.

II

"Isolated but Not Alone"

Kakarot...

Kakarot was a saiyen name, it was his saiyen name...

How the hell did the person leaving those messages know his name? Goku felt his breathing quicken and his skin become cold. He didn't know where he was or what was going on. He didn't know what this was either but there was something he did know. Goku knew that he didn't like it and wanted out, now. The only question that remained, how was he supposed to leave this... this world... this game?...

A small whimper pulled on his attention away from himself. The sound was coming from the child sitting right beside him. It was strange, amidst his initial panic, he had completely forgotten about the child. It was at that time that a thought permeated inside of the saiyen's mind. They were in a strange place, just like him, and had no idea what was happening, just like him, nor did they probably want to be there, just like him. It was then that Goku considered the possibility of the child being in the same position he was in. Had a cruel twist of fate actually lead him there, so that he may help the child through a struggle they couldn't have possibly done on their lonesome?

It was then that Goku realized something, he was no longer trying to find an escape just for himself. He needed to find a way for them to escape too, he wouldn't let them rot here-not if he had anything to say about it!

"Hey..." Goku said to them and had placed his hand on their shoulder. It should have been a reassuring gesture but, instead, it only made the jump from their spot. "... don't worry about it, we're going to be fine and that's all that really matters right now." He showed his best reassuring smile to them to cheer them up and it worked. They returned the gesture with a, smaller, smile of their own.

The sound of a lock clicking and undoing echoed in the room...

"What in the world?" Goku said quietly after he heard the sound. He turned around and faced the only door that had been locked. The sound must have come from the other side, which meant someone had to be in the next room. If there was someone there, then perhaps that meant he could obtain some answers. He turned back to the cat person, Niko, and gave a reassuring smile. "I'm going to go check what that was, you should wait here in case it's something dangerous." They adopted an anxious expression on their face.

"Are you sure, I mean, what if you get hurt?" Niko had asked him and the worry showed on their face. Them being worried about his safety actually made Goku chuckle, subconsciously that is. As long as he kept his guard up, there wasn't really anything that could harm him. None the less, he rubbed the top of their head affectionately before he stepped to the door.

"Don't worry, I'm pretty strong. I think I can protect my self if I need to, I just don't want you to get hurt if something happened." Goku had admitted is reasoning for asking the cat child to wait behind. He didn't wait for them to respond because he opened the door and quickly stepped through. The room was dark, very dark, and his eyes actually had a tough time adjusting. "Woah, I don't think I can see with how dark it is in here." He complained to himself, which received a response from Niko.

"I can see in the dark!" They had called out to him from the doorway. Goku glanced around the dark room before turning back to his companion.

"Niko, what do you mean?" He didn't continued speaking further as he saw something that stunned him.

In the doorway stood a cat eared child with glowing yellow slitted eyes...

Goku had lived an adventurous life for as long as he could remember. From his search for the dragon balls to his training under Master Roshi. He had seen many a thing that would just seem out or out of this world. Heck, he'd even fought his alien brother and the evil alien emperor that he worked for. He had traveled to a whole other planet and then back to Earth. He had even been to Heaven and Hell, yet that young child's eyes still surprised him. Maybe it was because he hadn't noticed it before or perhaps it were that the eyes were captivating to look at. In any case, he should have really focused more quickly because Niko had been calling his name.

"Goku? Are you alright?"

"Huh?" He blinked his eyes when he focused back on the situation at hand.

"You sort of stopped and... just spaced out... are you okay?" Niko had told him before asking of his well being.

"Um... yeah, I was just surprised for a moment..." Goku explained before checking around the room. The door had been left open and, thankfully, some of the moon light was allowed to spill in.

"Surprised? What surprised you?" Niko continued, which drew Goku's attention. He paused once he caught himself staring at their eyes. A nervous tick of his made its self evident when he rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, it was your eyes." He told the cat boy... girl... which was it again?

"My eyes? How did they do that?"

"Well... you see, I've never seen any kind of eyes like yours before." Goku told them, taking note of how the eyes lit up a small space around their face. "When I saw yours, I didn't know what to think of them. Though, if you were to ask me, I'd say they're pretty cool." Goku finished his explanation and waited for their response.

He waited for a few seconds before he felt a small shred of concern form. Had he said something weird and made things awkward again? Chi-Chi had always told him to be mindful of what he said. He had certainly hoped he didn't, especially not with the situation they were in. Goku felt the need to apologize for making things weird but, before he could utter a single phrase, he was cut off by Niko.

"You're a nice person Goku."

