Disclaimer: I don't own nothin', buddy. =P
Author's Note: Eh... so... here's chapter ten, the longest chap yet, I believe. Hope you like it. lol
Chapter Ten: Unknowing Stowaway
Marron inhaled the sweet scent of the roses that bloomed in the full green bushes. She sighed. She had always agreed with the consensus that roses were a symbol of love and romance. Her life had certainly held those things for the last two years, and she knew she was fortunate. She knew many women who could never find the right man; some searched to the point that they fell into the habit of having constant one-night stands, and others had given up entirely. Marron didn't know what she would do without Trunks.
Hell, she didn't know what she would do while he was away...
After it was apparent that Vejita and Bulma would be accompanying Serive whether they liked it or not, there was a discussion on who would be staying and who else would be going. Bra would obviously come along on Serive's urging, and Trunks declared that he wouldn't stay behind when his family needed him. Of course, everyone else wanted to help, but the ship could only support a crew of eight. Goten didn't want to abandon his best friend, so he was added to the passenger list. Gohan was also going along because of his concern for the Briefs family. Despite the willingness to help, the last slot was left vacant, for Serive was content for the assistance of all those with Saiyajin blood, not to mention that no one wanted to room with the unpredictable Wycanian princess.
Marron had many concerns about Trunks going off into space again, and she was glad that he agreed to talk to her that morning before breakfast. She would have liked to talk to him the night before in his room, but he'd wound up staying in the lab all night helping his mother with some last-minute ship alteration. The blonde woman picked one of the roses from the plot and inhaled its scent. The last thing she wanted was Trunks to get hurt or stranded, or- even worse- die. She knew Trunks had to protect his family, but Marron needed some sort of confidence that he would return from this trip.
She heard a door close not far off. She looked up from the blossom and saw Trunks coming towards her from the back of the house. She smiled a bit at how tired he looked with his half-closed eyes and mussed lavender hair. He still wore the Capsule Corporations jumpsuit he'd changed into before helping his mother do interior repairs on the ship. It was stained and torn and a wrench was stuck into one of the pockets.
"Good morning," she said with some amusement.
"Eh, yeah, very good," he said, looking up at the sky and squinting. "Ah, yes, natural light... I had almost forgotten."
She laughed. "Well, I hope you didn't forget me." She pressed up against him and kissed him.
Trunks grinned when they parted. "I dunno. Maybe you should stir my memory."
Marron smirked. "Maybe later, Casanova." She tucked the rose into his breast pocket. "This time is for talking."
"Well, I need to talk to you about something important." Trunks fidgeted a bit with one hand rubbing the back of his neck and the other in his pocket.
"Okay," Marron replied. She sat down on the ledge surrounding the plot of roses and he sat next to her. "You can go first then."
Trunks blushed a bit at the ground, then forced himself to look up to his girlfriend's face. "Well, we've been dating for over a year and a half now, Marron. I've gotten to know you so much more than I did when we were only kids, and now I can't even comprehend my life without you there. I've never felt this way about any other girl I've ever known."
Marron thought she was going to cry. "I love you too," she choked out, her eyes shimmering as she squeezed his hand in hers.
Trunks looked down at their entwined fingers then back up at her and smiled. "See, that's the only thing wrong with this. We've been at this stage for too long, and after what's happened, I've been thinking a lot about how much I love you and wondering why we haven't taken things to the next level."
"You haven't been talking to Goten, have you?" Marron said quickly, raising an eyebrow.
Trunks gave her the same expression. "About what?"
She grinned. "Nevermind. Keep going."
He laughed lightly and continued. "So, anyway, I suppose I'm in the wrong position for this..." He got up and stood before her. Then he sunk down onto one knee, but he never looked away from Marron's face or let go of her hand.
She felt like her heart was just going to stop right there. It was already beating so fast that she didn't understand how it didn't burst from the strain.
Keeping one hand joined with both of hers, Trunks reached into his pocket and pulled out a red velvet box. He flipped it open with his thumb and a beautiful diamond shone in the sunlight. But Marron could only look at Trunks' eager face as she felt the tears glide over her cheeks.
