Crono's Story

Chapter 28

	Lying on my back, the hot ground burning through my skin, the sunlight burning my eyes, I'd never felt more defeated in my life.  I felt helpless, like I'd never had a real fight before in my life, and my first attempt at one had blown up in my face.  As I lay there, pain consuming my body in its icy clutches, there was nothing I wanted to do except continue to lie there.  I'd been defeated, utterly beaten by a foe I had no business fighting.  He floated high above me, staring down into my face, boring into my mind with his small dots that served as eyes.  I had no strength to rise from the ground, nor did I really want to.  There was nothing to get up for, no real reason to continue living.  I told myself that I couldn't give up, that I'd worked too hard to just admit defeat now, but my body had another idea all together.  I felt like I'd been paralysed, and for a very scary moment, I considered the thought I had been.  Blanka's elbow had been driven right into my spine, and it hurt so much I couldn't even move, but I forced myself to try and move, and to my pleasant surprise I was able to move both my arms and legs.  I took little comfort in that fact however; it was soon overshadowed by my apparent imminent death.
	I waited both patiently and anxiously on the ground, unwilling to do anything to protect myself, as Blanka slowly began to float down towards me.  I could tell he was savouring every second of this battle, of his victory, and I wanted nothing more than to go up there and wipe the damned jovial look on his face.  My body would not allow that however, so I remained in the position I was in.   I took in a deep breath, waiting for the inevitable to occur.  I closed my eyes, opened a telepathic link to Karnai, and began "Karnai," but before I could say anymore to my Namekian ally, there was a huge flare up of ki, like someone had just fired an incredibly powerful blast of ki.
	I whipped my eyes open, and caught the small, white ball of ki streak across the sky.  My eyes latched onto it through no fault of my own, and as it proceeded to soar higher and higher, my eyes tracked its path perfectly.  Suddenly, as it reached an extremely high point in the heavens, it exploded.  The flash was so bright I was forced to shut my eyes again and turn my head away.  Once the flare-up had dissipated, I turned back to look into it.  As I did so, I saw Blanka also gazing in its direction.  When my eyes rested upon it, they saw a huge orb of white light floating in the sky.  The ball of energy emitted a light somehow familiar, like I'd seen it a long time ago, but hadn't glimpsed it in any recent memory.  Its light mesmerized my eyes, like it held some sort of majestic standing in the order of illumination.  My mind screamed for me to locate its source, and I soon forced myself to tear my eyes away, and trace the ball of ki back to its starting point.
	What I found was not what I had expected at all.  Phoenix stood on a small piece of rock, staring directly at the energy sun he had created.  His tail was not around his waist like it usually was, and he seemed to be in a somewhat transient state; almost like he was meditating.
	It wasn't long before his muscles began to expand, his hair grew brown and long, and his clothes ripped themselves apart from his body.  It took me several seconds to piece together what he'd done.  When I finally realized it, I was both astounded and overcome with a sense of fear and foreboding.  Phoenix had nearly killed me last time he'd transformed into his Oozaru form, and I was in such poor shape now I would stand no chance.  I'd had no idea he'd mastered the ability to transform either, and I had an even less idea of whether or not he could control his monkey-like form.
	Just as he was reaching his full height and he let out a mountain-crashing roar, a familiar ki signature rocketed itself right beside me.  I turned to face the being, and found Karnai's green face blocking the light of the sun.  "We have to get a safe distance away."  He stated, a hint of fear in his voice.
	I couldn't even nod, much less get up to do what he'd proposed, and Karnai noticed as well.  He bent down next to me quickly and then hooked my arm on top of his shoulder.  He then stood, pulling me upwards along with him, and then we both shot off into the sky using his ki power.
	 Phoenix let off another gigantic scream of rage as Karnai and I flew over to where the rest of our non-saiyan group had hidden, behind a large red boulder.  When we touched the ground again, he slowly and carefully placed me on the ground, on my back again.  Nikita, Yukia, and even Arsenia bent over me, each of them patching up one of my wounds with pieces of their own tarnished gi.  The next yell Phoenix sent out was so loud the ground rumbled beneath us and my cut ear began to bleed.  Karnai had floated just above the surface of the boulder we were using as a screen in order to watch what would happen between Blanka and Phoenix.  I was still immobilized on the ground, but I used my ki detection abilities to witness the fight.
	Blanka, it appeared, was not the least bit scared.  He was still floating about fifty metres above the ground, facing Phoenix, without the slightest hint of fear in his heart.  He wasn't even using his full power, which I guessed to be around the 200 thousand power level mark.  Phoenix's ki wasn't particularly that strong, but his body's power was so amazing I had trouble keeping it in perspective.  The transformed saiyan took a few lumbering steps towards Blanka, covering the distance between them very, very quickly.  I thought he would try to hit Blanka with a physical attack from the onset, but he surprised me by using one of his Saiko attacks, a ki beam that he shot through the mouth.
