Found

Another week passed with Vegeta living in his space pod at night and traveling into the city during the day to scrounge around for the parts needed to repair his pod. It was slow going without access to Dr. Brief's laboratory, but he was able to find many of the parts needed in electronics stores. The owners of the stores were never happy with him when they learned that he didn't have any money before he walked out with whatever device they were trying to sell him. He never returned to the same store twice for obvious reasons.

He was running down the street, clutching the motherboard of an old computer to his chest with the angry owner of a used electronics store chasing him. He snickered to himself as he rounded a corner and came to a screeching halt when he saw the blonde woman and the blue-haired girl walking down the sidewalk toward him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the red-faced man still chasing him despite being out of breath and ready to have a heart attack. He ducked when the man reached him and attempted to grab him. Instead of catching the young thief, the store owner tripped over him and fell face first on the unforgiving concrete sidewalk.

Vegeta immediately dashed back in the same direction he had just come from, not caring in the least who he bowled over in his haste to get away before the Briefs could spot him. He rounded the corner of an alley and jumped onto a fire escape and climbed the stairs until he reached the top floor, then leaped onto the roof. He crawled to the edge and looked down to see if anyone was still following him. He saw the store owner, now sporting a bloody nose, looking up and down the street for him, but the blonde woman and the blue-haired girl weren't there. He sighed with relief and sat back on the roof. That was too close for comfort. It wasn't as if they could force him to go back to the compound with him even if they found him. As if they would want him to… but still, he didn't want the temptation.

"Did that look like Vegeta to you?" Bulma asked her mother after a black flame of hair disappeared behind the building at the corner they were approaching.

Mrs. Brief looked down at her daughter. "What? I didn't see anyone."

Bulma frowned and shrugged. She was probably imagining things. It had been two weeks since she last saw their surly houseguest. Her mind was bound to start playing tricks on her as she continued looking for him. She was a little upset with her father for not coming with them to look for him every day anymore. President of a rapidly growing global enterprise or not, it was his fault Vegeta left in the first place, so he should be right there with him walking the streets of the city trying to find the lost boy.

"Never mind."

Vegeta stood up and kicked off into the air and headed back to his space pod with his loot. He didn't need the whole thing, but it had most of the parts he needed to finish repairing the main controls of his pod. Several minutes later he touched down next to his space pod and crawled inside and pulled the control board open. He put his scouter on and pushed the button to send a transmission through to the base planet. At the rate he was going it wouldn't be too much longer before his pod was completely finished and he could hopefully make it to the nearest base and get a whole new pod. He had already been on Earth for five months, it was time to get moving.

"Do you think we're ever going to find him?" Bulma asked as she and her mother sat down in a restaurant to eat lunch.

Mrs. Brief forced a smile and nodded. "Of course we will, honey. Don't give up." She didn't want to admit she was wondering the same thing as her daughter. She never thought it would be two weeks with still no signs of the flame-haired boy. He stood out in a crowd, how hard could it possibly be to find him? They still hadn't heard from the police, so as far as they knew he was still out there somewhere and highly capable of keeping himself hidden.

Actually, the police had heard about Vegeta several times over the past weeks. They kept getting reports of a boy robbing stores, and the descriptions given perfectly matched those provided by the Briefs of the missing boy they were searching for. Not wanting to cause any distress, the police department kept quiet about all the thefts. They were on the look-out for the boy in question, but they were having a difficult time finding any traces. The robberies happened randomly throughout the city with no obvious pattern aside from them all happening at electronics stores. If they had enough cops to spare, they might have posted one at every store that sold electronics in the city to keep a watch out for the boy, but they didn't so they couldn't.

The Briefs didn't know that though. All they knew was that Vegeta was still missing after two weeks and they were more worried than ever. None of them spoke about their fading hope. They were all stubbornly determined not to give up until he was found. They didn't care how long it took, Vegeta was going to come home to Capsule Corporation.

