Double Hate
Disclaimer: DBZ (DB/DBGT) no owned by me humble self.
Summary: The two have seemingly forgotten—but will they ever forgive?
A/n: Graahh! My finger hurts! I shut a car door on my finger right where the cuticle is, and boy, oh, boy, it hurts so bad!! I can't type very well, so forgive me if you spot any spelling mistakes and/or grammar mistakes. Thank you for your sympathy. /Sobs/
After this chapter, I will no longer be responding to individual reviews, for FF(dot)net once kicked off someone else's fic (I can't remember who, sorry) for script content, which was in actuality review responses. So this is the last chapter that individual reviews will be answered, and only general questions that are very pressing will be answered after this chapter. Sorry! Self-preservation tactics in full operating mode here! Yeek! /Cowers away from disappointed reviewers/
Anyway! I got a treat for you this chapter! What is it? Read on!
Also, Verez has a bit of a foul mouth in this chapter, but luckily the bad words are in Spanish, en español, like so, so I won't exactly get booted off FF(dot)net for my usage of language. :) I think that it quite illustrates Verez' character by using those Spanish swear words, but then that's just me. :)
Enjoy.
Chapter Ten: Caught in the Act
Bra was chipper that evening. Bra usually was perky, but this evening she was bouncing off the walls. Verez had been sued!
Yes, the lawsuit against Verez had been quite successful, especially with Capsule Corporations' reputation as the biggest supplier of technological inventions designed to make your life easier. Verez hadn't stood a chance, even with at least three women on the civil suit squad eyeing him unashamedly. Of course, once the contents of the suit were folded out, the gawkers were reduced to one woman, and she would not have been chosen by Verez on first glance anyway.
However, once Verez had gotten up to testify for himself, he confessed that he'd thought she'd been pretty, but had only begun to be diabolical when he'd heard Bra's name. More specifically, Bra's last name. That was when the real trouble started.
Verez was prevented from going any further in his testimony, but it was quite clear that the Spaniard would not have paid anything more than a passing glance at bra if she had not been a member of the Briefs family, as in the Briefs family. There weren't a lot of Briefs families out there, but there was always the possibility of a person stealing the Briefs last name just for a bit of the spotlight. Of course, the person had to deal with the Japanese government for fraud and with the Briefs, paying a hefty fine to the Briefs and spending up to five months in a jailhouse institute in accordance with the laws of the Japanese government (1).
But Bra had brushed off the hint that she would have been happier if she had not been born a Brief. She'd always done so. She saw no pointing in wishing she were someone else when she had the life; she was perfectly content being rich. She didn't envy those who wished they were in her place, however. She more pitied them. Just look at her family. It was made up of a vain genius, a bloodthirsty alien, a lively yet hapless half-alien, and another half-alien who was shopping-crazy, not counting the bubbly airhead grandma and the cat-loving grandpa. No, most humans wouldn't be able to take that kind of family.
But we double digress. Back to the first digression. Verez had been fined an expensive 450 yen and had a restraining order in effect against him to keep him at least six feet away from Bra. This was enough to satisfy both Bulma and Vegeta, and Trunks as well (although both of the males had had a red glint in their stone-cold eyes as they stared at Verez throughout the whole proceedings) for a first warning. But if Verez violated the restraining order or did something worse, the Briefs were going to take more severe legal action, maybe even more severe physical action. It depended on what Verez did. There would be no second chance for the admittedly-hot Spanish teacher.
All in all, it'd been a good day. Even with the image of a furious Verez standing up to protest the restraining order, Bra was happy. She actually was happier because of the memory, although a red flag should have been going up. Why should Verez be protesting a restraining order considering the nature of the lawsuit? Nevertheless, Bra needed this victory, and by golly, she was going to enjoy it.
Trunks wasn't so appreciative, and neither was Vegeta, although the elder Saiyan prince had the sense to vent his anger out on his gravity dome. The G-dome was currently undergoing repairs, repairs administered by Dome Drones invented specifically for that purpose, whereas Vegeta was still stomping around, his anger levels almost back to normal, if not for the aforementioned fact that his G-dome was broke. But Trunks was moody for a far different reason.
