Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ REPRISAL UNBOUND ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5

AN: ~You must wake up…you must… ~ = mental thought/speech

"Bulma, are you alright?!" A sudden clatter like sound coming through the speaker startled Chichi, and she looked at the phone in confusion and worry. That's when she began to frantically shout down the line with both for hand clasping the receiver tightly.

For the briefest of a second, she heard a crushing sound and then…nothing. Panicking, Chichi hung up and immediately began to dial Bulma's number. She waited a while and then heard a pre-recorded message say,

"I'm sorry but we could not connect your call. The mobile phone you are trying to call maybe switched off. Please try again later."

"What?!" Chichi slammed the phone down. "Bulma did not just switch off her phone, dammit. I know what I heard!" She yelled to herself, knowing that it was the distinct sound of the electronic device being smashed. Not to mention the way that Bulma had just breathlessly trailed off like that. Like as if she had zoned-out or…or fainted!

~Oh no! Bulma!~ Chichi's panicked thoughts began to run. ~What if she did become violently ill?!~

Then she calmed and paused in further thought, contemplating the possibility that she may be feigning some sort of swoon. It's not like Bulma didn't have the skill to pull it off. She had after all told Chichi about a number of occasions when she had won awards for her thespian proficiency during her high school and early college years. She had proudly shown Chichi the trophies too.

Chichi suddenly corrected herself. ~No! Bulma would never do that! She'd never do something so stupid to get out of something so trifle. Something must of happened to her!~ With that last reflection she once again fell into panic before doing the only thing she could think of doing. In an instant Chichi flared her ki, knowing it would bring him immediately to her.

A second later Goku appeared by her side.

"Chichi! What is it?! What's wrong?!" He said after a quick check around the kitchen making sure that no one was there to hurt his wife.

"Bulma! Something's happened to Bulma!"

"What? How would you know? I don't understand."

"I was talking to her on the phone when she just faded out; I think she suddenly loss conscious for some reason. Then I heard a crushing sound, like as if her mobile was destroyed." She blurted out at high speed. "Can you sense her, find out where she is, what's happened to her?"

"Okay Chichi, just calm down," he rested a gentle hand on her shoulder and that eased her some. Then his face turned serious as he reached out with his senses to find some trace of his friend. A few seconds later his eyes widened and the horrified look on his face scared Chichi.

"W-what's wrong?"

"I can feel her, but it's so much lower than usual, something's definitely up."

"We must go to her, Goku!"

Nodding, Goku's arm came around her waist and he brought his free hand to his forehead with his thumb and two smallest fingers folded and they both vanished.


***


Shizema continued to grin ecstatically at the unconscious Bulma on the floor. Now that his last sample collected, he allowed his mind to conjure up what acts of retribution lay in store for the whore before him. He was woken form his dreams of revenge by a shrill cry.

"BULMA!!" Chichi screamed.

"OH NO!!" (AN: y'all remember that one - Frieza death ray? A dying Vegeta? The way Goku said that cracked me up! He said it ike what happened was a regular occurance) Goku cried as he and Chichi rushed to Bulma's side as she lay on the floor followed by Goku who knelt down at her other side.

"Is she gonna be alright Chichi?" Goku asked.

Shizema looked on in confusion. They didn't even vaguely acknowledge his existence! A feeling of insult at his dismissal enveloped him.

"I don't know Goku…"

"Excuse me," Shizema interrupted Chichi before she could finish her answer. "But Miss Briefs will be fine. It is just faintness brought on by improper intake of nourishment of late."

"What?" Goku raised his head to look at the man standing near Bulma for the first time. "How do you know?" He felt a bit angry that he hadn't noticed him before. The man could have been an enemy! He suddenly froze. ~Vegeta's paranoia is beginning to rub off on me!~

"I'm a doctor and I already performed an examination on Miss Briefs before you two suddenly…appeared." Shizema didn't one hundred percent manage to cover his displeasure with his usual polite method of speech.

"Are you the person who was having lunch with her a moment before this?"

"Yes. My name is Dr Jiro Shizema. I work at West Central General Hospital, and you must be the friend who needed her a few minutes before."

"Yes, I'm Chichi." She spoke, clearly undaunted by him, knowing that he had already heard Bulma say her name as she had addressed her through the phone.

"Well, anyway," he said, fingering the bridge of his glasses. "All she needs it to be taken home for some rest, and since you two obviously know her better than I do, I suggest that the task should fall to you. Please give her my regards when she awakens. Good afternoon." He bowed respectively and walked away.

Chichi briefly looked at his back. Bulma was right. He was well mannered and handsome too.

"Goku I think we should do as he says and take Bulma home."

