Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Vega ❯ Pieces of Answers ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Author's note: I'm ready to shoot FF.net. Hopefully they will work the bugs out of their system soon. Otherwise I'll go nuts!

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CHAPTER 4: PIECES OF ANSWERS
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"So how did you meet Bulma?" Gohan tried to make some light conversation on the long trip to New York. He had learned his father's Instant Transmission technique, but since he didn't know where he was going and there was no one he knew there to home in on, it was useless in this instance.

Jarod grinned. The memory was a good one. "I was running a record store on 5th in New York three years ago. I was going out for lunch, and I see this woman carrying so many packages that she can't see where she's going. I decided to help her, but as I approached her, she started walking to her car, which was parked in the street. She didn't see the drunk idiot who was swerving all over the road, but I did, so I got her out of the way before he smashed into her car." He chuckled. "She insisted on buying me lunch, and she helped me solve a murder I was working on over the next couple of days. She had access that I didn't, and it helped out a lot."

"So is that what you usually do with your gift? Helping people?"

He nodded. "I tend to be drawn toward people who are being used or trapped, but I'll take on any kind of injustice I find, when the law either can't or isn't doing its job. I get into a position where I'm able to learn everything about the case I can, and then I give the perpetrators a dose of their own medicine before turning everything over to the authorities and moving on. I also make sure that they have the evidence they need to convict."

Thinking about it, Gohan remembered something he'd read once. "Onysius."

Jarod turned sharply at the name of the bent-winged Greek god of retribution, a name he had used on occasion to describe himself. Where had Gohan heard it?

Seeing the look on his passenger's face, Gohan said, "That's who you remind me of. Bringing justice to those with no voice, though damaged yourself."

Half a smile crossed Jarod's face. "Something like that."

They landed the car on the roof of the building, not wanting to get in the way of the ground cars, and then encapsulated it before they went inside. Gohan payed very close attention to his ki sense, not wanting to run into any surprises just in case the woman Jarod had spoken of was working faster than usual. The little appartment was clear, and so was the hallway outside it.

At Gohan's okay, Jarod led the way inside his latest lair. It was full of baby things; clothes, toys, parenting books, he had it all. And on the wall, hung with over a thousand evenly spaced hooks were pacifiers of all different colors. They were aranged in a mossaic that depicted little Vega in a sleeping pose. Jarod quickly wrote a note to Parker and sealed it in an envelope, sprinkling baby powder all over it before laying it down on the desk. Then he grabbed his laptop and the things he intended to actually keep for his daughter, as well as his duffle. "Let's go."

They exited onto the roof to the ominous sound of a helicopter. Looking into the cockpit of the swiftly aproaching craft, Jarod's suspicions were validated. Parker held her weapon out the hatch, unerringly aimed at Jarod's head. He didn't dare to move. The way they stood right now, there was no way she could miss. "Parker."

Gohan heard the name, barely whispered by the man in front of him. "Jarod, let me out of here. She can't hurt me."

Remembering all that he had recently learned about the Saiyan race, Jarod could only nod as he moved over, allowing Gohan to leave the stairwell of the roof access. Parker shouted over the noise of the chopper, "Hands in the air, Jarod!"

Gohan was the one to answer her. "I'm afraid I can't let you take him, Miss Parker. We have questions, and he has pieces of the answers. I'm sure you understand." He let his tail flick into her view briefly. She saw it, and her eyes widened.

Parker cursed under her breath. She had to figure out a way to let Jarod escape on this one without bringing the wrath of the tower down on her head. And it wasn't going to be easy. Willy was in the chopper, as well, and if she did something overt, he would only be too happy to report it. She moved closer to them, not lowering her gun. She caught the eye of the teenaged alien and whispered, "Make it look real." The boy blinked. Then he nodded slightly. Good.

She was six feet away from them when she said, "I've got a job to do kid. He's it. Move, Jarod!"

Gohan was very careful with his ki. He had to make this look right so that Parker wouldn't get in trouble for letting Jarod go, but he also didn't want to hurt her too badly, and he didn't want to whet the apetite of the Centre even more, so he couldn't show them much of his power. As far as he was concerned, that included flight. Luckily, he already had the capsule car in his hands. They would have to make this quick.

Parker got just barely close enough, still far enough away that it would look like just a slight miscalculation on her part. Gohan swung his fist at a very moderate speed, knowing that, for a human, it was quite respectable. He controlled the force behind it with iron will, ensuring that his target would be bruised, but nothing more. The Centre already knew that Saiyans could catch bullets, so he got himself infront of Jarod as a shield and activated the capsule as they ran, throwing it over the side of the building. It automatically went into hover mode and moved as close to the side of the building as it could. As bullets pinged off of Gohan's arm, first Jarod and then Gohan leapt into the car, and they took off.

The chopper was fast, but it was in no way as fast as anything Capsule had come up with, and this was one of Bulma's best models, created in association with Lamborgini. Nothing else in the air, save select military planes, could outrun it. In seconds, they were too far away to be seen.

Jarod looked behind them, making sure that they weren't being followed, then breathed a sigh of relief. They weren't even visible. "I'm glad you didn't try to fly us out of there. The less they know about Vega the better until she can defend herself."

Gohan nodded. "Don't worry. That won't take as long as you'd think. Trunks and Goten were both able to turn Super Saiyan by the time they were five years old. I wasn't even trained in the simplest things until I was four, so I was a bit behind, but I still managed to keep up with the adult, until I turned eleven, and then I surpassed them. As long as she is trained early, she won't have any trouble dealing with humans. She's already stronger than the average grown man. She just can't use that strength yet. I'd wait until she's walking good to even introduce her to the concept of fighting, though. That's what I did with my daughter, Pan, and at that point, it's just a cool new game."

"Why did you teach your daughter to fight so young?"

"The Saiyans are a warrior race. It's in our blood to fight. When I was growing up, I only got training in spurts because my Mom didn't want me growing up to be a fighter. She wanted me to be an academic. I wasn't confident enough in myself to deal with my own power when I was forced to use it, so when it came, it was very explosive. I promised myself and my wife that I would never push her faster or farther than she wanted to go, but that I wouldn't hold her back, either. It's worked so far. She was able to transform at the age of seven. But remember that she's three quarters human. Vega will probably get there faster."

Jarod nodded, wondering just how much mental factors entered into their training. If it was not a matter of physical training, but of learning techniques, they were going to find that Vega would far outstrip them all. She would be a Pretender, just like he was, and there was no way that any of them would be able to learn faster than her. But he had no idea how much that was going to affect her ability as a fighter, though she would, of course, be a superb strategist.

Jarod realized that he was going to have a choice to make. From Gohan's story, if he didn't get training for his daughter, she would have problems when she got older. He'd always railed against the Centre for denying him his herritage, and it wouldn't be fair for him to do the same thing to Vega. But he didn't know if he would be able to stay in one place so that she could continue that training. He still had a lot of work that had to be done. He had to find his mother. She was the last member of his family that he had yet to find and hold on to. Until he found her, he wouldn't feel comfortable destroying the Centre. They knew where all the skeletons were buried, and he couldn't risk losing all that information. He also didn't want his little girl growing up without him. For once in his life, he just didn't know what to do.

There's chapter 4. We'll get some full answers in the next one, but which ones? Reviews, please!