A/N: This takes place in an AU. The first few chapters explain a lot of the details though. I think you may like this one, if you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it, and if you do then check out my other stories. As always "Speech" /Thoughts/ and ~Telepathy~ R&R please.
Chapter one - An all but forgotten legend
The sound of fingers clicking across a keyboard sounded throughout the room. The small room, small only in comparison to the rest of the rooms in the building, was strewn with dirty clothes, crumples of paper, tattered notebooks, floppy disks, CD roms, maps, history books, and various books on myths and legends. The queen sized bed, four of the chairs, and the two couches in the room were also buried under piles of debris. The only clean spot in the room was the computer desk and the chair where the room's owner sat.
Fifteen year old Bulma Briefs, child genius and daughter of world famous Dr. Briefs, worked furiously at her computer trying to pull up any information she could on the ancient legend that had drawn her interests while also writing a computer program. Her mythology teacher had assigned a report to the class the week before that required they research an old legend. He'd said that the more obscure and the more complex the legend the more points it would be worth.
When she'd approached him with her topic he'd been surprised, not even he'd heard much about this legend. That meant she was assured an A. Especially now that she'd learned that the Legend of the Dragonballs was so closely tied to some other very obscure legends. The one that held her interest the most was the Legend of the Sai-jins. So far she'd pieced together that the word Sai-jin had meant either Warrior Angel or Guardian Angel, perhaps both. She'd also found out that the Sai-jins had fought in a war called the Great Clash in which the gods, or Kai's according to legend, had fought to save the entire universe from the Demon realm and it's leader Majin Buu.
In that battle many Kai's and Sai-jins were killed. In fact, it stated that only ten Sai-jins survived. Unfortunately she'd not yet found any name's, not a single one. At least, not for the Sai-jins. What she had found were names of Kai's. Shin, officially Kaio-Shin. He'd been a child by Kai standards, only a million years old, and the youngest Supreme Kai, they oversaw the affairs of the entire universe. Sheba, officially Kaio-Sheba. At the time of the war she'd been the Grand Kai for the galaxy in which Earth rested and another 'child' at four hundred thousand years.
There had also been mention of a King Kai, also something of a child at only ten thousand years. Legends said he was the North Kai and oversaw the northern sector of their galaxy, the sector in which Earth rested. Though she had name's for the Kai's she had no descriptions for them, while the opposite was true for the Sai-jins. Still, those were general descriptions. A golden glow, golden hair, green eyes, and that was it. Not much to go on but still very distinctive.
She turned her attention from the web search to the program she was writing as she took a drink from the soda beside her. No, scratch that, it was pure caffeine. That's what she needed though, she'd been awake for over twenty four hours, ever since she'd gotten free from her father's lab the other day (she'd gotten caught up in his time travel research). As she read through lines of code she checked the clock, 8:36 A.M. She stared at it for a second then blinked like that would change the time, sure enough it did. Now she was thirty-seven minutes late for school!
"Shit!" she cried getting up from the chair. She bent over the keyboard as her feet moved away from the desk toward the exit and set up the program to compile, it would be ready by the end of school and she could download it at last. As she pressed the last key she turned, walked toward her door, grabbed the light blue jacket off the wall that bore the Capsule Corp logo, slipped her feet into her shoes, and grabbed her backpack off the wall beside her.
She ran quickly down the hall, down six flights of stairs, through the kitchen (grabbing an apple as she passed) and out the door. In a second she was on her air bike and speeding down the road toward Orange Star High. She pulled up a few minutes later and capsulized her bike. As she ran through the front doors she made note of the time, 8:53, she still had two minutes until class change. Quickly she slipped into the attendance office and smiled as she saw who was at the desk today.
"Oh, you are a sight for sore eyes Chi." she said catching her breath.
Chi-Chi looked up from the papers in front of her and smiled back. "Lost track of time again huh? You're as bad as your father Bulma, you know that?"
