Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wish For The Past ❯ Midnight Mayhem ( Chapter 23 )

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

Disclaimer: I may not own it now, I may not own it tomorrow, I may not own it next year, but someday I will own DBZ!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!! *maniacal laughter* Until then, it belongs to Akira Toriyama, the lucky guy.

It was night time on board the ship, the lights were dimmed in the hallway, casting deep shadows everywhere. The silence was only broken by the ominous whirs and hum of machinery, and by the faint sounds of suppressed giggles. A small clatter echoed loudly as something was accidentally dropped, followed by several shushing noises. Then silence reigned once more.

With stealth born of the desire to live long enough to complete their mission, the three chibis snuck into the room where Bardock and Radditz slept, each carrying an armful of materials. Trunks nodded to Vegeta and Goten as they all set about their tasks. The lilac haired boy crept over to Bardock, pushing his ki down as far as it would go, and climbed onto the bunk where the warrior snored softly, a blanket draped over the lower half of his body. One arm and leg hung over the edge of the bed and his pillow had somehow ended up underneath his feet. Goten moved towards his uncle, eyeing the mass of hair that was the most visible part of the teenager who was sleeping on his stomach, face turned turned to the wall. Vegeta began setting aside certain objects in preparation for his part of the plan.

I am not afraid of jello, Vegeta scolded himself firmly. It is an inanimate object and can do me no harm. He pulled out a bowl of jello, a vibrant shade of green rather than the red of his last encounter. It isn't alive. It isn't alive. It. Is. Not. Alive. He whimpered and squeezed his eyes shut despite himself and reached a hand into the slimy gelatin, cringing instinctively as he half expected to be absorbed then and there. Nothing happened, so he retracted his hand, holding a quivering blob of the lime-flavored dessert as he pulled Radditz's Saiyan armor away from the teen's bed where it had been discarded. He smirked at his triumph over the villainous dessert and slathered it inside the armor where it couldn't be seen, refraining from letting loose with an evil cackle. He didn't want to be anywhere near Radditz when the teen donned his armor tomorrow morning!

Trunks held his breath for a few tense moments as Bardock mumbled something in his sleep that sounded like 'celery', then slowly exhaled as the warrior settled back into his dream. Grinning broadly, he opened the tube of super glue that he had found in the tool cabinet earlier that day. This was the hard part. He cautiously dabbed a few spots of the stuff onto Bardock's bare chest, then pulled a few feathers from a pillow he had torn open. Before the glue had a chance to dry, he carefully placed a few feathers on each spot, then proceeded to dab more glue on. Within a few minutes, Bardock's chest was covered in feathers and Trunks was fighting a bout of giggles. He froze when his victim suddenly reached a hand up and scratched his neck. Please don't wake up. Please don't wake up. Please don't wake up. He silently prayed as he watched the man scratch the momentary itch, then relaxed when Bardock's hand dropped back to his side. Not wasting a moment, the chibi started on his next task. He slowly lifted Bardock's tail, touching it as lightly as possible. He knew from experience that the things were hyper sensitive, but it was too tempting to resist including it in the joke. Picking up a paint brush, he dipped it in a bottle of the same kind of dye that he and Goten had used on Bardock's shirt, then deftly stroked the liquid onto the brown fur of the Saiyan's tail. To his amusement, Bardock smiled in his sleep and started purring in pleasure. Another murmur of 'celery' and the warrior reached out and pulled Trunks to his feathered chest in a passionate embrace.

Panic was quickly gripping the boy's mind as the victim of his prank started trying to kiss him. What the hell is he doing?! his mind screamed. He squeaked in mortification as Bardock started nuzzling his ear, murmuring incoherently. He couldn't move. He didn't dare try to pull from the embrace for fear of waking Bardock. That would be bad. Really bad. "Goten!" he whispered, his voice cracking slightly. "Help!" Even as softly as he spoke, his captor still noticed it in his sleep.

"Don' worry, celery," he mumbled. "I'm here. Love you so much." Bardock kissed Trunks tenderly on his forehead and tightened his grip protectively. Trunks was nearly in tears as terror and humiliation swirled around inside him. Bardock was kissing him! And hugging him! And... and... who knows what might happen next if he didn't escape soon!

