90A/N: Yep, after months and months of not doing ANYTHING involving fanfiction, I've decided to finally start posting this. Enjoy, and review please!
Disclaimer: Vegeta, Bulma, and the entire DBZ universe pretty much belong to Akira Toriyama. Fans like myself borrow these ideas from time to time for non-profit fun!
Chapter One: Prison Gates
"Five months," muttered the muscular man. It had been five whole months since his world had been shaken. Flipped. Turned upside down. Life had gone from the same, meaningless, murderous drill under Frieza to an exhausting, ceaseless, fruitless journey on Earth.
Five months. And everything changed.
Kakarot had returned after a year's absence, in space, doing absolutely nothing but gaining one new hat trick and idiotic articles of clothing. He had spent nearly a year searching for him, training, killing all those who reminded him of the slavery he had once been in. Had anything come of all this training?
No.
Standing in the solitude of the tall, round capsule allowed him the "thinking time" that he would not have otherwise granted himself in space. The pressure of the gravity let him do simple strength training exercises, without worrying about accidentally killing himself.
Heh.
As appealing as it was to leave the back-water planet that he now labeled as "place of residence", he knew that he wouldn't get the treatment properly due to someone of his status. The old man and idiotic blonde catered to his every need. Good. The loud-mouthed, vulgar brat at least feared him enough to leave him be. Even better.
So what was it that was bothering him?
Frieza had been killed. Kakarot, though his close presence angered the Prince to no end, proved to be some comfort. At least he knew where the buffoon would be when it came time to make good on his promise for their second battle. And yet, no matter what reassuring event came to light in his mind, he couldn't help shake the feeling that he was doomed. Something was wrong, or, would be wrong. Would he ever figure it out?
Probably not. Things such as these had always eluded the Prince, vexing as it may be. Shrugging, he returned to his normal training regimen, upping the gravity from 150 times Earth's normal gravity to 250. Why play around? Why waste time? If he was doomed for something, then hell, he was going out with a bang. And only one bang would work at this moment…his goal of ascension.
To be the legendary Super Saiya-jin that he had been born to be. To win. To reclaim his throne. With a smirk, he attacked the bots that the blue-haired wench had built.
Nothing would stand in his way. Ever!
The heaviest sigh in the history of the universe resonated through the large, metal room she sat in. Yamcha was off playing baseball somewhere, and she found herself hopelessly bored. Well, maybe not hopelessly bored. She entertained her mind with various thoughts of killing the not-so-recently revived warrior. Tonight, just as three other nights during the same week, would be spent alone.
Again, he had "conveniently" forgotten about this date too. Bastard.
She would not be so forgiving this time. Despite the fact that their relationship had moved towards a much more positive direction after his revival, things had instantly soured in the past month. It was almost as if they were starting at square one all over again. And she didn't like it, not one bit.
Bulma huffed, snatching her coffee mug off of her desk and set her course towards the kitchen. She couldn't help but feel rejected. Life had, in essence, returned to nearly normal. For the first time in nearly two years, they could live in peace. There was no random "would-be-rulers-of-the-universe" frantically flying to the planet. Nor were there any warrior aliens chugging towards here with all of their stupid brute strength.
Yep, things were boring.
Oh, it wasn't that she minded the peace. It really was a welcome relief. Just that things had gone from frighteningly-exciting to excruciatingly-dull in one day. One day! The blue-haired scientist paused in front of the coffee machine, deciding if she really should reach for another cup and head back to her lab, or skip the coffee and take the rest of the day off.
"Oh screw it!" she sighed, placing the mug in the sink. What was the use in tinkering with already perfected prototypes? She would just have to wait for the stupid monkey Prince to blow up the new set of bots, and then he could test these. The cycle would continue on into an endless drone until one of them died.
She plopped down in front of the couch, thumbing through a magazine she had already read twice, and tossing it to the side. Slouching down in her seat, she began to chastise herself for acting so un-lady like, but there was no one to be pretty for anyway, so she quickly forgave herself.
"Bulma dear!" exclaimed her mother. "What are you doing in on a Friday night? Why aren't you out with Yamcha?"
Bulma crossed her arms over her chest and glared out the window. "He's out playing baseball! Can you believe that mom? Oooo, when he gets home I'll kill him!"
Bunny only giggled, placing a glass of lemonade next to the disgruntled beauty. "You shouldn't be so hard on him. I'm sure he wants to have fun!"
A blue eyebrow twitched as Bulma turned to face her mother. "What? What about me! I wanna have fun too. But noooo, I'm stuck in the house, fixing Vegeta's toys!"
"Oh," Bunny placed a hand to her cheek. "Is Vegeta alright? I don't think he came in for lunch earlier!" Bulma shrugged, flipping on the TV and stealing a sip from her glass. "Darned if I know. You know he never comes out of that capsule except to sleep, eat, and shower."
Her father appeared in the doorway to the hall, petting the kitty that was securely perched on his shoulder. "Well, you have to admire that boy. He shows so much dedication to his work!" Bulma quirked an eyebrow. "I find it hard to admire anyone who's only goal in life is to be stronger than someone else so he can pound them into the ground."
A slight chuckle startled the other three in the room. Scratch, the usually attached kitty, hopped off of the doctor's shoulder and walked towards the half-naked man in the kitchen doorway. "Admire me, do you?"
Bulma stuck her nose in the air, regarding him with a side-ways glance. "Hardly. Is it time to feed you already? I'm surprised you're out of that room this early."
Vegeta merely offered a glare as he picked up the mewling cat. "Why yes, it is time to feed me. I require food now," he demanded, offering a more pointed glare at the blonde-haired woman. "And you," his dark eyes shifted to Bulma. "I need more training bots. The last set you made could not keep up with me." He deposited the cat on the back of the couch, startling the old man and harpy wench.
His smirk deepened as the woman's father went on to explain that there would be an upgrade for the GR in a few days. "I barely have time to keep up with you, son! Perhaps I'll have to either hand the other projects to Bulma, or give her charge over your training equipment."
"WHAT!" screeched Bulma, shooting up from her seat. "I refuse to play slave-woman to this impudent ape! I'd rather take the other company projects anyway." Dr. Briefs chuckled, patting his daughter's arm as he replaced the cat back on his shoulder. "Now dear, I think you would do a much better job with Vegeta's equipment. You already know how to make the bots and you have a general idea of the workings of the GR. I trust that won't be too difficult for you."
Bulma glared at her aging parent. He had, in all definitions of the word, goaded her into this. For one, he pointed out that all of the company projects, on her hands alone, would be too much. Which, she already knew anyway. Two, she did know more about the GR and its upgrades (she is the one who performs the main coding). And three, well, he boosted her ego on one point, and shot it down with the other.
Damn.
"Tch, alright. Seems like I have no choice. And you, monkey boy," she pointed at him, watching him tense slightly, all of his chuckles ceasing. "Don't expect me to always drop everything for you. Remember, I'm doing you a favor by letting you stay here."
Vegeta growled at her blatant display of disrespect. No matter. In time he would show her. He would show them all! Letting her off the hook this time would let her think she had the upper hand. Then WHAM -he would get her the next time she dared.
With a wave of his hand, he stalked off to the bathroom.
Didya like it?! I hope so. It'll probably be my biggest project yet…aside from "Pride and Prejudice", which people are still asking for. Sorry folks, but it won't be updated until I hit a major writer's block with this one. I've gotten a few displeased reviews, and I'm running out of characters to use, haha. But it'll get written eventually, I promise.
AAAAAND, a special thanks to VeryShortMidget for taking over the beta-process for this fic! Looking for one has been the only thing holding me back :3
REVIEW!
