Author's note: Yes! It's another fun-filled chapter of Veggie in Wonderland for your reading pleasure! This chapter was a lot of fun to write. It was actually much longer, but I had to break it up or else it'd be waaaaay too long. There were just too many scenes going on at once for a single chapter. The rest of the stuff that didn't make it in this chapter will be put in the next.
I will say later on in the story, there is a reason why Vegeta forgot about his loss of powers the first time it happened. It does play an important role but what type of role? I'm not saying! You'll have to wait and see.
And now, on with the story!
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Ch.2 - The Full-blood Prince and the Feline Football
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Capsule Corp. Home of the world-famous capsules - tiny bean-shaped devices that, when thrown, explode in a fluffy puff of smoke to reveal one of a large variety of objects, such as a bike, motor home, helicopter... almost any object your mind can imagine. Up until recently, only inanimate objects were used in capsules. Due to great public demand, Capsule Cooperation had just made it possible for living, breathing objects to come from their line of capsules. This was all thanks to a certain blue-haired scientist.
At present, said blue-haired scientist was in her lab. She had just finished her latest capsule experiment with much success. She was now on a wild goose chase to capture the experiment, which had gotten loose and was currently running away from her.
"FREEEEEEDOM!"
"DAMN IT! GET BACK HERE!"
(What a beautiful evening,) Mr. Brief's, Bulma's father, mused to himself as he was going out for his usual nightly stroll around the Capsule Cooperation complex. "It is really nice out tonight, isn't it Tama?"
A small, pudgy black cat, clutching onto Mr. Brief's shoulder, mewed in response.
"I agree," the elderly scientist smiled and scratched the small cat's head. As he did so, a figure rushed right by him in a blur of black at blinding speed. A great gust of wind followed after the blur and almost knocked the poor scientist off of his feet. Although almost hard to say for sure, Mr. Brief's could had sworn he heard maniacal laughter coming from whatever it was that had just rushed by.
Suddenly, a pair of footsteps pounding hard and the sound of heavy breathing could be heard in the distance.
"DAAAAAD!" Bulma came up to her father, panting hard and out of breath. "Did you," she gasped. "Did you see a butler come running by here just now?"
"A butler?" Mr. Brief's asked.
"Yeah!" Bulma continued panting. "A butler! He's got black hair, a black butler outfit, and gorgeous looks to make any female who sees him turn into a mindless, drooling, love-struck zombie!"
"Well," Mr. Brief's rubbed his chin and looked towards the direction the black blur ran off to. "Something just ran by here a second ago. I don't know if that was the person you were looking for?" He stroked Tama's fur, the tiny cat purring in response.
"Damn it. That was probably him then," Bulma slumped in defeat. There went her most anticipated capsule to date.
"Why don't you ask Vegeta for help? I'm sure he can easily catch that butler with no problem," Mr. Brief's told his daughter.
"Ask him for help? Oh, no no no. I learned my lesson about asking Vegeta for help with certain things," Bulma responded. A memory then drifted into her mind...
"Vegeta! Go help Trunks with his homework!"
"Woman, why can't you help the brat? I'm busy!"
"So am I!"
"I don't care! Do it yourself!"
"I can't right now Vegeta! If you don't go and help your son this instant, I'll dismantle the gravity machine!"
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Try me!"
"Grr," Vegeta grinded his teeth furiously.
"Fine! Alright! I'll go help my pathetic-excuse-for-an-offspring with his damn homework if it'll make you happy!"
Bulma smiled. "Thank you, Vegeta! I knew I could count on you!"
"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled.
The next day:
Bulma stormed into the training room that her husband was currently using. She held up a couple of sheets of paper in her hand, the front sheet having a large "F" in red marker in the upper-right hand corner.
"Vegeeeetaaaa! What the hell is this?"
"Damn you, woman! Always running around like a headless chicken! What is it- ack!"
Bulma slapped the papers in Vegeta's face.
"Wooooomaaaaan-!" Vegeta snarled as he grabbed the papers off of his face and threw them onto the floor.
"Don't you 'Woman' me, Vegeta! How the hell did our son wind up with an 'F' on his school report, huh? EXPLAIN!"
If you were to take a quick peek at what was written on those very papers and read them aloud, you would find they go into flawless detail about something to do with a bottle of ketchup, a trip to the Himalayas, the history of a random can of tuna fish, and some guy named Humphrey who tried to eat all of the monkeys in a zoo located somewhere in Texas.
"Yeeeeah... definitely am not going to ask him for help," she concluded. She waved the memory out of her head. "Dad. Speaking of Vegeta, by the way, where is he?" Bulma asked her father. "I didn't see him come back last night. Same with Trunks. Where are those two?"
"I'm not sure. Did you ask Chi Chi? You know how much Trunks loves playing with Goten. Where Trunks is, Vegeta usually pops up sooner or later."
"Yeah, you're right," Bulma smiled. "He really has become a better father over the years, hasn't he? Though he would never admit it. You can see it, though."
At the moment, not too far from the location of Capsule Cooperation, a single butler was skipping about with not a worry in the world. A young female teenager, who was shopping for groceries at a nearby market, exited the store carrying her purchases in both hands. She stopped in her tracks when the butler passed by her. Her face froze as she took a look at the man's face.
