AN: Hello and welcome! Oh my gosh, you guys would not believe how excited I am today! I'll have a bigger author's note down at the bottom, but today is my fifth anniversary of writing fanfiction! And it all started with our girl right here.
As always, eternal thanks to my beloved beta annbe11. We started fanfiction on the same day, and she has put even more work into her stories than I have. She just gave a big epilogue to her debut story, Tiger's Circus, in celebration. I highly recommend you go and check out some of her amazing stories.
Chapter 15 – Growing Pains! What's Wrong with Puddin?!
Breath in… Breath out… Shoulders back… Feet planted… Arm straight… Energy high… Okay, let's do this.
"Big Bang Attack!"
In response to her cry, energy coalesced in Puddin's palm to form a sphere, crackling with lightning. After it hung in the air for a fraction of a second, it shot forward like a cannonball, propelled by Puddin's will alone. It streaked across the sky until it finally made impact with a mountain far off in the distance. There was a moment of silence, like the world took a massive breath of anticipation.
Then the explosion happened. Puddin was buffeted by shockwaves and her ears rang with the noise as the blast grew to encompass the entire horizon. After a moment of blinding light, the explosion faded, leaving a mushroom cloud of dust in its place. Puddin looked upon the destruction she had wrought and smiled in satisfaction.
"Absolutely pathetic."
Puddin snarled as she wheeled around to face the Echo Fighter designed to mimic Vegeta. "The hell is your problem?!" she demanded. "Did you see that?! You know what that mountain is? Fucking destroyed, that's what!"
"Wow…" Echo-Vegeta drawled, rolling his eyes. "One whole mountain. How amazing." He scoffed and glared at Puddin. Their eyes were at about the same level, but his hair towered over her. "I thought you came to me because you wanted to learn real power! You'll barely even crack a planet open if this shitshow is the best you can do!" He scowled and pointed at the crater where the mountain had once been. "Just look at it! The crater is totally lopsided! You can't even make a circle right! How in the hell do you think you're ever gonna be-"
SMACK!
The slap to the face nearly knocked Vegeta off his feet. He stumbled back a step, holding his cheek. His disbelieving eyes blinked rapidly, like his brain was struggling to come to terms with what had happened.
"How dare…?" he began, turning the full face of his Saiyan fury on Puddin.
"Whatever you have to say," said Puddin, her eyes sharp as daggers, "I've already heard it." She took a single stomp closer to Vegeta, and the prince's foot moved back an inch. "I've heard your whole spiel, Vegeta. The pride, the prejudice, the taunts, the gloats." She took another step. "But then the music changed. Uncertainty. Pain. Frustration. And finally…" With one more step, she stretched herself up to loom over him, her eyes shining like merciless lighting in a storm. "The fear…" she growled. "The way you begged for your life, the way you whimpered for Nappa to save you, the way you practically wet yourself as I stood over your crushed and broken body and ripped your tail right off of you." The prince trembled as she glared down at him. "I only needed to reach out and squeeze to make you dead, but I decided not to. Do you know why, Vegeta?"
Vegeta opened his mouth but only a little squeak came out.
"Answer me, you little bitch!" Puddin roared.
Vegeta quailed and opened his mouth to blurt out something.
But then he froze.
Puddin blinked and cocked her head. "Vegeta?" she asked. "Vegeeeeetaaaaa?" Settling her body down to her normal height, she waved her hand in front of the Echo's face. Nothing.
"You know, Puddin," said a voice from behind her, "it still counts as damaging Time Patrol property even when that damage is emotional."
Puddin swallowed. In hindsight, she should have known this moment would come sooner or later. That didn't mean she actually felt ready for it, though. But regardless, she remembered what her daddy had said and squared her shoulders, raising up a wall of pure take-no-shit. Whatever was said, Puddin couldn't let herself be moved. After one more bracing breath, she turned around.
Standing just inside a newly created time gate, Master Punohsa had one hand on her hip and held a remote in the other. Puddin crossed her arms and shifted her weight to her back leg, adopting a nonchalant pose.
"Hey, Punohsa," Puddin said, trying to sound casual. "What's up?"
