Chapter 041 - Preparing For the Future Part One
Although the prospect of fighting in a battle that would get most of her friends and eventually her killed, Corset was pleased. She had a reason to train now, something to push her to improve herself. What was better was that everyone else seemed to be doing it. Thoughts raced through her mind, she wondered how to go about her training? Should she ask someone for help? Would Piccolo still want to train her or would she have to ask someone else.
"So tell me Kakarrot, how did you escape from Namek?" Vegeta spoke out.
"Yeah, that's right: Freeza's ship was broken..." Yamcha remembered, "Kaio said you wouldn't have been able to make it."
"I'd have agreed with him!" Goku replied, "Luckily I found these round spaceships nearby, about four or five of them."
"Of course!" Vegeta gasped. "Those ships belonged to the Ginyu Force!"
"I guess so," Goku answered, "I just climbed aboard and pressed all the buttons and the next thing I knew, I was flying! It landed on a planet called Yardrat."
"Ginyu and his men were in the middle of conquering it," Vegeta smirked, "It had been programmed to go there automatically..." His eyes quickly darted over the taller Saiyan, "Then those weird clothes are from Yardrat."
"Yeah, I made friends with the people there," Goku smiled looking down at his clothes, "They gave me these because my clothes were ripped up. Looks weird, huh?"
Corset's attention began to drift as Vegeta and Goku continued to talk. She had other pressing matters to attend to. First of all, who was that mysterious man? How had he been able to transform into a Super Saiyan? Why was her dad so sure he wasn't a Saiyan? Surely he'd have to be one to become a Super Saiyan? Then there was the matter of these androids. From what Corset'd been taught, she was sure an android was a machine made to look like a human but really wasn't human at all. Who exactly was the Red Ribbon Army and how were they able to create these things? Her mama and grandpa had told her it was virtually impossible for them to create artificial life in the form of androids. Who was the person behind these things and how was he so smart?
"T-Teleport?" Several of the others cried, shaking her from her thoughts. Teleport? What had she missed?
"Show us..." Tenshinhan spoke.
Corset breathed a sigh of relief; hopefully she'd be able to work out what had been going on since she'd drifted off.
"Alright, Goku nodded, "To do this you need to think of a person, not a place. Then you find their ki. You can't go to some place where there's no one you know. Now... where should I go...?"
Everyone was kept in suspense.
"I've got it!"
In that instant, Goku's body flickered slighly before it suddenly vanished into thin air. Corset's jaw dropped in shock; he'd completely gone! She couldn't see him anywhere.
In the blink of an eye, Goku reappeared just as quickly as he'd vanished.
Vegeta snorted, "So what? That's just super speed and nothing more..."
"Ta-da!" Goku grinned; he'd returned with a pair of red sunglasses, "Guess who these belong to?"
"Th-Those are Master Roshi's sunglasses!" Krillin stammered in disbelief.
"We're at least ten-thousand Kilometres from Kame House!" Yamcha exclaimed.
"See, it's for real!" Goku nodded. "It's a technique the Yardrats' called Instant Transmission!" Obviously amused by the look of shock and disbelief on several of his friend's faces, he took the glasses from his face and held them out towards Krillin. "Krillin, do you think you could give these back to Master Roshi for me?"
Corset now understood; so he'd learnt that when he'd been on that strange planet? It looked so cool! First a guy from the future with a time machine, now Gohan's dad could teleport!
"... Alright, we'll meet again in three years," Tenshinhan muttered. "Where and when will it be?"
Corset focused, this was no time for her to be zoning out again!
"Um... He told me..." Goku's face dropped, "... I forgot!"
"May twelfth around ten on an island nine Kilometres southwest from South City," Piccolo repeated; the group had already discovered that the Namekian had heard Goku and the other boy speaking from earlier; his hearing was a lot sharper than everyone realised. Corset had no idea Piccolo'd always had extra strong hearing. Everyone seemed to be able to do all this amazing stuff and what could she do?
"... We should get there an hour earlier. We'll meet at nine," Piccolo continued. "If you don't think you stand a chance, don't bother coming. The enemy this time will be unthinkably powerful. We don't want anybody who's going to drag us down!"
Corset frowned. She was certain she probably fitted into that category...
"Don't make me laugh, aren't you the one who won't stand a chance?" Vegeta jeered.
Corset gulped fearfully as she felt Piccolo's bloodlust flare up. "Do you want to try me out, Vegeta?" He bellowed.
"Whoa, whoa!" Goku quickly stepped in between them. "Come on guys, let's all try to get along here. We're all in this together!"
