**I do not own the Tenchi or
Dragon Ball Z characters or anything remotely
related
to them. In fact, I don't own much of anything. Don't sue me, I have no
money
nor will I ever have any money seeing as I am lazy and grumpy.
All
the time. Without fail. And for
the
rest of my life. So there.**
(This
one's kind of short, sorry!) ;P
******************************************************************
**Masaki Ball Z!**
Part Two: No Need for Nightmares
"Hey, Sasami, where's my breakfast?" hollered a
very hungry Ryoko.
"I didn't make any," mumbled Sasami as she read
one of the various magazines lying
around the house.
"What? Hey, I'm hungry!" grumbled Ryoko.
Sasami ignored Ryoko, who was pouting and stomping around
the living room. There
was too much on Sasami's mind. Aeka had always been good
about listening to Sasami's
fears, but lately she had been preoccupied with her eternal
quest for Tenchi's heart.
Ryoko had come at Tenchi with an almost desperate
forcefulness shortly after her
drunken foray with adult Trunks, creating havoc throughout
the Masaki household.
Bulma waltzed into the room carrying Little Trunks. Bulma
had spent most of the night
with her small machines, trying to find a way home.
"Oh, Little Trunks, you really are the best little boy
ever!" cooed a jubilant and rather
proud looking Bulma. "Oh, Sasami, you have to hear
Trunks! He just said 'Tenchi', isn't
that sweet?"
"Hmmm. Yes, it is."
"What's wrong? Are you okay? You don't sound okay. Can
I do anything?" asked a
concerned Bulma.
"I, I had a dream, and in it all of the people I love
died. This thing killed them. And
nobody will listen to me. I, I just..." tears welled in
Sasami's big pink eyes.
"There, there Sasami. We all have bad dreams sometimes.
It doesn't mean it'll happen."
"But it always does! I'm so scared, Bulma!"
"Now, listen, we won't let it happen, kay? Hey! Trunks!
Stop pulling my hair, you silly
little thing! I have to go change my little boy, he's gotta
stinky on the way! Sasami, don't
worry, I'm sure everything'll be fine!" Bulma just
managed to wrangle the squirming and
grimacing Trunks into the nearby kitchen, thus confirming
that his look of deep
concentration was not caused by his intellectual endeavors.
Sasami slowly walked up the stairs to the room she shared
with her sister. The thought of
losing everyone she cared about made her feel ill and
unbearably stiff inside. She just
wanted to cry.
Future Trunks was so tired. Ryoko had kept him in a foggy
drunken stupor all night, and he was
just beginning to stop heaving every five seconds. His head
was exploding and his mouth
felt like a huge amount of cotton had been shoved in it with
a pickaxe.
"Oh, I'll never ever drink again! Uuuuaaaghhhh
uuuuuuuhhh UuUUUaaaaghhhhh..."
Trunks clutched the toilet bowl as though it were his life
raft in the middle of an ocean
filled with sharks and piranhas, "I should be able to
handle this, I'm a Saiyan! Uh, my
head!"
"Hey there, you ready for round two?" hollered a
mischievous Ryoko as she materialized
in the bathroom.
"Funny, Ryoko. Very funny. Uuuuaaaaggghhhhhh... Guhuh
Guhuh. Oh." Trunks sucked
in air, his head swimming. "I don't think I'll ever
drink again."
"Hey, you can't run out on me! I'm a space pirate, I
can make you do anything I want!"
snickered Ryoko as she ran her fingers through her spiky
blue hair.
"And I'm a Super Saiyan, I don't have to do anything
you say."
"You used to be so much fun, what happened to the guy I
ambushed with Sake last night,
huh?" teased Ryoko.
"Oh, please, leave me alone. It would make me so happy
if you would. Uuuaaaggghhhhh
Uhhhh uhhhgggg Uuuhhhhh..."
Ryoko laughed as she dematerialized. Trunks had been very
reserved and sad when she
had first seen him, but he was slowly coming out of his shell.
Ryoko was really hungry,
so she decided to take advantage of the Masaki kitchen while
on her way to pester Tenchi.
Washu labored continuously at her holo computer. The
dimensional puzzle was perfect
for her keen scientific mind, and it was consuming her every
moment. She punched away
at her keyboard, the ideas flooding her brain. She was
almost at the verge of discovery,
when her early detection system caused every alarm in her
lab to go off.
"What the... what's this all about? Interrupting my research!
Can't the universe see I'm
busy!" yelled a very angry Washu as she rerouted her
computer into the alarm system.
After a great deal of typing and mumbling, Washu became
motionless, her hands fell to
her sides and she hardly breathed.
"This is amazing. Such power! What could be causing it?
Let me see..."
This was followed by more typing and the occasional curse at
some small typo or flaw in
data.
"I can't believe it. Another tear, to the south. But
it's not to their Earth, it's... damn, this
is bad..."
Mihoshi was watching the television and neglecting her Space
Police duties, again, for
the fifth time in just one week. Sasami reluctantly made
dinner after being reminded by
Ryoko repeatedly, and not very gently, that she needed to
make some food before the
entire house starved.
