Title: Pride
Chapter 12: A thief in the night
Written by: ChaosMagicianGirl
Date: 25-4-05
Disclaimer: …………………very, and I mean very long silence
'…' thoughts
"…." talking
Bulma pops up out of nowhere
Bulma: "Say, Veggie, where did the authoress go?"
Vegeta: "I don't know and I don't care"
Bulma: (rolls eyes) Does: look around and spots lazy said authoress snoozing on the couch.
Bulma: "She fell asleep?"
Vegeta: "Well, DUH!"
Vegeta: (receives one of Bulma's special knuckle sandwiches) "Ouch!"
Bulma: (glares at him) "Serves you right"
Vegeta: "Hmmph!"
Bulma: (Walks over to the couch and pokes CMG) "Hey, wake up! You need to do the disclaimer!"
CMG: "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"
Bulma: getting aggravated at the lack of a "response" starts shaking authoress. "WAKE UP!"
Vegeta: (getting annoyed at the scene in front of him) "She's out cold, stupid woman! Do the disclaimer yourself!"
Bulma: "Who are you calling stupid! (Shaking fist in the air)
Vegeta: (heavy sigh) "Whatever! CMG doesn't own Dragonball Z. Wow, that's new! (Sarcastic tone)
Bulma: ……………… (Steam coming out of her ears.)
Vegeta: (flat out ignoring her from then on)
CMG: (grabs teddy bear closer to her and puts a thumb into her mouth)
Bulma & Vegeta: (huge anime sweat drop) "She still sleeps with a teddy bear!"
A/N:
Don't mind the above long disclaimer. I was in a good mood when I wrote it. Yeah, I know, I'm weird. Wow, I actually started working on the next chapter in just a few days. Wow, that must be a record! Let's see how far I will get with it, before I will post it.
! Thankies reviewers!
Fujutsu:
I saw you changed your name! Glad to have you back aboard!
Mystery:
Well, here's your soon update! (Wink)
Fgh:
Thanks for the compliment!
It was already seven 'o clock when Bulma was done with the paperwork of Capsule Corp. She had missed dinner already, since she hadn't even kept track of the time.
"Well, at least this paperwork is of my shoulders now."
And for that Bulma was more then grateful. She had the entire evening to herself. And she could even go to bed early. It was a rare occasion that she would have so much spare time to herself, now that she had to run her own company.
Her whole life was dictated by her agenda now. Taking a scornful look at the thing, she stretched her stiff muscles, before standing up from her chair.
Turning of her laptop, she closed it and put it into her metal briefcase.
While she did this, she had a brief flashback to the incident of a few weeks ago.
She suddenly felt sick to the stomach, and felt wobbly on her knees, the memories of this event somewhat overwhelming.
Grabbing onto the office chair tightly with both her hands, she tried to maintain her balance.
When the feeling had passed, she somewhat shaken picked up her briefcase and made her way over towards the door.
Turning of the light, she closed her office door behind her.
Still having a hold on the doorknob thoughts whirled through her head.
"Get a grip, Bulma!" she reprimanded herself.
She couldn't believe the incident from then still had such an affect on her. Sure, it had been really stupid of her to walk in that district of West Capitol at that time. But that was beside the point.
Why did it still bother her so much? It couldn't have been because she had felt so helpless back then. No, it was something else.
What? She couldn't quite put her finger on yet.
Something had happened that night, which even till today still made her feel uneasy.
Since that time she had felt as if she was being watched….
But that was just insane, right?
She was just too damn paranoid these days.
Still, that thought didn't make her feel any better.
Letting go of the doorknob, she turned her back on her office and went home.
While her footsteps echoed back against the walls of the silent Capsule Corp Bulma went home, to take a much needed and deserved rest from another hectic work day.
After she left the building the security measures that Capsule Corp had installed to protect their projects and inventions activated.
Capsule Corp took the highest measures in securing their labs, offices and other things in the building, to prevent people from breaking in and stealing important papers, plans for future projects or important inventions stored there.
Their were a lot of people, rivals of CC that would love to get their hands on this stuff, since CC ventures were highly profitable.
Some people would probably kill someone to get their hands on CC technology to use it for their own selfish ambitions and goals, you name it.
Until now, nobody had succeeded in breaking in at Capsule Corp. The most modern security systems were in place to protect CC property.
Most of them were designed by the new CEO herself.
The access to Bulma's personal lab and office was restricted.
Only she knew the passwords to enter her domain.
And her father and mother were the only other ones that had the knowledge to do so.
Therefore, there was no outside threat that could harm CC.
Or was there?
Bulma's home, West City Capitol, 20.00 PM……
Relaxing on her bed, in a lying position, her arms propped up under her, to support the weight of her upper body, she was doodling in her note book.
Looking over the page she was writing on currently, you could see random words, sentences, which indicated the beginning of a new song text.
wild
horses
free
Wild horses
I want to be like you
'Come on inspiration, hit me!' She thought to herself, chewing on her pencil thoughtfully.
After a few minutes the words just came to her. She started writing down sentence after sentence, without stopping.
After ten minutes a new creation was born out of her creativity.
Grinning from ear to ear, and very pleased with herself, she read over it carefully, to see if she had made any stupid mistakes that needed to be fixed right away.
She found one or two and corrected them immediately.
Done with reading over her work, she got back into a sitting position.
Walking over to her desk, she opened one of the drawers, taking out a map.
It contained all of the song texts/poems she had written over the years.
There were more then hundreds of them.
A few months ago, she had read all of them again.
The first ones of the early days dated back to when she was in junior high.
She had fits of laughter, when reading those.
