Bruh, who was gonna tell me that this chapter would put ToS: FSoB (Really needs a better acronym) over 20k words? When the hell did that happen?
Also, I managed to get this up before we hit 150 favorites and 200 follows. Thank you all for that. Truly.
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I tried to keep my mind from thinking about the surprise and worrying about my potential future as a member of the Cold Force. Ironically the visits from my mom and dad helped in that regard, even if they changed the topic every time I asked questions about the surprise. Unfortunately, my only other meth of keeping myself entertained wasn't doing the trick anymore. The Book of Namekian Legends was fantastic, but I'd pretty much read the thing for three days straight and needed to do something else.
Working on my sensing skills was more painful than I thought. When Vegeta had learned it through his zenkai he was just as good as the rest of the Z Fighters. I also learned it through a zenkai and could barely sense more than fifteen feet.
Frustrated with my lack of opportunity to train I did as four-year-olds do and bothered any and all adults with way too many questions. By doing so I killed a lot of time and learned probably too much about how hospitals run in the Cold Force.
The medical machines, or recuperation tanks, aren't the perfect piece of medical equipment that the show depicted them as. Sure, if you toss someone in there, and as long as they aren't dead, they'll come out fully healed. The catch is that the liquid is really expensive to make. Even if the Cold Force provides free healthcare, they aren't willing to use the tanks for every injury. There also needs to be a set amount of tanks available at all times in case of emergencies. So while I could have been in and out of the hospital in a few hours, instead I was stuck there for a bit less than a week.
When it was finally time for me to be discharged from the hospital, I couldn't get out of there faster. Gine and Bardock were both waiting for me in the lobby, filling out some kind of form.
"So I can know what the surprise is now, right?" I asked them. Gine just smiled and continued filling out the paperwork before her. Bardock actually made a face for once that seemed to scream 'Does this kid ever shut the fuck up?'
"Sprout for the love of- You're literally about to find out, so stop asking what it is already." He ground out. He then grumbled under his breath, "It is way too early for this." His comment turned Gine's smile into a full laugh, so it's safe to say that I wouldn't be stopping anytime soon.
All the paperwork said was that the hospital was no longer responsible for my well-being and I shouldn't do what I did to be put in there again, so it hadn't taken Gine too long to get everything filled out.
With my stay at the hospital officially over we all began flying back to our home, with Bardock and Gine flying side by side in front of me. Technically Bardock wasn't allowed to fly around like me and Gine were, but anyone with the authority to stop him respected him too much to do so.
That was something that had confused me. I can't remember if other people besides Vegeta discriminated against the lower class, but I had the impression that the way he acted was the norm. People with a low power level were indeed kicked around a lot by those stronger, but it wasn't strictly a low-class thing. If someone were to manage to rise above the circumstances of their birth, then they would earn the respect of others.
As for those who were born weak and couldn't grow stronger? They were probably some of the unluckiest people in the universe. The treatment of them was probably the only thing I truly hated about Saiyan culture. People like them were deemed useless and were never allowed any opportunities to grow beyond that. After all, why give them an opportunity when they were going to waste it by being weak?
As we neared the house I noticed that Gine and Bardock were sneaking glances at me. Initially, I thought that I was letting what I was thinking about the show on my face, but when I saw her smile I realized the surprise was drawing near.
'So it's in the house?' I thought as we all descended by the front door. Both of them stood by the front door, waiting for me to go in first. 'Definitely in the house.'
I would have messed with them a bit more, but I was dying to know what the surprise was. So I walked past my parents and threw open the door. The first thing I noticed was that there was nothing out of place.
In fact, there was nothing. At all. The table was gone, as well as the chairs, the food, my sketchbook, and anything else in the house that wasn't nailed down. The only thing left was Raditz in his incubation pod.
Oh my god, we were robbed.
"Suprise! We're moving!" Gine yelled while hugging me from behind. She spun me around and I could see just how excited she was. "Oh goodness just wait until you see our new house, Sprout! I didn't know houses could be that big!" How could she be so energetic this early in the morning?
After hearing that I let out a small sigh of relief. If Fasha realized that I lost her gift before I'd even used it then I would never hear the end of it.
"Does that mean I get a bigger room?" I asked Gine excitedly. Up until now, I had been sleeping in what amounted to a broom closet.
