Dragonball Forgotten Times

by subdivision

In a time when the deeds of the Z fighters are barely more than legend, the life of a young man named Xavier is led down an unusual path. (*reviews appreciated* ^_^ )

10. Testing, 123, Testing

Dragonball FT, The Black Thorn Saga
Chapter 10: Testing, 1-2-3, Testing

Dende stood at the edge of the lookout, peering down over the Earth. From his left, a dark figure approached him.

"How did everything go?" The figure asked.

"Well, Popo, he agreed to fight. His training will begin as soon as he's ready." Dende responded.

"Were your suspicions correct?" Popo asked.

"I don't know. When I unlocked a fraction of his power, I felt something...I can't put my finger on it, but I'm certain we found the person we needed." Dende said, with an optimistic smile.

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*BEEEEP, BEEEEP, BEEEEP, BEEEEP*

Xavier opened his left eye. He would have opened both, but the right side of his face was buried in his pillow. #%$@, another morning. Xavier thought to himself.

*BEEEEP, BEEEEP, BEEEEP, CRACK*

Xavier's silencing of the alarm clock woke him up more than the alarm clock itself did. He sat up on the edge of his bed and examined the small, plastic clock. Across the top of it was a long crack, put there just moments before by Xavier's hand.

Weird...that's never happened before. Xavier thought, his mind still clouded by the remnants of sleep.

He walked to the bathroom to get ready for school. Once there, he was frozen in his tracks when he looked at his reflection in the mirror. Xavier rubbed his eyes repeatedly to be sure he wasn't dreaming. When he was sure he wasn't, he examined his features more closely. His shoulders, usually slouched, were broader, his chest and arms were slightly more muscular than normal, and his abs were flawless. Until now, Xavier had forgotten about the day before. "Holy shit," Xavier said in a low voice, to no one in particular. "I guess this is what Dende said about 'unlocking some of my power.' I think I'm gonna like this."

After the shock of seeing his reflection, Xavier resumed his normal morning routine. As he was just about to get his backpack so he could leave, he heard a knock at the door. He opened the door and was slightly surprised, but very happy, to have his gaze briefly locked in that of the two beautiful emeralds that he had recently come to know.

"Good morning," Emily said with a smile. "I thought we'd walk to the bus together again."

"Sounds good," Xavier said, returning the smile. "I was just about to walk out the door, myself. Be right back."

With that, Xavier closed the door and half-ran, half-stumbled to his room, tripping over furniture and just about anything else that was in his path. He got to his room and flung the door open, threw his coat on and grabbed his backpack off the floor, and returned to the door, in the same stumbling manner. When he got to the door, he turned, shouted "Goodbye!" to either his mother or sister, if either of them were paying attention, and walked out the door.

Emily was standing a few feet away from the door, waiting for Xavier to appear. After he walked out the door, Xavier and Emily proceeded down the hall towards the stairs. Unlike the day before, today they had time to walk down the twenty-three flights of stairs. When they got to the street, they continued walking to the bus stop. Arriving there, they were greeted by Jane's back.

"Hey, Jane." Xavier said, trying to be civil. She was, after all, one of his best friends.

"Hmph," was all Jane returned.

Seeing her obvious disgust at his mere presence, Xavier decided to push the matter further, since he still being annoyed at what Jane had said about Emily the day before. Turning to Emily, Xavier asked, "Is it me, or did it just get a little colder out?" Emily, having seen Jane's reaction to their presence, smiled at the comment. Jane folded her arms and kept her back to Xavier and Emily.

Seeing this, Xavier continued to annoy Jane. He put his hands in his pockets, drew his coat tight around himself, and said "I wish I had brought a pair of gloves this morning."

After hearing this, Jane let out a frustrated sigh, let her arms drop to her sides, spun around to face Xavier, and said, "You know, you can be a real ass sometimes!"

A look of innocence appeared on Xavier's face as he said, "Me?? An ass?? Even if that is true, at least I know not to insult people I don't know anything about."

