Planet to Planet
Chapter Six
Celipa didn't have the slightest idea whether she should be elated or irritated that Toma had abandoned her. She understood that either Totepo or Panboukin needed help with something, but couldn't that wait? She hated to be alone, for she knew all too well the consequences that accompanied with it. Everything that had happened on Meatsei came to mind, especially her run-in with the jigsaw puzzle building, which caused her to be in this torturous tank in the first place.
Although she couldn't communicate with him and he couldn't do anything to entertain her, she still had enjoyed Toma's company. That was excluding the fact that she hated his enjoyment from previously so much that she began to think of evil plans to use against him. Well, at least it kept her somewhat amused.
Nevertheless, she trusted in his ability to choose which trial was more important. So whatever it was he left for, it must have been extremely critical to the group. She couldn't imagine what the conflict could be, but she was left assured that it wouldn't cause any harm at all. One of the other two men must be having a hard time with something, but it wasn't like their time was so limited that they needed help that desperately!
In that case, Toma had better have a good excuse as to why he left. If not, she vowed that she would hurt him severely, even more than she had intended to earlier. Then he would know how she felt about going into the tank.
Celipa soon realized what she was thinking, and a smile pursued protection behind the oxygen mask. She felt like she was a younger adult, back when her age ranged around the early twenties if compared to Human years. Back when she first met Toma and Panboukin in the mess hall during a rather interesting party, her life changed. She could not recall what exactly everybody was celebrating, but she did know that she had not been invited to it. That had not settled her anxiety, for that day she had craved attention.
And attention she had been given. Although now she did not regret it as much, there were many times in her life when she certainly had wished that she never had snuck into the mess hall that night.
Because the very first person she had met was the team's worst reject, Kacha.
Ever since the day after she first had met Kacha, Celipa hated him. It took a while for the other three of the crew, which at the time consisted of Bardock, Toma, and Panboukin, to feel the same way. A couple months after the incident in the mess hall, Bardock realized the same major flaws that Celipa had. Kacha was then kicked out of the crew. He had never left Celipa alone though; it was because of him that the memory of their first meeting was still fresh in her mind.
Celipa cringed whenever she thought about the first thing she pulled when she met Kacha. To save herself from becoming revealed --she never liked the thought of a bunch of other Saiya-jin ganging up on her-- the first instinct that had come to her mind was flirting. Amazingly enough, Kacha had done the same back. Celipa knew even now that if Toma hadn't shown up at that second she would have had a child of her own. During that time, however, she had been enjoying herself; she was rather displeased when Toma tackled her from behind. Before she even knew who the soon-to-be sub-leader was, she was already thinking up of sinister deeds to take out on him.
Well, at least now she can thank Toma. If it weren't for him, she wouldn't have had such a wonderful life clearing out planets. Without him and Panboukin, Bardock would not have tolerated her as long as he did Kacha. Without Toma, Celipa would have been like all the other women on Vegetasei: caring for children and no one else and nothing else but children.
With an exasperated outtake of air, Celipa rested her back more casually on the chair of the dome tank, her shoulders slumping so that her body would be more at ease. The miniature spheres in the sapphire liquid transformed into larger ones when she sighed even more heavily than the first exhale of air. It had just occurred to her that maybe the reason why Bardock had had a hard time appreciating her existence was not because she was of the opposite gender, but because she "felt attracted" to Kacha before she even knew who he was. Then, shortly afterwards, loathed his existence because of the many personality flaws she had found. Maybe Bardock believed that she was like that with everybody, only with different schedules for each person.
Well, if that was true, he was wrong. She was nothing like a traitor, unlike Kacha. She had never abandoned the crew at one of its most critical points and had never told authorities lies about the crew to get what she wanted. It was Bardock's fault for not paying closer attention to his so-called "comrade" and getting into trouble for false truths that he created. Not hers for being right!
