Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Trunks' Trial ❯ One-Shot

A Problem with Trunks

Finally, Vegeta could stand it no longer. With an irritated growl, he powered down from his ascended Super Saiyan form. When he was back to normal, he stormed over to the computer terminal and punched the intercom button.

"What is it you want?!" he shouted into the speaker. Sweat dripped down his back, making it shine in the bright lights of the gravity chamber.

"It's about time you answered me!" Bulma's voice snapped back.

Vegeta didn't even have to look at the video screen to know what kind of expression was on her face. He knew it was the same one she always got whenever he tried--usually unsuccessfully--to ignore her call signal and continue training. It was the look that said if he didn't comply with her wishes soon, there was going to be hell to pay.

"So what is it?" Vegeta stubbornly turned his back on the screen while he toweled off. "What is so important that you had to interrupt my training...again?!"

"You have to come out right now and talk to your son!" Bulma ordered.

Vegeta ground his teeth together and wrung the towel between his strong hands. When he finally got control of himself, he looked over his shoulder at Bulma's face on the screen. He was right. She looked positively livid!

"Can't you take care of it?" he said in a much calmer voice than he felt. After all, he thought, the boy was hers as well. "I'm busy."

"No!" she answered simply. When he didn't respond, she added, "If you don't turn the gravity off right now, I'm going to do it for you!"

"All right! I'm coming!" he growled and hit the off button. With the intercom off, Vegeta gave a tremendous yell to release the rest of his tension. Muscles bulged and veins popped as his voice echoed around the chamber. The very walls shook, but held up against the strong vibrations. With his breath finally spent, Vegeta was able to get himself under control and relax once more.

Vegeta realized early in their relationship that living with Bulma was more stressful than the goriest of battles. At least in battle he could use his great strength to fight against his enemy and control his destiny. With Bulma, his fight was internal, with neither his love nor irritation for her winning out over the other.

He ordered the computer to decrease gravity and it began to cycle down from the 400 level he was training at back to 1. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms as he waited, feeling lighter and lighter every second. Even though he was reluctant to cut his training short, he knew what Bulma would have done if he hadn't agreed. She had done it before.

After one of their many fights, he had reprogrammed the computer to exceed his normal 400 times gravity level and pushed himself under 450. The strain on his body forced the argument from his mind as he concentrated on just keeping from being crushed by the force. He heard the beeping of the intercom, but ignored it as he continued his pushups, sweat dripping down his face and pooling on the floor beneath him. After five minutes of beeping, Vegeta could take it no longer. With one finger, he blasted the intercom speaker to a smoking hole and went back to work.

A warning siren had wailed as Bulma cut the power to the gravity chamber. Caught suddenly without the extra pull of gravity, Vegeta sent himself crashing into the ceiling. An experience he did not wish to repeat.

"One times gravity," the computer voice called, and Vegeta grumbled all the way to the main house.

Their teenage son had a remarkable capacity of getting into all kinds of trouble. With and without Kakarot's son, Goten. Vegeta told Bulma over and over that he had too much time on his hands.

"He should be training alongside his father like a true Saiyan," he argued.

"But you train all day, every day! He is not going to grow up all muscle and no brains," Bulma shot back. "He needs to have time for school and homework. He's going to have to run Capsule Corp. one day, you know."

Vegeta lost that fight. But now, each time Bulma complained about Trunks' behavior, he took great pleasure in being proven right.

Bulma was waiting for him at the door, arms crossed and foot tapping. The scowl on her face nearly matching his.

"I'm here already!" Vegeta snapped, glaring at her. "What has he done now?"

"Let me show you," she said and led the way toward her office. She sat down at her computer and her fingers flew over the keyboard.

Vegeta stood behind her and watched over her shoulder. He hated Earth computers. They were extremely slow and limiting for his tastes. They weren't even capable of communicating with other solar systems yet.

"What are you doing?" he finally asked, impatient for her to get to the point.

"I'm accessing Trunks' computer," she told him. "I tapped into it earlier and I want to show you what's on it."

"Why not just go to his room?" Vegeta sighed.

"Because then he'll just exit out of it before we even get in the door!" Bulma said with a roll of her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder if you understand teenagers at all!"

