Author's Note: Let me start off by apologizing that it took me this long to get this chapter up. I had half the chapter written for a reaaaally long time, but then I got nervous about my action stuff - like, was it good enough, was this what people would be expecting, is it not enough action, etc. - and so I kind of ignored doing it for a while tbh. But I reread it and felt like it still felt like the way I had basically envisioned it all along. I'm not a Die Hard writer or anything, guys. I'm a romance writer. So if my action stuff seems lame or contrived, I'm so sorry lol Maybe I was too bold to take on such an action-y plot. But I'm glad I did it. I'm proud of myself, because I've never ever written anything so action-driven. It was a real challenge, and I don't know that I'd ever do it to this magnitude again, but I don't think I'm nearly as afraid of action as I had been before.
Okay. Sorry about that, just had to get it off my chest. In other news, I'm expecting another baby! Yay! And this fic is officially one year old! Thank you everyone for your support! You guys have been great. I promise the next chapter will not take nearly as long, and *maybe* you'll get an epilogue too, depends how much I can fit into the next one. Thank you!
It was hard to keep from seeming overzealous. The Saiyans allowed Vatet to set the pace as she ushered them through the halls and into a different elevator on the floor, none of them speaking and all eyes trained only ahead. Vegeta was keen on her every move from his peripheral however, suspicious of every shift, and he recognized the floor number 10 indicated on the button she pressed once the doors had begun to shut. In his ear, he heard Bulma make note of it as well.
As the chrome box began its ascent, Bulla started whimpering, her body shifting restlessly on the table, damp brow wrinkled. Vegeta touched her fingertips briefly with his own, hoping it could somehow reassure or revive her, though ultimately unwilling to let the enemy with them exploit his emotions when it came to his daughter.
"When will she wake?" Vegeta growled when he caught the scientist openly staring. "Is this the same toxin you used on them before?"
Vatet smiled wanly. "Yes, but she needed a stronger dose than we're used to administering," she admitted in a way Vegeta found much too casual for his liking. "I'm not exactly sure when she'll wake, to be honest. We were planning on pumping them with some adrenaline prior to their session-"
"What's a 'session'?" Gohan wondered abruptly, and both Saiyans swivelled their heads to peer down at the red woman. But when all she did was lift her eyebrows in a suggestive manner, there needn't be anything more said. Gohan's cheeks flamed crimson, and he ducked his head low so that his chin touched his collar. "...oh."
But Vatet shrugged, ambivalent to his discomfort and Vegeta's growing anger. "We were hoping for a successful mate this first go, too. They already had a positive relationship - such a bonus for us, it's always so hard when they're unfamiliar - and they just needed a little nudging. Arrangements were even made for their baselines to align favorably; we know how you Saiyans love a good fight," Vatet added with a smirk and a wink, and Vegeta fought back the overwhelming urge to punch her in the face. "Regrettably, I suppose we underestimated them."
"Consider yourself lucky, then," Vegeta grumbled, antsy as he read the floor 5 flashing on the sign above. He was beginning to think the elevator was foolish - a rookie mistake taken in haste. "That's only one of your many regrets."
"Trust that I have none more than you do, Your Highness," Vatet sniffed disdainfully. Off his fierce glare, she continued, still so blasé, "I dare say you may regret this moment more than anything in your life. As we've underestimated your offspring, so you've underestimated the Institute."
He shoved around the table with a furious puff of air from his nostrils. His presence seemed to triple in magnitude as he threatened Vatet with his being, a snarl revealing sharp canines as he rumbled in her face, "Remember that time I warned you not to threaten me?"
The floor beneath them jerked, the elevator suddenly coming to a complete halt, sending all three stumbling into the walls and the medical table scratching sideways against the door. Sirens crowded in all directions around them, and the overhead lights were dimmed to a burnt orange, a single flood light pouring down upon them.
"INTRUDER ALERT… COMMENCE LOCKDOWN MEASURE 5…"
"Fuck!" Vegeta seethed as his gloved hand pounded at the wall. He fucking knew it.
"ALL CLASS ONE PERSONNEL REPORT TO DECK E … ALL CLASS TWO PERSONNEL REPORT TO DECK B … THIS IS NOT A TEST…" The intercom continued to rant in the alien language monotonously above them. "INTRUDER ALERT… COMMENCE LOCKDOWN MEASURE 5… "
"What's it saying?!" Gohan swung toward Vegeta. "Have we been found?"
