The Demon
Well, here comes the second chapter. This isn't about our main character so much as how he came to be, so expect several large time skips here. Also, despite my warnings that this is a dark fic, this chapter will be surprisingly light.
One final note: This fic is classed under Bulma and Vegeta simply because they're the only canon characters that really make any sort of appearance; once in the case of Bulma, though Vegeta is MENTIONED several times. So, here we go with our next chapter.
SPECIAL NOTE: I made some changes to this chapter. I mistakenly believed a character was unnamed and gave him a different one, and while it's arguably a minor error, I'm a stickler for accuracy. Special thanks to Kapsule corp. for pointing it out.
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Chapter 1
It was another crisp autumn day in the suburbs of West City. A crisp, cold, gloomy day. Not that anyone really cared; in fact, the majority of residents in this neighborhood felt that it matched their moods well. Today marked the end of three months of celebration of the defeat of the monster known as Cell. Three months of what had essentially been a non-stop party had now devolved into the most dreaded day of any child or teen's life: the first day of school.
As she observed from her bedroom window, one such teen girl was lost in thoughts of something else; or rather, someONE else. That short little man that had managed to save both her and her brother Tommy from the monster at the airport. It had been so ironic that had been the day she took him to show off her pilot's license, trying to once again awe him at big sis's special skills; turned out she'd needed it more than she'd thought.
But if it hadn't been for that guy, they'dve been killed for sure. No amount of fancy flying could've saved them from that. He'd stepped in and stalled the creature long enough that it had been forced to retreat. Though he DID leave a slight hole in the side of the plane, which made it difficult to steer…
But that was just a small inconvenience overall. The bottom line was she and her brother owed him their lives, and they hadn't even been able to give him a proper thank you. She had no clue who he was, where he had come from… All she had to go on was an odd sense of connection to him, as if she knew him somehow; yet she knew she had never seen him before. No hair, strange eyes, no nose… she was sure she would've remembered someone that looked like that.
Letting out a sigh of disappointment, she moved to the mirror on her dresser and ran her brush through her sleep-disheveled brown hair a few times before running down the stairs to the breakfast table. She trotted into the room and noticed her mother, a smallish blonde, curly-headed woman skittering around the kitchen, trying to get the last of the pans on the stove into the sink. Without a second thought, the girl began grabbing some of the other dishes off the stove and assisting her mother in the chore.
Her mother looked up and smiled at her daughter, their identical lavender eyes twinkling at one another. "Thank you, Aria," she said as she continued to wipe at the stove surface.
"No problem, Mom," Aria replied as she gave a large, almost oversized closed-eye grin. "It's the least I could do to help."
Her mother's face returned to one of seriousness as she regarded her daughter again. "You're still not getting an advance on your allowance."
Aria's face drooped from its smile to form a quite depressed frown. "But Mo-oom, I NEED that money! I've got stuff to do that requires a cash advance, plus I need to buy some stuff from the school, and my snack after school so I can go to work…" She stomped her foot on the tiled floor. "Why can't I have it? You said I get it out of the Child Support from my dad..."
Her mother simply continued wiping at the greasy kitchen surfaces, not batting an eye as she spoke. "Your clothes are wrinkled, honey. Have you been sleeping in your school clothes again? I thought I told you not to do that, it looks so slobbish."
"Stick to the point, mom! I know you have the money, so why can't I get it now?" Aria's face formed into a little pout. "Please, Momma?"
Her mother sighed. "Well, the thing is… It never came. Apparently your father managed to dodge the Child Support agency again; they checked his place and he had cleared it out in a hurry… even left some stuff behind." Her frown deepened. "And apparently, he gave no notice at work. So now we have no idea where to look for him."
Aria's shoulders slumped and she sighed again. "So basically, my dad just screwed me over, huh? That just figures, the bum!" She then stomped over to the table and plopped down into the chair next to the 12 year old red-tinged brunette that was her brother. He looked up at her from his laptop, still chewing on a final piece of toast.
"Jeez, what's got you so bummed?" he asked. "And why are you so late? You missed breakfast." He flinched as he received a swat on the arm from his sister. "Ow! It was just a simple question," he said while rubbing the sore spot.
