Part 4
"I'm through playing games." Vegeta snarled to the people gather around the table. "We will solve this now, or we won't ever solve it. The fool police have even gotten involved thanks to Trunks's accident and even they have no clue what's going on."
Gohan was silent, but inside him, he knew Vegeta was right. Now that the police had gotten involved, the killer's free reign, enjoyed by his or her shadowed face, might end, and that might cause him to fade away.
Or act immediately before the police had a chance to get organized.
But Bulma hadn't had a choice in the matter. Accidents are always investigated to find out the cause if there are no witnesses, and it was clear that Trunks's crash had been no accident. To avoid trouble and persistant questioning, and any chance the police might suspect her or someone else because she appeared to not be being totally honest, Bulma had admitted to them that someone was after her and her family. She also admitted that she suspected that whoever had done this to her son had also poisoned her husband and terrorized her and her daughter
Then she had found out that she hadn't been the first.
To her horror, the police told her about a series of other murders they believed were all linked. The exact number of victims was unknown, but it was suspected to be at least twelve. Nearly all of them had been children, snatched from their beds, their schools, even from behind their parent's backs, and later found horribly murdered. The killer changed his name, script, and even his methods, but he always signed a name, and they all had a common thread running through them.
They were all written in foreign languages, some common, some ancient and near-forgotten.
And they all were a title of someone who considered himself a killer of the young and newly born, for they all denoted that.
Killer of Babies.
Destroyer of Young.
Executionour of Innocents.
Slaughterer of Lambs.
Besides that, the police had no other clues. The killer had covered his tracks to a degree that the police were no closer to solving the case then they were five years ago when they first began to notice the simularities.
The last victim of the person who was targeting Bulma now had been Triner Kiester. Bulma had been startled at the name. She knew the Kiesters, if very faintly. They had been a rich and powerful family. Now they were a ruin. The two were divorcing, each blaming the other for the death of their son, and the gossip papers were reporting that Edmund Kiester was beginning to drink heavily.
But the killer did not have such a predictable pattern. The fact that the Kiesters and the Briefs were both rich and powerful was moot. Of the child victims the man had claimed, they came from all sorts of famalies. Some were rich, most were middle class, and two were even in an economic class that could be considered poor. He had killed the children who were part of families and children who were being raised by single parents. Sex, age, or skin colour did not come into play in his choosing of victims. The group was as disverse as a random grouping off a street could be. If the killer had a pattern, it wasn't one the police could trace.
Bulma had looked at the couples and parents. She could feel the sadness coming off those pictures, but she could discern no matter, despite a nagging feeling that there was one. But in her stressed and exhausted state of mind, she couldn't tell if it was genuine or a feeling that the police had inavertingly planted in their questioning of her.
She had told them about her suspections about Yamcha, and the police were currently looking for him. But he had disappeared, as if he had stepped out one evening and flown off to some unknown destination.
Or if he had gone into hiding.
Vegeta poisoned.
Trunks nearly killed in a car crash caused by sabotage.
Murdered children of other couples.
Was it possible? Could Yamcha have gone psychotic?
Or had he been like this all the time, having hid it away from her all the time she had known him?
Bulma didn't know. But she wasn't taking any chances. After the hospital, she didn't go back home. She instead went to the Capsole Corp, when she, Vegeta, and Bra had slept in a makeshift bedroom surrounded by security. The morning after had calmed her down somewhat, but tha calm was immediately shattered by what had happened in the hospital when she had gone back to visit her son.
But at the same time, as Gohan remembered the horrible incident that had nearly crushed Bulma completely, it also gave him hope from the actions taken to save him from a man who was virtually a stranger.
"What the hell are you talking about? That was a car crash! Something so simple couldn't kill my son!" Vegeta screamed at the doctor. The doctor, used to dealing with people who were yelling at him, merely adjusted his glasses and looked at the furious saiya-jin.
"Mr. Briefs, I don't know why you are suggesting, or how you can possibly think that such a severe car crash is simple, but it is not. Your son has third-degree burns over 90% of his body. The fact that he managed to survive the car crash is in itself, miraculous. But I'm afraid that the damage to his body may just be too severe. Far too many cells have been severely damaged, if not destroyed. His body can't maintain the fluid it needs to survive. Indeed, if we hadn't performed an emergency tracheostony, the swelling would have closed off his wind pipe and left him unable to breath. Even now, we are barely able to get air to his lungs. And that doesn't solve the problem of the fact that his body is slowly breaking down."
Vegeta wanted to reach out and grab the doctor, slap him around, hurt him, kill him, for suggesting such blasphemy. But his rage was slowly being replaced by the terrible horror that had fileld him for most of the Agony massacre, the horror that his son might die, and that Vegeta couldn't do anything about it.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Briefs, but if your son lives, it will be a miracle.
The fact of the Dragon Balls was something that never occurred to people until a person had died.
But another fact did occur to Vegeta, as he spun on his heel and looked at his wife.
He almost stopped what he was about to say, the utter sick look on his wife's face shocked him that much. But his idea was too important to waste time on shocked pauses.
"Bulma! We have to get the…special experimental medicine Capsole Corp has been working on! That will save our son!" Vegeta said.
"Special experiemental…?" Bulma began, before Vegeta grabbed her.
"The senzu beans, woman!" he hissed in her ear.
"…Oh, yes, the special medicine!" Bulma said, managing to go along with the act despite her horror.
"Special medicine? I haven't heard anything about a special medicine that Capsole Corp was working on…" the doctor said, before Bulma pulled hima side and began whispering into his ear.
"It's top secret, that's why!" Bulma lied, hoping the doctor didn't have some kind of a built in polygraph that would surely start ringing off the hook for the bullshit she was about to make up to explain what would happen when she gave her son a senzu bean. "We've been testing it endlessly, and while it seems to work, we didn't want to annouce it to the world until we were 100 perecent sure it did. But its healing abilities are marvelous, especially on burn victims!"
The doctor stared at her silently, then began to nod.
"I understand. I'll keep my silence."
"Good. Now we just have to go and get the pill…"
"Pill?" the doctor said.
"Yes, why?" Vegeta answered, startling the doctor. But he answered Vegeta anyway.
