"Told ya it wasn't Vegeta!"

Eighteen shrugged at her husband. She believed, and in fact had told Krillin many times, that his friends were all parasites whose only goal was to dig their claws into his perfect body and drag him into their endlessly complicated problems. It was therefore her policy to remain as detached as possible from any drama, especially Bulma/Vegeta-related drama.

And yet somehow, someway, she and Krillin always ended up involved in the latest problem. Today was a case in point: all she had wanted to do was take Marron to see little Bulla and maybe have a glass of mid-morning wine with the blue-haired scientist as she described, in gory detail, all the terrible things she wanted to do to Master Roshi.

Instead she had walked into the middle of some sort of conference being held to discuss what to do about Vegeta's wayward niece, who had apparently transformed into a giant ape and then run away the night before.

"I don't see what the problem is," Eighteen said to the audience at large. They were all sitting around the kitchen table – Vegeta, looking like he was just barely resisting the urge to blast everything in sight, Bulma, Goku, and Piccolo. "Can't you just feel her out?"

Goku shook his head. "She's suppressing her energy," he explained. "We could find her, but we'd need to be a lot closer to where she's hiding."

Vegeta scowled. "The Namekian at the Lookout told us she was hiding in the forest so we went to find her, but lo and behold she wasn't there. Some god he is."

"She's on the move," Piccolo said, glaring at him. "It's pretty smart of her actually."

"Well," Krillin said, leaning forward, "I get why you guys are worried; I mean, if she were my kid I wouldn't be able to rest until I found her." He smiled at Goku weakly. "But of all people, Acia can take care of herself. I'm sure she'll be fine, and eventually she'll get bored and come back."

"We're not worried about her, you idiot," Vegeta snarled. "We're worried about what she could do in her state. None of you," he said, turning to the rest of the table, "have ever dealt with a teenaged Saiyan, a real teenaged Saiyan," he shot Krillin a dirty look before he could interrupt him. "You look at her and you see this petite, practically human girl, but believe me, Saiyans her age are vicious, and they have little control over their instincts."

"I think we all agree that we need to find her," Piccolo said, making a mental note of the fact that Vegeta had just referred to a girl that was basically his height as 'petite.' "The question is how do we find her, and what do we do with her once she's found."

"I think we're just gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way," Goku said. "Split up and search till we find her."

"And then what?" Vegeta said. "She comes back here and we all pretend like none of this ever happened?!"

"Yes," Piccolo said simply.

The Saiyan prince glared at him. "I think not. I gave her a direct order and she defied it. That calls for some kind of punishment." He caught the look in Bulma's eye and added, "At least to make sure she doesn't try it again."

Piccolo opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Goku. "Vegeta, be reasonable. Look, we're pretty sure she didn't mean to transform. I mean, did you ever tell her what days the moon is full here?"

Vegeta opened his mouth to respond, then closed it. He had not, in fact, explained the Earth's lunar calendar to his niece, but he was not about to let that get in the way of his entirely justified anger. "What was she doing outside in the middle of the night in the first place?!" he countered. "I told her to never leave this house without my permission!"

"So she made a mistake," Goku said. "Kids make mistakes, and they don't do what they're told. Sometimes they do the exact opposite of what they're told. She's a kid Vegeta, and she probably misses her parents…"

"Stay out of this, Kakarot. I will discipline her as I see fit. And don't forget, I am the Prince of All Saiyans! That includes her!"

"Don't worry Goku," Bulma smiled at her friend. "I'll keep him in line." Vegeta shot his wife a dirty look.

"Great," Piccolo said. "Now, I'm going to call Chiaotzu and get him to come along."

"Why?!"

"She likes Chiaotzu, and if we're about to scour a planet for one girl we'll need all the help we can get." With any luck, Piccolo thought, he'll get to her first.

"Right." Goku stood up. "Vegeta and I will go north, up to the mountains. Piccolo, you look for her in the wastelands. Krillin will search to the south, around the islands. Chiaotzu will take the western mountains. Let's go!"

As her uncle and his comrades formed their game plan, Acia was settling into her second hideout.

She had been hiding out in the forest, scouring for food and a place to rest while her headache subsided. As soon as she felt better she'd moved on to a cave in the highlands that she deemed sufficiently far away from Capsule Corporation and the Lookout. Now it was time to formulate a plan of her own.

Clearly she couldn't stay on this planet any longer. It was only a matter of time before her uncle or one of his friends found her, no matter how much she suppressed her energy or how often she moved. She would leave, she decided, and go to Quelda, and from there she would contact Quaorin. He was, first and foremost, a warrior for his people, and she knew that he always had on him a communication device that enabled him to maintain contact with his home planet. And who knew, if she were lucky, perhaps he was actually on Quelda right now. She could stay with him until her parents came back for her.

So she needed to get her hands on a spaceship, and therein lay her problem. The easiest and most obvious place to get one was Capsule Corp. – she already knew the layout of the compound and, since she'd been working in Bulma's lab, had an access code that would get her into the warehouse where the spaceships were kept. Stealing one would be easy – the security on the ships was less complicated than the one on her parents' bedroom door. On the other hand, she would have to actually go to Capsule Corp., where her uncle, and probably her nephew, were lying in wait.

