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[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (148/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: Yo, dawg, I heard you liked the golden ape from the Namek Saga, so I had the golden ape travel through time to the Namek Saga so she could listen to Vegeta talk about the golden ape in the Namek Saga.

Tonight’s Episode:

 [24 December, Age 762.    Namek.]  

Once, Luffa had been the mightiest Saiyan of her age.    Now, her power had been mysteriously curtailed, and she was nothing more than a raw recruit in the Time Patrol, a collection of warriors who resolved temporal anomalies with their fists.   Luffa had been wary of the job at first, but she gradually decided to get used to it, mainly because her old life was over.    The Time Patrol seemed to be the only prospect she had left.

But her latest mission threw even this into doubt.   A mysterious enemy had altered history on the Planet Namek, during a battle between the Ginyu Force and Vegeta.   Luffa's intervention had been unorthodox, but effective.    The enemy had manipulated the entire Ginyu Force into attacking as a unit, overwhelming Vegeta, and then later Son Goku, when he arrived on the planet.   Luffa's solution was to attack Vegeta, which convinced Ginyu that the situation was under control.    He left Vegeta's execution to his men, who agreed to fight one at a time, as history intended.    

The only problem was that Recoome was very insistent upon removing Luffa from the field before settling his business with Vegeta.   His death move, the Eraser Gun, seemed to vaporize Luffa completely.  

Ironically, this set the course of history more or less back on track.    The Time Patrol didn't undo changes in history so much as they contained the effects.    Their patron, the Supreme Kai of Time, could isolate and quarantine tampered segments of the timeline, and massage the "true" version of history back into it's proper shape.   But this was best accomplished by altering those tampered segments further, reducing the impact of the changes.   Luffa's mission was not to defeat the Ginyu Force or to save Vegeta.    Her job was simply to make sure that the Ginyu Force defeated Vegeta, but not so badly that he couldn't survive before Goku arrived to save him.   Now that Luffa had been Eraser-Gunned out of the battlefield, and Recoome was fighting who he was supposed to fight, everything was essentially playing out how it should have.    

Recoome had pummeled Vegeta within an inch of his life.   The mysterious enemy had infused Vegeta with an arcane energy that made him stronger and more aggressive, but Luffa had beaten that out of him, and so he was helpless against the superior power of Recoome.    Vegeta's only allies on Planet Namek were Krillin and Gohan.   They had been in competition for Namek's Dragon Balls, but when faced with the overwhelming power of the Ginyu Force, they agreed to a truce.   And so, Krillin and Gohan tried to help Vegeta fight, whether out of pity or a sense of honor.     It made no difference.   Recoome defeated Krillin with a single kick, and Gohan was left with a broken neck.    

And then, right on schedule, a spaceship touched down on Planet Namek, and Son Goku emerged, barely in the nick of time.    He arrived on the battlefield, and gave magical senzu beans to heal Krillin and Gohan.   He read Krillin's mind, and, upon learning that Vegeta had helped them, tossed a senzu bean to Vegeta as well.    This was not merely an act of kindness, or gratitude.   Goku had unfinished business with Vegeta, and he planned to settle it with him later.  They were Saiyans, after all.    

Amidst this touching reunion, the three Ginyu Force members were confused.    Recoome had nearly killed his opponents, only for a stranger in an orange dogi to restore them to full health.    Goku ignored Recoome completely, except to give him a warning: Leave the planet while there was still a chance to do so.

What confused everyone on the battlefield was that Son Goku's demeanor was completely calm, and his battle power so low despite the rising tension.   Vegeta, Gohan, and Krillin could sense this, while the Ginyu Force relied on measurements taken from their scouters.    Both suggested that Goku was bluffing, but his poise suggested otherwise.

And then, in the midst of this tense standoff, the deafening silence was broken by a furious cry.

"I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU, BASTARD!"

Luffa had returned.  

"What the hell?" asked Burter.   From the sidelines, he and Jeice had been watching Recoome's battle.    They had seen Recoome grab Luffa by the hair and blast her with the Eraser Gun at pointblank range.    

"Crikey!" was the only word Jeice could think of.   It wasn't just Luffa's survival that bewildered them, but the fact that she hadn't shown up on their scouters, which were sensitive enough to pick up almost any life sign.

