Disclaimers: Me, V.J don't down own DBZ nor the Thing… If I did, the series would have been far more interesting, no…

The Thing

Chapter 3

We all have our orders…

Vegeta quickly thrashes the bedraggled animal with the bunt end of his M4 rifle, he brutally strikes the feral beast repeatedly on the head, and with such acute, merciless force is cracks its cranium. In retaliation, the wild wolf snaps viciously with a voracious vengeful thrust, forcing itself madly on Vegeta, the dynamic impact knocked the rifle out of his hands; damaged, soiled, and bloody, Vegeta and the bestial creature commenced, wrestling fiercely for survival unto the snow ridden ground.

Vegeta methodically grabbed a hold of its mangy blood engorged neck, grasping the thick fat within a ruthless chokehold; he squeezed it tightly until the creature would be insensible, lifeless… hopefully. Fighting against the frozen bite of the climate, they grappled in the harsh frost. The wicked propulsion of wind sheer causing the snow to burst in the air, back drafting with impelling white, spreading the snow dust with each aggressive tussle; ruthlessly smearing themselves against the whiteout with their draining soiled sullied outer fluids, staining white snow into dirty cherry crimson.

The wild beast gave a fatal howl; Vegeta let go cautiously once he heard a significant crude fracture as he trounced, and compressed the beast's neck thus subduing the wild animal in death; it was visually evident that the animal was dead.

It laid frozen on the ground jerking lifelessly with involuntary muscular spasms, pre-syndromes of rigor mortise as its decomposing, putrefaction body became rigid; the nerves still shuddered not knowing its body was dead. Vegeta austerely looked at Bardock, griming tiredly at the nuisance for being so inattentive, however he had certain issues with this creature, oddly it seemed to be decomposing rapidly, he wasn't a medical expert, but that wasn't normal, but strange. In speculation, the congealing process was most likely due to shock... however, it was still strange.

Vegeta turned to Bardock, "Try to keep your wits about you next time; that carnivorous freak nearly masticated your head off... what a gruesome sight that would have been. I would think you a novice for being so… unmindfully reckless." he said with a cold blackened-steel derisive gaze, as the swift borealis wind blew against both men.

Bardock felt nervously around his neck that was covered in condensing slime, the only substance that was distinguished was the creature's gooey salivate. He looked at the goop in his gloved covered hands, *UGH…* he looked so repulsed, nauseated from the gory bloody discharge.

After removing the waste, Bardock took a safe breather, " Whew…Vegeta, I owe you one that was too close for comfort, I say lets hurry back to base camp!" said Bardock stating the obvious. He persistently dipped his gloves in the frosty snow to rinse off the icky spittle remnant left by the grotesque creature, he was making sure the filth was completely gone. However, in doing so, the absorbing structure of slime submerged into the snow staining it a faded red.

Bardock got up uneasily from the snow dominated ground; still, he was a bit shaken up by the excitement. He looked down angrily at the heavily wounded creature that was drenched in its own blood; he spitefully kicked it for good measure. "Nasty dirty undomesticated Fuck, you'll suffer from the cold if that's if you're still alive, and die a slow undignified cold barbaric death… you filthy mutt, I piss on your frozen tomb!" Bardock stared at the seemingly life-less creature on the ground and spat, that thing nearly ripped out his lungs, he had no sympathy toward the freakish animal.

Vegeta looked affronted, he got indignant from the authority position Bardock, thought he had, "Look lets get this straight… I take no orders from doting military officials, I'm a hired mercenary, and I do what I'm paid to do. It may come to a surprise, but I do have my own will… I am not one of your buddies; I could truly care-less about your life. I simply reacted on instinct, consider yourself privileged I opted you as a decoy, after the creature got you it would have come for me. I took the advantageous moment of esteem opportunity when it was gnawing on your exposed carcass. Now you know the truth I used you as bait to ensnare the creature, and it worked, so cut the sentimental rubbish and lets get back to the central station."

Bardock glared with a defensive posture, "It's base camp to you scurvy merc, and I wasn't giving an order rebel, I was simply saying lets get back before the temperature drops to a hundred below, and we suffer from hypothermia, remember there's a storm heading this way. " He again stated the obvious since they were in Antarctica, and feeling temperature drop as the blizzard begun to consume the heavens above.

"…And, you're just now figuring that out, I do wonder what gave it away…" scowled Vegeta sarcastically noticing the heavy snowfall that was increasingly surrounding the area.

"Oh screw you Vegeta!" he yelled over the increasing thick snow, which was blocking his voice waves. Bardock was pissed with his putrid attitude; Vegeta gave him a vicious arrogant gawp, staring dominantly at the taller man through the snow. Both men were covered in snowflakes, radically attaching to their hair, in addition, facial hair covering them in snow white, blending them in with the snowy blizzard. Looking in retrospect, the animal carcass on the ground was nearly buried in the snow. Bardock gazed evenly into the demanding man's eyes that had been covered in frosty white giving him a chilling look, Vegeta then snarled as Bardock twitched from intimidation.

