Sorry for the long wait, but stuff comes up, school's evil, the usual. This is only a hobby so unfortunately I have higher priorities for time, but I'll still try to write it quicker than this 3 month span next time. And now, everything gets interesting mwahaha...
Chapter 10: Our Own Way
The journey was long and quite uneventful; the awe they had felt from the first journey through the wonders fo space had declined until they were bored in their isolated pods. The planet was only a few hours away with the super speed of the space ships, but that was still a few hours for Vegeta and Chester to kill in isolation. Vegeta sighed while slouching in his seat. "I wish I had brought cards or something," he muttered to the window and black abyss.
It was dead silent, only the slight hum of the engine filled Vegeta's hearing. He began to yawn and shut his eyes for a small nap, but was jolted awake bu Chester's voice filling his pod, "Hey Vegeta, can you hear me?"
Vegeta groggily spun his head around to find the source of Chester's voice until his eyes laded on the scouter on the wall. "I'm talking through the earpiece thingy, pick it up," the voice confirmed to Vegeta's suspicions.
He carefully placed the device on his ear and quietly said, "Chester?"
"No, it's the Boogeyman, I've come to steal your soul!" Chester answered sarcastically, "I was fiddling around with things in here and I locked on to your thingy's frequency, aren't I amazing?" Vegeta heard laughter from the other side.
"Why are you fiddling with the equipment? You could screw up your coordinates," Vegeta warned and leaned forward to catch a glimpse of Chester's ship, making sure it was still there.
"No, I'm not going near those buttons (yet), but I was thinking I could become a little more useful to your plot, so I'm familiarizing myself with the electronics."
Vegeta nodded, then realized Chester can't see him so he mumbled, "Yeah, you do that. Don't fuck it up though."
The duo talked about random topics for the rest of the journey, many of them reminding the pair of their home planet, and each glad for the company. The computer system announced arrival as Vegeta and Chester gaze upon a reddish-brown planet before they began to descend to it. They passed through a layer of dust in the atmosphere, but instead of crashing to the ground like their last flight, the ships glided over the barren surface until a metallic city came into view. "I guess this place has a landing dock," Vegeta voiced.
"Yay, no more concussions," Chester monotonously stated.
The ships landed gracefully in a parking lot filled with a few similar ones and others with extravagent designs and size. The planet, like the other one they were on, held enough oxygen for the Earthbound refugees to breathe, and the electronic map they possessed gave a vague outline of the city. As soon as the ships shut down, Chester moved to Vegeta's ship and watched him carve a small star with a rock in the side. As Chester questioned this action, Vegeta replied, "I want to know which one was mine, so we don't get back on it again."
"Don't get back on it? Do you plan on living here or something?"
"No, but unless you can figure out how to get the tracking systems that are bound to be in the controls out of them, we need to change ships to avoid detection."
"Oh wow, I didn't even think of that," Chester muttered, slightly amazed at the depth in Vegeta's strategy. After the two had gathered their belongings and weapons, they set out to walk the streets. At once they were met with a stifling crowd, and had to walk elbow to elbow in order to stay together. Vegeta noted they were in the marketplace by the side shops and commotion surrounding each, yells and low talking encircling them in many alien languages. Vegeta tried to pick up on a few conversations, but they were either speaking too quickly or in a tongue he couldn't comprehend.
Chester pulled Vegeta out of his observations as he leaned in and asked, "What are we doing here anyway? Did you pick this place for another reason than getting away from the last place?"
"Kind of, yeah." Vegeta noticed a store to their left a little bit ahead of them, and motioned Chester to follow him into it. As the duo neared the shop, materials and fabrics lay on rows of tables under the covering of the building.
"Clothes? We're going clothes shopping?" Chester questioned with a raised eyebrow. After a second to think, he then whispered, "We have no money, you know. Well, I have $20 in my wallet but I doubt these guys take Canadian."
"I know," Vegeta replied, "but we need to fit in somehow. In order to plan against him, we need to be less conspicuous so Frieza won't suspect anything. It'll be easier to recruit others too, as we'd be one of them."
Chester sighed as the duo entered the shaded area with no more light reflection from the high buildings. "Are you making this up as we're going along, Veg?" he asked while brushing past a few people to walk down the aisle.
