Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Second Chances for Bardock's Sons ❯ Deception ( Chapter 31 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z, Akira Toriyama does. This work of fan fiction is meant to entertain and I make no money from it.

A/N: AU VxB get together.

As the pod door slowly opened, Raditz tensed. Bulma saw the twitching of muscles in his back and legs clench. A low growl emanated from his throat and he thrust Bulma behind him. “Stay down milady!” he cautioned. Across his left eye, the scouter bleeped with a high power reading.

“What the hell…” Bulma got out. One moment she heard the clanging of a space pod hatch opening.

“It's a trick!” shouted Raditz, his scouter bleeping urgently as he raised his hand. Energy blazed into a purple sphere on his palm. It shot forwards, and then a big explosion almost seared Bulma's vision had she not clamped her eyes shut.

“Raditz!” she screamed. His strong arm wrapped around her waist, and then she felt the world shifting and flipping over. Under her front, she felt a broad armored shoulder and a feeling of moment while the ground bounced beneath her. She realized Raditz was carrying her over one shoulder and backing up. Then a snatching sensation of rising indicated they were flying with his ki crackling around her.

More space pods landed, disgorging figures in strange red armor. Instead of the black or white of Saiyan or Frosta's soldiers, they were clad in a different scheme. Raditz shot through the entrance, his ki envelope shielding Bulma as they sped along. “We're under attack,” he whispered, his voice near Bulma's left hip.

“Damn… they're not like you guys,” Bulma murmured, glancing backwards. It wasn't hard because Raditz hand rested protectively on her backside while she faced over his shoulder to see red armored figures rapidly gaining ground. Explosions blossomed all around them as masonry crumbled. Only narrowly avoiding one large chunk, Raditz angled his course upwards. They shot vertically, leaving Bulma's stomach behind.

Then mercifully, a short time later she felt the jarring stop of his black boots impacting a flat surface. Around her, the cerulean purple skies stretched endlessly, among the craggy mountains and gleaming spires of the Idsarjin capital city. They were outside, and she could see the distant black specks pouring out of the nearest buildings or landing out of the sky. Raditz spun around, half levitating as his feet barely touched the ground, and their course sagged in the direction of the research building. She could tell because of the triple angled spires leaning into the large rising cone.

“You'll be safe in the prince's quarters,” Raditz urged, shooting in through the entrance. Past him, other Saiyans hissed and shouted.

“Dammit, they caught us with our pants down,” shouted Bardock from somewhere to the right. Bulma craned her neck to see Raditz father tearing off his work smock and dashing out of the laboratory. A long line of hatchways meandered its way through the complex, each closing off a separate workspace. Idsarjins in their white and black armor pushed past, moving towards the entrance where Raditz had just slammed the door shut.

“Keep her safe, Father. I need to get back out there,” Raditz nodded.

“Understood,” Bardock said.

“Hey wait don't I get a say in this?” Bulma complained. Like baggage, she was transferred from Raditz shoulder to Bardock's.

“Milady, don't' worry. Just keep your mouth shut and mind what Bardock says!” Raditz shouted back. Then his voice trailed off behind the loud rumbling of explosions and the frantic shouts of other people pushing back and forth. A howling yowl over the loudspeaker deafened them both, Bardock's shoulder bobbing up and down under Bulma's gut.

“Bardock where the hell are you taking me?” she demanded. Lights flickered and then they were plunged into pitch black. It was banished partly by the glowing green light from Bardock's raised fist.

“To safety. Now keep your mouth shut and let me get us the hell out of here!” Bardock curtly answered.

“Damn it, you can take two seconds to say something!” Bulma shrilled in his ear.

Grumbling Bardock winced and answered, “All right. I'm taking you to where they keep the females. Idsarjin women don't fight like Saiyan females do. It's against their nature unless they have no other choice.”

“I can't argue with that, but where's Veg… the prince?”

“I don't know, woman,” Bardock answered, silencing her next question.

