Seek And You Shall Find
With all the things she'd seen and tolerated in the near constant presence of Vegeta and the other Z Fighters, you'd think that Bulma was ready for just about anything. However, she still jumped out of her skin when the fabric of reality appeared to be ripped open as if from large tiger claws. She took a quick, calming breath as Rai and Kim jumped out of it, ensuring that she was perfectly safe as a white portal opened a second later, releasing Roxas before both portals disappeared.
"Thank goodness you're here." Bulma sighed, giving each of them a thankful look before raising an eyebrow. "But where are the others?"
"Jake said something about a Goblin riot, Danny's exhausted from stopping a group of ghosts that broke free of the ghost zone and caused chaos, Namine's in an area where even our toys can't get a signal and the Tennysons mentioned something about a loose cannon moment for Kevin and an alien trying to steal the sun." Rai answered in one breath, breathing deeply as he finished. "At least for now, we're on our own."
"Now what exactly is the sitch?" Kim asked, trying to hold back her impatience. Her friend was in trouble and as far as she was concerned, they should have gone after him an hour before it happened.
"A metahuman was attacking the buildings of a specific company whose work is highly classified." Bulma stated, getting right down to business and bringing the location up on her computer again. "It's a suspicious situation since no one, and I mean no one, knows what they do in that company and the metahuman, Justiman, used to only help innocent people from within the shadows of Tokyo. Gohan and Videl went to the last remaining branch of the company, G Junior Corp, in Japan still standing, but they haven't returned."
"Maybe this Justiman showed up. It was his target after all." Roxas suggested.
"According to recent reports, he did, but something forced him out of the building after sounds of a fight and he looked really bad." Bulma responded with a worried look. "But there was no mention of Gohan or Videl and G Junior Corp hasn't given any information to the cops or the press. They're trying to hide something about the fight."
"Like who it was between and what happened to the other fighter." Rai sighed.
"I agree. They don't want anyone knowing that Gohan was there." Kim nodded, going over the reports Bulma was bringing up for them. "Which means we'll just have to check out the building ourselves. But we'll skip the front door."
"We kinda have to. It's not there anymore." Roxas commented lightly, pointing to the picture of the building.
"Oh, you know what I mean." Kim retorted, throwing her hands in the air with mock irritation while the boys grinned.
"Let's be serious here." Bulma snapped angrily, immediately calming the teen heroes. "Remember, two Z Fighters have gone missing in there and both of them were stronger than any of you. One false move and you'll disappear too!"
"We know Bulma. Which is why only I will do the initial entering." Kim stated firmly, turning to her younger team mates. "I've proven to be the stealthiest member of the Guardians by far and I am fully capable of handling myself if I get caught."
"Buy why are you going in alone? We're stronger together." Rai asked anxiously, his concern for her just as apparent on his face as in his voice.
"Because it's easier to track a group than just one person." Kim answered.
"Plus we don't know what's in there." Roxas added, drawing Kim and Rai's attention as he looked at the ground thoughtfully. "We're assuming that this company is hostile at the moment right? Well, if they can capture or reject metahumans, we have to assume that they can track us one way or another if we enter their building too. However, a normal human would probably blend in, as long as no one got a good look at her."
"Ok, I can see that I'm outvoted." Rai sighed, raising his hands in surrender. "However, if Kim's going into the belly of the beast alone, she is going to have some tricks up her sleeve."
...
"Remember Kim, go in, get what we need and get out. No heroics." Raimundo said firmly, for what had to be the twentieth time, causing both the red headed heroine and the blonde Keybearer to roll their eyes and sigh, the former in frustration, the latter with a mix of boredom and amusement. The three were casually walking the streets in civilian clothes as they scoped out the building's security, hats and sunglasses hiding their hair and faces.
"Jeez Rai, could you be any more paranoid?" Roxas asked teasingly, chuckling both at Rai's overly worried behaviour and the irony of the situation. Usually when Rai and Roxas were on a mission together, the blonde would be the cautious one while Rai would try constantly to mellow him out.
"Yeah, I thought monks were supposed to be calm and optimistic." Kim grumbled. The more he worried, the more Kim grew annoyed with him. She just couldn't help but feel that he was doubting her abilities. She may not of had the powers the rest of the group had, or the enhanced tolerance to physical blows, but her martial arts skills and gymnastic abilities were only were well beyond almost all of the other Guardians, only comparable to Gohan's, and her stealth abilities are in a league of their own. She was just as capable as any other Guardian and she was going to prove it.
