The Coming Storm
Chapter 10: Wandering Home
A/N: And I'm back! Hopefully without such a long interruption this time. Feels nice to be writing again! Some thoughts in no particular order: I think the weekly schedule was unnecessarily putting pressure on myself. Was definitely feeling burn-out as time went on. I'll be writing and publishing at my own pace from now on which I think will be more sustainable for the future. I'm still very, very excited to get this story to the places I want it to go.
The cell was surprisingly dark. Whoever had designed it hadn't bothered to make the windows large enough for a decent amount of natural sunlight to shine in. The cell was practically pitch black save for a very thin shaft of light that was quickly faded with the setting sun. Krillin could barely see beyond the bars. It wasn't until he started moving closer did a body throw itself against the bars at him. A dull sound ringed as the former monk involuntarily took a step back. Eyes focusing, Krillin gradually began to see snarling tiger-man trying to worms its way through bars.
"Yea, he does that sometimes." A guard following behind Krillin said nonchalantly, coming up next to Krillin, placing a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "Pretty much since day one he's been drooling, cursing, and banging. Hasn't said a single word. I know the mayor gave you permission to talk to him, but you'd have more luck trying to talk with a wild bear-pig. A popular theory is that he was insane before he murdered his… what, 7 neighbors?. But now why would a tiger-man would be living by himself in a village of seven huma-
"I get the idea. Can I have a few minutes alone with him?"
The guard raised his eyebrows. Pressed up against the bars? You sure about that kid?"
"Trust me- I can handle myself."
"Alright…" The guard shrugged. "I'll leave you two alone. So, you know, if you get into any trouble, I won't be around to help." His tone resembled how a parent would talk to their toddler child.
Krillin said nothing. He kept his eyes forward on the feral-looking tiger-man and took the keys from the guard. Another 30 seconds, and he was alone in the hallway. All the while the prisoner continued his almost feral behavior.
Checking to see that there were no cameras in the hallway, Krillin leaned in slightly towards the tiger-man, a small smile on his face. "Really? That's the best imitation of an insane tiger-man you can do?"
Recognition momentarily flickered in the tiger-man's face, before it slipped back behind a feral mask. The banging on the bars increased- he was even trying to claw Krillin through the bars now.
For his part, Krillin didn't react. "Look, I know your situation pretty well by this point. You awoke one day- or maybe came back to the village after being gone for a few days?- and find that all your neighbors have been brutally killed. Your house is untouched by the carnage; you have no knowledge and no alibi as to what happened. The courts aren't fair to tiger people in this part of the world. The only good option left at that point is to practice your insanity act, and hope that you can live out the rest of your days in a relatively comfy home for the clinically insane. That about right?"
The tiger-man stood there, obviously stunned.
"You don't need to confirm or deny anything I just said. Well, except for one part." Krillin abruptly dropped the playfulness from his voice, growing more serious. "You need to tell me everything about the attack. Every detail you remember. Or I go share my theory with the guard."
"No please! Everything you said was right… Please don't…" The tiger-man weakly clung to the bars.
"Well? Start talking?"
"That night… that night was horrible. I came back and found the entire village in ruin… Bodies were splayed out, killed in every manner imaginable… burned, mutilated, crushed… it was almost like every single death was unique in its own twisted way. I… I can't…" the tiger-man's eyes grew distant, evidently caught in remembering the scene.
Through this, Krillin stood motionless. When the tiger-man finished Krillin walked down the hallway. The tiger-man then heard a thunk, followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground.
Krillin shortly reappeared. He nonchalantly unlocked the cell, sliding the door open. "Consider it a gift for your information, friend. The guard shouldn't wake up for at least another hour or so."
Baffled, the tiger-man hesitantly went past Krillin, taking one step of freedom at a time down the hall, before deciding to break into a run. He sprinted to the end of the hall and rounded a corner, disappearing from sight.
