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Saiyan's Sixteen

A fiction written by

Maura Belle

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Chapter One: Friends and Strangers

Goku and Chichi strolled through the forest, enjoying the quiet and reveling in nature. They felt calmly at peace with one another, and that was when Goku suddenly stopped her. The time was perfect, and so was the place. All he had to do was go through with his plan. He told himself this would be all right, and after all, he knew they were going to succeed. Chichi had always been in love with him. How could she say no?

"Goku, what is it?" She asked. "You've been staring at me for the past minute and a half." Realizing this, Goku fumbled his hand into his pocket, releasing it from hers and stretching the fingers… right through a hole.

"OH NO!" Goku shouted. "Now I can't love you forever!"

Chichi began to get a little confused. "What… Goku? Are we….." Tears formed in her eyes, "breaking up?!?"

"What? No! I just can't find—"

"Cause if we're breaking up you'd think you'd find a more proper way to tell me!" She was sobbing now, choking on her words.

"No! It's—"

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!?!" She cried. The two sixteen-year-olds were then involved in a rather confusing conversation, through which Chichi cried and Goku wished he could.

Bulma smiled and posed for the picture, waving a peace sign in the air. Unfortunately, Goku didn't know how to work a camera, and so, she got an amazing snapshot of the dragon balls and her feet. Had she not bought brand new shoes, she would have been sorely disappointed, but she thought she looked rather good. So she looked down at the young Goku, only 12 and already on his first dragon ball mission, and spoke clearly, "Now listen, Goku. This is when we call the dragon from the dragon balls and he's gonna be a little scary, but no matter how ugly he may be, DO NOT ATTACK HIM. All scary-lookin' people aren't bad guys. Take Oolong for example."

"Hey! Just for that, you have to give me my wish! A pair of women's underwear, and don't forget to make it the softest!" Bulma rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Everybody ready?" Yamcha stood behind her and nodded; Puar nodded as well, but since he was such a small flying cat, his whole body bobbed up and down in the air.

"Then I…."

"Your newest mission is Cochran, and I expect you back in two days."

"Two days? But that's impossible!" Vegeta shouted in protest, before he thought not to. Soon afterward, however, he soon came to his senses and gave a little bow. "I mean, two days will be fine."

But it was too late for an apology. Frieza's hand was wound around his neck, the palm pressing into Vegeta's throat and cutting off what sort of air supply he had left in the room. The fingers with the painted nails carefully began to squeeze, as Zarbon and Dodoria looked on with glee. They hoped that at one encounter Vegeta might die, and thus the Saiyan survivors would perish without their precious prince. Perhaps today was the day? They were only hopeful.

After only sixteen years of life, Vegeta had witnessed far more things than he cared to see, and felt enough pain to last him fifteen lifetimes. He had known little comfort since his planet was destroyed when he was but a mere boy…

Tighter and tighter as the malice in Frieza's eyes grew, the grip continued to tighten.

Gohan and Videl strode through the halls together, each of them late for class.

"You're him, aren't you?" Videl asked, nervously playing with one of her ponytails.

"No, for the millionth time! Now where is that classroom? Number 305…. Number 305…" Gohan, in a nervous wreck, began pacing everywhere on his first day of school.

"C'mon, I saw the gold fighter when he beat up those bad guys! I know it's you! You're wearing the same outfit!"

"That doesn't make it me! Now please, I need to find room 305. Do you know where that is? I'm gonna be late for my first class on my first day of school!"

As Goku tried to comfort his crying girlfriend, Bulma appeared beside him and the woods began to diminish. Behind her was Yamcha, both of them looking younger than they were as Goku remembered. He'd just left them at the edge of the forest as he went to talk with Chichi and they had just been planning Bulma's 20th birthday party. Chichi stopped crying as loudly, noticing they were not where they had once been and their friends happened to look about the same age they were. A boy in strange armor, who seemed to fall out of the air, as if someone had been holding him up, and a girl with pigtails looking awfully angry, and lastly, a student rushing to a classroom that wasn't there, quickly joined them.

"Goku?" Bulma asked, looking around the strange place. "Where are we?" It appeared that wherever it was did not sit on the ground, but was held up by something, floating almost, in the air. It was almost like a tower, but with a very large base and a larger platform at the top, on which rows of trees and plants and a sort of palace rested.

"And… you… grew," Yamcha noticed, paying more attention to the people than the place. "And… Chichi too."

There was a coughing sound behind them and all turned to see its source. The boy in armor was coughing up blood before their eyes, cursing in between the coughing fits. For some odd reason, Bulma quickly rushed to him.

"What happened? Are you okay?" She asked, not waiting for a response to her first question. When the blood ceased the violent boy pushed her away, right back into Yamcha's arms.

"I'm fine! Stupid woman…" He wiped away the blood from his chin with a white glove he quickly ignored and asked, "Who are you? Where am I?"

"Bulma. And I don't know. In that order," Bulma said, no longer feeling any bit of concern for him. She stood straighter and titled her head up a bit as if to look down on him. "Why have you brought us here?" Shed asked him.

"You mean this is his fault?!?" Gohan shouted. "Do you realize you made me late for class, Vegeta?!"

The prince looked the boy over and scowled. "Who are you?"

"Who am I? Don't play tricks, Vegeta, I'm not in the mood."

"Who said any sort of trickery was involved. If anything, you're the one at fault here!"

"ME? Is it me who made me late for school?" Gohan shouted, losing all logic. Suddenly, just as he appeared to have come to his senses, he lost them again, and turned on Videl.

"No, it was you! You made me late for school with all your stupid questions!"

"But you wouldn't answer!"

"Well I will now! I am the gold fighter. I'm that da*n gold fighter, see?!?" With a burst of energy, he transformed, his black locks turning into blond and his dark eyes shining a bright blue. If only he'd known what sort of trouble that would get him into.

"NO!" The shout came from Vegeta, who launched himself at Gohan, prepared to fight to the death. "IT'S MINE!! HOW DID YOU COME TO POSSESS IT?!?" Gohan easily blocked the blow and vaguely wondered why Vegeta didn't transform as well. He was perfectly capable and had been before Gohan himself. What was going on?

Suddenly, Vegeta was pulled back, away from Gohan, and though he struggled and shouted against whoever held him, it was to no avail. "IT'S NOT FAIR! I'M THE PRINCE OF THE SAIYANS! THE PRIZE IS MINE! IT'S MINE!!!" The shouts reached Dende and Piccolo's ears, who immediately ran out to see the scene. Chichi was crying, Goku was trying to tell her it was okay and that he hadn't meant what she thought, Gohan was powering down and fighting with Videl, Yamcha and Bulma were at a disagreement with Trunks and Goten who were holding back a deadly Vegeta, and Bra and Pan could only pray.

Piccolo reached the group before Dende and looked around and among them, before looking to Bra, the only one who was the way she was supposed to be and asking, "What have you done?"