~Began 10-1-00~
Note: Veggie-chan is *incredibly* out of character but hardly anyone can write him correctly anyway. (my opinion only so don't get angry) To answer a question: Yes, the Son family plays an important part. Well at least Goku does anyway. At this point in time, I have no idea if anyone else will. Any other problem you can e-mail me about (or stop picking apart this fanfic all together).
Timeline notes: Okay, as I said before everything up to Goku's death in the Android saga is the same as the anime. Instead, Gohan kills Cell immediately before he decides to blow up the planet. The Majin Buu saga proceeds as normal just with a few changes. Actually, Goku being alive is the only major change (besides the additional children of course).
The New Age
Empire
Book #2, Part A
~Chapter One: The Creation of the Ouritsu Kibo~
"Are you sure that you know what you're doing?" Bulma asked her husband a couple of days later. They had been up all night the day before trying to come up with a good government system. "Vegeta-sei didn't have anything like this..."
"I'm sure!" he snapped as he continued to work. "I'm perfectly capable of writing this blasted document!"
"Okay, suit yourself. I need to go and finish something in my lab anyway. Remember, it's your turn to handle the children problems."
Vegeta just grunted distractedly as he crumpled up yet another piece of paper and tossed it towards the trash can. He selected a fresh piece and began to write:
Section 1
here will be two main branches in the government; each divided into various sub-positions. The first, dubbed the Royal Court, will
He paused as he tried to think up a good work. "Have? Iie. Contain? Iie." Then he grabbed the thesaurus and started to flip the pages. "Aha! Consist!"
...consist of the king, queen, their children, and their personal retainers.
He paused briefly and then sighed. "The onna will nag at me if I don't add this..." Drawing the insert symbol before and, he added the word royal advisor.
The second, dubbed the House of Advisors, will consist of
"PAPA!" a voice shouted from the hallway. "I have something to ask you!"
Vegeta glanced around frantically. 'Maybe she'll think I'm sparring with Kakarott. Yeah, that might work.' Then he thought about that solution and sighed. "In here."
Jakina came into the room and sat on the large bed by the desk Vegeta was occupying.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
"Not really. I just wanted to know when you could train me..."
Vegeta began to rub his temples to ward off the oncoming frustration headache. "I can't right now. I need to finish writing this. But why don't you ask one of your siblings? Bra excluded."
"Okay," she stood and hugged him around the neck. "but if I get hurt, you know Kaasan will yell at you forever..." She trailed off and raised an eyebrow.
Vegeta stood immediately, taking his youngest with him. "Let's go."
***
The lab was eerily quiet that day as Bulma worked diligently on her human gene enhancer. The pale blue glow from the computer monitor washed over everything as she checked her formulas one last time.
"It's almost done!" she said as she wiped her hand across her forehead. She placed a well-manicured index finger against her cheek in thought. "Maybe Vegeta can even teach me how to fight. Sparring is probably the only thing we need to do in order for our relationship to be exactly like a normal saiyan one would be."
Clicking print, she sat back to wait for her information to be printed out.
"I wonder how he would like that. Especially with all of the stress at being the world leader and all." She picked up the piece of paper and moved over to a cabinet, humming as she went.
"But I'll help him," she started to select chemicals and measuring tools, "That's not a problem."
Bulma then stopped and widened her eyes. "Oh kami I'm talking to myself. Please don't let me start answering back." Her thoughts were broken from a loud booming noise from outside. "What the...?" she asked herself before she made her way over to the door of her lab.
"Wait, I know that noise. VEGETA!"
She ran over to the other side of the house. "He blew up my gravity chamber *again*! That bakayaro!"
As the gravity chamber came into sight, she was treated to the view of several people standing around the rubble.
"Where is he?! I'm going to kill him!"
Bulma's voice was heard long before she was even spotted and the crowd parted.
"Oh Kaasan," V.J. said slowly. "How are you this fine afternoon?"
"Don't screw with me Vegeta Briefs Junior!" Her son winced at the use of his full name. "I have a baka to yell at!"
Bulma marched right up to the edge of the crowd and was surprised by what she saw.
"Hi Mama!" Jakina said cheerfully. "Sorry about this!"
Bulma's mouth worked but no sound came out. Then she closed it completely and narrowed her eyes.
Vegeta let down his ki shield and picked up his daughter. "Now, your kaasan's about to go off so I want you to hang on tight, okay?"
"Okay!" With one great leap into the air, Vegeta took off towards Goku's house.
Bulma growled and threw out a capsule. "You're going to pay Veggie Man! I *will* get you!" Running over to it and climbing in, she immediately took off after the two.
"Wait Kaasan!" V.J. cried as he looked after them. "Damn! Don't you two know how to behave in public?!" He flew off too followed closely behind by Bra.
***
Goku looked up from his large meal to raise an eyebrow at the visitors. "And you're here because...? I thought you had something to write."
Vegeta sighed heavily as he sat down at the table. "You know, I never thought I would say this but I like the old, idiotic Kakarott better!"
Rolling his eyes, Goku returned to his meal. "Just don't let ChiChi hear you say that."
Jakina laughed slightly as she walked over to Goku's side. "Goku-ojisan, how are you?"
Goku smiled then, his intensely cheerful grin stretching from almost ear-to-ear. "Great!"
Then there was a loud knocking at the door Vegeta had locked behind him. Goku threw him a questioning look before getting up to answer it.
"Don't do that Kakarott!" Vegeta shouted.
"I think that there's more to this story than you're telling me," the taller saiyan said.
So Vegeta informed him of everything that had happened while the fierce knocking continued. Then they could hear Bulma yelling at someone else.
"Let me go or you're both grounded for life!"
"But Kaasan!" Bra cried.
"Stop this madness!" Vegeta Jr. cried rather dramatically.
Goku began to laugh as he picked up Vegeta bodily and walked toward the door. "Veggie-chan, be a man." Blinking he laughed again. "Hey! That rhymed!" Opening the door, he tossed him out right onto Bulma. Both children jumped to the side in order to stay standing.
"Ugh! Get your three-hundred pound body off of me you walking wall of muscle!"
Vegeta stood and offered a hand to his wife which she ignored. Glaring death she stood all on her own.
