Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wish For The Past ❯ No Such Luck ( Chapter 22 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: *wracks her brains for something witty to say* Dang, I'm running a blank on ideas for disclaimers. Oh, well, guess I'll just have to resort to saying it plain and simple. I don't own DBZ. I'm not making money off of this fic. I don't even have any money. So trying to sue me would be a waste of your time. ^_^

Just place that wire there... and switch that connection... perfect. Connect the visual input program to the memory chip.... Got it! Grinning with success, Bardock closed up Radditz's modified scouter and put away his tools. He placed it over one eye and pressed the button. Time for a test run. He pointed the device towards his sleeping son, then pressed another button that brought the modifications to life. 1...2...3... that should be long enough to make sure it's working. He released the button and tapped a third one. A few moments later, he grinned again and turned the scouter off. Great! It's working perfectly!

Quietly making his way towards the sleeping chibis, he checked to see if they were still asleep. They were. Trunks now had Goten's tail in his mouth and was sucking the tip lightly, while Goten had turned in his sleep and was clinging to Vegeta, who was still hugging the black haired demi-saiyan. Bardock chuckled softly as he turned the scouter back on and pressed the 'record' button, holding it down for several long minutes. I'll need to find someplace to store the data, or else it could be lost with a single ki blast. I'll have to keep this a secret until I can download it to a more permanent location. Deciding he had enough footage to suit his purposes, he released the 'record' button and turned the scouter off. The scouter itself went into the capsule that had been emptied when they had eaten. The inside of a capsule was probably the safest place to store the device at this point, considering the destructive company he was keeping these days. Now if I can just get Trunks to teach me how to use his ship's computer....

Figuring that he had let them sleep long enough, Bardock shook Radditz awake. "I'm going to wake up the other kids," he said once his son had rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Thought you might like to watch." Radditz smirked when he glanced over at the children and nodded his gratitude. His father walked over to the pile of chibis and smiled cheerfully as he called out, "Time to wake up! Come on, we need to get going so we can find out what happened to the dragonballs!"

All three boys groaned and stirred. Trunks was the first to truly wake up, sitting up groggily and wiping his eyes with one hand. He suddenly realized that he was holding Goten's tail in his other hand... and it was covered in his drool. Blushing in embarrassment, he swiftly thrust the appendage away and scrambled to his feet, hoping that no one had seen him. One look at Bardock and Radditz's grinning faces told him that he had no such luck. He blushed an even darker shade of red.

The next to wake was the young prince Vegeta. He yawned widely and snuggled closer to the warm 'pillow' in his arms, not wanting to wake up just yet. However, when the 'pillow' wriggled and squeezed him in response, his eyes shot wide open in surprise and dismay. The pillow wasn't a pillow at all. It was Goten! He was hugging Goten! And Goten was hugging him back! He roughly shoved the boy away, or tried to. Unfortunately for the chibi prince, Goten was stronger than him even while he was sleeping and he was completely helpless to free himself from the other chibi's grip. To his horror, his struggles only caused the boy to tighten his hug and snuggle closer. Laughter from three different people alerted Vegeta to the fact that there were witnesses to this spectacle. He turned his head to find all three of the other Saiyans rolling on the ground, holding their sides as they laughed so hard it made tears come from their eyes. That was it. He had to escape!

"Kisama!!!" he growled loudly in Goten's ear. "Let me go, you baka third-class, half-breed, demon-spawn gaki!!"

Goten's sleepy eyes opened halfway, focusing on Vegeta's furious black eyes. He smiled and mumbled. "Ohayoo, Veggie-chan."

"Don't you 'ohayoo' me, you idiot! Let! Me! GO! And never call me Veggie-chan again!" the captive prince roared. His captor blinked and yawned, releasing Vegeta as he stretched. In the blink of an eye, Vegeta had rolled away from Goten to prevent a recurrence of the incident. He sat up and glared at Goten, growling deep in his throat.

Bardock was regretting his decision to put away the scouter. Kuso, I wish I had recorded that! He held his aching sides as he attempted to stop laughing. But if I hadn't hidden the scouter, they might have realized what I was doing. Then they would have done everything they could to destroy it. Better to have something than nothing at all. Still, that was funny! I can hardly wait until it's safe to show them the recording... after I have copies safely stored somewhere else. He grinned broadly, finally managing to gain control of himself.

"Let's go see that Namek Elder you were talking about, Trunks," he said, drawing everyone's attention. "No point in putting it off any longer." They all quickly agreed and set off towards the nearby settlement where, they hoped, they would find some answers.

It must have seemed really odd to the Nameks who were outside when a group of strange beings flew into their village and landed. One adult, one adolescent, and three children, all with brown, furry tails and black, spiky hair except for one of the children, who had purple hair. The Nameks and the strangers eyed each other warily until youngest of the aliens, the one who looked remarkably like the adult, ran forward and tugged on the hem of a Namek's shirt. "'Scuse me, sir, can you tell us where the Elder is?" he asked innocently. The Namekian smiled at the cute child.

"Why do you wish to see the Elder, young one?" he asked curiously.

