Chapter 9: Night at the Lookout

I would have never called myself pretty back when I was human, but when I finally saw myself in a mirror on the way to eat, I had to admit I looked pretty damn hot. It was no wonder Yamcha had drooled.

I was thin and toned and tan. Except for little white scars on my arms, you couldn't see any injuries I had. And my swollen cheek was already shrinking. My hair was messy, true, but I looked good with long hair.

Well, I got food. I was starving, really, and so I ended up eating like Goku.

"She has to be related to Goku…" Tien said. Choazu nodded in reply.

"You know, the odds of that are like… 1million to one that we are." I said between mouthfuls.

"Well, that proves she isn't. Goku can't do math." Krillen sighed.

"I could be, though. Goku's dad and brother were scientists on Planet Vegeta." I said, again between mouthfuls, "But for now, we might as well be siblings. There is no way I can be related to the Saiyans coming here. Raditz said they were elites, born with power level over 1,000. He said Goku was born with a power level of about 2. And I know there is no way my power level is close to the Saiyans coming, at least not for now."

"I'm already sick of those two. Can't we talk about something else?" Yamcha suggested.

"Okay, so, how old are you, Katie?"

"I'm 15, but I'll turn 16 in a few months."

"Wow, that's it? You look older."

"If I was older I'd been offended, Tien. Never tell a girl she looks older. Write this down, lover boys." I said, biting into another bowl of pork and rice.

"I didn't mean… you just look more mature, that's all." He covered.

"Yeah, it must be all the training. You look more mature than when I met you at Roshi's."

"Yeah… well, Gohan is huge. You wouldn't expect a 4 year old kid to look so big.He looks at least 8."

"Katie, tell us more about your training so far."

"Well… let me think…" I put down the chopsticks, which I finally mastered as I ate, and thought, "Raditz shot me in the shoulder twice before Piccolo took Gohan and me to the wilderness, so I had a slight disadvantage. A t-rex chased Gohan and me into a dead end. I punched the thing in the chin trying to protect Gohan, but I just pi--ticked it off." I looked over to Kami. I didn't want to cuss in his presence, "It slammed me back into the rock wall. Then Gohan went berserk and kicked the lizard in the chin." They were all entranced by my story, "It lunged at him and he jumped out of the way. The t-rex hit the wall and nearly knocked itself out. It ran off after that, and because of Gohan's hidden powers, he got himself stuck on a cliff ledge. He didn't remember getting up there, and because of the hit I had received I was too weak to fly up after him."

"So how'd he get down?"

"Well… it turned out to be a full moon that night." They all knew what that meant, "When Gohan transformed he practically stepped off the cliff. Piccolo showed up and tried to fight him, and I warned Piccolo about the tail. Then things got bad because… in a freak accident I ended up looking up at the moon too."

"So Piccolo stopped both of you?" Choazu asked.

"Yeah. He cut off our tails, and of course they grew back." I said, wiggling my tail, "It's weird having a tail." I said randomly.

"Then what?"

"Then… that's when I decided I was too dangerous to be around Gohan anymore, so I left and started to live on my own. I was fine until my tail grew back, and then I lost control. The tiger I told you about? I killed it just because I could. I killed it because it was in my territory. Piccolo tried to help… but it hasn't worked. I lost control again… I attacked a deer. I was practicing my aim when I saw it. At first I thought, why not? I needed to hunt soon anyway. But I missed, and when the herd took off, I went after it."

I sat quiet again, my food looking foreign to me. The idea of a hunt was making my spine itch with excitement. I had to push that thought away.

"You really think Kami can help?" Tien asked.

"Yeah, I do. And if not… I don't know what."

"Geesh… we move from one morbid subject to the next. We gotta talk about good stuff or I'll get all depressed!" Yamcha said, racking his head.

"You know what… you're absolutely right, Yamcha." I agreed.