"If it was any of your business, I'd tell you," Aria huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. She opened one eye to look at her brother again and asked, "Why do you have your computer at the table? Mom said it was against the rules."
Tommy smirked at his sister. "If it was any of YOUR business, I'd tell you," he retorted, sticking his tongue out at her before returning to whatever he was doing. "Actually, if you must know, I'm doing work."
Aria tilted her head slightly. "You mean summer homework?"
He grinned at her. "No. I mean WORK work. As in work that pays. And it pays pretty good, too." He watched as she continued to stare at him for a while before he continued. "Well, after all that devastation that monster caused, a lot of companies kinda took a hit, quite literally. Now they're trying to rebuild, and I've actually gotten hired to help rebuild their web sites." He grinned even wider than before. "Ah, the world bows before the genius that is me!"
"Hey, kid, don't get cocky," came a voice from the back room. "Keep in mind that your sister was the one that built her car from scratch." A tall, dark haired man entered the dining room and sat down at the table. "She's not exactly a slouch, y'know," he said, giving Aria a wink.
"Aw, Dad, I was just kidding." The boy replied, receiving a ruffle of his hair.
"Kidding or not, you shouldn't downplay other people's achievements," the man replied. "How would you like it if she started calling you a glorified nerd?"
Tommy lowered his head and mumbled. "Yeah, yeah, I know…"
Aria simply sent a small smile toward her step-father. "Thank you, Gen." She smirked at her brother again. "So runt, are you still stuck on that whole 'Mr. Satan didn't beat Cell' theory you had?"
A loud sputtering was heard as Gen proceeded to spit his coffee clean across the table. He raised his gaze to find a pair of unhappy kids glaring at him from across the breakfast table. With a sheepish grin on his face, he quickly excused himself to get a towel.
Tommy glared at his sister. "For your information, Aria, it's NOT crazy! The guy I heard this from really seemed to know what he was talking about. It was like he was there."
"Mmm-hmm, and where did you meet this guy?" Aria asked.
Tommy lowered his head and mumbled. "In a chat room… on the 'Net."
"Well, I'd say that he'd be a dubious source at best," Gen called from the kitchen, followed immediately by a shout of "WHAT EXACTLY WERE YOU DOING IN A CHAT ROOM, YOUNG MAN?!" from their mother.
"Relax Mom, it was a discussion that was being moderated," Tommy said.
"Moderated by whom?"
"Umm… by Dad," he said.
Both Aria and Tommy winced at what they knew was about to happen.
"YOU ACTUALLY ALLOWED HIM INTO A CHAT ROOM?!"
"Now Becks, let's calm down…"
"CALM DOWN NOTHING! I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ALLOWED THAT! WHAT IF HE'D BEEN SOME PERVERT?!"
"That's why I was moderating their chat. If someone tries something, I can just boot 'em out. He was never in any danger."
There was silence from the kitchen for a moment before the kids heard their mother sigh. "I know, I know. I just… I guess I worry too much. But Gen, I don't like the idea of my son being influenced by some complete stranger."
"Umm, Mom," Tommy piped up, "with all due respect, he isn't influencing me. He just made a compelling argument as to who really beat Cell."
Both Gen and Becky re-entered the dining room. "I see," said Becky as she began collecting the breakfast dishes. "And just who is this guy, and who does he think beat Cell?"
Tommy rubbed his chin in thought. "Well, I'm not sure of his real name. His user name is 'BaseballTitan00'. But he says that just by looking at the devastation caused by Cell, that there was no way that Hercule could've done it."
"Wait a sec," Aria chimed in. "Mr. Satan said that all of that was some trick; just bombs and stuff that he detonated remotely after using some kinda light projector."
"Yeah, but think about it. If it was just some trick like that, then how could this guy really destroy the world? Even if it's true, then Hercule isn't 'savior of the world' like everyone thinks. And even then, he'd need help to plant those explosives, wouldn't he?"
"Maybe those guys at the Cell games helped him?" Gen offered weakly.
"But then why would they fight him?" Aria asked.
"Exactly. They couldn't have been helping him if they were fighting him from the beginning. And if there were more, why aren't they still blowing things up, or the whole planet for that matter?" Tommy's face drooped slightly. "Then there was the massive body count, the footage of bullets bouncing off him, even armor piercing rounds… This thing was as strong as it claimed to be, and while Mr. Satan might be strong, he's certainly not on that level."
