Contradicting Mission

Part 4

The room was refreshingly cold to Sunow's skin. He had worked up a sweat running, and the fridgit tempurature that would cause any warm blooded creature to freeze within a hour was just the kind of high powered air conditioning that he needed. He hadn't checked the time since he left his home, and didn't know exactly how late he was, so he continued to sweat as he walked deeper into the ill light room, his tail a softened 'S' behind him.

"You're late," a quiet voice said.

Through the darkness, the Aeesu-jin could make out elusive shapes in the center of the room, all seated around a rectangular table. A glinting horn, a tapping tail, a reflection of light on an eye as it blinked. There were at least six people in the room beside Sunow--six against one. That was a major concern, things even worse due to the fact that Sunow was ill-trained in combat, where as all Backlash representatives were required to have thirty years of solid training under their belt. Sunow had never been of the planet before, he had never tried out his inherited transformations to attain his ultimate power. At his age, however, he knew that even his ultimate would not save him if things turned ugly in his present situation.

"I'm sorry, I was late in recieving my summoning," he said and took his seat at one end of the table where he was in view of everyone, and sat next to no one. In the center of the table sat a small hovering orb which expelled a soft blue light most agreeable to Aeesu-jin eyes.

"That's......understandable," the head of the table stated. Now that he could see with the helpful blue light, Sunow saw that he was in deeper trouble than he had worried earlier. What he was dealing with was not simply the riff-raff of Backlash, just a bunch of rookie trainees out looking for trouble. Sunow now wished it were. Senior Advisor Kaldu--Duke Furaz's right hand man--was a sly, malicious, highly intelligent Aeesu-jin with the whopping age of seven hundred twenty-three to back him up. He was said to have discovered two transformations on his own when in his prime, though it was a common joke flitting from the underbellies to the upperclass warlords that he was hitting a midlife crisis.

As the years went by, Kaldu had become paranoid; always looking over his shoulder when he was alone, constantly fearing an uprising from the lower-class citizens when the thought had never occured to them. He accused hundreds of innocent Aeesu-jin, children included, of horrible crimes against the Duke and punished them with death or banishment or other punishments for serious offenders. This worried Sunow, as his job certainly did comprimise Backlash's conspiricies, and he could be found guilty for something that he indeed did do.

Sunow trembled.

"I have no time to waste with talk, detective," Kaldu said, tapping at the table with a pale finger while Sunow could barely make out a swishing tail behind him, swinging back and forth like a pendilum. Sunow was mildly put off about being called 'detective.' It made him feel sneeky, and though sneekyness was part of his trade, he didn't have to like it.

"I understand, sir, please continue," Sunow found his lips saying, though deep down he wanted to stall to keep alive for just a few more precious moments before they announced his death sentence.

"We've been watching you for a long time now, and we have annalized your skills."

Oh, kami, I'm going to die! Sunow gripped the arms of his chair while he faught the urge to jump up and run with every mite of power he had.

"We think the Duke in in danger."

Son Gohan sat quietly on the cushy easy chair in his capsule house's living room. Across his lap lay a nice think novel, open temptingly to an unread chapter, but reading was the farthest thing in his mind at the moment. Everything was blissfully quiet, the only sound was the muffled thump his tail made against the chair cushion as it swayed idly back and forth.

The boy closed his eyes and slid down in his chair a few inches and put his feet up on the foot rest, kicking off his boots while he was at it and lacing his hands behind his head. The movement caused his book to slowly slid off his lap and thunk to the ground. He didn't bother sitting up to retrieve it. He was so comfortable and at ease. It felt like he was in his little house, relaxing on Earth in a little vacation from his mother and from his life.

Just him, his book, and his chair.

Thump thump thump.

And his tail.

He tilted his head to the side and looked out the window at the foreign landscape, rocky soil, tifts of green and purple grass sprinkled across the ground, an inky purple atmosphere and uncountable stars. Off in the distance he could see mountains that were dotted with lights. Perhaps they were buildings.

And Aeesu-sei.

Suddenly things didn't quite feel as comfortable. His position was akward on his back. He was sitting on his tail. His hands were falling asleep behind his head. His feet were cold without his boots on. With a grumbled sigh Gohan got up, picked up his book from the ground and set it on his chair, clicked off the living room lights and made his way through the the house, clicking off other lights as he went. The house was dark when he reached the bedroom, and here he turned the light on.

It wasn't much, the bedroom. Just the simple basics--a bed, night stand, miniture bathroom, and a wardrobe. He didn't even bother taking his clothes off as he sighed again and pulled back the blankets on the bed, hitting the light switch on his night stand to cast the room into darkness. Tugging the sheets up to his chin, he stared up at the cealing. His tail twitched, hampered under the blankets.

He closed his eyes.

