The Golden Star

[Illidan Stormrage]

Orion balled his fists. He did not like being ignored. "Hey! I'm not talking to myself here!"

The box shaped truck kept silent except for its idling engine, its sheer metallic surface glinting in the harsh sunlight. He heard the radio roar to life, though the door didn't move nor did the window unwind. Perhaps the driver thought they were safe inside their fortified vehicle; after all, it had been constructed to withstand small munitions fire, perhaps even stronger attacks than that. Unfortunately, such havens gave overconfidence to their owners. Steel was no match for ki, when applied with enough force and vigour. Yet as Orion was coming to believe, the knowledge of ki manipulation was non-existent; indeed, he theorised that he may be the only practitioner in all of this Omniverse.

For now, it gave him an edge. Without being exposed to ki, he had the element of surprise against many foes. On the other, it robbed him of a gleeful sense of superiority he used to wield in his own world, where fighters believing in their own power would soon cower in terror at Orion's mastery of the craft. In any case, news of the saiyan's finesse and brute force would soon spread throughout the Omniverse, and he would get the notoriety he deserved.

Perhaps it was time to start building the reputation now.

Orion levelled an open palm at the reinforced vehicle, and a pinprick of light spun before it. The light bulged into a sphere, rivulets of power flowing within. It shone brightly against the sand whipped truck exterior and caught in the slivers of glass that lay in a jagged pattern nearby.

"Fine. If you don't want to talk-"

A booming, thrumming foghorn spilled over his warning. Orion turned and saw the dented, ill fitted bull bar of a bus rocketing towards him, sparks skittering from its sagging end. Through the windshield he could see a sadistic, overjoyed grin. Orion spun frantically, throwing his arm over to blast the vehicle, but he was simply too slow. The bull bar crashed into his exposed torso and dug bitterly into his chest and gut, stealing him from his feet. Orion roared and fired his ki blast, his arm jutted out and away from the bus from the impact. The spear of energy screamed upwards and hit the roof of a nearby shack, birthing a scorching fireball that plumed into the air.

Orion grimaced at the dull, rounded steel pressing firmly into his skin, wrapping his hands around the bull bar. The wind whipped at his back, tussling his hair, and tangling his robe amidst the torn and jagged lower section of the bus. He tried pushing himself off but the powerful blow had thieved the air from his lungs, not to mention the raw, dull pain spreading throughout his torso. A lesser creature may have been killed, but not Orion. His thick armour, while the throbbing ache from the crash persisted, had stopped more permanent damage, perhaps even averting his rib cage from imploding. His stomach, however, was unprotected and pulsed with the remembered impact of the thick, maculate bull bar.

Orion spied the driver, still cackling maniacally at his apparent joke. Positioning his weight on his left arm, he struggled against the vehicle's speed to place his feet on the lower rung of the bull bar and aimed his right hand at the driver's stupid, insipid face.

"You picked a terrible opponent to run over," Orion seethed, though the rushing winds drowned out his threat.

The driver seemed to catch on. He pointed ahead, his eyes fixated on something. Orion craned his neck and saw the backside of a building screaming towards him.

"No. No!"

A sharp, slapping blaze of pain consumed his back, splinters of wood stabbing into his skin, and Orion was thrown backwards. He slammed into a table, smashing the entire thing into splinters, and slid across the ground, coming to a stop at the opposite wall.

Time stood still as Orion lay in a haze of agony, coughing as dust settled in his lungs. Streams of light pierced through the building, illuminating the floating specks that drifted through the air. Orion gingerly opened his eye and waited for his vision to focus. The bus, embedded in the wall across from him, smoked from its exposed engine. The bull bar creaked, dinted and smashed, and detached from the bus, its fall booming through the empty building.

Orion couldn't see a body slumped over the wheel, but the assumption had to be accurate. That driver must have killed himself from that crash. What was he thinking? Had he simply got caught up in the madness of the raid and taken things too far? Or was he trying to protect that other vehicle, the one Orion almost tore a hole through? Well, no sense questioning it now. Dead men tell no tales.

Orion struggled into a sitting position and threw off a plank of wood that rested on his chest. Propping himself on an arm, he looked around. Another bar. Destroyed, but much of the damage was dealt before the bus created a new doorway. Glass panes had been shot out, and several serrated gin bottles sat menacingly on the racks that hadn't fallen to the ground. Bullet holes riddled the front of the bar. The scent of dirt, blood and spirits swelled in the stuffy air.

The saiyan warrior threw himself forward, stopping himself on hands and knees. Slowly he pushed himself on one knee and grimaced as a wave of pain rolled through his back. When it subsided, he groaned and heaved himself onto both feet. His ribs burned. Outside, he could hear the screams of terrified townsfolk and the throaty bangs of rifles intermixed with occasional excited hollers. The bandits had this town, despite the blow Orion had dealt to their forces.

He had no attachment to this town, but the bandits wouldn't spare him. It wouldn't be safe until he cleared them out, nor was it an option for him to run. He probed his side with a finger and instantly regretted the inspection. He was in no position to travel, especially in an already hazardous environment. Not to mention that one wrong turn would send him into an eternal desert.

"Hey!" a muffled voice shouted. "Over here! I found a door!"

Orion grimaced. Looters. He didn't expect to be found so quickly. With a little time, maybe he could have healed a little, at least worked out a plan of attack. But no, once again he had to think on his feet to survive. Thankfully, he'd had plenty of experience.

A thud resonated weakly from outside and the door vibrated.

"It's stuck!"

"Kick it harder, you soft cock!"

A groan accompanied the next attempt, and the top hinge of the door cracked free of the door frame.

"That's it! One more!"

