Contradicting Mission

Part 11

Sunow sat in the doctor's waiting office crossing and uncrossing his legs. He leaned back against the wall behind his bench, then scooted forward to the end of his seat, folding his hands over his knees. He set his tail along one side of him, then the other. Anxious energy. It was a plague. Where the devil was that boy? His meeting with Backlash was in ten minutes, this was important!

While he waited, he worked through what he could say at his meeting. Kami knew it took every brain cell he had to try working out a game plan that would conclude with him still alive. But now that he had it, or at least some cop-out that would stall long enough for him to come up with a more workable excuse for not immidiatly surfing over every scrap of evidence to show that he had at least looked for the killer. Kami, he didn't even have a single lead!

As embarassing as it was, the intriguing off-planet visitors had so befuddled him with puzzles and mysteries that he had accually forgotten-- forgotten-- all about his assignment. The more he thought of those three--an off-planet Aeesu-jin whose name couldn't be found in any records, a giant with a conspicuous scar running over his face, a gremlin of total indifferance, and, of coarse, Son Gohan-- the more he couldn't help but wonder what the heck it was holding them together! They were hated enemies, for Kami's sake!

A hand landed on his shoulder, startling the Aeesu-jin out of his scrambled thoughts. Looking up, he saw Gohan had finally finished discussing whatever it was Dr. Koda wanted. The boy was beaming.

"All done, then?" Sunow asked, standing up and leaning backward to flex his spine; he had been sitting for nearly an hour. The boy nodded, and, still smiling, turned to head out the door. Waving a quick good-bye to the receptionist to inform him they were leaving, the Aeesu-jin followed.

As the door swished closed behind them, the boy paused to enjoy the warm feeling of the air in the hall. He was surprised when Sunow bustled past him, not stopping to make sure the boy was following. Jogging to catch up, Gohan called after him, "Wait up!"

"Hurry, hurry," the Aeesu-jin said, not stopping or even slowing down as he gestured behind him for the boy to make haste, "I don't want to be late, this is important!"

Slighly bemused, slightly surprised and ever afraid of getting left behind and never finding his way out, Gohan prudently quickened his pace to a jog until he was parallel to Sunow once again.

It wasn't too far. By the time the two of them halted their brisk walk before a rather prominent, high-tech sliding door, Sunow was quite sure he was exactly on time. His hand paused at the 'requested entry' button, hovering inches above it. A sudden tital wave of doubt spread through the marrow of his bones, shocking his spine, setting his teeth on edge. What if Backlash didn't listen? What if they killed him on sight for dissapointing them, then putting the public to rest by telling them he was the killer at large? This whole situation was a mass-hysteria waiting to happen, and someone was going to get pegged whether they were involved or not.

With a large strain of will power, he mashed the button. There was nowhere he could go, he had to hope Backlash would be understanding.

"Sunow," he said into the intercom. There was a beep of acknowledgment on the other side. "Do you wish to come in with me? I might take a while."

The boy opened his mouth to speak when the door wooshed open and a sub-zero arctic blast bombarded him from within, whipping his hair and making him flinch. His breath rolled out in glossy spumes, half his body stung on contact with the impossibly low temperature.

"I think I'll wait out here."

For half a second, Sunow gave a genuine smile; noticing the boy's discomfort didn't take any particular observational skills. Warm blooded creatures really were odd. With a nod of understanding, the Aeesu-jin went through the door.

*

Gohan leaned against the wall beside the door, his arms wrapped around eachother and his tail hanging limply behind him, only the tip raised ever-so-slightly on one side then the other. He felt nervious, though he was pretty sure he had no reason to be. Perhaps it was just concern for Sunow. Maybe he should have gone in incase something happened, whether it was cold or not.

No, it was too cold, even for him. Without any sort of protection agaist the freezing temperature, despite all his power, he would probably end up freezing to death within a few hours. And there was nothing a dead body could do to protect the Aeesu-jin family.

He started pacing, hoping to get warmer. He got a suddenly clear vision of the Kame house. The quaint two story home of the once-hermit Muten Roshi-sama, the red trim, hang-out to all his friends. And yes, the beach. At that one moment in time, Gohan felt he might very well sell his soul for just an hour of laying on that warm sand, under the shining sun; staring up at the blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds.

His shoulder brushed up against a the cold tile wall. There would be none of that, now. He could laze in the sun once this mission was complete, and not a second sooner. He felt even more anxious. What was he accomplishing standing out here in this hallway when the proverbial 'bad guy' was concocting his scheme to blow this planet to smitherenes this very instant?!

