Chapter Nine: Candy On Her Own

A night later at the Devil's Lair Motel, Satan City…

Candy Apple looked around the bleak hotel room where she had chosen to stay for the time being. There was one bed with a sunken mattress, threadbare quilts and sheets and two flat pillows. The dull brown carpet was dirty with numerous dark spots in many places, and rags had been stuffed in the holes in the one window. The only thing that made the cheap room worthwhile was the free cable on the small television. The room was definitely not fit for a flea, let alone a human, but Candy had taken the poor-quality room to conserve what money she had taken with her. She had double-checked the doors and the windows to ensure that no one could break into her room. She was skilled in martial arts, but what good would they do if someone had a gun to her head or a knife to her throat? The area that the hotel was in was one of the most crime-ridden ones in Satan City.

She rested on the uncomfortable mattress that had a few springs stabbing her through the material, and she sighed, listening to the squeal of police sirens for the third time that night. Tears glistened on her smooth cheeks and reflected the neon red lights of the police car sirens flashing through her window.

She had taken only one thing of Roshi's-one of his striped nightshirts that were still unwashed, and she hugged it to her ample chest, inhaling his scent. She regretted deeply leaving her Roshi now, but she felt certain that he would not take her back after the things she had said and done.

But along with the deep regret and sadness she felt about leaving Roshi, the anger over his apparently choosing his magazines and flirting over her remained. She had fallen deeply in love with the old, balding, sometimes perverted (okay, more than sometimes), martial artist, and he still chose to flirt with other girls and look at nudie magazines! She was better off without him!

Wasn't she?

Candy hugged the nightshirt closer to her, as she cried herself to sleep, still hearing the police sirens.


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The next day, Food Fest Market, Satan City…

"Let's see…low fat milk, whole wheat bread, Swiss cheese, anti-aging cream, clarifying shampoo and conditioner…lunch meat, porterhouse steak…maybe a bottle of wine…" Candy said thoughtfully, as she neared the frozen foods section with a cart filled with "essentials". "No, skip the wine, I'll go with ice cream instead…the double-fudge, triple chocolate, five-nuts kind." She opened the freezer door and reached inside for a pint of her favorite ice cream.

Just as she was putting the ice cream into the cart, the heel on one of her black high heels suddenly broke off, and she nearly tripped, falling into the cart. Candy managed to steady herself in time, but she could not stop the cart from rolling away towards the checkout lanes. The cart seemed to have a life of its own, as it steadily picked up speed. Candy slipped out of her shoes and chased after it frantically; she didn't want to fly in front of people and draw attention to herself.

"Runaway cart!" she screamed to no one in particular.

But no one was paying Candy or her cart any mind, for they were helpless, caught in the midst of an armed robbery. Two masked robbers were waving guns around and holding the cashiers and the customers up for their money. One robber was shouting at a frightened young man.

"Hurry up with that money, boy! We don't have all day!"

The terrified young boy was hurriedly filling a cloth sack that the robber gave him with cash from his drawer. The other cashiers had already given the robber and his partner all the money in their drawers and their hands were held up in the air, just as the robbers had ordered them to do.

Finally, when the boy had finished filling the sack, the robbers gathered together and one of them cried, "Now everyone get down on the ground and cover your faces! No one try to be a hero-"

Those would be the robber's last words before Candy's renegade cart crashed into his body and the body of his partner's. Both robbers fell into the cart, with the first robber getting stuck in the basket, and the second robber falling on top of his stomach. The robbers dropped their guns to the ground, as Candy's runaway cart wheeled through the checkout lane and headed towards a five-foot tall display of watermelons.

The cart with the hapless robbers crashed into the watermelons display…

"BOOM! SPLAT! CRUSH! SPLURT! SQUISH!"

…And the robbers were now wearing watermelon parts all over them. One robber was wearing a watermelon helmet on his head, and cold, frosty pink pieces of melon were dribbling down his mask. The other robber was knocked unconscious and Candy's cart was tipped over, with all of her groceries spilled. Her gallon of low fat milk was now splashed all over the robbers, and the bread was squashed flat. The melting ice cream was now spilled all over the floor.

The Satan City Police had arrived by then after one of the cashiers had pulled a silent alarm in his register. Videl, who still worked with the Satan City police, pulled out a couple of pairs of handcuffs, and two officers were behind her, pointing guns at the foiled robbers.

"You're under arrest for armed robbery and property damage!" one of the officers shouted.

Candy frantically came up from behind the officers, searching the mess with her eyes for something important. "My purse! My purse was in that cart!" she cried.

Videl reached down to pull out a quilted purse that was now stained with chocolate ice cream and watermelon. "Is this it…Candy? What are you doing here?"

"Sh-shopping," Candy stuttered. "What happened here?"

"Is this your cart, ma'am?" one of the officers asked.

"Why yes," Candy said. "My cart escaped from me."