"Oh, goodie!" Recoome said as he glanced up to spot Luffa floating in midair.    "I thought that last shot finished you, but I guess this means I get to play with you a little longer after I snuff out this wiseguy."

Luffa alighted on the grass near Vegeta.   Her yellow pants were reduced to rags hanging from her boots and sash.  Fortunately, the Toki Toki clothing shop had used sturdier material for the rest of her gear.   The black compression shirt and shorts she wore were singed, but mostly in tact.   Her eyes were wide with rage, and she bared her teeth as she spoke.  

"I lived, jackass!" Luffa shouted.    "Damn near knocked me out, but I still managed to slip out of your grip before your blast could kill me!     Instead, it carried me about five miles out!   But don't worry, I made sure to hurry back as soon as I came around!   Let's go!"

"Oh yeah, sure thing!" Recoome said.   "But lemme wipe the floor with this loser first!   He's in an awful hurry to die, ya know!   To be honest, he's kinda got me mad."

"You can't beat me," was all Goku had to say.   It wasn't a boast or a threat, merely a statement of fact.   He never took his eyes off Recoome, despite Luffa's dramatic entrance.  

"Fine!" Luffa screamed.   "You want to fight Kakarot first?  Be my guest.    Just get on with it!"

She crossed her arms and hyperventilated through her clenched teeth while the tense standoff resumed.    "Hurry up," she grumbled under her breath.     At last she noticed Vegeta standing nearby, and the astounded noises he was making.   She turned to face him and snarled: "What the hell is your problem, anyway?"

"I-is Kakarot... a Super Saiyan?!" Vegeta asked.  

"What?" Luffa asked.    

"He can't be!   He's just a low-class warrior!   It doesn't make any sense!"  

Luffa wasn't sure if Vegeta was talking to her or to himself.    He seemed completely transfixed by Goku's presence, despite the fact that he hadn't actually done anything so far.

"What are you babbling about?" Luffa demanded.  

"Tch!   You're a Saiyan yourself, aren't you?    You must have heard the legend!" Vegeta snapped, suddenly glaring at her with a panicked expression.   "The Super Saiyan!  The legendary warrior who can surpass barriers that even most gifted fighters cannot!"

Luffa blinked twice.   Then laughed.    

"Does he look like a Super Saiyan to you?" she said, pointing at Goku.  

"I don't know what they look like!" Vegeta growled.   "The last Super Saiyan supposedly existed a thousand years ago!   And I never believed those stories in the first place-- What are you grinning about?"

"That's your 'barrier'?" Luffa asked.   "Kakarot's standing up to that overgrown sack of offal, and you think that makes him the Legendary Super Saiyan?"

"You fought Recoome yourself!" Vegeta said.   "You saw what he could do!   You barely survived!"

"Oh, he's a tough bastard, no doubt about that," Luffa said.   "But I'm just getting warmed up, and the old stories never mentioned anyone as dull as him.    Chanisp killed a demon, remember?   And Asparaj brought fiery retribution on the fae folk."

She paused for a moment, but couldn't resist adding her own lore to the discussion.   "These Ginyu Force creeps, they make for a decent scrap, but they don't hold a candle to the Shockmaster, for example."

"What does any of that nonsense have to do with the Super Saiyan Legend?" Vegeta rasped.  

Luffa suddenly felt her throat go dry.   "I'm talking about the legend," she said.   "The Super Saiyan, from a thousand years ago.   Do you think she just stood around and scratched her butt all day?"

"She?" Vegeta scoffed.  "You've got to be joking!    I always knew the old stories were pure fantasy, but I had no idea there were such... inclusive interpretations of the legend."

"Then what interpretation did your mother teach you, Vegeta?" Luffa asked coldly.  

"Oh, I made it a point not to listen to her fairy tales about the old heroes," Vegeta said.   "My destiny was to outshine them all, so their example was meaningless.     Besides, there's hardly anything to say about the last Super Saiyan.   He lived ten centuries ago, and he could only maintain his power in the transformed state.   But he was too primitive to control it."

"Primitive...?" Luffa grumbled.  

"One day, his rage burned so intensely that it eventually consumed him.   In the end, he was destroyed by his own power, along with whatever miserable planet he happened to be standing on."

His words were like a knife sliding between Luffa's ribs.   "That... that's it?" she asked.   "That's all you know?"

