Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A DRAGONBALL HONEYMOON ❯ A Bad Case of Worms ( Chapter 9 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A DRAGONBALL HONEYMOON © 2006 Darke Angelus
Chapter 9: A Bad Case of Worms
------

"Fah-pfty ...fifty, fifty-wun, fifty-too, fifty-for-"

"Fifty- three, boy. You forgot fifty-three."

"Fifty-tree! Fifty-for, fifty-for, uhh ..." Trunks small face
screwed up in concentration.

"Fifty-five."

"Fifty-ive! Fifty-eleven? Uhm ... won, too, tree, for-"

"Here we go again," Bulma sighed under her breath as Trunks gamely
made his third attempt to count to one hundred. The little boy had been
practicing like a possessed soul to try and accomplish 'the mission' his
father had ordered three days earlier. He had thought that he had it
perfect and had commanded his harried grandmother to call his parents to
deliver the carefully rehearsed speech. Now, however, looking into the
disappointed scowl of his father, the little Saiyan hybrid was suffering
a severe case of stage fright and each attempt was worse than the one
before.

"-tenty-five, tenty-seben, tenty-ate-"

"Trunks," Vegeta interrupted, "You need to practice more-"

"No! No! I know it, daddy! A hunnert numbers! Just like you said!"

"Trunks, you can't get past fifty."

"One more time, daddy!" Before Vegeta could open his mouth, the
little boy started again; "Wontootreefor-"

Bulma slid in closer to her husband and whispered in his ear, "I
know what you're doing."

The Saiyan cocked an eyebrow at her.

"You're stalling," she said.

His eyes swiveled to the cockpit window above the communication
monitor and came back in her direction. "Do you blame me?"

The expression on Bulma's face softened when she considered the
view beyond the hoverjet window. Everything was the foreboding dark gray
blur of a raging blizzard. The small craft was actually rocking on its
landing struts from the force of the chilling wind. It was a far cry
from all of their previous landing sites during their voyage for the
Dragonballs; even the barren Australian Outback was more appealing to
the senses than the hellish wasteland that they now found themselves in.

Antarctica.

They were now on the opposite side of the Earth than where they
had spent an afternoon in Siberia, enjoying eternal sunlight and
temperatures warm enough for t-shirts. Now they were in a desolate, sub-
zero freezer with no hope of sunlight to light their way. They had been
stuck in the hoverjet for the better part of a day, gamely hoping that
the winds would drop, that the snow would stop falling, that the sky
would at least lighten up, but it appeared that none of it was going to
happen anytime soon.

Bulma was climbing the walls of the tiny vehicle. She was not a
woman who took to idleness very well and was pacing around in the cabin
in her snow pants and boots, with the parka tied around her waist. She
just wanted to get out of the jet, brave the elements, and collect the
final Dragonball once and for all. Once that was over and done with,
they could go off and enjoy the final days of their honeymoon without
any pressure, assured that all there was left to do was make their two
wishes and go on with their lives.

It was Vegeta who wasn't budging. He was displaying, if only by
actions alone, that his hatred of snow went beyond a past grudge of a
Planetary Acclimation Test gone awry. It was probably closer to being
genetic in nature. Saiyans were a desert race; well suited for scorching
temperatures, harsh environments, and burning suns. Vegeta had
experienced snow for the first time as a boy just entering puberty and
the experience had not been an enjoyable one. No snowball fights or
toboggan rides for him: Just a race across the planet in an endurance
test that would have killed a human adult. He had barely succeeded in
that trial in a desperate race that had counted down to the last second.
The near miss had not endeared him to the conditions that lied beyond
the hoverjet now.

On some deep level, Bulma possibly suspected. She noticed how his
face tightened up whenever he chanced a glance outside, almost seeming
to cringe in his seat. He was barely paying Trunks, who was launching
into his fifth attempt, any attention, too lost in his own thoughts.
Bulma felt sorry for him (hell, at this point she was beginning to pity
them both) but it was time to get things moving.

"Sirty-seben, sirty-sirty-nine? Forty-"

"Trunks, you're doing very good," she cut in mercifully. "Mommy is
very proud of you. But you need to practice some more, honey. You don't
quite have it down pat just yet."

Alarm rose in the boy's flushed face. "No mommy! One more time-"

"Keep practicing, sweetie. I'll call you tomorrow. I love you!"

"Buh-but-" Bulma shut off the monitor an instant before the youth
burst into tears.

There was a touch of admiration in Vegeta's voice when he said,
"Damn, woman. That was cold."

"I learned from the best," she said, not unkindly. "It's time to
suit up, Vegeta. No more excuses."

His eyes darted to the window again and the corner of his mouth
twitched, a rare nervous tic. Just as she was bracing herself for a
debate he grumbled something under his breath, rose reluctantly out of
the chair, and proceeded to finally get changed. Bulma allowed herself a
smile of triumph at the sight of him getting dressed. Any victory over
the brusque alien, no matter how minor, was always a source of
accomplishment for her. She treasured each success whenever it came,
knowing their rarity. When he was dressed in his winter gear she moved
to the door to open it, and noticed he was hanging back. Her smile
quickly faded.

"What is it?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"My boots don't feel comfortable," he told her and proceeded to
take them off. He unpacked his gear and began rummaging through his
belongings for something more accommodating. It took awhile. He liked to
complain to Bulma about her penchant for packing her entire wardrobe for
a mere two-week trip but in reality, the Saiyan was little better. He
was a man who, after his prolonged tenure on this planet, was
rediscovering a royal fussiness to have the absolute best in clothes and
gear. He had endured decades of wearing only soldier armor, enduring
sparse accommodations, and limited means; he was starting to treasure
his comforts and it took over 20 minutes to finally, thoroughly, go
through all of the clothes he had brought. In the end, he hadn't packed
an extra pair of snow boots and pulled back on the ones he had
discarded.

On the sidelines, Bulma was doing a slow burn knowing full well
that Vegeta had only packed the one pair of boots. "If you're finally
through, we can-"

"I need to take a leak," he said abruptly and disappeared into the
bathroom.

"Agh!" Bulma shouted, slapping her hands to her sides in
frustration. She stood by the door, irritably tapping out the seconds
with her foot. After about ten minutes, she knocked on the door. "Hey!
Did you fall in? Quit stalling!"

He came out, staring daggers at her, and then stepped past her to
go into the small kitchen.

Exasperated, she fumed, "Now what are you doing?"

"Are you blind? I'm hungry."

"No, you're not. We just ate."

"Don't you tell me what I'm not. All we had were sandwiches and
that was two hours ago. If you could cook worth a damn, we'd have some
real food instead of this crap we're eating now."

Bulma felt immediate rage rise in her and fought to submerge it.
It was a struggle but she managed to keep it down. "It's not going to
work this time, Vegeta," she said in a calm voice.

