Dragonball Extreme

Bulma did some quick figures in her head, mentally figuring out the mark-up on the tag she was looking at. She knew she really didn\'t have to worry about the money, she could probably buy the store out easily, but she still didn\'t like the idea of rip-off prices. Satisfied with the numbers, she put the dress into her cart and continued on.
Random thoughts passed through her mind as she wandered up and down the aisles of the shopping center. She tried to take her mind off of the problems back home, and the trouble that the saiya-jin were going through right now, but no matter where her thoughts went they always came back to it. She sighed and headed up to the cash registers. Maybe she just needed to hit a few more stores.

As she stood in the check-out line she randomly scanned over the variety of tabloids, tv guides and personal improvement booklets lined up in neat rows. The words \"Capsule Corp\" in one of the tabloids\' headline caught her eye and she picked the paper up. To her shock, the headline read \"Capsule Corp President Married to Killer Alien\". To her horror, she noticed the other tabloids had jumped on the story at the same time; one even had a picture of a very young looking Vegeta on the front page. Bulma picked up all of the issues for further investigation; this had to be nipped in the bud before legitimate news sources got a hold of it.

The cashier gave her an odd look as he rang up her purchases, but Bulma didn\'t comment on it; she knew her face was one of the most well-known in town, and anyone who read those tabloids would look twice at her now, whether they actually believed the stories or not. She walked out to her air car and got in, but didn\'t start it up right away; instead she thumbed through the papers again, looking at all of the headlines. \"Capsule Corp President Married to Killer Alien\", \"Earth-Destroying Aliens Live Among High Society\", and \"New Threat to Rule of the Earth - Capsule Corp and Alien Race Partnered\" were among the more prominent titles. She also noticed, thumbing through the articles, that they\'d managed to dig up several photos from Vegeta and Napa\'s battle with the Z fighters, and some shots of Bulma\'s family - including one of Trunks as a little boy wearing a Capsule Corp jacket, with his tail swishing happily behind him, that she never knew existed. She stuck the papers inside her shopping bag and raced for home; hopefully no actual news reporters had caught wind of the legitimacy behind the photos yet.

*
Bra sighed and took another sip of her soda. She leaned back in her chair and scanned the mall plaza with uninterested eyes. Normally she loved shopping, but today she just couldn\'t take her mind off of Goten; she wished he wouldn\'t have gone to spar with his dad.

Pan watched her from across the table. \"Still miss Goten, huh?\" she asked.

Bra just nodded and folded her arms on the table. She rested her chin on them and closed her eyes. \"He told me to come here and have fun while he sparred with Gokou, but I can\'t have fun without him here. I\'d have never believed I could get so attached to someone so quickly.\"

\"I know what you mean,\" Pan said. \"Trunks had to go to work today, and your mom wouldn\'t let me stay with him. She said, \'You don\'t need to miss four weeks of work just because of this, Mr. Vice President.\' Man, what a pain.\"

Bra giggled. \"That does sound just like something Mama would say,\" she said. \"I wonder what Papa thought of it; he\'s still irritated that Mama\'s interfering at all.\"

A girl\'s voice cut into their conversation. \"Bra! Pan!\" The shout came from across the plaza; Bra and Pan looked up to see two of their friends from school approaching.

\"Otome! Ookami! Hi!\" Bra called. \"What are you two up to?\"

The girls charged across the tile floor and sat down in chairs across the table from Bra and Pan. \"Just clothes shopping mostly. Looking for new fashions for school this year.\"

Pan made a face. \"I\'m glad I don\'t have to worry about that anymore. My mom and I just went shopping while we were on our trip, and I bought a couple of new fighting gis and some exercise clothes.\"

Bra sighed. \"Lucky you; I\'m going to be stuck in school again, and that\'s going to mean even more time away from Goten.\"

\"Who\'s Goten?\" Otome piped up.

