Disclaimer: Don't own it but still want it and the Holiday's are coming up… hint, hint.
Dude Where's My World?
Revised
Chapter 2: The Meeting
The girls hit the ground, hard.
"Son of a bitch!" Josie gritted her teeth, lying face first, in what appeared to be grass. Valerie's response somewhere to her left was only to groan in agreement. Wanting to look up over at her friend, Josie tried to turn her head but the immediate shockwave of pain that shot through the top part of her head, made her immediately abort the idea. She, instead, focused on breathing through the pain and lifted her hand to the side of her face where she felt something warm on her temple; rubbing at the texture but refusing to turn and try to open her eyes again, Josie assumed it was some blood, which only made her pulse jump up a notch.
She knew she was outside because her forehead was clearly pressed against dirt, there were blades of grass tickling her cheek, and she could smell it, but this answered nothing for her. How had they gotten from her bedroom to her backyard? Had they been thrown through her window back there? Had she broken something ELSE in her house? She was so friggin dead. "What's the worst that could happen…" Josie mimicked Valerie's voice from before, wishing she could get up and smack Valerie upside the head for the obvious jinx she had caused them when she had uttered those terrible words.
"Shut up," Valerie grumbled in another long-winded groan, not feeling up to the verbal berating from her friend, on top of her own migraine from hell. Valerie was also aware that they were outside, her right arm slung over her face to shield her from the bright sun overhead; more grateful than anything that they weren't dead and grateful for the coolness the grass underneath provided her heated flesh to question it too much.
"Val… we should probably get up." Josie said through a grimace, trying to push up on her hands, her quaking arms feeling like they weighed a ton each. She managed the lift for about six-seconds a few centimeters off the ground, before she caved into gravity and fell back down with a meager whine.
The two girls failed to notice the presence of the two people that they had interrupted when they had fallen so randomly out of a perfectly clear blue sky; the two individuals, who even now, hadn't recovered enough from the shock to do more than stare at them with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.
Valerie heard Josie groan out, quickly followed by another small thud. After a beat, Valerie couldn't help but smile from underneath her arm and ask with some amusement, "…You tried to get up again, didn't you?" Hearing a defiant denial, Valerie snorted lightly. "Liar"
"Shut up, Son." Josie exhaled the words, gingerly touching her head again, concerned to still feel a little bit of blood there. "Did…you manage to get the license plate of the semi truck that ran us over?" Josie joked half-heartedly, bringing her forearms to her shoulder level, ignoring the pain to lift her head up. "Duck pond, I'm friggin dizzy…"
"Then stop trying to get up, baka! Give it a damn minute." Valerie scolded, making her own attempts at opening her eyes to no avail. Josie ignored the advice and squinted her blurry eyes that, at the least, could now verify that they were, in fact, outside. Dread coursed its way through her fuzzy mind at the unfamiliar wide-open space they were in, and ignoring her body's warning to stay down, she pushed herself quickly into a kneeling position and immediately fell forward onto her hands with a cry. "Will you stop, already!" Valerie shouted, cutting herself off with a groan as she held her head.
"This isn't right…" Josie mumbled through pants, grimacing as she pushed off her hands to fully sit on her calves, shielding her eyes from the sunlight with one hand and rubbing at her eyes with the other. Forcing her eyes to stay open, Josie took in her clearing surroundings and she could swear she felt her heart stop beating for a moment.
Taking her silence to mean that she finally stopped being idiotic and stopped moving, Valerie breathed a sigh of relief, at the opportunity to figure out what the heck happened. What she knew for certain was that they had:
A) Been electrocuted and
B) had been thrown through a glass….or three…
maybe through the glass that aquariums used for that super huge display of aquatic life that always made you feel like it would break when you stood in front of it, and made you morbidly wonder what would kill you if it broke? Would it be simply drowning in the room? The slam of water when the glass broken? Or maybe one of the hundreds of animals in there would flatten you instead. It'd be horrible to die via a 150-year old turtle named Thunder falling on you… "—What the hell am I thinking right now?" Valerie groaned to herself at the odd flow of her own thoughts. She had to focus on what they were going to do NOW. They'd have to call their parents for sure now, and maybe even 911—
"—Valerie?" Josie whispered.
