"What the?!" Trunks cried out as she knocked him to the floor.
"Hold still, my lovely." Tamzin smirked, and stuck the syringe into him before he even realized she was holding it.
"Hey..." Trunks pushed her off angrily. Tamzin stayed crouched down, looking up at him with a strange "whatcha gonna do" smile. Trunks glared down at her.
"What did you do -" he put his foot behind him, stopping himself falling over. "Whoa..." Trunks put his hand on his forehead. He felt so tired.... so....
Trunks collapsed, falling forwards onto Tamzin, who held out her hands to catch him. She rested his head on her hands, and smirked down at him.
"Sweet dreams, little boy."
~~~
Bulma looked out of the window.
"Vegeta, I'm really getting worried now. He left Goten's two hours ago. Where could he have gone?"
"Come on, he's fifteen and a super saiyan. What could harm him? If there was anything strong enough to injure him its ki would be strong enough for me to sense it." Vegeta shrugged.
"And if they're holding back their ki?" Bulma argued.
"Um..." Lavender entered the room.
"Oh, Lavender." Bulma greeted her. "Do you feel better after that bath?"
"Yeah. Thanks." Lavender smiled.
"You're welcome."
"....." Vegeta looked away. "I'm going to train." he said, and left the room.
"Is Trunks still not back yet?" Lavender asked, a worried expression on her face."
"He'll be back. Don't worry." Bulma assured her.
"....." Lavender walked over to the window, and looked out of it. "But if something's happened to him... it'll be my fault..." she said.
"What makes you think that?"
"Mokoto must have seen Trunks with me... just like he saw Mia..." Lavender closed her eyes.
"I'm sorry." she started to cry a little. "I'm so sorry, Bulma..." more tears came and she started to weep into her hands.
"Hey..." Bulma put her arm around Lavender's shoulders.
"Don't worry. He'll be back soon."
"I know you're just saying that." Lavender said. "We both know something's happened to him - and it's because of me."
"Lavender..." Bulma couldn't think of anything else to say.
"I'll find him." Lavender promised. "I'll go now. He might still be okay."
"What?!" Bulma gasped. "No! It's too dangerous for you! I'll ask Vegeta to go."
"No." Lavender shook her head. "My mother and Mia died because I wasn't there to help them. But maybe I can at least help Trunks. I'll go."
"Well can't you just take Vegeta with you?" Bulma asked.
"I need to do this by myself." Lavender started to walk towards the door. She turned her head to look over her shoulder at Bulma. "Besides... maybe I can finally get some answers."
"... Be careful." Bulma told her. Lavender smiled, and left the room.
~~~
Trunks' eyelids flickered. He slowly opened his eyes.
"Huh...?" he mumbled as he sat up. "Geez..." Trunks rubbed his head. " Last thing I remember is... a leopard?" he frowned in confusion. "... And a syringe..."
"You have a good memory." a voice answered him.
"Huh?!" Trunks jumped when he realized he wasn't alone. He turned his head to look for the owner of the voice, and realized he was in a place he didn't recognize. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before - except in movies. He was in a cage, for one thing. And the cage was in... kinda like an Egyptian tomb. It was just a round room with brick walls. There was no electricity, just torches neatly spread out in a row along the walls, going all the way around the room. They were the kind of torches with flames like you often saw in Egyptian movies. There was no door. Just a hole in the wall opposite him that looked like a doorway with a round top.
"Where am I...?" he thought aloud.
"My basement." the voice answered him again. Trunks turned his head to see a woman on the left hand side of the room, sitting on a black plastic chair. She was filing her long, claw - like nails. Trunks recognized her. The leopard. Only now that he saw her, he realized that she looked a lot like a human. It was just her tail and skin colour that made a difference. What race was she? She also had two marks on her face, one under each eye. Like petals. They made her look quite pretty. He'd say "cute", but the colour of her hair and eyes made her look more mature than cute. She was dressed differently now, though. She'd been wearing leather before, but now her boots didn't look like leather. And they were a little darker that her skin with black spots on them. No tight anymore. She wore hardly any clothes. Just a bra and knickers, both the same colour as her boots. She also wore a necklace. It was basically just a piece of thick dark brown lace, with a large (and probably real) claw hanging from it.
Trunks stood up.
"Where am I?!" he demanded.
"I told you. You're in my basement." the woman replied. She put the nail filer down on the chair as she arose from her seat. "I don't think we've introduced ourselves." she said. "My name is Tamzin."
"Trunks." Trunks replied. "Tell me where I am! Who are you?!"
"Don't get too stressed out, you'll be here for a while." Tamzin told him. "Until your girlfriend comes to find you. Then you are free to go."
"What are you talking about?" Trunks looked at her.
"Don't play dumb. You know perfectly well who I'm talking about. Lavender Kinoba. A friend of yours, isn't she?" Tamzin replied.
