*blinks* Gracias Rosethorn para..umm review. Yeah, my Spanish needs work, heh.
Daisy, I think if SMG showed up she'd probably get accidentally shot again. Heh heh. 22 days! OH and wait till you see what I got at the warehouse *griiin*
Penchy-chan, ah so many questions so little time!
Lushka in love, hmm, judge for yourself, she's only 12, remember, but...I'm gonna leave that but hanging cos you can find out later. And just to point it out. "She (Lushka) knew she'd been right to warn him with the death of his guards. She had no doubts about that." quote from ch 16, I may have been being overly subtle; Lushka killed the guards (or ordered them killed) to warn Trunks sending his guards away was a big mistake, cos it put further in danger, because she thought if the assassin came that night he wouldn't have the adequate protection, etc etc understand? Ok. And for the first one, you know that was Sena under orders from M and P but the true motives behind it I don't think I've got to. You all remember that right? And no one try picking out any secret spoiler messages in here cos there are none. Nyah.
"Are the Rebels even on Trunks' side?" Wait and see...
"Are the Arkosian's tampering with my wishes of seeing the Chikyuu Squad on Vegeta-sei soon?" Wait and see...
"Please don't tell me they're taking them hostage or enslave them or shooting them down on some weird planet!" Ok, I wont tell you...
"Please another chapter, another chapter, another chapter, another chapter!"
Ok. Here
Chapter Seventeen: Alfalfa (yeah, I know. *snigger*)
The voices of Maroda and Parsnal were somewhat muffled by the door between them and Lushka's ear, but she could make out words easily enough.
"Lord Radditz was wondering what happened to the Prince's marriage." That was Parsnal, and he was tempting a slap to the face with that tone of voice.
"Nothing happened to it." Maroda said. "Everything's going according to plan."
'No it's not.' Thought Lushka. Parsnal continued, "not according to the Prince, he refuses."
"You seriously think the will of a ten-year-old Prince can contend with mine, there are none who can." Maroda said icily. Lushka smiled wryly, wasn't that the truth. Parsnal didn't say anything for a while, and Lushka started to get bored.
"So what are you planning to do?" Parsnal's voice, though further away, the two must have entered the sitting room. "Lord Radditz is meeting with the Prince to discuss the wedding after the banquet. Rather, the abortion of the wedding."
There was a small crash, possibly make by an angry kick. "He's supposed to have fallen for her." Maroda muttered. "She must be doing something wrong." Lushka frowned, almost she felt the same way. With the sound of footsteps coming closer to her door, Lushka pulled back and dived back onto the high bed, pretending to still be asleep.
Somewhere in the city, a Saiyan was making a scene. Alfalfa was on the small side for anyone employed by the Council, much less the Head, who tended to go for the large bulky and -most importantly- strong type in their thugs. But he wasn't quite a thug either, he worked directly under Lord Radditz and the most junior -however, not the least experienced- of the six trackers the Head had sent out, searching for Rebel kind.
Most people were trying to ignore him, while watching hopefully out of the corner of their eyes to see if a fight would break out as he tried to rally people against the Council and the Prince and authority in general, at the top of his voice. A few civilians were chanting along side him, but Alfalfa's well trained eye read they were only doing it because of the thrill of the moment, or perhaps just to provoke some of the city's guards; they were not organised Rebels. The large man watching from the roof of a nearby house, though, he looked a little too interested to be ordinary.
The said city guards were slow to arrive, but arrive they did, and then the fight really did break out. Alfalfa stepped back off the barrel he'd been standing on and through the crowd, just as if he was trying to get away, although he called insults over his shoulder, just like the perfect amateur Rebel.
His breath was caught in his throat as a large -huge- hand closed around it and pulled him out of sight in the narrow way between two building, throwing him down on his backside.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" His 'saviour' exclaimed. Alfalfa mentally smiled, he'd been right about the man on the roof. Far too interested to be ordinary indeed.
"Bloody Council deserved everything I said." Alfalfa muttered, rubbing his throat. Toma looked down at him. "And that's the way to go about it, is it? I don't care how bloody silver your tongue is or how fast you think you can run after the guards arrive."
"I was going to fight them." Insisted Alfalfa, pride on his voice. "If I have to become a martyr to prove-"
"Don't bloody 'martyr' me." Growled Toma. "I'll bet you could be of much better use if you hate them so much."
"I hate them more than my blood is red." Spat Alfalfa, inserting pure disgust into his voice. "Tell me what I can do....anything."
Toma liked the look of this young Saiyan, he was young and rash (rather stupid though, Toma had to admit) but he looked eager to follow orders, and with Bardock's plans for the Seventh Night, Toma was willing to bet they needed all the followers they could get. "Come with me." He said, and launched himself into the air.