"Marron..." He cleared his voice. "Marron, will you marry me?"
"Yes!" she screamed and fell on her knees. Her arms snapped around him and she covered his mouth with hers.
They parted and Trunks laughed. "I hope you can stand the paparazzi."
"I'll get through anything as long as you're there," Marron replied, giving him another tight embrace. She got up and pulled her future husband to his feet. Already her qualms about his voyage were forgotten. "Let's go tell everyone!" she exclaimed and dragging him towards the house.
After so much time of altering the ship with Serive's guidelines, Bulma must have felt that a speedy launch preparation was necessary. Besides announcing in the middle of the night that they would definitely be ready to go by the afternoon, she had created machines that instantly sealed crates once the lids were placed on them. It was likely, though, that it was Serive who had encouraged the rush, thought Trunks as he placed the lid onto a box of canned food. A mechanism near by reached out its arm, and the tool on the end twisted screws into the perimeter of the lid.
Trunks took a moment to look over the ship his mother had worked on for Serive. She had told him that this particular craft was a smaller version of a ship belonging to an alien called King Kold, the parent of his father's former employer. She'd wanted to install the superior technology into one of Capsule Corporation's traditional sphere crafts, but it would have been too large, even though she cut out one of the two levels and halved the diameter. The flatter disc-like shape was more practical. She'd also used the retractable landing gear that made the ship resemble a five-legged spider. Bulma had added her own color scheme, though, with a large black Capsule Corporations logo on the top center of the roof and two blue stripes circling the outside. Painted on the front of the ship's underside was the acronym for Mechanical Aeronautical Retribution Craft: MARC.
"And with what I've heard of Freeza's reputation," Bulma had mentioned to him while making the necessary alterations to the control panel, "having a similar ship to his family's might help drive away unwanted characters."
That sounded good to Trunks. He was hoping to have the least amount of confrontations as possible, though he knew that Serive wanted them to assist in her planet's war. If her enemies were stronger than she, Trunks had many doubts that they would all come back to Earth unharmed. The last thing he wanted was to die without marrying Marron.
Trunks smiled, remembering everyone's reactions at breakfast. After their meeting in the garden, he and Marron had trotted into the kitchen and made their announcement. Of course, everyone was thrilled, even the bride's parent's, though Krillin had taken Trunks aside later and asked to talk to him about the subject when the younger man got back from Wycan. Trunks' father's reaction was surprising. The prince had been standing behind his son in the doorway when Marron excitedly blurted out their engagement. As everyone cheered after the blonde's announcement, Vejita had said quietly to him, "About time..."
Not that Trunks had thought that his father would be angry or upset. It was just that his usual reaction to everything all others found surprising and exciting was impassive silence. Even two words conveyed to Trunks that his father approved of the match, and it just made him happy.
With a clipboard in hand, Trunks turned from the craft to his future in-laws. "It should take about two months for us to get there," Trunks reviewed with Eighteen and Krillin. "You guys are free to hang around. If anyone calls, just tell them that we're away and you're watching the house." He took a piece of paper from his clipboard and held it out to the former monk. "Here's some excuses you can use for anyone who gives you grief about our absence."
"You sure you don't want us to come along?" Krillin asked, taking the paper.
Trunks shook his head. "Nah, we'll be okay. Besides, there's no more room, unless someone wants to stay in the same quarters as Serive." Trunks pulled the lid off a nearby crate as he talked and reached into it. "It'll just be the seven of us." He emphasized the last statement when he pulled Pan out of the crate.
Pan grinned sheepishly. "Just, uh, checking the quality of the cargo," she insisted. She snatched a gallon of water from the crate and pretended to inspect it closely. "Looks good; not too many microbes..."
Trunks groaned and set the girl down. He looked to Krillin and his wife. "Please leave us for a moment?"
Krillin laughed. "Sure." He and Eighteen walked over to Goten to help him load cargo.
Trunks glared at his friend's niece disapprovingly. "Damn it, Pan. When we say you can't go, we mean it! And it's not going to be like last time! We'll be searching for your energy before we take off."
