Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Dragonball AU ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Audrey the Interminable 
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Romance / Suspense | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 12.17.2004 | Pages: 3 | Words: 6.0K | Visits: 303 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Romance / Suspense | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 12.17.2004 | Pages: 3 | Words: 6.0K | Visits: 303 | Status: Work In Progress
"Well isn't this sweet." a harsh voice broke the early morning silence, "Now come on, Raditz, it's time to get up." Nappa leaned over the two of them and thwapped the older brother on his face.
"I'm up I'm up" Raditz sat up and swung his feet over the side of the bed.
" 'Nii-Chan! I'm stuck!" Goku thrashed about in his older brother's hair frantically.
"What did I tell you about calling meOw! Let go of my hair, you little monster!"
"Make yer hair let go of me!"
Raditz stood up, suspending Goku in the air like an unwilling marionette.
"Nappa-San, Help me get the brat outta my hair!"
"You're pathetic!" The Saiya-jin elite growled as he yanked bits of hair away from the struggling child.
"Hai, Nappa-San Just help me get him offa me!" Raditz futilely tried to reach around and grab Kakarrot.
Within minutes they had the hapless brat untangled and sitting bemusedly on the floor. "Wow! That was really neat, Nii-ChNii-San! Can we do that again?"
"No!" He turned to the larger warrior, "we have to get the kid some decent clothes. That blue thing has got to go."
"I agree. He looks almost like one of those tail-less freaks in that getup." was about to point out that, while on Earth, they saw all of two humans, neither of whom were wearing anything even remotely resembling Kakarrot's blue gi, but, considering that Nappa was an elite, and quite capable of beating Raditz to a pulp, he kept his mouth shut. "Let's get the brat suited up, then we can give him his first lesson." Raditz grinned.
* * *
Yamucha couldn't move much of anything. Thanks to his loyal servant, Pu'ar and, surprisingly, the piglet, he had been able to find his way to a hospital after his fight with that geeky-looking runt, but he was still in pretty bad shape. Aside from the many injuries to his internal organs, he also had several broken ribs and a fractured jaw. He'd lied to the doctors. He told them that he'd wrecked a capsule vehicle and skidded down a steep incline. He couldn't bring himself to admit to truth to strangers, hell, he could barely admit it to himself. He'd been beaten. No, it wasn't just that, he had lost fights before. It was the way he had been beaten. Mocked. Humiliated. Dangled helplessly by his wrists and laughed at. Yamucha clenched his fists. He was going to get that little monkey if it was the last thing he did. "But how?" He thought to himself, "I have to find someone stronger than me to train under. Someone horrible terrifying. Like The Ox Demon King."
"Yamucha, dear, calm down," Ordered a well-meaning nurse, "If you're in pain I'll order you some more meds" She hoped he wasn't up to causing more trouble. He had managed to put up quite a fight for being in such bad shape. The nurses thought that they'd need a tranquilizer gun to get close enough to treat him. If it hadn't been so alarming to see such a severely injured man dangling from the ceiling fan screaming "Girl! Girl!" it would have been funny.
"No!" he replied through his wired jaw, "No more drugs!"
"Then calm down, you're doing yourself more harm than good." She gestured toward his clenched fists, "We've got to keep your blood pressure down, or you're likely to rupture something."
He relaxed, "Better?"
She nodded, rechecked his IV drip, and turned to leave, "If you need anything else, don't hesitate to press the call button, you got that?"
"Ng." He agreed.
With one more concerned glance, she left him alone with his tumultuous thoughts.
* * *
"Hey! This thing's really stretchy!" Goku declared from inside the blue spandex of his newly-acquired Saiya-jin armor. He was sitting inside of it, using his arms and legs like tent poles.
"Quit fooling around, you little moron!" Raditz tried to keep a straight face, "We have work to do!"
"Work!?" Goku peeked out of the neck hole, "But I thought we were gonna fight today!" He replied, crestfallen.
"That's what I meant. Now hurry up!"
"Okay!" With surprising grace, he filled out the arms and legs of his armor with the appropriate limbs, even finding the little hole for his tail. "Gimme the thing, now!" He held out his short arms for the white chest piece. tossed it to him.
"Uh How do I get this on?"
"The same way you put the blue part on, minus the screwing around!"
"Oh, wow! This stretches too!"
"I SAID HURRY UP!"
"I am! I am! Ya know, you yell almost as much as the Bulma-girl!"
"Kakarrot" Raditz raised his fist warningly.'
Goku stuck out his tongue and pulled down his bottom eyelid with his finger, "I'm doin' it! Geeze!"
Raditz knew there was one thing that would hurry along a recalcitrant Saiya-jin child, "If you don't hurry, we'll miss breakfast."
"I'm ready!" Goku hopped out of the room, pulling on one white boot, with the other tucked under his arm along with his nyoi-bo.
* * *
As always, when there are Saiya-jin involved, breakfast was an event. It was a good thing that they had sanitary droids to take care of the mess they'd leave after every meal. In less than fifteen minutes, the four of them had consumed enough food to feed a small earthling village for well over a month. Now they were making their way to the training room, with an energetic Goku running circles around them in his eagerness to get started.
