Post by Disgraced Prince Nasu Hattori on Apr 21, 2014 15:29:45 GMT -5
Tejun looked at Nasu for a long minute without saying anything before a furious scowl crossed his face.
“You’ve lied to me for the last time boy!”
With that he pushed his chips all in and flipped over a pair of sevens. “I’ll call, you’ve got nothing and you won’t fool me again.”
Nasu couldn’t help but smile flipping over the pocket aces matching the two other aces showing on the board. “Sorry sir, I may not be able to kick your ass in a fight but at poker I reign supreme.”
“As long as you know I could still kick your ass in real life.” Tejun said and smiled. He leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his beer.
Nasu turned towards Yakuin now, ever since their fight the two had gone back to almost normal friendship again. Yakuin knew Nasu’s secret, but knew Nasu was trying to come to terms with telling other people as well and that he would tell Tejun as well soon enough. And while Yakuin kept pushing him to tell he wouldn’t bring it up during their weekly card game. Still the laid back, happy go lucky look that was normally on his friends face was now replaced with a flat mask he always used during poker. The bastard was harder to read than a book full of braille that was on fire.
Still with all of Tejun’s chips Nasu was convinced he had a shot to finally beat his friend tonight. And then something buzzed in his pocket.
He had taken to carrying around the pager everywhere with him, but after a week of having it not go off once, he had convinced himself that he was safe and it would never buzz. But here it was going off and he was in the middle of something he had no way out of.
Pulling it out of his pocket under the table he read the message. “Meet at the SpaceDoc. Ten Min or secret’s out.”
What the hell! He was probably five minutes away from the docs and that was only if he flew as fast as he could. Nevermind that now he had to come up with an excuse to leave poker in the middle of their game at close to a dead sprint just to get outside so he could start flying.
“Ummm, guys I know this is gonna sound really strange, but Amy sent me a message and I really gotta go.” he knew they both knew Amy as well and that the two of them were friends if not sometimes more. It was the best excuse he could think of on short notice, what he wasn’t expecting however was follow up questions.
“Is she ok?” Tejun asked sitting up a little straighter in his chair. While they weren’t as close, Amy had been a frequent customer of the Red Flag and her and Tejun were friends as well. Damn this plan was going to backfire in a big way if they followed up even a little. And Amy was on the complete opposite side of the city as the docs. If they watched him fly off he was screwed.
“Yea, she’s fine. NO! I mean uh..she just sent me a message saying she needed my help with something.” he held up the pager to show how she had reached out but not showing them the message. “I uh gotta go.”
“Wait, do you want us to come as well. Three people can help more than one, we’re happy to watch your back in case anything goes wrong.” Yakuin said not even realizing how much worse this was gonna make him look.
“No, no I should be fine. But I really gotta go. Sorry to bail so quick.” he turned and started walking for the door trying for all the world to look calm while keeping track of how much time had already passed in conversation.
“Wait.” Tejun said sharply. “You’re not bailing on our poker game to have go get laid are you?” he said his tone obviously showing his disapproval “I don’t mind you fooling around but you made plans Nasu. I thought better of you than bailing just because something better came up.” that stopped him in his tracks face burning red embarrassed.
“NO! I mean no sir. She just said she needs my help with something.” he said digging himself in deeper with the lie. Damn he hoped they never ever followed up with this. Before giving them a chance to respond again and question him further he raced out of the small office they had been playing in and sprinted down the corridor. He didn’t look behind to see if either of them looked out after him but hoped they had just stayed at the table.
Hitting the outside he jumped into the sky and booked it as fast as he could across the city landing at the space docs with two minutes to spare. Extending his senses he reached out for the doctor’s energy signature. Got you!
Jumping into the air again he raced towards the doctor landing in front of him with one minute to spare and breathing hard.
“Here I am doc. What’s the emergency.” looking the man over he saw the doctor wasn’t in his traditional white coat this time. Instead he was wearing a dark blue turtle neck and a scouter.
“Nasu, I’m surprised to see you here. I expected you to wait by the entrance to the docs. How did you find me so quickly?” he asked puzzled.
Nasu looked at him just as confused. “I just sensed out for your energy doc. It was pretty simple”
The man’s face lit up “You can sense energy that precisely? PERFECT!” he said taking off the scouter. “But you’re a peasant! Where the hell did you learn that?”
“Gee thanks doc, don’t sugar coat it or anything. I don’t know I’ve always known how to sense energy.”
The doctor’s grin widened. “What else can you do?”
“I don’t know.” Nasu said trying to think of what other cool abilities he had while not wanting to give away too much to the doctor who was blackmailing him. Eventually caution won out over the urge to show off. Years from now historians would look back and say Nasu wasn’t a complete idiot. “That’s all beside the point doc, why did you call me here? I was in the middle of something and now I’m gonna have to cover my tracks on why I left.”
“Oh yes of course. Well in about an hour a meeting is going to be taking place in the area of the docs that are still under construction after the church’s attack. Horrible attack, but it did create just so many opportunities for all of us non-nobles. Though you wouldn’t know about that would you Nasu Hattori.”
“Don’t call me that. Not ever, not even in private. Also if the meeting is in an hour why did you call me here now and tell me I only had ten minutes to get here or else?! I had to lie to my friends to be here!” As he said this he started walking towards the doctor his fists clenched in rage.
“Remember boy,” the doctor said taking an involuntary step backwards, “if anything happens to me that medical report reaches the queen’s hands not ten minutes later and your secret is out for good.” That stopped him in his tracks. He may hate the doc for what he was doing to him, but he couldn’t act against him...yet.
“So why the hell did you call me here in such a rush?” Nasu said again from between clenched teeth but no longer advancing on the doctor.”
“Of course, I called you here early because I wanted to get in the habit of responding to my pages instantly. Can’t have you getting lazy and taking your time. Who knows, next time it might actually be an emergency. Plus I needed assurances you had the pager on you at all times.”
Nasu’s rage made his power spike and his hellish red aura flare wildly around him. It took him a second to get himself under control and even then he suppressed his power down to 1% of his maximum to keep anyone who had sensed the rise from honing in on his position. It was further amplified by the fact that he was wearing his weighted clothing which brought his power level down even further making him almost impossible to spot even if he had just acted like an idiot.
“Marvelous! You can mask your power to this degree as well!” the doctor exclaimed clapping his hands together rapidly. “And you said you didn’t have any more tricks up your sleeves. Nasu you wouldn’t be trying to lie to me now would you?”
Damn it! He had doubly acted like an idiot, and now the doctor knew another of his abilities. “Whatever, now before I get myself in more trouble, what exactly will I be doing? You left that part out in your little exposition earlier.”
“Of course you’re right. I did leave that out. There is going to be a meeting here in about an hour. Your original plan was to wait until the big wigs arrived and then get the scouter close enough that it could pick up on their power signatures. But now you can sense energy, you don’t need the scouter at all. Actually that’s going to make it much easier on you. How do you hide when you’ve got a scouter on and you’re pointing it at them. If they saw you they’d instantly kill you. I wouldn’t blame them, spying on them like that, it’s disgraceful. But now you can just sense their energies, do you think you can remember their signatures?” he asked cocking his head to the side slightly.
“Yea shouldn’t be an issue, then what you want me to take them out?” Nasu asked stomach sinking at the thought of adding another group of murders to his already over burdened conscience.
