Chapter 7: Do We Have Your Attention?

Over in Satan City, things had been reasonably normal. The crime scene outside the King's Systems research lab had been cleaned up, and only the building itself was closed off, rather than the whole street. There were no more Secret Service members skulking around the place either, which meant they must have found everything they were looking for.

While spending the day together, Holline and Pan did pass by there, just to see if there was anything they could figure out, but the Secret Service, or "Shadow Operatives" as some people had dubbed them, left nothing. The scene had been completely cleared up. This meant there was nothing else the girls could really do to try and figure out some new information. They had no idea where the Secret Service had moved to, and they were definitely unsure of where the trio from the tournament would been hiding out.

It was at that point the girls decided there was nothing else they could do, and it would be a waste of time to dawdle about the city in search of something that wasn't there. They started to walk back to where Holline lived (Erasa's apartment) but on the way there a new disturbance made itself known. Not too far from where they were both girls could feel something out of the ordinary.

They both stopped walking, dwelling on the feeling for a moment. They looked to each other.

"Did you feel that?" Holline asked the raven-haired Saiyan. Pan nodded.

"It's not far from here," Pan replied, looking to her right and trying to narrow her senses onto the location. Holline stepped up beside up and looked in the same direction. "We should check it out, quickly."

Both girls took to the sky and decided to fly there quickly.

"I don't feel anything too bad right now, but I recognise it, you know what I mean?" Holline questioned, trying to explain it as best as she could.

"I know just what you mean," Pan replied. Her eyes narrowed and she started to move quicker. They started to approach the Satan City mall and it was clear that whatever they were feeling was coming from there.

The girls descended and rushed towards the mall. There were people walking in, and others walking out, they just watched as the girls rushed in, unaware of what had gripped their attention. Pan and Holline weren't sure of the danger yet, or if there even was any danger, but they needed to check it out first. As the girls entered the mall, the power seemed to grow stronger, as if whomever it belonged to was raising it to draw attention.

Pan looked up and she continued to narrow her senses, fixing on the owner.

"You got it?" Holline asked. Pan nodded.

"I think they're on the roof," Pan said, turning to Holline and looking around at all the people going about their business, shopping, chatting, hanging out with friends and family. "You stay down here for now and I'll go ahead to see what it is, ok?" Pan suggested. Holline nodded. Pan smirked and rushed off towards the exit again.

She quickly took to the sky and flew up above the mall and looked down. It was starting to get dark and streetlights were coming on, but Pan could just about make out the silhouette of someone on the building. They were standing with their arms crossed, facing away from the girl, dressed all in black, almost like swat gear. They even had on a mask, so Pan couldn't tell who it was.

Without thinking ahead Pan just touched down on the roof behind them and readied herself for anything.

"I wouldn't think about causing any trouble if I were you," Pan said, moving into a defensive and prepared stance. The person's shoulders seemed to relax, and they looked to the side, acknowledging that Pan was there. They clenched their fist and turned around to face her. Pan took a step back, a little wary of the mystery surrounding the stranger.

She couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling that she knew this person.

"I'm warning you, I will fight back," Pan said, clenching her fists and standing her ground. The stranger shook their head and darted towards the girl. He moved at a blistering pace, sure, nothing that Pan couldn't handle, but it still took her by surprise. She moved quickly to throw her arms up to block a fist, but she felt the complete impact of the hit. It was powerful.

"Looks like I've improved," the stranger said, speaking with a deep and intimidating voice. Pan recognised it. She knew who it was. She twists and moved closer to the man, elbowing him in the gut and then, with her back to him, she grabbed his head as he arched down and flipped him over, slamming the large man down on his back. Pan darted back to gain some space after that.

The man sat up, chuckling. Before he could even start to get to his feet Pan charged forward again and attempted to kick the man in the head. He lifted an arm with ease and caught her leg, swinging her around in a circle and releasing her. Pan flew back and managed to avoid crashing into a door that led to the stairs that would take them down into the mall.

She had stopped inches from the door, but all her attention had gone into the attack, so she had not quite managed to bring herself back to the fight. She was taken by surprise when the man had charged for her again, shoulder-barging her into that door. Pan flew through it and through the wall out on the other side.