"Not yet, but getting there. Any chance you can get me excused?"
Chi-Chi looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. A second later she produced a capsule from her pocket. "Here, put this in place of your bike. It's my air bike, only it's broken. Show that to Principal Satan and he should let you off."
Bulma took the capsule. "You are a life saver Chi, I wont forget this."
"You'd better not."
As Bulma turned to walk to Principal Satan's office she ran smack into someone following onto her ass with a thud. "Oww, watch where you're..." she stopped as she looked up and saw a pair of deep black eyes glaring daggers down at her. That face, those eyes, the hair, the chiseled muscles, and the ever present frown left no doubt that she'd just run into Vegeta, the local tough guy. He wasn't exactly a bully, he didn't beat you up for your lunch money, he beat you up because you ticked him off.
"You blind woman?" he demanded. "Use your eyes and watch where you're going." he brushed off the front of his white T-shirt before adjusting the open black leather jacket. With that task finished he walked from the office and back into the school halls as the bell rang for class change.
"Arrogant jerk." Bulma spat standing up and adjusting her skirt back into position. "I swear, he acts like he's a prince or something. I can't wait until he gets pounded someday."
Chi-Chi laughed. "That wont be happening any day soon I don't think. But that don't change the fact that you've got a crush on him, now does it?"
"What!" Bulma cried. "You've got to be kidding! Me! Like him! Besides, I'm dating Yamcha."
Chi-Chi just giggled and shook her head. "You'd better hurry up, the later you are the less chance you have of getting off free."
Still grumbling under her breath Bulma made her way into Principal Satan's office. "Sir, Chi-Chi told me to explain my situation to you..."
"What's up kid?" he asked as he shadow boxed behind his desk. Not only was he the Principal of Orange Star High but the karate instructor for the school and the current Champion of the World Martial Arts Tournament and the only one in the school who likely stood a chance of beating Vegeta in a fight.
Bulma held up the capsule containing Chi-Chi's broken air bike. "Well sir, my air bike wouldn't start this morning so I had to walk to school... I just got here a moment ago."
"Ah I see." Jab. Jab. Dodge. Jab. Dodge. Dodge. "Tell Cha... Tree... uh, the girl outside to excuse you then." Jab. Jab. Jab. Jab-Jab. Dodge. Jab.
"Thank-you sir." Bulma bowed and walked out leaving a grinning and training Hercule behind her. She grinned as well as she gave Chi-Chi back her capsule, got her excuse, and made her way to the second class of the day. She was actually happy to have missed her fist class though, she didn't much care for phys ed. to tell the truth. But she was rushing through the halls to make it to her second class in time, she had mythology next and today was supposed to be a progress report on your research. She was egger to see what the other kids where doing, and to see what Mr. Cross thought of her progress.
She reached the class just a few seconds after the bell and everyone watched as she came in. "A little late Ms. Briefs? It's not exactly like you to be late to my class."
"Sorry sir, had bike trouble." she handed him her pass and he nodded. She turned and took her seat as Mr. Cross turned toward the board.
"Alright people. This is a progress report day, the first of eight over the two months you have to work on this project. I want to hear what you've learned about all of your different topics. But keep it short, only tell me the most important details of the main legend and anything pertaining to it that you've found. Short but informative. I expect you wont have much trouble with that will you Raeza (pronounced Raise-ah)." he said with a smile. A young blonde at the front of the room looked up at him with a confused expression that caused the entire room to giggle. /I can only imagine what her kids will be like./ Bulma thought.
"Anyway," continued the teacher. "We'll be doing this in alphabetical order, by last name, so Yano Abe is first."
Yano stood up and walked to the front of the class. "I'm doing my report on the Legend of Garlic Jr. I've not found out exactly what Garlic Jr. was perceived as, though most likely they felt him a demon. Garlic Jr. was the son of Garlic and sought the same thing as his father, to overthrow a being named Kami. I've yet to find who exactly Kami is though."
