A/N, So! a little bit of news, I got a new job, that I work 6 hours on 6 hours off, so I have about an hour or two of uninterrupted writing time a day, with that being said. I now have the time to work on my stories again, I am probably just going to scrap the Naruto fic I was working on, I don't even recall where I was going with that one.
In addition, I've got a large possible one-shot RWBY story in the works, but it's probably not going to be a one-shot, I'm barely through with a day, and it's already nearing 18k words and 42-43 pages long? And I have like another week's worth of days to fill in story. But with my new job I do have more time to write, I'm not going to be posting every week, but maybe every month?
I know that's a long time, but unless I can get multiple chapters done in a month (Totally doable) while I'm working, I'll likely only be posting one chapter a month. again, not that bad considering I'd have a crap ton of time to put out a crap ton of words. In addition, I have another DBZ story idea I'm working with, working some kinks out, it'll probably be closer to a slice of life/romance than an action/adventure/romance
disclaimer, I own nothing involving Dragon ball Z except my shirt and box set.
With Videl, Erasa, Sharpener, Pan and Trunks following him, he headed for the labs. The white walls he was so comfortable with let him blank out as he tried to decide what type of camera he should make. Videl from his side was watching him with mild concern, his hands reaching out and grabbing random parts from midair as he built a model in his head before wiping it away. She wasn't sure what he was really doing but every so often he'd swipe at the air.
Finally, she couldn't help herself, "What in the world are you doing Gohan?" Her voice slightly filled with exasperation, his eyes lost their unfocused glare and found hers, "Oh, I'm building models in my head trying to decide what type of camera to make." He looked over his shoulder, "Hey Trunks, can you help Erasa and Sharpener?" His blue haired friend shrugged, "Shouldn't be a problem, Mom's been having me help with her projects at home, I've got to get some stuff done here. " He turned to his adopted daughter, "Pan, help the blonds."
Pan's attention was pulled over to her sensei, "Sure thing sensei. Shouldn't be too hard, it's just a camera. Removable or internal storage and data link transfer or direct line transfer?" She asked Trunks, as they made a turn into a small hallway filled with photos. The ones who hadn't been here before took in the photos with gusto, "Holy crap! Is that Yamcha of the Taitans?" Gohan stopped mid-stride, and looked over at the photo.
In it, Yamcha was in his uniform holding a bat over his shoulder with a grin on his face cheesing for the camera, his scar standing out like a sore thumb, "Yeah. We took that just before his first game, back when Bulma and him were a thing."
He glanced down the hall and took in every photo quickly, none of his dad, a small sigh ghosted its way through his lips, 'It's been seven years and I'm still not over it...' He reached up and ran one hand through his hair absentmindedly.
Three sets of eyes caught his movement, two blue and one black. Only one set of blue was with curiosity, the rest with sympathy. Trunks had known his friend long enough to know what was on his mind, he just walked over and placed his hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently, "I'm fine Trunks, it's been a while I'm getting better."
His eyes and voice didn't quite match the tone of the message he was giving off. "You know where I am if you need to talk Gohan." Gohan nodded and cleared his throat. Sharpener thankfully missed the part between Trunks and Gohan, "Wait, wait, wait... You're telling me... Bulma..." he pointed at the picture, "Dated... Yamacha Bandit?"
Gohan nodded, "Yeah, they'd known each other since like they were sixteen or seventeen." he shrugged, "He's a pretty cool guy, but not great with women." He chuckled, "Bulma tells stories sometimes about how he was terrified of girls growing up." He motioned his crew down the hall, "Plenty of time to explore the past later, we've got work to do."
Taking a few more twists and turns they ended up outside a door marked 'Training Facility', "Uhh... Gohan?" Erasa asked, "Weren't we looking to go to a laboratory?" He nodded, "It says training facility but it's actually for the hires to capsule corps, they do a hands-on approach test here, so there's always random bits and bobbles for whatever reason."
He pulled a small panel up and pressed his hand to it and the door had a green light above it that lit up before sliding to the side, turning around he said, "You guys can take whatever station you want, Videl, follow me." He walked over towards his desk completely covered in random blueprints and spare parts.
Walking around to the opposite side he opened a couple drawers and scraped the junk components in and then rolled the blueprints up and shoved them into a drawer on the opposite side, "Aren't we supposed to use an empty station?" Videl asked cautiously, no sense upsetting whoever was working at the station if they were an employee here.
Gohan shook his head, "No need to worry, this is just my desk. I come here to work on things in my spare time." He grabbed a couple stools and some new paper and brought them to his desk, "Normally my work is in a different lab so I just hadn't been here in a little while." He sat gently on the stainless-steel bar stool, its red leather making its displeasure at holding Gohan known with some squawking under his weight.
