Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Seal ❯ The Pick-Up ( Chapter 11 )
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
By: nice-day 
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.17.2003 | Pages: 4 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 229 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 02.17.2003 | Pages: 4 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 229 | Status: Completed
The air stank of burning. The rich, thick aroma of destruction rode across the fields of other-world on the sickly warm breeze, as the spectre of death atop its skeletal steed. At the horizon, looming pillars of acrid smoke reached to the pink skies that had become steadily more tainted as Krillin and King Vegeta's journey had worn on. All around the evidence was mounting that, slowly and agonisingly, this beautiful place was being corrupted.
Krillin shivered. The air might have been warm, but the atmosphere of dread and despair that was creeping over the land carried with it a soul-draining coldness. It was the same kind of cold that the fighter had experienced whilst immersed with the souls of the damned, a frost of heartless indifference and malice.
Pulling his already tense arms closer to his sides, Krillin altered his altitude to hug the ground yet more closely. This was how he had intended escape the notice of the numerous frightful beings that now plagued this plane. However, this was not the only reason for his low flight path. The good warrior knew that a high vantage point would allow him to see some distance, and that it was almost certain that in that case he would bare witness to all manner of horrors. He knew that if he were to see such occurrences, his first instinct would be to come to the aid of those in trouble, but he also knew that he did not have the time to spare for such rescues. One hour spent helping a single tormented soul would be one more hour spent suffering by the rest of heaven.
King Vegeta, on the other hand, seemed to be wrestling with no such dilemma. As before, he was cruising some distance above Krillin, his piercing stare trained unswervingly on the horizon ahead. Initially, Krillin had had some difficulty keeping pace with Vegeta. While he had been trying to quell his ki in an effort to travel covertly, the Saiyan had simply taken to the sky with all engines firing. The little Earthman had found himself having to burn every ounce of energy he had just to keep up, and even then, he thought that Vegeta might be holding back somewhat to allow him to stay close. Krillin wondered if this was a mute gesture of thanks for his earlier support. However, it was more likely that the Saiyan knew that it was unlikely that the seal would be handed over to him unless he was with someone who had already been approved.
As the two mismatched warriors raced across the grim grasslands, Krillin again found himself faced with the same awkward silence as that the two had shared earlier. His discomfort was amplified by the cries of horror that seemed to increase in volume with every mile they covered, but the fighter was duty bound to ignore.
Desperate for distraction, Krillin would spend a few minutes here and there trying to pick out individual fighters from amid the tempest of active kis. Carefully his mind would trawl the oceans of energy, trying to fish out the most prominent signals. It had been some small encouragement to him that his search had turned up some strong spirits that did not exude the coldness of corruption, but rather the warmth of goodness that Krillin had once sensed in his own friends as they prepared for battle back on the mortal plane. It was likely that these were the souls of great and good warriors of times past, called upon to do battle with evil one last time. However, these benevolent presences were still but as bright stars amid a blackened firmament, as they seemed to be hopelessly outnumbered by the wicked. To Krillin this was a sobering reminder of how easily one could be twisted by one's own power.
Occasionally, Krillin would cast an eye upward to King Vegeta in the vain hope that he might be able to open up a dialogue. He had opened his mouth to speak a couple of times, but each time the words had coward within him, stubbornly refusing to make themselves heard. But as the journey continued, Krillin was finding it more and more difficult to deal with the strain he was being placed under. Gradually, this pressure was forcing his words out into the open.
"So. . . er . . . you're a Saiyan." Krillin said gingerly, looking up at Vegeta, "That must be. . . interesting."
Krillin winced.
Nice opener, dummy; Krillin thought to himself, annoyed at his own poor choice of words.
Vegeta did not reply, nor even acknowledge Krillin's half-baked attempt at conversation. Taking some heart in the fact that he had not been shot down, either verbally or physically, Krillin continued.
"Y'know, there was a Saiyan outside my house today." He informed Vegeta matter-of-factly, "He was pretty big. Tough fighter, too. But, not as tough as you I bet."
Krillin cringed again.
Good one, Krillin. When you're finished licking his boots, why don't you kiss his butt aswell; he scolded himself.
"He looked pretty old, though, so I guess you wouldn't know him. Hey, maybe he was a distant relative of yours. You know, there is something of a resemblance. What with all that dark hair and. . ."
Krillin was interrupted by a loud grunt, as King Vegeta cast a disdainful glance down upon him. The King then coasted off about ten meters ahead of Krillin to escape the fighter's inane babbling. There he held his position, without so much as another sound.
Krillin was not impressed by this rather rude display of disrespect. Offended, he thought of King Vegeta,
Well that's just fine. Geez, I mean, you put a crown on a guy's head and give him a fancy title, and suddenly he's to good to even talk to you! And after what I did for him. Sheesh! Like I didn't get a hard enough time off of Prince Vegeta;
Then, in a fleeting moment of lost control brought about by his grievance, Krillin grumbled,
"Like father, like son."