"Kaasan, Tousan you're going to have to work all of this out *before* you assent to the throne you know." V.J. said wisely. "I mean, it wouldn't do anything for world peace if the king and queen themselves were always fighting with each other."
Jakina peaked out from behind Goku. "He's right!" She showed herself fully and walked to her parents. "You're embarrassing to be around!"
Both Bra and V.J.'s faces took on shocked looks. Bra tried to placate her parents' upcoming anger by apologizing profusely. "She was just kidding!" Bra moved over and grabbed her younger sibling by the arm, whispering in her ear at the same time. "You idiot! Don't make them angrier!"
"Who do you think you're callin' an idiot!" the younger girl bristled. "Don't make me have to hurt you!"
After a moment of stunned silence, Bra began to laugh loudly. "Oh you wish!"
Smirking mischievously, Jakina marched right up to her sister. While staring her straight into her eyes, she brought back her right leg and kicked Bra directly in the shin.
Howling, Bra clutched her leg and started to hop around. "That hurt you little brat!"
"That's enough!" Bulma intercepted. "Bra, you brought that on yourself."
Vegeta looked at Jakina with pride in his eyes. "She's a fighter now so she won't take much of your teasing."
V.J. crossed his arms in Vegeta's traditional style and turned away. "Hmph. She won't beat me, Trunks, Goten, or Mia."
"That's okay," Jakina smiled. "I will one day!"
***
Later that day, Vegeta was right back to what he had begun previously.
The second, dubbed the House of Advisors, will consist of one person from each inhabited continent to represent all of the people in that area as well as the Royal Advisor; Russia will be treated as a separate landform. He or she will have several people to help them, one from each country on their continent. The country representatives, also called Lords and Ladies, will divide their area of representation up into sections appointing those sections to a lower citizens called Governors. From that level of the Alliance, there will be even lower people to represent the cities.
Section 2
There will be a group of main laws dubbed the Royal Rules. It will be up to each country to create a new set of Rules to correspond with what will be written in the Royal Rules. If a law is broken, -- depending on the severity -- there will be a network of courts to bring that criminal to justice. The network is as follows:
Sector Courts: Each city will have an Sector Court. Minor law breakers will be heard in this building.
Area Courts: This is the next level, only catering to the capital city of a country. Intermediate offenders will be tried in this Court of Law.
National Courts: The third level of Courts, officially named the National Court of Law, will be in a chosen area of the continent. People who have sinned against the government of that continent will be heard here.
Royal Courts: The fourth and final level of the court system will be called the Royal Court of Law. Sinning against the entire Alliance will be treated as a major crime. The judges will be the king and queen and the House themselves. In order to be tried here, you must commit either treason, attempted assassination, or spying for a nation outside of Chikyuu.
Vegeta put down his pen to look over his work. 'Not bad,' he thought to himself. 'Not bad at all.'
He stood and was suddenly struck with a thought. "I have a name for this! I finally have a name! I call you, the Ouritsu Kibo[1]."
[1] = Japanese for "Royal Rule"
~Completed near the end of October. Don't know for sure.~
~Chapter Two: Talks, Training, and Bonding Saiyans~
Something woke Vegeta up that night from the really good dream he was having. In it Goku was begging him for mercy as he finally reigned victorious in a sparring match. It had left him faintly smirking at the mere thought. But now, someone had to go and ruin his fun.
Turning over on his side of the bed, careful not to disturb Bulma, he sat up slowly and looked around. 'I don't feel a ki...' he thought absently. 'This damn planet is making me soft.'
"Psst!" Was the soft noise. Vegeta looked around sharply. "Psst!" It went again.
Climbing out of bed, the short saiyan walked toward where he thought he had heard the noise. For some strange reason, it came from the balcony just outside the room. Sliding the glass doors open carefully, he stepped out into the cool early morning air. And made a soft, startled sound as Goku seemingly materialized in front of him.
'Well, this explains the lack of ki...' "Where the--," He lowered his voice. "Where the hell did you come from, Kakarott?"
"I flew," he answered simply. This surprised the other man.
"Why? You usually teleport and scare the shit out of me." Vegeta crossed his arms in his customary manner, and leaned against the wall.
Goku sighed. "I had things to think about. Somehow I made my way here. Vegeta, we need to talk."
The other saiyan raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."
"First of all, I would like to say that I admire you for what you are doing but I don't understand your reasons. Why are you doing this Vegeta? Do you hope to revive a dead kingdom? Do you have something to gain? Before I can swear my loyalty to you, I would like to know your motives."
Vegeta took a little while in answering. A light breeze gently stirred his hair as he stood there, thinking about how to word his answer. Goku waited patiently, not making a sound. Finally Vegeta's eyes rose from his careful examination of the ground.
"I've changed Kakarott. In many ways. On Vegeta-sei, this would have never been allowed to happen at all. If you failed to stay within the carefully planned life my father created, you were swiftly executed without mercy. Even then, I hated that way of life.
"I began to look for a way out, a way to break free since the day Frieza had taken over the Empire. I was only a child then, but already the violence had begun to shape the way that I behaved, the way that I thought. For a long time I believed it was the true path to walk, but no longer.
"It wasn't until I had a hand in creating Trunks that my way of thinking changed. I know it was not apparent seeing as my outward demeanor never varied at all, but the beginnings were there; a small spark that would soon be coaxed into a flame.
"When V.J. was born, and then Bra, and then Jakina, I promised myself that my children would *not* grow up in a desolate world filled with little kindness or emotion like I did. Unfortunately I just wished that I had decided that sooner, when Trunks was a baby. It would have made a great difference." He paused in his monologue then, raising his head proudly to look Goku directly into his eyes. "I do this because I want to. I do this to make a difference. I do this because I care."
A sniffing sound greeted the end of his speech. The lone eyebrow was raised in question as he noticed that his friend was crying.
"That was so beautiful!" Goku sobbed, dabbing at his eyes. He gathered Vegeta up into a hug and would not let go.
"Kakarott," Vegeta warned. "My feelings on this, however, will *never* change!"
***
After the starlit conversation on the balcony, Vegeta just couldn't go back to sleep. Deciding on a little training, he quietly made his way to the gravity chamber so that he wouldn't wake everyone up. It turned out that it didn't make a difference. As he was passing Jakina's room, the door slowly creaked open.
