Gone Native: Consequences (ch. 16) (Patreon)

Stress tests were a necessary evil. You ran the risk of breaking whatever it was that you were testing, but you also learned where it was weak. In an object, it was as simple as remaking it with the weaknesses in mind to make sure that they didn't reoccur in the next version. But things got vastly more complicated after that -- relationships, organizations… governments. As they often did, things became more complicated when you introduced people into the equation.

With people it wasn't so simple as starting from scratch and learning what went wrong. Yet, stress testing was no less important. From some points of view, it was even more so. People's lives would be impacted by the imperfections, often in bad ways, even if a select few would find ways to benefit from it.

I experienced my fair share of it during the war. My armies, my fleets, my tactics -- all were put through the wringer until the imperfections in them were ground away. A plan that was too complicated, with too many moving parts, was simplified until it stopped ending with the deaths of my men. On the individual level my armies fought in their own unique way, so I gave them equipment that would bolster their strengths and sure up their weaknesses.

And now, I was putting Earth through a stress test of its own, to test its people and their systems of governance, and we were all learning just how ill-suited they were to the task.

In the days following the fall of North Rhelasia, the people of Earth were at odds with themselves. All over the planet, people saw something that they had wanted to change, but had been unable to. There was a growing voice, however, scattered and muted by those furious, that were celebrating. They embraced the change. I held no illusions that they would still be happy about me if I flew over and dismantled their government, but that growing minority

Unsurprisingly, most were upset. I had just applied more pressure to one of the world's major systems of governance -- the UN -- by effortlessly dismantling one of their rogue nations. There were parts of the world that were making threats of violence to ward me away from their own rogue nations. Other parts of the UN were scrambling for a response. They were trying to get their cake and eat it too -- denouncing me while also securing the North Rhelasian border to enforce the dismantlement of the nation.

China was upset. However, perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the North Rhelasians that were the most upset. There were plenty that were grateful, but the vast majority of the citizen population hated my guts.

By killing their leader, I became the ultimate evil in their eyes. Even though I was actively improving their lives.

The similarities weren't lost on me. I suspect that news to my own defeat would be met with a similar response. And that got under my skin more than I cared to admit.

I took in a deep breath as I looked at Lois Lane, who was currently shoving a microphone in my face. I wasn't sure how she got here. We were in the heart of North Rhelasia, in a joint military checkpoint between my forces and the UN. As far as I knew, reporters weren't welcomed, but that didn't seem to bother Lois Lane in the slightest. Since she was here, I answered her question, "No, I don't care."

"You violated Earth sovereignty before the summit being held to decide if you have any legal claim to Earth, and you… don't care?" She questioned, and it was easy to see how the answer made her uncomfortable. Her and a few others were milling about nearby as we stood underneath a tent with no sides. Rain lightly fell from the sky, filling the heavy silence with a slight pitter-patter.

"What was happening here was wrong. I wouldn't have needed to take action if you humans dealt with the situation," I responded curtly as I accepted a tablet from one of my soldiers. It felt… good. Familiar. Almost like I was back to being a general at the head of an army, ready to invade another planet. But that familiarity was too dangerous for me to indulge in.

"That doesn't change the fact you violated Earth's sovereignty," Lois Lane countered. "How can humanity expect you to keep your word about not attacking Earth if we can prove that the planet doesn't belong to your Empire?

"Because I said I would," I answered drily, looking over the tablet. Lists of supplies given to the refugees, where they were given, and how much we still had. My habit of packing surpluses of food was useful once again, because I had enough food to feed the nation a hundred times over. However, we were going through a great deal of healing fluid.

It would be a simple matter to order more -- as healing fluid was one of the few solutions to healing a multi-species army, trillions of gallons of it had been produced for the war. We still had that surplus. But, I was considering another alternative. The Medicine Ball was one of the few techniques that every member of my species has learned, if only for convenience’s sake.

I wanted Earth settled before I brought any other Saiyans to the planet, but perhaps it would be best to bring a few. Enough to cover the medical needs of the humans, and in doing so, we would show that we were more than a warmongering race. Even if my race was filled with warmongers, we had the potential to be more .

Handing back the tablet, I saw that the answer didn't satisfy Lois Lane in the slightest. "I am a man of my word. I've done exactly what I said I would -- I destroyed the nation that withheld my broadcast. Now, I'm telling you that if Earth presents a legally sound and reasonable case that the planet is not mine, then I will leave you be." I reminded her, and I could see that I had kicked the legs of her argument out from underneath her.

Her lips pressed together into a thin line, "So, we have to trust you?"

