Untamed: Misterious Foes

Something was definitely wrong; They were flying in circles for two hours and everything they found were trees and more trees. And occasionally the back or the head of those boring dinossaurs that could belong to Syrup´s family. Beer would have liked to go down and explode a few of those brutes just to burst out, and he knew his companion would be delighted of doing likewise, but it would be stupid. A giant sign written “HELLO, WE ARE RIGHT HERE!” wouldn´t be more effective to alert the so-called Namekians about their presence.

Finally, Beer got tired of sightseeing. He waved to Syrup and they both landed. Beer had warned his subordinate to not talk or make a single sound unless it would be necessary. It was the only thing good there - at least Beer hadn´t to put up with Syrup´s annoying voice and empty talk.

Or so he had thought.

“Did you see that?” the lizard whispered when they landed “Those two strong signals we detected disappeared.”

“Probably the Namekuseijin died when the ship crashed down. Good. That means we´re not going to face any resistance.” Beer mumbled, giving him a look to shut up.
Casualties caused by a forced landing were very common among space travelers. Even the pirates had lost some members of their group during the storm, and they wouldn´t mourn their dead.

“Good? It sucks!”

“You´ll may have some fun later, blowing your wild relatives in our way back to the ship. And don´t make me tell you to shut up again!”

Their research on the ground was equally fruitless. Nothing signaled that a ship had made a forced landing or a normal one. Not that it was needed a big hole, charred bodies or other things equally dramatic; but at least it supposed to be a few broken branches, since the ship had landed in the middle of the forest. If it wasn´t for the strong signals telling that the spheres were very close, Beer would think they were delusional. Every minute that passed he became more angry. Were those contraptions broken? Calling the ship, he was reported that yes, his colleagues had detected the spheres there, too, along with some sneering comments that made Beer´s blood boil. Juice, that shitty piece of moron, made the point of asking him if Beer didn´t want another hunting party to replace him and Syrup.

"Fuck off! What in the universe is happening here? We´ve passed by here a thousand times…” Beer thought “The signal is as strong as if the spheres were in front of me… but I see nothing but those blasted trees!”

A laser gun hissed behind him, followed by its typical burning smell. Beer whirled around, ready to fight back. But it was only Syrup, staring at the small flames he had ignited, his left arm pointing at some invisible foe.

“What´s up?” automatically, Beer pointed his own weapon at the same direction as Syrup “Why did you shoot?”

“Someone was hiding behind those trees,” Syrup explained without taking his eyes off the bushes “I heard a noise.”

Cautiously, Beer took a few steps forward, his weapon held up. He looked down at the hole the laser had opened in the bush. If something alive had been there, it was ashes now.
“Probably a squirrel. Thanks to you, it´ll no longer threaten our lives.” Beer said sarcastically “And thanks to you, so much for our chances of a surprise attack, if someone of that blasted ship is really around. Why don´t you jump and yell, “Hey, hey, we are here”?”

Syrup took a slow breath, the air hissing through his large nostrils.

“I´d love to, if there was someone here to watch! My feet hurt and my stomach groans because you need so bad to show that you´re much better than Absinth and not go back with your hands empty to be laughed at, as it always happens!”

That was the last straw. Grabbing Syrup by the collar of his armor, Beer slapped the lizard´s face twice, before whirling him around and tossing him towards the trees. For Beer´s complete astonishment, instead of Syrup crashing against the trunk of a tree, he went flying through it and disappeared. A muffled thud somewhere inside the tree signaled Syrup´s fall.

Beer dropped his jaw, but just for a few seconds; his mind quickly went back to work. Taking a step forward, he held out his hand cautiously, to touch the tree Syrup had went through. His hand felt nothing and went through the trunk as if it was air. Smiling, Beer walked forward.