In a sudden rush of anxious energy, he marched a purposful ten feet down the hall, realized he had no idea where he was going, turned on his heels, marched back as though the about would solve his problems, stopped before the enterance to Backlash headquarters, turned a full circle in search of something unknown, realized how foolish he must look, and forced himself to lean agaist the cold wall again.

His tail was puffed up again and though his back was to the wall he could swear he felt a cold breath on the back of his neck.

Waiting was haggaring.

*

"We have put an arrest warrant on the four off-planets put in your care."

A sudden shock ran up Sunow's spine, "All of them?"

Things had gone wrong since he had set foor inside. As before, he made his way across the room and seated himself at the blue-lit table where three large, Backlash Aeesu-jin waited for him. As he had feared, they gave him no time to speak, but what they said was totally unexpected.

"Of coarse all of them. Good thing, too, because this homocide case is getting out of control."

"Sir? Why? They couldn't have commited all those murders--"

"It doesn't matter," the large, muscular Aeesu-jin said with a dismissive gesture, "The public wants someone punished, and those four just happened to come along at the right time. We can cover up all the murders that happen afterward until we find the real killer."

"And the off-planets?"

"They'll be executed," a second Aeesu-jin, meatier, bigger and darker-tinted than all the others said. He suddenly narrowed his eyes and leaned over the table that was dwarfed under his size, "Why?"

Sunow couldn't believe what he was hearing. True, he would expect himself to be blamed. Maybe some other likely suspects as well. Freeza, Bojack, yes, would have made suitible fall-outs. But they hadn't met Son Gohan! No way in hell.........they would care. It was a lost cause to argue.

"Are you dissagreeing with us? Do you have any substantial evidence that could disprove us?"

"Well," Sunow frantically thought. Perhaps a lie could help, "Yes. I have....lots of evidence that says their innocent."

The three Aeesu-jin at the table exchanged glances. Finally, the third one--a small, but compact Aeesu-jin with a lilting voice--spoke, "You'll have to get rid of it immidiatly or else the public will stay ansy."

"But they didn't do it."

"And I already said it didn't matter."

"I can't let you prosecute innocent people!"

Sunow suddenly realized how stupid he was being. He hardly had time to realize he was in a room with three large, well trained, ruthless Aeesu-jin before those very three started to rise from their chairs.

"You're saying you'll go against us for the sake of some bastard off-planets?"

"I-" Sunow stumbled on his tounge.

"That makes you a traitor, liable for death right next to your alien friends."

"Wait a minute, I-"

"We've heard enough." The largest Aeesu-jin's voice seemed to rumble the whole table, "You shall take your punishment now. Your off-planet friends will be joining you in death shortly."

Sunow leapt out of his chair and ran for the door.

*

Son Gohan raised his hand to the 'requested entry' button for the third time. Despite the past ten minutes of lecturing himself about paranoia, he still couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen--a feeling that was always accompanied by jitteriness and a hard to control chi increase.

Once again he wished he had gone inside with Sunow in the begining. The feeling was suddenly increasing to a desperate need, but--knowing how these on-planet Aeesu-jin felt about aliens in general-- he didn't want to embarass himself and his Aeesu-jin friend by barging in. Besides that, it would be in total disrespect to the hours and years his mother has spent teaching him social edicate and politeness.

But if something bad did happen.......

Which button was it that Sunow hit anyway? There were several buttons, all of which were labeled in Aeesu dialect--a language he had no hope of learning in the (hopefully) short time he would be staying on Aeesu-sei. What did the other buttons do?

A sudden chill ran up his spine, setting the hairs on his neck and tail on end. The sudden shock made the decision for him. Forcing care to the wind, he mashed the button that his machanical instincts felt most drawn to.

The door opened.

*

Sunow didn't make it to the door. Of coarse, he wasn't really expecting to. His feet didn't hit the ground twice before he felt a sharp slap against his unprotected back--the familiar sting of an Aeesu-jin's tail burned its way into his senses. Somehow, he managed to stay on his feet, making it three more steps, just six feet from the door, before he felt a sharp, bony knee drive into his shoulder. Escape was looking improbable. He was going down, the three Aeesu-jin, superior to him in every physical aspect, were going down right on top of him.

If he managed to stay on his feet, perhaps he could make it to the door. If he could stay on his feet, he might be lucky enough to fight back and escape. If he could just stay on his feet--

He fell.