"Mr. Briefs, your son's throat is swollen by the burn to the point he couldn't breathe on his own without the tracheostony, and that tube obstructs anything else. Your son can't swallow anything."
Bulma's face fell. Vegeta managed to hide his shock a bit better.
"That's ok." He said, trying to keep calm. "We'll just wait until the swelling goes down…"
The look on the doctor's face kept Vegeta from finishing.
"I'm sorry Mr. Briefs, but from the way his body is injured…your son will be long dead before the swelling could reduce enough for him to swallow something."
Gohan was glad of many things, but it didn't seem like he could be any more grateful that he had been waiting for Bulma in her makeshift bedroom when she came back. Her mood kept switching back and forth from hysterical crying jags to dead silence, while Vegeta was his usual utterly furious self, smashing everything he could get his hands on and swearing revenge on Yamcha. Gohan didn't bother pointing out that there was still no definate proof that Yamcha was doing this, it would be lost on Vegeta. Instead, Gohan had called his father to come in and keep Vegeta calm. The only good thing was that the last of the AE chemical was finally in the process of leaving Vegeta's system. The last thing Gohan needed on top of this chaos was another Vegeta energy-throwing seizure.
Once his father had arrived and calmed downed Vegeta, Gohan had managed to extract the information of Trunks's situation from the two of them. It made him as sick as Bulma felt.
"So Trunks can't swallow the bean?" Goku asked, being the last one to get it, as usual. "That's terrible! It's not right!"
"DAMN RIGHT IT'S NOT RIGHT KAKAROTTO!" Vegeta screamed, and seconds later Goku once again had Vegeta wrapped in a bear hug so that Vegeta couldn't go back to his apparent desire to dismantle the Capsole Corp buildings.
"Gohan! You're smart! There has to be some way for us to help Trunks! Because I'm damn sure not going to stand by and let him die!" Goku yelled over Vegeta's fury. Gohan didn't reply, but the fact that he began to walk around with his fingers pressed to his forehead signalled to Goku that he was thinking, and that was good enough for Goku.
Gohan called apon all the knowledge he had regarding burn victims, which wasn't much. But the fact that he had to save a friend drove him onward for an answer.
Which, by a grace of whatever doles out luck, came quickly to him.
"Toussan!" he said, turning to his father. "Do you have a senzu bean on you?"
"What? Of course!" Goku said, pulling it out and flipping it to his son. Vegeta stopped struggling as Bulma, who was in the midst of her stony silence mood, looked up.
"Do you have an idea, Gohan?" she asked.
Gohan grinned, although there was desperation in the grin.
"I just might."
David was looking over the boxes that had arrived for him that morning and cursing the loss of his mini fridge when Gohan suddenly ran into the laboratory that was serving as his.
"DAVID!" he yelled, causing David to bang his head against the top of the cupboard he was attempting to cram one of his boxes into. Rubbing his head, David stood up.
"Owowowowow. Gohan? Damn, what's wrong?" he asked.
Gohan handed him the senzu bean.
"Can you process this into a liquid medicine? A kind that could be fed into someone via a tube?" Gohan asked, his worry and fear began his voice a tad shrill.
David, for whatever reasons he had, smirked.
"Oh, you heard about that talent of mine with medicines, did you? I suppose I can try. What the heck is this, a bean?" David said, examining the small object.
"YES! Do it and HURRY! It's a matter of life or death!"
David's smirk vanished, replaced by a look of dead seriousness.
"Why didn't you say so? Ok, I'll need some bowls, a pinter, a crusher, some Dimondil, and some Gomaloril!" David said, and turned around with the bean. As Gohan hurried out the door to get what David had requested, Gohan could see he had already pulled some tolls from his makeshift new workstation and had already got to work.
It had been an agonizing ninety minutes as the small group had waited as David worked at a furious pace in his workstation. Gohan didn't know why his words had lit such a fire under David's butt, but they had, and thus David was able to step outside the lab with a test tube after so short a time. Such modification to medicines from pill administration to special oral or otherwide administration usually took several hours longer.
"Here you are, Gohan." David said, wiping sweat from his brow. "I worked as fast as I could."
Gohan snatched the tube.
"I'll thank you later. But I have to go, and go now!" Gohan yelled over his shoulder as he took off down the hall with his father, Vegeta, and Bulma. David watched them go, and then headed back into his makeshift lab.
And thus had Gohan found himself watching as the doctor carefully inserted a special food tube down Trunks's throat. Bulma stood closer, holding onto Vegeta. Goku was outside, waiting and hoping. Bulma had managed to convince the doctor that Gohan was the main doctor for the "special experimental medicine", but she had had no idea on what to call Goku, dressed as usual in his orange karate gi. Goku had saved her the trouble by volenteering to keep out of the way.
"Ok, it's inserted. I really would insist on a tube going right into the stomach, inserting another tube down Trunks's throat is rather dangerous. It could cut off the oxygen from his other tube."
"Doctor, if this medicine works, the healing process could try and remove the cut that the tube inserted into the stomach would go through, and that could cause all kinds of complications. We just need the other tube in for a few minutes, at most, and if this works, we won't be needing either." Gohan said, handing the doctor the test tube filled with the specially prepared senzu bean.
The doctor didn't reply, instead slowly and carefully taking the tube and placing it into the machine that would slide its contents up the tube and down Trunks's throat. Then, it would be up to fate if the senzu bean still worked.
The liquid began to slide up the tube.
Bulma held Vegeta.
Gohan prayed.
More liquid flowed down Trunks's throat.
Nothing happened.
The doctor watched, waiting.
Nothing.
Bulma made a small noise of utter despair.
And then, slowly, the burns that covered Trunks's face began to shrink, leaving pink, healed, whole skin.
"Holy shit. I don't believe it." The doctor said in shock as Trunks's fatal injuries vanished right in front of his eyes. Bulma then began to cry, but in joy.
Gohan was happy, but he also had to take action.
"Come on doctor! Remove those tubes! He doesn't need them anymore!" Gohan said.
The doctor was still a tad hesitant, but as Trunks continued to heal in front of him, he was only too happt to comply.
As the flashback faded for Gohan, he looked across the table at the man who had been the main figure at it. Trunks had woken up shortly after his body had been healed, and although it had taken a lot of lying, some alterations of records, and some money changing hands, Vegeta and Bulma were able to obtain an immediate discharge for him. They could solve the problem of the expected "miracle medicine" later.