"Then it's settled! No talk about those evil Saiyans or past training!" Tien said. Choazu agreed, and so did Krillen.

XxX

We left the dining room and went back out, sitting and laughing while our food digested.

"Hate to break it to ya, kid, but there ain't no beds up here except for when you're sick or hurt. We gotta sleep out here." Yamcha said.

"Really? Then I call that tree!" I said, pointing to the biggest cherry-blossom tree. Even though it wasn't in season, it was still in bloom.

"Sorry, I sleep under that one." Tien said, smirking.

"That's okay, I meant I'm gonna sleep in it. When you live with a bunch of hungry dinos, you tend to learn things. They can't get ya in a tree, and I dunno… I just got use to it after a few weeks."

"Well lets hope you can get comfortable, you'll need all the sleep you can get after tonight." Yamcha said, smirking. Everyone surrounded me and had a playful evil smirk or grin. I didn't like it one bit as I swallow back my fear.

"Uh... what are you doing?" I asked, trying to back up, but Yamcha was behind me.

"Well, you've trained with us, and you're going to fight with us, right?"

"Yeah…" I didn't like the sound of this.

"That would mean you have to join the Z Senshi." Tien said.

"And to join any club-" Krillen started.

"You have to get initiated!" Choazu cried.

"What!" I screamed.

"Get her!"

I jumped into the air and over Krillen, and then took off in a run, laughing as they tried to catch me. I jumped into a tree, but slipped, and ended up hanging from the branch by my tail.

"Katie, come down!"

"We're not gonna hurt you!"

"Tell me what you're going to do first!" I replied.

"But that takes all the fun out of it!" Yamcha cried.

"Come on kid, even I did it!" Tien called.

"We all did, even Goku!"

"Even Goku, really?" I asked.

"Yeah, it was great!"

"Oh… okay, but you better not make me run around naked!" I cried.

"Why? Aren't you just one of the guys?" Krillen called back.

"Fine, Mr. Ha-ha, I'll just sit up here then." I called, closing my eyes to show I was ignoring them.

They stopped calling and started to whisper. I couldn't hear them, which once again made me feel uncomfortable.

"Alright, we won't make you get naked! And we'll all do the challenges with you!" Yamcha called.

"Promise?" I called back, opening one eye.

"Promise!" they all replied. I jumped down and walked back over.

"Alright, let's get this over with…" I said as Yamcha grabbed my arm.

I know I'm gonna regret this…

XxX

"Now, we do weird things everyday, right? So now we're gonna initiate with a bit of normalcy. No running around the earth in a race or anything weird like that." Tien said. I sighed, relieved. I'd lose every challenge if we did stuff like that.

"Alright, now what you have to do is bite down and hold this pepper in your mouth for as long as possible." Yamcha said, holding out a bright green pepper.

"Okay…" I took hold and examined the pepper that was handed to me, "What kind of pepper is this? I've never seen one like it before."

"It's a Bear Desert Pepper. This challenge was easy for me since I grew up eating these."

"Fine, I've never met a pepper I couldn't eat before." I said, smirking. They each took one and we held them out.

"Alright, ready? San… ni… ichi… go!" That means 3, 2,1 by the way.

I plopped the little green pepper in my mouth and bit into the skin. The juices immediately started to burn at my tongue. I glanced to make sure the others really had put the pepper in their mouths as I sucked on the pepper.

We all had watery eyes as we held the pepper in. I loved spicy food, but never could find anything too spicy for me. It was always the spicier, the better. But with these Bear Desert Peppers, I may have finally found a hot pepper.

Choazu spit out his pepper and grabbed the nearest bottle of water, marked 'loser' for our little contest. I looked at my remaining competition, and if what Yamcha said was true, he was the only real threat here.

Krillen was next, spitting out the pepper and grabbing another water bottle. He gasped as he took a breath.

"I don't know how you guys can keep at it."

"Hey, who won last time?" I asked, though it sounded more like 'ay, hoo wonb ast ime?'