It didn't matter anymore, though. As far as she understood, Bardock was either dead or elsewhere in the universe, perhaps many distances away from the headquarters. Until they find him again, she would not worry about how he felt about her. What did matter at the moment was that she had faith in Toma to do the right thing. Not just that, but that she believed in all of her companions, even Bardock.
Because if she knew them well enough, trust was one of the many things that they would never betray.
The cerulean-tinted scouter started to react with untamed beeps and frantic arrows pointed towards the left corridor. It was an indication that it had found some life forms nearby; Toma now knew that the battle was not too far from the medical center. However, he also knew that since his ears could not catch any sounds of battle from his left or right, he had to continue up the stairs.
Why couldn't the elevators work?!
The Saiya-jin sub-leader gasped sharply before bolting up the flickering staircase in front of him, which would lead him to the third floor. He only hoped that it was the floor where Panboukin was fighting the possibly two aliens: the one whom he had dubbed "Prig" and his companion. After all, he had delayed his progress pretty badly already; there was no need or time to make it even worse.
Toma thought he had actually been thinking when he decided that the quickest way to ask Panboukin what floor he was on and take the elevators up. However, Panboukin was busy fighting; judging by his grunts, vulgar language, and Prig's gloating, Toma had decided that it would be best not to interfere. He did not want to be the reason that his companion was hurt anymore. He knew all too well what the guilt felt like. So his first plan went down the drain.
Immediately after turning off the communicator on the scouter, Toma had searched for the closest elevator. He had thought it would be faster if he just took the elevator up to each level until he heard the sound of a bomb exploding on the surface of land. Alas, when he reached the ashen sliding doors of the elevator, it refused to open. The crease between the two doors was too thin for his fingers to squeeze through, and he knew that if he took out his temper on them the elevator would end up unfixable.
It was only then that he realized that if he had taken the elevator, it would take longer than to find Panboukin than if he just ran up the stairs. So the next place Toma dashed for was the staircase. He was lucky he had found it in merely three seconds, for his displeasure was reaching its peak. Before he turned the direction up, however, he had to put his trust into his scouter to help him find the battle easier.
And that was why he hoped that the battle was as close as possible: his infuriation was finally getting to the best of him.
Toma hauled a leg over the last two steps and dropped it brutally on top of the platform. With an exhale of stale air, he gave himself only two quick seconds of listening intently for any kind of battle sounds. Luckily --or unluckily-- his serene search was interrupted by a familiar loutish yelp and a high-pitched scream spurting from metal. Toma's body stiffened. He shifted his pupils to the side of the dim circular corridor, which was met with a rather distasteful sight.
He saw Panboukin in a worse condition than ever before. The plump Saiya-jin's broken armor now had holes around it, probably from the fight. There were three main places on his body that Toma could see wounds on: Panboukin's right arm, right leg, and left shoulder. They were not scratches but punctures through the epidermis, luckily not the entire limb. So this Prig person and perhaps even his companion had only been fighting with guns and not with energy manipulation.
Panboukin's duel was with two hideous creatures, which were obviously Prig and his companion. They appeared to be reptilian, but Toma noticed that there was little hair at the top of their pineapple shaped heads, where at the top two tiny hills erupted from the scalp. Both of those aliens' chins were the same as their heads: double chin but sloped some distance from the mouth. Everything else about the aliens' faces was Saiya-jin enough. Their bodies were almost no different than Saiya-jin as well. They stood upright and they had tails, except that their tails were thick and trailed behind their bodies instead of draping across their waists. Plus, their skin was a yellowish-green.
Just by their appearances Toma could not tell who was Prig and who was Prig's companion. Determining by clothing wouldn't help, for they both adorned a black leather jumpsuit. The differences between the two of them were easy to spot; therefore, when the time came it would be easier for him to decide who was who, Toma would have no trouble at all. One of them, who seemed to be the only one attacking, was shorter and darker than his companion, who was a sea green alien who stood a head taller.