He pulled open the door to the small fridge and hesitated. "What
isn't going to work?"

"You're trying to piss me off so that I'll just walk out on you
and go out and get the Dragonball all by myself. That way you'd have an
excuse for staying warm and dry in the hoverjet. I'm telling you that it
won't work. I'm not budging one step without you." With that she offered
him one of her sweetest smiles, crossed her arms, and leaned against the
counter. "Go ahead and make your sandwich, sweetheart. I can wait."

He slammed the door shut hard enough to make the glasses on the
counter jump. "I'm no longer hungry," he ground out from between
clenched teeth. He pulled the snow goggles down over his eyes and pulled
up the hood, fastening it securely under his chin. "Let's get this
bullshit over with," he snarled, walking over to the door.

"About freaking time..." Bulma muttered under her breath. She hit
the panel that released the lock and the door cracked open. Almost
instantly, the temperature in the small cabin plummeted to freezing. She
was beginning to wonder if her winter clothes, specifically rated for
sub-artic excursions, were actually warm enough for this trip. Beside
her, Vegeta had his face into the wind, unflinching from the snow that
whipped past them and began to settle in the cabin. Before she could say
anything, he walked out into the blizzard first, quickly enveloped by
the harsh elements.

Bracing herself against a wind that seemed to be blowing
horizontal, she hurried after him. "Slow down!" she yelled. "You don't
even know where we're going!" She was wiping the frost off of the dial
of her Dragonball radar to see the steady pulsing light on the readout
that signaled their target was only a few meters away to her left.
"Vegeta!"

Against the backdrop of steadily whipping snow, the Saiyan's vague
gray silhouette disappeared from her sight. She could hardly believe how
poor the visibility had gotten. The hoverjet was at her back, barely ten
steps away, and she could barely make it out in the fierce storm. Vegeta
had charged off, obviously angry with her, and now she didn't have a
clue where he was. His tracks had already filled in.

VEGETA! She tried projecting with her mind. There was no answer.
There could be any number of reasons for that; she didn't have any ki
for telepathy, Vegeta had his own receptiveness "turned-off", he was
already out of range, or, perhaps the most likely reason-

-he was deliberately ignoring her.

"Damn that man," she hissed, at a loss of what to do. After
several seconds of rare indecision she decided to go retrieve the
Dragonball first, her genius mind reassuring the rest of her that Vegeta
was really in no danger. This wasn't a P.A.T. test where he was
forbidden to use his powers; if he was in danger he could retreat to a
safer destination until the storm passed.

Retreat. It sounds like a plan, Bulma figured as the drastic
temperatures penetrated her parka and layered clothes, chilling her to
the bone. If she blindly went out to look for him, she would only become
lost; doing neither of them any good. As concerned as she was for her
hot-tempered mate, she was damned if she was going to be the butt of any
of his "weak-little human" jokes. In her own way, she had her own
prideful chip on her shoulder.

Staggering against the elements, she followed the readout on the
radar and soon knelt down before a pile a snow and started digging. It
wasn't long before her efforts were rewarded by that familiar glimpse of
orange. Ignoring the blizzard for the moment, Bulma held up the three-
star Dragonball to eyelevel, swamped by a feeling of accomplishment and
remorse. It was a common feeling for her; one that surfaced after a
complicated project was completed, or when an adventure ended. It meant
that they would soon be returning home after Vegeta made his wish.

Bulma didn't want the Honeymoon to end but she knew it was
unrealistic to continue on like an oblivious love-struck newlywed. The
more she thought about it, the more she was coming to grips that perhaps
this vacation wasn't her last adventure, as she had feared all along.
She had a child to raise, a business to run, and an alien husband to
tame. It its own way, that all seemed a much more compelling journey and
she was smiling when she tucked the Dragonball into her coat pocket,
zipping it shut.

Bracing herself against the wind, she staggered her way back to
the hoverjet. She was in the process of lowering the ramp when she felt
the ground vibrate beneath the thick padding of her boots.

"What the hell?" she muttered, looking down. The trembling
increased to a sickening lurch and there was a sound like a tree trunk
snapping far out in the snow-whipped darkness. It was followed by
another, and another, getting louder as it seemed to be getting closer
to her. All of a sudden the snow parted between her legs as the ice
sheet broke apart with a crack that was deafening.

One of the hoverjet struts slipped into the widening gap and Bulma
barely had the wits to grab onto the side of the door. She managed to
hoist herself into the cabin just as the vehicle tipped over onto its
side, precariously balanced over the crevice. Lying on her stomach and
helplessly staring out of the open door, Bulma had a mind-numbing view
of the black depths of the fissure below her; it seemed to go on
forever. She glanced over her shoulder wondering if she would be able to
make it over to the cockpit without rocking the craft. The decision was
made up for her when another bone jarring snap resounded in the small
cabin and the fissure opened up further. The hoverjet plummeted into the
black depths, the sides of the hull squealing against the walls of ice
and creating a shower of sparks.

Holding onto a seat for dear life, Bulma's panicked thoughts
repeated over and over: Vegeta will save me. Just like in Africa. He'll
show up just in the nick of time and save me-

It didn't happen.

There was a sense of weightlessness that lasted about seven
seconds (it seemed to go on forever), before the craft impacted with
something hard. The collision ripped Bulma away from her seat, threw her
against the roof, and she landed on the floor of the cabin, dazed. She
lay there for several minutes in complete darkness before attempting to
move her limbs. She was miraculously uninjured; her heavy clothing had
protected her from more than just the elements. Crawling over to a
supply locker, she rummaged in the emergency gear until her hands closed
over a familiar shape. The light from the flashlight was a welcome
relief and she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, forcing
herself to relax before shining it around the cabin. The front window of
the cockpit had shattered and snow had spilled in over the dashboard and
seats. The entire hull had assumed a domed ellipse shape from the force
of the impact.

Impact with what? She wondered and forced her legs to get moving.
Climbing over the snow, she crawled out of the ruined vehicle and shone
her flashlight around, at a rare loss for words. The sides of the
crevice sliced upwards with the icy precision of a razor, disappearing
to darkness that went far beyond the flashlight's beam. She got the
sense that she was very far down, perhaps a kilometer deep, maybe more.
The cavern echoed with the alien sounds of the ice shelf shifting as the
stress of weight and temperature forced millions of tons of compressed
snow to grind against itself. It was like listening to fingernails
clawing over a chalkboard and Bulma felt her body temperature plummet
from something more than just the frigid air. She started to shiver in
fear. Here and there, the ice wall was pockmarked by holes of varying
sizes and looked like empty eye sockets staring down at her.

