A/N – Yes, I know you've seen this beginning before: Vegeta, being the rightful prince of his own planet, and Bulma getting thrown in the mix. However, I want to go about this my own way and add some twist and turns to that cliché. Along the way, I hope you are entertained and enjoy the story.
.Disclaimer.
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.Chapter One.
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Beige boots pounded against hard marble floors, but the sound was lost against the explosions outside. The light from the blast splashed the starch white halls a horrible yellow, casting dark shadows. Chunks of dust and debris shoot from the open windows. Shouts of both pain and excitement echoed in and out of the Imperial Palace.
The owner of the beige boots, a girl, ran around the corner and down another white hall. The girl stopped short of a plain painting. Quickly, she pulled a hidden lever and a small door opened. She scurried inside and was met with a dark stone tunnel. At top speed, she ran down the winding passageway.
The only light in the darkness was the blue glow of the radar on her forearm. All that was heard were the faint sounds of battle seeping in through the stonewalls and her dull, but frantic, footsteps on the earth. Her heavy panting seemed horribly loud as she strained to hear anything else. She quickly ran through her plan, thinking through any scenarios that might happen along the way.
She tried to anticipate all the obstacles on the way to the escape pods; but her mind kept frantically thinking up ways she could turn the battle around and chase the enemy off the plant. One questioned burned at the front of her mind, and no matter what she did, she couldn't push it back.
How could this have happened?
Tokoshimo-sei was heavily defended, invulnerable. It was revered by the entire universe as being impenetrable. No planet had ever been so arduous to land on. This was all due to heavy force fields, scanners, radars, check points and of course the most advanced weapons in the cosmos; which were all updated daily. So how had the enemy actually managed to invade them?!
As she turned a sharp corner, the earth shook beneath her and the walls swayed. Loose gravel began to fall from the ceiling and to the girl's horror; she could hear the boom of the tunnel caving it. Without looking back, she quickened her pace, faster than she thought possible, adrenaline pumping through her veins. In a panic she ran straight past a right turn.
She cursed, but was glad when she head the crashes stop and the last pebbles settle. She slowed and leaned against a wall, panting for breath and turned around to squint at the slopping wall of dirt.
'No way but forward.' She thought with a frowned as she began to run again, now she would have to go the long way to the docking bay.
The blue glow from her radar turned a flashing red. Her eyes widened as she looked to the small screen; the flashing screen showed an arrow pointing to her right along with a number.
Gasping, she leaped forward as the wall beside her exploded with a bright flash of red. Large chunks of stone flew in all directions and dust filled the air. The force of the blast sent the girl crashing to the floor, ripping the knee of her white pilot pants. The girl then pushed herself up and ran without looking back. She knew there was no way she could get caught.
She had to get out. She had too.
Tears of anger and guilt burned her blue eyes and threatened to slip onto her dust-covered cheeks. She was running away. Though, she knew that if she were caught, the enemy would use her against her own people. She felt like screaming in frustration, turning around and jumping right into the cold and bloody fray that was occurring outside the tunnel. But the words of her father echoed in her ears.
'You are the only hope of our planet. Our power, our knowledge, our future, all lay with you.'
She closed her eyes briefly, she was almost there! She could see the streams of light pour down the barred exit in the ceiling of the tunnel. She could see the snow gently fall from the opening and gather on the grimy stones. She could almost feel the snowflakes against her skin. She could even see the white snow outline the ladder that led out of the darkness.
"Princess Bulma, just the girl I was looking for."
She gasped in surprise and threw herself back into a defensive crouch. For a brief second her thoughts angrily turned to her radar, 'Why hadn't it detected him?!' She quickly pulled out her pistol and shot in the direction of the voice.
The beam of white shot out, hitting the stonewall as the target skillfully dodged. The wall was left with a gaping hole, light flooded in as bright snow tumbled into the passage. Bulma strained to see the darkness beyond the bright new supply of light, making sure to keep herself hidden in the darkness.
She frowned, knowing that her enemy had the advantage. Not only could he smell her, hear her, see her, he could probably feel her. And since the enemy had somehow found a way to defeat the machine, she might has well off been quadriplegic
She raked her brain for what to do, anything. She eyed both the newly made exit and the original, her mind calculating the possibility of escape if she made a mad dash. Desperately, she tried to predict any sort of scenario were she would get out of this alive. Her eyes narrowed in frustration and anger as she came up with none. If only the machines would work!
