Statue of Limitations

Just when all hope seemed lost, when it seemed as though Tulse's final gambit would amount to nothing and she'd be trapped in the caverns until she slowly withered away, a voice echoed down from the opening she had just blasted through the rock. That voice... Zuqetta's?! The Queen herself was coming to rescue her? Ah, crap, that just made this whole affair even more embarrassing than it already had been. How was she going to explain to the Queen that some wrinkly old bastard had experimented on her and kidnapped her squad?

Still, this was a net positive - if someone as important as the Queen was responsible for her rescue, surely she'd have the resources to figure out how to cure her. To hell with what Yangcong had said about the affliction being incurable! They'd... Figure something out, somehow. In the meantime, Zuqetta had been doing something awfully loud in her attempts to get down into the caverns to where Tulse was, until, finally, an orb of incredible power shook through the ceiling of the cave, nearly blinding Tulse with its sudden and dazzling light!

She wanted to shut her eyes, though her eyelids were too frozen solid to obey, forcing her to simply wait until Zuqetta rescinded the brilliant orb and came down to greet Tulse herself, with sunlight now flickering down onto the decrepit lab through the newly bored entrance. If Tulse were capable of doing so, she'd certainly have let out a sigh of relief as the Queen stood next to her and frantically checked if she was okay.

Unfortunately, though, short of moving her eyes around, which was still something Tulse could only barely manage to do, no other part of her body responded to any attempts to move it. Not even her vocal chords. This meant that she had no way of actually communicating her predicament to Zuqetta... The hell was she supposed to do now? She was, at least, able to flick her eyes over towards the Queen to meet her gaze, but communicating through strained eye movement wasn't exactly going to be easy.

And if she wasn't able to communicate anything to Zuqetta... How were they supposed to figure out how to get her out of this predicament?

'Gross?' What? Oh god, did Tulse really look that disgusting? Tulse hadn't been able to see herself, obviously, so her actual physical condition was a complete mystery to her. And it wasn't like she could feel anything, either - had she been bisected? Diced up into pieces? Had Yangcong carved her heart out and left it on her chest for whoever found her? Did his virus simply slow her bloodflow and metabolism enough that she wouldn't die from her wounds immediately, but was doomed all the same? 

...No, apparently Zuqetta hadn't even meant her when she'd said 'gross,' which was reassuring, but Tulse did have to wonder what had startled her so.

Tulse could see Zuqetta doing something with a prod out of the corner of her eye, though the Queen quickly shrank back in horror yet again, prompting further worry from Tulse. She desperately wanted to ask Zuqetta what the hell had just happened, but couldn't. This was agonizing! How was she going to explain any of this? She had so much important information to relay, even if she was doomed. If she could spill the beans on Yangcong and his plans, then at least her death wouldn't be for nothing!

As Tulse grappled with these thoughts and feelings of helplessness, suddenly, a voice popped into her head. And, for the first time ever, it wasn't her own voice. "What the hell?" Tulse thought back as Zuqetta's high-pitched tones finished echoing through the recesses of her mind. "How are you doing that? Uh, yeah, I can hear you! And I'm still alive, but I don't think I've got long. Listen, Yangcong's the one who did this to me. He killed the rest of my squad and took their bodies somewhere, then left me here like this!" Tulse rapidly fired off as much information as she could, fearing that if she didn't speak now, she'd never get the chance to again.

"I don't know where he took them, but he's here, somewhere on Plant! This cave is one of his labs!"

It seemed Tulse had certainly sparked something in Zuqetta - anger, mainly - at the mention of Yangcong's name. Zuqetta's power began to swell, rising so great and suddenly that it caused the very cavern they were in to start trembling! "Whoa, whoa, calm down!" Tulse mentally urged the Queen, though she couldn't be so sure their mental link was still established. She sure hoped it was, though. Luckily, Zuqetta calmed down on her own after a moment or two, halting her rise in power before it could bring the entire cavern down on Tulse's head.

A moment later, a Tuffle scientist under Zuqetta's employ approached the two of them, and while Tulse didn't really understand most of the science mumbo jumbo they were spouting off, there was one thing she picked up on. "I'll turn into a WHAT?!" she exclaimed internally. A tree?! No, no, she was very much fine with her Saiyan form. She absolutely did not want to see it crystallize into a giant plant! How was she supposed to go and kick Yangcong's ass if she was just some immobile tree? "No, I do NOT want to turn into a tree!" she quickly declared to Zuqetta as she was asked about her own feelings on the matter.

It did feel kind of nice when those heating pads were placed upon her, though - Tulse may not have been able to feel much in her current state, but the warmth just about managed to seep through the cold. "Ah yeah, more of that stuff!" Tulse thought with delight, basking in the first pleasant sensation she'd felt in over a week. "So, uh, you guys gonna get me out of hee, then? If I'm not immediately dying, I should probably get to like, a hospital... Oh, and I've got to fill you in on as much stuff about Yangcong as I can! He's dangerous, and he's definitely plotting something! People could be in danger!"

