Chapter 10
No matter how hard he resisted 17 couldn't ignore the slight change of speed the space ship was traveling at which had disturbed is quiet slumber. His superior senses were both an advantage and a curse in times like this. The mere alteration in the vibration frequency of the ship alerted him that one of the engines was running slower than the others causing the unnoticeable to everyone but himself shifting irregularity in speed.
No doubt the other two roommates were to oblivious to pick up on the maintenance issue that could turn into something serious if not fixed immediately. If 17 ever wanted any rest he would have to fix the problem himself. It was programmed in him to seek out solutions to any and all problems hindering his objective, and currently that objective was getting some much needed overdue sleep.
Unbeknown to anyone he never really slept while he was playing bodyguard. Yes he would doze off from sheer exhaustion but it was only for a few minutes. He never got any real sleep because he was too on alert for anyone or anything that would try to harm his ward. In that situation his superior senses would have detected any changes in Bra's vitals before the hospital's state of the art equipments could. Again, a curse because her livelihood became his responsibility.
Pushing those tortuous memories behind him he got out of bed and made his way to the control room where he was certain to find his fumbling "leader" asleep in the control chair since the ship was only a two bedroom. To 17's dismay he found the room empty, no Saiyan in sight.
"He's probably in the kitchen stuffing his face." 17 thought to himself believing the true yet still stereotype that Saiyans had unquenchable appetites.
Again his calculations were wrong. He found the kitchen dark and empty. Puzzling since the cleaver android was hardly ever wrong to the whereabouts of his enemies… team members. He could just seek out the other man's Ki but thought it was a waste of his valuable energy. The ship wasn't that big he had to be somewhere.
17 walked back towards his room and stopped in front of Bra's room. Perhaps she knew where he was and he could get the answers he needed sooner than later. The android was surprised, but not shocked when his target answered her door.
"Is something wrong?" Goten asked standing before him in nothing but his boxers. 17 at least had the decency to throw on a pair of jeans. It was one thing to walk around in nothing but your boxers when your only roommate is a hot girl, but it was a different story when there was another guy in the picture. Picking up on the situation Goten became very self-conscious of his lack of clothing and was mad at himself for forgetting his manners and getting dressed before answering the door.
"The port engine is running slow." 17 stated unimpressed by the other man's physic. They were on equal playing grounds when it came to battle of the bods and the ripped android was not intimidated. In the looks department he didn't feel threatened. The only thing the Saiyan had going for him that 17 didn't was the personality trait of being a push over and some bossy control freaks loved that in a man.
"Really? The computer hasn't set off any warning alerts." Goten shifted to the side scratching his head confused. It was when he moved that17 could see Bra laying in her bed sleeping. By the messed up sheets on the opposite side of her it was pretty apparent that's where the man in front of him had been sleeping.
"That's because your ship's system is inferior to me." 17 stated noting Bra had not stirred at all. That woman could probably sleep through anything.
"Anything except my nightmares." 17 thought bitterly.
"I'll go run the ships maintenance reports." Goten tried to exit the room.
"Don't bother. I'll have it fix before you can even analyze those reports. Just tell me where the tools are." 17 stopped him following the age old rule that if you wanted something done right you had to do it yourself. And that's what he planned on doing.
"The tools are in the storage closet at the very back of the engine room." Goten answered unaffected by 17's not so subtle insult mixed with a question. Without even a simple "thanks" for the information the android left to go find those tools and fix what he claimed the ship couldn't even detect. Goten let him go and returned to bed with his sleeping beauty….
"Grrrr." Bra growled seriously annoyed. Why was it every time she was in the middle of a really good dream with a really hot guy something had to wake her up? She was for certain Dende had it out for her and swore to tell him off when she returned to Earth.
"Goten." Bra whispered trying to subtly wake him up to ask him what all the ruckus was about. Loud banging and clacking noises had waked her up and as far as she was concerned if she had to be awake so did he. When merely calling his name failed she tried a tougher approach by shaking him.
"No mommy. I didn't skip my tutoring lesson to play with Trunks." Goten mumbled obvious reliving some irrelevant childhood memory. He then pulled the covers over his head and scooted father away from Bra.