"This is ridiculous!" Pan snapped. "Bra gets to go, and I'm twice as strong as she is!"
"That's only because Serive wants to piss off my otousan."
"Trunks, this is totally not fair!" the short girl exclaimed. "I know things didn't always go as planned the last time we were in space, but I was a great help, wasn't I? I have experience in this! Bra has only been training for the last week!"
"Look, Pan." Trunks returned to his clipboard. "You tagged along last time because you thought no one took you seriously. Well, guess what? Even after all that crap we went through, still nobody does."
Pan sweatdropped. "Eh?"
"Every time things don't go your way, you pitch a fit like a baby. If you want to be a grown-up, start acting like one!"
Pan scowled. "I do not act like a baby!"
"You're almost as bad as Bra."
"I am not! Trunks -"
Trunks' eyes flew back to the girl. "Pan, I don't have time for this now! Things have been stressful as it is, and you don't have to make things worse! Could you please just do me a favor and go inside the house?"
Pan clenched her teeth, but managed to force out an angry grunt before she turned and marched away. She stomped under the ship towards the door across the room. This side of the ship was deserted, and Pan took the opportunity to rattle off curses and make wild, violent gestures in the air to vent her frustration.
It just seem that no matter what she did, no one ever trusted her or gave her responsibilities. That's why she'd performed her little stowaway stunt two years ago. She figured that she'd prove that she could handle any problem at all, and despite her actions she had done well at that. But the only thing she'd gotten in return was a long lecture and a training schedule with her father. Sure, that was something, but everyone thought that she was just a kid more than ever. And now she couldn't even attempt to prove them wrong again.
Well, getting pissed off wasn't going to get her anywhere. Pan stopped her shadowboxing and took a deep breath. "I'm fine. I'm cool," she muttered to herself.
*DING DONG* The doorbell echoed the vast launching bay.
"Could you get that, please, Pan?" Trunks' voice called to her.
"Alright!" she yelled back, then grumbled to herself. "Sure, Trunks, whatever you say. Stupid jerk." She took a step to the doorway, then gracefully tripped over a box that had been in her path. Pan's face hit the floor, and she gritted her teeth in pain and growled to herself.
*DING DONG*
"Pan?" Trunks voice hollered again with agitation.
Pan tried to rub away the pain in her nose. "Okay!" she answered.
*DING DING DING DING DING DING-*
"PAN!!!"
"I SAID I'M GETTING IT!" Pan angrily launched herself to her feet, grabbed the crate that had tripped her and launched it behind her without looking. She ran off to answer the door and didn't notice the rocketing box smash into one of the spider legs of the spacecraft. The noise went unnoticed with the never ceasing doorbell, and since the exterior of the ship had been checked not long before, no one saw the substantial dent in that part of the landing gear.
*DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING-*
"I'm coming, damn it!" Pan hollered over the perpetual chiming. She swore that she would throttle the person once she saw their face.
The door, however, flew upon before Pan could even reach for the knob, not to mention that it nearly smacked her in the face. On the front step stood a distraught Paresu.
"Where is he going?" the brunette demanded.
Pan's anger easily vanished when she saw it was only Paresu, but she was confused by the model's distress. "Who? Uncle Goten?"
Paresu walked inside and closed the door before turning back to her boyfriend's niece. "He left a message at the front desk. Said he was going somewhere and he hoped I would talk to him after he came back. Where is he going?"
"Um... away?"
Paresu glared at Pan and moved past her. "If you won't tell me, I'll ask him!" She didn't get very far, as Goten himself entered the living room. "Oh, Goten-kun!" she cried out. "Don't go away! I'm so sorry!" She threw her arms around him. "I mean, I'm still mad at you, but I never want you to leave! I can't live without you! I-"
Goten sweatdropped. "I did say I was coming back, Paresu." He returned her tight embrace. "And I'm not leaving because of you."
"Then where are you going?" Paresu asked, looking into his eyes desperately.
"Um.... I can't tell you."
Paresu almost fell over. "Goten!" she yelled. "I come over here worried sick because you leave some message about how you're going away and you don't know when you'll be back, and now you won't even tell me anything about your trip??"