Goten looked up from what he was doing - he had been dying Radditz's tail pink, too - and nearly burst out laughing at his friend's plight. Vegeta, too, paused in his task of... painting... the walls when he heard Trunks's plea. He eyed his future son and smirked evilly. There wasn't anything he could do about it, since he couldn't suppress his ki yet, so he might as well enjoy it while it lasted. Goten, however, quickly came to his friend's rescue. Stifling a giggle, he gently pried Bardock's arms away from Trunks enough so that the other demi-saiyan could wriggle free of his captor's embrace. The lavender haired boy nearly sobbed with relief and looked at Goten gratefully, unspoken thanks in his blue eyes. Goten smiled and hopped off the bed, headed back to finish his own job. Bardock muttered dicontentedly as his hands groped blindly for his lost 'celery'.

Glaring at Bardock, Trunks once again picked up his brush and started to streak the warrior's black hair with the pink dye. Originally, they had agreed not to dye either Bardock's or Radditz's hair, but he was feeling vengeful. He sat back slightly with satisfaction as he studied the now black-and-pink streaked spikes of hair that Bardock sported, somehow reminiscent of Gotenks's hair when he was untransformed. That would have to do. He didn't want to remain this close to Bardock any longer than necessary. Especially not after what had just happened. He quickly got off the bed and glanced at Goten and Vegeta to see how they were coming along. Vegeta was done with his 'redecoration' of the room and now stood observing Radditz and Bardock, and Goten had nearly finished squirting the whipped cream into Radditz's hair. Trunks grinned broadly as the other chibi started putting brightly colored candy sprinkles on the white stuff, then placed a single cherry on top. Hee hee. He looks like an ice cream cone now! Which was, of course, what they had intended.

Finishing what he was doing, Goten crawled off the bed and joined Trunks and Vegeta by the door. The three boys looked at each other and grinned identical, evil grins. It was time for the final part of their joke. Trunks pulled out a Polaroid camera and started snapping off a whole role of film, taking pictures of the scene in general and close-ups of both Bardock and Radditz. Too bad they wouldn't be around to take pictures of when the two actually woke up! Hastily gathering the pictures and their supplies, the three chibis ran out of the room, eager to celebrate their newest conquest.

Consciousness slowly dawned on Bardock, gradually shifting him from dreams to reality. And what pleasant dreams they had been! Sighing happily, he recalled the warm feelings that the dreams of Sereri had left him with. It had almost felt like she was really there in the bed with him, her firm, smooth fighter's body pressed against his. Too bad it was only a dream, he thought sadly. Kami, I miss her so much.

Yawning widely, he stretched and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Wow. I feel really good this morning. I don't think I've slept so well in... well, ages! Not since Sereri died, anyway. Determined not to dwell on what was lost, he reached a hand blindly towards the floor, groping for his pants. Finding them, he started to pull them on.

Squish.

Cold, wet, sliminess met his legs and he stared down at the black pants that he had pulled on half way before he stopped. What looked suspiciously like green jello was leaking out the tears in the fabric, pooling on the floor. It was then that he finally noticed that the room had been trashed sometime during the night. Toilet paper hung from everywhere, glitter and confetti lay heavily on the floor, and someone had painted the word 'baka' in blue toothpaste with large, elaborate letters all over the walls and floor. His eyes widened when he looked at his sleeping son and he couldn't help but laugh, forgetting about the jello filled pants he was sitting in. Radditz's tail was pink! And whoever had dyed it had been rather sloppy about it, dripping the dye into the Saiyan teen's mass of black hair, leaving behind spots of pink on most of the black spikes of hair. On top of that, from what Bardock could see, his son's arms now sported feathers in several patches. He clutched at his chest as he laughed even harder in an attempt to prevent himself from hyperventilating.

His laughter abruptly stopped as his fingers came in contact with something they shouldn't. Instead of smooth, rippling muscles, he encountered... feathers. Soft, small, fluffy, white feathers. He stared at his chest in horror and tried to rub the things off, but they remained firmly attached. He tried to pull one off, but yelped when it came free, along with a small bit of skin. His tail began lashing furiously as the connection between each thing clicked in place. The lashing tail drew his attention as he realized that it was no longer a solid brown color. Instead, it was a mottled pink and brown, as though someone had started to stroke paint onto his tail, but had been interrupted. He lifted the tail and stared at it blankly for a moment, then suddenly noticed that he was growling.

