Chapter Ten: Getting Serious
It had been over two weeks since the encounter with Vegeta. Gohan spent each morning and afternoon absolutely alone and without company, the time spent in training and in soul searching. He would come in battered and strained for breakfast and be absolutely spent when dinner rolled around, only to train even more until midnight before turning in. After about five hours of rest, the whole process would start all over again and it was taking its toll on him and his family.
His friends weren't oblivious to it either and could see the weariness that laced his eyes. It wasn't a weariness that only seemed to manifest physically, but it burdened him mentally and emotionally as well. It seemed like the weight of the world was crashing on top of him and everyone was watching it slowly break him. Gohan knew that his concerned friends would have something to say yet again about his haggard appearance.
"You're a minute earlier than ususal Gohan." Chichi looked up from cooking as Gohan entered the kitchen and grabbed a plate. Although she had been teasing him, the statement had indeed been true. The clock read 7:09 instead of his usual 7:10.
"I guess I did that much better this morning," Gohan joked right back to his mother.
"Maybe you'll do two minutes better tomorrow and three minutes better the day after!" The humor was hopelessly lost on Goten as he enthusiastically took in the conversation at face value. Gohan couldn't help but chuckle at his naive brother.
"Maybe so, squirt." Gohan affectionately ruffled Goten's hair as he took a seat at the table.
"Okay boys. Here's some more food, so dig in." Chichi placed another oversized platter of breakfast items on the table to accompany the other ten.
"Thanks mom!" both boys spoke in unison as they prepared to stuff their faces full of breakfast. In record speed, the table was soon clear of food, not counting the small amount that Chichi was still consuming.
"Thanks for breakfast mom! It was good as always. I've got to get going now, so I'll see you after school."
"Bye Gohan. Have a good day. Don't be home very late today."
"I won't!" He ran to the room to get his things together and quickly brushed his teeth. Once he was sure that he had taken all the necessary steps of preparation, he jumped out the window and blasted off into the sky. "Let's see. I should be there at ten till. Great! I won't be late today!" Although he felt a bit tired from his daily routine, the revelation of his punctuality gave him a bit of a boost. He flew all the way to school with a grin on his face.
School had passed without a hitch and Gohan was glad of that. The less stress school gave him the better, as his training was beginning to takes its toll on him. He casually walked towards the doors in anticipation of the freedom and fresh air.
"Hey Gohan! Do you realize that winter break starts next month?" Erasa disrupted his anticipative musings.
"Well, yeah. I'm still aware of the time Erasa." Gohan chuckled at his bubbly friend. "What about it?"
"Well, after all the holidays die down, I usually have a sleepover before school starts. I know that it's a far way off, but since I am the master planner of all things party and fun, I thought we should give you a chance to check your calendar. What do you think?" Gohan frowned slightly as he thought of the missed training something like that would probably cause.
"Oh, well, I'll need to check with our family plans. I'll definitely see if I'm free though."
"You better, brains! I don't want to be the only guy at this shindig, like every other year. I'll be nice to have more testosterone to balance out all the estrogen." This earned him a smack upside the head, courtesy of Videl.
"You should enjoy that Sharpner! You get to sleep over with two hot girls."
"Bah...not so hot when you have me hopping to the kitchen every ten minutes for a drink or snack during a movie."
"It's good exercise to keep your body 'gorgeous' and 'ripped'. And you're using big words now! I bet Erasa is SO hot for you now!"
"Hardy har har. You're a boss with the humor just like you boss it with those crooks, Videl."
"Oh come on Sharpie!" Erasa clung to his arm and pouted. "You love us and you know it."
"Yeah, whatever." He grudgingly admitted before giving her an affectionate smile.
"Well guys, this is where I go. I'll see you next week!"
"See you Gohan!" The blonde couple waved to him as he headed out.
"Well guys, I think I'm leaving too. I've got some things to do this evening. See ya!" Videl gave a courtesy wave before running off as well.
"Well, we're all alone babe. What to do?"
"Oh, I have a couple things in mind." Erasa giggled to him. They linked arms and took off on another excursion.
"I hope you two have fun." Videl eyed the couple from the air as they headed into the city. "I have a bit of fun of my own planned out. It doesn't have anything to do with getting lip locked either." The spunky daughter of Hercule Satan flew full speed to towards Gohan's ki signature. It was to her advantage that he had his mind on a lot of things and wasn't flying too quickly. All that time training her to more skillfully utilize her ki to fly quickly and sense life force wasn't hurting either. She caught up to him in less than ten minutes.