A blinding white light surrounded the scientists. Bulma felt Bardock crumpling from beneath her. Then her body rolled over and smacked into the hard floor. Bulma glanced up to see Bardock on his hands and knees, shaking his head. She crawled over to him, and then lifted her head quickly to glance around.

Bardock's shouts mingled with others before fading. Her consciousness became a receding circle that narrowed to a single pinprick in blackness. When she next felt self aware, she heard loud laughter. Muscles twitched in her body, and she felt herself slowly stirring. Muscles and bones seemed sculpted from lead itself.

“She's almost awake,” said a voice in Saiyan tongue.

Arms balanced her, raising her to sit up. When she leaned heavily on someone, then blinked awake. Vision blurred, then slowly centered on the source of the voice. Still she couldn't discern anything except blobs of color. One purplish blob gently held her, while another was light blue.

“Mistress Bulma,” said the voice she recognized as Jennlynn. Other Idsarjin females clustered together, for Bulma could tell from the many blurs of violet and blue present over Jennlynn and Lyssra's shoulders. Whispers in the distinctive Idsarjin tongue echoed in what seemed a small space. Instead of light, they were surrounded by a shadow, with one source of illumination from the immediate left. Enough to tell color, but not bright enough to give any detail. In addition, the quality of the light was flickering, almost like that from a candle flame or a torch.

“Huh, what? What the hell happened,” Bulma reeled as she blinked up at the Idsarjin concubine belonging to the Prince.

“We were invaded. Someone attacked the Saiyan compound when you were waiting for the Prince…”

“But I saw Vegeta…” gasped Bulma, struggling to make sense of it. All of it seemed so clear at first, and then memories shifted and melted like wax. She wasn't sure of what to make of the shouting and screaming.

“It was a shape shifter,” Jennlynn informed her. “A Monsturn.”

“You mean like Lord Zarbon?” asked Bulma, blinking in shock. She felt her body rebelling, a sickness swarming in her gut. The smell of damp fur and sulfur met her nostrils.

“It wasn't Lord Zarbon; it was a renegade of his people. Captain Kumquat,” said the voice of Lyssra wearily from Bulma's other side.

Bulma vision still refused to focus, and she felt panicky. “Why can't I see you clearly?”

“Aftereffects of the ki stunning,” Jennlynn reassured her. She felt her head and shoulders resting on someone's knees, while the rest of her body lay on a fibrous matt.

“We shouldn't worry. When Bardock finds out we've been taken he'll be here in no time,” Lyssra reassured her.

“But they were as powerful as the third class Saiyans,” Jennlynn hissed. “Don't forget you were knocked out before you saw Bardock go down…”

“No… he's not…”

“He isn't. All I remember was seeing him stumbling around with blood, among other Third Class guards. Raditz also was felled trying to protect us.”

“Raditz,” Bulma whispered, remembering how the Saiyan third class had accompanied her to meet the prince. Again, memories slipped into place and settled into a pattern she could recognize. Breathing in and out, she remembered what Goku and her Z warrior friends had often said about calming oneself with meditation. She was no good to anyone panicking. After all, she was Bulma Briefs, an inventor. Without ki power but not without her genius.

Once her breathing surged in and out she let herself relax. Jennlynn continued to rub her temples, soothing Bulma's aching head. Closing her eyes, she strained her ears to listen. Beneath her body, she felt the vibrating drone that felt like something humming with power. It was a gravity field, she recalled. All of them tingled through the soles of boots or sandals whenever she was on board a ship. Secondly, she heard behind the murmuring of Idsarjin women, the droning of a steady power source. Only more basic ships had such a poorly dampened power drive. Usually a counter white noise generator cancelled the loud hum that buzzed through the entire ship. At least Turles had such a device she recalled. It buzzed through the space pods to a far lesser degree she remembered.

“We're on a space ship, aren't we?” Bulma asked. Jenlynn's thighs tensed under her.

“Yes,” the concubine answered. “Bound for the home planet of our captor.”

“Who is…?” Bulma asked.

