Chapter2
They were all in a small room now. The walls we decorated with Egyptian-like drawings. There were a lot of alien drawings as well. There was one small door.
Nafta opened it. A very long passage. Everybody walked through it. It was very dark in there. After ten minutes they reached the other side. Everybody gasped when they came out. Right foe them there was a gigantic black void, with a complete network of corridors floating there. It looked like a maze. Nobody could see its end. And the corridors wee moving slowly. Sometimes one corridor broke and reconnected with another one. The gaze was changing all the time. Some corridors seemed to be mathematical wrong. The dimensions weren't right, like a drawing of Escher. Some stairs were upside down. There we several portals, and a dark blue mist filled it. "This place distorts reality," Nafta whispered. "What should we do now?" Piccolo asked. "I'm going in it!" Trunks said, and walked forward. Goten followed him. There was a portal at the end of the corridor. They both went through it at the same time. They re-appeared at another portal. The rest followed.
A weird thing happened as they went through the portal. Everybody appeared at another portal. They wee all separated now. Vegeta tried to fly to Trunks, but when he jumped off the corridor, he noticed he somehow couldn't. He fell down and landed on a corridor beneath him. "Great what to do now!" "Try to get back to the point where we began!"
Everybody started walking, but they didn't get near the start. They got lost.
Soon, Trunks and Goten could see no one of the others anymore. They passed through the portals at the same time, so they would appear at the same portal. It looked unending. Where should they go? After three hours of walking Trunks sat down. "Man, I don't know what to do. We keep walking but we don't get at anywhere!" Goten sighed and looked away. He saw a golden twinkle. "Trunks! There is something there! Let's try to walk that way!" Trunks got up. "Do you really think we will get there?" "We can try. It's better than sitting down and do nothing."
They started walking again. This time there seemed to be no portals or corridors that broke off and moved away. The passage led them right to the place. There was a small golden door.
They both cheered loudly and walked to it. The door automatically slid open. Trunks and Goten walked through it. They entered a large golden chamber. There was nothing in it and nothing on the walls. It was all empty. There was a door at the other side of the room. They walked to it. It slid open. And at the other side there was...the golden chamber. "What?" The door closed. Goten ran back to the other side and walked through the door. The door in front of Trunks also opened. And there was Goten, standing right before his nose. "But...but...how can this be? I went through the door on the other side!" "We are trapped in here! Great!"
In the meantime just walked randomly, not knowing where to go. But he didn't give up. 'Where's a start, there must be an end' he thought and stepped through another portal. He stepped right before Piccolo's nose, who wanted to enter the portal Goku just came out. "Goku!" "Piccolo!" "Finally found someone else. Any idea where we have to go?" "I don't know. I just keep walking, maybe it'll get me anywhere." Piccolo sighed. "Let's stay together. When we'll have to go through a portal, we'll do it at the same time. I saw Trunks and Goten doing that, than we'll appear at the same portal." "That's ok."
Piccolo and Goku kept walking for another two hours, without seeing any real change in their environment. When they were about to stop walking, Piccolo saw a portal that was different from the rest. Instead of blue clouds in it, the clouds were gold. They passed through it and appeared right before a huge door, made of yellow stone. Around the door were several golden statues of snakes. Piccolo and Goku pushed the door open and entered.
They appeared in a huge desert. This didn't look like a room; this was just outside. Goku looked behind him. There was no wall. The door closed and disappeared. "Now we can't go back!" Piccolo shrugged his shoulders. "Let's explore this waste. Maybe we'll find something that might help us to find the sword or to get out of here." "I already see something in the distance. I hope it isn't a mirage." "There's only one way to find out. Let's go there!"
In this desert, Piccolo and Goku were able to fly. Within ten minutes they reached the object. It was a large temple, and it looked like an Aztecan temple. The whole building was made of white and yellow stone, and a lot of gold. On the stairs in front of the temple several snake like creatures were sleeping. They all were larger than Goku & Piccolo and had a light brown color. Unlike normal snakes, they had two long, thin, but still strong looking arms, and large claws. The back of their heads looked like cobras. Their faces were the strangest. They had human-like faces. Their nose was almost flat, and their tongues were like normal snakes, their eyes were a mixture of humans and snakes, but they were still very human looking.
As Piccolo and Goku came near, the snakes awoke. They all had a surprised, and sometimes a frightened expression on their faces. On slowly came nearer. He was smaller than the rest. He had a blue dot on the top of his head. He started speaking with a lisping voice.
