1:59 AM 9/16/2012
Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z is a property of Akira Toriyama, Toei Animation, and Shueisha
Summary: When a lack of updates and an overly playful Goku drive Vegeta into temporary hiding within the bowels of Capsule Corp, he decides to take out his frustration on an old typewriter and come up with his own movie plotline. With a morbidly curious Bulma to referee, what kind of dastardly adventure will the prince come up with?
Part 4: "Interruptions and Deceptions"
"Heh-heh~" Vegeta sat leaning over his typewriter with what Bulma deemed a ridiculously self-satisfied look on his face.
"I was going to call you on this earlier, but I didn't want to interrupt how "on a roll" you were." she spoke up. The words soured Vegeta's mood, "There's no way sending Son-kun undercover would've gone that smoothly. You've seen how uncomfortable he gets when you try to get him to wear stuff; he wouldn't just be running around in a big costume like that completely unaffected by it."
The prince turned to face her, "I see your ploy," he smirked, regaining ground, "but since this story is an Alternate Universe, who's to say if within the confines of this AU that such things in fact don't bother Muffin."
"Point made." Bulma sighed.
"To be honest with you, I'm actually still holding back quite a bit," a grin broke onto his face, "Yes, things could've gone quite juicier for Cupcake if I weren't being so restrictive. So many delicious things I could have done and could yet still do." he wiggled his fingers over the keys only to suddenly let out a muffled grunt as a pillow came seemingly out of nowhere and beaned him in the head. Vegeta dramatically fell over onto his side.
A bundle of giggles came from above.
Vegeta threw the pillow off of himself and looked up, irritated, to find Goku seated on the edge of his bed, "Kakarrotto." he flatly stated.
"Veggie-tah, I got bored of waiting, so now I'm back." he smiled, his tail flicking about in the air, "Let's play!"
"I'm kind of in the middle of something over here, Dewdrop."
Goku hopped off the bed and sat down next to Vegeta, "Whatcha doin?" he peered over at the typewriter.
"I'm crafting a story."
"Can I help?"
"NO."
"Bulma's helping." Goku pouted, looking over at her. Bulma was still going over the pages.
"That's different." the ouji stated.
Goku leaned over and rested his chin on the prince's shoulder, "How?"
Sweat began to form inside Vegeta's gloves, ::Close...so close...::
"Aw, Son-kun just wants to help, Vegeta." Bulma was incredibly amused by the two of them.
"Yeah Veggie-ta, help me." he could feel the words beside his ear. So. Damn. Cute.
"AAAGH!" Vegeta promptly pushed Goku off of him, knocking him onto his back.
"Hey!" Goku whined from behind him, "Veggie-tah that wasn't nice!"
The ouji reached over and promptly took a huge swig of iced tea that he'd set aside, "You're lucky you're currently stronger than I am!" he pointed at Goku, his face flushed, "The things I would do to you..." Vegeta trailed off.
Goku watched him curiously. His eyes lit up, "Does that mean we're gonna spar now?"
"What? NO!" the prince's attention returned to his story as his fingers hit the keys once more.
His mind still in that sleepy haze in-between unconsciousness and wakefulness, Goku nuzzled deeper into the pillow his head rested upon. There was something fiddling with his hair, but it was going about it so gently and soothingly that it didn't matter to him what it was. His eyes remained closed as he let out a cute little yawn. The sound of a breath hitching at that noise lightly tampered with Goku's sleep, but he was kept under the surface anyway.
These soft brushes continued on for a few minutes more before the cramping in Goku's tail started up. He had most likely slept on it wrong and this immediately caused his tail to thrash about, trying to get the feeling of pins and needles out. Goku opened his eyes to be greeted with an exhausted-looking prince, "Oh! Veggie-tah!"
"Mmm, my balm against the night. How are you this morning, Buttercream?" he smiled tiredly.
"Um, OK. I'm OK." Goku sat up, trying to get his bearings as he recalled the events of the past night. He realized he was still in his costume, and he was right; it did make for comfortable sleepwear. The prince's bed was obscenely large, so there was plenty of room to move around, even with wearing something like this, "Oh! Veggie-ta! Your Tousan-"
"-he's alive."
Goku let out a sigh of relief.
"But he's in a coma."
"EH!?"
"Not to worry, he'll recover. The king's tougher than that. And we've got our best doctors on it." Vegeta said, partly trying to convince himself, "For now, we should have breakfast while we figure out who we can have defend your friend in court." he got up and walked over to a nearby wall-closet, which upon opening was revealed to be a wall-refrigerator and food cabinet.
"Oh! Neat." Goku was surprised he hadn't noticed the hidden well of food before.
"We don't have much time, so I apologize that I can't have our chefs cook you a proper breakfast."
"Aw Veggie-ta, this is fine." Goku smiled as he walked over to the fridge and peered inside, "A lot of the time I catch my own breakfast, so it's not like I'm used to fancy meals."
"I still wish I could serve you something with a little more thought put into it." Vegeta sighed.
They carried a bundle of food with them over to a nearby table, sat down, and dug in. Goku was pleasantly surprised to find Vegeta was just as messy and ravenous an eater as he himself was.
Vegeta finished his meal by chugging down a big glass of juice, "Ahh." he felt a little better, "Goku."
"Uhn." he'd just finished up his last blueberry muffin and followed it with some milk.
"I might need you to do a little more undercover work, to help gather evidence against Paragas."
"Whaaa? But-"
"-with a costume that's easier to move around in, of course."
"-o-oh." Goku still wasn't so sure about this. Everyone had paid him so much attention when he was undercover at the masquerade; and the attention was intoxicating, "I'm not so sure if-"
"-believe me, if there were another way, I'd take it." the mostly-sleepless night was evident on Vegeta's face by the haunted bags under his eyes, "I'd much prefer you remaining safe and hidden here with me until Paragas is safely behind bars, but it isn't going to work out that way."
A knock came at the door. Vegeta got up to open it.