Tenchi was quietly sipping some tea and studying for the end
of year exams at school. He
hardly even noticed the tenseness in the air as Aeka and
Ryoko stared each other down.
"I personally believe that you have no right to Tenchi
while you play with that Trunks
alien. You should leave my Lord Tenchi alone and take that
scruffy Sai- whatever whom
you seem so content with."
"Hey, you leave Trunks outta this, princess, he's not
my type, I'd think he'd suit you
much better, anyway. Then you can prove your true friendship
to Tenchi by letting a real
woman teach him what it means to be a man."
"Oh, my! You have such a filthy mouth, Ryoko! How dare
you speak of Lord Tenchi as
though he could settle for someone as beastly and common as
you?" screamed Aeka, her
fist clenched as she stood up menacingly.
"Hey, you wanna fight, princess? Because that's what
you're gonna get if you keep after
my man!"
At this point everyone had shrunk from the two very angry
and powerful women. Tenchi
tried to move everything breakable away from the brewing
disaster.
"Take this, you pesky demon!" cried Aeka as she
hurled a small purple energy blast
straight at Ryoko's face.
"Oh, yeah!" Ryoko maneuvered out of the globe's
path and retaliated with a bright red
beam of plasma, "Take this!"
Just as Aeka was about to further incinerate the already
smoldering living room, Washu
stepped between the two ladies.
"Eh hem," Washu stood, hands behind her back,
"Well, well. I guess you girls don't want
to hear about my fabulous discovery."
"Oh, Miss Washu..." stammered Aeka.
"What is it Washu?" asked Tenchi, relieved at
Washu's interruption.
"I have some
very bad news. I've found another dimensional tear."
"Well, that's not bad news! We should go tell Bulma
about it." Tenchi scratched the back
of his head, a puzzled look on his face.
"It doesn't go to their world, Tenchi. I had thought it
was almost impossible. Oh, this is
really bad," Washu was scared. Her eyes looked into the
distance, and she sighed. "The
readings I have on it are so erratic, it's hard to even get
a fix on its location. I think it's
artificial. And whatever made that thing, can probably do a
lot more than just make
tears. "
"Like what?" asked Mihoshi, with innocent eyes.
"Like kill us all!" screamed Washu, her entire
face convulsing.
Bulma sat at the kitchen table, sheets of paper and assorted
electronics scattered across its
surface.
"Let's see," she pushed several buttons on a
calculator sized device, her face twisted in
concentration, "if I enter the data... here... and
here... okay, now I, no... no, wait... It's
here... and then I cross the paths here... and yes, that's
it. Okay!"
The device started to whirr and click. Its small screen
flickered, and then went blank.
"Data analysis complete, and now," Bulma pressed
several buttons on another small
machine, "to complete the process..."
A long ream of paper was ejected from a slit in the machine,
and Bulma scanned the
results.
"Oh, well... this is certainly... interesting..."
Bulma's face started to wobble with fear,
she gulped.
"Bulma, we're all going to check out a tear, you want
to come?" Tenchi peered into the
kitchen, excitement mixed with fear apparent in his tone of
voice.
"Uh, Tenchi... did you know there's..."
"...a big unnatural tear?"
"Um, yeah, that's it."
"We're going to check it out, c'mon!"
"Okay, just let me..." and with that, Bulma
promptly fainted.
Washu led the group, minus Sasami, Little Trunks, and
Nobuyuki, towards the unnatural
event. The forest seemed to magnify any noise, making their
rustling steps sound
ominous, even to each other.
"Everyone, be on your guard. Who knows what created this
thing." Katsuhito cautioned.
"Hey, how much farther?" whined Ryoko as she
dragged along.
"Hush, Ryoko! We have to be quiet!" Tenchi
whispered back.
Trunks and Gohan felt a power, their bodies stiffening.
"It's here..." Gohan whispered in awe.
"Hey, Washu, what kind of readings are you getting? My
stuff just went blank," Bulma
cringed as she shook her useless machine.
"I'm not getting anything, either. But I think the tear
is right over that ridge..."
A beam of light jetted across the sky from over the ridge,
widening until it engulfed the
entire forest in its eerie glow. The light pulsed, and
leaves and twigs began to levitate from
off of the damp forest floor.
The quiet was deafening, nothing moved.
As the light faded, the group could feel a low hum growing,
almost motor-like. Gohan and
Trunks flew over the ridge, followed by the rest, scrambling
towards the tear.
The face was hollow and haunted. The small child's eyes
seemed old, and every few
seconds, they would pulse with red. His hair was jet black,
and fell to his shoulders. The
boy's body was thin; a macabre skeletal echo of what had
once been beauty. He
waited, but he wouldn't have to wait for long.
******************************************************************
*Quote of the Day-*
"Because I could not
stop for Death --
He kindly stopped for me
--
The carriage held but just
ourselves
And immortality."
-Emily Dickinson,
Because I Could Not Stop
For Death