Chapter 15
Bulma told Yamucha everything, from what Vegita had revealed to her yesterday evening, all the way through to what had happened in the gravity room today. As she had expected, Yamucha wasn't taking it all very well.
"I knew it," he said darkly after she had finished. "I knew that freak had a reason for ogling you so much. You shouldn't have agreed to train with him, Bulma. That man's way too dangerous to be trusted."
"I never said I trusted him," she sighed angrily. "But even I can see that if there's a chance he can help me get stronger faster, then whatever the risks, I should take it. Besides," she added with a shrug, "I think he's on the level about this. He sounded pretty sincere to me."
"Ha!" Yamucha exclaimed loudly. "Sincere my ass! That man's probably never been sincere about a thing in his life! I think this is all just a ploy to get you alone in the gravity room again! In fact, I'm sure of it! You can't do this, Bulma. The guy's dangerous, especially to you."
"I'm not so sure I agree with you," she said thoughtfully, thinking to herself for a moment. "If he really is in love with me, I would think that he wouldn't try to hurt me. At least, I would hope not."
"He never said anything about love, though, did he?" Yamucha persisted. "You said yourself that he said he 'wanted' you, but you never said he mentioned the word 'love.' I think you're being a little naïve here. How do you know that he doesn't just want you around for purely physical, depraved reasons?"
"Thanks a lot, Yamucha," she muttered caustically. "You're a real ego-booster, you know that?"
"You know what I mean," he said impatiently. "I tell you, that animal's incapable of real love, Bulma! He probably doesn't even have any idea of what it really is!"
"Maybe you're right," she sighed, shaking her head angrily. "But at this point in time, I see no reason why that should make any difference. All I want from Vegita is training. Nothing more. Whether he knows what real love is or not is irrelevant. I see no reason for me to change my mind simply because of that."
"Dammit, Bulma, you can't do this!" Yamucha cried emphatically, slamming his fist on the table too hard, making a nasty crack splinter up toward the other end of it in the process. Neither of them noticed it. "You're taking way too much of a chance in this! Think about it! What do you suppose would have happened if I hadn't interrupted Vegita today? What would you have done if he had decided to do more than kiss you? Nothing, that's what! Because of the setting on the gravity machine, there wasn't a damn thing you could have done to stop that bastard, and you know it! He had you right where he wanted you, and if you take him up on this offer of his, you'll be put in the same position all over again. Is that what you want?"
Bulma glared at him. "Do you think I don't know the risks I'm facing?" She snapped at him. "Do you really think I'm that stupid? This is my choice to make, Yamucha, and I've already made it, risks or not. And just for your information, I'm not stepping blindly into anything here. I've already taken into consideration what might happen if I've misjudged Vegita's integrity."
"Integrity!" Yamucha jeered.
"Yes, integrity!" Bulma retorted hotly. "Vegita may not be any real gentleman, Yamucha, but I'm hoping that he at least has enough integrity to restrain himself."
"And if you're wrong?" Yamucha persisted. "What then?"
"Then I'll have nobody to blame but myself," she sighed with an angry shrug. "Now, this subject is officially closed. I don't want to hear another word of protest out of you, Yamucha," she said, holding up a hand to silence him. "Nothing you can say is going to change my mind."
Growling in frustration, he got up out of his chair and went for the door. But Bulma wasn't quite through with him yet.
"Oh, and Yamucha?" She said, causing him to pause and turn around.
"What?" He snapped impatiently.
"Just so you know, I don't want you anywhere near the gravity room while I'm in there with him," she said, glaring sternly at him. "Vegita very nearly flew off the deep end when he saw you today, and I think it would be much better for both you and me if you just stayed a good distance from that place while Vegita and I are in there. And quite frankly," she added, making a sour face at him, "I don't want to have to kiss that man again to save your skin."
Bulma wasn't exactly sure what kind of reaction this last statement would produce in him, but she soon got her answer. Without so much as another word, Yamucha stormed out the door, slamming it shut as he left.
