Key Note: If it's italic, that means it's over the communicators.
Toushiro's Struggle
Toushiro: "Well, let's just go with the mission for now. The only way to get to the underground half of the research facility is with the elevators near the Lecture Room."
Vegeta: "You'll need an ID Card of a researcher to use those elevators. If you can find an ID Card, a fingerprint scanner and obtain the fingerprints of a researcher, I can guide the rest of the way. I hacked the system for the ID Numbers of all of the researchers, including Kirk's. You have to find the right researcher's fingerprints in order for the overwrite of an ID Card to work."
Toushiro: "I already have an ID Card with me. I found it in the Medical Room."
Vegeta: "Ok. So now you need a fingerprint scanner. There's a room outside the Management Office that looks to be a good place to look for such a device."
Toushiro: "I know where that is. Is the shutter unlocked?"
Vegeta: "Yes."
Toushiro: "Ok. I'll let you know as soon as I find that device."
Vegeta: "Good luck."
Toushiro got up and headed for the hallway outside the Management Office. Once he unlocked the shutter and went to the door, he noticed that an ID Card was needed. The boy hoped that the ID Card he had would open it. He slide it through the reader and it unlocked. He had access to the Strategy Room. The room was alit with screens displaying military strategies. A big screen that also acted as a table was in the center. A DDK Disc was sitting on the edge. It was the DDK Code Disc E. Toushiro picked it up and as he did, he saw a strange looking device on the other side. After packing away the DDK Disc, Toushiro reached over and picked up the device. It was the fingerprint scanner that he needed, also called a F. C. Device. The device is used to input the identification data when an ID Card is created. This is what he needed so he called up Vegeta.
Toushiro: "Vegeta. I found the device."
Vegeta: "Ok. You'll need to find a researcher next. I'm going to activate the pager of a Paul Baker. He's suppose to be somewhere near the Lecture Room according to the data of his whereabouts."
Toushiro: "I'll take a look."
Toushiro went back to the Lecture Room Hallway. There were still some doors that he hadn't checked yet. The door nearest to him in the hallway was the Elevator Hall and there was a beeping sound coming from inside. When he opened the door, he was met with a dead scientist laying on the floor. The scientist was beeping, it had to be Paul Baker. Toushiro turned the corpse of Paul over onto his side and turned off the pager. The sound was driving him nuts! Once the pager was off, he called up Vegeta again.
Vegeta: "Did you find him?"
Toushiro: "Yeah. He's dead. He's right here in front of the elevators."
Vegeta: "All right now place his right hand on the device."
Toushiro placed the device on the floor and placed the researcher's hand on the device's scanner. The boy turned it on and operated the device. After a few seconds, the fingerprints of Paul Baker were stored inside the device.
Toushiro: "I've got the data. Now what?"
Vegeta: "There's a computer that is used to create the ID Cards in the Office. It's right next to the Elevator Hall. It's the only computer in the room so call me once you're there."
Toushiro: "How do you know all of this?"
Vegeta: "Apparently someone liked to keep a very detailed recored of where everything is. I can even tell you where all of the bathrooms are!"
Toushiro: "No thanks, I'm good!"
Toushiro left the Elevator Hall and went next door to the Office. Paper was scattered all over the place. Two long tables sat in the center. In the very back, there was a desk and a computer. It was indeed the only computer in the room, so Toushiro started to walk over to it. As he passed the first table, he froze as a raptor got to its feet! It hissed and and lunged for him! But the young captain rammed his elbow against its head and quickly drove Hyorinmaru through its chest! The beast went down in a flash. While he shook the blood off of Hyorinmaru, Toushiro walked over to the computer and called up Vegeta again.
Toushiro: "Ok, Vegeta. I'm at the computer."
Vegeta: "Alright. Place the card in the slot."
Toushiro found the slot where the card could be inserted and placed it inside.
Vegeta: "Now, enter the personal registration number."
Toushiro typed the ID Number as Vegeta read it to him. 58104.
Vegeta: "Now hook up the fingerprint device to the computer and enter the data. It should do the rest from there."
Toushiro plugged the F. C. Device into the computer and entered the data. The computer scanned the fingerprint data and checked the data and number for confirmation. In seconds it confirmed the match. It asked Toushiro if he wanted to rewrite the cards data on it and he pressed enter. The system began rewriting the data and in no time it was done. The new ID Card popped out of its slot and Toushiro took it.
Vegeta: "Congratulations! You are no longer Toushiro Hitsugaya! You are now Paul Baker!"
Toushiro: "Shut up, Vegeta."
Vegeta: "Man you're no fun."
Toushiro: "What ever. Um... I know I just said that I didn't need one but I've changed my mind. Where is the nearest bathroom? I'd like to wash some of this blood off if I can."
Vegeta: "Not a bad idea. The more you stink, the easier you'll be to find by a hungry dinosaur."
Toushiro: "Oh thanks for those comforting words of wisdom, Vegeta."
Vegeta: "Hey, I'm just telling you what I know from experience."
