"Hmph."
At Turles's arrogant offer, Rhode's expression shifted to one of profound, almost comical strangeness. He gave the other Saiyan a look that was equal parts pity and bemusement.
"I am not Kakarot. I am Son Goku!" Goku stated firmly, his voice leaving no room for negotiation. He rejected the offer outright, his loyalty to Earth and his fury over Gohan overriding any flicker of racial solidarity.
"Fools!" Turles's smile vanished, replaced by incandescent rage. Rhode's silent, mocking look was an insult. Goku's blunt refusal was treason. His patience, thin at the best of times, evaporated. He would crush them both.
"Lord Turles! No need for you to dirty your hands. Leave these two to me!" A booming voice interrupted Turles's gathering power. A massive, red-skinned brute with a fierce face and a ridiculous braid lumbered forward—Amond, Turles's strongest and dimmest lieutenant, a former galactic convict.
As Amond spoke, four more figures materialized, forming a loose circle around Goku and Rhode. There was Daiz, handsome and smug in a Frieza Force battle suit; Kakao, a silent, abstract sculpture of red metal; and the Strategist Twins, two squat, grayish-brown creatures who looked like mutated Saibamen. These were Turles's "Crusher Corps."
The fact they were all here, unopposed, meant Krillin, Tien, Piccolo, and the others had been subdued or were fighting a desperate rear-guard action elsewhere.
"Amond's right, Lord Turles! Leave them to us!" Daiz chimed in, a confident smirk on his face. The previous fights had been too easy. These two new Saiyans promised more sport.
They advanced, predatory grins widening. "The last bunch put up a bit of a fight, but they were nothing in the end. Let's see how long you two last!"
Beep-beep-beep-beep!
Habit took over. Multiple scouters were activated, lenses focusing on the two targets. The digital readouts flickered, settled, and then...
Silence.
For a heartbeat, the Crushers just stared at their wrist displays.
Then, uproarious laughter shattered the quiet. Amond laughed so hard he doubled over, tears streaming from his eyes as he pointed a meaty finger at Rhode. "T-Two... two battle power?! Hahahaha! Are you here as a joke?!"
Rhode's eye twitched. A profound sense of speechlessness washed over him. Does it never occur to you that a reading this low might be... inaccurate?
Goku, however, didn't laugh. He looked at Rhode, his eyes widening with dawning realization and shock. Turles, too, remained silent, a frown creasing his brow. An adult Saiyan with a battle power of 2 was a biological impossibility. Something was very wrong.
Just then, one of the Strategist Twins, who had been scanning Goku, let out a sharp gasp. "T-Twenty thousand! His power is over twenty thousand!"
"Twenty thousand?!" The laughter died instantly, replaced by alarmed stares at Goku. That was far beyond Amond's own power. The dynamic shifted abruptly.
"All together! Take him down!" the Twins shrieked, their tactical minds overriding shock. They couldn't back down now. Goku was the clear and present danger.
As one, the Crusher Corps—Amond, Daiz, Kakao, and the Twins—surged towards Goku, their energies flaring. In their focused assault, the strange Saiyan with the "2" battle power was completely, utterly ignored. A non-factor. A rounding error.
The Strategist Twins, however, kept a fraction of their attention on Rhode. Their instincts screamed that something about him was off, even if their machines said otherwise.
Left standing alone as the battle erupted around Goku, Rhode sighed internally. It seemed he would have to demonstrate why relying solely on scouters was a very, very bad idea.
Therefore, erring on the side of caution, they signaled the others to eliminate him as well!
Sensing the shift in attention and the gathering malevolent intent from the Crusher Corps, Rhode didn't move a muscle. He merely swept his gaze over them—a look as casual as scanning a grocery list.
BOOM!
Before the Strategist Twins could even twitch a muscle, their squat bodies simultaneously detonated. There was no beam, no visible attack. One moment they were signaling for an attack; the next, they were twin clouds of expanding gray dust, disintegrating into the wind.
The abrupt, silent annihilation froze the remaining three—Amond, Daiz, and Kakao—in their tracks. Their shock was absolute. In their minds, only the 20,000+ power-level Saiyan, Goku, could have possibly done this. Their wide, fearful eyes locked onto him.
BOOM!
Before Goku could even process what had happened, the mountainous Amond exploded. No warning. No buildup. One second a hulking brute, the next a fine, red mist settling over the shattered ground.
"This... this is..." Daiz stammered, his princely composure shattered. He and Kakao scrambled backward, putting as much distance as they could between themselves and the terrifying Son Goku.
BOOM!
Distance was meaningless. Daiz, the handsome warrior in the crisp battle suit, met the same fate. His body burst apart in a shower of gore, leaving nothing but a stain on the earth.
"AHHHHH!!!"
Kakao, the red-metal android, his logic circuits overloading with terror, broke. He didn't try to fight. He turned and fled, jets igniting at his feet as he shot into the sky. He wouldn't stay in this slaughterhouse for another nanosecond.
"Hmph!"
A contemptuous snort cut through the air. It wasn't from Goku or Rhode. Turles, his face a mask of cold fury, raised a hand. A searing beam of energy lanced out.
BANG!
The fleeing Kakao was vaporized mid-air, his special alloy body offering no more resistance than paper to Turles's blast. Scorched metal fragments rained down.
In the span of a few heartbeats, Turles's entire elite Crusher Corps had been wiped from existence.
"You," Turles's voice was low, gravelly with suppressed rage and dawning understanding. His eyes, sharp and deadly, were fixed not on Goku, but on Rhode. "It was you who acted just now, wasn't it?"
Facing Turles's grim accusation, Rhode simply shrugged, a picture of nonchalant indifference. "Originally, I couldn't be bothered with such weaklings. But they aimed at me first. I merely returned the gesture. Slightly."
This guy...!
Goku's heart hammered against his ribs. The casual tone, the utter lack of effort, the instant, incomprehensible destruction of four powerful warriors... He took an involuntary step back, putting a few more meters of space between himself and the enigmatic, terrifying Saiyan who had just saved his son. The danger, he realized, might not be coming solely from Turles.