"But if there were a way to achieve such power, I should know it," Vegeta went on.   "I am the Prince of All Saiyans!   If there is to be a new Super Saiyan, it should be me!"

And then, as Luffa was still reeling from this revalation, Recoome finally threw a punch at Goku.    He dodged with ease, moving so quickly that most of the spectators couldn't follow his movements.    But Luffa saw, as did Vegeta.     Super Saiyan or not, there was no denying that he had improved remarkably since Luffa's last encounter with him.    

Recoome was dumbfounded, while Jeice and Burter suddenly found Goku standing beside them.     When they tried to attack him, Goku vanished again, returning to Recoome.    

"You do well!" Recoome crowed.   "You do well.   Yeah, we get the idea, punk.    You're pretty fast, but that still won't save you!   See, I've got a special move that I've been saving!   Yeah, that's right.   It'll wipe out this whole place in an instant, so you won't be able to dodge this one, no matter how fast you move!    Hehhhh, I hope you're ready, because I'm about to send all of you wimps straight to hell!"

With that, Recoome crouched low, and planted his fists on the Namekian topsoil as he gathered his energy.    Arcs of red ki cracked across his back, and cracks began to appear in the ground, spreading outward from his feet.    He looked up at Goku as he prepared, and smiled.   Most of his teeth had been lost when Krillin and Gohan foiled an Eraser Gun he had tried to use on Vegeta, but Recoome's arrogant enthusiasm remained undaunted.   Not far away, Krillin and Gohan trembled with fear, while Jeice and Burter watched with confidence.    

Beside Luffa, Vegeta stared intently.    "Now we'll see," he muttered.    "Now we'll see if I was right about you, Kakarot."  

Son Goku simply stood his ground and watched Recoome intently.  

At last, Recoome rose to his full height, and held up his arms as though reaching for the sky.  

"Recooooooome... Ultraaaaa.... Miracle..." he began to shout.  Goku didn't move.    

Recoome got out one more word: "Fighting".   Whatever else he had to say was cut off when he suddenly took an elbow strike to the chest.    The force and precision of the blow was such that it disrupted every organ in his torso.   His heart skipped a beat, then two.    For a single, agonizing moment, all he could do was twitch and grunt as he registered the pain.    

But Goku had not moved.   He simply stood his ground, and watched as Luffa stood between him and his opponent.    Recoome collapsed at Luffa's feet.    

"You were taking your sweet time with this one," Luffa snarled as she looked back at Goku.   "I don't normally butt in on other people's fights, but you two never actually made contact, so I can't say that I interrupted anything."

"No worries," Goku said.   "He left himself wide open, but I could tell you were about to try something, so..."

He shrugged, and Luffa turned back to Recoome.    "I'm sorry," she said.   "What was it you were going to say?   Recoome Ultra Miracle Fighting... what?"  

Recoome was unable to answer.   He was doubled over, with his face down in the grass.  The only motion he made was a few convulsions, and soon, even those stopped.   Luffa kicked him to knock him over.    

"Come on!" she growled.   "I want to hear what you have to say!"  

"Leave him alone," Goku said.   "He's beaten."

"You're right!" Luffa said as she picked Recoome up by the tattered remains of his Ginyu Force Uniform.    She lifted him high over her head to get him off the ground.   Recoome was unconscious.   The only response he could give was a trickle of drool from his mouth.    

She glared at Goku, and then at Jeice and Burter in the distance.   "Maybe I should ask his friends."

Then she vanished, moving just as quickly as Goku had done.    In the next moment, she was flying headlong toward Jeice and Burter, who barely had any time to react.    She tossed Recoome at Jeice, and drove herself straight for Burter.  

"Holy--!" Jeice managed to say before his teammate slammed into him at breakneck speed.    For Recoome this was literal, as his neck snapped even before his body collided with Jeice's.    

Burter did slightly better.   He dodged Luffa's approach, but only just.   Then he fired a ki blast from his hands in a desperate bid to put some distance between them.    

"S-so fast!" Burter gasped.    

"Yeah, you're pretty quick yourself," Luffa said.   His blue energy blasts spilled over her like so much water, and she stepped through his attack to deliver a kick to his head.    Again, Burter dodged, but the margin for error keept getting thinner and thinner.  

  "She's a monster!" Jeice wailed.   "A monster!"

