Hey, early update, this week. This weekend's gonna be crazy busy, so I wanted to get this chapter posted before all of it goes down. I actually get to see Aladdin the Musical, on Saturday - the story that inspired these stories! I'm really excited! But thank you for all of the feedback and comments. Enjoy!

Right as Bulma had made a breakthrough, she was pulled from her room and into the lab. They had made a discovery during the autopsy and wanted her to look at it. They didn't understand what it meant, and thought that she might have an idea. She quickly scribbled down her plans before running out.

Bulma pulled back her curls, putting them into a ponytail. The head scientist turned and nodded at her – a tall, lanky, older man named Haricot, with his trademark apathetic expression. "Welcome back, Bulma. Glad you could make it," he spoke with his normal monotone voice.

"What do you got for me, Hari," she said, as she entered.

"We found something in the victim's body – located right in the neck. It's small and cylindrical made from some foreign material. We don't know what it could be."

She pushed him out of the way, and sat in the stool in front of the microscope; this earned no reaction from him, to her annoyance. She adjusted the dials on the sides until she could get a clear view of it. As she looked at its shape and composition, she raised an eyebrow. "Huh. I think it's made of plastic."

"What's that?"

"It's a manmade material back on Earth: really cheap to make and mass-produce; used to package stuff; and all that jazz. Where was this, on the body?"

"In the back of his neck. Right next to the spinal cord."

"Was the spinal cord ruptured in any way?"

"No. There was no point of entry anywhere on the man's skin, either. Thus, no way for it to get in or out."

Bulma hummed, as she looked at the specimen. She used some tweezers to carefully shift it and rotate it, so that she could see the whole thing. When she did, she discovered something very odd. There was a small symbol etched into it. She pushed the tray of the microscope down, switching to the most magnified lens. When she brought it back up, the blurred view slowly came into frame.

Two triangles were connected by their point.

"Huh."

"What is it?"

"There's some kind of marking on it. I can't really make out what it's supposed to be." She hopped out of the chair, allowing him to look.

"What do you know," he said, with dull surprise. "There is. Do you know what it means?"

"No. It doesn't look like any symbol I've seen." She put her finger up to her chin, while tapping her foot. "Can we get some pictures of that? Maybe we can get it going around the lab. Someone might have an idea."

"Sure. Whatever you think will help."

She looked at Haricot, over her shoulder. "Bad day, Doc?"

"Aside from the murder spree and eminent death, things have been going rather well. Thank you for asking."

She laughed. "Touché. Anything else you need me for?"

"I did hear mention of you conducting your own experiments without our authorization. Mind telling me what that is about, Bulma?"

She waved her hand. "Just a personal project. Nothing you need to worry about."

"When you are using our resources, it is something I should worry about. Just because you are higher than most on the pecking order does not mean you don't get to play by the rules."

She groaned. "Fine, but don't tell anyone about it – it's a surprise."

"Let me guess – for his highness."

"How did you guess? You're so smart!" Once again, no reaction from him. She pouted, as she took out her blueprints. "I'm working on enhancing his training uniform through weights. If he has more weight pulling him down at all times, that means he can get stronger just by doing his daily routine. Add on the already hefty training regime he does, and there's no limit to how strong he could get. In theory, when he got used to one weight, one could add on more. Only problem is that I haven't been able to find something to use for the weights. I don't want it to be bulky, or anything – it should fit him like his normal clothes would."

Haricot looked over the prints. "Hmm. Decent idea. Is this just for him? I can imagine this would be invaluable for the army, as a whole."

"Maybe later down the road. I'd have to make adjustments for everyone's uniforms and that would take way too long. Right now, it's just for Vegeta."

He leaned in closer to the prints, running his finger over them. "Look into Keroset. It's a liquid metal, found out in the badlands. Even at its thinnest, it is still weighty."

"Really? Thanks! I'll get looking!" She hastily grabbed all of her blueprints, shoving them under her arm. "Well, I'm off! See you later, Hari!" She waved, as she ran out of the room. Now, she had a library visit to make.

Vegeta was back in the training room, once more. To his irritation, he was not training to his full abilities. However, he had promised Bulma that he'd take it a little easier, for now. Her neuroses were a hindrance, but he didn't want her to worry so hard – not while she was working on her hair-brained solution.

The training program was interrupted, when the door slid open. He shook his head. "What?"