Vegeta just growled. Of course he didn't understand teenagers! He couldn't even understand her most of the time! The only thing he wanted to understand was getting stronger.

"There!" Bulma exclaimed triumphantly. "See what your son is watching on his computer?!" She gestured angrily to the computer and slid her chair back.

Vegeta leaned closer to examine the screen. On it, computer generated women paraded back and forth. Vegeta's eyes widened as the characters began removing their clothing, one sheer layer at a time, as they danced rapidly to unheard music.

"Do you see what I mean?" Bulma demanded.

"I see," Vegeta answered absently. His attention was taken by the women who were now nearly naked, their bodies gyrating and turning to better display every inch of exposed flesh.

"Vegeta!" Bulma shouted and hit him hard in the shoulder to get his attention away from the screen.

"What?" he asked, reluctantly tearing his eyes from the computerized beauties.

"Don't you think you should talk to Trunks about this?"

"Why?" he asked, with a sarcastic smile. "Do you think he knows something I don't?"

"Vegeta! Be serious!" Bulma yelled in exasperation. "Our teenage son is looking at smut on the computer!"

"And your point being...?" Vegeta's eyes strayed back to the screen where the women were now doing a slower, more sensual dance.

"My point is that Trunks should not be looking at this sort of trash!" Bulma said and reached to turn off the computer. Vegeta grabbed her hand and held it inches above its destination.

"Not so fast. Something is happening."

The women faded away and a man's face appeared. His mouth moved, but they could not hear what he was saying.

"What is he saying? Can't you get sound on this thing?" Vegeta asked, releasing her hand and searching the monitor for a volume button.

"This computer isn't really logged onto the site," Bulma explained. "It is more like looking through a window at Trunks' computer."

"So what good is it?" he sniffed. All he wanted to do was get back to the gravity chamber. Toying with technology he left to Bulma and Trunks.

"Vegeta! You are still missing the point!" she said and threw up her hands in exasperation.

"I don't see what the problem is," he said.

"Your son is too young to be looking at this filth!" Bulma tried once again to reach the off button, but Vegeta held her back again. The man's face had disappeared and the screen now showed silhouettes of couples dancing tightly together. Despite their closeness, they were able to move in perfect rhythm, their bodies undulating as one.

"He is old enough to mate," Vegeta pointed out.

"He is not!" Bulma argued. "He's only fifteen!"

"By Saiyan standards he would be considered an adult years ago." He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall watching the shapes on the screen change colors and patterns.

"Here on Earth, he is still a child! Fifteen is much to young to...'mate'," she said with slight difficulty. "And too young to be looking at stuff like that! You have got to tell him that this kind of thing is unacceptable at his age!"

"You know this wouldn't be a problem if he were training with me instead of wasting time up in his room," Vegeta said as he walked past her toward the door.

"Where are you going?" she demanded.

"To talk to the boy, of course," Vegeta said over his shoulder. "Isn't that what you made me give up training time for? The quicker I get this over with, the quicker I can get back to work."

Bulma smiled happily and followed him up to their son's room. Vegeta tried the handle, but the door was locked. He frowned at the knob in his hand, not liking the significance of it. If he felt he had to lock them out, maybe he really was doing something he wasn’t supposed to. Bulma reached over and knocked on the door.

"We have to allow him some privacy," she explained with a blush. "I mean we just can't go barging in on him."

"Why not?!" Vegeta demanded.

When the door was not answered within ten seconds, he twisted the knob and shoved. The door gave an angry groan before it broke free, the wood splintering around the lock. With a smug look of satisfaction, Vegeta entered his son's room.

Trunks' bedroom had always disgusted Vegeta. He had been brought up to believe that a sleeping space was for sleep...and only sleep. But here -- various furnishings and gadgets were crammed into the room, discarded clothing was strewn everywhere, the walls were covered with posters of all sizes and types. Everywhere he looked was total chaos.

"How can anyone sleep in such a mess?!" Vegeta said with obvious distaste.

"Oh, Vegeta, this is normal for a teenager," Bulma started to explain. When Vegeta glared at her, she wisely closed her mouth.