"Are we there yet?"
"No." Raditz glanced down at him.
"C'mon, how long we been walkin', anyway?"
"Less than a minute, now be quiet."
"Raditz, if you want to keep the whelp, I suggest you shut it up!" Vegeta barked.
"Hai, Ouji-Sama." Raditz turned to Kakarrot, "You heard the prince."
"Yep!" Goku grinned up at him, "So, are we there yet or what?"
"Kakarrot! What did Vegeta-Sama just say?"
"I dunno."
"He wants you to be quiet and not ask if we're there yet every three seconds! Do you understand!"
"So I should act like you?" Goku scratched his head and looked up at his brother.
"Yes! That's a good idea. I want you to act like me."
Goku fell into step behind Raditz, mimicking his every motion, perfectly.
Vegeta paused in front of a door, and pressed one of the buttons. It opened with a woosh. He turned to Kakarrot, "You'd better enjoy your health while it lasts, boy. You won't feel so lively after I'm through with you!" They all made their way into the large, gray room.
"Okay, 'Geta-Sama." He replied solemnly, still trying to emulate Raditz.
He was rewarded with a back-handed slap to the face, "I will not allow a third-class idiot like you to refer to me in such a disrespectful manner! You will say "Hai, Vegeta-Sama" whenever I give you a command. Do you understand me?"
"Hai, 'Geta-Sama."
Vegeta drew his fist back, but, surprisingly, Raditz came to the boy's defense, "Ouji-Sama! Onegai, the little moron is doing his best. He's still learning to pronounce his own name"
Vegeta lowered his hand, "Fine. I won't hit the boy again." he punched Raditz in the gut, bringing the much-larger man to his knees, "since you seem so eager to make excuses for him, every time he makes a mistake, you'll be punished. We'll see how long you tolerate the boy's carelessness ,then."
"Hhh" He gasped, "hhh Hai, Ouji-Sama." He coughed, regaining the breath that had been knocked out of him.
"Now. Let's see what the whelp can do." Vegeta turned away from the kneeling soldier. "Come here, Kakarrot."
"Hai, Ga- Gageta-Sama." Goku started to stretch. Once he was finished with this, he assumed his fighting stance.
Vegeta stood in front of him, arms crossed, not even pretending that the boy would be a challenge. "attack me."
"Huh?"
"Don't hesitate, whelp! Do it!"
Goku rushed at him. Again, Vegeta was surprised at the grace and technique that these earth-dwellers seemed to have. At least this one was a Saiya-jin, and had the potential to one day be strong, as well as skilled.
Vegeta blocked his baby kicks and punches with ease, and the few that Kakarrot managed to get past his defense were so pathetic, that it was laughable.
"Come on, boy, I was destroying entire planets at less than half your age!"
"I'm tryin'!" He replied.
"You're pathetic!"
Goku didn't know what that meant, but by Vegeta's tone of voice, he could guess that he was being insulted.
Vegeta grew disgusted with the boy's puny efforts, He cut the fight short with a sharp blow to the boy's gut. "This is ridiculous. Nappa!" He barked, "Why haven't you turned the gravity up yet?" The boy would never get any stronger in these cushy surroundings.
"I I can't turn it up, Ouji-Sama The girl"
"What about her?"
"She says she can't survive normal gravity and I was given orders not to kill her."
"Stupid woman! Fine! I'll just have to pound him into the ground to get him stronger." He turned back to Goku, "Get up, boy. We aren't finished."
Goku, momentarily incapable of speech , slowly got to his feet and assumed his fighting stance.
It was a mockery of a fight. It was entirely one-sided, with Vegeta pummeling him, receiving no blows in return. Every time he knocked the boy off of his feet, he demanded that he rise again, and with unparalleled strength of character, Goku did so. There came a point, however, when his battered body was absolutely incapable of moving, no matter how many times Vegeta ordered it.
"I said get up, boy!"
"Hai, Gageta-Sama." Goku twitched again, and tried to rise, but he'd simply taken too much damage.
"Now!"
He managed to get to his hands and knees, and stayed there for a few seconds before collapsing again.
"Keh! Get him out of my sight! Take the little weakling to the Regen tank!" Vegeta turned his back on the boy and his two subordinates, who'd been observing his lessons.
Raditz scooped the nearly-comatose child into his arms, and started toward the door.
"Wait." Goku tugged on a strand of his hair.
"What is it?" Raditz replied harshly.
"I wanna ask Gageta-Sama"
"Ask him what?"
"Heh," Vegeta thought to himself, " The little coward is probably going to ask me to go easy on him."
"ask If we can do this againlater" Goku's hand relaxed, letting go of his brother's hair, as he slipped into unconsciousness.
* * *
Raditz sighed boredly. It would be at least a couple of hours until his brother was out of the regen tank, and he had absolutely nothing to do until then. Vegeta had put their training on hold for a while, and was probably off somewhere having one of his royal sulks. It was difficult to tell exactly what prompted one of Vegeta's moods. It could be anything from his disappointment in Kakarrot's strength, or he was thinking of something that blue-haired woman said that pissed him off, or, hell, maybe he was just having a bad hair day. Raditz was glad that, for the most part, he was no longer a hormonal teenager.
