Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Illumination ❯ Mission 08: Prototype [Part I] and [Part II] ( Chapter 13 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z belongs to Akira Toriyama and numerous other companies. This fanfic is only for fun, no monies are being made.

 

 

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&nb sp;

Dax flopped into the brown leather chair and blew his bangs out of his eyes. He was exhausted. After leaving Bmyhad almost four months ago he'd been on a run of missions, one after another. He was glad to be back at headquarters and given the opportunity to rest. He let his head fall back and his body relax, preparing himself to take a nap in this chair. It wasn't as good as a bed, but he had to be available for a debriefing in two hours, so there was no point in going to his room. He would take a nap in the lounge, a glorious nap, then his phone would alert him to wake him up and he'd walk into his debriefing completely refreshed. At least, in a perfect world, that's what would happen.

 

But the world wasn't perfect, or at least it wasn't today. “Dax,” he heard someone say his name as their feet shuffled across the floor.

 

“Ugh,” Dax groaned, turning his head to his left before he opened his eyes. “What?” he asked, his voice sounding more exhausted than irritated.

 

“Palmer wants to see you right now,” a young man with a bright red mohawk and amber eyes said as he approached his comrade. “Apparently they want you back on Bmyhad,” he continued. “Something to do with the local cell being wiped out,” he finished, shifting his weight on his feet.

 

“Oh for fuck's sake Rouge,” Dax cursed, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “I just got here, I'm being debriefed in two hours, and I have to leave again?” he demanded. This was insanity in Dax's opinion. He needed rest; he wasn't a goddamn robot.

 

“Sorry bro,” Rouge shrugged and shook his head, “not my call. Word is they think the mercenary's still holed up on Bmyhad and they need eyes on the ground,” he said lazily.

 

Dax rolled his eyes and sighed. “Not like they need me for that.”

 

“Don't know what to tell you,” Rouge said, shifting his feet again. “Go see Palmer, he'll fill you in on what the boss wants.”

 

Dax scowled and sat still for a moment, before finally willing his body to stand up. “Fine, I'm moving,” he said with a sigh and headed out. He made his way to the elevators and went up to B4. He strolled toward the network operations center where he knew Palmer pretty much lived, so it wasn't a shock to the Rieve enforcer to find one of their many tech-gurus waiting for him there.

 

“Dax,” Palmer called out and walked over to meet him. “I need you back on Bmyhad, we need eyes on the ground, bad ,” Palmer blurted out.

 

Dax kept himself from growling and his eyes drifted up to the ceiling. “I was just there four months ago mate,” he ground out before bringing his eyes back down to look at his comrade. “What the hell has changed so drastically that you have to shove me out the door the day I get back?”

 

“Our team in Ute was killed,” Palmer replied plainly. “But more importantly, Corvus went there about seven weeks ago and hasn't come back,” he continued.

 

Dax's face contorted into confusion. “C-Corvus,” he stuttered in surprise, “hasn't come back?” He tilted his head to the side and opened his mouth for a moment before closing it. Dax was completely dumbfounded; what the hell was Palmer trying to say?

 

“We have reason to believe he's dead,” Palmer replied, still cool in tone.

 

“Corvus,” Dax's face twisted into a disbelieving smile, as if he was going to laugh at the audacity of Palmer's statement. “Corvus, the guy that's been here twenty years,” Dax started, his reddish-brown hair shaking along with his head. “Corvus, the guy that's only second in strength to Rieve himself? ” he continued, still not convinced. This had to be a joke.

 

“Second in strength to Rieve, yeah,” Palmer nodded and spoke in time with Dax. “Well, put it to you this way,Dax; he hasn't come back,” Palmer's brown eyes searched the room behind his comrade as he spoke. “What the hell else would stop Corvus? He's deathly loyal to Ryan, he wouldn't have just bailed,” Palmer said in a rush, a dejected sigh escaping him.

 

Dax brought his right hand up and scratched at his cheek with his thumb. “Shit,” he whispered, turning his face and gaze away from Palmer for a moment. Ar couldn't have killed him , Dax thought. No, she wasn't strong enough. Unless she caught him in a Minovsky field, in some kind of trap, but Corvus could detect Minovsky generators just like Dax, so he couldn't see how that would have worked.

 

“We think she had help,” Palmer cut in to Dax's thoughts, drawing the man's attention back to him. “Ryan's pissed, he wants these guys alive, so we need to get intel on their movements,” the tech explained. “We haven't had much luck with hacking, so we need someone there. Seemed the obvious choice was to send you, since you were the last one to successfully tail her,” he finished.

 

“Yeah,” Dax said in a sigh, “I'll go.” He chewed on the inside of his cheek; it was a nervous habit of his. He really didn't want to go back there. He really didn't want to get involved any more than he already was. He tried to end this four months ago, but apparently that had failed. Now he didn't have a choice; he had to follow orders.

 

“Sorry man, I know you wanted to rest since you just got back,” Palmer said, setting his hand on Dax's shoulder in a sign of solidarity. “The shuttle won't be ready until tomorrow, so go get some rest,” he finished and walked away, leaving Dax to his thoughts.

 

 

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Illuminat ion

 

Mission 08: Prototype [Part I]

 

 

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The door slid open and Laiserta stood on the other side, a smirk on her face. “Nice ship,” she said as she walked inside, glancing at Trunks before looking at Armada. “At least from the outside,” she amended. The three of them walked into the bridge and Laiserta ran out from behind Armada, straight toward the main console in the bridge.

 

“It's a modified Juntan OS,” Laiserta exclaimed. She punched a few keys on the console and several other screens popped up. “Heavily modified,” she added, still clearly excited and beaming when she looked at Armada.

 

“What's that?” Trunks asked. Armada never told him anything about the ship, so it was interesting to see someone else's opinion of it who was a little more educated on the subject than he was.

 

Laiserta stood upright and turned toward him, then toward his comrade, a questioning look on her face. “This guy,” she pointed at Trunks, “is he for real?” she asked in a half-serious, half-mocking tone.

 

“He doesn't travel much,” Armada supplied before Trunks had a chance to respond.

 

“Clearly,” Laiserta almost rolled her eyes at him before turning her attention back to the ship. She started discussing the finer details of the ship's OS and navigational systems, a conversation that Trunks tuned out.

 

He and his comrade met Laiserta four days ago in what was a setup for her to kill them. According to Laiserta it was a mission to kill Armada ; Trunks just had the misfortune of being there. After settling things without anyone dying, Laiserta agreed to join what now could potentially be called a crew. She had a remote-operated shuttle waiting for when the job was done, so the mercenaries agreed to let her get her things and meet up with them at another station on the way back to Bmyhad. Trunks bet Armada five betas that she wouldn't return. Turned out that he was wrong, as here she stood, already getting acquainted with their ship.

 

After taking the grand tour, Laiserta offered to cook dinner for them. Trunks agreed because he was tired of doing all the cooking and, he was willing to take the chance that whatever she made would be better than the tasteless gruel Armada cooked. If you could call that cooking, he thought with a shudder. He sat next to Armada at the table in the lounge while Laiserta cooked. His partner was engrossed in her laptop computer, doing what, he didn't know. She didn't bother to look up when Laiserta finally did emerge from the galley, three bowls in hand.

 

“Here you go,” she said as she set down each bowl in front of her two new teammates. She then sat down on the end, around the corner from Trunks to his right. “You guys didn't have much to choose from, so it turned out kind of iffy,” Laiserta said, shaking her right hand around in the air as she spoke to emphasize her words.

 

Trunks took a tentative bite and after a few seconds his face relaxed into happy shock. “Wow, this is really good!” he said with a mouthful of food.

 

“Thanks,” Laiserta replied with a smirk. “I'm not the best chef in the universe, but I'm pretty damn good,” she added with a broad smile.

 

The trio ate quickly, in relative silence as they enjoyed their meal. For the first time in a while, Trunks could actually say he did enjoy his food. It was delicious. When they were finished, Laiserta cleared the table for them and brought some water back from the galley. Armada picked up her laptop and left the lounge. “Where'd you learn to cook like that?” he asked before taking a sip from his water bottle.

 

“Just got sick of eating out all the time,” Laiserta said, leaning back in her seat and clasping her hands behind her head. “Thought I would try to do something myself and it just stuck. It's fun,” she admitted with a slight smile.

 

Another question came to Trunks. “So since you like to cook and eat all the time,” he started, “that means you're not some kind of advanced android, right?”

 

“Hah!” Laiserta laughed, lunging forward and wrapping her hands around her abdomen, “me, a robot? That's a first, never been called an android before,” she elaborated. “Usually the first thing that people say is 'demon,'” she added with a wide smile.

 

Trunks tried to think about how to phrase what was really bothering him about her. “So if you're not an android, why do you feel mostly...?” he trailed off as he searched for the right word.

 

“Dead?” Laiserta supplied. Trunks's eyes widened in surprise, but she cut him off before he could speak to explain. “I get that a lot from you people,” she said, and Trunks raised an eyebrow at her. “Energy fighters,” she clarified. “The good ones can sense people's life energy, right? And the really good ones can pick out Minovsky generators,” she added, taking a moment to motion toward the bridge with her head, the last place she had seen Armada head off to.

 

“Anyway,” Laiserta sat up and set her elbows on the table, leaning in toward Trunks, “life energy is mostly stored in the muscles. The reason you sense me as mostly dead is because ninety-seven-point-six percent of my skeletal muscle has been replaced with a synthetic material that is not capable of storing life energy,” she explained in one long breath. She almost sounded like she was reading a brochure or advertisement for a product, but without the enthusiasm of a salesperson.

 

“You have synthetic muscles?” Trunks asked, a sick feeling rising in his stomach. “So are you some kind of cyborg?” he asked, keeping his emotions guarded.

 

“Gods, no,” Laiserta sat back and shook her head. “At least I don't think so.” She paused a moment and thought, then decided to just lay all of her cards on the table. “Long story short,” she started, “I got this shit when I was a kid. I didn't ask for it,” she explained, not sounding particularly distressed. “So I'm strong like you but I don't use energy to do it,” she continued. “The material that makes up my synthetic muscles is about seven to eight times more dense than regular organic muscle fiber. As a result, I weigh about seven to eight times the normal weight for someone my size,” she lifted her right arm and flexed to show off her biceps, “who's also as cut as I am,” she smirked.

 

There was quite a lot about what Laiserta just said that didn't make sense to Trunks. How did her brain know how to communicate to these synthetic muscles? How were they implanted when she was a kid when she wouldn't be done growing? And she didn't ask for them ? He thought he was keeping his emotions in check, but Laiserta must have seen through the facade.

 

“Doesn't make any sense, right?” she asked, the vestiges of a smirk still hanging on to her face. “I don't know how it all works myself,” her gaze fell and she laughed darkly. “Maybe one day I'll tell you the rest,” she said and smiled ruefully to herself.

 

Watching Laiserta, she didn't have the same aura around her that his comrade did. She seemed more... normal. Wait , he thought, they are both my comrades now, right? He didn't think she was lying about anything she had just told him, but he knew he wasn't getting the full story either. He didn't want to pry though, Laiserta seemed like the type that if he let her, she'd tell him everything in due time. Sure he was curious, but it wasn't something that would keep him up at night.

 

“Anyway, what's your deal?” Laiserta asked, dragging Trunks out his thoughts.