That... was from out of the blue...

"Or I guess you can say unexpected..." Goku thought.

Niko had gone back to looking around the room they were in. Goku couldn't see all of it but he was certain it was much bigger than the last one they were in. What little Goku could make out was the outline of a couch and wooden boards on the floor. Occasionally, he would see a flicker of Niko's eyes from when they would walk around. Goku remained at the doorway and stared into the darkened room for some time. Then, as if he were struck by lightning, he cried out.

"Huh? What happened?" Niko asked from somewhere further into the room. Goku couldn't resist the grin that spread across his face.

"I think I just figured out a problem to our light situation!" Goku said merrily to the cat child with him in the darkness.

"What do you mean?" Niko asked him from somewhere closer than the last time. He slowly saw their glowing eyes fade into view from that darkness encompassing them.

"Just watch, it's a skill I learned a long time ago." He told them but his confident grin morphed into one of embarrassment. "Actually, it seems like so long since I actually used it last-it's a wonder I even still remember it." He rubbed the back of his head again once he realized how lucky and foolish he was. There was that nervous tick again, he really needed to do something about that.

"So..." Niko droned on and let the sentence hang in the air.

"Oh yeah, here goes nothing." He said aloud before sticking an arm into the darkness. He gave a grunt of exertion before letting out a deep breath. He concentrated for another moment before relaxing. Tiny streaks of light had shot through the air all around his arm before gather a few inches above the palm of his hand. The light had quickly clumped up enough to form a decent sized ball of yellow light. Goku let out a sigh of relief when he noticed it stabilizing-that had been harder than he expected.

"Wow..." Came an awe struck voice from beside him. He looked and found Niko staring at the glowing orb with their cat like eyes.

"Neat huh?" Goku told them with a care free tone, as if the feat was nothing spectacular. Niko shook their head and got closer to the orb floating in Goku's hand. He had to admit, now that the light was shining on their face, their awe struck expression was downright adorable.

"It's so bright... and warm..." They mumbled out like they were on autopilot before the tried to get closer and touch the orb.

"Woah, slow down there." Goku told them after he pulled the orb out of reach from the small cat child. For once, Goku was thankful for his impressive height he'd taken foregranted in the past. The orb being jerked away from the quickly seemed to have been what was needed to snap Niko out of their dazed state. They blinked their eyes and shook their head quickly after. When they regained their bearings, they glanced at the orb and then Goku.

"Sorry, I don't know what happened. It was just... so pretty and warm-" Niko would have continued to apologize and give excuses if Goku hadn't interrupted them.

"It's okay, it's all fine-really." Goku reassured them before looking to the ball of light in his hand. "It's a good thing that you didn't manage to touch this though." That comment had caused a puzzled expression to appear on Niko's face.

"A good thing? Why?" Goku stopped staring at the light to look at them. Goku seemed to space out a loud, Niko remembered thinking.

"Oh?... Oh right... Well you see, this little thing is made of something I call ki." He waved the ball of light around in the air, which created streaks of light following the path he moved it. Niko nodded their head to show they understood what he said so far. "Well, ki is kind of like pure energy and can be used to do cool things-like create this ball of light." Goku tossed the ball into the air a few times before letting it rest in his palm. "The catch is that, if it isn't handle properly, ki and be very dangerous." Goku finished and turned his head to the cat child, who looked a tad bit fearful of the once mesmerizing ball.

"Dangerous?" He could hear it, even if they didn't intend for it to come out, the uncertainty in their voice.

"Yeah but luckily for you, I'm an expert in it!" He let his family's signature grin show before he stuck his free hand out and gave the kid a thumbs up. They seemed slightly calmed by his displayed confidence.

"You're... an expert?"

"Yeah, you can do all kinds of things with ki and you can even start a fire. That's probably why you felt the warmth from this in the first place." Goku explained before he gestured to the light in his hands. Niko seemed to stare over it for a second or two before snapping their fingers. They turned and rushed off into a darker area before they called back to Goku.

"Over here Goku, I think I saw a fire place." He didn't wait to follow after them, a fire place would probably provide more light anyway-not to mention he'd get to stop burning his ki for the little light source.

It didn't take long to find Niko and the aforementioned fireplace...

"Right here, it should start a fire right?" Niko asked with an excited tone in their voice. What reason would there be not to be eager to see ki in action for the first time? It created light, was very warm, and apparently could be created out of thin air if one learned how to use it. All of those things and the idea of having a brighter room to look around in were motivation enough to have haste.