He checked the clock. An entire minute had passed. Raditz sat up on the examination table where he'd been lounging, "I can't take this I've gotta find somethin' to do." some reason, well, okay, the reason was pretty obvious, he started thinking about that girl. Raditz had tons of pictures of humanoid girls, most of them not wearing much in the way of clothing, but he hadn't seen a real-live female in a very long time. And he didn't think he'd ever seen one that looked quite as good as Kakarrot's friend.
He knew that Kakarrot would be upset if anything happened to that frail little female, "But, " He thought to himself, "What he doesn't know won't hurt him. Besides, she just might end up enjoying herself." With renewed vigor, Raditz hopped off of his perch and made his way to Bulma's room.
* * *
He paused in front of her door, knocking out of habit.
"Come in!" She called from the other side.
He did so. She was sitting on the bed, wrapped in a towel, brushing her still-damp hair. It was almost as if she'd been expecting him.
She glanced up, "Oh. It's you." she continued brushing her hair, ignoring him, "well, at least it isn't the mohawk man, or that pointy-headed little geek! Argh! Those two get on my nerves. Well?" She looked up at him, "did you want something?" He was standing less than a foot away from where she was sitting, almost directly over her, "Back off, fur-ball, you're blocking my light!"
Faster than she could see, he snatched the hairbrush away from her, "What's the big idea!? Gimme that back, you jerk!" She reached for it, but he held it over her head. "Fine! Play your little game!" She reached into her bag, pulled out a comb, and proceeded to use it.
He frowned, wondering if he was being intimidating enough. This time, he didn't bother grabbing her comb, he held her wrist instead.
"Look, Monkey-boy, if you want something, why don't you just spit it out, so I can get back to doing my hair?"
He still didn't reply, just grinned suggestively.
Bulma finally understood what his intentions were. "Oh, no you don't." She tried to jerk her wrist back, but, of course, it wasn't effective. She stood up and tried to put a little distance between them, which was ridiculous, considering he still had a hold of her.
"Whatever's running through your little pea brain well you just better forget it, buster!" She regretted the fact the fact that she hadn't put her dirty clothes back on after her shower.
For every step he took forward, she took one backward, until her back touched the wall and she could go no further.
"You smell really good." He mumbled.
"Yeah, I wish I could say the same." She said in a half-hearted attempt to insult him. These aliens were utterly infuriating! Not only did they kidnap her, their little leader had smacked her head into a wall, repeatedly insulted her, and this big, hairy oaf had rummaged through her things, taken stuff without permission and now he "Taken stuff without permission! That's it!" She thought to herself.
"You are going to let go of my wrist and back off. Now." She told him, regaining her confidence.
"Am I? I really don't think I wanna do that." He leaned into her.
"Oh, I think you do, Hair-brain!" She smiled smugly up at him, "SWEE! SWEE! SWEE! SWEE!"
"What was that supposed to" a strange rumbling erupted from his intestines, "Oh no!" bent over from the pain in his gut, and rushed out of her cell to find the nearest bathroom.
"Maybe next time you'll think twice before eating stuff you find in other people's backpacks!" She called to his retreating form. She started humming off-key to herself, "I mean, really, you boys should learn to control yourselves! I know I'm gorgeous, but this is absurd!" sighed to herself and decided that, since she had nothing better to do, and no one was about to do it for her, she should try to wash out her shorts and t-shirt by hand.
* * *
"Well that was a whole lot of trouble for nothing," Raditz thought to himself, again reclining on the examination table. On the bright side, now he only had an hour and a half left to wait for Kakarrot. He interlaced his fingers and put them beneath his spiky head, closing his eyes.
"I hope I'm not interrupting your little nap, Raditz." Vegeta sneered, entering the medlab.
Raditz jerked upright into a sitting position, "N-no, Vegeta-Sama!" He stood up, "I was just waiting for"
"Shut up, I don't want to hear your excuses." He waved dismissively at Raditz as he approached the tank and the tiny Saiya-jin inside of it. "How much longer until he's repaired?"
"One and a half hours, Ouji-Sama."
"Hm. It figures, the weakling. A little scrap like that and he's out for the count." Vegeta crossed his arms and stared into the tank. His voice held less rancor than usual, and if Raditz were more perceptive, he would have realized that Vegeta was slightly impressed with the boy. "Even with constant training, the whelp will never get strong enough with that girl on board."
"Thegirl?" Raditz frowned, wondering what she had to do with Kakarrot's training.
"She's quickly becoming more trouble than she's worth."
Raditz absently rubbed his stomach, "I can vouch for that" He mumbled.
"What? Oh, never mind!" Vegeta stalked out of the room, intent on telling that idiot girl about every inconvenience she'd caused him.
* * *
For the second time in less than an hour, Bulma had company. "Yaa! Don't you know how to knock!" She railed at her uninvited guest.
"Shut up, woman, It's my ship!"
"All the more reason for you to be polite, Vegeta!" She threw a hairbrush at him. "I could have been naked in here for all you knew!"