"Well, I can certainly see that as a compelling argument," Becky said. "Who does he think really beat him?"
"Well, that's the weird thing. After that, some other user named 'shiftkitty' showed up and started raging on him about keeping that a secret or something, and they both just logged out." Tommy scratched his head. "And no matter how many times I try, I can't find this guy to find out more."
Becky checked her watch and her eyes widened slightly. "Well, I guess you two have something to think about on the way to school, huh?" Tommy groaned slightly, earning a chuckle from his mother.
Aria, on the other hand, began to hurriedly gather up her things. "Oh c'mon, Tommy," she said. "It's not that bad. You'll get to see your friends again."
He stuck his tongue out at her. "You're just saying that cuz you get to see your boyfriend again now that he's back from his vacation." He smirked in triumph as his sister blushed.
Gen looked up from the newspaper that had stolen his attention. "Say, that's right. Where did Tai say he was going again?"
Aria's blush remained as she spoke. "He said he was going to visit some family in some little kingdom to the east. Something about a reunion, and that their ruler was going to be there to give some sort of honor to the family."
"I see. Who's their ruler again?"
"Umm… I think he said he was called the Ox King or something." She looked at her watch and gathered the last of her stuff. "I gotta go or I'll be late. Bye."
She rushed out the door and into the garage to uncover her pride and joy: an aircar. An aircar that she herself had designed and built from the wrecks and hulls of several different vehicles that had been salvaged. Though her focus wasn't on that at the moment, but on something else.
Deep down she'd always known that the story about Mr. Satan beating Cell had been a little off. Especially since she had seen the abilities of that little guy; even as strong as he'd been, he was still outmatched against that monster. But that raised another question in her mind: if Mr. Satan hadn't been the one who beat Cell, then who was?
But, as the saying goes, time had indeed flown, and she soon found herself in front of the school. A smile found its way onto her face as she spotted the red haired object of her affections: Tai. Aria grabbed her bag from the seat next to her and rushed out to join her love as he entered the school building. Catching up to him, she playfully gave him a tap on the shoulder, quickly darting to his other side before he could see her.
"What the…" Tai's green eyes began darting around in an attempt to discern what had just happened when he felt a tap on his other shoulder. He spun around and came face to face with a grinning Aria. Tai smiled at her and gave her a quick kiss. "I missed you," he said.
"I missed you too," she whispered, taking the opportunity to slip her hand into his. "So how was your trip?"
Tai's grin widened. "Pretty cool, actually. My family received some sort of award for being royal guardians, or something like that. But it was a huge honor; we're all national heroes." He sighed. "The king couldn't be there, though. I guess his daughter lost her husband pretty recently, so he's been spending as much time with her as possible."
Aria's eyes fell to the floor. "Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. It must be tough."
"Yeah, I guess."
The two walked on in silence for a moment before Tai spoke. "So, what were you up to while I was gone?"
"Not much," she replied. "I was kinda lonely without you. All my friends wanted to hit some of the parties that were going on all over, but they all tended to get too wild, so I'd leave early."
"The parties or your friends?" Tai asked with a smirk.
"BOTH," Aria replied, rolling her eyes. "Eventually, I just stopped going. But other than that, I just kinda fooled around with some schematics and went to work."
"You still working at the CC?"
She sighed. "Yeah. Still cleaning the shop floor."
Tai gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Hey, don't worry. I'm sure that Ms. Briefs'll call you up and offer you a real job once she sees your designs."
"Yeah… maybe."
Once again, Aria's mind was drawn away from the current conversation to the little man that had saved her and Tommy. 'I don't know who you are,' she thought, 'but whoever and wherever you are…'
'Thank you.'
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Well, this chapter turned out to be so long, I've decided to break it up into three chapters. Not bad, huh? Anyways, if enough people show interest in this, I'll update sooner. And please, leave a review! Don't just read and add to a favs list or an alert list. I like to hear that people like my stuff and WHY they like it. Oh, and if anyone guesses who Tommy's 'net pals were and how I came up with the names, they'll get an honorable mention next time around.
Anyways, until next time, See Ya!