The foursome of warriors got up very early the next morning so that they could get a could start to and in the cave. Naspha kissed his sleeping mother good-bye, and they all left the house, locking the door behind them. The sun was still rising over the horizon, but the four were awake and ready. They headed off northwards, with Naspha leading them all. They headed off with every second the hut and town getting smaller and smaller. As the group continued on, the sky got brighter and brighter. They never stopped on their journey, and while they had nothing to do, Naspha would admire the landscape. They path they were traveling on now was something like a large grassy plain surrounded by mountains. And in the mountain range in front of them, lay the Cave of Oblivion. Naspha looked back toward the way they had come. He knew that the town would no longer be in sight because they had been traveling for two hours, but he looked anyway. Behind them he saw nothing but grass and small trees as far as his eyes could see. It was Aura slowly wrapping her hand around his which took his attention from nothing. He looked down at his hand, then looked at her face. She was smiling and must have been reading his mind because she commented,

"Don't worry Naspha, I'm sure your mom is doing fine." For some reason the certainty in her words reassured him. He smiled, nodded his head, then returned the gesture to Aura, by coiling his hand around hers. They walk along now hand in hand, with bright hope and smiles, while Rick and Henzu point and remark from behind.

It was mid afternoon, and the sun was high in the sky by the time they were at the top of the mountain range they had spent so many long hours to get to. The four stood staring with mixed emotions at the dark entrance to the long awaited cave in front of them. After many minutes of nothing, Naspha deeply sighed and turned to his comrades.

"Well guys, this is what we had spent so much time training and traveling for. The Cave of Oblivion. For many years we've trained and toiled for this moment. This is our last hope to save the ones we love. But as you all know, we face death in this cave. I have no second thoughts. If this will help my mother and I have a better future, then I'm all for it. But if any of you are having second thoughts, speak now. But even if I have to go alone, nothing will stop me from entering." Instead of the hesitation Naspha had expected, Rick answered right away.

"You kidding Naspha? I wouldn't abandon you. So many people back home are counting on me. I'll go with you, no doubts about that." Henzu the stepped forward and spurt out some gibberish about how he'll go because Naspha has all the food and he doesn't want to walk back by himself. But Naspha could see in his eyes, that Henzu wanted to go more than any of them. And then Naspha looked at Aura. She said nothing, just looked deeply into his eyes, and nodded slowly. Naspha was pleased that all had accepted. He once again took Aura's hand, and they all turned and faced the entrance. Slowly but surely, they headed into the cave. Naspha could feel the evil as soon as he stepped foot into the cave. It actually made his shiver and clench his teeth. But he knew what had to be done so he continued with Aura and the others behind him. But before they got very far, the voice of their mentor, Kyiak, filled the cave.

"I am proud of you my pupils. You have made it to the Cave of Oblivion. In this cave you will not only face obstacles that test your physical capabilities, but your mental capabilities as well. You will face enemies that seem impossible to defeat. That is when you need to think. Remember my pupils nothing in this cave is impossible. Put your mind to it, and you will be able to achieve it. Now farewell, and good luck." The voice faded, and the four were left to ponder what was ahead of them. After a while, Henzu spoke to Naspha.

"So what are we supposed to do now?"

"I guess we have to head, that way." He pointed straight in front of them into the blackness and loneliness of the cave ahead of them. He put his arm back down and they all walked forward. He wasn't quite sure, but Naspha thought that in the far distance he could hear faint screams of pain, and evil laughter.

There had been nothing so far, except for the bleak gray walls, and the plain pointed stalactites hanging from the cave's ceiling. Naspha was looking all around the cave, when his foot suddenly plunged down into a cold, rapidly flowing river. He pulled it back out, and stepped backwards, looking over what he had just stepped in. It was a very large river, which was entering in one side of the cave, and departing through the other one. Probably from a spring in the mountains Naspha thought to himself. It wasn't the depth or width that trouble the young leader, but how far out in front of them was what worried him. Despite the fact that it was rather dark in the cave, Naspha couldn't see where the other side if the river was! To be sure it wasn't just his eyesight, he picked up a fairly sized rock from the ground, and threw it as hard as he could, straight forward. He put his hand to his ear and listened very carefully, and to his surprise, he heard the "kurplunk" of the rock hitting water!