Bra blushed a little. \"Well...he\'s my...boyfriend.\"

The two girls squealed. \"When did this happen?\" Ookami demanded. \"You mean your dad is actually letting you date someone?\"

Bra started to speak, but Otome cut in quickly. \"Hold on before you start, I\'m going to get a soda...I want to hear all the details!\"

Bra smiled and looked at her feet as Otome jumped up and ran off. Pan looked over at Bra mischievously. \"Maybe you can talk Goten into coming into the mall with Trunks later,\" she suggested. \"You can show him off while Trunks and I go shopping.\"

\"You got Trunks to go shopping with you?\" Bra exclaimed. \"He hates shopping! How did you do that?\"

\"Well...\" Pan said, \"it\'s kind of a special trip. He wants to pick out a ring for me today.\"

Bra jumped out of her seat. \"No way!\" she shouted. \"You mean he actually proposed?! When?! He never told any of us about it!\"

\"I think he wants it to be a surprise, so don\'t ruin it for him,\" Pan begged. \"I just had to share the news.\"

\"Argh!\" Ookami exclaimed. \"No one tells me anything any more! You mean you\'re getting married Pan? I didn\'t even know that you were dating anyone!\"

Pan blushed and nodded. \"I\'ll tell you all about it when Otome gets back,\" she said. \"It\'s complicated enough as it is, and it\'s happening so fast, I didn\'t want to tell everyone until I know everything works out right.\"

A few minutes later, Otome walked up to the table with soda in one hand and a folded paper in the other hand. She had a disturbed look on her face as she flopped down in her chair. \"You will not believe the crap these tabloids are putting out now,\" she said. She tossed the paper onto the center of the table. \"Bra, you should take that home to your mom and have her sue the hell out of these people for spreading lies about your family.\"

The four girls at the table looked at the bold-faced headline proclaiming Vegeta\'s alien heritage. Bra frowned and picked up the paper. She quickly flipped to the article and scanned it over. She set the paper down and sighed.

\"Is that stupid or what?\" Otome demanded. \"They even tried to claim that you and your brother were born with tails.\"

Bra choked up a little and looked at Pan. \"I think we need to tell them, Pan\" she said telepathically. \"The article\'s mostly true, they just embellished what they needed to.\"

Pan frowned. She picked up the paper and looked over the contents herself. She nodded at Bra. \"I think we need to, it\'s pointless to try to hide it, especially since someone could prove that these photos are real.\"

Otome watched the silent conversation between Bra and Pan. \"What?\" she queried. \"What\'s wrong? Isn\'t there anything you can do about it?\"

Bra looked at the floor. \"No, I don\'t think there is,\" she said, \"because for the most part the article is true. They just embellished some of the bad things to sell the paper.\"

\"What do you mean? You mean you\'re some kind of alien?\" Ookami asked. \"You look normal to me.\"

\"Saiya-jin,\" Bra said. \"My father is saiya-jin. My mother is human, so my brother and I are both half-saiya-jin. However, my father\'s blood is strong, and we got a lot of dominant traits from him. None of us have our tails anymore, though. Mine and Trunks\' were cut off when we were very young, and my father\'s was cut off in battle.\"

\"But your dad\'s no killer,\" Otome protested. \"We\'ve both stayed over at your house, and we\'ve both seen him. He may be a little grumpy, but I don\'t think he\'d actually hurt anyone.\"

Bra hesitated before she continued, trying to pick her words very carefully. \"Papa doesn\'t like it to be known, but he does have a dark past. I don\'t know a lot about it, because he doesn\'t like to tell me about his past very much. The pictures in this paper are real, though; he originally came to earth on a mission to destroy it. Papa\'s friend, Gokou, told me about it.\"

\"Isn\'t that your grandfather\'s name, Pan?\" Ookami asked. \"The World\'s Greatest Martial Arts Tournament winner, right? Your dad talks about him a lot.\"

\"Yes, it is,\" Pan said. \"And if anyone knows Vegeta very well, it\'s Grandpa. He knows Vegeta both as a friend and a past adversary, but I think he understands him better because he\'s saiya-jin too.\"

The other two girls stared in shock. \"You mean...\"

Pan nodded, and sighed. \"Yes, it mean\'s I\'m part saiya-jin too. My blood isn\'t quite as pure as Bra\'s because I\'m only quarter-saiya-jin. I got mine from my dad.\"

Otome and Ookami stared at Bra and Pan. \"Oh, man,\" they said.

