Author's Note: This is my very first attempt at writing anything for entertainment. My brain forced me to do it. I want to thank Chelsee for writing the "Endangered Saiyans" series. When I read it on the other Fan Fiction Network (now closed down) it gave me the inspiration for my story. It is NOT a copy of anyone else's work. By the way, this story is written mainly in a first person viewpoint. I also WANT comments. Please, I want to see if what I did was worth anything, thank you.
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I bolted towards the meeting place in the park. Kuso! I was late again. "I knew I should have gotten up earlier!" I panted to myself as I spit out the strands of red hair that kept getting into my mouth. I was supposed to meet Zoe and the others for a trip to the local anime store. We had planned on wasting our money on anime videos our parents disapproved of.
As I neared the meeting place I slowed to a jog. The only person there was Zoe.
"I also should have known I wasn't going to be late. Those guys are always sleeping in! Hey Zoe! I see we're the only one's stupid enough to get up early for these meetings." Zoe waved and nodded in agreement with my statement.
"Yeah," Zoe laughed, "I would have slept in too, except for the really strange dreams I've been having lately."
"Really? What're they about?" I asked because I had also been having some rather odd dreams and I was curious to see if her dreams were anything like mine.
Zoe looked kind of embarrassed about answering that one. So like any real friend I bugged her about it until she spilled.
"Well...they're about...," she replied hesitantly.
I rolled my eyes. "Come on Zoe, you know I won't laugh."
"Um, wellitwasaboutdragonballz," she finally spat out.
"What? What did you say? I may be able to speed read but I can't speed hear." At my comment Zoe looked rather...pissed off. I grinned, "Sorry Zoe."
"Fine Miss What," Zoe drawled, "I said I've been having weird dreams about Dragon Ball Z. I also woke up this morning feeling pretty strange."
"Really?" I commented, "I've been having strange dreams too, but that's probably 'cause we watch too much of the stuff." This was unusual. I'd been having strange DBZ dreams and I'd also woken up this morning feeling odd. I shrugged, it was probably nothing though; just my rampant imagination. I looked over at Zoe; she looked really nervous about something. Then I felt it, the air was vibrating and slowly growing warmer.
"Um, Celine?" quavered Zoe, "Do you feel that?"
I nodded, unable to speak for a few moments. "Yea, I feel it."
"What is it?"
"How the hell should I know!?" I snapped. "Let's move from this spot, it's creeping me out."
Before we could move it happened. The air began to vibrate violently and the temperature shot up rapidly. I didn't know what was going on so I braced myself for whatever was happening. A bright flash engulfed us and when I opened my eyes I cursed to myself. I knew I should have slept in today. I wasn't in Kansas anymore (so to speak). I was in some sort of strange forest. I looked around. Zoe wasn't anywhere to be seen and I found that I was wearing some sort of odd bracelet.
A loud crashing sound to the left assaulted my ears. Whatever caused the noise sounded big. As the thing crashed into view I found, to my immense horror, that it was. I did the only sensible thing my 19-year-old brain could think of. I ran screaming for my life.
******
"Huh?" Goku looked up from his sparring session with Vegeta. Vegeta of course, took the opportunity to knee Goku in the gut. "Hey Vegeta! Stop for a second!" a startled Goku yelled.
"NEVER KAKAROTT!" shouted the irate Saiyan Prince. Vegeta recommenced whaling on Goku with enthusiasm (not that much of it was having any effect on Goku). This could and would have gone on all day; however, the reason Goku had said "Huh?" in the first place was getting impatient.
"STOP IT AND SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!!!!" King Kai yelled into their heads, giving both of the warriors really bad migraines.
As Vegeta grimaced Goku spoke up. "Hey King Kai, what's up?" This comment caused Vegeta to look slightly alarmed.
"The sky, moon, stars, birds, satellites,...," King Kai droned. Vegeta groaned and gave Goku a look that would have made an onion cry. Goku looked slightly chagrined and interrupted King Kai before Vegeta could take his anger out on some helpless bystander. "Hey King Kai, what's...." Vegeta glared at Goku. "Err...what's happening King Kai?"
"Oh, you need to go to Hell (AKA HFIL) and retrieve two living people," replied King Kai.
"WHAT!?" exclaimed Vegeta. "Why should we...err, I have to go to that worm hole and help this moron retrieve two MORE morons!? Screw this! I have better things to do than go with a BAKA to a place FULL OF BAKAS to get TWO MORE BAKAS!"
At this outburst King Kai paused and then quickly continued, "Um, you have to retrieve them for three reasons. One, they are from a parallel universe. Two, they're alive. Third and final, people that are alive, from a parallel universe, and stuck in Hell tend to mess up the fabric of space and time."
