Welcome to Capsule Corporation

Bulma was running late again. It seemed like she could just never get out of the compound soon enough in the morning to make it to school on time without having to run full speed the whole way. 'At least I'll never get fat,' she thought as she rounded the corner where she ran into a Capsule Corporation employee and found Vegeta six days ago. That corner triggered her memory of the boy every time she passed it and she was wished every day that she would see him there again. Even if it meant being very late, she would turn around and take him back to the compound before going to school.

But, like every day for the past week, there was no boy with piercing obsidian eyes that felt like they burned holes through her soul. With a sigh, she kept running and dismissed any thoughts about the homeless boy she wanted to help. She didn't have time to reminisce about her last encounter with him, she had to get to school on time and avoid another detention.

She barely made it in to homeroom on time. The bell rang as she was sitting down in her seat, trying to cover the fact that she was panting from her ten block sprint. Once she regained her breath she pulled her biology notebook out of her backpack and started designing a new motorcycle she wanted to build for herself. Granted she wasn't old enough to drive yet, but that didn't mean she couldn't dream.

Once class started she gave partial attention to the lecture, but soon she was so bored she couldn't focus anymore and allowed her thoughts to turn back to the same topic that had been plaguing her mind for three weeks. Vegeta. Every day when she walked home she hoped he would be in the area, but she never saw him around. For all she knew he was royally ticked off at her for standing him up after inviting him to come live with her. He probably thought she was just a mean girl with a twisted sense of humor, getting his hopes up and then dashing them and grinding them into the ground with the heel of her boot. She felt a familiar sickening guilt when she thought about the poor boy who needed a home.

'I wish I knew where I could find him. He's got to be staying somewhere, but I have no idea where so I can't really look for him. I hope he'll be around again.' She sighed heavily and looked out the window. It was a beautiful day outside. Warm, balmy, and sunny. The perfect spring day, and it was just getting started. It sure would be nice to be out of school so she could actually enjoy it.

After the blue-haired girl failed to show up at the time she said to meet her, Vegeta left the city and went back to his space pod out in a field about thirty miles away. He wanted to assess the damage again and see what sorts of repairs needed to be made to get it back in working order. He was afraid it would be irreparable, but he was pleased to find that with the proper tools he could probably get it running again, at least long enough to reach the nearest base planet where he could get a new one. But whether or not the repairs were possible didn't matter so much as being able to find the means to make the necessary repairs. Besides, he wasn't sure he was qualified to do any work since he'd never really studied the inner workings of the space pods before. He never felt he needed to. Now he was cursing himself for being so foolish.

He sat down in the pod and set his scouter on his lap. It, too, was broken in the landing. He was barely able to get a transmission through to report his pod's malfunction and need for someone to come get him before its wiring fizzled out. When he opened it to see the damage, he groaned when he saw that many of the wires were melted together and there would be no way to fix it. It was a pity, too, considering he had lots of useful information stored on his scouter. Too late to back it up somewhere else.

The idea of returning to the city wasn't particularly pleasant to him. He was sick of being around so many plebeian humans. Whether or not he talked to them, he felt as if he was lowering himself by living among them. He was still curious about the supposedly world-renowned genius of Capsule Corporation though. Even if she couldn't help him, if he could just get his hands on some of the tools and technology at the corporation he might be able to make the repairs himself. His hope had been rekindled when he saw the damage to his space pod wasn't as bad as he originally thought.

He decided he would stay out in the wild a few more days and then go back to the city. At least in his present location he could hunt enough game to satisfy his enormous appetite. His stomach had ceased its persistent rumbling and he was feeling more energetic than when he was living in the city. With the sun shining in his pod, he felt comfortably warm and, having nothing better to do, he curled up in the seat and took a nap through the late morning.

'I wonder what he's doing right now?' Bulma thought as she sat down at a table by herself at lunch. She looked out the window and frowned. He was the lucky one, really. Being able to be outside instead of in school when it was so nice out. Reluctantly, she started eating the disgusting substance that passed for food at the cafeteria.