Oh, Kami. I'm going to die.........

*

It took Gohan a second to register what he saw. He expected perhaps a couple of Aeesu-jin all sitting around, talking quietly. He expected them to all look up at him in mild surprise and intense annoyance when the door swished open as he disturbed their meeting. He expected Sunow would rush him back out and tell him to stay in the hall way.

What he didn't expect to see, despite his violent sense of foreboding, was three large, powerfull Aeesu-jin all on top of Sunow--it took the boy a moment longer to recoginze that it even was Sunow under there--pounding away in an obvious attempt to kill him quickly and painfully.

And it took a second more to come to terms with some sort of action.

"What are you doing?!" He shouted, hoping pitifully that if the attacking Aeesu-jin saw a witness, cease their actions and make out the get-away.

The Aeesu-jins at hand were too caught up in their task to take notice of the boy. Unable to find any other suitable resolve in the short time he had, and cursing the fact that he would have to stoop to violence, the boy sprung forward, tackling all three assailants at once and sending them all sprawling off Sunow.

"Who the hell are you?" the medium seized Aeesu-jin asked, looking out the door behind the boy to see if he brought reinforcements. He saw no one. The kid was alone. What sort of idiot attacked three Backlash Aeesu-jin by himself?

"What is this," the small Aeesu-jin with the lilting voice asked, "Has one of the slaves escaped and gone mad?"

"Wait a moment," the large dark one said, "I think this is one of those off-planets!"

"Hah!" the small one said, "Guess he wanted to save us the time it would take looking for him. You ready to die, boy?"

"Gohan, get out of-" Sunow tried to say, but his words were drowned out as the three offensive Aeesu-jin charged into what they percieved as an easy fight. The large, dark Aeesu-jin attacked a hair faster than the other two--being their senior in speed as well as age and power. His large fist--nearly the size of Gohan's head--was already halfway through and arc aimed at the boy's placid face. The small spacing between him and the other two was all Gohan needed.

Swinging his body to the left of the air-born punch, the boy was left a perfect opening for his elbow to catch the gargantuan Aeesu-jin in the center of his ribs. With a sick sense of horror, her felt his opponent's rib cage give in and finally break with a sickening, wet cracking sound. Despite his horror, he rammed more power into his attack, driving the shocked body of the Aeesu-jin backward against his two accomplices.

The three of them were sent sprawling backward, the wounded giant on top, clutching his chest and gasping wetly. His ribs must have punctured his lungs. The two on the bottom pulled themselved out from under their downed comrad and looked at him in surprise and shock.

"Core-san?" the smallest Aeesu-jin inquired, a sudden, uncharacteristic note of concern in his voice. Then, their number reduced to two, they attacked again, "You little bastard!"

Almost feeling guilty over the unfairness of the odds, the boy never-the-less met their attack dead even, slamming his fist against the second largest Aeesu-jin's jaw with such force it came close to dislodging itself. He raised his second fist to deliver a second and probably killing blow.

He only saw a white flash and a whistling crack as the smaller Aeesu-jin's tail snapped at his face with more accuracy and power than any whip could hope for. Gohan jerked his head to the side, avoiding any chance of serious injury, but he hadn't been fast enough. A sharp and sudden sting lashed across his cheek.

Gritting his teeth, the boy ignored the sudden pain, which felt surprisingly akin to a bad burn, and grabbed the Aeesu-jin's tail before it could arc back away from him. Leaning back and using the Aeesu-jin on the other side of the tail as leverage, he tugged hard. The smallest Aeesu-jin lost his footing and suddenly found himself airborn, swinging forward against his will. He wasn't given the chance to compensate before he slammed into his comrad. Both of them were sent wheeling across the room.

They crashed brutally against a tiled wall that gave way under their impact and sent them sliding limply to a stop in an unlit room. Unconscious, neither got up to persue the fight.

Gohan stood still, listening, testing and tasting the chi coming off of the downed three, feeling for any intent or threatening power. The large one with the broken ribs had fallen into unconsciousness or death, red bubbles dribbling from his nose and mouth. None were giving off the kind of power required for battle. The fight, brief as it was, was over.

Gohan turned his attention to Sunow, concern tightening his brow. His Aeesu-jin friend had managed to drag his body to the far wall of the room and prop himself up, his back against the wall so he could face the room. He was staring at the hole in the wall where the two Aeesu-jin had dissapeared; his eyes were so wide they seemed to be buldging from his eyelids. Slowly, with a numb character to his movement, he turned his head to look at Gohan. His eyes met the boys, black and impenetrable. A mysterious boy, Sunow could handle. But.....where did that kind of power from?