Both snow covered men knocked-off their childish game of dominance, and rushed swiftly back to the station through the cold thickened snow, with each step obliterating the snow that covered them splashing through the snow banks. The dark blue horizon giving way to night, fluffy snow clouds overshadowing governing the skies with snow.

Unexpectedly, Vegeta took an eerie moment to glance at the nearly buried creature in white, analyzing it in the intellect… it was strange that an animal was able to survive out in this harsh climate; and the fact that he had never witness an animal so deformed in his life, this was not a dog… it was something else.

The hazy blizzard was beginning to interfere with their vision, making the focus indistinctively hoary; to remedy this snow glare, Vegeta concentrated on the task at hand lighting another flare melting some snow and showing the path with clarity, Bardock waited for Vegeta. In addition, Vegeta and Bardock had already made an path in advance of illumination with snow lights, accurate to landing lights to lead them back to base camp, this artic hell was a vast one, anyone could easily get lost in the snowy abyss without these helpful tools.

~*~*~

Zarbon smoothed back his mellifluous silky green hair; he lethargically looked tiredly at Bulma's group, sighing from provocation, they were all in the sitting in his kitchen, waiting for the briefing, drinking their coffee, and some had alcoholic fluid to keep themselves warm in the low-temperature climate.

He exhales boisterously noisy, heaving a crude sigh, and looked boorishly at the impatient garlanded aqua haired woman, "Look, we were diverted to this station; we were supposed to go to the C.C. Norwegian site, but under the circumstance we were forced to come back here to the central site, which we now recognize as base camp. We were restricted by operatives from that area, so we are now currently subdued, snowbound to this particular area. That is why your father told you to come to this division instead of our primary site, however, we also decided that that area was the strong hold for the basis in the initial report corresponded to your father, basically ground zero of the mutiny uprising. Nevertheless, we cannot embark on that territory without having the proper credentials showing authentic authority, and that's where you come in ... moving on.

In the process of relocating here we encountered two lone Norwegians operatives flying in a helicopter, we assumed them antagonistic, retaliating for breaching their jurisdictions, but by this time, we were on neutral ground. Furthermore, with further and more thorough inquiry showed that they were not after us at all. It seemed as if they trying to assassinate a dog with one of their assault rifles from above, chasing down the Siberian Husky to our compound, it seemed the animal alluded them for quite some time to travel in a copter with that great of a distance."

"A dog! What the hell, were they mad?" asked Bulma, completely taken aback by this shocking discovery.

Zarbon looked at her in agreement, smoothing back his hair sternly his looks became grave, "Yes, primarily that's what we thought, however, the chopper stopped and made a halting stop to the ground. By this time, we were all out scrutinizing the thunderous racket of heavy gunfire; we watched diligently as the frightened animal ran past us for protection it would seem. They jumped out of the chopper hostilely geared for war to kill that dog! The docile Husky ran inside our station, while we tried to rationalize the forceful trigger-happy duo. …

However, those two men were deaf to reason, and madly charge forward with hand grenades, it was evident they came to destroy that dog, and possibly us, maybe anything in sight! We had no choice but to go on the offensive, and as luck would have it, they had mistakenly dropped one hand grenade resulting in blowing up their own chopper along with one of the Norwegians.

If it seems intense it is because it was; these were extreme impulsive measures those Norwegians took, very desperate. However, one survived, spouting gibberish like a berserker, mad with frustration that no one could understand his foreign language, at least not at the pace he was exhausting.

He raged getting more perturbed by the minute; he began pointing his weapon as he argued portentously; while me, and my men were trying to understand what was going on. Hectically, at that moment in time we were unarmed and completely to the mercy of this crazed man. Then out of nowhere he shot at us with his AKS-74u assault rifle going 30 rounds per magazine, thus resulting in injuring one of our own. He aggressively moved passed us to kill the dog, shooting compulsory erratic, where as, the dog seemed to be running in understandable fear, it was then that the Norwegian was the one who seemed feral. Anyway, our hired marksmen killed the crazed Norwegian with an M4 assault rifle He was forced to assassinate the assailant, he was simply unmanageable, which was fatally dangerous." He said with stern golden gaze that flickered when he blinked his eyes.

"Like your soldier Tien… Hmn… this is strange. Do you think they were the ones to sabotage everything?" she asked, looking harshly at the third command.

"…No, that would almost be too easy, the sky raiders came when we were already settled in here, like I said they were chasing that animal, crossing over their own jurisdiction. It was all too curious…" He said with a bit of frustration, it would seem that Zarbon didn't know too much, and he is irritated by that fact, he turned abruptly at Bulma, as she continued her inquisition.