"We need to get out-"
There was a swooshing of wind by his face, the flash of something shiny, red, then blue, accompanied by a thud against the wall adjacent to the Saiyan pair.
Vegeta turned at the waist, gaping at the sight of Bulla pinning Vatet face-first against the metal sheet wall, one hand grabbing her by the back of the head and the other holding down her right arm. In Vatet's hand shook a syringe, vial full of a blue toned liquid. Bulla squeezed her fingers around Vatet's limb, and a sickening crack resounded, chorused by the red woman screams of agony. Her hand went limp, the syringe clattered to the floor, and Gohan dove to snatch it up.
Bulla looked wild with rage, eyes round and a bit lost, sweat beading down her temple as she all but crushed the other woman into the side of the elevator. He had very seldom considered the Saiyan aspect of his daughter - she was often too much like her mother - but so vicious and raw, Vegeta could see it clearly now. It nearly startled him.
"Eschalot," Vegeta spoke calmly after a beat, sensing her tension and nervous energy crackling around them. When his daughter's trembling began to lessen, her profile cast a quarter his way, he lowered his voice to a gentle, yet stern octave. "Settle down."
Wide blue eyes took his own, fury replaced with a child's fearful gaze. Tears began to pool along Bulla's lower lashes, though her grip did not relent upon her enemy. "...Daddy? Are you real?"
He nodded once and outstretched his gloved hand. "Let her go and come here."
Bulla was unsure of the command at first, her watery glare traded between the two, but ultimately the vision of her father dwarfed the promise of revenge. The young girl released the broken woman with a cry, throwing herself into her father's patient embrace. Her small body shook with sobs (somehow she was so much smaller than he remembered) as she curled into him, and the limits of Vegeta's steady countenance were threatened in force.
"I knew you would come for me," Bulla wept against his armored chest. She drew back on a quivering breath, her tiny hands cupping his cheeks as unabashed adoration glittered up at him in her wet gaze. "I knew you'd save me."
It was immeasurable, the love Vegeta felt for his child and family in that moment, and words failed him completely as his daughter latched onto his torso in a crushing hug once more. Once again struck dumb in awe of his luck and second - gods, who really knew what number he was up to now - chance.
The warning blared above again and startled Bulla apart from her father, though one tiny hand remained fastened around the breastplate of his armor. "W-what's going on? What is that?"
"They've found us. We have to move, guys," Gohan warned them urgently, and Vegeta nodded in reply, before he ducked down to yank up the crippled scientist at their feet. Vatet squeaked and flinched away from him, eyes screwed shut. "You're still our escort."
Off her whimper and cowering, Vegeta grimaced, passing her off to Goten as though trash. The younger man seemed nonplussed at becoming the chaperone once again, tucking her gruffly under his right arm.
"Wait, where's Goten?" Bulla's concerned voice quavering. "Have you found him yet?" When neither man responded, she glared daggers at the woman held captive in Gohan's grasp. "Where is he, Vatet?"
"You broke my hand, you little whor-ahh!" the red woman hissed, slur broken by a cracking slap across her cheek.
"Enough!" Vegeta grabbed Bulla by the elbow as she prepared for another swing. "We don't have time. Let's get to the next floor. We're on our way to the boy now!"
Begrudgingly, Bulla jerked from her father and turned away, red-faced and annoyed. Meanwhile, Vegeta lifted a boot and kicked forcefully at the portal, which remained wholly unmoved by his heel. Vatet snickered mirthlessly, shaking her head.
"Something funny?"
"That's reinforced carbide kyranium," she sighed. "All of our facilities are insulated with-"
But her smirking visage fell flat when, accompanied by the singing of ki, Vegeta put his gloved fist completely through the door. In a fluid motion, he yanked sideways, tearing a large opening through the screeching metal as though ripping paper.
"Let's go."
The prince exited first, reaching through the hole to retrieve Bulla's tentative hand. He drew her through and for a second, she levitated, before she abruptly dropped a foot down the shaft on a shaken gasp. Vegeta caught her around the middle swiftly, holding her close, concern deep set in his brow.
"I can't fly," Bulla whimpered helplessly. "I can barely muster any energy. I'm sorry, daddy."