Bulma let out a tired sigh. Oh well. It looked like she had another long stretch of silent treatment to look forward to. She stared sullenly at her unfinished glass of orange juice as she thought of how all her talks with her best friend in the world seemed to always end up being arguments about Vegita. It wasn't fair, she thought with a petulant scowl. She hated letting that stupid Saiyan cause so much frustration in her life. She didn't blame Yamucha one bit for disliking him.
Sighing again, she got up and went outside to go help her dad. It was already late in the afternoon, but she was sure he wouldn't be too angry with her for waiting so long to come out there to join him. He never was too big on schedules anyway.
Bulma could hardly believe her eyes when she rounded the corner of the lab building and stepped within sight of the site of Vegita's gravity building. She had expected to see the pile of rubble being cleared away by wrecking crews, but instead found that it was already gone, and that the skeletal frame of Vegita's new gravity building had already been erected!
Dr. Briefs waved heartily as his astonished daughter trotted up to him. "Afternoon, hon!" He cried, beaming happily at her. "Check out my latest invention - the Constructo-bot!" He pointed to a score of basketball-sized robots that were busily putting the finishing touches on the frame of Vegita's gravity building.
"Wow! Strong buggers, aren't they?" Bulma gasped in amazement, jumping back as one whizzed by, holding up a huge panel of concrete in its spindly little arms. "The strongest yet!" Dr. Briefs replied proudly. "And I've programmed the building's design into their action control modules. These babies are even faster than we are! And not only that - they'll be able to work nonstop until it's done! They'll work overnight while we sleep, and Vegita's new gravity building should be all finished before we wake up tomorrow morning!"
Bulma just smiled and shook her head at him. Sometimes her father seemed to her the laziest man on Earth, and yet, she couldn't help but marvel at a man who always worked so hard at being so lazy. They watched in silence for a few moments as the busy little things scurried around with their huge loads like mechanized ants.
"You know, the Red Ribbon would have killed for technology like this," Bulma remarked with a light frown.
Dr. Briefs frowned too. "The Red Ribbon army killed for all their technology, and most of it they stole outright - that is, until Gero joined them. When he and his band of scientists began working for them, the Red Ribbon didn't need to steal their technology anymore. They CREATED it. The Red Ribbon army probably never would have become such a superpower if it hadn't been for Dr. Gero."
Bulma nodded. "Speaking of which," she said, suddenly remembering something. "Have you been able to dig up anything on Gero yet?"
"A little," he said, nodding and motioning for her to follow him into the lab. He led her into his office, and, sitting down at his work desk, he opened one of the top drawers. He pulled out a faded and somewhat yellowed magazine and handed it to her.
"Here," he said. "I found this in a stack of old scientific journals in the house. There's a small article about him on page fifteen," he added as she thumbed through its pages.
Bulma found the article, but the photo above it caught her eyes first. "Is this Gero?" She asked, pointing to it.
Dr. Briefs glanced at the photo and scowled. "As much as I've tried to burn that man's image from my mind, I'm afraid I'd recognize him anywhere," he muttered. "Without a doubt, that is Dr. Gero."
"What?" Bulma said in surprise. "You never met Gero personally, did you Dad?" She asked him.
"Unfortunately, yes, I did," he replied angrily, clenching his teeth and balling his fists. "And it was under the most unpleasant of circumstances. I met the awful man back just after he'd joined the Red Ribbon. He'd come looking for me in order to ask me to join the Red Ribbon army with him. Naturally, I refused. No self-respecting scientist would ever use his gifts for any of what the Red Ribbon stood for. And you can bet that I told him this right to his face. He got very angry with me then, and threatened to have you and your mother killed if I didn't cooperate."
"What?!" Bulma cried angrily. "When was this?!"
"When you were only a couple of years old," he replied. "I'd already made a name for myself by then, and my corporation was just beginning to take off. Gero must have figured I'd make a nice addition to that little band of rogue scientists he'd collected."
"What did you do?" Bulma said, still full of surprise at this revelation.
