Chapter 8: The Wrong Target

Saturday 12th November Age 797

Early morning. It was still dark over Satan City. The warehouse was dimly lit. Two people stood in a wide-open room, a fair distance away from one other. One, a young woman, blonde, standing with her arms folded against her chest. The other, a teenager with dark brown, messy hair, stood in a weak fighting stance.

"Ok, Yaiko. Come at me with what you've got," Sofia, said flicking some loose hair out of her eye. Yaiko sighed and inched forward, nervously. The only noise heard in the warehouse was the faint creaking of the old structure, and the light sound of water dripping to the ground.

Yaiko ran towards the girl, showcasing that he did have a lot of pace, but no aim or direction. She stepped to the side at the last moment and went to trip him up with her foot but Yaiko quickly jumped over it and landed awkwardly, slipping, but managed to turn around to face her again. She was already standing ready to deal out an attack, thrusting her hand forward and sending a pulse of energy that knocked Yaiko off of his feet.

He landed with a thud on the ground and quickly jumped back up to attempt a punch. He aimed for her face, but clearly wasn't putting a lot into it. Sofia sighed, caught his wrist and pulled him close, slapping him away. Yaiko dropped back, shook off the slap, and moved forward again. He threw a mixture of different punches at the girl, but she blocked and swatted all of them away with ease.

She threw out her arm, as if going to chop Yaiko in the throat but stopped, an inch from her target. He flinched but upon realising nothing had happened he looked back at the blonde. She sighed, hooked her right leg behind his legs, tripping him back and she pushed him down into the ground. He struck it with a thud and Sofia followed up with a punch aimed for his face, but she instead smashed her fist into the ground right by his head. She cracked and chipped away at the ground.

"You really don't want to fight me, do you?" Sofia asked, a slightly softer tone to her voice than before. Yaiko swallowed and couldn't find his words. After that one outburst he seemed to have back at the Alpha HQ Yaiko wasn't getting in touch with his power properly. Even though he made the claim that he was going to kill Noca it didn't seem like any of that hunger remained.

Sofia lifted him up by the front of his hooded jacket and pulled him to his feet. She took a couple of steps back.

"At least try and block my attacks then," Sofia said. Yaiko's brow furrowed.

"What?" He questioned, but Sofia rushed towards him and lifted her leg up, aiming for his head. Yaiko's eyes went wide and he had to throw up his left arm to block the kick. Sofia pulled her leg back down and attempted the same kick, with more power.

Yaiko ducked under the second one and rolled back, gaining distance. Sofia twisted and dropped back down, and then pounced towards Yaiko again. She charged for him and jabbed her fist right towards his head. Yaiko blocked it. Sofia pulled back again and then rushed with a barrage. Yaiko was doing his best to block them while backing up, getting closer and closer to the wall.

Sofia started to shake up her punches, attempting some hooks, which Yaiko was blocking as best as he could. A couple managed to get through with Yaiko taking a left jab to the chest and then a right hook to the face. He dropped down upon the connection of the right hook and then threw his hands out, using his own pulse of energy, to knock Sofia back. She slid across the ground and had to drop down and put her hand on the ground to slow herself.

"Good, keep that up," Sofia said, hoping that she was finally starting to see some of that fight that she knew he had bottled up inside.

"Keep what up? All of that nothing?" A voice questioned, booming from one of the upper levels. Both Sofia and Yaiko looked up to see that Joji was looking down, leaning over the railing. "That's nothing." He jumped over the rail and landed with both feet on the ground, between Sofia and Yaiko. "You're going easy on him."

"I'm easing him into it," Sofia clarified.

"You're too sweet to him," Joji said, pointing at her. He turned to face Yaiko and walked towards him, cracking his knuckles. "Seriously. You want him to get stronger but won't show no tough love? Pathetic."

"There's a difference between tough love and being an asshole," Sofia said. Some more footsteps started to approach. Sofia turned around to see Shai had entered.

"I think you should let Joji do what he wants. Maybe Yaiko will stop being such a pussy," Shai suggested, chuckling. Sofia's jaw clenched, as did her fists. Shai noticed that and walked forward. "Let's see if we can turn this boy into a man."

He pushed past Sofia, and she wanted desperately to react, but whatever Shai had gone through when deciding to take up her offer and ally himself with Omega, again, had made him a lot stronger. He was possibly the strongest out of all of them, and that worried her. She couldn't fight back.

