Work Text:
He’s going to die here.
The ice in his veins is very familiar. It’s a sensation that he only felt once before, all those years ago when he got news that Planet Vegeta, and the few bastards on it he cared about, were nothing but space dust.
And that last thought? Well, it’s enough to burn through the cold, to melt and replace it with rage and a promise of murder.
(He knows the truth. Raditz, for all that he had been weak and cowardly, had been smart as well. He’d told Nappa about his theory. About what, or who, had really killed the mightiest warrior race.)
It’s a damn shame that this is where his run ends. He woulda loved to see just how far Shallot was gonna go. And to maybe see that bastard Frieza get his teeth kicked in by the prince.
He knows that together, they’ll make him proud.
…Damn, the hell is with his attitude?! He should be fucking ecstatic that he’ll get to fight the goddamn Ginyu Force! He can save that melancholic garbage for when he’s dead!
With a grin on his face, Nappa directs his eyes towards the cliffside where the Ginyus are getting their shit together. As much as his Saiyan blood is making him itch to go down there and start taking them apart, he knows he needs to catch a breather himself.
As they all float up from their assorted craters he makes sure to mask how much he’s exerted himself, slowing his breathing and all that crap. Even with his shitty grasp on this energy sensing thing, he can tell that they’ve lost some power as well. He and the kid had been kicking their asses up and down the ocean, so it makes sense. If he plays this right, he can take them all with him.
Ginyu starts talking, and to his infinite surprise, the Ginyu Force doesn’t start to try and encircle him. They just stand lined up next to their precious captain. Sure, whatever, if the dumbass is gonna waste time on theatrics Nappa ain’t gonna call him out on it.
In fact…he might even use it to his advantage. After all, they don’t have their scouters anymore.
“I must say Nappa, this is quite a surprise.”
The fact that he isn’t referring to him as a monkey still throws Nappa off a bit. All his time in the Frieza Force, the Ginyus always loved to mock him and Vegeta, rubbing it in that “despite being from the self-proclaimed greatest warrior race you two are nothing compared to me and my men.”
What made it even worse though? Was that he was right. Before this whole Tournament Of Time or whatever, he wasn’t even a match in raw power for fucking Guldo. So to receive the leader of the Ginyu Force’s respect is…new.
“Yeah? How so?”
Nappa shifts his stance in the air, slowly settling into his standard combat stance. His plan won’t work if he startles them into suddenly attacking.
“You’re not exactly the type of person to make the sacrifice play, to buy time for others to get away. At least, not for anyone who isn’t your precious prince.”
Ginyu is directly in front of him, Jeice and Burter to the front left, and Recoome and Guldo to the front right. He angles himself so his right hand isn’t visible to the self proclaimed “fastest in the universe”.
(He slowly begins moving his energy to his right hand.)
“Though I suppose even an old monkey can learn new tricks hmm?”
Well then, guess he’d only earned enough respect to be addressed by his name once. Asshole.
(Slowly, carefully, giving away no glow)
“Heh heh heh. BWAHAHAHAHA!”
Nappa’s laughter is loud, boisterous, but most importantly, attention drawing. It also serves to briefly throw Ginyu off for a bit. He keeps it up for a couple of seconds, enough to make it seem believable, but not fake.
Recovering his composure, the captain responds, a small smile slipping across his face. “Yes I suppose it is quite funny isn’t it?”
Nappa’s laughter dies down into chuckles. “Heh heh, that’s not, heh, what I’m laughing at you dumb bastard.”
“Please Nappa, you are in no position to be throwing insults about intelligence around.” Ginyu responds, the smug prick. “And just what is so funny anyhow?”
“The fact that you think me taking you all on is just a stall tactic!”
(Halfway there. Keep it up.)
Ginyu rolls his eyes. “Please. While I admit that you are powerful, you stand no chance against all 5 of us. You and young Shallot working together barely won when fighting my men two at a time.”
“Hah! We still won didn’t we? We were beating you all down like we were getting paid for it!”
(Just a fistful of moments. That’s all he needs)
“Hmph. We both know your fights were more even than you liked. But now with one less ally, several more opponents, and your own stamina significantly diminished? Well…” And Ginyu’s voice turns serious, his normally ridiculous attitude replaced with something steely. “You stand no chance.”
(Nearly there)
“So, Nappa, do you have any last words?”
He floats in the air before them, battle stance ready, and pretends to think it over for a couple seconds. But he already knows what he’s going to say.
(It’s ready)
“Heh. Just a couple.” And then he raises his gauntleted hand, all fingers except his pointer and middle finger curled in, with the remaining two pointing straight up. “A real shame you lost your scouters.”
Ginyu, Jeice, and Recoome try to throw up a block.
(Too late)
Burter rushes him, probably trying to hit him in time to stop his attack.
(Too slow)
Guldo vanishes from his sight, reappearing a significant distance away.
(But not far enough)
The sea below them boils, the air around them burns, and the landscape detonates as Nappa’s Volcano Explosion produces a blast that is simultaneously highly concentrated (by his standards anyways), and the size of a continent.
He isn’t able to see what happens to the Ginyus but he sure as hell can sense it. All of them are violently thrown upward in different directions, their power levels taking a huge hit. The only one who doesn’t take the full brunt is Guldo, who was much farther from ground zero. But the damage is still something he can feel.
