Chapter Twenty-Seven

Cupid sat smugly in the driver seat of the car with a very bruised Valjean next to him. His plan had worked beautifully. Sasoli was laid out in the back seat along with a nosy detective.

The detective had been a surprise and annoyance to Cupid's plan but, being the genius he was, he had taken the man out before he knew what was happening.

There was also the way she'd passed out before he'd gotten the chloroform over her nose and mouth.

That was strange, but then again, he had messed with it to make it extremely powerful.

So why hadn't it taken them out as well?

No matter.

She must be especially sensitive to it for some reason, he rationalized, she'd practically fainted right into his arms. All he had to do was scoop her up and quickly place her into the backseat and they were gone.

Valjean winced and tried not to breath in too deeply. She must have cracked his ribs when she kicked him on the ground.

The whole incident was a blur.

He'd lingered on the corner like Cupid told him to and he'd quickly turned it when she saw him.

He waited and sure enough she came running around the corner in pursuit.

He grabbed her and then everything went horribly wrong.

She broke his hold easily and then preceded to beat the ever living crap out of him. He didn't know how many times she hit and kicked him.

Then it stopped as suddenly as it had begun.

Cupid had her and was yelling at him move his ass.

"Hey, where are we going?" Valjean glanced at Cupid, "You passed the hotel."

"We're not going to the hotel, you idiot," Cupid smiled, "It's too public. What we need is a nice quiet cabin in the woods."

Valjean nodded and relaxed as best he could with his injuries. He should have realized Cupid was smart to take care of all the details.

Cupid's smile turned dark, once Sasoli was out of the way then he could take care of Uub as well.

Mr. Perfect Detective was going to have a little accident.

Oh, he'd take care of the nosy detective as well.

After all, they were partners.

"It's a form of chloroform," Bulma glanced up from her instruments and then frowned when 17 and 18 finally came in with Zarah and Bardock. "What took you so long?"

"We had to find the chemical agent. Uub is questioning people now," 18 replied and laid Zarah out among the fallen.

"He's going to find Sasoli," 17 announced with a surprising amount of confidence as he laid Bardock down.

A stunned silence hit the room.

In all the commotion of the mysterious fainting people they had forgotten about the first energy signal that had winked out.

"Someone took her?" Maron covered her mouth, hoping she was wrong.

"Yes, someone had to," 18's eyes were worried, "or we would have found hr passed out with the rest of you."

"Uub will find her," 17 announced again, he had to believe it. He couldn't lose his little girl like this, not again.

Uub nodded and the last witness walked away.

From what he could gather a man, matching Valjean's description, had grabbed Sasoli when she rounded the corner. Then a struggle took place. The fight had moved from the corner to approximately twenty feet to the left of the corner where the chemical agent was found.

Then she appeared to faint, where another man, no matching description for him, caught her. This man carried her to a vehicle and mentioned in passing that he was taking her to a hospital.

Then both men climbed into a car and drove away.

He had gotten the make and model but not the license plate.

Uub picked up his cell phone. He was going to have to call in a few favors.

"At the rate the chemical is going through Vegeta's blood stream, he should be awake in an hour or so," Bulma concluded and relaxed back in her chair.

"And Zarah?" 17 asked.

"He's only half saiyan so it might take him two or three hours to work through his blood," Bra answered from her microscope.

"Hmm," 17 tapped his chin, "So a human might be out for an entire day."

Bulma nodded, "Yes, but we'd have to inhale it directly from it's source."

"Sasoli will have that at least," 18 touched Zarah's face, "Ava did train her in case this happened. She has been through this before."

"It shouldn't have happened, then or now," 17 sat on his wife's bed., frustration written in every line of his body.

Maron sighed and exited the room where she found Trunks frowning.

"Trunks," Maron hugged him.

"Do you remember when Sasoli was kidnapped? When we were little?"

She nodded, "We all stayed at your mom's house."

"And we acted like nothing was wrong," Trunks let his hands rest on her hips. "Is that what we're supposed to do now? Just go back to work."

Maron moved away slightly in order to met his eyes.

"No, we continue on with our lives and have faith in Uub to find her so when she comes back, there's still a job to come back to."

Trunks' mouth softened, "You know, you make me glad I didn't fall for a saiyan."

"We can't always fight, Trunks," Maron broke their physical contact, "Sometimes, we have to let the pieces fall first, then we can move them."

"What?" Uub couldn't believe his ears.

According to the guy in information, Beasely had already located Valjean's hotel room and an investigating unit was picking it to pieces as they spoke.

Only Himbon and Beasely were nowhere to be found.

"I want everything sent to me. I am taking over this case as of now. . . I don't care what the chief said!"

Coincidently as well, Beasely and Himbon were issued the same car as Sasoli's kidnappers.

Two different murder weapons had been found at the scene with Valjean's prints all over them.

In fact, only one set of prints could be found in the hotel room.

Valjean's.

Uub was frustrated, this was all too smooth, it felt like a set up. It didn't make any sense. Why would a wanted man register in his own name?

And the murder weapons, why would there be two sets for one man?

It was a set up.

It had to be.

