As Lauren and her family came into the mansion no one noticed Maria standing there, arms crossed and a taping foot Victoria Baskerville Victoria Baskerville 12 1356 2001-09-03T14:30:00Z 2001-11-02T18:24:00Z 4 2087 11896 99 23 14609 9.2720

As Lauren and her family came into the mansion no one noticed Maria standing there, arms crossed and with a taping foot.  Everyone just walked past her as they talked loudly about the game and how exciting it was.  As they walked down the hall and into the kitchen their chef had meals awaiting them on the large table.  Shortly after, Maria came in and sat down as well.

"You are home quite late wouldn't you think Lauren?"  Lauren looked up from the delicious food and took a drink of her water.

"Maria we were at a soccer game. They do last more then fifteen minutes."  Maria swallowed her food and cleared her throat.

"Lauren I will not tolerate rude comments from you.  You know very well that Sarah and Eric have to get up early and go to school.  And here you are coming into the house after they should have gone to bed and talking back to me.  Who do you think you are??"  Lauren took another drink of water and ignored her.  "Well, speak child!"  Clair slammed down her glass almost breaking it.

"Shut up Maria, you no better then to talk to Lauren like that." 

"You watch you're mouth or you can just leave."  Lauren stood up and looked strait at Maria.

"How dare you speak to Clair like that?  If it weren't for her you would be out of a job and on the streets so you should be the one watching it Miss Maria."  As Lauren finished Eric made a 'whooping' noise.

"That's it Lauren!  Out! You leave right now!"  Lauren bent her head forward as if bowing.  She then turned around and walked away.

"Bitch" Lauren said somewhat laud.  Maria stood up and ran towards Lauren.  Lauren turned, as Maria was about to throw a bunch and dodged it and slapped her across the face.  Maria fell to the ground.  Lauren realizing what she had done she ran down the hall and to he room.  She slammed the door and fell on her bed.  'What have I done…?' As Lauren lay there she fell asleep and started dreaming.  There was a bright flash and she saw an image of her falling out of a window.  There was another flash and she saw another image of her lying on the ground in the rain.  Another flash of light appeared as she now was sitting on a ledge in her courtyard.  Then there was another flash of light and three figures were standing in front of her.  Yet another flash occurred and she was in the arms of on of the figures.  Following the last flash of light, a beam from a laser gun hit her and she fell from the figures arms.  She suddenly awoke form the dream she was having by a crash of thunder.  She got up and looked out side.  It had started to rain.  She looked at the raindrops running down with window and it came to her that she should run away.  She took out the clothes she wanted and but them into a bag that disappeared inside a capsule.  She put the capsule on her dresser as she got out new clothes to wear. She took out a black skirt and a white blouse t-shirt.  Over it she put on a long gray knitted coat.  She took the capsule of her dresser and but it in her pocket.  She went to the window and opened it.  She swung her feet to the other side and just sat there for a moment.  'Alright, lets go.'  There was a vine that led down the side of the house.  She hung onto it with her hands and slowly lowered herself downwards.  Suddenly a bolt of lightning hit Lauren's open window.  Frightened by this she let go of the vine and fell.  When she hit the ground she just lay there.  'I'm still alive!'  She stood up and looked around.  She looked at her arm and groaned.  'It looks like it's broken.  I better go back inside.'  Lauren walked around to the front of her house and went to the door.  It was locked.  She rang the bell but remembered it was broken.  She tried shouting but all the guards had left because of the rain.  'I guess I'll have to go around to the courtyard.'  Lauren turned at limped around the house and to the gate leading to the enormous courtyard.  Lauren stopped.  "Wait, that dream I had.  This is what happened!  Maybe it was a vision!'  Lauren called one of the guards to open the gate.

"Princes Lauren!  What are you doing out here in the rain?  You have to get inside before you get sick.  Let me help you."  Lauren pushed the guard away.

"No, I want to stay out here."  Lauren kept on walking.  All the guard saluted her as she passed.  She finally came to an open area.  She walked up to a bench and sat down.  'I guess I'll just wait here.  And she did. She waited for what seemed like an hour.  But she was right, is was an hour before anything happened.  She looked up at the sky and saw three beams of light.  They came down and landed right in front if her.  Lauren stood up.  Standing before her were three golden people.  The shortest one stepped forward and placed a hand out for Lauren to take.  Lauren looked at the figure but couldn't quite make out whom it was.  Lauren took the persons hand.  As the figure brought her close to its body she could see that it was Gohan.  She didn't say anything though; she seemed to have lost for words.  Gohan picked her up and walked back to the other two.  Lauren watched as they floated up towards the sky.  Lauren clung onto Gohan hard.  She had never been so scared and excited at the same time before.  As they started to fly away Lauren heard shouts.

