I've doing a lot of school work lately, so I apologize for taking so long. Here's Chapter Sixteen.
Chapter 16: The Dangerous Duo: a Battle and a Rockslide
"The whole family's nuts!" Vegeta states. "A constantly screaming wife married to an idiot of a husband, and a child who incessantly studies his life away. Kakarot's about to embark on an extremely dangerous journey. No one has ever lived after fighting that feminine pair, but since their only sparring, they'll probably be easy on him."
"Hi," Bulma startles Vegeta, sending the Canary Cam through a loop, literally.
"What are you…how did you!" He's speechless.
Bulma holds up the basement key. "I brought some lemonade. Whatcha watching? Some how I knew you'd be spying on them."
The Saiyan Prince looks at the glasses of yellow liquid. "You said this substance is the juice of lemons?" He sniffs at it.
"Hey! I don't want any 'Royal Boogers' in the drinks."
"Well excuse me." He grabs a glass and cautiously tastes its contents. "Hmmm…Not to shabby." He grabs the second cup.
"That's mine!" Bulma argues.
"I apologize for whatever wrong I've committed."
"You can have it. I'll just make more."
"Thank you."
Bulma leaves him to his spying and two helpings of lemonade.
…
"So what do you two have planned for the afternoon?" Goku asks recalling the small conversation he held with them the night before.
"Huh?" Jessie acts confused. Cathy keeps a poker face. "Cathy, did we have anything planned?" Jessie doesn't know if she should tell Goku the truth since her best friend quieted her the first time. Cathy nods her head toward the questioner.
"We're going to the mountains to practice being mountain lions," Jessie answers.
"Sounds interesting…I think," Goku replies. He stands up. "Time to fight," he announces.
Jessie exclaims, "Yea! Come on, Cathy." Cathy slowly rises from the ground. The trio chooses a different area to spar in: a grassland speckled with trees. The mechanical bird follows.
"I don't want you holding back this time," Goku insists.
"Suit yourself," Jessie returns.
The Saiyan transforms once more. The Colorless stand back to back and turn their heads toward their opponent. Goku takes his fighting stance and aims his focus to the girls.
"Okay, Jessie's offensive and Cathy's defensive," he analyzes. The duo listens to his every thought. "But there's no telling if Cathy will attack any openings."
Jessie makes herself look like Cathy; at the same Cathy changes to look like Jessie.
Goku shakes his head in confusion, "Huh?" he blinks twice.
They switch back.
"What's going on?" He tries to focus harder making it easier for the pair to confuse him even more. They switch again and again, the rate of their transformations picking up speed each time. Then they start physically switching places. At this point, Goku can't tell if they're changing appearances or switching positions. He starts getting dizzy and shakes it off.
"STOP!" he yells throwing a pair of ki blasts at them. His energy just bounces off an invisible shield.
"That's enough!" He charges at them. They split up and return to normal. Jessie stays on the ground, Cathy enters the sky. They both charge at him. Jessie aims to hit him in his stomach; Cathy shows no sign of a target. Goku gets ready to block; he wants to see how strong they are. When Jessie gets close, she hits him. Cathy flies over his head and throws two ki blasts at his back. Goku blocks Jessie's attack, but he is too busy trying to push her away when the blasts hit him in the back.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh…" he screams in extreme pain. Jessie backs off. His opponents meet and begin transforming.
"What are they up to now?" he watches as the figures turn white, shorten, and regain color.
"Wolves?" Goku asks aloud.
"Talking wolves," Jessie corrects. They slowly approach him. He decides to stand his ground and watch as they begin to circle around him.
…
A piece of popcorn hits the floor and rolls until it hits a white boot. Vegeta instinctively assumes a fighting stance of his own, then sighs when he realizes he's still in Capsule Corp.
"Don't you ever knock, Bulma?"
"Popcorn?"
"Sure, why not?" He takes the big blue bowl of popcorn from her. "Why is she being so nice to me?" he asks himself. He decides to test her. "Did you make more of that lemonade, woman?"
"Sure, I'll bring you some more." She exits knowing he called her woman.
"Something's up," he concludes.
…
"Have you ever fought wolves before, Goku?" Jessie growls.
"Sure, when I was a child, but I know you two have something up your sleeves," he answers, feeling slightly awkward about talking to a wolf.
"What do you think we should do, Cathy?"
"Well, he wants us to hold nothing back so how about an Elemental Cyclone?"
"Are you sure? You think he can handle it?"
"He already survived my fiery explosion. Does that answer your question?" The wolves are still circling their next victim. All Goku hears when they talk to each other is growling.
"Let's do it," Jessie confirms. They start to run in a clockwise direction around Goku. He has feeling something bad is going to happen. He tries to escape the center, but every time he moves, the girls move.
They're picking up speed and Goku still can't remove himself from the potential danger.