"Well, they have no less than five guards at every entrance and an extra four just inside the former front door." Roxas stated, a small glow coming from behind his sunglasses the only hint of his aura spell.
"I managed to hack in to the building's plans and found its security system." Wade's voice added from the blue device in Kim's hand. "Since its construction, it's had security cameras in every room and hallway, minus the bathrooms of course, and one camera watching each side of the building outside. But since the company took over it, supplies have been bought to reinforce some of the rooms and the basement, claiming it was for extra protection during an earthquake or hurricane."
"A lot of good reinforcing single rooms will do if the whole building falls down or blows away." Rai scoffed, the others nodding in agreement. "What rooms are they?"
"Both are upstairs, on opposites sides of the building." Wade answered as he brought up a map of the place on the screen of the Kimmunicator, highlighting the said rooms.
"Alright then, let's get to it." Kim said confidently, pulling out her hairdryer.
"You do realise that they'll see you scaling the building right?" Rai asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Actually, they won't." Kim snapped, pointing to the left side of the building. "I checked out that side with the zoom feature Wade put in my sunglasses. There's no doors or guards there and a wire's snapped in the camera. They won't even notice the rope. And they definitely won't see me." She added, pulling another object out of her bag. To be precise, a black and grey blanket. "Thanks for the toys Rai. Shroud of Shadows!" With that, she wrapped the blanket around herself and disappeared from everyone but Roxas' sight.
"The window on the farthest side on the second floor should be perfectly safe to use as an entrance. No one's near it." He informed her before letting the glow around his eyes die, rubbing his temples as the usual headache demanded his attention.
"On it. Time to go mission mode." With that, Kim charged down the street as fast as she could, aiming her hairdryer at the roof and firing the grappling hook with expert precision the second she stepped a single foot into the alley and was scaling the building seconds later with impressive speed. Pulling herself to an abrupt halt just below the window, she snuck a quick peek inside to ensure that the room was still empty before pulling out her laser lipstick. Using one arm to pull herself up higher, Kim activated her disguised tool and smiled as the laser almost soundlessly cut a large, circular hole in the glass.
Catching the freed piece before it could fall, Kim swung gracefully into the room and set it carefully down out of sight before reactivating the shroud of shadows and moving out into the corridor as quietly as she could, hugging the walls as workers past her.
This is too easy. Feeling quite smug, Kim moved on, looking through every room on the way to the nearest fortified room for any sign of the young Z Fighters.
...
Roxas, his head still hurting from his last spell's drawback, had lost any sense of amusement he'd had for Raimundo's unusual behaviour long ago and was desperately hoping that the overstressing brunette would just hyperventilate himself into unconsciousness already.
Rai had taken to walking back and forth, muttering repeatedly to himself about how this was a bad idea and how many things could go wrong. Even without the crowd recognising him, he was drawing more than a little attention. He couldn't help it. Kim was his friend and was the one who saved his life the day they all met, and she had just strolled willingly into a building where even the most dangerous Guardian, and a girl much like him, had disappeared. It seemed like suicide to him, no matter how amazing the individual was.
"I don't like this. We haven't seen or heard any sigh of her." He muttered, unaware of the growing vein on Roxas' head.
"That would be because she's wearing the shroud of shadows and she only just went in." Roxas muttered through gritted teeth, shooting Rai an annoyed glare. "Rai, I realise that you're worried, but looking for the worst case scenario and enhancing my already painful headache isn't going to get us anywhere. Now sit down before the last two or three people in West City notice you."
"Huh?" Raimundo snapped his head up, noticing the looks he was getting. Conceding to Roxas' point, Rai sat down on the bench next to the blond and sighed, staring at his feet. "Sorry Roxas, but I can't help but worry. One of us in snooping around the base of an enemy we know nothing about, except that they're capable of capturing people even as strong and intelligent as Gohan."
"We don't even know that the company is responsible for that yet. That's just our assumption, even if it is an educated one." Roxas sighed, leaning back into the bench, his eyes closed tight.
"How is it that you're so calm when she could be walking right to her death?" Rai demanded, struggling to keep his voice down low so as not to draw the crowd's attention again.
