Chapter One

"…My friends tell me I should run,

They say they think she's got a gun,

But that just only turns me on,

Right on, right on, right on."

~Smash Mouth; Diggin' Your Scene

"We're going on a picnic!"

"WHAT? I'M NOT GOING TO ANY PICNIC! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

Bulma knew that getting Vegeta to go to a group picnic was no piece of cake, but she had to try. He was a real part of the group now, so Bulma figured he needed to learn how to become more social.

"You are going to go mister, whether you like it or not. This is important to me, and Trunks and Bra would be dissapointed if you refused," Bulma told her frustrated partner.

"Yeah, daddy, I would be so dissapointed if you didn't go," Bra said in her sweetest voice, and put some puppy dog eyes on.

"Ummm…well…HELL! I'll go to the damn thing, but only this once, got it? And Bra, make an effort to stop doing that to me," Vegeta hissed. "There's one catch though, woman."

"Ug, what is it?" Bulma sighed.

"I get to drive there!"

"WHAT? VEGETA, NO! YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE A LICENSE!" Bulma had been in the car when Vegeta drove, and she didn't know if she wanted to be in it with him driving ever again.

"Vegeta, you re-define the meaning of 'reckless driver.' I don't want the kids in the car while you're at the wheel."

"They ARE half-Saiya-Jin, you know. They've both had worse than a little car crash. Plus, I've never crashed in my life! I drive around all the time without you knowing it, and look at me and the car!" Vegeta pointed out.

Bulma's mouth dropped open. "You drive? Without me? I'm surprised your not dead!"

"You are?"

"Well, no…but the point is other people could have been killed! What were you thinking? If the cops pulled you over, that would be even worse because you don't even have a license!" Bulma screeched at him.

"All or nothing, woman," Vegeta told his green-haired mate.

"ARRRGH! Fine, bastard, you drive, but if there's a scratch on me or the kids when we get to that picnic, you will never see a car again, got it?" Bulma mumbled a little more, then got into the passenger's side of the vehicle. Vegeta happily jumped into the driver's seat with a big grin on his face, and, hardly waiting for the kids to get in the car, took off with a screech from the wheels, his eyes wide with excitement.

They had taken their convertible, because Vegeta refused to travel in a closed car (it gave him closterphobia). He laughed as the wind ruffled his wild hair. Bulma had slid all the way down in her seat, and was whimpering and biting her lip. The kids' eyes looked like they were going to roll out of their heads.

Vegeta put on some more speed as he zipped around a corner at about 80 miles per hour. Vegeta hated to admit it, but he absolutely loved driving the black/leather convertible. He had on his white T-shirt that said BADMAN on it and black jeans. He laughed again as he turned another wild corner and Bulma screamed.

"Don't worry, woman, we're almost there. See now? It took about half the time to get here than it would have taken in the first place, with YOU driving. I should do this more often," Vegeta told Bulma. She just whimpered some more.

In one and a half minutes, they had reached the desired location. Vegeta drove the car right through the picnic site, almost running over Chichi and Gohan, and slid to a stop right in front on the lake, whipping the car sideways so that it was parallel to the shoreline. He stepped out of the car with a humongeous smirk on his face.

"Gotta love that car," he said, as Chichi stomped over to where Vegeta was standing.

"Now you listen here, you monster! How dare you drive your car right through our picnic, almost run over me and my poor son (Gohan was standing there, silently shaking with laughter as his mother scolded the short-tempered warrior), and scared the shit out of Bulma!" Bulma got out of the car shakily, then dropped to her knees and slowly breathed in and out.

"Aren't I bad?" Vegeta answered, and walked right past the infuriated woman.

"Hey! I'm taller than you! Don't you talk to me like that, little man! I'll sic Goku on you!" Chichi yelled after him. Gohan really was laughing now.

"Gohan! What are YOU laughing at? I'll have you know that if you appreciate this kind of recklessness, you'll be going without breakfast, lunch, or dinner from me for a LOOOONG time, young man!" Chichi scolded.

"Ummm…Mom? You're forgetting I'm in my twenties now. I CAN cook myself, you know. Oh, hey Vegeta? Dig the car, man!" Gohan walked over to it and gawked at the car's shininess and perfectness, despite it's handler's techniques. Vegeta smirked and strutted over to the grill to drool over the food with Goku.

Bulma had completely recovered and was now standing with a dazed teenage son and a dizzy preteen daughter. "Vegeta, don't you DARE eat that stuff raw!" she yelled after him, as he eyed the meat readily. He turned to glare at her, then returned to gazing at the grill.