A couple minutes later a small group of girls sat down at the table across from Bulma with sneers on their faces. Bulma recognized them immediately as the 'glamorous' popular girls of the eighth grade, the small pack that every other girl in the school wanted to be a member of. Well, every girl aside from Bulma. She saw through them. They were a group of the meanest girls in the school that bullied everyone else with malicious rumors and gossip to raise themselves up on a pedestal. She hated them.

"Eating by yourself, Bulma?" one girl asked patronizingly. She was the leader of the pack. Tall with long, wavy brown hair and a rapidly-developing body, she looked like she belonged in high school already.

Bulma's lip curled. "I was until you came. What's the matter, you want to be famous by association?" she snapped back.

The brunette glared at the blue-haired girl. "You wish I wanted to hang with you. Too bad you're too young and ugly." She and the rest of the girls laughed as Bulma's face flushed with anger.

"If I'm so ugly why'd you sit with me?"

"With you? Please. We wanted this table, so you need to move."

"No."

"Go sit with the other geeks, you freak!"

"I was here first!"

"I don't care."

Both girls sat glaring at each other. If there was one word to describe Bulma, it was stubborn. She was not going to move because some airhead was trying to bully her. She ignored the stares of the other girls as she picked up her fork and continued eating the unidentifiable pasta covered in beads of grease. She refused to let them win.

The other girl was not willing to lose, though. She reached across the table and upended Bulma's tray in her lap and smirked smugly as the rest of the girls at the table broke out in cruel laughter. The blue-haired girl seethed with rage as she turned her eyes back to the girl sitting across from her. It was on now. She grabbed the girl's can of soda, shook it, and opened it so it sprayed all over her, soaking her perfectly styled hair with sticky cola.

"You little bitch!" the girl screamed.

Immediately two teachers ran over to see what the commotion was about. What they saw was Bulma still holding an empty soda can and Marissa Lane covered in the former contents of the can. They didn't notice the stains on Bulma's shirt and pants, though.

"Bulma Brief! Go to the principal's office right now!" Mr. Moore shouted.

"But she started it!" Bulma cried, pointing at Marissa.

"Now!"

Bulma threw the can down on the table and stood up, more furious than ever. She stalked past the teachers, grumbling under her breath about how unfair her punishment was, and went to the principal's office. She hated her teachers, she hated her peers, but most of all she hated her school. She actually considered leaving and going home at the risk of further disciplinary action being taken.

Vegeta yawned and stretched as he woke up from his nap. He hopped out of the space pod and circled around it, taking in every detail to make sure he didn't forget anything. When he was satisfied that he would remember all the repairs his pod needed, he sat down on the ground and started stretching as a warm-up for his afternoon kata. He hadn't been able to train much while in the city for the sake of avoiding attention, but out here he could do as he pleased. There were no humans around to see him.

He leaped to his feet when he finished stretching and started with an old kata he knew by heart before moving on to some new ones that he was still learning. He practiced them enough to perfect them in a relatively short period of time. Compared to other soldiers, he mastered new techniques very quickly, probably because he had a natural affinity for fighting and he had the inborn endurance needed for extended time spent training without breaks. It didn't hurt that he had a perfect memory so he could watch demonstrations of new kata in his mind while he was executing them.

It was after 2:30PM when he finished his work out and he decided to find something to eat before returning to the city. He sniffed the air and grinned when he caught the scent of a deer not far from where he was. Silently, he stalked through the field until he was only a few yards from the unsuspecting animal. Creeping closer, his tail flicked behind him and his tongue slid across his sharp canines as he readied himself before pouncing.

There was a short struggle wherein Vegeta knocked the deer to the ground, wrapped his arms around its neck, and bit into its aorta. He didn't get out of it without being kicked a few times, but like a good predator he held onto his prey until it ceased fighting and he knew it was dead. With practiced precision he formed a ki blade and skinned the deer, sliced it up, and cooked it over a small fire he created with a blast of ki. In half an hour the deer was devoured and the saiyan was sated.