The king snorted. "Good day to you as well, son."

"I'm in the middle of something, father – make it quick or go wait outside."

Something beeped, and the shields on the wall were put back in place. When Vegeta looked at his father, he saw that he was dressed in his training suit, as well. He couldn't even think of the last time he had seen him in that thing. Vegeta raised his brow, silently asking for an explanation.

"It's been quite some time – how about a little spar?"

Vegeta's eyes widened. It certainly had been some time. The last time they had sparred together, he was still a child. After the queen had died, the king barely looked at the training room. To make matters worse, Frieza encouraged him to drop the training all-together, to focus more on his royal duties – probably to make him easier to take down, later. He was probably too far out of habit to go back to regular training, at this point.

The king laughed. "What's with that face? Don't think your old man can take you, in a fight?"

Vegeta crouched down, into a fighting stance. "I'd love to see you try, father." He smirked at him, daring him to show his full power. The king followed suit, getting into a stance of his own.

Before he could lunge at him, the king disappeared. Vegeta was backhanded across the room. Vegeta stopped his momentum just before he hit the wall. His father charged him, and Vegeta blocked his fist. The son hopped up and flew backwards. He threw a ki blast, but his father swatted it right back at him. Vegeta ducked his head under his arms, blocking the ball of energy. It dissipated, as soon as it touched his skin.

Father and son rushed at each other, clashing with their palms touching one another. They braced themselves against the force, locking in a stare-off. Vegeta had not been expecting his father to be such a force to be reckoned with, after a decade of placidness. Perhaps he didn't need to hold back, in this fight.

Vegeta pulled his hands back and blasted a ki blast in his face – small enough not to scar him, but bright enough to temporarily blind him. Vegeta knocked him with his elbow, and his feet skid across the floor, as he tried to blink the light out of his eyes.

However, the King was not out of commission yet. As Vegeta began to charge an attack, he pointed at him and a large blast of energy came hurdling towards him. Vegeta did not duck in time and the attack hit him right in the face. He fell from the air and hit the floor with a loud thud.

Vegeta wiped his mouth with his shaking fist. His deep, red blood stained the back of his white glove. He clenched his teeth. He was not going to go down this easily – not to someone as inactive as his father. He braced his hands on the ground and pushed himself up into the air, standing on trembling legs.

The king shook his head, as he finally regained his vision. Looking upon his son, he smirked. "End training simulation," he spoke. The shields on the walls lowered, and the lights came on, once more. He walked up to him. "Excellent work, my son – I did not expect you to be so clever, with your attacks."

Vegeta sighed, as he relaxed his stance. "You're stronger than I anticipated."

"What do you think I have been up to, while you've been away on other planets? I've been attempting to get back into my old habits." He went to a wall and hit it with his fist. A drawer with a few towels inside slid out. The king grabbed one and threw the other to his son. "Perhaps we can make this a regular occurrence, between the two of us. We can keep up our strength together. What do you say to that?"

He was taken aback by his father's request. This was much unlike him. However, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. There was a great threat on the horizon, and every Saiyan needed to be able to defend themselves. Perhaps this would be a chance for both of them to get stronger.

Vegeta nodded. "Alright. But know that I won't go easy on you."

The king smiled. "I wouldn't expect anything less from you, my son."

After the heads-up from Haricot, Bulma had collected every book she could on Planet Vegeta's topography and make. She needed to find specific places where that metal was located. Once it was narrowed down to one or two different locations, she could do some mining for it. She was huddled up in a small corner, writing down any spec of information she thought would be useful.

As she read through one of the biggest books, she finally had another breakthrough. Keroset was found just a few miles outside of the city. And this discovery was recent – only a few years ago was it first dug up. That meant that there might still be fresh ores of it there. She scribbled down the coordinates and tucked it into her pocket. She'd make a dash there in the morning.

As she started putting her books away, something out of the corner of her eyes caught her attention. She leaned out to the side, to see what it was.

"Raditz? What are you doing here?"

Raditz looked over his shoulder. He was hunched in a corner of a room, kneeling down close to the floor. He looked as if he had been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing. "Bulma!" He stood up, quickly. "How are you? What brings you here?"

"I asked you that same question." She looked down at his feet. A large book was lying open-faced on the ground. "Never took you for a studying type."

His eyes widened, as he looked down. Bulma smiled, knowing that she had him in a corner. He sighed. "It's not exactly that," he admitted.

