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The rain was coming down in sheets, but Kira was outside training, as she was everyday. Trunks looked at her through the window, and sighed. He had spent the night with Goten, as he had so many times, especially since she moved in. Last night, as all the times they were together, he had flirted shamelessly, but to no avail. She didn't even seem to notice him at all, except when they were sparring, and then it was only to beat the crap out of him.
She spotted him looking at her and motioned for him to come outside.
"Looks like she needs a sparring partner," Trunks thought to himself. "Well, at least it's a way to get near her. Who knows, maybe some day she'll loosen up."
The man looked at his watch, then up at the pouring rain. He sighed. It was a long trek home, and since the rain showed no signs whatsoever of stopping he figured it was time to head out. He opened his umbrella and stepped out, just as a flash of lightning illuminated the sky.
He did a double-take, blinked hard, and rubbed his eyes.
"Man, I have been pushing myself too hard today," he said under his breath. "I could have sworn I just saw a building floating in the air."
The man looked up again to be sure... just in time to see the blinding lash of light that would end his thoughts, as well as the whole town's forever.
Dr. Diox swore more fiercely with each scout that came back from his latest "dig." That was the last place the pod could have been, and now there was only one possibility left. She had escaped, somehow she had escaped, and now he had to find her.
For once in his life the doctor had not planned for all contingencies. "I should have planted a homing beacon on her somewhere, or at least built.. one... into....."
He uttered a curse so vile it could have peeled the bark right off the trees. Of course he had built a homing beacon into the containment pod; he built one into all of his machines. It had just become so habitual that he completely forgot about it.
Dr. Diox rifled through one of his many storage bins until he finally found the tracker that would go with the pod, being grateful that he had thought ahead all those years ago and labeled all of them carefully. It was one of the older models that would give him a general location that would get smaller as he got closer until it was a pinpoint spot.
He set the cloaking device on so as not to attract unwanted attention, flipped the tracker on and set out. Right now it was giving him a very general location, but he had no fear. She had no reason at all to suspect he was coming, and by the time she figured it out it would be too late.
Bulma carefully examined the insides of the pod, making careful notes of where something went before she took it out. She came across a small cube with an antennae coming out of it.
"A homing beacon, huh? Well, that can be taken care of easily enough."
One swipe of her hammer was all it took to render the device inoperable.
The doctor was making good time when all of a sudden the signal went dead. This was not good. The location was still too general.
He took a look out of the cockpit and groaned inwardly. A huge city spread out beneath him, shining in the night. Somewhere in there was his containment pod, and most likely Kira.
This was going to take longer than he had planned, but she was the jewel of his collection, besides, he couldn't stand to let one of his creations outsmart him that easily.
It was a perfect night, but Kira didn't notice. She and the rest of her "family" (she couldn't quite get used to it yet) were inside, staring in horror at the evening news.
Several small towns had been completely obliterated. a smoking crater left where buildings had once stood. There had been more such craters found other places as well, one right where she had been discovered by Goten and Trunks.
As soon as she realized that she also realized the full magnitude of what it meant.
"Did you see where that last one had been found?" she asked, as the screen showed an interview with Mr. Satan, who was vowing to find whoever did this and punish them.
"Close to where we found you," Goten said.
"No," she replied quietly, "not close, exactly. See the odd rock formation over there?" she asked as they flashed the picture again.
"Hey, you're right! The is where we found you!" Goten said. "What about it?"
"He's back," she said, even more quietly than before, "and he's looking for me."
"Nani?!" said Gohan, just now coming into the conversation.
"All those craters, he was looking in all the most likely spots. Apparently he factored in the likelihood of earthquakes, and various other things that could have moved the pod, and he hit those. By now would have figured out that I'm not there anymore, and he'll come looking."
"But how could he possibly find you?" asked Goten.
"The pod!" Kira said, sitting up rigidly. "My father always built homing beacons into his machines! He'll be able to trace the pod!"
"That's at Trunks' house!" said Goten. "We have to tell them!"
Goten and Kira sped out of the house, racing for Capsule Corp. and hoping they weren't too late. They were extremely relieved (and slightly embarrassed) to hear upon arrival that Bulma had already taken care of it.
"So he's definitely here, and probably headed in this direction then." said Vegeta, making it a statement.
Kira could only nod. She wished Trunks were home, he always seemed to somehow.. comfort her, but he had gone out tonight, and wouldn't be back until much later.
"Well then, it looks like we're going to have to choose a battle ground then."
"Na-nani?" asked Kira, surprised.
"Do you really want him to unleash his army in the middle of the city?" he asked.
"No..." replied Kira.
"Then we choose a battle ground, and I think I know the right spot."
"And what do we do when we get there?" she asked.
"We wait," he said, turning away and walking off before any more questions could be asked.
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