Before Krillin realised what was happening, another disastrous escape had occurred. These words were never supposed to have seen the light of day.
Suddenly, Vegeta shot a frightening glance over his shoulder and straight towards Krillin. It seemed as if the intensity that blazed in the Saiyan's eyes might scorch a hole in the careless fighter.
Uh-oh. Did I say that out loud?; Krillin wondered, as he hoped dearly that it was not his words that King Vegeta was reacting to.
With a fleeting burst of ice-blue light, Vegeta pulled up, allowing Krillin to coast a few meters ahead. Krillin's heart sank into his boots as he passed beneath the statuesque monarch, not daring look up at him as he did.
Fighting the urge to just keep going and avoid any follow on, Krillin too came to an abrupt halt. However, he did not turn to face Vegeta. Instead he hung motionless, his back turned to the Saiyan, unwilling to make eye contact.
"Oh man. Stupid, stupid, stupid." Krillin hissed at himself from between gritted teeth.
The two fighter's remained in this poise for several agonising moments, with Krillin feeling the stinging heat of Vegeta's glare against the back of his poorly protected head. Then, on the warm breeze, came the words Krillin had dreaded,
"What do you know of my son?"
Krillin whimpered softly at the awful situation in which he had placed himself. The quietness of the query was ominous in itself, belying the potential for catastrophe that a response might carry. However, though Krillin was unsure of the right answer was to this question, he knew that it was better to risk a response than to not respond at all. He had already witnessed Vegeta's policy on being ignored.
Slowly, and reluctantly, Krillin turned to face Vegeta. The fighter made the action slow and deliberate, in an effort to buy some time to think up the correct response. But as the fearful panorama of deserted planes and burning forests gradually passed before him, he found that his panicked mind was failing him. So, as King Vegeta finally panned into view, Krillin resolved to do the thing that any honourable warrior would. He had to tell the truth.
"Nothing." Krillin said.
What? That didn't sound like the truth; Krillin thought in puzzlement.
It seemed that, once again, the fighter's mouth was thinking for itself. He knew that he had seen Frieza blast a hole in Prince Vegeta the size of his fist, yet this information was not passed for distribution by Krillin's increasingly independent tongue. Nonetheless, it was too late to turn back now. Not wanting to appear to be toying with the moody King's emotions, Krillin continued with his deception.
"Well nothing specific, er. . . I mean, I know of Prince Vegeta. Y'know, by reputation." He garbled, "But, I mean, I don't know much. I mean, It's just gossip and hear 'say mostly. Y'know, the galactic grapevine 'n' all. But I hear good things. Well, not too good, I mean. . ."
Vegeta growled loudly in frustration at Krillin's display inarticulateness.
"Be silent!" he barked.
Krillin was only too happy to oblige. He thought he must have been the first dead-man ever to start digging his own grave.
Vegeta, his faced baring a hybrid expression of anger and disgust, turned his gaze away from the fighter and cruised away.
Krillin breathed a sigh of relief as the immediate danger passed. However, he now found himself poised precariously atop an ill-constructed stack of lies. Another slip of the tongue could be enough to topple it and its constructor. With this in mind, Krillin laid in a pursuit course after Vegeta deciding that it would be better to brave the fearful sights and sounds of this paradise-lost rather than chance another dialogue with the king.
The journey that had seemed to last an aeon or two, but in reality had only lasted little more than an hour, was finally drawing to an end as Krillin and Vegeta's goal came into view from behind a large hill. On the other side of the rise was stood a lonely cliff face, only forty or fifty feet in height, which had apparently been quarried from the side of gently rolling hill. Set into the side of the rocky landform was a building whose design was in stark contrast to the other, more retro buildings that could be seen throughout the rest of the other dimension. The façade of the building was constructed almost exclusively from heavily tinted glass in rectangular sections, held together by a regular lattice of lustrous steel girders. The shimmering glasswork gave a dull reflection of its immediate surroundings, creating the effect of a window into a neighbouring world set into a frame of grey stone. Before it was sprawled a large, square concrete surface with double rows of rectangles painted on in white. Wide isles separated these rows, and cars similar in design to King Yemma's, but not even close to the same size occupied several of the rectangular spaces. From his position just above the last hill, Krillin was finding hard to make out a door in the homogeneous structure.
He and King Vegeta crested the hill, and then began to coast down its gently sloping side. The hillside terminated at the edge of the car park, and the two fighters touched down on its sterile grey surface. Krillin deliberately landed a few meters behind Vegeta in the hope that the Saiyan might take the lead, as he still had little idea where to go. Sure enough, no sooner had his boots struck the concrete King Vegeta began to stride purposefully straight down the centre of the car park towards the tech lab, now about one hundred meters away. Finding himself at a disadvantage in leg- size, Krillin had to travel at a quick trot to keep up with the Saiyan who had not even checked to make sure that the Earthman was still behind him.
