VII. The Casual Homicide

They sat on the bus as it drove them from one side of the city to the other. It was still Mardi Gras, but because it was still daylight the severe indecencies hadn't begun. Bulma sat cross-legged and cross-armed, looking quite upset. Vegeta had his normal scowl on, his gaze directed out the window. Trunks stared into space, not really paying attention to anything. "Does this have to do with what happened a couple days ago?" Bulma finally asked.

"NO!" Vegeta growled, his hands gripping the seat and nearly tearing it apart with his mere strength. The plastic which covered the insides of the seats made an odd whining noise, as if it was about to break.

"Fine! Than this has to do with coming here for vacation, doesn't it?" she more stated than asked.

"No, it doesn't, woman!" Vegeta replied angrily, his fingers gouging holes in the cushion of the seat. Bulma was furious to say the least. She had tried on numerous accounts to get Vegeta to speak, but he just refused to open up. And frankly, his mood swings were starting to get irritating.

"YOU KNOW WHAT!?" she suddenly screamed, standing up and pointing a finger at him, "YOU'RE THE ONLY GUY I KNOW THAT GETS MORE PISSED AFTER HAVING SEX! YOU ARE DRIVING ME FUCKING CRAZY, YOU INSENSITIVE JERK OFF OF A BASTARD!!" The whole bus stared and Vegeta couldn't help but flush with embarrassment and anger. Bulma abruptly sat down, getting into the same position she had. Trunks couldn't help but cringe slightly - he didn't want to know the details of his parents' intimate life.

"Insensitive jerk off of a bastard?" Vegeta hissed, his hair waving with the power of his aura as it began to spike upwards, "I'll show you insensitive jerk off of a bastard.."

***

Maxwell was skipping with joy. He glomped his hammer as he hopped happily down the street, singing with utter and complete enthusiasm, "I have my hammer! I have my hammer! I have my hammer!" He stopped, pulled his hammer back to look at it, and crystalline tears instantly ran down his pale grey cheeks. "I have missed thee!" Maxwell proclaimed, dancing with the silver object for a moment before hugging it intensely again.

Two heads peeked around the nearby corner, watching Maxwell's every move. "Ne..Calen, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" the one snake asked the other.

The other nodded in agreement, "Yess, Kalen. Maxxxwell got the hammer from 'SSehki-chan', and 'SSSehki-chan' knew 'Anubi-chan', and 'Anubi-chan' cursssed a ssssilver hammer that Maxxwell ownsss...sssso that meanss Maxxwell'sss Massster musst be 'Anubi-chan'. SSSO..if we follow Maxxxwell, he'll take usss to..."

Both of them grinned in delight, wagging their tails as they screamed in unison, "ANUBISSS!!!"

***

Pikkon sighed heavily as he trudged down the street and thought to himself, 'What is up with this Goku character?' The green-skinned alien was severely disappointed in the actions of his fellow worker. The Kai of the North had granted them back into the realm of the living for a specific purpose, but all that Goku had accomplished was making their situation worse. Pikkon did not know why the black-haired Saijin allowed himself to get distracted so easily, but he did know that it was really, really, really annoying. 'If he is such a great warrior,' Pikkon thought to himself, 'then why is he such an air-head?' He suddenly blinked, eyes widening in realization that Goku was not present with him. "GOKU!!" Pikkon shouted, looking around frantically like a mother looks for their lost child. He spotted the spiky hair disappear around a corner. "Why me!?" Pikkon screamed in complete frustration, chasing after younger man.

***

Vegeta stood, his hair flashing golden, his black eyes turning into two aquamarine orbs of fire. Bulma felt an odd emotion rolling off of him, something she hadn't sensed in him for a long time. It scared her. His aura cast everything around him in a golden hue, and all eyes were upon him. He laughed, a laugh Bulma was familiar with, and one Trunks had heard at rare times. Both knew it wasn't good. "I'll show you," he repeated, looking across the bus till he spotted a suitable victim up front.

"Vegeta, wait!" Bulma cried out, trying to grasp onto him, but he pulled himself away with ease, moving up the aisle.

"Father!" the purple-haired teen called out, trying also to stop him. Vegeta would have none of it and he knocked his son back.