"I haven't given humanity any reason to mistrust me. Dislike me, maybe, but not to distrust. Nor do I intend to," I said, my gaze sliding over to Wonder Woman as she entered my range of view after dropping down from the sky. She was soaking wet, but she didn't seem to mind in the slightest, her own gaze meeting mine. I saw her eyes narrow ever so slightly.

I didn't know her well. The Justice League, true to our agreement, had given me a guard to guide me on Earth. Well, guards, but only ever one at a time. They seemed to take four-hour shifts -- Superman, Martian Manhunter, the Flash, Shazam, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman. Of them all, Superman and Shazam were the most talkative. The Flash was more awkward than anything, while Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman maintained a polite manner, but it was clear their goal was to guard me instead of converse.

"I've even allowed some of your heroes to explore my empire to gather evidence against me," I said. It was a terrible thing, but they would likely know my empire better than me by the time they returned. Which was another reason to settle this matter promptly. My necklace, despite its gravity-defying properties, felt heavy around my neck, weighed down by the bone of the last Super Saiyan.

She latched onto that and immediately rounded on Wonder Woman as she approached -- the red-haired man holding the camera behind her turned to look at Wonder Woman as well, seemingly catching the Amazon off guard. But, after a moment, the expression she wore said that she wasn't surprised to see Lois here. "Wonder Woman, what can you tell us about the team sent to the…" Lois paused before she turned to look at me, making the cameraman look back at me as well.

It was an obvious prompt, but I shrugged. "My empire doesn’t have a name yet."

The look I got in response to that told me that Lois was thoroughly unimpressed with me, and she got away with it because her face wasn't exposed to the camera. Without missing a beat, she looked back at Wonder Woman, who had composed herself with the brief opening, "The Justice League makes no comment."

"Has the team been sanctioned by the UN, or could this be seen as the Justice League taking independent action?” Lois continued anyway, not pulling any punches. For anyone it seems. It seemed like Lois Lane didn’t know what a softball question was, much less know how to throw one. Wonder Woman didn’t react beyond giving a very mild look. With a simple question, Wonder Woman was pinned -- giving a response would give Lois what she wanted while not making a response would paint them in a bad light.

"The diplomatic team has been sanctioned by the UN," Wonder Woman answered curtly, giving in a little to ensure that The Justice League wouldn't be crucified by the Public. Well, not any more than they already were. "The Justice League will not answer any further questions, Ms. Lane." She said in a tone that said that even though she had given an inch, Lois shouldn't take a mile. "You should return home. This isn't an area for civilians, media or otherwise."

To that, Lois smirked. "The people of Earth have a right to see what's happening in North Rhelasia," she said, casting a look at me like I should back her up.

I didn't.

Instead, I turned and walked away as I spotted an incoming team flying in on a saucer-shaped transport ship. I wouldn't normally bother, but on the transport ship, I saw scuff marks on the paint and indentions on the metal. Someone had fired upon the transport with a caliber of gun far stronger than the ones we'd encountered in North Rhelasia so far. The rain drizzled down on me, falling in fat drops that quickly soaked my hair, though it still stood in position. I heard Lois called out to me as I headed to where the ship touched down.

We set up in the market park because it was large enough to act as a makeshift airport. My fleet sent the number of ships agreed upon with the UN down, a meager twenty-five, and this location acted as staging point where they would be sent out to deliver relief. There were four other ships parked at the moment as they delivered people as well as loaded up more supplies.

The transport touched down as I approached. My eyes narrowed ever so slightly -- the number was off. For a transport bringing people here, there should be twice as many people on the ship. Perhaps they found an unwilling village? It wasn't out of the ordinary, but combined with the signs of combat-

"King Tarble, what are you expecting the team sent to your empire as envoys to return saying? Given that you seem to value your word so highly, can Earth expect to see an unbiased view of your empire? Its greats and its lows?" Lois Lane questioned me, catching up to me as we came to a stop in the busy port teeming with humans and my soldiers.

"I gave instructions to my… agent?" I started, only to realize that Ada'la lacked a proper title to describe what she did for the empire. I never gave her one. She just slipped into the role of whatever she was so easily, it just felt like an extension of her work being my agent. "Grand Vizier Ada'la will escort the envoy through my Empire. She has chosen some destinations to be seen. But, knowing the envoys, I fully expect detours to be made from the official tour. What they witness will be admissible to Earth's case."

I looked to Lois, who didn't seem to mind the rain even as it ruined her makeup. She seemed a tad stumped, but overall pleased with my answer. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but I never heard what it was because her words were drawn out by the sound of something exploding. I felt familiar heat on my face as I instinctively stepped in front of Lois, my eyes turning to the ship that had exploded. I felt a chunk of shrapnel break on my body as flames washed over the port.

