Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Dragonball Gaiden: The Search for Goku ❯ Welcome Back! Vegeta Returns! ( Chapter 6 )

Uub lets out a gentle sigh as he stares up at the sky, perched on the small picnic table in front of his hosts' house. King Kai comes out the front door moments later, followed by the other inhabitants of the planet; a small monkey named Bubbles and a small hovering cricket named Gregory. “Finished training already, Uub?” the small blue Kai asks the young dark-skinned lad as he hops onto the picnic table to join him. “Yeah…” Uub's voice trails off as he glances at the Kai then back up to the sky. I guess he's homesick… That's understandable though; it's been three months already. The boy's had enough time to practically master my techniques. I didn't expect Vegeta to be go-… Just then, interrupting the Kai's train of thought is a low thump from next to the house. Turning to look, everyone is dumbfounded at the image before them. Vegeta stands next to the car spaceship with one hand on its hood, his other hand raised to his forehead with the index and middle fingers extended touching his brow. The Saiyan is also sporting a new look, for he is wearing an odd breastplate with a shoulder guard for his left shoulder. In addition, he is wearing what appears to be ruffled weighted clothing underneath the breastplate that comes up to a turtleneck and a sash around his waist.

 

Crap! Uub quickly remembers that Vegeta didn't know he had tagged along, and now he is going to be caught. Wait… Upon further inspection, the boy notices that Vegeta's eyes are still closed! Alright! This is my chance! In a flash, Uub disappears from the Kais side and hides atop the original spacecraft. The King, realizing what the boy was doing, bought him some additional time; “Vegeta! Welcome back!” The Kai walks over to the Saiyan with arms wide open, placing one around his chest when they meet. “Any luck?” Vegeta looks down at the alien and opens his eyes. “No… they haven't seen Goku since he defeated Frieza, but they did train me a bit… claiming that `Any friend of Goku's is a friend of ours.' Which I was going to decline, but then I realized that I needed their Instant Transmission technique to get back, because your ship; while fast; has very poor gas mileage.” The Kai just laughs in response as he walks back over to the picnic table. “Well, guess you had better be going home then, huh? Don't worry about the gas, I'll be fine!” The Saiyan sneers a bit as he nods to the other craft. “Oh, King Kai, don't worry about us heading home. I'm not going to rush on that runts' account!”

 

WHAT?! Uub almost falls off the top of the ship at his shock. How did Vegeta know?! “That's right, boy! Come down now, I know you're here!” Uub flinches as he hears the Prince's decree and he dutifully obeys. Coming into view, he avoids locking eyes with Vegeta at all costs, as he is so panicky he can barely walk a straight line. Nervously chuckling he starts “H… Hey Vegeta, I-““Cut the small talk, child!” Is the quick quip in response, cutting him off. “Bet you're wondering how I knew you were here, eh?” Vegeta's sneer turns into a full-fledged smirk as he opens his mouth to explain the ingenuity behind his foiling of Uubs plans, but before any words come out King Kai chimes in: “That's easy Vegeta. Using Instant Transmission, you need to focus on the ki signatures of people in order to travel to locations. Since you were searching for my ki signature to return back here, you must've noticed 4 ki signatures instead of 3, and by merely focusing on the abnormal one, you could easily identify that it was Uubs.” Vegeta's face becomes a bit dumbfounded at the Kai's rational explanation, and he is a bit pissed that the alien stole his thunder. Damn him… screw it, I was gonna stay here to teach that brat a lesson, but never mind. I just wanna go home. Without any more words, Vegeta pushes past the Kai and grabs Uub by the collar of his vest, tossing the child back on top of the ship. “Uub, don't forget to practice what I taught you!” King Kai calls out as Vegeta raises two fingers to his brow, closes his eyes for a moment in concentration and the Saiyan, the boy and the ship all vanish.

 

Once the woozy feeling subsides, Uub opens his eyes to see a place all too familiar to him, Earth. To be more precise: Vegeta's backyard. Not three seconds pass before the back door swings damn near off its hinges and Bulma tears ass across the grass to embrace her husband. Well, all's well that ends well? Better get away now while I still can. Uub decides and turns to leave but a gloved hand stops him in his tracks. “Boy, you're lucky I didn't find you on the way to the Kai's or else I would've disposed of you in the vastness of space.” The youth swallows hard, sweat beads appearing on his dark brow as he mistakenly looks directly into the eyes of the hardened warrior. All he can manage is a nod before the hand let off his shoulder and he is free to fly away. As he is in the air above the house, he can see Bulma tackle Vegeta to the ground and begin kissing him. That's cute. Wish I had someone that missed me like that. Immediately after that thought all he can think of is Pan. He tries to shake her face from his mind but he cannot, so he decides to give her a visit.