"The only thing I could do," he replied, closing his eyes. "I built this compound and focused all of my energies into building up its defenses. I knew Gero wielded some power in the Red Ribbon, and most certainly wouldn't let my insulting refusal go unpunished. So I had determined to prepare myself for it. And sure enough, the Red Ribbon did try several times to breach the walls of the compound, and break through the rigid defenses I'd created for it. Fortunately, though, they failed every time. I may be a technical genius, but I know my share about defensive maneuvers as well. And unfortunately for Gero, his Red Ribbon army wasn't any match for me, at least not then. If they had been given time to grow, however, they very well may have become too much to handle. It's fortunate that you ran into your friend Goku, my dear. If it hadn't been for him, we all may very well have been killed by now.
"In any event," he continued, "when the Red Ribbon figured out that they couldn't get to us, they eventually gave up on the compound. But they didn't give up on ME altogether. The Red Ribbon army held a grudge against me for many years, and just because they couldn't get to me or my family didn't mean they were going to leave me be. Instead, they attacked the corporation itself, in the form of isolated terrorist attacks on my factories and offices around the country. So many of my loyal employees lost their lives in the attacks made by that infernal organization!" He snarled angrily. "Too many! And I know the names and families of every one of them, even to this day!"
Dr. Briefs had shot to his feet, and he had pressed his hands on the desk. His head was down, and he was visibly shaking from emotion.
"Dad," Bulma said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. She'd never seen her father so overcome with emotion before.
"It's okay," he said, waving it away. "I- I've never been able to forget those poor people who lost family and friends to those terrible attacks. And I don't want to, either."
Bulma looked down at her feet. "I never knew," she said quietly. "I mean, I knew the Red Ribbon disliked us because we were in direct competition with them, but I never knew that they had done all that. Why didn't you ever tell me about any of this? Did Mom know?"
"I tried to hide it all from your mother at first," he sighed, sitting back down again rubbing his eyes wearily. "But I couldn't hide it from her forever. She figured it out eventually, after the first couple of attacks the Red Ribbon made on our compound. I had to tell her then, but we both agreed to keep it from you. You were still in school, and you were terribly happy. We didn't want to ruin that. But you quite easily could have found out on your own, if the bodyguards I'd sent out every day to keep an eye on you hadn't been so incredibly swift and silent."
"You what?" Bulma cried. "I never saw any bodyguards! And besides, I had to be the only sixteen year old in my college that was fully armed every day! I knew the Red Ribbon had spies everywhere, and I wouldn't put it past them even then to try to pressure you into closing down our corporation if they were able to get their hands on me. I could have taken care of myself, you know. I didn't need any old bodyguards watching me," she added indignantly.
Dr. Briefs laughed. "Yes, I knew from the start that you weren't afraid of anything," he laughed. "And yes, I knew you carried that ridiculous handgun with you all the time too. But you have to realize, dear, that the Red Ribbon would hardly have been intimidated by one teenage girl with a small handgun. I had faith in your resourcefulness, but I didn't want to take any chances. Thank God they never tested us, though. Until you got mixed up in that little skirmish with them when you joined Goku, the Red Ribbon just left you alone. It rather surprised me that they had done that, as a matter of fact."
"Hmph," Bulma snorted. "Well, they may not have been intimidated by me, but they certainly didn't last long once they got on Goku's bad side, that was for sure. I just wish I'd been able to help more than I did. Goku did all of the hard stuff. I just helped with the technical parts of the trip. I sure am glad he's on our side, Dad," she laughed.
Dr. Briefs smiled. "Me too," he said. "Now, why don't you go ahead and read that article? If I remember correctly, there were a few things in there that you may find very interesting."
Bulma nodded. She began to read the article aloud.
"The search for renowned biophysics engineer Dr. Henry Gero was finally called off this week as government officials have concluded that he has either died or has left the country altogether. After an extensive search of the entire mountain range surrounding Metro North, government officials were unable to find any trace of Gero, failing to confirm the rumors that he had constructed a secret laboratory hidden deep within the mountains. You may remember that Gero was allegedly the head scientist under the charge of the infamous Red Ribbon army before it disbanded some time ago. Gero was considered by some to be one of the most brilliant scientists of our time, rivaled only by Dr. Briefs - founder and owner of Hoi Poi Capsule Corporation. The research done by Dr. Gero during his commission with the Red Ribbon remains a mystery, but former advocates of the Red Ribbon claim that he had succeeded in creating a humanlike form of artificial intelligence. These claims, not unlike those concerning his whereabouts, have thus far been unconfirmed. Unless he resurfaces of his own accord, the location and activities of Dr. Henry Gero will have to remain a mystery."
