75% Weights
75x (0.75x) Gravitron
25% Training Dummy
65% Rookie Bonus

It was a silent night on one of the islands in the Southern Continent. It had begun to rain particularly hard all around the area. The wind had picked up significantly, the ocean around the island moved more violently, and lightning came down from the dark clouds that had covered the sky. All the wildlife in the surrounding area had long runoff or hid in who knows where. An ominous air filled the environment around them, and anyone paying attention would’ve gotten the sudden urge that it was time to leave as fast as possible. Unfortunately, a certain warrior wasn’t doing that at all, he was too focused on breaking his limits to realize the imminent threat that was approaching.

Quash was training in his Gravitron with his Training Dummy, just like he had been for the last few weeks. He had been training since the time he woke up. He hadn’t eaten anything since the large breakfast he had this morning. Sweat covered his forehead and was beginning to bleed through his clothes. He was exhausted, but he was determined to push himself even further anyways. He was still perfecting his close quarter combat abilities under 75x Gravity. He had made a lot of progress, but he wasn’t really where he wanted to be yet. There were still areas he could improve in, such as timing and speed.

Whenever he was on the offensive, it always felt like he was never able to truly commit to the action. His punches had an air of reluctance behind them like he didn’t have any OOMF in there. The dummy wasn’t that fazed but the attacks landed. Hell, it hardly had anything to adapt to in the first place. Had the passion for fighting been leaving him? He didn’t think it was possible but… maybe he just needed to accept the facts. Did Liari actually read him right the first time? Was he really not a true saiyan warrior?

The more Quash had been training, the worse his thoughts became. Feeling his insecurity wash over him, he began to feel more and more demotivated. It was always “I’m wasting my time”, “I’m not sure if I can do this”, or “I might be able to do this, but they can do this!”. It was as if he wasn’t allowed to be confident in himself. Now leaving himself open to attack, the training dummy was finding plenty of opportunities to strike. Blow after blow spread out across his face and body, eventually knocking him to the ground. Now frustrated, he finally gave in and canceled the training program and threw his Three-Sectioned-Staff across the room in frustration. He turned off the Gravity before he stormed out, needing some air.

Opening up the Gravitron as he left, he found his cat Jonathan. He looked like he had seen a ghost, and was currently cowering in absolute fear in the corner of the room. Quash raised an eyebrow and walked over to him to try and give him a little comfort.

“Huh? What’s wrong buddy? It’s going to be o-”

It was at this moment that he was paying a little attention to his pet’s facial expression. He wasn’t just afraid. This fear was primal. Something was clearly happening that he didn’t know about. He was a little freaked, but he didn’t worry too much. After all, what threat was there that he couldn’t handle? Quash couldn’t sense anything at the moment, so no one was around. Maybe it was just some weird time of the month? He didn’t know a lot about cats, so maybe this was just something they did.

At this point, he started to hear a lot of noises all around him. It was almost like someone was knocking all along the outside of the ship. He decided to check it out. Maybe someone had paid them a visit after all. Quash walked to the console in the pilot area of the ship and pressed the button to open the door. There was no one there as he expected, but he found the cause of the noise. The rain had turned into hail and had been hitting the ship so hard that was beginning to cause dents all over the outside.

Stepping outside to assess the damage, Quash let out an irritated sigh as he raised his arms over his head in an attempt to protect his head from the precipitation.

“Perfect, now I have to find a way to fix all the damage. I didn’t even notice the storm.”

It wasn’t too bad, but the ship now looked quite unsightly, to say the least. The important thing was that it was fully functional. He decided that it was pretty pointless to try and move it somewhere else, especially considering the danger of flying in a storm. The only thing left to do was the wait it out and hoped that there wasn’t too much to do in the morning.

Quash went to make his way back into the ship, but as he took a step towards the open door a lightning bolt came from the sky and landed right in front of him! Caught off guard, he stumbled back and fell to the ground.

“Golly, what are the odds?” He told himself, a little more annoyed that mother nature was playing a prank on him. Or so he thought.

He slowly began to get up, but the winds had quickly picked up even more. They began to circle around the saiyan, lifting him up into the air.