He patted the chair beside him, "Come on, we need to get our design done for the day at least." She hopped up on the stool and sat beside him, "So what do you think Vi? I have a couple of ideas but this is a pair project, so I want some input."
Videl just looked at him, "How about you show me what you're thinking and I'll give input then," She pushed a sheet of paper over towards him, "How's that sound?" He nodded and grabbed a pencil from one of the drawers before grabbing a couple sheets of paper and doing some general outlines, "So, I was thinking either one of two designs."
He drew out a small spherical drone, and a pair of glasses, "One would be a drone that follows us because of a small led tracking light or face capture technology so it'll only follow us." He pointed at the small ball nestled between a set of four circular holes, he pointed over to the glasses, "The other is a pair of glasses with a camera in the central nose bridge, and one of us would have to wear them, downside is... because of the wiring and stuff they'd look like coke bottle frames."
Videl took a quick look at Gohan, "Well, I don't look good in glasses, and I don't think they really fit you either." She stated bluntly, at Gohan's' eyebrow raising, she decided to answer his unasked question, "Before dad became famous, I had to wear glasses, when we got rich, he got me laser eye surgery." His head lolled over to the side as he looked at her with a tilted stare.
Face growing red, she glowered at him, "What are you staring at?" She growled, he shrugged, "I was just trying to imagine you in glasses." He grabbed a piece of paper from his desk and with some quick folds had a fairly thick sheet of paper.
"What are you doing Gohan..." She had an exasperated tone this time instead of her normal anger, "You'll see." He answered with a grin, taking an exacto knife from the drawer he made some quick cuts and then turned around and before Videl could react, sat the paper 'glasses' on her nose.
He nodded and hit Videl with a gigawatt smile, causing an abnormal thumping in her chest, as she could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks, blushing like a raging wild fire. "You look good Vi." In her embarrassment, she looked towards the floor causing some of her hair to fall free. He reached up with one hand and brushed her raven strands back behind her ear.
He paused, calling over his shoulder, "Hey Trunks, does your mom still have that 3d printer lying around?" He took a quick look around for the desk sized piece of equipment. Trunks tilted his head back in thought before shrugging, "Maybe? I don't know, I haven't been here in a while Gohan, you know that." Gohan simply nodded, "I'll ask her about it at lunch."
He decided to lean back over the paper and start a new drawing for a set of glasses, hollowing out the ear pieces, "Maybe use metal instead?" He scratched his pencil under his chin while he thought out loud, "Slide them in and seal them at one end, have the battery pack in the other ear piece?" He thought he felt a fly land on his shoulder, "Run the camera function through the entire lens, data storage on the other?"
His train of thought derailed before he could come up with anymore ideas, "Gohan Son!" An angry yell sounded right beside his ear. He flinched, as did the other two demi-Saiyan's in the room, "Oh-uh? Yes, Videl?" He asked, trying to clear the ringing in his ear with his pinky, "Did you need something?"
She huffed, the paper glasses still sitting on the bridge of her nose, "Yes, you big lug," She crossed her arms over her chest, "I thought you said this was a partner project, not one for you to turn into a space case on."
Gohan scratched the back of his head nervously, "I kinda just got into the zone, I was almost finished with a preliminary design plan?" He finished half questioning, "Unless you want to help me with the outer design?"
She paused, "You almost finished?" She looked over at his half of the table, taking in the nearly finished wiring diagram what looked to be a pair of hollow ear pieces, "But it's only been a couple of minutes? Also, why didn't you feel me hit you?" That in her opinion was the more pressing question.
He hummed, "When I get into my work I tend to space out, and generally it's only loud noises that can snap me out of it." He paused thinking up a plausible explanation, "Since I grew up way out in the country I got to play almost anywhere, but with all the animals and dinosaurs around I had to learn to pick up on slight sounds." He rubbed his other ear, "So my hearing is actually incredibly sensitive."
He nudged her with his elbow, "Your voice nearly popped my ear." He wasn't quite sure what type of red her face was, between that and her mouth. She looked half angry, half embarrassed, and zero percent apologetic, "My bad Gohan, but now I know how to get your attention at least."
He shrugged, "You could always just mention food?" He quipped, earning him a light slap on the shoulder. He took a quick look around, "I'll be back in a second, gotta take a quick look for something." He lifted himself off the stool, causing it to let out a small squeak like pressure was being released. Looking at a couple of doors in the room he headed to one, fully aware of the blue eyes boring into his back.
