Everything was happening in slow motion. A million thoughts were racing through my head and I couldn’t keep up with them. All of my senses were firing rapidly trying to take in what was happening. The door and wall that was behind Tyfoonica was no in thousands of pieces. I could see the particles of wood, glass, and drywall breaking apart, expanding, and coming straight at me and everyone else in the room followed by a giant ball of flame as the explosion came at me. I had no idea what caused the explosion, but I had been trained for this. I knew I wasn’t fast enough to outrun the blast, but I did have enough time to create a barrier around myself with my ki to shield me from the blast and minimize the damage I would take from the explosion. I focused hard and felt my ki leave my body and cling to my arms, legs, and the rest of my body creating an invisible field of ki around me, a force field.

As I prepared for the impact of the explosion, I saw Tyfoonica’s body being hurled toward me. I could feel his ki being dispersed around his body like mine, although the explosion had already made contact with his entire backside. Tyfoonica was a lot faster than I, even though he was much older than me, but he was so close to the explosion that he wasn’t able to create a barrier to protect himself until after the explosion hit him. The barrier he was making with his ki would give him some protection, but damage had already been done before he had gotten it up. I tried to duck out of the way so his body wouldn’t collide into mine. As I did this, my eyes made their way to the other side of the room where Troy and most of The Council members were. I could sense that Troy was also putting a barrier around himself, but I felt much more ki leaving him than Tyfoon and I. He was not only trying to protect himself, but the other council members as well. Most of The Council members were not skilled fighters. They were known for their diplomacy, not their fighting. If this explosion were to hit them without any protection, the chances are that several of them could die.

It seemed as if time was standing still, milliseconds seemed like hours. I didn’t even have time for my eyes to make their way back to Tyfoonica before I felt his body crashing into mine. I only had enough time to move slightly out of the way, but not enough to avoid a collision with Tyfoonica. His body barreled through my left side, knocking me off balance as he continued past me towards the wall behind me. I felt the force of the shockwave first, and immediately after the flames and debris from the explosion hit me full force. I flew backwards right behind Tyfoonica and crashed into the wall behind me, breaking through the wall like it was paper. The force of the blast pushed me back further like I was being hit by a train. On the other side of the wall was the main foyer for the conference center where hundreds of galactic leaders were still awaiting their meeting with The Council to reconvene. My eyes were tightly closed from the heat of the explosion, but I could feel the ki of all the people around me, and I knew that many of them were in the direct path of the explosion. There was no time for them to react; like most of The Council, they were mostly political diplomats, not warriors. They had no way to protect themselves from the explosion.

Just as I tried to focus my ki and slow my body down from the force of the explosion, my body screamed in pain as I crashed, head first, into a giant concrete support column in the foyer. My body came to an abrupt stop and crumbled against the column, which held its own against the force of the explosion. The barrier of ki I had created around my body had shielded me against most of the damage from the explosion, but the impact of my body, and particularly my head, against the concrete column had caught me by surprise and left me feeling somewhat dazed as I struggled to get to my feet. I tried to ignore the throbbing in my head and instead focus on my surroundings. The explosion had been so sudden and unexpected that it left me somewhat disoriented, and the blow to the head I had suffered multiplied that tenfold.

I looked around the foyer in horror. It was chaos. People were yelling and running in every direction. Their faces were clothed gray from the dust and debris that was thrown into the air by the explosion. They ran aimlessly, not knowing which way to go, tripping over the dozens of dead bodies that lay there, scattered across the floor.

I blinked hard and tried to shake off the fog that seemed to be clouding my mind from the blow I took to the head. A loud ringing was all I could hear; it seemed like the rest of the world was on mute. As I started to become less disoriented, I became aware that there were ki blasts burning through the air. Everything had happened so suddenly, I hadn’t had time to think about what may have caused the explosion. Just as I started to process that, I became distracted by something else: Tyfoonica. He had taken the brunt of the explosion to his back before he had gotten his ki field around his body. I looked around quickly. His body had collided with mine, so he must have been near me. About 20 feet away from me, I him, struggling to his feet. He was badly wounded. He was scraped and bloody from crashing through walls and sliding on the debris covered floors. His back was badly charred from the explosion, and his clothes were burnt and falling off him. If he had been expecting an explosion, even if he still wouldn’t have been able to protect himself with a ki field, he would have at least been able to focus his ki to protect his body so the damage would have been minimized. But the surprise of the explosion left him defenseless. I ran over to him. My hearing was starting to come back, but the ringing in my ears was still there. Tyfoonica opened his mouth to speak through gritted teeth. I strained to listen.