"Stop it," she said from between chattering teeth. "You're just
freaking yourself out." The beam of her flashlight was visibly shaking
and she steadied it with both hands. "It's not as bad as it looks. You
still have spare capsules, remember? You're not trapped here!"

She spared herself a nod. "I'm not trapped," she reassured herself
and was starting to smile when the ground began to tremble again. "Oh
shit, not again-" she threw herself back inside of the ruined craft as
there was a tremendous explosion that echoed up and down the fissure,
sounding as if a war was being waged this far below the ice. Snow and
sleet rained down upon the cabin and the echoes faded into desultory
rumbles until... silence.

Finally; "Bulma!"

Braving herself to look up, she saw Vegeta kneeling outside of the
ruined cockpit. Her flashlight had turned off and she should not have
been able to see him except that he was glowing like a small star. His
hood was off and she could see the sharp spikes of blonde hair,
indicative of a Super Saiyan transformation. As relieved as she was to
see him, all she could think of saying was: "Why did you run off, you
idiot!? Look at what happened!"

"Are you saying that this is my fault?" he shouted back. He spared
a quick look around and then stared back at her as if she were insane.
"I'm not the one who split this ice. It-"

"That's not what I'm talking about!" Struggling back out of the
craft, she stood up and poked him directly in the chest. "We should have
stayed together. You knew that the visibility was poor. Why didn't you
come when I called for you?"

His emerald eyes narrowed in rising anger. "I am not your pet."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Stupid woman, I was in no danger. I could sense where you were."

"Then why the hell did you wander off!" she screamed at him,
hitting his chest again with one gloved fist.

He caught her wrist and glared at her. "Because it was you who was
in danger."

Her breath caught in her throat. Before she could question, there
was a sickening crack far above them and a section of the ice wall
smashed to the ground a few meters away. Sparse seconds later, another
fell out of the darkness like a missile and smashed the hoverjet with
the impact, pelting them with icy shrapnel. "Power down, Vegeta."

"What-? Why?"

"Your ki affects gravity. This ice is fragile and it's reacting to
the stress you're radiating."

"Bullshit," he scoffed but when his aura flared, the ice nearby
buckled and a piece as big as a Volkswagen sheered apart and collapsed
right beside him. He stared down at it for a few seconds and then
extinguished his ki without another word of debate. They were swiftly
enveloped by darkness.

His voice drifted over to her, dripping with sarcasm, "That was
brilliant."

"Shut up, I have a flashlight."

"Don't tell me to shut up!"

"Listen buster-"

Bulma felt him roughly pull her back just as another huge chunk of
the ice wall fell right beside her. She turned on the flashlight and saw
a boulder-sized portion of snow looming over them both.

"I wouldn't piss me off if I were you," he said with deadly
seriousness, pulling her back again as more pieces rained down from
above. "We have to get out of here right now!" He wrapped his arms
around her waist and took off in a deliberate vertical course, wasting
no time on technique. He just wanted to get them topside.

Bulma shone her flashlight above them and screamed warning when
another boulder fell towards them. Reacting instinctively, Vegeta
blasted it with a ki bolt and the ice walls shuddered from the
onslaught, immediately shattering into body-sized chunks of deadly
shrapnel.

"Shit-" was all that Vegeta had time to say before diverting his
course in mid air.

He flew them into one of holes that marred the sidewalls of the
fissure, colliding with ice as the hole arced sharply downwards in a 90-
degree angle. Bulma was freefalling until her chest fell against the
slick wall of ice and she found herself sliding down headfirst at
breakneck speed. Managing to keep a hold of her flashlight, she could
see that she was in a tunnel of sheer ice. The surfaces were perfectly
smooth, impossible to get a grip on, and it was like traveling down a
bobsled ramp without the protective gear.

There was a scraping sound behind her, followed by a multitude of
curses and she swung the flashlight over her left shoulder, looking
back. Vegeta was sliding down on his back and all she could see were his
flailing legs trying to slow his progress along the slick walls. He was
dragging his fingernails along the ice, creating deep furrows as he
tried to slow his descent but it wasn't enough. Their angle of descent
was too sharp.

"Try to relax and just go with it!" she called out.

"Screw that!" came the predictable response. He braced his legs on
either side of the tunnel and the heels of his boots grated against the
ice as he dug them in.

Bulma looked ahead again and felt her blood run cold at what she
saw. "Vegeta-!"

"Shut up!"

"Pull your legs together. Quick!"

"I said shut the fuck u-"

The tunnel abruptly branched off in a "Y" and Bulma sped swiftly
down the right tunnel. All she could do is wince when she heard the bone
jarring impact as Vegeta collided with the hard wedge separating the two
tunnels, and she knew that he hadn't hit it headfirst, either. Just as
she was starting to call out to him again, she exited into a large ice
cave and had her momentum slowed by the piles of snow and slush before
coming up against the far side of the immense cavern. A few seconds
later, the Saiyan tumbled out of the second tunnel. He groaned, pulled
himself into a shivering ball, and went still.

She got quickly to her feet to go to him and was rewarded by the
sound of cracking ice. She looked down at her boots in dismay. "Oh crap,
not aga-" Her weight broke the fragile ice cover of an underground lake
and she plummeted into the freezing water before she could finish her
last word. She immediately gasped out all of the air in her lungs as the
numbing cold enveloped her, clouding her thoughts. The flashlight pin-
wheeled from her spasming fingers and sank down into the black depths,
the beam growing dimmer and finally disappearing from her sight.

That'll be you, dummy, if you don't start moving, came a thought
through her shocked mind. Frantically kicking her legs, she managed to
grab a hold of the edge of the ice only to have it break off in her
hand. She was trying to call out to Vegeta for help, but the cold was
affecting her coordination and all she could manage to do was make
nonsense sounds of desperation. Her parka was weighing her down and in a
burst of panic she struggled to get out of it before the weight pulled
her under. Grabbing a half-breath of air, she thrashed about in the
water, fighting the zipper and finally getting the heavy coat off. It
sank like a stone and Bulma, unburdened, made another desperate grasp
for the edge of the ice. Just as her hand slipped again, another closed
securely around her wrist.

Through her dimming vision, she could see Vegeta lying on the ice.
He was holding her with one hand while the other glowed with repressed
ki energy. He quickly pulled her out of the water, making the thin ice
barrier groan with the added weight, and dragged her over to the nearest
cavern wall.

"Th-th-tha-than-"

"Here," he said, shrugging out of his own parka. "Even half-
frozen, your tongue doesn't stop wagging, does it?" If she had any of
her wits she would have noticed that he was moving slowly, far slower
than normal, but she was only relieved to have the warmth of his coat
when he offered it to her. "Th-thanks," she managed to finally get out
through her chattering teeth as she pulled it around her shoulders.

He only offered her a half-nod and then squeezed his eyes shut,
suddenly sitting down beside her and cradling his crotch.

"Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay!" he snapped back. "I just got gelded back there
and it hurts like hell, alright? Shit!" He bent briefly double and
breathed harshly through clenched teeth.

Like most women, Bulma didn't truly comprehend the severity of
that particular male vulnerability and could only rub his back, at a
loss of what else to do for him. "Maybe we can use the second wish to
undo any damage," she offered, half-teasing and half-serious. Sudden
realization came crashing into her and she looked over at the water with
rising horror. "Oh no! Damn it! How could I have been so stupid?"

He squinted at her. "What?"

"The last Dragonball was in my coat!" She was pointing at the
water. "I had to get it off before I drowned!"

Blinking in confusion for a few seconds, it finally dawned on him
what she was saying. In a flash, he was on his feet and running for the
opening in the ice. Before she could even call out a warning, he dove
into the freezing water without a second's hesitation.

"!!VEGETA!!" she screamed.

He had taken the precious ki light with him and now she was left
alone in the chilling darkness, too scared to move in any direction. All
that her straining senses could detect were the sounds of cracking ice
and the low creaking moans of the ice shelf as it settled around her.
Vegeta could hold his breath for up to thirty minutes under optimum
conditions. With the water temperature near freezing that time was
probably halved. Perhaps he was already out of breath, clawing
frantically at the ice, unable to find the opening...

"Come back... Please, come back to me," Bulma whispered, putting
her trembling hands to her face and peering out from between her splayed
fingers. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and froze on her pale
cheeks. She had never felt so helpless in all of her life. The last time
she had ever felt this vulnerable, she had been stranded on Namek while
Gohan and Krillin had gone off and left her behind to search for the
Dragonballs. Frieza's soldiers had been on the hunt for all of them and
added into the mix had been her terror of another deadly rogue also
patrolling the planet. Her exhausted naps had been full of terrifying
nightmares of Vegeta finding her alone and attacking her. She had been
so scared of him back then. He had been ruthless, out of control,
diabolical, bad to the bone-

- And sexy as hell. She could admit it now even if she was in
denial back then. It had been watching him face off against the alien
named Zarbon that had done it. The Saiyan had toyed with him like a cat
with a mouse, showing off in front of her. All for her benefit? She
wasn't sure but after the battle, he hadn't harmed her. It had been at
the moment that she felt he had changed since that terrible conflict on
Earth, and definitely for the better. It had opened infinite
possibilities that her genius mind immediately began to sort out.

Four years later and here she was, thinking her life was going to
come to an end if her husband; that selfsame ruthless, out of control,
diabolical, bad to the bone, sexy as hell rogue, dared to die on her. It
was funny the curve balls that life threw you, but she wasn't prepared
to laugh about it quite yet. He had been underwater for close to five
minutes and she suddenly felt a tickle in the back of her mind, meaning
he was trying to bridge thoughts with her.

Vegeta...? she attempted.

- Radiate your thoughts! Hard as you can! This freaking cave is
huge and I don't know where to go!

You mean you're lost? Is this your way of asking me for
directions?

Vegeta's mind briefly adopted somber hues of fleeting anger and
embarrassment punctuated with a few colorful curses for good measure. –
Knock it off! I'm not alone down here!

"Wha-?"

-!!CONCENTRATE DAMMIT!!

Flinching at the tone of his mental shout, Bulma reined her
thoughts in and projected over and over: - I'm here, I'm right here. I'm
here-

About thirty seconds later, Vegeta burst through the ice cover
gasping for air. She could hear his quick breathing in the frigid
darkness and she recoiled in surprise when he suddenly powered up,
shielding her eyes at the sudden illumination. "Power down! What did I
tell you about the gravity?"

"Screw it!" he snapped, levitating out of the water and flying
over to her. She was astonished to see that he had actually succeeded in
retrieving her parka. "We're getting out of here right now!"

There was an expression on his pale face that she had never seen
before and she realized with dread that it was pure panic. "What did you
see? What was down there?" The fragile ice along the ceiling of the cave
was beginning to crack along various stress points, raining down on them
and threatening to collapse. She heard another sound behind them and
whirled in time to watch as the layer of ice over the frozen lake surged
upwards and shattered. The water started to churn and froth with
increased motion.

Some... thing was coming for them. Something huge.

"Vegeta!" Bulma screamed in alarm.

The Saiyan had both of his hands tucked into his right side,
concentrating fiercely to gather as much ki as he possibly could, and
brought them straight up, firing off a concentrated energy beam from his
hands and body. Bulma recognized the blast as his Galactic Gun, the
attack that had almost destroyed the Earth. It was similar in strength
and scope to Gokou's Kamehameha Wave and she wasn't reassured to see him
using it now.

The energy discharge slammed into the ceiling and melted a ten-
foot wide hole as it blasted its way to the surface. Before she could
question what was happening, Vegeta snatched up the parka and pulled her
close and leapt for the new exit just as something burst through the
lake screaming with a high pitched wail of rage that went almost into
the ultra sonic range. She slapped her hands to her ears but her cry of
pain was lost to the inhuman shriek. Following the contrail of his
energy blast, Vegeta appeared to ignore it but his speed increased until
Bulma found herself struggling to catch a breath. Her soaked clothes
were freezing rapidly on her skin and by the time they made it to the
surface, her hair was one frozen mat and she had lost feeling in her
entire body.

The blizzard was still raging and Vegeta didn't stop their ascent
until they were well above the churning clouds. He looked cautiously
around, relieved to see the familiar glint of stars and finally remarked
in a calmer tone; "They can't fly. We're safe up here."

He got no response and spared Bulma a glance. She looked unusually
pale in the dim light and when he touched her, she was as cold as the
icy crypt they had just escaped from. "Bulma?" It took him a few seconds
to grasp what was wrong and when it hit him, he felt like slapping
himself; She had been soaked in ice water and their swift retreat had
lowered the temperature down to alarming levels. This altitude was
making things worse.

Even though he was powered up, his ki-infused form didn't project
any more body heat than the normal non-powered form. His clothes were as
ice-covered as hers and there was a frozen forelock of hair that kept
hanging in his face, interfering with his vision. As the adrenaline rush
of his close encounter beneath the water began to subside, he could feel
the dangerous chill start to penetrate his stiff clothes. His alien hide
was tougher to dealing with drastic temperature shifts than a human but
he didn't like the cold, no Saiyan did. If he were alone, he'd just
speed a swift course for the nearest shelter.

... alone... But he wasn't alone and he had no intentions of
living like that ever again, not if he could help it.

"Bulma!" He slapped her cheek and was relieved to see a brief
flutter of her eyelids, but that was all. She was hypothermic, he
understood that but he had to struggle with a way to help her. This was
not his forte and he was found to be considerably lacking in this
particular area. Killing people, making them suffer; he could come up
with at least a thousand different ways to accomplish the task. But save
one simple life? He was drawing an alarming blank...