"Papa?" She whispered. "Where ya going?"
Vegeta sighed. "To train. I need to think about some things."
Her eyes wide, she gently closed her bedroom door, "Do you want to do what you're doing?"
"What I'm doing... Oh! Hai, Jackie-chan[1]. It's important." He picked her up. "Do you want to come with me?"
"In my pajamas?" she asked incredulously. She looked down at them, bright yellow stars on a blue background.
Vegeta chuckled slightly and Jakina's eyes widened to hear such a strange sound. "Of course not! Go get changed and meet me downstairs, okay?"
She grinned. "Okay!" Jumping down and hurrying off, she disappeared into her room.
Vegeta glanced at the numbers on his digital watch, he saw that it was close to 4am. 'Only about two hours of training then. They start waking up around six and the onna will not be pleased.'
He then made his way to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich. That was the only thing he could make correctly anyway. He brought out the mustard, mayonnaise, three different kinds of meat, cheese, and two fairly large pieces of bread. Setting it all onto the kitchen table, he piled it on and ate it all in four gigantic bites.
"Papa! Can I have some?" Jakina asked as she made her way over to stand beside him. After a nod, she retrieved another two pieces of bread and added her things. Having a substantially smaller appetite than her father, she only had one of everything. After everything was cleaned up and put away, they made their way into the yard where the morning dew was still sparkling on the lawn. By now, it was twenty minutes after.
"What do you want to work on today, Jakina?" Vegeta asked. "You have to take it one step at a time."
Looking up into the sky at the flock of birds in the distance, she spoke in a wistful voice. "I want to fly Papa. It must be fun to soar like the birds. I know that it's different when you do it yourself because you feel free."
Nodding, Vegeta thought over the best way to approach this. Since she was so young it wouldn't do to just drop her from a great height like he did Trunks and V.J. and Bra's way wouldn't work because she had already known how to control her ki. Actually, learning to do that would be the best way. Things would go a lot easier.
"Before you can do that, you have to know to control your ki or it'll take you as long as Pan's mother did. When you can create and dissipate a fairly large ki ball then I will *try* to teach you."
"Is it hard?"
"Harder than powering up." They continued across the grass to a large area with nothing close around it. "You have to use your will to shape it. It may be the hardest thing you will ever have to learn. But when you master it, however, flying will be a snap."
"Okay then!" She concentrated hard, powering up slightly. Slowly a mass of energy was expelled from her body and grew larger in mass. "Does it have to be a certain size?" She forced out with some effort.
Vegeta shook his head. "Iie. Just as large as you can make it."
Frowning she made it a little larger before it just vanished, Panting she looked at him from under sweat-soaked bangs. "You're right. That is hard. I can't even get the energy in the first place!"
"Keep trying!" Vegeta encouraged, something he'd only done once before. "You'll do it."
Straining with effort, she managed to shape her ki into something resembling a sphere before she released it completely. She smiled at her father then, anticipating his comments. He surprised her though by gathering her up into a hug. Even then, Vegeta still wasn't an overly affectionate person. Jakina tried for one hug a day and that was it.
"What was that for?" she asked curiously as he released her.
"I'm proud of you. You've come so far."
Unbeknownst to them, three observers stood in the shadows.
"How come he never treated me that way?" One asked, shaking his head.
"Yeah!" Another piped up. "It's not fair!"
The third, a female, just smirked. "Well, at least Papa's nice to me."
"Don't rub it in!" Trunks and V.J. growled in unison.
"Just think though Trunks-chan, if you were the only child he would be even meaner."
"You know bro," Vegeta Jr. mused, "the girl does have a point."
"You would be screwed too Veej! And I have a name. Don't call me 'girl'!" She punched him in the stomach for emphasis. He older brother made a soft grunting sound and glared at her.
"Don't do that again," he warned.
"Oh really?" She repeated her earlier action, just to see what would happen. As Bra partially expected, V.J. lunged at her and they began to fight earnestly.
Trunks, in the meantime, was slowly edging away. "I am *not* getting blamed for this one!" But his efforts were in vain.
"Trunks Briefs!" A voice screamed from above.
"Oh kami!" he exclaimed.
"What the hell is going on down there?!" Bra and her brother stopped abruptly, trying to run before she spotted them.
"Well, kaasan," he looked up at her on the balcony, "it's like this. I have nothing to do with it!"
"Oh really?" she asked.
"Yes really," a new, deeper voice spoke. "The boy isn't at fault this time." Trunks shot his father a grateful look. It did seem like he got into trouble just because he was the oldest.
"Well," Bulma huffed, "I'll let it slide this time. But later on you *cannot* let everyone see you act like rabid dogs!" Walking swiftly from the balcony, she slid the glass door shut.
Vegeta, with not another look to his other three, motioned to Jakina and they left in the opposite direction.
"Wow!" Trunks breathed. "He actually defended me!"
"But I got the cold shoulder!" Bra complained. "I need to stop hanging around you guys." She turned and ran towards the side door to catch up with her father. V.J., a little unsatisfied by the interrupted sparring, followed.
"Damn! I need to find out how Jackie does it!"
***
Breakfast was a hurried affair for today was Monday morning, school day for most, a workday for some. But Vegeta, as usual, never really had anything substantial to occupy his time. Sparring with Kakarott only consumed so many hours.
Vegeta Jr., too old for high school but not quite ready for college, also didn't have anything to do. He figured that it would be a perfect time to strengthen the bonds between father and son. Unfortunately Vegeta *did not* think that way as well.
"Hey Papa!" He called directly after the meal. Vegeta stopped in his trek toward the gravity chamber and stared at him. The young man, so used to his father's expressions, instantly noticed that this was a look of questioning. "Do you want to do something together?"
This surprised Vegeta because he never really thought about spending time with his second born. The practice of boys being tougher and self-reliant was drilled too deeply into him to just forget. It wasn't that he meant to ignore his boys, his mind just considered it survival training. But growing up here on Chikyuu left Trunks and Vegeta unfulfilled as they saw other sons spending time with their fathers.
'Again,' he thought, 'I blame the pampered lifestyle of these earthlings.'
"Sure," Vegeta forced his face into something other than his perpetual scowl. "What would you like to do?"