"It's the drugs they've dosed you with," he grumbled. "I've got you. We'll find a way by foot on the next floor."
Gohan slid out of the opening with Vatet caught under his arm, and the men floated upward several floors together. Outside the elevator shaft, the earlier warning continued to echo, and at each exit site, a flashing orange peeked from the crack beneath the doors. Heavy boot-steps thundered on different floors, and when they reached floor ten, muffled barking voices could be heard not far beyond the elevator opening
Lifting the hand not holding Bulla, Vegeta motioned for Gohan to slow outside the door.
"He's here," Gohan nodded as he readjusted their captive. "It's faint, but I can feel him."
"There's at least thirty guards," Vegeta muttered, stretching his senses to try and survey through the reinforced walling as best he could. "Their power levels are negligible by comparison, but I doubt that's your entire lot." He arched an eyebrow down at Vatet, who merely glowered in response. "What are we walking into, woman?"
"I only agreed to get you to him," Vatet soured, gasping when Gohan's firm jostle shook her wounded hand. "You seem so confident, sire - does it really matter to you?"
Vegeta smirked down at her. "No," he chuckled darkly. "I suppose it doesn't."
"Daddy, I don't know if I can fight," Bulla mumbled, and Vegeta could spy her cheeks darkening in shame. "I don't want to slow you down-"
"Here," Gohan glided over, presenting Bulla with the laced syringe Vatet had intended to use on them earlier. The younger girl took it with a hard swallow, an unspoken thanks in her gaze as she slipped it into the lab coat pocket. "Vegeta, do you want me to take her?"
"No," he grunted and resettled Bulla against his hip. Vegeta glanced at his daughter sideways, inclining his head at her. "Hold still, unless you aim to attack, girl."
Bulla's arms tightened around her father's torso as she readied herself, an affirmative nod returned.
"Blast in first," Vegeta commanded of Gohan and swivelled to grant him space ahead. "They'll have weaponry of some kind, so just rush in and take out what you can as quickly as you can. Back-up will be just behind them, waiting in the wings, so our time to take them out in one go is limited. Utilize her as a meat shield if you have to."
"Vegeta!" Gohan rolled his eyes as Vatet began to squirm with renewed fervor. "We need her to find Goten!"
"Do we, though?" Bulla wondered snidely, no love lost in her cool glance to the red-skinned woman.
Vatet growled and arched her back, trying desperately to find any purchase and release from Gohan's grasp. "I hope you enjoy a brutal end," she bit out through her shiny teeth, mad eyes narrowed on the young princess.
The time for talk was short. Off Vegeta's signal, Gohan blew a hole in the elevator opening to floor ten. Immediately, they were met with a series of yelling voices and firing of blasters. Lasers of varying colors illuminated the dimly lit hall, as orders in the foreign language were echoed near and far. Gohan barged in, head ducked down, one arm ready with an engulfing ki blast. The energy swallowed the first group, leaving their burned torsos wriggling on the ground. He continued with rapid fires as Vegeta joined him on the tenth floor and resumed the lead ahead of Gohan.
Cutting through the guards wasn't as easy as he'd liked with Bulla under his arm. While she remained as small as possible in his grasp, it was much more difficult to ward off a group in one go. Sensing his frustration, Bulla tucked herself down, wedging her way out from beneath his large arm, feet hitting the ground running in step with his movements. Vegeta hollered her name, but she sprinted ahead, deftly dodging blows and blasts fired off around her.
Free of her burden, the prince wasted little time cleaning house and laying waste to the second and third formations that jogged into the hall. He was right, all said and done there were thirty to forty bodies moaning on the ground or slumped against the walls when he and Gohan had finished. Gohan had already moved ahead of him after Bulla, and Vegeta only followed suit when he was sure the lot had been leveled.
He trotted around the bend, finding Bulla and Gohan stood before a large, heavily bolted door. The pulse of Goten's ki was stronger behind these walls, though Vegeta supposed he was also subdued as Bulla had bern - it was still far fainter than he ever remembered it to be.
Gohan relinquished Vatet, shoving her unceremoniously toward the door and keycode pad. "Open it," he ordered the bowing woman. "And don't try anything funny."
