Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wishes, Horses and Beggars ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Two or so houses down the alley was a hovering figure, clad in a white cloak. Lisa squinted and continued to stare, and gathered that he was in fact floating. Her eyes grew wide as she faltered a bit, a few books falling from her arms again as she suddenly recognized that white cloak from her history books.

"Lisa, you're such a klutz, I mean, you can't even hold on to your books, chica." Raven told her amusedly, shaking her head. "What are you looking at?"

"Oh my god it's Piccolo!!" she suddenly shouted, standing at the mouth of the alley in total shock. Raven looked down the alley, as did Rory and Kirk and Clutch when they took a few more steps forward, looking to where Lisa was pointing.

"No fucking way!" Kirk gasped a little, rubbing his eyes in disbelief. But sure enough, it was the green Namekian fighter he had glanced at in passing in his history book.

Lisa stood in front of them all, her mouth agape in disbelief herself, feeling unable to move or anything. A fluttery feeling in the pit of her stomach suddenly surfaced, and though she wanted so badly to go forth and to ask him a million questions, she couldn't will herself to move.

"Well, go over there!" Raven hissed, poking her in the side.

"I-I can't!" she hissed back.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm scared! What if I make a complete ass out of myself?!"

Raven rolled her eyes and pushed her forward. "Stop being a chicken shit and just go!"

Lisa stumbled forward, then slowly started up the alley, her friends following several paces behind. Her pace slowed as she neared him, her nervousness suddenly overwhelming, utterly astonished and hardly able to believe that she was about to meet an important figure in history that she idolized. But then she just took a deep breath and pressed on, rehearsing what she would say in her head. Closing her eyes, she stopped a few feet from him and prattled forth her rehearsed introduction.

"Hi, I'm Lisa and I'd like to say that you're my favorite figure in history and that I'm honored to meet you and even honored that you're in my little town so ... so... um..." she faltered, her long winded sentence trailing off as she realized he wasn't talking back. Piccolo made no move to acknowledge her, merely floating gently a few inches from the ground, deep in meditative thought. In reality, he could hear her, but chose to ignore her, finding her presence irritating in his foul and depressed mood.

"Um... hi?"

Again, there was no answer, merely the whoosh of a passing car behind her. Undaunted, however, Lisa tried again. She reached out and poked his left shoulder a bit, under the weighted cape extensions. This elicited a response, but not the kind she was looking for.

Piccolo suddenly winced and cried out in pain, shying his shoulder away from her and glaring up at her dangerously, his other hand going to his shoulder. Lisa jumped and backed off a few steps, looking back at him nervously.

"I-I'm sorry, are you-"

"What do you want?!" he cut her off rudely in his low, husky voice, floating to the ground. Lisa's mouth was agape, mouthing the word "nothing". She took a moment, though, to look him over curiously. To her surprise, it looked as though he had been thoroughly beaten. He was littered with purple bruises and abrasions, his forehead was cut, as was his cheek, across his chest and his lip, blood flowing from the corner of his mouth. From what she could see of the shoulder, she could tell that it was badly swollen, probably broken or sprained. His clothes had been torn, his cape had been marred, but all in all, he didn't look like he minded much.

No wonder he snapped at me ... that can't feel good at all...

"What are you staring at?!" he snapped.

"N-nothing...Are you alright?" she asked gently. She knelt next to him, her friends watching her, somewhat confusedly. Piccolo looked her over as well, then grunted deep in his throat.

"I am fine, not that you care. Leave me be." he spat out, closing his eyes again. Lisa frowned, untying her hoody from around her waist. She took the corner of it and began to dab the blood from his forehead as he closed his eyes, taking her hand and pulling his head around to face her. He suddenly snapped open his eyes and pulled away from her almost violently, snarling a bit.

"I just told you to leave me be!" he snarled, taking in a shaky breath. "Who are you?! Why will you not leave me alone?!"

"My name's Lisa." she replied calmly, leaning forward again and cupping her hand on the side of his face, bringing it around to dab at it again. "And you need help, so I'm helping you. That's why. I'm not going to hurt you." Piccolo growled and went to wrench himself away from her, but was unsuccessful this time.

"I read in my history book's footnote that you're supposed to have regenerative powers. Why haven't you used them?"

He lowered his eyes suddenly. "That is my business, not yours. They are my powers, hai?"

Lisa bit her lip a bit. "I guess so."

Piccolo sighed. "What do you want? I do not know where Gohan is, if that is what you want. Just because I trained the boy does not mean I keep tabs on him."

"I didn't say anything about Gohan."

On the sidelines, Kirk, Raven, Clutch and Rory all stared in amazement, holding their schoolbooks limply, sweat-dropping. Suddenly they all grabbed their history books and began to flip through them in unison.

"This can't be happening. This is highly improbable." Kirk stated, finding the page he was looking for. Simultaneously, they all looked up, then at their books, then at Piccolo again.

"Wow..."

Back with the other two, Piccolo sighed again.

"Well then, you should know that I have no idea where Goku or Vejita is either. Nor Trunks or Goten or Pan or Videl."