This time she regained her focus and managed to phase away as the man followed through to the other side. Pan appeared beside him and again, went for a kick to the head, which was once again caught. Pan found herself being flung into the ground and crashed down with a hard crack. She let out a cry of pain, but she wasn't about to give up. She sat up quickly and sprung for her opponent, but he grabbed her by the head and smashed her down into the roof again, with another crack.

He quickly lifted his hands above his head and smashed down, hard, managing to knock Pan right through the roof. She crashed through and fell all the way down to the ground floor of the mall. But as she fell, she had managed to move and position herself to land on her feet. Immediately, she drew her attention back to the roof, but the man had not followed her. She groaned.

"Pan!" Holline called out, rushing over, as people were rushing in other directions away from the girl that had just appeared out of nowhere. "What happened?"

"It's Shai," Pan said, still looking up. Holline looked up and then back to Pan.

"Where did he go?" Holline asked. Pan shook her head and tried to sense for him. Then they both heard a smashing sound and turned around to see that Shai had dropped through the glass part of the ceiling. He was still wearing his mask. "How do you know it's him?" Holline asked.

"I recognise that voice anywhere," Pan said, narrowing her eyes and moving into a stance again. Holline followed suit. "He's stronger than before. We'll both need to be focussed on keeping him contained and away from the everyone else," Pan explained and instructed.

"Got it," Holline said.

Shai cracked his knuckles as he walked towards the girls, and then cracked his neck. He rounded his shoulders and with another shocking burst of pace he flew at both girls, with his arms out ready to clothesline them. Pan jumped up as he came in close, and Holline ducked down. Pan swung her foot, kicking him in the head, and at the same time Holline punched him in the ribs. Shai twisted in the air and flew forward, towards a large fountain in the centre of the mall. He crashed right through it.

The girls stepped back, returning to their stances as Shai slowly picked himself out of the rubble. He dusted himself off and looked around, noticing that there were some civilians trying to escape, but they froze upon realising he saw them. He chuckled and aimed a hand towards them, powering up a Ki blast very quickly and shooting it.

"No!" Pan yelled, and she charged towards them just as Shai shot the blast. She managed to get in front of them just in time and caught the blast, holding it in the air. She looked behind her at the people. "Run!" She yelled. When she knew they were at a distance she crushed the blast, causing it to explode in front of her, but there was very limited damage. Shai used that as his chance to fly towards the Saiyan girl, but Holline was at the ready.

The red head flew towards the man and managed to slam a pretty strong punch across his face. Shai was sent careening off in a different direction, crashing through a shop window. Holline landed down in front of Pan. The Saiyan held out her hand with a thumbs-up. Holline smirked but they weren't given any more time for their friendly moment as Shai had charged right out of the shop and punched Holline in the face, sending her flying back across the mall and then he grabbed Pan by the throat, holding her up against the wall.

"I'm going to enjoy squeezing the life out of you," He muttered, getting closer to her. Pan coughed and tried to pull his hand off of her, but he had definitely gotten a lot stronger. He punched Pan in the gut as he had her against the wall, but she could barely spit anything up because of how tight a grip he had on her throat.

A very small Ki blast came flying from the other side of the mall and struck him in the head. He loosened his grip for a moment and Pan managed to draw the concentration to power up a little bit. She broke from the grip and hammered both of her fists down on his head, knocking him to his knees. Holline followed up very quickly, flying from the other side of the mall and kicking him in the head, sending him flying back across the mall again.

"Thanks," Pan said, letting out a little cough and patting Holline on the shoulder.

"No problem," Holline said, smirking, but she drew her focus back to Shai as he started to pick himself out of another shop window. "We need to end this quickly and limit damage."

Just as Holline said that Shai lifted his hands into the air and smashed them down on the ground a few times. As he did that his power seemed to increase, and an aura burst out of him. His hands were glowing with Ki once more and the girls knew they needed to move quickly.

They both charged towards him but with his newly powered up fists he punched them both at the same time knocking them back and then he aimed his hands into the air. He fired two Ki blasts into the ceiling, creating two brand new holes and causing more damage. The girls cursed as the ceiling started to fall down on them and they had to duck and dive to avoid getting hit. This meant they were distracted from Shai's movement and he had apparently managed to get behind them and grabbed them both around the throat.