He'd failed to seize the opportunity to show that darned teacher exactly what he thought of him. He'd seen the way that, even then, Verez had stared at Bra as if she were a prize to be gotten, and he didn't have it. He'd also seen the way Verez's gaze had flickered over to his mother on more than a few occasions, and his blood had boiled so much that Trunks hadn't even been able to hear the voices of his mother as she'd argued with Verez. Only a self-control of tremendous size had kept Trunks from outright attacking the teacher. But his wrath was such that even the legal victory couldn't cheer him up. Only a good beating of a certain ugly maniac would make him happy enough to bring him out of the brooding pit of rage he'd fallen into.
Trunks' mind, out of habit, started plotting all of the evil things he could do to Verez. This pastime kept him busy as a bee for a few happier minutes, before the demi-Saiyan realized that he a tremendous amount of homework to do for tomorrow. Trunks groaned and banged his head on the stainless steel table he was currently sitting at. The table made a loud noise of complaint at this action, but Trunks just banged his head on the appliance a second, third, fourth, and a fifth times, before he finally got up. He left behind a badly injured stainless steel table with five huge dents in it where a certain hardheaded boy had given in to despair. The table would never be the same again, ever.
Still, anger still followed Trunks around, and it would only take one wrong step to set free the demon ranting within the younger prince.
He could even be described as the very image of the Grim Reaper himself for the next few days.
Verez was furious. Not just mad, angry. He was as mad as a bull, and having Verez that wrathful was never a good thing. But in this case, it was an especially bad thing, as the object of his anger was a certain bluenette and her family, but especially the bluenette. He hadn't thought that she would tell her family about him; nor would he have thought that a certain Senorita Bra Briefs would have minded his attentions. But apparently she had to both of them, enough to feel her privacy was being violated, or such was the definition of harassment.
¡Maldita sea! She'd been pretty, yes, but Verez had only wanted to use her to get closer to Bulma Briefs, whom was the real prize. Not only was Bulma Briefs beautiful, but she was also loaded with mucho dinero contante (much money), something that Verez was in sore need of right now. Even without the lawsuit demanding him to pay 450 yen, Verez needed money bad. However, he did have enough dinero (money) to pay off the suit, but he'd have to go without electricity in his apartment for at leasttwo months.
But that was not the sole driving force behind Verez' anger. The sole driving force of the Spanish teacher's anger was instead the way the family had appeared in court. The Briefs had been so strong, so, so, so… smug, that Verez' hackles had risen straight up in the air at first sight of the whole congregation. Not only had the Briefs been smug, though, they had been more than a little intimidating, especially the short male and Senor Trunks Briefs, the brother. Verez had seen him in the halls of OSH, but had never directly come face-to-face with him until the lawsuit. Now that he had, Verez had found that Senor Trunks could be scary when he wanted to. But Trunks couldn't even begin to compare with the glare that the short man had been giving him throughout the whole court case.
Verez had refused to let the Briefs scare him, though. However, he had still lost the case, and the 450 yen, while extremely expensive, was just slightly above irrational, but the six-foot restraining order was unreasonable! All he'd done was look at her; he hadn't even made any passes at her or anything like that. He hadn't been able to, as she'd transferred out of his class almost right away.
Hmm…was that the reason that she'd dropped his class? Because he was staring at her? Verez had not been told the reason why Senorita Briefs had changed her mind, only that she was now in French I. He was sure they wouldn't have told him if they had thought that he was harassing her, therefore protecting her. Verez felt indignant at the lack of trust the OSH staff had in him. He'd changed from what he was before. He no longer had any interest in high school girls thanks to being beaten about the head by his elderly grandmother and his sister for being such a pervert. No, it was only his dreams of a higher life that had doomed him this time.
Even so, the short man had looked as much a part of the family as Senora Briefs or Senor Trunks and Senorita Bra had been. Was he Senorita Bra's padre (father)? If so, then Verez' plans had been doomed from the start.
¡Maldita sea! He was still angry at Senorita Bra. He couldn't believe that the restraining order for six feet had been granted! The next time he saw her, he was going to have to do some major self-control in order not to take out his anger at losing 450 yen and the greatest chance in his lifetime to finally be rich.