She watched as both Shai and Joji stood over Yaiko, showcasing just how much bigger than him they were. Yaiko tried to step back, but he was already against the wall. Shai looked to Joji and motioned forward, essentially giving Joji the go ahead to take the first crack at "training" the boy. Joji took the offer and stepped forward.

Without a moment of warning, or even the slightest bit of sympathy, Joji grabbed Yaiko's head and thrust him into the wall behind, cracking and denting it. Sofia winced but stayed back. Yaiko did his best to hold back from crying out in pain. Joji pulled back, letting go of Yaiko's head, and the boy swayed on his feet for a moment, blinking a few times, clearly feeling disoriented.

No hesitation, Joji put his hand on the back of Yaiko's head and smashed him right into his knee, the strength of the connection just knocked Yaiko back into the wall. That time, he bounced off and fell to the ground. Then it was Shai's turn, and he lifted Yaiko up by his hair, turned around so that Sofia could see, and then he punched Yaiko down into the ground. The ground cracked some more as he struck down.

"We all know what he is capable of, we just wanna see it," Shai said, showing that no one was in the dark on what made Yaiko special. Sofia took a deep breath and released it with an angered shudder. Shai smirked, grabbing Yaiko by his leg and swinging him towards the other side of the warehouse. Yaiko smashed through an old door, flying right into some old office. Sofia kept still, only staring towards the two larger men. Individually, she was sure she could fight them both. Together, no chance.

Joji walked over towards the office as Yaiko started to shift and move, picking himself out of some rubble from the broken door and some old desk. He stumbled as he exited the office, only to be greeted by Joji's presence. He was clearly feeling pretty faint but tried his best to move forward and challenge. He thrust a punch towards Joji's gut, but it was caught with ease.

"You're still so pathetic," Joji said, lifting Yaiko up by his arm, bringing him to eye level. Joji punched the boy in the gut and dropped him to the ground. Yaiko fell in a heap and curled up, clearly in a lot of pain. "You can't even fight back. How are you going to kill Noca?"

That clearly struck some sort of chord. Yaiko's eyes opened and they narrowed. He slowly shifted and started to get up, still feeling that disorientation, and was very unbalanced. He glared up at Joji.

"What?" Joji asked, smirking.

Yaiko growled and jumped up towards Joji, managing to punch him in the face and then performed a swift spinning kick to knock him down into the ground. As Yaiko dropped down, attempting to punch Joji in the head, the large fighter rolled away, letting the teenager's attempt strike the ground. Joji got back to his feet. Shai started to laugh.

"I guess he got you," Shai said, folding his arms.

"Fuckin' kid…" Joji grunted, walking towards Yaiko. The boy seemed to lose all his confidence and ability almost instantaneously and Joji was amused. He chuckled to himself and punched down on Yaiko's head, knocking him unconscious. "Still pathetic."

Joji turned around, glancing towards Sofia as he walked towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" Shai called out. Joji stopped and looked over his shoulder.

"Fresh air," He said. Without another word he stepped outside of the warehouse and went off to do his own thing.

"I hope he doesn't do anything foolish," Shai said, glancing towards Yaiko and chuckling to himself. His eyes soon fell on Sofia and he wasn't quite sure what she was thinking but he thought he was reading something from her. She was glaring at him and seemed pretty focussed. "You want to fight me?" He asked. Sofia sighed and walked over to Yaiko, helping him up and taking him to where he had set up a bed.

It wouldn't be smart to start a fight with Shai.

Still feeling like he had a better idea of how to carry out Omega's plan than Shai did, Joji ventured into Satan City. He was keeping to himself, keeping his head down, avoiding eye-contact with any people, and venturing deep into the city, towards the city centre. He wanted to have a go at drawing some attention to himself. He wanted to prove to Shai that he was just as capable of taking control of a situation as important as that one.

Sure, Shai might be a little mad about it, but Joji didn't care. He wanted to prove that he had initiative and he wouldn't be ordered around all the time. He located a place to sit and wait until he found a time when there were more people around. He wanted to make a statement. Joji made it to the park and took a seat.

Time passed, and soon enough, it was the afternoon, a little after lunchtime, and there were more people in the streets than before. He stood up from his seat, took a mask out from his pocket, similar to the one Shai was wearing when he fought with Pan and Holline. He put it on, in plain sight, with everyone a witness. He didn't care.