"Darn! I'm just going to have to take it." He stays in one spot and prepares for the worst by maxing out his power level. The new cyclone is formed, but it doesn't have enough force to lift him.
…
"I've never seen this before," Vegeta informs Bulma.
"Is Goku going to be alright after this?"
"Who cares?"
"I do."
"I told you. I don't know. Just watch." He drinks some of his lemonade and munches on his popcorn. "All I can say is this won't be pretty."
…
The ground leaves Goku's feet as the whirlwind pulls him to its center. Suddenly, the name Elemental Cyclone is explained. Fire forms at the top of the tornado and starts moving downward. Cathy and Jessie move away from the base. They howl in unison and the flames quickly consume the cyclone. Goku screams as he gets burned by the orange and red heat.
"Let's cool him off," Jessie suggests. Cathy nods and they howl again. The fire instantly becomes water causing their opponent to cool at a high rate. The sudden chill gives Goku more pain.
"Let's do lightning this time," Jessie is having fun. Cathy howls with her friend reluctantly. Goku knows the element's about to change. The H2O becomes electricity.
…
"Oh, no!" Bulma's afraid for Goku's life. She grabs Vegeta by his hair and shakes him. "Make them stop! Do something!" The Saiyan yelps while suffering from whiplash.
"Stop…yanking…my…hair…Ow!"
Bulma realizes what she is doing and snaps out of it, releasing her grip.
…
Cathy starts to feel bad about how much they're hurting Goku and without consulting Jessie, she returns to normal causing the cyclone to cease abruptly and allowing their opponent's now limp body hit the ground.
Jessie is shocked, "Cathy! What'd you do that for?" she barks.
"Look at him," she returns. Goku remains motionless. Jessie changes back into herself.
"The cyclone was your idea, Cathy."
"I know, but-"
"But what? He said not to hold anything back!" Their opponent opens one eye to check on them and smiles. He closes his eye again and leaves an afterimage while using Instant Transmission. "He survived the first two battles just fine. He should be okay," Jessie continues.
"I didn't want to be responsible for his death," Cathy defends.
"Okay fine," Jessie gives in, understanding Cathy's argument. "Let's go check on him."
…
"This should be far enough," Goku thinks. "I can believe I tricked Cathy into stopping the attack. Any more of that and I would've been killed. Now…Ka…me…ha…me…" He Instant Transmits back to the area and aims at the girls. "Ha!"
His opponents turn around but it's too late for them to move anywhere. The large blast consumes them and explodes creating a mushroom cloud of dust, dirt, and rocks. When the cloud clears, a large, empty crater is revealed.
"Oh no! I…wait a minute. Last time I thought I killed them they were still alive. They've gotta be around here somewhere."
He looks in the air. Nothing. He slides into the crater.
"Ah ha! There you are!" he exclaims when he finds two marble sized metal spheres. He attempts to pick them up but is burned, again, since they were hit by the Kamehameha Wave. "Ow! You guys are hot!" he yells. The two spheres turn red and return to their normal forms, blushing in the face.
"Hey you three, lunch is ready!" Chi Chi calls. Cathy and Jessie look at each other and giggle, still embarrassed by Goku's obviously innocent comment.
"What's so funny?" he asks.
"It's a girl thing," Jessie answers. As the trio walks toward the house, Vegeta moves the Canary Cam to settle near the front door.
"Hey look at the little birdie," Goku points out.
"Uh oh," Vegeta says. The Prince quickly looks through the instructions. "I knew I should have read them all," he says as he scrolls down. "C-chirp, T-tweet, B-bite." He switches back to the vision. Goku has already picked up the Cam.
"What's wrong with it?" he asks. Cathy looks really close to it.
"Let me see," Jessie whines. She pushes Cathy out of the way and looks at it. "Awww, I think it's sick," she concludes.
Vegeta presses UP, C, C, T, C, holds UP, and directs it toward some trees near the house.
Goku stares wide-eyed. "I guess it wasn't sick after all. What did it say?"
Cathy and Jessie are stunned.
Jessie says, "It said, 'Chirp, chirp, tweet, chirp.'"
Goku turns to face her, "No seriously, what did it say?"
Cathy confirms Jessie's statement, "It said, 'Chirp, chirp, tweet, chirp.'"
Goku's face fills with confusion. "Did you lose your ability to talk to animals?"
"Nnnooo…I don't think so," Cathy scratches her head. Jessie her shoulders.
The three forget about it and enter the house for lunch.
…
"Phew," the Canary Cam controller sighs. "That was extremely too close."
"Lunch!" Bulma calls as she enters the basement with a tray full of food.
Vegeta turns around and asks, "Did you cook all of that yourself?"
"Yep," she lies. He reluctantly takes the meal and slowly takes a bite of the hamburger.
"Mmm…This is actually good…You liar, you didn't cook this."