"Alright then." Goku said aloud before putting his hand forward. Unlike before, where he would cradle the light in the palm of his hand, this time he made a shoving motion. The way the ball of light react was like magic to the cat child. The ball flew forward almost too fast for their cat like eyes to follow. Then it hit the dried up wood in the fire place and disappeared. Niko would have frowned and thought it hadn't worked, had it not been for flames of white flicker on the wood.

The fire bellowed and large flames erupted before it settled back down. Glowing white flames danced over the wood like no normal fire should. The white fire also seemed to emit a fair amount of light too as even Goku could make out the room clearly. A broken and sparking T.V., a counter top with a sink, some furniture, and a single door close to them. Goku immediately headed over to it to test it out and see if he could open it. In all of his curiosity and talkativeness, he had completely forgotten about the idea that someone had to have unlocked the bedroom door.

"Goku?" He heard Niko say his name but he made no response. Instead he immediately began testing the door's strength. The new door was as strong as the old door, the more excessive force he applied to it, the more he could feel the handle give way. It was slow, a little bit of locks forcing, slipping, and scraping reached his ears. He let out a grunt, how was a door so resistant that he needed a power boost to break it?

"Hey Goku, do you need help?" He let go of the door, the handle moving into place as if he had never once touched it. It was oddly disturbing to see it sort of repair its self on its own. He turned around and faced his companion, Niko, and was ready to see what they had to offer him. They gave a rather... odd... smile... before handing him a key. He looked at it and examined it but could only find one note worthy thing on it, the text reading: Basement Key.

"Maybe it can help, I saw it sticking out of the floor boards. The light was shining off of it." The told him and, for the most part, they seemed very pleased with themselves. Goku wouldn't deny that he was sort of pleased with them too. He ruffled their hat and their hat, which elicited a yelp from them, before turning around to the door. He used the key and, much to his surprise, the door opened fine with no problems. All that accompanied it was the satisfying clicks of the lock undoing.

Was it just him or was everything starting to seem sort of like a puzzle?...

The door opened up and it revealed a stair case leading down into complete darkness. If Goku had to make a guess on where the stairs lead, he would have thought the basement. With a flick of his wrist, he created another ball of ki to float around him and Niko. The orb of light, just like the previous one, gave off warmth that helped sooth the experience. The two of them slowly made their way down the stairs, Goku taking lead the whole way. When the reached the bottom of the steps, Goku found himself scratching his head. There was nothing there, the path just ended a few feet from the last step.

Then he saw it...

There, at the bottom of the stair case, was a light bulb resting on the ground. The light bulb wasn't a normal one, or at least not the kind he had seen before. It was abnormally large and was almost the size of his ki ball. He could also make out coils on the inside of it, something he'd never been able to do with any other plain old light bulb. He blinked before picking it up and bringing it closer to his face. Once he had done so, the light bulb didn't the strangest thing-it reacted to him.

A soft white glow emitted from the bulb, one brighter than even his ki ball. Goku had to actually catch himself when he almost dropped the bulb. With how light weight it was for its size, he was sure the glass had to be thin too. That would have meant it probably would have shattered if he had dropped it. Something zipped through him when he thought of that, it was almost as if the mere thought was horrifying... which was strange... It was just a light bulb, wasn't it?

"What is it Goku?" The voice of Niko had called out from behind him. They had notice the light appear and were curious as to what it was. Ironically enough, while they were seeking answers, Goku wasn't sure he had the answers. Something didn't seem right about the light bulb, something was off, he could just feel it. What it was or might have been though, Goku could never say for certain.

"It's some sort of... light bulb..." He had said slowly to the cat child. He took one last quick glance before turning around and showing it to Niko. The cat person stared at it in wonder, much like when he had first made his ki ball. They slowly allowed their arm to creep out to touch it. Then, as if bitten by a spider, the yanked their hand back and looked to Goku.

"Wait, it's not dangerous-is it?"

"Dangerous?" Goku prodded them to explain what they meant. Why would it be dangerous if he was holding it just fine? Maybe even of more importance, where had they even got the idea it might be dangerous?

"Well... it's just... The last time there was a ball of light, you said it was a dangerous." Niko explained and, roughly, retold Goku's comment about mishandling ki.

"Oh..." Goku mumbled, having understood what they meant, before smiling. "Well, you see-this isn't made of ki. It's just a plan old light bulb that turns on when you touch it." Goku brought the bulb closer to Niko's face and let them examine it for a moment. "I touched it and nothing bad happened, so I don't think anything bad will happen if you touch it." Niko stared for a moment longer before they nodded in agreement with Goku's reasoning. They slowly took the bulb from Goku's hands and watched it.

