Chapter 2 – Hoist the sails!
As they landed in front of Goku's capsule house, the family had just finished their dinner. Chichi was washing the dishes and Goku had gotten his hands on Gohan's brand new Playstation. The kids were nowhere to be seen.
"Gohan? He's in the backyard," Chichi replied to Bulma's question. "I think he's teaching Goten and this Videl-girl some stupid fighting tricks again." She sighed. "They could really spend their time studying instead of all those pointless…"
Bulma wasn't listening; she was on her way to the backyard where Goten and Videl were watching Gohan who was showing them the Jackie Chan kick.
"A treasure hunt" he asked after hearing the story. "Why not… in case my mum allows me to go."
Chichi was surprisingly understanding. "Why of course can you go, Gohan. But only under one condition."
"And that would be…?" Bulma asked with a sigh.
"I'm coming with you," Chichi announced.
Everybody in the room gasped. "Chichi, are you nuts?" Goku asked. "This could be really dangerous for you!"
"And it won't be less dangerous for my little Gohan," Chichi retorted, ignoring the fact that she wasn't a half-Saiyan. "So I'm coming with you!" She rushed into the bedroom and returned in a minute with a pile of packages. "I'm ready to go! And I packed your things too, Gohan."
"Hey Mum," Goten asked, "could you pack my things too? I'm coming with you."
"Count me in," Goku added. "This sounds like fun!"
Chichi didn't even argue with them, she just dashed to the bedroom once more and returned with even more packages. "There. When do we start going?"
"Erm…" Videl had come up to Bulma and poked her. "Excuse me, can I come too?"
"Ask the captain," Bulma smiled at her and pointed at Vegeta.
Videl looked at Vegeta.
"Whatever," the prince grunted.
So they waited until Videl returned from Satan City with her packages, locked the door and tried to fit themselves into Bulma's small plane to fly to the beach. Finally Vegeta sighed and kicked most of the packs out, ignoring Chichi's loud complaining. The plane took off and they flew to the beach where Bulma closed the capsule and took out another one with the ship. She clicked on the capsule and threw it in the water. POOF and the capsule turned into a ship.
Everyone gazed at it.
"You never said that it was a clipper," Vegeta said to Bulma, examining the tall masts and linen sails. "Does this thing even float?"
"It's a very good ship, for your information," Bulma snapped. "Did you expect us to go on a treasure hunt with a cargo vessel or what?"
"She's a beauty," Videl remarked, admiring the clipper. "A bit small for a three-masted but big enough for the eight of us, I'd say."
"Are you a ship expert or something?" Goku asked her.
Videl blushed and grinned. "My dad collects model ships. I've learned a lot about them in his model cabinet."
"Okay, let's get on board," Bulma called as she climbed up the ladder that was hanging down the side of the ship.
The ship was really in a good condition. After throwing the packs in the cabins and taking a fast look at the deck Vegeta announced that they were ready to go, he would be the captain and anyone having a problem with it would walk the plank, end of story.
"You, Chichi, to the galley, now. Bulma, get all the maps you can find and take them to the navigator's cabin. Take that Videl with you. You two brats, up to the crow's nest and hoist the sails on you way. Gohan, go to the cargo hold and make sure that there are no leaks, fix them if you find any. Kakarot… I don't care what you do, just stay off my sight until I call you or something. Oh right, you can go and heave the anchor. But stay out of my sight one way or another. Move it, people!" Vegeta demanded and dashed off to the captain's bridge.
Everybody was just standing there and blinking except for Trunks who pulled Goten's arm. "You heard my dad, we gotta hoist the sails and it's a strong wind, let's make it snappy!"
"Hoist what?" Goten asked.
"Haven't you read 'The Treasure Island'? We gotta tie the sails open, y'know." Trunks noticed the surprised look on the others' faces and explained very fast: "A galley is the ship's kitchen and you, Goku, have to pull that big chain until you get a huge piece of metal out of the water."
It took less than five minutes before the clipper turned to the open sea, all sails full of wind and Vegeta standing behind the steering wheel. It wasn't exactly the captain's job but he liked it. Gohan who hadn't found anything in the cargo hold was in the navigator's cabin with Bulma, trying to find the fastest and easiest way to the island that had the treasure on it… at least according to the map.
"Well, that won't be a hard trip," he said, putting the huge map of the Southern seas next to the small treasure map. "There aren't even any smaller islets on the way and the barometer is showing great weather all the time."
"Maybe, but it's a long way and we need to eat," Bulma replied. "After all, we have five Saiyans on board. So I'd say that we'll turn to this island first…"
The two kids were sitting on top of the main mast in the crow's nest and fighting for the spyglass.
"I wanna see if there are any pirate ships out there!" Goten yelled, grabbing the spyglass from Trunks.
"I wanna see it too and I'm older than you!" Trunks retorted and grabbed it back.
"Shut up, you brats or I'll send you down to wash the decks!" Vegeta's voice shouted from the captain's deck.