The scientist shuddered away from the three and moved her undamaged arm to type into the pad. The doors exhaled and parted, and the party was met with a chilly gust from inside the chamber. As the massive wing opened up to them, narrow laser fire was aimed at them from behind. Ducking aside, Vegeta spied security beams mounted feet apart from the opening. He growled and pushed Bulla down by her neck, forcing her forward into the room and out of the line of fire.
Once inside, Bulla hurried down the grated hallway, wildly searching each pod she passed. There were several rows of gigantic pods, each blue and shiny, the front hatches bearing huge windows to see those contained within. Each creature held captive appeared as though asleep, a mask similar to the one Bulla had worn resting over their faces.
"Which one is he?"
"774-E," Vatet gasped when Gohan grabbed her by the broken hand to force her in the lead.
"Goten!" Bulla's cry echoed in the chamber, and Vegeta's heart stung at her desperate cadence. He came around the row she had stopped in, and why he was startled by the vision of her there he couldn't say. She was pressed up against the glass, her palms smacking at the hatch as she sobbed the boy's name once more. Tears rolling down her cheeks, Bulla beat a fist against the window. "Goten! Goten, wake up!"
"Wake him up," Gohan thrusted Vatet down the hall toward Bulla and his brother's pod.
"I don't know the code," she muttered and staggered back from the encroaching males. "I swear I don't."
"You said you could get him out."
"I said I could get them out," Vatet sneered with a nod at Bulla and Goten in his pod. "As in, out of the Institute. I didn't say I could get him out of this pod, specifically."
"You-" Gohan menaced forward with a raised fist.
Videl's cry in his ear brought Vegeta back to the present. "Gohan!" He rebuked the boy sharply. "Don't do something you'll regret," he warned, before turning a glare upon the scientist. "You're head of science. I'm sure you're very smart. Figure it out."
He grasped the woman's battered arm and she screamed when he slung her toward the containment pod. Bulla shuffled back a step, her heartbroken stare now morphed to rage as she watched the red woman fiddle with the code pad on the hatch face. In the stroke of a few keys, the lights blacked out then bathed the room in emerald, and all three Saiyans gasped while Vatet made to escape in their surprise.
Bulla was the first to move, her lithe body zooming forward to tackle Vatet to the ground. The older woman groaned gutterally as the wind was knocked from her, and Bulla straddled her hips and pinned her to the floor violently.
"What did you do?!"
"CONTAINMENT LOCKDOWN… CLASS THREE PERSONNEL TO CONTAINMENT WING… INTRUDER ALERT…" The familiar, dull siren announced, its bored tone reverberating throughout the chamber.
"If you won't let your species live, then you'll all die here," Vatet snarled, even through the closed fist connecting against her jaw. Bloodied spittle flew from her mouth as Bulla pounded into her face, but the alien woman cackled all the same. "You are arrogant fools if you think your lives are worth more than the entirety of your species!"
Vegeta swore as the sound of heavy boots drew closer. He dragged Bulla off of Vatet and slung his daughter aside between Goten and his neighboring pod, just as a team of guards came barrelling down the row. He and Gohan began trading blows with three on one each. As Gohan dove sideways to miss a punch, one guard struck a pod behind him, and it compressed the victim inside, blood and body matter oozing from the head as its torso contracted violently.
"Vegeta! The pods!" Gohan called over his opponents' heads. "They're pressurized! Don't hit them!"
"Shit," Vegeta growled as he dodged, landing a solid kick in one guard's stomach and a precise blast in the face of another. The third suffered a broken arm and jaw, in that order, before Vegeta blew all three aside in a sweep of blue energy. Several nearby pods rumbled and their contents dimmed a muted pink, and the prince swore to himself.
"It's the pressure around them, too," he warned Gohan as the other man finished his lot. "We have to limit our offense in here."
"Where is Vatet?" Bulla peeked around Goten's pod, and the three of them looked around desperately for the disappeared scientist. "She's gone! What are we gonna do?"
Louder still, more boots sounded around the hall. "Just stay down until you can fight!" Vegeta ordered his daughter tersely. "Try to find the woman, if you can!"
As another round of soldiers stomped toward them, Bulla ducked out of sight. This team was more formidable than the last, especially given their handicap with protecting the nearby pods. Several monsters came at Vegeta, and his stomach twisted unpleasantly as he recognized many species he himself had exterminated at the behest of Frieza. It was as though he was fighting the ghosts of his sordid past, and his lip curled as he doubled down his efforts and shoved aside the fleeting shame.
