To say the least, Raven was bored. It had been three days since her, Trunks, and Goten had traveled back in time. Bardock had left on another planet pirating mission, so Raditz was left to baby-sit. Baby-sit, that word burned her tongue, baby-sit! A baby she was not, yet she was treated like one.
Goten and Trunks were snoozing on the one and only couch in the place. They're tails were twitching in their dreams, whatever the might be. Ferox was cuddled up with the two; Trunks had thrown his arms around the wolf to use as a pillow.
Raven drearily sat on the floor, leaning against the wall with one leg drawn up to her chest, with her chin resting on it. Her nose twitched as she got a whiff of her gi, it was rather earthy. Thinking about it, it had been a while since she'd been able to wash it, and she'd worn nothing else either. The verdict was set. She rose to her feet and walked in the kitchen, where she'd left her backpack. After a brief period, she lifted out a bottle of hair dye, shampoo and conditioner. The dye was labeled was labeled "auburn". Grinning, no it was not an implement of evil, she left to the one and only bathroom there was and locked it, so no half asleep boys walked in to pee while she was in there.
The water in the shower was instantly hot. Fully clothed, she hopped in, gasping at the heat, then relaxing as it flowed ever her. With a thumb, she uncapped the bottle of dye and poured it on her tail, which she'd moved to her front. Savoring the hot water and tail massage as she rubbed in the dye, she closed her eyes and sighed. After a few blissful moments she rinsed out the dye and turned off the water. Rummaging through a cabinet whilst dripping water all over the place, she retrieved a clean towel and scrubbed as much water from her cloths and hair as possible. She caught a glimpse of her self in a mirror while doing so and stared.
The picture she had, one of her mother when she was young. Osprey was smiling, wet from a swim. Raven looked at the mirror and mentally saw that picture. She was almost identical to her, the anti-gravity spikes of hair, the limp bangs that almost covered one eyes. Even her mother wore a headband, but it was green. Raven tugged at her own dark blue headband, making it tighter. In the picture, her mother's eyes gleamed with happiness; of course she was arm in arm with her future husband, Fortis. Raven pulled her eyes from her image. She wiped her eyes, "darn water," She muttered, not wanting to admit she did miss her parents.
Someone knocked on the door, startling her. "Raven," Goten whined, "I hafta go!"
"Hold your horses," Raven said and placed the towel over her shoulders and trudged out the bathroom door, hands clasped on her belt. She grinned at Goten, who was dancing on his tippy toes, "all yours kiddo."
There was an immediate slam of the door and Raven walked into the small living room, laughing. Trunks was looking at her with tired eyes, "it's so early, can't you be quiet?"
Raven raised an eyebrow. True, she'd adjusted to the hours on the Saiyan planet, but it was early. Even the early-risers of the Saiyans were not even thinking of getting up at this hour. Even Raditz was crashed in his tiny room. Wait a sec, She looked at the empty dye bottle in her hand. Her tail jerked once as a grin spread across her face. She had a few more bottles stored in a dina-cap, but of funky colors. "Hey Trunks, wanna get in trouble?!"
Instantly, those brilliant blue eyes lit up with a devilish gleam! He nodded his head vigorously, "tell me!"
While Raven told him the plan, they crouched low, heads together. As if it were second nature, Goten sleepily joined in. Once the chibi woke up, he was brightly ready for mischief. Three tails lashed around excitedly.
"-----------and then we get him!" Raven finished unveiling her ultimate plan!
Goten and Trunks laughed evilly. In a small circle, they turned their backs on each other and clasped tails, "Saiyans!"
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Creeping down the hallway, Raven grasped three more bottles of dye, one in each hand with the other in her tail and a paintbrush hanging from her mouth, also a face paint kit under her arm. All of them had black war paint streaked across their cheeks and noses; Raven supported a golden colored feather behind her arm, stuck in her hair. Trunks and Goten tipped toed behind her. Goten was bearing a bucket of minnows of all things, raided from a nearby stream. And these were vicious minnows, Saiyan minnows. Only an inch long, they were smooth and sharp, with little spikes up their backs and razor teeth that jutted from their jaws. And they were not silver, but blood red.
