Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Runaway Prince ❯ Vegeta meets Bulma... and her Dad ( Chapter 4 )

Runaway Prince
Chapter 4



Bulma hated to admit it, but she was sulking as she walked out of the compound to find her mother. The silly but beautiful woman that was her mom, had said she was going out to water the flowers, but the grounds of Capsule Corp were enormous and watering the flowers was a chore that took several hours, even with help from the gardening staff.

Bulma cast a glance back at the door that lead into the lab area and stuck out her tongue, pretending that her father could see her. The lab was where her father was where he was working on her birthday present, so of course he wasn’t going to let her in. She snorted indignantly. Bulma had asked for a new bike, in custom colors and a new style… and she knew she would get it, since she always got what she wanted, so why wouldn’t he let her play with him in the lab?

“Mom!!” Bulma called, spying the perky blonde over in her rose garden with the watering can.

“Why Bulma, what are you up to on this beautiful day?”

“I want to go shopping, Mom, Please??”

“I don’t know sweetie. I need to water my poor babies right now, and then I promised I’d help your father with his paperwork later. And then he’s taking me out to dinner tonight, you know the people who started that company we are buying out arrived this morning…” Mrs. Briefs told her daughter, going over to the hose to refill the watering can. Bulma rolled her eyes. “Why don’t we go shopping tomorrow sweetie?”

“But mom… I’m bored now.”

“Oh Bulma, you’re the smartest five-year-old I know, why don’t you find something around here to do? There’s a million things to play with in the house. Or you could stay out here and help me with the watering.”

One look at the army of gardeners following her mother so they could check out her butt in the skintight jeans she was wearing, was all it took to make Bulma head back inside. “Uh… no thanks, Mom.” But before she got to the door, a shadow and a stiff breeze passed directly over her and Bulma looked up.

The purple haired princess of Capsule Corp fell on her butt and instinctively scrambled backward as she saw a figure silhouetted against the sun standing no less than ten feet off of the ground. The figure didn’t seem to notice her, which gave Bulma a chance to look at him as she scooted around to where she could see him. She gasped when she realized that he was young- very young, her age, from the look of him. His clothes were strange- almost looking like armor and a spandex uniform under it- as if he were an escapee from the set of some silly movie about space aliens. His hair was a towering black flame, but a few strands escaped the unruly style to frame his face and his eyes were the darkest she had ever seen. But before she could say anything, something Bulma had mistaken for a furry belt unwound itself from the boy’s waist and flickered behind him, the fur beginning to puff up on it as if he were annoyed.

“Is this the residence of Dr. Briefs?” He asked suddenly turning to look at her, his clear, commanding voice sliced like a cold wind through her thoughts, and his eyes seemed to look right through her, holding her in place, almost daring her to ignore his question.

“Y-yes.” Bulma nodded slowly, standing up, she still couldn’t take her eyes off of this boy... He was strange, but fascinating at the same time... Vegeta arched one eyebrow and stared at her impatiently, causing Bulma to realize he was waiting for her to take him to him or at least elaborate. “Dr. Briefs is my father. Why do you ask?”

Vegeta looked at her, trying to decide how much to tell her. One look into those sharp blue eyes and he knew that it was a mistake to have talked to her. She looked like the type that would give him the run around until she got bored- and from the way she was staring at him, that was going to be a while. “I have been told he is one of the foremost scientists on this planet. I need his help.”

Bulma smiled sweetly. “What do you need his help with?”

“I need him to build me a machine. In return for his help I can offer him my technology.”

“Build you a machine? What does it do?” The girl’s eyes had widened, then narrowed questioningly. “Your technology? What do you mean by that? What is your name? Where did you come from?”

“I don’t have time for this. I have wasted enough time conversing with you stupid humans, I need to be training.” He snapped.

“Training? For what? You want to train your hair to point downward?” Bulma growled planting her hands on her hips, her blue eyes narrowed angrily.

The Saiyan Prince smirked, so the little girl had some spirit? He had expected her to back down like the weakling that her power level indicated she was should. “At least mine isn’t purple- where is your father?”

“Somewhere in there…” Bulma shrugged, suddenly nonchalant, she even turned to leave, drawing a long, low growl from Vegeta.

“And I suppose you think I need your help to find him? My scouter could do that, but I do know that to enter without permission would be considered rude... I need to see your father, so please take me to him.” Vegeta emphasized the word carefully, but it still sounded as if he were making a demand rather than a request- even to his own ears.