“No don’t you dare kill them!!” Drake shouted immediately a look of shock on his face for a moment. The look disappeared quickly hidden back behind his normal masking smile. “Nasu, Nasu, Nasu, so quick to jump to murder, no I just want you to sense their energies so you can recognize them again.”
Nasu paused for a second, could he really get away from this without killing anyone else? It wasn’t that he was opposed to killing, he’d taken far too many lives for him to say he was squeamish about it but if he didn’t need to add to his body count he’d prefer not to.
“Ok I can do that. Get close enough to sense their energies, do you need me to be able to remember everyone or just the two most powerful?”
“Just the top two should be fine. You’ll know it when they get there. And with that Nasu I will be taking my leave. Like you and I, they can also sense energies and if they sense me here all is ruined. I would be suppressing my own energy if I were you. Just a piece of advice feel free to do what you’d like.” he began to walk away. “And Nasu, don’t mess up. I would hate to ruin your life so soon.”
“Great, talking to you too doc…” with that Nasu started rubbing dirt all over himself. He also made it a point to give himself a few small cuts in visible places and rub dirt in those as well to make them looked aged. It wasn’t that Nasu was secretly become masochistic he just needed to be able to pass for homeless if anyone stumbled across him. He planned on staying far enough away that no one would see him but just in case he needed a good excuse to be there and since he’d been homeless before this was the best he could do on short notice.
Covered in dirt he spent the next thirty minutes sitting on the ground straining his ears and his senses trying to notice any movement in the entire docs. As it was past working hours the construction around the docs had stopped for the day and there was only a skeleton crew there to make sure no one tried to undo any the work they’d done during the day. However like most of New Vegeta their eyes slid right over Nasu who was sitting on the ground assuming he was just one of the many homeless in the city. Their numbers had grown exponentially since the attack from the church displacing hundreds if not thousands of residents who had survived but found their homes had not. However the level of interest from the general populace hadn’t increased at all and they paid no attention to the boy leaving him sitting in the construction area by himself. His past couldn’t have given him a better disguise for this if he tried.
Finally after what felt like forever Nasu heard a helicopter off in the distance, as there shouldn’t have been a helicopter anywhere near the construction site at this time of night he was reasonably certain this was the group he was looking for. Further assurance came a few minutes later when another helicopter touched down in a clearing about 50 feet from where Nasu was hiding and two groups of people got out of their respective copters.
From his position he could sense everyone’s energy but he couldn’t hear anything, he also couldn’t sense anyone significantly stronger than the rest. Their energy levels while all in different positions seemed to blend into each other.
He could feel two of the weaker members from each side split off and go in different directions, one of which was coming right towards him albeit slowly. Nasu could feel the man slowly approaching and his palms began to sweat, the doc had said he’d know when the men he was supposed to recognize got there. He assumed it was because their energy would be higher than everyone else’s but so far no one stood out and if the man approaching him was a guard no doubt he wouldn’t ignore Nasu the way the construction crews had. He was probably there to make sure no one was around to witness whatever the hell was going on that the doc was so interested in.
Finally Nasu could sense the man right next to him but he didn’t open his eyes. Instead he pretended to be sound asleep. Maybe the guard wouldn’t care that there was a homeless man sleeping, maybe he’d be a nice guy and let him rest.
“Hey bum, get on your feet and get the hell out of here.” well so much for that plan. He got to his feet senses still extended hoping that he’d be able to sense anything out of the ordinary but no one stood out. He had to stall.
“Sir,” he said extending his hands out towards the guard. “Can you spare some change, please anything will help.” he kept his eyes downcast and his tone low almost pleading. Instantly he could see the streets of New Vegeta, could remember being 10 and fighting for his life almost every morning just so he could beg for scraps or loose change. It was not pleasant but he managed to live through it then and it had toughened him, even now as all the images flashed back he managed to keep his energy suppressed as to not alert the guard or anyone else to the fact that he was anything more than a homeless man begging for change.
The guard instead of giving him a coin however just reached out and shoved his shoulder. “I said get the hell out!” Fine be that way ass. He would walk away around a corner and just try and sense the energy from there. However as Nasu turned to leave the guard caught hold of the edge of his jacket and spun him around. Normally he would never allow this to happen but with his power so low he couldn’t react fast enough to stop it. Instead the guard spun him and just stared at his chest...damn it.
“That pin.” he said pointing at the Red Flag pin Nasu always wore. It was the symbol that he was an officer in the Red Flag, one of the most well known mercenary groups on New Vegeta. And he had forgotten to remove the status symbol showing that he worked for them...brilliant.
“You son of a bitch you work for the Flag!” the guard drew back his fist to punch Nasu but before he had the chance Nasu stopped suppressing his energy, while the heavy weights he was wearing still slowed him down he was more than fast enough to dodge the guards punch. Ducking underneath the blow Nasu countered with a kick to the man’s stomach knocking him out almost instantly.
Feet away he could feel two of the men’s power levels skyrocket matching his own almost instantly. Oh they must have been suppressing their powers as well that made sense. He felt one of them race forward and the other power quickly ceased to exist...damn the doc wasn’t gonna be happy about this. Before he had time to process however the helicopters took off into the air again.
***
“Doc I swear I didn’t kill the other guy.”
“You absolute idiot! There were only two suppliers on the entire planet and one of them is dead because you couldn’t stay hidden!” Drake screamed at him.
“Yea but I wasn’t the one who attacked the other supplier, that has to count for something.” Nasu had no idea what these men were supplying that the doc so desperately needed but he just knew he hadn’t offed either of them. He actually wasn’t even sure if he could off the last one, the man’s power had jumped instantly to match his own.
“NO IT DOESN’T COUNT FOR ANYTHING HE’S STILL DEAD AND WE HAVE NOTHING!!” the doc’s face was turning red now.
“I, uh, I sensed the other suppliers energy. I would definitely be able to recognize it again.” he said and instantly the doc’s whole expression changed from one of rage to one of glee.
“Well why didn’t you start off with that. As long as you can find the one then we’re fine! Just like tonight I know where he’ll be next but if I couldn’t identify him then it was no use. But now, now Nasu we’re in business!”
“What business exactly? I’m not entirely sure what is going on except that I sorta witnessed a murder last night and you seem thrilled.”
“Oh please you’ve committed enough murders to not honestly care and I am thrilled. Now shut up and go home. I’ll call you again in a few days for the meet. This time I promise to give you more than ten minutes. But only fifteen since you did get the other supplier killed.”
You know what, he didn’t want to know. If he knew what he was a part of he’d only come to regret it later. Without another word Nasu turned and began to fly back home. It was now well past midnight and he needed to get what little sleep he could and damn it! He needed to talk to Amy and get her to go along with his lie or Yakuin and Tejun would be pissed the next time they talked to her. On top of that they’d think he was lying to them. He was lying to them but that was beside the point, he didn’t want his friends to think he wasn’t an honest person. The hypocrisy was not lost on him.
Taking a sharp turn he veered all the way across the city to Amy’s, luckily the brothel was always full of customers who would show up at any odd hours so the door was always open. Amy however turned out to be sound asleep and less than happy to be woken up at close to three in the morning.
“What the hell Nasu? Do you know what time it is?” she whispered.
