Inescapable
By SilverLynxGirl
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z.
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Last Chapter: 21 feigned a blast at 18 then sent a large energy ball at the ground in front of 18 to kick up a cloud of dust to provide cover for her escape. The dust cloud itself wouldn't do anything to hinder 18's sensors, but 21 was playing to a personality quirk of her now rival. While 18 rant and raved about the dust getting all over her and probably in places dust shouldn't be the cloud of dust provided 21 with a few minutes to make her getaway and since she was faster than 18 it would take 18 even longer to catch up. 21 could take a breath now, figuratively speaking of course, she had made her getaway. Up ahead there was a rather thick forest she could stay in and stay out of 18 sight. She had made a clean getaway, or had she?
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As 21 sped off in the cover of the dust cloud, 18 fumed over the fact that 21 was still on the loose and that she would be spending the next 20 year cleaning dust out of odd places. A slight breeze passes by swirling the dust away, 18 contemplated chasing after 21 while brushing a strand of hair that had blown in her face out the way. Behind her the Z warriors stood still watching, waiting to see the android's reaction. Seemingly staring off into space 18 was actually judging the speed at which 21 was flying, her light blue eyes masking the sensitive sensors adjusting to keep up and calculate 21's speed. Once she processed the information and 21 was proven to be faster, to the point of making a chase a waste of time, she returned her attention back to the people standing behind her.
First she looked over Krillin checking for any signs of major and truth be told minor injury. Once it was determined that Krillin was merely stressed, which is hardly an abnormal state, she next looked at Chichi who was currently being attended to by Gohan. Gohan had not stopped to brush the dirt from his pants, much less the blood from his cuts, but he cared attentively for his mother who wasn't nearly as badly hurt. Gohan held his unconscious mother, inwardly torn as thoughts of Cell and his father dying ran through his mind. Was it all for nothing, had his father died just for everyone to join him later, Gohan was heartbroken at the prospect. It wasn't fair... it just wasn't fair... Just as Gohan was on the verge of crying Yamcha walked up to him a placed his hand gently on Gohan's shoulder to reassure him.
"Come on Gohan, let's go inside and get you cleaned up, heck all of us could use a shower," joked Yamcha. Yamcha's attempt at humor although not the best was still appreciated, the last thing that Gohan needed at that moment was to be alone with his thoughts. Standing up with his mother in his arms, Gohan walked into the house with the others in tow. Vegeta was cursing in every language he knew every God he had ever heard of under his breath, Piccolo merely rolled his eyes since his hearing was good enough to hear Vegeta perfectly. 18 walked next to a worn out Krillin, all the excitement of the day especially nearly dying had nearly broken the former monk. 18 kissed his forehead as a measure of comfort. Krillin looked up at Vegeta somewhat straining to stand upright and remembered that he still hadn't given Vegeta that senzu bean after his fight with 21. He ran up to Vegeta just as he was clearing the door to the house. "Uhh, here ya go Vegeta, sorry... I kinda forgot about it." Krillin said sheepish, hoping Vegeta's injuries were enough to keep him distracted from bearing down on the smaller man. Vegeta snatched the senzu without so much as a word but not without a snort in krillin's direction before entering into the house.
Once inside and wounds and injuries, including broken pride were attended to, talks on what to do next started. "We simply have to train harder," growled Vegeta who was more than a little bit angered at their being obviously outclassed. "It's not always a matter muscling our way through our problems," said piccolo with a leer in Vegeta's direction. Piccolo rose from his position, leaning on the wall to walk closer to the group, which was now huddled around a table in the living room of the Son residence. Piccolo resumed speaking, "This isn't a matter of muscling our way through our opponents, I've notice the harder and stronger our opponents get the less and less skill is used..." Piccolo is cut off by Vegeta's arrogant taunt, "Face it green bean, you're just jealous because you can't compete. You've reached your limit and you're getting left behind." Piccolo merely stared at Vegeta with an emotionless mask, but inwardly he was once again flabbergasted by the size of Vegeta's unchecked ego in the face of imminent danger. Coming back to reality from his contemplation of Vegeta's unmatched arrogance Piccolo spoke with more force, "You are in fact stronger than I am Vegeta, but even you have met you're match," now smirking piccolo needled Vegeta saying, "If I recall, Cell had you over a barrel and could have as easily killed you that day as you could kill him today." Vegeta remember the incident and was seething inside but held his tounge. Piccolo continued, "We need to start using more skill because the opponents only keep getting stronger. Generally it falls to Goku do all of the fighting since most of us can't keep up anymore, but Goku's not here anymore so we need to change tactics," Vegeta grunted at mention of everyone relying on Goku to save the day, he would have gladly destroyed Cell if Kakkarot hadn't interfered. Piccolo ignored Vegeta as he elaborated further on his plans "Even if we do train to get stronger, in the amount of time available to us even with the Hyperbolic time chamber there's no way we could build up of enough strength in time. Using more guile wouldn't hurt either, if we could somehow trick her into holding a tournament that might buy us some time.
Having been content to remain quite for the duration of Piccolo and Vegeta's argument she now spoke up. Carefully phrasing her words, so as to not stir up the hornets nest that was Vegeta's bruised pride, she supported Piccolo's idea ... TO BE CONTINUED