Chapter 4
How had they ever gotten around before Goku had learned Instant Transmission?
Even though Krillin had been around all that time and knew well they could do well without it, he sometimes had a hard time imagining how things would look if his best friend weren't an interdimensional taxi. During the flight from his island to Mount Pazou he had been painfully aware of all the precious seconds it had stolen from him.
He, Goku and Gohan had just arrived back on Kame island, which had been completely deserted just a few moments ago.
„So, um… where is that ship?", Goku asked warily. Krillin hadn't taken the time to explain anything to the others and instead insisted to be taken back to the island. He was really grateful his friends had complied without stalling.
„It can't be far. It's only been an hour, maybe an hour and a half, it's gotta be around here somewhere", Krillin said and took to the air to get a better view of the area. Both of his companions followed him.
What they saw wasn't exactly what Krillin had been hoping for, but it didn't surprise him. There were several military vessels around there now, and Krillin knew it had been a wise decision to leave the island. He just hoped that Master Roshi and the Turtle would be okay on the boat they had taken back to the mainland.
„And… which ship, exactly, do you want to sink? And why?", Gohan asked. Both saiyans seemed slightly apprehensive about Krillin's mood, and he knew they had every reason to be. His usual cheerful self had yet to make an appearance that evening. And it probably wouldn't.
„Because they took Eighteen, and I want to get her back", he explained. „But the ship's not here" He spun around. He didn't know where the ship had been heading. It couldn't be that far, but where?
„They took Eighteen? What happened?", Goku asked worriedly.
„I'll explain later, I just need to find that ship, first." If only his wife had a ki he could sense. That would make everything to much easier.
„What's it look like?", Gohan asked.
„Kind of like those", Krillin said and gestured towards the other two ships that were moving along the sea lazily. „But bigger. Huge."
„Maybe we should seperate, all go in a different direction and whoever finds it powers up to alert the others", The younger saiyan suggested.
„Yeah", Krillin agreed and picked a direction to fly in without even waiting for the other two. He felt as if he couldn't stop moving. He was afraid that the dread that had been filling the back of his mind would consume him if he did. He much preferred doing everything in his power to solve the problem to dwelling on his fears.
The ship really hadn't gone that far, and he was glad to be the one to find it. He raised his ki to signal the others, but found it hard to concentrate on the act. But apparently it had been enough, because barely a minute later both saiyans were at his side again.
„So that's the ship, huh?", Gohan said. Krillin could tell that Gohan was impressed by the size of it, even though he'd already been told about that. Even from where they were, high up in the sky it still looked gigantic and imposing. Krillin had been living in this part of the ocean for a really long time and he had seen his share of big ships, but this one really took the cake. But from what he sensed there were surprisingly few people on there. Only a handful of ki signatures.
Krillin nodded at Gohan's question.
„And… you want to sink it?", Goku looked at him hesitantly. „I mean, there's people on there…"
What Krillin had thought initially when he had tried to sink it before was that Eighteen didn't need to breathe, and he honestly didn't care about the bastards who had taken her. He sighed. „No… you're right, sinking it's probably not the best thing to do. But I do need to get inside, and that's what I need your help for." No matter what he thought about these people, doing something that would very likely kill them was of course not the right thing to do, and it was probably good that he had Goku with him to remind Krillin of that. Besides, if he sunk the ship while Eighteen was deactivated, she wouldn't be able to swim back to the surface and that would defeat the whole purpose.
Goku seemed relieved that Krillin agreed. „Well, getting in's probably not difficult." The saiyan powered up a moderate ki blast and aimed it at the top of the ship in an area where he couldn't sense any of the kis. He shot, and when the explosion cleared looked dumbfunded to see the ship practically undamaged.
„See?", Krillin said. „That's exactly what I had trouble with."
„But… how does that work? It's just a boat!" Goku seemed very confused.
„I don't know, all I do know is that I want it to stop working", Krillin emphasized.
„Well I guess we need some bigger guns, then", Goku said, and cupped his hands at the side of his body. „Ka… me… ha… me… HA!", he yelled, and a blinding flash of light shot at the top of the ship. When the smoke cleared they could see that this time he'd been successful in blowing a hole into the ship's hull. But considering the power of the blast that had hit it that hole was much smaller than it had any right to be.