The Majin's eyes narrowed. "For starters, how about you put a 'master' on my name? You don't have enough seniority yet to drop it."
Puddin shrugged dismissively. That only served to make Punohsa's eyes colder.
"And furthermore," Punohsa continued, "what the hell is going on with you?"
"Me?" Puddin asked, checking her nails despite her gloves. "I'm doing just fine. No problems here."
"Really? 'Cause I've already had some problems today. First, I just got finished dealing with a complaint in the Time Nest. A few Time Patrollers rented out this training area for an hour only to find that you had taken it over without filling out the right forms."
Puddin rolled her eyes and said, "Well, ex-cuse me if I had to show those losers who was boss."
Punohsa's eyebrows raised incredulously. "They politely asked you to leave and then you bit one of them."
"Like I said. Had to show them who was boss."
Punohsa made a disgusted scoff and shook her head. "And as if that weren't enough, you've been absent from the last five sessions of your remedial training. I've been trying to contact you for days. I left ten messages."
"Nine messages, actually," Puddin murmured.
Punohsa's mouth thinned.
Puddin winced. "Oops."
"That's what I thought," said Punohsa, striding forward a few steps before she stood before Puddin. Punohsa crossed her arms and glared down at the girl.
Puddin held her posture and tried to act like she wasn't intimidated.
"Young lady," Punohsa began, "you seem to greatly underestimate the kind of thin ice you're standing on. I don't know what's gotten into you for the past two weeks, but it's starting to try my patience.
"I don't remember asking your opinion," Puddin shot back.
Punohsa's eyes flashed dangerously. "You didn't, but I'm telling you anyway. You've spent two weeks strutting around Conton City like you own the place, acting rude and dismissive to other Time Patrollers and showing no care for the rules of this organization." Punohsa's glare seemed to become even harsher, so much so that Puddin felt a tremor in her stomach.
"This includes failing to take your remedial lessons," Punohsa added, "which are actually quite vital to ensuring you even remain a part of the Time Patrol."
Puddin swallowed and tried to look confident. "T-There's no way the Time Patrol would do anything like that," she said, wincing internally as she stammered. "They're too scared of me to even think of kicking me out. You need me."
For a moment, Punohsa only blinked silently at her. Puddin tried to draw herself up, but she quailed. It was almost like Punohsa's silver-on-black eyes could stare directly through her. Puddin could see the woman's emotions through those eyes. Confusion. Contemplation. Realization. And then finally, as her mouth curved into a scowl, anger.
"Dumplin," Punohsa said at last. "I should have known he'd be the reason for this. What ideas has he been filling your head with? That the key to power is a big ego and a bigger mouth?"
"D-d-don't you talk about my daddy like that!" Puddin stuttered, stamping her foot in frustration while she tried to act with imaginary confidence. "He says th-that me and him are the strongest people here! That you need us! A-And that we don't take any punishments because this whole place would fall apart without us!"
By this point, Puddin was panting, feeling the righteous fury of needing to defend her family name. She expected the other woman to respond with some angry retort. However, the woman's eyes were devoid of any noticeable emotion.
"Puddin," she said with a shake of her head, "I… look, I like your father. He's good to have in a fight and he's a great drinking buddy. But even still," She hesitated, glancing at the ground before looking back at Puddin. "I don't think your dad should be your main role model. "He thinks he can do anything he wants because he's strong, but sooner or later that ego of his is going to get him in the kind of trouble he can't blast his way out of. I know you're a good kid, Puddin, and that you're gonna go far, but…I just always hoped you'd end up a better person than him."
Puddin felt a fire burst in her stomach.
"Shut up!" she yelled at Punohsa. "You don't know anything! There's no such thing as being better than my daddy! You… well… you're just jealous!" Puddin glared at Punohsa, her eyes blazing.
Punohsa's eyes, on the other hand, seemed to shine with something like… pity? "If that is what you want to believe," she said quietly. With that, she turned and slowly walked away.
Puddin just stood there, her stomach buzzing and her fingers clenched into fists. She was angry. She was insulted. She was… she was…
She was sad that one of her favorite people in the world had looked at her like that.
