Bring Me To Life

[Vegeta]

Vegeta frowned at her incredible eagerness. Something was amiss. He stared up at the sky as he watched her zip off like a rocket.

His black eyes shifted to the book he kind of wanted to finish already and then back to her trail of energy. Should he follow and observe? The Saiyajin tilted his head, very thoughtful about that before he suddenly waved it off. What trouble could she possibly get into? Besides, he was not her keeper anyway.

With that in mind, he found a comfortable spot in the neatly trimmed grass to flop down on. The prince stretched then relaxed on his back, one leg drawn up for him to cross the other over as he found his marked spot somewhere in the middle of the book. He smirked at the vile details. "He got caught with the dragon's acid attack...Now that must be painful." Vegeta had once gotten hit by a Saibaman's acid attack, but he had never had his whole front smothered in the horrid stuff. It didn't seem a very noble death to say the least.

The relaxed warrior hummed, wondering where exactly the girl was going as he kept track of her ki.

[Sansho "Pepper"]

While Pepper would always be of the mind that she was faster on the ground, she still couldn't help but be astonished at how fast she was in the air. The wind tore at her and the energy field surrounding her. Unable to help herself, she spun in a corkscrew, laughing before grinning and racing still.

The 'beacon' she had tied to the ground called to her, growing louder with each and every second. Never the good judge of distance, Pepper wasn't exactly sure how far it was, or where it was leading he-

Wait. That was the desert.

Only the training Mister Vegeta had beaten into kept her from falling out of the sky. Still, her heart began thudding alarmingly, her skin paling. Inside her mind, she could feel how tense Kakiri was. The sweat dripping from her forhead suddenly had nothing to do with exertion.

If they sensed her... Could they sense her? What if someone went chasing after her? What if she went too close? She didn't even know where she was over the desert, and had no way of knowing which way to go to avoid the colony. The only way was up. Tilting her head back, she gazed upwards before altering her course, rocketting into the sky until she burst through the clouds. The sheer height and distance from the earth caused her to feel a bit queasy, but she ignored it and focused on moving as fast as she could.

Please don't feel me, please don't feel me, please don't feel me... Unable to help herself, she clenched her eyes shut. Only Kakiri's swearing caused her to open her eyes and watch where she flew again.

The sands, however, had faded to a lush green plateau surrounded by the mountains. The Ikikesan blinked before lowering her altitude. The beacon was coming up close... Huh. That looked like a crater... Really clos-

She passed it!

"GAAAAAAH!" Pepper shrieked before flipping in the air and plumetting to the ground. Only a few hundred feet from the ground, she abruptly altered her altitude, declining to the ground before the energy blazing around her vanished.

After her first landing, she had failed miserably until she had gotten the hang of it. She still wasn't all that great, however, and had trouble altering her flying to land on her feet. Instead, she hit the landing on her hands, almost appearing out of nowhere as she pushed off the ground, launching into a smooth flip to land on her feet in a crouch.

Her green eyes looked at the nearby crater in some surprise. Had she just not noticed that before? Apparently... Blinking, she looked around, the wind whipping her short black locks. "Puppy? Are you here?" She called, cupping her hands around her mouth. Because of her haste, she hadn't changed clothes at all, and still only wore the black shorts and sports bra, and white gloves and boots on her feet, though she would have preferred to be barefoot.

[Raditz]

Even before she finally joined him on the ground, Raditz took note of her arrival due to her rushing by through the air and realizing she had sort of overshot his position. He scrambled up from his sitting position to look over now that she had managed a somewhat sloppy landing. His brows furrowed at the display, only used to seeing such showy landings done by some of the peacocks in Frieza's army. It was amusing earthlings did the same thing.

Excitement bubbled in his stomach as he saw she was truly there in body. Right now his luck seemed incredibly good! 'Yes, this is totally happening! I may say fuck it to the others and take a moment to enjoy being fucking alive again before I do anything else!' The idea was unbelievably appealing. Have a real meal again, enjoy a swim in actual water, bathe in the sun, oh, oh, hunt. Oh yes, some hunting in the night. His image wavered slightly due to his anticipation but he got himself under control. Baby steps at a time. He jumped up, calling out though he was skeptical if she could hear him. Then he worried she might not be able to see his spirit form. 'Crap, I hope so...'