"Goku." Krillen said. I would have smirked if it wasn't for the pepper.

Why am I not surprised?

Tien, Yamcha, and I kept our eye on the one next to us. After a few minutes we moved to tactical offenses.

"Boy, you know, I love ice cream, don't you guys?" I asked.

"Yeah, and how about ice? Isn't ice good?" Yamcha added. Tien closed his eyes and didn't add in. I knew the pressure was getting to him.

Our faces were red, my tongue was hot, but I was okay, and my eyes were still watery.

"Come on, Tien, spit it out, you know you want to." Yamcha said.

I saw Tien twitch, and he finally gasped as he spat out the pepper.

"How can you keep that up?" Tien said, taking another bottle of water. I shrugged.

I was close to panting as the heat started to travel to other places. My face was first, then my stomach felt hot, then my chest, then my arms. It felt weird, but then again, the acids were moving through my bloodstream by now.

"Come on kid, give it up. I can tell you're in pain." Yamcha said.

"So are you, wise guy." I retorted.

"Yamcha, don't let that little girl beat you!" I sent daggers at Krillen, "I'll be good." He said, looking to the floor.

Minutes ticked by, but I wouldn't back down as Yamcha and I faced off. But I guess I was finally beat by a spice, because I couldn't stand it any longer and I spit the pepper. I calmly took a drink of water as Yamcha spat out his pepper.

"Boy, that was close! Wait, there aren't any bottles of water?" he asked, dancing and fanning his tongue.

"No, that's why I gave up." I smiled, "I noticed that there was only one left!"

I guzzled down my water and tossed the empty bottle into the trash can. The others had finished there's earlier and they were empty as well.

"I guess this time the winner is the loser!" Krillen said. We all laughed as Yamcha took off inside the Lookout to find something to drink.

"That was fun, what now?" I asked.

XxX

"I shouldn't have asked. Why do I have to do this again?"

"All greenhorns have to, it's tradition!" Yamcha said, recovered from the pepper. Krillen was trying not to laugh.

"Alright, tell me again what I have to do?"

"Easy, we take this rock-" they showed me the rock with a turtle symbol on it, just like in Dragonball, "And find it in that." They pointed to a kiddy pool filled with yucky, wet mud and more rocks.

"Are you sure you're not just trying to get me dirty like a bunch of perverts? I mean, master Roshi's habits had to rub off a little, right?" I asked. Yamcha once more started to drool. I smacked him.

"No Katie, trust me! Goku did it, we all did it!" Choazu said.

"Well, I guess I can trust you out of all these guys." I said.

I took off my Gi shirt and tossed it aside. I couldn't just go clean it whenever I liked, and I wanted it to look reasonable for a little while yet. The white tank-shirt and sports bra were all separating these dirty minded boys from their fantasy.

I already had my revenge planned as I got on my knees and closed my eyes. They hid the rock and let me start to dig, luckily with my eyes open.

This will be great… just you guys wait…

I felt around in the slop and finally found the rock, but I continued to act like I was trying to find it as I gathered a large ball of mud.

Instead of Dragonball Z it's Mud-ball Z!

I hid my evil smile with a confused look as I tried to play innocent.

"Having trouble?" Choazu asked.

"No, not really. I thought I had it, but I lost it again."

Who to hit first… it really doesn't matter, I'm gonna hit them all in due time… they think they don't have to play in the mud, but I'll show them!

"Hey, I think I got it!"

"Really?" Krillen bent over.

"Really!" I threw the mud-ball at him as I stood, showing off the rock. I fired more mud-balls, and an all-out war began between the 5 of us.

When we finished, all of us were covered in mud and laughing our heads off.

"You guys look awful!"

"Yeah, well I don't think you'd win a beauty pageant right now, kid." Tien said. He was right, I had mud plastered on my face.

I looked over to Mr. Po-po, who was tending to some night plants. It was dark, but mysteriously lit up here at night.