Vegeta told Toushiro where the nearest bathroom was and the boy went to it. When he got to the restroom, he went straight for the sink and turned both knobs on to make the water warm. Blood was a lot easier to remove with warm water than cold. There wasn't much he could do with his clothes but he made very sure to wash the blood on his skin off. It was all over his neck, face, hands, arms, even his white hair had specks of crimson on it. Once a majority of the blood was off and he was dry, he went to the Elevator Hall. Although it was only a matter of time before he was coated with blood again, it felt good to be clean at the moment. Once Toushiro entered the Elevator Hall, he went over to the one working elevator. Using his new ID Card, the elevator opened for Toushiro and he stepped inside. When the doors closed, he pressed the button to take him down to Hall B1. But as the elevator went down, there was a sound from above. Toushiro's eyes widened with fear as he gasped. Right before him, a raptor burst through the escape hatch at the top of the elevator with a hiss! Toushiro backed up against the doors. He was trapped! The raptor was getting ready to jump down when the doors opened up! The young captain backed out of the elevator. But the beast leaped down and knocked the boy to the floor! And things went from bad to worse for Toushiro. This raptor was young, so it was smaller. It was as tall as he was but it was much stronger. The dinosaur grabbed Toushiro's left arm in its mouth and started to thrash him around violently! The boy screamed in pain as the sharp teeth dug deeper and deeper into his flesh with each shake! But his resolve was stronger than that of this animal. The young captain started to fight back! With his legs, he started to kick at the beast! Finally, he got his feet against its chest and he pushed it off of him with all his strength! The dinosaur fell back as the boy got to his feet in a flash! He didn't give this animal the time to get to its feet. He drove his blade through its chest and twisted with each defiant thrash! Within moments, the thrashing stopped and the raptor breathed its last. Even after removing his blade from its lungs, Toushiro stood there. He watched it for a long moment, trying to understand the primal instinct that had just overtaken him... That most primal of all instincts. The instinct to survive. What stirred him from his trance was not the remembering of the mission or his own conscious, but a sharp jab of pain that ran through his left arm. The boy clenched his wounded arm as he hissed with pain. He dropped to his knees and looked at his bleeding arm. Blood slowly ran down to his fingers and gingerly dripped off of the tips. The wound was not serious but, if not treated now, it would become serious in a matter of hours. He had no choice. He had to go back to Vegeta. He could not treat a wound like this on his own. Wrapping the wound as best he could, he stumbled back into the elevator. Panting, he leaned against the wall and pressed the button to go up. Once it stopped and the doors opened, he stumbled out and took the shortest rout to Vegeta. With each step the situation became more desperate as with each drop of his blood brought him closer to death. Shock was slowly taking over him. Finally, he made it to the Control Room F1. Weakly, he opened the door and was met with a startled saiyan prince.
Vegeta: "Toushiro! What happened?"
Toushiro: "I was attacked in the elevator. I can't treat this on my own."
The saiyan sat the young captain down in the first chair and quickly went to work on the wound. In moments of sitting down, Toushiro fell into unconsciousness. Five minutes later and those turquoise/teal jewels opened once again. Toushiro huffed as his vision started to clear. And then, the familiar voice of the prince of all saiyans.
Vegeta: "I was starting to get worried."
Toushiro's eyes instantly locked onto Vegeta. Within moments he was slowly sitting up in the chair and finding his head. Once his senses were working again, Toushiro looked over at his wounded arm. It was now bandaged up and clean. A shot of pain ran through him every now and then, but he was going to be fine.
Vegeta: "I had to do some serious work on that wound. There was one spot that I even had to stitch. But you should be fine so long as you don't strain that arm too much."
Toushiro: "Thanks Vegeta. I owe you big."
Vegeta: "You can repay me by agreeing that we need to get the hell off this death trap right now. We lost Lee and I'm almost sure that we have lost Kusoto... I'm not going to lose you."
Toushiro: "I want to get off this island too, Vegeta. I really do. But even if we find a way to contact the Soul Society, Yamamoto won't bring us back without something."
Vegeta: "Tch."
Toushiro: "Besides... It doesn't seem fair to Lee that he would sacrifice himself like that only for us to go back empty handed or without trying."
Vegeta: "Well, I guess that's a good enough reason. ... ... But no more chances! If you need help, call me! Don't try to do it alone."
Toushiro nodded as he got up. He was a little wobbly at first, but very soon he was standing firmly on both feet. Before he left, Vegeta repeated himself.
Vegeta: "If you need help, call me. Don't try to do it alone."
Toushiro: "I will. I promise."
And Toushiro left. He went directly back to the elevators and went back down to the underground. As the elevator stopped and opened its doors, Toushiro's heart began to race. As he walked out, he could see almost a vivid ghostly replay of his attack. The young raptor knocking him to the floor, thrashing and mauling him. That was the second time he had truly come close to death, the first being with Aizen. Although it was silent, the echoes of his screams and the raptor played again and again in his ears.
Vegeta: "Toushiro."
Vegeta's voice snapped him out of his trance.
Toushiro: "Y-Yeah."
Vegeta: "I know what's going on with you at the moment. You're having flashbacks aren't you."
Toushiro: "Yeah... How do you know?"
Vegeta: "Look up and to your left about 80 degrees."
Toushiro looked up as Vegeta told him to. He saw a camera at the corner.
Vegeta: "I can see you clearly. Look off to your right. I'm sure what you'll see will help you."
Toushiro slowly glanced over to his right. There, laid the dead body of the raptor. It was all that he needed to see to get his confidence back. It was dead. There is no more it can do to hurt him. The young captain just looked up at the security camera and gave a thumbs up to Vegeta. The saiyan smiled. Toushiro was going to be ok for now. With the ordeal of the raptor attack behind him now, Toushiro looked around the area. He found a file on the table that was situated in the middle of the room. The young captain read the file which was a memo stating an upgrade in the DDK system, making the security level even higher.
Toushiro: "-In a case where numbers are written instead of letters in the 'KEY' field, the numbers could represent the codes for the corresponding characters. Example: A=1, B=2, C=3... Any numbers written in the 'KEY' field could indicate the rows to be deleted. For example: if '2' is in the 'KEY' word, you should delete all of the letters from the second row of the 'CODE'.- Huh... This just got a lot more challenging. Sweet!"
He was going to have fun now!
