteor punch, willing to tear through the submarine if it... wait, since when where Submarines capable of twisting their body?
Thats no submarine! Thats a whale! Meraxa's own thoughts yelled at him as the large creature and several others dived towards him, with him having to fight them off as well. Okay, so now he knew two things 1) Whales on Namek really liked the smell of human blood (or at least, his anyway) 2) Letting yourself bleed in an ocean of those things was not a good idea, at all.
And boy were these things heavy, not to mention, all that whale blubber meant that absorbed a lot of his blows.
Damn you evolution! Meraxa cursed the theorem as he grabbed one whale by the tail (no pun intended), and tried to slam it into the others. Unfortunately, it had a far bigger size than the divers, and was slow as hell when being swung.
Dammi-! He would've cursed again if it one of the whales hadn't bit him in the other shoulder, causing more blood to escape his body.
C-c'mon Meraxa, you can't lose, not now. The Red Ribbon Army... they could be hurting Cargo... before he could react... and contact me... I can't lose... I WON'T lose! Meraxa thoughts screamed with determination, reaching some kind of mid-battle epiphany, or 'enlightenment', if you will. And with this determination, came power, like it had just been released from a long sleep. And he liked it.
He forced the whale off, and then surged full speed to the surface, breaking the surface of the water and floating there to see - indeed - that the red ribbon army was threatening Cargo, guns pointed at the little guy's forehead as the red ribbons took the dragonballs.
"You may want to put the weapons down." Meraxa told them sternly, and though a few shook, their lead officer didn't, calmly placing a revolver to Cargo's head.
"And you may want to drop the dragonball and 'float' away there porcupine, or else the kid here gets it." The officer said with the most smug expression Meraxa had ever seen. That smug expression disappeared quickly enough when Meraxa appeared to his side, and sent him flying with a single backhand slap, the rest of the soldiers on the floor before they even knew what happened to them. They'd have some light bruises on the side of their skulls, but not too much.
"You okay?" Meraxa asked Cargo, who nodded a simple yes.
"Thats it, I'm definitely teaching you to defend yourself, or this is gonna happen again and again." Meraxa laughed, but stopped upon sensing another power level, this one thousands of times stronger than any of the red ribbon guys.
"Get behind me." Meraxa motioned Cargo to do so as he put down the dragonball he currently held - which he soon noted to be the one star ball - with the other two, and then readied himself for another fight if need be, though the blood loss would handicap him against an opponent with actual skill...
"Nail!" Cargo yelled in joy as he jumped over Meraxa's head.
"W-wait-!" Meraxa tried to grab the kid, but Cargo's foot pushed down hard, digging Meraxa's head into the dirt, blocking his sight.
"Hello Cargo, I can't talk right now though, I'm on official business from the senior elder. You, boy, get your face out of the ground already." A deep voice ordered Meraxa, who pulled his face out to see just who it was. It was a namekian, tall, looked a bit like Piccolo, though some parts made it obvious that they weren't one and the same.
"Before you ask, I'm not trying to find the dragonballs for power or anything stupid like that." Meraxa said, slightly irritated. It was true, that had been the initial suspicions or every single last namekian he'd met upon landing on the planet.
"I know, I've been watching you since you came. And though I wish it did not have to be this way, I am in need of your services as a fighter."
"Oh really? And what am I supposed to get out of this?"
"The locations of the dragonballs. Take a look at that little device, and tell me what you see." 'Nail' told Meraxa, who did just that, his face going into shock as he did.
"The other four- They're gone!" Meraxa gasped, Nail smiling like a magnificant bastard.
"Yes, me and three of the other warrior namekians on this planet have swallowed them. And I know from your previous encounters that you quite simply, do not kill, so you won't just rip them out of us."
"Alright fine, so what is this job exactly?"
"I'll tell you when we get there. Oh, and you may want this." Nail said taking something off his back - wrapped in cloth - and tossed it to Meraxa.
"Whats this meant to be?"
"Just open it up." Meraxa followed Nail's words, and took off the packaging, to find a very familiar weapon.
"Is this-?"
"Yes, a konatsian blade. Apparently their design is based around an even more legendary weapon, but thats beside the point. You're a swordsman, and subsequently the only person on this planet who can put the thing to good use. Now come on. Cargo, heal up his wounds as we go." Nail ordered as he picked up two of the three balls, then took off. Meraxa followed up with the last ball, whilst Cargo began his healing charms.
*Elightenment was used, so Meraxa's pl has risen by 50000.
Home 
Subject: Time to swim! The dragonball at twenty leagues under the sea! (1 star ball) 
Fri Nov 27, 2009 5:50 am