"Shelter. We'll start with that," he said aloud, hoping that on
some level she could hear his voice and maybe draw some measure of
comfort from it. Or amusement. He still couldn't quite figure out how
her mind worked. "We're on the ass-end of this miserable planet, on a
continent with no cities or towns and it's the dead of winter. Shit." He
knew that he had to drop down to the surface quickly but the thought of
coming near those... things made his skin crawl. He continued to debate
the issue in his mind until Bulma made a pained moan and that settled it
once and for all. He created a barrier around their forms to protect
them from the worst of the elements and dropped back down into the
storm.

Rummaging through the pockets of the retrieved parka, he pulled
out Bulma's capsule packet and squinted at the five tiny capsules inside
of the frozen case. One was for storage, one was a car, another a spare
hoverjet, a hoi poi house, and the last was a speedboat. They were as
waterlogged and frozen as their owner but Vegeta extracted the hoverjet
in the hopes that they could still make a warm retreat. The lever
wouldn't depress. It was frozen solid.

"Piece of shit," he cursed and tried the car. The lever depressed
but when he threw it to the side, it didn't activate. It was a dud. He
picked up the Hoi Poi capsule and looked at it with dread. Early Saiyans
had been a superstitious breed but there had never been any deity or
symbol that invoked the necessity of prayer. A human might use this
moment to offer up an entreaty to their God but Vegeta did the only
thing he knew:

"You'd better fucking work," he hissed at it and forced the lever
down with his thumb. When he threw it away it immediately detonated and
he was heartened by his change of luck until he got a closer look at it.
Only half of the yellow dome had materialized and the other side was
caved in and deformed from its exposure to the cold. Still, it was
either that or they could be using a stupid speedboat for shelter (and
that was only if the stinking thing worked, which he doubted anyway).

He carried Bulma into the small structure and sealed the entrance
shut. It was freezing cold inside but it kept the howling wind at bay.
When he tried to activate the power, he discovered that the side that
hadn't completely materialized had been where the power unit was housed.
No lights, no heat. The kitchen hadn't formed either. Pinching the
bridge of his nose, he tried to keep his anger at bay and desperately
hoped that it wouldn't be a losing battle. Bulma needed him; he had to
keep reminding himself of that fact. Reverting back to his old, selfish
ways weren't going to help anyone.

"What do I do next?" he muttered under his breath, staring
helplessly down at his shivering bride. "Damn it! What am I supposed to
do?"

You have to remove the wet clothes, an old voice whispered from
his memories. It was from the Reptilian healer who had treated him,
Nappa, and Radditz after their blizzard world P.A.T. They hadn't been in
much better shape then he was right now. What else had he said? He said-
"Your core temperature is too low and has to be raised slowly. Immersion
in warm water is best but, barring that, flesh-to-flesh contact would
do."

Vegeta remembered Nappa extending his arms out to Radditz and
saying, "Come a little closer so I can hug you!"

"Get away from me!" Radditz had screamed, no doubt remembering the
huge Elite's kiss during the mission.

"Flesh-to-flesh," Vegeta muttered. He supposed it made sense.
Their wet clothes were sucking the heat from their bodies. He took his
off first and, yes, it did make a difference albeit a small one. He was
really starting to feel the cold now and the tips of his fingers and
toes were losing their feeling. Kneeling beside Bulma, he began
undressing her next. A part of him hoped that she would wake up while he
was doing the act and make one of her usual comebacks, hell even a groan
would give him some reassurance that she would be alright, but she
remained oblivious.

When he was done he threw the clothes to the side and looked
around for something to cover them with. In desperation he ripped up the
carpet and pulled Bulma's nude body close to his own, hissing at how
cold her flesh was. Holding her tightly, he grabbed a handful of the
loose carpet and rolled their bodies around until they were cocooned in
several layers the tough fabric. It certainly wasn't the 500-thread
count Egyptian sheets he liked to sleep in but this would definitely
serve its purpose. He was already starting to feel a little better and
he thought that he could detect a change in Bulma's body temperature as
well. Little by little, her bone-jarring shivers were beginning to fade
to light trembling. He figured it was a good sign and his anxiety began
to finally back off.

"You're tough," he muttered out loud. "You may not have the ki to
fight your way out of a wet paper bag, but you're tough as nails." He
rubbed his cheek against hers back and forth; part of it was to share
his body heat, another as a sign of affection. Kissing was a human
concept. Under any other circumstances he would probably find the
situation highly erotic: Trapped in the wilds of an untamed land with a
naked beautiful woman, her arms and legs entangled around his own, while
an unknown enemy looked for them both. Unfortunately, she was
unconscious – that was no fun. And, truth be told, he was still too
damned sore from his impact with the ice to want to get an erection. It
would only hurt him more. Right now, he was content to just hold her in
the darkness and wait for her to wake up.

...What if she didn't wake up?... The question nagged away at him
as he laid with her in the darkness and the long minutes ticked on in
his internal clock and became hours. Humans were a fragile race and she
might have been damaged from this intense exposure. Humans could die
from the most trivial of things; a fall, an infection, sometimes even
for no explainable reason. This forced him to consider a serious matter
he had purposely avoided until now: What would happen if Bulma died?
That was the question that began eating away at him as he held her. He
wondered when his concern for this woman began to really take hold with
him and he was bewildered when he couldn't come up with any concrete
answer. It had been such an imperceptible change... Would he have cared
if she had died on Namek? No. When Android 20 had shot the hoverjet
down? He hesitated there. So somewhere in that span of three years he
had begun to feel some measure of fondness for her. How was that
possible? He was Prince Vegeta, the scourge of seven systems and evil to
the core. He did not bond, nurture, or adore – those were all human
concepts. So how was it possible that this non-powered human female had
managed to find a way to tame him and make him feel... content?

What would happen if she died? He was stymied by his inability to
come up with any answer and he wanted desperately for her to wake up so
that he could stop this pointless brooding. He always figured that he
would be the first to die in this odd relationship; Kami's prophetic
warning of his early demise notwithstanding. There had never been any
hint of a rumor of a Saiyan ever dying of old age. The warring race had
lived short, violent lives and died in brutal ways. Nappa had been the
oldest he had ever known, dying at 68. The seasoned veteran of a
hundred, bloody battles, the huge Elite had often expressed remorse of
not falling in combat with his peers when he had been in his prime. In
light of that, Vegeta figured he had done his old bodyguard a favor by
putting him down personally. He, himself, was not scared of dying, only
of dying badly, and being the first one to die in this relationship put
him conveniently off the hook of responsibilities and obligations he had
never bothered to consider. Until right this moment.

