DISCLAIMER:
Vetyga: Heya everybody! So Rath's been super busy lately and can't even come to do this chapter's disclaimer…. Or so she says... So I decided to kidnap Rath's favorite character from the "Higurashi no naku koro ni" series crew to help me instead! Right, Rika-chan?
Furude Rika: (Head tilts to the side in confusion) Mii?
Vetyga: (Nods) Yah you! Now, go ahead and say the line that we'd been practicing for a million times in a row!
Furude Rika: (tilts head to the other side) Mii!
Vetyga: (sweatdrops) Yes yes! You, Rika-chan!
Furude Rika: (eyes suddenly turn rainbow-shaped) Mii~! Nippaaaaa!
(Suddenly, Ryugu Rena pops up out of nowhere!)
Ryugu Rena: (Grabs Rika swinging her around like a teddy bear before running off with her) Oh! My! GOSH! SHE'S SOOOOOO CUTE! Cute cute CUUUUTE!
Vetyga: (falls down anime-style) Eh, okay…. That didn't work quite as I planned. (Sighs) We don't own DBZ…. Or Higurashi no naku koro ni….
(Walks off grumbling about why she always has to end up running into some crazy maniacs while doing disclaimers…)
.
WITHIN THE PRESENT WORLD:
"Long looooong ago there lived a beautiful princess named…."
"Pan! Pan!" shouted the super duper hyper bouncing dark-haired little girl named Pan as she listened to her daddy read her a story to help keep her entertained while they took refuge at Dende's Lookout.
"Ah… yes yes!" Gohan nodded in agreement with his three-year old daughter. "Princess Pan! Now the young Princess Pan wasn't like any ordinary princess. With just a simple glance, she could inspire even the most ordinary of men to do incredible feats in her name. They would ride blindly into the lairs of dragons, swim across the widest of oceans, and even brave….."
Gohan emphasized his words with clawing hand motions and a convincing roar worthy of the dragons in the story. As he then continued reading, Pan's eyes grew as wide and round as saucers. She loved it when her daddy told her this story! It was so intense how in the end a simple farmer was able to battle his way through 100 armies just to make the Princess happy!
Of course what her daddy didn't realize was that whenever he said words such as "great feats" and "armies", Pan was picturing giant "feet" and "arms" kicking and slapping each other around….. It truly was an exciting tale!
"Daddy?" Pan asked as Gohan at last finished reading. "Can you read me it again?"
"Wouldn't you like to hear a different story instead of the same one?" Gohan encouraged.
"No! I like that one!" Pan insisted. "Please?"
"Uh, well…." Gohan was about to give in, when he heard a gruff voice at the doorway.
"Hmph!" Vegeta said as he entered the room. "Unfortunately, you aren't going to have any more time for those ridiculous children's fairy tales. A meeting is about to take place and I suggest you be there if you want to have any clue about the dire situation we are facing currently."
"Uh…" Gohan glanced at his daughter, who was now latched onto the sleeves of his shirt as she continued to repeat, "Pleeeeeeeeeeease, Daddy? Just one more time! Pleeeeease!"
"Can it wait just a moment longer, Vegeta?" Gohan asked. "This will only take a few minutes..." His voice trailed off as Vegeta gave him a very pointed look before setting down his own daughter, Bra, next to Pan and then excited the room without so much as a word said.
"Must be that important, eh?" Gohan said to no one in particular. He watched as Pan and Bra both started jumping up and down as if they were energized with sugar. Pan seemed to forget all about the story now that her best friend was with her.
"Okay, you two," Gohan told them as he set the book down on a nearby table. "I have to go to a meeting, but I'm going to have someone else come in and check up on you while I'm gone. Be good!"
"Okay, Daddy!" Pan replied without even so much as a glance at Gohan.
Gohan chuckled softly as he left the room in search of Videl or Chichi.
"Pan Pan!" Bra shouted excitedly. Pan had a habit of repeating names twice, so naturally Bra would mimic her.
"Bra Bra!" Pan shouted as they latched hands and jumped around in circles.
"I make my Mommy's flowers grow BIG and STRONG!" Bra said proudly.
"Really?" Pan asked. "Why?"
"Because they looked sad," Bra frowned. She emphasized the word 'sad' by rubbing her eyes with her hands as if she was crying and letting her body droop down like wilting leaves.
"Awww!" Pan looked truly sympathetic to the plight of the sad flowers. "Well, my Daddy read me the bestest story ever!"
"Really?" Bra asked.
