I think you will all like this chapter a little better.
C-37 Loophole
Goku found that he couldn't look at Vegeta for long. Seeing him like that was.. was... just not right. Seeing Bulma like that was not right either.
He made a very lame excuse and left the room.
That is what Goten had meant about him being late. It seemed like everyone was falling apart, even though their enemy had been defeated.
He sighed deeply and sank into a chair. A book full of pictures sat beside it. He opened it and scanned through it. He did not recognize some people but the sight of Bulma, a little different and Trunks, who was even more different clued him into that the red haired child must be this Soyna that they were all missing so much.
She was a pretty girl and it seemed that she grew up to be a beautiful woman.
Suddenly, the book was torn from his hands.
He looked up, startled.
"Vegeta?"
"Why were you looking at this!"
He looked again. This boy was much too large to be Vegeta and what was with those dark glasses? No. This must be Junior that he had heard so much about.
"Nobody is allowed to touch this!" He looked angry.
"I'm sorry," he said and stood.
The boy did look so much like Vegeta, it was almost uncanny. It was a shame that he wasn't a fighter.
"This is all I have left of my family!" His voice was strained. His shoulders were shaking. His glasses were doing more that protecting his eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said again.
"Why are you here anyway!" He snapped. "Just here to spread some more misery around? More misery as you taunt us with the hope of getting her back."
He noticed that very few said her name anymore. It was just 'her'.
"I..."
He sniffed and turned to leave clutching the book tightly to his chest as he did so.
He sighed.
He wished he understood what was going on a little better.
He still had memory bursts. He didn't realize that he had forgotten so much and then he had missed so much.
He rubbed his chest impatiently. If only he could get the dragonballs out of him so that he could wish his own memory back to normal!
...............
Gohan shook his head. "No."
Goten stood up from his chair. "But..."
"NO!" Gohan snapped. "Didn't you feel his power! Even if I could fuse with you, we still would not stand a chance."
"But..."
"I am not the fighter I used to be. I don't get those burst of energy even when I am mad! Don't you think I thought of it!"
"Dad...?" Fry had entered the room and was holding a note in his hand. He was ignored.
"We have to try!" Goten said. "You will never know unless we try!"
"NO!" Gohan yelled back. "I am not going to be a fool! There has to be a way to defeat him, but throwing brute force around has never accomplished anything!"
"Dad?" Fry hid behind a kitchen chair. They were both glowing. Grandma wasn't home, so this could lead to a very explosive fight.
"Sitting doing nothing, didn't accomplice anything either! Damn you! When did you decide that you were going to be late for everything!" Goten growled.
The glow was getting brighter.
Gohan looked like he was going to attack Goten.
"What are you saying!" Gohan sneered.
"At least Dad would show up in the nick of time!" Goten snapped.
Fry decided that he would give his father the teachers note later and he would go back up to his room.
Gohan looked stunned.
"He left you to take care of us all and you screwed it up!" Goten said.
"How...?" Gohan's face was red with anger.
"You could be stronger than anyone in the universe, but you have to be so selfish and stick your nose into book..." Goten didn't finish his sentence was Gohan punched his brother.
Fry was frozen in the door way.
He was scared that he would get in the way of a blast. Terrified that he would, but he was frozen in place as they stood eerily still. Goten had his hand on his cheek where Gohan punched him.
"See, you can get angry enough," Goten said and spat out some blood.
Dad looked like he was going to cry but he still stood in a rigid stance, his hands in fists as if he was going to hit again.
"You should have never come back," Gohan snarled. "You were better off being an irresponsible kid! News flash Goten! You are not a kid anymore, even though mom still forces you to go to school. You are an adult and you should realize what the responsibilities of an adult are! I have a family to protect! I also have to feed them! I can't just be a fighter!"
Fry bit his lip. He looked down at the now teachers note. He definitely would wait until after dinner to give it to him.
"You should have stayed a semblance of one!" Goten snapped. He threw a punch this time.
Gohan jumped back into the kitchen table. A chair got pushed out of the way.
"You are the one that brought Krad here!" Gohan snapped back and retaliated with a punch. Goten flew back, even though he did not see the punch hit. "If you had taken care of them in space or stayed at home, we would have to never have had worried about them even coming here!"
Goten let out a very angry and frustrated scream.
"SHUT UP!" Goten screamed. The whole room was starting to shake. Some glasses feel to the floor.
He could feel the energy pushing him away.
"Daddy!" he yelled in desperation.
They still didn't hear him.
"It's true! If you had just finished school and gone on to some job and married Paris things would have been so much better around here! Soyna wouldn't be dead and no one would be poisoned and about to die!" Gohan snapped.
He was glad that his dad was not mad at him. He had never seen his father so angry in his life!
Goten grit his teeth tightly together. His black hair shifted to gold and amazingly grew even longer.
"Struck a cord did I?" Gohan said.
"You should have been there!" Goten said fighting tears that were forming in his glowing green eyes. "You could have stopped it all! When did you become such a coward!"
