Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Stormy Bond ❯ Act II ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Don’t own DBZ





"The kings son, Ferdinand, with hair upstarting- then like reeds, not hair- was the first man that leaped; cried ‘Hell is empty, and the devils are here’." – Arial (1.2)
"Sir, four, no, six more pods have launched from the ship. I've sent word to the command base in Yakar-drat and they said they have the pods in sight. They'll set them down safely."
Dr. Briefs sighed, "Good. Where is the other pod now?"
"About to set down approximately four nanosecs northeast of the village."
"Right, radio Bulma's lab, send her the coordinates so that she can get out there as soon as possible. Yamcha, hold the fort here, I have some things I need to do. Tell me immediately if there are any new developments, and get some trackers on those survivors I want to know where they are and what their doing every second."
"Yes, sir."
And with that the doctor rushed from the room.
***
Bulma rushed into the room. It was small and cluttered, but she went right to the blueprints on her desk and handed them quickly to the panting Dragy-yar who was stumbling into the room behind her. His small legs had trouble keeping up with her tall human ones.
"Quickly, Dragy-yar, take them to the command room," she said as she turned back to her desk and began rummaging through the bits and pieces there until she found the object she was looking for, or kit of objects, as the case was, then she sprinted back out the door and down the hallway to the launch bay. She only hoped she wasn't too late…
On the small hover cycle she sped out of the compound and over the dusty streets of the Yardrat village. All around her were randomly scattered mud houses made of the green dirt that covered the entire surface of the planet.
On the bike's display she had the coordinates sent by Geedge-yar, but she hardly needed them. There was massive amounts of smoke coming from the northeast, which she could easily follow. She rode over several small hills until she got close enough to where she was going to smell the smoke and ditched her bike on the rise of the last hill.
'I need the element of surprise,' she thought, leaving the noisy bike and crawling the last few feet up the hill on her stomach, her newest weapon held in front of her like a shield.
As she peeked over the crest and spotted the crash sight, she couldn't help but gasp. She could see the pod sitting in the middle of a crater, at least twenty feet in diameter. 'I guess Geedge-yar missed the whole "gently" part of dad's instructions…' She surveyed the surroundings and then pulled a pair of binoculars out of the field pack she gotten off the hover craft.
She could see the numbers on the side of the pod, it was from the ship "Vegeta III". 'How unoriginal,' she thought as she scanned over. Broken bits of shrapnel, singed metal, and the door. It was open.
'What the…' she didn't even have time to finish that thought before a pair of rough hands grabbed her from behind and pulled her to her feet, screaming.
***
Dr. Briefs entered his own lab, it was larger then Bulma's and much less cluttered, and walked to the back of the room with an ominous look on his face. He stopped in front of a black filling cabinet covered in dust and shadows in the far corner and raised his hands hesitantly.
He knew what he was about to do was against the agreement he had with the Yardratin council, but in his mind, it was the only way to stop them all from being slaughtered. "They will understand," he said firmly and his voice echoed in the large metal room. His hand pulled open the top drawer, reached inside, and removed two red-labeled capsules. Just before he had the chance to press the button on the first one a voice came over the com on his desk.
"Dr Briefs?"
The doctor jumped and nearly dropped both the capsules. He walked to his desk calmly, trying to sooth his rapidly beating pulse and pressed the "open line" button. "Yes?"
"Thought you'd like to know sir, all the pods have touched down now."
"Good. Where did the last few end up?" he asked grabbing a pen and piece of scrap paper.
" Splangy desert, sir, just like you requested. They're just south of the Keebly Mountain range."
"Give me those exact coordinantes," he said, touching the ink to the paper.
"65 degrees North, by 32.76 degrees west."
"Alright," the professor said, writing them down, "Thanks, Geedge-yar."
"You're welcome, sir." The doc was about to go when the Yardrat asked, "What should we do about the ship, sir?"
"Huh?" Briefs asked, confused.
"Well, it's crashing, sir."
"Oh, right. Radio Manklar-drat. Have them land it close to them. Tell them to treat any of the injured, but keep them in stasis if they can till I give word. Oh, and have a repair team investigate the ship and fix it if they can, just in case."
"Done."
"Is Dragy-yar back with Bulma's plans yet?"
"Just now, sir."
"Good. Yamcha, run them down to Meek-yar immediately and tell him to start construction ASAP. If he has any questions, Bulma should be back soon and I'll send her down, so have him hold them. Tell him to do just what he can."
There was silence on the other end.
"We just got word that the Yardratin Council wishes an audience with you.." This time the voice was Yamcha's. He sounded pissed, as usual.
"Tell them they'll have to wait, I'm a bit busy right now. Over and out." He released the com and moved back the middle of his lab, holding the two capsules in his hands he pressed the first one and tossed it a few feet away.
A metal casket with glass case appeared out of the smoke, looking much like a Saiyan stasis tube, only the occupant of this one was most decidedly not Saiyan. It contained a beautiful blonde woman. She appeared to be sleeping. Dr. Briefs hesitated, wondering if one would be enough, but then he decided that safe was better then sorry and popped open the other capsule.
It was the same kind of case, only the occupant was a young man with dark hair and perfect skin. Slowly the professor entered the code on the side of the first box and watched the front hiss and slide open and the girl open her cold blue eyes.
She sat up stiffly and looked around slowly. "Where am I?"
"My lab, planet Yardrat. Do you know who you are?"
"Yes." she replied coldly and stepped out of her container. "I am android 18 created in the year 3638 by Dr. Gero on the planet Chikyuu. What year is it now?"
"3653. Do you know who I am?"
"You are Dr. Trunks Briefs, owner and founder of Capsule Corporation and officially, my owner." she looked him up and down with her piercing, ice blue eyes for a second and then looked beside her to the other case. "Are you going to wake my brother?" she asked, curious.
