Disclaimer, I do NOT own dbz. Would be nice, I don't know if I'd ever get a life
with 503 episodes to watch ^_^
Notes: Whew, this chapter was a workout. Well, I've gotten a small following, and figured out how to work and upload on ff.net. Anyhow, I got enough feedback
to satsify my questions. It's fun writing these things, and I've already got two ideas for new sagas, along with some more of
my 'personal thoughts' fics I wrote when I first hopped on the bandwagon. Reviews are appreciated, I still maintain a policy
of at least 4 a chapter. Without further ado, lets begin.....
Chapter 4: The Depth of the Chasm
"N-n-no....ge--get away from me."
Turan tossed and turned in fitful sleep, clearly having a nightmare. The assigned special gaurd, a giant named Kistolo,
shifted uncomfortably at his post. He had been the second, besides Trisor, to join the forces, and he was always the 'lucky'
one to gaurd Turan at night. Lately, it had been almost unbearable.
"Ah--f-father..."
The creature shifted again. Though he recoiled away from his master, in the back of his mind, he was always curious as
to what Turan saw in his tortured mind every evening. Cautiously, he peeked at his master, watching horror, pain, and other,
unreadable emotions flash across his face...
But Kistolo could not even imagine the torture Turan was re-living....
Turan was no longer a giant, but only a boy. He had barely a stump of a tail, which wobbled greatly as he ran. White
enveloping mist morphed into a dark, saiyajin neighborhood. ALone, but not for long.
He was dressed in saiyajin armor, the soft kind used only by students at his combat school. As he walked down, masses of
his race appeared before him. He kept on running, hoping to avoid the inevitable, but it would not be so.
"Well if it ain't the little red-head! Your tail shrink any more?!!"
A loud roar of laughter ensued. It was prince Vegeta, a tall, 17 year old boy, who would inherit the throne next year. Surrounding
him were a group of mean looking lackeys. Turan muttered, "Go away, Vegeta..."
"Aw....go away meanie vegeta" More laughter. All their faces came into focus, surrounding the boy. "Think he needs
a little lesson in manners, don't you all think?"
Massive arms held the sobbing boy down as they took off his armor and stole his fighting manual. "N-n-no, ge-get away from
me! Leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE!"
IN a rage, he pushed free and smacked the prince hard in the face. Shcok, then anger passed through Vegeta's face. "How
DARE you hit ME!" The others grabbed him again, and started laughing as Vegeta punched and kicked the child mercilessly.
Bones cracking, blood pouring out of his mouth, Turan whimpered and cried out in pain.
While Turan continued screaming, a familiar chant reached his ears. "FREAK.....FREAK....FREAK!"
Suddenly, the arms let go of him, and the world morphed around him. Screaming, Turan crashed into the stone cold floor of
his home. Turan drew back in fear, terror etched across his
face. It was his father Torac.
"You brat! You got beaten up AGAIN! " With contempt in his face, Torac kicked him hard in the face, as Tales stood
by, arms crossed, smirking. "Your an insult to our family! How could you be such a weakling! "
"I'm...I'm no weakling! I'm gonna be a super saiyajin!"
Instead of beating him, Torac started laughing uproarously. "YOU! A SUPER SAIYAJIN! You actually believe that fairy tale!"
"Tales here, on the other hand, has great potential I'm told. If any were worthy, it would be him, not you." Torac said as he looked proudly at his younger son, hardly
six at the time.
"Heh. You're nothing, Turan. You're weak!"
"NO!"
"YES!"
"NOOOOO!!!!"
His father and brother burst into horrible laughter. The world swirled white, and all those he knew, all those he had killed,
sxrewed their ugly, mauled faces in front of him. "FREAK FREAK FREAK FREAK!!!...."
Suddenly, the crowds were gone, everything collapsed into eerie silence. Then, the footsteps. Four strange fighters surrounded him,
four he had never seen before in his life.
They approached him softly, wordlessly, pure energy pouring through their hands from which Turan recoiled. Nearer...nearer.....then they, in hardly a whisper,
started to speak a strange phrase.
"KA...."
The energy in their hands grew brighter and intense.
"ME..."
Their voices grew to enormous proportions, and large balls of energy appeared in front of them
"HA..."
The singing light was unbearable! Wh-who are....
"ME...."
JUSTICE SHALL PASS!!!!!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Turan screamed and sat up in a flash. A bizzare mess of tears and sweat poured all over his face. He shook with a mixture of rage and fear, and clenched his fists, trying to calm himself. Breathing heavily, he turned towards the poor gaurd Kistolo, who had fallen over in shock and fear.
