Hello everyone! Welcome back to the Son Squad! So glad you've taken the time to come read the story. Last we left off, everyone was chillin' in the hospital and recovering as they tried to figure out a plan to get to Namek. Now, on with the show.
The Son Squad Ch. 9
Just as everyone was adjusting to the somewhat quiet atmosphere of the room, Bulma slammed the door open. She quickly ran over to the TV and turned it on to reveal a news reporter standing in front of Nappa's space pod.
"Oh no, they got to the ship before we could!" Krillin shouted.
"Don't you worry, Krillin," Bulma insisted as she pulled out the remote he gave her. "I've been up all night figuring this baby out and I'm pretty sure I figured out the controls by now."
"You sure about this, Bulma?" Krillin questioned, still a bit skeptical about the whole situation. I mean, he had no room to talk about knowing how remote controls work, but he was weary that Bulma knew every nook and cranny of the remote he had given her just yesterday.
"Krillin, no worry," Chinku babbled, making everyone else laugh.
"You heard her, Krillin. I got this." Bulma pushed a button here and one there on the remote and everyone turned their attention to the TV, waiting to see what would happen. Unfortunately, what did happen was the opposite of what everyone wanted; the ship exploded! Everyone freaked out as they realized their only hope left had just exploded into a million pieces.
"It's all over," Krillin wallowed in defeat.
"Krillin, this is your fault for finding that stupid remote!" Bulma quickly shouted at Krillin.
"But you're the one that pushed the button, Bulma, not me," Krillin stated.
"Well now what are we going to do?!" Bulma shouted. "We don't have a space ship to use! How are we supposed to get to Namek without a spaceship, huh?!"
"Hello," A voice from the window spoke, scarring everyone for a moment. (Mostly just Bulma).
They all looked to find that the one who spoke was Mr. Popo on a magic carpet! He came to tell them all about this space ship he knew about and thought that it could be of use to the group. Everyone volunteered Bulma to go with him, despite her suspicions, since she knew the most about this sort of thing. A few hours later, when she got back, she confirmed that the ship was working and that it could be used to travel to planet Namek after a few tweaks and modifications to it. Hope was alive once more!
Krillin volunteered to go with Bulma on the expedition so it wasn't just her going on the journey. Then, Gohan spoke up;
"I-I wanna go to Namek, too." He said, slightly surprising everyone.
"Don't be silly, sweetie," Chi-Chi told her son. "You don't need to joke around."
"Mom….I wanna go too," Chiyo added, scrunching her bed's blanket up in her fists.
Chi-Chi was stunned. How could her children, her first borns, really say this? How could they want to leave home after what they had just experienced? They had just been in fights for their lives and now they were wanting to go to a planet on the other side of the universe?! "All right, you two, quit joking around." She said, slightly shaking a bit at the idea that her children would really say such things. This had to be some kinda joke!
"Mom, we're not joking," Gohan explained. "We want to go! We owe it to Piccolo and the others."
"They died trying to protect us, and we owe it to them to help bring them back," Chiyo further elaborated.
"There is no way I'll let you two go!" Chi-Chi shouted. This had to be Piccolo's influence over them. She still saw him as a monster, unlike her children who knew that Piccolo was actually a lot kinder than she believed him to be. "After everything you've been put through you are not leaving my sight, let alone the planet. And let's not forget all the school you've both missed over the last year! I will not send my babies into space!"
"Shut-up!" Gohan and Chiyo shouted at the same time.
Chi-Chi felt her heart break. Her babies were becoming delinquents. She was right as a mother to want to care for her children and keep them close, but she didn't think that the twins' convictions were that strong in wanting to go to Namek. Even though she didn't want to admit it aloud, there was a small part of her that was proud of the two little kids. They were growing up right before her eyes and she just wanted them to stay her precious little children.
"Now's not the time to be saying those things, Mom," Gohan said. "Everyone fought for the Earth. We have to see this through."
"It's our turn help them," Chiyo finished. "And we owe it to them after the sacrifices they made for us and Earth."
The twins' minds were made up. They were going into space and they were going to bring back their fallen mentor and friends and nothing was going to stop them, not even their Mother.
Chi-Chi sighed in defeat and went over to the two children. They thought she was going to yell at them more, but instead she just hugged them. Her little babies were growing up. My babies, She thought to herself as she held them. You're growing up to fast for your Mommy to handle.
Ten Days Later
It was time to head to Namek. Before leaving for the Kame House, Gohan and Chiyo stopped at the hospital with their Mother and baby sister to see Goku. When they walked to the room, they found that Goku was finishing up another routine check-up with a nurse. "Now please, Mr. Goku, stay in bed," The nurse grumbled, annoyed that she had to the man with every broken bone imaginable to stay in bed.
