Standard Disclaimer: No, I don't own Dragonball Z or it's characters. I wish I did.

Trouble and Surprises

Chi-Chi sat at her kitchen table thinking about the changes in her life. The past three years had brought many new faces into her group of friends and family. Smiling to herself, Chi-Chi recalled the day that she had found the oddest addition to her family. It had been two years ago.

The day was cold and rain was coming, Chi-Chi could feel it in the air. Quickly, she gathered the laundry from the clothesline. Hearing a noise behind her, Chi-Chi tensed and turned to look into the tree line. Her eyes scanned the edge of the forest as she carefully approached. Unsure of herself she thought, 'Why am I doing this? Goku isn't here and Gohan is off with Videl. It couldn't be Goten, he's sleeping in his room.' Slightly disturbed by her thoughts, Chi-Chi continued to look for the source of the noise.

Hearing a strange growl to her right, Chi-Chi whirled around to find a small child scampering up a nearby tree. Making sure to mask her initial fright, she began to make soothing sounds, trying to coax the toddler closer. Using slow movements, she made her way towards the child. With it's teeth bared, eyes narrowed Chi-Chi could not make out whether the face belonged to a girl or a boy. The child was covered in a animal skin, making the distinction almost impossible.

Suddenly, the child leapt at her. Throwing her arms up, Chi-Chi instinctively caught the baby. Snarling and thrashing, the little being tried to escape her grasp. Holding the struggling form firmly, she quickly made her way back to the house.

Securing the child snugly under her arm, Chi-Chi phoned her friend Bulma.

"Moshi moshi?"

"Bulma? I need your help with something." Chi-Chi told her.

"Sure." Bulma answered, after Chi-Chi explained what had happened. "Trunks, Bra and I will be right there."

Hanging up the phone, Chi-Chi turned the child in her arms to take a closer look. What she saw almost made her drop the poor thing. Staring back at her was a slightly altered version of her husband's face. Curiosity made her unable to wait for Bulma's help. Pacing the kitchen, Chi-Chi heaved a sigh of relief when she heard Bulma call her from the door.

The two women set their children to play as they fought with the new baby. It took all of their combined strength and knowledge to strip and bathe the child. They both agreed it was worth it though when they discovered that the wild child was a little girl. Chi-Chi had always wanted a little girl, so it was decided that Chi-Chi would raise her. After feeding the little girl what seemed to be an unusual amount of food (for a human toddler at least), they discussed naming her. As the girl fell asleep, Chi-Chi decided on Mahi.

Chi-Chi sighed as she brought herself out of her daydreaming. Mahi and Goten would be returning soon and she still had to fix dinner. Mahi and Bra had tagged along with Goten and Trunks to explore some caves nearby. 'Trunks and Bra will be hungry as well.' Chi-Chi thought as she doubled her recipes. She still couldn't figure out how Mahi ate as much as the others when she wasn't even a Sayjin.

"Konichiwa, Kaasan!" Goten called as he flew past her towards his room. The other children mumbled their greetings as they followed him.

After feeding the hungry group and settling them all in bed, Chi-Chi sat down and began to remember the past once again.

Trunks and Goten shared them same reaction when they learned of the newest addition to the family. Neither boy was very pleased to say the least. Gohan and Videl had been excited, as was Goku when he returned. Vegita was unimpressed, as usual. Bra had immediately begun playing with her. The others had yet to meet Mahi, being busy with their own families. Mahi seemed to ignore all of them, except Vegita. For some reason, Mahi would always seem to find her way to him. Vegita was constantly bringing the girl back to Chi-Chi or Bulma and demanding that they keep a closer eye on her. Hoping that they would eventually be friends, Chi-Chi and Bulma insisted that Trunks and Goten take Mahi and Bra with them on their little adventures. This seemed to annoy everyone, except Bra, but they dealt with it as best as they could.

Mahi was bored. It had been a week since she last went on an adventure with the boys and Bra. Today however, the boys had gone with their tousans to train and Mahi was alone. Chi-Chi had tried to get her to study, but Mahi wasn't interested. Climbing up into a tree on the edge of the forest, Mahi began to dream of the day when her tousan would take her to go train. So caught up in her dreaming, Mahi didn't notice that the branch she was resting on had started to break. Beginning to fall, Mahi resisted the urge to scream, and let her instincts take over. Failing to hit the ground, Mahi opened her eyes. To her astonishment, she was hovering a good ten feet off the ground. Curious, Mahi pushed against the air with her feet. Flying higher into the sky, Mahi's eyes opened wide. Deciding to practice until she was as fast as her tousan, Mahi flew around some more.

A few months later, Bulma came up with a great adventure for Bra's fifth birthday. The dragonballs were available and she thought that the kids would enjoy going out to find them. Vegita agreed announcing that this would be great practice flying for Bra. He reminded the boys that one of them would have to carry Mahi (whom they thought couldn't fly).