Bra gulped and feared the worst. She closed her eyes and waited to hear the fearful questions and to feel their friendship dissolving. However, it didn\'t come.

\"That is so awesome!\" Ookami cried. \"Why didn\'t you guys tell us sooner? We\'d keep it a secret for you, if that\'s what you want. But it must be great - is that where you two get your strength and your cool powers?\"

Bra heaved a sigh of relief. \"Yes it is, to an extent. Anyone can be trained to use the techniques we use, but saiya-jin have natural fighting ability to their benefit.\"

Just then a figure dropped down next to Bra, interrupting her. Bra leaped to her feet and automatically fell into a fighting stance. She stopped when she saw who she was looking at. \"Goten!\" she exclaimed. \"Don\'t startle me like that! Where did you come from, anyway? You weren\'t flying around the mall were you?\"

\"Oh, and what would your dad say if he knew you were startled so easily? And as for where I came from...\" he pointed above them. Bra and the others looked up and saw an open window in the skylight above.

\"Grandma\'s going to have a fit if she finds out you went in through the window again,\" Pan warned. \"She can\'t seem to break any of you of that habit; even dad still slips and does it once in a while.\"

Bra hugged Goten tight \"I \"I\'m glad you\'re here; I was about to head home and talk to mama; we might have trouble on our hands soon, and she needs to know about it.\"

\"Trouble?\" Goten asked. \"It\'s nothing we can\'t handle, right? I haven\'t sensed any strange or powerful kis on the planet.\"

\"Not a fight, Goten,\" Bra said, \"except maybe a fight with words. I\'ll explain it later.\"

\"Well, here,\" Goten said. He reached into the pocket of his gi. \"Why don\'t you call her on my cell phone? I want to wait a few minutes; I called Trunks on my way over here, and he was going to meet us, we were going to try for a double-date or something.\"

Bra broke away from Goten and took the phone from him. She dialed their private Capsule Corp number, but got nothing but the answering machine. She turned the phone off and handed it back to Goten. \"Mama\'s not home, and either Papa\'s not either or he\'s not answering the phone again.\"

Just as Goten took the phone back, Trunks appeared across the plaza. He walked up to the group and immediately noticed the tension that had been in the air. \"What\'s up guys? Something wrong? I thought you were out having fun today.\"

\"We were, \" Pan said. She walked up and snuggled close to Trunks. He automatically put his arms protectively around her. \"We just got some news that spoiled our afternoon.\"

Bra handed the paper they\'d been looking at to Trunks. As he read the headline, he gritted his teeth. \"Trash,\" he spat. He crumpled the paper with one hand at the same time.

\"I know, darling,\" Pan said. \"But we can\'t just ignore it. We especially have to find out where those pictures came from; did you see this picture of you in there?\" She opened the paper and showed Trunks a picture of himself as a toddler, with his tail out behind him.

\"What the hell!?\" Trunks shouted. He snatched the pages out of Pan\'s fingers; at the same time, he noticed the curious looks he was getting from the girls\' friends.

\"Perhaps this conversation is better suited for elsewhere,\" he mentally announced to Bra and Pan.

\"It\'s OK, Trunks,\" Pan replied. \"We already told them the truth; we trust them, and we\'d rather they heard it from us than some slanderous paper or tv program.\"

Trunks nodded. \"All right,\" he said. He rubbed his eyebrows and sighed. \"Why did they have to target Papa? He\'s uncomfortable around humans most of the time as it is; I have no idea how he\'s going to react to this.\"

Bra took the paper away from Trunks and folded it up. \"That\'s why we\'re taking it home to Mama and she can tell Papa about it,\" she said.