"You think he's ok?" Bulma asked.

Mrs. Brief sighed and rested her chin on her upturned palm. "I think so, honey."

Bulma nodded, only partially reassured. She didn't care that he was homeless before she brought him to stay at Capsule Corporation. He was just a kid. He didn't belong on the street. He had a home now, and a family who cared about him. Why did he have to leave? She missed him so much it hurt. It was harder to sleep every night because of her concern for him. Then she dragged herself out of bed early every morning to begin her daily search for him. She was exhausted but refused to rest until he was found.

"Here you go," the waitress said cheerfully as she set their plates of food down in front of them. "Can I get you anything else?"

Bulma and Mrs. Brief both shook their heads no, so the waitress left them to eat. Bulma poked at her food with her fork, but she didn't eat. She didn't have much of an appetite after all. Mrs. Brief wasn't much better. She picked at her food disinterestedly before eventually giving up and sipping her glass of water instead.

"I bet he's hungry," Bulma said.

Her mother could only nod. She knew better than anyone how much the boy ate since she was the one who always provided the food for him. He kept her on her toes in the kitchen, that was for sure. More than likely he wasn't getting enough to eat wherever he was.

"Don't worry, honey. He'll be alright," Mrs. Brief said softly.

Bulma frowned and slammed her hands against the table. "Don't worry? You've been telling me not to worry for two weeks, Mom! I can't help it!" she yelled. Ignoring the stares from the other patrons in the restaurant, Bulma stood up and stormed away from the table. She was sick and tired of being told not to worry when all she wanted to do was break down and cry. She was trying so hard to stay strong, but it was getting too hard.

"Oh, dear." Mrs. Brief stood up and chased after her daughter. She knew how hard her daughter was taking Vegeta's disappearance. Worse than her or her husband. They all missed him, but Bulma was undoubtedly the closest to him.

Vegeta growled and tossed his scouter over his shoulder when he couldn't get the transmission to go through. Either all the technicians were too busy to answer or there was some sort of temporary interference. Either way, he was stuck without anything to do until he could get in contact with the technician who was surprisingly patient in his efforts to help him get the space pod fixed enough to get him to another planet.

He got out of the space pod and circled around it, not knowing what else to do for the time being. He looked up at the clear blue sky and sneered. He was tired of the blue sky of Earth. He was tired of the peaceful planet that deluded him into thinking it was something he would eventually have. He hated it for making him go soft and he hated it for not having advanced enough technology for him to easily leave and get back to Frieza. Most of all, though, he hated it for being home to the humans that he grew to care about.

'I'm a warrior, not some kind of weakling pansy!' he shouted mentally. 'I live for battles. I love to kill. I have no heart. No soul. I do not need or want peace. What I want is to get back to my old life of purging planets. I want to forget I ever came here. I hate this stupid planet. I hate everything about it and I want to go… where? Back to the lizard? So he can beat me to within an inch of my life every day of my miserable life?' He scoffed.

'Why does it matter what I want? It's never mattered before and it never will. I never wanted to go to Frieza when my father handed me over. I never wanted to leave my planet. I never wanted to become a lowly soldier in the lizard's army. I never wanted to be the last of the royal bloodline. I never wanted to live to see my people destroyed. I never wanted to be a slave. I never wanted anything that happened in my life!'

"Stop with the self-pity," he hissed. "It only makes me lose my mind."

'No more!' He ground his teeth and lowered himself to sit on the ground. 'I will think about this no more! I will not think about anything!' He balled his hands into fists, tearing up the grass around him, and beat his fists into the dirt.

"There's my little prince," he heard the silvery voice he loved float through the air.

He whirled around and embraced the strong, slender leg of his mother with both arms. He looked up at her brilliant smile and grinned. "Mother! I was looking for you!"

She patted his head and ran her fingers through his wild flame of hair. "What for?"

"I wanted to tell you that my power level reached 1500 today!"