"My..my lord, can I-"
"GET OUT!!!!!!" Turan screamed. Kistolo ran away, terrified, only narrowly avoiding a ki blast aimed at his head. Turan slowly calmed down, but could not forget the dream. Why did it return, after all these years? All those terrible memories, he could never forget them. But that last part, he could not recall ever experiencing it before.... What did it mean? The giant shook it off angrily.
THis is foolish. I have work to do Turan slowly put his tortured past behind him, and slowly sat up. I'm already a super saiajin, I'm more powerful than any other being in the universe. Silently, he brooded his upcoming battle with Goku....
The four humans walked close to eachother, nervous as they creeped through the silent corridor. Hardly a sound could be heard as they approached the light at the end of the tunnel.
Why me? Kururin thought miserably. A perfectly relaxing day gone to hell. He didn't feel comfortable in this new situtation. The others were good company, yet Kururin felt vulnerable without Goku there, always prepared for a fight, or Gohan, with his vast power. Even Vegeta would have been comforting at a time like this. No, we have to do this on our own.
Yamcha's thoughts were dark as well. I'll probably get killed again. And who'll care? I'm useless now, I hardly even match up to Kururin anymore, let alone someone like Vegeta. In spite of himself, Yamcha couldn't help but feel satisfied that Vegeta had been beaten. Bout time the bastard figured out he wasn't the best. Yamcha knew he was being too harsh, but he couldn't help being slightly bitter towards the man.
Tien and Chao-zu remained silent, contemplating the problems to come. However, any and all trains of thought literally froze at the sight they beheld.
It was, to put it mildly, the most gigantic cavern they had ever seen in their lives. Noise echoed and reechoed off the walls, and millions of lights illuminated every corner of the fort. Down the long staircase, they could see hundreds of gaurds conversing and performing duties. Traps, security cameras, all sorts of strange devices were shown in the Barracks, while a giant serving cafeteria was positioned in the back. The sheer amount of noise and space in the cave almost overwhelmed Kururin, who began to feel even smaller then he usually did.
This is nuts.....
Tien spoke up. "So, do we just head down there, or what? This is beginning to unnerve me."
Before any of them could respond, a large, booming voice called over a loudspeaker "All sentries report to the cafeteria for rations!"
Yamcha felt his stomach growl at the mere thought of food, and he realized he hadn't eaten all day. Similar thoughts were crossing the minds of the others. Chao-zu spoke up. "Why not? As long as we keep our visors down, they won't know or care who we are. There're too many of them."
Yamcha responded eagerly, "Great idea! We can relax for a couple of minutes and plan out what we are going to do here."
The others nodded, and started the long walk towards the cafeteria.
"WILL YOU SHUT UP!"
#18 was in a foul mood. Vegeta still hadn't woken up yet, but Oolang and Kamesemnin had. While the old man remained fairly quiet and reserved, the pig was another matter. I swear to god, I don't care if they set me on fire, I'm going to KILL him. Oolang was running around, yelling, complaining, and generally making a fuss.
"We're going to die down here. OOOh what did I do to deserve this. I'm just a pig, what did they need me for? I wanna go home! I..."
This time, the gaurds outside joined #18. "SHUT THE HELL UP!!!"
The pig fell silent, and cowered in a corner. Despite himself, Mutenroshi snickered. The android gave the man a withering look, then turned back towards Lunch, the only source of calm in the damn palce. The children were crying again, and #18 started rocking Goten furiously. If I go to hell, it will DEFINITELY resemble this.
Suddenly, the door opened with a crack of blinding light. "Alright, here's your food boxes. Two for the babies, and two for you in the back." The soldier, Trisor, pointed at #18 and Lunch. "You two! Outside! Your going to get your food at the cafeteria." He punctuated this with a laugh. #18 stood up, "What if I refuse?"
Trisor smirked, "I wouldn't. See this remote control? All I need to do is press this little button and you'll get a...little shock." #18 remembered her pervious 'shock' and shuddered, fear crossing her eyes. Gaurds surrounded them, and took the women off. The door shut with a loud clang, and all was silent again..
"God help those two...." Mutenroshi whispered.
Kururin and the others finally reached the cafeteria. The filthy pig-pen was full of shouts and uproarious laughter. Most of the tables were occupied by aliens of all races, colors, and types. Cold food was handed out in small boxes by a gaurd at the front desk. The fighters pushed their way to the front of the line. The gaurd dully spoke, "Group Number?"
Kururin froze, petrified. Oh great, now what? The gaurd repeated, more sternly, "I said, what's you---"
Suddenly, a relaxed expression appeared on his face, and he simply handed them their food. Tien, Kururin, and Yamcha all looked confused, then saw what Chao-zu was accomplishing. The little mime had his hands outstretched, clearly controling the weak mind of the gaurd. "Come on, lets go, before they notice what we're doing." Furious yells from behind showed that other gaurds were becoming impatient.
