Act Two, Chapter Nine
The Arrival of A Bigger Threat! Ten-Thirteen's Explosive Return!
"Remind me to take a picture of you when this is all over," the lavender-haired demi-saiyajin blurted out with a mischievous grin, earning another scowl from his companion who was trudging behind him with a sullen look on his pale features. The hallway they had to go through to reach the study of their Ryuujin host was empty and unusually silent, enough to ignite suspicion at the back of the half-aliens' minds.
They stopped upon arriving in front of a metal door, which had a something like a name in the Ryuujin's native language etched upon it. Trunks threw a glance at his friend, who nodded, indicating that he was ready for whatever was beyond that door, and that was when the former reached for the activation button just beside the door, making the metal plate slide open.
The room was fairy large, but very simple. It hardly had any equipment except for a couple of reclining chairs arranged around a round table, a large viewscreen at the far end, and a control panel with an assortment buttons, switches, levers, joysticks and the like. The walls were covered with black velvet cloth, and basically everything else in the room had the deep shade of black that the aliens seemed to favor.
"Welcome," a growl-sounding voice began from the far end of the room, and as the demi-saiyajins stepped in, they found their host sitting by the viewscreen on one of the reclining chairs, his back turned against them. In a few moments, however, he spun around to greet the newcomers with a smile that exposed his dagger-like teeth. "I am Commanderr Rryuuuuki. I am honorred that youu couuld both join me."
Trunks elbowed Goten, who cleared his throat and responded in a forced female tone, "The pleasure is ours, sir."
The alien's eyes narrowed, as if cross-examining the woman who accompanied the demi-saiyajin, but he threw away all the suspicions he had in mind. Not that those suspicions mattered anyway. "Please, sit down," he told them, gesturing towards the seats by the table as he, too, moved towards them, eager to get into business. "Now, what was it youu wanted to talk abouut?"
Taking advantage that their adversary was focused on the older demi-saiyajin, Goten crossed his leg and swung around casually. The switch, button, or whatever the orb-controlling device was, was just supposed to be around there somewhere. And we have to find it, he finished, biting his lip.
"Well... about your project, actually."
"I see," Ryuuki replied, pursing his lips. He waited for his guests to continue, but then he noticed that they didn't know how to start up the discussion. After all, how would they expect to tell their enemies that they know about the upcoming invasion when they weren't supposed to? "Buut youu don't seem to be comforrtable with the suubject. Well, then, let's go strraight to the point." He paused to lean back against his chair, smirking. "Gentlemen-"
A whole armada of Ryuujins stepped out from all directions, closing on their guests and leaving them with no way out.
"- herre arre ouurr guuests forr this evening. Please make suurre that theirr stay herre will be comforrtable and memorrable. Buut afterr midnight, they will be guuests no longerr. They will be..." Ryuubuki's voice trailed off, pausing for a moment to reveal a mischievous, toothy smile that sent shivers down his guests' spines. "... slaves."
-x-
"Trunks! Trunks, do you copy?! Kasumi's out there, and she's going to kill you! Something's new about her! I don't know what, but --- Trunks? Trunks!" Not earning a transmission in reply from the spaceship they had been monitoring, Yumi slammed her fists on the control panel in frustration. She then told her companion, "They don't seem to be in the ship. The line isn't jammed, but they're not responding. They must've moved into the main ship already."
Her heart pounded heavily as she said those words. Even if her friends would be able to find the device that would reverse the function of the orbs, and thus save the world from the upcoming invasion, they would still get killed if they won't know what to expect. Kasumi, her father's killing machine, nearly slaughtered the demi-saiyajin at their last confrontation; this time, Yumi was sure the woman would not taken any chances.
Videl took her place and attempted to contact the two warriors once again. "I believe you're right on that," the Chief of Police relayed after some time, her blue eyes narrowed at that development. She turned around to face her boss. "The best thing we can do is transmit a message of warning, but encoded in a way that only they would understand. Do you have some code or something that they would know how to crack?"
The President only shook her head. "No, we didn't make one. We didn't find the use for one anyway. But..." her voice trailed off, a thought crossing her. Ever since the time they infiltrated the Kaname Mansion, she and Trunks had developed a strange kind of bond that allowed them to communicate through their minds. Telepathically, so to speak. If she would be able to contact him with that, it would save them all the trouble. "Hang on."