The question took the doctor by surprise, as he had never expected the androids to refer to each other as family. These creations of Gero's were the last thing that he made before betraying his boss to the Saiyans. Dr. Briefs had decided that if Gero was going to steal his life's work, then he would take his. An eye for and eye and all that. He'd grabbed their capsules from Gero's lab just before joining his wife and daughter in the escape pod.
"Yes," he finally replied and moved to do just that.
***
"Stop that infernal racket!" her captor ordered in a deep, course, male voice, moving one hand to cover her mouth, while holding her firmly against him by the waist with the other. Bulma thrashed and tried to bite at him, but evidently he'd expected that. She couldn't sink her teeth in, at any rate, and so continued to try and scream, though her voice was muted. It wasn't that she expected anyone to hear her. Mostly, she just wanted to piss him off, stupid and counteractive as that seemed, she couldn't help herself. She didn't like being snuk up on, and she hated being restrained.
The man shook her gently and ordered her to stop again. When she didn't he turned her around in his arms and looked her square in the eye. "Stop that now, or I'll…" his voice drifted off as their eyes connected. She froze, her voice caught in her throat.
'Dark eyes… and handsome,' she thought. He was the only man she'd ever seen, besides Yamcha and her father, but if they were all like this…
'Blue eyes… and gorgeous,' Vegeta was thinking on the other end of that stare. 'She looks human, but like no human I've ever seen…'
Bulma was the first to come back to her senses, surprisingly enough. "Or you'll what?" she asked impertinently.
He seemed shocked, but gathered his thoughts fast enough, scowling at her and shaking her a little more. "Or I'll kill you, that's what."
"Oh," Bulma said, looking down. "You didn't have to sneak up on me like that. You scared the shit out of me."
"Well, just because you're loud enough to hear miles away, doesn't mean the rest of us have to be. You weren't paying attention. It's not my fault you had your guard down, so stop whining and tell me where I am." the arrogant prince demanded.
"No," she said at once, defiant with her chin held high and her eyes not turning from his again.
"No?" Vegeta asked, stunned. He wasn't used to not getting what he wanted, right when he wanted it. "Tell me or I'll…"
"Yeah, you'll kill me, I know, but I'm not accustomed to giving out information to strange men that are holding me very improperly, against my will."
"So, you'd give out information to strange men that were holding your improperly if it was your will?" he smirked.
Bulma's mouth dropped open. 'The very idea of this creep! What an intriguing thought…' she frowned, fighting the desire to blush and swoon. She hadn't been raised a fainting twit, she wasn't going to start acting like one now. "That's not what I meant, now put me down," she said.
"No," the prince responded mocking her tone.
"Ooooh," she huffed and tried kneeing and kicking at him, but he was holding her to close.
"We seem to have a stalemate, little woman. You won't tell me where I am, and I won't let you go. So now I’m faced with the question of whether or not to just kill you and find someone else to torture my location out of, or just wait until you submit to my obviously superior will and tell me." He was smirking despite himself. "And then I'll kill you."
"Well, you'd better just kill me then, cause I'm not going to submit, especially if your going to kill me anyway. Do I look stupid?'
'Not really,' Vegeta thought. "Yes," he said.
"Humph," she said and continued struggling. After a second she remembered she was still holding the binoculars, and her new weapon. Using one hand was difficult, but she managed to pull out a gun looking device from her kit and get one of the small circular disks into place. Then she pressed the gun against his side and pulled the trigger. The disk sank into this skin and quickly dissolved into his blood stream.
"Ouch," he growled, not loosening his grip for a second. "What was that? Some kind of weapon?"
"Kind of, only it’s like no weapon you've ever seen. You should be getting weaker in a few minutes."
"Ha!" Vegeta laughed cruelly in her face. "As if some primitive device could slow down the Prince of all the Saiyans, mightiest race in the universe." Truth be told, he was already weak with the lingering effects of the stasis and then there was the crash…
'So, he's the prince…' she logged that information away. "Not primitive," she said with a confident smile, "brand new technology, my own design, thank you very much. You've never seen anything like this before, but trust me, you're going to be feeling it real soon…"
They waited, at a stand still, his arms wrapped around her body and her arms pinned almost completely to her side.
***
"Dr. Gero created you to be slaves, slaves that would destroy anything they were instructed to. When he betrayed me, I took you with me because I knew the kind of damage he would do if he could use you unrestricted."
"And because you wanted revenge, right, Dr.?" the dark hared, boy android responded.
Dr. Briefs was becoming increasingly disgruntled by these androids by the minute, they treated each other like family, could grasp concepts like revenge and betrayal, and were itching for their freedom. From the moment they had stood in silent greeting to each other they'd both been asking questions like, "Where were they?, and, "What kind of defenses did they have?" Everything seemed to be leading up to, "And how difficult would it be if we just decided to blow you and your family off the face of the planet and escape?"
The doctor was glad he'd installed a failsafe obedience system as a break between major projects a few years back. The system that Gero had initially would have gotten them all killed.
"Irrelevant. We're running out of time. As you have probably noticed, I installed a new voice recognition/obedience/restraining device in your central neuron system. This means you can't hurt or kill anyone unless instructed by me or a member of my family, and you are obligate to fulfill every command under penalty of neural meltdown. I installed them as a precautionary device, and hope that they will only have to be in place for a short duration."
The androids, who had previously been staring blankly at him with their cold lifeless eyes, seemed a bit surprised by this.
"I'm willing to make you a deal." he offered shortly.
"What kind of deal, Dr.?" The android numbered 17 asked, curiosity in his artificial voice.
"I never believed in Gero's artificial life programs. You're too close to the real thing for my likes, and the slavery issue bothers me. I would like nothing else but to give you your freedom and let you go. I can't however, at this point in time."
"They why did you wake us up? Just to give us discourses on AI slavery ethics and a couple history lessons?" Her words were bitter, but her tone remained curious.
"We have an emergency and I need your help." The professor said taking a deep breath and swallowing the lump in his throat.