"There you have it," Dr. Briefs said with a shrug. "I know the info's pretty sketchy, and that magazine's got to be pretty old. We haven't been 'Hoi Poi' for many years. But I thought it would at least be something to go on."
Bulma didn't reply at first. Her eyes were closed, and she seemed to be deep in thought. Finally, and without opening her eyes, she began to speak.
"I remember something Goku told me once," she began slowly, folding her arms and lowering her head as she probed her memory. "It was something about a strange man he ran into during his fight with the Red Ribbon up north. He said this man was hard like stone, and that he was extremely powerful. He was supposed to be under the charge of the Red Ribbon army, but for some reason, he didn't like to fight, and he really didn't like to hurt people. He befriended Goku, and even helped him win against the Red Ribbon's installment up there. Goku renamed him Hacchan after that whole ordeal, but he said that the Red Ribbon had simply called him Hachi-gou, or number eight. I'll bet he was an artificial human. Gero must have been creating them even then. He got up to eight, at least. But that one certainly doesn't sound anything like the ones we'll have to face in three years. And it's no wonder, either. Gero's had quite a few years to perfect his designs since that 'failure.' I guess Hacchan was a fluke. But it does seem to prove that Gero actually HAD been able to create a humanlike form of artificial intelligence after all."
"Well, I guess that's one rumor that turned out to be true then," Dr. Briefs remarked, nodding and crossing his arms. "Now what about that part about his creating a secret lab in those mountains around Metro North? I wonder how much truth there is to that one? The fact that our government didn't find anything doesn't mean much at all. If Gero really did have a lab in those mountains, there's no way our government would ever find it. I'm almost sure of that."
"More than anything, I'd love to find out for sure," Bulma said, opening her eyes and hardening her expression. "If I knew where he was hiding out, I'm not sure if I'd be able to resist the temptation to pay the good doctor a little visit. But I'm not going to try to find out. It would be foolish of me to go charging into his lab, not knowing what to expect. Who knows? He may already have those creatures built; they just haven't been perfected yet. In any event, I'm just going to stick to my training and hope for the best. We'll follow Goku's plan, even though I think he's taking way too much of a risk here. I'm certainly not strong enough to do anything about it right now."
Dr. Briefs nodded. "You know your own limits better than any of us," he agreed with a warm smile. "But you're also your own worst judge, dear. Don't sell yourself short around me, Bulma. I won't have it."
"Aw, Dad!" Bulma laughed, giving him a light squeeze around the neck. "You're just supposed to say that because you're my father!"
"So what if I'm a little biased?" He laughed indignantly, hugging her back. "It's my right, after all!"
Bulma smiled. "Well, thanks for the article, Dad. Maybe it'll come in handy," she said, picking up the magazine and staring intently at the gray-haired man in the photograph.
"Any time, sweetie," he replied with a casual grin. "Oh, I almost forgot!" He exclaimed suddenly, smacking his right fist into his left palm. "I sent a couple of Constructo-bots down to Yamucha's gravity room to patch up that hole. They'll have it mended and ready to go again within the hour."
"Thanks!" Bulma laughed, tucking the rolled-up magazine under her arm. "Yamucha'll be glad to hear it!" She waved goodbye to him and trotted out the door to go find Yamucha. Maybe a good sparring match would cheer him up. She hoped he wouldn't stay mad at her for too long.
Bulma and Yamucha had a long, thorough training session that evening, and Yamucha did manage to calm down a little. But Bulma knew that he was never going to warm up to the idea that she would be training with Vegita. However, she was willing to accept that as simply a facet of his very nature. He detested Vegita, and for good reason. He was never going to feel any differently about him, and that was all there was to it. Bulma understood, but that wasn't enough to change her mind about training with Vegita. Sooner or later, Yamucha was going to have to accept that.
