Chapter 003 - The Kidnap and the Rescue
"I guess all miserable Earthlings have tails then." Raditz sneered in amusement, having heard his long-lost brother's quick denial over the origins of the two tailed children.
Corset trembled, clinging ever tighter to her mother and clamping her eyes shut. The fear had almost paralysed her; she didn't want to be here in this situation, she didn't like it one bit! This guy was dangerous and filled her with fear and anxiety. She wanted her mother to make him go away and make her feel safe! She wished she were at home with her grandpa and nana.
"Fine then, if my little brother won't join me then I'll just have to borrow my nephew and niece then."
Bulma's hold once again tightened, Corset clinging to her mother for dear life convinced this was just a nightmare. It had to be a nightmare! She could feel her eyes beginning to sting, could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Worst of all, her mother seemed just as scared as she was.
"One more step and I'll beat you down! Stay away from them!" Gohan's father's voice sounded stern and angry.
What happened next mystified the young girl as she couldn't see; she had heard a deep thumping sound closely followed by the sound of something hitting the sand.
The sounds of Goku's voice crying out in agony scared her further. The bad man had hurt somebody else and soon he would hurt her! She suddenly found her mother's grip had loosened enough for her to turn her head around. Doing so, she saw Gohan was running over towards his fallen father, Krillin's hand stretched out: "Daddy!"
Before anyone could do anything to help, Gohan was snatched off his feet by the Saiyan and held up in the air by the back of his shirt, instantly beginning to cry.
"There's one, now the other..." Raditz's evil eyes fell upon Corset and her mother, Corset instantly diving back into the cover of her mother's coat. She hadn't seen him; he didn't know she was here! She wanted him to just go away!
The man began to approach them. Corset bit her lip and began to shake. "Mama I'm scared," she wailed, desperately trying to stay hidden as she clung to her mother's sleeves.
Bulma gulped, fearful of this man and his obvious strength. There would be absolutely nothing she could do; she was no fighter after all! Yet her motherly instincts told her she had to protect her baby from this man at all costs; she would not let him lay a finger on her if she could help it! Her grip stayed firm around her daughter as she bravely and defiantly glared back into the eyes of the evil monster before her.
Raditz smirked, amused at the foolish woman's actions.
"Either you let go of her or I prize her from your dead corpse."
"Mama..." Corset sobbed, tears of fear streaming down her cheeks.
The world around her just seemed to slip from underneath her feet at the sound of a terrible crack. Through the blurry visions of shapes spinning around and feeling herself falling forwards, Corset saw her mother violently fly ahead of her; horror and dread piercing the young girl's heart and filling her with paralysing shock and terror. Her mother had let go of her and was flying backwards through the air.
It was obvious even to the little girl why her mother flew.
The scene played in slow motion; as Corset's hands and knees hit the sand she saw her mother striking the ground, spinning a couple of times before coming to a halt on the edge of the sea.
"BULMA!" Krillin's voice pierced the silence as he dashed towards the woman.
"MAMA!" Corset screamed hysterically, finally finding her voice had returned. Was she dead? The urgency to see her mother was incredibly overwhelming but before she could even begin to run towards her mother, Raditz had also grabbed her from behind and held her from the back of her blue t-shirt. No, he couldn't do this! She had to go see if her mother was alright, even if she knew she wasn't. She had to be by her side.
"Let me go! You hurt my mama! Let me go!" She demanded in fits of tears, wiggling desperately to get out of his grip somehow.
Raditz seemed to be ignoring her request and Corset felt herself swish around to the right as the tall man turned around.
"Kakarrot, I'll make a deal with you. You have one day to reconsider my offer. I will return here tomorrow and I want you to kill a hundred humans! Pile their bodies here - and don't think I won't count."
"You think Goku is capable of doing something like that?" Master Roshi cried, furious about the development and how powerless he felt.
Raditz didn't sound too bothered by this. "Either he does it or I'll kill the two brats. If he values a hundred lives over the lives of his son and daughter then fine."