Vegeta was so distracted by that statement that he did not even think to dodge, and was hit on his forehead by the aforementioned brush. He floundered for a moment, volleying the brush between his hands before he finally got a grip on it. He held the offending object up and declared, "You aren't getting this back, you know!" he crossed his arms, the brush peeping out from under one of them.
She grabbed her comb, held it up for him to see, and stuck out her tongue.
"I didn't come here to talk about your grooming implements!"
"Well, what did you come here for?" She put her hands on her hips. She really wished that her clothes were dry, she was getting tired of facing down her captors in nothing but a towel.
"Because of you, none of us are getting anything out of our training!"
"I know I'm distracting, but come on, you big tough warriors oughta be able to stay focused a little better than that." She tossed her hair for emphasis.
"No, idiot! Because of your pathetic Earthling weakness, I can't turn the gravity on in my own ship!"
"Well it's not like I asked you to bring me along, Vegeta! Do you have any idea what space is going to do to my complexion!?" She touched her cheek.
"The only space I see is the one between your ears, woman!"
"That's it, shorty! I'm sick of you insulting me!"
"And what are you going to do about it!?" he smirked.
She opened her mouth, thought for a moment, closed it, thought some more, and then replied, "I don't know right now, but you better believe that I'll think of something!"
"It's about time you realize how truly powerless you are."
"You can leave now!"
"Are you giving me orders? This is my ship!"
"You can't even turn the gravity on, remember?" She taunted.
"Shut up, or I just might!"
She furrowed her brow, the argument forgotten, "So, how does this gravity machine work?"
"What?" He said, surprised at the abruptness of her mood change.
"Your machine How does it work? Is it magnet-based? Or do you somehow mimic mass, actually creating gravity or do you just imitate it?"
"Do I look like a mechanic to you!?"
She was tempted to make a crack about "grease monkeys" but decided that, if she wanted her questions answered, she'd better not. "You don't know how it works?"
"Of course I do! It's just your primitive intellect wouldn't understand!"
She tried to hide her amusement at his expense, "Well If you let me take a look at your systems"
"You're not leaving this room, woman, so don't even ask!"
"Oh, sure." She smiled, faking cordiality, "So, if you can create gravity for the whole ship why not just one room?"
"It's impossible." He interrupted.
She ignored him, "And if you can created ten times Earth's gravity, why not twenty? Or fifty? Or even a hundred!?" She was getting excited at this prospect.
"For what purpose?"
"Well, if training at ten times gravity makes you strong, imagine how much stronger you'd get if you increased it even more!"
"It's out of the question! I told you, you're not leaving this room!"
Within the hour, she was dressed, and following him to the engine room.
"Ugh! My clothes are still soaked! We couldn't have waited for them to dry out?"
"If we're going to do this, we're going to do this now! I don't have time to wait for you or your stupid clothes!" He walked a few paces ahead of her, still clutching the hairbrush.
"This place is so dusty! Don't you Sai- Saya SaVegetable-men ever clean?" She sighed, "This is really no place for a lady, you know!"
"Don't you ever shut up?" He glared over his shoulder at her.
"Well, it isn't you know! Look at this! Cobwebs! How do you get cobwebs in space ?!"
He stopped mid-pace, without turning around he growled, "If you don't shut up right now I'm going to drag you back to that room and leave you there!"
"I was just saying"
"Not. Another. Word."
She knew he wasn't bluffing, "Oh, have it your way!" She fell silent.
In a moment, they arrived at their destination. He pressed a button, then, turning to her, "I don't have time to baby-sit you, so if you think you're going to escape by trying anything funny with the life support system, just keep in mind that Saiya-jin are capable of surviving a lot more than you weak humans. And if that isn't enough to convince you to behave, if I catch you doing anything suspicious, I won't bother to blast you, I'll send you out the airlock!"
"Chill out! That throbby vein on your forehead is about to blow! Geeze, with how worried you are about me escaping, you'd think you liked me here or something." In her typical Bulma manner, she winked flirtatiously at him.
"Of course I don't How could you That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" If his vein was throbbing before, it was positively pulsating now.
"Like I said before, chill! It was just a joke, Vegeta, sheesh!" She waved dismissively at him before entering the engine room, "This place is filthy! Yuck!" She glanced over her shoulder, "I thought you didn't have time to "baby-sit" me."
"What? I don't!"
"Then what are you still doing here?"
"I'm not!"
"Then go on!"
"I am!"
"So?"
"So what?"
"Go on!"
"This is"
She cut him off, "Your shipI know I know. Fine, go, stay, whatever you want."
"I want to leave, and I don't need your permission to do it!"
"So what's keeping you?"
He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't think of anything to say in response. "Just remember what I said about the airlock, woman!"
"Sure sure"
He turned on his heel and stalked off. The nerve of that woman! For what possible reason could he want her there? She was nothing but a nuisance. He intensely regretted bringing her along. He toyed with the idea of just killing her now and take care of the gravity problem that way. But she really could be capable of increasing the gravity in the training room, and if she could do that, who knew what else she could improve or invent. Perhaps she was worth hanging on to at least for a little while. It was then that he realized that he was still holding on to her hairbrush.
