"What the…" Bra swore when the sirens went off.  She had checked every single security system here before she came.  What happened?  This was extremely weird, but then again, she shouldn't have thought that it would be that easy.  After all, Rotaka was the sixth most powerful officer in Vegeta-sei; he would and could afford to protect his symbols of power with the best security that even she couldn't know about.  Bra cursed again at her own inattentiveness to the security and then considered her options.  She was not a fighter; she couldn't even produce a weak ki blast.  Fortunately, though, she had a hidden ki gun that was extremely powerful and could aim by itself.  And secondly, she could run.  Bra was the fastest runner in the entire kingdom, and no one could come close to her speed, not even her brother.  The only person who could outrun her was her best friend, who now resided in Earth and was too far away to do anything…
            So run Bra did.  She heard the frantic padding of feet behind her, and managed to round a corner before a glowing ball slammed into the wall right beside her, where she had been.  She swore softly and looked for a way out.  All the doors and windows had been locked because of the security system.  Bra quickly ducked into the closest room and took out the gun. 

"When there's no door, make one." She muttered as she aimed at the wall.  The gun buzzed faintly and a roar of ki filled the room.  The beam neatly and noiselessly blasted a door-sized hole into the marble wall and out into the air.  Bra noticed that the ground was quite a ways away from her "door" and she couldn't fly, so she quickly took out a capsule.  The soldiers came rushing in to her room, having sensed the ki with their scouters, but it was too late. 

            "See you boys!"  Bra called, blew them a kiss, then jumped out of the hole.  The guards watched astonished as she threw a capsule that exploded with a bang and released a hovering jet ski.  Bra hopped on, and with the groan of the engine, she was gone.  The soldiers shook themselves out of their shock and immediately went to follow her and call Vegeta's guards.

            Bra zoomed quickly, but she could see kis of the police following her closer than comfortable on the luminescent screen of the air ski-doo.  She had to get back to her little covert hiding place and drop off the seal and ring and lose the boys in the process.  Bra laughed at the fun she was having, wildly looping and tasting the air that was whipping against her face.  She took a sharp turn to the left and headed for her place, weaving in corkscrews around the blocks close to her factory hideout.  Suddenly, she came face to face with a flying soldier, who collided with her ride and went black immediately.  Although the officer was unconscious, Bra knew that others were following and cursed her own carelessness again for not looking at the ki screen while having fun.  She reminded herself that this was a mission, not a trip to the zoo.  In haste, she immediately turned into the dark alleyway of her garage and glided through the opening.  She quickly closed her jet ski and punched out a code into the door inside the garage.  The door creaked open, and she stepped inside and sighed from relief.  Nothing fancy, just all the files of the places she had stolen from and a tally of the seals she had gotten already.  Lying on the table were the five seals she had already stolen, gleaming from the dim overhead lights.  "Hello my preciousness," Bra whispered, fingering the seals as she placed the newest addition next to the others.  "They're so beautiful, I wonder how stingy Father could actually give these beautiful jewels away to those nasty officials."  Breathlessly, she lost herself in the rainbow of shining colors that displayed themselves in front of her as she ran her fingers lightly over the cold, hard stones.

            Suddenly, a huge noise of sirens and soldiers filled the air, very close to her.  Bra's eyes opened wide in shock, then fear.  They knew where she was!  She glanced around, blue eyes jumping from one place to the next, examining all the evidence of crimes around her.  She had to get rid of all the information immediately!

            Bra gathered all the files together as fast as she possibly could.  She tripped over her high heels in a panic, and papers went fluttering to the floor.  Bra swore silently and gathered all the papers back into a pile while trying to soothe her throbbing ankle.  The noise was approaching fast as the thunder up above.  When all the files were gathered rakishly into a pile, she blasted them with the ki gun, and only a few ashes trickled down, the remnants of the many palaces she had researched.  She wildly blasted the metal file cabinet, reducing it to a melted pool of chrome from which no fingerprints could be obtained.  The soldiers where right outside the door.  "Open up, in the name of King Vegeta! Or we'll come in by force!"

            Bra glanced around. Nothing else remaining except…the tally!  The most important information was perhaps the tally written in clear letters on the wall that was only visible through a special crystal light that shone on the stone.  Bra grabbed a rag lying around and strained to wipe off the lettering.  Only a little came off.  The soldiers were breaking down the door.

