Momma's Girl V
Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z does not belong to me in any way, shape, or fashion and belongs instead to the great Toriyama-sensei.
Imp yawned, shuffling her feet in the early morning dew.
Her father had gotten her up before dawn and flown her (she shuddered, that had been scary) to this place. Then had left her there. Wherever there was. Rubbing her temples, she wondered why she suddenly felt a weird pressure in the back of her skull. It was like she could feel a change in air pressure or temperature, and knew that a storm was coming.
"So, Gohan's brat, you're here already," said the harsh voice Imp recognized as Vegeta's- a split second before she was glomped by Bra.
"Thankyouthankyousomuchyouhavenoideahowmuchthismeanstome!" Bra rushed breathlessly, trying very hard to crack Imp's ribs. Imp felt her eyes start to bulge out as Bra's grip tightened like a boa constrictor when she tried to breathe.
"I think that is quite enough," said a gruff voice, and both girls turned to see Piccolo standing behind them, arms crossed with a gentle smile on his face- which he tried to turn into a smirk for Vegeta's benefit. It didn't turn out quite how he intended.
"I'm entrusting my brat to you, green bean," Vegeta snarled, but it was more for show than anything. Vegeta knew that Piccolo wouldn't let any harm come to the girls. Motherhood had that effect on any being. "You let her get hurt, and you will find yourself turned to green paste, got that?"
Piccolo resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Just like Vegeta to let his macho get in the way.
The small Saiya-jin prince powered up and flew away, leaving the two girls to look at the green warrior. There was an awkward silence for a few moments.
"You are here to train," Piccolo finally stated, without preamble. "I will teach you, in six months time. First, however, you need to survive. You will stay here," he gestured, and both girls were in heavily weighted clothing," and if you are alive when I return, we will train."
With that, he took off, and left two flabbergasted girls behind.
~*~*~*~*~
"What now?" Imp said, growling softly, wondering what they should do.
"I guess... Find shelter?" Bra said, rocking back and forth on her heels.
"Was this what you expected when you wanted to train?" Imp asked, turning to her friend and tugging on her own hair. She was nervous. Her parents had taken her camping only a few times, and she knew now that her father must have been the one to get them the meat they had eaten, but still, all she really knew was to stay out of the rain.
That reminded her…
"Do you know anything about hunting?" she asked her friend, and Bra frowned.
"Daddy said it was instinctual for a Saiya-jin- but I've never done it before, and I don't think you have either. Still, we need to find food, and look around. Who knows what is here?"
"Should we split up?" Imp asked nervously, looking around. "I don't think that would be a good idea though."
"I don't either," Bra said softly. "We could get lost and loose each other easily- and there is safety in numbers."
"Right," Imp muttered, and randomly picked a direction. Both girls started out, Imp looking for a trail and Bra watching the rear. This was not that best of things, because it was still dark, and they didn't hear the nearby dinosaur herd. Said herd was quietly and politely grazing- until a tyrannosaurus with an attitude decided it wanted an early breakfast. The herd didn't agree with him about his eating schedule, so decided to run, as herds do, in one direction, making the earth beneath them quiver like so much Jell-O.
This was not good.
Imp and Bra noticed this fact almost immediately. There were no trees for them to climb, so they took off running. This was hard, because the ground moved and jerked beneath their feet, but they were still running. The mad runner in Imp helped her quickly outstrip Bra, before she grabbed her stumbling friend and had her ride piggyback. However, this was very difficult to keep up- made more so by the fact that they were heading straight towards a ravine.
Imp wanted to curse, cry, scream when she saw the edge rapidly approach- there was no place for her or Bra to go and they were going to die there. She wouldn't get to see her parents again, wouldn't get to learn from Piccolo, wouldn't get to know Bra better. Imp had dragged Bra in there with her- this meant the blue-haired girl's death was as much her fault as her own.
"I'm sorry Bra," she said, and kept running. She figured a falling death would be better than being trampled.
