Dragonball Extreme

Radditz handed one of the blankets from the bed to Sumiko. \"I\'ll see what Vegeta-sama wants,\" he said. \"Wait here.\"
Vegeta was standing in the doorway angrily tapping his foot when Radditz opened the door. His arms were crossed in front of him in a no-nonsense attitu \"B \"Bring the girl out here too,\" he snarled.

Radditz moved uncertainly toward the doorway. \"Vegeta-sama...\" he started.

\"There will be no discussion, Radditz,\" Vegeta snapped. \"We\'re straightening this out here and now. I\'m not offering you any opportunities to try to pull another stupid stunt.\"

Radditz looked at the ground. \"Hai, Vegeta-sama,\" he said quietly. He walked back into the bedroom.

Sumiko was already pulling her dress back on. \"I heard,\" she said. She struggled with the zipper on her dress for a moment, but then got it completely pulled up and was dressed. She walked to the door and followed Radditz out.

Radditz held Sumiko close to him, as if guarding a valuable possession. Vegeta eyed her over then turned on his heel. \"Follow me,\" he instructed. \"We\'re going to have a talk with that idiot brother of yours and the woman he brought back at the same time.\"

Sumiko followed Radditz\'s lead. When they got to the edge of the cave his capsule house was situated in, he picked her up. She clung to his arm as Vegeta easily leaped down to Tales\'s cave, Radditz close on his heels. \"Where are we going?\" she asked quietly.

Radditz sighed. \"Wherever Vegeta-sama wants,\" he replied. \"He\'s our king, we do as he requests.\"

Sumiko thought he looked a little apprehensive at that statement. She looked over at Vegeta, who was pounding on Tales\'s door in the same fashion he had with Radditz. The man looked capable, but was no where near as tall or bulky as Radditz. Surely the taller man could have thrown him around like a rag doll; what was it that scared him about this man? A moment later she saw Tales emerge from the house holding a very confused looking Museiko.

Vegeta had just opened his mouth to speak when the elder Vegeta and Bardock landed next to him.

\"What\'s going on?\" the elder Vegeta asked.

\"Interesting that I was just about to ask the same thing,\" Vegeta said. He looked pointedly at Radditz and Tales.

Radditz frowned and looked at his feet. \"What would you have had us do?\" he asked quietly. \"We need to mate. Obviously there are no options here for us.\"

\"Running of to some random town and kidnapping a woman is not an option either!\" Vegeta shouted. \"I would have thought either of you would know better than that!\"

\"I\'d have been glad to challenge any woman there properly!\" Radditz replied. \"Sumiko is the only one who showed the slightest bit of courage. She put up more resistance than the rest of the town combined. You\'ve lived here long enough, Vegeta-sama, you should know how weak humans are.\"

The elder Vegeta had been eyeing up the situation as Radditz spoke. As the younger Vegeta started to speak again, he interrupted. \"Vegeta,\" he said, \"I\'d have a word with you.\"

Vegeta looked up sharply at his father but did not object. He turned and walked a short distance away; his father and Bardock followed.

\"Yes?\" Vegeta asked tensely.

The elder saiya-jin sighed. \"Vegeta, I\'d like if you let Bardock and I handle this one,\" he said. He saw his son start to speak and quickly continued. \"Normally, I understand where you\'re coming from. Even though I haven\'t lived here as you have, I do understand your wanting to keep relative peace with the other races here. But Radditz does have a valid point; they do need to mate. And, if you look carefully, those women seem a bit confused but not all together unhappy to be here.\"

Vegeta glanced quickly toward where Tales and Radditz were standing with the two women and found his father\'s words to be true. Even with the saiya-jin being preoccupied they made no attempt to escape, and the dark-haired girl fairly clung to Tales. Vegeta frowned doubtfully as he addressed his father.

