Of Moons and Tales

Chapter 6

Goten looked around the small studio apartment that Annya and Leta shared as he stood at the door. To his left was what he guessed was a bedroom since it had two beds. This bedroom was raised up a bit and had a funny short wall around it. From the bedroom there were two doors that he'd have to remember to explore soon. To his right the living room where all he could see was a singular couch and a television mounted to the wall. There was some sort of cabinet where he guessed they kept all their toys underneath the television though so that was okay. A few feet away from the "living room" was a wall of windows with an inconspicuous glass door. It seemed to lead out to some sort of half-walled in area. He tried to remember the word for it but he'd never seen one in real life before so it hadn't mattered till now.

He turned his attention back to the area that lay in front of him against the far wall. Between the living room and the bedroom was the kitchen. Unlike his mom's kitchen it didn't have anything sitting out. And the counters kind of curved around to one side. Where it looked like they had seats. Since there wasn't a table in the small residence he guessed they ate at that extended counter area.

The young half saiyan rocked on the back of his feet as he lingered at the doorway. He looked between the two girls with an innocence and nervousness that only children seemed to be able to pull off.

"What's wrong?" the redheaded one, Annya, asked Goten as she stopped to stare at him.

"Mom said it's rude to go into someone's house without asking," Goten explained as he fidgeted in his spot.

"Come on, shrimp, we invited you." Leta smiled, petting his hair.

Goten smiled as he hopped in and went straight to the cabinet like table underneath the television. It didn't even cross his mind that his mother might be worried about him. Nor did he worry about the fact that these two ladies were practically strangers and he should have been scared of him. Like the people at the market when his mom took him to stock up on groceries. All he worried about was the fact that he still couldn't see any toys.

"Hey guys?" Goten asked, as he looked back to see where the two older girls had gone to. "Where are all the toys? All I see are thin boxes in here! Are those the toys? I haven't seen toys like these before. How do you play with them?"

"You've never seen movies before?" Leta questioned as she walked over to him.

"Movies?" Goten tilted his head to the side. "You mean those boring things that mom puts on when we go to bed?"

"Boring?" Leta blinked, "I don't own anything boring."

Annya scoffed under her breath as she leaned against the kitchen's bar with her elbows behind her. "That's a matter of preference."

"Even you enjoy the ones with all the explosions." Leta retorted.

"Explosions?" Goten questioned, interested.

"Yes Goten, explosions - destruction, death, violence from energized particles. And what I enjoy is watching the humans try to imagine space and traveling in it is amusing, the fact that they add explosions all the time is coincidence," Anna replied.

"Admit it, you like watching them blow stuff up." Leta smirked, "It's so childish and pales in comparison to the real thing."

"They try," Annya added.

"Real explosions are different than TV explosions?" Goten asked as he beamed a smile at them. "I like watching things explode on TV! Have you ever seen something really explode? Mom says brother has but he won't tell me about exploding things."

"We have, " Leta smiled, "and movie explosions are much closer to the real deal than TV ones. Trust me."

Goten bounced up on his feet, shutting the cabinet to where all their movies was. There was a look in his eyes that both saiyan girls knew meant trouble.

"Really? Can I see one? Please?"

Leta glanced at Annya, eyebrow raised before she answered.

"Not today." She paused at his pout, "We'd have to go back to the mountains, it's not safe to do that in the city."

"But..." Goten started.

"Besides! Gohan'll be here soon." Leta clapped hands together. "It'd be rude to leave without him."

"But I don't want to watch a movie," Goten pouted.

It was true – he didn't want to watch a movie despite the fact that they might show explosions. At the same time though he knew they had to wait for his big brother to get out of school. Just like they said they would do. He didn't know how much longer that would be since they'd already spent hours in the mountains before getting to their apartment but he hoped it wasn't too much longer.

"I think I could make some things up if you gave me time," Annya said as she pushed herself away from the counter. "That way you could play…oh what did humans call it - Shock scotch?"

"I don't want to play hop scotch! It's boring, all you do is hop in squares," Goten said with a rebellious expression on his face.

"…human games always lacked something," Annya agreed. "But I think shock scotch would be a better translation for the saiyan version. How much electricity can your body take?"

"What?!" Goten squeaked, fear showing in his eyes.

"Are you trying to kill him?" Leta frowned, arms crossed. "He has no tolerance."

Annya crossed her arm with a little frown. It was true that she had found that human children were untrained. She would have thought that the halfling would have shown less of a fear response than that. After all, even Trunks was training with his father any chance he could get and she knew exactly how much voltage his body could take before the muscles gave in. Goten didn't have Vegeta as a father, true. But his father was the one who defeated Frieza after all. Even if he had died prior to his youngest birth the eldest (being Gohan) should have been old enough to work with his brother by that point.