“Yea I do I’m sorry, I just need to ask you for a favor.”
“What makes you think I’m going to do you a favor at 3 in the damn morning?”
“I flew to another planet and almost got killed multiple times doing favors for you, you owe me.”
“Ugh fine, what do you want?”
“I, uh...kinda used you as an excuse earlier tonight with Tejun and Yakuin, if either one of them call can you tell them you needed my help with something.”
“Oh that. Yakuin called earlier actually to see if I needed any additional help. He did say you were acting weird earlier too. So I covered for you and just said it was a booty call and no we did not need any additional help.”
“...a booty call. You told my boss that I bailed on him for a booty call?” Nasu said his voice dropping in embarrassment.
“Well I didn’t exactly have a lot to work with when I was sticking my neck out to cover for you. Way to call me yourself and let me know I needed to come up with an excuse by the way.” she said glaring at him.
“Yea it was just, Tejun specifically asked if I was bailing on him to have sex and I said no.”
“Well it’s not my fault you didn’t give me any warning to come up with a better excuse. Now we’re going to bed come in and shut the door behind you.”
“We? What? No. No? No. I can’t. I need to get back to the camp I have guard duty tomorrow morning.”
“Nasu, tonight I covered for you and said you were with me for a booty call. Don’t make me a liar.” with that she grabbed the front of his shirt dragging him into the room and closing the door herself, and for once at least, the rest of his night passed pleasantly.
****
Days past without Nasu getting any word from the doctor, but by this point he had given up on the idea he wouldn’t hear back from him by now. When days passed originally he had allowed himself to get his hopes up now he knew it was just a matter of time.
However he didn’t expect it to be the middle of the day when the call came in.
“Damn it I have things I’m supposed to be doing. I have a job you know.” he shouted at the pager that was incapable of responding.
[Outside the west entrance to the palace 30 minutes]
So true to his word 30 minutes later Nasu was standing outside the west entrance to the palace in the middle of the day when he was supposed to be on guard duty for the next 4 hours. More than a full hour later the doctor finally walked up casual as always.
“You know I have a job right? You can’t just call me in the middle of the day like this.”
“You’re wrong, I can and I did.”
“No seriously, Yakuin is going to be pis-”
“Don’t care. At least I gave you plenty of time to come up with an excuse this time so stop complaining.”
“Ok doc, so what’s the plan today?”
“Today, my dear dear boy you are going to stand guard next to me, you’re going to protect me from whatever the hell happens next, and you’re going to hopefully point out who was the energy signature you sensed all those weeks ago. If you can do that you’re free to go back to your job as you seemed so eager to do.”
“You mean for good I’m free?”
“Oh no no no.” the doctor laughed. “Not at all. I mean for today, you’re free to go back to work today. I thought you’d be excited.”
“You know I hate you right?” Nasu stared at the man.
“Doesn’t matter just do your job and we’ll be fine.” the doc said as he patted Nasu on the cheek condescendingly.
“So where are we going?” Nasu said from between clenched teeth. It seemed every encounter with the doc left him either creeped out or wanting to kill him.
“Going? No no no we’re staying right here. The man you sensed earlier, he is supposed to be walking through these gates sometime today. When he does you’re going to tell me and we’re going to confront him. I’m going to talk and you’re going to look intimidating, understood?”
“Yea I think I can handle that.” Nasu said as he put his face in his palm. If anyone from the Red Flag saw him just standing here there was legitimately no way he could explain this away
Another half hour passed while countless people walked in and out of the palace. Construction crews, various nobles, guards all came and went with none of them hitting Nasu’s senses as the man from the docs.
Finally after his senses picked up something, turning his head in the direction of the energy signature his jaw dropped open. The energy signature was coming from perhaps the most beautiful woman Nasu had ever seen. He knew he was supposed to tell someone about this but for the life of him Nasu couldn’t remember who he was supposed to talk to or what he was supposed to tell that person other than damn.
For a minute his mind stopped, but finally he came too again leaning over to the doc and pointing at the girl.
“The one that would cause traffic accidents from 3 miles away. That’s the energy from the docs.”
“Don’t point at her you idiot!” however it was too late. His mind is already flooding with every memory he had of the incident at the space docs. Wait, why was he thinking about that now? And then he realized his mind felt the same way it had when Zeke had read his thoughts. Slowly but surely Nasu started to push back. This time reaching out and fighting with his mind, he hears laughter and almost lets his guard down.
“So there is more to you than just hired muscle.” a woman’s voice echoed in his head. Instead of responding how he normally did to Zeke however Nasu decided to press forcing his own mind forward, much the way it did when he first learned telekinesis his nose started to bleed from the mental strain but eventually he pushed past to woman’s barriers and answered in her own mind.
“There is more to me than you will ever know lady.” he could catch flashes of thoughts racing through her mind but he couldn’t yet pull clear images out. That would only come with time and practice but for now he took a sense of pride in making it this far without any significant training. The patting himself on the back however was cut off as the woman responded her voice laced with horror and revulsion.
“How dare you invade my mind like that! Do you have any idea who I am?” her voice echoed this time in her own mind but Nasu could hear it clear as day. Nasu pressed harder into her mind forgetting about the splitting headache he could feel beginning from all the mental strain he was putting himself under. He continued to press until the quick passing images began to make sense, the woman was a noble, go figure, but she one who helped people, she provided controlled substance drugs to children in need who otherwise would go without. And she was the only person left on New Vegeta who had access to these drugs. She had a warehouse at the other end of the city far away from the palace where she kept all of them. And she knew that was exactly what Dr. Drake was looking for. As soon he saw the warehouse her mind went red, there was violent surge of power as Nasu was thrown from her mind.
Stumbling back from the mental blow Nasu looks down to see his shirt covered in blood and Dr. Drake just staring at him with an open mouth.
“I thought you were dead boy. Did she attack you?”
“Um sorta, I think I might have attacked her actually.” what he said next he would forever blame on the fact that he was still shaken from the mental fight and didn’t know any better. “I got inside her head myself though. I saw her thoughts it was amazing, she uses her drugs to help kids why do you want to fight her?”
The doctor’s head snapped back towards him. “You were in her head and saw the drugs? Where are they!”
“I umm, I don’t know, I didn’t see that much.” Nasu lied but he could tell by the smile forming on the doctor’s face he knew better.
“Now now Nasu, you know better than to lie to me. You were never very good at it in the first place but now you’re life is on the line. All I want is for you to lead me to the warehouse location and that’s exactly what you’re going to do.”
By now the woman Amber had walked past them into the palace. She refused to make eye contact with either Nasu or the doctor as if they were beneath her notice as she entered the compound however he could still sense a low level of fear growing off of her as she walked past.
Damn this telepathy thing was going to be tough to get used to.
Ten minutes later Nasu and the doctor were standing in front of a group of warehouses on the other end of the giant city. He couldn’t remember a time where he’d ever felt this ashamed of himself, but the doctor literally had the ability to ruin his life if he didn’t follow orders. He knew it was wrong but he pointed to one of the warehouses. “That’s the one. That’s the one with all the drugs in it.” he was sickened by what he was doing but he had to know how deep the rabbit hole went. “Doc, I haven’t asked yet, but what do you need the drugs for?”