Like in a dream, the trees shivered and vanished away, replaced by a large clearing where rested the Namek ship that he and his colleagues had seen hours ago. Lying next to one of the pointed legs of the ship, Syrup was still stunned and rubbing his aching head. Unaware of the discovery he had accidentally caused, Syrup pulled by to his feet when he saw Beer, his small eyes narrowing with hate.

“That´s enough! Leader or not, you´ll gonna pay m…” he jumped at his furred fellow, but Beer dodged him easily and grabbed Syrup by his shoulders, forcing him to look at the ship. It was Syrup´s turn to gape.

“The… the Namek ship!” he stuttered.

“Yes!” Beer laughed “It was hidden right in front of our noses by a hologram! Who´d guess that the Namekians were so smart?”

“Rascals!” Syrup smirked balefully, his mind already planning a good revenge. He searched for his gun, but Beer held his arm and signaled him to check on his scouter.

The device confirmed that the spheres were inside the ship. By other turn, there was no sign of life. No sound came from the ship, and there was no movement seen through the large window on its front. Syrup´s face fell with angry disappointment.

“Don´t be so hasty,” Beer warned in a well-humored tone “Remember that small kis can´t be detected by our scouters. Maybe there´s still someone alive in there.”

Syrup mumbled something about “small fries” and “junk”, but his leader was no longer paying him attention. He was checking around the ship. Looking underneath, he found a large, oval mark on the ships´ belly.

“Gotcha…” he just said that and his scouter beeped in an alarming way. Before he could say or do something, a strong blow broke his neck. Beer toppled and fell forward, his mouth open to never speaking again. Syrup was already laying on the ground.

Gohan and Krillin stared in awe at the now lifeless pirates.

“Man! That was close,” the boy whispered “If we hadn´t decided to come back quickly…”
Krillen nodded. Crouching down, he checked on Beer and Syrup, touching their bodies with a disgusting face.

“They´re really dead. We were very lucky these two were so weak. If it was someone like Turles or Nappa, we´d be up the creek.”

“Uh-uh” Gohan mumbled through trembling lips. His eyes blinked, as if he was trying to stop tears from coming. Guessing easily what the little boy felt, Krillin tried to confort him.

“You did the right thing. If we had let them fly away, they would come back with more bad guys. And even if we got them as hostages, they could be a menace for Bulma and Oolong.”
“I know” Gohan said, trying to sound brave “Dad and Piccolo-San told me about this kind of thing a thousand of times. It´s just… It´s just that sometimes I wish to have another choice.”

“Me, too. “Krillin nodded again, patting Gohan on the shoulder “Go inside and tell Bulma that she and Oolong are safe now. They must be hysterical if they heard all that noise. I´ll take the bodies away to bury them.”

Krillin noticed the boy´s hesitation and waved a dismissing hand “Go! While you´re at it, take the fruits we picked up inside” he insisted, giving a look at the two sacks filled with fruits they had picked up in the forest.


He waited until Gohan was inside the ship before looking at Syrup. No, he wasn´t wrong: the ugliest alien was still breathing. Unconsciously, Gohan hadn´t hit Syrup with enough strength to kill him.

A quick blow on the neck solved the problem. Krillin gulped guiltily. Even though there wasn´t another way, he felt as if his best friend was somehow there, glaring at him in disappointmentl.

“I´m so sorry, Goku.” He whispered “I know you wouldn´t approve this. If only you could be here with us, you always know the right thing to do. I just hope to not be sent to Hell when I´ll die again.”

If his weakest companions had been hysterical due the long wait inside the ship and the outward menace, they had recovered quickly. When Krillin returned, he found them talking to Gohan in the control room. Bulma obviously had been boasting about her geniality for building a hologram projector to hide the ship, judging by Oolong´s annoyed look and his belittling speech.

“Oh, stop that. It wasn´t YOUR idea, for the start; you just copied from those orphaned kids we met, back on the space station.” The little hog sneered.

“I´d like to see YOU doing something like that!” Bulma replied, her blue eyes sending angry sparks “Since our journey has begun, you haven´t done anything but whining and complaining, and spying on me!”