"Meaning what exactly," growled Vegeta.
"MEANING THE UNIVERSE COULD FALL APART IF THEY'RE LEFT THERE YOU TWIT!" King Kai screamed.
"Oh," replied Goku and Vegeta (yea, Goku was listening in, but "wisely" not saying anything until now).
"Well how long have these two people been in Hell King Kai?" asked Goku.
"They've been there for a month."
"A MONTH! AND YOU ONLY THOUGHT TO TELL US NOW!" shouted Vegeta incredulously. He closed his eyes and muttered darkly, "Why me? Why do I have to be surrounded by these fools?"
While Vegeta was mumbling and groaning to himself King Kai explained how he was going to send Goku, Vegeta, and a couple of the other guys to retrieve the two "hapless" people stranded in Hell.
******
Much later, Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Goten, and Trunks are waiting for King Kai to send them on their way. Goku was smiling (idiotically as always) and Gohan was waiting very patiently for King Kai to get on with it. Meanwhile Vegeta was grumbling about the whole thing while the VERY hyper Goten and Trunks were zipping around and driving everyone else nuts.
"Oh good, I see you brought a rather strong group. Because Hell is filled with very strong and nasty beings," King Kai commented.
Vegeta was about to snap out a rude comment when Gohan interrupted. "We know King Kai, after all, we did send most of the really "nasty" beings there. We can handle it." Meanwhile Vegeta continued to fume; mainly because he wanted to say something really nasty to King Kai.
"Two more things; one, don't kill the people you're there to get. It would have nasty consequences. Number two, each of the two people you're rescuing have on a single bracelet with Saiyan writing on it. Everyone got that? Yes? Okay then, let's get the show on the road." With that King Kai transported the group to Hell.
******
Upon arriving in Hell the group glanced around at their surroundings. After taking this brief look around the group slowly, but surely, started staring at Vegeta.
"What are you boobs looking at!?" snapped Vegeta.
"Well, Uncle Vegeta (at this the rest of the group snickered and Vegeta snarled) you've been here before and we haven't," piped Goten. Vegeta blinked.
"Oh, and I suppose YOU want ME to be your tour guide!" he sneered.
Before anyone could reply a shriek pierced the air. The group watched as a girl with brown hair and a rather panicked look bolted by.
"What was that all about?" asked Goku. His answer soon came as Turles flashed by, hot on the heels of the poor girl.
"We have to save her!" shouted Vegeta. Everyone stared at him as though he'd suddenly mutated and grown another head. "Err...she had on one of those bracelets!" replied Vegeta nervously, "Turles is going to kill and eat her or something!" Everyone continued to stare. "Look!" snapped Vegeta, "I don't know about you guys, but I don't feel like croaking just because Turles kills that girl and this universe collapses!" This everyone understood; Vegeta's self-preservation instinct. They had thought for a few seconds that Vegeta had actually had a humanitarian feeling towards another living being. After the odd moment was over the group took off after Turles and the girl.
The next few minutes were filled with screams, explosions, grunts, and groans as the group mercilessly beat up Turles. After the dust settled poor Turles was laying on the ground trying to figure out where his spleen was (not literally). Some of the more ruthless members (i.e. Vegeta) of the group wanted to get rid of Turles but that was impossible due to the fact that he was already dead (they are in Hell after all). Goten and Trunks were the first to go over and talk to the girl they had just helped save.
"Hello!" they chimed, "What's your name?"
"Um, my name is Zoe," replied the brown haired girl, "Thanks for the save." She stared in astonishment. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. First, a villain from Dragon Ball Z; and now a whole cluster of some of her favorite characters suddenly appear and save her life. She continued to stare, not really knowing what else to say.
Zoe's staring was starting to creep the kids out. Not only was she really quiet, she was staring at them with big, saucer eyes. Trunks was the first to speak up. "Um...I'm Trunks, and this is my best friend Goten." The kids were uncomfortable with the staring so they shrugged and returned it. They thought she looked kind of strange. Before they could voice their opinion of her looks (and cause all Hell to break loose) the rest of the group approached.
"Hello," Goku and Gohan greeted her cheerfully.
"Hmph," was Vegeta's only response.
After the introductions Gohan explained to Zoe what had happened to her.
"So you mean I've been transported from my universe to the Hell of this universe?" Zoe asked.
"Yup, pretty much," Gohan replied.
While this was going on Vegeta had been eyeing the bracelet on Zoe's wrist. "Let me see that bracelet," Vegeta snarled as he grabbed Zoe's wrist to look more closely at the bracelet.
