A/N: As I've said before "Speech", /Thought/, ~Telepathy~, but there's another one I forgot about. *Memory* It's for remembered conversations, flash back kind of things.
Chapter three - The one star ball
The talk the rest of the day at school had been the fight in the halls, Vegeta's departure from school, and Eve's subsequent suspension for that fight. Bulma hadn't paid much attention to the rest of her classes though as she kept running idea's through her head. She was so focused on her mythology project, and getting home to transfer her program, that she ran into Goku as she was leaving.
"Oh, sorry about that." she said as Brolly helped her up while Krillin picked up something that Goku had dropped and Goku stood up on his own.
"That's okay." Goku said smiling as Krillin handed him a small orange ball with four stars inside. Bulma only barely noticed it making a mental note that it would look nice if it were smaller and an earring, and that it looked familiar.
After that her mind shifted gears back to the fight earlier, and the fact that Eve could use KI attacks. That was a skill that many martial artists strove to learn, and almost as many never attained. Everyone had been shocked by Vegeta's use of KI attacks, and the power at which he could use them. There were only three types of people when it came to using KI attacks, those who couldn't master it, those who after years of practice could, and those who were highly adept at it and needed only a good teacher. The question was, who taught Vegeta, and now, who taught Eve?
Bulma was pulled out of her thoughts by a horn honking. She looked around and realized she'd walked four blocks. Reaching into her jacket she pulled out her capsules and grabbed her air bike. A few seconds later she was zooming through the air towards the Capsule Corp compound.
******
"Yaaaaaaaaaaa!" Vegeta's cry rang out as the deep purple energy surged from his open palm on his outstretched arm toward the six foot thick steel block ten yards away. He strained with effort as he forced the energy out, as concentrated as he could get it. Finally he eased up and stopped the attack. Panting he stared at the block he'd been attacking... the only sign he'd even hit the thing was the glowing red circle where the blast had hit. "Grrrrrrr, didn't even start to melt the damned thing!"
Vegeta froze as he heard a giggle in his head and memory came unbidden into his thoughts. *Vegeta... you're never going to get good if you're always so tense.* a young girls voice laughed. He could see himself, only eight years old, standing a few yards away from a tin can. He'd just used a KI stream to attack the can but had only moved it, didn't warm it up any, or even knock it over. His younger self relaxed slightly and smiled as he turned to look at the young girl with black eyes and spiky black hair.
She was about six years old and wore a frilly pink dress. *You want to try it again Vegena?* he asked. *You'd almost had it last time.*
*Naw.* she said shaking her head. *That's okay big brother, daddy says I should wait a few years yet before trying or I might hurt myself.*
Vegeta just smiled. But as he stood there he saw his father stumble from their home and into the yard, blood running down his arms, chin, and legs. He reached out toward them then collapsed to the ground. That's when Vegeta first saw it, he'd seen drawings of them before, but this was the first time he'd seen one in person. It was short, about his height, and green with pure red eyes. It's head looked almost like an exposed green brain, and actually was. A Sibamen. He could see the damage his father had done to the demon.
Suddenly, with an ear splitting screech, it lunged at Vegena and thrust it's left claw into her chest as she turned. *NO! VEGENA!* he cried running toward the demon. As it pulled it's bloodied arm from her body it clutched her heart in it's fist and laughed at him showing its sharp teeth. Vegeta's arm's lanced forward and a stream of purple energy tore forward and into the creature.
When the attack died it still stood, though upon shaky legs. His attack had made little difference, and wouldn't have made any difference if his father hadn't fought it first. As it regained it's balance it laughed again and lunged at him. Vegeta jumped in reflex and saw his chance. Instantly he fired the last of his KI downward into the demon's head, through it's exposed and undefended brain. The green demon fell over dead and began to decay, a second later it was gone. Not that Vegeta noticed. He'd blacked out the instant he'd fired the attack and fell to the ground.
Back in the present Vegeta was on one knee, a tear rolling down his cheek, his fists clenched tightly, blue and purple energy dancing about them. Suddenly his fist slammed into the concrete beneath him cracking and chipping it. "I will have my REVENGE!" he shouted choking back sobs. A moment later he was on his feet again, another deep purple stream of energy pouring out at the steel slab.
******
"Welcome back boys... who's your friend?" Master Roshi asked.
"This is Brolly." Goku said motioning back. "He's a friend of ours and even trained with us and Grandpa Gohan."