When she turned in early that night, Bulma had a hard time falling asleep. Her nerve was starting to leave her, now that she was defending her actions from herself instead of Yamucha. What if he was at least partly right? Was it possible that Vegita was really planning to take advantage of her when her guard was down? Only just this morning she might have answered in the affirmative, but now...
She shivered as she remembered the way her resistance had failed her when Vegita leaned over her to kiss her. She didn't know what was going to happen if he tried that again. She certainly had not been willing to allow him to do that to her, but why had it been so hard for her to openly refuse him? Every time he stared at her like that she could feel her limbs grow numb and all her defenses against him begin to melt like a sand castle in the surf. It seemed almost as if he was bewitching her when he did that. It was both disturbing and alarming, and it made her have more than the comfortable level of apprehension at allowing herself to be shut up in the gravity room alone with him again. But all the same, she was too stubborn to admit defeat and back out of it now.
But despite all these worrisome and disturbing thoughts, Bulma finally did manage to find sleep. All too soon, however, her alarm clock struck seven and it was time to get up and face the firing squad. It took her all of a half-hour to wash up and get dressed, and she waited anxiously on a chair in the kitchen for the remaining half-hour to come and go. She was too jittery to be hungry.
Sighing, she got up and walked outside. She was too restless to sit still. She had to do something, and she would rather spend the endless minutes walking aimlessly than sitting in one place and allowing her thoughts to take over. So she walked - all over the compound. She still had fifteen minutes left when she happened to pass Vegita's new gravity room, and she paused as she looked at it. What better way to get rid of nervous energy than a brisk warming workout? Why not? She might as well break it in a little for him. A warm-up wouldn't hurt.
Bulma walked in and locked the door behind her. She walked over to the control panel and paused for a few moments. What level should she start with? She knew Vegita would more than likely choose some ungodly level for her, but she only wanted a light warm-up, after all. She set the machine for fifty and turned it on.
It only took a second for Bulma to realize that something was dreadfully wrong. The machine made a funny popping sound inside one of the side panels, and Bulma lurched downward as she suddenly found herself in a gravity field much too great for her to bear. She screamed in pain as she made one desperate, clumsy, and unsuccessful effort to raise herself to the level of the off switch on the control panel. But she instead banged her forehead on the edge of the control panel and landed flat on her stomach on the floor.
The wind had been knocked out of her, and she had temporarily blacked out. But only for a few moments. She suddenly came screaming back to her senses, and she tried to call for help, but as the air was still vacant from her lungs, she could do no more than utter a short, plaintive squeak. Tears stung in her eyes as she struggled to fill her lungs with air. But the weight of her own body in this gravity was more force than her lungs could exert as she tried to draw in new breath. She mustered a small burst of frenzied strength as she tried to fling herself onto her back, and found to her relief that she was successful in flopping over, albeit rather clumsily. Now at least she could breathe a little more easily, but every muscle in her body was screaming in protest at the pressure of their own new weight. Bulma found herself wishing that she'd never left the house this morning.
Bulma was beginning to get a little dizzy. She knew what was happening, though. The same thing happened to space shuttle pilots with weak constitutions during g-force training. The human brain behaved in inconvenient ways when subjected to a constantly directed gravitational field of a sufficient magnitude. For one thing, all the blood would "sink" to the far end of the head - the end closest to the direction of the gravitational force. In Bulma's case, it was toward the floor. Unfortunately, if the blood in the human brain is held idle long enough, the resulting lack of oxygen will cause undesirable effects on the person involved. After a short time, a simple loss of consciousness will occur. If the situation is prolonged, however, more severe effects, such as brain damage, and even death, can occur. Bulma knew she had a much greater tolerance than a simple space shuttle pilot, but none of them had ever experienced anything this severe before. She knew she only had a few precious moments of consciousness left, but she didn't know how she was going to use them to her advantage. She began to panic, and she struggled fiercely to get up. But the activity - however sluggish it was - drained her far too quickly, and it was only a few moments before she ceased to move at all, save for the unsteady rise and fall of her chest.