The smoke and ash are doing a great job of obscuring him from his enemies view, so he decides to make the most of it; rocketing upwards and using his energy sensing to slam a meaty palm into Burter’s center mass. The custom armor of the Ginyu force shatters beneath the Saiyan’s blow and Nappa tries his best to push the shards into the blue bastard’s wounds with three more palm strikes.
Unfortunately, he only gets to do one more, because Burter decides now is the time to live up to his self-proclaimed title of Fastest In The Universe, dodging the latter two and nailing Nappa’s side with a kick so fast that it disperses their part of the cloud with an ash muffled boom.
But if there’s one thing a tough son of a bitch like Nappa can do, it’s roll with the punches.
He rides the momentum of the blow, letting it launch himself into the still nearly solid looking parts of the ash cloud and performs some slight flight adjustments to put himself on a crash course with Guldo.
He quickly forms an orb of ki in his left palm, palming it like a ball as he comes down diagonally on Guldo, and then slamming it directly into where he senses the froggy freak to be.
Guldo screams and Nappa feels something sizzle and pop as he forces his blast through some part of his opponent before Guldo suffers the combined might of an explosive blast and Nappa’s palm strike.
(It says something about Nappa’s life that he knows the feeling of an eye detonating beneath his hands when he feels it.)
As Guldo hurtles away, and onto the land below, he feels Jeice and Recoome begin to close in on him, having likely followed Guldo’s scream. At about the same time, Burter (with Ginyu seemingly guarding him) starts doing…something in the distance. He can feel how the ash and air around him begins to pick up speed. If Nappa was a betting man, he would say that the shitty snake-man is showing exactly why one of his other titles is The Blue Hurricane.
Damn. He hasn’t done enough damage yet, at this rate he won’t be able to win! Could he pull out another VE? No. Burter will just keep whatever technique he’s got going so the others can dogpile him.
Hmm. Time to pull out his second favorite move.
The energy hurricane Burter’s whipping up is gaining speed, parts of the ash cloud are periodically whipping around and in front of him, revealing his position to the ginger giant and the red-skinned Brench, both covered in ash and bearing down on him the same way he did Guldo. They throw a barrage of purple and crimson blasts respectively at him, but he’s not stupid enough to stay still. Nappa charges them both, trying his best to weave through the blasts, but even with their obscured vision his opponents still manage to land some because of the sheer quantity being sent his way, the situation not being helped by his massive size.
As a brilliant white light encompasses his arms, he feels his shoulder pauldrons disintegrate from blasts barely dodged, flesh on the back of his forearms burn away from shots he has no choice but to block, the energy he would normally use to tank them being put towards a better use, but he still makes it through the volley. When he once again is obscured by the rapidly diminishing dark clouds, he sharply changes his trajectory, no longer heading towards them and instead ascending straight above them.
He halts himself suddenly, looking down in time to see an arm whose size rivals his own punch through the smoke that obscured him and blow away his former cover. Jeice is to the right and behind Recoome, a Crusher Ball charging in his hand, likely having been preparing for whatever opening the ginger moron might’ve made.
Nappa raises both his arms above him, the blinding white spreading from his arms to his hands.
And then he throws them down, a scream of “DOUBLE BOMBER DX” erupting from his mouth as white hot death shrieks towards the combatants below.
(And if he just so happens to emulate the only other Saiyan he’d ever raised? Well, let it never be said he didn’t care for Raditz in his own way, or that the brat didn’t have good ideas.)
Recoome blocks, but in his haste he doesn’t do it properly and Nappa is fairly certain he hears something snap before Recoome is pushed down, down, down, roaring all the while as he attempts to push the blast back.
Jeice on the other hand uses his Crusher Ball as a makeshift shield. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for Nappa’s continued survival, the Crusher Ball is an explode on contact blast, meaning its use as a shield is somewhat limited. The ball detonates in Jeice’s hands, and it’s only thanks to his quick thinking that Jeice chooses to ride the blast wave rather than try to anchor himself and end up getting caught by the Bomber DX in the process. Although, he does end up between Nappa’s two beams.
But given the screaming from below him, Nappa knows that Jeice hadn’t been prepared to take his own attack to the face. The asshole’s gloves have melted onto his hands and there is ash and purple blood in his stupid pretty boy white hair.
(No, Nappa isn’t jealous)
Nappa puts the second blast to as good a use as he can, trying his best to direct it towards Recoome’s position while the Force is still scattered and stunned from their injuries. But Ginyu’s power flares, closing rapidly on his location, moving faster than even Burter might be able to. Nappa is almost paralyzed with indecision, not sure whether to cut the attacks and dodge or keep them up and try to take Recoome out of the fight early.
But he’s a greedy, brutal, asshole. So he decides to go for the best of both worlds.
Nappa braces himself and uses his power to accelerate himself downwards as fast as possible, feet first and erupting with incredible gold power, briefly craning his head back to avoid the attack on his eyes Ginyu was going for. The singular moment of hesitation had cost him though, because the bastard still managed to claw two bloody diagonal lines into the front of his damn forehead with his middle and index finger.
Nappa jack-knifes towards Jeice, the purple aura of the Red Magma of the Ginyu Force igniting around him as he catches the bottom of Nappa’s boots with his hands on instinct. Even as blood runs into his eyes, Nappa laughs as Jeice screams from the melted material of his gloves pushing into his burnt hands.
(If one were to be watching from a distance, they would see a golden light outshine and overpower a flickering purple. Blue and Purple streaks would be seen homing in on them, trying to catch up.)
