"You… you want me to come out to space with you?" Bulma's father spluttered in shock.
"Yes… three months is all it would take for you to see the benefits of this agreement… for both of us, of course."
"A three month stay! And a month's journey just to reach there and then again the same length back? That's five months' time! I can't leave my company and my kingdom unattended for such a long period of time… it would be disastrous." Dr. Briefs said, shaking his head while he spoke.
"Maybe… if the care is placed in the wrong hands, but I do believe that you can find someone trust worthy to look after both aspects of your life while you are away. And if you have no one that you can trust with such a task then I would have to doubt you're abilities as a king, speaking as a fellow king of course." King Vegeta said, leaning back on his chair "It is a kings job to know when a golden opportunity has befallen for his kingdom and it is a scientists job to explore the new and unexplained, you are both of these things so I am sure you will be able to make the proper adjustments."
"Why… yes. I suppose the Ox King could rule in my stead for a few months with my advisors help and Dr. Robards and my board of directors can look after the company. Oh, it is such an unbelievable opportunity to look at technology that in so many ways is much more advanced than our own" he said seemingly speaking to himself.
"Yes… okay I'll do it… I'll give you're Lord Frieza three months of my time" Bulmas father said finally.
Prince Vegeta did not like the way the old scientist said you're Lord Frieza. He was not his ruler and never would be, but Vegeta's father did not correct the old man so Vegeta sat there silently with his arms crossed, sullenly listening to this pointless conversation until he could go outside and train with Radditz and Nappa.
"Good we have a small ship manned by Lord Frieza's men that will be arriving tomorrow morning to take us to the base. We shall depart at that time." King Vegeta said preparing to stand up.
"Tomorrow morning! But that's not enough time! I have so much packing to do, notes to take, lab equipment to store for safe journey. I have to inform the Ox King and my advisors and see that the technicians will be able to handle my absence and… and my plants and animals… what about them?" said slightly panicked at the amount to do before leaving. "No no I need about a month to get prepared."
"A month? We do not have that kind of time… we have rulers from other planets that need our attention. We leave tomorrow" King Vegeta declared.
"Now wait just a minute!" Dr. Briefs cried "you can't just come in here and expect me to pack up and go the moment of your say so. I can't just up and leave! It just isn't possible." Bulma looked up to see her father shaking in indignation.
King Vegeta looked surprised at first and then nodded his head slowly and turned to Nappa "Fine… Nappa inform Captain Tygerias that we will need two weeks till departure" he turned back to Dr. Briefs "That should be enough time to settle any loose ends"
"Fine… fine. Two weeks' time" he did not seem very pleased with this either, but seemed not to want to argue about it anymore.
"I would also like to request lodgings in this area so that my men and I will be around the premises, if we are to stay here for two more weeks. Our space pods were only built for the journey and are not comfortable unless we are under the induced sleeping gas" King Vegeta explained.
"Yes, yes that won't be a problem, our compound has many rooms. My wife Bunny will show you to your rooms and get you settled in. I will head straight to the labs and start making the necessary adjustments for the expedition" Dr. Briefs said distractedly.
"Would it be alright if I join you Dr. Briefs" requested Bardock "I am something of a scientist back on my home planet and I would be greatly interested to see the various technology you have. If that's okay with you, my lord" he said turning back to King Vegeta, who nodded his approval.
Radditz was shifting his feet uneasily. His father's interest in the sciences made him a sort of laughing stock back on Vegeta-sie, even though Radditz knew that it was that interest that also made him a brilliant tactician and allowed him to create the artificial moon simulator, which allowed his people to win countless battles in other planets.
Dr. Briefs looked on in surprise to learn that this tall burly man had an interest in his work. He seemed to be more of a soldier than a scientist, but he knew from experience to not categorize people. Why Bulma was only a child and she had a far better understanding of science than many of his colleagues.
"Why yes, it would be wonderful to have an… umm… outsiders opinion of my work. Follow me and Bunny will show the rest of you to your rooms."
