Chapter 2 – The Empty Planet

Throwing her arm across her eyes, Bra attempted to block the shining brightness but a constant circle of lights kept flashing behind her eye lids. The shaking of the machine reverberated throughout her body and though it soon stopped, Bra felt that her brain was still shaking in aftermath. She'd hit her head sometime and blood dribbled into her eyes, so she squinted and looked around.

She could smell the smoke drifting up from inside the machine's console before it appeared. The electrical panel burst into flames before she could blink an eye and with more than a little haste, Bra ripped the safety belt in two, pushed her hand towards the door of the machine, powered up an energy blast and blew the door right off. She scrambled out onto open grass, her momentum causing her to skid a few meters along the ground.

As she fell onto her hands and knees, Bra was grateful that at least she didn't catch on fire. Not because she'd be harmed, but because if any of her clothes were torn away, she'd be lying half naked in the middle of her mother's lab.

"How incredibly embarrassing," Bra muttered silently as she turned her head to survey the wretched machine which had almost killed her. Her eyes followed the trail of smoke high into the sky and with a shock, she suddenly realised she was out in an open field, nowhere near her mother's lab.

'Oh Dende! Was that crappy little piece of junk some sort of transporter? I will definitely get my credit cards cancelled for this!' Bra silently whined as her eyes travelled over the charred piece of metal and the burning flame. Sparks of lightening would zap away from the machine every few minutes, reminding Bra of a powerful energy blast.

The repercussions of having commandeered her mother's invention, especially in an obviously untested state, would be immense. Along with cancelled credit cards, thoughts of being sent to a labour camp and having to shovel cow dung rolled through Bra's mind as possible punishments. Having unconsciously hunched her shoulders, Bra relaxed and decided her best bet would be to play innocent.

'Even though I really am innocent. Stupid wall, stupid lab, stupid Mother for locking me in,' she thought spitefully.

Bra felt her shirt rip a little as she lay on the ground with limbs splayed. She closed her eyes, trying to ignore that her outfit wasn't perfect and evened out her breaths, slowing her heart beat to a steady bump-bump. The temperamental teen gave a sigh. She concentrated her thoughts towards her family, trying to find their minds. There were no answering thoughts or connections.

"Oh Dende, the crash! I've given myself brain damage!" Bra gasped and held her head in her hands. 'Stop stressing so much… It's not good for the brain, plus, I can't even get brain damage with my Saiyan strength... I hope.' Her heart rate slowed again as she took a deep breath of the fresh air.

'How do I always get into these kinds of problems?' she contemplated, 'I'm so talented and brilliant. Why is it, that when it comes down to a difficult situation, I always make a fool of myself?'

Calming her thoughts, she relaxed. For the first time in what seemed her entire life, Bra felt completely at ease. Her incredibly enhanced senses – thanks to her Saiyan heritage – felt the lack of population first and foremost and she reasoned herself to be somewhere in an unused land or even possibly on a large island.

'Okay. I've got to find out where I am, and then I can get home.' Bra decided that she would stop being lazy and get home hopefully before anyone noticed she was missing. Except that the constant buzz at her senses which she should have felt, the one that came from the life energy of every being in the city, was not present anywhere nearby. It was amazing. She felt unrestrained - released. Living in a large city, Bra had never not been able to feel the ebb and flow of thousands of people. While it was a surreal experience, the sudden lack of buzzing at her senses left a niggling thought in the back of her mind, 'It's unnatural.'

Bra lay there in the silence, listening to the wind rustle through the trees around her. Surely her mother must have noticed her absence by now and sent her father off to find her? Could they have forgotten their own daughter already, just the day after the anniversary of her birth? Closing her eyes quickly, she assumed that perhaps she was being punished; lying here in the dirt to think about her bad behaviour.

'I'll show them! As soon as they return I'll wake up slowly and pretend to have brain damage! That'll teach them for ignoring me!' she soon sighed, 'If only it was possible for something to actually give me brain damage. Well, maybe a pretty hard kamehameha. I guess that idea's shot through the roof.'

More than half an hour had passed before Bra decided no one was arriving any time soon and she lifted herself easily from the ground. Brushing her hands down the back and sides of her body she removed any remaining grass or plant matter sticking to the rips in her clothes – she'd done more damage to her clothes in her haste to escape the pod-like machine than she realised. It wouldn't do to present a bad appearance, even though no one was there to witness it.

Narrowing her eyes, Bra scanned the surroundings. No one appeared to be near her and she increased her senses.

'They wouldn't be hiding from me would they? That would be idiotic, but I doubt even Trunks would play a prank on me to this level.'

Concentrating on a small bush from which she sensed movement, Bra watched lazily as a fluffy little bunny rabbit sprung from its hiding spot and darted away. A flock of birds flew by overhead, in the same direction, being followed on ground by a group of deer prancing hurriedly. She watched a fox dart between the trees, following the path of the deer. Bra tilted her head, "That's odd."

