Deceive the World

By: Atomic Kokoro

Storyline

Toboe awakes, severely injured. Alone and in pain, he finds a house in the grassy plains. Inside are a boy, a mother, a father, a baby brother, and an orphan. Outside is a world he never knew existed.

...

Before You Read

*humming* *looks up* Oh. Hai. Just scroll down a bit. The stories down there. No, not the next line, the next paragraph! Oh, you know what? I'll just say what I usually say.

On with the story!

...

Chapter 2

Fire

The boys waited with anticipation for the door to open and the one to unlatch it to appear. Toboe, despite the pain, lifted himself above the couch's headrest to see what was going on. The door opened inch-by-inch and finally a shadowed man stood before them. Before the lightening could reveal who it was, Gohan gasped.

"Father!" he cried, leaping in the man's arms.

Goku smiled. "Hey, son. How's it going?"

Rino laughed with releif as Goku became full revealed. "Hey, Reno. Where's Chi-Chi?"

"Out," Reno shurgged. Toboe began to giggle at how stupid the three had been worried that someone had been trying to break into it even though the boys were there already and all the lights were on.

It wasn't long before Goku spotted Toboe and Toboe, by instinct, ducked behind the couch, just his eyes peaking out from behind it. Goku smiled and ventured around the couch to get a good look at him. Toboe leaned back down and watched as Goku kneeled down beside the couch. "Hello," he said.

"Hi," Toboe replied. Goku placed a hand on Toboe's forehead. Toboe broke into a smile as Goku gentally shook his fingers through his hair. "I'm Toboe."

"My name is Goku," the man replied. His eyes trailed down to the wound on Toboe's chest. "What happened to you?"

Toboe shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "I wish I knew."

"Are you from around here?"

Toboe shook his head again. "I don't know," he repeated. "I don't remember anything but my name. And Tsume."

Goku nodded in understanding. A moment passed and Toboe's eyes fluttered. He moaned. Everyone jumped foreward to make sure Toboe wasn't aflicted by more damage. "It hurts," he bearly choked. "I can't breathe."

"I think this has gone from emergency to get-the-freaking-Senzu-now," Reno half-joked, half-meant as Goku picked Toboe, who's eyes were shut tight in pain, up in his arms.

"We have to get him to Dende, before he dies," were the last words Toboe heard before darkness overcame him.

...

The pain began to vanish and light poured into his eyes. He glanced around frantically and spotted a green-skinned child. Toboe yelped and jumped to his feet, clammering back a few steps. "It's alright," said the child. "I'm Dende."

Toboe blinked, recalling how Gohan and Reno mentioned a "Dende" before. "Did you...did you heal me?" he asked unsteadily. Dende nodded. Toboe looked himself over. He was covered in blood, dirt, and mud, but all his wounds had vanished.

"We got you here just in time," Reno chuckled, slapping a rather tanned hand against Toboe's shoulder. Toboe held one of his wrists to his chest with the other hand and began to weep, only the tears dripped down his cheeks were tears of joy, rather then pain.

He fell to his knees and hugged Dende tightly. "Thank you," he sobbed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Dende chuckled nervously. "It's fine, it's fine. Don't worry about it."

Toboe released his death grip and wipped his tears. Gohan came up beside Toboe. "I hope mom won't mind if you stay with us for a little while," he said. "Just until we find where you belong."

Toboe agreed and took a moment to cover his surroundings. "Where are we?" he asked.

"The Hideout."

"The what?" This place didn't look much like a Hideout. It was more like they were on a giant, tile platter with a large building in the center of it all. Who couldn't find it? The place was huge!

As if Goku could hear his thoughts (or maybe it was the puzzled expression on his face), he said, "Look over the edge." Toboe blinked. Edge? What edge?

He turned and walked to the end of the giant platter. Wind whipped through his red hair. The feeling was so familier. As if he had felt it before. The intense air combing through his shiny locks. He glanced down and gasped.

It was a long drop. So far, he couldn't see the bottom in broad daylight. Now he could see why this place was called a Hideout. "Wow," he whistled.

"Yep," Reno agreed.

"No, that's not what I mean." Toboe could hear every sound below them. From as loud as rush hour traffic to as quiet as a whisper. Tilting his head back, he sniffed the air once, twice, then asked, "Does anyone else smell fire?"

...

Everyone was in Koren's Tower one floor(?) below before anyone had a chance to scream the word. There was, in fact, a small kitchen fire. And a little cat sleeping in a beenbag chair.

Reno and Gohan started freaking out and rushing downstairs to put out the fire. The cat finally woke up in shocked to find a dog in his face. He yelped and smacked the dog on the head with a stick before running away.

"Ow," Toboe muttered, rubbing his head. "Gee, that hurt! Why'd you hit me?"

The little cat blinked and was surprised to see a boy standing in place of the dog. "Oh, sorry," he said. "I thought you were someone else."

Reno and Gohan came up the stairs not too long later. "We dealt with the fire," Gohan announced.

"You didn't even know there was one, did you, Koren?" Reno chuckled.

Koren blinked. "Fire?" Then he gasp in knowledgement. "That's right! Me and Yajerobi were going to cook some Spagetti tonight. He was supposed to get the meatballs while I cooked the noodles. I guess I fell asleep. I wonder where Yajerobi is now..."

"Good think Toboe has a good nose," Goku said, changing the subject. "He could smell the smoke from the Hideout."

"Really?" Koren asked, sounding surprised. His voice deepened to a thoughtful tone. "I wonder..."

"Hey, Koren! I'm back!" yelled a voice. Yajerobi appeared and saw everyone else. 'Oh, hey guys. How's it going?"

Everyone sighed hopelessly and Goku explained what happened again.