"Sirsss musstn't come here. Zisss Plassse isss cursssed. Do not enter! For your own ssssake!" "What could happen to us here? What kind of curse rests on this place?" "Lotssss of sssssnakes here, sssire. You touch ssssnake you become sssnake, sssire. Happened to me onssssse ssssire. I didn't lissssten I became ssssnake ssssire." "And if w avoid the snakes?" "Zzze guardssssnakesss will touch you ssssire. They cursssse you. You ssssnake, you have to sssstay here, forever, ssssire." "Can't you flee?" "No ssssire. Look." The snake crawled forwards and stopped. He moved his hand. An energy field became visible when he touched it. "You can walk through it, ssssire. But ssssnakesss can't." A tear rolled down his face. "Can't we help you escape?" "No, sssire." "I feel very sorry for you." With these words Goku put his hand on the snake's shoulder, without a moment of thought. "Sssssire!" "Goku!" Goku pulled his hand back, realizing what he had done. The snake started to change. Within several seconds he was human again. He was a small man, with blue hair. He looked very sad. "You have token the curse off me, but you are cursed now sire." "But I don't see any change!" "It will take about an hour to change, sire." Right with these words Goku grabbed his mouth and yelled. "My fwonge!" He opened his mouth. His tongue was smaller now and the end of it ha split into two, like a snakes tongue. Piccolo looked at it in horror. "Let's get away, maybe we can still do it now!" The man shook his head sadly. "No. He started changing already, now the energy field will stop him. Piccolo was getting nervous "Is there anything we can do to stop it! To relieve the curse! To escape! Anything!" The man shook his head again. "Nothing, sir." "But if anyone touches him, the curse will be gone right?" "Only if the person touches him to help him in any way, like he did with me."
Goku's eyes started to change now too, and his nose became flatter. "Piccolo, go. You can't help me. Go on an find a way out." "What? Are you nuts?" "I'm serious. I don't want you to be stuck here. In the meanwhile I can try to find a way to escape, or to become normal. Maybe there's something in the temple. Or maybe you can find Nafta. Maybe that he can help relieving the curse. Staying here doesn't help. Please go. You are only in danger here. Piccolo grinded. "I'll be back as soon as possible." "Good."
Piccolo stayed for a little while with Goku. Goku's legs became a tail, his skin became darker. His hands were claws. The transforming hurt. Sometimes Goku moaned. His skin seemed to be too large and became transparent. After a while it began to tear. Goku shed the skin off. He was a snake now, like the others, with a black dot on his head. Piccolo closed his eyes. He couldn't see Goku like this. "I'll be back soon." "I won't go far away. I'll see you then." Piccolo walked away.
After hours of walking Bulma sat down. She had been walking for a very long time. She hadn't seen anyone yet and her feet hurt. She cried. "I'm all alone! I'll die here!" She lied down and kept crying. "Well, lying own and crying won't help much." Bulma opened her eyes. "Vegeta?" "Get up." Bulma did so. "I'm going to find a way out this maze. I have been trough worse. Come on, keep walking!" Bulma sighed. Her feed still hurt but she walked after Vegeta. "I have seen something near. We should be there in five minutes." "Really?" "If you didn't see that you should buy glasses."
Vegeta was right. It was a door, made of metal. It slid open. Bulma and Vegeta entered.
They were in a room that looked like a gigantic factory hall. It was very modern, but it looked like it had been deserted for years. Probably it was. Some machines still worked and produced a soft humming sound. The door closed. Vegeta tried to open it, but it remained closed. "We are locked in here." "Doesn't matter. There must be another way out here. We must try to find the control room. I want to know if thee are any people here, what this factory produces, and there will probable be a map there. Let's search."
Behind the next door there was another hall, with several assembly lines. There were several figures behind it, but when thy came closer, thy saw the figures were skeletons, with their clothes still on. There were several robots too still moving. Bulma became pale. "What has happened to these people? I want to get out of here!" "Stay calm! W can't go back. Let's find the control room, like you said." Bulma just nodded and walked.
But Bulma and Vegeta didn't find a control room. After every door there was a new factory hall. This was just another maze. There was no living being in there, only skeletons and robots.