Not possessing much of an imagination, he had to rationalize the
situation with the detachment of a strategist: If Bulma died right here,
he would-would... bring the body back to Capsule Corporation, explain
what had happened (and endure the criticism from her brainless friends
and family), and attend whatever pointless funeral rites that Earth had
in store for a corpse. Trying to fathom the emotional impact that the
situation might have on him was virtually impossible. Humans grieved the
deaths of people they cared about. It was expected, even encouraged. He
had never cared about anything before. Even his own sense of self-
preservation was a precarious thing. He didn't know how he would react
to Bulma's death. Just considering the mere possibility left him feeling
oddly numb. He only knew that he would be alone again, he knew all to
well what loneliness was, and he figured that all he could do was leave
Earth and move on with his life somewhere else. He nodded in
satisfaction. Yes, that would be the order of things. No loose ends left
behind-

-Except for Trunks.

"Shit!" he growled, thumping his head against the floor in
frustration. How the hell could he forget about his son? There was no
way he was going to leave the boy in the hands of those meat-beating
losers of the Earth's Z Fighters. Or, even worse, her parents. How was
he expecting to travel out into space with a toddler underfoot? And not
just any toddler, a Saiyan/human hybrid toddler who was just discovering
a penchant for mischief.

Bulma released a low moan and Vegeta had to submerge the desire to
start frantically shaking her. He didn't want to think about these
matters anymore. They were... disturbing. "Woman, wake up!" Only in his
Oozaru form did he have any kind of infrared vision to boast but he
could make out the barest outline of her features as she struggled with
consciousness. "Bulma!"

"...don' wanna go to school t'day, momma..." she muttered, and
started to snore.

This time Vegeta DID shake her. "I'm NOT your brain-dead mother,
woman. Wake the hell up!"

"...Uhm? Wha- Vegeta? Where are-" Her eyes snapped open in shock.
"Geez! It's freaking cold!"

"No kidding," he commented, privately grateful that she couldn't
see how relieved he truly was to see her conscious. There didn't appear
to be any lingering after-effects from her exposure and she was back to
her shrill, exuberant self. He was actually smiling.

That was until Bulma began thrashing around in the confined space
and her knee connected with his still-aching groin. He grabbed her by
the shoulders to steady her; "We're alright! I popped open a Hoi Poi
capsule for shelter."

"Buh-but there's no lights- No heat!-"

"The capsule was damaged by the water."

She shivered against him and it registered that her hands were
making contact with bare flesh. "You... undressed me? You did all this?"

"I-" He didn't know what to say, unsure if she was angry or
relieved. She suddenly wrapped she arms around his neck and started
showering his face with kisses as she gushed: "You saved me, Vegeta! You
saved my life! Thank you! I love you sooo much!"

"Uhm," He grunted, still at a loss for words. In the back of his
mind, he was running a constant score card of the number of times they
had saved each other lives. Bulma was far and away the leader, even for
actions that she was unaware. He knew that he still had a lot of
catching up to do but it was an encouraging start.

He kissed her back but it was a perfunctory gesture and she
immediately noticed the distance in his manner. "What's wrong?"

He scowled down at her. "What do you think? We can't stay here."

"Oh no?" She extended her arms over her head and arched her back.
"Two young, beautiful newlyweds trapped together in a small room, all
alone with no one around for miles..."

It was amazing how similar their minds worked, Vegeta mused, but
she was wrong about one thing: "We're not alone, woman. Not anywhere
close."

That broke the moment. Bulma grabbed onto him again. "In that
underground cave, something was coming out of the water after you. What
was it?"

"You mean: 'What were they'?"

"Vegeta!"

"Void Worms," he told her, betraying a revolted tremor at the
thought. "They've completely taken over this area."

"Worms? That's disgusting! Where'd they come from?"

"Their eggs drift in space and attach onto passing crafts that
travel slower than light speed. They can only live in cold regions,
which is why they've adapted to this environment. I don't know how
they've gotten to Earth. But they're here. And thriving."

Bulma's mind raced with the information, remembering the ice walls
of the crevasse perforated with holes of varying sizes. "What do they
eat?"

"Anything that moves. They feat on themselves when food is scarce.
It's about the only thing that keeps their numbers down-"

"But their numbers aren't down! You saw all of the holes in the
ice. They're everywhere!"

"The waters here are probably full of aquatic life. It must be
what's sustaining them."

"Well, we have to stop them!"

"Screw that!"

"They're eating whales and seals and-and helpless little penguins.
We can't let that happen."

"Those 'helpless little penguins' can damn well fend for
themselves. We have to get out of here before the worms catch our
scent."

"Scent-"

"They're blind but their entire body is made up of olfactory
receptors. We've been lucky with the blizzard outside. The winds are
masking us."

She stared at him closely in the darkness. "You seem to know an
awful lot about these things. Have you met them before?"

"You could say that."

"Where?"

He debated on not answering, eager to get the hell out of the
area. Without an explanation he knew that she wouldn't budge an inch.
"Frieza had lost contact with one of his warships. He sent Nappa,
Radditz and I to investigate."

"Boy, he chose you guys for all of his shit jobs, didn't he?" she
said with amazing bitterness.

"Uhm. Anyway, we found the warship floating in space, without
power, and riddled with holes. At first we thought they were made from a
battle until we went inside and discovered that a swarm of void worms
had taken it over and eaten the crew. They were still hungry when we
intruded. We barely made it back to base alive."

"You were hurt? How badly?"

"I had a number of superficial bites all over my body but they
weren't the problem. Void Worm saliva is loaded with eggs. By the time
we got back to a regeneration chamber, we had maggots chewing themselves
out of our wounds."

Bulma's stomach roiled in disgust. He spoke about the incident in
his usual blunt, matter-of-fact tone but she wasn't fooled by the
indifference. When they had been trapped far below the surface, she had
heard his fear in his projected thoughts, and seen it clearly on his
face when he had emerged from the water. He hated the worms but he was
scared of them, too. "That's just horrible, Vegeta. My god, you've been
put through so much-"

"No pity, Bulma," he said in a hard voice. "We've been over this
before."

"I know, I know." She had to guard her thoughts carefully so that
he wouldn't pick them up. Just when she had thought she'd heard one
horror story from his past, he trumped it with another and she hadn't
even begun to scratch the surface of his past life yet. "But Vegeta, we
can't just let these things take over Antarctica."

"'We' can't? Last time I checked, I had the power here and I'm
telling you I'm not battling another swarm of Void Worms. That one time
was enough."

"But-"

"The matter is closed, woman. There will be no further debate on
this issue." He held her close and rolled them out of the protective
covering and once the cold air made contact with her bare skin, Bulma
forgot all about the worms. She screamed and darted back under the
carpet. "There's no way I'm going back outside in those wet clothes. I'm
staying right here!"