She feigned surprise and knelt down in front of him. "That's amazing, Vegeta," she said. "You're going to be a great warrior someday. You'll be the strongest saiyan to ever live."

"You think so?"

"I know so." Her smile faltered for a moment before she forced it back. "I just wish I could see the wonderful warrior you grow up to be."

Vegeta's brows furrowed. "Why won't you?"

She sighed and blinked back the tears in her onyx eyes. "Because you're not going to be staying on Vegeta-sei much longer, my prince. Lord Frieza has requested your service in his army. He will personally train you." She couldn't mask the bitterness in her voice or the expression of unbound rage on her face.

"Lord Frieza?" Vegeta asked. "But I don't want to go with him! I want to stay here and train with you and father."

"You must, Vegeta," she sighed as she pulled him into a tight embrace. "I want you to stay here, too, but you must go. It is your duty as crown prince of Vegeta-sei. Never forget who and what you are, Vegeta. And never give up hope. One day you will kill that bastard and make him pay for everything he has done to our proud race."

Vegeta opened his eyes and groaned as he threw himself onto his back to stare up at the darkening evening sky. He didn't want to remember that. He didn't want that memory to ever resurface. But there it was at the forefront of his mind and there was no burying it again until he fully relived it. He would never forget, just like his mother commanded him. He couldn't forget. Those words were burned into his memory forever. He closed his eyes again and slid his hand across his face.

'Being alone isn't good for me. With only myself for company I have nothing to do but delve into my memories.' He sighed and opened his eyes again. He could see the first stars shining brightly above him. He'd been to some of them. Destroyed the civilizations that toiled under their light during the days. It was strange to think about that, how those tiny specks of light were the centers of star systems he'd visited before. 'I have got to get off this planet soon.'

The next day, Vegeta returned to West City to find a float switch for the fuel gauge in his pod. It wasn't the most important repair, but it was one he could figure out how to do on his own and he was still having trouble getting a connection through to base. At least he would feel like he was doing something productive if he got that somewhat useless repair done. He landed on the roof of a two-story building across the street from an auto parts store. It seemed the most reasonable place to start looking for the simple device he wanted.

He grabbed the drain pipe and slid down the side of the building. He looked both ways down the street before crossing it and went inside the store. He walked up and down the aisles but didn't see what he was looking for. He shrugged and went to the counter where a fat, balding man with a greasy ponytail wearing an ugly brown shirt with a white patch that said "Jerry" on it was standing.

"What do you want, kid?" Jerry asked. "We don't sell parts to toy cars."

Vegeta pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I'm not looking for parts to a toy car, you brainless oaf. Do you or do you not have a float switch in stock?"

"Little brat," he heard the fat man grumble. Then he replied, "Yeah, we got 'em. Check aisle three."

Vegeta sneered at the disgusting excuse for a living being and turned to go to the third aisle. Perhaps he had simply overlooked the switches the first time around. He was honestly surprised when he found the float switches, having thought the blob of fat at the counter was too stupid to know where anything in the store was kept. He picked up a float switch and headed for the door.

"Hey, kid, that's not free you know!" Jerry yelled from behind the counter.

Vegeta smirked and gave the man a rude hand gesture as he walked out the door into the bright sunlight. He blinked a few times as his eyes readjusted to the light. He started down the sidewalk and got a ways down the block before he heard someone screaming at him to come back. He didn't have to look to know it was Jerry.

"Get back here, you brat!"

Vegeta grinned and took a few steps as he broke into a run before a hand clamped onto his shoulder and held him in place. He turned and saw the hand belonged to a man wearing a navy blue uniform. He instantly recognized it as the uniform of the pitiful law enforcement of the city.

"Excuse me, young man," the police officer said sternly, "But I think you need to return that."

"Not on your life," Vegeta growled. He dropped the switch on the ground and grabbed the cop's arm and whirled around, twisting the man's arm with him until he heard a sickening crack as his shoulder was dislocated.