"Hey guys, I was thinking..." Bulma spoke up. "Why don't we attack that Dr. Gero who created the androids now? Even if we don't know where he is, we can still use the Dragonballs to ask Shenron and he'll tell us. That way you won't have to go through all that in three years!"
For a moment no one spoke. Corset looked up at her mother in awe. She'd never even considered that! Her mama was so smart!
"Y-Yeah!" Krillin finally spoke, "Great idea, Bulma! Then we won't have to fight at all!"
Corset had to admit it did save them having to fight a senselessly one-sided battle, no one would die. The only problem seemed to be finding enough time to gather the Dragonballs and then finding this Dr. Gero guy.
"If you try to do that, I'll kill you!" Vegeta bellowed. "Understand?"
Again a small moment of silence fell, everyone staring at the distant Saiyan Prince.
"What are you talking about?" Bulma finally snapped back, Corset gasping and helping Krillin keep her mother from approaching Vegeta! "This isn't a game - the Earth's fate is riding on this!" Unexpectedly Bulma broke free and rushed towards Goku instead, grabbing the seemingly-indifferent warrior by his arms. "You agree with me, don't you, Goku?"
"... I'm sorry but I want to fight too..." Goku answered, Bulma sinking to her knees. "Besides, Dr. Gero hasn't made the androids yet so it would be mean to go beat him up since he hasn't done anything wrong yet."
Corset had to admit it made sense, although she could see her mother's point. She didn't exactly like the sound of these androids but she had to admit, some part of her seemed to want to fight them.
"I can't believe this!" Bulma wailed, getting back to her feet and turning to the others. "These Saiyans are battle junkies! You guys have some sense, right? If you die again you can never come back to life!"
"I want to try and see what I can do in battle," Tenshinhan replied. "If I die, it was an honourable death."
Bulma fell silent; Corset felt sorry for her since no one seemed to be agreeing with her.
"... Bulma, I was thinking..." Krillin spoke up, "All of us here used to be enemies – I hated Goku when I first met him – but when there was a common enemy, we started teaming up because we had to and before we knew it, we became friends. These guys wouldn't normally train together and they can get pretty nasty..."
"What are you trying to say?" Bulma grunted annoyed, arms folded. The scowl on her face made Corset flinch away; her mother's angry face had always sent shivers down her spine and it was a face she'd seen a fair few times.
Krillin etched closer to Bulma and spoke in a quieter voice, "Piccolo may be ok now but without a common enemy, who knows what Vegeta would do? Talk about scary..."
"... That was a really nice speech when you started out..." Gohan mumbled.
"Oh, so you don't wanna get beaten up, Krillin?" Corset asked.
"Shut up, you two!" Krillin blurted. "Spare me your wise cracks, you know what I mean!"
"Fine, do what you want," Bulma pouted turning her back on the others. "It sure is a pain in the butt for civilised people like me who have to deal with you guys!"
"Then it's settled," Goku smiled. "Let's bring peace to the future!" He tossed one fist up into the air.
"Yeah!" Corset and several of the other fighters pumped their fists into the air.
"Great, you've taken over the world now!" Bulma snorted. "You guys are as bad as your enemies! This fighting is morbid... but I guess I'm stuck with you."
"Ok..." Goku seemed to be ignoring Bulma, "We'll meet at nine in the morning on May twelfth in three years' time! Oh, and you don't have to come if you don't want to!"
Corset heeded this warning. She didn't know how much use she'd be but she wanted to help the others out, even if at the end of the day Piccolo would consider her to be one of those who'd drag them down! Like it or not, she wanted to fight. She didn't want any of the others to die.
"Kakarrot..."
Her dad's voice grabbed her attention and she looked over.
"Don't think you don't need us just because you became a Super Saiyan..." Vegeta warned, "I will beat you sooner or later!"
Goku smiled. "Sure."
With that the Saiyan Prince suddenly took off, blasting the others indirectly with loose dust. Corset flinched and protected her face from the light fragments whilst closing her eyes. She opened them once she'd felt the breeze die down, looking off into the distance where her father had disappeared to. A plan began to form in her mind.
"Well, we're gonna get going too," Tenshinhan decided. "We'll see you in three years..."
"See you guys later," Chaozu smiled and waved.
The two shot off the ground and into the skies.
Again Corset watched. She wondered just how much stronger Tenshinhan and Chaozu would be when she next saw them...
"Hey Piccolo, do you wanna train with me and Gohan?" Goku asked. "I'd love to spar and stuff."
Corset turned around anxiously; Piccolo had been training her recently. Would he turn her down if he decided to join Goku and Gohan? She saw no reason why he wouldn't; Goku would provide him with a far tougher opponent. Surely that would be what he'd want.