"Maybe we should find out how far we can push you today," Annya offered.

"Push me?"

"Before you go into cardiac arrest," she supplied.

"What's cardiac arrest?"

"Death," Leta explained quickly for him.

Goten's eyes widened more and that fear was a lot more obvious now. He squeaked and hid behind Leta's legs, tugging at her pants.

"Can I watch a movie now? Please miss Leta?"

"Sure thing, kiddo. Let's pick one out." Leta smirked.

It hadn't taken Gohan long to get to school after he entrusted Annya and Leta with Goten. Normally he left hours early so he could take Nimbus. It helped to make sure that no one saw him flying in the sky. And it also helped to reduce the amount of energy he spent. Which, considering the fact that he couldn't have an hour at a buffet for lunch every day with none of his classmates around, was a necessity to blend in. He had already goofed on the first day of class with the whole baseball incident; he didn't need people to gawk at the amount of food he put away. Especially since Videl had been poking her nose where it didn't belong a lot more recently.

"So," Erasa said as they waited for the next teacher to come in, "do you know anything about martial arts, Gohan?"

"Huh? Ummm..." Gohan jumped, nervous. "Why are you asking?"

"Well silly the world tournament is coming up," Erasa said with her smile. "I was wondering if you ever heard of it?"

"Who hasn't?" Sharpner snarked from a row in front of them.

"Yeah, I've heard of it," Gohan said with a timid smile, scratching his nose.

Oh boy had he heard of it. Like that was something he could have gotten away with not hearing about growing up. Even if his dad didn't compete in multiple tournaments, it probably would have come up as a background to some jokes. After all, they had gone far beyond the level that people normally got to when they competed in that event - and that was when he had been a kid. Practically a baby actually.

"Are you going to enter?" Asked Erasa, leaning towards him, almost touching if Gohan hadn't backed away fast enough.

"Well…"

"Why would he bother?" Sharpner scoffed. "He's a nerd!"

"I think he could do it!" Erasa countered. "I bet Gohan would beat Hercule. Then…" she glanced at Videl, "You'd finally get a nice boy to date~"

"Hahah! Oh Erasa, that's crazy," Gohan said with one of those far too amused smiles.

Of course, he wasn't going to deny it. His mom taught him better than to outright lie. Besides he was bad at lying. It was just easier to not say the truth.

"Yeah, Erasa, that's crazy talk," Sharpner said as he relaxed back in his seat. "Everyone knows that Hercule Satan is the strongest man in the world. Heck, he's probably the strongest in the galaxy."

"Eh-heh-heh…" Gohan chuckled nervously, the whole story with Frieza just dancing on the tip of his tongue.

"Quiet guys," Videl finally chimed into the conversation.

The reason became obvious when the teacher finally took their place at the podium. Of course they were dressed in a nice suit, just like every other teacher. That was the kind of school it was after all - Orange Star High School might not have been the best in the area but it was still a good school. Just perfect for Gohan. He needed a good high school to get into a good college but not too good because he didn't want to stand out. If he stood out keeping up this whole normal human act would have been much harder than it already was. That was something he really didn't need. It would make being Saiyaman a lot harder.

He barely even paid attention during class beyond copying down the notes. Instead his mind wandered back to the conversation they were having before it started - The World Martial Arts Tournament. The fact that it was coming up was kind of strange to him. He had heard a few stories from the others about how his dad's matches had gone, but honestly not as much as someone would expect. For four years of his life his mother had been adamant about keeping him away from all things fighting. Then when he finally had been taken out of the house to go see Master Roshi for the first time...his life got turned upside down. Raditz had been up to no good and had started making trouble. Then he got into one little fight, one he didn't even mean to get involved with, and scared his mother. Everything he did after that scared his mother. Piccolo had stepped in of course and soon he'd been kidnapped. Turned out Piccolo wasn't the evil monster of nightmares that his mom told him about and when he got the hang of it, training had ended up fun. If only he knew back then where all of it led...he'd have done more. Maybe his dad could have survived if he'd taken things more seriously.

"Mister Son!" The teacher called out.

Gohan jumped to attention, knocking the desk away from his body despite it having been one of those long tables. One of those long tables attached to the floor with bolts. Students down his line (like Erasa and Videl) shouted out their dismay but his attention was on the suit clad figure at the front of the room.

"Yes sir?"

The teacher shifted, perhaps uncomfortable with the fact that Gohan had just knocked a section of school property loose, "Can you explain the problem we are faced with?"