"I love this power," He said, chuckling out loud. But with a sudden appearance of new energy Shai was sent flying back through the mall and the girls fell to the ground. They looked towards where Shai had been and saw only Noca. He was standing in a position with his right fist forward, like he had just flown in and punched Shai. But they knew better. He had used instant transmission to appear and punch Shai.

"I would love to say we had it handled, but he's causing more damage than I hoped," Pan said, standing up, sounding annoyed.

"I thought you had it handled too, but he's tapped into a whole new energy," Noca said, glaring to the other end of the mall. Shai had returned to his feet and quickly powered up some more Ki and let out a huge explosive wave, causing the entire mall to shake, with bits dropping and windows smashing. Luckily a lot of people had managed to get out, or move to safety, but that was still a lot of damage. Noca, Pan, and Holline had to shield themselves as glass smashed around them, but Noca moved forward to try and get after Shai who had jumped up and flown away as quickly as he could.

Noca was ready to blast off as well but suddenly a gas-line seemed to burst, and a small explosion went off towards the back of one of the shops. He turned to Pan and Holline, and they all seemed to know what needed to be done. The people needed to be moved to safety as quickly as possible. They all got to that immediately.

Outside, there was just as much commotion that needed to be organised, and that was handled by the emergency services that had arrived on the scene as quickly as they could. When it was realised there was a fire the firefighters that had assembled rushed in to do what they could. Noca, Pan, and Holline were moving as quickly as they could to help move people out.

Another group of people arrived on the scene, albeit later than they should have. The King's Secret Service pulled up in their truck which served as a mobile command centre and filed out, ready to do whatever they could to help. Cas Babka moved forward, with his crew all standing around him. They saw that people were still moving out of the building quickly.

"Abe," Babka said, turning to one of the men standing with the group. He was black, tall, physically fit, wearing glasses and carrying a large backpack with a medical symbol on it. "Go over to where those people are and see if the paramedics need any help."

"Yes, sir," Abe said, doing a very quick salute and rushing over to where any injured people were. That was Abe Halaya, the medic of the group.

Babka turned to one of the women in the group. A shorter woman, but still physically fit. She had short shoulder length brunette hair and didn't seem to be carrying a weapon.

"Larson, you get back to the truck and get our surveillance equipment set up," Babka ordered. The woman, Hannah Larson, rushed back to the truck. She was in charge of communications and surveillance with the group. Babka then turned to another woman. The same woman that had been standing with Rushan Kalari at the scene outside the King's Systems lab. She was still carrying her large sniper rifle on her back.

"I know, I know," She said, waving her hand at the captain. "Get back to a vantage point and see what I can find." She turned around and walked off to find exactly what she had said. That woman, with her very short, pushed back, blonde hair, was Brie Wagasi. She was the marksman and sharpshooter within the group. Babka scoffed and turned to his group again.

Babka walked to the last two remaining members, a man on the larger side, with a big brown bushy beard, and was wearing a cap, backwards. He was carrying a few weapons on his back and seemed to have a lot of ammo and grenades and stuff on his person. He was Charles "Fat Rascal" Oates. It was an affectionate nickname that he loved, preferring to go by that. He and Cas Babka had served together for a very long time. He was the weapons expert of the group.

The other person, a younger woman, brown skinned, with messy black hair that was tied back. She had a pair of goggles on her head and lots of tools in a bag she carried down by her side. Her clothes were dirtier than the others and she seemed quite awkward. This was Magdalena Dobos, and she was the engineer.

"You two, with me, we're going to find the mall's security centre and tap into it so that Hannah can get the feed in the truck," Babka ordered. Fat Rascal gave a thumbs up and started to walk towards the building.

"Aye, aye, captain! As you command," Magdalena said, performing a salute and walking off with the duo towards the mall. Some police officers did try to approach as they passed their barrier, but Babka just pointed at the King's emblem on his chest. They stepped back after that, leaving the Secret Service to do their thing.

They stepped inside as more people were being guided out by the trio of Noca, Pan, and Holline. Noca looked towards Cas Babka, both of them making eye contact for a moment, but Noca focussed on the people. Babka looked back to Magdalena.

"Go and find the security centre, you know what to do," He ordered, taking his handgun out of its holster and walking on into the mall. Fat Rascal brought out one of his rifles and chuckled as he moved on through. "This isn't a laughing matter, Rascal. There is a lot of damage."

"Sorry, boss. You know we ain't seen no action for a while," Fat Rascal said, bringing his rifle down.

