Trunks leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh as he rested his hands on his stomach. The empty tub, formerly full of ice cream, tipped over and rolled off the table falling to the floor with a soft thud. "Man, I'm stuffed..." he said yawning and stretching.
"Me too." Goten chirped before sticking another spoonful of ice cream in his mouth.
"Usually..." Sakura began as she dropped her spoon back into the half empty tub of chocolate ice cream she'd been sharing with Marron and her sister. "People stop eating when they're stuffed."
Goten looked up at her over his almost empty bucket of butterscotch and frowned. "But it's almost gone! I can't stop now!"
The eldest of the children sighed and shook her head. Boys would be boys and Sai-jins would be Sai-jins. She glanced over at where Cheri sat. The girl had three empty buckets around her and was half finished with a fourth. Not quite as much as Trunks and Goten's six tubs each, but still more ice cream than she and Akemi could eat, combined, in a week.
"We should probably clean up." Trunks said after a moment of silence. He sat up a bit and looked around at the minor mess they'd made. Melted ice cream on the table and floor, empty buckets scattered about, and their clothes... Well, his and Goten's at least, were a mess too. "Otherwise they'll figure it out and we'll still get in trouble."
Sakura nodded. "Yeah, good idea. I saw a mop back in the kitchen area. I'll go get it and fill a bucket with water to mop down this floor. You and Goten should get some washcloths to clean up the tables."
"Right!" the boys said with a nod before taking off.
"What about me?" Cheri asked.
"Clean up the empty buckets and throw them out. Then get the partials and put them back in the fridge."
"Ok."
Sakura watched her go off and then turned to her sister. "I want you to keep an eye on Marron, ok?"
"Ok!"
"Good." she said, ruffling her hair and then she was off to get the mop. Working together the kids had the area cleaned up and back in order in under fifteen minutes. The task finished they returned their supplies to the kitchen and got ready to leave. Sakura took a look over the group as she prepared to put on the scouter. However, her hand stopped half way and her eyes moved over the others again quickly. /One, two, three, four.../ she blinked. /Akemi, Trunks, Goten, Cheri... where's Marron!?/
"Akemi, where's Marron?" she asked looking down at her little sister.
Akemi looked around, her short silver hair bouncing on her head as she did. "I... don't know... She was right with me five minutes ago..."
"I don't sense her in the room!" Trunks cried, eyes going wide. "She must have wondered off! Oh man, this isn't good..."
"Stay calm and relax." Sakura said, moving toward the nearest door. "She can't have gotten too far. We'll just have to..." she paused in both her talking and her walking. She could hear a conversation outside, faint and distant. Moving slowly she crept over to the door and opened it up a crack. Leaning forward she peeked out around it and down the hall to where two large Sai-jins were standing with their backs to her.
"I don't know about this Torrac." the shorter of the two said. "I mean, what if they find out it was us?"
"Quit your whining Rycel." the other replied in a deep voice. "Ornja knows what she's doing."
"Ya, but... I mean, the kid's parents have connections with the King... If Vegeta finds out we kidnapped her..."
"Well he wont find out because we're not gonna tell him. Look, it's simple, because they have the connections the kid is useful. If she wasn't connected to them we'd not need her." The larger of the two Sai-jins crossed his arms and scowled at the other. "Do you want the Sennari being run by any random nobody out there? The kid is our insurance that only the Sai-jins can lead the Sennari. Now come on, let's go."
"Oh no... this is..." Sakura said, closing the door and moving back a step into the room.
"What is it Sakura?" Goten asked.
"I think... I think the two guys in the hall kidnapped Marron..."
"What!?" Trunks cried. "Oh man, this is big trouble! We'll be in as much trouble as them when dad finds out!"
"He wont." Sakura said shaking her head. "No one will because no one's going to know this happened. We're going to go rescue her before they find out."
"Yeah, we can take them, no problem!" Akemi said, pumping a fist into the air. "We're the strongest there are!"
"Hey, it could be good training for the tournament!" Goten said grinning.
Trunks sighed and slipped his hands into his pockets. "Well, it's certainly better than letting out parents find out about this. Come on, let's go before they get away."
