JB: Chapter 11

Fentara Rrab turned out to be a bearded, wiry, Graxosian. He was clearly older, with streaks of whitish-gray in his blonde beard and shaggy hair that showed his age. However, with age came experience, especially when you'd been wielding a Power Ring for most of your adult life. Fentara Rrab was definitely not someone to take lightly, as the ease with which he took Arkillo into custody showed. Aside from that, he was a fairly typical member of the Graxosian Race, with their orange skin tone and pointed elf-like ears. If it weren't for the clear skill on display when forming constructs and the power ring itself, you could have mistaken him for someone unexceptional.

Arkillo, meanwhile, had regenerated enough to put up a struggle, of course. One of the reasons that he'd been kept stunned while on board the Nth Talon. Nobody wanted to deal with a Rampaging Arkillo while in transit, after all. He woke as we transferred him to Fentara Rrab's Custody and immediately began to struggle against his bonds. The alloy metal creaking as the manacles that Shayera and Company used weren't made of Nth Metal. He'd almost managed to free himself when a green light from Fentara Rrab's Power Ring enveloped Arkillo, wrapping him up in a construct of a hard-light straightjacket.

Try as he might, Arkillo couldn't so much as put a single tear in the construct, even with his formidable strength. It was a testament to the indomitable will of Fentara Rrab and the experience he had using it with his Power Ring. Honestly, it was sort of intimidating to see. I couldn't get why these guys had to step lightly around the Arcosians. Then I remembered that Frieza was worth around eighty-thousand Arkillos in terms of power at one hundred percent power in his final form and immediately figured out why.

"A Saiyan?" Questioned Fentara Rrab, drawing me out of my thoughts.

"Rugulo is a member of our crew." Nodded Shayera.

"Saiyans tend to be bloodthirsty. Usually, they're more suited to Piracy than Bounty Hunting." Mused Fentara Rrab.

"I'm right here. Don't talk about me like I'm not here." I grumbled.

"So you are. Tell me, Rugulo, why choose bounty hunting?" Queried Fentara Rrab.

"It seemed like a decent way to make Credits while facing off against strong opponents." I shrugged.

"Is that so?" Asked Fentara Rrab.

"Yeah. Besides, it's not like a Saiyan has to blow up planets or something to get our kicks. Especially not now." I shrugged.

"I suppose not. I can't say most of the universe didn't rejoice on hearing what happened to Planet Vegeta, though. Your people weren't exactly known for such restraint." Mused Fentara Rrab.

"I'm not like most of my people." I huffed.

"Rugulo might be just a Kid, but he's sharp as a tack. He's helped me with a couple projects of mine." Offered Tros Karn.

"He's got a good eye for star charts, too." Added Darl Veld.

"Rugulo is a valued member of my Crew. We literally couldn't have taken in Arkillo without him." Finished Shayera.

As the crew came to my defense, I felt something deep in my chest. I don't know whether it was happiness, pride, or some combination of the two, but seeing how accepted I was by Shayera and Company definitely gave me a Warm, Fuzzy, Feeling inside. It felt good in a way that appealed more to my Human Mind than my Saiyan Instincts.

"Is that so?" Questioned Fentara Rrab.

"I don't know if I'd go that far. The Captain helped." I shrugged.

"Modesty is a rare quality in a Saiyan." Smirked Fentara Rrab.

"Like I said, I'm not your average Saiyan. I was raised by Monks of the Monastery of the Great Kha'zro at the Summit of Wine-Fruit Mountain on Suirpalam." I pointed out.

"Is that why you have no tail?" Queried Fentara Rrab.

"Abbot Sri'kayal had it removed. It was more trouble than it was worth." I nodded.

"What's with all the questions?" Asked Shayera.

"Yeah, you're not thinking of taking Rugulo, are you?" Questioned Tros Karn.

"He hasn't done anything to warrant that!" Added Darl Veld.

"It's not that." Insisted Fentara Rrab.

"Then what is it?" Queried Shayera.

"I have standing orders to evaluate all Saiyan Remnants I come across to see if they're a threat to Universal Peace and Stability. The Guardians are afraid that the remaining Saiyans might do something drastic after being pushed to the brink." Admitted Fentara Rrab.

"And? Are you going to take me in too?" I asked.

"Nobody's taking you anywhere, Kid." Insisted Tros Karn.

"Not if we have anything to say about it." Confirmed Darl Veld.

"Yeah, if you're planning to capture Rugulo as well, you'll have to go through us." Warned Shayera.

"That won't be necessary. He's one of the few we've come across that seem to be no threat to Universal Stability." Informed Fentara Rrab.

"There are others?" I questioned.

"Would you be interested to know that the Corps has come across four other remaining Saiyans?" Queried Fentara Rrab.

"Five?" I asked.

"Three were captured fairly early on, about a year after the destruction of Planet Vegeta. Kaper, Fenle, and Jinja had been attacking merchant vessels going to and from the Formgalt Trading Outpost in Sector Eighteen-Eighteen. Kaper, their Leader, was about two and a half times as strong as you are right now." Informed Fentara Rrab.

"That's Mid-Class." I frowned.

"Indeed. Lantern Kilowog himself decided to take down that team to prove a point to the new recruits. That even those with the power to destroy planets are not above the law." Nodded Fentara Rrab.

"I guess." I huffed.

"The other the Corps has come across was like you. Prince Tarble of the House of Vegeta who was only one and a half times as strong as you are now. He had settled down on Planet Vine in the Unknown Sectors where he was in training to become its Protector. He still has a ways to go, however, but with the Locals' technology, it won't be long till they build him a Gravity Training Device. That should speed things along nicely." Explained Fentara Rrab.