Videl was sitting on the captain's deck and sewing something. Vegeta didn't mind her because she was pretty quiet with her work. But then Goku happened to stumble to the bridge and asked with big interest: "Hey Videl, whatcha doing?"
"I'm sewing a flag for the ship," Videl replied without looking up. "A ship must have a flag or it's just not a ship, you know…"
Vegeta turned around. "Let me see that."
Videl picked her work up and showed it to Vegeta.
"A Jolly Roger?" Vegeta asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Why not?" Videl asked back. "You'll never know who we may meet out there." She continued with her work and Vegeta turned back to the steering wheel as Goku complained: "Vegeta, I'm bored!"
"Go fishing," Vegeta suggested
Five minutes later Goku returned to the bridge with a huge shark hanging on his shoulder. "Got one, now what?"
"To the galley," Vegeta snapped without even looking back.
The shark was really tasty. Vegeta was the only one who hadn't come to lunch because someone had to be behind the steering wheel. Bulma took him a big plate of shark fins after everyone else had finished the dinner. "Thanks," the prince mumbled as he stuffed his mouth full of meat and kept his eyes on the sea. The clipper wasn't exactly what a sail ship should be – first of all, it actually had a captain's bridge (clippers usually don't) and you could see the whole ship from that bridge. That's how Vegeta was able to lead the whole ship without having to move from behind the wheel.
"It's peaceful out here," Bulma remarked while Vegeta was eating.
"Mmmpfhhh." Vegeta replied, gnawing the fin. He swallowed it and said, coughing: "There is a ship right on our course. We should meet it on our way. Tomorrow, I assume."
Bulma looked at him with surprise, then took out a map and looked at it. "We're not on any sailing route. What's that ship doing on this latitude?"
"Treasure hunters?" Trunks guessed.
Bulma and Vegeta looked up. Trunks was sitting right above their heads on the mizzen topsail yard and grinning at them.
"Didn't I tell you to stay in the crow's nest?" Vegeta asked.
"Goten is up there, " Trunks replied. "I'm keeping an eye on the sea down here. Gohan wanted me to tell you that the barometer has fallen."
"How low?" Bulma asked.
"To the deck," Trunks said. "Looks like it wasn't attached well enough. We don't have a barometer any more. Is that a bad thing?"
Vegeta frowned. "No. It's not a bad thing if you like it when a huge thunderstorm hits you in the middle of your best dream. We're not able to predict a storm any more."
Bulma tried to comfort them. "We still have the Capsule Corporation Super-Reliable Weather Predictor For A Week®. I don't think a storm will get us before we notice."
Vegeta looked at her thoughtfully. "Now don't tell me that you're keeping the ship's log book on a computer or something?"
"Of course I am." Bulma stared at him. "Paper is so unreliable."
Nothing much happened during the rest of the day. A dragon flew by and tried to breathe fire at the ship but Vegeta was faster. Everyone complained that the dinner wasn't half as tasty as the lunch but the dragon had been quite old as well…
When the evening came, Bulma went to the bridge to tell Vegeta that it was bedtime.
"You can't stay out here all night," she said. "We don't need a captain that wanders around with dark circles under his eyes and falls down every two minutes. Get yourself a night watch and go to sleep."
"Yeah, and who do you suggest? Gohan would be best for the job if I wouldn't know that this stupid mother of his will complain for hours when she finds out that we want her 'precious little sonny'" Vegeta rolled his eyes, "to stay up all night. That way none of us will get any sleep."
Bulma sighed and nodded. "Got that right. That leaves Goku and Goten out of the question too. And Trunks is… just unreliable. He's too hyperactive for standing here all night. Well, that means that I'll stay as the night watch."
Vegeta frowned. "No you won't. I don't need a navigator who wanders around the ship like a zombie in the daytime. Hey you, Videl!" he suddenly yelled over the whole ship.
Videl turned out to be perfect for the job. The next morning when everyone woke up, she was standing behind the wheel like a statue and announced to Vegeta that another dragon had passed by at night. Vegeta frowned when he heard it.
"What are they doing so far out on the sea?" he wondered. "There has to be a nest around here somewhere."
"Maybe they're water dragons?" Videl guessed.
Vegeta shook his head. "The one we had for dinner yesterday wasn't a water dragon. Besides, those don't fly. This is strange…"
"Ship waah-aah-aaaahead," Trunks's sleepy and yawning voice suddenly shouted from the crow's nest.
Bulma grabbed the spyglass. "Indeed… wow, and they're sailing under the Jolly Roger!" she said with surprise.
Videl grinned. "So are we." She had finished sewing the flag early in the morning while standing behind the wheel and gotten it up to the top of the main mast too.
Trunks and Goten were awake on the same second and jumped down on the deck. "A pirate ship? Where? Where??"
"We'll meet them in an hour or so. Videl, go to sleep," Vegeta ordered.
"I can stand here for an hour," Videl yawned. "I wanna meet the pirates too."