The Third Attempt to Kill Kakarott Day
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.
The second holiday of such went much like the first. They chose a spot in the mountains near the remains of Dr. Gero's lab. All of them were beaten up, especially Goku, but Senzu beans weren't brought for nothing.
By the third one, they started to run into problems.
Ten Days Earlier
"Vegeta, you're asking for Senzu beans again, aren't you?" Korin asked. He didn't need to guess, since this was the third time he'd come to the tower on the last day of the month.
"Yes, I am", he replied, then sighed. "You have some?"
"I do. But", he said, holding up one paw, "you must tell me just why you need them. I can't just keep giving them away, you know. What if there's an emergency?"
Vegeta's perpetual scowl deepened. "If you don't bring me them, I'll make an emergency!" he told the cat.
"But why?" Korin persisted.
The prince growled. "Just get me the blasted beans!" he yelled.
"All right, all right. I'm getting them."
Twenty Minutes Ago, Capsule Corp
"Look, Vegeta. I'm not stupid!" Bulma said. "You're going somewhere again, and again, it's the last day of the month!" She'd caught her husband sneaking off, and was quite annoyed.
"It's none of your business, so stop poking your ugly nose in it!" Vegeta told her.
"Sure." She fixed him with a glare.
"Stay out of my business!" He blasted off into the air, out of Bulma's sight before she could blink. "Insufferable woman", he muttered.
Goku and Chi- chi's House
Chi- chi sighed exasperatedly. "Sparring with Vegeta again?" she asked, sure there was something going on, but not sure what it was.
"Uh, yeah!" Goku responded. "Sparring. Bye, then!" He ran into the woods a short distance, then flew into the sky, leaving a white trail that lasted for a second.
"There's something up", she said to herself.
Beach
"I have somewhere to go."
"Hm? It's only been two hours", said Krillin.
"You know I dislike the beach", Eighteen returned. "Besides, this is quite important…"
"Well, all right. I suppose you've put up with little ol' me long enough." He smiled, and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, and was rewarded with a small smile that lit up her face.
"Thank you, Krillin." Walking down the coastline, she looked back once before lifting off into the sky.
She flew for a minute, remembering where the place Kami's spaceship used to be. It wasn't in her files, but Krillin had shown her where it was a while back when he was telling her about his adventures on Namek. She'd known the general idea of the trip, but it was nice having details.
"Android." The voice shook her out of her thoughts. Part of her brain immediately classified it as Piccolo.
"What is it?" Eighteen asked him.
"Tell the others I can't come this time", he told her. "Gohan asked me the other day about why I was around Goku and Vegeta more than usual. It'll be suspicious."
She nodded. "Very well. What will we do about the clothes?"
"They won't need me to do it. No one will sense my ki, since I won't be there. They'll just think Goku and Vegeta are sparring again. That's why I can't go." The Namekian snorted. "You're lucky in that regard; you don't have a ki signature."
"I will inform them", she said.
"Good."
Present Day
"Hi Vegeta!" Goku waved at him. "I'm down here!"
"I can see that", Vegeta replied gruffly. He landed next to his rival. "So, seems we're waiting for green man and the computer."
"I'm sure Piccolo and Eighteen'll come soon!" he told the prince cheerfully. "We just have to wait a minute!"
Vegeta rolled his eyes up to the sky. Or rather, a tree.
After a minute, Android Eighteen landed a few feet away from them. "Piccolo will not be coming this time", she told them. "He believed it would be too suspicious."
"Oh", said Goku simply, looking a bit sad. He hadn't been having a good day, since he couldn't tell Chi- chi where he was going truthfully. Now Piccolo couldn't come.
"I hate to be the one to interrupt, but what about the extremely small matter of our clothes?" Vegeta asked with no small amount of sarcasm lacing his tone.
"I wouldn't think you'd need to know, considering it's such a small matter", she said, before continuing more seriously. "As Piccolo said to me, because he is not here and I do not have a ki signature, it will seem like a normal spar between you."
"Hn." He turned away.
"So, we start?" Goku asked.
"I already put the Senzu beans in a safe spot, Kakarott. We can start."
"Alright!" Jumping into the air, Goku took a fighting stance. "Who's first?"
"I am." Before Eighteen could respond, Vegeta was going after the other Saiyan, and fired of a ki blast.
Goku dodged the blast, and tried to elbow Vegeta, who blocked it. He then threw a punch, but spun around at the last moment. Vegeta was caught off guard, and had to shoot up in the air quickly to dodge the follow- up kick.
"Galick Gun, fire!"
"Aaah!" Goku flew off to the side, but the beam followed him. As he flew around, he silently charged a Kamehameha, which, while it took a lot of concentration, was possible.
"HA!" A blue- white beam shot out of his hands, meeting Vegeta's purple one.
