(A/N: In this chapter, Bulma finally gets the recognition she deserves. Well, sort of. Let's just say her talk with Tarble pays off.)
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Chapter 7: Promoted
The day after Frieza and his men left Planet Vegeta, the king was still fuming. Damn that miserable alien, and the entire Cold Clan. Someday, someday Frieza will fall, and they would all be free from him.
'We'll make them pay.' He vowed. 'No matter how long it takes, one day we shall take down that tyrant.'
Sitting on his thrown, he thought about the progress of his first son. The prince was without a doubt the strongest of all saiyans, a fact that the king was very proud about, but it wasn't enough to defeat Frieza. No, at the moment, his son was only strong enough to stand up to Qui, one of Frieza's top soldiers. But there was still Zarbon and Dodoria, not to mention the Ginyu Force, and then Frieza himself. How could they find a way to win?
So far, their best bet was the transformation. Saiyans had a very unique ability relating to their tails. While a saiyan had his tail, and should he look at the full moon, Blutz Waves coming off the moon will be absorbed through their eyes, triggering a transformation to a giant monstrous ape, with ten times as much power as a saiyan in their normal form.
Unfortunately, a saiyan's mind was taken over by destructive instincts while in this form, making them a rampaging monster, but his son had managed to overcome this and keep his mind intact even while transformed. But even then he still wouldn't be a match for Frieza.
'If only the legend were true.' He thought miserably.
"Father!"
His thoughts were interrupted by his second son. Feeling a headache coming on, the king turned to his second son, massaging his temple. "What is it?"
Tarble respectfully bowed to his father and king. "Father, I regret not being able to come to you sooner, but I have something very important to talk to you about. It concerns the new slave, Bulma."
King Vegeta groaned. "What of her now? If she's causing trouble, then just beat her or something."
Tarble shook his head. "No, Father, it's not that. She's done nothing wrong. But I spoke with her recently, and she's told me a great many things, things that may be of great help to us."
King Vegeta raised an eyebrow. "A slave? Be useful? Other than work and pleasure, what way could a slave possibly be useful?"
"She knows things, Father. Things that will be very useful to us."
The king looked bored. "Like what?"
But his boredom was quickly dispelled as his son told him of what he spoke with Bulma about. The ability to sense and suppress energy was very interesting. He also took great interest in the capsules and the things inside them. Though getting stronger was definitely top priority, the king was also aware of what great knowledge was capable of.
"So what do you think?" Tarble asked.
"Hmm…" The king stroked his beard. "Very interesting. I wonder what else this girl has. Guard!"
The saiyan by his side stood straighter. "Sir?"
"What's become of the ship she arrived in?"
"My king, it was rendered unable to fly and sent to the junkyard."
"Anything on board?"
"No one bothered to check, sir. It was immediately discarded after her capture."
The king got to his feet. "Then lets go see what the ship contains that may be of use."
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After the ship was retrieved, the king and other saiyans took their time to explore it. They were surprised by what they had found. Technology that surpassed their own in many ways, strange devices that did unusual things, features to the ship that amazed them all.
"Who were the ones that brought this girl in?" the king demanded.
"It was Brock and Onion, sir." A saiyan replied.
"And why did they not pillage the ship after her capture."
"I'm afraid I do not know, sir."
The king growled. "Imbeciles. What if all of this had been lost to us?"
Walking around curiously, he ended up beside a saiyan that was working with the computer. He went to stand beside his subject, looking down at what he was doing. "Well, what have you found?"
"I'm not sure, sir, but I have never seen such complex-"
Upon pushing a button, a red light came on in the room, and their bodies suddenly felt unimaginably heavy. The saiyans all groaned, some dropping to their knees.
"What… is… this…?" the king grumbled.
"The… gravity… has… changed…" the saiyan beside him replied.
With great effort, he reached up and pushed the button again. The gravity returned to normal, and they all relaxed.
Getting to his feet, the king gave the computer an incredulous look. "A device that can alter gravity? Incredible. That could be very useful for training."
Actually, several things were found that could be useful for training, including strange robots with great strength that could reflected energy blasts. And all these things were from that woman's home planet? It was unbelievable.
Perhaps his son was right. This girl could be of great use to them.