"Um..." Goten stared at her blankly.
"What do you want from me, Goten??" Paresu screamed exasperatedly.
Goten winced. "Okay, okay, just go to our room and wait for me. I have some things to do. When I'm done I'll tell you everything."
Paresu frowned, but she nodded. "Alright, Goten, but I'm holding you to that."
"I'll keep that promise," he assured her as she set off up the stairs. When her footsteps faded away, he turned to his niece. "Okay, Pan, your job is to keep her in that room until we leave."
Pan sweatdropped. "What? But you just said-"
"My 'things to do' is everything involving helping Serive save her planet. Once we're all done and we get back, then I'll tell Paresu everything." Goten chuckled nervously. "It's not a lie, see?"
The dark-haired girl rolled her eyes. "Why don't you just tell her now??"
"Because we're leaving now!" Goten exclaimed. "I can't just tell her everything and just go off into space! I want to tell her when I know I'll be around to answer her concerns and remind her that there's more to me than alien DNA." Goten put a hand on Pan's shoulder. "Please, Pan, do this for me?"
Pan glanced from his hand to Goten's pleading puppy-dog expression. She huffed. "Oh, alright, Uncle Goten," she muttered.
"Thanks!" He smiled at her before running back off towards to launching area.
Pan made her way upstairs. "At least he trusts me," she grumbled.
Paresu paced the room in frustration. It'd been fifteen minutes, and Goten had obviously been lying again. She opened the door to go look for him, but to her surprise, Pan was standing across the hall.
"Hello," she said in a bored tone. "I regret to inform you that my uncle would prefer that you stay here for, oh, about the next hour."
Paresu snorted and defiantly took a step to leave her room, but Pan walked a bit forward with her arms folded and an expression of determination. Paresu frowned. Pan was younger than she, but she knew that Pan's family had great fighting skills. It would seem that she would not be leaving the room. The brunette huffed and slammed the door in annoyance. She plopped onto the bed and folded her arms. She hadn't come all the way back here just to be isolated in this room. She'd returned to find out once and for all what was going on, and she was going to do that no matter what.
The first step, however, was figuring out how to get past her guard.
"Watch as the amazingly skilled fighter babysits her uncle's ditzy girlfriend," Pan narrated to herself. She'd become so bored that she began acting out to her statements. "She senses her captive's ki to ensure that there has been no other mode of escape." She stared at the door and concentrated. Surely enough, Paresu's energy was still inside. "She stays prepared in the unlikely event that the prisoner will try to force her way out." She fell back into her fighting stance and looked warily at the door. "She searches the hall, to be sure that no expert ninja fighters are on their way to rescue the woman," Pan continued, looking from side to side. "She-"
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" a shriek erupted from behind the door.
The girl started at the noise and nearly toppled over. "She races inside to be sure that she hasn't let the hostage die," she said to herself as she opened the door. Pan burst into the room to see Paresu standing on the bed. "What? WHAT?" she asked over the screams.
"A mouse!" Paresu yelled, pointing at the floor. "A mouse! MOUSE! Amouseamouseamouseamouse-"
"Huh? Where?" Pan searched the carpet. "I don't see anything."
Paresu visibly shuddered. "Ew, God, it must be under the bed!"
Pan rolled her eyes. "You are such a... girl."
"Just get rid of it!"
"Fine, fine. I'll kill it," Pan told her as she bent down to look under the bed.
"You don't have to kill it, just get it outside!" Paresu said, hopping off the bed. She moved beside the bathroom and tensely watched as Pan searched for the rodent.
Pan frowned and moved to the closet. "Are you sure you saw a mouse?" she asked. "I don't see anything." She moved a few pairs of shoes aside and felt around the dark corners of the closet. She stood and turned back to the model. "Maybe it was just a shadow or some... thing..."
Paresu was gone.
Pan sighed. "Clever girl," she muttered.
Paresu just didn't understand why Goten had been so insistent on keeping her in their room. Everyone had to be so secretive around her, and they'd become even more so ever since that woman from Greenland showed up. It truly hurt that Goten was keeping things from her after two years. What could it be that he and his family and friends didn't think she'd understand?