"All this time trying to find myself and get stronger hasn't done a thing for me. I'm still just as conflicted as I when I was a child. Still, my friends mean a lot to me. What am I supposed to do?" Gohan mused aloud, as he was unaware of his pursuing company.
"Do about what?" Gohan whipped around to see his raven-haired girlfriend just behind him.
"Videl! Why are you following me home? We agreed that we were postponing your training."
"Forget about that. I want to talk about what's bugging you lately."
"Okay? Couldn't you have called me? Who says something is bugging me anyway?"
"Don't give me that crap! We need to talk about this face to face." Her face flared with anger as she spoke. "I know you Gohan. You always do this and shut down when someone asks you anything! I know you are training for a threat, but aside from that, I hardly know what's going on with you anymore. You're becoming distant again. I just want to know what's bothering you. How can you say you trust me when you don't tell me anything!" She paused and panted, partly from being out of breath and partly from using so much ki to catch up to him. She let the words sink in as he waited for his thoughts to settle.
"I don't want you all to get hurt. I'm being distant for your own good. If I allow myself to be distracted, then we all could very well die. Vegeta told me that I'm losing focus and it's true. He's caught up to me slowly but steadily. Soon he will surpass me and if he is afraid of what's coming, how can I stop it if Vegeta is already stronger than me? This threat is a danger to the entire universe, and the only way we can survive is if we all are trying our best." There was pause as Gohan assessed her reaction. She waited patiently for him to say anything else that he might still need to say. "I never wanted you or anybody to feel pushed away or spurned. I just care to much too let anything happen that I would regret." Gohan looked down at his feet as his mood darkened at the thought.
"Gohan." Videl stated his name simply yet compassionately as she closed the gap between them. She embraced him and buried her face in his chest. "You say that we won't survive if we don't try our best, but you forget that you and Vegeta aren't the only ones trying." He looked down at her, puzzled at her words. "How can I survive if I don't try my best? I may not be as powerful as you or your friends, but I refuse to sit on the sidelines and die a spectator."
"Videl, it's too dangerous. When we leave to confront Neeros, you aren't coming." This earned a slap to his face. "Oww! What the heck was THAT for?"
"You're such an idiot, Gohan! What if something happens on Earth? You think someone is going to magically appear to defend us while all of you are gone or that we'll all just be peachy while the fate of the universe rests on the outcome of some battle, millions of miles away!" Gohan gave her his classic bewildered look at her outburst.
"You wanna defend Earth? But you're not even strong enough to defeat my uncle Raditz!"
"Don't be such an ass Gohan! I need you to continue training me of course!"
"I won't make enough progress if we do that though! I'm starting to gain a slight gap over Vegeta again. I'll lose all my progress if I don't keep training!"
"We'll use The Room of Spirit and Time! You said that a person could spend a whole year in there at the expense of one day in our dimension. The conditions are also much more harsh than normal conditions on earth. It would be perfect!"
"That's not safe Videl! You aren't as experienced as I was when I went in there. It's still not even safe for me!"
"I mastered flying in only a week, and it only took another week for me to learn how to manipulate and fluctuate my ki. I could handle anything you throw at me Gohan."
"It's just too dangerous. I can't risk you getting hurt."
"Why are you so afraid! Why can't you just trust that I'm capable of taking care of myself! Is it because you still think I'm weak!"
"No, you're one of the most naturally strong people I know!"
"Then why won't you give me a chance!"
"BECAUSE I CAN'T STAND TO LOSE SOMEONE ELSE!" Videl was stunned at the sudden aggression in his voice. Gohan, seeing he had cowed her quickly softened his demeanor. "I've already lost my father. Losing someone else I love would break me." Videl floated a few feet away and didn't saying anything. She turned as if she were ready to fly away.
"Losing you would break me too, ya know? And I'm not your father. This isn't the Cell Games happening all over again." Gohan looked at his shoes in shame, as the comparison suddenly seemed so irrelevant. "If you can't trust me like I need you to trust me, then how can we make this work between us? There may as well be nothing at all if you can't have faith in me." He looked up in shock at her words. She turned to look at him with a fire and conviction in her eyes that almost scared him. "Think about it." She flew away to leave a forlorn Gohan to evaluate everything he had thought. He turned and made his way home.