“Captain Bok Choi. He was one of lord Zarbon's rivals to serve Frosta. Yet when Zarbon started making his own plans, he tried to rat out our protector to the Empress. Fortunately, Lord Zarbon was able to discredit him. He was sent to protect the western flank of the Empress's holdings. Yet there was no provision about stopping infighting,” Jennlynn explained, her voice tight with tension.

“He has no love for Saiyans, and often times he would raid our planet taking us as concubines. Not that we mind, but we serve the Saiyans and Frosta first. Not a second rate that has fallen from his favor,” cut in the voice of Naiya.

“You were captured too?” Bulma asked meekly.

“Yes,” Naiya murmured.

“We've got to get out of here,” Bulma said, her abdomen aching as she pulled herself to sit up.

“How?”

“Simple. Let me to the front,” Bulma urged. Ranks of concubines and slaves moved out of her way as she shoved through. Most of them knelt a good distance from what seemed a flickering ki barrier.

“Don't touch it,” Lyssra urged from behind her.

“I won't. I know what I'm doing,” Bulma tapped the side of her head. She slowly rose to stand on shaky legs, stumbling over to the side of the entrance. Across from them, she saw faces peeking through another undulating shield covering a rectangular aperture, the same proportions as the entrance to their `cell'.

Carefully she studied the outlets that let the ki pour through, and then glanced down at the floor. A narrow threshold of about three inches separated the cell floor from the hallway. Her armored top gleamed in the light of the undulating plasma energy. Fortunately, their captors had not removed it, perhaps thinking she was but a female incapable of anything but quaking in her cell.

“Plasma grade holding wall,” Lyssra whispered in her ear.

“Uh huh. But the paneling I can't see how to get through…”

“Ganrite alloys. You'll not get through that without a hard object or torch cutter,” Lyssra murmured.

“Wait,” Bulma muttered. She reached up to one ear, and twisted the earring out. They were diamond studs she had gotten for her sweet sixteen.

“Give me something short and hard,” she whispered, before she blushed at the giggling some of the girls gave her.

“For what?”

“A handle. This will cut through it, or at least scrape, but it's too small unless I mount it on something,” Bulma murmured. Lyssra fumbled among her garment, which consisted of an armored top that reached just under her breast but left her navel and hips bare.

“Try this,” Jennlynn said. She held a gleaming object about three inches long. With her, other hand she held onto her segmented skirt belt.

“Fine,” Bulma nodded, then looked at the object. A slender pin joined hoops of twisted wire. Setting the diamond on the end, she mumbled a curse.

“Allow me,” Lyssra urged, her fingers flickering with ki. Two Idsarjin blocked them as Lyssra's energy melted the end of the pin to fit the tiny diamond tip into. Then Bulma took the improvised scraper and stood up again. Carefully she began to scratch through the alloy bit by bit with the diamond tipped scraper.

“If I can get through then I can reach the works from this side,” she mumbled. At the height of her shoulder, she scraped a small square. Her teeth sank into her lips when she realized how hard she had to push and only merely scratched its blue surface.

“Let me,” Jennlyn pushed her to the side. “I'm stronger than you, no offense milady.”

“Don't go too deep. The metal's only a mimin thickness,” Lyssra cautioned.

Over the next hour Bulma, then Jennlynn, and then Lyssra used the scraper. Bulma's fingers stung from the constant pushing at a 90-degree angle of the arm. Finally under Lyssra's hand the tool made enough of a square cut to allow them to pull aside the metal piece. Circuitry flickered in the small hole about the width of Bulma's palm. Using another pin from Jennlynn's belt Bulma began to poke around the various bits with her improvised tool.

“Stand back,” Bulma whispered. “I'm sure this will set off some alarms…”

“Don't worry, we'll be ready,” Lyssra whispered.

“But you said you couldn't' fight,” Bulma said.

“We might not fight in battle, but we can fight someone off not playing by the rules of concubinage,” Jennlynn smirked. “How else do you think we could entertain Frosta's men?”

“I see,” Bulma blushed. She remembered how many of the females turned concubines had special ki training to resist or allow their `customer's or owners to approach them without breaking or roasting them with overzealous nature.

