Articia sat on the front porch of the house where she lived with Gohan. She and the young Sayian man had liked each other from the first time they met. It's hard to think that three years have gone by since I first came to this world. Mom would be proud of me. She thought as she looked at her two, six inch wide, perfectly round, eggs in their small nest. She liked carrying the nestbox around with her. Looking at them made her remember many things, when Gohan and her had met, their first date, the first time she met Gohan's mother (who had then screamed and attacked her with a broom), their wedding, and their first night in their own house. I wonder what the kids will look like. Human, Sayian, Ice-Jin? They should be hatching any day now. I remembered the day I laid them. I really surprised those doctors. Or maybe frightened them was a better word. I did warn them to be ready for anything…
But right now human doctors were not her concern, the eggs were. She had tried using a primitive system called a sonogram to see what was inside the eggs, but all she got were shadowy images that nobody could figure out. Bulma was working on a better way to see through the eggshells, but so far with no success.
Articia had been nervous meeting Bulma for the first time, she had no idea how the older woman would handle the knowledge that her husband had had a child with someone else. She wasn't happy about it, fortunately, however, she took it out on Vegeita and not Articia. Prompting Vegeita to, after many a sleepless night, spend a few days living with Gohan and her. But Bulma had always been very nice to Articia, and had even designed many inventions to help make her life easier. Many of the contraptions had a limited usefulness, and some were even dangerous, such as the Laser-Guided-Apple-Peeler. (Which had once leveled the kitchen) But now she went to find one of the more useful ones, a Human disguise. It consisted of a wide belt that both contained a holographic generator and helped hold her tail out of sight. These people were stupid. They wouldn't notice a bright green Namek walking down the street as long as he wore a hat to cover the antennae and pointy ears, but even they would notice An Ice-Jin, the purple markings and long tail gave it away. Also her tail was too long and wide to disguise as a belt like a Sayian could.
There I go again. Articia thought. Rambling to no one. I need to get out of the house for a little while. She found the belt, strapped it on, looped her tail around it, and pressed the big red button.
Rrrreeeeeeeeee!!! The belt made a squealing sound as it powered up, and then there was a flash of light, and when it faded, she looked like a passable Human. This particular human did look suspiciously like Bulma herself, but Articia had decided that if Bulma was going to treat her like a daughter, then she might as well look the part. At least while she was 'human'.
Articia set out down the road, walking slowly, enjoying the sights and the sounds of the forest. As she passed the pond she pulled a bread crust from her pocket and crumpled it up for the tiny fish. As she sprinkled the crumbs in and watched them eat, a big fish came up and ate the small ones. She shook her head and thought. Gohan missed one of the big fish. What is it about him and fish? Every few days he goes and wrestles a eight foot fish out of a lake somewhere. Even he can't eat that much.
Articia had originally planned to continue all the way to town and go shopping or something, anything to get out of the house for a little while, but now she felt strange. An odd feeling in the pit of her stomach. And for some strange reason, it made her think of the eggs. She quickly glanced around to see if there was anyone nearby, but as usual she saw no one. People rarely came this far into the forest, which was one of the reasons they had moved here, and now Articia was thankful for the solitude that, only moments ago, had been driving her crazy. She flew above the trees back to the house, scattering small birds and animals like dry leaves in the wind.
She landed on the front deck and broke the screen door trying to get in too quickly. She pulled off her Human Disguise belt and threw it against the wall. It landed on the couch and projected a human face on one of the cushions, but Articia was too busy to notice. She ran into the room where the eggs were. The nest was right where she had put it before she left the house, in it's box, in the crib, Gohan was very firm that she always kept the nestbox in the crib, despite the fact that it would take a fall from orbit to crack an Ice-Jin egg. So of course, she ignored that piece of advice whenever he wasn't around.
As she looked at her eggs, she felt quite dumb at racing all they back here on a strange feeling in her gut. It was probably gas from some bad fish or some- What was that?!? It looked like one of the eggs moved. Or did I bump the crib? She stepped back and held her breath while she watched the eggs. There!! It moved again!!! They're hatching!
