Come with me now - A Dragonball Fanfic

Chapter One

I couldn't get my body to budge from my spot peering around the corner, the sheer shock of what, or rather who I was seeing left me locked in place. I blinked a few times to see if my eyes were playing a trick on me, but no, the teenaged girl with pulled back blue hair remained visible. She had her eyes glued to the gadget in her hand while walking up to the mouth of the cave that I had found myself in. I didn't know what to do, take the dragonball and run maybe? Ditch the thing and hide? Let her find me? I don't know if it was from my childish behaviors that stuck with me into my young adulthood or my anxieties that have been running rampant all day, but hiding felt like the best option to me. My stomach roared out in hunger before I could move a muscle, which caught the ear and attention of the girl genius that had been up until now absentmindedly striding up to the cave.

I ducked back into the cave a second too late, the teen had already looked up and saw me. Anxiety held my mind in a vice grip while I looked for a place to hide. Alas, there were no large rocks to hide behind at the entrance of the cave. My heart beat picked up as footsteps outside quickened and voice called out to me. Biting my lip I stay close to the wall of the tunnel waiting for the girl to round the corner, even if I did try to run I wouldn't make it very far before running out of breath or energy.

"Hey kid," the girl called out to me once more as she entered the cave, "what on Earth are you doing way out here?" I unintentionally cower away from both her and the question. How could I answer that question when I didn't even have an answer for myself? I looked down at my feet while fiddling with the orb in my hands, when I finally got up the nerve to tell her I don't know why I'm out here my voice was hoarse and pathetic from crying. "You don't..." her thought trailed off and quickly replaced it with a new question, "Hey, what's that you're holding?"

My gaze travel from my toes up to the orb in my hands. I knew perfectly well what I was holding, the real question is how to answer her, if at all. "I... I tripped on this," I murmured while dancing around the question. I'd rather not start lying so early in the conversation, so vague answers is what it's going to have to be. While sneaking a look up at her to see if the teen was satisfied with my reply my stomach let itself been known once again with a loud growl. I jerked my head back down to hide the blood rushing to my cheeks.

"Sounds like you're hungry," I heard her giggle. The teen laughing at me didn't exactly help with my embarrassment, though to hear laughter after so much crying and self-pity was pleasant. "I got an idea, why don't you come back home with me and we can get you fed and washed up before we get you back to your family?"

My brows furrowed at her proposition, while the offer of food and a shower was very tempting, there was no feasible way for her to find my family. I shook my head and said with a hiccup, "Y-you won't be able to find them." Shocked, she asked why that was and irritatingly I could only respond with tears for the first few minutes. "I don't know why, or how," I babbled after regaining the ability to string together word, "But I woke up in this cave and I know there's no way back to my family."

I undoubtedly looked like an absolute mess, I was exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally. It irritated me that I was like this in front of someone I had just met, but I couldn't stop my crying. It seemed like every little thing touched some nerve and sent me deeper into despair. I knew today was going to be bad, but I didn't know it would be this miserable.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and quickly look up through teary eyes to see who had placed it there. The blue haired teen had crouched down to be eye level with me and offered a warm sympathetic smile. I choked back sobs as best I could to allow her to to speak. Her tone was kind, motherly even, "Hey, it's okay. At least you're safe." I nodded slowly in response. My stomach grumbled again, and in doing so caused my face to be painted red. A smile graced the teen's face and giggled, "Now how's about we get back to the city and get us something to eat?"

"You'd really do all this for me?" I murmur rubbing some of the pooled tears from my vision, "We-we just met, you don't even know my name."

"Well, my name's Bulma. And yeah I'd do this for you, you're a staving little kid that needs my help. Getting you washed up and something to eat isn't a problem," The teen chirped taking her hand off my shoulder.

"I'm Catherine, Catherine Jane Steele," I hiccup with a small smile tugging at my lips, "Most... Most people just call me CJ, though."

"Catherine, huh?" she parroted my name in a quizzical tone, "That's an interesting name, I don't think I've ever hear of it before."

Let me get this straight, the girl named after underwear thinks my name is odd? I guess when literally everyone and their mother has some kind of pun or theme to their name, a completely mundane and unpunny one really is the odd one out. I kicked at the pebbles on the cave and mumble, "It was my grandmother's name, and I really do prefer to be called CJ."

"Alrighty, CJ it is then. Now how's about we go grab some lunch before we go back home and get you washed up?" Bulma suggested while standing back up. I looked up with a smile and nodded. "West City is just south of here, it's about a twenty minute drive."

She gestured for me to follow her and I did just that, sticking close to her as we walked towards a little car at the foot of the narrow path that connected the high up cave to the forest floor. The four wheeled car had the word "turbo" printed on it, wait that car had be some ways off, how the heck am I able to read that? Did someone swap my eyes with an eagle's?

I wasn't able to ponder that for long as an itch began to bug the hell out of me. What's worse is I couldn't figure out where it was. It felt like it was along my spine but... oh crap. I forgot about the tail. Not exactly used to having a tail let alone trying to control it like I would my arms and legs, I use my free hand to wrap the thing around my waste to make for a furry belt.

Bulma seems so young, and if she's out looking for dragonballs by herself, that means she hasn't met Goku yet. And that means, I should keep mine hidden as best as I can. I still don't know what the heck is going on or how I got here, but I don't want to be held accountable for royally screwing up a history that I'm not even supposed to be a part of. History... No, at this point all the events I know about are in the future. But Dragonball Z and all that is fiction, not real, and it defiantly isn't supposed to have me in it.

Maybe, through some bizarre act of God, I was sent to a different universe where all of Dragonball is a reality? I am no scientist by any stretch of the imagination, but some theories have always intrigued me, particularly ones on multiverse and alternate time-lines. Extremely confusing more often than not, but none the less interesting. And to be completely honest, I have wished for something like this many times before; to go to some other universe were what I know to be fiction is reality.