"But lying down makes me antsy," Goku replied, shifting in his bandages. He hated being told to stay still. He knew that Master Korin would have sensu beans ready in a month and couldn't imagine lying in bed for that long.
The nurse sighed and then left the family to come in and visit the injured Saiyan.
"Hey guys," Goku greeted, unable to sit up to meet them due to the new position he found himself in.
Both Gohan and Chiyo went up to his bedside so that Goku could actually see his children. When he did see the twins, Goku tried to stifle a laugh when he saw the two five-year-olds. His children had gotten a bit of an appearance change since the previous visit. They both had gotten haircuts with Gohan having the dreaded bowl-cut and Chiyo getting her hairstyle to be just a bit past her shoulders and being put into single ponytail. They both were also dressed not in the purple gis that they wanted to wear but instead in what could be described as Sunday best attire; Gohan was in a blue suit with brown loafers, a white undershirt, and a red bowtie; and Chiyo was in a blue sundress with a blue sash wrapped around her waist, little black dress shoes, and a white flower hairclip to hold her ponytail in place.
"Don't they look adorable, Goku?" Chi-Chi remarked on the adorable outfits and new haircuts she had given her children. "I want them to make a good first impression when they get to this new planet."
Goku did his best not to laugh at the twins who both felt embarrassed that they had to dress like this to go to Namek. (Not to mention all the homework, books, medicine, and other "essentials" that were packed in their backpacks.) However, Goku couldn't keep the laughter in and busted out laughing. "What's with the get-up guys? And Gohan, your hair is so short now!" He laughed.
The twins both became even more flushed with embarrassment.
"Say what you will, Goku, but I think they both look precious," Chi-Chi huffed at her husband.
After a few more seconds of laughing, Goku looked to Gohan and Chiyo and ushered them over to be closer to the bed. "Listen, I want you both to be careful on the Namekian home-world, all right?" He instructed the twins.
"We will, Dad," Gohan assured his Father, giving him a small smile. "And you be sure to get better soon."
"Yeah. We don't want to come home and you be still bandaged up. You still gotta take us fishing, remember?" Chiyo reminded her Father.
Goku chuckled. "Yeah, I do. We'll get to fishin' as soon as this business is all taken care of."
Just then, the doctor walked in with a checkboard in his hand. He noticed Chi-Chi standing in the room and walked up to her. "Are you my patient's wife?" He asked her.
"Yes?" Chi-Chi replied, a look which was a mix of confusion and concern written on her face. She shifted Chinku in her arms so that she was better suited on her hip, as if she needed to make sure her child was safe before questioning the doctor further. "Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong," The doctor assured her. "But we do need to do a few more tests for your husband to help the recovery process go a lot smoother. I just need you to sign this sheet so we can do a blood test on him in a little while."
"Oh, all right." Chi-Chi sighed, relieved that her husband wasn't actually in a possibly worse position than he already was.
"Wait….what's a blood test?" Goku questioned, unsure of what that was going to mean for him.
"Well, Dad, they poke you with a needle an-" Gohan tried to explain. However, he didn't get much further because Goku howled in fear at the thought of being poked by a needle, nearly shaking the entire room.
"NOT A NEEDLE!"
Later, at the Kame House, Bulma and Krillin were waiting for Gohan and Chiyo to show up so they could take off already. Krillin also had the same reaction that Goku did when he saw the twins all dolled up and they both felt embarrassed once more. They both gave one last hug to their Mother, sister, and grandfather before they stepped on the platform that Bulma had lowered so they could enter the ship.
"You two be safe," Chi-Chi sniffled as she waved to her children. "And don't forget to write me every day, okay?"
"We will, Mom," Chiyo promised as she and Gohan waved to her.
"Bye bye!" Chinku proclaimed, waving to her older brother and sister.
Once inside the ship, Krillin, Gohan, and Chiyo looked around in awe at the sight of the inside. Bulma and her Father had really outdone themselves in rebuilding the ship to accommodate them all.
"Wow, it's huge in here," Chiyo remarked as the hatch to the ship closed.
"And it's so hi-tech," Gohan added.
Before the three could properly put their stuff down, Bulma was already at the helm and was strapping herself in. Just as they were all trying to adjust, Bulma launched the ship as the three other passengers held onto their chairs, having not strapped themselves in yet. Once they were cleared from the atmosphere, the ship ran a lot more smoothly and the blue-haired woman quickly got up to go change.
As soon as she was gone, Gohan slipped out of his nerdy outfit and into the purple gi he had fixed up from the battle with the Saiyans. "Wow, you sure seem to have a lot of respect for Piccolo, don't you?" Krillin remarked to Gohan upon seeing the boy's attire.
"Yep," Gohan replied with a big smile.