"I agree with my father, and not just because I was involved in that accident. The killer may claim he's coming after Mom, but I'm damn sure not going to use her as bait. He may do so, but I'm more worried that he'll get scared and hide. If he does that, we may never find out who he is."
"Or even worse, he could hide until we dropped our guards and then strike." Goku suggested.
"I don't think so, father. His acts have all happened in close succession. If he still plans to come after Bulma, he'd probably do it soon, very soon. But I'm with Trunks, I'm not going to use Bulma as bait, and I'm not using Bra as bait either. They're both been through enough already." Gohan said.
"Your son's intelligence makes up for your lack of it, Kakarotto." Vegeta said.
"Father, save the insults for later. Let's concentrate on the problem." Trunks said.
"Agreed. I'll gather the evidence we've found, and then we can go over it."
"Agreed. And can we get something to eat? I'm hungry." Goku said.
The box that housed all the clues they had found was pitifully small, but Gohan didn't let that get him down. He was lucky to have as many clues as he did, thanks to the trust the police had in the Great Saiyaman. If it hadn't been for their gratefulness towards his superhero identity, Gohan would have never convinced them to loan them some of the stuff they had found from their searchs in the destroyed Capsole Corp Labs and the site of Trunks's car crash.
"Hey Gohan."
Gohan looked up to see David coming out of the kitchen that was nearby the complex of workstations that David was using now until his own workstation was rebuilt.
"David. Good to see you. Working late?"
"Yeah, you?"
"No. I suppose you heard about the Trunks accident?"
"Yeah, and I kind of guessed that your hurry to process that bean or whatever it was probably had something to do with that. Is he ok?"
Gohan was stunned slightly, but it quickly faded. He'd known David a long time, and he knew that the man was very astute and observational.
"Yes he is, thanks to you, David. Bulma would thank you herself, but she's busy attending to her daughter. The poor thing is exhausted from her confusion and the chaos going on around her. She still doesn't understand why they can't go home, poor thing. Bulma's making sure that Bra can fall asleep safely in the makeshift bedroom we set up for the Briefs last night."
"It was nothing. Just a favour for an old friend."
Gohan was about to move on, but David's last sentence gave him pause.
"You knew Bulma?"
"Ha, I wish. More like I knew of her. We went to the same school for a short time. She wouldn't remember me, I was in Grade…7, maybe, when she was in her final year. We were miles apart on the social picking order. I just kind of admired her from afar. She wouldn't remember me ever if she knew me either."
"Oh, because you've grown up?"
"No, because of the accident."
"Accident?"
"Car accident. I wasn't too badly hurt, but my face was practically ruined. Of course, you can barely see it now, thanks to plastic surgery, but when it first happened…my god, the scars were terrible. If she remembered me, it would probably be for how I looked in those last few days before she left and moved on."
"Hmmmm. And so you eventually came to work for her. Small world, huh David?"
"Yeah, but I wouldn't want to paint it."
"True, true."
"You never did answer my question Gohan. What are you doing here so late?"
Gohan sighed.
"You'd probably figure it out anyway. My friends and I are going to try and figure out who this madman is ourselves. Even with the police involved, we don't trust them. So we're going to have a go at it. Wish us luck."
"Huh. Do you still think it's that Yamcha fellow?"
"I don't know. He's the strongest suspect."
"I can believe it. Maybe you should dreg the security camera footage of the last few days with that new computer search technique that was recently implemented, maybe you could turn up something more incriminating."
"Good idea…but still…"
"But still what?"
Gohan sighed again.
"I know I shouldn't tell you this, but the police have linked whoever has done these things to a serial child killer…I just can't believe it, David. I've known Yamcha my whole life, and I simply can't conceive of him being like this, doing stuff like this, having commited crimes like this!"
David was silent, then spoke.
"You would be amazed at what people are hiding from you, Gohan." David said, and then turned back into the kitchen.
Gohan stared, then turned to head back to the security room where the group had planned to have their meeting.
Then David poked his head back out of the kitchen.
"Hey Gohan! I just thought of something. This meeting could take a long time. Would you like some drinks?"
"Drinks?" Gohan said, turning around. "Why?"
"Well, I order new boxes of drinks for my mini-fridge every month or so, but since that explosion destroyed it, I now have several boxes of drinks just sitting around my makeshift office. I can't keep them in a company fridge, they'd take up too much space, and if I don't keep them cold they lose their taste quickly, for me anyway. I may as well make some use of them."
"Well thanks David, but my arms are full and I can't…"
"Oh, don't worry. I'll bring them myself. I have nothing better to do, I just finished up what I came here to do tonight, which is why I was in the kitchen in the first place."
"Really? Thanks David."
"No problem. What room are you using for your discussions?"
"Security Room B, on this floor."
"Ok, I'll be along eventually. See you then."
"See you David."
"You should have told him to bring food also." Goku whined.
"Toussan, I think we have other things to worry about then food." Gohan said as he spread the evidence out on the table.
"You guys look this over, I have to go check on something myself." Gohan said, as he headed over to the banks of security monitors and sat down, tapping keys.
The two saiya-jins and hybrid looked over the evidence. There was the crushed glass bottle in a plastic bag, records of a fingerprint on that bottle and the records of who it matched, Yamcha. In nother bag was a slagged mess of metal that could once have been brake wires, and another slagged mess that could have once been part of a seatbelt. Various other records, talking about things Vegeta found worthless, such as the kind of ink that had been used in the defamation of Bra's bedroom, comparations of handwriting, and various other nonsense. Next came numerous records on the stalking of Vegeta and his family and how it was linked to the other murders suspected to belong to the same man who was after them. Vegeta and Trunks studied these the most closely. Goku had looked at each one in turn, and was looking at the last bit of evidence that Gohan had managed to finagle from the police for their study.
However, all Goku saw was a plastic bag. He squinted and turned it around and upside down, but he still couldn't see anything.
"Hey, what's this?" Goku said. Gohan looked up from his computer workings, pushed a last few keys, and went over to his father's side while the computer went to work on the search criteria Gohan had entered.