"Daddy!" Fry screamed as the walls were starting to shake and the floor beneath his feet was vibrating. They still didn't hear him. "Daddy! Stop it!"
Both were set into grimaces and ready to lunge at each other.
He had to stop them!
He ran out and grabbed his father's leg. He didn't say anything, he just clutched on to it with all his might. The energy that he was emitting nearly threw him off, but he locked his arms around his leg and held on.
Suddenly the tension was gone out of the room. The dust settled and they were looking down at him.
"Fry?"
He looked up at his father. "Don't fight. Please don't fight. I don't want to loose my daddy. I like our family the way it is."
He didn't know where that came from but he sort of did. He saw how Benot and Legen grew up with out a daddy. Having an uncle and Vegeta was not the same. At least they had a strong mother but they lost her too. They just weren't the same now and he didn't want to have anyone lost in his family. Hell, everyone was back! He wanted to keep it that way.
The two brothers looked at each other. Goten had powered back down and was a normal again.
He felt himself being lifted by his father.
"I'm sorry son," he said simply and looked over to Goten. He looked like he was going to say he was sorry to him too but Goten spoke first.
"I guess it is all our own fault. We all are blaming each other for all that happened when it really could not be helped." Goten said in a low voice.
Gohan nodded. "We will work something out."
Fry brightened. "I know what we can do!" he said quickly. "When Grandpa gets..."
"We will think of a way to defeat him in a fight. It will take all available fighters.
"Dad!!" Fry said as he was set down.
"There has to be a way," Goten said. Hope sparkled in his eyes.
"If there is we shall find it," Gohan said.
"Dad!" Fry said. Why wasn't any one listening to him!
"Go do your homework, while we clean the kitchen," Gohan said as he looked at the mess they created and a destroyed chair.
"But Dad, I have..."
"Yeah, we better get it done before mom gets home. She will kill us," Goten said with a smirk.
"...an idea."
"Go on Fry. You know the rules about dessert if you don't finish your homework." Gohan said and then turned his back.
He scowled and went upstairs.
If no one was going to listen to him than he would have to take care of it himself! Well, he would call up Benot and Legen. He couldn't do it alone.
..................
Goku was scared. Well, scared wasn't the right word. Worried, wasn't the right word either. Panicky? That was closer.
Vegeta had stopped breathing. They got him breathing again but it was just a sign that it was closer than they were telling him. Death was coming for Vegeta and there was no way back.
He rubbed his chest. It hurt him in a way that he did not ever remember it hurting before. He frowned as ChiChi grabbed his arm and cuddled close to him as they walked out. She insisted on driving even though he could have got them here much quicker by flying or transporting them, but she shook her head and insisted on the car.
He felt bad that he would not be able to help anyone even with his great powers. He wished he knew of a loophole.
He saw the way that Vegeta Junior glared at him and how the two young boys bite their lips as if they wanted to ask him something.
It was how everyone looked at him.
"You are awfully silent dear," ChiChi said as they drove home.
He just gave a grunt. He thought coming home would be a joyous occasion. That emotion didn't last for very long unfortunately. The only person that was still glad to see him was ChiChi.
He wished he could just let them win the fight so that they could have the wishes but it just didn't work that way.
There always had to be some task that had to be won or achieved to get the wish, it wasn't any different now. Just a lot harder.
"Don't worry dear. Things will work out. They always do." ChiChi said and patted his knee.
It didn't make him feel any better.
............
Trunks could hear the boys crashing around downstairs. What were they doing now? He didn't have the energy to go a check. Mom or Junior could yell at them later, right now he wanted to sleep no matter how hard it was to go to sleep.
He was worried that Gohan would be coming to see him at any minute to finish off the job that the poison didn't do.
Pan had told him that she told her father.
"You had better marry me soon, or else dad will kill you," she joked but it wasn't really a joke.
He had full intentions of doing so, but he didn't want to do it in the mess that was around them all right now.
"That is MINE!" Benot yelled and there was a crash.
"LOOK what YOU did!" Legen yelled back.
"If you would have just given it to me!" Benot said.
Their voices went back to murmurs.
He really didn't want to know what they were doing!
He put an arm over his eyes.
Panny.
A baby. Would it be a girl or a boy? Would it have his hair or hers? Would it want to become a fighter? Would it be smart?
He smiled. Names. What kid of name should the kid have? A boy? Boxer? Would Pan go for that? Hell, mom just about named him that. What about a girl? He had no idea what a good girl's name would be. Char? Didn't matter really. He knew Pan would have the greater say in it.
"Hurry up you wienie!" Benot yelled. "Fry is waiting for us!"
Yeah, soon, he would have a little brat running around the house, surely rivaling those two in yelling matches.
What if they did decided to have more children? How many did Pan want? His family was not that large. There were much larger families out there. He remembered seeing what mom went through with Bra. It was really hard on her, but then, Pan was part Saiyian.
"YOU DON'T NEED THAT!" Leggett yelled.