"Well, now that everyone's here, and the grilling's almost done, let's start the real picnic!" Chichi announced. Everyone cheered except for Vegeta and Piccolo, and grabbed plates and food from the picnic tables that had been brought over via Goku.

***

"Wow, Ami, what a fantastic idea! A Saturday picnic with lots of food, who could ask for anything more?" Serena told her friend as the Sailor Senshi arrived at the lakeside.

"Yeah, Ami, it's such a perfect day! I'm sure we're going to have a blast! I just hope there's no Nega-business today," Lita added. "Man, I sure got alot of excersize walking from your summer house, Ami, to this park."

"Whew, same here," agreed Mina. When the Scouts found a suitable place near the shore to set up, they plopped onto their picnic blanket and quickly got out the food.

***

After everyone had been eating for quite a while, Vegeta got bored. "Hey Kakkarott, wanna spar? I have something new today."

"Hey, yeah! Great idea!" Goku jumped up and ran towards where Vegeta was standing, right in front of the lake. Piccolo was relatively bored, also, so he went over to be a spectator and to find out what Vegeta's new move was. Bulma and Chichi rolled their eyes.

After warm-ups, the boys kicked off. Vegeta and Goku threw vicious punches and kicks at eachother, dissapearing and reappearing, then dissapearing again. No one but Piccolo payed much attention, because they were all used to Vegeta and Goku's constant bouts with eachother.

"Hyah! Alright, Kakkarott, ready for some ki attacks now that we're in shape?" Vegeta practically growled. Goku was used to Vegeta's riley attitude when sparring.

"Sure, let's go! KA-ME-HA-MEHA!" Goku yelled as he shot some ki at Vegeta, which his opponent neatly ducked. They exchanged simple ki blasts for a few seconds, then kicked into full ki mode, going Super Saiya-Jin and blasting bolts of humongeous power from one fighter to the other.

Vegeta noticed Goku powering up quite a large ki sphere that he might have some difficulty dodging. It was growing quite medium sized, about the size of a basketball. Goku decided that this was enough and prepared to toss the ki ball at his opponent. Vegeta decided to try out his new technique.

Goku threw the sphere, but instead of trying to dodge it, Vegeta concentrated on it and its path towards him. Piccolo grew very intrigued, as he always thought Vegeta's moves were better and more amazing than Goku's were. Goku may have more power, Piccolo thought, but he doesn't have craftiness or creativity.

Just as the ki ball was about to blast Vegeta to who knows where, Vegeta stuck out his hand right in front to the sphere, making it slam into his palm. He practically caught it with his own hand. Vegeta screamed as the ki seared through his hand, but he knew that was going to happen. Rays of yellow ki streamed from between his fingers as he forced the ball to a complete stop, then, screaming again, flung the now much bigger ki ball back at Goku. It was going ten times the speed in which it had come to Vegeta, and before Goku knew it, his own ki exploded on him, throwing him across the lake in a cloud of fire and smoke.

Piccolo could only stare. He had never seen a technique so original, useful, and effective as this one. Vegeta looked over to Piccolo, and Piccolo bowed his head slightly in awe. Vegeta bobbed his head a little back at him, then smirked grimly and watched the other side of the lake.

***

"Wow, Rei, these sandwiches are gre-AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" Serena screamed along with the other girls and Luna, and Darien, who had just arrived, was wide-eyed in shock.

A tall, young looking man with wild black hair and an orange body suit on had just dropped from the sky, right onto the girls' picnic blanket, smashing almost all of the food. He was smoking and was burned and bleeding, as he wearily tried to sit up and look around. He looked dizzy as he dropped back onto the ground.

"Oh my goodness," Mina squealed, "what happened to you, poor thing?"

"Fighting, that's all…" the man coughed out.

"Who did this to you?" demanded Rei, eager for some kind of fight. Serena, however, motioned to Rei to leave the poor guy alone until they could get help, and, unusually, Rei listened to her friendly nemesis and backed off.

"Looks like we need to get him some real medical help," suggested Luna. Chibi-Usa looked worriedly at the injured figure. "Wow, that looks pretty bad," the teenager said, smoothing her pink hair away from her face.