Gohan opened his mouth, then closed it again. The frown on his forehead deepening from the look the Aeesu-jin was giving him. Was it a look of shock? Dread? Fear? Did he now fear the boy, even though he was only trying to help.

Painfully, Sunow inhaled, parted his dry lips and spoke.

"You're bleeding."

"Huh?" Gohan said.

"Your cheek is bleeding."

He raised his hand to the side of his face and a warm stickyness met his fingers. The Aeesu-jin's tail had only grazed him, hadn't it? A small sting, perhaps a welt, could be expected. But it was more. Even where the slash ended, a small trickle of blood continued downward as it obeyed gravity's whim. It traced his jaw line and beaded at the tip of his chin. A small ruby droplet fell and made a quiet pat as it hit Gohan's boot. There was no pain, just a swollen numbness. It would probably hurt later. Nothing to really worry about.

The boy leaned over Sunow and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I-" the Aeesu-jin tried without success to push himself up to his feet, "-don't think I'll die. I can't seem to walk at the moment...."

Gently as he could, the boy laced his hands under Sunow's arms and lifted him to his shaky feet. Leaning heavily on Gohan for support, he allowed himself to be helped out the door to Backlash headquarters.

"What do we do, now?" Gohan asked nerviously.

Before he had a chance to answer, Sunow sagged to the floor, nearly taking the boy down with him. On his knees and tenderly probing at an arm he was pretty sure to be broken, he said at a forced whisper, "We need to get home. Those guys you faught......are alot more trouble than they're worth." He gave a sudden wheeze that alarmed Gohan. "Did you kill them?"

Gohan looked back at the Backlash door. It stood, quiet and impregnable, looming and large and vastly technological as it concealed three beaten Aeesu-jin within.

"I don't know."

Sunow sagged closer to the floor, a small droplet of purple-red blood trickled from his delicate lips and splattered in stark contrast to the white tiles beneath him, "We....need to get home....as soon as....possible."

"I-" Gohan tried to speak, but the words died on his lips as the Aeesu-jin slumped to the ground in unconsciousness.

Surprised and alarmed, the boy kneeled beside him.  With careful hands, he rolled Sunow onto his back and looked for any potentally fatal wounds.  He couldn't make out any broken ribs, which was a relief, but the Aeesu-jin's entire body was riddled with dark, blotchy bruises and his back had a dark, deep welt that was weeping a thin thread of thick, oozy blood. His right arm seemed to have dislodged itself from its socket.  All considered, Sunow had gotten off lucky. He would live.

Lifting the limp Aeesu-jin off the ground, Gohan suddenly realized he was on his own about navigation. Sunow's words rang through his head clearly.

We need to get home as soon as possible.

Forcing himself to stay calm as a sudden, unwelcomed wave of panic tickled at his subconscious, he brought to the front of his mind the number of turns he had carefully tallied up in his mind. Fighting back the realization that if his figuring was just one turn off, he might never find Sunow's home again, he glanced up the hall way to his right, then up the hall way to his left. Taking a deep breath, he started in what was hopefully the correct path.

It wasn't easy going.

Quite often, he had to backtrack six or seven times to find the correct way, pausing, thinking, worrying; all the while, some unknown force nipped at his heels, sending him into a near frenzy of anxious energy that was unwanted and unappreciated to the boy who needed to keep a cool head more than anything else. Left, right, left, right, up, left.........

He was almost sure he was lost, doomed to run up and down halls until he either died of cold, starvation, or by being attacked by an angry pack of Aeesu-jin out to destroy him. That or he would have to wait for Sunow to regain consciousness to tell him where to go. Right, right......wait, now left.

All along the way, due to some awesome luck, they never ran into a single other person. Gohan was relieved, he had no clue how to explain himself if asked.

As his numbers dwindled into the tens, then the single digit numbers, his hopes suddenly became passionatly alive. He was going to make it. Everything was going to be okay......

Then there was no more turns left to be counted. He was in the hall where Sunow's home supposedly was, but it seemed impossible to tell for sure. Nearly every hall looked just the same. His optimism suddenly met its arch-enemy pesimism and the two faught valiantly against eachother as Gohan slowly started walking down the hall, looking for anything familiar about the particular door he was seeking.

I'm in the wrong place.

