this strange atmosphere. He doesn't have a good feeling about this. "Mh ... I'll probably keep my eyes open." he thinks and drives up the ramp.The spaceship is almost completely repaired and can be used again around the clock. There are only small things to coordinate on the drive system, but that is not so urgent, because for the time being Vegeta intends to stay here on earth again for a while. He doesn't feel like crashing again so quickly, not making significant progress in training, and he's definitely not in the mood for ready-made meals. Besides, Bulma doesn't seem to be doing well. She's been downcast and thoughtful ever since the Feith thing. He doesn't want to burden her with his departure stress either. And if he were to keep it from her and just make the mosquito like that, then she would be very upset again and sing his ears full on the on-board computer. And he doesn't feel like doing that either. So, he recently decided to stay here for a while and train in the spaceship or in the desert. It looks like he chose the right time for it.Because now he even has an important job to do. And that was to monitor the property. You never know what those dark figures Mrs. Briefs mentioned are up to and that Bulma and her family are in danger now worries him a little. So he is now also harnessed as a watchdog.

A whole week had passed since the day that Mrs. Briefs reported on the strange characters. Although everyone was particularly attentive and careful, nothing more conspicuous had happened. Her neighbor had not made any reports of this kind either. Perhaps the burglars changed their minds when they realized how well the Capsule Corporation is secured. And if it had been spies, they would always have turned back to their mastermind with empty hands. It is simply impossible to find out any secret information about Capsule Corporation. The entire last week was calm and without disturbances, so that Dr. Briefs takes more time installing the new alarm system, which his wife insists on anyway.

"Bulma-darling! Can you tell Vegeta that dinner is ready? He has already switched off the on-board computer." calls Mrs. Briefs to her daughter who is just getting off the elevator. "Yes I do!" she replies and comes up to her to disappear out of the back door. At the same time her father comes in and sits down at the dining table. Arrived at the spaceship, Bulma pounds on the door and calls: "Vegeta! Open up! Food is ready." No answer. She takes a few steps back and peers through one of the porthole windows. Then you notice that there is no light on in the spaceship. “Is he not there at all?” She gets certainty by opening the hatch and going inside. No one there. "Where is he ?!" it comes from her annoyed. She goes back into the house and stops by the dining room to see if he's already there. When she can't find him there either, she takes the elevator up again. He can only be either in the bathroom or in his room where she could look for him.Anyway, she had to get a magazine from her room that she wanted to give back to her mother because it was right on the way. "Well, I've had enough! We always have to search the whole house for you!" she scolds through Vegeta's open door. "Damn it! Where did he go ?!" she wonders now because he wasn't to be found in the bathroom either. Arriving in the dining room, she calls to her mother from afar: "Vegeta is not here yet, is she?" "No, dear." she replies briefly. "Mh ... strange. I've been looking for him everywhere, but he's been swallowed by the earth." she thinks aloud and also sits down at the table. "He'll show up." it comes from Mrs. Briefs who puts the soup on the table. "Maybe he's in the desert to train?" attach them to that. "Yes, it could be. He and his spontaneous ideas!" Bulma criticizes him. "Calm down. Hunger will drive him home again." Bulma's father now interferes and stirs his soup."Yes, but at least he could say pretty if he goes." it comes easily eaten by Bulma. "I think I'll have to teach him that!" she resolves.

"Well, I'm getting really worried." Bulma thinks aloud and looks out the picture window in the living room. "It's already dark and he's not back yet." attach them to that. "Oh, Bulma sweetheart, you know how he is." Bulma's mother gives her comment and yawns. "Yes, you know his stamina. He will probably only come back sometime in the middle of the night." also tries Dr. Briefs to reassure his daughter. "Well, I'm going to bed now." he yawns and leaves the living room with a "good night". "Wait, I'll come with you too." Mrs. Briefs jumps up from the sofa and also goes into the hallway with a "good night" to her daughter. "And don't brood too much." she still attaches to it. Bulma looks out the window for a while and then gives up. "I think papa is right.Besides, he can take care of himself. "she thinks and then goes to bed too.

