Hey everyone! I know it's been a while, but school has been nuts. Anyways, this is the next instalment of my wee little story. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 14: Shopping!

"Bulma, I am not going "shopping" with you." Xeexru muttered between bites of her breakfast. She didn't know the meaning of the word "shopping" but from what she had learned about Bulma, and the definitions that her universal translator was feeding her, she knew she wasn't going to like it. She took another bite of her eggs, one of the few foods she had been able to adjust to.

"You're going to have too. I need to get some new clothes, and you're the only one that Trunks will put up with." Xeexru sensed there was more she wasn't telling her.

"So? Leave the child here and I will watch him." She actually didn't mind skipping a day of training, so long as she didn't have to go "shopping."

"Come on, Xeex! It'll be fun." That was the nickname that Bulma had picked up from Sularon, and obviously one Xeexru didn't mind.

"To visit stores in search of merchandise or bargains." Xeexru quoted directly from her translator's signals. "It doesn't sound like fun to me."

"Look, I can't leave Trunks here; I need to go shopping for him too…" She trailed off for a moment. "And it wouldn't hurt you to get something a little more stylish. Those dark colors are just so bland." Xeexru set down her fork and gave Bulma a speculative gaze.

"So that's why you're asking me. You think that I don't meet your social standards for appearance." That caught the human off guard.

"Well…yes. If you ever go out into public, you'd probably stick out like a sore thumb. There are not that many women that dress like you, you know."

"When was the last time that you noticed that I cared? Or, for that matter, when was the last time I ever went out in public?" Xeexru flattened her gaze as she spoke.

"But still! It's better to be prepared." The saya-jin looked away, and took up her fork again.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"I won't feed you for a month." Xeexru looked up from her plate, then back to her eggs.

"Your food is barely edible anyways." As if to prove her point, Xeexru poked a chunk of eggs and watched them jiggle on her plate. "Sularon will be able to supply me with what I need."

"I won't fix the gravity simulator the next time you break it." Bulma countered.

"You do know that Sularon can increase his gravity settings as well, right?" Xeexru pushed her plate away from her, tired of the bland mush.

"You have an excuse for everything don't you?" Bulma hissed. The saya-jin just raised an eyebrow.

"They're not excuses, they're truths." She allowed a small smirk to creep onto her face. The older woman crossed her arms and huffed. Suddenly, her face lit up with and Xeexru's content look vanished instantly.

"What if Sularon couldn't fly? Then what would you do? I bet you couldn't fix that, could you!" Bulma was very proud of herself when Xeexru's mouth dropped open a few inches.

"You wouldn't!" She hissed.

"Oh, I would."

"You don't even know how." Xeexru stood up to look the woman square in the eyes.

"Hey," Bulma said, raising her hands, "You don't push my buttons; I don't push his." She grinned defiantly at the saya-jin's glare.

"How is not going shopping, pushing your buttons?" Xeexru had come to learn what "pushing buttons" meant very quickly, and she was sure that Bulma had broken her mental keyboard.

"It just does." She grinned, and Xeexru just growled in protest. "You had better go get ready; we'll leave in fifteen minutes."

"You're such a bitch." Bulma heard as she walked out of the room.

"I try." The next thing she heard was the plate smashing against the wall. "You had better hurry if you're going to clean that up too!"

"Here, how about this?" Bulma asked as she held the green shirt up against Xeexru. "It looks like it'd fit." The saya-jin wasn't paying much attention, she was too busy contemplating whether she wanted to blast the store into oblivion or not. "Green looks like it'd be your colour." She continued.

"What's wrong with the colours I wear now?" Xeexru muttered, fixing her eyes on the ceiling as Bulma shoved another shirt – a red one – in her direction.

"Come on Xeex, black and grey are just too plain." Bulma shifted to tend to a crying Trunks, who promptly threw his rattler out of the stroller.

"Maybe I like plain." Xeexru protested as Bulma shoved the toddler at her.

"I think you only like those colours because they match your hair." Xeexru had to strain to hear what she said as Bulma shove her head further into the rack of clothing. "By the way, that grey hair makes you look much older than you really are." She pulled out of the rack with a pair of jeans.

"You say that I like I actually care." Xeexru snapped.

"Maybe you should care." Bulma shot back, tossing another pair of pants in the saya-jin's direction. With her lightning fast reflexes, Xeexru reached up and grabbed the garment before it hit her in the head. The sleeve on the baggy sweater slid down her arm, and a woman across the room caught the glint of the metal in her eye. Quickly, Xeexru dropped her arm and let the sleeve slide back down.

Bulma had supplied the sweater in an attempt to avoid public gawking. She knew that Xeexru's artificial arm was a little too extreme for most people. The way the woman across the room stared at Xeexru made Bulma uneasy. Eventually the woman looked back at the rack of clothes before her.

