Chapter 26: Day 18 Part 1 — A Prickly Situation

The sun was setting in Central Capital and King Furry was brushing his teeth.

A knock came from the door.

He spat in the sink, "What is it?"

"Sir, that special simulation you asked for just came off the supercomputers."

"I'll be there shortly."

King Furry entered the meeting room in his pajamas and bathrobe. He glanced at the clock.

"Ok, it's 9:30. Let's get this over with…"

The aide played it on the screen.

"This… is the only way the sensor readings make perfect sense. There is no entry angle. The explosion was spherical, like an aerial bomb blast at 9,180 meters. That is the lowest estimated blast point by over a mile." He inched the video forward.

"For the first fifteen seconds of the blast, a barrier existed with a radius of 92 meters, or about an American football field. This reflected 99.99% of all the energy up and sideways through the atmosphere, resulting in the huge sound distance and disrupted airspace." He inched it forward again.

"While this was happening, some of the energy wrapped around the barrier and like tsunami damage being worse on the backside of an island, clapped together over the ocean near the coast. Moments later the barrier vanished and a second pressure wave hit the ground. This double punch equaled 0.019% of the energy, well within the margin of error. The margin of error is 500 tons of TNT. That is equal to the explosion that took out Beirut 229 years ago. The full blast estimated in this simulation as 41,300 tons… is slightly less than three Hiroshima bombs."

King Furry put his head in his hands. "A four-year-old child…" he muttered through his palms.

"Sire?"

"Alright, this simulation is now classified. Erase it from the computers and transfer that copy to my own tablet. I want it to be the ONLY copy, got it?"

"Yes, sir!"

King Furry waved and the aide left the tablet on the table and left the room.

He sighed, and pulled his cell phone from his robe's pocket.

"Hello, Alcibiades… Yes, I know it's late. I'll be flying out tomorrow… Yes, I know it's sudden. But Prince Vegeta said his son would not be able to repeat this blowout for a week, so the sooner the better. And the final simulation just came in and I'm classifying it… No comment… You'll be getting a call from the Secret Service shortly… I've decided to trust Vegeta about my safety… Yes, I'm not kidding… I suggest you get busy. I want to be in Indonesia by tomorrow afternoon."

Alcibiades looked down at his phone. Then he crawled out of bed and stood at his window, looking at the lights of the Central Capital down in the valley.

Then his phone rang. He absentmindedly answered it.

"Hi Chuck, ready to get the details hammered out? Mr. Nahm?! I am so sorry. I was expecting a different call. …You know about the alien? …You were just sent a blast simulation? How? …I'm sorry sir, I won't ask that again… We— we thought we had the Briefs sufficiently blackmailed, sir… I believe King Furry being involved now is the more pressing matter… Oh? You say you will take care of him? …No, no. If you think you can convince him to stay out of your way, then I'm truly relieved. …What?"

"I said I wanted everything you have about this Prince Vegeta, INCLUDING his involvement in your brother's death."

Alcibiades was silent, panicking.

"Did you really think I would allow my granddaughter to marry into a family descended from an illegitimate birth," he said with disdain, "and NOT look into things? You were very close to your half-brother despite the 15-year difference. More of a father figure really. He always made sure you were taken care of. He even arranged your marriage. The Murchadhs were already huge supporters of the Red Ribbon Army. How better to cement their place in the new world order than a marriage to the unknown brother of one of the core leaders, who was also magically in the same age bracket as their daughter? And you had a different surname on your birth certificate too despite going by Alcibiades Gero your whole life, so it was perfect…

"So, about the files you have on the alien?"

Alcibiades' phone started to vibrate and ring.

"Ah, that would be the call you were expecting?"

"Yes. I'll give you everything as soon as I finish the details of King Furry's visit with the Secret Service."

"I'm sure someone of your power can delegate simple things like this. You have 30 minutes."

The call ended.

Alcibiades accepted the next one.

"Hello, Mr. Souvlaki, this is Chuck Mackenzie, His Majesty's Secret Service. I've been told to work with you on the last-minute trip to your property. He wants to be in the air before noon our time for the 18-hour journey."

"Yes! Yes… Let me call my man on the ground there and bring him in, do you mind me putting you on hold?"

"No, but make it quick."

Alcibiades put him on hold and called Reynolds. It took four times.

"Reynolds! It's about time… Yes, I know it's early for you, this is important. Nahm's found out about Vegeta being an alien and wants EVERYTHING we have on him in 30 minutes," he left his bedroom and was sprinting down the hall in his underwear. "Is there anything you haven't sent me that you can think of? Good, get those around and sent to me now. Also I have the secret service on hold. They want King Furry in the air by noon here for the 18 hour flight. Wake up your head of security for a 4 way call and don't mention anything about the files." He arrived at his home office and placed his thumb on the reader. "Just text me when you're done," he said entering the room and sat at his desk.

*COCK A DOODLE DO*

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

*Bark* *Bark*

*Meow*

"Dende only gave her fuzzy sight back?" Vegeta said annoyed.

"Yes. It would be too obvious otherwise. He only half healed Sam as well. He is no longer in danger of dying from his head injury, but he still has a concussion and his leg was basically untouched."

"So Becky almost killed Sam?"

"She was responsible for the initial injury, but it was Ichiro's attack after he was returned to the beach that would have been fatal without Dende's intervention. We had to drop everyone and gap the video recording in order to save his life."

Vegeta closed his eyes and breathed hard through his nose.

"Sam thought Dende was an angel. He used the misunderstanding to tell him to have his cousin carry him to you on family day. Keep an eye out."

Vegeta opened his eyes and nodded.

Piccolo flew off and Vegeta dropped down into the upper camp.

"Good morning, ladies."

"Good morning, Mr. Vegeta," Sugar Petal said. "What did your friend say?"

"He told me that they decided not to fully heal Jessica."

She nodded, "Yes, I was awake for that."

"Sam almost died after Ichiro attacked him after he was returned…"

She gasped.

"… They saved his life, but only half healed him too. His leg is still messed up. Sam was told to get his cousin to carry him here on family day. I'll be on the trail that day. The sooner they bump into me the better."

"Yes sir. Here's the water and my pills."

Vegeta took the bamboo and the bag. He glanced at the sleeping Jessica, "Go back to bed. I'll bring food up when it's ready."

She nodded and watched Vegeta jump in the air.

"Ok, men. Wake up!" Vegeta poked his head in the second floor. Hassim was quick to sit up and rub his eyes. Jerry moaned, but did not move.

"Wake up, Jerry. We wake up before dawn and eat. You sleep in, no food until whenever we snack for lunch. Big meals here are breakfast and dinner."

Jerry moaned. "Really…" he said softly.

"How were things done at Samundra?" Hassim said stretching.

"Women…"

"Nope, women don't work here while the men sleep. Get up!" Vegeta came into the room, grabbed Jerry, and flung him over his shoulder.

"Hey!"

Vegeta carried him down and out of the hive. "Nope. You're getting up." He tossed him on the ground.

"Owe!" Jerry moaned in pain and rolled over, "That was my tailbone…"

"You're lucky to still have yours, stop bitching."

*Bark*

Jerry was jumped on and licked in the face.

"Puppy!" Jerry pushed him off his face.

*Bark* *Bark*

Hassim walked out of the hive with his rug. "Come on, Mark. Time for potty."

Mark bounded after Hassim out the side door.

Jerry stood slowly as Vegeta threw wood on the fire and kicked it up.

