Chapter 107 – In Need of a Brother's Help

The meal finally started once Mr Satan and the steward had managed to get the insistent reporters to leave. Corset happily dove into the starters that had been brought out; soups, breads and small finger foods were laid out as the large amount of waiters began to set up for the main course. She had little doubt in her mind that these poor souls would have their work cut out for them today.

"He must have hired a lot of high-quality chefs to do all this," Soba mused through his mouthfuls scooping up another spoonful of his soup. "This is delicious! Way better than the stuff my dad cooks."

"Your dad cooks? As in at home or at a restaurant?" Corset asked intrigued. She didn't really know much about Soba's family, not that she'd ever had much of an interest to ask.

"My dad owns a noodle bar in Shore City called Zuzu-Zuru; there are a couple of smaller outlets in the city but he still works at his original restaurant set in the main high street." Soba explained. "He's been running the business ever since my mother died."

Corset almost choked on the bread she'd been chewing at his last remark! "Oh! I'm sorry to hear that..." She frowned. "... May I ask what she died of?"

"Giving birth to me," Soba replied a little too blasé for Corset's liking. "There were complications. I nearly died too."

"... How can you be so casual about it?" Corset asked baffled.

"Well I never really met the woman before she died so how would I know what she's like?" Soba replied. "Sure it's sad I never had a mother but that's life. Sometimes bad things happen."

"I guess..." Corset pouted not entirely sure if she agreed or not. She didn't really understand how he could be so calm and indifferent to losing a parent, although since she died when he was born he didn't really get the time to build a bond with her so perhaps it made sense... No, she couldn't accept that. It was just too strange to her!

"Geez these guys would run my dad out of business," Soba grinned taking another spoonful of soup. "This stuff is really fantastic!"

"Isn't it?" Corset agreed deciding it was probably best to drop the previous subject though she was sure at some point in the future she'd call him up on his reactions. "I bet you're glad you came along."

"Are you kidding?" Soba snorted. "I got to meet Mr Satan in the flesh, I got to meet Videl Satan face-to-face and now there's a chance I was on TV! This is the best day of my life! Somen's gonna be seething when he hears how much his plan backfired!"

"... I'm sure he will..." Corset smiled awkwardly.

Soba hesitated before speaking. "... I know I do this every time at work but when will you tell me that you can fly?" he asked.

Corset's mood changed rapidly from attempting to be cheerful to furious in the blink of an eye: she impatiently slammed down her spoon onto the table, "As I keep telling you, I have no idea what you're talking about." She barked angrily, making a couple of heads turn on the nearby tables.

"I saw you." Soba's temper was also quickly boiling over; she'd shouted at him and his first reaction was always to shout back. "You took off in the middle of the playground! I saw you fly off!"

"I've already told you Soba, I was a six-year-old girl; how could I possibly have taken off? I'm only human!" Corset snapped. 'Damn that man! His memory is far too accurate for his own good!' It hadn't left her mind. Ever since she'd been reintroduced to him, Corset'd realised exactly who this young man was. The same Soba as the one in her class when she briefly attended elementary school just before Freeza's return: the same Soba as the one she'd met on the beach thankfully while she was disguised as a Super Saiyan. She hadn't forgotten and had wanted to get away from him ever since he'd been hired as her assistant. It was the reason she despised her mother for inviting him, then again she was angry at herself for not telling her mother about the times she'd met Soba in the past. She should have told her.

"I don't know!" Soba shrugged his shoulders, fury written across his brow, "all I know is that I saw you fly into the air! I know what I saw!"

Corset stood up, chair pushed back with a reasonable amount of force, hands down on the table before her. "I'm not going to have this argument with you again. If you keep on insisting all this crap then I will consider just how valuable an assistant is to me!"

Soba glared fuming and stood, chair crashing to the floor. For a moment he looked at her, his fiery temper struggling to be kept under wraps as he took a deep breath in.

"Are you trying to shut me up by bribing me with my job?" He snarled. "I'm not the one who's too lazy to do her own damn work and learn how to properly deal with the stresses of running such a large company! I'm not the one who seems incredibly defensive over an incident I insist did not happen! You think you will consider just how valuable an assistant is to you? Let me make it easy for you - I quit!"

"You quit?" Corset spat, "Good, I hope you show as much persistence to that threat as you do to your damn story!" With that she stormed off, marching herself out onto the wooden walkway leading over the small lake surrounding the little island they'd been seated at. She stopped once she was satisfied she was far enough from the others and drew in a small breath, staring down at the water below.

Bulma had gotten up and made her way over to Soba who did not seem pleased and was now alone at the table.