Through the floods of tears blurring her vision, Corset saw Gohan's father reaching out from where he lay, unable to get up for some reason and clutching his stomach. He stuttered as he spoke, still struggling to deal with the pain. "You...give me back... my son... How... dare you... hurt my friends... Give them back..."
"Do you still not understand?" Raditz cackled with laughter, "You never had a choice in this, brother. You'll be doing the Earthlings a favour anyway; once we finish off on this planet I spoke of we will repeat the process here on Earth. Tomorrow just gives one hundred of you a head-start! Until tomorrow, my foolish brother..."
The ground suddenly began to grow smaller below them as the alien levitated up into the sky, much to Corset's horror. She didn't want to leave her mother, she didn't want to be with this evil aggressive stranger. With all her might she continued to wriggle about desperately trying to break free. Gohan apparently was also desperate to be free as he called out for his father. Neither could find a way to wriggle free from the man's impregnable grip.
The wind suddenly picked up, battering the two children as the man suddenly flew forwards, cackling with laughter as he left the small island which grew smaller and smaller with every passing second. The strength of the wind was terrible; the emotions began to overwhelm her.
Corset felt her vision begin to grow dark, feeling rather light headed and woozy... Her world faded to black.
She was awake.
Her eyes were closed but Corset realised she was awake again. When had she fallen asleep?
The sudden recall of what she thought had just happened made her eyes shoot open. She was in a large field and could see mountains in the distance. She didn't recognise her surroundings at all. Had it all been a dream? If it had then how had she ended up in this strange and unfamiliar place?
The sounds of Gohan crying filled the young girl with dread. No it had not been a dream. It was all real. The scary man who'd hurt her mother and her mother's friends did exist and she had the horrible feeling he was still around.
Corset glanced over her right shoulder to see both the wailing boy balling his eyes out as well as the long haired man. She reacted in the way any four year old would around a stranger. The mere sight of him brought the emotions flooding out and Corset also began to cry, screaming loudly for someone to come and rescue the two of them. "You hurt Mama! You're mean! Someone help me! Mama! Grandpa! Nana!"
Raditz spun around looking incredibly furious for some reason, scaring the two children into deeper fits of crying. "Will you two shut up?" He bellowed. His efforts only made the two children cry louder; Gohan seemed more unintentional whilst Corset deliberately made more noise! "SILENCE!" Raditz yelled louder than before.
"I want my mama back!" Corset protested through streams of hiccups and tears. "You hurt my mama you mean jerk!"
"Daddy!" Gohan cried.
"If you want to live then you will be silent! That means the two of you!" Raditz bellowed, grabbing the two by the back of their shirts once again and tossing them into his small ship, closing the door behind them before they could even turn around to try and escape.
Gohan bashed on the door, calling to be let out. Raditz ignored the two and headed back up the slope, reaching the grassy bank. "Now then, time to find some food on this planet..."
The two children watched as the man disappeared up the slope, both losing faith that he would decide to be nice and let them out. Still Gohan pounded his fists against the thick pink glass of the door, demanding to be let out.
Corset was a little more pessimistic and took to sitting in what appeared to be the seat of the tiny craft, wrapping her arms and tail around her legs as she drew her knees up to her chin, whimpering and sobbing to herself. She had no idea that unconsciously Gohan's ki was rapidly increasing...
It was a while before anything seemed to be happening outside. By now Gohan had also given up and sat huddled next to Corset. "... We're never going to get out of here..." he sniffed.
Corset nodded her head in agreement. "He hurt my mama and your daddy... Do you think he'll hurt us too?"
"I don't know," Gohan gulped. Something caught his eye and he made a small noise in the back of his throat, catching Corset's attention. Before she could ask him what it was, he answered her, "... Daddy?" He got to his feet and ran towards the window, peering through at something that apparently was up in the sky.
Goku's voice barely pierced the small room's thick walls. "Don't worry you guys... Gohan, Daddy's here to save you. Just hold on in there, both of you."
