[March] 15th

Age: 732

Time elapsed: [One Minute]

....

The bed of metals and plastic was definitely one of the more uncomfortable things I had laid my back on in my time on this planet, yet despite the discomfort, I almost couldn't bring myself to rise from its embrace. Near every fiber of my being was wracked with an inescapable soreness from pushing my limits.

The pain didn't matter in the long run, though, I rose to a sitting position and began to take in my surroundings.

I was laid in a ravine so vast and deep that only the bare minimum rays of light kept the area lit. The smell of mold, moss, and scrap was far more prevalent here than it was in the other scrapyard giving the area an aggressively ancient ambiance that very clearly told me that I was merely a visitor here. Not to mention an unwelcome one.

With a grunt of effort, I rose to my feet and blinked the dark spots from my eyes before I heard the sound of someone collapsing into a pile of junk.

I briefly heard rustling, then a sort of thankful chuckle. I feel a grin spread across my face as I begin to move closer towards the source of the noise, towards Puff. I almost can't believe it, he actually saved both of our asses! Honestly, I thought we were both goners, but apparently, he had more than a few escape plans for a situation such as this.

I peeked over a mound of trash, ignoring the absolutely nostril-demolishing smell, and snuck a peek at the young Saiyan. "This was a terrible idea, following this guy." I mentally chided myself, "Thought I'd see a new canyon or something if I'd follow him, or maybe he'd be smuggling some cool rocks in that bag of his and I'd get to see where he'd find them." I felt myself shiver slightly as I began to reminisce on the events I'd just escaped.

"Nope! Never again!" I mentally exclaimed "Fuck curiosity, fuck exploring this planet, fuck meeting new people. I swear I'm gonna spend the rest of my time on Vegeta all by myself until I can find a way off of this stupid rock!" The mental vow was then followed by me trying to get a better look at Puff, he was doing something weird but I couldn't get good eyes on

"Just a little more sneaking and I'm out of this punk life forever, I do NOT want to get caught up in whatever street rat, tech thief life he's living.

My sore muscles ached in a sort of silent solidarity for my decision, getting stuck in with this guy's bullshit might just end up being the death of me.

"To think I was just eating snacks in the village a while ago... Shit, don't get distracted, I still gotta focus. All I need to do is be careful and I can go home." With the day I was having, it was a struggle to keep from fantasizing about a healthy night's sleep. " Ohhh, I could just lay down and sleep on my nice, warm, dirt be- WHY THE HELL ISN'T HE LEAVING ALREADY!?"

Puff was standing there, doing nix, nada, nothing, except fucking with some doohickey. I damn near groaned, I was so damn tired and yet he wasn't leaving! In the hopes of seeing that the device was actually some sort of weird map leading outta here, I began to peek just a bit further out of my hiding spot.

He was muttering something to himself, holding what looked like a sniper scope on a stick. The two things were connected together by a mass of wires and primitive tape, giving it the look of a busted grocery scanner. It must've had a few buttons that I couldn't see because he kept tapping at specific parts of the device,

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After a couple seconds, he audibly exclaimed "Aha!" before snapping his head towards my general direction. I briefly considered hiding, briefly wondered what about the device that gave away my location, then realized that one, I was far too sore to consider moving much anymore and two, Puff had disappeared.

In an instant, he had apparently leaped above my immediate field of view, stowed away his gizmo, and capitalized on my surprise by tackling me to the bottom of my hilly hiding spot. Taking a page from Mr. Lean's book, he found my tail and gripped it with all his might. A helping of pain-induced lethargy filled my being, shutting down any hope of a counterattack and leaving me sprawled on my back.

Puff then, tail still in hand, sat on my chest with a rather triumphant grin on his face. "Caught ya, Nosy punk!"

The only response he got from me was an extended wheeze.

"I didn't get to grab a good look at ya while we were running for our lives, but now that you're right here... Yeah... You're that weird kid from the village!"

Another wheeze, perhaps an attempt to confirm his suspicions, or perhaps a plea for him to get off of my chest. Either way, he ignored it, opting to keep talking.

He let out a chuckle, "Ah man, crazy that you actually managed to keep trailing me from way back there. I really thought I had given you the slip!"

A third wheeze, by now I could feel my vision going dark as the boy's weight began to drag me into unconsciousness. Thankfully the boy had the decency to stand up, letting me take in big greedy gulps of air in an attempt to recover. Puffs ' eyes glinted in a way that'd make even the sleaziest of car-salesmen flinch.

"You've got a real knack for sneaking around kid, you even managed to trick that pricks' scouter somehow... Bah, I'm getting ahead of myself! We hardly even know each other's names, after all!" His words began to carry a friendly lilt.

"The name's Turles, kid. What's yours?"

...

Turles POV

There was something up with the boy.

For one thing, he seemed way too well put together for a boy his age. Any normal kid his age should be ready to try and tear Turles' face off in response to what they've been put through, and yet he seemed more annoyed than anything. There was a spark of understanding and temperance in the diminutive Saiyan that would be more comfortable on an adult, or a very well-put-together teenager.

This combined with his appearance, which couldn't belong to anyone older than five years old, gave him a mildly disturbing aura.

As the boy recovered from his asphyxiation, however, Turles began to come up with a scheme. His gig stealing tech from the old ZaruCo scrap yard had gone up in flames since the guards had gotten a scouter, so his mind began to pick up the pieces of what was left behind.

The boy was somehow able to hide from a scouter, even managing to catch Mato off guard. The latter was merely Impressive for his age, the former might just be a game-changer. If he took the kid under his wing he might be able to steal something worthwhile enough to buy a ship off this godforsaken rock.

He suppressed a shudder at the possibilities, he might be getting ahead himself. After all his own makeshift scanner could track him despite being made from a Scoper, an obsolete sniper scope model that used to track numerous biometric signatures. It was bulky and incredibly inconvenient to use without attaching it to a sniper-like weapon, making it immediately outclassed by the more passive detection of Scouters.

Turtles himself had only managed to make his Scoper more effective by refining only a singular function of its scanners, turning it into a slapdash heartbeat sensor. Despite its bootleg origins, it was clearly enough to detect the younger Saiyan.

"It could've been a fluke... Even so, he was decently competent when he helped me out back there and I could use some more help."

The sound of muttering drew the teenage Saiyan from his musings.

"What was that?"

"I said my name's Coli!" The boy yelled, coughing slightly.

Turles smiled his best "you can trust me" smile before ruffling the child's hair, he was beginning to speak a bit like a preschool teacher. "Well, Coli, I'm sure glad that you helped me out! I really owe ya one Bud"

Each word was layered with a candy coating that would put a diabetic down instantly, he had decided this kid was useful to him. Whether he was correct or not would be discovered in time, but for now his priority was to get the brat on his side.

Coli looked at him, those eyes glinting with an unnatural comprehension that sent a mild shiver down Turles' spine. Was he not rough enough with the kid? You have to usually show children how overwhelmingly powerful you are to get their respect. Otherwise, their own natural pride would cause them to do the dumbest things with an unnatural amount of confidence.

The child's body stilled, eyes filled with resolve for something unknown.

And then Coli began to cry.