Cosmic Crisis 3 - A New Enemy

Chapter 23 - Encounter the Malevolence

The ship landed with an enormous impact. Being an older model, it did not have the capabilities of a silent landing, as the newer models did. If Hermes hadn't detected them before, he certainly did now.

Trunks looked out the window again as he slipped on a glove to complete his attire. He was wearing the all too familiar Sidra-jin armor. It was so close to Saiya-jin armor that Trunks felt at ease in it. However this armor was more flexible, and it seemed to custom fit his build. He shifted his weight and stretched his arms out in front of him, then following with a sigh of nervousness and agitation.

"Not overly exciting, is it?" Goten said, joining his friend, also suited in armor.

"It's so eerie...and too quiet." Trunks said. It was very similar to the moon of Earth, but some differences remained. First of all, the sky was dark grey, almost black, but no stars were present, meaning that some atmosphere existed. Clumps of what appeared to be dull, hardened shrubs sprouted from various points on the moon's surface. Craters and mountains were abound. However, there was no sign of water, or even life, for that matter. Still, that didn't rule out the possibility.

The hiss of the airlock grabbed Trunks' attention and he turned his head to face the direction from which it had originated to see Reena, Ceres, and Sirius stepping into suits.

"What are you doing?" Trunks questioned, stepping away from the window and locking his eyes on their forms.

"Suiting up. You want to breathe, don't you?" Sirius replied.

"There is no oxygen on this moon?"

"There is, but in trace amounts. Besides the air pressure is extremely low, just short of being a complete vacuum. So...you two might want to join us." He replied, and held up a helmet.

The moon seemed to hold its breath as the five warriors emerged, stepping onto the dusty, barren surface. No wind blew, no birds cried, nothing. The only sensation that Trunks felt was his own pulse, and the burning ki in the distance. Hermes.

"Now we need to find him." Ceres said, her voice given a mechanical tone as it rang through the built-in receiver in the helmets they were all wearing. "He is probably underground, hiding out in a makeshift base..."

She trailed off as a low rumbling came from the ground, causing pebbles and various rocks to dance along the moon's surface. Trunks looked down at the ground and then up at Ceres.

"Moonquake?" he asked.

"Iie, there is nothing to quake. It's just one solid mass now, condensed over time." She said.

The vibration had been relatively mild, not so strong that it would knock the warriors off of their feet, but they were still slightly shaken. But, it was from nerves and adrenaline more than the fear of a quake.

"Then what are you suggest-"

"You know what it is." Sirius interrupted. "We have wasted too much time with discussion."

"Well do you have any better ideas? Oh I know...let's just burst in and expose ourselves to being vulnerable, and ask him nicely to give us back our princess!" Reena snapped. She was siding with the Saiya-jins more and more as they continued to interact. "I'm sure that would really go over well, Sirius! While we're at it, how about we ask him to fix all of the time paradoxes that were caused by him in the first place!"

Sirius ran his hand over his helmet, rolling his eyes and sighing.

"I understand your frustration, but turning on this mission is not the way to solve it." He said.

"WHAT mission! We didn't even have a plan in the first place! We just blindly set our coordinates to Earth and HOPED for the best. Now we're going to try to take on Hermes, the malicious mastermind superpower, and depend on our instincts and our luck!" Reena said, seething. Her face turned red and burned with anger, which was quite visible through her visor. "And I am FED up with living in the shadows of you and Ceres! If you two are so smart, then why don't go put your brains to use as the monarchial guardians you are!"

Ceres and Sirius just paused and looked at her, neither knowing just what to say in defense of themselves.

Trunks' senses heightened and he saw something out of the corner of his eye. When he turned to look, it was gone.

"What is it? Did you see something?" Goten asked, noticing Trunks' change in expression.

"Yeah...well I thought I did. It looked like a bird...or something like that." He replied. Just as he finished his last sentence, the ground rumbled again, this time more violently. Reena stumbled and fell, flinging her arms helplessly as she traveled to the ground. Just as she began to stand up, the ground cracked beneath her.

"Reena!" Goten shouted, and tried to run toward her, but he couldn't seem to will his body to move. Reena, taken by surprise, had no time to react before she was sucked down into the void. Just as she disappeared, the ground sealed above her and returned to its intact state.

Goten, who finally managed to snap out of his trance, just stared at the ground where she had just been standing. Everyone else remained speechless as well, until finally Sirius spoke.

"We will get her back, I swear it on my life." He said. "If there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that Hermes is doing this."

"How can you talk so...calmly!" Goten protested. "This is your friend, and she just disappeared! He could be killing her!"