No. I counted those turns perfectly. Isn't that the door?

Can't be. It's too big, remember how small Sunow's door was?

That's it! I'll just look for a small one.

Those two over there both are small.

That one. It has to be it.

Gohan hesitantly approached the door--far smaller than the Backlash door but seemed even more intimidating at the moment.

So now I'll just walk in and--

And what, walk into some stranger's home? You could get arrested for that.

No, because this is the right place. It has to be.

He shifted Sunow's limp form to one arm and raised his hand to the control panel, his fingers hovering over the door-open button.

This is it. Now I die.

Were did that notion come from?

Because opening this door will somehow be our death.

Nonsense.....

With a mustering of the boldness he had, he slammed his hand down on the control to reveal--

An apartment suspiciously similar to Sunow's. Hesitant about getting his hopes up, he made his way quietly inward, feeling around for the chi's of any living beings. Once inside, the door swished shut behind him. The sudden feeling of being boxed-in gave him a wild fight-or-flight feeling deep in his guts, but he swallowed his instincts with the power of reason and reached out with his senses.

And found the three familiar chi's of Freeza, Garlic and Bojack. All within the same complex. He had made it.

Lugging the body of Sunow to the couch, he heard a door further within the house swish open. He didn't bother turning around when he heard the surprised and demanding voice of Freeza sound out behind him.

"What happened?"

Gohan made sure Sunow was settled as comfortably as he could on the couch before answering, "He was attacked by three big Aeesu-jin. I'm not sure why. They were just.....hitting him, trying to kill him."

"If he was the one attacked, why are you hurt?"

Gohan brushed his hand over his cheek again. The blood had stopped flowing and was already drying up into a crispy, dark scab. He scraped the crusty trail off his jaw and chin with his fingernails, surprised at how much the small wound had bled. It must look far worse than it accually was.

"I came to Sunow's defense. I forgot what it's like to fight an enemy with a tail."

Freeza watched him with irrational suspition as he folded Sunow's limp arms over his chest, "You faught off three, large Aeesu-jin?"

Gohan thought perhaps he should get a wet rag to wip the blood off his face. Sunow could stand for a cleaning, too. He wasn't really paying attention to what Freeza was saying, but he absentmindedly answered, "Uh....yeah. They thought I was just some little alien boy or something. Didn't have any way of know I was stronger than them. It was an unfair fight, but they started it."

He ended the conversation by walking down the hallway and into Sunow's room. Feeling slightly guilty, he pulled Sunow's bedsheet off its matress. He went into the bathroom and got the sheet wet and returned to Sunow's unconscious form. Freeza was in the kitchen now, having lost interest in the whole ordeal and Gohan was gratefull he no longer had to deal with him.

Using the wet blanket, he scrubbed away at the half-wet blood on his face, cleaning off as much as he could and tenderly dabbing at the gash itself. It was starting to hurt again. It was trobbing.

Cleaning himself was the easy part. He looked at the bruised and bloody Sunow. His large almond-shaped eyes were closed and slightly puffy. His lip was split.

With a sigh, Gohan started rubbing at the stained dribble of blood that ran down the Aeesu-jin's chin. This could take a while.

***

Sunow finally climbed his way back to consciousness with a little shove by his subconscious. It wasn't pleasant. At first, his whole body only tingled like it was asleep. But the buzzy feeling intensified, almost as though a large colony of insects had taken up residency under his skin and were tearing out his nerve endings one by one to make room for their queen.

He moaned and regained ability to open his eyes. Coming more aware of his surroundings, he realized he was back in his own home again, laying on his couch, with a concerned Son Gohan crouching over him and trying to scrub the blood of his forehead.

"Sunow-san?" the youth's voice seemed particularly fuzzy to Sunow's ears, "Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

"My....arm hurts."

"I think it's broken. I set it as best I could, but I'm no doctor."

Sunow stretched his dry lips into a grateful smile that hurt.

"You got us home, then?"

Gohan nodded and started to wash the specks of blood off Sunow's arm. The Aeesu-jin drifted in and out of his mind for a few moments, thinking. He would have to leave the planet, now. As soon as he was good enough to travel. Until then, he would have to find somewhere else to heal. Hide as best he could from Backlash.

But at least he had his life. And his kids. The kids.......

"The kids will be getting out of school, soon!" he suddenly said, half sitting up before his whole body was suddenly wracked with intense pain, as though he were bursting apart like a dropped vase.

Gohan had already leapt to his feet, "Do they come home on their own?"

