Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A Shadow in the Twilight ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2

The two circular Saiya-jin space pods rapidly covered the measured distance to the planet of Theta Seven. Their disruptive landings created a couple of huge craters in an uninhabited shoreline area. The hilly sand dunes absorbed most of the heat and force of their unchecked entry through the atmosphere. The violent displacement to the sandy surface caused less damage than had they crashed into a forest or less forgiving geographical area. After disembarking from their vessels, the two Saiya-jins took to the night sky, activating their scouter units in order to gauge any power sources of note that might be resident on this world. As fortune would have it, their scouters detected a significant number of energy emanations coming from the direction of their sought destination, the central city's large outdoor amphitheatre.

"Looks like a full house, Bardock," observed Toma as the two warriors hovered high above the festival venue. The voices of a happily entertained throng, mingling with the sounds of different musical styles, floated upward toward the soaring Saiya-jins. Bardock's sharp eyes made note of a bank of open seats on the topmost tier, their occupants having vacated for whatever the reason, and pointed downward.

"I see a couple of free seats! Let's settle in for the remainder of the show." With those words, he flew down with Toma in pursuit, floating down into the open seats. Nearby attendees, while momentarily surprised by the manner in which the battle-suited gate-crashers arrived, quickly returned their own attentions to the electrifying performances taking place on the stage below.

The crowd grew hushed in anticipation of the next act. Some were glancing at the programs clutched feverishly in their hands.

"Ooo! The Shadow Entertainers are up next! I just love them!" squealed a nearby female patron.

"Me, too! I'm so glad they saved the best ones for last! Yu-vee's performers are the absolute bomb!" giggled her companion.

"U-V?" Odd name. I wonder who they're talking about, pondered Bardock as the spotlights fell upon the two dancers poised to enter the darkened stage from opposing sides.

When Toma depressed a button on his scouter unit to activate the energy display, the numbers quickly rose before his astonished gaze. Wow, those two are showing a combined energy reading of 2,500! Unbelievable!

The dancers gravitated towards each other with practiced grace, falling into the movements of the sultry dance as the music surrounded them and their enthralled audience with its tropically-inspired melody. The male dancer's fine chocolate skin contrasted with the paleness of his smaller female partner. Her long copper-colored hair swirled around both their graceful figures as they moved in the cool evening breeze:

Man, it's a hot one

Like seven inches from the midday sun,

I hear you whisper and the words melt everyone,

But you stay so cool…

Bardock could not take his eyes off the female's lithe body. He'd never seen anyone move so expressively and so sinuously. The two dancers' bodies bespoke to each other in the language born of wordless seduction and sensuality.

Toma briefly unglued his own eyes away from the dancers to find his friend leaning forward in his seat, riveted by the action taking place upon the stage. The Saiya-jin chuckled to himself as he continued to glance about him, noting the identical enraptured expressions and postures in the faces of the immediate audience.

Bardock's eyesight had settled upon a silvery chain encircling the female dancer's lower waist. He could have sworn that it was throwing off tiny sparks of energy in counterpoint to her body's movements.

And it's just like the ocean under the moon
Well that's the same as the emotion that I get from you
You got the kind of lovin' that could be so smooth
Give me your heart make it real
Or else forget about it…

When the music faded out, tumultuous applause and cheers sprouted up all around him, rudely jolting into Bardock's hypnotized state. Whistles and shouts of "Yu-vee!" "Yu-vee, baby!" "Yeah, Addy!" "Love you, Yu-vee!" filled the air around the two Saiya-jins. The couple on stage bowed and curtseyed, first to the audience and then towards each other. The audience rose as one to give the two dancers an enthusiastic standing ovation. The dancers responded again to the cheering assemblage with waves and blown kisses before dashing off hand-in-hand, stage left.

"Who's U-V?" Bardock's question caught the attention of some nearby attendees.

"Man, that's Lluvia (yu-vee-ah) Celestri, Yu-vee for short, and her band of entertainers! They've only been on this year's circuit for a short time, but boy-oh-boy, those guys know how to tear it up! I just love to watch them perform! They put out such kinetic energy, don't you think?"

After the last act, which featured an attractive, angelically-voiced, and quite pregnant blond female, the two Saiya-jins followed the flow of the departing crowd down the aisle steps toward the stage. Instead of exiting with the throng, they stopped and inquired of a uniformed usher where the dressing rooms were to be found. The usher politely directed Bardock and Toma to a hallway adjacent to the shell-shaped stage. Both Saiya-jins' curiosities were aroused, but for different reasons. However, the two of them did want some answers as to how such substantial ki energies could be possessed by these obviously non-warrior beings.

With scouter units activated, they made their way past several doors located in the passageway and arrived at a door, on the front of which was taped a handwritten sign noting that this particular dressing room was reserved for "The Shadow Entertainers".

Their scouter devices indicated that the high energy readings were definitely originating from the other side. Toma tapped on the paneled door with a forefinger as lightly as he could and still managed to rattle the walls surrounding the small entrance.

A perky, auburn-haired female poked her head around the opened door. Her appraising aqua-eyed gaze tracked up both their sculpted muscular bodies until it alit on their faces. "May I help you gentlemen?"

"We'd like to meet this Yu-vee person, if you don't mind," Toma ventured.

"Uh, sure! Just give me a sec, would you?" She smiled brightly into his gaze before turning to holler over her shoulder. "Yu-vee, honey!"

"Yeah, Soledad! What is it?"

"A couple of guys here to see you! A special delivery straight from 'Hunks R Us', just for you!" Soledad giggled at her own wit.

A remote groan came from behind the door. "No kidding? I have to scrape off some of this makeup first! Please ask them to give me couple of minutes!"

"Okies!" The cute sentry returned to beam once more at Toma. "You heard?" Toma met her grin with one of his own and nodded. "She'll be out shortly!"

She quickly closed the door and the two Saiya-jins soon heard much lighthearted laughing and teasing coming through the thin portal.

Bardock and Toma backed up a few strides from the doorway to confer, arguing as to who would be the one of them doing most of the talking, when the knob turned and door creaked open a bit.

"Yu-vee, you're still wearing the wig!" Musical laughter from the one called Yu-vee greeted the observation.

"Dopey me! Soley, take this, would you? Kami! It feels so good to take that bloody thing off!"

Bardock felt the walls and floor of the narrow hallway begin to undulate as the female dancer finally emerged around the door. The creature he saw earlier on stage little resembled the brightly smiling creature casually strolling toward them. The long coppery hair, which he now realized had been a wig, was gone. In its place was a shaggy fluff of whitish-gold hair, the ends tipped with a light strawberry tint. She was running her hands upward through her hair, teasing the slightly sweaty strands off her scalp. Three thin, shoulder-length beaded braids were strung in front of two slightly pointed ears, framing a heart-shaped face. Her skin color was translucently pale, tinged with a soft lilac hue. She was still attired in the short, slit crimson mini-skirt and matching midriff-baring camisole top from her dance number. The thin, glittering metal chain encircled her compact waist, riding just above her hips, its glint catching the hallway's light in time to her stride. Oddly, its glistening was nowhere as intense as it had been on the stage during the dance number. But it was her eyes, two orbs fashioned of such an intense midnight blue that, once they met his ebony gaze, lanced directly into Bardock's soul.

((I will remember you!))

A line of chilly sweat beads broke out around Bardock's hairline as his wavering sight began to evolve into one of his full-blown clairvoyant spells. And like the ones he'd experienced to date, he knew full well that he was powerless to stop its emergence.

Smooth - Carlos Santana