The young woman spun around, closing her eyes in concentration. Meanwhile, a head popped through the door of the control room, revealing the smiling face of Aira, one of the officers under Videl's department. "Miss President! Chief!" she called out, her expression that of readiness to help out. "What's going on? Anything I can help you with?"
"We need to prepare our troops," she voiced out all of a sudden, making Yumi turn around to face her. Their eyes met; worried green meeting solemn blue. Even the other policewoman stopped what she was doing, leaning forward to listen. "In case they fail, we'll still have hope."
"Very well," Yumi agreed with a nod, the safety of her people coming to mind. She didn't know what was going to happen, but she knew that she would be able to do something about it. She cocked her head to the side slightly, her gaze resting on the eavesdropping police officer, who by then stepped into the room. "Chief Touka, please get the Tokyo Force ready. Stay alert and on guard."
A grin spread on Aira's face, then she took up a sharp salute. "Yes, sir!"
At that, the President turned the former Chief of Police, and smiled. "Secretary of Defense sounds good, doesn't it?" she asked, offering yet another promotion. She didn't know what she was doing; but she was sure that she had positions to fill. And who else would she put into but the people she knew well? "Well, then, Miss Satan, you're in charge."
-x-
What is it, Yumi? Trunks relayed in reply, wondering why his girlfriend was contacting him through the bond instead of the standard methods, but he did not get the opportunity to hear her reply, as he found himself intimidating the Ryuujin Commander who had taken the first step into enslaving them. "You sure are full of surprises, Commander," he commented with a smug grin.
"The key to a suuccessful invasion is the element of suurrprrise, youu see." He flashed his toothy smile once again. "A half-saiyajin and a weak female huuman wouuldn't even take a minuute. Gentlemen, please give ouurr guuests the brriefing they arre rrequuirred to uunderrtake."
The younger of the two demi-saiyajins spared an uneasy glance, but the other only smiled confidently in response, eventually allowing a knowing smirk to leak in. "Sure, a half-saiyajin and a weak female human wouldn't even take a minute of your precious time. But I wonder..." he paused, sweeping his gaze from the band of aliens that surrounded them. "... can you handle two half-saiyajins?"
-x-
Target locked.
She gave the viewpanel one last look, running through the entire plan one last time to make sure everything was going to go as intended, before she unfastened the seatbelts and placed the craft in standby mode. Then, she put two fingers to her forehead, a sardonic smile crawling up through her sallow, pointed face. "Vengeance is mine."
-x-
A starfighter, small but full of firepower, streaked across the vast expanse of star-lined velvet, and hit the largest ship that led the flotilla of alien invaders that was labeled Dragonwing. Several other crafts broke their formation and circled around the said ship, their weapons activated and ready to fire.
"Shirryuuuu," the Commander called out to his right-hand as the collision rocked the starfighter, his gaze steady on their guests who were ready to fight, even the weak female human with the power to see the future. At least, that was what they believed in. "Deal with them. I will check it ouut myself."
On the other hand, the warning bell at the back of Goten's mind began to ring furiously. Not because of the fact that the Commander was seemingly attempting to escape, but because of the violent encounter that had just taken place. "See it yet, Trunks?" he asked his comrade, while looking at one control board to the other, trying to find the button that would deactivate the orbs. They were, after all, running out of time.
The older of the two warriors shook his head slightly, careful to keep his guard up, as their opponents were going to strike anytime. "Nope, but I'm ready to blast this ship, though, to end all our misery. Are you with me?" he asked, before his gaze darkened. "There's one downer to that idea of mine, though. We'll never be able to make it back home alive, unless we can find a way to breathe in vacuum. Which is, at the moment, impossible."
Goten looked worried, now more than ever. "We could do that, but why am I seeing starships crowding around this metal junk pile we're in?" he inquired, half-looking at the viewscreen that showed the flaming hull of the gigantic vessel and the numerous fighter ships, of Ryuujin class, surrounding it. "I mean, they're supposed to be of the same fleet, and they're supposed to have the same mission. But from the looks of it---"
Realization crossed Trunks' face. "Kasumi."
"What?"
"It's her. I knew it," the older of the two blurted out, taking a deep breath to push away his newly-felt anxiety. "I felt her earlier, but I wasn't sure if I really did, as I haven't felt her presence ever since Kaname's assassination." His voice dropped in dread. "She can teleport and control minds, Goten. And she's been trying to kill me for as long as I could remember --- what better way to do it than to expose us to the horrors of vacuum? She knows there isn't any way out."