"Sometimes," the wounded Aeesu-jin said, his face pinched with pain lines, "But I doubt Backlash will give them the chance. They'll be killed before they get here...oooh."

The excitement made his head pulse madly, and his the sudden wave of throbbing, roaring ache stole his voice. Despite his resistance, unconsciousness crept over him again and he fainted from the pain.

Gohan was already out the door, sprinting in the direction he could only hoped he remembered was the school.

He ran down the hallway perhaps faster than he was supposed to. The other Aeesu-jin he passed gave him dirty looks as he sped by them, some he nearly knocked over in his hurry, while others yelled at him about slowing down and watching where he was going. He was beyond caring about what they thought. At the moment, the only concern he had was the well-fare of two particular children, everyone else on this stinking planet be damned.

He jogged down one corridor after another, hoping that he had remembered the correct number of turns. Rounding a third corner to the left, he felt for sure he was lost and might have to try asking for directions when he looked up and recognized the familiar sign he had seen once before: 'Grades 1-12', above which was a series of symbols he had identified as pure Aeesu-jin dialect.

He had found the school....But now what should he do? Should he go in? Or perhaps wait outside for the children to be dismissed. Sunow had said 'the kids will be getting out of school, soon.' But when exactly is 'soon'? What if the children had already been released and were making their way home along a different rout? Chances are those Backlash people would find them before they got home, and without the protection Gohan was sure he could give them, they would be easy prey for the ruthless group.

"Hey. Son Gohan. What are you doing here?"

Startled, the boy turned around to see Sunow's two children--Forester and Eesei--standing in the hall hardly thirty feet beyond. Forester had his hands on his hips and had his head cocked at a suspicious angle. The little girl was holding onto a piece of paper that was dripping various neon shades of paint. Gohan looked around. If school was out, wouldn't the other children also be in the hall? Beside the three of them, the vacinity was deserted.

"Loose something?" the older Aeesu-jin asked, "Where's Papa?"

"Um," the boy's dialogue failed him momentarily, "No, I didn't loose anything. You don't have to call me 'Son Gohan' all the time. Just 'Gohan.' Your dad's been hurt so he sent me to come and get you."

Eesei looked frightened. Forester looked angry, "Was it Backlash? Did they do something to him?"

Gohan blinked, "I....yes. But I didn't think Sunow-san told anyone about-"

Forester snorted and shrugged, "I always read Papa's assignments when he doesn't know it. I like to know what's going on, since he never can tell us. Damn. I knew those Backlash people would pull something like this."

Both Gohan and Forester lowered their heads to brood at the unfairness of the situation.

Suddenly uncomfortable, Forester asked, "So what happened to your face?"

Feeling suddenly self-conscious, Gohan put his fingers to the whip-mark that ran the length of his cheekbone, "Nothing."

"Forester?" Eesei said, tugging at her brother's sash, "I wanna go home."

They turned and headed back down the hall.

Sunow woke up a second time, feeling achy and gritty. He could tasted old blood in his mouth. He was leaning over the side of the couch and spitting out globs of dark red when Freeza came back into the room from the kitchen.

"Freeza-san," the wounded Aeesu-jin called to him, finding his voice could only come out at a whisper. He cleared his throat and asked, "Where did Son Gohan go?"

Freeza studied him for a while, silent. He didn't owe this man anything. He was just some stranger....but he was kin. Freeza hadn't met too many Aeesu-jin besides himself. He answered, "He went to get your brats."

Sunow sank deeper into the couch cusions in relief. After seeing what Gohan could do to those three, burly Aeesu-jin back at Backlash headquarters, he felt a decent amount of confidence he would see his children again. But they would have to run away from this planet. Run as far and as fast as they could and never come back.

"Damn Backlash. Damn them to hell. They're probably the ones who are going to blow up this planet. Just like Son Gohan said."

Freeza hadn't moved from the edge of the room, and had heard every word. That damn boy had told him.

"You think Backlash would destroy their own planet?" Freeza asked the other.

Sunow paused to speak as specks of flashing darkness wiggled in front of his eyes for a moment and he nearly passed out, "Yes. They seem to be mad."

For some reason, Freeza thought he might be right. It was something, anyway. So far, since arriving on this planet, they had no leads and no clues about who might be the culprit, and were nearly down to no time. He suddenly felt the crazy, but strong impulse to follow this.

At that moment, Garlic entered the room. He hadn't been aware Gohan had come and gone, leaving the injured Sunow in his wake, so the situation caught him as totally out of the blue.

