Chapter 26- Awake

            Vegeta squinted his eyes from, what was to him, a bright light. Slowly, his vision started to clear and he was met with the sight of two smiling, but somewhat tearful people. Vegeta didn't recognize the two people at first, but after a few seconds, the names came to him. Goku, his longtime 'friend', and Bulma a girl who he had just met.

            He didn't like that way he was lying down while they were above him. It made him feel helpless. He tried to sit up but Goku put a hand on his shoulder to hold him down.

            "Lie down, Vegeta. I'ts okay." Goku reassured him.

            Vegeta allowed his eyes to wander from Goku to take in his surroundings, but after a brief inspection, he realized that he didn't recognize the place at all. Goku noticed Vegeta's expression and answered his unspoken question.

            "You're at Capsule Corp."

            Vegeta's head snapped back over to Goku a bit quicker than he would have liked, but he ignored the slight nausea the action had caused.

            "Wuy?" He raspily whispered.

            Goku looked at him a bit bewildered by the question. "What do you..."

            But before Goku could finish, Bulma spoke up. "Don't you remember what happened?" She asked, but instead of waiting for Vegeta to answer, she continued. "The police found you in a burning house, and they brought you to the hospital. But the hospital couldn't do anything and only gave you a few hours to live. Then I called daddy and we brought you to Capsule Corp. because we have better equipment than the hospital does. And a whole bunch of other stuff happened but that's not important." She rambled waving her hands around the entire time.

            During Bulma's chronology, Vegeta's eyes had glazed over a bit, but he blinked a few times and then looked from one teen to the other. He was still more than a bit confused, but he decided he could figure out exactly what happened later. Just then a thought hit him. "Whahz dhe dae?"

            "It's Sunday, Septem..." Just then Dr. Briefs walked in Interrupting Goku.

            "Alright kids." He addressed Goku and Bulma. "The nurses just called. It's time to leave Vegeta alone."

            "But Daddy..." Bulma whined.

            "No buts. Let the boy rest. You can visit him tomorrow." He said all the while herding them out the door. When they were finally out, he turned back to Vegeta. "Well how are you feeling, my boy?"

            Vegeta halfway shrugged, wondering who this guy was.

            "So let's see. First, do you remember your name?" He asked while checking the machines surrounding Vegeta's bed.

            "Yezz."

            "Would you state it for me?"

            Vegeta was getting tired so he just figured he'd just do what the man said. "Vegedaa."

            "Good." Dr. Briefs said moving to check the IV's in Vegeta's arms. "How about what school you go to?"

            A pause. "...unuon..."

            "Mhmm." Dr. Briefs said shining a light in Vegeta's eye. "okay. That's all for now. I will leave you alone and let you sleep." With that, he got up and left, making sure to dim the lights on the way out.

            Vegeta stared tiredly at the door for a while, still severely confused, but then decided to take the old man's advice and drifted off to sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            "Have you found anything YET?!!" Johnson said exasperated.

            "Nothing since five hours ago when I found his birth records. Either he's hasn't killed many people or he's very crafty."

            "Come on, Kyle. There has got to be some description of this Shadow guy. I mean hair eyes, does he have horns, ANYTHING!!!"

            "Guys." Brianna said from across the room. "The lab called. The blood matches."

            "Well that doesn't help much! We already knew where they shot the kid. The guy admitted to it!" Kyle fumed from his desk.

            "And another thing." Brianna continued eyeing Kyle. "Briefs called also. The kid's awake, but they ask that we wait until tomorrow to question him."

            "Why?" Johnson asked.

            Brianna shrugged. "Tired I guess."

            "TIRED?!!" Kyle roared. "He's been sleeping for days!!!"

            "Shut up!" Johnson hissed and then turned to Brianna. "How much does he know?"

            "They didn't ask him much. I guess they don't want to stress him or something."

            Kyle hmphed but other than that kept quiet.

            The short lived silence was once again broken by a phone ringing. "Hello?" Brianna said. "Uh-huh...okay. We'll be there." She hung the phone up and scribbled down something on a paper, and, handing it to Johnson, she said. "Dakotah has a lead on Shadow."

            "Okay." Johnson said. "Bring your guns. Let's go."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            "It's really weird." Dakotah was praising himself. "It's like Shadow and Locke are legends around here, but nobody knows who they are, where they came from, or where there hideout is. But then again, if you know what you're doing, it's pretty easy to locate people."

            "Yeah." Kyle said sarcastically. "That's why it only took six hours for you to do it."

            Dakotah decided to ignore his Kyle's comment, and continued to walk down the alley. When he got to a door though, he stopped. "Okay, according to my resources, this is where he should be."

            Everyone simultaneously pulled out their guns. Then Johnson, Kyle and Dakotah proceeded to kick the door down.

            "Could they have tried the doorknob?" Brianna mumbled following the three men as they hurled themselves into the building.

            The four detectives scanned the room as they entered it but saw no signs of life.

            "You two take upstairs." Johnson indicated Kyle and Brianna. "We'll check down here."

            Nodding, the two groups split up and stalked toward their assigned places.

            Johnson and Dakotah walked into what must've been, or what used to be, a kitchen. Nothing seemed very out of place and they were about to move on to the next room when a small noise caught their attention. Both heads snapped toward the pantry. They listened carefully, but didn't hear the sound again. The men looked skeptically at one another but then moved silently toward the pantry.

            Dakotah readied his gun and then nodded to Johson who nodded back and then swung open the door.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Kyle and Brianna froze outside the door hearing a scream coming from downstairs. They briefly considered going check it out but then figured that the situation was under control.

            Giving each other ready glances, they both ran through the door pointing their guns in every direction. The detectives froze however, when they saw the sight that greeted them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            "The other girls left when it happened. I had nowhere to go so I stayed here. Then when I heard the door break down, I thought he was back and hid in the pantry."

            "When what happened? You thought who was back?" Johnson asked.

            "He... He...I don't know his name. He did business with Shadow and Locke."

            "What business?"

            "The usual. Shadow and Locke will kill anyone if the price is right. We all assumed that he was just like the others, but he wasn't. He was crazy."

            Dakotah muffled a snort. "Do you know where he went?"

            "No."

            "Well come on." Johnson sighed. "Let's go meet up with Brianna and Kyle."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Brianna and Kyle started slightly as Johnson, Kyle and a woman came into the room.

            "My God." Johnson said.

            The woman started to silently cry.

            Dakotah walked over and bent down. "This is him alright." He said as he examined the body. "It matches the descriptions perfectly."

            "Damn." Kyle hissed.

            "Kyle, call this in. You and Dakotah stay here. Brianna, you come with me." Johnson turned and walked out of the room, the woman and Brianna following him.

            Kyle and Dakotah watched them leave and then turned back to Shadow, who was lying lifeless on the floor in a pool of his own blood.