How had the enemy found a way around them?
A low rumbling chuckle echoed in the passage. Making Bulma's eyes search the tunnel in vain. She couldn't even make out a shadow, even with the light from the blast.
"You're angry. What? Mad your little machines have failed you? That Tokoshimo was finally invaded?"
He was taunting her? That damn race had to be the most egotistical beings in the universe! She lightly shook her head to clear her mind. She needed a plan!
"You damn Ningens are the weakest race in the universe without your machines." The enemy said calmly, though she could hear the disgust in his voice. She said nothing, though her mind reeled through a million comebacks. She needed to think of something! Anything!
Suddenly, she felt hot breath on her neck, her eyes widened and her heart pumped frantically.
"Hmph, I can practically taste your fear." The enemy said low and husky. She could almost feel the smirk on his face, his lips on her ear, the low rumble in his throat, the heat from his body.
Her fist tightened near her pocket, brushing against a flat circular disk. The prototype b7-4! But, she had yet to test it, so it could possibly backfire. She had put it together last night in a fit of inspiration; she hadn't even shown it to her Father yet. She was going to that morning...
Anger and rage exploded through her as she thought of all that had happened to her life in a single day, and without hesitation or thought of the consequences, she reached for her invention.
Quickly pulling out the circular cartridge, she latched it to her pistol, raised its muzzle to the ceiling and pulled the trigger. Before she could blink, yellow and blue ki rapidly began to flow from all directions. Green ki was sucked from her body and red ki steadily flowed from behind her. The ki settled in a ball of white light above the weapon.
The enemy stepped back.
Bulma smirked, she could practically taste his surprise. Suddenly her blue eyes widened as the ball of energy shook, unstable, she could feel the power heat the pistol. Her arm began to shake as the energy refused to be contained and before she could react, the ball exploded sending a blinding flash of light and power.
Bulma let out a scream as she was thrown forward to the ground; the pistol was torn from her hand by the force of the ki. She hugged her arm to her chest in pain, feeling as if her very bones had shattered from the tremendous kickback. As if all that power had been sent straight at her. She closed her eyes in pain as she felt her head slowly sink into cool snow.
A few seconds later, her consciousness returned and she bolted upright to her feet to get her bearings. Her head spun, causing her to fall back onto the ladder behind her, but not noticing it. Bulma took a second to let her body return to normal. She heard nothing but a dull pounding ringing in her ears, her muscles felt like searing iron, her bones felt like shattered glass. She was hyperventilating and her heart hammered as if it was trying to burst through her chest.
Bulma looked up towards the way she had come from, and tried to peer into the pitch darkness but couldn't see past the bright light and snow that had rushed in from the latest explosion. The tunnel was literally blown in two.
She looked to see that she was under the original exit, the one she had been heading for. She began to turn around but she had difficulty moving her stone-like muscles. Groaning in pain and frustration, she did finally manage to pull herself up. She looked over her shoulder for her enemy and saw a pile of snow begin to stir. Panicked, she began to stiffly climb the ladder that lead to the top.
Adrenaline numbed her pain away as she heard a string of curses behind her. Abruptly, before she reached the top, it was blown away with a red ki blast causing Bulma to fall back on the ground.
Landing roughly on her back, she turned herself around so that she could see her enemy.
The blood in her veins turned to ice, ceasing all blood flow and locking her limbs in place. Her eyes widened in absolute terror, her heart ceased to beat, she could no longer hear the explosions or the cries of battle. Her tongue became thick in her mouth. For there before her stood none other than:
"Prince Vegeta..."
--.....--
Vegeta shook the horrible icy substance off him and found that his muscles ached. Growling in anger he ignored their cry and popped out of the thick snow like a daisy, a muscular, homicidal daisy.
With the sudden motion Vegeta found his sight doubled. He shook his head to clear his mind. Snow fell softly to the ground from atop of his head. He looked around annoyed, and saw the offending weapon that had brought on his stiffness.
'That wasn't in the blue prints.' He thought angrily. He had studied those damn blue prints for the last six months, making sure he knew every machines weakness, every way to mislead it, make it completely otiose, to absolutely obliterate it. And that was extremely difficult when these blasted Ningens made sure to upgrade them daily!