"What?" Valerie groaned in frustration, having hoped for a more prolonged silence while she'd finally been able to get her mind back on track to how they were going to cover their butts after their accident.
"Will you please look at me." Valerie wanted to tell her where she could shove her request, because she'd gotten them into this mess in the first place, but something about the way her voice had sounded made Valerie frown and her pulse begin to quicken again, this time with trepidation. She lowered her arm from her face and blinked a few times and squinted at Josie, who she could make out was kneeling a few feet away. She waited the seconds necessary for her eyes to adjust and clear up and made out more details, such as: Josie's lips were in a tight grimace, there was sweat and blood on her brow, the color was completed drained from her face—and now Valerie could see why.
Valerie swallowed audibly, another million thoughts rushing through her scrambled and —quite literally — fried brain that she rejected as soon as they entered her mind. Adrenaline brought on by fear came back with a vengeance, making her jump up to her feet, stumbling only a little, as she gaped at Josie's appearance.
Josie's anime appearance — but that wasn't possible, so this had to be some…life-sized drawing of her friend kneeling beside her, that happened to be in 3-D and that happened to have the capability of following her movements with her grim eyes.
"Me too?" Josie asked, ignored for a moment by a pale Valerie who continued to side step, in hopes of seeing how the sketch ended.
"…Too?" So laser focused on the talking animation in front of her, Valerie had failed to notice that EVERYTHING around them was in anime form, and…her too? Looking down, Valerie furiously touched every part of herself that she could access, ripping off her jacket when it restricted her inspection of her skin —hissing when a sharp pain on her wrist stopped her abrupt movement.
"How?" Josie asked inspecting her own hands and turning them this way and that.
"I don't k-know." Valerie muttered, eyes wide and panic rising as she held her wrist protectively to her chest, looking around at the completely unfamiliar area.
"Did…did we die?" Josie asked, morbidly curious when she spotted the dried blood on the back of her hand.
"I don't know." Valerie answered more sharply, feeling impatient with Josie's needless disruptions of her brain attempting to come up with a perfectly logical explanation for all of this—
"—Is this even earth?" Josie asked in wonder, leaning back down to study and touch the blades of grass under her with fascination, unconcerned with Valerie's growing agitation.
"I. DON'T. KNOW!" Valerie shouted, finally snapping. Seeing no reaction from Josie, other than holding up the ends of her jacket for inspection, Valerie rolled her eyes and unsteadily made her way to the singular tree on the hilltop they were on. Touching the tree carefully for a moment, Valerie deemed it stable enough and leaned her forehead against it with a sigh.
Josie raised an eyebrow at her half-crazed friend and stopped when she finally noticed the shadows on the ground didn't quite look right. She looked towards Valerie's and that looked normal enough, so why did hers seem to alarmingly grow? She tensed, able to hear movement against the wind now and realized with mounting fear, that they were not alone. Crap, She thought. This is the point where I die, isn't it? It's always the loud ones that die first… Stiffly, she turned her already pained upper body, fully expecting some big bad guy to be behind her, ready to cut her head off with some katana or something. She frowned when she saw no one there and looked back down to verify she didn't imagine the unnatural shadows, and she hadn't, as they were still there, which begged the question: where the hell were the shadows coming from then? She turned back around towards Valerie, ready to ask her — but before she could, she froze with an impossible possibility:
What if the person who was about to kill her was in the air above her, floating there with his katana poised in his black ninja outfit, ready to cut her down like some… evil flying ninja fiend?
Josie lifted her head ever so slowly and turned her shoulders to face her death, but the ninja wasn't wearing black; it wore the opposite of black, in fact, white boots, but it/she/he was floating in the air. She turned her body fully and looked up through a gulp, seeing blue spandex coming out of the boots, all the way up the clearly male legs— oh, there that was, yup, definitely a man. She cringed and quickly moved her eyes upwards, her head starting to spin faster and faster, seeming to match the speed of her now racing heart, as her eyes came upon his stomach, chest, neck, and then finally, his face.
"..Sweet ninja barbecue sauce…" Josie mumbled, her mouth dropping open and eyes widening to saucers, as she stared at the floating man with his arms crossed over his broad chest.