Jane's eyes narrowed at the insult that was obvious only to her and Xavier. "You know what, Xavier?" she started. "You can find yourself another date for the dance on Friday. I'd rather go with a gentleman."

After everything that had been happening, Xavier had forgotten all about the dance. He thought about what Jane said for a second, shrugged his shoulders, and turned to Emily and said, "Well, seeing as I'm suddenly available on Friday, would you like to go to the dance with me?"

"I'd love to," Emily said with a smile.

At this, Jane turned her back to Xavier once again. She was hoping he'd be upset, and instead, he seemed happy to be going with Emily. In reality, although he was thrilled at the idea of going to the dance with Emily, Xavier was very upset about what had transpired between Jane and himself in the past few days. As he stood there with a smile on his face, Xavier was thinking, Why does she have to be such a bitch about this? I know I'm not helping matters any, but she shouldn't of insulted Emily like that. A smile then crept onto Xavier's face. For his sake, I hope Chris doesn't try anything today.

A few minutes later, the bus arrived. The three got on and walked to the back where they always sat. Jane immediately sat next to Mark while Xavier and Emily sat a few seats away. During the bus ride, Jane and Mark talked for a while and Xavier and Emily were content to stare out the window. When they got to their stop, the four teens went to leave the bus, Jane and Mark first, being closer to the door. Emily was next to step off the bus, followed by Xavier. After Emily had stepped off, the doors began to close. Xavier pushed them open, as anyone would do, but was surprised to find that he had pushed on the doors with too much force, causing them to bounce back at him, striking Xavier in the face, causing him to stumble off the bus holding his nose. When Emily realized what had happened, she hurried to his side and asked, "Oh my God!! Are you okay?!"

"Ah doon no." Xavier replied, still holding his nose.

"Here, let me see." Emily said as she removed Xavier hands from his face. When she saw his face, Emily stated in an astonished voice, "How lucky can you be? There's not even a mark anywhere!"

Xavier was caught off guard by this and quickly turned to look at his reflection in the windows of the bus, which was now pulling away. From what he saw, there was no blood, which he expected to be gushing from his nose. Seeing this, he turned to Emily and said with a smile while scratching the back of his head, "Yeah, I guess you're right. This must be my lucky day or something."

After that, Xavier and Emily said their goodbye's, which ended with a quick kiss. They both began walking to their respective school. As he was walking, Xavier thought to himself, Wow, I'm really liking this whole 'hidden power' thing. I'm just glad Emily was the only one who saw what happened. If Jane or Mark hadn't walked away, I'd never hear the end of it.

For the most part, the rest of Xavier's day went without event. The only difference he noticed was that running up the stairs between classes was a lot easier, even with a backpack full of books. Every class was went by like any other day, aside from the fact that Xavier actually paid attention in Local History. Everything was going smoothly and, as Xavier was walking into the locker room to get changed for gym class, he thought to himself, Alright! One more class to go and I haven't done anything like what happened when I got off the bus earlier.

As he was getting changed, Xavier's friend Ryan, who was almost a foot shorter than Xavier, of a stocky build, and had black hair that extended half-way down his ears, walked over to him and asked, "Hey, Xavier. Up for a game of dodgeball?"

This happened every class. Ryan would ask if Xavier wanted to join in whatever game everyone was playing, and Xavier would always decline and head to the weight room. Today, however, a smirk appeared on Xavier's face when he heard what everyone was playing. "Sure, I'm in." Xavier replied. Dodgeball was the one of the few sports that Xavier enjoyed playing in gym class. To him, it wasn't much of a sport to begin with: two teams on either side of the gym, you either throw the ball at your opponents or dodge the ones they throw at you. Not much running involved, and besides, Xavier was a relatively decent at the dodging part.

Xavier and Ryan walked into the gym, where most of their class had already gathered. Once everyone was there, they stood in a group as the two captains, Chris and another student, Tim, picked teams. Xavier stood silently as the two captains made their decisions. When there were four left to choose from, Tim, who was six inches taller than Xavier and had curly, dark brown hair, picked Xavier. When he heard this, Xavier cracked a small smile. He really didn't want to be on Chris' team.

