Disclaimer: Chaputaa Tu... Err.. Chapter 2.
I'm back in college. You know what that means: a slow down in chapter production!
The group continued forward, this time after Piccolo instead of General Atsarute's corpse. The vehicles were just beginning to complain about the troubles they had to go through, especially the one with a new hole in it. Gohan had once again traded seats, this time with Vegita, so that he might ask Kuririn about Piccolo Daimaou. Now that Vegita was near his wife, he thought that he might be able to at least talk to her while time passed, but she was too busy explaining the Senzu to Arufuredo.
Vegita turned to the uncomfortable Human girl named Videl. "Wait till you get married to Kakarotto's son. I bet you'll have to hear dribble like that this as often as I do."
The girl flushed red. "What gave you that idea?!"
"About the dribble?"
"No! About me and Gohan marrying."
"You're mates now, right? That's what Humans do when they choose a mate, isn't it?"
"Err…"
As for Chi-Chi and Goku…"Just don't do anything that dangerous again," Goku made an uncertain face while he tried to lecture his wife (instead of the other way around), "If Bulma hadn't been there with Senzu beans, you might have died!"
"The same goes for you," she said, "You've died twice already. I've died once. It just seems fair that the next one is mine as well, doesn't it?"
Goku's face turned into something between a pout and a scowl. "You really shouldn't be talking of it that way, Chi-chi…"
"I'll talk however I please about any subject. You just keep to your job and stay alive."
"But what if something happens?"
"Like what?"
"Chi-chi…"
All conversations continued thus.
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Daimaou was more than upset at this outcome. He could sense Son Goku coming, along with the others, with a power even better off than before. Although he could still easily be beaten, he had no idea when one of the other inhabitants of the body would wake up and kick him out of the control chair, and it might take more than a couple of seconds to make sure that he finally squished that cockroach of a man.
To top it off, the very reason that he pulled away from making sure that he was dead then and there wasn't in any state for use. He had to wait till it fixed up, which was another time factor that was left to the winds. All this work, and I still might fail…
He could already see the vehicles in the distance and decided to take the first maneuver while he still can.
All of the vehicles flipped over in an instant, their passengers each tossed at a good momentum away from them. Those who couldn't land without getting hurt were assisted by one of the warriors nearby. Goku twisted up and jumped to the side just in time to dodge a thin beam cast by Piccolo, then put up his arms in a block to absorb Piccolo's incoming fist. The punch made contact and the force still pushed Goku back at least 20 meters before he could regain his composure. Others tried to assist him, but were all thrust out of the way by a sudden expansion of energy.
"Damn," Vegita growled, "Happened so fucking fast that I hardly knew what was going on." He stood from getting knocked to the ground for the third time. "This Namekku-sei-jin is getting on my nerves." As soon as he starts attacking Kakarotto again, I'm going to use the distraction to come up behind his back. He got into stance. I recall that doctor saying something about aiming for the red lines… He'd better be right…
Piccolo came in for a head on attack, but suddenly disappeared in the air. A diversion! Damn! Goku thought, and looked around him, trying to sense him. Daimaou came in from the side and shouldered him hard.
Vegita made his move and sent a slash of energy, hitting the pinkish patches, and more importantly, the red lines, on Piccolo's right arm. The Namek yelled in response and turned to the perpetrator.
"You want to play too, eh?" The old man growled, then made a backhand in the air, sending four of his own slashes towards Vegita. The prince tried to dodge, but was still hit in the leg, and he ended up falling to the ground.
Goku had already gotten up and used this chance to take hold of Piccolo's right arm with as strong of a crushing grip as he could muster. Pain shot through Piccolo immediately, sending him on his knee, growling and hissing.
"Alright, Piccolo! Give up!" The Saiya-jin man shouted.
Piccolo kicked Goku's leg out from under him, then elbowed him in the stomach and sent the heel of his hand up into Goku's jaw. He gave this combo retaliation one last kick in the ribs, and Goku once again flew back, this time unable to stop himself, and ended up at quite a distance with a huge grove in his wake on the ground and his shoulders digging into the soil. Piccolo walked after him at his leisure, knowing that no one could approach him to attack now, and he could easily sense and deflect any sort of energy attack large enough that the Earthlings might find effective. His right arm still writhing in pain, he lifts up his left hand high and sends a surge through the muscles of his fingers. "I'll rip that heart out once and for all."
Then there was a brief hissing sound in the air, and a sharp pain originating right at the joint of his left shoulder, where a red seam was. He looked to see a small metallic object, something that looked like a screwdriver used for delicate work. Then a similar pain came into his abdomen, and again. There were now two of these screwdriver tools in his stomach, each, even though covered by cloth, definitely on a red seam.
Even throughout this pain, a coherent thought went through Piccolo's mind, one that was not his own. The voice sounded similar to his in the way that it was old, but it seemed opposite at the same time. A great wave of tension went through his body, and the metal tools stuck in him set off a small amount of the electricity, sparks as evidence of the terrible energy being created in him.
"Kami," he hissed before falling unconscious to the ground.
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Arufuredo spends so much of his time staying out of the other soldiers' way and being a scientist that everyone often forgets that he is a fighter as well. His knowledge of Namekku-sei-jin anatomy and his impeccable aim and ability to handle any tool as a weapon helped save Son Goku's life.
