Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Another World ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

ANOTHER WORLD

AN: This fic begins on the day Radditz would have arrived on Earth. Warnings: Language, possible references to sex.

This story was inspired by a wee exchange in one of my favorite movies, "A Little Romance."

Disclaimer: I did not create DragonballZ. Although I've been offered millions, I refuse to make money on my stories.

Chapter 1

It was a perfectly lovely reunion until the small spaceship crashed into the ocean.

Bulma and her husband, Yamcha were visiting Kame House catching up with Krillen and Master Roshi when Goku flew in on Kintouen. Although seeing Goku after five years was surprising in itself (Bulma and Yamcha had given into the romantic allure of eloping,) he brought an even bigger surprise with him -- his four-year-old son, Gohan.

Bulma thought Gohan was absolutely adorable---and so polite! After six months of marriage, Yamcha was beginning to drop subtle hints that they should start thinking about children, but Bulma had been deflecting them all. She wasn't ready for kids yet. She was still too young and, well, they had only been married for six months! There was plenty of time, for Pete's sake! That was what she told Yamcha, anyway. Secretly, she was disappointed that marriage hadn't brought the kind of deep, abiding contentment that she thought it would. Her mother assured her that was normal. Getting married was exciting, true, but it was still just everyday life after that.

So Bulma tried to ignore the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that somehow she was missing something. She knew she loved Yamcha; she was certain about that. She must have had some unrealistic expectations regarding marriage, that's all. Mom was right. You still have to get up and go to work the next day.

She and Yamcha were in the middle of relating an amusing anecdote from their honeymoon when the ship crashed into the atmosphere and streaked through the sky, leaving a trail of smoke and dust in its wake before it crashed into the ocean not 200 yards from the island.

"Wow!" Krillen said. "Did you see that? That was the biggest meteorite I've ever seen!"

"And it came so close too!" Goku said. "Hey, don't mention it to Chichi, OK? She'll never let me bring Gohan back if she thinks he's about to be crushed by a meteorite."

"Well, don't worry on that account because that was no meteorite," Bulma said.

"Huh?" All heads turned toward her.

"That was a spaceship!"

The men looked dumbstruck, then started laughing.

"Hey! I mean it! I know what I saw! It was a spaceship--and whoever was in it is probably drowning right now! "

Goku sobered at the idea that someone might be in danger.

"What should we do?"

"Go get it!" she said. "Now!"

"Gohan, stay here with Bulma, OK?" Goku said and then he jumped into the surf.

Yamcha and Krillen jumped in the surf as well and all three swam out to where they had seen the craft enter the ocean. Bulma shot a glance at Oolong.

"I'm supervising," the pig said. She rolled her eyes and looked back at the ocean, waiting for some sign of the rescue mission.

She was just beginning to wonder if she'd sent her husband and friends to their deaths when their heads broke the surface, pulling the small spacecraft with them. They pulled it toward the beach and dragged it up onto the sand. The spacecraft was no bigger than a car, with a smooth exterior giving it the appearance of a giant silver egg. There were alien markings on the outside, none of them familiar.

"You were right, Bulma," Goku said. "It looks like a spaceship to me."

"Yes," Bulma said thoughtfully. She'd known it was a spaceship, of course, but now it was here in front of her! She ran her hands over the outer hull. So smooth! And it was from another planet! I'm touching something from another planet!

"It's not very big," Yamcha said. "There's probably only room for one person inside."

"Or a lot of little aliens," Krillen said.

"Right. We should be careful," Yamcha said. Master Roshi and Oolong looked at each other. Clearly the possibility of danger hadn't been considered.

"We'll be inside," Master Roshi said.

"Second line of defense," Oolong added and the two vanished into the house.

"Well, whether it's one person or ten, we've got to get it open. How do we do that, Bulma?" Goku said.

"I don't know. The hull's so smooth. This line here looks like it might be the outline of some kind of entrance, but I don't see any controls. . . "

She pressed her fingers blindly all around the "entrance."

