Bounty Run (Side B)

“I’ve been told that I’m quite convincing.” Was this referring to generally being able to talk people into things or the idea of thrashing people into unconsciousness before collecting their bounty payout? Odds are he was referring to both. “Then you know the stakes, the gravity of the situation is not lost on you like it could be on others.” As for ensuring safety, there were multiple possibilities, but the first that came to the Bloodhound’s mind was a particularly devious one. “I think weaponizing her arrogance is key here. One piece of information that she and her most loyal thugs happen to be missing is... Exactly how strong you are. The last known log shows you at 80,000 BP. I sure as hell don’t wanna bother giving them an update, So, we can use this to our advantage, then unleash what we really have.” The Bloodhound chuckled. “That is, assuming you’ve got anything more... Legendary up your sleeve? I met another Saiyan musician a while ago, Prince Kabe, he called himself. He could summon a golden aura that drew people in when he performed.” The whole golden glow and legend of the Super Saiyan was a recent recurrence, rare if not unheard of; and only certain people with enough strength could manage it.

“Why not, would be a better question. People hire me because they know I do my job, it isn’t my fault when some egomaniac with their own hefty bounty tries to play me for a sucker too.” What a very strange and unique part of a personal bounty hunter code, it wasn’t common at least.

“Quite a sum, yes, I’d wager it’s most of her treasury.” The Bloodhound really found it funny how desperate Zinde was to get Zhalla for what she had justifiably done. “Then don’t go back to the way things were. Break them down with your new beat instead and the way things are instead.” He added, with a hard thump of his chest, a traditionally Saiyan gesture.

With an amused snicker, the Bloodhound would correct Zhalla’s commentary. “Wolf move, actually, but you wouldn’t get what that means yet.” He twirled his weapon around after hitting her with it, the wind current rushed from each rotation once again like before. When she moved to grab him, he didn’t back away and she would be successful at grabbing him by the collar, he also chose to grab at her as well in this instance with his free hand— aiming for the collar of what she was wearing. “I wasn’t kidding, just so you know. I go for blood, and I do this job for my family.” He noticed the shine in her eyes, and was in turn also excited by it. She was going to be a solidly challenging opponent, not like the bunches of total losers he has fought before.

“Pfft, right.” The Bloodhound snorted. “Doesn’t mean I’m lying either, now does it? Some folks are too stubborn to believe the truth.” He pointed out in return. In this sense, both of them were correct. “Yeah, I came here for a bounty, that’s true.” He admitted without hesitation. “But I didn’t come here for a life.” At least not this time, as she was unlike many of his other done and dusted targets from the past. In any case, he was being very serious about it. “You want her off your back, and I want her out of the way. Both of us want her put down where she belongs, in hell.”

Apparently Kabe was Zhalla’s cousin. That wasn’t something that came up in his research. “Huh. Okay.” He responded with surprise. “I guess that explains a few things.” Mayen was another potential problem to be dealt with, but if Zinde was tactically taken out of the picture things would be much easier on that front. “If you can hit that glow, then it’ll be far easier of a task, I think.”

The Bloodhound sighed a bit, it was pretty simple for him actually. “No, I just think she’s a right bitch.” Maybe he also found out that she potentially sent someone after his dad, that’d just motivate him to kill her off more than he already was willing to. He had heard about how Zhalla was used as an attack dog by Zinde, most any bounty hunter worth their salt that did proper research would know that. “I wouldn’t understand huh? Try me.”

As the two grappled with each other, the Bloodhound took note of Zhalla’s underlying animalistic fighting style in close quarters like this. When she reached for his mask, it lit up with concentrated ki, churning out a lot of heat and energy spikes. Now that he was this close, it was also easier to get an understanding of her ki and overall energy— it was almost as if her soul was scarred too. “She messed you up that bad, huh?” Black bolts of energy crackled around him. Suddenly, his aura burst to life, a violent fury emerging in his body language as his aura pushed outwards at Zhalla. “All the more reason to tear her spine out and use it as a fucking skipping rope!” For as ruthless as he may have sounded, his aura was quite different— if Zhalla let it reach out to her she would be able to feel that it was bold, stoic, trying to lift her up in a spiritual sense. “I won’t just draw your blood, Rockstar. I’ll draw out to center stage too.”