Krillin watched with a distant look in his eyes. "My legacy", he muttered, as he walked down following the tiger-man's path to the exit of the prison. My legacy, my legacy… for all that effort… the monster I fought is still out there… Before he knew it, Krillin was outside. The sun was on the precipice of touching the horizon. Behind him, the prison was shrouded in dim orange light, picturesque against the background of the sparsely populated edge of Ladoya proper. There wasn't a single person out and about.
Twinges of emotions flashed on Krillin's face. I've been running away from this for too long. I knew this would happen… death… because of me.
I need Master Roshi.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Kakarot's feet ached. Five days he had walked non-stop, following the tracks left by a truck. That big red 'R' that was emblazoned on the truck seemed familiar. The timing of this chase couldn't have been worse. No sooner had Kakarot had finished killing some villagers- in a very ki exhaustive way- had a convoy of vehicles appeared to take all the debris from the scene, erasing any existence that the village had ever existed. Kakarot was also amused by the tiger-man who had shown up beforehand, who panicked and promptly ran away. Admittedly, though, humor did not restore his ki. He had hoped to linger around the ruined village for a few days, resting to full strength.
Instead, here he was crouching at an outskirt of a hastily made camp, a few trucks parked side-to-side in the center with a scattering of tents set up around them. A guard was posted at the edges here and there, but overall the camp seemed pretty empty. I think this time… I will kill every person except… one.
To the untrained eyes of the guards something bolted out of the forest, colliding with one guard and launching them back with a sickening crunch. The other guards turned and fire wildly in that direction, the sound reverberating through the forest. Kakarot continued his bloody dance, indifferent to being hit by bullets, as he literally plowed through guards. After a minute, the forest was silent.
The first guard, his ribcage broken and wracked by spasms, hazily saw a figure approach. A foot painfully clamped down on his arm, crunching his wrist. A scream, and then a long string of whimpers.
'You know,' Kakarot finally said when the men had gone as quiet as he could, 'I think I mixed up the order of this. Usually a torturer is supposed to hurt their captive after they refuse to give up information, not before. Then again,' Kakarot said while pressing his foot down harder on the man's wrist, 'I wouldn't really consider this pain yet…'
Through ragged breaths, sweat glistening on the man's ragged features, he gasped, 'We-are-recon!-hua-huahuah…'
'Oh, that's it? Shame. Thought this was something interesting.'
A moment later, and Kakarot was the sole living thing in the camp. He was about to walk away from the carnage... but for some reason, he felt compelled to look through the debris in the trucks. To his surprise, he found underneath the rubble sealed plastic envelopes. He opened one, scanning the paper contents inside.
Surveillance...not to be known as... retain attention on the whereabouts of the 'five'...none of this seemed very important…
Kakarot rifled through some more documents scattered in the rubble. Did I really not destroy these papers with the town? Lazy.
One the last documents Kakarot picked up had TOP SECRET-FOR TOP LEVEL EYES ONLY written at the top. He wasn't sure what that meant.
He opened it and poured out the contents. A solitary picture floated out of the envelope. black-and-white color photograph of a...no, that's, that's a…
It was a dragonball. With seven stars on it.
That thing… it looks like that thing- that thing that was taken- TAKEN! FROM ME!
Kakaort stumbled out the back of the truck, his hands panicky searching for his tail. Instead, they settled on a two-inch stub of tail growing out of his tailbone. He took that ball! He took MY TAIL! Snarling turned into yelling, then screaming, as Kakarot gathered energy in a kiai into his right hand and then violently flung it towards the truck. The resulting explosion radiated outwards, igniting the other truck and pushing Kakarot onto the ground. Smoke and burning pieces of wood littered the now destroyed camp. A wildfire was quickly breaking out in the adjacent forest.
Amongst it all, Kakarot stumbled to his feet and departed.
0o0o0o0o0o0
The weeks came and went. So far the legendary turtle training was not living up to expectations. Rayne, Chi-Chi, and Yamcha had slaved over every menial task Master Roshi had given them- they fetched milk from absurdly far away stores. They adjusted the single sun umbrella for Master Roshi's lounge chair to shade the old man from the constant position-shifting sun. And, of course. they cooked for him. Because why not, right?