"Seba-," she choked on her words. Out of nowhere, a bunch of young, female voices shrieked in unison. The ground began to quake. The butler paused mid-skip, turned his head, and pupils shrank to tiny dots: there, closing the distance fast, was a huge herd of rabid, screaming girls coming his way. A sense of impending doom rushed by the butler, whose common sense was screaming at him to start running for his life if he valued it.
So run he did, along with the wild herd of screaming girls (numbers now increased by one) in hot pursuit.
XXXXXXXXXX
Vegeta's head felt like it was struck full force by a rampaging Kakarotto who was on his way to a free All-U-Can-Eat buffet.
As he was coming to, Vegeta slowly started to stand up. "Ugh," he groaned and stumbled on his feet. "Was I knocked out? How- ow," Vegeta's head started pounding hard. He rubbed the side of it with his hand, trying to ease the pain.
"How... long was I out for?"
Wherever he was at the moment, there was very little light with which to see his surroundings.
Vegeta staggered forward, his hands out and waving in front of to feel for a wall in order to lead himself out. When he did finally manage to locate what he assumed was a wall, which was cold and hard to the touch like rock, Vegeta followed it.
(This would be a hell of lot easier if I had a light of some sort,) Vegeta muttered to himself in his thoughts. It would also be much easier to simply power up and blast your way out but regrettably, common sense eluded the prince once again.
After some time passed, due to Vegeta going around and around the perimeter of the room thanks to his lousy sense of direction, our saiyajin warrior was getting frustrated.
(God! Where is the blasted exit? I should've came upon it by now!) Vegeta impatiently yelled in his head. No longer walking now, he started to run.
The sound of dry leaves cracking under his steps and of twigs snapping echoed in Vegeta's ears. Little by little, the sound of dry earth being crunched dwindled down. Vegeta's mind was too occupied to notice that the crunching sound was being replaced by a clack clack noise his boots made on a hard floor. Around the same time as this change, a soft and dim golden light hovered overhead in the far off distance.
(Is that a light?) questioned Vegeta. He squinted his eyes to try and get a clearer view.
As he drew closer, the light began to grow brighter. As it did, the surroundings began to become clearer. It soon dawned on Vegeta that he was in what appeared to be a long hallway. All of the walls were covered in a floral pattern wallpaper. Giant clocks hung overhead and ticked the time away. A vast number of antique bookshelves and dusty china cabinets, each lined perfectly with numerous dazzling white porcelain dishes, lined along the wall sides. It created the atmosphere of being inside of a small cottage nestled out in a beautiful, quiet meadow.
Vegeta casted this bit of information aside, his priorities lying more in finding an exit than worrying about the change in setting.
Vegeta was now close to the source of the golden light, which he saw was a hanging bronze chandelier. The chandelier opened up into a large spherical-shaped room. Many doors, each one a different color, lined along the room's curved walls. And standing in the center of the room now, with his back turned on Vegeta, was the odd Goku-rabbit-looking person from earlier, who Vegeta gave the boot to (pretty hard, might I add).
"You!" Vegeta shouted. The figure made no move to indicate he had heard Vegeta.
"I thought I got rid of you! Why are you here? No... tell me how to get out of this place!"
Still, the figure remained as motionless as a statue - and as quiet as one, too.
"If you're not going to help me," Vegeta moved his arms back and began to gather a monstrous amount of ki. "Then you cankiss your life goodbye!" He then brought his palms tin front of him and roared "FINAL FLASH!" The ki he powered up, being channeled in his hands, flashed intensely and sparked madly. Vegeta was just about to let loose this huge release of raw energy when without warning, it choked and flickered away into nothingness.
"WHAAT?" Vegeta's eyes widened. His hands trembled slightly. He looked again towards the odd figure, who still standing motionless, now made some movement. He turned his head around slowly, the rest of him still remaining still, and looked at Vegeta. The two locked eyes: one, a studying stare, and the second, eyes bordering on wild fright. The Goku-looking fellow smiled pleasantly at Vegeta, and calmly walked to a blue door on his left. He turned the handle and went right through.
"WAIT, YOU PRICK!" Vegeta shouted at the person. He quickly dashed over to the blue door before the strange character disappered, but Vegeta was a fraction of a second too late. He smacked his head hard into the closed door.
Vegeta rubbed his face, and then proceeded grabbing the door's handle and attempting to open it.
It was locked tight.
"You low-class scum! OPEN THIS DOOR NOW, KAKAROTTO! I swear to Kami I'll happily massacre you and your spawns and that cursed woman of yours IF YOU DON'T OPEN UP THIS DOOR!" Vegeta yelled at the door while punching and kicking it hard. He was even at the point of clawing it wildly like a cornered tiger. Briefly, he stopped attempting to destroy the door. What was he doing? He was a saiyajin for crying out loud! A warrior! He didn't need to act like a weak, puny Earthling in his attempts at busting down a feabile wooden door.
Funny how sense sneaks up on Vegeta every now and then. But alas! It's short-lived.
Vegeta tried to power up to super saiyajin mode. For some odd reason, he felt kind of...sort of... numb. His ki... the familar feeling of his huge supply of power, power that was the result of years and years of intensive training, sweat, and blood spilled... Vegeta could feel nothing. The familiar flame that was fueled by his thirst for fighting - was there no more.