¡Hijo de una zorra! There would be no living with himself after this. He would just look at Senorita Bra and hate her for thwarting his master plan to get rich not-so-quick, and therefore keeping him from living the life, as she did. Verez was not one to forget an injustice done to him so easily; he was known back home as holding grudges for as long as ten years. Woe would come a una (to one) Bra Briefs, and the woe would be delivered por un (by one) Istavo Verez. He swore it on his very life y por Dios en los cielos (by God in heaven).
Better watch yourself, Senorita Bra. Istavo Verez will take revenge upon you one day, when you least expect it.
The day after the lawsuit, which was a Thursday, was a long one. Bra was still cheerful, especially as she had seen nothing of Señor Verez. She was happy in her little bubble of ignorance of Verez' plans, gliding sky high on cloud nine. Her friends around her could only be happy themselves, for Bra Briefs' energy was infectious that Thursday. Even Pan, who was in a dark mood, and Trunks, in an even darker state of mind, were more mild-mannered than usual.
It is known why Trunks was mad, for he'd woken up no better than yesterday in terms of mood. Pan, on the other hand, was upset because she had not been able to approach the eldest Harrison brother with her intention of a spar with him. She had been counting on getting a spar with him sometime this week, earlier than this, certainly, but had not been able to because she had not been able to catch him alone to talk to him. She had, however, already started the background check on the both of them, but had found out very little. She had only been able to confirm that Jeff and Marc were true biological brothers, and both had only a "G." indicated for their middle names. Pan didn't know what those middle names were, but she had a serious hunch. That hunch, to this day, was still unconfirmed.
How could she catch Jeff alone to convince him to spar with her? Jeff's friends were always with him or in sight of him, so getting him alone was going to require drastic maneuvers. But what? She was supremely frustrated now. Not even finally finishing her dratted paper for English was able to cheer her up.
Oh, yes. She had finally finished her English paper. Her mother had shown a great aptitude for it, despite the fact that Pan had only glossed over it in her home studies. It was a wonder that pan didn't have more of a grip on the English language that she did if Chichi knew so much. Still, what was done was done, and there was nothing Pan could do about it.
Pan shook her head to clear it as she headed out of her last class of the day, History. While she did so, she caught a glimpse of black spiky hair and turned to look. It was Jeff, accompanied by Marc, and they were both laughing over a group of photographs Marc held in his hands. They were also posting the pictures on the bulletin board outside of Mrs. Robbington's office. Pan hid and cloaked her ki to watch them as they got the last of the photos up, then dashed forward to look at the pictures as soon as the Harrison brothers were gone.
As she looked at the photographs, she too started laughing. There was Satan Videl, daughter of that weakling Hercule, and she was running down a hallway with slime, feathers, and a bucket stuck to her foot. Pan had heard about this scene, but had not personally seen it herself. Seeing the photographs of the prank now, she wished she had.
Pan thought about why the duo of Jeff and Marc would be putting these pictures up. They had not been here at school Monday when it happened, but that really didn't mean anything. Trunks had played pranks on people he wasn't supposed to be anywhere near them, and had gotten away with it. This was a prank organized in much the same way from what Pan could see. In fact, she would have even thought that Trunks had pulled this prank, if she had not seen him with Logan, Marron, and Maurice at lunch hen the prank was supposed to have happened. Still, it was too much like one of Trunks' pranks, and it was with one of Capsule Corps' products as well. Pan knew because the very note from Videl Satan's locker, laminated and framed, was hanging by a well-driven thumbtack to the bulletin board.
Was it possible that Jeff and Marc had been the ones who pulled that prank? If so, then they had just been caught in the act.
Pan grinned deviously. It was time for a little blackmail.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a high-pitched scream coming from the direction the duo had come from. Pan whirled around and darted off in the direction of the voice, for it was one she recognized very well: Bra's.
Trunks was putting his books away in his locker when his link with his sister surged with fear, anger, and indignation. He knew instantly what was up. With a resounding growl, Trunks dropped his backpack and sped off down to the main entrance, leaving an energy trail and several stunned people in his wake.
Trunks didn't care. He was seeing red.
