Endive stalked out onto the ramp extending from the
hatchway, and stood with her arms folded, looking out at the planet. They'd
been to three previously, and had no luck at all on the first two; someone
on the third had recommended coming here. There were always those here
that had information, she'd said. So Endive, with gritted teeth, had set
the coordinates for this planet, Takanei.
If they found nothing here, then she would be out
of good ideas. Otherwise, they would be bouncing from planet to planet
until they found a lead. She wasn't in the best of moods; irritable to
say the least.
Trunks stepped out beside her and looked out on
the planet for a minute in silence, before finally quietly saying, "Wow."
If the planet had any large vegetation, it had been
wiped out by the creatures that inhabited this place. From where she stood,
she couldn't see anything but dead, brown looking weeds and a few little
spikey patches of grass, or what she thought was grass. It was stained
red, with little bits of purple at the top edges and the root. The air
around them was dusty and smoggy and burned the lungs for the first few
breaths; whether it was pollution or just a difference in the atmosphere,
she didn't know.
It looked like one huge bazaar. There were little
booths set up everywhere along the crowded "streets," and there were filthy
looking "merchants" of every kind hawking their wares. There were quite
a few other creatures that slipped in and out from between the "people"
crowding the narrow, dusty streets, and Endive was willing to be the ship
that they were thieves.
Around those with sticky fingers, she wasn't going
to leave the ship alone. She turned and looked at Trunks. "Stay here with
the ship. I'll be back soon."
Trunks looked at her and frowned. "You don't want
me to go with you?"
She grabbed him by the strap of his armor and drug
him closer, nearly shoulder to shoulder with her. She tipped her head in
a gesture towards the crowd. "This is a crowded place, Trunks. There are
merchants here, and there are people that are going to spend money -or
whatever they happen to use as payment- on their goods. That means there
are thieves in the crowd too. I'd like to be able to leave this disgusting
planet. That means we have to have the ship. I know what I'm looking for,
so I have to go. You can stay here and watch the ship, and crack the skulls
of anyone that tries to take it. Understand?"
He wasn't happy with it, but he finally agreed.
Endive walked down the ramp and plunged into the crowd.
* * * * * * * * * *
She finally had a lead. Someone that might know Ikomia's
coordinates. Her brows were drawn together in a scowl, and she pushed her
way roughly through the crowd. Once or twice she'd grabbed at ghostly fingers,
and once she'd even managed to get hold of hand -or it was similar
to a hand, given that it only had three long, nimble fingers on it. She'd
broken them, then went on her way.
The merchant had said to look for a little man with
rust colored hair and that he wore tiny goggles all the time. His name
was Bakani, and he lingered around a drinking place called the Red Star.
It took a while of getting lost, taking detours
and wrong directions, and finally having to fly up above the place for
a look before she found it. She spotted the sign from the air. It was a
hideous thing, bright yellow neon lettering with a red star under it in
several layers. It make an electrical buzz as it the light shifted between
the layers, giving an exploding effect. Endive set herself lightly down
on her feet in front of it, then shouldered open the door and went in.
It probably would have been impossible for the interior
to be anymore dirty. There were bottles and cups and other materials she
couldn't (and probably wouldn't want) to identify lying strewn about. There
was a layer of dirt over everything, and what looked like a layer of scum
over all the liquids. The air was smokey and stank worse than the air outside
Patrons of every kind inhabited the place. The only thing they seemed to
have in common was that they were filthy, scabrous, and parasite ridden.
Endive decided to find Bakani and get out of this
hellhole.
She managed to get up to the bar without touching
anyone or anything. She folded her arms tight and glared at the keep, a
stout, more insect than human looking creature. "I'm looking for someone
named Bakani," she said.
The keep pointed with a pincher towards a little
man hunched up at one end of the bar. He was smoking something that smelled
even worse than it looked, and he occasionally scratched at his matted,
rust colored hair. She nodded and stepped over to him, but kept her distance,
hoping to let him keep most of his lice.
"You're Bakani?" she asked, folding her arms, tipping
her chin back haughtily.
He peered at her through the strange thick lensed little
goggles he wore, looked her up and down, then nodded. "Yeah," he said.
"What c'n I do f'r you?"
Endive was tempted to remove both his eyes and the lenses
of those goggles with one shot. "I'm looking for information."
"Weeeel. . ." he scratched at his grizzled chin, then
flashed a gap toothed, green and brown grin. "I s'pose I could held you
there. Anythin' fer a lady."