***

"VEGETA!!!!! BAKAYERO!!!!! THAT WAS TERRIBLY CRUEL! YOU GO FIND GOKU THIS INSTANT AND BE BACK WITH HIM CONTIOUS AND BREATHING OR YOU'LL BE SLEEPING IN THE GRAVITY ROOM FOR THE REST OF YOUR LONG, IDIOTIC LIFE, DO YOU HEAR ME!?!?!?!?!?!?" Bulma screeched at her husband. He and several others in the surrounding area were on their backs, blown away by the phenomenally loud scream Bulma had given off. Piccolo had fallen out of midair meditation upon hearing the blast, and even Chichi had swirly eyes and a rather disgruntled look.

Vegeta stood up, glared savagely at Bulma, attempted to straighten his ruffled hair (fat chance), and turned to blast away over the lake without saying a word. Everyone else started to recover groggily.

Vegeta soared across the water, trying to feel out Kakkarott's ki. He easily found it, and zoomed towards the side of the lake his reading came from.

***

"Maybe we should call 911 or somethIIIIIINNNGG! YAAAAHAHH NOT ANOTHER ONE!" screamed Serena as she saw another flying figure land on their picnic site.

Everyone noticed, however, that this man had flown without being blown away by something. They were very puzzled at this, and examined their scowling visitor for any abnormalities.

This is what the girls, Luna, and Darien observed about the newcomer: the most obvious feature about this guy was that he was totally and completely under the normal height for a full grown man, and he obviously was an adult. He was a head shorter than Darien, at least, and, not counting his hair, was an inch or two shorter than most of the girls, as well. The guy had quite a head of hair, which was black, amazingly thick and wild, and spiked up in the most unusual way to make a point at the top, quite like a Troll. He had thick, dark eyebrows, which seemed to be permanently knitted together, a very dark expression on his angular face, and unusually dark obsidian eyes, which gleamed at them unnervingly. He was stocky, however, and unbelievably muscular for such a tiny person. The dark guy had on a white T-shirt that said "BADMAN" on it and black jeans. He was standing with his arms crossed, and actually looked quite regal in a subconscious way.

"Who………who are you?" Rei again demanded, a tone of impatience in her voice when the figure did not answer. "WELL? TELL ME!"

"Shuddup, brat!" said the man in a low, smooth, almost sinister sounding voice. Rei was really flamed by this guy, as everyone on site noticed, and she glared at him with all the hate she could muster.

"TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!!!!! AND WHO'S THIS POOR GUY?" She pointed at Goku. "Did you do this to him? If you did, you're going to PAY!!!"

"Umm…Rei? Maybe you shouldn't set this guy off…" suggested Ami, as the short man's mouth frowned more deeply than it previously had been, which Serena had not thought possible. She had never seen such an annoyed scowl. She silently agreed with her blue-headed friend.

"Well, aren't we pissy, little girl? Who I am and who this is is none of your damn business. If you have any sense in your addled head, you wouldn't mess with me, brat," the man said in a dangerously low tone of voice, to the point of almost being barely audible. However, the Scouts all heard his message loud and clear. Rei, though, seemed almost unnafected.

"You freak! Now you're going to pay!!!" Rei held up her Mars Crystal.

***

Vegeta could only stare as the pretty black-haired girl took out a red crystal and shouted "MARS CRYSTAL POWEEERRR! MAKE UP!!!" He watched, silently hiding his surprise and slight amusement as he felt the girl's ki rise…so that she actually had one. Vegeta coulnd't help but chuckle to himself. Barely an improvement, he thought. The ki barely registered on a warrior's scale, but was quite high on the normal human scale.

Again, he turned his attention to the girl as rings of fire encircled her glowing body, then enveloped her to transform her into an outfitted lady fighter. Again, Vegeta inwardly sighed with short laughter. That outfit was definitely not the original gi, he thought to himself, as he examined the frilly fuku.

As the girl finished transforming in front on her startled friends, and as she glared at Vegeta in a murderous way, he snorted hautighly and raised one eyebrow as a sign of vague interest.

"And what are…you…supposed to be now, brat? Can all of your magical friends do that, too?" Vegeta smirked at the now raging black-haired young lady.

"Rrrrrr………YOU JUST WAIT! I'M WAY MORE POWERFUL THAN I LOOK!!" the girl screamed at him. He snorted again.

"I sure hope so," he told her in a highly unimpressed manner. "So, aren't you going to shoot something at me or what?"

***

Rei was seething now. "OF COURSE I'M GOING TO SHOOT AT YOU!" Man, does this guy have a death wish or what? Rei thought. She turned her attetion back to the fight.

"MARS FLAME SNIPER!!!!" she yelled as she shot a normally deadly arrow of fire at the short, well-built man in front of her. She was surprised and pleased to see that the man didn't budge from where he was standing. He just waited for the attack to come to him.

