"Dende, did you sense that surge of power a few seconds ago?" Kami spoke quietly, gripping his staff in his hands, which began to tremble slightly.
"Yes, Kami, I did…do you think it's a new enemy?" The younger Namek inquired, peering up at the Earth's Guardian with awed eyes.
"It is much too early to tell at the moment, but I fear the worst…" Such somberness was spoken that Dende uttered not a single word after.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Up on King Kai's planet, Bubbles and Gregory stopped their games as King Kai grew stiff. They watched with curiosity as his blue antennas began to pick up and read information that had begun to release itself from Earth.
"What is it, King Kai?" asked Gregory, the golden cricket, in a high-pitched voice.
"Oh no!" He suddenly shouted, alarming Gregory and Bubbles to the extent that they fell over on their own feet. "I sense a new energy source on Earth--one of pure evil! Oh no…this is bad…terribly bad…what are we going to do? What are we going to do??" Panicked he proceeded to run in mad circles around his home, yelling his head off like a maniac. When he had calmed down, he coughed and regained all seriousness.
"This is an enemy that our Earth's Defenders have never seen before, one much greater than even Freeza. Unlike Freeza, they cannot be slain by a mortal hand…"
"What??!" Gregory exclaimed, round eyes bulging out to the sides. "Then how will Goku and the Z Warriors defeat them?"
King Kai shook his head sadly. "It seems that Earth domination is not what they want…if that was it, they would have made their move much, much earlier. No…I am afraid it is that new source of power I have detected these last couple of days."
"Do you mean to say there is another warrior on Earth, King Kai?" asked Gregory, stunned.
"No…at least from here I do not think so…this new source of power…" He paused to collect his thoughts before he continued to speak. "It is pure good combined with pure evil, making it all too deadly. But the question which lies before us, is can she use that power for the right purpose…"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sitting up in bed abruptly, Goku sat still for a moment. All seemed normal for a place so deep in the mountains. The summer's breeze was slightly chillier up in the high elevations than down in the city below, and nearby, the soft humming of a stream gave a peaceful lullaby for sleep. The rustle of the trees and growth of the woods were mixed with the movements of the night's creatures. Farther down in the hall, Gohan could be heard snoring.
Beside him, Chi-Chi stirred and muttered drowsily, "Why are you up, Goku? Is something the matter?"
"No, nothing's wrong…" He spoke slowly. "Go back to sleep."
Goku stroked Chi-Chi's hair as she dozed back into a deep sleep. He lay on the warm bed for quite awhile before being able to fall back asleep as well. There was just something--Goku couldn't quite shake the feeling that he had sensed a powerful source of energy, yet he had felt no ki.
* * * * *
"And here comes the reporters and newspapers, early as usual," grumbled a dishelmed looking Bulma. Ever since she had woken up at about 9:00 A.M., a crowd of the annoying press people had already gathered at her front gate, camped for the night it seemed. "I should probably go and talk to them before they decide to break down the gates--ugh, they are so damn annoying and loud! They pry into your private affairs and never let you go!"
Sashima glanced up from the paper she had been reading at the table in the kitchen. Having woken up just a half hour ago, she had wasted no time in repairing the wall she had damaged the previous night and mending the plaster and wood in Bulma's room. Rising from her seat, she parted the curtains in front of the sink and peer disdainfully outside.
"I can probably do sometime to get rid of them, but that would most likely lead to complications…" she began, but Bulma interrupted her hastily.
"No it's okay, I'll go deal with them, I'm used to it all," said Bulma, backing away slowly towards the door, remembering all too well how it had been earlier that morning. "By the way, have you seen my parents anywhere?" She paused at the doorframe.
She shook her head, the strands falling to her eyes. "I suppose I should head Downtown again, scout around and check out how the police are working on the case." Brushing past Bulma she made her way to front door, only slamming it shut when she noticed the reporters were still camped in front of the gate. "On second thought…not through there."
Bulma chuckled and pulled the door open herself. Blades of the morning sunlight slashed themselves directly onto the two women, blinding Sashima almost. "You definitely do not want to be there."
She stopped before leaving. "Oh I remembered something…your friends Krillin and Muten Roshi told me to say hi for them." Sashima grinned, before disappearing into the light.
"What?" A bewildered Bulma was left standing at the threshold. "How'd you meet Krillin and Muten Roshi?"
"There she is!"