'I'll go to the city today and find that blue-haired brat. If her offer still stands, I'll go with her to this Capsule Corporation. If it doesn't, I'll follow her anyway and get in so I can find what I need.' Vegeta blasted the remains of the deer before levitating off the ground and flying back to West City and the street where he'd seen the girl walking in the morning and afternoon regularly.

It was a few minutes before the girl usually walked by when Vegeta landed on the roof of a brick building and looked down at the street below. He didn't see her anywhere, so he figured he was early. He would wait longer this time. Maybe she was running late for some ridiculous reason the day she made her invitation.

The final bell rang and Bulma stuffed her books into her backpack, but instead of heading toward the exit from the school, she turned toward detention hall. She had three in a row for her little 'food fight' at lunch. She kept her eyes focused on the floor in front of her as she shuffled through the corridors, which only intensified her problems when she walked into someone. She bounced back and glanced up at the person, a hasty apology ready on her lips, but then she saw who it was and frowned. She wasn't going to apologize to him. The biggest jerk in the whole school, Mr. Jock himself, that horrible Marissa's boyfriend Jordan.

"Hey, watch where you're going turbo-nerd," he sneered.

"Shut up, ignoramus," she muttered as she shoved past him, ignoring the snickering of the jock's idiot friends.

"What does that even mean?" one of them asked as she stomped away. She bit back another scathing remark, instead choosing to let them wonder about her choice of words.

'It would be nice to have one person on my side for a change!' she grumbled mentally as she walked into the room where detention was being held.

By the time 4:00 rolled around, Vegeta was growing increasingly impatient. He'd already been waiting around for over half an hour and still there was no blue-haired girl in sight. He was sure she hadn't come by earlier, so he remained steadfast in his refusal to give up his vigil until she came around. That didn't lessen his irritation though. His tail unraveled from his waist and beat against the roof he was sitting on until it cracked.

Bulma watched the clock ticking away the minutes. Her leg bounced with unreleased energy and she was waiting eagerly for the minute hand to move to the three so she could be released from detention at last. She groaned and sat back in her seat, bored out of her mind since all her homework had long since been completed, the book she brought for entertainment was finished, and she didn't have any new ideas for any gadgets she wanted to draw blueprints for. Not having anything better to do, she threw her notebook open and started sketching a picture of a boy with a severe widow's peak, haunting black eyes, and wearing some strange kind of armor.

Fifteen more minutes passed and Vegeta was highly aggravated with the delay in his plan. He needed to get to Capsule Corporation so he could get the materials – and possibly brains – he needed to fix his space pod and get off the mudball he was stranded on. He growled and surveyed the street as far as he could see, but still there was no blue crown of hair coming in his direction. He raked his hand through his thick mane of hair before sliding off the building. He paced in a circle a few times before he couldn't hold back his frustration any longer. He drew his fist back and slammed it into the side of the building he'd spent the past 45 minutes sitting on and watched with satisfaction as it cracked and crumbled to the ground in a pile of dusty rubble. Hearing humans screaming nearby, he phased across the street and feigned astonishment with the rest of them. He wasn't going to be pinned as the culprit behind the building's destruction.

"You're dismissed," the teacher's monotone voice droned over the scraping of chairs against the tile floor and shuffle of books being put in backpacks. Bulma was already ready to go before the announcement was made, so she bolted from the room and out of the school.

Vegeta had had enough. He was sick of waiting around. Punching another building wasn't going to help him. He'd wasted more than enough time waiting for the foolish girl. Of all the days for her not to show up, it was the day he really wanted her to come. He levitated off the ground and landed on the roof of a building across the street from the one he demolished and was about to leap to the next when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a fast-moving streak of blue. He turned his head and saw the girl he'd been waiting for running down the sidewalk, her long hair trailing behind her.

'There you are,' he thought with a smirk. He leaped to the next building, staying parallel with her on the ground until he reached the end of the block. Then he stepped of the building and landed around the corner where she always turned, his feet spread apart as he braced himself for impact. In seconds she rounded the corner and slammed into him full force, knocking her to the ground. He didn't budge at all.