Bulma sat down. "I can't go any further anymore. My feet. I'm sorry, but I really can't." Vegeta growled and sat down too. Bulma looked at her feet. She had several blisters. One of them was bleeding. "Come on", Vegeta said, "We have to keep moving." "Sorry, but I really can't! My ft are damaged and I'm exhausted!" Vegeta picked her up. "Sit still so I can keep moving. I don't want to waste any time."
Vegeta entered the next hall. "Vegeta, stop!" "What now?" "This is the first hall! Look!" Vegeta saw the door to the maze. "What? But in every hall except this one thee are two doors. One to the next hall and one to the previous. Only this one has three one door to the maze. So we can do nothing but move in circles. W can't even go back to the maze, and there is no control room. Great!" Bulma sighed. She had no idea what to do.
Trunks and Goten were sitting in the golden chamber. They had been thinking for a solution for a long time. It didn't help. Trunks anger grew. "W can't just sit and die in here! Blasted doors!" H charged, turned SSJ and launched an attack to the door. "Trunks don't do! That's just a waste of your energy!" Trunks didn't listen. The door cracked and exploded. Trunks could see the chamber where they were sitting in he could even see themselves, from behind. He saw himself shooting through a door and behind that door the chamber again, with himself etc, etc. Trunks dodged for his Ki-blast coming from behind but kept shooting through the door. All the Ki-blasts formed one large beam. "This is impossible! This rally distorts reality, like Nafta said!" Goten cried. Trunks kept shooting. The walls started to crack, everything shivered. A huge explosion followed, with a bright flash. Goten and Trunks closed their eyes. When they opened them, they saw that a black void filled the room behind the remains of the door. Slowly it changed. Another room appeared. It was also gold, but larger than the previous room, decorated, and there was furniture, all in the Louis XIV style. In the corner of the camber, a man with clothes in the same style as the room played on a harpsichord. Someone was dancing, slowly. He held a mask of a sun before his face. They both didn't notice when Trunks and Goten entered the room. The man behind the piano was weird. He was humanoid, but his skin and hairs were green. The dancing man was even weirder. He had long tail, a white skin, and a large head. "Hey Goten, he looks like Furiza!" With these words the two persons stopped. The changeling started to scream. "Au secours, au secours! intruses!" "What? What is he trying to say?" The green man hind the harpsichord stood up. "Ne vous faites pas de souci, mon roi. Je vous protégerais contre ces savages!" "Hey, we are ok!" The screams of Trunks didn't help. The man jumped to them and tried to hit them. Trunks and Goten could avoid him easily. The changeling kept screaming hysterically. Trunks opened another door and ran away. Goten followed him.
The next place was a city. It wasn't one like they were used to. It was more like one of a few hundreds years ago. It was night. Behind them there was an enormous church. Trunks gazed at it. "I have seen this building before, on a picture. Its the Notre Dame!" "Paris?" "I think so." "sshhht! There are people coming! Let's hide!" They hid in the shadows of the portal of the Notre Dame. A group of five people walked in their direction. On of them was talking to the other four. "The king is attacked by two boys. One had purple hair; the other had spiky black hair. Find them and bring them to me!" "Yes sir!" Trunks and Goten could see some of the other men now. They wore musketeer uniforms. One was very short, green and had four eyes. The second had long white hair and an orange skin. Trunks couldn't se the others, but he already knew where he was dealing with. "Hey Goten, they look like the Ginyuu force. My father once described them to me. I recognize them." He whispered. "Now you mention it." The captain turned his had around. "Did anyone whisper something?" They all shook their heads. "Strange, I could have sworn..." He saw Trunks and Goten hiding. "Quelle horreur!" Trunks and Goten started to run. "Follow them!" Trunks and Goten were a lot faster, but the Ginyuu's didn't give up.
Trunks and Goten ran into a small alley, but it came to a dead end. "Great, what now!" "Let's fight!" The ginyuu's walked slowly into the alley, grinning. "You'd better surrender, boys. There's no way out." Goten looked behind him. There was a small door, made of gold, in that wall. But a minute ago it wasn't there! In this place, all kinds of strange things could happen. He grabbed Trunks arm, opened the door, entered the next room and shut the door. It disappeared. The Ginyuu's couldn't follow them anymore.