"Chikusho!" he cursed. Since he couldn't just leave it in the hallway, and he wasn't about to return it to her, he decided to make a quick detour and drop it off in his quarters. It would only take a minute, and by that time, it should be almost time to get Kakarrot out of the tank.
"I'm up I'm up" Raditz sat up and swung his feet over the side of the bed.
" 'Nii-Chan! I'm stuck!" Goku thrashed about in his older brother's hair frantically.
"What did I tell you about calling meOw! Let go of my hair, you little monster!"
"Make yer hair let go of me!"
Raditz stood up, suspending Goku in the air like an unwilling marionette.
"Nappa-San, Help me get the brat outta my hair!"
"You're pathetic!" The Saiya-jin elite growled as he yanked bits of hair away from the struggling child.
"Hai, Nappa-San Just help me get him offa me!" Raditz futilely tried to reach around and grab Kakarrot.
Within minutes they had the hapless brat untangled and sitting bemusedly on the floor. "Wow! That was really neat, Nii-ChNii-San! Can we do that again?"
"No!" He turned to the larger warrior, "we have to get the kid some decent clothes. That blue thing has got to go."
"I agree. He looks almost like one of those tail-less freaks in that getup." was about to point out that, while on Earth, they saw all of two humans, neither of whom were wearing anything even remotely resembling Kakarrot's blue gi, but, considering that Nappa was an elite, and quite capable of beating Raditz to a pulp, he kept his mouth shut. "Let's get the brat suited up, then we can give him his first lesson." Raditz grinned.
* * *
Yamucha couldn't move much of anything. Thanks to his loyal servant, Pu'ar and, surprisingly, the piglet, he had been able to find his way to a hospital after his fight with that geeky-looking runt, but he was still in pretty bad shape. Aside from the many injuries to his internal organs, he also had several broken ribs and a fractured jaw. He'd lied to the doctors. He told them that he'd wrecked a capsule vehicle and skidded down a steep incline. He couldn't bring himself to admit to truth to strangers, hell, he could barely admit it to himself. He'd been beaten. No, it wasn't just that, he had lost fights before. It was the way he had been beaten. Mocked. Humiliated. Dangled helplessly by his wrists and laughed at. Yamucha clenched his fists. He was going to get that little monkey if it was the last thing he did. "But how?" He thought to himself, "I have to find someone stronger than me to train under. Someone horrible terrifying. Like The Ox Demon King."
"Yamucha, dear, calm down," Ordered a well-meaning nurse, "If you're in pain I'll order you some more meds" She hoped he wasn't up to causing more trouble. He had managed to put up quite a fight for being in such bad shape. The nurses thought that they'd need a tranquilizer gun to get close enough to treat him. If it hadn't been so alarming to see such a severely injured man dangling from the ceiling fan screaming "Girl! Girl!" it would have been funny.
"No!" he replied through his wired jaw, "No more drugs!"
"Then calm down, you're doing yourself more harm than good." She gestured toward his clenched fists, "We've got to keep your blood pressure down, or you're likely to rupture something."
He relaxed, "Better?"
She nodded, rechecked his IV drip, and turned to leave, "If you need anything else, don't hesitate to press the call button, you got that?"
"Ng." He agreed.
With one more concerned glance, she left him alone with his tumultuous thoughts.
* * *
"Hey! This thing's really stretchy!" Goku declared from inside the blue spandex of his newly-acquired Saiya-jin armor. He was sitting inside of it, using his arms and legs like tent poles.
"Quit fooling around, you little moron!" Raditz tried to keep a straight face, "We have work to do!"
"Work!?" Goku peeked out of the neck hole, "But I thought we were gonna fight today!" He replied, crestfallen.
"That's what I meant. Now hurry up!"
"Okay!" With surprising grace, he filled out the arms and legs of his armor with the appropriate limbs, even finding the little hole for his tail. "Gimme the thing, now!" He held out his short arms for the white chest piece. tossed it to him.
"Uh How do I get this on?"
"The same way you put the blue part on, minus the screwing around!"
"Oh, wow! This stretches too!"
"I SAID HURRY UP!"
"I am! I am! Ya know, you yell almost as much as the Bulma-girl!"
"Kakarrot" Raditz raised his fist warningly.'
Goku stuck out his tongue and pulled down his bottom eyelid with his finger, "I'm doin' it! Geeze!"
Raditz knew there was one thing that would hurry along a recalcitrant Saiya-jin child, "If you don't hurry, we'll miss breakfast."
"I'm ready!" Goku hopped out of the room, pulling on one white boot, with the other tucked under his arm along with his nyoi-bo.
* * *
As always, when there are Saiya-jin involved, breakfast was an event. It was a good thing that they had sanitary droids to take care of the mess they'd leave after every meal. In less than fifteen minutes, the four of them had consumed enough food to feed a small earthling village for well over a month. Now they were making their way to the training room, with an energetic Goku running circles around them in his eagerness to get started.
"Are we there yet?"
"No." Raditz glanced down at him.
"C'mon, how long we been walkin', anyway?"
"Less than a minute, now be quiet."
"Raditz, if you want to keep the whelp, I suggest you shut it up!" Vegeta barked.
