The Epic
Chapter 2
By: Ka-chan
Disclaimer: Ano…I only own Celeria. I do not own Josylyn or Joshua. If you can't figure out who they are then I pity you. I pity you a lot. Any one who I do not own belongs to Akira Toriyama. Except for Tifa-chan. She belongs to DJ and Gohan. And Kimi-chan belongs to Dan. And I belong to Mordy-kun. *drools* Mordy-kun…mmmmm…anyway! On with the story!
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Radditz grinned broadly as Yamucha finished explaining the dragon balls to him. Those little things would come in very helpful. If they could turn all the ningens into Saiya-jins then they might just stand a chance against Furiza. This would be great! 'But I don't know where the others are and my scouter is busted…' Oh well. Radditz shrugged and decided this would be like a secret mission or something. Vegeta-sama would probably commend him for it. This would be great! He looked at Yamucha and grinned broadly. "So how do we find these dragon balls?" His tail flicked back and forth in anticipation.
Yamucha smiled warmly. He was glad Radditz didn't seem to have any plans on killing him and was actually rather friendly now. "Well my girlfriend Bulma-chan has this thing called the dragon radar that shows where the dragon balls are. All we gotta do it go get 'em."
Radditz looked expectantly at Yamucha. He seemed to be waiting for something to be said or to happen. Yamucha tilted his head to one side and shrugged in confusion, having absolutely no idea what the saiya-jin wanted. Radditz growled in frustration. "What are we waiting for!? Let's go find those balls!!"
Vegeta scowled down at the blue haired ningen. He had no idea what he'd done but she would not stop crying! Why couldn't she just shut-up!? 'Kuso!' He knelt beside her and held one hand out to her, palm up, in a sign of peace. "I am not going to harm you ningen. Now please stop crying. He watched as she turned to look at him. She seemed so meek, but something in her eyes hinted at the spirit of a fighter. A kind of inner strength. He suddenly felt a sort of respect for this creature for some reason. She possessed the same kind of wounded pride that he did. He was suddenly reminded of himself, of the times he cried alone after the beating Furiza gave him. 'She's like me….I can see it in her eyes….'
Bulma sighed in relief at the look in Vegeta's eyes. They reminded her of Goku's eyes, though far more guarded. And there was something else, a determination that reminded her of herself. 'He won't hurt me…' That was the only thing she knew, but it was all that mattered. She stifled her crying and waited to see what he would do. When he didn't do anything, she spoke. "What's your name? If you don't mind me asking that is."
"Vegeta. Saiya-jin no Ouji. Who are you ningen?"
Bulma blinked in surprise. A ouji? A real ouji?! She had to make herself sound important. She would not be outdone by some alien that abducted her boyfriend! "Briefs Bulma. Heiress to Capsule Corp. One of the most brilliant people on the planet." She smirked at that last comment. It was quite an accomplishment for such a young woman. Being such a genius was nice. Research and inventing things were a kind of escape for her. She could go into one of her labs and work for hours. It was a great stress reliever and made her feel so much better after hiding behind a false mask all day.
"Hm….so you're a genius… I suppose you have the respect of the leader of this mudball?"
"Chikyuu is not a mudball!!! It's my home! And yes, I do know the king. Daddy has to go to the palace every now and then to tune up the security system."
"I need to speak with the king. It's a matter of life and death for my race."
"…….the palace is about 1300 miles southwest of here.." Bulma saw no reason not to trust Vegeta. He just had an aura about him that made her feel safe. Not even Goku could make her feel safe like she felt now.
"Right. You're coming with me." With that, Vegeta slung Bulma over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and took off towards the palace. "Arigato onna!" He conveniently tuned out the screaming coming from Bulma with a little help from the wind in his ears.
Goku glanced at Kuririn who shrugged faintly. Neither of them were sure what to make of their opponents. They didn't seem like bad people, but they still wanted to fight for some reason. The spiky haired boy turned back to Bardock and tilted his head to one side, frowning in mild annoyance. "You didn't answer my question. Where is Yamucha!?" He stood there for a moment, waiting patiently for an answer. Kuririn shook his head, sometimes Goku could be a little to relaxed.