/Kami?/ Bulma wondered as she thought. /I know I've read that name recently... but... No way, my legend overlaps that much?! Awesome. I'm going to get an A+ on this report. And now I've got another angle to work from, Garlic Jr. This is perfect, and when I get home my radar program will be ready and I'll know for sure if there are any Dragonballs. That would be the perfect addition to my report, having an actual Dragonball./
The class continued on like this for then next five minutes before Bulma was finally called to maker her progress report. "Bulma has chosen what may be the most difficult legend of them all to work with, the Legend of the Dragonballs. Bulma."
"Thank you." she walked up to the front of the class. "The Dragonballs are ancient and magical artifacts. There are seven in all and when all of them are gathered together you can summon the Eternal Dragon. The only way though is to know the Dragon's name, I've not learned that yet though. I've also learned that the Dragonballs were created by the 'Guardian of the Earth'.
"I've not learned much about this being either, no name, only the title. Beyond that I've learned that the Dragonballs were also used by people in another legend. The Legend of the Sai-jins. What I've learned about them is that they are either Warrior Angels or Guardian Angels. Either way they defended the world, and the universe, from utter destruction at the hands of the Demon King, Majin Buu."
Bulma mentioned a few other details, like that the Guardian of Earth was able to be in two places at once because he'd become two people. One oversaw the Earth and watched events from above where he could see everything. The other half was a powerful warrior that did all the fighting to protect the Earth.
The rest of the class went after her, and as usual Raeza had no idea what exactly was going on. She had a progress report though, on how far along she was on her research of Cosmetica, supposedly some sort of demon lady that never wore make-up and caused girls mascara to run at the worst times. It was actually well thought out for a Raeza plan, of course it seemed to Bulma that Shrapnel was grinning the entire time. He'd probably told her what to say.
About forty minutes later the bell rang and class ended. As Bulma walked into the hall the sound of shouting echoed from down to her right. She made her way through the crowd listening to the cries and cheers. Obviously a fight had broken out. When she reached the sight of the fight her eyes bulged slightly.
Chapter one - An all but forgotten legend
The sound of fingers clicking across a keyboard sounded throughout the room. The small room, small only in comparison to the rest of the rooms in the building, was strewn with dirty clothes, crumples of paper, tattered notebooks, floppy disks, CD roms, maps, history books, and various books on myths and legends. The queen sized bed, four of the chairs, and the two couches in the room were also buried under piles of debris. The only clean spot in the room was the computer desk and the chair where the room's owner sat.
Fifteen year old Bulma Briefs, child genius and daughter of world famous Dr. Briefs, worked furiously at her computer trying to pull up any information she could on the ancient legend that had drawn her interests while also writing a computer program. Her mythology teacher had assigned a report to the class the week before that required they research an old legend. He'd said that the more obscure and the more complex the legend the more points it would be worth.
When she'd approached him with her topic he'd been surprised, not even he'd heard much about this legend. That meant she was assured an A. Especially now that she'd learned that the Legend of the Dragonballs was so closely tied to some other very obscure legends. The one that held her interest the most was the Legend of the Sai-jins. So far she'd pieced together that the word Sai-jin had meant either Warrior Angel or Guardian Angel, perhaps both. She'd also found out that the Sai-jins had fought in a war called the Great Clash in which the gods, or Kai's according to legend, had fought to save the entire universe from the Demon realm and it's leader Majin Buu.
In that battle many Kai's and Sai-jins were killed. In fact, it stated that only ten Sai-jins survived. Unfortunately she'd not yet found any name's, not a single one. At least, not for the Sai-jins. What she had found were names of Kai's. Shin, officially Kaio-Shin. He'd been a child by Kai standards, only a million years old, and the youngest Supreme Kai, they oversaw the affairs of the entire universe. Sheba, officially Kaio-Sheba. At the time of the war she'd been the Grand Kai for the galaxy in which Earth rested and another 'child' at four hundred thousand years.