"... That would suit me fine," Piccolo answered.
"You wanna join us too, Krillin and Yamcha?" Goku asked.
"I'm gonna train at my own pace," Krillin shook his head.
"Yeah, me too," Yamcha agreed, "I doubt I could keep up with you guys."
"What about you, Corset? I'm sure Gohan'd love it if you and Piccolo were there." Goku asked, turning to Bulma as if he needed to double-check with her. "Would that be alright with you, Bulma?"
"I'm not sure; someone's going to school at the moment..." Bulma replied. "... At the end of the day it's her choice."
"I'd love to," Corset smiled eagerly, albeit something wasn't quite right.
"Alright then, we'll see you guys later." Goku waved, turning but suddenly stopping. "... Oh, Bulma?"
"What is it?" Bulma asked.
"Have a healthy baby!"
Goku took off, Gohan and Piccolo close behind.
Bulma, Yamcha, Corset, Krillin and Puar were left standing speechless.
"... Baby?" Krillin finally repeated, "Bulma, are you pregnant?"
"No," Bulma folded her arms, "What planet is he on?"
Corset raised one eyebrow at Yamcha who seemed to be jittery; he had a strange look on his face and it sounded like he was laughing.
"I know what he's trying to say..." the scar-faced man spluttered, "It's time for us to stop stalling, get married and create a family. That big lug's gotten smoother than I thought!"
Corset felt a little uncomfortable hearing that. Her mother already had a family – her! Was Yamcha going to try and push her out of it? No, he wouldn't do that... She had to give him more credit than that; most of the time Yamcha was fine around her. Maybe he'd make a decent father... even if she wasn't his child. How would her dad react? Would he even care? The young girl's head buzzed with a thousand questions with few answers.
"Alright, I'm gonna head off too," Krillin decided. "Whatever Goku's going on about Bulma, take care of yourself. Yamcha, Corset – I'll see you guys soon."
The short warrior took to the skies vanishing into the horizon.
"I guess we'd better be heading back then," Bulma sighed, "... great, I can't remember where I left my jet."
"We can fly you back to it," Yamcha replied. "It can't be too far."
"It's over in that direction," Corset pointed. "I remember seeing those funny-looking mountains behind us."
"I'll take your word for that." Bulma sighed.
Yamcha decided to head off to another location to start off his training and to gather his thoughts for the rest of the day, leaving Bulma, Puar and Corset to fly back to Capsule Corp. Since the craft was only designed for one person, Corset happily flew home on her own steam. There were a couple of things going through her mind on the flight back home.
Once they'd arrived, Corset decided to ask her mother about something.
"How come you're letting me train?" Corset asked as her mother placed her jet back into capsule form, "...I thought that I had to go to school."
"Well you are supposed to..." Bulma replied putting her capsule away in her case and sliding it into her jacket pocket, "... but I guess I'd rather you didn't die like that guy said you were supposed to! As for your education, I guess I could arrange some home tutoring for you a couple of times a week to keep you on track."
"Thank you, Mama," Corset smiled hugging her mother.
"You've got to promise me you'll try hard both in training and in learning!" Bulma added, hugging her only child back. "Train hard with Goku and Piccolo and Gohan – I know Goku will make sure you're taken care of and to be honest, I'm really impressed and relieved Piccolo took such care of you and Gohan!"
"Right," Corset nodded.
The training began immediately and as planned, Corset trained alongside Piccolo, Gohan and Goku. She would travel over to Gohan's home in the mountains and travel back home, often arriving around dark. The flight to and from the small hamlet nestled in the valley below Mount Paozu was tiring but Corset knew it would do her stamina good in the long run. Flying long distances would become less tiring and less of an issue.
As per usual, morning came. Today she'd be training. Corset grabbed her bag and swung it over onto her shoulder before dashing out of her room, closing the door behind her. She broke off into a trot down the long winding corridor, passing her grandmother on the way down to the stairs.
"Oh, Corset sweetie, would you like to try some of the new cakes I bought?" Mrs Brief asked.
"No thank you, Nana!" Corset called rushing past the cheerful blonde woman. "I'm going to Gohan's house to train!" She leapt down several of the stairs and landed on her feet, jumping again down the next flight and making a dash through the reception out into the front of the building, not even giving the receptionist a chance to say good-bye. With an eager and strong jump she took off into the sky. At this rate she was going to be late!
