(A/N: Argh, once again, sorry for the delay. I have such a shitload of homework… Man I hate school. Hope you like this chapter. I predict there will be about three or four more after this, so keep tuning in. I promise you a climatic ending that you won't soon forget. Peace. R&R.)
Vegeta shot through the night on wings of swirling flame, heading unerringly to the where the energy signal of the treacherous inventor blazed like a beacon on the horizon. The enormous mansion loomed up ahead of the furious Saiyan Prince, and a twisted smirk formed on his lips as he flew ever faster.
"Now you're mine, bastard," he growled, allowing a fresh wave of ki to burst around his body. "I will take back what is mine and mount your head on a pike!" Vegeta's blood pumped furiously through his veins, anticipating the destruction that was sure to ensue upon his landing.
Swooping easily over the electrified barbed wire fence, Vegeta alighted upon the cobblestone courtyard and raised his burning green eyes to the enormous edifice that watched him silently from its perch among the English hills. The thousands of miles he had covered in his frenzied flight seemed like nothing; his muscles twitched in fresh expectation of the fight to come.
"Andy!" he howled, balling his hands into fists at his sides. "Show yourself, coward! Stop hiding behind your walls and come meet me face to face!" Electricity crackled around his muscular frame as he waited momentarily for a response. When none came, the smirk twisted itself into a grimace as he wound his fingers around a growing orb of ki. "You have till the count of three!" he shouted to the silent fortress. "And then I will blast you into oblivion!"
"Come come now, Vegeta." Andy stepped out of the shadows of the lower balcony. The ki-blasted wind whipped at his auburn hair, coiling it in spirals around his perfectly sculpted face. Though he spoke in a low, calm voice, the Prince could somehow understand every word he said over the pounding gales. "There really is no need to shout. As you can see, I am not within the confines of my abode; I stand before you with the utmost confidence in your cooperation. Allow me to explain the circumstances."
"Like hell!" Vegeta roared back. "You've done more talking than I'd have cared to hear in the first place, and I won't stand for another second of your mindless blathering of explanations and negotiations. I have come here to retrieve that which is mine, and I intend to get it back! Unless you'd prefer being razed into the ground," he added acidly. He was already beginning to rise slowly into the air.
A cunning smile touched the inventor's lips as he watched the prince take flight. "Oh, but I think you would definitely be interested in what I have to say. You see, your wife and I made a bet."
Vegeta halted his ascent, eying the crazed maniac of a man with growing suspicion. Every particle in his being told him to blast the fool into the next life and be done with it, but something held him back. Some malevolent glint in the icy blue eyes forestalled his attack, and it left him with an uneasy wrench in the pit of his stomach.
"I see you're listening now," Andy purred, folding his arms with a satisfied smirk. "Yes, fear is a very powerful tool, your Highness." This last was said with a voice oozing sarcasm as the inventor leered down at the Saiyan Prince poised in the air below.
"A powerful tool indeed, but one that is useless here," Vegeta snorted. "Now tell me! What sort have bet have you made with that fool of a woman?"
"I think I'll allow her to fill you in." Retreating into the shadows, Andy pushed Bulma, bound and gagged, into the light of the waxing moon. He kept one hand on the bonds at her wrists as he roughly undid the bandana tied into her mouth. Vegeta let out a low hiss.
"Tell him, my dear," Andy snickered, sliding his leering eyes onto the form of the Saiyan Prince.
Bulma shot a look of utter hatred over her shoulder. "Why don't you?" she snarled. "You seem to enjoy dishing out pain."
"But you were the one who set the terms, love," Andy retorted. Just to anger her and Vegeta further, he leaned forward and placed a kiss against the back of her neck. Seeing this through the trellis of the balcony, Vegeta found himself issuing a low growl. He immediately quieted himself with an inward slap of disgust.
"I don't have all day, woman!" he rumbled, hiding clenched fists at his sides. "If you indeed made a bet with this bastard, you should at least have the stomach to own up to it!"
"It wasn't my choice, ass!" she screamed back, talking as much to Andy as she was her husband. She gave an indignant toss of her lovely blue hair. "This bastard forced me to agree."
"I don't care whose fault it was!" Vegeta roared back. "Just tell me what the damn bet was before I blast you into oblivion with him!"
"Gee, that's good incentive," she shot back.
"Tell him now," Andy said warningly, wrenching her wrists with a twist of his fingers. "Every moment wasted in this frivolous argument deducts time from your allotted three days."