There was tension building at the humble abode of Master Roshi, but not nearly on such a dramatic scale.
"Put your back into it, Krillin!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!"
"Well, I guess that's why they call it training! So if this is as fast as you can go, then you need to get faster and stronger!" The harsh drill instructor also known as Eighteen, reprimanded her husband. They were both doing push-ups side by side, although it was more of instructor participation for Eighteen. Her unlimited amount of energy allowed her to keep up an intense pace for far longer than even a superhuman like Krillin could go, although he wasn't very far behind her in strength by now.
"Sheesh! You would have thought we could have dinner before all of this, 18?"
"Nope. It's only 5:00 right now. You can go another two hours."
"Two hours? But I'll hit 8,000 of these in at least 15 minutes!" Krillin looked slightly hopeful and gave his most pleading look to 18. The look quickly vanished after her next response.
"Ha! This is only the warm-up. Some measly 8,000 sit-ups and push-ups can hardly be called training for someone of your level. You could deal with Frieza by now if you put your back into it! No way! We'll finish with some heavy sparring after this."
"Oh, well that's just great." sighed Krillin. "Cell made Frieza look like a firecracker next to a tank though. I sure I hope I can help against this new freak on the scene. That Neeros sounds like more trouble than anything I can imagine."
"Don't worry, Krillin. I'll make it worth your while." 18 gave him a sly grin and winked. Krillin's dark mood was quickly forgotten as the prospect of a reward from his wife made him flush. A stupid grin plastered itself onto his face.
"Alright! Now we're talking! This is gonna be a cinch!" He continued working out with a renewed fervor.
"Oh yeah, Krillin!" Came a familiar and lecherous voice. "She works em' hard and rewards em'! Hot stuff your wife there!" A lone ki blast hit him where he sat, effectively shutting up the perverted old man and leaving him lying singed and dazed in his beach chair. Krillin's hand smoked as he did one-arm push-ups with the other. He suavely blew on a smoking finger before continuing with both hands.
"Still got it, baby." A smug grin was plastered to his face. Eighteen shook her head, very unimpressed with the bravado. She couldn't help but smirk in amusement though. The old pervert had it coming, and her husband was sticking up for her.
"Men. Can't live with them, can't live without them." Her smirk turned into an affectionate smile as her sometimes awkward husband pushed himself on. She knew she gave him a hard time and that the upcoming events made him apprehensive, but he was training hard to protect her. It reminded her of why she even loved him in the first place. Only he had taken many steps to make her happy at great personal expense. He would always give himself for her and his family and she would always love him for it.
An explosion rocked the wilderness, the thunderous bang resonating for miles as a ki blast collided with the barren ground. The shockwaves kicked up a thick dust cloud, making the sky a hazy mixture of blue and brown as it slowly settled back on the desolate landscape. A tall and muscular figure, accompanied by a short man standing no higher than two feet panted from the exertion of rendering such destructive force through ki.
"That was incredible, Tien!" The short man's high-pitched voice broke the silence that had just settled after the din of the explosion. "You must have focused twice as much destructive power into that attack than before." The taller man only frowned at the compliment.
"Yes, Chaozu. It was a very powerful technique indeed. If I were to have been fully powered up, I probably could rendered half of the earth barren from the explosion if that were my intention. The problem is that I'm wasting too much energy in one attack. By it's very nature, as a finishing move, it will obviously use a lot of ki, but this is simply too much. I had to do the very same thing as a last resort a long time ago against Nappa, and it cost me my life. I need to somehow create a balance in destructive power and ki manipulation. That way I can still pull it off and not kill myself even if I've already spent a portion of my ki."
"I see. But you must be getting close. I can feel it!"
"I appreciate the optimism." Tien smirked in slightly cynical amusement. "You are right though. I know I can do this. I just need to experiment with my flow of ki. That's enough of this technique for the day though. Let's finish up with some sparring. I know it's a lot to ask of you to spar so often, seeing as there has been a gap between us for a while. It really does help to have an opponent though."
"Don't mention it, old friend. You're on!" Chaozu floated and got into his unique fighting stance. They clashed as a "light" spar ensued.
Yamcha stood as still as stone as he focused his ki. It had long been dark in the time zone he was currently training in, but he still pushed on with fervor he hadn't had in years. A cold wind blew in his favored desert as the sun had long since gone down. He paid it no mind as he reached the desired level of ki needed for this particular maneuver.