The cop collapsed to his knees, holding his shoulder with his other hand.

"A word of advice," Vegeta told the fallen policeman, "don't get in my way." He picked up the float switch and sprinted down the street.

Dr. Brief sighed heavily as he hung up the phone. The police finally contacted him, but not with good news. They had an 'encounter' with Vegeta that didn't end well for the police officer who found him. He learned that, not only was Vegeta missing, he was in the habit of robbing from stores all over the city and now he had assaulted an enforcer of the law. He was digging himself deeper and deeper into trouble. As if it hadn't been hard enough to deal with him killing two criminals. At least in that case he could make the excuse that it was necessary to defend his wife and Bulma. Now there was no just cause for his delinquent behavior.

He chuckled humorlessly. "That boy is out of control. But at least we know he's doing fine. It would be better to know where he's been staying so we could find him."

Vegeta returned to his space pod that afternoon and immediately went to work fixing the fuel gauge. He was proud of himself for being able to figure out how to do that without help and without accidentally causing further damage to any other part of the pod. Satisfied with his work, he sat in the seat and tried to get his scouter to connect with the base so he could get some real work done. But as before, he was unable to get his transmission to go through.

"Is something wrong with the damn scouter?" he wondered aloud as he opened it to check and make sure everything was in working order. He frowned when he didn't see anything wrong with it. He almost hoped that was the source of the problem so he could fix it. Whatever was wrong was apparently out of his control. All he could do was wait. He dropped his scouter on the seat next to him and raked his fingers through his hair. Nothing seemed to be going right for him lately. Not that it ever did, but that was beside the point.

'I wonder how Nappa and Raditz are doing. If they're lucky Frieza will get tired of the worthless morons and kill them. Then they can go join the rest of our race in hell. That would be better than the life we have.' Vegeta sank deeper into the seat and tried to get off that train of thought. They might be worthless morons, but they were his only companions. The only saiyans left other than himself. How sad that that was what his kingdom was reduced to. Three saiyans. He didn't want them to be killed by the lizard. Let them have an honorable death instead. Maybe someday he would kill them personally. That would be the most honorable death they could have.

Vegeta got out of the space pod and decided to go find some food. He was getting hungry. There was a stream nearby that led into a pond. It was filled with fish of various sorts, many of which he recently discovered to be pleasant to the taste. He headed in that direction and stopped when he reached the bank of the stream. He peeled his clothes off and jumped into the clear, cold water. It was refreshing on the hot July afternoon. He swam down the stream until he reached the pond and then dove deeper into the water.

He scared a school of fish and grinned when they darted in all directions to escape the predator in their midst. None of them were very large, but in a few minutes he had an armful of squirming fish as he pulled himself out of the water. He dropped the fish on the dry ground and shook the excess water out of his hair while they flopped around in a desperate attempt to get back to the water.

He sat down at the edge of the water and formed a small ki blade that he used to gut and skin the fish. He didn't bother cooking them, instead pulling the flesh from their bones and eating it raw. It didn't take him long to finish off the last of the fish. He jumped back into the water and swam around the pond lazily. There was nothing for him to do for the rest of the day. He already did his daily training, made another repair on his pod, and failed to make a connection with base. When he got bored with his lack of strenuous activity, he swam back up the stream until he reached his pile of clothes and dragged himself out of the water. He dried himself with a flare of ki before pulling his armor back on.

"I'll just train more until I'm too tired to keep going," he told himself with a shrug.

The next morning Vegeta uncurled from the seat in his space pod and stretched his aching body, groaning in pain with each movement he made. Maybe training the whole day wasn't such a good idea. He dismissed that thought. It passed the time and it could only help make him stronger. He didn't realize that determination would become a lifelong obsession. He crawled out of the pod and stretched his arms over his head with a yawn.