***
Bulma hadn't quite realized the implications of their positioning until the uncomfortable silence magnified the awkwardness of the entire situation by a hundred times. She found herself looking at the corded neck of the dreaded Saiyan prince, while waiting for her ki-paralyzing serum to kick in. It was weird, but tons better then looking into his impossibly deep eyes.
As she was avoiding contact, and searching the unthreatening part of his body as if looking for the answers to the cosmos, she noticed the cuts and bruises that were scattered over all of his exposed skin. She could feel little spots of blood starting to seep into her clothes where ever they were touching.
"Your hurt," she whispered and looked up at him suddenly. She hadn't realized what bad shape he was in till now, but it only made sense. With what he'd been through, an exploding space ship, chaotic planet falls complete with not-so-soft landing on hard, green, Yardratin soil, he was lucky to be alive. If her recollection of his pods condition was accurate, he should probably be dead.
"Humph," he grunted and looked away. Vegeta was too busy struggling to stay on his feet to argue with the woman in his arms. What ever she'd done to him was starting to have an effect. He could feel his power draining out of him slowly, leaving him with only his drastically decreased physical strength. Not that he'd let her know. He'd stand there till his head fell off and his body rotted away before showing weakness to such a pathetic creature…
"Your power should all be gone by now, so why don't you just release me and let me help you?" she said half impatient, half pleading.
"No, I don't need your help." It was all he could do to stop his voice from cracking. 'Damn witch! What did she do to me?' he wondered as his eyes began drifting shut. They snapped open again as she began to struggle. He hung on with all the pride and stubbornness left in him, which was quite a bit.
"Just, give. It. Up." she said through clenched teeth. He still had a pretty strong grip.
"Shut up, woman, and hold still," he growled. "You did this to me. How am I to know you didn't sabotage my ship and bring me here for your own foul purposes. You obviously have the technology…" he admitted grudgingly, although he couldn't remember the existence of any advanced worlds that weren't already conquered in this half of the universe. Not that he really had any idea which half of the universe they were on, but they could not have been that far off course…
"I didn't sabotage anything. Do I look suicidal? We really wanted you to pass by with out any kind of interaction, but, unfortunately, we were left with no choice. The ki-paralyzing serum is for my own protection, and it's temporary. I just want to you get healed and get the hell off my planet, preferably leaving it still intact. " Bulma said solidly.
Vegeta was starting to lose focus. His vision was swimming, leaving the face before him a pair of bright blue eyes, hopeful and determined in the midst of a peach and blue haze.
"You can trust me… I promise not to let anyone hurt you…" he heard as his eyes betrayed him and slid closed against his will. His last thought was an impression of calm relief.
***
Dr. Briefs sat in anticipatory panic as he waited for the android's answer. Technically, they really couldn't say no to him, and he'd have their assistance either way, but it would just make him feel so much better about things if they were helping "willingly".
"And if we comply with these commands, then, when your emergency is over, we are free?" 18 asked.
"Yes," Briefs replied.
"To go anywhere we want, under your little conditions?" 17 specified. He didn't want to miss out on getting the most from this deal because he wasn't sure what the fine print said.
"Under the conditions I have stated previously, yes. I'll give you a space ship, if you require one, and you will be free to leave. I'll also offer my home as a place of refuge, a place where you can get supplies or repairs, or information, anything you need."
The two artificial beings nodded to each other and then looked at Dr. Briefs. "You have a deal," they said together.
"I'm so glad," the professor smiled. "Now, first things first, I’m going to give you these communicators so that I can get a hold of you at any time, let you know what's going on and give you then next task on the list. If all goes well, you should be out of here in a few weeks."
The androids watched with cool appreciation as the doctor rummaged around the room looking very much like an absent-minded professor. He found the sheet of paper he'd written the Saiyans coordinants on and handed it to 17. Then he went to a drawer to find three communicators.
"Your first task is to go here, and find the landed pods and their occupants. Once you find them, keep them busy. Distract them. Beat them up if you have to, but don't kill them or injure them seriously. Gero will probably be with them, so watch out that he doesn't get his hands on you. Just keep them out of the villages and inhabited areas. I don't want the death of any Yardrat's on my hands. Is that all understood?"
"Clearly," 17 replied, looking down at the sheet of paper.
"Oh, and feel free to have a little fun with them, I don't want this to be all work and no play. Have a good time. They should be nothing compared to your strength and intelligence, and Saiyans do so hate to lose at anything and they have pride like… well, they have a lot of it."
"Anything you say, Dr." Android 18 replied with a small smirk. After getting them all equipped the one-time owner of the biggest grossing company if half the Milky Way, turned to go, but stopped to one last thing, almost as an after thought.
"If there is a Saiyan there called Bardock, then that Saiyan is not to be harmed, but instead treated with as much respect as is appropriate. I own him my life and the life of my family."
"Understood." 17 replied. It seemed they could also grasp the concepts of gratitude and respect.
***
Bulma could tell she was going to have a heck of a time getting the Saiyan prince from around her body and onto her motor bike. He was like lead weight on her stomach as she laid there underneath his collapsed form struggling to get free. It took her almost ten minutes to wiggle out of that prison of warm arms and chest and crawl out into the cooling air of the day. She ran to her bike, drove it over to where he was lying on his stomach, his face in the dirt and breathing with difficulty, and rolled him over on his back.
Using the bike's small first aid kit she decided to patch up the worst of his wounds before trying to move him. Dad wouldn't be pleased if he bled to death before she got him home. She scanned over his prone form and decided to just start at the top and work her way down. He had so many cuts and abrasions, she didn't know where to start otherwise.
She used an antiseptic cloth to clean the cut on his forehead and the abrasion on his chin. All the while she studied his features. Heavy brow, still creased in a stubborn frown, high cheek bones, sharp features and straight, proud nose and chin. And then there was his hair, straight, tall, course looking, but actually soft to the touch… Everything about him shouted royalty and power, even in his weakened, injured state. She partly wished he would open his eyes and let her see into them again, but then she wouldn't be free to gaze at him so freely.