In Trunks's fists he bore just regular snakes, much like common garder snakes on earth, harmless. Three in each hand, they squiggled and wiggled. One slipped loose and climbed up his sleeve. Trunks had no idea until he started to twist uncomfortably. He stopped, causing Goten to bump into him, one of the evil fishies was splashed out of the bucket and clamped into Trunk's furry brown tail! The purple haired demi Saiyan let out a yelp, letting all of the snakes fall to the floor, who zipped off in all directions!
Meanwhile, "Goten get it off!" Trunk's danced around in pain, "those teeth hurt!
"Hold still!" Goten yelped and grabbed the little fishy, "OW!!!" The fish was released as Goten jumped around in hurting after the spikes got him!
Trunks realized a writhing sensation in his green gi. With another howl he squirmed and jumped when he saw a snake temporarily poke it's head out of his gi sleeve! "Goten!" He tried to fish it out of his garment, with no avail, the little snake slipped from his fingers. And the fish was still attached to his tail! Goten came to aid and unhesitantly plunged his hand into Trunk's shirt to try and caught the snake!
Something whizzed through the air past Trunks and the fish on his tail vaporized. Goten and Trunk's turn their heads to see Raven, with her hand extended and fingers spread. She raised knitted her eyebrows, but said nothing when Goten pulled the snake out of Trunk's shirt. Trunk's scowled when he saw she was trying her best to not burst out laughing and wake the victim if he wasn't already awake already.
Another look of realization spread across Trunk's face as he slowly turned to see the tip of his tail on fire, like a little candle! Another yelped and he patted it out of the fur, blowing on the tip painfully as he danced back and forth from toe to toe!
Order was soon restored, except for the snakes. Okay, scratch the snakes, we have the minnows!
But there was no need to go any further. Just inches from Raditz's door, the most feminine shriek spilt the air, making the war party trio stop dead! The door to Raditz's room was cracked, and that is where the scream was issued from. Leaning forward just a little, Raven bumped it open with her fingers. This allowed the door to swing open noiselessly. All three of them sweat-dropped.
It was a sight that would be perfect to get framed and humiliate all through time. Just one of those moments one regrets ever happened it was so side-splittingly funny.
Lo and behold, the issuer of the scream was none other than Raditz! The teenage Saiyan was standing on his tippy toes on a wobbly chair. His hands were pulled up near his face as he released another girlish squeal! All around the chair circled the missing snakes, snapping and hissing at the Saiyan. One lurched upward and an ear piercing screech of pure terror made Raven's ears hurt! And what was even more amusing with it all was Raditz was in light blue boxers with fluffy whites clouds and little pink bunnies!
Raven snorted, dropping the dye as she began to crack up! Goten and Trunks sniggered as Goten giggled. Very slowly, so as not to startle the stunned Raditz, Trunks pulled out a camera. There was a click and a blinding flash of light.
Raditz of course, had no idea what a camera was so he freaked out. Seeing blinky spots, he screamed and fell off his chair with a massive crash! The snakes slithered towards him, but to their dismay, they got tangled in the mass of spiky, black hair! Raditz realized this and panicked. He stumbled to his feet, pulling down a desk in an effort to get up. One of the bottles of dye was close to where Raditz was hopping around. He let out a yell of surprise as he stepped on it, and because the nozzle was facing him, got a faceful of bright, pink dye, not to mention all over his hair!
Laughing, Raven grabbed one of the fallen bottles of dye, dark blue. Presently, Raditz was trying to claw the pink out of his eyes, so he didn't even notice her approach and dumped the entire contents into his hair! Goten followed suit and splashed the last bottle in, neon green! Trunks rushed to try and do something, and tripped over Goten's bucket of evil fishies! It was instant chaos as sharp little blood lusting fish latched onto everything and anything: tails, hands, noses, and in Raditz's case, hair. Goten yelped as one hung onto his ear eagerly chomping away eagerly. Trunks had about fifty chewing on his tail as he hopped around trying to again dislodge them. Raditz was running around, trying to get them out of his hair! Floating in the air, Raven was the only one avoiding it all, ki blasting fishies until the room smelt like a fish fry. And in all this, those snakes had slithered away to where it was a little safer.
"RADITZ!!!"