Bardock cringed slightly at Goku's relaxed manner. Only a truly powerful warrior would act like this in a battle! This boy must be far more powerful than he had first thought. 'He may even hold the power to defeat Furiza…' He blinked when Goku repeated his question and growled lightly. "We caught him spying on us so we took him prisoner. He's back in our ship being guarded by my son, Radditz." He glanced back at Celeria and smirked at the icy glare she was giving the shorter of the two warriors. He waved his tail around slightly, using a bit of saiya-jin sign language to tell her not to drop her guard any. He hen turned his attention back to his look-alike, ready for any kind of an attack.
Goku scratched his head in confusion. Why would they take Yamucha prisoner? He was a nice guy. Well…there was that thing where he used to be a thief…but he was a good guy now. "Well…can we have him back? My friend really misses him. And I promise he won't bother you again. And can I ask you a question? How come you guys have tails like I used to have?" Kuririn looked up at his passive friend with a bewildered expression. Here were two people who looked as though they'd rather kill them than even look at them and he was totally at ease. The monk didn't think he'd ever be able to get used to it. He glanced back at Bardock and Celeria, fearing an attack, and was even more shocked to see that they were just standing there, jaws agape. 'What the hell is goin' on here?'
Capsule Corp. seemed unusually quiet as Yamucha and Radditz crept through the halls, searching for the lab where Bulma kept the dragon radar hidden. Yamucha couldn't quite figure it out. Usually there was all kinds of yelling and screaming, or laughter. 'Where is everyone?' He shook his head and continued down the hall. He was pretty sure he'd find the right lab at the end of this one. So what if the last dozen or so had ended up with one of them being blasted by some sort of invention. Though it had been amusing to see Radditz's clothes shrink so quickly that they tore to shreds. The tall saiya-jin was now wearing the clothes of one of Dr. Briefs' workers. Baggy dark blue jeans and a white muscle shirt. He looked even more intimidating now then he had before. "How much longer until we get there blue boy?" Radditz chuckled dryly as he spoke.
Yamucha growled lightly. In the last lab they had checked he'd pushed a button on Bulma's newest invention, a machine that could dye clothes in an instant. He'd come out of it looking like an alien himself. He was bright neon blue from his head to his toes, as well as his clothes. "I'm almost positive that this is the right one…Cousin It." Yamucha snickered and opened the door while Radditz stood there, having no idea what he meant. The two of them let out a cheer at the sight of the dragon radar laying on the counter in front of them. Yamucha snatched it up and activated it, checking quickly to see where each of the dragon balls were. He blinked upon seeing that four of them were already together, and they were moving rapidly towards a fifth one. "Hey It-kun. Someone's already got four of the dragon balls. And it looks like they know where the other one's are too. They're going after the fifth one now." Radditz just blinked again, trying to figure out why he was being called "It". "Well there's one that's pretty close by. We'll go get that one, and then we can just wait for the rest to come to us. How's that sound It-kun?"
Radditz shrugged, shaking his head slightly in confusion. "Whatever you say Blue-Boy." The two warriors walks over to the window and launched into the air. The signal from the dragon radar already leading them to the nearest dragon ball.
Somewhere along the way to the palace, another young woman was walking through a large meadow, searching for something to test her martial arts skills on. Her dark black hair picked up blue highlights in the open sun. Chichi smirked slightly as she came up upon a large dinosaur grazing by a pond. She wondered if she could conjure up one of those ki attacks she'd seen her friends, Goku and Kuririn use. Her thoughts drifted back to those two. It had been so long since she'd seen either f them. She had stayed in touch with Bulma, the two of them were actually best friends. They attended the same school for geniuses., though Bulma easily outdid everyone at the school. She also helped Chichi with most of her work too. Still, the two of them had an awful lot of free time on their hands. So they basically ran the school in their spare time. Since Bulma was smarter than most of the teachers, and Chichi was the strongest woman alive, it was an easy task. Chichi shook her head, refocusing on her target. She growled in frustration when a scream distracted her again.
Growling softly, she looked around for the source. Something about the scream sounded very familiar. She vaguely sensed something behind her and turned to see a man with hair that stood up like flames land on the other side of the dinosaur. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw Bulma slung over his shoulder. She crouched down low in the grass, trying to avoid being seen while she listened in on their conversation. She nodded faintly to Bulma when the woman glanced her way, hoping to make her feel more at ease.