"You guys hired a marksmen, why?" asked Bulma, she was engrossed as to why "The Great Zarbon" would stoup so low as to hire a renegade for his mission.

Zarbon's eyebrows hike given the impression of irony, "That's a good question, here's a reasonable answer. He's a mercenary, you know the lonely sinister mysterious unsavory types that are usually deeply disturbed, and he has no social life outside of killing. Yes, and the typical mark of a merc…he only works for money... very cold man. He keeps a low profile, keeping covertly to himself most of the time. He made it clear to us he has no loyalties… he let one of my solders die by not helping us defend our position, believe me when I say it was not my idea to hire that man… he gives me the chills he just … that dead look in is eyes... He just showed up at the dispatching command post when we were on our way to this outpost, and my commander-in-chief ordered me to have him escort us on our mission, the General gave no explanation for this action, just said it was privileged information; you ask me he was interfering, but hey I'm just a soldier. He doesn't talk much or associate well with the crew, we still don't know why he's here, but orders are orders. And us lowly soldiers must follow those orders." He said with a distressed annoyed tone, looking down for something to drink.

"Okay, now why are you here instead of our primary station, and explain it with specifications?" she asked wanting a little more detail

"Simply put we are investigating. As I stated before we were restricted, but in a joint agreement we were allowed to leave a few scouts to guard over the area, which was orchestrated by that merc… doing so, begrudgingly, we left some men back at the previous station. I know with the credentials we did have they should had let us through, however they were on high alert status and it just was sufficient to allow access. We have know way of knowing the troubles at that post, the sentry guard kept the reasons for the high alert concealed, we were out of our league.

On a mysterious note; we have been out of contact with bravo team for sometime; as of yet we can't figure what severed communications as bad as they are, nevertheless, we assumed them casualties as well. I know what your thinking, but you haven't been out here as long as we have. We are the only facility with power other then ground zero, also there was no need to retrace back to the compound, for the were no doubt that the men were dead from overexposure. The sentry at the ground zero tower made it clear that we were on our own no matter the circumstances they wouldn't aid us, also there was no way we could have gone back anyway, our only copter malfunctioned, and we didn't have the supply parts to fix it." He stated assumingly, recollecting his blunder of a mission.

"Wait, wait, wait… I'm confused, first why did you leave your soldiers in the cold?"

Zarbon scowled with abundance," How dare you accuse me of such a thing, we didn't leave them there with no electricity the station that was provided to us was fully functional at the time… it was when we left the problems started to occur."

" Uh, huh, like what, plus how do you know if they were out of power, you said you communications were shot?" asked Bulma, Zarbon story was full of holes.

"I said it's been a week since we last spoke, before the Bravo team claimed that the equipment was insufficient and… and that the generator was busted, they asked for assistance from the sentry jerks, but received no compliance… they were going to die…"

"What? You left them to die! Why?" Bulma asked the commander, shocked by his cruel methods, and his stupidity.

Zarbon slammed the table in defiance, "We had no choice, and if we went back without proper authorization they claimed they would shoot to kill. It would look like we were invaders just trying to gatecrash, it wasn't risk I was willing to make, and it was my decision to leave them out there there were too many odds against us going in. In addition, our equipment wasn't operational either it would have been suicidal. I told them to go on foot to this site and that we would meet them halfway… but they never showed up… there's no way they could have survived this long out here. We came back and awaited your arrival… then the Norwegians… then Tien…"

"I see, so what have you found here?" Bulma smiled to herself, seeing that Zarbon was suffering from failure after failure, he was stupid to part his squad in this forsaken cold hell.

"We couldn't find anything solid, our merc is working on the video equipment, I don't know if he understands Norwegian, or just hiding the fact that he does, because we found documents written in their language, but as of yet we can't decipher the text."

" It seems to me you're having this boy do all your work, and you're coming up with nothing! You should be ashamed allowing that militant merc with so much lead-way. Just let Bulma have a look at the text," said commander Roshi, ridiculing Zarbon's poor decisions, standing above him in judgment the group that consisted of both teams watch on with interest.

Zarbon made a guilty face, and sighed. "Too late, the merc destroyed them after examining the context, he said it was all gibberish, political jargon, and had no significance what so ever on our objective."

Bulma was confounded by Zarbon's action, what was he thinking, "And you just let him? Zarbon, it might not be on his objectives, but it could have certainly been on yours! Colonel Roshi is right, you gave this man too much power over military operations! He can't tell you what to do; he has no rank over you regardless of what a general commands he can't authorize a merc to command militarily soldiers, and officers! There's no exception to this rule what's wrong with you? Such behavior should not go unpunished, you are part of the military actually a high ranking officer, you do not let a mere merc intimidate you!" said Bulma, very disappointed to see just how neophyte his directive orderliness was, total greenhorn really pathetic, she was really embarrassed now for ever dating him.

