Ch 12 - Galactic Problem?
Bulma and the future Vegeta sat at a dining table with the baby Trunks in a high chair as Mrs. Briefs served plentiful amounts of breakfast. The bluenette attentively fed her child scrambled eggs as he chanted for more in excitement. The mother hadn't much time to spend with her son since the remote project started, and the separation was beginning to catch up with her. So she enjoyed every second feeding her very hungry saiyan baby boy, even when egg flew against her face from his grubby little hands swatting at the food in an attempt to get it to his mouth faster.
"Oh my, that grandson of mine has quite the appetite! Oh, and don't you look particularly handsome this morning?" Bikini giggled as she delivered a last plate of sausage to the table.
Vegeta looked up from his meal at the comment, and felt his face, noting he had a bit of scruff coming in, and grunted. He'd held off on shaving for the last few days, not feeling particularly bothered to do so. Perhaps he should let it grow to further differentiate himself from his present self? The gray coming in would surely get their attention at least.
Bulma observed curiously, "Facial hair, hua? I thought you said a saiyan's hair can't change."
He grumbled, "A saiyan's hair remains the same from birth, but certain formations of hair can grow with age. It will continue to grow until it reaches a particular formation. Before you start, don't even ask, woman. I'm eating."
The young mother 'Hmph'ed as she continued to gather egg on a spoon to continue feeding Trunks. The boy threw his fist into the spoon, tossing the egg chunks towards the older man, pelting against his face. Bulma stifled a laugh as his face twitched in annoyance. The funny face made Trunks giggle and point at the man, breaking Bulma's self-control.
"Dada! Dada!" the baby cooed, getting an even funnier face as a reaction to the name calling.
Bulma reeled in her hysterics as she attempted to correct, "No, no. That's not Dada, baby. Can you say Uncle? Uncle Vegeta?"
"Uwuw?" the baby gurgled, attempting the new word with much confusion before declaring stubbornly, "Dada!"
"Don't have the brat call me that!" Vegeta blushed. "I'm not the kid's uncle. If this is about earlier, I swear to Kami, woman, it was a joke! I'm not an uncle to anyone. Even my damn nephew doesn't call me that…!"
"Wait, you have a nephew? Since when?" Bulma blinked, completely ignoring Trunks' babbling to her in the background.
"Forget I said anything, woman," he growled, shoveling toast into his mouth to avoid speaking further.
The bluenette brought another spoonful of food to her son before pondering, "I didn't think my sister was the family type. She's always been absorbed in writing those books of hers and stays isolated on that island. I never imagined she'd settle down."
This made the man blink instead, "Wait, you have a sister? You never told me this…"
Realizing that Vegeta wasn't meaning her older sister, she gasped, "Are you meaning to say you have some long lost sibling out in space or something?!"
"Well I thought him to be dead. How the hell am I just learning about you having a sister now?!"
"How am I supposed to know that? You probably just never asked. She doesn't get off the island much, so I'm sure you just never put the dots together when she's only around for really big events," Bulma shrugged.
"Island… Your parents retired to some island in the east… Wait, you mean to tell me that blonde waitress that looked eerily like your mother was your sister?!"
Ignoring the man's life crisis, Bulma commented, "Oh, my parents retired on the island? That's nice. I'm sure Tights was thrilled by that."
The saiyan took a deep breath, "Tights… Why am I not surprised by that ridiculous name? At least it's more modest."
Bulma continued to press, "But tell me about this mystery sibling of yours! You said he, right? So you have a brother out there somewhere?!"
Vegeta nodded slowly, "His name is Tarble, and he is my younger brother. He was sent off-world similar to how Kakarot was for his weak power. He was disowned and thought to have been killed on the planet he was sent to. Evidently he survived, and, much like Kakarot, formed ties with the natives there. As I said, he had a son."
"So he'll come visit at some point? And why wouldn't his son call you 'Uncle' if you're literally related?" she asked curiously.