The child smiled and tilted his head to one side. "We wanna ask him 'bout the dragonballs," he chirped. Several Nameks started murmuring at this comment. How did these strangers know about the dragonballs? And what did they want them for? Were they good, or evil? The child continued in his explanation, oblivious to the stir he was creating. "Y'see, our Dragon Radar isn't picking anything up so we wanna know if the dragonballs are sleeping or if our radar is broken. Me and Trunks need the dragonballs so we can get home."

Having had no previous experience with Nameks, Bardock opted to let Goten and Trunks deal with interacting with the green and pink bipeds He watched with amusement as the Nameks talked amongst themselves. After several moments of soft discussion, the Namek that Goten had approached spoke up. "You do not need to ask the Elder about the condition of the dragonballs. Almost every Namek on this planet knows that the Eternal Dragon was summoned roughly seventy two hours ago. The dragonballs will remain dormant for another Namekian year." Goten wilted visibly at this answer, his shoulders and head sagging in defeat. "We are sorry," the Namek apologized.

Bardock walked over to his grandson and picked him up, giving him a quick hug before setting him on his shoulders. "Thank you for your help," he said politely to the Nameks in general. They nodded their acknowledgment, then went back to their daily routine. The group of five Saiya-jin left the village in silence, heading back to where Radditz's ship had landed.

When they were about half way there, Trunks suddenly blinked in surprise. "Why are we so upset?" he laughed. "There's still Earth's dragonballs!" There was a stunned moment of silence as this sank in, the Goten and Bardock grinned in unison. Radditz and Vegeta, who didn't have as big a stake in the matter, merely smiled faintly. "Come on," Trunks continued. "It takes about a week to get to Earth from here, so let's get started right away!" With a burst of speed brought on by enthusiasm, the purple haired demi-saiyan whooped and yelled happily as he soared through the air towards where Radditz's ship was. They would need to put the thing in a capsule so they didn't leave it lying around. They didn't know if there would ever be a need for a second ship, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Then it was off to space again, this time heading for the world that two of their number considered home.

"So when do we do it?" Goten asked, looking from Trunks to Vegeta as the three huddled in the room they shared. Vegeta and Trunks wore identical smirks of anticipation.

"Tonight," Vegeta pronounced confidently. "When they're both asleep."

"Why tonight?" Trunks asked curiously. "We have a whole week before we get to Earth."

"Because," his chibi-father explained. "If we do it tonight, we'll have the rest of the week to recover from any physical damage they inflict on us. You do want to be as healthy as possible when we land on that planet, don't you?"

"But if we want to be healthy, then why are we gonna do this in the first place?" Goten demanded in a puzzled tone.

"Baka! Do you want to be bored for a whole week?" Trunks rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Sure, we can train with you grandpa and uncle, but that's no fun after a while."

"Oooh," the youngest Saiyan said, a look of dawning comprehension in his eyes. "Sooo... what am I supposed to do again?"

Father and son sweatdropped in unison, then rolled their eyes. "Baka, you're supposed to get the things we're going to use, remember? And you do know where they are, right?" Trunks prodded his friend in the ribs with an elbow. Goten nodded eagerly, grinning with one hand behind his head. "Good. Vegeta, you're in charge of making sure the rooms are done as planned. I'll do the hard part, since I'm the strongest and I can suppress my ki. That reminds me, we need to teach you how to sense and hide ki. We'll do that later tomorrow."

"But Truuunks!" Goten whined. "I wanna help you! Your part is the fun part!"

Vegeta frowned. The brat had a point. "I'm surprised to find myself saying this, but I agree with the kid."

"I'm not a kid, Veggie-chan!" Goten protested. "An' you're only two years older than me! So if I'm a kid, you are too!"

"You are a kid. I'm not because I am the Saiya-jin no Ouji," Vegeta stated imperiously. "That makes me more mature than my age." Almost as an afterthought, he added, "And don't call me Veggie-chan!"

"Knock it off, you two," Trunks grumbled. "We need to get back to what's important. Goten, because you can hide your ki, you can help me. Okay?" The smallest chibi smiled happily and nodded. Trunks turned to the older boy. "Vegeta, you can watch, but you have to stay as far away from them as possible. Bardock can sense ki, so if you get too close, you might wake him up since you can't hide your ki." Vegeta nodded reluctantly, sighing. "Okay. Let's get started," he said, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

Giggling mischievously, the trio of trouble makers continued making their plans for the upcoming prank they would pull that night. Trunks and Goten were pleased to have chibi Vegeta in their group. Pranks were always funnier when shared. And there was also something about safety in numbers. Vegeta himself was pleased to be in on this joke for more than one reason. For one, it was a way to find out more about his future son. He had to admit, the boy definitely took after his father. What they were planning was nothing short of devious, and it had mostly been Trunks's idea. The other major reason he was glad to be a part of this was that it beat being bored for the whole trip and it was just plain entertaining. He could hardly wait to see Bardock's and Radditz's faces when they woke up!

Thanks to all my reviewers for supporting me in this story! Now go and review again! *laughs* ^_^ (Demanding author, ain't I? *winks*)