"Oh damn." Naspha said as he sighed in anger. "How are we supposed to get across this thing?" (I tell you now that in their training with Kyiak, they had not learned how to fly.) he looked up towards the ceiling for answers, but found no stalactites to grab or swing on. He looked dejected for a while, but then he brightened up as he thought of something.

"Rick, I just thought of something, but in order for it to work, you'll need to use a lot of your energy. You don't have to, but it seems to be the only way I can think of to get by this thing." Rick looked stern for a short time then nodded.

"We need this training more than anything. I'll do it." Smiles came to everyone there, and Naspha started to speak.

"Alright here's what you gotta do. You need to make about four of your little energy bombs. One for each of us. But make them so they don't detonate of impact because we'll need to jump on them."

"But since I'm not strong enough, my bombs will only last about 15 seconds each. Just barely enough time for me to charge up and make another one."

"That's ok, that's all we need. Here's what we'll do. Rick will start out by making four bombs. Rick you jump on the first one so that you have time to make more. When you do make more, throw four of them out in front so that we have more to jump onto before the old ones blow up. But guys, since they won't last long, you're going to have to make your jumps quick. Stay alert so you know when to jump. After Rick goes on, Henzu you jump on the second one, Aura on the third, and I'll follow up the rear. Sound good guys?" Henzu and Aura nodded. Then Naspha looked over at Rick. "You wanna do this Rick?" Rick nodded without hesitation.

"I'm ready Naspha."

"Great, let's go guys. Rick, ready when you are." Rick nodded, stuck his palm straight in front of him, and turned his fingers in. He clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, and concentrated. Slowly, his hand started glowing a deep red. Everyone looked on in fear and anxiety, as the sweat started dripping down Rick's head. Then he opened his eyes and smiled a sly smile.

"Got it." Were his words. Then he lurched his arms far back, and threw a great red orb into the air. The orb grew larger, as it got higher in the air. When it finally stopped about 15 feet above the water. It quickly shot out four smaller orbs into the water, getting smaller as each orb left. Each orb slammed into the river, splashing water everywhere.

"GO!!!" Naspha yelled. Without a second of hesitation, Rick jumped to the first orb, Henzu on the second, then Aura on the third, and Naspha following the rear. Naspha pulled a small watch out his pocket and looked at it.

"Only 10 seconds to go until they detonate, how're you doing up there Rick?"

"In between his deep breaths and grunts, he managed to squeeze out "fine." Then when the second hand showed only 3 seconds left, Naspha looked up after hearing the loud splash of the four smaller orbs hitting the water. Once again without waiting, the quad of young warriors jumped to the newly placed energy orbs. They all shook a little bit from the explosion of the old orbs, but quickly regained their attention on Rick. This pattern continued for about a half an hour, until Henzu screamed that he could see the other side. Rick by now, was EXTREMELY exhausted. He was visibly huffing and weezing, and his legs were about to give out. Naspha looked at his watch to see five seconds left, ands Rick hadn't even started to charge up yet.

"Rick let's go there's only 5 seconds left." Naspha yelled.

"I…………..I can't…………I don't think I have enough…….energy." Rick barely managed to weeze out, before collapsing on the orb he was settled on. Naspha gasped in terror, but quickly zipped to the orb in front him, grabbed Aura around the waste, jumped to Henzu's orb, grabbed him around the waste with his free arm, then before landing on Rick's orb, commanded Henzu to bend down, and pick up Rick which he did. Then with half of a second left, he lunged forward as hard as he could. Then he jerked his head back, as the explosion from the orbs floating the water, threw everyone out of his arms, and straight forward. Naspha hit the bank on the other side, landing on his front side, smashing his head hard on the ground. All his friends, including Rick, landed on the bank too, scattered all over the ground. After many minutes of lying motionless, Naspha finally managed to pick his head up. He slowly looked around, searching for his friends. Fortunately, they were all there, but sort of banged up. He eventually got up, and slowly walked over to Aura, bent down, and shook her gently until she arose. She got up and walked over to make Henzu rise. But to Naspha's dismay, Rick didn't phase when he was shook. Naspha shook harder and harder, but to the same outcome. Gradually, tears started to form in his eyes.

