A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates lately, things have been really busy; with end of school and finals. But now, I'm determined to start up all my unfinished stories and finish them!!! WOO-HOO! Despite my broken hand, I will conquer my procrastinating habit!
Gravity
Chapter 4: Part 1: Neko!
"Two pair." 17 stated, flashing his cards and setting them on the table.
"Full house." Pan grinned. Junior grinned from behind his camcorder, he was sitting crossed legged on the table, careful not knock anything off the table.
(~Beep~Beep~Beep~Beep~) Sounded from the overhead speakers.
"What's that?" Junior asked alarmed.
Pan jumped up off her seat and headed for the control room, 17 closely behind her and Junior still recording as they hurried the next level of the ship. "The alarm only sounds if there's another ship or an asteroid heading for the ship." Pan explained. "The only problem is that nothing is showing up on the radar."
"I see two possible explanations." 17 smirked. "One, there's something wrong with the radar or two, there's something wrong with the sensors."
"Or," Pan stressed, "There is a ship out there, it's just that they have cloaking capabilities. The sensors must've picked up the ship before it cloaked. Which explains why the radar is no longer picking it up."
"Or," 17 started again, "You're just being paranoid."
Pan sighed out of frustration. "There's nothing wrong this ship!" she exclaimed as she gently stroked the control panel.
"Downloading environmental viruses." The mechanical voice of the ship's computer announced monotonously. "5 seconds till completion."
"Shit, well I guess you were right." 17 said indifferently as he crossed his arms and watched Pan fight with the computer buttons.
"Mother fucking piece of shit!" Pan yelled, losing her temper.
"Virus Completed. Have a nice day."
"So, ah, what does this mean?" Junior asked after a few moments of complete silence. Pan had seated herself in the pilot's seat and gave him a distinguished look that meant, 'don't even ask.' She hit a large red button, 17 and Junior were thrown to the back of the room as the tiny little stars became streaks.
"Mind telling us when you're going to do that?" 17 demanded more than asked irritably.
"It means, I'm going bed. Auto pilot can manage." Pan stated before storming out of the control room.
"We really have to work on our communication!" 17 yelled after her angrily, then headed for his room. With in two seconds, Junior heard two distinct doors slamming at the same time.
"Well then, I think that concludes our first day in space. Think I'll go to bed now." Junior said into the camera while pointing it at his face before turning it off.
~On Earth~
Kathryn paced around her living room, daring a glance at Goten every so often out of the corner of her eye. After what seemed like an eternity to him, she spoke. "So," she began, her tone free of emotion, "that you're an alien from another planet?"
"Half, my mother's human. And my father was sent here as a baby, but he hit his head and forgot everything." Goten stated, half scared, half happy.
"Right." Kathryn stated sarcastically under her breath as she bit her fingernail. "And you want me to marry you?"
"That's the idea, right?"
"Hmm, okay…" she mumbled. "So, if what you're saying is true, for the past three years, all the while you never mentioned this at all, we've been living a lie?" she almost laughed.
"Well, not exactly."
"Okay…then, my answer is no." she said half regretfully, half almost happy. "Since we're getting things off our chest, I have a confession of my own. I'm from a distant planet, far, far away, a planet called…YEAH FUCKING RIGHT!"
"Kathryn."
"Don't Kathryn me, you low life piece of shit. I saw you with that blonde this morning on my way to work. What were you doing with her that early in the morning? I suppose she's an alien too, huh?" she laughed.
"No, she's not alien; half android though. We were together because her uncle, my niece and a family friend left on a journey this morning, and she was kind enough to buy me breakfast and give me advice. She's just a friend."
"Yeah right and I suppose that that journey was a trip into outer space." She said skeptically. Goten stayed silent, but nodded his head. "I can't believe this." She sighed as she rubbed her temples. "No Goten, I can't marry you. You're either a liar, an alien or a cheater and I can't marry either one. Now if you'd please leave, I'm running late."