"What does it say Vegeta?" asked Goku.
"Shut up Kakarott and let me read it," snapped Vegeta. He quickly scanned the writing on the bracelet while Zoe squirmed. Then, unexpectedly, he started to laugh. "I can't believe it!"
"Huh? Believe what?" asked Goku.
Vegeta snickered. "This bracelet is something like a contract or bargain. In order for the wearer to escape Hell they have to take someone with them who has died and ended up here. It also says that if the wearer dies of unnatural causes after they have been taken out of Hell the person that was brought back gets sent back to this dump."
"What!?" shouted a very panicked Zoe. "You mean I have to pick up some psychopath to get out of here?" Zoe looked slightly queasy at the thought. "Um, can't I just stay here?" she squeaked.
Gohan shook his head. "You can't stay here, it would disrupt the fabric of space and time. It would endanger too many people to just leave you here."
"Oh," Zoe squeaked again. She resigned herself to her fate and asked one final question. "How am I supposed to pick someone from this horrible place then?"
"You aren't," commented Vegeta, "I'm going to pick for you, otherwise we'll never get out of this dump. Females can never make up their pea-brained minds quickly." He then started to look around for a potential candidate to bring back.
"What!?" spluttered Zoe. "You can't do this! I...I...have...." Zoe shut up after a nasty look from Vegeta. She promptly told herself that he wasn't one of her favorite characters anymore.
As Vegeta looked around Zoe complained to several other members of the group but to no avail. She was just trying to get Goku to understand "why" she didn't want Vegeta to pick for her when the aforementioned Saiyan found what he wanted.
"All right, you're taking him with you," snapped Vegeta as he pointed to a very dazed Turles. "And I also don't want to hear one word of complaint from you or else," Vegeta said in a low threatening tone. With that Zoe shut up again and just stood there listening to the group.
"Okay, so we've found the first person," commented Goku. "Let's go look for the second." This said and done the group headed off after a brief argument on which way to go.
After a couple hours of cruising around aimlessly the group heard the sounds of a battle. "Let's go see what's up!" shouted Goku eagerly. He then bolted off in the direction the sounds were coming from. Gohan looked at Vegeta, shrugged, and the two followed after the fast disappearing Goku. Meanwhile Goten and Trunks dragged an unwilling Zoe and Turles after the rest of the group.
The sounds of battle had stopped by the time everyone had reached Goku. As they reached him they found he was staring up at a spot a couple hundred yards in the air in front of them. When they looked to where Goku was looking the group was shocked (well, actually they were a little surprised, NOT shocked).
They saw a girl with rather long, wild (not messy), red hair hovering in the air. But that wasn't what was surprising. She was turned away from them and holding a rather limp Jeice of the Ginyu Force by the back of his armor while the rest of the Force was laying on the ground unconscious (C. Ginyu isn't there because he is still a frong back on the DBZ gang's earth). Suddenly Zoe's eyes widened.
"Celine!?"
******
I turned my head towards the noise. I couldn't quite believe it, I'd heard my name. I hadn't met anyone in this dump that had known my name. The only person I knew of that could possibly know my name and be here was Zoe. I turned around completely. "Hey Zoe, long time no see," I grinned as I started gathering energy. Hey, just because my best bud shows up doesn't mean I wouldn't fry the scum I had in my hands. Goku (yea, I knew his name, Zoe's not the only one who watched DBZ) noticed me gathering energy.
"Put him down," Goku said. He looked determined that I shouldn't fry Jeice.
"Why? He's scum, he should fry." I didn't understand why Goku always wanted to show mercy to the bad guys. So after a not so small argument with him (Vegeta surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly took my side), I dropped Jeice. To my amusement he made a dull thud/splat on the ground below. I floated down and introduced myself to the rest of the group. That's when I heard the funniest sounding comment.
"Wow Celine! You look a lot older since I saw you last!" blurted Zoe.
This comment from her startled me and I pointed out what was to me, an obvious fact. "Look Zoe, we've been stuck here for five years, of course I'm going to look older!"
"No you haven't," replied Gohan calmly.
"What do you mean I haven't? Are you saying that we haven't been stuck here for five years?" I growled. "I've been in a damn forest surviving the attacks of monsters for five years and now your telling me that I haven't!?" I was seriously pissed. I didn't like it when people implied that I was a liar.
"I...uh...no, I'm not calling you a liar. It's just that you've only been stuck down here for a month," replied a slightly ruffled Gohan.
My verbal assault of Gohan prompted Zoe to defend his statement (he's her favorite character). "I've only been here for a month so you can't say Gohan's lying!"