At Bra's scream, Jeff and Marc snapped their heads around. They saw with their Saiyan super sight that it was indeed Bra who had just screamed, and that there was a good reason to scream. They both rushed to Bra's rescue, hatred burning in their flashing black eyes.
It was Verez, and he was trying to strangle Bra. Bra, however, being the half-Saiyan she was, was holding him off, literally. She, being untrained in the martial arts, was unable to get Verez on the ground, and as she had not used her Saiyan strength very often, or even built it up like the male Saiyans and Pan had, she wasn't strong enough to fling him away, either. But one thing that Bra had inherited and was famous for was her mother's lungs. So, she screamed. And none too gently, either.
Jeff and Marc arrived shortly on the scene after Bra's first scream. Jeff immediately shouted, "Verez!" and wrenched the shocked Verez off of Bra. He shoved Verez into the wall while Marc made sure that Bra was not injured. She wasn't, but was definitely shaken. Marc helped her up, handed her over to a windswept Pan, and turned to watch Jeff dole out the proper justice to Verez.
Trunks charged out of the building and bolted to his sister's ki. He bulldozed by Marc, or attempted to, for Marc latched onto his arm with a steel grip and held him back. Trunks struggled against Marc's grips, straining to get to Verez even with Jeff already pounding on him.
"Let--me--go!"Trunks snarled, turning to a stony-faced Marc. Marc himself replied,
"No. Verez isn't worth it. Bra's your sister. She's more in need of your attention that that pathetic moron is. Besides, my brother's taking care him."
Trunks, panting, stared into Marc's calm black eyes. He pulled his arm out of the other boy's hand, looked contemptuously at the hapless Verez, then turned to his sister. Trunks didn't know why, or how, but Marc's words made sense, and they calmed him down. And it was true. Bra was worth more to him than Verez was.
"Are you okay, sis?" Trunks asked. Bra nodded, the spirit back in her eyes. That was a good sign. Bra wasn't too shaken by Verez' attack on her then. In fact, Bra was glaring at Verez as Jeff continued to pound the Spaniard against the wall. Jeff was hitting so hard he was making bricks crumble with Verez' head, but he wouldn't stop until Verez was properly punished.
Finally, Marc stepped up and laid a placating hand on Jeff's shoulder. Jeff looked up at his brother, nodded, and dropped Verez on the ground. Verez was breathing heavily now, in short quick gasps, while the second-generation Z-senshi all stared at him. Jeff sneered and turned away, striding quickly past Trunks, Bra, and Pan. Trunks stopped him and said, very quietly,
"Thanks."
Jeff merely nodded. "I'm going to call the police. Keep an eye on him." Trunks agreed grimly with a nod of his own head and Death-Glared™ at Verez, who immediately ceased trying to escape and sat still. This was the scene the police found when they arrived shortly thereafter, Pan holding up Bra, Bra leaning on Pan, and Trunks stalwartly standing over a docile Verez. Verez was very silently handcuffed and led away, leaving three Sons and two Briefs to stare at each other for long awkward moments.
Pan finally broke the silence with, "Well, I guess we'll see you guys tomorrow."
"Yeah," Jeff said. Marc said, "Take care," to them, receiving three "You too" replies in turn. The Harrison brothers then turned and marched out of there, evacuating the premises to leave three very lonely members of the Z-senshi behind.
(1) I know nothing about how Japan treats its criminals. I'm just using creative license here, as an author/authoress is able to do. Forgive me for any slight upon Japan. /Bows humbly, waiting for the axe to fall/
(2) I don't know if this is correct, but the equivalent of 450 yen is 150,000 U.S. dollars.
A/n: Grr! Stupid QuickEdit! Keeps deleting all of my dividers so that I have to rely on those stupid web rulers to keep my ficcy divided up! I hate you, you evil, evil, evil QuickEdit!! I've even reverted back to using a plain MS Word document and not an HTML, but the dividers are STILL deleted! Grrr!!! /Steams/
On the other hand, my work does look neater overall because of those rulers. More professional and attention grabbing. Hmm. /Contemplates/
STUPID QUICKEDIT!! I HATE YOU!! /Steams again/
Autumn: /Wanders in, looks at authoress, goes back out/
SP: /Doesn't notice, instead continues to rant/ And to top it all, I can't write the full name of this site in here, or any link without it being deleted and so everything doesn't make sense. At all. STUPID SITE!! /Steams some more/
Autumn: /Pokes head back in, quickly withdraws when sees coast still isn't clear/
SP: /Notices this time/ AUTUMN!!