"You going to wake the girls?"

"Sugar already had her meds. I told her to go back to sleep and stay with Jessica. Which means," he turned around, "You're on egg duty." He tossed a blue bag at him. "Get going."

"How many do you need?"

"All of them. If they only laid one there's only one for today. If there's more we get to eat more."

Jerry looked up at the tree house. "What about the kid?"

"He gets food from the resort. Trust me, we can barely feed one of me. No way we can handle two." Vegeta walked past him to the lower door.

"Where are you headed?"

"Animal food," he said, grabbing the bundle of spears leaning against the door.

Vegeta walked in with a ring of small fish alongside the ATVs.

"Your chickens are fucking crazy!" Jerry shouted.

"You wanted to mutiny," Vegeta chuckled.

"Only four eggs this morning," Hassim said. "For five people. And no new bananas yet."

"And I think we can officially declare the stream dead," he said, putting the fish on the banana leaf on the counter Hassim had put there. "Ocean or bust."

"What's wrong with the stream?" Jerry asked.

"I had dammed a section off for a fish farm and put all the fish I caught in there. Michael found it and they threw all the fish onto the bank. Easily 50 plus."

"Damn. You guys are going to be food crunched with us here and Jessica unable to help."

"We'll manage. Sam will be joining us shortly as well."

Jerry raised his arms and walked over to the crews. "Nyheen! Ejike! You came with! You look good in Red."

Vegeta turned his head when Ejike spoke.

"You from Nigeria, or somewhere close?"

"Yes," he said, surprised.

"Our head of security at the mansion is from there. I thought I recognized your accent." He turned back to chopping the fish. "Haven't been there yet, but I'm sure Bulma will drag me there eventually. So where is our other new jailer from?"

"Detroit," he said proudly.

"Nice braids," Vegeta complimented. "My people did that too."

"My team filmed when Jerry first did it," he said. "I can practically guarantee you've started a new trend once this airs."

Vegeta honestly smiled. "My mother would have loved that. Father, not so much."

"Oh?"

"Arranged marriage because of genetic matching. They hated each other and mother never missed a chance to piss him off."

"Wow, sorry. Sounds really toxic."

"Father walked in the room and blew my mother's head off while I was sitting in her lap."

"What?!" everyone shouted. Except for Hassim, who just sighed and looked up.

"And let's not even start on what he did to my newborn brother." Vegeta looked around, "Labu! Peaches! Fishies!"

The cats magically appeared at his feet and started yowling.

"Hear you go dumb dumbs," Vegeta cut a section out of the banana leaf and put most of the fish on the ground. He picked the rest of the leaf up with the remaining fish. "Hassim!"

"Coming," Hassim grabbed the leaf and headed to the door.

Mark was on his heels and dove head first into the fish once he put the leaf down on the outside of the fence.

"Papa!"

"Sorry Trunks. Did the noise wake you up?"

"No! Papa. I'm wet!"

Vegeta sighed and looked up. "Ok, Trunks. Papa's hands are dirty. Let me wash then we'll change your big boy pull ups."

Everyone climbed up the hill and ate at the upper camp. Trunks was eating his pure sugar disguised as cereal while everyone ate the equivalent of slightly less than one egg with leaves mixed in.

"Ok." Vegeta started. "Today we build and fortify." He looked at Jerry and Jessica. "I have it on good authority Ichiro attacked Sam and compounded the injuries from when Becky broke his skull beating him with a rock. The place I wanted to build your house is on the opposite side of the grove, deep into Red territory. I know the oaths everyone took, but I don't trust them or Reynolds as far as I can throw them." He smirked, "Which is pretty far."

Sugar Petal giggled.

"But in all seriousness, there is no one left on the red beach to act as a voice of reason. The only good thing about that location is there is nothing linking it to the path. But they know I'm up the hill from the path, if they go exploring, they could find you. The other options are everyone crowd into the hive, or we expand the camp with another building. No matter the location, there's two options for housing. A house like mine on stilts as there's no usable trees. That originally took three days. The other option is another hive. That took a week. But both of those times were when I had nothing else to do and barely slept, including not sleeping for 48 hours."

"Dude! Why would you do that?" Jerry asked.

"I don't know what Casey told you the day I found her lost in the woods, but we had talked about Michael getting everyone to build the camp in a rain gully because they used a giant washed out tree to hang the tarp off of. It's a straight line through a waterlogged swamp to a large turn in the stream. It's the real reason I left to make a second camp that could house so many people in the first hour of the game. It's come in handy, but it was not my original intent."

"Damn, well, it is the dry season," he said.

"My family owns an island on the opposite side of this chain. The," he used air quotes, "'dry season' is just a suggestion. A few days ago, there was a storm close enough that I heard the thunder. I mean, it's me we're talking about, but still."

"Will you be letting them here if they do get flooded out?" Sugar Petal asked worried.

Vegeta shook his head. "No. I'm not going to let them drown if I can help it, but otherwise they're on their own."

"Well," Jessica began, "I think—"

"Ollie Ollie Oxen Free!"

"That's Daisuke," Jessica said.

Vegeta rolled his eyes and stood up, "You can come in! But keep it short."

Daisuke walked out of the grass a few moments later. He looked around. "Nice little set up. I assume this is your bathtub?"

"No comment," Vegeta said, crossing his arms. "What do you want?"

Daisuke looked at Hassim and bowed so deeply he was at a right angle. "I am so sorry for how Bob and Jamal treated you last night. It was completely uncalled for."

Sugar Petal suddenly stood. "Will you be apologizing to Mr. Vegeta?" she said forcefully.

Everyone looked at her surprised by the venom in her voice.

She walked up and glared down at Daisuke. "If you will not get on your knees and apologize right now, I will never forgive you." She pointed back into the grass, "Leave!"

"Papa? Is this person bad?"

Vegeta looked back at him. "No," he said after a pause. "We got into an argument like when Mama and Papa shout at each other. A bad thing happened, but no one here is bad because of it."

Vegeta looked at the crews. "Can someone take him down while the grownups talk?"

Nathan walked over and bent down, "Hey Trunks, do you want to head down and check on the bananas you played your flute for? I bet they are nice and yellow now."

Trunks looked at him, then at his father.

"He's not a stranger, Trunks. It's ok."

Trunks nodded and raised his arms. "Up. Up."

Nathan picked him up and went down the hill.

Vegeta sighed. "Ok, now we can speak honestly."

He looked at Daisuke. "I did not mean to stomp my foot so hard. I would take that back if I could. But I will not apologize for the confrontation with Casey after she stole from me. Was I an ass, yes, but I needed to protect my family... For what little that did."

"Casey is a relative of the most famous conspiracists on the planet. They even have their own cable network."

"I am painfully aware of the viciousness of these people. Ignoring all the break-ins, hackings, bugs, cameras and drones, there's been plenty of kidnapping and assassination attempts. One story I've heard from when my wife was a teenager, her rescuers only got there seconds before she was boiled alive. Apparently, this particular Earth mob boss used cannibalism as an intimidation technique."

Vegeta smirked at Daisuke's expression. "We can take care of ourselves. Just stay out of the way."

"Yes, sir. I mean sire."

Vegeta raised his palm, "Ego aside, sir is perfectly fine."

"You haven't apologized yet," Sugar Petal said.

Daisuke sighed. "Thank you, for saving us from the crocodile. But I cannot forgive what you did to Casey," he shook his head.