“Guys…” Krillin started, but they ignored him.

“And cooking, don´t forget that!” Oolong yelled back “And doing the laundry of everyone here. And checking on Gohan´s lessons…!

“Checking on Gohans´ lessons’, ha! He knows much more than you…”

“SHUT UP YOU TWO!” Gohan´s little voice thundered inside the convexe walls of the ship.
Instantaneously, his friends silenced and stared at him surprised. “Maybe he has actually something from Chichi…” Krillin thought.

Finding himself the center of attention, Gohan looked down, embarrassed.

“I-I´m sorry…” he started shyly, “but this is not time to fight. We are in danger now. I think that those two that Mr. Krillin and I found outside the ship were Turles´ friends. They were dressing the same kind of clothes that him, Nappa and Radditz.”

Oolong and Bulma´s faces became white.

“I knew it!” Bulma squealed, taking both hands to her head “ We had already considered this possibility before landing in this planet. But… wait a moment… If all those spheres we detected are together t-that means…”

“Turles has them!” Oolong finished “But how? Does he has some kind of dragon radar, too?”
“We saw them checking on the scouters “Krillin explained, “One of them said that the spheres signal was strong.”

“But then… then…” the pig stuttered, his skin going from white to almost see-through “That means that more pirates can come here anytime! They might be already coming! We have to get rid of our dragonballs immediately!” he hightailed towards a door, obviously aiming the deposit where they kept spheres they had picked up along the journey. Gohan barred his way.

“You can´t be thinking of doing this! We have lots of hard work to get them. What will happen to the Earth? And Mom, Dad, Mr. Piccolo and all our friends? They will die!” he lectured.

Oolong looked embarassed for a moment.

“That´s life, kid. They´ll understand if we´ll fail. We can find some safe place in the universe…”

“Forget it. We can´t go now.” Bulma cut him off.

The three males looked at him as if Bulma had said she was going to shave her head.
“What do you mean with ‘ we can´t go’?” the pig bristled “You said you could fix the ship in one minute! Are you saying that Miss Knows- Everyth…”

Krillin cut him off, because Bulma was obviously about to explode. The last thing they needed now was another fight.

“The damage caused by the storm… it was more serious than it seemed?” he asked in a conciliatory tone.

Bulma shot a glare at Oolong, before taking a calming breath.

“I think the lightnings caused it. The computer doesn´t answer anymore, because two of the main pieces were burned and I couldn´t replace them.” Her tone was tense, making it clear that she was doing her best to stay calm.

“But haven´t you brought replacement pieces from Namek?” Krillin insisted, slightly annoyed “We took forever to leave because you were so worked up into finding the best mechanic in the whole planet!”

“DO YOU THINK THAT IT IS THAT SIMPLE?!” Bulma finally outburst, making the trio back off. She breathed again, in order to explain, but it didn´t help much “I got the pieces that resembled most the engines of Kamisama´s ship, but the ship is VERY old! Even Arion wasn´t sure if those spare parts would work, because mostly of the old Namek technology was lost with their first planet.“

Krillin and Oolong stared blank, but Gohan nodded understandingly.

“I see… The pieces you have are not compatible to the ship´s computer.” he said almost gleefuly, as if the news weren´t terrible.

“So we are trapped here?” Oolong asked, panicking again.

“Don´t be so hasty! I think I can make some adaptations, at least to make the ship take us to a civilized planet. But it´ll take several days. I would do better building first an antenna to block the signals of our spheres.”

“You´ll may build one after we find a new place to stay” Krillin interrupted her impatiently “In one thing Oolong is right: it´s too dangerous to stay here. If even those two fools figured out the hologram trick, anyone else can do it.”

“Now you´re hearing me?” the little pig moaned, his face white with the perspective of having to face the jungle out there. Bulma looked as scared as him, and Gohan wasn´t happy, too.