The roar of excitement had come from the reporters who had finally spotted the C.E.O. of Capsule Corporation. Hacking at the gates like wild beasts clawing on the bars of a cage, desiring to be set free, they hurriedly reached for their cameras as Bulma neared the gates. Shaking her head and heaving a deep sigh, she thought, 'This is going to be one long day…'
* * * * *
The flight to downtown Satan City took even less than the previous day, and the first thing Sashima did when she landed on the cement pavement was inquire where the local police station was.
"Go three blocks down and turn a right," an elderly lady instructed her, smiling and showing her gold teeth. "But be careful, dear, that area is full of gangs."
"You mean they dare to be THAT close to the police station?" Sashima asked, stunned. Back home in Harakatsuma, no criminal would've dared have any hideouts within a half-mile radius of the police stations.
The woman shook her head, staring past Sashima's shoulders, a faraway look in her knowing eyes. "You really don't want to be in that area of town, really, especially someone as pretty looking as you, dear. I must say, if you want to talk to the police about something, they are a bunch of about the most corrupt law enforcement people I have ever seen!" With that, she stalked around, shuffling her tiny feet down the sidewalk, and headed into a small grocery shop.
Sashima was left standing, alone, in the middle of the sidewalk, as the cars whizzed by at top speeds. Even though it was early morning, she had no idea where the city's population in that particular area was. It seemed as if everyone who drove past was in a desperate hurry to get out of the area as fast as their wheels could take them.
"Weird people here…" she mused, before turning around and continued to walk down the street. As she rounded the corner, the banging of metal could be heard on something softer. She increased her pace until she came to a deserted lot, littered with trash and whatnot, a foul odor from the decay.
"Hey! What's going on here!" she demanded as, in the back of the lot, a group of young men were kicking and beating another young man with metal rods. He writhed on the ground painfully, like a snake that had poisoned itself, and a pool of blood had begun to drip from his forehead.
"It's not of your business, girlie, so get the hell outta here if you don't want to get hurt!" One of the men jeered at her menacingly. They turned their attention away from her and resumed their thrashings on the figure hunched over on the wasted soil.
"Get away from him!" she shouted, rushing forward and grabbing a rod that had been poised to strike him.
"Why you little bitch--" The man swung his left fist forward for a punch to the face, but not before Sashima had given him a hard knee in the gut. He fell to his knees, gasping for breath.
"Get her!"
The remaining men rushed at her, each with their rods raised, coming in from all sides. With accurate precision, she leaped into the air and landed a jump kick across the faces in a quick, arc-like sweep of her right foot. They fell, hard, onto the ground, wincing and clutching their faces in pain.
"That was just too easy…" Muttering, she stepped over the limbs of the ruffians and helped the bloodied man sit up. "Here, let me help you up…" Grasping him by the armpits, she slowly pulled him to his feet, and for the first time looked at his face.
"Oh no…that cut above your eye, let me take you to the hospital," Sashima began, dragging him along. "I'm sure they would fix you up in no time--"
"No that's not necessary," the man replied gratefully, "Just thank you for saving me, I can get to the hospital myself."
Stopping in mid-tracks, she gave him a skeptical look. "You sure? You sure these people," she jerked a thumb at the men still writhing on the ground, "won't come and get you again?"
"I think by the way they are right now, they won't be able to get up until I've reached the hospital." He chuckled, hacking up a mouthful of blood.
"Ugh, no I think I should better take you there--"
"I said it wasn't necessary."
"Well, why were they beating up on you?"
"I don't know."
Puzzled beyond her wits, she did not notice that he had gotten out of her grasp until he stood on the sidewalk several feet ahead of her. "Well, thank you again!" Smiling, he rounded the corner.
"Wait!" Sashima sprinted after him, tearing around the corner.
"What…where is he?" Looking around in all directions, there was no sign of him, nor any traces of blood.
"Who was he?" She pondered, heading back to the lot. Peering in, her heart skipped a beat when the ruffians were no longer there. "What the hell?!" She burst out, all senses on alert. She could hear only utter silence amid the pounding of her heart, and she sensed no one to be near. Still, she could not shake the feeling that she was being watched yet again, as the reoccurring chill down her spine told her it was not just a mere gangster…
_____________________________________________________________________________________
AN: I decided Chapter 18 was getting a little too long, as it had already passed the 3,600 word mark and I still wasn't done with it, so I broke it down into two chapters. I've been really busy with school, so I apologize for the delay in this chapter…I'm still kinda short on time as the end of the quarter is coming and my grades aren't all that hot…or up to their usual standards. Whatever you call it. B, A, A, B, A, A and there's a lot of work to be done if I want to fix those Bs and keep the As.
