Chapter 6
Vegeta didn't know how to handle the revelation of him having actual friends. It was all such a surreal feeling for him.
Back on Planet Vegeta, kids his age didn't really like playing with him. It's not that he was interested in playing with them either since he was royalty, and thought them below him at the time, but because of this he had no experience with the concept of friendship at all.
Well that's not all together true, since he was once on a team with Raditz.
'Somehow throughout our missions together, I found a way to tolerate Raditz enough to imagine myself actually befriending him. As for Nappa… I wouldn't go as far as calling us friends or anything close to it. If anything, he was just an under powered guardian' Vegeta thought to himself.
Now here he was 12 years later laughing along with Kakarot and a group of friends over a joke Yamcha made. Well he wasn't actually laughing, but the smirk on his face proved that he definitely found the joke funny just like the rest of the group did.
Vegeta had to admit this dragon ball journey was indeed a fruitful endeavor as it had lots of positive results so far.
He has met multiple warriors in the span of a couple of weeks and all of them have qualities about themselves that made them worth sparring. Granted Vegeta would've killed them if they didn't agree to help him in his crusade, but that was beside the point.
Yamcha is a little cocky at times but determined and he offers much needed comic relief when they travel. He is also very creative when it comes to new techniques, even though they often lacked in actual attack power.
Puar has a very intolerable voice but if Vegeta could manage to get past that and be honest with himself; Puar is a very nice cat. Though, he didn't ever think that he'd ever be able to tolerate her voice without flinching at the high-pitched screech.
Oolong is devious and looks very delicious but Vegeta resigned himself to the fact that he will never be able to eat the pig with Bulma watching over him. Besides that annoying fact, Vegeta admitted to himself that it was amusing to hear him complain at times.
Tien is a fierce, ruthless warrior that holds unwavering loyalty towards the group of friends, despite being one of the last additions to the team. It seemed to Vegeta that he's found his purpose and Vegeta knew that Tien is a vital ally to have in the future fight against Frieza; especially if he continues to get stronger.
Kakarot (Goku as the humans call him) is a weird example of a Saiyan. His attitude is much like his mother Gine's who was a kind and loving Saiyan who wasn't fit for battle. Vegeta vaguely wondered if Raditz and Turles inherited any of the softer traits from the kind woman as well. Aside from that he is a powerful warrior that Vegeta wouldn't hesitate to protect by any means necessary. Even if it costs him his life.
Bulma was smart, overconfident, irritating, sweet, tiring, conceited and beautiful… Vegeta would be kidding himself if he said that something wasn't there between them. He was resisting the urge to make a move since he noticed the connection but he's honestly got tired of fighting his feelings, especially when the woman made hers so blatantly obvious. He now embraced it with open arms.
Vegeta was confused by just how comfortable he was becoming with these new found 'friends of his' and he couldn't help, but wonder what their motives were for joining him.
"Vegeta" a voice said breaking him out of his musings.
Vegeta looked up to see the whole group that he was thinking about had turned to look at him with confused faces.
"What the matter? Why did we stop?" He asked.
"I don't know dude, you just kind of zoned out and wouldn't respond to anybody" Yamcha responded.
Vegeta stared at the former bandit in disbelief. There's no way that he could be telling the truth.
"Yeah we've been calling you for like 5 minutes. We were starting to think that something was wrong" Bulma said shocking the Prince even further.
'Do I really trust these people that much!? To think I let my guard down completely… Its mind boggling' thought Vegeta in shock.
"Well even though you were zoned out, we all agreed to head to town so that Bulma could restock her capsules. She's running low and I'd rather not sleep outside if I don't have to" Tien said continuing to walk with Chiaotzu floating behind him.
Hearing this, the rest of the group followed as well except Vegeta, Goku and Bulma.
Goku looked at Vegeta in confusion at first but after a couple seconds his eyes widened before he smiled brightly.
"I get it and I feel the same way. Good to know you're finally deciding that opening up isn't such a bad idea. I'm definitely telling grandpa about this" Goku said before turning and following the others.