This startled his son, who never expected a positive answer. Vegeta's mind drew a blank and he came up with nothing.
"Uh, uh..."
"Would you like to spar?" 'He really should have something in mind beforehand. My time is *not* something to be wasted!'
Wincing at the full-body ache he knew a 'hai' would cause, he shook his head. "How about a movie?"
"A movie..." Vegeta tested the word on his lips. "Is that where you sit in a room and images come across a large screen?"
His son was dumbfounded. "You've been on this planet twenty-six years and you've never been to a movie?" By the time he finished his sentence, his voice was nothing but a high squeak of disbelief.
Veggie snorted. "Oh the onna tried to make me go, but I never did. She only wanted to see sickening romance movies anyway."
"Yeah. Girls are like that."
"I'm not!" A voice called from inside of the house. Bra. "I want to see the new horror movie, Night of the Living Ooze."
"What a nasty sounding movie!" Jakina spoke up.
"Do you want to come too?"
"Wait a minute!" Trunks said. "If I recall, that movie's rated PG-13. You can't get in even if you tried."
"Well, that's where you come in Trunks..."
"Oh no. Not me. Get Mia or Goten to take you."
"I'll pay you 500 yen!"
"Get real, B-chan. I make four times that an hour!"
Both Vegetas shook their heads at the conversation.
"I still can't believe I'm related to them!" The younger one sighed.
"Believe it." Vegeta thought over his son's earlier proposal and decided to accept. After all, they would all soon be in the public spotlight. Better start working on being civil to each other.
"Great! We'll leave a little later then. I have to call Marron and postpone our date."
"Why would you do that? If she is to become your future mate, you should spend time with her."
Vegeta blushed a bright crimson. "Uh well, we haven't thought that far ahead yet. Besides, we can go someplace anytime. It's rare when you're this.... nice to me!" Gasping suddenly, he clasped a hand over his mouth. "I said that out loud didn't I?! Oh kami! You're gonna kill me!"
For some reason that really affected Vegeta deep within his soul. His children were afraid of him! The more he turned it over in his mind, the more it made sense. Why shouldn't they be? Especially the older two. He was never very kind to them in their younger years. In fact, one of the main reasons he was so nice to Jakina was to somehow make up for all of the lost years. Even Bra had not been granted such a privilege.
Shaking his head at himself, Vegeta wondered how he became so weak and reflective. Before he could dwell on it long, another person showed up.
"Ohayo Veggie-chan!" Goku said cheerfully as he landed. "Ohayo Veggie junior!"
"Kakarott," Vegeta began somewhat calmly. Goku blinked and stared hard at him.
"Don't you think you should change that?"
"Nani?" Vegeta asked.
"Calling me Kakarott. You know my name is Goku."
"I am a saiyan therefore I do not use your *human* name."
"Papa," Vegeta said, "it's okay to honor your heritage but you take it a little bit too far. On Chikyuu things are different. I say you should respect Goku's wishes and call him what he wants." The larger saiyan nodded in agreement.
"Oh really?" Vegeta raised an eyebrow. He seemed to be doing a lot of this today.
His son nodded. "He's going to be your right-hand man soon."
This earned a huge groan from his father. "Please don't remind me!"
Goku pouted. "Aw Vegeta! It won't be that bad!"
"How about if I choose your eldest brat? He's smart."
Goku shrugged. "I don't know if he wants that sort of job. He's always leaned more towards computers. You should have him helping Bulma instead."
"How about Mia?"
"Same thing."
"Goten?"
Vegeta Jr. started to laugh. "Goten?! You've got to be kidding! That's like making Trunks become an accountant!"
"I can do the job fine Veggie-chan!" Goku insisted. "What do I have to do to prove it to you?"
There was a tense moment as Vegeta appeared to actually think it over. Finally he broke the silence. "Nothing," he sighed, "I believe you."
"You DO?!" Goku gasped. "Are you sick?"
"Iie bakayaro!" Vegeta snapped.
"Now *that's* more like the Vegeta I know!" Goku grinned. "Now, what are you two doing today?"
"It's a father-son event at the movies," V.J. said. "Gomen nasai."
"Oh it's okay really." Goku said. "I think it's nice Veggie actually wants to spend time with you. I have Pan and other kids so I'm fine." He turned to leave. "Now V.J., make sure Veggie-chan has a booster seat to see the screen!"
This set them both off into a round of laughter as Vegeta turned red. "Why you little...!" He lunged at him just as Goku teleported to Gohan's house. Vegeta hit empty air and landed flat on his face. V.J. snickered a little while more before he helped his father up.
"Did ya have a nice trip?" He asked innocently. Luckily Vegeta didn't really get the joke.
"Are we going to go?" Vegeta grumbled as he dusted himself off.
"Yeah. Sure." V.J. nodded. "Let's go."
***
"We paid a combined total of 3969.63 yen for that horrible film?" Vegeta asked in disbelief as they exited the movie theatre. " 'Samurai Kid', HA!" V.J. just shrugged.
"The movie was only 1443.50 for two adult tickets but you just had to have that candy."
Vegeta glared. "I love Milk Duds and M&M's."
Vegeta Jr. glared right back. "But 2526.13 yen worth? Do you know how much that is in American dollars?"
Vegeta shook his head. "Nope and neither do you."
V.J. shook his head. "That's not the point."
"And who are you to talk? You bought one extremely large coke and three huge bags of popcorn!"
"This was my idea in the first place! I'm starting to regret ever bringing it up!"
The two stood there on the sidewalk, glaring at each other, when Bra and Pan came over towards him.
"You own me 50 yen, Pan-chan," Bra said smugly. Pan reluctantly handed the money over.
"It's not fair! You know them better than I do."
"What are you two talking about?" They asked in unison.
"B-chan bet me 50 yen that you two would be yelling at each other before the day was over. I said no you won't because you were getting along better." She looked them over. "I guess I was wrong."
"Well he started it," V.J. muttered. Then he seemed to think of something. "Why aren't you two in school today?"
"I had a half day," Pan spoke up. "We just got out about ten minutes ago and Bra was there waiting for me."
"What about you young lady?" Vegeta questioned. "What's your reason?"
"Well, er," Bra stuttered. "Uh..."