"Uh… Mr. Po-po… is there a place we can clean up?" I asked.

"Yes, I think we have something, but trust me, you'd rather wait until your little games are over." He said, winking to me.

"Uh… okay…"

XxX

Well besides picking off dry mud, we had one more little game. The game of randomness! It goes like this, we each pick a dare and placed it in a hat, then we each pick out a dare and we have to do it. I came up with a great dare.

"Okay, well, normally it's ladies first, but seeing as Katie has already passed the other two challenges, I guess I'll go." Krillen said, reaching in for a dare.

He pulled out his slip and paled. I knew this would be good.

"Well, what's it say, Krillen?" Choazu asked.

"It gives a name, and you have to guess who I am." He replied, sighing, "This is gonna be embarrassing." He said, crumpling the paper, "Here I go…"

Krillen stood up tall and crossed his arms. He looked out of the corner of his eye like he was spying, then he snorted. I could tell he was trying not to laugh.

"Come on, Krillen, we need a better hint than that!"

"Whose paper was it?" I asked.

"It's mine." Tien smirked.

"Alright, come on Krillen." I urged.

"I will defeat you Son Goku. Then this planet will belong to me, just as my father wanted it."

"Oh my…" I was laughing so hard I fell to the floor laughing. The others figured it out too.

"Piccolo! You put down Piccolo?" Yamcha asked.

"I will rule this planet, and no one will stop me!" Krillen did a really bad evil laugh, then he burst out into real laughter.

"Krillen, that sounded just like him! Except for the laugh, of course!" I said, still laughing.

"Okay… okay, who's next?" Krillen laughed.

"I'll go." Yamcha said, reaching in. He had a similar look to the one Krillen had when he got out his paper.

"Well, desert bandit?"

"It says… to sing the Barney song and dance to it. Do I really-"

"Yes!" we all said.

"That was mine!" Choazu laughed.

"Okay, here goes…" Yamcha sighed as he started to sing, "I love you, you love me…"

After a moment of laughing our butts off at Yamcha's pathetic dancing and singing, I decided to go next.

"Okay, let's see…" I pulled out a piece of paper, "It says… alright, someone planted this on me, I know it!" I growled.

"Why? What is it?"

"I think that's the one I wrote." Yamcha admitted.

"Choazu, you didn't tamper with the dares, did you?" I asked.

"No! I didn't know what they were!"

"Katie!"

"Fine… it says… to wear a pink dress." I sighed.

"Glad I didn't get it." Krillen said, "I prefer to mock Piccolo, even if he was right here."

"I hate pink… and I hate dresses. Which one of you knows how to get hold of a dress anyway?"

"Well, we had to initiate Tien a few months ago, so… we still have one."

"Christ help me, alright! Give me the damn thing." I sighed, following Yamcha in to get it.

When I changed I came out and showed off. It was a frilly dress with sheep and ribbons.

"Who wore this nasty thing last time?" I asked.

"Me, that's why I had to dare someone else!" Yamcha said.

"This is way too perfect for it to have been by accident." I looked over and saw Kami watching us. He noticed I had seen him and walked away.

That guy… funny Kami, really finny…

"Okay, can I change back now?" I asked.

"Yeah, it isn't as funny when it's a girl." Krillen said.

So I changed and came back out, and Tien had just pulled out his dare.

"No! I don't want to!" he said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Someone dared Tien to eat another one of those peppers." Choazu replied for his friend.

"That's mine." I confessed as Yamcha took out the pepper jar. It really isn't as funny the second time, but Tien ate the pepper and ran to the bathroom to get a drink.

"Okay, Choazu, you're last."

"It'll be mine." Krillen said.

"It says… get a wedgie. No way!"

So Krillen gave Choazu a wedgie. Poor little guy, but hey, they made me wear pink!


AS22: Well now Katie is officially a member of the Z-senshi. R&R to find out about the training!