The odor was suffocating and tears started to burn his eyes. He covered his mouth with his sleeve, coughing violently into it. His nostrils burned and his breathing quickly became ragged. He swore that he would perish before he finished this deed. His commander at arms stood behind him smacking the flat of her hand with a wooden rolling pin.
"But Chi-Chi, I hate onions, why do I have to chop them?" He whined loudly. She swung the pin and cracked him hard on the top of his skull, the pin fit perfectly between two of the many tufts of black hair that jutted out from his scalp.
"Just chop the onions, Goku, and when you are done, you can go play with Krillen or whatever it is you would rather do." Chi-Chi replied, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear. Goku whimpered loudly and continued to chop the onions. Chi-Chi sauntered to the other side of the room where her son, Gohan was sitting at the dining room table, finishing up his math homework, his tongue stuck comically between his lips as he worked out the math problem. Thunder shook the small house as a worthy sea storm threatened the small island. Goku wiped the knife off on his orange pants and set it down next to the freshly chopped onions.
"I'm finished, Chi-Chi, and now it's raining, but that's okay, Krillen and I were going over to the lookout anyway, there's no way it's raining there!" Goku exclaimed, Chi-Chi examined Goku's work. She was impressed with his dice job as each piece was quite a bit smaller than the tip of her pinky. A fresh roll of thunder shook the house and lightning illuminated the dark windows. Goku charged for the front door and opened it, rain splattered the front of him and the wind threatened to blow the door shut again, a streak of lightening pounded the ground in front of him, the smell of scorched earth and ozone filled the small house.
"Maybe that's not such a good idea, Dad." Gohan said, scratching the back of his head nervously. Three rapid-fire successions of lightning struck the ground in front of the door and the wind blew it shut. Goku laughed nervously, and slumped his shoulders in defeat and sat down at the kitchen table.
"You're right, son. This storm is terrible!" He shouted over another roll of thunder. The lights in the house suddenly went out, plunging the kitchen into darkness. Thunder continued to rock the house and lightning pounded the ground around the house, the smell of ozone and scorched earth quickly overwhelmed the onion smell. A point of light appeared across the room and then blossomed into a full-fledged flame. Chi-Chi raised the candle high above her head to find Goku and Gohan clutching each other underneath the table.
"C'mon boys, out from under the table." Chi-Chi sighed, concern mixed with exasperation etched across her otherwise beautiful face. "I thought you were supposed to be big strong men, not baby boys." Chi-Chi said. She was so tired of taking care of two babies, especially with another one on the way. How was she ever going to teach Goku to grow up? He was the strongest fighter in the universe but the biggest baby on the planet. And probably would be on another planet if he traveled in space again, like he'd done a few years ago. She grumbled in her own mind about that even to this day. The boys emerged slowly from beneath the table and the sky cracked its whip again, making the windows rattle loudly. The lights suddenly flashed back to life, Goku shrieked as the blender kicked on, the racket drowning out the storm for just the moment it took Chi-Chi to turn the contraption off. The storm subsided almost as quickly as it had arised, only the gentle tapitty tap of rain against the windowsill proving that it had been there. There was also of course, the lingering smell of ozone and seared dirt that was quickly dissipating.
Gohan took his place back at the table. He was supposed to go do some work with Piccolo today. Piccolo was going to teach him how to channel his Ki into a tight beam rather than an explosive ball or a wave, but he couldn't do that with math homework to do, as his mother pointed out so enthusiastically. Gohan looked up as Goku rushed for the door.
"Bye Gohan, by Chi-Chi, I'll be back before dinner!" He said, throwing open the door and taking off from the doorway causing a vase to topple off the door stand. Chi-Chi caught it lazily and set it up on the stand again.
"Bye, Dad! See you later!" Gohan shouted after him. He returned to his math problem. "So two plus X minus X squared. So this factors out to this…" Gohan trailed off as a loud whistling noise caught his ear, followed abruptly by a muffled thud.
"What was that?" Chi-Chi asked. Gohan didn't answer. "Well, it must have been that storm." A gust of wind nearly took her off her feet and when she looked up, Gohan was gone and the front door was swinging in the breeze.
"SON GOHAN! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Gohan was probably way out of earshot by now. She growled in frustration as the vase shattered on the floor. "That boy has got to learn priorities. Family comes before Homework, and homework before fighting!" she swung her rolling pin angrily, smashing her dining room table in half.
The wind whistled in his ears as he flew at top speed in the direction the thud cam from. "Please let him be okay, please let him be okay." Gohan repeated. His father's energy signature had spiked and then all but disappeared just before the thud. Little did Gohan know that this would be the beginning of the most difficult struggle of his young life.