Part Four
"It's Just Another Day"

There's razors in my bed that come out late at night
They always disappear before the morning light
I'm dreaming again of life underground
It doesn't ever move, it doesn't make a sound
And just when I think that things are in their place
The heavens are secure, the whole thing explodes in my face

It's just another
Just another day...

--Oingo Boingo, "Just Another Day"

In the relative quiet of the infirmary the dull thud sounded like the slam of a giant's fist on a door, setting the more delicate glassware jingling faintly.

"What the--" Bulma gasped, bolting up from her chair

"Hunter." Gokou's eyes opened slowly. "Aaa, sore wa zannen da....Ne?"

"A pity? Why're you saying it's a pity?"

"I was hoping he wouldn't find this place so soon." Turning, Gokou put both hands on Bulma's shoulders. "Stay with Vegeta. Watch him. I'll make sure Hunter doesn't get down here to bother you."

"Son-kun..." Bulma looked up at the gently smiling face of her friend, then on impulse hugged him. "Don't die again, all right?"

"I'm not planning on it." Turning, Gokou flew up the corridors, turning to head out the partially ruined wall and circle around, peering down. Yes, there was the Hunter, already making himself a doorway into the building. Briefly Gokou glanced to the north. *Gohan-kun*.

*Otou-san??*

*Hurry everyone along, okay? I'll keep Hunter busy till you get here*.

*Demo, Otou-san-!*

*Gohan. Dont worry about me. I'll be okay.*

*...Hai. ...Please, Otou-san..? Please be okay?*

*Hai.* Gaining a little more altitude, Gokou let himself drop, feet first, powering down so his ki was almost nonexistent. His full weight-- some 600-plus pounds, heritage of a race born with denser bones and tissues to stand up to the crushing gravity of Vegetasei--slammed into Hunter's back and knocked the armored figure to its knees.

"Ossu!" Gokou said cheerily, and slammed a fist down about where he thought the Hunter's kidneys might be, then rolled off and cartwheeled away to his feet as the armor lit up with an electrical charge.

"You again. Where's Prince Vegeta?"

"Anou....Would you believe I forgot?"

"No." Turning, Hunter leveled an arm and fired a beam of crackling blue energy. Gokou darted out of its way and picked up a chunk of masonry, fired it like a fastball. The Hunter caught it and crushed it to dust, then began to walk forward. "Matter of fact, now that I find you here, I'm willing to bet he's somewhere inside that building. But until I put you out of business, you'll just pull that disappearing trick with him again. So you're the dish of the day."

"Oya ma! Don't talk about food, you'll get me hungry."

"Maybe you should consider leaving to get yourself something to eat, then."

"Sankyuu, I think I can last a little while longer."

"Your funeral, Gokou." Again the blue beam lanced out, this time a double shot. One passed so close Gokou could hear the air hiss at its passage like a nest of snakes as he dodged. Extending a palm, he returned fire, sending a rapid stream of small ki charges lancing in at Hunter. It almost certainly wouldn't harm him, but it would distract him-- Gokou swept around and came in from one side, letting his senses guide him.

Before his kick connected, an unyielding arm was there to block it.

This is not gonna be easy fight. Doubling up, Gokou put his hands to Hunter's shoulders, grabbing what handhold he could, and flipped the massive figure into the framework of a nearby construction site even as the return shock numbed his hands and lower arms. Shaking them, Gokou glanced briefly down at his palms. They were reddened, as if he'd put his hands for a second into something hot enough to incinerate a human at once...and probably a Saiyajin too. Flying forward, he caught up a girder and swung it like a baseball bat as the Hunter emerged from a pile of shattered rock.

Instead of ducking, the Hunter caught the other end of the girder. "Bad move." The black armor flared blue-white and an arc of energy raced up the metal, slamming Gokou back. As he staggered to his feet, Hunter flung the girder at him like a javelin. It caught Gokou square in the chest and slammed him into one of the supports of the high-rise, bringing brick and mortar and rafters raining down to bury the Saiyajin beneath them.

