This long chapter is brought to you by ShadowMajin.

Gohan sat on the bed of the new motel room, trying to gather his thoughts. The room was similar to the last one. While the beds, nightstand, dresser, and TV were arranged differently about the room, it was basically the same room, only with blank white walls instead of that hideous orange-patterned wallpaper. On the other bed was everything Gohan had taken from the old motel. Goten's suitcase, duffle bag, and two black cases were piled haphazardly in the middle of the bed while the trash bag with his bloodied clothes and bed sheet had been tossed in a dumpster behind a fast food restaurant. Hopefully no one would notice it was there until it was taken to the dump and buried forever.

The young man let out a sigh. His whole situation was beginning to weight down on him. Two days had already passed since he saw two men—one his newly-deceased brother—killed right in front of him. On top of that, there seemed to be some cloak-and-dagger scheme that was becoming more and more dangerous with every step he took. After fleeing the old motel room, he had kept himself busy. He had been too afraid to go back to his apartment in fear that someone could follow him there and try to kill him. That also ruled out grabbing some fresh clothes so he had to buy some new one. There were a couple of half-filled shopping bags lying in the corner of the room as proof of his shopping trip. It was a shame that Goten's clothes were too small for him…

Giving the bed another glance, he felt his stomach sink. He still hadn't gone through his little brother's things. They just sat on that bed, haunting him with mystery and questions. Steeling his nerve, Gohan rose to his feet and walked up to the bed, at first simply staring down at them only to finally reach for the suitcase. Unclasping the buckles, he flipped the top open and began rummaging around inside, shifting the clothes around. At first, Gohan didn't find anything of noteworthy until he reached the bottom of the suitcase. There he found a white, unmarked envelope. Opening it, the only thing Gohan found in the envelope was pieces of torn paper. Pulling out some of the pieces, the young man let the pieces fall from his hand, the bits of paper swirling as they fell.

Frowning at it, Gohan put the envelope down on the bed and began searching the suitcase some more. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything else other than clothes. Looking to the netting on the underside of the suitcase top, the young man spotted a faint bulge. Grabbing the zipper, he unzipped the netting and reached behind it, reaching for the source of the bulge. When his fingers found something small and rectangular, he grabbed it and pulled it out, finding it to be a flash drive. Fiddling with it between his fingers, he ultimately moved to set it down on the nightstand before shutting the suitcase closed.

Turning to the duffle bag, Gohan unzipped and opened the bag. Reaching in, he immediately pulled out a small laptop computer. Instantly, the Son man recognized it as the one belonging to Goten. His brother had used it when they had made up his fake press credentials. A quick glance back into the bag and Gohan caught sight of the computer's charger. Pulling it out, he took both the laptop and charger to the dresser and set it down. Once he was done inspecting the rest of Goten's things, he'd start his research surrounding Ox-King's death, namely that suspicious law he was told about.

Returning to the duffle bag, Gohan was surprised to find there wasn't much in there. There were a couple of folders in there, but a quick search through them told the young man that they concerned stories that Goten had been researching for his job. Not much he could use there. There were some socks and underwear inside the bag as well, though the socks were the only useful item there.

Moving away from the duffle bag, Gohan grabbed the handle of the shorter and squattier of the two black cases and turned it on its side. Unlocking the buckles that held the case closed, the young man opened it to find a styrofoam bedding with all sorts of electronic gadgets. In the lower left hand corner was a small bag, one that Gohan picked up and opened. Inside he found several of the little microphones that Goten had shown him and subsequently planted at Ox-King's window. Closing the bag, Gohan put it back in its place in the case.

To the right of the bag was a tape recorder. Noticing a tape still in the recorder, Gohan picked it up and hit the play button, waiting a couple seconds to hear the recording.

"Check, check," the voice of his brother came out, causing a choked feeling to rise up in Gohan's chest. "This is Son Goten with the Blue Star Tribune, interviewing—"

Gohan hit the stop button. That was all he could take hearing his late brother's voice. Imagines of his burning car flooded his head as tears threaten to fall from his eyes. Letting out a sob, Gohan sat down on the other bed and pressed his hand onto his face. Even though he hadn't known Goten all that well, he was still family and it hurt to know he was gone. They had only spent a short amount of time together, but for some reason Gohan had become attached to him. That wasn't something he normally did, but after being alone for so long, he was desperate to hang onto any form of family he could get his hands on. And now…

Get yourself together Gohan he reprimanded himself. Steeling his nerves, Gohan buried his heavy emotions deep inside him. Wiping away the tears from his eyes, the young man took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Okay, that's better. Let's get on with this.