 

“Huh?” was all he managed to say in response to her query; his brain hadn't switched gears fast enough to form a proper response.

 

“Energy fighter, covered in battle scars, hanging out with spider-head, I'm sure you've got a story,” Laiserta blurted out. She could certainly speak quickly when she wanted to. “She's pretty infamous you know, I'm still shocked someone's traveling with her. What's with that, anyway? Where'd she pick you up?” she asked, her face showing genuine curiosity.

 

Trunks blinked; Laiserta had spouted off so many things he didn't know where to start. 'Spider-head?' he thought incredulously. Was she talking about Armada? And Armada is 'infamous;' how infamous? he wondered. But someone else nagged at him until he finally spoke. “Wait, 'covered in battle scars?'” he repeated her words back to her, his eyebrows coming together in confusion.

 

“Oh,” Laiserta snapped with the fingers of her right hand, “right, I forgot about the eyes.” Trunks opened his mouth to reply, but she kept talking at the speed of light. “Got my eyes the same place I got my muscles,” she she leaned over the table again, “that's why they're red, they're synthetic too. With these, I can see...” she trailed off, her eyes looking up as she thought about what words she wanted to use. “Well not everything,” she finally settled on something, “but many different things. I have a bunch of different modes of sight, and one that includes the ability to see through stuff, like people's clothes.”

 

Trunks stared at her for a moment, scrutinizing her face for any sign that she was joking. Laiserta cracked a wide smile and laughed lowly, “You're thinking I'm messing with you. Let's see,” she said and stared at him, starting at his chest. “You're pretty cut but a lot of you energy fighters are,” she started, her voice trailing off as her eyes trailed downward. “And you're a pretty good looking guy,” she continued, but after a quick pause she clicked her tongue. “Ah, that's it,” she said, looking down toward his lower torso. “You've got a nasty scar on the inside of your left hip, not far from your—”

 

Trunks didn't hear what she said as the memory of how exactly he got that scar bubbled up. It was one of his last fights with the androids before he went back to the past the second time. Eighteen had snatched his sword from him momentarily and swung it at him wildly. He got too close in an attempt to take it back and she had managed to slash him vertically there. After he escaped from the fight, with his sword, he had to stitch it up himself. He stood in the shower down the hall from his room, trying to hold the wound closed with his left hand while he worked with his right. The cut was too close to that and he didn't have the nerve to ask his mother to help him. Which is why it didn't heal well, he wasn't able to close the wound very nicely.

 

“In the grand scheme of things,” Laiserta continued—apparently she never stopped talking while he'd tuned her out, “you don't have anything to worry about,” she laughed and smirked at him darkly.

 

Trunks's fists involuntarily clenched and he scowled in anger. Was she really looking at him like that? He didn't need confirmation though, she'd already given it when she mentioned that particular scar. He thought Armada was bad, but she'd never said or done anything so downright disgusting to him. For lack of a better word, he felt violated.

 

Without saying anything, he got up from the table and stormed out of the lounge. “No point in running away,” he heard Laiserta shout after him while laughing uproariously. “I can see you anywhere in the ship!”

 

 

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Once they had arrived back in Bmyhad, the first thing Laiserta did was run off to get groceries. ' You guys need some better quality stuff, ' she'd explained before disappearing. After their conversation yesterday, Trunks hadn't said much of anything to her. He already hated these dragged out trips through space, so he just stayed holed up in his room as much as he could. With the three rooms of the barracks, Laiserta had taken the only empty room, so the three of them were separated from each other. Which made it easy to get away from either or both of them if Trunks felt the need.

 

When Laiserta returned, dragging in twelve full bags of groceries that she flung around like they weighed nothing, she headed straight for the galley to put everything away. Trunks was sitting in the bridge with Armada, so Laiserta started yelling through the ship to them. “About time we get some decent ingredients,” she shouted, and Trunks couldn't help but roll his eyes.

 

“Hey,” Armada said lowly, not taking her eyes away from the ship's diagnostics on the monitor in front of her.

 

“What?” Trunks asked, turning to look at her.

 

Armada didn't turn to face him, but her eyes darted to the right so she could see him. “Remember the Taydran spy,” she said, waiting to see his acknowledgment.

 

At first Trunks thought she was asking a question, but her tone indicated otherwise. She turned her attention back to what she was doing, and realization dawned upon him. Nassas Reine, the Taydran spy—she was trying to tell Trunks to ignore Laiserta because she was only messing with him. Trunks scoffed and smiled ruefully to himself; Armada was right. And now that he thought about, Laiserta reminded him of the spy. Armada didn't know what Laiserta had said to Trunks, but she didn't need to because it didn't matter. Surprisingly, he felt a little better from just that one comment.

 

Several minutes later, Laiserta sauntered into the bridge. “Check this out,” she said, holding up what Trunks thought looked like a phone. “I got a job offer,” she finished with a wide grin. She looked at the monitors in the bridge, “You got anyway for me to throw this up on the big screen?”

 

Armada spun around in her chair and took Laiserta's phone from her hands. “I'll join it to the ship's network so you can share data,” she said, quickly typing away in Laiserta's phone. After about thirty seconds, she handed the phone back to Laiserta and the black haired woman looked up at the ship's monitors, which changed to display the same thing she was looking at on her phone.

 

“All right,” Laiserta remarked excitedly, grinning widely. “So,” she started, controlling the display on the ship's main console from her phone, “about three weeks ago the Mannino cartel had the misfortune of having one of their shipments seized by Hrimth police on a random search.” The display switched to a few news articles about the seizure. “Typically they pay off someone locally to keep these types of random searches from happening, but apparently the guy they bought called in sick that day,” Laiserta said with a laugh. “Whoops,” she added and looked briefly at Trunks.

 

“Taydran police seize shipments like this all the time,” Armada said before turning around to look at Laiserta. “What's so special about this one?”

 

“Well, they had a prototype VI chip on board that the Orelnenns had stolen for them,” Laiserta replied, looking down at her phone to change the display once more,to show details about the processor she had just mentioned.

 

“Wait,” Trunks looked at Armada and then Laiserta, “the Orelnenn family? The same one from Bmyhad?” he asked, slightly surprised.

 

“Yep,” Laiserta replied.

 

“The Mannino cartel is a very large criminal enterprise,” Armada cut in, facing her comrade. “One of the reasons they've been so successful is that they build alliances with and recruit smaller criminal organizations like the Orelnenns to work for them,” she explained in a cool tone.

 

“Well they're not as big as Toltus or Rieve,” Laiserta interjected with a slight shrug of her shoulders, “but they're a decently sized group. They mostly focus on peddling drugs and other illegal items. They're not as into violence as some of the other ones.”

 

“The VI processor,” Armada spoke up again, “is it legal?” She studied the schematics on the monitor in front of her.

 

“Nope,” Laiserta drawled, her mouth settling into a smirk.

 

“What's a 'VI?'” Trunks broke in, wanting to understand exactly what they were talking about.

 

“Virtual intelligence,” Armada answered before Laiserta had a chance to say anything. “Research on artificial intelligence has been banned for centuries, until recently. Some of those laws were relaxed with specific provisions limiting what an artificial intelligence could do. This limited version of AI began to be referred to as 'virtual intelligence,'” she finished, glancing at her partner once more.

 

“Apparently this chip does more than it's legally allowed to do, but that's exactly why the Orelnenns stole it,” Laiserta explained. “Anyway,” she continued. “The rest of the crap on their shipment the Manninos can chalk up to the cost of doing business, but the chip,” her voice trailed off at a higher octave.

 

“It's one of a kind,” Armada filled in the blank of Laiserta's lost words.

 

“Yeah they can't exactly replace it,” Laiserta added, shifting her weight on her feet. “So they want it back, which is what the job is for,” the mercenary continued, her eyes focusing on her phone so she could switch the display again to a schematic drawing of a high rise building. “Hrimth police were the ones to bust the cartel,so everything is in their lockup at police headquarters in downtown Hrimth,” Laiserta looked back up the ship's main monitors as she spoke.

 

She continued, “There's currently a pissing match going on between local police and the military who handles police-work at the federal level in Taydr. So the military is trying to get their hands on the seized goods, especially since they know about the processor, and local police have told them in no uncertain terms to fuck off. But the feds always get what they want, even if it takes some extra time,” she explained. “So the cartel estimates there's only about a week left before everything goes into the military's custody and once that happens, nobody is getting that chip back,” she stressed, looking between Trunks and Armada.

 

“So the building is surrounded with a Minovsky field?” Armada asked, studying the building blueprints on the screen in front of her.

 

“Sort of,” Laiserta shrugged slightly, “it's actually a Minovsky frame. The intel the Mannino cartel sent us says it's a Minovsky field, but they're wrong.”

 

Armada turned in her chair to look at Laiserta. “How do you know that?” she asked, casting her new comrade with a look of suspicion.

 

Laiserta smirked and laughed lightly, “'Cause I've seen it. I can see Minovsky fields, among other things,” she added. “And this building is only a couple of ruon from my home, so I've seen it plenty of times.”

 

“You live in Hrimth?” Trunks asked. He was familiar with Hrimth, if only in passing, as it was the city where he and Armada had turned over Nassas Reine and were shot at in the process. He expected and dreaded what was coming next.

 

“Yeah, not that I'm home that often,” Laiserta replied. She smirked, “I was born and raised there, guess I couldn't stay away.” Trunks didn't reply to Laiserta, but he wondered if all Taydrans were as annoying as the spy and his new comrade. Now that he looked though, they both had a similar skin tone and black hair, or at least from what he remembered of the spy; it had been a couple of months since Trunks saw him.

 

“I've never seen a Minovsky frame before,” Armada interjected into her comrades' conversation. “How does it work?” she asked flatly, turning to Laiserta.

 

“Think of it as a Minovsky generator built into the frame of the building,” Laiserta replied, using her phone to zoom in on one particular engineering drawing of the building. “To turn it off you'd have to cut power to the entire city block, but that only lasts a few seconds before the generator kicks on and you're back where you started. So,” she looked pointedly at Armada and Trunks, “you two won't be able to use any of your fancy tricks on this one.”

 

“Do you have a plan?” Armada asked flatly, but Trunks thought he heard a little distrust in her tone.

 

“Of course I have a plan,” Laiserta said smoothly. “I'll take point on infiltrating the facility and picking up the processor. I need you two to provide backup,” she said pointedly, and glanced between the two of them yet again. “The building is forty-two stories tall, and the highest floors are various offices for support staff. On the fortieth floor,” Laiserta said and the images on the ship's main monitor zoomed into the area she was talking about, “is where the infrastructure and information security groups sit. I'll need you two to get in there and disable specific security cameras and sensors along my path as I work to get to the evidence lockup. Once I get the chip, you guys will continue to provide support on my way out. Once I'm clear from the building, you two make your escape. We'll go in just after midnight and should be out within an hour,” Laiserta finished her explanation of her plan.

 

“If the building is surrounded by a Minovsky field, how do you expect us to get to the fortieth floor?” Armada asked, and this time Trunks was certain that her tone of voice indicated she wasn't buying what Laiserta was selling.