A stranger suddenly appeared in their midst. \"So it is you!\" he piped up. \"I thought I saw the two Briefs kids here - so how about giving me the edge on this breaking scoop about your father? My sources are telling me that it\'s not a bunch of fairy tales.\"

Trunks grew angry and turned to the man with his eyes blazing. \"You\'re digging for trash in the wrong dumpster,\" he seethed through his teeth. \"We have no comment.\"

\"Come now, Mr. Briefs...that is your last name isn\'t it? I haven\'t heard any last name associated with your father...anyway, I know that Capsule Corp doesn\'t want to have to deal with a scandal like this - just sell exclusive rights to the story to me, and no one else can jump on it!\"

Bra stepped forward. \"We don\'t have to deal with a scandal since none exists. My brother already told you we have nothing to say, so please leave.\"

The reporter hastily dug through his pockets. He saw Trunks\' angry eyes following his every move. After a moment he produced a small card and thrust it into Bra\'s hand. \"Here,\" he said, \"my business card. If you change your mind, give me a call.\" He nodded briefly to the group and fled.

As the man disappeared into the mall, Pan sighed. \"I hadn\'t realized we\'d run into this quite so quickly,\" she murmured.

Trunks pulled her even closer to himself. \"We\'re going home before any other scum descend on us,\" he said. He started to lift Pan off the ground.

\"Wait!\" Ookami said. \"Can I come with? I\'d like to help.\" "Me "Me too!\" Otome said. \"Anything we can do, let us know.\"

Bra\'s face softened and she smiled at them. \"Ok,\" she said. \"If nothing else you can keep us company while Mama straightens this out.\" She took Ookami\'s hand. Pan took Otome\'s hand, and the girls, Trunks and Goten all took off through the skylight and headed toward Capsule Corp.

*
Gohan leaned against a tree in his yard and sat down heavily. He stared at the house, wishing with all of his might that Videl might see him and take pity on him, but it didn\'t happen. He exhaled heavily and wiped his brow; Piccolo was right, he had to get better control of himself. Gohan took a deep breath and looked idly at the digital watch on his wrist. He clicked through the settings, wondering how long he\'d been outside. As the date flashed up before him, he cursed under his breath. \"Shimatta! I have to be back to work tonight. How am I supposed to teach a class like this? But I can\'t call in sick, it\'s my first time teaching night classes and I haven\'t been there in a couple weeks as it is.\"

He clicked through his watch some more and discovered that it was already early afternoon. Hood ood unsteadily and headed for the house. \"Maybe a cold bath and some sleepl hel help; Videl must understand that I have to get cleaned up for work.\"

Videl looked up as Gohan opened the door and walked into the house. She said nothing, but watched him as he walked tensely past her and continued into the bedroom. She heard him start the bath and heard the drawers of the dresser open and close as he rummaged through them. She hesitated, then walked back to the bedroom.

Peering through the door, she realized that Gohan had moved on to the bathroom. She found him sitting in the bath, reclining against the wall with his eyes closed. She approached him carefully. \"Gohan?\" she asked tentatively. \"What happened? You didn\'t come back last night.\"

Gohan swallowed hard. \"I couldn\'t,\" he said. His voice was hoarse, and that startled Videl. \"I didn\'t want to hurt you; I don\'t have complete control of myself even yet.\"

Videl took a washcloth from the sink and dipped it into the bath water, intending to smooth the sweat off his face with it. \"Oh! Cold!\" she gasped. She quickly pulled her hand out of the frigid water and looked up at Gohan. His face was pale, yet he was still sweating. \"Gohan!\" she exclaimed. \"You\'re going to catch pneumonia! What do you think you\'re doing?\"

\"I...I have to cool down...I have to work tonight...\" He groggily pulled himself into a sitting position. \"Piccolo is right. I\'m stronger than this; I can controlelf elf better. I just have to force myself to be strong.\"

*
Vegeta and Tales flew over an area of dense jungle. Vegeta scanned the area below him but saw nothing except for the tops of green trees. \"Are you sure this is where your ship is?\" Vegeta asked.

