Dragonball: Rewritten

Chapter 33: Cell Saga

Deep in the heart of Capsule Corp, Bulma typed away at her holographic computer screen. Two other larger screens flanked the one she focused on, images of different landscapes and the data her satellites and robots transmitted scrolling in rapid succession. A few feet ahead of her stood a huge whiteboard with her mathematical equations, list of locations and black pen marks scratching out all possible solutions to the problem no one knew she dedicated herself to fixing.

Adjacent to the huge whiteboard, one of her robots projected a holographic map of the world today. Another robot projected a similar image, but of the world back when Goku was a child. On both maps, two dots flashed—one blue, designating what was then. The red dot on the other map marked the location of where Dr. Gero's lab should have been, but no longer existed.

Surrounding that red dot were a plethora of black dots, locations she scouted over the last year, to no avail. The clock ticked away. Two years left now, before the androids arrived. Two years before Goku apparently died from that virus.

Two years left to find Gero's lab, hopefully arrest Gero and dismantle the androids.

There was no way any of them could know. After being around Saiyans for this long, especially someone like Vegeta, she knew what and what not to do. Most importantly, these Saiyans taught her a key fact: they had pride. A lot of pride. Much to their detriment and folly. If she tried even mentioning the thought of possibly taking down Gero before the three years were up, she knew what Vegeta's reaction would be: a resounding hell no. Vegeta would most likely reason with her to 'not screw around with the timeline, let it happen as it's supposed to,' no matter how much Bulma provided evidence to the contrary. It'd escalate and escalate until she had enough and call him out on the underlying selfish truth beneath his very reasonable and rational response. Then it'd keep escalating until Goku and Piccolo and whoever else had to come between them to separate the two—and she knew she'd still be outvoted. Everyone looked up to Vegeta, almost as much as Goku did. Even reasoning with Goku alone would've been a lost cause. The man always followed whatever Vegeta decreed. They'd tell her, 'well, you're not wrong, Bulma, but,' and as a woman in engineering and science, she heard those words enough in her lifetime.

So this became her project. Her burden. If this all worked out, she wouldn't need anyone's help except Nappa or Raditz. Maybe Krillin if he wanted to tag along. Yamcha and Tien would've been her top choice, but the two of them just got engaged, and she didn't want to disturb them. Last time she spoke with Yamcha, they were already stressed out planning for their wedding next year. She didn't need to add any potential stress to their plate.

Krillin would've been the next top choice, if he wasn't so busy studying to become a cop, of all professions. It did suit the man and he did seem happy about his future job. But that meant she had to rely on the two people who seemed the most likely to blab to Vegeta about her potential plan. Between Nappa and Raditz, she trusted Nappa more. Not only did he frequent over Capsule Corp more often as he lived and worked in West City, but he provided endless amount of information about space, the Galactic Patrol, Galactic Federation, Frieza's Force, other planetary organizations, Saiyan language, Saiyan lore, Saiyan culture items and so much more. He seemed the most level headed and the most mature of the Saiyans she knew.

Plus, Nappa didn't have a human-ex lover like Raditz did. A human ex-lover Bulma never expected Raditz to have met, let alone dated this past year, until she learned over dinner one evening at ChiChi's about this woman who drove Raditz crazy with lust then crazy with her antics. When she found out who this woman was, Bulma cackled on top of her lungs and Raditz gave her the dirtiest, grumpiest look she had ever seen. Worse than any ugly look Vegeta ever gave her.

Now wasn't the time to tell anyone her plans though. When the time came—when she finally found Gero's lab and was able to take him down before the androids ever existed—then she would call upon Nappa and ask for his help. Until then—