Their only companion so far in this torture had been ancient turtle called...Turtle. Or, more accurately, Turtle was a tortoise. This, distinction, among other ones, was lost on Rayne. I can't believe we wasted a wish on this farce of an old man. Most of the time we just do his chores. I haven't trained once under him. Too bad for him I haven't been idle…
So it was in this mood that Rayne was lined up with Yamcha and Chi-Chi on the beach, when Roshi addressed them to start the day.
He was not wearing his sunbathing hat. 'Now I understand these last few weeks have been tedious, but I want you to know they were not meaningless! These tasks were meant to test your patience-considering that all of you are still here, I'd say you have all passed this test. Now, however, we must move on to something more specific- spiritual patience. If your spirit is not calm, then neither will your ki be. So today you all will join me in meditating until night falls.'
'No.'
Roshi swung his head towards Rayne. 'Sorry, what did you say? At my age, I can't hear too well…'
'No,' Rayne said, a little louder.
'No? No to what? Meditation? It's quite helpful if you give it a try.'
'No to this charade. It's obvious to me and everyone else that you're a charlatan, nothing more. There is not one martial bone in your body. I don't even think you can fight your way past a screen door.' Rayne turned towards Yamcha and Chi-Chi. 'You both see this, right?'
For their part, they both avoided Rayne's gaze.
Roshi pushed his shades up the bridge of his nose. 'So that's what you think, huh? That I'm a clown who lives in a pink house on an island in the middle of nowhere? Someone who's so weak that opening doors is a challenge?' He started descending the steps of his porch to the beach where everyone was gathered. 'Well, I have a proposition then. I am going to stand in this circle,' he said as he used his walking stick to draw a thin circle around him, 'and if you succeed in moving me out of it, I will give you this stick, this house, even the clothes on my back, and proclaim you the legendary Turtle Hermit. That way you can, at the very least, profit off the menial laborers who idolize the brand,' he said with a tone of amusement, glancing over to Yamcha and Chi-Chi.
Rayne held her gaze towards Roshi. 'Fine then. This should be over quick.'
Roshi dropped his stick on the ground and positioned himself in the center of the circle, folding his hands behind his back. Rayne approached him, standing maybe a few inches taller than Master Roshi. Shen then crouched and burst into an athletic run, charging the Turtle Hermit. She collided with Master Roshi, and then immediately rebounded backward to land painfully in the sand. Pain laced across her body while Master Roshi stood, unmoved, peering at her over his shades.
Huffing, Rayne stood and then placed both her hands on Roshi's chest. She pushed and struggled to make him move an inch, but he didn't even budge. Then Rayne tried a sweeping kick aimed at his ankles, but like before, her leg rebounded with as much pain as striking a steel beam. Panting from both exertion and aches from where she tried to strike to strike Roshi, she laid on her side, propping her upper body up from the sand. 'I don't understand,' she said peering up at Roshi in shock,' how could you be this strong?'
Master Roshi smiled, and then extended a hand towards Rayne. She grasped it. 'Oh, it's not pure physical strength that allowed me to do that- though if I wanted to I could have used physical strength. That was a simple manifestation of ki. I used it to spread it across my body and harden myself to physical blows. Thus, to most physical attacks, I acted as a stout, rooted tree. And,' he said grinning as Rayne climbed to her feet, 'it takes a lot of control. Control only a certain activity teaches.'
'Fine, fine, you've made your point!' Chi-Chi exclaimed. 'Can we just get to the teaching now? Not to hurry you along but all of us are impatient.'
'Hah! Fair enough. I probably could have started the meditation earlier. Come… there's a lovely sitting spot in my living room that just so catches the light later in the day…'
From the shoreline, Turtle watched Rayne, Chi-Chi, and Yamcha follow Roshi into their house. Those poor souls… you're never really past the stupid stuff with Master Roshi…
0o0o0o0
'Colonel Silver? Do you read?'
