--Terms--

--Network - A collection of planets or kingdoms that have been successfully infiltrated by another planet or kingdom becomes a part of the invading planet or kingdom's network.

--Colony Files - These are files kept by Planet Vegeta's tacticians. It has databases of information on planets that the empire comes into contact with, whether they've taken them or not.

--Data strip - This is a small chip, much like current day jump drives, that are used to store large amounts of computer data.

--Intergalactic Archives - It's the Internet, only it has all kinds of information about the universe. (Not everyone has access to this medium.)

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--Okay, this story idea is probably not very original, but I'm writing it anyway. Here goes...

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Tyranny and Mutation

Chapter 1

--Tale of an Empire...

Twenty or so years ago, King Vegeta I reigned over his planet and his people with an iron fist. And he would not hand over his empire to his son until he took a bride. Prince Vegeta had to have a female like no other on his planet. He wanted an exotic wife. So he set out on a journey to find a woman to make his.

Prince Vegeta, along with his two most valued assistants, Nappa and Radditz, traveled the universe, searching the planets under their network to find a suitable wife for the prince. And under their network was the lovely and peaceful planet Earth. They had sent Radditz's baby brother here years ago to take over the planet, but he had obviously not done the job. And though the planet was currently ripe for the taking, that was not why they had come. Immediately setting sights on a beautiful human woman, they ambushed her and took her away.

The prince soon found that this pitiful woman, though much weaker than even the most mal-adapted Saiyan, was quite the firebrand. He never thought that he would be attracted to anything besides her looks, but he soon found out different. The woman, Bulma, had put up a fight with him. She was strong of will and full of pride. It amused him to no end to banter with her day in and day out.

And strangely enough, after less than a year, they found that they loved each other (in some strange verbal sadomasochistic kind of way). Prince Vegeta made Bulma his and King Vegeta I relinquished his kingdom to his son.

During King Vegeta II's reign, Queen Bulma birthed two children to him. One a strong and handsome son. The other an intelligent and beautiful daughter. Each only a year apart in age.

Soon, King Vegeta II became tyrannical in his lust for power. Followed by a race of strong and loyal fighters, he was sure that he could conquer the universe if he put his mind to it. Surprisingly enough, his wife, the genius machinist, agreed with this idea. If her husband ruled the universe, she would be the most powerful and respected woman in all of existence, even without having the super-human powers that her husband and his people possessed. The king's influence over the years had corrupted her.

The children, Trunks and Bra, on the other hand, instead of being raised by their parents, were being raised by a strange race of aliens called Nameks, who were being held captive by the Saiyans. They had trained the young demi-Saiyans in many disciplines, including fighting. It didn't take long for the young Saiyans to become stronger than even their teachers.

But there came a day when Trunks and Bra had to be told of the tyranny of their parents. They were taking the universe over, sector by sector. And that if they went unchecked, they would become so drunk with power that they wouldn't be able to be stopped. Trunks and Bra did not want to be the heirs of an evil empire, nor did they want their parents to become unrelenting tyrants.

The Nameks helped hijack a ship for the prince and princess in which to escape. They alone would have to find a way to topple the power-hungry kingdom.

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--present day...

Princess Bra - Well-known for her beauty, she took more pride in her intelligence than anything else. She had the same talent that her mother had when it came to technology. She was respectful and kind, but straight-forward and she usually kept an open mind. She preferred to expand her knowledge rather than her physical strength, even though she was trained by the Nameks to fight along with her brother. It is easy to underestimate her strength due to her height and somewhat small frame.

Prince Trunks - He, on the other hand, was well-known for what he preferred to be known for. His strength. Though he was very handsome, people rarely even brought it up. So he really didn't know that his possessed that quality. He was confident, nonetheless. He was intelligent, but he lacked both the patience and the interest to learn the things that his little sister had taken the time to learn. He has also been called impulsive. He valued his strength, but the Nameks helped him understand that strength wasn't everything when it came to fighting.

Sixteen-year-old Bra typed hurriedly on the ship's computer as her 17-year-old brother navigated across the galaxies. Before the Nameks helped them escape, she had downloaded a copy of the Colony Files the Saiyans had been collecting over the past 200 years onto the data strip she kept all of her important work on. Four kings had ruled in that time, so there had to be some helpful information within. The most helpful being during their father's rule.

They'd been traveling for days now and it took days for Bra to scan and decipher all the information in the Colony Files. Neither she nor Trunks had slept in that time. They were both much too wary to sleep. They knew that once their parents found out they were missing, legions of Saiyans would be sent out to intercept them and bring them back. They had to be ready at all times.

"After doing extensive research," Bra began as she continued to type, "I found that there are a lot of interstellar systems under Dad's rule. Huge interstellar systems. But there is one that has been untouched by them for over 30 years. And surprisingly one of the planets in that interstellar system is on Planet Vegeta's network. Planet Earth."

Trunks looked over at his little sister. "A planet on the network that hasn't been taken over? Is that what you're saying?"

Bra nodded. "Right. On further investigation of this planet, I found that a Saiyan baby by the name of Kakarot was sent there, but he never returned." She stopped suddenly. "Kakarot? That's Radditz's little brother." She went back to looking through the file she had pulled up. "When a small group of Reconnaissance troops was sent in to see what had happened, they never returned. No communications were ever received from them once they landed."

"That's kinda eerie," Trunks said.