Zarbon was indignant, how dare they question his judgment, he earned this commanding position. "I didn't let him do anything! When I question him on the text, he had told me he had already disposed of it; there was nothing I could do! He does every thing behind our back and we are forced to deal with consequences. Look, we couldn't understand the document anyway, and if he thought it had no relevance who am I to argue, I had no clue what was written, and in some ways I agree with his decision it was just paper." He said trying to justify his miscalculation, and inaccuracy in his authoritative position.

"How amateurish Zarbon, you never were the one to be responsible, maintaining plausible denial, really a novice the direst approach of being guilty, so many excuses yet, in all this time you don't have anything to tell us, only what has transpired in front of your face! What have you been doing here, this is pathetic, so hopelessly inept losing all those soldiers in 6 months!" scolded Bulma angrily, mainly because Zarbon did not deserve his position, it was clear he was being lazy the whole 6-months he and his men were out there and accomplished nothing.

Bulma turned to Zarbon suddenly, sniffing the air peculiarly. " (Sniff…sniff) Can you smell that?"

Zarbon looked on confused, "What? I don't smell a thing."

"Yes, it's so strong… you can't smell that! It's coming from your direction" she spoke earnestly.

Zarbon began to feel self-conscious, "Are you trying to intimidate me commander? I stated previously that I smell nothing; I am… however curious to know what you think you smell in my direction.

"Ah yes, that's it the smell… of impudence. Yes, it grows strong with your tyro novice like ways. You are as predictable as your jaded outlook, you are so cynical it's contemptuous."

"Yeah, but you were swindled by this contemptible amateur. So I ask, what exactly does that make you!" he said with mockery, diverting the negative attention away from him, and it worked as his solders his soldiers chuckled with scorn. " I suppose lower then a rat and that would be a mouse, take your pick I gather the rat category is always up for grabs!"

"Zarbon, enough of your unprincipled, insurrectional behavior, in case you forgot your training I am your senior officer, and you will address me as such! Unless you wish to be brought up on insubordination charges, and properly demoted which you should be." condemned Bulma strictly, she was sick and tired of the lack of respect she has been receiving lately.

Zarbon sneered, "Yes, ma'am!"

"It's sir, you address me as sir, learn your military adequate. Now onto matters that are more important, like, what went wrong with the military scientist, and technicians. What about the uprising, and who committed mutiny, and was there anyone left alive? You initially were supposed to investigate that situation." She said snidely.

" Those were not my orders to investigate, we are simply here for briefing and making quick observations, and you've been briefed our mission and your mission objective is complete, "stated Zarbon, as he reclined lethargically in his chair, with his military boots in the air.

" You haven't briefed me on anything about the revolt the whole purpose of your mission, all you told me of is of your constant failures. Honestly, soldier this only proves your incompetence you were supposed to brief us on the recalcitrance problem a little investigation was the purpose of your mission. You were supposed to observe and report yet you tell me nothing of that particular situation. Also what the hell were you doing in the Norwegian quadrant without your credentials, believe me if you had all your credentials on hand even in alert status you should have been able to bypass security check point… you lost them didn't you?" Bulma said skeptically, he was hiding something.

He sighed with admittance, "… I was never given the authorization, Bulma. I was told you would supply us with that… when we did search… we didn't find anything, no bodies, documents, nothing. Something is not right with the mission… that is becoming clear it's far too many obstacles even for simplest task. Anyway, this place was in shambles, shredded files, half of the facility was burned to ashes when we arrived here in the beginning… it was barely livable. It appears to be an arson produced fire that is the only thing we gathered. It seems that they set this place on fire for the purpose of I think rebellion! What we gathered from the two sites we concluded that both sites were infected by this mess, this one, and ground zero… what I didn't mention before was the other side of this compound was set ablaze! Moreover, it was classified a purposeful fire, one with the mind set of shutting us down; this was done after we reached Norwegian checkpoint. Therefore, in conclusion, this facility has been attacked twice, but separately at distant times, we have no further inquiry on this predicament… but we are looking into it and, taking precautions! " Zarbon clarified, as he defended.

" Ugh, Whatever. Who made this guesstimate; your soldiers I presume are not fire specialists investigators or engineers? I mean no disrespect, but it seems suspicious to me that you can make that assumption without having a engineer, or someone with fire or arson expertise." She demeaned the commander, and his team. Zarbon's squad were increasingly becoming miffed with her attitude; with prejudice, she was only pointing out their flaws, and not giving them any chance to defend.