Jeice and Nappa plummet further and further, Nappa’s bulk and superior power allowing him to shove him and his victim down through the air. At their current speed, they will catch up to the end of his technique very soon.
Nappa brings his right hand into his left, the right half of the Bomber DX now merging with the left and further increasing the pressure on Recoome. He braces his body and then twists to the left, surprising Jeice and corkscrewing them both closer and closer to the end of the blast.
(This has the completely unintended side effect of the Bomber DX now getting a substantial amount of spin on it, further increasing Recoome’s suffering. Frankly, Nappa finds this hilarious.)
He makes Jeice’s back hit the end of the blast. The ensuing explosion is enough to blow away whatever traces of ash had been left, and the only reason he doesn’t end up damaged by his own technique is because The Red Magma makes for a pretty decent meatshield.
He takes a page out of the guy’s book, riding the blast wave of his technique and spinning to meet Ginyu and Burter.
His ki ignites around him as he spins and throws his leg out at the incoming captain. A purple aura flares as Ginyu throws up a block with his right arm, doing his best to mitigate the roundhouse. Nappa can swear that he feels something crack when the front of his leg meets Ginyu’s arm, his greater mass and incredible speed adding even more force to the kick.
Ginyu is knocked to the side, and he uses the hit to gain distance. The horned man takes aim at him with his left palm. Purple energy swirls into being in front of it, and Nappa doesn’t need his sensing to know that thing will do a good amount of damage if it lands.
Nappa is already moving. He can’t clash with it, Burter is-
Bambambambam.
The Blue Hurricane gets him with four heavy kicks to his back, the blows so fast it’s like they happen in the same instant. All of them feel like they’re trying to stomp his armor through his spine.
He spins and sweeps his arm behind him, hoping to smash his gauntlet into (and maybe even through) the giant blue snake man. It’s a testament to Burter’s speed that he lands four more blows in the time it takes him to do so. However, Nappa doesn’t miss the way Burter freezes and coughs wetly as the blue fighter just barely manages to dodge his back fist.
Purple drops of blood splatter his fist as he maintains his momentum to face Ginyu once again. Just as he does so, he hears the man scream “MILKY CANNON!” and all Nappa can think in the moment is ‘What a stupid fucking na-’ before the swirling violet attack slams into his chest.
His armor provides only a bare amount of protection, but it’s enough to get his hands on both sides of the swirling sphere of pain before it can shred his ribs and lungs. The world around him is nothing but a blur at the speed he’s going, but he ignores that and focuses on putting his energy into his hands. Lightning sparks and circles around his arms as he tries to shove the attack off of him.
The effort feels slow, feels torturous. But it’s working. He’s distancing the sphere from his bloodied chest, inch by inch. His struggles increase as he’s almost free, the world below him switching from murky ocean to ruined land-
And then his body freezes.
Ginyu’s Milky Cannon detonates atop him, and his vision is briefly overtaken by a deep purple before he blacks out.
…
…
When Nappa comes to, it’s only his experience with waking up in hostile as hell environments that stops him from audibly groaning. He’s certainly not in enough pain to be dead and in hell (if it exists), so he doubts it’s been more than…3, maybe 4, seconds? Since he’s been KO’d.
There’s some…awful noise approaching him, one that he can only dimly hear through the ringing in his ears. It’s strangely familiar.
…What the hell is it-oh, that’s Guldo’s voice. Wow.
Nappa can sense the mutant frog thing getting closer. As the vibration of tiny footsteps approach, he can only wonder about what the hell Guldo did to him and-right that little fuck has psychic powers sunnova-
“-et for trying to take on THE GINYU-!”
His hearing has mostly cleared up, and Guldo’s standing right behind his head. On instinct, Nappa swings two meaty gauntlet covered hands where he believes Guldo is, and claps.
The diminutive mutant's torso makes a satisfying SQUELCH! between his palms.
Nappa’s back on his feet in the blink of an eye, turning towards where he senses the Ginyu’s. He brings his right hand up in a motion similar to his Volcano Explosion, energy charging around his index and middle finger. He pulls his arm across his body, ready to-
And then he freezes again.
Shit! Guldo’s still alive?!
“RECOOME!”
Goddamn psychic bull-
“KICK!”
The hold on Nappa is released just in time for the ginger giant to hit him like a comet. With a lack of armor and no way to defend himself, it ain’t exactly a surprise that a good chunk of his ribs break on impact.
As Nappa’s launched back, he drags his fingers across the air in front of him. The energy gathered at his finger-tips speeds forwards as a thick yellow wave towards his incoming enemies. The first one to get hit by his Blazing Storm is Recoome, but the bastard is as tough as Nappa, or maybe even tougher, due to being a mutant. In spite of the explosion which engulfs him, the ginger asshole still charges forward, intent on following up after his kick.
The very edge of the blast catches Guldo’s head and mulched body some meters behind and to the right of Recoome. The freak’s everything is disintegrated in an instant.
That’s one of five down.
Ginyu and Burter are in the distance, the latter supporting Jeice as the Brench mutant floats beside his blue companion. All three mostly manage to dodge, but Burter halted just a tiny bit before he could fully get out of the way. Nappa’s pretty sure he catches Burter’s leg with one of the myriad explosions that forms in his wave’s wake.
And then, with a shout of “RECOOME KNEE!”, the ginger giant is on him again.
Nappa only barely gets his left hand to interpose itself between the man’s knee and his stomach, and boy does it sting like a motherfucker. But even then, he’s still being pushed back. He makes only a small effort to stop their movement though. Gaining more distance from the other Ginyu Force members is only going to help him at the moment.