"With all due respect Madam President, I am not sorry for what I've just said," Soba grumbled feeling a little awkward for having raised his voice.

"I realise," Bulma replied calmly. "... I wanna apologise for my daughter's outburst. You're right; she isn't taking her work seriously and is happy enough to leave some of her work to others... I'm sorry it didn't work out."

"You're one brave man," Krillin added impressed from his seat. "Not a lot of people can say they've stood up to Corset like that and not at least been hit!"

"That's because Soba's special," Bulma smiled at the short warrior. "She won't hit him, no matter how angry she'll get at him."

Soba was quick to catch on. "... You guys really need to stop hinting things that aren't true."

"Well maybe you need to take your own advice," Bulma replied coolly, "Just think about what you really want to do, ok? Don't act so rash." She wandered back over to her table leaving Soba to contemplate.

Outside, Videl had gone to comfort her fuming friend. Corset'd told her the story and the reason for their outbursts.

"He saw you fly?" Videl gasped quietly so as not to be overheard.

"Yeah, when I was in elementary school. Something came up and I had to leave quickly. I didn't know someone had seen me." Corset reluctantly confirmed. "It's so annoying, he just won't give up! He's as stubborn as you were!"

"That's gonna be a problem to keep from him for long then," Videl let the comment slide, knowing how true it had been. "Why don't you just come clean? If he finds out you'll have to eat your own words."

"I know that but I can't tell him," Corset replied. "I can't tell anyone who may know me just in case they blabber to the paparazzi; I'm already an interest to them being the heiress of Capsule Corp. Surely you know how I feel; you're from a famous family constantly hounded by reporters."

"Yeah but... what will you do if he finds out?" Videl asked. "You can't keep it from him forever?"

"Sure I can," Corset responded, "... and why would he find out? You're not gonna tell him; no one's gonna tell him anything. He doesn't have to find out anything!"

"I dunno... As Gohan will tell you, a secret as big as those you and he hid from the others at high school is a pretty difficult thing to do."

"I did it all the way through high school with the exception of you," Corset pointed out. "I'll have no problems with this one."

"... Well, will you at least come back in and eat with us?" Videl sighed. "Honestly I think you guys ought to apologise to each other and to my dad for causing such a ruckus."

Corset pouted begrudgingly, "... I'll apologise to your dad but I'm not apologising to him." She grumbled, following Videl back to the food court.

Her blood suddenly froze, body stopping in its tracks. Something had caught her attention. There were two unfamiliar ki signals closing in on the planet, two rather noticeable energy signals. Corset stopped walking, staring off into the distance with a look of concentration upon her face.

"... What is it?" Videl asked unnerved.

"Gohan!" Piccolo was heard from inside the room. Corset broke off into a run, Videl close behind her as they entered the hall again.

"I know," Gohan nodded.

There were two energies nearby that Corset could sense; both had appeared from out of nowhere and neither were familiar to her. One had a peculiar feel to it, one she'd sensed a few times before and would constantly sense from two of their dearest fighters.

"I sense a powerful ki approaching," Eighteen murmured, holding Marron close to her as Krillin rose off his chair.

"I hope it doesn't lead to trouble," Krillin responded nervously.

"Who is it?" Master Roshi asked turning away from his food.

"An unknown energy!" Trunks slammed his hands onto the table, startling Bulma.

"What's wrong?" Bulma asked.

Corset grimaced and closed her eyes. Of all the times for a potential threat to appear, why now when she'd insisted she was not who Soba claimed her to be? One of the ki was Saiyan, there was no denying that.

Goku rose off his chair, much to Chichi's confusion. Several others followed suite and followed him out to the front of the hotel grounds, Corset included. She didn't catch sight of the quick glance Soba made towards her, a look of confusion on his face. Rushing out onto the lawn down the stairs, the two energies appeared in physical form, landing on Videl's aircraft.

Indeed one was Saiyan.

"That tail!" Gohan gasped.

"No way, it's a Saiyan!" Krillin cried.

"I thought Dad and Goku were the only ones left!" Corset muttered quietly, closely eyeing up the Saiyan and his accomplice; the other energy belonging to a short, round-headed scrawny alien with a sweet smile on their face. The Saiyan was clearly the stronger of the two, not that his power compared to theirs in any way. She didn't understand; she'd been sure that the only surviving Saiyans had been Raditz, Nappa, Goku and her father – the former two were now dead leaving just her dad and Goku! Where in the universe had this one been hiding?

"Tarble!"

Corset gasped alongside the others in disbelief as her father made his way to the front of the crowd.

"Big brother!" The Saiyan responded happily, rushing over to Vegeta. "It's great to see you!"