"You're useless." Bra threw off the covers and stormed out of the room. The feeling of déjà vu hit her as she stepped out of her room and saw 17's door before her. Last time she had been woken up by unpleasant noises she barged into his room only to nearly be strangled to death by her so called partner.
As hard as she tried to mentally block those images from invaded her head the traumatized princess failed. She shuddered at the dark memories of that dreadful night. Bra paused and took a deep breath to compose herself. She had to tell herself the noises weren't coming from the deadly android's room so she had nothing to fear. Especially with Goten only a scream away.
Once her heartbeat return to normal Bra continued in the direction the loud construction like noises where coming from which seemed to be leading her towards the engine room. A place she'd never been to, never planned on going to and to be honest would have avoided at all cost. But she refused to be the damsel in distress or the scared housewife that had to wake up her husband or whatever to go see what the scary noises were.
When Bra finally reached the entrance to the engine room she hesitated. She could already feel the difference in temperature. The floor under her bare feet was hot and even more hot air was escaping from the bottom of the entrance door. She considered going back and getting some slippers but that would just take longer. Finding out what the noises were and stopping them was her current priority.
She reached out and turned the door knob which was also hot to the touch but it was nothing compared to the gust of hot air that hit her as soon as she opened the door. It was like stepping into the inferno of hell or opening the door to a cooking oven. Not that Bra personally knew what either of those where like since she was one of few in her inner circle that hadn't died and been wished back by the dragonballs or had cooked in her life. But in her opinion it was probably the same.
Dry heat she could handle. A heat wave of 110 plus degrees was nothing compare to this wet heat. The humidity had to be a hundred percent because the hot damp air was heavy to breath and it was leaving vapor droplets on her porcelain skin. The heavy machinery all around her made the situation worse by blowing hot steam in her direction.
All that moisture was making her silk night gown stick to her body and her hair look tussled like she'd been working out or participating in other extra physical activities if you know what I mean. It was hard to concentrate on her task at hand when she was suffering from heat exhaustion, but she continued to maneuver her way around the tight spaces between bulky machinery.
Bra was no technology expert by any means but even she knew these engines and what not seemed primitive compared to some of the new age technology recently developed. She was distracted by that as she followed the banging now sawing type noises. Just when she thought she had finally reached the location of the noise she bumped into the corner of one of the A/C units hard.
"Owie!" Bra had to hold back tears as she rubbed her throbbing thigh. She was defiantly going to have a nasty bruise in the morning. She wanted to kick the stupid machine that hurt her but refrained from it because she wasn't wearing any shoes and because she was all sorts of clumsy at the moment that she'd probably end up knocking it over on herself, bringing even further bodily harm upon herself.
"Don't start a fight you can't win." A sarcastic laugh came from below and a few steps ahead of her. It wasn't hard to recognize the oh so full of themselves voice. That and there were only two other people on the ship with her and she had left the other asleep in her bed.
"You're just defending your ancestors." Bra hated to admit it but she really couldn't think of anything other than android insults on the spot. That angered her and she made a mental note to think of some new insults for future arguments.
While momentarily lost in her own little world 17 went back to welding and banging whatever it was he was trying to destroy more than fix. The loud sounds reminded her of why she came into this dirty room in the first place. It had the inconvenient location of being next to her bedroom.
"Keep it…" Bra began yelling over the noise.
"No." 17 answered before she could even finish her demand to keep the noise down so she could sleep. It aggravated her to no end that he never paused from what he was doing.
Bra reached down and grabbed a tool out of the tool box next to him. She had no idea what it was but it was heavy therefore she could at least use it to hit him over the head with.
"I've warn you once before Princess." 17 reminded setting down his hammer and getting up slowly then turning to face her.
"Don't play with fire." 17 snatched the tool out of her hand which he demonstrated was actually a mini yet full powered blow torch by pressing the middle releasing a white hot flame powerful enough to melt any known solid substance.
"Unless you want to get burned." 17 drove the point in by pressing the button harder making the flame blast out farther before letting the button go, the flame fading away. He then put it into his jean's back pocket. Who knew when it might come in handy?
