All characters presented herein are not of my creation. Dragonball Z and
Sailor Moon are owned by their respective creators and producers.
*********************************
To Protect a Princess
By Tunguska_Boy
Chapter 8
"It wasn't your fault." Said Maneko as she cradled Bukichi's head in her
lap.
"I gave the order." Said Bukichi.
"You couldn't have known what would happen."
"I should have sent help when his vitals spiked."
"He shouldn't have gotten into a fight in the first place."
"We've been here for two months and already two men have died under my
command."
"You mean what happened to Lucian?"
"He was disintigrated. Med-sci said that."
"He was not acting under orders. He shouldn't have been away from the
base."
"True, but there has to have been something I could've done to prevent his
leaving."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, maybe be a better lieutenant to these men. Morale was never
too high on this base, there has to be something I can do to raise it."
"What if morale didn't have anything to do with Lucian's leaving the base."
"What?"
"Jhessail delivered the full report on Lucian's ashes this morning."
"You know you're not supposed to read those reports."
"I was bored."
"Whatever, what did it say?"
"There was a high Cenabide concentration in his system when he died."
"So?"
"The report concluded that he was an addict. The search of his quarters
revealed seventy-five empty Cenabide cases."
"Damn, I thought Cenabide addiction was a thing of the past."
"Apparently not."
"So do you understand yet?"
"Understand what?"
"Lucian was a junkie, there was nothing you could've done to stop him from
leaving."
"Maybe, but Locilus died for no reason. We should've sent back up."
"He didn't have his cloaker did he?"
"No."
"Is that your fault?"
"I guess not."
"Would he have gotten into that fight if he was properly cloaked?"
"Probably not."
"You see? He made a stupid mistake."
"But..."
"No, be quiet, don't you see that this isn't your fault?"
"I suppose..."
"Do you or don't you?"
"I do."
"Good, now go make me some coffee. I've got the caffenee jangles and I need
to be soothed."
********
Piccolo surveyed the area he had cleared. He had made a large circle in the
middle of a dense wood. The circle was fifty yards across and was the
flatest patch of land he could find. This area would be the main camp. The
girls would spar, sleep, and eat here. He would have prefered training them
in the same manner as his first pupil Gohan. Unfortunately he didn't have
to time to leave them alone in the wilderness for months on end, and they
wouldn't handle it nearly as well as Gohan had. Piccolo smiled to himself
at the thought of these girls trying to fend for themselves alone in the
woods. Piccolo glanced up at the moon, it was nearly time. Slowly he rose
into the air, turned, and flew off to meet his young pupils.
********
"He's late." Annoucned Minako.
"According to my watch he's got another two minutes." Said Ami.
"He's coming." Said Rei. She turned her gaze to the sky and shifted the
weight of her rather large pack on her shoulders.
"Can you tell from where?" Asked Makoto.
"Over there." Said Rei while pointing into the northern sky.
"Hey guys," Said Usagi, "are we sure we want to do this?"
"Chickening out are we?" Needled Rei.
"I just thought that maybe it would be better to just have Luna and Artemis
train us some more." Said Usagi.
"Last time I checked neither Luna or Artemis could disintigrate someone."
Said Makoto.
"She's got a point there." Added Rei.
"Besides Usagi, you've got all of us here to support you. You don't need to
be worried about a thing." Said Minako. Usagi nodded and sat down on the
steps of Rei's temple. The others joined her on the steps and leaned back
against their packs.
"He's here." Announced Rei as Piccolo descended towards them. The group
looked up as the large green Namek dropped out of the night sky.
"Good, you're all ready." He said approvingly as he landed.
"So where are we going?" Asked Usagi.
"I've cleared a spot roughly 50 miles north of here." Said Piccolo.
"So how are we getting there?" Asked Minako as she looked around for some
type of transportation. She had hoped to find a van or something, but she
quickly remembered that she had watched him drop out of the sky fifteen
seconds ago.
"We're flying there." Said Piccolo matter-of-factly.
"Flying?" Asked a skeptical Ami.
"That's right." Assured Piccolo.