"Alright, Chichi," Goku slipped one arm behind Bulma's back and the other under her knees. "Hold onto me now." He told her and Chichi obeyed.

Just before they vanished completely, Chichi spied what remained of Bulma's mobile. Her eyes widened as she quickly realised it was utterly destroyed, as if it had been intentionally crushed by someone quite strong.


***


Vegeta back flipped out of the way of one his reflected blasts. Once he landed back on his feet he only heard the whiz of another blast in a fraction of a fraction of a second and instinctively bent his torso to the side. It passed his body untouched but he felt the raw power of it still singed his skin. The last two training bots continued to circle him, almost at a disorienting speed.

He had been training non-stop for fourteen hours straight and his body was no doubt beginning to feel the strain. His eyes darted from one training bot to the other and once he patterned their travelling paths and speeds, he extended both hands; one left the other right, and simultaneously fired energy blasts. As he had expected, the both bots reflected his blasts and sent them flying double the original speed to their source. Waiting until the last possible portion of a second, Vegeta leapt into the air just before they could touch him, and the ki blasts whizzed pass each other and hurled towards the bots. Since the blasts caught both bots from an angle, they avoided the reflective shield plating and blew them machines into oblivion.

However he forgot about his two previous blasts as they bounced off the reflective interior plating of the gravity room and struck him squarely on his back. Howling in pain Vegeta plummeted to the ground and smashed into the floor. The added momentum of the push of the blasts along with the pull of the force of 1000 times earths gravity, were the reasons why Vegeta with great effort struggled to get himself out of a crater that was almost three meters deep. Vegeta pulled himself to his feet and slowly crouch stomped his way to the main controls. He knew he was hurt fairly seriously and needed to stop. If the sound of hearing five his own ribs crack and actually feel something poking more than uncomfortably into his right lung was any type of indication. He leaned heavily on the console and literary punched down the simulation termination button with the side of his fist.

It took him a good few minutes for his breathing to completely return to normal, his nerves on fire with several different kinds of painful sensations. He felt a distinct stinging as his acidic sweat mixed into open wounds. He didn't need to view his back; knowing that it was probably quite badly bruised. Not wanting to spend several days in the infirmary, he decided to head to the kitchen where he hoped the supply of senzu beans lay, unfinished.

As soon as he stepped outside into the late afternoon sun, he felt them.

~Kakarott and his mate!!…And…Bulma?!~ He searched out deeper, not liking the condition of his woman's ki. ~What the fuck?!~ Ignoring the painful protest of his injuries he quickened his pace to almost a jog towards the trio.


***


Goku gently placed Bulma on her and Vegeta's large king-sized bed. He stared at her exhausted face and sighed.

"I really hope she'll be alright." Chichi said brushed a few strand of hair from her face and resting her hand on Bulma's forehead, feeling for a temperature but feeling none.

"Me too Chichi," then he said cheerfully. "But don't worry, the doctor told us she'd be fine after she rests some."

"Maybe…but…"

"What the fuck is going on here?!"

Both Chichi and Goku spun round to face the owner of that unforgettable voice.

"I'm waiting for an answer." Vegeta said looking at the two of them. "What's going on? What's wrong with the woman?" He casually motioned with his head to Bulma's unconscious body on the bed behind them.

"Well," Goku began. "Bulma collapsed during lunch today."

"Weak human…" Vegeta muttered to himself and Chichi frowned.

"The doctor told us that it was because she hasn't been eating properly." Goku continued.

"I know the woman can act idiotic at times, but now I know she's a complete baka."

"Dammit Vegeta!" Chichi yelled. "You sure have a funny way of showing you care about Bulma!"

"My `feelings' are no concern of yours or Kakarott's, woman!" He suddenly growled out, angry at what she said. "Now I want the both of you to leave."

Vegeta was not only angry that the woman would try to uncover his feeling but that she seemed to doubt them as well.

"I'm sorry Vegeta," Goku calmly said while shaking his head. "But we want to make sure that Bulma will alright, if that's okay with you?"

The Saiyan royalty frowned, greatly vexed. ~Are they questioning my ability to take care of what belonged to me?! ~

"Yeah, besides," Chichi added. "I want to know why she really fainted."

"No it's not `okay'." Vegeta retorted. "Didn't you just say a doctor told you it was because a lack of sustenance?"

"He may have said that but I think he was wrong." Chichi quickly replied.

Vegeta slightly raised a curious eyebrow and Goku turned to look at his wife.

"What do you mean Chichi?" Asked the younger Saiyanjin.

