The Bloody Star Treasure

by Saiyan Huntress

Chapter 1 – An old map

 The sun was rising over the huge city of Western Capital. It was Saturday and the streets were emptier than usually. Only some sleepy policemen were on their way back from the night patrol. The night had been busy and all they wanted now was to get home and have a huge cup of coffee.

„Check out the Capsule Corporation," one of them remarked as they passed a tall hemispherical building with a high wall around it. All the windows were opened and the men could hear loud rock music coming from one of the rooms.

„Bulma is cleaning up again," the other one said and looked at his watch with a frown. „And it's five o'clock in the morning...!"

„She always cleans up in the mornings," the third one added. „An early bird as she is."

The first policeman grinned. „Yeah, but I sure feel sorry for her husband…"

Bulma, as the policemen had noticed, was really cleaning up. She had been awake for nearly an hour already, running around the house with a vacuum cleaner and singing 'We will rock you' as loudly as it gets. She knew that the volcano would erupt any second now but what the heck – somebody has to keep the huge place clean and besides, what's life without action?

The woman had just reached the fifth living room as she heard the bedroom door slam. On the next second the door to the living room flew wide open and a very angry and sleepy-looking Saiyan prince dashed in.

"Are you outta your mind???" he demanded. "Have you ANY idea what time it is? Some people are trying to SLEEP in here!!!"

Bulma smiled at him. "Morning, Vegeta. It's already 5 a.m. and it's not my fault that you had to train so long last night." She continued with the vacuuming. "Don't be so grumpy every single morning. Ever heard the saying 'the early bird gets the worm'?"

Vegeta growled and popped down on the couch. "Ever heard the saying 'the early worm gets eaten'?" He examined the TV guide and then threw it out of the window. "Even the TV reporters are asleep at this time. What's for breakfast?"

"I'll get there." Bulma grinned. "And I'd get there faster if you'd help me with cleaning."

"Rrriiiight…" her husband muttered with a frown. "There… now you woke the brat up too."

Seconds later the door flew open again and Trunks hopped in. "Mornin', everybody! What's for breakfast?"

"Oh great, two of the kind," Bulma remarked and poked the couch Vegeta was sitting on with the vacuum cleaner. "Heya, excuse me?" Vegeta got up and lifted the couch up too with a slightly annoyed look on his face. "See, that wasn't too hard… say Trunks, why don't you go and make your own breakfast?"

Vegeta gasped and gazed at her. "Have you lost it? Remember the last time you told Trunks to add some flour to the cake mix?"

"I swear that I have no idea what happened," Trunks stated. "It blew up by itself!"

"Alright, then take the vacuum cleaner instead of me, I'll go and make some omelet," Bulma suggested. Trunks grabbed the cleaner and Bulma trotted to the kitchen. Vegeta followed her.

"I can't believe it," he yawned. "There are billions of women in this Universe and I'm the one stuck with a cleaning maniac who wakes up when normal people go to sleep and who can't even sing 'We will rock you' without messing the notes up…"

Bulma grinned at him while cooking the omelet. "I didn't force you to stay here. Besides, you don't sing much better than me." She kicked the fridge door open and threw a huge block of meat to Vegeta. "There, make yourself useful and hack it."

By the time Trunks finished the cleaning and came to the kitchen, most of the omelet was already gone. The kid grabbed the last piece from Vegeta's plate and complained: "Dad, for god's sake, how do you expect me to grow up as a Saiyan warrior and all that stuff when you don't even leave me a lousy little piece of omelet for breakfast???"

"There should be some last night's pizza in the fridge," Bulma shouted over her shoulder while going back to cleaning.

It was almost noon when Bulma stopped vacuuming and came to the living room where Trunks was watching TV.

"Where's your dad?" she asked, went to the cupboard and pulled the drawer out. "Gosh, is this place here a mess or what?"

"Training," Trunks mumbled.

"Was training," Vegeta corrected him as he entered the room, sweaty and tired but in a good mood. "What on earth are you doing now?" That question was to Bulma.

"This cupboard hasn't been cleaned for ages," the woman replied while looking at some old albums. "Oh look, here's a picture of me at the beach… I must have been five years old or so. Oh, and here's one party picture of my sixth birthday. Whoa, look…!" She turned the album to Vegeta and Trunks. "That's me making my first steps!"

Both Saiyans rolled their eyes. "Mum, please…!" "For crying out loud, Bulma…!"

Bulma didn't pay attention to them. "And another photo where I'm playing with my puppydog… and here's one where…" Suddenly she stopped and blinked, looking at one of the photos. "What the… can it be?" She stood up and rushed out of the room.