She lurked through the dim, empty halls. She wasn't too surprised that everyone seemed to have vanished; from Goten's even more covert behavior, she suspected that they were all gathered together somewhere and doing something involving the secret. The thought made Paresu all the more determined to discover what everyone was so resolved on keeping from her.
Hopefully she wouldn't get lost in this winding, dome mansion on her way to Bulma's laboratories.
"She's gone??" Goten yelled.
"She tricked me!"
"She tricked you? How?" Goten asked out of curiosity.
"It doesn't matter," Pan grumbled. "I've tried sensing her, but when I follow her energy signature I just keep getting lost in the halls."
Goten gestured for Pan to leave the launching area. "Just keep looking. At least make sure she doesn't get over here."
Trunks came over as Pan ran off down the long corridor that connected the lab in the house to the ship area. "Relax, Goten. Pan's been in my house more than Paresu. If she's getting lost, what are the chances of Paresu finding her way here?"
"I guess you're right," Goten agreed, walking with his friend back to the rear of the ship to help Gohan load supply crates into the lower deck. "Hey, where's your 'Tousan?"
"Where do you think?" was Trunks' reply as he lifted three crates and flew through the loading hatch. He paused at the opening to look back at Goten. "There's no way he'll ever leave Okaasan's side as long as Serive is in control."
"Everything checks out," Bulma declared as her fingers tapped a couple more keys on the massive control panel before the windshield. "We can take off in ten minutes."
"Good. The sooner, the better," was Serive's anxious reply. "I'll check up on the cargo." As she left the room, she passed Blulma, who reflexively looked down at her hands pressed against the control board's cool metal.
Bulma could not bring up the nerve to look in the pale woman's eyes. The power, the confidence, the knowledge that Bulma's life was in her blood-painted nails left Serive with a superior air that made Bulma feel completely helpless and inferior.
When Serive's footsteps were nothing but a faint, distant clipping, Vejita grabbed Bulma's upper arm. She looked up at her husband and was puzzled by the glare he gave her.
"You are the mate of the Saiyajin no Ouji," he said, leaning towards her. "It doesn't matter if she can kill you with one thought; you look down to no one."
Bulma smiled slightly at his words, then kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, Vejita," she whispered.
"Oh..." Bra, sitting in a chair on the other side of the room with a clipboard on her lap, wiped away imaginary tears. "That was just... so..." Choked sob. "...romantic..." A squeak with a wave of her hand. "I'm so vaclemped... Tahlk amongst yahselves..."
Bulma rolled her eyes. "I hardly think this is the time for humor."
"Weren't you the one always preaching optimism to me?"
"Yes, well, at the moment just forget everything I told you."
"Oh... So I can shave my head, get a tattoo, and join a animal-sacrificing cult?"
"Bra..."
"Just kidding." Bra studied the clipboard. "You know, 'Kaasan, I am capable of doing more than checking the checklist."
"I know, there just aren't many duties to go around. Is there anything left, by the way?"
"We just have to finish loading supplies and we're on our way."
Pan was going crazy. She would feel Paresu's small ki practically right beside her, and when she turned the corner she would either encounter a dead end or a room with no other outlets.
Who would build a maze for a building? Pan thought in her frustration. So much for proving that she was responsible. She couldn't even keep a weak woman in a room for more than twenty minutes.
Another corner, and another dead end. Pan withheld her urge to just blast her way out of the labyrinth and did her best to make what little patience she had last a little longer. It was doubtful that Bulma would appreciate a great portion of her home being blasted to nothing. She sought out Paresu's energy signature again and gasped when she realized where she was.
"The lab," Pan stated, before breaking into a sprint to find the model before the brunette came upon the ship.
Marron's brain told her to let Trunks go, but her heart was keeping her arms latched around him. "You better come back, you bastard," she sniffled. A fine trick he'd played on her, though it was unintentional. Proposing and going off into space to some hostile planet all in one day. She looked over at Goten. "You make sure he's okay, you hear me, Goten?"