He stopped pounding his fists into the door. He did however give it one more bash with a kick out of frustration, though.
"So I suppose I'm stuck here. Perfect," Vegeta mumbled and slumped against a wall. He sighed, and looked around. The chandelier continued to give off its dim golden glow. The many clocks hanging all over the place didn't stop their monotone ticking. Was this his fate? To die in what he'd call a Grandma-style torture chamber? Funny. Was there a little old Granny hiding somewhere, waiting to strike Vegeta? Would she torture him to death by having him consume a buttload of sweets, and let him die a sweet death by blood sugar overload? Vegeta had to admit it wasn't a bad way to go out. He never was into sweets much, though. His son on the otherhand, and that bratty friend of his (the "spawn of Kakarotto" he would frequently call Goten - and Gohan, too)... now they were sugar-addicts. Given their young age, sugar was a deadly weapon in their young hands. Bulma, the health-conscious-mom she tried to be thanks to the influence of Kakarotto's partner, would always try to set a limit on how much sweets the boys could have. Her father however, brilliant scientist he was, would always give in to his grandson and friend's whimpers and crocodile tears about never being able to have any sweets. Vegeta wasn't too concerned about the issue, so long as his son trained with his father every now and then.
It wasn't until about two months ago when Bulma had gone to a science convention with her father for a weekend and Vegeta had grudgingly agreed to spar with Goku at the same time as his wife's trip that the "sugar dilemma" had finally caught Vegeta's full attention. Bulma had Krillin agree to watch her son over the weekend (Bulma's mother was on a cruise with some of her friends for a week). Why of all people Bulma chose that idiot, Vegeta never understood. Granted, he was a father himself and had a hyper girl to constantly chase around, but Vegeta still did not trust Krillin's parenting instincts. Call it Veggie intuition, if you will.
So there Vegeta was, back at Capsule Corp after a weekend of training. His son had managed to sneak into his mother's laboratory and make off with one of her prototype inventions, called the Voice-O-Change-O. Krillin was desperately searching for the half-breed, who was doing a good job hiding his presence. Vegeta had managed to find Trunks hiding in a kitchen cabinet. The young kid got spooked by his father's stealthy unannouncement, yelped, and fled the scene, dropping the Voice-O-Change-O while doing so. Vegeta quickly gave chase - another common sight in the Brief's household. When both father and son rounded a corner, they bumped into Krillin, who while searching for Trunks, came upon the Voice-O-Change-O which he picked up. During the three-way clash, Krillin had accidentally pushed a button on the device, and zapped Vegeta.
Flashback:
Vegeta shot a glare of unspeakable doom to Krillin. So unspeakable it was, in fact, that if one were to speak about this doom, this unspeakable doom, the doom that could never, ever, be spoken of, that it's a concrete fact that the very fabric of the known universe would be ripped apart into trillions upon trillions of tiny pieces, which would melt and cluster together into a huge puddle of space and time and implode on itself. All existance, past, present, and future, would cease to exist.
Oh crap...I'm speaking of it, aren't I? Uh... you didn't hear anything from me!
"Yuoo gut feefe-a secunds tu retoorn my voos-a beck tu nureml. Feefe," Vegeta snarled, in what sounded like the muppet Swedish Chef's voice, and began to count down.
"Oh no! Um, um," panic began to fill Krillin. He wildly looked around for any sign of Bulma. He was desperately praying in the inside she was back home from her trip.
Trunks was on his back, clutching his stomach in pain, kicking his legs, and in hysterical laughter.
"A fuoor," Vegeta continued.
"AHAHAHAHAHAA!" Trunks laughed uncontrollably. "Leave him like that!"
"Are you kidding me? I don't want to die... again!" Krillin shot back. He frantically pushed the numerous buttons on the Voice-O-Change-O machine, hoping that by doing so, the saiyajin would be turned back to normal.
"Freef," Vegeta snarled.
"Oh craaaaaap! Crappity crap crap!" Krillin cried.
Trunks continued laughing like no tomorrow. Krillin began to punch the machine, now madly desperate for it to start up and work. The tiny lights on the front interface suddenly lit up and started to blink.
"All right!" cried Krillin in utter joy.
The device made a few whirring noises, then zap! A ray of yellow light shot from its antenna and struck Vegeta. The ray soon faded and the whirring died down.
Krillin looked up to the saiyajin prince.
"Soooo... did it work?"
There was only reply of silence from Vegeta. Trunks too, had stopped laughing and was also silent, now watching his father in anticipation.
"Dos," Vegeta said in a sexy latin voice. He went on with the countdown of death.
"Shit, I only made it worse!" cried Krillin.
"Heh. Hehe. Pffft," Trunks tried to hold back his amusement. He sucked in his lips and kept then shut for as long as he could, but he couldn't hold it back any longer.
"BWAHAHAHAHA!"
"Uno," said Vegeta, still in a very erotic Latin tone.
"Whyyyyyyy me?" whined Krillin, who had just about given up on trying to fix the problem and was now awaiting the sweet, sweet embrace of death. Okay, maybe it wasn't that sweet since it was being delivered by Vegeta of all people.
Krillin released the Voice-O-Change-O device, where it landed with a loud clang on the ground.