Bulma frowned, turning to look at him again. “Come down please, it’s hard to talk to you when you’re way up there.”

Vegeta growled under his breath, but landed next to her. “If you could understand why I’m here, you would have already taken me in there –but I really don’t have time to explain myself to everyone I meet, would you take me to him if I let you listen to what I tell him?”

Bulma thought for a moment, then she reached over and snatched the scouter off of his ear. Vegeta growled, but decided she couldn’t break it, so it wouldn’t hurt to let her look at it. “Is this the scouter thing that you said could find my father?”

“Yes.”

“What does it do? I mean how does it work?”

The growl became a little lower and his tail was curling back and forth in anger, but he knew he couldn’t just blast her or her father wouldn’t be very anxious to help him. “Put it on your ear so you can look through the eye piece. Push that button. Those little blips all correspond to a person or life force in your immediate area.”

She had just turned to ask him a question when the scouter began to beep and flash a lot faster and the digital readout was displaying what seemed to be a lot more information than the ones she had seen elsewhere in the area. “Why is the description of you so much bigger than any of the others?”

“Because that is an indication of how much stronger I am than the rest of your race. In my language those are numbers that you see on the screen. That silly blonde haired woman over there with all the men following her, she has a power level of one. You have a two. Right now, I have a power level of a little more than two thousand- if I were ready for a fight you would see my number reach close to five thousand.”

“T-thousand?? Did you say you are thousands of times stronger than we are??”

“Yes.” Vegeta smirked. “So I would advise you to stop toying with me and take me to your father.”

“You don’t need to be mean! I don’t have anyone my age that I can talk to ‘cuz I’m too smart- other kids just don’t understand me… I’m sorry that I’m bored today and that I kind of like talking to you- when you aren’t busy being such a jerk!”

“What do you mean you like talking to me?”

“I can’t help it, I like you. You are a lot like me- I mean you’re smart and I bet everyone either stares at you like you’re crazy or tries to ignore it- preferring to underestimate you because you’re so young.”

“Napa and Radditz never did anything like either of what you just said- but everyone else does. You’re right but who cares? I don’t have time for what anyone else thinks anyway.”

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

“I told you. I’m only going to fully explain myself to your father, but to make a long story short… I need my power level to surpass twelve million in about 17 or 18 years or the entire universe will be destroyed by the same monster that has already destroyed my planet.”

“WHAT??” Bulma screeched, unknowingly hurting Vegeta’s ears.

“I know I have nearly perfect understanding of your language,” Vegeta growled. “I told you I need to get stronger, because Lord Frieza has given Kakarrot about 18 years to destroy this planet- and if it is still intact after that time, he will come here to find out why. When he gets here, I need to be strong enough to kill him or we are all dead.”

How could he say things like that? Who did this crazy kid think he was? Someone that could fly and said that he was five thousand times stronger than a normal human was hard enough to fathom but there was someone out there that was millions of times stronger than he was?? A million questions were circling around in Bulma’s mind, but she couldn’t seem to focus on just one of them long enough to demand that he explain the things he was telling her… Someone was out to destroy the universe- and just one little boy was going to try to stop him? She felt numb and confused as she led the way into her father’s lab.

“Is that you dear?” Dr. Briefs called over his shoulder as he looked over the blueprints scattered across the worktables.

“No, mom is outside, Daddy, I…”

“Bulma!” Dr Briefs cried, practically scrambling onto the table himself in his hurry to get his project covered by the tarp. “Go and wait for me outside you know I have important…”

“Daddy- there is someone here that wants to meet you.”

“W-what? Oh well I suppose that’s different. Now then, who is…” The old man with glasses and purple hair looked at Vegeta and then gave his daughter a stern look. “If this is supposed to be a joke, it isn’t funny, Bulma. You know I’m busy today…”

“I assure you. It’s not a joke sir.” Vegeta smirked, extending his hand in greeting as Gohan had shown him. “My name is Prince Vegeta and I don’t want to keep you long, but I have come to ask for your help.”

“You are a Prince?” Bulma asked.

“Yes. I am.” Vegeta nodded, “But that wasn’t what I needed to tell you. I have come to your planet to… hide from the intergalactic tyrant named Frieza, who has already destroyed my home planet and has ordered your planet destroyed as well. Luckily, Frieza won’t send anyone to investigate the success of Kakarrot’s mission until Kakarrot is about 18 years old, and he is still an infant, so I am hoping that this will give me enough time to train and grow strong enough to fight Frieza and destroy him. I do have a favor to ask of you, and I am willing to offer you access to my technology in exchange for your assistance in my training and...”