	Blanka was equally surprised, but the beam was badly aimed and Blanka narrowly managed to avoid it.  The blast was not useless though, as I sensed Blanka begin to raise his power level to its max, as began to realize just how strong Phoenix was.  As he was doing this though, his concentration was not on the saiyan, and Phoenix took advantage of this.  While Blanka continued to hover in the air, Phoenix leaped at him with his monstrous legs, and took a swipe at the Caprian with his huge paw.  Blanka definitely did not see it coming, and was batted down to the ground from the blow.  I felt the impact of both Blanka colliding with the ground, and the much larger one of Phoenix's Oozaru body landing back on the earth.
	My three human compatriots had finished mending my sores to the best of their abilities, and the minute of rest I'd received gave me enough vigour to painfully get to my feet.  Yukia aided me in doing so, gently pushing me upwards whenever my feet began to give way underneath me.  Once I'd reached my full height, I asked Yukia "Would you mind hauling me up above this rock?" I pointed to the boulder we were crouched behind "I wanna see this fight go down."
	He nodded and replied "Sure."  I smiled in appreciation and stuck out my arm for him to grab onto.  He did so and soon enveloped me in his warm ki.  We floated up slowly, and when we reached the top, the form of Phoenix took up almost my entire view.  He was at least half a kilometre away, but his body was so big that it cut off my view of the fallen Blanka.  As soon as I began to watch the battle, Phoenix was again attacking.  This time he fired another mouth blast of ki, but this one was not aimed to hit the Caprian.  Blanka easily jumped above the explosion of the mouth blast, but it was too powerful to completely clear the radius of the detonation.  Blanka was hurled upwards even farther by the blast, and lost control of his body.  Phoenix again leapt at his flailing opponent, and once again caught him off guard, striking Blanka full-force with a closed fist.  I knew the feeling of being whacked by an Oozaru form of Phoenix, and this version was much more powerful than the one I had faced.
	Blanka was sent as such high speeds into the pile of rocks I had previously demolished that I couldn't even sense the motion.  Phoenix bellowed in delight as he began to realize Blanka was acting as more a plaything than a real challenge.  I'm not sure if the saiyan part of his mind had over-ridden the sensible, peace-loving man I'd known, but I had a feeling at least part of him was truly enjoying the beating he was delivering.  He pounded forward with a few quick steps towards his prey, each one thundering the ground to waste underneath his huge paw-feet.  Blanka's body lay underneath the jumble of stones I'd created from his and my fight, a painful memory of the thrashing he'd given me.  The very remembrance of that fight brought a pang of shame onto my heart.  I'd failed our group, and if it hadn't been for Phoenix, I would've failed the entire Earth, if not the entire universe.  I knew my defeat had been my own fault, the cause of my own lack-lustre training.  When I got out there, it felt like I'd already had five fights that day, and I was almost out of energy.  If I'd only worked harder, I could've stood a better chance against these damned Caprians.  I had no one to blame but myself, I was far too weak to deal with this group of opponents.  I knew everyone else looked up to me, like I was their leader.  I hadn't wanted the position, but even Krillin's last words indicated that he placed all our hopes on me; and I had failed.  I had to train harder, if only so the same thing didn't happen later on.  I vowed right there that if I survived that day, I would work five times harder than I'd ever worked before in my life.
	With that self-promise made; I directed my attention back to the battle on hand.  Phoenix was rampaging towards the downed Blanka, who was now standing and facing the oncoming saiyan.  I could see through the huge gap in-between Phoenix's legs that Blanka had been beaten fairly badly.  His armor was nearly non-existent, his torso and arms were covered in fresh, bleeding cuts, and his face was badly bruised.  He didn't look defeated though, if anything he looked more revitalized than before.  I didn't know then what he was so calm about, but Phoenix soon made it apparent.
	When the giant monkey was within attacking distance of Blanka, he pounced on the Caprian's located, arms extended, like a basketball player diving for a loose ball.  Right before Phoenix's huge hands clasped themselves around Blanka's bulky body, the muscle-bound warrior zanzokened out of view.  Phoenix's paws caught nothing in their palms but rock and soil.  The reckless dive left Phoenix on his stomach, with Blanka nowhere in view.  Almost as soon as the Oozaru hit the ground though, Blanka dissolved into view once again, above and behind Phoenix, with a small, Destructo Disk like, energy attack in his hand.