"It's nice to meet you Brolly, you going to be training with us today? We've only got four months until the next World Martial Arts tournament."
"Sure, I'm planning on entering, once I've gotten the ten thousand Zeni entry fee. I'm still working on that."
Master Roshi smiled. "You have a Master to enter under?" Brolly shook his head no. Roshi grinned. "Then how about you enter as a student of mine? I'll cover the entry fee, provided you train well between now and then."
"Fight with Goku instead of against him? Sure, I'm always up for something new."
"Good." Roshi said nodding. "You boys ready to start? We've got a fairly long flight ahead of us to our training spot."
The three nodded and a moment later they were flying from the city towards the ocean and Roshi Island where they would spend the weekend training. It took almost two hours to reach the island. When they landed Roshi eyed them all up for a moment. "First, I need to speak with you Brolly. You trained with Gohan?"
"A little."
"He was a student of mine once, wasn't to interested in strength though so he never got stronger than me, but his discipline and skill were superb. You can fly so you have some control of your KI, tell me, have you mastered any KI attacks?"
"I can use KI attacks, but I've not mastered them."
"What about the Kamehameha Wave?"
Brolly nodded. "I can use it, though it's not one of best attacks yet, it's subtleties still elude me."
Roshi nodded slowly as he rubbed his chin. "That's good to hear, you're honest, modest, and not a conceited fool. That's always good to hear. Let's see just how each of you compare in KI first, then I'll do a comparison of you're physical power, and we'll finish up with a speed and technique comparison.
"Now, let's start with you Brolly. Let's see how much power your Kamehameha Wave does have. That'll show me just how much control you do have over your KI as well as how much of punch it packs."
Brolly turned and looked out across the ocean, he could see the shore in any direction. That was good. He braced his legs, pulled back his arms, and began to charge the attack. Roshi watched his form from behind his dark sunglasses as the glow of the blue KI began to form. As per Roshi's order Brolly channeled all his KI into his Kamehameha Wave doing his best to create a perfect wave, despite the fact it was one of the most complex KI attacks he'd ever attempted.
With a quick fluid motion he fired the attack out across the ocean parting the water as it went. Roshi focused on watching the energy. He could tell much about Brolly's skill with his KI by watching the attack. The light blue tone told him the attack was scattered, not nearly as focused as it could be. That meant Brolly's ability to concentrate energy into one place was lower, lowering the power he could exert in these attacks.
The white energy in the wave's center that seeped through in places showed that he had trouble calling up and using his KI, apparently he could use the energy but wasn't to skilled in bringing it out. Finally, the amount of power he felt radiating from the wave told him how much power Brolly's could use. It was impressive indeed for someone so young and with such little training to have KI with that kind of power.
"Very nicely done." Roshi said turning toward Krillin. "You're up next Krillin. Let's see what you can do."
******
Bulma pounded her fists on her desk in frustration. She'd gone through twelve algorithms already and still couldn't filter out the energy sources around her. Though she'd hit one algorithm she made note of, it seemed to be able to read KI levels. That might be worth something later one. Right now though she wanted only one source of energy, and she'd yet to find it. /I've got to face the chance that there are no such things as Dragonballs./ she thought sourly. /But until I've searched every possible algorithm I'll keep looking. Though it would help if the legends at least described these things... for all I know I own one of them!/
She ran her fingers along the keyboard as she plugged in the new algorithm. A moment later it was done and the small device in front of her beeped. Once, twice.... then stopped. Then it beeped twice again. She looked down at it and watched as the search line as it picked up two objects. One was close, the other a few miles away, about forty or fifty. She got up, watching the radar, and tracking the reading.
She made her way out of her room, and down a hall. Rounding a corner she almost ran into someone but kept on going, the signal getting closer. Quickly she zoomed in on it, then brought up the map overlay. "It is in the compound... but... where?" She zoomed out a bit then froze. "My fathers lab? Well, guess I'll check it out."
Quickly she made her way through the halls and into her fathers lab. She looked around for anything, scanning the area for the artifact. She knew it had to be real, there was no other way so many stories would have mentioned them otherwise. She stopped and looked at where the radar said the Dragonball was. She saw it, sitting just inside a small tank, and remembered her father showing it to her. He'd found one day, about two years ago, and been studying it since trying to figure out what it was made of in hopes of making other things as durable as it. It was kind of small, orange, and had one star in it's center. "Wow it's... beautiful."