"I'm here, by the crater!" The wolf pup called, doing some more jumps in the air so she could hopefully see him. After a few more leaps up, the furball jumped high enough to flip backwards into the crater and landed on the shallow burial site just a couple feet down. "Now I'm in the crater. Ha, get it?!"

'Give her some ridiculous humor, act every bit the cute and spunky pup, lure her on in.' He mentally told himself as he stared upward past the rim of the crater, waiting to see her poke her head over. If need be, he would hop back out and doing the silly stunt all over again, "Come on! The sooner we do this, the sooner we can hang out and crap!"

[Sansho "Pepper"]

Hey. She was allowed some sloppy landings. She wasn't exactly a bird type of gal.

A voice caught her attention, causing her to blink and swivel around. At first, she saw nothing, a confused look on her face. Then, the woman hit her forehead with her hand, wrinkling her nose before sighing and closing her eyes, concentrating. There was a stiring of the gaian energies and of her own ki before her eyes opened again, the green brighter, almost like it was glowing in the afternoon light.

Now she saw him. In her haste, she forgot to use whatever it was that allowed druids to see spirits. Pepper definitely wasn't the best of druids... Good thing it wasn't her main spec.

"Radish!" The Ikikesan waved to him before laughing at his little jumps and leaps. She blinked as he vanished before another burst of laughter escaped her.

Of course, by the time he spoke again, she had already moved. "What do we need to do?!" She asked, crouched behind him in the crater, head resting in her hands. She felt so light!!

[Raditz]

Relieved that she could see him and that she had come over as he called, he sat down. His little tricks had seemed to appeal to her which made him smirk to himself. Women tended to be easy to please with cute little animals, it was almost pathetic in a way. He wiped the smirk off, if it even showed, and continued to look happy and friendly. Hopefully she would properly retain the information he gave her.

"My body was buried here...Not exactly a proper burial if you ask me but at least the bones are here and intact. Now, all I need you to do take one of my bones and we'll take it with us. There is a place where my uncle had left a machine that we can use to bring me back to life. And then we can be the best of pals forever and ever." The pup gave her a cheesy grin as he stood back up. He climbed his way back out of the crater and stood next to her, wagging his tail.

"I should be able to travel with you so long as there's a piece of me going...And don't be alarmed how big the bone may be, I'm actually a bigger puppy than I look right now." Radish winked at her. He had realized late in the game that his bones might seem unusually large for a 'puppy' plus his skull might throw her off...Hopefully she only unearthed an arm, rib or leg bone.

[Sansho "Pepper"]

It was true that Pepper wasn't exactly the most attentive of people. Still, as her training with Mister Vegeta had proven, she could occasionally surprise those around her by paying attention with a bit more then her usual spazzoid-

What was she thinking about again?

As he spoke, she looked around in some surprise at the crater before looking at where he stood, tilting her head a bit. Something that Kakiri said caused her to wrinkle her nose, but she shook it off, smiling brightly when he mentioned being pals forever and ever.

"Goodie! I don't really have many friends..." Her lower lip came out in a pout as she lowered her hands, clasping them in front of her as she listened, bouncing on her toes as she stayed crouched, listening.

"Huh... Okay!" She bounced to her feet, looking at the ground and debating how to go about this. Shrugging, she reached down to press her hand to the earth, concentrating and feeling the energies, searching. It didn't take long before she found something. Frowning, she moved her hand over the spot. The ground here was too soft to displace without having to take a larger chunk then she wanted. She would have to dig. Luckily, it wasn't too far.

Digging energetically, she pushed past the loose soil, digging deeper and deeper until her hand hit something. Grunting, she began to pull, trying to dislodge the object from what felt like years, maybe decades of dirt. Then-

It finally came loose, sending her to fall on her bottom, blinking. Feeling victorious, she looked at what was in her ha-

Holy fuck it was a spine!