"B-Big brother?" Several of the fighters perched on the stairwell spluttered baffled. Now that they looked more closely, there was a resemblance... only this Saiyan looked a little less aggravated and appeared more innocent.

"Didn't father send you to a remote planet because you were a weakling?" Vegeta grunted folding his arms, looking down at his brother in disdain.

"He's my uncle?" Corset stared in disbelief as the Saiyan continued to talk to her father. Sure enough there were a few similarities but Tarble seemed nothing like her father. He was pretty lean for a Saiyan and seemed even more vertically-challenged than her father. She could have almost mistaken him for a teenager or someone slightly younger than herself!

"A Namekian told me you'd returned to Earth after defeating Freeza," Tarble replied looking a little dejected. "A terrible duo named Avo and Cado are terrorising my planet. They used to work under Freeza as part of the Planetary Trade Organisation. I tried to fight them but I proved no match for them. Please help us, Vegeta!"

"Are they strong?" The conversation had caught Goku's interest and he approached the two brothers with a drumstick still held in his hand.

"Super strong," Tarble nodded, clicking a button on his scouter. He seemed to eye up Goku suspiciously.

"Really? This sounds pretty good!" Goku grinned.

"Strong opponents this guy can't beat? I'm not so sure that makes them strong..." Corset seemed unconvinced but interested nonetheless. This Saiyan had come out of nowhere and now she was meant to believe he was her uncle? The differences between the siblings were as clear as day to her; Tarble already seemed far mellower and far more willing to ask for help, something she'd never seen in a Saiyan before! There had to be a reason her father had never told him or the others about this Tarble man. Then there was the shorter alien standing beside him. Corset wondered what the little, quiet alien was capable of. Its ki was miniscule but there had to be a reason it was tagging along to this Saiyan...

"Forgive me but I don't think you have the combat strength," Tarble mumbled to Goku as his scouter flickered.

"Don't believe what the scouter tells you," Vegeta barked startling his younger brother. "Battle strength can be changed on a whim; you still have much to learn!"

"I'll show you." Goku made a move to prove Vegeta's point further. His ki started to surge dramatically as he made his transformation into a Super Saiyan; Table's scouter shattering during the power-up unable to keep up with the tremendous surge in power. Goku quickly ended the transformation with a smile, pleased the naive Saiyan had learnt from this mistake.

"That should be plenty of power to beat them! Please, help me!" Tarble beamed approaching the taller Saiyan. "They've followed me here!"

"You're as pathetic as always!" Vegeta spat. "I guess it can't be helped; I'll handle these guys. It'll be a good after-dinner workout."

"No way, I wanna fight them," Goku interrupted. "Leave this to me!"

"Kakarrot, this is between me and Tarble; it's none of your concern." Vegeta snapped.

"Aww don't be like that!"

"Dad, I wanna fight too!" Trunks called.

"Yeah, me too!" Goten added.

"I think I might join in too!" Krillin wearily raised his hand.

"Me too," Gohan agreed.

"Well if Gohan's insisting then I'd better," Corset smiled.

"I'd like to fight too," Master Roshi raised his hand.

Goku frowned as the small number of hands raised increased, "... There's too many of us... We can't all fight them; it wouldn't be fair!" He contemplated their options quickly coming up with a solution. "Hey, we'll sort this out by drawing lots. Everyone grab onto me."

In the end, Goku teleported everyone back to his home. Corset was taken back to see the large quantities of radishes growing in front of their home! Since when had Gohan's family been farmers? She'd never seen any produce growing around their house in the number of years she'd come over to visit.

"Chichi and I grew these radishes; whoever pulls out the longest radish will get to fight these two guys." Goku explained. "Everyone gets one chance and that's all!"

One by one, the group all pulled a radish free from the ground. When it came to Corset's turn, she was sorely disappointed as hers ended up being small, although not as small as the ones her father and Krillin had picked out.

"Too bad," Gohan smiled. "Looks like you're out."

"I can't tell with farm crops which ones are any good; I live in the city!" Corset shrugged her shoulders. It wasn't a total loss; at least this way there was absolutely no chance of Soba ever catching into her secret, no matter how much he seemed to be trying to prove one of her many secrets was right.

An excited squeal came from Goten who proudly held a gigantic radish over his head. "It's huge!" Indeed the radish he held looked as if it would burst.

"Nice one Goten," Goku smiled proud of his son.

Vegeta snorted and turned to his son, "Trunks, you'd better find one bigger than Goten's!" he barked.

Trunks stopped before one radish and pulled it from the ground; it was the skinniest radish Corset'd ever seen. As Trunks continued to pull, the radish kept on going, vanishing down the side of the nearby cliff and almost reaching the stream below! It was incredibly thin like a whip – and even longer than Goten's by far.