The sun was lighting the horizon but it was still dark out. As always, he woke before dawn regardless of how tired he was. He frowned and rolled his shoulders a few times to ease the tension and aching. It wasn't very effective. He picked his scouter up from the floor of his space pod and put it on, ready to try connecting with base again. He pushed the button and waited impatiently for several minutes. When it became apparent that the connection wasn't be made, he growled and had to refrain from crushing the scouter in his hand when he took it off. He scowled at the useless device and threw it back into the pod and closed the hatch.

'Best way to get rid of aches is to exercise more,' he told himself with a mental groan as he moved into the starting position of his kata. He started going through the motions despite the protests of his tired muscles.

When he was finished he leaned against his space pod and wiped the sweat from his brow. His muscles were trembling and aching worse than ever, but he felt adrenaline pumping through his veins, lessening his pain. If he couldn't contact a technician to guide him through the last of the repairs on his pod, then he didn't have much else to do during the day. He turned his head toward the city and shrugged. If nothing else he could get some cooked food there. He didn't really mind eating his meat raw, but something cooked would be a nice change.

He flew over to the stream and took off his clothes to clean up a little before going into the city. He was sweaty and dirty, and he didn't like feeling grimy. He was a prince, after all. He dipped himself in the cold water and scrubbed his body with his hands. He would never get as clean as he did when he had soap, but it was good enough. He vigorously scrubbed his hair to rid it of built-up dirt before stepping out of the stream and drying himself with a flare of ki.

Vegeta sat down on the bank of the stream and pulled his clothes back on, then laid back in the tall grass. He ignored the rumbling in his stomach as he stared up at the sky. He crossed his arms under his head and uncoiled his tail from around his waist. It laid next to him, the tip curling and twitching in contentment. It wasn't Vegeta-sei. No planet would ever be able to compare to his. But he had to admit this one was kind of nice. If the sky were red… he snorted and closed his eyes. 'Maybe I'll return here after I've defeated the lizard.'

A few quiet minutes passed before he kicked his legs and landed on his feet. He jumped into the air, flared his ki, and sped off toward the city to get some breakfast.

Vegeta landed in a secluded alley near the same restaurant he ate in before he went to live at Capsule Corporation. He ran across the street and went inside. It was exactly as he remembered it. There were several other patrons, all tired, and an old hag of a waitress. Vegeta walked to the counter and took the same seat as last time. He could appreciate consistency.

"Haven't seen you here for a while," the old waitress said. Normally she wouldn't remember customers who weren't regulars, but the strange flame-haired boy stood out in her mind. Everything about him was unusual.

His black eyes shot up to meet hers when he heard her comment. "Hn."

She leaned against the counter and pulled out her pad of paper. "Know what you'd like, honey?"

He shrugged. "Whatever the special is."

The old waitress wrote his order down and went to take it to the cook. Vegeta watched her shuffle away, thinking he should have ordered more. His breakfast wouldn't be all that filling, but it would be good, at least. His eyes roamed around the diner as he waited. There wasn't much to see, so he turned back to scowl at the counter in front of him.

A plate piled high with food was set down in his line of sight and slid across the counter to him. "There you go, honey," he heard the waitress say. "Anything else I can get you?"

"Water."

Vegeta heard her shuffling away as he started eating. The omelet was stuffed with cheese, ham, bacon, and sausage. He was glad there was a lot of meat in it. There was also toast and hash browns on the side. Not much, as he expected, but it was a nice change from wild game. It didn't take him long to finish it all.

When he was done, he again considered leaving without paying for his meal. He'd been stealing from stores all over the city, why bother paying for this? He shrugged to himself. For some reason, he didn't want to walk out without paying. He waited for another customer to walk past and pick-pocketed him. He used the money in the man's wallet to pay before leaving the diner.

'What do I do now? I can't connect with base and I don't know how to fix my pod.'

