Dragon Ball Alternate Dimension - Generation Z

A Dragonball Z Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah

Chapter Four

Sunday

Soma lay on a pile of pillows, wrapped up in a blanket in front of the TV and watched what little Anime was on this late into a Sunday morning. Her fuzzy slippers tapped together as she sang along to the theme song to one of the shows.

"Datte datte, datte datte, daisuki dakara...

doko doko doko doko doko demo ii yo ne"

She looked to the clock and sighed. It was already eleven in the morning. Soma bit her nails and debated telling their parents that her brother had still not come home. The ringing telephone prevented her from doing so.

"Hello?" Soma asked, excitedly. "Oh, hello Cousin," she greeted Okano disappointedly.

"Uh... Is this a bad time?"

"No." Soma flipped channels absently. "I was just hoping it was Adonai."

"Why? He not home?"

"No, and I'm getting worried."

"I think he's probably being taken care of… I mean! I think he can take care of himself." In his bedroom, Okano slapped himself in the face.

"Oh! He's here!" Soma cheered. "Good-bye, Cousin!"

"Soma...?" Okano slumped his shoulders and slowly hung up the phone.

"Adonai!" Soma leapt up and beamed at him. He looked tired and his hair was mussed. He dumped his jacket on the table and flopped down on the couch. "Where were you? I was so worried!" Soma jumped onto the couch with him.

"I was ok. You know better than to worry about me."

"I can't help it." She smiled, but Adonai's eyes were closed. "So where did you go, Adonai?"

He snored in reply. Soma pouted. She took the blanket off of the floor and put it over her brother. She left the suite they shared to find her mother.

.x.

Akiko and Trunks were jogging from this room to that, busily preparing for their trip to Hawaii. Soma walked into their quarters and sat down in a comfortable chair.

"Moma?" she asked. "Do you think Adonai's been acting strangely these last few days?"

"What, Honey?" Akiko asked from her walk-in closet.

"Adonai," she clarified. "Do you think he's been weird recently?"

"No weirder than he is every day, Soma-sweet" Trunks answered as he passed by her.

"Trunks!" Akiko scolded.

There were six, half-full suitcases on their bed into which Trunks would put something and Akiko would walk by, make a face and take it out again. They were getting very little accomplished for looking so busy.

Soma watched them for a minute or two before giving up hope of having any light shed on the subject.

Her mother poked her head back out of the dressing room. "Have you spoken to Okano and Kashtan yet? They're supposed to be coming over tonight."

"Okano..." she thought and remembered his call from that morning. "Oh! I was so rude!" Soma jumped up and ran back to her suite.

.x.

On Monday morning, Pan, Rojan, Bra, Roland, Marron, Goten, Akiko and Trunks were on a cruise ship to tropical Hawaii. Their children were loading up into Korosette's car for school.

"Man, it's just not fair," Kashtan complained as he held the door open for Soma.

"Well, at least they let us stay together. That way we can get away with all kinds of stuff! Imagine if you guys had to stay with Gohan, Videl and Chi-chi!" Korosette smirked.

Both boys shuddered at the mention of the Son Family Matriarch. "Yeah. That would suck," Kashtan agreed, imagining the piles of homework his grandmother would surely have made him do had he had to stay with her.

Okano remained silent as Soma slid in next to him. She giggled. "I think Grandmother Bulma said something like, as long as we don't kill anyone, she doesn't care what we do!"

"Woohoo!" Kashtan cheered

"Well, does that apply to Adonai?" Okano asked.

"He hasn't killed anyone, yet. Maybe it's me you guys have to worry about!" Korosette replied, tilted back her head and laughed maniacally as she started the car.

Soma blushed furiously and shrugged as Kashtan and Okano looked to her for an explanation.

.x.

After School, Soma looked everywhere for her brother but he had left early again; this time without telling her first. She shuffled into the physics lab and plopped herself delicately onto a stool.

Her cousin prattled on about some social thing with her friends and paid no attention to Soma's gloom. It wasn't until they were getting in the car that she noticed the older girl's silence. "You ok, Soma?" she asked.

"Mm, not really." The girl quieted as her male cousins joined them.

"God, I hate Mondays!" Kashtan moaned. "It's the day I get back all the tests and quizzes I flunked on Friday!"

"Are you serious?" Korosette frowned and grabbed the papers he was waving around wildly. "Holy crap. You're really stupid."