Still, it was a hole, and Krillin didn't waste any time entering, his two companions following closely. They ended up in a small corridor that was slightly melted at the edges of the hole, but not nearly as melted as any of them would've expected.
„Am I slacking off, or is this ship just built incredibly well?", Goku asked, as he inspected the damage. He really seemed to be in awe. Funny how he didn't care all too much for any technology, but finding something very sturdy filled him with fascination.
Krillin on the other hand was slightly relieved that it had taken so much of the saiyan's power for this little impact, because it meant it wasn't really the small monk's fault that his earlier attempt at breaching the hull had been so inconsequential.
But the ship itself really wasn't what he was interested in at all. He closed his eyes to concentrate on the ki signatures on the ship. With people who weren't martial artists it was hard sometimes to tell their ki's apart, since most of them were pretty equal in strength, but Krillin had carefully memorized the signature of the man with the mustache and the soldier that had been with them, so he could pick them out now that he was close enough. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it, when he realized that only the soldier was still on the ship, but the man with the mustache wasn't. It had been quite clear which of them had been in charge, and if he had already left the ship it was possible that he had taken the beautiful android with him.
Only one way to find out… Krillin stalked off in the direction of the soldier he had encountered before.
It took him almost ten minutes to find the guy, because even though he wasn't that far away from where they had entered, the complex layout of hatches and corridors within the ship made it hard to locate him. When he came to another door that was slightly ajar, though, he heard a voice and immediately knew it was the right one.
„I'm telling you, that must've been this guy from the island!", a frantic man shouted inside. „Seriously, when we were there he shouted ‚Deadly Frisbee' or something and threw this weird kind of light at the ship. If anyone manages to breach the hull it must've been with something like that."
Krillin pushed the door open. Apparently they were in some sort of control room, since there were computer panels at all the walls. As they noticed the door opening, everyone present turned around, and the man that had been standing in the middle of the room went pale as he recognized the intruder.
Without hesitation he stepped up to the young soldier, and had to admit in the back of his mind that he was a little happy to see the man who was almost two heads taller than himself cower in fear.
„Where is she?", he snarled, and was a little surprised at the venom in his own voice. He wasn't sure he'd sounded this hostile even during their fight with Vegeta when he'd first arrived on Earth. Having his family threatened brought out a whole new layer of resentment for these people that he couldn't even dreamt about before. Not that he would've ever dreamt about hating someone.
„I… I don't know!", the man yelped helplessly.
„Bullshit", Krillin said, and grabbed the soldier by his collar to yank him down to his eye level.
„Really! The… the general left with her and his science team as soon as we had departed from the island. I don't know where they went, I swear!", he stuttered.
„Anyone else here know where they went?", Krillin asked and looked at the others on the bridge one by one. Most of them didn't seem to understand quite why their colleague was so terrified, but they look on the noseless man's face made it very clear that he wasn't someone to be messed with right now, no matter how short he was.
„Uh… no, sir", someone seated at a control station said. „They used a special aircraft that I've never seen before. It vanished from our radar before we could even tell which direction it was heading. You… you can check the logs if you want to."
„And they didn't tell you where they were going? Or why they kidnapped my wife?", Krillin snapped.
„No sir. It was something high level, top secret. We don't even know why they needed a ship as heavily reinforced as ours to just visit an island. We only got orders, we don't know about the reasons", the same person said.
„I… think they're telling the truth", Goku said uneasily.
Even though Krillin wanted to deny it, wanted to believe they were lying, and not accept that his only clue was a dead end, he instinctively knew Goku was right.
„If you've got any more information, you'd better tell me right now", Krillin said threateningly to the man whose collar he was still holding in a tight grip.
„I only know the orders, I'm sorry", the man said and waved his hands apologetically. There was nothing more to be gained from staying here, so Krillin reluctantly let go. Then the image of that man threatening his daughter flashed through his mind, and he curled his fingers into a fist and hit the man squarely in the jaw, hoping it would make him feel better.