“It’s…th..the Doomaki!” Tyfoonica said, every word clearly a strain for him. My eyes widened and I turned around to look at the room where I had been just moments earlier. I saw several hooded figures firing ki blasts. They were firing them at everyone; they wanted to kill as many people as they could. I was sure Tyfoonica was right. The fact that this attack happened the same day The Council was meeting about the Doomaki couldn’t be a coincidence. I quickly scanned the room I had been. Troy looked like he had been successful, it looked as though all The Council members were alive, at least as far as I could see. Like Tyfoonica and I, some of them had been blasted through the wall, so I couldn’t account for everyone.

I could sense the Doomaki’s ki now; I hadn’t noticed it before the explosion. That must have been what Troy and Tyfoonica had felt moments before the explosion happened. They must have felt their ki and known something was about to happen.

Troy was engaged in battle with several of the Doomaki. The ki of the Doomaki felt very dark and very strong. Even so, Troy was one of, if not the, strongest fighters in the galaxy, and it showed. He was holding his own against the Doomaki, even though he was very outnumbered. Some of the members of The Council had begun to fight as well. Most of The Council weren’t strong fighters, but a few were. I shifted my attention from the fight to Tyfoonica.

“I’m going to go help, stay here.” I told him.

“Nonsense…”Tyfoonica said through gritted teeth. “I ...am going too…” It sounded like it was a strain to get every word out. He was in no condition to fight, but I knew better than to argue with him. Tyfoonica was an extremely skilled fighter, and he wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to get revenge on the Doomaki taking my father away. I wasn’t about to waste time trying to convince him otherwise.

“Be careful, you are injured badly.” I cautioned him.

“Ha…” He forced. “Even in this condition…I’ll wipe the floor with them…” He chuckled and the both of us rushed into battle.

I had been trained for battle my entire life, but this was the first actual battle, besides practice spars, I had ever been in. The reality of this dawned upon me and turned my stomach. Trying to ignore this feeling, I ran up to the first hooded figure I came across. I could feel the blood rush down my arms and legs as my adrenaline surged and prepared my body for battle. The Doomaki toward me as I rushed him, but before he could react I threw my fist into his chest with all my strength. He didn’t fall over, but stayed upright and slid back a few feet from the momentum of my punch. I focused my ki and formed a ki ball in my hands and hurled it at the Doomaki fighter. He deflected it and returned a ki blast of his own. I charged him, side-stepping his ki ball and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with him. Punches and kicks were flying as each of us tried with all out might to strike the other down. His fighting ability was remarkable. It took everything I had in me to keep up with him. He was very strong, as well as fast. His hand-to-hand combat was just as good as mine. I jumped back to get some distance from the Doomaki fighter and also to assess the situation. There were at least 10-12 Doomaki fighters there, some of which were unleashing fury on those too weak to defend themselves. Troy was still fighting between three himself, and Tyfoonica was fighting against two. A few members of The Council, Tinjur and Zorukai being two of them, were also fighting some of the Doomaki. They were not doing as well as Troy, Tyfoonica, and I.

The Doomaki I was fighting had leapt from where he was to where I was standing and kicked me in the chest while I was distracted. I flew back from the force of his kick into a brick wall. I gathered myself and rushed at him and began fighting hand-to-hand once again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone else coming at me. I jumped back, putting some distance between the the Doomaki and I. Thinking quickly, I shot a ki blast out of my hand at the brick wall behind me. The force of the blast recoiled and propelled me forward at the Doomaki I was fighting. I locked my wrist into place and sunk it into the Doomaki’s stomach before could dodge. He doubled over in pain and flew into a pile of rubble about 20 feet behind him. I then turned, just in time, to see the other figure that was quickly approaching me. It was another Doomaki, and he had some of his ki wrapped around his arm so that it formed a ki blade. I concentrated my ki and formed a force field around my arm and held up my arm just in time to block his before it cut me in half. I struggled to hold it up, but the barrier I had created around my arm was giving way and I could sense the Doomaki’s ki blade getting closer to my skin. I could feel the heat from the ki blade as it slowly penetrated the force field around my arm. The smell of burnt flesh and hair filled the air as the ki blade made contact with my arm. I gritted my teeth in pain and struggled to keep my force field from completely breaking; it was the only thing keeping the Doomaki from cutting my arm off. Just before my force field on my arm gave out completely, I saw a ki blast shoot past my face, barely missing me, and barrel into the Doomaki’s chest, knocking him back hard against a wall. His body crumbled upon impact with the wall and he laid there, limp. I turned toward the source of the blast and saw Drake standing there, his fingertips smoking from where the ki blast had come from. He smiled at me and gave me a thumbs up and then rushed toward one of the other Doomaki. I was glad to see Drake. It didn’t appear that he had been injured in the explosion.

