An Amity Revived
Chapter Five
Four perfectly shaped craters stood aligned in a single filed row. It was an amazing sight to see, considering that the team usually landed quite a distance from one another. Sometimes the mileage was so great that they just went ahead and destroyed their part of the planet by themselves and met up with the rest of the crew later during the week or month or whenever the deadline was. Of course, there were many times when they finished a planet ahead of schedule. Like on Kanassasei; that planet was given to them to take out in seven weeks. The job was completed in a mere two weeks.
The three did not marvel at the perfect alignment of their pods. Currently, all they cared about was to return back to their homes on Vegetasei and to receive answers for themselves of why they were killed. Why were they targeted for the assassins' victims?
Celipa was the first to walk away from the group, having her own thoughts in her head. Panboukin saw her movements and mimicked them. He quickly told Totepo, "See you back home," before he headed towards his pod. The seven-foot tall man had already been on his way.
They were headed for opposite directions: the woman headed to the left towards two craters, the further one hers; Panboukin aimed for the crater right in front of him, and Totepo went to a solitary ditch to the right. Celipa had further to walk. Her face read expressionless until the moment of surprise caught her attention.
A blurred figure moved from the sky and dove straight for her. She didn't notice; she was too tired and worn out; plus, she no longer wore a scouter. Her left side was exposed to the figure's eyes, thus making the situation ten times better. Two arms jerked in front of the body, and Celipa found herself off her feet once she felt their touch. She accidentally yelped before she landed safely into the arms underneath her.
The other two men turned their heads towards her direction immediately when they heard her small outburst of surprise. Their eyes had already adjusted to the night sky of the planet, but they only saw shadows of two people: their female companion and someone they could not distinguish that instant. The newcomer had the young woman cradled in his arms, but he let her down while breaking out into a guffaw. Celipa muttered something back to him that made him laugh harder and louder before he commented, "You were always one to easily be surprised when you're not paying attention. Face it, it was your fault."
The two males exchanged a small smirk to one another. Rather, Panboukin gave the other a smirk. Totepo just nodded in response. They knew who that person was now. They knew only one other person besides Panboukin who could carry a lively spirit as big as this.
When the two men floated towards them, they saw that Celipa did not appreciate the surprise greeting the man at her right side had given to her. She held an irritated scowl with her arms folded in annoyance. Her rags were sprawled on the ground from when she lost her grip at the instant of the assault. Toma, on the other hand, gloated still after he noticed Panboukin and Totepo approach them. He laughed in joy just by the sight of them.
Panboukin waved the snickering aside, but the corner of his mouth lifted and burrowed itself into his cheek. "It took you long enough, don't you think?"
Toma shrugged in response. His chortling simmered down to a light chuckle under his breath as he forced himself to taunt, "I'm surprised you weren't-- ah, never mind. You were never patient, so why am I wasting my breath?"
"Because you've never been happier to see us," Celipa piped up, allowing her priggish smirk to show up. She bent down to retrieve her leggings. Quickly she popped back up, and placed her hands firmly on her hips with the rags limping from her left hand. It was at that point when Toma noticed something different about her.
"What happened to your armor?" he inquired, arching a brow at her newly discovered attire.
She shook her head with amusement, her half-smile still holding out. "You're the first one to notice so far. Sad, because those two," she snapped her head at the Panboukin and Totepo, heavily emphasizing the last two words, "didn't notice. And I've been with them for at least three or four hours already." Panboukin was about to protest, but she beat him to the spotlight. "Either that or they didn't want to make a comment about it. What do you think?"
"I think Totepo just didn't want to say any-"
"The outfit, Toma."
"-thing about it. Panboukin probably didn't notice. As for the outfit, well, it looks," he trailed off while he attempted to come up with a word without sounding flirtatious. That would surely be used against him later. He quickly stole a glance to the others, and saw that Panboukin dared him to say it with the gleam in his eyes. The sub-leader grumbled, and then decided his words, turning down the dare, "Take off your gloves, and then I'll decide."
At first she just stared at him bluntly, a small twist of a glare in her right eye. She kept it up for approximately three seconds before she tucked her yellow, singed leggings underneath her arm. She delicately pinched the tip of her left index finger with her right hand and pulled the glove off, and then proceeded with the other side. She placed the rags and her gloves both in her right hand, and then placed her knuckles on her waist.
"Well?" Celipa questioned again, now fully expecting a very good answer. Toma scanned her up and down, then quickly lifted his shoulders and muttered quietly, yet audible enough so she could hear, "Not bad."
With satisfaction, she folded her arms underneath her sternum with a two-sided smirk. "Better than nothing, I suppose," she admitted, leering at Panboukin. He just rolled his eyes in return, and then moved on to another subject.
"Hey Toma, did you catch notice of several of the assassin's skeletons on the way? Some gruesome stuff, eh?" A vicious smile approached because he knew that they were finally getting into something he would enjoy talking about.