However, now that they had found one weakness that all the machines had, that the Ningens had no idea how to repair, the Saiyan race was finally able to invade them and end this five year war.
He had been in an ecstatic mood since they landed on the frozen planet; knowing he could now crush them like the vermin they were. He could rip their treacherous, dishonorable defenses away from them. Every force field, every scanner, every armor, every bomb, every weapon, every gun.
How he hated those
But he had known the weakness to every one of them; sure they were malfunctioning a bit to begin with, but he had single-handed annihilated those damn things. He had shot through the force fields, he had avoided the scanners, he had defended himself against every weapon, even their biological ones and he had destroyed every gun he saw. Not one could touch him.
Yet, here was a machine that had actually managed to hurt him. Sure it didn't knock him out, hell, he didn't even have a scratch; but that wasn't the point. He loathed their damn machines, loathed. And the fact that one of them had caught him by surprise and actually managed to affect him, was just bit infuriating.
The Ningens always had their tricks. They could do nothing but depend on their machines.
Vegeta shot out a quick blast of ki to destroy the gun, smirking when it did not rebound off it like it was a bouncy ball.
'Stupid force fields.' Vegeta thought, as he remembered that they once had.
He smirked again; his bloodlust was actually being feed by destroying the cursed tin cans. After all, it's not like the Ningens were any challenge, his poor men had probably already taken the city; only their grudge making the fight exciting.
The war really should have been an hour-long battle, instead of the five years; considering that the Saiyan race was biologically advance on every possible level. The Ningens had no physical prowess whatsoever, only their technology, and now that was nothing. The Ningens were done for.
Vegeta looked up to see a white fur trimmed cloak scurry up a ladder up to an exit. He growled and shot a red ki blast at the exit just above the girl. She fell to the ground with a cry and turned herself around to face him.
He saw her eyes widen in terror, the puffs of air had ceased to come from her mouth. The flushed color that had gathered in her cheeks from running, drained to leave them as white as the snow.
"Prince Vegeta..."
His sour mood slowly began to melt away as he was filled with excitement at the smell of her fear. He let a cold smirk slide carelessly on his face. He slowly walked towards her, his chin up high, his eyes on her; like a lion on the prowl.
Quick clouds of air began to flush out of her mouth as she began hyperventilating. Her eyes shifted quickly side to side, like a mouse looking for an escape. Her fingers began to twitch as if waiting for a command for action.
"Don't do anything stupid, Princess... who knows what the consequences might be." Vegeta warned, his voice low and mocking.
She shakily stood herself up staring him down in the eye. Her ivory hood fell back and the light caught her face.
He raised his eyebrow; she was pretty; beautiful even. Though few people outside the Ningen race had ever seen her, her beauty was known throughout the galaxy.
She stood in a beam of light that came through the hole he had made a few minutes ago. Causing her to look anything but mortal amongst the pitch darkness of the rest of the tunnel. Snow gently fell down around her; her curly aqua hair to glimmered in the light. The snow that landed on her skin blended for it was the same shade of light. Her blue eyes shimmered with the fear and determination of a cornered animal.
Suddenly she yelled and Vegeta looked on, not too surprised at the sudden outburst. She reached at the beige pouch on her hip and pulled out a familiar metal ball. The Princess hurled it at the space in the darkness between them.
He had no worries. The ball was a device that exploded and released a gas that was toxic to the Saiyan race. Something in his DNA did not fight the ... virus…or germ…thing…that the gas contained, or something like that. All he knew was that it could potentially kill him.
Well, not anymore, he and every one of his men had been injected with the cure, or gene…so that…
…
He knew he was once again invincible to the devious Ningens.
He easily brushed the once toxic blue gas away from his face, though now that he was actually conscious long enough, his nose registered a flowery smell.
He sensed a stray ki blast coming towards him from his right. He lifted an arm to deflect it, but more followed. Annoyed, he sent his own ki blast in the direction of the oncoming blast. With a loud boom, the ki blast stopped. He turned back to the Princess and found she was gone. He smiled a little, and let himself hope that she might put up a good chase.
He walked to where she once stood and flew out the exit.
--....--
Bulma ran through the snow, not leaving any footprints. Her breath was once again bright white puffs and she could hear the electrical explosions of machines nearby. The wind was biting at her face as she ran toward the escape ships, her cloak flapping wildly behind her.