"None of us are here randomly," Vegeta said. "We were all selected because we fit some stereotype needed for the script the producers wanted to engineer. Even if they did not uncover where I was born until I was already here, the Briefs have a long history with nutjobs."

"Casey… did say she was involved in protests against your family before that resulted in property damage," Daisuke admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

"That's almost every protest, but I'm not surprised considering she tore down a large part of our shelter. It took all afternoon to do a basic repair so we could sleep. Today, the plan is to expand and reinforce it."

Daisuke looked at Hassim surprised, who nodded.

He looked back at Vegeta. "I… did not know she went that far."

"If you need to think about this more, that's fine. I'm going to check on my son." Vegeta turned and walked down the hill.

Sugar Petal crossed her arms mimicking Vegeta. "You did not apologize. You need to go."

"Fine," Daisuke said. He turned to Jessica, "How is your sight?"

"Fuzzy, but at least I'm not completely helpless anymore."

Daisuke nodded, "That's good that your sight is coming back." He looked at Jerry, "You two take care."

He disappeared into the grass.

"Well," Hassim said. "At least there's one sane person left on Samundra." He looked at Jerry, "So. What type of house do you two want?"

"Well we know Vegeta is expecting Sam, so we need room for three people, with one completely infirm."

"I say four," Jerry said, "We might bag Daisuke too in the future."

"So you guys are leaning towards another hive?" Hassim asked, surprised. "This show is only 39 days long. And merge is coming up. We might not even be allowed to keep our camps to begin with."

"What if we start it, and if we don't need the space, we can turn it into a one-story circle hut?" Jerry offered a compromise.

"I'm not the one making the final decision," Hassim said. "But Vegeta works in the middle of the night when he thinks we're asleep. I honestly don't believe him when he said he's only had one 48 hours."

"So you don't want him working his butt off any more than he needs too?" Jerry said. "Yeah, good point."

Hassim stood. "I'm going to head down."

Slightly earlier…

"Mr. Nathan?"

"Yes, Trunks?"

"You really a friend of Papa?"

"Yes. Your Papa has been my friend for a few days now."

"Is that why you are saying two different things?"

"When you say things without using your mouth. No one here likes daddy. Some people hurt Papa, Mama." Trunks whimpered. "People hurt me. People hurt me a lot."

Nathan finished crossing the bridge.

"No one is going to hurt you. If they ever tried, your parents would rip them apart."

"But no one ever hurt me. Why?"

Nathan paused. "Some people… just hate people for no reason. I know you're really young. And you've always been around happy people who love you very much. But as you get older. You are going to meet more people that are going to be jerks. You're going to need to learn to ignore them."

Trunks began to cry. "More people gonna to hurt me?"

Suddenly Vegeta flashed in front of them. "Trunks, how long have you heard people not using their mouths?"

Trunks looked at him confused.

"Trunks, when did it start," he said again.

"Start?"

Vegeta sighed. "Ok… I'll take that as always." Vegeta leaned down to face level with his son. "Trunks. When you say hurt me. Do you mean they want to hurt me and you are scared of that? Or," he paused. "Are you in pain? Are you physically in pain like when you got squished in the gravity room?"

"Squish. It hurts. It hurts all over like the squish and the bad chili all at once."

Vegeta stood straight. "Ok…" he closed his eyes and sighed.

He then pulled the little bamboo flute from one of his pants' pockets, "Here. Try and be happy and visit the banana's ok?"

"Ok…" he said softly. He took it from his father's hands.

Vegeta walked back towards the camp.

"Vegeta—"

"I know. I know, Freddy. But my son was crying," Vegeta said as he opened the lower gate and the group entered.

"Ok," Vegeta turned around. He held out his hand to Freddy and Ted's replacement. "Cellphone. Now. I need to talk to my wife. And yes this is an emergency."

"So you both understand this conversation will be recorded and handed over to King Furry?"

"Yes, Reynolds. Fuck off," Vegeta said frustrated.

"I need to stay on this call as well."

"Then grab Conner. I want an impartial observer."

"No."

"Then I'll talk with my wife on family day," he answered. He then hung up and tossed the phone back at the crew. While they fumbled with it, Vegeta took the opportunity to jog to the upper gate and disappear.

"I just missed him, didn't I?"

They turned around and saw Hassim and Jackie's crew.

Then the phone rang again.

"Hello?" the new tech asked. "…I'm sorry sir. He threw the phone and left. We lost him…. Umm he was talking with Nathan right before he demanded the phone. He's playing with the kid over in the bananas."

"They're yellow! They're yellow!" Trunks was jumping up and down and yelling excitedly.

Nathan could feel the vibrations in his legs. "That's great!" he smiled nervously. "You did a great job yesterday. But maybe not jump like that? You're making the ground shake."

"Oh?" Trunks turned around. "But Mama and Papa say I'm allowed to jump on the grass."

"I know, but can you not do it here? The bananas wouldn't like it."

"Oh." Trunks turned around. "I'm sorry Mr. Banana," he said to the tree.

Suddenly Nathan's phone rang.

"Sorry Trunks, can you say here while I take this call?"

"Ok."

Nathan jogged off. "Hello? Yeah give me a sec I'm with the kid."

When he thought he was out of ear shot, he continued. "Ok, I think I'm far enough away… What did Vegeta want to say? …Oh, well, it seems Trunks is psychic. And apparently, he feels pain when someone has a negative emotion around him. He said it was like a chili pepper everywhere combined with some event they called the squish. Doesn't sound very pleasant… Ok, sir."

Nathan put the phone back in his pocket and went back to Trunks.

He found him playing the flute and wiggling in a little dance.

"Hey Trunks, can I ask you a question?"

He stopped. "Yea?

"Can you tell me what you meant by the squish?"

"Papa has a big room where he trains. Mama says I can't train like Papa, so I goed in and turned it on. And I squish."

"What did you turn on?"

"The train machine. It makes Gees."

"It makes Gees?" Nathan asked, confused.

Trunks nodded. "Papa has lots of Gees. I go squish. I sleep two days. I sleep longer but Mr. Dende wake me up."

"How many Gees does Papa have?"

"Three, five and zero."

"I see," Nathan said, still confused. "Can you tell me about the bad chili?"

"Papa lost to Ankle Krillin. So he made Papa eat bad chili. I did not know it was bad, so I took one to be funny." Trunks shook his head, "but it want funny. I go to hospital for long time ."

"Trunks, do you know the name of the bad chili?"

Trunks nodded again. "Calina Eeper."

"Ok. Trunks I need to make another phone call. Stay here ok?"

"Yes."

Nathan walked away to about the same spot and pulled out his phone. He searched "Calina Eeper chili pepper.

Do you mean Carolina Reaper?

He clicked on the link.

Then panic called Reynolds.

"Carolina reaper?" Reynolds leaned forward in his seat.

"Yeah, the article reads: "The Reaper family was first bred in 2017. Since then, it has expanded into 19 different cultivars. Reaper 19 is currently tied for the hottest with the Brazilian Devil's breath at 500 million Scoville. Reaper 19 is the only pepper with confirmed fatalities from eating it and after the lengthy hospitalization of an unnamed father and 3-year-old child, directly led to the passing of the Scoville Act last year, making any pepper over 400 million a lethal weapon and illegal to eat. This outlawed Reapers 12-19 and 296 other cultivars. Any breeders or genetic engineers working with peppers over 100 million Scoville must now receive a license."