Vegeta snarled in anger, finally giving in to the blue-haired onna's screaming. He grudgingly landed at a pond so that he could explain things to her a bit more in detail, hoping that maybe this would shut her up. The instant he landed, however, she seemed to notice something over his shoulder. He started to turn to see what she was looking at, when she suddenly slapped him, apparently as hard as she could. It hadn't hurt him very much, but he was shocked that she would dare to strike him like this. He could have simply killed her on sight instead of taking the trouble to take her all this way away from that damnable city. He'd noticed several males eyeing her in a way he could sense she wouldn't have liked. So he was taking her to a palace. She really did look as though she belonged in one. He shook his head slightly and glared at her, hurt a bit more than she would have thought. "How dare you strike me onna!"
Bulma cringed, knowing deep within her that he was gong to hurt her now. She shouldn't have hit him, now he'll hurt her. Now he has a reason to. A soft thud brought her out of her state of fear and she blinked at the sight of the saiya-jin no ouji laying spread eagle on the ground. She looked up and saw Chichi, smirking triumphantly. The young Amazon woman flashed a victory sign and reached out a hand to help her friend up. "That guy needs to learn not to drop his guard, He was so focused on you that he didn't even notice me coming up behind him. Now c'mon. I got us a ride. She grinned and turned to the sky, cupping her hands to her mouth. "KINTO-UN!!" She could remember seeing Goku do this, and could only hope the it would work for her as well. Sure enough, the little cloud came speeding to her side, floating up and down happily. "C'mon Bulma-chan. Let's go." She hopped onto the cloud and waited for Bulma to get on as well.
Bulma looked at the cloud in mild annoyance. The last time she had tried sitting on it she'd fallen right through to the ground below. She sighed and tentatively rested her hand on the cloud, testing to see if it would hold her. Her hand slipped right through and she jumped up and began yelling obscenities at the cloud. Chichi giggled at her friend and grabbed her arm. "Here, you can sit in my lap till we get to your house." With that, she pulled Bulma into her lap, laughing again at the look on her face. "You know what? I haven't seen Goku or the others in ages. Let's go visit them first. Kinto-un! Go find Goku-chan!" The little cloud floated up and down a few times before racing off into the sky. "But Chi-chan!! I'm scared of heights….!!" The voices of the two girls faded off into the distance, leaving Vegeta laying facedown on the ground with a rather large dinosaur sniffing curiously at him.
After riding along in silence for a while with Bulma clinging to her for dear life Chichi decided to break the silence. She looked down at her trembling friend and cocked her head to one side. "Bulma-chan? Why were you with that man anyway? And how come he could fly? Was he one of Goku-chan's friends? And if he was then why were you so scared of him??" Bulma looked up at Chichi, more to avoid looking at the ground than to actually look at her. "He wasn't one of Son-kun's friends. He abducted my boyfriend so I went after him cuz I wanted Yamucha back and then he abducted me and I was so scared!!" The younger woman raised a brow at her friend. She knew Yamucha vaguely, having seen him pick Bulma up from school before. She was more than surprised that someone had been able to abduct him. He seemed far to strong for that. This could be bad. Maybe another enemy had shown up. As if Piccolo wasn't bad enough. She sighed and went back to watching the horizon, looking for any sign of her old friends.
Yamucha snatched up the five-star dragon ball with a delighted sound. Radditz eyed it curiously, seriously doubting it could help them in any way at all. "How is that dinky little orb going to bring all the saiya-jins to Chikyuu-sei? It doesn't look like anything special…" He grabbed it out of Yamucha's hand and turned it about, inspecting it thoroughly. The ningen warrior waited a bit tensely; if the saiya-jin didn't believe him now he may just kill him! 'That would not be good….,'thought Yamucha. Luckily for him, at that exact moment the ball began to pulse with light. "What in the name of Vegeta no Ou…!?" Radditz dropped the ball, muttering curses at it in saiya-go. "Why didn't you say anything Blue-boy!?"