"Look!  Up there!  Those things are taking Princes Lauren away!  Stop them.  It was the guards.  They took out there laser guns and shot at them.  The three dodged the beams easily however they could only block themselves.

"Don't they realize that they will hit Lauren if the keep this up?"  Goku said nothing. 

"Should I blast them?  This is getting annoying!"  Goku flew in front of Vegeta.

"No.  Don't.  Nothing good will come of it."  Vegeta scowled.  Gohan was doing his best to try and keep the beams away from Lauren but it was getting too hard.  Finally, the guards got smart and three of them ganged up on him.  They put their beams together to form one big one.  Gohan had his back turned and didn't see it coming.  It hit him in the back and he dropped Lauren.  The sky had groan all smoky so none of the guards could see where they were shooting so they took fire all over the place.  Goku, noticing that Lauren was falling he flew to save her before she it the ground.  Just as he was about to grab her, a beam came and went right through her.  Goku stopped and watched the beam fly out behind her with bits of her insides evaporating from the heat.  Gohan turned at watched blood fall from her.

"No Lauren!!"  Gohan raced to ketch her but Goku beat him to it.  Goku held Lauren tight in his arms as he helplessly watched her dieing.  "Dad, you have to do something you can't let her die!"  Goku reached into his pocked and pulled out a bag of Senzu beans.  He opened it and let one fall into his hand.  Gohan took it and started to put it in her mouth but he was stopped as Lauren violently coughed up some blood.  Gohan whipped off her face of this his sleeve and put the bean into her mouth.  Lauren slowly chewed it.  Goku worried that she would get hurt again so he took off.  Gohan and Vegeta followed.  Lauren finally swallowed the bean and opened her eyes.  She looked up and groaned.  Goku, noticing that she was awake stopped and signaled to Gohan that she was awake.  Gohan rushed to Goku and took Lauren in his arms.

"Gohan I…" His hand telling her to be silent stopped her sentence.  Gohan smiled and flew to the ground.  He could see that she was tired so he gently put her down on the ground.

"Dad, can I have you jacket??"  Goku handed his jack to Gohan and he raped it around the Princes.  She yawned and sort of mumbled a thank you.  Gohan not sure what to do next, he bent down and kissed her on the forehead.  She smiled gently and fell asleep.

The next morning she found herself strangely in no pain.  She sat up but a hand stopped her.  She had a feeling on whose hand it was but she obeyed and with another hand guiding her on her back, she slowly fell back down on the ground.

"You should rest.  You had a big day yesterday so please just rust ok?"  Lauren blinked and looked at the person in front of her.

"Uh, thanks for your concerned but I hate to break the moment but, who are you?"  Goku laughed.

"I'm sorry, I'm Goku Gohan's father.  He just went to get you some water."  Lauren noticing that she was thirsty she looked around and couldn't help but notice that she was in the desert.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Goku but is there water around here?"  Goku laughed again.  Lauren laughing herself as if she said something funny and saw Gohan coming over with a glass of water.  "Gohan!!"  Lauren sat up again as Gohan handed the water over.

"How are you feeling??  You must be wondering why you're here huh?"  Lauren looked around at the tall rocks that surrounded them.  Lauren finally nodded and took a sip at her drink.

"I'm feeling a lot better thanks and yes I am wondering why I'm here.  What happened??  I only remember you picking me up and flying away.  What happened after that?"

"Well, while we were flying you were shot by a laser gun.  Then we gave you a Senzu been and that healed you.  Then we brought you here."  Lauren took another sip at her water. 

"Ok, that explains why I'm here, but why did you come to my house in the first place?"  Goku closed his eyes, turned around and walked away.  Lauren squeezed Goku's jacket in her fists while Gohan sat a little closer.