From his position in the passenger seat, leaning back in an effort to nap, Colonel Silver darted forward and grabbed the transmitter. '-Reading you loud and clear, Colonel Violet. Do you have any news?'
'That I do. I picked up on something- actually two things- in the vicinity of Ladoya, a medium-sized settlement we have a small covert presence in. I'm heading over to the first site in town. Apparently, some tech with an A classification was destroyed by a bald kid during field tests. While I'm doing this, you should check out the second site- one of our intelligence recovery teams lost all contact with HQ a few days ago. Sending coordinates to you now.'
A series of numbers flashed on a console in the middle of the helicopter. Colonel Silver tapped the pilot and gestured to numbers.
It's lucky we were in the vicinity. I would have been pissed if we had to go somewhere remote like Muscle Tower. He glanced down at his bare-chested jacket attire. Pissed and frozen.
A few minutes later the helicopter landed in a clearing where the camp used to be. Scraps of metal and canvas were scattered all over the vicinity. Colonel Silver crouched down to examine the ground. It was obvious from the burned out forest and the dust and soot blazed into the ground that a massive explosion had happened here. The scattered remains of what looked like trucks supported that theory. That's odd. Usually when an intel squad is hit the intel isn't destroyed in an inferno. Of course, whoever did this could have blown up the camp after collecting the intel. It's what I would have done.
Colonel Silver stood and decided to pace around the perimeter of the camp. More of the same- blackened trees and ash littered the landscape, stretching on for an uncomfortable distance. Must have taken the whole town to put out this blaze. Hmm? What's this? Colonel Silver picked up a clear plastic envelope from the ground. The edges were fused from the heat, but after some prying, he was able to remove the contents. Inside the envelope were blueprints for the A-tech that was destroyed in Ladoya. This information would have fetched a high price for one of our competitors. Very strange.
He carefully folded the blueprints into this coat and began walking back to the helicopter, thinking. The blueprints would have been the prime target if this was an attack to steal information. And yet, here they are, forgotten at the scene of the crime. The helicopter pilot had kept the engine hot, and saluted Colonel Silver as he entered the cockpit. This wasn't a considered attack. This was indiscriminate destruction.
As soon as they were airborne the radio crackled to life. Colonel Silver picked up the transmitter. 'Colonel Violet, how did things go on your end?'
'I got some information from the locals about our mystery saboteur. He was in town for a day and then set out west. If I had to guess I think he's making for the coast. Also got a description of him- definitely matches the profile of one of the infiltrators from a few months ago. Bald kid. I assume he was responsible for your site's communication silence?
Colonel Silver leaned forward in his seat. 'The camp was utterly destroyed. In addition, important intel was left at the scene. Tell me: what was the condition of our storefront after the A tech was destroyed?'
'From what I saw, everything was pretty much in order, save for a few boxes of foodstuffs broken open here and there.'
'So, from what you're saying, the only thing that was destroyed was the A tech?'
'That's correct, yes.'
'Then I think we're dealing with two different enemies. If the same person who had been at my site had been at yours… I don't think there would have been anything left.'
'That bad?'
'Yea. So no, I don't think we're dealing with the same person.'
Radio static. 'Well,' Colonel Violet resumed, 'do you think it's possible that these two were working together? There are the four other infiltrators, after all.'
'Unlikely,' Colonel Silver responded, 'as their methods were different. Your description of the status of your site matches the bald kid's MO at the base a few months back. We know he has friends but I don't think any of them were capable nor willing of decimating my site as much as it was. Full-out devastation isn't their style.' He paused.
'My site was too heavily damaged to pick up on a trail- the fire burned away any sign of passage from the area. You said you know where your saboteur is going?'
'Correct. He's heading east. But none of our intel indicates he's with anyone- he's alone. It's possible that if we track him he'll lead us to the rest of his friends.'