The doc flung open the door and saw an entire warehouse full of medical boxes and grinned like a kid on space Christmas. “Oh yes,” the doc said looking back at him, “I plan to refine all of this into a drug people can sell on the streets. As it is now this is all just useless painkillers but with a little work this can be worth millions of zeni, enough to fund my research for years to come.”
So not only was he taking helpful drugs away from children, he was then going to get thousands more addicted to narcotics, he wanted to curl into a ball and just cease to exist. He sensed her power level seconds before he heard her land.
“I knew there were people like you out there doc, but hearing it now makes me sick.” Nasu turned around and sure enough it was Amber walking towards them, silver aura flaring around her wildly in her rage.
“And you Nasu, to help him like this. To lead him here, none of this would have been possible without you, and for that you’re just as bad as he is even if you’re not stealing the drugs for yourself.” she practically spat the words out.
“You don’t understand.” Nasu said almost pleading with the woman for forgiveness.
“I do understand, he’s got something over your head, he’s forcing you to be here. It doesn’t matter! You’ve forsaken your pride as a saiyan! You’ve allowed someone to blackmail you into being their lapdog. You’re pathetic.”
The worst part was Nasu couldn’t even dispute it. He knew what he was doing was wrong, he knew he was doing it because he was backed into a corner but that didn’t make it any more right but to hear it spoken out loud like that stung.
Still he laid the majority of the blame on Tsuyo’s feet, if the king had just recognized him the way he had Akassa none of this would have happened. He couldn’t be blackmailed by his heritage that he had no control over. Instead here he was fighting for his life on the wrong side because of that bastard. One thing stood out, he wouldn’t die before the king! Without another word Nasu dropped into a fighting stance and stopped suppressing his energy his own hellish red aura flaring up around him.
“So you’ve made your choice then?” she said staring at him but also dropping into a fighting stance.
Instead of answering Nasu just rushed forward ducking under a hastily thrown jab and delivering a kick to her side that sent her flying. Quick to recover she springs back to her feet and rushes back at Nasu, while still a few feet away she launched an energy blast at Nasu’s head, dodging underneath it Nasu didn’t see her behind it. Instead he looks up just in time to take one of her boots to the back of his head.
As he goes skidding forward across the pavement he slams back first into one of the warehouses. Screaming in pain Nasu jumps back to his feet a split second before a group of energy blasts explode in the spot where he just was knocking down that side of the warehouse as well.
Charging again Amber launches dozens of ki blasts at him forcing him to swerve and weave his way closer to her but leaving him unable to close the distance without getting too close to dodge the blasts. Instead he reached out with his telekinesis and grabbed a rock behind her and flung it at her back. She only paused for a second but that was enough. Nasu flew forward in the pause and closed the gap between to where it was too close for her to fire a blast or she’d be caught up in the explosion as well. Aiming a punch at her chest her hand shoots out launching a ki blast that sent them both flying backwards caught up in the explosive wave.
“Did you really think I would let you get away that easily?”
“Well I had kinda hoped yea.”
With that Nasu threw his own energy blast at the woman this time following close behind it. She batted the relatively weak blast away but left herself open and Nasu followed up with a devastating punch to her chest.
Amber went flying back grabbing at her chest trying to grasp in air. Nasu instead of giving her a chance to catch her breathe and instead launches a destructo disk at her and charges behind it. As she jumps above it however she uses her tail to whip Nasu across the face drawing a line of blood under his eye.
Fine if she wanted to play it like that so could Nasu. He might not have a tail but he didn’t have the disadvantages that came with a tail either.
Charging her again this time Nasu uses his telekinesis to pull her tail down towards his hand. Never stopping his momentum he flies right past her grabbing the tail on the go and using his momentum to whip her down into the ground as hard as he can.
Instead of giving her a chance to recover Nasu see’s the cloud of dust she kicked up in the air. Using his telekinesis again he grabs hold of the dust and condenses it as much as possible and sends it flying into her mouth as she gasps for air again this time choking her further.
Taking advantage of the fact that she’s weak Nasu dives down and delivers a kick right to her stomach knocking out.
“Good.” Drake says coming out from hiding in the partially destroyed warehouse. “Now finish her off and help me load the drugs into the car over there.” he said pointing at a car Nasu hadn’t noticed in the back of the warehouse. Clearly it was how they moved the drugs out of the warehouse normally.
“No.” he said standing between the doctor and Amber.
“She’s seen your face, if you don’t kill her she’ll turn us in for stealing her drugs.”
“Her illegal drugs...she will turn us in for stealing the drugs she can’t legally own. Yea lets see that happen.”
“Fine get out of the way and I’ll do it myself.”
“No you won’t” Nasu said putting up a hand and shoving Drake back a step. “You have your drugs, load them in the truck and move on.”
“Nasu you’re not exactly in a position to argue now are you boy?” he said anger seeping into his voice.
“You know I thought about that. But now I think I am, you still need me, you can only turn me in once and then I’m as good as dead and so are you. Cause we both know if you turn me in you’re not making it out alive either. So while I might be stuck working for you for now I certainly don’t have to do everything you say like a little bitch.”
“You insolent little-”
“And let me remind you as well. I’m talking to most of my family now. My plan has always been to tell them eventually. And when that day comes you’ll no longer have any hold over me. I want you to think on that and where that will leave our relationship doc.”
Without waiting for him to respond Nasu turned around and picked up Amber, he tried very hard not to stare at the drop dead gorgeous woman he now had in his arms and flew away. Landing half a city away he put her down and sat until she started to stir and regain consciousness.
Waking with a start she springs to her feet before putting a hand to her head and taking a staggering step forward.
“You.” she spits out the word with all the contempt she can muster.
“Yes me. Now sit down you were just unconscious for like a half hour and that can’t be good for you.”
“You stole everything I’ve worked for!
“Yea I did, sorry.”
“And I gather now you’re here to finish me off. Wanted me awake to kill me? I knew you were scum.”
“Yea I totally waited until you were conscious and able to fight back to kill you in a highly public place. That’s a great strategy. No you idiot I just wanted to make sure you were alive and there wasn’t any permanent damage in case I had to fly you to a hospital.”
“You took everything from me.”
“I did, but I didn’t take your life. You can start over, it’ll be tough but you did it once you can do it again.”
“Why?” she said looking at him defeated eyes wet on the verge of tears. “So you can just tear it all down again, give you another excuse to rob me and then try and comfort me after it’s too late to do anything.”
“That won’t happen again, me and the doctor had a few words and we may have reworked our relationship slightly.” walking forward he put a hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her only to see her flinch back.
“Look I can’t tell you what to do with your life, but you wanted to help people and you did. Admittedly now you have to start from scratch but you know what it takes to move up now. You know you can do it. Use that and push forward.”
She looked up slight defiance returning to her face. “I could still turn you in for robbery you know.”
“For what your super illegal drugs?”
“For destroying my warehouse then.”
“If I remember correctly that was you. You threw me into the warehouse then blew it up with an energy blast. The most I did was just lie there and get attacked.” seeing that she was going to be better now if not completely ok he stands up fully and begins to fly away. He stopped in midair however and turned back.
“Good luck Amber.” he said looking back.
“You still suck.” was all she said turning away and jumping down off the other side of the roof and flying away.
Yea that seemed about right.