There was another option. Bulma had told her that this planet had a space program – she could steal a ship from there. But Bulma had neglected to mention where this program was housed, and Acia had no way of knowing how long it would take her to track the place down. Most likely it was in some densely populated area, which would mean that she would have to interact with the humans – no, no, that was a bad idea. She wanted to lay low, not draw attention to herself.

She bit her lip hard. Clearly there was nothing for it. She needed a spaceship, and she needed one fast. If that meant she had to walk into the lion's den to get it, then that's what she would do.

When night fell Acia went on the move again, circling back towards Capsule Corporation – on foot, the better to hide from any airborne men looking for her.

It was very late by the time she reached her destination. She guessed it was around one or two in the morning. Pushing her ki down as far as she could manage, Acia carefully sensed out her former housemates. Bulma and her parents she couldn't feel from this distance, but her uncle and cousins' kis were steady and low – asleep.

Good.

The largest building in the sprawling Capsule Corporation compound was the one dedicated to space exploration, and Acia knew for certain it had at least one fully functioning spacecraft inside. Getting in was a simple matter of disabling the electrical system powering the alarm, housed conveniently on the exterior of the building. That done, Acia pushed open a window gently and slid inside.

Feeling her way around in the dark, her senses on high alert, Acia made her way towards the pod. It was huge, and could easily take three or four people.

Acia drew her fingers around the cold metal of the pod, feeling for an access pad. She went around, once, twice.

There. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could make out the outline of the pod entrance – but no access pad.

Damn it! How do you get into this stupid thing?

Cursing in her head, the teen bent down and crawled underneath the pod. She took a second to familiarize her fingers with the cramped space before prying open a panel. This was it. Something in here would open that goddamn door, or she would blast it open.

Just like old times, she smiled to herself as her eyes adjusted to the dark, making out the colors of the wires and what they were connected to. Now it was just a matter of putting this here, and this over there, and…

She allowed herself a quiet chuckle of triumph as she heard the pod door open with a beep. Scurrying out from under it, she leapt inside and made her way to the control panel. Now all that was left was to set the coordinates and the launch sequence and sit back as the ship took care of the rest. What was that, maybe one minute's work? Acia grinned. She would be out of here in no time.

She found herself shushing the machine as the pod whirred to life under her fingertips, lights turning on and various sensors beeping as she quickly tapped in the coordinates for Quelda.

'Location found,' the computer informed her in the feminine robotic voice species all over the galaxy seemed to prefer. 'Voice command activated.'

"Initiate launch sequence," Acia said as quietly as she could, willing the compound's residents to stay in bed until she could get this thing off the ground.

'Access code required. Please enter your access code now.'

Quickly, she tapped in her six-digit code.

'Access denied. Please enter a valid access code.'

What the hell?! What did the stupid thing mean, access denied?!

Okay, okay, this wasn't so bad. She didn't have time to hack the stupid thing, but she could make an informed guess. On a hunch, she tried Bulla's birthday – the day she'd first arrived on Earth.

'Access denied. Please enter a valid access code. You have one more attempt.'

It's amazing how one simple sentence can induce so much despair.

One more attempt. One more attempt. And then what? Would the pod lock up with her still inside it, or would it trigger some kind of alarm? What else could possibly go wrong…

The lights went on.

Acia's froze in panic. Why were the lights on?! Could she have possibly missed her uncle in her haste to get into the ship?!

No, wait, it's not him. It's…

"There you are, my girl." The curious face of Dr. Briefs, still in his pajamas, looked up at her through the doorway. "What on Earth are you doing here so late?"

"You…I…what…," Acia could do nothing but stare, her body frozen in place as she faced the old man.

"You set off the motion sensors. Most alarm systems are linked straight to the police, but ever since Vegeta moved in we haven't bothered with that. You're quite lucky, you know. If it hadn't been for that you would have been arrested, and I'm sure you don't want that on your permanent record." Dr. Briefs began to climb up the steps into the pod. Acia took a step back, fists clenched tightly and eyes wide as her brain struggled to make sense of what was going on.

"Speaking of Vegeta, it's a good thing you're back. He's been quite worried about you, you know. Of course, I told him there was nothing to worry about. Teenagers get these sort of whims, but they always come back eventually. Why, if Bunny and I had sent out a search party every time Bulma ran off on one of her adventures we'd never have gotten anything done! Now I'm sure you want a nice shower and something to eat. Come along." With that, he hopped out of the pod and began making his way towards the exit.

Acia stood there for a moment, staring at the old man's retreating back. She had no idea what he was talking about, but as much as she could use a shower there was no way she was following him into the house. No, she had to get out of here while the getting was still good.

Moving fast, Acia jumped out of the pod and flew through the window she'd come in and out into the night sky.

Dr. Briefs was out the door before he realized the girl wasn't following him. "Huh. Strange. Perhaps she's still craving adventure." He shrugged and sighed wearily to himself. Teenagers – human, Saiyan, Namekian, they were all the same. Oh well. Eventually the novelty would wear off and she'd be back again.