Understandably confused, he used his own flight to regain control of himself in midair. That didn’t work out too great either, since the wind had become so strong that it had not only overpowered him but brought him away from his ship towards the edge of the island. The air then began to swirl ten times as fast, practically becoming a tornado. The ship, despite being away from him, began to slowly drag along the grassy terrain it sat on as it began inch closer and closer to the tornado. Meanwhile, Quash had already gotten sucked into it, spinning out of control in circles as his body revolved around it at rapid speeds.

“WHAT. IS. HAPPEN. ING.”

Eventually, the tornado halted suddenly. The remaining momentum sent him spiraling away from the island and out towards the ocean. The world looked like it was spinning around him and thinking was becoming more difficult for him due to how dazed he was. His body was sent flying for a little longer than he’d like to admit. After a while, he was able to get control of himself and came to a screeching halt in the middle of nowhere.

“What…What the fuck was that?”

Quash looked around, realizing that he didn’t even know what direction he came from. The sudden assault from the weather had completely skewed his sense of direction. Well, that sucked. It was probably going to be a while before he was able to reunite with Jonathan and ship. He just had to hope that his little pal was going to be okay by himself. Still, that sudden attack definitely felt personal.


FLASH!

A bolt of lightning came out from the clouds in the blink of an eye! It struck the Captain square in the chest.

“GAH!” He cried out, sent barreling down towards the ocean. He was able to quickly recover before he hit the water, flying just above its surface. It clearly wasn’t safe out here, and he needed to flee to some area to wait out this storm. His aura enveloped his body as his speed increased. He kept himself constantly moving in a zig-zag pattern, hopefully, he’d be a harder target to hit that way.

It looked like lightning strikes and gusts of wind weren’t all that was in store for him though. Water blasts had burst out from the ocean and were headed straight for the Captain! Seeing them out of the corner of his eye, Quash put up his Beetroot Barrier to shield his entire body. His energy cracked against the blasts as they collided. This wouldn’t hold for long, he had to get out of the danger zone!

Before he could think of anything, a geyser of water shot up right from underneath him. It propelled him upwards. He let out a loud “OOF!” as he felt the wind get knocked right out of him.

‘Tch, what’s going on here? Water doesn’t naturally bend and go after you!’ He thought, thinking that something else was going on here. He didn’t know it was, but he was clearly the target of SOMETHING. Whatever it was, he had to figure it out fast. It didn’t look like this was going to let up any time soon.

Quash tried to think of some kind of plan, but what? If there was an enemy, he didn’t know where they were or what they looked like. There was nothing to fight! What was he going to do, blast some clouds? Yeah, like that’ll do anything other than make him look like an idiot. The only thing he could do was keep his guard up and hope for something to happen that would give him some kind of clue as to what was going on.

KRAAAAKOOOOOMMM!!!!

Thunder echoed throughout the landscape as multiple lightning bolts missed their target and crashed into the ocean. The Captain was keeping his head on the swivel, not letting himself get relaxed for a second. Multiple geysers and blasts of water were headed his way, but he either avoided them entirely or was able to neutralize the attacks with various ki blasts. He was doing well so far, but he knew he couldn’t keep this up forever. At this rate, he would tire himself out before he’d be able to get out of this situation!

The attacks began to ramp up. The lightning strikes became much more frequent and slowly became more and more impossible to avoid. He was soon being bombarded by multiple lightning bolts at once. He could feel himself beginning to slow down after every hit and could even smell his own roasted skin. Wasn’t exactly a great smell, especially since he already sweaty from his training from earlier.

Once he had slowed down enough, the water attacks began to start up again. This time, it was something different. They had looked more like long tendrils this time. There were a lot of them and although it looked like there was no way to avoid all of them, Quash had to at least try. He managed the dodge the first few and used his Ki Sword to slice the next couple. Suddenly, one wrapped around his leg and yanked him down towards the water.

He tried to fight it, but more tendrils shot up and wrapped themselves around his other leg, neck, and wrists. Completely immobilized, he was now at the ocean’s mercy as he was dragged deep underwater. He took a deep breath right before he was completely submerged, hoping to buy himself some time to think of any out that came to mind.

Quash felt weightless as he was completely submerged. The tendrils still hanging onto him so that he wouldn’t be able to escape. He felt fine right now, but he was going to need a breath of air really soon. Looking around, he saw absolutely nothing. Just the vast emptiness of the ocean. He was more confused now than ever, because now he was beginning to think that he really was just fighting the literal ocean, but then something caught his eyes.