"What the hell?"

Following his impulse, Freeza darted his ruby eyes to look at the gremlin, "You. You're from Earth, right?"

Still surprised and confused, it took Garlic a second to register the question, "Yes."

"And you can sense chi? Like that damned kid and all those other damned Earthlings?"

"Yes."

"Good. I might need that skill. Follow me, we're going to check something out."

Freeza's conviction was terribly contagious. The two of them headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Sunow asked from the couch.

"To check out Backlash," Freeza said as he and Garlic vanished out the door.

Sunow blinked into the empty room, suddenly moaned as another tidal wave of pain spread over his body, rocking his bones to the core. He spat out another glob of old blood onto his carpeting and allowed himself to pass out.

Gohan, Forester and Eesei had hardly walked for ten minutes when they heard a barking voice sound from behind them.

"You. Kids. Stop right there."

The three turned. They had only passed a few people thus far along; as far as they knew, except for them, the halls were deserted. It wasn't so anymore. Filling the hall behind them were four large Aeesu-jin. Their tails whiped behind them threateningly and their smiles showed violent capacities.

"By the decree of Backlash and associates, your father has been convicted of murder. Hence, he and his children, you, are sentanced to immidiate death. Do not attept escape. We are trained professionals and you have no chance of getting away."

"This is bull shit," Forester said in disbelief, "We didn't do anything."

The large Aeesu-jin smiled, "I don't really care. I follow my orders, and they say you die."

He raised his hand and shot a concentrated blast of chi, aiming for Forester's heart. It would have been a quick, painless death if it had a chance to hit him.

But Gohan was not having it. Frustrated that another potential fight was already in the works, he layed hold of the Aeesu-jin boy's arm and pulled him out of the blast's sights. The burning beam sailed harmlessly past, hitting into the wall behind them and burning its way through and out of sight. For a while, both the three children and the four Aeesu-jin assailants all stared, mezmerized, at the small burnt hole.

And Son Gohan decided enough was enough. This would end. Now.

A wild, blazing wind suddenly enveloped him and his chi flared to uncomprehendable heights. The very ground, cealing and walls gave in under the sudden and intense bombardment of the boy's increasing power and caved in on all sides, screaming their metalic torment. His surroundings suddenly looked like the inside of a perfect sphere, increasing in size along with the boy's chi. And Gohan felt like something was terribly wrong. He pushed more power into his chi flux, sending his raven hair flapping wildly above him, each strand tugging at its roots and trying to escape and fly off on their own accord.

Forester held onto his sister as tight as he could and gripped the ground with his talon-like feet. The four attackers faired little better as they scraped at the ground with their toes and flapped their tails wildly behind them to try to keep their weight evenly destributed enough to keep standing.

The silver aura around Gohan flickered to gold, then back to white and back to gold; everything looked like it was in a lunatic strobe light, suddenly dulled by the yellow light then heightened by the white. It was getting hotter in the hall, the bent and twisted walls closest to Gohan started to melt like butter, gleaming with molten wetness and turning as slick as glass. Slowly, his aura stopped flickering and stayed white.

Feeling even more like something was wrong, Gohan stopped straining his chi, letting out a deep exhalation from the bottom of his lungs. In the after-math, his still-black hair settled back down to frame his face. Small pieces of the cealing that hadn't melted into place fell to the ground in an inappropriatly cheerful pitter-patter. The boy looked at his hands, turning them over, looked down at his body, then looked directly at Forester with a question in his eyes. Words came to his lips.

"I can't-"

The words died before finishing as sudden two fists were rammed into his stomach, aimed upward to drive under the ribs.

Two of the Aeesu-jin had taken the momentary pause to break through the boy's defenses, and once through they had no intention of stopping after the first hit. While one swung backward to whip his tail across the boy's face, the other drove a second fist where the first one had landed, square in the stomach.

It didn't necissarily hurt Gohan so much as surprised him. Oh, it hurt plenty, but there was another factor that was keeping him off balance that desperatly needed solving. He still hadn't caught his breath from the first attack.

Not now or you'll be beaten to death!

Of all the deaths the boy had seen, he decided being beaten to death must the the worst. He quickly re-adjusted himself to his position. The enemy was too close to for him to fight back very effectively, the number of assailants had increased once the first two moved in.