"Yes, Kami, I did…do you think it's a new enemy?" The younger Namek inquired, peering up at the Earth's Guardian with awed eyes.
"It is much too early to tell at the moment, but I fear the worst…" Such somberness was spoken that Dende uttered not a single word after.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Up on King Kai's planet, Bubbles and Gregory stopped their games as King Kai grew stiff. They watched with curiosity as his blue antennas began to pick up and read information that had begun to release itself from Earth.
"What is it, King Kai?" asked Gregory, the golden cricket, in a high-pitched voice.
"Oh no!" He suddenly shouted, alarming Gregory and Bubbles to the extent that they fell over on their own feet. "I sense a new energy source on Earth--one of pure evil! Oh no…this is bad…terribly bad…what are we going to do? What are we going to do??" Panicked he proceeded to run in mad circles around his home, yelling his head off like a maniac. When he had calmed down, he coughed and regained all seriousness.
"This is an enemy that our Earth's Defenders have never seen before, one much greater than even Freeza. Unlike Freeza, they cannot be slain by a mortal hand…"
"What??!" Gregory exclaimed, round eyes bulging out to the sides. "Then how will Goku and the Z Warriors defeat them?"
King Kai shook his head sadly. "It seems that Earth domination is not what they want…if that was it, they would have made their move much, much earlier. No…I am afraid it is that new source of power I have detected these last couple of days."
"Do you mean to say there is another warrior on Earth, King Kai?" asked Gregory, stunned.
"No…at least from here I do not think so…this new source of power…" He paused to collect his thoughts before he continued to speak. "It is pure good combined with pure evil, making it all too deadly. But the question which lies before us, is can she use that power for the right purpose…"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sitting up in bed abruptly, Goku sat still for a moment. All seemed normal for a place so deep in the mountains. The summer's breeze was slightly chillier up in the high elevations than down in the city below, and nearby, the soft humming of a stream gave a peaceful lullaby for sleep. The rustle of the trees and growth of the woods were mixed with the movements of the night's creatures. Farther down in the hall, Gohan could be heard snoring.
Beside him, Chi-Chi stirred and muttered drowsily, "Why are you up, Goku? Is something the matter?"
"No, nothing's wrong…" He spoke slowly. "Go back to sleep."
Goku stroked Chi-Chi's hair as she dozed back into a deep sleep. He lay on the warm bed for quite awhile before being able to fall back asleep as well. There was just something--Goku couldn't quite shake the feeling that he had sensed a powerful source of energy, yet he had felt no ki.
* * * * *
"And here comes the reporters and newspapers, early as usual," grumbled a dishelmed looking Bulma. Ever since she had woken up at about 9:00 A.M., a crowd of the annoying press people had already gathered at her front gate, camped for the night it seemed. "I should probably go and talk to them before they decide to break down the gates--ugh, they are so damn annoying and loud! They pry into your private affairs and never let you go!"
Sashima glanced up from the paper she had been reading at the table in the kitchen. Having woken up just a half hour ago, she had wasted no time in repairing the wall she had damaged the previous night and mending the plaster and wood in Bulma's room. Rising from her seat, she parted the curtains in front of the sink and peer disdainfully outside.
"I can probably do sometime to get rid of them, but that would most likely lead to complications…" she began, but Bulma interrupted her hastily.
"No it's okay, I'll go deal with them, I'm used to it all," said Bulma, backing away slowly towards the door, remembering all too well how it had been earlier that morning. "By the way, have you seen my parents anywhere?" She paused at the doorframe.
She shook her head, the strands falling to her eyes. "I suppose I should head Downtown again, scout around and check out how the police are working on the case." Brushing past Bulma she made her way to front door, only slamming it shut when she noticed the reporters were still camped in front of the gate. "On second thought…not through there."
Bulma chuckled and pulled the door open herself. Blades of the morning sunlight slashed themselves directly onto the two women, blinding Sashima almost. "You definitely do not want to be there."
She stopped before leaving. "Oh I remembered something…your friends Krillin and Muten Roshi told me to say hi for them." Sashima grinned, before disappearing into the light.
"What?" A bewildered Bulma was left standing at the threshold. "How'd you meet Krillin and Muten Roshi?"
"There she is!"