The lights on the ceiling began to blur and darken as she gradually lost consciousness. Her last conscious thought was that she had forgotten about telekinesis...
Bulma awoke to a concerned but steady voice calling her name, and a hand slapping her lightly on either side of her face. "Bulma!" The voice said again, more clearly this time. "Open your eyes!"
She did as the vaguely familiar voice commanded, and waited for the fuzziness to subside. She groaned as a sharp pain in her temple grew in strength, and she raised a hand to her face. Suddenly she began to realize where she was, and that she could actually move again. The fuzziness in her brain began to steadily melt away, and she sat up, her eyes beginning to focus. She turned to look at the person beside her, but she still couldn't quite make him out.
"Vegita?" She said, sounding rather unsure. "Is that you?"
"God dammit, woman!" He said thunderously, but there was more than the barest trace of relief in his voice. "What the hell happened to you?"
Bulma winced. "The machine malfunctioned," she said quietly. "I wanted to have a short warm-up before I went out to meet you this morning, so I decided to try out your new gravity room. But something went wrong when I turned the machine on. I set it for only fifty, but it made a weird popping sound, and the gravity went up so much that I couldn't even move. I don't know what went wrong."
Vegita's eyes glittered with rage, but he didn't say anything else. Bulma looked up at him apologetically.
"I'm sorry," she said, shrugging. "I suppose Dad must've messed up the program in the Constructo-bots. It was a simple mistake."
"Perhaps," Vegita said darkly, looking up and scowling at the gravity machine. "Unless it was intentional."
Bulma looked up. "Intentional?" She said in a confused voice. "Why would anyone want to kill me?"
Vegita scowled and looked back down at her. "I seriously doubt you were the target, if that was indeed the case," he said angrily. "This isn't your gravity room, is it?"
Bulma looked down and swallowed nervously. She could only think of one man who would have the animosity to do something so terrible to Vegita. But even then, she didn't think Vegita had done enough to provoke such an insidious act. She hoped Vegita was wrong, and it was just a simple mistake in the robots' programming.
"How did you get in here?" She asked suddenly, deciding it was time to change the subject. "I locked the door."
"I know how to work the outside controls too," Vegita replied, his scowl fading a little. "It's a good thing for you that I'm not such a numbskull that I will use a machine before learning all I need to learn about it."
Despite what he had just insinuated, Bulma couldn't help but smile faintly at him. "Thank you," she said softly.
Vegita's face took on a rather ruddy hue, but he pretended not to notice as he helped her to her feet. She wavered unsteadily for a few moments. "Can you walk?" He asked, seeming somewhat hesitant to let go of her right away.
Bulma grimaced. She hated looking so weak in front of him. It was terribly embarrassing. "No, I'll be fine," she said quietly, avoiding his eyes. "I just have to regain my balance. I still feel a little dizzy." She gently pulled her arm away from him, but she could easily tell that he seemed rather reluctant to let go of it.
"Um, give me a half-hour to recover, okay?" She said, bravely turning to look him in the face. It was a mistake. The look of concern on his face was only barely visible, but it was more than enough to make her uncomfortable. "Er," she stammered, struggling for the words she wanted. "It won't really take me too long to get over this. Then we can start. O- okay?" She stepped back a little, looking timidly down at her feet.
Vegita crossed his arms. "You still want to train today?" He asked skeptically, as if he didn't think she was being honest with him.
Bulma raised her head again, and her voice sounded slightly annoyed when she answered. "Well, yeah," she said matter-of-factly. "It's not like I've been crippled or anything. I'll be fine, Vegita." She frowned at him and crossed her arms too. "I'm not THAT much of a weakling."
Vegita smirked at her. "That remains to be seen," he said slyly. "Don't think I'm going to go easy on you, either," he added with a note of challenge in his voice.
Bulma's eyes flashed, and she shot him an angry smirk of her own. "You'd be insulting me otherwise," she said coolly. "And I don't take too well to insults."
Vegita laughed, but it wasn't the kind of laugh she was used to hearing from him. This laugh sounded, well... natural. It almost sounded happy.