There had also been mention of a King Kai, also something of a child at only ten thousand years. Legends said he was the North Kai and oversaw the northern sector of their galaxy, the sector in which Earth rested. Though she had name's for the Kai's she had no descriptions for them, while the opposite was true for the Sai-jins. Still, those were general descriptions. A golden glow, golden hair, green eyes, and that was it. Not much to go on but still very distinctive.
She turned her attention from the web search to the program she was writing as she took a drink from the soda beside her. No, scratch that, it was pure caffeine. That's what she needed though, she'd been awake for over twenty four hours, ever since she'd gotten free from her father's lab the other day (she'd gotten caught up in his time travel research). As she read through lines of code she checked the clock, 8:36 A.M. She stared at it for a second then blinked like that would change the time, sure enough it did. Now she was thirty-seven minutes late for school!
"Shit!" she cried getting up from the chair. She bent over the keyboard as her feet moved away from the desk toward the exit and set up the program to compile, it would be ready by the end of school and she could download it at last. As she pressed the last key she turned, walked toward her door, grabbed the light blue jacket off the wall that bore the Capsule Corp logo, slipped her feet into her shoes, and grabbed her backpack off the wall beside her.
She ran quickly down the hall, down six flights of stairs, through the kitchen (grabbing an apple as she passed) and out the door. In a second she was on her air bike and speeding down the road toward Orange Star High. She pulled up a few minutes later and capsulized her bike. As she ran through the front doors she made note of the time, 8:53, she still had two minutes until class change. Quickly she slipped into the attendance office and smiled as she saw who was at the desk today.
"Oh, you are a sight for sore eyes Chi." she said catching her breath.
Chi-Chi looked up from the papers in front of her and smiled back. "Lost track of time again huh? You're as bad as your father Bulma, you know that?"
"Not yet, but getting there. Any chance you can get me excused?"
Chi-Chi looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. A second later she produced a capsule from her pocket. "Here, put this in place of your bike. It's my air bike, only it's broken. Show that to Principal Satan and he should let you off."
Bulma took the capsule. "You are a life saver Chi, I wont forget this."
"You'd better not."
As Bulma turned to walk to Principal Satan's office she ran smack into someone following onto her ass with a thud. "Oww, watch where you're..." she stopped as she looked up and saw a pair of deep black eyes glaring daggers down at her. That face, those eyes, the hair, the chiseled muscles, and the ever present frown left no doubt that she'd just run into Vegeta, the local tough guy. He wasn't exactly a bully, he didn't beat you up for your lunch money, he beat you up because you ticked him off.
"You blind woman?" he demanded. "Use your eyes and watch where you're going." he brushed off the front of his white T-shirt before adjusting the open black leather jacket. With that task finished he walked from the office and back into the school halls as the bell rang for class change.
"Arrogant jerk." Bulma spat standing up and adjusting her skirt back into position. "I swear, he acts like he's a prince or something. I can't wait until he gets pounded someday."
Chi-Chi laughed. "That wont be happening any day soon I don't think. But that don't change the fact that you've got a crush on him, now does it?"
"What!" Bulma cried. "You've got to be kidding! Me! Like him! Besides, I'm dating Yamcha."
Chi-Chi just giggled and shook her head. "You'd better hurry up, the later you are the less chance you have of getting off free."
Still grumbling under her breath Bulma made her way into Principal Satan's office. "Sir, Chi-Chi told me to explain my situation to you..."
"What's up kid?" he asked as he shadow boxed behind his desk. Not only was he the Principal of Orange Star High but the karate instructor for the school and the current Champion of the World Martial Arts Tournament and the only one in the school who likely stood a chance of beating Vegeta in a fight.
Bulma held up the capsule containing Chi-Chi's broken air bike. "Well sir, my air bike wouldn't start this morning so I had to walk to school... I just got here a moment ago."
