Chapter 1
Children of No One
Two years have passed since that fateful day, and Zuccil has kept his word. Most on these lowly streets knew them simply as the Children of No One, because they refused to say they knew their parents. To the guards and military men, they were known by another name – street rats.
Being too young to work, Zuccil and his siblings were forced to steal for what they needed to survive. For two years, Zuccil and Ruta went out to the market place at least once a month to steal food and medical supplies. Zuccil and Ruta were both born with a unique ability to sense the energy of the people around them, something most Saiyans were completely incapable of. This was why almost everyone on Planet Vegeta wore devices known as Scouters. Ear mounted display screens that could scan a person's energy output and give it a measure able number. Zuccil and his sister did not need these devices, and because they sense the energy, even within themselves, they had learned how to hide it from these devices.
This made being a thief very easy on Planet Vegeta, as everyone relied on Scouters to warn them of anyone who was "too close for comfort." Today, Zuccil and Ruta needed fruit, meat, and bread. Ruta was always the distraction, while Zuccil actually got his hands dirty. Ruta would dance up and down the street to distract the many stall owners selling their wares. Zuccil sneak around behind them, take what the needed, and vanish before giving Ruta a signal to bail out.
"Hey, Zuccil, I'll race you to the market place." said Ruta.
"You're on, little sister!" Zuccil laughed as he immediately took off. Ruta took off after him as quickly as she could.
"HEY! THAT'S NOT FAIR, ZUCCIL! I DIDN'T SAY GO!" she screamed after him.
Today was no different as they raced through the streets playfully. People along the streets, doing laundry or preparing for the day, scolded them as they ran by. At one point Zuccil even knocked over a man's armor stand as he was using it to clean his best set of armor.
"SORRY!" Zuccil called back.
They finally came to there usual meeting place in the cellar of another abandoned hut, much like the one they lived in. They slipped inside to go over the things they needed one last time, and Ruta changed into her costume so that no one would recognize her face. Zuccil picked up an over-sized back pack with a Scouter, some lock picks, and some homemade smoke pellets in case he was caught. Then they slipped out separately and Ruta began he dance up and down the main street of the market place.
Zuccil scaled a house and took to the roof tops, putting on his scouter as he scanned the street. The merchants were different every day, so he had to check their power levels in case he was caught and could not escape. Most of these people were merchants because they were too weak for the military, but that did not mean they were push-over's, especially compared to a ten year old boy.
The Scouter ran through all the energy signatures it detected in the main street, displaying each one on the screen in turn. Zuccil's tail twitched as he smiled slyly. None of these so-called "proud Saiyans" would be able to touch him in one on one combat. This was going to be one of the easiest scores they had ever made. Normally at least one merchant had a decent enough power level to defend the others. He keyed the button on the side of his Scouter.
"Ruta, there's not a single worthwhile fighter here." he chortled. "None of these chumps even has a power level over one thousand."
"That doesn't mean much Zuccil, these merchants may travel together and operate as unit, or there may be more guards than normal." said Ruta. "Either way, keep your guard up, brother."
"Please, as if the guards have ever been able to catch me," Zuccil chuckled, "they're all too slowed down by that ridiculous Royal Armor."
"Zuccil, this isn't some game!" Ruta snarled.
"Little sister, when has this life we live ever truly been a game?" asked Zuccil. "Don't forget that I know the importance of these missions better than anyone. Without them, we would not survive. Do not question my confidence again."
"Forgive me, brother." said Ruta submissively. Zuccil hated to use his authority as his clan's patriarch like that, but he hated his confidence being challenged even more. He put his Scouter away, slung his back pack on, and scaled back down the building and behind it. He slipped off the end of the street Ruta was on and watched as she began her monthly performance.
People looked up as the music began to play, as it always did when Ruta arrived. She began to twist and glide gracefully along the street from shop to shop. Zuccil slipped up the alley ways between the buildings that brought him behind the merchant stalls. As he did, he began stuffing the back pack with fruits, breads, and meats. By the time Ruta had reached the end of the street, Zuccil had almost filled the large bag.
He slipped up behind the largest of the male merchants, a great, burly man with a poorly kempt beard, but wearing a top of the line scouter. Of course, some rumors must have spread about connection with this dancer and all the theft. They believed that these new scouters would detect Zuccil, even with his power suppressed. Zuccil didn't believe, but dropped his power as low as he possibly could and slipped up silently as Ruta danced before the man.