'I see… Now, I understand that our main mission right now is to find those five infiltrators, but the devastation I've seen at my camp- I think whoever did that is a much bigger threat to our operations. Whoever they are, they committed a slaughter against our people for seemingly no reason.
'So what are you suggesting? We table our search for the five?'
'Hardly! This may be our best chance to figure out where the bald boy and his friends are hiding. But it's not a pressing concern. We can have a team track them from afar and keep tabs on their movement. If we do discover them it's not going to be a problem keeping them discovered. That means we can deal with them at our leisure. I think we should track this second person and eliminate them immediately. We stay in this area and make routine visits to Red Ribbon outposts in the vicinity. We wait for this destroyer to attack again, and we eliminate them.'
'If you think that's the best course of action, sure. But who should we task to track the bald kid?'
'Why don't you get Captains Dark and Yellow to do it? Last I heard they were kicked back to HQ for 'differences' with the Muscle Tower senior staff. I'm sure they're eager to get back into someone's good graces.'
'Paging them now. Over and out.'
Pleased, Colonel Silver placed the transmitter back into its holster. He took the moment to gaze out the window, seeing the landscape run past below him.
I know you're out there.
And I'm going to kill you.
0o0o0o0o0o0
'Do you think we're wasting time here?'
Yamcha was so startled that he nearly dropped the twin casks of milk he was carrying, which were hanging from a pole resting on his shoulders. Barely catching himself before completely toppling over, he let out a relieved sigh before turning to Chi-Chi. 'You do know that's the first thing you've said to me in the entire time we've been here, right?'
'Answer my original question.'
Yamcha straightened and resumed walking side by side Chi-Chi, who had her own matching set-up to carry milk. '...No, I don't think so. I can't speak as to what you and Rayne are getting out of this, but the meditation has been… enlivening. Is that the right word? I don't quite know how to describe. I feel much more in-tune with my spirit and my ki than ever before.' Yamcha grinned. 'I'm come up with a lot of new ideas for techniques, actually…'
'Meanwhile, for people like Rayne and I who don't comfortably know how to use ki, we learn nothing.' Chi-Chi looked away from Yamcha.
'No! It's not like that! Everyone benefits from having a calmer approach to-
'Of course you'd say that, Yamcha.'
The former bandit bit his tongue. He paused for a time. 'Chi-Chi, both you and Rayne have been growing stronger.' He gestured to the milk jugs they were carrying as best he could with the pole on his shoulders. 'Don't you remember that when we got here these were nearly uncarriable? They may be chores but we're improving by doing them.'
'I'm glad the fabled Turtle Hermit has substituted menial physical tasks for actual training.'
Yamcha didn't respond and thus the two walked on in silence.
About an hour later they reached land's end, where a makeshift wooden jetty that they themselves had cobbled together sat in the water. It was built so that they wouldn't have to swim every time they collected milk. Unsteadily, they proceeded one at a time, until Master Roshi's island appeared in sight. They had finally stepped foot on solid ground again when a shout of anger rang out from the other side of the island. Glancing at each other, Yamcha and Chi-Chi set down their bottles and ran around the house.
Immediately they noticed Rayne hulking over something in the sand, one arm thrust in its direction. Master Roshi was standing on his porch, watching impassively. After a moment, the figure beneath Rayne began to rise, slowing pushing back Rayne's arm from them.
Rayne's fist was in Krillin's hand, shaking from Rayne's sheer effort to push it through Krillin. Calmly, the former monk stood, still holding back an enraged Rayne from spearing him. His eyes briefly looked up at her. 'You've gotten a lot stronger.' He gave Rayne a slight push, enough to move her away a few feet. Krillin then turned to Master Roshi, and proceeded to go down on one knee, bowing his head.
'Master Roshi of the Turtle School, please train me.'
And that's it! I think going forward I'm going to try and move the story beats along faster with as little chaff possible, so hopefully, this chapter represented that. See everyone soon. As always, reviews are appreciated.