Above her hovered the serious faced Prince of all Saiyans from Dragon Ball Z.
There was no conceivable way that this was happening, Josie realized, and she shook her head at him, as if he needed to understand that. This only seemed to further confuse the already confused looking Saiyan Prince whose frown deepened, displeased with the situation. This had been his first chance in a month to spar with Goku, as his wife nagged him constantly to spend more time with their kids and help out around the house. And now these two beaten, seemingly human females, drop out of the sky in the middle of their sparring session, going on about complete nonsense. He had been surprised — and pleased — that Goku hadn't yet touched ground and happily approached the two girls like he usually did and ruined their position. Just because the two girls looked like ningens did not mean that they were as weak or normal, particularly since they'd both mysteriously appeared out of thin air, something, which no human he'd ever met had done before. He frowned, still unsure of what to make of them, but knowing already that he did not trust them one bit.
And now this stupid girl was talking about ninja's and barbecue sauce.
Vegeta frowned as an odd high-pitched noise started to come out of the humanoid looking creature on her knees. The high-pitched noise increasing in volume and quickly becoming uncomfortably sharp to his sensitive ears. He wondered what the hell was wrong with this small female for her to be practically screaming? He unconsciously started to lower himself down to the ground, unsure if it was to run away or to silence the girl permanently, but seriously contemplating both. How was it even possible to scream so loudly? He'd heard his fair share of screaming, but this...
His hands lifted in the air —again, unsure if it was to cover his ears or kill her — but he blinked when the screaming abruptly stopped. He looked over her head where Goku still floated in the air, having just released his ears from pointlessly trying to protect them from the offensive noise. Goku saw the confused look Vegeta was giving him and raised his shoulders in a shrug, completely at a loss himself. Vegeta looked down at the kneeling girl who's grabbing her throat with one hand and her head with the other, and he realized that she had stopped screaming because she was in pain. He smirked at the sight and was just about to demand an explanation, when the standing girl, pressed against a tree, started to scold her for him.
"What the hell is your problem? Are you trying to blow my head up?" Valerie demanded, lifting her head and stopped when she realized the cause of Josie's scream. She looked up to where Goku was giving her a slightly confused smile with a small wave, and the breath went right out of her lungs in a gasp. Valerie was completely unaware of her reaction, of her wide eyes, wheezing lungs, or how her body convulsed for a few moments; sending spine tingling dread that Goku could only recall ever having felt before Majin Buu destroyed planet earth.
And just as he prepared to step forward and ask if she was ok, the girl dropped her arms to her sides and wildly started to scream. Goku immediately ducked for the ground with his ears covered as Valerie chocked on her saliva after a moment, eyes watering, as she tried to keep them open in the midst of her coughing fit, afraid that her childhood idol was only a hallucination stemming from her pounding head.
Josie pursed her lips, nervously, as she got up and slowly took a slow step towards Vegeta. He eyed her warily, when she started to raise an index finger and move it towards him, and Vegeta tensed, unsure if she was preparing to attack, but he blinked in surprise when she merely poked him in the stomach inquisitively. Feeling taut skin underneath that spandex suit, Josie gasped lightly, pulling her hand back as if the touch had burned her, but slowly, disbelief morphed into fascination and oh-so-carefully Josie proceeded to poke him again. Vegeta frowned, not stopping her only because he was so utterly confused. He glanced over at Kakarrot and saw that he was just as dumbfounded from his spot on the ground by the other girl who was holding her right fist to her mouth, eyes shining happily with unshed tears. He heard that starting squeak again and snapped his head towards the girl in front of him, a second too late.
"Hiyaaa!" Vegeta was suddenly lying on his back on the ground with the girl on top of him, still staring wide-eyed, "Most incredible and painful dream ever…" She murmured, poking his arms and chest in complete wonder.
Growling, Vegeta tensed his arm preparing to push the girl off. "No Vegeta!" Goku shouted desperately at him. Vegeta frowned, turning his head the other way, seeing Goku a few feet away, apparently having suffered the same fate to the even shorter girl. The taller Saiyan looked petrified. "Don't make any sudden movements…" Goku whispered fearfully, as he slowly turned to look up at the girl who started to scream again. "Aah, No please! No more! Please!" He pleaded as he covered his ears desperately.