He began slowly putting apples into the back pack, as the merchant, despite his grand technology, seemed far more interested in his sister. The scraggly oaf was oggling Ruta like a piece of meat. Ruta continued to dance, getting up closer to him when she noticed his gaze. The merchant licked his lips as Zuccil was finishing filling his pack, watching the brute out of the corners of his vision.
Then he saw it, Ruta's pants flutter too close, the flash of blue rising over edge of the stall. The merchant reached out when Ruta got too close and grabbed her. Zuccil's eyes flashed and in the same instant, he heard that horrid alarm of Scouter catching a power spike. Zuccil swung around and sprinted silently down the alley way, ducking into a sewer grate, and waiting for the guards to pass.
But before the merchant could actually react to what he'd seen, Ruta's power spiked and took priority as the newest threat, erasing Zuccil's power level from the screen. Ruta kicked his hand so hard he didn't even get a look at her power before it vanished from the screen too.
"HOW DARE YOU, YOU BRUTE!" Ruta shrieked. "I SHOULD CALL GUARDS!"
Before the merchant could look up, Ruta popped four smoke pellets, creating a massive plume of smoke that engulfed an entire quarter of the street. By the time the smoke lifted and the guards arrived, Ruta had grabbed the bag of food that Zuccil left behind and completely vanished from their scouters.
She was running along a sewer tunnel and came to grate marked with her family's crest. She slipped through it silently, feeling around the whole room for even the faintest sign of Zuccil or anyone else that might have been in the room. She felt her older brother's power rising slowly, far too slowly to be picked up by a Scouter, but just fast enough that Ruta knew he was angry. She tossed the bag aside and pulled off her concubine's cowl.
"Before you start in on me, Zuccil – " she started to argue.
"What…have I told you…about proximity to the stalls?!" Zuccil growled. His tone was purely patriarchal, and Ruta knew she had no argument. "Ruta, you nearly blew our cover out there!"
"I nearly - ?! You're the one who can't keep his power level under control!" Ruta snapped.
"Ruta, you know what my duties are, what I promised our father," Zuccil began.
"That's always your excuse, Zuccil!" Ruta yelled, her power rising dangerously.
"Ruta!" Zuccil hissed. "Watch your power level! This is the last hiding spot we have in this city!"
"Well, it's not fair! You're the only one that gets to take risks, that get's challenge himself!" Ruta cried. "When is it my turn, Zuccil?!"
"I understand your frustration, Ruta, though I can't pretend to know how it feels." said Zuccil. "But I have to ask for your patience. It is too dangerous for me to train you right now."
"Zuccil, I don't know if you've noticed, but I can train myself!" said Ruta. "I'm talking out here, on these supply runs, I'm never allowed to trust myself the way you trust yourself!"
"You're right, Ruta, and that will change. But it can't right now." said Zuccil. "Once we have citizenship, you can do whatever you like, but until then I do have a vow to keep. It is the tradition of our family, and I will not forgo tradition. But it is also the tradition of our family for me to keep my word, and I give you my word that these restrictions will be lifted when the time comes. Although I cannot promise that my reactions to strange men groping you will change."
"And how much longer do I have to wait?" asked Ruta. "Will our brother be asking you these same questions before I am allowed my time?"
"Not if I can help it, Ruta." said Zuccil. "I give you my word that, if I have my way, Turipa will not even remember this life. And that you will have your time before he remembers anything significant."
Ruta smiled, knowing that her brother would not fail her. Zuccil was always a stickler for tradition. But that had it's perks, and Ruta knew that he didn't pick and chose which traditions to follow. They changed back into their street clothes and slipped out of the hut.
As they made their way back home, Zuccil carrying the heavy pack of food, they joked about the rest of what had occurred that day, such as another male merchant that had toppled over his stall while he was oggling Ruta, and had kicked Zuccil square in the chin as he fell. Zuccil chuckled as showed his little sister the bruise, which would be gone by morning.
As they approached the house, they barely thought twice about the silence that greeted them. Every month, when they returned from "shopping", Turipa always came running excitedly to the door to welcome his elder siblings. But no laughter, no crying, no sound of tiny feet alerted either of them to Turipa's presence. Then Zuccil caught it, sensing the energy that wasn't where it should be. And worse, he couldn't pin point its exact loctaion, which meant it was either too faint or too far away.
In that same instant, he met eyes with his younger sister, the abolute panic he felted mirrored back at him in her face. But before the panic took him completely, the look on Ruta's face sent his mind into overdrive. Zuccil brain was immediately blank of anything but Turipa's energy signature. Like a blip on a computer display, his baby brother's position registered in blackness. Then Zuccil imagined a wire frame veiw of the city around his own power and Turipa's.