Looking down, he thought he could see something. It kind of looked like…


His eyes widened and he could practically feel his heart stop. He immediately froze, trying to process what he was looking at.

‘What…What in the SHIT is that?!’

The monster glared at him clearly seeing nothing but prey. The staredown they had felt like it lasted forever. He didn’t know what it was going to happen next, but it probably wasn’t good. He had no idea that Earth had such massive creatures. Where did something like THAT come from? How had he not come across anything like it before now?

The water felt tighter as its energy began to flow through it. It was obvious that it was powerful, and Quash had to admit that he had no idea how he was going to get out of this. It showed its razor-sharp teeth and looked like it was preparing to move. Not good. Not good at all. The Captain’s aura flared violently as he tried to fly away, desperately fighting back against the tendrils that kept him in place.

The beast lunged with its mouth wide open, ready to chomp down on what would soon be its dinner. That’s when the adrenaline kicked in. Quash just managed to avoid being its next meal as he freed himself from his restraints, and instinctively dove to the side deeper into the water. He looked back and immediately regretted it. The beast’s body looked like it had no end. As it began to circle back around, there was nowhere to go but down. He could feel his lungs beginning to cry for air. He had to do something soon, or else he was going to drown!

He flew downward as fast as he could, with the monster right on his tail. He could feel the weight on top of him becoming greater as he went deeper and deeper. His armor began to crack under the increasing pressure as he did so. The depths he was reaching would’ve killed any normal person a while ago, but he had trained under artificial gravity far greater than Earth’s. His body could take it.

The sea serpent suddenly blew right past him faster than he could even react, slamming its body against the saiyan’s. Quash was knocked off course, flying off into the side. Before he could recover, it came back around for another attack! Despite its large size, its speed was definitely something to behold. It kept attacking him relentlessly until the saiyan was hit so hard that he unintentionally let go of the little breath he had left.

Panic set in. He scrambled as he tried to flee for the surface. His lungs were on fire at this point, its cries now turning into screams. His only hope was the Afterimage technique. He might be able to distract the monster long enough to get to the surface. It was worth a shot. It’s not like he had anything else that could help him in this situation anyway.

Five Quashs suddenly appeared before the monster’s eyes, suddenly confusing it. All five of them rushed forward to the surface, but obviously, his opponent wasn’t about to just sit by and let that happen. While he initially thought that it would go after each one one by one, that did not appear to be the case at all. It performed one, swift, violent tail whip. The shockwave passed upwards through the water and eliminated all five images at the same time and even managed to catch the Captain himself.

Luckily, Quash was knocked out of the water and into the air as a result. Just narrowly escaping what could’ve been his death, he took a few deep breaths. The beast rose out of the water, and that’s when he realized how big it actually was.

Despite how high he was in the air, the saiyan found himself at eye level with the sea monster. Its body extended all the way down and into the water. He managed to put up a second Beetroot Barrier in order to protect himself from the shockwave created by the monster’s roar. The ocean reacted to its ferocity, the waves becoming more violent and the storm beginning to pick up. Yeah, it was what it looked like: This creature was in control of the sea and the storms.

“Justttt great.” Quash said to himself sarcastically.

The serpent had let out another cry, and the wind began to blow in his direction. He raised his arms up to shield himself, but the wind had begun to pick up until it had begun to reach hurricane speeds. A hollow column of water began to rise up from underneath him, surrounding him. It was a… Tornado of water? Water tornado? Waternado? Whatever one might call it, it could be nothing but bad news.

Quash looked up, and saw nothing but water for seemed to stretch endlessly into the sky. It looked like that wasn’t an option, and he wasn’t about to go back underwater again. With no other alternative, he flew straight into the side, attempting to try and break out of it. As his body slammed into it, he could immediately feel it push back twice as hard. He gritted his teeth as he pushed harder, trying desperately to get out of the attack. Despite his effort, he was ultimately repelled back.

He heard another loud roar that came from outside. It looked like it was getting ready for another attack. Quash chastised himself for being so sloppy. He’s been sticking to the defensive this whole time! He had to take some initiative if he was going to get out of this! He was an elite warrior! Or, at least that’s what he kept telling himself every day.