"That was easier than I--" Hunter broke off as the helmet's sensors registered a rising power source under the tons of material. "What the...can't be. No one without a suit of battle armor could've--"

The rubble exploded upward as a figure shot skywards, aura flaring red as flame. "Kaiouuuuuu KENNNN!"

"...Ohhhhhh shhiiiiii--" the rest of the Hunter's remark was lost in an impact that sent shock waves rolling across the ground as Gokou rammed a shoulder into the metal chest, then pulled back and rained blows home so fast the armor's energy had barely time to sear his knuckles. Under the barrage the Hunter staggered backwards, off balance, a thin whine rising as the neuroservos of the suit raced to compensate. This is insane! No purely organic being could be this strong and this fast. But I'm not registering so much as a pacemaker on this guy! No wonder half the universe runs for cover when they hear the word 'Saiyajin'! --I can't waste any more time playing. The Brat Patrol has to be on the way, he's just buying time. Have to take Gokou down hard, then catch Vegeta unguarded.

As Gokou drew back for a final punch before backing off again, the Hunter's armor suddenly flared a bright white. Dazzled, Gokou threw up a hand to shield his eyes and felt something thin and cold wrap around it, around his arm, around his body--thousands of metal cables, drawn from the material of the Hunter's suit, encasing him in a web. With all his strength he reared back, trying to pull free before they finished entrapping him. Instead he simply lifted the Hunter off the ground with him.

"Look..." the Hunter's voice was quieter now, slower, regret plain past the hollow echos of the helmet. "There's no need for this. Just let me take care of Vegeta and I'll be out of here. What has he got on you, anyway? Why are you protecting him like this? Your son told me you helped drive Vegeta off once. You can't hold him in any kind of regard. Is he threatening to kill your wife or your parents or something?"

"Iie." Gokou twisted, still straining backwards. Tiny drops of blood sprang up where the wires were cutting into him here and there, staining the dark metal darker still. "He's changed. Besides, what right you've got to come and take a man's life on one side of what he's done? Isn't it better let him live to make up for bad he did before he knew better?"

"There's no making up for a thousand planets and more destroyed. No, Vegeta didn't take all those out himself, but the Saiyajin did. Someone has to be held accountable."

"The one who ordered all that is dead already!"

"Furiiza, you mean. I know all about the alliance the Saiyajin made with King Cold and his sons. But the Saiyajin could've backed out of that any time they wanted. They didn't. They liked being the destroyers of worlds. You, now...you seem a little different, somehow. In all honesty, I should probably take out every Saiyajin and half-Saiyajin I find here, just to be on the safe side, but the contract's only for Vegeta, and I'm willing to forget I ever found out about you. Just stop interfering."

"I can't...do that..." Gokou gasped as the cables tightened still more, holding him motionless. "Vegeta's...my friend."

"You've got lousy tastes in friends. Your pal is a killer without any mercy or compassion at all."

"He's...not like that inside...any more! He's...n.n.."

Hunter sighed. "I can't argue any longer. I want you to know...you've got a hell of a better heart than I have, if you can forgive Prince Vegeta and offer him a chance to change. But some people can't, and those are the people I'm working for. I wish this could be different, Gokou. You're probably the only nice guy I've ever met in this whole dirty business. I promise, I'll make sure Hunter Central issues some kind of compensation to your family, so they won't starve or anything."

Then the wires lit with arcs of electricity.

****

Even miles away, they all heard the scream.

Trunks gasped. "G...Gokou-san..."

Piccolo bared his teeth and swore. "The Hunter's got him."

Grim-faced, Gohan suddenly flared into Super Saiyajin and took off, the air cracking apart in a sonic boom as he put on speed. There was no gentleness left in his expression at all, only a fierce intensity-- and, perhaps, just the faintest trace of welcome. All his doubts dropped away. I'm born to this too, Piccolo-san, he thought. I'm my father's son as well as my mother's.