It didn't; he had to restrain his power to not risk any long term damage to the soldier, and seeing the guy knocked out cold left him with a hollow feeling of non-victory. And that could do nothing about the sinking despair inside of him that came from knowing that he had failed his wife.
Half an hour later in the Son's living room he was just in the middle of telling his friends about what had happened and had yet to touch the cup of tea that was standing before him. The kids were off in Goten's room, and Krillin had no idea where Vegeta was, but the rest of the people in the house were listening intently to what he had to say.
„And then the guy threatened to have this EMP wipe out all of Eighteen's memories." He sighed. „Maybe he was bluffing, I don't know that much about the technical stuff, but he did have the remote, and I just didn't think I could risk it… that was probably stupid of me, but…" He ran his fingers through his hair. „There was a gun pointed at my daughters head. It just… messes you up, you know? I mean, she doesn't have superpowers, she's just a sweet little girl…"
Just thinking about the feeling he'd had when he'd seen the gun made his hands shake. Badly.
„Even if they do have superpowers it doesn't make it any better seeing them threatened", Chichi said sympathetically and patted his arm. He saw Bulma nodding, and was grateful to realize that his reaction hadn't been that stupid after all.
„You didn't do anything wrong, Krillin", Goku agreed.
„Can't help feeling like I did", the small monk said with a bitter tone to his voice.
„We'll find her", Goku said with that trademark optimism of his.
„I sure hope you're right. But what if they do something to her? You know, mess with her programming or something?"
„Whatever they do, I'm sure Bulma can find a way to fix it", Goku emphasized. Bulma herself didn't look quite as sure, but she nodded in agreement anyway. For a moment everyone was silent.
„Well, I'm gonna go set up the beds for everyone", Chichi announced and stood up. „If there's anything you or Marron need, just tell me, okay?"
„I will, thanks", Krillin said. It just occured to him that they were a lot of people for the Son family's small house, but it seemed as if Chichi had everything under control. She left to prepare something.
„So…", Krillin started after a while. „Is it true what they said about the bomb? On West City?"
„Yep", Bulma said, looking at her hands. „Vegeta was just talking to me about something funky the GR did, when suddenly he grabbed me and started flying, an instant later…" she sighed. „I just thank my lucky stars that he's so good at breaking the damn thing. If he'd been in any other room at that moment, I'd be… poof!" She had a forlorn look on her face, and said the ‚poof' quietly. Something about the way she said it sent a shiver down Krillin's spine. He had his own experiences with going ‚poof' and that just made the thought all the more unsettling. He could tell from the way Gohan and Goku looked that it made them uncomfortable as well.
„We have to do something about this", Goku said. „This whole thing is just…"
„And what can we do? That's not exactly what we're specialized in", Bulma said.
„Well… I don't know. The Dragonballs, maybe?"
„Somehow I have a feeling a wish from a magical dragon isn't simply gonna fix this", Bulma announced.
„We could wish West City back to the way it was", Goku suggested.
„Sure, but it's not much use trying to fix the damage when people are still set on destruction. Besides, with the Boo thing everyone died once."
„Okay, so maybe the Dragonballs aren't the best solution right now, but maybe they're gonna be useful later", Gohan conceded. „Do you have the radar?"
Bulma shook her head. „That was at home."
„Can you build a new one?"
„Yeah, I think so, but I don't know how quickly. I don't have the parts here, and it's been a really long time since I built it, I don't know all the schematics that well anymore."
„Doesn't Capsule Corp have backups?", Gohan wanted to know.
„Sure, for all of our technology, but I never uploaded the dragon radar to the servers, because I was afraid someone might gain access and I didn't want to risk it. Just imagine if the people who threw the bomb or these jackasses that have been calling me all day could use the dragon balls. The only plan I ever had for the radar was in a tiny pink notebook I kept as a teenager." She didn't need to say it out loud for everyone to know what had happened to that particular book now.
„But, you're a genius and everything, right?", Goku asked hopefully.
„Yeah", she said with a small smile. „I can build a new one, I'm just taking it might take a while."