 

“The Minovsky frame only extends out about a meter from the outside of the building on all sides,” she replied. “You guys can fly up to the roof and just drop in. Roof access isn't as heavily guarded,so all you have to do is hack the access panel on the outside door, and avoid the one camera that's up there,” she stated. “From there, you head down to floor forty and find a workstation you can hack and use to control the security system. Easy,” Laiserta said with a grin.

 

Armada looked at Laiserta and thought for a moment. “How much are they paying and when do you think we should do this?”

 

Without missing a beat, Laiserta replied “One-point-eight-two million betas and four nights from now. It'll be a weeknight in Taydr which will mean fewer police in the building during the night shift when we'll make our move.”

 

Armada nodded in response. “Good. Tell the cartel we'll take the job,” she said flatly and stood up from her chair. “We'll leave in an hour, so if there's anything else either of you need, now's the time to go and get it.” With that, she headed back toward the cargo bay.

 

There was one thing about this whole plan that was bothering Trunks. He knew that they had yet to go over the finer details, but he couldn't help but wonder, “How are you going to stay undetected?” He turned to Laiserta as he voiced his thoughts aloud.

 

The Taydran smirked. “I might not be an energy fighter, but I have my own fancy tricks,” she replied excitedly. “You'll see soon enough,” she added with mirth.

 

 

-+-

 

 

Hamad Gen sighed as his eyes and mouth fell into flat lines, indicating his annoyance at his current situation.

 

“Don't give me attitude, sir,” Priya replied as she adjusted his cravat. His assistant gave one last yank before tucking the bottom of the cravat in again into his vest. “I'm only doing my job,” she said with a sly smile as she looked up at him.

 

“I'm well aware,” Hamad replied, taking a step back from her and looking into the mirror behind her. “Traditional Taydran garb is quite,” he paused for a moment, searching for the right word. “Exhausting,” he finally settled on. The long, ornate white coat he wore over a dark purple vest and two different shirts was tailored nicely to his frame, but with all the layers it was hot and hard to move. If nothing else, at least his nation's colors complemented his black hair and green eyes well. Not that Hamad was vain, but his appearance had to be immaculate at all times. Part of the job, he supposed.

 

“Well that's part of the job,” Priya replied, barely containing the laughter in her voice. Hamad wanted to laugh at how her words mirrored his thoughts so well. “You can't just wear a suit all of the time,” she added with mirth.

 

The pair was was interrupted when the door to Hamad's office opened and one of his other assistants, Sayid stepped in. “We have to leave in fifteen minutes sir,” he stated upon entering. “The car is downstairs and ready to take you to the space port. The diversionary convoy just left, so we can't leave too late behind them,” he added, looking down at his watch.

 

“Priya, you have the itinerary?” Hamad turned and asked the dark-haired woman.

 

“Yes sir,” she nodded, walking over to a nearby chair to pick up her tablet.

 

Before Hamad could say anything else, the phone on his desk rang. He glanced at it and then turned back to his two assistants. “I'll take this call and then meet you downstairs,” he stated with authority.

 

“Yes sir,” both Sayid and Priya replied in unison before turning and heading out, with Priya closing the door behind them.

 

Hamad strolled over to his overly ornate desk and leaned over the front to pick up his phone. “Hello?” he said upon lifting the receiver to his ear.

 

“ The mighty prince still answers his own phone,” the other voice on the end said with sarcasm. “ Shouldn't that be some kind of scandal that you don't have someone to do that for you?”

 

“Ryan,” Hamad said jovially while letting out a breath, “how nice to speak to you.” He wasn't going to see Ryan Rieve again for a few more weeks yet, so the phone call was a pleasant surprise.

 

“ Aren't you supposed to be at some fancy Alliance political summit?” Ryan teased. “ Are you shirking your duties?”

 

Hamad laughed. “No, I was just about to leave my office for that particular summit when you called. And it's hardly 'fancy,'” he added. “There will be all sorts of dry and boring trade negotiations between nations that neither of us care about,” he finished with a smirk. He paused a moment before continuing, “But surely you didn't call just to speak about that.”

 

“ No,” Ryan replied, his voice dropping significantly. Hamad felt his stomach twist into knots at the sound. “ It's the mercenary,” he added and immediately Hamad knew who he was speaking of.

 

“I thought you had your people working on that?” the prince questioned, truly curious.

 

“ I do,” the mob boss replied. Hamad almost thought he heard a sigh in the background. “ We have reason to believe that somehow she's managed to kill Corvus,” he finally said, the weight in his voice not going unnoticed by Hamad.

 

“Ryan I'm so sorry,” Hamad immediately replied, truly sorry for his friend's loss. “I know Corvus was your best friend for many years, and I'm very sorry for your loss,” he added with deep sympathy. How he wished he could drop everything and go to Ryan now to provide some sense of comfort, but his duties did not permit that.

 

“ For fifteen years,” Ryan said softly. “ Regardless, I need you to get your people on this as well. But I don't want a repeat of what happened in Hrimth,” he snapped, clearly agitated.

 

“To be fair,” Hamad began, “they didn't know who was delivering our asset back to us until they had viewed the security footage from Ute. Even then,” he continued calmly, “they only made the attempt to capture her because she's wanted by the Alliance. They had no orders for capture for our nation's interests,” he finished.

 

“However,” the Taydran prince continued, not giving Rieve a chance to respond, “I will get someone down in TSIA on it right away.”

 

“ Good. I need her alive, so make sure they know that.” There was a brief moment of silence in the conversation. “ Don't forget that she hasn't only interrupted my operation, but yours as well,” Ryan replied, the anger evident in his voice, though Hamad wasn't sure where it was directed.

 

“I know,” he replied flatly. That... was something he tried not to think about. Organizing the purchase of those weapons, well... he didn't agree with it, but orders from the emperor himself were absolute. Perhaps Hamad would have pushed back more if the man wasn't also his father, but it was far too late for those regrets now. Then again, he never would have met Ryan... Hamad shook those thoughts of his head. He had far too many other things that he needed to focus on right now.

 

“I am truly sorry about Corvus,” Hamad continued, glancing at a clock on the far wall of his office, “and I wish I could talk more, but I need to be on my way.”

 

“ Understood,” Ryan replied coolly. “ Let me know when you get your people moving on this so I can make sure my guys don't get in their way,” he ordered, but Hamad was used to his tone and took no offense.

 

“Certainly,” the prince nodded to himself. “Goodbye Ryan,” he forced himself to say with as little emotion as possible, quite a task considering what he'd just learned. His heart ached that Ryan was going through such a trying time, but there was nothing he could do at the moment.

 

“ Later,” was Ryan's quick reply before hanging up. Hamad set the phone back down on the receiver and let out a deep breath. Back to the daily grind of running a nation it was, and he made his way out of his office.

 

 

-+-

 

 

Once the group reached Taydr, Laiserta directed them where to land and stash the ship. She  apparently had friends who had owed her favors. During the trip, they were able to purchase complete building schematics from a hacker and used that information to devise their plan, so they were ready to go several hours after they'd landed. Trunks waited in the bridge with Armada for their other comrade to emerge from the barracks so they could head out. Armada was wearing her armor, but per her instructions neither Trunks nor Armada carried any weapons. They would too conspicuous while heading for the building on foot, she'd explained. Based on the plan, Trunks didn't feel worried. But so far they had a bad track record for these things, so he wished he had his sword with him.

 

Tired of standing around and waiting, Trunks looked to Armada and spoke. “So, where are we at, resource-wise?” he asked.

 

She looked at him and seemed confused for a moment before she realized what he was asking. “Two-point-three-nine million,” Armada answered. “Our share of this job will put us over three million,” she elaborated.

 

A thought struck him at her answer. “What do we do when we hit four?” he asked, recalling that was her threshold for them to start preparing to attack Rieve. “Do we leave Bmyhad?” He paused a moment. “Do we tell her?” he asked, nodding his head in the direction of the barracks.

 

“We'll worry about developing a plan once we have enough money to do anything,” Armada answered. “And yes, we'll tell Laiserta,” she shifted her weight on her feet, “when we think we can trust her. And we won't leave Bmyhad until we've lost all tactical advantage from staying there, which hasn't happened yet,” Armada finished. Trunks was a little surprised, as it seemed like Armada had answered his questions honestly. He opened his mouth to continue their conversation but was cut off by their Taydran comrade.

 

“Yo,” Laiserta called out as she walked into the bridge. Trunks turned to look at her and she stopped a meter away from him. “How do I look?” she asked with a smirk, waving her right hand out. She was wearing a black body suit, not unlike what she'd worn so far, but this one was a bit different. It was more dull, and had a texture that reminded Trunks of the piece of carbon fiber his mother had once showed him. The suit also stretched up to her face, with pieces covering the sides of her jaw and head up to her hairline. Her hair was pulled back into a long braid and without her glasses it was much easier for him to see her eerie red eyes.

 

“Uhh, okay I guess?” Trunks answered her, his face twisting up into confusion. He wasn't exactly sure what was so special about the new suit. He spared a quick glance to Armada who seemed just as confused as he was.

 

“Tch, amateurs,” Laiserta chided them, settling her right hand onto her hip. “Don't you recognize active-camouflage material when you see it?”

 

Trunks's eyebrows rose but before he had a chance to speak, Laiserta cut him off. “Watch this,” she said with a smirk. The dark mercenary held up her left wrist and pressed down on the inside of it with her right hand. Immediately several glowing white lines appeared over her face, stretching outward from the fabric of her suit and created the frame of a visor. The area around the glowing frame filled in and Laiserta smirked at Trunks's shocked face.

 

“Whoa,” he couldn't help saying. He'd seen some crazy technology in his time, considering who his mother was and exactly what she had invented, but a physical piece of equipment seemed to materialize out of nothing. That was certainly new to him.

 

“How's that going to help us?” Armada broke in, her eyebrows pulled together in what Trunks would characterize as a stern curiosity.

 

“I'm not done,” Laiserta crooned in a lyrical tone. She pressed again on the inside of her left wrist and in a quick moment she faded away from sight.

 

Armada's eyes widened in shock and Trunks jumped back a half step with another “Whoa!”

 

“See?” Laiserta said, waving her arms out to her sides, “told you I had some tricks of my own.”

 

“You're not completely invisible,” Armada stated evenly, “but enough that if you keep moving you wouldn't be noticed.”

 

“That's part of how it works,” Laiserta replied. “It's easier to spot the visual distortion when I'm standing still. It's much harder for the eye to follow when I'm in motion,” she finished and pressed on her left wrist again, causing the active-camouflage to dissipate.

 

“That's why you need us to disable security devices,” Trunks summarized. “Because even if people inside the building can't see you, other systems can detect you.”

 

“Now you're learning,” Laiserta chastised him with a wide grin. “All right, let's get this show on the road,” she turned toward to leave the bridge.

 

“Wait,” Armada said, “there's one more thing.” She turned and picked up something from the top of the console at the bridge and then returned to her comrades, holding out her right hand with the palm up. In her hand were three tiny beige circular pieces of plastic, the size of small pills. “We'll need radios to stay in contact with each other,” she continued. “They'll pick up and broadcast anything you say. The signal is encrypted, but keep conversations to a minimum. While the Hrimth police won't be able to listen in, if we generate too much traffic over the radio they'll see that there's an unknown encrypted signal broadcasting within their building. We don't want to get their attention,” Armada finished.