At this Vegeta started to laugh. "You bakas! I suppose the rumors about this place are true!"
"What rumors?" blurted Goku.
Vegeta snorted. "How would a moron like you understand these things? (I reminded myself to thank Goku for asking that question so I wouldn't have had to ask Vegeta and have him focus his attention on me.) I heard rumors that this place had areas in it where time passed faster than it does normally. Those areas wouldn't effect someone that was dead but would wreak havoc with someone that was alive!" Vegeta laughed again.
He continued to laugh until Goku pointed to the bracelet around my wrist. "We'll have to do something about that bracelet too. Vegeta, could you translate what it says?"
I had to interrupt then. "Don't bother, I already know what it says."
"WHAT!" shouted the incredulous Saiyan Prince. "You couldn't possibly know what it says! It's written in Saiyan!"
"Wanna bet?" I grinned. I was enjoying his shocked look. "On my world this is a spoken language. My mom taught it to me. It's spoken by people in the country she's from."
Still looking rather stunned Vegeta mumbled something like, "How could that be?" and walked away from the group.
Goku interrupted the moment by asking me how I had beaten the Ginyu Force with a power level of only 2,000.
I laughed at this. "I didn't beat them. They beat themselves!"
"Huh?" was Goku's only response.
Because I was feeling nice I decided to elaborate a bit more on what had happened. "Oh, I found out during my time in that forest that I have a rather interesting ability. I found I can absorb ki blasts. When they tried to blow me away I simply absorbed the blasts and redirected them. That's how I was able to beat the Ginyu Force. I've also found that I can change the form of the energy I absorb. For example, I can take energy used for an attack and turn it into healing energy."
"Cool," laughed Trunks.
"Yea, I think so," I replied.
While this conversation was going on Vegeta recovered his composure and soon came stomping over (he was still pissed off). "Well? Can we get this over with? I'd like to get back to some more important stuff!" he barked at us.
"Sure," I replied, "but I want to pick someone with a power level that is the same as mine."
"Why?" asked Gohan curiously.
"Why? Because I want someone to spar with! I want to have something to do while I'm on your Earth!"
"Good idea Celine! I'll help you find someone," Goku exclaimed.
Gohan rolled his eyes at his dad's remark and Zoe simply goggled at my idea. As Goku used his power to sense other's ki Zoe came over and asked me if it was such a good idea. "Celine, do you really think you should be doing this? I mean, why do you want to spar with someone any ways?"
"I just said why Zoe. We're going to their Earth. I don't know much about what we can do once we get there so I'm going to make sure I have something to keep me busy when we're there. Plus, from what I've seen of DBZ I know we'll need some survival skills. I mean, some powerful being is always threatening the place and I want to be strong enough to at least be able to survive," I told her quietly.
Zoe looked shocked. "That forest didn't just change your age Celine, your different than from when I last saw you," she muttered.
Goku interrupted our conversation by suddenly shouting, "Found one!"
"Where?" I asked as I walked over to him.
He grinned (damn, the guy was so cheerful it made my eyeteeth ache) and gestured in the direction my future "sparring" partner was. Goten and Trunks picked up Zoe and Turles again and we all flew off in the direction that Goku had pointed. After about half an hour of cruising Goku slowed down a bit more (he was already going slow so the rest of us could keep up) and pointed to a person in a small clearing below.
I grinned at what I saw. A rather muscular guy a little taller than Goku was leaning against a rock in the clearing. That isn't what helped me identify him though. His hair is what did that. Wild (not messy), black, longer than my waist length hair (down to his knees for crying out loud!), and an exaggerated widows peak. I almost laughed out loud as I recognized him. Raditz.
Now that Goku had found someone the problem was how to get him to agree to be my sparring partner. While I was thinking about this Vegeta zoomed down and landed right in front of Raditz. "So your the one we're taking back with us," Vegeta sneered.
Raditz looked alarmed and took a step back. "Huh!?"
Vegeta snorted. "Now I know your related to Kakarott! We're taking you with us so we can get out of this place!"
Raditz still looked confused as the rest of us glided down. He looked away from Vegeta and glanced at us. He sneered when he saw Zoe and myself (yeah, he's sexist too) and when he saw Goku he snarled and bristled (almost literally). He obviously couldn't sense power levels or he would have shut up instantly.
I rolled my eyes and casually commented, "Hey Raditz, you wanna live again?"
He snapped his gaze back towards me. I doubt even his respect for Vegeta would have kept him from reacting to those words. "What!? Of course I want to live again wench!"
I grinned, I could tell this wasn't going to be a smooth partnership. But I could live with that. "All right Radish, take a look at this bracelet," I said as I flashed the aforementioned item in front of his face.