Opening one of the supply closets he managed to spot everything he needed, for a portion of it at least. one small one foot by one-foot custom 3d printer that he had built out of boredom when Goten kept breaking his toys, and the various colorful spools of line for printing. Grabbing the decent sized machine he carried it back to his desk, sitting it on one end.
He pulled a small plugin from it and hooked it into an outlet on the back of the desk. "Could you open that bottom drawer on your side Vi?" He asked, she nodded, "What am I looking for?" He paused for a moment, "Either a laptop, or a tablet with a stylus attached. Maybe both?" She nodded and she spotted the laptop easily, sitting on its edge against the side of the drawer.
She found the tablet sitting behind it, attached to a charger. "What are these for Gohan?" She looked up at him as she handed them over, "If you don't mind me asking." He waved one hand dismissively, "Not at all, the tablet is what I'll use for a preliminary sketch of what everything should look like, and help me get the design into a cnc program."
She nodded, acting as if she understood any of that, the way her eyes rolled away told Gohan otherwise. "It'll help me get the rough sketch so that I can clean it up and get it cut into some metal pieces for the glasses, and then I'll be making a circuit board from nearly scratch."
Videl paused, "Why not use a premade one?" She asked, her attention being drawn over towards Sharpener when she heard a loud thud, and a feminine voice call out "I'm not your babe Sharpener! Touch me again and I'll belt you even harder!" The small form of Pan was holding one fist directly in Sharpener's face as Erasa was having a hard time holding in a giggle.
"Sharpener." Gohan's voice held a distinctly cold edge as he called out, "Stop hitting on fourteen-year-old." He looked over at Mirai, "It's bad for your health, especially when her father is in the room." He watched Sharpener look over towards Mirai. Now it should be noted, on Trunks, his father's glare was adorable.
On his fully grown son everyone called Mirai, it was far, far more intimidating. Mirai didn't have to say a word, but the dry swallow from Sharpener was very audible to everyone present in the room. He crawled carefully back into his stool, scooting it around beside Erasa's.
Much to the amusement of three people though, Mirai decided the perfect place to stand, was leaned up against a table directly behind Pan. Arms crossed, and glaring scowl in full bore as he watched the almost legal adult, hit on his charge. "Do it again and well, the woods can make people disappear." It wasn't quite a subtle threat, or even remotely real as Gohan knew.
Videl went to stand up but a strong hand pressed onto her upper leg, forcing her back into her seat. Gohan raised one finger against his lips, a silly grin on them. He reached over to the tablet and wrote her a quick note, 'He's joking, his sister would skin him alive if he actually followed through.'
She gestured to the tablet, looking for some way to erase the other sentence, Gohan reached over and pressed a small box in one corner, wiping the screen. 'Why's he being so harsh?' She passed the tablet back.
Gohan shrugged, 'Pan is his teacher's kid, his last link to his sensei. I doubt he appreciates her being hit on. The most he'd do is knock him around a bit.' He passed it back, popping the top on his laptop, while waiting for Videl to respond.
She tapped the clear button and wobbled her head noncommittally, 'Yeah my dad would do the same thing.' She paused, writing a second note under the first, 'Why are we talking like this?' and passed it back.
Gohan's eyes scanned over the note, 'If you were Sharpener, would you be more or less likely to do the same crap again knowing the whole do it and die threat wasn't real?' and slid it back over to Videl.
She rubbed the bridge of her nose, and cleared the tablet, 'Point taken.' and passed it back to Gohan who placed the design he had been working on onto a clean white section of the table. "Now, we can use this," He wiggled the tablet in his grasp, "To take a picture of that, and I can clean it up some, get things more in alignment." He shrugged, "Make any small changes."
He stood on the bar at the base of the stool, giving him just a couple more inches to take the whole design in, and snapped a picture. It was about that time his stomach decided it was time to roar. Which caused a chain reaction.
Videl looked over at a sheepish Gohan Son, one hand behind his head a slight chuckle escaping. He looked up at the wall, "Wow, it's already lunch time? But it feels like we just got in here?" Videl looked down at her own watch, not quite trusting the tall boy when it came to food. "Seriously? How did we spend two hours working here already?"
Gohan shrugged, he was as confused as she was. "I'm going to take a break and grab some food," He stood and looked over at his lab partner, catching a glimpse of her sapphire eyes as she looked up at him. He stared for a moment before coughing into his hand and glancing away. She on the other hand kept staring, watching as he simply stood there.
He eventually offered her his hand and she accepted it gratefully, "Thank you, for finally being a gentleman Gohan," She remarked, a small smile playing on her lips.