They found a table near the back and sat down. Chao-zu concentrated his power again, and made a small mental barrier around the table. This way no one could hear what the four said, though, in the noise of the hall, it was hardly neccessary. They all sat silently, munching on the strange, powdery bits of meat in their boxes with crude, rusty iron forks.
Yamcha spoke up. "So, what do we do now?"
Tien thought for a second, "Chao-zu, can you scan the area and tell us the layout of the base?"
Chao-zu was beginning to look tired from all the psychic commands he had undergone, but he nodded and searched the area with his mind. "Ok, we're in the mess hall, where all the gaurds are stationed. Beyond that is a..giant labrynth."
"You mean a maze? We have to go through a maze?"
"Yeah. There's a side route somewhere, but it'd be impossible to find, only certain fingerprints activate it. The maze is where the upper gaurds rest, and they defend certain areas if intruders..l-like us, interefere. FInally, there's a prison at the end, and a giant enclosed valley beyond there. "
Yamcha spoke up once again, "How do you know all this stuff about the gaurds?"
Chao-zu responded, rather proudly, "I can read the minds of each person in here, few of them are very smart. THey each have a daily routine."
Yamcha smiled beneath his visor, impressed. The others, impressed as well, looked at chao-zu admiringly. Even Tien didn't know all the skills his little friend had.
"So, here's what we do," Kururin intervened. "We'll have to go through the maze, but as long as no one sees us go in, we should be all right. Using chao-zu to direct us, we'll be able to find the prison, get the others, and escape. If we're lucky, they won't know what-wh-..."
All of a sudden, Kururin's face turned white, then red in anger. The others turned around, confused, and saw instantly what was wrong.
A laughhing group of soldiers and Trisor were dragging 18 and lunch down to a table right next to them. The blue commander stood off to one side, smirking, while the other soldiers began to 'feed' them. A particularly rowdy tall green gaurd started shoveling the meat down 18's throat. Lunch was faring no better, though she kept silent.
"Here you go little beauty. Hehe, my what a temper!"
18 spat the food out on the green alien's face, ensueing more laughter. "Oh you'll pay for that, bitch!" The alien struck 18 clean in the face, and Kururin clenched his fists, hardly able to control himself. Tien whispered "Stay calm, now stay calm, we can't do anything...". He too, however, could hardly supress his anger, and was crushing his fork into a little ball.
18 stood up, fury and pain etched over her face. SHe moved to strike back, but jets of electricity shot up her body, and she fell screaming, while the others taunted her. Trisor held a remote control in his hand, and pushed it repeatedly, a thin smile spreading across his face. Kururin began shaking, his face twisted in fury. Lunch tried to support her, but a yellow haired humanoid pulled her down, "You stay put. My my, you ARE quite nice....". Lunch screamed in anger and terror, but could do nothing. Tien looked like a raging bull, and Yamcha was murderously tearing his meat apart. Even Chao-zu's normally happy little face resembled a devil.
"Aw...come here little girl, it's alright! Here let me help you, I'll even give you a little kiss." A large crowd had gathered around the three by now.
#18 screamed in horror, and recoiled, but was drawn up. The green monster hit her again, then constricted her closer to him. "I'm gonna make your pretty face MINE!! MINE!!!" The others shouted with him in glee. Horrified, #18 closed her eyes, sobbing for the first time in her life.
Kururin snapped.
"STOP IT!!!!!!" He screamed, helmet flying off his face. The green giant turned, confused. The last thing he ever saw was a blur of a fist, crushing his face.
Flying backwards, head twisted, he slammed into the side of the metal wall, and fell with a dull thud.
Everyone, even Tien and the others, were shocked. Silence reigned. #18 looked up, and instantly recognized the monk. "Kururin! Wh-what the hell!..."
But the others converged on the human. Though, Kururin fought hard, Trisor took 18 and Lunch quickly and rushed out of the room, ending the brief reunion. Kururin quickly saw how dire his situation was. He kicked a gaurd in the gut, sending him reeling, spun around, and headbutted another giant on the forehead. He then grabbed the stunned fighter, and began to spin him around, crashing into many other soldiers, before they retreated. Faster and faster, he became a giant whirlwind. Then, SNAP! The body flew like a bullet into a large group clustered near him. They all skyrocketed into the wall, and landed in a crumpled heap.
Tien, Yamcha, and Chao-zu flew over to Kururin's side. More and more soldiers, now with ki blasters, entered the restaurant. Kururin was furious with himself. "Dammit, I let the bastard get away!"
Chao-zu looked nervously around as the others began to close in. "Um...g-guys? What do we do now?"
To be continued......
Little cliffhanger there to keep you interested ^_^. Reviews are generaly appreciatedm it makes it more enjoyable to know I'm entertaining you all :). Hope you liked it!