"There's got to be some way to-"

She felt her fingers press into the ship, like she had hit a soft spot on a tomato. Suddenly there was a hiss and the line turned into a crack and a door was clearly opening. Smoke seeped out around the door's frame. Yamcha yanked Bulma back behind him and crouched into a fighting stance. Goku and Krillen followed suit.

The door finally reached its apex and stopped. When nothing charged, all three ventured nearer for a closer look. The last of the smoke cleared away revealing . . . .

"It's a kid!" Krillen said.

And it was. Slumped over a control panel was what appeared to be a child of eight or nine years.

"Wow! He looks human,"

"Is he asleep, Daddy?" Gohan asked.

"I don't think so," Goku said. He reached in and pulled the alien back into a sitting position, revealing a bloody, yet very human, face.

"He must have been knocked unconscious when his ship hit the water. It was going a couple of hundred miles an hour," Bulma said. She was next to the ship now, examining the alien boy. She ran her hands over his skintight black clothing, looking for broken bones. Not finding any, she pulled her hand away. The tips were bloody.

"Uh oh," she said, displaying her fingers. "Where did this come from? Let's get him out of here, guys."

The men gently lifted the boy from the seat and as they did so, the source of the blood became visible. There was a huge gash in his side.

"What did that?" Goku asked.

"Who knows?" Bulma said. "I've got to see how bad the damage is. Take off that belt and pull down the suit to his hips so I can get a better look. I'm going to get the medical kit in my plane."

When she got back, she was irritated to find the boy was still dressed.

"Hey! I said I needed to get a look at that!" Then she noticed the stunned expressions on her friend's faces. "What? What's going on?"

"That's not a belt, Bulma. That's a tail," Yamcha said.

"A tail? You mean like. . ." She looked at Goku.

"Like me!" Gohan supplied, wagging his own tail in example.

For a few seconds, Bulma stood in stunned silence with the rest, considering the implications of this revelation. Then she shook herself.

"Well, tail or not, he needs medical help. He's bleeding from a wound, the severity of which we haven't determined. Let's just load him in my plane and take him back to my dad. He'll know what to do." She tossed a capsule to Yamcha. "Put the kid's ship in that. We'll take it back, too."

Back at Capsule Corporation, the alien boy was examined thoroughly, though the outlook was grim.

"He's an amazing creature," Dr. Briefs said. "His physiology is almost human, but the cell construction is reinforced to a degree I can't comprehend. It's like he's built to withstand pressures and forces beyond what we would consider life to do.

"He's stable, but his blood pressure's too low. He needs blood. Even though his physiology is very human-like and his blood is iron-based, I can't find a blood type that I feel comfortable using. He may yet die, but I don't want to rush it by giving him incompatible blood."

"So what do we do?" Bulma asked.

"We wait," her father said, "and hope he pulls through. Maybe he recovers enough to give us some idea of how to treat his injuries."

"Dad? Can I look over the spaceship? Maybe there's some information on medical treatment or some clue on how to contact his parents."

"Bulma, that boy came from light years away using technology we don't have. My bet is that they already know."

The group fell silent at the prospect of more visitors--older, possibly more threatening visitors.

"But there still could be useful information. Let's go take a look at it together."

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Meanwhile, back on the boy's home planet, the boy's companions returned and were very unhappy to find that their friend had not returned as well. After all, that meant they would have to tell their friend's father and admit what they'd been doing. They were in trouble and there was no way around it.

So they did what all boys in trouble do. They told their parents and let them tell their friend's father.

"What the hell were they doing in the Southwestern quadrant anyway? That region is forbidden to pleasure-travel until we've eradicated the Glambien pirates."

"I know, Sire, but it appears that declaring an area off limits makes it irresistible to boys with Speed pods," Toma said.

The king turned his eyes on his son's companions.

"Tell me exactly what happened. Leave nothing out," he demanded.

