RUNNING

Chapter Three: Bagging Rabbits

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"Sounds like there’s only one. Be quiet, and as soon as he leaves we’ll leave, alright?" Pan said holding her friend's mouth. Bra nodded her head from behind Pan’s hand, and Pan let go.

An hour later…

Trunks bolted up from his slouching area and grabbed Goten’s arm.

"Did you hear something?" he said quietly. Goten just shook his head and they both backed up and walked around the entire bush on silent feet.

*******

Just when Bra and Pan thought that the rustling of their hide out would never end, it did. They waited a few seconds, holding their breath, but nothing else happened. They both sighed and got up from their positions. Bra grabbed the bag and followed Pan out the area and into the tunnel.

Whatever it is, it's coming out here, thought Trunks, crouching down a little beside the entrance. Goten crouched behind him.

The black haired girl with the orange bandana popped her head outside the tunnel crawled out a little further. There was something wrong, she could feel it, and she was about to crawl back in when…

"Got ya!" yelled Trunks, as he scooped the girl out of the hole she was sticking out of. The other girl popped out and Goten grabbed her before she could do anything. The girl Trunks had was screeching and kicking. He tried to hold her against his chest to get her to shut up, but that only aided her purpose. She brought her knee up into his groin, causing him to loosen his grip on her, but not enough to let her go completely.

"That was NOT a good thing to do," Trunks said, gritting his teeth against the pain radiating out from between his legs. The other girl was struggling too, but she wasn’t giving half as much pain. Goten looked at Trunks, red-faced and with a grin.

Trunks sneered back and continued to try to calm the fighting girl. Goten face the blue haired girl and tried to calm her.

"Stop it! Let her go!" Bra yelled at Trunks who did not hear her over Pan's yelling.

"We're not going to hurt you," Goten said to her. Bra stopped struggling and looked at him with wide e yes. Her face suddenly became a scowl.

"We're not going back!" she said and began to struggle more.

"You're not going back to where?" Goten asked. Bra stopped again and looked at his confused face.

"To Jaga," she said softly. Goten looked blankly at her. "You're not with him are you?" He shook his head no and Bra smiled in relief.

"NO!" They turned to where Trunks and Pan were. In all her struggling, Pan had upset Trunks' balance and the two were now on the ground. Pan had dropped her ki shield and they could feel her ki rapidly rising as she panicked. Trunks stopped her kicking by wrapping his lags around her's. Her ki level amazed him. No human had a ki level that high, not even Krillin!

"No," Bra turned her deep blue eyes to Goten. "Please, let me go help her. I promise we won't run." Goten nodded his head numbly as his cheeks turned red. He loosened his grip on and she ran to help Pan. Goten followed her, knowing that she would need help to get Trunks to let go.

Pan continued to struggle in Trunks' arms. He didn't give her much room to move and that only made her fight more.

"Let her go!" Bra yelled and started puling at his arms. He wondered for a moment how she got away from Goten.

"Trunks, let her go," Goten said calmly. Trunks gave his friend a shocked look before letting her go. Pan jumped out of his arms and into a battle stance, still breathing heavily.

"Who are you?" she demanded. She flinched when she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Bra.

"Pan, it's okay. They're not with Jaga," Bra said softly, calming Pan a bit.

***********

Soon, at the Capsule house in the woods:

"So NOW can you tell us what your doing here?" asked Trunks from his place at the table.

Bra sat there and squirmed, not sure how much she should tell the strangers. They said they were just normal kids going camping, but this might be a new trick. Pan was in the kitchen cooking dinner. After cleaning all the trash out of the house, she had ordered them to sit and let her take care of dinner, mostly because she hadn’t wanted to be involved with the details of hitting Trunks. He’d cursed her out pretty bad after that, and she didn’t want the decisions affected by that.

Pan poked her head out the door and nodded at Bra, telling her it was all right to tell the guys about Jaga. The sharp look she had sent her told her not to tell too much.

"Sure. You see, my mom is the owner of Capsule Corp, and Jaga.. Well, Jaga was the owner of a rival company. But his business died out, and now he wants ours. He is trying to get the ownership papers from me with all kinds of different stunts. We used to be able to protect them at Capsule Corp, but he had tons of his men there spying, and they couldn’t be left alone or a second. So Pan and me went on the run, taking the papers with us." She finished. She had given them very little information, but it was what she could. And she still noticed the looks that Trunks and Goten exchanged.