Chapter three - The one star ball
The talk the rest of the day at school had been the fight in the halls, Vegeta's departure from school, and Eve's subsequent suspension for that fight. Bulma hadn't paid much attention to the rest of her classes though as she kept running idea's through her head. She was so focused on her mythology project, and getting home to transfer her program, that she ran into Goku as she was leaving.
"Oh, sorry about that." she said as Brolly helped her up while Krillin picked up something that Goku had dropped and Goku stood up on his own.
"That's okay." Goku said smiling as Krillin handed him a small orange ball with four stars inside. Bulma only barely noticed it making a mental note that it would look nice if it were smaller and an earring, and that it looked familiar.
After that her mind shifted gears back to the fight earlier, and the fact that Eve could use KI attacks. That was a skill that many martial artists strove to learn, and almost as many never attained. Everyone had been shocked by Vegeta's use of KI attacks, and the power at which he could use them. There were only three types of people when it came to using KI attacks, those who couldn't master it, those who after years of practice could, and those who were highly adept at it and needed only a good teacher. The question was, who taught Vegeta, and now, who taught Eve?
Bulma was pulled out of her thoughts by a horn honking. She looked around and realized she'd walked four blocks. Reaching into her jacket she pulled out her capsules and grabbed her air bike. A few seconds later she was zooming through the air towards the Capsule Corp compound.
******
"Yaaaaaaaaaaa!" Vegeta's cry rang out as the deep purple energy surged from his open palm on his outstretched arm toward the six foot thick steel block ten yards away. He strained with effort as he forced the energy out, as concentrated as he could get it. Finally he eased up and stopped the attack. Panting he stared at the block he'd been attacking... the only sign he'd even hit the thing was the glowing red circle where the blast had hit. "Grrrrrrr, didn't even start to melt the damned thing!"
Vegeta froze as he heard a giggle in his head and memory came unbidden into his thoughts. *Vegeta... you're never going to get good if you're always so tense.* a young girls voice laughed. He could see himself, only eight years old, standing a few yards away from a tin can. He'd just used a KI stream to attack the can but had only moved it, didn't warm it up any, or even knock it over. His younger self relaxed slightly and smiled as he turned to look at the young girl with black eyes and spiky black hair.
She was about six years old and wore a frilly pink dress. *You want to try it again Vegena?* he asked. *You'd almost had it last time.*
*Naw.* she said shaking her head. *That's okay big brother, daddy says I should wait a few years yet before trying or I might hurt myself.*
Vegeta just smiled. But as he stood there he saw his father stumble from their home and into the yard, blood running down his arms, chin, and legs. He reached out toward them then collapsed to the ground. That's when Vegeta first saw it, he'd seen drawings of them before, but this was the first time he'd seen one in person. It was short, about his height, and green with pure red eyes. It's head looked almost like an exposed green brain, and actually was. A Sibamen. He could see the damage his father had done to the demon.
Suddenly, with an ear splitting screech, it lunged at Vegena and thrust it's left claw into her chest as she turned. *NO! VEGENA!* he cried running toward the demon. As it pulled it's bloodied arm from her body it clutched her heart in it's fist and laughed at him showing its sharp teeth. Vegeta's arm's lanced forward and a stream of purple energy tore forward and into the creature.
When the attack died it still stood, though upon shaky legs. His attack had made little difference, and wouldn't have made any difference if his father hadn't fought it first. As it regained it's balance it laughed again and lunged at him. Vegeta jumped in reflex and saw his chance. Instantly he fired the last of his KI downward into the demon's head, through it's exposed and undefended brain. The green demon fell over dead and began to decay, a second later it was gone. Not that Vegeta noticed. He'd blacked out the instant he'd fired the attack and fell to the ground.
Back in the present Vegeta was on one knee, a tear rolling down his cheek, his fists clenched tightly, blue and purple energy dancing about them. Suddenly his fist slammed into the concrete beneath him cracking and chipping it. "I will have my REVENGE!" he shouted choking back sobs. A moment later he was on his feet again, another deep purple stream of energy pouring out at the steel slab.
******
"Welcome back boys... who's your friend?" Master Roshi asked.
"This is Brolly." Goku said motioning back. "He's a friend of ours and even trained with us and Grandpa Gohan."