Otou-san, forgive me, I never understood. You live for peace as much as I do, and love it, but you know, you always knew, the other side of peace is war, and the fighting we do is like the storm, afterwards the earth's renewed and ready to live again...tears glittered from his eyes as Gohan pushed himself harder, not even hearing the others behind him as they called out, racing to catch up to him. How could I forget that? This is your gift inside me, to be able to protect the things I love, to be warrior and scholar both, I can be both, I CAN be--

(You're a mystery to your dad, sometimes, Gohan, but it doesn't matter to him to understand everything you do or say or choose. All that really matters is that you're happy.)

"I'm almost there, Otou-san, wait for me, onegai--"

****

White hot, searing, and a terrible feeling of choking as all the muscles locked shut, heart hammering and stumbling, struggling to keep an even beat as the power overrode everything and the pain became the world...

(one more one more moment gohan trunks and juu-san piccolo almost almost here more hunter wastes on me their better chance and i can't breathe it was like this then too my heart it hammered so aa vegeta sorry so sorry failed you)

Dark eyes snapped open.

(kakarott?...NO!)

Bulma shrieked a little and held up her hands as Vegeta rammed a fist through the plexiglass of the regen tank and flew out, aura flaring gold. "Vegeta! No! You're still not--"

Ignoring her, Vegeta turned and rocketed out into the hall, then straight up and out the roof. The crackle of energy drew his attention at once. The Hunter; Kakarott. No, not dying. Not yet...but Vegeta's nerves ached with the memory of that burning embrace, and it was enough to kill in time. All too short a time. Flattening a palm, Vegeta gathered his ki. "Super Vegeta no...BIG BANG ATTACK DA!"

The Hunter jerked and the faceless head turned, the cables beginning to retract, letting their prisoner drop free. Two slender forms darted in at once and snatched Gokou from the line of fire. In the same moment Vegeta heard a shout of rage: "MAASENNNKOOOO!"

As the Hunter, caught in the crossfire, plummeted, Gohan dropped to hover beside Vegeta. "He didn't bounce that one."

"Perhaps it takes a second to switch to defense when he's using the electrical field as an attack." Vegeta smiled, eyes narrowing down. "Or perhaps enough energy hitting at once can overload the reflection."

"Maybe. It's hard to hit him all at once when he moves as fast as we do."

"Then we have to move faster. Let's see if you can keep up, boy." Vegeta dove, opening up on the Hunter as he began to rise back into the air. Gohan fanned out to one side and added his own shots to the volley. A bit of motion glimpsed from the corner of one eye caught his attention, and his gaze flickered that way a second to mark Piccolo taking up a position, light flaring around his hand as he summoned the Makanko Sappou.

Some distance away, Trunks looked at Juuhachi-gou. "Can you watch Gokou-san?"

The jinzouningen nodded. "Better if I don't get too close, hm? Besides which, if I have to beat a fast retreat with Gokou, I don't get tired either. I can outrun the Hunter better than any of the rest of you."

"Hai."

"Murasakige?"

"Nn?" Trunks paused.

"Don't YOU get too close either. I'm not going to be the one to explain to Bulma why her only son got flash-fried."

"I won't, Juu-chan." Trunks flew forward, studying the arrangement of the others, then dropped down and to one side, so that when he fired it would run no risk of hitting the other three. That his position just happened to be near his father...well,that was just luck, now wasn't it? He spared Vegeta only a glance before powering up, but that was enough. Papa isn't doing well. He can't have had more than a half hour in the regen tank, if that long. How does he keep fighting?

*If you have time to ask stupid questions like that, you have time to get your tail in gear and fight.* There was a certain wry amusement in the mind-voice. *Damn, did you get your mother's tendency to run off at the mouth as well as that absurd haircolor?*

Trunks chuckled. *Sorry, Papa.*

*Hn. Be sorry later. Shoot this yarou now.*

Trunks grinned and raised his hands. "Final...."

