by Gie (phowah@cs.com)
************
A Tail To Remember
Arc One: Enough Saiya-jiin to Shake
a Tail At!
~Chikyuu, Kami-sama's Lookout, Night~
All was quiet. For Once.
Kami was glad that things were peaceful and
back to 'normal,' at least as normal
as his protectorate can get. As he
gazed down on Chikyuu, he mused to himself,
"Peace at last." He gave a sigh
of contentment. "But the question
is, how long will it last?"
Mr. Popo silently came up next to Kami,
his eyes searching the earth
below. "Any problems tonight, Kami-sama?"
"None that I can see, Mr. Popo.
It's a relatively quiet night." He
looked up at his black-skinned friend.
"We deserve this break in the action,
don't you think so?"
Mr. Popo nodded in agreement.
"Yes, we certainly do, Kami-sama.
Especially after that Garlic Jr. escapade."
Something caught both of the higher
beings' attention. A certain
familiar pigtailed martial artist was flying
through the air in a low-Chikyuu
orbit.
Again.
Both sighed in exasperation.
"Those two will never get along, will
they, Kami-sama?"
"Sometimes I wonder myself, Mr. Popo.
Sometimes I wonder. They
have certainly been through enough of hard
times themselves for being so
young."
Mr. Popo hesitated and turned his attention
away from the martial
artist. "Kami-sama, do you ever regret
doing what you did to those two?"
Kami sighed. He was just thinking
along the same lines as his
companion. "No, I don't. They
and their families were not prepared for
what could and would have happened if I
did not do what I did. It was for
the best, at the time. Just think
how out-of-control their lives would be if
I let them be in their natural state."
He concentrated on the flying martial
artist's flight path. He mumbled to
himself, "Looks like he'll land in the
middle of Tokyo." He spoke louder.
"Although they may be able to handle
the consequences, now that they are older."
"Would you consider reawakening them again, Kami-sama?"
Kami considered the request silently.
After watching Ranma land on
his feet in the middle of Tokyo, unscathed
and looking rather pissed about
something, more than likely his fiancée,
he responded quietly. "Yes, I think
I would, Mr. Popo. They deserve to
know who they really are, and the others
deserve to know about them. I can
think of a few individuals who would be
really interested."
The turbaned man nodded in agreement.
"I would support you in
whatever decision you make, Kami-sama.
Let's go inside. Dinner should be
ready."
Kami nodded and turned away from the
edge to go inside. He stopped
and spoke. "But, Mr. Popo, I do not
need to eat."
He laughed wholeheartedly, and thumped
Kami on the back. "Yes,
well, you may not have to, but I do!"
Kami joined in the laughter and
continued inside.
Suddenly, Kami stopped mid-stride and
covered his face with his
hands. Mr. Popo looked at him worriedly.
"What's wrong?"
The Namekian shook his head, rubbing
his temples in concentration.
"I don't know. All of a sudden I just
felt a great feeling of dread and
despair. Dark energies are amassing
somewhere, I can feel it." Kami turned
around a few times, and furrowed his forehead
in confusion. "I can't
pinpoint the location, though."
"Is it from space, or on the planet?"
He shook his head in frustration.
"I can't tell." Kami looked up and
sighed in defeat. "The feelings are
gone, now. We'd better inform the
senshi that something is coming."
Mr. Popo nodded and readied everything
that would be needed. Supper and the
peaceful night were forgotten as a
fleeting dream in the morning.
*****
Chikyuu, Capsule Corporation, That same night.
*Punch*
*Kick*
*JumpKick*
*LegSweep*
*PunchPunch*
Vejiita concentrated as he shadow-boxed
with himself in the gravity
chamber. Tonight it was set at two
hundred times normal gravity. 'That
fool Kakarotto will be blown into micro-particles
when he gets back from his
planetary cruise by the strongest saiya-jiin
in the universe.' He smirked to
himself. He won't know what hit
him by the time I'm through. He frowned
in mid-thought. I can't take him on,
though, until I reach the level of the
Legendary super saiya-jiin. He
can just keep bouncing from
planet-to-planet, wasting precious training
time, while I constantly train and
become stronger. He smirked
even wider as he increased his pace. Yes,
the third-class fool is going to be blown
to smithereens when we meet again.
He twisted in the air and landed on his
feet in a crouch. He smacked a fist
into his other hand. "Come and get
me, Kakarotto."
Feeling confident over his anticipated
meal of Kakarotto ala` mode,
Vejiita started to power up, trying to reach
the elusive super saiya-jiin level.
As he was reaching a critical level
in his powering up, Vejiita felt the
gravity level drop drastically, going back
down to normal levels. As the
gravity dropped, so did the control he had
over the ki he was collecting. In
order to try to stop from overloading himself
and exploding, he released the
energy he gathered in a massive ki-ball
and directed it into the ceiling with a
thunderous roar. The roof exploded
instantaneously with a tremendous
'boom;' creating a lightly falling shower
of plaster, metal, and plastic.
