The Horror of Emptiness                                                                                                                                     Reda

Chapter Seven: Psyfoam’s First Lesson

Now you know Psyfoam. You’ve met the most evil guy in space. You probably think he’s crazy, because he is, but he is also a genius. You don’t believe me? Well, look at how he wants control of Goku, wanting to make Goku just like Vee and Reda, who have lost their personal freedom and true lives. Still don’t believe me? Well, then read on. By all means, read on and discover the truth for yourself.

--------------------

“Krillin, tell me again. What happened?”

Krillin sighed as he recounted the day’s past surprises for the sixth time. Gohan obviously couldn’t believe it was true that his dad had actually failed against two kids. “Me and Goku were going to go outside to train, but we were dealing with Chi-Chi. So, Goten was the first one to notice the strange powers. We ran outside and it took about two minutes before Goku pinpointed their position.

“The two kids looked like Saiyans to me, but your father denied it. I didn’t see a monkey tail on either of them, so I’m not sure if Goku was right or not. But I swear, the boy could have passed as Vegeta’s brother and I wouldn’t have doubted it. The girl had Goku’s hairdo, but nothing else to really say she was related.

“After they asked us if we had seen some kid they were looking for, the boy got ready to fight. Goku told us to leave him to fight alone. Goten and me argued with him, but Goku got his way. After that, I‘m not sure what happened. All I know is that the boy seemed real excited about fighting Goku, but the girl acted as if she really didn’t want to be there but had no choice.”

“Had no choice?” Gohan asked with skepticism. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, it’s kind of hard to explain. It’s like she had this strange feeling of—I don’t know—‘unsureness.’ Not to mention that her eyes seemed unfocused, but she sure seemed focused on her mission.”

Goten stopped him, noticing Gohan’s boredom. “Krillin, Krillin, that’s enough.”

“Okay, I guess you don’t want me to start clearing her name...”

Gohan was enraged. “Clearing her name? Krillin, those kids took my father to some evil monster! We don’t have any idea where they are, or even if my father’s still alive!”

“Gohan!” Krillin yelled out, his eyes wide with surprise.

Goten leaned against the wall of the Son house, and did his best to stop the unhappy tears that wanted to come. “Gohan, what if you’re right? We can’t even sense Dad anymore. Maybe it is true.” Goten slid down the wall into the grass, keeping his head down. “Where’s my Dad?”

--------------------

“Reda, what’s going on? I can’t see anything that far away,” Vee complained.

Reda sighed, opening her eyes. “Vee, shouldn’t you be using this opportunity to train your sensing power? There may come a time when I won’t to be able to tell you what I see.”

Vee waved it off, “Yeah right, like that would ever happen. Enough with the lectures. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Fine,” Reda said, giving up the argument with Vee. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the two powers. It didn’t take long for a picture of the two warriors to appear in her head. Using her sensing powers, Reda could really see the big picture, and she could watch whomever she wanted to. All she had to do was concentrate on their power level and a picture would form in her mind. “Vee, nothing’s really happening. Master’s just talking, I guess.”

“Oh man! I hate talking. I wish Psyfoam would get the fight going. This is so boring.”

“Vee!” Reda was incredulous.

“What?” Vee asked, not sure what he did wrong.

“You address him as ‘Master.’ Remember that first lesson he gave us. Now, don’t call him by anything else again, or he could possibly kill you because we’ve already learned that lesson. If you disobey Master, he’ll be after you, and neither one of us wants that. Remember last time.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Vee stated, remembering all too well the pain that went with his Master’s lessons. He did not want to go through that again.

--------------------

“Goku, you are beginning to get on my nerves,” Psyfoam stated, his voice taking on an edge. “You must lower your levels to normal to train with me.”

“But I told you I don’t want to train with you,” Goku objected, his confusion turning into agitation.

Psyfoam clenched and unclenched his fists. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Clench, unclench; breathe in, breathe out; calm down. “Goku, it’s not a matter of what you want. I’ve already decided your future. All you have to do is agree with me and willingly let me train you, and I’ll gladly skip out on the first lesson. However, if you continue to deny your training with me, I’ll be forced to teach you a lesson that many have to learn and most never survive.”