He ascended into the air and flew towards the bigger buildings in the city. Everyone that had been around the park saw it happen and they had no idea how to react. He moved towards one of the skyscrapers and flew right up to the window. He looked in to see a conference room full of people. They all turned to see him hovering there, wearing a mask, a complete mystery. Joji smirked under his mask and clenched his fists. He powered out an explosive wave of Ki that shattered the glass of a lot of windows around the building and probably blew up a large chunk of four floors of the building, probably killing and injuring many people.

Joji chuckled and turned around to face back in the direction of the park. He powered up a Ki blast in one hand and threw it down towards the park. The people in the park looked up, witnessing the explosion in the air in the city and then noticed a light getting closer to them, growing larger. Some people started to panic and attempt to run away, but some people were frozen in fear. The blast connected with the park and blew up a large chunk of that also. Likely killing and injuring many more people.

Joji could hear the screams of people below as their city started to experience some more danger. He was satisfied and very pleased with the approach he had taken. That would certainly draw some attention.

Somewhere in the city, sitting in their bedroom, Holline and Kiera were together, just casually watching TV, but Holline suddenly sat up, her senses gripped by something in the city. Kiera was about to ask what was wrong, but they heard the first explosion before she had a chance to speak, and then came the second. Kiera panicked and rushed to check on her mother. Holline meanwhile, flew right out of the window, heading to the source of the power. Kiera rushed back into her bedroom and saw that Holline had already left.

Holline flew over the park on the way, noticing the state of the park, she could hear people screaming and she focussed her attention forward. Whoever had caused such terrible destruction was about to experience Holline's power. She charged right up to the person hovering up in the sky and halted, making a dramatic entrance.

She eyed up the enemy. They resembled Shai in size, but he only had the black mask on, and the rest of his ordinary outfit. She knew who it was.

"You're going to pay for that, Joji!" Holline yelled, powering out her aura, and shooting right into the enemy. Punching him across the sky. Joji had not expected that person to show up, nor did he expect the powerful punch. He halted and powered out some more, ready to fight.

"I was hoping for Noca, but I'll take the time to destroy his friend," He growled, flying back in towards the red head. He gripped Holline around the throat with both hands, showing that he was much faster than her. "I'll squeeze the life out of you," He muttered, tightening his grip.

"You don't want to do that," A male voice said, casually, from behind Joji. Holline saw who it was, and you could tell there was some relief in her eyes, but there was still pain. Joji turned around slowly, seeing that Noca was hovering there, a death glare on his face. Joji was happy that he did what he intended, but he knew he wasn't able to take on the two of them alone. His grip on Holline started to loosen and it gave the red head a chance.

She kicked out, striking Joji in gut, getting free of his grip and pulling away. Joji backed up a little bit and he was given no time to react with Noca charging and smashing a fist right into the enemy's face. Joji was sent soaring back down to the ground. Enough time had passed for people to clear the area so Joji smashed down in the abandoned area.

"He… he killed those people," Holline said, it finally dawning on her. She looked to Noca.

"Let's make sure we hand him over to the proper authorities," Noca said, looking back down to the ground, "When I'm done with him." He flashed Super Saiyan and prepared to descend. "Help the injured people, Holline. I'll deal with this."

Noca flashed down to the ground, phasing and using his intense pace. Joji started to stand up as Noca appeared in front of him and punched him down into the ground again. Joji started to laugh and that caught Noca off guard. Joji turned and powered out some energy again, pushing Noca back a little bit. He rushed back to his feet and was ready to attempt to fight.

While this was happening, a large truck arrived on scene, somewhere very nearby. It was the Secret Service. They filed out of the vehicle. Hannah Larson remained back in the truck, doing the surveillance stuff. To help with that surveillance stuff Magdalena Dobos had dispatched some drones to send cameras out to keep an eye on things.

Abe Halaya was focussed on getting to the injured in the park and helping them. The last three, Cas Babka, Brie Wagasi, and Fat Rascal stepped forward together. Witnessing Joji's body crash into the ground and shortly afterwards a golden haired Noca dropping down and punching him again.

Cas Babka grabbed a large weapon from Fat Rascal, a weapon that looked like some sort of grenade launcher. He loaded in a grenade and looked towards Noca and Joji.

"Brie, get to a vantage point," He ordered. She nodded and walked off, albeit gingerly. She glanced back, curious about what her leader was up to. He stood close to Fat Rascal. "Be ready."

Babka raised the weapon, looked through the scope, and had his eye locked on the target.

Noca was ready to pounce back towards Joji but before another hit could be made, and as soon as Noca left the ground, the Saiyan was struck by a projectile that not only had enough impact to knock him back into a wall but exploded with an electric wave. It wasn't a traditional grenade; it was some sort of stun grenade. Noca was caught and he could hardly move as the electricity took over.

