[3] The Road

[Kaden]

Sometimes, even in a fight for your life, there were things more unnerving than a giant scorpion trying to impale you. Orion -- if Kaden remembered his name correctly -- had made it clear that he intended to take his his captives back to Kai. Any doubt of this was erased when Ares told Kaden, though not in so many words, that they were headed back towards the mansion.

As best as Kaden could guess, their trip back to the mansion wouldn't be a short one. That would, hopefully, give the courier some time to figure out how to keep the "hostages" -- as Orion called them -- safe. Unfortunately, Kaden would have to worry about that later. There will still some scorpions to deal with and Ares was right, getting the hell out of there seemed like the best course of action.

An idea dawned on Kaden as he turned his Sight on his teammates. The light that flowed through them had dimmed considerably. Of the three allies that Kaden had, Piper's light burned the brightest. Orion's, though not as brilliant, flowed much more readily through his body, reacting to his actions as freely as Kaden could hope for. Nodding to himself, the courier made his way back to the truck.

"We need to get out of here," Ares sad once more.

"Hmph..." Orion frowned at the scorpions that were coming towards them. "Running from insects..."

Despite the distaste that the saiyan warrior seemed to have for the decision, he was quick to join Ares and Kaden by their vehicle. Piper was the last to arrive, having made use of her athleticism to distract the scorpions and buy a little more time.

Moving around to the back of the SUV, Kaden opened up the door to the trunk and hopped into the back of the vehicle. Reaching into his jacket, the courier produced the dagger he had, presumably, taken from Kai's wife, Trisha. Just like when Trisha drew the weapon, Kaden could See a glow in the blade. Jamming it into the roof of the SUV, Kaden was easily able to cut away the hinges that held the trunk door to the rest of the car. Tossing the door to the sandy ground, Kaden returned the dagger to his jacket.

"Orion," Kaden called out to his one-eyed ally. "Get in back here. Piper can drive."

Though the saiyan hopped into the vehicle beside Kaden, he considered the blonde hair human with a cocked eyebrow. As the vehicle roared to life, Piper gunned it down the road just in time to avoid the tail of an oncoming scorpion.

"Giving orders now, are we?" Orion turned his head to Kaden as he spoke.

"I... uh..." the sheer stupidity of telling a saiyan warrior what to do suddenly dawned on Kaden. The courier cleared his throat and kept his attention on the road behind them. "I just have an idea... that's all."

Not too far off, the group of scorpions had skittered onto the road and were pursuing the SUV with surprising speed. What drove these creatures to chase a car was beyond Kaden, but it didn't come as a huge surprise. No doubt Kai had some psychotic method of making these overgrown insects chase whoever he wanted.

"Ok," Kaden turned towards Orion. "Now all you gotta do is blow away the rest of the scorpions."

"That's your plan? There's over half a dozen of those things chasing us."

"If you can make some kind of big energy attack, we'll be able to stop them in their tracks. Trust me."

There was a short pause as Orion considered the human next to him. Kaden was sure that the sayian wasn't just going to magically trust him because he told him to, but complete trust wasn't what he needed right now. The fact of the matter was if they didn't do anything, the scorpions were going to catch up to them and the bounty that Orion thought he was going to get would be in serious jeoparody.

Finally turning his attention outside the back of the SUV, Orion held his hand aloft and began to focus his ki. As a ball of energy burst to life in Orion's hand, a grin appeared on Kaden's face. He had never actually tried this technique of his before, but if it worked the results should be quite interesting.

"Now what?" Orion asked. "You're going to weaken each and every one of them?"

"The way I figure it," Kaden began, "there are two ways to deal with these guys. Either weaken them, or hit them so hard it doesn't matter how strong they are."

As he finshed speaking, Kaden placed a hand on Orion's shoulder and closed his eyes. Almost immediately, understanding dawned on the one-eyed warrior. The ball of ki doubled in size as Kaden's energy Surged through Orion's body. With a grin, the saiyan redoubled his efforts. In a matter of seconds, the two ki-specialists had formed an energy ball of staggering size.

"Think that'll do it?" Kaden asked.

"Not quite," Orion replied, much to the courier's surprise. "Hrrrrah!"

The ball of energy in Orion's hand suddenly halved in size, though Kaden could detect no decrease in power. Normally the courier would have voiced a concern, but he figured that if anyone knew how to kill things effectively, it would be a saiyan.