"Huh. I guess more of my people escaped than I thought." I mused.

"At the Guardians' last count, there were no less than thirty Saiyans who escaped the destruction of Planet Vegeta. Of those, three are in captivity, four have been slain, and three are working for Frieza and the Planet Trade Organization Still, leaving eighteen unaccounted for, aside from you and Prince Tarble. It's enough that they're concerned about Rogue Elements." Intoned Fentara Rrab.

"I see. That's more than I thought there would be." I remarked.

It was true. At best, I thought there would be eight Saiyans out there in the Universe aside from myself. Goku, Vegeta, Nappa, Raditz, Turles, Tarble, Paragus, and Broly were about all that I had been expecting to survive. To hear that there were others as well? I honestly wasn't sure how to feel about that. I knew I should have expected it, given what Escargon had said about killing Saiyans previously. I wonder if Frieza knew? He had to know about at least some of these, though I knew others would have escaped his notice like Goku, Broly, Tarble, and Paragus canonically had.

Should I be happy about that? Sad? Proud? Angry? All of the above? More Saiyans tended to mean more problems. After all, guys like Goku, Tarble, and Myself were the exception, not the rule, when it came to Saiyans. On the other hand, that was more of my people that had survived Frieza's Purge than any other Alternate Universe out there that I'd heard of. On the Gripping Hand, I suppose it didn't much matter in the grand scheme of things either way. I would either run into them and deal with the Other Saiyans on an individual basis or I wouldn't. It wasn't as if I could exactly go looking for them, after all. The Nth Talon wasn't my ship, it was Shayera's.

"I can see you have a lot to think about. In the meantime, I have to get Arkillo to a Science Cell back on Oa." Announced Fentara Rrab, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"What about our payment?" Demanded Shayera.

"Check your accounts. The Guardians have already credited you the Bounty the second I took custody of Arkillo." Smirked Fentara Rrab.

"That Power Ring's a pretty nifty piece of tech, huh?" Chuckled Tros Karn.

"You don't know the half of it." Grinned Fentara Rrab.

And with that, the Green Lantern of Sector Two-Eight-One-Five took off into flight, Arkillo's Captured Form trailing behind him like the tail of some sort of green-glowing comet. I watched as he flew up high into the atmosphere, disappearing when he reached orbit into whatever advanced FTL Travel the Green Lantern Power Rings used. It certainly wasn't fold-space, as there was no Fold-Space Portal that appeared. He was just there one second, glowing like a beacon lined in green, and then gone the next. I shook my head, deciding to puzzle out the inner workings of the most powerful piece of tech in the universe some other time in favor of checking the account that Shayera had set up for me.

Sure enough, my share of the Ten Million Oan Credits that the Bounty on Arkillo was worth had already been deposited into my account. The Guardians moved fast it seemed, which was somewhat counter to what I knew of them, but then there were times even in the Canon DCU that they moved quickly. True, those times tended to be when they were fucking up, but I supposed that when you had a system of Bounty Hunters out there in the Wider Universe, it behooves you to pay on time for bounties if you wanted that system to continue.

Of course, that didn't answer the pertinent question about our next steps. We'd just completed a major bounty, after all. Did we dive straight into the next one? If so, where did we go to pick up such a bounty? Was there a Bounty Office nearby to do that from? I gave voice to these questions, though the reply I got from Shayera wasn't exactly what I had been expecting. I probably should have, though, given her personality.

"What now?" I questioned.

"You want to know what we do now?" Queried Shayera.

"That's what I said, isn't it?" I asked, frowning.

"Now? We celebrate!" Grinned Shayera.

"All work and no play is a good way to burn yourself out, Kid." Grinned Tros Karn.

"Come on, I know a good bar around here from back when I was a recruit. Follow me!" Exclaimed Darl Veld.

As Darl Veld led us to this Bar he knew of, I reflected that it should have been obvious this was what was coming. Not every race could be so devoted to taking jobs interspersed with training as Saiyans were. I honestly think living among Monks for most of my life had given me a skewed sense of what the average person out in the Wider Universe was like. Regardless, this would set the stage for the next few years of my life. Bounty Jobs with Shayera's Crew interspersed with celebrations for a job well done, alongside training.

By the time that my term of service that I had negotiated was up, I would be a Decamillionaire in terms of Oan Credits, have turned thirteen years old, and gotten an Arcosian Power Level of Fourteen Thousand from training on the Czarnian Gravity Plates and multiple Zenkai. I would sign on for two more years with Shayera and crew, having Twenty Million Credits to my name and an Arcosian Power Level of Nineteen Thousand by the time I finally called it quits. Shayera and Company would drop me off in Sector Two-Eight-One-Four, on the world of Ungara the day after my fifteenth Birthday, where we would call it quits.

I had enough Oan Credits to buy myself a ship now, and I intended to do that in order to get to Earth. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the next chapter. This effectively ends what I am terming the Rugulo Maxiseries, which forms the effective Origin Story for Rugulo. He completes his first job, has a number of things set up for the future, and now gets to interact with the Wider Universe on his own without the rails of being part of Shayera's Bounty Hunter Crew telling him where to go and what to do.

Notably, he's now fifteen and will arrive on DC Earth around the time where Year One would begin in Post-Crisis Continuity. That essentially means that Rugulo will be a Teenage Hero at the same time that many of the founding Members of the Justice League are making their debuts. Of course, I plan on streamlining Post-Crisis Continuity Somewhat, similar to what I've done with Hench Life and Hero Life, though in this case, I will also be adding Dragonball Characters and things to the mix.

At any rate, the next chapter will effectively be issue one for Rugulo's Main Series, to put it in Comic Book terms.

Stay tuned. . .