He glared at me before reading the bracelet around my wrist. I watched his face as he read and saw his eyes widen in something like shock. He glanced from the bracelet to me then back to the bracelet. "What's the catch, wench?" he growled.
"Nothing much," I answered, "I just want a sparring partner when we get back to the land of the living."
"WHAT!?" he exploded, "You want me to be your baby-sitter!?"
I narrowed my eyes and socked him in the stomach hard enough to let him know I could hurt him. "No," I drawled, "I want you to be a sparring partner, NOT a baby-sitter."
He glanced up from his bent over position (meanwhile Vegeta was laughing his ass off and everyone else was trying not to). He looked impressed to a VERY small degree and I thought I saw a tiny glimmer of respect in his eyes (of course this could have been my imagination). "Fine," he hissed from between his teeth, "I'll be your sparring partner. Anything to be alive again." With that he straightened up and joined our "little" group.
"So how are we getting out of here?" Raditz grudgingly asked.
Gohan grimaced, he didn't exactly like his uncle or Turles. Nor did he like the idea of them coming back to life. "We have to get to King Kai's place so he can send us back to Earth. To do that we have to go to the Spirit Checking Station and from there travel to the end of Snake Way."
"All right!" exclaimed Goku, "Let's go. I know a shortcut (remember how he got out of Hell when he fell off Snake Way?) out of here!"
"Ha! So you're finally good for something after all Kakarott!" Vegeta smirked.
Goku grinned at the remark and sped off at top speed in the direction of his shortcut. We had little choice but to follow him as best we could.
******
Goku's shortcut led us directly to the Spirit Checking Station; or more appropriately to the inside of King Yama's desk. After shouting at us for interrupting his work he gave us a guide and a minivan; then ushered us out of his office.
As the guide showed the way to the beginning of Snake Way he made small talk. After a couple minutes of his drivel we reached our destination. What happened next was not to be believed.
The guide looked over our group and commented, "The van can only seat eight people. Someone is going to have to sit on someone's lap."
I think at that point we all blinked stupidly at the same time. Unfortunately that blankness didn't last. My only question is why do males always looks at females and new people in these situations? They focused their attention on Zoe first (thank Kame!).
Zoe's eyes widened. "NO WAY! I'm NOT sitting on Turles' lap! Err...besides, he's still too injured for me to sit on his lap!"
Goku shrugged, "Well, if Turles is too sore for that..."
Vegeta smirked maliciously at this and turned to look at me.
"Uh-Uh! I don't think so! Vegeta, there is NO way I'm sitting on Raditz's lap. One, it would put me in a vulnerable position; and two, it's embarrassing!"
"Okay," replied Goku. He glanced at Vegeta. "Vegeta, would y-..."
"WHAT!? Kakarott, have you lost your mind!?" Vegeta shouted at the top of his lungs.
"But Vegeta, I w-...," Goku tried to continue.
"Kakarott!! I am NOT going to sit on someone's lap! Are you nuts or something!? I'd rather sit on the van's roof for the entire trip than sit on someone's lap!!" Vegeta yelled. He then flew off and landed on the van's roof while muttering about how Goku was a complete pervert.
"But all I was going to say was if he would mind if I just had Goten sit on my lap," murmured Goku.
The rest of us stayed quiet during this conversation. We didn't want to get dragged into a possibly violent confrontation between Goku and Vegeta.
With the "crisis" over Gohan finally spoke up. "Okay guys, I'm driving."
"But I wanted to drive! I finally learned how," whined Goku.
Gohan eyed his father. "Dad, not to be rude or anything but...I don't trust you behind the wheel."
Goku looked slightly deflated and then perked up. "I get shotgun!" he shouted. This prompted another argument. This time between Goten, Trunks, and Goku. The kids had also wanted shotgun; but being older Goku got it his way. The kids looked disappointed for a couple minutes and then started to grin and laugh again. For some reason this worried me, although I wasn't sure why.
Zoe piped up next. "I'm not sitting next to Turles or Raditz!"
"And we're sitting with each other!" shouted Goten and Trunks in unison.
I shrugged. "Okay, I'll sit next to Turles and Raditz. How bad could it be?"
After settling the seating arrangements we piled into the minivan. Gohan was behind the wheel while Goku had shotgun. Zoe was sitting between Goten and Trunks in the middle set of seats. Raditz sat in the back set of seats between Turles and myself; and of course Vegeta was settled on the roof of the minivan.
Once everyone was settled Gohan called out, "Everyone ready?"
"Shut up and let's go!" shouted Vegeta.
Gohan flushed, revved up the van, and off we went.
******