„So, in the meantime, what do we do?", Goku wanted to know. „I mean if anyone can fix this mess, it should be us, right?"
„I'm not so sure about that", Krillin said warily. „This isn't some bad guy attacking the world, these are regular people. We can't just hit them with a couple of ki blasts."
„I guess there's not much we can do right now", Gohan agreed. „We need to know more about this whole conflict to figure out how we can help. What the world really needs right now is not fighting, it's dimplomacy."
„But… we always save the world. I don't think I can just sit around and wait", Goku said helplessly. The others in the room looked at each other. They couldn't help but agree with the sentiment.
For the first time it looked as if the world was falling apart around them and they might not have the power to save it.
When Gohan got up in the morning, Vegeta was already outside, doing some basic training exercises. The older warrior looked a lot better than he had the day before, and Gohan was allowing himself a glimpse of hope that maybe goign to Dende's had helped after all, or maybe saiyans were just resilient enough for the radiation not to be that big a problem.
When he tried to go to the bathroom he'd found Krillin there, trying to convince Marron to use the toilet, who apparently didn't like using the potty anywhere else but at home, and on his way into the kitchen he'd almost tripped over the two other demi-saiyans who were playing hide and seek or maybe tag. His mom was standing at the stove and frying bacon, while Goku and Bulma were sitting at the table waiting for the food to be ready.
„Chichi, really, I could help you. You don't need to do the cooking for all of us on your own", Bulma insisted as Gohan entered, and waved good morning.
„No, I'm fine doing this, don't worry", Chichi said cheerily.
„You just don't want me to mess up your cooking, right?", said Bulma.
„Well, Is wasn't going to say it quite that directly…", Chichi replied.
Goku laughed and Bulma shot a glare at him. „Sorry, B, but you gotta admit, she has a point there."
Bulma sighed. „Well, I was just trying to be helpful." When she saw Gohan she said, „Good morning! There's a letter for you"
She pointed to a white envelope, which Gohan eyed curiously. They didn't get mail all too often, and mostly it was bills, and when it was directed at him usually something about school. He hadn't really expected to get any letters during summer break.
He tore open the envelope and pulled out the sheet of paper. He had to look at the headline twice, before he could even start to comprehend its meaning.
„What the…" he whispered as he read the text.
„Something wrong?", someone asked, but Gohan was so caught in the contents of the letter that he wasn't even quite sure who it had been.
„This can't be right…" he said. His thoughts started spinning. Obviously there was no way he would… but how to get out of it? „That's just…"
He looked up confused when the letter was snatched from his hands. His mother visibly paled when she read the first two words.
„Draft notice?" she blinked a few times. „They want you to be a soldier?"
„Seriously?", Bulma asked. „They just started a war yesterday and they're already sending out letters like that? What the hell is up with that? Is that even legal? And shouldn't they have enough people, anyway?"
„Well I don't care, there's no way I'm joining the army", Gohan declared. He really was a pacifist at heart and while he did fight when it was necessary, regular people shooting at each other was not something he deemed necessary and he wanted no part in it. Besides, he wasn't quite sure which side was trying to recruit him there, and there was a fifty-fifty chance that these were the people who were responsible for what had happened to West City. Assuming there only were two sides, to this conflict. The general confusion all over the news channels hadn't really given him any insight into the situation.
„So, can you just tell these people no?", his father asked. There was a slight edge of worry in his voice.
„I don't think it's quite that easy, I don't really know. But the date I'm supposed to show up is almost a month from now. We just have to make sure that by that time it's become redundant", Gohan said with determination.
„Are you sure we can do that?"
„No. But I do have an idea for that." With that Gohan left the kitchen and took to the skies.
For as long as he could remember Gohan had been used to flying all over this pretty planet, enjoying the views and generally being happy about being there. The distances between places barely meant anything to him. So the idea of having lines drawn across it seemed ludicrous.
And the idea that he was supposed to fall on one side of those lines and fight the people on the others side really pissed the young saiyan off. There was no way anyone could force him to join if he didn't want to of course, but the fact that they were trying seemed offensive enough to him.
