Human Hospitality
by pureleaf
Chapter 16
The Warning
Jabuka watched in disbelief as Vegeta finished half his liquor in a single gulp and slammed the glass down on the table.
"Easy there, Vegeta... you aren't twenty one any more."
"Eat me, Jabuka. This is good stuff, and besides, I'm only thirty one."
"Which supposedly is still very young for you Saiyans..."
"Precisely! Are you still working with a team, Jabuka?"
"No," Jabuka took another sip of his liquor, "working on my own suits me just fine. Why should I split my pay with anybody else when I've proven time and time again that I don't need any help?"
Vegeta nodded in agreement. "I like how you think. I just wish it were easier to do purges on my own. Weren't you intent on joining the Ginyu Force at one point?"
Jabuka started to crack up laughing at the mention of the flamboyant group of mercenaries. "Ah, don't remind me! I did in fact audition about eight years ago, but they said I didn't have the "it factor" to be a member."
"You must have been crushed," Vegeta rolled his eyes and shifted in his seat, trying to feel his pulse. His body was starting to feel warm. A bead of sweat rolled down the back of his neck.
"Didn't you want to try out too, Vegeta? I seem to recall you keeping tabs on the Ginyus for at least a year."
"Hey! I kept tabs on them because I wanted to figure out their individual weaknesses. That was before they had, uh, what's his name? Guldo... he's the short one," Vegeta made a point of mentioning Guldo in the present tense, "my thinking back then was that if I singled out the weakest member, I'd kill them in a sparring session and they'd have to accept me as a replacement. Of course, that didn't happen... I actually auditioned about six years ago. On a whim."
"Of course you did. What was their reason for turning you down?"
"The official reason is that I was too short and not good-looking enough to join. What a ton of crap! I'm better looking than all of those fools."
Jakuba shrugged. Vegeta wasn't an ugly man, but he wasn't conventionally attractive either. "I haven't heard from the Ginyus in a long time. Probably on some top-secret, high priority mission."
"You don't say..." Vegeta looked up at the ceiling and pursed his lips.
Jabuka took another small sip of his liquor and started to feel very unsettled. He got the feeling that Vegeta was playing dumb in regards to what he really knew about the Ginyu Force.
The Saiyan was letting his head roll from side to side; a classic sign that he was under the influence, thought Jabuka, clearly he hasn't matured whatsoever.
Finally: "I think you know something about the Ginyus, too. Don't you, Vegeta? Your smirk gives you away..."
The Saiyan cracked up laughing. His pupils were dilated and his cheeks were starting to get flushed. "Who says I know anything about them? I don't give a damn about the Ginyus."
Jabuka glared at Vegeta through squinted eyes and shook his head in disapproval. "You haven't changed at all, Vegeta. About a year ago, before the story that you were killed by Frieza started to circulate, I heard you went totally insane and were suffering from delusions."
"Crazy is as crazy does," Vegeta drained his glass of liquor and flagged the waitress again.
Feeling a bit competitive with the petite Saiyan, Jabuka downed the rest of his drink in a single gulp and told Vegeta to buy him another one.
Perfect. He's going to be real compliant before long. Another drink should do it.
Once again, Vegeta ordered two double portions of the fruit-flavoured spirit on ice. He took another stimulant pill to combat the effects of the alcohol, a move that made Jabuka shake his head with disapproval and he warned Vegeta that somebody was eventually going to take advantage of the Saiyan when he was too intoxicated to know what was going on.
"Vegeta, you are opening yourself up to being taken advantage of. It's only a matter of time before you encounter an enemy that you cannot defeat. At the rate you're going, you'll be killed in a bar fight or somebody's going to start stalking you and will wait until you take one of your binges too damn far before closing in on you."
"Mm, like Cui? Why do you even care, Jabuka? It's not like we're close friends or anything. I'm much, much more powerful than I was when we worked together all those years ago, and I'm only getting stronger with each passing day. There is nobody who can defeat me now."
The handsome soldier mirrored Vegeta's smirk. "You may consider yourself confident, but I think you're just arrogant, Vegeta, and you've always been very arrogant. You bite off far more than you can chew and have only managed to survive for this long due to your sheer dumb luck."
"Excuse me, but I do believe I said that my survival was the result of luck and skill..."
"Sooner or later you're going to meet your match, Vegeta, and you will die horribly. It may not even be a person that kills you..."
"Oh, I've already died once, Jabuka. Didn't go to Hell, though..." Vegeta leaned back in his seat and raised his glass in a mock toast to Jabuka's warning.
"Maybe those rumours about you being delusional had some truth to them after all..." Jabuka started to take larger sips of his drink. Suddenly, a cold numbness seemed to bubble up in his stomach and spread through his torso second by second.
Ohhhh shit, thought Jabuka, eyes flickering back and forth between Vegeta and his glass.
"Frieza did in fact kill me," Vegeta leaned across the table to take a close look at Jabuka's pupils as they started to constrict, "but even Hell didn't know how to handle me. I literally rose out of my own grave when I was revived. And, for the record, only Captain Ginyu is still alive, and he's wisely chosen to go into retirement. You'll never see or hear from him again."
The glass slipped from Jabuka's fingers and shattered on the floor as he realized the numbness was spreading into his limbs.
"Feeling alright, Jabuka? Let's go to your place," Vegeta rose from the booth and pulled Jabuka from his seat. Unable to fight back, Jabuka struggled to keep his balance as the Saiyan dragged him towards the fire exit.