\"Yes,\" Tales replied. \"I deliberately hid it so that I could come bac it, it, but I never got the chance. By the time I\'d healed and returned, it had become overgrown and wouldn\'t operate anymore.\"

\"That doesn\'t sound promising for the computer then,\" Vegeta grumbled. \"If the elements have ruined the electronics in the spaceship, the computer could easily be ruined as well.\"

Tales suddenly dove toward the ground. \"Here!\" he called. He dove into a small grove in the forest.

Vegeta followed him. On the forest floor, dimly lit by the sunlight seeping in through the trees above, was a large spaceship, covered with vines and moss, and damp from rain and humidity. He pulled the rusty door open with a creak and entered.

\"Hmpf,\" he snorted. \"No wonder it\'s failed. It\'s one of Freeza\'s crappy ships.\"

\"Yes,\" Tales said. \"The pirates I joined had it with them. Everything from my first space pod is in my room. This way.\" He motioned for Vegeta to follow him.

The room Tales led him to was in a e ofe of disrepair. A large tree had fallen through the window, and moss and dampness had invaded the room. Tales pushed greenery and other objects aside as he walked across to a desk on the far wall. He opened up one of the drawers and pulled out a large, square metal box with a console-like dash on top. Vegeta recognized it as the main computer from a saiya-jin space pod.

\"It seems to be intact,\" Tales said, \"but it won\'t do anything until we get it back to a power source, and even then I won\'t guarantee it.\"

Vegeta took the computer from him. \"Then let\'s get back to Capsule Corp. If we don\'t have anything there that will make it work, no one will.\" He leaped through the window and blasted off into the sky with Tales right behind him.

*

Bulma raced into the Capsule Corp driveway and parked near the front door. She had just hopped out of her car when Trunks, Goten and the girls landed on the doorstep.

\"Mama -\" Bra started to say. She stopped as she saw the papers in Bulma\'s hand. \"You saw this, then?\" she asked. She handed their paper to Bulma.

\"Yes, I did,\" Bulma sighed. \"I want to head this off before real newspapers get a hold of it.\"

\"It\'s too late for that,\" Trunks grumbled.

\"What do you mean?\" Bulma asked. She looked worriedly at the group. \"Did something happen?\"

Bra pulled the reporter\'s business card out of her pocket. \"This guy came up to us asking questions,\" she said. \"He wanted us to sell him exclusive rights to the story, and he said he knows the photos in these trash papers are real.\"

\"Kuso!\" Bulma spat. \"Bakayarous! Who do they think they are?\"

Trunks and Bra stared at their mother in wonder. Bulma noticed their stares. \"What is it?\" she asked.

\"Mama, you sound just like Papa when he\'s angry,\" Bra said. Bul Bulma\'s face softened. \"I guess I do at that,\" she said. \"It just makes me mad when people come up with such stuff, and especially when we\'re having problems enough to deal with...speaking of which, your father hasn\'t made his usual snide appearance since I got home. I better go see if something\'s wrong.\"

They all walked into the main building together. All was quiet. Bulma looked quickly into the infirmary and saw that Tales was gone as well.

\"Well, he\'s not here, and Tales is gone too. They must have gone somewhere together.\"

\"Tales?\" Trunks asked.

\"That\'s right, you don\'t know about the little jerk yet,\" Bulma said. \"Well, I\'m sure Vegeta won\'t let him stray far, so you\'ll meet him before long.\"

\"Maybe they\'re out training,\" Bra suggested.

\"Well, there\'s one way to find out,\" Bulma said. She took a deep breath. \"VEGETA!\" she yelled at the top of her voice.

\"Don\'t yell woman!egetegeta shouted as he landed. \"I am not deaf!\"

Tales landed just behind Vegeta, but hesitated when he saw the number of people in the room.

\"Dad!\" Goten exclaimed. He ran toward Vegeta and Tales. \"It\'s a good thing you\'re with Vegeta; we need to get a hold of Gohan too.\" He stopped short as Tales nervously unwrapped his tail from his waist. Goten stared hard at Tales for a moment. \"Hey! You\'re not my dad!\" he said.