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I turned from Drake and looked for the next Doomaki that I could attack. I went to the one I had punched earlier; he was getting to his feet from out of the rubble. I drilled my fist into his face before he was able to gather himself and he crashed back into the rubble, this time out cold. There was a huge explosion about 30 feet away from me and I heard a yell followed by a crash. I turned toward the explosion, and as the smoke cleared I saw Tyfoonica’s body, half buried in a wall that he had crashed into. The two Doomaki he had been fighting had both fired a ki blast at him from opposite sides, and from the looks of it, he hadn’t blocked either of them. Tyfoonica grunted and slowly struggled to get to his feet. He looked badly hurt; the injury he had suffered from the explosion earlier was taking its toll on him. He was at 50% of his normal fighting strength, at best. The Doomaki he was fighting weren’t about to wait for him to get up. They both flew toward him with blazing speed. I took off and flew to intercept them. They both turned their heads as they sensed me approaching them and altered their flight to meet me instead. Furries of punches and kicks were thrown at me as I took them both on at once. Luckily I had been trained extensively in hand-to-hand combat against two to four people at once, so fighting the two of them wasn’t overwhelming. However, these two fighters were much stronger than the ones I had fought against when I had trained. They were also much faster; I struggled to keep up as they tried desperately to hit me. I was confident they wouldn’t be able to overpower me, but even so, I was struggling to gain the upper hand. I had to try something different.

All at once, I held my fighting stance, but stopped moving. Seizing the opportunity, the two Doomaki didn’t hesitate and both launched their fists at my body, One of them aimed for my face, while the other one had his fist zooming for my ribs. A loud BOOM sounded throughout the room as both of their punches made contact, however it was the Doomaki that recoiled in pain. In the few milliseconds it took them to punch me once I stopped fighting, I had quickly created a force field around my body. They weren’t expecting it and their fists crashed into what must have felt like a brick wall. While they were both distracted and grimacing in pain, I powered up, focusing my ki to raise my strength and at the same time creating a surge of ki that burst out around me like a strong gust of wind. This knocked the Doomaki off balance and I took advantage. I took the legs out from under one of the Doomaki with a leg sweep, and turned around and launched a ki blast into the chest of the other Doomaki, sending him flying in the opposite direction. I spun around and faced the other Doomaki that I had tripped. As his body collided with the ground, I held both my hands over my head and channeled my ki into a large ki ball. I swung my arms down and hurled the ki ball into the body of the Doomaki. The ki exploded and pressed the Doomaki into the ground, causing the concrete beneath him to cave in. When the dust settled, the Doomaki had sunk about two feet into the floor from the force of the blast. The clothes on his upper body were burnt and shredded from the where the ki had made contact with his body. The air smelled of charred flesh and he didn’t move; he might have been dead, but I didn’t care at that moment and didn’t have time to think about it.

