"Wow, it's incredible!"
"It's
so LONG too, especially for a guy as short as you are!"
"Can I
touch it?"
Krillin's face turns beet red.
"WOULD
EVERYONE PLEASE STOP IT!" He yells.
The rest of the Z Fighters
take a step back, aside from the tall blonde woman holding an infant.
Her face is emotionless.
"Oh come on, Krillin! You've been
bald your entire life, why the sudden change?" Goku laughs.
Krillin
rolls his eyes. "I did it to please the ladies, Goku!"
"Ladies?
Meaning more than just me?" 18 demands.
"What? No, I-" he
stumbles.
"Oh looks like the honeymoon is OVER!" Yamcha cuts
in.
Yamcha and Goku bend over with laughter. Tein tries to hold a
strait face, but his eyes are watering.
"Okay, that's enough
boys! Krillin, I think you look very handsome." A soft voice
soothes.
Krillin blushes. "Oh, thank you Echo."
18 rolls
her eyes at her star struck husband. "If it was anyone but YOU,
Echo, I'd be worried."
Goku stops laughing. "And if it was anyone but Krillin, I would be worried!"
More laughter erupts between the men,
this time 18 joins in.
Echo politely smiles. She is dressed in
long kaki pants with a dark blue blouse, to compliment her light blue
hair. She always wore her long hair down, and it wildly blew across
her face when the wind picked up. She never minded, however. She
loved days like this, when the sun was out and shinning, and the
slight breezes didn't make it too hot. Of all the planets she
resided on, Earth was her favorite.
"Hey, I set up the blanket
on the bottom of the hill, like you asked." Gohan walks up behind
the group.
"Oh, thank you very much. Is everyone ready to eat?"
Echo asks.
"I'm ready to cook the steaks we brought!" Goku
gleams.
"We brought the potato salad." 18 states, as Krillin
proudly holds up the big bowl.
"I brought the refreshments.
There are all the essential vitamins and protein mixed in with
healthy soy product. I've recently discovered how rejuvenated I've
felt after drinking one!" Tien says as he hauls a cooler on his
shoulders.
"And I brought the beer!" Yamcha perks up.
"Yamcha,
you were supposed to bring plastic eating utensils!" Scolds
Echo.
"Don't worry, we picked up some on our way here!"
Chimes in a distant, familiar female voice.
Bulma and Trunks run
towards the group, baskets in hand. 18 looks around.
"Did Vegeta
come with you two?" She cautiously asks.
"Oh, he's sulking
behind. You wouldn't BELIEVE what it took to get him out here
though!"
"I'd believe it." Echo quietly remarks to
herself.
Goku looks up at her, quiz idly. Vegeta joins the group
as they all start walking down the hill. Trunks runs to walk beside
Gohan.
"So where's the Green Man?" He asks him.
Gohan
looks down at Trunks. "Piccolo couldn't make it."
"Oh."
Once
down the hill, Goku and Yamcha set up a grill to cook the steaks.
Bulma engages conversation with 18 as she tries to calm her daughter
down.
"Trunks was very fussy as a baby too, but whenever he
started to act up I would dip his binkie in sugar water and stick it
in his mouth."
18 nonchalantly nods her head, only half
listening to her friend's advice.
Tein and Echo discuss the
advantages of soy product compared to real meat to a stubborn
Krillin. Trunks tries to talk to Gohan again, this time about school.
This catches Gohan's attention. Vegeta just leans back on a near by
tree, watching everyone. He throws a few extra glances at Echo, who
is laughing freely.
How could she choose that fool over me? After what I gave her?
Her laughter abruptly stops however,
as she looks towards the sky.
"Echo, what's wrong?" Tein
timidly asks her.
At the same time, Goku and Vegeta pick up on the
new presence. A few seconds later, everyone is looking in the sky.
"I
don't get it, what are we all looking at?" Bulma clueless
asks.
"Something is drawing near…or Someone." Echo answers
her.
Vegeta pushes off the tree and uses his advanced Sayian
senses to pick up on where the energy is coming from. Then, in the
middle of the out stretched blanket, a light appears. Everyone
scatters a few feet away. The light appears as bright-fractured
rainbows, with colors everywhere. The bright light takes a solid
form, and shows curves of the feminine sort. The last details are
shown until all the light has faded away. Before the Z Fighters is a
young woman with long flowing black hair. She stares intensely at
Vegeta.
Vegeta stares back.
She looks just like Echo! The
figure, the posture… Except for her black hair and her eyes… Her
eyes!
The strange girl's eyes are a blazing red, and they
are full of hatred. A small smile appears on her face. Vegeta cocks
his brow in confusion. He takes a single step toward her. At that
instant, she releases an energy ball and hurls it at him. He crashes
into the tree he was leaning on just moments ago. Vegeta stands up
and instantly goes Super Sayian.
Her eyes slightly enlarge at his
transformation. She intensely throws more attacks at his direction,
and when she pauses, she is blinded from the dust. As the cloud
settles, Vegeta is nowhere in sight. Before she has a chance to
realize it, he is behind her. He picks her up off the ground and
throws her at a tree a few yards away. She immediately stands up, but
Vegeta races over to her and grabs her by the throat and smashes her
against the trunk of a tree.
"Perhaps you will think twice
before attacking a Sayian warrior, that is, if you live long enough
to!" he screams as he tightens his grip.
"NO, VEGETA, STOP!"
Echo yells as she tries to loosen his grip on the girl's throat.
There are tears in her eyes. "That's…That's
Keira."
Vegeta loosens his grip on the girl. "Do you know this
girl then?"
The young woman smirks, and as she is finding her
voice, she replies for Echo. "Yes, she does. As should you,
Father."
