Chapter 5


The next morning, right after breakfast, Bulma went straight out to the gravity room for a morning workout. She particularly enjoyed her morning exercises, and today she wanted the physical release very badly. She wondered if Yamucha would want to train with her today. He wasn't in much of a good mood. His interview yesterday had been a disaster. His boss had been totally afraid of him, and had decided that he didn't want to work with someone who could lift an entire car with one hand. Of course, Yamucha, being the hothead he was, just got angry and broke the poor guy's desk in half. Bulma rushed over when Yamucha told her over the phone what had happened. She bought a new desk for the man, and somehow managed to talk him out of suing Yamucha for what he considered a threat to his personal safety. So of course, Yamucha still wasn't in the best of moods. Bulma figured he wouldn't want to do much with her today. He was still very hot about the whole affair. Oh well. Maybe he'd find a better way to make a living eventually.

When she got to the gravity building, she found - much to her surprise - that the door was locked. Someone was already in there! She peered through the window on the door, and gasped out loud at what she saw. Vegita was in there, and he had the machine on at 50 g's. He was doing some simple push-ups, and he looked pretty strained indeed. Bulma growled as she ran over to the vid-cam terminal on the other side of the building. This creep was in for an earful and an eyeful!

"Hey!" She yelled when the screen came on and both parties could hear and see each other. "Get the hell outta my gravity room, you creep! I never gave you permission to use it, did I?"

Vegita got to his feet and grinned broadly at the screen above him. She looked like she'd awakened in a really good mood today!

"Do I need your permission to be here?" He asked innocently, crossing his arms and smirking shamelessly at her.

"Yes, dammit!" Bulma spat at him. "This is MY machine, you got that? I built it, and my father and I designed this building! And I don't want you in there messing it up!"

Vegita snorted. "Well, that's too bad for you then, isn't it?" He said, sneering at her. "Because I'm not leaving until I'm good and ready."

Bulma got really mad at that. "Oh yeah?" She snapped, her ki flaring up a bit. "You'd better watch yourself, pal! It doesn't pay to make me angry!"

Vegita laughed loudly. "Ooh, now I'm terrified!" He said, grinning broadly. "Please don't hurt me!"

"Oooooh!" Bulma shrieked angrily. "Fine! Stay in there, you jerk! But you've gotta come out of there sometime, pal, and when you do, you'd better watch your back!" And with that, she slammed her palm down on the power switch so hard that she broke the terminal. Cursing angrily, she stomped out to the other side of the building and hopped up onto the roof above the door. When he finally did come out, she'd be ready!

And so she waited, if not patiently, then angrily, for Vegita to come out. She remained motionless for hours, seething with anger, and envisioning what all she was going to do to that jerk when he finally did get his sorry butt out of her gravity room. She couldn't believe he had done this. And after all the nice things she'd said about him yesterday, too! Bulma was so angry that she didn't even notice Yamucha when he flew up behind her.

"Hey Bulma!" He said, sitting down next to her and nearly scaring her half to death. "What're you doing up here?"

Bulma scowled. Yamucha would probably try to talk her out of this, but she was too angry to care how stupid she was being, so she lied to him.

"I'm practicing my meditation," she said, closing her eyes. "And I'm not doing very well."

"Oh," Yamucha said, smiling. "I see. Well, would you mind if I used the gravity room? I've gotta work hard if I'm going to catch up to you."

Bulma didn't even smile at his compliment. "Not unless you think you can persuade Vegita to leave," she said curtly. "He's been in there all morning."

"You're kidding!" Yamucha cried, peering down the front of the building. "What's he doing in there?"

"Training, I suppose," Bulma snapped.

Yamucha noticed the waspish tone of Bulma's voice and mistook it for frustration at not being able to concentrate. He grinned. Bulma always had taken her training seriously.

"Oh well," he said, rising to leave. "I suppose I'll take Puar to the amusement park then. Your mom's taking the Namek kids there today anyway. I'll see you later on tonight, Bulma!"

Bulma sort of grunted a reply and gave a quick nod, and Yamucha flew off for his place. Bulma sighed. Yamucha seemed back to normal already. He always did have quite an elastic personality.