While he was showing off his outfit to Krillin, Chiyo had also slipped out of her fancy outfit and into her own gi that she had fixed up. Her gi was purple like her brother's with the two red bands on her arms, and the orange shoes, but she had switched out the red sash around her waist for a white one so that her and her brother could tell their clothes apart. She also ditched the ponytail and quickly did a braid similar to the one she had before, but this time it dangled above her shoulder due to her recent haircut.
"Impressive," Krillin remarked upon seeing Chiyo's gi change. "You feel the same about Piccolo as you do your brother, huh?"
"Mmhhmm," Chiyo hummed with a smile on her face.
Krillin was still floored by the fact that Gohan and Chiyo could care so much for Piccolo. He still had a few doubts here and there about the being that once was called Demon King Piccolo, but he thought about it for a minute and considered the idea that perhaps Piccolo had really changed for the better. Perhaps the past six years had changed him for the better. Perhaps.
Later that day(?), as the four crewmembers got ready for some sleep, Gohan and Chiyo got a room to themselves and pulled out sleeping mats and laid them right next to each other. "Man, I can't wait to get to Namek," Gohan remarked as he started up at the ceiling, the light of stars from outside shining a little bit into the room. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can bring Piccolo and everyone else."
"I wonder how big the planet will be," Chiyo wondered as she put her arms under her head to better cushion herself. "Maybe it'll be the size of Jupiter. Or maybe it'll be smaller than Earth."
"Either way, we'll find those dragon balls so we can bring everyone back," Gohan stated, thinking about how great the reunion between them and their master will be.
"…Hey Gohan," Chiyo stated after a little bit of silence. "Since we won't be to Namek for another month, do you want to try that technique Piccolo tried teaching us?"
Upon hearing that, Gohan sat up and looked over at his sister. He remembered the one she was referring to, but also remembered how they spent three days solid trying to perfect it but not even coming close to mastering it, much to Piccolo's frustration. "You think we can actually learn it?" He questioned his sister, thinking about how hard the technique was.
Now Chiyo was sitting up so she could look her brother in the eye about it. "I think it would be good if we at least tried," Chiyo said with a smile. "So that way, when we bring Piccolo back, we can tell him we learned the one technique that he tried so hard to teach us."
That would be a nice surprise to give to their mentor upon his return. Gohan nodded. They would start training tomorrow.
One month later
A month came and went in what seemed to be a snail's pace. The crew of the ship were getting ready to go stir crazy...well, Bulma was anyway. It was a relief when Planet Namek finally came into view. The four members of the crew seat belted themselves in when it came time to go in for the landing. It was bumpy one for sure, but they soon were on the green planet known as Namek. Once they had landed, Gohan, Chiyo and Krillin walked out onto the planet while Bulma was explaining things to them. They weren't trying to ignore her on purpose though; they just couldn't believe the sight before them.
"Hey, this looks like the place where Piccolo trained us, Chiyo," Gohan pointed out as they looked at their surroundings.
"Hey, isn't it also the place where we fought the Saiyans?" Krillin pointed out, his hands in his pockets.
"I guess Piccolo felt at ease fighting in a familiar area," Chiyo guessed.
"Well thank you for waiting!" Bulma yelled upon coming out of the ship. "You know the air could've been toxic! Then what?! Huh?! Answer me!"
"Why is she mad now?" Krillin whispered to the twins.
The twins shrugged their shoulders at the same time, not really sure either.
"Maybe it's a girl thing."
Chiyo scratched her head as she thought about Krillin's comment. If getting angry quickly was a girl thing, did that mean that she was going to act like Bulma and her Mother when she got older? If so, Chiyo hoped that she learned to be much more calm than them when that time came.
Trying to ignore her anger, Bulma pulled out the dragon radar and turned it on. Instantly several little bleeps appeared on the device, indicating that there were, in fact, dragon balls on the planet. Oh, what a relief it was to know that not only did the dragon balls exist here, but that the dragon radar was able to pick them up too. "Take a look at this, guys! We have a reading! There are definitely dragon balls here!" Bulma cheered.
"You're right!" Krillin stated after seeing the readings for himself.
He and Bulma were busy celebrating while the twins had a sense of unease wash over them. They were feeling energies on the planet, strong ones at that. That didn't initially alarm the two until they got the feeling that these auras were putting off some evil vibes. Didn't King Kai mention that the Namekians were peaceful? So why was there such a feeling of dread washing over the both of them?
"Hey Gohan, do you feel that, too?" Chiyo asked her brother.
"Yeah." Gohan nodded. "I don't like it."
Is trouble brewing on Planet Namek? What could possibly be going? And what is this new technique that Piccolo wanted Gohan and Chiyo to learn? Have they mastered it during their training in space and will they need to use it on Namek? Find out next time on the Son Squad!
