D-Sephy: Hey people ^_^
Bardock: … can you tell me again why I am here?
D-Sephy: … because you are coming very shortly, maybe even in this chapter, in the story
Bardock: *takes out the script, reading it some* no, I'm not… look, they're still collecting those dragon-…
D-Sephy: *snatches the script* er… then you're here 'cause… er… you're my favourite character?
Raditz: … I thought I was?
D-Sephy: … you are… er… 'kay, Bardock's my other fav character ^_^"
Bardock: … *takes a look to the story again* … *whacks D-Sephy*
D-Sephy: @_@ ow… hey, what was that for?
Bardock: 'cause you got at least 100 reviews, so people must have at least some liking for this thing, and you still leave them hanging…
D-Sephy: … u.u" you're right… GOMEN PEOPLE… and special thanks to Snow Stalker1, being the 100th reviewer ^_^" and of course also a lot of thanks to all my reviewers and people sending mails. I admit that I left you hanging… gomen again, but I updated my other story, Prince of Darkness, a few times.
Bardock: at least I appeared a lot sooner in that story… look, already in chapter 5 o.o and here you're at 17 and I'm still not alive!
D-Sephy: ……… can you just please do the disclaimer?
Bardock: er… fine. Dark Sephy doesn't own DBZ. She does own this story and the original characters
D-Sephy: and you two!
Raditz and Bardock: … huh?
D-Sephy: …………… let's just begin the story
CHAPTER 17: THE REACTOR
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Goku was practically bouncing excitedly on the poor dragon's head. Raditz was sitting just above the wings, his arms crossed over his chest and a serious, thoughtful look on his face.
"Yay, this is cool! Can you do that fire thing again!?"
The dragon sweat-dropped and sighed under his breath.
"Leave him alone, Goku, he has to concentrate on finding the dragonball…"
"… Awww… I guess you're right, 'nii-san…" Goku settled between the large horns of the dragon. The dragon himself let out another soft sigh, silently thanking the older Saiyan. He'd already shown his 'fire-breathing trick' about 10 times to the seemingly hyperactive youngster.
'Perhaps it wasn't such a great idea to help out these Saiyans after all…'
Raditz frowned slightly as he took in their environment. They had been flying to the south for a rather long while now and it hadn't got particularly warmer. Goku had finally gotten quiet, and even the older, battle-hardened Saiyan didn't really like this new area. First they had flown over a long wasteland where nothing seemed to be willing to grow. 'Or something wouldn't let it…' came up in the Saiyan's mind. The ground was dry and split often open in long chasms, spread throughout the area. The Saiyan silently thanked whatever Kami was listening that he could fly. But even the air seemed as if drained from all life.
After the wasteland was a huge mountain range, rising like an enormous wall in the desert-like area. The mountain flanks were just as barren as the wasteland and were in a dark ebony colour, while the high tops and cliffs were very sharp. 'And where the hell is that dragonball in this place…'
Raditz's question seemed to get an answer soon enough as the dragon started to slow down and descend, carefully dodging the sharp rocks. He took a sharp turn around another mountain and, perched on top of a cliff, seemingly built in the mountain, was some kind of large building. It seemed abandoned for several years though. And it looked just as inviting as the rest of the area. Of course, the dragon landed just in front of the building, barely having enough place to stand on the mountain plateau besides the building.
The building somehow reminded him of something… something he had seen on another planet, how did they call it there again?… "A reactor…" Yeah, that was it.
The dragon looked down to the longhaired Saiyan, who was already standing on the metal stairs leading to the entrance. "A what?"
"A reactor… I think… I saw some of those on another planet, this reminded me of it."
The dragon looked up (A/N: huge building…) to the 'reactor'. "But… what could be its purpose?"
"If I remember right, they used it to create energy from the natural resources of the environment. That… could explain a bit why this land is so… wasted. But it seems rather impossible to me for it to be so extreme…"
"Yeah, it's really strange…" Goku glanced around nervously. All hyper-activeness seemed to have left his body. Raditz looked to his little brother with concern in his eyes.
"Are you alright, Goku?"
Goku looked back to his onii-san. "Er… Hai… But, can we just find the dragonball and leave? I don't really like it here…"
Raditz nodded "I got to admit this isn't my favourite place either, so we'll hurry." He looked back "Dragon, where is the dragonball?"
"I sense it inside the building… but the entrance is too small for me, you'll have to go inside and find it on your own, I'm afraid."
Goku looked even more nervous now but nodded "… L-Let's go then."
"I could go in alone, Goku, you can just wait for me here."
"N-No, 'nii-san! I'm coming with you!"
"You sure?"
"Yeah!" 'I'm a true Saiyan too, brother! And I'll prove that to you!'
"Alright then…" Raditz turned around and continued walking up the stairs towards the reactor's entrance. Goku followed closely behind. The large metal doors that normally would have blocked their way were wrecked and apparently with a lot of power, Raditz noticed as he passed them. Definitely not a human's doing…
The air inside was musty and dense, and filled with a lot of smells Raditz couldn't really identify, but he guessed chemicals, remembering the few visits he had to a lab, tagging along with his father when he wasn't busy training. But just breathing this air was already giving him a light headache, they really had to hurry.
Raditz looked around. 'There aren't any windows or exits except for the entrance we just went through, so it's supposed to be pitch-black in here. So why isn't it…' He walked some forward and came to stand onto a metal grid, 20 metres above what was the source of the light and the answer to his question, a maelstrom of a glowing sort of liquid. The colour was hard to determine, it seemed blue, but also shined green, even yellow and a few other colours at moments.
Raditz raised an eyebrow "What the hell is that… 'though… I don't think I want to know."