"Stay out of this, boy," he growled, his eyes focused on the task at hand. He approached a woman in her mid to late twenties, and who was obviously pregnant. "How would you react if I told you that you were going to die?" he asked nonchalantly. The woman gaped. Vegeta added, "Because you're about to."

***

Maxwell felt so good that he could dance. Either that or kill someone. He chuckled to himself, thinking, 'Why don't I do both??' He swung his hammer around, using the centrifugal force to spin, the visual effect that it gave was that of a very strange man dancing with a large silver hammer. During Mardi Gras, no one really thought anything of it. He was either crazy or just plain drunk, and the most likely of the two was the latter, but in truth he wasn't really either. As he spun, he centered in on his beloved item, which was the only thing of importance at the time. He didn't know where he was going, but it really didn't bother him now that he had his hammer. If he could "survive" being buried under a miniature golf course for years upon years he could certainly survive the streets of New Orleans.

***

Pikkon raced around the corner, gripping Goku by the back of the collar. "Where do you think you're going!?" the green-skinned man shouted, pulling Goku back.

"Hey!" the Saijin protested, "What's up Pikkon? I thought I sensed something nearby; it might be one of the escapees! Let's go! C'mon!" The alien stared in confusion as Goku zipped off down the street, looking about for any signs of the escaped "convicts".

"Wait up!" he called out, chasing after his partner down the crowded sidewalk. At that moment, however, something exceedingly odd happened. It was so incredibly odd that Pikkon could merely stand and stare at the utter oddness of the situation. He didn't even blink as he watched the scene before him unfold, and just like how movies go overly dramatic and show everything in slow-motion, Pikkon viewed everything in the awful "B" movie format. From out of where, Pikkon had no clue, but a strange man with a silver hammer came dancing out of well...where ever he came from. The fool spun around, stepping off of the curb and into the street, and just as he did, two snake creatures slithered into view, both looking lost and confused, if a snake can look lost and confused.

But Pikkon had no time to think, or act. He only watched, as if paralyzed by Haunter's "Lick" attack. The man was completely oblivious of the danger he was in, despite the warning given to him by the honking of horns. Goku proved his good nature by trying to stop the man. And as if the "frame by frame" setting had been taken off of the world, everything accelerated to normal pace, if not faster.

Goku leapt out into the street, intent on saving the man's life from oncoming traffic. There was the honking of a horn, and then, a mighty crash so outrageous that it seemed superimposed unnaturally. Pikkon watched with his mouth open as a bus broad-sided (which was less of broad, and more of "directly head on") his partner - the bus almost immediately halting its journey with a large screech. There was the sound of glass breaking, metal twisting, and horns honking; then a moment later, again, there was the sound of crashes, breaking glass, and metal twisting - the sounds of honking horns and screeching tires intermingling in the background. The two snakes looked at the wreckage like two buzzards circling a lone rabbit lost in the middle of the desert at high noon. Their wings shimmered brightly in the light, and their tails wagged happily behind them, both coming towards the accident zone.

***

From the corner of Vegeta's eye he could see his son and his woman racing up the aisle in a pitiful attempt to stop him. He almost began to laugh as he let his ki ball grow brighter, the energy ready to turn human flesh into a pile of dust and ashes. The young lady before him was too frightened to speak coherently, but Vegeta didn't pay much attention to her desperate, and not to mention annoying, pleas. He was about to fulfill his darkest desire, one he hadn't quenched in years, when suddenly he heard someone shout, "Look out!"

The bus driver screamed, "Oh shit!" There was the blare of the bus horn, and irritated beyond belief, the Prince of Saijins turned to see what the Hell thought that it'd be a good idea to ruin his playtime. But just as he saw the glimmer of silver there was the slamming of the brakes and then impact, which was almost as powerful as running into a brick wall. And at that brief millisecond, Vegeta caught a glimpse of something, and before his day was turned for the worse more so than it already had, he managed to think one thing, 'Kakkarot?' The next instant he felt himself soaring through the front windshield of the bus, flying down the road, and landing haphazardly in a pretzel-like heap. He heard cars honk, tires squeal, metal and glass collide in a brutal pileup and his own enraged scream.

This wasn't fucking fair. That bitch should've died.