"...You're taller than I thought." Josie said thoughtfully, as she studied the prince, with a tilted head, no longer cognizant of Valerie's screams.
Vegeta turned back to her and his eyes narrowed. "Get off of me, baka onna." He demanded, pushing her off, none too gently to the side. Unharmed and undeterred by the disgust in Vegeta's voice, Josie remained sitting sideways on the ground, continuing to study the annoyed Prince with a cheesy grin of pleasure.
"He called me baka onna, How friggin cool is this?" Josie asked herself, clasped hands at her chest.
Vegeta rolled his eyes as he stood up, dusting himself up. "Be quiet," He demanded, over this entire freak show of a day. "And while you're at it, shut your friend's mouth as well," He ordered, a finger jabbed in Valerie's direction. "Before I shut it permanently for her."
Finally remembering her friend, Josie looked over at Valerie, who was still unknowingly torturing the wriggling Saiyan on the ground. Heart hammering in her chest and thousands of questions firing off in her foggy mind, Josie pushed herself up and went to Valerie, slapping her hand around Valerie's right in a grip and quickly yanking her up and off of Goku, clamping her other hand around Valerie's mouth. "Shh," Josie commanded patiently, keeping her hand there as she turned to look at the two regrouping Saiyans, who were definitely — amusingly enough — scared of them.
Keeping their firm distance now and eyeing them suspiciously, Vegeta was the first to speak to them. "What kind of drugs are you two on?" Vegeta finally asked, eyeing the scratched up and bleeding taller one who'd just assaulted him, and now held the shorter one quiet. This whole circus was absolutely ridiculous and he felt a growl make its way up his throat in frustration, "And where the hell did you come from?" He demanded.
Josie's smile only grew at his frustration. "You just don't even know how cool this is, I swear-" She felt a lack of Valerie's mouth in the palm of her hand and looked around for the girl, wondering where the hell she had disappeared to? Seeing Vegeta slapping his own face in agitation, she followed his line of sight and looked down to where an unconscious Valerie lay on the ground, having fallen straight back in apparent shock. "…Val...?" She asked carefully, studying the passed-out girl with slight worry, for a fraction of a moment, before shrugging it off and continuing her rant with a happy grin.
At the end of her rant, Vegeta had an anime style droplet on the side of his head. He wanted to fly away, as fast as he could back home; he wanted to get in bed beside his wife; he wanted this to be a terribly twisted dream and start an entirely different day, even willing to agree to a shopping trip with his daughter, as long as he didn't have to be here another moment longer. "—Did I talk too fast, Veggie?" Josie asked, somewhat embarrassed at the perplexing expression Vegeta wore; her tightly held hands in front of her lap, swinging softly from side to side, unable to contain her excitement.
His eyes widened at that. "What-I-" He stammered, red rushing to his angering face. "You are NEVER to call me that again if you wish to see another day, do you understand?" He demanded, taking a threatening step forward.
Josie felt heat rise to her cheeks — in more embarrassment than fear — realizing that even if this was some dream, she was making a complete fool of herself in front of her hero. She just couldn't seem to stop the never-ending flow of word vomit that kept coming out of her mouth. "I'm sorry, Prince Vegeta." She corrected for his sake with a small bow, hoping to stop pissing this royal and powerful guy off by assuaging his undeniably large ego. Vegeta blinked in surprise at that, but a slow, and still somewhat hesitant smirk appeared on his lips. He nodded, accepting the surprisingly formal apology, but he was unable to stop the bad feeling creeping up along his spine, questioning quietly, how this pathetic creature knew his name and title.
"What did you say earlier?" Goku asked confused, scratching the back of his head. Vegeta's eyes widened and his hands raised up to ward it off.
"No!—"
"—Oh," Josie blinked. "I just said that this was all kind of a trip! I was just at home with my unconscious friend here." She said pointing a thumb in Valerie's direction. "And we were just goofing off with my machine and then we were here." She tried to explain. "And that you guys don't know what big fans we—" She hesitated unsure of whether they should know this, when her eyes widened briefly in realization. "Ahhh…are you guys GT?" She asked them, scandalized at the possibility. She studiously took in Goku's gi, noting with a frown that it was the same blue one he wore in GT. Then her eyes traveled over Vegeta's form, and he was more of a mystery since he was wearing old armor, which she thankfully did not recall having seen in GT, but his hair was shorter… "Damn it, this is GT!" She announced angrily, more convinced now. "What a freaken rip! I don't know anything about GT." She glowered at them, as if it were their fault. "Why aren't you tiny?" She asked Goku with mild annoyance.