He squirmed on the floor and as Babka started to load another stun grenade into the weapon Joji found his moment and took off, attempting to fly away as quickly as he could. Fat Rascal lifted his weapon and started firing into the air after the mysterious man, but he was long gone. Holline was distracted by what had happened to Noca and dropped down, but Babka was ready to target her.

"What are you doing?" Brie said, rushing back to her captain and knocking off his aim so he fired into a wall. "They're not the enemy."

Noca was still squirming but the pain was subsiding. Everything had happened so quickly, and he was really disoriented and pissed that Joji had gotten away. As he started to get back to his feet Fat Rascal walked over and aimed a pistol at his head.

"Stay down, boy," He commanded. Noca growled and stood up grabbing the gun from Fat Rascal's hand and crushed it.

"Stand down!" Babka said, shoving Brie to the side and aiming his grenade launcher at the Saiyan. Holline was too anxious and confused to move.

"Why are you targeting them? They were helping us just yesterday!" Brie protested.

"And they ran away without bothering to stop and explain what was happening. You said yourself that they're keeping something from us, I want to know what it is!" Babka yelled at his subordinate.

"And this is the best way to get it, by shooting at us?" Noca questioned, finally shaking off the effect of the stun grenade.

There were loads of authorities that had gathered around the area upon the realisation that the attack had subsided. Paramedics were rushing towards the building, accompanied by some police and firefighters. There were injured people on some floors further up that needed to be helped.

Babka lowered his weapon.

"You need to stay out of this and let us do our job," He demanded. Noca scoffed.

"You're not doing a good job if you're scaring off the enemy," Noca said, his vision squarely narrowed upon Cas Babka. Fat Rascal had peeled off and was starting to talk with the authorities and going about helping with the people in the building. This left Babka, Brie, Noca, and Holline together on the steps outside the building that had been attacked.

"You're not a cop, a soldier, or a damn superhero. You're just a martial artist," Babka said. "And you're making yourself very suspicious by showing up every time there's an attack."

"I'm not your enemy," Noca said. He glanced to the woman beside him and she clearly felt the same way, but that didn't stop the suspicious look she was giving them.

"Then prove it," Brie said.

"I'm bringing you in," Babka said, lifting the weapon and firing it towards Noca and Holline, but with a very swift movement Noca grabbed Holline and used instant transmission to get away. The stun grenade struck the wall again. "Damn it!" Babka exclaimed. He turned to Brie and glared at her.

"What? I think they're acting suspicious too, but I don't think they're the enemy," Brie said, trying to make her case. She was one of the only people in the team that could really stand up to Babka without a care for the consequences.

"People died today, again, on our watch, and they still won't share any information. As far as I'm concerned, they are criminals," Babka said, turning his back on Brie and walking towards the building. He went to his communicator. "Magdalena, I want you to send one of your maintenance drones to the Capsule Corporation. I want you to follow Noca; the tournament champion." He received an affirmative and continued inside the building.

Brie remained standing there by herself and cursed. She looked up at the building as papers were flying in the wind, due to the explosion. She anxiously followed her leader inside the building.

Back across the city, just outside Erasa's apartment, Noca appeared, with his arm still around Holline. She very quickly pushed off of him and walked down the hall a little bit, with her hands on her head.

"What the hell was that?" She asked, pacing back down towards Noca. She cleared seemed a little bit shaken and panicked, and why wouldn't she be? There was another attack, a bigger one, in the city she lived in, and this time people died. Not only that, but they were attacked by the people supposedly trying to figure everything out. "I feel like I've done something wrong."

"Calm down, Holline," Noca said, approaching her and attempting to put his hand on her shoulder but she knocked it away.

"Calm down? Really? After what just happened do you really think it's that easy?" She questioned, her voice breaking a little. "It was so close to my home, Noca."

"I know, it's not good," Noca said. He sighed and dropped his arms to his sides.

"Those innocent people…" Holline muttered, turning around again and pacing down the hall. "This is a mistake."

Noca was confused upon hearing that and looked to Holline.

"What is?" He asked.

She turned around and walked back towards him, with intent.

"You know what. It's a mistake to keep things from them. They're the authorities, they're the King's Secret Service, and now they think we're the enemy!" Holline said, raising her voice but quickly silencing herself and taking a breath. "They attacked us."