Standing back up, Gohan placed the tape recorded back in its slot. Looking at the rest of the case's contents, he was almost embarrassed to say he had no idea what everything was. There were a couple of walkie-talkies in the bottom right corner and some neatly wrapped wiring above them, but that was all he could make of the remaining equipment. It seemed he was gonna have to search the internet for answers.

RING! RING!

Gohan jolted up at that. Whipping his head from side to side, Gohan searched for the source of the ringing before he realized it was the sound of his cell phone. As his face flushed red from embarrassment, Gohan dug into his pants pocket and pulled out is phone, answering the call. "Hello?" he greeted warily, his voice slightly thick from his earlier emotional bout.

"Hey Gohan? It's Barker from the office," the voice answered, causing Gohan to sight with relief. Barker was a co-worker of his at his job. They weren't what you would call friends, but they did help each other out with work, being as they worked right next to each other. "I know you're on vacation," Barker continued, "But I really need your help. You mind looking at something for me?"

"Umm, is this…important," Gohan asked hesitantly. "I'm not exactly in the best state of mind right now."

"It's nothing world-changing if that's what you mean," Barker replied. "I just need you to look at a document and let me know what you think. It'll only take a few minutes, I swear! You can go back to hitting up chicks without them even knowing you were gone!"

Gohan sighed. "Alright, I'll take a look."

"Thanks! I sent it to your email."

"Okay." Walking over to Goten's laptop, Gohan opened it up and hit the power button, the screen coming to life a couple seconds later. "I'll email you back when I'm done."

"Again, thanks. You're a lifesaver! Have fun on your vacation!"

Before Gohan could reply to that, Barker hung up. The young man hadn't been kidding when he said he wasn't in the mood for doing work. With everything that was going on, there just wasn't any time to really focus and do a good job for his co-worker. Still, if he wanted to at least maintain his standing at work, he needed to do right by his peers.

Picking up the charger, Gohan walked over to an electrical outlet near the empty bed and plugged it in. setting the charger down on the floor and resting the other end of the wire on the bed, Gohan went back to the laptop and picked it up, taking it back with him to the bed and sitting on it with his back against the headboard. If he was going to do some work, he might as well get comfortable.

Once he had the charger plugged into the laptop—and finding the computer was fully booted up and ready for use—Gohan opened up a web browser and went in search of his email account. The sound of pounding keys filled the room as the young man found and accessed his email, finding several pieces of unread mail along with Barker's. Opening Barker's email, the young man settled in and got to work.


"Get this," Sharpner said as he stood in front of Tien. "Son was doing a story on Ox-King. It was the reason he was here in the first place."

Tien stared at his partner in astonishment. "Are you kidding me?"

A wide smile appeared on Sharpner's face. "Not at all."

Currently, the two agents were at their "headquarters," namely a fancy hotel room that was covered with cardboard boxes and high-tech electronic equipment. In a way, the room wasn't all that different from Goten's motel room except that their room was much bigger, had cleaner carpeting, and the walls were a soothing beige color instead of that gaudy wallpaper. Along every wall were boxes full of papers and documents mostly concerned with their investigation. Some of the boxes were empty, discarded to a corner of the room. Those boxes had held some of their equipment that was currently sitting on top of their dresser and desk. The desk was also something they had the privilege of having that Goten's motel room didn't provide.

"Yeah," Sharpner continued, "Turns out Son had wanted to come to this city for some unknown reason and his editor told him he had to do a story on Ox-King while he was here."

Tien leaned back in the plush chair he was setting in. "That explains our car bomb victim. What about Kay?"

"That's where things start to get strange. According to Son's editor, there isn't a Paul Kay working for him. So I dug into the employment records and found one for Kay. According to the record, Kay had been working for barely a week before being sent out here."