'Damn it! Kakarot knows how to read me a little bit too well. He always picks the wrong times to start using his small excuse for a brain' Vegeta thought glaring at his brother's retreating figure.
"You don't normally space out like that… You're the most alert person in our group so what's going on" Bulma said causing Vegeta to look at her. Her straightforwardness was a trait that he admired about her, but in this situation it was being used against him.
"Nothing I was just thinking about something. No need to concern yourself with this girl" Vegeta said dismissively while turning away.
Bulma smiled sadly before grabbing the Prince's hand causing him to tense up.
"This all must be new to you, but they really are all your friends whether you want to believe it or not. And as for me…" Bulma paused before gathering all her courage and kissing the Saiyan full on the lips, shocking Vegeta and causing a deep red color to spread across his cheeks.
Before he could properly respond to the kiss, Bulma pulled away leaving a breathless Vegeta staring at her with wide eyes.
"… I'm pass the friendship stage with you and now you're my prince" she finished with her eyes still on the Prince.
Vegeta was taken back by her statement but he couldn't reply. He was transfixed by her deep blue pools that were mistakenly called eyes.
He could do nothing but nod dumbly causing Bulma's smile to widen.
"We should probably get going before the others find a way to get into trouble" Bulma said taking Vegeta's hand again.
He looked at their intertwined fingers before smirking in satisfaction. This felt right.
"Of course, what would they do without me" he said smugly.
Bulma rolled her eyes before pulling Vegeta's hand in an attempt to get him walking.
'Blast! Bulma knows me a little too well too. She has broken down my barriers and infiltrated my thoughts! I should kill her… But I like her far too much to even begin to fathom an existence without her at this point' Vegeta thought as he and Bulma walked hand in hand towards the rest of the group.
XxXxXx
When they caught up to the others, they looked around the area.
They had reached a little town in the Diablo Desert that seemed to be semi advanced as there was a Dino Cap store nearby, but it was still very old fashioned looking.
"Ok we're going to split up" Bulma announced to the group who gave her their attention since she was the 'leader' of the group.
"Vegeta, Tien, Chiaotzu and I are going to the Dino cap store and to the market to get food. Goku, Oolong, Puar and Yamcha fuel up the capsules that we have and try to stay out of trouble" she finished.
Goku pouted when he heard the assignments. He wanted to be with his brother, but more importantly he wanted to see what different types of food were in the market.
"Hey Bulma, why can't I go to the market too?" He asked earning a glare from Vegeta
"Because you'll try to eat all the food you clown. and I don't feel like trying to stop you at the moment" Vegeta responded simply while rolling his eyes.
Goku looked down still pouting for a moment before he laughed putting one hand behind his head.
"Yeah I guess you're right about that Vegeta. Whatever I'll just go fuel up then" Goku responded causing Bulma's eyes to widen.
"No, no, no don't touch my capsules. Last time you saw a car of mine you fired a beam at it and destroyed it" Bulma said.
This caused both of the Saiyans to laugh and the rest of the group to sweat drop imagining how Goku blew up Bulma's car.
"Fair enough then. I'll just be the bodyguard" Goku said simply.
"Glad to know that you agree Goku now everyone let's get going, we only have one more dragon ball to find and I'd prefer to have it sooner than later" Bulma said.
The group nodded to each other than parted ways to their different locations.
XxXxXx
With Vegeta's group, Vegeta and Tien were getting bored with watching Bulma look over the hundreds of capsule options available at the store.
Seeing that it will take some time before any decisions were made Vegeta looked over to Tien with a smirk on his face.
"Hey, lets go outside and train while we wait for the woman to make the decision on what toys she wants to purchase" the Prince said.
Tien looked at Bulma, who was still looking around the store with a determined look on her face, before nodding to himself.
"Sure, just hand to hand combat with no Ki involved? I might just be able to beat you" Tien said with the smirk.
Vegeta smirked backed at the three-eyed human before leading him outside.
When Chiaotzu tried to follow them, Tien sent him a mental message.