Bulma didn't move once all afternoon. She just remained at her post, watching and waiting. She could sense Vegita in there, and she figured she could wait just as long as he could. Bulma was up there even when the sun began to set, and remarkably, her anger hadn't cooled down much even by then. The fact that she hadn't eaten or drank anything since breakfast didn't help to calm her down either. If anything, it made her disposition much worse. It was all his fault, as far as she was concerned, and she was about ready to kill him. The fact that he was far more capable of killing her never really occurred to her. Of course, she didn't really want to kill him anyway. She just wanted to beat the tar out of him.

Finally, just as the first stars began to show themselves in the sky, the door to the gravity room swung open, and out stepped Vegita. He walked out a few paces and paused to dab at his face with the white towel that was hanging around his neck. Bulma poised to attack. She'd waited all day for this. Of course, she couldn't see Vegita's face from where she was, so she was quite unaware of the smirk that was tugging at one corner of his mouth. He could sense her up there behind him, and he knew full well what she was up to. But he showed no signs of it. He simply began to walk toward his small capsule house, giving her all the time in the world to make the first move.

With all the stealth of a jungle cat, Bulma leapt down at Vegita and dove into his back, tackling him to the ground. They rolled over each other a couple of times before Bulma managed to pin him onto his back. Snarling viciously, she drew back her right fist to punch him in the face.

"If you think I'm just going to roll over onto my back and let you push me around, then you've got another thing coming, you Saiyan bastard!" She growled, punching him squarely in the nose. It was then that she noticed that Vegita was grinning at her. Even after that hit, when a bit of blood trickled out of one of his nostrils, he was still grinning.

"What's so damn funny?!" She yelled, slapping him across the side of his face. "I'm ready to kill you, you know that?"

Vegita laughed then, and with a surprising boost of strength that he hadn't displayed before, he flipped her forward and over him with his legs, causing her to turn a half-somersault in mid-air and slam onto her back. Vegita followed her over, and as she landed roughly on the ground, he came down on top of her, pinning HER to the ground this time. Bulma howled furiously and tried to wiggle out of his vise-like grip, but it was no use. He was too strong for her, and she couldn't even move her arms or legs. Suddenly Bulma came to the conclusion that she had made a big mistake. Once again her temper had gotten her into trouble. She considered screaming for help, but promptly decided against it. There wasn't anyone around but her father, and Vegita could kill him much more easily than he could kill her. So she just clamped her mouth shut and glared contemptuously at Vegita's smug, triumphant face.

Vegita chuckled. "What was that you were saying before?" He said, sneering at her. "I thought you were gonna kill me! Well? I'm waiting!"

Bulma bared her teeth at him. God she hated this man!

Vegita sat up until his legs were all that were keeping Bulma pinned. But even then she was too tightly held to free herself. Vegita crossed his arms and stared smugly down at her. "You've improved quite a bit," he commented, chuckling as she struggled to get free again. "But you seem to have forgotten that I've been training too. I intend to surpass Kakarrot before you fools wish him back, and I'm well on my way. So you see, it's only fair to warn you that a little pipsqueak like you wouldn't last five minutes in a real fight with me. Now, aren't you sorry you challenged me?"

Bulma just snarled at him. Of course she was scared; she hated being at anyone's mercy, much less Vegita's, but she wasn't about to say what he wanted to hear. All of the sudden, she wished she'd never invited him to stay with her and her family. Perhaps Yamucha had been right after all.

"What's the matter?" Vegita gloated. "For once you have nothing to say, is that it?"

Bulma scowled at him. "I detest you," she hissed. "And I don't care how much stronger than I am you are. I'm going to rip you to pieces as soon as you get your sorry ass off of me!"

Vegita laughed. "Oh really?" He said, grinning fiendishly. "Then perhaps I shouldn't let you up yet, hm? I am rather comfortable, after all."

Bulma became thoroughly enraged by this, but for once, she kept silent. It wasn't doing her any good at all to shout insults at him. She had to try to keep her cool. She'd get him, but she'd have to get out of this predicament first.

"You can't stay there forever," she growled softly.

"No, I suppose not," Vegita said thoughtfully. "Of course, I could always resort to knocking you unconscious beforehand."

"Coward!" Bulma hissed.

Vegita flashed her a grin. "But that wouldn't be very interesting, now would it?" He continued. "And I must admit, I am curious to see just how good you HAVE become. I'm sure that pitiful lunge you made earlier can't be the best you have to offer."

Bulma didn't reply. She just scowled at him. The insufferable jerk.