"At some point, and the title wasn't necessary. He addressed me as his superior per saiyan customs," he answered briefly, making Bulma sigh in defeat knowing she wouldn't get much more out of him on that specific topic.
"Why do you hate being called King Vegeta, anyway? You said before it was just to save this version you's pride of being prince, but you're prince too, right? And since you're older, that technically means you have higher authority. Why so jumpy about the name? I thought you would've always dreamed of being called that."
That question hit too close to home for the older Vegeta's comfort. His face contorted slightly before he answered flatly, "Because I am not King. I am not King for you or anyone anymore… That responsibility lies with Trunks… My Trunks. After passing the title, I am no one. If anything, it is more so disrespecting my son than it is disrespecting me."
She gulped, "Oh. I'm sorry… Is he a good King?"
Pride swelled his features and she knew the answer without needing the words, "He might not be the strongest saiyan of the bunch, but the kid's got heart. A damned runt, but he grew out of it. Very different from Future Boy."
"How did you get declared King, anyway? I thought you were going to stay as the last prince forever?"
"Hmph, that would be Gohan's meddling."
"Gohan?!"
"In order to be more legitimate, he proposed we start an official colony through the Earth King. It was interesting enough since the boy offered to do all the paperwork. He claimed it was a way to keep the stories alive since there had been peace for a while. We'd just married so it was basically declaring an official private military for Capsule Corp… Gohan thought it would be a nice tribute to our legacy and a way to honor Kakarot for bringing the crew together."
Something glowed in her eyes at the mention of marriage, but then she gulped, "Goku's gone?"
He simply nodded and chuckled to himself, "Now that I think of it, Gohan asked me to beat Kakarot in a match for him. I'll have to remember to punch the coward's teeth in next I get the chance."
She looked credulously at him, "Gohan asked you to do that?"
Future Vegeta sneered, "The fool goes off and disappears way too often. The boy has a right for wanting just a little bit of humility." He'd never tell anyone, but he had a game going with Gohan since after the androids. A game that he filled easily being the only person able to do so. Gohan was pretty spiteful of Kakarot refusing to be wished back after Cell and he formed a bit of a temper that he kept to himself and Vegeta.
When the kid needed to let off some steam, he'd fly off and spar with the older saiyan. They bonded in that time just enough to form respect for each other. Just enough to joke about Vegeta surpassing Kakarot as something they'd both like to see. Something that was theirs hidden in smoldering rock and deforestation.
"Gohan really feels this way?" she asked worriedly.
"Just as a teenager," Vegeta passed. "Plus, he'd expected me to find Kakarot in the Otherworld, not the past. He certainly wouldn't have thought I'd actually be able to do so. The fool's always been two steps ahead, even in death, after all."
As he said this, his tail that was always neatly wrapped around his waist lifted and swayed as if in anticipation for that battle to come on the other side. She subconsciously reached out and touched it across the table. Curiously, he let her play with the soft monkey fur. The tail flicked in her grasp, but never pulled away to her obvious delight.
"About this alternate future guy. Was it Trunks or someone else?"
The man chuckled, "It might as well have been. Kid looks just like 'im. Acts like this future one too."
Bulma blinked, trying to understand how someone could look and act the same as her son who was just a baby or even the teenaged version. She tentatively asked, "How… How old are you, really?"
"Old."
"Yeah, but how old? I mean, you look my parents' age, or maybe even older than that…"
He sneered, "Isn't it rude to ask someone their age? I traveled here from far enough that everything I know isn't going to happen for you anymore…"
"Well can't you just tell me a date or something? I'm sick of getting bits and pieces here and there, ya know?!" she demanded.
His tail was ripped away from her grasp and stood abruptly as he growled, "If I told you every damn thing, woman, it'd ruin everything! You do realize that, don't you?! I've tried not speaking about my future to the boy and here I go blabbing my mouth! If you want to kiss your own future goodbye then be my guest! But I'm not going to risk their happiness just so you don't have to be patient and wait like a normal person!"