\"We\'ve alreadt set several authorities breathing down our necks,\" he said. \"If the town they come from complains, we could have even more problems.\"

\"Not anything we couldn\'t handle, surely,\" Bardock interjected. \"As far as I can tell, the weakest of ours is far stronger than the strongest human.\"

\"Hai,\" Vegeta agreed. \"Far stronger.\" He sighed and looked at the ground. \"All right, Otousan,\" he said finally, \"I\'ll let you handle this one. I trust your judgment and knowledge over my own.\"

The elder Vegeta smiled a little. \"Good,\" he said. \"You need to go spend some time with your new bonded partner anyway,\" he said. \"Kakarott could use a little break from that shrew he\'s mated to; his son wasn\'t as bad off as she was harping about.\"

\"Hn,\" Vegeta sneered. \"He never is. That boy\'s had nothing but her or his mate screaming in his ear for years.\" He nodded and left.

The elder Vegeta and Bardock turned and walked back to where Tales and Radditz were waiting.

\"Be glad,\" Vegeta said. \"I convinced him to let us handle this; you two might survive today.\"

\"Arigatou, Vegeta-sama,\" Radditz said quietly.

\"I\'m not the king anymore, Radditz,\" the elder Vegeta replied. \"There\'s no need for such formality. \'Otousan\' will be fine.\"

Radditz swallowed hard and looked away. \"Hai...Otousan,\" he said quietly.

\"You never looked away from me, Radditz,\" Bardock said. \"There\'s no reason for you to look away from your own blood.\"

\"Hai, \'Tousan...Bardock,\" Radditz said. He squeezed his eyes shut. \"Just...give me time...onegai...\"

\"You\'ll have time,\" the elder Vegeta agreed. \"Right now we want to ask your women a few things; then we\'ll deal with you two.\"

Radditz and Tales were silent.

\"So, what\'s the story?\" Bardock asked. \"It\'s fairly obvious you two aren\'t completely shattered to be here,\" he said. \"This kind of thing happen often? Vegeta\'s reaction would suggest it doesn\'t.\"

Sumiko chose her words carefully. \"This isn\'t my first choice for a life,\" she admitted, \"but it\'s better than my other options. My parents arranged a marriage with a man I can\'t stand. I had heard about the saiya-jin from the papers in the city; when Radditz and Tales landed in our village, I challenged him intentionally. I could care less what happened to the others - I was just hoping that Radditz would kill me, or at least wound me badly enough to make me undesirable as a wife.\"

Radditz started in shock. He started to reach for Sumiko but Bardock warned him away with a look.

\"And you feel more comfortable here?\" Bardock asked skeptically.

\"Not really,\" Sumiko said. \"But I was going to be forced into having chen een either way. At least Radditz seems willing to fight for me, unlike the entire populace of my village.\" She looked bitter as she said the last part.

The elder Vegeta nd tod toward Museiko. \"And what about her?\" he asked. \"I haven\'t heard a peep out of her yet.\"

Bardock snorted. \"Surprising, considering how much she resembles that shrew Kakarott\'s mated to.\"

Museiko tilted her head a bit, as if she didn\'t understand, but said nothing.

Sumiko was rummaging in her pockets. \"I don\'t have any paper with me,\" she muttered. She turned to Museiko and caught her attention. \"Do you have your paper with you?\" she asked slowly. She made gestures with her hand of writing on paper as she said it.

Museiko nodded and fished a small notebook and pencil out of her pocket.

\"She can\'t talk,\" Sumiko explained. She took the notebook and pencil and wrote on it, then handed it back to Museiko. \"She knows how to read and write, though.\"

Museiko examined the paper and then folded it over carefully and wrote on the back. She handed it to the elder Vegeta. It said simply, \"I don\'t mind; I like being out in the sun.\"

The two elder saiya-jin looked at it quizzically then looked at Sumiko for an explanation. \"What does this mean?\" Bardock asked. \"I don\'t understand what that has to do with this conversation.\"

Sumiko looked at the note and sighed. \"Museiko\'s beery sry sheltered,\" she said. \"Her mother died when she was very small, and her father refused to let her out of the house by herself or learn about real life outside our village. He thinks that some man will take advantage of her because she can\'t talk. I\'m sure she doesn\'t know why we\'re here, but I can understand her not wanting to be locked in the house any more.\"

Tales snorted and looked ruefully at the ground. \"And here I thought the door was locked to keep her hidden. You mean she\'s been some kind of prisoner and no one\'s done anything?\"