Lightning came barreling down, but this time struck the water itself. It electrified the waternado, and then began to close in on Captain! To be honest, he thought it was a little impressive that it managed to be that creative. Braced himself, putting up an energy shield that was quickly starting to become the reason why he was still alive in this fight. The water and lightning passed over his shield and slammed into each other before falling back into the ocean.

The sea serpent, seeing that he managed to avoid its attack, began to approach him.

‘Alright, enough playing around. I don’t have enough time to drag this out.”

As he went to face it, Quash couldn’t help but feel like it was staring into his soul. It didn’t waver even a little, almost like it knew that it had already gotten inside his mind. No, it did know. It could practically smell the fear and uncertainty radiating from him. In fact, for a moment, it almost looked like it was… grinning? Did it already think that it had won? It was a little rude, but it was up to him to prove it wrong.

Quash’s aura flared up once more as he propelled himself towards the beast. A Ki Sword appeared in his right hand. He figured that mere ki attacks weren’t going to be enough to put it down, and he only had enough energy for one Bok Choy Blast. He decided that it was better to maybe get in close so he could at least try to weaken it before he could unleash his attack. As he got close, he saw a blue orb of ki form between the serpent’s teeth. An attack was coming, it was time to get ready to move!

It let out a beam of blue energy toward him. It was so fast that despite dodging almost as soon as he saw it, the energy still managed to sear his already damaged armor as it passed by him. He flew directly toward the beast’s eye as it did, readying his blade. Once he got close enough, he thrusted his sword forward, cutting through the pupil and the nerves behind the eye. The beast roared in great pain, shaking its head rapidly so that Quash would be thrown off. He put some distance between himself and it, trying to not get caught in its thrashing around in the water. Some may have criticized him for not continuing his assault, but he didn’t want to take that much risk.

For a moment, Quash actually had some confidence. He actually managed to damage it, and on his first attempt too! Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all. With one eye gone, he had created a blindspot that he could take advantage of. If he could get the other eye, he could cut off its sight entirely, and then victory would be assured! It might be able to use Ki, but could it really sense energy? He was willing to bet it couldn’t due to its simpler mind. Who knows, maybe this animal would actually fear him no-

Oh.

Nevermind.

Once it settled, not only did it not have any fear, but it looked like it was even more ready to fight than before. Its one-eye glare told the Captain everything he needed to know. It wasn’t unwavering, it was just really, really pissed off. Two water tornadoes began to form at its sides. Quash was about to shit his pants. He looked up and saw lightning dance across the clouds with seemingly greater power now. It was finally starting to get serious.

Which was really concerning, because Quash thought it was actually putting in effort this whole time. From the tornados, multiple liquid projectiles shot out toward him. Trying to save his energy for his final attack, he decided to not use the Beetroot Barrier this time. Unfortunately, that meant blocking the attacks head-on, as there was no way in hell that he was going to dodge that many blasts. He crossed his arms, grunting in pain as each blast struck him with enough force that a shockwave emitted when each hit landed.

He was being pushed farther and farther back until one of the blasts completely broke through, forcing his hands up into the air. Quash was then bombarded with what remained, getting hit so hard that he could feel his ribs cracking as his armor was starting to fall away. Once the assault was over, he found it difficult to even keep himself afloat. Before he could think of what to do next, the serpent had sent the waternados toward him! There was no time to think, there was only time to do!

The battle raged on for what seemed like an eternity, with Quash mostly on the defensive. He rarely went in for the attack, afraid of what might happen. He made an attempt to block and dodge almost everything that came his way, but the enemy wasn’t going to defeat itself. Whenever he did go on the offensive, it was never enough to do any significant damage. He was fighting like a coward. The Captain, bruised and battered found himself nearing his limit. His aura was barely visible at this point as he now lay in water gasping for breath. Still, he had just enough energy for his one ace in the hole.

The serpent towered over him, having slight scuff marks all across his body. They were far from serious, a clear sign that the monster was more than ready to keep going while its prey was all tuckered out. He had done better than it had initially expected, but the result was always inevitable. In its mind, it was time to end it. It dove head first right onto Quash’s body, pushing him deep into the ocean. The saiyan was too exhausted to move out of the way, and ended up taking the full force of the blow.

