"Tarble, Tarble, get out of bed! Tarble, if you don't get out of bed, I'm going to pick you up, and throw you through that window!" I woke up to someone shaking my shoulders like they were trying to wake the dead.
I wanted to sleep like the dead.
"Nrrgh… Pepper, five more minutes…" I tried to ignore Pepper. Bad idea. You never ignore Pepper. You can't ignore Pepper.
"Oh, hey, Tarble. Pepper?" Mrs. Hyperion greeted me as I landed in the back garden beside her. "At least she didn't throw you into the Rogrengas again." Mrs. Hyperion was a gardener, and an amazing one. Even Pepper was impressed at the beauty of the massive garden she tended to behind Hyperion Labs.
Last time Pepper had thrown me out the window after I refused to wake up early, she'd tossed me right onto a batch of red flowers known as Rogrengas. Mrs. Hyperion had been incredibly angry at her, which made Pepper incredibly mad at me. She hadn't talked to me for the whole day, which made it the weirdest day since I'd met her, because she was usually just a massive bundle of energy.
Walking inside, I found six people sitting at the kitchen table, an extra place set for me, and a mountain of food quickly disappearing. Rubbing the back of my head in annoyance, I sat down between Pepper and Zeck, just barely dodging a flying glob of something that might've been mashed potato, or the Celatus equivalent, which knocked Zeck right off of his chair.
"Alright, everyone. Doctor Hyperion said that he's putting the final touches on the ships, doing safety checks. We'll be leaving the planet by the end of the week. That means that we'll be staying for the full moon tonight. Pepper, you're the only one who hasn't managed to keep control while you're in your Oozaru form." I reminded everyone.
We'd all made great strides in our training in this last month. Everyone had at least managed to learn the basics of chi sense, and had gotten at least fifty percent stronger, give or take. I suspected that everyone, even Pepper, had surpassed the 500 mark, in terms of power level. Pepper's growth had been the best by far, except for in terms of her control over her instincts.
The first full moon, I'd made sure to be wearing glasses that blocked me from absorbing Blutz Waves from the moon, keeping my human form as the other four turned into Oozarus. I then spent the entire night restraining gigantic apes. It had been fairly easy, for a battle against four gigantic apes. Even though the ape form technically multiplied power level by ten, it destroyed one's ability to control their ki, bringing the actual effective multiplier down to around seven or eight.
Surprisingly, it was Tater who got his grip on the Oozaru rage first. Once he was communicating fluidly with me, he kept Pepper at bay while I focused on paralyzing Tommy and Lynn. After about two hours of not being able to move a muscle, because I was using my energy to paralyze them, Tommy and Lynn managed to get a grip on their instincts as well.
Unfortunately, even unable to move her body, Pepper simply couldn't overcome her primal instincts so easily. The next week, I lent her my sunglasses, so that she could be of some help in stopping me when I went Oozaru.
I had to admit, though, the next week, when I went into my Oozaru form and went nuts with a power level of nearly 20,000, the seven year old girl with the power level of 400 wasn't too useful.
They weren't able to fully subdue me like I had with them. Even while I had zero control, they could barely touch me, but after five hours of monotonous fighting, I managed some sort of strange symbiosis with my rage. It was still there, but it wasn't getting in my way anymore. Not the level of control that I wanted, but it was enough to make the Oozaru form useful, which was fine, for now.
"Man, I'll miss this food. Celatus has some mean steaks!" Tater declared, tearing into something that resembled a chicken leg, having just devoured an entire steak in three bites.
"The food's good, but I'll miss showers. And clean clothes." Lynn interjected. Fair enough. While there was hygiene on Planet Vegeta, many Saiyans simply ignored cleanliness completely. It wasn't exactly a Saiyan priority. As such, the idea of having to wash hands before meals and shower every day was a new experience for the others. I was used to a higher standard, since I'd lived in the royal palace, but something about the vibe on Celatus resembled Earth. It felt like a breath of fresh air for us all.
I wouldn't miss it as much as the others, though. The fact was, it wasn't Earth. It wasn't home. This reality's Earth wasn't my Earth either, but it was the closest thing I'd find, and part of me had always yearned for it. Being on Celatus just made me yearn for it even more.
"What's so unusual about showering and washing clothes? Isn't it just common sense?" Zeck asked a good question, prompting Tommy to begin explaining Saiyan culture, and how the only thing Saiyans tended to care about was combat, when he paused, mid-sentence.
Simultaneously, all five of us Saiyans sat bolt upright in our chairs, cold sweat running down our backs.
"That's-" Pepper realized with a shock.
"Damn. Frieza!" I agreed, voicing the exact same thought that was currently running through the rest of my team's minds.