The roar of excitement had come from the reporters who had finally spotted the C.E.O. of Capsule Corporation. Hacking at the gates like wild beasts clawing on the bars of a cage, desiring to be set free, they hurriedly reached for their cameras as Bulma neared the gates. Shaking her head and heaving a deep sigh, she thought, 'This is going to be one long day…'
* * * * *
The flight to downtown Satan City took even less than the previous day, and the first thing Sashima did when she landed on the cement pavement was inquire where the local police station was.
"Go three blocks down and turn a right," an elderly lady instructed her, smiling and showing her gold teeth. "But be careful, dear, that area is full of gangs."
"You mean they dare to be THAT close to the police station?" Sashima asked, stunned. Back home in Harakatsuma, no criminal would've dared have any hideouts within a half-mile radius of the police stations.
The woman shook her head, staring past Sashima's shoulders, a faraway look in her knowing eyes. "You really don't want to be in that area of town, really, especially someone as pretty looking as you, dear. I must say, if you want to talk to the police about something, they are a bunch of about the most corrupt law enforcement people I have ever seen!" With that, she stalked around, shuffling her tiny feet down the sidewalk, and headed into a small grocery shop.
Sashima was left standing, alone, in the middle of the sidewalk, as the cars whizzed by at top speeds. Even though it was early morning, she had no idea where the city's population in that particular area was. It seemed as if everyone who drove past was in a desperate hurry to get out of the area as fast as their wheels could take them.
"Weird people here…" she mused, before turning around and continued to walk down the street. As she rounded the corner, the banging of metal could be heard on something softer. She increased her pace until she came to a deserted lot, littered with trash and whatnot, a foul odor from the decay.
"Hey! What's going on here!" she demanded as, in the back of the lot, a group of young men were kicking and beating another young man with metal rods. He writhed on the ground painfully, like a snake that had poisoned itself, and a pool of blood had begun to drip from his forehead.
"It's not of your business, girlie, so get the hell outta here if you don't want to get hurt!" One of the men jeered at her menacingly. They turned their attention away from her and resumed their thrashings on the figure hunched over on the wasted soil.
"Get away from him!" she shouted, rushing forward and grabbing a rod that had been poised to strike him.
"Why you little bitch--" The man swung his left fist forward for a punch to the face, but not before Sashima had given him a hard knee in the gut. He fell to his knees, gasping for breath.
"Get her!"
The remaining men rushed at her, each with their rods raised, coming in from all sides. With accurate precision, she leaped into the air and landed a jump kick across the faces in a quick, arc-like sweep of her right foot. They fell, hard, onto the ground, wincing and clutching their faces in pain.
"That was just too easy…" Muttering, she stepped over the limbs of the ruffians and helped the bloodied man sit up. "Here, let me help you up…" Grasping him by the armpits, she slowly pulled him to his feet, and for the first time looked at his face.
"Oh no…that cut above your eye, let me take you to the hospital," Sashima began, dragging him along. "I'm sure they would fix you up in no time--"
"No that's not necessary," the man replied gratefully, "Just thank you for saving me, I can get to the hospital myself."
Stopping in mid-tracks, she gave him a skeptical look. "You sure? You sure these people," she jerked a thumb at the men still writhing on the ground, "won't come and get you again?"
"I think by the way they are right now, they won't be able to get up until I've reached the hospital." He chuckled, hacking up a mouthful of blood.
"Ugh, no I think I should better take you there--"
"I said it wasn't necessary."
"Well, why were they beating up on you?"
"I don't know."
Puzzled beyond her wits, she did not notice that he had gotten out of her grasp until he stood on the sidewalk several feet ahead of her. "Well, thank you again!" Smiling, he rounded the corner.
"Wait!" Sashima sprinted after him, tearing around the corner.
"What…where is he?" Looking around in all directions, there was no sign of him, nor any traces of blood.
"Who was he?" She pondered, heading back to the lot. Peering in, her heart skipped a beat when the ruffians were no longer there. "What the hell?!" She burst out, all senses on alert. She could hear only utter silence amid the pounding of her heart, and she sensed no one to be near. Still, she could not shake the feeling that she was being watched yet again, as the reoccurring chill down her spine told her it was not just a mere gangster…
_____________________________________________________________________________________
AN: I decided Chapter 18 was getting a little too long, as it had already passed the 3,600 word mark and I still wasn't done with it, so I broke it down into two chapters. I've been really busy with school, so I apologize for the delay in this chapter…I'm still kinda short on time as the end of the quarter is coming and my grades aren't all that hot…or up to their usual standards. Whatever you call it. B, A, A, B, A, A and there's a lot of work to be done if I want to fix those Bs and keep the As.