*...Nani? Why you little thief.* But the words carried a quick burst of pride, hastily hidden.

"...FLASH!"

Juuhachi-gou watched the fireworks and shook her head slowly. Sometimes it truly helped to have senses more acute than human, and now was one of those times. They were keeping the Hunter off balance, yes. But very little, if any, of their shots were doing any real damage. If they could keep it at the same level, they might well punch through eventually. Bout how long could the four of them keep up the same intensity of firepower?

"Nnnn...."

"Hm? --Ahh. Welcome back, Gokou-san. How do you feel?"

"...I'll never eat ise-ebi again." A low laugh.

"I'm sure all the lobsters in the oceans will fall down in eternal gratitude that they're off your list of edibles." Juuhachi-gou shifted. "It's not going well."

Gokou blinked, forced himself to focus on the battle. Every muscle ached with its own separate variety of discomfort, and his thoughts were hard to marshal, but it wasn't hard to see what Juuhachi-gou meant. "It's not getting to him....Shimatta..."

"No, and Piccolo and Vegeta are still not fully recovered."

"Why you're not helping?"

"Because if I joined the fight, there would be nothing holding your butt up but the air, and you're a little heavy for a balloon, Gokou-san."

"Hai....Chotto." Gokou put his fingers to his mouth and whistled. It wasn't as loud as normal, but the effect was the same; seconds later a small gold speck resolved itself into a shimmering cloud that came to a stop right beside them. With a smile Gokou rolled out of Juuhachi-gou's arms and onto it, patting it as one might an especially well-loved and faithful pet. "Kintoen," he murmured. "Now you can go, Juuhachi-chan."

"You're sure you'll be okay?"

"Un." Gokou nodded, sitting up. "See, I'm already feeling better."

As she flew off and took up a stance near Trunks, Gokou wiped a hand across his brow. He was recovering, but too slow to be of use now, already the Hunter was starting to recover. He'll go for Vegeta first, it doesn't care who else is here. If only there was some way--hn? Shading his eyes, Gokou peered closely at the Hunter's back. He hadn't really noticed it before, but there was an odd shape, almost a lump, in the lower back area, almost where Gokou'd punched him earlier. As the Hunter shifted, Gokou could see that bump, or hump, or whatever, lighting up in different areas, and the areas seemed to correspond to what side was being hit hardest at the moment. Could that be his battery? And it lights when they hit him-- the Saiyajin's eyes widened. Sugei! It lights! That's where his power comes from! When one hits him, he uses their energy to ward off next hit, or shock us with. If we could break that--but how're gonna touch him?

About that time something whacked Gokou in the head and bounced off into his lap. Rubbing his hair (it hadn't hurt, really, just been a little unexpected) Gokou looked up at the clear and empty sky, then down at what was lying across his knees.

A bo staff, made of some reddish wood, polished till the wood felt like purest satin. His eyes got wider yet, and one hand stole gently out to touch the surface, curl around the shaft, test the weight of it. The perfect and familiar balance of it.

Wood--hadn't that been in one of Gohan's lessons, a long time ago, something about wood and electricity...?

Standing, Gokou steadied himself. "Kintoen! Let's go!" Shooting forward, he headed straight in at the Hunter. As the armored figure turned to face this new challenge, Gokou drew back one fist-- and flung the staff straight over the Hunter's shoulder at Gohan. "Gohan! Catch!"

"Nani?" Instinctively Gohan put out a hand and grabbed the staff, blinked at it. "Ara! Otou-san! This is the--"

"Don't talk, Gohan! Use it!!! Hit that bubble thingie in his back! Hayaku!"

"Hai!" Leveling the stick at the Hunter's back, Gohan shouted, "NYOI BO! NOBASU!"