"Hey." Bura was back in her casual saiyajin armor, "Good morning everybody. Who's ready for some magical transformation sequences?"
::I'm enjoying this far more than I should be.:: Vegeta admitted to himself as Goku let out little yelps of surprise every time Bura zapped a costume change on him.
Goku wondered when they were going to make a decision on his next undercover outfit; he felt like they'd gone through two dozen completely different ones already, and each time he got hit by the clothes-beam it gave him a weird pleasant little shock that sent his heart racing and as a result it hadn't fully calmed down yet, "Um, V-Veggie-tah?" he called out, flushed.
"Hm, no." Vegeta said to Bura.
Another zap.
"iie!" Goku yelped, almost buckling over this time, "Veggie-tahh! Are we done yet?"
"Almost." the ouji replied, then whispered something to Bura. She nodded and changed the costume again.
Goku shut his eyes and bit his tongue as another shockwave ran through him.
"I like it." Vegeta said, confident, "I like it a lot."
Goku opened his eyes, hesitant.
"Oh, that one thing there." Vegeta whispered to Bura.
"*Zap*"
"IIIEE!" Goku squealed; that last shock was especially heavy, "Ih, is there way to do this that doesn't m-make it feel so, like that?" he stumbled forward before collapsing onto the bed for support.
"It's probably your tail." Bura pointed out.
"W-what?"
"The way you let it just hang like that, haven't you ever trained it?"
"Train...my tail?" Goku looked over at the now sweetly-decorated long fluffy appendage.
"Yeah, if you don't train your tail-which can take years, by the way-it'll remain the biggest weak spot. Untrained saiyajin tails are super-sensitive pleasure-centers. That's probably what you kept feeling."
"Ohhh." Goku made a mental note to learn how to "train" his tail, something that was probably easier said than done. Goku looked down at the outfit he was wearing; it was just as overly-detailed and adorable as the last one, "Um..."
"You do the "cute" thing really, really well." Bura responded.
"She's right. Amazingly, heart-poundingly well. It suits you. In fact, my heart's pounding right now looking at you." Vegeta added.
"Ano...what am I supposed to do like this, if there isn't any party going on?" Goku asked.
Vegeta folded his arms, "I'm glad you asked that question. I need you to get information out of Brolli."
"EHHHH!?" Goku exclaimed, "...who's that?"
"WAAGH!" Vegeta and Bura fell over.
"Why would you respond like that if you don't know who-nevermind." Vegeta irritatedly waved it away, "Brolli's one of my guards; that really tall guy who danced with you."
"Ohh." Goku blinked, unfazed, "I still am not sure what you expect me to do."
"Use the charm you clearly had over him yesterday evening to get him to tell you the truth about Paragas' evil scheme, and to record it with this." The ouji pinned a micro-recording device under one of the many layers of Goku's outfit.
"With this disguise he'll tell you about it no problem." Bura boasted.
"I know I've got the urge to spill the beans to you, and I didn't even do anything." Vegeta volunteered.
"Ehhhh." Goku shifted around, "Then why doesn't Veggie-tah trick Brolli."
"I am. Using you."
"No. I mean, why isn't Veggie-tah the agent?"
"Well that wouldn't work. Brolli's interest in me is due to my sheer royal magnetism. I'd have to go in costumeless."
"..."
"And by that I don't mean I'd be going in naked! I mean I'd be wearing my regular clothes." he huffed.
"Kakarrotto, your presence here is really messing up my rhythm." Vegeta pulled away from his typewriter.
"Has the whole story been like this? Veggie-tah stickin' me in gushy outfits and makin' me do stuff?" Goku ignored the ouji and spoke to Bulma.
"No, actually he's been pretty good about restraining himself; at least he was during Parts 1 and 2." she responded, "Part 1 was an adventure tale, Part 2 was a Marital Arts Tournament,"
"Ooh!" Goku peeked over at the older pages in the pile.
"It wasn't until around Part 3 that he kind of lost his grip on himself and we plunged into 70's shoujo manga territory."
"Veggie-tah couldn't help himself." Goku grimaced.
"No, no he couldn't."
"Will you stop talking about me like I'm not here?!" the ouji exclaimed. He attempted to ignore them and returned to his typing.
"Anyway, I'm just too close to the heart of the matter for Brolli not to get suspicious of me. My father is poisoned and lapsed into a coma and I start asking him questions about what his father was up to last night? With that sharp wit of his he'd immediately catch on that I suspected Paragas of trying to kill Tousan." Vegeta explained.
"But if this Brolli guy really likes you, I mean, you don't think he'd side with you over his Tousan if he believed you?"
"Brolli never has cared for Paragas..." Bura trailed off.
"It's a blood-thicker-than-water thing, Goku. I'm afraid it just wouldn't work." Vegeta shook his head in dismay.
"Hey~! You're calling me by my name in this? Neat!" Goku clasped his hands together, excited, "Call me it now. Do it." his tail wagged behind him as he pointed to himself, "I get good feelings when Veggie-ta calls me by my name."
"That's not your real name."
"It's my real name to me." he rocked back and forth where he sat.
"I'm only calling you that in the story because I don't know your "true identity" yet. And neither do you."
"Come on, it's only two sillybles." Goku teased, "Say it~"
"Will you let me continue the story if I do?"
A quick nod.
Vegeta sighed tiredly, "Goku."
"YAY!"
"See, that wasn't so difficult." Bulma chuckled at him.
"But it's not his name. His name's Kakarrotto."
"You've haven't even been calling him that lately yourself; all I've heard recently from you are the various foodstuff-nicknames you've been referring to him as. Muffin, cupcake, butternut, honeysuckle, and all those other ones I can't remember off the top of my head, but I can guarantee there are at least several more of."
"She's right, Veggie-ta." Goku agreed.
"Can you both please let me continue?!" Vegeta snapped.
One long, long glass of water later, and the prince was ready to continue, "That's why it has to be you, Goku. You're a stranger here. In fact, he doesn't even know who you are-and he's not going to."