***
Telepathy: The ability to speak directly in someone else's mind and the ability to block out others who attempt to read his mind.
“You’ve lied to me for the last time boy!”
With that he pushed his chips all in and flipped over a pair of sevens. “I’ll call, you’ve got nothing and you won’t fool me again.”
Nasu couldn’t help but smile flipping over the pocket aces matching the two other aces showing on the board. “Sorry sir, I may not be able to kick your ass in a fight but at poker I reign supreme.”
“As long as you know I could still kick your ass in real life.” Tejun said and smiled. He leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his beer.
Nasu turned towards Yakuin now, ever since their fight the two had gone back to almost normal friendship again. Yakuin knew Nasu’s secret, but knew Nasu was trying to come to terms with telling other people as well and that he would tell Tejun as well soon enough. And while Yakuin kept pushing him to tell he wouldn’t bring it up during their weekly card game. Still the laid back, happy go lucky look that was normally on his friends face was now replaced with a flat mask he always used during poker. The bastard was harder to read than a book full of braille that was on fire.
Still with all of Tejun’s chips Nasu was convinced he had a shot to finally beat his friend tonight. And then something buzzed in his pocket.
He had taken to carrying around the pager everywhere with him, but after a week of having it not go off once, he had convinced himself that he was safe and it would never buzz. But here it was going off and he was in the middle of something he had no way out of.
Pulling it out of his pocket under the table he read the message. “Meet at the SpaceDoc. Ten Min or secret’s out.”
What the hell! He was probably five minutes away from the docs and that was only if he flew as fast as he could. Nevermind that now he had to come up with an excuse to leave poker in the middle of their game at close to a dead sprint just to get outside so he could start flying.
“Ummm, guys I know this is gonna sound really strange, but Amy sent me a message and I really gotta go.” he knew they both knew Amy as well and that the two of them were friends if not sometimes more. It was the best excuse he could think of on short notice, what he wasn’t expecting however was follow up questions.
“Is she ok?” Tejun asked sitting up a little straighter in his chair. While they weren’t as close, Amy had been a frequent customer of the Red Flag and her and Tejun were friends as well. Damn this plan was going to backfire in a big way if they followed up even a little. And Amy was on the complete opposite side of the city as the docs. If they watched him fly off he was screwed.
“Yea, she’s fine. NO! I mean uh..she just sent me a message saying she needed my help with something.” he held up the pager to show how she had reached out but not showing them the message. “I uh gotta go.”
“Wait, do you want us to come as well. Three people can help more than one, we’re happy to watch your back in case anything goes wrong.” Yakuin said not even realizing how much worse this was gonna make him look.
“No, no I should be fine. But I really gotta go. Sorry to bail so quick.” he turned and started walking for the door trying for all the world to look calm while keeping track of how much time had already passed in conversation.
“Wait.” Tejun said sharply. “You’re not bailing on our poker game to have go get laid are you?” he said his tone obviously showing his disapproval “I don’t mind you fooling around but you made plans Nasu. I thought better of you than bailing just because something better came up.” that stopped him in his tracks face burning red embarrassed.
“NO! I mean no sir. She just said she needs my help with something.” he said digging himself in deeper with the lie. Damn he hoped they never ever followed up with this. Before giving them a chance to respond again and question him further he raced out of the small office they had been playing in and sprinted down the corridor. He didn’t look behind to see if either of them looked out after him but hoped they had just stayed at the table.
Hitting the outside he jumped into the sky and booked it as fast as he could across the city landing at the space docs with two minutes to spare. Extending his senses he reached out for the doctor’s energy signature. Got you!
Jumping into the air again he raced towards the doctor landing in front of him with one minute to spare and breathing hard.
“Here I am doc. What’s the emergency.” looking the man over he saw the doctor wasn’t in his traditional white coat this time. Instead he was wearing a dark blue turtle neck and a scouter.
“Nasu, I’m surprised to see you here. I expected you to wait by the entrance to the docs. How did you find me so quickly?” he asked puzzled.
Nasu looked at him just as confused. “I just sensed out for your energy doc. It was pretty simple”
The man’s face lit up “You can sense energy that precisely? PERFECT!” he said taking off the scouter. “But you’re a peasant! Where the hell did you learn that?”
“Gee thanks doc, don’t sugar coat it or anything. I don’t know I’ve always known how to sense energy.”
The doctor’s grin widened. “What else can you do?”
“I don’t know.” Nasu said trying to think of what other cool abilities he had while not wanting to give away too much to the doctor who was blackmailing him. Eventually caution won out over the urge to show off. Years from now historians would look back and say Nasu wasn’t a complete idiot. “That’s all beside the point doc, why did you call me here? I was in the middle of something and now I’m gonna have to cover my tracks on why I left.”
“Oh yes of course. Well in about an hour a meeting is going to be taking place in the area of the docs that are still under construction after the church’s attack. Horrible attack, but it did create just so many opportunities for all of us non-nobles. Though you wouldn’t know about that would you Nasu Hattori.”
“Don’t call me that. Not ever, not even in private. Also if the meeting is in an hour why did you call me here now and tell me I only had ten minutes to get here or else?! I had to lie to my friends to be here!” As he said this he started walking towards the doctor his fists clenched in rage.
“Remember boy,” the doctor said taking an involuntary step backwards, “if anything happens to me that medical report reaches the queen’s hands not ten minutes later and your secret is out for good.” That stopped him in his tracks. He may hate the doc for what he was doing to him, but he couldn’t act against him...yet.
“So why the hell did you call me here in such a rush?” Nasu said again from between clenched teeth but no longer advancing on the doctor.”
“Of course, I called you here early because I wanted to get in the habit of responding to my pages instantly. Can’t have you getting lazy and taking your time. Who knows, next time it might actually be an emergency. Plus I needed assurances you had the pager on you at all times.”
Nasu’s rage made his power spike and his hellish red aura flare wildly around him. It took him a second to get himself under control and even then he suppressed his power down to 1% of his maximum to keep anyone who had sensed the rise from honing in on his position. It was further amplified by the fact that he was wearing his weighted clothing which brought his power level down even further making him almost impossible to spot even if he had just acted like an idiot.
“Marvelous! You can mask your power to this degree as well!” the doctor exclaimed clapping his hands together rapidly. “And you said you didn’t have any more tricks up your sleeves. Nasu you wouldn’t be trying to lie to me now would you?”
Damn it! He had doubly acted like an idiot, and now the doctor knew another of his abilities. “Whatever, now before I get myself in more trouble, what exactly will I be doing? You left that part out in your little exposition earlier.”
“Of course you’re right. I did leave that out. There is going to be a meeting here in about an hour. Your original plan was to wait until the big wigs arrived and then get the scouter close enough that it could pick up on their power signatures. But now you can sense energy, you don’t need the scouter at all. Actually that’s going to make it much easier on you. How do you hide when you’ve got a scouter on and you’re pointing it at them. If they saw you they’d instantly kill you. I wouldn’t blame them, spying on them like that, it’s disgraceful. But now you can just sense their energies, do you think you can remember their signatures?” he asked cocking his head to the side slightly.
“Yea shouldn’t be an issue, then what you want me to take them out?” Nasu asked stomach sinking at the thought of adding another group of murders to his already over burdened conscience.