 

Trunks reached over and picked up one of the radios, examining it closely. It was so tiny, he found it hard to believe that this would pick up his voice as well as play back the voices of his comrades at a volume he could hear. He looked back up to Armada who was peeling thin sheet of plastic off of the back of her radio. She then proceeded to stick the radio on the inside of her ear. He quickly followed her example and did the same.

 

“Can you guys hear me okay?” Laiserta quietly asked after she too had placed her radio in ear.

 

“Yeah,” Trunks answered. Laiserta's voice was surprisingly crisp and clear.

 

Armada glanced between her two comrades before addressing them, “Let's move out.”

 

 

-+-

 

 

It only took a few minutes for Trunks and Armada to navigate the dark streets of Hrimth and reach their destination. It was just after midnight and a light rain was coming down, but the weather wasn't particularly cold. Once they reached police headquarters, the pair flew up into the sky near the building, but not too close to avoid the Minovsky field surrounding it. Once they were above the building, the pair floated down toward the roof. Just as Laiserta had said, the field stretched out from the building about a meter. So when they entered the Minovsky field the two mercenaries fell the rest of the distance, but easily landed on their feet. With feet on the ground, they walked along the edge of the roof behind some ventilation structures until they reached the door into the building.

 

Armada had brought the small computer with her they had used to hack into the space-station-mansion just over a week ago, when they had met Laiserta. Using programs she had purchased from hackers online, because she had explained to Trunks previously she was not a hacker herself so she had to buy the tools she needed, Armada set about disabling the one security camera watching the door on the roof. They stood just around the corner, underneath the camera in a blind spot. It only took a few minutes to disable the camera and the door, and suddenly they were inside.

 

The pair made their way down a few flights of stairs to the fortieth floor. Following the floor plans they had studied, they made their way to the area of offices where the network and infrastructure group sat. None of the rooms were locked and there were only a few cameras to avoid, so making it to their destination was also relatively easy. Once inside the right area, it was an easy task to sit down at one terminal in a small sea of cubicles and get to work.

 

Armada connected her small portable computer to the terminal in question and within moments she had access to everything. Trunks stood to her side, leaned forward and propping himself up with his hands on the desk. In the time it took them to get into position, Laiserta had already made her way into the building, and was waiting at her first “checkpoint” for her comrades to help her get through the first area of trouble. Many of the sensors Laiserta needed help avoiding would detect her unusual weight, something she couldn't hide with camouflage. Others would detect body heat and density, all things that couldn't be masked. Regardless, while her movement was slow, Laiserta's comrades had soon enough helped her navigate all the way to the evidence locker.

 

Once Armada unlocked the door, Laiserta pushed open the entrance to the cage that held the Mannino cartel's possessions. “I'm in,” she said quietly. Instead of wasting time with a physical search, Laiserta scanned everything with her eyes until she saw a small box that caught her attention. It had a special shielding that she couldn't see through, and she smirked. Making her way over to the area, she dug through another crate until she found the box in question. Opening it up, she saw exactly what she suspected. “I've got it,” she whispered into her radio, taking the chip out of the box and placing it into a small anti-static bag. She stuffed the bag into a pocket on her left hip, effectively hiding the item behind her active-camouflage suit.

 

Upstairs both of Laiserta's comrades had received her message that she had the item in question. “Halfway done,” Armada whispered to Trunks. He smiled to himself; things were going smoothly so far on this operation and soon enough Laiserta would be out and they would leave. Suddenly Trunks thought he heard something in the distance and looked up toward the door on the other side of the room from where they were.

 

“What's wrong?” Armada asked, noticing his sudden movement.

 

“I think someone's coming,” Trunks replied while still keeping his eyes glued on the door. As soon as the words left his mouth, the door burst open and several officers poured in.

 

“Shit!” Armada cursed, disconnecting her computer from the workstation at the desk and hooking it back onto her belt.

 

“ What's going on?” Trunks heard Laiserta ask over the radio, but there was no time to answer her as at least a dozen officers were running across the office toward them.

 

The door to this area of the offices was about thirty meters away, so the two mercenaries had a few seconds before the officers were on them. “They're not armed,” Armada assessed quickly, noticing that none of them were carrying guns. It wasn't a shock to see that, considering Laiserta had told them that officers had to check and lock their weapons when in the building, however they did carry batons and other physical weapons that weren't firearms. “They can't all attack us at once so split up and take them out,” she said and immediately ran to the right toward an open aisle between the cubicles. She then sprinted straight toward the officers, intent on meeting them in that same aisle.

 

Trunks stepped out into the passage to the left of the terminal they'd been working at, and fell back into a defensive stance. He realized Armada was right to try and fight them in the aisles, as only two police officers could approach him at once. As soon as they were within striking distance, one officer swung at Trunks with his right fist. Trunks easily blocked his punch and pushed it away with his left forearm, and countered with his own right fist into the guy's face. The other officer then swung at Trunks, who couldn't block the punch since he was turned away from the other policeman. So Trunks leaned back to avoid the hit, and countered by raising his right foot and kicking the man straight in the center of his abdomen. The officer was knocked back and fell into the officer behind him.

 

The first officer that Trunks had punched now pulled out a baton and swung at Trunks's head. The demi-Saiyan stumbled backwards while avoiding the hit and lost his balance for a moment. Another officer pushed forward and was able to punch Trunks in the face. The officer tried to follow up by throwing his elbow at Trunks's sternum, but Trunks was able to recover and catch his arm. With the officer in his grasp, Trunks turned and threw the officer into a cubicle where the man crashed into a desk and fell to the floor.

 

Before Trunks could turn and look at the remaining officers, the one with the baton swung it again and smacked Trunks across the left side of his jaw with the weapon. It was a punishing blow and Trunks could immediately taste blood in his mouth as a result. The officer swung again, but this time Trunks made an effort to catch the baton. After successfully catching the weapon in both hands, Trunks yanked it backwards and twisted, causing the officer to cry out as his wrist twisted unnaturally, and he let go.

 

With no time to switch his hands around andgrabthe baton by the handle, Trunks shoved it at the second officer, ramming it into his chest three times in succession and knocking the wind out of him. Trunks followed up by smacking this officer across the face with the baton, and the man fell to the floor. The officer he'd taken the baton from attempted to grab it. Instead of keeping it away, Trunks let him grab it and held on. The mercenary let go of the baton with his right hand and pulled it back toward him with his left, dragging the officer forward and proceeding to punch him several times in the face with his right fist. Trunks then kicked the officer in the side with his right leg, causing him to finally let go of the baton and fall over into the wall of a cubicle.

 

With the three men down, one more officer was running down the aisle toward Trunks. The demi-Saiyan readied himself to fight as the man approached, when suddenly the officer arched his back and appeared stunned before falling to the ground. Behind him stood Armada, with a shock rod outstretched in her hand. “Let's get out of here,” she said in a rush, before turning and running for the door. He follow after her, and once they'd cleared the rows of cubicles Trunks nearly choked at what he saw. There were at least ten officers lying on the ground in various states of consciousness, though none of them dead. In the time it took him to deal with three policemen, she'd taken out all the rest?

 

Just before they reached the door, another group of officers burst in, and both Trunks and Armada froze. This group was armed and had guns pointed at the pair, at least eight officers by the time they'd all gotten inside. Armada dropped her shock rod and raised her hands, and Trunks did the same. On a normal day, sure, handling someone with a gun was no big deal. But inside a Minovsky field where Trunks was no stronger than a normal person, there wasn't anything he could do. A gunshot could kill him the same as anyone else.

 

There was nothing they could do at this point, except surrender to avoid being riddled with bullets.   So much for the job going smoothly, Trunks thought.

 

 

-+-

 

 

Had to break up this chapter into two parts because it turned out so long!  Please let me know what you think, good or bad.  Thanks for reading.  

 

-Silvia

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z belongs to Akira Toriyama and numerous other companies. This fanfic is only for fun, no monies are being made.

 

 

-+-

 

&nb sp;

Illumination

 

Mission 08: Prototype [Part II]

 

-+-

 

 

Trunks and Armada ran for the door.  Unfortunately a second wave of police officers came through the other side first, and the mercenaries stopped in their tracks.  The officers had their guns raised and pointed at the two intruders.  Armada raised her hands, subsequently dropping the shock rod she carried.  Trunks copied her maneuver, assuming that surrender was their best option at this point.  Standing within a Minovsky field that blocked the use of their ki, neither he nor his partner stood a chance against eight trained officers with guns.

 

A ninth officer walked into the room who carried himself a little differently from the rest. “Cuff them,” he shouted, and two officers approached each mercenary to pull their hands behind their backs and restrain them with handcuffs. The officers then forced the mercenaries to kneel while they proceeded to pat down their detainees.

 

“No weapons,” one of the officers announced who had quickly searched Armada. He did hold up the small computer she had attached to her belt. “But looks like she has some kind electronic device,” he added.

 

“No weapons here either,” one said who had quickly searched Trunks. “What do you want us to do, captain?”

 

The 'captain' scrutinized Trunks and then Armada with his sharp green eyes. He glanced around the room quickly before looking back at the two of them. “Scan them,” he said before turning to one officer in particular.

 

“Uh, yes sir!” the officer he'd looked to replied. He walked over toward Armada and pulled a small handheld device off of the side of his belt. Trunks watched as a few seconds later, the device beeped. The officer turned to the captain and spoke, “She's a class B, sir.”

 

“I knew it,” the captain said more to himself than anyone else, narrowing his eyes. “Sergeant,” he turned to another officer, “get two pairs of AEM cuffs up here now.”

 

“Yes sir!” the sergeant replied and turned away from the group, lifting up a radio and speaking into it.

 

“Captain Voss, sir,” another officer spoke and stepped toward the captain. “Is that necessary?” he asked, and immediately Trunks could see from the captain's face that this man was about to draw his ire. “The building's protected by a Minovsky field,” he finished.

 

“Clearly you've never dealt with an energy fighter before,” Voss replied, his black eyebrows pulling together in anger. “If this building loses power for a moment that Minovsky field will fall for a few seconds before the generators kick on,” Voss lectured. “A few seconds is all that someone like that needs to kill us all,” he finished, slightly motioning his head toward Armada.

 

In the time that conversation was going on, the officer who did the scan came over to Trunks and repeated the procedure. “He's class B too, sir,” the officer said, turning toward Captain Voss.

 

Just then, another officer walked into the room carrying a pair of large metal gauntlets. Trunks assumed these were the AEM cuffs they were referring to, though they looked different fromthe pair he had seen on Armada when she was ambushed at the hangar in Ute and badly beaten. Hopefully these didn't have those same metal hooks in them, but he wouldn't know until they tried to put the cuffs on him.

 

Captain Voss turned to the officer who had just arrived and gave the man a stern look. “I said two pairs, didn't I?” he stated more than asked.

 

“Yes sir, but all of our extra AEM cuffs were confiscated by the military three weeks ago,” the officer answered. “We only have this one pair out of luck, they came with a prisoner during a transfer last week,” he finished.

 

Voss seemed to think for a moment as his mouth twisted up a little. “Fine. Split the difference, put one cuff on each of them,” he ordered and the soldier carrying the restraints moved toward the pair of mercenaries.

 

“Sir,” the same officer who had questioned the reasoning behind retrieving AEM cuffs in the first place addressed the captain, “if you do that there won't be a complete circuit.”