"Hey! I ain't stupid! I just..."

"He just needs someone as smart as you are to help him out, Korosette." Okano grinned. "Then people wouldn't be talking so much about how the heiress to the Capsule Corporation was related to someone as dumb as Kash here."

"Hey!!" Kashtan shouted at him, but was silenced by a knowing wink from his cousin. Kashtan might have been bad at school work but he caught on to deviousness rather quickly, that and his cousin and he had been plotting things together since before they could talk. The wink said 'I don't mean to offend you, relax a second and there'll be something good in it for you…'.

"Really?" Korosette looked concerned. Okano proceeded to rope her in and within a few minutes, she was vowing to make a Rhodes Scholar out of Kashtan.

Soma rested her head against the glass and looked out at the bustling city as the car took them home.

.x.

Yaffa tossed Adonai a cold beer and put some dark, thumping tunes on the little, roundish boom box. Her apartment was tiny and had little furniture save a futon, a table and two mis-matched chairs. It was also very dirty and smoky. Yaffa seemed to sigh as she dragged on the short, king-size cigarette. Usually, all of that would bother him, but Adonai loved it. He loved the grime and lassitude that was Yaffa's place. Piles of dirty laundry lay composting in the corner. What few dishes she owned were all dirty and stacked both in the sink and around it. She did not own a television. She did not seem to own a single book but there were several popular magazines scattered here and there, mostly filled with pictures.

Adonai sucked on his beer and grinned as she ran her fingers through his long hair. "It's gettin' kinda hot in here, don't cha think?" she asked seductively.

"Or someone's making it hot," he added and stood up. His silver jacket was already on the floor. He removed his long-sleeved shirt revealing a grey tank-top stretched tight over his muscles.

"Meow." Yaffa grinned. "You know, I don't think I've seen much of your skin in the light. Hey, nice tattoo," she remarked as she saw the spiky, black, three-spoked design on his right arm. As he turned to sit back down on the futon, Yaffa suddenly gasped.

"What?"

"I-I..." she stuttered as she stared at his left arm. On the bicep in crisp, fairly new detail was another tattoo. It looked like a circle with many radiating points like a star coming out of it. "I just... I never knew you had three tattoos!"

"Three?" Adonai caught himself. 'She thinks my star-organ is a tattoo!' Adonai rubbed his right arm. "I got the Empire one last year." He then gently rubbed his left arm. "And I got this one for my eighteenth birthday."

"Really?" He nodded. "Do they mean anything?"

"Yeah, but if I told you, I'd have to kill you."

Yaffa was taken aback by this, but tried to coerce him to tell her. As she spoke she got up and started futzing about the apartment. "Oh, come on. Please?"

He sighed. "They're basically a clan symbols, I guess. They were my grandfather's idea."

"Really? What nationality is he?"

Adonai laughed a little at this, but lied. "German."

"Oh." Yaffa pouted with her back to him. "What's his name?"

"Vegeta Oujisama. I know, not a very German name, right?"

Yaffa grabbed a bag off the floor and took a good look at the starry tattoo one more time. "Sure it is." She plopped down on the couch and smiled seductively. "I have to tell you, Ado. I really like you."

"I like you, too." He smiled and waited for what he thought was an inevitable kiss.

His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he felt the prick of the needle she shoved into his backside. "And you've been incredibly helpful. Have a nice nap. I hope one day we'll meet again."

Adonai went to grab her, but his hands were useless. He tried to curse her, but his vocal chords were not responding. His eyes closed and Yaffa slapped him across the face. She waited a few seconds before she was convinced he was out then bent down and kissed him. "I mean it. I'll miss you." Her brows came together and she ran out of the apartment.

Capsule Corp.

"Hello?" Tasha called as her huge boots clicked down the walk way. The sound echoed off Capsule Corp's distinctive dome structures. She approached the front door and knocked a few times but no one answered. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw someone dart from one building to another.

"Hey! Hello?!" she called. Tasha shrugged. "Where the hell are you, Ado, ya cheatin' bastard? When I find out who she is you're gonna wish..." Frustrated, but still dedicated she sat on the front door stoop and waited for Adonai to come home.

.x.

Vegeta toweled off from his mid-afternoon workout and stepped out of the gravity chamber. He was surprised by the tall girl standing there waiting for him to emerge. She had her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket.

"Are you Vegeta?" she asked in an emotionless voice.