Another shirt flew in Xeexru's direction, but instead of catching it, Xeexru stepped to the side and let in fall to the floor. Bulma glared at her from behind a rack of sweaters.

"Surely you have enough cloths now. Can we leave?" Xeexru demanded, readjusting her hold on Trunks as he squirmed to reach a mannequin.

"No! I've only picked out some suitable winter clothes for you. We should buy some spring clothes too, just in case."

"You know I'll never wear them." Xeexru muttered.

"Oh you will. Don't worry about that." Bulma glared at her again.

In her retaliation, Xeexru held Trunks closer to the mannequin, which he promptly griped…and pulled. The ill-fated mannequin tumbled to the ground and its head popped off, causing a glee-filled cry from Trunks, who held the torn shirt from the model.

"Oops…" Xeexru muttered with a grin. "Sorry."

Bulma stared at her furiously while she hurried to pick up the mannequin and attempted to replace its head.

"Do you need any help ma'am?" The small store clerk asked from behind Xeexru.

"Oh, no thanks." Xeexru replied, holding out the ripped shirt from the mannequin. "We just had a little accident." The clerk stared at her oddly and made her exit when she noticed Bulma's death stare.

"Dammit!" Bulma hissed. "How much trouble do you want to get us in?"

"Just enough to get me out of here." Xeexru answered simply.

"I swear…I'm going to kill you if you make any more commotion."

"I'd like to see you try." Xeexru smirked.

After another confrontation with the clerk, Bulma was forced to tip the small woman very, very generously, then without a word to the saya-jin, she left with three full bags of clothes.

Xeexru was forced to carry Trunks back to the car when the toddler started screaming. With an obvious sense of relief, she placed the child back into his car-seat.

"Well, well…what do we have here?" Xeexru turned at the sound of the husky male voice. She actually found herself looking up at the rough human. He was huge. A full head taller than Xeexru and was about four times her weight. The saya-jin was already sensing the five other kis that hovered closely behind them. Not only that, she could smell them too—sweat mingling with sickly sweet cologne.

"Can I help you?" Bulma asked cautiously, making sure to lock the doors on the car. A greasy, lanky man poked his head around from behind the unanimously decided 'boss', and let a loud wolf whistle grace the air. Bulma merely glared at him. Slowly, he sauntered up to her and grinned at the scent of the fragrant perfume. "Do you have a problem?" She rudely demanded. The lanky man grinned.

"Hey Vusif! She's feisty, can I have her?" The lanky man approached Bulma slowly.

"You'll have to fight for her, but this one's mine." Vusif grinned, leaning in closer to Xeexru, who just held her ground and glared. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the other men advance on Bulma, who was not exactly happy to have all the attention. Xeexru heard the shriek as one of the men, a rather large one, grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him. With a quick glance around, she finally became deafly aware of her surrounds. A reasonably deserted back street. Bulma just had to park her car here didn't she? Xeexru let out a small groan in aggravation. On the other hand, she was eager to find something to beat her frustration into. Her train of thought was broken when Bulma shrieked again.

"Mind telling what you want?" She muttered. Vusif grinned maliciously.

"You." Xeexru looked uninterested until the large man grabbed her arm to pull her towards him. She didn't even budge. Instead, she turned her head and glared up at him.

"Get your hands off of me." Vusif gave a laugh that resembled a deep growl.

"Now why would I do that? Can't I just have my fun?" He asked, faking an innocent tone innocent. Xeexru shook her arm to release his grasp, but he clung to her all the same. She sighed explosively.

"Okay…look, I'm tired, in a pretty bad mood, and her voice isn't helping much," Xeexru grumbled, thumbing over her shoulder towards Bulma. "If you really want to start something, by all means, but I can't promise that you'll come out in one piece."

Vusif looked down at her and started to laugh.

"Is that a threat?" He asked through a hefty giggle.

"It can be." Xeexru answered flatly.

"You're a spunky little pip-squeak aren't you?" He grinned, and the saya-jin grimaced.

"You have no idea." She growled.

"I'm really gonna have fun with you." Xeexru grimaced at the yellow teeth.

"Go ahead and try. I'm not exactly what you'd expect."

"Are you willing to bet on that?" Another one of the lackeys asked with a grimy smile.

"Sure," A small smirk appeared on Xeexru's face. "If I win, I turn you into the local authorities."

"And if I win?" Vusif looked pleased with himself. "How 'bout me and my guys get our way with both of you. Does that sound good to you?" Xeexru shot a glance at Bulma, who was still clearly distressed.

"Deal," She said, looking back up at him. "But first, let her go," She demanded, nodding her head towards Bulma. Vusif hesitated, but then waved a hand at his men. Bulma was let free a moment later and briskly walked to the reasonable safety behind the car.