"So what’s Pan’s part in this?" asked Goten, his eyes searching Bra’s. At the mention of her name, Pan stuck her head out of the door and caught Bra’s eyes.

"Pan has lived with me since we were really little. Her parents died a long time ago, so when all the trouble started, she decided to come with me," Bra told the not quite lie.

Trunks looked at her, and knew she wasn’t telling everything. He decided to worry about it later, and worry about the sleeping arrangements now.

"Where are we going to sleep?" asked Trunks. Pan’s head came back out, her eyes wide with alarm, before Bra said; "You and Goten are going share the loft."

Pan’s head went back in and Trunks heard something sizzle right before a shriek pierced the air.

Everyone got out of their chair lightning quick, but Trunks reached Pan first. She was sitting on a stool with part of her hand in her mouth. Trunks grabbed Pan’s arm and yanked her hand out of her mouth. A red spot started appearing, where Pan had got burned from a grease fleck. He dragged her over to the sink and made her put her hand under cool water. Pan protested the entire time, and told Bra to put dinner on the table because it was already done.

Bra did what she was told and forced Goten to help her. Eventually the red spot from Pan’s little incident faded and Trunks let her go help. Then they all sat down to a quiet dinner. Well, it’d have been quiet if there wasn’t any food on the table. Goten was definitely the loudest eater, with Trunks coming in a close second. They are Saiyajins after all!

 **********

Later…

The guys are in the loft floor with their sleeping bags, and the girls are both in their own beds in separate rooms. Everyone is asleep after spending about three hours playing twenty different card games. Pan had still looked nervous the entire time, but Trunks figured that it was from all the scares of today… nothing more nothing less.

Until he heard the crying coming from the room below him. He tried to block it out with a pillow, but the noise seeped through the cotton and into his ears. With a sigh, Trunks got up to find out what was the matter.

Walking down the stairs, Trunks realized that the sound had changed to small shrieks and yells. He opened the door to Pan’s room, and stepped in. Trunks heard a capsule poof open then the swish of a blade through the air. He ducked a second before the blade went by his head, slicing off a couple pieces of his short purple hair. He tried to grab the stick from Pan, but his hands landed on the short, sharp spikes that dotted it like thorns on a rose. So he gave up trying to grab the weapon and worked on grabbing Pan. He noticed that her eyes were closed, and it didn’t look like she was actually trying to fight him. It looked like she was fighting an invisible enemy, and he had just got in the way. Her bed was slashed up, and there were a couple cracks on the wall. Pan was standing with her feet spread apart over her enemy now, breathing really fast and aiming the blade a couple inches off the ground. Trunks grabbed her from behind, wrapping his huge arms around hers so that she had to drop the stick and put her arms against her body.

He just held her like that for a while, until her breathing stopped and her eyes opened. He felt her relax and started to let go, but she just went limp and fell. He caught her and carried her to the bed. That mattress wasn’t slashed, just the sheets, and she had broken the bed frame. He lied her down on the mattress and pulled it off the collapsing wood and onto the floor. She lied there, mumbling. Her eyes were closed now, but he could tell she was at least a little conscious. Trunks sat on the mattress and pulled upright and into his embrace. He hugged her gently and smoothed her hair down her back, murmuring soothingly to her the entire time. Her arms went limp against his thighs. Soon she stopped saying anything, and dropped her head against his shoulder. He tried to lie her down and leave quietly, but when he started to pull away Pan’s arms tightened around his back. Then he noticed how wet his shoulder was. She was crying.

"Pan? What’s wrong?" he asked, his voice conveying lots of concern.

"Did I hurt you?" asked Pan, sounding hoarse and tired. It was also completely off the subject.

"No. What’s going on that you haven’t told me about?" he asked.

Then the words started pouring out of her. She told him the entire thing, about Goto and the night at the club. He felt everything she had felt that entire night, the joy, and the fear when he tried to rape her. And the betrayal when she found out he was one of Jaga’s men. Trunks held her while she sobbed. When it began to subside to tiny sniffles, she surprised him.

"Could you just hold me? Sleep here tonight?" asked Pan, her eyes begging him.

He began to stutter. "How can you… stand… I’m a guy… how…" he drew a deep breath and gave in, "Oh all right."

Pan just smiled at him and snuggled against his chest, falling asleep almost instantly. Trunks laid down, (with Pan still held against him), and thought about what he learned. Eventually sleep caught up with him.

Trunks’ ears were jolted again by a huge shriek that pierced his ears.