She just gave me an excited smile. "If we hurry up with Raditz then you can pick your room."
"Already done," Bardock said from behind me as he imputed something into the pod. "I took care of it while you were talking, let's go."
Bardock held Raditz's pod and Gine had me ride on her back so we could fly faster. Moving has always been a miserable experience. Putting everything you own into boxes, hiring people to move that stuff just for them to charge you extra because you had too much of it, getting to your new place and having to wait two weeks for your stuff to arrive, and then finally you need to unpack and realize you have too much stuff for your new place.
Being in Dragon Ball made moving easy. Super strength and flight can turn multiple months of work into a quick weekend. The only thing that would make it even faster was if the boxes would unpack themselves, but that wasn't possible, unfortunately.
As we flew, I noticed that we were getting pretty close to the palace. Generally, the closer to the palace you are, the better the area gets—better houses, lower crime rates, and fancier everything.
"Just how close to the palace do we live?" I asked Gine, yelling over the wind. Gine didn't say anything, but I could feel her laugh.
After getting even closer to the palace we finally began to descend into a neighborhood that I was sure that we weren't able to afford. Looking closer I saw that the house we were heading towards had a small group of people hanging around on the front lawn.
"Do we have a lawn!?" I asked excitedly. The area we had lived in before was pretty much a desolate wasteland. Most of the planet was really. Despite being about ninety percent water the only greenery found was right along most shores on the planet. Getting anything to grow anywhere besides right next to a body of water was a huge pain, so only the wealthier Saiyans were able to afford it.
As we landed I was able to make out the faces of the people standing on our lawn. There were nine people, and the only person I knew was Auntie Fasha.
A large, round man with a wispy mustache and the worst bowl cut I've ever seen came up to my father and gave his shoulder a friendly slap. "I always knew you'd go far Bardock, but this?" He said in a loud, gravelly tone, and let out a laugh that made his… bulk jiggle. "I don't think anyone would expect you to get this far."
When he said a tall, tan man with the greatest mullet I've seen came up behind him and full-on punched him in the back of the head. While the meatball of a man was hissing in pain the man who hit him came up to my father as well. "Sorry about that Bardock," He said. "Shugesh didn't mean anything rude by that. He's just excited that we're all getting a promotion."
Bardock cracked a smile. "No need to make excuses for him Tora," he said. "Let's just all go inside and get this party started." After a few laughs and cheers, everyone made their way inside with smiles.
The house was huge. It was less of a house and more like a manor. The outside was the same material as the palace, with a similar design too as it was shaped like two flying saucers stacked on top of each other. The inside of the house was shockingly familiar. Despite the outside looking alien, the inside looked like an American house. The foyer alone was bigger than the entirety of our last home. Our new place must have come with some furniture because this was completely furnished.
To the right of us, there was a big staircase that winded up to the second floor, while on the left was the dining room. Past the dining room and to the left was the kitchen while the right had the living room and a small halfway contain the stairs down to the basement, a bedroom, and a bathroom.
Food had already been made, though I don't know by who. The countertops and the island were completely covered in meats and cheeses, with the occasional fruit or vegetable. Shugesh went straight to grab a plate while I walked off with my dad to get the incubation pod set up in the living room. Bardock saw that I was following him and he waved me off.
"I've got your brother, Sprout," He said. "Why don't you go say hi to the other kids?"
'Other kids?' I wondered. Looking back to where everyone was it didn't take long to spot them. 'How the hell did I miss them earlier.' Seeing that Bardock was shooing me away I grabbed a plate of food before I went over to where I saw three kids at a table next to the larger dining room table.
"And then I was like 'WHAM!' and 'BANG!' and I knocked him out with a massive 'KERPLOW!'" A boy with a familiar mullet bragged to another with an unfortunately familiar bowl cut. "I know Momo, I was there."
While the first boy was berating the second with tales of his mighty exploits, the third seemed to loathe the entire conversation around them. It didn't go unnoticed that as soon as I sat down, they got up. 'How the hell do kids talk to each other? I don't think I've talked to someone my age my whole life.' I thought.
"Uh…hi. I'm Sprout." I said. Despite how utterly lame my introduction sounded these two seemed to eat it up.
