Chapter 29 – One city, two faces
About half an hour later they all met at the park. Goku and the two kids had tracked Vegeta's aura down and now they were all sitting under a tree. Bulma still hadn't showed up but they didn't expect her to know much about the situation either. Everyone was relying on Hotaru with the question. The girl had already told them that something was definitely wrong in the city but that didn't tell them much.
"Should we ask for help again?" Michiru asked. "Sailor Pluto might know something. Or perhaps Pegasus."
"Just because many people are acting like chickens?" Yaten asked, opening one eye. "They may be afraid of something but that doesn't instantly mean some evil darkness demon. Cool down, will you?"
"I wouldn't worry about people," Haruka said. "Have you noticed that there are no animals in this town? No stray cats or dogs. No pigeons. Heck, I haven't even seen any bugs. This lawn here is the cleanest I've ever seen."
"They probably escaped," Hotaru agreed. "I'd love to know why."
The others glanced at her. "You sure? I'd rather get away from here as soon as possible," Goku said.
"We can't leave without Bulma," Michiru replied. "Does anyone know how long she'll take?"
Now Vegeta opened his eyes too. "Fine, I'll call her. Guess it's important enough…" He took a cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number.
"I had no idea that you had a cell phone," Goku said with surprise.
"I live in a huge city. Sometimes tracking people down by their auras isn't enough. Hey Bulma, how long is it gonna take? Guys here think that we should leave this city as soon as possible. Something isn't right."
"I noticed," Bulma's voice agreed from the phone. "Everyone is acting like the apocalypse was coming. Seriously, it took me half an hour to convince the secretary to talk to me. Sheesh. Anyway, I think it'll take longer than I expected. These guys here work incredibly slow, peering over their shoulders all the time and all, and things have really gotten out of hands at the branch office. In short, I think we'll have to stay overnight."
"Not a smart idea," Hotaru commented.
"Got better suggestions?" Yaten asked. Hotaru shrugged.
"We can always leave the city for the night and come back in the morning."
"But maybe we'd be able to help them?" Goku asked. "I mean, the whole city is afraid of something. We could help them get rid of that fear."
"Whatever it is, it must be massive," Haruka warned him. "This isn't just some boogeyman under the bed, you know."
"A massive attack of boogeymen?" Trunks guessed. "'Boogeymen Against People – We Have Been Forced To Stay Under The Beds For Too Long?'"
"Why not?" Taiki asked, looking up. "Childhood fears are the most powerful. Adults fear normal things like illnesses or getting caught by the tax office."
"But childhood fears are easier to fight," Michiru remarked. "Deep down inside every kid knows that those monsters under the bed don't exist, and that's what helps them."
Goten snorted. "Pfft, right. Don't you remember your childhood? Deep down inside everyone knows that the monsters do exist and that's what makes the fear so powerful. Why, I remember when I was afraid of the boogeyman in the closet when I was four…"
"It wasn't a boogeyman," Goku interjected. "It was just an alien monster."
The kid nodded. "Yeah, and after I had beaten the daylight out of him, I wasn't afraid of any boogeymen any more."
"Perhaps if we'd make everyone to beat the crud out of their fear, whatever it may be…" Seiya theorized. Vegeta frowned.
"First we need to find out what the fear is. What did the girl at the mall say again?"
"Go away while you still can," Michiru remembered as Goten nodded. "So… we may not have much time?"
"Midnight," Haruka said firmly. "It's always midnight. Let's wait until then. When nothing happens during the night, we'll keep thinking tomorrow."
Vegeta's cell phone rang. "Hey, where are you guys? Let's settle the camp and call it a day. We can't do much else anyway."
"Yeah," Vegeta agreed with a frown, "we really can't do much else."
"It's getting dark," Trunks commented, sitting by the window. The capsule house was standing in the middle of the park. Bulma had been a little worried that camping in the middle of the park would get them in trouble but Haruka had said that all policemen she had seen on the streets were too busy biting their nails.
"Can you sense anything?" Seiya asked Hotaru who shook her head.
"I can only tell that something's not right in this city but we all pretty much got that already, or what?"
"Goten, get over here and check that out," Trunks called. His buddy trotted to the window and sat down on the sill.
"Whatever the reason is, it must be powerful," Bulma said with concern. "What if we are just like them in the morning?"
"I'm not exactly saying that I'm not afraid of anything," Vegeta remarked, "but I can say without a single doubt that nothing in the world would make me peer around constantly and looking like I was about to wet myself."
"Yeah, these are just normal people on the streets," Goku agreed. "I mean, we're powerful Saiyans. And other types of superheroes," he added, glancing at the Sailor Soldiers. "What I don't understand is… why don't the people leave?"
"Perhaps they're afraid to?" Trunks guessed. "Wow, those houses look cool!"
"Yeah, all wriggly and stuff… just like… oh crud." Goten closed his mouth and looked back at the others. "You better come and see this."
