Vamirii: Hey everyone! So, a really good friend of mine got me into the best anime in the world, Dragon Ball Z, and for the past two months, my obsessive compulsive mind has been on a Vegeta+Bulma high. I've got like four other B/V fics on the brain that I'm kinda in the process of writing. I usually don't read Alternate Universe fanfics, but I was really interested in some, like "Eternal Triangle," and "Cold Comfort for Bulma," so I decided to write my own! ^^ Thing is, though, I don't know how good it is (I mean, I like it, but that's because it's my fanfic) so I need to know if you guys like it, so I know whenther to continue or to stop hogging the space reserved for better fanfics. Even a short review is welcome, but PLEASE NO FLAMES! I don't think my heart could take it! Of course critical advise is indeed encouraged, please be nice? I'm still relativly new to this. OK! On with the show!

Bulma curled herself up against the wall of the spaceship. The bodies of the other women, huddled up together in a sobbing mass and trying to keep warm littered the small cramped cargo room. She was just like her fellow "lucky" survivors, heart-broken, alone, scared out of their damn minds, and completely crushed under the weight of their unbearable loss. Well, almost alike; Bulma refused to let herself cry. She lifted her messy, blue-haired head from her knees to look on the faces of her companions. She knew some of their names. The stocky, red-haired, brown eyed girl's name was S'no. She came from where the frigid mountains of the north used to be before they came. Her fur coat now hung in tatters from her shoulders and she clung to a woman who looked about to be sick.

Bulma's icy eyes shifted to an ancient woman with dull pink hair. Her small frame was almost lost in the folds of her black robes, and she stared unblinkingly into space as if searching for answers in the black shadows of the dark room. Silent tears streamed down her face. Her name's Baba. She used to be some sort of fortuneteller. Now, all she ever talks about (when she talks at all), is something about her brother, always her dear brother…

Bulma moved her head a fraction to the right in order to see the pale black-haired girl in the corner. This one was younger than her by a few years (maybe around the same age as S'no), with a lean, muscular figure, and by the look in her surprisingly dry (well, maybe damp) eyes, had a temper as fiery as her own. Good, she thought bitterly. She's gonna need all the spirit she can get. Bulma didn't know her name.

The filthy, emotionally weary genius laid her head back onto her knees, letting her blue eyes close as the memories of her last days on Earth came unbidden to her mind…

Day 1- the arrival

Bulma had awoken to her mother and father, still in their bedclothes and robes shaking her somewhat urgently. "Come on, Dear. You really must get up and see what is on the telly," her father's usually warm buoyant voice was laced with a bit of alarm.

"What? Dad?" Bulma yawned half sitting up. "This better not be one of your "Mythcrusher" episodes-"

"Oh, no, honey. This is serious." Bulma blinked in shock at her ditzy, vacant mother's serious frown before she threw the covers off and grabbed her robe.

The trio dashed down the stairs to the living room and all plonked themselves down in front of the t.v. in perfect synchronization.

"For those of you just tuning in," a dramatic newscaster stared solemnly at the camera. "We have just received live footage of the disaster that has just occurred at 2:42 am in East City. As you can see, the entire area has been mowed to the ground by what appears to be an explosion…" the announcer's voice faltered as the aerial footage of a huge crater covered the screen.

Day 2- The Saiyans

Bulma ran against the man-made current of people surging towards the mountain cave hideout's small three-by-four meter entrance. "Stay calm everyone!" She shouted desperately. Of course everyone was too busy shitting themselves and trying to get into the damn refuge to listen to the sixteen-year-old, fucking prodigy. "Hey! Shut the hell UP!" She screeched letting her temper get the best of her. A man with biceps as big as her head leapt away from her and pressed his hands to his mouth wide-eyed. The rest of the crowd quieted relatively quickly. "Now, if you are all done running around with your thumbs up your asses, listen up! There is no need to clamber to get inside right this second! The only thing it accomplishes is making you look too damn incompetent to stand still and use your heads! Now, get in single file and enter the shelter like civilized beings!" The front of the crowd quickly filed out and passed the command down the line. It looked a lot more organized and people were getting in much faster.

Rarely had Bulma swore so much in one breath. She had always thought that profanity got you no where when dealing with mass panic. Note to self: frightened people + vulgar language = damn good leadership! She turned and continued running back towards the end ofthe line searching for her father.