Goku still appeared skeptical, "But Veggie-ta, even with the wig." he pointed to the one he wore, which was different than the one from the previous day. This one better fit the more casual costume he was wearing.
"I can't even see the costume from out here and even I know there's no way it's something casual."
"Kakarrotto. Let me type." Vegeta responded through gritted teeth.
"Even with the wig," he said again, hesitant, "he'll recognize me by face from the tournament and know he's been had."
"A simple hooded cloak will take care of that. Enough to shade your eyes yet show the rest of your face.
"Alright, but when you clothes-beam it in, can you do so without zapping it directly on-top of me so I don't gotta feel that weird feeling in myIIIE!"
"There we go." Bura said.
Vegeta gave her a thumbs-up, "Perfect!"
Goku picked himself back up off the floor, his legs still shaking, "Owww..."
"Now, Brolli passes by this hall on his rounds roughly an hour from now." the ouji instructed, "Here's what I want you to do..."
"How unusual is this."
"Ohhh. Wha...?" Chi-Chi opened her eyes as she sat up on the jail cell cot. One of the soldiers stood on the other side of the bars, looking in on her inquisitively. Upon further inspection, she noticed the striking resemblance he had to Goku. This man had a deeper tan, and medium-brown hair, and no real pants to speak of, but other than that the physical similarities were remarkable.
"We typically don't have prisoners. What're you in for, if you don't mind me asking?" it was a sneakier, mischievous-sounding take on Goku's voice, and it was now that Chi-Chi noticed the laid back look in his eyes and the Cheshire-cat smile. She decided that if Goku's animal was a monkey, than this guy's was definitely a cat.
"I've been falsely imprisoned by some guy Goku-san called Pair-uh-gas, when Pair-uh-gas is the one who should be behind these bars!"
"So Paragas poisoned the King..." Turles thought outloud, "That's kind of predictable, but it figures."
"You believe me?"
"Of course I do. He had the means-unaccounted for throughout the entire party as he wasn't even invited; and he had the motive-with Bejito dead Paragas can steal the throne out from under the royal family."
"But how? He's not even related, right?"
Turles smirked, "There's a way to get around that; a kind of legal coup, shall we say. Paragas himself isn't strong enough to do it, but his son is. If he can get Brolli to challenge Vegeta in a special martial arts battle for the throne, and if Brolli were to win, he would become the new prince, his relatives the new royal family," Turles motioned over to Chi-Chi to finish.
"And Paragas would become the new king." she murmured in shock.
"Bingo! The lady's quite perceptive." he lightly applauded.
"So, how about getting the lady out of this hole, huh?" Chi-Chi asked.
"I would if I could, but it'd jeopardize your chances of beating him in the battle that matters most." Turles frowned, "What you need is an attorney, and while he may not be an actual attorney, I do know someone who's level-headed and blunt enough to take the case and win."
Bardock let out a sneeze. He grimaced down at his glass of orange juice, which was now 2% mucus, "Crud."
The doorbell rang.
"I don't like that timing." he stared at the door with suspicion, "Hey! Raditz! Can you get that?"
"Sure!" Raditz called back, walked up to the front door, and opened it to reveal Turles standing there.
"Ohayo~!"
Raditz promptly shut the door, suddenly feeling sick.
"Who was it?"
"Nobody, just the wind."
"Lackey-kun! Open the door or I'll huff and puff and blow the house down!"
"Oh, it's that guy." Bardock groaned.
"Yeah, it is." Raditz said with equal dismay.
"Well at least it's you he's here to see."
"Surprisingly, that's not true for today at least." Turles now sat across the table from him, startling Bardock and causing him to nearly drop his juice glass, "Actually, sir, I'm here to see you."
"Why are you callin' me sir?"
"Any reason why I shouldn't? What would you prefer?"
"For you to leave."
"Well that isn't an option."
"Hnn.." Bardock glowered at him, "What do you want?"
"You sir, have the makings of an ace attorney!"
"...what."
"Exactly!" Turles smirked, sitting back in Raditz's chair, "A young lady has been falsely imprisoned; accused by the actual culprit of committing his crime."
"And you're coming to me because?"
"The lady's close friend, the one she broke into this very facility to visit in the dead of night, is your long-lost younger son." Turles concluded.
Bardock watched him skeptically, "Kakarrrotto is here?"
"The young man from Gyu Kingdom, the only saiyajin to enter the tournament, and the champion of said tournament-Son Goku-I have reason to believe is in actuality, Kakarrotto."
"...I'm listening."
"If Paragas' plan succeeds, an entire checklist of terrible things will go down; Paragas will use his son to gain access to the throne-Paragas will become king, the lady along with your son will remain imprisoned or killed. As she is their kingdom's princess, Gyu Kingdom will react to her life being taken and wage battle against the Saiyajin Kingdom. Many more people will die. So basically, sir, I'm enlisting you to help prevent a war."
Bardock stared back, a little stunned, "That's...a strangely tall order coming from you."
"So, will you defend her in court?"
Bardock folded his arms and looked away stubbornly, "I'm not a lawyer or an attorney. And it's not like I care about any of this, but it would be bothersome to have to move away and find a new home if Paragas were to overthrow Bejito and mess everything up." he turned back to face Turles, "Yeah, alright. I'll do it."
"Excellent!" Turles clasped his hands together.
Raditz looked on, a little disturbed, "Are, are you being helpful?" he asked Turles.
"Aw, Lackey-kun doesn't think I'm capable of aiding others?" Turles smirked back.
Raditz felt like slugging him back, "No, it's just that what you're doing, you're showing kindness."
The smirk dropped momentarily from his face, "I am not!"
"You are," this time it was Raditz's turn to smirk, "I bet you're probably as nice as Son Goku on the inside."
"I am NOT! Take it back Lackey-kun or I'll chop your hair off and feed it to my monster-plants!" Turles glowered up at him.