"Goku," Chichi replied reining in her patients repressing the rolling of her eyes at the question. "Bulma was eating lunch with that doctor and I'm sure that if you asked Vegeta, he'd tell us she ate yesterday as well. So, he was obviously wrong…or blatantly lying."

Not liking what he was hearing, with a grunt Vegeta turned from them and entered the bathroom. (AN: for those who haven't figured it out every bedroom in the C.C. residents' area has its own bathroom…The Briefs are filthy rich man!) Goku and Chichi gaped in surprise at the condition of Vegeta's back for the brief seconds that they viewed it. There was a huge sickening purple bruise that covered his mid section. It could instantly be deciphered that the damage was predominate to his left side, and to add horror to the already disturbing scene, there was an abnormal sharp bump in the vicinity of where his seventh or sixth rib met his left lung.

Chichi turned a worried and sympathy filled face to her husband, and though his eyes radiated the same he smiled reassuringly at her, letting her know the other Saiyanjin would be fine.

Vegeta came back with a few seconds later with a first aid kit and walked past the couple right up to Bulma. After placing it face up on the bed, be open the box and glanced over the contents before spying what he wanted. He picked up a bottle of surgical spirit, a cotton wool swab and an empty syringe. Pouring some of the surgical spirit on the swab, he took hold of Bulma's right arm and prepared an area by wiping it sterile with swab. He next removed the piece of plastic covering the needle and inserted the point into Bulma's arm.

"Vegeta," Goku asked, confused and more than terrified as he jumped behind his wife for protection. "What are you doing with that thing?!"

"I'm finding out what's wrong with the woman Kakarott." He turned his head and took in the younger cowering Saiyanjin with a mischievous glint in his eyes, Goku's current behaviour bringing back humorous recollections of his intense fear of needles. "Would you like to assist me?"
(AN: I know there is a specific term for this fear of needles thing, but I don't know what it is. If anyone knows please educate me of it)

"No Way! Not a chance!! KEEP THAT AWAY FROM ME!!!!" Goku frantically cried as he viciously shook his hands outstretched both sides of Chichi, whom only hid her face in her hands out of shame. She was almost crushed when she felt a bear hug from behind engulf her.

"You won't let him, will you Chichi?!"

"Let me go you imbecile! You're crushing me!" She retorted instead of giving comfort to her distressed mate.

Vegeta subdued the urge to flash the needle at Goku and continued to fill the syringe chamber with Bulma's blood. He then pulled out the needle and held the swab on the spot the needle had pierced her skin.

"Hold this here."

Chichi moved away from her husband to sit down on the side of the bed and applied pressure on the cotton swab while Vegeta removed his hand and stood up to head for Bulma's lab.

Goku looked from his fallen friend to the disappearing Saiyan Prince and then at Chichi. She motioned with her head for Goku to follow and she watched him leave her sight after Vegeta.

Chichi turned to look at Bulma, seeing her chest visually rising and falling with her small breaths. She rested the index and middle finger of her free hand on the right side of Bulma's neck, feeling her steady but slow pulse continue. Chichi sounded a loud sigh. Both were a good sign.

"Bulma…what the hell happened to you?" She asked but never expected an answer in return.


***


After applying a very small amount of the sample of blood he had just taken from Bulma to a glass slide, Vegeta placed it securely to the stand of a microscope. As he use both the focus and fine focus controls to get maximum magnification with as little distortion as possible, he silently thanked his woman for keeping her lab as neat and well organized as she did, otherwise he would never had found the microscope.

"What are you doing now, Vegeta?"

"Examining the woman's blood Kakarott." He ground out his answer. "If there is anything abnormal about her then this is one of the ways to find that out."

After half an hour or so of continued intense observation of of Bulma's blood sample, Vegeta growled loudly, moved his face away from the eye piece and tried to rub the daze out of his eyes.

"I could look at this for hours and still come up with nothing!"

"Maybe if you rested same and then come back to it with a refreshed mind you might find something?" Goku tried to encourage.

"As much as it galls me to acknowledge it, I don't have the experience required in human haematology to uncover any discrepancies in her blood."

"Then we need a specialist to take a look." Goku suggested. "Hopefully the local hospital should have someone who could help Bulma."

The sound of someone entering the entering the lab grabbed the attention of the two Saiyanjin. It was Chichi.

"Vegeta, I've tried everything to wake Bulma up but she doesn't seem to be responding."

"Humph! Did you try a bucket of cold water, or perhaps a good sharp slap might have done the trick?"

Chichi planted her fists on her hips stared crossly. "I will do no such thing! And neither shall you!"

"You're also more insane than I thought if you believe that I'll actually do that." Vegeta laughed. "Do you think I want to have the woman harping on me for eternity about trying to kill her?!"