The mass evacuations had begun early this evening when it was discovered that what had happened to East City was no nuclear plant meltdown or terrorist bombing. Oh, no, it was much worse. Of course at first no one believed that an entire city had been destroyed by two, seemingly normal-looking men.

But when four other cities were hit within the next four hours, one, unlucky cameraman was able to capture an image that was aired live on ZTV. Two large muscular men stood among the ruins of the once proud South City. Screams and explosions could be heard beneath the cruel laughing of the diabolical duo as balls of light flew from their outstretched palms and leveled entire buildings. Those beasts were taking their time playing with their victims! Suddenly, the shorter of the two things, jerked his face towards the poor hiding filmer and stared right into the machine. Covering one eye was a small green scanner-looking thing that beeped and glowed in a strange language.

Amazingly, the creature disappeared and reappeared holding the camera so it showed him clenching the cameraman's neck. The human's eyes bulged out as the animal holding him crushed his neck. Bulma had nearly gotten sick when she watched his killer laugh and toss the body away as easily as a rag doll. "A message to all our viewers out there!" He yelled cheerfully at the lens. "I'm your host, Raditz! And this is Nappa, my producer! –" the camera swiveled over to the big bald one who crossed his arms and rolled his eyes in annoyance at his underling's childish display-"We're just your friendly neighborhood Saiyans, and guess what? We've come to rid this planet of- you guessed it! All of its pitiful life forms!" He paused to cackle wickedly some more. "It's a pity, really, that you Saiyanoids present no challenge to us what so ever! I was hoping for a little more fun! Oh, well. Guess I'll just have to find me some more prey… m-m-m-hahahahaha!" and with that last blood-curdling laugh, the screen went black as he crushed it with one hand.

Bulma shuddered at the memory, even as she ran in search of her father. "Dad? Dad?!" she shouted breathlessly, her eyes scanning the line.

"Bulma!"

She looked ahead and saw her father with ever-present kitty clinging to his shoulders as he moved towards her faster than she'd ever seen him go. In his hand was a hunk of ruined metal and shattered green glass. "Bulma! One of these people found this scouter! I believe it's one of theirs!"

"What?" she yelped snatching the small computer from his hands. It was the scouter of the one calling itself Raditz. The sceen was cracked and the earpeace had a marble sized hole all the way through it. "What happened to it? How did the guy get it?"

"The Red Ribbon Army sent its entire force out to destroy the aliens. One bullet managed to clip this scouter right off his big-haired head! I never thought I'd say this, but bless the RR!" Briefs explained happily. "Anyway the RR was destroyed and the Saiyans moved on, but they left this behind. Do you know what this means?!" He finished breathlessly and gripped Bulma's arms excitedly.

"It means," Bulma exclaimed catching on, "that if we can figure out how this thing works, we could probably make a cloaking device! And we'll fix this thing up so that we will know when those bastards are nearby!"

"Bulma, such language! And, yes, those were my thoughts exactly!"

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get to the lab!" Bulma de-capsulized a hover car and dragged her father into the passenger seat before speeding back down the mountain towards the nearly empty West City.

Bulma shook her head, refusing to think of the next two days. Basically what had happened was she and her father had managed to make a cloaking device, but hadn't had the time to set the complex system around the refuge that had been built years beforehand by her father as a place to go in an emergency. The Saiyans had used the one called Nappa's scouter to find the mass of people just as the two scientists were driving up to install the cloaker. Bulma again shook her head at the memory of those bastards blasting the entire mountain refuge to ash right before her eyes.

It was Raditz who discovered her and her father. It seemed that their senses were far more attuned than humans are. When it had suddenly phased in front of them, she was certain that she was looking death in the face, but he noticed the new and improved scouter covering her right eye and he paused.

"My scouter," his rough voice was threaded with surprise. His black eyes shifted to her father who was trying his best to shield her. "Which one of you fixed it?" he harshly demanded.

Mr. Briefs bravely moved himself in front of his daughter, his entire body shaking, but his voice smooth and even. "Why does that matter? It's fixed now. You can have it back." He quickly turned, grabbed the small devise off Bulma's face, and spun back around, holding it out on a shaking hand to the hostile alien.

"Like I needed you to give it to me," the Saiyan growled, snatching it from Dr. Brief's palm, a cruel smile graced his would-be-handsome-under-other-circumstances face. "It would have been much more amusing to take it from you still-smoldering bodies! Now-" he grabbed the front of the small man's lab coat and lifted him up to his eye level. "-who fixed it?"