As they traversed the car park, Krillin noticed that there were very few cars occupying spaces. It seemed that a number of the facilities employees had called in sick. The fighter couldn't blame them. After all, who would want to travel across a war-zone just to get to work of a morning?
It seemed that Vegeta's instinct to approach the middle of the building was correct. As the two drew closer to its glass boundary, Krillin spotted a small, grey box fixed to one of the girders at what was about average human head height. The box was bisected by a series of narrow, vertical gaps that reached from its top to its middle. Below this was a single, red button.
Upon reaching the box Vegeta stopped, and looked down at it in stern puzzlement. Krillin drew up along side, and awaited the king's action. It seemed that Vegeta was not used to such subtle means of gaining attention, something that he had shown earlier. However, he slowly raised an index finger, and cautiously depressed the button.
There was a loud buzz as the box reacted to Vegeta's interference. The sound then died off instantly as the King quickly retracted his digit with a soft grunt.
"Other-World Tech Lab reception," came a shrill, fuzzy female voice, "how may I help you?"
"You will let me in immediately." King Vegeta demanded of the voice.
Krillin sighed quietly.
Here we go again; he thought.
"Please state your name and the nature of your visit." The voice said politely.
"Agh! I said let me in!" Vegeta barked, not willing to engage in such pointless formalities.
Krillin was seeing some rather worrying parallels between the current situation and the one outside Yemma's office earlier that day.
"Please state your name and the nature of your visit." The voice repeated, with almost identical tone and inflections.
Krillin could sense that the persistence of the secretary was working on Vegeta's already strained temper. Fearing that he might attempt to 'knock' on the door again, Krillin decided to chance an intervention.
"King Vegeta and Krillin. We're here to pick up the seal." He garbled, before Vegeta could respond.
The Saiyan flashed a horrifying glare at Krillin, who stepped back with fright. But before Vegeta could react to Krillin's insubordination, the glass panel directly in front of them slid aside with a quiet gasp.
King Vegeta looked up at the open door, then back at Krillin. He then proceeded to muscle past the fighter and enter the building.
"After you." Krillin muttered ironically, then followed Vegeta in.
Krillin shivered upon entering the building as he passed into the cool, air- conditioned lobby. The threshold between the muggy outdoor air the cooled indoor air was quite pronounced and the change in temperature quite pleasant, particularly on the fighter's clammy scalp.
The door slid shut behind Krillin, banishing the awful sounds of suffering that still drifted across the hills and planes of other-world. These cries of anguish were replaced by the gentle strains of synthesised classical music, which was being pumped into the lobby over a PA system.
The lobby was in stark contrast to the rapidly darkening outside world. The contoured meadows of blue grass had given way to a perfectly flat surface of white, porcelain tiles. The floor of the lobby was square in shape with sides of about thirty meters in length. In fact, the whole room appeared to be cubic in geometry with white walls and ceiling, all identical in dimensions to the floor. Had it not been for the square desk at the centre of the room, and the potted palm trees standing guard at each corner, Krillin could have forgiven himself for thinking he might be standing on the ceiling.
Seeing that King Vegeta was already on his way to the reception desk, Krillin hastily gave chase. Again, he feared for the results of letting Vegeta deal with the formalities of this place without supervision. As he trotted across the tiled floor, his footsteps echoed from the sterile walls of the hall, giving a soft percussion backing to the dulcet tones of the ambient music.
With some effort, Krillin was able to reach the desk at the same time as King Vegeta. He then peered over the top of the desk, which was at about the height of his chin, and looked up at its occupant. There was sat a female demon, dressed in white blouse and her face adorned with thick, black-framed glasses. This demon appeared to fairly advanced in age. A short mane of white hair surrounded the black horn that protruded from her head, and her blue face bore the rigours of countless centuries of public relations.
"Where is the seal?" Vegeta enquired forcefully, slamming a hand down on the surface of the desk.
Unflustered by the Saiyan's outburst, the receptionist glanced up from her computer monitor, and briefly examined the unusual duo over the frame of her glasses.
Vegeta growled as he was looked over by the wizened demon.
"Well? Answer me, crone." He demanded, slamming a second hand on the desk.
The demon raised her grey eyebrows at Vegeta's rather rude address. However, her PR skills held, and she did not react.
"Dr. Geoff will be with you momentarily." She stated with flawless verbal accuracy, suggesting that she had dispensed the same or similar words an unimaginable number of times during her years of service, "Please, take a seat."
The receptionist gestured to two white, plastic seats situated against the wall to the fighters' left. Vegeta looked briefly at the chairs, then back at the demon. He then snarled with frustration at being made to wait yet longer and turned away from the desk, barking some unfamiliar, and probably unrepeatable Saiyan profanity as he did.
"I think we'll stand, thank you." Krillin said politely, trying to fulfil his role in this game of 'good fighter, bad fighter'.
However, the demon had already returned to her work, the frantic clicking of her furious typing being her only response. It seemed that, having completed her own obligatory pleasantries, she didn't care what Krillin and Vegeta did.
