Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Pathway to Destiny Vol. 1: Homeward Bound ❯ The Criminal Element ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 2: The Criminal Element

ChiChi stretched after she saved her work, relieved that her paper was completed. She had spent hours on it, researching, pre-writing, and revising until she could finally say that it was the best that it was possibly going to get. In fact, there was no other day in her life that even came close to comparing except for the day of Gohan's birth. It had been a hectic, stressful day, but it had been definitely a great one.

She remembered the moment the nurse had placed the tiny, bawling bundle into her arms. A smile of wonder had spread across her face, drawing a similar expression from Goku who stood nearby. That smile vanished, though, when she had noticed the furry brown appendage attached to the small of his back.

"Is that a tail?!" she has asked incredulously, not really believing what she was seeing.

"Yes ChiChi, it is," the doctor answered, her eyes not missing a thing. "I assume that you weren't expecting it."

ChiChi laughed at the memory though it had been far from funny then. After several minutes of worrying about her newborn, Goku had told her that he himself had been born with a tail. He considered it only a weird trait like webbed toes. She had been very relieved, to say the least, and had it surgically removed. No one would call her son a weirdo, not if she could help it. ChiChi tried her best to see that her son lived a healthy, productive life and it was paying off. Gohan was a bright, well-mannered boy who could reach for the stars if he continued to remain serious about his schoolwork. She knew that forbidding his father to see him had made him upset, but someday, when he had solved world hunger or cured every illness known to mankind, he would thank her for caring.

That reminded her, he hadn't come home from the store yet. A worried frown appeared on her face for a moment before realizing that he must have come inside without her noticing. Gohan was a very quiet boy.

ChiChi went into his room, intending on taking him out for ice cream in celebration of her finishing her paper and stopped cold when she saw the disarray that his room was in. Gohan was very neat, he would never just leave his things lying around.

Fear and worry swirled in her stomach, making it knot up in reaction. She found the single sheet of paper lying on the bed and read it quickly. Her face paled and the note fell from suddenly nerveless fingers and fell upon the floor. What had she done to deserve this? Did Gohan hate her that much? The words tumbled around inside of her brain, annoying her as she tried to find hidden meaning in his writing.

Kaasan

It's not my place to judge you so I do not. I will leave that to Enma-sama. Instead I will simply tell you that my tolerance for that atmosphere has reached its limit and that I am moving away. Please don't try to find me, I'll return someday. Until then sayonara and be well.

Gohan

***

The first thing Gohan noticed as he came to was that the road was bumpy, *very* bumpy. It jostled him against the metal floor of the van he was riding in, making his body ache all over. He raised his head slowly, observing silently the other kidnapped children, and saw that not only was the blond boy there but three other children as well. There were no adults. He slowly pushed himself upward, wincing at the slight pain that caused, and leaned back against the side of the van. His neck didn't hurt that bad anymore, it was a dull ache that he could ignore. Gohan made his way over to his new friend and looked him over to see if everything is okay.

"How do you feel, uh," Gohan asked, a little embarrassed that he didn't even know his name. The other boy smiled and held out his hand in a formal greeting.

"It's Colby. Nice to meet you-" He raised one pale eyebrow.

"Gohan."

"Nice to meet you, Gohan." His eyes took in his surroundings for a moment before he sighed. "We're in some trouble, aren't we? This doesn't look good."

"Those men scare me," Gohan admitted, not really sure why it didn't bother him to say that to a relative stranger. Maybe it was the fact that they were both in the same horrible situation. The other children began to stir, two younger than they were, and their high-pitched cries echoed in the small space.

Colby looked startled, not really knowing what to do, but Gohan went over and talked quietly with the young boy and girl telling them that things were going to work themselves out. The blond boy, only a year older than Gohan himself, was left with the remaining girl who sat scowling in the corner, her arms wrapped around her legs.

"What's your name?" he asked her, trying to wipe the angry look from her face. She only glared at him. "I only want to be your friend. Why be hostile towards each other? There are enough bad guys out there to do that for us."

She exhaled and her expression softened. "I'm Rosalyn. You're Colby and he's Gohan."

He blinked in surprise and a very comical expression came over his face. "How do you know our names?"

She laughed softly and her green eyes sparkled slightly. "I heard you two talking over there. I can't read minds or anything."