Since the shorter alien was the only one currently battling Panboukin, Toma automatically assumed that he was the one whom he had dubbed Prig. However, before Toma interfered, he wanted to take only a second to make sure that he knew what he was doing. Panboukin had a few scratches, but nothing that a trip to the tank wouldn't fix, nothing that would have the larger Saiya-jin collapse anytime soon.
As Toma watched, he saw that the darker alien was certainly Prig. He could tell by the tone of his voice while he taunted the Saiya-jin when he spat out words of enragement, and how Prig declared his hatred for the Planet Trade: "You scum should have gotten out of business long before you actually did!"
Toma decided that he had waited long enough --hopefully not too long-- and sidestepped wordlessly to get a better view of Prig and to avoid an accidental ambush on Panboukin. He thrust his arm and outstretched his fingers, allowing a bluish-white fizzling light to form in the center of his palm. Before Prig could get his finger on the trigger, the alien found himself up against the wall with blood escaping his verdant skin.
Bewildered, both of the aliens looked forward to meet Toma's haughty glare. Panboukin twisted his neck so that he could see the sub-leader --Toma saw from the corner of his left eye-- and smirked viciously.
"I was wondering when you'd show up, you dumbass!"
This was not the time to be celebrating; the battle was not finished yet. Although Toma knew this, he still could not help but to taunt the other Saiya-jin back. "It was your fault. You forgot to tell me what floor you were on," he pointed out, and then beamed sardonically. "Besides, I thought you didn't want me here!"
Panboukin had no comeback, and even if he did he wouldn't be able to say it in time. Prig was certainly an impatient one, and muttered deliberately loud, "Great, now there's two of them. The Planet Trade had better not be rebuilding themselves."
Prig's companion was clearly tired of the dispute. "Just leave them alone, Manaloto. They can't do any serious damage to us or the scavenging. Shõgun would probably say the same thing."
"This has nothing to do with our protection!" Prig --rather, Manaloto-- shot back. Toma and Panboukin only watched the two aliens exchange words back and forth. This was a perfect time to attack the aliens, but Toma knew that he had to regard their personal matters. Besides, to strike one when he was down would show signs of weakness and fear, not to mention that it would be disgraceful. "If you want to leave, go ahead. They shouldn't be too much of a problem."
"Did he just insult us?" Panboukin growled uncontrollably. It was a rhetorical question; Toma needed not to give him an answer. They both knew that Prig --no, Manaloto-- accused Saiya-jin of being weak. Still, uncontrollable was uncontrollable. Panboukin took offense to the insult, and there was nothing Toma could do to stop the charge he was about to make.
A heavy emphasis was needed on "about to make", for at that split moment Manaloto stepped forward and fired straight at Toma. The sub-leader didn't expect it, and soon suffered the consequences for not paying closer attention to his opponents.
The pain was extraordinary! Throughout his left shoulder spread a bone exploding feeling, as if someone pricked slender needles through his skin so that it would pierce his bone. Toma held back his screams of pain --he was a Saiya-jin; he shouldn't have to show how much he hurt-- and stumbled backwards. If only the shoulder pads hadn't broken during the slaughters on Meatsei!
After imagining how bad the pain would be in other places of his body, he realized that if that gun had been aimed for his head or the center of his chest, he would have died. However, Manaloto had not aimed for those sections. If he had, Panboukin would have been dead a long time ago. That damned alien was playing with the Saiya-jin to give them a torturous death! That was his plan, but Toma was not going to allow it work. Just because Manaloto had a weapon that can fire long distance --and hurt his enemies pretty badly-- doesn't mean he can win a hand-to-hand combat.
Didn't it?
However, Manaloto did not look the same priggish way he had earlier. Instead, he stood still and wide-eyed at something behind Toma and Panboukin, almost in carefree guilt. Panboukin had noticed this as well and had halted his barrage of assaults. Toma heard him mutter, "Another one?"