"Eh, Trunks is better at taking care of me than I am at taking care of him," Goten replied regrettably.
"Well, if you don't want me to kill you, you'll do your best," she replied somberly. Marron forced her arms to release her fiancé, but she couldn't look at him. "I'll go to the launching room now," she announced tightly before running off.
"Alright, now that the good-byes are finally done," Serive sneered, "let's get a move on. Wycan doesn't have all century, you know."
"Can't I say goodbye to Paresu first?" Goten asked, looking to Trunks.
"No," Serive said simply. "I've already been away from home for far too long. A few more minutes could mean my entire world."
"But-"
"Get your ass on the ship!" Serive snapped.
"Okay, okay!" Goten folded his arms and glared at her.
As they filed onto the ship, Trunks looked up to a glass partition about halfway up the wall. A room lay behind it, as did all their friends who watched and waited to assist in the lift off. Yamcha raised his hand in farewell, while Tien only nodded with a frown. Chaozu only observed them, but his eyes were said. Chi-Chi, sniffling and occasionally blowing her nose into a handkerchief, was press up against the glass, and Videl stood beside her with a hand on her mother-in-law's shoulder and sad eyes on the ship. Krillin sat at a control panel, ready to receive Bulma's directions, and Eighteen stood behind him with her arms folded. She looked so cold and uncaring until a crying Marron came through the doorway. Then the mother embraced her daughter and displayed nothing but sympathy.
Paresu peeked through a doorway at the end of a long hall and saw Goten enter a huge craft of some sort. When all others had joined him inside, the brunette cautiously entered the massive room to look upon the strange creation of metals, bolts, hinges, and such. She'd heard that Capsule Corporations had a space travel program, but why would her Goten be on one of the ships with all the others?
A ship... Paresu frowned, remembering how the white-skinned woman had demanded a ship from Bulma. She had thought it likely that she meant a boat, but here everyone was on this spacecraft. Were they trying to sell their products to the Greenland company and giving Serive a tour? But Goten didn't know anything about spaceships, so why was he in there? And if he was just tagging along, why couldn't she be there? What was so confidential to Capsule Corporation that Goten was allowed to know but she couldn't?
She peered at the wall beyond the ship. There was something there, but she couldn't see. She tiptoed into the room and craned her neck. After a few paces she saw a room beyond a large pane of glass. Krillin was speaking into a microphone sticking out of a panel, but she didn't hear any sound over the speakers. He must've been communicating with the ship.
Paresu moved more behind the ship so that no one would see her. She was at a loss for what to do next, though. She wanted to march onto the ship and yell at Goten for trying to keep her prisoner in their guestroom, but she knew she wasn't supposed to be there. For all she knew, there could be a good reason to keep her away, not to mention that if she started an argument in front of Bulma's business associate, Paresu might screw up a big deal.
The model decided to return to her room and wait for Goten, when she heard a strange sound, like a vacuum being switched on. But she didn't feel any kind of suction; if anything, there was a low, warm breeze, and it was coming from underneath the ship. The air flow and heat increased, and it finally dawned on her that the ship was powering up.
There was an enormous flash of blue light, and a abrupt blast of hot air whipped Paresu back several feet. She cried out beneath the roar of the engine as she flew back towards some crates by the wall, but she lost her breath as her body crashed into an open crate. Her eyes fluttered closed even as the wooden box slid back into a stack of more, and a lid slid from the top of the pile and smacked perfectly onto the long box. The drilling mechanism automatically whirred its arm over as the piled empty crates fell. Screws were drilled into the first two corners, then another set a third of the length down. The machine buzzed as it discovered that it was out of screws, and as the arm retracted to replenish them, one of the crates hit the plug and jarred it from the socket. The mechanism ceased its function, Paresu was concealed, and by the time the ship's engines turned off and the light faded all the clattering was silent.
"Sorry, Krillin," Bulma apologized over her intercom. She gave him a wave from behind the windshield. "It's just that Bra forgot her own luggage." She turned and glared at her daughter.