Dr Briefs could tell from the way he spoke and carried himself that this was no ordinary kid, but the things he was saying were downright unnerving… and yet, as he listened to him, and watched his daughter listening to him, he found that he was starting to believe him. “Now, this gravity amplification system, you say that your space pod actually runs on sort of the same principles as the Gravity rooms that this Frieza monster possessed?”

“Yes, if you study my pod carefully, I’m sure you will be able to come up with some idea of how to modify the engine’s design to create a stable but powerful gravity field that is capable of raising the gravity as I grow in power. Since no one on this planet will be strong enough to train with me, for a long time- if ever… I will need to be able to continue pushing myself and continuously increasing the gravity should give about the same results as a good sparring partner. I know that what I am asking of you will be difficult, and time consuming as well as expensive in terms of raw materials, pre-manufactured parts, laborers, and assistants… Which is why, and in addition to allowing you free access to my scouter and my space pod and the other devices my space pod contains the instructions for construction and repairs on; I will also provide you with the full blueprints and chemical formulas necessary to create and maintain the rejuvenation tanks that Frieza’s army used everyday. These tanks will cure otherwise terminal diseases as well as being able to completely regenerate lost limbs, and they can close and repair any wound, all with no danger of infection or drug induced side effects… without these tanks, I myself wouldn’t be alive right now- they will completely astound the medical community of your entire planet and you will be free to market them however you wish, it will be my gift to you.”

“My dad is the best, don’t worry, Vegeta, if it can be done, my dad will find the way to do it.”

The earthling scientist blushed at his daughter’s heart felt praise and watched the information whizzing across the screen as it was being downloaded onto his computer from the scouter which was hooked to the space pod. His strange young visitor had hooked it up in only a minute which was well over an hour ago and it showed no signs of slowing down. He shook his head wonderingly, luckily his computer stations were all far better than standard models or this one would be frying its circuit’s right about now. Then quite suddenly the scouter blipped and the endless stream of code and text stopped and his computer opened a window to inform him that the download was successful and contained no viruses or Trojans.

Vegeta unhooked the scouter and put it back on his ear, and then he unhooked the space pod too. “Have your computer analyze its new files scanning for the name Frieza.”

With a shrug, Dr. Briefs did and shuddered a bit at the picture that appeared when he opened the file. “Lord Frieza is the youngest son of Lord King Kold and the brother of the incredibly powerful Lord Cooler. This young Ice-Jin lord has successfully reached his fourth stage transformation in battle, spite of being considered too young to do so, as he is barely a century old. This milestone, gives Frieza power that for his age, is an utterly amazing 12 million. Although outside of battle Lord Frieza can’t yet maintain even his secondary form for more than a few hours, he is still formidable enough that his father and brother have bestowed upon him the great honor of allowing him to begin the creation of his own empire. Lord Frieza’s Empire already spans more than 100 planets and more than 1,000 mercenaries are under his banner at any one time, chief among these fierce warriors are the Ginyue Force, Zarbon, Dodoria, Kiwi and Prince Vegeta… and his bodyguards, who are all members of the once proud Saiyan race…”

“Yes, yes I’m in there, but the important part was for you to see that not only is Frieza out there, but his father and his brother are just as bad, and once I’ve killed Frieza and stopped the planet trade, both of them will come after revenge, so it is imperative that I am able to train hard and quickly… By putting that in absolutely every pod in his empire, he has basically thrown down the gauntlet, he wants someone to challenge him, and after what he did to my father and the rest of our planet, I’m not going to disappoint him. My bodyguards I had to leave behind when I came here, and I’m sure by now they are dead too, so Kakarrot and I are the only Saiyans still alive and I need to get back to check on him. He’s got a lone human for his babysitter and I’m sure the little pest has worn out his welcome by now.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for dinner?” Dr Briefs asked, and Bulma nodded but Vegeta shook his head.

“I have already stayed longer than I intended to keep you from your work; I apologize, and I thank you for hearing my proposal and for your hospitable offer.” Vegeta bowed deeply. “I will return to hear of your decision in three days.”

“H-he’s gone!!” Bulma gasped. “I was going to offer to walk him to the door, but the space pod and everything is just gone, Daddy!!”

“I know, but he’ll be back.” Dr Briefs assured her quietly. “Go help your mother get supper ready, sweet heart, I think I can finish your birthday present before he gets back and I’ll be ready to get to work on this gravity thing for our young friend.”