"Ow, owwwwww!" Trunks stopped laughing and hugged his stomach, doubled over now in sheer pain.
(Goodbye, cruel world!) prayed Krillin in his mind. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut.
"Preparase por tu muerte, SeƱor!" growled Vegeta. If he had said this in his regular voice, it would have dripped in venom. Instead, it dripped in absolute, exotic sexiness.
Then, without warning, the Voice-O-Change-O sprang back to life. Its lights lit up. Its internal gears grinded together. It began to rattle and shake and glow a bright yellow. Brighter and brighter it became. As it did so, it's shaking intensified.
And then:
BOOOOOOOM!
The small machine let loose a large blast of light straight at Vegeta. It struck the saiyajin prince head on just as he was about to rip Krillin's spine right out of his body and use it as a jump rope.
Krillin, still grimacing, cracked open one eye. He trembled as he saw Vegeta's fist so close to his head.
Vegeta brought his fist back.
"Am I still going to die?" Krillin sobbed softly.
Trunks got up from the ground and came closer to the two men.
"If I'm able to finish this sentence in my regular voice, then no," Vegeta responded. He smirked. His original voice had returned back to normal.
Trunks eyed his father carefully. He was still in big trouble, afterall. He turned around and slowly started to tip-toe away.
"Trunks."
Trunks froze in midstep. (Busted,) he thought to himself.
"Get over here."
His son drooped his shoulders in defeat. He turned around and very slowly flew over to Vegeta. He kept his head hanging low, not daring to make eye contact.
"You will train in the gravity room for 96 hours straight with no break."
"But Dad!"
"Don't 'But Dad' me, brat!" Vegeta stopped and covered his mouth. Trunks only stared in bewilderment at his father. Krillin, who felt the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders just a minute ago, now felt it come crashing back down again.
"Oh no," Vegeta unclapped his mouth. "Oh GOD NO!"
His worst nightmare had come true. He now had Kakarotto's voice.
The moral? Limit the number of sweets Trunks could consume. And also never let Krillin babysit his son ever again.
Getting back to the present, Vegeta suddenly noticed a small round table sitting underneath the hanging chandelier. On top of it, there was a small glass bottle. Around the neck of the bottle, wrapped in an elegant red-colored ribbon, was a tag. Curiosity got the best of Vegeta and he found himself wandering over to the bottle. He took hold of it and took a closer look at the tag.
"Made in China," Vegeta read aloud. He turned the tag over, and saw a different set of writing, these words written in a fancy script.
"Drink me, you fool," Vegeta read back what the tag said. He stared at the liquid inside the bottle, a slightly dark lavender colored substance.
"Well, if this is poison and I die, maybe I'll somehow wake up and find myself back home," Vegeta said aloud to himself and unpopped the bottle's cork top. "Here's to waking up back in my own world, and randomly beating the snot out of Kakarotton for no apparent reason once I make it back," Vegeta raised the bottle and chugged down its contents. The liquid felt incredibly cold as it ran down his throat, despite the bottle itself not feeling chilly in the slightest bit. The taste too was weird. The liquid tasted like a strange combination of green tea, prunce juice, and liquid plumber. Vegeta didn't really care about the drink's taste at the moment.
He set the now empty bottle back on the table's surface. Utterly bored, Vegeta decided he might as well entertain himself. "If I can't get out of here," Vegeta spoke while walking up to one of the many ticking clocks hanging in the oval room, "then I'll just trash this place! Might as well show my appreciation for being trapped here." He took the clock off of the wall and chucked it like a frisbee down the long hall. It made a sharp turn to the left halfway down the length of the corridor and crashed into several closets. Dishes flew up in the air from the collision and landed all over the floor, breaking into thousands of sharp and tiny pieces.
"Woohoo," Vegeta weakly yelled in mock cheer. He grabbed two more clocks, one in each hand, and targeted a pair of china cabinets further down the hall.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Mom, I said I'll handle it."
"No, no. It's fine, Gohan. You go get ready for your date with Videl."
"Mom... the date isn't until tomorrow."
"Oh. Well then," Chi Chi picked up the frying pan and placed it into Gohan's. "If you want to cook, then I see no problem in that!"
Gohan had volunteered to try making dinner later on in the evening and give his mother a break from it for a change. He also wanted to impress Videl, his girlfriend and daughter of the "famous" Mr. Satan. Gohan had invited her and her father over to his place. She happily accepted. Mr. Satan on the otherhand apologized to the boy and said something along the lines of having to go to an art exhibit dedication to him. Gohan understood. He wasn't expecting Mr. Satan to be able to come anyway, and only asked to make it seem like a pleasant gesture in the eyes of Videl. Honestly, none of the Z Fighters, Gohan included, could really stomach being around the impostor world savior.
Gohan placed the frying down on the kitchen stove. He was taking a look through the various cabinets and checking if had everything to cook with. (Spices look fine,) Gohan concluded. The only think he was missing was the main ingredient. He was thinking of going with fish, but wanted to try something new. (T-rex meat or Monster Pteranodon? I'm leaning more in favor with the T-rex meat but,) thought Gohan while he walked through the entrance door to the outside (whatever one I come across first is the one I'll cook). He held the door open and shouted, "Mom! I'll be back in a bit. Going to get the main course!"