There was shouting, humans were screaming as they started to flee. My soldiers reacted -- the war wasn't so old that they had forgotten their instincts. They formed up, dragging away the wounded while taking cover. The UN soldiers reacted well by guiding the fleeing humans.

"Thanks," Lois muttered, sounding surprisingly calm about her brush with death. I said nothing as I looked at the flaming wreck of my transport ship. My ki sensing abilities narrowed, still covering the entirety of North Rhelasia, but I could pick out the presences with finer detail.

"Get to safety," I bit the words out as I marched forward towards the flames. As I did, I pressed an hand to my ear. "All forces, high alert. We are being targeted. Three transports have been destroyed -- Overwatch, show me what happened." I demanded of my fleet as I stepped inside the burning wreckage, unbothered by the fire. The explosion tore up the interior, but the hull was still strong. The fact parts of it were destroyed said more about the bomb than it did the ship.

I saw parts of bodies, the fire making some of them unidentifiable. There were humans in the ship, but as I stepped forward, my eyes narrowed into slits when I saw that they were armed. They weren't human weapons, or at the very least, they weren't the kinds that were available on the mass market. Bulkier. That could explain the shots on the hull.

My soldiers' bodies held up better than the human’s thanks to their armor and barriers. Because of that, I saw that they had been restrained by cuffs strong enough that they also endured the blast. The source of which had been from the core room where the power source was kept. It was blasted open, and stepping into it, I saw a body of one of my soldiers. He had a cuff on an arm, but not the other. I knew his species -- a regenerator.

My eyes turned to the power source that billowed out heat and fire, looking for an explanation. Despite the incredible destruction, I spotted something that didn't belong. A canister. Dropping to a knee, I picked it up to see that behind the scorch marks, there were trace amounts of a purple fluid inside of it.

I had the pieces I needed. A team of humans commandeered my transport and restrained my soldiers. They brought something on board and flew back to the HQ, but on route, one of my soldiers ripped off his hand and made his way to the reactor room where he initiated a power surge of some kind that caused the ship to explode. He sacrificed his life and the lives of his teammates to prevent whatever the humans had planned.

He died a hero. He died with honor and glory.

He shouldn’t have died at all.

"Sir, Overwatch is clean. No signs of combat- nor reports. All ships are reported as green," my fleet told me even as I felt their presence vanish.

"Our systems are compromised," I deduced easily, stepping out of the flaming wreckage. Twenty-five soldiers. I lost twenty-five of them. The number might be small, especially in comparison to the losses that we had suffered during the War of Light, but those twenty-five soldiers’ lives weighed heavily on me. I had been right there. If I…

The war was over. Soldiers weren't meant to die during peace.

Wonder Woman looked at me as she spoke to a UN soldier. One of their leaders. He said something before taking off, leaving Wonder Woman alone with me. She met my gaze and there was remorse there, but there was also resolve. "King Tarble, I ask that you don't overreact."

I slipped deeper into the Wrath State, and an aura of green licked at my skin, joining the steam and smoke. "What would be an appropriate reaction to this?" I asked her with a quiet and deadly edge to my tone.

"We don't know who is behind this attack," Wonder Woman said, not answering my question. "I swear, I shall aid you and bring those that are responsible to justice. Do not let this sabotage our attempts at making this end peacefully. You could be playing into the perpetrator’s hands."

"What would be an appropriate reaction to the death of twenty-five of my soldiers?" I asked her again, rubble rising as I sank even deeper into the Wrath State. To Stage Fifteen. Then beyond it. Chunks tore from the ground, the rain blasted away from me before it could fall. The asphalt and stone broke apart, reduced to dust as I took a very slow and pointed step forward. "Who were here on an aid mission?"

Wonder Woman's hand neared her sword, but she said nothing. Because saying what she believed would justify my actions.

"I don't care what you say of me. I don't care what you think. I understand that I have made mistakes, and I have tried to learn from them. I tried to be reasonable. I have tolerated attempts on my life. I have accepted humanity’s scorn for my actions," I spoke slowly and deliberately as I took another step and it was as if the city was going to shake itself apart from the simple action. It might have if I didn't strengthen the ground with ki to make it more durable. "But not this. I will not accept this."

My soldiers trusted me with their lives. They had for the entirety of the war. It was my greatest shame that I couldn’t give them what they deserve for their loyalty but the very least, I owed my loyalty to them.

With a final step, I was close enough to Wonder Woman that I could reach out and touch her.