Out of the way, Bulla had rushed around to the back of Goten's pod to try another tactic to get him out. She had heard her father and Gohan's exchanged warnings, and now she was even more anxious to free the unconscious man inside. Think, think, she wracked her brain and summoned all her genetic predisposition toward the scientific as she examined the gathering of wires and cables collected at the back of the pod.
After some inspection, Bulla stealthily made her way back up to the front of the containment bay to the main computer console. Halfway there, a bulbous hippo beast emerged from between two pods, blaster drawn at the ready. She froze in a heartbeat of terror, but the warmth of her regaining energy thawed her, Bulla drummed up what she could and flashed forward, knocking the monster down with a sharp knee to the gut. He doubled over to his knees, blaster cast aside as he tried to regain his balance and breath, but another swift kick to the back of his head had knocked him out cold.
Quickly, she gathered up the blaster, and all but ran toward the front to avoid any more errant soldiers, albeit most were well occupied by her father and Gohan. Once upon the consoles, she began clicking through the screens, hoping something - anything - would make sense to her.
A click sounded to her right, and Bulla paused. From the corner of her eye, she recognized the barrel of a blaster, and when she went to raise her own, the hot nose butted against her hairline.
"Don't move," Vatet slurred the command. "Or I'll blow your head off."
"Aren't I supposed to be valuable or something?"
The gun began to singe her skin as the scientist pushed it harder into her temple. Bulla could smell the burning of her own hair and willed herself not to flinch.
"For the cause, maybe," Vatet scoffed. "But to most, you're trash. Do you know what the Saiyans are to most breeds within the Institute?" Off Bulla's silence, Vatet continued heatedly, "You're death. Your kind annihilated hundreds of innocent beings from the universe during their alliance with Lord Frieza. My family, my people," her voice broke sharply, and Bulla cringed away from the sting of the gun, "were murdered by your father and your filthy monkey race."
Though a lump had formed in Bulla's throat, Vatet carried on, normally unphased facade broken in two with disgust. "When the Commander had found your father, we all agreed that the little mudball on which he was hiding should've been destroyed. But then there was you, and the other male, and the Commander is nothing but dedicated to his vision."
"'A better universe', he had said. 'That's what we're working towards.' But I knew you'd only bring more death and destruction. That's all you monkeys are good for, anyway. That's all the Commander wants you for - to be his favorite weapon, just like your father to Lord Freiza. Killing machines."
"I haven't killed anyone," Bulla kept her voice hard and even, despite the trepidation creeping down her spine.
"Not those Saibamen? Or Veron?"
Bulla fell quiet once again, and Vatet chuckled low. "You're a Saiyan. It's in your DNA. And any spawn you bear, they'll be bloodthirsty monsters, too."
"I just want to go home," Bulla whispered, closing her eyes against the burn of the blaster as Vatet dug it into her skin. "I'm not a monster."
"I swore an oath to bring life into this universe," Vatet's hand began to shake, then steady, and Bulla felt instinctively that the woman was preparing to fire. "And if I carry your breed on, I'll be breaking that oath-"
Before her poetic lament could close, Bulla moved. She dropped low and swept her leg, left hand snatching up her own stolen blaster, aim dead on with the muzzle butting against Vatet's forehead as she fell to the ground beneath them. The scientist fired off a wild round in surprise before the weapon was thrown aside, and Bulla pushed her gun in harder and crushed her heel into the woman's chest.
"Do you think I want to listen to your sob story?" She spit down at her nastily. "I don't give a damn about history or your oath! You're going to open Goten's pod, and we're going to get out of here, and if you don't want to end up dead like the rest of your pathetic race, you'll do what I tell you to do!"
Under her bare foot, Bulla could feel Vatet's stuttering breath and rabbiting heartbeat. But slowly, the red-skinned alien nodded, and Bulla allowed her to stagger up to her feet. Clicking at the trigger and bumping the gun into her back, Bulla warned, "I'm not a monster, but we'll see how far Saiyan genetics take me if you try and hurt him."
The scientist quickly typed through several screens. A large green button appeared in the center monitor, and she pushed it, causing a horn-like siren to circle overhead. All of the pods down Goten's row began to hiss exhaust and open, and Bulla let herself fall weak in that second. Forgetting Vatet, the girl sprinted down the row next to Goten's, glimpses of battle between her father, Gohan, and the fourth round of guards still hot and underway.