"No." Sirius said, and then looked at Goten with such an expression of seriousness and certainty that the young Saiya-jin hybrid stepped back. "He won't dare kill her."

Inside, Sirius knew that he was lying. Hermes probably had the intent of using Reena as bait for Carina. He knew that if he threatened her life, then Carina would relent and give herself up, if she hadn't already. But Sirius knew that he could not let Goten know.

Trunks studied Sirius' expression. He was a good liar, indeed, but still penetrable in his defenses. Trunks then turned to Goten, who had a distressed aura about him, even as he struggled to calm himself at hearing Sirius' assurance.

The Saiya-jin's attention was then drawn to something else. A series of tiny bleeps were emitted from Ceres' general vicinity. Fearing the worst, Trunks spun around and held up his fists, preparing to attack anything that threatened him or any of the other warriors. Ceres obviously noticed him and raised an eyebrow.

"Did I startle you?" she asked, holding up her little computer. "Gomen. I was doing readings on those energy outbursts I received when the ground split open."

"Any results?" Trunks asked.

"Hermes." She nodded. "He's making it easy for us to find him. If he wanted, he could conceal himself and we would never find him. It's a good thing that his ego is so big, he doesn't think we can do any harm."

A dark figure stood in the shadows of an unknown realm, his face partially illuminated by an unseen light source. An evil smirk was spread across his face as he stood, his arms folded.

"They think they can outwit me, do they?" he spoke, his voice deep and menacing. He then turned to a cowering, frightened figure in a corner. "Don't worry. Your friends will be here soon. And you will get to watch."

"This way." Ceres said, pointing her finger toward the east horizon. "The energy is coming from over there."

"No, I feel the ki in the opposite direction." Trunks protested, pointing his finger to the west.

"That's not Hermes." Ceres said absolutely. "It's somewhat of a decoy. The readings don't match in that direction."

"Fine." Trunks said, and focused on the direction that Ceres had pointed to.

The four walked for what seemed to be hours until they reached a land formation.

"This is it?" Trunks asked, advancing toward the quasi-mountain. "This is Hermes' base?"

"Or the entrance." Sirius said. "Somehow we have to get inside."

"How about the old fashioned way?" Trunks said, preparing to charge a ki attack.

"Worth a try." Sirius replied, and stepped back. Goten and Trunks stood next to each other and both charged ki blasts in their hands.

"Yaaahhh!!" they cried in unison, launching their assault onto the stone structure. On contact, the blasts exploded with tremendous force, throwing dust and rock outward at speeds in which they could impale a normal human in a matter of seconds. However, the four warriors were not normal, and they knew to put up ki shields. When the dust died down, there lay a pile of rubble where the mountain had once been.

"So where is this entrance, Ceres?" Goten asked defiantly. "All I see is rock and dust."

"It's here somewhere." She said, and stepped into the debris, poking around with the boots of her suit. She overturned rocks and brushed dirt off of potential areas, but there was nothing.

"Maybe you just miscalculated." Goten said. "It happens on occasion."

"But I could have sworn..." she trailed off, looking to the west horizon. "Oh I suppose you are right. Let's go." Ceres jumped over a large boulder and landed on several smaller rocks, losing her footing on the ground. She fell backward, reaching her arms outward in a panic to grasp onto some sort of support, but found none. She tumbled toward the moon's surface, flipping her body around like a cat so that she would land on her stomach, outstretching her arms to stop her. However, the ground below her dissolved into that same black void, and she fell in, screaming in surprise.

"Shit!" Trunks shouted, jerking his head toward the scene, just as Ceres' foot fell out of sight and she disappeared. "He got Ceres! She was the brains of this operation."

Sirius looked in the same direction that Trunks was, and his eyes burned with anger.

"We have to keep going." He said, stepping down from a large rock.

"He's just going to pick us off one by one!" Goten shouted in rage. "We're nothing if we are separated."

"Goten...Sirius is right." Trunks said. "We're nothing if we give up either. If we fail, at least we'll fail trying."

"We won't fail." Sirius said. His voice went from calm to enraged and his ki rose to match.

"No, stop. Don't waste your energy." Trunks said.

"There is no energy to waste. I don't have half the ki that you two do. I specialize in ESP." he replied. "So do the others."

"Reena...Ceres..." Goten trailed off.

"Carina." Sirius finished. "She doesn't know it, but those abilities are buried deep within her, and can be unlocked by Hermes should she submit. That, combined with her strength in her ki, could prove to be fatal for us."