Several hours later…
Punohsa stood in front of Lirran's Place, trying to gather up the nerve to walk inside. She stared hard at the front door, almost as if she were committing every crack, grain, and fleck of paint to memory. She shifted uncomfortably, scuffing the toe of her sandal through the desert sand. She knew what she needed to do. She knew she needed open the door, talk to him, and hope that he could agree with her. They were still friends, surely. Well, perhaps just enough friends that he would hear her out.
Might. He might hear her out. She sighed.
Punohsa didn't want this to turn into a fight.
"Certainly not helping anybody by standing out here," she muttered. Finally, she strode forward and opened the door.
As she stood there in the entryway, Punohsa couldn't stop herself from thinking about the last time she had been in this bar. The paltry Christmas lights had long since been removed and the jukebox was playing rock and roll instead of jazzy Christmas tunes. A few other people were now nursing their own drinks, not to mention the exact same Namekian bartender standing behind the bar. He could be polishing the very same glass from that Christmas night, for all she knew.
Dumplin had claimed his favorite stool at the bar. No one sat near him. No one stood near him. No one seemed to look or even breathe in his direction. Punohsa didn't blame them. She could feel the anger rolling off him like waves of sheer fuck-around-and-find-out. A tall glass of beer was clutched in his hands and he took a sip from it.
He's hitting the beer instead of the liquor. That's at least a little promising.
Punohsa crossed the room and took a seat at the bar next to Dumplin, signaling to the bartender for a drink. Dumplin shot her a look before turning his attention back to his glass.
"What do you want, Punohsa?" he said, annoyed that his isolation had been broken.
"I wanted to check up on you," she said, trying to keep her tone light and neutral. "I heard you just got back from a mission. You've been gone for almost a week."
"And fuck all to show for it," he said, draining the last of his glass and thumping it twice on the bar top. The bartender slid two glasses of beer down the bar, almost like he was unwilling to get closer. Punohsa took only a sip while Dumplin sucked down a big gulp.
"I heard you were tracking…you know, her," Punohsa said, skipping over the name
"You mean Towa," Dumplin growled at the bar top. "Yeah, for all the good it did us. She always knows we're coming and, whenever she is, she's gone by the time we get there." He grunted into his drinks. "I bet it's some fuckup by Trunks."
Dumplin settled into silence, so Punohsa took in a quiet breath, now ready to get started. "How's Puddin doing?"
Dumplin tensed up and give Punohsa a side-eye. "She's fine," he said. "Better than fine. She's great."
"I see," Punohsa said, still trying to keep her answers neutral. "I… well, I can't help but think that all of this stuff with Towa must be hard for her. Hard for both of you."
Dumplin made a noncommittal grunt, but he didn't tell her off so Punohsa took that as leave to keep going. "And seeing as you'll be on long-term missions for as long as Towa is out there in the wild, maybe it would be good for Puddin to find someone to talk to about it."
Dumplin's glass froze on its way to his lips and he slowly turned to look at her.
"She talks plenty," he said, his voice low.
"I mean," Punohsa said, "that this could be a very stressful time for her, considering the pressure of her missions and the fact that Towa is causing mayhem out there, I feel it might be better for her, and for you as well, if she had somewhere else to stay while this crisis is going on."
"Oh, let me take a wild fucking guess where you think she should stay," Dumplin said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Punohsa met his gaze. "If she stayed with me, she'd be with someone she trusted. She wouldn't have to live in that empty house when you're away on missions, and you can stop by to visit-"
"I'm just gonna stop you right there," Dumplin said, holding up a finger. He was seething now. "Whatever 'stress' or 'pressure' you think Puddin is under does not fucking matter. She's just fine."
"Dumplin," Punohsa said slowly, trying to keep the agitation out of her voice, "Puddin-"
"Is not your fucking problem!" Dumplin snapped, slamming his glass on the bar top. Everyone in the bar went still. Punohsa closed her eyes and took a breath.
She really didn't want this to turn into a fight.