Fighting three unsuspecting Aeesu-jin just starting to launch an attack was totally different than fighting four Aeesu-jin that were already attacking. As stars splashed across his sight when a fist collided with the back of his head, he dropped to the ground onto his hands, kicking upward so his feet were above his head. Twisting his hips and swinging out his legs, he managed to kick all four of them in the face with one gracefull sweep.

He pushed off the ground with his arms, sending him feet-first toward the cealing, he seemed to land upsidedown on the tiles above their heads. Kicking off to head back downward at an incredible speed, he pointed his elbow downward. The Aeesu-jin directly below him didn't have a chance as Gohan's bent arm slammed into his back. He collapsed with Gohan ontop of him. The boy's elbow continued down and a distinguishable snap could be heard as the Aeesu-jin's spine broke.

Gohan didn't even pause to be ill at what he had done. He launched himself at a second Aeesu-jin, and everything turned strange as all his surrounding seemed to vanish. The only thing left existing were him and his three opponents and the moving backgrounds that didn't seem to exist. It was a frightening new feeling. A high.

And suddenly, an angry, burning want for something took him. A need for something he couldn't place. Someone was screaming and it took him a while to realize it was himself.

More....

He slammed his fist into the second Aeesu-jin's throat, felt his wind-pipe beneath the skin rupture. The rush. Everything was moving, flying, the walls, the cealing. The tiles weren't lines but squiggles that looped around him and led him to his next target. The third Aeesu-jin was stonger. He blocked Gohan's first attack, which for some reason made the boy's blood boil with an even stronger excitment. The rush of battle. The high of fighting.

He was still screaming.

More until it's all white!

His second attack went right through the Aeesu-jin's defenses just as easily as it went through his stomach and out the other side. Warm and wet, his senses told him, warm and wet inside. We're all warm and wet inside. He pulled his fist out in a splash of crimson and went after the last Aeesu-jin.

He was trying to run, to escape and survive. Gohan raised a palm and blasted. The Aeesu-jin's body was picked up off the ground by the force of the blast. Gohan blasted again. This second one sent the Aeesu-jin to the ground. His body hit the tiles and slid quite a few feet before it stopped and laid still.

Gohan was panting. The only sound his acute senses picked up was the his own ragged exhaling.

Huff.....Huff.....Huff.........

His throat felt surprisingly hoarse. What the hell had happened? A few times before--very rarely--he had felt that crazed thrill of the fight. Had felt the strange urge to wish you could fight forever, until your muscles tore and your bones broke. But it had never been in an accual fight, a life and death battle against a weaker opponent. Never like that. It had only happened in the Room of Spirit and Time, when he had been fighting with his father for twenty or thirty hours on end. Right before he passed out, it would come to him. Where he wanted to fight more even though his body was about to stop.

But that had only been the first quarter of the year. Once he had finally pushed himself into the Super Saiya-jin form, the insane craze went away, freeing him to more power that was easier to control.

So why the hell did it rear its ugly head now? His arm felt suddenly cold, and he found that it was slick with blood that was not his own. That Aeesu-jin he had punched in the stomach.......

Those four had come to kill them. It was their soul intention, and they would not have stopped until they could no longer move. They were evil people. No one would mourn them. They deserved to die. None of these reasonings helped Gohan as he realized he had killed four people. He could claim it was self-defense, but it would feel like lying. It was cold blood.

"Are you okay, Son Gohan?" Forester's voice broke into his thoughts, "You were screaming so bad. Are you hurt? Did they hurt you? You sure as hell hurt them. Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Forester?" Gohan asked.

"Yeah?"

"Something is wrong. I couldn't.....," Gohan tried to make sense of what had happened, "I couldn't transform. Couldn't turn into my Super Saiya-jin form."

"You can transform, too, huh?" the Aeesu-jin boy asked, nudging Gohan in the arm to get him to start moving down the hall toward home again, and leading the smitten Eesei by the hand, "Too bad. No one can transform when they're on this planet."

Gohan jerked his head around to stare at the Aeesu-jin youth, "What?"

"Didn't Freeza tell you?"

"He said.....that Aeesu-jins couldn't transform when they were on the planet."

Forester looked at him like one would look at a crazy person, "You think that we would put ourselves into a situation where we can't transform but, if they get onto the planet's surface, our enemy can? That would be insane. Rediculious."

Gohan nodded numbling in understanding. It made sense. But that didn't matter to him at the moment. He looked at his blood-covered arm. He didn't care about learning about planet Aeesu anymore. Didn't care about saving these people.

He just wanted to take a warm bath and go home.

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