"No," Vegeta said while stopping at some very common articles.
"Then tell me about the next step before we're already in it!" Chester whispered through his teeth.
"But this is such a funnier reaction." Vegeta felt Chester's glare burn into his head with a smirk. He glanced around and saw many people were crowded around the cash tables and no one was paying attention to them. "Find your size and put it in your bag," he muttered to the angry blonde and followed his own example.
"So the first thing we do not to get noticed is shoplift? Such great logic you have," Chester mumbled and followed his counterpart. The duo continued to look around for a minute of two then left the store. Vegeta pointed to a close alleyway which they entered, and moments later came out adorning the newly acquired clothing, now blending in to the diverse crowd with ease.
"I feel so different now; feel more like a rebel alien," Chester joked.
"That's what you are now, genius. Time to explore."
The duo continued to walk down the pedestrain road, dodging the passerbys that stumbled almost aimlessly around them. The atmosphere was energetic with movement, yet as vegeta looked into any oncominer's eyes, the gaze of fear and acceptance of their tyranical leader was clearly evident as they quickly averted their eyes. "This guy must be worse than I thougth," he muttered to Chester, "Everyone looks dead."
Chester only nodded in agreement. The market place wasn't as big as they thought as Vegeta and Chester reached the poverty-stricken residences within half an hour. The buildings became less of skyscrapers of offices and shops, and more of a few storey apartment buildings, all which felt like a downtown ghetto spread across the district. The inhabitants around this area were nothing like the variety of mutants in the market. All ages of the creatures were brown skin with their disfigured bones prodding through, the multiple eye sockets and facial bones were sunken and stared hungrily at Vegeta and Chester's fresh flesh. Chester gripped the hilt of his sword in anticipation of an attack, scanning the pepole sitting on the roadsides in rags. Vegeta was alert as well and started to slow his walk. He grabbed his friend's arm lightly and whispered, "Turn around, we're going back. I don't trust this area."
Chester halted and stared questionly at Vegeta. "Back to where? What are we doing here anyway?" he exclaimed, waving his arms in the air. After a few moments of silence, he continued, "Do we even know how to go about finding this little army of yours that may not even exist?"
Vegeta rubbed his temples and sighed. "No, I don't Chaz. I've been trying to figure that out this entire walk. The store signs held no help anyways," he paused to look around at the poverty, "And if anything, this planet looks like it's controlled by an uncaring monarch."
Chester interjected, "Maybe it's Frieza in power."
"In that case, we definitely need to be discreet, but there has to be something already started if he's a horrible guy."
"Well, that's understandable, but we don't even have a safe place to sleep right now, or even money for food and that essential shit!"
"Since you seem to know what we need, why don't you think of where to go and how the fuck to live!" Vegeta yelled back at Chester's accusing tone.
"I'm not trying to argue with you, Veg, but we need to think of other things as well. This is a life or death situation now; you can't run off on an idea that you know nothing about."
Vegeta began to pace in the street with a few aliens around the watching intently. Others lost interest in the yelling of the two strangers and resumed their hunt of water or whatever else they felt necessary to live the night. Chester watched the younger man run his hands into his flamed hair in frustration and emit a low growl, and questioned sympathetically, "What do you want to do now, Vegeta?"
The irritated man stopped and stared back into the bazaar. "I have no clue," he admitted dejectedly, "But I do know I am fucking tired and we need to find a place to sleep." As he said this, Chester realized Vegeta's eyes did look exhausted from the energy he's used inthe last few days and worried. He felt a yawn pushed out of his own mouth and felt the weight of exhaustion on his own being.
"Do you think we could bunk in one of these places for a few hours?" he suggested, pointing his thumb at the metallic buildings.
Vegeta glanced with disgust at the inhabitants standing or sitting on the fire escapes. "Would you really want to? They look like they want to eat us or something, maybe they will."
"True, but where else? No money remember, so no fancy-ass hotels."
"Well, find an empty, clean room then."