"Huh, I guess you were right." They said quietly before looking, with amazement, at the bulb. It's contents seemed to have shift quickly and wildly. The once pure, blinding, white light had slowly been enveloped in streaks and trickles of yellow light. Eventually the white light was swallowed whole by the yellow light. While certainly pretty, perhaps the most interesting thing was the nearly as bright yellow light it gave off.

"That's pretty cool, it changed its color." Goku scratched his chin after he had said that. That light bulb certainly was... different...

"Yeah, I've never seen something like it before." Niko commented while still staring into the bulb.

"Wait, you've never seen a light bulb?" Goku asked and a bewildered expression crossed his face.

"What? No... I've never something like this before." Niko replied and shook the bulb in their hand. The extra emphasis they had put on the bulb seemed to allow Goku to make the connection. Niko took a moment to look back to the light bulb before peaking around Goku's leg too look behind him. "If there's nothing else here, maybe we should go back upstairs?"

"Yeah..." Goku mumbled before he glanced behind himself. That was it, there was nothing else in the stair case other than the light bulb. Why was it down there all by its lonesome in a spot where it would have been easy to accidentally step on? More important than that, what was the purpose for the bulb being locked up at the bottom of the stairs? It was all just so strange and... meaningless to Goku, it was almost as if someone was trying to trap someone else inside of the house.

By the time Goku had finished his recounting of the strange situation, he had realized they made it into the room with a fire place. He paused and took a moment to actually examine everything with the light from the bulb adding to the brightness of the room. Had it really been a living room the entire time? He noticed Niko walk around a corner and fade from his site, which left only the light from the bulb to leak back into the room. He closed the door behind himself before looking for another way out of the strange house.

Behind him sat the door to the empty stairwell and he was in the living room. To his right was the fire place, a couple of couches, and a the door to the first room with the computer was just a bit further away. Straight ahead of him was some poorly lit spot and then there was the room Niko had gone into. He glanced into it and saw a counter going across the room, was it a kitchen or something? A small gurgle made its way from his stomach and he was reminded of what he was doing before he appeared in the house with Niko.

He thought about how Chi-Chi had made him go to retrieve Goten. Then he thought back to how Goten and Trunks putting inside of the game. He hadn't heard from them for several minutes and he couldn't deny that he was becoming concerned. Was the game supposed to make someone feel isolated and alone? He wondered when he would get to talk to them again or how soon he could leave the game... the game...

Calling this place a game just seemed wrong to Goku. Everything felt and sounded so real to him-and that wasn't even starting on his ki senses going awry. He couldn't sense Goten, Trunks, or anyone he knew after he appeared in the house. Sure, he could sense little Niko's ki signature, but that was hardly the strangest thing about the house. It may have been very faint but he could sense another ki source coming from somewhere. He just couldn't pin point where it was coming from, it had reminded him of a rather dark time.

When had contracted that heart virus that nearly did him in. It reminded him of those moments of struggle and the disorienting feeling that washed over him. If he had to describe it, it would be as if the ki was a fog coming off of someone. He would look around and sense the ki but he couldn't exactly find where the person was that was emitting it all. It plagued his senses every time he tried to look for ki, which actually proved nauseating for the saiyen.

"Hey Goku." Niko's voice stirred him from his thoughts again. What was up with him slipping into his thoughts that day?

"What is it Niko?"

"I think we should leave, I couldn't find anything in the kitchen." They explained to Goku but, as soon as they finished talking, there was another gurgling coming from his stomach. The baffled expression on Niko's face made Goku chuckle. "What was that? I've never heard a stomach so loud..."

"Yeah, that's because I have a really big appetite. My friend Bulma said something about having a strong metal-o-wizdom, whatever that means." Goku tried explaining it but it only made the child more confused.

"When I'm hungry, I usually ask my mom to make me pancakes." Niko admitted to the saiyen.

"Really? What's a pancake?" When Goku had asked them that question, Niko had gasped in horror. How did he not know what pancakes where?!

"You... You don't know what pancakes are?" They asked him to be sure they were on the same page. When Goku shook his head, the cat child took on an adorable look of shock. "How have you never had a pancake before?!" Goku chuckled and rubbed the side of his head, why was Niko so animated about these pancakes?

"Well, maybe if you described them to me-I might know what they are." Niko quickly recovered from their surprise at the idea of having never eaten pancakes before. They quickly took to explaining the rich and fluffy food.