Luffa ignored him and continued chasing after Burter.    "That's the spirit, blue man," she said.   "Keep trying.    But I only have to connect once, and then it's all over!"  

"Run, Jeice!" Burter shouted.     "I... I can't hold her off much longer!    Get the Captain!"

"But what about you?" Jeice cried.    

"Hurry!" Burter pleaded.    "Before it's too late!"  

Luffa began to laugh.   "That's right, Jeice!" she shouted.   "He'll die no matter what you do!"

And this threat was enough to convince Jeice to retreat.  He took one last look at his friend, then blasted off into the horizon like a bright red missile.   Luffa paused to watch him go, which gave Burter just enough time to land a single blow to her face.    

She didn't even dignify this by dodging or blocking.    She simply let him hit her.    

"Again!" she said, waving with her hand to egg him on.    "Hit me!"

"You're insane!" Burter moaned.  

"I said hit me!" Luffa screamed!     "I want to get good and warmed up for the others."    

"That's enough!"  

She turned to look at the others below, and saw Goku calling out to her.  

"He's no match for you!" Goku insisted.  "Let him go!"

"Don't be a fool, Kakarot!" Vegeta shouted.   "We need to kill him now!"    

"He's not a threat!" Goku shot back.  

"No," Luffa said.   "You're not a threat, are you, Burter?    But when your pals get back, I can take on all of you at once..."

"You're insane!" Burter said.    "I don't care how fast you are, you'd have to have some kind of death wish to want to take on Captain Ginyu!"

"I don't want to take on Captain Ginyu," Luffa said with a ravenous gleam in her eye.    "I want to take on the entire Ginyu Force.   Your dead friend got me all fired up, and I want more!    So go and get him, or would you like me to tear your throat out right now, and save you the suspense?"

Burter wasted no time deciding.    He turned and fled with the blinding speed he was known for.    Satisfied, Luffa let herself drop to the ground and rejoined the others.    

"You imbecile!" Vegeta shouted.   "Your pathetic mercy is going to get us all killed!"

He raised his hand to fire a ki blast after Burter, but Luffa swatted his arm and sent his shot careening off in the wrong direction.    

"Maybe you didn't listen to the stories," Luffa said with a manic grin.   "But I did.   The old heroes didn't back down from anything, and neither did the last Super Saiyan.   But if you're so worried about mercy, wait until I'm done with them, and you can finish off whatever's left."

"Have a care, woman!" Vegeta grumbled.   "I don't know who you are or how you got here, but I won't let your recklessness stand in the way of my wish!"

"Uh, hold on a second.   Aren't we getting worked up over nothing?" Krillin asked.   "I mean, you all saw how fast Goku's become, and she beat Recoome with one shot!   I mean, maybe the tables have turned here.   It sounds crazy, but if all five of us stick together, we just might have the advantage."  

"Hmph!  Don't let this go to your head, baldy," Vegeta warned.   "Kakarot may have improved, and this madwoman might even beat Captain Ginyu, but Frieza's still far beyond anything you can imagine.   And don't forget, Ginyu took all seven Dragon Balls back to his ship!   There's a good chance Frieza's already made his wish by now, so he'll be invincible and immortal."

"No," Krillin said, "I don't think so.    On Earth, when you call the Dragon, all sorts of crazy things happen.    The sky turns dark, and so far it's been daylight this whole time.   He may have the Dragon Balls, but he hasn't made his wish yet.    Maybe he doesn't know how to use them."

"Gosh," said Gohan.  "Then that means... we might still have a chance!"  

"Krillin, do you still have the Dragon Radar?" Goku asked.    

"No, we left it with Bulma," Krillin said.  

"Then I want you two to find her and get it back," Goku said.   "With any luck, you can find the Dragon Balls while we keep them occupied here."  

"Uh, sure, Goku, but..." Krillin gestured to Luffa and Vegeta.   "Are you sure you'll be okay?   These guys aren't exactly friendly, and you used up all the senzu beans on us."  

"I'll be fine," Goku said with a confident smile.   "Now get going.   Every second counts, Krillin."

*******

"Recoome's dead?" Ginyu shouted.   "Inconceivable How could you let this happen, Jeice?"

"This guy showed up out of nowhere, and then we got so busy with him, that crazy Saiyan girl showed up and beat him with just one punch!"