Chi Chi was outside, hanging up some wet linen on a clothes line. She dropped a wet navy blue shirt back into her wicker laundry basket and went around the corner of the house. Gohan let go of the entrance door when he saw his mother was outside, not inside the house.
"Ok. Just be sure to get enough for everyone. You know how much Goten's appetite has been turning more ravenous like his father lately."
Gohan laughed. "Don't worry. I'll bring back enough food to feed the equivalent of five Dads. Alright then, I'm off," He let go of the door. (Where is Goten, anyway? Is he still over at Trunk's place?) Gohan pondered as he blasted off into the sky.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Damn. I'm bored again," Vegeta complained as he scrawled some writing on the wall with a marker he found. Everything around him was a huge mess: broken pieces of porcelain scattered all over the floor, toppled over broken cabinets, clocks crushed and snapped in bits of metal debris, and to top it all off, graffiti all over the place, on objects the wall themselves. Hell, even the ceiling had bit of writing on it. Most of the graffiti consisted of the phrases such as "SAiYajINS RUULe!", "VEGETA WUZ HERE", and "FULL-BLOOD PRINCE". Vegeta was now scribbling on a red door "KAKARuTOe SUKZ EggZ! HAR HAR". "...", Vegeta stepped back to look over his writing. It needed something to go with it.
"A drawing!" he snapped his fingers and got to work. Not being the artistic type yet feeling a bout of creativity, he drew out a stick figure, gave it googly eyes, devil horns and a tail, and finished it off with a goofy smile and Goku's familiar hairstyle. Once he was done, Vegeta couldn't help but admire his masterpiece. "A fitting tribute to his likeness," he smiled insolently.
"Meh, it's okay."
"Who said that?" Vegeta asked and looked around. A small, round object walked near him, past his feet, and stopped right underneath the portrait of the devil goku stick figure.
It was a mouse - who also happened to be an art critic.
"I mean, what is it trying to express? What is its message? I'm just not feeling it from this."
"It's expressing my utter hate for this fool," Vegeta answered sternly. He lifted his foot and brought it down hard upon the mouse, squashing it and causing blood to gush everywhere. "Eww, yuck!" cried Vegeta, repulsed by the gooey rodent mess he created. "Why did I do that? Now there's mouse gunk all over my boot! I should've just taken that cake there on the table and clobbered the ro-," he paused in mid-sentence.
There, on the table in the middle of the round room, was a piece of neapolitan cheese cake - with a cherry on top.
"That...was not there a second ago," Vegeta said as he walked up to the cake, being on guard should the cake spring up and morph into a ravenous monster or if some other random event should pop up.
Vegeta poked the dessert. As he did, he quickly withdrew his hand with lightning speed. A piece of the cake crumbled off. Vegeta, in his weird mind, had expected the cake to snap its teeth (if it had any) at him. When it didn't, he breathed a sigh of relief and picked up the cake, taking a hearty chomp out of it.
(I don't usually eat cake, but I'm starving,) Vegeta thought while finishing off the last remainder of the dessert. He left the cherry for last. (Almost made me start yearning for that woman's cooking.)
"Ha...haha. AHAHAHAHAHAHAA! OHHHHH! Ow, my sides!" Vegeta grabbed his sides in agony.
Elsewhere, back on Earth
The day was approaching the late afternoon. Mr. Briefs was on his way to the kitchen to grab a late lunch. When he entered the kitchen, Bulma was there. She watched as her father opened the refrigerator door and pull out an assortment of foods to make a sandwhich. She stopped him.
What happened afterwards was that Bulma tried offering her father some leftover food she made from past dinners so Mr. Brief's wouldn't be inconvenienced about preparing his lunch; all he would have to do was grab a container, throw it in the microwave, and lunch was served. However, Mr. Briefs knew better than to eat any of his daughter's horrible attempts at cooking.
"Dad, c'mon. It's not going to kill you," Bulma plopped a plastic container in front her father. They both were in the main kitchen of Capsule Corp. Her father was trying to make an attempt to get out of there and away from his daughter, but she had him cornered. He looked down at the plastic food container. Warily picking it up, he rolled it around to try and get a better look inside of the black glop that was suppose to be food.
A small eye cracked open all of a sudden. It's narrowed pupil, almost reptillian-looking, moved and stared down Mr. Briefs.
The elderly inventor yelped in surprise and chucked the container across the room. It smacked the kitchen's large white fridge and tumbled onto the ground. The container's lid popped off and the black blob inside rolled out onto the floor.
Bulma put her hand on her forehead and rolled it through her hair in stress. "Ugh. Honestly, Dad," Bulma groaned. "I'll go get some paper towels."
When Bulma left the kitchen to go grab some extra paper towels from a large supply closet, Mr. Briefs seized the moment. "Now's the time to make our escape, Tama," the elderly scientist told his feline companion. "How does going to a steakhouse sound to you?"
"Mew," the tiny cat mewed, liking the choice.
Back in Wonderland
BURP!
"Damn it," Vegeta covered his mouth. He held up a piece of a partially digested bit of paper. "I think I ate the tag that was tied to the cake"
He bagan to pace around the room, walking the entire outer perimeter in circles. He had long exhausted any entertainment for himself. Everything was still a wreck, all of the walls had writing and poorly-drawn pictures on them... what else was there to do? Vegeta felt like he was near the point of ripping his hair out. In times like this, when struck hard by utter boredom, Vegeta's quick solution was to ki blast random things (flammable items were the best).
