Chapter 7

A few days passed as the crew traveled towards the location of the last Dragon ball.

Since the last battle against Boss Rabbit training has resumed with a new level of intensity as Yamcha has since learned how to fly. With no bystanders in the way of the fight while in the air; the humans were able to go all out in their sparring sessions against the Saiyans.

It didn't make the slightest difference with the overall outcome of the trainings, but it did help Yamcha and Tien progress quicker than they would have otherwise. Vegeta could see the progression that Tien and Yamcha have made even though it's only been a few days.

Ever since he's come to the revelation that he considered them as friends he's been training with them as intensely as he could without killing them. Though this greatly confused Tien and Yamcha, his logic was simple. The stronger they were when they faced Frieza, then the more likely they are to survive the battle.

Now that he made friends, he refused to lose his friends to the tyrant that plagued his life. The only other friend that Vegeta ever had in his life was Raditz, and Vegeta wasn't sure what became of him after he left him and Nappa on that planet. He remembered that Raditz promised to meet up with him one day but Vegeta really doubted the probability of that scenario if his friend returned to Frieza, but he'd be lying if he said that he didn't hope that he was alright.

Cringing suddenly at the thought of his first friend; Vegeta stopped moving and whenever Vegeta stops, so does everyone else. Of course, Bulma was the first to question Vegeta's sudden stop.

"What's wrong Vegeta? I promise you we're almost there. We would've been there faster, but you insisted we walk to further you guys' training" Bulma asked confused.

Vegeta blinked and shrugged his shoulders as if to say nothing was wrong. Bulma and Goku didn't look too convinced by this display in the least. Even the humans, who were getting more accustomed to Vegeta's mannerisms, looked at him with unbelieving expressions.

Vegeta looked at the faces that everyone was giving him before scoffing and looking away.

"I'm fine! I'm just thinking about what this dragon is going to be like" Vegeta said not necessarily lying.

The thought had crossed his mind a few times since he first learned about the dragon balls.

Bulma, Tien and Yamcha nodded in understanding while Goku started jumping with excitement. He too had been eager to see the dragon and knowing that Vegeta was too gave him the excuse he needed to let out all his childish curiosity without reservation.

"What color do you think he'll be? Do you think he'll have giant wings that block out the sun? Ooh oh what if he has glowing red eyes!? That'd be so cool!" Goku said.

While Chiaotzu, Oolong and Puar joined Goku in his musings about the Dragon, the rest of the group laughed at the imagination of their younger members.

After a few more minutes of walking, a huge castle like structure began to appear in the distance.

"There it is guys! That's where the radar says that the last dragon ball is" Bulma exclaimed. Vegeta smirked in satisfaction as the rest of the group cheered. Their long journey was almost at an end which meant there would be more time for training.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go get this last dragon ball!" Vegeta said as the group cheered and walked towards the castle unaware of who was waiting for them there.

XxXxXx

Inside the Castle

A blue elf like figure was wondering what to do about obtaining his dream of world conquest while looking at his security monitors. Emperor Pilaf watched as a group of kids were walking towards his castle in interest.

Due to his technology he knew that they were bringing him the dragon balls that he desperately desired but something about the tails on two of them and one of them having three eyes made the emperor feel uneasy.

He knew that he wasn't the smartest person in the world, but he could sense the danger radiating from the group, especially the one with the flame like hair. He would have to take the upmost precaution when taking the dragon balls from them.

"Mai! Shu! Get in here. I'm going to need you for this operation to be successful" Pilaf said summoning his subordinates into the room. Mai appeared first. The 18-year-old spy had a surprisingly high amount of experience in espionage and was an irreplaceable asset in his kingdom. Shu came in not long after. He was ninja dog with such a smart mouth that the tiny Emperor has been in many humorous confrontations with the dog in their long history of working together.

"What can we do for you emperor Pilaf?" Mai asked with curiosity in her tone.

"Take a look. They have the other six dragon balls and they're coming straight for us! Also, two of them have tails and that worries me" Pilaf said moving aside so that Mai could look through the binoculars.

Mai saw a group of people walking towards the palace. She narrowed her eyes to properly get an assessment on each individual person. She went from person to person until her eyes landed on the man with long wild hair. He seemed to freeze and look in her direction which caused the spy the blush and back away from the binoculars.

"You should let them in, trap them in a room and then gas them. While they are out, take their dragon balls and make your wish before they wake up" Mai suggested.

Mai's suggestion had the emperor smiling and wondering why he hasn't thought of such an ingenious thing himself. Before he could thank Mai for the idea, Shu spoke up.

