The night was calm, quiet, in this little village lots in the woods. Every inhabitant was asleep and only the soft sound of leaves brushed by a gentle wind kept the silence away. That and the low growling of a remote motor, that quickly turned into a loud noise as the engine came nearer and nearer of the village, to finally go through it within a few minutes. A few persons woke up, but the vehicle was already gone and the uproar as well. Thus, the awakened sleepers returned to their previous occupation, grumbling against selfish travellers.
A little moment after its passage in that place, the motorbike immobilized and the two passengers jumped onto the ground, obviously upset.
- I told you to not go into this forest! shouted the man, tight fists on his hips.
- And I told you to shut up! harshly replied the woman, face up to the sky to read the map of stars.
- I must go to Kame House before those twenty four hours are gone and you're making me lose my time!
- I thought we had an agreement, kid.
She frowned at him and he looked away, furious to not find words to say back. If she could at least stop calling him kid!
- I want to see my sister first, he finally said.
- How cute. You'll have plenty of time once we'll be done with our plan, believe me. Now, back onto the moto kid, I know where to go.
Muttering a few words for himself, the young man climbed behind the elder woman, put his arms around her waist, trying to touch her as least as possible. As she drove off on the small road, her long hair waved up into the youth's face and he let an angry curse be heard.
- Tie your hair up, woman!
- Could you calm down a little? We're going to fall again.
The nocturne silence of the forest was definitely broken, for both the vehicle and its passengers were being noisy, and not only a little.
The storm was raging, the heavy rain hitting the exterior walls furiously as the wind hurled itself at the small house. Marron, though it wasn't the first storm of her young life, was curled up in her bed, blanket tightly wrapped around herself as she listening to the nature's fury. She wasn't exactly scared, but the loud scream of lightning, the deafening growling of thunder, the howling of wind and the trembling of the house surely didn't give the proper conditions for a good night of rest.
Laid on Krilin and C-18's bed, Oob seemed asleep in moments where no light came into the small room, for he was not moving at all, except of course the regular and peaceful movement of his chest as he breathed slowly. But when a lightning struck, his eyes would be seen open, staring at the ceiling as the youth was deep in some thoughts of his, that couldn't disturb the harmonious lines of his face, but seemed to make him deaf to the storm and insensible to the frequent changes of light.
The alarm clock on the night table beside the bed indicated 10:47 when its numbers of red light vanished in the darkness, taken away with the electricity by the anger of the weather. As if this had sent a signal to Oob's spirit, he awoke from his deeply musing state and rose from the bed, now alert. Silently, as he always moved, he stepped out of the room and made his way to the other occupied room.
- We should fly. We'll never have time enough like this.
- I can't fly and I doubt you want to carry me, so shut up. Besides, only a little hour and we'll be there.
C-17 allowed himself to harbour suspicions about it, but stayed silent, mentally cursing strong willed women and his incapability to control this particular one. Whatever way he thought of to have the upper hand, she managed to evade his ruses in a way that seemed so easy to her, he began to believe she could read his mind.
Their motorbike was going speedily enough, but to the impetuous cyborg, it seemed to be only a little faster than a snail. Finally, he gave up and jumped from his seat, the arms still around the waist of his companion. He then flew, easily ten times faster than the abandoned vehicle, unable to hold back a smirk at his regained superiority. Lunch first gasped when the iron grasp around her body lifted her, but she only needed a few seconds to understand what was going on. Despite her dislike for the facts that she was held in a way she could just hate and that 'the kid' was now in control of the situation, she knew flying would only make things happen faster, which she was not to go against.
The whole house was filled with shivering darkness, but the penetrating eyes of Oob didn't need much light to see as well as in a sunny day. He stood in the doorway of Marron's bedroom, so quiet and so still that his shape was hardly distinguishable from the other shadows. His sharp look laid on the maiden's silhouette, who had changed her position since the previous description. She was now half sitting on her bed, the face turned toward the window, but from his location, Oob had a nice view of her soft profile. Her huge eyes were wide opened to lose as little as possible of the storm, her lips parted a little in typical sign of awe. She had untied her hair, which now fell freely on her shoulders like a fall of sweet honey. Because of the heat, her night clothing was reduced to the strict minimum of decency, which meant light underwears that, always in reason of the temperature, stuck to her skin so tightly one could believe she had none, had they not been blue.
A lightning stroke, nearer than the others, causing the young woman to have a little jump of surprise. Then, shaking her head at herself, she moved to lay down again on her bed, turning back to the window in the process. In the sake of purely coincidental hazards, a second lightning followed, almost as nigh as the first one, and revealed the presence of Oob. Caught off guard by the unexpected revelation and fully aware of her lack of cover, Marron did what girls do best in this kind of situations: she screamed with all the power of her lunges.
Trunks and Goten were planning on a movies-night-up, which basically consisted of watching all kind of random movies until the morning, without falling asleep. Every previous attempt at this had miserably failed, for Goten couldn't stay up long after two in the morning.
- This night I promise I won't sleep, Trunks!
- You better not, renting all those movies cost a lot! Not counting the pop-corn and all!
- But... You own the movies and anyway, your family is so rich!
- Principles, Goten, principles.
The dark haired man wasn't too sure what principles his friend was referring to, but the first movie was beginning, so he kept his question for later. But no actor had said his first line yet that the window broke apart, shattering over the rich carpet of Trunks' bedroom. The two hybrids quickly jumped onto their feet, ready to face any opponent that dared do such a deed, ready to fight anyone, but not ready to what they saw.
A young man, with long and straight black hair falling before his face, was landing on the floor, throwing the woman he had been carrying so far out of his arms and muttering some words to himself as brushing his clothes clean. The woman, whose abundant blond hair curly heavily on her back, wiped the blood that trickled from a cut on her cheek, most likely opened by a piece of glass as they both had flown through the window.
Goten and Trunks exchanged a quick look, making sure they were equally confused. They sensed the intruders' kis: the guy had none, not even the faintest hint of it, while the woman's one was too low to be part of a greater and hidden one.
- What do you want? finally asked the elder of the young men.
- The detector of Dragon Balls, said the woman, fists on her hips as if totally unimpressed. Quick.
- Hey, Trunks... Look...
With rather unsubtle moves of the chin, Goten pointed out an unusual detail about their unexpected visitors: the halos. Trunks blinked.
- What the... Hey! I know you! he exclaimed, staring at C-17. You're that guy... When I was a kid... You... Huh... I can't remember when we met...
- Give us the detector, coldly said the cyborg.
- Never!
- It's not even here, said Goten with a cunning smirk. Dad keeps it and...
Trunks' fist met the cheek of Goten, making the latter interrupt his speech. C-17 wrapped an arm around his partner, smirking.
- Your dad, huh? I bet it is Goku. Thanks for the information. Bye.
Carrying the blond and also smirking woman away, the cyborg departed by where he had come, soon disappearing in the gloomy night.
The two friends, unmoved yet, slowly turned their head to look at each other.
- Who were they? asked Trunks. That guy... I saw him before but I can't remember where!
- If they want the detector, we better call dad and warn him!
As soon as said, it was done. In fact, within a few minutes, Goku, Gohan, Vegeta and even Piccolo were alerted. Krilin couldn't been reached, the phone somehow ringing without being answered. But since it was unlikely for the two seekers to think the wanted object could be at Kame House, it didn't bother the other fighters too much. If anything, their friend and his wife could probably take care of the situation before they could arrive.