Once everyone was picked, eleven players on each team, the two teams began to move to the opposite sides of the gym. As Xavier was walking to his teams' side, Chris walked right into him, hitting Xavier's right shoulder with his, expecting Xavier to be shoved out of the way. Xavier, however, didn't budge. He merely stared coldly into Chris' eyes. At this moment, Chris said in a low voice, so that only Xavier could hear, "Jane told me what you said about me." The left side of Chris' mouth curled up into a menacing smirk. "I'm gonna make you regret you ever opened your mouth."

With that, Chris jogged away from Xavier who simply kept on walking, now sporting a smile of his own. With the teams on their appropriate sides, the game began. Xavier stood still for a moment, watching what those around him did. There were six balls and each team started off with three. As soon as the game began, all six balls were airborne. None came anywhere near Xavier, who watched as one unsuspecting person on each team was hit and eliminated and the other four balls missed their targets. When Xavier looked across the room again, he noticed that Chris had a ball in his hand and was aiming it right at Xavier. Xavier stood still as the ball flew across the room, aimed directly at his face. At the last possible second, Xavier ducked his head and the ball flew harmlessly above him. Xavier stood up again and found enjoyment in the look of combined shock and anger on Chris' face.

Xavier grabbed the ball that Chris had just thrown at him (after missing Xavier, it had bounced off the wall behind him and rolled towards Xavier). Looking across the room he saw Chris who seemed to be waiting for Xavier to throw it back. Xavier drew back his arm, and was about to throw it at Chris, who was getting ready to catch the ball, thus eliminating Xavier, when, at the last second, Xavier changed his mind and threw the ball at a classmate a few feet away from Chris. Xavier hit the student, who wasn't expecting it, square in the chest, eliminating him. The game continued on for a few minutes until there were two people left on either team. On Xavier's, it was down to himself and Ryan. On the opposing team, It was Chris and another classmate. Ryan went to throw a ball at one of the opponents, but as soon as it left his hand, he was hit in the shoulder by a ball thrown by Chris. Xavier took the opportunity and hit his classmate on the other team, who was preoccupied with dodging the ball that Ryan had thrown at him. Now, with only Chris and Xavier left, everyone on the sideline began getting ready for the next game. They all knew Chris would win this in a few seconds.

Chris, himself, had a sly smile on his face. If I aim this right, I'll knock that little bitch out of the game and have him sitting on the side for the rest of the class. Chris picked up a ball and threw it as hard as he could at Xavier, who was just standing up after picking up a ball himself. Xavier didn't have a chance to react. As he stood up, he unknowingly put himself directly in the ball's path. It hit him square in the face, knocking his head backwards as the ball bounced off his face and flew straight up into the air. Chris smirked as he saw that he had won and most likely given Xavier a bloody nose. Xavier didn't move at all, however. A second later, the sound of the ball falling into Xavier's outstretched hand echoed throughout the gym. Xavier tilted his head forward again to see all his classmates staring at him with their jaws dropped. Not only did Xavier pull off an amazing catch to win the game, but he also didn't even have a mark on his face after the incredible hit he had just received. Xavier looked at his classmates and feigned a laugh while scratching the back of his head. "Lucky catch, huh?" He asked to no one in particular. None of his classmates responded. In an effort to break them from their stupor, Xavier lightly tossed the ball in his hand to Tim and asked "Well, we gonna start another game or not?"

"Yeah," Tim said as he awoke from his stupor and caught the ball. "C'mon guys, let's play." He said to the rest of the group, snapping them out of their daze.

Aww, man. That was a close on. I gotta watch myself from now on. Xavier thought to himself as he got ready for the next game. For the rest of the class, he tried to remain as inconspicuous as he could, picking his shots like he would any other game of dodgeball. As the bell rang, it seemed to Xavier that everyone had forgotten about what had happened earlier in the class, thanks to a great juggling catch that Tim made in the last game. Xavier thanked whatever it was that was watching out for him as he quickly got changed and headed to work.