Near the temple, Goku tried to break trough the energy field, but he failed. The other snakes looked at him, but didn't do anything. After on hour one of them crawled to him. "You sssshoulden't zry that. It won'tz work. Every new sssnake triez zat. No on can get tzrough it." Goku sighed. "Isn't there ANY other way I can leave or relieve the curse?" The snake shook his head. "If zere wasss anyzing, we would have zried it." Goku looked at the temple. Maybe there was something inside. He crawled to the entrance. The temple was beautiful inside. The walls were made of white stone, and decorated with gold. There were a few other snakes around. They didn't pay attention to him. Goku crawled through the halls and chambers. Thy all looked the same. Goku wondered who could have build such a place, and why. Who would curse a temple to change people into snakes? Goku crawled into a huge golden room. There were five hug statues of snakes. A golden snake, silver, a blue, a red and a black snake. They were holding a kind of staff. In the roof of the room there was a small hole. A small beam of sunlight hit the floor. It slowly moved. Several snakes looked at it, very concentrated. Goku wondered what they were doing. "Hey what'ssss going on here?" "Sssssht! Look and you'll ssssee." Goku looked. The beam moved to the center of the room. It hit the staff. The staff started to glow. A bam of golden light from the staff hit the floor. The ground beneath the staff started to melt and formed a small pool. A silver glowing pool. The snakes smiled. "What'ssss zat?" "Ze temple zaysss it'sss a portal to beyond." "A way out!" "No, don't do zat! No one would survive it." "Sssorry, but I have to help friendssss. I can't ssstay here." Goku crawled to the pool and jumped into it. It was cold, like ice. Goku couldn't breath. He tried to get to the surface, but no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't get there. Goku dived. He broke through the bottom and fell on stones.
Piccolo wandered through the desert for hours. It was very warm, and he was thirsty. Piccolo fell down. He couldn't get up anymore and crawled. He tried to get to a group trees. There had to be water. He had seen it on a hilltop. But now he realized it had to be a mirage. He cursed, and slowly fainted.
Some time later, Piccolo didn't know how much, he woke up. A cat was looking at him. A moment after that, Piccolo saw it was a man with a cat-like face. "What happened?" "We found you in the desert, sir. We brought you to our village, in the oasis. It's the first time a person managed to get this far into this desert. But you were barely alive." "I need to get help for my friend." "Is he in the desert too?" "In a temple." "The temple of snakes?" "There were a lot of snakes there. My friend also changed into a snake." "There is no hope for him. The temple is a restricted area. No snake can get out there. Long time ago we have tried to help them, but the only result was that many of our people got cursed." "But I have to help him!" "Sorry. We don't even know what's the power behind the curse. If we knew that, we could help. But we didn't find anything." Piccolo got up. "I have to go on. I promised I would find help." "Mmm. I suggest you join our caravan. Walking alone in a desert is dangerous. Our caravan leads to one of the largest cities in this desert. If there is any solution, you will find it there." "Thanks, but I prefer to travel alone. But I would like to take some water with me. It's all I need." "Do you think that's a wise thing to do?" "Yes." The cat man sighed and walked away.
Piccolo got up and looked outside. He was in the oasis now. More cat people were walking around. The cat man walked to him with a few bottles of water. "Here you are. Ya know what I think? You are nuts. It must have been the sun. But good luck anyway. And if you find a way to get your friend out, please let us know. We have been trying to get our people out for years." "I will." "And keep flying in the direction where the sun sets." "I will."
Piccolo flew away. He had to be as fast as possible. Maybe he could get some info about the pyramid and the maze also.
The flight didn't take such a long while as piccolo expected. After three hours he could see a city in the distance. After ten more minutes he landed on a market of the large and colorful city.
Vegeta and Bulma had been sitting in the hall for an hour. Sometimes Vegeta got up and tried to open the door, but he was unsuccessful. He growled. After having waited so long, Bulma got up and started examining the door. "Where are you doing that for? I couldn't open that thing, and I bet you also can't." "Mmm. Maybe. I just take a good look at it." "It looks like a normal factory door to me." Bulma sighed and leaned on it. "What to do now?"