“But what about the dragonballs?” he pressed on “Will we leave them to Turles?”
The four silenced for a brief moment. It wasn´t fair to leave the reason for their journey in the ship, but it would be dangerous to take the dragonballs with them.

“We´re wasting time here!” Oolong lectured “Why won´t you two bury them somewhere far away from here, while Bulma and I pack our stuff? Then you´ll come back and help us to find a shelter!”

His companions stared at him as if it was impossible to expect that Oolong could say something so clever.

“Good idea!” Krillin approved with a smile“If we´ll move the dragonballs, the pirates´ attention will be distracted from the ship.” He noticed Gohan´s mouth opening to protest, and reassured him “It’ll be just until we´ll find another place. After Oolong and Bulma are safe, we´ll go back to the place we buried the dragonballs to protect them until Bulma builds the antenna.”

“What if Turles gets our dragonballs before that?” the kid still objected.

“Then you two will figure out how to get back ‘our’ balls along with the ones Turles picked up! You´ll have to do it anyway, right?” Bulma answered impatiently as she gathered her toolbox and some objects from the control room. Looking over her shoulder, she glared at Oolong, who was examining critically a fruit from the fresh supplies that Krillin and Gohan had collected in the woods “Since you´re dealing with food, go to the kitchen and get the rest of our supplies. And don´t put anything in your pockets!” she demanded.

“You could have asked me nicely. I´m the smartest guy here.” The pig mumbled as he sullenly complied.

“Don´t try me, “the young woman hissed, before turning to follow Krillin and Gohan to the deposit “Too bad we haven´t another scouter. It would help a lot if I could study one to figure out how they detect the dragonballs,” she complained with a sigh.

“The guys we defeated had scouters!” Gohan remembered innocently, not noticing his friend´s worried look.

“Wonderful! “ Bulma cheered up “And where are they?”

“T-they… I buried them along with the bodies,” Krillin confessed, gulping.

Bulma almost fell on her back.

“YOU´RE TELLING ME THAT YOU BURIED THOSE PIRATES WITHOUT CHECKING IF THEY CARRIED ANYTHING IMPORTANT?!” she roared “Do I have to think of everything? GO NOW AND DON´T COME BACK WITHOUT THE SCOUTERS! And bring everything else they have! Strip them naked, if you need!”

***

Sepsi typed the password that opened the heavy door of Turles´ lab. He took a deep breath and his entire body stiffened, preparing himself for a very unpleasant task. Even before the door was completely opened, a humid wave of heat bathed his face like a lover´s touch. At the first sight, you could think that the door led to the outside world, if it wasn´t for the path signaled by small metal plates on the floor. The large dome of see-through crystal contributed for the feeling of open place. However, as Sepsi walked through bushes and trees, more and more mechanic details showed up here and there, like hisses and bubbling sounds, as long as the tubes and wires that kept the plants alive. Besides, the artificial jungle had no animals, except for a few specimens floating in special tubes in the backgrounds of the lab.

Finally reaching the experiment area, Sepsi looked around. Apparently his boss wasn´t there.

“Juice tricked me again, that bastard…”he mumbled as he leaned with a hand on a metal table. Absently, his eyes ran over its contents – mostly were plates with surgical instruments, but there were also a couple of weird-looking fruits. If they were really fruits. They looked like mashed balls. He held out a hand to pick one and see it better.

“I wouldn´t eat that, if I was you,” an amused voice boomed behind Sepsi´s back “I reduced its poison, but it still can give you a pretty bellyache.”

Dropping immediately the fruit, Sepsi jumped and whirled around:

“M-Master Turles! I´m so sorry, didn´t see you coming.”

“Anything wrong, Sepsi?” the tall man who looked like Goku ignored the aphology “You always wait for me to leave the laboratory.”

Sepsi ignored Turles'  insinuation of cowardice.

“We lost the group that was looking for the Namek ship.”

