"We were never instructed on the whole plan," the man began, his voice quavering. Sashima took a good look at him for the first time and realized with great amusement that the sweat pouring from his brow was dampening his still-covered face, shrouded by the mask. It gave off quite an unpleasant odor to her sensitive sense of smell.

"Wait a minute," she broke in, striding over to the stocky man, who visibly flinched as she stood in front of him, hands planted on her hips, eying him with an air of curiosity. "I think it'll help your speech quite a bit if you remove this…" She reached over and pulled the black wool mask over his head, revealing a man of straw-colored hair and a dash of freckles. The most unusual trait of his slightly square face, though, was not the common features, but his nose, which looked as if it had been broken more than once, combined with a top lip that resembled a charred eraser.

"Bulma, the man's explanation can wait. Let's fix his other two companions up and free your parents first," Sashima declared, dropping the man onto a wooden chair and holding him securely. "Get the rope from your parents' bonds and tie him tightly. Then find whatever you can to hold the other two."

Nodding slowly, yet more than slightly awed by what she had just witnessed, Bulma at once complied with her orders. Dr. and Mrs. Briefs had sat through the entire ordeal, mouths wide open and observing the scene that played before them shocked, an almost dumbfounded expression on their faces.

"What-what just happened here?" inquired Mrs. Briefs, shakily rising from the floor and clutching onto one of Dr. Briefs' arms for support.

"I don't know myself dear, but I daresay there's not going to be much more trouble for tonight," Dr. Briefs replied, stepping around the shards of glass and straight for the telephone on Bulma's nightstand. "I'm going to call the police and get them here, now." He spoke as he pressed the number for 9-1-1.

Bulma warily made her way towards the shorter and stockier-built man, almost plastered into the wall from the impact of Sashima's one kick to the neck, as her mother flopped down onto the bed, grasping the hem of her robe in an agitated way. Lifting the unconscious man carefully from the dent in the wall amid the peeling plaster and wood, Bulma carefully bound both ankles and wrists, and did the same with the two other men.

"I can't believe someone would go to such lengths to steal Capsule Corporation's data and technology!" shouted Dr. Briefs, slamming the phone down after he'd finished the call. Puffing out his indignance, he seemed to go into another outburst when suddenly he paled. "There aren't any more of you, are there?"

"If you mean any more people like us three, then you're in luck, there's two more with us who can report back and come and rescue--"

"You mean these two weaklings?"

All three Briefs jumped at the sudden sound, and Sashima turned to find Vegeta in the doorway, dumping two more bodies onto the carpet, which were unconscious and slightly bruised.

"Where were you?!" Sashima demanded, stalking over to Vegeta and dragging the bodies to where the others lay. "You could've given me some help here!"

"I don't play the 'Knight in Shining Armor,' girl," he snarled, stalking back to the doorway. "I just found them downstairs while I was on my way up, and decided to deal with them instead. I guess you would rather have been attacked unprepared than be grateful that I saved you from a lot of trouble."

"But--"

"Besides, it doesn't look like you would've needed any help at all girl, and if you all don't keep quiet I would come here and blast you all to hell!" With that he marched down the dim hallway and made a turn to the right, in the direction of his room.

"He's such an arrogant jerk!" Sashima spat out angrily, until she realized that all conscious people in the room had their eyes focused inquisitively on her. "Er…never mind Vegeta then…"

She walked the few steps to where Bulma stood in front of the attempted murderer, folding her arms across her chest. "Now that you're more comfortable, would you care to inform us of your plans?" She directed the question at the man, who had been put into a high backed chair and bound around it.

Taking a deep breath, he began from where he had left off, before his mask had been removed. Still panic-stricken and nevertheless a bit paranoid, the words tumbled from his mouth at rapid speeds. "We were instructed to invade the Briefs' residence tonight, and take the documents for Capsule Corporation at all costs. Originally, killing was last on our list, but we accidentally set off the alarm and alerted everyone in the house of our presence, but we had no choice but to steal the documents and plans all the same."

"Why didn't you have any other choice?" Bulma probed, "Who instructed you?"

"We didn't have any other choice, I swear we didn't! He said he'd track us down and kill us if we didn't have the job done for him! We didn't know what we were getting into, we just assumed it was another burglary and took the job for the cash--we didn't know it was the Capsule Corporation papers we had to steal…and the sum was just too big to resist--"

"Hang on a second," Sashima broke in, putting her hand quizzically to her chin, pondering what he had just told her. "So someone paid you five goons to steal the papers at all costs, and in the process eliminate the Briefs if needed…someone must be really desperate--especially if they threatened to kill you if you failed the job…"

He nodded, a pained look on his fearful face.

"Just who is this person?" asked Bulma, almost afraid for an answer. Subconsciously, she chewed her lower lip as she waited.

There was no answer from the man. His eyes darted back and forth, as if sensing a creature would leap out from the shadows and attack him if he was not watching. "I can't tell you that…he'll surely find me…and then I'll be killed…"

She was starting to get impatient with his lack of cooperation. "Okay, we are going to turn you over to the police and you'll be locked up in a cell, so how do you expect him to find you and kill you?? And what's more, we are probably going to catch this person even before he has a chance to know you've been put into custody!"

"But he'll know! He said if we don't come back by 1:00 A.M., he'd know we've failed! It's already half past midnight already!" he shouted. For a second, Sashima wondered if he'd finally lost it.

"Screw the time! Just who is he?! You do not want me to get the information out of you the hard way, do you??!" Sashima raged. Bulma slinked back a few feet to where her parents stood; Bulma herself was slightly afraid of the change in Sashima's attitude and remembered distinctly what she had confided in her the previous evening.

Still he said nothing.

"Kami! Damnit! You just have to make me use force, don't you?!" Sashima removed her right hand from her chin and this time it glowed a translucent violet, the man once more beginning to squeal like a wounded pig.

"Sashima, stop! You've already exerted enough pain on him!" cried out Bulma suddenly, rushing forward.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell! It's a man named Paul Willis!"

"Er?" Her hand returned to her normal colors and the glimmering ceased. "Paul Willis? Never heard of him. Hey Bulma, do you--"

She stopped when the look on Bulma's face met with her own. It was as if something had fallen onto her back or she had witnessed a cat having been run over, but it was a look indescribable beyond disbelief. Her mouth opened and closed itself slowly, and she mumbled incoherent things to no one in particular.

"Bulma dear, are you alright?" Mrs. Briefs asked hesitantly, laying a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Is anything the matter?"

"Do you know who this Paul Willis is?" Sashima pressed, keen for information. Being with the police force had undoubtedly given her a knack to ask many questions, even at times which none needed to be asked or brought up.

Slowly, Bulma turned and faced Sashima, mumbling out a few words, and then lapsing into silence once again.

"What did you say Bulma?"

She cleared her voice and tried again. "Dr. Paul Willis is one of the most respected doctors of the once Capsule Corporation Hospital--also the doctor who worked on you when you were first brought in, Sashima."
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AN: *dramatic music in the background* Never expected it to be him, eh? I can probably fit in another two chapters at this rate…oh and I took the disclaimer off starting Chapter 15 because my computer is weird and doesn't show those top two lines right, but that doesn't mean the disclaimer doesn't apply! It still does! Read the other chapters and read the disclaimer! It applies on the entire story!