"Because I've done this exact thing for the Organisation plenty of times myself. And Kim's even stealthier than me." Roxas answered grudgingly. Though not exactly reassured, Rai chose to hold his tongue. He'd inadvertently forced Roxas to talk about a part of his life he wanted to bury and with his headache, it was a miracle that he still had control of his anger. Letting his guilt overlap his worry, he let out a sigh as he raised his palm and created a gentle wind in the blonde's direction as an apology.
Roxas released a sigh of his own at that, though it was a relaxed one as opposed to Rai's sad one. Roxas loved the feeling of the wind gently brushing his face and ruffling his hair and Rai had found it to be one of the easiest ways to calm the Keybearer. Accepting the apology, Roxas wrapped an arm around Rai's shoulders, doing what he could to return the favour.
"Just have faith in her. She's the most experienced of us all and much tougher than she appears. She'll be fine."
"Yeah, I guess you're...hey, is that Piccolo?" Rai gasped, a shocked smile growing on his face as a flash of green caught his attention. The boys jumped to their feet right as the Namek landed behind them. "Boy are we glad to see you." Rai exclaimed cheerfully, running towards the alien warrior. "Do you know where Gohan-"
"Rai, MOVE!" Rai gasped as a black blur struck his gut, knocking him to the ground right before a green fist would have shattered his skull. Rolling across the ground, Roxas pulled himself right back onto his feet, glaring fiercely at Piccolo as he threw his jacket, hat and sunglasses off to the side and summoned his Keyblades.
"Wha? Roxas, what's the matter?" Rai asked confusedly, pulling himself back onto his feet.
"Look at his eyes. They're definitely the wrong colour and everything part of his face wreaks with malice." Roxas growled, never taking his eyes off of the corrupted warrior. "Something's horribly wrong here. And that means one false move and we're dead."
"Oh man, this isn't- WIND!" Rai screamed, throwing his arms up and blowing both himself and Roxas off in different directions as Piccolo surged right at them.
Unperturbed, Piccolo made a quick turn and lashed out at Roxas with a stretching leg, the blond barely managing to block the kick with his crossed Keyblades. However, the force of the blow almost sent the blades into their wielder's neck and sent him crashing straight through a nearby window, eliciting screams from everyone around.
"Rox!" Rai cried, staring worriedly at where his friend disappeared. He couldn't focus on the blond long though, as Piccolo was quick to switch targets, releasing a sudden, bright beam from his mouth. Doing everything he could to suppress his terror, he flew straight up into the air, narrowly avoiding the shot. "Whew, too close."
"Not close enough." Rai's blood ran cold as the blood thirsty voice spoke up behind him and barely turned enough to see a flash of green before an elbow planted itself deeply into his rib, knocking all of the wind out of him as he crashed into the ground, cracking the pavement. Sneering, Piccolo raised an open palm right at him, yellow energy gathering just beyond his skin.
"Time to die." With a malevolent smile, he released the energy in the form of a large ball right at Raimundo. Still unable to even get control of his breathing, the young dragon of the wind could do nothing but watch his life flash before his eyes as his doom approached.
Fortunately, Roxas wasn't so helpless. As the ball approached the stock-still monk, Roxas sprinted right into its line of fire and, using the momentum, spun his body into a full three sixty spin, bringing both his Keyblades together and smashing them into the energy ball like it was a baseball bat. It had the same affect too and Piccolo growled animalistically as the energy attack flew right back at him. Encasing his fist in the same yellow energy, he ploughed it right through the energy ball, causing it to blow up like fireworks in every direction from his body, saving him from harm, but buying Roxas the time he needed to get Rai back on his feet and to put some distance between them and Piccolo.
Roaring in blind fury, Piccolo's aura appeared around him violently and it was only his experiences watching Gohan fight that gave Roxas the instinct to thrust up Oathkeeper.
"Slow!" He shouted, releasing a flash of light from Oathkeeper that covered the entire area. Instantly, everything went into slow motion, Raimundo included. That is except for Roxas and, much to his surprise, a green blur.
Roxas' eyes widened in shock as Piccolo shot at him, his hand covered in the beginning of an energy blade and moving to gut the boy. Blocking with Oblivion, Roxas only had a split second to twist Oathkeeper into place to block the second energy blade before the two fell into a fierce dance, Piccolo dominating the offense while Roxas struggled with defence.