Now that the threat was gone she found her self being able to admire the prince's qualities. She finished with his face and moved to his neck and shoulders. His clothing was ripped and torn to be more of a nuisance then functional, so she used the kits scissors to cut his shirt from his bleeding body. He'd been wearing some kind of clingy stasis suit that luckily had two pieces instead of one. She was enjoying the view of his exposed chest, smooth and defined… but she wasn't sure she was ready to see anymore then that. Mom had explained the difference between boys and girls at a young age, and as far as she knew Saiyans and humans were almost identical as far as outward anatomy was concerned. She could quote name and function for every body part on both Human and Saiyan, but she didn't really want to SEE it.
She tried to clean the wounds on his back, as well, but this proved very difficult. She rolled him on his side and tried to reach him that way, but he kept rolling into her lap. The difficult part was she found herself wanting to leave him there.
She allowed herself to sit for just a minute, her arm behind his neck and her hand on his chest, and just look him over, despite the fact he was covered in blood
"Amazing…" she whispered. "He is so beautiful." She ran her hand over the defined ridges of his shoulders, down over his pectoral muscles, brushing her finger tips lightly over the rough skin of his nipples and then down over his stomach.
"Two, four, six… eight…" she marveled that, despite his short frame, he could fit in an eight pack. He had a perfect, belly button, a shallow inny, and his whole body flexed when she ran a finger over it. 'So,' she thought with much amusement, 'the Saiyan prince is ticklish.' She wanted to laugh out loud, but knew it would spoil the quite mood. She sighed and rolled him over again to continue her first aid.
She cleaned the wounds on his sculpted back, and pondered the meaning of several crisscrossing scars that ran over the length on his shoulder blades. As she moved lower she felt her anticipation grow as she grew closer and closer to his tail that was curled around his waist. There was a small cut near the base of his fuzzy length that she wasn't sure she should bother. She knew how sensitive their tails were…
Curiosity, combined with some mischievously risky part of her, made her continue lower. Hesitant fingers brushed against the base of his tale, not-so-accidentally, in her attempts to clean the small cut, and she froze as she realized his whole body had tensed as if preparing for great pain. She couldn't move her hand, the back of it pressed lightly to his tail. 'If they are this sensitive then maybe I shouldn't be touching it…' the thought left quickly as he seemed to relax when no pain came.
She continued cleaning his cut, being much more thorough then was probably necessary, it wasn't even bleeding very badly. She found herself extremely amused at the muscle in his back that would twitch every time she brushed her fingers against his tail.
After all the blood was gone, and she realized that it wasn't even bleeding anymore, she abandoned all pretenses and decided to try a little experiment. Slowly she wrapped her nimble fingers around his tail and began petting it softly. When he seemed used to that she used a little more pressure until she realized that there was a faint vibration coming from his chest. She listened carefully. 'He's purring!' she wanted to giggle and laugh until she couldn’t breath anymore, but she also wanted to make sure he didn't stop. It was such a pleasant sensation, the vibration passing from where her right leg was pressed against his back that was moving up her stomach and touching her heart with a warm buzz.
It was almost like a drug, that purring, and she wanted more. She carefully unwrapped his tail from his waist and was surprised when it moved easily into her hands, almost of it's own free will. She stroked and caressed it, and let it's soft fur run through her fingers. The purring was getting decidedly louder, and penetrating her even more deeply.
She leaned back, closed her eyes and let herself become overrun by the softness of the curious appendage and the purring, and the warmth and… something else. A small smile fixed itself on her face and she continued, not caring about anything. Not caring that her father was waiting for her at home, and not worried that there were probably several deadly members of the Saiyan race wreaking havoc somewhere on her beloved planet. And she wasn't concerned in the least for her new weapon, that was now sitting forgotten in the green Yardratin dirt. Her mind was blank, only letting waves of emotion pulse through her.
She was just getting a hold of herself, thinking that her first encounter with a non-family or mutant man was turning out to be rather a success when the purring stopped abruptly.
***
Amidst the rubble of the scarred earth and battered pods, things had been quiet for almost a minute when the first struggling body appeared. Gero lifted the pod's door with a bloodied knuckle and crawled onto the side of the crater with heaving breaths. "I'm too old for this," he said as he collapsed against a large bolder and lay in the shade it afforded. He let his breathing slow and the pain in his body numb to a hazy ache while his eyes wondered over the crash sight before him. Four pods were cradled in the planet's strange green earth, crater upon crater. By his calculations there should have been six pods. The princes pod was absent, as expected, but the other two should have been near by…
One of the other pods shook and then rolled over, the door blasted off it's hinges. The king crawled out of his pod, anger on his face, and his eyes searching for answers.
"Your majesty, thank the kai's you're all right."
"Of course I’m all right, Gero, don’t be a simpleton. Where's my son?" King Vegeta demanded with solid royalty.
Gero just glanced at the other pods and shrugged non-committedly. The king started towards the two, still occupied pods and began rummaging through the wreckage. Punching his hand through the side of the first one he ripped a hole in the theoretically indestructible pod to reveal an unconscious Frieza. As he was tossing the limp Icein to Gero's feet, the other pod was cracking open to reveal a slightly flustered Bardock.
The whole scene was like some kind of bizarre hatching of prehistoric dinosaurs, only these dinosaurs were primates, not reptiles. Well, except for Frieza, and no one was really sure what he was.
"Is he dead?" The king asked, nodding to his white right-hand man after he'd surveyed the landscape and decided there were no more pods in the vicinity that he could punch holes in and drag half dead bodies from.
Gero stumbled over and checked Frieza for life signs. They were relatively strong. "No," he managed to creak out through chapped lips.