"I don't know, Toussan. It was with the other evidence, and I just grabbed it and got out of there as quickly as I could before the police decided to change their minds on loaning me the evidence."
Gohan took the bag and looked at it.
"Ah, I see. It's buried at the bottom, Toussan. No wonder you couldn't see it. Try not to breathe, I'm going to put it on the table.
The three held their breath as Gohan carefully opened the back and shook it gently, causing something that was nearly invisible to the eye to gently drift down onto the table. Gohan carefully picked it up as the others gathered around to see what it was.
A hair.
Black hair.
Gohan swallowed.
"That settles it. When I find Yamcha…" Vegeta cursed.
"Toussan, this still doesn't prove…" Trunks said, then stopped himself because he found he couldn't believe any differently either.
"It's not possible. How could Yamcha…" Goku said.
Then the computer beeped.
"Ah, my search is done." Gohan said, as he headed back into the chair. The three followed him, clustering around the chair Gohan sat down into.
"I commanded the computer to search all it's security camera footage records of the past few days, back until the beginning of the day this began, when you were poisoned, Vegeta. I asked for all descriptions of a man like Yamcha along with any recorded footage that could be construed as hostility between people or otherwise, just to be sure."
Calling up the findings of the search, Gohan began to go through the recorded footage.
There was a great deal of footage in which Yamcha appeared, but nothing happened in the footage that could be described as hostile. It was mostly footage of his entering and leaving the Capsole Corp, along with some footage of his waiting. In the reels, Yamcha only looked calm and prepared, without an inch of hostility.
The rest of the recordings were mostly from various employees as they cursed out their experiments or their fellow employees. Only the former contained hostility, as the latter was pratically all jokeful "I'm going to kill you!" and such.
Until Gohan came to the last bit of footage.
"Whoa, what have we here?" Trunks said as the picture of a furious Alex came up as Alex punched his locker and spewed venom about Bulma and David.
"Hey, he has black hair." Goku said.
"And a reason. I was there when Bulma fired him for being cruel to the animals. Then again, he's in the midst of a powerful rage, and I don't think he could keep it up long enough or high enough…but then again I really don't know…what's this?" Gohan said as Steve came into the picture. "It's Steve."
"You know him?" Vegeta said.
"Somewhat. He likes grossing me out with dirty jokes." Gohan said as Alex finished up his rant, grabbed his things and stormed out of the room.
Then Goku squinted at the camera.
"Gohan, rewind it a bit, will you?"
"Um, ok. Why, toussan?"
"Just after Alex finishes his cursing, I think Steve said something before Alex left."
Gohan played the footage again.
"You're right. It looks like he whispered something to himself before Alex left, but he said it so softly that the camera didn't pick it up." Gohan said. He zoomed in and amplified the sound, but he still couldn't pick it up.
"Ok, I'm not sure, but I think he said "Wouldn't we all"." Gohan said.
"What did Alex say to him before Steev said that?" Goku asked.
Gohan rewound a bit more, and then Alez's last curse exploded from the speakers. The four reeled back, and Gohan silently cursed that he had forgotten he'd turned the sound up so high.
"I COULD FUCKING KILL HER, THE MOTHERFUCKING CUNT!" Video Alex screamed. Gohan leaned forward and pushed a button that paused the video.
"Wouldn't we all." Trunks said in a quote of Steve's last words. He looked at his father. Vegeta's face was torn.
"Ok, now I don't know who could be responsible, so find out so I can kill him!" Vegeta cursed.
"Already checking, Vegeta." Gohan said as his fingers began to blur around the keyboard.
"Mommy, are we gonna be ok?" Bra said from the bed she lay in.
"We'll be fine, honey." Bulma said, although she didn't believe her own words. "Daddy, Trunks, and Uncle Goku and Gohan are right down the hallway. They'll protect us."
"But why is a bad man after us? Why did he hurt Daddy and Trunks?"
"Who knows why some people do what they do?" came a voice from the door. Bulma nearly leapt out of her skin as she turned around.
"Hey! Mrs. Briefs, it's just me." David said. Bulma's startled reaction had startled him as well, and he was struggling to hold onto a tray he had brought in.
"Sorry David. You just scared the bejesus out of me." Bulma said, getting up to him David with the tray.
"No no, I've got it." David said, reading Bulma's body language for her intentions and motioning for her to stay seated. He set the tray down on a nearby table.
"Who's this, Mommy?" Bra said.
"Oh, this is Dr. Solomus. He works with your mommy. In fact, he's working rather late. What are you doing here, David?"
"Working late as you said. I spoke with Gohan and volenteered to get him some drinks. He mentioned you were here, so I thought you and your daughter might like something as well."
"Really? That's sweet David." Bulam said.
"Do you have orange juice?" Bra asked.
"Um, I don't know…uh, yes I do." David said, tossing a bottled drink to Bulma along with a straw. Soon Bra was sucking contentedly on the straw.
"I don't know if you drink coffee or tea, Mrs. Briefs, so I brough both."
"Coffee please. And David, you can call me Bulma. You saved my son's life, it's the least I can do." Bulma said, taking the paper cup of coffee David offered her. She added sugar and milk and sipped contently. It was just what she needed.
"Oh, it was nothing I would do for my boss." David said, scratching his head in some embarassment.
Then Trunks entered the room.
"Kaasan, we need you. We think you had better see this."
"Do you know him Bulma?" Gohan asked as Bulma stared at the tape of Steve's actions.
"I…don't know…but I do feel a strange sense of…recognition…god, what was it…?" Bulma said, sitting down and holding her head on her hands, trying to think.
"Oh yes, now I remember! He came into my office about a month ago. I remember because my secretary said he was very rude to her because he appeared to be in a great hurry. He issued a complaint that the security in his section wasn't tight enough, I think. He said that he was sure, although he had no proof, that people were slipping equipment he had developed or helped develop with his other scientists out for their own personal uses. He wanted more security so he could keep this from happening. However, since I could find no records of anything stolen or removed without a valid reason, and seeing how the only way I could increases security was to post more guards around the clock, which I found totally unnecessary, I had to turn him down. He was polite to me, but I could sense hostility behind that façade. I think he was very angry at me."
"And the final kicker." Gohan said, and everyone turned to him as the hybrid swung around in his chair.