"I said the longest so Trunks wins," Goku declared.

"Trunks, go and avenge your uncle," Vegeta smirked pleased his son had beaten his rival's boys, unlike his daughter.

"Good luck!" The tiny alien rushed up to Trunks grabbing hold of his hands; the shrill voice suggesting to Corset this alien was female though of course first impressions and assumptions could always be incorrect.

"By the way Tarble, who is this?" Vegeta glared at the alien as if he'd only just noticed its presence.

"Oh, forgive me for not introducing you sooner," Tarble apologised. "This is my wife."

"Your WIFE?" Vegeta spluttered baffled.

"My name is Gure; it's a pleasure to meet you," the tiny alien bowed down politely before her brother-in-law.

'She's my AUNTIE?' Corset stared in disbelief, further more amused when her father showed some manners and returned her greeting.

Far away from Goku's home, Soba had ventured out from the dining area in order to find the others, curious as to what was going on. His search led him to the front of the hotel where he was sure everyone had gone to. He was shocked to find no one out here! "... What the hell?" He mumbled baffled. Had everyone left or where they somewhere else?

Soba was about to turn around when a high-pitched noise caught his ear, it was quiet, probably some distance away from him. Unsure of where it was coming from, he frantically looked around, spotting something gleaming in the skies above. There were two small but shining dots. Soba couldn't work out what they could be...

In a flash there were two loud explosions accompanied by shockwaves which rocked him off his feet. Soba fell to the stairs, halting his fall with both hands. He gazed with a mixture of horror, awe, and disbelief at what he saw. Two small craters lay before him. Inside each crater was a strange round sphere.

"S-Spaceships?"

Soba spun around to see the steward cowering at the top of the stairs. Without a word the panicked man rushed calling for Mr Satan. Soba quickly rose to his feet, heart pounding in his chest as the two spheres began to open. His eyes widened; legs shaking and stuck to the spot as two strange aliens appeared before him. What was he going to do? This had to be a dream. There was no way aliens could exist! It was impossible!

The two were looking straight at him; Soba finding himself terrified but unable to move! Were they going to kill him? Would they abduct him?

Everyone was suddenly there.

Soba had to blink a couple of times, baffled and confused. Corset and her family, alongside the others who'd rushed out the room, were suddenly standing in front of him! When had they suddenly appeared and how? He was sure he'd blinked then suddenly they were there! What kind of magic was this?

Corset glanced behind her back, slightly surprised to see Soba standing at the top of the stairs. This was bad; she had to get him out of here before he saw anything. If this was going to turn out how she imagined then Soba was in danger just being here. Not only that, her reputation was at stake!

The aliens before them didn't seem too powerful to her; both were of pudgy build and wore the clothes worn by both the Saiyans and by Freeza's soldiers. The only noticeable difference between them was their skin colours; one being blue, the other red. Other than that Corset would have assumed they were of the same species.

"You've given us a lot of trouble, Tarble," the red alien muttered.

"Show yourself!" The blue spat.

"Those two are the ones who were chasing us here," Tarble spoke nervously, Gure hiding behind his leg fearfully. "Their names are Avo and Cado; they used to be part of Freeza's forces."

"Trunks, they're not that strong; you should be more than enough to fight them both." Vegeta muttered disappointed with the ki levels he was sensing from the two short, stubby fighters.

"Hey Vegeta, why not let Goten fight with him?" Goku asked as Trunks approached the two warriors; on closer inspection they now appeared to be a fair bit taller than both Trunks and Goten! "That way it'll be two-on-two! Come on, what do you think?"

"Trunks will be fine on his own." Vegeta responded.

Goku grunted and defiantly wandered over to Goten, "Hey Goten, Vegeta says you can fight alongside Trunks." He whispered.

"Yeah! Thanks, Vegeta!" Goten beamed happily, running over to his friend to join him in battle.

Corset used this opportunity to make her way up to Soba, noticing just how much the blood had drained from his face. "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked concerned that the atmosphere was too much for him to bear. Soba looked pale and shaken, staring straight through Corset at the two aliens, who were now being approached by Goten and Trunks. "Soba?" She tried again.

The human blinked, seeming to come back to reality.

"Come on, let's get back to the food," Corset suggested.

"... Your brother's going towards them!" Soba protested baffled, "You're alright with that? What kind of sister are you?"

"He'll be fine, now come on." Corset insisted.

The shockwave from behind caught both their attention, Corset cursing under her breath as she noticed Goten and Trunks had made the first move. Their two opponents had both vanished behind a large cloud of smoke.

Soba's eyes had widened as far as they could go.

From the feel of it, these were opponents the boys could easily take down.