"Who...in the hell...turned the...gravity
off?" Vejiita roared, veins
sticking out of his forehead, as he fought
to catch his breath from the
draining blast.
Bulma peeked around the doorway, a
frown on her face. "I did. Why
in the hell did you destroy the roof?"
He turned toward her and growled.
"I had to release the energy
somehow! Would you rather I shot it
at you? Maybe I should have; it'd have
solved several bothersome nuisances that
I have to deal with in my life.
Onna no baka! How dare you interrupt
my training?"
Bulma's anger grew proportionally with
each of Vejiita's words. "So,
it's that way, hmm? Fine! Be
that way for all I care, you ornery asshole! I
won't feed you, then!" Her face was
a lovely shade of magenta. You could
almost see the steam rising from her forehead.
Vejiita gave her his best saiya-jiin
smirk and sneered at her. "Good
thing, then, too. I didn't want to
keel over from food poisoning tonight,
anyway!"
"Oh, yeah?" She yelled in his face.
"Yup." He tossed her another
smirk and threw his nose in the air,
exhuding confidence and arrogance from every
pore.
"Fine!" She roared in his ear,
knowing how sensitive they were to any
sound.
Vejiita winced and turned to face her,
studying her features. He
didn't think anyone could turn that shade
of red. "Fine," he calmly said to
her, directing his attention to his nails,
which were hidden within his
scuffed gloves.
"Aaarggghhh!!!!!" She clenched
her hands at her sides stiffly and
vented at the frustrating saiya-jiin no
Ouji with a very healthy string of
curses, alternating from Japanese to Namekian
to English and others that
Vejiita didn't recognize. Needless
to say, he was impressed with her
language skills. I'll have to teach
her Saiya-go...it'll add a real variety.
As Vejiita pondered his native language
for suitable words and as
Bulma reached deep into her genius mind
for new words to insult the baka
with, they were interrupted by a small noise.
They both turned and saw
Gohan examining the recent damage to the
gravity chamber.
Gohan was taking careful inventory
of the damage, and noticed it was
very quiet in the decimated room.
He looked up at the two adults and waved
cheerily. "Hey guys!"
"WHAT?!" Both screamed at the young saiya-jiin.
Gohan floated back several paces, and
spoke. "Um...was I interrupting
something?"
Bulma snorted out loud and turned her
back on the surprised prince.
"Nothing at all, Gohan-chan. Just
Ouji no Baka here spouting his usual
drivel." She turned and knelt down
in front of the child. "What did you
want, Gohan-chan?"
Gohan blushed at the '-chan' suffix
but continued, his attention on
the blue haired female in his view.
"Well, Kami-sama has called everyone
together. He needs to tell us something
important." He glanced over to the
older male. "And he said to make sure
Vejiita-san came, too."
Bulma stood up and brushed off the
shorts she was wearing. She
clapped her hands in excitement. "Well,
we don't want to upset Kami-sama,
do we? Let's go! It'll be nice
to see everyone again. It's been a couple
months. Is your dad back yet, Gohan-chan?"
Gohan's expression saddened a bit,
but cleared almost immediately.
"No, not yet. But Okaasan and I expect
him back soon. We can feel it in our
hearts. He's a lot closer than he
used to be."
Bulma smiled down at him kindly. "That's good to hear, Gohan-chan."
The child blushed a bit, but then scratched
his head in confusion.
"Um, Bulma-san, how are you going to get
to Kami-sama's place? It's a
floating palace, and you can't fly..."
She thought a bit. "Well, I could
use a jet-capsule, if I had one on
me, but I don't." She brightened.
"So...you could carry me, Gohan-chan,
couldn't you?"
Gohan blushed some more and stuttered, "Well, um, you see, um..."
Vejiita snorted disdainfully. "Baka."
Bulma whirled around and pointed a
finger in the smug prince's face.
"Baka, yourself! Since you think he
wouldn't be able to do the job, then you
get 'the honor' of carrying me to Kami-sama's
palace. Think of it as your
punishment for blowing up the gravity chamber."
Vejiita started to get red in the face.
"Baka, baka! You don't order
the Saiya-jiin no Ouji around! I should
destroy your pitiful planet this very
second."
She crossed her arms and gave the Prince
a saiya-jiin-like smirk.
"But you won't! Where will you go?
Where will you train? Who will fix your
food and keep rebuilding your precious gravity
chamber, hmm?" She
snorted and shook her head.
He snorted right back at her, sneering
in her face. "Whatever, Onna."
With a flash, he picked Bulma up in his
arms and shot into the sky.
Gohan blink-blinked at the two bickering
adults' display of
childishness and noticed that they weren't
in front of him anymore. "Hey
guys! Wait for me!" He took
off like a shot after the older saiya-jiin and
his cargo.