Deciding on doing just that, blowing things up to kingdom come, Vegeta attempted again to power up.
Still nothing.
(It's just a fluke. That's all,) the saiyajin reasoned in this thoughts. Concentrating harder now, Vegeta tried once more to power himself up.
Still, his attempt yielded no result.
"How can this be! I'm a saiyajin, for hell's sake!" Vegeta yelled fiercely. "A powerless saiyajin is as good as dead!" He roared his frustration aloud. Clenching a fist, the knuckles under his gloves turning white from how tight he was clenching it, Vegeta slammed his fist down hard into the ground. It made impact and cause a bit of the floor to crank and sink in a little. Water also gushed wildly about from the hit.
Water?
Vegeta stared hard at it. He took his other hand and patted the ground. His gloved hand made a "splush" noise as he moved it. Indeed - it was water. No mistake. And it was beginning to rise at an alarming rate.
"Water? How? Where is it coming from?" Vegeta looked frantically around. It was difficult to see the source of where the water was seeping in with all the broken items scattered about. Vegeta began cursing in his head, only now regretting his little fun time he had earlier.
There were no exits, save for the many locked doors in the round room. Vegeta had already tried each one to see if any opened, and all proved to be locked tight. At this point, it didn't matter now with trying again to get a door, any door, open.
Vegeta rushed over to the closest door to him and desperately tried turning its knob, all the while slamming into the door with his shoulder at the same time.
"OPEN, YOU PIECE OF SHIT! OPEN!"
He moved to the next door and repeated his attempt again. As with the previous one, this door did not show the slightest sign of opening.
By now, the rising water level had already reached his hips. It gushed here and there, crashing violently into the walls and pulling everything it touched back with a tremendous yank. One large wave hit Vegeta hard from behind. Water rushed down his throat. He coughed and gagged, trying to clear it out. Another wave rushed up from behind, this one bigger than the last. It crashed hard against Vegeta, smacking him hard against the wall. As the wave drew back, it took Vegeta along.
"Aaaaah! BLLLBGRRRBLBLLLBBB!" watter muffled his cry.
A huge whirlpool began to form in the center of the room. All of the debris swirling about became sucked into the powerful vortex. Vegeta fought to reach the water's surface but his efforts were unsuccessful; the water was rotating too fast and too many broken materials from the room and hallway were blocking his path. A large cabinet, still mostly intact save for missing doors, suddenly rushed at Vegeta and knocked into the saiyajin hard. The large, wooden object was the last thing Vegeta saw before everything became blurry and the arms of darkness enveloped him.
Out on a stone path that lay along the boundary of one of Wonderland's many forests, an usual pair were walking along: one was a speckled green dodo who was donned in his newest attire - a solid black top hat and a matching tuxedo to go along with it. The other individual was a young, saddleback-gray Pomeranian goose who wore a royal blue Victorian-style dress.
"Is that true, Frederick?" the goose spoke to her partner. "The cutpurse was caught?"
"Aye. That it be. Their occupation be the downfall of they."
"Hmm. I believe thou art correct," nodded the goose in response. She shifted her parasol to her other shoulder. She was glad to have gotten the time to go out for a stroll on this fine day. It was also convenient to have bumped into Frederick, the tax-collector dodo, while she was out walking. She found his company to be enjoyable. Other citizens of Wonderland wouldn't be inclined to agree with her, though.
The two continued onward. The goose allowed Frederick to be more the talkative of the two and allowed herself to be more of the listener. She would nod mostly and every now and then, comment on a statement Frederick made.
Suddenly, a low groan interrupted their conversation.
"Didst thou hear that!" froze the Goose. She cowered back a little. Frederick paused and listened. He thought he had heard something not too far from them in the bushes. He watched them to see if there would be a sudden ruffling of leaves and branches. Only a light breeze grazed past and gently shook them. Nothing to worry about.
"My dear, it was merely the wind brushing past the bushes down yonder," Frederick announced assuringly. The Goose didn't feel her uneasiness lessen at all.
"Pray pardon me, but I am sure my ears did not play a trick on me," she responded. Frederick looked at her and sighed. "Wouldst it please thee if I took a look?" She nodded timidly. The dodo straightened his tux's collar and slowly walked up to the bushes. He pushed aside the branches and gradually moved forward to take a better look. He continued searching for the source of the sound the Goose had claimed she heard, but he could not find anything out of the ordinary amongst the vegetation. He returned, new clothes now somewhat tattered in certain areas, to the Goose.
"Plants are all that be there," he flatly stated as he looked his coat over. He wasn't thrilled to have it ruined, after so much money he had spent to buy it. He supposed he could always collect a little "extra tax" on a few unsuspecting Wonderland citizens to quickly get the money to purchase a new coat...
"Shallst we continue our stroll along this fine path, then?" the dodo asked. His partner didn't reply. Instead, her beak hung open and eyes widened. She held a wing up, a feather extended and shaking nervously. It was pointing to something behind the speckled dodo.
The bird slowly turned around.