"Ya!" Pan exclaimed as she grabbed hold of Bra's hand and led her to the book Gohan had been reading to her moments earlier. "There!"
Unfortunately, Pan was too small to reach it. "Umph!" Pan exclaimed as she landed hard on her butt after a failed attempt at jumping for it. In frustration, she then kicked the table, but even that didn't work. The table wobbled for a while, but it stubbornly stayed upright with the book planted firmly in the middle.
"My turn! My turn!" Bra exclaimed after focusing hard on the situation at hand. "I know!" she said after a few moments. "You sit!"
"Why?" Pan questioned.
"Sit! Sit!" Bra exclaimed impatiently.
"Fine!" Pan sat down next to the table, but before she could ask 'what now?' Bra was busy climbing on top of Pan's shoulders and stretching up to reach the book.
"Higher!" Bra exclaimed.
"Okay!" Pan was getting excited. This might just work! Pan slowly managed to stand up, while Bra awkwardly kept her balance now standing on top of Pan's head.
"Higher! Higher!" Bra shouted.
"I can't!" Pan replied. "Just reach higher."
"I can't!" Bra stomped her foot on Pan's head in a mini tantrum.
"Ow!" Pan jerked her head to the side, causing her friend to lose her balance. Luckily, Bra was able to latch on to the edge of the table before she fell.
Pan couldn't help but laugh as she watched Bra dangling like a leaf from the table top. Then Pan decided to take advantage of the situation by using Bra as a human ladder to climb up to the top of the table.
"Ow!" Bra exclaimed as Pan accidentally stepped on her face along the way.
"Yay!" Pan cheered as she then helped Bra get up top as well. "I win!"
Bra pouted. She was upset that her plan hadn't worked exactly as she had wanted it to.
"Okay, I am going to read you the story," Pan said.
"I want to read it!" Bra poked out her lip.
"But you can't read, so only I can," Pan said matter-of-factly. Never mind the fact that Pan couldn't actually read it either; she was going to just make up the words as she went along.
"Okay," Bra gave in. Pan had a convincing argument in her favor.
"Okay," Pan started reading in her best 'dramatic voice'.
"Long looooooooooong ago there was a Princess Pan!"
"Princess Bra!" Bra exclaimed.
"Quiet!" Pan replied in annoyance. "This is my favorite story not yours!"
"It's my favorite story too!" Bra pouted.
"There can be only one princess," Pan explained before continuing on with the story. She flipped the pages randomly as if she were actually reading the words.
"So everyone wanted to make Princess Pan very happy. Everyone buyed her all the ice cream in the world and they fought dragons, so they can take their ice creams too and give them to Princess Pan. One day, a poor farmer saw the Princess crying and he asked her "Why are you so sad?"
And the Princess said, "The armies stole all my ice creams and I am sad."
The farmer said, "No worries, Princess Pan! My feet will beat those armies! And I will get your ice creams and you will be very happy again!"
"I'm bored!" Bra yawned. "I don't like this story. It's not my favorite story anymore."
"You just don't want the princess to be happy!" Pan accused.
"I don't like Princess Pan!" Bra replied. "She take all the ice cream for her and she not share with her friends!"
"You're on the armies' side!" Pan realized. "You want to take her ice creams too!"
"Ya! I like the armies!" Bra replied.
"The feets will beat you too!" Pan declared.
"No!" Bra shouted. She didn't really know who the "feets" and the "armies" were in the story, but if the armies were against Princess Pan, then so was she!
Next thing you know, Pan and Bra were literally fighting each other about which side was better.
"Armies! Armies! Armies!" Bra taunted in her babyish voice as she snatched the book away from Pan and threw it on the floor.
"Feets! Feets!" Pan shouted back as she kicked Bra away from her. Regrettably, Pan put too much force into her kick causing Bra to go flying fast over the edge of the table.
"Bra Bra!" Pan exclaimed with worry as she saw her friend hit the back wall and slump down to the floor. Pan immediately forgot about their earlier dispute from moments earlier as she climbed down from the table and went to see if her best friend was alright.
"Bra Bra! I'm sorry!" Pan exclaimed as she tried to help Bra up, but Bra simply burst into tears and refused to accept her offer of help.
"I don't like you anymore!" Bra shouted as she rubbed her teary eyes with little fists. "You're not my friend!"
WITHIN THE PAST WORLD:
"I don't know what you were planning to do with 'free run' of the ship," King Vegeta said as he calmly approached the young Saiyans. "But that plan ends here. You are not to leave my sight. I am responsible for your every action and I'll be damned if I allow a couple brats to get us on Frieza's bad side. You do not know who you are dealing with."