"Hai, Ouji-Sama." Raditz turned to Kakarrot, "You heard the prince."
"Yep!" Goku grinned up at him, "So, are we there yet or what?"
"Kakarrot! What did Vegeta-Sama just say?"
"I dunno."
"He wants you to be quiet and not ask if we're there yet every three seconds! Do you understand!"
"So I should act like you?" Goku scratched his head and looked up at his brother.
"Yes! That's a good idea. I want you to act like me."
Goku fell into step behind Raditz, mimicking his every motion, perfectly.
Vegeta paused in front of a door, and pressed one of the buttons. It opened with a woosh. He turned to Kakarrot, "You'd better enjoy your health while it lasts, boy. You won't feel so lively after I'm through with you!" They all made their way into the large, gray room.
"Okay, 'Geta-Sama." He replied solemnly, still trying to emulate Raditz.
He was rewarded with a back-handed slap to the face, "I will not allow a third-class idiot like you to refer to me in such a disrespectful manner! You will say "Hai, Vegeta-Sama" whenever I give you a command. Do you understand me?"
"Hai, 'Geta-Sama."
Vegeta drew his fist back, but, surprisingly, Raditz came to the boy's defense, "Ouji-Sama! Onegai, the little moron is doing his best. He's still learning to pronounce his own name"
Vegeta lowered his hand, "Fine. I won't hit the boy again." he punched Raditz in the gut, bringing the much-larger man to his knees, "since you seem so eager to make excuses for him, every time he makes a mistake, you'll be punished. We'll see how long you tolerate the boy's carelessness ,then."
"Hhh" He gasped, "hhh Hai, Ouji-Sama." He coughed, regaining the breath that had been knocked out of him.
"Now. Let's see what the whelp can do." Vegeta turned away from the kneeling soldier. "Come here, Kakarrot."
"Hai, Ga- Gageta-Sama." Goku started to stretch. Once he was finished with this, he assumed his fighting stance.
Vegeta stood in front of him, arms crossed, not even pretending that the boy would be a challenge. "attack me."
"Huh?"
"Don't hesitate, whelp! Do it!"
Goku rushed at him. Again, Vegeta was surprised at the grace and technique that these earth-dwellers seemed to have. At least this one was a Saiya-jin, and had the potential to one day be strong, as well as skilled.
Vegeta blocked his baby kicks and punches with ease, and the few that Kakarrot managed to get past his defense were so pathetic, that it was laughable.
"Come on, boy, I was destroying entire planets at less than half your age!"
"I'm tryin'!" He replied.
"You're pathetic!"
Goku didn't know what that meant, but by Vegeta's tone of voice, he could guess that he was being insulted.
Vegeta grew disgusted with the boy's puny efforts, He cut the fight short with a sharp blow to the boy's gut. "This is ridiculous. Nappa!" He barked, "Why haven't you turned the gravity up yet?" The boy would never get any stronger in these cushy surroundings.
"I I can't turn it up, Ouji-Sama The girl"
"What about her?"
"She says she can't survive normal gravity and I was given orders not to kill her."
"Stupid woman! Fine! I'll just have to pound him into the ground to get him stronger." He turned back to Goku, "Get up, boy. We aren't finished."
Goku, momentarily incapable of speech , slowly got to his feet and assumed his fighting stance.
It was a mockery of a fight. It was entirely one-sided, with Vegeta pummeling him, receiving no blows in return. Every time he knocked the boy off of his feet, he demanded that he rise again, and with unparalleled strength of character, Goku did so. There came a point, however, when his battered body was absolutely incapable of moving, no matter how many times Vegeta ordered it.
"I said get up, boy!"
"Hai, Gageta-Sama." Goku twitched again, and tried to rise, but he'd simply taken too much damage.
"Now!"
He managed to get to his hands and knees, and stayed there for a few seconds before collapsing again.
"Keh! Get him out of my sight! Take the little weakling to the Regen tank!" Vegeta turned his back on the boy and his two subordinates, who'd been observing his lessons.
Raditz scooped the nearly-comatose child into his arms, and started toward the door.
"Wait." Goku tugged on a strand of his hair.
"What is it?" Raditz replied harshly.
"I wanna ask Gageta-Sama"
"Ask him what?"
"Heh," Vegeta thought to himself, " The little coward is probably going to ask me to go easy on him."
"ask If we can do this againlater" Goku's hand relaxed, letting go of his brother's hair, as he slipped into unconsciousness.
* * *
Raditz sighed boredly. It would be at least a couple of hours until his brother was out of the regen tank, and he had absolutely nothing to do until then. Vegeta had put their training on hold for a while, and was probably off somewhere having one of his royal sulks. It was difficult to tell exactly what prompted one of Vegeta's moods. It could be anything from his disappointment in Kakarrot's strength, or he was thinking of something that blue-haired woman said that pissed him off, or, hell, maybe he was just having a bad hair day. Raditz was glad that, for the most part, he was no longer a hormonal teenager.