"Where are the other pods?" Bardock asked, speaking for the first time. He was sitting atop his own pod.
"I was just wondering the same thing…" Gero said trying to pear over the crest of the large pitted crater. "Surely they would be close by."
"Nappa, Radditz, and…" Bardock paused, "and the Prince."
"They aren't close by," the king said, that much is obvious. Bardock, put on your scouter and see if you can get any readings."
Following his master's bidding as quickly as possible he retrieved his ki scouter and levitated into the air. Taking a panoramic reading, rotating slowly in a circle he called down to the others. "There are may low-level readings, barely registering, so the planet must be inhabited." He paused. "Two high level readings about sixty clicks to the north. Looks like Radditz and Nappa." He finished his circle and sank unenthusiastically back to the ground. "Nothing else." He swallowed and looked at his king with the dreaded explanation in his eyes. "There's no sign of your son."
"He's probably unconscious, or trying to keep his power level low so as not to attract any unwanted attention. You said he launched earlier, Gero? Which way would he be?"
"If my calculations are correct…" Gero started, staring at the sky in contemplative searching.
"And they always are…" Bardock whispered a little bitterly under his breath. Gero already knew, and he knew they knew he already knew, but he always put on a show anyway.
"Then he should be several hundred clicks in that direction," Gero said pointing to the east.
"Well, then, wake up Frieza so we can get looking for my heir." King Vegeta said, rising out of the crater and drifting towards the direction Gero had been pointing. The other two pods forgotten, they began their search.
***
Radditz and Nappa, first class Saiyan warriors and elite royal guards of Prince Vegeta, found themselves in a much different situation then the other five survivors of the Vegeta III. Currently they were standing in the door way of a now demolished hanger bay, watching the smoke clear and double checking to make sure there weren't anymore little blue aliens running around. They all seemed accounted for in the charred smelly pile of fried Yardratin.
Neither of them were smart enough to recognize them as Yardratin on their own, but had been told by the blue weaklings that had introduced themselves with smiles and hands outstretched before the blasting had begun. Sadly, both of the tall Saiyans were the "kill first, ask questions later" type, and it had proved fatal to the naVve, trusting, and altogether too friendly Yardrats.
After dusting off their hands they gathered anything they could find worth salvaging from their pods and began searching the compound. They were indeed curious as to how they had ended up on this third-rate planet of idiots, but didn't think to ask any one, but instead just killed anything that dared cross their path.
***
Dr. Briefs stumbled back into the main control room, nearly out of breath, and gasping questions on their status. "Where… are the… Saiyans… now? Is… Bulma back, yet? What's the word on the… spaceship?" He slumped into his chair and waited for answers.
"Well, sir, as I said, they were all brought down in the Splangy Desert, but after I took a close up reading by satellite I found out that only four of them reached the desired destination. It seems that the Slether-drat settlement on the North West boarder grabbed two of the pods with their tractor beam and laded then in their docking bay."
"What!?" Dr. Briefs gasped sitting up in his chair and staring at Geedge-yar like he's announced they'd decided to announce Fridays as Hawaiian shirt day. "What's the word?" he asked, trying to calm down.
"We lost contact with them about two minutes ago." Geedge-yar said, looking down.
"Why wasn't I contacted immediately?" he demanded answers, looking first at Geedge-yar and then turning to Yamcha, who was crouching against the side wall.
"It just happened so fast…" Yamcha tried to cover, "and I knew you'd be back here soon, I didn't want to worry you." Yamcha was close to whimpering now.
The professor merely ground his teeth together and tried to get a hold of himself. 'We just lost hundreds of innocent Yardrats and he's whining. He makes me sick…' was the first thought that popped into head, but then he took a deep breath and calmed his nerves. From the moment the Saiyan ship had started coming down, he knew that casualties were inevitable, but that didn't mean he had to like it.
"What about Bulma?" he asked hoping for a more favorable answer then he'd gotten from his first question. From the look on Yamcha and the Yardrats faces he knew he wasn't going to get one.
"Still no word. She's just sitting out there with who ever came out of that pod." Geedge-yar said, when Yamcha only glared at the floor pitifully. He brought up the satellite picture on the big screen. It showed two red dots, side-by-side, on the edge of a large depression with many heat spots, much like a wreaked pod would look.
There was silence in the room once more.
"Should we send a rescue crew?"
Pause. The doctor knew that sending more people could put his daughter et even more risk then she already was, and if she wasn't in danger, she'd be upset that he hadn't trusted her. But he didn't want to just leave her there to fend for her self. Competent young woman that she was, she was still his daughter.
"Not yet, wait a little longer." It took everything in him left to say it. For all he knew he was condemning his only family remaining to a painful and horrible death, but it was all he could do. Besides pray.
Trunks Briefs, scientist and ex-entrepreneur, slouched in his chair and sighed, "I'm getting too old for this," under his breath.
***
"What the hell do you think your doing?" Vegeta growled after grabbing the woman's hands and holding them away from his tail. He'd woken slowly, feeling the familiar sensation of someone petting his tail, and wondered why his father hadn't woken him when they'd landed. At first he supposed he was on Vegetasei being treated to a welcome home gift, per his father's harem, and wasn't about to object at all. For some reason he was exhausted and ached all over. A little physical pleasure would be just what he needed.
He'd opened his eyes, and glanced over his shoulder at the woman giving him such a thorough tail job, and caught his breath. She was beautiful, gorgeous even. Long blue tresses, full pouting lips, pressed together in concentration, and her body arched to show off it's dimensions nicely. She was leaning back, her eyes closed, his most sensitive appendage in her hands, wrapped casually around her forearm and twitching like a feline that had just been fed. And her skin… was glowing, with a green tint.
In a matter of half a second, he realized that her skin wasn't glowing, it was dusted lightly in green dirt, green dirt that covered the planet he'd crashed on.