\"Our village is very remote and for the most part follows old-fashioned traditions, including not concerning yourself with the business of others,\" Sumiko sighed. \"I\'d have been glad to leave long ago, but I had nothing to leave with.\"

\"You two may have gotten lucky,\" the elder Vegeta said. He closed his eyes in thought for a moment. \"Of course, we\'ll have to explain the situation somehow to the dark-haired girl, but if neither of the women is concerned about leaving, Vegeta may be willing to let it go.\"

*

Vegeta found Gokou sitting outside Gohan\'s house with Gohan and Pan beside him. The three of them seemed to be engrossed in a serious conversation; for once, Gokou\'s face didn\'t have his usual oblivious smile on it, even though he wasn\'t in his super saiya-jin form.

Gokou stood up as Vegeta approached. \"So what\'s going on?\" he asked. \"What were those other kis that came back with the two of them?\"

Vegeta snorted in reply. \"They went out to find mates,\" he said shortly. \"Our fathers are dealing with it right now.\"

\"Went out to find mates?\" Gohan asked incredulously. \"Where?\"

Vegeta shrugged. \"Who knows? Some minor town on the other side of the mountain, I guess. It doesn\'t really matter.\"

\"How did they find someone so quickly?\" Pan asked. \"Surely they didn\'t develop a real relationship in that short of time.\"

\"You and Trunks didn\'t waste any time, from what I recall,\" Vegeta pointed out.

Pan blushed. \"That\'s a little different,\" she said. \"He and I have known each other my whole life - and I have kind of liked him for a while. It was only normal that being in season would put us together.\"

Vegeta shook his head. \"To a saiya-jin, it doesn\'t matter. I waughaught at a young age what to look for in a woman because I was expected to mate with only the best, and saiya-jin women were much fewer in number than the men. To top it off, we not only had to find one we were happy with, but we had to be able to defeat them in battle. I doubt there\'s a human woman alive who could put up a serious fight to Radditz or Tales.\"

\"So you\'re saying they just went and each found a woman they liked the looks of and brought them back? Without any explanations or anything?\" Gokou asked.

\"Hn, you\'re not a total idiot,\" Vegeta said. \"That pretty well sums it up.\"

Gokou scowled, and his hair color flickered slightly as he fought his temper down. \"Where are they now?\" he demanded. \"They\'re not going to get away with this, are they?\"

\"Our fathers are dealing with them right now,\" Vegeta said. \"They requested to handle this and I agreed.\"

\"What?\" Gokou yelled. \"Why? They don\'t know anything about living on Earth! They don\'t know any of the rules here!\"

\"And neither do they care!\" Vegeta snapped. \"For that matter, neither do I. It\'s time you used a little of your brain power and realized that we should not have to live by human ways - we are not human!\"

Gokou clenched his fists. \"Vegeta...\" he started. He sighed heavily.

\"Let it go, Kakarott,\" Vegeta said. \"I wouldn\'t have even stopped to tell you, normally, but for some reason my father seems to think we need to spend time together. I\'m going to take his word for it; I haven\'t had any experience with bonding before, and I\'m not about to let it blow up in my face like our mating season did.\"

Gokou sat back down with a thud. \"All right,\" he said. \"Maybe you can give us a hand, too. Gohan and Pan are trying to decide how to tell Videl about Reed. I told Gohan what I remember about Piccolo when he was born and first fought me, and Gohan thinks that it might be possible that Reed will start needing schooling soon. We don\'t want Videl to say something offhandedly and get Gohan in trouble with Piccolo.\"

Vegeta snorted. \"Tell her the truth. She\'s left once already - if she can\'t handle it she can walk away. We certainly don\'t need more trouble than we have.\"

Gohan sighed. \"I was afraid you were going to say that,\" he said. \"But I guess you\'re right.\"

\"Hn,\" Vegeta snorted. \"Of course I\'m right.\"

*

Piccolo touched down on Kami\'s Lookout and looked around quickly. He scowled when he didn\'t see anyone immediately, but his ears picked up the sound of distant talking. He walked purposefully toward the voices and found Dende, Reed and Mr. Popo in a small section of garden. The young kami-sama and his gardener appeared to be trying to teach Reed how to water the flowers.