Bra smiled sheepishly. "I forgot to put it with the rest of the stuff to go on board. I left it all by the unused crates."
Trunks grabbed Goten's arm. "We'll get it, 'Kaasan."
The two left the control room. Serive followed to make sure they didn't dally, but remained by the stairs that lowered from the ship as the two ran around to the other side of the ship. They saw several bags by a fallen pile of crates. Trunks groaned, as although many things were needed for the length of the trip, his sister still must've packed twice as much.
"That girl is ridiculous," Trunks grumbled as the cargo bay hatch slid open. He began grabbing to bags at a time and transferring them into the hold.
"Eh, she's a girl. Probably brought clothes for every occasion, even for the chance that she might meet some hot alien guy," Goten snickered as he joined in on the process.
"That's disturbing, Goten." Trunks shook his head. "Not to mention that 'Tousan would kill any 'hot alien guy' who tried anything."
Goten smiled at such predictable behavior. He reached for another bag, but stopped when he noticed a sealed crate. "Hey, what's this?"
Trunks stopped with a couple more satchels in his arms. "Eh?" He looked at the box. "Oh, we must've missed one."
Goten frowned. "It's not labeled, and it's not even closed all the way. Are you sure it's for us?"
"What else would it be?" Trunks flew up to the hatch and tossed to two small bags in.
"Maybe we should open it first."
"WILL YOU TWO STOP YOUR YAPPING AND MOVE IT??" shouted an irritated Serive.
Trunks sneered and rolled his eyes. "Just put in on the ship. Be careful in case it's computer equipment or something else delicate."
Pan raced around the halls madly. This could not be happening. Not only had she lost Paresu, but she could sense that the girl was in the launching area. And not only was she in that area, but she was on the ship with the others! Pan scrambled through the twisting and turning hallways, searching for any familiar mark that would lead her to the site. At the same time, her mind scrambled for a reason why Paresu would be on the ship in the first place. Why did they let her on? Why was she going along? Something was very wrong, and Pan was relieved when she finally found a sign that pointed her in the direction of the launching pad. She took a few more turns and finally came upon the long hall leading from the main building to the ship area.
Looking down the tunnel, she could see the heat waves coming from underneath the ship. The countdown echoed through the passage and told her that she had one second to get to the ship. Using her energy, she launched herself all the way through the hall and stopped in front of the spacecraft as it left the ground.
"Hey, is that Pan?" Bulma asked, peering through the glass as the ship rose into the air. The dark-haired girl was jumping up and down, waving her hands about, and yelling something.
Trunks rolled his eyes. "She's probably still pissed of about not being able to tag along."
Pan had stopped leaping about and was now cupping her hands in front of her mouth to scream something at them.
Trunks sweatdropped. "Talk about being desperate. As if we can hear her."
Bulma shrugged. "Well, she'll just have to yell at us later." She spoke into the microphone sticking out from the board before her. "Initiating air propulsion to take us into space. Three.. two.. one." She slapped a button, and all were suddenly thrown into their seats.
The spacecraft launched itself through the hole in the ceiling, through the sky, struggled through the atmosphere, and five minutes after take-off, MARC was flying through space and on its way to Wycan.
Darkness. That's all she could see when her eyes flickered open. Pain jot through her back and in her head, and for a moment she couldn't recall what had happened. But slowly she recalled the ship in the lab, and hiding from everyone, and the ship powering up...
Paresu pressed her hands up and felt wooden slats. She realized that she was in a crate, as she faintly recalling having flown into one, though she didn't remember it being closed. She reached up with her small hands and tried to push the lid off, but her to her confusion it was stuck tight. She used all her strength, yet it didn't budge, and she began to panic. She was trapped; she barely had room to move. It was a long box she'd fallen into, with only enough room for her to lie down in. Paresu tried pounding on the lid with her fists, hoping that at least someone would hear her, but after a few minutes no one freed her.