Gohan smiled, "It's my daddy!" He pointed eagerly to Corset, a wide smile on his face.
Corset leaned forwards, trying to get a view of him through the glass. "Where? Is my mama with him?" She asked, unable to see Goku because he'd already landed on the ground and out of their sight.
"I don't know... I didn't see her," Gohan replied. "I've got to go to Daddy!" He climbed onto the seat and leapt forwards feet first, kicking the door. Nothing happened and Gohan landed on his back, hitting his head against the edge of the seat. Instantly he began to ball his eyes out from the knock he'd taken.
"Are you ok?" Corset asked, kneeling down beside him. "I don't think we can break down the door..." She frowned and sighed. She would try too but she was scared she'd hurt herself like Gohan just had. She wasn't one to go and hurt herself without thinking it through.
The sound of cracking relatively close outside to them caught both of their attention, Gohan stopping his crying and sitting up. "... What's that sound?"
"I don't know," Corset mumbled worried that it could be something dangerous.
The sound seemed to go on for quite some time. Every-so-often a flash of light would attract the two children's attentions and they would look out the glass to see beams of light flashing around, or see the sky change colour for a couple of seconds, along hearing explosions and the continuous stream of cracks.
"What's going on out there? Why is no one letting us out of here?" Corset cried in frustration. "I wanna see my mama! I don't want to be stuck here! I don't like it here!"
Another bright flash of light bolted up into the sky; Gohan had been looking at the area it had emerged from. He gasped in horror as he saw an orange figure falling from the sky; it was his dad!
"Oh no! Daddy!" He called leaning up against the door. "Daddy's been hurt!"
Once more his energy began to fluctuate unbeknownst to him and Corset, nor to anyone outside for that matter.
"... Is your daddy ok?" Corset asked out of concern.
"I don't know, I can't see him," Gohan frowned, getting teary-eyed again at how helpless he felt. "I've gotta go see my daddy but I don't know how to get out... There isn't a door handle or anything..."
The inside of their prison began to glow with a bright light from outside once more; the sky and everything around them once again changing colour, the sound of strong gusts of wind rattling the pod's walls, scaring the two as they huddled together. Was the small pod about to cave in around them? What was going on outside?
The light began to fade and Corset glanced out the window. All she could see was sky above and small plumes of dust floating above the top of the crater.
"I think someone just did another one of those light beam things..." she frowned, looking over at Gohan. "Does your daddy do those light beam thingies? Can't he get us out of this?"
"I think he could; he can use those light beam things," Gohan nodded. "My daddy's the strongest person on the planet!"
"Really?" Corset asked intrigued. "Wow, I didn't know that... but he got hurt by the mean guy."
"Yeah... I guess so," Gohan frowned. He went back to worrying about his father. There hadn't been any cracks or signs of energy beams being thrown about; he wondered what was going on...
Goku's scream suddenly pierced through the silence in the small space pod, startling the two children and sending chills down their spines.
The screaming wouldn't stop; it was like listening to nails scratching a chalkboard. Corset flinched and covered her ears, upset by the sound and wanting nothing more than to be at home in her mother's company. She just wanted to be safe with her family, safe with her mother, grandpa and nana around her. She didn't want to be here!
Gohan couldn't stand hearing his father cry out in agony. He wanted to make it stop; he didn't want his father to suffer and die. He didn't want to let anything bad happen if he could help it. He had to get out there and stop his father from screaming. He had to do something - he couldn't take it anymore!
Corset's eyes flashed open at the sound of electricity immediately on her left. Her eyes drifted over to where the sound was coming from, widening in horror.
She had no time to respond as Gohan suddenly leapt up with unbelievable force; the energy released from his body sent a shockwave around him, pushing the defenceless Corset head-first into the chair. As the young boy bolted through the ship's thick exterior and out into freedom, the parts he'd smashed through scattered across the small crater, burying a knocked-out Corset underneath it.