Gohan gulped nervously and looked to what problem they were discussing in class. It was a logic problem - the ignorance is bliss paradigm. His eyes went back to the teacher quickly.

"It's the principle of having to do with rather to educate someone or not to educate them. To educate someone would cut down on the variables and allow them more understanding and control of their life. However if this education interfered with their mental strata, it could impair happiness both short term and potentially life long. So the Ignorance is Bliss paradigm asks rather it is better to always know what has or will happen or if it's better to remain in a state of blissful unawareness."

"You may sit back down Mister Son," the teacher said as they moved back to resume the lesson.

Gohan sat down, this time mindful of his actions so he didn't disturb his classmates anymore than he had. With hunched over shoulders he continued the rest of the class pretending like he was actually listening more intently than the first half of the class. Around the end, Videl's watch buzzed to catch his attention. She was up and out of the door before the teacher had time to properly excuse her from the class. Gohan looked nervously between her and the window. If she had gone that meant there was trouble. Trouble in Satan City tended to get violent - and sure Videl could handle her own but he wanted to be out there too. It was better than school at any rate. Something he would never admit aloud when his mother could be in the vicinity.

His hand shot up and almost as soon as it did, the teacher let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Mister Son, you should have your nerves checked by the school nurse."

His hand remained up as he started to bounce up and down in his seat.

"Yes, yes, you're excused. This time don't forget to come back from the bathroom."

"Sir!" Gohan chirped before he quickly rushed out of the room, not even grabbing his things.

Letting himself loose, Gohan sped through the halls and out onto the roof, where he quickly changed and raced after Videl. The city seemed fine, in fact he couldn't even hear any sirens going off, or gunshots and those seemed to be pretty common around here. So the eerie silence was actually disturbing. He paused in mid air and pinpointed Videl's energy. Quickest way of finding what was going wrong in the city was to figure out where she'd gone. After all, she was the one directly linked up to the police.

When he found it, Gohan got there in less than a minute. Only, when he arrived he wasn't prepared for what he saw.

Goten was on the ledge of a building twenty-three stories up.

He swirled around, crossing his arms over his chest and floated there for a moment. What was his brother doing on the ledge of a building in the middle of the city? Where were the girls?

A moment later and he spotted one girl, just not the one he was looking for. Videl stepped out of one of the windows near by with a safety harness on and a determined look in her eyes. Then she looked up to see him.

"Saiyaman?" She asked, almost surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing this child of course!"

"I don't need rescue!" Goten protested, as he continued to climb up the side of the building. He didn't get far before Videl nabbed him.

"That's dangerous kid!" Videl shouted.

"It's training!" Goten argued.

"Young man! Climbing buildings without a safety rope can be deadly! What would your mother think?!" Gohan shouted, trying to stay in character.

"Says the man flying without a jetcopter," Videl grumbled.

Goten stared at Gohan, straight through his Saiyaman visor. Then, without warning, launched himself from the side of the building with a smile.

"Big brother!" Goten said happily. "I had the bestest day ever!"

"Gah!" Gohan cried as he caught the boy. "Young man! I have no idea who you think I am!" He tried to argue, to keep Videl unaware.

Goten frowned and crossed his arms as Gohan held him up in the air, "Why are you talking all weird? Is it cause that's the girl you like?"

Gohan's face, from inside the helmet, was a mixture of fear, surprise, and...well more fear. Where were the girls?!

"Saiyaman…?" Videl asked, her face slightly flushed.

Gohan looked between Goten and Videl, trying to wrap his head around what was happening. He opened his mouth to try to defuse the situation when he heard a wolf-whistle come from above them. Looking up, he found both the girls on the roof of the building. Annya looked disinterested, instead she was cleaning her fingernails. While Leta looked right at him with a smirk.

"Look at you, being all heroic, impressing the ladies." Leta cat called. "Thought I don't know how with that outfit…"

"Remove the helmet and the toga...and it's similar to what we used to wear," Annya commented as she held her hand up for inspection. "He is wearing the fitting suit, the red cape, the boots and gloves. No wonder he called himself 'Saiyaman'."

"True but the colors don't suit him at all." Leta grumbled. "Fluorescent green?! With red? What are you, a christmas tree?! You come inside right now and I'll fix you up for your lady friend here."

Gohan just stared, slack jawed.

"And what's with the helmet? Looks ridiculous, unless those antena get T.V." Leta shrugged, "I suppose I could forgive that."

"Are the two of you insane?" Videl broke back into the conversation. "No, make that the three - the four of you! Why was this kid on the ledge of the building...and why are you three sitting out talking about fashion?"