When he'd realized this and come to attention he'd stopped purring, and she'd opened her eyes and looked down at him with a visible traces of fear and surprise on her face.
"What the hell are you doing?" he asked again.
Bulma was so surprised that he was awake she was having a hard time thinking, and the crushing grip he had on her wrists wasn’t helping either. "I…" she glanced at their tell tale positioning and noticed the blood on her hands and swallowed heavily. 'What was I doing?' she wracked her mind, trying to remember, but everything was blurry. "Well, I was…" she looked at his back, twisting away from her and noticed the cleaned cuts. "I was cleaning your wounds, and I'm done now, so I needed to wake you so you could get on the bike, cause there's no way I’m ever going to be able to carry you, and you wouldn't wake up and so I thought maybe… and I suppose I got… a little… carried away…" She rambled on trying to cover, and hoping he couldn't read the blush on her cheeks as anything more then embarrassment.
When she shut her mouth, finally, he glared into her eyes, trying to read and see if she was lying. She raised her chin and dared him to call her a liar. He just stared into her face, studying her, memorizing her features, and she could feel the heat rising up her neck and onto her cheeks.
Then, with out warning, or ceremony, he nodded, seemingly convinced, and promptly passed out again.
Bulma heaved a sigh of relief, glad she didn't have to face his insanely intense eyes for another second and let her hands rest on his side. His fingers were still wrapped around her wrist, but they weren't quite as tight as before, so she managed to pull her hands free after only two attempts.
She was free, but that had not solved her problem. He was still lying against her, unconscious and as heavy as a small bolder.
"Now what?" she wondered aloud and slapped herself mentally on the wrist when the first idea that popped into her head was, 'his tail is free, now, he's asleep again…'
"This is going to be a long day…" she said and rolled Vegeta on his stomach.
***
"Yamcha, I want you out on reconnaissance. Follow those two that got out of hand. Warn all those in their path to evacuate. I don't want you to do anything, other then get people out of their way. Hopefully, they'll join up with the others as soon as possible."
"But…" Yamcha started to object.
"But nothing. I don't want you getting under foot here at the base, and I need someone out there. Just keep in close contact with the base and don't take any steps to stop them yourself." Dr. Briefs said and stood from his chair. "I've got some things to do. If you need me, I'll probably be at the council later, so…" his voice faded off and he exited.
He was fighting the impulse to wish Yamcha would screw up somehow and get himself killed, because that wouldn't be very human of him, although it would fix some of his long -term problems. Knowing his luck, today, however, it would never happen. Yamcha would be safe and not get killed by rampaging Saiyan warriors. He tried to smile as he made his way out of the compound and towards the gardens.
***
"Split up. Stay within sight of each other, but if we spread out we'll be able to cover more area. I want my son found, as first priority, and then we'll figure out a way to get off this rock," King Vegeta said as they took off, heading East.
Bardock flew to the north and the king dodged to the south, leaving Frieza, who was carrying Gero, in the middle. When the others were out of even Saiyan hearing range, Frieza turned a purple glare on the old man hanging from his fist.
"What the hell went wrong, Gero?!" he spat maliciously.
"I'm not really sure. Everything was going according to plan until the stupid power went out," he replied. Gero was doing his best to sound official and calm, although that was exceptionally difficult, considering he was being flown fifty feet off the ground, by an exceptionally pissed off, not to mention powerful, Icein with a headache.
"So, your explosions knocked out the power to the ship. I should have known you would batch so simple an assignment…" Frieza growled.
"It wasn't my explosions. My calculations were exact, and the charges set nowhere near the power grid. What happened wasn’t my fault. Besides, who are you to accuse me of botching things up? It was I who disabled the navigational system, and set up the charges that would disable the engines, and got you free time with the little prince, but you couldn't manage to pull off one simple little murder. Now we're stuck searching this hideously green planet for the one person who should be space dust right about now." Gero responded defensively with more then just a touch of condescension in his voice.
Frieza brought Gero up face to face with him and stopped flying suddenly. "You pathetic little weakling, it was you that distracted me from doing my job. If you had waited just two more seconds, we wouldn't be worried about finding the prince in one peace and ready to take my head off!" Frieza was very nearly yelling and Gero was starting to become afraid that the others would hear.
"Arguing will get us no where. We still have a very good opportunity to rid ourselves of the weak Saiyan king and his lousy excuse for an heir. The first chance we get you have to dispose of the King and his mindless body guard, and then we'll continue the search for the prodigal son on our own. He has to be injured and weakened after a blast like that. He won't be any problem at all. In fact, there's a good chance he's already dead." Gero said with his sickly, evil grin.
"That still leaves us with the task of hunting down those other two morons and getting rid of all the evidence." Frieza argued a bit more, not quite ready to be at peace with his traitorous companion.
"A simple feet. If you get rid of the two idiots, I can figure out a way to get away from here and figure out a cover story. You might have to destroy the planets population, to get rid of witnesses and make for a good revenge story about local natives killing the king and his son in their sleep or some other such Saiyan bull shit. I'll be so glad to get rid of their useless carcasses."
"Just don't forget the deal, Gero. I become ruler of the Empire and you continue to work for me. I certainly hope you would consider putting a knife in my back just like you are the King of the Saiyans. Remember, that without me, any third class warrior could take you out and claim the throne."
"I'll remember. There is some advantage to being a genius, and good memory and judgement are just a few of them." Gero said and then the laughter began. The senseless, maniacal laughter of madmen and murderers that, after all, they were.
***
Yamcha was also leaving the compound, only by the garage instead of the gardens. There was a serious scowl on his marred face and a muttered curse on his breath. He knew Dr. Briefs was just trying to get him out of the way, sending on him on some half-assed important job any simpleton Yardrat could have done.