Vegeta started walking through the city, not having anything better to do. He found himself walking into the city park a while later. It was a pleasant place to be, surrounded by trees. There was a small lake at the center where he could walk around in the sunlight and hear the wind rustling the leaves and the waves of the lake lapping against its banks. He liked the feeling of being in nature while being in the midst of the city. It was late morning by the time he stopped wandering through the park. He climbed a tree a good distance from the pathway cutting through the forest and reclined on one of the branches to take a nap before lunch.

"Mom, let's go this way," Bulma said, tugging her mother's hand to go down the street they were crossing.

"Alright, honey," Mrs. Brief agreed. She followed her daughter down the sidewalk. She couldn't help but notice how tired Bulma was. She hadn't been sleeping well since Vegeta left. Several nights she was woken by Bulma's screams of terror in her sleep, no doubt having nightmares about their terrible experience two weeks prior. Then, every day, she rose early to continue her search for the missing boy.

They had just finished eating lunch and were again walking the streets of West City in hopes of spotting Vegeta somewhere. It didn't matter that over two weeks had gone by. They weren't going to give up.

The street they were on took them past West City Park. Bulma hated walking by there, the memory of her attempted abduction still fresh in her mind. She shuddered when she thought about what would have happened had Vegeta not arrived on time to save them.

"There they are!"

Bulma whirled around when she heard a man yell behind her. She screamed when she saw a man and a woman running toward her. They had guns and didn't look like they were out selling girl scout cookies. Mrs. Brief turned when she heard her daughter's scream and shrieked when she saw what had her daughter so scared. Without thinking, she grabbed her daughter's hand and started running in the opposite direction.

"Help! Somebody help us!" Mrs. Brief screeched. The area of the city they were in was mostly deserted during regular work hours. There was no one else around that they could see, but maybe someone would hear them.

Vegeta growled as a piercing sound brought him abruptly out of sleep. If there was one thing he hated, it was something waking him up before he was good and ready to wake up. He heard the sound again and immediately recognized it as a scream of distress, not unlike those he heard when he was on a purging mission. He grumbled as he stretched his arms over his head before sliding off the tree branch to land in a crouch on the ground.

"Someone, please!"

Vegeta cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders a few time to ease the aches still lingering in his muscles. Training that morning helped a little bit, but he still felt stiff. Maybe he could spend the rest of the day training more to limber up. When his stomach growled, he decided it was long past time to find a decent lunch. He enjoyed his breakfast, but it left him unsatisfied and now his body was demanding adequate nourishment.

Mrs. Brief fell down as the man caught up to her and tackled her to the ground. She screamed again, a combination of pain and fear lacing her voice. She urged her daughter to keep running when she saw her pause in her flight. "Run, Bulma!" she screamed. "Run!"

Tears were rolling down Bulma's face as she turned and put all her energy into sprinting away from the woman who was still pursuing her. She didn't understand why they were after her and her mother. There had to be some connection between this and the attempted kidnapping before. Her mind reeled with fear as she considered the idea that they were going to be hunted down like animals until they were finally captured. Why would anyone want to kidnap them?

Vegeta's attention was caught when he heard the girl's name. He shook his head slowly, not willing to believe that she and her crazy mother were in trouble again. He took off toward the source of all the ruckus and came to a sudden halt when he saw two people attacking the Briefs. He felt pure, unadulterated rage welling up inside as he clenched his hands into fists.

"Get away from them," he growled. He watched as the man holding Mrs. Brief down turned to see who spoke to them.

"Who're you?" the thug asked.

Vegeta's tail unwound from his waist and lashed behind him angrily as he slowly advanced on them. Up ahead, Bulma stopped when she heard his growl, nearly getting plowed over by the woman chasing her. She hardly even noticed the woman grabbing her arms and dragging her back toward the man and Mrs. Brief.

"Vegeta?" she whispered.

When the man pulled his gun from its holster and aimed it at the young saiyan, Bulma screamed, thinking for sure he wasn't going to make it out of this scuffle alive. He was lucky the last time, but two times? Unlikely.