When it made contact, it wasn't in the manner Rei had expected.

The tiny man simply batted the arrow out of his way like it was a small whiffle ball. The flame left no burn on his hand, although before she had shot the fire, she had noticed rather large sears and burns on his right hand and wrist. She shrugged this off and returned to being baffled by the guy's incredible…something.

Rei wouldn't call it power, not yet. He might just be psycic or blocking or…from the Negaverse.

"HEY! I KNOW WHERE YOU'RE FROM!" shouted Rei. "YOU'RE FROM THE NEGAVERSE!!!"

"The Nega-WHAT-THE-HELL-DID-YOU-SAY?" snapped the rude little man. "I don't have time for your games, and if you don't stop bothering me, you'll all be vaporized in moments, because this is starting to become pissy!" He spat on the ground next to him, an obvious sign of utter distaste, and picked up the man in the orange outfit without any strain whatsoever.

***

"Trunks? Goten?" Bulma yelled across the grass to the teenagers.

"Yeah, Kaasan? What's up?" Trunks shouted back.

"Well, your father went to fetch Goku about ten minutes ago, and unless his ki-sensing thingy isn't working today, he should be back by now. I want you two to go find him," Bulma told her son. He got a worried look on his face.

"Tousan? Missing? That's a little odd…usually he would just come back and keep sparring. I don't feel any rising battle ki anywhere around here…" Trunks mused as he felt out the area. After a couple more minutes, Goten agreed with Trunks that he coulnd't feel his father's battle ki, either.

"We'll check it out, Bulma-san!" Goten told his friend's mother. The two boys blasted off across the lake to search for their missing parents.

***

The situation really lit Vegeta's fuse when that annoying black-haired girl grabbed his shoulder as he was about to take off with Kakkarott. He growled viciously and easily shook her off, but as he levitated into the air to blast across the lake, she grabbed his ankle and wouldn't let go. He tried to shake her off, but her grip was strong and his hands were full of that baka Kakkarott…even when it came to the little things, the addle-brained Saiya-Jin was always messing things up.

"Ack…you BRAT… get off of my damn FOOT!!! Do you want to be blasted to only Dende knows where in a matter of seconds and land as a smoldering pile of ashes? LET GO!!!" Vegeta growled at the pesty girl. He surely didn't want to take off with her on his foot…Bulma would find SOME way to murder him if he came flying back to the picnic with a half dead Kakkarott in his arms and a growling punk hanging from his foot.

"I REFUSE TO LET GO!!!!! YOU'RE EVIL, YOU COWARD!!! LET ME TRY AND DESTROY YOU! Serena, Sailor Moon NOW! We need moon power to send this midget freakazoid back to where he came from!" the girl yelled at her terrified blonde friend. The blonde girl just wimpered and shook her head back and forth violantly.

***

Rei yelped as the tiny man quickly kicked his leg out and her fingers seperated from his foot as a result. She flew backwards and hit a tree before sinking to the ground. She groaned, but quickly got up again.

Rei was startled to realize that the little guy levitated back to the ground and flung the larger man's body to the side. She heard it painfully grunt and turn over. The smaller man smirked an evil, dark smirk, and something weird started happening.

The guy started to glow very faintly. When the glow subsided, a miniscule little ball of light was floating right on the tip of his finger. Rei laughed. She knew this was an attack, but this microscopic missile wasn't going to do anything to her and her friends.

Or that's what Rei thought.

The others seemed to think the same, as they wondered out loud in confused tones about what the guy was about to do. The taller guy looked up at his 'companion' and what he was holding on the tip of his finger, and his face twisted in pure shock.

"Whoa, man, no, you really can't do that…not now…they didn't do anything to you! Cool off, Vegeta, that's WAY too severe…that blast could almost kill me from a distance! Seeing about how close you're going to release that thing, it'll blast me to the next dimension and back!" the man in the orange softly cried out.

"This black-headed baka has trash-talked me enough! I'm really set off now, there's no turning back!!!" With this, the small visitor brought back his arm to launch the tiny ball, and threw it forwards with amazing speed towards all of the girls.