He released her hand hesitantly, something about this girl was calling to him, and he didn't know what. He took a step towards the door, feeling Mirai fall into step behind him, "you coming to lunch Vi?" he asked, "I'm headed to relax after lunch. I was wondering if you'd like to join me?"
Videl followed behind, her shirt fluttering with every step. She stopped beside him as they lingered near the door, "Well, what are you waiting for Gohan, lead the way." He nodded leading them back out into the hallway, and making a beeline for the kitchen, she wasn't sure where the rest of the class was but she didn't particularly care.
She never really liked the stares and whispers that always seemed to float around them like an eddy in a river. She much preferred the solitude of her own small group of friends.
She assumed that Erasa and Sharpener would join them as soon as Pan was finished with whatever work she could get out of them for the day. Walking between Mirai and Gohan she felt out of place, they were both giants of men, and her thoughts wandered the entirety of the time it took to make it to the kitchen.
Lunch was as much of an eating contest as breakfast was, minus one person. The plates stacking higher and higher even as the food pile kept winding down. Her own plate was consumed at a normal pace. Her mind on where Gohan would be taking them to relax, she didn't know anything about this place really.
She was more in his territory, similar to how he probably felt when he first got to the school. She was so wrapped in her own thoughts she didn't notice the eyes of her partner, latched onto her, taking in every inch of her he could see almost hypnotized. Trunks on the other hand flared his ki a fraction, catching Gohan's attention and pulling it away from staring at the girl.
Their plates sat abandoned to the side, "Where would you like to see Videl?" Gohan asked, since it was her first time here, he was going to be nice and show her around. Her head snapped up like a gunshot, clearly lost in thought. One hand came up to scratch under her chin, "I don't know Gohan," she stated, "Surprise me."
Gohan nodded, he knew just the place, "When we get close, you're going to have to hold my hand, heck even when we get there you might have to hold my hand." He added her plate to his own tower and carried them towards a window where a robot would clean them and send them back to the machine.
She followed him out into the halls, taking a few corners she didn't keep track of this time, getting close to what felt like the entrance if the posters on the wall outlining Capsule Corps new inventions were, was any indication. They turned down one last hallway, and Gohan stopped dead in his tracks, holding out his hand. "This place is kind of special, and I want you to get the whole experience." He shrugged, unfortunately I can't stop your hearing or smell but I can still give you a nice surprise with just the sights alone."
He cast out his perception, Trunks had wandered back towards the lab. Probably to check up on Pan. So, he refocused on his partner. "You going to keep your eyes shut Vi?" he asked. Her low growl wasn't even remotely frightening, but it was amusing, "Yes, I gave you my word and a Satan never breaks a promise." She hmphed, before turning back to face him and made a show out of holding her hair out of her face and closing her eyes, before holding one hand outstretched.
He took her dainty hand in his and pulled her along, the glass walls of the garden coming into view, pausing momentarily at the door he held up a hand to the scanner, and the sound-proofed door slid open with a whoosh. The sounds of bird calls, and the low roar of the occasional dinosaur taking away the slight sound of silence.
He led her down a small path towards a clearing in the middle, where a small fountain rested, along with some small building that researchers could come and sit and work on their deadlines at. "I'm going to hold your shoulder Videl," he stated, "I don't want you to fall and I'm leading you to a seat... kind of." He finished, by holding her shoulder and spinning her slowly to let her rest on the cool edge of the fountain.
Taking a seat beside her he kept her hand in his as he looked over towards her, "Open your eyes Videl." He watched as her expression went from curious to stunned to amazed, all in the span of a heartbeat.
Videl wasn't quite sure what she was going to see when she was instructed to open her eyes. But she knew one thing for certain, she wasn't expecting what she did see. A plethora of colors surrounded her as she turned her head to take in the sights. On one side there were fruit trees, covered in some macaws. Another tree held a family of sloths, their slow movements seemingly still, one infant hanging off its mother or fathers back. She turned her head another direction and saw some small jungle huts, some parrots and other brightly colored birds resting on their thatch roofs.
She heard the low roar of something large behind her, the footsteps shaking the ground, she turned to glance behind her and through the curtain of water cascading from the fountain she saw the large frame of a triceratops, its horns broken and beaten, somewhat on the small side. Reaching its neck down to devour some fern leaves, her sudden movement as she jumped caught its attention.
Noting that it was only another two leg, the herbivore turned its attention back to its meal. From a distance behind it Videl could make out the horrific sight of a large dinosaur, its head large, its arms short, and its teeth... Videl looked at its mouth, "Is that tyrannosaurus missing its teeth?" She pointed one shaky hand in its direction, still not over the fact that there was a t-rex inside capsule corps.