Toma was weary about turning his back on Manaloto and his companion to confirm Panboukin's statement. What if those aliens did not share the same meaning of "honorable" as the Saiya-jin did? Or, for that matter, the rest of the Planet Trade did? Considering what Manaloto had implied about his feelings for the Planet Trade, Toma decided not to take any chances. But what if the one behind him had the same sense of honor Manaloto did?
It wasn't until Manaloto holster his gun did Toma finally make up his mind. Since the alien appeared to be calmer, despite the sinister gleam in his eye, Toma decided to take that quick chance to glance over his shoulder to find this other alien. As he was doing so, Manaloto exclaimed with a laughing voice, "Shõgun, you need to be more careful! If this scum had moved I would have hit you instead!"
The alien that Manaloto had referred to was indeed the same race as him, but Toma noticed some interesting differing characteristics of this Shõgun person. His skin was not any real shade of green; as a matter of fact, it had a dark bluish tint to it. This Shõgun person's height could easily compete with Totepo's, for Toma had to tilt his head so far back that it touched his neck just to meet the alien's eye. Shõgun's emotional features were solemnly smug, as if it were a mix between Bardock's and Panboukin's normal expressions. Was he the elder version of this alien race? Or did he just have a different ethnicity than Manaloto and the other?
"Maybe you ought to watch your aggression, Rato," Shõgun stated serenely.
Toma glanced back at Manaloto --or was it Rato?-- for a second to make sure that he wasn't planning on killing him, before he shifted his pupils back to Shõgun. The alien was glaring straight at him, which made the sub-leader grow quite uncomfortable. It helped none when Shõgun started to scan up and down his body, in which during that time Toma felt just about ready to kill him.
After a quick glance towards Panboukin, Shõgun finally muttered, "Saiya-jin? Aren't they supposed to be extinct?"
"What?" Toma immediately asked with a load of confusion in his voice. The Saiya-jin? Extinct? Meaning that there was nobody left? The four of them --Toma, Panboukin, Totepo, and Celipa-- were the only ones?
Freeza had been successful in killing all of the Saiya-jin, then!
A couple of the questions that Toma had before this run-in were finally answered. The pods were not malfunctioning; Vegetasei really was gone, and Freeza was the one who destroyed it. That would be the one way to get rid of the majority of the race. Then assassins killed those off planet. However, with only a few questions gone, more came in. Why had Freeza ordered the crew off of Vegetasei just to be killed by the assassins? Was it a mistake? Had he destroyed Vegetasei while the four were on Meatsei and Bardock departing for the planet?
Bardock had to be alive, then! But where in the universe could he be? How long has it been since the crew died?
Could Bardock be the last one up until the point when the rest of the crew was resurrected? If so, then Celipa was the last female; they had to be much more alert for her well being from now on.
"But just because you're Saiya-jin," Shõgun said, jerking Toma out of his momentary train of thought, "doesn't mean that I will go easy on you. It is not in my nature to kill loot-stealers, but I will if you get in our way."
"Wait just a second there," Panboukin interrupted with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "You're saying that if we get in your way, you will kill us? You said so yourself: we are Saiya-jin!"
Shõgun gave the shorter Saiya-jin a haughty glare without moving his head even the slightest bit. "Yes, you are Saiya-jin. Saiya-jin, now instead of an extinct race, an endangered race, with no hope for it to ever be revived again. Only two of you, and no women! No other species in the universe that look the least bit like you to reproduce for hybrids! Perhaps in the remote region, but not in the mainstream of this galaxy. Not to mention that no Saiya-jin can stand a chance against the Butsudo-jin."
Toma finally shook himself out of his shock and managed to regain a steady voice. That was a ridiculous idea that the alien stated! "So you're saying that you're a Butsudo-jin, so that makes you able to defeat us Saiya-jin in a duel? With mere weapons?"
Before the Saiya-jin sub-leader could even laugh at the irony, he felt four tiny spheres of concrete drill themselves into his cheek with a force so great that Toma collapsed shoulder-first into the wall. Surprised, he managed to regain his balance, the pain quickly evaporated and ignored. The only two words that Toma could really think and say distinctly were, "What? How?". Instead of remaining bewildered, both he and Panboukin were just about ready to strike Shõgun back with all the strength a Saiya-jin had.