She frowned. "What do you mean?" Suddenly, he sounded somber and sad. It was so unlike him, with his normally relaxed and playful disposition. He knelt down and picked up the book, showing the cover to her: POD FLIGHT TRANSCRIPTS OF THE YEAR AGE 736: DEPARTURES. "You're looking at old flight transcripts?"

He nodded. "It's a long story. You wouldn't want to hear it…"

Bulma set her pile of books down on an empty end table. Her research could wait. "What is it? You know you can tell me."

He looked around the library, for a moment, as if to make sure that no one else was listening. "I'm trying to find my brother," he said, in a soft voice.

Her eyes widened. "You have a brother?" This had never come up in any conversations, before. He had never even spoken of his family, now that she thought about it.

"At least, I did." He laughed, as she shook his head. "I have no idea where he could be or even if he's still alive. I've looked through this thing three times and haven't found a single clue of where he could be."

She looked down at the book, again. "Why would you think he'd be in here?"

"Some dumb bit of hope, maybe? I know it's such a slim chance, but he was sent away in a pod. I thought if I could narrow it down and find out where he was sent to, I might finally find out what happened to him."

Bulma didn't know what she could say to that. It was just awful. Being away from her family for those three years was hell; she couldn't even imagine what it would be like to be sent away from them without notice. She did admire Raditz for sticking to it for however long he had been.

"I know you'll find him," she said. "You've searched for this long – you've got to have a breakthrough, soon."

He smiled at her. "Thanks, Little Blue."

"If there's anything I can do, just ask."

"Well, I'm not allowed into the deep databases to go searching in the raw documents. A few might have gotten lost in the translation. I might find a clue, there."

She smiled, confidently, while she picked up her books, once more. "I think I can manage that. I can talk with one of the scribes and we can look down there, together. Surely, they'd let us."

He grabbed her arm, before she walked away. "Please keep it a secret. I don't want anyone else finding out about this."

"You can count on me. I'll come up with an alibi. I'll let you know, when I have everything sorted out." She pushed her books up, balancing them in her hands, and walked off.

Raditz looked down at his own book, and sighed. "One day, I'll find you, Kakarot…"

Earth

"Daddy! You're back!"

Flying Nimbus came down from above, landing right in front of the jumping little boy. Goku hopped off and knelt down to pick him up. "Hey, Gohan!" Gohan hugged him, as he carried him inside. "Did you have a good day?"

Gohan nodded. "Mommy gave me a math test and I got an A on it! She said I won't have to study tomorrow!"

"Nice! I knew you could do it. Maybe we can do something special, then." Goku kicked the door open, and walked inside. "Hello? Chi-Chi?"

"Goku, there you are." Chi-Chi wiped her hands on her apron, as she came up to him. "Dinner's about ready, so you can go out back and start setting up. We're having a picnic to celebrate Gohan's aced test."

Gohan's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"You've worked so hard this past week; I think you've earned it." Chi-Chi pulled his hat off and tossed his hair around, making him giggle.

Goku set Gohan back down on the ground. "How about you go wash up, and I'll meet you outside. Okay, buddy?"

"Okay, daddy!" Gohan went running into the hallway, as his tail waved eagerly behind him.

Chi-Chi sighed. "That boy has too much energy, I swear."

"He told me you're giving him a day off, tomorrow. Can I take him out, then?"

"I was actually thinking that we all go out, tomorrow – just the four of us. Piccolo suggested that we go some place quiet, like the beach or maybe out by the mushroom forest. I'll ask Gohan, when he gets back out. How does that sound?"

"Okay! Sounds cool. You said something needed to be set up."

"Yes. Just a few blankets and plates, if you will. They're on the table."

"I'm on it." He took the basket off of the table. "It'll be ready, in no time! Oh, and, where's Piccolo? I thought he'd be with you."

"Went out on his own. Said he needed to do some meditation alone." She sighed. "I do hope he'll be back in time to eat."

"You know he will. He always is. I can run and grab him, if he isn't."

She shook her head. "No, you're right. I worry too much. Well, if you can go ahead and get that started, I'll finish up fixing the food."

"Sure. Let me know when you're ready!" He kissed her, before going out the back door.

"Daddy!" Gohan went running out the back door, after him.

"Hey, buddy! Wanna help daddy set up the picnic?" He nodded.