"I bet she just left early." Pan spoke up. "It's not a big deal. She's smart enough to be able to miss some school."
Vegeta then began to walk back home when he suddenly looked over at Pan. "Where's Jakina?"
The two girls looked at each other. "Uh oh."
"You just left her?!" Vegeta asked in disbelief. "All alone at that school?"
Bra made soothing motions with her hands. "Calm down Papa. You're gonna burst a blood vessel. Besides, you're acting like she's four years old instead of nine."
"We can go get her for you," Pan asked, her voice small.
"We can all go," V.J. said. "I'm sure she's fine but once Kaasan finds out Bra, she's going to give you an earful."
"She will *never* find out," Vegeta said firmly. "Do each of you have that?"
"Yes sir," They all nodded solemnly. Pan raised her gaze from the sidewalk and added something.
"It will never happen again."
They soon made tracks for Satan City Elementary, the last place Jakina had been that day. Looking everywhere, from classroom to classroom and all around the playground, they saw no sign of her.
"My little sister's been abducted!" Bra wailed loudly.
"Calm down," Vegeta snapped, irritated. She shut up immediately. "We'll just look around the area for her. It'll be fine."
So they searched the streets surrounded the school with no luck. By this time Bra was crying on a bench, with Pan looking just as miserable, and Vegeta was starting to worry.
"What am I going to do?" He asked out loud. "Bulma's going to murder me when she realizes we're one brat short!"
"Is that all you care about? What about Jakina herself?" V.J. asked harshly. "Don't you care about what happened to her?"
"Of course I care boy!" Vegeta stared him straight into his eyes. V.J. was shocked to see them slightly moist. "What do you think? And don't ever question that again."
"Hey you guys!" A voice called from down the sidewalk. They all turned to see who was the source.
It was Jakina, smiling happily, and licking at the two ice cream cones in her hands.
"How's it going?"
Before she could even blink, Vegeta was looking her over to make sure that she was truly okay.
"Uh Papa," She said with a puzzled look on her face. "What's wrong? Are you sick?"
He hugged her, hard. "Nothing's wrong now. Nothing at all."
"That's wonderful," She rasped. "But could ya loosen up a little? I can't breathe and my ice cream's melting."
"I apologize. I'm just happy to see you." He almost smiled at her.
"Well, at least I'm not completely human. Then you probably would have broken something."
Pan and her two siblings ran up to her, each giving out hugs of their own.
"Where were you?" V.J. asked. "Papa was going insane."
She smiled at her father. "Nice of ya to worry." She offered him the remaining cone -- strawberry topped with chocolate sauce and nuts -- but he decline. Jakina shrugged and continue to eat that one too.
"Since Bra and Pan left me, I went to the ice cream store. I was hungry."
"Next time," Vegeta began, "at least tell someone where you're going. You're mother would kill me if she found out you just disappeared."
"Why would she hurt you?"
All four of them gave her a funny look. "You've known Bulma for nine years and you still have to ask that question?" Her father asked.
"By the way," The youngest girl asked. "when are you becoming king? I need a date."
"Based on how the written stuff is coming along," Vegeta pretended to think. "I'd say.. never."
She looked shocked. "What do you mean?"
"I can't get enough time to write anything seeing as you brats have a crisis about every," He thought a moment. "40.5 seconds. I averaged it out."
"Well, when does Kaasan want you to have it done?" she asked.
Vegeta sighed heavily. "By the end of the week."
"But today is Thursday!"
"I know. That's the problem."
"Veggie-ojisan," Pan spoke up. "Can I help you? I want to do it because I abandoned your daughter."
"It's forgotten so don't think you have to do it to get me to forgive you." Pan flushed but said nothing.
"I know I really want to help," Bra spoke up. "We can all do it."
"I have no idea how you can actually help me but okay."
***
"I think you should study stuff from other countries," Trunks suggested. They had gotten him to help as well as the entire Son family and Bulma.
He and his wife sat on the sofa with Jackie on Vegeta's left side. Bra and Trunks sat on another couch, while everyone else occupied the various arm chairs.
"Tried it." Vegeta tapped his pen against his cheek. "I can now sing the United States' national anthem both forwards and backwards. Do you want to hear?" And without a 'hai' he launched into the song.
"Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light. What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming--"
"That's enough Veggie-chan," Bulma interrupted gently.
"You know Papa," Jakina spoke up. "You have a really nice singing voice."
"Why thank you. At least someone appreciates it."
Bra elbowed her older brother sharply and whispered to him. "Is the stress getting to him? I think he's beginning to crack."
V.J. nodded. "Like an egg."
"Don't think I didn't hear you," Their father spoke up. "I'm not deaf."
"But you're starting to scare me," Goku said half-jokingly. "You're actually acting sort of kind."
"And don't forget affectionate," Pan added.
"He hugged me twice today!" Jakina grinned.
Bulma shrugged. "So he's changing. Big deal. Lots of people do it."
"But you have to understand," Gohan said, "this is Vegeta, the former prince of Vegeta-sei, that we're talking about here. The one who tried to kill us all when I was small?"
"The one who you were terrified of," ChiChi added.
"Really?" Jakina asked curiously. "You were?"
Gohan nodded as her mother blushed. "Krillin told me that when he came looking for the dragonballs on Namek, she almost had a heart attack."
"Boy, that's in the past," Vegeta growled half-heartily. Nobody really was afraid of him anymore.
"Vegeta, why don't you ever call me by my name?" Gohan asked. "It's always either 'boy', or 'brat', or 'Kakarott's eldest brat'."
"It's not that bad niichan," Goten spoke up. "He hardly ever calls me by mine either."
Vegeta began to massage his temples. "If I change this little habit can we get on with this meeting? You people are the worst at royal affairs."
"Now wait a minute!" ChiChi said loudly. "We're not royalty. You guys are the only ones who are!"
"She has a point there," Videl said quietly.
"Okay, Okay!" Vegeta shouted, silencing any side conversation. "Will you all please shut up for a second?!"
There was complete and utter silence until Goku tentatively raised his hand.
"Kaka- uh Goku," The other saiyan beamed. "You're not in school you know." Then he sighed. "What do you want?"
"Can we eat now?" He asked hopefully. Everyone sweatdropped.
"Tousan," Gohan groaned. "That's all you ever want to do!"