"Dumplin," she said slowly. "I'm only saying this because I care about her. I want her to be happy and healthy. I know you think your way of parenting is the best way, but she needs-"
"The only thing she needs is a crash course in being a Demon God," he interrupted. "She spent all that time learning all your shitty Patrol lessons and what did that get her? Fucking nothing! I'm trying to teach her how to do this job the right way and undo everything you fucked up with her!"
"Me?!" said Punohsa, her eyes going wide.
"Yes, you! Don't think I don't see what you're doing, Punohsa! I saw all the times you took her aside for some bleeding heart 'time ethics' class. I saw you passing her carrots and lunch boxes while she was at school. I still remember all those damn times you begged to take her on some stupid fucking training trip, expecting me to believe something like that was standard! Well, I've had it up to here with it!" He waved his free hand above his head to illustrate the point. "Puddin is my daughter! Not yours! Mine! And I will not have you undermine my authority!"
"This isn't about you, idiot! Have you taken a second to just look at her, Dumplin?" she asked, her heart beating in her ears. "She was coming to school with a lunch box filled with candy! I needed to make sure she had a healthy diet. And all those 'shitty Patrol lessons' she took? She worked herself to the bone because she's terrified of not living up to your legacy! For Beerus' sake, Dumplin, when was the last time you took an interest in what your daughter did in her off hours?!"
"What Puddin does on her own is not my-!"
"It should be!" Now Punohsa was the one to interrupt. "I found out yesterday she's having casual threesomes with Cupcake and Taino! For fuck's sake, Dumplin! She's only three years old! A child! You think you're doing what's best, but you're not! Puddin deserves-!"
There was a blur and a sudden impact. The next thing Punohsa knew she had been blasted through the wall of the bar and was flying across the sands before crashing into a giant boulder and collapsing onto the sand.
She groaned and lifted a hand to cradle her aching torso. Sand and pebbles rained down on her as she lay there.
"Son of a…" she grunted before pushing herself up, wiping some dust off of her. She winced again as she laboriously climbed to her feet.
Dumplin stood in the shattered remains of the wall, glaring at Punohsa with an apocalyptic fury in his eyes. She gritted her teeth and stood up straight.
"Fine," she said, cracking her neck, loosening her shoulders, and giving up on diplomacy. "You wanna fight, asshole? Let's fight."
When they collided again, Punohsa was ready for a fight.
That evening…
Supreme Kai of Time's Office
Standing at attention among the flotsam and jetsam from hundreds of worlds and dozens of timelines, Paata remembered once again why he never liked being in Chronoa's office. Even the air he breathed felt crowded and busy and all he wanted to do was knuckle down and get rid of all this junk. The thought that anyone, even a god, could get any kind of work done in this room boggled the mind. But Paata kept quiet and still. Chronoa had been in a huffy mood when she called him over and he was desperate not to cause any trouble if he could avoid it.
So he stood there and listened as the child-like god fussed around with some new piece of her collection, some sort of hair dryer that had wings and blinky lights, and explained what it was she wanted him to do.
"I need you to spy on your friend Puddin," she said, moments before accidentally breaking off a part she had been trying to twist loose. She scowled at the machine in her hands, seeming to take such an action as a personal insult.
Paata stared at her, blinking rapidly in stunned silence. "Supreme Kai of Time?" Paata said slowly, "I'm not sure what it is you're asking me to do."
"I agree that this mission is a little more unorthodox than what you are accustomed to, Paata," Chronoa answered, most of her focus on the device in her hands, "but I feel that it is necessary to take these steps. I've asked this of you because you are Puddin's friend."
"A friend that you're asking to spy on her," Paata said, not liking the direction of this conversation.
Chronoa finally looked up, giving him a serious look. "I don't think I need to explain to you how Puddin has been acting for the past two weeks. It isn't normal for her, and whatever this phase is it's causing problems for everyone."
Paata's mouth thinned as he thought back to when he had seen Puddin the day before. She tried to order alcohol at an ice cream parlor and had complained that the music there was too generic despite tapping her foot to it. And when Daili showed up and issued a challenge…
Things got real messy. Poor bastard.
"Fortunately, we now know the reason behind her change in demeanor," Chronoa continued. "Dumplin."
"How do you know that?" Paata asked.