Vegeta pulled a lone capsule from his armpit and held up his free
hand and illuminated it with some ki. "It's the storage capsule from the
frozen packet. I've warmed it up but I didn't want to force it. Will it
work?"

She took it from him and examined as closely as she could in the
dim light. "We have the Dragonballs stored inside this, don't we?"

"Among other things, like some dry clothes."

"Keep your fingers crossed," she said and pressed the lever and
threw across the room. It exploded in a cloud of smoke and two suitcases
materialized, along with some souvenirs and, most importantly, the other
six Dragonballs, all perfectly intact. They cast a feeble golden glow in
the room. At the sight, both Vegeta and Bulma released a sigh of relief.

"We never tested the capsules for sub-zero conditions," Bulma
commented as they got dressed. There weren't any winter clothes in her
suitcase but she put on as many layers as she could find. "Or ever
bothered to make them water-proof. I guess that I've got some things to
work on when we get back home."

Vegeta nodded as he pulled on several pairs of jogging pants, four
t-shirts and then a wind-breaker. When he was done, he looked like he
had gained twenty pounds. As he repacked his remaining belongings, he
looked up sharply and cocked his head to one side.

Bulma watched him closely. "What's wrong?"

"I think-" He went silent again and this time she heard it; a high
pitched wail, almost beyond the range of human hearing. They cast each
other an almost comical look and then began rushing around the damaged
shelter. Bulma retrieved the seventh, and final, Dragonball from the
frozen parka and encapsulated it with the others. She couldn't even
relish the moment of satisfaction that they had successfully
accomplished their goal. Vegeta went to the door, unsealed and opened
it, and she ran into his back when he stood frozen in the doorway.

"Vegeta?"

He didn't respond and she had to peer over his shoulder. "Oh God!"
she cried in horror.

The entire Hoi Poi house was surrounded by a writhing swarm of
naked, pulsating Void Worms. They were slowly circling the small
building, their white, tubular bodies crawling over and under each other
in a never-ending parade of undulating flesh. They were blindly
extending their heads to the wind, making keening sounds of frustration.
As Bulma continued to watch, they were beginning to register a change in
the air. One by one, their movements slowed and they began to angle
their heads towards the doorway. That was when she saw the gnashing
circles that were their mouths. And teeth. Lots and lots of razor sharp
teeth. "We have to get out of here- RIGHT NOW!" she screamed directly
into Vegeta's ear.

He flinched away from her and blinked for a few seconds. "Away
...Right," he muttered. The blankness of his face suddenly became
animated again and transformed into a mask of rage. "Disgusting
creatures!" He screamed, releasing a blast of ki that incinerated a
smaller worm that was crawling rapidly towards them. That action
immediately attracted the rest of the swarm and he wrapped an arm around
Bulma and burst through the ceiling as hundreds of the ravenous worms
attacked.

They leapt onto the small shelter, immediately demolishing it, and
began to coalesce into a tight, swirling ball. Eventually, the writhing
circle of bodies began to turn amber, staining the surrounding snow.

"What are they doing?" Bulma asked in confusion, looking down from
their secure elevation from where they levitated above the swarm.

"Feeding frenzy," Vegeta remarked, deliberately looking away and
trying desperately not to puke in front of Bulma. He gagged once and got
his gorge partially under control by an act of sheer will. "They're
eating each other." He forced himself to look down and extended his
hand, releasing a ki blast that quickly dispatched the rest of the
foulsome parasites. When the smoke was quickly swept away by the wind,
all they could see was a crater with a few twitching cinders surrounding
it.

There was another wailing screech that caught their attention, and
they could make out a massive shadow in the distance. Beginning to
shiver from something far more severe than just the cold, Bulma realized
that something huge was quickly coming towards them. "Is it their
mother?" she dared to ask.

"No," he said, watching the approaching shadow with an expression
of revulsion and dread. "Just a full grown one."

"How big do they get?"

"Their size is limited to the amount they can eat. Maybe a hundred
feet long, maybe even two."

Her arms tightened around him with panicked urgency. "We can't let
these things live, Vegeta!"

He didn't respond, staring down at the crater beneath them.

"The Antarctica ice shelves have been breaking up for over a
decade. Scientists thought that it was Global Warming or holes in the
ozone to blame, but it them! Those filthy worms are making the ice
brittle by chewing all of those holes through it! It's raising the ocean
levels. It's affecting the entire planet!"

He regarded her closely. "The only thing that I can do is blast
this region with a Final Flash. Won't that just make things worse?"

"It would have to be better than letting them spread all over the
Continent."

"It won't kill them all."

"But it'll slow them down, right? Yamacha and the rest of the Z
Fighters can handle it after that. That's what the Government pays them
for! To clean up threats to the Earth!"

One heavy eyebrow lifted at that little bit of information. The
thought of the selfsame warriors associated with his first defeat having
to endure this freezing wasteland and search and destroy insatiable Void
Worms came as something of an odd source of comfort for the squeamish
Saiyan. He briefly entertained the attractive fantasy of a worm
attaching itself to the rear end of Bulma's idiotic ex-lover.

For no good reason that Bulma could fathom, she thought that she
saw a hint of a smile cross her husband's face before he submerged it.
"...Vegeta?"

"All right. I've thought of something that just might help, but
you're not going to like it."

That put her immediately on guard. "Why not?"

He looked at her slyly. "Do you trust me?"

Barely a minute later, Bulma stood shivering in knee-deep snow and
cast anxious glances around her barren surroundings. That looming shadow
in the distance was growing closer with alarming speed and she was
starting to make out more shrieking calls coming from other directions,
adding their voice to the huge monster. The blowing winds and swirling
snow was limiting her field of vision to no more of a distance than
about ten feet

"I can't believe I'm going along with this," she muttered under
her breath.

- Quit your pissing and moaning, you're in no danger, Vegeta
immediately shot back. In the sky a fair distance away, she could barely
make out the glowing dot that was her husband slowly gathering the ki
necessary for a successful attack.

"That a fact? I'm sure you'd be more than glad to trade places
with me if I had the power!" There was no response to that and she
crossed her arms and huffed, "Of course not. Hypocrite."

The ground beneath her feet trembled and several worms burst out
of the snow cover to her left. Showtime, Bulma thought bleakly, standing
her ground. "Hey you! Yeah, I'm talking to you, ugly! Over here! Hey!"
She jumped up and down, waving her arms back and forth and screaming at
the top of her lungs. Vegeta had said that they were blind but she
didn't think that they were deaf.