“Y-you’re going to do it?? I knew you wouldn’t let us down!! You’re the best, Daddy!!”

“Us, huh?” He thought quietly, with a wry grin, as his lovely daughter scampered out of his lab. “Ah, the enthusiasm of youth...”


**


Vegeta arrived back at Gohan’s little house nestled among the peculiar looking rock formations with the setting sun and set the pod aside in the grass cautiously. His scouter was telling him that Gohan and Kakarrot were inside but the infant’s Ki was fluctuating wildly. He was hurt, but Vegeta doubted that the old man was to blame; the brat had most likely done something stupid again, although Vegeta honestly couldn’t imagine what it might be...

“Welcome back, Vegeta.” Gohan said tiredly, he had Kakarrot’s head bandaged and was holding a large icepack onto his head. “How did it go, with Dr. Briefs today?”

“I think he will do help me, but what did the little brat do this time?”

“You probably won’t believe this, he was playing on the rocks over looking the big waterfall and he…fell off and landed on his head- he hasn’t tried to bite me once since he fell but he also hasn’t been awake long enough to eat anything since breakfast time.”

“You say he hasn’t tried to bite you? Has he growled or…”

“No, not once, and he’s been full of smiles and grinning every time he wakes up- do you suppose he’s ok??.” Gohan sounded worried, but seemed to be telling the truth about everything.

Vegeta smiled. “Well that’s good actually; because that probably just means his programming to destroy the earth is completely gone. And while I’m out exploring for the next few days, as I’m waiting for the good doctor’s decision, I won’t have to worry about leaving you alone with him. Once the concussion is fully healed, you won’t have any trouble with him at all anymore, and in the mean time, him being in bed like this will let you get some rest- I imagine he was pretty wild today?”

“It was just awful, he practically tore the house apart, and when we went outside he kept scrambling up the rocks and growling at me and throwing them at me… I couldn’t believe how he was moving- more like a wild animal than a baby and I think he was more shocked that I was when he fell of the rocks. I went right down and got him but I couldn’t believe he survived because he landed right on his head!!”

“Well, he’ll still move like an animal if he feels threatened and when he’s hunting, but he’ll start to pick up your language and he will come to you when you call him after this. He’ll be completely different after this, and it won’t matter if I’m here or not, he’ll probably think he’s an earthling, though I’ll eventually have to start training him, I need to familiarize myself with your planet a bit more before I will feel comfortable enough to train here. Think you can handle him for a while longer?”

“Are you really sure he’s going to be okay? I mean you really think it’s ok to leave him like this?”

“I need a place to train, and since I’m on your planet I can’t let him destroy it anyway, so it is better to let him think he’s an earthling for a while than to let him think he still needs to destroy all life here, besides, he didn’t hurt you before he hurt himself, so I’d say he was just attempting to find me or he likes you already, he probably thought you were fun to play with. And besides you fed him, and everyone knows there’s no easier way to captivate a Saiyan than with food, even if you think he’s run away someday when he’s older like between about 8 or10, he’ll always stick close around here, to stay close to you. He’s never met his parents but he still associates giving food with family, so he wouldn’t hurt you on purpose. Now that his programming is gone, he’ll actually bring you stuff that he’s killed, once he’s strong enough. But remember what I told you this morning, never let him look at the full moon- at least not until I’ve been able to work with him. He’s still too young, to train with me, so for now I’ll keep visiting and checking up on both of you but its best if he could stay with you, where it’s safe... It is always possible that they could send someone here to find him early, but I won’t let them find him, I will make sure they find me instead... I have to, honor demands it since I ran away from my fate once, I can’t do it again So, if anything happens to me, he has to live- an eventual showdown between Frieza and a Saiyan in the future is unavoidable, I can’t let him kill both of us at once, can you understand that?”

Gohan looked down at the peacefully sleeping infant and nodded. “You can depend on me to look after him... Say, in the mean time, I’ve fixed some more T-Rex stakes for us for supper, if you are hungry, they’re still warm in the oven.”

“Thank you. I am glad to see you truly are a man of honor.” Vegeta smirked and nodded. “And, yes, I’m starving, especially since I turned down a dinner invitation from Doctor Briefs and his family. But you know this means you’ll never get rid of me now, either.”

“Well, we honor bound men of the martial arts are supposed to stick together and it gets pretty lonely up here all by myself, so you and Kakarrot are always more than welcome here, so go on, dig in, I’ve already eaten.”