"Vegeta… I didn't…" but before she could finish he had already stormed out of the room in the direction of the spacecraft in the yard.
After that, the saiyan locked himself away in the ship training in the highest gravity setting until he was disrupted by one oblivious Mrs. Briefs notifying him of lunch. He'd considered skipping the meal, but thought twice as he knew meals of such quality were not a typical occasion and he should take advantage of being well nourished. When Cell was defeated, he was joining Trunks in the kid's future and they were struggling to get by. A few meals in the past would be a feast compared to what they had there. Plus he had missed the woman's cooking skills after so many years. The bots and caterers couldn't quite get the pastries right…
Much to his confusion, Bulma was preoccupied when he entered the kitchen for the meal. She was loudly talking on the phone with someone. It wasn't a voice he recognized. Trunks demanded attention, but was completely ignored by his mother. Nothing was ever more important than Trunks, so Vegeta was curious.
Seeing as Bikini was busy readying the table with mountains of food, Vegeta took it upon himself to settle the shrieking child. The saiyan listened to the child babble on about something, allowing the boy to call him 'Papa' for now. The boy wasn't exactly wrong. Vegeta's ki signature was very similar to his counterpart so it wasn't a mystery as to why the child couldn't tell the difference.
"Some pet, hua? (-) Yeah, Mom's right here. Hey, Mom, Tights wants to talk to you," Bulma announced, replacing a platter of cut sandwiches with the telephone.
"Tights, dear! Oh how have you been?! You haven't called in two weeks, honey!" Bikini happily, and loudly, called into the phone. "An alien armadillo you say? Gee, I don't know. (-) Well, I did pick up the cutest thing on the side of the road the other day! My, it was just so soft, but it looked like some sort of dinosaur! (-) Oh honey, you know your father! I couldn't resist it!"
A faint screaming voice came over the phone, making the ever squinting woman to open her eyes, "You have to get rid of that pet right now, Mom! It's dangerous!"
The ditsy blonde woman returned to her squinty eyed, carefree self as she assured, "Oh nonsense, dear! Poor thing just needs a gentle hand and well deserved treats. Why I was even able to file down those sharp nails of her's and brushed her hair! (-) Oh okay dear, call more often, mkay?"
Bulma took the telephone back, seeing how Tights couldn't convince her mother of this pet situation. The bluenette sighed and said, "Well, you know how they are… (-) Jaco? (-) Yeah, I remember Jaco, what about him? (-) He warned you? (-) Just because Jaco said it's dangerous doesn't mean it's actually dangerous, you know? (-) Yeah, yeah, I know that… (-) Well sorry that aliens aren't exactly on the front page anymore… (-) He's a space prince, not a… (-) Oh puh-leese!"
"I'm not joking, Bulma!" the voice screamed.
"Ugh, okay, okay! I'll put you on speaker, I gotta feed Trunks," Bulma sighed, taking the phone away from her face and onto the table. True to her word, she snatched Trunks out of Vegeta's grasp to put the boy in a high chair.
Vegeta remained standing still, despite the delicious spread in front of him, as he listened in to the voice through the phone, "It's as I said before, Jaco came to visit me the other day and he said he's on the hunt for a small alien. It disguises itself as a pet, or looks like one anyway, with white fur and scales on its belly. I'll fax over the picture Jaco dropped by for you to get a good look at it. Apparently this pet is on the wanted list and it's super dangerous. Knowing Mom and Dad, I'm willing to bet that whatever stray they picked up the other day has got to be this thing and you need to get rid of it right away! Jaco insists that you have to detain it with extreme caution!"
Bulma snorted, "Yeah, yeah. Anything important to know?"
"Why I outta! Listen! Jaco said this animal, thing, whatever it is is on the Most Wanted Criminal list! It recently escaped custody and Jaco tracked it to this planet. This villain doesn't have much information other than being a species once traded and sold as a pet as it's extremely rare and valuable. However, this one is sentient and wicked. According to Jaco, it turned on its last master, killing him and destroying the solar system before moving to the next!"