Bardock rolled his eyes, blocked out what both saiyajin were arguing about, and returned to his breakfast.
"Anyway, this is her."
The guard from before was back and the first thing Chi-Chi noticed about him was how much more frazzled he looked this time. His eyes were closed, his arms were folded, and the fur on his tail was standing on its ends. There was also an upset frown on his face where that Cheshire cat smirk had been. She was about to ask him if he was feeling alright-which it did occur to her as odd seeing as she was the one in the jail cell-when two figures entered her line of vision.
The first was a beast of a guy with long spiky hair a shade that matched Goku's. The skintone was also an even match, but that was where the similarities ended. When the second man made his appearance, Chi-Chi let out a gasp; while the eyes were different, and the coloring didn't match-this hair was a deep teal and the skintone was a different shade as well-everything else from the hair to the body-type to the way he held himself screamed "Goku".
"Young lady, I present to you Son Goku's father," Turles motioned to Bardock, then to Raditz, "And Son Goku's rather imperceptive older brother."
Raditz struck him a glare for that.
"Hey." Bardock said, begrudgingly, "I don't know anything about law, but I guess I'm gonna help you so I don't have to move to some other kingdom if Paragas takes over. It's not as though I'm doing this for you or anything. You're a complete stranger to me after all."
Chi-Chi sweatdropped, kind of amused, and a little relieved. Bardock struck her as a rougher, more obstinate Goku who probably didn't have as many close friends as the latter did, but just the fact that Goku had a family here; it meant that in the heart-wrenching scenario where Goku were to remain in the Saiyajin Kingdom, he could do so living with his actual family instead of with Prince Vegeta, "I am so grateful you exist."
"That's a weird response, but OK." Bardock lifted an eyebrow.
"Forgive me for saying this, but your creepy prince has totally been digging his claws into Goku-san ever since the night before the tournament." Chi-Chi explained. She could see concern flash across Bardock's eyes, as though the adjective alone was enough for him to know which of the two Oujisama brothers she was referring to, "Goku-san's with him now; the prince has probably been using him for all sorts of things and Goku-san's completely unaware because of how naive and trusting he is."
"I..." Bardock bit his tongue. So what? It wasn't his problem what was up with Kakarrotto-if indeed Son Goku was Kakarrotto.
"You weren't at that costume party last night, where you?"
"I don't like parties." it came out in a sour tone that practically echoed Goku's, and again Chi-Chi was amazed at these little similarities, "Of course I didn't go."
"I wasn't there either-I was on my way here from my home kingdom-but Goku-san was."
Bardock narrowed his eyes at both Raditz and Turles; both of whom had attended the party.
"It was..a very ill-fitting costume, it didn't match Kakarrotto's character as I interpret him." Turles commented.
"From what I gathered, Princess Bura designed it, and Prince Vegeta-and, Brolli-really, really liked it." Raditz grimaced.
"..." Bardock's arms folded tighter against his chest as he looked away and his frown grew sterner.
Chi-Chi could tell he wanted to help; he knew Vegeta better than she did and he wanted to go rescue Goku-san something awful; but it wasn't in his character to stick his neck out for people. Caring went against his attitude, but she knew he cared anyway. Goku-san was his child after all.
Bardock finally snapped and let out a string of curses in his native language, "Why do you people have to do this to me!" he then pointed at Raditz and Turles, " You two gather whatever evidence you need, I'm going to go get the other one before Vegeta gets the chance to do what we all know he wants to do to him."
::The other one?:: Chi-Chi sweatdropped as she watched Bardock storm out.
"Ah, Bardock-san, you might want to be careful. Vegeta-san's actually on our side in this." Turles called out.
"What?" Bardock spun around, staring at him incredulously.
"It was Kakarrotto who first learned of Paragas plan; he told Bura and Vegeta-san about it and they became his first line of defense against Paragas. From what I've learned they're even now trying to stop Paragas from making any further headway into his plan. While I support your concern for Kakarrotto's well-being, we unfortunately can't focus on Vegeta-san's treatment of him until after Paragas has been dealt with." Turles explained, not liking the temporary free pass they were giving Vegeta either.
Bardock grumbled, rubbing the space between his eyebrows in irritation, "Fine. What's next then?"
"We're vastly in need of updates. First we must reconvene with Vegeta-san and Bura and find out what they've learned. Afterward we will inform the Queen of our goings on; even though Bejito is temporarily out of the picture, she may be able to provide us with some help in planning our attack. Paragas is likely going to push this court case to the nearest possible date to get it out of the way as soon as possible. It would be to our benefit if we could get his son on our side. While Brolli isn't anyone's favorite person here, he is the most likely source of any new information regarding Paragas pre-meditated attempted murder seeing as they live under the same roof."
"So basically, what I was about to go do before, only a little less violent."
"Pretty much, yes."
"Ohh! I wanna go too." Chi-Chi made a pair of fists, frustrated.
"Ah, that reminds me, about Son Goku," Turles turned to face her, a little more like himself now than he was when he first arrived back at the cell, "He lets his tail just hang loose like that, is it simply that well-trained that he feels he doesn't even need to bother with the added protection of wrapping it around his waist?"
"Well-trained? Are you joking? That tail is Goku-san's only weak-spot. If I so much as grabbed it or gave it a light tug his energy would drain out of him and he'd fall over in pain. Isn't that normal?"
Turles gave his own tail a squeeze. He flinched lightly, but nothing else to speak of.
Chi-Chi stared back nervously and gave a hard swallow, "It's normal, right?"
"Yeah, that's why we have to train them. An adult saiyajin walking around without having ever trained his tail and letting it hang free where anyone could get a hold of it...it'd be like going into battle naked." Turles replied, "The whole appendage is one long fuzzy pleasure/pain receptor, depending on what you do to it." even the space pirate started to feel a bit worried about Goku, "But Vegeta-san doesn't know Son Goku's tail isn't trained, right? Vegeta-san doesn't know how hyper-sensitive it is?"