"Oh, please have mercy! You have no proof! Think of my children!" Sunow desperatly pleaded. He would have run, but his legs were impossible to move as somewhere inbetween his words his thick tail had coiled itself around his ankles, and try as he might he couldn't find the mental will power to unwind it.

"Good god, man. What are you talking about?" One of the other Aeesu-jin--his name hadn't been mentioned--asked.

"I-eh?" Sunow tounge came crashing to a stop before he could say anything else, "You mean you're not going to execute me?"

"No, good grief," Kaldu grumbled, "We want to hire your services to keep track of the information train and do all it takes to root up any who might want to endanger out beloved Duke Furaz."

"You're offering me a job?" Sunow's entire concept of reality suddenly teetered as his whole situation turned up-side-down.......in his favore.

"Yes, now you have your assignment! You'll be paid when you find our perpatrator," Kaldu seemed miffed, "Now get out, infant!"

"Yessir, yessir!" Sunow scurried out the door, tail held high like a child, smiling gleefully that not only was he getting out with his life, but he had a new assignment! Being paid always had been a good thing.........

It couldn't have been more than two hours of blissful sleep before Gohan heard a raucious thumping on his capsule house door.

Wham. Wham. Wham.

He scrunched his eyes and rolled over under his warm covers. A quick glance at the clock on his night stand reminded him he hadn't checked the time when he went to sleep, so he didn't know long he had been out. Then again, how was time kept on planet Aeesu-sei? The boy groaned that he had already remined himself he wasn't home anymore. It was getting depressing, and he was embarrased to admit even to himself that he was already homesick.

Wham. Wham. Wham.

Who would be knocking at this ungodly hour? He chuckled to himself to realize that he was naturally assuming the whole planet would find the early just because he was still tired. He burried his face in the soft pillow and gave a muffled groan.

Wham. Crack! Screeeeeee......WHAM!

With a sleep-slurred 'what the?!' Gohan suddenly found himself out of his bed, his covers soaring through the air where he had tossed them. Glancing around the room in a sudden search for something amiss, he remembered the sound had come from the front door. Dashing out of his bedroom, down the hall, through the living room, and grabbed the wall to make a sharp to face the front door.

It was pretty much what he expected to see, though he still wasn't happy about it.

Filling his doorway was the emense shape of Bojack. The door itself was no longer safely hung on it's hinges; it was laying across the threshhold, split down the middle with a wide crack. The blue giant, for his part, was staring down at the door, looking surprised that it was so fragile. He looked up to see Gohan staring down at his broken door, looking mildly upset.

"We're leaving," was all Bojack bothered to say as he vanished from the doorway. Gohan almost followed him out, not wanting to get left behind on this kami forsaken planet, but went back into the house to get his boots before departure. It took him a while of searching the kitchen and his bedroom to remember he had left them in the living room before he had gone to bed. He didn't bother to take the time to put them on, he just grabbed them and ran out the door.

Outside, the other three members of the unlikely band Gohan had been paired up with looked ready and rearing to go, giving him an annoyed 'we're waiting on you' look as he hopped on one foot to get one of his boots on. He sat down on the ground to get the other on, tying it hastily. He was back on his feet in a flash and jogged back to his capsule house.

"You're goine back in?" Garlic asked, obviously annoyed at waiting for him, "What else do you need?!"

"Nothing," the boy said, stopping at the door. He didn't bother to say more as he picked up his front door and set it as carefully as he could back on its hinges, a look of disgust that it had been broken in the first place ran over his features. He found the small button on the side of the house and pushed it. In a far less impressive way than it had emerged, the two story house shrunk back into a capsule and fell to the dirt with a quiet click, the boy picked it up and tucked it carefully in its case.

Turning back around he said, "Alright, let's go."

And found that he was talking to no one. They had already left without him. With a muttered curse he tracked down their three distictable chi's and jetted off after them, a white vapor trail following in his wake.

****

Garlic looked behind him as he flew when he felt the kid start to follow them. The hadn't gotten much of a head start, so it was only seconds before the demon could make out the shape of the boy, and less than a second after visual contact that the boy was flying side by side with them.

"Thought you weren't coming," Bojack chuckled, none of the charisma in his voice watered down in the intense wind inspired by his speed.

The kid said nothing, though the look on his face was underlined with hostility; he didn't like being left behind. Garlic chuckled to himself, but the sound was choked to death the instant Gohan's ink black eyes landed squarly on him.

"Can't you go any faster?" the boy asked with annoyance, his eyes challenging. The other two looked back to hear his answer, and Garlic realized that they were having to go slowly for him to keep up. He swore viciously but didn't say anything as he averted his eyes to look at the ground, trying to ignore the looks of chargrin everyone else was giving him. Garlic could swear he heard Gohan chuckle quietly to himself, but it could have just been the wind.

To be continued..............