She knew the damn Saiyans had found a way to make the G8-9 bomb as harmless as air freshener, compared to what it once was. The only useful thing it did now was release an enzyme that numbed the neurons that perceived smell, causing the Mitra cells to sit by idly, instead of sending information to the olfactory system in the brain. It even affected the vomeronasal organ that detected pheromones
Thus, it only left the Saiyans without a trace of the olfactory sense for a few hours.
Bulma let out a frustrated growl. How could the Saiyans have found out about the electric pulse that was necessary to make the machines malfunction? Let alone find out how to execute such a pulse? Even then, the machines had a backup program if such an event occurred, but the back up system seemed to have been destroyed by a virus...
Bulma shook it from her head and quickened her pace; she needed to get out of there. She ran as fast as she could and knew that the Saiyan was behind her following.
And not just any Saiyan, but the Prince of Saiyans.
Her heart jumped into her throat at the very thought. How had he cornered her in the secret tunnels? Only the royal family and their most trusted guards and advisors knew about them! Why- how?! Everything was going wrong! None of this was suppose to happen!
There was no way she could get to the ships on foot; she needed to find a hovercyle. She began to run toward the nearby battle. She was sure to find one close by, hopefully in working condition.
Besides, if she was lucky, that Prince would jump into the battle. He was infamous for his blind bloodlust. 'He's a mindless Saiyan after all.' She thought bitterly.
The smell of blood and smoke stained the normally crisp air. She ran through the bare trees, gilding over the icy snow. The once eternally white forest was charred and burned in some places from misfired blast. The pure snow was stained a horrible black. There were no aquila birds singing, only the sound of men screaming in agony or joy.
Bulma ran to the edge of the battle, where the snow was dyed red. The Saiyans had already wiped through this part of the land, leaving only bodies of flesh and metal. Bulma glanced at her scanner knowing it could still detected Ningen life forms; her eyes teared up when the screen was blank. Pressing a button, the screen changed to detect heat. Bulma extended her arm towards the battlefield and ran in blindly.
She hugged her stomach with one arm as the stench of blood hit her. There were limbs thrown about, organs torn and left to stain the snow. Her eyes teared up again and they stayed glued to the screen. She jumped and darted over bodies, desperately trying not to step on anything but white snow. She failed.
The scanner warmed up and an arrow appeared, pointing east. She followed and soon found a dirty white hovercyle with minimal damage lying on its side and hurriedly picked it up. It was smoking and she quickly opened a metal door at the base. Pulling a few wires and pressing a few buttons, Bulma then pulled a disk from her beige pouch and inserted it into a slot and slammed the door shut. Bulma set the program for repairs.
It rose off the ground and she dove on. A force field shot around her, encasing her in an invisible protective egg. Blue and yellow letters, numbers, graph, radars and maps flew around her, Bulma felt like crying in anger, knowing they were all useless now.
Ironically, the only thing of value was the primitive mirror that had been tape on by the previous recipient. For in that mirror was the reflection of the Saiyan flying behind her
Bulma was going to scream in anger. She was going to get away from him if it was the last thing she did.
Bulma could see the docking bay. It was so close! She needed to out run him, and she knew there was a possibility. That's what this cycle was for! It was made for this kind of combat in space; it could match and beat an average Saiyan.
But this was the Prince.
Not only was it a slightly older model (three months), the fuel was low, it was beat up, and it was malfunctioning.
And the Prince of Vegeta-sei was after her.
"No!" Bulma shouted out loud. She needed to get away! She couldn't lose hope. She was the planet's hope, all the secrets, all the information, all the power of her family, history of her planet, people, and machines laid with her. She would escape and she would make sure every Saiyan would be wiped from the universe.
Bulma willed the cycle to go faster, but soon the Saiyan was right beside her. Smirking at her. Bulma took a deep and angry breath; she had to think of something. She needed a plan, for the sake of her planet.
But before Bulma could even scream, the Saiyan raised a finger and shot a thin beam of ki at the engine. The engine exploded behind her and she was flung to the ground. Bulma let out a scream, more of anger then of fear, as she was reminded, yet again, that the force fields didn't work. Not only that, he had shot at the one place that would take the cycle beyond any hope of repair! How had he known?!