"Not that I'm aware of." Chi-Chi answered truthfully.
Turles, Raditz, and Bardock exchanged concerned looks before all three of them bolted from the room.
Goku's tail twitched behind him; aside from a few accessories it was mostly uncovered, and for the first time in a while for a brand new reason he was concerned about that. He watched as Bura and Vegeta planned things out; their tails wrapped around their waists. It didn't look at all comfortable, and kind of unfair to their tails. In his current undercover costume it didn't seem at all like Goku would even be able to get his tail to stay still around his waist even if he wanted to.
"Ohh!" Bura exclaimed, pressing a button her scouter, "He's just turning the corner at the far end of the hall! Goku-chan! Now's your chance!"
"Um, I am not sure if-"
"-and remember, no squeaking if you can help it!" she motioned him to the door.
Vegeta promptly gave Goku an impromptu embrace, then pushed him out into the hall, "Best of luck to you, oujo-chan!" he gave Goku a thumbs-up, then shut the door.
"Uwuh!?" Goku yelped, a layer of nervous sweat beginning to form on his skin, "Ohhhhh.." he tried to remain calm. It was gonna be alright. All he had to do was remember that this was all for the safety of his home village, to help prove Chi-Chi's innocence so she could be freed from prison, and to eventually get to martial arts battle against Vegeta for that prize money he needed to ensure his own future health, "Uh-o-Ossu!" he announced his presence as Brolli walked by. Goku's tail was thrashing about behind him now. It had been safely tucked underneath layers of clothing back at the party, but this costume had a hole in the back just for the appendage. Goku grabbed his tail and held it up against his chest defensively.
"..." Brolli paused mid-step and turned to see the mysterious stranger he had convinced himself after much disappointment that he would never see again. And here she was, standing there in the hallway in another impossibly-adorable outfit with her cute bangs and a hooded cloak concealing her eyes from him this time, "Princess!" Brolli exclaimed in surprise, embracing the mysterious stranger, "I thought you were gone forever; you left the ball early and I didn't even see you go, or get to wish you goodbye." there was genuine heartache in his voice.
"I'm, I'm sorry." a flash of conscience suddenly hit Goku in the form of Chi-Chi.
::"Shame on you, Goku-san! You're playing with someone's feelings; for all you know he doesn't have any idea that his father's an attempted murderer."::
"I missed you so dearly; you really did dance quite well. I've never had someone who's responded so understandably to me before."
Goku let out a cry as something suddenly jolted him and caused him to back up against the wall; Brolli was playing with his tail. Goku bit his tongue; it hurt and felt so weird. Unlike the clothes-beam zap, this was something softer and soothing, more deliberate and calculated with short unpredictable breaks along the way. He used his back to keep his feet grounded.
"You know, as a member of the nobility, I can give you a life just as plush and pampering as any Vejita could provide you. Only with me, you wouldn't be subjected to all the restrictions and tedium that come along with becoming royalty. You'll have all of the benefits of a princess with none of the fine print." Brolli cupped one hand around his mystery princess' cheek and gently ran his thumb across it, "Think it over. You really deserve something more. And I feel it would be worth noting," he lowered his voice to a warm hushed whisper, "I'm even stronger than Vejita."
This final bit of information sent Goku's eyes wide behind their hiding place, but not for any reason Brolli would guess, "How much?" he was barely able to hold the squeaking in, and Brolli gave him a perplexed look.
"Ah, I can't recall the exact math, but it's an embarrassingly large gap between us. Vejita's never once defeated me in a sparring match."
"O...ohh." Goku's battle-anxiety began to wake up, extending the conversation past where Vegeta and Bura had from the other side of the door already deemed a failed plan, "Then, the saiyajin who won the marital arts tournament yesterday...?"
"I could beat him no contest." Brolli smiled, gently letting go and turning to head back down the hallway to continue his rounds, "Not that I'm a participant in the tournament anyway, but if he wanted to track me down after he inevitably defeats Vejita, I wouldn't turn him away. It's also been a long time since I've had anyone challenging to fight."
Luckily for Goku's cover, the excited battle-grin on his face appeared after Brolli already had his back facing him and was too far out of sight to see the other saiyajin properly, "Heh-heh, heh-heh-heh...even stronger than Veggie-tah, huh? I'm getting excited! I wanna see about that."
"Goku-chan!" Bura whispered loudly, opening the door a crack, "Get in here!" she yanked him back inside and shut the door, upset, "What was all that?!"
"Is that guy really stronger than you, Veggie-ta?" Goku asked, eager.
Vegeta glowered and looked away.
"He IS."
"For NOW." Vegeta retorted, "Once I attain the legendary form of super saiyajin, I'll easily take the number one slot and crush him."
Goku blinked back, confused, "Super saiyajin?"
"Nevermind that, what happened to you out there?!"
"I think I got fondled, and then prop-positioned." he looked down at his tail, which still didn't feel quite right, "If the wall wasn't there, I was sure I was gonna fall over." Goku's face flushed with embarrassment, "No one's ever done anything like that to my tail before, it was way worse than Bura's clothes-beam! I didn't even understand half of what my tail was telling the rest'a my body!"
"Okay, this was a horrible plan; I don't know what I was thinking." Vegeta quickly put it out there.
"I'll say!" Goku exclaimed.
"I'm sorry about that, oujo-chan." the prince got down on one knee, "Forgive me." he gently took Goku's hand.
"I don't think my body's been touched and held this much outside of battle in my whole entire life." Goku shifted around uncomfortably, "I'm not sure how I feel about that."
"It's because you're so utterly wonderful those around you can't contain themselves." Vegeta stood back up.
"...I'm still not sure how I feel about that."
A rapid, angry knock suddenly came at the door.
Bura peered out through the peephole, "Oh! It's Raditz's Tousan!" she said, surprised, "What's he doing here?"
"Zap Goku back, I'll deal with whatever he wants." Vegeta advised.