However, even as the other scientists worked on the full Saiya-jin males' wounds (to save other Senzu for more dire occasions), Arufuredo resolved to try figuring out what exactly had happened to this Namekku-sei-jin. He examined closely and spoke of every finding out loud to be recorded by an archival device.
Everyone else fidgeted in the main area of the lab. Even though the damaged vehicles managed to get there without problems, everyone was still unsettled by the events. Piccolo was carried back inside Atsarute's cage (temporarily welded to function again) in case he woke up with Daimaou still in control. Even now, they knew that he was strapped down on an examination table, and despite the grief that he had caused them to this point, they still worried. Arufuredo had been examining him behind a locked door for at least 14 hours.
Chi-chi drug out the suitcase she had brought from Earth from the vehicle and brought it into the main area. Some of the others seemed surprised that she brought it here, and that she was allowed to bring it. Goku still looked at it curiously, wondering why his wife would be dragging around an old piece of luggage like that, especially since it wasn't even hers.
"Like I said earlier," Vegita scowled, "there's nothing important about that stupid Human holding device. Why the Hell did you're wife bother to bring such a useless thing, Kakarotto?"
Goku shrugged. "Chi-chi won't even let me see it. She says that it's someone else's."
He gave a scoff. "Who's could it be if it doesn't belong to any of us? That Namek?" He laughed some more. "What would he keep in one of those things? Water bottles?"
Both Chi-chi and Bulma glared at Vegita, which stopped his mocking quickly.
"Don't you have any manners, Vegita?" His wife waved a finger at him. "There's something wrong with Piccolo and all you can do is make jokes about him!"
He turned his head in a haughty manner. "Like he wouldn't do the same."
"Vegita!"
There was some commotion at one of the communication terminals that rose during this argument. One of the soldiers ran hurriedly from it to the door of Arufuredo's private lab and knocked. "Dr. Arufuredo! You're summoned to the terminal!"
A frustrated voice came from behind the metal door. "I told you that I'm not taking any communications unless they are of utmost importance while I'm working."
"This is very important, sir. The queen is on the COM line. She wishes to hear your report personally."
"What?" He audibly dropped anything that he was doing and almost ran to the door. It slid open, showing a tired and stressed man. "The queen? Why on the COM line? Is that channel safe for direct transmittion?"
"It's a newly compiled stream. The Puroeriun have yet to decode it."
Arufuredo didn't need to be told twice. He went to the terminal, everybody moving out of his way and into attention, then nodded to them and put on as professional an air as he could muster in his fatigue. "Good tidings, my Empress. What is it you wish of me?"
The static distorted image of the decrepit-looking woman jerked around, only yielding accuracy to her vividly piercing eyes. "Report your transaction of the specimen firstly."
"The walking fiend, supposed to be General Atsarute, managed to escape from the land vehicle during the transaction. Although it is no longer in our hands, we know the exact direction in relation from our current point and a general idea of distance. We will subdue it as soon as everything is in order."
"I see… that's what happened…" She said to no one in particular before turning back to him. "What do you mean by 'everything'?"
"Well, while pursuing the walking fiend earlier, we came across the Namekku-sei-jin that you had ordered to be found. He is injured and may have serious problems, which I am researching at this moment."
"What is your analysis thus far?"
"I believe it's a major Namekkian psychological disorder. Sometimes, due to their unique alignment with sorcery and nature, their psychological disorders can be more hazardous than anything we may have."
"Fatal?"
"Theoretically."
"Chances of survival. Speaking theoretically, of course."
"I really don't have enough information to give a good judgment, but, supposing I find the exact disorder in the database, 41. If not, he has to rely on himself, reducing the chances to about 23, at the most."
She nodded gravely. "Is he able to walk and interact normally?"
"We've seen evidence of it, so it's very possible that he can act as normal when he regains consciousness."
"Good, because I'm on my way there right now, and I wish to see him personally."
"E-excuse me, my Empress?"
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It drug the torn, black rags through the streams, making sure that all of the dust and blood was washed off before hanging them upon an arc. There were always few people willing around this abandoned place, built by this planet's first populous, and even less were likely to see this thing walking around tonight. It took one thin strip in particular and jumped up to a secluded stone catwalk and walked to a small fountain in the side of another arch. The fountain was a creature's head exhaling a bend of cold water into a small pool.
The thoughts in its head had become more coherent quickly, especially after seeing those unusual aliens with peach skin earlier. There were more words in its thoughts now, but it still couldn't possibly speak them. It knew what to do, though and knew how to fix itself up. It brought the strip up to the stream of water from the mouth, letting it run over it, then dipped the strip into the pool. It took the strip up and tied it around its wounded eyes. It returned to the other strips and started wrapping the still damp scraps all around its body. Lastly, it took the only black mantle that it didn't tear, the largest of the bunch that was taken from the gang leader, and then put it upon its shoulders.
It sniffed around the air, trying to get an idea of where to go next. It managed to sense the ki of those unusual aliens from before; the next course of action was obvious.
Extra long today, so I believe that it's very well worth the wait, eh? Really, it's late because my computer refused to connect to the Internet when I returned to college. I don't know when the next chapter will be written, so patience!