She soon found out why.

Starting off as a gentle shaking of the ground, the rapid sound of a large animal or two thundering through the forest came ever closer. Breaking through the barrage of trees, a large reptilian animal hurtled across the barren clearing Bra was standing in the middle of.

Sprinting out of the way, Bra watched carefully as another large reptilian animal came bounding close soon after. With a sudden fascination with these animals, Bra watched as the second, and larger animal grabbed its apparent prey by the neck, repeatedly snapped its jaws and shook its head violently from side to side in an attempt to kill. Claws against claws these two beasts fought, but not for long. After a few quick bites to the neck, chest and rump, the smaller animal was killed, falling to the ground in a heap.

"A dinosaur…" she whispered, remembering her visit to the West City Zoo four years ago to see one of the last of the near-extinct species. "The one I saw was less than half the size."

Bra turned her head away once the stronger beast started devouring the hideous carcass. Unused to such displays of wild animals, she focussed her eyes on the distant mountain range and narrowed them shortly after. Confusion dulled her senses as she stared at the land formations. The mountains were eerily familiar.

Bra unconsciously diverted her energy to her feet and lifted slowly into the air. Once she was high enough to get an aerial view, she looked to the left and then right. 'Yep, definitely familiar.'

It was this critical moment when Bra recognised something she had not before. Hidden amongst the surrounding forest were ruins. Discarded pieces of metal and brick littered the forest. Structures that looked like they could have been parts of walls leaned precariously against trees and were held up by strangler vines.

Heading down towards her left, in the direction of the mountain range, Bra noticed a particularly large piece of metal, charred and blackened as if half-destroyed by a bomb strike. She lowered herself in front of it, deciding whether or not to check this one piece of metal she was regarding with suspicion.

'Well, best to get it over with quickly.' She reasoned.

Wiping away the dust and grime, Bra went into a state of shock as she looked at what used to be the sign that stood proudly in front of her West City home. Against the grimy, half-blasted metal, she could read the faded blue paint of 'ule' and the once-red paint of 'Corp'. She had seen this sign almost every day of her life, but never had she seen it in such disrepair. What had become of Capsule Corporation?

With a look of distrust and speculation, Bra lifted once again from the ground and searched further into the forest. It was a slow trek between the tall, but young trees and as she manoeuvred between branches, all that was to find were the remnants of a broken city. She noticed some structures were rusted and rotten, held together weakly by trees and vines, whereas others held none of their former shape. The rubble and debris was most prominent and she recognised the effects of a powerful energy attack.

Following what was once a main road, she passed her local haunt The Pier, a once grand street filled with all sorts of designer brand stores and fancy restaurants. It was this which caused the final realisation of her destroyed city that brought a slight watering to her eyes. Trying to keep composed, Bra forced herself into a state of denial.

'That evil, conniving idiot Trunks, thinking he can trick me! As if I'd believe someone could destroy our city! Not with my father here! Not with Daddy to protect everyone. Goten was probably in on it too!' And so Bra ignored the fact that she appeared to be in the destroyed West City and set her sights on a larger scale.

She flew high into the air, above tree level and headed in the best direction she thought possible - over the mountains. Around forty minutes at a steady speed beyond the mountain range, lay North City and if her brother and his friend thought they could trap her into thinking any of this was real, she was going to prove it wasn't.

Crossing the threshold of the mountains Bra did not see the familiar sky scrapers in the distance. She soon came across the similar appearance of a broken and beaten city. She found the remnants of hover cars lying haphazardly along cracked and weather-beaten roads, destroyed homes and large craters in the ground in various places. It seemed almost as if no one had expected attack, not that she was agreeing there was an attack of any sort, despite the evidence. Bra felt her heart start beating quickly.

"This can't be real!" She shook her head, her vision blurring with tears. "I'll just go down there and the people will come out from hiding." She swallowed thickly, willing herself to just believe there were people there even though she could sense no discernible energy levels.

Bra lowered herself to the ground to inspect the damage. The roads were far too cracked and broken to have been destroyed recently as they were hard and grimy with dust and overgrown with plant life. The broken front of a building stood just back from the road and she walked towards it with trepidation. Passing through the archway, which once probably held a door, Bra found herself amongst traces of what used to be a roadside corner store.

One thing in this store stood out most prominently. Cut clearly in half was a bright blue vending machine and written across the top was 'Hoi Poi Capsules'. Scattered along the floor Bra saw numerous small white containers. Now utterly confused Bra pocketed a few, adding them to her collection, before heading back towards the road.

