Protection the Raditz Way

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z. Toriyama does and I don't get paid for writing this fan fiction. I own Jeannie, Tomique, and Christine is owned by Bulma the Babe.

Notes: This story goes into detail about the relationship Radditzu develops with a friend of Bulma's (Atomique who is my OC) who is an alchemist/researcher from an alternate universe. Radditzu and Nappa are also from a parallel universe but have been transported to the DBZ universe by mercinaries who were chasing Tomique and her two comrades Jeannie and Chirstine. Jeannie despises Tomique and is looking for chances for revenge... to find out what those are you'll have to read Saiyan Foster Parent! :)
***

Later that same morning:

Jeannie wandered down the hallways towards the gravity chamber. Across her body she had slung a workout bag, containing her armor. Instead of it she wore sweatpants that hung off her hips, along with a sleeveless shirt that said "Demon girl' across the breasts in red felt lettering. Out of her transformation her face was olive complected, her dark hair in a ponytail and its usual topknot trailing down her back.

A sudden power spike in ki piqued her interest. She diverted her heading from the gravity room, letting her gym bag drop so she could investigate. There was no mistaking the signature of the sudden ki burst, for it was distinctly Star Child. Momentarily she thought it could be Paul or Elliot. Then it faded to a level and frequency that matched someone else. Jeannie's features twisted into a frown. She slid the door open, to see the white smocked figure moving around the lab with ease. Atomic Girl, a.k.a. Tomique-san in this reality was assembling a set of glassware into a reactor. Glass tubes and condensers were latched together with green plastic clips.

"Not using her powers, interesting," said Jeannie to herself.

"Is someone there?" asked the alchemist. She had her hands cupped around a flask hooked to the bottom of the reactor. For a second her hands glowed purple, then stopped.

However Jeannie smelled only ultraviolet light, not the scent of alchemical change. Although Jeannie's sense of smell was not as acute as a Saiyan's, it was more attenuated to scenting types of chikara or ki. Instead of sensing energies like Goku did, she smelled them. Most Saiyans smelled chemicals such as hormones or personal scents, but she smelled energies.

"That's interesting, you're not using your transmutation powers?" asked Jeannie.

"Jeannie, can I help you?" Tryn asked in a professional tone. Dark brown eyes met dragon green, noting the slight intimidating challenge. While Jeannie towered over the average height woman, Tryn's large shoulders and wide hips were packed with muscle and the same weight in a more compact package than Dragon Womyn's. Forgetting the height discrepancy, the way in which the chemist stared down the younger woman would intimidate most smaller then her.

"Actually I was curious just WHAT you were doing in here…"

"Work for Bulma," said Atomique.

"Aren't you usually sparring… or taking care of your children?"

"I could ask the same of you. Is there some specific reason you're here, because I've got a great deal of work to do…"

"Always hiding in your lab," Jeannie said. "How typical."

"Excuse me? Do you have something to say to me, young lady?" Tryn asked, giving her best teacher from hell look that pissed her off.

"Don't give me THAT," Jeannie laughed. "My dad was a teacher, and that doesn't work on me. I'm not one of your STUDENTS you can boss around…"

"What's your point exactly?" Tryn asked, keeping all emotion out of her face. "Unless you've got a reason for coming here, you're interrupting something vitally important. Please don't interrupt me. I don't appreciate..."

"Always trying to hide behind manners…"

"You're trying to provoke me into a fight, right? Well I'm not in the mood," Tomique said, turning her back and ignoring her. "Now if you'll excuse me…"

"Look at me while I'm talking to you!"

"Unless you have something of note to say, leave. Obviously you've picked me for your target. I'm NOT interested," Tomique said.

"Too bad," Jeannie mumbled. "You know it always amazes me how you can get lost doing NOTHING in this damn lab when there are more important things to do. Not that you don't have your USES making plastics and things, but maybe it's better you do THAT instead of caring for young…"

"Hmm," Tomique said, ignoring Jeannie. She knew what the girl was trying to do, and was determined not to be bated into a fight. It became a waiting game, where the organic chemist simply started working with extremely noxious chemicals which left incredibly bad smells.

She opened a bottle of DMSO, which smelled like garlic. "Forgot to turn on the fume hood," she said when Jeannie wrinkled her nose. Swirling the product in a separation flask, she vented it, and then drained off the denser fluid, leaving the lighter on top. Then she poured the entire mixture through a large column filled with sand and other packing to filter it out and collect it at the bottom.

