A/N: This chapter is shorter than the last one, so you can be happy about that. Also, I just wanted to note that this is an important chapter in the story and I may change some parts of it if I don't like how it's going. Be prepared for that! Enjoy and review please!
In ten quick minutes, Bulma had worked out those tangled ebony strands. They headed downstairs and when ChiChi and Trunks got their first look at the new Angel, they almost fell over in shock.
"What do you think?" Angel grinned as she showed off her change to ChiChi and Trunks. Their response was one of pure shock. Angel shook her head and sat down at the kitchen table. Trunks and ChiChi cautiously plopped down next to her while Bulma headed to the stove.
Bulma placed the last of the platters of food on the kitchen table and sat down next to her son. She could not get over how different their young guest looked when she was clean and nicely dressed. Bulma just stared enviously at the girl's muscular yet still feminine body, her large gorgeous light blue eyes, and her extremely long black hair. The outfit she had given her to wear fit snugly and emphasized her feminine figure.
ChiChi finally warmed up with Angel and began chatting with her like they were old buddies. Inside her mind she, like Bulma, secretly envied the girl's youthful beauty and strength. She could be a strong fighter while still retaining her natural womanly instincts. She smiled as she stared at how silky Angel's hair looked once it was cleaned and brushed. The style reminded her slightly of Bulma's when she was younger. But, age had, unfortunately, caught up with both of the women.
Trunks looked embarrassingly at the stranger. His first impression of her was that she was a plain, simple looking amateur female fighter. Now he thought of her as martial arts professional. But, this transformatio was quite another story. He decided that although she wasn't model pretty, she had a certain something about her. She had more of a wholesome beauty to her that radiated outwards.
He had never met a female fighter before, besides Android 18, who possessed the skill and determination she had. She seemed happier now then when she first woke up from the rejuvenation tank. But, he felt that she was hiding some deep dark secret that caused her much pain. He decided not to push the issue though because he felt that she would tell them when she felt like it.
"So...um....What should I call you, ma'am?" Angel directed her question to ChiChi.
"Oh, my name is ChiChi. And what's your name?"
"My name is Angel."
"Well, Angel, you already know my name and this is my son, Trunks, who will be very miserable if he touches that food," Bulma replied without even looking at him as he froze with his fork poised above the platter of eggs closest to him. He sighed and slumped down in his chair, defeated.
"It's nice to meet you, ChiChi. And you too, Trunks, I am very sorry that I hurled such a blast to you. Sometimes I have trouble controlling my lust for fighting and I go overboard. Please forgive me," Angel apologized to the lavender haired demi-Saiyan.
Trunks dismissed the explanation with a casual hand toss that meant, "No big deal", and quickly began to devour the mountain of eggs and meat that was steadied on his plate. Angel stared at him in disbelief as she saw him shovel food into his mouth like there was no tomorrow. Then she grinned at him and started to match his food intake morsel for morsel. He took no notice of this until he observed that a hushed atmosphere had settled over the table. When he looked up, Trunks couldn't believe what he was seeing. Here was this seemingly normal young woman who didn't look like she could eat enough to keep a bird alive, almost putting his eating habits to shame. She, like him, went through platters of food in almost two seconds flat. He smirked and added to the eating frenzy that was taking over the kitchen of Capsule Corp.
For ten minutes, the two fighters gorged themselves with eggs, pancakes, rice, and meat until they finally stopped.. ChiChi and Bulma stared in astonishment, not at Trunks for he always ate that way, but at Angel, for they thought only people with Saiyan blood ate like ravinish animals. Yet here was this girl, who couldn't weigh more than 140 pounds, eating almost as much as Trunks, the seemingly bottomless pit. But, eventually they slowed down and relaxed in their chairs with the table completely covered with dirty platters.
"That was very good, Bulma. I haven't eaten a decent meal in years," Angel commented as she wiped her upper lip which was smudged with grape jam.
"Evidently. Angel......" Bulma trailed off.
"Yeah?"
Bulma smiled despite herself, "Well, you have done the impossible. I never thought that a human girl could almost out eat Trunks."
"Really? I've always eaten like this, when there was enough for me to cook with. None of my other friends ate like that, but they always complained about how unfair it was that I could eat so much and still never gain a pound."
ChiChi sensed that she was remembering something difficult and replied, "Speaking of which....Angel. Why don't you tell us about yourself?"
Angel's face slightly clouded with sadness, but nodded, "All right." Bulma, Trunks, and ChiChi leaned forward so as to absorb everything she said.