"Right, which is exactly why we shouldn't trust them," Noca said, standing his ground on the subject. "They should see that we're not a threat to these people."

"How? How can they possibly see that when they know that we have information that we're keeping from them?" Holline questioned, she was clearly beginning to lose patience with him. "Noca, we ran away today, and people died!" She raised her voice again and made sure to make it abundantly clear to Noca that they looked like the bad guys.

"They don't have what it takes to sort this out, we need to just bust down Alpha's door and fix things," Noca said, calmly, feeling like he was right about the situation they were in, but he couldn't deny how it looked from the outside.

"Oh, God damn it, Noca. Why are you being this stubborn?" Holline asked, standing right up to him. Noca opened his mouth ready to protest but saw the look in Holline's eyes. "You need to grow up."

Noca was taken aback by the way she was talking to him. He didn't expect it and didn't understand why she wasn't taking his side on the matter. He sighed and backed up a little bit.

"I just… I feel like I'm responsible for these attacks," Noca said, leaning against the wall. He seemed to withdraw a little bit and seemed to fall deep into thought. "They're doing this to draw me out, I know it…"

Holline sighed and shook her head.

"I mean it, Holline. Joji was definitely pleased that I was there, and then with Shai, he rushed off after I got there. They're doing this for my benefit," Noca said, slowly coming to a new realisation. "These people are being put at risk… because of me." Noca seemed to start staring into space.

"Noca…" Holline started, but Noca stepped up again and turned to face Holline.

"Teki came to our school and took an interest in me, Alpha technology showed up, Shai has been after me for some time, and this new trio that were at the tournament," Noca said, listing off those things on his hand. He leaned against the wall again and scoffed. "They're all surrounding me, it's my fault…"

"No, I wasn't saying you're at fault, I was just saying that it seems that way when we're holding back this information," Holline said, stepping up to her long-time friend and placing a hand on his arm.

"This isn't the first time I've been responsible for deaths," Noca muttered. He sighed.

"You don't have to do everything by yourself," Holline said, making sure he was very aware of her presence. Noca slowly turned to look at her and thought about things. Pan had said something similar to him. Noca scoffed and a weak smile formed. "We should give them what they want."

Noca slowly nodded.

"You're right…" He mumbled.

Joji arrived back to the warehouse and rushed in, feeling a mix of anxiety and excitement. He had managed to cause quite the scene, even if he had gone against the wishes of his leader, and Shai, he had done something. Sofia was ready to greet him, and she looked annoyed, but also shocked.

"What did you do?" She asked. Joji scoffed and walked past her.

"I did my job," He said, holding himself with fake confidence and laughing, but he was very quickly punched in the face and fell to the ground. Shai stood over him. Joji looked up and cursed.

"You could have compromised us. You're an idiot," Shai said. Joji quickly jumped up to defend himself.

"All I did was make the plan move along quicker. We are in the best position to finally get something done," Joji said, standing right up to Shai in the moment. "Together we are stronger than them, and if Yaiko won't show his power against us then we just throw him into the shit and watch him fail!" Joji yelled in Shai's face. Shai was taken aback by the sudden showing of confidence and control. "He doesn't have to be the one to kill the Saiyan. I'll do it if needs be."

Shai started to chuckle.

"And why do you think that'll work?" Shai asked. Joji scoffed.

"It looks like he may have another group of enemies to deal with," Joji said. Sofia stood up to bring herself into this conversation.

"You mean the King's Secret Service? Why are they against Noca?" She asked.

"Who knows? But they attacked him and not me. Plus, they don't have power, just weapons," Joji said, holding his arms out and stepped away. "I say we do it."

"I'm coming around to the idea," Shai said, smirking.

"This isn't what Omega wanted," Sofia said, trying to be their voice of reason, something she thought that Shai might be when it came to a change in plan. After all, he was leading them on this mission. "We should wait until Yaiko is ready."

"The kid will never be ready, Sofia!" Joji yelled, walking closer to her. "Don't you see it? He's weak and he'll die in a real fight. We can't rely on him."

"I'll be ready…" a timid voice said from the back of the room. They all turned to see Yaiko, still pretty beaten up, standing there. "I can do it."

"Yaiko…" Sofia muttered to herself.

"I think we should do it," Yaiko said, his eyes narrowed and focussed. Joji chuckled and looked to Shai who simply smirked again and walked away. Sofia sighed, but she wasn't about to protest it anymore. She was beaten. It was three to one. Their plan had been moved up.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Leave a review if you would like to. See you next time.