Dragon Ball: A Better Bulma

"Ah, the beach is really beautiful," said Bulma, who was already a 16-year-old teenager, as she watched the waves crashing against the white sand below. 

"Only this beautiful place has a lousy owner," the girl complained, ignoring the old man in sunglasses glaring at her.

"I've already apologized to your mother, girl, stop the fuss!" the somewhat embarrassed old man complained, but his attention was once again drawn to a teenage boy carrying Ki in his hands. 

"Kame...!" a 12-year-old Goku, almost thirteen, shouted, concentrating his energy between his palms and creating a ball of shimmering Ki that gradually grew under his control.

"Master Roshi, you need to get over your lust and start training again, you are not the strongest anymore and there is a great cosmos out there waiting for us. Why don't you try some of the wine I made from the golden grapes I was able to create?" asked Bulma, not fully understanding the old man's stubbornness. 

"Hame...!" Goku continued, charging the ki ball, which now emitted beams of light that began to spin constantly, from what Bulma could sense, the boy's power level was finally more 'in tune' with him than when they were little. 

"Why would I do that? Imagine my surprise when you came to my house six years ago because 'Kami-Sama' told you, that not only did you cruelly take away the beautiful Dragon Ball around my neck, but you have been trying to force me to train ever since, there is no consideration for old people in the youth of today," Roshi waved his hand in despair, he did not want to argue with a teenage girl anymore. 

"Ha!" Finally, Goku's Ki Ball charged enough energy and with a movement of his whole body, a beam of white light was shot from his hands towards the beach, splitting it in two as it floated off into the distance. 

"How much was the boost, Bulma?" asked Goku after a few breaths. 

"100 points, added to the 150 you have, that was a solid 250 power points attack. You managed to control all your Ki so easily," Bulma muttered jealously before removing the detector goggles from her face, but she was happy to see her brother's growth. 

One perhaps unique feature of the earthly martial arts, aside from their variety, was the fact that they allowed you to use more power than you had. This increase was usually uncontrolled, influenced more by the adrenaline of combat and desperation in the face of danger than anything deliberate. 

But Gohan was a fucking genius at techniques, at least this version, his technique 'Entropy' allowed such an absurd control of Ki that even if it wasn't 100%, it wouldn't be wrong to say it was directly that amount. 

This allowed him to find the exact key to these temporary power increases, which were exhausting but a good ace up his sleeve not to be wasted. Roshi nodded at how well his signature technique was executed, though the man mumbled a few things. 

"50 years of study, 50 years of continuous practice, for some brats to master and dissect my technique..." The rest of the dialog Bulma decided to ignore, pulling Goku close to giving the little guy a warm hug. 

"You finally did it, little monkey!" Bulma congratulated, further tousling Goku's messy hair, who giggled happily as he stood in her embrace. 

"You said we would have adventures when I control my power with Grandpa's technique, come on, let's go get the rest of the Dragon Balls," Goku shouted as he broke free of Bulma's embrace and started jumping around like the little brat he would never stop being. 

"Yeah, I guess we can start now, although I would have preferred to do it later, you know, I know there are guys after the Dragon Balls and I don't like that," Bulma said as she remembered the image projected by her Dragon Radar a day ago. 

One of the Dragon Balls was unmistakably heading for another, and when the 4 in her possession were added up, there were only 2 left. Would it be Pilaf? Probably, he was the only one smart enough to create something similar to the Dragon Radar that would allow him to find such objects. 

As cowardly as he and his group were, they would surely look for the isolated Dragon Balls before planning to target the ones in their possession, though they would be in for a big surprise when they did.

Then there was the Red-Ribbon Army, should he destroy it together with Goku and make sure that Dr. Gero was really dead? However, finding him would be like looking for a needle in a haystack and he didn't want to use the Dragon Balls for that. 

He didn't want to trivialize them, there was something wrong with thinking that there were no consequences just because it could be solved with a wish or two. The thought of millions of people dying, or all of humanity dying, and being considered something that could be 'solved with a wish' chilled Bulma's blood. 

Besides, in a way, she could afford Gero's life by giving birth to C-17 and C-18, but would they be as good as Trunks' altered future? Or would they be like the originals from Trunks' future, bloodthirsty and ruthless?

Though Bulma didn't want to risk human lives because she could "wish for their resurrection", one never knows when that option is really needed, but Kami-Sama could just die, or Namek could refuse to use its orbs, so relying on a third party certainly had its drawbacks. 

"Unless..." a wish came to Bulma's mind, a wish so cool that it would make a certain biomechanical threat not as dangerous as it should be. 

With Buu, she couldn't do much, neither now when he was weak, nor in the future when he was strong, Buu was something different from all the enemies they could face, just like the misnamed Androids, even though they were technically Cyborgs. 

Vegeta and his gang were a problem that was bound to come, what was interesting was how it would all play out later, was Freezer really ignorant of the supposed legend of the Namekians' 'magic orbs' or was he just searching the universe for his information and Vegeta happened to find one on Earth? 