"Vegeta can be killed with capsaicin," Reynolds muttered.

"Sorry, what was that Reynolds?"

"Nothing, what about this squish?"

"He said Vegeta has a machine in his training room that makes something called Gees. He went in and turned it on and got squished. He was unconscious for 2 days. He said the machine was set to make 350 of these Gees."

"Ok, thank you Nathan. Keep me updated if the kid says anything else."

Nathan saw the call end on his phone.

"No way in fucking hell," he mumbled, and immediately made another call.

"*Ding* This number is no longer in service. If you believe you have reached this message in error, please hang up and try again."

"What the hell?"

Nathan tried again.

And again.

And again.

"Come on Conner. Work," he said. This time dialing by hand.

Back at the resort, Reynolds kept getting notifications on his phone.

RC#17FP Blocked Call to HP#2CO

RC#17FP Blocked Call to HP#2CO

RC#17FP Blocked Call to HP#2CO

RC#17FP Blocked Call to HP#2CO

RC#17FP Blocked Call to HP#2CO

"Nice try, bastard." Reynolds smirked.

RC#9CM Blocked Call to HP#2CO

RC#9TCH Blocked Call to HP#2CO

RC#19FP Blocked Call to HP#2CO

RC#19TCH Blocked Call to HP#2CO

Reynolds laughed as he put his phone away.

Vegeta was flying through the trees right below the canopy, but still out of camera view. He was keeping his eyes on the ground. Bamboo would be easy, but he needed something else, like the giant needle trees used for fences on his Africa trip.

Suddenly Vegeta spotted a wall of blue out of the corner of his eye.

He went over and found a semi-circle of camera trees facing the steep hillside leading to the campfire he found at the beginning of the game. Vegeta flew back and found a dead zone, then dropped down and walked up to the area.

Vegeta noticed something instantly wrong with the trees. The lenses and microphones were not spaced evenly, but were mostly focused towards the center of the semi-circle.

Instantly intrigued, Vegeta went looking.

Instead of heading up, he found a deep depression leading up to a sheer cliff in the hillside. Vegeta smiled and slid down into the depression. The depression was full of tall thorny plants full of fruit. He was pretty certain what he was already looking at, but ate one anyway.

Vegeta smiled and began to stuff his pockets. Then he noticed more blue. He walked up to the cliff and moved what would have been brown netting to humans and found a small cave only several feet deep and a few feet high. In it was a camera watching over a bright green box with the show logo.

Vegeta crawled in and grabbed it. He stood and looked it over. It was sturdy with a combination lock. He shook it and heard the soft thud with a lot of weight behind it.

"Something heavy is in this wrapped in foam," he thought. "And the show definitely meant this to be found."

Vegeta closed his eyes. He was feeling the distance between the people in the area so he could find his way back. Then he climbed out of the hole and walked away.

Twenty minutes later, Vegeta walked back into the main camp, and found everyone waiting for him.

"Well don't you guys look like a funeral," Vegeta said smiling, "What's wrong?"

"And what makes you so cheery?"

Vegeta pulled a fruit out of his pants and held it up, "Only the most delicious thing on this damn planet." He began handing it out. "It's called snake fruit. Peel it first."

"What's that box?" Jerry asked.

"Found it in a small cave next to the snake fruits. I can show you when we go back."

"To get more fruit?"

"To cut the stalks. We've found our thorny plant to line the walls."

Jerry's eyes widened, "does that have a combination lock?!"

"Yeah why?"

"Bob said the clue to the immunity idol was that it was hidden in a snake den and to be careful not to get bitten!"

"Did he say anything about the combination?" Hassim said excitedly.

"The Independence Day of Indonesia on the old calendar."

Vegeta immediately began spinning the dials.

"Not that one… Not that one…" he mumbled. "There. You people really need to choose one way to order your dates," he said, opening the lid.

He pulled a small statue from the foam. "Huh," Vegeta held it up, "It's a little ugly Garuda statue." He put it back in and pulled out a plastic card. "Yep. This is the immunity idol. Says it can be broken into four pieces to be shared. The head and two wings come off, but the more it's divided, the lower the threshold. Intact, 1 person all votes. Half, two people 75% of current team rounded down. 3 parts, three people 65% of current team rounded down. 4 parts, four people 55% of current team rounded down. If the holder's votes are more than the threshold, then the idol will fail and you will still be voted out. And the decision to divide must come before the challenge and ownership cannot be changed."

Vegeta closed the box. "I'll stash it in my room for now," he walked over to the ladder. "We'll discuss this when it's needed."

"If anyone else did that, I'd say he was hoarding it," Hassim said after he went inside.

Jerry chuckled, "Yeah. Really." He looked at Sugar Petal. "That's one goofy grin. That snake fruit really good?"

Sugar Petal giggled and nodded.

"Oh, this is good," Jessica said. "Big seeds, Jerry. Don't chomp it."

"Oh, wow. Yeah, big seeds. Lord."

"Having fun?" Vegeta came down.

"You must really love this if you're smiling like that," Sugar Petal said.

Vegeta pulled out another fruit. "This tastes almost exactly like the candy the castle staff bribed me to behave with when I was little. Home…" he paused, losing his smile for a moment as he looked down at it. "Home is good…"

He took a deep breath and looked up, his smile returned. "Hey Trunks! Look what Papa found!" he shouted as he jogged out the side door headed into the grove.

Vegeta and Trunks were sitting side by side in the hammock, using it like a swing. They were munching on snake fruit in almost perfect sync and identical faces.

"I'm going to do everything I can to make sure to get video of this for you," Jerry whispered to Jessica, "this is fucking adorable."

Hassim was genuinely uncomfortable seeing such an honest expression from a mass murderer and it being mirrored so perfectly by the innocent boy.

"So… that's what we were thinking about the shelter," Hassim concluded.

"Papa build playhouse? I want to build playhouse!" he said excitedly.

"Sorry Trunks, but this isn't going to be like the play houses you make when camping with Mr. Piccolo." Vegeta said. "People are going to be living here in a real house. I need to make it big and strong."

"I can make big and strong," he waved his arms.

Vegeta stood and looked at his son. "Trunks listen to me. Some very bad people hurt someone. This isn't just a roof and walls. It's a bed, its shelves. Papa needs to make lots of things to take care of him and I have to do it very fast. You can help me make something else, maybe even a present for him. But right now, I need to do this alone, ok?"

"Oh… But Trunks can make a present for him?"

Vegeta nodded. "Yes, you can make a present for him."

"Can Nana and Grampa help make a present for him?!" he asked excitedly.

"Yes, they can. But to help them, you'll need to go back to the resort. They can't come here."

"Oh…" he said. "But if I go back for dinner, we do it then?"

"If you want to go back for dinner, that's fine. But if that bad man won't let you bring it back. We can make something tomorrow when you return. I want you to sleep in a bed tonight if you go back."

"I will go back," he lifted his arms again, "And make the best present ever!"

Vegeta crossed his arms and smiled. "That's good to hear. I know you can do it. Now when do you want to go over? The sooner you go over the more time you have to make it."

"Can I go over now?"

Vegeta nodded. "But know that if you do, you have to keep your promise to stay and sleep in a bed tonight."

"I come back tomorrow, Papa?"

Vegeta nodded, "Yes. You can come back tomorrow."

"Oh! But the bananas!" Trunks whined.

"I can play music for them," Vegeta said. "Remember when I showed you Papa's flute? It's how I know the banana's like music."