Many of the opened pods revealed crushed contents, unfortunate victims from the ongoing fight. Bulla tried not to pay attention as she slipped into Goten's row and hurried several pods down to his.
He was still perfect; cool, damp air was rushing out of the containment pod, his body dewy and gooseflesh pimpling at the temperature change. Bulla clambered up the front of the hatch to swipe the mask from his face, and a familiar, dizzying scent wafting up from it as she drew it away. Her vision blurred as the sedative remaining in her system waved through her, but she fought it off, hands latching around Goten's face insistently.
"Goten! Goten, please wake up!" She cried as she shook him in earnest. "My dad's here! And Gohan! Please, please wake up - we have to go home!"
His body stirred slightly, a closed-mouthed moan vibrating in his chest. Bulla opened her lips to urge him again, but instead of words, a shocked scream slipped out, as she was yanked apart from Goten by her long tresses. A meaty fist held her aloft, dangling her like prey. As she twisted around in a circle, Bulla was brought nose to nose with Veron, his once handsome visage now brutally scarred from their last encounter.
"Princess," his hoarse voice revelled over the honorific mockingly, and Bulla barely had time to react as he flung her hard into the ground at his feet.
The world went spinning. Unable to still raise her ki much further, Bulla struggled to lift herself off the ground again. But Veron was on her, snatching her up by the jaw, his talons piercing into her skin and drawing sharp pain and thick rivulets of blood down her neck. His face had morphed into a grotesque, monstrous form, and Bulla squirmed to try and escape his hold, but to no avail.
"What's wrong? Where's that golden power now?" Veron growled and squeezed, and Bulla shrieked as the crunching of her own bones reverberated in her ears. "I'm gonna make you pay for what you've done to me-"
His bluish blood splattered her across her face as she was released suddenly, Veron's body forced aside by a blow. Bulla hadn't hit the ground though, caught by her father, who stood seething mad at the goon on the floor. To the other side of Veron's grunting form stood a heaving Goten, grit teeth and rage in his dark eyes.
Was it possible for her heart to leap and sink simultaneously? Bulla's breath caught and she wanted to lunge for her companion, but her father's grip pulled her aside, behind him.
"Daddy, he's-"
"Go find Gohan and get out," Vegeta commanded, rounding along with Goten upon Veron as the brute regained his footing. "I'll watch behind you."
"You stupid apes…" Veron dove at Goten, and Vegeta was just behind him, hollering one final demand for Bulla to retreat.
Before their argument could carry any further, an engulfing roar sang throughout the containment chamber. Aliens began clawing from their pods along Goten's aisle, bounding at the new influx of soldiers that had arrived. Nearby, one beast lunged at a guard, shredding his face to ribbons.
The distraction was all the opportunity Veron needed. The teal monstrosity had risen again to his full height and barrelled into Goten full-force, knocking the younger man down. The Saiyan prince attacked his back and Veron thrashed around, trying to sweep the smaller warrior off of him as though a bothersome insect. They crashed together into several adjacent pods, glass and fibre splintering in all directions. Veron palmed Vegeta's face, smushing him against the shattered pod, but from the left dove a bolt of black, Goten tugging Veron's massive body off of the prince.
"Bulla, go! Please!" Goten's voice cried over the din around her.
Bulla snapped from her horrified stupor and raced the other way, to where she could sense Gohan's bursting energy. Down two rows and to the left, she found him finishing off two more guards and three other alien lifeforms that had been held captive in the pods. Feeling a rush of her ki strengthening again, Bulla pushed power into her palms and launched several waves of purple energy, smothering Gohan's alien opponents.
"Bulla," he panted, relieved. "Where's your dad?"
She grasped his arm and tugged Gohan back toward Goten and her father's direction. "They're fighting- you have to come!"
But Gohan shook his head and flipped their grips, now grasping Bulla's elbow. "Not what your mom says," he pointed with his free hand at the mic in his ear. "Bulma says we've gotta go. They'll be fine-"
"But we can't just leave them!"
"Your dad's got this- don't be a distraction, let's go!"