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Saiya City
Krillin stood in the middle of Saiya City, somewhere along Furuta Ave. and Vegeta Blvd., outside a store called Pear's Fashions, arms stacked high with boxes. In fact, the boxes stood four times taller than him. Beside him stood Yamcha, his arms also stacked up with boxes. "I can't believe this." Yamcha sighed, closing his eyes. "Remind me again how I got pulled into this?"
"Mijima said she'd kick your ass if you didn't come too?" Krillin replied.
"Oh, yeah, that."
Meanwhile, inside the store... "How's this?" Hotaru asked stepping out of the dressing room in a long red sparkling gown and turning slowly. It had a low back and wire thin straps over the shoulders that you couldn't even see.
The blonde woman sitting on the chair across from the dressing rooms looked her up and down and pursed lips. "Not bad, but I think you need a smaller size." she said after a moment. "Or at least a little shorter in length."
Hotaru frowned as she looked down at the floor. She was stepping on the bottom of the dress. "Yeah, Tanarians have shorter legs than Sai-jins." she said. "It's rather annoying when trying to buy clothes made by them. Even Humans are generally longer legged than us." she sighed. "Well, it's not too bad, and I can have it altered when I get back to Tanaria."
"True. It's a lot cheaper to buy this stuff while you're here than to import." Mijima said standing. "So, that's it for this store then?" she asked.
"Yep, last one from here." Hotaru said going back into the dressing room to change back into her street clothes. A moment later she came back out in her jeans and T-shirt and the two women took their clothes up to the counter. Five minutes later their husbands had four more boxes to hold and two bags. "Where to next?"
"Umm, how about back to the palace?" Yamcha asked. "So we can at least drop this stuff off?"
"Or, the capsule store?" Krillin asked, looking around his boxes toward the two women. "A few empty capsules would make this stuff a lot easier to carry..."
Mijima shrugged. "I guess we could stop at the capsule store. There's this nice jewelry store right next to it I want to check out anyway."
"Oh, I could use a few new necklaces." Hotaru said smiling. And with that, the women were off. The two men sighed and, best as they could manage, followed after their wives.
"I never knew being married would be this troublesome." Krillin said with a glance over to Yamcha.
The scarred Human shook his head. "I knew. I knew it and I went ahead with it anyway. I don't know, maybe I'm just dense or something."
"Maybe."
"Hey!"
"You said it first."
"You didn't have to agree!"
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Sai-jin Palace
The room shook violently as the Ki blast impacted the ground and exploded sending a column of dust and debris into the air. A black shadow formed inside the smoke and then a charging Sai-jin emerged surging across the room. The triclops floating across from the rushing Sai-jin tightened his stance and took a deep breath as he watched him come.
Palace life had, at first, been a hard fit for Tien. He much preferred seclusion to being surrounded by thousands of people. But as the months had passed he'd adjusted rather well quickly taking a liking to the decent supply of light sparring partners constantly at the ready. And then even taking a position as one of four head trainers within the palace.
Currently he was training with one of the Super Elites, Artoke. Easily the most skilled of the entire lot in Tien's opinion. Still, aside from the likes of Gohan, Vegeta and his father, and Raditz, there wasn't a Sai-jin on the planet that could give him a real fight. Vadora had kept up impressively thanks to her skills with the Kaio Ken. With that she could surpass his power, but only if he didn't use the Kaio Ken or Kinryoku to boost it too.
Tien's eyes narrowed as the first shot toward his face. Slipping to the side around the attempted blow he moved behind his opponent and countered with an elbow to the back that drove him down into the ground and knocked him out. Hearing light clapping from below he turned and looked and saw Raditz standing there, his white armor shining brightly in the light of the room.
"Still can't believe Artoke didn't get into the finals." Raditz said as Tien landed beside him.
The Human shrugged. "Luck of the draw. He fought Vadora in his block of the prelims." he said. "I've seen some of the others who made it in. The range in power from the top to the bottom is pretty big. Some of the finalists don't stand a chance."
Raditz nodded. "Even who makes it to the final match will be partly based on luck. Hopefully, though, it's not a completely uneven match-up. It would be nice for the championship match to be entertaining."
"It's possible." Tien said as he left the room, the Sai-jin following after him. "But I'm betting most of the good matches will be scattered about randomly. It's even entirely possible that the first match will be the best. Depends on how the tree fills out from the drawing later."