“Ha Ha! C’mon, what’s the matter? Tired already?”
The crazy bastard in front of him bends forward and gives a deranged smile, purple flames igniting around his body. Nappa is pushed far, enough so that his back begins painfully slamming through the trees of a forest.
Did this piece of shit knock his ass to another continent?
The man in front of him chambers a punch with left hand, and Nappa briefly wonders why Recoome isn’t going for a two handed hammer-blow before he notices that his enemy’s right arm is bent at a very wrong angle.
He opens his right palm and blasts said arm repeatedly, hoping that the pain will distract Recoome.
Blood flies, bones crumble, and skin evaporates, but the guy just grins wider as it does nothing to-whoa shit they’re picking up speed.
Fucking hell, does he even feel-hammer arm incoming!
“Ha!” Nappa catches Recoome’s wrist with his right hand. His boots carve trenches into the ground as he stomps both feet, making them stop.
There’s a brief explosion of force, yellow against purple. Everything behind both of them is blown away from the two titanic forces struggling against each other.
“You think this is all the Mighty Nappa’s got?! You chumps-” Nappa bellows, white and gold sparks surrounding his body once again as he grips Recoome’s knee and wrist, then lifts. “-have barely even made me sweat!”
And despite the protesting of his ribs, he uses Recoome’s momentum to bring the man down into the ground head first.
The second his enemy’s head makes contact, the forest floor around them fractures. Trees taller than houses are instantly uprooted, portions of land jut outwards or collapse into massive holes, and for the second time today Nappa is engulfed in a cloud of debris and dust.
The lone Saiyan lifts his right arm up and calls his energy into it, turning it a brilliant white. He aims for where he remembers he planted Recoome, and brings the massive limb down diagonally.
He feels his forearm pass through one limb as Recoome screams. The agony in his enemy’s voice briefly rises even higher as Nappa’s arm passes through another.
Two thuds, one slightly meatier than the other, echo from the ground as two different sized portions of Recoome’s legs hit the ground.
Nappa pants as he uses his left arm to support himself against a raised section of the ground. He shakes out his other arm and grimaces. In his rush he’d forgotten about the burns on his arms, and now they hurt like a bitch from being slammed into Recoome’s legs.
Belatedly, he notes that Recoome has gone silent. From his best guess, the asshole probably passed out from the pain. He gives a low chuckle, one which turns into a series of wet coughs.
He brings his right hand to his mouth and wipes it.
(It comes away red.)
He turns his senses back where he feels…mostly Ginyu and Burter. Huh. Guess Jeice is a bit too damaged at the moment for his amateur senses to pick up.
Ok. Ginyu, Burter, and Jeice are closing in. The captain’s more or less in top shape with maybe a damaged arm. The snake’s chest is damaged, either from Nappa shoving armor shards into his chest or just damaging his ribs. He’ll need to catch him by surprise or when the wound acts up, cause otherwise he won’t catch him at all. Pretty boy is the weakest link, one more good hit should take him out of the fight entirely. However he’s…probably smart enough to hang back and blast him from a distance.
And that wasn’t even mentioning all the damage he and Shallot had piled on them beforehand.
But regardless, he needed to buy a bit of time in order to take a breather.
He’d pulled out a bunch of big moves all in the span of…what, two or three minutes? And he wasn’t exactly unscathed either.
Burter’s first hit on him had done some solid damage to his side. The guy’s insane speed had made the hit a lot more significant than it should’ve been for someone of his power level. The kicks to his back and front were smarting as well. That wasn’t even mentioning the fucking Milky Cannon he’d taken to the chest, as well as that kick from Recoome.
But yeah, even with his own outrageous stamina (for someone with his power level anyways) all this shit was taking its toll on him, and he needed an opening to hide bad.
So the question remained, how could he get the time he needed?
…!
He feels around blindly in the smoke, patting across the ground for-there!
Nappa’s grip tightens around one of Recoome’s stumps, his face stretching into the kind of smile that only a galactic war-criminal could have.
Oh, this is gonna be fun.
From the cloud of debris, a figure comes sailing out at the cap’n.
When it’s halfway to them, Jeice realizes he’s lookin’ at Recoome’s back.
When it’s three quarters of the way, he notices how brightly Recoome is glowing. And how little he’s strugglin’.
When the cap’n catches the big bloke, he sees that his mate’s legs have been unevenly fucking removed.
Burter lives up to his title of The Fastest. Even faster than Jeice can think, his best friend makes a mad dash to get them both out of there. They both hope know the cap’n will be able to tank the hit.
And then Recoome explodes.
Two out of five.
As a yellow cloud explodes in the air, Nappa dashes further into the forest.
Two out of five!
There’s a bloodthirsty smile on his face, and he wants to laugh like a madman. A year ago, this was the type of shit that only happened to him in good dreams. But Now?
He was making it a reality.
Granted, most of this was because he was blatantly stealing ideas from species he’d helped conquer back when Planet Vegeta was still around.
(Species that had actually managed to put up a good fight that is. Nothing like the losers he and the prince had massacred in recent years.)
Nappa wasn’t exactly ashamed to admit that his average battle plan was the Saiyan standard of “Hit it till it dies.” (It rarely failed him, what could he say?) But he also wasn’t stupid enough to think that was a winning strategy against enemies who weren’t weakling nobodies. Hence his little maneuver with Recoome.
‘Exploding corpses, you gotta love the classics. Heh Heh.’