Alfalfa hid a grin. Brilliant. Nothing could be going smoother. He adjusted the small pack of gas on his back, and followed Toma into the air and back to the Rebel's small headquarters.
It was three days into the journey before Gohan was awake long enough get bored. He'd woken in the middle of the third day with enough energy to drag himself first to the toilet and then to the kitchen, where -according to Bulma- he ate for as long as he'd slept. Gohan had grinned at this, and swallowed another mouthful.
But after his breakfast, and a short tour through the four doors off the kitchen -two bedrooms, a bathroom and the bridge- Gohan sat down at the table, which was pressed against the wall, and stared out the window. Stars slowly swung past, unfamiliar stars, and moons and the occasional planet....It wasn't the most interesting view. Gohan got up and paced round the kitchen, then through each bedroom and round the bridge until Bulma yelled at him for getting in the way and why couldn't he do something useful instead of making her dizzy?
Gohan tried to be useful, but there wasn't anything to do. An uneasy restlessness had settled down on him since the androids had been destroyed, he'd felt it even in sleep, in unsettling dreams he couldn't remember. 'Hurry,' his mind said, and his pacing footsteps echoed, 'hurry hurry hurry,'
"Bulma, can't we go any faster?" He asked, passing the door to the bridge, Bulma was watching lines and dots on a screen Gohan couldn't decipher, she turned in her swivel chair to face him.
"We're already going faster than we should be, I have all the engines going at once." She said, and they had the same expression on each of their faces. 'Hurry.'
Gohan sighed, and paced past the door.
"GOHAN!" Chichi cried. "For Kami's sake! Will you just sit still! You're making me seasick." She was sitting at one of the two long, backed benches surrounding their respective sides of the table. "Look, sit down," she stood up and pointed to the seat, "and stay there, I'll be back in a moment." Chichi disappeared through the door to her bedroom she shared with Bulma. Gohan sat, and swung his feet, and drummed his fingers.
A pile of books was dumped down in front of him, hitting the table with a bang. "There." Chichi said. "We might as well use this time sensibly, you have a lot of study to catch up on."
Gohan looked at the pile of books and sighed again. Maybe study would help, it was worth a try. Gohan picked up the book from the top of the pile, and started reading about total internal light reflection.
He was drumming his fingers again before the end of the second paragraph.
It wasn't as if waiting on people was what Sena would call a fun job, but it had been her life for the past many years and the sudden break in routine left Sena feeling useless. It was midday, and the Fourth Day tournament was well under way, Bardock would be sitting in the audience at his very moment, assessing every detail of the stadium, the officials who attended, the mass of watchers and participants, everything. Sena thought he couldn't have been being more stupid, and she was sick with worry that he'd be recognised, although, in a crowd that size, how many people really knew the Rat's face? There had been many present the day he'd declared himself, at that riot which seemed years ago, but who was to say anyone who saw him then would see him again today. Still, Sena had all but pleaded to go along, she had stopped borderline, she wouldn't plead, she had too much dignity to beg.
But still, she had held her own in the argument for a long time, and it had taken Bardock too long for his liking to forbid her to follow. Sena tried not to pout, and sat on the inside of the door to the meeting room, where everyone had something to do but her.
Faint memories of her mother played on her mind, and she rubbed her forehead. She didn't need these thoughts, her mother was dead, there was nothing to change that, and she didn't want sappy emotions getting in the way. Anger was alright, anger would show the Council where they could stick their alliance.
Sena got up and started pacing down the hall. It was a good hall to pace. Long, and echoey; it took a while to reach the other end. She rested her forehead against the far wall, and the door at the other end -the one leading downstairs- opened. Toma entered, his bulk taking up most of the doorway, and he had to duck slightly to get through the doorframe. A smaller figure darkened the doorway behind him, and they both entered the meeting room. Light spilled into the dark corridor as the door opened, and was sucked back up as it closed. She watched them disappear, and went back to pacing.
Pasha was half asleep with her head on her arm, staring at a map on the wall. There was someone talking to her but she was too tired to be paying much attention, he had a droning voice, and had been going on for some time. She was going to hit something if he didn't shut up soon: his face, to be exact. Pasha wasn't the easier person to deal with when she'd been up all night.
Toma entered with a follower who's face she didn't recognise. Pasha rubbed her eyes and sat up. "Your late." She accused. Toma ignored it. "Who's that?" She asked, poking a thumb in Alfalfa's direction. Toma explained the circumstances under which he'd found Alfalfa, and Pasha sat up straight. "Are you dense?" She exclaimed, standing so she was eye level with Alfalfa. "You must be, to attempt something like that." She folder her arms over her chest, waiting to see if Alfalfa would answer. He didn't. 'One point for him,' Toma thought, he's not so thick as I thought. Talking back to Pasha in this mood was suicide. Pasha eyed him up thoughtfully, and frowned. "Toma, come with me." She said sharply, and lead him out into the hall.