And there it stood, the dreaded twig monster! Covered head to roots in dry crumpled leaves and icky mud, it was a fearsome sight to behold! It gave a terrible groan and started to limp towards the avian pair, who grasped one another in fright and screamed at the top of their lungs like frightened children. They then ran off in the opposite direction in a flash.
The scary twig monster mumbled something under its breath. It bent its body forward and shook itself like a wet dog.
"Ffrrfrrgrgrgrraaaaahhhh! Aaah," exhaled the twig beast. As the flora fell to the ground, it began to reveal a figure underneath. Two very angry-looking eyes popped up, along with an arm, a leg, pointy hair...
Yep. It was Vegeta. After he came to, he found himself in the middle of a forest covered head-to-toe in mud and other crud of nature. The water from the whirlpool earlier had dried off of his body, but when it mixed with the dirt from the ground, it cloaked Vegeta in an armor of mud, leaves, and broken pieces of tree branches. He wandered around in circles for a few hours in his muddy twig costume, completely disoriented. After some time passed, the saiyajin prince heard voices not too far from his location. He waddled over in the direction he assumed the people were and called out for them to get their lazy butts over and tell him where he was and possibly give him some directions to get back home. That was when he heard a male and female scream in unison and the clatter of feet making off.
"Inconsiderate dimwits," Vegeta ruffled his hair to get leftover pieces of dried mud out. He shot a death glare in the direction the birds ran off in, grumbled a few curses under his breath, and walked off.
XXXXXXXXXX
It's a known fact throughout the entire universe that saiyajins are an exceedingly savage breed with a keen desire for combat. To the saiyajin, the more fighting they could engage in, the better! They would start their morning off with a bowl of Frieza-brand pops, proceed into the afternoon with tea time, and relax in the evening with a little bloodbath, carnage, and utter annihilation of their enemies. There was never a dull moment in your average saiyajin day. Vegeta particularly missed the tea time.
However, evolution failed to grant the saiyajin one thing, one very important aspect which continued to plague one saiyajin at this very moment. It was a little something which seemed to primarily affect the males more than the females...
"Where am I?" Vegeta screamed in frustration.
If you guessed "direction" as the important thing Vegeta did not have, then you are correct!
The saiyajin prince walked up to a nearby tree and began banging his head repeatedly against the trunk. It was starting to give him one hell of a head-splitting headache, but he ignored the pain and continued on banging his head.
BAM!
BAM!
"HEY! STOP THAT!"
Vegeta did just that. He looked around. He didn't see anybody. Only the trees and a few talking flowers stood (the flowers kept silent at the moment, due to Vegeta getting annoyed with the flower's persistent chattering and thus, were mauled by the saiyajin as a result).
"Who said that?" he growled. "Show yourself!"
"I can do that."
"ARGHHH!" Vegeta stumbled back, surprised when the same voice a second ago popped up close in his ear. He madly swatted the area.
"Hey, hey! Quit it! I'm not a horsefly!"
Vegeta watched dumbfoundedly as a frowning mouth appeared in midair. Two stubby, fuzzy purple paws appeared next, a pair of pointy ears, whiskers, followed by the rest of the creature's body. It looked kind of familiar to Vegeta. He wasn't sure exactly who or what this strange animal reminded him of. The only thing he was sure of at the moment was that he didn't like it.
Almost instinctively, Vegeta threw a punch at the creature, but his fist connected with air and not flesh. The creature's image faded to smoke the second Vegeta's fist touched it.
"Sheesh, Mr. Grumpy Pants. Someone needs a hug!" the mysterious feline re-materialized from Vegeta's side. It held its paws wide opened and slowly floated to Vegeta.
Our favorite saiyajin prince wasn't too fond of hugs. He had an image to uphold! He was a fierce and ruthless warrior! A prince of the greatest race in the history of the universe! How could he instill fear in his enemies if he seemed like the "huggable" type?
"Hugs for you!"
Vegeta held his hands up in protest. "Stay back, you freak of nature!" he warned. The cat paid no heed and advanced closer. Vegeta, now freaked out, decided to bolt. He ran through the forest, dashing to and fro in order to throw off his furry persuer. "I *pant* think I threw *pant pant* that abomination off of my tail," Vegeta panted as he peered behind to see if the cat was following. When he saw no one was after him, he came to a stop.
"That woman," Vegeta took in a deep breath, "that woman... is dead!" Vegeta then went on what seemed like a never-ending rant about how Bulma should be banned forever from setting a foot inside any kitchen or touch any cooking utensil because whatever he ate last night, prepared by her, it had caused him to conjure this weird nightmare...at least, that's what Vegeta had assumed. Halfway through his rant, the purple feline, who looked a lot like Korin, popped up beside Vegeta. The purple Korin seemingly nodded in agreement whenever Vegeta mentioned in his rant how bad his wife's cooking was. Once the rant was finally done, the feline felt very dizzy from nodding too much. It bobbed in the air a little and bumped into Vegeta.
"..."
"..."
(No...this animal...has the power to outrun me? The prince of all saiyajins?) Vegeta asked in his thoughts. There was no way! And also, why him, of all people, was this feline bothering him for? Did he look like a cat person?
"Hug time!" the Korin-like cat once more inched towards Vegeta with paws outstretched.