This task became harder than Vegeta anticipated. The few buildings in their area were pure poverty, so their already tired bodies had to walk farther until a slightly abandoned, smaller apartment came into view. Two aliens sat outside leaning on the cool metal in the shade to escape the sunlight glaring off the metallic walls, and paid no attention to the dup sneaking through the front door. Inside was no different than they pictured; the floor was a darker metal than the walls, but a few light fixtures illuminated the hallway like a decrepit hospital. Vegeta noticed the doors were as high-tech as Frieza's self-opening doorways, so he jiggled knobs as he passed and found one that was unlocked. He opened the heavy door slowly because of the weight, and peeked in to see if anyone inhabited the single empty room. "This will work for now," he said after scouting the shadowed corners of the room and walking in, "It's completely empty."
"Does it have a lock on the door?" Chester asked from the doorway.
Vegeta turned around and checked the back of the giant piece of steel. "Yeah, we're safe for now," he replied.
Chester quickly closed the door behind him and engaged the lock, making sure if it worked properly. He heard Vegeta snicker from the other side of the room and turned to face him sitting comfortably against a wall. "If you're so paranoid," he began with a yawn, "We can take shifts to guard the door and this blocked off window." He jerked his thumb toward the partially barricaded window above his shoulder.
The blonde laugh uncomfortably to prove he wasn't too scared at the area, but silently agreed to Vegeta's suggestion. Chester began adjusting his head wrap in the silence. Vegeta rolled his eyes then shut them to let his body relax and start to fall asleep. He barely heard Chester cry out, "Hey! Who says you get to sleep first?"
"I do," he mumbled and blacked out.
-----
The lizard stood at his window, glaring at the small merchant planet, the room only lit from the light in the dark matter of space. His ship hovered against the pull of gravity, leaving a menacing shadow on the planet. Frieza glanced at the blinking GPS on a table in front of him, locating the Saiyan and his accomplice. A scowl appeared on his shadowed face as the signal stayed in one place. They had attempted to escape him, with his own pods? Vegeta needed to pay. Frieza quietly muttered to a few men lined across the room, "Get them by any means."
One decided to speak against the tyrnat in surprise, "But sir, this is a high-grade trading planet, we even get equipment from here. It can't be destroyed."
"Get. Them!" Frieza yelled as he turned to face the group. The men nodded, losing their voices in fear or obedience, and collectively walked out of the room. Frieza swiftly crossed the room without the men noticing and blocked the man that spoke out. "You seem like you want to stay here though," he said with a sinister tone.
The man paled as his leader's smirk widened to an evil grin while the remaining men left the room quickly. The group heard Frieza's tormenting start as the door from the man's screams echoing around the circular hallway. While walking by a doorway, a tall green-skinned humanoid motioned to Jeice lounging inside with a few multi-coloured men. "You," he started, "Come find the Saiyan."
Jeice's eyes and grin darkened as he stood. "Zarbon, of course I'll join you," he replied as if being asked to move, and joined the band of aliens heading to the docking room.
-----
"CHESTER! Wow, you don't sleep; you fucking hibernate..." Vegeta uttered to the sleeping blonde, giving up on shaking him awake. He dropped down to sit beside Chester's sleeping form and sighed. He was woken too early for his liking and found nothing in the room to amuse himself for his guard shift. Vegeta tore a few planks off the window to glance outside, learning their second storey view was a great one to the road leading to the market. A very small amount of people accidently ventured into the urban area in the last two hours, turning around quickly from the unsafe feel.
Vegeta lighted nudged Chester with the tip of his steel-toed boot and the boy jolted up. "You're kidding me," he exclaimed, "I shake you, yell, yet a small nudge actually wakes you? Ugh.."
Chester yawned and blinked the sleep still in him away. He glanced groggily at the room, ignoring Vegeta's comment and asked, "We're still here? Damn, I thought it was a dream."
"Nope, still stuck with no plan," Vegeta sighed as he glanced out the window again. The sky was a pale yellow from the lack of water to reflect a blue sky. It was so different than what he was used to, and yet it felt more familiar than Earth's baby blue sky. "I belong out here," he stated to the sky.
Chester paused his stretches and turned to face the day-dreaming boy. "Here?" he questioned, "Veg, these are aliens."
"I don't mean here as in this planet, dolt, but space altogether. It feels right," he said with decreasing anger in his voice.
"Sure, why not," Chester gave in, still slightly asleep to argue.