Toma gave a negative sign. It caught the attention of all the other three, for they stared at him quizzically. Totepo, who had kept the dull expression during the entire conversation, only raised an eyebrow. Panboukin gave him a very disbelieving gaze. Celipa was the only one to speak up, at least before the overweight Saiya-jin had, "I assumed you flew to catch up with us. You should've seen at least the amphibian assassin."
"No," he shook his head again, seeming just as confused as the other three. "You mean one of the assassins have been killed?" Three heads bobbed in confirmation. Both Celipa and Panboukin opened their mouths to declare who it was that killed him, but... "I knew Bardock could do it. He probably got the other four also."
A deep chuckle rumbled from his throat and a triumphant smirk grew at the bottom half of his face. He muttered exultant praises to their leader although he wasn't there with them physically. Toma seemed more elated than ever before, which ultimately confused his comrades. The looks worn on their faces were all very similar. Either burrowed brows or a single brow raised and at least one of the corners of their mouths pulled towards the earth. Then, these words were heard clearly from the sub-leader's lips: "I bet he really took care of Freeza, that bastard."
The other two males and the female exchanged a glance of discomfort. When no one showed signs of bringing Toma down, the shorthaired woman sighed and walked two steps closer to him and placed a hand on his left arm. That snapped him out of his ecstatic rambling. He stared at her hand, and then to her face, which had nothing of excitement or joy. Instead, she seemed to almost be in a state of melancholy. That drew out all of his happiness instantly.
"What?"
She sighed, letting her arm drop down back at her side. She seemed to hesitate to tell him anything; her face never phased or shimmered to something worse than what it was now. He demanded again, this time with a tone of anger. She violently shook her head and her arms came across just below her chest again. She then looked back into his eyes, and with the most serious tone that has ever been heard from her --the most heard from practically any of them, actually-- she announced:
"I --we don't think Bardock made it off the planet. Before you say or do anything, we have little proof, but it's proof nonetheless."
"Then show it to me!" Toma hissed, infuriated with the prediction itself. Whether it was true or not didn't matter. Whatever proof they carried probably would have caused his fury in the first place. All three of them stood motionless, not making any movements to reveal the evidence. This only angered him more. "God damn it! It can't be that bad whatever it is!"
Panboukin and Celipa silently tilted their heads towards Totepo, indicating for him to show the proof to him. He nodded in an understanding gesture and shoved a giant open hand to Toma. Lying in his palm was a faded green, shell-like elastic armor, cracked and broken in various places. Underneath the shred of armor was a piece of black cloth, tattered and ripped.
Toma stood in complete shock; his eyes widened slightly, his arms barely shaking. He tried to say something, but nothing came out. Then he pouted, a calm anger intensifying the atmosphere. "That proves nothing. He could've had a minor setback. That happens."
Celipa clenched her teeth, baring them so it could show only the slightest bit. "Are you doubting me?!" She demanded, herself getting frustrated with the conversation. Her fists tightened, knuckles purifying to a whitish color. Her nails pierced her skin and blood trickled from her hands. She didn't care. She didn't even notice. "You have no idea where I found this! And you have absolutely no idea about the positions we were revived through! The reason being: you were the last one to be resurrected! Now, when I awoke from my supposed 'eternal sleep' I saw no rubble in the five-yard circle that surrounded me! Why? Because we were in a ditch caused by some sort of energy attack! We followed the ditch back to where we know we died. Therefore, we were caught in the middle of a battle where Bardock obviously lost! That ditch was at least seven miles long!"
The three men had let her ramble on. Either that or they had no choice but to listen to her for she did not provide any opportunity for them to say anything. But even after she finished talking, no one said anything until the sub-leader came up with an idea.
"Well, at least we agree on one thing," he growled. "Bardock was here. At least I saw him here with my own eyes before I died. So there's only one way to confirm that he had left this planet or not. We go look for his space pod."
Celipa grunted, folding her arms again, the blood spilling from her hands to her arms now. Her gloves and leggings did get a little red on them, but it's not like she cared. "Very well then. If he survived that blast, then his pod isn't here. If he died, then his pod is here. I guess we're delaying our return home now, aren't we?"
"If we plan to end this dispute, although we could wait until we return to Vegetasei. But don't you think it'd be better to do it now?" Toma suggested, sneering at her. This was really uncommon between the two of them; Panboukin was just too shocked to say anything. Besides, he enjoyed listening to an arguing male and female. He considered it entertaining.
"Fine," she snapped simply, heading off to the west of the night sky, leaving a trail of white aura behind her. The men watched her go before Toma glared at the other two, asking if they were going to participate. They unanimously agreed that they'd better. It was night on an empty planet, no scouters and too many natural disasters to dodge. So the quicker done, the better.