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Bulma had no idea why she was being taken from the kitchens. Some saiyan grunts had just showed up, demanded that she come with them, and then began dragging her away before she could even respond.
From the looks of it, she was being led to the throne room. Was she being taken to see the king? Why? What'd she do? Was this about the Frieza incident? She'd thought she'd already been 'punished' by Tarble for that.
Whatever the reason was, she was about to find out, because she was indeed brought to the throne room. King Vegeta sat on his throne with a scowl on his face, his first son standing to his right with a similar expression. But what made Bulma relax was Tarble, standing on his father's left side, giving her a reassuring smile.
The saiyan brute dragging her suddenly threw her to the floor before the king. With an annoyed growl, she glared up at the bully. "Is that any way to treat a lady?"
The siaiyan responded by pressing his foot down on her back, preventing her from rising. "Be silent. The king wishes to speak to you."
"You could have just said that from the beginning and I would have come without a fight."
"Quiet!" the king snapped impatiently. He motioned to the saiyan holding her down and Bulma was let up. "You, girl, I've been hearing good things about you from my son."
Bulam knew which son he was talking about, since she had only actually spoken to one of the princes, but she was so angry that she decided to annoy the king. "Which son, my lord? You have two."
"My youngest." The king growled impatiently. "He says you know things that could be of use to us. According to him, back on your home planet, your warriors have learned to detect a person's power level without the use of a scouter."
Bulma shrugged. "Yeah, so?"
"It's true then?"
"As far as I know. My fiancé is a martial artist. He was taught how to sense other's energy, increase and mask his own, and be able to locate someone by sensing their energy."
A look of interest appeared in the king's eye. "How is this done?"
She shrugged again. "Don't know. I'm an inventor, not a fighter. I never learned how to do it."
The king looked slightly disappointed. "An inventor, yes, my son mentioned this as well. Apparently your planet's technology surpasses our own."
Bulma nodded. "Yeah, it does. Like I told him, you do what stuff that we don't, but what you do have is almost primitive compared to us."
The king held out his hand to reveal a capsule. "Such as this?"
Bulma recognized the object. "Yeah, my dad invented those."
"Interesting." He sat back. "We also examined your ship and found rather interesting things. The gravity changer was most impressive."
"I don't see what you're getting at."
"It could be used for training our warriors. Tell me, how high can you make it?"
"Hmm? Well, lets see. It's mostly just used to help adjusting to the gravity on different planets. I think it can go up to about 100 times normal gravity."
"Can you increase it?"
This surprised Bulma. "Huh? You want me to increase it? By how much?"
It was Prince Vegeta that answered. "I want it to go up to at least 500 times normal gravity."
Bulma felt her stomach drop. "W-What? You want to increase it to… to… Are you kidding? You'll be flattened!"
"That's not your concern! You're a slave and will do as you're told!"
Tarble came to Bulma's defense. "Careful, big brother. She's no ordinary slave. She could become a valuable asset for us in defeating Frieza with what she could bring to us."
The king suddenly backhanded his youngest son. The idiot. You don't say something like that. Making the woman think she was needed and was in no danger would make her defiant and unafraid.
Bulma winced when she saw Tarble go down. "Hey, that was uncalled for!"
"Quiet." the king ordered. "You will speak only when spoken to." He took a moment to regain his composure. "After considering the circumstances, I have decided that you will be more useful outside of the kitchen. You're new role will be creating training equipment for my men to train with. Whatever may be useful from your home world, or anything that you can invent will now be made by you. This type of training may just be good enough to make us strong enough to defeat Frieza." He leaned forward, staring at Bulma. "That's your new role in life. You are to use any means necessary to make my men stronger. Especially my eldest son. I'm giving you to him as his personal slave."
Bulma's eyes widened. "What?"
She glanced at the prince in surprise. He didn't seem too thrilled with the idea either. He didn't like the idea of having a slave running after him all the time. And he didn't make a secret of it either.
"Why must I have her?" he demanded.
"Because what she can bring to us, to you, may make you strong enough to defeat Frieza." His father replied.
Vegeta grumbled irritably. "How annoying."
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Bulma looked around her new room. She had been taken from the slave corridors and made to stay here, close to Vegeta. The prince seemed just as unhappy about the situation as she was. It didn't seem like the two of them would get along so well.