Josie turned to Valerie, "Val, isn't he supposed to be a kid-" She stopped when she remembered that her friend was out. She sighed, rolling her eyes; she took the few necessary steps to get to her and crouched down, sitting on her haunches as she studied her fallen friend. She reached out her hand, knocking on Valerie's forehead with her closed fist. "Wake up, damn you." She demanded. "I don't know what to do here." She grumbled angrily. She continued knocking until Valerie groaned, opening her eyes. Seeing someone else be as unhappy and confused as Josie felt, cheered her up considerably, and she smiled down at her friend. "Morning sunshine," Josie greeted cheerfully.
She saw Valerie's eyes widen as she looked up at her. "You're still a cartoon..." Valerie uttered quietly.
Josie cheerful demeanor stuttered to a stop, growing somber out of sympathy for her friend. "Come-on, Val-chan." Josie urged quietly, flinching as she offered the least of her throbbing hands to help pull her back on her feet again. "You okay?" She asked, keeping an arm around her until she was sure her friend was steady.
Valerie nodded as she looked at the two Saiyans in astonishment. Goku visibly cringed, and Vegeta tried to be hide his anxiety underneath a mask of arrogance, but both were worried that she'd start screaming again. Finally Goku couldn't could not help but ask, unhappily, "...You're not going to start screaming again, are you?" Vegeta quickly smacked the other Saiyan, embarrassed that he would show these two — clearly inferior — creatures that he was afraid.
Valerie finally smiled hesitantly, softly shaking her head. "No, I won't. I'm sorry for screaming earlier." She apologized sincerely. "I was just…surprised."
Josie snorted at, what was, possibly the biggest understatement of the year. "Oh the surprises keep coming, Valy, dear. I'll wait for you to realize the timeline." Josie calmly sat down with her legs straight in front of her, failing to notice — or at least pay attention to — Valerie, who glared at her silently for a few moments, before turning her attention back to the Saiyans. Thirty-seconds of awkward silence ensued, before Valerie gasped and her eyes widened. She snapped her head back to Josie, who was patiently studying her fingernails and wiping away some blood from her nail beds, seemingly too preoccupied to bother looking up. Valerie quickly put a hand underneath Josie's arm and pulled her up, ignoring Josie's demands to be careful.
"THIS IS GT!" Valerie shouted.
"There we go," Josie said with a half-grimaced grin, that Valerie could not tolerate at the moment, discarding her back onto the ground like an old newspaper. Valerie gained a brief moment of satisfaction when she saw Josie's eyes widen for a brief second, she emitted an 'Eep!' sound before she fell to the ground, ungracefully. Dusting her pants off, Josie sighed from her spot on the ground. "What are we going to do?" Josie asked Valerie, unhappily.
"I don't know." Valerie said quietly, biting gently at the knuckles of her right hand, nervously.
"Where are we going to live?" Josie asked with a groan.
"I don't know." Valerie answered a bit louder.
"How are we going to explain ourselves!" Josie demanded, letting her upper body gently drop to fully lay on her back now, nausea threatening to make her expel her breakfast and further embarrass her. She didn't feel so good…
"I DON'T FRIGGIN KN- oh why do I even bother?" Valerie asked rhetorically, throwing her hands up in exasperation, as if asking God that very question. The movement was cut short by her yelp of pain at the reminder of her left hand protesting to the movement. Valerie brought it back protectively to her chest and studied Josie who seemed to be groaning on the ground from more than just frustration over their situation. "Are you okay?" Josie looked back at her through a frown and sat up slowly.
"Do you mind helping me take this off? It feels sticky" Josie requested, biting the edge of her lower lip nervously. Valerie offered her right hand and yanked at Josie's right sleeve, helping her out of it, Josie removing the left side. "Yeah, that's not good" Josie mumbled dryly, seeing both arms had lacerations, scrapes and tender spots with forming bruises.