As he flew across the planet to meet the one person he knew who might have enough pull to make a difference, he noticed many subtle differences that made him all too aware of the fact that this whole situation was actually real.
The oceans suddenly seemed filled with military vessels, and he could see tanks and other vehicles traverse otherwise peaceful terrain. At least no one had retaliated with another nuke just yet, but the tension was almost visible. People were leaving the cities, afraid that their home might soon share the fate of West City.
He wasn't quite sure if the person he was seeking out could actually help, but it was worth a try. From afar he could already see the customary crowd of reporters surrounding the mansion.
Gohan touched down a bit away from the crowd. He didn't want to startle anyone. Slowly, he made his way through the reporters, until he had a clear view of the person he was looking for.
Words couldn't describe the disappointment he felt at what he saw.
There he was, Hercule Satan in all of his glory, spouting hot air as usual.
Except for the fact that he'd traded in his usual maroon colored gi for a green and khaki spotted camouflage one. And the hot air he was spouting for once wasn't about himself and all of the ways he was in love with his own voice but instead about war, glory, and serving your country.
„Remember soldiers, when you go out there, every one of you makes a difference! You're putting your lives on the line for your loved ones, your country and the things you believe in. That takes real courage, and I, the World Martial Arts Champion salute you for your bravery." His words were accompanied by the appropriate gesture, and the crowd went wild cheering. Some camera crews seemed to have a hard time keeping their cameras steady through their excitement.
Gohan noticed just now, that the reporters were actually not that many, but instead most members of the huge crowd were soldiers all decked out in their best formal uniforms.
„Go out there, and win!" Satans voice roared through the speakers to drown out the noise the crowd was making, and that command made everyone there even more excited than before. Everyone except for Gohan. When the champ left the stage and the soldiers followed their respective leaders, the young Z-fighter followed Hercule into his home.
„Can I talk to you for a moment?", he asked in a gruff tone.
„There's no exclusive interviews right now, you'll have to - ", Satan started as he was turning around. „Oh, it's you. Sure, what do you want to talk about." A conspirative grin found its way onto Hercule's features. „Did you see my speech? That was awesome, huh? Sometimes I impress even myself."
„I wasn't that taken with it", Gohan said through gritted teeth. Only then did Mr. Satan notice the dark look on the teenagers features.
„What's wrong?", he asked.
„What the hell do you think you're doing, giving speeches like this? You do know that you're sending those guys out to be killed, don't you? You should be using your influence to stop this war, rather than making it all worse!", Gohan yelled.
„I'm not making it worse", Hercule said, and looked a little miffed. „I'm giving these people motivation and support. That's important, you know."
„No it isn't. There shouldn't be a war. Do you have any idea how many people are going to die because of this? Millions already have. I thought saving humanity was something you had an interest in, too", Gohan said accusingly.
„I do care about people. That's why I'm doing this, to make them feel better."
„You know, I think they'd feel even better if they didn't have to go out to die!"
„And I think you shouldn't stick your nose into my business."
„Well, it looks like I have to, so you stop with this nonsense", Gohan said and pointed to the champs' attire.
„That's what you think. I happen to think it's important."
„It's not. It's wrong. You're encouraging these people to go to war, when you're one of the few people popular enough all over the planet for people to really listen to you if you told them to stop."
Hercule looked at Gohan strangely for a moment, and then barked out a laugh that didn't sound all that cheerful. „You know, you seem so much like an adult that it's hard to believe you'd be so naive. You really think I could stop this war?"
„Well… out of anyone I know…" Suddenly Gohan wasn't all that certain about his coming here anymore.
„When it all comes down to it, I'm just a guy who smashes bricks for a living, kid. There may be a lot of people who like me, but you seriously think I have any control over the higher ups with their twitchy trigger fingers? Nowadays a war is not about the people on either side hating each other and wanting each other dead. Whether or not I tell everybody they should or shouldn't fight doesn't make any difference at all, because it's not like regular people get any choice when some jackass decides to drop a nuke. Besides, do you really think a guy who's most famous for fighting is gonna sound very credible telling everybody fighting is bad?"