'Do they think they can trick me? Hoi Poi, these things must be ancient!' were Bra's thoughts as she glanced behind her at the shop. She ventured further down the street, searching behind stones, half broken walls and greenery to try and find some traces of life. Well, life she found. Rats scattered at her approach towards a building, and a feral cat bounded quickly after them. Bra could see ants, bugs and other insect life making a home for itself in the once bustling city. One pressing thought was at the forefront of her mind, 'None of this life is human. Where are they?'

Bra sighed, collapsing on the ground. The tears came quickly, running down her face and she scrubbed her cheeks uselessly with her hands. Her whimpers turned to wails as she realised there was no one left. She couldn't understand what had happened. Had she somehow travelled to the future? Bra shuddered, not wanting to think about an evil so strong it could destroy all intelligent life on Earth.

When her tears had dried, Bra found herself sprawled across some rubble. She turned to face the sun, which had passed the highest point in the sky and was a few hours from setting. "What can I do?" she wondered aloud.

The denial stage had ended, and now she felt nothing but desperation. Her mind, which hours earlier had been connected to her father, mother and brother, felt achingly empty. The Saiyans as a race could not read another's thoughts, however they formed familial bonds and could share emotional impressions. Her mother believed it was an ability that had evolved over time so that kin could recognise each other during the change to the Oozaru form on a full moon. The lonely silence Bra felt could not be real and her mind ached to fill the empty bonds. Scrambling to her feet, she shot high into the air and turned herself around and headed off towards South City, desperation in her eyes.

Bra's search for family and civilisation led her across ocean and country, finding the same results everywhere. No more than ten minutes after passing East City, Bra found the terrain once again became familiar as she realised that the Son household was nearby. So she changed her course slightly to the left and made her way towards the home she'd often visited as a child. 'If there's one person who could, with any possibility, still be alive, it would be Son Goku. Daddy said he's a hard one to kill, like a cockroach.'

Landing with surprising grace, considering her warring emotions, Bra was surprised to see that the small and cosy home she once knew was missing and the only building in sight was a tiny hut. Creasing her brow, Bra recognised it as the storage hut Chi-Chi had kept vegetables and other food stores in. Remembering the weekend visits with her close friend Pan, her stomach grumbled slightly as she thought of Chi-Chi's cooking. As a child she had wished her mother could cook like Chi-Chi.

When she was seven her family had visited the Son household to celebrate Goten's eighteenth birthday. Bra had never met the full contingent of the Z-Gang until that day, so it was one she always remembered. It had been a sunny day with lots of food, laughter and sparring. Chi-Chi had been running to and from the kitchen all day to satisfy the appetite of her Saiyan family and friends. Bra remembered Chi-Chi ordering both her and Pan to help, and she had spent one very long hour hauling sacks between the store house and the kitchen. It had seemed torturous at the time, but not because the chore was hard, but because she wanted to sit out in the sun and play with her dolls.

Bra smiled bitterly as she reminisced.

She rose once again into the air and flew around the base of Mount Paozu. She found no dwellings whatsoever, bar the small potato shack. Becoming agitated, Bra released a roar into the sky, "Come out right now! This isn't funny!"

There was no reply to be heard.

Now frustrated and beginning to feel pangs of hunger Bra decided that she might as well check the entire planet before giving up. Hopefully before she was done, she'd be at the closest fast food restaurant ordering the entire menu. She released her energy, powered up into her Super Saiyan form and flew across the ocean, islands and foreign countries. As she travelled she let her senses spread wide, trying to find intelligent life.

Slowly, but surely, she was coming to the realisation that every single city, town and village had been destroyed. Without conscious effort, Bra found herself flying in the direction of Dende's lookout.

'There must be someone there. Dende or maybe Mister Popo. They'll be able to tell me what happened and help me find my way home.' She thought determinedly.

Flying at high speed towards the lookout Bra wondered about the consequences of what she should find. If there was no one there for her to find she was in trouble and the thought made her grind her teeth in worry. Coming closer to her destination, Bra noticed that Korin Tower had been destroyed. The tower had supposedly been made of a very durable material, and to see the rubble where it once stood was shocking. Tears slipped out over her cheeks, falling like rain drops onto the earth below. The lookout was still intact however she now had no hopes of finding anyone alive.

It was deserted. The familiar red, green and beige colouring of the lookout gave her no comfort as she landed on the smooth platform. The trees standing in formation leading up to the domed structure were still living but they were unkempt, something she had never seen before. A heavy pit of dread settled in her stomach. With trepidation she made her way towards Dende's home.

As she entered through the front archway she let out a loud cry of shock and distress.

End Chapter

Author's note: Thank you for reading. I hope Bra is portraying a realistic mix of emotions in reaction to her situation. I'm planning out the chapters ahead, and I think this is going to be a pretty long story. I'm still looking for a Beta Reader if anyone is interested.