"And I believe she's in this ship right this minute," Goten pitched in, his eyes narrowing considerably. Everything he felt ever since the mysterious collision of the two starfighters finally made sense, especially the song of warning that pounded inside his head.
-x-
Ryuuki ran, tearing through the fiery corridor, his heart pounding in dread and alarm. He didn't think it was possible for Ten-Thirteen to make it to the rendezvous point when she was hours late, but he was proved wrong. And he knew she was capable of doing other things, just like what she had exhibited. After all, she defeated Ryuurai, the Ryuujin Emperor, at the tender age of seven.
He stopped, flinging his arms to drive away the walls of fire that threatened to close on him left and right. If she was in the ship, he had to eliminate her, and eliminate her fast, no matter what her motives were. The fact that she sent one of the fleet's starfighters crashing into the leader's vessel was enough to make him want to put an end to her life. Cursing in his own native language, he pushed his way through the scorching barriers -
- and was soon forced to a halt.
"Commander Ryuuki, pleasure to catch up with you at long last. You and your Ryuujin imps," a young woman snarled in a low, bitter tone as the flames of hell erupted from behind her, eating away the ship's hull slowly but steadily. "How dare you betray a comrade. Oh, don't play games with me. You shot me down that night. That night when my Master died."
"It was a mistake," the alien warrior replied, looking at her intently. "A merre mistake, Ten-Thirrteen. I apologize if it cauused youu muuch discomforrt. Youu see, the trransmission youu sent ouut did not arrrrive in time. And since youu werre piloting a vessel with no marrkings, we thouught youu werre the pilot of a trrading ship that couuld cauuse morre damage than we couuld anticipate. So we did what we werre tauught."
Her gaze darkened. "I did not," she began in a steely tone, glaring at the Ryuujin Commander with as much force as she could muster, "transmit anything. Because you didn't even allow me to. And here you are, saying that I did. You liar! You knew it was me all along, and don't even try to deny that any more than you already have!"
The alien stretched out his arms. "If vengeance is what youu desirre," he interrupted, looking at her calmly, "then attack me. Slay me. I am uunarrmed; youu shouuld have no trrouuble erradicating someone like me. Go on, Ten-Thirrteen. Vengeance is youurrs. It's within youurr rreach. Grrab it now."
But she could not move. She compelled herself to lunge at him, to silence him for good, but she could not move a muscle. When her gaze landed on the other's horrid-looking face, she found him smiling like nothing happened. "Oh my," Ryuuki muttered, mock disbelief the expression on his face. "What have I done to make suuch misforrtuune land on dearr Ten-Thirrteen? It muust be the Guuuuq; I'd forrgotten youu had it-"
Then, he himself could not move.
"The Guuuuq only allows you physical control, Commander Ryuuki," Kasumi informed him in a voice as cold and inert as her sapphire eyes. "I, on the other hand, can control you mentally, even if the Guuuuq in me is under your influence. I don't need to be able to move to do some damage. Funny how things happen." She winked at him. "If you want us to have a glaring contest until this ship explodes into nothingness, feel free to continue. After all, I'll only need a second to teleport myself out of here."
"What do youu want?"
"You said it yourself, Commander. Vengeance. I've taken it upon myself to eliminate your race of alien scums," the assassin explained casually, as if it was something she did everyday. Which was, in a sense, true - although to use everyday would be total exaggeration. "And I will use the needed strategy to get to that end, whatever that would be."
Despite the easygoing tone of her voice, however, the Ryuujin clearly saw the anger that shone fiercely through her eyes, and he was not willing to take any more chances at the situation he was facing. "It is simply becauuse of that misuunderrstanding? That might have cauused muuch misforrtuune on youurr parrt, buut I assuurre youu, that won't happen again. Youu have my worrd on that."
She looked scornful. "Tsk, tsk. The leader of this exceptional fleet is striking a bargain - pleading - with someone like me. How touching," she stated, but then her voice dropped drastically. "But that won't change anything. That event you called a misunderstanding changed everything. You don't and you'll never know how much. And because of that, I'm going to kill you. All of you."
Those words seemed to be the trigger to the young woman's remarkably planned assault. The starfighters that circled around the lead ship of the fleet moved even closer; their weapons charged and ready to fire. It was clear that if the assassin would release her hold on the pilots' minds, allowing them to fire, the Dragonwing would be disintegrated in no time.
"Fire."