Vegita didn't say anything for a moment. He was looking at her thoughtfully, with his arms still crossed. He made Bulma very uncomfortable indeed, or at least more so, if that were possible. She hated it when he stared at her like this. She began to wonder just what he was planning to do with her. He wouldn't dare kill her in her own home, would he? She doubted he'd kill her at all right now, though. He seemed to be enjoying himself too much.

Finally, Vegita seemed satisfied enough with his accomplishment, and without a word he leapt straight up into the air and flew off to one side, his arms still crossed.

"All right then," he chuckled as Bulma scrambled to her feet. "I'm ready whenever you are."

Bulma paused for a moment, trying to procure some degree of concentration. She knew she'd need it. But she didn't hesitate long. She launched herself at Vegita with perfect form and speed, and they began exchanging blows. Or at least she was punching and Vegita was blocking. Vegita hadn't made a single offensive move yet, which only caused Bulma to push herself even harder. She knew he was just toying with her, but she didn't care. She was going to land a hit if it killed her. She was thoroughly winded, however, considering her hunger and thirst, not to mention the aftereffects of being totally inactive for most of the day. But she continued regardless, and it wasn't long before she was drenched with her own sweat. The only moisture on Vegita's skin, however, were the little flecks of sweat that Bulma's furious efforts had flung at him. And it was easy to see that he was really taking great pleasure in her frustration. He actually looked like he was having fun! That stupid grin on his face was enough to drive Bulma crazy, and she wanted more than anything else in the world to smack it right off of his face. The fact that she wasn't breaking through his rock hard defense, however, left it intact every time she tried. To say that she was getting frustrated was a severe understatement. And her exhaustion was finally catching up with her. She was quite visibly slowing down.

Vegita laughed at her. "Don't tell me you're getting tired already!" He cried, jumping back just out of her reach again.

Panting heavily, Bulma shakily drew herself into a defensive position. Perhaps she needed to rethink her strategy. She didn't want to try ki blasts on him, because they took way too much precious energy that she didn't have right now. Besides, it wasn't a good idea to fire off a bunch of explosive blasts in the middle of the Capsule Corp. compound. She had tried normal combat techniques, but he was too fast and powerful for them to be effective. All she had left was teleportation. She could be guaranteed of at least one, maybe two, surprise shots with that. Unfortunately, it would not only drain the remaining energy right out of her like a sponge, but it would probably also make Vegita good and angry. She grinned angrily. What else did she have left to lose? The jerk had already damaged her pride beyond repair, and she was so tired now that it wouldn't really make much difference if he did decide to get serious. The first hit would probably take her out anyway, for crying out loud. What the hell. At least she'd have the pleasure of wiping that smirk off his face.

It took nearly all her remaining strength, but Bulma managed to stop time, and she sailed at Vegita, her fist aimed straight for the right side of his face. She lost her control before she hit, however, and time resumed its course just before her fist made contact. But it was enough. She had caught him off guard just enough to land her punch and send him stumbling backward.

Vegita regained his balance quickly, and he stared in astonishment at Bulma as she landed with a thud on her stomach on the ground in front of him. She'd underestimated how much energy that move would take, and it had all but knocked her unconscious after it was over. She was too exhausted to move a muscle, so she simply remained where she was on the ground, motionless except for her heavy breathing. She didn't care what happened now. She had gotten one hit in. Out of all the furious attempts she'd made, she'd only gotten him once. And that was only after teleportation. She was so sick of it all. She just wanted to go to sleep and forget Vegita even existed. Damn Saiyan jerk. The Hell with him. It wasn't even worth it anymore.

Vegita felt his face where Bulma had hit him. In the morning, there'd be a bruise there, at the very least. He grinned. She definitely had guts. Of that much he was certain. He hadn't gotten much of a workout, of course, but he'd gained a strange kind of enjoyment from this little skirmish nevertheless. For some reason, he just couldn't help antagonizing this temperamental woman. Maybe this planet was beginning to get to him. He looked down at her and noticed the slow, steady rise and fall of her back. She'd gone to sleep already. He chuckled. She'd given him everything she had. She certainly had been determined to win. Oh well. Too bad for her. She was sure to be mad tomorrow, but at least she'd know who was in charge around here from now on. Smirking devilishly, he bent over and picked her up off the ground. Chuckling again at the exhausted, limp woman in his arms, he started off with her toward the Briefs' household.



On To Chapter 6 ~~~>