Breakdown Chapter 10- Past
Disclaimer- I don't own DBZ, but I do own Celeria!! (Finally, a not-so-evil charachter I can lay claim too!) don't sue, thank you ^.^
Note- Well not much to say aside from that the flashbacks are continuing. enjoy. once again, ******** means flashback mode.
************ (look, I used them right away!)
The scene is a palace, and we are looking into what is obviously the King's room. The king himself lays on his bed. He is looking rather old and withered and the effects of his disease are apparent. He is speaking to his gaurds.
"If I die now, you must appoint a worthy citizen to take my place," King Maurizio said hoarsly. "I did not excpect the end to approach so soon, though I was well aware of my old age," He gave a dry crackling laugh. One of the gaurds smiled and bent down next to him.
"Do not worry yourself. We have the best scientists working on a cure." He said reassuringly. Maurizio laughed again, but was interrupted by a fit of harsh coughing, in which a small amount of blood was spat up. When it cleared, he said
"Dear Nicodemus, when will you learn that even in a community built on science, it is not always the answer? I have to die sometime, might as well make it dramatic!" He laughed once more, determined to be ever cheerful. "But I do wish I'd had time to seek out a new ruler. You realize it will be up to you two and my chancellor." He added as an afterthought. Nicodemus nodded and stood again. There was a knock at the door and the other gaurd went to answer it.
"Not so slow, Osgood, you walk as if death was on your back!" The king rasped at the gloomier of the two gaurds. Osgood opened the door and a young man with a bright burst of red hair walked in solemnly.
"Good news, My King," He said quietly. "I have discovered this antidote, and you shall be healed within days of drinking it." He held up a small bottle containing a blue liquid.
"Well! That certainly was quick! Wonderful my boy! What is your name now?" The king asked, struggling to sit up.
"Abayomi, sir. I must insist that you drink this immediately!" He urged.
"No rush! It's not like I'm dying or anything!" The king exclaimed. Abayomi wondered breifly if His Highness had lost his mind, then handed over the bottle.
"Wait!" Osgood said, rushing to the king's side. "We should inspect it before you drink it!"
"Oh come on, I really can't get much worse than this. You really have a bad habit of thinking the worst of people. You should be more like Nicodemus here!" Nicodemus and Osgood both turned red and the king drank his antidote. "See, its not- ACK! I'm dying!" The King grasped his chest and fainted in the bed. The gaurds and Abayomi all rushed to his side though there wasn't anything to be done. The king looked quite dead. Unitl he opened his eyes and burst out laughing.
"HA! Gotcha! You should have seen the looks on your faces!" Maurizio erupted into laughter as Abayomi, Nicodemus, and Osgood sweatdropped.
**************
"No, it wasn't me who found the cure," Celeria told her avid audiance. "In fact, Abayomi was my worst rival. But it didn't really matter now; The King was cured and I was preparing to come back to Earth. But Someone must really hate me for again my plans were foiled. The King grew ill once more with the same disease- ten times worse. Abayomi's cure no longer worked and we were all dispatched again to discover a new one."
***************
The Scene- Celeria's laboratory once again.
She searched frantically, night and day for the cause of the disease. Find the cause, and you've found the cure. Hopefully. The King's old age made him far more vulnerable to this disease than anyone younger than him. In fact, the disease was contagious, but only to people in the same age range. It was lucky that the King's gaurds were all young, otherwise the castle would be completely defenseless. Very lucky. This disease was incredibly bizzare. She'd never before heard of one that targeted its victims like this. In fact, if she magnified the viral strain enough under her microscope, she could tell by its charechteristcs that it seemed to be modeled specifically to the King's own genetics. Now that was definitely unheard of. If she didn't know better, she'd say that someone had designed this specifically for him. Now there was a theory worth investigating...
***************
"And so I checked it out. It took an extenisive amount of research and experiments, but I finally figured out that no like virus had ever been contracted, and it was definitely synthetic. Now, no one else had come up with a cure, so I put off the mystery of the cause for a while to find it."