"Wait why don't we just kill them while they are unconscious from the knockout gas?" He said. Pilaf stared at Shu for about 10 seconds before running over and hitting him right over his head causing the dog to shriek in pain.

"What are you stupid! You want us to be labeled as murderers? That's a terrible idea. We're doing what Mai said and that's final now go get the preparations ready" Pilaf yelled causing Mai and Shu to rush off to follow the emperor's orders.

Once they were gone, Pilaf smiled to himself and thought of how close he was to finally achieve his goal of ruling the world. He got excited and began to laugh and screamed to the top of his lungs

"I'll rule the world!"

XxXxXx

Back with the Group

They had just arrived at the front of the castle before both Goku and Vegeta's ears perked up when they heard a person exclaiming that they'll rule the world. The two brothers looked at each other and laughed.

The sudden laughing from the Saiyans had the rest of the group confused but before any of them could question why they were laughing, Vegeta spoke up.

"The owner of this castle knows we're here and he plans on taking the dragon balls from us to wish for world conquest" The earthlings were quiet before they too burst into laughter.

"He obviously doesn't know who he's dealing with. Oh man world conquest, what a childish ambition" Yamcha said. Yamcha had the feeling that someone was watching him earlier, but he didn't say anything since he now knew the castle was populated. The owner was probably looking at him and his friends through the window or something.

"Well let's go entertain this man with the dream of world domination" Vegeta said lifting his hand up and gathering energy in his palms. Bulma immediately began to panic.

"Wait! If we just blow down the door won't they think we're hostile!?" Bulma said trying to talk some sense into Vegeta before he acted recklessly. Vegeta looked at Bulma for a second before Tien fired an energy ball at the door destroying it as well as half of the castle, revealing the ashen forms of a young woman and a ninja dog.

Vegeta let his energy dissipate before he and Goku laughed at Bulma's incredulous face. Then Bulma turned to the smirking three eyed man before yelling.

"WHAT WAS THAT TIEN!? WHAT IF YOU DESTROYED THE DRAGON BALL!"

"Obviously my blast didn't destroy the dragon ball Bulma. I put way less power into that Ki blast then Vegeta put into the beam that destroyed Fire Mountain and the dragon ball survived that so it's definitely still intact and these two will tell us where it is" Tien said calmly while pointing to the woman and dog who flinched in fear.

"He has a point and this way was much more effective then I imagined it would be" Vegeta said causing Bulma to cross her arms and look away muttering something about brutes under her breath.

Yamcha walked towards the two smoke covered figures and began to interrogate them, but something made him freeze causing the group to run to join Yamcha; but before they could reach him the woman grabbed him and pointed a gun to his head.

"Stay right where you are or the pretty boy dies" Mai exclaimed making the group stop in their tracks.

The physical contact made Yamcha nearly faint as he wasn't used to attractive girls holding him that close to their body. Shu shook out of his stupor and drew his sword before pointing it at Yamcha's midsection.

"Hand over the dragon balls now and quietly come with us. If you refuse, we won't hesitate to kill him" the dog said to the group with more confidence then he actually felt. Yamcha didn't even feel the severity of the situation he was in. All he could feel was the woman's body pressed against his own.

The contact was fogging his senses making him essentially useless to his friends. Vegeta looked at the scene with a pondering expression. He knew that the bullets that came out of the gun wouldn't be strong enough to hurt him or Goku, but he also knew that earthlings didn't have the tough skin the Saiyans had. At such a proximity he wasn't sure that he'd be quick enough to get there before she'd pull the trigger.

Vegeta wasn't too fond of the idea of losing another friend. Especially since he just accepted the fact that they were friends, but he needed a little more distance between the gun and Yamcha's head before he'd be comfortable enough to zoom in an attempt to save him.

"Bulma give them the dragon balls" Vegeta said quietly causing a frustrated look to appear on Bulma's face, but she didn't argue. She trusted Vegeta's judgment.

While Bulma was handing the dragon balls to Shu, Yamcha regained enough of his composure to turn and look at the woman behind him. The ash did little to hide her beautiful face from his view. He could see a sadness in her obsidian orbs like she didn't like what she was doing. As if sensing his eyes on her she looked back at him in curiosity. Yamcha flashed a smile causing her to blush and push the gun closer to his head. 'That's a good sign, so maybe my fear of girls is premature if such a beautiful woman finds me attractive. SWEET!... maybe I can talk my way out of this situation' Yamcha thought.

"Why are you doing this?" He whispered to Mai. Mai couldn't believe the nerve of this man. First, he smiled at her and now he's trying to start a conversation with her as if she didn't have a loaded gun pointed at his head.