"Hi, Sprout! I'm Momo, this is Pamkyn, and the fuzzball that stormed off is Sunappuendo, but she just goes by Suna." Momo said. Fuzzball seemed right. I didn't get a good look, but the amount of hair that went just about everywhere was impressive. It was also impressive that he managed all of that in one breath. I wonder how long he can fight underwater.
"Sooo what were you guys talking about just now? Sounded neat." I told them. Pamkyn seemed one step from full-on grumbling and Momo just seemed glad he got to keep talking about himself.
"Only the coolest thing to happen ever!" He yelled. "So there I was on the obstacle course when suddenly," He paused and made a slicing motion with his arm. "That jerk Zukkini came up behind and tried to chop me up. So you know what I did?" He asked me.
Oh my god, this kid is a riot. "What'd you do?" I said, humoring him.
He gave me a big grin, with a few missing teeth, and did a dramatic uppercut. "I sent his ass straight to the ground that's what I did. Serves that jerkwad right, always picking on people with lower power levels."
"So did you get in trouble?" I asked him.
He scrunched his eyebrows together. "Why would I get in trouble?" Right. Saiyans.
"Well it sounds like you beat him up pretty bad," I said. "Just wondering if you paralyzed him or something."
"Man, I wish!" He said. "He's such a nuisance. Always bothering people who didn't do anything in the first place."
Ignoring the desire to paralyze a four-year-old, it sounds like he beat up his school bully. "You must be really good at fighting then."
Before Momo could say anything, Pamkyn spoke up. "Please don't give him any ideas," he said. "He's annoying enough as is."
"Yeah, but we're still friends," Momo said. "So I have to be cool enough for you to stick around." Pamkyn couldn't even retort and just let out a defeated sigh. Suddenly Momo perked up. "So how strong are you anyways Sprout?" He asked me.
It took me a moment to try and remember what the exact number was. "Oh, um…" I said. "I think it was just under 1600?" I was worried that things would get weird when I mentioned that. The differences between low-class and high-class tend to generate a large amount of animosity between the two.
"Hear that Pamkyn," said Momo, dispelling my worries. "We have a bona fide elite in our presence." He turned to me and went on with his over-the-top rant. "Would you like to bow in your presence almighty one?"
That got a laugh out of me. "No need for any of that peasant," I said in a pretentious voice. "Just your worship of me is all that is required."
It was Momo's turn to laugh. "Oh man Pamkyn, he sounded exactly like Zukkini there." He said to his friend.
Pamkyn seemed very put off by the conversation that we were having. He looked like he was uncomfortable, but it also looked like he was a little afraid. "Sure yeah," He said. "Let's just drop it though, yeah?" Momo shrugged it off, but he still listened to his friend. The mood turned a bit awkward, so I got up to grab some more food in hopes that maybe the atmosphere would reset when I got back.
When I entered the kitchen, I bumped into someone that I didn't see in the doorway.
"Oops, Sorry"
"Fucking watch it Jackass."
I watched as Sunappuendo went to the kids' table and started to whisper yelling at them as soon as she sat down. 'Did I just get shoulder checked?' I thought. It's not something I had ever experienced before, but if her goal was to make me mad she more than succeeded.
'Whatever, I'll just deal with an ass hat when I get back.' I thought to myself. Entering the kitchen my mood didn't stay down for long. All of the adults were reminiscing about embarrassing stories or times when they almost died and were saved by some other team member. It was just like-
'No.' I thought, too late to stop myself from spiraling. 'You died. You. Not them. They're fine.' Despite my assurances, I only felt worse. Looking around I couldn't help but imagine the rest of my family. The ones that I left behind.
Fasha would have loved my little sister. They both were loud and blunt. Everyone was really, but them especially. It was their way or the highway most of the time.
Bardock and my other father would be swapping stories from their times in the military. Being a marine would have given him plenty of stories to tell.
Taro would have been the cool uncle to my little brothers and cousins. Teaching them important things like how to check the air pressure on a tire, and also some things that probably shouldn't be taught. Like rolling the car out into the street before turning it on so your parents don't wake up.
My vision grew blurry and I quickly left the kitchen, wiping my eyes. 'Don't cry idiot, you're stronger than that.' I nearly dropped the plate in my haste, but luckily no one had noticed.