"Chiaotzu you stay here and watch Bulma. Help her pay if she needs it too" Tien thought to Chiaotzu.
The pale boy stopped and pouted before nodding and staying behind as he was told. He really wanted to watch the sparring match, but he knew that Bulma needed to be watched just in case something was to happen.
Once the two warriors were outside, Vegeta paced 10 steps away from Tien and turned around getting into his stance.
Tien followed suit and soon they were just staring at one another. Both of them trying to find a weakness in the other's defenses before attacking.
Before any sparring could commence however, a loud bang was heard in the distance near where they knew Goku's group was.
Tien and Vegeta looked at each other in silent agreement before nodding and flying off in the direction of the noise.
By the time they arrived at the scene, Goku and Yamcha were there toying with some goons with rabbit ears on their heads.
"Who are these clowns supposed to be?" Vegeta said taking a step in front of the others causing the goons to notice him.
"Clowns!? How dare you! This is the mark of the rabbit gang ran by the strongest man on Earth, Monster Carrot" one of the goons shrieked aiming a gun at Vegeta.
Vegeta looked at the gun in mild interest before asking one of them.
"What is that device you have in your hand? Is that a primitive Ki-gun?"
The thugs looked at each other in confusion.
"I don't know what Ki is, but this is high tech weaponry. Here take a look for yourself!" The small round thug said firing a round at Vegeta.
It all went in slow motion for Vegeta. There was a small metal projectile that was fired from this 'gun' object. It wasn't traveling all that fast by his standards but he could see how it would be dangerous to the average weak humans.
Vegeta could hear Yamcha, Puar and Oolong scream in panic, while he was sure that Goku was just watching in curiosity. He watched as the object kept getting closer.
Before any contact could be made though, a hand caught the bullet.
"I think your little visual is over now get lost before I'll have to get rid of you" Tien said crushing the bullet in his hand.
At Tien's little display of strength the goons shrunk back in fear.
'Cool!' Goku thought smiling.
'Pft I could've done that' Yamcha thought with somewhat jealously with his arms crossed.
'Aww look he's scared them' Vegeta thought with a smirk looking at the thugs scared, unbelieving faces.
"Alright then now that you understand that your pathetic excuse for a weapon is ineffective, how about you go get this Monster Carrot, so I can see how strong he really is?" Vegeta suggested.
The goons trembled and ran away screaming threats that they couldn't back up.
"Our boss will show you!" The tall one said.
"Yeah. You'll be sorry that you ever messed with us!" The other one finished.
Once they were gone Vegeta turned to Yamcha and Goku with a raised eyebrow.
"Okay so explain how this whole confrontation began because your little incident caused quite a scene" Vegeta said eyes flickering around to the villagers who had watched the previous events from the safety of their houses.
Yamcha and Goku looked at each other and nodded. Yamcha stepped forward and spoke
"Okay so this is how all this happened…"
XxXxXx
Flashback
Goku and Yamcha were sparring outside of the gas station while Oolong and Puar were gassing the car up.
"Hah!" Yamcha said charging at Goku who was smirking at him.
Goku dodged the first couple of punches before deciding to throw a couple of restrained blows back at Yamcha to test the bandit's reaction time.
Yamcha was quickly put on the defensive. All of his instincts were in high gear trying to anticipate Goku's movements, and he was doing a good job, but he was clearly struggling to keep up with the young Saiyan.
Then Goku disappeared from sight. Yamcha was surveying the entire area for what seemed like an eternity before he felt a slight gust of wind next to him.
Trusting his instincts, he ducked down as fast as his body would let him, narrowly avoiding Goku's kick. Following up on his slight advantage; he reached up and grabbed Goku's tail before flipping the Saiyan over his head and slamming him into the ground momentarily knocking the breath out of the stunned Saiyan.
Goku flexed his tail and spun around sending the shocked and confused Yamcha flying through the air crashing into two unsuspecting people.
Goku walked over to the three downed humans and helped Yamcha out of the pile.