Tien raised an eyebrow. "So the editor was lying?"

Sharpner shrugged his shoulders. "I hammered him with Kay's employment file and he was completely baffled. I got the impression he really had no idea who Paul Kay was. Also, there's barely anything in Kay's record about him. You have his name, a date of birth, and the day he started working for Blue Star Tribune and that's it. It's like he just appeared out of nowhere."

"Wait, wait, wait," Tien said, raising a hand up to stop Sharpner. "You mean to tell me there's nothing we have on this guy?"

"No address, no social security number, no criminal background check, nothing," Sharpner answered. "Like I said, appeared out of nowhere."

"No picture of what this guy looks like either, I take it."

"Yeah. Only thing we have to go on is the secretary's description of him."

Tien turned his head way from the blond and to the desk. On top of the wooden surface—other than a laptop and a couple of manila folders, one of which was open since Tien had been reading from it before his partner interrupted him—was a piece of paper with a man's face on it. A sketch artist had interviewed the secretary and she had described a man with spiky black hair, kind eyes, and a very nervous face. That description was looking right back at Tien. "So he's a man that doesn't exist," he murmured.

"What was that?"

Looking back to Sharpner, the bald man said "He doesn't exist, this Paul Kay person. It's an alias. It's the only explanation I can come up with that explains his sudden appearance."

Sharpner's shoulder dropped. "So all we have on this guy is that sketch?"

The corner of Tien's mouth twitched upwards at that. "I wouldn't say that. As you know, I was coordinating the interview process at the motel and a few of the tenants there confirmed that they saw a man matching this description high-tailing it out of there. They saw him load up his car with his luggage and drove off before the first responders arrived." Pausing for a moment to consider his next words, Tien added "And I'm willing to bet that some of that luggage belonged to Son."

Sharpner frowned. "Why would he take Son's luggage?"

Tien shook his head. "No idea. But it does tell me these two knew each other and that the bombing scared 'Kay'."

"Okay, so these two were sharing that motel room. Did forensics find anything?"

Again, Tien shook his head. "As to the identity of Paul Kay, no. The only fingerprints we could find belonged to Son, but none of them were found in the shower, on the sink, the nightstand, or the beds." The bald man snorted then. "It seems Kay took the time to destroy any evidence there was of him at that motel room, or at least of any that we could identify him with. It explains why the bed sheet and pillow case were missing."

"What about hair samples? Didn't we find any that belonged to him?"

"Yes, but that's all it is: hair. It's not nearly as useful as fingerprints would have been. About the only thing the lab techs have been able to figure out is that two different people had stayed in that motel room. They managed to match some of the samples to Son's burnt ones. Right now they're trying to see if they can extract any DNA from the hairs."

Sharpner seemed downtrodden. "What about the blood? There has to be something there," he said desperately.

Tien perked up at that as a small grin appeared on his face. "Actually, something did come from that." Reaching over to the open manila folder, the bald man picked it up and held it to his partner. "Take a look. There's a blood match."

Eagerly, Sharpner snatched the folder from Tien's hand and read the report there. "Ox-King," the blond said out loud. "The blood is from our senator."

"Which means…"

"That Kay went to the motel after Ox-King was killed! He took his clothes off on in the bathroom and I guess washed off."

Tien nodded his head encouraging. "Which also means that Son was also aware of Ox-King's assassination. And considering that Son didn't make a call to the police, I'm guessing he was either trying to convince Kay to turn himself in or the two of them were up to something else entirely."

Sharpner closed the folder and held it at his side. "So the two cases are connected somehow."

"Barely," Tien admitted, "But it is our job to find out how."

A wide grin spread over Sharpner's face. "So what do we do now?"

"What we always do. Our jobs."


Gohan hit the sent button and let out a big sigh. He was finally done with Barker's document. It could have used a few improvements, but otherwise it looked sound. He had even said as much in his reply email to him.

But now the Son man felt drained. For the moment, he really didn't want to do anything except sit on that bed and let time pass him by—which he did. However, he didn't just do nothing while sitting there. Looking at his unread emails, he skimmed through them all, making note that they were all of little importance. In other words, it was the usual kind of emails he received.