In his peripheral vision, Vegeta noticed 5 objects stain purple smoke streaks across the sky, like fighter jets, all heading towards the docking area of the planet quickly. They came from behind the residences and flew dangerously close to the bazaar shop roofs. A reflection on one building caught his interest as the millisecond the spherical ship passed he saw their orange-skinned captop grinning viciously as he awaited arrival. Vegeta's eyes widened. He stuttered out, "Chester, they found us."
"What?!" Chester roared and raced to the window. He scanned the sky until he saw the dust cloud of the spaceships landing. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the windowsill and swore under his breath. "What do we do?" he whispered as though the powerful beings could hear them. He began pacing quickly.
Vegeta, still seated, stared at the ground as he thought out any possible solutions. It was likely that they wouldn't be found with the number of bodies on the planet, but he didn't know the measures the menacing aliens would take to sort everyone out. All he knew: they needed to run. "Gather your stuff, we need to find another dock."
"And go where Veg? Admit it, we can't run from these guys forever-"
"That's why we need to find someone to help!" Vegeta shouted over the panicking tone. The two stared at each other for a minute until Chester scoffed, muttering "Fine," and began to shove whatever was his into his bag.
Vegeta slung his own bag over his shoulder and glanced apologetically at his friend packing. I need to get him home, this isn't his battle. He strolled out of the room with caution with Chester following wordlessly behind him, tension definitely thick in the air. They exited the building to see the natives outside hadn't moved at all during their stay. Vegeta had a quick idea and approached one with Chester giving him a weird look. He kneeled down while the dehydrated being slowly looked at him, waiting for something. Vegeta began, "Is there another docking bay on this planet?"
The skin-bag stared at him with no expression for a few moments and Vegeta tried to access the languages he thought were somewhere in his consciousness. Suddenly it raised it's arm, making Vegeta jump back as it pointed in the opposite direction of the other one. Vegeta saw its dried lips move, but had to lean in a little bit to catch whatever was being said. Only one word came out of its throat, "Far." Vegeta nodded in understanding and stood up. He felt slightly sorry for the being awaiting its death, but had no choice but to leave it to suffer. He began walking briskly in the alien's direction, causing Chester to run up until he was walking beside the flame-haired boy.
"Where are we going now?" he asked impatiently, apparently still at odds with each other.
Vegeta stared ahead and stated, "Another shipyard. I'll look at the maps once we get there." Chester nodded and said nothing more as they continued to walk through the town for what felt like forever.
-----
The city ended quickly as the barren wasteland continued across the plaent, like they had seen when arriving. The duo was in the open, hoping a fly-by wouldn't give away their secrecy (definitely sticking out against the grainy desert). Against Vegeta's judgement, the sun didn't reflect off the ground as the air was cool, not as hot as the natives had made it out to be with their dying moans. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Chester who hadn't uttered a sound since they left the apartment, and for a second watched the blonde, in his foreign clothes, stare around for a speck of life. He looked annoyed, maybe even pissed at their lack of security as soon as they left Earth. Did he regret sticking around with Vegeta all those years ago after been saved from the muggers? Was their friendship worth the permanent threat of death?
Vegeta sighed as he realized his responsibility of anything were to happen to Chester. He cleared his throat to get his friend's attention, needing to stop the tension that had doubled in the last while. Chester raised his eyebrow, not in a social mood and waited for Vegeta to speak. "It may mean nothing, but I am really sorry, Chaz," Vegeta said as sincerely as he could.
Chester's eyes fell from his hard look for a few seconds to accept the apology. "I know," he answered, "Let's keep going, I'd rather not be out here for Jeice and Frieza to find us. Not sure who'd be worse." He gave a quick smile and walked past Vegeta, who gave a sad smile of his own, still feeling like the bad guy in their situation.
"Hey! There's something!" Chester exclaimed, causing Vegeta to sprint to his side. He looked in the direction Chester pointed, seeing a runway of ships, moving almost like a highway, and another city behind it. The landing strip ran from the end of mountainside of a patch of the rock formations.
"Good eye," Vegeta stated and began walking towards the parking lot. "Now we need to find one we can work before anyone notices us there."