Angel cleared her throat and began, "I guess I should start at the beginning of my memories. One of my earliest memory is sitting on my adopted mother's lap when I was about three, perhaps. But, my mom and dad told me the story of how I came to them. When I was about three, I must have been wandering around and I ended up in a forest. I was then attacked by the androids." Here Bulma and ChiChi gasped at the thought of a little girl meeting up with those vicious monsters.
Angel continued, "I don't remember anything about the attack, but I do remember waking up in a hospital room with all these doctors around me. I was scared and when I began to cry a young woman with red hair came over and held my hand. I spent three weeks in the hospital and the woman and her husband kept me company. When I was finally allowed to leave and my parents could not be found, the two people adopted me. Their names were Remon and Mikana. They lived in a decent-sized cabin in the middle of nowhere, literally. I remember that I was almost in constant pain those first few weeks. You see...." Angel choked on the tears that had begun to run down her face.
Bulma handed her a hanky and comforted her until she stopped enough to continue her story. "Now...as I was saying...I was in constant pain because....," Angel took a deep breathe in preparation, "I had three fractured ribs, a broken right arm, jaw, and collarbone, a sprained back, and an enormous gash in the back of my head. They had to cut off my hair until it was about one inch all the way around so that they could stitch up the cut."
Bulma and ChiChi stared in sympathy at the description of her injuries. But, they weren't prepared for what she said next, "All that could eventually be healed and my hair would grow back, as you can tell. As a matter of fact, I healed faster than was anticipated. In only three months, I was perfectly fine with no traces of those injuries. But, there was one injury that still haunts me today, almost twenty years later. When I was brought in, my left leg was completely crushed. The doctors tried everything they could to help me, but my lower leg bones were shattered beyond repair. So....they had to.....amputate my left leg below the knee."
Here even Trunks, who had been solemnly listening, nearly fell back with shock. He couldn't imagine how she dealt with losing her leg at age three. Bulma almost fainted, but caught herself. "To answer the questions you will probably ask, yes, I still only have one leg. I have a prosthesis that I made myself when I was eighteen in replacement of the lower part of my leg and I wear pants nearly all the time." Angel responded sadly while pulling up her left pant leg.
Then the three stunned people stared in awe at the metal contraption that was her left calf. Calmly, she gently tinkered with the prosthesis until they heard a snap and saw Angel pull it off. She flipped the replacement limb in one hand while Bulma, ChiChi, and Trunks gaped at her muscular thigh that ended just below her knee.
"Oh, Angel!" ChiChi couldn't control herself and wrapped the poor girl into a huge hug, "That is so horrible! Those monsters had no heart, whatsoever, to attack and permanently injure a little three-year-old girl who couldn't protect herself." Angel just sat silently looking at the tiled floor.
Then after a couple minutes of pure silence, she looked up and continued with her story, "Moving on....I adjusted to only having one leg after about a year. The hospital had given me a metal prosthesis to replace my lower leg. I remember that they said that it would probably take eight months at least for me to learn to walk with the prosthesis properly. Well, I surprised everyone by walking skillfully in them after only two months of daily practice."
"I lived with Mom and Dad for years. When I asked them one time why they were so kind to me when I wasn't even their child, Dad told me that they had a daughter once. Her name was Kudia and, from all the pictures they had all over the house, I discovered that she had red curly hair, like her mom, and green eyes, like her dad. They told me that when she was only twelve she was in a city, shopping, when the androids appeared and blew up the entire city, killing everyone there. She had only been dead for two months when I came into their lives."
"My parents took very good care of me. Dad was a martial artist and he began to teach me many things like kicks and punches. I remember that the lessons were difficult for only one reason, I only had one leg. Dad was very surprised, but pleased at my progress. When I was only five, after two years of training, I almost surpassed him in every aspect."
"I began to train alone in the woods. Dad showed me videos of past Martial Arts Tournaments to give me training tips. I tried to copy many of the attacks the contestants used many times. I remember that one attack I saw a kid named Goku do helped me develop my own attacks, like the Scorch Blaster and the Psychic Flame." At this Bulma, ChiChi, and Trunks exchanged glances.
"One day when I was about six, I was sitting with my mom chatting when Dad came in and told me to run into woods. When I asked him why, he told me that we were playing a game. I don't know why I believed him, but I did. I was hiding in the woods for awhile when I, without knowing how, sensed my parents energy decreasing rapidly. When I came home, I saw our house completely burned down and my parents lying on the ground, dead." Tears ran down her face when she said that.
But she regained her composure, "I must have fallen asleep on the ground because the next thing I remembered was an image of my mom standing before me. She told me that I was to find my real parents. Then she left, and I was on my own once again. Right then and there, I promised myself that I would try to avenge their deaths. Unfortunately, Trunks, you kinda beat me to it. After that, I was on my own for about five years."