"I made those estimations commander," said Vegeta abruptly intervening in the conversation, and with him accompanied Bardock; the rival military group turned to the expected newcomers. Turles and Goku nodded to their father, Vegeta looked down at the firebrand woman, almost as if he recognized her. He then turned his ominous black eyes toward the two Bardock doppelgangers. * Oh, god they multiply… three annoying carrot-tops… this is why cloning should be forbidding… an inescapable nightmare…* he tore his eyes away from the twins, he noted the shorted haired one had the look of jealousy in his eyes, he wondered who he had affection for, he then looked at Zarbon as the blue man spoke.

Zarbon looked up at the sly devil, with finger to his temple as if easing a headache, "Ah Bardock, and the blatant vilifying insurrectionist… It's about time, what took so long." He inquired.

"Awe it seems we are still upset set about your recklessness during battle, funny you should infringe your guilt to blame me for your failures… spineless, a true soldier see his faults and learns to correct them and as a leader you have to take responsibility for your own actions commander, your strategy is terrible. It's easy to blame when you are guilty, it's always the best escape route when you can't handle a situation, which you have proved time and time again, need I go on, or are we done here, Zarbon" Vegeta spoke with a hint of mockery, yet kept himself composed, and calm it was scary.

Zarbon frowned his brow, "How dare you, you were supposed to fight along side not sit there and watch us die!"

"There you go again, blaming your failures on me… Shame one you, I'm practically a civilian out here I'm not one of your entourage, and I don't work for free… want me to lend a hand you pay." He said nonchalantly indicating even if Zarbon did pay him he still would not have helped him, it would most likely compromise whatever he was sent out here to do.

Zarbon grunted, and sat back down "I suppose I can't argue with a reject such as yourself… I suppose we should pity you then to ask for your assistance… indeed what was I thinking." He glanced back at Vegeta with a cunning derisive mocking expression.

Vegeta chuckled darkly, which baffled Zarbon, "Indeed what were you thinking… asking a merc for help, how sad, I think the pity lies with you. Hmn…" Vegeta turned suddenly as Bardock approached his commander.

Bardock saluted to his superior and spoke solemnly, " Sir, lieutenant Bardock sir reporting on the generation situation, sir! We ran into a bit of trouble; a wild husky I believe, was set loose, and nearly tore my neck to pieces, but thanks to Vegeta here he saved my neck, literally!" spoke Bardock candidly, rubbing his neck, looking at his relieved sons.

"Dad… I mean, LT Bardock Sauerkraut, were you injured!" asked Goku earnestly, and Turles pretended not to care.

Bardock nodded to his innocent son… the boy was rather stupid at times… but he loved him anyways, "No, private Kakarot… I was saved by this unsavory drifter next to me."

"Ah dad I'm a specialist 6, Turles is the private 1st class! Is that the guy who saved you?" asked Goku, and then smiled at Vegeta who snarled with disgust.

Vegeta turned his head away from Goku to Zarbon as he spoke, "I'm in your doubt rebel man, " said Zarbon eying the mysterious untamed man.

"Save it for someone who gives a shit." He said rudely with distained, his lip curled repulsed by the formality with Zarbon's troop and Bulma's; he never gave any impression that he excepted gratitude, period, and he hated all the attention that was focused on him at the moment, especially that goofy soldier who kept smiling at him. Vegeta glared daggers at Goku, and he uncomfortably frowned.

Bulma took the time to observe the quick tempered snippy man, "You made those guesstimates, are you qualified to do so?" she challenged snobbery, doubted his proficient dexterity... he just looked like one of those rugged macho shit heads, who thought they knew everything, but usually didn't know what the hell they were talking about.

Vegeta looked at her sharply, and squinted his eyes in resentment as if he knew what she was thinking, "Any one with a half brain could tell that this was a intentional, deliberate, combustible fire, set on obliterating any means of energy, meaning obsolescing the essentials one needs to survive in this cold hellhole, making the climate terminal. The heat energy and the gas line had ruptured too, causing irreversible damage. It wasn't faulty wiring, or any other electronic shortcoming, such as malfunctioning circuitry or surges, this fire was deliberately designed to entrap all who enters in this cold grave. It's not guesstimates commander rather factual estimations, don't presume to demean my intelligence because you have issues with… sissy leadership, honestly you should try to keep this more professional."

Bulma glared at him, "What how dare you, I judging by the company you keep! I don't feel you have any military authority and I will treat as I see fit, you misfit of orderly conduct. What evidence did you find to support your theories, merc?" She asked sarcastically.