Valjean was a thug. His clumsy murder attempt had left a witness, unmistakable description, and an identification within twenty-four hours of the attack.

The first killer was smart. He'd managed to kill several employees without leaving evidence, witnesses, and, in the end, confounded the entire police department.

He was also smart enough to pin the entire thing on Valjean.

If that were true, then they'd find some evidence to point out exactly where they went, conveniently, with Valjean holding the bloody knife and Sasoli too far gone to save.

His phone rang.

"Oh my god," Uub held his phone as it continued to ring.

The screen read, 'Work.'

He closed his eyes and answered, "Uub."

"We think we found were he took her."

Goten sat in the background while Bra worked.

"How did you know?" She asked him quietly. It was a simple question that she was dying to know the answer to: How had Goten known to pull her and Trunks away from the tainted air? Much less manage to stay out of it completely.

"Know what?" Goten was clueless.

"How did you know where to stand?" Bra turned to face him.

Goten gave her an odd look, "I'm sitting Bra."

"No, earlier. When we started dropping like flies."

"Oh," Goten pondered, "Oh, yeah."

He went silent.

"Well?"

"Hmm?"

"How did you know?

Goten glanced away, "You forgot."

Bra frowned, "Forgot what?"

"Who trained you to fight?"

"My dad and Aunt Ava."

Goten nodded, "Do you know who trained Gohan?"

"Piccolo, right?" Bra searched through stories, "And your dad."

Goten was silent as he crossed the room and sat down so they were on the same level.

"Who trained me, Bra?" His voice was low and serious.

Her first thought was Goku but she knew that wasn't right. Goku had been dead for the first eight years of his life. Gohan had been too busy with school and catching up to train Goten. Trunks was only ever a sparring partner.

"You don't know, do you?" He smiled at her, pleased she hadn't forgotten. She just had never known.

Bra started analyzing his fighting style. Definite Kame style overtones along with their own styling on the marital art. But there was something under itt, similar and yet different from typical kame senin-

"My mom, Bra, she trained me," Goten ran his hands down her arms to calm her agitation. He knew she hated to not know something.

"But she's against fighting," Bra tilted her head, "Right?"

"I think," Goten shrugged, "but she's the world strongest woman, well, unaltered human woman."

He laughed a little self-consciously.

"So . . . not rushing immediately and completely on the scene?" Bra forked her eyebrows, trying to understand.

Goten gave her an adorable helpless expression, "I don't know how to describe it, Bra.

"She knew I would fight. I am too much like my dad not to. She wanted to contain it, at first, and then she just wanted to be part of it all."

Bra's brows lowered slightly to show her confusion.

"Dad always left to fight and she always waited. She knew, when I was old enough, that I would follow."

"So by training you, she would always be with you and your father?" Bra's chin lowered, "That might be the most disturbing thing I've ever heard and I'm including saiyan wedding rituals."

Goten laughed, "She's always been interesting."

Cupid tapped his foot impatiently as Valjean transported the two bodies into the cabin.

By now, the thugs at Capsule Corporation must have realized something had happened to their precious Sasoli Briefs.

Maybe the cops had even found the hotel room and were barely picking it apart. He had a time frame to keep. He had maybe three hours before they found the papers renting the cabin for the weekend.

He pulled the antidote for the chemical agent and the chemical itself.

"Where's the rag?" Cupid searched himself for it and came up empty. "Damn, I must have dropped it."

Ah, well, he'd just have to get Valjean to touch it later.

Idiot.

"What the fuck?"

Cupid glanced up at profanity to see his partner turning the lawyer onto her stomach.

"Cupid man, c'mere," Valjean backed off a little, "She's got a tail man."

Cupid rolled his eyes, "I know she has a nice tail."

"No, Cupid," Valjean grabbed the other man's arm, "She has a tail."

Cupid's blue eyes widened with disbelief.

Sasoli lay partially on her stomach with her jacket and shirt pulled up just enough to see the skin where a monkey like tail emerged to dangle limply off the bed.

"Did you touch it?"

"No," Valjean shook his head, "I thought it was a belt. I was just going to unhook itt but . . . This is weird sci-fi shit, man."

Cupid ghosted a hand over her tail, "It suits her, don't you think?"

"She's a freak," Valjean paused, "You think her family experimented on her? She's too strong for a woman."

"And this," Cupid gestured to her tail, "a side effect. Possibly. We'll just have to ask her."

"Fuck that," Valjean took out his hunting knife, "I'm going to cut it off."

Cupid was shoved out of the way and Victor grabbed the offending appendage harshly.

Then things went very wrong for Valjean.

"A cabin in the woods," a grunt answered hesitantly as Uub demanded information on the other line.

"Where?"

"We're not exactly sure, but the surrounding wood area is owned by Zarah Briefs. Not that we know where that is-"

"What do you mean you don't know where it is!"

"It's a twenty acre square plopped right in the middle of another forest. The whole thing doesn't make any sense. Why would-"

Uub clicked his phone shut and dashed into the building.

Zarah might be unresponsive right now but someone else might know something.

Someone had to know something.

End of Chapter