Piccolo watched silently as Dende tilted the water can over the ground and sprinkled a little water. He then handed the water can to Reed.

The infant took the water can awkwardly in his hands and held it at a slight angle. It wasn\'t enough to pour any water, and Reed frowned in frustration. He turned the can around to look in the spout and tilted it to see the water - which was also enough to send a gush of water spilling over his face and chest.

Dende chuckled a little as Reed spluttered in the water. He heard Mr. Popo utter a concerned \"Oh my!\" over the situation, but assured him that Reed was completely fine.

Reed looked to disagree. He frowned in a disgruntled manner and uttered a long string of baby babble, which was clearly headed by the word \"kuso\".

Piccolo walked up to the group. \"I\'ll take him back if you\'re done trying to drown him,\" he said.

\"Mr. Popo and I jus just testing out his abilities,\" Dende said. \"He\'s developing rather quickly; he has a grasp of language already, though his vocabulary is a bit limited and...ah, colorful...for the most part.\" He hesitated. \"You...ah...might want to see into that; most people don\'t think that babies should talk that way.\"

Piccolo snorted. \"Whatever.\" He picked up Reed. \"I want to know how you plan to reverse what you did to Videl.\"

Dende sighed. \"There really isn\'t a way to reverse it,\" he said. He rubbed his chin for a minute. \"It\'s remotely possible that she may remember bits and pieces, with enough reminders, but if she wants to know what happened she\'s going to have to have someone tell or show her. That\'s why I was hesitant to do it in the first place.\"

Piccolo shook his fist in anger. \"Which is why you shouldn\'t have done it at all in the first place!\" he growled.

Dende shrugged his shoulders and looked up at Piccolo. \"I knew that her next plan was to summon the dragon for the same thing. I felt that it would be better for her to at least wake up here and not in some remote part of the world. She could have been wandering for hours or more before someone realized she was in trouble.\"

Piccolo growled and stalked away. \"Terrific. Just damned terrific.\" He walked to the edge of the Lookout and took off.

Piccolo started to head toward his usual meditation spot, but the squirming child under his arm made him think. Dende was right, he grudgingly admitted to himself. The child would need to start being taught and he\'d promised at least the learning part to Gohan. He could teach the boy to fight once his coordination was better developed, but it wouldn\'t do any good if the brat couldn\'t understand what he was trying to teach. He changed course and headed for the saiya-jin valley.

Gohan was alone when Piccolo flew into the saiya-jin valley. He touched down and grudgingly held Reed out toward Gohan.

\"Here,\" he said, \"the brat needs to start getting some schooling. He started talking today.\"

Gohan was wide-eyed as he took Reed. \"Really?\" he asked. \"He\'s developing even faster than I thought! I\'ll get him started on easy lessons today, but I better run back to my old house and get all my books and stuff...\" He let his thought trail off as his mind worked out a plan.

\"Whatever,\" Piccolo said. \"Figure out a schedule for teaching him, too. I\'ll be back at sunset to get him.\" He took off without another word.

Gohan was mulling over a plan when a sudden presence in the atmosphere caught his attention. He looked sharply around as a dot of light appeared on the far horizon and became a streak of light that flashed overhead. It disappeared over the other horizon.

Vegeta suddenly appeared in the doorway of his house, with Gokou hot on his heels. No one bothered to remark on the fact that he was wearing only his pants. \"What the hell was that?\" he demanded.

Gohan shook his head. \"Too fast to see for sure,\" he called. \"Looked like some kind of a spaceship.\"

\"Sure it wasn\'t just a big meteor?\" Gokou asked.

\"Baka,\" Vegeta spat. \"We all could tell there was something living in it.\" He stared in the direction the object had gone. \"I didn\'t hear a crash, and whatever it was had a pathetically low power level. Forget about it for now.\"

\"Vegeta, are you sure...?\" Gokou started to ask.

\"I wouldn\'t have said so if I wasn\'t!\" Vegeta snapped. \"Let the humans deal with it; I\'m sure we\'ll hear about it soon enough if it\'s a threat to us.\"

*

A good distance away, a tall young man stepped out of the cramped space pod. He stretched and ran a hand through the upswept flame of dark hair on his head, absentmindedly scratching the back of one of his ears as he did so. His cat-like whiskers twitched in curiosity, taking in information about his surroundings.

