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The three looked at their discovery with wide eyes. There was no mistaking it, even if her hair was actually blond there was no way it could naturally spike like that, and they could feel the power emanating from the still form. Suddenly they heard a voice coming from the pod.
"*BEEP* Shut-down complete. Stasis deactivated."
The girl's hair settled down and returned to black. Suddenly her steel blue eyes snapped open and she sat up.
"YOU!" she said, surprised, staring right at Gohan. "You're the one my father used! You're all grown up now, but there's no doubt that it was you!"
"Na-nani?" replied Gohan. "I have no idea what you're talking about. You probably have me mistaken for someone else."
"No, you have to be him, you just have to! Oh, what was his name, it was, was.. GOHAN! Yes, Son Gohan! That was it!"
All three involved in discovering the pod and it's strange occupant started slightly at the mention of Gohan's name.
"I'm Son Gohan, but I'm afraid we've never met before."
"How can you say that? You know me, I'm Kira! You have to remember me, you're the one who my father used!"
Something tugged on the edge of Gohan's memory, something about the name and how she kept saying her father 'used' him, but he couldn't think of what it was. He shoved it aside, it was probably from a show he had seen.
"I'm sorry, I don't know you. I really don't recall ever meeting a Kira."
The girl slapped her forehead. "Baka, of course! He was treated! Ugh!"
She turned to Gohan. "Well I'm just going to have to make you remember." With that she jumped on top of him, knocking him to the forest floor. Before he or the other two could react, she had placed the heel of her hand on his forehead, and closed her eyes. Almost immediately an eerie glow surrounded her, then spread itself to encompass Gohan, who now lay with his eyes closed.
Goten grabbed Kira by the shoulders. "What did you do to him! Tell me now, or I swear I'll blow your head off!"
"Please, I'm only helping him to remember! It's one of the little gifts that appeared after my father had finished his experiments. Besides, if you blow my head off, who's going to snap him out of the trance? Now let me finish, or he could stay like that forever!"
"Liar! Now what have you really done to him!" Goten felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Trunks looking at him.
"Let her go. She could be telling the truth, and that's not a risk we can afford to take." Goten sighed and let Kira go. He knew Trunks was right, but he could hardly stand to see his brother looking like that. And so the two sat, watching and waiting for her to finish.
"Gohan, Gohan can you hear me?"
Gohan couldn't see anything, but he heard Kira's voice. "Yes."
"Good, now I want you to listen to me very carefully. We are in your mind. What you are about to see are your memories of the day we first met."
"But how are you showing me this?"
"Shh, I'll explain after you see what I have to show you."
Gohan saw his young self on his way home from getting groceries for his mom. He heard the scream, and saw himself fly down. He heard the thoughts as his memory tried one escape attempt after another, and felt the fear as he was dragged inside.
Goten sat, looking over the strange girl, it was all he could do to keep from pouncing on her and ripping her off his brother. Only now did he notice the silver streak of hair on one side of her head. She was well-built, not too scrawny, but not large either.
"Maybe I should go tell our parents where we are, they're probably looking for us by now," Trunks said.
"No. I'm not leaving until they get up, and I'm afraid of what I might do if you leave me here alone."
Trunks sighed. Suddenly he brightened. "I've got an idea that will both get your mind off them and let Dad find us!"
"Huh?" replied Goten. "We can finish that sparring match!"
"Aw, Trunks, I really don't feel like it right..."
Goten never finished his sentence, for at that moment, Trunks punched him in the face and flew away, hurling taunts at him
. "You just don't want to fight me because you know you'll lose!"
Goten flew at his friend with inhuman speed, secretly glad to get his mind off his brother. After only a few minutes of sparring, they heard a booming voice above them.
"And just what are you two doing out here? We've been looking for you for the past hour!"
"Outosaan! We knew you'd show up soon!"
"You didn't answer my question," said Vegeta, looking sternly at his son.
Trunks sighed and explained the story to his father from the beginning.
Gohan had never in his life been terrified. Sure, he'd been a little scared, heck, he'd been a lot scared, but never truly terrified. That is, never, until now.
As the arms carried him inside the lab he tried to calm himself, and little by little, as they took him down hallways and through rooms, his trembling ceased. He looked around. It seemed like the mechanical arms had been carting him along for much longer then the building had first looked to be.
Finally, they stopped and Gohan was dumped unceremoniously on the floor, still too drained to move. He couldn't say he was too surprised when another arm popped out and attached itself to his arm to make sure he stayed that way. Gohan managed to lift his head and take in his surroundings. He was in a small, white, sterile looking room. There was nothing here, nothing at all. No tables, no chairs, only a door on the opposite wall.
Suddenly that door opened, and a young girl walked in. By the look of her she was about 10, his age.
"Wh-who are you?" she asked in wonder. "Did my father bring you here? Are you hurt? Ohh, I hate it when his does things like this!"
"Uhm," was all Gohan managed to say before she was off and talking again.
"Like that one nice man, I forgot his name, and then there was the lady with the red hair.. oh, how silly of me, my name is Kira, what's yours? You're the youngest person my father has ever brought here before, he once had a high school person brought here, but you're younger than that, and then there were all the stray animals.."
"Gohan," said Gohan, "Son Gohan." He couldn't help being slightly amused by this talkative girl, Kira she had called herself, even in his present predicament.
"Hmm? Oh, nice to meet you Gohan. Well anyway..." Suddenly a tall man in a lab coat walked in.
"Kira! What are you doing in here?! Get out right now!"
"But father.." Kira started to protest, but was knocked to the far wall by a blow from the man.
"I told you to go.. NOW!"
Kira scampered out of the room. Gohan thought he could see tears on the once- pleasant face.
"Now, about you, my young half Saiya-jin friend..." Gohan started. He didn't think anyone knew about his blood-ties.
"Ahh, I see you're surprised. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Dr. Diox, and I've been studying you and your father.
"You see, I am a genetics genius, and I have great interest in your, how shall I put it, abilities. I intend to see if I can copy the properties of your blood into a normal human's."
Gohan was getting scared again. This man not only had the power to drain the very strength from him, but intended to experiment on him.
"Now don't worry, it will be perfectly safe for you. I wouldn't want to damage my prize, now would I? Of course, just because it's safe, that doesn't mean it won't hurt. It's a pity your father died, it would have been great fun to see the difference between a half- blood copy and a full-blood one." The doctor sighed, "Well, I guess these things can't be helped. Well, at least I got the more powerful one."
As Dr. Dioxi walked out of the room, another pair of arms relieved the first. These picked Gohan up and followed the doctor.
Back to chapter 1
On to chapter 3