"Well, they're really good and soft!" Niko started off their explanation with a not to informative description. "They're really skinny and are shaped like circles." Niko then proceeded to show an outline of just how big they usually where. "Momma usually puts them on top of each other before pouring syrup on them-"

"Syrup?" Goku interrupted their explanation of the, admittedly, delicious sounding food. Niko froze for a moment before the cat ear atop of their head twitched, or at least Goku swore he saw it do that.

"You don't know what syrup is either?!" They practically screamed that at him and he was forced to message his ear.

"Um no? Is that a big deal?" Niko only stared at him, eyes wide in completely disbelief, before they fell back onto the floor. Thankfully they had landed on their back and the light bulb harmlessly rolled off and onto floor beside them. "Uh Niko!" Goku rushed over to them and extended his ki senses again. He ignored the wave of nausea that hit him and focused on the kid. When he felt their ki he sighed in relief, it was calm and that meant they were just unconscious. He blinked when the room quickly darkened and he was left with Niko in pitch black.

Just as quick as the room had darkened, it lit up again. The source of light was another ki ball hovering over Goku's hand. He looked down to Niko and the bulb, which had grown dark once again. He wasn't keen on the idea of staying for too much longer in the weird place they were in. Then again, he wasn't keen on leaving Niko there to fend for them self either.

A flicker...

Goku turned his attention to his ki ball and noticed something strange. The ball had begun to move in an odd fashion and its shape distorted. Then, again, the light flickered before becoming brighter again. Seeing this made Goku frown in response to it all. The ki ball was running out of ki and he would need to pump more into it soon. If he kept that up, then he would eventually find himself exhausted. Do not be mistaken about what it meant though.

The ki ball took up hardly any ki to maintain and was a handy technique. By comparison, he could power thousands of those little things with his massive reserves of ki. The complications arose from how rusty he was at using the technique. Much to his dismay, neglecting practice of the technique had lead to him not getting the most efficiency out of it. The ball was far dimmer than it use to be when he first mastered it. That and it took up far more ki, at least triple the amount it had consumed in the past, to create and maintain it. If he didn't figure out how to leave the house and soon, then they might be in trouble-he didn't have anything to eat either, which only meant he'd lose ki quicker.

The brief flicker of the bulb caught his attention. It looked like it was trying to power on but wasn't getting enough juice to finish. He narrowed his eyes before bringing his ki ball closer to examine it. The bulb's flickering grew more rapid and it was even staying on for fractions of a second before flickering off. Was... was this thing reacting to his ki? It was then that Goku remember how bright the light bulb was when he picked it up the first time. He also remembered how he wasn't burning ki like with the ki ball technique either.

He reached out and plucked the bulb off of the ground. It was almost instantaneous when the bulb lit up like a high powered flashlight. He could feel it though, a slight pull and strain on his ki. The bulb was feeding off of his life energy, which was oddly disturbing for him. He glanced back down to Niko's unconscious form before focusing back on the bulb. If the bulb truly did leech ki out of the hold to create life, then perhaps it wasn't a good idea to let Niko hold it-regardless of how little it was.

He let his ki ball fade out of existence before getting a firmer grip on the bulb. He then proceeded to throw Niko over his shoulder. He was determined to get out of there and, if what Niko told him about the kitchen was true, there was only one way left to go. With Niko on his shoulder and the lit bulb in his other arm, Goku made his way to the shadowy corner of the room.

Much like the rest of the house, this area was barren. Wooden floor, typical walls with normal wall paper, a very large rug and then a door. The door was probably the most interesting thing about the whole side of the room. It was a dull gray with an indented portion and a strange hole in it. Goku squinted at the ridiculously large key hole in the door. It was impossibly large, he could probably fit his whole fist into it, who would be carrying a key that large around-and that was another thing, there was no door handle either!

Goku frowned before glancing at Niko on his shoulder. Yes, there was no doubt about it-the house was definitely starting to feel more like a puzzle. The only thing he had on himself, besides his fists, was the light bulb and he didn't really like the idea of stick his fists into the dark whole without knowing what it did. He took one last glance at the bulb before gently placing it in the whole, which it fit perfectly into.

The room suddenly was plunged into darkness... but then the entire room was filled with a blinding light...

Niko and the World Machine

-chapter OST-

Before your go:

I have a question, would anyone be offended if I started using female gender pronouns when talking about Niko? I view them as a sweet little girl and it would certainly make writing for them easier. By the way, how do you feel about the story so far? Tell me what you think in the review section and I'll get back to you.