Goku gulped looking down to it "I do hope the dragonball isn't down there…"
"We're out of luck if it is, there's no way I'm going down there."
"Me neither…"
"Feh, at least that stupid thing could have searched a better spot to lie in." Raditz grumbled and stepped further over the metal grid, which was a bridge over the maelstrom to what looked like the door to the next room.
"Yeah…" Goku replied softly, following close behind his brother, eyeing the chains that held the bridge in place suspiciously as if he expected them to let loose any second. To Goku's relief, they quickly reached the other side. This time, the door was still intact and closed shut.
'That does mean that whatever wrecked the entrance doors, fell into the glowing substance… or … came out of it.' thought Raditz.
There didn't seem a way to open the door, so Raditz just blasted it and entered the next room, Goku following behind. This room was a lot different from the last one. 'At least it's got a floor…' noted Raditz. The lighting in this one was a strange pulsating dark blue, coming from the middle of the circular room where a glass cylinder stood from the floor to the ceiling, through which a transparently blue liquid streamed. "Great, it just gets weirder and weirder…" sighed Raditz.
Several desks filled the rest of the room, on which lay various objects like books, glass bottles filled with odd liquids, lab instruments, etc. But no dragonball. "Shimatta… where the hell is that thing…" cursed Raditz.
Goku looked around and noticed another door "I don't know, but we can or search this room, or go check the next one."
"Yeah, let's… but once we find the dragonball, we'll go back to that onna to get a new dragonradar. Searching like this for such a small thing is really starting to work on my nerves…"
"Yeah…" Goku walked carefully between the desks and the broken items on the ground, which had apparently fallen from the desks, towards the door. Raditz took a last suspicious glance to the strange cylinder, and followed him.
The next room… was just even weirder. It was a lot larger than the last one; and instead of one cylinder in the middle, there were several rows of them across the room, but most were broken. The light came this time from those that were still intact and also a dull red light coming from lamps on the wall. The two Saiyans walked quietly among the rows of broken glass cylinders till they came to several that weren't.
At the bottom, they were connected to long tubes that lay scattered across the entire floor, coming together in a larger pipe that disappeared into the ground. Raditz guessed they transported the same strange blue liquid as the cylinder in the last room, seeing as the intact cylinder what were filled, contained this substance, but also something else… a strange, vaguely humanoid, but no human at all, curled up creature, with long spikes protruding on its back, a scaled, leathery skin in a dull green colour, sharp-looking claws and talons and a more lizard-like than humanoid face. The other filled cylinders contained likewise creatures.
Several other cylinders were just totally empty. Goku looked confused to Raditz, who just shrugged and walked further to the other end of the room, where the wall was filled by what looked like computers and control panels. And just right on top of a computer screen lay…
"The dragonball!" the brothers yelled simultaneously. Goku quickly climbed on top of a panel with a large amount of buttons on, not noticing he pressed several in by accident, and took the dragonball.
"Got it, 'nii-san!" He chirped happily, but neither of them noticed a red light on a camera that started to beep and what closed in on them from behind…
Two large metal claws, which seemed to have come out of the ceiling, snatched both Saiyans in a tight grip, pulling them off the floor. Raditz cursed and fired a ki blast at the base of the claw on the ceiling, tearing it loose and he fell unceremoniously on the floor. Raditz struggled himself loose from the claw's grip and stood up.
"ONII-SAN!! HELP!!!" Goku was being dragged away by the claw, just having the luck that his tail got painfully caught between his body and the metal structure. Before Raditz could help him however, the claw had reached one of the empty intact cylinders, which had slit open, and dropped his captive inside, while the glass cylinder quickly shut again.
Goku banged his fists on the glass, but to no avail, the material was too strong. And why did his feet suddenly feel so wet? He looked down.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! ONII-SAN, GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!" Raditz did a good guess on what was in the tubes, the blue liquid started to fill up the cylinder, and fast.
"Shimatta… hang in there, little brother!" Raditz ran to the cylinder Goku was stuck in 'First to take care of that liquid…' He kicked hard against the connection between the liquid vessel and the base of the cylinder, it shot loose and the liquid spilled across the floor. 'And now to open this thing…' "Goku, stand closely to one side!"
Goku nodded softly and pressed as close as he could up to the glass. Raditz blasted a hole in the glass on the other side, and Goku quickly jumped through. "Arigato, 'nii-san! ……… er… 'nii-san? Something wrong?…"
"Yeah… the other cylinders… they're all empty now too…"
Goku gasped and looked to the cylinders, the glass had slit open and the strange creatures had indeed disappeared. The red lamps suddenly fell out and if it wasn't for the keen vision Saiyans luckily possess, they would have been totally helpless in the dark with the soft light coming from the liquid still gushing on the floor. Now, they were just a little less helpless, while a low screeching sound started to come from seemingly every direction around them.
"Goku… I suggest we get out of here… now!"
"Hai!" They took off running towards the door, which was open, at least… until they were just in front of it. The door slammed shut right in front of their noses.
"KUSO!! I'M GETTING FRIGGIN' TIRED OF THIS NONSENSE!!!" Raditz roared and blasted the shut door.
"Brother, the blue cylinder! … It's broken!…"
"… Don't mind that now, just run, damn it!"
A large shadow suddenly fell on the two Saiyans…
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The next chapter will be a lot sooner updated! Really! I just had damn writer's block and was out of ideas for this fic… finally got an idea when I started writing this chapter ^_^
Bardock: … yay-ness…
Yep, isn't that great? ^_^" *hugs Bardock*
Bardock: ……… *sweat-drops*
Japanese translation, I think most people know these already, but just in case:
Onii-san: big brother
Shimatta/Kuso: close translation would be 'Damn it' or other swear word
Onna: (you gotta know this one! Veggie's fav word!) Woman