"Alright, Puar! One more time, and then I'll unwind so we can turn in for the night. Sound good to you?"
"Okay, Yamcha! I'll get everything in the capsule house situated and prepare a light meal for us."
"Thanks a bunch, Puar. You're a real pal." He thanked the retreating form of his loyal cat. To this day, he didn't dare question how she could float or speak as intelligently as any human. She once told him that she had simply been the smartest kitten in a litter born from a genetically altered cat, and he left it at that. When you encounter boys who are half your height that have the power to destroy a giant boulder with their bare hands or demolish your house and various aliens bent on world domination or destruction, you tend to be less questioning of small stuff like a talking cat.
His aura flared around him into a blazing flame of white ki as he prepared the technique and small rocks began to float on his generated energy. Suddenly two balls of yellow ki erupted from his palms. They floated over his open hands then suddenly flashed brilliantly before dividing into two each, making four. This procedure repeated a few more times until he had thirty-two of the glowing orbs floating around him.
"That ought to do it. It's a bit more than last time, so we'll see how well this goes." He suddenly spread his arms open wide and the balls of ki followed his beckoning arms. They began to spread out all around him and started flying in various directions in a circuit around him. "Time to let them go." With a quick motion of closed palms, the deadly orbs began to fly towards him. It became pandemonium as the thirty-two ki blasts sought to claim the target that was their master. Yamcha adeptly dodged and evaded them, deflecting the few that managed to get too close to him. His swats never disengaged them or sent them into another target as they quickly homed onto him again. This dance of death continued for several minutes as he gracefully dodged, flipped, and ducked the glowing projectiles.
"Time to end this." His palms shot out retaliation towards the many blasts intent on harming him. Two fell, then two more, then a few more, as he shot down all of the ki-based missiles that came for him. The whole area was aglow in the light of the many explosions that miraculously never harmed the house. Soon, it was down to the last two. They were easily put out of commission as Yamcha sent two well-aimed shots into them. The whole thing had been a breeze, or so he had thought. A stray ki blast engulfed him in an explosion the size of a small house.
"Yamcha!" Puar had seen the whole thing and quickly rushed to his aid. A puff of smoke from the explosion still fizzled out as the victim of it fell to the ground with a loud thud. "Are you okay Yamcha!" His body was singed and his face held a grimace, but he was still alive and conscious.
"Yeah, Puar. I'm fine. I'm just a little shook up, but it's nothing a couple extra hours of sleeping in tomorrow won't fix. I must have miscounted in all the excitement." He shook it off as he rose from the ground, a hand still on his head due to a lingering headache.
"Please be more careful next time!" The worried cat floated shoulder height as it helped hold him steady while he walked.
"You can count on it. I've already mastered it as an attack and I can control the volley for evasive and retaliation exercises, but I need to be more attentive next time."
"Please do. I don't want my master deep fried from a training exercise."
"Don't worry Puar. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. It's just been a long time since I've pushed myself to my limit. I used to stand on equal footing with everyone, including Goku. Although I can't catch up with the Saiyans, I can at least close the gap that Krillin and Tien have made between them and me. That's enough of that though. Let's get freshened up and have a bite to eat."
"Certainly! You need your rest!" Both of them, weary from training and worry respectively, entered the capsule house for a well-earned rest.
Gohan sat, deep in though as the day winded down. He had tried to enjoy a relatively routine evening of training, eating, and brief studying. Any joy from company of family or good food left a bitter taste in his mouth as he has stewed over his girlfriend's words the whole time. She had practically told him if he didn't trust her despite his decision, then they were through.
She was right if he was willing to be fair about it. She wasn't some helpless girl who couldn't take care of herself. She was mentally and physically strong and was capable of only getting even stronger. She would probably okay in the training room if he kept an eye on her, and he really did need to be more trusting of her and her choices. She was willing to share her heart, but she needed her independence.
If he admitted it, his desire not to include her was purely selfish. He needed her to be safe. He couldn't bear the thought of her dying or getting hurt. If he kept her in a box and shielded her, maybe he could make up for that mistake that haunted him no matter how much he convinced himself he had let it go. To his chagrin, she was fighting him tooth and nail to change his mind. In the end, she would only break out of that box and insist on standing beside him. It was his admiration of her stubborn devotion that made him realize how much he cared about her.