While following Trunks, Goten and Bra on a search through the woods for a dragonball, Mahi got left behind. With Goten using the dragonball radar, he, Trunks and Bra got a little too excited about finding a dragonball not far from where they were searching. Forgetting about Mahi, they quickly flew over to where the dragonball radar showed it to be. Mahi was too scared of ridicule to let them see her trying to fly. So she attempted to follow them on foot. It wasn't long before Mahi realized they were too far ahead of her for her to see them. She had a strange feeling about where they were but that too disappeared after a minute. Alone in the dark forest, Mahi began to search for a way home.

Suddenly realizing that they had left Mahi, Trunks, Bra and Goten started to search for her. When night fell and they still couldn't find her, they sped off for home knowing that they would be in trouble for being so careless, but hoping Mahi would already be there. Chi-Chi and Goku were searching for them when they arrived home.

"Um, where's Mahi?" Goku asked them, looking around.

"Well, we kind of lost her. It was an accident! One minute she was with us, the next she was gone." Goten explained, in a rush.

"You mean you flew off and left her, and now you can't find her again?!!?" Chi-Chi shrieked.

"Hai. We're really sorry. We got too caught up in finding this dragonball, and we forgot she was with us." Trunks admitted, looking at the ground.

"What is going on here?" Vegita demanded, walking out of the house. "Where's the little brat? Is she the cause of all this?"

"We, um, lost her Tousan." Trunks explained, not looking him in the eye.

"And now because of your carelessness we all have to go out and search for her?!!?!" Vegita shouted.

Bra ran to her room, tears streaming down her face. She couldn't believe that she had forgotten her friend.

"And dinner will be late again!" Chi-Chi complained.

"Why don't you stay here with Bulma and fix dinner Chi-Chi. The rest of us will search for Mahi. we can spot her quickly from the air, so it shouldn't take long." Goku offered.

"Okay, Goku. But why don't you have Piccolo and Krillin go with you? The more people we have looking, the quicker she will be safe and sound here at home."

And so Goku, Vegita, Goten and Trunks went to get Piccolo and Krillin. On the way they met up with Gohan. After finding out what was going on, Gohan decided that he would join them in the search. Krillin was all for helping out and Piccolo, while not excited about it, was deeply concerned. He was supposed to meet this child for the first time tonight at the dinner Chi-Chi and Bulma were having. Reasoning that he could still help find her without having seen her, Piccolo agreed to team up with the rest. As the group got to the place where the boys and Bra had left Mahi they decided to split up and all search in different directions. As Piccolo set off East, he started sensing a strange power level. Thinking that someone may have found her ahead of him, Piccolo sped off towards it. When he neared the place where the power level was, Piccolo was astonished at how far he had traveled. Surely Mahi hadn't gotten this far in the few short hours she had been missing. He started to turn back, but something flying low through the trees caught his attention. When he scanned the area again he saw them. A little girl trying to evade someone who was pursuing her.

'Goku would have told me if Mahi had potential power. Wouldn't he?' Piccolo thought. 'No matter, the child needs help, whomever she is.'

Piccolo flew down and landed just a few yards away from them. But before he could make a move, the unknown being caught the fleeing girl.

"Now I have you." the being laughed.

Angry, Mahi turned to face this being. "What do you want from me?" she asked.

"I want that dragonball you and your friends found. It will be very useful to my friends and I." the being announced. "You weakling human, give it to me. You can not escape from the mighty Petorochi. She is the queen of all Detori. We are a race of great warriors. Our queen has decided that this planet is perfect for her to own and the dragonballs will make her youthful forever. And her power will remain undefeatable. So hand over that dragonball!"

"But I don't have one." Mahi shouted.

"Then I'll just have to find your friends. I'm sure they will have that dragonball. And just so that you can't warn them, you get to stay here in my ship." saying that, Krogi tossed Mahi into a ship that Piccolo had not noticed before. He waited to see what would happen next, hoping that Mahi would get herself out so that he could go to warn the others.

"They won't give the dragonball to you." Mahi yelled.

"Then I'll just have to kill them and take it. Three puny little kids like that could never hope to win against me. I, Krogi, am one of the elite warriors." Krogi shrugged.

As Mahi began to get upset over the plans Krogi had for the other kids, Krogi spotted Piccolo.

"Ahh. A spy? Think you're going to warn those puny brats? Well, I won't give you the chance." Krogi yelled.

Sensing that Krogi was more powerful than he was, Piccolo used the telepathic link that had formed between Gohan and himself to call him. 'Gohan! Gohan, I need your help with this one.'

'Piccolo-san? Where are you?' Gohan asked.

'Head East from where we split up. You'll come straight to me. A girl is here, I thinks it's Mahi, but so is someone else.'

'I'm on my way!'