"You promise!" Trunks pointed an accusatory finger at him.

"Yes, I promise. I will play music for the bananas."

"Ok!" Trunks waved his hands in the air.

Vegeta looked at the crews. "Hey, Randy. Get Yamcha to come pick him up."

"Did you just—"

"Yamcha. Now," Vegeta cut him off.

"Alright," Randy said and pulled out his radio. "Hey this is Randy, Trunks wants to see his grandparents. Can Yamcha come pick him up?"

A few minutes later, Yamcha dropped down outside the lower gate. Vegeta opened the gate and held Trunks' hand as he walked him out. "See you tomorrow, son," Vegeta waved as they flew off.

Vegeta came back in, his stiff and sour continence returned. "Ok. This is what we are doing. We're doing another hive. The bottom floor with be for Sam only. You two and anyone else will be going upstairs. But first thing first, we move the fence. The only way to expand is up the hill so we'll need to move the gate. I'm going to go chopping, you guys start tearing down. Hopefully the chickens won't be complete asses."

"But there's all the trees right there," Sugar Petal pointed out.

Vegeta held his finger up. "Not where the gate is currently. It's just big enough to fit a hive." He recrossed his arms. "Don't touch my goat skulls though. I'll handle them myself. Now if you people are so worried about me staying up late, I expect you to work at the same pace I can. Nathan, grab your men and follow me to go cutting. I want this fence down by the time I get back. If it's not, then you guys agree to stay out of my way and let me work at night without bitching about it."

Vegeta walked into the hive, grabbed the machete, and marched out the back followed by Nathan and company on his heels.

Ok!" Sugar Petal stood and put her fist in the air. "Mr. Vegeta is going to use his super speed to cheat, so we need to be even faster! It's time to show him we're not all little babies that need protecting!"

Out in the bamboo, the crew was surprised at how slow he was going.

"Are you ok?" Nathan asked.

"They think I'm going to cheat," Vegeta said. "So, they should be done by the time I get back."

"You're not going to go fast?"

"I already have plans for tonight. So, if they can build everything, it frees me up."

"What are you going to do?"

Vegeta glanced over his shoulder.

The look in his eyes made all three of them jump back.

"Vengeance."

Vegeta came back hours later.

The fence was down and everyone was waiting on him.

"You guys were faster than I thought. Guess I can trust you to build this," Vegeta smiled. Then it vanished. "Ok! Break's over! Help pull in all the bamboo."

The men came down and saw the huge pile as tall as them and stretching across the water to the other side.

"What did you do? Cut down the whole mountain?!" Jerry looked at the monster pile.

"This is about what it took to build the last one," Vegeta smirked. He wrapped his arms around several dragon poles and dragged the massive plants towards the camp.

An hour later, Vegeta is relaxing in the hammock eating the remaining snake fruit, watching the others struggle.

Vegeta had quickly redone the fence, steamrolling the others with his speed, but after mapping out and digging the circular trench, left the others to "help".

It wasn't going well. Even if he tapped each of their foreheads, he thought they wouldn't do any better.

Jessica and Sugar Petal had quickly split most of the bamboo Vegeta had given them, but they had recently stopped to help the men. While unable to see at a distance, Jessica could make out items up close. That and her sense of touch told her immediately that they were idiots.

Vegeta was doing everything he could not to laugh as she thoroughly made sure they knew they were idiots, but he was impressed that she realized exactly what they were doing wrong so quickly.

Randy walked up behind him, "Prince Vegeta."

He turned around. "What? You want to film the music in the bananas?"

"It's the king. He wants to talk to you."

Vegeta immediately sat up and followed.

They went deep into the grove, and a tech handed him one of their head sets.

"It's Bluetooth synced to the phone," he said.

Vegeta played with the microphone lever as Randy set up the call.

Vegeta was handed the phone and was surprised to see three tiny faces. He turned the phone sideways and held it back from his face.

Vegeta physically swallowed his pride and put on a fake smile. "Sorry about that. I wasn't told this would be an examination of the health of the royal nose hair."

Before Reynolds, Alcibiades, or King furry said anything.

"Where's Conner?"

"Not coming," Reynolds said forcefully.

"Then I exercise my right to remain silent without defense present."

King Furry sighed, "Prince Vegeta, this isn't a trial…"

"With Reynolds present, I beg to differ," Vegeta glared.

"Vegeta," the king sighed, "I spent most of my life as a Federal DA. I know ring kissers when I see them."

"What did you just accuse me of?!"

"Reynolds, quiet!" Alcibiades silenced him.

"You're the type of criminal who actively brags about his crimes, Vegeta. You're honest, even if that comes from a place of psychopathy."

"Normally I'd make a snarky remark, but now's not the time or place for me being a jackass."

"Glad you recognize that," King Furry said as he lifted a paper to read from, "Ok… this morning's first update: What's this about your son wanting to make candy for the contestants?"

"Trunks was being a pain in the butt and slowing down camp construction, so I told him vaguely about the current head trauma patient and got him to leave to make him a present. If he's decided on candy, I say let him and Panchy in the kitchens."

"Now I was told it's made from snakes?" he asked, confused.

"Salak. Snake fruit in English. Found a whole grove of the palms this morning. If they need some, I can cut a few clusters when I'm chopping leaves later."

"I see no harm in it," King Furry said. "Make it happen. Now, second. Your son can read minds and this ability is causing him mild pain?"

Vegeta twitched. Then he cleared his throat.

"Ignoring how the fuck that could have been figured out without a massive betrayal of trust… The issue isn't so much psychic as empathic. We had no idea it had developed until literally an hour ago. Two max. My son has always been surrounded by love, so he has never had complaints."

"Did you know this development was a possibility?"

"Yes. Through me. But growing up in a palace full of daily murders and intrigue, I was completely numb to any kind of pain by the time I was his age. It was only with the silence of being removed from my own species by the galactic emperor that I regained the sensation."

"Are you still psychic?"

"It's reawakened on Earth. But I've had actual training this time, so I can turn it off. It will also be on the priority list for training my son once this is over."

"And who trained you?" the king asked.

Vegeta moved his eyes to the right. There was no one there, but the exaggerated movement got the point across. "Do you really want me to say THAT man's name?" he said looking back at the phone. "I mean Reynolds has been so quick to blackmail my family by outing me, what's one more family and their CLOSE friends thrown to the wolves of the bloody tribalism the Human race is so famous for?"

"ARE YOU PEOPLE FUCKING INSANE?! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET THIS GOVERNMENT OVERTHROWN?! IS THAT IT?!"

Vegeta smirked and held a middle finger to the camera. Then he turned the phone off.

He tossed it at Randy who caught it after it hit his chest.

"That should keep them busy for a while," Vegeta chuckled.

"Vegeta wait," Randy said, reaching his arm out. "When you told Nathan you were going after vengeance tonight, you're headed back to the river aren't you?"

Vegeta faced him, "Why? Because after the last reaction, I wouldn't think you would want to send a camera crew."

"Vegeta…"

"No, you look," he pointed at him. "Ignoring the fact I was denied my blood right, I killed a male and witnessed a baby. Where's the fucking mom?! Tell me that?!"

"Reynolds—"

"Don't finish that sentence. I don't care if Reynolds banned us from the river. Sugar Petal needs her blood right more than myself. And I'm going to help her get it."

Randy looked confused.

"She blames herself, you dumbass!"

"Mr. Vegeta?"

Vegeta jumped around and saw the four of them there with the camera crews.

