Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Slumber Party! ❯ We Come In Peace? ( Chapter 30 )

Crouching on the floor, her hands slick with sweat as she held the bars, peering between them, Bulma watched the frightened young girl as she stood over the man, who until recently, had been the cause of her terror and breathed in and out with small, sharp gasps of breath.

"Tori!" She cried in a loud whisper, "Let me out of her and we can fly this ship home together! Please!"

"No!" Cyclone tossed his head in the direction of Bulma's voice, "Don't listen to her, Tori! We were going to be...so powerful..."

Tori looked from Bulma to Cyclone, seeming unsure of herself. The farther the ship drew from the wasted pieces of death planet they'd just been surrounded by, the more her mind seemed her own once more. She felt as if she were emerging from a deep dreamless slumber, everything seemed foggy and unreal.

She looked down at her hands, they felt odd and sticky, unlike her own. Her fingers splayed before her eyes, she saw the blood drying upon them and dripping down her wrists and arms. It wasn't difficult for her to make the connection between her gore-covered hands and Cyclone's bloody twisted face as he covered his sightless eyes.

"W-what have I done...?" She whispered, feeling dizzy and staggered against the control panel, "W-what have I done...?"

"Please, Tori! Listen to me!" Bulma cried, slamming her fist against the bars, wincing in pain, "It's not too late! We can still get home! But, you have to let me out...!"

"Tori, no! Please!" Cyclone cried, a shell of his former self, he was weeping bloody tears at her feet, grasping with soiled hands her leg, "Be with me! You promised you would be with me!"

She shook her head, memory coming back swiftly as she looked down on him in disgust. Kicking him away from her she spat; "I wouldn't be with you if you were the last...thing...in the universe...!"

"T-tor...!" She kicked him hard under his chin, cutting off his words and he sprawled across the floor. Without pausing, Tori waved her hand in front of the lever that releases the cage doors and said; "Hurry, Bulma! Help me get him inside before he comes to once more!"

Smiling, the blue haired beauty hurried from the cage as soon the doors were open enough for her to slip though and helped Tori drag Cyclone inside the cage. They slammed the door shut and locked it behind them. Bulma wasted no time getting to know the ship's computer system.

"He won't stay that way for long, Tori," Bulma said, her fingers flying across the buttons and keypads as if she had been born doing so, "Look around and see if you can't find anything that would help us keep him...out of our way...for a while longer while I do this..."

Nodding, Tori began a search of the vessel, which didn't take too long considering it was a rather small craft. She found a cache of medical supplies tucked away inside one of the cargo holds, however and came back with a hypospray of something she recognized as a very strong sedative. She only hoped it worked on near-humans with powers like Cyclone's.

Well, she thought as she let herself into the cage and knelt over him, turning his head to the side to expose his neck, If not at least it will muddy his mind long enough to make using his powers difficult and that will give us time to turn this boat around...

He stirred a bit when she placed the sprayer to his neck and pressed down, the short hissing noise and popping sound beforehand told her that it had worked. He let out a soft sigh and seemed to relax more. She dropped his head on the hard ground and stood up, leaving the cage and locking the door behind her once more.

Even the brief time she allowed herself to find the water supply and wash the Cyclone's blood from her hands hadn't been enough to remove all the stickiness or stink from herself and her hands were still a distinctive rust color...She longed for a nice hot bath with lots of suds and perhaps some soft music playing in the background and Piccolo massaging her aching shoulders while she soaked...

Just as she was about to ask Bulma how much longer they had until they would be home again, the other woman let out an ear-piercing scream. Spinning around to face the view screen and Bulma, Tori gasped, her blood-stained hands flying to her face as she beheld what the other woman saw.

"W-what..." Bulma sputtered, taking a step backwards, "What in the world...?!"

"A-another ship!" Tori cried, standing slightly behind Bulma, she resisted the urge to reach out and hug the older woman as a shield against whatever was out there, "It's...it's.."

"Huge..." Bulma finished for her, "I hadn't time to calculate in the jump back into hyperspace before it appeared..."

It was a very large vessel indeed. Smooth and sleek, reminding Tori of pictures of great white sharks she'd seen sitting in doctors' office waiting rooms skimming through the pages of an out-of-date National Geography magazine while waiting to be called by the nurse when she was younger and her parents would take her to her check-ups and whatnot, it was much larger than Cyclone's own ship as well.

From the looks of the weapons swiveled about on their craft and facing them, Tori would venture a guess that it was much more powerful as well.

"Can we outrace them?" She asked Bulma, all ready knowing the answer. Bulma shook her head, chewing on her bottom lip.

"No! Do you know what class of vessel that is?!" She shouted, her fingers flying over the keyboard once more as an image of the ship outside their view screen popped onto the screen as a three-dimensional graph spinning slowly around in place to show all it's nooks and crannies. "This hunk of junk wouldn't be able to outwalk that ship, much less outrace it! What are we going to do!?"

Slamming her head down on the keyboard in frustration and fear, Bulma moaned loadly, "We're dead...we're so dead...that's it...I'm finished...stick a fork in me...I'm done for!"

"Don't lose it on me, Bulma!" Tori cried, her own voice shaking from the effort she was putting forth trying to hold herself together, "Please, don't lose it!"

Looking up, Bulma saw the tears shimmering from the corners of her friend's eyes and sighed, "I won't, Tori, I know this has been an ordeal for you, most of all, and I won't add to it by going insane with worry and fear...but," She added with a smirk that was so much like her husband's, "When we get back home and out of this mess, I feel it's my kami-given right to have a full-blown nervous breakdown!"

Tori nodded, agreeing, "Feel free when we get home!"

Suddenly, there was a clicking sound and a jerk which sent them flying across the room into the wall and each other. Tori asked what happened and Bulma's reply was not reasurring...

"Tractor beams...they've locked onto us..."

"Oh, no!"

"M-maybe they're...n-not bloodthirsty aliens looking for a little snack before they head off to conquer new worlds...?"

"Your fountain of hope spings eternal, doesn't it?"

"A girl's nothing without her dreams..."