Everyone galloped to the window and looked out. The sun was still setting and the park was filled with soft orange light. The buildings in the distance were already packed in darkness and they seemed different: completely black, somehow like stretched out and they looked like they were moving a little. And the darkness that surrounded them wasn't black. It was dark green.
"Hotaru, you said that you weren't sensing anything!" Bulma practically yelled. Hotaru's eyes had widened.
"I'm not. It's not the demon. Without a single doubt."
Sunlight was backing away and green darkness slid closer. They could clearly see the nearer houses turn black and start waving silently. There wasn't a clear line between darkness and light but darkness was obviously taking over.
"Let's get outside," Haruka suddenly said. "We may not be able to open the door once the city has deformed, remember?"
Vegeta rocketed to the door and pushed it open. It screeched and tried to remain closed but the Saiyan prince didn't see things that way. He leaped outside and the others followed him. The door slammed shut after Trunks and turned black. The whole house was black too and its surface was melting. The grass was dark and squishy. It had no specific color.
"Mm-kay, so it looks like we won't be able to get any sleep tonight," Seiya commented.
"Crud," Yaten remarked.
"It's not midnight yet, right?" Michiru asked Haruka who shook her head.
"So, what should we do until then?" Bulma asked, peering around. "We can't go inside and venturing out there in that deformed city doesn't sound like a nice idea either."
"Got any third options in that case?" Vegeta asked. "I'm not staying here. Is anyone coming with me?" He started off towards the city.
"Sure thing," the two brats agreed and so the others followed them as well.
The sun was now nothing but some red haze above the horizon and darkness had taken over. The streets were empty – no screaming people this time. Or actually, there was screaming but it came from the houses. Most windows were open.
"When do those people sleep?" Taiki asked with surprise. "No wonder they seem so pale and distressed."
"Perhaps we should…" Hotaru couldn't even finish her sentence before Goku floated up in the air and stopped in front of a window.
"Excuse me… hello, is there a problem?" he asked with a friendly smile. Hotaru blinked.
"Knock on someone's door and ask what's wrong," she said grimly. Other Saiyans floated up too. Haruka grabbed Vegeta's boot and as the prince heaved her up with a grunt, looked inside as well.
"Cool," she said, raising her brows. Yaten jumped on the windowsill – being one of the Sailor Star Lights, he was a good jumper and the window was on the second floor. He looked inside and blinked.
There was a family – a mother, a father and two little kids – in one corner of the room. They were petrified, and a bunch of people floating behind the window didn't make them feel much better either. But the main reason of their fear was standing in the middle of the room. It was huge, hairy and dark brown, with massive paws and small yellow eyes.
"Uh, roar," he said at the moment. "Boo. Other scary sayings." He checked a small piece of paper it was holding in one paw. "Scary movements with paws…" he waved his paws a little and the kids started screaming again, "yeah, that has to be it. Boo again."
Goku floated inside, landed next to the creature and poked its shoulder. The being turned around.
"Yeah? Make it quick, I'm trying to work in here."
"Hi." Goku smiled widely. "Are you a boogeyman?"
"Yep," the creature agreed. "Legally. Here's my ID." He stuck a small card under Goku's nose. "Sorry, I'm kinda busy at the moment, okay? I'm still a rookie so I need to concentrate a little."
"Now I've seen everything," Yaten remarked. The other two of the Three Lights landed next to him, completely stuffing the small windowsill and stared at the scene.
"I think you're doing just fine here," Goku remarked, looking at he family. The creature grinned widely and sheepishly.
"Just trying to give my best… hey, if you want to talk to my, I have a lunch break at 11. Until then… lemme get back to what I'm paid for, 'kay?"
"Sure thing, can we meet anywhere then?" Goku asked. The boogeyman pondered for a second and then said:
"The Little Sunshine café, they have great food there, that's where I usually eat, okay?" Goku nodded. "Nice. Oookay then. Erm, boo. Boo. BOOO!" The children screeched and hid behind their parents who were actually trying to hide behind the kids at that same moment. "Hey, I'm getting better at this!"
"Now that's just… plain weird," Hotaru said as Goten had carried her up too to show her the scene. "And as a matter of fact, it's not even scary."
"You know, as the Sailor Soldier of Death you should avoid generalizing," Haruka commented. "Even though I agree with you for this matter. That boogeyman seemed like a nice guy."
"Looks like all families have their own boogeymen saying "roar" to them," Goku reported, landing next to them on the pavement. "Okay, so some are big spiders with twelve feet and some are vampires and such… but they are all doing pretty much the same thing."
"Working, you mean," Seiya said. "They're all working. And it even makes sense. Boogeymen are supposed to scare people… that's their job, you know. Even if you wouldn't expect them to be so… organized."
"I don't think we'll find out anything before 11 p.m.," Michiru said with a slight frown. "What time is it?"