Just as he was about to close his account, a new email popped up. Staring at it for a moment, he found it to be titled We Need To Talk. Frowning, Gohan opened it up and found a short paragraph that read:

Go to the Carlton Gates in one hour. There will be a young woman in a red dress at the hotel bar. She will give you further instructions as to our rendezvous point. You're playing a dangerous game, Mr. Paul Kay, with very dangerous people. If you want a chance at surviving, unlike your late partner, you will meet with me.

Gohan's blood froze upon reading that. Someone knew about him, about Paul Kay. The fact that they had even used his personal email address meant they knew about his fake identity. That wasn't even mentioning that they knew of Goten's sudden death.

Placing the laptop of the bed, Gohan stood up and began pacing about the room. He had to do something about this, he couldn't just sit on his hands and wait it out. This person knew about him, knew who he was, and where he had been. It was even possible they knew where he was currently and could do to him what had happened to Goten. He needed to meet this person.

There wasn't any choice in the matter.


The Charlton Gates was the richest hotel in the city. Only the wealthiest of the wealthy stayed, mostly because they could afford it. A-list celebrities were allowed to stay for the sole purpose of contributing to the fame of the hotel. Your Average Joe couldn't even dream of setting foot inside the lobby, much less get a room with a reservation years in advanced. Yeah, it was that kind of hotel.

And Gohan had to walk right into it.

He was standing across the street from the tall building, looking up at its thirty floors of steel and concrete. The sun reflected off of its polished surface and tinted windows, making it glow heavenly. Wiping his sweaty palms together, Gohan wondered how he was even going to have a chance to get inside.

Looking down to the large glass doors, he watched as limos, sports cars, and classical cars drove up in the small, private driveway that circled in front of the building. The crème of society would climb out of their cars and hand off their keys to an eager valet, who would then drive to car off to park it at a private garage. The garage was the reason why Gohan had parked his car a couple blocks away from the building, making him walk the rest of the way.

His nervousness also wasn't helped by the fact that he was formally dressed. Though his grey sports jacket was nothing compared to what the socialites were wearing—in fact, their polished shoes were worth more than all the clothes Gohan wore at the moment—and his white dress shirt was as ironed and pressed as it could be, he still couldn't help but feel underdressed in front of these large collection of wealth. He was thankful he wasn't wearing a tie, but he was having second thoughts considering all the men that had shown up at the hotel wore them. Yeah, I'm definitely underdressed for this.

Rubbing his hands on his grey, Gohan steeled his nerves. It wasn't his fault this was all he could afford, even with all the cash he found at his father's house—after all, he couldn't afford to spend it all in one place and there would come a time he would really need that money, especially with this deadly game he was involved in. It was for that reason he had brought the gun he had bought at Krillen's with him, the gun tucked into the waistband of his pants against his back. Taking a deep breath, the young man began walking one step at a time up to the hotel, his black dress shoes clicking and clacking on the asphalt. He was going to make history today as the man who wore the cheapest clothes at the most expensive hotel in town. Yeah, that was going to be a record of some sort.

Since traffic was light, Gohan had no problem crossing the street and walking through the hotel's private driveway. Noticing a doorman at the door, Gohan altered his course from the door slightly, walking up next to it and standing. The tall, burly-looking man frowned at him, giving him a suspicious look. Returning the ugly look with a weak smile and nod, Gohan looked away from the man, pretending that he was waiting for someone. Sticking his hands into his pockets, he shifted his weight from the heels of his feet to his toes, turning his head this way and that to complete his illusion. While the Son man doubted he fooled the doorman, it was enough to keep him from tossing Gohan away like trash.

"What do ya mean I can't stay here?" a loud voice shouted, causing everyone to look to its source. By one of the cars, an elderly gentleman was yelling at one of the valets in full rage. Apparently he wasn't good enough to be a guest at the hotel, Gohan mused. With wildly exaggerated motions, the gentleman continued to yell at the valet, his face becoming red with anger.

However, the scene had captured the doorman's attention as the man looked towards the commotion. For a moment, it looked as if he were going to charge right in to defuse the situation, but his duty to man the door tore at him. His duty became even stronger as a wealthy couple approached the door.