"He was fine," Annya said as she slipped her legs off the edge of the building, looking down at the human girl. "Except for the fact that he was moving so slow, he was doing fine. The building has plenty of features for hand holds and it's not that high."

"Not that...not that high?! We're twenty-three stories up!" Videl balked at the notion.

"Yeah, like she said, not that high," Leta commented before looking back at Gohan "You sure about this one? She doesn't seem that bright… though a zeyato is supposed to balance you..."

"What's a zeyato?" Goten asked, "Can you eat it?"

"... That is enough miss!" Gohan shouted, his brain finally catching up. "While I disagree with your opinion on my attire, I must ask that you both stop putting children in harms way!"

"... You rather we went back and played with the nice dinosaurs like this morning?" Leta asked, her face blank.

"I like the one with big teeth!" Goten chirped from his spot in Gohan's arms. "His tail was missing though, I wonder what happened. He looked really scared to see me too!"

"Wait, wait," Videl said from her place near the window, edging onto the ledge with an outraged look on her face. "So you took him out into the wild and then decided that he should climb a building? What is wrong with you people? Is he even your son?!"

"Nope," Annya answered honestly as she stared down at her.

"So you kidnapped him? Look lady, that's a criminal offense. I'm going to have to take you in for questioning."

"...you can try."

"No kidnapping here," Leta smirked, pointing at Gohan. "His big brother asked us to babysit."

Gohan twitched and muttered something along the lines of 'I hate you' under his breath as Videl turned her outrage towards him.

"So is that what you do oh great Saiyaman? Turn your brother over to some lunatics? Why would you do that? What else do you have to do in the middle of the day that's so important? And don't tell me you're out saving people mister!

You don't even show up until I get somewhere first."

"Ever wonder where he learned the ropes?" Leta interjected, "Dinosaurs."

"Now miss Satan, I assure you that this is not the normal arrangement." Gohan swallowed. "However, I was indeed in a hurry today and despite appearances, these two women are family friends and are very capable individuals."

"Not the normal arrangement? And what is a normal arrangement with you?" Videl scuffed. "Where's his mother anyways? Shouldn't she be taking care of him?"

Videl nearly jumped when a mass appeared out of the corner of her eye. Annya had moved down from hanging over the top of the building to hovering somewhere between where Gohan hovered and where Videl continued to stand.

"Starving him. Now. Goten, you have twelve more stories to climb or there will be no ice cream."

"You can fly too?!" Videl nearly freaked as she watched the red-headed saiyan hover.

"What?" Leta commented as she flew down to join them, "Like it's hard?"

Videl stared at them, her mouth hung open.

"Ice cream!" Goten cried as he tried to escape his brothers hold.

"Yup! You just have to reach the top!" Leta smiled, "Or…. you could practice flying."

"Miss…" Gohan started, his voice shaky.

"Gohan's teaching me!" Goten smiled, looking back at his brother. "If I fly, can I have ice cream Gohan?!"

"Umm…" Gohan gulped.

"GOHAN?!" Videl shouted, her mouth finally working again.

Gohan jumped in mid air, tossing Goten at Leta before proclaiming, "I don't know who this Gohan you're talking about is but I have to go! Miss Satan, I trust you'll take care of this situation. Bye!"

"What?! GOHAN?!" Videl shouted as he vanished into the distance.

"That boy has some serious problems…" Leta muttered, looking at Goten. "What's he thinking, running around dressed like that?"

"Big brother's a superhero! Superheroes dress like that! It's so cool."

"It's stupid." she scowled, looking back at Videl. "Maybe if you run back to school, you can catch him."

"Yeah, I think I will," Videl said with narrowed eyes as she stared off to where he had vanished. "But don't think this means the two of you are off the hook! You can't just put a kid in danger like that and cause everyone to panic."

"You humans have such a broad definition of that word 'danger'." Leta grunted, with air quotes.

"... 'You humans…'" Videl stared at her.

"You better hurry if you're gonna catch Gohan with his pants down." Leta said quickly, wiggling her eyebrows.

With a bit more of a huff and some parting words, Videl was off. The three of them floated back up to the roof where Goten was finally released.

"Miss Leta? Why would Videl want to catch big brother without his pants? Does she want to see the teddy bears too?"

Leta opened and closed her mouth a few times before she finally sighed, "Ask Gohan."

Goten grinned and nodded, "Okay! So can we get ice cream now?"

"No," Annya said dully.

"But!"

"You didn't climb up," was her unwavering response. "You will climb all the way back down to floor twenty-three then climb back up. Then we'll get the ice cream."