The next morning, Bulma gets up quite normally, at 8:00 a.m., as she does every morning. Something is different this morning. As she passes Vegeta's door, she realizes that the door is still closed. Vegeta has the stupid habit of leaving the door open every time he leaves his room so that everyone is aware of his mess. I guess that should be his way of asking to clean up your room. And he can do it himself quite well. In the beginning, when he first moved in, he even made his own bed. He can do it if he wants. Bulma already suspects that she and her mother are already pampering him too much. She has to change something about that, she had often resolved to do. Bulma stops in front of the closed door and listens. At this time Vegeta had always got up and had been training hard for a long time."Is he still sleeping?" she wonders. She hesitates briefly and then knocks softly. She waits a while and gets no answer. "He's probably really sleeping." she says and tries to knock again. Again nothing. She quietly turns the doorknob and opens the door. The curtains on the balcony and the window are open, as you can see through the crack in the door. "Mh ...? He always pulls it shut." She thinks and opens the door wider. Then she relaxes her creeping posture and goes into the room. He is not there. It's tidy and his bed is untouched, just like the day before. "Funny." Bulma puts her arms on her hips. "Could he not have come home in the first place?" she wonders now. "But where else should he sleep?" attach them to that. "Could he have met someone somewhere ?!" Bulma imagines Vegeta just lying in bed next to someone else and feels a slight anger, which is more like jealousy, welling up.She quickly dismisses the idea. "Where should he get to know someone? He's not going anywhere." she calms down again and can delete the assumption that he might have a girlfriend somewhere. "But where is he then?" she starts over and makes her way to the bathroom to cultivate for the day. When she enters the kitchen a little later and asks her parents, who are currently having breakfast, whether they have already seen Vegeta today, she doesn't get an affirmative answer either. Before she drinks a coffee, she goes to the spaceship to see if it is there. But in the gravity room she can only expect a yawning emptiness. She descends the spiral staircase to check the living area. Maybe Vegeta came back so late yesterday that he wanted to avoid waking someone up and then stayed here in the spaceship. But when she enters the bedroom it is as empty as the whole spaceship. Thoughtfully, she leaves the spaceship and walks back across the lawn to the house. "Damn it!Where are you? "She whispers worriedly and looks down. Then she becomes aware of something small, roundish that peeks out in the lawn to her right." Mh? What is that? "She wonders. Otherwise, the lawn is always carefully tended, so there shouldn't be any rubbish lying around on it. She walks up to it and picks it up." But! That is ...! "She exclaims and turns pale as she looks at the small white bottle more closely." What's going on here? "She whispers in the March wind, which brings a breeze of blossoms in. A moment later, Bulma is on the phone and frantically dials a number. She already suspects what is going on here and that she has to act quickly. But she cannot do it alone. At the other end of the line someone finally answers and Bulma literally floods the person: "Good that I can reach you! Can you come to see me asap, please? I really need your help! I'm in a lot of trouble! "" I'll explain that to you when you're here! "She continues.At that moment Mrs. Briefs appears in the door and asks her worried: "For God's sake, why are you so excited? What happened?" Bulma says goodbye, nervous about her interlocutor, and hangs up. Bulma's mother is still looking worried. "I think Vegeta was kidnapped." she explains briefly. "What ?! How is that? And why?" exclaims Mrs. Briefs who can't quite believe it. Bulma leans on the phone table and puts something down. "I ask myself the same thing." she whispers and stares at the little bottle.



17. Delivered

It's dark and quiet all around. Only a monotonous engine noise can be heard. Vegeta doesn't know whether he is dreaming or awake. Everything is so strange, cloudy and hazy. His fine hearing picks up distorted, unknown voices. They sound dull and soft. He cannot understand what is being said. A strong smell, which could only have come from a cigar, rises in his nose.A radio is playing strange music in the background. He's already had a couple of the songs on the radio at the Capsule Corporation that Bulma turns up full volume when she's cleaning her room. He can remember a few melodies but they sound strangely alienated. But the music in the background should be unimportant for him because slowly he begins to wonder where he is. Why he lay on his side so uncomfortably, because the right, still bandaged arm, on which he is involuntarily lying, presses into his ribs. And above all, how he got to this