He checked the clock. An entire minute had passed. Raditz sat up on the examination table where he'd been lounging, "I can't take this I've gotta find somethin' to do." some reason, well, okay, the reason was pretty obvious, he started thinking about that girl. Raditz had tons of pictures of humanoid girls, most of them not wearing much in the way of clothing, but he hadn't seen a real-live female in a very long time. And he didn't think he'd ever seen one that looked quite as good as Kakarrot's friend.
He knew that Kakarrot would be upset if anything happened to that frail little female, "But, " He thought to himself, "What he doesn't know won't hurt him. Besides, she just might end up enjoying herself." With renewed vigor, Raditz hopped off of his perch and made his way to Bulma's room.
* * *
He paused in front of her door, knocking out of habit.
"Come in!" She called from the other side.
He did so. She was sitting on the bed, wrapped in a towel, brushing her still-damp hair. It was almost as if she'd been expecting him.
She glanced up, "Oh. It's you." she continued brushing her hair, ignoring him, "well, at least it isn't the mohawk man, or that pointy-headed little geek! Argh! Those two get on my nerves. Well?" She looked up at him, "did you want something?" He was standing less than a foot away from where she was sitting, almost directly over her, "Back off, fur-ball, you're blocking my light!"
Faster than she could see, he snatched the hairbrush away from her, "What's the big idea!? Gimme that back, you jerk!" She reached for it, but he held it over her head. "Fine! Play your little game!" She reached into her bag, pulled out a comb, and proceeded to use it.
He frowned, wondering if he was being intimidating enough. This time, he didn't bother grabbing her comb, he held her wrist instead.
"Look, Monkey-boy, if you want something, why don't you just spit it out, so I can get back to doing my hair?"
He still didn't reply, just grinned suggestively.
Bulma finally understood what his intentions were. "Oh, no you don't." She tried to jerk her wrist back, but, of course, it wasn't effective. She stood up and tried to put a little distance between them, which was ridiculous, considering he still had a hold of her.
"Whatever's running through your little pea brain well you just better forget it, buster!" She regretted the fact the fact that she hadn't put her dirty clothes back on after her shower.
For every step he took forward, she took one backward, until her back touched the wall and she could go no further.
"You smell really good." He mumbled.
"Yeah, I wish I could say the same." She said in a half-hearted attempt to insult him. These aliens were utterly infuriating! Not only did they kidnap her, their little leader had smacked her head into a wall, repeatedly insulted her, and this big, hairy oaf had rummaged through her things, taken stuff without permission and now he "Taken stuff without permission! That's it!" She thought to herself.
"You are going to let go of my wrist and back off. Now." She told him, regaining her confidence.
"Am I? I really don't think I wanna do that." He leaned into her.
"Oh, I think you do, Hair-brain!" She smiled smugly up at him, "SWEE! SWEE! SWEE! SWEE!"
"What was that supposed to" a strange rumbling erupted from his intestines, "Oh no!" bent over from the pain in his gut, and rushed out of her cell to find the nearest bathroom.
"Maybe next time you'll think twice before eating stuff you find in other people's backpacks!" She called to his retreating form. She started humming off-key to herself, "I mean, really, you boys should learn to control yourselves! I know I'm gorgeous, but this is absurd!" sighed to herself and decided that, since she had nothing better to do, and no one was about to do it for her, she should try to wash out her shorts and t-shirt by hand.
* * *
"Well that was a whole lot of trouble for nothing," Raditz thought to himself, again reclining on the examination table. On the bright side, now he only had an hour and a half left to wait for Kakarrot. He interlaced his fingers and put them beneath his spiky head, closing his eyes.
"I hope I'm not interrupting your little nap, Raditz." Vegeta sneered, entering the medlab.
Raditz jerked upright into a sitting position, "N-no, Vegeta-Sama!" He stood up, "I was just waiting for"
"Shut up, I don't want to hear your excuses." He waved dismissively at Raditz as he approached the tank and the tiny Saiya-jin inside of it. "How much longer until he's repaired?"
"One and a half hours, Ouji-Sama."
"Hm. It figures, the weakling. A little scrap like that and he's out for the count." Vegeta crossed his arms and stared into the tank. His voice held less rancor than usual, and if Raditz were more perceptive, he would have realized that Vegeta was slightly impressed with the boy. "Even with constant training, the whelp will never get strong enough with that girl on board."
"Thegirl?" Raditz frowned, wondering what she had to do with Kakarrot's training.
"She's quickly becoming more trouble than she's worth."
Raditz absently rubbed his stomach, "I can vouch for that" He mumbled.
"What? Oh, never mind!" Vegeta stalked out of the room, intent on telling that idiot girl about every inconvenience she'd caused him.
* * *
For the second time in less than an hour, Bulma had company. "Yaa! Don't you know how to knock!" She railed at her uninvited guest.
"Shut up, woman, It's my ship!"
"All the more reason for you to be polite, Vegeta!" She threw a hairbrush at him. "I could have been naked in here for all you knew!"
Vegeta was so distracted by that statement that he did not even think to dodge, and was hit on his forehead by the aforementioned brush. He floundered for a moment, volleying the brush between his hands before he finally got a grip on it. He held the offending object up and declared, "You aren't getting this back, you know!" he crossed his arms, the brush peeping out from under one of them.