Faster than the eye could follow the shaft lengthened, shooting out to ram into the Hunter's back. An ordinary staff might've shattered--

But the Nyoibo was unbreakable.

And the armor wasn't.

The Hunter screamed, piercingly, as the strike shattered open the metal 'blister' on the back of the armor, revealing an array of crystals. The heavily-armored figure dropped like a rock, barely managing to halt the heartstopping fall before striking the earth, then collapsed to hands and knees as the armor began to shift and ripple and melt off into a dark silver puddle around him--

Around her.

"Nanda??" Trunks shook his head. "The Hunter is--"

"Is a girl," Juuhachi-gou finished.

One by one the warriors dropped to the earth as well, ringing the Hunter, who watched them quietly. "Not bad," she said softly, in a clear, sweet voice. "First time that's ever happened. What the hell is that thing anyway?"

"Nyoibo." Gohan held it out to Gokou, who started to put it in its sheath across his back before he remembered he wasn't wearing the sheath, and finally settled for leaning on it. "It's a magic unbreakable staff."

"Magic. Right." Hunter stood up, looking down at the puddle around her feet which was already drawing up and jelling to one side. "That's going to take a while to regenerate. You should have plenty of time to finish me off."

"Who wants to kill you?" Gokou asked, puzzled, then blinked at the two sets of hands that went up almost in unison. "Come on, Vegeta, Piccolo! She's just little girl!"

"A little girl that damn near sent you straight back to plague Kaiou-sama again," snarled Vegeta. "That might not've been so bad, but I resent the fact she tried to do the same to me."

"He's got a point, Gokou." Piccolo folded his arms. "Inside that armor, Hunter's a match for us all. I don't think 'make nicey' is going to work this time either."

"Trunks! Vegeta! Son-kun!" Bulma came pounding up, skidded to a stop, and stared, first at the lump of liquid metal, then at the Hunter. "She's been causing all this trouble?!"

"That's nothing new, look at how much trouble you can be without any technology at all," Vegeta shot back.

"The Namekseijin's right," Hunter said unexpectedly, as Bulma stuck her tongue out at Vegeta. "As soon as my bio-armor repairs itself, I'll be right back after him--" she nodded at Vegeta. "So you might as well kill me now. Though I warn you, Hunter Central will only send another Hunter, and this one will be even better armored. Once we accept a contract, we don't stop until we get results. In this case, I have to have incontrovertible proof that Prince Vegeta of the Saiyajin is dead."

Silence.

"That's...pretty hard to do, considering..." Juuhachi-gou began.

"Not at all." Bulma's face was set in a sudden bleak expression.

Trunks glanced at his mother, startled. "Mom?"

Stepping forward, not answering, Bulma faced the Hunter. "If I can offer you that kind of proof, will you leave us in peace, and tell any other bounty hunters to do the same?"

"Sure. That's standard operating practice, to spread the word that the contract's been filled. But it'd better be some pretty good proof, considering he looks pretty lively right now."

"All right. Well wait till your armor's back up. I guess you have some way of recording and testing any...proof...I offer you in there, once it's functional?"

"I do. And it's not something you're going to be able to fool."

Bulma drew a long, ragged breath. "I won't have anything to tell you but the truth."

****

They were seven, all in a row. Seven stones, each carved with its own name and number. The willow trees hung low over them, there by the stream, and the wind in the branches was the sound of ocean waves.

"I made these," Bulma said in a soft, almost toneless voice. "By myself. At first I didn't ask Gohan's help because...well, I suppose it was my way of saying goodbye. Something I felt I had to do. Later on I felt Trunks didn't need to know. Life was hard enough without dwelling on everyone we'd lost. I thought...the peace of the place...might be the best apology I could make, for going on living when--" she stopped, lowered her head.

Gokou walked up to one stone, knelt by it, fingers tracing the katakana etched in its surface. "Ku...Kuririn," he sounded out. "And..."