“Yeah? So which one are you?” The Bloodhound had a feeling that he knew the answer before Zhalla even said anything about it. He was slightly amused with the opinion that she had of his chosen profession. With a scoff, he shook his head. “I’m not just any run of the mill bounty hunter, and I think you know that. I already told you what I’m here for.” He could hear it in her voice, she wasn’t entirely convinced by her own words. Still, he couldn’t judge her too harshly— she couldn’t see his face. Zhalla questioned why the Bloodhound would even want Zinde out of the way, so he shrugged. “What, can’t a guy want some peace and fuckin’ quiet?”

When it came to the ‘golden glow’, Zhalla outright admitted that Zinde had some measure of control over it, and it was in part due to a metallic plate that was revealed. That thing had to be disrupted in some way first then. “Ahuh. I see what the problem is.”

Then came their clash, and it was in this moment that the Bloodhound did his best to disrupt and shut down the device with his strange abilities. Rebellion in its purest form would flow through his aura and towards Zhalla, accompanied by the determination to break the chains of one’s tormentors. There was a near immediate reaction as the thing on her neck sparked and fried out, the Saiyan doubled over in pain, with a hint of panic to her voice. “I did exactly what I needed to do for everything to work out.”

Step one was to break the control anyone else had on Zhalla, only after that would any attempt to give her control be feasible. So for now, this would do.

Zinde also soon revealed herself, the Bloodhound knew that she and her crew had followed him— and she didn’t seem to care if he knew or not. It didn’t surprise him, that was how arrogance worked. “Obviously. Excellent is the only kind of work I do.” Quite the boast, but he certainly had the track record to back it up.

The Bloodhound smirked under his mask, yet the mask’s display remained serious. He was indeed incredibly clever to have his target let down her guard by earning her trust considering... The target wasn’t even Zhalla to begin with. He immediately took the payment by sealing it within one of his many gadgets.

However, he wasn’t leaving.

Without warning, the Bloodhound swung his weapon around himself, generating an intense gust of Ki empowered wind as he rushed forward with the pressure of his aura expanding outward trying to knock over the various crewmates that were in his way. Reeling back a strong spin, he ultimately aimed to drive his weapon into Zinde’s lower back and take possession of the modified axes himself. Jagged red and black bolts of energy swirled around him as a warning for those gathered to not get anywhere near him as he stood between them all and Zhalla. “Heh.. Heheh.. You’re right.” The LED display showed a vicious snarling grin. “It was incredibly clever of me to lower my target’s guard and gain her trust like I did.” He began cackling madly, as if he had been waiting for this moment for a while. “I guess it helped that she was so far up her own ass, that she saw herself as untouchable. Credit where credit is due.”

“You made the right choice.” The Bloodhound simply stated, but as for what the specific choice was, that particular detail was unclear.

The Bloodhound cackled at Zinde’s remarks. “Oh you have so many expectations of other people, don’t you?” He retorted mockingly. “Unfortunately, I exceed your expectations— better yet, I shatter them.” A black smoke rose from his body, swirling around the area and between the crew that Zinde had brought with her. In the blink of an eye, the smoke solidified into identical copies of the Bloodhound, one for each extra crewmember; which the duplicates immediately began swinging at violently. “Worry about yourself. It’s all you ever do anyway.”

The black and red energy coiled around the Bloodhound again, this time with ferocity far beyond what had come before, and strength rose from within him. “They say that taking up this line of work is to abandon oneself entirely. On the contrary, I’ve been finding exactly who I should be. Exactly who I am. It’s surprising, to a point, actually.”

The Bloodhound’s brown hair stood on end, turning upwards in a wild and jagged fashion, turning into an all consuming jet black. The red details on his outfit became golden as his muscle mass increased. The lights in his masks’ ocular display became silver. “It turns out that objectifying people, using them as tools and forcing them into servitude is something that really pisses me off.”

Zhalla’s transformation had completed, and Zinde gave a command... To no avail. Zhalla did not respond even when Zinde made the same demand a second time. “Oh, you know, I helped out a little bit. Isn’t it obvious?” He sneered as Zinde fumbled for the remote, The Bloodhound honed in on her, aiming to use his weapon to violently crush the device alongside the hand that went to grab it. “I’d normally suggest that you pick a god and pray... But they won’t hear you either. So save your breath for screaming when you get torn in half.”

Formulating a plan, the transformed bounty hunter figured that exposure to his abilities might not completely grant Zhalla full control of herself under such short notice. However, it was quite possible that he could give her fury direction. After all, someone very deserving of her ire was right in front of her. With a mighty howl, the Bloodhound made his aura explode outwards, directing his strange abilities towards Zhalla, to see if he could do just that.

“Sure, lets just ignore that you’ve been getting antsy and fidgety without what you see as a weapon to order around.” The Bloodhound shrugged, also unfazed by what Zinde had been saying.