The problem with the Galick Gun, the prince thought, was that he couldn't add more energy to it while he used it. As his opponent's attack slowly overcame his, he felt a twinge of annoyance. He'd have to dodge it.
A moment after he had that thought, he stopped putting his energy into his blast, and rocketed away as quickly as possible. The- what was its name- Kakarott's attack crashed into a hill and turned it into a pile of rubble. It had missed him by a hair's breadth.
As he cleared the dust cloud, he saw Kakarott, with that stupid dopey grin on his face, just as always.
"Nice try", he told him, after panting a bit.
Nice try? The twinge turned into something much bigger. Vegeta sneered.
"Hey, shouldn't Eighteen be- gah!" The other Saiyan had to block the woman's attack.
Oh, so her attacks were good enough to block, but not his? His could just be dodged? His wife's suspicion was still weighing heavily on him, as he knew he'd be in for an earful as soon as he got back. How could Kakarott be so cheerful all the time?
It grated on his nerves. This was supposed to be a release for all his stress, but it wasn't working!
He focused his eyes just in time to see a few of his rival's ki blasts being deflected by a large, inflating barrier while the android backpedaled. After a moment he came to the conclusion he'd better block now, or else he'd be hit by-
"Agh!" The combined attack and defense expanded to the point where it hit him. That hurt, not that he'd admit it.
He'd wanted to dodge that! He felt his ki rising, along with the thought he was being irrational in his anger, but it went unheeded.
Goku stood in a crater with his arms crossed, defending against the last attack. Quite a few of his blasts had bounced back to his direction.
"Wow! That was good!" he said, then hopped into the air again. It sucked to not be able to sense Eighteen's ki. He couldn't find her. But at least Vegeta's was easily recognizable… wait. It was rising quickly, and at this rate he'd go Super Saiyan! They never did that for spars without him telling anyone!
Old hurt dredged up. Why did Kakarott and his idiot friends beat him? Why did the low- class become the first Super Saiyan? Beat Frieza? Be better than him? Why- no, he shouldn't be doing this! He'd buried this long ago! But it hurt so much!
"Vegeta! Power down before someone senses you!" His voice. The stupid- no! He was right! He had to power down now!
Goku breathed a sigh of relief as Vegeta got his ki under control. It had been jumping erratically, and he'd been worried for a second.
"If you two have your issue under control, you might want to know your sons are coming here." Android Eighteen's voice cut through his thoughts, and with a start Goku realized she was right. Trunks and Goten were coming!
"Vegeta, Trunks and-"
"YES! I can sense ki, you know!" snapped the Saiyan. "This is supposed to be a normal spar, though, so the machine should get out of here!"
Normally, Eighteen would take offense, but she knew it would be the best course of action. She gave a curt nod, and quickly flew off, making sure to stay close to the ground so as to not be seen by the two youngsters.
Vegeta shook his head to clear his thoughts. What had happened? He had to deal with it later, though, since the two brats were here.
"Hey, dad!" Trunks called, landing lightly and running over to him. Goten flew over to his father, who greeted him and patted him on the head, flattening the spikes, which just popped back up.
"So why are you here?" Goku asked, just as Vegeta said, "What do you want, brats?"
"Well", started Trunks, "I was going over to ask Goten to play with me. Turns out he was actually on his way to ask me the same thing!"
"But I didn't know", Goten added. "So when I saw Trunks wasn't there, I tried sensing him, and he was where I'd just been!"
"You were an idiot for not trying it sooner", the older boy commented.
"Hey! You didn't try it either!"
"You are both fools for not sensing each other the moment you went to find each other." The statement from Vegeta effectively stopped their argument. "Now get to the point."
The two half- Saiyans glanced at each other, and then Trunks continued. "Well, we played all our games the last time we played together, so we didn't know what to do. Then mom told us you two were out sparring. She seemed kind of annoyed, but we just went to find you guys."
A strangled noise came from Vegeta. "You interrupted us just so you could have something to do?" he asked incredulously. "Did you remember what I said I'd do if you ever disturbed my training again?"
The two kids exchanged a nervous glance, then slowly stepped back. Soon it turned into a full blown run, as Vegeta threw ki blasts after them.
"Don't do that", Goku said. "It's not nice."
"Do I look like I care at all? Big Bang Attack!"
"Man, I hope Eighteen is out of the blast zone.."
A Few Miles Away
"Thank you", she said.
A nod. "Something tells me Krillin and your daughter would be a bit curious if you went back like that."
"Something tells me you're right", Eighteen said dryly.
AN: Well, that's all for this chapter, then. Next chapter will be a lot more serious, and even have a bit of plot! Then there'll be two more chapters and an epilogue. What? I don't want this to be another one of those stories I never finish!
Goku: I think the Senzu beans got blown up in your attack.
Vegeta: Hn. Doesn't matter; I wouldn't have used them anyways. Supposed to be a regular spar, remember?
Goku: Oh, right.