As he chuckles to himself, he manages to find a small cave. He doesn’t even bother checking for threats before heading in and sitting down in the furthest parts of it.
Nappa lets out a tired breath. As he rests up, he tries to think about what the three remaining Ginyu’s will do next.
Drawing on his own experience with hunting down tough targets, he knows they can’t split up and try to find him the old fashioned way. Lack of scouters, plus Burter and Jeice being injured, makes that too risky a move for them. So what does that leave?
…Smoking him out, obviously.
Probably some sort of wide scale bombardment, one meant to maximize destruction of the area. The problem with that plan though, would be the amount of energy they’d be using.
Too little energy and Nappa can just endure or deflect it, then hide out in the rubble. Too much energy and they waste a good chunk of power, most of which won’t be making contact with him. So the question is: can they find that sweet spot?
…Honestly? He doesn’t know. The Ginyu’s are were the Frieza Force’s best, the people that were personally called in by Frieza when he needed a planet’s population obliterated ASAP. That, or there was some sort of non-genocidal objective that they could be trusted to complete in no time. They were an elite group of fighters with mutations that made them distinct from the rest of their respective species, whether it was through their power levels or freaky powers.
Would they have ever faced opponents that they needed to be clever against? Ones that they couldn’t just brute force a victory with? Nappa honestly couldn’t imagine there had been many species in the galaxy with power levels or weird ass abilities that could warrant actual strategy from them. Hell, with the exception of Guldo, everyone on the force could handle a mid-class Saiyan going Oozaru.
Bah! But then again, what would he know? He hadn’t exactly been in charge of information gathering in their little trio.
(If there was one benefit to Raditz being so weak, it was that people seemed a lot more loose lipped around him.)
So what would it be? Too weak, too strong, or just right?
The sky above flashes purple and blue.
…Well then, time to find out.
He peeks his head out, watching as two people sized orbs of blue and purple energy seem to finish swirling together. In their place, some sort of dark purple, galaxy-shaped, energy construct thing spins in the sky.
And then the bombardment begins.
The blasts are well placed, the ensuing explosions from them don’t overlap with each other. It’s a friggin’ impressive display of control and experience, all of it trying to minimize energy use.
The part of Nappa which hungers for a good battle is ecstatic. The part of him that wants to win, decidedly less so.
He sets himself in a running stance facing the back of the cave.
(The rumble of the onslaught rapidly approaches.)
He breathes in.
(His power courses through his body, excited and bloodthirsty in a way only a Saiyan’s can be.)
He breathes out, letting a familiar monstrous smile, that of a murderer of hundreds of billions, form on his face.
(Directly above him, the deadly rain punches through the roof of the cave.)
And he charges.
Nappa’s body smashes through the rock wall in front of him like an Oozaru through a skyscraper. He’s out the other side in what feels like an instant, energy blasts following right behind.
Trees, boulders, and whatever other scenery has the misfortune of being in his way are plowed through. Nappa knows that he can’t spend any time maneuvering around them, not unless he wants to get blown the hell up. Thankfully, it’s been a long time since using himself as a battering ram has had any negative effect on him.
He turns himself around to keep an eye on what is basically a damn wall of purple at this point, using flight to maintain his speed and direction. On the bright side, this definitely looks and feels like it’s taking some power from Ginyu and Burter. On the not-so-bright side, that also means that if he gets caught by this thing he’ll be taking some serious damage.
Nappa makes sure to keep pouring on the speed, but something must give his position away, because suddenly the blasts are no longer as spread out. Instead, they’re closing in on him, slowly but surely.
He tries his best to weave through the attacks, but that’s tough when you’re over seven and a half feet of pure muscle. Eventually, dodging is no longer an option.
Nappa hands glow a dull white outlined in bright violet as he plants his feet, grits his teeth, and parries like a motherfucker. Almost immediately, he’s reminded of a Saiyan game he used to play as a kid. One where everyone paired up and took turns competing to deflect the most blasts from their opponents. There’s no time for any complicated thoughts, just instinct and movement. If he actually starts using any real brain power he’ll immediately fuck up and fail.
(Because of that, it’s…somehow the most relaxed he’s been in the entire battle.)
It continues for what’s probably not even two minutes, but to Nappa it feels like he deflects for hours. Everything in front of and next to him, except the spot of land he’s standing on, is more or less just a series of ever deepening craters.
If this is the type of power they were throwing down with the rest of the barrage, he’s definitely going to have the power level advantage for a bit.
Thankfully, even under the combined might of Burter and Ginyu, his endurance doesn’t flag under the pressure. The stamina training he constantly ran through with Shallot is making sure of that.
But that doesn’t mean he isn’t taking damage.
He feels the palms of his hands opening from how hard he needs to parry. And Nappa doesn’t doubt that his hands would be slick with his own blood were it not for the sheer power he’s swatting away, evaporating it on contact.
However, Ginyu and Burter have made a fatal goddamn mistake. This is a war of attrition, and even with the two of them working together, it’s one they cannot win.
…So why does he feel such a huge sense of impending danger?
Oh. Crap.
Where’s Jeice?!
Nappa can’t turn his attention away, he’ll be beat down with attacks otherwise. He can’t hear anything over the roar of overlapping explosions and the rushing of his own blood. Smell is out too, everything near him is just covered in the scent of smoke. Hell, even his energy sensing is out because the entire area is flooded with the feeling of Burter and Ginyu’s power, and it’s acting as a smokescreen to block-!