 

“Oh! Hey Uub! Hold on, I'll…” Gohan had just opened the door and started talking when Pan flies past him and pushes Uub to the ground. “You big, fat jerk! Where have you been?! You left my house that night without a goodbye or anything and then you disappear for months!” She is punching his chest repeatedly the entire time, with tears streaming from her eyes the more she talks. Finally she just lay there on top of him, weakly hitting his chest as she cries incessantly. “Oh… umm… I” Gohan looks a bit confused as he starts to talk, but he is cut off by a hand reaching from behind the door to cover his mouth and pull him back inside the house. Uub can feel Pan's heart racing against his chest, as her small frame is curled on top of his. Slowly, he stretches his arms out and wraps them tightly around her, pushing the young girl even closer to his heart. “Pan…” he begins to attempt to explain himself, but as he starts to talk he looks down into her eyes. She looks up at him when he pauses so their eyes meet and, for the first time in his life, Uub felt his heart skip a beat. Looking down into those teary brown eyes, Uub begins to blush uncontrollably; his nervousness apparent. Pan begins to blush too upon realizing the reason why he is so embarrassed. I wonder if he feels the same way I do… If the separation made him realize he has feelings for me like I do for him. She, being the brash and impatient youth she is, reaches up and grabs his shoulders to hoist herself up to meet him eye-to-eye. Uub's face is completely red now and he begins to hyperventilate as Pan begins to close in on him. Slowly, she closes her eyes and moistens her lips as she leans in for a kiss… but Uub nearly throws her off of him as he hops up and takes a few steps back, sweating like a pig. “Umm... yeah, so… umm… I just came by to say `I'm Sorry' for being gone so long, but now I'm back and stuff so we can hang out and train some more again, OK?” With that, Uub turns and takes off, not letting Pan get a word in edgewise. As she watches him leave she curses under her breath at herself. Does he not have feelings for me? Do I even really have feelings for him? Did I scare him off by being too forward? Slowly she gets up and heads back into the house.

 

Two weeks later, Uub is in the yard behind his house training. He stands at one end of his yard in the middle between the house and the far fence. At the opposite end is a small target. His eyes are closed as he holds up one fist, lost in concentration. I'm sorry to be so presumptuous and ask this of you, but please; I need your energy. I need to be able to master this technique if I am to be the next savior of the Earth. After some time, his extended fist begins glowing with a white light. The brighter his fist gets, however, the more brownish the plant life around him in his yard gets. There! Uub decides that's enough and launches the ball across the yard, with a call of “Spirit Bomb!” The ball of energy travels methodically through the air and nails the target just off-center a bit, almost completely decimating it. Hmm… need some more practice, maybe one more. I thank you all again for your energy. He closes his eyes once more and begins to concentrate, extending a fist. Once again, it begins to glow, but then it suddenly stops. Uubs eyes open wide as his head snaps around to look at his surroundings. Oh my god… Closing his eyes again to concentrate, he focuses once again on the ki around him and continues expanding his radius until he feels what he felt a moment ago; the empty feeling of a huge amount of ki suddenly disappearing into nothingness. That way! Uub turns to the west and begins to fly in the direction of North City.

 

What the young man sees when he gets to his destination is not a pretty sight by any means. The city is in shambles and there's no sign of life anywhere to be seen. Upon further detection, Uub senses only a few ki signatures but they are all very faint. He lands and begins to walk around the rubble of buildings collapsed, cars and houses upturned.... some on fire. Concentrating the entire time, he begins heading in the direction of any ki signatures he can make out and after a few moments he is closing in on one when it suddenly vanishes. What the hell? Uub flies forward at an alarming speed in the direction of the sudden loss of life and stops in his tracks at the visage before him. A middle-aged man slumped over in death is being hoisted in the air by his neck by a rather familiar-looking blonde woman in a blue jean vest and matching skirt. As she turns her head, dropping the lifeless human, Uub realizes the identity of the assailant. “Oh my god… what have you done? What have you done, 18?!”