“No don’t you dare kill them!!” Drake shouted immediately a look of shock on his face for a moment. The look disappeared quickly hidden back behind his normal masking smile. “Nasu, Nasu, Nasu, so quick to jump to murder, no I just want you to sense their energies so you can recognize them again.”
Nasu paused for a second, could he really get away from this without killing anyone else? It wasn’t that he was opposed to killing, he’d taken far too many lives for him to say he was squeamish about it but if he didn’t need to add to his body count he’d prefer not to.
“Ok I can do that. Get close enough to sense their energies, do you need me to be able to remember everyone or just the two most powerful?”
“Just the top two should be fine. You’ll know it when they get there. And with that Nasu I will be taking my leave. Like you and I, they can also sense energies and if they sense me here all is ruined. I would be suppressing my own energy if I were you. Just a piece of advice feel free to do what you’d like.” he began to walk away. “And Nasu, don’t mess up. I would hate to ruin your life so soon.”
“Great, talking to you too doc…” with that Nasu started rubbing dirt all over himself. He also made it a point to give himself a few small cuts in visible places and rub dirt in those as well to make them looked aged. It wasn’t that Nasu was secretly become masochistic he just needed to be able to pass for homeless if anyone stumbled across him. He planned on staying far enough away that no one would see him but just in case he needed a good excuse to be there and since he’d been homeless before this was the best he could do on short notice.
Covered in dirt he spent the next thirty minutes sitting on the ground straining his ears and his senses trying to notice any movement in the entire docs. As it was past working hours the construction around the docs had stopped for the day and there was only a skeleton crew there to make sure no one tried to undo any the work they’d done during the day. However like most of New Vegeta their eyes slid right over Nasu who was sitting on the ground assuming he was just one of the many homeless in the city. Their numbers had grown exponentially since the attack from the church displacing hundreds if not thousands of residents who had survived but found their homes had not. However the level of interest from the general populace hadn’t increased at all and they paid no attention to the boy leaving him sitting in the construction area by himself. His past couldn’t have given him a better disguise for this if he tried.
Finally after what felt like forever Nasu heard a helicopter off in the distance, as there shouldn’t have been a helicopter anywhere near the construction site at this time of night he was reasonably certain this was the group he was looking for. Further assurance came a few minutes later when another helicopter touched down in a clearing about 50 feet from where Nasu was hiding and two groups of people got out of their respective copters.
From his position he could sense everyone’s energy but he couldn’t hear anything, he also couldn’t sense anyone significantly stronger than the rest. Their energy levels while all in different positions seemed to blend into each other.
He could feel two of the weaker members from each side split off and go in different directions, one of which was coming right towards him albeit slowly. Nasu could feel the man slowly approaching and his palms began to sweat, the doc had said he’d know when the men he was supposed to recognize got there. He assumed it was because their energy would be higher than everyone else’s but so far no one stood out and if the man approaching him was a guard no doubt he wouldn’t ignore Nasu the way the construction crews had. He was probably there to make sure no one was around to witness whatever the hell was going on that the doc was so interested in.
Finally Nasu could sense the man right next to him but he didn’t open his eyes. Instead he pretended to be sound asleep. Maybe the guard wouldn’t care that there was a homeless man sleeping, maybe he’d be a nice guy and let him rest.
“Hey bum, get on your feet and get the hell out of here.” well so much for that plan. He got to his feet senses still extended hoping that he’d be able to sense anything out of the ordinary but no one stood out. He had to stall.
“Sir,” he said extending his hands out towards the guard. “Can you spare some change, please anything will help.” he kept his eyes downcast and his tone low almost pleading. Instantly he could see the streets of New Vegeta, could remember being 10 and fighting for his life almost every morning just so he could beg for scraps or loose change. It was not pleasant but he managed to live through it then and it had toughened him, even now as all the images flashed back he managed to keep his energy suppressed as to not alert the guard or anyone else to the fact that he was anything more than a homeless man begging for change.
The guard instead of giving him a coin however just reached out and shoved his shoulder. “I said get the hell out!” Fine be that way ass. He would walk away around a corner and just try and sense the energy from there. However as Nasu turned to leave the guard caught hold of the edge of his jacket and spun him around. Normally he would never allow this to happen but with his power so low he couldn’t react fast enough to stop it. Instead the guard spun him and just stared at his chest...damn it.
“That pin.” he said pointing at the Red Flag pin Nasu always wore. It was the symbol that he was an officer in the Red Flag, one of the most well known mercenary groups on New Vegeta. And he had forgotten to remove the status symbol showing that he worked for them...brilliant.
“You son of a bitch you work for the Flag!” the guard drew back his fist to punch Nasu but before he had the chance Nasu stopped suppressing his energy, while the heavy weights he was wearing still slowed him down he was more than fast enough to dodge the guards punch. Ducking underneath the blow Nasu countered with a kick to the man’s stomach knocking him out almost instantly.
Feet away he could feel two of the men’s power levels skyrocket matching his own almost instantly. Oh they must have been suppressing their powers as well that made sense. He felt one of them race forward and the other power quickly ceased to exist...damn the doc wasn’t gonna be happy about this. Before he had time to process however the helicopters took off into the air again.
***
“Doc I swear I didn’t kill the other guy.”
“You absolute idiot! There were only two suppliers on the entire planet and one of them is dead because you couldn’t stay hidden!” Drake screamed at him.
“Yea but I wasn’t the one who attacked the other supplier, that has to count for something.” Nasu had no idea what these men were supplying that the doc so desperately needed but he just knew he hadn’t offed either of them. He actually wasn’t even sure if he could off the last one, the man’s power had jumped instantly to match his own.
“NO IT DOESN’T COUNT FOR ANYTHING HE’S STILL DEAD AND WE HAVE NOTHING!!” the doc’s face was turning red now.
“I, uh, I sensed the other suppliers energy. I would definitely be able to recognize it again.” he said and instantly the doc’s whole expression changed from one of rage to one of glee.
“Well why didn’t you start off with that. As long as you can find the one then we’re fine! Just like tonight I know where he’ll be next but if I couldn’t identify him then it was no use. But now, now Nasu we’re in business!”
“What business exactly? I’m not entirely sure what is going on except that I sorta witnessed a murder last night and you seem thrilled.”
“Oh please you’ve committed enough murders to not honestly care and I am thrilled. Now shut up and go home. I’ll call you again in a few days for the meet. This time I promise to give you more than ten minutes. But only fifteen since you did get the other supplier killed.”
You know what, he didn’t want to know. If he knew what he was a part of he’d only come to regret it later. Without another word Nasu turned and began to fly back home. It was now well past midnight and he needed to get what little sleep he could and damn it! He needed to talk to Amy and get her to go along with his lie or Yakuin and Tejun would be pissed the next time they talked to her. On top of that they’d think he was lying to them. He was lying to them but that was beside the point, he didn’t want his friends to think he wasn’t an honest person. The hypocrisy was not lost on him.
Taking a sharp turn he veered all the way across the city to Amy’s, luckily the brothel was always full of customers who would show up at any odd hours so the door was always open. Amy however turned out to be sound asleep and less than happy to be woken up at close to three in the morning.
“What the hell Nasu? Do you know what time it is?” she whispered.
“Yea I do I’m sorry, I just need to ask you for a favor.”