Articia ran into the hall, through the living room, (Where the Human Disguise belt had now generated an arm sticking out of the couch cushions to go along with the face.) and into the kitchen. She called Gohan on the video-phone, he was at a party at Master Roshi's house. A stupid little place on a tiny little island where some old guy who had trained Gohan's father lived. Gohan, Trunks, the rest of the 'old gang', and probably the Androids were there too. And they had chosen this day, of all days, to have a party. The phone rang for almost a minute before anyone answered. And when someone finally answered, it was Android 16. The giant machine looked like a huge human with a red Mohawk, he was incredibly strong and fearsome looking, but he was one of the gentlest people Articia had ever met.
"Hello, Articia," He said in his warm but annoyingly flat voice. "How are you doing today?"
"Listen, find Gohan! This is really important!" She always tried to be nice to people, but this was an emergency!
16 turned and walked off. She could hear his giant feet pounding on the floor and rattling the windows. A few seconds later, Gohan appeared on the screen. "Hi Articia, you said something was important? If one of Bulma's inventions exploded again I'll put the roof back on when I get home."
"NO!! It's a little more important than that!"
"You mean the walls are gone too?" Even in the seriousness of the situation that made Articia laugh. But she stopped herself.
"Two somethings. Two round, white, six inch wide somethings."
"The eg-?!?"
"Yep."
"There hatch-?!?"
"Yep." All humor was gone from the situation. She could hear the background noise almost stop as everyone got quiet to hear what Gohan was shouting about.
"I can be there in 10 minutes."
"Good, bring Bulma, Trunks and Vegeita if you can."
"Bulma and Trunks are here, Vegeita, well, who knows where he is…"
"I'm sure he'll turn up sooner or later, hurry up and get here." With that last message, she hung up the video-phone and began racing back through the living room (The couch now had a pair of human feet sticking out from underneath it) and to the eggs. One had a small crack, and the other was just beginning to move. "Come on." She whispered to them, "You can do it. Just push, break the shell."
Articia heard a crash by the front door. "Gohan!" She ran to him as he came down the hall and leapt into his arms. "You got here quick."
"I was motivated. I don't think I've ever flown that fast."
"I'll say," Complained Bulma as she stumbled down the hall with her hair sticking out in all directions. "Look at my hair!!"
"And I had a passenger."
"Come see the eggs." Articia said as soon as Trunks came into sight.
"Is there some reason the couch is staring at me?" He mumbled as he came into the babies room.
By this point the first egg had a whole bunch of cracks on the surface, and the second egg had almost as many. "Have you thought of any names yet?" Asked Bulma, as another large crack appeared in the first egg.
"If there's a boy, I want to name him Cryos. It was my great-grandfather's name on my mother's side. I never met him but I always liked the stories that my mother told about him standing up to King Kold."
"What if it's a girl?"
"Perhaps Zeethra, it is a Sayian name." Come a gruff sounding voice from the door. Everyone turned at once, and in the doorway stood Vegeita. Articia was about to ask how long he had been standing there, but was interrupted by a large CRACK! She spun back to the eggs just in time to see a large chunk of shell fall away from the first egg and a tiny hand pop out through the hole. The rest of the shell disintegrated into tiny shards and revealed a tiny baby boy with the off-white color of an Ice-Jin's skin, only without any of the purple patches that all Ice-Jins, even Articia, had. He had long toes, but five of them, instead of Articia's three, and he had a long Ice-Jin tail. The other egg cracked open and the tiny baby girl lay in the nest next to her brother. She had identical features as the boy. Both of them started crying in unison.
Bulma said "Awwwww… Aren't they cute? And they're so tiny." She picked up one in each hand. "Are they suppose to be this small? They're bearly six inches tall, not counting the tail. That's less than half the size of a human baby." Bulma was happy, but everyone else knew something was wrong. They could feel it, the energy of the babies felt like they were dying. If their life continued to wither this way they wouldn't last more than a few days.
"They're only a little smaller than an average Ice-Jin newborn, but that's not what concerns me. Something is wrong with them. I can feel it."
"Me too." Said Gohan.
"As can I…" Vegeita mumbled. "We should take them to a doctor."
"Or we could try out my new Med-Scan machine." Bulma said happily. Everyone, even Trunks, just looked at her for a few moments. "Or not. OK! It was just a suggestion! Geez!"
Articia wrapped them in a blanket and said. "It's ok Cryos, Zeethra, we're just going to see a doctor." She carried the kids, Vegeita carried Bulma, and Gohan and Trunks were right behind. None of them cared who saw them as they blasted across the sky.