The door moaned and teetered over, disturbing the dust and grit on the ground. A dishevelled, scrawny thug wandered in, hungry eyes crawling over the bar. Another, slightly more solid associate of the first followed, pistol in hand. The bus driver. How the hell did he survive that impact? He looked over his shoulder, back out into the wild streets. The chaos outside drizzled in unfiltered now; it sounded like a warzone out there.

"Keep a look out, would ya?" he said to someone out of Orion's view. "We don't need no competition."

"You might find more than you bargained for in here," Orion said. They were bound to see him eventually; might as well give them a shock beforehand.

The first bandit jolted. His wide eyes found Orion. "Well, what do we have here?"

"Ah, so he lived," the bus driver purred, spinning the pistol in his grip. "I was hoping we could rob his corpse, though I thought it would've been more smashed up than that."

The first bandit laughed. "Who says we can't make him a corpse?"

Orion frowned. Blasted cocky miscreants. His injuries still flared, but fast, powerful movements should still work. Even if his body did hurt like a bitch afterwards, it was smarter than extending their fight further than it needed to go.

"It's a pity," Orion remarked. "A better informed thug would turn tail and run from a saiyan."

The first thug grinned menacingly. "A saiyan? Am I supposed to be scared of-"

Orion's body faded away as he pushed himself to the utmost limit of his speed, leaving behind a mirage of his body. In a split second, he was behind the first thug, hands crushing either side of his face. The bus driver took a step back, but quickly composed himself and aimed his pistol.

"Now do you understand?" Orion whispered, and twisted the thug's neck rigidly to the side. A loud, sickening crack echoed in the dusty bar, and the thug went limp. Orion dropped the dead body to the ground.

The pistol fired, but Orion was prepared. The bullet screamed through the air and hit Orion dead on, but the bus driver's eyes widened as the projectile passed right through the rapidly dissolving image. The saiyan warrior reappeared above him, his back against the roof. The bus driver looked frantically left and right for him, but obviously didn't acknowledge the possibility of his foe being able to fly.

"Come out!" the thug yelled. "Stop being a pussy and take your medicine!"

Orion let the energy in his core swirl about, generating a pressure system of ki flowing about him. He thrust his hand out and shouted, to which the thug looked straight up, face showcasing his astonishment. The saiyan's kiai burst forward, an invisible bolt of energy rippling the air, and slammed into the thug, awkwardly forcing his body to crash into the ground. Orion instantly fell upon the downed bus driver, driving both knees into his gut. The thug opened his mouth wide, eyes bulging, but no sound came out but a wet gurgling.

Orion's hand seized the thug's neck and fingers burrowed into the skin. "You hit me with a damn bus. You were lucky I wasn't paying attention, or that incident would have ended very differently."

The thug clawed at Orion's iron clad grip, fingernails raking at the backs of his fingerless gauntlets to no effect.

"You vermin ... why do you think having a gun and acting like a self entitled child makes you a rebel? You're nothing but gutter trash, the refuse of your species' genes, clogging up society. I squashed and burned your kind but you still managed to sneak in like filthy cockroaches." Orion involuntarily tightened his choke hold. Perhaps his anger hadn't fully subsided after all. "Too bad that someone like me had to come along. Send my regards to the devil."

The thug whimpered weakly as the last of his life petered out, his shaky body going still, his reddened eyes dulling. Orion pushed off the weakling and stamped on his gun, smashing it. Pitiful tools of the cowardly and useless. How many more pathetic fools would he have to silence before this ridiculous raid would be over?

Another man looked in the door, ostensibly the lookout. "Hey, I heard noise in here-"

Orion through his full weight behind his punch and floored the thug in a single hit. He released his grip on his rifle and clutched at his nose, red streams running down his face. He seemed to be in a spot of agony. Best to put him out of it as soon as possible.

Orion drove his heel into the man's throat and the struggle ended as quickly as it began.

The saiyan took a breath and the breadth and depth of his injuries bore through. He grimaced, holding his side where the pain blossomed anew. His back ached, a stabbing sensation attacked his neck and shoulders, and various bruises throughout his arms and legs made themselves known. Nothing that would stop him being combat ready, except perhaps the constant niggling in his ribs, but definitely distracting. A fast movement or overextension could see him leave himself wide open. He had to be careful.

Orion gazed out into the streets, searching for his next target, when a brilliant column of yellow light erupted from the roof of a nearby building and pierced the sky, brightening an already dazzlingly bright day. Was that a ki beam? No, surely not. But a bandit sure as shit didn't do that. Curiosity piqued, Orion ran out into the street and headed towards the light's source.

In short time he reached the building, noticing a hole torn in the roof. A gunslinger stood outside, but he obviously wasn't the source of the light. Orion looked inside. The body of a woman was slumped against the wall and basted in blood. Unlikely she was the progenitor of the yellow beam either, unless it was some sort of final ditch attempt at winning a fight she obviously lost.

Another stood inside, looking down on the dead woman with an inscrutable countenance. Red skin, black hair, yellow irises, clad in a yellow and black body suit. Not a specie Orion recognised, but then even in all his years as a conqueror, he'd only seen a handful of planets compared to what the universe had to offer. A yellow ring glistened on his finger.

Orion didn't have a scouter, but he could tell this red skinned man was formidable. By no means was he a bandit, or at least he wasn't cut from the same cloth as all the rest of the dishevelled motley crew that descended on this town like angry locusts. It was possible that he was their leader, or perhaps he was caught up in the raid much like Orion had been. There was only one way to find out, and by the pang of heat that reared in his side, he hoped it was the latter.

"You," Orion said. The red skinned man turned. "Who are you?"