“What makes you think I’m going to do you a favor at 3 in the damn morning?”
“I flew to another planet and almost got killed multiple times doing favors for you, you owe me.”
“Ugh fine, what do you want?”
“I, uh...kinda used you as an excuse earlier tonight with Tejun and Yakuin, if either one of them call can you tell them you needed my help with something.”
“Oh that. Yakuin called earlier actually to see if I needed any additional help. He did say you were acting weird earlier too. So I covered for you and just said it was a booty call and no we did not need any additional help.”
“...a booty call. You told my boss that I bailed on him for a booty call?” Nasu said his voice dropping in embarrassment.
“Well I didn’t exactly have a lot to work with when I was sticking my neck out to cover for you. Way to call me yourself and let me know I needed to come up with an excuse by the way.” she said glaring at him.
“Yea it was just, Tejun specifically asked if I was bailing on him to have sex and I said no.”
“Well it’s not my fault you didn’t give me any warning to come up with a better excuse. Now we’re going to bed come in and shut the door behind you.”
“We? What? No. No? No. I can’t. I need to get back to the camp I have guard duty tomorrow morning.”
“Nasu, tonight I covered for you and said you were with me for a booty call. Don’t make me a liar.” with that she grabbed the front of his shirt dragging him into the room and closing the door herself, and for once at least, the rest of his night passed pleasantly.
****
Days past without Nasu getting any word from the doctor, but by this point he had given up on the idea he wouldn’t hear back from him by now. When days passed originally he had allowed himself to get his hopes up now he knew it was just a matter of time.
However he didn’t expect it to be the middle of the day when the call came in.
“Damn it I have things I’m supposed to be doing. I have a job you know.” he shouted at the pager that was incapable of responding.
[Outside the west entrance to the palace 30 minutes]
So true to his word 30 minutes later Nasu was standing outside the west entrance to the palace in the middle of the day when he was supposed to be on guard duty for the next 4 hours. More than a full hour later the doctor finally walked up casual as always.
“You know I have a job right? You can’t just call me in the middle of the day like this.”
“You’re wrong, I can and I did.”
“No seriously, Yakuin is going to be pis-”
“Don’t care. At least I gave you plenty of time to come up with an excuse this time so stop complaining.”
“Ok doc, so what’s the plan today?”
“Today, my dear dear boy you are going to stand guard next to me, you’re going to protect me from whatever the hell happens next, and you’re going to hopefully point out who was the energy signature you sensed all those weeks ago. If you can do that you’re free to go back to your job as you seemed so eager to do.”
“You mean for good I’m free?”
“Oh no no no.” the doctor laughed. “Not at all. I mean for today, you’re free to go back to work today. I thought you’d be excited.”
“You know I hate you right?” Nasu stared at the man.
“Doesn’t matter just do your job and we’ll be fine.” the doc said as he patted Nasu on the cheek condescendingly.
“So where are we going?” Nasu said from between clenched teeth. It seemed every encounter with the doc left him either creeped out or wanting to kill him.
“Going? No no no we’re staying right here. The man you sensed earlier, he is supposed to be walking through these gates sometime today. When he does you’re going to tell me and we’re going to confront him. I’m going to talk and you’re going to look intimidating, understood?”
“Yea I think I can handle that.” Nasu said as he put his face in his palm. If anyone from the Red Flag saw him just standing here there was legitimately no way he could explain this away
Another half hour passed while countless people walked in and out of the palace. Construction crews, various nobles, guards all came and went with none of them hitting Nasu’s senses as the man from the docs.
Finally after his senses picked up something, turning his head in the direction of the energy signature his jaw dropped open. The energy signature was coming from perhaps the most beautiful woman Nasu had ever seen. He knew he was supposed to tell someone about this but for the life of him Nasu couldn’t remember who he was supposed to talk to or what he was supposed to tell that person other than damn.
For a minute his mind stopped, but finally he came too again leaning over to the doc and pointing at the girl.
“The one that would cause traffic accidents from 3 miles away. That’s the energy from the docs.”
“Don’t point at her you idiot!” however it was too late. His mind is already flooding with every memory he had of the incident at the space docs. Wait, why was he thinking about that now? And then he realized his mind felt the same way it had when Zeke had read his thoughts. Slowly but surely Nasu started to push back. This time reaching out and fighting with his mind, he hears laughter and almost lets his guard down.
“So there is more to you than just hired muscle.” a woman’s voice echoed in his head. Instead of responding how he normally did to Zeke however Nasu decided to press forcing his own mind forward, much the way it did when he first learned telekinesis his nose started to bleed from the mental strain but eventually he pushed past to woman’s barriers and answered in her own mind.
“There is more to me than you will ever know lady.” he could catch flashes of thoughts racing through her mind but he couldn’t yet pull clear images out. That would only come with time and practice but for now he took a sense of pride in making it this far without any significant training. The patting himself on the back however was cut off as the woman responded her voice laced with horror and revulsion.
“How dare you invade my mind like that! Do you have any idea who I am?” her voice echoed this time in her own mind but Nasu could hear it clear as day. Nasu pressed harder into her mind forgetting about the splitting headache he could feel beginning from all the mental strain he was putting himself under. He continued to press until the quick passing images began to make sense, the woman was a noble, go figure, but she one who helped people, she provided controlled substance drugs to children in need who otherwise would go without. And she was the only person left on New Vegeta who had access to these drugs. She had a warehouse at the other end of the city far away from the palace where she kept all of them. And she knew that was exactly what Dr. Drake was looking for. As soon he saw the warehouse her mind went red, there was violent surge of power as Nasu was thrown from her mind.
Stumbling back from the mental blow Nasu looks down to see his shirt covered in blood and Dr. Drake just staring at him with an open mouth.
“I thought you were dead boy. Did she attack you?”
“Um sorta, I think I might have attacked her actually.” what he said next he would forever blame on the fact that he was still shaken from the mental fight and didn’t know any better. “I got inside her head myself though. I saw her thoughts it was amazing, she uses her drugs to help kids why do you want to fight her?”
The doctor’s head snapped back towards him. “You were in her head and saw the drugs? Where are they!”
“I umm, I don’t know, I didn’t see that much.” Nasu lied but he could tell by the smile forming on the doctor’s face he knew better.
“Now now Nasu, you know better than to lie to me. You were never very good at it in the first place but now you’re life is on the line. All I want is for you to lead me to the warehouse location and that’s exactly what you’re going to do.”
By now the woman Amber had walked past them into the palace. She refused to make eye contact with either Nasu or the doctor as if they were beneath her notice as she entered the compound however he could still sense a low level of fear growing off of her as she walked past.
Damn this telepathy thing was going to be tough to get used to.
Ten minutes later Nasu and the doctor were standing in front of a group of warehouses on the other end of the giant city. He couldn’t remember a time where he’d ever felt this ashamed of himself, but the doctor literally had the ability to ruin his life if he didn’t follow orders. He knew it was wrong but he pointed to one of the warehouses. “That’s the one. That’s the one with all the drugs in it.” he was sickened by what he was doing but he had to know how deep the rabbit hole went. “Doc, I haven’t asked yet, but what do you need the drugs for?”