They really were a load of crap
She had come a LONG way since then.
Thinking of a particular one that was one: Totally cliché and two: so sugary sweet it made her want to throw up.
Reciting a few of the first lines of the song in her head, she couldn't decide between vomiting or laughing her head of.
She didn't do any of the above mentioned. But she did frown and raise one of her eye-brows.
I don't like you
I love you
Oh, oh, oh
Do you love me too?
I want to hear you say it
I love you
And I'll go
Lalalalalalala
Lalalalalalala
In my head
With those three words you said
Uhuh, uhuh
I love you too
I now know you do
'UGH! What a piece of crap!' she thought, disgusted. Turning the pages of the map till she came to the more recent songs, you could see how she developed as a song writer.
From shallow, stupid songs, to serious ones with a meaning, a message
The last one she put in the map with the others at that moment, was a song that showed how she felt at the moment.
She felt trapped in work. She felt like she was suffocating. She wanted to have more freedom. This song text gave an exact description of how she felt right at this moment.
Wild horses—
I want to feel the wind in my hair
Let life pass by me without a care
I want to be free
Let me be me
Wild horses
I want to be like you
Wild horses
Like them
I want to be true
In every little thing I do
I go wherever the wind will take me
I want to be able to look at the beautiful sky
Let life pass me by
Put all my worries aside
Don't wanna feel the need to cry
Don't ask me why
Wild horses
I want to be like you
Wild horses
Like them
I want to be true
In every little thing I do
Free-spirited and wild
Not bound by the rules of a human's life
No rules
No expectations
No hesitation
You can make life your own creation
Wild horses
I want to be like you
Wild horses
Like them
I want to be true
In every little thing I do
Wild horses
I want to be like you……
Closing her map, and smiling, she put it back into the drawer she had taken it from
As if on cue, her stomach started to rumble.
Doing as it said, she proceeded to go downstairs to get something to eat in the kitchen.
1 AM, in the middle of the night, CC, West-City Capitol.
All the lights in the building had died out long ago. The last workers that were left, after Bulma went home, were gone by now.
All security measures in the building were active since the last worker had left the building.
It was eerily quiet, too quiet…..
Suddenly in the darkness of the CC entrance hallway the very faint sound of footsteps could be heard.
You had to strain to hear it, even though it was so quiet.
The footsteps steadily got louder.
The closer they got to their apparent destination, the louder the footsteps became
The person happened to be light on his or her feet.
Now, one must wonder why none of the installed alarms went of.
Simple answer: the person had somehow before entering the building deactivated all installed security systems protecting CC from trespassers and thieves.
So he or she had no problem doing whatever they intended to do here.
A silhouette of a male became visible in the darkness
His face features were hidden behind black sunglasses, and a scarf around his neck.
The rest of his attire consisted of black clothing, so he blended in well with his environment.
Reaching his apparent destination, he stopped in front of large door.
This happened to be the door to Bulma's personal office and lab.
The door was voice locked an extra security measure.
The only one he still needed to override in order to get what he wanted.
The other security measures were already deactivated.
And this one would soon join them as well.
Trying to open the door, he failed when a computer voice spoke up through a comm.
"Access denied. Voice authorization by Bulma Briefs required for entering."
It was just as he had suspected.
And smiling a sinister smile, he took out a special device that had Bulma's voice recorded authorisation on it.
He pushed the play button, and soon after Bulma's voice could be heard.
"This is Bulma Briefs. CEO of Capsule Corp. Authorisation command B-Briefs-Pi-Alfa-11348890."
"Access granted. Welcome Mrs.Briefs." the computerised voice spoke up again, door opening.
"Yes, welcome indeed." He chuckled darkly. "Where would I be without you darling?"
Slipping into the first room beyond the door, he walked straight in the direction of the lab.
What he needed was kept safe there.
A not so sane smirk plastered on his face, he opened the door to it and walked into the dark abyss.
Switching on the light, he descended the flight of stairs.
"Now, let's see if you still keep it locked up in the same place."
Walking over to the desk, he sat down in her office chair.
Flicking through a few paper stacks in front of him pretty quickly, he was surprised to find out about some of her recent plans.
"Oh, so you are constructing a new GT room?" He thought to himself, surprised.
"For whom I wonder? I do hope that is not for that ungrateful barbarian that is still staying at your house. He not only can't keep his hands to himself. He even breaks your precious inventions! One should put a stop to that……"
Rearranging the stacks of papers at they were left originally, he got up from the chair and opened one of the drawers of the desk.
'Ah! Now that was what I was looking for!' Pleased with himself, he took out a small wooden box, with strange symbols painted on it.
Opening it, he took out the contents before closing it again, and putting the box back in the drawer, he eyed the device now in his hands.
'And again, where would I be without your genius, darling?'
He opened his back and carefully placed the device he came for in it.
Knowing what he had come here for in the first place was done, he left Bulma's office.
Walking through the entrance door to her personal domain, the voice lock went into place again.
After he had left the CC altogether the security measures went into place again, activating.
CC was left behind as if nothing had ever happened there.
No traces, except maybe DNA, could be found.
And when nobody knew what happened, and there were no traces?
Who would go looking for DNA material?
In a house not so far from CC, Bulma awoke bathing in cold sweat.
Only one thought crossed her mind.
"Capsule Corp is in danger!"
A/N:
So, what did you think? Did I succeed in the suspense department. Hehe, I wonder what will happen? Who is that mysterious person that is stalking Bulma? You'll find out more and this when you R and R! Heheh! Yes, I'm evil!
BTW, I would really like constructive criticism, so I can better my writing skills!
CMG, signing out