His duty won out though, as the doorman grabbed the handle to the door and opened it. "Welcome to the Carlton Gates," he greeted the couple, who snobbishly thanked him. Once the couple had entered the doorway, the doorman returned his attention to the enraged gentleman, stared at him, then decided to leave his post and settle the matter.

Serendipitous as it was, it was the opportunity Gohan had been waiting for. Quickly, he walked up to the door and slipped right in just before the glass door closed. There, he was finally in the lion's den.

Finding himself in the lobby, Gohan was immediately taken back. The lobby was a large, wide room completely made out of polished, white marble. To his left were huge, expensive rugs where plush leather chairs and couches were situated, some of where were occupied by the hotel's clientele. On the opposite side of the room was a magnificent staircase that led straight up before dividing into two different staircases, each one going in the opposite direction as the other. To the right of the stairs was a long wooden desk with the hotel registry. Gohan counted five to six workers standing behind the desk, each one filling out vacancies for the hotel. Overhead was a large, golden chandelier hanging from the high ceiling. All it all, the place screamed wealth.

It was making Gohan uncomfortable.

As casual as he could, the young man began walking to his right, keeping his distance from the front desk. He didn't want to risk someone paying him any attention and try to throw him out, not at this point. He had an appointment to keep after all.

As it turned out, taking that right had been a wise choice. On the far wall beyond the front desk was a large opening. Through the opening, Gohan could see a lounge of sorts where the hotel guests were seated and making conversation as they ate their early afternoon meal. Making a beeline for the lounge, Gohan entered it and looked around. Most of the tables were occupied from what he could tell, but that didn't concern him. What did capture his attention was the presence of a bar to his right. This had to be the place the email told him to be.

Sharpening his focus, Gohan looked at everyone situated at the bar. On one side was a man and a woman talking animatedly with each other. A seat away from them was a group of three men, all of them conversating about something Gohan couldn't hear. A few more empty seats from them was a lone man who seemed to be staring intently at the drink in front of him. And finally at the other end of the bar was another man and woman.

However, it was this pair that got Gohan's attention, particularly the woman. She was dressed in a lovely, form-fitting red dress, just as the email said she would. The only other distinguishing features he could make of her was that she had shoulder-length blonde hair and was thin. The man next to her seemed to be trying to get her attention, but was having very little success. Eventually, he gave up and left her alone. Guess she wasn't interested in him.

However, seeing as she didn't seem to mind dismissing the guy, Gohan could feel his anxiousness creep up again. What if she blew him off as well? What if she assumed he wasn't the guy she was supposed to meet? Heck, what if she didn't know she was supposed to meet anyone at all and this was just an elaborate prank to make a fool out of him?

Gohan gulped. Well, here's to making a fool out of myself.

Slowly, the young man made his way to the woman. With every step he took, time seemed to slow down. The sound of chatter that had filled the lounge had become drawn out, as if the people were talking in slow motion. Soon, the only thing Gohan was aware of was the sound of his feet clicking on the floor and the heaviness of his breathing. His heart was pounding in his chest a hundred miles an hour.

Just as he was two seats away from the woman, a glass of some sort of alcohol in her hand, she slowly turned to look at him, her face emotionless as her crystal blue eyes bored into him. Even her movements were in slow motions as her eyelids closed and reopened. Dear Lord, this woman was beautiful.

Then the world sped back up. Swallowing hard, Gohan tried to extend a greeting. "H-hi."

An expression appeared on the woman's face, one of disinterest. "Not interested," she bluntly told him, looking aware from him as she daintily lifted up her drink.

"Oh, no! I'm not here to ask for…ask for…umm…yeah…I, uhh…" he stammered.

The woman rolled her eyes as she sipped her drink. "Bug. Off."

Gohan felt his shoulder sag with rejection. This was not the way he wanted this to go. He needed to woman to tell him what he needed to know, mainly who it was that ordered him here. He couldn't back down, not now. She had to know he was the one she was waiting for!

Stop it Gohan! Closing his eyes, Gohan tried to center himself. This onslaught of emotion was not helping his situation. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down and reconsidered the situation. Yes, he had to talk with this woman. Unfortunately, she didn't know who he was. It was very likely the only thing she knew was that she had to meet with a man named Paul Kay.