She stared at it for a long moment before yelping and dropping it. Then, she blinked, and picked it up again, looking sheepish. "Sorry Radish! I didn't mean to drop it..." Laughing nervously she looked at the hole she had made and paused to push the dirt back in the hole, patting it flat. Pausing, she thought hard before closing her eyes, hand over the spot.The ground began to shook a bit before small stones rose from the ground to spiral just below her hand. The circling stones flew in tighter circles until they came together in a small cairn.

"There! I know it's pointless since I'm helpin' bring you back.. but... Now you have a proper burial! Sorta... So! Where we going!"

[Raditz]

Raditz watched as she seemed to will the earth to give out where his bones were exactly. He flinched and looked away when she succeeded in unearthing his spine. There was something unbelievably unsettling about seeing your own bones like that, he hadn't realized how strange and warped it would feel.

Taking a deep breath, he looked back and had an eye twitch as she dropped it. Well, he wasn't going to hold it against her. It wasn't like she was digging bodies up on a regular basis and even he had been unsettled by it. Besides, she apologized...And what was that?

He tilted his head, blinking at her. She had more or less entombed the bones in a cairn? But why? It wasn't like she had anything to gain from it and she was already helping him a great deal as it was. Hell, he would be alive soon so it didn't matter...Yet she went out of her way to do him this simple honor? The pup continued to blink at her, appearing quite confused still before he refocused on their task at hand.

Sighing lightly, and even feeling a touch guilty for all this deception now, he pointed his nose to the northwest. "To the northwest, past the mountains, there is the site where an immense tree once grew. It had depleted the Earth of life for a short time years ago but a hero stopped it. My uncle's ship will be there, under the tree's remains." He didn't specify who the hero was and if she inquired further, he would lie and say it was his uncle. Kakarot got credit for plenty, so it wasn't like it mattered. All that mattered was that his goal was nearly at hand.

[Sansho "Pepper"]

Completely unaware that she had just achieved the impossible and showing that the druidic saiyajin might have had a fraction of a conscience- one hell of a feat, since he had kidnapped his own nephew as bait for his brother!- Pepper just took a moment to catch her breath. Shifting the earth had taken a bit more out of her then she had thought, especially after the training she had done. Not to mention, it seriously wasn't her forte, though she could still pull it off.

Pepper held the spine gingerly in her gloved hands, watching him. A frown touched her lips, her eyes growing distant as she conferred with Kakiri. The other half of her mind actually found it strange that the spine in her hand was so large, but she argued that he had been a big dog. And he had to be a really good dog if his spirit form was a puppy and not a mean adult dog or something! Giving up and muttering something about idiotcies, the second half worked to try to figure out where they were going.

I guess we'll just have to fly and look for a large, dead tree. Kakiri paused before speaking again, some of the scorn gone. That's... strange. I think I remember something draining away the gaian energies...

Wait... so do I... I remember it made me sad...

Made you sad?! It pissed me off! Kakiri snapped, ending that conversation. Shaking her head, Pepper came back to and bobbed her head. "Right! Well! Here we go!-"

And she was gone.

[Raditz]

He was a little surprised by his own feeling of guilt, even though the deception was not quite so bad. It had to have been his lengthy stay in Hell. Something about it seemed to have made him pay some penance for past actions and brought his concious out a little more than it was before. Ugh, meeting his living relatives and apologizing was going to be hell. In any case...

He was completely unaware of the warring minds he was dealing with. But it did make him sweat a little as she seemed to eye the spine with a hint of scrutiny, or at least had an air of scrutiny about her somehow. It didn't seem like he would be questioned about the unusual size of the spine and for that he thanked the moon. Luck was still good so far.

"Ack!"

The wolf pup yipped as she took off and he managed to follow with, not only due to his life long experiences in flight but also because of the pull of the connection to that prominent part of his long gone body. He wondered if the sealing of the rest of his body helped in breaking him away from his resting place. Either way they were up and off, heading for the snowy capped mountains on their way to the northwestern edge of the continent.

[Sansho "Pepper"]

At least her take-offs weren't so crappy anymore, other wise there would be another, smaller crater in the spinach wastes.

Glancing behind her almost curiously, she saw the form of the puppy chasing after her. Apparently she had surprised him with her sudden take-off. A grin spread across her features before she looked forward again. Was the air growing colder? Ack! This was going suck...!

Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself faster. The quicker she got over the mountains, the quicker she could warm up again. The mountains flew underneath her, zooming past her like nobody's busines-

Huh?

For a moment she thought she had sensed something. Glancing down in some surprise, she blinked, but didn't stop, continueing her rapid pace through the skies. Then, she glanced behind her.

"You keeping up okay, Radish?!"

[Shio Alabasta]

It wasn't often that people flew over the mountains without their machines so when the unwitting Ikikesan flew by, Shio was quite surprised to see her without a machine at all.

"What in the..."

Shio watched the other person zip by but even in that fraction of a second that she caught sight of the oddity, she knew.

Another Ikikesan.

'How strange. I didn't know we could fly...Perhaps they have progressed more than I thought.' The lithe woman chewed he bottom lip. She had to pursue and investigate. Even if it meant leaving Suto-mu on his own for a while. Growling at the thought, she leapt along with mountain ridge back to the cave where the great wolf was resting. She took comfort in the fact that even on his own, he would still be able to take care of himself.

"Suto, as much as I hate to do this-" She rushed into the cave, intent on not losing the trail.

On her entry, the wolf lifted his head and smirked softly. He was already aware what was on her mind as she made herself busy depositing the bundles of rabbits on the ground before him. "Tis fine. I understand your urgency and you should make haste before they are out of reach." The woman faltered for a second as he slowly stood, then she wrapped her arms around his neck. He stood still through the embrace.

"Hopefully it won't take me too long, but if it does..." Shio faltered, wanting to banish the thought and failing miserably.

"I would rather you find a remedy to your seizures than worry about my fate here. Go." He nudged her with his cold nose, which she pat gently before she did as told. The Ikikesan charged back out the cave entrance and leapt through the air, her leaps much longer and reaching farther distances as she followed the earthly trail of energy the other left.

'This better not be a waste of our time or so help me, I will kill them...'

[Raditz]

The wolf pup didn't understand why she was rushing to fly faster even though he could not argue against the speed. The faster there, the quicker alive, the sooner to enjoy it. So as she sped up, he did too.

He glanced down, taking in the snowy caps and it didn't take much to realize she must not like the cold. He didn't blame her, he wasn't a big fan of it either though for more than the reason that it was chilly. Frankly he hated the ongoing joke about his hair and how effective a blanket it was. It never seemed to get old and Vegeta had taunted him about it mercilessly.

Growling at the memory, he looked back to her as they flew. "Just fine. This is nothing really." As the lightly frosted mountains gave way to a mixture of forest and rock, Raditz could easily make out where the tree was. Not only was the large mountain-like pile of mangled, scorched and decayed wood noticable to the eye but he could feel it. It gave him the feeling that a giant corpse was laid out before him. 'Creepy...'

"That's it." He zipped down to where most of the roots were torn apart and vegetation had climbed over them, claiming some of the rich nutrients of the now dead tree for themselves. Raditz glanced around, unsure how they were supposed to find the ship below, if it even remained that was. He audibly huffed as he searched.

"There should be a...er, moveable metal house underneath somewhere." Floating in the air over a root, he wasn't sure how well 'ship' would translate so he simply went with the idea that it was a mobile metal house. Apparently the earthlings had such things so it was bound to be fitting. "There might be a chamber of space but I'm not sure if it's collapsed..."

[Sansho "Pepper"]

A sense of wrong permeaded Pepper's senses as she turned back forward. Completely unaware that they were being followed by another of her kind, Pepper focused on what was in front of them. It looked like another mounta-

Wait.

Her green eyes actually widened as she realized what was in front of her. At first glance, it had seemed like it was a smaller, somewhat lesser mountain. But the strange sense of death seemed so strong to her senses. And somehow, the earth seemed weaker here, even if only lesser, as though still remembering the great parasite that had leached it's life.

The Ikikesan slowed just enough to follow the spirit dog as he shot down to the roots. Frankly, it was all Pepper could do to follow him, her shoulders tense. It felt so wrong and creepy here...