Getting closer to the kids' table I could hear Sunappuendo pretty much yelling at the two boys for something, and considering her behavior I decided it'd probably be best if I just waited for her to calm down. Maybe if she got it out of her system she'd be more amicable.
"Fucking watch it Jackass."
Seeing Suna walk towards him Momo was going to say hi, but her glare shut him up quickly.
"What in fuck's name do you think you're doing?" She whispered venomously. "He's the enemy, why the hell are you getting all buddy-buddy with him?"
"We're over at his house Suna, it'd be weird not to talk to him," Momo said. "Plus he was funny and seemed nice. What's the big deal?" After hearing that Pamkyn seemed to withdraw into himself and Sunappuendo somehow got angrier.
"My problem?" She gritted out, her voice rising in volume. "He's one of them Momo. He's an elite just like Zukkini."
That comment made Momo a little angry. "What would you know?" He asked her. "You haven't even talked with him, and you're already saying he's horrible. Right, Pamkyn?" Momo looked over to his only other friend, only for the look he got back to disappoint him.
"I…agree with Suna, Momo," Pamkyn said softly.
"Were you not here for the past ten minutes," Momo asked him. "At what point did he seem even slightly like Zukkini?"
Pamkyn just shook his head. "You've never had an eye for details Momo, so I'm not surprised you didn't see it."
Momo's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "See what? Pamkyn, what are you talking about."
"He's talking about how he's a freak," Suna said. "A mutant, a monster." Momo looked shocked, but that wasn't enough to convince him.
"Ok, so what if he's a mutant," Momo said. "He still seemed like a good guy."
"How are you this dense!" Suna said, finally yelling at her friend. "Everyone knows that mutants are evil. King Cold, his sons, the Ginyu Force, and every story about mutants ever told." She went on, "They are wild; uncontrollable, and they go mad with power."
"You don't know that!" Momo yelled. "You didn't even talk to him. How can you even say all of that!?"
"I can say it because it's true." She said, and before Momo interrupted her she brought up a point that she knew Momo couldn't defend. "Did he mention how he's going to be the next king's right hand?" She asked Momo.
Upon hearing that, Momo's reply died in his throat. Seeing that she finally got through to her friend, she pushed the point. "He's practically a member of the royal family, Momo. Zucchini is just a small-time noble." She slightly winced at the sadness on Momo's face. Quieter she said "How do think Sprout will act when the future prince comes into power? The two of them are cut from the same cloth." She said. "If it came down to it, whose side do you think he'll take, ours or theirs."
After several long moments, Pamkyn spoke up once again. "Look Momo," he said. "We just can't afford to trust him. How do you think he'd react when he finds out what we've been doing?"
"At the least have us executed," Suna said. "He'd probably kill us himself for some sick kicks. Like a monster." With that final point, Momo had finally caved.
"Yeah…yeah you're probably right." Said Momo quietly.
"Don't look so down Momo," Suna said. "Look on the bright side. We gained an important bit of information."
Momo seemed to pick himself up a bit. "You know what, yeah." He said, smiling now. "We did learn something important."
Suna slapped him on the back with a grin. "That's the spirit Momo! Now let's get out of here. I'm sure your guys' parents won't notice that we're gone."
And with smiles on all of their faces, the trio quickly and quietly made their way out the front door leaving a twin-tailed Saiyan to grapple with the emotions their argument had wrought.
'What a bunch of bigots.' I fumed—racist little shits. They think I'm a monster? They don't even know what a monster is. Frieza is a monster. Cell is a monster. Majin Boo, Zamasu, Gas, no one knows how much of a threat they are except for me.
Avoiding all the adults I walked past the kitchen and opened the door to the backyard. Once I made sure that no one noticed me leave I quietly took flight and then quickly sped off.
I didn't realize where I was going until I got there. The wasteland where Nappa trained was a whole lot closer to our new house than our last one. The moment I landed I slipped into the routine that Nappa had ingrained in me. After a quick round of stretches, a set of burpees, and half a run I grew frustrated.
'It's not enough.' I thought. 'It was never enough.'