"Penny for your thoughts, Gohan?" His mother had been watching him for a few minutes and he had never even known of her presence.
"Eh, I had a fight with Videl. She kind of was right, but it's more complicated than just going back to her and admitting I was wrong." His mother raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well, I don't know the circumstances, but usually the first step in making amends when you've wronged someone is apologizing." His mother entered the room and took a seat beside.
"Well, that's the easy part. It WOULD make things better if I apologized, but then she would have expectations of me. I'm not sure if I'm ready to deal with the stress those expectations would place on me." Chichi raised her eyebrow at her son yet again.
"You better not be talking about sex, Gohan. It's one thing to find out you had been going out after all this time, but finding out your son has been conspiring to have sex while in high school and unmarried is another thing. I don't want miniature Gohans and Videls running around until you can afford to provide for and love a family!" Gohan turned a bright red at Chichi's assumption.
"No mom! I wouldn't do that yet! I'm not ready for that yet! Why would you think that!"
"Well, you can never be so sure with teenagers. You raise them to practice restraint and self-control then they go wild the next moment!" She was about to go into a rant as she raised her fist, but realized they were still discussing Gohan's problem. "Ahem! Continue." She coughed into her fist to hide her embarrassment.
"Well, I was afraid a particular training is too much for. I didn't want to put her in harms way. What if she got hurt or maybe got overly confident after the training? I could never live with myself if the training hurt her or she took on someone too strong for her and got killed." He paused to catch his breath and accept the truth of the situation. "But the fact of the matter is, she could probably take the training just fine and she would be smart enough to know what's too much to take on. I'm just being selfish and putting her in a box." Chichi eyed her son with amusement and let out a small laugh.
"You sound worse than I did when I was a younger mother. If you already know the answer to your own question then you should just accept it. She's a stubborn girl and won't be put on a leash. Just have faith in her and put aside your worries. It's okay to be concerned, but you can't stop her from taking her own chances. I couldn't stop you." She said this with a knowing smile. She had long since resigned herself to the fact that her family was a bunch of super beings with extraordinary power. What could you do other than accept that your family was meant for bigger things than you had first planned? Her smile said it all and Gohan immediately understood. He pulled her into a grateful embrace.
"Thanks mom, now I know what I should do. You mind if I take a day off this weekend to do the training then? It's for me just as much as her. I also, should see her and apologize before it get's very late."
"That's fine with me, but shouldn't you wait until tomorrow to speak to her? Gohan? Where are you going! Wait!"
"Thanks mom! Be back in less than an hour!" He flew into the night sky and left a frustrated Son Chichi in his now empty room.
"That boy. After all these years, you would think he would grow out of flying out the window on a whim. I MUST train Goten from doing that." She left, shaking her head over her over-zealous sons.
Gohan flew quickly and eagerly to his girlfriend's house. Within a few minutes, the lumbering mansion came into view. He made the quick detour to her bedroom window and knocked.
"Videl? You there?" He spoke in a soft voice, still loud enough to be heard by any occupants in the room. There was no answer. "Hey Videl?" He searched for her ki and felt it was in the gym of the house. Knowing the window would be unlocked because there was no way to climb to it, he let himself in. "Videl? I've come to talk to you. Are you in the gym?" He reached out to her with his telepathic powers he had trained so hard to hone.
"Yes. Come meet me here. This had better be good, Gohan." Gohan gulped at her snippy answer. The temper of Videl Satan could be an impressive thing to behold. He knew he would have to do the closest thing to groveling without losing dignity to win her over after hurting her feelings.
Within a couple minutes, Gohan made his way into the well-equipped training and fitness section of the house. Videl was busy in the weight section of the gym. An impressive 600 pounds was clutched in her hands. Her face had only the slightest perspiration running down it as she bench-pressed the weight that would give most any human trouble.
"Wow. You've improved utilizing ki for strength enhancement. Not only do you look physically stronger in your tone, but also your power level feels higher. I wonder why I never noticed?" She put the heavy weights down and wiped her sweat with a towel.
"Maybe, if you stopped worrying about me so much, you'd see how strong I'm capable of becoming. I'm not just stronger." Her image faded out and he felt her presence behind him. He turned around in shock to see Videl's smug face staring into his astonished one.
"You learned the after-image technique? It takes a good control of energy to stop just fast enough to leave an image behind. You really have gotten better..."