"I don't take kindly to people who laugh at me, either," she said haughtily, turning away slightly and raising her nose.
"Feh," Vegita snorted. "Why don't you do something about it then? Don't just stand there talking about it."
Bulma frowned. It suddenly occurred to her that she and Vegita always seemed to do this when they were together for any length of time. Arguing with Vegita seemed so natural to her. It was almost as if she actually enjoyed it. And it seemed as if he felt the same way. She supposed it wouldn't bother her so much if it weren't for the fact that every time they did this, she usually ended up in some compromising situation with him that she didn't want. It made her want to keep her guard up constantly when she was around him, and it was this that told her that she'd better leave for now.
"Why don't I instead go and walk this off," she said, shaking her head and opening the door to leave. "I'll meet you in my gravity room in a half-hour, Vegita," she said, pausing before stepping outside. "We'd better use that one today. I'll let my dad know what went wrong in here, and have him check it out."
"Fine," he said with a shrug. "That will be acceptable then. Don't be late," he added as she stepped out the door.
Bulma shook her head and headed out to the lab building. When she got there, she found that Dr. Briefs had not arrived yet. Well, it was still early, after all. Her dad liked to sleep in whenever he could. She wrote him a short note about what went wrong, and she left it on his desk for him to read when he got there.
Bulma didn't really know what to do with herself after she left the lab building. Truth be told, she felt much better, and was fairly sure she was about as ready to begin now as she had been prior to that little mishap in Vegita's new gravity room. With a shrug, she decided to just go on ahead to her gravity room and wait for him. She doubted he would be long anyway. She had figured he'd show up in there long before she was supposed to.
She flew slowly out to her gravity room and found that Vegita wasn't there yet when she arrived. So she just went in and sat on one of the benches to wait for him. She rested her chin on her hands and began to think. Although she was physically all right, the events of the morning had left her mind in a state of mental disarray. She was trying to figure out just what was going on. The fact that she'd nearly been killed didn't seem to bother her nearly as much as the way Vegita acted did. He seemed almost, well... almost nice. It was a peculiar thing - one to which Bulma wasn't altogether sure how she should react. Vegita was too much of a belligerent, rude, obnoxious jerk for her to waste so much thought on him, but the way he had acted this morning really didn't set well in her mind. It was too far out of the ordinary to be dismissed. Vegita had shown what appeared to be actual concern for her this morning, and if that was the case, it blew Yamucha's theory about him right out of the water. But Bulma didn't know which version of Vegita she really preferred at this moment. She didn't like the sound of either one, but somehow the idea of a not-so-unfeeling Vegita struck her as worse than the one she had grown accustomed to.
Bulma leaned back in the chair and rested her head on folded hands up against the wall. She rather doubted the likelihood of Vegita's starting to be nice to her or anything, but it was still unsettling for her to think about his softening even a little. Why it bothered her so, she didn't know. All she knew was that she wasn't going to be able to handle it if he was less than harsh with her today. Strange as it sounded, she was definitely more comfortable around Vegita when he was belligerent and rude.
Bulma was still mulling these things over in her mind when Vegita came in. She didn't notice the door open, but she heard it slam behind him. She looked up and was rather surprised to notice that he was still wearing his usual blue leggings, but he had removed the usual white shirt. She had forgotten that Vegita often preferred to train like this, and in fact it was rare for him to wear anything above his waist at all when he was training in the gravity room. But for some reason, she found herself feeling very squirmy and uncomfortable. She caught herself gaping at his upper body, and she quickly averted her vision to the floor, blushing furiously. She felt like taking off. What the hell was wrong with her?
Vegita did a few practice stretches before standing up and staring at her. "You okay yet?" He asked gruffly, noticing that she was still sitting stiffly on the bench. Bulma didn't look up at him.
"Um, don't you have any more shirts?" She squeaked, her face so red that it burned. But at least she could be sure that Vegita couldn't see, because her hair was very much in the way.
Vegita looked a little puzzled for a moment, and then this funny frown appeared on his face. "What's the matter?" He demanded. "Why would you ask me such a ridiculous thing?"