"Unreal." Roxas gasped, hissing in pain as one energy blade passed his defences and ripped off a large chunk of skin from his arm, ignoring the pain, he twisted both of his blades and knocked both of Piccolo's arms out wide, leaving his torso completely vulnerable. Taking advantage of the situation, Roxas quickly made Oblivion disappear as he aimed his free hand at the Namek. "Event Horizon!" Instantly, his hand was consumed by an orb of white magic that released a barrage of smaller blasts, striking Piccolo in the gut, chest and head. A pained scream escaped his lips in slow motion as his body fell back at the same pace. The time spell ceased halfway through the fall, speeding up Piccolo's fall before he rolled out of the line of fire and back flipped to his feet, glaring heatedly at the puffing blonde.
"Whoa, what was that?" Rai asked, keeping his body tensed and ready to fly should Piccolo attack again. "Since when can you move that fast?"
"I can't, I cast a spell to slow down time." Roxas answered as his breathing returned to normal, frowning the whole time. "But Piccolo was still even faster than me, despite being in slow motion. This is serious; I'll never be able to touch him."
"I can touch him, but I can't hurt him." Rai sighed, before grabbing Roxas by the arm and spinning the two of them into the air as Piccolo got on the attack again. Growling louder than before, Piccolo threw his arm out again, making it stretch after them to an incredible length, forcing Roxas to swing his and Rai's bodies around in the air again and lash out with Oathkeeper. An ear splitting scream struck their ears with such force that Rai lost his control over the winds and plummeted to the ground as the Keyblade sliced straight through Piccolo's arm.
"Well, it seems your powers and weapons hurt him just fine." Rai groaned, rubbing his head as he pulled himself off of the ground. "And now that he's down an arm, he'll be easier to fight. Though I don't think Gohan will be..." Rai's sentence remained unfinished as his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and his jaw dropped. Screaming, both in pain and determination, Piccolo tensed his mutilated arm a second before it completely regrew, his new hand looking exactly like the old one. Gawking in total disbelief, only one thought crossed Rai's mind. "Holy crap!"
...
Despite the relative ease she had moving around, Kim couldn't help but get aggravated. Half the rooms she passed had been cleared of any experiments that had been taking place while the others had too many people within messing around with models or equipment to risk entering. They moved around so much that it was only a matter of time before someone discovered her. One room had caught her interest and her fear as she noticed three metal chairs designed to bind and hurt whoever sat within them, but other than a few used needles, nothing else was in there, leaving Kim feeling both relieved and disappointed that she hadn't found Gohan within.
"Let's see, the door should be right...around the corner." Kim whispered triumphantly as a right turn introduced her to a thick, metal door. It had no door handle or keyhole, just a number pad on the wall next to it. "Hm, normally I'd be here for a few minutes and the beeping of the buttons would risk attracting attention. Fortunately, Rai thought of hard substances colliding with my body." She smirked, fetching a reptilian tail from the depths of her pocket. "Serpent's tail!" Had she been visible, her body would have turned transparent as the tail glowed, allowing her to casually walk through the door.
Putting the serpent's tail back away as she made it to the other side, she quickly scanned the room and sighed in relief when she found it devoid of life. Noticing the camera monitoring the room, she opted to keep the shroud on as she made her way to the computer taking up all of the far wall and took out her V com, plugging it into the computer.
"Kim to Bulma. Are you there?" She said softly, activating the communication link to Capsule Corp. "My V com's hook up to the big computer. Can you hack into it?"
"Is the Earth round?" Bulma smirked, already typing away on her keyboard. "HA! What a simplistic security system. I was expecting a far more impressive system form such a secretive company. Just a few more buttons and... I'm in." She cheered, throwing her hands up in victory. "The V com is already copying all of the files the computer has. As soon as it's finished, get out and come on back."
"I'm going to check for signs of the pubescent Saiyans first." Kim responded, grinning as the line representing the downloading reached the end. "Download completed. Kim out." Shutting the V com down, she tucked it away and made her way back towards the door. But before she got there, the screeching of metal rubbing on metal stopped her dead in her tracks. Covering her ears, she watched in shock as the reinforced door was ripped effortlessly from the wall and tossed down the hallway.
"Now weren't you cocky, Possible." Kim could only stare in fear as Videl looked right at where her head was, her purple eyes shining with bloodlust and flanked by four scientists, each one carrying what looked like a laser.
Well, I found Videl.