A voice behind him, filled with malice and fury.
“This is for my mates Recoome and Guldo you bloody monkey!”
Oh shit.
“MAGMA-”
Instinct has him moving to the right the second that the first word is out of Jeice’s mouth. But even with his superior speed he knows he can’t fully dodge, not with the barrage pelting him, and not at point blank range.
“-CANNON!”
In the several heartbeats between one moment and the next, he’s battered with five blasts across his body as he moves. Bloody holes are punched into his body with a force that can rend supercontinents, but he grits his teeth and tries to gain just a bit more distance.
Nappa’s sudden movement does not save him from any injury, but it does save his life.
He roars in agony as the attack which had been aimed for the back of his neck hits his shoulder instead. In an instant, his left arm ignites. It’s a sort of pain that he has zero frame of reference for, but he imagines this is what it’s like to feel a part of yourself melt.
He staggers and spins towards Jeice, turning his burning and bleeding body towards The Red Magma of the Ginyu Force. A glance at the red man’s face tells Nappa that this was supposed to be the end of him, a decisive, final, attack.
But it was not. And now Jeice, exhausted of nearly all his stamina and power, stands before him.
Nappa’s on him in a blink, vision red and mind clouded with anguish. The Saiyan’s instincts take over, no longer bothering with thoughts beyond a nebulous goal of turning the person in front of him into a corpse. His tail wraps around one of Jeice’s arms on instinct while his right gets the other in a death grip.
His target struggles, red power flickering like a dying light, but it’s a pointless effort. Nappa has the height advantage, the leverage advantage, and the power advantage. He smashes his bleeding head into Jeice’s own as he brings them both down to the ground, pinning the man beneath him.
For but one, glorious moment, it’s as if Nappa is one with his inner Oozaru. Together they resolve to make this quick, and violent.
Nappa’s mouth opens as his head moves down.
Jeice sees his death in the shape of a monster, and screams.
The burly Saiyan’s teeth latch onto the jugular of the vice-captain.
And then Nappa’s head wrenches to the side as he tears The Red Magma’s throat out like a wild animal, purple blood staining his face and splattering across the ground in a shower of gore.
He quickly wraps his tail back around his waist as he spins to stand behind its head, facing towards the energy signature homing in on him.
It’s…well, there’s no true comparison Nappa can make to describe the noise the air makes as Burter tears towards him. He doesn’t doubt that if the snake-man mutant was still in prime condition, his grief and rage would have taken his speed to a level Nappa simply would not be able to track.
Instead, there’s just barely enough time for Nappa to bring his foot down on the head of the corpse in front of him.
Burter’s scream is accompanied by such a pervasive sense of emotional anguish that Nappa can feel it. It’s a feeling of helplessness, of torment, that can only come from a victim watching Nappa desecrate the corpse of a sibling in all but blood before their very eyes. All while being helpless to stop it.
It’s a form of pain Nappa never gets tired of inflicting.
And so, he laughs.
Even when Burter drop kicks him hard enough to make him vomit blood, even as he begins to surf him across the continent, and even when his consciousness begins to flicker in and out.
He laughs, and Burter cannot take it.
“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!”
The Fastest In The Universe raises a hand full of crackling power and then throws it in Nappa’s face.
THOOM!
And as the ensuing pillar of light spears through the clouds in a sudden explosion of dark blue, Nappa stops laughing.
“I’LL TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!”
THOOM!
“DO YOU HEAR ME?!”
THOOM! THOOM!
“I’LL SPREAD YOUR CORPSE ACROSS THIS ENTIRE WORLD AND PAINT IT WITH YOUR BLOOD!”
Ginyu’s in the distance, screaming and ordering Burter to “Pull back! Get away from him man!”
But Burter does the unthinkable for a member of the Ginyu Force.
THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!
He ignores his captain.
“AND WHEN LORD FRIEZA HAS WON THIS GOD DAMNED TOURNAMENT, I WILL DESTROY THIS PLANET! AND WITH IT, EVERY TRACE OF YOU HAVING EVER EXISTED!”
THOOM! THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!
“AND THEN YOU’LL BE NOTHING BUT A MEMORY! JUST LIKE THE REST OF YOUR STUPID, PATHETIC, SO-CALLED ‘WARRIOR RACE!’”
Two head sized hands, one actively on fire and one not, grip Burter’s ankles.
“Wha-?!”
The bastard below him has a cocky, sadistic smile. It’s a frightening thing, marred with dark red and purple blood, as well as red flesh stuck in between what teeth remain. But behind it, there’s a powerful light shining behind them.
No. Nonononono! This can’t be happening! Outplayed by a fucking Saiyan.
Burter frantically struggles, trying to rise, twist, bend, anything to dodge what’s coming for him.
But he can’t! Nappa’s anchored him! He can’t run, can’t dodge, can’t move-!
The stupid fucking Saiyan below him opens his mouth, a small ball of lightning hovering inside his maw. He has just enough time to scream “DAMN YOU-!”
And then Nappa’s Break Cannon fires.
In that instant, Burter’s mutated speed works against him. His existence becomes agony as he feels the energy wave strip flesh from the bones in his face, his eyes boil in their sockets, and his teeth melt.
And then Burter’s head is ash, and his body hits the ground.
Nappa’s eyes are screwed shut because he is in…so much pain.
But hey, on the bright side: four out of five.