"Because you wouldn't have believed me It-kun." The two warriors growled at eachother, neither one caring for the nickname the other had chosen for them. Just when they were about to get into a fight of sorts two newcomers walked out of the forest and up to the dragonball. The two arguing warriors stopped dead in their tracks, eying the other pair. One had long blond hair that hung down to her waist and almond shaped light blue eyes. She seemed to have a rather exotic look to her. She was wearing a black fighting gi with a low-cut collar. Radditz and Yamucha nearly drowned themselves in drool just looking at her. A low growl from her companion drew their attention away. Sanding a few feet to her side was a boy with shoulder length black hair and the same light blue eyes, though his seemed far more malicious and cold. He was wearing a similar gi with a sweeping neckline that revealed quite a bit of his chest. (like Gohan's fighting gi when he first trained with Goten before the Budokai during the Buu saga. Tifa: Gohan-chan….*drool*. Hugh! Ka-chan:……..Goten-chan..*heart eyes* Kawaii!! ..Erhem! Back to the story!) He looked as though he were trying to drill a hole deep into their souls with his gaze. Neither of them seemed at all bothered by the fact the Yamucha was blue or that Radditz had a tail. Yamucha blinked and took a step forward, knowing that these two stood no chance against him, 'I mean...come on! I'm a Z Fighter! No one can beat us.' He started laughing maniacally for what seemed like no reason before blushing and coughing into his fist, trying to look important. "Um…can we help either of you?" He gaze turned meaningfully back to the girl. "What are your names? I'm Yamucha. Desert Wolf. And this here is my friend Radditz. Cousin It." The girl snickered slightly while the boy smirked in amusement. Radditz just stood there looking rather confused.
The boy stepped forward, a slightly disturbing smile painted across his face. It seemed to be warning them that the girl was off limits. "Well my name is Joshua. And this is my older twin sister, Josylyn. And you can help us. You see. We need that ball there. It would make us very happy if you were to give it to us." He smirked again, a rather sinister look. "It would make my sister very happy. Wouldn't it Jo-chan?" Josylyn nodded, smiling a sweet innocent looking smile. She seemed to be the exact opposite of her brother. They were like Yin and Yang. Yamucha, seemingly in a trance of sorts with drool trailing down the corner of his mouth, picked up the dragonball and started to give it to the girl. The saiya-jin warrior growled lightly at him and he glanced back, blinking in confusion a bit. "….oh yeah!! I'm sorry. Um...we really need the dragon balls more. So if you'll ju-" Yamucha gasped in pain, grabbing his stomach as he fell forward. While he had been talking the boy had snuck up on him and driven his fist firmly into his gut. It didn't hurt as bad as Radditz's punches but it still caught him off guard. The ningen warrior toppled forward, landing right on his face. The ball he'd been holding rolled to a stop at Reef's feet. "Well. That was almost boring. Maybe the next one will be more of a challenge Jo-chan, ne?" Coral nodded vaguely as she picked some dirt from beneath her nails.
"Blue-boy?" Radditz began a low growl in the back of his throat and turned to the twins. His tail lashed angrily behind him. "You are going to give me those dragon balls or I am going to kill you. My entire race is at stake here and I am not going to fail them." Josylyn and Joshua blinked in a bit of confusion at the tall saiya-jin. A soft chuckle rose from the more violent of the two and he stepped forward boldly. "You really think you can beat me? Yeah right. You're just some freak with a tail. And he's a blue mutant." Joshua smirked and slid into a battle stance, his hands raises before him, ready for a fight. Radditz cocked his head to one side, analyzing the situation. He noted the several flaws in the stance and dropped into a stance of his own, already beginning to power up a ki attack in his hands. A slight smirk crossed his face as the boy watched him in shock.
Josylyn glanced at her brother in concern. They hadn't expected to meet up with anyone who could use ki attacks. This was going to be a problem. The two of them only knew a few ki attacks, and they weren't very good ones at that. She nodded imperceptibly to Joshua, their faint mental link allowing him to catch it and it's meaning. He smirked and stood his ground, glaring up at the massive saiya-jin. "This should be interesting. Heh. Look Jo-chan. He can make a pretty light in his hands like us." While Joshua was taunting Radditz Josylyn was sneaking around to the saiya-jin's back. She smirked at her brother and he launched himself forward just as she raised her hand above her head, about to bring both fists down on Radditz's skull. However, Radditz's saiya-jin hearing picked up the movement and he threw one hand up behind him, catching the girl in the jaw and knocking her out in one blow. Joshua saw this and suddenly took a flying leap over Radditz, landing at his sibling's side. "JOSYLYN!! What did you do to her!!? You've killed her!!" As he yelled a string of obscenities at the saiya-jin he checked his twin for any sign of life, sighing in relief as he found her pulse and breathing strong and steady. He didn't even have a chance to look up before Radditz slammed one fist into the back of his bent head, knocking him out as well. He searched the two and found a capsule containing the dragonballs on the boy, having been shown how to work he device during the long search of Capsule Corp. He added the ball he and Yamucha had found to the other five and then lifted his friend to his shoulders, flying him away from the pair.