Bura shrugged and did so. Goku let out a yelp of pleasure-pain as the clothes-beam hit him and he moments later found himself back down to the grey tank-top and long white boxershorts he'd originally been stripped down to in Bura's bedroom-which was where the rest of his clothes currently remained.
Vegeta cleared his throat and opened the door, "May I help you?"
"I want my son back, NOW."
"What?"
"Bardock-san, that's not what we agreed on!" Turles sweatdropped from where he and Raditz stood off to the side.
"He's out in the hallway; I can see him from here." Vegeta pointed to Raditz.
"Not that one. The other one." Bardock glowered at him.
"You don't have another one."
"Yes, actually, I do. Right over there." Bardock pointed to Goku.
"Ossu?" Goku lightly tilted his head.
"What? Goku? Since when is he your offspring? As far as he and I are aware, he's an orphan."
"Who I accidentally lost one day years ago during a vacation."
"Considering your personality while that doesn't entirely surprise me I would still prefer it not to be true." Vegeta admitted, "And so! Until you have scientific proof that you're the father, I'm keeping him. Good day, sir." he swung the door closed only to have Raditz lunge and grab it before he could finish.
"Vegeta, listen, please. That's not why we're here. This is about Paragas." Raditz tried to explain.
"Oh." the ouji relaxed, "Well in that case, all three of you get in here and make sure the door is shut and locked behind you. I'm not letting any private information that could prove useful in the trial leak out of here."
"*KA-POW!*" this time the unsuspected pillow creamed Vegeta in the back of the back of the head, knocking him forward and into the typewriter with enough momentum to leave a temporary impression of the keys on his stomach. He spun around to face Goku, irritated, "What was that for?!"
"What is this?!" Goku exclaimed, visibly upset.
Vegeta looked at him with a serious face, "It's a story."
"*KA-POW!*" another pillow-bomb; this one with the force to throw Vegeta sideways and cause him to roll a couple feet.
"OW." the ouji stated.
"Vegeta, knock it off." Bulma reprimanded as she flipped the page.
"ME?!" he gawked at her, "He's the violent one here!"
"Why is Veggie-tah shipping me with everybody!?" Goku demanded to know.
"I am not-how do you know that term?" the ouji responded, his anger vanishing momentarily as he was thrown for a loop.
Goku pouted back at him, "Even with a costume, Brolli would be able to tell it was me; plus he hates me!"
"His ears are just super-sensitive and your occasional voice-squeaks irritate that hearing-sensitivity."
"I do not have voice-squeaks!" Goku exclaimed.
"Also, it's my story and I think he makes the most formidable love-rival I could ask for. You can't say for certain that if you didn't already have my heart, Muffin, that your heart-warming personality, your cute looks and your incredible marital arts prowess wouldn't entice Brolli; coupled with the absence of yours truly of course."
"Veggie-ta you are not shipping me with Brolli." Goku folded his arms.
"I know I'm not. As I said, this is my story; obviously I get to keep you all to myself in the end." Vegeta rubbed his hands together, a sneaky grin on his face, "Oh, spoilers alert."
"Hnnn.." Goku shifted around uncomfortably.
"You don't know that, Vegeta." Bulma sighed, "Even if you think you have an ending planned, what comes out while writing in the heat of the moment may end up being something completely different."
"Yes, I supposed that is true..." Vegeta trailed off, then smirked, "Well, let's say I have a good feeling that the Great and Powerful Saiyajin no Ouji is going to come out on top, figuratively and literally."
"Vegeta." she shot him a warning glance.
Goku raised his hand as if he were in a class, "Untrained saiyajin tails don't really react like that if you rub 'n tease 'um, do they, Veggie-tah?"
Vegeta wiggled his fingers at him, "Wanna find out?"
"NO!" Goku hid his tail behind his back.
Bulma smacked Vegeta in the back of the head with one of the other throw pillows, "Will you leave Son-kun alone?!"
"In-story, or out here?"
"Both!"
"I promise nothing." he returned to typing, unfazed.
"Vegeta!"
"So what kind of evidence are we looking at?" Bardock sat back in one of the chairs in Vegeta's room. At the table with him was Raditz, Vegeta, and Turles. Goku was seated on Vegeta's bed. Bura sat beside him, trying to brush the now-fluffed-up parts of his tail that Brolli had messed with back to their original places.
"Well, I've got one of the vials of poison he was going to use, but dropped on his way out of the kitchen." Bura volunteered, "It's got some of Goku-chan's fingerprints on it too, but that's only because he brought it to me. Since he was in the room at the time-unbeknownst at first to Paragas, he also heard Paragas' evil scheming and saw him remove the vials from the cabinet and then talked with him as Paragas tried to cover it up."
"There's also the fact that Paragas wasn't invited to the masquerade, yet his "excuse" to oujo was that he was one of the royal chefs bringing "ingredients" for the party." Vegeta added.
"And Paragas is not a royal chef?" Bardock felt he had to double-check this.
"No." Vegeta felt immensely relieved at that fact.
"He also lacks an alibi." Turles began, "No one can account for Paragas whereabouts after he left that kitchen. At least, that we're aware of."
"So then no one saw him enter the ballroom?" Bardock asked, "Wouldn't that work in his defense as well, since he could say he hadn't been there?"
"But Tousan still got poisoned, so he could've spiked something either before it entered the ballroom's kitchen or he just wasn't noticed. Or for all we know he donned a costume of some type as well." Bura explained.
"This is going to be kind of complicated, isn't it?" Bardock grimaced; he didn't want to have to deal with something like this, "What about the girl he's accusing?"
"She did legitimately break in," Vegeta said, "but she has no reasons for wanting my father dead; outside of the overly-complex theory of how it was his tournament that brought them to the island in the first place and in doing so she indirectly lost the one she was lusting after to me." he motioned to Goku, "But that seems so misdirected. Surely if she was going to try to kill anyone, it would be I."