I scanned the area for Tyfoonica, to make sure he was okay. I found the area where he had been moments earlier, but all that remained there was the broken wall he had crashed into. I stopped using my eyes and focused on sensing his ki. I was just barely able to feel his ki. It felt as though he were unconscious. I was able to sense his location based on his ki and quickly spun around, my eyes darting to the location I had sensed he was at. I saw him draped over one of the hooded Doomaki’s shoulders. What I sensed was right, he was definitely unconscious. He was about 100 feet away from me. I saw Drake and Troy nearby them, about half the distance from him that I was. They appeared to have just noticed Tyfoonica at the same time I did and both flew quickly in his direction. Drake and Troy were both intercepted by the Doomaki. Drake began fighting the Doomaki warrior that had met him. Troy, however, drew back his fist and with great power drove his fist into the Doomaki warrior, sending him soaring across the room, knocked unconscious by the powerful punch. In an instant Troy had arrived at the place Tyfoonica was. There were two Doomaki there, the one carrying Tyfoonica, and another one right beside him. Troy surrounded his arm with his ki, reinforcing his arm to deal extra damage. The Doomaki carrying Tyfoonica ran away from Troy, while the other Doomaki side stepped so that he was directly in between Troy and Tyfoonica. Troy focused his attention on the Doomaki blocking his way to Tyfoonica. Troy swung his fist at the Doomaki with all his might with so much agility I could barely track his attack. I expected to hear the sound of bone giving way under the might of Troy’s fist. Instead, to my surprise, all I heard was the sound of his arm cutting through the air as Doomaki warrior dodged, ducking under Troy’s fist, and then returning a punch of his own, landing firmly in Troy’s ribs. Troy winced in pain, and before he could react, the Doomaki spun his body around and thrust his foot into the air. His kick struck Troy under the chin and sent Troy flying up into the air. I stood there for a brief moment, in utter shock. Troy landed 20 feet away, clearly in immense pain. He struggled to his feet, but then stumbled and fell over, clearly disoriented from the kick to the chin. I had never seen someone best Troy in a fight, let alone in two blows.

I looked back to the Doomaki who had struck Troy down. As he turned away from Troy, the light hit him, and from under his hood I was able to see the outline of his mouth and a set of eyes that almost seemed to glow. His eyes met mine and for a moment I froze. His eyes narrowed, and I saw the corners of his mouth curve upward to form a small, menacing smile. I shook my head from side to side and snapped myself out of my daze. I bent my knees, and jumped as hard as I could, propelling myself toward the Doomaki and Tyfoonica. With the Doomaki’s gaze still fixed on me, and his grin still plastered to his face, I saw the Doomaki raise his hands toward the sky, and a small light orb formed. Just before I reached him, he slammed his hands down into the floor and the light orb exploded into a blinding blast of light. There was no damage from the explosion; it wasn’t meant as an attack, it was meant as a diversion. I head grunts from all across the room as all those fighting the Doomaki were momentarily blinded from the explosion. As the light diminished, I opened my eyes slightly, squinting my eyes so they could start to adjust. As the room went from blurry to in focus, I realized the reason for the Doomaki’s diversion. I looked frantically around the room. All the Doomaki had vanished. I tried to focus on Tyfoonica’s energy, but because his ki was so low from being unconscious, I couldn’t feel it. He was already too far away. It had only been a few seconds, but that was enough time for the Doomaki to make their getaway.

The realization of what had just happened because to set in. I let out an agonizing cry, and slammed my fist into the ground as hard as I could. Bits of concrete from the floor shut up from the floor from the force of my fist. With my fist firmly pressed against the floor, small puddles of crimson liquid formed from under my first. They had taken Tyfoonica. But why? Why would they want him? With all the galactic leaders in the room, why take the one person who had no political power? No direct influence over any world. The Doomaki were back, they had finally resurfaced...what did it mean? Thoughts were racing through my mind faster than I could keep up. I had to force my mind to shut down momentarily. I remember where I was: right in the middle of the galactic conference, which meant that there were dozens of injured people all around me. I snapped myself out of my contemplation, and began helping the injured around me. There were more dead than injured; dozens of limp, bloody bodies lay all across the room. Cries of pain and agony echoed across room, amplified by the openness of the room now that most of the walls have been blasted down. The floors and walls were stained with scorch marks and blood. As I helped those around me, my thoughts turned to Tyfoonica and my father. My father had been captured by the Doomaki before I was even born, and no one had ever found him. And now Tyfoonica, the closest thing I had ever had to a father, had also been taken by the Doomaki. A feeling of hopelessness washed over me like an ice cold river. I entered a sort of daze. My body continued to move as I helped the injured around me, but my mind was in another place. I felt as though I was outside my body, watching myself in horror as I walked around the room, tripping over dead bodies. The only thought I could focus on was that I had to get Tyfoonica back, no matter what.