It wasn't long before her actions attracted the roving worms'
attention and they zeroed in on her, their jaws snapping in eager
anticipation of a simple meal. One coiled like a snake and leapt for
her. Bulma braced herself when the worm suddenly rebounded off of the
barrier that Vegeta had formed around her. It snapped the air in fury
and leapt at her again, creating a flash of red static. When it drew
back, its blunt muzzle was noticeably singed from the barrier and it was
drooling ocher-colored mucus peppered with shards of broken teeth. That
damage only attracted its peers and several larger worms darted in and
ripped the first attacker to ribbons right before Bulma's eyes. She was
helpless to do anything but watch as the swarm became incited by the
smell of blood and began biting anything that came near their gnashing
jaws. In less than a minute she was caught dead center in the middle of
a savage feeding frenzy that encompassed over a thousand worms of
various sizes. The smaller ones were quickly consumed by the larger
parasites until the barrier around Bulma was steaming from the blood and
fluids being shed from the slaughter.

Bulma was completely nauseated at the sight. "Vegeta..."

- Almost... there, he projected.

The ground beneath her trembled and there was that high pitched
wail again. Bulma had to clamp her hands over her ears before her
eardrums ruptured. There was a secondary lull in the massacre just long
enough for something huge to drop down and gobble up over a hundred of
the writhing worms in a single bite. Bulma managed one stunned blink
before craning her head back and looking up, and up... There were
undulating bodies all around her, but through parts in the writhing ball
she saw a shadow rearing far above her, chewing with satisfaction. One
hundred feet? Its head actually disappeared in the low cloud cover as it
raised itself up to its full height. If that thing wasn't over five
hundred, she'd be surprised. "Vegeta!"

- Hold on-

"!!VEGETA!!" she screamed as the huge behemoth began to come down
again for another meal. The rest of the worms appeared oblivious to the
threat, self-preservation clearly not in their limited intelligence, and
continued their insatiable gorging on each other. She lost sight of the
monster until there was another piercing screech and all of the worms
struggling on the top of the barrier suddenly disappeared in a single
bite. This time, Bulma got a good look at the full-sized Void Worm, far
clearer than she would have liked. Its teeth scissored back and forth
barely ten feet away from her shocked gaze, gnawing the smaller worms to
an amber pulp. Droplets of drool fell from its jaws and landed in the
barrier and yes, when she dared herself to look closer she could see
them: Tiny eggs and wriggling maggots that made up the worm's saliva,
immediately sentencing anything it bit to a slow and agonizing death if
they didn't get treatment quickly. The thought of Vegeta having to
endure that torture dissolved any of her fear and she started screaming
in rage: "You stinking, slimy bastards! I'm gonna go home and design
something that will make you wish you were back in space-"

- Woman-

"-You hear me, you over-grown maggot? Yeah you! I hope that you
choke, you ugly piece of-"

- Bulma! I-

" –a quick end is too good for you ugly shits! You deserve to
suffer for all that you've done to the Earth-"

- Damn it! Would you-

"-I'd come out there myself and kick your greasy ass if I could-"

- !!BULMA!! I'M READY!

"Huh?" She turned around, blinking heavily as if coming out of a
spell. Hovering above her, even the huge worm appeared to be hypnotized
by the tirade. It shook its huge head and suddenly released another
shriek of fury and lunged for her. The barrier held, but barely,
flashing red fire as the shields tried to repel the infuriated attacker.
Bulma ducked as one tooth managed to break through before the barrier
snapped back and broke it off. She frantically kicked snow over it as
she tried to get as much distance away from it as she could manage in
the small space. "Okay, I think I'm finished with playing bait for these
monsters now, Vegeta. Do you hear me? Hellooo!"

There was no response but she could feel the ground start to shake
and her ears popped as there was a sudden change in the air pressure.
The worms that were still all or partially intact could detect the
change and finally ceased in their mindless gorging, raising their blind
heads to the wind and trying to get a sense of what was wrong. They
couldn't see that the area was getting brighter, as if the sun had
decided to make an appearance, but Bulma was all too aware of what was
approaching; Vegeta's Final Flash in all its glory. She had heard about
it from Krillin, of all people. It was the blast that had nearly
destroyed Complete Cell. Mirai Trunks had been sure that it was going to
destroy the Earth in the bargain, but Vegeta had displayed enormous
control by angling the blast so that it would ricochet off of the ocean
and go out into space.

She was hoping for that control now.

The light was getting uncomfortably bright and the worms were
starting to get the sense that something was seriously wrong. They
started backing away, beginning to get a sense of the heat, which was
fatal for them. Bulma shielded her eyes from the rapidly approaching
ball of coalescing energy, able to make out the light from even behind
her closed eyelids. She didn't even have the time to wonder if she was
going to suffer the same fate as the worms when Vegeta suddenly phased
in beside her, panting and out of breath. When he phased again, he took
her with him and barely two seconds later, his Final Flash obliterated
the area, turning the gigantic swarm, including the huge adult,
instantly into ash. It melted the ice shelf right down to the ocean
level in an expanding fissure that, at its widest, was over eight
hundred feet. The surrounding clouds evaporated as the blast rushed
through and, like its predecessor, it hit the water and angled off into
the stratosphere, dissipating harmlessly in outer space.

"Wow," Bulma managed to whisper from her vantage point on a rocky
peak about a kilometer away. "That just about beats any fireworks show
I've ever seen in my life!"

"Glad... I could entertain... you," Vegeta gasped out from beside
her.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Just takes a lot... out of me, that's all."

The light from the Final Flash was fading and taking away her view
of the damage. From what she could see their plan had worked. She had
been a draw for the worms to congregate in one area so that he could
nail as many as possible with a single blast. "How much of a percentage
of the worms did we get, do you think?"

He wiped his brow with a trembling hand and got to his feet. His
knees threatened to buckle but he stayed erect by sheer force of will.
"Fifty percent. Maybe sixty..."

She looked up at him in dismay. "That's all? There must have been
thousands in that swarm!"

"It's only a guess. I don't know how long they've been established
here. Your loser friends can get the rest of them. We're leaving."

She looked at him with a critical eye. "Are you sure you've got
the strength to fly? You looked pretty wiped out."

"I am," he admitted. For a moment, he examined her as he
considered his earlier thoughts in the shelter. She had come close to
dying twice today and both times he had saved her without sparing some
much as a passing thought about his own welfare. His time with this
woman was changing him. He didn't know how it was even possible but he
couldn't deny its effect. He was not the same person who had tried to
destroy the Earth. Today, he had actually defended it. It was a puzzling
revelation.

"Vegeta?" Bulma examined his face as best she could in the poor
light. He was staring at her so strangely... "Are you sure you're
alright?"

He shook his head and shelved the thoughts away for another time.
Taking her in his arms, he assured her, "I'll be fine. I just want to
get as much distance away from this freezing hell hole as I can manage,"
he said and took to the air.


-----
Chapter 10: What's a Honeymoon without a tropical diversion? A
Rainforest paradise awaits...