"Are we ever going to be free again?" They heard a small voice asked Gohan. Rosalyn and Colby moved over to sit by them and see how the older boy was going to handle things. Gohan felt that he should tell the truth.

"I don't know, Xavier. I hope so."

All five felt the van began to slow down and then completely stop. Rosalyn, the closest to the door, tried to open it and found that it was locked. She sighed and pushed her bright red hair back from her face and continued to try, though she had a feeling that it was useless.

"We need to be ready to attack them when the doors open," Colby whispered, getting an idea. "Then we can run away."

"Where will we go?" Xavier asked with a sniffle. "Aren't there wild animals out there that eat kids?"

"I don't know," Gohan replied. "But we still have to try." Rosalyn suddenly moved backward away from the door as it opened and was the first to launch herself at their capturers. She was stopped in mid-motion and yanked outside with a startled yell that was suddenly cut off. The twins, Xavier and Xaviera, screeched in terror and grabbed Gohan as if he could protect them from the bad people outside. The double doors of the van opened wider, displaying two large bodies outlined against by the light of the moon, and hands reached in and tried to grab the children.

"Let me go!" Xaviera shouted as she struggled in the man's grip. She bit down hard on one of his hands and he howled in pain. The other three heard him growl and had barely time to blink before he hit the little girl, causing her to moan in pain. Gohan felt hot anger rise within himself and barely kept Xavier from running to his sister's side. That man would only hurt him too.

"If you don't want to be hurt you'll come along quietly," he said to the three boys. Gohan decided to just go along with things, see what happened next. He exchanged glances with Colby, who nodded, and the exited the back of the van into dark woods. The larger man took the lead while the shorter one prodded them along from behind along a barely discernible path. Small rocks jutted upward from the earth, hurting their feet as they walked along. The three of them didn't dare complain, though, not wanting to experience what the girls had.

"I can't begin to tell you how much this sucks," Colby whispered in an annoyed tone, bringing a faint smile to Gohan's face despite their situation. "By now I could be-" He cut himself off, falling silent.

Gohan didn't miss a beat. "By now you could be what?"

"Hush you little brats!" The shorter man hissed at them as they halted before a large tree that was at least ten-feet feet in diameter. The large man stuck a card into a small space in the wood and a panel slid over to display a keypad. He punched in a few numbers and waited for a brief moment. The panel slid closed with a soft sound and a one large enough for two people to walk abreast through slid open, revealing a small chamber that Gohan recognized as an elevator. The seven of them entered, the door closing behind them, and the car began to lower itself into the ground.

Gohan couldn't stand the silence that had settled over the group and decided to do something about it. He knew that it probably wasn't very smart seeing as the two men looked very rough and mean in the dim light from above but never hurt to try. Usually. This could be one of those times he was better off keeping his mouth shut.

"What's your name?" he asked the nearest man, the short one. The grunt he received didn't discourage him. "I'm Gohan." He waited a moment and then...

Ah.

"Aldric," was the reply. Gohan smiled at him and repeated his question to the other man.

"Pete. Look kid, why do you care what our names are? Shouldn't you be too busy being afraid?"

"If I was afraid would you let me go?" He got snorts for responses. "I didn't think so. So, why waste my time?"

"You're one strange kid."

Gohan just beamed at him. "Thanks!" The two men looked at him as if he didn't have all of his senses while Colby snickered quietly. He knew what his new friend was doing, throwing the kidnappers off with kindness. Bad guys never expected their victims to be kind to them. He just might try it too.

Rosalyn moaned slightly as she came to, muttering something about a being hit by a bus. A green eye cracked open and regarded the three boys behind her quietly from her position over Pete's shoulder right before biting down hard on his ear. He screamed and the elevator doors opened into a dimly lit hallway.

With guards holding spears there waiting for them.

Colby threw out a plan he had been creating while Pete was yelling in pain figuring that it was pretty useless now. "Damn."

"What are they gonna do now?" Xavier asked as he clutched Gohan's hand tighter. "Can we get away?"

"Probably not," the older boy sighed as he looked sideways to the new set of bad guys. They surrounded them on every side, making sure they headed directly down the hall. "I just should have stayed home today. Kaasan and I could have worked something out."

"I'm glad *I* didn't stay home," Colby said with a dark expression. "Any place is better than there. Even Hell."