"He's right, Captain!" Burter said between gasps for breath.   His great speed had allowed the blue ophidian to catch up to Jeice on their way back to Frieza's ship, but he had worn himself out from the effort.   "But she has a weakness!   She let us both go because she didn't think the two of us were enough of a challenge for her.   She wanted to fight us all together!"  

"Hmmm, overconfident, is she?" Ginyu mused as he rubbed his chiseled jawline.    "Still, it's hard to believe that a warrior as mighty and as stylish as Recoome could be defeated by a single Saiyan, and a woman at that.   We should proceed very carefully...   Luckily, I've been preparing for just such a contingency.    You men, line up!"

They were all standing outside of Frieza's spaceship.    Several crew members lined up and stood at attention.   There was a patch of upturned dirt nearby, and some shovels.    

"You men did well burying the Dragon Balls," Ginyu announced.   He began to pace up and down the line, his hands clasped behind his back.   "And your fighting poses were... well, I won't lie, they were terrible, but I see some potential.    I had planned to hold on to your service records so I could keep you in mind for potential openings in my team, but it looks like there's no time like the present.    As of this moment, I am hereby deputizing you all as honorary members of the Ginyu Force!     Now... sound off!"

One by one, the crewmen struck various poses, and called out their names.

"Goose!" cried Goose.

"Oggerrrrrrrrs!" shouted Oggers, who hoped to use loudness to compensate for his posing ability.

"Huh?   Oh!   Strock!" yelled Strock, a half-second off his cue.    

"Captain Strong!" bellowed Ootmelc, because he thought they were all supposed to invent codenames, and this was the best he could come up with on short notice.

Ginyu immediately locked eyes with him.    "So you're a captain too?" he said ominously.    

Ootmelc made a loud gulp as he realized his error.    The other three crewmen decided to keep quiet, and so they did not announce themselves.

"Uh, Captain?" Jeice said.   "We really need to get moving.   If those Saiyans come looking for us, they might wreck Lord Frieza's spaceship worse than it already has been."

"You're right, Jeice!" Ginyu said, temporarily putting his ire aside.   "We can't afford anything less than strict military discipline and professionalism!     We move out immediately!"

"Wait, where's Guldo?" Burter asked.  

"He was very upset from earlier," Ginyu said, "so I gave him his favorite blanket and sent him to take a nap in the ship.   Now then, Ginyu Force...!"

He paused, as though waiting for some unheard musical score to reach a climactic note, and then said: "...Assemble!"

*******

What the Ginyu Force did not notice was a pair of figures lurking near the landing gear of Frieza's spaceship.   They were not part of the crew, nor were either of them Frieza himself.   Frieza had gone in search of a Namekian survivor who could tell him how to operate the Dragon Balls he had just collected.  

"Well well," one of them said.    "It's a good thing we decided to stick around in this time period.     Things have definitely gotten interesting.   There were only two Saiyans on Planet Namek today, and there definitely wasn't a woman in the group."  

"Another time traveler," said the other.  "Someone following us, trying to interfere in our plans."

"It looks that way.   Not that she'll succeed."

"I will go and kill her immediately."

"No, let's not be too hasty.   This is an opportunity.    You heard what the Ginyu Force said.   She wants to fight them, not us.    Whatever changes she makes to the timeline, it won't affect our plans at all.     In fact, this gives me a chance to try something new."  

"Another warrior?"  

"Yes, the experiments on Vegeta have gone quite well, but we can only gather so much energy from tampering with his power.    It's time to build upon what we've learned."  

"The one called Guldo?   He doesn't have much power.    Would it even be worth the effort?"

"Hm.   You can be so narrow-minded sometimes.    I was thinking of using Guldo, but not just him."  

Suddenly, Frieza's spaceship began to glow a deep purple, like the entire vessel had been engulfed in a demonic flame.    A moment later, Guldo walked out of the ship.   All four of his eyes glowed an eerie crimson color, and the same purple energy wafted up from his body.     His face was twisted with rage.    

And as he left the spaceship, fifty other crewmen followed him.    Their eyes were just as red, and their bodies just as much under the influence of this dark magic.  

"None of them are very powerful, true.    But it'll still make for an intriguing exercise.    The girl wants a fight, so we'll give her one.    And whether she wins or loses, we risk nothing."

"I would prefer to destroy her myself."  

"Patience, my dear.   It may very well come to that..."

NEXT: Time May Change Me...