He must have followed them to the market place again, and not noticed them on their way out because their powers were surrpressed, which Turipa hadn't learned to sense yet. Zuccil's heart hammered as he broadened his mental scan of the city to include all the nearby guards. Sure enough, it was a trap, they'd seen Ruta walking away with this little boy too many times. He was their bait, and he had no way of knowing.
"I'm going to get him, Ruta." said Zuccil. "I want you to stay here."
"And wait for them to come get me, brother?!" Ruta snapped. "We both know it's a trap, and they'll find me once they catch you."
"Fine, come with me then, better you and Turipa be kept together anyway." said Zuccil. He and Ruta took off as fast as they could, directly toward Turipa's, not even bothering to conceal their power levels. Then they felt Turipa's go up as he realized that something was very wrong. Zuccil could practically feel the tears as Turipa felt them as fear overtook the infant's mind. "We're coming, Turipa, please don't cry. I'll never let them hurt you, little brother!"
"Zuccil, they know we purposely springing the trap!" said Ruta. "How does this help our cause?"
"Because now they have to think on their feet; advantage mine!" Zuccil smirked. They arrived within a mile of Turipa, and Zuccil sensed the others as plain as if they were there with him, surrounding the freightened infant with malicious smiles and wild looks in their eyes.
'Advantage lost! Zuccil you must control your emotions!' Ruta though angrily as she looked the expression on Zuccil's face. His pupils were barely visible and his teeth were bared like a rabid dog. A blue energy wave engulfed Zuccil's body as he feet completely left the ground and he began to fly. He skimmed along the road, leaving Ruta choking in a cloud of dust. Every muscle in his body was tensed with rage as he smashed through the wall and taking out three guards with the ruble. Zuccil's hair practically stood on end as he glared at the leader, a big, red-haired man in an officer's uniform with a ruthless expression on his face.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Zuccil roared as he lunged at the big Saiyan officer. The man caught Zuccil's hand in mid-punch, gripped his fist, and pulled him in the gut-check kick that had him immediately coughing up blood.
"Hello, kid, I'm Super Elite Sprout, and despite your abismal efforts, I've been tracking your little operation for months." said Sprout with a nasty sneer as Zuccil hung from his fist holding his stomach and coughing up more blood every so often. "Care to tell me how your father reacts to this behavior?"
"I haven't one, I am the patriarch of my clan." said Zuccil. "We do this to survive, what else would you have us do?"
"Join the army, you lousy little whelp! You must be at least…well no, you're far too small to even be ten." said Sprout. "You're tiny little fella, aren't you?"
"Release me, and I'll surprise you." Zuccil sneered.
"Surprise me with what?!" Sprout laughed.
"Big things can come in small packages." said Zuccil as he flashed Sprout in the eyes with a ki blast. Then he burst a hand full of smoke pellets, smoking the entire room. Zuccil began taking down guards left and right as they blindly attacked the center and Zuccil sensed them out to counter their movements. Zuccil then grabbed Ruta and Turipa and dashed out of the plume of smoke…and right into an entire battlion of guards with wrist blasters aimed at his head.
Zuccil slowly let go of his siblings and got down on one knee. Ruta held Turipa protectively as she got down on both knees and bowed he head. Zuccil bowed his and then the smoke cleared. A soot covered officer's boot came down, heel first, on Zuccil's tail, and Zuccil let out a scream like a wounded animal just before he went completely limp and slumped to the ground.
"YOU – YOU LITTLE WHELP!" Sprout snarled. "YOU BLASTED ME RIGHT IN THE EYE! AND NOW I'M GOING TO RETURN THE FAVOR!"
Sprout's other boot came down on Zuccil's head, the sole cutting into the flesh above and below his left eye, ripping it open like wet paper. Zuccil couldn't even move to scream from the pain as blood poured over his face and into the dirt. Ruta heard the crunch and though for sure that Zuccil was dead. She began to shake violently as she tried keep her sobbing silent. Surely Turipa would be the next, they'd make her watch, Ruta had heard stories of families like there's getting caught by Sprout's men. Ruta had had nightmares about this so many nights, she wasn't sure she wasn't sleeping now.
In her panic, she tried to make herself wake up the way she would if it were a dream. It wasn't working, Turipa was still shaking her arms, she was still sobbing into his hair…but Zuccil's power was still there. Zuccil was weakened but very much alive! In the next instant, Ruta knew there was real hope, even as the guards picked her and Turipa up and put them into the prison transport, she watched Zuccil body be lifted into a separate one and knew that he would get them out…
Somehow…
7