Bulma winced, cursing Andy, Vegeta, herself, and everything else that was within a hundred meters of the balcony trellis. Forcing back tears of frustration and despair, she met her husband's gaze with determined calm. "Vegeta, you're not going to like this, but I'll tell you anyway. A few minutes ago, Andy spoke with me in my cell--"
"Room," the inventor corrected quietly.
She shot him a disparaging glare. "Like I said," she grated, "in my cell, we made a deal. If you would come for me within three days time, you could have me back and never be bothered again. But if you didn't…" she swallowed hard. "If you didn't, I would remain with Andy forever."
"And, ever playing the fool, here I am!" Vegeta snarled. "It seems you have won your fool bet." He turned to Andy and raised a pointed finger. "You've lost on your own terms. Give me the woman and I'll leave you to revel in your disgrace!"
"But there's more." Andy pushed Bulma ahead of him and leaned over the trellis. "Another of the terms is that you would grovel on bended knee for her safe return. Truly, this would not be such a bad thing, if she does indeed mean as much to you as you would have me believe."
Vegeta stared up at the pair on the terrace, his glowing green eyes widened in disbelief. Bulma clasped her hands behind her back and said a silent prayer to every god she knew, somehow knowing that none of them would do any good unless the moon rose full and round within the next two days. Andy sat back and watched the two chew it over in their minds, reveling in the knowledge that he had won.
"I will not," Vegeta said at last, meeting Bulma's gaze with a defiant stare. "But I will have what is mine regardless of your stupid bet! Prepare yourself, Andy!" The sparse cracks of electricity suddenly swarmed into a myriad of flashing light as the proud Saiyan Prince coiled his muscles to attack the leering inventor. Bulma watched him dully, her heart beating sluggishly at her lungs as she let out a small sigh. In a final rush of energy, Vegeta rushed up toward the balcony, closing in at an alarming speed as he bellowed his battle cry.
"Your husband is a fool," Andy murmured against her long blue tresses. Bulma could only nod numbly to herself as she flicked her eyes across the shadowed apparatus set up just below the blooming trellis of the balcony. Andy turned her to face him as the sound of Vegeta's aura drew ever closer. "Know this, Bulma," he said quietly, pushing a strand of her bangs away from her porcelain forehead. Bulma pulled away and spat on his hand. He grimaced. "I am a man of honor," he continued, licking the small wet splotch from his knuckle. "Had your prince completed the requirements of our wager, I would have let you go." Just before Vegeta tripped the trap, Andy shoved Bulma into a trap door hidden beneath an ornate woven rug laid across the tiled floor.
The girl tumbled face first onto a steep stone slide created for quick escapes, bumping and cursing as she fought to keep herself still for just a moment longer. From what she could hear, her husband had just passed through the laser sensor placed between two small marble statues on the side of the house, triggering the poison darts held in the chubby hands of the little cherub boys. She could hear the prince howl in rage and confusion, and the sound of a frenzied struggle echoed down the long hollow chute.
"Vegeta!" she cried, trying to keep hold of the small stone alcove to which she clung, while at the same time fighting to push open the trap door above her head. She cursed as she felt the vibrations of a heavy foot being set down on top of it, and she shoved against it in a futile attempt to reach the man she loved.
"You think this will hurt me?" she heard her husband demand. A small object, presumably the dart, clattered to the floor. "Your stupidity will cost your life! Die, you bastard!"
Hurry, Vegeta! she screamed in her mind, ripping her nails bloody as she continued to claw at the small rectangular portal. Please, get out of here before it's too late! If you let that poison take its toll here, you'll be just as much a prisoner as I am!
The brawl continued above her head. Energy rumbled through the stonework, sending her entire body vibrating with the force of their power. The concussion of a particularly large blast severed her hold on the alcove, and she began to slide down, down, down, into the darkness of the mansion.
Just as she was about to round a bend in the ridiculous slide, she heard the sound of a heavy body falling to the ground. Her heart leapt into her throat. She dug her heels into the smooth marble of the ramp, trying to slow herself just enough to…
The trapdoor, which was now almost twenty feet above her head, slid open, revealing the outline of Andy against the twilight. Though he was too far away to see, she could imagine the satisfied smirk played across his features, and she silently cursed him in every way she knew how.
"He has fallen, my dear Bulma," she heard him say, " just as I knew he would. Ever the prideful prince, he fell neatly into my trap. He will meet you down in your room - that is where the chute leads. Remember, love - I will wait three days for him to grovel. Then I will cast him into oblivion for good…and you will be mine." His hollow laughter echoed through the night as the porthole slid shut, shutting her into a darkness so thick she could almost taste it. With a growing dread weighing in her heart, she slid down the remaining part of the ramp to reenter her prison cell.