Blinking at him, she took another look around, narrowing her eyes as she searched for this 'metal house'. It was actually Kakiri who saw the gleam of metal. "Radish! Over there?" She pointed at where the faint gleam had come before flying there herself.

[Raditz]

"Yes! That's it!"

Raditz bound over to the sign of metal. He wasn't sure what part of the ship it was but any part worked for him. "Give me a second..." The spirit phased through the wall to the other side where it appeared to be someone's quarters. Actually, the room was quite big if not set up lavishly in a sort of primal and very familiar fashion. This must have been Turles's quarters. His dark eyes skimmed through the darkness, seeing better than a normal person would.

It didn't look like any manner of tank was inside.

He started to go forward and explore further but remembered Pepper would be stuck waiting anxiously on the other side. The wolf eyed the wall between them then went back through.

"The room seems stable on the other side, I suggest you be careful getting through the wall...Don't blast anything." Not only did he want all of the integrity to stay in shape, but he didn't want her damaging anything in his uncle's room. Some items in there looked to be of invaluable quality and of Saiyajin make. Turles had always acted like a damned aristocrat despite being born third-class. It was heartening to think that at least somewhere, there were Saiyajin artifacts on hand though. For once, his uncle's high opinion of himself worked in their favor. "You break anything in there, and I'll, uh, be incredibly sad. Be careful coming in, it's pretty dark in there and I'm not sure if any of the power is working."

For good measure, he gave her a pitiful puppy face before going back in. He zipped over to the sealed doors on the other side of the room and examined the hall. It was collapsed to the right but the left looked fine and hopefully led to where they needed to go.

[Sansho "Pepper"]

I don't like this. The voice spoke after the spirit dog had dived through the wall, breaking the silence in her head. During much of the flight, Kakiri had been silent except for some incoherent ragings at the strange sensation they had found over the mountains.

What do you mean? Pepper asked cautiously, looking around as she hugged herself, hovering just above the ground near the metal wall.

There's something wrong here. I don't like it here. We should go. It was when Kakiri got serious that Pepper got worried. She chewed her lip as she waited.

We'll only stay long enough to help Puppy Radish, then go. She promised herself.

That's the thing. I- Whatever Kakiri was about to say was lost as Radish came back out. She nearly jumped out of her skin at his sudden appearance, losing her balance and falling on her ass. Wincing, she rose to her feet, brushing herself off.

"It will? Then I'll be real careful!" Pepper assured him before looking at the wall. It would be easy enough to blast it open, but she didn't want to risk breaking anything on the other side. Sighing a bit, she braced herself, studying the wall. Unless she really wanted to cut her hand badly, she was going to have to be careful.

Kakiri?

Do four strikes. One north, one east, one west, one south, and make a dent in the shape of a diamond. Then a center strike. That should weaken the wall enough to break through it and give you a large enough opening to work with. The reply was instant, and simple. Nodding to her self, she drew her fist back. Don't do too strong of strikes. Just enough to dent it hard.

Pleased that Kakiri was trusting her to do this, she opened her fist to do a flat-palmed strike instead. Like Kakiri instructed, she hit the wall four times, close together, then spun and kicked the wall for the final strike, creating a breach and unleashing a storm of dust into the air. Waving her hand to clear the air in front of her, Pepper reached forward to grab the jagged edge of metal, grateful for the gloves that Mister Vegeta had made her wear. Grunting, she slowly peeled the metal back. The resulting screech of metal as she tore the opening wider nearly made her sensitive ears bleed, but did the job. Carefully, she climbed in, dropping onto the dusty floor.

I've never seen anything like this... Kakiri muttered as Pepper looked around, taking note of what was inside before carefully stepping across the floor to the faintly glowing form of the spirit dog. Prying her fingers into the seam of the sealed doors, she began to pull the doors apart, wincing at the screech of metal, and thanking the gaian energies when she was able to get through it.

"My ears... Augh! Where to...?" The Ikikesan rubbed the pointed appendages, squinting down the dark corridor. The only light she had was from the breach she had made in the ship's walls and other small cracks where something else had damaged the ship. She was willing to bet that a good deal of the dust had come from the various breaches and collapsed parts of the structure...