This chapter is brought to you by ShadowMajin

He was giving everything he had. A flurry of punches flew at his opponent, only to have every single one of them blocked. It was frustrating, but not nearly as aggravating as that infernal smirk that graced the shorter man's lips.

Gohan's teeth were bared as an animalistic rage covered his face. High, low, middle, nothing he was doing was getting through. This Prince fellow knew how to fight and seemed more amused by him rather than worried. It was irritating.

Suddenly, Prince ducked a blow intended for his head. Gohan didn't even have time to feel startled as a fist slammed into his stomach, pain flooding his body as the air was knocked out of his lungs,causing him to stumble backwards as he held his mid-section. Unfortunately, Prince didn't give him any time to recover and charged at him, swinging another.

Gohan barely managed to get an arm up to block the attack, his breathing slowly returning to normal. However, Prince sent another fist at him, the youth spying it out of the corner of his eye. Reacting, he tried to block it, but found he was sorely mistaken.

Instead of a fist, the assassin's hand was open, his palm and fingers glowing with a bright light. Immediately, the dark-haired man focused on it, his body prepared to leap out of the way at a moment's notice. That proved to be a mistaken as Prince had no intention of firing a ki blast. In its place, he swung another punch, this one ramming into the side of the younger man's head and sending him flying down the hall. His flight ended shortly after as his back collided with the smooth floor, skidding on it.

Gohan didn't give himself the chance to lie there and recover; in a fight like this, that wasn't an option. Swinging his legs up, buckling them at the knee, he shot them forward and used the momentum to lift his body off the floor and onto his feet. A part of him wished he hadn't done that the moment he saw Prince standing, still holding his glowing hand up and aiming it right at the youth.

He had expected ki blasts in this fight, make no mistake about that. What he was afraid of was that this guy would use the same amount of power he had when he`d obliterated Flappe's House. Still, there was a reason why they were fighting in the middle of the assassin's headquarters and not in some other, random building.

"You better not do that," he warned, holding a placating hand out in front of him. "You could blow up the entire building."

That smirk was still on his face, not something that Gohan was happy to see. "Oh, I know what I'm capable of. Unfortunately for you, you made the mistake of assuming that I care what happens to this place."

Oh crap. That was not what he wanted to hear. Still, he wasn't out of options just yet. "And you're sure your bosses don't? Considering how they've gone out of their way to keep this secret, I doubt they want you blowing up part of their building and exposing them to the outside world."

The smirk dropped from Prince's face, turning his features into a stony look. Apparently that need for secrecy was not something this guy was fond of. Gohan wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth though, channeling his ki into his raised hand. He just had to make sure he didn't let it glow and give himself away.

A small smile then reappeared on the shorter man's face. "You may have a point, but that doesn't mean I can't use lesser blasts." At that, the glow of the man's hand dimmed, but Gohan was not fooled. An instant later a golden beam fired from Prince's hand, racing down the hallway toward the young man.

Letting out a cry, Gohan fired his own golden blast, the two meeting midway between the two fighters. While he had been afraid he hadn't gathered enough power, he was pleasantly surprised to see both attacks detonate on each other, creating a massive explosion that sent him flying off his feet once more.

Crashing to the floor with a grunt, the dark-haired youth immediately snapped his head up to stare at the destruction that was undoubtedly in front of him. What he found was a thick cloud of smoke filling the corridor and no sight of Prince—not something he liked. From the corner of his eye, Gohan spotted an intersecting hallway next to him. Without hesitation, the youth scrambled onto his feet and hurried into the hall, pressing his back against the wall close to the corner and tilted his head towards a side. If Prince was going to attack him, it'd have to be from the corridor he had just vacated.

He focused on his hearing, trying to pinpoint any approaching sounds. It took a few moments, but the youth began picking up what sounded like footsteps, which was growing louder and louder.

At the last second, Gohan crossed a fist over his chest and lashed it out, the back of his hand slamming into a face just around the corner. Instantly, the young man swung himself off the wall and into the intersecting corridor, launching punch after punch with his other hand. Each blow collided with Prince's face, leaving him dazed after every hit and allowing the next one to land.

Unfortunately, that came to an abrupt end when Gohan went in for another jab. Instead of landing the blow, Prince shot a hand up and caught the fist, his fingers wrapping over Gohan's knuckles. With his other hand, the shorter man reached out and grabbed the youth by his collar and pulled him down and towards him. Caught off guard, the young man soon found the assassin imbedding his knee into his gut, once more forcing the air out of his lungs.

With a jerk of his leg, Prince brought his leg down, only to ram his knee back into Gohan's stomach. Reaffirming his grip on the dark-haired youth, the short man twisted his body to a side, lifting Gohan off the ground and throwing him down the hall.