"I can handle the heat." Bra closed the gap between them and stared up her enemy not down since she was bare foot the difference in height was very noticeable. 17 glared down at her but found no fear in the girl's blue eyes. It was contradicting to what he expected. He had after all tried to kill her only a few days earlier but she was looking right at danger and not running away scared.
"Grease monkey." Bra smirked playing on the word using his favorite insult against him. She reached out and touched his chest with the intent to smear the grease on his chest further down his body. She meant the jester as reinforcement of her degrading him but instead it turned into something else.
17's cool silky smooth skin felt tempting under Bra's fingertips as she traced his muscles. The teasing princess fingers left a trail of tingling sensation as she ran them up and down his chest in more of a caressing motion. She gasped softly has her hand was pulled away more roughly than necessary.
Bra waited for him to push her away with some angry words but with one quick movement he pulled her to him eliminated any space left between them. 17 held onto the small of her back after her soft body crashed into his keeping her captive. He watched a vapor droplet travel pain staking slow down from her neck, to her collar bone, down the middle of her chest disappearing into her cleavage.
If 17 had an ounce less self control he would have ceased his feable attempt to not give into the lust taking over him and lick the vapor off of her. His mind failed to comprehend why it was so difficult to resist her when he had always been the one in control of situations of seduction. Never had he let the girl do the seducing and if he didn't get it together he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop himself.
It was hard not to register the fact that only the thin silk material of her barely there nightgown and his jeans where the only things standing between him and the sexy princess. The way Bra was looking at him, her eyes shining, all her exposed skin glistening, her lips slightly parted from her original gasp was send his circuits into a frenzy.
Bra was battling just as hard to hold on to any logic that was slipping away from them. As they stared at each other the sexual tension so intense the steam could be radiating from their bodies and not the machinery.
"There you are!" Goten's voice snapped Bra and 17 out of their dangerous trance. The two were so caught up in each other they didn't even hear him coming.
17 gently let go of Bra's hand and they both stepped away from each other casually. If they had broken apart fast and abruptly it would have made it more obvious they were up to something they didn't want found out.
"I was getting worried." Goten hadn't noticed their uncomfortable expressions as he stood besides Bra.
"I couldn't sleep with all the noise." Bra wrapped her arms around herself feeling exposed like she hadn't before. She was more than comfortable in her own skin but it was different when she was scantily clad while in the middle of two very hot guys.
Luckily her two male companions didn't know her well enough to realize she was lying because she could actually sleep thru almost anything. Including a runaway Kamehameha that destroyed part of the Capsule Corps mansion's west wing during an intense sparring match between her father and Goku.
"I'm almost done." 17 informed turning his back on them and returning to his work without another word or even stolen glance at the women he had just shared an intimate moment that neither would have the chance to find out would have lead to if they had not been interrupted by someone with literally the worst timing ever.
"Come on. The ship will be landing at 6 AM our time." Goten took Bra by the hand and lead her back to what could be considered their room.
Before they were out of sight Bra looked back one last time and glanced longingly at the android working so hard to fix their spaceship. More longing to know what just happened if they could explain it or if it was just a moment of lust. The analytical princess was starting to believe with these two men around her life was turning into a daytime soap opera or possibly a prime time crime drama series with a love triangle driving the storyline……..
Bra was already dressed and ready to go before the ship had even landed. After last night's event she wasn't able to go back to sleep. Not because 17 had lied and proceeded to go back to making loud noises the rest of the night but because she couldn't settle the knots in her stomach.
She sighed as she caught a glimpse of Goten still asleep in her bed through the large full length mirror she was standing before. Bra concentrated on finishing her make up to match her brand new never worn before royal purple sweater dress paired with black tights and purple knee high stiletto boots. From what she guessed about the location they would be visiting she figured it was safe to once again dress up.
A red light that was in each room went on along with a loud alarm signaling they were about to land. Goten instantly woke up, got out of bed and got dressed in his Galaxy Police Officer's uniform all in under five minutes. The Galaxy Police Academy's boot camp had trained him well in the art of quick preparation. It had also taught him punctuality which was a major plus in Bra's scorecard.
She exited with him and found 17 already waiting by the hanger door. With one press of the button the hanger opened down providing them a ramp to the new planet below. Well new to Bra and 17, but not Goten who had been there only a few months earlier. He was one of the active officers that were a part of a long investigation into a black market smuggling ring being run on this planet. The investigation ended in a raid where most guilty parties were arrested and all illegal items confiscated.