„But even if you don't have the power to stop this, it doesn't mean you have to encourage the war!", Gohan yelled. „You can still make a stand against it, even if it doesn't change things."
„And what would be the point of that?"
„Integrity, that's what!" Gohan looked at Mr. Satan with venom in his eyes. „Oh right. My bad. Forgot who I was talking to there, for a second."
The gorilla like man flushed a deep crimson at the insinuation. „So I'm not making the war go away. At least I'm giving these people a bit of hope and a sense of purpose. That's within my powers, and I think that's the right thing to do. Excuse me, Mr. High-and-Mighty for not magically making all the problems disappear. Now get out of my house."
Gohan turned to comply with Mr. Satan's request, mainly because he was afraid that he'd go Super Saiyan 2 if he listened to any more of Mr. Satan's blubbering, and Videl would probably get mad if he reduced her Dad to a smear on the wall.
„Videl's gonna be ashamed of you, once she finds out what you're doing. But what else is new?"
„Out!"
Eighteen's mind consisted of two distinct layers. There was the baseline that was the pure computer level, constantly calculating, storing data, and analyzing situations. Above that was what she considered to be her conciousness, where her thinking happened, and her emotions lived. That layer was the one that made all the decisions, and it was infinitely more complex in its programming and structure than the one below it, it was where her personality lived and also controlled the other layer to expand its horizon in order to be able to learn. It was the difference between a household appliance, and sentience, the very essence of who she was, no matter how much influence her calculations and analyzations had over her actions.
She had never quite believed to be that much of a divide between the two layers, had assumed they flowed into each other without clear borders, and her idea of the distinction where one ended and the other began was more or less arbitrary.
Turned out, as she awoke now, that there was a clear line between those two, as she surveyed several memory files she had no concious memory of recording. The time stamp told her, that she had actually been activated, her brain only running at its baseline for four days.
She opened her eyes, and found herself staring at a white ceiling. There wasn't much to see, but when she tried turning her head, she couldn't. She couldn't swing her feet over the table to get off, either. None of her motoric functions were activated, and she didn't know how to counteract that.
„Looks like she's awake, now", someone said, and a chubby face crowned with red hair entered her peripheral visions. „She's got pretty eyes."
„IT is awake", a female voice said with emphasis. The woman who Eighteen had been talking to earlier, when mustache man had still been there. They weren't in that little cell anymore. From the harsh lighting Eighteen guessed it was some sort of laboratory. „If you anthropomorphize it too much you'll get attached."
„So?", the man with the chubby face said cheerfully. „What's not to get attached to? Beautiful eyes, pretty body and it's all running using the most intricate and impressive combination of coding and hardware I've ever seen."
„All primary cognitive functions are now online", the woman said. She was situated somewhere to the left of Eighteen's head. Not being able to turn her head and look at her or to even speak was really bothersome. „Do we really need to have it in its concious state?"
„That's where all the interesting software is. You ever tried to analyze a program with the computer turned off? Not happening. Why are her eyes open, by the way? I thought we'd turned off all the motor controls." The man said.
„Apparently that's a function of a debug program that starts running when the skull flap is opened. I can try to override it, if it bothers you", the woman suggested. Just then Eighteen realized that there was indeed a diagnostics program running. Which so far had only noticed that her skull was open, which was also what had triggered the program to be activated.
Of course for an android having your brain exposed wasn't quite as worrisome as it was for a human, but she still disliked it very much. It was a vulnerability, and closing the skull flap required a certain amount of finesse that these humans might not possess, or more importantly that would be hard for her to execute in the event of a frenzied flight from her captors.
„Pity she doesn't come with a USB-port, huh?", the man joked, and removed himself from her field of vision. Opening her skull was the only way to start up a hardware connection between her brain and any other computers, and it hadn't been used since Dr. Gero had died. Bulma had once joked that she could install a WiFi card in her brain, so that the android could surf the web, but Krillin wishing away the self destruction device had been the last hardware alteration that had been made to Eighteen's design.
„You know, it might be a good idea to install something similar in our models", the woman replied thoughtfully.