	I realized, as did Yukia and Karnai, what Blanka intended to do.  I was still to weak to yell out, but both Yukia and Karnai's lungs were fully functional.  "LOOK OUT!!!"  They screamed out in unison, both of their faces twisted in anticipation and fear.  I'm not sure if Phoenix heard them or not, or even if he had if he would've been able to understand what they said, but right as Blanka was bringing back his arm to fling the Destructo Disk at Phoenix's tail, the gorilla took action.  To Blanka it must've seemed like a tank hit him out of nowhere.  The saiyans tail moved with such speed I don't think he could've dodged it even if he had seen it coming.  It moved from the floor of the earth upwards, striking the floating Blanka at full speed and hurling him upwards into the air as a tangled mass of limbs and blood.
	 While Blanka was hurled up into the air at amazing speeds, Phoenix turned from his belly onto his butt, looking towards his neatly dispatched opponent.  The huge saiyan warrior took a few seconds to catch its breath, then stood and let out a huge roar of defiance.  Right as he did so Blanka regained control of his body and halted himself in the air, at least a few kilometres above the ground.
	The Caprian's ki signature was faint, his ego destroyed by this beast called Phoenix, but his will was strong, and he didn't exactly look like he was going to give in.  Phoenix glared at his badly injured adversary with one huge, Oozaru eye, then he bent his gargantuan legs so his knees were at a 90-degree angle.  Blanka's face had a look of concern, like he didn't know what was coming, and it scared him.  I don't think anyone thought Phoenix was going to do what he did, or even that he could do it.
	From his crouched position, he let out a low growl from his throat, and then shot straight up.  I don't know how much his body must've weighed, maybe a few thousand tonnes, but it was massive, and to jump at the very least a kilometre vertically was quite the feat.  Blanka's worried face turned to one of pure fear as the huge form of Phoenix grew closer and closer with every second.  When the giant monkey had reached a little over half way to Blanka, the Caprian screamed in homicidal rage and then mustered up the very last of his power.  He instantly began firing huge ki blasts at Phoenix's colossal body, though they were dwarfed to the size of marbles by the saiyan.
	Blanka fired round after round of purple ki from his palms, striking the un-missable frame of Phoenix with each blast.  So many of the round blasts connected on the impenetrable hide of the Oozaru that soon a huge smoke cloud was formed around Phoenix.  It enveloped the beast to the extent I lost sight of both him and Blanka.  Finally I sensed Blanka had stopped firing and gradually the smoke faded away, revealing the sight of Phoenix still moving upwards at a rapid pace and Blanka hovering there, his body limp and useless.
	The armor-less Caprian was completely helpless; far too much so to dodge Phoenix's swipe at him.  It easily made contact and once again sent Blanka plummeting into the ground underneath.  This time his meeting with the floor was so powerful it created a small impact crater and sent up a cloud of terrain.  Phoenix lumbering figure hit the ground sometime later, creating an almost earthquake-like impact on the ground.
	Phoenix made sure of his footing before letting out a huge victory roar and then turning to face the collapsed Blanka.   His body was lying un-moving in the small fissure he'd created in the ground, his ki signature so faint I thought he had slipped into a coma.  Phoenix studied him for a few seconds, almost contemplating whether or not to continue.  I hated Blanka, I'd hated what he'd done to me, but I didn't really want to see Phoenix go overboard and kill this guy, he wasn't worth the effort.  But Phoenix had already made up his mind, and Blanka was not in his future plans.  He roared one final time at the downed Caprian, and then he jumped high into the air, almost as high as the previous leap.  He reached the apex in about five seconds, and then on the way down, slowly angled his descent towards Blanka.
	Blanka was almost right under Phoenix's foot when Yush stepped in, or rather when he zanzokened in.  Phoenix had just a few more metres at the very most to go and kill Blanka when there was a huge rush of ki energy and a quite audible "whoosh" sound was emitted.  Suddenly Yush was directly in front of Phoenix's torso, where previously he'd been almost a kilometre away, behind Phoenix, at the Caprian spaceship.  Phoenix didn't even notice him, he moved so fast.  Once he'd materialized in front of the saiyan, he delivered one single punch, and sent Phoenix flying.
	Yush was perhaps a hundredth of the size of Oozaru Phoenix, and yet with one single punch, he sent the gigantic saiyan flying five hundred metres, at the very least, onto a huge mountain-sized rock.  I was so stunned at the amazing display of strength I didn't even respond.  I just watched in a sort of shocked horror as Phoenix's body crashed onto the mountain and shattered it apart with his huge frame.  The gigantic beast let out a sort of whimper-like growl as he demolished the rock face, like he was injured dog or something.  While Phoenix was sent flying onto his back, Yush slowly touched down on the ground next to Blanka, stole a quick glance at his injured comrade and then exploded into a oval of teal coloured ki.  He didn't repent one second, he just fired off into the sky, straight towards Phoenix, and then when he reached the hurt Oozaru, simply drove down with all the speed he could muster into Phoenix's torso.