"Very well." Xeexru said after Bulma had reached safety. "Bring it on."

"Heh, this'll be easy." Vusif grunted as he reached up to brush a finger down Xeexru's cheek. The saya-jin ducked out of the way, and landed a hard punch Vusif's large stomach. The over sized man groaned and fell back into a parking meter. He was fortunate though, Xeexru hadn't hit him as hard as she would have liked. With shaking legs, Vusif pulled himself up onto his feet. He coughed a few times, but then began to laugh again. "Not bad! This is going to be fun."

Xeexru shifted from one foot to the other like a well-trained boxer. A split second later, Vusif charged at her, swinging a massive arm out to club her. A moment later, he was stopped by a loud sickening crunch. Xeexru held his arm in her hand, and twisted it in an unnatural direction. Bulma winced as Vusif's painful roars—mixed with two more bone crunches—filled the air.

With a heavy thump, the massive man dropped to his knees and cradled his mangled arm. Tears of pain were already flowing down his face.

"What the—" One of Vusif's men muttered. Another didn't waste a second, pulling a long chain from a coat pocket.

Xeexru heard the chink of the metal links and spun to face her new opponent. Carefully, the chain was spun above the man's head as he advanced on her.

In a flash of glinting metal, the chain lashed out and wrapped around Xeexru's defending arm. With a hard jerk, the man attempted to pull her off her feet, but to no avail. Instead, he actually pulled himself forward, into the reach of Xeexru's fist.

The man landed in a crumpled heap at the end of the alley.

Another one jumped her from behind and attempted to slit her throat with his knife. Xeexru's tough saya-jin skin barely scratched beneath the blade. He too landed at the end of the alley.

The last of the men pulled their guns and fired. One bullet pummelled into Xeexru's shoulder, and though it did not hurt her, she was caught of guard and rocked back on her heels. Three more shots rang out but Xeexru, no longer surprised, caught them all with ease. She let the smashed bullets fall to the ground. One punch and a broken leg later, one of the gunmen stumbled and fell into the alley with his comrades. The other two looked at each other and began to run.

One was roughly grabbed by the enormous Vusif, who was barely able to stand, and thrown back towards Xeexru.

"Now way I'm letting this pipsqueak send me to jail. Take her out." He growled, his previous well-natured attitude diminished. The unfortunate man whimpered as he stumbled to the ground as Xeexru's feet.

The saya-jin walked around the pathetic man and walked towards Vusif. As the large man turned to run, Xeexru charged a small ki blast in her hand. She released the blast into his back and watched with satisfaction as the massive man thundered into the ground.

Vusif tried to rise again, but groaned when Xeexru put one foot on his back and leaned on him.

"How about you fight your own battles from now on, okay?" She asked leaning down far enough to see his pained expression and grinned. "I told you this wouldn't be easy."

Bulma approached her from behind, a smug grin on her face.

"I'm disappointed in you Xeex; you let one get away," She said, nodding towards the fleeing man. Xeexru looked up from her leaning stance and watched the man disappear into the distance.

"Meh. Let him run." She looked over her shoulder at Bulma. "Now, I have a promise to keep. Can you contact the local authorities?" Bulma just laughed as she walked back to her car.

Within minutes the Police sirens filled the air. Xeexru was forced to subdue one of the gunmen again as he tried to run, but returned him to the pile of limp bodies at the end of the alley.

By the time the Police arrived, Xeexru and Bulma were gone; Xeexru by air, and Bulma in her car.

Nearly half way back to Capsule Corp., Xeexru stopped in the air as Vegeta approached her. As he hovered in front of her she noticed he was still his stoic self, but he held an anxious air about him.

"Bulma's fine Vegeta. She's on her way back now," She stated calmly. "I was wondering what was taking you so long." She added with a smirk.

Vegeta glared at her before he snorted and left, flying back to his gravity simulator. Xeexru rolled her eyes and followed him back to the complex.

Xeexru had just gotten changed into her training clothes when Bulma came into the house. The woman sported Trunks in one arm and two bags of clothes in another.

"Come here and give me a hand." Xeexru decided that it would be easier to simply do as she was told and relieved Bulma of the toddler. "Now I want you to try some of these clothes on, if they don't fit I can always return them."

At that moment, Xeexru became very grateful for her saya-jin speed, and Bulma's lack there of. In one fluid moment she place Trunks in his high chair and ran out the door, all before Bulma even blinked.

"Huh? What? Where'd she go?" Bulma placed her hands on her hips in exasperation. "Dammit."

"Heh!" Sularon laughed, "What are you running from?" The great Tomakan hologram asked as Xeexru boarded.