"I don't have to explain anything to you" Mai said in indignation.

"I knew you'd say something like that. Well just know there's always another way" Yamcha replied. This shocked Mai so much that her finger left the trigger.

Seeing this brief moment of hesitation, Vegeta smirked and moved as fast as he could and snatched the gun from Mai knocking her to the ground. He crushed the gun before charging an energy ball and aiming it straight at Mai. Seeing this Shu unsheathed his blade and rushed at Vegeta only to be stopped by Goku and Tien. Bulma, Oolong and Puar rushed to where Yamcha was to check on him but Yamcha was already in motion.

Vegeta stared down at the woman with pure malice in his eyes. He didn't like killing females but this one had crossed the line and threatened one of his friends so she must be eliminated. He felt a little remorse while looking at the fear that was obvious in her expression, but he couldn't allow that to stop him from doing what must be done. Mai stared at the blue energy with nothing but fear in her expression. She felt the heat radiating off the ball from her current location. She couldn't move, it was as if the man's icy cold glare and evil smirk were keeping her stuck in her spot.

She looked over to see Shu stopped by the man's colleagues, so she knew she wasn't going to be saved. She had already accepted her fate and bowed her head before she felt the wind in front of her shift slightly making her raise her head and look. Both Vegeta and Mai's eyes widened when they saw the form of Yamcha get between her and energy ball. Yamcha breathed in a mouthful of air before yelling at the Prince.

"I WON'T LET YOU KILL HER" causing the whole area to go quiet. Even Pilaf, who was watching from the safety of his room, was shocked by this turn of events. Vegeta's shocked expression quickly turned into one of anger as he was only doing this to protect Yamcha, and now Yamcha was defending the very woman who held a gun to his head mere moments before.

Why couldn't the bandit just be grateful and move out the way. He was about to voice his frustration before he felt a soft hand on his shoulder.

Bulma was there with a soft expression on her face as she shook her head 'no' slowly. Vegeta looked into her deep blue eyes before slowly letting the energy dissipate and dissolve back into his hand. Tien had taken the dragon balls back from Shu before letting him pass to check on his fallen comrade.

When he got there, he could see Mai staring back up at Yamcha with amazement. Sensing eyes on him, he turned around and gave her a warm smile and a thumbs up.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot, so let's try this again" Yamcha said causing the whole group to sweat drop and fall down (A/N you know how they do in anime lol XD)

"In exchange for your lives we require the last Dragon Ball" Vegeta demanded once he recovered from Yamcha's idiocy. Shu and Mai nodded to each other before telling the group to follow them into the part of the castle that was still standing.

Pilaf began shaking in frustration because his subordinates gave up that easily and were now leading the group to his location. Pilaf didn't know what to do so naturally he began to panic and frantically run around in circles.

That was how the group found him five minutes later when they arrived to take the dragon ball. Pilaf tried to resist but a death glare from Vegeta shut him down quick. Now that they had all 7 dragon balls the wish could finally be made and Goku couldn't be happier.

"We finally get to see the Dragon!" He said excitedly before being hit on the head by Vegeta.

"Pipe down Kakarot! There will be no summoning tonight. I can feel a full moon approaching so we will be spending the night at this palace. Unless of course the blue dwarf has a problem?" Vegeta said causing Pilaf to sweat drop.

"Of course not! There's plenty of room for you and your friends to spend the night. Make yourselves at home" Pilaf said with a nervous laugh. Vegeta smirked at the tiny man before he felt Goku's energy rise. He looked to see Goku looking out the window with excitement.

"Kakarot what are you doing? We aren't allowed to transform right now. There's too many people here!" He said pulling Goku away from the window much to the disappointment of the other Saiyan.

"Alright everyone to sleep. The wish will be made tomorrow at noon and Pilaf if you or any one of your goons even consider trying to take the dragon balls while we're sleep, I'll personally send you to hell. Even you Mai, Yamcha can't save you twice" Vegeta said menacingly before taking Bulma and walking out the room to go to bed.

Tien and Chiaotzu followed shortly after and Goku soon after that, still pouting. Pilaf and his gang stood there in fear before Yamcha laughed and told them that's just Vegeta getting used to them. Yamcha winked at Mai before he, Puar and Oolong left the room as well. Pilaf, Shu and Mai all stayed in the room with half fearful, half incredulous expressions on their faces. All wondering the same thing.

'What have we gotten ourselves into'

TBC

Power Levels

Vegeta: 17,550

Goku: 11,025

Yamcha: 120

Tien: 205[JB1]

[JB1]