	Phoenix sent out another whimper-like groan and then fell flatter on his spine, gasping for air to feed to his huge muscles.  Yush slowly flew above Phoenix's body, coming to a halt directly above the saiyans head.  He waited patiently as Phoenix recovered as much strength as he could; observing him like a scientist does his lab experiment.  I'm fairly sure our monkey friend surprised the teal skinned warrior when he suddenly opened his huge jaw and let out another of his patented mouth blasts.  Whether Yush expected it or not was un-consequential, as he zanzokened out of its path before it could hit him.  He reappeared off to Phoenix's left, almost right beside his face; elevated just slightly above the ground.  He powered up a small batch of ki in his right foot, and before anyone knew it had happened, he delivered a dynamite kick right into Phoenix's jaw.  In fact he went so hard and so fast he broke right through Phoenix's gigantic cheekbone, and came out the other side of his mouth, like a bullet.  
	Blood instantly and profusely began pouring out of the gaping wound as Phoenix brought both of his hands up in an attempt to stop the bleeding.  He flipped over to his stomach so that the blood wouldn't fall back into his throat or anything, and as soon as he did, his tail shot out into the open air.  Yush was obviously not the fool Blanka had been, and before anyone could even conjugate the thought of warning Phoenix, he'd fired a small ki beam straight at the base of the saiyans brown tail.  I wanted to cry out, or at least do something, anything to prevent Phoenix's demise.  It all happened too quickly though, and before I could do anything, the beam had torn its way through his bushy tail, and Phoenix was already beginning to transform back into his humanoid form.
	I realized that everyone had floated up to watch the fight now, and we all hovered in a row above the boulder, all our mouths opened in disbelief.  Just a few seconds earlier, Phoenix had had Blanka literally under his foot, just waiting to be finished.  And in four simple attacks, Yush had frayed any chances of our victory into non-existence.
	Phoenix soon reverted back to his normal form, but he was unconscious, and Yush was slowly floating down to the saiyans comatose form.  Karnai was the only one to take action, flying quickly above the rock and then beginning to fly towards both Yush and Phoenix.  The only standing Caprian left took no chances though, and had reached Phoenix before Karnai was anywhere near the two of them.  The teal-skinned fighter raised his fist above his head, covering it in electrical ki energy, staring down at the fallen saiyan; the very last of his kind.  Karnai wasn't going to make it in time, and the Namek could muster up the energy to throw a ki blast at the Caprian, Yush began to bring his hand down, straight towards Phoenix.
	I don't know what came first; the huge red flame that rushed towards Yush, or the huge flare of ki that came from seemingly nowhere.  They seemed to me to come in complete unison, like they were one and the same.  Turns out I was right, but at that moment I didn't care, my only thought was: What the hell just happened?
	Before I could open my mouth to ask the question, Yush was being flung full speed along the ground, skidding, bouncing and sliding along the length of the rough terrain.  Where he'd previously been standing was the flame of red, now in a somewhat spherical shape, crouched next to Phoenix.  It took me a while, but I soon recognized it as a ki signature, all be it a very strange one.
	Soon the ball of red energy grew upwards, and then in a sudden flash, it was dispersed, sent out into the air.  Where it had previously been stood a man.  He was fairly tall, with a very strange haircut, even stranger clothes, and a long, samurai type sword at his waist.  He was standing at his full height, staring at Yush's skidding form and at the same time keeping a careful eye on Phoenix's body as well.  The man looked kind of familiar, but I knew I'd never seen him before.  Whoever he was, he was the source of the huge flare-up of ki, and was quite powerful from what I could tell.
	While his torso and head still faced Yush, he extended his left hand and, using a form of ki manipulation I'd never seen before, slowly wrapped Phoenix's body in a cloak of invisible energy.  Using this blanket of energy as a sort of net, he lifted Phoenix from the ground using his mind, and then began to float upwards slowly, towards Karnai, with Phoenix in tow.  While he flew towards the Namek who hung in the air, stunned, he remained fixated on Yush, who was now in control of his motion and had perched himself atop a small rock, looking very pissed off.
	This mysterious person slowly handed Phoenix's carcass to Karnai, who numbly accepted it in his arms.  Throughout the exchange, this stranger's and Yush's eyes locked, and remained that way for quite a while.  Once Karnai had Phoenix firmly in his grasp, he asked the question everyone had been dying to enquire.  "Who are you?"
	The red/brown haired individual remained focused on Yush, but answered still.  "You knew me once as Cris, and as Triono.  But I am neither anymore.  I am Crono, and I am here to help you out."  It was just as he finished this sentence that I noticed the pair of earrings he wore, they were oddly recognizable, but I couldn't tell exactly where I'd seen them before.  "Excuse me."  He continued, floating forward slowly "I have to go win this battle now."