It flew through the air, about chest height. It looked very small, but suddenly, as it went airborne, Rei felt immense power waves coming from the tiny thing. She cried out and jumped across her friends, knocking them down just as the missle sped over their heads. The short, spiky haired warrior cursed loudly, as the blue dot sped towards a large mountain. At first, the girls nor Darien could see anything happen when the flying dot disapeared. They all let out a sigh, but their eyes opened wide in shock, as they turned toward the huge mountain they had seen the blur head towards. Their gaze met the mountain just in time to see it explode into dust particles as a blue dome of energy enveloped the whole thing and litterally disintegrated it.

***

"Dammit! How did you move so fast, brat?" Vegeta spat at the annoying raven-haired female who had been tormenting him so.

"I…I dunno…" the stupid human stuttered. Once again, Vegeta snorted an imperial snort and angrily turned his head, just in time to see his son and Kakkarott's little brat land alongside his Saiya-Jin sparring partner.

"Tousan? Are you OK? What happened with you and Vegeta-san?" asked the black-haired teenager.

"Heh heh…and WHO are those dreamy girls…?" Trunks managed to say. The bridge of his nose turned bright red, and he developed the anime trademark sparkling eyes as he gawked at the pretty young women. He sighed to see that one was already taken (he noticed Darien), and hoped it wasn't the doll with long, black hair spilling over her shoulders.

"Whoa…yeah…huh huh…" Goten agreed, swooning back and forth as he stared at the girl with pretty long blond hair cascading down her back.

"HEY! You half-baked bakas! What are YOU two brats here for?" Vegeta snapped at the dazed teens.

"WHA!? Oh, gomen nazi, Tousan, sir…" mumbled Trunks as he bowed his head respectfully. "Gomen nazi, Vegeta-san…" Goten said, and also lowered his head. Neither wanted to light the short, scowling man's fuse any more than it had already (apparently) been lit.

"Hmph. You two can be about as respectful as monkeys…" the former prince muttered. He was about to lift off again when someone landed right behind him. Vegeta jumped and turned around.

It was Kakkarott's older brat, Gohan. He was carrying Bulma on his back, and he set her down before her husband.

***

"Umm…hey, ma'am, I wouldn't stand that close to that little short guy…he's really really mad right now and he just blew up a mountain…" Serena warbled in a shaky, frightened voice as she saw a green haired woman calmly approach their attacker.

"Oh, don't worry, honey, this fat baka here is not going to hurt me. Of course, if he does, he's going to be miserable at night for a long, long time…" the woman said, and smiled warmly. Serena whimpered in uncertainty as the lady kept moving closer to the guy. She actually yelped when the woman put her pretty hands on the man's shoulders and started rubbing them. The man growled loudly, but was obviously enjoying it secretly, because he didn't go anywhere.

"Arrrgh…woman, why do you always do this in public? It makes me look very pitiful…" the small man grumbled.

"Oh, your poor torn pride," mocked the lady, as she kept rubbing. "Calm down, there are other people here, you know…WHAT? BLEW UP A MOUNTAIN?!?!?!?!?!?! BAKA NE! YOU SHOT FRIGGIN' KI BEAMS AT THESE GIRLS? YOU…ABOMINATION!!!!" the green haired lady screamed. She started rapidly scolding the man, accentuating her words with pounds to his back, which he obviously hardly felt.

After she was done yelling, she politely turned to the girls, Luna, and Darien.

"I'm so terribly sorry about this stubborn ass bastard here (a snort can be heard from behind her), and for our appologies, I'd like to invite you to our picnic. We have plenty of food if you get to it before our hogs do (she rolled her eyes in the direction of the men and the boys), and we also have a couple girls around your age. Probably a little younger, but very mature and friendly. Would you care to join us?"

"Why, thank you ma'am!!! We'd love to join your picnic!" Ami agreed.

"I'll have to warn you, though, my husband, my friend's husband, and a…err…green alien we managed to pick up…will be sparring near the lake. If you hear any more explosions or screams of fury, don't worry and remain relaxed. They AREN'T going to hurt you (she glared at the short man again. He hmphed back at her)," the kind woman explained.

"Oh, that's fine with us, but how are we going to get across the lake without taking the time to walk the whole way?" Ami asked.

"Do you mind flying, girls? We have a hanger full of human airplanes just waiting to take off, right, my men?" The boys and the taller man all agreed readily (the taller man was strangely back to being in perfect health). The short man grunted heavily.

"I'm only carrying one," he muttered, as he picked up the green haired woman.

"Oh no you're not. You're going to volunteer to carry one of these poor girls over the lake and to our site. Egad, it's not that far, Vege-chan. You can carry me over first, then take whoever's left with you on your second trip."

The man growled, but the woman's glare won the battle. He snorted again and took off with her.