"Alex may have seemed more hostile, but I have camera records of him being in the building until he left after you dismissed him, Bulma. But the camera records of Steve on that day show he was absent from the building from late morning to mid-afternoon."
"That was the time that father had his seizure that afternoon." Trunks said.
"And the only time whoever had sabotaged your car Trunks, could have gotten ino your house and out without being noticed. It took you over a hal-hour until you felt confident enough to leave your father alone. Plenty of time for someone to slip into your garage, cut your brakes, fuse your seat belt so it wouldn't open once it was closed, and leave."
Bulma's face had gone white again.
"And what reason did Steve give for his absence."
Gohan turned around and took a look.
"He told the doorman he was going to go run…errands."
As Bulma headed back to the makeshift bedroom, she suddenly could the terrifying idea that Bra would be gone when she got back and ran the rest of the way.
But she was wrong, as Bra was still there with David, just as she had left them. She sighed in relief.
"You're back. Well, while you were gone your daughter finally dozed off. She looks so sweet while she's asleep." David said as he stood up. He looked at Bulma's harried face. "What's wrong?"
"I think…we might have our killer." Bulma said in breathy shock.
"Really? Is it Yamcha?"
"No…" Bulma said, and told David the evidence her friends, husband, and son had gathered.
"Steve? You think its Steve?"
"I don't know…but…" Bulma said. She felt a sudden weakness and nearly fell as she attempted to sit down in a chair. David got up to help her and guided her into the chair he had been sitting in.
"But what?" David asked.
"But I don't…I can't…think it could be…Yamcha. So I gave Steve a call. Told him he was needed for an emergency. My friends and family are going to confront him…and then…I don't know…God, I feel so tired all of a sudden."
"Stress can do that to you." David said. "I'll leave you two alone now. I'd best get Gohan and his friends those drinks."
"What…you didn't…already?" Bulma yawned.
"No. I came to you first, since I figured you would probably need it more. But if they're gonna confront someone with a crime like the ones that have been commited against you…this could take all night. And I definitely think they'll get thirsty." David said.
With that, he left, and Bulma found herself looking at her daughter, even as she struggled to keep her eyes open from the sudden onslaught of exhasution that had been wrecked on her.
"Maybe…I'll just take a little…nap…"
Seconds later, Bulma was on the bed next to her daughter, fast asleep.
Steve was lucky in one case. Goku had been closer to the door then Vegeta had been.
If it hadn't been the case, Steve would have been dead the second he had walked in the door, his question of what the problem was dying in his throat as Vegeta leapt across the room at him. Had Goku not seen what Vegeta planned to do and grabbed him in mid-leap, Vegeta would have clenched his hands around Steve's throat and crushed it like a bug.
"KAKAROTTO!" Vegeta screamed as he tried to get at Steve. Steve, not sure what was happening but having a feeling it wasn't good for him, turned to run before Gohan slammed the door behind him.
"Hi Steve. Could you please sit down?" Gohan asked politely with an edge.
"What the fuck is going on here? Who the fuck is…" Steve's voice trailed off as Trunks came up from behind and firmly clamped a hand on Steve's shoulder.
"You'll know in a sec. Sit down." Trunks said, and shoved Steve down into the nerarest seat.
Steve quieted down, suddenly certain that making noise would be bad for him. He licked his lips nervously as he looked at the four men looking at him with intense eyes with a hint of anger.
"Why'd you do it Steve?" Gohan said.
"Do what?" Steve asked.
"Why did you poison me?" Vegeta asked, fury in his voice and his eyes flashing green.
"And sabotage my car?" Trunks said, before he took a swig of a glass bottle of juice. Indeed, the there were many of those bottles on the table, some full, some empty.
"And while you're at it, why don't you tell us why you've been stalking Bulma and why you want to KILL HER?!?!?!?" Goku finished by yelling in Steve's face. The fact that he might be confronting the man that had done these things had made Goku mad enough that he had dispensed with any pleasentries he might have given to Steve had they met in different circumstances.
Steve, for the most part, was cringing in his chair, as if he was trying to sink right into it to get away from all this angry people.
"What…wha…what are you talking about?"
"This." Gohan said in a low angry tone, and pressed a button on a labtop he had hooked up to the main security bank. Steve turned to look at the video where he decreed that everyone would probably want to kill Bulma.
After it was done, he turned and looked back at the four angry men. He gave a nervous chuckle.
"Oh guys…c'mon…you don't think I actually meant that? It was a joke…the american dream is to kill your boss. I was being sarcastic…"
"Then why did you whisper it?" Goku said.
"Uh, I didn't want to give Alex any idea I supported his angry wish to kill Bulma, so that's why I whispered it. I was making a joke…c'mon guys, you can't seriously think I…"
"I'm afarid we do, Steve." Gohan said. The nervous look on Steve's face melted into a look of fear, and a hint of betrayal.
"Gohan, I thought you were my friend! How can you think such a thing about me! I would never do such horrible things!" Steve protested.
"Well Steve, then maybe you can explain where you were on Tuesday during those several hours you were gone." Goku said. Steve turned to Goku.
"Why?"
"Why? Steve, it was during that exact timeframe that the car Trunks, that's Bulma's son, that purple-haired guy over there, drove was sabotaged. Trunks could have been killed in that crash!" Goku said
"But...but…" Steve stammered.
"It's not just that Steve. We had been thinking it might be someone else with black hair, but you also having black hair and being gone during those timelines…it just kind of adds up against you. You were in the lab where Vegeta was slipped a poison drink, you could have done it and left no trace by wearing gloves. You complain about how easily equipment from your lab was being taken and used for unoffical purposes, you could have abused that knowledge by taking equipment of your own and using it to get past the defenses of the Briefs house, get into Bra's bedroom by the second story window, and write all those sentences you wrote over Bra's room in so short a time! I'm sure Capsole Corp has devices or drugs or something else that would allow you to do that! So why don'' you confess Steve. We'll turn you over to the police if you do. If you keep stringing us along, I'll get very angry, and believe me, you do not want to see me when I am angry, especially when my friends have been hurt and threatened!"
Gohan stared at his father, amazed at what had just come out of his mouth. Maybe Dad's a lot smarter then we give him credit for.
"It'd say Kakarott said it best, however much of a miracle that is, you baka." Vegeta hissed.