„But we don't want to risk other people being able to use that to their advantage. Connecting to the brain in this model is very difficult, but I do think that makes a lot of sense from a design standpoint."
For a while they worked in silence, while Eighteen's mind tried to come up with numerous solutions to her immobility problem. None of those worked, however.
„So? Liking what you see?", the woman asked.
„The programming is incredible. It's amazing when you think about the fact that it was just one guy who came up with all of this."
„Can you reproduce it?"
„Exactly? No. But I do think I can get close enough for our purposes. We only really need the most basic functions. I could spend months leafing through the code and not even come close to understanding how the simulation of emotions works, but the combat functions shouldn't be that much of a problem. Do you want our robots to be able to learn?"
„No, most definitely not. I don't want them anywhere close to being sentient. I've seen Terminator, I know what happens when computers get too smart. And since we're already building killer robots we are threading thin ice here."
„So you want more of a weapon that can walk on its own? That should be simple enough. If I base it on the code of this model I can get done really fast. Might just take a week. How's the hardware side coming?"
„Good. We're done with analyzing her built, the prototype looks sturdy. We'll probably start mass production in just a few days."
„That quickly?"
„There really is no time to waste, is there?"
Mass production? Eighteen really did not like the sound of that. Of course the Z-Fighters could take on a few lesser robots, but if they were too many…
A week had passed since the bomb attack, and Bulma still hadn't gone to see a Doctor. For one she didn't feel quite ready to go out after what had happened, but more than that she was scared that something was wrong with the baby. It was important to know, if there was, but she was scared of finding out. Because really, she felt fine, hadn't felt any of the symptoms Vegeta had had that first day.
But she would have to get out soon. For one she felt a little rude imposing on the Son family by having all of them stay here, and she needed to find the closest office of Capsule Corps to resume her work as company president. Just because her workplace and the entire city it had been situated in didn't exist anymore didn't mean she was out of a job. Capsule Corp had lost important resources and people though, and that really upset their standing. Bulma needed to start to figure out where the company was going from there.
Besides, she could pick up a capsule house and either put it next to the Son family's, if they didn't Going back simply wasn't an option.
At least her family was fine. Vegeta looked much better and said that all of his symptoms were gone. Of course he had a tendency to underplay any injury, but she didn't get the feeling that he was. And she was incredibly happy that the short period of hair loss hadn't made any visible difference to his hair.
She was just going outside to get her clothes off the line they were drying on. She had been borrowing a dress of Chichi's, which was fine, even if they weren't quite the same size, but if she was going to go back to work she couldn't exactly wear that.
She would have to go shopping for new clothes, soon. While that prospect was usually something that would've made her giddy, the reason for it put a damper on her excitement. Especially since she had no choice but to drag Vegeta and Trunks with her, since they didn't really have any clothes anymore, either. As much as she loved them, both of her boys hated shopping with a vengeance, and while they claimed it was torture on them, having to drag their complaining asses through the shops wasn't exactly what Bulma considered to be fun, either.
Just as she was taking the clothes off the line, she spotted her purple haired son coming out of the house a little too quickly for her liking.
„Mom!", he yelled. „There's something wrong with Dad"
She dropped the skirt she'd been holding, and immediately started running towards her son. Trunks gestured for her to follow her, and the look on his face made her even more anxious.
When she found her husband, he was sitting on the floor in the hallway, a hand pressed to his forehead, groaning and with a skin color that looked like someone had thrown up a half digested plate of spinach onto his face. For him to let anyone see him in that state he must've been feeling beyond shitty, and he didn't even acknowledge his mate's presence when she kelt down next to him.
But it had gone away… he'd been fine, even if he'd been pissy about the only piece of clothing he still owned being a pair of spandex shorts. There was nothing that could've triggered him getting worse now…
Suddenly two words popped into her head, and she felt all the color drain from her face.
„Crap", she whispered.
Latency period
She hadn't thought of that.
A/N: Just so it's clear, I've always gotten the impression in DBZ that both the political situation and the geography were distinctly different from the real world (let alone the fact that there's dinosaurs running around), so the conflict in this story will not be based on any real world conflicts.
Anyway, tell me what you think!