\"No, he\'s not your father,\" Vegeta said. \"But he is a saiya-jin like us.\"

\"You must be Kakarott\'s son,\" Tales said. \"I expected you to look older.\"

Goten looked confused. He turned to Bulma. \"Do I look younger than I am?\" he asked. \"I thought I looked fairly normal.\"

Bulma looked irritated. \"He\'s probably thinking of Gohan. Gohan was very young when Tales met him; you weren\'t even born yet.\"

Ookami interrupted the conversation. \"Wow!\" she said. \"So that\'s what a saiya-jin tail looks like! Do all saiya-jin have brown tails or are they different colors?\" She stepped forward and reached out to pet Tales\'s tail.

\"Don\'t touch it!\" Tales cried. He jumped back and tucked his tail protectively around his waist.

Ookami turned red. \"I\'m sorry,\" she said. \"I didn\'t mean to embarrass you. I just wanted to see what it feels like.\"

\"You didn\'t embarrass me,\" Tales muttered. \"It hurts when someone grabs my tail. Anyone who knows saiya-jin should know that.\"

\"But she didn\'t know what a saiya-jin was until nowd shd she,\" Vegeta said quietly. He curled his lip and turned his back as he realized their faux pas.

\"It\'s all right, Papa,\" Bra said. \"They\'re our friends; we told them that we\'re saiya-jin.\"

\"Not that it matters, anyway,\" Bulma said. \"Most of the rest of the world knows too.\" She unfolded one of the papers and held it up in front of Vegeta.

\"What the hell is this!\" Vegeta yelled. He snatched the paper from Bulma\'s hand.

\"It\'s big trouble if I don\'t get on the phone now,\" Bulma said. \"Trunks and Bra have already been approached by legitimate reporters.\"

Vegeta grumbled under his breat\"Pu\"Put up the security system. I don\'t want any of those human pests coming here and bothering me or my children.\"

Trunks wrapped his arms around Pan again. \"No one\'s going to be bothering us, I\'ll make sure of that, Papa,\" he said.

Vegeta eyed his son with a critical look. Something was bothering him, but he couldn\'t place it; he also had other things on his mind; he wanted to get the computer hooked up and find out exactly what was on it.

Bra was curiously watching Tales. She turned to Vegeta. \"You still haven\'t introduced us, Papa,\" she said. \"Who\'s this other saiya-jin? He looks just like Gokou, it\'s no wonder Goten thought that\'s who he was.\"

\"His name is Tales,\" Vegeta replied shortly. \"As for who he is, I plan on getting that information shortly.\"

Bra and Pan stepped forward to shake his hand. Tales hesitantly took their hands. He heard a growl rise from both Goten and Trunks, and he backed off. \"Sorry, sorry,\" he mumbled. \"I didn\'t realize until I got close; I\'ll stay away from your mates.\" He quickly ducked behind Vegeta again.

Vegeta suddenly handed the computer to Tales. \"Hold this,\" he commanded. \"Bra, Pan, I need to talk to you alone.\" He gestured for them to follow him into another room.

Trunks and Goten looked at him in surprise. It wasn\'t like Vegeta to have much of anything to say to anyone, let alone the teenage girls. They watched as Pan and Bra followed Vegeta; Trunks started to protest, but a sudden glare from Vegeta stopped him.

As the girls and Vegeta disappeared down the hall, Trunks began to pace the floor. \"What could Papa possibly want with them?\" he asked aloud. \"He\'s acting strange, I don\'t like it. What if something\'s wrong. You know Papa never says anything outright.\"

Goten noticed that Otome and Ookami were looking worried. \"Nothing\'s wrong, Trunks, you\'re just making up worries. I don\'t like it either, but your dad always has his reasons.\"

In another room, Vegeta carefully watched the scene on a monitor. \"Just as I suspected,\" he muttered. \"With the other girls out there, I wasn\'t sure until I got you two alone.\"

\"Sure about what, Papa?\" Bra asked.

Vegeta hesitated. \"Call Trunks and Goten in here. They need to know too.\"

Bra and Pan leaned into the hall and called for Trunks and Goten. Within a second, the two young men were at their mates\' sides.