"Your head is bleeding." Valerie pointed out worriedly, taking a step forward. Josie pressed the spot and saw only a little blood now, confident that that was likely just a superficial cut and was already clogging. She got up with and nodded towards Valerie's protected hand, taking it in her own and gingerly moving it, earning a hiss.
"This could be broken, Val." Josie murmured with concern, eyes finally coming up to meet her friends with beginnings of real fear. Valerie rolled her eyes, annoyed but grateful that she was finally understanding the situation that they were in. "I saw our bags are with us," Josie tried, "Do you have money or your flip phone in your bag? Maybe we can go to urgent care or a hospital? or maybe call our parents—"
"—Do you hear yourself?" Valerie asked, stupefied by Josie's naivety, "We have nothing, baka! We weren't intending on going anywhere, we have nothing!" They heard someone clear their throats and the two turned to the Saiyan's they'd, somehow, forgotten were there, still watching, and still confused as ever.
The two men had been watching the girls interact silently and Vegeta had already needed to stop Goku twice from interceding and offering his help, like he always tried to do. When the two girls spoke to each other, they seemed to forget about everything else, and though it was annoying and offensive, it was still to their advantage to find out more about what the hell they were and why they were there in the first place. So far, none of their mumbled nonsense clarified anything for them, in fact, it only added to the confusion; realizing this method was fruitless, Vegeta thought it best stop end their needless chatter and interrogate them more fully at a later time of his choosing.
"My woman will tend to your injuries." Vegeta informed them in a tone that gave no room for argument. They merely stared as Vegeta questioningly, but he ignored them and turned to Goku. "Capsule, Kakarrot." Goku fished around his pockets until he found his case of capsules and handed it to Vegeta without question, seeing his friend go through it, find the right one and hand the rest back to him. Vegeta pressed the button at the top of the capsule and lazily threw it forward, where in a second after a puff of smoke, appeared a convertible mustang. The two girls eyes bugged but they forced themselves to stay quiet and not comment. Josie clapped her hands twice excitedly and went to go grab their bags before following the two Saiyans to the vehicle.
…
Before they got into the car, Vegeta warned Goku not to start any conversation and he was relieved to see that the two girls didn't attempt to initiate any either. The silence obviously couldn't last with this combination and soon there was another incident of ear covering, screaming from Josie and shouting from Vegeta when she panicked over what side of the road he was driving on when they got on a real road. Thankfully, that was the only incident and the two girls settled down with their faces plastered to the window when they entered the city; they stared, open mouthed, at every person and building they passed.
They arrived sooner than either girl would have liked, wishing that they had had more time to look around and explore, but any thoughts of exploring the city went out the window when their eyes came upon Capsule Corp Grounds. The land took up more than one block, enclosed in a white picket fence that seemed simple minded in its efforts to impede a passerby from staring in, but what the fence lacked in privacy, the much larger shrubs directly behind it made up for it. The house itself was large and three stories high and they couldn't see past the white, yellow and blue dome shaped home. Josie noted with surprise that at least some of the top of the house appeared to be flat and had a white railing, she imagined what the view met be like from up there and she promised herself that she would check it out at some point during their visit.
They parked the car and walked on the pathway, following after them inside the double doors that led to a spacious living room. It had grand windows and a high ceiling but was decorated a lot more simply than either girl would have imagined the rich family would have it. A few paintings were on the wall, a large flat TV to their far left wall, with a few couches spread throughout the room for comfortable lounging, and a large coffee table atop a rug. Vegeta ignored their gawking and stepped into the house, "WOMAN!" He shouted.
Valerie didn't personally think the man would get a response, imagining the house was too big for him to possibly be heard everywhere, but she was proven wrong when she heard angry stomps heading in their direction. "WHAT?" An agitated Bulma shouted back in agitation, appearing from a swinging door on their right hand side. Not having noticed them yet, Bulma glared daggers at her incessantly rude husband, holding on tightly to her steaming cup of hot coffee in an attempt to stop herself from lobbing it at his head.
Undisturbed by the irritation he'd caused his wife, or the threat of a burning liquid flying at his face any second, Vegeta gestured briefly towards the two girls before crossing his arms. "I want you to see to some injuries."