"It's nice to meet you Brolly, you going to be training with us today? We've only got four months until the next World Martial Arts tournament."
"Sure, I'm planning on entering, once I've gotten the ten thousand Zeni entry fee. I'm still working on that."
Master Roshi smiled. "You have a Master to enter under?" Brolly shook his head no. Roshi grinned. "Then how about you enter as a student of mine? I'll cover the entry fee, provided you train well between now and then."
"Fight with Goku instead of against him? Sure, I'm always up for something new."
"Good." Roshi said nodding. "You boys ready to start? We've got a fairly long flight ahead of us to our training spot."
The three nodded and a moment later they were flying from the city towards the ocean and Roshi Island where they would spend the weekend training. It took almost two hours to reach the island. When they landed Roshi eyed them all up for a moment. "First, I need to speak with you Brolly. You trained with Gohan?"
"A little."
"He was a student of mine once, wasn't to interested in strength though so he never got stronger than me, but his discipline and skill were superb. You can fly so you have some control of your KI, tell me, have you mastered any KI attacks?"
"I can use KI attacks, but I've not mastered them."
"What about the Kamehameha Wave?"
Brolly nodded. "I can use it, though it's not one of best attacks yet, it's subtleties still elude me."
Roshi nodded slowly as he rubbed his chin. "That's good to hear, you're honest, modest, and not a conceited fool. That's always good to hear. Let's see just how each of you compare in KI first, then I'll do a comparison of you're physical power, and we'll finish up with a speed and technique comparison.
"Now, let's start with you Brolly. Let's see how much power your Kamehameha Wave does have. That'll show me just how much control you do have over your KI as well as how much of punch it packs."
Brolly turned and looked out across the ocean, he could see the shore in any direction. That was good. He braced his legs, pulled back his arms, and began to charge the attack. Roshi watched his form from behind his dark sunglasses as the glow of the blue KI began to form. As per Roshi's order Brolly channeled all his KI into his Kamehameha Wave doing his best to create a perfect wave, despite the fact it was one of the most complex KI attacks he'd ever attempted.
With a quick fluid motion he fired the attack out across the ocean parting the water as it went. Roshi focused on watching the energy. He could tell much about Brolly's skill with his KI by watching the attack. The light blue tone told him the attack was scattered, not nearly as focused as it could be. That meant Brolly's ability to concentrate energy into one place was lower, lowering the power he could exert in these attacks.
The white energy in the wave's center that seeped through in places showed that he had trouble calling up and using his KI, apparently he could use the energy but wasn't to skilled in bringing it out. Finally, the amount of power he felt radiating from the wave told him how much power Brolly's could use. It was impressive indeed for someone so young and with such little training to have KI with that kind of power.
"Very nicely done." Roshi said turning toward Krillin. "You're up next Krillin. Let's see what you can do."
******
Bulma pounded her fists on her desk in frustration. She'd gone through twelve algorithms already and still couldn't filter out the energy sources around her. Though she'd hit one algorithm she made note of, it seemed to be able to read KI levels. That might be worth something later one. Right now though she wanted only one source of energy, and she'd yet to find it. /I've got to face the chance that there are no such things as Dragonballs./ she thought sourly. /But until I've searched every possible algorithm I'll keep looking. Though it would help if the legends at least described these things... for all I know I own one of them!/
She ran her fingers along the keyboard as she plugged in the new algorithm. A moment later it was done and the small device in front of her beeped. Once, twice.... then stopped. Then it beeped twice again. She looked down at it and watched as the search line as it picked up two objects. One was close, the other a few miles away, about forty or fifty. She got up, watching the radar, and tracking the reading.
She made her way out of her room, and down a hall. Rounding a corner she almost ran into someone but kept on going, the signal getting closer. Quickly she zoomed in on it, then brought up the map overlay. "It is in the compound... but... where?" She zoomed out a bit then froze. "My fathers lab? Well, guess I'll check it out."
Quickly she made her way through the halls and into her fathers lab. She looked around for anything, scanning the area for the artifact. She knew it had to be real, there was no other way so many stories would have mentioned them otherwise. She stopped and looked at where the radar said the Dragonball was. She saw it, sitting just inside a small tank, and remembered her father showing it to her. He'd found one day, about two years ago, and been studying it since trying to figure out what it was made of in hopes of making other things as durable as it. It was kind of small, orange, and had one star in it's center. "Wow it's... beautiful."