            In haste, Bra blew the crystal light out, the crystalline pieces shattering into delicate, tinkling fragments.  And Bra realized how stupid she had been to do that.  If the men found the pieces of the special crystal, they would know that something was hidden and would get another crystal to search the room…

            The metal door shook from a ki blast denting it from the outside.  The resonance shook the very core of Bra's bones.  She muttered some choice words and prepared to lift the seals off the table when a red blast broke through the door.  Bra panicked, shoved all the seals off the desk, and destroyed the desk while running into the dark to the hidden escape door.  Just as her head disappeared under the secret passage and she shut the hinge, the soldiers came pouring in and inspecting the place.  Bra's breathing went ragged as she contemplated what had happened.  This whole mission had been wrecked from the beginning.  And now…Bra's chin began to tremble and her quivering heart jumped into her throat, preventing her breathing at all.  All her hard work, all six seals and rings lost because of that cursed sixth seal.  She heard Nappa, head of her father's police core, barking at the soldiers who where investigating the place.  By the sound of it, they had found the seals and everything.  Bra choked back another scream of rage and tears, and tried to approach the situation with a clear head.  The only thing she could do now to go back to him, the one who had sent her on this fruitless mission, and ask for his forgiveness and another try at the seal.  The thought of him comforting her and kissing away her tears filled her mind, and she calmed down.  She strained and got up from her crumpled position on the floor, and smoothed out her clothes.  Everything would be all better once she got back to him, she assured herself as she slipped into the darkness.  Then why did she have this nagging little feeling that she would be in greater danger there than she was in now?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Trunks whipped down the road towards Earth, towards the border between the two kingdoms, strumming along with the rock song that was blaring from the radio of his sports car.  He grinned to himself as he watched the lights and colors flashing by him as he sped by them.  King Vegeta, wanting to keep good relations with Earth, had sent his son to Earth on a two-month diplomatic mission.  Trunks, who had not been to Earth for many years, was absolutely thrilled because he was given the chance to go back to Earth, alone with no adult supervision.  Of course, he was almost an adult himself, and he had trained so hard and long that Vegeta was sure he would not be harmed if he were attacked.  And besides, Trunks wanted to check out the new hot spots in the kingdom, and hopefully run into Pan again.  Trunks really missed all his friends that he made in Earth, especially Goten, but Pan was very…different.  Ever since he had left Earth by orders of his father, he had this dull ache that hadn't been there when Pan was around.  In his spare time, or when he daydreamed, he would just start thinking about Pan, what she'd look like, and whether she'd change.  She was by far the most interesting, intriguing girl he'd ever met, and that had kept them best of the best friends.  Even though Trunks had left when he was twelve and she was eight, he still remembered her being a very pretty girl, even though she didn't wear dresses (and didn't act all girly, for which Trunks was relieved, already having a sister that was crazily flirty even at that age) and loved to beat him and Goten up. 

And Goten…he was just as bad as Bra, if not worse.  He loved to fight, but he could get so worked up if a girl approached, especially a cute one, that he almost hyperventilated.  And Bra and he would practice on each other so frequently that Trunks wondered if they really did like each other…

Suddenly, his gleaming cell phone rang loudly, interrupting his thoughts.  He reached over and popped the top up so that he could speak.  Thank God for the creation of hands-free options, he thought as he propped the high tech phone in a specially made slot.  He brushed his fine lavender hair out of his eyes and gave a casual greeting. 

"Hey, what's up?" he queried, azule eyes fixed on the road ahead, expecting to here his mother or at worst, his father.  He was shocked to hear a mysterious voice reverberate through the phone.

"If you want to see your sister again, then you better come to here, or you will be sorry.  We have some business to attend to."  The line went dead.  Suddenly, instructions were transmitted to the GPS screen in the prince's car.  He studied it for a moment, stunned by the turn of events and what his sister had to do with it.  As he recognized the area of Vegeta-sei he was supposed to meet the voice in, his eyes narrowed with suspicion and fear.  He grabbed the wheel tore the car around, and sped back in the direction he came from.  The only thing left in the night was a glimpse of a speeding flash of violet-blue, and an echoing roar that filled the blue velvet sky.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

So, whaddya think?  Good? Bad? Ugly?  Any suggestions?  I like review, and if there are none, I won't write!!  Plain and simple!  By the way, I hope you missed me!! Long time no see, huh?  Anyhoo, write me something!  Anything!! Or I'll change the pairings!  More Pan, Goten, Trunks next time 'round!!  I'm getting to the good part I promise!  E-mail me at chrissy_gurl2000@hotmail.com.  See ya!!

Trupana