Extremely grateful that protocol required he keep his eyes down, therefore saving him from having to meet the King's gaze, the boy named Haben said, "We were racing and it got boring after awhile, so Jal said-"

He was stopped by a small punch from his brother. "Thanks a lot."

"What? You did suggest it, Jal; I'm not going to lie in front of the King-"

"Get on with it!" the King snapped. There was time enough for this petty squabbling after his son was found.

"Sorry. Jal said we should go to the Glambian system. Test the pods speed and maybe take out some pirates as well."

"And what did my son say to that suggestion?"

"He said. . . ." The boy paused, clearly not liking what he was about to have to say. "He said "Fuck yes!" and then he said something about breaking the leash you have roped around his neck." The last was mumbled quickly and the boy braced himself for a blow at having spoken so to the king. The blow never came.

"Hmmphf! Sounds like the impudent brat. Tell me again why I shouldn't have killed him at birth?" the king said to his wife.

"Because I wouldn't have let you" the queen answered.

"Would have saved us a lot of trouble if you had,"

The queen shot him a look. "If one brat was too much trouble, explain why we continued to have them?"

The King narrowed his eyes at his wife and pressed his lips together. "I hate it when you do that," he said softly and then he turned his attention back to Haben.

"So you took the speed pods into restricted space and then what happened?"

"Well, at first everything went just like we planned. We drew out a few pirates, chased them around, let them chase us-"

"I shot down two!" Jal piped up. He piped back down at the king's glare. Clearly that was not the kind of detail the king wanted.

"Then, as we cleared the fourth planet's horizon, a much larger ship engaged us. It was larger than any the pirates have ever had before; we never would have gone there if we thought we were going to be outgunned. Honest! We knew immediately we needed to get out of there, so we decided to split up and rendezvous back here." His head dipped even more and his voice dropped. "The last we heard from Vegeta, the cruiser was on his tail and he couldn't shake it. He said he was gonna make a hyperspace jump to lose it. Then I heard a blast and that's all."

Vegeta looked at his wife, then back at the boy.

"Do you think his pod was destroyed?"

"I . . . I don't know. Maybe the blast I heard was just the sound of his ship making the jump. I've never heard it over a communicator before."

Vegeta looked in question at Nappa, Commander in Chief of the Saiyan fleet. If anyone had heard such a sound, he would have. Nappa gave a small shake of his head. Vegeta felt his wife clutch his arm. He looked into her panic-stricken eyes. This should not be a public scene.

"Toma, take your brats and leave. They will report to the Elite Training Room every morning for the next twenty days as punishment for violating the quarantine order. Perhaps that will beat some respect into them. I . . . I will have to think on their punishment for losing my son."

Toma jerked his sons up, cuffed each one on the ear and turned to go. As they neared the door, it opened and a soldier came bursting through.

"Sire! We have him!"

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"It's a small class M planet---oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and a surprising amount of water. "

"Why would they take him there?" Vegeta asked. There was no doubt his son was a valuable hostage, but this planet was in unexplored space. Had the pirates obtained allies?

"Difficult to say. We know nothing about the region since our long-range scans show only trace amounts of valuable resources." Radditz said.

"Technology? Power levels?"

"Again, unknown. It's doubtful that they have advanced technology. Surely we would have encountered someone by now if they had space travel. Of course, power levels can't be scanned at this distance."

"Of course," the King murmured, then grinned. "I guess we'll just have to get within distance then, won't we?"

"'We'?" Radditz asked.

"I will not trust the retrieval of my son to anyone else and I will surely not deprive myself of displaying to his captors exactly how displeased I am that he has been taken."

Radditz grinned. "Now that's a show I'd buy a ticket for."

"Not necessary. I guarantee you a seat on the front row." He turned his attention back to the screen displaying the location of his son. "How soon can we arrive?"

"Three days," Radditz answered. "Two, if I push it."

"Push it," Vegeta said. "We leave in one hour."

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Thanks for reading and please leave a review to let me know what you think!

Super big hugs and kisses to Ember for beta-ing this story.