"Yamucha," Gohan said, stepping up as well. "Tenshinhan...Pi--" he stopped, swallowed hard. "Piccolo." At the next marker, he simply dropped to his knees, looked at the name, then looked over at his father wordlessly.

Juuhachi-gou's face went suddenly flat, a blank non-expression, and she quickly turned away, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Son Gokou," Trunks took up. "Son...Go-Gohan. And..." he stopped, puzzled. "Mom...this isn't katakana..."

"No." Bulma knelt by the last stone. "This was the hard one. I had to wait a few years till I'd... I'd deciphered enough of the language to be sure what I wrote was correct. It says--"

"It says 'Vegeta, Prince of the Saiyajin'." Vegeta walked over to stare down at the gravestone.

Bulma turned to the Hunter, clad once again in the dark armor. "If you scan, you'll find the remains of a body here," she said, voice calm, although her face was pale, almost white. "You'll find it's Saiyajin...and if you have any record of Vegeta's DNA structure, you'll find it's a perfect match. This is the final resting place of the Prince of the Saiyajin."

Hunter stepped forward, looked down at the grave for a long moment. "Impossible," she said finally. "How?"

Bulma waved a hand at Vegeta. "This...is a clone. I grew him, and these others, in my laboratory. They're all clones of the original Saiyajin. Only Trunks and I survived the holocaust."

Hunter's head swivelled up to stare at Vegeta. "So this isn't the real Vegeta?"

"Nande kuso?" snarled Vegeta, one fist clenching. "Of course I'm--" the rest of his remark was shut off by several pairs of hands clapping over his mouth.

As Gokou and Gohan wrestled with Vegeta, Bulma stood, dusting her knees. "Well, as you see, he certainly thinks he is."

Hunter laughed shortly. "I'd say you did a bit too good a job on creating his memory pattern." She looked down again at the grave. "Well, this is good enough. You were right, it's a perfect match. And, now that I compare them, this one's a few years too young." She jerked her head at the furious figure now being sat on to keep him quiet. "He's only, what, a few months old? A year at most?"

"About that. My! Your scans can determine that?"

"Cloning isn't a new technology. It is surprising to find it here, I didn't think this world's science was quite that developed. You must be something of a genius."

"Why thank you." Bulma gave Vegeta a little triumphant look. "It's so nice to have someone appreciate me for the brilliant (and beautiful) girl I am."

"Then you'll be going?" Piccolo asked (not without a certain amount of disappointment).

"Yeah. Data transmission's already taken place. By the end of the month every hunter and law enforcement agency in the galaxy will have the update." Turning, Hunter nodded to each of them in turn. "For what it's worth...I wish you peace." Without another word, she looked up to the darkening sky and took off, kicking up small spits of dust that drifted over the small, quiet gravesite in pale drifts.

Juuhachi-gou didn't look back at the sound of Hunter's departure. She began to walk slowly away from the group, the wind stirring her pale, silken hair, blowing drifts into her eyes she didn't bother to tuck back into place. So wrapped up was she in her own dismal thoughts that she didn't sense movement behind her until a strong arm encircled her shoulders. Juuhachi-gou then did a strangely human thing--she jumped. Wide-eyed, she turned to look into a young, severe face that wore an oddly gentle expression. "To-Trunks?"

He smiled gently. "Why don't we go for a walk?" he suggested. "I think we have a lot to talk about."

She started to protest, then discovered she didn't want to. She sighed and smiled, nodded. When he drew her close to his side, she rested her head on his shoulder and slipped her arm around his waist. Unnoticed, they quietly walked away together.

"Bye-bye!" Gokou shouted, cheerily waving at the disappearing speck of the Hunter. "Come back and visit sometime!" Then his face stiffened, just before he let out a piercing scream and fell over. "ITAIIIII! MY TAILLLLL! VEGEEEETAAA!"

== END ==