Vegeta had his back turned to them. He spoke suddenly, startling all four of the young saiya-jin. \"How long have you two been so protective of the girls? You don\'t even let go of their hands unless someone forces you to.\"

Trunks started to object, then suddenly realized that he was holding onto Pan. \"I don\'t know,\" he said. \"I guess since this afternoon when I stopped at the mall; Mama made me go to work this morning. That reporter guy pissed me off so bad, I guess I just haven\'t got over it.\"

\"I don\'t think that\'s it at all,\" Vegeta said. \"Goten doesn\'t seem overly perturbed by anything, and he\'s been glued to Bra\'s side as well.\"

\"I don\'t understand...\" Goten said. \"Are you saying something\'s changed? I\'ve hardly been able to leave Bra for more than a couple hours ever since the mating season started.\"

\"Yes, but you were able to leave; I listened in on your conversation a few minutes ago,\" Vegeta said. He pointed at the monitor he\'d been watching. \"It\'s not like you to be so paranoid, Trunks, and it\'s not like Goten to be so serious, even lately. I had to get Pan and Bra away from the other two girls to confirm my suspicions; back here, their scents are the only ones in the room.\"

\"So...I\'m not sure what\'s changed,\" Trunks admitted.

\"First of all, none of you are in season any more,\" Vegeta said. \"That scent has dissipated.\"

\"How can that be?\" Trunks asked. \"I thought you said four weeks.\"

\"There are exceptions to every rule, Trunks,\" Vegeta patiently explained. \"A saiya-jin doesn\'t need to be in season any longer when his mate becomes pregnant, and likewise she doesn\'t need to be in season either.\"

Goten\'s eyes widened. \"You mean...Bra...and Pan...are...are...\" He gulped and was unable to finish his sentence.

\"Are pregnant,\" Vegeta finished for them. \"Less than 24 hours, I\'d say, since I didn\'t notice this behavior this morning, and it will be weeks before the machines these humans have can detect it. Your mother doubted forever that I could tell she was pregnant with you, Trunks, until her doctor finally proved it.\"

Goten promptly fainted. Bra giggled and walked over to him. \"Oh, Goten,\" she laughed as she knelt down beside him. She slapped his cheeks. \"Come on, wake up. We\'ll go dig out some ice cream and cake and celebrate.\"

Goten was suddenly sitting up. \"Ice cream and cake!\" he exclaimed. Trunks, Pan, and Bra laughed. Vegeta allowed himself a small smile. \"Now get out of here. I have other business to attend to, you brats will have to take care of yourselves for a while.\"

Vegeta followed the four as they raced back down the hall to share the news with their friends. He found Tales sitting awkwardly on a chair, with his tail unwrapped and trailing on the floor. Ookami and Otome were sitting on the floor beside him, gently stroking his tail.

\"That\'s so cool!\" Ookami exclaimed. \"It\'s so soft, just like a kitty\'s tail.\"

\"No, it\'s more like a puppy\'s tail,\" Otome objected. \"You can feel all the muscles in it, just like when a puppy\'s wagging it\'s tail at you.\"

Tales was turning red and trying hard to keep his cool, despite the feelings that the girls\' fingers on his tail were generating. Vegeta sneered. \"Pathetic,\" he said. \"Get up from there,\" he barked. \"And bring that computer with you. The brats are going to entertain themselves for a while.\"

Pan and Bra rushed upOtomOtome and Ookami. \"Come on into the kitchen,\" they said. They pulled their friends along behind them; Trunks and Goten led the way. \"We\'re going to have a little celebration!\"

They rushed through the door just as Bulma came back into the room from the other side. \"What was that all about?\" she asked Vegeta. \"What are they celebrating in the middle of this mess?\"

\"Oh, not much,\" Vegeta said. He feigned disinterest. \"Just the fact that you and I are going to be grandparents.\"

\"Oh, ok,\" Bulma said. She started to walk away, then stopped short as his words sunk in. \"Grandparents?! Vegeta, I\'ll kill you and then I\'ll kill all of them!! I\'m not old enough to be a grandmother!!\"