Frustrated, Bulla relented with a cry, and she and the older man jogged out of the containment ward. Along the stairwell, she pilfered another two blasters from slain soldiers and tossed one toward Gohan. He caught it clumsily, and she fought down a snicker at how cluelessly he stared down at the weapon.
"Never hurts to have back up," she noted.
"I have literally no idea how to use this-"
Gohan's words were cut short by the vibrant hum of Bulla's blaster as she fired a round into the chest into an advancing soldier from behind, aim precise.
"...But clearly you do," Gohan acknowledged.
Bulla smirked and twirled the gun charmingly, preening, "My mom may have taught me a thing or two."
"She heard that, and she says 'thank you'," he chuckled and tapped at his ear.
Bulla groaned and rolled her eyes, checking her plasma life on the side of the blaster. "Great, now I've blown my cover!"
The two began their trek back toward the docking bay, Gohan letting Bulla know along the way they were following Bulma's instructions through his earpiece. They stayed relatively silent, slipping back through the elevator passage they had arrived through earlier, floating upward several floors.
Bulla nodded and paused mid-air. "This one," she gestured toward the closed elevator doors beside them. "This should be it, right?"
Gohan agreed and raised an energy ball around his fist, pushing it quickly through the reinforced portal with ease. He tore through the doors to make a wide enough opening, but as he began to duck in, blaster fire began streaming through the hole. They ducked apart to either side of the shaft doors, pressing up against the walls.
"What now?" Bulla whined.
With some fiddling, Gohan retrieved a capsule pack from his hip. Clicking it open, he tore out a number 20 and 18, and Bulla grinned widely as he pressed 18, releasing two gas masks. The pair caught them, Bulla fastening hers on as Gohan launched 20 through the hole. Seconds following, pure, black smoke plumbed through the opening, and Bulla and Gohan stole forward. The floor was coated in a thick, dark fog, and the pair used this as their shield to duck and dive between coughing, staggering guards. When their appearance was recognized, aimless fire began shooting around, and they hastened their pace toward the docking bay.
As they broke through the clearing of the smoke, both peeled back their masks, heaving clean breaths as they took account of their surroundings. Several soldiers came hurrying into the hall, but before they could get much further, Bulla began to fire, blaster poised at shoulder level.
Gohan used her guard to place another device from his hip upon the door monitor of the bay. The tiny machine whirred and bleeped red several times, before it illuminated green and sang positive, and the doors to the docking bay parted. As if on cue, Bulla shrieked, and Gohan looked over his shoulder to find her collapsing to one knee with a hand cupping her bloody left arm. He hissed and dashed to her side, scooping her up under one arm as his other launched a flurry of ki waves to bowl over the advancing warriors.
In a small window, Gohan maneuvered through the closing bay doors, as blaster fire ricocheted off the other side. Bulla cried out as he set her down, and several waiting guards flew forward at them. She swallowed down the pain and removed her hand to peer at the sizzling laser wound lanced down her arm, shuddering at the sight. Gohan's shouts of fury drew her dazed attention however, and she mustered her strength to rise up and join him in the fray.
Despite her handicap, Bulla discovered she had regained much of her energy, and a sharp focus took over her senses as she focused on her scuffle with two massive guards. One bore a knife-like weapon from his wristband, swashing this way and that towards her middle, every effort made to gut her. She caught the other at its ear with her hard knee and kicked the kniving one in the throat with her heel. As the first fell unconscious, the other gasped for breath with its broken larynx, hands clutching at its neck. Bulla sneered and stiffened her fine hand, backhanding the creature to the floor.
"Bulla!"
Goten's voice, crying her name, brought her heart to a stop. She twisted, finding the two Son brothers making short work of the remaining soldiers. Not long after, Vegeta came hurrying into the bay, setting something upon the door monitor on this side. When the enemies had been laid out, Bulla rushed into her father's arms, fixing her well arm tight around his neck.
"I was so worried about you guys," she breathed tearfully. When Goten approached with Gohan from the side, she wondered of him and Vegeta, "What happened to Veron?"
"What needed to happen to vermin like that," Vegeta grumbled. Bulla noticed her father looked worse for wear - several large lumps and lacerations on his face, his armor broken in different places.
Goten didn't look much better; one eye was almost completely closed and his lip was well split. An inappropriate flip of her tummy begged her to kiss it, but she blushed when he caught her looking at turned the other way.
