Crono's Story by Traum

Chapter 28 Gideon

Lying on my back, the hot ground burning through my skin, the sunlight burning my eyes, I'd never felt more defeated in my life. I felt helpless, like I'd never had a real fight before in my life, and my first attempt at one had blown up in my face. As I lay there, pain consuming my body in its icy clutches, there was nothing I wanted to do except continue to lie there. I'd been defeated, utterly beaten by a foe I had no business fighting. He floated high above me, staring down into my face, boring into my mind with his small dots that served as eyes. I had no strength to rise from the ground, nor did I really want to. There was nothing to get up for, no real reason to continue living. I told myself that I couldn't give up, that I'd worked too hard to just admit defeat now, but my body had another idea all together. I felt like I'd been paralysed, and for a very scary moment, I considered the thought I had been. Blanka's elbow had been driven right into my spine, and it hurt so much I couldn't even move, but I forced myself to try and move, and to my pleasant surprise I was able to move both my arms and legs. I took little comfort in that fact however; it was soon overshadowed by my apparent imminent death.

I waited both patiently and anxiously on the ground, unwilling to do anything to protect myself, as Blanka slowly began to float down towards me. I could tell he was savouring every second of this battle, of his victory, and I wanted nothing more than to go up there and wipe the damned jovial look on his face. My body would not allow that however, so I remained in the position I was in. I took in a deep breath, waiting for the inevitable to occur. I closed my eyes, opened a telepathic link to Karnai, and began "Karnai," but before I could say anymore to my Namekian ally, there was a huge flare up of ki, like someone had just fired an incredibly powerful blast of ki.

I whipped my eyes open, and caught the small, white ball of ki streak across the sky. My eyes latched onto it through no fault of my own, and as it proceeded to soar higher and higher, my eyes tracked its path perfectly. Suddenly, as it reached an extremely high point in the heavens, it exploded. The flash was so bright I was forced to shut my eyes again and turn my head away. Once the flare-up had dissipated, I turned back to look into it. As I did so, I saw Blanka also gazing in its direction. When my eyes rested upon it, they saw a huge orb of white light floating in the sky. The ball of energy emitted a light somehow familiar, like I'd seen it a long time ago, but hadn't glimpsed it in any recent memory. Its light mesmerized my eyes, like it held some sort of majestic standing in the order of illumination. My mind screamed for me to locate its source, and I soon forced myself to tear my eyes away, and trace the ball of ki back to its starting point.

What I found was not what I had expected at all. Phoenix stood on a small piece of rock, staring directly at the energy sun he had created. His tail was not around his waist like it usually was, and he seemed to be in a somewhat transient state; almost like he was meditating.

It wasn't long before his muscles began to expand, his hair grew brown and long, and his clothes ripped themselves apart from his body. It took me several seconds to piece together what he'd done. When I finally realized it, I was both astounded and overcome with a sense of fear and foreboding. Phoenix had nearly killed me last time he'd transformed into his Oozaru form, and I was in such poor shape now I would stand no chance. I'd had no idea he'd mastered the ability to transform either, and I had an even less idea of whether or not he could control his monkey-like form.

Just as he was reaching his full height and he let out a mountain-crashing roar, a familiar ki signature rocketed itself right beside me. I turned to face the being, and found Karnai's green face blocking the light of the sun. "We have to get a safe distance away." He stated, a hint of fear in his voice.

I couldn't even nod, much less get up to do what he'd proposed, and Karnai noticed as well. He bent down next to me quickly and then hooked my arm on top of his shoulder. He then stood, pulling me upwards along with him, and then we both shot off into the sky using his ki power.