On the horizon the young man could see the outline of a city. He clutched the leather-bound case in his hands closer to his chest and looked around; the city looked to be as good of a place as any to start his search.

He reached the city in only a couple of hours. As he walked quickly down the streets, he quickly realized how overwhelming the city was. He hadn\'t the slightest idea where to start his search; all he had was an old photograph and some tidbits of information to go on. He also noticed that he was drawing attention to himself; after a few moments he realized it was because of his apparel. Whereas most of the men in this city seemed to be dressed in pants and jackets, he was still wearing his usual loose blue gown and his ankle and wrist cuffs. He also noticed that none of the men on this planet seemed to be wearing collars. He bit his lip and tried to make his way inconspicuously down the street.

The young man glanced furtively around him as he walked. Where should he even begin? He wondered if there was someone he could ask for directions or something, but didn\'t even have the slightest idea how to approach someone on this planet.

Suddenly a group of teens rushed down the sidewalk, jostling the people walking by. One of them collided with the young man, sending both of them sprawling on the ground.

\"Hey, watch where you\'re going!\" the girl shouted. She got up and dusted herself off.

\"G-Gomennasai, madam,\" the young man stuttered.

One of the teenage boys in the group looked him over critically. \"Freak,\" he sneered. \"What\'s the problem anyway? Too good to get out of our way?\"

\"No sir,\" the young man said. He backed up against the wall of the building behind hid god got to his feet. \"Gomennasai, I wasn\'t expecting...\"

Another one of the teens pushed his shoulder. \"Oh, so now you\'re saying that you think we shouldn\'t be out here, doing as we please, are you?\"

\"No, not at all,\" the young man countered. Fear was starting to creep into his voice.

A police officer suddenly noticed the confrontation. She strode up to the group. \"Is there a problem here, kids?\" she asked sternly.

\"Nah,\" one of the teens said. \"We were just saying sorry to this guy here.\" The group of them fled.

The young man was looking frantically around him when the officer looked back at him. \"Is something wrong, sir?\" she asked
\"
\"M-my case,\" he stuttered. He searched the immediate area with his eyes and spotted the leather case kicked up against the threshold of the building. He quickly snatched it up and clutched it to his chest.

The officer was studying him carefully. \"Do you need help, young man?\" she asked.

\"I-I\'m look-looking for someone,\" he stuttered. \"I-I\'m not f-from around here.\"

The officer smiled. \"I can tell,\" she said dryly. \"Come with me down to the station,\" she said, \"we\'ll see if we can find this person you\'re looking for when we get there.\"

The young man swallowed and looked at the ground. \"H-hai, madam,\" he said. He followed as she lead the way to the police station.

\"Oi, Jakku!\" the officer called as she walked in the building. \"Got a possible missing person here for you. You wanna see what you can do with this guy?\"

The male officer at the desk waved over at them. \"Sure, send him over,\" he said.

The female officer nodded toward the desk. \"Jakku will help you out, let him know who you\'re looking for and the specifics. He\'ll probably have a few questions.\"

The young man nodded. \"A-arigatou,\" he said. He walked over to the desk.

Jakku greeted the young man. \"What can I do for you Mr...\"

\"Gato,\" the young man said. \"My name\'s Gato.\"

\"Mr. Gato,\" Officer Jakku said. \"So you\'re looking for a missing person?\"

\"Sort of,\" Jakku said. \"My...my mother passed away, and I came here looking for someone who may be a relative. I only have an old photograph and a name to mostly go by.\"

\"You have the picture with you?\" Jakku asked. \"We can see what we have in the files.\"

Gato dug in the leather case he carried and brought out an old photograph. He slid it across the desk to the officer.

Officer Jakku picked up the photograph and looked at it. He did a quick double take then looked up at Gato. \"I think I may know your guy,\" he said, \"but I\'d like to double check the ID. You said you have a name for him?\"

\"Hai,\" Gato said. \"The name that was with that picture was \'Vegeta\'.\"