Then came the horrified thoughts. What if she ran out of air? What if she starved to death? What if they'd thought she was dead, and this was actually a coffin she was buried in? Buried alive! Her eyes widened in terror at the concept and shrieked and began punching and kicking the lid. Her legs gave better results, for when she kicked that end of the lid it popped up and revealed dim light before slamming back down. Paresu calmed down a bit at the knowledge that she was not buried, and gave the lid another hit with her foot. Oddly, but fortunately, only one end of the lid had been screwed to the crate. She kicked more at the sturdy wood, using all her strength, and soon the lid cracked a bit at the middle. A few more jolts and it snapped in half, the bottom flying off. She shimmied down a bit and got her legs out, then raised her posterior over the bottom edge of the crate until she could slide completely out.
A sparse number of fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, revealing that the young woman had been placed in some sort of large storage facility. Boxes of different shapes and sizes where stacked against the walls, leaving only enough space for one long path from the far wall to a door on the opposite side. Paresu looked down at this metallic trail, as her crate had been placed atop a pile of other long, narrow crates. Seeing nothing else to do, she slowly crawled down the tower of boxes, thankful that they were stacked unevenly and gave her footholds. In only five minutes her feet were on the ground, and, eager to figure out where she was, trotted to the door.
Paresu opened the door and stepped out from the cargo hatch into a curving hallway about six feet wide. She frowned, as she had no idea where she'd wound up. She rubbed the back of her aching head, and groaned when she saw blood had wiped off onto her palm. She wondered how long the injury had her unconscious, and it became feasible that she might have been transported to anywhere. Paresu hoped she hadn't been cut too badly and walked over to a window across the hall to see if perhaps she could twist her head to see the reflection of the wound. She was surprised to see stars in the sky. Had she really been out all day? Many days?
A bright orb slid slowly into view, and Paresu instantaneously thought how pretty it was with its blending browns and greens and defined splotches of blue, all masked with swirls of white. But then she recognized it as the Earth.
Paresu stared at the planet as she slowly comprehended. The Earth was outside the window. She was looking out said glass. Therefore, she was not on Earth.
The next course of action was simple.
She screamed.
She screamed and yelled and shrieked until finally all the people she'd seen go onto the ship appeared in the hallway that passed the closet. Paresu did not care to recognize the shocked expressions on their faces at her presence.
Goten came forward. "Paresu? What the-" He grabbed her on the shoulders and shouted above her panicking. "HOW DID YOU GET HERE?"
"What's going on?!" Paresu shrieked into Goten's face. "We're in space, Goten! We're not on Earth! We're flying through outer space! Space! SPA-"
Goten, wincing from her outburst, covered her rapidly flapping mouth. "I know. Calm down."
She whined nervously and her eyes stared at him worriedly.
Goten removed his hand and smiled at her encouragingly. "Okay... Well, I suppose there's not avoiding it anymore." He laughed tightly, but Paresu obviously found nothing funny. He remembered all those watching, and he took her hand. "I'll tell you everything, but let's go to another room."
"No." Paresu's hands clutched at her dress tightly. "Just tell me. Now."
"But-"
"Just, just say it!"
"Paresu-"
"Goten!" Bulma hissed. She gave him a pointed look, urging him to spill it.
Goten nodded, and took a breath. He tried to prepare himself for whatever reaction he would receive. He knelt down in front of Paresu and took her hands into his. She looked into his eyes and he did the same.
"Well," he began, "I suppose there's only one way to say it..." He glanced down for a moment, then back to her face. "Paresu, I'm half-alien. I can fly, control energy, and I was born with a tail."
Awkward silence had never been so prominent. No one was sure what they expected Goten to say, but that wasn't it.
"An... alien ... I see." Paresu muttered after seemingly forever, but her eyes were focused at something far away.
"You... see...?" Goten repeated, confused.
Paresu nodded idly. "Yes."
Then she promptly fainted.
"Well," Trunks said, "I thought that there was only one way to say it, but you found another one."
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Ah, so Paresu finally knows. 'Bout time, ne? Next chapter, you'll see her reaction to this news and everyone else's reaction to her presence, not to mention their first visit to a planet. That is, unless I decide to put up the first interlude... decisions, decisions...
As usual, please review or drop me a line at gaiafaye@hotmail.com to let me know how I"m doing. All comments are welcome.