They walked in silence for a moment as Raditz thumbed through data on his scouter. "I'm surprised that only six races made it through to the finals." he said after a moment. "Counting the Half Sai-jins and Half Tanarians as Sai-jin and Tanarian respectively, that gives us... Twelve Sai-jins, Ten Tanarians, Five Humans, Two Nameks, One Taraganin, One Rondo, and One Blubor."
"Pong fought in the same block as Pug, didn't he?" Tien asked.
Raditz nodded. "Yep. Cleared through everyone like paper until he hit Pug. Pug, of course, didn't get any challenge at all. Pong was the second strongest in that block." Raditz pursed his lips as he read over the data. "This Eskarga has me interested."
"That's the other Namek, right?" Tien asked.
"Yeah. The only one other than Piccolo to even enter the prelims." replied the Sai-jin. "I wasn't really expecting any of them to enter. They're not exactly high warriors, despite their power." Raditz froze and blinked as he looked at the names on his scouter.
Tien had only gone a few steps before he realized the other man wasn't beside him anymore. Turning to look back he saw the shock on the Sai-jin's face. "Raditz? What is it?"
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Space Port
"Now arriving at Terminal 77, Flight 545 from Kanassa. Now arriving at Terminal 77, Flight 545 from Kanassa." the voice intoned over the com systems.
"Ah, that's them." a young man said smiling. Him and the woman standing with him watched as the people began to file out of the ship. A few moments later a long silver haired woman emerged among the throngs of blue skinned aliens, and right beside her was a black haired man with a baby in his arms.
"Over here!" the waiting woman called. The two others noticed and made their way over.
"Kazuki, Yuki, It's been a long time." the long haired woman said, nodding to each of them.
"It's good to see you again Sango." Yuki said. "Kavar, Akira, and Aiko have already gone ahead to get our rooms."
"So, she doesn't know we're here?"
Kazuki shook his head. "She's not had access to the competitors list. Can't see the full list unless you're on the planet. And I doubt she or the others are all that interested in who else is here."
"Well then, we should go say hello."
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Sai-jin Palace, Conference Room
"Do we have to do this now?" Piccolo growled, scowling.
"I don't like it either." Vegeta said with a sigh. "But matters like this need to be dealt with quickly. If we let it slide for even a couple of hours it could snowball."
"Splinter factions will exist in any government though."
The was another sigh, this time from the other Sai-jin in the room, the former King Vegeta, now an advisor to his son and a Sennari senate member. "It's not as simple as that. This isn't just a faction forming, a party within the bigger picture. It's a splinter movement for a separate order."
His son nodded. "Under normal circumstances no Sai-jin would dare move against the throne like this. But with the Sennari forming the official capacity of the royal Sai-jin throne is reduced. If someone where to get the wrong idea about how this is supposed to work and believe that the Sai-jin royalty was being dissolved..."
The Namek sighed. "They'd no longer consider it moving against their King to act against him..."
"Right." Senator Vegeta said with a nod. "This faction believes that the crown has been subverted, that the royal family is no longer truly in power. Or, at least, that we wont hold any power after the Sennari's full formation. With an issue like this the faction wont go to the Sennari for resolution of the issue. They'll fight with fists, not words."
"Which is why we need to put a stop to this... Ornja and her followers now, before they disrupt the entire proceedings." Vegeta said. "The Galactic Games are the first official event of the Sennari, I don't want this entire thing to collapse before it gets started. Not after this much damn work to get it going."
"Right." Piccolo said, frowning. "Well, do we know where this Ornja is?"
"Not yet, unfortunately." said the Senator. "However, we've got people looking into it. We're scanning all the security footage and backtracking the messenger in hopes of finding the origins of that little note."
Piccolo glanced down at the paper in his hand again. The little piece of parchment that was the cause of his current headache. It demanded that the Sai-jins either assume a leadership position of the Sennari, with the Sai-jin Royal family at the head, or be removed from it completely. And it threatened, should those demands not be met, 'swift and decisive action against that which was weakening the Sai-jin people'.
The three in the room, the only three to know what the note said, weren't sure what that action would be and didn't want to find out either. Anything, anything at all that screwed up the Galactic Games, even the smallest incident, could bring the entire Sennari crashing down into shambles before it was even fully functioning. A problem at this juncture would spook too many races into backing out. No, the two Sai-jins were right. This had to be stopped now, before the last several years of work went down the proverbial drain.