23 Chapter Eight, Part Two

"YOU!!!" King Kai rushed forward and seized the front of Hal's simple, grey-black gi, free hand raised at his half ruined planet. "Just look at this place, I had to sleep outside in the rain last night, all because of your crazed behaviour, I…"

Hal rolled his eyes and tossed out his capsule house. It was far larger and more luxurious than the Kai's old home, complete with a hot tub and sauna. With his Fortress, he had no real need for the place, and it might smooth over his next bit of news.

"It doesn't even rain on your planet, but I'm such a nice guy that I'll give you this brand new house," Hal walked up and pressed a button on its side to return the building to its capsule form. "Look, it even packs itself up, for those times when pesky former students stop by and do a little light training!"

Hal waved at the two Saiyans behind him, a wry grin on his face as realisation filled King Kai's eyes. The portly fellow scampered backwards, his new capsule house clutched to his chest.

"You haven't even cleaned up after your last mess!" King Kai wailed to the heavens as Hal flattened a wide section of earth with a wave of his hands. "Now you're turning my planet into your own personal fight club!"

Hal smiled as the Kai ducked behind cover and rolled the tension from his shoulders. He invited Beat into his makeshift tournament ground with a wave and cracked his neck. His three-minute-sight still showed potential danger, but there were several paths that seemed to work in his favour.

"Let's have our spar, then you two can tell me why you're really here," the gi on his body rippled, reformed into his symbiotic armour. He shrunk away the blades on his elbows and motioned to the bright-eyed Saiyan. "You both have the badges of the Time Patrol, but I'm not sure I recognise either of you…"

"You know about the Time Patrol?" Note raised her eyebrows as Beat sauntered into the earthen ring. "Who are you? I've read almost every report available to my clearance level, but I've never even heard mention of someone like you."

Hal shrugged, focused on Beat's casual approach. Even within his future-sight, the Saiyan had no openings. He would have to go all out from the start, just to get the slightest hint of effort out of his opponent.

"I'm one of a kind, I guess," Hal flexed his fists, ki held firm within his biofield. A deep breath shifted into his lungs, eyes locked to Beat's. "Now let's get this show on the road… KIO-KEN, TIMES FIFTY!"

Crimson-Yellow flame erupted from his body, a tower of ki that rattled King Kai's planet to its core. Hal followed the brightest path within his three-minute-sight, a full out charge that planted his fist into a surprised Beat's face.

Hal gave the Saiyan no time to respond, a second blow delivered right after the first. The knee forced the air from Beat's throat and catapulted him in a tight orbit around the miniature world.

Hal lunged toward Beat's reluctant path, a feint that he redirected to a last second dodge. The Saiyan's palm slashed through the space where his head should have been, face pinched in annoyance as a golden aura erupted from under his skin.

"It's amazing that you're able to use such a high level kio-ken, but you should focus on your Saiyan transformations," Beat flickered from existence and reappeared at Hal's back. His fist met only air, Hal's body twisted at just the right angle to slip past the attack. "...you are a slippery bugger though, I'll give you that!"

Hal ignored the banter and lashed out with another feint, this one followed by a blinding flash of ki. His take on a solar-flare, it dazzled the Super Saiyan's eyes and created an opening for a jab to slide past Beat's guard.

Annoyance ticked the Saiyan's brow as Hal's knuckles turned his head at the jaw. Beat's aura flared, a wave of blue that Hal avoided by the skin of his teeth. Hands extended, he rode twin beams of ki at the edge of Beat's multidirectional attack.

Pressure swelled around him, a vast ocean that vanished with a bright expansion of rippled sapphire. Beat stood, his Super Saiyan form replaced by the undetectable might of Super Saiyan Blue. Hal tightened his jaw, the future paths available shrunken to almost nothing.

Beat's hand approached in every potential future, an inescapable fate that soon became reality. Despite his foreknowledge, a palm impacted the centre of his chest. Weighted by the heavenly might of divine ki, it collapsed Hal's lungs and sheared free a half-dozen ribs within his chest.

"So much power…" Hal pivoted in mid air, feet driven into the soil of King Kai's planet as he forced himself to a stop. By the time his body halted, his wounds were healed, the harsh snap of bone just a memory. "God ki really makes all the difference."

"That's enough for now…" Note frowned as Beat ignored her words and blitzed toward Hal's recovered form. She sighed, a shake of her head as her body vanished from sight. "I said, ENOUGH!"

She reappeared at Beat's side, finger extended to flick the side of his head. Her well manicured nail struck like a meteor and sent a shockwave through the hyper-focused Saiyan's face. Thunder cracked, a transfer of force that rocketted Beat in a continuous loop around King Kai's too small planet.

"We're not here to play around," Note turned hardened eyes in Hal's direction, a glance that turned all his futures to the same blank darkness. Her body flickered, voice now at his back as a pressure impacted him on the neck. "Now go to sleep…"

– – – –

"Hmmm?" Hal blinked at an unfamiliar ceiling, body draped over a quaint wooden bed and covered with a thick woollen blanket. His mind blanked for several seconds, before the image of Note's overpowered finger surfaced from the depths. "That woman's power is unreasonable…"

A snort called his attention to the bed next to his, where a bandaged Beat reclined amongst a thick layer of blankets. His head was wrapped in layers of white cotton, both eyes surrounded by blackened rings.

"Welcome to the club of battered men… though you seem to be healed up far better than I am," Beat shifted his body to face Hal, features divided by a grin. "Who are you, anyway? You're not a pure-blooded Saiyan and that suit of yours is pretty advanced biotech…"

"Not to mention that weird key," Note's voice called attention to a shadowed corner, where his victorious opponent was curled up in a thick recliner. "I did some tests, it can reach places no mortal was ever meant to go."

Hal rose up from his bed and gave the Saiyan woman a shrug. The division between mortals and gods within the Dragon Ball universe was a thin line, one that he had no issues crossing. He barely considered the Kai's to be deities at all, more like divine elves that served the true masters of reality.

"That's funny, coming from a mortal who's mastered the use of divine ki," Hal rubbed the stiffness from his neck and levered his legs over the side of the bed. His body was even lighter than before, the wonders of his new Saiyan biology after a near death experience. "Now… what does the Time Patrol want with me?"

***Power Levels and other notes***

Hal: 9,500,000 (95 million with symbiote armour enhancement, Max kio-ken: 50x)

Note: ???

Beat: ???

I'm considering Android 21 or Note as the love interest for the MC. Initially I was thinking of Bulma or Caulifla, but I like Vegeta and Bulma's dynamic and the universe 7 Saiyans will be children compared to the MC by the time they meet. 

I'm also considering having cross universe travel in some form or another, like in my other Krypton Reborn novel. They would be focused more on anime universes, to fit the theme of the main universe, but everything is possible! If the popular vote leads us to the same universes as the other Krypton novel, then I'll do my best to hit different notes and plot points so we're not treading over the same ground in both stories!

In the future, when this novel is further along, I also had the idea of 'non-canon' side story crossovers between this and any other Krypton Reborn stories that I'm working on. I have about six chapters of a Krypton that begins in the Harry Potter universe, but I'm not sure if the controversy around the author will affect interest/response to that idea in a negative way.

Finally, today is the last day of daily double chapters! Each week from now on I'll include the week's schedule for this novel in these note sections. This coming week there will be one chapter each on Monday, Wednesday and Friday! Thank you again to all the readers, I'll do my best to make certain we get weekly updates of more than two chapters!