Everything stopped; even the fishies stopped crunching on the poor Saiyan kids to stare. On the threshold, stood Bardock. His silent, angry glare piercing into them all. With one sweep of his eyes, he surveyed the destruction. His tail jerked in a fashion showing he was indeed not pleased.
"Who's responsible?" Bardock snarled.
Disregarding it was rude to point, every hand, save Bardock's, was pointing at Raven. She looked around and scowled, "so it didn't go exactly as planned!!!" There was no more time for talk. She was immediately seized in a vice-like grip and hauled out of the air. "Leggo! I'll cry rape!!" With a swift motion, Bardock opened the window in Raditz's room and threw her out!
"And stay out there until I say!" Bardock yelled and slammed the window closed so hard, everyone expected the glass to break! He was in no mood for reasoning. The planet pirating had not gone well, and being in a regeneration tank made him surly as well. And not to mention it was extremely early and he hadn't slept in days, a sure key to his grumpiness. Another stare at the destruction and he snapped, "Raditz, go jump in the steam outside and clean off. Goten and Trunks, this place will be spotless as soon as I get out of he shower." He looked at three Saiyans still present, "That means NOW!!!"
Raditz chose the quickest exit possible. He flung himself out the window and ran for it. Only a quick fly and he hurled himself into the icy, fast running stream. Scrubbing furiously, he shivered and immediacy heard joyful singing. He scowled darkly as he saw Raven strolling down to the stream. Totally ignoring the fact that she was being glared at by her past uncle, who was only in a pair of boxers, she began to gather firewood.
After a few minutes, Raven made notice of Raditz. "You know what dye is permanent, Unc."
Twitchingly, Raditz pulled himself from the cold water. There was still no sunlight so he had to get close to Raven to see her. "Permanent!?"
"Yes, won't be coming out anytime soon, no matter how long you scrub yourself in your skivvies." She stated. From a pocket in her gi, she drew out a piece of flint and unsheathed her dagger. In a brushy, treey area, she gathered a mound of firewood. She crouched, striking flint to steel over a patch of collected tinder. "Sheesh are you practicing to be a statue or something?"
Raditz twitched and jumped back into the water, scouring himself, desperate to prove the girl wrong. Raven just chuckled and added fuel to her new fire. As the flames eagerly ate up the fuel, furiously Raven dug a depression in the earth. With very soft grass she had collected, the hole was lined.
Contently, Raven tested the cushiony bed. Pleased that it was to her liking, she sat by the fire, staring deeply in its depth. Freezing and dishearten, Raditz stiffly placed himself opposite of Raven, holding out his hands to gather warmth.
Ferox melted out of the darkness, like a wraith on the prowl. His muzzle was bloody from his night hunting. He sat by Raven, staring darkly across the fire at Raditz with glowing eyes. The fur on his back rose as he began to growl.
"Uhh," Raditz gulped, edging away from the warm fireside, "I'll just go." He turned and ran.
Raven giggled, in the night also, it seemed her eyes glowed a well. She waited until Raditz had left before standing. As a predator, she to, went off, thirsting for the hunt.
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It was almost until midday on the Saiyan planet before Bardock awoke. After hours of supervising Goten and Trunk's clean up, he was surly. And like a dog who'd gotten muddy, he had grabbed Raditz by the scruff of his neck and tossed him in the bathtub and tried to scour out the dye with liberal amounts of soap. The only benefit of that was a range of cursing as colorful as the dye and a sopping wet Bardock. After all this, Bardock was ready for a few aspirin and a well deserved nap, promising that is he heard any noise, that the maker would be tied up by their toes and their tails cut of bit by bit.
Why did my grandchildren specifically have to come back in time? He grumbled to himself incoherently. Meaning to roll over and go back to sleep, he maladroitly fell off the bed, letting off a string of curses so foul, it would curdle milk so he'd have cheese. Wait a sec, he listened intently. The distant sound of gently clacked pots and whispery voices were in the kitchen. But something didn't smell right, literally. Bardock sniffed and held him nose as he walked from his room, an explosion about to take place.
"Grandpa!" The chibi Goten exclaimed happily. Bardock was tugged along by the hand before he could say a word. "Ta da!" Goten flung open the kitchen door and pointed to a not so pretty mound of white, yellow, and the occasional black.
"Uh?" Bardock sweat dropped, "what is it?"
"A cake of course!" Trunks crossed his arms, "Goten insisted."