****************
All of her notes pointed to one thing- the disease was incurable at this stage. There was also her old assertion- this disease might never have happened but for the King's old age. The only way to get rid of it would have to be for the king to stop aging, or to grow younger. Breifly she wondered if she could stimulate cells and DNA strands to work backwards. But only breifly- then she began experimenting. Soon, she found that she could stimulate DNA under immense heat and pressure, but only for a few seconds before it combusted entirely. In those few seconds, the strands broke their regulating patterns and began a sporadic dance under her microscope, intertwining in ways that went against all laws of nature until they disentegrated. No doubt other scientists had done this, but how could she continue to do this? What she wanted to do was stop the king from ageing, and, if possible make him younger. It was a far off and unrealistic goal, but that was what accentuated Celeria's career.
She tried decreasing the heat and pressure, but still it didn't have the right affect that she was aiming for. She needed the strains to undevelop. after many, many, *many* experiments, she finally began to get it right. The strands stayed together longer, and seemed to shrink. But after a few moments they went back to normal. So Celeria started playing with chemicals.
Many explosions, fires, and clouds of odd colored smoke later, Celeria was inching closer to the answer. In fact, by the time the next explosion threw her against the door, she believed she had gotten it right! The DNA went to the 'youth' stage and remained there. Now all that was neccessary was to test it. She looked around. Fresh out of Cneuts. That was ok, she really didn't like using the little things for experiments anyway.
"Well, here goes nothing. Down the hatch." She gulped down the freezing hot green liquid she had been experimenting with and waited for the results.
****************
"WHAT?" Most of the present Z senshi gaped at her. "You just drank an experimental substance? Without testing it?!" Bulma didn't know whether to be shocked, impressed, or frightened at this amazing statement.
"Yeah, I usually do. I know it's not safe, but I usually run tests before I do. It's not like I use poison."
"Usually run tests?" Bulma sank into a chair.
"What do you mean you don't use poison? Intense heat and pressure, and who knows what else went into that concoction. What's more, it wasn't your DNA you were testing! It could have had far reaching effects that could have damaged your entire body! In fact, are you sure your brain wasn't damaged?" Gohan was with Bulma on this one. It was rather dangerous experimenting on yourself, renowned scientist or no.
"Leave her alone, guys," Goku said easily. "She's obviously okay. Let her finish the story."
"Thank you, Goku." Celeria said. "Anyway, the results *were* somewhat hazardous..."
*****************
Almost immediately the concoction took effect. Celeria convulsed in pain as the searing liquid burned its way through her body. She squeezed her eyes shut so tight tears forced their way out, but she didn't scream. She didn't think she could; every organ, nerve, and membrane was screaming and writhing in protest to this torture. And then, long, agonizing seconds later, it stopped. In its place was a dull throbbing resounding through her body. Cautiously, slowly, she stood. Something was definitely happening, but it was unlike anyhting she had ever felt before. Rummageing around in a sort of trance, she found a broom and began to sweep up the shattered glass that had once been the vial containing the serum. She had dropped it when the pain started and had probably cut herself, but she didn't care about that right now. She was confused, but couldn't understand why. The liquid hadn't done anything but cause her a great deal of pain. Oh well, so much for that experiment.
Celeria deposited the shards in her over-flowing trash can, scattering them on the floor again, but not seeming to notice. She sat back down at her desk, cradling her head in her hands. Her body still pulsed. Perhaps she was just hungry. Checking her watch, she was shocked to find it was noon. She had been in her lab almost 24 hours without a break. Now why didn't her Saiyan hunger gene kick in earlier? She got up and stepped out of her lab into the unreasonably bright sunlight. Making her way across the lawn and into her main building, she marveled at the immense noise her stomache was making now that she realized she was starving.