"I'm not your personal nurse to throw around at people, you know." Bulma grumbled irritably, taking a sip of her coffee whilst she finally looked over at the two strangers in her living room with a frown. Their clothes were dirty and torn in some places and the girls themselves didn't look much better, caked with dried blood. She sighed, wondering what kind of mess had Vegeta gotten himself into this time… "I should have known you'd be involved in some way, Goku." Bulma scolded her childhood friend, who rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly.
Josie felt that increasingly familiar sensation of wonder and elation as Bulma took an unconscious step forward to better study them. Bulma Brief, with her perfect skin and sparkling blue eyes and ever evolving teal colored hair was looking at her. Vegeta tensed when he heard her, likely unknowingly, begin to emit that horrible high-pitched noise that she'd done shortly before attacking him. He took a threatening step toward her. "Don't you dare…" He hissed in warning.
Josie slightly shaking form went rigid at the warning and she clamped her lips firmly shut to stop herself from making another mistake in his eyes, but her wide eyes remained transfixed on the genius in front of her.
"Dare what?" Bulma asked, confused by the girl who actually stopped breathing at her husband's command. "Does anybody care to explain what the hell is going on here?"
"—'snowwaythatI'minaroomwithyouthreeatthesametime!" Josie gasped for air after finishing her barely intelligible sentence explaining everything that had happened to Bulma. Valerie elbowed her side, glaring at her to keep her trap shut.
"I…what?" Bulma asked dumbly, rubbing an ear.
"No—" Vegeta tried but Valerie was already talking.
"She said she's very excited to meet you three, she's been a huge fan of your work Bulma-san for a long time now." Valerie modified Josie's statement with a polite smile and slight bow.
"Do not insult my woman's intelligence with your pitiful lies," Vegeta growled. "You are no earthlings and you will explain your purpose for coming to this planet." Bulma snorted, not having expected that to be the reason for her husband bringing these poor teenage girls here; on the other hand she couldn't really be too surprised, familiar with her husbands overactive imagination and exaggerated paranoia. Rolling her eyes, Bulma set down her coffee mug on a nearby end table with a plant her mom had given her, contemplating how she was going to clean up this mess her husband made; maybe if she offered them a little bit of money, fixed them up, and had them sign a non-disclosure agreement she could send them back home without this making its way to the media.
Bulma sighed at how much daily work her husband caused her, and she painted on a polite smile, nodding towards Josie's arm and holding out her hand for it. "May I?" She inquired, ignoring Josie's continued star-struck gaze, used to the fanfare. "How did this happen?" She asked, readying herself for accusations about her freak husband.
"Oh, well…" Josie looked over at Valerie for a moment before shrugging lightly. "We just…kind of fell." Bulma looked up at that, very surprised by the response.
"…Well, none of these look very deep but you may need stitches here," She indicated to Josie's upper arm. "And I may want to do a CT scan just to play it safe for that head wound I can see…Have you experienced any headaches since the fall? Dizziness? Nausea? Loss of consciousness?"
"Little bit of the first three but no, I haven't passed out." Josie answered, then after a moment, she pointed a thumb in Valerie's direction. "She has though." Bulma turned her attention to the smaller girl, also asking permission, before she took a look at her injuries, immediately pointing out the problem wrist.
"Doesn't seem like a break, maybe just a bad sprain…" Bulma murmured mostly to herself, before turning her attention back to the entire room of spectators. "I'll get one of the girls fixed up at a time, and if you two girls would like, you can join us for dinner so that we can get to know each other a little better." Bulma offered for the sake of everyone involved. Clearly, her husband was dead-set on kidnapping these girls until they gave him satisfactory answers, and to avoid further scaring or traumatizing them, she figured she'd make it sound like an exclusive opportunity for them to eat dinner with the most powerful woman on the planet. She'd tactfully ask questions for her husband and they could send them on their way when the evening was over.
"See? I told you she was awesome…" Josie nudged Valerie back happily, making Bulma smile, feeling a small stirring of tenderness for the naive girl who gave her trust so freely. "I'm Josie." Josie introduced herself, offering up her hand to shake Bulma's. "And my friend's name is Valerie."