He smelled a faint air of fear around her and there was something else; something familiar in her short, plum-colored hair or her deep hazel eyes or perhaps it was the way she glared at him.

The Prince snorted. "So what if I am?"

Her anxiousness pulsed around her as she took a step closer to him. They were now only a foot apart. She pulled her left hand out of her pocket and revealed what she had been hiding.

Vegeta's jaw dropped and he was immediately at a loss for words. In the girl's hand was a three inch disc bearing a blue, multi-pointed star on a silver field. It was blue and silver. She flashed the afternoon sunlight off of the emblem into his eyes and swiftly pulled her right hand out of the other pocket. Before Vegeta knew what was going on he was on the ground. The drug she injected him with worked instantly, paralyzing the most powerful warrior in the galaxy.

With hardly any effort at all Yaffa picked him up, threw him over her shoulder then she ran into an open garage.

.x.

Tasha stood up and followed her curiosity around the perimeter of the house. Just as she passed a window on the southern side, she saw a very strange sight: a girl carrying a full-grown man across the lawn. Tasha blinked a few times and laid low.

'What the…?' she thought. 'That's that bitch from the Cog!' Suddenly, her memory came back to her. Tasha had been knocked out that night. 'And all this time I thought it was rufies!' She gnashed her teeth and watched the girl duck into the garage then jogged up to the side of the entrance. 'That man she's got looks a lot like Adonai. This is no good, but whaddam'I gonna do up against someone that strong?'

Her train of thought was jarred off track by the deafening sound of rocket engines. The roof of the garage exploded, raining debris around the girl as a space ship crashed through it and in the blink of an eye, blasted off into the blue.

.x.

Korosette's car settled into its parking space. She and her boy cousins were deep in conversation about the upcoming big game and subsequent dance of which committee she was chairwoman. Soma sighed as she got out and closed the car door. She was the first to see the explosion. She let a small cry escape her lips, dropped her books and pointed at the plume of smoke.

"Oh my God, what happened?!" Korosette shouted and ran towards the garage.

Kashtan and Okano flew ahead of her and made sure that the area was safe. Kashtan discovered a black girl curled up on her side and covered with dust. She coughed as he picked her up. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," she said as she wiped the dirt from her face.

Soma jogged over. "Tasha? What happened?!"

"That bitch," she wheezed. "That bitch blew it up with a space ship."

"What?!" Korosette growled, feeling deeply violated. "What bitch?!"

Tasha began to reply, but pointed past them instead. They all turned to see Adonai saunter over to them. Just before reaching the group, he faltered and fell.

"Adonai!" Soma shouted and ran to him. She held her brother in her arms.

"That… bitch..." he muttered and lost consciousness.

Ten Minutes Later

Adonai came to with fists flying. Fortunately, he was still sufficiently sedated and Kashtan and Okano were able to hold him down until he realized where he was. He stared up at the sky, his back pinned to the ground by his cousins and tried to make sense of what had happened.

"Get off me," he grunted and the boys immediately backed off. Adonai got to his feet. "Tasha, where'd Yaffa go?"

Rather than answer, she pouted, walked up to him and slapped him. "That's the bitch's name? Yaffa?"

Adonai scowled. "Where did she go?"

Tasha opened her mouth to curse him out, but grimaced and held her hand instead. "Ow! Damn, that hurt! What're you made of, stone?!"

"Where did she go?!"

"I don't know!" Tasha screamed in reply. Everyone else stepped back a few paces. "She was carrying some guy into the garage and the next thing I know a fuggin' space ship almost kills me!"

Korosette bit her lip. "Some guy? Tasha, what did he look like?"

"Short, lotsa muscles, big hair that stood up like this," she lifted her dreads up over her head.

"Grandfather," Soma whispered.

Adonai grunted. "Impossible."

"Oh, so I'm the liar?" Tasha folded her arms.

Korosette clapped her hands together and ran into the neighboring garage. "I have an idea!" Adonai jogged after her.

Somewhere In The Middle Of The Ocean

The sun was setting. It was going to be a beautiful sunset. Everyone on board the elite cruise ship had gathered on the top deck to watch. Eight friends stood together and smiled.

"I think I speak for the rest of us when I say we can't thank you enough for this, guys." Goten hugged his wife around the middle. Everyone nodded.

"It's no problem. We wouldn't have it any other way, Goten," Trunks replied and did the same to his own wife.