This left Krillin to stand and wait as the tension that radiate from Vegeta steadily increased in magnitude. Looking around, the fighter tried to find something to fill what he hoped would be a short time before their needs were attended to. Scanning the top of the reception desk, his eyes fell upon a small Perspex stand containing a neat collection of leaflets. Reaching up, Krillin plucked one of the glossy pamphlets from its resting place. The front read,
Other-World Tech Lab Where Science And The Supernatural Are One
Beneath these words was printed a small photograph of the building itself taken from outside. The image was clearly designed to attract business or investment, or some such, as it had been taken a particularly pleasant day, when its car park had been filled with immaculately clean and waxed cars. This picture did not bare much resemblance to the scene he had encountered upon reaching the labs.
Opening the leaflet, Krillin was greeted by the smiling faces of a throng of happy employees captured in print. Then, something peculiar happened.
"Hi!" The faces shouted cheerily, at which point all of the pictured demons began to wave vigorously.
Krillin emitted a startled yelp, and dropped the leaflet to the ground. The sound of his scare echoed around the cavernous lobby, earning him the attention of the both the receptionist and King Vegeta.
"Sorry." Krillin said, grinning with embarrassment.
Vegeta lifted his downward gaze from Krillin with a pronounced huff, denoting a profound lack of surprise at the fighter's odd behaviour. The receptionists simply returned to her typing.
Krillin lifted the leaflet from the floor, and gently replaced in the stand so as not to evoke any further reaction from the pictures within.
Man. And I thought that dinosaurs, aliens and dragonballs were weird; Krillin thought, pining for the more familiar oddities of the living world.
And with that thought, Krillin's awkward wait was mercifully brought to an end. From across the lobby there echoed the sound of a small bell pealing once. Krillin peered around the side of the receptionist just in time to see a sliding door, identical in colour to the wall that housed it, sliding open with a mechanical whir. The opening door revealed three individuals enclosed within the metallic walls of what appeared to be an elevator. The three were all demons of the same variety as the receptionist, and that at Yemma's office, only these three were dressed in lab coats. Two of the demons appeared to be identical, both being tall and lanky with long, gaunt faces. Their coats went as far as their knees, at which point the strange, tiger-stripe trousers that seemed so popular among demon-kind took over. The third, stood between the others, was a short, rotund individual, whose lab coat reached down to the ground, obscuring both his legs and his feet. His head was bare but for the trademark black horn, and a thick, grey beard shrouded that lower half of his face. Upon the bridge of his nose was seated a pair of glasses whose lenses were so thick that they verged on the opaque.
Vegeta too had noticed the arrival of the unearthly scientists and began to stride quickly around the desk to meet them as they disembarked the lift.
Still nervous about allowing Vegeta uncontrolled access to the seal, Krillin jogged around the opposite side of the bureaux, trying to keep pace with the impatient King. He and King Vegeta both reached the entrance to the lift as the trio of scientists stepped off.
"The seal! You will give to me now!" Vegeta boomed before anyone else could speak, and then held out an open hand.
Neither of the twins reacted to this. The shortest of the three simply looked up at Vegeta, his eyes barely visible through the coke bottles he was wearing.
"Ah! I'm guessing you are, erm. . . Krillin." he said, and then looking at Krillin he continued, "Ah yes, and you must be King Vegeta. King Yemma told me to expect you."
Krillin grimaced at the elderly scientists mistaken identification, fearing the Vegeta would not take kindly.
Vegeta, however, seemed utterly unconcerned with anything other than obtaining the seal.
"Where is the seal?!" he asked, becoming ever more impatient.
"Yes, yes, all in good time my dear fellow, all in good time." The scientist said, beginning to search his person.
Krillin frowned in puzzlement. Why was he searching his pockets fro something that was as big as the building he was in? The fighter had expected to be led to some sought of large haulage vehicle with which to shift the gargantuan seal.
"Oh yes, I'm Dr. Geoff by the way." The demon continued, "I built this seal. Well, the twins and I, that is. Oh my, yes. This one's a beauty, all right. No expense spared, don't you know. We started on it back in . . ."
"We don't have time for this!" King Vegeta roared, "Now give me the seal!"
"Oh yes, yes, very well." Dr. Geoff said, following it with a gentle giggle, "Feisty one, aren't we? Now I know I have it on me somewhere. . . in my jacket. . . no . . . pants maybe . . . or was it. . ."
"Either find it now or I will find it for you!" Vegeta threatened, raising that infamous fist.
But before King Vegeta could make good on his threat, the lobby was permeated by the deafening sound shattering glass.
Krillin span around on the spot and faced the source of the sound. He looked on in shock as the glass face of the lobby collapsed from its metal frame, raining down glittering fragments of light as the debris tumbled to the ground. The racket persisted as the small pieces of glass cried out as they burst into even smaller shards as they struck the hard floor and skittered across the smooth tiles.