Part of Imp's heart had resigned herself to death- but another part of her rebelled. She COULDN'T die here- she wouldn't! Not without a fight!
Rage built up inside her, rose like a tide, and it filled her with energy- which she instinctually threw down below her. The ground rose up to meet her-
Then it stopped.
Bra had wrapped her arms around Imp's neck in a death grip, nearly choking off her air. The fall had completely distracted Imp from this, but then realized her face must be blue from lack of air. She could also feel that her hair was wet from the tears on the back of her neck.
"I'm so sorry," Imp whimpered, as the drifted back up, to the other side of the ravine to watch the herd of dinosaurs fall to their deaths. Both girls, shell shocked, sat there and held each other for a long time.
"This means we need to be more careful?" Bra murmured, when her shaking had stilled.
"Uh huh?" Imp squeaked back. This was before she was glomped by Bra- who was overjoyed.
"You flew, Imp-chan, YOU FLEW!" she cried, and tried to break her friend's ribs.
Imp would have celebrated too- but she was too busy trying to breathe.
~*~*~*~*~
The girls had an interesting time in the initial part of their training. Now that Imp could fly, she started to refine her ability, and they did their best to get Bra to repeat Imp's feat. This involved Bra trying to jump off a cliff and Imp catching her when it didn't work.
"I don't understand it!" Bra cried in frustration, as Imp carried her friend back up to the ledge of ravine. "I've tried this over and over again, and I still can't fly!"
"I don't know why either," Imp said, cradling the younger girl. "But its okay- you are a much better hunter than I am."
Bra perked up. She giggled, remembering Imp's attempt to kill anything other than a fish- the girl had turned positively green and fainted. It was odd- she had been drinking more and more water than actual food lately. This bothered Bra a bit- Imp had eaten like a Saiya-jin when they first met, but now that they had to be careful with how they rationed food, she was giving more and more to Bra.
"You need to eat more," the Saiya-jin princess said absently, noting she could see the bones under Imp's weighted gi.
"I'm fine, really!" Imp protested. Damn, she thought. Bra had noticed…
"You are going to eat, and eat now," Bra demanded, her temper flaring up. "I am going to run down a dinosaur. Excuse me."
Without further comment, the blue haired princess ran off, her speed now more than Imp's. A herd of bison were nearby- not the dinosaurs she had wanted, but animals with lots of meat on them. Licking her lips, she looked for one that was separated from the herd- and started to sneak up on them. Carefully circling the herd, she would bob and weave, scattering them, and the older individual she had chosen couldn't come up. It was the old king of the herd, who had been ousted this last mating season- and was now unnecessary to the rest of the herd. With a burst of strength and speed, Bra ran straight at him, grabbing his broken horns and cracking his neck quickly. It was killed instantly.
Imp had her head turned, and was looking rather ill.
"Get the fire started!" Bra chirped, happy with her kill. This was the shortest it had ever taken her to run her game down. While she had gotten proficient at hunting… both girls hated raw meat.
The green haired girl nodded, and soon there was a cheerful fire going in their fire pit beside the tree they had used to build a shelter in. Imp became scarce while Bra used a sharp stone to clean animal, going out and finding fruits, wild greens and roots to go with their meal. This would usually be enough to support a pure human for days, but was little more than a good lunch to a pair of Saiya-jins.
The greens were stuffed into the meat and then put on flat rocks, and the smell of the cooking made both girls nearly drool with hunger. Imp tore into her portion, but Bra tried to hold back.
Imp blinked when she realized this, her mouth stuffed, and waved her hands around. Bra figured it out though.
"You need more to eat than I do," Bra said, as Imp swallowed. Her friend reached over and shoved some more meat into Imp's mouth. This caused more hand waving.
"I can eat the fruit and stuff. You look bony. That is not at all attractive. I like my women with some flesh on them," Bra retorted. This made Imp's eyes widen impossibly and her face turn a rather vibrant shade of red. She also began choking.
"Imp?" Bra blinked, and immediately started pounding her on the back. Imp kept coughing, finally able to inhale hard, and then swallow in the right direction. The quarter Saiya-jin looked at the Princess in shock.