Quash’s muscles ached, his ribs were broken, and he was bleeding in more than a few places, safe to say that it was not looking good. The serpent came to a sudden stop, letting the momentum carry him down even further as it prepared its final blow. It opened its mouth and had begun to charge the same energy attack from earlier in its mouth. This time, it was larger and had far more energy packed into it. It was clear that this was meant to kill. This was it. If Quash was going to use his secret weapon, now was the time.

A red energy orb enveloped his left hand, and electricity began to crack around it. The Bok Choy Blast, a move specifically made for his rematch with Liari. He kind of wished he could save it, but it was far too late for that.

His heart suddenly began to pick up. Quash had snapped out of his exhausted state, as he realized the gravity of the situation. He was actually facing death now. His reserves were practically empty, this enemy was far more powerful than him, and he was actually going to DIE here. His survival instincts began to kick in as he immediately went into fight or flight mode. The monster released its ultimate attack, and Quash fired his blast forward!

He may not have been able to speak given that he was holding his breath, but he was more than able to scream with his heart!

BOK CHOY BLAST!!!!!

The beams collided with one another, causing a strong vibration to radiate throughout the ocean around them. Predictably, the beast’s energy was overpowering the Captain’s, and it wasn’t long before the attack was inches from his face. Quash gritted his teeth as he put whatever he had left into his attack, but deep down he already knew it was no use. This was it, the end of the line. At this point, it was just a formality to die with honor. He had accepted his fate, knowing that there was nothing else he could do.

His energy attack had been eaten away by his foe’s and he began to be consumed by the opposing attack.

‘Sorry, Callion it looks like I won’t be able to avenge your death after all… Maybe Jorey, or even Sayama will have a better shot at stopping Liari. I’ve done…all I… could do…”

…

…

…



When… when did it happen?

When did Quash become so soft?

Quash had always preached about overcoming his own limits, never letting anyone decide your fate for you, and here he was doing exactly that. He had gone up against yet another enemy that was slapping him around, he was too afraid to lift a finger. He was afraid of being unworthy, afraid of losing, afraid of not being able to live up to his own expectations. Well it was time to wake up, because he wasn’t worthy. He couldn’t stop the USD, he couldn’t stop Athren, he couldn’t stop Liari, and now he couldn’t even stop a mere mindless ANIMAL.

He had always met challenges head-on, he was always willing to surpass his limits so that he could topple any foe! The perfect fighter. That’s what he had been changing for the past 27 years of his life. Now, he was hardly even in the mood to go on! Hell, he even went to some random green girl for ADVICE. ADVICE?! He’s supposed to know better! What was he looking for? An excuse? An alternative? There wasn’t one. For fuck’s sake, he’s letting Jorey take on HIS duty! What the hell kind of Captain is that? He couldn’t believe he was saying this, but Liari was right. Callion had gone up against insurmountable odds and DIED in the process meanwhile Quash was struggling to stop himself from peeing in his bed? How could he let it all get to him? He had gotten his ass kicked so many times that he was afraid that everything he believed about himself was a lie…

But it WAS a lie, wasn’t it?

Quash wasn’t better than the others, he was softened up just like they were. For every step he took, it was two steps back. He had a coward with no ambition. All bark but no bite. He wanted to take initiative to save his home and his people but he wasn’t even willing to set the example!

A deep rage, a self HATRED began to boil up inside of him, and his energy began to rise. His energy attack began to push back the serpent’s little by little.

‘How could I have been so stupid? That bastard was right, my rank means nothing. It’s just some garbage title. A title was given to me by the same people I’ve lost faith in, how could I have trusted them with the decision that I was worthy at all? What have I done?’

Quash’s aura exploded to life with over ten times the ferocity that it had before. It flowed violently and began to change color.

‘No. I won’t let this be my end. My story isn’t over yet. Not even fucking close. I may have been a failure so far, but I won’t let that be my legacy. I’ll show the world the power of the saiyans, that we are a race of warriors who are not to be taken lightly!’

His aura had completely turned yellow now, and his blast had completely overpowered the beast. It cried out in horror as its skin began to peel away and soon the rest of its body. It had become completely incinerated by the blast as Quash reached a brand new level of power.

‘I will become the strongest, the greatest warrior to ever live!’


"And here."

"I."

"AM!!!"

“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”


WC: 4880