"How long have you been filming there?" Randy demanded.

"We can cut it out," Jackie said.

"Do you really think traumatizing her all over again is going to make her feel better?!" Hassim shouted. "Humans aren't as bloodthirsty as you."

"I believe the word you are looking for is MOST," Vegeta said, crossing his arms, "Or did you think I was lying to Daisuke earlier?"

Jerry raised his arm like a classroom. "I don't know about this blood right thing, but I'm all for croc hunting. I'm from the swamp and heading out on the air boat with a lasso and bowie knife was a rite of passage."

"You've killed these things before," Vegeta pointed at him.

"Gators technically, kissing cousins with a bigger mouth. There were 13 of us and a shit ton of underage beer," he shrugged, "but you're worth a small army and don't really need my help so…"

"How did you kill it?" Vegeta said, walking up to him.

"Knife at the back of the skull, quick and easy if you know the sweet spot."

Vegeta stopped in front of him, "Can the machete make that wound?"

"It might not be pointy enough, maybe 50/50. Why?"

Vegeta turned to Sugar Petal, "I was just going to save the hearts to eat as both our people share the tradition of drawing strength from the hearts of our enemies…"

Hassim suddenly gagged, put his hand over his mouth and stumbled off.

"Anyway…" Vegeta drew attention back to him from everyone watching Hassim hurry off, "But if we hold it down, could you stab it in this weak spot Jerry just mentioned?"

"I know what you are trying to do, Mr. Vegeta." She said, looking at the ground. "And yes, I've killed the fish and chickens and I've cut up and butcher the animals because I would always spend time at my grandparents' butcher shop when I was little and remember how to do it correctly, but what you're asking for is something else."

Vegeta lifted her chin. "You are afraid. You won't just be killing an animal. You will be killing your fear... And your guilt," he added at the end.

"If someone held Frieza down for you to kill, would you still consider it a victory?"

Vegeta involuntarily twitched; his hands jerking into fists. He spun and walked away.

"Ahhhh…" Jerry's mouth hung open. "Ok, I'm nervous to ask, but who was Frieza?"

"The god that needed to be killed so the world could change underneath him," she said, turning to him.

"Oh, crap. You're bleeding." Jerry lifted her chin. "Looks like he nicked you with his fingernails." Then he grabbed her arm. "If the medics won't do anything, we can at least wash it. Jessi… why are you looking up?"

Jessica did not respond right away but turned her head like she was tracking something.

"I don't think Vegeta will be coming back anytime soon," she said finally. She looked at Jerry, "Let's check on Hassim and get back to the hive."

Jerry smiled and patted her on the back, "Glad to see it's not just your sight coming back."

"Jerry," Jessica suddenly pointed.

"Oh, Berapi's flag is actually up," Jerry went over and pulled the letter from the bottle.

Jerry returned to camp with Jessica. "Hey! Berapi wrote a trade letter!"

Hassim and Sugar Petal immediately stopped what they were doing and walked over.

"What do they want?" Hassim asked, annoyed.

"Piss bottle for Sam."

"Really?! Now they want it?" Hassim said loudly.

"Woah," Jerry raised his hands, shocked by the anger. "Chill."

"We've offered it twice now. The first time it was destroyed in front of us, the second time it ended in a fist fight."

"I will write the response," Sugar Petal grabbed the paper from Jerry's hand and walked off.

Earlier, on Samundra…

"That took longer than expected," Bob said, annoyed. "Did you visit Vegeta?"

Daisuke dropped the baskets of food. "I went to their upper camp to see if Jessica was there. It's close to the bananas."

"And?"

"Her sight is returning, but still fuzzy." He sat down next to the fire, "Spoke with Hassim. Seems Casey destroyed part of their shelter when she robbed them. They are still doing repairs."

"As awesome as it is that Jessica's sight is coming back," Jamal said. "We just need to keep our distance."

"I can't forgive Vegeta just like you two, but may I remind you were 3 to 9 now?" Daisuke said. "And we haven't had a challenge in weeks on a show that's supposed to have one every episode?"

"We still have 21 days," Bob said dismissively, "Gameplay ends at 4 people, so there's only 8 more eliminations needed. They already changed the order of events with giving us our items. They'll just do it again."

"Let's just change the topic," Jamal said, "Who's coming for family day?"

"My son," Bob said, smiling. "The traitor that joined the Marines. Still don't know where we went wrong with him." He chuckled.

"Wife," Jamal said. "I can't wait to see my wife…"

"My dad's coming," Daisuke said. "He's slightly older than you, Bob, 58."

"He's still kicking?" Bob smirked.

Daisuke's face fell as he got the joke, "Very funny… And yes, he still teaches."

"Alright, enough chit chat," Jamal interrupted, "Let's get the food started. We're not going to have breakfast waiting for us anymore."

A few hours of pure boredom later…

The men were lazing around with nothing to do when a boat pulled up near the ATV track. A man in a red team shirt came out of the trees and took two scrolls then disappeared back into the woods.

"Looks like tree mail again," Bob said. "Wonder what it's about this time?"

"Must be recent if they didn't bring the scrolls with them this morning," Daisuke said.

They saw Tom walk off to meet the boat.

"Probably something to do with what happened yesterday," Jamal said.

"This should be good then…" Bob said sarcastically.

They watched Tom read the scroll and jump back surprised.

"Well, looks like it will be good," Jamal chuckled.

Tom rerolled the scroll and jogged back to camp.

"Whenever you guys are ready, the tree mail will be in the box," he said. "And play along please. You can have a real discussion later." He walked back into the trees towards the well.

"Play along huh? Definitely about Vegeta and his kid then," Bob said. "It can wait till later. I don't want to spoil lunch."

"What lunch? We ate everything," Daisuke said.

"What? you didn't save any for later?"

"I got the same amount we always did. Cooked the same too."

"Maybe Jessica added something to make it last longer," Jamal said, "The taste was pretty bland."

"Those leaves could not have been so much it gave us two meals for five people."

"Bob, it's the only explanation," Jamal said.

He sighed. "Stupid vegetables…"

Jamal stood. "Ok, I'm going to go exploring. There might be something behind the rock she was adding. We know what the leaves look like, right?"

"Leaves look like leaves," Bob said, "That can get you killed camping. Besides, we were told the only thing growing along the steep hill was the vomit fruit."

"We were also told there were no crocodiles," Jamal said standing. "I'm still going to look."

Jamal walked away.

"He doesn't even know what to look for," Bob said, shaking his head.

"Want to head back up and try to figure out what she mixed in?"

"Let's wait until he gets back then head out fishing again. We can swing around on the way back."

"We're not allowed to use the back trail anymore," Daisuke said. "It's going to be a huge detour. I think we should make two trips."

"You're the only one left that went up with her. If you don't know what else she picked, then it's safer not to guess."

Daisuke leaned back onto the sand. "We could survive without Jessica, but we couldn't survive losing Casey and Jerry at the same time."

"We'll be fine," Bob said. "We just need to make it until merger, then we'll have both of them back. You can't throw a temper tantrum and take your ball and go home when we all live in the same house."

"Unless you walk over a mile into the wilderness and build your own house."

Meanwhile, on Berapi…

"Ichiro, WHAT THE FUCK?!" Michael came storming out of the woods waving a paper in the air. "This says they already gave us a piss bottle for Sam and you smashed it. What the fuck?!"

"Did you ask those bastards for help?! After everything that's happened?!"