Nappa groans as he tries to prop himself up, but collapses to the ground as his left arm gives out. He instead opts for unceremoniously kicking Burter’s body off his legs and then rolling onto his front. He raises and slams his right palm into the ground, launching himself back onto his feet.
Because of the frankly uncountable number of concussions he now has, Nappa stumbles like a drunk for a bit before managing to stand straight. It takes him a bit, but he manages to float his way out of the fucking canyon Burter carved with his body. It takes an embarrassing amount of effort to not just faceplant into the ledge below him as he lands.
He opens his eyes and-crap yeah his left arm is definitely useless now. The damn thing is like his first attempt at cooking on the job, back when he was just another foot soldier and not a commander. Everything from the shoulder down is charred black, missing some chunks, and smells like those aliens with the tusks and barbed tails. Probably would taste just as-ok he needs to stop ramblin Ginyu is almost fucking here.
Nappa repeatedly slaps his palm against his head, getting himself to focus on the problem at hand. He stomps his foot in front of him, and then launches himself forward.
His power sputters for a few moments before bursting into existence, yellow energy pulsing and flaring erratically. Ginyu’s own purple is a lot more solid, but lashing out in a similar manner due to the anger that the captain can simply no longer suppress.
They both scream at each other, right arms chambered for a punch and auras building to the size of trains as they race towards each other at speeds best written in scientific notation. When they hit each other, there’s an explosion of yellow and purple as the world trembles.
They’re both blown back, having hit each other with a textbook example of a cross counter. Nappa’s not sure what happens to Ginyu, but that’s entirely because he plummets from the sky, crashes across the side of the canyon, then ragdolls across the ground.
Nappa manages to roll back onto his feet, but Ginyu is already nearly on top of him. As Ginyu sprints at him, Nappa rips a chunk out of the canyon wall, crushes the rocks into powder, and throws it in Ginyu’s eyes.
While this does blind the captain, it doesn’t stop him. The Frieza Force elite continues forward regardless, and staggers Nappa with a powerful double punch to the chest. The Saiyan hacks and coughs in pain before gritting his teeth, and then stomping on Ginyu’s foot hard enough to break bone.
The captain howls in pain, but is quickly cut off as Nappa hits him in the face with three of the hardest hook punches the man has ever received in his life. On the third hit, Nappa feels Ginyu’s jaw shift it a way that it definitely isn’t supposed to.
There’s no further time for him to process that though, as Ginyu slams his gross Saibaman-esque head into Nappa’s own.
“GAH!”
The Saiyan backpedals, holding a palm to his head as he tries his best to not vomit from how nauseous getting another hit to the head is making him. As he does that, Ginyu makes some progress at getting the powdered rock out of his eyes.
Ginyu isn’t fast enough, Nappa recovers first and charges straight at him. But it’s impossible for the purple mutant to not hear him coming, and the Captain places two open palms in front of him ready to blast Nappa away.
Nappa had never planned on hitting Ginyu from the front though. He’s out of the line of fire before energy is even being charged in Ginyu’s hands. The giant of a man pushes his speed as high as it can go, and flickers into being behind Ginyu.
His good hand grabs one of Ginyu’s horns, and then his entire body twists as he slams Ginyu into the canyon wall. Nappa tries to do it again, but there’s a loud SNAP as he pulls back and loses his grip on Ginyu.
Did he break his own arm or something? What-?
“HOW DARE YOU!”
BOOM!
He’s hit with a shoulder tackle before he can finish the thought, tumbling across the floor of the canyon once again.
As he quickly floats back into standing position, he notices that there’s something in his hand.
It’s one of Ginyu’s dark black head spikes.
…In that moment, Nappa gives what might be the evilest chuckle he’s ever produced.
He’s going to enjoy this.
Ginyu’s already in a dead sprint again, maddened yet focused eyes flitting back and forth between his spike held in Nappa’s hand like a shank, and the Saiyan’s bloodied, and slightly toothless, grin.
Ginyu crosses his arms in front of him with his palms facing outwards. His short black claws (or sharpened nails? Nappa’s not sure.) gleaming in the sun. Nappa sets his stance, good arm forward and pointing the spike at Ginyu in the what’s probably the worst imitation of whatever fancy sword stance he’s absolutely mangling.
But as soon as his opponent reaches him and brings his claws down in a X strike, Nappa drops the spike.
He manages to catch Ginyu’s right hand with his own, but the man’s left continues unabated. Deep red lines are carved into Nappa’s fucked up chest as he bellows in pain.
But Ginyu gets no time to celebrate.
SHICK!
“GAAAAH!”
Bone and muscle are pulverized as the Captain screams, his left hand impaled by his own spike. Nappa’s tail had caught the improvised weapon, and whipped around to shove it through the man’s palm.
Ginyu’s punctured palm attempts to channel some energy in a reflexive attempt to disintegrate the horn. The damage is too great though, and Nappa’s tail manages to remove the weapon before anything can really be done.
The Saiyan’s tail goes for a stab on the other arm, but Ginyu uses the incredible flexibility earned through rigorous posing practice to somehow snap a high-kick into Nappa’s face.
The Saiyan’s mouth shuts with an audible click! as he’s launched several feet in the air. Ginyu gives him no time to recover though, jumping after him and delivering several sidekicks to Nappa’s airborne body.
The breath is driven from the giant man’s body as several of the holes in his torso are hit. The only noise that escapes him is a silent gasp of pain.
Ginyu finishes the combo with a spinning back-kick to Nappa’s face, launching him even further down the canyon. Blood dots the ground as Nappa digs his hand and feet into the ground to halt his momentum.