"A little after ten," Hotaru replied. "Let's just…" she hesitated, "go for a walk or something?"
"In that crazy twisted city?" Bulma shivered.
"What's the worst that could happen?" Vegeta asked. "The streets are empty. Unless a boogeyman gets fired, jumps out of the window in frustration and lands on your head, there isn't much to fear here."
Goku chuckled. "That was funny."
"No," Vegeta frowned, "merely an observation." He pointed at a furry creature that was bouncing off the pavement at that moment a couple of hundred feet away. "The organization they're working for seems to be pretty strict." The furry being got up and waddled away. "No big wonder. People aren't afraid of boogeymen like they used to."
"Amen to that, buddy," a huge black creature remarked, plodding past them and disappearing into one of the houses.
"Dad, were you really afraid of boogeymen too when you were little?" Trunks asked with a wide grin. Vegeta snorted.
"No. I grew up in Freeza's army, remember? All sane boogeymen kept well away and all insane ones became guinea pigs in the laboratories. One way or another, they didn't last."
Seiya looked around. "So… does anyone know where that café actually is?"
It was 11:10 when they finally found the café, mainly thanks to Goku's constant asking for directions. ("Hey you… oh, it's not your head… oh, it is? Anyway, where's the Little Sunshine café? Okay, thanks." And ten minutes later: "Hello… oh, nice fangs… can you tell me where the Little Sunshine café is? Okay, thanks.") The place was a small cozy open-air café – at least in daytime. Now the walls were black and the parasols were made of something that looked like shrouds. The café was crowded and most of the visitors were extremely furry.
"This place is actually… pretty nice," Taiki remarked, raising his brows.
"Compared with that tavern in the Afterworld, not bad at all," Haruka agreed. "Then again, I think that they all belong to the same chain."
"Hey, there he is! Dude! Remember me?" Goku had already elbowed his way to a small table where the brown boogeyman sat, eating a burger.
"Sure I do," he replied with a grin and moved aside, making Goku some room to sit down. "You're not local, huh? You don't seem to be afraid of us."
"Naw, we're not local. We just wanted to ask…" Goku couldn't finish as Trunks interrupted, staring at the burger:
"Is it human flesh?"
The boogeyman frowned. "No, I'm a vegetarian. You wanted to ask what?"
"There goes my poor innocent view of life… again," Trunks snorted as Goku looked around, trying to form his question into a sentence and finally asked: "What exactly is going on in here?"
"Well, it's a bit hard to explain to outsiders," the boogeyman said, "but generally it's just some good old-fashioned haunting. You see, the humans have jobs and we have jobs. Their jobs are working at the malls, cafés, hospitals, schools, you get the point. Our job is to haunt them at night. A fair deal. That's how it has always been. Name's Bob, bytheway," he added with a wide grin, showing two rows of long yellow fangs and leaning forward to shake Goku's hand.
"Nice to meet you." Goku's smile was completely sincere, the others just stared. "Hey, that burger looks great. I could use one too."
"We just ate!" Michiru snapped. The Saiyan was already waving frantically. "Waiter! Hey waiter!"
"They don't work at night," Bob commented as a man stepped closer. He was a human, the only one in the whole city who wasn't pale and frightened. He was about fifty years old and he had a wide brown friendly face.
"Yeah, they're all petrified," he agreed. "In daytime I have plenty of workers here but at night I need to work alone. A shame, actually. So, what can I get you and as I see, none of you is frightened, would anyone perhaps be interested in a nightjob?"
"We're not planning to stay for long," Hotaru replied as Goku glanced at the food other customers were eating. "Do you have a mega cheeseburger with extra meat?" he eventually asked.
"Coming right up," the owner of the café agreed and hurried off.
"Tell us, Bob…" Haruka sat down too. "Boogeymen and monsters and such have always existed but why is this city here the only one I've seen where the people are constantly afraid? How come there are so many of you and why aren't you hiding under the beds as usually?"
"Well, that's temporary." Bob swallowed the last piece of his burger. "Right now all monsters from the whole planet have gathered here in this city. Just until the boss gets everything back in order, you know. Shouldn't take more than another couple of weeks."
"The boss?" Seiya blinked and looked at the boogeyman. "Who's your boss then?"
"Never seen him," Bob replied cheerfully. "He's the big cheese, y'know. We get our contracts from the smaller offices that work for the offices that work for him."
Vegeta looked around and his eyes narrowed. "Where does that boss live?"
"Not here, that's for sure," the boogeyman said and stood up. "He shows up once in a while though. Look, I'm just a little worker, if you want to know more, you need to higher, y'know what I mean? I need to go back to work now but if you want to know more, you might as well try going to some of the offices and try getting an appointment."
"That's exactly what we're going to do," Hotaru stated with her eyes narrowing too. "So, could you lead us to one of those offices?"