"How?" Asked Ami. As opposed to answering he produced a long leather
tether that was wound around his waist. The tether was roughly ten feet
long and had five hoops extending from the lower half of it at regular
intervals.
"Are you serious?" Asked Makoto as she eyed the tether.
"Absolutely, get in girls." Said Piccolo. He held the hoops out to the
Senshi and waited for one of them to take charge. Usagi struggled to her
feet and took hold of one of the hoops. Gingerly she secured herself into a
sitting position within the hoop.
"Well girls, lets go." She said to the other Senshi. They looked around at
each other for a moment before fitting themselves into the hoops.
"Are you all secured back there?" Asked Piccolo.
"Yeah, we're all ready." Said Rei.
"Then let's go." Said Piccolo as he began to rise into the air. The Senshi
gasped and clung to the tether and each other as they lifted off the ground
and ascended straight up into the air. Piccolo flew straight up until he
reached an appropriate altitude. He turned to the north and slowly began to
accelerate. He listened to their squeals as he increased his speed and
smiled despite himself. "These girls have no idea what I've got in store
for them." He thought as he flew into the night with the guardians of the
galaxy dangling from his waist.
********
Bukichi sat facing the TDCT and waited. TDCT stands for Trans-Dimensional
Communications Terminal and is the only link between the base Bukichi runs
here in this dimension and his home dimension. Bukichi normally enjoyed his
weekly communique with his home. Even if the communication was only with
his superiors and not his friends back home, it was home he was talking to.
He hadn't been home in six and a half years. He met his wife Maneko during
dimensional crossover conditioning in the Void Space. The Void Space is the
plane between dimensions and is used as storage space for housing the
equipment used in trans-dimensional missions as well as a training center
for those assigned to dimensional crossovers.
"Transmission incoming in five seconds." Announced the TDCT. Bukichi
snapped to attention and straightened up in his chair. A moment later the
screen of the TDCT sprang to life and a face appeared on the monitor.
Bukichi knew the face well, this was the same face he'd given his reports to
for weeks. The face belonged to Colonel Arturus.
"Greetings Colonel Arturus sir." Said Bukichi.
"Hello Lieutenant, how are things faring with your group?" Asked the
Colonel.
"In general things are going well, we are learning a great deal about this
dimension sir."
"Excellent, just excellent. I assume that all crew are still accounted
for."
"All crew minus two sir."
"Minus two Bukichi? Who are we missing?"
"Privates Lucian and Locilus sir."
"What happened to them?"
"Lucian dissapeared from base roughly thirty-six hours ago. He was found by
Private Celwin. When Celwin found him he was already disintigrated sir."
"He dissapeared from base ehh?"
"Analysis of his ashes and a search of his quarters revealed that he was a
Cenabide addict. He was probably so jacked up on the stuff that he didn't
even know what was going on sir."
"It's probably better that he's dead. You know this militaries stance on
Cenabide abuse."
"Yes sir."
"So what happened to Locilus?"
"I sent him out to run a scan on an energy burn near where Celwin found
Lucian's body sir."
"Energy burn?"
"Yes, it appeared to be a portal burn sir."
"That's odd, I'll check it on this end but I don't believe any
trans-dimensional activity has occurred recently. Anyway, continue about
Locilus."
"He was engaged in combat soon after we received the transmition regarding
his scan. He used a Cenabide vial and I went out to find him. When I found
him he was already dead. There was an energy puncture at the top of his
head and exiting at his inner thigh. I activated his post-mortem
disintigrator and brought his ashes in for further study sir."
"A sad loss to be sure Lieutenant. Do you have any indication as to who
caused the deaths of the two privates?"
"None as yet sir, we have yet to find a being on this planet capable of
manipulating energy in such a manner sir."
"Well, then perhaps you should take a moment out of your schedule and find
whoever it is that is killing your men."
"Yes sir, we will get right on that sir."
"Excellent, and how is that wife of yours? Maneka is it?"
"Maneko sir. She's doing fine sir."
"Very good, I'll contact you in a week Lieutenant. I'll expect a report on
the identity of the mystery killer at that time."
"Yes sir."
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