"Kiiisaaamaaaa!!!"

Radditz, startled out of sleep by his father's angry snarl, bolted upright, looking around frantically for the source of danger. When he spotted Bardock, he started laughing his head off. "F-father! Wha-hahaha what happened to you?! Your tail! Your chest! Your hair!!! Hahahaha!!!" He was laughing so hard that he fell out of bed and landed on the floor in a pile of fallen whipped cream. Unfazed, he kept on laughing.

"Don't laugh too hard until you've seen yourself, Radditz," Bardock growled as he removed his jello-filled pants and headed for the bathroom to see what had been done to his hair. He didn't see Radditz's reaction, but he certainly heard the baleful snarl his son gave. One look in the mirror was enough for Bardock to entertain pleasant fantasies of torture and revenge. "Those kids are dead," he stated with deadly calm, his eyes flashing as he turned towards Radditz.

Wearing nothing but their underwear and, in Radditz's case, the whipped cream and sprinkles in his hair that was quickly falling like multicolored rain onto the floor, the two furious Saiyans departed from their room and began their new favorite sport. Chibi hunting.

"We're gonna die!" Goten moaned. "My grandpa and Uncle Radditz are gonna kill us!" He clutched his head in his hands and whimpered softly. They had been listening to the sounds of Bardock and Radditz waking up and discovering their condition for the past fifteen minutes and could now sense them making their way through the ship.

"Shhhh!!! We will die if you keep making noise and give our location away, you idiot!" Trunks hissed angrily. "Just be quiet and maybe they won't find us."

"Both of you be quiet!" Vegeta growled softly.

It suddenly dawned on Trunks with a sickening certainty that they were already doomed. Oh man! Vegeta's with us! And he can't suppress his ki!!

No sooner had the panicked thought entered his mind than the door of the kitchen cupboard they were hiding in swung open, revealing the vengeful faces of their most recent victims. "Hello, kids," Bardock smirked as his hands darted in and grabbed Trunks and Goten by the collars of their shirts. Radditz plucked Vegeta out, glaring daggers at his prince. The look was so venomous that the chibi prince completely forgot that he was the stronger of the two. Likewise, both Goten and Trunks wilted under Bardock's angry stare, never even thinking about breaking free and running. All three children gulped and stared at their captors in wide eyed, petrified terror.

"H-hi, grandpa," Goten stammered, giving his grandpa the best Son Puppy Dog Eyes (TM) he could manage. Bardock smiled broadly and set Goten down on the floor, letting go of his shirt. The chibi heaved a sigh of relief... until he saw the look in Bardock's eyes. What Goten had at first taken to be a gentle smile on his grandfather's face was, in reality, a cocky, evil smile, made worse by the glint of deadly seriousness in his eyes. It sent chills down Goten's spine.

Bardock used his now-free hand to search through Trunks's pockets until he came up with the capsule case that he kept all the capsules in. He pocketed the container and picked Goten up again, nodded at Radditz to bring Vegeta and follow him. As they headed back to the room, Bardock stated in a slightly angry, firm voice, "You three will be cleaning up the mess you made in our room. All of it. Including my pants and any other clothing you did anything to." He and Radditz deposited them at the scene of the crime. Before the three could bless their good fortune in having such a lenient punishment, Bardock made his final, and worst, pronouncement. "And you will not be having breakfast, either."

No breakfast?! Now it became clear why Bardock had taken the capsules from Trunks. He was making sure that they wouldn't be able to eat breakfast! Missing even one meal was almost a fate worse than death for a Saiyan. The three chibis stared at Bardock in horror and suffering at the mere thought of having to wait hours before their next meal.

With a final, vindictive glare at the culprits, Radditz and Bardock left, closing the door behind them.

"Come on, Radditz. After we take a shower, I want to show you something," Bardock muttered in a low voice. "Trunks showed me how to use the computer before we went to bed. There's some data I used your scouter to record that you should find... interesting." The tone in his father's voice immediately caught Radditz's attention and he smirked in response. Whatever it was, it was bound to be good.

Bardock continued to smirk to himself as he headed for the kids' bathroom, intending to take a nice, hot shower and maybe see if he could find something to salvage his hair and tail. I knew that I'd need that recording soon. Just you three wait. I have yet to exact my full revenge! He cackled inwardly and continued plotting vengeance silently.

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