Vegeta shrugged his shoulders indifferently, " Humph so defensive there were remnants of kerosene, and gas fuel spattered everywhere the walls literally absorbed the petroleum leaving a distinct case of purposeful arson, importantly not everything was destroyed as you see we still have electricity, which mean the culprit was careless. I took samples of the petroleum stains to verify my suspicions, and analyzed the chemicals to coincide with my calculations approximately to a staggering 99.4 percent that this was not an accident. We arrived here after leaving the Bravo team at the temporary military facility, which is called bivouac, and as fate saw fit just in time before the complex was completely engulfed by flame we arrived to extinguish it. However, this side of the facility was never in any danger we later found out looking at the blue prints of this foundation proves that the builder of the complex made sure to construct this building for such disasters as combustible explosions, built to perfection keeping the fire in, trapping it within the confines of the fortifications, a real firewall... I'm certain this dose not come to a complete shock to you…commander. The generator also suffered minor damage… but not by fire someone systematically tampered with the core, however nothing that was permanent, and as a precaution it is now under surveillance." he said with brazen confidence.

"I see, Zarbon tells me that you destroyed the Norwegian documents, why?" she inquired the ruggedly attractive man.

"Oh those, the documents we pilfered from the check point leading to ground zero… I see by your sour expression, Zarbon didn't fill you in on the elaborate details. I trashed them because I felt them utterly useless. (Sighs) As I stated to Zarbon, it was only was political jargon, they wanted more money from your prosperous father Miss. Briefs. To continue their research of what is unimportant; then the next day we were confronted by two raiders in the sky… I'm sure… the experienced Zarbon informed you of such matters," He said with a willful taunting tongue, exposing a hidden truth.

"I haven't introduced myself, merc. How do you know who I am?" She stared taken aback, and suspicious of his intent, he looked like someone who knew how to play the game of wits.

"I think I'm done with answering your churlish questions... they insult me to begin with, ha see ya around." He glared sullenly, and left.

~*~*~

Bulma was unnerved, "Zarbon, did you tell him about me or something?"

Zarbon was confused; as well, this guy was too much, "No, I told him nothing about you…strange…"

She looked at his retreat, she got up to follow him, but by hand on her own stopped her, "Zarbon, let me go!" she said offended by the nerve of him touching her as if she was his.

He peered over to her while sitting, igniting a confidentiality conversation; he squinted with awareness, causing a liquefied glimmer in his golden eyes, like a setting sun. "He won't tell you anything, you'll just be wasting time. He's a rebel a military insurrectionist, he doesn't tell anyone anything. I think he's a spy," He whispered warningly.

"Humph, I'll go see for myself, and it would seem in the past you were being ordered by this insurrectionist… what does that say about you?! Besides, it beats just waiting out the storm with you stupid ass!" she snapped and wrenched her hand free. Turles and the other members of Bulma's squad begun to follow. "No, you guys wait here, he might be intimated by an army." She said calculative.

Turles snarled, "So what, we bow down to rebels now; we don't know anything about this group, and…" he trailed off because of her expression.

"Exactly, we don't know anything, and that is why I'm pursuing this lead, stay here, it's not a request." She said strictly, the soldiers reluctantly surrendered. Bulma took off after Vegeta.

Zarbon glared at her retreat, even though it's been years since they last dated, he still had feelings for her; more like a possessive control. "Fool, she's making a mistake that is not rectifiable... even I know better then to dance with the devil."

~*~*~

Vegeta retreated to his room; he was tired and hadn't slept for days. He began removing his clothing to take a shower, it wasn't until his shirt was removed he heard footsteps outside his door.

"Ah, Miss Briefs come to chat... typical." He said knowingly and discarded his shirt, leaving it on the floor."

Bulma came in causing a reclamation of shock by the half naked man's bruised torso; he had many battle scars all over his body. " I see you get around." she smarted.

"Humph, that I do. I suppose you came here for a reason, without sounding boorishly cliché… for answers I presume... predictable " He said tiredly.

"My, we don't beat around the bush do we?" she cocked her head to the side cunningly.

"No, I suppose not, but if you want me to be blunt. I'm tired, and you military brats bore me to tears, now ask away so that I might get a shower before I fall into a cold coma of languor."

"Fine. How do you know of me?" she asked.

He grinned slyly, avoiding eye contact, "Hmm…the answer is simple really, however we are on a need to know basis, and I don't think you need to know." He said finally looking at her with a Machiavellian glint in his eyes.

"What?" she said startled, very uncomfortable with his secrecy.

He chortled deeply, his Adam's apple bobbing resoundingly low; he sneered with a deceitful gawp, "Not to worry, I'm not here to cause any harm to you, just the opposite my obliging amiable charming soldier brat. You can consider me you temporary sentient guardian."

"Why just temporary?" she asked annoyed.

"We all have are orders do we not, that is all you need to know riffraff is that I'm here to oversee your actions and safeguard you and your group… to be your lookout sort to speak, for the time being you have two pairs of supportive beneficial hands… my hands." He said with a distant formality, his words held a hidden agenda, as if he was saying what she wanted to hear, however he held no emotions in those comforting words, void of feeling, which again made her ill at ease of his intentions.

"I see, but why?" she asked untrustingly.