"Well it's a good thing that it did, miss," the older of the two officers replied, as more policemen scurried in to take the robbers into custody. As the robbers were unmasked, the officer told Candy, "We've been looking for these guys for weeks."

"We owe you one, miss!" the store manager cried.

"But all I did was let my cart get away from me," Candy insisted.

"Yeah, you did, lady, thanks a lot," one of the robbers grumbled, as he was being handcuffed.

"Yeah, now we're goin' to prison, thanks to you, you red-haired bitc-" the other robber began.

He didn't get to finish his sentence, for at that moment, Candy used her purse to belt the foul-mouthed robber in his mouth, and he fell back into the arms of the officer who was handcuffing him.

"Never insult a lady!" Candy yelled at him. "And keep your gutter language where it belongs-in the gutter!" The robber cursed Candy under his breath, as the police officers only laughed at him.

At that moment, Goku and Chichi walked in with Goten in tow and Chichi puzzled. "What happened here?" she inquired. Chichi had Goku bring her here to buy some special ingredients for a meal that she was cooking that night, and this grocery store was the closest place that she knew to find a couple of the required items.

"Looks like the store got robbed," Goten observed.

"Aw darn," Goku muttered. "And they ruined the watermelons! I really wanted a watermelon tonight too!"

Chichi nearly fell over backwards, and Goten begged, "Can we get some candy?"

Goku chirped, "Speaking of Candy…hey, Candy, how've you been? Hey, Videl!"

"Hey Goku! Candy just foiled a robbery," Videl replied. "Her cart crashed into these guys when they were robbing the store."

As the robbers were being handcuffed and led away, Goten shouted to the police officers, "Take 'em away, boys!"

"Goten!" his mother scolded.

Goten grinned. "I've always wanted to say that."


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An hour later…

"So, you're staying at the Devil's Lair Motel?" Chichi asked, as Goku was driving her, Candy, and Goten back to Candy's motel. "I've heard of that place…it's been robbed about five times. And not to mention it's one of the dirtiest, nastiest places around."

"I have to save my money," Candy replied. She was sitting behind Chichi and next to Goten, who was playing with a candy necklace. "I moved out of Kame House."

"Mwhat Mhappened?" Goku asked her between mouthfuls of watermelon.

"Goku…" Chichi said reproachfully.

Goku swallowed the last bit of his food. "Sorry," he apologized. "Anyway, Candy, what happened?"

Candy briefly explained what had happened between her and Roshi. Chichi sided with her immediately. "I don't blame you for leaving that pervert, especially after that."

"Chichi, c'mon," Goku scolded. "Master Roshi's really a nice guy; he taught Krillin and me everything that we know."

"I'm not saying that he isn't, Goku," Chichi told him. "But any man who picks dirty magazines over a woman who loves him doesn't deserve her. She's better off without him."

"Chichi, please," Goku said. "He really does love her; you can tell that every time that he looks at her." He turned to Candy and smiled. "Why don't you give the old guy another chance?"

"I don't know, Goku," Candy told him. "I really do love him, but I think right now we need a break from each other."

"Well, you can stay with us for right now," Chichi told her.

"Great, thanks! And I'll help you clean house," Candy told her.

"I could use the assistance. Gohan usually helps clean when he's home from the university, but I'm lucky if I can get Goku and Goten to take their dirty dishes to the sink to be washed. And Dende forbid they wash them!"

"Mom, we took care of the dishes two days ago!" Goten protested. He lay back in the backseat and grinned. "Thanks to us, you don't have as many dishes to wash."

Chichi started hyperventilating, as Goku added with a smile, "Chichi, relax, it was an accident! Didn't you say that you wanted to buy some new dishes last week anyway?"

Chichi mumbled under her breath, "One…two…three…four…"

"How come?" Candy inquired to Goten.

Goten piped up, "Well, Mom made us wash the dishes that time, so Dad and I were wondering just how to wash all of those dishes quickly, so that we could get back to training. Gohan was at university, and Vegeta and Trunks and Bulma had lunch with us, and there were a whole lot of dishes after we all ate. Mom and Bulma did all the cooking, and they got mad when us guys wanted to go outside and spar, so Mom said that no one was leaving until the dishes were washed."

"Well, that's reasonable," Candy told him. "Chichi and Bulma did cook. It wouldn't have hurt for you guys to wash dishes."

"But, there were mountains of dishes, and none of us really knew how to wash dishes, and Vegeta was mad. He kept saying how the Prince of the Saiyans shouldn't be reduced to 'menial feminine tasks', but Bulma gave him the evil eye, and he agreed to do it anyway. Anyway, he and Dad saw a fire hydrant not too far from our house, and Dad came up with what we thought at the time was a great idea on how to wash the dishes."