Yamcha thanked Goku before turning around towards the two people that had inadvertently broke his fall.
"Sorry for crashing into you guys like that, are you alright?" Yamcha said looking at the two people still on the ground.
Both of the thugs angrily sat up.
"You rotten children! We are not going to be embarrassed by the likes of you" the tall one said.
"Yeah! We are the great Rabbit Gang who run this town and you dare crash into us?" The shorter one said.
Goku and Yamcha looked at each other before laughing and going back to their sparring.
This angered the thugs so much that one pulled out a gun and shot at them to get their attention.
"Hey, you want to fight us!?" One thug asked angrily
Goku shrugged before saying "sure okay but don't be upset if you lose or get killed"
"Cocky little brat! We'll show you" charging at a smirking Yamcha and bored Goku.
End Flashback
XxXxXx
After hearing the story, Tien and Vegeta laughed at how a training accident escalated into a full on fight with people that weren't even involved in the initial training.
"Well at least they didn't have Ki guns like the ones the weaklings in Frieza's army had. Those would be relatively dangerous to the humans" Vegeta said mockingly because Yamcha and Tien to look at him with identical insulted faces.
"I swear one of these days I'm going to get stronger and knock your ego down a couple notches" Yamcha said crossing his arms with silent agreement from Tien.
"Well you're more than welcome to come try" Vegeta said as he laughed at the reactions of the humans with Goku by his side oblivious to the insult.
"Don't worry guys after training with us you should be able to hold your own easily" the younger Saiyan said encouragingly.
Tien and Yamcha both knew that the comment was meant to get their spirits up but hearing it was a blow to both of their prides. It also didn't help that a certain Saiyan Prince was still smirking mockingly at them.
"Vegeta, you're going to stop looking down on us humans" Tien said.
Intrigued by the statement Vegeta asked what he meant by this, however instead of Tien, Yamcha spoke.
"We are going to get stronger and when we do you aren't going to be acting so hi and mighty" the bandit said punching his hand.
Vegeta loved the spirit and sensed the aura of the two humans shift into a challenging state. Smirking at his luck he decided to egg them on further in hopes of getting them to charge him together.
"Well until that day arrives I am still superior, so bow to your prince" Vegeta stated matter of factly.
"Hey, do you want to go right now?" Yamcha challenged causing Vegeta to raise an eyebrow.
"Didn't I already beat you?" Vegeta said appearing bored which pissed Yamcha off even more.
But before anything else could happen the two thugs returned and fired their guns at the group and this time Goku jumped in front and caught all of the bullets.
"See boss this group isn't normal! Last time the bald one caught the bullet and now the kid!" One of the thugs said cowering behind his 'boss' without touching him.
Vegeta looked at an overgrown rabbit wearing sunglasses wondering how that could've been their boss and also wondering if he has any use of him.
"So, you are the group of kids that's causing my men all this trouble. I can't have you running around town, so I'll have to eat all of you" the rabbit said.
Yamcha looked at the overgrown rabbit in confusion before his eyes grew wide.
"Guys that bunny is Monster Carrot! Be careful and don't let him touch you. Anyone he touches instantly transforms into a carrot!" Yamcha screamed at the group.
"Oh, so you've heard of me? That's good know but unfortunately you 4 have attacked my crew and I'm hungry so time to eat" the rabbit said walking towards the group.
Vegeta raised an eyebrow in interest. He didn't know whether or not he wanted to believe this information, but he had a way to find out.
Vegeta vanished from sight at a speed that only Goku could see and pushed one of the rabbit thugs with enough force to send him flying into monster carrot before returning back to his spot so that he wasn't seen.
"Boss watch out!" The thug said but it was far too late for them both as he collided into monster carrot and was instantly transformed into a carrot.
"Oh no!" The other thug screamed but monster carrot simply transformed the carrot back into a man.
"Thank you so much boss! I don't know what happened; I think the wind moved me. I thought you were going to eat me for sure" the man said with tears in his eyes.