"YES I DO!" Benot yelled right back. There was a crashing sound, some silence and the sounds of door slamming shut.
He was much to tired to see what terror the boys have caused. He hoped that his energy would be back to normal for his own child.
.....................
Fry could feel the tension between the two brothers even in his room. He didn't much care for it.
But he was going to put a stop to it all!
Hopefully.
He put the teachers note on his bed and picked up his bag. He looked at his watch. Where were they? They were late!
Oh well, he wasn't ready to go yet anyway.
He went back downstairs to see his father and Goten talking with raised voices out in the garden. They had done a bad job in the kitchen. Grandma would yell at them for a couple of hours over the mess that they had done. He thought they just went out there because they didn't want him to hear.
They were speaking loud enough for him to see the glass shaking on the glass door!
He grabbed himself something to eat from the fridge, not that there was much in there to snack on. His family always seemed to have an empty fridge!
The door opened and grandma and his new grandpa came it. As he thought would happen, grandma freaked over the kitchen and at first started in on him, but he pointed to the real culprits who were now looking like they were going to come to blows outside and she went to verbally attack them.
Grandpa Goku looked kind of down.
Where were the others?
Goku went to the fridge and his frown drew deeper as he closed it. He looked at grandma berating the boys and shook his head.
"Grandpa?" he said nervously. He was still scared of the man. He is so large and with those tattoo's he thought of gangs and bikers.
He looked down with those shifting dark eyes that made him even more nervous that before. "Yes?"
Where was his back up? Where were those two hooligans! They better not be fighting again! He looked away from him and looked at his feet. "Can we do a grandfathery and grandsony thing together." Boy, did that sound lame. "Away from all t his so that I can get to know you? Just a walk in the woods or something?"
He looked up briefly and saw a large grin on his face. Today must be the perfect day to bring that up. "Sure!" He said. "We can got to the park!"
He smiled and nodded.
That is when Benot and Legen came in, panting as if they were out of breath. They started to throw excuses around.
Goku looked a little down now.
"Can they come with us," Fry said. He wanted them to come just because he didn't know what was going to happen.
"I..."
"Please," all three of them did at once. Very effective! He saw his grandfather smile (where those fangs) and sigh.
"All right. Where do you want to go? I can't remember any good places anymore. I am sure you boys know of places that are good to go too."
They all nodded.
...............
Goku never felt so relaxed even with the three boys sitting on his back as they flew, almost to slowly for his taste (at one point the speed was to hard for him to reach) but they were giggling and acting like pilots.
They were more relaxed now. Fry had always seemed tense around him and now he was acting like he remembered kids acting. Legen was a little nervous but the boy was not that bad. Benot called him a wimp look a like under his breath a couple of times. Pan had explained to him why that was. It was rather funny when you thought about it.
"Over there, Goku!" he saw a small hand direct him into a bunch of trees. It was Legen's.
"Why there?" Fry said.
"That was mom's place!" Legen said.
The tension seemed to come back to the three boys.
They were up to something and he was involved. Or more precisely, they wanted him involved.
He landed in a place that was stunningly beautiful. There was a tree full of apples and a nice slow stream flowing nearby. It was nice and cool under the shade of the trees.
The boys jumped down off of him and he let his feet settle on the soft earth.
Benot and Fry looked as if this was all new to them. Legen beamed as if he had a say in how things looked around them.
"This was your mother place?" Goku asked Legen.
"Yeah, she took me here once and she had made me promise not to tell anyone about it, but I figure it is a good as place as any to bring mom back."
He raised his eyebrows. THEY intended on fighting HIM? Goten couldn't beat him, how did they expect too!
Fry took the bag off his shoulders and started to rummage through it.
"You intend to fight me?" he almost laughed but he held that back. He didn't want them to get upset. Well, more upset.
"No," Benot said. "We aren't stupid!"
Boy, did he have an attitude problem. He must have inherited that from Vegeta.
"Well then, you boys better explain yourselves," he said and eyed the tree. Those apples looked really good and ripe and he was hungry.
"You said that 'Someone must defeat me in order to get the dragonballs to activate' so that is what we plan to do," Fry said. "I know I put them in here."
"Here, let me look," Benot said and pushed Fry out of the way.
He chuckled. He couldn't help it, "How do you plan on defeating me?" This should be humorous. He was way too strong for even a trick to work.
"Here they are!" Benot announced and pulled out a little rectangular package.
"You never said what we had to defeat you at! I found the loophole right!?" Legen said as he snapped the package up from Benot. "I am really good at cards I know I can beat you at that!!"
He blinked. He never thought of that. He put a hand to his chest and he could feel a stirring in there. The same stirring that came when Goten challenged him.
"I guess you did find a loop hole!"
All three boys cheered. Legen actually looked like he was on the verge of tears.
They all sat on the ground and the cards were shuffled and dealt.
He would have to make it clear to anyone that tired to get the dragonballs next, would have to fight him. He was not good at these silly cards games.
................
Well. Well. Well...
Next chapter.