"To hell with this, cat. I'm going to blast your hide to the afterlife, resurrect you with the dragonballs, kill you again, resurrect you one more time, then brutally slay you again!" Vegeta was prepared to fire a large ki blast at the feline. And you know what that means: common sense, by means of a miracle, has found our dear Vegeta at last. The world spins better when ki blasting stuff to your hearts content!
A devilish smirk graced its way on Vegeta's face. "Say goodbye, furball," Vegeta laughed wildly. Vegeta held an outstretched arm towards his opponent, powering up his ki frenziedly. A huge aura suddenly blazed around Vegeta, savage flames whipping around the warrior's body. His hair flashed to a bright golden blonde and his eyes morphed to a light green. The last scene the purple Korin kitty saw before succumbing to its death was Vegeta's malicious grin mocking the cat's demise.
...Is what Vegeta pictured in his mind's eye to be the most fitting ending. Unfortunately, it didn't happen.
Vegeta continued to merely stand there, arm out, and laughing uncontrollably at something (the feline could only assume) funny. Bit by bit, Vegeta's smirk faltered to a frown and his laughter died down. The cat floated in front of Vegeta's line of sight, upclose. It knocked on Vegeta's head with its paw to see if anyone was home.
"M-m-m-m-," Vegeta stuttered. The words he wanted to say simply couldn't come out properly.
"Mmmm," the purple Korin made the noise of the letter "M" with his lips, trying to figure out what word the stranger before him was attempting to say.
Then it struck the purple feline.
"Mayonaise?"
"NO!" Vegeta fiercely shot back.
"Awww... I like mayonaise," the cat sighed.
He pointed an accusing finger at the furball, enraged. "My powers! They're gone! You must have had something to do with this!" With rage building inside of him, Vegeta charged head-on at the cat, hands poised to grab the critter, skin it alive, and stomp on its lifeless carcass afterwards for hours and hours until the body was nothing more than a rumpled, worn-out carpet.
Except, there was no cat to grab.
In the blink of an eye, the purple Korin vanished from view. Vegeta swiped at the last spot Korin was before disappearing. The saiyajin prince stumbled and fell forward onto the ground, stirring up a small cloud of dust from the long skid mark he had created in his fall.
"Geez, you're a klutz."
Slowly, Vegeta began to pick himself up. Not standing up, he plopped back on his rear, knees bent up. He leaned forward and rested his arms on them.
He did not lift his head up, but rather kept it bent low, eyes closed and mind lost in contemplation.
Bit by bit, a long and thin tail began to emerge in view in mid-air. It started at the tip and began to work it's way down into view. The last piece of the figure to appear were a pair eyes (well, sort of eyes) and a mouth.
The figure, the purple Korin, floated over towards Vegeta and circled around him.
"And a sap. A klutz and a sap. Yep," the oddly colored feline mused to itself.
Suddenly, the feline found itself desperately gasping for air and gagging out a bunch of incomprehensible sounds. It waved its tiny paws wildly in panic.
Vegeta clasped his hands tightly around the animal's neck - the poor soul's head looking like a balloon about to burst any second.
"I am not in the best of moods right now, to be honest," Vegeta hissed, "My day started out terrible thanks to two brats gone missing. I had gotten lost in some deep and dark forest while searching for those little imps," he tightened his grip, "I think I caught poison ivy all over my body. I was thrown into some weird place that looks like it was sloppily drawn up by a piss ass drunk Kakarotto. And to top it all off," Vegeta brought the cat closer to his face, "I am now, it seems, virtually powerless and weak as a baby. So yeah, I'm going to be a bit cranky at the moment."
"You lost your powers, you say?"
"Eh?" Vegeta turned and looked to his side, where the cat's voice piped up suddenly. Purple Korin was literally inches away from his face, grinning ear to ear. Vegeta turned back to what he thought was the cat being strangled to death in his grip. The only thing he was grasping was a cat plush doll.
"That's really odd. I thought you had realized this much earlier."
Vegeta sprang forward and attempted to catch the cat, but he passed right through the purple Korin.
The saiyajin landed face-first in some weeds that were shaped like stars.
"It couldn't be his work...could it?" the feline continued talking to itself.
"HOLD STILL YOU PIECE OF-!"
"That's it!"
"Huh?" Vegeta froze. Perched on his head was the purple cat, cleaning its fur.
"GET OFF OF ME! Oh God, yuck! Cat hair!" Vegeta grabbed the cat around its waist and slammed it with tremendous force down hard on the ground like a football. A sickening "splut!" noise resulted from the impact.
The purple Korin kitty promptly died.
(I killed it?) Vegeta thought as he stared down at the corpse of the cat, surprised at the sudden outcome. In the first couple minutes he had met the feline, he grew a strong dislike for the animal right off the bat. With it now dead, Vegeta was sure he was doing this world a massive favor.
Just then, his stomach let loose a loud growl. Vegeta looked down at the dead cat, and nudged its lifeless body with his foot. The purple Korin's mouth flopped open to the side and its sandy pink tongue lolled out. Hunger was indeed gnawing away at Vegeta's insides. All around him, there really weren't any signs of food anywhere to be found. None of the surrounding plants looked edible. In fact, they all looked disgusting.
Vegeta bent over and picked up the dead feline by its long, striped tail. Giving it a quick look over, a wicked smile crossed his lips.
It looked like dinner would be served afterall.
To be continued!