A dozen Idsarjin women crouched down on their haunches. Slowly the air in the cell crackled with the gathering of energy. She could see the fur bristling on their bodies, while their eyes gleamed blue and green from the effort. A low hiss turned into a moaning yowl common among those that needed to use sound to focus their kis. Directly behind her Lyssra tingled with greenish ki of her own, while Jennlynn kept Bulma shielded from any passersby. No sooner did Bulma's tool touch the right connection then a loud blaring echo around them. The tiny tool fell to the floor with a clatter unheard by the females droning energy call. Plasma sizzled out, no longer casting its yellowish shimmer, followed by a blast of fresh air from the hall.

“Now!” Bulma shouted. A dozen of them leapt out into the hall at once. Only Jennlynn stayed near Bulma while Lyssra bounded across to the cell opposite. Her fingers worked over the control panel to release the cell field. Meanwhile the concubines' bodies flickered with gathered ki as they raced down the corridor.

Red suited guards rounded the corner. On their wrists were small squat muzzles, while their faces were covered with helmets partly. They yelped and pointed one-second before twelve blasts of power knocked them backwards into the far wall. Seconds later, the attacking concubines pinned them down.

More joined them from the other cells opened by Lyssra. Within the crowd of hissing spitting Idsarjin females Bulma felt herself urged along with Jennlynn at her side. All around them guards rushing out were felled or tossed aside. Claws popped from long slender fingers, soon scratching triple strokes across armor and exposed flesh. Loud screams and cries from guards overwhelmed were replaced with the yowls of victory.

“This is too easy,” Bulma suddenly commented to Lyssra on her right.

“Maybe so, but the fools never expected us. We were caught off guard. But this isn't the first time these fools have tried such a move,” Jennlynn answered. “Besides the Prince taught me a few tricks in case I was captured…”

Her hand glowed bluish white. Raising it aloft she generated a small flickering ki ball, before she hurled it forwards. Another guard grunted from the explosion slamming into him, his armor cracking with the force. Bodies no longer crowded Bulma, spreading out in what appeared to be a vast chamber. Small gleaming spheres sat nestled in the walls, while the ceiling overhead soared to three times the normal corridor height. Lyssra suddenly tapped Bulma's shoulder and pulled her along. “This way!” she urged.

“Right!” Bulma nodded. “But we need to send a message…”

“Where do you think we're going?” Jennlynn laughed, bounding alongside of them. Bulma's heart pounded in her chest as she struggled to run along with the two females.

Around them light and sound whined and droned with the prolonged alarm. The air suddenly grew thick with what appeared to be smoke, and she felt herself coughing. Was it some sort of gas, she wondered? Lyssra and Jennlynn were pressing folds of their veils to their mouths, and Bulma did the same, stumbling along with them.

“Suppression gas, hurry!” Lyssra urged, muffled through the cloth. Bulma realized the smoke only mildly stung, smelling of ashy roses. Yet she still walked upright while her companions staggered. Slipping her arm under one of them, she boosted them up.

“It's not affecting me,” Bulma whispered.

“You've got to get to the command deck. Before they gas us all,” Lyssra coughed, pointing ahead as Jennlynn's hand pressed a panel.

“Right,” Bulma nodded. “But what way do I go?”

“Straight and to the left. Auxiliary com panels,” Lyssra groaned.

“But I can't just…” Bulma whispered.

Angry shouts drowned her protests. They swiveled their heads to see red armored beings bursting through the thick smoke. Jennlynn heaved and coughed, then grabbed Bulma's arms. She shoved her through an archway, and then Bulma stumbled to catch her balance. Spinning around she found herself face to face with a solid metal door clanging down. Only a few whips of smoke swirled around from the impact.

“Wait!” Bulma shouted. She pressed her ear to the door, hearing muffled screams, and then silence. At the absence of sound, her heart sank to her toes. Reluctantly she turned, and then continued down the hall in search of a comm. Panel. Jennlynn and Lyssra had bought her precious time, but at what cost?