And there was his opening.

Okay, with go with this. Straightening out his posture, Gohan moved to the seat closest to him, one that was two seats away from the woman. "I don't think you want me to do that," he said to her offhandedly. Good, at least my false sense of courage is coming through for me.

"Really now," the woman drawled, not even bothering to look at him. "And why is that?"

"Because you're looking for a Paul Kay and wouldn't want to miss him."

The woman's head whipped around to stare at him. "You're Paul Kay?" she demanded.

Gohan repressed a smirk that was trying to work its way onto his face. "I might be," he relented. "Though for all you know, I could just be his representative."

The woman stared at him for a moment before she stood up and moved to the seat next to him. Her leg brushed up against Gohan's as she crossed her legs. "Well then, I believe you have my interest," she said coyly.

It was like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders. This was good; this was very good. Looking towards her, Gohan found the woman staring right at him, her eyes rapt with attention. Her breathing had picked up he noted as her chest was noticeably expanding and contracting, calling attention to her generous cleavage.

Gohan could feel his head tilt down as he blatantly stared at her bosom. Oh…wow…

"Will you be informing Mr. Kay of my arrival?" the woman's voice asked, breaking through the young man's daze. Focus, Gohan, Focus! You can stare at her boobs later…much…later…

Gohan shook his head. "He's been informed," Gohan forced out. "Though he is curious as to why he's been asked here."

"A man asked me to meet him." At this, the woman leaned back and reached into dress, pulling out a small business card. As she handed it to him, she said "He told me to give this to him."

Taking the card, Gohan looked at it to find it belonged to the front desk of the hotel. Flipping it over, he found the number 2817 written on the back. Is this a room number?

Flipping it over again, Gohan looked back to the woman as she stared at him intently. "Are you going to deliver it to Mr. Kay?" she asked.

"Yes, I will," he answered for her, offering a tentative smile, one that she returned confidently. "I hope I'm not being too forward, but would you mind telling me your name?"

"Hatchi," she answered. "How about you?"

"Gohan," he replied, holding his hand out to her. She returned the gesture and shook his hand. A slight bit of inspiration came to Gohan at the moment and he brought her hand up to his lips, giving it a small kiss—just like he had seen in the movies. "It was nice meeting you."

Hatchi's smile remained on her lips as her eyes twinkled with mirth. "And I you."

With a full-fledge smile on his face, Gohan nodded his head to Hatchi and card in hand, stood up and left. Leaving the lounge, he looked at the backside of the card, seeing 2817 once more. This had to be a hotel room, right? Why order him to a hotel, give him a random set of numbers, and not want to actually meet here? Well, unless it was actually one part of an address. Yet there wasn't a street name on the card aside from the hotel's address.

Shrugging his shoulders, Gohan went in search of the elevators. Worst case scenario was that the numbers had nothing to do with a room number in the building. If that was the case, he would assuredly go back to his motel room and find another email with further instructions.

Arriving back in front of the staircase, Gohan looked from one side of the room to the other. From what he could see, there wasn't any way up to the upper floors aside form that gigantic staircase, not exactly something he felt like climbing.

Looking back to the front desk, the young man noticed a couple walking towards him before making a right towards the staircase. Behind them was a bagman carrying their luggage. Keeping an eye on them, Gohan watched as they headed towards a small hallway right in between the staircase and the front desk. Slowly, Gohan began to stroll after them, heading down the hallway until he saw them stop, wait a few moments, and then walked into the wall.

Picking up his pace, Gohan soon saw a three gold plated elevator door. Just what he was looking for. Hitting the up arrow button, he waited for an elevator to arrive, the far left elevator eventually opening up with an accompanying ding. Walking into the elevator, Gohan hit the 28 button, watched the doors close, and then felt himself rising up.

It was a couple minutes later and some lovely elevator music later and the doors opened. Walking into a white carpeted hall, Gohan slowly walked passed off-white colored walls and dark brown oak doors. At about eyelevel of the doors were gold plaques proclaiming the room number of each door. Currently he was at Room 2805. It was going to be a little bit before he finally reached his destination.