"P-please!" Bulma couldn't take it. She had somehow found enough courage to run forward and grip the man's sweaty arm with her small harmless hands. "I fixed it!"

"Bulma, no!" Never had Mr. Briefs yelled so loud at anyone, let alone his precious daughter.

Raditz, lowered her dad a bit to look at the small girl at his side. "And that?" he gestured towards the machinery in the car with the hand full of her father making him sway in the air.

Bulma gulped. "It… It's a cloaking device," she whispered frightfully. "We made it to mask our presence from the other scouter. We were on our way to install it around the mountain…. When you showed up…"

The silence seemed to stretch on forever, her eyes filling with tears as she stared at the ground waiting for the worst. A dark chuckle made her lift her eyes. The last thing she remembered before it all went black was a cold smirk and her father falling to the ground….

Bulma was wrenched from her memories by the sound of heavy boots approaching the door to the women's prison. All but Bulma and the silent, black-haired girl cried out in fear and scurried as far from the door as they could get. A second later, the door slid to the side, yellow light from the hallway spilling into the dark room and framed a huge silhouette.

Raditz entered warily, this time, eyes glaring left and right for an ambush. Bulma's lips quirked upwards at that. The last time he had sauntered into this room all arrogant, he had gotten a nasty surprise.

Last week-

Bulma smiled to herself as she climbed down off one of the stray boxes in the cargo room the female captives were kept in. She kicked it out of the way of the door where she'd just been standing on it. 'I hope this works,' she thought to herself as she waded through the aisles the other women made with their bodies. In one corner, the black-eyed girl watched her silently.

Reaching the far wall, more specifically the small air-vent, she knelt down and yanked the barred cover off and pushed her red pocket-tools inside as far as she could reach. After meticulously making sure the vent cover was on exactly as she had left it, she walked to the corner on the left of the door so she wouldn't be seen right away and waited. Bulma hates being in outer space. With out the sun, she had no way of keeping track of time or knowing exactly when those bastards will come pay them a visit. However, something told her she wouldn't have to wait too long.

Her "room mates" had been just starting to wake up when a light came on under the edge of the door. The women and girls closest to it shrank back in fear. A baby girl started to wail until its mother shushed it with her breast and soft coos.

'At last!' Bulma could hear the sounds of booted footsteps approaching the door. Her stomach squirmed in nervous anticipation as she watched the door expectantly.

The door slid open and Raditz's familiar figure filled the doorway. Bulma could just barely make out his snarling features through her smarting eyes. She quickly blinked it away as she didn't want to miss a thing. She watched with bated breath as his eyes swept slowly over the faces of the twenty other females. She could tell the exact second he realized one was missing because his frowned deepened and he eyed the crowd again. Still not seeing the missing person, he growled and stepped into the room-

And broke the hair-fine trip wire with his shin. As he looked down to see what had made the tiny noise only he heard, the trap Bulma had set above the door sprung to life in less than a second, stabbing Raditz in the eye with the extra fork she had asked for the previous night at dinner. It had all happened in less than two seconds.

With an ear-shattering howl of pain, Raditz jerked himself back into the hall clawing his face and pushing the utensil deeper. Nappa suddenly phased by his side alarmed at the screams and, after a short pause during which he stared incredulously at his co-worker, he started to laugh heartily in the writhing man's face.

"Ho, Raditz!" he got out between gasping bouts of laughter. "Did those little girls get the best of you? Or did you forget how to use a fork?!" Nappa cackled some more and Raditz started shouting curses in a strange tongue as he disappeared down the hall. Nappa jovially yelled something in Saiyan after him and chuckled to himself as he guardedly stepped into the room. His mirth vanished as he glared at the utterly confused women and turned his back on them to look at the trap above the door.

He observed it for a second, it was relatively simple. But how had they gotten the tools to construct it? He shrugged and turned back around, the smile back on his cold hard face. "Alright, ladies, whose idea was it? Not that I'm not grateful for the entertainment (it's always boring on a space ship), but Raditz is gonna want a little justice." The room became dead silent under his stares.

Bulma crossed her arms impatiently. She'd spent all night on her little project and was now very tired. 'Let's get this over with.'