"Ano...I didn't say I was staying here forever." Goku spoke up, unsure.
"Yet." Vegeta gave him a thumbs-up.
"Vegeta." Bardock said warningly.
"He's just a little flustered with everything that's been going on lately. You'll come around, won't you oujo-chan?" Vegeta called over to Goku, whose face was starting to flush, ::SO. CUTE.:: the ouji mused.
"Vegeta!"
"Huh? What? Oh." he turned back to face the others at the table.
Having completed brushing the knots out of his tail, Bura gave Goku a hug and left the bed to join the group seated in the kitchen. She pulled up an empty chair and sat down.
"You know I've never seen you crush on anyone before." Raditz said to Vegeta, "But watching you in action...yeah, you're only slightly less creepy about it than Brolli is."
"Silence you, or I'll send you to the dungeon." Vegeta glowered at him.
"You are hiding the person who very might well turn out to be my younger brother in your bedroom with him in nothing more than his underwear."
"There's a long, surprisingly platonic explanation to that, actually." Vegeta pointed out.
"Try me."
"His martial arts uniform is back in my room." Bura said, "I had him take it off before I clothes-beamed him so we could go undercover at the masquerade. Goku-chan's incredibly fun to use the clothes-beam on. If we didn't have guests that's totally what I'd be doing right now."
Goku pulled the bed covers up over himself defensively. Going undercover wasn't a bad thing, but those weird feelings the clothes-beam gave him was something he'd had enough of for a while. In fact, why didn't he go and grab his gi? If he were to put that back on at least it would provide an excuse for Bura not to zap him again later. Goku slid out from under the bed and made his way to the door. He could grab nyoi-bo too. And maybe find out where Kinto'un had been hiding since last night. Poor Kinto'un was probably so lonely in this faraway place and separated from Goku and Chi-Chi.
Raditz looked down at the small piece of paper he'd written their "for" and "against" facts on, as if to do a mock-trial of how prosecuting Paragas was really going to go down. The saiyajin court system was something that wasn't used all that much-small matters were decided between the two parties on their own, larger ones were decided by martial arts battles-but they couldn't do it that way here. If this was to be decided in physical battle and Paragas designated Brolli as his stand-in, Vegeta'd get the living stuffings kicked out of him. No, the only way they were going to win this was through legalities, as unusual as that was. Raditz hoped they'd receive a good judge.
"Just as comfy, but at least now I feel like me." Goku patted his gut as he stood there in-front of the mirror in Bura's room, back in his gi, wrist-bands, and boots. Nyoi-bo's case hung over his back with the strap diagonally across the front. He was pleased at how easy it was to slip off Vegeta and Bura's radar. Though he had a feeling the other three saiyajin noticed him leaving, Goku was thankful they chose to do nothing about it, "Now to re-group!" he left Bura's room and locked the door behind him, "Kinto'un!" Goku called out, "Kinto'uuuuun!"
The puttering sound the yellow cloud made could be heard from the distance. His eyes lit up when he saw it flying down the hallway.
"Haha!" Goku clasped his hands together, then hopped up into the air as Kinto'un came towards him and he landed on-top of the cloud as it passed beneath him.
"MmpH! Mphmmmph mph!" Kinto'un cheered.
"Mmmm~ I missed you too." Goku lay there, nuzzling his cloud, "Oh!" he sat upright, "Kinto'un, Chi-Chi is next. Do you know where they took her?"
"Mhh!"
"OK." he smirked, "Then let's go!"
"Oh Goku-sa! You escaped after all! How lucky." Chi-Chi stared back at him and Kinto'un through the bars, "You're such a sight for sore eyes."
"I think those other three guys saw me, but they let me go without alerting Veggie-ta or Bura about it."
"You mean the Cheshire Cat and the two who said they might be your brother and father?"
"Cat?" Goku tilted his head.
"The way that third one acts, he reminds me of a kitty." she admitted, a little embarrassed, "I don't know anyone's actual names so I'm kind of making up ones as I go along."
"That's OK. I do stuff like that too." Goku smiled, "Ah, I'm not sure if I'm re-lated to those other two guys, but I guess they're a little like me."
"I don't suppose you can let me out?"
"Sure I can!"
"Ah, Goku-sa I know that. I mean I'm not sure if legally you're allowed to."
"Ohhh. That I dunno." he shook his head, confused.
"I don't want to mess with my chances of getting out of here and avoiding something even more unpleasant." Chi-Chi sighed.
"Chi-Chi, I forgot to tell Veggie-ta and them before cuz I was still all confused, but I did find out something new after all, so that plan wasn't a complete failure."
"What are you talking about?"
"Paragas may wanna be king, but his son doesn't wanna be prince. He told me kinda indirectly that he wouldn't want that type uh job at all. He thinks it'd be boring and annoying and get in the way."
Chi-Chi sweatdropped, "While Gyu Kingdom isn't nearly as big as this place, I can safely say that being royalty is a lot of work and contains a lot of responsibilities that take up a pretty big portion of my time. I can't imagine the workload involved with a kingdom this size; it must be huge." she paled at the thought of it.
"Chi-Chi, I still wanna go home with you." Goku admitted, holding the bars and only looking a little less dazed than earlier.
"You have no idea how much that means to me." she stared back at him, longing.
"It isn't like everyone hasn't been really nice to me since I got here, but I've been unsure of myself ever since the party and I just kinda wanna go home. If I stay too long, I'm scared one of 'um'll convince me to stay with 'um, cuz I'm not used to feeling so special and all of 'um are making me feel really special."
"They're trying to spoil you."
"I think they are! How do you go back to not feeling like that? It feels confusing but it also feels really really nice. I've never been treated this way before." Goku shook his head, frightened, "If one of them convinced me, I think I'd get used to all those nice feelings and nice things really easy."
"Well, I don't think any of them succeeded if you're here now in your gi with nyoi-bo and Kinto'un." Chi-Chi smiled, relieved, "I think you won, Goku-san."