Goku shook his head. "Not all. I like to spar too."
"Luckily for you I've thought ahead." Bulma smiled. "My genius at work yet again."
"Onna, will you stop flattering yourself and do what you have to do?"
"You're one to talk." She snorted but picked up the phone anyway. "Yes? Is this Tony's?" They all stared at her curiously. "Is my order ready?" Bulma paused again and an angry look crossed her face. "You baka! Of course I really want it! Do you know who I am?" There was another pause. "No, I'm *not* the Queen of England! Look, just deliver my food to the Capsule Corporation within ten minutes or you don't get paid!" She disconnected the call with a huff with everyone in the room giving her funny looks.
"Bulma, what's wrong with you?" Vegeta asked her. Then he leaned in and whispered not too quietly. "Is it that time of the month?"
The look on Bulma's face was priceless. "You stupid saiyan," she hissed angrily. "You won't get away with that little comment!"
"Now Veggie-ojisan," Pan spoke up. "That was a really bad question to ask and you know it."
Jakina blinked in confusion and looked at everyone. "What did you mean Papa? I don't understand."
He quickly shushed her and gathered his paperwork. "You will one day. Now people, can we get down to work?"
***
Eventually -- after pigging out on the 45 boxes of pizza Bulma had purchased -- they had a substantial amount of work complete.
"After we finish the final draft, we'll have to leave for the UN as soon as possible." Bulma stared at her children with a hard look. "I'm sure I can trust you by yourselves for a few days, can't I?"
Trunks nodded enthusiastically. "Sure Kaasan. Since I'm the oldest, I will personally supervise these children."
" 'Children'?" V.J. questioned. "Who the hell are you calling a child?"
"Yeah!" Bra added.
"But Neesan," Jakina protested. "You *are* a child."
"I'm almost a teenager. You can trust me. In fact, it's Jackie that you should worry about."
"Me?" The girl asked in disbelief. "Why me?"
"Well, if you hadn't of gone off earlier and made Papa worry--"
Vegeta reached over and covered her mouth with his hand. "Bra, shut up."
"What was she talking about Vegeta? Did something happen that I should know about?" Bulma looked around, hoping for an answer.
He ignored her and stood. "Well, I'm tired." He stretched, an exaggerated movement. "Got a big day tomorrow."
He pulled a fake yawn and moved to the entrance of the living room. "By the way, you know where the door is right?"
Bulma made a face. "How rude Vegeta!"
"It's okay, really." Gohan smiled. "We all know how he is."
Vegeta began to retreat to his room, content as a cat who had consumed his fill of cream, clueless all the while of his children's plans for the next few days.
[1] = No pun intended.
Completed 12-15-00 (took a while, didn't it?)
~Chapter Three: Major Problems~
Bulma and Vegeta departed early Friday morning, loaded down with luggage (mostly Bulma's) and the special briefcase that concealed those priceless documents that would help to shape a new empire. Standing at the front door and waving enthusiastically, the two parents would have known something was up if they had only stopped to think.
"Bye Kaasan! Bye Papa!" Little Jakina said with just a tinge of sadness. "See you soon!"
As soon as the capsule car was out of sight, Trunks firmly closed the door and grinned happily at his siblings.
"I'm sure you all know what this means, don't you?"
Vegeta Jr. smirked, Bra looked mildly curious, and Jakina just looked plain confused.
Then Vegeta ran to the kitchen to grab the phone. "PAR-TAY!"
"Whoa! What a minute!" Bra held up her hands. "You know they're gonna kill you for this, right?"
"Papa's gonna beat you so bad," Jackie whispered, eyes wide. Then her look turned to one in questioning. "Can I visit you guys in the hospital Trunks?"
A momentary look of complete and utter terror cross Trunks features, but only for a second. Pulling himself together, he began join his brother in the kitchen. "If they don't ask. You don't tell. Got it? We'll clean up before they get back. No problem."
"Well okay..." Bra trailed off. Then she shrugged. "C'mon Jackie-chan, I'm getting some stuff. We'll be staying at Pan's house for a few days."
Jakina nodded with understanding. "I know I'm not getting into trouble over this."
"Whatever just don't drive them crazy or anything," Trunks called to them.
"We won't," Jakina promised.
***
By six o'clock later that day, the party was in full swing. Trunks had gone to the store earlier and charged a huge amount of food on his mother's account while V.J. had called everyone they knew between them. Mia and Goten had gotten their early, to help with everything, and a lot of people had come.
"Welcome!" Trunks greeted as he opened the front door again for what it seemed like the one-hundredth time that night. "Come on in! Just don't break or spill anything, okay? My Kaasan's got white carpet and our stuff is valuable."
Not even listening to his instructions, the brightly clothed young man with the bright blue hair grabbed his girlfriend, who was similarly dressed, by the hand and led her to the living room.
That was about the time the first crash sounded.
"What the hell happened in there?!" Trunks called loudly into the next room. Goten stuck his head out and shrugged.
"You know what lamp on the end table by the door?" Trunks nodded. "Well, you may have to buy another."
"Goten," Trunks groaned. "That was a Tiffany lamp!"
"Well, if Tiffany wanted in unbroken, she shouldn't have kept it over your house." Disappearing again, he went back to vainly supervising the party.
"Niichan," V.J. said from suddenly right beside him. Trunks jumped, a little startled, before he nodded for him to continue.
"I'm starting to get a *really* bad feeling about this one."
Trunks sighed. "Me too. Maybe Bra and Jakina were right."
Another loud crash sounded from a nearby room. Mia ran out into the hall with worried eyes.
"Oh man! How much was that crystal dog worth again?" She asked.
"Oh kami," The two boys moaned. "Bra was right! We're gonna die!"
***
It was about two in the morning when the phone rang and at that time, no one was very happy to be woken up.
Especially Gohan.
After putting on his glasses so that he could see, he snatched the phone up from the cradle and placed it against his ear.
"What the hell do you want?!"
"I'm sorry to wake you niichan," Goten said in a small voice. Gohan's annoyance quickly turned to worry.
"Goten? Sorry to yell at you like that. What's wrong?" By this time, Videl had also woken up and was watching Gohan with a similar worried frown.