An hour later the remains of a 'small' lunch graced the table in Celeria's kitchen. She leaned back in her chair, surveying the damage and groaned. This was going to take forever to clean up. As she began attacking the mess, a shrill ringging hit her ears. She flung her hands up and groaned, her sensitive ears doubling the noise.
"ANSWER!" She hollered at the telephone. A video screen promptly hovered over to her as an image came into focus. She glared at it as she fondeled her aching ears. "Becky." She nearly hissed.
"You look disrought." Becky said. Becky was one of Celeria's friends from the Acadamy, and also one of the scientists working on the cure. She had carrot-orange hair and blue-green skin. She was elf-like in stature, meaning that she was small and dainty, agile and quick. Her huge pointy ears(think Piccolo), nearly as sensitive as Celeria's, poked out through her hair.
"Could be because me phone just caused me to go half deaf. I keep meaning to fix it." Celeria said as she continued to clean up the table.
"You'd think they'd have robots or something to do that," Becky said. "So how many guests *did* you have over?" She teased.
"Shaddup." Celeria shot, then grinned. "One thing ki *is* good for." She sped around the kitchen, a whirlwind to Becky's eyes, and in minutes the Kitchen was spotless.
"Oh, sure, if you wanna do it the easy way..." Becky grumbled as Celeria came screeching to a halt in front of the screen. She smiled as Becky's eyes went wide.
"What? Why are you staring? You've seen me do that before." Becky continued to gape.
"No, no, it's... um... Celeria, I suggest you find a mirror."
************
Was that a good cliffhanger, or do you all know what's gonna happen? Ah, in any case, I have a few apologies to make. First- I apologize For taking so long to post this. Second- I apologize for all the scientific crap, when I have no idea if its even remotely possible, plausible, or sane. Third- in a recent fic 'As All Hell Broke Loose', I said Gohan went mystic. I totally botched this transformation; I had no idea what kind of power was involved. If you'd like a professional description, I suggest you read Mike Steele's 'Dragon War'. Ok, thats all. Have a nice day. Toodles ^.^
~mysticGohan33~
Disclaimer- I don't own DBZ, but I do own Celeria!! (Finally, a not-so-evil charachter I can lay claim too!) don't sue, thank you ^.^
Note- Well not much to say aside from that the flashbacks are continuing. enjoy. once again, ******** means flashback mode.
************ (look, I used them right away!)
The scene is a palace, and we are looking into what is obviously the King's room. The king himself lays on his bed. He is looking rather old and withered and the effects of his disease are apparent. He is speaking to his gaurds.
"If I die now, you must appoint a worthy citizen to take my place," King Maurizio said hoarsly. "I did not excpect the end to approach so soon, though I was well aware of my old age," He gave a dry crackling laugh. One of the gaurds smiled and bent down next to him.
"Do not worry yourself. We have the best scientists working on a cure." He said reassuringly. Maurizio laughed again, but was interrupted by a fit of harsh coughing, in which a small amount of blood was spat up. When it cleared, he said
"Dear Nicodemus, when will you learn that even in a community built on science, it is not always the answer? I have to die sometime, might as well make it dramatic!" He laughed once more, determined to be ever cheerful. "But I do wish I'd had time to seek out a new ruler. You realize it will be up to you two and my chancellor." He added as an afterthought. Nicodemus nodded and stood again. There was a knock at the door and the other gaurd went to answer it.
"Not so slow, Osgood, you walk as if death was on your back!" The king rasped at the gloomier of the two gaurds. Osgood opened the door and a young man with a bright burst of red hair walked in solemnly.
"Good news, My King," He said quietly. "I have discovered this antidote, and you shall be healed within days of drinking it." He held up a small bottle containing a blue liquid.
"Well! That certainly was quick! Wonderful my boy! What is your name now?" The king asked, struggling to sit up.
"Abayomi, sir. I must insist that you drink this immediately!" He urged.
"No rush! It's not like I'm dying or anything!" The king exclaimed. Abayomi wondered breifly if His Highness had lost his mind, then handed over the bottle.