 

“I know that lieutenant,” Voss bit back. “Do you have a better idea?” he asked, clearly irritated with this particular lieutenant.

 

“No sir,” the officer quickly replied and ducked his head.

 

Trunks was only about two meters away from Armada, but that wasn't close enough to cuff the two of them together. The officers standing near them made the two of them stand and approach the officer carrying the AEM cuffs. Trunks was initially standing to Armada's left, but as they were moved around he ended up on her right. With guns pointed at them, their handcuffs were removed and one side of the AEM cuffs were clamped down on Armada's right arm while the other side was clamped down on Trunks's left. He didn't notice any kind of mechanism on the inside of the restraints that looked like it could hide metal hooks, but he didn't get a great look at it, either. The handcuffs they were initially wearing were again placed around both of their wrists, so they were both restrained and then cuffed to one another. The metal cable running between the AEM cuffs was about eight inches long, so the two of them had to walk shoulder-to-shoulder as the officers escorted them out of the offices and toward an elevator.

 

Several minutes later, a thick glass door slid shut in front of Trunks, leaving him and his comrade inside of a jail cell not unlike the one he'd seen in Ute. He watched as the officers walked away while Armada moved backwards and sat down. Trunks stumbled backward and had to lean over to keep from falling down completely. He glared at Armada, who realized that she'd forgotten they were chained together. She offered a lame “sorry” in response to his look.

 

He moved back and sat down next to her, both of them with their backs against the rear wall of the jail cell. “So what now?” he asked, turning to his left to look at his comrade.

 

“Lai,” Armada said, not bothering to look at Trunks. “We were busted upstairs and taken down to the third floor and placed in a jail cell. We'll need you to come get us so we can all get out of here,” she finished.

 

“ Yeah I know,” Trunks heard Laiserta's voice say tiredly over the radio. “ I saw them bring you down the elevator. I'm headed your way, but it's a slow process because I have to take the time to scan for various sensors. You know, all the same shit you guys were helping out with before getting caught,” she laughed slightly at the end of her sentence.

 

Armada looked at Trunks. “So now we wait,” she said, answering his question before she'd spoken to Laiserta over the radio.

 

Trunks felt the sick feeling of nervousness creeping up from his stomach. There was something he wanted to ask Armada, but he wanted to be careful about how he phrased the question. “So,” he started slowly, “that captain said they were going to try and identify us on the way down here.” He paused for a moment. “They're not going to, take our DNA or anything, right?” he asked. Despite trying to play it off like a joke with a forced laugh, Trunks knew his attempt to hide his anxiety was pretty poor.

 

If Armada noticed, she made no mention of it. “No,” she said flatly, “they need special warrants to take someone's DNA. Which they won't get by the time Lai gets here,” she finished. She sounded pretty confident that they were going to get out of this mess. Though Trunks was optimistic as well—they seemed to find ways to screw up and then find even more miraculous ways out of the mess.

 

 

-+-

 

 

“Have you heard from him lately?”

 

Bulma didn't bother to look up at Lowell as she was busy soldering cables to the ECU she pulled out of an old car. She was bored and wanted to reprogram it, so she needed to solder the wires for the connection to her computer, as they were different than those when it would sit in the car. She wanted to reprogram it to improve the performance. Because she wanted to drive a fast car. Bulma was in her late fifties but she wasn't dead, and she did still like to have fun. What was the point in being a genius if you never used it to build something fun ?

 

“No,” Bulma said, still focused on her soldering. “Honestly I'm not that worried.”

 

“Really?” Lowell asked, his eyebrows raising. He had teal hair, a shade more green than Bulma's and a little darker that hung down past his shoulders. He kept the back in a loose ponytail, but two large swaths of hair trailed down the sides of his face. Lowell rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “I know Trunks is strong,” he started, “but he's out running around god-knows-where. I thought you might be more concerned.”

 

Bulma finished her soldering and set her iron in its tray on her desk before turning to look at Lowell. “Don't confuse my lack of worry for lack of concern,” she stressed. “Of course I'm concerned. I know he hasn't told me everything because he doesn't want me to worry. I've come to grips with the fact that I'm okay with that,” she said earnestly. “I know he's more than capable of taking care of himself and I'm just going to trust him,” she finished with a smile and a shrug of her shoulders.

 

“I understand,” Lowell said and pushed himself to a fully upright position from where he leaned against another of Bulma's workbenches in her lab. “It's been four months, I hope he gets to come home soon,” Lowell mused. Bulma smiled at Lowell before picking up her ECU combined with new cables and headed upstairs, Lowell following behind her.

 

Back on the first floor, Bulma made her way to the living room, setting the ECU down on the center coffee table next to the laptop she hadleft there earlier. Lowell took a seat in a reclining chair adjacent to the sofa where Bulma sat, and watched her work. She opened her laptop and brought it out of sleep mode, then proceeded to connect the new cables she had soldered to the ECU.

 

The sliding glass door in the kitchen behind Bulma was flung open with a level of force typically reserved for anger, and Neis came storming in. “Where is he?!” he immediately demanded, striding straight over to Bulma and Lowell.

 

Bulma shook her head in confusion. “Neis, what are you—?”

 

“Don't give me that crap, where is he?!” Neis demanded again, clearly upset. It was then that Mia ran into the kitchen from the backyard, yelling after him.

 

“Neis stop!” she shouted, clearly worried about what was happening.

 

“Okay, everyone calm down,” Lowell said, slowly standing from his seat.

 

“Shut your mouth old man, this doesn't concern you,” Neis spat angrily at Lowell, who in turn looked downright shocked.

 

“Hey!” Bulma shouted, standing up and turning around to face Neis. “You will not speak like that to anyone in my household, do you understand?” she bit out with an authority that scared the other three occupants of her living room.

 

Neis hung his head briefly, looking away from her. “Sorry,” he said, taking in a slow breath. He stayed quiet a moment before looking back up at Bulma, his voice a much more normal volume the second time he tried to speak. “Where's Trunks? I need to talk to him,” he said, his voice still holding an edge to it that told Bulma something was still very wrong.

 

“He's out,” Bulma said, not bothering to tell Neis or Mia where her son was. The only person who knew was Lowell, and that was because... well... because he was Lowell. But this wasn't about her, so she pushed those thoughts aside.

 

“When's the bastard coming back?” Neis scowled as he asked the question. He had the distinct feeling that Bulma was hiding something from him.

 

“Neis please stop,” Mia said, pulling on his right arm to try and get him to follow her back outside the house. She seemed particularly distressed to Bulma's eyes.

 

“Neis,” Lowell barked out, “let's go.” He motioned with his hands toward the back door in the kitchen. “We're gonna go outside and have a conversation about this,” he said sternly while he headed for the glass doors. Neis still looked angry but reluctantly followed the older man.

 

Bulma turned to Mia and gave her a look that said 'spill.' Mia looked down at the floor and flushed; she wasn't sure where to start. “Um,” she started, continuing to stare at the ground as she reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear. “It was a while back, Trunks and I were outside, and um,” Mia sighed heavily, trying to find the words while her face burned red. “I... well, he...” she tried again, her voice wavering with her nerves.

 

Bulma could guess where this was going. She knew Mia well enough after nine years to know there was only one thing that would really get her so riled up that she couldn't speak—Kami knew that Mia was not the strong silent type. “You made a move on him?” she asked, referring to her son. Mia's gaze shot up to Bulma who noticed that the girl looked absolutely mortified. “Oh don't give me that look,” Bulma said, tilting her head to the side slightly, “it's not like I had a problem with it. But I can guess it didn't go well,” she added, and Mia's gaze fell to the floor again with an almost imperceptible nod.

 

The Briefs matriarch sighed and shifted her weight on her feet. This whole thing with Mia would explain why Trunks was so upset before he left for Bmyhad and got himself into... whatever's he gotten into; Bulma wasn't even sure since he hadn't sent her a message in three months. But she didn't have time to worry about her son—she needed to deal with the problem right in front of her. Literally.

 

“I,” Mia started again, swallowing hard while looking into Bulma's scrutinizing gaze. “I told Neis about what happened... last night,” she added with a half-hearted, lopsided smile. “He... kind of flipped out and wanted to confront Trunks about it.”

 

“I got that part,” Bulma replied with a roll of her eyes directed at Neis's overreaction to the situation. “Mia, you,” Bulma started again, not sure how to ask what she wanted to ask tactfully. “You realize that Neis has feelings for you, right?” she asked, concern painted across her face.

 

Mia opened her mouth and struggled with what to say for a few agonizing seconds. “Yeah... I know,” she replied slowly. “But I just don't...” she trailed off, her gaze somewhere over Bulma's shoulder while she thought. “Well, I know how Trunks feels,” Mia said as her eyes sought out Bulma's once more, “so it's a little easier to deal with.”

 

Bulma smiled sadly at Mia; she knew what the girl meant when she said she understood her son's feelings—that she understood what it meant to have someone close to you want more from a relationship than you can give them. Bulma felt bad for all three of them, her son, Neis and Mia. Mia was certainly a wonderful young woman and it would have been great if her son liked Mia, but she'd known for some time that wasn't going to happen. He didn't look at Mia any differently than anyone else. Not that Bulma focused so much on her son's love life, but she knew him. For many years they were all each other had. Hellish as their world was, the circumstances had helped instill a deep bond between her son and herself.

 

Mia looked over her shoulder out the back door in the kitchen and saw Lowell and Neis were still talking outside. She turned back to Bulma and spoke. “I'm gonna head out,” she said nervously and glanced back toward the kitchen again. “But, through the front,” Mia struggled to say, gesticulating with her hands nervously.

 

“Yes that's perfectly fine,”Bulma replied, hoping to quell the girl's fears. There was no reason to force Mia to walk through what was certain to be an awkward—yet heated—discussion between the two men outside. Lowell and Neis had known each other far longer than either of them knew anyone else in their makeshift group, and the pair had a tendency to shout at one another when having an important conversation. No need for Mia to get in the middle of that.

 

Mia tucked her hair behind her ear again and struggled to keep a straight face. Bulma noticed that Mia's eyes welled with tears when the young woman nodded to Bulma before heading for the hallway. Bulma let her go without another word; this was tough enough on poor Mia she didn't need to drag it out any longer than it had already gone on. Bulma slowly took in a deep breath and let it out quickly. It was a shame, really; if Trunks had returned Mia's feelings they would get along great. And Trunks really loved Terry—well, they all did—and he'd never thought poorly of Mia for having a child so early in life. Well, it couldn't be helped. If his heart wasn't in it, then it was best if nothing ever happened between them.

 

Running her right hand through her hair, Bulma started walking over to the kitchen counter. It was mid afternoon, but she really needed some strong coffee at that moment.

 

“This is bullshit,” Neis shouted at Lowell, the older man only standing two meters away from him on the kitchen patio, just outside the door.

 

“It's not bullshit,” Lowell countered in an equally loud but still completely calm voice. “If he doesn't feel the same, he doesn't feel the same,” the teal-haired professor continued. “You can't force him to be with Mia, and even if you did they'd both be miserable,” he finished, stressing the latter half of his sentence.

 

“And he can just hurt Mia like that?” Neis retorted, his face still twisted up in anger.

 

“So it'd be better if he lied to her and pretended to care?” Lowell countered carefully.