"Running late for what?" Goten asked curiously, all the while admiring how quick feelings can change from love to hate.
"A date! When I saw you with her I was so upset that I finally said yes to Bryant!"
"The pimply mail room guy?!" Goten shouted.
"Please leave!"
"Fine!" Goten yelled as he slammed the door, nearly breaking the metal hinges.
~Somewhere in Space~
"Kitsune will be pleased." Kusai muttered sarcastically under his breath.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Niku inquired hotly. He stood up from the control panel and stalked across the room to his hammock.
"Right, like messing with their environmental functions is going to slow them down at all." Kusai replied as he took his own hammock on the other side of the room.
"Just chill alright, I have something else up my sleeve for tomorrow." Niku muttered surely.
"Like what?"
"If they don't get the dragonball, I know of a certain universal rarity floating around."
"I suppose you're not going to tell me, huh?"
"That's right." Niku stated in a tone that meant the conversation was past being over and turned to the wall.
~Back on Earth~
"What have I done?" Dende asked into the wind as the sunset.
~The Next day~
8:38 a.m.
Pan stepped out of the ship and looked around before the others joined her. She was dead tired, got little to none sleep the previous night. Junior kept asking her what the virus was going to do, if they're going to survive, what they're going to do tomorrow, and if she was really upset with 17; all she could tell him was that what happens, happens and they'll have to deal with it when if comes. She spent the rest of the night worrying about the virus and who downloaded it into their mainframe.
"Did you grab the radar?" Pan asked as 17 emerged from the ship. He flashed her fake grin and waved the small piece of metallic colored plastic before tossing it to Junior.
"It says the dragonball is due north, about five miles or so." Junior stated and threw it at Pan.
"Looks like we're heading North." Pan said to 17. "Junior, could you stay with the ship?"
"Why?!" Junior whined in a very kid-ish voice. "I wanna come too!"
Pan touched back down on, "Listen, there's no telling what may be over there and we need someone to stay with the ship. The same people who downloaded the virus last night may come back to sabotage our home away from home further."
"Umm, oh, okay." Junior said dumbstruck. "Wait!" he called after her as she started to take off again. "What do I do if they do comeback?"
"In the control room, there's a large blue button! Push it an you'll be able to talk to me!" she called down to him. 17 had already taken off about two minutes earlier and it seemed as if he was going a little under full speed. Once she caught up with him, he had already landed and engaged in conversation with a native. She checked the radar and sure enough, he had the dragonball they were after.
"Um, mind waiting for my next time." She snarled at 17, then turned her attention to the planet's native. "Hi, I'm Pan."
"I know, I've been expecting you." He grinned. Pan was taken aback by his last statement as she took in what he looked like. He had giant black scaled wings with a span of at least fifteen feet when stretched out completely. He was dressed in all black robes with black sandals. His skin was a puke-ish gray color, long black hair that reached his knees (Braided) and orange eyes. He had a long face and a crooked nose, his teeth were abnormally white and had one silverfish looking tooth. "My name is Titus." He greeted and extended his outstretched arm.
Pan accepted and looked oddly at 17 out of the corner of her eye then back to Titus. "Excuse me, I don't mean to sound rude, but how do you know us?"
Titus grinned and shifted the long silver staff he holding, "I'm the one who sent you the information on the Dragonballs. I must say, I'm shocked that you made it here so fast."
17 cleared his throat loudly, obviously to gain their attention. "Why did you chose Earth?"
"Heard some good things about it and figured there's got to be someone good enough to help me there." He said nonchalantly.
"May I inquire about that rather remarkable staff you're holding?" Pan asked, after noticing 17's scrutinizing look on his face.
