Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Slumber Party! ❯ Unexpected Gambit ( Chapter 28 )

"No!" Vegeta screamed as he sped up, trying, in vain, to catch the swiftly escaping space craft. His hands curled into dangerous fists, glowing with crackling power, at his sides, he prepared to blast the vessel from the sky. A hand upon his shoulder stilled his action.

He turned to see Terra, her odd greenish dark hair blowing in the breeze of her wake, floating slightly behind him. He raised a single brow in surprise at this manifestation of her powers, though he knew as well as anyone that mastering one's ki allowed for all sorts of seemingly incredible acts the least of which was flight.

"Stay your power, Vegeta," She said, the orb about her staff pulsating with a deep illumination that seemed echoed within her eyes, "If you destroy the ship, you will also kill your mate."

He started to bite back a stinging retort, but realized that she was correct. He didn't want Bulma to suffer, he was trying to save her! He noticed that most of the other Z fighters had converged just behind Terra and most waited for instruction, however, never one to take orders from anyone, Vegeta did not wait around for whoever, probably Kakkarot, to start giving them out.

He turned and flew off to worry the problem by himself, which was just his style.

"What do we do now?" He heard one of them say just before he was out of range, "That monster's got the dragonballs!"

~*~*~

It's all my fault... Tori thought, coming completely out of the trance-like state Cyclone had rendered her in earlier, If only there was a way...

She was back at the house, Piccolo having carried her there after she'd cried out almost in union with Vegeta. She was laying in the bed that had become her's after her parents were killed and her house burned to the ground. She only wished she'd been able to use her own powers, somehow, to prevent such tragedy....

Now, it seems more people will suffer, She thought, as she pulled the blanket up to her chin, shivering, Because of me.

She noticed that the shadows had grown long, even though she could not tell for certain exactly how long she'd been laying here, and she thought that night was fast approaching. About to try and shove the covers over and lift herself up from the bed to go find out what she could do to help, if anything, she was stopped by a pair of voices outside her door.

"...could do, you know that, Piccolo!" She recognized Chi Chi's soft, motherly voice, soft when she wanted it to be, that was! Tori hadn't lived her so long that she'd become immune to Chi Chi's sudden tirades.

"I know," She felt her heart skip under the fingers she placed, almost without thinking, at her breast at the sound of his strong baritone, "But, there should have been something that I could have done...to prevent this!"

Outside the door, in the hallway that barely allowed room enough for herself, let alone a seven and something and a half foot tall namekian warrior, Chi Chi bit her bottom lip and glanced towards the room she knew Tori was recovering in. Piccolo did not miss her pointed look.

Within the room, Tori's fire power played about her body as she gazed at her reflection in the vanity mirror across from the bed. Her normally light blue eyes had changed to an odd color reminiscent of old blood, tiny sparks crackling from the edges and her light hair seemed like a ghostly veil over her pale features as it flew in tangles behind her, buoyed by a wind as hot as death.

There was a way to prevent it, Piccolo, She thought, her throat choking back her tears, If only I'd never had...even...

She had hardly finished the thought before she had lifted herself from the bed, her bare feet touching the floor only lightly, as if she were barely grazing the floor, which she was. The light blue nightgown Chi Chi had put her in flew about her and lifted a bit off the floor as she made her way towards the door. She paused, cast her heated gaze upon the ceiling and focused upon it instead of the door.

In a few moments, a hole had begun to burn into the ceiling, revealing the beams and boards of the roof, she continued to focus her power upon the hole she was creating, careful not to allow the fire to get out of control. She did not wish to harm anyone, just to escape. She heard the doorknob rattling behind and knew the flimsy lock would not stop them for long.

Touching a hand to temple, she tried something she wasn't altogether sure would actually work. Yet, she had to try. She closed her eyes and concentrated, the heat from her fire lifting her upwards, tried to find the one mind with whom she sought communication...it shouldn't be too difficult, considering the fact that she had been held prisoner with it only a few...hours? Days? She did not know, ago.

** Cyclone! ** She opened her mind as she called, forcing back the urge to pile up block after block of mental barrier just to keep him from entering after what he'd done to her, ** Cyclone! Hear me! **

Upon the ship, the young man spun about in the captain's chair, one hand clutching a lever upon the chair, the other resting beneath his chin as a smile crept across his features. His fair brows raised about his head as he laughed and said, aloud, "Ah, looks like the kitten has come for the mouse..."

Bulma, in the cage, pouted as she sat upon the floor, her fingers inching to get near all the technical equipment she saw all about her on the ship, though most of it seemed beyond her ken, she had always been willing to give the old college try when it came to electronics. She saw her captor laughing like the lunatic she all ready knew him to be, and wondered if Vegeta would allow her to have a hand in his undoing...