"Always playing the absent minded professor? C'mon, Tryn, that act's getting Seriously old. You can't ignore me. I can be as big a pain in the ass as you can…"

"What was that?" Tomique asked, acting bored. "Oh, there's the ether… excuse me…"

"Humph, I see you're still trying to pretend I'm not here. Well surprise, I'm not going away…"

"That's nice," Tomique said. "So, what exactly IS your point? Don't you have training to do?"

"As if YOU had any say in what I do," Jeannie smirked.

"Uh huh," Tomique said, dipping into the 'I'm ignoring you because I'm running an experiment' mode. She poured the rest of her chemical into the reactor to start the polymerization process.

"I guess your alchemy powers aren't all THAT hot because you're not using them," Jeannie smirked.

"IT takes energy to create matter. Why waste my powers on THAT when I can do things the old fashioned way," Tomique answered.

"Or maybe you're too weak or not as powerful as I thought," Jeannie said.

"So what?" asked Tomique. "You're the warrior. You tell me."

"I think you're hiding. Hiding behind excuses like you always do. You never WERE cut out to bear the power as I was…"

"Were any of us?" she asked, turning to stare at Jeannie. "You can go on and on about how I’m not this, that or the other, but frankly, I don't care. You've made it clear you don't care for me. So why not coexist with a minimum of friction since you hate my guts so much…"

"Always taking that path of least resistance. So very like a scientist… or academic hiding behind books. Well, while you hide in your…"

"If you're going to hurl insults, you're doing a piss poor job. You could at LEAST make up some original ones that aren't out of some stupid cliché comic book or bad SF novel," Tomique rolled her eyes at Jeannie.

"Ah, so we're switching to pop culture?" asked Jeannie. "Well, Miss Trekkie, I can bury you any day with useless trivia!"

"Term's Trekker, Miss Otaku. And no I don't wear my Spock ears to bed. They're next to my Bajoran Earring…" she quipped. "Probably the same place you left your Gundam mobile suit, or your D-tector…"

"Very funny. Why don't you just call Scotty or O'Brian and beam yourself the hell outta here, or maybe I should just throw you in the nearest damn worm hole," Jeannie smirked.

"Go hope Galactic express 99, and leave me the hell alone," she grumbled. Cupping her hands around the bottom of the flask she struggled to generate the right frequency of UV light.

"Oh, now we're using our powers? I suppose you can't help but learn that alchemy you learned on the Full Metal world…" said Jeannie.

"Bugger off," Tomique said.

"May your white labcoat disintegrate spontaneously," Jeannie stuck her tongue out.

"Ouch, that was below the belt," Tomique mumbled. "Obviously you've been delving into that classic SF collection…"

"You wouldn't have the talent to make that sort of polymer. Not even you, who call yourself an organic chemist. You can't even muster the battle chikara for a proper attack. You just throw plastic at me. Funny how you were able to transmute left and right when you first GAINED the power… what happened?"

"I don't know. Maybe the same thing that happened to you? Your powers evolved over time. Considering you started from ground zero like I did?"

"My powers didn't change. You could transmute anything to anything else… and now all you can do is generate plastics. What happened? Lose your touch?"

"Any of the 92 elements or simpler matter," said Tryn. "But the power was random. I focussed on learning the discipline of one element only. IN the Alchemy world, they think of the four or five elements as in archaic times. I chose the same approach, but picked the few elements that I understood. Since I'm an organic chemist, I best understand making things from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. I can manipulate these three because I comprehend them. Just like you use your powers geologically because you understand THAT…"

"How perfectly academic. I didn't come here to hear you lecture," said Jeannie, yawning.

"Then why did you?"

"Just to see why I felt a feeble flash of battle power that disintegrated to nothing. That talisman is wasted on you. You couldn't exist without it…"

"Contrary to what you believe, I don't use my talisman for my transmutations. I learned how on my own abilities. Whatever you saw me do was by what I learned in the Alchemy world alone. While I needed the talisman or Paul's star powers to do what I accomplished in our world, this was my own ability… my own knowledge of Alchemy…"

"No wonder. You're not USING your talisman. HAH," Jeannie laughed. "Well that laugh's on you, because I'm not either. Everything I do is based on the power that is part of me… my body's learned to push itself to the limits. The thing they didn't tell any of us is that the talisman…"

"Changed our molecular structure and mutated it. I know," Trynia mumbled.

"I was going to say mutated our cells and modified them into a more adaptable form," Jeannie interrupted. "Allowing my body to collect and metabolize geothermal energy…"

"Yeah I know you eat fire and heat. Christine can drain the life force of other beings and use it for her powers," said Tomique. "This I already know."

"None of us has need of the talisman now that our bodies have changed. And I can trigger the change to my Dragon Womyn persona at will…"

"Just like a Super Saiyan change. How nice for you," said Tomique.