"Did you kill him?" Bulla couldn't stop the question from bubbling up from her heart.
"Does it matter?" Vegeta retorted with a haunted glower.
His tone told her - leave it alone. Bulla gulped and turned away, but the shriek of blaster fire startled her and the others apart from each other. A numbness crept through her as her father collapsed to the floor, blood puddling beneath his still figure, and she was rendered unable to move in that moment. She heard Goten shout her father's name, saw the flash of gold at her side, but icy horror gripped every fiber of her being and dragged her down to join her father on the ground.
"Daddy?" She whispered, hand trembling upon his shoulder. "Daddy, can you move…?"
"Get… on board… Eschalot," Vegeta gurgled, unable to shift his face much more to see her.
"Vatet!" Goten screamed beside her. "Get out here, you coward!"
"Goten, we need to go," Gohan muttered askance to his sibling. "It's not worth it."
Bulla tried to roll her father over, all but dead weight as he moaned and fresh blood poured from the gaping chest wound near his heart. Her breath stuttered and her hand reflexively jumped to cover the injury, soaking her pale skin in seconds. "Daddy, come on, we've got to get on the ship together!"
Another round of blaster fire shot through amid the group, the two Son men scattering and Bulla fell over her father to shield him.
"Backup will be here any minute," Vatet's drawling voice cooed over the speaker. "As much as I'd love you all to perish, I just may enjoy a promotion if I can preserve you for the Commander instead. At least the real scourge will have been taken care of."
"We need to get Vegeta on the ship," Gohan shouted over to Bulla, who still remained hunched over Vegeta. "We can take care of him there, but we haven't got a lot of time!"
Goten searched wildly around the docking bay for where the red-skinned woman could be hiding. And then he noticed it; a glimmer in the shadows. He squinted hard at the mirage-like movement, before making a quick assessment and rushing toward it. His fist launched first, and when as it collided with seemingly nothing, Vatet's body shimmered back into vision, staggering from the force of his blow.
As the scientist became visible, Bulla wrenched up from her father and flew at the woman herself with an agonized cry, shining gold as she landed a punch deep in the alien's gut. Vatet doubled over with a bloody cough, and Bulla wasted no time in snapped another hook into her once gorgeous face. She grasped Vatet's tangled white ponytail, now stained crimson, and yanked her head backward to gaze furiously into her terrified eyes.
"You're gonna pay for what you did." Bulla knew that her threat was less menacing with the tears pooling in her eyes, but she had never felt so hurt, so furious, so… scared of the hatred boiling inside her. Never in her life had she wanted to kill with her hands - but with Vatet shaking in her grip, she wanted nothing more than just that.
A warm hand gently took her shoulder and tugged, coaxing her back into her body. Bulla startled and looked up at Goten's concerned expression, and she saw his unspoken plea in his gaze. With a choked sob, she wrenched the other woman backward and turned into Goten's embrace, shaking with cries.
"Guys, let's go," Gohan intoned, and they both turned to see him lurching Vegeta's prone figure off the ground. The pair hurried over to assist, Goten helping Gohan lift the prince the rest of the way. "Bulla, the code is your birthday," the older son informed her, nodding toward the ship's sealed entrance.
She nodded and hurried over, typing the date into the pad. The doors whined and parted, and Bulla allowed the Son men to carry her limp father first, her escape accompanied by the crescendo of boot stomps beyond the docking bay doors. The group maneuvered as quickly as possible into the ship, Gohan shuffling Vegeta's full weight into Goten and Bulla's arms as he assumed position at the cockpit. Bulla was horrified by her father's faint, almost imperceptible breath, and if it weren't for Goten's extra support, she was certain she'd drop Vegeta to the floor.
"Damn it! Bulma, they've got a lock on us or something!" Gohan cried out, as several sequences of key strokes did nothing to disengage their vessel. Soon, denting metal sounds rained along the side of the ship, as the Institute began to fire upon them. "What should I do?"
In his ear, Bulma gave him the overdrive directives, and when he swiped them into the console, the ship broke away from the larger station with a cracking, wrenching sound. Their ship rocketed sideways, alarms blaring from the engine block, but Bulma warned Gohan to pay it no mind. Setting the thrusters to maximum, the vessel burst apart from Nukhu Rak's atmo, rippling waves of gravity in its wake that shook the station on its axis.