Krillin was unable to see what was going on around the desk where the receptionist continued to work, unfazed. But as the sound died away, there came a chillingly familiar voice.
"Knock knock."
Krillin shut his eyes hard, and whined despairingly to himself,
"Oh no. Not again. . ."
.
Krillin shivered. The air might have been warm, but the atmosphere of dread and despair that was creeping over the land carried with it a soul-draining coldness. It was the same kind of cold that the fighter had experienced whilst immersed with the souls of the damned, a frost of heartless indifference and malice.
Pulling his already tense arms closer to his sides, Krillin altered his altitude to hug the ground yet more closely. This was how he had intended escape the notice of the numerous frightful beings that now plagued this plane. However, this was not the only reason for his low flight path. The good warrior knew that a high vantage point would allow him to see some distance, and that it was almost certain that in that case he would bare witness to all manner of horrors. He knew that if he were to see such occurrences, his first instinct would be to come to the aid of those in trouble, but he also knew that he did not have the time to spare for such rescues. One hour spent helping a single tormented soul would be one more hour spent suffering by the rest of heaven.
King Vegeta, on the other hand, seemed to be wrestling with no such dilemma. As before, he was cruising some distance above Krillin, his piercing stare trained unswervingly on the horizon ahead. Initially, Krillin had had some difficulty keeping pace with Vegeta. While he had been trying to quell his ki in an effort to travel covertly, the Saiyan had simply taken to the sky with all engines firing. The little Earthman had found himself having to burn every ounce of energy he had just to keep up, and even then, he thought that Vegeta might be holding back somewhat to allow him to stay close. Krillin wondered if this was a mute gesture of thanks for his earlier support. However, it was more likely that the Saiyan knew that it was unlikely that the seal would be handed over to him unless he was with someone who had already been approved.
As the two mismatched warriors raced across the grim grasslands, Krillin again found himself faced with the same awkward silence as that the two had shared earlier. His discomfort was amplified by the cries of horror that seemed to increase in volume with every mile they covered, but the fighter was duty bound to ignore.
Desperate for distraction, Krillin would spend a few minutes here and there trying to pick out individual fighters from amid the tempest of active kis. Carefully his mind would trawl the oceans of energy, trying to fish out the most prominent signals. It had been some small encouragement to him that his search had turned up some strong spirits that did not exude the coldness of corruption, but rather the warmth of goodness that Krillin had once sensed in his own friends as they prepared for battle back on the mortal plane. It was likely that these were the souls of great and good warriors of times past, called upon to do battle with evil one last time. However, these benevolent presences were still but as bright stars amid a blackened firmament, as they seemed to be hopelessly outnumbered by the wicked. To Krillin this was a sobering reminder of how easily one could be twisted by one's own power.
Occasionally, Krillin would cast an eye upward to King Vegeta in the vain hope that he might be able to open up a dialogue. He had opened his mouth to speak a couple of times, but each time the words had coward within him, stubbornly refusing to make themselves heard. But as the journey continued, Krillin was finding it more and more difficult to deal with the strain he was being placed under. Gradually, this pressure was forcing his words out into the open.
"So. . . er . . . you're a Saiyan." Krillin said gingerly, looking up at Vegeta, "That must be. . . interesting."
Krillin winced.
Nice opener, dummy; Krillin thought to himself, annoyed at his own poor choice of words.
Vegeta did not reply, nor even acknowledge Krillin's half-baked attempt at conversation. Taking some heart in the fact that he had not been shot down, either verbally or physically, Krillin continued.
"Y'know, there was a Saiyan outside my house today." He informed Vegeta matter-of-factly, "He was pretty big. Tough fighter, too. But, not as tough as you I bet."
Krillin cringed again.
Good one, Krillin. When you're finished licking his boots, why don't you kiss his butt aswell; he scolded himself.
"He looked pretty old, though, so I guess you wouldn't know him. Hey, maybe he was a distant relative of yours. You know, there is something of a resemblance. What with all that dark hair and. . ."
Krillin was interrupted by a loud grunt, as King Vegeta cast a disdainful glance down upon him. The King then coasted off about ten meters ahead of Krillin to escape the fighter's inane babbling. There he held his position, without so much as another sound.
Krillin was not impressed by this rather rude display of disrespect. Offended, he thought of King Vegeta,
Well that's just fine. Geez, I mean, you put a crown on a guy's head and give him a fancy title, and suddenly he's to good to even talk to you! And after what I did for him. Sheesh! Like I didn't get a hard enough time off of Prince Vegeta;
Then, in a fleeting moment of lost control brought about by his grievance, Krillin grumbled,
"Like father, like son."
Before Krillin realised what was happening, another disastrous escape had occurred. These words were never supposed to have seen the light of day.
Suddenly, Vegeta shot a frightening glance over his shoulder and straight towards Krillin. It seemed as if the intensity that blazed in the Saiyan's eyes might scorch a hole in the careless fighter.
