The employees at Capsule Corp had long grown accustomed to seeing people flying to and from the residential part of the large plantation. Some of them assumed that they must be testing some sort of levitation technology for Doctor Brief. But the older, more experienced, members of the workforce just accepted that the Brief family was associated with some very… special individuals. They chose to get on with their work and, any chance they got, walk by the Brief residence in the hope of seeing something abnormal.
So they'd probably have been disappointed by the scene in the front yard.
Bulma Brief, Son Goku and Krillin each had their respective families present, along with some of their friends; new and old. The gang was having a get-together to eat drink and catch up.
Hercule Satan was having a beer with Master Roshi. Both martial artists were telling stories of their past victories, trying to top each others' exaggerations.
"That was nothing. I once fought an army of Oni single-handedly, while recovering from a nasty head cold." Roshi took a swig of his beer and motioned for Hercule to respond.
"Well, I once took on a team of highly trained ninja assassins, and beat them all without a single injury." The world champion announced proudly.
His daughter Videl could hear him from where she was sitting with Gohan and Piccolo.
"Those 'ninja assassins' were actors in a TV commercial my Dad was in." She said to the others. "Something to do with a brand of sports drink, I think."
"Hey, I think I saw that ad." Gohan said. He chuckled as he remembered the hammy performance given by Hercule.
Piccolo looked over at the bearded man.
"And to think; we owe the survival of the universe to him. This planet is amazing. It really is."
--
Goku happily strolled over to the food table set up by the house. Bulma had laid out what she referred to as a saiyan smorgasbord.
"Wow, Bulma. You cooked all this?" Krillin had said to her when he'd arrived.
"What are you, crazy?" Had been her reply. "I ordered out. I must've called a hundred different places. It cost a fortune, so you better enjoy it."
Well, Goku intended to enjoy it, starting right now.
Some laughing drew his attention downward, and he lifted his foot up to allow Trunks and Goten to run past.
"Hey, careful son. You're going to trip someone up."
"Sorry, Dad." Goten replied without looking back, or slowing down.
"Oh, and your mothers told me to tell you 'no going super saiyan on the lawn'." Goku called after the disappearing boys.
"Okay." The kids answered, but Goku wasn't certain that they'd heard him.
Arriving at the food table, he saw that Buu was already there helping himself to the spread.
"Hey, Buu." Goku greeted the pink being cheerfully. "I see you couldn't wait to get started either."
Buu gave a reply, but it was muffled by the foot-long sandwich protruding from his mouth. So Goku just nodded politely and began to dig in.
--
The sound of cheering rang out from another table. Yamcha had a small handheld TV in his hand, and he, Puar, Oolong and Dr. Brief were watching a football game on the screen. Vegeta was leaning against a wall behind them, pretending not to be interested, but he occasionally peeked over Yamcha's shoulder to get a look at the game.
Oolong was holding ticket in his clenched fist.
"Come on, come on! I got big money riding on this game."
"Yes! Now that was a beautiful play!" Yamcha pointed to the set in his hand, which was showing a replay of a touchdown.
"Tch. Pathetic."
He turned to look at Vegeta, who was wearing a condescending scowl on his face.
"Oh, and what would you know about football?" He asked the saiyan.
"As a matter of fact, we used to have a contest similar to that on Planet Vegeta."
"Really? No kidding."
"Yes, except we saiyans didn't strap a ton of armor onto ourselves and there was no such thing as time-outs." Vegeta crossed his arms. "We called it 'tarrakarata'. It means 'duel of pain'."
"Sounds like fun." Yamcha said dryly. "I assume, instead of Gatorade, you drank the blood of the losing team?"
"I guess some things are intergalactic." The two men turned to see Bulma walking towards them with her hands behind her back. "No matter what planet they're from, all men think that they know everything there is to know about sports."
Vegeta snorted.
"Well I'm certain I know more than you do."
"Oh really? Catch."
She took her hands out from behind her back and threw something to Vegeta. It was a football. Vegeta looked back at her with a smirk.
"Is this supposed to impress me?" He squeezed the ball, but nothing happened. He looked down at it in surprise and squeezed harder. Still the ball remained intact.
"This is my newest project." Bulma said, taking the ball back. "With the football season starting up, I thought Capsule Corp should get in on the action. This football is made from the same material I used for your battle armor; so it's strong and durable, but still light enough to play well with."
She raised a challenging eyebrow at Vegeta.
"It could probably even withstand that saiyan game of yours."
Vegeta's eyes narrowed. He snatched the ball back from Bulma and marched towards the house.
"I'm going to get changed, and then we'll give your little prototype a proper testing."
Bulma watched him go with a triumphant grin. Yamcha looked up at her.