There were so many hidden and unknown nuances, but Bulma focused on the main point, Goku and she needed to adventure, explore the world, and fight. Maybe they were strong for that time, but fighting experience was something you didn't get just by practicing at home. 

'Besides, we need some pressure, because a certain King of Everything could wipe out this universe. I need Goku to propose the Tournament of Power,' Bulma decided how to proceed. 

She wouldn't respect the canon, but she would make sure that most of the adventures would lead to similar results as the original, with its more than obvious differences, all for the sake of having enough power and experience for the grand finale, so to speak. 

And this wish can solve a lot of my worries," Bulma stopped sinking into her thoughts at this point, already much more relaxed than before. 

"Bulma, they're showing your favorite show!" Goku called from the Kame House, causing Bulma to get a nervous twitch in her eye.

"I told you I don't like those 'ridiculous' poses or those who do them! I just wanted to show you our possible future enemies!" Bulma yelled as she rushed into the house and saw one of her greatest works of the past six years in the living room. 

A box with a small antenna that picked up signals from the universe, it had started as a simple project to contact other civilizations, but she had never expected to receive a series of signals from... Television. 

Space Television, Bulma almost felt like the universe was making fun of her, but when she saw a recruitment ad for the army of 'Lord Freezer', which by the way had really good job benefits and even gave you a long maternity leave with double pay...

We digress, she never expected to find something like this, which led her to expand the project and identify each of the signals coming from space, something tedious, but it gave her three types of television to watch. 

Television was paid for by Lord Freezer, with the appropriate channels and propaganda one would expect. North Galaxy Television, sponsored by the Galactic King, is a clear contrast to the first, even with imitations of Freezer's commercials. 

The other was... weird, it was a Universe 2 broadcast where a group of "Magical Girls" literally fought villains with the power of love. Finding this signal was like falling down the rabbit hole, finding signals from Universe 10 and even the Multiversal Internet, where there was even a YouTube equivalent.

Imagine Bulma's surprise when she saw a Kaio-Shin teaching her how to make a good fruitcake, a recipe she obviously used, and it was indeed delicious. But this opened up possibilities that made her a little uncomfortable.

Universe 7 was very isolated from the rest, hardly anyone knows about the existence of other universes, and this is probably one of the reasons for the general decay in this universe. 

Coupled with a Kaio-Shin who didn't even know about the God of Destruction or the other universes, or that the God of Destruction was a lazy cat, we had this universe with a low rating. 

"But it's a really good plot, are they really villains?" asked Roshi as he ate popcorn and watched Ginyu fight a giant monster, striking poses during their attacks. 

"They're henchmen of that Freezer," Bulma said as she sat on the couch next to Goku, who was excitedly watching the strange fight on TV. 

"Monster, you will not be able to defeat one of the worlds that Lord Freezer takes care of," Ginyu shouted 'heroically' before striking a pose, his body covered in a dark purple aura as he slowly began to dance. 

"Now you will see the power of my 'Dance of Victory', die you monster!" Bulma could not help but slap her face at such an embarrassing sight, but Goku seemed genuinely excited to see the fight. 

"Come on, beat him with your dance, woooooo!" Goku made some Ginyu-like gestures before feeling a cold stare on his back, his tail bristling all over as he turned stiffly to look at Bulma.

"Your moves look pretty standard, have you been practicing a lot, Goku-kun~?" Bulma never, ever used honorifics, in fact, almost no one used them except for certain people who were particularly sensitive about the subject, but Goku knew that. 

Bulma was angry with him! She only used honorifics and that soft tone when she was angry with him for his constant nonsense. But experience made perfect, Goku had grown up with common sense and knew how to use the great strength of boys like him better than anyone else.

"I'm sorry Bulma, do you forgive me?" Goku made puppy dog eyes and even wagged his tail like one, using his still high voice. 

"You're 12, Goku, 12," Bulma said, but her discomfort was long gone when she saw the boy's expression. 

"Chi-Chi taught you badly," Bulma muttered as she watched Goku concentrate on the result of his program.

"She's nice, even though she tried to trick me into getting married by telling me it was food. Getting married means having children! I can't have kids at 12," Goku said, shaking his head. 

"Silly, that's for when they're grown up," Roshi couldn't help but comment on the boy's obvious naivety, even with common sense and a level head, Goku sometimes missed things. 

"I know, but that's in many years, isn't it, why talk about it when we're kids, isn't it better to train and go on adventures?" Goku's questions silenced Roshi and made Bulma burst out laughing. 

"You live in the now, don't you, Goku? By the way, would you like to take Chi-Chi with you on our adventure?" asked Bulma, making Goku's eyes sparkle with excitement.

"Yes! That settles it, doesn't it? Let's find the Dragon Balls together," Goku shouted, and for a moment, Bulma remembered the mythical song from a past life that started this whole adventure.

"Find the Dragon Balls! Take care of them all," Bulma muttered before getting up, she had to get ready for the beginning of their adventure. 

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AN: Yeaaaaah! The adventure begins! Wooooooooo! Ok, stop. Thanks for reading!