Bulma shrank inward a little more as he stepped closer. "Er... well, it's just... just that I..." She couldn't stand it any longer. She braved a quick peep at his face, and right away she wished she hadn't. Vegita had noticed how flushed she had become, and his reaction immediately prompted her to become both embarrassed and angry with herself.
Vegita cracked a cruel grin. "So that's it," he said with a sneer. "Does it really bother you so much to see my naked skin?"
Bulma turned even redder, but she knew it was no use trying to hide it any longer, so she raised her head to glare at him. "Go to hell!" She snapped at him. "You think it's funny, huh? Well, how would you feel if I came in here without a shirt on?" She realized as he shot her a devilish smirk that she had worded her question incorrectly.
"Ugh, don't answer that," she said, glaring at him more fiercely as his mouth stretched into a slightly toothy grin. "God, you're such an asshole!" She growled, scowling as she resumed glaring at the floor. Why did she always end up making a fool of herself whenever she was around him?
"Feh," Vegita said with a shrug. "It just so happens that I prefer being unrestricted by unnecessary garments. But if it's that much of a distraction to you..."
"Just forget I even said anything," Bulma snapped, getting up and glaring defiantly at him. "I'm just fine, thank you very much. Let's get started."
Vegita stared at her with an unsure frown for a couple of seconds, but then he smirked and crossed his arms. "Suit yourself," he said smugly. "But let me know if I become too much of a distraction to you."
Bulma bared her teeth at him. "Just turn the machine on and shut the hell up," she hissed.
Vegita smirked, uncrossed his arms, and strolled over to the control panel to turn the machine on. Bulma saw him set it for eighty, and she gave a silent groan. It was going to be a long day.
The next four hours were the worst four hours of Bulma's life. Vegita was like a drill sergeant, barking orders and criticisms at her while she struggled and sweated under eighty g's of pressure. Remarkably, though, at the end of it all she could still move a little. He had somehow managed to limber her up with nearly impossible stretches and warm-ups in the beginning, and she actually managed to go for a whole four hours before finally begging him to let her stop. He turned the machine off and glared sternly at her as she fell onto her back, gasping in an effort to catch her breath.
"Oh God!" She wheezed. "I can hardly move!"
Vegita smirked. For a moment - a very brief one - he sent her a look of grudging approval. "Good," he said, crossing his arms and nodding. "You're still a weakling, but at least I know you didn't wimp out on me. We're done for today. You can do as you like until eight tomorrow morning."
Still panting heavily, Bulma closed her eyes and gave a slight nod. She hurt everywhere. And not just because of the harsh gravity, either. Vegita's training regimen had included defense training of the worst kind. He had knocked her silly on several occasions, but for the most part, he simply gave her harsh blows in various vulnerable spots while she did her best to counter them. This wasn't easy, considering the fact that she was still moving so slowly. But Vegita didn't give her any kind of handicap that she could see. Of course, she hadn't much expected him to anyway.
"Well?" Vegita said impatiently, interrupting her thoughts. "Are you gonna move your lazy carcass out of here anytime soon? I've got training of my own to do, woman!"
Bulma groaned and rolled over onto her side so that her back was to him. "I don't feel like getting up," she mumbled crabbily. "I just wanna go to sleep." She was too exhausted to care if he did throw a tantrum at her or something. This was her gravity room anyway. She didn't HAVE to let him use it. She had almost fallen asleep when Vegita suddenly and roughly scooped her up off the floor and into his arms. He marched for the door and kicked it open.
"Hey!" Bulma screeched, kicking and flailing around. "Put me down NOW, you psycho!"
"Gladly!" Vegita said with a malevolent smirk, and he then unceremoniously dumped her out onto the grass outside the door. He had slammed the door behind him by the time she scrambled to her feet to rush at him.
Bulma stared, bewildered and angry, at the closed door in front of her. Then, surprisingly, she grinned. It had just occurred to her that she probably deserved that. Chuckling and shaking her head, she began to hobble stiffly toward the house, and toward the bed that was screaming her name.
On to the next Chapter!
