Gunpowder and Gravity

There were few things Kai feared in this world. Saiyans. Planet-destroying blasts. Ginyu's weird shoulder pads.

But now, as he stood behind a flipped lab table, staring at the smoking hole in the wall that had once been a door, he realized something new:

Launch. Blonde mode. Armed to the teeth.

"Oh come on," Kai hissed, brushing concrete dust out of his hair. "Who brings a rocket launcher to brunch?!"

A barrage of bullets tore through the spot where his head had been a second ago. He backflipped behind a pillar, narrowly avoiding a grenade that pinged off a coffee machine and turned it into a caffeine geyser.

"She said she was coming for a visit!" he yelled over the chaos.

Bulma, hunkered behind another table with a fire extinguisher in hand, looked less surprised than she should have. "Yeah. She visited. With bullets."

"Do you people have a definition of 'casual hangout' that involves fewer explosives?"

"It's Launch. You get used to it."

Kai peeked out just long enough to see the grin on Blonde Launch's face as she pulled the pin on another grenade with her teeth and tossed it like a softball.

He caught it.

She blinked.

He tossed it right back.

Her smile widened like he'd just proposed.

The resulting boom blew out the back wall of the lab and sent Kai tumbling across the floor, stopping only when he crashed headfirst into Bulma's favorite tool cabinet.

Launch skipped over with a trail of smoke behind her, shotgun slung over her shoulder, blue eyes wild.

"You're cute when you dodge," she said, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.

"Thanks," Kai coughed. "You're terrifying when you flirt."

"I like you."

"I'm scared."

She leaned in.

Bulma cleared her throat so sharply it could've cut glass.

Launch blinked. "Oh right. I was supposed to help with the prototype thing."

Bulma crossed her arms. "Yeah. The ki-dampening compression suit. Not the blow-up-my-lab simulation."

Launch gave a sheepish shrug. "I sneeze, I change. What do you want from me?"

"Maybe not ten pounds of TNT in your purse," Kai muttered, standing up and brushing off the soot.

But even as he said it, he caught Bulma watching him. She didn't say anything. Just narrowed her eyes slightly, then turned away when Launch sneezed and transformed back into her polite, sweet blue-haired self mid-apology.

"Sorry about the mess," she said with a bow.

Kai stared. "…This universe is insane."

Later that evening, after Bulma had cleared the last of the rubble and turned down Launch's offer to help "redesign the roof with flamethrowers," she waved Kai over.

"I need your help testing the new gravity-kinesis stabilizer. Don't worry, it's safe this time."

He squinted. "Define 'safe.'"

"I didn't use rocket fuel this time."

"That's comforting and also not comforting."

They stepped into a clean, sealed section of the Capsule Corp sub-basement. The new prototype chamber was sleek, cylindrical, and slightly humming with energy.

Bulma handed him a headband.

"Monitors brainwave and Ki pattern activity. Syncs with the suit inside the chamber. Try not to break it."

"I make no promises."

She smirked. "I know."

Two minutes into the test, everything was fine.

Three minutes in, the doors locked themselves with a hiss.

Four minutes in, the chamber surged with gravity and trapped both Kai and Bulma inside.

The lights flickered. The interface sparked.

"Uh," Kai said. "Did the floor just get heavier?"

Bulma hit the panel. "The override isn't working. It's stuck in calibration mode—oh crap. It thinks we're both in training."

Kai felt the gravity spike again. Not much for him, but enough to make Bulma stumble against him.

"Oh great," she muttered, pressing a hand to his chest for balance. "I'm stuck in a giant pressure cooker with a lunatic and a faulty suit."

"I feel like you're flirting."

"I'm deciding whether or not to murder you."

"Again, flirting."

She rolled her eyes and sank to the floor with a groan.

Kai sat beside her.

"This your way of getting me alone?" he asked.

"I have a crowbar," she said sweetly. "Want to test your healing factor?"

He chuckled. "Joke's on you. I'm basically immortal."

She gave him a long look. "Don't say that like it's a good thing."

They sat in silence for a moment, the room humming softly as the faulty gravity field pulsed just enough to keep things tense.

"…You know," Kai muttered, staring at the ceiling, "this might be the most peaceful moment I've had in weeks."

"That's depressing."

"Yeah."

A beat.

"You still scared?" she asked quietly.

"Every day."

"Good," she said. "Means you're still human."

Eventually, the emergency failsafe kicked in.

The chamber hissed open, letting in cool air and freedom.

Kai stood and offered her a hand.

She took it, and for a moment, didn't let go.