Uh-oh. Did I say that out loud?; Krillin wondered, as he hoped dearly that it was not his words that King Vegeta was reacting to.
With a fleeting burst of ice-blue light, Vegeta pulled up, allowing Krillin to coast a few meters ahead. Krillin's heart sank into his boots as he passed beneath the statuesque monarch, not daring look up at him as he did.
Fighting the urge to just keep going and avoid any follow on, Krillin too came to an abrupt halt. However, he did not turn to face Vegeta. Instead he hung motionless, his back turned to the Saiyan, unwilling to make eye contact.
"Oh man. Stupid, stupid, stupid." Krillin hissed at himself from between gritted teeth.
The two fighter's remained in this poise for several agonising moments, with Krillin feeling the stinging heat of Vegeta's glare against the back of his poorly protected head. Then, on the warm breeze, came the words Krillin had dreaded,
"What do you know of my son?"
Krillin whimpered softly at the awful situation in which he had placed himself. The quietness of the query was ominous in itself, belying the potential for catastrophe that a response might carry. However, though Krillin was unsure of the right answer was to this question, he knew that it was better to risk a response than to not respond at all. He had already witnessed Vegeta's policy on being ignored.
Slowly, and reluctantly, Krillin turned to face Vegeta. The fighter made the action slow and deliberate, in an effort to buy some time to think up the correct response. But as the fearful panorama of deserted planes and burning forests gradually passed before him, he found that his panicked mind was failing him. So, as King Vegeta finally panned into view, Krillin resolved to do the thing that any honourable warrior would. He had to tell the truth.
"Nothing." Krillin said.
What? That didn't sound like the truth; Krillin thought in puzzlement.
It seemed that, once again, the fighter's mouth was thinking for itself. He knew that he had seen Frieza blast a hole in Prince Vegeta the size of his fist, yet this information was not passed for distribution by Krillin's increasingly independent tongue. Nonetheless, it was too late to turn back now. Not wanting to appear to be toying with the moody King's emotions, Krillin continued with his deception.
"Well nothing specific, er. . . I mean, I know of Prince Vegeta. Y'know, by reputation." He garbled, "But, I mean, I don't know much. I mean, It's just gossip and hear 'say mostly. Y'know, the galactic grapevine 'n' all. But I hear good things. Well, not too good, I mean. . ."
Vegeta growled loudly in frustration at Krillin's display inarticulateness.
"Be silent!" he barked.
Krillin was only too happy to oblige. He thought he must have been the first dead-man ever to start digging his own grave.
Vegeta, his faced baring a hybrid expression of anger and disgust, turned his gaze away from the fighter and cruised away.
Krillin breathed a sigh of relief as the immediate danger passed. However, he now found himself poised precariously atop an ill-constructed stack of lies. Another slip of the tongue could be enough to topple it and its constructor. With this in mind, Krillin laid in a pursuit course after Vegeta deciding that it would be better to brave the fearful sights and sounds of this paradise-lost rather than chance another dialogue with the king.
The journey that had seemed to last an aeon or two, but in reality had only lasted little more than an hour, was finally drawing to an end as Krillin and Vegeta's goal came into view from behind a large hill. On the other side of the rise was stood a lonely cliff face, only forty or fifty feet in height, which had apparently been quarried from the side of gently rolling hill. Set into the side of the rocky landform was a building whose design was in stark contrast to the other, more retro buildings that could be seen throughout the rest of the other dimension. The façade of the building was constructed almost exclusively from heavily tinted glass in rectangular sections, held together by a regular lattice of lustrous steel girders. The shimmering glasswork gave a dull reflection of its immediate surroundings, creating the effect of a window into a neighbouring world set into a frame of grey stone. Before it was sprawled a large, square concrete surface with double rows of rectangles painted on in white. Wide isles separated these rows, and cars similar in design to King Yemma's, but not even close to the same size occupied several of the rectangular spaces. From his position just above the last hill, Krillin was finding hard to make out a door in the homogeneous structure.
He and King Vegeta crested the hill, and then began to coast down its gently sloping side. The hillside terminated at the edge of the car park, and the two fighters touched down on its sterile grey surface. Krillin deliberately landed a few meters behind Vegeta in the hope that the Saiyan might take the lead, as he still had little idea where to go. Sure enough, no sooner had his boots struck the concrete King Vegeta began to stride purposefully straight down the centre of the car park towards the tech lab, now about one hundred meters away. Finding himself at a disadvantage in leg- size, Krillin had to travel at a quick trot to keep up with the Saiyan who had not even checked to make sure that the Earthman was still behind him.
As they traversed the car park, Krillin noticed that there were very few cars occupying spaces. It seemed that a number of the facilities employees had called in sick. The fighter couldn't blame them. After all, who would want to travel across a war-zone just to get to work of a morning?