Goku chuckled at the memories that Goten's story was stirring up, while a still highly-stressed Chichi had given up counting and was now mumbling, "Happy place…happy place…I am going to my happy place…I am calming down now, yes…"

Goku added, "Vegeta also came up with a great idea. He remembered Trunks saying that we had a fishing net in the attic, so he sent Trunks and Goten to bring it down. When we spread the net out, we laid all of the dishes into the net, and Goten squirted a whole bunch of dishwashing liquid all over them. Then we drew the net up and carried all those dishes outside-"

"And then Dad flew over to the fire hydrant and took off the cap," Goten said excitedly. "Then Vegeta took all the dishes in the net, and Trunks and I had to show Dad how to turn on the fire hydrant, and when Dad finally did, all the water came bursting out and hit the dishes. They were clean in no time!"

"They were clean, son," Goku agreed, as he turned the wheel. "But unfortunately, the force of the water broke over half of the dishes, and we knew we were in for it then."

"And we couldn't get the fire hydrant to stop shooting out water, so Vegeta said, 'I know one way to stop it', and he fired a huge ki blast at the hydrant, but that just made it worse. By then, someone had called the fire department and the police! Water was shooting right into the sky! Trunks and I sure had lots of fun playing on the waterspout!"

Chichi was pale and shaky, as she sang, "Hakuna Matata…"

"And the police came out and tried to arrest Dad and Vegeta for vandalism and destruction and misuse of public property. Fortunately, Mom and Bulma came out and Bulma talked the police out of arresting Dad and Vegeta. Mom just fainted, and Dad was relieved, and Vegeta was glad because now we wouldn't have to listen to Mom scream until later-"

Chichi's face had gone from white to red, and Goku, recognizing the warning signs of his wife's coming ire, said to Goten, "Okay, Goten, I think we gave Candy the idea."

Candy was staring wide-eyed at Goku and Goten. She could understand now why Chichi was so eager to allow her to move in.


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Two days later…

Candy was comfortably settled into the Son house, with Chichi giving her the guest room. Candy agreed to become the new housekeeper to pay for her room and board, and Chichi loved the extra help with housecleaning. Goku, Goten enjoyed her meals greatly. In fact, Candy's cooking was appreciated so much that Goku, a man with a good heart, but not always the best sense of tact, had gone as far to say that Candy's apple pies and curry dishes were even better than his wife's. This mistake earned Goku a spot on the living room couch, where he was still sleeping at this time.

Today, Candy, who could fly, had been sent on an errand by Chichi to the candy store in the nearest town close to the Son house; Chichi was making some special sweet treats for Goten's upcoming birthday. Candy liked pretty Nutmeg Village, with all of its storybook, gingerbread-like houses in various pastel colors ranging from sunny yellow to pearl pink to robin's egg blue to mint green. She ran along the cobblestone sidewalks, wearing a simple pair of white leather tennis shoes, along with a pair of short denim shorts and a sleeveless, pale green tank top with a small V neckline. Her candy-apple red hair glistened and shone in the bright sun, as Candy hurriedly rushed to find some shade before trekking any further to the candy store.

While she was running along, an older gentleman in his forties began to follow her. He was clean-cut in a gray Armani business suit, and his air of confidence accentuated his attire perfectly.

Candy was a fast runner, so it took her admirer nearly twenty minutes to catch up with her. He boldly followed her into the picturesque Sweetie Tweetie Candy Shop, which resembled a small gingerbread castle. He caught her, just as she had reached the cake decorations section.

"Excuse me, miss?" the gentleman addressed Candy directly. The former doll turned around towards the stranger, both startled and fascinated at the same time. She admitted to herself that he was handsome, and that suit fit him nicely. She gave him a bright toothpaste smile.

"Yes?" she asked sweetly.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Lane Pierce, from the Beautique Modeling Agency. Have you ever modeled before, miss?"

"Why, no," Candy replied, a bit astonished that a modeling agent would approach her. Sure, she knew that she was beautiful, but she had seen women that she thought were far lovelier than she was, especially those girls in those dirty magazines that Roshi had chosen over her…

Lane Pierce showed Candy his business card and photo ID. Candy studied both carefully, and she decided to take a chance and determine that he was legitimate. She said modestly, "I never really thought of myself as a model type." She was suddenly feeling very light-headed and dizzy, and all she wanted to do was sit down somewhere. She thought that it was probably the heat outside.

"Oh, well, I believe that you are. You're very tall and shapely, and this year shapelier, curvier models are 'in'. Normally, our clients prefer stick-thin girls, but this year, many of their customers are demanding to see women with curves, 'real women', they say, in the ads, so we are on a new model search. I believe that you could be what my agency is searching for. Would you like to drop by our agency tomorrow at one o'clock? Do you have a way to get to Satan City, where our headquarters are located?"

"Yes, I do," Candy affirmed wearily, wishing that she could find somewhere to sit down. "But I don't know about modeling-"

"At least think about it," Lane said kindly. "All I am asking that you come by and talk to us and let us take some photos of you. What do you say?"

"Well, I say-" But before Candy could finish her reply, her shapely legs gave way under her, and she collapsed to the floor in a dead heap.