"What's with her?" Trunks asked with surprise. "Dad, wait up!" He ran after his dad who had left the room to follow Bulma.

They found her from a very small room on the last floor of the house. She was standing on the dusty floor in the middle of all sorts of big cardboard boxes, old furniture and piles of old magazines. Vegeta took one of those papers and looked at the date. The magazine was nearly thirty years old.

"What is this place?" he asked Bulma. "It seems old. You've never been here with your cleaning raids, am I right?

Bulma nodded, her eyes seemed empty and her thoughts were obviously somewhere else. "I had completely forgotten about this room. I've only been here once before." She bowed down and opened one of the cardboard boxes. "I was about ten years old when I accidentally stumbled here. My dad was furious for some reason and I promised him that I would never come here again."

Trunks blinked. "Grandpa – furious? I didn't know it was possible…"

Bulma gave him a short look. "Believe me, it's a very good thing that they're on vacation at the moment. He has been hiding something in here… I tried to find out what it was but after he caught me I was too scared to come here again and afterwards I just forgot about the place."

"Well, let's find out what his big secret is," Vegeta said and crouched down to examine one box. "Just books here…" He looked at the other box. "Cloth? Oh come on… this place is just an attic, nothing more."

Bulma shook her head. "This is an attic but there's also something else in here. I almost found it as a kid… I think it was a wooden chest or so," she added, frowning and trying to remember the details.

"That one?" Trunks asked behind the box pile. He leaped over the pile and handed Bulma a small chest.

"Precisely." Bulma looked at the chest, then at the ground. "The key should be around here somewhere."

"The key is right here," Vegeta announced. "Gimme that box." Before Bulma or Trunks could say anything, the prince took the chest and broke it open.

"Dad's gonna kill me…" Bulma mumbled, taking the chest back from Vegeta.

"You didn't open it," Trunks remarked.

"No, but he can't kill Vegeta and that means I'm the next one in the list," Bulma grunted as she looked inside the chest. Her eyes turned big as she took something out of it.

"A piece of paper?" Vegeta and Trunks asked in the same time.

Bulma examined it, then she looked up with a very shocked look on her face.

"Not just any piece of paper," she said slowly. "It's a map…"

The father and the son looked at each other. Then they gazed at Bulma. "A map?"

Bulma nodded. "My dad was considered a mad scientist, more or less, when he founded the Capsule Corporation. Nobody wanted to support him. He had no money for starting with the inventions that are now famous and well-known all over the world. I don't know where he got this," she pointed at the map, "but this is a real map without a doubt." She saw a silent question in the eyes of the two and grinned. "You guessed it: it's a treasure map. Dad obviously wanted to use it for getting some capital for his very first inventions."

Trunks gasped. "Holy cow – a real pirate treasure map???"

Vegeta was being a bit more rational. "This map is really old. It may be real but how do you know that someone hasn't found the treasure yet? Maybe this map has done its job already… or maybe someone has found the treasure accidentally?"

Bulma looked at the map. "I don't think so. It looks like the map is showing an area in the Southern Seas and people don't go there very often. Besides, who would keep the map after finding the treasure? Especially locked into a wooden chest?"

Trunks was hopping up and down. "Let's go and find the treasure then!"

Vegeta grinned. "The kid's got a point. The Southern Seas aren't too far away. I could make it before dinner."

"You need me to read the map and I can't fly," Bulma reminded him.

"I could carry you," Vegeta remarked thoughtfully, "but I have my dignity… how about a plane?"

Bulma looked at the map with a frown. Suddenly she smiled and looked at Vegeta. "Where is your sense of adventuring?"

"A sense of what?" Vegeta asked back.

Bulma grinned. "I have an idea. What would you guys think of one good old-fashioned treasure hunting?"

"Come again?"

The woman sighed and explained: "Why don't we take a ship and sail to the Southern Seas?"

"That will take an eternity," Vegeta grunted as Trunks's eyes turned bigger and bigger. "Mum, that has got to be the best idea you've ever had!!"

After ten minutes of trying to talk Vegeta in the Saiyan prince frowned a bit and stated: "Alright, I'll come to this stupid trip… but only under one condition."

"And that is…?" Bulma asked.

Vegeta grinned at her. "I'll be the captain."

Bulma blinked, then she nodded. "Okay. But we need to take Gohan with us. A ship needs a first mate and he'd be perfect for the job."

"As long as he doesn't start getting on my nerves," Vegeta agreed.

So they packed their bags, Bulma took a small capsule with the ship, locked the front door and opened a plane capsule. "Off to Goku's house!" she announced and the small plane flew towards the distance.