I have got to stop flying was the first thought that ran through Gohan's head as he found himself soaring upside-down. That quickly changed, his eyes widening when a large hole suddenly appeared beneath him. His internal alarm was going off, causing panic to flood his system. Quickly, he tried to turn himself around, only to have the side of his body crash into a foot-long piece of concrete. A cry of pain tore from his lips as he felt his body bending over either side of the concrete, coming to an end when gravity took over, dropping him to the ground.

Fortunately, the youth managed to get his arms over his head, providing some protection for his skull. The rest of his body collapsed onto the broken tile floor with a thud. He lay there for several moments, trying to overcome the jolts of pain running a marathon inside him. With a groan, he rolled onto his back and looked towards the ceiling through squinted eyes.

Above him he found a large hole, one that extended all the way up to the third floor and the surrounding walls of the second. Black scorch marks outlined the edges of the hole, informing Gohan that this was the result of that ki-caused explosion. Staring at it, he couldn't help but wonder how much more damaging it could have been if Prince had fired his blast at full power. It was frightening to consider it.

A loud clap filled the hall then, causing Gohan to jerk his head to a side. From there he saw the shoes and legs of someone he really didn't want to see at that moment. And they were approaching him.

Crap.

…

67% complete. Almost there. Tien was out of his seat, nervously leaning forward in front of the computer. He had known it would take some time for the back-up to perform its action, but the longer it went, the more anxious he felt. More time meant a greater chance that someone would come to the room and find him. Unpleasant thoughts filled the agent's head of what he'd have to do if that scenario came to pass.

68% and counting.

Tien hadn't felt this feeling while he had been waiting for the most part. It was only when he felt the building damn near shake itself to the ground that his nerves began getting the better of him. What the hell was going on out there? Was this part of Gohan's master plan of distracting everyone? How had the youth gotten his hands on explosives so powerful that it sent shockwaves strong enough to alert a Richter scale?

Reaching to the desk, the bald man placed his hand on top of the handle of his gun, reassuring himself that his weapon was nearby. It was a small comfort for the moment, but Tien found himself reaching more and more for the gun the more edgy he got. Before this was over, he undoubtedly would be aiming it at the doorway, just waiting for some poor soul to enter the room.

69%.

Bored, Tien moved his hand from the gun handle and placed it on the mouse. Clicking on the file window, he began scanning through all the folder icons, skimming for something that might catch his attention. For the most part, there wasn't anything of note that he couldn't check on in a more secure place—that was until he spotted an icon titled NAIE.

With a frown, Tien clicked on the icon. He had to admit, he was a bit curious as to why a document folder would be named after his agency. As a new window popped up, the agent spied several document icons appear, a few of which indicated spreadsheets and PDF files. Clicking on the first icon, he opened a spreadsheet that showed several transactions to various names, ones that the bald man was unfamiliar with.

It was possible that this NAIE folder had nothing to do with his agency. That was a growing thought in Tien's head as he would open, scan, and close spreadsheets. It was when he opened the sixth one that alarm bells went off in his head. This new spreadsheet revealed transactions, much like the previous ones; however, the recipient of these funds was none other than a source called Roshi.

Jaw dropping, Tien moved his face closer to the computer monitor to make sure he was reading this right. From what he could tell, this Roshi source had been receiving a lot of dollar figures for what looked like months, if not years. As much as he would have liked to discount it being his boss, the fact a folder entitled NAIE with the name Roshi listed in its documents was way too coincidental to be brushed aside.

Closing the file, Tien looked at the other icons until he found a PDF file. Opening it, a window with a scanned document appeared on the screen. As luck would have it, this one mentioned a man named Roshi in it. Intently, the bald man began reading the document word for word. The first few paragraphs soon confirmed part of his suspicions: a man named Roshi in the NAIE had been accepting payment from Tactical Securities. In return, this Roshi would supply the defense contractors with information, ranging from potential contracts to investigations—investigations that weren't described, but ones Tien felt had some implications for T.S.

Finding nothing more, he closed the file and began searching through more PDFs. The fourth one proved to be the one he was searching for as a list of memos appeared before him. Using the Ctrl+F function, he found Roshi's name in the middle of the file and immediately began reading the memos.

At first they didn't make sense. The more he read, the more he couldn't make heads or tails about them. In the end, he went to the beginning and read each and every note. That helped clear the picture. From what he could tell, T.S. was concerned about the death of one of their agents and wanted to tie up any loose ends. They didn't have any available "assets" to send in, so they searched for outside help. That's when Roshi's name popped up. He had been selected to handle the investigation with T.S. footing the bill. No other details were given.