As Gohan was quickly flying back to the splitting point, Piccolo challenged Krogi.

"Bring it on!" he said, getting into a fighting stance.

When Gohan arrived at the splitting point he was surprised to find that everyone else was already there. After telling them what was going on Gohan led them towards Piccolo, Krogi and Mahi. The fight between Krogi and Piccolo was intense. Krogi was much stronger than Piccolo. Because of this Piccolo couldn't make very many offensive moves and was getting badly injured with every blow. Shouting and banging on the walls of the ship, Mahi watched as her only hope was dashed. When the group finally spotted Piccolo, they had just flown over him. When they turned back to help him what they witnessed surprised them all. Little Mahi had gotten herself out of Krogi's ship. Seeing that Krogi was about to serve Piccolo with a deathblow, She began to scream at Krogi.

"Leave him alone!" As her anger overrode all else, Mahi began to power up.

"Nani? What is she doing?" Krillin asked, totally stunned.

"Sh-she's powering up?!?!!" Goku stuttered, completely amazed.

"Oh, so you are a very resourceful girl aren't you? Figured out how to escape my ship I see." Krogi sneered. "Well I guess I will have to just kill you and your buddy here."

As Krogi powered up for a deadly blow, Mahi began concentrating her energy and thoughts. Just as the group was prepared to intervene, Krogi and Mahi fired at each other. Mahi's shot was not aimed to block Krogi's, so instead of colliding, they passed each other. Mahi's shot missed Krogi, but just as his shot was about to hit, Mahi disappeared and the shot blasted the cliff behind where she had been.

"Where'd she go?" Krillin asked, looking around for any sign of the small girl.

"I don't see her either." Goku said, scratching his head.

Suddenly, there she was exactly where she had been before, and completely untouched by the powerful blast.

"Leave us alone!" Mahi screamed as she flew towards Krogi.

"I'll get you, brat!" Krogi yelled, charging at her.

Just before they could collide, Mahi powered into a ball of energy and burst right through Krogi.

"Wow! Goku, you never said she was like us. Where'd all that power come from?" Krillin asked.

"I had no idea. Wow! She's stronger than Gohan was at her age." Goku answered, just as puzzled as the rest of the group.

They all landed a few feet from the dying Krogi.

"Oh, you found me." Mahi said, looking at Goku. "Can I go home now?"

"We had better go fast, Piccolo-san needs a sensu bean badly." Gohan announced.

"Piccolo-san? That's Piccolo-san?" Mahi asked in awe.

"Hai, this is Piccolo-san." Gohan answered, the strain of worry evident in his voice.

"Oh. Piccolo-san, arigato for trying to save me. I'm sorry you got hurt." Mahi whispered, cradling his head in her lap. "I wish I could make it all better."

Then Mahi placed a tender kiss on Piccolo's brow. The kissed brow started to glow. Then the glow spread over Piccolo's body, his wounds healing as it touched them. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the glow vanished. Piccolo slowly opened his eyes.

"What are you doing to me?" Piccolo shouted.

"I- uh...I was just thanking you for trying to save me." Mahi stuttered, surprised.

"You made me well?" Piccolo asked.

Krogi suddenly spoke up. "Her magic won't save you when Petorochi arrives. She gave me three years to gather the dragonballs for her." he rasped, before passing on to the next dimension.

"We have some training to do." Vegita said, turning to Trunks.

"I'd like to take Mahi with me." Piccolo requested, facing Goku.

"Well, ok, but what am I going to tell Chi-Chi? She was so sure she finally had a child that she could watch grow up at her side instead of always waiting for us to come home safely." Goku asked, starting to freak out.

"I can't believe you still let that woman run you Kakorot! You are a mighty Sayjin warrior, you can not keep bowing down to that woman!" Vegita sneered.

"Well, you don't seem to be having very much luck getting Bulma to follow your orders either Vegita." Gohan reminded.

"What about what I want?" Mahi demanded, quietly. "Don't I get a say in what happens to me?"

The entire group turned to stare at her in disbelief. Never had a child shown that strong a will so controlled. Mahi wasn't throwing a tantrum, she was standing almost silently beside Piccolo, a scowl that rivaled Vegita's on her face.

"Well? I guess we should discuss this." Goku decided, then rubbed his stomach. "But let's do it after dinner. I'm sure that Chi-Chi and Bulma are worried to death by now."

And so the group agreed to go home. When they arrived at Goku's house Chi-Chi ran out to meet them.

"Oh, I'm so glad you all are alright!" she gushed. "I was going out of my mind worrying about what was keeping you. What happened to your clothes, Piccolo?"

"Well, I kind of ran into someone while looking for Mahi."

"Oh. Well, why don't you all come in and have something to eat? I've been keeping dinner warm for you."

To be continued...

I will continue this story if I get some good reviews. So, please review and tell me what you liked or didn't like about it.