Bulma shook her spinning head and stood up, brushing herself off. That's the second time she'd run into someone that day. How annoying. She again prepared an apology, but when she looked up this time, her words died before she could utter any sounds. She broke out into a huge grin when she saw the familiar scowling face of a boy with a flame of raven hair, deep onyx eyes, and an unmistakable widow's peak. He was still wearing his weird armor, but it looked like it was covered in… blood?

"Vegeta! Oh my Kami are you ok? What happened? Are you bleeding?"

Vegeta quirked an eyebrow then looked down at himself. He saw that he was coated in the blood of his latest kill. He hadn't even thought about washing it off before going back to civilization where someone would question who or what the blood belonged to. Naturally, her first assumption would be that it was his. After all, why else would an eleven year-old boy have blood all over himself? He supposed it wasn't a normal occurrence with the weakling humans.

"Not mine," he grumbled.

She looked even more startled. If not his, then whose was it? She shook her head, not ready for that answer. "Oh. Well, we need to get you cleaned up. You will come home with me, won't you?"

He shrugged. She took that as an affirmative. With a huge grin, she grabbed his hand and started pulling him along behind her before he could recover from his shock at her boldness and yank his hand away from her. The whole way home she babbled about how happy she was that he was finally coming to stay with them and that she was very sorry about not meeting him a few days ago and that she didn't have a choice because she had a detention – whatever that was. His head was reeling with all the words she was throwing at him. He could understand her language well enough when it was spoken at a normal rate, but she was rattling it off too fast for him to be able to catch it all.

They had been walking for a few blocks when a yellow domed building came into view. It was much larger than all the buildings around it and there was a steady flow of people walking out, making vehicles appear out of thin air, and driving away. Vegeta was baffled by it. Perhaps their technology was not as primitive as he first believed if they could make things as large as a car come into being from nothing. As they got closer he could see that the people were actually throwing very small objects on the ground from which the vehicles emerged in puffs of smoke.

He watched as the girl pulled a plastic card out of her pocket that had her picture and a black strip on it that she slid through some device on the front gate. A small light turned from red to green and there was the distinct sound of the gate unlocking before it opened and allowed them entrance. Obviously she hadn't been lying about where she lived.

Vegeta followed the girl into the compound. Before anything else he was welcomed with the scent of bread baking and roasting meat. He stole a sidelong glance at the girl, but she didn't seem at all surprised so he figured coming home to such an enticing aroma was normal. He was starting to think this wouldn't be such a bad place to stay if that were the case. He jumped back and landed in a defensive stance when a tall blonde woman suddenly emerged through a door he hadn't noticed and ran toward him and the girl.

"Bulma, where have you been? It's so late!" she chided her daughter. "Oh my, who is this? Is this the boy you told me about?"

Bulma blushed a little and turned to see her guest standing in a crouch with hands raised as if warding off an unseen enemy. His scowl was fiercer than usual and his lip was curled in a snarl that revealed a very long canine. She shuddered, wondering how she'd never noticed his animalistic appearance before. Swallowing, she turned back to her mother and nodded. "Yeah, this is Vegeta. He decided to come stay with us, I think." She turned back to the boy. "Vegeta, this is my mom."

The boy looked between the two females warily before lowering his hands and straightening his back. He took a tentative step closer and was completely thrown off guard when the cheerful blonde woman enveloped him in a hug and started squealing about how adorable he was and how happy she was to be able to save him from living in the streets with the rats and dirt.

With a low growl he extracted himself from her embrace and vigorously rubbed the place on his cheek where she somehow managed to plant a kiss. 'This woman is nuts,' he concluded. 'Must be where the brat gets it from.'

"Oh my, but where are my manners?" Mrs. Brief asked, horrified with herself. "I'm sure you want a nice, hot bath and a change of clothes. Wouldn't that be nice? Come with me, Vegan."

Bulma put her hand over her mouth to stifle her giggling as her mother put her hands on the boy's shoulders and guided him upstairs to a guestroom that was already set up with toiletries and other necessities for a young boy. She apparently hadn't even noticed the fact that he was covered in dried blood and smelled like one of the dirty rats she wanted to protect him from.