It seemed that Vegeta's instinct to approach the middle of the building was correct. As the two drew closer to its glass boundary, Krillin spotted a small, grey box fixed to one of the girders at what was about average human head height. The box was bisected by a series of narrow, vertical gaps that reached from its top to its middle. Below this was a single, red button.
Upon reaching the box Vegeta stopped, and looked down at it in stern puzzlement. Krillin drew up along side, and awaited the king's action. It seemed that Vegeta was not used to such subtle means of gaining attention, something that he had shown earlier. However, he slowly raised an index finger, and cautiously depressed the button.
There was a loud buzz as the box reacted to Vegeta's interference. The sound then died off instantly as the King quickly retracted his digit with a soft grunt.
"Other-World Tech Lab reception," came a shrill, fuzzy female voice, "how may I help you?"
"You will let me in immediately." King Vegeta demanded of the voice.
Krillin sighed quietly.
Here we go again; he thought.
"Please state your name and the nature of your visit." The voice said politely.
"Agh! I said let me in!" Vegeta barked, not willing to engage in such pointless formalities.
Krillin was seeing some rather worrying parallels between the current situation and the one outside Yemma's office earlier that day.
"Please state your name and the nature of your visit." The voice repeated, with almost identical tone and inflections.
Krillin could sense that the persistence of the secretary was working on Vegeta's already strained temper. Fearing that he might attempt to 'knock' on the door again, Krillin decided to chance an intervention.
"King Vegeta and Krillin. We're here to pick up the seal." He garbled, before Vegeta could respond.
The Saiyan flashed a horrifying glare at Krillin, who stepped back with fright. But before Vegeta could react to Krillin's insubordination, the glass panel directly in front of them slid aside with a quiet gasp.
King Vegeta looked up at the open door, then back at Krillin. He then proceeded to muscle past the fighter and enter the building.
"After you." Krillin muttered ironically, then followed Vegeta in.
Krillin shivered upon entering the building as he passed into the cool, air- conditioned lobby. The threshold between the muggy outdoor air the cooled indoor air was quite pronounced and the change in temperature quite pleasant, particularly on the fighter's clammy scalp.
The door slid shut behind Krillin, banishing the awful sounds of suffering that still drifted across the hills and planes of other-world. These cries of anguish were replaced by the gentle strains of synthesised classical music, which was being pumped into the lobby over a PA system.
The lobby was in stark contrast to the rapidly darkening outside world. The contoured meadows of blue grass had given way to a perfectly flat surface of white, porcelain tiles. The floor of the lobby was square in shape with sides of about thirty meters in length. In fact, the whole room appeared to be cubic in geometry with white walls and ceiling, all identical in dimensions to the floor. Had it not been for the square desk at the centre of the room, and the potted palm trees standing guard at each corner, Krillin could have forgiven himself for thinking he might be standing on the ceiling.
Seeing that King Vegeta was already on his way to the reception desk, Krillin hastily gave chase. Again, he feared for the results of letting Vegeta deal with the formalities of this place without supervision. As he trotted across the tiled floor, his footsteps echoed from the sterile walls of the hall, giving a soft percussion backing to the dulcet tones of the ambient music.
With some effort, Krillin was able to reach the desk at the same time as King Vegeta. He then peered over the top of the desk, which was at about the height of his chin, and looked up at its occupant. There was sat a female demon, dressed in white blouse and her face adorned with thick, black-framed glasses. This demon appeared to fairly advanced in age. A short mane of white hair surrounded the black horn that protruded from her head, and her blue face bore the rigours of countless centuries of public relations.
"Where is the seal?" Vegeta enquired forcefully, slamming a hand down on the surface of the desk.
Unflustered by the Saiyan's outburst, the receptionist glanced up from her computer monitor, and briefly examined the unusual duo over the frame of her glasses.
Vegeta growled as he was looked over by the wizened demon.
"Well? Answer me, crone." He demanded, slamming a second hand on the desk.
The demon raised her grey eyebrows at Vegeta's rather rude address. However, her PR skills held, and she did not react.
"Dr. Geoff will be with you momentarily." She stated with flawless verbal accuracy, suggesting that she had dispensed the same or similar words an unimaginable number of times during her years of service, "Please, take a seat."
The receptionist gestured to two white, plastic seats situated against the wall to the fighters' left. Vegeta looked briefly at the chairs, then back at the demon. He then snarled with frustration at being made to wait yet longer and turned away from the desk, barking some unfamiliar, and probably unrepeatable Saiyan profanity as he did.
"I think we'll stand, thank you." Krillin said politely, trying to fulfil his role in this game of 'good fighter, bad fighter'.
However, the demon had already returned to her work, the frantic clicking of her furious typing being her only response. It seemed that, having completed her own obligatory pleasantries, she didn't care what Krillin and Vegeta did.