Vegeta groaned, rubbing the back of his head as he awoke. Glancing around he found that the blue haired onna had disappeared. 'What hit me?' He growled in annoyance. Someone had caught him off guard. He hadn't seen anyone when he landed...and his scouter hadn't picked anything up either…then again, it hadn't picked up that boy that they had back n the ship. Maybe there was something odd about this race. They might not have the normal energy…but then how could the scouter be picking up ki readings of beings almost as strong as himself? "This planet can't already have learned to control ki can they? Even I had to spend years training myself…and I'm the only one I know of who can!" He looked around and found the tracks of what seemed to be two females...but they stopped suddenly. It looked like one of them had fallen and then been pulled onto something… "Does everyone here know how to fly!?" He mused quietly to himself as he stood by the still grazing dinosaur. This was quite an odd little planet. He shook his head, making a mental note to figure it out later, and took off in the direction of the palace. At least…he thought it was the direction of the palace… That onna hadn't been very specific in her directions and that blow to the head had jarred his brain. He growled in frustration and tapped his scouter, having programmed Bulma's ki into it. He smirked as a faint blip started up and began following it to it's source.
Bulma was clinging to Chichi for dear life as the candy cloud puttered along on it's way to Goku. The dark haired girl was beginning to get quite annoyed with her friend. A low growl had long ago started in her throat, though it was drowned out by the sound of Bulma's constant whimpering and whining. The younger woman finally got annoyed and growled darkly at her companion. "Shut-up Bulma! I'm not gong to drop you! Don't worry!!" her piercing voice carried through the valley they were above, disturbing the rest of a rather violent Namekian that had taken the valley as his own…
"Excuse me, but I believe this is my air space you're invading." The two women looked up and screamed bloody murder. Piccolo Dai Mao was floating right in front of them. Kinto-un seemed to sense the evil flowing from him and tried to turn around and go back, but Piccolo grabbed the two women from the could before it could. Puttering angrily the cloud took off to find Goku, leaving the ningens in the grasp of the demon king. The two terrified women slowly turned to face the green giant, trembling and whimpering in fear. A very sinister looking smirk spread across his face.
Back in the valley where Goku and the others were Bardock and Celeria had slipped off to one side, muttering quietly to eachother. Goku was slowly growing more and more annoyed, wanting to get his friend back as quickly as possible. He glanced down at Kuririn who shrugged, just as clueless as he was. The amnesiac saiya-jin glared at the two across the meadow briefly and then crouched down by his short friend. "Whatta ya think they're talkin' about Kuririn? I don't like it…"
"I dunno Goku. They're probably planning something…"
"Yeah, I'm gonna try and hear what they're sayin'. Be quiet okay?"
"How are you gonna hear 'em? They're all the way on the other side of the meadow!"
"I've always been able to hear things really far away. Now be quiet!"
Goku began to pace back and forth, slowly moving closer to the pair as he strained his ears to hear the conversation. After several minutes of this he was finally able to pick up the faintest whispers of the conversation. It sounded as though Celeria was talking at the moment. "But how can that be!? Kakarrotto never sent any transmissions back to Vegeta-sei! That guy doesn't even have a tail! He's just a baka ningen. A saiya-jin wouldn't be so peaceful anyway. You need to let go 'jisan."
"But he looks just like me C-chan. Kakarrotto looked just like me. And maybe he lost his tail in battle! He did say that he'd had a tail at one time!"
"'jisan. It's not him. Kakarrotto had to have been killed during Furiza's attack."
"But you heard the ouji! Kakarrotto's ship continued to send out the travel signal until it reached Chikyuu-sei! Here! That is Kakarrotto! It has to be!"
Goku blinked and looked back at Kuririn with wide eyes. They were talking about him! Could it be true? Could he really be an alien like them? Was that why he had a tail? Was that why he seemed to be such a good fighter compared to all his friends? "This is all too weird….'