Ever since I was a child, I've wished on coins into fountains, the first star in the night sky, birthday cakes, you name it, and more often than not the wishes where the same at there core. I want to go on an adventure through whatever series I was hooked on at the time. Now it seems that all those stocked up wishes finally got came true and landed me in Dragonball. But rather than just displacing me, I'm a kid again. I woke up in a saiyan ship, in saiyan armor, as a saiyan. Planet Vegeta should have been destroyed shortly after Goku was sent to earth, so how the heck do I fit into this?

"Hey, Earth to CJ," the voice of Bulma derailed my thoughts. I quickly look around for the teen with curious eyes, what did I miss? "Sheesh, you didn't even realize you walked straight pass the car."

I turned around and spotted Bulma standing next to the driver's seat door of the car, which was about ten feet away. I let out a nervous laugh and quickly walked back to it while holding the dragonball in both hands to secure it. "Sorry, got lost in thought." When I got to the car I climbed into the passenger's side and put on the seat belt. In addition to it saving me in the event of a crash, the belt also hid the tail around my waist rather well, so that's a plus.

The drive out of the forest was bumpy. I didn't speak while Bulma concentrated on navigating through the trees, all I could do was try to keep the orange orb from flying out of my hands. About a second after getting onto some dirt road the drive smoothed out considerably. I loosened my grip on the orb and saw Bulma glance down at it in my peripheral. Bulma was the first of us to speak, "Hey CJ, that orb in your lap, does it have red stars in it?"

I nod, "Five."

"Ooh! This is great," she beamed, "School isn't even out yet and I already have two dragonballs!"

I mumble to myself uncertain if the teenaged driver can even understand me "So this is, a real dragonball... It's so pretty." I'm still coming to terms with all this, the orb in my lap, an actual wish granting dragonball. I had an acrylic six star ball back home, but the orb in my lap, it was an true blue, well orange really, dragonball. No seems, no scratches, it was flawless.

"You know what the dragonballs are?" rang the curious voice of Bulma. I hum in affirmation and mention that my older brother told me about them.

And it was true, back when I was a little kid my brother and a bunch of my cousins in Missouri were really into Dragonball Z, so when ever he visited and insist on watching it my little sister and I ended up bugging them with questions about the show. Actually back when I was in fourth grade I threw a fit because my brother pointed out I had quoted something Vegeta said in the episode we watched earlier. In my mind I was quoting my teacher, a woman that I greatly admired, and to be associated in any way with the evil villain Vegeta upset me. Needless to say, I am not going to be telling anyone here about that event ever.

For the rest of the drive into the city Bulma asked me questions about myself and I asked her the same questions despite already knowing most of the answers. She talked about her older sister and parents, and I told her some stuff about my family. It hurt a bit to talk about them, but Bulma kept reassuring me and gave some comfort. The conversation eventually lead to school, which I tried to keep the questions off of me as much as possible. I'm essentially a twelve year old with the education level of a college freshman, I really didn't want any unwanted attention.

"So yeah, High School's been okay so far," Bulma answered with a shrug, "After my last final on Thursday I was going to ditch and take an early vacation so I can hunt for the rest of the dragonballs. There's no way I'm waiting around till next Wednesday for school to officially get out." I hummed an acknowledgment to the teen and look out the window. We had gotten onto the main road a few minutes ago and the signs stated that West City was two miles away. I heard Bulma's fingers rhythmically tapping on the steering wheel as she seemed to hum in thought. "You know, looking for the dragonballs by myself could get pretty lonely... why don't you come with me?"

I turned my head and blinked at her a few times in disbelief of what I heard, "W-what?"

"Yeah, go on an adventure, explore the world, and who knows maybe we can find some sign of your family." Bulma said with a smile, "It will be great!"

"An... adventure?" I repeated, mulling over the word and its meaning. My life had been mundane and average, and I was content with that. Now I'm being offered to explore and see a world so different to what I know. The thought of it was quite intimidating, yet at the same time the idea of it, an adventure, it was thrilling. The word lit an ember in me, a desire to go and explore. I didn't want to mess up any of the upcoming events, but the thought of traveling with Bulma and eventually Goku and knowing what all takes place, it was even more thrilling. In that moment I didn't care about the potential consequences of tagging along I just wanted to go. A large grin spread across my face, "I'd love to go!"

The blue haired driver laughed at my sudden pep as she drove into the city limits. "Awesome," she chuckled, "then it's settled, we can head out on the 27th, right after everyone else is in school. Traffic shouldn't be so bad then. Anyway, now that we're in the city, where do you want to get lunch?"

"I don't really care as long as its fast and preferably has chicken strips, shrimp baskets, or hamburgers... or all of them, I'm really hungry. Actually an all-you-can-eat buffet, that would probably be the best." I answer while wiping some of the drool off my lips.

"Okay, buffet it is. I heard that a really good one opened up last week." The girl genius said turning down a new road, most likely one that would lead to this new buffet she spoke of. I just hope I can curb my appetite without making the place go bankrupted.

A/N: Finally got this chapter done, ended up a bit shorter when it get typed. Also ended it differently than I originally planed, oh well. I also got the dragonball volumes 1-9 and all 5 seasons of the anime, so I can stick relatively close to cannon. Oh! One thing I forgot to mention, CJ is acting as an Author Surrogate, practically every event in her past she has/will talk about is taken from my personal life experiences just with name changes, even that thing that happened in the fourth grade. I seriously did not like Vegeta at the time, he was a bad guy and his partner Nappa had blown up a whole city!

Dragonball © Akira Toriyama