Yamcha was getting tired of being taken for granted, and not being trusted. He had to find some way to get the respect he deserved on this shit-hole of a planet. The Briefs thought they were better then everyone, playing god and king and ruling over everyone, although they were too good to pay any real attention to the ones who did the real work. Except when they were ordering them around. Unless you were working, you weren't worth their time. Or so they thought…
Yamcha felt a little guilty about thinking bad about the family of the woman that had saved him and taught him everything he knew. Mrs. Briefs had been decent and patient with him. And now she was gone. The only one worth knowing was dead.
He'd put the others in their place and they'd see what their wife and mother had seen in him. She'd believed in him and trusted him, and soon Bulma and her father would, too.
***
"What is it, Bardock?"
"My lord, there is someone coming on the horizon, but I’m not getting any reading." Bardock said, squinting through his scouter and looking towards the East. He'd flown close enough to call to Frieza and Gero, who had, in turn called to the King and they were now gathered together once more.
"Yes, I can see it, too," the king replied stopping in mid-air. "There's two of them, flying this way, but, if they have no power reading, then how can they fly?"
"Do you suppose they could be a threat?" Frieza asked.
"Most likely," the king grunted. "It's best to be prepared." He took a mid-air ready position and they waited.
Frieza took advantage of the last few seconds before the approaching pair arrived by quickly depositing Dr. Gero behind a rock on the ground before he flew up to take stance beside Bardock and the king. They all waited with tensed shoulders and fists clenched as the two figures grew and became more detailed and focused.
Flying side by side, with immaculate precision, the two androids stopped within ten feet of waiting warriors, who were, needless to say, very shocked to see a pair of human looking youths approaching them with such calm abandon.
"Who are you, and what is your business with the King of the Saiyans?" Bardock demanded, hovering ever so slightly in front of his king protectively.
"Just a pair of curious siblings who are wondering what such famous warriors are doing on our small, humble planet," the dark hared male replied, the faintest hint of humor in his voice. He exchanged meaningful glances with the blond woman and then they hovered closer, not seeming to move any part of their bodies.
"To what do we owe the great honor of having the great King Vegeta and his… associates?"
"Maybe we should be asking you," Bardock stared them down, not impressed or intimidated by the pair in the least. "Our ship was damaged in space by some unknown source and we were forced to crash land here, but I get the feeling you already knew that, didn't you?"
"How very astute of you," the boy responded. "You may take relief in knowing, however, that if we had been responsible for the damage to your ship you would be dead..."
"Not stranded," the woman finished. "It appears that whoever tried to kill you, screwed up royally," she punned, looking first at Frieza with a cold stare and then glancing down at the ground where Gero was peaking from behind a small boulder.
Gero saw the woman turn her head towards him and jumped back behind the rock. "It can't be…" he muttered. He looked back around the rock and squinted up at the hovering group. "If only I could see better…"
In the sky, Frieza was challenging the pair of androids with a livid scowl on his face. "Surely you can't hope to survive facing the greatest warriors in the galaxy. Why did you really come out here, other then to get yourselves killed?"
"We were sent by our… employer…to stall you." Android 17 said, dropping all pretenses and crossing his arms over his chest. "And we're going to do just that."
"You think you can stall us?" the King spoke for the first time. "Now that we know your true intentions, how are you going to stop us from leaving?"
"We just are," 18 said slowly, mimicking her brother and taking a wide shouldered stance.
The king and his subjects might have started laughing at a frail looking woman threatening to take them all on, if it hadn't been for the serene confidence in both their faces. The eerie half smiles on their faces making their blood drop a few degrees.
"Permission to put these crazy children out of their misery, your majesty," Frieza said, clenching his teeth and fists, his tail twitching with anticipation of the fight.
"Denied," King Vegeta said firmly. "Just beat them up a little. I want them conscious and able to give information."
"Understood," the Icein growled in grudging obedience. He flew forward suddenly to attack 17, but he just wasn’t there when he went to land his punch. Frieza looked shocked as he turned to look at 18, who was only three feet away, and smirking at him like he's just fallen for some hilarious prank.
"You missed," she said, moving closer and whispering in his ear before she nodded slightly to the spot just above them.
Frieza looked up just in time to see the bottom of 17 foot as it connected with his forehead. Frieza shot to the ground like a falling comet and connected with a thunderous crash. Dust flew everywhere and blocked their view of the fallen Frieza.
Bardock was staring in amazement at the dust cloud at their feet. When he looked up, he was startled to find 18 only inches away, looking at the ground as well. He gasped slightly and jumped back a few inches.
"Well he didn't last long, did he?" she asked, looking up slowly and fixing him with her almost translucent blue eyes. Before he knew it, his arms were pinned behind his back and his tail was being tugged on ever so slightly. He winced, preparing for pain, but it didn't come, it had been only a warning tug.
"Now, I suppose we should give you the options of doing this the hard way, or the easy way. Just as a matter of procedure, you understand. I have the feeling you are all going to insist that we continue doing this the harder way." Bardock heard the female's voice in his ear.
He ground his teeth together and bit his tongue.
"Well," she insisted, giving his tail another pull.
He hissed and tried twisting from her grip, but found it was beyond his capabilities. "Go, your majesty," he whispered finally. "Get away. Find your son. I'll keep her busy." He glanced at the ground where there was still no sign of the fallen Icejin.
"I will not run." Vegeta said, standing his ground and starting towards them slowly.
"Good for you…" came a voice from above. "You wouldn't have gotten far anyway. It was a good plan, in theory," 17 said, floating down between the still bound Bardock and the King, "but it was missing one very important fact." 17 punched Bardock in the stomach. He would have doubled over if 18 hadn't been holding him. "Me," the android leaned in and said to Bardock's contorted face. "and the fact that I'm faster then all three of you put together."
He caught the king's foot, seconds before it connected with his side and twisted it, sending the king flying in an out of control spiral.
"King Vegeta!" Bardock yelled and twisted in 18 arms again. He managed to find a weak link somewhere, (or more likely, she let him go), and pulled away speeding towards his falling monarch. That, however only made it easier for 17 to clothes line him.