She grabbed her comb, held it up for him to see, and stuck out her tongue.
"I didn't come here to talk about your grooming implements!"
"Well, what did you come here for?" She put her hands on her hips. She really wished that her clothes were dry, she was getting tired of facing down her captors in nothing but a towel.
"Because of you, none of us are getting anything out of our training!"
"I know I'm distracting, but come on, you big tough warriors oughta be able to stay focused a little better than that." She tossed her hair for emphasis.
"No, idiot! Because of your pathetic Earthling weakness, I can't turn the gravity on in my own ship!"
"Well it's not like I asked you to bring me along, Vegeta! Do you have any idea what space is going to do to my complexion!?" She touched her cheek.
"The only space I see is the one between your ears, woman!"
"That's it, shorty! I'm sick of you insulting me!"
"And what are you going to do about it!?" he smirked.
She opened her mouth, thought for a moment, closed it, thought some more, and then replied, "I don't know right now, but you better believe that I'll think of something!"
"It's about time you realize how truly powerless you are."
"You can leave now!"
"Are you giving me orders? This is my ship!"
"You can't even turn the gravity on, remember?" She taunted.
"Shut up, or I just might!"
She furrowed her brow, the argument forgotten, "So, how does this gravity machine work?"
"What?" He said, surprised at the abruptness of her mood change.
"Your machine How does it work? Is it magnet-based? Or do you somehow mimic mass, actually creating gravity or do you just imitate it?"
"Do I look like a mechanic to you!?"
She was tempted to make a crack about "grease monkeys" but decided that, if she wanted her questions answered, she'd better not. "You don't know how it works?"
"Of course I do! It's just your primitive intellect wouldn't understand!"
She tried to hide her amusement at his expense, "Well If you let me take a look at your systems"
"You're not leaving this room, woman, so don't even ask!"
"Oh, sure." She smiled, faking cordiality, "So, if you can create gravity for the whole ship why not just one room?"
"It's impossible." He interrupted.
She ignored him, "And if you can created ten times Earth's gravity, why not twenty? Or fifty? Or even a hundred!?" She was getting excited at this prospect.
"For what purpose?"
"Well, if training at ten times gravity makes you strong, imagine how much stronger you'd get if you increased it even more!"
"It's out of the question! I told you, you're not leaving this room!"
Within the hour, she was dressed, and following him to the engine room.
"Ugh! My clothes are still soaked! We couldn't have waited for them to dry out?"
"If we're going to do this, we're going to do this now! I don't have time to wait for you or your stupid clothes!" He walked a few paces ahead of her, still clutching the hairbrush.
"This place is so dusty! Don't you Sai- Saya SaVegetable-men ever clean?" She sighed, "This is really no place for a lady, you know!"
"Don't you ever shut up?" He glared over his shoulder at her.
"Well, it isn't you know! Look at this! Cobwebs! How do you get cobwebs in space ?!"
He stopped mid-pace, without turning around he growled, "If you don't shut up right now I'm going to drag you back to that room and leave you there!"
"I was just saying"
"Not. Another. Word."
She knew he wasn't bluffing, "Oh, have it your way!" She fell silent.
In a moment, they arrived at their destination. He pressed a button, then, turning to her, "I don't have time to baby-sit you, so if you think you're going to escape by trying anything funny with the life support system, just keep in mind that Saiya-jin are capable of surviving a lot more than you weak humans. And if that isn't enough to convince you to behave, if I catch you doing anything suspicious, I won't bother to blast you, I'll send you out the airlock!"
"Chill out! That throbby vein on your forehead is about to blow! Geeze, with how worried you are about me escaping, you'd think you liked me here or something." In her typical Bulma manner, she winked flirtatiously at him.
"Of course I don't How could you That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" If his vein was throbbing before, it was positively pulsating now.
"Like I said before, chill! It was just a joke, Vegeta, sheesh!" She waved dismissively at him before entering the engine room, "This place is filthy! Yuck!" She glanced over her shoulder, "I thought you didn't have time to "baby-sit" me."
"What? I don't!"
"Then what are you still doing here?"
"I'm not!"
"Then go on!"
"I am!"
"So?"
"So what?"
"Go on!"
"This is"
She cut him off, "Your shipI know I know. Fine, go, stay, whatever you want."
"I want to leave, and I don't need your permission to do it!"
"So what's keeping you?"
He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't think of anything to say in response. "Just remember what I said about the airlock, woman!"
"Sure sure"
He turned on his heel and stalked off. The nerve of that woman! For what possible reason could he want her there? She was nothing but a nuisance. He intensely regretted bringing her along. He toyed with the idea of just killing her now and take care of the gravity problem that way. But she really could be capable of increasing the gravity in the training room, and if she could do that, who knew what else she could improve or invent. Perhaps she was worth hanging on to at least for a little while. It was then that he realized that he was still holding on to her hairbrush.
"Chikusho!" he cursed. Since he couldn't just leave it in the hallway, and he wasn't about to return it to her, he decided to make a quick detour and drop it off in his quarters. It would only take a minute, and by that time, it should be almost time to get Kakarrot out of the tank.