"You're too scared to try and use the full extent of the power that talisman can give you. Only once or twice did I see you use its full potential. You amaze me how you can hold such power and just chuck it aside. It convinces me you're not worthy for it."

"So what? Show me someone who can use it?" she asked. "I didn't ASK for it. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't like using it. But the Talismen are only catalysts. That's why the Destroyers want them. Because it's merely speeding up what was already set in motion. Unlocking latent powers…"

"I already knew that, idiot," laughed Jeannie. "You're not the only one knowledgeable of science…"

"I know that. What I don't get is why you're wasting my time and yours going on and on trying to piss me off. Because if it's a fight you want, we can go a few rounds in the gym and try and beat each other's asses if you REALLY want. Is that it… do you want me to see if I can fight you one on one?"

"That would be interesting. I doubt you could last adjacent me… but then again…" Jeannie smirked. "You barely held your own against a third class Saiyan. And all five of us needed to RESCUE your ass."

"Try me," Tomique said quietly.

Jeannie reached forwards and grabbed the chemist by the neck. Fortunately she had anticipated this, and zipped out to crack Jeannie in the back of the neck with a blow. It stung her hand. Jeannie laughed and grabbed her, labcoat and all, throwing her into the hallway. Tomique managed to bring up her hands and form a strange gel like substance that coated her body and cushioned against the shock.

"Oh, now THAT's cute… it looks like some weird fiber," Jeannie laughed, flaring into her power with a blaze of crimson. "But why not take this into a more appropriate location…"

"Fine by me," Tomique said, wiping blood off her face and climbing to her feet. "Let's go…"

Jeannie grabbed her up and carried her to the nearest GR room in a flash. Tomique felt the crushing weight of two G's. "I doubt you can withstand anything more than your feeble bone structure can take," Jeannie laughed. "See if you can even survive twice earth's gravity…"

Atomique gasped as she felt her body pressed under its own weight. Jeannie turned up the gravity, striding in, as she was able to stand. Slowly the dials came up incrementally. She formed a thin shell of red ki, and saw the scientist laying there on the floor, flat. "So, you can't do anything you fool… can you?"

"I don't want to waste energy running my mouth and standing," Tomique answered, concentrating. Her bones seemed to transmute into something else. Slowly she pushed up, and faced Jeannie.

"Interesting. Ten times earth G and you're standing upright. How do you do it?"

"Same way your body does. Your molecular structure's denser. But there's a limit to how much you can take. But if my bones aren't calcium phosphate, but composed of nanofiber tubules…" said Tomique with a laugh.

"You transmute your own body. How quaint," Jeannie laughed. "I can simply screen the gravity out…"

"With ki. What a waste of energy…" Tomique whispered.

"I dare you to try to face 100 G for one moment. Your alchemy wouldn't allow you to last!" laughed Jeannie.

"Perhaps not…" she gasped as the gravity increased. A shiny film encased her skin, and before her eyes, Jeannie saw her transmute into a shining gleaming being of translucent crystal.

"Clever, becoming diamond itself. But I don't think even that form of matter can keep you from collapsing… when you can't even generate any ki field to…"

Tomique suddenly switched back, forming a sheen of purple ki. It then dawned on her what was happening. The thin film of plasma started to glow, making something akin to the surface of the sun. "You're making your OWN gravity field… to counter it…" she gasped.

"Bing, bing, genius," Jeannie laughed. "But you don't have the chikara to muster the energy field… I can tap into geothermal energy much like Leader does. I'm invulnerable to harm…"

"Making your molecular structure denser… but you're expending much energy to keep from collapsing under your own weight," said Tomique quietly.

"Wrong. I'm using the training Bejita taught me. Making my own energy shield to block the gravity. That's something you can't do…"

"You're making your own body's energy high enough to counteract gravity's effect somehow. Creating an antigravity field with so much mental power…" she thought. "Like a living star…"

"Try and do it without your precious transmutation…" laughed Jeannie.

"I can do whatever you can," she gasped. There came a knock on the GR door, and the power disengaged.

"HEY, you two, you're not SCHEDULED for this!" yelled Vegeta. "Kindly vacate!"

"But I was just…"

"Get the hell out!" Vegeta snarled at both of them. "Play your games elsewhere!"

Jeannie grumbled; marching out as her opponent slowly staggered. Atomique limped out, looking at Vegeta in relief. He blinked, then gave a worried scowl to see the annoyance on his student's face. Although he seemed his usual pissy self, he knew what had almost happened.

"This is getting downright annoying," he thought. "I've got two people trying to kill each other. Normally it wouldn’t concern me, but Kakkarot would give me hell if I let it continue. Stupid baka females!"