"I don't care about them either."

"Why are you doing this, really? I am not going to gain a power level if I heal, or have blonde hair spring on top of my head." Piccolo growled, allowing her finally to wipe the blood from him.

"Saiya-jins. Bah," she replied. Piccolo's eyes widened a moment, then he grew stony again.

"What kind of fighter would only gain levels by getting beat up?" she continued, almost absent mindedly as she dabbed the blood away from his forehead, moving to his cheek. "They train and train and train, and then they gain more power after the get the crap kicked out of them."

What Piccolo was hearing was too good to be true. In fact, he thought that immediately, and shrugged it off, turning his face from her again. Inwardly, Lisa was being eaten up. She kept kicking herself, cursing herself for saying the wrong things.

God, why do I have to act so dumb around him?!

Piccolo suddenly growled and moved to get up, leaving Lisa kneeling on the ground. "....I am grateful that you are helping me, but you are wasting your time."

"But-"

"No, go find a worthier fighter to tend to, this one's use is done." Piccolo said solemnly, then started to stagger down the alley, limping slightly on his right foot, holding his arm to his side, favoring them both his arm and his side at the same time. Lisa frowned and stood up, going after him.

"Wait, what do you mean?" she asked, pulling up beside him. Piccolo growled and cast her a sideways glare, remaining silent otherwise.

"You're one of the world's greatest fighters! You've saved the world more times than anyone else could hope to! You're far from useless!" she continued. "I admire and respect you a lot! Please, let me help you-"

"You are wasting your time."

"No I'm not!"

Piccolo tripped a bit on a rock, almost falling over. Lisa caught him, and, with a great amount of effort, kept the huge Namek on his feet. However, in return, he wrenched her hand from his arm and kept walking, leaving Lisa to stare at him as he walked on.

"Please, stop! I'm sorry if I offended you!" she shouted after him, sounding desperate. Piccolo merely shook his head, his back turned to her.

"Go and find a Saiya-jin to focus your respect and admiration on, they deserve it more." he said huskily, then turned the corner of the ally to the street.

Lisa, however, frowned deeply and took off running after him, determined to make amends for whatever she had done. Kirk and her other friends behind her merely shook their heads in disbelief, and then ran after her. When they turned the corner, Piccolo was no where in sight, but that didn't stop Lisa. She ran on down the street, looking up and down the avenues that crossed, searching in vain for her wounded idol.

"Lisa! Lisa stop! He obviously doesn't want your help!" Kirk panted as he caught up to her. Lisa shook her head.

"Why do you always have to be so dumb, Kirk?!" she shouted back, panting herself. "He's upset!"

"She's nuts!" Clutch shouted, hopping on his skateboard and keeping up that way.

It seemed that Piccolo had just disappeared. Lisa suddenly stopped running, catching her breath. Kirk ran into her, cursing, as did Raven and Rory. Clutch circled them once, stopping in front of Lisa.

"What now?!" Rory asked, exasperated. Lisa panted, holding up a hand to hold him off a minute while she caught her breath.

"They have ... special moves... I think he used one of them to ... get away from us...!" she panted, looking around. "And if that's that case... then we'll never find him."

"Then maybe we should just stop, Lisa," Raven ventured. "Because it's not like he's just going to pop out of nowhere into our laps."

However, just as she said that, there was a sudden thump behind them, making them all jump. They whirled around to see Piccolo lying there, unconscious. Kirk blinked, and swiftly opened up his laptop, typing furiously. Lisa, however, shook her head and pushed through them all toward Piccolo.

Raven shrugged. "Huh. What are the odds of that happening?"

"One in 5,463.23, according to my calcs," he replied, still typing. Raven sighed while Rory gave Kirk an odd look.

"What are you doing?!" he asked him. "This is no time to catch up on email!"

"I'm telling everyone on the net about what's happening. And I'm calling my brother. He's a nurse. He can help us without getting the hospital or the authorities involved." Kirk rattled on while he typed, his eyes never leaving the screen. Rory, however stunned, nodded.

Lisa knelt down next to Piccolo again and shook him by his good shoulder, trying to rouse him. The Namek, however, didn't move. Fresh blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and from the wound on his forehead, slowly dripping on the ground. Lisa took her hoody again and wiped it off of his face, holding the corner of it to his forehead while she looked at her friend imploringly.

"What are we gonna do?" Lisa asked quietly, so not to disturb him.

"Well, my brother's on his way," Kirk said, closing his laptop. "He can take care of him, at least get him all bandaged up. But where's he gonna stay?"

"At my house."

"Lisa, your mom'll freak!" Raven exclaimed. Lisa shook her head and smiled.

"No, she won't. Because I have a plan. She won't even know he's in the house." she smirked. Clutch gave her an odd look.

"Lisa. In case you've forgotten, you're suggesting that your mother won't notice you bringing in a huge fucking green man, who there's been reports about on the news!" he said, his voice rising with each word and point he made. Lisa shushed at him to silence him, casting a wary look to the man lying on the ground.

"But if you'd listen, I have a plan past that. Now everyone listen..."