"I told the people of Earth I would not tolerate unprovoked attacks on my soldiers. So, I will ask you this one last time Wonder Woman," I stated, glaring into her bright blue eyes. "What is an appropriate response to this?"

I didn't really expect anything in her gaze. But, to my surprise, there was sympathy. It was well guarded, but also plain for me to see. The anger in her stance was at the situation, rather than me. She was being careful not to say the wrong thing and set me off.

"Action," Wonder Woman replied after a moment, the words slipping from her mouth almost of their own will rather than hers. "The death of your soldiers requires action."

"Will you get in my way for taking action?" I asked her and I almost didn't know what I wanted her response to be. Part of me wanted her to say yes. That part of me craved violence and conflict -- it wasn't just a natural instinct. It was one fueled by frustration and anger. I had placed a target on my back. They should have aimed for me rather than my soldiers.

Another part of me wanted this to end peacefully. I understood what she was saying. Since I came to earth, the straws kept piling up. She was asking me to not let this be the straw that broke the camel's back.

"If you bring the perpetrators to Justice… then I will not. The death of your men deserves an answer," Wonder Woman decided, "And as a gesture of good faith, I will help you bring them to justice." She said, and by that, she meant that she would stop me if I decided to kill them. "It will help with the peace talks. This was an act of terror -- it's well within my rights to take action."

Her accompanying me would give my actions a thin veneer of legitimacy. But I doubted that anyone would actually care about how legitimate they were. The summit was soon, and anything short of inaction would be perceived as aggressive.

But, at this moment, I found that I couldn't care less about what some humans would say.

"Follow me," I ordered, turning, before I blasted into the air, a sonic boom blasting through the city streets as I shot a few hundred feet straight up. . I zeroed in on the other transports -- there were over ten left that were currently active, but I sensed a problem now that I was paying more attention. Without waiting to see if Wonder Woman would keep up, I blasted towards the nearest transport, using my aura to keep the rain from my eyes. I closed the distance in no time at all, quickly spotting the transport on the ground. Not at all where it should be.

It was in the middle of a clearing in a dense forest -- I saw it was open, and being unloaded. My soldiers were there, but their strength was fading.

I didn't slow down as I adjusted my path straight towards the group. I slammed into the earth like a meteor, my feet tearing a long furrow into the ground even as I toughened it up to slow me down. The nearby trees were eviscerated on my landing, falling over or being torn out of the ground and thrown back, colliding and knocking over more trees in a domino chain of destruction from the force behind them. I skidded a hundred feet over the target, but once I slowed down enough, I readjusted my trajectory and blasted forward to the center of the encampment.

There were two dozen humans, half of them looking in the wrong direction. They carried the same bulky guns, and now that they weren't half-destroyed, I noted that they did seem to be human in make. I saw the same kind of design theory -- clearly made for a hand with five fingers, a human magazine, and chamber set up. The humans themselves wore black armor with no insignia, their faces covered by black tinted masks.

Before the humans could react, I was in the heart of their encampment. Ki gathered in my hands, the dark blue energy emitting light between my fingers in the dark forest. It flew free of my hands before the humans could so much as register was it was. Small blasts of ki surged from the palm of my hand, each one darting to one of the humans.

In a second, the clearing became filled with pained screaming as the humans dropped to the ground. Their weapons hit the ground along with the offending arms holding the, as well as a severed leg each so that they couldn't flee. They all dropped to the ground, those standing guard over my soldiers inside the transport, those loading up the contents of the ship, and those making sure no one came to investigate.

I flew straight through the wall of the ship, the metal tearing around my body as I tore through it like wet tissue. Entering the ship, I was immediately greeted by the sight of an unidentified purple gas filling the interior -- my necklace provided me with air, even in a vacuum, so I didn't need to breathe, but I felt a stinging sensation on my skin. My gaze darted to the source -- another purple canister.

Leveling a hand at it, I fired a ki blast directly at it -- instantly destroying it and carving a line into the earth for a few hundred feet. At the same time, I formed a ki ball around me that stretched until the transparent bubble ripped the ship from the inside out, the ki seamlessly washing over my bound soldiers, freeing them from the purple smoke.

"What happened," I questioned, dropping to a knee in front of them. All of them were in the hold -- all alive. So the humans had not only gotten the better of my soldiers but subdued them as well. Had they been lax with their security or was this an indicator of the threat I was dealing with?

The saiyanoid soldier looked at me -- his dark pink skin was irritated, making him appear red. Dark red blood dripped from his eyes and nose as he made a gurgling sound, but no words came. A Medicine Ball formed in my hand, washing them in its soothing light. Almost immediately, I saw them breathe a little easier. But the Medicine Ball relied on a person's own strength to heal them, and they were all too weak to remain conscious.