"Whatever Vegeta." Chichi brushed him off.

Vegeta frowned, finally taking note of where Bulma had developed that annoying habit from.

"What were you planning on doing now?" She enquired.

"We were going to take Bulma's sample over to the hospital for a specialist's examination." Goku answered her.

"Well that's the first thing you're common sense should have told you…" she rolled her eyes at their lack of intelligence.

"Listen here woman," Vegeta growled angrily at her. "I have more `common sense' than you'll ever know. When you travel the galaxies, you'd be surprised how much knowledge you'd be capable of gaining." Vegeta's tone calmed to a smug sounding one. "But that's only if your own I.Q. can assimilate that information in the first place."

"What are you implying Vegeta?"

Vegeta smirk grew. How easily these human species were baited.

"Just drop it Chichi," Goku said already seeing Vegeta's intension, "We have more important things to deal with here."

Chichi stared angrily at Goku for a few seconds before calming herself down. She knew he was right.
~For you, Bulma. I'm doing this for you.~ She sighed to herself. ~You must really love him to put up with this shit.~

"When ever you're ready Vegeta." Goku said to the prince. "And I'd do something about that wound on your back if I were you. Or you'll be horded by medical staff wanting to help to you."

"As if I hadn't already intended to do that, Kakarott.." After separating the syringe chamber from the plunger and needle, Vegeta stopped up the ends and headed up out of Bulma's lab to the kitchen. He opened the draw that he knew held the storage container with the senzu beans. When he removed the lid he saw a single bean rattle alone in its airtight plastic box. Without thinking he grabbed it, threw it in his mouth, replaced the lid and put the container back. Not even waiting for the remarkable vegetation to work its magic both he and Goku left through the kitchen backdoor and took to the skies.


***


His fist came down with a solid thud on top of the desk, cracking and splintering the wood. Goku gently moved towards the Saiyanjin who was just short of starting a rampage.

"How much fucking longer does it take to get the damn results?"

"S-sir, please…calm down." The pretty ginger head receptionist tremblingly answered. "It won't take much longer. The research team are probably just finishing the retests to make sure that their results are accurate."

"Yeah, Vegeta" Goku said collectedly while patted his hand on his shoulder. "You don't want the results to be all botched up, do you?"

"Fine." Vegeta roughly shrugged off Goku's hand. "I'll give you people another half hour, ONLY!"


EXACTLY 27 MINUTES AND 39 SECONDS LATER…


"Mr…uh…sir," the doctor stumbled over the correct way of addressing the unnamed raging husband.

"From all our test there is nothing to suggest that your wife has neglected to eat properly or that she is sick. All I can assume is that she possibly consumed something that didn't agree with her. She should waken soon enough and once whatever it was she's eaten has been expelled from her system; your wife will be fine."

"That's it?!" Vegeta said expectantly. "Usually when a weak human consumes something disagreeable they immediately regurgitate it!"

"I'm sorry sir but we found absolutely nothing to suggest anything else." The doctor implored. "I'm sorry, but there is nothing else we can do for her, especially since she's not actually here. But if you would bring her…"

Vegeta suddenly turned to face the doctor directly and a warning growl sounded from the depths of his throat. It was obvious that he did not like his wife to be in the hands of strangers and the poor doctor backed up silently in fear.

"Come on Vegeta," Goku said accepting the situation. "Let's get back and see how Bulma's doing."

With an angry snort Vegeta turned and headed toward the hospital exit. Curses of pathetic human medical advancements were heard trailing off in the air as he left.

"I'm sorry about that." Goku laughed nervously. "But thanks for your efforts."

The doctor nodded as he watched the Goku leave. He scratched his head and gave out a relieved breath, but was still dumbfounded at his more than strange visitors.

***


His fingertips trailed her jaw line and then he ran his fingers and thumb across her still lips. He wondered with more than a little worry when she would open them or her eyes again. How much longer would she remain so motionless? It had been more or less forty hours since Goku had brought her home in the same condition as she now continued to lie in.

He momentarily removed his fingers as he turned and stretched for the glass of water that was on the nightstand on his bedside. He dipped his fingers in the cool liquid and brought the captured moisture to the woman's lips. Watching carefully as some of the drops entered her mouth and some dripped down her chin, which he was quick to wipe away.

He dipped his fingers in the water and repeated the process, always making sure to smooth away the moisture escaped from reaching its goal. He knew that if this carried on for much longer then she soon would have to be fed intravenously. He felt angry when imagining her that way, but it wasn't far from the truth.

"…Bulma…" Vegeta whispered with much buried passion. ~You must wake up…you must… ~

***

to be continued.

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