That is, until Shõgun retorted their oncoming actions with, "You Saiya-jin really are fools; no wonder why you were easily taken out by that comet!"
Toma halted his ambush and signaled for Panboukin to do the same. Reluctantly, the plumper Saiya-jin sulked back to his previous position, knowing that the sub-leader had a very good reason for his command. "A comet?" Toma asked.
"You are a Saiya-jin, and yet you do not know what happened to your home planet? I really do pity you," Shõgun shook his head, but he showed no signs of sympathy. "I find that impossible to believe, but this is really wasting my time. Rato and Inu are finished with this level, I assume, so in order for you to stay out of our way and in order for you to keep your lives, how about a deal?"
"Saiya-jin don't make deals," Panboukin warned with a dangerous tone Toma had never heard before. Turning his head slightly to glance at his comrade, Toma realized that Panboukin may already have an idea what this Butsudo-jin --that is what Shõgun and those other two aliens were, right?-- had in mind. Of course, Panboukin may not have an idea, he just may have a feeling that the bargain Shõgun will make would be unfair. And besides, why should they, a couple of Saiya-jin, worry about what a couple of aliens could do?
But the run-in with the assassins was something that Toma kept reminding himself of. They had taken the team by surprise, of course, much like how Shõgun had when he smacked the sub-leader, and even then the three Saiya-jin stood no chance against them. It had resulted in their deaths; would these three Butsudo-jin be the same way?
"You don't? Then why do I seem to recall the fact that your race was once associated with the Planet Trade that my friend Rato Manaloto over there seems to loathe so much?"
"There was no deal there, as far as I'm concerned," Toma stated in a low voice. "And it wasn't all of the Saiya-jins' decision."
"Either way, you still would have said yes, wouldn't you?" Shõgun accused light-heartedly. "We are straying from the point; do you or do you not want to make a deal? Would you rather have us ignore you and you ignore us or have a quarrel that could result in your deaths?"
Panboukin snorted. "A quarrel sounds just fine and dandy to me, you bastard."
At the same time, Manaloto yelled from behind them, "They were part of the Planet Trade! Just kill them!"
"Panboukin, let me handle this," Toma ordered quietly after both of them had silenced. "I am second in command, after all, and significantly stronger than you are. I will handle this and you will be quiet." To Shõgun, who was obviously the leader of this band of aliens, he finally gave in. "What exactly do you have in mind?"
Shõgun smiled, which made Toma feel the defeat in his chest so painfully that he nearly winced. If it only weren't for those damned assassins back on Meatsei! "Like I said, Rato and Inu are finished with this level here and on up. Since we're only going to be here for another day, for the night and until tomorrow morning you Saiya-jin will get the top floors. Us Butsudo-jin will have the bottom two floors. To insure that we keep this promise, if we happen to step up on your territory, you will have all the questions I know you have of us answered, and the chance to kill us or turn us into the authorities. If you step onto our territory, we'll simply kill you. I know I would not take that chance, considering how lonely my only friend can get if I died."
"But there are four of us, not just two," Panboukin interjected, much to Toma's aggravation. Could that have been a mistake, or did it help the bargain on the Saiya-jin part?
However, it also reminded Toma of the fact that there was a slight problem with this deal; hopefully it would not take effect immediately. "We have a companion on the first floor in the healing tank. We have to bring her back up."
Shõgun turned more menacing than ever; suddenly, Toma feared that he had agreed to the worst. "I believe this will work for the better if you do not bring your friend to your territory for the night. If the Saiya-jin really are people, they would not put their friend's life on the line for their own well being. So, we will not cause damage to your friend, but we will detain her until we leave. However, if you do step onto the second floor, she will suffer a slow and painful death. You Saiya-jin are people, aren't you?"