Meanwhile, outside, Noca, Pan, and Holline dropped off the last of the people with the police and paramedics and started to move away from the scene. It was probably best to leave the Secret Service to their thing and not draw any unwanted attention their way. That being said, up in her vantage point, Brie Wagasi was perched, looking through the scope of her rifle. She spotted Noca and crew and recognised them from the crowd in Satan City at the lab. She started to think about what could be going on.

Brie managed to make the point that the place was safe and there were no suspicious people around, except for that trio, but she would have been pretty ignorant to not realise they were three of the best fighters from the most recent tournament. She brought herself down from the perch and went to the truck.

She entered to see that Hannah was sitting looking at ten different screens. She was going over the footage from what had happened, scrolling through everything very quickly. Brie appeared behind her and Hannah jumped out of her skin.

"Don't do that. You can't just sneak up on me when I'm wired in," Hannah said, shaking her head and trying to sound confident.

"Sorry, newbie," Brie said. She watched one of the screens and saw what was happening with Pan and Holline fighting against a man dressed all in black. Both Brie and Hannah were confused but couldn't stop watching all the footage of their fight.

"Those girls seem to be doing all they can to keep people safe," Hannah mentioned. Brie continued to watch on.

"Where's the guy?" Brie asked. Hannah was confused but understood when she saw the moment when Noca saved Holline and Pan, appearing out of nowhere and striking hard.

"Did he just teleport in there?" Hannah asked, leaning forward. The footage progressed and more damage happened and then it was just footage of the trio saving people and then they were all caught up. "So, we learned nothing other than the fact that those three kids did what they could to help."

"They know something," Brie said, turning and walking out of the truck and towards the mall. As she strode across the car park, ignoring everything else around her, like the odd looks she received for carrying a sniper rifle, her allies stepped outside. Babka, Magdalena, and Fat Rascal saw as Brie walked right up to their captain. "You walked right past them," she said, hands on hips.

"You mean the three that you had Rushan follow?" Babka asked. Brie nodded. "Then why isn't he still following them? Maybe he could have warned us about this, but instead he's following a cop."

"You know Rushan, he's obviously following something important, he knows what he's doing," Brie said, turning around. "Plus, you should check out the footage. Those three did nothing wrong."

They all returned to the truck and looked over the footage, and the captain was still a little suspicious of those three. He stood there with his hand on his chin.

"Interesting," Babka mentioned, sitting down in one of the seats in front of the screens.

"I'm not saying they're completely innocent. They definitely know something that we don't," Brie said, looking down at the captain as he continued to watch the footage.

"That's what's suspicious. They know something we don't, the cops didn't hand everything over to Colby. Why aren't they co-operating with us?" Babka questioned, turning in his chair and looking up at Brie.

"Maybe we just let Rushan do what he needs to, we'll get the info," Fat Rascal said, dropping his stuff on the ground and falling into a chair.

"We can't just wait for another attack, and we have no information!" Babka yelled, standing up and smacking his hand on the desk, right next to Hannah. She flinched, but it went unnoticed by everyone.

"We just need to be patient," Brie said, walking away from everyone. Babka sighed and walked off as well. That just left Magdalena, Hannah, Abe, and Fat Rascal together at the surveillance table.

"So, who's turn is it to drive?" Fat Rascal asked.

Somewhere else in Satan City, at a random warehouse near the industrial area of the city, Shai landed outside. He entered, laughing loudly to draw the attention of his other allies. Joji came to meet him right away.

"I saw on the news, you could have done more," Joji said, his arms folded in front of him. Shai fell silent and took his mask off, dropping it to the ground and stared at Joji.

"I did what I needed to," Shai said, stepping up to Joji. "My aim was to draw Noca out, make him worry about us. He won't think about anything else."

"I don't see why we don't all just go out there and start blowing stuff up and then take him on together," Joji said, walking away.

"That's not Omega's plan," Shai said, walking off in a different direction.

"Yeah, well, if you let us know more about this plan we could actually work together," Joji yelled, returning to where he had set up his own bed and set down to rest. Shai groaned. He didn't like working with the impatient man. Omega knew what he wanted.

Omega would get what he wanted.

Hope you enjoyed the new chapter, we finally have some action and I think it's some decent action as well.

Leave a review if you want. See you next week for the next chapter!