Goten almost hysterically told him the tale of the party. It had gotten completely out of control around 9 o'clock and they had to threaten the people with ki blasts to get them to leave. The house was a mess and they needed some serious help. Then the Goten interrupted his story.
"Hold on. Someone's on the other line."
After switching over briefly he came back, voice choked with panic.
"Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!" He whispered frantically.
"What Goten? What's going on?" Was Trunks' reply in the background. Then Goten told them how Bulma had just called saying that they finished incredibly early and would be back around noon the next day. Trunks and Vegeta Jr. both let out a frantic shriek and the roar of the vacuum cleaner could be heard.
"We need back-up! Pronto!" Goten explained.
"I can't do it, gomen nasai. I have to work in the morning. But I can send your sisters and Pan over there but I will most definitely back them up and tell your parents that they were not associated with your party. Who else is involved?"
Goten quickly explained that it was only he, Trunks, V.J., and Mia. "Marron was going to come but she had to work."
"I'll let everyone know and even get Tousan to help. Does Trunks know how stupid this idea was?"
Goten sighed. "Of course. He and Vegeta are already making out their wills."
Gohan chuckled despite the situation. "I don't think it's that serious."
"Oh no? Well, those wild kids also raided Vegeta-ojisan's liquor cabinet."
The laughter stopped abruptly. "I see."
"Send them over as soon as possible! Maybe around 6 or 7 am. We're getting some sleep until then."
"Okay Goten. Good luck."
"Ja."
Gohan disconnected the call and turned to his wife.
"Gohan? What's going on? Is Goten hurt?" She asked worriedly.
He slowly began to shake his head. "It's far worse than that. Vegeta's going to murder him."
"NANI?! I thought he changed!"
"Well it's like this. Trunks and V.J. decided to have a little party..."
***
It was almost eight o'clock when the three little girls showed up. And when they did, the other four were still asleep.
Bra had used her house key to get in and immediately gasped at the mess.
"Oh kami!"
The floor was littered in paper plates, beer cans, used napkins, pop cans, food, and other near unidentifiable stuff. The furniture was overturned, vases and knick-knacks broken, and pictures crooked on the walls. Somehow there were even shoe prints on the ceiling and one could only guess at how they got there.
"Papa and Kaasan are definitely going to hurt them," Jakina said softly.
Picking their way slowly through the garbage on the floor, they made their way to the staircase.
After looking a number of rooms, they finally found them in Bulma and Vegeta's spacious master bedroom. All four of them were on the king size bed, deeply asleep. Goten was snoring, his head on Trunks' chest for some reason; Vegeta Jr. was mumbling something about Marron and breakfast; Mia was snuggling against Trunks; and the purple haired wonder himself was, surprisingly, drooling in the pillow he clutched against his right cheek. They three girls laughed hysterically before Pan got an idea.
"How about we take a few pictures?" She asked, smirking. "I know a lot of people who would love to see this!"
Bra. nodding with a smile, went into her parent's walk in closet. She dug around for a few minutes until she brought a very professional looking camera.
"It's Papa's," She said by way of explanation. "He says that he takes pictures of the weakling humans doing stupid things."
"Oh."
Removing the lens cap and bringing it into focus, she snapped a few photos at different angles. Her task complete, she returned the camera to it's proper place.
"Now how to we wake them up?" Jakina asked.
"I got it!" Bra said triumphantly. "Go and get all of the radios you can find."
They darted into every single child's bedroom, gathered up boomboxes, CD players, and the like and placed them all around the still sleeping demi-saiyans. Each child turned them to a different radio station or CD song, turned to volume to maximum, and counted down.
"1," Pan smirked.
"2," Bra said next.
"3!" Jackie finished.
Then seven different songs erupted from the electronic devices, scaring the crap out of the sleeping ones on the bed.
"What's going on?!" Vegeta shouted right before he fell to the floor, taking a drowsy Mia with him.
"Get off!" She shoved hard, sending the young man sprawling. There was only one person not affected by the loud noise and it was Goten. The Goku look-alike just grunted, rolled over, and clutched Trunks in a death grip as they all began to shut of the music.
"Goten let me go!" Trunks said trying to break his hold. The boy smiled for some odd reason and just hugged him tighter. Trunks, with a extremely uncomfortable look on his face, began to panic. "Will someone help me?!"
Vegeta got up from the floor and he and Mia began to pull Goten away by his legs. But the death grip held true, and they ended up taking Trunks along for the ride.
That's when he began to talk in his sleep.
"Trunks," He said in a whisper. Everyone in the room stopped and stared at him.
"I'm not even going to ask what he's dreaming about. I don't think I want to know." Mia crawled up the bed and began to remove Goten's fingers one-by-one.
"Hurry," Trunks pleaded. "I think I'm beginning to loose feeling in my body."
Goten, in the meantime, resumed his talk. "Trunks, ai shiteru."
"GET HIM OFF ME!" Trunks screamed as loud as he could.
Then Goten sat straight up and with a big grin on his face pointed at his best friend. "HA! Gotcha!"
Trunks looked at him, eyes wide. "Huh?" He asked intelligently.
"What are you talking about Goten?" Bra asked. Still a little shocked about the whole thing.
That's when Goten broke out into laughter. "I just tricked you! I owed you from a while back."
Trunks crossed his arms. "I don't think it was very funny."
"Oh yes it was!" Vegeta Jr. smirked. Mia nodded in agreement.
"I couldn't have done better myself."
"I just love ya as a friend you know." He gave him the puppy dog eyes. "Forgive me?"
"Please get that look off your face."
"Aw c'mon Trunks! It wasn't that bad."
Then there was a voice from downstairs.
"Kids we're home!" Then a loud curse.
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!" Yelled both Bulma and Vegeta.
Everyone in the room made a mad dash for the balcony. "RUN!"
***
In the air, the entire group split up and headed for different houses.
"Wait!" Jakina called from below. "I can't fly you idiots!" But no one heard her.
Grumbling, she went back into her parent's room just as her parents themselves entered.
"Jakina," Bulma said in a warning tone. "What happened to my house?"
"I had nothing to do with it!" she squeaked. '"Gohan can vouch for me!" Sitting on the bed she went on. "The ones who *did* left me because I can't fly."
"Was it Trunks?" Vegeta growled.