Vegeta continued stalking toward the man, a fire of hatred burning in his obsidian eyes. "Who the hell is hiring you scum?" he spat.

"That's none of your business, kid," the man replied with a sneer. "Back off before I shoot. I'm not going to mess this job up like the last idiots did."

"You already did," Vegeta said softly. It was the calm before the storm.

Instead of replying, the man pulled the trigger. Bulma and Mrs. Brief both screamed when they heard the deafening sound. Vegeta remained unfazed as he snatched the flying bullet out of the air and dropped it on the ground in front of him.

"That's not possible!" the woman gasped, nearly losing her grip on Bulma as she started struggling viciously to get away and run to Vegeta.

Mrs. Brief was now fighting against her captor with every ounce of strength she had. The man, who had been distracted by Vegeta's appearance, turned his attention back to her and slammed the butt of his gun into her head. It didn't knock her out, but she was dazed and momentarily stopped her struggling.

No more than a second later the man found himself sprawled out on the ground with a young saiyan on top of him, a feral growl resonating through his chest and teeth bared in a ferocious snarl. His tail whipped through the air behind him as he straddled the man's chest and started beating him senseless.

The first punch split the man's lip. The second punch broke the man's nose. The third punch broke the blood vessels in his eye. He screamed in pain as the boy's fists continued to rain down on his broken, battered face. He tried to free his arms, but they were locked under Vegeta's legs, leaving him utterly defenseless.

"You stupid fool!" Vegeta snarled. "I will make you pay for that."

"Get him off me!" the man yelled to his accomplice.

The woman shook her head and released Bulma. She turned on her heel and ran. If her comrade expected her to take on a kid who had superhuman speed and the behavior of a wild animal, he was out of his mind. Self-preservation was more important to her than a stupid job. Let someone else take the kid on and kidnap the Briefs.

Vegeta slammed his fist into the man's face one last time before he slipped into unconsciousness. "Pathetic," he muttered as he rose to his feet. He remembered what Dr. Brief told him, that he should never kill again. He wouldn't immediately end the man's life, but he made sure he would never recover even if he was rushed to get medical attention right away. He walked over and pulled Mrs. Brief to her feet, ignoring her whimpering when she saw what happened. "Call the damned police."

While Mrs. Brief pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and started dialing, Vegeta took off after the fleeing woman. He had some unanswered questions that needed to be answered, even if he had to beat them out of her. Bulma was knocked down and fell ungracefully on her backside when he rushed past her.

The woman glanced over her shoulder when she heard rapid footsteps following her and cried out when she saw who it was. She ducked into an alley and ripped her gun out of her holster. It was her last defense even if the kid already proved he could catch bullets.

"Get away from me!" she shrieked when he went after her into the alley. She fired her gun five times before she stumbled backwards over an old tire. Vegeta caught each of the bullets and threw them into the wall, leaving five small holes where they hit.

Vegeta sneered at her cowardice as she fell. "Tell me who the hell hired you and I might let you live."

"I – I don't know," she stuttered. Her eyes nervously shifted around the alley as she searched for a possible escape route. "My partner, he's the one that took the job."

"Bullshit."

The woman held her hands up over her face defensively. "I swear, I don't know!"

Vegeta kicked her, slamming her into the wall behind her. "Don't lie to me, bitch!"

She coughed up a mouthful of blood and started sobbing. She couldn't form words anymore as she scrambled to get away from the demon spawn. He reached down and grabbed the back of her shirt and threw her toward the street. She groaned in pain when her body hit the ground, no longer having the energy to scream.

"This is the second damned time someone has tried to kidnap them," he hissed as he knelt down next to her. "I'm not going to let it happen again. Tell me who hired you."

He waited for an answer, completely unmoved by the way she curled into the fetal position and convulsed with sobs that wracked her body. She coughed up more blood and took a deep breath before begging him to leave her alone. "Turn me in to the cops, but please don't kill me."