"Come on Rick wake up this isn't funny." But Rick's lifeless body just lay there. The other two noticed Naspha's failed attempts, and also started to tear. Naspha tried and tried, but after a tough decision decided to give up. He slump down, and covered his face with his hands. Naspha just couldn't believe that Rick's life was over already. But his moment of melancholy thought, was interrupted by Rick's coughing and hacking. He quickly looked at his friend to see him spewing up water from his lungs. Rick coughed up more and more water, and finally opened his eyes. Naspha put his hands on his friend to make sure he was ok. Smiles came to everyone's faces as they saw that their friend was alright. Then their heads jerked into the air as they once again heard the voice of their mentor.

"Excellent work my young ones. You have managed to cross the first obstacle in your path for training. Naspha, you had an excellent idea, and Rick, you carried it out like a true hero. But do not get cocky yet young ones. There is still much more to go, and many more obstacles to conquer. I wish you well my pupils. And good luck."

Kyiak was right. There was a lot more obstacles ahead for the team of young warriors. Many small little vicious creatures would constantly attack, and steal their supplies, they faced geographical obstacles, like ditches and deep gorges, and they even had to cross over a huge pit of lava. They had now been in the cave for a week and a half and as Kyiak told them earlier in the day, they were making excellent time. They were all walking alone chatting late in the after noon one day, when they were suddenly knocked on their feet by the ground beneath their feet, rumbling violently. 6 small mounds started forming in the ground, and out of the earthy mounds, shot 6 small green creatures, with pointy ears, buggy yellow eyes, sharp teeth, and scales all over their bodies, even over their round bulbous heads. They all jumped back, and stood battle ready for these creatures.

"What the hell are these things?" Naspha asked shocked.

"These are saibamen." Kyiak's voice chimed in. "They are creatures spawned from the earth of planet Vegeta. They are vicious creatures that attack whatever they feel like attacking. And they eat whatever they feel like eating. And I warn you my pupils, they have a hunger for you…" his voice trailed off, and the warriors were left to fend for themselves again these spawns of the earth. While Naspha, Henzu, Rick, and Aura stood there all thinking of how to defeat these things, the saibamen just stood there laughing and cackling. Finally Aura spoke up.

"You wanna lead off Naspha?" he smiled.

"Gladly." Naspha clenched both of his fists at his sides, charging up for his attack. He opened his hands, and threw them forward releasing a thick bolt of blue energy from his open palms. Most of the saibamen were too quick to get hit by it, and they jumped to safety. But one of the saibamen wasn't so fortunate. Before he realized what was coming at him, the blast hit him head on, charring his body black, and sending him into one of the cave walls.

"1 down, 5 to go." Naspha though to himself. One of the green figures floating in the air, bent his neck down, and actually opened up his head! And to the young warriors' surprise, he spit out a thick stream of green liquid.

"Look out!" Naspha yelled as he dove forward, and knocked Aura out of the line of fire. And where the stream hit, was now a deep ditch.

"That's acid they're spitting out of their heads." Rick said observantly.

"Yeah and if we're not careful, we'll end up like that ditch right there." Henzu said pointing.

"Naspha, how strong are these guys? Do we stand a chance?" Naspha concentrated on one for a minute, then nodded his head.

"I feel that they're pretty strong, but not as strong as us. With a little teamwork, we'll be able to easily take these guys down." That made Rick smile.

"Let me have a crack at it." Aura said enthusiastically. Naspha, Rick and Henzu cleared out of the way, leaving open room for Aura. Seeing this, one of the saibamen, floated down from his haven below the ceiling. He landed on the ground, and quickly lunged for Aura, fists first, Aura easily jumped over the on coming attacker, and fired a small bolt of lighting in it's direction. The creature, evaded this and returned with a small purple fireball from his fist. This caught Aura off guard, and she barely escaped, shifting sideways, and turning her head, watching the fireball connect with the wall behind her, blowing it to bits. She turned back just in time to get a kick to stomach, and a blow to the head. She flew backwards, flipping many times, then crashing down to the ground.