Taking aim, Orion hurled the ball of energy into the midst of the scorpions. The ensuing explosion enveloped the remaining insects and threatened to take the SUV with it. Fortunately, Piper seemed to know when it would be a good time to accelerate.

"Condensing the energy," Orion turned to Kaden, "lets it pack a bigger punch."

"Good to know," Kaden replied once he realized what Orion was referring to.

The chance that any of the scorpions would be in good enough condition to continue their chance seemed slim. Taking a moment to relax, Kaden slumped against the side of the SUV and let the glow fade from his eyes. He still had a moderate store of energy in him, but taking a breather would definitely do him some good.

After standing watch for a minute or so, Orion followed the courier's example and leaned against the opposite wall of the SUV. A frown spread across Kaden's face as he decided on what would have to come next. He doubted things were just going to go smoothly.

"So..." the courier began. "What's your plan?"

"Hmmm? Take those two back," Orion hooked a thumb at the seat back seat, "and get paid."

"You're just going to give them to Kai? What do you think he's going to do with them?"

"Look," Orion sighed, "that's not my problem. We're getting paid to capture people, not worry about them."

"Not your problem?" Kaden's voice carried a slight edge. "You just beat them up, knock them out, and leave them to some psychopath and it's not your problem?"

"For this kind of money, no, it's not my problem," Orion answered calmly.

"Look at these people," Kaden hopped to his feet and thrust a figure towards the unconscious figures. "You're completely fine with beating up some little girl and..." Kaden did a double-take. "Dimitri?!"

"Oh?" Orion cocked an eyebrow at the unconscious kid. "You know him?"

"Yeah. I mean... he helped me out when I needed it," Kaden's thoughts took him back several weeks to his run-in with the preistess Sophia and the thug Marius. "He's a good kid. He doesn't deserve this."

"So what does he deserve? What should we do, boy? Just leave them out in the dessert?"

"No... they wouldn't be safe out here." The fact that Kai's goon had managed to sneak up on Szar and obliterate him while he was in the middel of the sand-trap gave Kaden the distinct impression that Kai had some way of tracking the players in his little game. "Give them time to wake... time to rest. Taking them back to Kai is not the right thing to do."

"Like I said, kid, for two hundred thousand zeni, 'right' and 'wrong' have very different meanings."

"Listen," Kaden mentally changed plans, his initial argument was obviously not going to work as well as he thought it would. "Szar, that alien that was with me and Piper--"

"The changeling?"

"Yeah," Kaden nodded, though he had no clue that was what Szar's race was called. "He was a cop. He went into the mansion to find evidence to arrest Kai."

"Your point?" Orion seemed to grow tired of listening to Kaden.

"He found something. Evidence that this Kai guy is into all kinds of... criminal activity. You think everyone in this game came here by choice?" While there was definitely some truth to what Kaden said, he was more than willing to elaborate. "You think a guy who lies and cheats and steals is just going to hand over hundreds of thousands of zeni because he said he would? Or do you think he's going to keep throwing you into fights until you're too worn out to defend yourself and just kill you off?" Kaden paused for dramatic effect. "What sounds more likely to you?"

"I can take care of myself just fine," Orion replied after a long pause.

"I have no doubt that you're capable, but look at what we've seen about this Kai guy. He obviously has the resources to hire a whole army of people if he wanted to... if he doesn't have one already. No offense, but I don't think you're that capable."

Orion considered Kaden's words for several seconds. The courier had no idea what was going on inside the warrior's head, his experience with saiyans was too limited to even guess. If he went by rumor and hearsay, the one-eyed warrior was more likely to attack Kaden right there than actually listen to him. Fortunately, Kaden only really put stock in first-hand experience.

"And what would you have us do?" Orion finally asked. His tone made it seem like he was simply humoring Kaden, but the courier had to hope that wasn't all he was doing.

"Like I said, let these guys recover. Give all of us a chance to rest and catch our breathe. And then go after Kai. Szar found proof that this guy's a criminal. We find it and use it to bring Kai to justice."

To Kaden's dismay, Orion didn't respond. The saiyan simply closed his eye shifted his weight against the side of the SUV. The only thing that Kaden could really do now was to rest. Whether or not he had gotten through to Orion would be known by the time they got back to the mansion. Until then, there wasn't a whole lot left to be said.