CHAPTER EIGHT
"Oh, yes," Deemos muttered
realizing that in all the exitement of finding another saiyan, he had
completely forgotten to mention to his captive exactly where he was. "You're in
a small village town in Ohio called Rio Grande. It's about the last place you'd
expect to find a place like this," Deemos explained.
"How'd we get in Ohio?"
Logan asked. "We were in Idaho when you knocked me out."
"We can do some pretty
amazing things," Deemos said. "All of which you will learn should you decide to
stay. I need to talk to Master Gohan now. I'll take you to Master Yamcha,"
Deemos said before walking to the door and motioning for Logan to follow.
They once again started
the long journey that they had finished only a few minutes earlier. After what
seemed like an eternity they finally reached the large training room. Yamcha
was still at the other end of the room with the four other men whom Logan
guessed were his students. The longhaired master was at the edge of the pit
facing toward Logan and Deemos. Two of his students were standing behind him on
the stone floor, while the other two were standing in front of him in the pit.
The two men in the pit were standing across from each other in fighting stances
like they were about to spar.
"Master Yamcha appears to
be busy right now," Deemos said. "We'll wait,"
Logan looked on at the two fighters in the pit. The man to
Yamcha's left was about six feet tall and a little skinny compared to everyone
else Logan had seen. He wore a gray uniform in the same style as the one everyone
else was wearing. He had dark red hair that was almost an unnatural ruby color,
with bright green eyes. He had sharp facial features and pale, white skin. In
all he didn't appear to be very tough. That is until you saw the expression he
had on his face at that moment. Not even the devil himself could have looked
more menacing. The man's eyes told two stories to his opponent. First they said
"You are my greatest enemy and for that you will die" Second they said "You are
nothing to me and I will crush you" Logan could see that this man had true
confidence and not even Logan wanted to mess with him.
The other man wore a black
uniform, like Logan's. He stood a few inches shorter than the other man with
short, blonde hair and blue eyes. He was bulky for his height, which made him
look like he'd be a little slow. His facial expression looked basically the
same as the first man's, but Logan could see that even though he appeared
confident on the outside, the man was about to piss his pants on the inside.
Logan, being a martial artist himself, knew that any good martial artist always
showed confidence on the outside no matter what he felt on the inside.
"Use control Remy," Yamcha
told one of the men. The red haired man nodded in compliance. "Fighters ready!"
Yamcha yelled at both men.
"Yes sir!" they shouted
back.
"Fight," Yamcha ordered.
He had hardly finished the word when the two fighters exploded onto each other
with incredible speed. Both fighters threw a flurry of punches and kicks so
fast that all Logan could see were two blurs. This went on for a few minutes
and soon Logan was able to start making out some of the techniques. He wasn't
sure if the fighters had slowed down or if his eyes had adjusted, but he didn't
really care. These two men were amazing. Logan had never seen two men with such
skill. The match continued on at an incredible pace for a few more minutes.
Logan was able to make out a majority of the moves now. Neither man had landed
a hit on the other yet. They seemed to be completely even. Suddenly they both
jumped back from each other. Remy had his back turned to Logan and Deemos, and
the other man was facing in their direction. The blonde haired man was standing
in a weak fighting stance, trying to catch his breath. Remy however stood
straight up and calm. In fact it appeared he had hardly broken a sweat. It was
now obvious that Remy was far above the other man.
Remy looked over at Yamcha
who then gave him a nod, as if to cue him to do something. The other man
noticed their silent conversation and a look of panic crossed his face. The man
then lunged at his opponent with the best speed he had used the entire match,
letting out a primal scream of rage as he rapidly approached his foe. When he
got close he jumped high in the air and flew toward Remy with his leg extended
to attempt a flying sidekick. Just as Deemos had done to Logan at the training
hall, Remy fluidly sidestepped the attack and watched as his opponent flew past
him. The man landed on the ground with perfect balance and immediately set up
for his next attack. He turned to face Remy and threw a lightning fast
roundhouse kick at Remy's stomach. Remy easily blocked it, and almost
simultaneously he spun backwards into a back pivot kick, landing his heel
directly under his opponent's chin. The blonde haired man flew back from the
force of the kick, and landed hard on the dirt floor, unconscious.
Remy walked over to the
man and rudely smacked him across the face a few times to revive him. The man
awoke, and with Remy's help, rose to his feet. Simultaneously they both bowed
to Yamcha, and then took position behind him.
"Master Yamcha!" Deemos
yelled across the training room now that there was a break in the action.
Yamcha promptly jogged across the long room to where Logan and Deemos were.
"Yes sir," he answered.
"Take Logan to your
chamber," Deemos told him. "Give him the clothes we have for him. I want him to
stay with Remy tonight. Answer any questions he may have for you,"
"Yes sir," Yamcha answered
before bowing to Deemos again. "Come with me," he said to Logan, and turned
back toward the other end of the room. Logan then followed Yamcha to where he
had previously been standing. All four of the students gave Logan an odd,
discriminating look, making him feel unwelcomed.