Trunks was nowhere to be seen among the clutter. They picked their way over to the desk the computer was sitting on. The screen was still showing the computer generated dancers, but there was no sound accompanying them.

Vegeta scowled and looked to Bulma for an explanation. Bulma simply pointed to a cord that sprouted from the computer.

"He's got headphones on," she said. "That's why he didn't hear us. We find the end of the cord, we'll find him."

Bulma began picking through the mess to follow the ridiculously long cord. Vegeta rolled his eyes at her and simply grabbed the cord. With one swift jerk, the headphones at the other end came sailing across the room.

"Hey! I was..." Trunks yelled as he stood up from the other side of a cluttered sofa. When he saw that it was his father holding the other end of the cord, he abruptly changed his tone. "Sorry. I didn't know it was you," he said meekly and rubbed his sore ears.

"Obviously," Vegeta muttered. A change in the computer screen caught his attention. It now showed a group of boys jumping, kicking, and spinning in the middle of a crowd of people. "What are you listening to, anyway?"

Vegeta yanked the headphone cord from the computer. A blast of music, screeching and pounding, issued from every corner of the room. The two adults winced and tried to block out the noise by covering their ears. Trunks deftly vaulted over the back of the sofa and grabbed a remote control from the desk. With a press of a button, the room went blessedly quiet once more.

"What the hell was that?!" Vegeta yelled angrily, his ears still ringing.

"Um...just some music I was listening to," Trunks explained. "I just got the disk yesterday. The music is good, but the videos stink." He handed his mother the case.

"It was...a disk?" Vegeta asked through clenched teeth, glaring at Bulma.

"Why was it so loud?" Bulma asked, trying to ignore Vegeta's irritation at her.

"I wired the computer into my stereo speakers," he said, pointing to the half dozen black boxes affixed near the ceiling all around the room. "I guess with the volume control on my headphones I didn't realize just how loud it was set."

"So what...were you doing?" Bulma asked, trying to sound casual. "I mean, besides listening to music."

Trunks led the way over to the sofa, which was covered with books and papers. He picked up a thick workbook and held it out for Bulma's inspection.

"I was just working on homework," he said with a smile. "I'm almost done with the unit. We'll be having a big test on it next week."

"Oh," Bulma said looking over his work with forced interest. She could almost feel Vegeta's stare burning into the back of her head. "Well then, we should just let you get back to it."

Vegeta was upset at Bulma for disrupting his training for no apparent reason and Bulma was embarrassed that she had accused Trunks of watching hentai material. They had just reached the the hallway when Trunks called after them.

"Wait a minute. Did you need me for something?" Just then he noticed his broken door. "What happened to my door?" he wailed. Vegeta paused, but kept his back to Trunks.

"I don't like locks," he growled and continued down the steps.

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Trunks waited until he heard the hum of the gravity chamber start up again before he let out a sigh of relief. He then softly closed his door as best he could and returned to his computer. He replaced the headphones on his ears and plugged the cord back in before undoing the mute feature on the speakers. The music played for only a few seconds before abruptly stopping in the middle of a song. The video also disappeared, revealing layer upon layer of open windows on the screen.

He flipped through the windows -- some internet sites, some instant messages, some chat rooms -- until he came to one that showed an extremely messy bedroom. He reached up and readjusted his webcam until his face was centered in the picture.

"So you see," he spoke into the microphone, "it works like a charm. The program instantly detected that my computer was being tapped into and booted up the safety feature. I chose a disk with hot videos on purpose, knowing they would come running. When they did, the sensor I placed on the stairway alerted me by raising the volume, giving me plenty of time to prepare for them. Then, as soon as the computer was secure again, the safety feature shut off and returned me to my previous screens. No logging off, no exiting, no canceling downloads."

Trunks flipped through the windows again until he came to an internet site. 'TUGS' was written in yellow letters on a black background. He clicked on the icon and the letters expanded into the words 'Trunk's UnderGround Sanctuary'.

"So what do you say?" he continued, smiling broadly at the webcam. "Isn't it worth 2000 zennie to ensure your privacy, allowing you to use your computer the way you want to?"

He scrolled down to a white box labeled 'Orders Placed'. He threw back his head and laughed as the numbers flickered so fast he couldn't even read the accumulating total.