"You're right; I bought it from the most expensive take-out restaurant."
"That's what I thought."
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Shoot."
"Why do you still have the basement door locked when you know I have the key?"
The Saiyan freezes. "Because…I feel more safe that way."
"If you say so," Bulma walks out, locking the door behind her.
…
"Thanks for lunch, Ms. Chi Chi," Cathy says.
"Need us to help with the kitchen?" Jessie asks.
Goku's wife smiles. "You don't have to. You've out done yourselves this morning already."
"Okay, thanks. Let's go, Cathy," Jessie rushes.
"Can I come and watch?" Goku asks.
"That's up to your wife," Jessie teases.
"Go ahead before I change my mind," Chi Chi adds to Jessie's joke.
Goku zooms outside and rushes the girls to come on with a gesture. (Nothing vulgar of course.)
"Bye, Ms. Chi Chi; bye Gohan," the girls salute.
"You're leading this time," the eager Saiyan informs. Cathy and Jessie become birds.
"Come on," Jessie squeaks. Goku follows his feathered friends and is followed by a mechanical enemy.
…
Meanwhile, Bulma begins her search for something nice to wear.
"Hmmm…dress or pants? Dress. Long or short? Definitely short. With or without sleeves? Without." She narrows down until she finally decides to wear a red, short dress without sleeves that says 'look but don't touch'. She smiles as her selection, "Perfect."
"What are you doing?" Vegeta asks.
Bulma freezes and thinks fast. "I'm going through my wardrobe." She hopes he doesn't ask for details.
"Why?" he turns more toward her and taps his foot.
A light bulb goes off. "I'm checking to see if I need to replace anything. This one's in perfect condition."
"I see, but wouldn't it be easier to start on one side instead of in the middle?" He knows he has her this time.
"I check the special ones first."
"She's good," he thinks to himself; he accepts this and walks back to watch what looks like Animal Planet.
"Hey, Vegeta," Bulma pokes her head into the hallway. Vegeta stops but doesn't turn around. "Are you done spying?"
"No, why?" he turns his head just enough to see her.
"Well you're not in the basement."
"Nature called," and with that he continues down the hall.
…
A bored Saiyan yawns as he tries to keep himself unnoticed by the mountain lions. Cathy sneaks up on him and startles him by saying, "Maybe you should've stayed home."
"I came to watch you two practice, but I didn't know it was this boring."
Jessie's on the other side of the cliff wrestling with another lion.
"Well, this is how we learn to blend in with our surroundings. Hiding ourselves is natural to us."
"How long does it take your species to become experts as this?"
"Outer space is limitless, so I guess there's no such thing as an expert."
"You learn all your lives!"
"Nah. Most of us just learn about the planet we plan to live on."
"Oh…okay. So you're planning to live here, on Earth?"
Cathy nods her lioness head, and then runs to catch up with Jessie who's venturing off to a more dangerous part of the mountains. Only Vegeta knows of this danger, however. He moves the Canary Cam to follow the pair of learners. Goku notices and remembers the odd bird.
"Something's not right. Canaries don't fly out here." He follows with caution, keeping a safe distance from the other lions.
"Now!" Vegeta yells as he starts inputting complex commands. The robotic bird swoops down at Cathy and bites her on her shoulder.
"OW!" she roars quite loudly.
"Yes! Bull's eye! Canary, return to home base! Mission accomplished!"
"Are you alright?" Jessie asks. Before she can answer, rocks begin tumbling from the top of the mountain.
Goku still has his attention on the Canary. "It looks like it's heading toward Bulma's place."
Finally Cathy's roar of pain from the bite reaches his ears. He turns quickly and chases the sound, hearing a rumbling noise, a few yells saying 'Run!', some yelps of pain, and then…silence.
He makes his landing. Other mountain lions gather to see what's going on.
"Jessie? Cathy?" He listens for an answer and searches for any sign of movement.
His attention is brought to a tail lying across a rock. He floats over and stays in the air to make sure he doesn't step on either of them. Carefully he removes a large rock revealing a limp mountain lion, knocked out cold. Deciding not to move the body just yet, he continues his search for the other.
By-standing lions understand what's happening and move in to help. They sniff the revealed body and search for a similar smell. Many of them gather near one spot. Goku takes the hint and carefully moves various rocks, pebbles, and even boulders until he finds another body.
"My…tail," she whines. Goku recognizes the voice.
"It's okay," he assures her, "I'll bring you home and see what we can do. Alright?"
She tries to get up. Her injury makes it difficult, but she achieves a stance.
Goku points at her friend, "You think she's okay?"
She approves of her friend's well-being.
The worried Saiyan uses Instant Transmission to bring the girls to safety.
It took me forever to type this up because I'm contending with school work. Who do you think broke her tail? How will this affect their plans with Bulma? Review. Tell me what you think. Until the next chapter, Roosha.