"It's a pleasure to meet you both," Bulma said sincerely, bad mood forgotten. "My name is—"
"—Bulma Brief." Josie answered for her easily, nodding excitedly.
Bulma blinked, caught off guard by the ready answer but she forced herself to smile, albeit hesitantly, shaking off the surprise and nodded in agreement. "Well, yes, I'm sure you've read that somewhere." She reasoned, then gestured towards Goku. "This is my childhood—"
"—friend, Son Goku." Valerie nodded, staring dreamily at him.
Bulma remained silent for a longer beat, growing more confused by the moment, and a little worried. "...That's right." She tried to share a concerned look with her husband but he was too busy glaring at the girls to notice her. "And this is my husband Ve—" She willingly went silent, eyeing them expectantly. When she received no answer, she began to smile in amusement. "No response?" She asked lightly.
Valerie and Josie shared a small look. "No…we just realized we are being rude by interrupting and figured we should shut up. That is Vegeta, Prince of planet Vegeta-sei." Josie explained, highly proud to find herself suddenly sounding so intelligent amongst adults.
"How…could you possibly know that?" Bulma asked, astounded and looking at the girl's through new eyes. The only information on earth about her husband — even after all of these years — was that he was a part of the earth's "Special Forces". After all of these years, most people on earth still were not aware that he was not human.
"Whoops." Josie muttered, looking to Valerie for assistance with her word vomit. Valerie glared at her and startled fumbling through an explanation about the fall affecting her head and how she was loopy, when she was cut short by Josie covering her mouth with her hand. "Shh," She requested quietly, leaning her ear forward, as her eyes grew wider. The others remained silent for a moment, finally hearing the two male voices carrying down to them, from the double set of stairs on the far wall across from where they stood at the entrance to the house. "Do…you think its…" Josie's mouth felt dry, unable to even get the words out.
"I don't know," Valerie looked at her anxiously. "I didn't really get to hear the dubbed voices much. Is it them?"
Josie's heart went into double time at the one familiar voice approaching them, feeling her hands clam up. "It is," She whispered through her dry mouth, attempting to gulp saliva back into her throat.
The two unsuspecting teenagers came down the large stairs down into the living room and into what his father now felt was 'ear hell'. "Thanks for stopping by, Goten, it's been a long time buddy—" The two boys stopped at the foot of the stairs when they saw the gathered group of tense people already occupying the living room. "Oh, hello." Trunks greeted politely, a friendly smile on his face.
"RUN BOYS," Goku tried to save them, shushed by both Vegeta and Bulma.
"Freaking A." Josie muttered, hand pressed to keep her stomach from flipping anymore, her eyes wide. She slapped her other hand against her traitorous mouth that seemed to be getting ready to squeal again. Her friend Valerie seemed to give up the struggle altogether, letting out a short burst of a scream and her eyes rolling backward, followed shortly by the rest of her unconscious body. Josie looked over at her, frowning with disapproval at her friend, who continued to become unconscious at the most inopportune times.
"Whoa!" Trunks jumped back, startled. He knew he was a great looking guy, but this was the first time his looks had flat-out knocked a girl out. Rubbing the back of his head, he chuckled nervously, nudging his friend beside in question of whether he was watching this. Goten was equally astounded, but not as self-absorbed in thinking that he had anything to do with it; he'd only been thinking that the girl's likely hadn't had enough to eat today, seeing as one was clearly grabbing her mouth and rumbling stomach, and the other had simply passed out from hunger.
"Come-on, don't do this to me, Val…" Josie groaned, nudging Valerie's rib with the tip of her shoe, frantically. Noting it was doing nothing to rouse her sleeping —and possibly concussed— friend, Josie nervously looked between the boys and Bulma, wondering what she could do to explain any of this away? What could she say to answer the millions of questions that hung heavily in the tense air? What clever introduction could she give herself in front of THE Brief Trunks and Son Goten?
"…Uh, Hi…" Josie mumbled to the newcomers shyly, blush covering her cheek at the dead-panned expressions on the others faces. She bit the tip of her thumb anxiously and waved with the other, an awkward smile on her flushed face; her eyes shining with genuine delight, at what had to be, the absolute best day of her life.