"That information is disclosed, now if you don't mind I would like to bathe... unless you wish to accompany me…" he looked at her blushing appalled face, "… I didn't think so," he proceeded to the bathroom.

"Wait a minute here, what do you know about this situation?" she asked regaining her composure.

He stared at her indecisively, and then he spoke candidly, " … Your getting under my skin like a chigger, I will warn you however, some people, are not what they appear to be in a manner of speaking, insinuate, anything you wish by those words... Tien is dead, you were here at the time no, tell me what happened?" he asked with an enigmatic reticent disposition.

"He killed himself; he was talking in riddles, pointing to one of the solders, recanting that he saw it. I don't know what he meant, but we decided to encroach the extremely hostile milieu, and once we penetrated the scene he opted for suicide… it was as if he didn't see any other way," she stated with a thoughtful expression.

Vegeta looked deep in contemplation, " Did he say why, I mean did he mention, why he was going to kill himself."

"As a matter of fact yes, he said that he that he wasn't going to let anyone one get to him. What did he mean by that?"

Vegeta was in a silent deliberation at first, " …I suggest to you to be on your guard from now on, and if you so wish it you may stay in here with me, I'll sleep on the floor, believe me it's the safest place you can be, besides rooms are scarce, and we have to conserve energy."

"I don't see any harm in staying here, but I do want to know more." She ordered sternly.

" Ha, you mistake my gesture as authority to yield over me… don't make that mistake… ever. Listen closely I am your protector for the time being… not one of you're idiotic underlings, understood. I'm not at your disposal like that love sick puppy on your squad, no one orders me, especially you…" he said with a dark edge in his voice, it clearly indicated that he knew more about her then he let on. His expression change unexpectedly to a more composed positioned, " Just one question though, who did Tien point out, did you see whom he indicated?" asked Vegeta with mild relevance.

"No, he was out of his mind, crazy, nuts, his fingers shook hysterically nearly pointing at everyone!" she exclaimed explaining the actions with her hands. She looked at him as she remembered his words earlier, "You, insulted me by calling on of my colleagues a love sick puppy, there's no such soldier, we are all professionals." She said with dignity holding her head up high with prideful satisfaction; she gasped suddenly as the brusquely man leaned over her, entrapping her by the shoulders.

He smiled wickedly leaning over, enjoying her discomfort, " I see… very well then. You seem to be oblivious of the ones' who fancies you, including Zarbon… such naïveté`, which I admit is quite attractive… but, you are below my standards and it would be discourtesy for me to infringe on refuse… I sympathize with you." He etched in closer to her face, she gulped tensely as he continued breathing down her neck, trickling her spine, " You shouldn't lead on the desperate… it could bring calamity down on your pretty head, it would complicate my mission if your militant fanatics got out of line…" He said with a silver-tongued disquieted persuasive tone, she looked at him nervous by the familiarity of his heated embrace.

"…What, what are you doing?" she stuttered pathetically eyeing him fretfully.

He smirked as his scowl deepened; he reaching further beyond exploration, bringing his face in close intimate proximity to hers, his eyes downcast with dreamlike stupor bringing his lips closer to hers, she gasped as he reached for his towel, which was behind her head. He reclined back, his face sullen with no indication of what he was thinking; he acted nonchalantly as if nothing occurred between the two. However, Bulma was quite the opposite. It was an intimidation trick… and it worked, Vegeta was daunting her. She looked at him nervously, however sighing with relief that he didn't touch her

I'm taking my shower, when I get back you should already be situated. … A word of convivial advice from scurvy merc to an disreputable officer… stay away from Zarbon's group." He said inexplicably and closed the door to the bathroom, she could hear his bare feet slapping against the tiled floor, then heard the showerhead as it spewed out the cleansing dew.

"What did he mean?" she wondered; she then observed the room, it was spacious. Three more people could fit in here; it was also the cleanest and warmest room. "Well it looks like Chichi, Marron and Krillin will be staying here with me." She said with distrust of Vegeta's intentions he was too mysterious as such opted a group slumber party.

~*~*~

Bulma came back to her soldiers and told them what little information Vegeta divulged, she also told them that they would be staying in his quarters, but only three would be able to progress inside the room, and the rest would have to stay next door, Turles didn't like the idea of being disregard, brushed aside from her viewing.

Turles eagerly grabbed her shoulder with passion, "Sir with all do respect, I prefer to guard over you." He said forcefully.

Roshi had enough of Turles's misplaced emotions for one day, "That's enough grunt, she gave an order stop questioning it!" he said grumpily, then turned to Bulma with a desired look, " But, I will be staying with you ladies hehe, Krillin can bunk with the boys!" he said excitedly.

Everyone sighed, knowing that their chief was a perverted man, and he would often abuse his ethics and duties to be brazen and shameless pervert.