"Oh, come on!" Nappa yelled, making most of them jump. "No one's going to claim that stroke of brilliance?" More silence. "Fine." Nappa stepped into the room and everyone crawled back. Nappa chose his victim and reached for the baby that had cried earlier.

Bulma's entire body went cold and she shot to her feet. Catching the movement out of the corner of his eye, Nappa swiveled towards her in fighting stance. Bulma re-crossed her arms and lifted a contemptuous eyebrow. "Jumpy?"

Nappa's face flushed in anger. "The scientist's daughter? You set the trap."

Bulma narrowed her eyes.

"I see," he stood from his defensive crouch and cynically drawled, "Got nothin' to lose, so you're gonna make life hell for us in any way possible?"

She gave him a scowl that made him think 'Saiyan…' and growled, "I'm gonna sure as hell try my best."

Bulma's smirk deepened as she remembered it. When Raditz had emerged from the rejuvenation tank with a newly formed eye (and just a tiny scar on the skin beneath it), he and Nappa took turns beating her four times into unconsciousness. After each session, they would put her into the rejuvenation tank to be completely healed for the next flogging. The last time, they left her in there just long enough to heal the broken bones and lacerations, but leave her sore for days. 'It was worth it.'

Bulma gingerly stood up and moved towards her captor. His black eyes glared such hatred into hers, that she almost dropped her gaze from his. Almost. When she stood in front of him, she smiled up innocently at him and spoke. "Excuse me, Sir," she purred. "Can we please have an extra blanket for the children? It's too cold in here for them." He said nothing, just stood there, glaring daggers at her. Bulma almost laughed when she realized his expression was similar to one a child would give a teacher who gave him a F. Except that instead of child-like, sulky you're-not-my-favorite-teacher-anymore look, his was closer to if-I-had-my-way-I-would-kill-you-where-you-stand-look. Still sulky and childish, but a little more psychotic, and definitely lacking in the innocence department. "Come on," she goaded. "What could I do with a blanket?"

That got a response. He started a low growl deep in his throat and stepped closer. It took a lot of something (courage, stupidity, I don't even know) to keep her from stepping back. He looked like he was about to kill her right there, but he somehow restrained himself. After the briefest of hesitations, he grumbled sullenly, "That's what you said about the fork." And with that, he disappeared into the hall, slamming the door behind him.

Bulma stared thoughtfully at the door for a second. She grudgingly admitted to herself that Saiyans were basically very strong and violent humans with tails. Just the thought was making her see red.

She jerked herself back around and made her way over to the pile of blankets in one corner. The other girls were picking out the least dirty to bed down on for the night. When they saw her heading towards them, they cleared the path and waited for her to make the first choice. She had given up trying to make them stop weeks ago.

They had been doing things like that, treating her like their leader since their first day in space. That was when Bulma had taken the first step to screw with the Saiyans' heads. She had managed to crack a hole in the wall of the room with her pocket-tools and bypass the locking mechanism on door from the inside. She had tried to make a break for the control room to figure out where they were headed, but had been caught halfway there. Nappa had escorted her unconscious body back to the cell and reinforced the security lock set in the wall. When she had come to, Bulma had found herself surrounded by all the girls, and everyone was clambering to help her up. She had bewilderedly received a hug and admiring word or two from everyone but the black-eyed girl in her corner; however, she did receive the first and last smile she had made in that hellhole. Between then and the fork incident, Bulma had been devising new pranks and attempts to reach the control room, which she used almost daily. After her third stunt, which left her unable to move for two days, she was absolutely positive that these creatures had a reason for keeping the human's alive. Her being alive was proof of that.

Bulma pulled the cleanest blanket she could find out of the pile and moved towards the two four small children who never left each other's sides. "Here," she murmured soothingly to them. "I won't be using it tonight anyway."

"But you didn't sleep last night either, Bulma," one said. Bulma just smiled.

Vamirii: Whew! That was long, especially for me! What did you think? Did I keep them in character? I was trying my best to, but I am a hopeless fangirl, so I'm not sure how well that worked out.

Should I continue?

Announcer: What will become of our little heroene? Will she survive long enough to get where the Saiyans are going? What are the diabolical duo planning for their prisoners? Who is the mysterious black-haired girl with fire in her eyes, and probably the biggest mystery of all, where do the women go to the bathroom? Find out next time, on-

Vamirii: Would you shut the hell up?!