"How could a pet be that powerful?" Vegeta absentmindedly asked.
"That's what I said! Wait, Bulma, was that your baby-daddy?!"
More than embarrassed, Vegeta's face blushed a bright red at such a statement. The bluenette calmly responded, "Something like that. It's a bit hard to explain right now. Do you know anything else about this 'creature'?"
"Right… Apparently this thing is manipulative or something. Watch out for anyone acting strangely or going missing. Please take this seriously, sis. I know ever since a few years back you found out your bff was an alien from space, you've been completely unphased with all this space stuff and I know you think I've been going crazy with the Galactic Patrol, but just trust me on this one."
Suddenly, Bulma burst, "Yajirobe! I nearly forgot about him! Has anyone seen him around?!"
Surprised, Vegeta blinked, "I could have sworn I saw him fly off to the Lookout this morning."
Bulma screamed, "You idiot! Yajirobe can't fly!"
"I… Well how was I supposed to know that?!"
"You carried him here with me, remember?!"
"Tch, alright, well. We'll handle it. But right now, Cell is a little bit more important," the man redirected, once again reminding Bulma that this wasn't the man she knew.
The woman looked down to the phone on the table and picked it up, "Okay, thanks, Tights. I appreciate the warning and I'll have everyone looking out for this pet thing. Oh, and please call Mom more. She gets ten times happier when you do."
The sister on the other end of the line agreed, "Yeah, you know how I get carried away. I'll try a little harder next time. Take care, sis!"
"You too," Bulma hung up the telephone and returned it to its spot on the counter. She then sighed, "Great, yet another thing to deal with… You could have at least warned me something else was going to put a wrench in the plans."
"This is new," the man's eyes narrowed in warning. "Whatever this is, it isn't part of the history I know. I've never heard of this Galactic whatever, let alone a pet/creature/thing. Either this thing wasn't important enough for me to even remember, or it never happened in the first place."
"Well it's Jaco, so I'd only assume the latter. He tends to over exaggerate, and my sister is no different with that sort of thing. I'd have thought you would know of the Galactic Patrol, though. They're space police of sorts. I'd expect that you'd have run into them at some point during your space travels."
Vegeta sat down, giving in to his hunger, and stated, "The only intergalactic space 'policing' that I know of is from an organization known as NWSS; the North Western Substratum Squadron. It's more of a school than anything else, though it does have an elite military and task force. Certainly a governing body and less of an empire, so perhaps they are similar?"
The woman pondered, returning to feeding the ever demanding Trunks, "Maybe they are one in the same? Things can be different, right? But in any case, I'm sure this thing will solve itself. Jaco's super lazy, so I'm assuming he just wants me to take care of it. If we leave it alone, he'll have to do his actual job himself."
"Hmph, you have a few more hours before myself and Trunks exit the time chamber. If you can, I'd suggest finishing that remote sooner rather than later."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it. But only if you look after Trunks and make me a coffee," she winked to his visible annoyance.
~~~ An Outside View ~~~Quite some time has passed since Present Vegeta and Future Trunks entered into the time chamber, so it would be reasonable to have an update on the happenings outside of Capsule Corp. The androids have set their sights on giving Goku's home a visit, taking a familiar pink food delivery van on the way. They were biding their time, wanting to enjoy what the Earth had to offer on their hunt for Goku in the hopes of finding the man alone. However, this means most of the excitement pertains solely with Cell and his progress towards Imperfection.
The bug creature slowly and methodically absorbs people randomly city by city, alerting news outlets of a serial killer on the loose. The news would only get reports after Cell is long gone, leaving Piccolo, and the rest of the crew who were all very tired after a long day and collectively crashed at Kame House, irritated and restless at the devastation they couldn't avoid. Cell grew more comfortable as he realized he wasn't being strictly followed by the Z Gang or the future men. He was growing confident.