Before Chester could respond, a gust of wind pushed them forward as they felt their feet leave the ground and claws around their arms. Vegeta spun the best he could to see a salamander-like humanoid sneering in his face, it's claws drawing blood as it dug into his arm. He started to push the being off but only caused the claw to pierce his bicep further. Giving up on that approach, he quickly spotted Chester's captor to his right and angled his hands so both were facing an alien. Gathering enough energy to damage them, he released the balls at their unexpecting faces. They screeched and released the humans while trying to cover their faces, letting them fall onto the moutains below. Vegeta tried to fly against the current of gravity and reached to Chester, screaming a few feet away. He gripped the blonde's forearm and pushed against the oncoming air, unsuccessfully only delaying the fall by milliseconds. Vegeta glanced down and swore before they crashed forcefully into the rocks, knocking them both unconscious as they tumbled down to a snow covered valley high in the range.
-----
Vegeta moaned as he awoke, coughing on the blood accumulating in his throat. He regretted the action as his left lung screamed in protest, possibly from a few broken or bruised ribs pressing on it. He rolled over and opened his eyes to see the sky was dark and the air had cooled substantially. He breathed heavily as he tested his arms and legs, finding them only slightly in pain but still moveable. Vegeta slowly sat up, favouring his right side as not to hurt his damaged one, and saw Chester lying facedown at his feet. "Oh shit... Chaz wake up!" he mumbled in a panic and reached to the fallen boy, pushing him over slightly.
Chester hissed as pressure fell on his arm, which Vegeta noticed afterwards was bent at an unnatural angle and had darkened the snow around him. He let the blonde back down to his previous position as Chester groaned back to consciousness. He flipped onto his back and blinked, his eyes still slightly glazed over with pain. "What happened," he questioned and tried to sit up himself, only to find his healing head injury pounding and promptly lay back down.
"We've been out for a while, but we still need to get off the planet," Vegeta stated as his head began to clear and recap their dilemma. Chester nodded and held up his hand to signal rest for a minute, Vegeta completely agreeing. The duo assessed their injuries, seeing that Chester's previous pains had doubled on top of his newer ones.
A low growl was heard from the level above, causing Vegeta to peer through the darkness to see cougar-like shapes moving above them. "No more rest," he whispered and slowly stood, "There's animals around here, let's go."
Chester turned to the source of the growl as he stood as well, wincing as his injured areas moved. They backed away as not to cause any sudden movements and hiked down the hill to another valley. As soon as they were far enough away, they sprinted to the full landing strip, still a few minutes away.
The duo ran southward towards the highway, their only escape route. The snow covered brush they ran through became stained with any blood they had left in them. Vegeta made a pathway for Chester to follow by, knowing he was too weak and tired, and may collapse at any minute. He back at his friend, noting how he had a very obvious limp and clutched his bloodied arm.
"You have to keep going, Ches! We're only a few yards away!" he yelled back. The blonde shook his head and fell to his knees. Vegeta cursed under his breath and made his way back to his fallen friend.
By the time he arrived, Chester was on all fours (the best he could be), breathing heavily. "This is going to kill me," he heaved. Chester began to cough up blood and the snow became a dark crimson, only seen as black in the darkness. Vegeta dropped to his knees beside him, with his own blood starting to leave its mark as well. Shit, Vegeta thought, he can't go any further, and I'm in no shape to carry someone. Sirens from the base caught both of their attention as they realized the space pirates knew they were there. "Vegeta, just go. They're after you, not me."
"Fuck that," Vegeta answered and searched the skies for answers. What am I supposed to do... He glanced at Chester lying in the snow and knew there was only one option. "Chester, please trust me," he said as he began piling snow on the blonde's body.
"What are you doing?" Chester exclaimed and tried to get up.
Vegeta pushed him back down and said, "Once you're covered, I'm going to keep going. Wait about 10, 20 minutes then you should be safe." He reached into his bag and pulled out the interactive map. "Find Earth on here and go home." Chester began to interrupt him but Vegeta continued, "Like you said, they only want me, so you'd better go." He thought for a moment, then sarcastically added, "If I find you around here in the future, I'll hurt you." He smiled for a second and pushed more snow on the shocked boy.
Chester had no choice but to obey and heard Vegeta's muffled feet running away. After a few minutes the alarms stopped, followed by an unnerving silence. He pushed the snow off his face and looked around, seeing no one, not even his friend. He stared at the ships, knowing Vegeta had been caught in order for him to survive, but now what? Go home without his best friend? Well, I've proven I'm not leaving this far in, what should change now?