"Hmmph. Coming from you, that means something. Why are you here though?" Her smug grin was now replaced with a frustrated and slightly irritated frown. Her eyes were practically boring holes into him.
"Oh, about that, well...I came to admit I was wrong."
"Oh? So that's it? I was wrong. I was being stupid. I thought about it. Please forgive me? Do you really think you can just treat this like every other thing you sweep under the rug?"
"No. I also want you to know, that I'm going to put more trust in you. You were right. I can't care a lot about someone without trusting them and I do care about you a lot. You mean a lot to me, and I wouldn't be treating you fairly if I didn't trust you." Videl looked at him thoughtfully.
"How long did you plan that one out?" He could see her defenses falling down at his apology and confession. Suddenly, something in him snapped. Maybe it was his Saiyan side, but he wasn't going to be pushed around TOO much in this relationship.
"Are you going to accept the training or not? I could always just leave you behind if you want." A playfully challenging tone appeared in his voice. A smirk that would have made Vegeta proud was the icing on top of the cake. Videl was taken aback by his uncharacteristic boldness for only a moment.
"Who says I need your stupid training anyway, jerk?" She tried desperately not to look amused by the whole thing and put on her best pissed faced.
"I say you do. Unless you'd like to be left farther behind by me and everyone else?"
"I can do what I want to do. I don't have to train in the stupid room if I don't want to. I'll get perfectly strong enough on my own."
"Your loss. Don't say I didn't offer the chance."
"Psh, whatcha gonna do if I decline anyway?" Gohan's smirk grew dangerous.
"How much can you handle?"
"Do your worst." Her challenge came out in a low voice. Her eyes widened in surprise as his lips met her own. They had kissed before, but they were always more affectionate and sweet kisses rather than a wild make-out session. This kiss was definitely fierier than anything she had previously experienced with him. She was lulled into the spell and kissed him back, her arms snaking around his neck. Then as quickly as it happened, he pulled away. He had stolen the words right from her mouth and she could only look at him in a dumbfounded fashion.
"Well? Do you surrender?"
"I think I might have to surrender after such...aggressive persuasion. You might want to keep one of those handy in case I act up though."
"Oh, you mean like this?" There lips met once more, and she was ready for it this time. Her tongue soon begged for entry, which he was all too happy to oblige. Then once again, after what seemed like an eternity which was only less than a minute; they broke apart seemingly as quickly as they had begun. The lip-locking excursion had left them panting for breathe.
"Fine, you win."
"Wow, that was easy." She smacked him over the head.
"Don't get too cocky! You're lucky I didn't pound you for stealing a kiss while I was angry." She gave him a stern look, but it soon melted away into a more mischievous smirk. "Good thing for you that your lips can persuade in more ways than talking. You've been holding out on me." Gohan could only blush and defaulted to his trademark neck scratching posture.
"Well, um, we can start on Saturday. It's only going to feel like a day outside and the weekend is the perfect disguise for it."
"Always to the point, huh? You're no fun. Okay. I can't wait!"
"Okay! Bye Videl! I'll see you tomorrow." He gave her quick huh and peck on the lips then turned to leave.
"Wait, there's something else." He stopped and turned to get a weak ki blast to the face. The shock knocked him over more than the actual power. The explosion wasn't enough to wake up Hercule or the butler on the other sides of the house.
"Why the freak did you shoot me! Wait...HOW did you shoot me?" Gohan dusted himself and had his head angled to the side in confusion.
"First of all, that was for being stupid in the first place. Second, I've been practicing. Bye-bye now!" She left the gym, leaving him with a goofy grin on his face.
"I'm so going to kick Neeros back to hell and marry that girl some day." Gohan made his way to an unlocked window and flew back home. He left the mansion just in time to make good on his promise to his mother.
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
Sorry for the lapse in updates. I'm busy and writers block comes hard and heavily. I know there is a bit of ooc going on. I felt like this was more realistic maturing and development on the parts of the characters. Also, I'm trying to write longer chapters. This chapter was a couple pages longer than usual and that's how I like it. It's easier to just write longer chapters instead of cramming things together. Also, I know this chapter was mostly interaction and character development. I'm sorry, but all action can kind of dry and this was a series that always needed more character development. Please be patient. As for my reviewers...I appreciate the encouragement. Don't be too kind though. All the positive comments might make my head swell. Peace!