And this is where we catch up to the time left off at Capsule Corp as the Z Gang gather themselves after an uncomfortable sleep on the Kame House floor. Piccolo was more than impatient with the humans as they gathered themselves, sensing the amount of victims to Cell growing every minute. He couldn't just sit on the sidelines while this all went on. Cell was going to slip up soon, and then he could find and kill this threat before it even had a chance to combine with the androids.
Sure enough, he was right. Cell grew a little too confident and absorbed a much larger amount of people than he had been. His energy signature telling Piccolo exactly where he was. Despite Cell's carefulness, his obsession with power distracted him from the danger approaching. The Namek was ready for round two.
Piccolo took Cell by surprise, knocking the insect through building walls. Per the original timeline, the merged Piccolo was as strong as android 17 (minus the energy drain being what leads Piccolo to defeat) but significantly weaker than Imperfect Cell. This time around is different, however. Instead of Piccolo facing and being a considerable opponent to android 17, Piccolo is instead a rival to Cell. Now that Cell has absorbed humans, he is significantly closer to Imperfection but isn't quite there yet and this makes the two extremely close in regards to power. Because Cell isn't at Imperfection, the amount of power available to him is limited and he can't fight at his fullest being overridden with the objective of absorbing more energy. His purpose is incomplete, and he must see it to the end. It makes the bug man distracted from the battle, and keeps the square-off nearly equal.
The fight would take place in a small city as Cell would attempt to drain further humans between furious exchanges. The sheer power would blow the minds of the Z Gang, amazed at both Piccolo's power but terrified at how Cell matched Piccolo nearly evenly if not then even stronger! Piccolo had to pull all the stops and landed a successful Hellzone Grenade which damaged Cell's body significantly. At this point, Cell is not fully aware of his namekian roots and does not heal himself. [In the original, he has a basic understanding, but he utilized this technique only after seeing it first. There are some things Cell just knows and other things that Cell learns, so this would be something that Cell would need to learn.]
As a counter, Cell was able to pin Piccolo down and stuck the warrior's left arm with his tail. The namekian's arm whittled away as Cell absorbed enough energy to come ever closer to completion. Piccolo, now even more needled at Cell's audacity to absorb his arm, escapes and displays his healing abilities… To which Cell learns to replicate much to the namekian's dismay. With Piccolo's energy and the technique learned, Cell is now far more dangerous than the Namek was prepared for.
In the original timeline, Piccolo was cocky and bluffed as he knew the androids could not sense his energy and know when he was beat. This would not be the case with Cell. The bug monster could easily tell that Piccolo was nearing his limits at this point and with that energy drain he pulled, Cell was no longer fatigued. If he could get his tail around just a few more humans, then he'd be Imperfect.
Up on the Lookout, Goku and Gohan anxiously sense the battle going on between Piccolo and Cell. Gohan wishes to go and join Piccolo, but Goku refuses as they only had a few hours left before the time chamber would open. Goku can actively tell that Piccolo isn't strong enough and can only assume that the namekian would be smart enough to come out of the fight alive. This obviously doesn't put Gohan at ease. As a last resort to keep Gohan still, Goku reminds his son that if things were to be different then Future Vegeta would step in. Gohan isn't so sure, not trusting the saiyan to save his close friend. It was Vegeta and when the present version got out of the chamber, who was to stop that version from just standing there and watch the fight like it was entertainment instead of helping?!
Future Trunks, of course. Goku was confident in Trunks' feelings and he knew Future Vegeta better than anyone. They would protect everyone while Goku and Gohan were in the chamber. Plus, Goku was confident that Vegeta would come out of the chamber stronger than ever (he was already pretty darn close to Goku's own power before going into the chamber. Maybe even superior in pure energy if Goku wasn't to use the Kaioken!) and wouldn't want to pass up the fight just to sit on the sidelines. He'd want to defeat Cell before Goku even had a chance to fight him! Well, Gohan hoped his father was right.
Oh, and what about Yajirobe? Well we'll just have to see about that next chapter…