As Trunks glanced towards Vegge, he thought to himself, 'I think it's the King who does not understand….'
"Follow me," the King ordered as he turned towards a far off hallway. When both Trunks and Vegge hesitated, the King reacted angrily, "Are you both daft? I said follow!"
Trunks sighed. He had no idea how they were going to get themselves out of this mess. He decided they had no choice but to follow orders until they figured out a way to get to the others. Besides, maybe following the King for a little would help them get better at navigating through this maze of a ship.
"Come on, Vegge," Trunks muttered quietly. "Looks like we don't have any other options at the moment…."
Vegge nodded slightly as he followed them in silence.
'What am I to do?' Vegge wondered. 'What will Master Frieza do? What will Trunks and the King do? Why do I care what they do? Where is Goku? Why is Frieza still alive when he's supposed to be dead? Why did they tell me he was dead?'
"Hold on," King Vegeta motioned for them to stop as he pulled out a small micro-chip sized device from the side of this scouter. After a few moments, a giant 3-D holographic map was projected upwards from the chip. It appeared to be a complete map of the Ghoul Saber. The map was slightly blurred due to the interference of the teleportation devices on board the ship, but it was good enough for his needs.
"Alright, so we should be around the upper left quadrant of the ship," King Vegeta said as he indicated towards some faint glowing green dots on the map. "Here. Now we've already locked down their main escape docks which are around the lower right and left quadrants….. Here. And the upper right quadrant has been cleared already, meaning that any survivors will head to the middle quadrants. That is to be our next destination. Meanwhile Frieza will be….." His voice trailed off slightly.
Was King Vegeta imagining it, or did he just see Vegge flinch at the very mention of Frieza's name? The King frowned as he carefully scrutinized the young Saiyan. He knew the boy had several bruises and scars before Frieza had ever laid a hand on him. Surely, it was the Yuuli's doing, yet he didn't seem to respond in such a manner when their name was spoken out loud.
After a curious glance from Trunks, who noticed him gazing at Vegge, the King cleared his throat and continued, "Meanwhile Frieza will be double checking the purged regions of the ship for stragglers and gather whatever bits of information on their technology he wishes to claim for his own empire. I can't emphasize enough to you that he must not ever find a single straggler. If he does, he will claim we have disobeyed his direct orders and who knows what he will do as a result."
'I am not a disobedient monkey!' Vegge thought to himself. 'Master Frieza is already going to severely punish me again for escaping him; I will not give him more reasons to make it worse for me! If any of us screws this up, he will mostly take out his anger on me.'
"There won't be any survivors," Vegge declared.
'Not if I can help it,' Trunks countered in his mind. He had no intention of going along with the mass killing of the Yuuli. As long as he was still breathing, there would be many 'stragglers'!
If only Trunks knew just how soon his resolve would be put to the test…..
Rath: (looks up at the chapter above and then to the reader) I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I wanted to thank you all for the positive responses for the last chapter and for some wonderful critiques! Detailed critiques make me all warm and fuzzy inside!
At Dark Ki: OMG! (Hugs hugs hugs!) So good to see your name in the reviews for the last chapter! You have no idea! It's been such a long time! I'm glad that I inspired you to update as well! :P As for Vegge…. Ya it's going to be a very big issue they will have to face. The title "The Trouble with Vegge" refers to both the troubles Vegge faces and the troubles that he causes (or will cause) for others throughout the story.
At PerfectLover: My, it really had been a long time. I was almost going to let this story die, because of that fact, but then I noticed that people were actually still reading, reviewing, and favoriting it despite no sign of me ever continuing, so I decided I'd still try to finish it. I was always so irregular and still am actually, but I do want to finish this (hopefully!) because I have a twist planned that I've been looking forward to!
At Minirowan: Thanks for the critique on my writing in general. It's definitely something to work on.
At Strava: Knowing me, I can't promise lightning fast updates, but so long as I am able, I will try not to wait TOOO long in between or give up again…. I am using my FFnet profile page a bit more for updates on my progress. Maybe when I am truly stuck I can ask for advice from people on ideas and such too….
At WildVegeta: (Hugs!) Thank you very much for being such a fan even though you just started getting into this story. Much much love!
At Cara2012: Thank you for your reviews! I can't believe you went and reviewed every single chapter out of dedication. Review count doesn't matter to me so much though it was such a nice thought of you! You did bring up some good points concerning Vegge. What effect the potion is having on him will be made clear as time passes.