"What's a cake?" Bardock scratched his head. To him, the word was a new one.
Now it was Goten and Trunk's turn to sweat drop. "It's uh?" Goten said, "it's a yummy food with sweet frosting?"
"Where's Raditz?"
"He's umm?" Trunks edged away.
Bardock was instantly suspicious. He could only see one small part of the kitchen too. Pushing past the two chibis, he found the disaster, for the second time today. Obviously, Goten and Trunk's had no regard for knowing how too cook. Flour and sugar was coating the floor. Jars of the few spices Bardock had were opened and tipped over. The water in the sink was running and the fridge ransacked. In all this Raditz was hurriedly trying to clean it up, covered in flour. Unnoticed, Bardock growled dangerously. Very slowly, Raditz's head came up and his tail rose in horror.
"It's alright son," Bardock finally sighed. "Go clean yourselves up, I'll get this."
Raditz took his chance to flee while he could. Goten tugged on Bardock's sleeve, "wanna try your cake?"
"Sure," Bardock swept up a giggling Goten in his arms, "but you gotta promise you'll have some too."
Goten and Trunks obliged in eating their "masterpiece". Once divided into theirs, the three Saiyans attacked the soft, sweet cake. Bardock was surprised for how much it looked inedible, the cake was quite good.
Refreshed by his snack, Bardock stretched. He took notice of the absence of one Saiyan. "Where's Raven?"
"Outside, like you told her to stay until you said so." Goten chirped and Trunk's nodded vigorously.
Bardock snacked his forehead and rubbed it down his face. "I remember," he groaned. Standing, "any idea where she is?"
"Last I knew father," Raditz mumbled threw the armor he was trying to pull over his head, "she was at the stream with that vicious animal."
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Raven heard the approach of someone. She abandoned her fire as she slid noiselessly into the stream. Ferox vanished into the surrounding brush without a sound. Bardock came around a large boulder. He looked at the crackling fire and looked around. He failed to notice Raven climb on the opposite bank and skirt up a massive tree. Balancing precariously, Raven made her way stealthily through the branches. There was one limb that went all the way across the stream and over Bardock. Grinning and using her tail for stability, she made her way down the bough. Not even a leaf rustled she was so masterful at it. Poised right above Bardock, he suddenly turned around and looked up.
Bardock raised an eyebrow, "kid, you need more than stealth to sneak up on me."
Raven tackled him anyway. Growling playfully, she rolled and pinned him. In reality, her Saiyan strength was far more than his, something about the earth maybe. But experience usually prevails. Bardock hooked his leg around her's and flipped her off. He stood up and leaned down, mocking patting her cheek, "skill over strength kid."
"Old fart," Raven dusted herself off as she got to her feet.
Bardock turned to go back up the cliff face back to his home. Without rotating he called, "oh, and you're let back in now. Though I'm sure The Rainbow will not be too happy."
"The Rainbow," Raven laughed and raced after him, "that's a good one."
To say the least, Raditz indeed was not pleased to have the woman Saiyan back in the house. He twitched as she smirked oh so evilly at him. She nudged Bardock, "I think his tail might have done good purple, eh?"
Raditz held his tail protectively. His father grinned, but did not laugh. Though he did ask, "where is the wolf thing?"
There was a growl behind Raditz and a loud, crunch. The teenage Saiyan went cross-eyed, "OWW!!!!!!!!!"
"Does that answer your question," Raven asked with amusement.
Ferox let go of the tail he was chomping on and trotted over to Raven, wagging his tail. She patted him. A question struck her mind, "Bardock when is this planet's full moon? I know it takes eight years but I have no idea since the last one. It seemed pretty close last night."
Bardock rubbed his neck, "it's erm, getting rather close. The last one came about before baby Kakarot left, seven years ago almost. Raditz was eight at the time. Your mother was five, Fortis was six years old."
"That would make Raditz fifteen, Osprey twelve and Fortis, umm thirteen now?" Goten did the math unsurely.
"You are very right my Kakarot clone," Bardock picked up Goten. "Your dad would be seven or close."
"Just as old as me, isn't he on earth?" Goten giggled.
"Yes," Bardock nodded, "speaking of, that reminds me, how are we going to get you guys back to your own time…………"