 

Neis shifted his stance as he thought about what to say. He let out a quick breath before replying in a much softer voice than he'd been using. “No...”

 

“I get it,” Lowell started again. “You care about Mia,” he continued as Neis shot him an annoyed look, “and want to protect her. But you can't control relationships between other people. Just... be there for Mia,” Lowell's voice and gaze softened a bit. “You don't need to do anything other than that.”

 

Neis's gaze fell away from Lowell and landed somewhere out in the yard to their side, away from the kitchen and the rest of the west building. He seemed to be in thought for a moment, and Lowell allowed himself to think that maybe he'd had a breakthrough with his former student. That thought was shattered when Neis's head snapped back around and he said snidely, “And how well has that worked for you and Bulma?”

 

Lowell sighed heavily; there'd be no breakthrough today it seemed. “This isn't about Bulma, but you know what?” he began with a rhetorical question, his voice a little more bitter now. “She's her own person. She can choose for herself who she wants to be with and who she doesn't. Likewise, I can also choose to be petty and cut her out of my life for not doing what I want, or I can choose to be a good friend and support her in whatever she chooses for herself,” Lowell paused, hoping his stern words might just make it through Neis's thick skull. He loved the kid like a son, sure, but he wasn't about to take any crap from him about how Lowell lead his own life.

 

Neis only continued to stare hard at Lowell, who didn't back away from his gaze. “I'm not waiting in the wings for the other shoe to drop,” Lowell started again, his voice evenbut powerful, “ready to bail if it's not in my favor. I would think you're man enough to not do that, either.”

 

Neis was tall by any standard, and taller than Lowell who wasn't short by any definition of the word. At that moment, however, as the young man let out a deep sigh and his gaze wandered, Lowell felt like he was ten feet taller than Neis. “You know what old man,” Neis finally spoke and looked back into Lowell's eyes. “When you're right, you're right.” He shifted on his feet and muttered 'shit' quietly under his breath. “Doesn't mean I still won't talk to Trunks about this,” Neis added after a quiet minute.

 

“Talk all you want,” Lowell replied, “just don't do anything stupid.”

 

Neis's mouth scrunched up and he gaze Lowell a scrutinizing gaze. “You know where he is, don't you?” he asked, his tone clear that he wasn't asking the question so much as making a statement of fact.

 

“No,” Lowell replied quickly. Neis gave him an incredulous look, his head tilting to the left as he narrowed his eyes. “Keep your mouth shut,” Lowell added with a glance toward the kitchen to make sure Bulma wasn't behind him, listening in on their conversation. Turning back to Neis he spoke, “He's not on Earth.”

 

“I knew it!” Neis exclaimed triumphantly, snapping his fingers of his right hand. “So what the hell's he doing on Bmyhad?” he asked, clearly interested in what his best friend has been doing the past four months he hadn't seen him.

 

“I don't know,” Lowell gave a slight shrug and shook his head. “Apparently he hasn't even told Bulma. Just something vague about how he owes someone and needs to resolve it now,” he elaborated.

 

“Hah,” Neis laughed hotly. “Probably off trying to play hero again,” he scoffed. The two men let another silence descend between them before Neis finally broke the quiet. “Well... guess I'll head back home,” he said with a deep sigh. He turned to head away when Lowell stopped him.

 

“Hey,” Lowell called out. When Neis turned his face back toward him, Lowell continued. “Be easy on Mia. This is already tough enough on her without you acting like an idiot,” he said quickly.

 

Neis snorted, his mouth curving up into a smirk. “Right,” he said with a slight nod before turning and walking away across the lawn, no doubt headed for his car parked at the south building.

 

Bulma sat on the sofa sipping a fresh mug of coffee. Mia had already gone home, in tears, and Bulma felt bad about it, but at the same time the whole thing was just so juvenile . She took another drink of coffee when Lowell reappeared in the kitchen from outside.

 

“Well,” he said, walking over to retake his seat in the leather chair, “that was interesting.” He sighed heavily and dropped into the chair, reaching up to rub his temple.

 

“So Neis told you what was going on?” Bulma asked from behind her mug.

 

“Yeah,” Lowell answered dryly, his face showing his displeasure.

 

Bulma shook her head, “Some days I feel like I'm dealing with a bunch of teenagers. What is wrong with these kids? Why are they so immature? They're all almost thirty,” Bulma complained.

 

“To be fair,” Lowell countered, “they really are like teenagers.” Bulma hated how he always took the opposing viewpoint from her, and was about to ask him what the hell he was talking about when Lowell continued. “They didn't grow up like normal kids, Bulma. Emotionally, their lives were put on hold while they focused on surviving a world that could kill them at any turn. Since Trunks killed the androids, they've had an opportunity to grow up. I hate to say it,” he added with a tilt of his head, “but these are the growing pains of kids that had to wait to mature.”

 

Bulma sighed. “I hate it when you're right,” she said with a half-smile before taking another sip of coffee.

 

 

-+-

 

 

Several hours later, sitting mostly in silence to keep radio traffic to a minimum, Trunks let out another sigh as he stared at the ceiling. He had his head leaned back against the metal wall of the jail cell. He reached up with his left hand to wipe at his eyes, forgetting that Armada's right arm was attached him. It followed his and she yanked it back in response, giving him an annoyed look. Trunks turned toward her and laughed nervously, “Sorry.”

 

“ Aww, you two are adorable,” Laiserta chided over the radio, but her voice echoed strangely. Trunks realized that he'd heard her voice nearby as well as over the radio. He and Armada both looked up and could see a slight visual distortion in the shape of a person on the other side of the glass of their jail cell.

 

Trunks and Armada stood up, but Laiserta stopped them before they moved toward the door. “Wait,” she said lowly. “I'm about to run out of battery so I'm gonna have to drop my camouflage,” she began. “Once I do that, they'll know I'm here. There's a camera over my shoulder,” she said, and Trunks couldn't see exactly what she was doing but she made some kind of motion. “So we're going to make a run for the garage, get some wheels and get the hell out of here,” she finished.

 

“You know where you're going?” Armada asked, still wearing the same steely gaze from when Hrimth police first arrested them.

 

“I already scoped it out on my way here,” Laiserta replied. “The garage is right under us, but it's in the basement, so we'll run down a nearby staircase,” she said and paused. “Hope you guys are good at dodging bullets,” she added, and Trunks could only assume she was smirking with the way she'd said those words.

 

Armada walked toward the door to the jail cell and Trunks stumbled a step before following along after her. “How are you gonna open the door?” Trunks asked, and Armada glanced at him briefly. He wondered if he'd taken the words right out of her mouth.

 

“Oh, you'll see,” Laiserta answered with a teasing lilt to her voice. Just then, her barely-visible silhouette shimmered, and in a few quick seconds Laiserta was visible again. The Taydran mercenary reached over her shoulders to her back and pulled out a long black metal rod. “You might wanna step back,” she said, gripping the meter-long rod with both hands and pulling it back over her shoulder like she was about to swing. Trunks and Armada took a few steps back right as Laiserta swung at the glass of their jail cell.

 

The force of her blow was enough to shock Trunks as the glass of the cell door shattered and fell to the ground. Armada ran toward the opening, and Trunks followed along to keep from being dragged. He glanced at the sides of the broken glass as they ran through and was shocked to see it was almost a foot thick. He knew Laiserta was strong from when he fought her, but he didn't think she was capable of such a feat of pure strength.

 

“Follow me,” Laiserta said as she finished sheathing the rod on her back. She then reached down and withdrew the pistol in the holster on her left thigh, before taking off for the door. As soon as they cleared the remaining jail cells and made it out into a hallway, officers were already headed their way. Laiserta turned and fired four shorts, hitting each officer once in the chest and dropping them.

 

She turned and kept running with her comrades behind her. “Can we refrain from killing any cops?!” Trunks shouted, frustrated with what he just saw. They'd only come here to steal something, they didn't need to exacerbate the situation by killing anyone, let alone police officers.

 

“I didn't kill them,” Laiserta shouted as they ran. “I shot them in the lung, away from the heart. They'll live, trust me,” she glanced back at him before stopping at the next hallway intersection. Laiserta leaned around the corner and saw several officers headed down the hall on their left. She turned back to her comrades and said in a rush, “The door to the stairs is on the right, go ahead and I'll cover you.”

 

Armada didn't think twice and took off, leaving Trunks to stumble again and run after her. He was beyond irritated with being handcuffed to her, if only because it made any kind of movement complicated. As soon as they ran into the open and headed for the door, the officers behind them lifted their weapons to fire. Laiserta then stepped out into the corridor behind the other two mercenaries and raised her weapon. With seven quick shots she downed every officer with a shot to the kneecap, just in case she got more complaints about killing people. The Taydran didn't spare another glance at her targets before chasing after her comrades down the stairwell.

 

Armada stopped quickly when she and Trunks reached the basement. Armada tried to open the door, unsure if it would be locked. Fortunately it opened, and she and Trunks ran inside. Laiserta wasn't kidding when she said they were going to the garage—that was exactly where they found themselves. Dozens of police cars and other unmarked vehicles were sitting in an underground garage.

 

Trunks watched as his comrade took another few steps forward, her eyes scanning the sea of vehicles, probably looking for the best one for their getaway. He then glanced behind him when he heard Laiserta run through the door after them. She turned and pulled the door shut, then proceeded to kick at the door frame. At first Trunks was confused, until he realized that with each kick she was bending the door frame and deforming it to make it harder for the officers pursuing them to get through.

 

Armada turned and called out to Laiserta. “Lai, cut this cable,” she said, lifting her right arm to indicate that she wanted to be separated from Trunks.

 

“Sure,” Laiserta said and strolled over to the pair. She reached down to grab the cable with her right hand and the second her fingers curled around it, electricity appeared to jump around her hand. Laiserta tensed and her face contorted, and she was unable to remove her hand. Thinking quickly, Trunks used his right hand and pushed Laiserta away by shoving her in the sternum and jerking his left hand back, hoping to pry the cable away from her hand. He was successful, and she took a step back to catch herself before bending over, her hands on her knees while she struggled to breathe.

 

“ Shit ,” Laiserta cursed through shaky breaths.

 

“You okay?” Trunks asked, deeply concerned. The electric shock from the AEM cuffs didn't seem like much, but she appeared to be in bad shape.

 

“I can't,” Laiserta shook her head and gulped in another breath of air, “I can't deal with electric shock.” She looked up at Trunks, and both he and Armada were stunned at what they saw. Her red eyes looked displaced; parts of her pupil were blown apart into her irises. It looked like puzzle pieces that had come apart, but nothing appeared to be destroyed. Still, Trunks panicked; did their comrade just go blind?

 

“Sorry,” Laiserta said and dropped her head. “I can't see anything right now. Give me a few minutes for the parts to reorganize and I'll be fine,” she explained, her voice still sounding distressed. “I wasn't expecting that or I wouldn't have grabbed it,” she added. “Even a minor electrical shock can throw off the calibration of my eyes.”

 

Trunks felt terrible. The memory came back of when he helped Armada with that other set of AEM cuffs and he recalled that there was a slight electric shock. It wasn't much, and he didn't think that was a standard thing. Apparently neither did Armada because she didn't say anything to Laiserta about it. Or, she thought it wouldn't bother their comrade enough to mention it.