The breeze picked up Akiko's hair and she snuggled against Trunks' chest, giving herself in to complete relaxation.

Capsule Corp

"According to the tracking device that Yaffa obviously doesn't know is aboard the ship, it's headed to the other side of the damn galaxy, and fast!" Korosette looked at the screen as the information she requested popped up. Her brows were knitted tightly together and her eyes burned with anger. "That bitch is gonna pay," she hissed.

"Is there another ship ready?" Adonai asked and she pointed to the craft behind her as she entered commands which opened its entry door.

Outside the garage, Soma, Okano and Kashtan tended to Tasha, who was still recovering from the explosion. Soma fretted. "What did that girl want with Grandfather?"

"I dunno, but he's a pretty big guy for a chick to be picking up and carrying around like that."

Kashtan was about to ask the attractive girl if she no longer dating Adonai when they all started at the sound of rocket engines.

"Not again!" Tasha cried and ducked-and-covered.

"Adonai!" Soma called out and ran into the garage.

"Soma, wait!" Okano tried to catch her, but the girl was flying and already ahead of them.

"Stay here!" Kashtan yelled at Tasha who had no desire to get any closer. He ran into the garage and saw Soma open the cargo hatch of the ship as it began to lift off. She ducked inside just at Okano caught up with her.

"Damn it!" Kashtan cursed and flew up after them. "I'm gonna totally regret this!" he grumbled as he pulled the cargo hatch shut behind him.

Tasha covered her eyes with her arm as the ship burst through hyper space and disappeared. She blinked at the blue sky and slumped her shoulders. "Thanks for nothing, Adonai."

.x.

"Come on, Korosette! We have to catch up with them!!" Adonai shouted as he watched the blip on the screen move further away from the center point.

"Ado, cool your jets. First of all this ship isn't equipped with the baddass blaster rockets that theirs has and second (now that I've cooled off a little) I think that we should follow them at a distance and sneak up on them instead."

"This hunk of shit isn't fast enough?!" he bellowed.

"This hunk of shit, as you so politely put it, is state of the art in the stealth department. Ever seen Star-Trek when a Romulan spaceship goes sort of invisible? This puppy makes that look like a sore thumb." Adonai slouched back into the chair at her left. "Just relax, Ado. You'll have plenty of time to get all riled up when we get there."

"And where is there, Korosette?"

She shrugged and pulled up a stellar map on the display. "Not a damn clue. They're headed into fairly remote territory."

He watched her work and tried to conjecture what Yaffa could possibly want with his grandfather and why she took him into space. Just as he began to wonder where the Candid Camera was hidden, they both heard a banging sound from the rear of the cabin. Adonai motioned for Korosette to stay where she was but she followed him anyway. He crept across the floor and listened. The sound was coming from a storage bin on the bottom of the wall. Quickly, the young Prince pulled the door open and raised his hand to blast whatever was inside.

"What the hell?!" he cried in alarm.

"Hey, Ado. What's shakin'?" Kashtan grinned on his hands and knees. He scuttled out of the space, followed by Okano who said nothing, and finally Soma.

With each additional member, Adonai's face grew a darker shade of crimson. When he saw his sister he exploded. "What do you think you're doing here?!" he screamed at them. "We left you jokers behind for a reason!" Korosette tried to put in that she didn't mean to exclude anyone but her cousin was on a roll. "And how dare you bring Soma into this?!"

"Well, ya see, Ado, it was like this..." Kashtan began to explain.

Adonai didn't seem to acknowledge his presence. He glared at Okano. "I'd expect something this stupid from Kashtan, but from you, Okano?" he seethed. "Such an act absolutely cries out for a beating. Is that what you want? Because I can deliver!"

"Adonai, stop it, please!" Soma pleaded with him. "It's not his fault!"

"I don't think he hears you, Sweetheart," Korosette pulled her out of the way.

"Adonai," Okano puffed out his chest and looked him in the eye. "I don't want us to be like this. There shouldn't be any bad blood between cousins."

Adonai laughed a little at this. "Bad blood, eh? You've certainly got your fair share of that, don't you? How much of a Saiyajin are you again, an eighteenth?"

"So you're saying that we should value ourselves by how much Saiyajin blood flows through our veins?" he asked coldly, trying to procrastinate to avoid any possible fight.

"I'm saying it makes you a weakling," Adonai spat and took a step forward.