Leaning back in his seat, Tien raised a hand to his face, curling his fingers around his chin and over his mouth. This was troubling, no doubt about it. This company here had some very serious connections and there was no telling how deep they ran.

Still, Tien had to wonder who this agent was. Was it normal for T.S. to be so concerned about one of their employees? Or maybe there was something surrounding this particular agent that required extra scrutiny. It was a shame the bald man was unfamiliar with the comings and goings of assassin groups. Having knowledge of their day-to-day activities would've come in quite handy right about now.

"And why did he want poisons?"

"Well, considering he was an assassin…"

Tien's eyes widened. Gohan's father had been an assassin, one that had died. Looking to the dates on the memos, the agent quickly deduced that these had been written nearly a month ago—right about the time Gohan claimed to have met with a lawyer and found vials of poison in his father's house.

Was…was it possible that T.S. had contacted Roshi to look into the life of one of their agents, make sure there were no threats, and report back to them? Was the abandoned office building a charade for Roshi to investigate each person associated with the assassin and determine their potential for damage?

But who would Roshi have to interview? Gohan for one, that was obvious. A wife perhaps? Gohan had to have a mother, right?

Tien frowned at that. The dark-haired youth had not mentioned a mother figure in his life. Though that didn't mean there wasn't one, it also meant it was possible there wasn't one. The bald man shook his head. Now wasn't the time to get caught up in uncertainties. He could ask Gohan later about his mother. So what did that leave? There was no telling if Gohan's father had many friends—that could be a lot or very little depending on who this man was. As for family, that was also something for the younger man to answer. He would know about other relatives like uncles, aunts, grandparents, or sib—

No, Gohan did have a sibling; a brother that had been targeted and killed in a car bomb approximately two weeks ago. Had the brother been interviewed by Roshi and determined to be a threat?

Yes, that had to be it. Tien could see it now: the brother had been called into the law firm, chatted, and then reported on. Tactical Securities then tracked Goten down from Roshi's fake law office and used one of their agents to blow him to smithereens. Why else have assassins if you didn't use them for what they were trained for? So the assassin made sure the kill was good, spotted Gohan fleeing the scene, and reported back to headquarters for this surprise turn of events. A fake meeting set up at the ritzy Carlton Gates would rectify that.

But that didn't work. Instead, according to Gohan, his sleeper agent training kicked in and fought off the assassin and killed him. Her Tien quickly amended. Stunned, they then sent in another assassin, who attacked not only Gohan, but a friend of his in broad daylight and chased them into a dinner and then to the makeshift NAIE headquarters. Another assassin falls due to the sleeper agent training and the T.S. heads start to panic. They then send a more destructive assassin, who tracks Gohan and his friend to a house in the suburbs and openly demolishes it.

A scowl worked its way onto Tien's face. There was going to be hell to pay for this once he had all these files downloaded. Roshi was at the top of his list. Quickly, the agent closed the file windows and retrieved the one for the hard drive.

76% complete.

Suddenly, the door knob began to rattle. Immediately, Tien had his gun raised, pointed at the door. Since he had kicked the door in, he had assumed the electronic lock had been broken. Apparently he had no idea about the locking mechanism as apparently the door had relocked itself. Good thing too, since had that lock not been there, that door would've swung in and left Tien facing whoever was barging in.

From where he was seated, the agent could see a dark figure through the small window in the door, though any discernable features were unattainable. Keeping out of sight of the window, Tien crept around the table he had been seated at and made his way to stand right next to the door, against the wall as he held his gun at shoulder height.

The jiggling of the doorknob came to a halt after several more jiggles. Unconsciously, the bald man held his breath as he waited to see what would happen next. That was when shrill beeps were made, indicated that the person outside of the room was entering the passcode into the numbered panal. There were five beeps in all, a much louder, deeper-pitched beep following soon after. The door swung open then and a man entered the room.

Instantly, Tien closed the distance between them, putting the barrel of his gun against the person's head, causing them to freeze. "Don't move," the agent said in a low whisper. "Don't even make a sound." He paused for a moment to let those instructions sink in. "I'm going to ask you a question and you will answer by nodding or shaking your head. Is that understood?"

Slowly, the person nodded their head. "Are you alone?" Tien demanded, receiving another nod. "Were you ordered to come to this room?" This time, the head shook in the negative. That made Tien frown. What else could this guy what if he wasn't ordered here? Did he want the information stored in the computers or was he going to delete something? Any question he could come up with required more than a yes or no answer and he didn't want to make this guy make any unnecessary noise.

He would just have to make it harder for the guy to be heard then. "Take two steps into the room, nice and slow. Do not even think of doing anything other than that." The person nodded their head frantically before slowly taking a step forward, followed by another. Out of the corner of his eye, the agent saw the door swing itself shut, fully closing with an audible click.