"I thought you'd never ask." Titus stated in a rather melodramatic way. "This is my life." He said while looking at it as if seeing if for the first time. The staff was about as tall as he was, the silver coloring looked old and rusted and had a jewel the shape of an large teal opal fixed on the top. The top of the staff bent and turned around the opal as if protecting it from a thief or from falling out. The opal itself didn't seem solid, almost as if it were there was a force field keeping the contents inside from spilling everywhere. Pan couldn't tell whether it was a gas, liquid or pure light inside.
"This is my summoning staff. There's only two people in the entire universe who can summon the ultimate dragonballs. This staff possess the raw power of the dragon, it itself is a living spirit, the dragon, trapped inside the opal. Only when all seven dragonballs are united, and I mutter the scared words will the dragon be freed to grant you the five wishes." He explained. "Now, let's get down to business." He smiled as he motioned to a large wooden hut behind him.
~In the Spaceship~
Junior fumbled around with his camcorder for bit while ranting. "Leaving me behind to watch the ship. Who do they are? No one's gonna come around. I can fight and I can heal and I can be very useful in battle! Piccolo didn't train me for nothing, you know!" And so on.
(Scratch, scratch, scratch…)
He stopped suddenly, "What's that scratching noise?" he asked out loud. After running around the ship for a few minutes, he stopped when the noise stopped. "Must be my imagination."
~Back in the Hut~
"So what you're saying is that you're the only one who can summon the dragon and that we need to take you with us." Pan repeated.
"Why should we believe a word you're saying?" 17 asked skeptically.
"I'm not asking you to believe me, all I'm saying is the facts." Titus said once more. "I'm the one who sent you the information on the dragonballs, if you don't believe that, then you can go back home."
"Okay, if you sent the information, then we can contact home. That is, if what you're saying is true." Pan said.
"Okay." Titus shrugged and pulled out a tiny thing that resembled a laptop computer. He punched in a few keys and handed it to Pan. "I presume you can figure it out from here?"
"I assume all I have to do is lock on to the Capsule Corp. Satellites and I'll be able to talk to Bulma?"
"Yup."
"Alrighty." Pan sighed and typed in…'Bulma, this is Pan, if you're at your computer type back.'
'Pan? How are you doing this?' Bulma wrote back.
'We ran into a guy named Titus, he said he was the one who sent us the information.'
After a few minutes, Bulma wrote back. 'Nothing like an intergalactic chat line, huh? Well, what does he want?'
'He said that he's the only one who can summon the dragon.'
'Huh. I don't know what to tell you. He may be trying to trick you, then again he may be what he says. Do what you feel is right. How is everything?'
'Good so far.' Pan wrote back, then the screen went blank. "What happened? It just went blank."
Titus grabbed the computer, and shook it. "Battery went dead." He muttered to himself. "Listen, I don't expect to you hang on my every word, but I believe I can come in useful. I know where to get food and water and mechanical parts. I have connects in space stations and I'm also very plentiful with universal credits."
"Universal credits?" 17 repeated.
"Money that's good on many planets and space stations. Don't expect to get very far with out it."
"17, could I talk to you outside?" Pan asked as she stood from the table. 17 followed her outside and walked a few yards away from the hut so they wouldn't be overheard. "What do you think?"
"I don't know, he seems sincere, but there's something about him that I don't trust."
"I know, he looks like the angel of death, kind of gives me the creeps."
"I know what you mean." 17 said under his breath. "What choice do we have?"
"Yeah, he won't give us the dragonball, and apparently they'll be useless without him. Plus, he knows about a lot of the planets and their terrain."
"But, we already have more people on board than we're supposed to."
"True." Pan sighed. "He said he knew where to get food and water."
"And what if he turns on us and kills us in our sleep?"
"Then…I guess that would be that." Pan joked.
"Pan! Pan!" Junior's voice sounded out of a black box attached to her belt. "We have company! A large ship just landed about a mile from our ship and two kis are heading this way!"
"We're on our way! Hold tight!" Pan replied into the walkie-talkie.
"Hey! I just picked up another ship. Might be enemies." Titus hollored out of his hut, but Pan and 17 were already gone.