"This is Logan," Yamcha
told them. "He's our new recruit," The men gave Logan a shallow bow, and then
went back to giving him odd looks. "You guys continue sparring," Yamcha
ordered. "Come with me Logan,"
Logan followed the man he
had come to know as Yamcha into another one of the doored hallways. He feared
another long, drawn out journey, but his fears were soon calmed when Yamcha
turned to the first door on his left and went in. Logan followed Yamcha in and
looked around. Yamcha's chamber was exactly like Deemos's minus the weapons. On
the bed laid a pile of folded clothes. As Logan looked a little closer he
realized that they were his clothes.
"How'd you get my
clothes?" Logan asked.
"Deemos took them from
your house after he kidnapped you," Yamcha answered. It sounded odd for Logan
to hear that, but Logan was starting to get used to hearing odd things. "So
what did Deemos tell you?" Yamcha asked sternly, as if he were interrogating
Logan for a crime. "Why did he take you instead of Eddie?"
"Basically, he said that
I'm something called a saiyan," Logan answered in the same tone, not allowing
himself to be intimidated.
"A saiyan!" Yamcha yelled
in surprise. "What proof do you have?"
Logan considered the
question for a second. He knew his proof was in his tail, but he wasn't sure if
he should show it to Yamcha. Logan had never even shown it to his own family,
much less a complete stranger in an underground cult.
"Here's my proof," Logan
finally said as he pulled open the top part of his uniform to reveal the long,
furry tail that was wrapped around his waist.
"So you are a saiyan,"
Yamcha said in a humble, defeated voice. "Where did you come from?" he asked
going back to his stern voice.
"I don't know," Logan
answered, still speaking as meanly as Yamcha. "Deemos thinks I might be the
lost child,"
"That could be," Yamcha
agreed. "But it's doubtful,"
"If I were the lost
child," Logan inquired, "Wouldn't I be older than Deemos?"
"You are older than
Deemos," Yamcha replied.
"But how can that be?" Logan
asked surprised. "He looks like he's at least 25," Logan was once again
shocked. He was starting to think that he should just stop asking questions.
"He's done a lot of
training in a special training room," Yamcha explained. Logan just kept looking
at him with a puzzled expression, so Yamcha explained further. "In this room
the air is so humid that you can hardly breath. The temperature changes from
one extreme to the other instantly, and the gravity is far more intense than it
is outside the room. But most importantly you can spend one year within its
walls, and only one day has passed outside of them. That's why Deemos looks so
much older than he really is,"
"If you say so," Logan
said as a strong case of weirded outism came over him.
"Believe it if you want,"
Yamcha responded, "But Deemos has more than doubled his power by training in
there,"
Logan now contemplated
asking another question. Quickly he decided he should since nothing could
really get much weirder from there, or so he hoped.
"What do you mean when you
say power?" Logan asked.
"Every person gives off a
certain amount of energy at all times. The stronger you are the more energy you
give off. This determines your fighting power" Yamcha explained. "When you
learn more you'll be able to sense how powerful a person is. The saiyans didn't
know how to sense power, so they developed a little machine that scans a person
and expresses their power in a number. Is there anything else you want to
know?"
"Explain the ranking
system to me," Logan told him. Everyone he had seen wore a plain, black belt.
"The black means that you
haven't learned to use your ki," Yamcha said. "Ki is the life force that
resides in all living things," he explained, anticipating that Logan would ask.
"The gray means that you have learned to use your ki. The plain red means that
you're an apprentice to a master. The red uniform like mine means that you are
a junior master. A plain orange uniform means that you're a master, and orange
with a black outline means that you're a grandmaster. Only the leader of the
organization can be a grandmaster," Yamcha finished.
"So Deemos is a master?"
Logan continued questioning.
"Yes," Yamcha answered
simply.
"If he's so young…" Logan
started, "… how'd he pass you in rank?"
"Deemos surpassed me in
power. He learned so quickly that Master Gohan promoted him above me," Yamcha
explained. "If you stay you'll also surpass me. You saiyans are amazing. We
humans could never equal you in power…no matter how hard we may try," he spoke,
once again sounding defeated. "Change your clothes and meet me back in the
training room," Yamcha ordered as he left the room.
Logan changed his clothes
as quickly as possible, hoping to catch up to Yamcha and ask some more
questions. Now that Logan was comfortably in his clothes he left the room with
he black uniform neatly folded in his hand. Logan looked in both directions,
hoping to see Yamcha still walking down the hallway, but the man was nowhere to
be seen. So, Logan walked back to the training room himself. He stepped through
the door, expecting to see another intense sparring match between two powerful
warriors, but the room was completely empty.