Kashtan waved his hands. "Come on, guys, we're in the middle of a space ship here!" His entreaties were ignored until Korosette started to laugh. Everyone turned and stared at her.

"Just what is so amusing, Korosette?" Adonai barked.

"Just that I'm the weakest person in the room," she giggled.

"You're a nutjob," Kashtan whispered.

She stopped laughing and put her hands on her hips. "Adonai. Why don't you just sit down and shut up and we can all get to the task at hand - rescuing Grandfather Vegeta."

He turned and glowered at her. "You're telling me what to do?!"

"Yes. I. am. If your little theory about Saiyajin blood making people superior is so right then you should be kissing my feet."

"What?!"
Korosette grinned wide. "I have the most amount of Saiyajin blood out of any of us here."

"Korosette. Are you forgetting that our mother is a quarter Saiyajin?" he sneered.

"No, I know that. What you don't know is that I'm a genetic clone of my mother and that makes me a half-Saiyajin and closer to the Saiyajin throne than you, too!" She cackled in triumph at the look on his face then furrowed her brows. "So sit down and shut up. I'm the captain of this ship and I say everyone plays nice till we get home, got it!?"

Okano and Kashtan rapidly saluted and took seats. Adonai stood with his mouth agape for several moments before taking his own seat and sulking for several hours.

Somewhere In The Middle Of The Ocean

Candles flickered and soft, smooth music played. Akiko slinked her way over to their cabin's large picture window where her husband was looking out at the stars and the water. She put her hands over his eyes.

"Guess who?"

Trunks grinned. "The most wonderful girl in this or any other dimension?"

"Bingo!"

"You are always so over-dressed..." She grinned and tugged at the lapels of his pajamas. Before he could assure her that they were easily removed a tinny sound cut through the ambiance.

Akiko's smile fell. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Trunks muttered as he tried to kiss her.

She frowned and pushed him away. "There! That ringing…" She stalked the room waiting for it to sound again in order to locate it.

Trunks sighed, opened a drawer and the ringing sounded again, only much louder. "You mean this?" he asked and held up a cellular phone.

"Trunks, this was supposed to be our time. How could you leave your phone on?" she groaned and took it from him. To make a point, she removed the battery and tossed it in the trash. "Now, no more distractions. No Capsule Corporation, no kids, just you and me." Akiko grinned again and approached him again but hardly made a step before another ring sounded from somewhere else. Akiko growled and folded her arms. Trunks made a face and went this time to the closet. The phone in his jacket pocket was ringing.

Akiko tapped her foot and her tail swished quickly. "Give it."

"But 'Kiko..."

She held out her hand. "No buts!" Akiko took this one, went to the window and threw the whole phone into the ocean. "There! If you've got one more of those things hidden around here somewhere, you're sleeping on the deck!"

"I don't! I swear! At least I don't think I do…" Trunks fretted.

Akiko took a deep breath and beckoned him to come to her. This time they were disturbed by a knock at the door. "Oh, what now, Trunks, a telegram?!"

The person on the other side pounded their fist on the door. "Trunks, Akiko! Something's happened to the kids!"

"What?!" Akiko's aggravation disappeared instantly. She looked to the window and gasped. "It was an emergency!"

Trunks let Goten in and he gave them the news. With Trunks in the lead, the parents blasted off from the ship for home as soon as possible. Goten and Rojan carried Roland. Akiko hung back and her guilt about tossing the cell phones plagued her all the way.

The Next Morning

Korosette was the first up and checked the controls. She knew her ship was infallible but wanted to know where it was taking her. A blue blip at the top of the monitor told her Yaffa's ship had landed on a tiny planet not in any of her directories. She zoomed in on the coordinates and locked the destination in. They would arrive just as the others woke.

.x.

Akiko finally fell asleep around 6 AM. Bulma had given them as much information as possible. She kept her cool as she tried to help the parents but her tail thrashed anxiously as she spoke. Bulma was scared. Her husband was missing, too.

Two missing ships, one destroyed garage, six missing family members. Akiko told herself that if Vegeta was with them it was all right, but she wasn't comforted. Vegeta wouldn't have blown a ship through the roof of the garage and certainly wouldn't have left without telling anyone. There had been no witnesses.

As exhaustion finally took over, Akiko watched her husband breathe and prayed that when she woke up everything would be normal.

To be continued…