"Lavender?" Trunks repeated. He burst out laughing.
"Hm?" Tamzin frowned in confusion. "What's so funny?!"
"S - She's not my girlfriend!" Trunks exclaimed. "I don't even like her that much!"
"Well, she certainly likes you. I can tell just by watching you two for a second that she dreams about you." Tamzin said.
"... Whatever." Trunks shook his head. "I don't care about any of this. Just get me out of this cage."
"Sorry, I can't." Tamzin shrugged.
"Alright. Fine." Trunks turned super saiyan.
He charged towards the cage bars.... and bounced right off, causing him to go flying backwards into the wall opposite.
"... Ow..." Trunks climbed to his feet, rubbing his back. Tamzin chuckled.
"Nice try." she smirked.
"What the heck is this thing?!" Trunks demanded, running up and grabbing the cage bars.
"A fairy new model." Tamzin explained. "It can only be attacked from the outside. Any pressure put on it from the inside, it just absorbs and uses to build up its defense against attacks from the outside. Clever, don't you think?"
"Genius..." Trunks mumbled. "But I don't believe it. You're bluffing." he tried attacking the cage again, giving it his best shot. But it all just backfired and he ended up just attacking himself.
"Shit!" he shouted angrily.
"I know, it must be so boring in there." Tamzin smirked, walking over to one of the torches. "But, at least you have me to keep you company." she looked over her shoulder to give him a flirtatious smirk as she said that. She turned back to the torch, and reached up to take it off the wall.
Trunks watched in curiosity at what she was doing. Tamzin turned around to face him, looking at the touch in her hand. She raised her head to look at Trunks.
"Watch this." she said, and turned back to the torch. Tamzin waved her other hand over it. Trunks watched in amazement as she motioned with her hand and made the flame move along with it. She made it rise and fall. Jump from left to right and back to the centre. Then, finally, she rose her hand high and started to move the torch away from her body as she continued to move her hand. As she did so, the flame grew. She used her hand to make a pulling motion. Dragging the flame towards her. As it rose and moved towards her, it started to take a shape. Trunks begun to see what it was. A leopard. Before long, the flame became a firey leopard which purred as it leapt after her hand, and landed on the floor. Finally, its flaming body changed into fur.
Trunks stared in disbelief at the leopard that stood at Tamzin's feet. Tamzin smirked at him.
"Not bad, eh?"
"How did you do that?!" Trunks gasped.
"A trick every member of my race has the ability to pull off." Tamzin told him. She went over to put the flameless torch back on the wall as she explained. "The men are tigers. The women are leopards. We can all make our creature arise from a burning flame." she looked at him. "Of course, it's just a flame. Not real like those over there." she pointed her hand towards the right hand side of the room. Trunks turned his head.
"Whoa!" he hadn't noticed them before. Two leopards sat calmly next to each other. They looked at him. Their yellow eyes staring him down. But they weren't interested for long. Trunks looked back at the flame leopard. Strange. Its eyes were red like Tamzin's. Maybe it was because she was its creator.
"Tamzin!" a man's voice called. "Is he awake yet?" Trunks heard the sound of metal, and a man entered the room. Oh, right. Through the doorway was a ladder. He didn't recognize the man.
"Yes." Tamzin turned to face him, hand on her hip. "I've been showing him my magic trick."
"Playing with fire?" the man looked at the red - eyed leopard. "You know I don't like leopards. Put it back."
"This is my house." Tamzin reminded him.
"But you already have two!" the man whined. Tamzin sighed. "Fine." she went over to get the torch, and did pretty much the same hand motion except in reverse. Instead of pulling she pushed and instead of raising her hand she lowered it, until the leopard was once again a flame. She put the torch back. Mokoto approached Trunks' cage, and looked at him.
"Maybe she'll come for us now." he said.
"If this doesn't bring her, nothing will." Tamzin replied.
"Who are you?!" Trunks demanded.
"My name is Mokoto." the man said.
Trunks looked at him.
"Hey... aren't you that guy? The substitute teacher?"
"You remember? Yes, that's right." Mokoto replied.
"What do you want?!" Trunks growled. "Why can't you two just leave us all alone?! What's so special about Lavender anyway?! Because she sure as hell doesn't know!"
"She will find out soon enough." Mokoto assured him. "For now, we'll just wait for her..."
"Rr..." the two leopards stood up, their ears sticking up.
"You're sensing someone?" Tamzin asked them. She looked at Mokoto. "I don't think we'll be waiting long."
"Hmm..." Mokoto tried to track down any ki signal. "She's near. It's definitely her."
"I can feel it too." Tamzin said. Trunks could, too. But it wasn't anywhere near the combined power of Tamzin and Mokoto. He just hoped she hadn't come alone.
"Lavender..."