"Wait!" Osgood said, rushing to the king's side. "We should inspect it before you drink it!"
"Oh come on, I really can't get much worse than this. You really have a bad habit of thinking the worst of people. You should be more like Nicodemus here!" Nicodemus and Osgood both turned red and the king drank his antidote. "See, its not- ACK! I'm dying!" The King grasped his chest and fainted in the bed. The gaurds and Abayomi all rushed to his side though there wasn't anything to be done. The king looked quite dead. Unitl he opened his eyes and burst out laughing.
"HA! Gotcha! You should have seen the looks on your faces!" Maurizio erupted into laughter as Abayomi, Nicodemus, and Osgood sweatdropped.
**************
"No, it wasn't me who found the cure," Celeria told her avid audiance. "In fact, Abayomi was my worst rival. But it didn't really matter now; The King was cured and I was preparing to come back to Earth. But Someone must really hate me for again my plans were foiled. The King grew ill once more with the same disease- ten times worse. Abayomi's cure no longer worked and we were all dispatched again to discover a new one."
***************
The Scene- Celeria's laboratory once again.
She searched frantically, night and day for the cause of the disease. Find the cause, and you've found the cure. Hopefully. The King's old age made him far more vulnerable to this disease than anyone younger than him. In fact, the disease was contagious, but only to people in the same age range. It was lucky that the King's gaurds were all young, otherwise the castle would be completely defenseless. Very lucky. This disease was incredibly bizzare. She'd never before heard of one that targeted its victims like this. In fact, if she magnified the viral strain enough under her microscope, she could tell by its charechteristcs that it seemed to be modeled specifically to the King's own genetics. Now that was definitely unheard of. If she didn't know better, she'd say that someone had designed this specifically for him. Now there was a theory worth investigating...
***************
"And so I checked it out. It took an extenisive amount of research and experiments, but I finally figured out that no like virus had ever been contracted, and it was definitely synthetic. Now, no one else had come up with a cure, so I put off the mystery of the cause for a while to find it."
****************
All of her notes pointed to one thing- the disease was incurable at this stage. There was also her old assertion- this disease might never have happened but for the King's old age. The only way to get rid of it would have to be for the king to stop aging, or to grow younger. Breifly she wondered if she could stimulate cells and DNA strands to work backwards. But only breifly- then she began experimenting. Soon, she found that she could stimulate DNA under immense heat and pressure, but only for a few seconds before it combusted entirely. In those few seconds, the strands broke their regulating patterns and began a sporadic dance under her microscope, intertwining in ways that went against all laws of nature until they disentegrated. No doubt other scientists had done this, but how could she continue to do this? What she wanted to do was stop the king from ageing, and, if possible make him younger. It was a far off and unrealistic goal, but that was what accentuated Celeria's career.
She tried decreasing the heat and pressure, but still it didn't have the right affect that she was aiming for. She needed the strains to undevelop. after many, many, *many* experiments, she finally began to get it right. The strands stayed together longer, and seemed to shrink. But after a few moments they went back to normal. So Celeria started playing with chemicals.
Many explosions, fires, and clouds of odd colored smoke later, Celeria was inching closer to the answer. In fact, by the time the next explosion threw her against the door, she believed she had gotten it right! The DNA went to the 'youth' stage and remained there. Now all that was neccessary was to test it. She looked around. Fresh out of Cneuts. That was ok, she really didn't like using the little things for experiments anyway.
"Well, here goes nothing. Down the hatch." She gulped down the freezing hot green liquid she had been experimenting with and waited for the results.
****************
"WHAT?" Most of the present Z senshi gaped at her. "You just drank an experimental substance? Without testing it?!" Bulma didn't know whether to be shocked, impressed, or frightened at this amazing statement.
"Yeah, I usually do. I know it's not safe, but I usually run tests before I do. It's not like I use poison."
"Usually run tests?" Bulma sank into a chair.