"That's not all. A second group of Reconnaissance troops was sent 10 years later to report on the planet's state, but they never returned," Bra told him. She pulled up another file she had been looking through earlier. "Now this isn't the first time that a planet has caused this sort of problem. There was one about a century ago. Planet Curtos. Saiyans were sent to take it over, but they never returned. It was said that a mysterious mineral deposit was killing all the Saiyans, even though the inhabitants were unaffected. That just may be the case with planet Earth."

"Then how did it get to be on the network?" Trunks asked.

Bra frowned. "I wasn't thinking. Planet Curtos was never on the network, but planet Earth is." She snapped her fingers. "Maybe it's worth investigating."

Trunks laughed sarcastically. "I don't think so. And you just said something about mineral deposits that kill Saiyans? No way."

"That was on Curtos, not Earth," Bra reminded him. "Besides, it's possible that Earth was simply forgotten between the time of Grandfather's rule and the time of Dad's rule. I mean maybe his tacticians just haven't gotten back around to it yet."

"Well, something happened to the Saiyans who were sent there," Trunks rationalized. "Don't you remember what Mandolin told us before we left? You and I are the only ones who can stop our parents from taking over the universe. If we die, that's it. It's all over."

Bra sighed when she thought of their most esteemed teacher, Mandolin. He was a Namek of great strength and knowledge. They both respected and loved him dearly. He was almost like a father to them. Much more so than their real father, whom they only saw a couple of times a week. Same with their mother.

"You're right, Trunks," Bra sighed. "I don't even understand what it is Mandolin thinks we can accomplish. What are we supposed to do? Try to rally enough troops to go against the Elites?"

Trunks frowned as he piloted. "I'm not sure. But Mandolin had faith that we could put a stop to them. And that's what we're gonna do."

They became silent after that. And even though she seemed to have given up on the whole Earth idea, she went into the Intergalactic Archives and started looking up more information.

The siblings were quiet for many hours before Bra found something of interest. "TRUNKS!" Bra shouted.

Trunks went as pale as a ghost and looked at her wide-eyed. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Come look at this!" was all Bra could say. She pointed at the computer screen.

Trunks looked on the screen at what seemed to be a newspaper article. 'World Martial Arts Tournament Officials Congratulate Champion' was the title of the article. :What's so special about that: Trunks thought. He looked at the picture of the champion. "It...can't...be..."

"Kakarot," Bra finished his sentence for him. She pulled up a picture of baby Kakarot on the computer. "That is Radditz's younger brother. He's calling himself Goku." She smirked confidently. "Now do you think it's worth investigating?"

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--after several more days of drifting through space...

They landed and capsulated their ship before anyone had a chance to come and take a look around. They would have no problem blending in with the locals because Saiyans and humans were surprisingly similar in appearance. Of course, the Saiyans would have to hide their tails.

"Come along, Bra. We have a long journey ahead," Trunks said.

Bra nodded. She put a copy of the newspaper article in her armor, then put her scouter on and turned it on.

Trunks looked at her strangely. "What are you doing?"

"This is how I plan to find our Saiyan friend," Bra told her brother. "I read that Earthlings don't have nearly the power level that Saiyans do. That's why they sent a baby to clean up instead of an adult or an army. Find the highest power level and we'll find our Saiyan." She looked around for a while and saw that there were several high power levels. "Hmmmmm," she groaned in irritation.

Trunks frowned at his sister, then put on his scouter and turned it on. "Oh... I see what you mean." He looked around for a while. "There are a lot of high power levels in one place over in that direction. Maybe we should start there." He pointed out the way.

"Alright. These inhabitants are generally friendly, so we shouldn't have a problem," Bra said. "But first, I think we should find disguises that make us look more like locals."

--lots of walking...

The two stood at the edge of yet another wooded area. There was more foliage here than either of them had ever seen. It was refreshing to be in such a calm and inviting atmosphere. They had spotted a house off in the distance. It was the only place the high power levels could be coming from. No other dwellings seemed to be around.

Bra was wearing a pair of jeans and a white blouse. And Trunks was wearing a pair of khaki pants and a black t-shirt. They had paid for the clothes in gold. Before they left Planet Vegeta, Mandolin had given them several bags of gold, telling them that on most planets gold was a very valuable mineral. On Planet Vegeta gold could be found almost anywhere and was of little value, except to insects.

"Remind me again, Bra. Why are we walking everywhere? We could just fly," Trunks suggested.

Bra shook her head. "This is all a part of blending in. We don't want to cause a panic or call too much attention to ourselves. As you can see, if our faces end up in a newspaper or something, it'll be all over the Intergalactic Archives. And that's something we can't afford. We want to put as much distance between us and the Elites as possible for now."

Trunks rolled his eyes. "Great," he muttered. "As if we don't already have enough to worry about."

Bra sighed. "This is one of the few interstellar systems that hasn't developed the proper technology for high-end space travel. So, what do we say to these complete strangers? 'Hello, we're from another planet. Please help overthrow our parents'?"

Trunks thought for a moment. "No," he said like she had actually been serious about the suggestion. "You still have that newspaper page. Maybe we could say that we're looking for Kakarot because of that..."

"I could have thought of that, genius," Bra told him. She pulled out the paper. "Now the hard part is that we don't know what to do after that." By the time she looked up, her brother was already heading toward the house.

Trunks walked over and knocked on the door. "We both think better under pressure."

--End Chapter 1--

--Thank you for reading the first chapter of Tyranny and Mutation. This is kinda off the beaten path for me, so I'd like to know what you think. Good? Bad? Ugly? Please review and let me know.