Suddenly, the door slid open and Bulma fell. "Auch!" Vegeta stared at the entrance. This wasn't the maze, but something else! He walked into it. The door closed. Vegeta didn't care. It looked like an old mansion. It had been deserted for years. Bulma got up and looked around. "This place gives me the creeps." "Let's look around in this place." A bat flew around and screeched at them. Like he was laughing. Vegeta carefully opened another door. A large room. Some old paintings on the walls of creatures. No furniture. A man was standing in the middle of the room. His eyes were closed. He didn't move when they came in. "oops. Sorry we came in. Is there a way out?" The man still didn't move. "Hello?" Bulma waved her hand before his eyes. He still didn't move. "Guess he won't react. Let's find the way out by our selves." They walked away, but before they had reached the door it slammed before their noses. Vegeta turned around. The man had opened his eyes. They were red, like blood. His skin had become paler, almost white. "You won't leave." Vegeta just smiled. "If I were you, I wouldn't be so sure." "If I were you, I would run, very hard." Vegeta laughed. The man opened his mouth. He had two long sharp teeth. He growled. His face deformed. He looked like a mix of a man and a wolf. He howled. "Come my friends! Come, you all, and kill those who disturbed my rest! Kill them, drink their blood and torture their souls!" The house started to rumble. A black mist filled the room. "Yesss! Come my friends! Come! Come!" Wolves, cats, bats and all kinds of horrific unknown creatures ran from the mist and attacked. Bulma hid behind Vegeta. Vegeta launched several bolts, beams and other attacks. The man attacked them too. Vegeta shot a beam right through his belly. The man didn't fall. "You can't kill me. I am immortal! Just surrender yourself. You have no choice!" "NO!" The man gestured another group of creatures to attack. Vegeta blasted them away. But while doing that he didn't notice the man sneaked away. He grabbed Bulma and threw her away. A wolf bit her in her leg. Bulma screamed. Vegeta wanted to help her, but the man grabbed his neck and bit him there. Vegeta was stunned. After a few seconds he recovered. He grabbed the teeth with one had and broke them. The man roared. "You idiot. Let me finish my job. Only in this way you will have a peace full after life! Other wise an eternal torture will curse you!" "I'm getting used to curses." Vegeta ran to Bulma, blasted the wolf, picked her up and ran away. He saw a window, smashed it, and flew away.
After ten minutes, he landed. Bulma looked at the wound at her leg. She was crying of pain. The wound didn't look too good. Vegeta tried to orientate. They were in a dark forest. It was night, and the sky was covered with clouds. All the trees around them were black, probably dead. It looked like some kind of cheap horror movie. He was dizzy and sat down. His neck hurt. "Vegeta, you look pale." "That freak bit me. I must have lost quite some blood. How is your leg?" "I don't think I'll be able to walk." Bulma ripped her shirt and bandaged her leg. Vegeta lied down. He was feeling worse every minute. he closed his eyes. Bulma put her hand on his fore head. "You are cold." Vegeta didn't answer. He had difficulties breathing. "Vegeta?" Vegeta opened his eyes widely and looked at the sky. He moaned. His body started to shake. Bulma wrapped her arms around him. "Vegeta! Fight it! Please!" Vegeta opened his mouth, but couldn't scream. He couldn't even breathe anymore. The shaking stopped. His eyes and mouth closed.
Bulma feared the worst. She tried to find a hart beat, but she found none. She tried a hart massage, but it didn't help. She cried. She looked up when she heard footsteps. Two red eyes stared at her. "Aww, what a pity. He's dead. Hehehe." Bulma didn't even try to get up. She wouldn't even be able to run. She just hoped it would be over quickly. The man bowed to bite her neck. Someone grabbed his head. It was Vegeta. "Keep your dirty hand off her." The man wasn't even surprised a bit. "Ah, you finally.... 'awoke'." Vegeta growled and got up, although he barely seemed to have some energy left. His face was almost white, but his eyes were very dark. The man smirked. "If I were you I would put an end to your life. Or should I say...non-life? Whatever, I'll be glad to help you." He grabbed a bottle. Some drops of liquid landed on Vegeta's face. Vegeta yelled. He had burn marks. Bulma leapt forward and grabbed the bottle. The man didn't expect it. Bulma threw the content to him. The effect was disastrous. The man started to burn. He yelled. After a minute he stopped and fell. Bulma and Vegeta stared at his remains. Bulma looked at the bottle and sniffed. "No smell. No taste either. Just water? Strange...I can just touch it without getting any burn marks." She looked at some other bottles the man dropped. They all had the same content. A red liquid. Vegeta grabbed one bottle too. He opened and started to drink. "Vegeta! That's no water! That's blood!" Vegeta didn't listen. He emptied the bottle in one time. Bulma looked at him, shocked. Vegeta's face wasn't so pale anymore. He looked normally now. But Bulma could swear she saw a red glow in his eyes. "You are the same as he was, aren't you?" Vegeta nodded.
Nafta didn't walk randomly