"This is why you invited us all here, isn't it? You wanted to test your football against the strongest players you could get." He crossed his arms in mock indignation. "We're just your guinea pigs."
"For lack of a better term; yes." She pointed towards the house. "I prepared some sports clothes for you in the dining room. Now go suit up."
"You got it, coach." Yamcha gave a quick salute and took off. Oolong looked at the ticket in his hand, and pocketed it. He'd find out who won later. This was way more interesting. He leaned over to Dr. Brief.
"Say Doc, you wanna make a little wager?"
--
Goku and Buu were happily enjoying their meals when Vegeta approached them, wearing his training clothes.
"Kakarott, come with me. We're about to have a game of tarrakarata."
"Taka – tara – what?" Goku looked at him perplexed.
Vegeta shook his head in irritation.
"It's a contest of strength and cunning where one team must get this -" He held up the football. "- to the other team's base while keeping it out of their grasp."
Goku put his plate aside and stood up with a smile.
"So you want to play football? Okay."
Vegeta's face darkened, but he shook it off.
"Call it what you want. Just get over here."
"Great. Hey Buu, do you want to play too?" Goku looked to the magical creature. Buu quickly gulped down a few mouthfuls of food and stood up.
"Sound fun. Buu want in."
--
Tien Shinhan was sitting on the grass a little away from the main gathering. He was by no means unsocial but, after being around his loud and lively friends, he had decided to have a little quiet time.
No. 18 seemed to be thinking the same thing, as she was leaning casually against a tree watching her four-year-old daughter Marron playing with Chiaotzu; Tien's life-long friend.
"Hey, Tien." The three-eyed warrior looked up to see Krillin jogging towards him. The former monk jerked a thumb over his shoulder and said, "Get up. We've been drafted."
Tien raised a curious eyebrow and Krillin clarified.
"Bulma wants us to test out this new synthetic football she designed. It's supposed to be able to withstand a lot of damage so she needs, in her words, 'the biggest meatheads she can find' to put it through its' paces."
Tien got to his feet, shaking his head and smiling.
"And here was me thinking she invited us all here because she enjoyed our company."
"Well, it might be fun." Krillin walked over to where Marron was. "Hey sweetie, you wanna see Daddy win a game of football?"
"Yeah!" The little girl jumped into her father's arms. Krillin picked her up laughing, and then noticed 18 looking his way.
He suddenly wondered if he had offended her. Even now, he sometimes found it hard to figure out what she was thinking.
"Ah, hey I didn't mean to leave you out, 18. You can play too, if you want."
"No thanks." 18 stepped away from the tree and began walking with the others back towards the house. "But I will watch you. It's always entertaining seeing grown men beat their chests at each other and grunt."
--
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Piccolo took his cape off as Gohan laced up the sport shoes Bulma had given him.
"Come on, Piccolo." He said. "When was the last time we all did something together that didn't involve fighting?"
He straightened up and grinned at his old mentor.
"Besides, football's more about strategy than strength. And you're the best strategist here. You'll wipe out the opposition."
Piccolo raised a critical eye-ridge.
"That is the most transparent attempt at manipulation I've ever heard."
"Did it work?" Gohan asked. Piccolo continued to stare levelly at him for a moment, and then smirked.
"Yeah."
The shrill sound of a whistle rang out, causing Piccolo to cringe and clap his hands over his ears. Gohan turned to see Bulma wearing a silver whistle around her neck and motioning for everyone who was playing to gather around.
"Come on, guys. Let's get this show started." She gave the whistle another sharp blow.
"Bulma!" Gohan nodded his head towards Piccolo, who was still covering his sensitive ears.
"What? Oh, right." She put the whistle away and shrugged at Piccolo. "Sorry."
"I know I'm going to regret this." Piccolo muttered to himself as he joined the others around Bulma.
There were eight players, consisting of Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, Vegeta and Buu. The others all sought out chairs so that they could watch the action – from a safe distance.
Bulma stood holding the ball and addressed the participants.
"Okay, the name of the game is takararta… tarakata… Oh, let's just call it football. It's basically the same game."
"It is not the same game." Vegeta insisted. "We saiyans were competing this way back when you earthlings were still painting on cave walls."
"Why don't we call it 'Saiyan Ball'?" Goku suggested.
"Don't be ridiculous, Kakarott. What kind of stupid name is that?"
"Actually, I like that name." Said Gohan.
"Yeah, me too."
"Sounds good to me."
"Saiyan ball it is." Bulma said decisively.
Vegeta cast his eyes skyward. Why did he even bother?
"Alright then, everybody." Bulma twirled the ball in her hands. "Let's play ball!"