“Beer´s group, uh? I´m not surprised. He always was an incompetent. Did they find the ship, at least?”

“No. The last time Beer contacted us he said there was something very strange happening. There wasn´t any sign of a ship landing in the woods. No broken or charred trees, no crater or any sort of hole. As if the ship had been a hallucination.”

“But the spheres signals are not a hallucination. A Namek ship wouldn´t burn anything, because their ships have no propulsion system. The crew must be hiding with a hologram of something alike; I heard of a children colony that protected their ship with this. “ Turles mouth stretched in a smirk and he laughed cruelly “Poor Beer. I bet that he died with the ship right under his snout!”

“Now that you said, I remember of something funny”, Sepsi almost exclaimed, a light of recognition dawning in his eyes, “Do you remember those strong ki signals our scouters signaled? They disappeared after the ship landed. We thought that the crew had been killed by ship crash, but the kis blinked back a few seconds before we lost contact with Beer and Syrup. Then they never showed up again. “

Turles´ dark eyes glimmered with excitement, fast memories of his battle on Earth passing through his brain. Was that so? Slowly, his lips curled in another unpleasant smirk. That could be even better. Not only all the black star dragonballs would be his, he would also have his revenge sooner than he had thought. He had to make an effort to not burst into laughing.

“So they can control their kis at the point they can´t be detected? I suspected they weren´t namekuseijin.”

Sepsi looked shocked at his boss´ statement. He opened his mouth to ask, but Taurus cut him off.

“Out with that. You said “before Beer and Syrup lost contact”. Garana wasn´t with them?”

“No. Garana was taking care of a native they found almost drowned in a river. We sent a party to get them, but they found only Garana´s body. Apparently, he put handcuffs on the savage, and the creature used them to rip Garana´s throat. We found the handcuffs opened and full of blue blood, a few meters from the corpse. The savage made off with Garana´s things, too: his scouter, the laser pistol and belt are missing. The stupid thing must have taken them as trophies” Sepsi finished with disdain, not noticing the way Turles suddenly stiffened.

The dark-skinned alien just noticed that his boss looked disturbed, which was natural… they never expected that a simple Namek ship would give them so much trouble. Umpatient to find himself out of the laboratory, he broke the silence.

“May I send another hunting party after the ship?” he asked, more to have Turles´ official confirmation, since it looked obvious.

“No. Obviously, they´re after our dragonballs. Let´s let them try to get them,” Turles said with a smile, both in expectative for the upcoming battle and of amusement for Sepsi´s shocked face. Then he made a frown “I prefer that you sent a hunting party after the savage that killed Garana.”

“The native?” Sepsi asked with a disgusted face “It´s nothing but a piece of trash, master. Garana´s death doesn´t mean anything, anyone could kill easily an Andrellian. Absynth found the savage´s hut and said it stinked more than the hut of a Yakon.”

“That man is not a native,” Taurus insisted with forced calm. How could his men be so stupid?” You haven´t found any savage tribes living here, have you? We have a man with a laser gun roaming around – and he might be listening our talking!” he yelled, stretching an arm towards Sepsi. Brutally, he yanked his subordinate´s scouter and tossed It down. Still, Sepsi wasn´t convinced.

“Oh please, master. How could an ignorant savage to know how to use an scouter or a laser gun? He must have taken them because they looked cute for him. You know how these primeval tribes love knickknacks. If his tribe´s not here, he must have come from the mount…” he was violently pushed back, knocking the metal table down. His head hadn´t hit the floor yet and Turles´ boot landed painfully on Sepsi´s chest, taking his air off.
“That man is not a savage, you big idiot!” Taurus´ angry voice thundered in the lab walls, making his subordinate´s ears ring “Haven´t you realized yet? A SAVAGE WOULDN´T KNOW HOW TO USE A PHOTON CARD TO OPEN THE HANDCUFFS!!”

***

“Shit” Vegeta mumbled as he turned Garana´s scouter off.