"So unless you have an explaination, buddy…" Trunks began.
"Why don't you just test his hair?"
The four men who had drawn steadily closer around Steve whirled at the sudden voice and found David standing in the doorway, leaning on the side, watching the proceedings.
"David! Oh it's you. How long have you been standing there?" Gohan said. He finally noticed his glasses had fogged up and took them off to clean them.
"Long enough."
"Dr. Solomus! Oh god, don't tell me you're in on this Gespato crap as well!" Steve said, his whitened face slowly colouring again.
"No, I'm the voice of reason. Sorry about your treatment Steve, thse four men are having their judgement influenced by their tempers." David said. "Gohan, you have a hair the police found as evidence in the parking lot. Just because it's black doesn't mean anything. If you're doing just by colour, Trunks should be interrogating everyone else in this room, including me." David said, pointing to his short and neatly cropped black hair.
Gohan stared for a second, then smacked himself in the face.
"You're right Dave. I let my temper get the better of me. Ok Steve, give me a hair off your head. I'll go and run a quick test, and then we'll see. If they match…that will be too great of a coicidence, even for me."
Rain was beginning to pour outside the Capsole Corp when the figure finally came to it. He reached back and slicked back his hair, his fingers brushing over a deep cut in his cheek that had been inflicted long ago.
"Here at last." Yamcha said.
"So just what WERE you doing when you were running errands, Dr. Saunders?" Trunks said, as he sipped at another bottle of juice, grateful that David had brought them, although he had taken a little long for Trunks's taste.
Steve sighed and took a nervous glance at Vegeta.
"Don't look at me like that you baka. I don't care what you were doing, provided it had nothing to do with hurting my family." Vegeta snarled. Steve shrank away and turned back to Trunks.
"Ok…if it will clear me…I was seeing my girlfriend."
Trunks stared incredulously.
"Your girlfriend?" Goku said in amazement.
"Yeah, I know, it's one hell of a crappy alibi, which is why I didn't blurt it right out when you guys were looking to start a new Spanish Inquisition on me. That, and I technically wasn't allowed." Steve said with some hesitation and a hint of shame.
"Not allowed? I would think so! Why not see your mate at night, when most of you humans do it?" Vegeta snorted. Steve looked over nervously.
"That's the thing…more often then not I find I have to work really late. I kept missing dates and other meetings with Sandra. But I really like her, so I decided that I would find other times to see her. So when it looks like we're not going to have a busy day…I go out and see her."
Then Steve, who didn't think he could be surprised any more, was surprised anew as Vegeta suddenly leaned over and inhaled through his nose over Steve. Steve recoiled.
"What was that about?" he asked increduously.
"He's telling the truth." Vegeta said, as he leaned away and stood up.
"Telling the…how can you tell, toussan?" Trunks asked.
"The act of sex produces a certain musk that permits the bodies of both partners. I can smell that musk on him. It's not strong enough that he could have committed the act recently, but it's not weak enough that he did it two days ago or earlier. Thus, he must have done the act yesterday…and since he spent practically the rest of that day in this building if the security camea footage is right, and his mate's sure refusal to meet him for such a late night liason as he said, he must have gone to meet her in that time." Vegeta said. Steve looked freaked at Vegeta's revelation.
Goku walked over and sniffed Steve himself.
"You're right. I can smell it myself…what you said sounds just about right, Vegeta." Goku said. Vegeta smirked with one corner of his mouth.
"That's why I'm the prince and you're just the lowly third class warrior, Kakarott." Vegeta said.
"Ok, you two can tell I had sex by SMELLING IT? And just what the hell are you two talking about anyway?" Steve asked, confusion written all over his face.
"That's not for you to know, Steve." Gohan's voice suddenly came as he walked into the room. "But this is: the hair samples don't match. This hair isn't yours."
Vegeta cursed, while Steve looked relieved.
"Does that mean I can go home?" Steve asked.
"It appears so, we don't have any reason to keep you here. If my father and Vegeta have enough faith that you didn't do it…"
"I didn't say that, you stupid baka! I just said he was telling the truth on where he had gone on those supposed "errands"!" Vegeta yelled. Steve cringed again.
"Vegeta, we don't have the proof to keep him here. We're not the police." Gohan said. "Go on Steve. He won't hurt you."
Steve hurridly got out of his chair and headed for the door.
"Hey, Steve." Vegeta said.
Steve turned.
"I'll let you go, but if I find out that you are the one who has done these crimes to me and my family, and that you have slipped away from me, I will track you down, and I will make you suffer." Vegeta hissed, and his hair momentarily flashed gold.
That was enough for Steve, as he turned tail and walked out the door as quickly as he could.
Yamcha finished pressing the buttons, and the electronically locked door slid open with a small whoosh of air. He wiped water from his rain-soaked black hair and face.
"Ok Bulma. I know you're here. Now I just have to find you."
"Well, if it's not Steve, then who is it?" said Goku.
Gohan sighed, not wanting to answer. With evidence eliminating Steve as a suspect, that brought the sights right back down on the person who had been in them from day one. Instead of answering, he picked up another juice bottle, screwed off the cap, and drank deeply.
"I think we all know the answer now." Trunks said softly.
Gohan kept drinking, and cursed when he ran out of juice.
"Toussan…I think we might have to accept the fact…"
"No!" yelled Goku. "Maybe I could think Yamcha would come after Bulma, as sad and horrible as that thought is, but you heard what the police said! Whoever's done this has killed before, taken the lives of children, and I can not ACCEPT THAT!"
"But who else is there?" Trunks said.
"I don't know! Maybe it was some random lunatic who saw you guys on the TV one day and decided to target you…but it can't be…I mean, it's not fair, he's not even here to defend himself…"
"The time for the defense of Yamcha is over, Kakarott." Vegeta said, as he cracked his knuckles. "I've seen all I need to see. Defense is over. It's time for sentencing."
Yamcha walked down the hallways of Capsole Corp. He didn't want to alert anyone to his prescene. What he needed to do would need to be done with him and Bulma, alone.
David was in the kitchen drinking one of his juice bottles when Steve came in, panting. Surprised, David nearly spat his juice on him.
"Steve. So what happened?"