Now that he had a better look at his hostage, Tien could see it was a man, one of the ones dressed in black with a helmet visor. Great, that would make reading this guy's emotions impossible. Damn it, he needed him to talk. "Verbalize your answers now," he instructed, "What are you doing here?"

"Protocol," the man's gruff voice answered. "In the event of a disturbance of any kind, all rooms and wings need to be inspected and found clear of any potential threats."

Tien scowled. "That sounds dangerously like someone ordered you here. Don't tell me you're lying to me."

"Or you'll what? Shoot me?"

In his gut, Tien felt that no, he would not shoot this man. He was in control and it went against his morals to blatantly execute a man or torture them. Further reflection of these thoughts, however, were put on hold when the man suddenly shot an arm up, his forearm swinging up into the agent's hands and pushing his gun up. On instinct the bald man fired a shot, the bullet flying into the ceiling harmlessly.

With a lundge, the man tackled Tien to the floor, inadvertently knocking the gun out of the agent's hands and sending it sliding across the floor. Letting out a groan as the air in his lungs was forced out. Tien tried to catch his breath before the man on top of him began wailing punches onto his face. Explosions of pain roared throughout his face and the back of his head, leaving him dazed and helpless.

However, the agent's survival instinct kicked in moments later and shot up, grabbing his attacker's wrist to prevent him from punching him. That resulted in the dark-clad guard to lash out with his other hand, grabbing Tien by the throat. Letting out a hoarse cough, Tien quickly realized this guy was trying to choke him to death.

With his other hand, he gripped his attacker's choking arm at the wrist, pulling it up so he could relieve the pressure on his neck. Unfortunately, it didn't do as he had hoped as the pressure remained the same. Gagging, Tien tilted his head up and spied his gun lying on the floor, just out of reach. His first impulse was to try and reach out for the weapon, but he knew that if he did that, any resistance—even the pitiful one he had right now—would vanish as he was suffocated. No, he needed to get this guy off of him and off right now.

Returning his sights to his attacker, Tien could feel the strain in his arms building as he struggled against the guard's arms. The edges of his vision were beginning to blur, indicated he didn't have much time to act. Though he couldn't use his arms without putting himself in a more dire situation, that left him with using his legs. Frantically, he began kicking them, trying to beat them against the guard's body. Unfortunately, this had very little success, especially since one of his legs was trapped between his attacker's legs and not in any good position to perform a groin shot.

However, his other leg was not trapped, currently delivering week kicks to the guard's side. If anything, they were more like bumps instead of kicks. Stopping his kicking, he raised his free leg into the air and angled it to where his foot rested beneath his attacker's chin. With a strained grunt, he pushed his leg backwards, immediately forcing the dark-clad man backwards as well, and slightly loosening his grip on Tien's neck. Pouring more strength into the leverage his leg gave him, the agent finally heaved the guard off of him, the man unwillingly releasing his grip and toppling onto his back just as Tien released his own.

With a rush of air filling his lungs, the bald man flopped onto his stomach, looking towards his discarded gun. Weakly, he scrambled towards it, his recovering body slowing him down more than he would've liked. Thankfully, he reached the gun before his attacker jumped him again, his hand grabbing the handle of the gun as his finger pressed itself against the trigger.

Turning around, Tien felt a jolt of fright as he saw the guard already in midair, aiming to land right on top of him. Whipping the gun in front of him, the bald man got one shot off before the guard landed right on top of him. Twin grunts rang throughout the room, though neither man moved in the following moments.

Although it wasn't everyday Tien found himself lying underneath a prone man, the fact that his attacker wasn't moving made him feel both anxious and at ease. A wet feeling soon began covering on the upper part of his torso, prompting the agent to finally move, pushing the guard off of him. There he found a growing red spot towards the collar of his blue uniform, turning it to a slightly purplish color. Looking to the guard, he could see blood flowing from his neck—a miraculous shot if he didn't say so himself. Between the visor covering the man's face and the body armor on his chest, that left a very narrow window for anyone aiming for that part of the body. Lady Luck was shining on Tien today.

Lifting a hand, he extended a couple of his fingers and held them beneath the guards nose. Faintly, he could detect the guard's breath, but every second it grew weaker and weaker. No need to put another bullet into him. Withdrawing his hand, Tien then slowly rolled onto his stomach with a groan.

Pushing himself back onto his feet at a sedate pace, he made his way back to the computer to check its progress. 91% complete—no wait, 92%.

The rest of this download better finish up quickly. Tien didn't think he could go through another fight, or at the very least didn't want to find out.

...