"Nat wouldn't kill us." Trunks assured Sirius.

"She wouldn't, but Hermes would in an instant." He retorted. "His mind and her body...it's a lethal game to play. Not only that, but then there is the matter of extinction."

Trunks' head jerked up and he looked at Sirius.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Forget it." Sirius said, not wishing to anger the Saiya-jin any further.

"No, tell me Sirius."

"Iie."

Trunks slammed his foot into the ground angrily. He thought he would explode with rage, but he wouldn't dare turn on his own allies. They were all he had on this dark, cold world of isolation and fear.

Ceres opened her eyes, straining to see. She ran a hand through her hair, and then paused, taking a few strands of blonde hair and holding them up to her face in sheer surprise. Her hair had grown by at least fifteen inches, and it draped halfway down her back. She then detected something moving next to her in the low light. Ceres immediately froze and her heart raced. Then, she saw the face of Reena come into view. Reena's hair had also grown longer, and was now about the same length as Ceres' was.

"Ce...res..." Reena said. "Is it you Ceres?"

"H...hai. Reena." Ceres replied. "What has happened to us?"

"I...I don't know." The timid girl replied. "All I remember is falling for a long time, and then something slamming into me, and I woke up here."

"That's just what I remember." Ceres replied.

"Where are we?" Reena asked fearfully

"I have a feeling that Hermes put us here." Ceres replied, running her hands along the cold, smooth floor. She could barely make out anything. All she saw was Reena's face and the silhouette of her body. Ceres then realized that they weren't wearing their space suits. In fact...

"Where are our clothes!?" Reena cried out, throwing her arms over herself in embarrassment.

Ceres realized that they didn't have anything on...at all.

"They disappeared." Came a voice from behind. The two girls shrieked and backed into the corner. "But no worry, I have no interest in the two of you."

"Hermes!" Ceres snarled.

"So...you've heard of me?" he said mockingly. He remained in the shadows, not wishing to reveal himself to them just yet.

"What have you done??" Reena cried, keeping herself concealed in shadows as well.

"Me? Nothing. I only brought you here to keep you...in a safe place." He replied. "As for your clothes...this room...this place...it exists in a time void, which keeps you in your "pure", or "true" forms. Hence, your hair is longer, and you are only given what you were when you were born. Your own flesh and blood."

"Pure form? But why?" Ceres questioned, her voice still filled with anger.

"Because that's the way I like things. Pure." Hermes sneered.

"Where...where is-"

"Carina? She's safe." He replied. "You needn't worry about her. And your friends...Sirius...and the Saiya-jins. They'll be here shortly. Until then, you might want to put something on." He finished, grinning wickedly, and throwing something at the frightened girls. After he disappeared in an explosion of black light, Ceres and Reena inched forward.

"Clothing." Ceres said, grabbing the items and pulling them close. "Bodysuits."

"Hand me one Ceres...I'm getting cold." Reena said.

"It's your own nerves. There is no environment in this place. It's a time paradox within itself. And we only exist in our pure forms, like he said." Ceres replied.

"I don't care what it is, I want to get something on before anyone else shows up."

"Hai...gomen." Ceres said, and tossed Reena a bodysuit, which she promptly slipped into. After they had both dressed, they sat alone, Reena crying quietly to herself, and Ceres desperately trying to make sense of the situation using logic.

The three male warriors had walked for an easy half hour, searching for any sign of life.

"Where do you think they went?" Goten asked.

"Who knows." Trunks replied, kicking a grey rock angrily. "That bastard, I'll kill him. I'll rip out his throat..."

"You can do all those things later. Focus on finding the god damned guy first." Sirius spat. Trunks' was taken by surprise at that comment. Se sensed anger deep within Sirius, that was screaming to get out, but that Sirius wouldn't allow it to be so. He kept too many secrets.

Suddenly, Goten stopped. The other two turned and stopped as well, looking on in confusion.

"Something wrong, Goten?" Trunks asked.

"I...I don't know." Goten replied, looking down at the ground as he stood rock solid. "I just get the feeling that there is something here."

"Shit, Goten, levitate!" Trunks shouted, hovering into the air. Goten did the same, and Sirius finally joined the two.

They waited a few minutes, and nothing happened. Goten began to land on the ground, but Trunks stopped him.

"Goten, no. Not yet." He said. Goten cooperated and leveled himself with Trunks once more. Suddenly, a large ki blast hit the three of them from behind. Trunks opened his mouth to cry out, but he was paralyzed. The energy surrounded the three and immobilized them, sucking them into the pit that formed below.