My progress has been too slow. I have about forty years to go from moon level to multiversal threat, and burpees weren't going to get me there. When I looked around for a boulder I saw nothing but large outcroppings and dust. Then I realized that I didn't need to find one. I could just make one.
Flying over to one of the rock pillars I attempt to slice the top off with a ki attack. Unfortunately, I still don't have a modicum of control over my ki and I ended up blasting the thing to molten bits. Going over to another and using physical force I managed to create a boulder that was perfect for what I was trying to do.
I held the giant stone in place on my back with my tails, and the sudden, intense weight nearly made my knees buckle. While it was probably too heavy, it wasn't crushing me, and that was good enough. I held the rock in place on my back and began to walk.
Immediately I felt the difference. Just a dozen or so steps had gotten me sweaty. It was leagues better than what Nappa had me doing. This is the kind of training that I needed to do, not what Nappa had me doing.
I didn't let myself stop until I collapsed and was nearly crushed by the weight. Shrugging the giant stone off I lay gasping on the dusty soil. It wasn't even a minute before I picked the thing up again and began to bench press it.
I did everything that came to mind with the boulder. I flew with it, I rolled it up a hill, squats, and curls. Any exercise where I could keep a grip on the thing with either my hands or tails, I did.
When I couldn't do anything with it anymore I made a smaller boulder and repeated everything. Walk, bench, curl, kick, push. When I couldn't use that one I made an even smaller one. Over and over I repeated that until I could barely lift any of my limbs.
Despite the amount of pain I was in, I did what I came here to do. I was too tired to think of my family, of terrible kids, of my future, my past, and I finally trained like I needed to. I just laid there, with the dust and sweat mixing to make mud on my back, feeling lighter than I ever had in my whole life.
I didn't notice the shadow approach me until it passed over my face. When they picked me up I didn't even resist them, because I saw the sheen on the top of their bald head.
"Let's get you home, kid," Nappa said.
"Ok, Mr. Nappa."
And before we even made it into the air I had already slipped into unconsciousness.
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Ok, let me explain some of my thoughts here.
First off, I think it makes sense that mutants have a bad rap throughout the universe. Pretty much every member of the Ginyu Force faced discrimination on their home planet for being a mutant. With King Cold being a mutant and Freiza being a mutant of a mutant that stereotype is perpetuated by them.
So why wouldn't King Vegeta kill/exile Sprout for being a mutant? Even though I'm trying to make the Saiyans more than the evil bad guys they were in the show, the fact remains that they wipe out planets because they want to. King Vegeta recognizes the potential of a Saiyan like Sprout and isn't worried about their violent nature because Saiyans are like that regardless.
So why wouldn't Vegeta keep Broly around? It's because Broly was a threat to his rule. In a society (the entire universe really) where might makes right Broly absolutely would have grown strong enough to dethrone Vegeta. There is also the fact that his power level massively fluctuates, which could have been a sign of mental instability (This'll probably be brought up in a future chapter so I won't go into my theories on that.) The point is King Vegeta thinks he can use Sprout to benefit the Saiyan Empire while he thinks Broly would be a threat to it.
In case you were wondering where 'moon level' came from, Piccolo destroyed Earth's moon with a power level of 1330. Sprout's current power level is 1584. (Don't worry about power levels sticking around. I'm using them currently because they're a huge part of Saiyan culture as well as a big part of the story through the Namek saga.)
I'm sorry if the conversations between the kids felt off, or like grown-ups were talking. This is my first fic and still learning how to do some stuff.
Naming explanations:
Sunappuendo- Snap Pea. I thought such a long name would be funny.
Momo/Taro- Momotaro is a tomato, and his Dad's name is Taro. 'Momo' 'Taro'
Shugesh- It's some pun on pumpkin apparently, I don't know why though.
Pamkyn- Just a few letters off of pumpkin, in case you didn't notice.
As always review, favorite, subscribe, use my code in the item shop, or whatever. I'm not your mother.
P.S
Any other fandoms you guys want to see a fic of? I make no promises, but I have ideas for Danmach, BNHA, and Pokemon. All of them would follow an OC and bring massive changes to canon (though the Pokemon one is debatable). Personally, I feel that not following canon is what makes a story exciting, and while I used to exclusively read OC MC stories I have been branching out recently. If you want to suggest a fandom feel free.