"Well, yeah. And V.J. and Goten and Mia and about thirty other people." They continued at their confused looks. "A party messed up your house. Bra and I went to Pan's house for the night. We only came over to help clean up."
"It's a good thing we got back as soon as we did." Bulma said. "Goku sort of appeared out of no where and offered us a lift."
"Gohan must have called him. He was supposed to help us."
Vegeta noticed the radios. "What are all of these things doing here?"
Jakina giggled. "See, it was how we woke them up. Trunks, Mia, Goten, and Vegeta. Goten played this really funny trick on Trunks and-" But Bulma and Vegeta had stopped listening.
"I can find them easy," Vegeta said to his wife. "They're scared right now so their kis should be pretty high." He reached out with his senses and found absolutely nothing.
"What? I can't find them at all." He frowned and went to the door. "Kakarott!" He yelled to the still waiting saiyan downstairs. "I need your assistance!"
"Oh! Can I come too?" Their smallest daughter asked eagerly.
"You might want to stay here Jackie-chan," Bulma said gently. "If they found out you told, they're going to be pretty angry. Go over to Pan's house. I'm sure your sister is there." Then she blinked. "Why were those brats using our bed in the first place?"
Jakina shrugged. "Beats me."
Bulma sighed. "Well go on. I'll make them clean the whole house, from top-to-bottom, when Vegeta catches them."
Her daughter gasped. "That would take *weeks*!"
Bulma smirked. "I know."
The little girl, still a little angry at her friends and siblings for deserting her, went downstairs and out of the house.
"Wait a minute!" She said to herself as she got to the sidewalk. "I have to walk. Ugh." Then she got an idea into her head.
"Maybe I can fly! I can just remember how everyone else does it and it should be easy."
She concentrated on trying to use her ki to get her into the air. Her father had said something about this before but she still didn't really understand the mechanics involved. She tried jumping and then using her ki but that didn't really work.
Then she remembered the ki trail that the others left behind when they launched themselves from the earth. Thinking about it for a moment, she wondered how they got it to do that.
Then it came to her. When she was quite small, only about three at the time, she observed her father and Bra in the backyard. Bra was learning to fight.
Vegeta had been patient with the little girl of six even though he wasn't as gentle as he was with Jackie. This Vegeta didn't ask his daughter where she had wanted to begin he just started with the basics of martial arts. Bra was a really good student, however, and the lessons soon turned to ones of flying and ki control.
"Papa," Bra had said while looking up attentively. "How do you fly?"
Her father had struggled with a way to explain it so that the little girl would understand. Finally he began to speak.
"You use your energy." Knowing that she would question that rather vague statement, he continued. "You push it through the bottom of your feet until it pushes you from the ground. When you're in the air, you use just enough of it to keep from falling."
This simple explanation may be the answer to Jakina's prayers.
So she followed the instructions, as simple as they were, and launched herself about five feet into the air. Looking down at the world from above, she noticed a lot of little things that you really couldn't see while on the ground.
"Hey! That's where my kite went!" She noticed it in a tree, not that far away. Making a mental note to retrieve it later, she willed herself higher. Moving an additional twenty feet made everything below look really small, almost like the furniture in a dollhouse or her tiny Barbie doll accessories.
"I guess I should be going. These people might be scared." As she tried to go about her way, she discovered another problem.
She didn't have the faintest idea how to move forward at all. In fact, it was taking all of her willpower just to stay in the air in the first place.
"Oh boy," she said softly. "I could use a little help right about now."
Finally shrugging and imitating Super Man, she laid out flat with her stomach to the ground, and tried to use her ki in the same method that she had used to get up there in the first place. Miraculously, it worked.
She moved slowly, as all first timers did, but she was moving. Jakina cheered loudly and tried to go a bit faster.
"C'mon," She urged herself. "A turtle could pass me at this speed."
"Maybe not a turtle but a small dog could," a voice called from the distance. She looked up.
"Papa!" She flew out faster to greet him. And he was not alone.
"Well hello guys." She said with more than a little smugness. That'll teach 'em for leaving her behind!
"Uh Lil' Sis," Trunks asked in confusion. "I didn't know you could fly."
"Me either until fifteen minutes ago. I didn't want to walk to Pan's house."
"If you do it that way, you're gonna use up all your energy," Mia observed. "You still need someone to teach you." She brightened. "Vegeta, can I do this instead of my assigned punishment? I wouldn't mind."
"That's why you can't. It couldn't be called a punishment if you didn't hate it." He held out his arm and his youngest grabbed it immediately. "She will be coming with me." All present saw Bulma standing on the ground, holding a large assortment of brooms, mops, dustpans, and the like. The four sighed. It would be a long day.
Vegeta held Jakina tightly around the waist before he took off. "See ya!" She shouted back to them. "Have fun!"
"Oh please," Mia sighed. "I had a bad feeling about this from the start."
"Oh really?" Goten asked. "Then why did you agree to it?"
She shrugged. "I thought it would be fun. I sort of feel bad leaving poor Tousan back there to deal with Kaasan. Everyone knows how insane she can be sometimes."
The other two nodded. "Of course."
"I'm sure there's not a person alive who hasn't heard of Son ChiChi's motherly rantings." V.J. added with a smirk. "Or her annoying habit of comparing everyone to Gohan."
"True," Goten sighed. "But you can't help but think that Gohan actually *is* perfect. You all know I've inherited Tousan's brains in addition to his looks."
"But wait Goten," V.J. said. "Goku's been acting pretty smart lately. I wonder what happened to him."
"Don't tell anyone this," Mia said, her voice low. "But I saw Kaasan turning on knowledge tapes when Tousan was asleep. Gohan said she tried this on him when he was younger."
As the conversation wore on, Bulma was getting angrier and angrier. "Will you four just come down here right now? You have some serious cleaning to do!"
"Yes ma'am," They said meekly.
Going off to their task, heads hung, they knew it was what they
deserved.
~Completed 12-17-00~
Question time: I have an idea for the story that I'm going to leave up to the readers to decide. Seeing as I've never done Dragon Ball shounen ai before, I was wondering would it matter if I added some into this fic. I don't do full blown yaoi (not yet anyway) and I just thought it would be interesting. I've already got the couple made and everything so what does everyone think?