Gohan opened his mouth to question him but Rosalyn beat him to it. "How can you say that?! Here were are, God knows where, being herded along like cattle!" She and Xaviera had been dropped to the ground to walk with the other children. "*Anything* has to be better than this!"

The group stopped a door that didn't look any different from any other door they had passed on their way down the hall. Pete entered and after a few moments of low discussion he partly emerged and pointed at Colby. "You, come here."

The boy glared at him. "Why? What if I don't want to?"

"You don't get to make a decision. The master wants to see you." Two of the spear-bearers grabbed him and carried him inside. He kicked and wriggled but couldn't get free. Gohan stepped forward slightly, without really thinking about it, and was forced back by the remaining spear-bearers.

"Why does Cyrus want him?" Gohan asked them. "Doesn't he have enough servants?"

Aldric glanced at him. "What do you know about the master?"

"I know that all the cops in the world are searching for him. I know that there's a three million dollar bounty on his head." The knife was at his throat before he could even blink.

"Then you know too much," the man whispered with an evil glint in his eyes. Gohan forced himself not to panic and tried to think of a way to save his life.

"That's public knowledge. If you kill me because I know then you would have to also kill billions of people. That could get pretty tiresome after a while, don't you think?" The knife held its position.

"Let the boy go already he's tellin' the truth." Pete waved his hand and the group marched on, leaving an angry looking Aldric behind.

***

The cell was small, no larger than ten-by-ten, with rough stone walls and a hard cement floor. There were two cots, each against a wall, both perpendicular to the only entry and exit. There were no windows, seeing as it was underground, but there was a bucket to use the bathroom in and a sconce to hold a torch. Gohan sat on his small cot and stared off into the distance, wondering for the first time if he was doomed to stay a prisoner of Cyrus for the rest of his life.

The twins were next door and he heard their low voices whispering in the darkness. Rosalyn shared a cell with another girl down the row and on the walk he discovered that they were far from being the first children Cyrus and his gang had ever kidnapped.

There were hundreds of them.

Children of all ages, shapes, and colors were caged like animals in a large section of his hideout. Their ages ranged from five to sixteen and all had some duty to perform. Whether it be cooking, cleaning, serving, or entertaining. Some of the older ones were even taught how to pick pockets and murder innocent people. Gohan wasn't old enough to be considered for murder though he was for picking pockets. He was to be a servant, waiting on Cyrus hand-and-foot because the man was too lazy to do things for himself.

Xavier and Xaviera, at six-and-a-half, were too young for most things beyond rudimentary cleaning. Rosalyn was twelve, however, and she was being taught the basics of being a thug. He had no idea what they wanted with Colby and he was almost afraid to find out. It had been almost an hour and he hadn't seen nor heard any sign of him.

The cell door opened suddenly and Gohan found himself looking into the hostile gray eyes of Aldric. He pushed Colby forward and locked the door behind him, marching off somewhere down the hall. Gohan looked at his friend but the other boy didn't say a word. Instead he went to the other cot and collapsed on it, turning over to face the wall.

"What did he want with you? Are you okay?" Colby didn't say a word and Gohan was starting to get worried. Then he heard a sound, sort of a muffled squeak, and recognized it for what it was.

Sobbing.

"What did he did to you?" Gohan whispered, fearing the worst. He kneeled at his bedside and touched his shoulder slightly. Colby went completely still, not moving a muscle. "It's okay, Colby. I won't hurt you like he did."

"You're lucky Gohan," the boy said finally, his voice heavily laden with tears, "he won't do anything to you."

"What's to stop him from hurting anyone?" Gohan asked bitterly. "The police can't find him and we're only kids."

"He only likes blond boys and in Japan there aren't that many. That's why he chose me to be his," his voice lowered to a hoarse whisper, "pet."

Gohan saw red and was a little surprised at his own language. "That bastard! I'm going to kill him!"

"Gohan no!" Colby grabbed him and forced him to calm down. "Don't get hurt over me. I'm not worth it."

"Of course you are! No one deserves what he did to you!" His anger drained out of him suddenly and it was replaced by worry. "Did he tell you that?"

He shook his head. "Let's just say that my home life wasn't the best." He closed his eyes. "Good night, Gohan, and thanks."

The other boy patted his shoulder and returned to his place on his cot where he stared off into the darkness for a little while longer.