"Ah I see." Jab. Jab. Dodge. Jab. Dodge. Dodge. "Tell Cha... Tree... uh, the girl outside to excuse you then." Jab. Jab. Jab. Jab-Jab. Dodge. Jab.
"Thank-you sir." Bulma bowed and walked out leaving a grinning and training Hercule behind her. She grinned as well as she gave Chi-Chi back her capsule, got her excuse, and made her way to the second class of the day. She was actually happy to have missed her fist class though, she didn't much care for phys ed. to tell the truth. But she was rushing through the halls to make it to her second class in time, she had mythology next and today was supposed to be a progress report on your research. She was egger to see what the other kids where doing, and to see what Mr. Cross thought of her progress.
She reached the class just a few seconds after the bell and everyone watched as she came in. "A little late Ms. Briefs? It's not exactly like you to be late to my class."
"Sorry sir, had bike trouble." she handed him her pass and he nodded. She turned and took her seat as Mr. Cross turned toward the board.
"Alright people. This is a progress report day, the first of eight over the two months you have to work on this project. I want to hear what you've learned about all of your different topics. But keep it short, only tell me the most important details of the main legend and anything pertaining to it that you've found. Short but informative. I expect you wont have much trouble with that will you Raeza (pronounced Raise-ah)." he said with a smile. A young blonde at the front of the room looked up at him with a confused expression that caused the entire room to giggle. /I can only imagine what her kids will be like./ Bulma thought.
"Anyway," continued the teacher. "We'll be doing this in alphabetical order, by last name, so Yano Abe is first."
Yano stood up and walked to the front of the class. "I'm doing my report on the Legend of Garlic Jr. I've not found out exactly what Garlic Jr. was perceived as, though most likely they felt him a demon. Garlic Jr. was the son of Garlic and sought the same thing as his father, to overthrow a being named Kami. I've yet to find who exactly Kami is though."
/Kami?/ Bulma wondered as she thought. /I know I've read that name recently... but... No way, my legend overlaps that much?! Awesome. I'm going to get an A+ on this report. And now I've got another angle to work from, Garlic Jr. This is perfect, and when I get home my radar program will be ready and I'll know for sure if there are any Dragonballs. That would be the perfect addition to my report, having an actual Dragonball./
The class continued on like this for then next five minutes before Bulma was finally called to maker her progress report. "Bulma has chosen what may be the most difficult legend of them all to work with, the Legend of the Dragonballs. Bulma."
"Thank you." she walked up to the front of the class. "The Dragonballs are ancient and magical artifacts. There are seven in all and when all of them are gathered together you can summon the Eternal Dragon. The only way though is to know the Dragon's name, I've not learned that yet though. I've also learned that the Dragonballs were created by the 'Guardian of the Earth'.
"I've not learned much about this being either, no name, only the title. Beyond that I've learned that the Dragonballs were also used by people in another legend. The Legend of the Sai-jins. What I've learned about them is that they are either Warrior Angels or Guardian Angels. Either way they defended the world, and the universe, from utter destruction at the hands of the Demon King, Majin Buu."
Bulma mentioned a few other details, like that the Guardian of Earth was able to be in two places at once because he'd become two people. One oversaw the Earth and watched events from above where he could see everything. The other half was a powerful warrior that did all the fighting to protect the Earth.
The rest of the class went after her, and as usual Raeza had no idea what exactly was going on. She had a progress report though, on how far along she was on her research of Cosmetica, supposedly some sort of demon lady that never wore make-up and caused girls mascara to run at the worst times. It was actually well thought out for a Raeza plan, of course it seemed to Bulma that Shrapnel was grinning the entire time. He'd probably told her what to say.
About forty minutes later the bell rang and class ended. As Bulma walked into the hall the sound of shouting echoed from down to her right. She made her way through the crowd listening to the cries and cheers. Obviously a fight had broken out. When she reached the sight of the fight her eyes bulged slightly.