"Oh I'd love to" Bunny said, latching on to the nearest male, which happened to be Nappa. Nappa looked flustered and blushed brightly while King Vegeta merely rolled his eyes as the strange pair led them out of the dining room and into their temporary living quarters, the little Prince trailing behind muttering something that sounded like "idiot" under his breath.
Bulma watched as the two different groups left in opposite directions without a backward glance. Aliens, space visits and boys with monkey tails all in one day? Life did not get any weirder than that! She had to go find Chichi and tell her all about it. She was probably in the training room, where she usually was when she was nervous or bored. Chichi loved training as much as Bulma loved figuring out complex equations or riding her hover bike around.
Ten minutes later, Bulma was on the other side of the compound and was walking into the building that was used as a gymnasium/training area. They had built it a couple of years ago when Bulma was going through her Olympic Gymnastics phase. That had lasted about four months before she had completely lost interest and the place now stood abandoned except for the occasional aerobics classes her mother did there or when Chichi came to visit. Bulma pushed open the heavy door and saw Chichi doing her usual exercises. She was showing the old punching bag no mercy and Bulma had to admit that the little princess could definitely pack a punch.
"Chichi, why have you been in here this whole time? Hello! We have aliens on the premises! Isn't that cool?" Bulma said excitedly.
Chichi did not look back or stop with her exercises. "No it's not 'cool' Bulma. Did you see that thing that lifted me up? It was scary and dangerous and definitely not cool"
"Yeah that was pretty mean of them I guess. But still you should have been there. Apparently they want daddy to come up into space with them and teach them all about the Dynocaps and stuff. So there gona stay here for a couple of weeks until there ready to go up there. And they told us about some of the cool stuff they had… you think daddy will let me join him up there?"
"They came up here to talk about technology?… that doesn't make any sense" Chichi said wonderingly.
"What do you mean Chi" Bulma asked.
"Well they don't look like the science-y type you know… I mean I see fighters all the time at my dad's dojo and these guys… I don't know I have this feeling that they're extremely powerful. Built for combat you know and they were wearing armor" Chichi explained.
The door of the gym slammed open "Well you're right about that little earthling" Prince Vegeta said walking through the doors flanked by Radditz.
"I was told that this is your training room" the prince said looking around where the treadmill and weights were "Its pathetic. No wonder you humans are so weak"
"I am not weak" Chichi yelled. Bulma knew Chichi got extremely mad when people underestimated her strength.
Vegeta just stood watching them with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. The older boy, Radditz crossed over the room where the Olympic barbell stood with a one hundred pound plate on each side and watched as he lifted it up in the air with one hand and started flipping it around.
"Look at this thing Vegeta. It's so light one of our babies can bend it" he said laughingly.
"It doesn't seem like this place will have any decent sparring partners. I guess I'm stuck with you and Nappa again" Vegeta replied.
"Yes my lord, but if you could stick with Nappa my ass would sorely appreciate it" Radditz said with a mocking smile.
"Stand aside little girls, while we show you how a true saiyan prince fights!" Vegeta proclaimed "Come on coward, I've been cooped up in that pod for too long and you're the only one around."
Radditz grumbled something under his breath, but did what his prince asked. After a few stretches Bulma and Chichi watched in awe as the two boys engaged in a fight they had never seen before.
They were moving so fast that they seemed to be a blur, but every once in a while Bulma saw Vegeta and Radditz land a powerful punch or kick. She was not able to keep up with the battle, although Chichi was faring better than her and would often times gasp in horror when Vegeta kicked Radditz up into the air and then forcefully hit him back down to the gymnasium floor, which seemed to have acquired a number of cracks since the fight began.
Bulma was not entirely certain either, but it seemed that many times the two boys were flying while fighting, which she remembered them capable of. But not only that, but they were shooting blue lights out of their hands, and from the way that they were reacting when hit with these lights, it apparently hurt.
It was obvious that Chichi had been right that the aliens were built for fighting they moved so fast and there fighting was incredible. After a few more minutes of fighting, Radditz yielded. Prince Vegeta offered a hand to help Radditz up which Radditz took, wiping off blood from the corner of his mouth.
"An honorable fight, my prince" Radditz said, bowing to one knee his right arm placed over his heart and his head bowed.