Gohan turned to see what she was looking at, "Hmm?" He saw who she was pointing at, "That's toothless, he mostly gets ground beef now." Videl lowered her arm, still not sure what the entire building was, and being so curious she decided to ask him. "Gohan, where are we?" Gohan was saved the pleasure of answering.
A small mustached man rode up on a bicycle, ringing its horn and popping it into a capsule, his small black cat still sitting on his shoulder. "Why this is the garden my dear," Dr. Briefs reached up to scratch his kitten under its chin, "My wife Bunny and I, well we aren't getting any younger and we can't have any more children so we, for lack of a better word adopted." He pointed towards some of the birds sitting on the hut, "Most of those have minor injuries, a broken wing or something similar."
He turned to point at various animals describing their injuries, a sabretooth tiger missing fangs. A pterodactyl that couldn't see, the only oddity was a frog with some antenna. When Videl asked about that she was just waved off and told "Not to worry, if you see a battle over the pond between some turtles and some toads, it's probably that frog's fault. He does it from time to time." Videl wasn't quite sure how to take that, so Gohan gently grabbed her by the shoulders and began to steer her away, "It was nice seeing you Dr. Briefs, tell Bunny I said hello."
The good doctor just smiled and nodded, popping his bike back out from its capsule, "I'll tell Bunny you said hello, she probably has some cookies." He looked at his kitten, "Come Scratch. There's children to attend to." and slowly pedaled away.
Videl just let Gohan guide her, "When he said children... did he mean our class? Or the animals..." Her voice was low and filled with confusion, Gohan shook his head. "I'll be honest Vi," He looked at her, "I have no idea. It could honestly go both ways." He kept guiding them on the path they were following.
Videl looked over at Gohan as a low hum escaped his throat, a low murmur escaping his lips, "Now where would... ah-ha, that's probably where he is." He turned to face Videl, walking backwards as he did so, "Want to meet one of my best friends Videl?"
She raised one eyebrow slightly, "Your friend is here?" She waved her hand around signifying the jungle, "In this menagerie?" Gohan nodded, "It's technically a garden but a menagerie works too. I brought him over when he broke a wing a while back. Now he just kind of lives here."
Videl was back to square one on her thoughts until he mentioned a wing, "So your friend is an animal?" Gohan grinned, "Mhm, he's probably right around here somewhere. It has the best berry bushes." Gohan felt a large ki signature bounding through the woods towards him, "Might want to stand back a second Vi. I can hear Icarus coming."
As if he had heard Gohan call his name, a large pinkish dragon burst through the foliage, letting out a low grumble as he heard Gohan say his name. But his momentum was far too great and he tackled the large teenager, "Hey buddy..." Icarus swiped his tongue up Gohan's' face, "It's nice to see you too." Icarus's tail was wagging back and forth like a large dog, "You mind letting me up? I want you to meet someone."
Icarus raised one of his tree trunk like legs, allowing him to see Videl, who had her jaw pinned to the floor before, "Oh my god Gohan!" She rushed towards him, "Jesus, are you okay?" She dropped to her knees beside Gohan's prone form. "Do I need to call an ambulance or something?"
Gohan motioned her to slide back a couple feet and pulled himself out from under Icarus, "Nah, I'm fine," standing up he laid one hand on the dragon's shoulder, "This is Icarus, I saved him from a forest fire when I, well... we were both little." He held one hand out "Here, let me introduce you to him, just take my hand everything will be fine." He gave her a patented Son Smile, a few seconds later, a nervous Videl allowed herself to give her hand to Gohan.
He pulled her close, and held her hand on top of his as he brought it close to Icarus's nose, "She's friendly buddy, if she calls when you're near come help her out, okay?" The large dragon nodded and licked her hand before trumpeting out a soft hoot before his tongue lolled out of his mouth. "I'll see you later buddy, okay?" He ran his hand along the ridge of his friends' eye, "I have to show Videl where the rooms are for us people to sleep in, but I'll be back by again sometime soon okay?"
The dragon simply nodded and wandered off in search of some red berries, his preferred food. "So..." Gohan drew the simple word out as long as he could without annoying Videl, "That was Icarus." He grinned, "When he was little, he used to fit in our house, now he's half the size of my house." He looked over, "You okay Vi?" He stopped walking and looked at the shell-shocked teenager, "Yo-you have a fr-frie-friend... th-that's a dragon?" She pointed back towards where Icarus left with both hands as if questioning the reality of what she'd seen, "Yeah, but he thinks he's a dog."
"Oh...That makes sense." And she did what the only truly reasonable thing to do in that situation was, she fainted.