"That's not the way to treat a lady" Naspha said as he flew up, and rammed his fist in the saibaman's stomach. He brought both fists together and lifted them behind his head, then slammed them onto it's head, sending it crashing to the floor. He too returned to the floor, as two other saibamen angry at the attack, charged at Naspha, and Naspha not afraid to take the challenge of fighting two at once. He easily evade their attacks, but they constantly were pushing him backwards. One of the saibamen threw a punch, which connected with open air, as Naspha disappeared, and reappeared over it, ramming him in the head with his foot. He then turned to block the other's oncoming kick, and answered with a punch send it flying backwards. The other three young warriors were now engaged in combat, and were also doing well. Aura was squaring off with a saibaman, and shot a large bolt at it, which to her dismay, was easily evaded, as it jumped into the air. But with a simple gesture of her hands, the bolt changed direction, curving back towards the saibaman, shocking him as it hit. It dropped to the ground, but wasn't finished yet. Seeing this, Aura shot another bolt into one the spikes hanging from the ceiling, making it break off, and fall to the ground impaling the saibaman she had been fighting. The splattering blood hit the saibaman Henzu was fighting, which caused it to turn around to see his fellow saibaman dead. This gave Henzu the perfect chance to deliver a rapid barage of punches into the saibaman's stomach then an uppercut sending him soaring. Henzu gave out a small laugh.

"Hey, these things are pretty easy. I could take all of these things myself." Henzu, closed his eyes, out his fists together, and his body slowly vanished. He was going to try his invisibilty attack on the remaining saibamen. Naspha and the others watched as they saw saibamen fly right and left after getting punches delivered by Henzu. The apparently furious saibamen had little defense fighting an invisible opponent.

"Watch this guys." Henzu said with a laugh. He picked up one of the saibamen from behind, and threw him into another one. The angry saibaman got up from the ground, turned his body around, and without knowing where his opponent was, spit out acid from his head on all directions. The three attentive young warriors easily jumped to safety, but the histerical Henzu didn't see the attack, and reappeared as the acid bathed the front half of his body, searing his clothes, and leaving burn marks behind. Henzu wrapped both arms around himself, and fell to the ground screaming in pain.

"OW it burns. Someone please help me. the pain….." Henzu's scream was interrupted when a saibaman behind him, jumped up, and took a tight grip on his back. Henzu turned around and got up, shaking back and forth, trying to get the pest off his back. The saibaman smiled wickedly, as a green aura surrounded both Henzu and the creature.

"Henzu get that thing off of you quick!." Naspha yelled to his companion. But it was too late. The green creature on his back, yelled something, and he kamikazied. The thing exploded, and the three young warriors turned and covered there eyes from the bright flash omitted from the explosion. They turned back around, to see the dust clear, and to their horror, Henzu and the saibaman were gone. The thing had destroyed itself to take out Henzu, and it's plan had worked.

"HENZU NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!" yelled Naspha. Aura dropped to her knees in tears, and Rick and Naspha tried to hide theirs. Rick closed his eyes, clenched his fist, and it started to glow red. He opened his soaked eyes, and threw his eyes up to look at the three saibamen remaining.

"All right you green sons of bitches, let's see how you like this!" he yelled as he threw his hand into the air. He released a large red orb about the size of his body into the air, and it settled above the saibamen. They looked at it curiously until their attention was focused back on Rick as he yelled.

"Energy orb SPLIT!!!!!!!!!" he screamed out. At his command, numerous smaller red orbs showered onto the saibamen. They covered their eyes as they were sent flying everywhere with pieces of debris from the ground. Some orbs would miss slightly sending the creatures flying in all directions, but most hit their targets, sending chunks of flesh and bone in all directions. When the energy from the orb ran out, the dust cleared, showing only pieces of the creatures' bodies. Rick was breathing heavily, and the tears were still dripping down his cheeks. Exhausted from the exertion of energy, he dropped down to one knee. Then they all looked up as Kyiak's voice was heard again.

"I congratulate you my young pupils on taking care of this situation. But it is also a shame about Henzu. This may sound cruel, but you need to put your feelings behind you. There is still one more challenge to face." They all looked around in confusion, as they heard rumbles and crashes all around them. Then their attention was focused in front of them as they cave wall, blew to bits. And out stepped the most horrid creature they'd ever seen. Over 7 feet tall, with hair over it's entire body, and large pointed horns on the top of it's head.

"Here is your final challenge. The Minotaur of Oblivion. You have all gained much strength my young ones, but seperately you will have no chance against him. Teamwork young ones. Good luck." His voice faded once again, as the huge beast lifted his axe over his head, and prepared to imbed it straight into Rick's forehead.

To Be Continued……….

If you liked this story, I would appreciate it if you could tell me. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and keep an eye out for part 2. Bye now!

Chibi Jim. Back to the Fanfic