He snorted. "You are useless to me dead. I'm not handing you over until you tell me what I want to know."

The woman shook her head again. "I don't know nothin' about him. Just the name."

"Then why," he growled, pulling her up to eye level by the collar of her shirt, "don't you tell me the damn name?"

"Conrad. Charlie Conrad."

Vegeta's lips curled into an evil smirk before he struck her temple, instantly knocking her out. "Charlie Conrad, huh? I'll have to find out who he is and pay him a little visit." Vegeta grabbed the woman's arm and dragged her back to where Bulma and Mrs. Brief were waiting by the unconscious man for the police to arrive. He left the woman lying next to the man and turned to leave. He had some business to take care of. Even if he wasn't staying with the Briefs anymore, he still wasn't going to let any low-life keep hunting them down like this. His attachments, much as he hated them, ran deep. He couldn't turn his back on them when they were in trouble.

"Vegeta, wait!" Bulma yelled as she hurried over to him. She wrapped her arms tightly around him and refused to let go when he tried to push her away. "We've been looking everywhere for you for the past two weeks, we're not letting you get away again."

Mrs. Brief was quick to follow her daughter, carefully sidestepping the bodies on the ground. She pulled Vegeta into an embrace of her own as soon as Bulma let go of him. "You're going to come home with us and stay at Capsule Corporation, young man. We're not letting you live out here on the streets."

Vegeta was dumbstruck. Why would they want him back at Capsule Corporation? Didn't they want him to leave in the first place? He left because he thought he wasn't wanted there. Maybe it was only the old man who wanted him to leave. He wasn't with them, after all. Perhaps they were going against his wishes by seeking him out in the city.

"But I thought you wanted me to leave," he mumbled.

"Never in a million years would we want you to leave," Mrs. Brief assured him. She hugged him tighter as if to prove her point.

He gently freed himself from her arms and took a step back to give himself some space. "You're sure?"

"Of course, honey!"

It wasn't in Vegeta's nature to easily give in when someone else wanted him to do something. He would put up a fight even if he wanted the same thing simply because he didn't want to let anyone push him around. But this case was different. He knew it was dangerous to form and hold attachments to anyone. He was afraid that if he put up much of a fight, they would give up. Vegeta shrugged one shoulder. If they were willing to invite him back into their home, who was he to decline? He didn't like being separated from them anyway. "Ok."

Bulma jumped on him in another hug. "I'm so glad we finally found you!"

"Hn." Vegeta disentangled himself from her embrace and dusted himself off. "I will come back later. I need to take care of something first."

"When will you be back?" Bulma asked.

"I don't know. As soon as I get this done." He turned on his heel and stalked away from them. He could see a police car flying around the corner down the street and figured they would clean up the mess he left behind.

"Should we go after him?" Bulma asked her mother.

Mrs. Brief could only shake her head. "I don't think so, dear. He'll be back."

'Charlie Conrad. I don't know how I'm going to find the bastard, but I will. And when I do, he's going to be sorry he was ever born.' Vegeta went into an alley and leaped onto the fire escape and climbed up to the roof of the building. He walked along the edge of the roof, considering where he should start his search. The sooner he found him and killed him, the sooner he could return to his pack.

A/N: It seems Vegeta gave in easily. Maybe too easily? Perhaps, but consider how strong his attachment to the Briefs is. Being exiled from Capsule Corp was the worst thing to happen to him since his planet was destroyed...Anyway, chapter 32 is almost complete. I'm not sure how many chapters this story is going to be. At 32 I feel like I might be somewhere around halfway done. Maybe. I write long stories. If you've ever read my other story, Rediscovering Honor, you know that ;) As far as how frequently I'll be updating this story... I'm not sure. Probably every other day. I think I'm going to alternate days spent reading and writing and I'll post on the days I read (like today). That is totally the best part of no more college: I can read what I want when I want! I'm a nerd, yes.

Review, please! I'm absolutely loving your feedback on this story!