Ten minutes later Mrs. Brief came back down the stairs with the boy's odd clothes in her arms and went straight to the laundry room to clean them for him. She'd finally persuaded him to get in the steaming hot bath she'd drawn for him and laid out fresh clothes for him to wear when he was all finished. She left him with an invitation to come to dinner in an hour. She was already very fond of the boy, her motherly instincts kicking in the moment she saw him. Perhaps she acted oblivious to everything around her, but she couldn't miss the distrust in his eyes the instant he saw her and she was reminded of an abused animal that needed a good, loving home to heal the psychological damage. A very nurturing woman, she was looking forward to taking care of him in any way she could.

Vegeta sighed with relief when the crazy woman left his new quarters. He didn't want to admit out loud that the hot bath actually felt really good on his sore muscles. It had been too long for him to remember since the last time he had a real bath, not rinsing off in a freezing cold shower or swimming in a dirty river or ocean or whatever body of water he could find to get rid of some of the caked on dirt and blood after a purge mission.

He soaked in the bath until the water was lukewarm, then dragged himself out and dried off with the fluffy white towel hanging on the bathroom door. He reminded himself not to get used to the comfort of hot baths and towels that didn't scratch his skin. He was only going to be staying there for a limited amount of time and then he would return to the life he knew. The life where he lived as an unwilling servant of the lizard tyrant, killing millions and getting beaten for some supposed incompetence all too often.

He saw the clothes laid out for him on the counter next to the sink and shrugged. They were nothing like his own clothes. Loose-fitting and not very durable, but they were what he was offered and the blonde woman had taken his armor away so he didn't have much choice in the matter. He pulled the jeans on (after poking a hole in the back for his tail) and a t-shirt with a CC symbol on it over his head. 'At least I'm not naked,' he thought miserably as he looked at himself in the mirror. He shook his head and walked out of the bathroom and explored the large, plush room that had been given to him. There was a huge bed in the center, a bureau of drawers next to it, a desk with a chair in the corner, a small bedside table on the other side of the bed with a lamp on it, and a large, empty closet next to the bathroom. Overall, it looked pretty nice. He could get used to it, but he wouldn't let himself. Not when he had a life as a soldier to return to in hopefully a short time.

The bedroom door was open, letting the smells of food waft in from downstairs. His stomach growled despite him having eaten a whole deer only two hours ago. He'd been invited to dine with the girl's family, so he went back the way he had come and followed his nose to find the kitchen where the bubbly blonde woman was stirring something in a pot on the stove and the brat was sitting at the table recounting her tale about a 'food fight' at lunch. Vegeta walked over to the table and sat down in one of the chairs.

"Oh, hey Vegeta!" Bulma chirped. "Do you feel better now that you're all cleaned up?"

He sneered at her wide grin and crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn't a baby and didn't want to be talked to as if he were one. Even if he couldn't understand her – and he could – it didn't mean it was acceptable to treat him like a child. He was a warrior!

The girl was not at all put off by his disdain. She brushed it off as easily as she would a ladybug from her shirt. "I'm sorry, I keep forgetting you don't speak English."

Vegeta narrowed his eyes as he glared at her. 'She must really think I'm stupid,' he thought indignantly. 'Newsflash, you bratty girl, you're the stupid one.' With a roll of his eyes, he directed his thoughts to the most important matter at hand: the genius who could possibly help him repair his space pod.

When she saw him roll his eyes with a silent scoff, Bulma began to wonder if there was more to the boy than he let on. When she looked into his deep black eyes she could feel a sort of wildness mixed with intelligence to rival her own. But that was impossible. She was the smartest genius in the whole world. Some homeless boy was not as smart as she was. She was certain of that. Still, it was unnerving the way his eyes could bore through her and make her feel weak, stupid, and childish. He couldn't be much older than her, yet he had the eyes of a haunted man who had lived to see too much horror for one lifetime.