"A worthy opponent" Prince Vegeta replied.
"Wow! That was awesome! Can you teach me how to fly and kick that fast and shoot those energy beams?" Chichi asked jumping up and down with excitement. Learning new techniques always got her hyped up and she seemed to forget the distrust she had for the newcomers.
"Sure it's not that hard, you guys are what about six…seven? You probably know how to control your energy and how to harness right? So teaching you how to fly shouldn't be that hard" Radditz replied.
"I'm eight!" Bulma replied indignantly "and harness our energy? What are you talking about?"
"You don't know how to harness your inner life force? Oh wow!" Radditz replied in bewilderment obviously not expecting them to be so inexperienced in something that the aliens thought was extremely easy.
"Don't waste your time on them Radditz" Prince Vegeta sneered
"Ahh it's not like we have anything else to do… we have two weeks to kill on this planet and sadly I'm not speaking literally" Radditz said chuckling lightly from his own joke.
"Fine do what you please… but I'm not going to play this fool's errand."
Wow, what a jerk Bulma thought, but Chichi paid no attention and eagerly went over to the older boy. Bulma sighed and sat down alongside her. She thought it would be cool if she learned how to fly and shoot laser beams and stuff, but she didn't think humans would be able to do it.
She watched as Vegeta walked to the other side of the gymnasium and start doing some air exercises. His movements seemed so precise and focused that she didn't think it was that hard to comprehend how the smaller, younger boy beat his older and fairly larger friend.
… so for now we'll start off small, since you guys have never done anything like this before. Let your body relax and make the fingertips of both your hands touch like this" he demonstrated cupping his hands and connecting each fingertip to the corresponding fingertip on the other hand creating a small oval shaped bowl. "and then focus all your energy into that cup… let it fill up."
"Fill up? How?" Bulma said feeling slightly stupid.
"How? I don't really know how to explain it quite honestly" he said rubbing the back of his head as Bulma had seen his father do only recently "I mean on my planet even the babies can control their energy so it kind of comes naturally really. But I think if you focus on that spot you should be able to feel the energy flowing and with some practice it should become easy."
Chichi nodded looking determined, and started staring at her hands fiercely. Bulma sighed and did the same thing, but she didn't feel anything. After five minutes of this she thought it was useless but Chichi gave a cry of triumph and Bulma saw what looked to be light blue wisps of smoke in her palm.
"I did it! Did you see Bulma? It wasn't much but I did it!" Chichi said excitedly breaking the concentration and making the wisps fade away.
"Not bad for a first timer, you train a lot?" Radditz asked.
"Yep! All the time! I want to enter the World Martial Art Tournament when I get older" Radditz looked impressed with but Bulma was just frustrated. She felt nothing at all.
"Keep going… you both have a long way to go" Radditz said. Bulma had to admit, Radditz seemed pretty cool. He was much nicer than the Prince that was for sure, but Radditz was kind of cocky too. He kept talking about all the "Saiyan" girls back at home and how he was such a ladies man… it kept breaking her concentration because she just had to roll her eyes.
Another hour had passed with them sitting on the floor before Bulma finally saw the light wisps of smoke that Chichi had. Hers were a lot frailer, but still she was proud to have done it. She was actually even sweating from the exertion.
"Good job Bulma, I knew you could do it" Chichi said happily. She had managed to get her wisps bigger and more solid looking and had even once formed it into a semi-circle.
"Yep! By the end of the two weeks you guys should have full control… how about we train a couple of hours a day. I can't do much more then that since I have training of my own." Radditz said with an easy smile.
Bulma heard Vegeta harrumph behind her. She had completely forgotten that he was there. It seemed he had been watching their progress for quite some time.
"That sounds wonderful! Thank you!" Chichi said "I'm going to practice on my own too!"
"Are you done here Radditz? I want to have a real fight" said the Prince lazily.
"Yes my lord, why don't I scout the area and see if there are any worthy life forms around" Radditz suggested.
"Good idea… although I doubt that we'll find any. In any case I want to explore" Vegeta said.
Radditz clicked on the green and red device that was attached to his face and it started scrolling sown number and letters in a language she couldn't understand.