~*~*~

Yamcha walked over to 18, he knew her from school, she was part of Zarbon's group, she had a long blond ponytail with bangs laying thinly upon her forehead, beautiful piercing light baby blue eyes. She was also a medic for her squad, as such wore red and white doctors uniform.

"Well if it isn't the hypochondriac, Yamcha what brings you to this hellish place I thought you feared the ice?" she said sarcastically.

"Being a doctor I would presume you understand the stress, however, you were never brilliant in psychology…so what's it like being the only female of your group?" he said cracking his knuckles.

"A panty waste like you wouldn't understand, you're afraid of everything!" she stated frostily.

"This is quite true, but I'm brave because I desire to press on and ignore my fears, and I'm not a weakling my scars prove my battle status." He said pointing to his scarred face.

"Oh shut up! You were always such a liar, self righteous pompous doctor, I may not be a psychiatrist but one could easily put you down as a chronic charlatan, who painted scars on his face to look tough." She said smiling knowing this was going to make the uppity doctor angry, and that was funny with such a prissy doctor.

Yamcha pouted, "We last saw each other three years ago I have change I'm one with myself, Zen has taught me endurance of ignorance, I'm at peace with myself like a delicate flower's petal falling gracefully to the ground with radiant indescribable beauty, I am reborn! I accept your witty nature; it makes you beautiful, as is world that surrounds that beauty.

18 hid her chuckled for the man's indulgence, the scariest thing about the situation he was being truthful, and creepy. "Oh my god, you cannot be serious!?" she asked disbelieving.

Yamcha chuckled, "No, but I had you there for a minute haha, it's good seeing you again 18"

18 sighed with relief, "Good, for a minute I thought I would have to detain you for loosing your head, and I guess it's good seeing you again, finally gaining some humor, somebody pulled that stick strait out of your ass, but I bet you still listen to that 70's nightmare music. "

"You know it!" he said with smile she rolled her eyes, he really didn't change that much. When was he going to get with the program? The 70's died, and buried George Washington with it. Yamcha sat down next to her and just made himself comfortable.

18 mentally screamed, Yamcha was so boring, trite and corny as hell. * God, he's so corny! Just smile and pretend you're listening 18* She smiled nodding her head as he laughed at his old crusty jokes, and he went on and on with boring anecdotes. *Doesn't he ever take a breather, I don't want to hear about his bowel problems, and Oh god what a dork, he's telling that old story why he wanted to be a medic. It's the most stupidest stale clichéd story he told to everyone at least five times, he got the story off a after school special! * She complained mentally. Beside his obnoxious mouth, his looks had improved, he finally cut the long bush he called hair, he looked like an 80's rock star.

18 didn't listen to a word he said, she got up suddenly and said she need to get a tan, "Oh, Yamcha I just remembered I have to tan outside, I hate to leave you like this, but I have to go." she said quickly.

Yamcha didn't realize until afterward that they were in the Antarctica. "Well how rude, she could have decently told me she didn't want to talk!" he said hurt. (Awe…it will be okay he'll pull through he's used to it) "I'll just have a look at my filled black book and cross her name off permanently, or maybe I should try a different approach…hmn yeah, ladies can't resist a doctor's charm, smart is sexy!" he said to himself

~*~*~

When Bulma came back to the room Vegeta was nowhere to be seen, in any case, the group made themselves at home setting up their technical equipment. They had also brought portable cots; she wondered if Vegeta would mind if she added the extra company, but he should know that she had a military mind, and that trust does not come easily.

"Okay guys, lets get some rest." She said with a charismatic charge.

~*~*~

It was late in the morning when Vegeta came back, as he suspected Miss Briefs didn't trust him, so be it. Vegeta felt if she didn't trust him, she should be the one sleeping on the floor. He insipidly looked at her sleeping form; she was dress in military sweats. He observed the harmonic respiration of her chest heaving up and down. The snow from outside highlighted her facade, giving it a dynamic glow. Her skin smooth tender with creamy exotic texture, the expression of a seraph; she look so serene, he wondered if her dreams made her so at ease.

He gazed auspiciously at the stunningly gorgeous sleeping woman, to have such a gift as peaceful dreams a true sleeping beauty; he never had such dreams. He for so long had thought her attractively radiant, for so long he wanted to see her in person, just to see the one he was ordered safeguard, on the contrary he knew her from before. He should have never met with her, talked with her this would complicate things, he would have to keep his distance from her if he was to comply with his employers demands, he should have never met her, he sighed then pulled some blankets out of the storage pantry.

He made a small bed on the floor and slept next to his own bed, he was finding it rather difficult to sleep with all the snoring in the room, if he traced the snoring to a specific location, he would find it to be Roshi, and Marron. He closed his eyes dully and let the comfort of sleep take him over; he had a lot to do tomorrow.

Next on the Thing: Bulma wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. Something lurking from with in the next part of the Thing.