Softening the ice? They could do that? Maybe Tulse wasn't quite as screwed as she thought. ...Well, she still seemed pretty screwed, all things considered, but it was a tiny glimmer of hope in a situation that had been pretty bleak up until this point. With the heating pads applied and working their magic, Tulse found herself able to twitch her fingers slightly, and even curl up her toes a little bit, though she found any larger movements to still be an impossibility. She sure hoped this wasn't the best their medical science could do...

And the fact that one of Zuqetta's guys was warning her about how easily things like her nose and ears could snap off was... Concerning. "Of course I heard him!" Tulse worriedly thought back to Zuqetta. Tulse wasn't gonna move an inch if she could help it. Those rescue guys were just gonna have to hoist her on the stretcher themselves! And, to their credit, they did a pretty decent job of it once they had arrived, with the squad very carefully lifting her off her bed and lowering her into a specialized medical stretcher. Tulse barely felt a thing, too - though that was probably just the numbness being caused by the virus.

As she was being carried off, Tulse figured now was as good a time as any to dump all her thoughts into Zuq's mind, since that was apparently a thing she could do now. "Anyway - my squad. He took 'em off somewhere! I don't know where, but you gotta get your guys to start searching for them, too. I know some of those guys, and they've got families, little ones back home. I don't want em to..." Tulse paused and mentally sighed. Yangcong had already torn apart a big chunk of her own family - she couldn't stand to think that he had just torn apart a good few others.

"I wish I could tell you more about what he did to me, but all he said was that it hails from some lost civilization on another planet or something. And he triggered it by just placing some dumbass blue flower on me. Hell if I know how that works." Just one of many, many mysteries about the war criminal and his workings. She hated to think what he could do with something like that if he weaponized it more, though...

"And, uh," Tulse paused for a moment, then continued, "If I don't make it out of this situation... My wife - well, she's not my wife, legally, but I call her that cause she rolls her eyes at it and it's kinda cute - anyway, her name's Tzan, and she's gonna be worried sick if she doesn't hear from me soon. Can you uh, let her know? What happened, I mean. She's got a right to know. We've got a kid together - I mean he's not my kid, but I'm helping raise him - so I don't want to leave her in the dark, is all." Tulse felt like she was stumbling over herself quite a bit, but hopefully Zuqetta got the gist of it, more or less. "Not that a Queen owes anything to some common soldier, anyway. So if you can't, I get it. It'd just mean a lot, is all."

As Tulse was being ferried off on her stretcher, still a practically still statue, she listened intently as Zuqetta began to apologize for her reaction to any criticisms she'd been offered during their previous encounter. Well... it was good to hear that they were square, at least. Zuqetta's hand on Tulse's cheek was a welcome warmth as well - it reminded her of something Tzan probably would have done, had she found Tulse in a similar situation. Maybe Zuqetta did have her own merits as well, here and there. She'd certainly come in clutch with this whole rescue operation, after all. Tulse likely would've lived out a few months as a statue in that cave, before succumbing to the illness and becoming a tree. Now that was a fate she considered worse than death.

"Yeah, I'll see 'em both again," Tulse replied through their mental link, affirming to herself that she'd pull through this and be just fine. As for their little disagreement before... "Eh, don't worry 'bout it. You're pretty young to have all that stuff on you shoulders. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna take it that easy on you - someone's gotta make sure you're being the best Queen the Saiyans can have!" Tulse felt she was coming from a good place, at least. She just wanted to be sure the Saiyans had a strong, diligent leader who wasn't afraid to do what was necessary to keep the Kingdom strong.

And her team... "Yeah, I uh," Tulse slowly replied, "I know. The guy's a monster. He'll pay for it, though - I'll see to it that he does, even if it costs me my life." But what about the lives of those around her? Was that something she'd be willing to sacrifice to see him pay for his misdeeds? Tulse briefly thought about Tzan and Yacai getting caught in the crossfire, but brushed the concerns aside. She'd make sure she was the only one being put in danger when it came to her quests for revenge. Yangcong, Lottus, and all the other bastards she needed to kill would never even know her partner and their child existed.

Weakly and slowly, Tulse formed a hand into a return thumbs up for Zuqetta, though she couldn't quite form a complete fist. Hopefully Zuqetta got the message as Tulse was handed over to the proper medical evac team. She held still - not that she could move much anyway - as the medics began to examine her, though from here on out, it was all in their hands. Tulse didn't like the fact that she was hearing the word 'Destron' come up here and there as they were discussing how to treat her, though...

Thread concluded!
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