As he passed Room 2810, the young man was forced to make a right turn, showing more of the same walls and doors. Soon enough, he was standing outside of Room 2817, staring at the door. Gohan was unsure of what he was supposed to do at this point. Was he supposed to walk in or knock? Was this even the place he needed to be? He shook his head. Now wasn't the time to be fretting—it was a time for action.

Letting decorum take over, Gohan rapped his knuckles against the smooth wood surface and waited. Soon, he saw the door knob turn and the lock clicking as the door slowly opened. The door stopped, leaving only a crack open, but enough for Gohan to see part of a man looking at him. "Paul Kay?" a gruff voice asked.

"Yes."

The door flung open and the man's arm shot out and grabbed Gohan by the shoulder. Before he knew it, he was forced into the hotel room. However, it turned out the man wasn't alone as two more men grabbed him and dragged him further into the room. Roughly, they threw him against one of the walls, Gohan letting out a cry as he slid down to the floor, slumped against the wall.

Faintly, Gohan heard one of the men said "Got 'em." It was clearly not directed towards him, but nevertheless he didn't like the sound of it. Looking up, he found himself in a very expensively furnished room. It was some sort of sitting room with a matching set of couches, chairs, and a table on one side of the room to the young man's left. The walls and carpeting were the same as the hall. Directly to his left was a large wooden shelf, a TV sitting right in the middle of it. He couldn't see whatever else was there, but that was currently the least of his problems.

There were three men total in the room, all of them wearing classy black suits. Each man was burly and looked as if it would take a tank to take even one of them down. Needless to say, Gohan was not a tank. More like a toy knife if he had to call himself anything.

None of them seemed to want to talk to him, satisfied with staring him down like a hawk. Considering that he was most likely the mouse, Gohan settled with staying perfectly still, staring back at them in fright.

An eternity seemed to pass before Gohan worked up the nerve to ask them a question. "C-could you tell me what's going—"

"Quiet," the closest man growled. "You will learn soon enough."

Gohan only had enough courage to shakily nod his head in response.

Eventually, a knock was heard at the door. The man closest to the door immediately turned and opened it slightly, peaking through the crack. A moment later, he opened the door fully and stepped to a side.

"Well, well, well, so we meet again."

Gohan's head perked up at that, his eyes widening as he saw the woman at the bar appear. She was looking down at him amused, her arms dangling at her sides as she sauntered towards him. Another man in a suit also entered the room, staying a step behind her the whole way. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"You know, you're very charming," Hatchi spoke, ignoring Gohan's question outright. "If I didn't know any better, I would have thought you were a worthy opponent."

"Opponent?"

"I was expecting a weak, sniveling bookworm," she carried on. "And that's exactly what I got when you walked up to me. Imagine my surprise when you suddenly turned the table on me. You were playing me like a pro and it worked too. Very admirable."

She came to a stop right in front of Gohan and bent over, placing her hands on her knees as the fabric of her dress wrinkled. This gave Gohan the perfect view of her dangling cleavage, though he was a little too petrified at the moment to admire it once more. "But now it's the end of the road," Hatchi said as if she were speaking to a little boy. Perhaps that was the way it was in this situation. "And there's only one way out of this room for you."

Behind Hatchi, the man that had been following her reached into his coat and pulled out a gun. The gun made a clicking sound as the man switched off the safety. The very blood in Gohan's veins froze as he stared fearfully at the weapon.

Hatchi glanced behind her before she murmured out "No, I want to do this." Shifting his gaze onto her, Gohan watched a gentle smile grace the woman's red lips. "Consider it my farewell to you," she purred to him.

That was when she lifted up hand and extended her index finger, pointing it right in frong of Gohan's face. It took a moment, but eventually the tip of her finger began to glow with a bright light. If Gohan had been scared of the gun, he was horrified at the sight of that light. Dread filled his stomach as he instinctively pushed himself against the wall, doing what ever he could to put as much distance between him and that light. He could even feel heat radiating off her finger. His brain was screaming with wild abandon as it sensed danger. And that was what that light was: danger.

"Goodnight, sweet prince," Hatchi whispered to him.

And all Gohan knew after that was darkness.


ShadowMajin would like to extend his thanks to Kanotari for helping with the hotel name. He really appreciates it.