"Hah Vegeta look at this, the girls power readings are so low. Look Chichi is at a 45 and Bulma is at an 8!" Radditz said mockingly. Vegeta did not look surprised; he just gave them another one of his smirks.
"I told you this planet was full of weaklings" he grumbled "anyway carry on. See if there is any one that can match me here"
"Hey! I found three power levels that are over one hundred and they are actually in the same area… do you want to check it out?"
"I don't see why we should… my own power level is at 275 and yours is at 160 Radditz. We can beat those guys easily. It wouldn't even be a challenge."
"Yeah that's true… but my father said that we sent my little brother Kakarot here so maybe one of those powers was his" Radditz explained.
"Another Saiyan… here? Interesting. Okay Radditz you got my interest lets go look for the brat." Vegeta said
"There was someone of your kind on this planet the whole time?" Bulma asked with shock.
"I guess so" Vegeta said uninterestedly. "we often send our babies to weak planets if we want to purge them of all life… although come to think of it … why are there still people living here if he was sent for that reason. He should have had enough time by now shouldn't he?"
"I don't know…. Maybe the power level wasn't him. Maybe he was somehow killed. Either way lets go and find out" Radditz said making his way to the door.
"WHOOA! Wait a second! Are you saying that you sent someone here to kill us!" Bulma said in shock.
"Yeah… it's kind of part of the job description. But don't worry about it. We don't need to anymore cause Freiza's now interested in this place so you guys are safe… for now." Radditz answered shrugging. Bulma did not like the sound of that.
"Come on Radditz! Stop wasting time." Prince Vegeta said, already heading out the door.
"Okay okay. Catch you guys later" he called back to them already zooming out the open door.
"Wait! Wait!" Bulma and Chichi called after them. But it was already too late.
*scene change*
Vegeta and Radditz were flying through the sky with tremendous speed. Vegeta had to admit, at least to himself, that Earth was a very beautiful and strange place. Vegeta-sie was a mostly desert climate with temperatures going up to 160° Fahrenheit because of its large sun, but here the temperature was cool and even cold in some part of the world where their smaller sun was unable to reach. And they had such drastic changes in landscape, green fields and forests with 200ft trees, waterfalls and artic landscapes and of course deserts. There were many different forms of wildlife also and they were not as fierce or strong as the animals from his planet. And there was so much water, he had read the update from the computer and knew that this planet was seventy percent water!
"How much longer to the destination Radditz?" Vegeta asked, not bothering to turn on his own scouter.
"We're about five minutes away. I wonder what my brother looks like, never saw him you know? I was in the training academy when they sent him away. He was only a day old when he was shipped off, dad said he was really weak though so I guess it doesn't really matter huh? It was a disappointment to mum though" Radditz said.
"Shut up Radditz… I don't care of the woes of a third class warrior" Vegeta said effectively ending the sentimental moment.
"Okay were here anyway I guess I'll see for myself" Radditz said landing down on a small island which had an even smaller house sitting on top of it. It was pink and read Kame House on it. Pink? And the strongest beings on this planet lived there? Pathetic.
He could see two kids training on the beach and an old man sitting on a lawn chair reading a magazine with a gigantic turtle beside him.
They landed down with a spray of sand, scaring the old man who flipped over the lawn chair scattering his magazines everywhere. The two boys stopped there spar and looked over at the new comers.
One of the boys was bald with six large freckles on his forehead and was extremely short, he was wearing a bright orange uniform the other boy was taller but not by much and he had spikey black hair that stood on end, a long red stick strapped to his back, the same uniform that the other boy did and… a furry brown tail extending from his back. Yep, that was obviously Radditz little brother, he was the spitting image of Bardock.
"I am Prince Vegeta, from the planet Vegeta-sei and this is my inferior Radditz. We have come to find his long lost brother… he goes by the name of Kakarot and we believe him to be you" Vegeta said pointing to the boy with the tail.
The two boys looked at each other with confusion for a moment, before the boy with the tail said
"Umm I don't know any Carrot mister… my names Goku and this is my friend Krillin. I think you might be lost"