"What do you mean you don't use poison? Intense heat and pressure, and who knows what else went into that concoction. What's more, it wasn't your DNA you were testing! It could have had far reaching effects that could have damaged your entire body! In fact, are you sure your brain wasn't damaged?" Gohan was with Bulma on this one. It was rather dangerous experimenting on yourself, renowned scientist or no.
"Leave her alone, guys," Goku said easily. "She's obviously okay. Let her finish the story."
"Thank you, Goku." Celeria said. "Anyway, the results *were* somewhat hazardous..."
*****************
Almost immediately the concoction took effect. Celeria convulsed in pain as the searing liquid burned its way through her body. She squeezed her eyes shut so tight tears forced their way out, but she didn't scream. She didn't think she could; every organ, nerve, and membrane was screaming and writhing in protest to this torture. And then, long, agonizing seconds later, it stopped. In its place was a dull throbbing resounding through her body. Cautiously, slowly, she stood. Something was definitely happening, but it was unlike anyhting she had ever felt before. Rummageing around in a sort of trance, she found a broom and began to sweep up the shattered glass that had once been the vial containing the serum. She had dropped it when the pain started and had probably cut herself, but she didn't care about that right now. She was confused, but couldn't understand why. The liquid hadn't done anything but cause her a great deal of pain. Oh well, so much for that experiment.
Celeria deposited the shards in her over-flowing trash can, scattering them on the floor again, but not seeming to notice. She sat back down at her desk, cradling her head in her hands. Her body still pulsed. Perhaps she was just hungry. Checking her watch, she was shocked to find it was noon. She had been in her lab almost 24 hours without a break. Now why didn't her Saiyan hunger gene kick in earlier? She got up and stepped out of her lab into the unreasonably bright sunlight. Making her way across the lawn and into her main building, she marveled at the immense noise her stomache was making now that she realized she was starving.
An hour later the remains of a 'small' lunch graced the table in Celeria's kitchen. She leaned back in her chair, surveying the damage and groaned. This was going to take forever to clean up. As she began attacking the mess, a shrill ringging hit her ears. She flung her hands up and groaned, her sensitive ears doubling the noise.
"ANSWER!" She hollered at the telephone. A video screen promptly hovered over to her as an image came into focus. She glared at it as she fondeled her aching ears. "Becky." She nearly hissed.
"You look disrought." Becky said. Becky was one of Celeria's friends from the Acadamy, and also one of the scientists working on the cure. She had carrot-orange hair and blue-green skin. She was elf-like in stature, meaning that she was small and dainty, agile and quick. Her huge pointy ears(think Piccolo), nearly as sensitive as Celeria's, poked out through her hair.
"Could be because me phone just caused me to go half deaf. I keep meaning to fix it." Celeria said as she continued to clean up the table.
"You'd think they'd have robots or something to do that," Becky said. "So how many guests *did* you have over?" She teased.
"Shaddup." Celeria shot, then grinned. "One thing ki *is* good for." She sped around the kitchen, a whirlwind to Becky's eyes, and in minutes the Kitchen was spotless.
"Oh, sure, if you wanna do it the easy way..." Becky grumbled as Celeria came screeching to a halt in front of the screen. She smiled as Becky's eyes went wide.
"What? Why are you staring? You've seen me do that before." Becky continued to gape.
"No, no, it's... um... Celeria, I suggest you find a mirror."
************
Was that a good cliffhanger, or do you all know what's gonna happen? Ah, in any case, I have a few apologies to make. First- I apologize For taking so long to post this. Second- I apologize for all the scientific crap, when I have no idea if its even remotely possible, plausible, or sane. Third- in a recent fic 'As All Hell Broke Loose', I said Gohan went mystic. I totally botched this transformation; I had no idea what kind of power was involved. If you'd like a professional description, I suggest you read Mike Steele's 'Dragon War'. Ok, thats all. Have a nice day. Toodles ^.^
~mysticGohan33~