Bardock fall part way before gaining control and looking towards an in control, although still flustered Vegeta. He had a tortured, helpless look on his face.
"Stay back, Bardock, and don't try to help…" the king growled, starting towards 18 again.
Android 17, who had begun flying towards Bardock with the intention of sending him the way of Frieza froze in mid-air and looked at Bardock with a calculating gaze.
"So, you’re Bardock." He said, folding his arms over his chest. "Too bad."
And with that he turned and flew back to assist his sister, although she was having no trouble dodging everything the Saiyan king threw at her.
"This day just keeps getting weirder by the second," Bardock, whispered flying up to stand with his king.
***
"Oh, Gerddie. Things have fallen apart, and I don't know if I can fix it this time…" Dr. Briefs said while he stood beside his late wife's grave, looking down at the rose vines that covered her mound and tombstone. "I wish you were here to tell me everything would be alright. If you were here I think I could think of some way to get us all through this alive…"
He sighed and stood quietly for a second. "I'm so worried about Bulma, dear. I don't know if she'll deal well with these rough Saiyan men. I'm going to try and keep her away from them as much as possible. She's got such a wonderful spirit. She's so kind and selfless, I don't want her to be subjected to their harsh reality." Trunks Briefs chuckled. "I suppose it was inevitable, though. I can't keep her locked up here like an artifact in a museum, even if the glass case would stop her from being ruined."
"I so wanted her to have everything we had. Love, family, comfort, someone to look after her and let her just be herself, and give her money and supplies to keep building her inventions…" His mustache twitched and he felt the forbidden swelling of heat under his eye lids. "You would have said I sound like a scientist trying to be a father, but all I ever wanted to be was a father, who was sometimes a scientist."
The quiet of the air seemed filled with words wanting to be said. It was almost overwhelming; at times like these he could almost feel his wife's presence… "I miss you, Gerddie…" he whispered.
Just then, the sound of a hover bike could be heard coming over the hill towards the compound.
***
Bulma was driving incredibly slow, trying to keep the unconscious Saiyan balanced, while steering the bike. Vegeta was sitting in front of her, his face forward, completely knocked out. She was beginning to think he had slipped into a coma, or something comparable.
In her attempts to load him onto the bike she'd had to lie it down next to him and roll him onto it. That had been the easy part, all though she was sure she'd opened a few of his cuts doing it. The hard part had been getting the bike upright with his heavy weight pulling down on it. Driving was no easy task, either, since he seemed to want to do nothing more then slide off one side or the other.
She couldn't leave him, and she didn't want to stay out in the open any longer, and so she was forced to push onward.
By the time she drove over the last hill, she was utterly exhausted, bruised, cut, and very frustrated. She might not have made it to the garage if her father hadn't come running around the side of the house, from the gardens, and caught her just as she herself was beginning to fall.
The hover bike came to a halt as soon as her weight was off the seat, and surprisingly enough the Saiyan prince stayed slouched over the handlebars. Bulma saw this from her father's arms and laughed bitterly.
"Sure, now he stays." She pooled the last of her strength and stood, the professor's help. She limped over to the bike and shut it off. Her father never moved his arm from around her waist, and the look on his face was near panic.
"Bulma, are you all right?" he asked. She thought he looked close to tears.
"Yes, yes, but he isn't. I gave him the ki sedative and he seems to be experiencing adverse side effects. We have to get him to the med bay, as soon as possible. You can put all that amazing technology that's been going to waste to work."
"You first. You need help, you can hardly stand."
"No, him first. I'm fine, I don't need help…" She reached to pull Vegeta off the bike, but fell to her knees instead. "Ok, maybe a little help would be fine. I can't carry him on my own." Bulma looked at her father with near panic in her eyes and pain in her voice. "Please dad, he can't die. You have to keep him alive until I can…" she looked down wondering herself what she wanted to say. 'Until I can experiment on my drugs? Until I can check on him myself? Until I can get to know who and what he is…?' Her mind wasn't functioning properly. 'Why am I so exhausted? Sure, it was a long trip, but I feel like I've been sucked dry…'
"Please dad, save him…" She was so insistent, that he really had no choice.
"Someone! Come quickly! We need help!" Briefs called at the compound. Almost instantly Yardratins started pouring from every door, as if they'd been watching, waiting for the call and too afraid to disturb the pair until then. They helped them carry the prince and Bulma inside, while one of them put the bike away. It wasn't far to the med lab, and once there, Bulma collapsed on the nearest table. Behind her they were dragging in Vegeta.
"Help him first, he might have head problems, too," she whispered coarsely, the last of her energy fading.
"What about you, Lady Bulma?" one of the med assistants asked, checking her pulse and vital signs.
"I'm fine! I just need… a little… nap…" she pushed the hands away and rolled over on her side. She tried to keep her eyes open and watch as they went to work on the Saiyan prince, but that proved futile. So as soon as she could see he was being cared for properly, she let them fall closed and went into a deep sleep.
***
Dr. Briefs watched as they healed the Saiyans wounds and hooked him up to monitors. In his hand he held his daughter's hand and he was squeezing it subconsciously as he remembered the exchange with his daughter earlier and her insistence to keep the Saiyan alive.
'What happened out there?' he wondered. Looking over at his daughter he felt his heart jerk in his chest. She looked so pale, so colorless. He called in more Yardratin to care for her more properly.
"Is there anything more you can do?" he asked a taller alien that was looking over some medical instruments.
"No, she is just exhausted. Some sleep and she'll be good as knew, Duk Briefs."
"All right. I have to go see the council now, I want you to alert me the second one of them blinks an eye lash." With all the stress in his life at this moment, the last thing he needed was his daughter lying on a med lab bed, no matter how minor her condition.
As he turned to leave he gave on last look to the unconscious Saiyan lying on his own table not three feet from his daughter. "What have you done to my little girl…?" he muttered before walking out.