"Overwatch, prepare medical pods and immediate extraction. Be warned, the soldiers have been exposed to some kind of toxin," I warned the fleet and received an immediate reply.

"Our sensors have been cleared, King Tarble, but we were unable to track the source of the disturbance. The enemy pulled out when they realized we were close." The admiral replied and that was not what I wanted to hear. I wanted whoever did this found.

"Tarble!" Wonder Woman shouted at me from outside, but I ignored her in favor of walking through the wall of the holding area to see two humans that were gasping in agony. I dropped down and picked one up by the throat.

"Who?" I questioned, my voice ice cold. There was no anger in it. Or rage. I was in Stage Twenty of the Wrath State, and there was nothing in my voice other than the cold threat of certain death. With my immense strength, it was an honest struggle to not just crush his throat on accident. Wonder Woman burst through the side of the ship next to me, her sword, and lasso in hand.

I reached up and ripped the mask off of the human's face. Pale skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. Given that we were in North Rhelasia, that stood out.

The human looked at me for a brief moment before he shifted his jaw. "Earth is for humanity!" he said defiantly, and there was a small beat of silence.

A slow smile appeared on my face, "A suicide pill? What dedication," I remarked lightly, taking a pointed step back so the human could be hit with the full force of the Medicine Ball, which focused on healing the poison before it could do any damage to him. Now there was panic in his eyes as he saw the easy way out was no longer available to him. "If you want death that badly, I'll happily give it to you after you answer my questions."

"King Tarble-" Wonder Woman started, only to fall short when she saw my soldiers laying against the wall, barely clinging to life. She offered a hand, and in it was her lasso. "This will compel him to speak the truth."

"Convenient," I remarked, taking the lasso and wrapping it around the human. "What did you do to my men?"

The man visibly tried to fight off the truth. Veins bulged in his neck, and despite the blood loss, his face turned an angry red. And, to his credit, he even tried to bite his tongue off to keep from answering the question. But the Medicine Ball healed his wounds and regrew his tongue, and once it did, I had my answer. "It’s some kind of poison!" He shouted, gasping as he did so. "I just know it rips through Xenos."

The implications were clear, "Genocide? You do not want to play that game with me." I growled and the human spat blood in my face. I didn't care. It wasn't the first time I'd been covered in blood.

"Who are you?" I questioned, getting a notification that the fleet was sending in evacs. Quarantine measures were implemented, so that should take care of it. The issue was that I had also been exposed to the toxin, or disease.

"Louis Amelie," Louis answered and it seems the truth came out easily once he started speaking it. He clenched his eyes shut, bracing himself for the question that he knew was coming.

I squeezed down ever so slightly, "And who ordered this, Louis Amelie?" I asked him under Wonder Woman's watchful eye.

Louis grit his teeth and for a moment, I thought he might bite off his tongue again. "UN Secretary-General Tseng Dangun!" He gasped out, making Wonder Woman flinch back ever so slightly.

"The UN ordered this?" I demanded to know, my voice never getting higher or lower. Like the news meant nothing at all.

"I'm… part of a special team. Black Ops. Faked my death and everything. Our mission is to get our hands on your weapons and armor to be tested for weaknesses. And to test the poison. The attacks would be staged at your HQ, hopefully killing you in the process while making it appear to be rogue North Rhelasian dissenters," Louis answered, gasping as the full truth was extracted from him.

Wonder Woman was immediately on damage control, "The lasso compelled the truth as he knows it. Louis, did the Secretary-General directly give you this order? Or any known affiliates? Or were you merely told that you were operating on the UN's behalf?"

This time, Louis didn't fight so hard to answer the question. "We were given orders by our handler. A grayed-out screen."

Wonder Woman looked at me, her gaze imploring, "Let us investigate further. It's possible he was acting on the behalf of a rogue party, not the UN. It… happens quite often." She said, taking back her lasso, but even as she spoke, her grip on her sword didn't lessen in the slightest.

I didn't respond as I let go of Louis, letting him fall to the ground with a thump. I turned to Wonder Woman, looking her in the eyes. "How confident are you that it would go well for you if I used that lasso on the UN leader?" I asked her quietly and pointedly. There was a small, but telling beat of silence, and there was doubt in her eyes.

It was difficult to describe what I was feeling when she failed to answer. But, if I had to put it into words… I finally felt at peace.

I gave Wonder Woman a smile that could be mistaken for kind. Gentle even.

"We gave it our best shot."