This left Krillin to stand and wait as the tension that radiate from Vegeta steadily increased in magnitude. Looking around, the fighter tried to find something to fill what he hoped would be a short time before their needs were attended to. Scanning the top of the reception desk, his eyes fell upon a small Perspex stand containing a neat collection of leaflets. Reaching up, Krillin plucked one of the glossy pamphlets from its resting place. The front read,
Other-World Tech Lab Where Science And The Supernatural Are One
Beneath these words was printed a small photograph of the building itself taken from outside. The image was clearly designed to attract business or investment, or some such, as it had been taken a particularly pleasant day, when its car park had been filled with immaculately clean and waxed cars. This picture did not bare much resemblance to the scene he had encountered upon reaching the labs.
Opening the leaflet, Krillin was greeted by the smiling faces of a throng of happy employees captured in print. Then, something peculiar happened.
"Hi!" The faces shouted cheerily, at which point all of the pictured demons began to wave vigorously.
Krillin emitted a startled yelp, and dropped the leaflet to the ground. The sound of his scare echoed around the cavernous lobby, earning him the attention of the both the receptionist and King Vegeta.
"Sorry." Krillin said, grinning with embarrassment.
Vegeta lifted his downward gaze from Krillin with a pronounced huff, denoting a profound lack of surprise at the fighter's odd behaviour. The receptionists simply returned to her typing.
Krillin lifted the leaflet from the floor, and gently replaced in the stand so as not to evoke any further reaction from the pictures within.
Man. And I thought that dinosaurs, aliens and dragonballs were weird; Krillin thought, pining for the more familiar oddities of the living world.
And with that thought, Krillin's awkward wait was mercifully brought to an end. From across the lobby there echoed the sound of a small bell pealing once. Krillin peered around the side of the receptionist just in time to see a sliding door, identical in colour to the wall that housed it, sliding open with a mechanical whir. The opening door revealed three individuals enclosed within the metallic walls of what appeared to be an elevator. The three were all demons of the same variety as the receptionist, and that at Yemma's office, only these three were dressed in lab coats. Two of the demons appeared to be identical, both being tall and lanky with long, gaunt faces. Their coats went as far as their knees, at which point the strange, tiger-stripe trousers that seemed so popular among demon-kind took over. The third, stood between the others, was a short, rotund individual, whose lab coat reached down to the ground, obscuring both his legs and his feet. His head was bare but for the trademark black horn, and a thick, grey beard shrouded that lower half of his face. Upon the bridge of his nose was seated a pair of glasses whose lenses were so thick that they verged on the opaque.
Vegeta too had noticed the arrival of the unearthly scientists and began to stride quickly around the desk to meet them as they disembarked the lift.
Still nervous about allowing Vegeta uncontrolled access to the seal, Krillin jogged around the opposite side of the bureaux, trying to keep pace with the impatient King. He and King Vegeta both reached the entrance to the lift as the trio of scientists stepped off.
"The seal! You will give to me now!" Vegeta boomed before anyone else could speak, and then held out an open hand.
Neither of the twins reacted to this. The shortest of the three simply looked up at Vegeta, his eyes barely visible through the coke bottles he was wearing.
"Ah! I'm guessing you are, erm. . . Krillin." he said, and then looking at Krillin he continued, "Ah yes, and you must be King Vegeta. King Yemma told me to expect you."
Krillin grimaced at the elderly scientists mistaken identification, fearing the Vegeta would not take kindly.
Vegeta, however, seemed utterly unconcerned with anything other than obtaining the seal.
"Where is the seal?!" he asked, becoming ever more impatient.
"Yes, yes, all in good time my dear fellow, all in good time." The scientist said, beginning to search his person.
Krillin frowned in puzzlement. Why was he searching his pockets fro something that was as big as the building he was in? The fighter had expected to be led to some sought of large haulage vehicle with which to shift the gargantuan seal.
"Oh yes, I'm Dr. Geoff by the way." The demon continued, "I built this seal. Well, the twins and I, that is. Oh my, yes. This one's a beauty, all right. No expense spared, don't you know. We started on it back in . . ."
"We don't have time for this!" King Vegeta roared, "Now give me the seal!"
"Oh yes, yes, very well." Dr. Geoff said, following it with a gentle giggle, "Feisty one, aren't we? Now I know I have it on me somewhere. . . in my jacket. . . no . . . pants maybe . . . or was it. . ."
"Either find it now or I will find it for you!" Vegeta threatened, raising that infamous fist.
But before King Vegeta could make good on his threat, the lobby was permeated by the deafening sound shattering glass.
Krillin span around on the spot and faced the source of the sound. He looked on in shock as the glass face of the lobby collapsed from its metal frame, raining down glittering fragments of light as the debris tumbled to the ground. The racket persisted as the small pieces of glass cried out as they burst into even smaller shards as they struck the hard floor and skittered across the smooth tiles.
Krillin was unable to see what was going on around the desk where the receptionist continued to work, unfazed. But as the sound died away, there came a chillingly familiar voice.
"Knock knock."
Krillin shut his eyes hard, and whined despairingly to himself,
"Oh no. Not again. . ."
.