"Shut up you idiot! I don't know how you ran into me, but make sure it doesn't happen again because next time I will eat you" Monster Carrot said causing the thug to shrink in fear and back away from his boss.
'Interesting. Looks like there's some truth behind Yamcha's words. Okay then we have to handle this battle from a distance which suits me just fine' Vegeta thought to himself.
"Everyone fly and fight from a distance" Vegeta said flying into the air much to the surprise of Monster Carrot.
Goku and Tien followed Vegeta into the air and floated next to him.
'Aw man I knew I should've asked to learn how to fly when I first met them. Now I feel powerless and left out' Yamcha thought with his arms crossed.
Vegeta looked to Goku and Tien and spoke.
"We're going to let loose a barrage of Ki blasts. We cannot afford to damage any buildings or kill anybody in the crossfire…"
'So, the Saiyan cares about human life? That's actually nice of him" Tien thought with a smile before Vegeta continued.
"…Because Bulma would kill me if I allowed us too!"
'Okay maybe he doesn't really care about human safety after all' Tien thought sweat dropping.
"Okay count the count of 3 fire. 1. 2. 3!" The three warriors then sent a flurry of Ki blasts towards Monster Carrot immediately incinerating the two goons. Monster Carrot himself was hopping from place to place doing his best to avoid death.
As he started to get tired he noticed that one of the Warriors wasn't in the air and wasn't paying attention to him as he was looking towards his comrades.
'If I'm going down I'm taking one with me' Monster Carrot thought hopping towards an unsuspecting Yamcha while continuing to dodge the blasts to the best of his ability.
Vegeta noticed the shift in the Rabbits position before telling everyone to stop firing Ki blasts. His eyes widened in realization when he noticed that Yamcha was looking at them rather than Monster Carrot himself.
"Yamcha watch out!" The Prince yelled in panic but it was too late.
Monster Carrot made a long hop towards Yamcha, who looked at him in fear, only to be stopped in midair by a clown looking boy.
Yamcha was beside himself. 'I wasn't paying attention and I was almost turned into a carrot'
"Thanks, Chiaotzu I owe you one" the bandit said seeing the arrival of Chiaotzu and Bulma.
The boy that still had his hands towards Monster Carrot smiled and nodded at the Bandits thanks. At that moment Goku, Tien and Vegeta all returned to the ground.
Vegeta turned to the rabbit with a sneer on his face and extended his hand towards him ready to do away with him before Goku yelled.
"WAIT! We don't have to kill him. He could be useful to us as well. Imagine Frieza as a carrot Vegeta! We could literally eat him"
Vegeta thought over his adopted brother's suggestion for a moment and looked at Monster Carrot's pleading look before shrugging and firing a Ki blast that finished the rabbit off.
"Sorry Kakarot but I'd rather end Frieza's existence at his full power and that rabbit almost killed one of our friends. I couldn't allow him to remain breathing... And I hate carrots" Vegeta said.
The group froze. None of them have ever heard Vegeta say the f-word out loud, not even Goku, and they couldn't do anything but stare at him with shocked faces.
This irritated the Prince who started walking away grabbing Bulma as he passed by her.
"Come on you idiots, we only have one more dragon ball to get let's get moving!" Vegeta said walking with Bulma who somehow managed to get the dragon ball radar out through her surprised state.
Goku looked at the others before smiling brightly.
"You guys managed to crack his shell! Congratulations you now have the strongest man on the planet willing to protect you with his life. Thanks for being his friends hopefully he'll get out of his grouchy persona now and relax more" Goku said before running to catch up with Vegeta and Bulma.
Tien and Yamcha looked at each other before smiling and then followed them with Chiaotzu, Puar and Oolong in tow.
As they are leaving the little town Vegeta was berating himself.
'I can't believe I called them my friends out loud. But I do trust them' Vegeta thought before turning to look back at the group. He scanned everyone's face before looking at Bulma and Goku who both smiled at him before turning around thinking.
'It's good to have friends'
TBC
Power Levels
Monster Carrot: 20
Thugs with guns: 5
The rest are the same since last chapter