"I hope so."
"Ohh, my dear Bejito. Why are you such an idiot!" Ruby slapped the sleeping king across the face with tears in her eyes.
Bardock sweatdropped as he looked on. The queen kept alternating back and forth between heartbroken-near-widow and enraged-irritation-at-Bejito's-lack-of-common-sense.
"But yeah, it probably was Paragas." she said to Bardock, sitting up on the small barstool next to Bejito's bedside, "They really volunteered you to be the defense, huh?" Ruby chuckled, amused.
"It's that funny?" he muttered.
"No no, it suits you. You're such a no-nonsense guy, but you have a capacity to care about those around you, even if you do so stubbornly." the queen explained, "Do you know who the judge is yet? I know we don't have many of them, but..."
"Turles thinks we might not know until the trial. It's set for two days from now." Bardock sighed.
"Then I guess our martial arts champion will have to wait a little longer to get his final round and the chance to win all that money? I know Bejito was looking forward to seeing his son battle that guy."
"Yeah, about him. Turles also thinks "that guy" is Kakarrotto." Bardock folded his arms.
"Oh! He thinks so too? The battle style is completely different, but the way he moved in combat, and his body build and hair all reminded me of you."
Bardock paled, "A-am I really the last one to know everything?"
"Looks that way." she smiled, "If you really want to make sure, ask him to do a blood test."
"I would, but I'm not sure where he is now."
"Really?"
"He snuck out of Vegeta's room and I let him go because of how uncomfortable Vegeta was making him feel." Bardock abridged the situation, not wanting to make things awkward.
"What about you, Bardock?"
"Nah, Vegeta doesn't make me feel uncomfortable. He irritates me sometimes, but-"
"-I mean our martial arts champion. Do you think he's your son?"
Bardock was silent, "I didn't get much of a chance to talk to him, but I did get to see some of his matches in the ring the other day." he paused, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's my son." he stood up, "Which is all the more reason why Vegeta and Bura monopolizing him is really starting to tick me off." Bardock begrudgingly admitted, "If he's really my kid, maybe I wanna know what happened to him? Maybe I wanna know what his life's been like? Maybe I wanna know who took care of him and if he's been taking care of himself? Maybe I wanna tell his mother that we've found him, mystery solved, we have both our sons again for the first time in 17 years?"
Ruby smiled, "You're ending everything with a question mark."
"I'm really not good at emotional-type stuff, OK?" Bardock exclaimed, blustered.
"And that's fine. I'm not especially adept at it either, ne Bejito?" she turned to the sleeping king and gave his hand a light squeeze which then turned to an irritated hand-strangle-hold before letting go, "You big fool." Ruby frowned at Bejito, "Bardock, there's some snacks in the mini-fridge if you want anything." she motioned to a fridge the size humans would deem normal, default-fridge proportions.
"Sure, why not. I could use something to munch on after dealing with the four of them."
"No...it needs to be a little darker than that." Brolli spoke to himself as he stood opposite a suit of casual armor that he'd hung on the side of his bedroom door. He held his pointer finger up and shot a clothes-beam at it, changing the armor from grey to black, "Much better. I'm so relieved I wasn't just going crazy from Vejita's constant rejections-that the mystery-princess I met at the masquerade really does exist. The next time we meet, princess..." he trailed off, picturing his impossibly-sweet, impossibly-adorable, mystery-lady, "I should really find out what her name is, I never did ask her." he felt embarrassed and foolish at that.
A knock came at the front door. Recognizing Paragas' ki, Brolli scowled. He answered the door, "Whatever you want, the answer is no." he bluntly asked Paragas.
"I'm happy to see you in good health too, son." Paragas said mockingly, "Especially after that masquerade; why, I heard the food had been tampered with and people had fallen ill. Why, the king himself is in a coma after eating and drinking some of the spiked meals."
Brolli's shoulders slackened a bit, "You...?" he was blindsided, "Yeah, you would." he reached to close the door.
"Ah! But I didn't." Paragas grabbed the side of the door, "I didn't, Brolli. However, with the king incapacitated, the throne is ripe for a siege."
"Fine, try to "siege" it. Have fun getting your ass kicked by Vejita."
"No no no. I'm not the one who'll challenge Vegeta, it'll be you."
Brolli was horrified, "Like hell!"
Paragas stood his ground, "What are you saying, Brolli? I thought you really liked the guy?"
"I do, but...I met my true love at the masquerade last night; a sweet beautiful girl with a powerful ki signature and a sense of fashion that matches her inner-sweetness to perfection! The next time I meet my mystery-princess, I'm going to ask for her answer. Also for her name."
"You don't know her name?" Paragas flatly stated.
"Names aren't important! It's the feelings that mean something! The way she lit up after I revealed how much stronger I am than Vejita; something that Vejita has only shunned me for, something he has been afraid of is the same thing my princess reveled in. That's why I can't fight Vejita for the throne. I no longer need him. Besides, you would make a rotten king anyway." he backed up and shut the door in Paragas' face.
"Well, well FINE you big ignoramus! You won't be able to ask your new love's name if I find and kill her first!"
The door swung open, "You wouldn't dare." Brolli was already in his mid-way form in-between base and lssj.
"I WOULD." Paragas challenged, "It's not as though it'd be that hard to find her! She was dressed like a damn children's fairytale character at that masquerade."
"She looked exquisite." Brolli growled at him.
"Anyone who walks around dressed like that is going to be easy to locate, though of course you being yourself I'm not at all surprised you haven't been able to find her." he taunted, "Your lady is such a messy eater, it'd be easy to drop a little something into her meals without her noticing. Maybe with her out of the way you'll be able to think clearly again."
"You touch her and I will end you."
"I'll use my kingly powers to have you banished to the dungeon for eternity before that happens."
"You'll never become king!"
Paragas relaxed and smirked back at the increasingly angry Brolli, "We'll see about that."
4:34 PM 9/19/2012
~*End of Part 4*~