"Wait, Vegeta... the alarm will sound..." Jabuka heard his speech slurring and knew he was doomed. He could barely control his legs as they reached the door.
"Nah," the Saiyan kicked the door open, "the fire alarm should have been replaced along with the crappy sound system at least ten years ago."
"Who ordered the five alarm chicken wings?" A chubby server with pink hair styled in braids and a straw cowboy hat set a large circular tray loaded with food and drinks on the table.
"Me!" Yamcha pulled the basket right off the tray and resisted the urge to dig in immediately, "I hope you brought extra dipping sauce, miss!"
Jimmy's Texas Grill was one of Yamcha's favourite restaurants. It was huge, brightly lit, featured huge booths and dozens of televisions all turned to sports. Best of all, the food was inexpensive and the portions were massive. Bulma wasn't very fond of the restaurant, but she wanted to make Yamcha happy after they'd decided to make up yet again.
Over dinner and drinks, Yamcha told Bulma about his training on King Kai's planet and his strengthened friendship with Tien and Chiaotzu. He'd worked hard and felt confident about everything he'd learned from King Kai, although he also admitted that he wondered what Goku would be like when he returned to Earth.
"I wonder when he'll return period. But I don't think Goku would say he'd return if he wasn't absolutely certain he'd be coming back," said Bulma, picking at the rice and beans on her plate. She'd ordered grilled chicken but hadn't enjoyed her dinner very much.
"While I hate to bring up him up, when do you think Vegeta will come back? You said he'd be coming back too, right?"
Bulma nodded and pushed her plate aside. "If he monitors and limits the amount of power he uses on-board, he'll have enough fuel for about twenty months."
"Do you really think he'll come back?"
"If Goku plans to come back, then Vegeta will follow... but enough about him! You wanna get dessert, Yamcha?"
After it took twenty minutes to flag down a taxi and ten minutes of repeatedly asking the drugged soldier where he lived, Vegeta managed to drag Jabuka into his small, tidy apartment and dumped his limp body on the kitchen floor. The tall solider moaned and whimpered as Vegeta stepped over his numb body and started to search through the cupboards. Every thought Jabuka tried to develop slipped away and felt as though his brain had become completely detached from his body.
"You'd better have some food in here, I swear..." the Saiyan opened the refrigerator and found a selection of fresh meat, fruit, exotic milk products, and several bottles of juice, mineral waters, and wine.
He sat on Jabuka's couch, turned on the television and switched it to a news station, and started eating. Over the course of an hour, Vegeta consumed four raw steaks sourced from an unknown creature, more than two pounds of fruit, and a bottle of sparkling water. The more the Saiyan ate, the more grounded he started to feel.
"B-b-b... bbbvvveg...e...da...vvvv..." Jabuka tried to roll onto his back. He started to cough and gag.
The Saiyan rose from the couch and pulled Jabuka up by the shoulder strap of his armour and dragged him to the couch Vegeta had just occupied. "You're in for a rough day, friend," he lay Jabuka on his side and arranged his limbs and chin so his throat would remain unobstructed, "and you may not even remember our meeting. Even better that you seem to have left your scouter at that dump of a nightclub! Jabuka, where is your payment card?"
"Arm..rrrrr..." he slurred, fighting to keep his eyes open.
Vegeta pulled the chest armour off his former comrade and found the card in a chest pocket. Jabuka was barely conscious and drooling.
"Where is your tablet?"
The tall soldier's response was unintelligible. He's probably too messed up right now, Vegeta reasoned, I'll give him a couple of hours to start metabolizing the drug. In the meantime, I can find the stupid tablet myself.
Vegeta went into Jabuka's bedroom and found the tablet on his bedside table. He sat on the bed and found the application to access Jabuka's bank account. After submitting the number on the card, he discovered his old comrade had over two million credits to his name. Not bad for somebody who does solitary work, thought Vegeta. He checked the card belonging to the pig-like soldier and found there was forty five thousand credits available.
The urge to check his own bank account was nearly unbearable, but Vegeta resisted for the fear that logging in would trigger a reaction and alert authorities that he was on Planet 56.
He took the tablet and bank card into the kitchen and found a small knife in a wooden block on the spotless counter. Carefully, he cut around the silver chip in the centre of the card until it was loose and he popped it out with his thumbs. He put the chip in a small pocket on his right shoulder and threw the damaged card in the trash disposal.
For the next two hours, Vegeta kept an eye on Jabuka while watching the news channel and munched on fruit and a box of sweets he found in the refrigerator. There was no news about Frieza's health or any rogue soldiers. Vegeta considered it a good sign and relaxed.
The sky was starting to grow light when Jabuka came to and managed to speak (somewhat) clearly: "...whatsh going on?"
"You said there were food distributors in the city. Where?"
"Eassht..." Jabuka shook a little, trying to move his body. He would be paralysed from the shoulders down for another six hours and wouldn't regain any sensation in his legs for another day.
"You should be able to walk normally late tomorrow. I didn't want to kill you, but I was certain you weren't going to give me your money voluntarily, so I figured this was a good way to get what I wanted without resorting to violence." Vegeta took a huge pack from the front closet and threw some beverages and all the packaged food inside. He went into the washroom and took the First Aid items and medicines, and then went out to the small balcony, left the sliding glass door and screen wide open, and flew away.
To Be Continued