"The hair samples didn't match, thank god, but I don't know if that will stop Mr. Briefs if he decides I did those horrible things to him and his son and to his daughter and his wife! Come on! I'm a pacifist! I couldn't hurt a fly!" Steve said, before he began to cough.
"Hey Steve, you all right?" David asked as he came forward, taking an open juice bottle off the counter. "You want something to drink?"
"Huh, no thanks, I'm fine…" Steve said. "But I could use an apple…I think they have a few in these fridges." He continued as he walked past David, leaving the scientist standing by the entrance to the kitchen.
"Apples? Why apples?" David asked.
"I dunno…" Steve said as he buried his head in the fridge, hunting for his fruit of choice. "Thye just always calmed me down…I think it's something in the natural sugars…and I definitely need to feel calm now. I mean, the whole idea of them accusing me of trying to kill Bulma and her family…my god, I've seen pictures of her daughter. Who could possibly want to hurt that sweet little gir-"
The sudden small gurk! Steve suddenly heard behind him was just loud enough to give him pause.
Then the shattering crash of glass hitting the floor caused him to jump. Banging his head on the top of the fridge, he spun around to find David's bottle of juice lying on the ground, the fruit liquid slowly spreading out like the floor was bleeding purple blood.
"David?" he asked in a small voice.
There was no answer. Looking around for a weapon, Steve found a broom next to the fridge and began walking forward with it held out defensively.
"David? David, are you there? David, if this is a joke it's not funny!" Steve said, his voice quavering. The glass of David's juice bottle crunched under Steve's foot as he made his way towards the entranceway of the kitchen.
Then he heard footsteps. Gratefully, he put the broom down and walked out the entranceway.
"Hey that wasn't…" he began before his eyes went wide.
Then the knife plunged into his throat, cutting off Steve's scream before it could be uttered. A small bubbling moan came out, but then even that was silenced as the knife was jerked sideways, slicing Steve's throat wide open. Steve's last breath left him a small wheeze as his body hit the ground, blood soaking the floor.
"Who indeed." Said the killer, smirking at the body. "But he doesn't leave witnesses."
Gohan was never wholly sure what happened later. He had been in the midst of an argument with Vegeta and Trunks with his last word being sprinkler when the door opened and Yamcha, soaked to the skin, walked into the room.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion as everyone turned and looked in shock at the scarred fighter, who was looking in shock back at them.
"What are you guys…?"
Then Yamcha didn't get to say anything else, because this time Goku wasn't closer.
Screaming, Vegeta leapt forward, going Super Saiya-jin in mid-leap, and grabbed Yamcha, his hands wrapping around his throat and pinning him to the wall.
"KILL YOU! KILL YOU! KILL YOU YOU MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!!!!"Vegeta screamed as he throttled Yamcha. Yamcha had his hands on Vegeta's arms and was futiley trying to pull Vegeta's hands off of him, but he was no match for Vegeta's saiya-jin strength and rage.
Then Goku, Gohan, and Trunks were on Vegeta, pulling him away from Yamcha, who collasped, breathing in great whooping gasps.
"LET ME GO! I'M GONNA KILL HIM! KILL HIM!" Vegeta screamed. The three others went SSJ as well in an attempt to hold Vegeta. They did, but barely, as Yamcha got up, holding his throat.
"Yamcha, I suggest you sit down." Gohan said as he struggled with Vegeta. Yamcha complied, sitting down, gasping in breath, his throat ragged. He was lucky. If he had been a normal man, Vegeta would have popped his head right off like a champange cork. But even all his training had barely kept him alive long enough for the three others to pull Vegeta off of him. He spied the juice bottles and gulped down three in sucession and was starting on a fourth when the three finally managed to calm Vegeta down enough so that he wouldn't attack Yamcha again.
"Ok Yamcha. I assume you know why this happened." Gohan said. Yamcha looked up.
"No."
Gohan arched his eyes.
"What?"
"You heard me, no! I don't know what the fuck is going on! I come back after my emergency trip and find I'm wanted by the police and that Bulma has made the charge and that she's not at her home and she's here and then I come here and Vegeta tries to kill me and what the HELL IS GOING ON!?!?!??!" Yamcha said in a big rush before he gulped down the rest of the juice bottle.
"You know damn well! You've been skulking around, stalking my wife and princess! You tried to kill me and Trunks, and you…YOU BASTARD!" Vegeta said, and leapt at Yamcha. Yamcha tried to back away so quickly he fell over the chair. He got up and scramed away, putting the table between him and Vegeta, who was again being held by the other three.
"Vegeta, hear him out! We owe him that much!" Trunks said to his furious father. "Yamcha, what was that about an emergency trip?"
Yamcha looked at the four men he called his friends, as confused as ever at these accusations.
"Yeah, emergency trip. I had to go out into the desert for a few days."
"The desert? Why?" Goku asked, as he managed to push Vegeta back into a chair. Yamcha sighed.
"I don't suppose I could find out why everyone thinks I'm some kind of murdering lunatic."
Gohan and Goku quickly gave Yamcha a summery of everything that had happened since Yamcha had last seen Bulma. Yamcha's face grew more and more shocked throught the whole thing, until the two finished he collasped in a chair.
"Oh god…and you actually thought I DID all that?" Yamcha said.
"The evidence against you is pretty bad, Yamcha." Gohan said. Now that he could actually speak with Yamcha, his disbelief that Yamcha could have commited all these acts was growing with every second. He knew people, and he could never belief Yamcha was possible of such atrocities. Watching Yamcha grow more and more horrified at what he had allegedly done had only cemented this view.
"Oh god…stalking Bulma? Trying to kill her family? Murdering children…HOW COULD YOU THINK I COULD DO THESE THINGS!?!?!?!" Yamcha yelled, horrified and offended by what these people had said he had done.
"But Yamcha, this all started practically the minute after you left Bulma after telling her you wished Bra could have been your daughter instead of Vegeta's. Then you just vanished without a trace. Where have you been?" Goku asked.
Yamcha sighed, drank more juice, then inhaled.
"Goku, you know I was once a desert bandit, right?"
"Yeah."