"I thought you said they're might be someone on this planet that had information on the whereabouts of the real five star dragonball?" Bra asked looking around the deserted place. It was like an old western ghost town except all the abandoned buildings where made out of metal. There didn't appear to be another living soul on the planet which ruled out the chance of someone having valuable information they could use.
"Current reports list several ex convicts stationed on this planet." Goten defended.
"How current are these currents reports?" Bra pressed wanting an exact date.
"Um a few months." Goten answered sheepishly.
"Ugh!" Bra groaned annoyed. This was turning into a wild goose chase and she hated being feed misinformation.
"I sense a life form's movement in that warehouse." 17 motioned to a large run down building a head of them a few hundred feet up a hill. Unbeknown to the android, his declaration inadvertently saved Goten from getting smacked upside the head by a pissed off princess. Compassion never one of her virtue.
"Since we're here we might as well investigate." Goten shrugged initiating a role reversal by allowing 17 to lead the way. The move contradicted his leadership experience.
"Damnit." Bra cursed as her shoe selection for the day was coming back to bite her in the ass. She could dance all night in the highest of heels but when it came to walking long distance, uphill in them well that's when she really wished she had learned to fly.
Goten was considerate enough to slow down and walk at her pace. He stayed with her even offering his arm for support. Bra graciously accepted her feet killing her even though she had walked a short distance. She hated herself for her conviction that it was always fashion over comfort. She looked ahead and saw that 17 was nowhere in sight. The prick was probably already inside the warehouse working alone. It just demonstrated further that Goten was a gentleman and 17 was a bastard.
Bra had been wishing the whole painful walk that she would find a nice comfy chair in the building but of course there wasn't. All there was were pieces of scrap metal and other mechanical parts, dust and empty space. The place reeked of an old chop shop. The lights didn't work for lack of electric power but there were enough holes in the roof to let in enough light so they could make their way around.
"Over here." 17 called out from the opposite side of the buildings shadows. It was just like the arrogant android to try to boss around his superiors. Wanting to be done with this and back on an actual lead Bra followed him first with Goten right behind her. They were lead to an opening in the concrete floor just big enough for the average male to get down a rickety old ladder. Goten took back leadership by stepping over the hole and levitating over it for a moment before descending down into the darkness. 17 followed suite while Bra hesitated at the top.
"Do you want me to fly you down?" Goten called up concerned.
"No. Go on ahead and make sure the coast is clear." Bra yelled down refusing his assistance. She may need help once and again from those that could fly but this wasn't that far down and there was a ladder.
Bra began climbing down the ladder one step at a time, but didn't get far when the metal hinges holding the ladder up began creaking loudly from years of built up rust and the ladder shifted away from the wall a few inches.
"Eeep!" Bra shrieked holding onto the side of the metal bars for dear life. Even though she could survive a fall from five times the height she still didn't want to deal with even the tiniest of pains or get her never before worn designer sweater dress torn and dirty.
However, the ladder didn't fall over with her on it, but moved in the opposite direction back towards the wall and then stayed stabled. Bra looked down expecting to find Goten below her holding the ladder steady, disobeying her order to go on ahead but was caught off guard when she saw 17 holding the ladder.
"If you look up my dress I swear to Dende I will stab you in the eye with my heel!" Bra threatened instead of thanking him. She couldn't accept any gesture of kindness from the ex murderer. In her opinion he had ulterior motives behind everything he did.
Considering the short length of her dress and even though she was wearing tights she wouldn't put it past him to try to sneak a peek up it. Bra got no response but she could feel his eyes on her backside, then a few steps later it wasn't just his eyes she felt on her butt.
"Hand off ass!" Bra gritted her teeth with each word knowing 17's lame excuse for having his hand on her butt was going to be that he was making sure she got down safely.
"Off ass!" Bra growled powering up just enough that it would get Goten's attention. With that 17 took his hand away and moved to the side letting her get onto the ground without further incident. She was ready to kick him in the nuts when their leader reappeared returning the earlier favor of saving the other from a violent attack from the volatile princess.