Michael pointed towards Sam as they walked up to each other. "We need help with him, damn it! He's pissed himself twice now!"

"We don't need his help with ANYTHING!" Ichiro roared.

Michael pointed at the paper, "They said you did it twice! Once to Vegeta then twice to Hassim! You never mentioned any bottles when you two got in a fist fight or are you hiding another meetup?!"

Over at the treeline, Sam pushed himself up against a tree to get a better look at the argument.

"Hey, don't respond…" Sam heard behind him. "I was told overnight you'll be showing up with your cousin in a couple days. Jerry and Jessica have joined me. You've got five people scrambling to make sure you'll be as comfortable as possible. Your dog eats like a pig by the way. Little bastard looks like a ball now."

Sam closed his eyes and sighed relieved.

"I'm going to drop something in the box before I leave. Have them cut a length of bamboo. Cut it in two, use the upper part to pop out the middles in the lower part. Use it instead of a bottle. We'll see you soon."

Sam heard a small rustle and knew Vegeta had left.

A short time later, Becky gave him a side eye and a smirk as she walked past.

"They said they won't give us a bottle until you write a written apology!"

"I'D RATHER DIE!"

"Oh, boys!" Becky waved dramatically as she sauntered over to them. "Sam just had a spiky haired visitor!"

Ichiro immediately spun around and glared fire at him. Then he ran towards him.

Michael tackled him to the ground halfway.

"Stay away from him," Michael shouted. "Not until you calm down."

"Fine! Get off of me."

Michael gave him one last good shove in the sand before standing. He walked over to Sam.

"Alright…" he said, sitting down and crossing his legs. "What did Vegeta tell you. The truth."

"Vegeta said he left something in the box you missed. And if we cut down a piece of bamboo and cut it in half and use the top to break the inside rings on the bottom, it will make a bottle I can pee in."

Michael let out a short laugh and put his head in his hands. "Why didn't I think of that…" He put his hands down. "Did he say anything else?"

Sam smiled and leaned his head back to the tree, "No."

"Then why are you smiling like that?"

"Just thinking about my cousin coming. He's a pastor, you know?"

"I think you've mentioned that before," Michael nodded.

"I want to see my puppy…"

Michael smiled, "Yeah, I miss my dog too. What's your dog's name?"

"Mark."

"Oh, why did you choose that name?"

"There's a biblical theory, that the mark God gave Cain to protect him wasn't a physical scar, but the first dog."

"I've… never heard of that before."

"No offense, but I'm not surprised," Sam said. "Can you go make that bamboo bottle?"

"Yeah," Michael stood. "I'll go do that right now."

Michael went back to the others.

"Ok. Vegeta gave Sam instructions on how to make something for him to piss in out of bamboo," Michael said. "Ichiro, you're coming with me. You will do absolutely NOTHING to this thing. You will not chop it up. You will not throw it away. You will not set it on fire." He glanced at Becky, "And that goes for you too. Oh, and you will not pour it on him. You will not make him drink it. You will not put it in his food."

"And how are we to cut it down?" Ichiro asked.

"Vegeta said he left something in the box I missed. You are coming with me now, Ichiro," he said forcefully. "And if it's something we can use to cut like I think it is, you're not touching it either."

Becky walked away and Michael pushed Ichiro in front of him back to the trade boxes next to the well and treemail.

While Michael dug through the hay, Ichiro noticed the flap was up for the mail. He went to check.

"Here it is," Michael said, pulling out a chipped stone hand ax set in a small piece of wood.

"Hey Ich—"

"King Furry is coming?!"

"What?!" Michael ran over and grabbed the scroll out of Ichiro's hand. "Meteor impact?! Oh my god, is that what that sound was? Shock wave damage to the resort building? Lord…"

Ichiro crossed his arms, "He's coming to the set. Good. I have a lot of questions for him."

Michael glared at him, "Do you really think a KING, "he emphasized, "will tell any dark government secrets to a BASEBALL PLAYER?"

"Ok, break it up!" a producer shouted. "Put everything back, head out to the beach. We need to refilm everything before Jason has all our asses."

Back at camp, Jason was indeed having someone's ass.

"So…" Jason squatted down next to Sam, "You think you're funny, don't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you really think I'm going to allow that little bamboo cup to be made? Although," he grinned, "Michael did make some very good points. I might just overrule him."

"Go ahead. The mind is willing but the flesh is weak."

"Wipe that smug grin off your face," Jason snarled. "Or should we arrange for another accident?"

"So, Becky is a plant then. Good to know."

Jason leaned into his face. "The executives jumped through so many hoops to make sure people could die this season without legal consequences so they could boost the ratings. It is supposed to be an organic choice, but we can always order our plants to take someone out. You think Vegeta can save you? You're an idiot."

"Vegeta is not one of your plants," Sam said firmly. "He stands in direct opposition to you."

Jason laughed leaning back. "Why do you think that?"

"God told me."

Jason snarled, grabbed his shirt, and forced him to the ground.

"I… AM… GOD," he screamed in his face. "Or have you forgotten?"

"I'd be careful about that. The last man who claimed to be God was nailed to a cross and died."

Back in the woods the crews were setting up for the reshoot.

"Ok, Michael I need you to walk—"

Suddenly they heard screaming.

"Sam?!" Michael bolted, quickly followed by Ichiro.

They came out onto the beach, and saw Jason tasing Sam repeatedly.

Jason had a black duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He fired the taser, popped the spent cartridge, grabbed a new one from the bag, clicked it on, and fired again.

There was already a pile of spent cartridges around his feet.

Becky was laughing and cheering him on.

"When you run out of bullets, grab an ATV battery and jumper cables!" she shouted.

"Angel! Help me!" Sam shouted in between reloads.

"No one can help you now but me," Jason said before shooting him again.

"I am god here," he shot again. "Pray to me!," he shot again. "Pray to me as your god!"

Jason changed the cartridge again and shot.

Nothing happened.

"What the?" Jason pulled the trigger a few more times before switching to a new cartridge to the same result.

"Son of a bitch, it broke!"

"Boo!" Becky shouted.

Jason threw it as far as he could down the beach, then walked up to him and kicked him in the stomach as hard as he could. "This isn't over, bastard. You just got lucky."

He then grabbed all the wires and yanked them out at once before dropping down and throwing the empty cartridges back in the duffle bag.

He stood and looked back at the men. Jason pointed two fingers at them. "No one approach him until I give the go ahead!"

He kicked Sam one more time and walked away back towards the ATVs.

Becky came over, kicked sand in his face, then returned to the rug.

"Seventeen," Michael said.

"What?" Ichiro looked at him.

"Jason moved his shoulder 17 times. That means 17 cartridges."

"I only saw him put something in the bag 10 times."

"You can hide things with your hand, but you can't with your shoulder unless you wear multiple layers. Sam was shot 17 times. Even if it was 10 like you think, we're trained 12 is fatal in self-defense class."

"So, he's probably dead…"

"Don't sound so enthusiastic," Michael said sarcastically. "You're going to get framed for it, you know."

"What?!" Ichiro shouted.

"You're the last player to hurt him." Then Michael held his hand at shoulder level and spun his index finger, "All this footage won't survive the night."

"Speaking of footage…"

The two looked behind them and saw the field producer.

"We still need to re-film that scene. Back to the well."

"I'm back!" Vegeta said walking back into camp.

Jerry was standing in front of Randy with headphones on. He waved causing Randy to turn around.