The doc flung open the door and saw an entire warehouse full of medical boxes and grinned like a kid on space Christmas. “Oh yes,” the doc said looking back at him, “I plan to refine all of this into a drug people can sell on the streets. As it is now this is all just useless painkillers but with a little work this can be worth millions of zeni, enough to fund my research for years to come.”
So not only was he taking helpful drugs away from children, he was then going to get thousands more addicted to narcotics, he wanted to curl into a ball and just cease to exist. He sensed her power level seconds before he heard her land.
“I knew there were people like you out there doc, but hearing it now makes me sick.” Nasu turned around and sure enough it was Amber walking towards them, silver aura flaring around her wildly in her rage.
“And you Nasu, to help him like this. To lead him here, none of this would have been possible without you, and for that you’re just as bad as he is even if you’re not stealing the drugs for yourself.” she practically spat the words out.
“You don’t understand.” Nasu said almost pleading with the woman for forgiveness.
“I do understand, he’s got something over your head, he’s forcing you to be here. It doesn’t matter! You’ve forsaken your pride as a saiyan! You’ve allowed someone to blackmail you into being their lapdog. You’re pathetic.”
The worst part was Nasu couldn’t even dispute it. He knew what he was doing was wrong, he knew he was doing it because he was backed into a corner but that didn’t make it any more right but to hear it spoken out loud like that stung.
Still he laid the majority of the blame on Tsuyo’s feet, if the king had just recognized him the way he had Akassa none of this would have happened. He couldn’t be blackmailed by his heritage that he had no control over. Instead here he was fighting for his life on the wrong side because of that bastard. One thing stood out, he wouldn’t die before the king! Without another word Nasu dropped into a fighting stance and stopped suppressing his energy his own hellish red aura flaring up around him.
“So you’ve made your choice then?” she said staring at him but also dropping into a fighting stance.
Instead of answering Nasu just rushed forward ducking under a hastily thrown jab and delivering a kick to her side that sent her flying. Quick to recover she springs back to her feet and rushes back at Nasu, while still a few feet away she launched an energy blast at Nasu’s head, dodging underneath it Nasu didn’t see her behind it. Instead he looks up just in time to take one of her boots to the back of his head.
As he goes skidding forward across the pavement he slams back first into one of the warehouses. Screaming in pain Nasu jumps back to his feet a split second before a group of energy blasts explode in the spot where he just was knocking down that side of the warehouse as well.
Charging again Amber launches dozens of ki blasts at him forcing him to swerve and weave his way closer to her but leaving him unable to close the distance without getting too close to dodge the blasts. Instead he reached out with his telekinesis and grabbed a rock behind her and flung it at her back. She only paused for a second but that was enough. Nasu flew forward in the pause and closed the gap between to where it was too close for her to fire a blast or she’d be caught up in the explosion as well. Aiming a punch at her chest her hand shoots out launching a ki blast that sent them both flying backwards caught up in the explosive wave.
“Did you really think I would let you get away that easily?”
“Well I had kinda hoped yea.”
With that Nasu threw his own energy blast at the woman this time following close behind it. She batted the relatively weak blast away but left herself open and Nasu followed up with a devastating punch to her chest.
Amber went flying back grabbing at her chest trying to grasp in air. Nasu instead of giving her a chance to catch her breathe and instead launches a destructo disk at her and charges behind it. As she jumps above it however she uses her tail to whip Nasu across the face drawing a line of blood under his eye.
Fine if she wanted to play it like that so could Nasu. He might not have a tail but he didn’t have the disadvantages that came with a tail either.
Charging her again this time Nasu uses his telekinesis to pull her tail down towards his hand. Never stopping his momentum he flies right past her grabbing the tail on the go and using his momentum to whip her down into the ground as hard as he can.
Instead of giving her a chance to recover Nasu see’s the cloud of dust she kicked up in the air. Using his telekinesis again he grabs hold of the dust and condenses it as much as possible and sends it flying into her mouth as she gasps for air again this time choking her further.
Taking advantage of the fact that she’s weak Nasu dives down and delivers a kick right to her stomach knocking out.
“Good.” Drake says coming out from hiding in the partially destroyed warehouse. “Now finish her off and help me load the drugs into the car over there.” he said pointing at a car Nasu hadn’t noticed in the back of the warehouse. Clearly it was how they moved the drugs out of the warehouse normally.
“No.” he said standing between the doctor and Amber.
“She’s seen your face, if you don’t kill her she’ll turn us in for stealing her drugs.”
“Her illegal drugs...she will turn us in for stealing the drugs she can’t legally own. Yea lets see that happen.”
“Fine get out of the way and I’ll do it myself.”
“No you won’t” Nasu said putting up a hand and shoving Drake back a step. “You have your drugs, load them in the truck and move on.”
“Nasu you’re not exactly in a position to argue now are you boy?” he said anger seeping into his voice.
“You know I thought about that. But now I think I am, you still need me, you can only turn me in once and then I’m as good as dead and so are you. Cause we both know if you turn me in you’re not making it out alive either. So while I might be stuck working for you for now I certainly don’t have to do everything you say like a little bitch.”
“You insolent little-”
“And let me remind you as well. I’m talking to most of my family now. My plan has always been to tell them eventually. And when that day comes you’ll no longer have any hold over me. I want you to think on that and where that will leave our relationship doc.”
Without waiting for him to respond Nasu turned around and picked up Amber, he tried very hard not to stare at the drop dead gorgeous woman he now had in his arms and flew away. Landing half a city away he put her down and sat until she started to stir and regain consciousness.
Waking with a start she springs to her feet before putting a hand to her head and taking a staggering step forward.
“You.” she spits out the word with all the contempt she can muster.
“Yes me. Now sit down you were just unconscious for like a half hour and that can’t be good for you.”
“You stole everything I’ve worked for!
“Yea I did, sorry.”
“And I gather now you’re here to finish me off. Wanted me awake to kill me? I knew you were scum.”
“Yea I totally waited until you were conscious and able to fight back to kill you in a highly public place. That’s a great strategy. No you idiot I just wanted to make sure you were alive and there wasn’t any permanent damage in case I had to fly you to a hospital.”
“You took everything from me.”
“I did, but I didn’t take your life. You can start over, it’ll be tough but you did it once you can do it again.”
“Why?” she said looking at him defeated eyes wet on the verge of tears. “So you can just tear it all down again, give you another excuse to rob me and then try and comfort me after it’s too late to do anything.”
“That won’t happen again, me and the doctor had a few words and we may have reworked our relationship slightly.” walking forward he put a hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her only to see her flinch back.
“Look I can’t tell you what to do with your life, but you wanted to help people and you did. Admittedly now you have to start from scratch but you know what it takes to move up now. You know you can do it. Use that and push forward.”
She looked up slight defiance returning to her face. “I could still turn you in for robbery you know.”
“For what your super illegal drugs?”
“For destroying my warehouse then.”
“If I remember correctly that was you. You threw me into the warehouse then blew it up with an energy blast. The most I did was just lie there and get attacked.” seeing that she was going to be better now if not completely ok he stands up fully and begins to fly away. He stopped in midair however and turned back.
“Good luck Amber.” he said looking back.
“You still suck.” was all she said turning away and jumping down off the other side of the roof and flying away.
Yea that seemed about right.
***
Telepathy: The ability to speak directly in someone else's mind and the ability to block out others who attempt to read his mind.