He watched the blonde woman start setting food on the table and had to restrain himself from immediately digging in to it. He didn't know their customs yet and didn't want to run the risk of offending them and being turned out for a perceived slight before he was able to get his hands on what he wanted. He turned his head when he heard the kitchen door opening and a short man with messy lavender hair and a mustache walked in, a newspaper held under his arm and a smoldering cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"Hi, Daddy!" Bulma said as she stood up and ran over to give the man a hug. He smiled and hugged her back before leading them both back to the table. It was then he noticed there was a young guest sitting at the table watching curiously.

"Well, hello there my boy. Are you the boy my little girl has been carrying on about for the past three weeks?" he asked with a good-natured pat on the boy's back. He didn't seem to notice the way he flinched when he was touched as he sat down and unfolded the newspaper.

Bulma blushed a little and took her seat again. "Dad, this is Vegeta. Vegeta, this is my dad."

Dr. Brief inclined his head toward the boy and started reading the newspaper. Vegeta decided he liked the man the best out of the three people he'd met so far at Capsule Corporation. He was the only one not smothering him in attention and trying to talk to him as if he cared what they had to say. His thoughts were thrown off track when the last platter of food was set down on the table. Before him there was a large roast beef covered in gravy. It looked and smelled delicious and his mouth started watering.

The girl's mother sat down and the small family started serving themselves food and passing plates around, so Vegeta decided it was appropriate for him to begin eating. He hardly noticed their incredulous gawking as he piled a heaping pile of meat on his plate, drowned it in extra gravy, and started spooning roasted vegetables onto his plate as well.

They were still gawking when he started tearing into his food ravenously. He was much too focused on his food to notice them, though. Before they had even begun eating he was taking seconds, leaving hardly any food on the table. The Briefs seemed to realize that if they didn't hurry up and eat, they might not get anything at all because there seemed to be no stopping their guest from devouring everything available – including what was on their plates.

Vegeta was the first one finished. He sighed contentedly and rubbed his belly as he sat back in his chair. He certainly wasn't going to complain about the blonde woman anymore. She was a bubble-brain, but she could cook. For that, he would put up with her strange behavior for the duration of his stay at the compound.

"Oh, my," Mrs. Brief said with her hand raised to her mouth, "Surely you don't have room for dessert now, Vegeta?"

He quirked his eyebrow. "Dessert?"

Dr. Brief's mustache twitched when he heard the boy's thick accent. He remembered his daughter saying he didn't seem to understand or speak English. That was the first word he'd heard him speak, and he couldn't place the accent. He was as stumped about the boy's origins as his daughter was.

Mrs. Brief nodded like a bobble-head before standing up and prancing over to the refrigerator. She pulled out a two-layer chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. She brought it over to the table and cut a small slice, served it onto a plate, and handed it to Vegeta. He stared at it for a few moments, wondering what sort of food it was. He poked it with his finger and found that it was slightly spongy. When he sniffed it, it wasn't unpleasant. Actually, it smelled good. He picked up his fork and broke off a small piece of the cake and lifted it to his mouth.

His eyes widened when he was pleasantly surprised by the sweet substance melting on his tongue. He swallowed and finished his piece of cake before Mrs. Brief had finished cutting a piece for anyone else. The blonde woman giggled and gave him another piece and then served pieces to her husband, daughter, and herself. She took one bite before noticing Vegeta's eyes were looking from her to his empty plate expectantly.

"One more piece, that's all," she said as she put another slice of cake on his plate.

He grumbled something in his own language before quickly eating the cake. When he was done, he pushed his plate away and slid out of his chair. If there wasn't going to be any more food then he had no reason to stay around the humans. He went back upstairs to his own quarters where he could formulate his plan on how to get access to the laboratories of the corporation. Considering the fact that a form of identification was needed just to get in the front gate, the odds were that he would need some type of permission to enter the labs. He could blast his way in, but that would risk damaging the materials he needed, so that option was out.

'I'll figure it out in the morning,' he thought. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head. It was time for him to go to bed if he wanted adequate sleep before his body inevitably woke before dawn.

A/N: So I haven't actually finished another chapter, but I'm tired of college so I'm posting another chapter. So there. Take that, quantitative research project and student symposium presentation!

Review!