She closed the door gently behind her, smothering the light from the room. Then turned on Toma.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Half-wit!" Pasha spat, forcing Toma up against the wall. "You can't just bring people back here!" She stuck out and punched his arm, the full force of her weight behind the blow. Sena spun round to watch, and sank a little further into the shadows.
"Pasha," said Toma, with little patience, "he's an amateur, and was about to get himself killed. I won't have the Council get rid of anyone that could help us."
"But to bring him back here? Without even consulting Bardock? I swear! You -are -insane!" Pasha rapped on his forehead with her knuckles, but he caught her hand before she could do any real damage, and she was in the mood to do some serious damage. "You never thought he could be working with Them? Nobody is stupid enough to go bad-mouthing the Council in public, not without a really good motive. And what if his was to find us, hm? What do you think you could have done?" Pasha's hair was almost standing on end.
"We'll keep an eye on him then." Toma said. "Until Bardock gets back, and we won't let him leave."
"Damn right we won't!" Pasha hissed, glaring daggers at Toma. Sena swore she saw the air crackle between them. "Now go up and get the last ma-" Pasha froze mid-word, and sniffed. "Smell that?" Toma sniffed. There was a warm, sickly sweet smell on the air, just inhaling a nose full made his eyes brain feel dull.
Pasha bristled like an outraged hedgehog. "Shit." She spun round and burst through the door to the meeting room, the air of which was so filled with the thick gas she could barely see the other side of the room. Body shaped lumps lay every which way over the floor, someone was choking in the corner. The noise stopped suddenly on an inhale, there was a small thud as the last body collapsed. Pasha let loose a stream of extremely colourful language, before realising she should hold her breath. Airlessly, she stumbled toward the middle of the room where there was one figure left standing. Alfalfa was wearing a mask, and she lunged towards his throat, but whether to rip it out or pull off the mask no one could tell. He delivered a sharp kick to her diaphragm that she was too numb to block, and she gasped in air, and more of the gas. Toma grabbed her arm before she hit the ground, he'd had the sense to stop breathing the moment he recognised the smell for what it was. He let her down gently, and Alfalfa leaped out of his way, grabbing a Saiyan at random and dragging his prize toward the door. Toma turned, and threw a blast toward Alfalfa, one which he ducked easily. Toma -cursing himself- raced toward him, bringing both fists down on his head. The smaller Saiyan twisted in time and Toma's blow struck him across the face, he hit the edge of the door, and the wood beneath him cracked. Toma followed, knowing they had to get out in the open before his lungs burst and he became as conscious as the rest of the Rebels. He would not let him get away. Alfalfa ducked past him and back into the room, not wasting him time by doing anything to Toma.
Tome growled, he was the stronger of the two, but Alfalfa was the faster, and the one who could breath. A severe handicap on Toma's part. Alfalfa knew that all he had to do was to keep out of his way for a few more minutes and the bigger Saiyan would have to breath, then sleep, and he could grab his hostage and run.
Toma came at him, and he wasn't fast enough to dodge all of the blows, nor the blasts that lit up the gassy air like fireworks on smoke. Alfalfa picked himself up from between two unconscious Saiyans and wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, then his hand on the Saiyans back. Toma leaped, and landed on his back, forcing him back to the ground. Alfalfa winced, and couldn't move from the spot, he rotated his neck to look up at Toma, who's cheeks were bulging. He was reaching down to rip off the mask. Alfalfa balked. No! He squirmed, and managed to dislodge a foot, but Toma had more too loose than he, and wouldn't give up easily. He dropped to his knees on Alfalfa's back, winding him, and ripped the mask from his face and crushing it with a powerful hand.
Toma felt triumphant, albeit weak and blue faced. The mask was off and Alfalfa would be as asleep as the rest of them within moments, Toma finally let out his breath, and his body forced more air into his lungs. He collapsed over Alfalfa.
The smaller Saiyan wriggled, and shoved Toma's weight from his back. He couldn't breath in anyway, Toma's knees on his back had seen to that; he was full winded.
He burst out the door into the hallway, wanting to get his breath back before grabbing his hostage. He thought about the woman who'd called him thick, he didn't like her, and thought it would be a good thing to see her in Radditz's prisons.
At the far end of the corridor, Sena was grabbing the wall trying to keep herself upright and awake. The gas had diffused as if reached down the hallway toward her, and was taking longer on her than the others.
Alfalfa looked back into the room, and frowned, there was no way he could tell which was the woman. He kicked the doorway in frustration, and turned his head down the hall. And saw Sena.
Domdomdooom. Sorry it's shorter! Sorrysorry! I'm trying to write a gazillion things at once, will hurry and get next chapter written, will go do that now, bye!