 

Banging on the door from the stairwell drew everyone's attention. “We need to find a car,” Armada blurted out before turning and heading off at a slow jog. Trunks followed along as they searched.

 

“What do we look for?” he asked, glancing between the different vehicles. Obviously they wouldn't take a marked car, but among the unmarked cars he had no idea which cars were better than others.

 

“Something with armor,” Armada answered and then looked at Trunks, “if they're going to chase us.”

 

“Okay,” Laiserta called out, her voice still breathy. “I'm okay now,” she said, walking toward her comrades. “Mostly,” she added before looking off to her right. “Oooh,” she said suddenly, sounding quite interested in something. She walked over to what looked like a row of lockers along one wall and stopped in front of them. “Nice,” she said to herself before reaching for one of the doors and ripping it off of its hinges. She moved with such ease that Trunks was again shocked at her strength.

 

Upon ripping open the locker, Laiserta smiled to herself while looking at the contents. “I love my job,” she said to herself as she reached inside and pulled out a long-range rifle with a large scope. If Trunks had to guess it looked like a sniper rifle. Using the strap on the gun, she slung it over her shoulder and grabbed a bag inside the locker, loading it up with ammunition and several pistols that were also in the locker.

 

The banging on the door grew louder, and another door on the far side of the garage started making noise though it wasn't opening. “Lai, we need an armored vehicle, now!” Armada shouted. They were running out of time to get out of the building before the garage filled with officers. Despite having Laiserta with them now, they would never be able to fight them all off.

 

“Coming!” Laiserta replied, her tone almost jovial. She ran over to her two comrades and took a quick look around. “Hmm,” she said to herself as she scanned. The noise at both doors into the garage grew louder, and Trunks was certain he could hear the voices of the officers shouting behind them. “Over here!” Laiserta cried out and ran toward a black car.

 

When they had all reached the rear of the car, Laiserta spoke. “Best armor plating of the lot, and it should have enough power to haul ass,” she said with a smirk. Armada moved to her left toward the driver's side and Trunks simultaneously moved right away from her. The two of them stopped when their arms were both pulled toward each other and Armada glared at Trunks.

 

“I'm driving,” she bit out angrily.

 

“I know,” Trunks shot back, equally annoyed.

 

Their attention was drawn behind them as Laiserta laughed at the two of them. “Sorry but this is hilarious,” she said between laughs.

 

Armada sighed and walked toward the passenger side, dragging Trunks along with her. She opened the passenger door and climbed in, then proceeded to climb over the center console and into the driver's seat. Trunks moved with her, ducking his head just in time to avoid smacking it into the side of the car. Laiserta climbed into the back seat with the rifle and the bag of weapons and ammo.

 

“How do you plan on starting this thing?” Laiserta asked, leaning forward between the front seats as she turned her attention to Armada.

 

Armada pulled down on the front visor, and the key to the vehicle fell out into her waiting hand. She inserted the key into the ignition and started the vehicle before turning toward Laiserta. “Like that,” she said flatly.

 

“I think we need to get going,” Trunks shouted anxiously.The large door in the back of the garage finally started opening slowly.

 

Armada had already backed the vehicle out of its spot while Trunks was speaking, so when he turned toward her she slammed on the gas and sped down the aisle between rows of parked cars. The large door on the far side of the garage finally opened and gunshots rang out, echoing in the space and making it sound like a war zone. She headed for the exit, which was another closed door. Trunks gripped the door handle with his right hand, not sure why she was speeding toward a completely shut door but knowing that she wasn't going to ram it... was she?

 

“You do see the door, right?” Laiserta asked, her voice rising in intensity—apparently Trunks wasn't the only one questioning Armada's sanity.

 

“Shut up and put on your seat belt,” Armada replied before slamming on the brakes and downshifting, slowing down for the door to automatically open. Once they had just enough clearance to leave, she gassed it and they shot up out of the tunnel onto the streets in downtown Hrimth.

 

Immediately Armada had to jerk the wheel hard to avoid hitting other cars on the road. Several vehicles slammed on their brakes and swerved, blaring their horns at the mercenary group as they weaved in and out of traffic.

 

Trunks was confused by why the sky was bright blue and lit up like the middle of the day. “Shit,” Laiserta cursed behind him, “it's rush hour in downtown during the workweek. We need to get away from all of this traffic,” she added urgently.

 

“Working on it,” Armada replied through gritted teeth and jerked their car sharply to the left, causing everyone in the vehicle to whip around with it.

 

Trunks glanced into the rear-view mirror to his right and saw flashing lights. He turned in his seat and looked out the back window past Laiserta. “We've got company,” he announced loudly when he realized that the flashing lights were Hrimth police cars chasing them through the city.

 

Laiserta pulled out one of her pistols and cocked the gun. Armada saw the action in the center rear-view mirror. “Don't fire,” she said before slamming on the brakes to turn right down another street and avoid several lanes of stopped traffic. “We'll outrun them,” she finished, shifting into a higher gear on a street with more room for her to maneuver.

 

After speeding down four blocks through lighter traffic, the group was approaching a short bridge that arched up over a river. Just as they closed in on the bridge, a group of police cars appeared over the arc of the bridge, headed straight for them. “Shit!” Armada cursed and slammed on the brakes, causing the car to fishtail while the tires squealed in protest. Once they had slowed enough, she turned the vehicle right to travel down a more narrow street that ran along the river. There wasn't much room to veer in and out of traffic but she did so anyway, clearing some vehicles by inches as the mercenaries passed them by.

 

As they approached a traffic light with a line of cars stopped across all lanes, Trunks gripped the door handle once more. “Armada,” he said with the tension rising in his voice. He glanced over to her and she was focused on the road in front of her, shifting as she sped even faster toward the line of motionless vehicles.

 

“Hang on!” she shouted over the sound of the engine and only a second before they would have crashed into the back of another car, she jerked the wheel to the left and brought the car up onto the sidewalk next to the road. Several pedestrians had to leap out of the way as the mercenary drove down the walkway.

 

Laiserta had fallen over with the last sudden movement of the vehicle and flailed her arms as she struggled to sit upright. “Are you crazy?!” she yelled, holding onto the back of Trunks's seat with her right hand.

 

Armada smirked. “You should have put on your seat belt,” she answered darkly. As the crew approached another intersection, there was nowhere to get off of the sidewalk as traffic was stalled at a red light again. Unfortunately there was a cafe on the water with seating on the sidewalk, and they were headed straight for it. Armada downshifted and started blaring the horn, and people turned to see a car barreling down on them and fled. Luckily everyone was out of the way when they started ramming tables and chairs which flew in every direction. One metal chair smacked the windshield hard enough to leave a long horizontal crack down the center.

 

Trunks looked over his shoulder and out of the back window to see police lights in the distance, farther away from the mercenaries than they once were. At the next intersection, Armada slowed the car and took a hard left, braking as she slid the car out into traffic. The car fishtailed again, just barely missing the car next to it which pulled away and blasted its horn. Armada laid into the accelerator again and the mercenaries crossed the river, finally.

 

Trunks turned around again as Armada drove straight for a few blocks before making a right turn at a more reasonable speed. “I think we lost them,” he said and turned toward his comrade who was driving. She had slowed down and tried to blend in with the morning traffic, hoping to get lost if the police did catch up. In response Armada just watched all of her mirrors closely for a moment before looking forward at traffic once more.

 

“Hahah,” Laiserta forced a strained laugh, “that was fun.” She slapped the back of Trunks's headrest and slumped back into her seat, still not bothering to put her seat belt on. The three mercenaries sat in silence for a minute as traffic moved slowly. Laiserta wasn't kidding about it being rush hour, but Trunks was still shocked they'd been in the jail cell so long. The time dragged on, sitting there in silence but even he didn't think so much time had passed.

 

As Trunks thought about the night's events, he felt something nagging in the back of his mind. As the sound moved closer, he finally started to pay attention. Sounds like a helicopter , he thought absentmindedly.

 

“Uh,” Laiserta finally broke the silence, “we have a problem!” Trunks turned to look at Laiserta, who was in turn looking out the back window. He followed her gaze up to see two black helicopters flying in their direction, awfully low considering the number of skyscrapers surrounding them.

 

Armada finally looked into the rear view mirror mounted on the windshield, and when she saw the helicopters her eyes narrowed. She turned and looked out the back window as well, as if she didn't believe what she saw in the mirror was true. “How the hell did they get choppers off the ground so quickly?” Armada demanded with a grimace.

 

“Hate to break it to you, but those are Taydran military,” Laiserta answered tersely as she turned around to face forward.

 

“How'd the military get involved?” Trunks asked, his voice rising in concern.

 

“They must know we have the VI chip,” Armada answered with a stern voice. “They don't want to let it get away,” she finished as her eyes narrowed, staring at the helicopters in the rear view mirror.

 

Trunks looked at the helicopters and back to Armada, who was now studying their movements intensely via the rear view mirror. She had her hand on the gear shift but she was stalling; she was waiting for something. Not that she had anywhere to really go as traffic was still stopped by a red light at the next intersection.

 

“Spider-head, you gonna get us the hell out of here or what?” Laiserta shouted, clearly agitated by Armada's lack of action.

 

“They might not know which one is us,” Armada said evenly, continuing to watch the two black helicopters as if her life depended on it, which wasn't far from the truth. Everyone sat still and held their breath as the two helicopters slowly descended and kept flying straight toward them. The light ahead turned green and traffic started to slowly crawl forward, but Armada held off from moving. The gap created by the car pulling away in front of her was her opportunity to flee if need be.

 

Just as the cars behind them started to beep angrily at the delay, the two helicopters closed in and the nearest one started firing bullets at the mercenaries. “Damnit!” Laiserta shouted, ducking her head as bullets peppered the rear window and back of the car.

 

Armada made the tires squeal as she slammed on the gas and shifted into gear, moving left into the oncoming lane. After dodging two cars while driving the wrong way down the street, Armada slammed on the brakes and drifted left around the corner. As soon as they'd cleared the last building on the block and could see around the corner, Armada's eyes widened in panic. “Shit!” she yelled, gripping the steering wheel tight enough that her knuckles turned white.

 

Trunks instantly felt nauseous. As they came around the corner, the lights on the other street were green for pedestrians to cross and the intersection was full of people, he guessed maybe fifty or more. Kami please don't kill anyone, Trunks thought nervously, gripping the car door handle with his right hand like it was his only lifeline in a hurricane. The few seconds they drifted through the crowd of people felt like an eternity. Armada was holding down the car horn, hoping to catch everyone's attention. Luckily everyone seemed to be awake, and the group of Taydrans screamed and jumped away from the car. As the car slid through the crosswalk in a smooth arc, Armada didn't dare move the wheel.

 

After clearing the crosswalk, everyone let out a sigh of relief. The reprieve didn't last long as the two helicopters came around the corner, and now in a wider street could both fly side-by-side and thus both fire on the mercenaries at the same time. Laiserta ducked and cursed again, however this time the bullets riddling the rear window caused it to crack and splinter to the point that it was nearly impossible to see through.

 

After flooring it to try and get away from their airborne pursuers, Armada saw a sign indicating a road to the right was closed for construction. She jerked the car to the right and rammed the sign, splintering it as the car rolled down an empty access road.

 

“What the hell are you doing?!” Laiserta screamed over the sound of gunfire. “That's the new highway, it's closed because it isn't finished yet!”