"What are you talking about?" Imp nearly screamed, but it came out as a croak, because her throat hadn't recovered yet from her coughing.
Bra crawled over to sit beside her. "I was teasing you, silly," she said. "You can be so innocent at times." The hugged her friend, her head cradled on the taller girl's shoulder. Imp hugged her back, grateful that she had a good friend for the first time in her life. Then a soft snore could be heard…
Imp rolled her eyes. "Bra," she said in affectionate exasperation. Rearranging herself against a tree, she shifted Bra to a more comfortable position and nodded off herself, content with the world around her…
~*~*~*~*~
"Are you sure this was a good idea?" Piccolo said softly as he removed his hand from the rock he had crushed. He had seen Imp just take a dive off the ravine, and had almost gone to rescue her, when Gohan had held him back. He had sensed the change in their daughter's power level, and realized she would be able to fly before his wife had.
"The girls have been spoiled, they need to toughen up," Gohan said softly, though his knuckles were white. "We are watching them; they should be fine."
Piccolo turned to glare at Gohan, before taking off. Gohan frowned- Piccolo had been acting moody lately. It had thrown him off at first, but he was beginning to notice other odd changes in the Namek's behavior, particularly when she was Clarinet.
Gohan shook his head. Imp and Bra would be fine. It might have taken an almost disaster to make them more careful, but it had awakened them to their own powers. They could handle things from now on... He found it odd that Piccolo had become so protective. Shrugging to himself, he took to the air. He could figure it out later.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Gohan stared as his wife made offerings to the porcelain god. She had her hair pulled back with one hand, and was clutching the bowl with the other, and he was worried that it might break under her grip. He could already see webbed cracks under the white glazed surface.
"Dear?" he asked, and got her a glass of water. She took it gratefully, and sipped, swishing her mouth clean and spitting into the bowl again.
"I'm okay," she muttered, getting to her feet. "I think I must be getting some stomach flu."
Gohan nodded. If he didn't know better, he'd say she was pregnant already… But that would be impossible, because they hadn't been together since Imp had started training.
That situation frustrated him no end.
His wife was mad as hell at him for his attitude, before dissolving into tears, and he was baffled. Clarinet had been spending more time with Videl than with him, and he would be jealous if he didn't know that Piccolo be nothing but faithful.
The fact that Piccolo, in his/her 'male' form had nothing to be unfaithful WITH was comforting…
"How are things going?" asked a voice from the doorway, and the couple turned in surprise. Videl stood there, grinning.
"What's going on?" they asked in tandem.
"Oh… nothing. Just that I was able to break the case with the serial rapist we'd been working on. I might like to borrow my detective for this one. She did do most of the leg work, ne?"
All of the people in the room grinned evilly. Gohan hadn't been told anything other than what was in the news, but this particular case was terrifying. They all wanted this bastard's head on a platter. No one had been able to get any leads… Until Clarinet had started to use senses other than the ordinary five.
"This thing isn't human," Clarinet said, tying her hair up into a bun and going for her badge and gun. She slung them on, and then draped her coat over an arm. "You know catching him won't be easy."
"Yes- but we aren't exactly normal, are we? And I thought the Great Saiyaman might want to help, just in case."
Gohan nodded. He'd changed the costume after a while, to one that didn't look quite so silly, at least that was what Videl had said. It was simple and functional- black leather pants and jacket, and sunglasses. Of course, the fact that most of his graduating class knew who he was meant that it was pretty stupid to try to cover himself up anymore…
"I went to a priestess and had some spirit wards made," Videl continued. "Those might come in useful… I've never arrested a demon."
"There's a first time for everything," Piccolo said, and took some of the wards. Not being truly a demon meant that Piccolo could handle them easily. In fact, after reuniting with Kami… She could easily make them, if she wanted.
"I'll get dressed, you ladies get gone," Gohan said softly, and they left-
Time to do what they did best…
To be continued!