Vegeta's face fell seeing the horizontal phone.

"Hey, Mr. Vegeta!" Sugar Petal ran up to him excitedly, "Look how far we got on the hive!"

"Yeah, that's great Sugar," he ignored her and walked past, "Give me a moment."

She looked heartbroken as Vegeta walked up to Jerry and Randy.

Vegeta saw King Furry on the phone, surprisingly alone.

"The prison wardens not here?" he said.

"Oh, uh he said not after the last argument," Jerry said. Then he took off the headphones and gave them to Vegeta. "Here, I'm out," He saluted with a smile and jogged back to the shelter.

Vegeta put it on and repositioned the mic. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I hear you perfectly," King Furry said.

"Interviewing my fellow cellmates?"

"Your teammate Jerry is very friendly. He heard me asking about you to Mr. Foglesanger and came over. He had high praises of you as a 'compassionate jackass'."

"Eh, I've been called worse insults."

"By the way, your family is safe. You will not be outed in revenge under any circumstances and I will personally be supervising the editing and final product that will air."

"Thank you," Vegeta bowed.

"Don't think I did not see that middle finger, young man."

Vegeta stood straight and crossed his arms. He smirked. "Ok old man, I can play that game even though you're only 8 years older than me."

King furry sighed, "Enough snark. Where were you? I was told you snuck off."

"I went to check on Sam, the murder attempt survivor with the broken skull and leg. As you can guess, he's not being taken care of very well by the people who tried to kill him."

"And you haven't intervened yet?"

"Working on it, but Reynolds is being a bitch. Need to do this right to protect everyone." Vegeta then looked over at the group before putting his hand over the mic, "I'm already getting blamed for Casey's expulsion. I'll be in enough shit when word finally gets out she's dead and I don't want any more trouble. There're enough justice boners here for me just being me without adding on the fury over the death of someone they were close to."

"Yes, Bulma did blurt out there had been two deaths. They will be highly investigated. So, how many people know you're an alien?"

"The only people who DON'T know at this point are Michael, Becky, and Sam on Berapi. Ichiro recognized me immediately because he was one of Yamcha's drinking buddies when I started sleeping with Bulma. And of course, that predated the fulfillment of my original contract work and any of the charity stuff Bulma has dragged me to since."

"So how many people know you're THAT alien?"

"First off, that was Nappa," Vegeta said angrily. "But other than Ichiro… I don't know. But being an alien has proven more than enough for Samundra because Casey was some big time alien conspiracist and she was right about me."

"They brought an alien conspiracist on the show and they didn't know who you are? That's the story they are trying to pull?"

Vegeta shrugged, "Torture the original guy in charge if you don't believe it." He scratched his nose, "Bobby something if I remember right…"

"We don't torture people here," King Furry said firmly.

Vegeta's face fell, "Your young children's programming suggests otherwise…"

"Yes… I remember that pain vividly…" he sympathized. "But what is this Casey's last name?"

"I honestly don't know, but her day job was a nurse at a children's horse-riding thing for people that can't walk."

"I see, I will need to ask the staff how dangerous she will be."

Vegeta glanced towards the group before returning to the phone. "She's one of the two actually," Vegeta said, "But her family is already here for family day and she did say she had an army when she was being dragged off. I've also heard from her teammates that she had engaged in the huge protests that happen periodically at the house and caused property damage."

"Vegeta. I will not let anything happen."

"Oh, I know that," he smiled. "Even if it's just to preserve your own power. It's what makes you so dependable."

King Furry sighed, "This will have to be my last call until I am in the air on the way over. That should be between 3 to 4 pm your time."

"Ok. Our plans are to finish expanding the shelter for Sam then I plan on killing the remaining crocodiles in the river. I killed a male and saw small babies, so there's a mother still out there."

"My understanding was that the river is quarantined now."

"I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart. We're hungry." He pointed back at camp, "Apparently Jerry has hunted and eaten a cousin species called a gator before and told me its weakness. I've hunted all the big stuff already and now suddenly I have twice as many people to feed. Jerry and Jessica just mutinied from Samundra and now I have Sam to worry about. Plus we have a stray dog and two mother cats with a flock of kittens to worry about."

"You found stray dogs and cats in the jungle…"

"I've learned there's a village on the other side of the hill that the show forced everyone out of. Apparently, I've been eating their livestock that's been wandering into the play zone." Vegeta looked nervous, "I'm probably going to have to pay a lot of compensation when this is over…"

"I will look into what happened to this village as well, and yes, you will be replacing what you've killed."

Vegeta raised his hands, "I said I was going to anyway. Don't bite my head off here."

The king nodded, "Then I wish you and Jerry good luck on your hunt."

The screen turned black and the app ended.

Vegeta sighed. "Here," he said, handing off the headphones. He walked back towards the new hive.

"Wow," Vegeta said looking at how far they had gotten, "You guys are doing great."

He walked up to Sugar Petal, "I did not mean to ignore you right then. I was talking to King Furry."

Sugar Petal nodded, "Yes. That's what Jerry said he was doing. I'm sorry."

"What are you apologizing for?" Vegeta shrugged confused. "You did not do anything. If I was human, those would be my words."

"Really starting to see why you stayed up 48 hours," Jerry said. "This is harder than it looks."

"Ferdinand said his plane will leave the capital around 4 pm our time, so his plane will land tomorrow. Don't know when he'll be visiting the set."

Vegeta walked up and circled the hive. "You guys have definitely gotten farther than I thought you would, but we're definitely not going to finish in time for Sam. I want to refocus the rest of the afternoon on the most immediate need. Food and defense. Jerry, is there anything special about making crocodile jerky? Like the fish?"

"Nope. Jerky be jerky."

"Ok, can you come check our smoker to make sure everything is what you think it is before we go hunting later. Then you, me and Hassim will head over to the snake fruit and start chopping down those spines. I want to line the top like barbed wire. Sugar Petal, I want to start making those mats I told you about I was having trouble with. Do you remember when I showed you how to cut them?"

"Yes!" she hopped in the air.

"Good, I already have the size of bamboo needed in the pile. Show Jessica and start splicing. Jerry, with me, Hassim grab the whole machete and wait at the gate."

Hassim nodded.

Vegeta turned around and walked off.

"Oh!" Jerry hurried after him.

"Is he always so bossy?" Jessica asked.

"You have no idea," Hassim said exasperated.

"Vegeta is trying to protect us," Sugar Petal said firmly. "And he can't do it alone anymore. Did you forget what was done to me? What was done to Sam? What was done to you?!"

Hassim sighed, "I know Sugar Petal, I know."

"Then stop dishonoring Vegeta-johna, Hassim-nim."

"Hey, what's this argument about?" Vegeta came over and crossed his arms.

"It's nothing," Hassim said.

"Hearing the words 'dishonoring Vegeta' says otherwise. Bitching about work even though you're the one who wanted to help?"

"That's not it," Hassim said.

"Fine," Vegeta sighed, "We're too busy to bicker. Just help with the fence, then you can sit on your butt."

"Hey Vegeta," Jerry jogged up behind him, "Your smoker looks great." His smile vanished as he saw everyone's faces. "Everything ok?"

"Yeah, we're great," Vegeta said, uncrossing his arms. He walked into the hive and came out with the wagon and baskets under his arms. "Ok someone take these. We're bringing the fruit back from the trees we cut down."

Vegeta then went back in and came out with the loops of vines over his shoulders.

"Let's go."