She restrained her disgust and glanced around, then tipped
her head back towards the door. "Outside. Much longer in here and I'll
choke on the fumes." Without waiting for him, she turned and went out the
way she came, being careful not to brush against anyone.
The little man wandered out a few seconds later. She stood
still, waiting, watching those around her. This street wasn't as crowded
as the others, or perhaps they were simply avoiding this part of the road
for some reason. It was fine with her.
"Ikomia," she said before he could open his mouth. "Do
you know the location?"
"Hrmm. . ." he scratched at his chin again. "Yeah, methinks
I do. But in-fro-mation's got a price, ye know," he said, drawing out and
mispronouncing "information."
"And what might yours be?" she put on a bored exterior,
though in truth, she was contemplating what she might even be able to give
him. It wasn't as if they'd brought much.
"Weeel. . . Word gets around fast here, ye know? You've
got an awful nice ship. . . and a pretty crewman."
Endive sighed and arched a brow at him. Her patience was
wearing very, very thin. "State your price, or I'll find my information
elsewhere."
"You won't find nobody that would ask less than me. Your
ship and the boy."
The hard stare she gave him made him rethink that price.
"Just the boy."
"No."
"The ship."
"No."
"Weeel, then. . ." he reached out and up surprisingly
fast, and even managed to get his grubby fingers on the crystal around
her neck. "How's 'bout this?"
That did it. Endive grabbed him by the hand and gave a
sharp pull and twist. The next thing Bakani knew, his arm was painfully
pinned behind his back, and his head was shoved against the wall. "You
will get nothing, you little lice infested bastard. Tell me where it is,
before I start to break you fingers one by one."
Bakani whimpered and whined something, twisting around
in her grip. Endive didn't hear it, and wouldn't have understood it if
she had. She was nudging the crystal with her mind, trying to drag it to
wakefulness. There was the questioning feeling in her head, along with
that thread of alien consciousness. I need you to tell me if he's truthful
or lying, she said. The crystal understood what colors she associated
with truth and lies, and therefore understood a little more about the feelings.
There was an agreeing feeling, then the near sensation of someone else
in her head looking out.
Endive tightened her grip and pulled up on his arm to
get her point across. "Tell me."
He whined out a set of coordinates. The Saiya-jin received
an image of Bakani's form in silhouette. The inside of the silhouette was
dirty yellow with shards and bursts of black and a very nasty purple. Nonchalantly,
Endive snapped one of his fingers, renewing his shrieks. "You're lying.
Try again," she said.
He babbled out another set, and she received the same
silhouetted image. Again, Endive broke one of his fingers, this one the
little one. "Again," she said.
Bakani whined and blubbered. She realized with disgust
that he was crying. When she threatened to break another because he wouldn't
speak, he finally screamed a set of coordinates.
The image was blue with hints of grey and white in it.
Truth.
Endive repeated the coordinates, checking them, then dropped
him to the ground as she stepped back. He turned over to put his back to
the wall and look at her, and clutched his hand to his chest, all the while
sputtering how crazy she was. She treated him to a tight-lipped, icy and
feral little smile, then turned and walked away.
She was almost at the end of the street before she felt
the pound of the footsteps, and he began to howl. She dropped to a low
crouch just in time for him to go soaring over her head.
Bakani landed in a tumbling roll in front of her, and
didn't stop until he smacked into the side of a building. She approached
him and grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up to stare at him. He
pried at her hand and flailed around. Endive didn't realize that he'd have
a knife in his hand until it struck her upper arm, slicing a hole in the
black of her suit and letting red blood flow free. It burned, but she didn't
think it was that deep, and didn't make her loosen her grip.
"Blood for blood, eh?" she said, and struck him across
the face with her fist. It wasn't that heavy a blow, but it blooded his
mouth and nose and sent a few of his disgusting teeth flying. "You're lucky
you put me in a good mood, Bakani. Otherwise I'd kill you now." He'd turned
purple in the face, along with the red of blood. She let go of his throat,
letting him drop to a crumpled heap on the ground against the wall. He
slumped down, head fallen forward, freely bleeding over his already filthy
clothes.
Endive glanced around lazily, ignoring the slice on her
upper arm, looking almost innocent. Where now? Back to the ship, and to
Ikomia. A smirk tugged at her lips, and she lifted into the air and flew
back towards the ship.