The training she endured was tough and challenging for both her and Gohan. Whilst Piccolo and Goku would take it in turns to have a small sparring session with either of the two kids, often the two masters would challenge each other, leaving Gohan and Corset to spar together. Sometimes all four of them would get involved in one fight; often Goku would ask to face off against the trio. He was no easy opponent to hit, let alone beat! Only Piccolo seemed to hold an edge against him, though that didn't discourage Gohan nor Corset who still insisted on giving it their all.
By the time she got home it was near dark. The long flight across the continent had slowly become faster; it only took her two-and-a-half hours to fly from one to another. Tired and hungry, Corset literally bounced across the ground, stopping when she noticed the spaceship still had its lights on inside. No doubt her dad was training inside there again. She'd heard him yelling and threatening her grandfather to make him some sort of gravity machine, whatever that was supposed to do.
Curious she wandered over to the side of the large ship; she was too small to see through the window. Cautiously she climbed onto one of the ship legs and glanced inside. Her father had his back to her and seemed to be shadow-boxing; he had several bandages wrapped around him. Content he was up to nothing unusual or fascinating, Corset ducked down quickly and jumped down to the ground leaving him to train.
Making her way inside and into the living quarters she found her mama and nana eating their dinner in the living room.
"Hi sweetie!" Mrs Brief cheerfully greeted her granddaughter.
"Your dinner's in the microwave," Bulma put her plate down and got to her feet; she seemed a little annoyed with something. Corset followed her mother into the kitchen and patiently waited while she re-heated her food for her.
"So, how was it today?" Bulma asked.
"It was tough," Corset smiled, "Goku's really strong, I couldn't even hit him. I can hit Piccolo though – and Gohan too! Goku said I could become really strong if I kept my training up so I'm gonna do my best."
"I'm glad it went well," Bulma sighed. "... We almost lost our house thanks to a certain Saiyan!"
"Really?" Corset raised her eyebrows. "Why, what did he do?"
"It wasn't long after you left - Vegeta was training so hard, he blew up the ship your grandpa made!" Bulma explained, "We had to nurse him back while your grandpa tried to put the spaceship back together – It's amazing he did it in such short time. Then when he woke up, Vegeta went straight back to training! He's not going to heal properly at this rate. That man is just impossible!"
Corset frowned and glanced over to the window; so that was why he'd had bandages on.
The microwave pinged and Bulma served her daughter's food up. "It's important that you rest up and let your wounds heal before you go charging back to training. Remember that, ok?"
"Ok," Corset nodded obediently, grabbing a tray and some cutlery before following her mother back into the living room to eat.
A month or so passed. Although Corset was getting her training in with Goku, Piccolo and Gohan, Goku had expressed a concern with how much time she was missing out on. Since Corset spent time travelling to and from West City, she was in effect losing out on five hours' worth of training!
It sounded like a lot of time.
Corset knew she would have to find some way of getting more training in and as a result, found herself struggling with the one thought she'd had...
The sun had barely risen above the buildings. Although today was designated as one of her study days, Corset wanted to try and catch her father before he headed into the spaceship for more training. She hadn't seen him come into the house at all last night and wondered if he'd stayed inside the ship for the night. Following her instinct she headed straight outside and nervously approached the ship.
Shockingly she couldn't hear the gentle hum of the gravity machine inside the ship. Was he not in after all? Maybe he was asleep or getting food?
Corset turned on her heels and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw her father walking towards her... or in her general direction probably heading for the spaceship! She almost didn't say anything until the pressure persuaded her otherwise; she opened her mouth just as he was passing her.
"Um... P-Please train me!" She spluttered timidly, almost spewing it out as one word. Immediately she wished she could physically grab the words and shove them back into her mouth as if somehow that would reverse time and erase the memory of those words ever leaving her mouth.
She could feel his glance on her and couldn't find the courage to look back at him, instead she kept her eyes on the path in front of her.
"... I have no time for weaklings." Vegeta muttered, brushing past his child and entering the spaceship.
Even after she heard the door seal itself she continued to stand. She'd thought he'd say no. Now what was she meant to do? She was losing valuable time and Vegeta was the strongest fighter she had living under her roof. There had to be a way she could put more training hours into her day...
Corset made her way back inside and back to her study area where her personal tutor, Ms. Chalk, was waiting.
The lady was incredibly nice, maybe too nice at times, although Corset wasn't complaining. She always had a way of explaining things in a way Corset could easily grasp and she found it was sticking in her head. Her mother certainly hadn't gone wrong with this tutor!
"Alright, today we're gonna cover a bit of maths, grammar and physics," Ms Chalk decided as Corset sat herself down. "We'll start off with some algebra."
Corset was clueless to the fact she was learning things children a couple of years older than her would learn, although she'd noticed the teaching was different to what she was used to during her short time in Elementary School!