Resting his weapon on his shoulders for a moment, the Bloodhound scoffed derisively at Zinde’s further commentary. “Cut the shit, ya lousy bitch. If you were actually anything close to being a real mother for anyone...” He snarled. “Then she wouldn’t be suffering like this, and you would have raised her right. Go fuck yourself.”

It was at that moment that he destroyed the remote that Zinde was fumbling for, taking her hand along with it too. The Bloodhound really enjoyed that satisfying crunch. “Hah. Wow, desperate and fearful is a good look on you. She can come after me if she wants to once you’re a crimson stain on the grass. At least then I’ll have a challenge.” He leaned over to get right in Zinde’s face. “I told you, save your breath for screaming in pain.”

After having ‘directed’ Zhalla in some way by giving her some level of focus, the Bloodhound backed away to allow Zhalla to do whatever the hell she wanted. He heard the fear in Zinde’s voice too, and he couldn’t help but cackle a bit. “Undoing the damage you’ve done to her will take time, so I’m improvising a little bit. Why act so high and mighty now, hm? You’re just mad that you have no control now. Anyway... That fear of yours. It’s Music to my ears. Go ahead and crescendo now, won’t you?”

“By making things worse? Ok.” The Bloodhound scoffed. Maybe her birth parents weren’t great, especially if they were potentially Vegetan loyalists or something, but they weren’t here, Zinde was.

With a chuckle, the Bloodhound made a mock facepalm gesture. “Wow. Just wow. You’re actually gonna die mad, and that’s so funny to me.” His track record was good, exceptional even, but there was a reason for that, and most people seemed to like overlooking it. “I pick the biggest wins, you know this, right.” In some cases it wasn’t just about the money either, some of his greatest works were with rebellions against tyrants. “Or maybe you overlooked it?”

The Bloodhounds duplicate force eventually bashed in the skulls of nearly every complete Zinde loyalist, those that followed her by choice, only a few remained alive at this point. The only ones being non-lethally held off were fearful followers, young folks that didn’t actually want to do the things that she told them to.

Meanwhile, Zhalla pushed her advantage against Zinde, it was clear that the older Saiyan had no chance at all here. Still, Zinde couldn’t leave this mortal coil without one last venomously insidious comment. The Bloodhound watched on, unflinchingly so. Even with that moment of hesitation on Zhalla’s part, Zinde had more than sealed her own fate— her ultimate end only wound up being worse for her. “Good riddance.”

Moments afterward, Zhalla pounced on one of Zinde’s crew, one of her remaining devout followers. The Bloodhound reacted quickly by commanding their duplicates to grapple the ones that were only fearfully following Zinde, at which point both the copies and those that were grappled would seemingly disappear in a smoky black mist.

As for the remaining willing followers of Zinde, well, their skulls were deemed unnecessary, and crushed beneath the duplicated weapons of the Bloodhounds clone armada. Once the remaining forces were dealt with, the clones would all dissipate.

Zhalla stared at the Bloodhound, giving him no emotion, which was far different to the concern in his own voice. “I can’t even begin to imagine the agony you’ve been through. But it ends today. Take the stage, Rockstar, come get some.” He swung his weapon around once more and pointed it towards her.

Zinde’s crew was dealt with one way or another and she herself was atomized by volatile anguish of her own making. A foreboding silence fell upon this Namekian forest clearing, after all that had happened, it came back to the two that started it all, the two that would finish things here and now.

The Bloodhound’s gaze was trained directly on Zhalla. It didn’t seem like she heard him, but he knew that she could. If Zinde of all people could speak directly to her and get a response, however gruesome, then surely she was still capable of hearing. However, listening, as the Bloodhound knew, was very different from hearing though.

“Such empty eyes... Heh. We aren’t too different then, you and I.” He sighed slightly, still intending to fight all the same. “Let’s see what you’ve got.” Even if he gestured for her to come at him, she probably didn’t care. He was the last person here so he was the target of her rage and sadness. The Bloodhound tossed his weapon like a laser beam upwards into the clouds above which became darker, starting to give off a thunderous rumble.

In response to her attack, he swung his arms around in a circle, creating a dark red and black wall of pressure, a condense kiai of sorts that soaked up a fair amount of the energy and force of her attack as she pushed him back before the barrier dissipated, what remained of her striking power clipped one of his shoulders. A solid hit, but not enough to take him down. “Goin’ for the heart already? Wheeewie, why don’cha slow down, huh? We haven’t even had that juice bar date yet!”