On a happier note, at least she had made it out of working in the kitchen. And now she was going to get back to working with technology. She was certainly happy about that.
"Hey, servant girl!" Bulma turned, only to have Vegeta's armor pressed into her arms. "Have that washed."
Bulma looked down at the armor in her hands. Suddenly angry, she threw it on the floor. "No!"
Vegeta glanced at her, not sure if he heard right. "What?"
"I said no! You heard your father. I'm to use my intelligence to come up with ways to make you guys stronger. Washing clothes does not fall under that category. Do it yourself, or get another slave to do it."
Vegeta growled irritably. "Listen here, woman, regardless of what my father said your job is, he also gave you to me. That means you are to do as I say."
She glared at him. "Or what? You'll kill me. You do that and you can kiss your chances of beating Frieza goodbye."
The prince took an angry step towards her. "You little… You'd best not try my patience, woman."
Bulma crossed her arms. "My name is Bulma! I'm person, not a thing! Get that through your thick head." The two of them stared at each other for a moment. "I'll tell you what, if you ask me, rather than order me, I'll wash you stuff."
Vegeta's eyes flashed angrily. "W-What? I'm the prince of all saiyans. I don't have to ask. You for get your place, woman."
"It's Bulma. B-U-L-M-A. Bul-ma. Now just say, 'Bulma, could you please wash those for me', and I'll do it. It'd save you a lot of aggravation."
The saiyan was seething furiously. How dare this girl defy him like that! Who did she think she was? She clearly didn't understand her place. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to blast her. But like she said, he'd lose his chance to beat Frieza.
He was getting a headache. It wasn't worth fighting with her. "F-Fine. Wash those for me, Bulma."
"Say please."
"DO NOT TEST ME, WOMEN!"
Bulma sighed. 'Well, at least it's a start. These saiyans really do need a lesson in manners.' She held her chin up high, walking past him. "Fine, I'll go take care of this now."
That's when a stench hit her nose. It was coming from Vegeta. Apparently, after training all day, he had yet to bathe.
"And while I'm washing this, you should get yourself cleaned up. You smell terrible. Haven't your people invented deodorant yet?" She glanced at him and saw him standing there with a confused look on his face. "Well, what are you waiting for? You want me to roll out the red carpet?"
Shock and anger appeared on Vegeta's face. The nerve of that girl! He should kill her now, or perhaps beat her. But then again, that probably wouldn't leave her in any condition to build anything.
'She needs to learn who the master is.' He thought, then headed to the bathroom to shower, telling himself that he was only taking one because he really did need to wash, not because she told him to.
While the saiyan prince showered, Bulma went about here business. After tossing his clothes in the wash, she returned to his room and knocked on the door. "Hey, you ok in there?"
"You can leave now!" came Vegeta's irritated reply.
Bulma scowled. Prince or not, he really needed a lesson in manners. And she was determined to teach him these manners.
She got her chance when he finished his shower and barked out another command to her. "Servant girl, fetch me a towel!"
Glaring at the door, Bulma placed her hands on her hips and refused to budge. "I told you, my name is Bulma. Now say please."
There was a moment of stunned angry silence from the saiyan prince before he replied, "Never mind, forget the towel!"
"Fine, drip dry!"
From inside the bathroom, she heard the familiar sound of him powering up. Bulma's fury skyrocketed at that. The jerk and gone and powered up to force the water off his body, meaning the bathroom was now a mess that she had to clean up. The jerk! He'd done that on purpose.
But her scowl was replaced by a satisfied smirk when she heard his next words.
"W-What is this?"
"What?"
"These garments you left me. Are they for a man, or a woman?"
Bulma's bottom lip trembled as she tried not to laugh. "What, I thought they were nice. They'd be considered a fashion statement on Earth."
"This isn't Earth!"
The door burst open to reveal the saiyan prince wearing a pink shirt that had the words "BAD BOY" written on it. "This is ridiculous! I am a warrior, not fashion model!"
She couldn't hide her smile any longer. "Well, at least you smell good."
(A/N: Finally some real interaction between Bulma and Vegeta. They'll be a lot more of it in the future, and a lot of arguing. But as Future Trunks said, they'll find their way towards each other.)