"I wasn't born like that, I was taught how to do it. The man who taught me was part of a small band of such thieves. He taught me how to do what I once did in my youth, and I was part of his group before I struck off on my own before I met you guys and eventually reformed. After I got home, I was confronted by one of his last students. They told me he was dying, and he wanted to see a few people before he passed on. I was one of them. So I left with him immediately, and I just got back now to find the police wanted me. The newspaper said Bulma had laid the charges for the attempted death of her son Trunks. To put it lightly, I was surprised at this. So I go to Bulma's home, only to find out she's here. So I come here to ask her what's going on, and I enter this room looking for her and Vegeta tries to kill me!"
"It's a good thing you entered this room first, you dead piece of shit!" Vegeta cursed.
"Vegeta, I said stay calm!" Goku screamed. It was so loud and sudden that it even startled Vegeta into silence.
"Thank you." Goku said.
"Yamcha, you said you found out that Bulma was staying here. How did you do that? The police are guarding her house. They know you, they would have arrested you, and even if you got awa, they would have called us to tell us about you. So how did you…?"
"Puar. She used her talent to disguise herself as a deliveryboy, and under that pretense she managed to get the information for me." Yamcha gasped, and drank more juice, trying to get the raw burning from Vegeta's attempted garrotting out of his throat.
"Where is Puar?" Gohan asked.
"She's outside. The chemical smell in here makes her sick, remember? But I'll go get her, she can verify my whole story. She was with me when I watched my old teacher die. And she can verify his existence, he gave Puar to me. And Puar has never told a lie in her life."
The four were silent.
"Guys, please believe me. I didn't do these things."
"But then how did your fingerprint get on the bottle that the poison was it?"
"I don't know! I just picked a random bottle out of that fridge, and then Vegeta came along and drank it after whats-his-name took it away from me. How would I know it had poison in it? I was going to drink it! If whats-his-name hadn't stopped me at the last minute, I would have!"
Gohan stepped forward.
"Yamcha, give me a hair. With it I can see if you're telling the truth…or somehow hiding your true self to us." Gohan said.
"Yeah, sure, here!" Yamcha said, ripping a hair out of his hand and handing it over. "You've got to believe me. If that helps, no problem!"
Goku sighed. His questions about Yamcha had been cleared up by Yamcha's answers. They were good enough for him. Like Gohan, he could never believe that Yamcha was capable of what had been done.
"Well, while you might be cleared, Yamcha, this leaves us with the problem that's been bothering us the whole time!" Goku said.
"Oh? What?" Yamcha asked, and began drinking down yet another bottle of juice.
"Who's doing this! I mean, who has black hair, wouldn't leave a fingerprint if he put poison in a bottle, has either the power or access to the technology to get into Bulma's house, get into Bra's bedroom and spraypaint it so quickly, know Vegeta was poisoned, time it so that he knew he could slip in and out of the house when both Trunks and Vegeta would be distracted so he could sabotage the car, and above all else, possess all the knowledge and the oppourtunities to pull all this off…"
The answer hit Son Goku right between the eyes like a bolt of lighting. The shock of realization was so great that even the four other men in the room could see it on his face.
"Toussan?" Gohan said.
"Oh my god, it's been staring us in the face all along. The killer is…"
"ARGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Yamcha suddenly screamed. "My body is on fire! Help me! It burns!" Yamcha wailed before collasping to the floor, wracked with convulsions.
"YAMCHA…oh god, I'm on fire too…ARGHHHHH!" Gohan said as he too collasped to the floor. Vegeta leapt to his feet.
"KAKAROTTO! What's going…ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Vegeta screamed as he to collasped, his body wracked in spasms and his limbs feeling like they were burning from the inside. His hands spasmed and knocked on of the still full bottles against the wall, where it shattered and left a star shaped pattern. Trunks went down with his father, overturning a chair as he tried to stay up on his feet and failing in it.
Even as Goku felt the same agony that was gripping his friends and son, he stared at the splashed juice against the wall and came to another, even more horrible realization.
"The drinks…they…were…poisoned!" Goku managed to gasp out before he too collasped in terrible burning pain. Yamcha had managed to speed up his body's reaction to the poison that had been laced into the juices the men had been drinking by drinking so much in so little time. That, and his body's fully human and thus weaker constitution had caused him to enter the wracking spasms at roughly the same time the poison the other four had slowly accumlated in their bodies from their drinking had finaly hit a high enough point to effect the saiya-jins and hybrids.
Despite the muscle spasms and the pain that was beyond belief, especially in his extremeties, Vegeta managed to summon his superhuman strength and drag himself out the door and down the hallway to where Bulma an Bra were sleeping. He had to warn them, he had to…
With the last of his strength, he yanked himself through the doorway.
And even as blood began to bubble out from his nostrils, Vegeta's mouth dropped in shock and horror.
Bulma and Bra were gone.
Just before his vision blurred, split, and filled with red, Vegeta saw the words painted above the bed his daughter had been sleeping in.
NOW THEY'RE MINE.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Vegeta screamed, and then was consumed by the burning redness.
Bulma came groggily back to life. The first thing she realized was that there was a bad taste in her mouth. The second was that she was no longer in a bed. She was chained to a wall.
"Wha…no!" Bulma cried faintly, as she tried to get free as the full realization hit her along with the fear. It wasn't possible. He couldn't have gotten past her husband and friends. This had to be a bad dream.
But as hard as Bulma tried, she couldn't wake up. As she jerked her head around and tried to get to her feet, she realized that the wall behind her felt cool and soft, almost rotten in places. She jerked her head around.
The wall she was chained to was a shrine to her, pictures from her teens all the way up to her present age. All of her. She saw some pictures that had been taken from newspapers, pictures that been of her and Vegeta, or Trunks, or others. Those people had been slashed out. It was only her.
And as she drew in breath to scream, she heard the low chuckle.
"Over 30 years of work. Of waiting. Of dreaming when this day would finally come."
Bulma's eyes widened in horror. She knew that voice.
As the killer stepped from the shadows to look apon his ultimate prize, Bulma's mouth dropped open and she began to make low noises that might have been words, if Bulma not been so shocked, horrified, and fearful.
"No…"she finally managed to get out as she looked at the killer's cruelly smirking face. "Not you…why…you…?"
"Why Bulma…" David smirked, tossing his knife from one hand to the other. "Were you expecting someone else?"
To Be Concluded!