 

“Perfect,” Armada said and jerked the gear shift, making the car gain speed. The engine roared to life as the long on-ramp gave the vehicle space to really accelerate, and Trunks could now understand that the car was far more powerful than it looked. As they gained speed, the trail of bullets behind them moved farther away as the helicopters couldn't accelerate quite as quickly.

 

Moving over to her left after getting up to the highway, Armada kept the gas pedal floored as the mercenaries sped down a wide open freeway. “Congratulations,” Laiserta spat angrily, “you just made us the only target on the road! At least in the city they would have to avoid hitting civilians.”

 

“They're also a wide open target,” Armada replied, looking in the side mirror to see the helicopters were finally starting to gain speed and catch up to the mercenaries. “Lai, get your rifle and take them out,” she ordered.

 

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, one of the helicopters fired a small missile. Armada barely had time to react and swerved hard to left, over the median and into the oncoming lanes. The missile hit the ground next to the mercenaries and exploded, flinging large pieces of concrete into the air. Despite narrowly avoiding the explosion, a large piece of concrete fell onto the center of the car's roof, causing it to cave in. Armada jerked the wheel, and the concrete debris fell off of the back of the vehicle. Everyone crouched down since the ceiling of the car was now several inches lower.

 

Laiserta pulled out one of the pistols she'd stuffed in the bag at the garage and aimed at the A pillar on the driver's side. Armada lowered her head more and Laiserta fired, emptying half of the magazine into the pillar. She swung her arm to the right and fired at the pillar on the other side near Trunks, causing the demi-Saiyan to duck and cover his face with his right arm.

 

With the front two pillars destroyed by her own gunfire, Laiserta dropped the pistol onto the floor and reached up with both hands, pushing up on the roof of the car. She slowly pushed the roof up, ripping it from the A pillars in the front of the vehicle that she'd already weakened. Once the roof was totally clear from the front pillars she was able put more strength into her actions, and Laiserta successfully pushed the roof over the back of the car, bending it backward at the C pillars by the rear window.

 

“Now that that's out of the way,” Laiserta yelled, clearly excited with a large grin on her face. With the roof off of the car, the wind whipped everyone's hair around under the morning sun. The helicopters opened fire again and Armada swerved to avoid the bullets, since they no longer had an armored roof to protect their heads.

 

“Oh shit!” Laiserta exclaimed as she fell forward, scrambling to stay inside the vehicle.

 

“Lai!” Trunks shouted and twisted his body, reaching to the back seat over his left shoulder with his right hand, trying to grab onto her. He managed to get a fistful of her suit low on her back, just above her rear.

 

Laiserta managed to grab onto the roof that was hanging over the back of the car and stabilize herself. She turned and laughed while looking at Trunks, “I like to have fun too but that will have to wait for later, wonder boy!”

 

“Lai,” Armada growled, “take them out now! ”

 

Trunks released Laiserta and she sat back down in the seat, picking up the sniper rifle from the floorboard where she'd stashed it when they first got into the vehicle. Hoisting it up onto the upside-down roof, she narrowed her eyes and took aim. “Say goodbye,” she said quietly to herself before firing a single shot.

 

In the closer helicopter, Laiserta's gunshot went through the windshield and straight into the pilot's right shoulder. He gasped and released the joystick in front of him, the helicopter immediately slowing and drifting to the left. Laiserta fired the sniper rifle again, this time hitting the copilot in his left shoulder as the chopper struggled to stay in the air.

 

“One down,” Laiserta pulled back on part of the sniper rifle, “one to go,” she finished with a smirk. She pulled out another clip of two bullets and reloaded the rifle. While she was working, the second helicopter fired a missile.

 

Armada immediately tapped the brakes, slowing the car slightly as they approached an overpass. Laiserta wanted to shout a line of expletives about why Armada would do something so stupid when there was a missile sailing through to the air at them. The blonde mercenary sped up the car once more and drove under the overpass, leading the missile to connect and explode with the road above.

 

Laiserta finished loading her sniper rifle. “All right, time to take these pricks out,” she announced before hoisting the rifle up and taking aim. She followed the helicopter's movements for a moment before firing at the pilot. This time, the pilot anticipated her shot and moved the helicopter at the last moment, causing Laiserta's shot to miss.

 

However, Laiserta didn't have time to worry about the missed shot. She looked down at her sniper rifle and read the manufacturer's name on the side. “Piece of Tyrian shit!” she yelled.

 

The helicopter opened fire with bullets once more, and everyone ducked to avoid getting hit in the head. “Lai!” Armada shouted, glancing back over her shoulder at the Taydran woman.

 

“The rifle's jammed,” Laiserta shouted back over the sound of the wind and engine.

 

“Can you fix it?” Armada asked, looking back to the road and then in the rear view mirror.

 

Laiserta scanned the gun with her eyes, looking up and down the barrel. “Yeah but it'll take too long,” she said, throwing it back down on the floorboard. She pulled out another pistol from the bag of weapons she'd taken from the Hrimth police. She held it up and aimed at the helicopter, holding her arm steady. She fired six bullets in quick succession, testing to see if her theory would work.

 

The second helicopter was hit with six bullets in the windshield right in front of the pilot. The first bullet was stopped by the glass, and the remaining bullets all hit in the exact same spot behind the first. The pilot saw the bullets slowly piling up and inching closer through the thick glass and raised the helicopter up to expose some of the bottom, making any more shots into that same spot impossible from Laiserta's position.

 

“Damnit, I don't have any armor piercing bullets,” Laiserta turned to Trunks and Armada.

 

Armada seemed to think for a moment before glancing at Trunks from the corner of her eyes. “Can you pull your energy out in your right hand?” she asked quickly.

 

Trunks looked down at his hand and focused. It took a lot more concentration than he'd ever had to use when summoning his ki, but after a few seconds a small ball of energy flickered quickly above his right hand before dissipating. He felt the AEM cuff on his left arm clamp down and deliver an electric shock, albeit small. “Yeah, I think I can,” he answered and looked up at his comrade.

 

“Blast that thing out of the sky,” Armada demanded.

 

He glanced at the helicopter before looking back at Armada. “But if I do that,” he started, unable to finish his thought when he was cut off by another shower of bullets peppering the inside of their vehicle. All three mercenaries ducked their heads once more, and Trunks watched bullet holes appear in the dashboard, moving up toward the windshield. One bullet of the dozens that were fired ricocheted off of the dashboard and embedded itself in Armada's right shoulder.

 

The mercenary leader grimaced before shouting, “Trunks!”

 

He took that as his cue and twisted around in his seat, holding his right arm out over his left shoulder. Trunks never had to concentrate so hard in his life to shoot one pathetic ki blast, but within a few seconds he finally managed to fire one out. It wasn't powerful, and it wasn't fast, but it was on target. His ki blast hit the top of the helicopter, destroying the blades and causing the aircraft to descend from the sky unceremoniously. As soon as he'd fired the shot, the AEM cuffs clamped down and gave a much more serious electrical shock, one that made Trunks's vision go black and his head buzz as if he was drunk.

 

“Hahah!” Laiserta laughed excitedly, watching the helicopter go down. “ Gambustos dos verkanna ,” she spat a curse in her native language at the military chopper as it went down. She turned and looked at Trunks, a grin stretched across her face. “Nice shot wonder boy!”

 

Trunks couldn't think to respond as his vision struggled to come back to normal. It was a wonder to him how Armada kept driving, though he did feel their vehicle slow down. When his eyesight came back he looked to his left and Armada seemed as distressed as he was. She glanced at him and flashed a small victorious smirk.

 

 

-+-

 

 

After dropping both helicopters, it didn't take long for the mercenaries to run out of road. It was exactly as Laiserta had said; the highway was still under construction and had quite a bit to go before it would be completed. When they reached the end of the road, Armada pulled over and the crew walked on foot for the last three miles to where the ship was stashed. Once they were back in the ship, Armada used the ship's computer to hack the AEM cuffs and unlock them, finally releasing herself and Trunks.

 

After that, the three of them ended up in the infirmary. “Good news is, it didn't break up,” Laiserta said as she stared at Armada's shoulder. Now close enough to really see what Laiserta's eyes were doing, Trunks was totally freaked out. Her pupils and irises would rotate and move in mechanical, almost robotic ways. Lai had explained that her eyes were completely bio-mechanical and thus made from organic materials, but they moved in parts and pieces that reminded Trunks of robotics. It was unsettling, to say the least.

 

Laiserta turned around to pick up a pair of small tweezers from the counter behind her. “Sit still and I'll take it out,” she finished, turning back around to face Armada. Laiserta placed her left hand on Armada's bare shoulder to hold her still while she dug into the wound with the tweezers she held in her right hand. Armada didn't flinch, and within a few seconds Laiserta pulled the shrapnel from her comrade's shoulder. “All done,” Laiserta announced as she stood upright, tossing the bullet fragment into a nearby trashcan.

 

Armada ran her left hand over the wound, which wasn't bleeding much. She looked up to Laiserta from where she sat on the main table in the infirmary. “Lai, plot a course for Bmyhad and get us out of here,” she stated her order rather plainly.

 

Laiserta nodded. “Once we get this bird in the air, I'm going to bed. I'm tired,” she added lamely before turning and heading out.

 

Jumping down from the table, Armada took a couple steps forward to the counter in the infirmary. She pulled a tube of antiseptic lotion from a cabinet and dabbed a bit onto the fingertips of her left hand. “You might want to get some rest,” she said, turning to Trunks after she had rubbed the lotion into her wound.

 

“What about you?” Trunks asked. He couldn't recall a time he had ever seen her sleep that wasn't in a hospital bed.

 

She was picking up her arm guard she had removed when she'd rolled up her sleeve earlier for Laiserta to remove the bullet fragment embedded in her right shoulder. “Someone has to keep an eye on things,” she replied before walking past Trunks and out of the infirmary.

 

 

-+-

 

 

Several hours later, the ship was sailing through space, and both of Armada's comrades were asleep. She sat back in the pilot's chair in the bridge, not particularly watching the displays in front of her. She was deep in thought. Armada had a suspicion about Trunks for a while, and the day's events had convinced her that she was right. She now knew exactly what Trunks's weakness was, and exactly how she could exploit it. But the funny thing was, she wasn't really thinking about how to take advantage of his weakness. Instead, she was giving serious thought to what she could do to help him overcome it. Armada was prideful, but not the point of stupidity or willful ignorance; she knew that Trunks was far more powerful than her. And yet, she was intrigued by the thought of helping him eliminate this susceptibility of his. She wondered just how much more powerful he could become if he had her help.

 

Armada smirked and laughed darkly at herself. She really was crazy, because despite the logical half of her brain telling her that this idea was insane, and that she should keep the knowledge of Trunks's weakness to herself, she knew what she was going to do.

 

She was going to teach him how to fight.

 

 

-+-

 

 

Honestly I love writing this type of stuff - car chases, comedic moments during what’s supposed to be serious, the good stuff, hahah.  Please leave a review and let me know what you thought.  Also, if the stuff happening on Earth seems boring, I’d love to know.  It’s all setup for later on, because what fun would this fanfic be if Trunks doesn’t go back to the Earth with all of his new “friends” in tow?  XD  Thanks for reading!

-Silvia