"Punohsa confronted him at Lirran's Place about it. Before she ended up in the hospital, she found out that he's trying to make Puddin act like he does all the time." Chronoa scowled and turned the hair dryer over in her hands a few times. "She'll be off active duty for the next week after her fight with him." She turned her head up to give Paata a serious look. "We're doing this for damage control, Paata. Time Patrol resources are already stretched thin to try and keep Dumplin in check. We can't afford to have two of him running around."
"So… what exactly is the plan?"
Chronoa's hands stilled on the hair dryer device and eventually settled it down on her desk. She crossed her arms and stared at it, her mind seeming a million miles away.
"I can't help but feel some of the responsibility for the way Dumplin acts," Chronoa said. "The Time Patrol was in a crisis, the likes of which we had never faced before, and I gave him free rein in how he completed his missions. He took this as a rule and he's been quite insufferable ever since." Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at Paata. "I refuse to make the same mistake with Puddin."
Paata swallowed. He had a feeling he wouldn't like this.
"I'm sending her on a mission tomorrow. Alone, as far as she knows. I want you to keep your distance and observe how she goes about it. If you see things getting out of hand, I want you to get involved to keep her from messing something up."
Yup. Paata definitely did not like this.
"But…" he said, scrambling for the right words, "what if she's in trouble? Or she needs help?"
Chronoa turned back to her new device and resumed fiddling with it. "Puddin's a big girl. I'm sure she can handle whatever comes her way."
That was the moment she curiously pressed a button on the side of the handle. There was a loud ZAP! and a streak of red light shot out from the nozzle of the 'hair dryer' and vaporized the top few items of one of Chronoa's junk mountains, as well as blasting a hole in her wall to the outside.
Paata decided to see himself out while Chronoa was busy yelling at the hair dryer, the office, and the universe in general. As he walked out of Chronoa's office and into the light of the Time Nest, Paata rolled over her words once more.
Spy on Puddin? Could he really do something like that? It just… it felt wrong. Wrong to do that to a friend. Especially wrong to do that to Puddin.
But what if Chronoa is right? he wondered. Does Puddin have the chance of ending up just like her father?
Paata stopped and looked at the ground. He hoped – desperately hoped – that this wasn't a horrible mistake. Taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulders, he made his way home to get ready for his secret mission.
I'm sorry, Puddin. This is for your own good.
AN: And there we go. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Do you think that Punohsa or Dumplin was right in this argument?
Writing fanfiction has been a crazy journey. I've struggled with my writing style, my writing schedule, and my very identity as a writer. I took on way too many stories, some of which I have lost the spark for, but I've made a renewed commitment to finishing my works.
Starting with Puddin.
For those of you who are fairly new, welcome! I hope I can consistently bring you updates to Puddin's story and I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do.
For those of you who have been with me for a while, I should probably give some clarifications.
I'm sorry this story has taken so long. I think what slowed me down is that I didn't feel a great deal of passion for the story after I wrote the scene where Towa walked out on her family. Imagining that moment was what inspired this fic to begin with. After I wrote the scene I was obsessed with, my motivations changed and I wanted to try my hand at new projects. Puddin just became something I knew I would get to eventually.
My initial thought was just doing a highlights reel of her adventure, instead of every single fight in all of Xenoverse 2. I mean, there are only so many ways I can say "Puddin punched a guy in the face" before it starts to get old. But that wasn't it. For the longest time, I just couldn't scrounge up the passion to commit to this story.
Then a conversation with the lovely annbe11 got my brain spinning and helped me find the passion for this work all over again.
I'm making changes to the story and to the ending. I'm adding big emotional beats between the fights. And I'm averaging about 600 words a day, so you'll be seeing chapters much more consistently. I'm sorry it's taken us so long to get to this point, but I hope to make up for that going forward.
Finally, I want to give a huge thank you to everyone reading this. Thank you to those who have followed and faved this story. Thank you to those who have followed and faved me. Thank you to all the wonderful people who have ever given me a comment and said they enjoyed the story I'm telling. It fills me with warmth and keeps me typing. I'm so excited to show you guys what I have planned for the future and I hope you stay tuned.
Have a great week everyone! See you next time!