"Lauren, it's about your planet.  It's under attack again."  Lauren's eyes widened and she let go of the glass of water.  It crashed on a rock beside her and brook into hundreds of pieces.  The glass glistened on the ground as the sun beamed over them.  Lauren not noticing what she had done just sat there staring into Gohan's eyes.  She looked like she was lifeless just sitting there, with no expression on her face.  "Um, I know this is a shock to you, but my dad, Vegeta and myself are going to help destroy who ever is behind this.  We brought you here to train you.  You're going to help us as well."  Lauren, finally out of her "gaze" blinked and looked at the broken glass.

"Hn…. So, is it the same guy as last time?  Oh wait never mind…  How would you know?  You have only known me for a day!  You don't know hardly anything about me.  I'm sorry for asking you that…" Gohan smiled and laughed a bit.

"Lauren, I know a lot about you.  More then the average fan of yours would know, Princes."  Lauren smiled.

"Oh, how much and how did you find your information?  Gohan told her all about King Kai and the newspapers.  She was amazed at all the things he knew.  "Well Gohan you sure know a lot about me…  So, do you think we can stop Christina and her father?"

"I think with a lot of training and determination, yes we can stop them.  But it's not going to be easy.  We have to act now."

"The lets start!  Train me!  My brother taught me some moves so I'm not that bad."  Gohan nodded but he knew that she had know idea on what she was going to be able to do after they were through training.

"Lauren, when we are finished training, you will be able to shoot various energy beams out of your hands.  You will be able to withstand bullets and dodge them as well.   You will be able to withstand almost anything a normal human being could ever do to harm you.  You will be able to fly."  Lauren gulped and smiled.

"Sound like fun!  But, I can already fly.  You don't need to teach me that.  My brother taught me.  He can already shoot some small energy beams out of his hands."

"Wow really?  I had no idea he was that strong!  Who taught him how do that?  Lauren paused from a second.

"Um, I'm not sure of the name of the man who taught him but I do know where he works!  He works at a place called Capsule Corp.  Or wait…  I'm not sure if he works there, my brother says he just trains in this big spaceship.  Oh that's right, now I remember his name!  His name was Vegeta!  Yeah that's it!"  Gohan nearly fainted when she said the name, but what shocked him more is that if she were right, that would mean that Vegeta actually took some time out of his own life to train someone.

"Lauren, are sure it was Vegeta?  I mean I know him!  He's standing right over there talking to my dad!  Believe me, he is not the guy to help someone or even train someone."

"Wow he's here??  You're telling me that the short guy over there with the wiled spiky hair is Vegeta?  Gohan!  Please let me train with him!  He has turned my brother into some sort of super being!"  Gohan heart almost skipped a beat.  Lauren actually wanted to be trained be Vegeta? 

"Lauren, you do know that I am more powerful then him and I could make you many times stronger then your brother and I don't know how your bro got Vegeta to train him.  Believe me, Vegeta is not the guy who would take time out of his life to help others.  Really, to him it's just him and the universe, no one else.  Honest Lauren, Vegeta must have been in a strange mood that day.  I have known him ever since I was just a little kid.  He tried to take over this planet and destroy it many years ago.  Of course since then he has grown a bit nicer, he tends not to blow up every human that looks at him as much, and he actually had a baby with Bulma!  You know her right?  I'm sure your brother has mentioned her before.  If he goes to Capsule Corp. often, then I'm sure he has met her."  Lauren smiled

"Of course he has met her!  My brother works at Capsule Corp.!  They are really good friends.  I guess if you say Vegeta and Bulma have a baby then, maybe that's why Vegeta trained my bro.  My brother talks to Bulma about Vegeta a lot and wanting to be just like him.  My brother is now in charge of fixing Vegeta's gravity room whenever Vegeta breaks it.  So he has seen Vegeta train.  I guess since my brother has helped Vegeta in his training by keeping all the training machines in tacked, Vegeta repaid my brother by training him."  Gohan nodded.

"I guess, but like I said, Vegeta must have been in a good mood.  You can try talking to him now.  I'm sure he is going to tell you to back off or die."  Lauren stood up and rolled up her sleeves.

"Ok, I will."  Lauren walked up to where Vegeta and Goku were talking.  'If Goku and Vegeta are able to have a conversations then so can I…' Lauren tapped on Vegeta's shoulder.  He turned around to face Lauren.

"I don't think we have met yet Vegeta, I'm Lauren.  Nice to meet you…"

~***~