"I found something." Goten informed having missed the groping incident. Bra and 17 followed him deeper into the underground level where they came to a small simple metal chest with what appeared to be a rectangular shaped piece of glass being held up by a clear stand with a smaller rectangular glass lying on the chest before. The set up mirrored that of a monitor and keyboard back on Earth.
"I believe there may be information on this electric computer like device but I can't even figure out how to turn it on." Goten shared his discovery and admitted his lack of knowledge. Before Bra could even make a joke about 17 having the ability to talk to his kind the butt of her joke walked over and stood in front of the device that stood almost at chest height.
All he did was touch the screen and it came to life. Goten seemed genuinely impress while Bra just rolled her eyes refusing to inflate his ego further. As 17 worked on decoding by pressing areas on the "keyboard" the others looked over his shoulder. None of them had any clue they were being watched.
The lairs resident inhabitant watched from the ceilings beams. It did not like intruders and had been waiting in the dark to strike. It had sensed the intruders before any of them even set foot inside his "home." Instead of attacking right away the cunning stalker observed camouflaged by its surroundings waiting for the perfect opportunity to launch his attack.
When it's prey had moved down to his lower level the opportunity seemed right for the taking since it was a small closed off area with only one way out. However, when the long dark haired one managed to turn on his life system the creature was intrigued to find out what this new life form was.
It's energy and genetic makeup did not register the same as the other two. The creature inched closer to get a better reading but miscalculated the sound output from his movement. 17 suddenly stopped what he was doing completely and looked up in its general direction.
"What? Did you see a ghost?" Bra continued to be in a bitchy mood.
"No." 17 snapped scanning the upper walls focusing to lock in on the life form he had detected from outside. It was difficult because it was nothing like he'd ever come across. When he began to take a step towards it's hiding place the creature self preservation defenses kicked in and it shot out a supersonic radio wave that shut down only one of the intruders system.
"17?" Goten asked when the android froze in its place. He stepped in front of him and waved his hands in front of his eyes, but the stunned android didn't even blink.
"Hello! Anyone home?" Bra asked joining in the effort to revive their powered off team mate. In all their commotion they almost missed ducking out of the way of the creature that had done this swooping down on them trying to finish them off.
"What was that?" Goten asked out loud. Without responding, possessed by adrenaline Bra sprung into action. With a speed and aggression that would make her father proud the annoyed princess grabbed a pair of large claw shaped pliers that were conveniently hanging on the back wall, snatched the creature out of mid air and slammed it onto the metal chest smack between where the computer was stationed and where 17 was standing lifeless.
"What the hell did you do to him?" Bra demanded nearly sneering as she loomed over her captive pressing it down with all her strength. Goten was taken aback by her reaction and by what she held prisoner. The creature she was pinning down was what could be mistaken on Earth for a small toy robot. It had a metal like skeleton with its mechanical insides exposed. He was about to reason with Bra that it probably couldn't understand them when to both their shock the creature laughed.
"I'll never tell you!" The creature more shockingly understood and spoke their langue. Bra wasted no time wondering how that was possible but instead lifted the creature up by the pliers it was trapped by and slammed it onto the chest with enough strength it slightly cracked the chest and nearly knocked the computer off.
"Listen you Wall-E wannabe, transformers reject!" Bra fumed leaning over it staring straight into its beady little eyes.
"Undo whatever you did to him!" Bra ordered not playing around.
"I can't!" The robot claimed but it was most likely a lie.
"Then fix him!" Bra screamed her temper lost a long time ago.
"No!" The creature remained defiant. No one told Bra no. The Saiyan Princess reached over and pulled the mini torch out of the back pocket of 17's jeans and switched it on.
"Fix him!" Bra demanded pressing the on button and holding the white hot flame to the creatures face.
"Ah! No!" The creature shook refusing to cave making Bra shove the flame into the side of its face sparks exploding out.
"Ahhhhhhh!" The creature screeched in pain.
"Fix him! Fix him! Fix him!" Bra yelled over its cries of anguish. Goten jumped in trying to prey her off of the creature to end her torturing. He feared if he couldn't he may have to arrest her for attempted murder……..
Authors Note- Bra's snapped. Could it be she actually cares what happens to 17? Please review!