Goku shook his head, his long golden hair waving back and forth. Before his next breath, Psyfoam was dangerously close to him. Goku froze when he felt one of Psyfoam’s energy blasts gathering by his heart. The black blast continued to grow, singing his orange fighting uniform, and causing smoke to rise up.

Goku wasn’t going to let this blast go any further. Deciding that his Super Saiyan 3 powers would do what he wanted, Goku launched his right fist at Psyfoam’s head. It was blocked by the evil being’s left hand, which clenched into Goku’s, holding him fast. The well known Saiyan hero took his left fist and aimed for Psyfoam’s gut, but it was blocked by a third had, showing itself for the first time.

As the black blast continued to grow, Psyfoam dug his fingernails into the flesh on Goku’s hands. The Saiyan had to bite back a scream that wanted to protrude from his lips. As the blast grew bigger, Goku bit back the pain that went with his burning flesh and kicked his left leg at Psyfoam. This time a tail that showed itself for the first time stopped him. It was a skinny black tail that wrapped around his left leg and held it there. Another tail came out of Psyfoam’s black cape, and, not even waiting like the others, wrapped around his right ankle, holding him fast. Goku was now in trouble. If he didn’t think of something fast Psyfoam would win.

“Don’t even get started on that, Goku. I’m not finished yet.” Another hand showed itself from within Psyfoam’s cape, and Goku drew back, or at least tried to, when the hand started gathering energy right in front of his face. Goku began to struggle—what else could he do—when he felt a burning pain on his chest as the blast began to rip through the flesh. Psyfoam laughed at Goku’s tedious tries to break free. “You see, Goku. I’m much stronger than you. Even if you were to find a Super Saiyan 5 I’d still beat you. I’m the strongest warrior alive, and you will call me Master.”

“No, I won’t,” Goku said through clenched teeth.

Psyfoam smiled, having expected this. “Well, then I’ll have to show you more. I warned you though, Goku. As long as you deny me as your master I’ll have to put you through pain.”

Goku felt Psyfoam’s grip on his hands tighten. He almost bit his tongue off when Psyfoam’s nails went through his hands. He could feel the blood running out of his hands where Psyfoam’s black nails had pushed through to his palms. Then, he felt his feet go numb when Psyfoam’s tails stopped the blood from circulating to his feet. That was an uncomfortable feeling, not being able to feel his feet, which he knew were there. Then, there were the two balls of energy that Psyfoam had created. The one in front of his face was just barely grazing his nose and forehead. The one on his chest was the one that hurt the most. The energy ball had grown to cover his whole chest and a forth of it was making its way into his flesh. He would feel that loss of blood for sure.

With all of this going on at once, Goku couldn’t stop his scream any longer. When he screamed out in pain, he was only partly surprised to hear Psyfoam’s laugh. “So, Goku, who’s your master?”

Goku could barely hear his own words through his screaming, but he was certain Psyfoam could hear it. “Not you!”

 After yelling that Goku realized how surprised Psyfoam was. The evil being sucked his energy back in and let go of his grip on Goku’s bleeding hands. Because he was so exhausted, Goku fell back, but found that he was hanging upside down. He could feel blood returning to he feet, which meant Psyfoam must have loosened his tail grip somewhat. Only after thirty seconds of hanging there did Goku realized how quiet it had become. He could hear his own hazardous breathing. When he opened his eyes, Goku couldn’t see anything, which meant he had gone back to normal because the light of the Super Saiyan should have been enough to allow him to see something. Only, it wasn’t there so he knew he had gone down to his normal state.

“No one’s ever...” Psyfoam’s surprised voice whispered. “No one’s ever done that. Not even Vee and Reda...” After two minutes of complete silence Psyfoam spoke again. “Oh well, I’ll just have to continue.” Psyfoam took his two tails and wrapped them around Goku’s neck, therefore making the Saiyan eye to eye with him. “You will call me master, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make you do so.”