Nappa succeeds, coming to a stop at the end of the canyon and next to the headless stump of Burter’s corpse. His hand and knees soak in the blue mutant's purple blood as they tremble, the effort needed to keep himself up almost too much for them
…He doesn’t got much left in him.
His vision is blurring, there’s blood in his throat, and he knows without a doubt that at this moment, Ginyu’s got more in the tank than he does. A scouter would probably clock Ginyu as stronger than him by a couple thousand units, maybe more, and that difference would be increasing by the second.
(It’d be bigger if Ginyu had managed the bombardment better.)
The only reason he’s even managed to inflict damage on Ginyu so far is a combination of endurance, desperation, and luck. And he’s running out of all but the second. Add in the frankly absurd amount of blood loss he’s suffering from, and his chances aren’t lookin’ good.
Ginyu knows it too. Out of the corner of his eye he can see the bastard stridin’ over, angry as all hell but taking his time nonetheless. If he had to guess, Ginyu wants him to stew in some feeling of helplessness or hopelessness or whatever before he kills him because of how much Nappa’s pissed him off.
He’s familiar with this type of thing, he’s done it himself. But Nappa’s willing to bet his tail that unlike him, Ginyu’s never had it come back to bite him.
His eyes focus on Ginyu’s disgusting head, his hand wraps around Burter’s stump, and his tail clenches around the horn.
(…He’s got a plan. The last he’ll ever make.)
Ginyu must notice his movements because suddenly the ground is crumbling under the mutant as he charges. In response and preparation, Nappa focuses everything on Ginyu. Energy sensing, sight, hearing, even smell.
His tail chucks the horn first, aiming it at Ginyu's center mass. It goes wide though, Nappa’s inexperience with doing that kind of trick backfiring on him basically immediately. But that’s fine, because Ginyu’s eyes follow for just a moment too long, which means he’s not entirely ready for Nappa to toss Burter’s body at him.
The Saiyan takes off behind the body, using flight to keep pace with it. Before it makes contact with Ginyu though, he shoves a blast into the corpse.
A shower of gore explodes towards the Captain, but Ginyu is already turning around, the mutant having anticipated that Nappa would use the cadaver as some sort of smokescreen. But as he aims his uninjured palm towards where he expects Nappa to appear, and the gore splashes on his back…
…the Saiyan doesn’t show.
Where did he-?!
An arm wraps around his neck, a pair of legs wraps around his torso and pins the arm of his injured hand to his side, and something a tail around his other arm.
“Shoulda looked up dumbass!”
Dammit!
Ginyu releases a burst of power, trying his best to blow the Saiyan off him. There’s a pained grunt behind him, followed by a cough and something wet splashing against the back of his head.
But the monkey remains.
“Bwahahaha!” The damn Saiyan laughs. “I gotta say, your head looks even grosser up close Ginyu! You give a bad name to all us baldies!”
How dare he! “I’ll have you know I was voted as one of the handsomest men in Lord Frieza’s army!”
Another burst, another noise of pain.
“Grrrgg! Sure, whatever.” The Saiyan says through gritted teeth, grip still holding strong. “But you wanna know one good thing your ugly ass head did?”
The next words the brute utters are whispered with a soft vindictive menace, such that he can imagine the grin on the monkey’s face. It serves to send a spike of fear down his spine.
“It reminded me of a Saibaman.”
The implication obviously isn’t lost on Ginyu, not if the way his thrashing picks up is any indication.
“You’re insane!” Ginyu screams in shock. “You’ll really kill us both?!”
“That’s the plan asshole! BWAHAHA!”
(Energy starts to build up in Nappa and around them both. But this time, he’s not using just his power. No, this time he’s using his fucking lifeforce.)
“No-you’re bluffing! There’s no way you can-!”
“Fun fact about us Saiyans Ginyu! We are amazing visual learners!”
(It feels fucking awful, like he’s setting his goddamn soul on fire. But at the same time…)
“NO NO NO! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!” The Captain screams in denial. “I AM THE GREAT CAPTAIN GINYU! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THIS IS THE END OF THE GINYU FORCE!
(…His Saiyan blood is going nuts, the sensation made even better by how he’s exulting in the certainty of his victory.)
“Well I am THE MIGHTY NAPPA! And I don’t give a damn what you believe in.”
An orb of energy reminiscent of a star about to go supernova surrounds them both. Lightning strikes out from it, carving trenches through the canyon walls for dozens of miles. The rock and dirt within 10 meters of them simply melt.
“This is the end Ginyu!” Nappa roars, a bloodthirsty smile on his face. “BLAZE! OF! GLORY!”
And then the orb explodes outward, consuming everything in a yellow fire.
Briefly, above a crater with no visible bottom, there floats a statue.
It’s of a warrior, one who stands at seven feet and six inches. An absolute mountain of a man with muscles bigger than the heads of full grown men.
The warrior is damaged, stone teeth and chunks of “flesh” missing from his mighty body. But the most important part is his face.
A malicious smile adorns it. It tells of the warrior reveling in the thrill of battle, and it gives a sense that he’s celebrating a victory as well.
But the moment passes, and the statue falls.
It flakes apart, as if it was a carefully crafted sculpture made of ash and dust.
As it plummets and scatters, the last part to vanish is the warrior’s grin.
And in the distance, the warrior’s voice echoes through the mind of a newly awoken Super Saiyan.
'Knock em' dead... Shallot."