As Vejiita flew upward, Bulma started
to scream. Loudly. And in Vejiita's
sensitive ears. "Onna! Now I'm
deaf! Are you happy?" He drew his deepest
scowl as he fought to keep his balance and
overcome the ringing in his ears.
"Don't drop me!" She wrapped
her arms around his muscular neck in a
death-grip.
His scowl softened a bit. "Onna,
I won't drop you. I'd have to deal
with everyone whining about your death."
Bulma stopped screaming and looked
into the coal-black depths of the
smug prince's eyes. "You better not,"
she said seriously.
All of a sudden, Vejiita dropped a
bit in altitude. Bulma let out a
squeal and buried her face in his neck.
He snorted, but gave her hair a small
smirk.
Soon, they arrived on Kami's Lookout,
Gohan directly behind them.
He watched as Vejiita set Bulma down with
surprising gentleness. He also
noticed that Bulma and Vejiita didn't release
each other immediately, either.
He raised an eyebrow at Bulma's blush as
she finally released the male, and
Gohan raised the other eyebrow at Vejiita
intense gaze at Bulma's back.
He gave the two a small secret smile
and walked over to Kuririn, who
was talking with Kami and Yamucha.
Tenshinhan and Chou-tzu were talking
to themselves a pace or two away.
"Kami-sama, I brought Vejiita-san and
Bulma-san, as you asked."
Kami glanced down at the child and
nodded. "Arigatou, Gohan-kun.
Why don't you go get Mr. Popo and we can
start."
"Hn!" Gohan darted toward the
palace, but was stopped short when
he ran into the rotund man. "Oof!
Oh, hey, Mr. Popo-san. I was just coming
to get you."
"And I was just coming out to join everyone. Good deal, hmm?"
Gohan rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah, I guess. C'mon, I want to
hear what Kami-sama has to say!" He
darted ahead of Mr. Popo.
He watched Gohan run to rejoin the
group, letting out a sigh at the
child's exhuberance. "If you knew
what Kami-sama was going to say, you
wouldn't be so excited to hear the news."
As Mr. Popo joined the group of warriors
at Kami's side, everyone
quieted down and turned their attention
to the green Namekian. "I had
hoped Piccolo would have joined us, and
for Goku to be back, but it is of no
consequence." He looked around at
the senshi's faces: some looked serious,
some alight with mild interest, and one
was partially away from the group.
He had his eyes closed and an indifferent
scowl pasted upon his face; Kami
could tell, though, the saiya-jiin prince
was listening.
"I gathered you all here tonight because I have some bad news."
"Is it about Goku, Kami-sama?" Kuririn asked worriedly.
Kami shook his head. "No, it's
not about Goku, but it will concern him
in the long run, along with the rest of
you. I felt something tonight. Dark
energies are gathering, but I could not
tell if they were coming from space
or from the planet. Before I could
get a fix on the location, it disappeared.
I felt another twinge just before Bulma-san
and the others arrived, but it
too was gone before I could get a fix upon
its location."
"Do you know anything about its energy,
Kami-sama?" Bulma
wondered. "Have you ever felt these
'dark energies' before?"
He shook his head. "No, I have
not. This is something new to me. I
don't know how far off it is, or when we'll
see fruition of these energies, but
I wanted to let you all know about it. I
fear these new energies and enemies
will be too much for you to handle."
Startled gasps and grunts rose from
the assembled group. Vejiita
'humphed' and crossed his arms. "Those
weaklings may not be able to handle
it, but nothing can beat the prince of the
saiya-jiin."
Angry shouts directed at the short
male were interrupted by Kami
raising a hand to silence everyone.
"Please, minna. Now is not the time to
bicker amongst yourselves. But Vejiita-san
is right. The Chikyuu senshi are
not as strong as the saiya-jiin senshi.
And I hate to admit this, but there is
nothing I can do but tell you to train as
hard as you can to improve what
skills you have." Numerous complaints
arose from Kami's comment. Vejiita
just sat there with a big smirk plastered
completely across his face. For
once though, he did not comment.
Kami held up his hand again and sighed.
"And, this goes against my
better judgment," he looked over to
the prince and the child and signaled to
both of them to come closer. Gohan
went willingly, and much to Kami and
everyone else's surprise, Vejiita followed,
albeit with a frown upon his
features. "I am giving you both a
present. Be wise in how you use this gift,
for I can take it away as well as give it."
The two saiya-jiin nodded. Kami
placed a hand on each of the males forehead
and chanted something in
Namekian. There was a bright flash,
and everyone shielded their eyes to
prevent complete blindness. When everyone
came back around to the clear,
bright colors of Kami's Lookout, they stared
at the two saiya-jiin in front of
them.
For two furry brown tails were waving
back and forth in the calm
breeze.
*******