"Bulma and her piles of clothing," She grumbled, running her hands repeatedly through her hair.

"Oh! She finally took you shopping did she?" He asked with an amused tone.

"You knew about this?" She asked, glaring up at the AI.

"Um…er…maybe…maybe she mentioned it once or twice…"

"Go figure," Xeexru grumbled. "I thought AIs were supposed to remind their captains of impending danger."

"Please update my definition of danger then," Sularon said slyly.

"Oh come on! You could have at least told me something!"

"I thought it'd be funnier this way, don't want to ruin all my fun now do you?"

"Please, don't remind me why I hate you." She snapped, walking down the hall, away from him.

"What? You can't take a good joke?" The Tomaka chuckled, "I just—uh…." Xeexru paused and turned to look at the AI.

"What?" There was a pause and Xeexru could almost see the hologram flicker as he focused nearly all his computing power somewhere else.

"You know how you got me to monitor all the broadcasts emanating from the city?" He asked, sounding quite amused.

"Yes,"

"Well, it appears that your little scuffle in the city is drawing a little attention," If he could have grinned, he would of, "You have quite the audience now. Someone caught that fight of yours on tape."

"On tape?" Xeexru groaned.

"Yep, and it's all over the television stations now. You're quite the headline maker," A wall panel activated next to Sularon and clearly displayed the brawl that had occurred only fifteen minutes before. "Wow, you had a good fight. They say there were no deaths, but you brought down one of the biggest known drug lords in the city." He leaned closer to the display to examine it more closely, "Jeez! They weren't kidding when they said 'biggest!' That guy looks like he's bigger than me!" Xeexru snorted.

"He was a selfish, victimizing bastard. He got what he deserved." She growled.

"Oh don't worry; everyone appears to agree with you. According to this, that guy's been on the wanted list for a few months now: mainly for sexual assault and such. Not a very nice guy."

"You're telling me."

"Aha! Here's the interesting part of the whole thing, they're looking for you now!" Xeexru's head dropped in exasperation.

"What for?" She grumbled.

"Oh no, it's nothing bad. They're considering you the big hero! A vigilante of sorts. You're an inspiration to women everywhere!" Sularon started to laugh, causing the floor to tremble.

"What's so funny?" She demanded.

"I never would have thought that you'd be an inspiration to anyone!" His eyes glinted in amusement. "I think these humans are making you soft! Before you know it you'll be doing motivational speeches and helping the disabled!"

"What?" Xeexru gave the Tomaka an odd look.

"Okay…so maybe I do more than monitor the broadcasts. It's just…that's what crime fighters do! You know, they help old ladies cross the street and pull kittens out of trees, all while defending the city from monsters and psychotic evil geniuses."

Xeexru just stared at him.

"Some of this television is very interesting. Entire cultures are displayed for all to see. Such a vast wealth of information and all you have to do is watch it!" The wall panel flicked to another channel, this one depicted an enormous sea creature attacking a school of fish. "You would not believe how many different species are on this planet! Oh! Won't the Tomakas have a fun time analyzing this!"

"I think you have a few circuits shorting out," She said, watching the hologram flick through channel after channel.

Xeexru knew of the capacities of most of the standard Tomakan shipboard AIs. They were capable of trillions of computations per second with memory banks large enough to absorb and process nearly every strand of information coming their way. Sularon was no different, but he, like any other AI, was capable of his own quirks—things that made him personable and likeable, or dislikeable. In this case, Sularon's most recently developed quirk happened to revolve around television.

"Hey! Check these guys out!" He cried gleefully, "Aren't they cute! They're special talking animals that children play with. I can see why too! They have no claws or teeth! Perfect for playing with young children! These humans truly are ingenious when it comes to their animals!" Sularon exclaimed watching a children's show intently.

"Sularon, those are puppets," Xeexru explained, folding her arms over her chest. "They're not real."

"They're not?" The saya-jin nodded, rolling her eyes. "Oh…I…erg…oh screw off!"

"Gladly," She muttered, and left the Tomaka to his screen.

She stopped for a moment of consideration, then turned to the AI.

"Can you intercept and neutralize any transmissions referring to my little 'incident' earlier?" The Tomaka turned towards her, eyed her carefully, then made a characteristic head twitch that told Xeexru that he would. She also noticed the twinkle in his eye that indicated that he would enjoy infiltrating the human system. "Thanks."

"I live only to serve." He said with a sarcastic Tomakan grin.

"Sure…you just keep thinking that." Xeexru shook her head and made her exit, heading for Sularon's training bay.

Well… I hope you enjoyed this incredibley uneventful chapter…it kind of sucks…I know. Maybe in the next chapter (or the one after that) I'll start on the climax of the story…who knows! Anyways…I have a class in 25mins so I gotta run! Read and Review please!