Autumn: /Peers around corner/ Yeah?
SP: Inspire me. Now.
Autumn: All righty! /Delivers one of the most hurtful slaps straight across SP's face/
SP: OWW! /Lightbulb tings on/ YEAH!!! Great idea!! /Sets about getting to work/
And not quite last, and not at all least, the reviewers. My only reviewers. Thankies to chris and Dark Willow (aka: Admiral2 for being the onlytwo who reviewed last chapter! YAY! /Bows deeply/ (I do a lot of bowing, don't I? One of my many quirks, I'm sure. Hee!)
chris: I didn't stop writing! I'm still right here! Thankies for your compliments! /Bows/ I just needed a serious kick in the butt to get moving, as did AUTUMN, but we got moving, and here we are! Thanks for your review! :)
Dark Willow (aka: Admiral2: :D Thanks for your review!! Thank you, thank you, thank you (Gods, I sound like Boots from "Dora the Explorer". Yecch.)!!!
Ah, but would Trunks even be wondering what the H brothers' middle names are? That was Videl who thought that, not Trunksie-kun. Hmm, does it have something to do with the prank that was played? After all, UltraSlimed Slime™ is manufactured only at Capsule… Now how would Marc and Jeff have it in their prank when it's actually supposed to be an invention for Trunks and Bra only? Huh? Huh?
4,001 words are a lot, but it's around my average these days. Weird huh? Before (as in a year younger, perhaps) I could only do about 2,035, say, and it'd be great for me. Now I do 4,077 without breaking a sweat. And I'm writing this during school term. I should be having major brain cramps right now. Yikes.
Oh well! ;) More for you to read!
SP: /Working away, has calmed down out of ranting stage/
Autumn: /Cheerful now that SP-sama is working on HER masterpiece/
Kyoku: /Kyoku has not been seen for a while. Must be trying to console Falcon-chan (aka SS2 Megami-sama) down in Florida, having survived Hurricane Charley, Frances, Ivan, and now Jeanne. Yikes./
/All is peaceful/
SP: /Looks up/ Oh, bye guys! Gotta get to work now. Autumn, would you please do the honors?
Autumn: You bet! I get to do the honors this time! Yahoo! Finally! /About to start ranting/
SP: /Patiently/ Autumn….
Autumn: What? Oh, yeah, honors. Ahem. /Clears throat/ Thanks to Dark Willow (aka: Admiral2 for reviewing Double Hate, and for those readers out there that are reading but not reviewing, REVIEW! For those out there that have this story on their favorites list but have not noticed that we have updated due to the horrible abomination called sch—schoo—school! /Stumbles over foreign word which is the representation of everything horrible to muses and creative writers/ NOTICE! AND REVIEW!! Must-have-reviews-here! I'll run out of inspiration and ideas if you guys don't review! Must-have-reviews-or-will-die-and-disappear!! /Gasps dramatically/
SP: /Not looking up from laptop/ Jeez, Autumn, get a life, will ya? /Sarcastic/
Autumn: NO! I won't be able to get a life without reviews! Ya know that!
SP: Is that so? Then how come you weren't around when I did have reviews but no inspiration?
Autumn: /Blinks/
SP: /Continues working/ Say goodbye, Autumn.
Autumn: /Dazedly/ Bye!
TTYL from
TheShadowPanther and Autumn, from AASN
AASN; Writing is what we do for you at AASN. Enjoy.
(PS, if anyone knows Spanish, can you please tell me if I've made any mistakes in my Spanish in writing Verez's section? I haven't done it in two years, so I may be a little rusty. Just a little. Un pequeño. Plz?)
Updated 11.25.04. Happy Thanksgiving from America, everyone!
Revised 12/16/04. Enjoy, and review!