She was falling fast to ground, and her mind still searched for something to do. The ground was getting closer and closer and Bulma was being filled with the dread that she had failed.
She was suddenly jerked back by her white cloak, ten feet before her face hit the cold snow. She was suspended by her cloak for a few seconds before she reached up and squeezed the clasp, causing her fall straight to the ground. She heard cruel laughter as she hit the ground, leaving a Bulma-shaped-indent in the snow.
Not wasting anytime, Bulma jumped up and ran toward the docking bay. She realized that the blast from the cycle had actually propelled her forward leaving her only 100 yards away from her destination. Tears of relief and hope filled her eyes, her legs burnt, her lungs felt like they would explode, her heart felt like it had gone into cardiac arrest hours ago, and every nerve of her body told her that she wouldn't live to enjoy her escape.
She ran faster.
Bulma ran towards the metal door, she just hoped it would open, that the pulse hadn't fried the circuits. She decided not to risk it because she could hear the Saiyan behind her. So reaching into her beige pouch she threw a small, but powerful, bomb straight at the middle of the door. Hitting her target she ran in through the smoke
For the third time that day, her eyes widened in unfathomable horror. The blood in her veins turned to black ice, and began to pound in her head as if her body could not stand one more shock. Her heart pounded against her rib cage so fast it felt like one steady beat. She felt like she had just swallowed her tongue. Her entire body went numb.
The room before her was filled with Saiyans. Some coming out of ships, some loading up machinery, some giving orders, others obeying and some going through the computers for information. It seemed as if there was a lot of commotion, but now that she had run in through a loud explosion, into the middle of the room, in plain sight of more than 500 Saiyans, all eyes were on her.
Bulma felt like crying, like collapsing right then and there and sobbing for her Father. She felt like every shred of hope had been viscously ripped from her very soul. From the start her escape plan had been doomed. With the Saiyans before her, she realized how planned, how accomplished, how brilliantly conceived the invasion had been; and that her Ningens didn't stand a chance.
She had failed.
Her mind, for the first time in her life, seemed to go numb and stopped thinking. She did not jump to find a plan, she did not look for a solution, she did not think of a machine that could possibly help her. She was not capable in that moment of anything but raw emotion, of wretched despair and sorrow.
She had run right into the arms of the enemy.
Numbly and without realizing it, she slowly began stepping away from the Saiyans before her. Bulma didn't even register any of the facial expression that were given to her, the primitive armor, the coarse spiky hair, or the notorious tail.
Suddenly, Bulma felt herself back it a hard surface, a warm one. She numbly turned around and fell back in dull shock, her legs no longer having the will to carry her. Her vision slowly began to blur as her eyes slowly traveled up the form before her. As she got closer to the face of the being, her vision blurred and darkened.
Then she saw an increasingly familiar cold smirk.
With a jolt her vision clear, her body felt like hot pins and needles, and her chest was filled with volcanic emotion. The numbness and weariness was gone from her as if she had been suddenly drenched with scalding water, electrified by lightning and burned by fire. Her mind raced with accusations, murderous plans, and absolute rage.
Before her stood Vegeta, Prince of Vegeta-sei, Prince of all Saiyans.
He was the personification of everything she loathed: selfishness, arrogance, carnage, chaos, darkness, savagery. He had destroyed her inventions and her machines. He had stained her snow, and her home. Her body quaked with hatred.
He was a Saiyan.
Her heart sped up, her unimaginable fury being the last straw. Her body was pushed past its limits long ago and refused to hold her up anymore. Her emotions were flared up, but her body refused to support them. Her limbs truly felt like lead and her blood felt like acid. She fought for consciousness, but her body felt death was within sight if it obeyed her.
Bulma fell into oblivion, with a royal smirk engraved into her vision.
--.....0.0.--
.To Be Continued.
--.....0.0.--
A/N – There you go. I started this a long time ago. I wasn't going to post this till I finished the whole story, but my profile was so empty, I had to post something. I'm nowhere near finishing either, and before I lose any more inspiration, I thought some reviews might liven me up
I live off your reviews. Helpful criticism will be absolutely loved and potentially worshiped.
Oh, by the way if you didn't notice, Bulma's planet is not earth, despite the natives still being referred to as Ningens. It is Tokoshimo-sei, which means, Endless Frost.