** Cyclone! ** Tori's voice in his head was loud and unskilled, giving him an ache he hadn't felt since he and his sister had first discovered they could use telepathy to speak to each other and Terra had screamed too loudly inside his head, ** Cyclone! Can you hear me? **

** Of course! ** He answered her and smiled to himself to feel her mental wince, an eye for a eye, he thought, ** Why are you bothering me? **

** I want to speak with you...** She sent, ** To bargain.**

In spite of himself, his interest was peaked, Cyclone sat back in the chair and pushed a few buttons upon the console. Soon the view screen shimmered and image of space before him dissipated until he could see exactly where the girl was.

He smiled as he watched, from a view above her, as she lifted herself out the smoldering hole she'd made in the ceiling and roof of the house, the large green fighter and dark haired woman below her, yelling.

The namekian reached out to grab her ankle before she was completely through the hole and outside into the early evening sky. He pulled it back with a yelp that seemed very out of character and looked down at his hand where Tori's very flesh had singed him. He touched a few more buttons and soon a grid was enclosed about her image upon the screen.

** Don't move, ** He said to her, ** I prefer to do my business...**

He typed in a code, his fingers moving with the speed of one who knows his ship, and the girl materialized inside the cage next the blue haired hostage.

"...in the flesh." He finished, smiling and turning towards her as she gained herself and her bearings. Being transported in such a way, he knew, could be very unsettling on those who've never experienced it before. "Please, pardon the cage, Tori, dear," He went on, "But, you can't fault me for taking precautions, can you?"

"Oh, Thank God!" Bulma cried out, moving towards Tori as if to embrace her, "Tori! You've come to save me! Did Vegeta send you?"

Tori glanced at Bulma, feeling sorry that she had become a pawn in this horrid game Cyclone had chosen to play, but knowing that she could little to secure her immediate release. She needed to get out of this cage, however...

"Cyclone," She said, hoping her voice did not betray the fear she felt, she'd been able to hide it enough from him when they'd been in telepathic interaction, but she did not know for how long she could keep up her bravado, "Is this how you treat would-be business associates? Lock them in a holding cage?"

In spite of his concerns regarding her loyalty and her wish to perhaps do him harm, Cyclone's own pride would not allow anyone to be able to call him inhospitable to those with whom he'd decided to have dealing with. With a mere flick of his wrist, he touched the control which kept the cell door locked and closed and it clicked and slid open upon the polished space craft floor.

Bulma, realizing the door to her prison was opening, made a bid for freedom, even though she would have nowhere to go save within the confines of the ship, and ran for the now-ajar cell door. Without thinking, without hardly looking, just feeling, Tori lifted her hand and put her thoughts into stilling the older woman's movements.

Bulma...She thought, as she felt the slight resistance as Bulma struggled against her telekinetic hold, Please forgive me...

"Tori!" Bulma cried, trying to move, "Why are you doing this?! Let me go! Tori!"

Ignoring her, Tori walked out of the cage and the door slammed shut behind her. She let go of Bulma and recoiled inwardly as she smashed bodily into the closed and locked cell door, propelled by her own momentum and sank to the floor in pain. She hated having to deceive the sympathetic woman, but she knew she could not divulge anything to either Cyclone or Bulma.

Not and have a single hope that her plan would work.

"Please have a seat, Tori," Cyclone said, indicting the chair next to his, "You don't mind me calling you by your first name, do you?"

She shook her head, tossing her hair as she did so, "Of course not! Partners don't stand on ceremony, do they?"

His eyes lit up at her words. He reached out to take her hand she had to stop herself from pulling back and away in disgust. "So, you have, at last, conceded to my wishes then?"

She nodded, doing her best to hide her discomfort, she thought;

Piccolo...everyone...please, forgive what I am about to do...

"How could I not?" She said, hating the lie which stung her mouth even as she spoke it, feeling Bulma's disbelief and fear as she watched and listened from the cell behind them, "When you've shown what it is to have such power...?"

Cyclone smiled wider and gripped her hand tighter within his own. It seemed that everything was falling into place, better than had he actually planned it! He fought the inclination to pinch himself as the young woman, powerful and beautiful altogether, shared his glance as she sat beside him.

"No! Tori!" Bulma cried, tears steaming down her cheeks, making her look small and childlike; "I thought you were my friend! How could you do this? How could you!?"

Cyclone did not bother gifting the caged woman with another glance, he just ignored her cries. He missed the brief flickering from the corner of Tori's eyes as she tried to hide the shame she felt for having forced her friend to scream at her in such a way. All he could think about, now, was the future, and the potential that seemed now limitless in the face of his and Tori's combined strengths.

Not to mention the dragonballs, he thought, Who better than someone like Tori to share them with? She, unlike my sickly sister, at least knows the value of one's dreams...