A/N:  Last time … well, can we say Piccolo, though usually one of the more discrete of the Z-Fighters was having an off day?  Or he was concerned about Gohan?  Or something?

      Quite a few of you were familiar with the song These Boots Are Made For Walking.  Congrats to all of you, and here are some cyber-boots to tread through cyber-space with.

      This chapter is missing 2 words!

Chapter 7:  You Ain't Nothing But …

      Piccolo glanced down at his somewhat awkward burden.  Hmph-ing to himself, he shifted Gohan slightly, getting more of a grip on the teen, who was still out cold.  The fact that Gohan hadn't emerged from unconsciousness was beginning to worry Piccolo.  It was unusual for a Saiyan (demi or not) to be out-of-it for such a long period of time.

      Taking another glance down at Gohan's 'new' appendage, he decided it may be a good idea to get rid of the thing before Gohan woke up, as the last couple of times had proved to be very painful.  Looking at the ground as it flashed by, he saw a good-sized clearing in the woods, which didn't show any signs of humans.

      Landing lightly on his feet, he half-placed half-dropped the newly-tailed Saiyan to the floor of the woods.  Seeing Gohan still wasn't responding to his surroundings, Piccolo looked at the tail, and tried to determine what the best method of getting the tail off Gohan would be.

      Deciding it may be best to start with a hand-chop, he grabbed ahold of the end of the tail, took a quick check to make sure Gohan wasn't awake yet, and brought the side of his hand down on the base of the tail.  Only to have it stop as soon as it reached the tail.

      Alright, so that isn't going to work … maybe a ki-blast?  Forming a small blast in the palm of his hand, he aimed carefully (trying to make sure he wouldn't be explaining burn-marks to Chichi).  Letting the blast go with a short yell, he watched as the tail glowed momentarily yellow as the ki-blast exploded, then quickly placed an arm in front of his eyes to keep the dust which was billowing outwards from getting into his eyes.

      As the dust cleared, Piccolo got as close to a smile as he ever got.  That should just about take care of …  His thought trailed off as he stared down at Gohan.  Impossible, it can't still be there in as good a shape as ever!  I guess I'll just have to use a stronger blast.

      Gathering a larger blast, he aimed and fired.  Dust swirled around the two fighters, and cleared to reveal a tail, still perfectly in tact, and attached firmly to Gohan.  Deciding this course of action wasn't going to accomplish anything, Piccolo reached down, picked up Gohan, and took off into the air, headed once again for Capsule Corp.  Man, even Vegeta's tail wasn't this hard to get rid of.

~*~

      Meanwhile, at Capsule Corp, Bulma was happily working in her lab, enjoying the relative peace and quite.  Relative that is for someone who is used to living with two Saiyans.  The house shook periodically, and muffled yells and explosions were heard coming from the Gravity Room.  Vegeta was training with Trunks again, after a lengthy argument with Bulma regarding the fact that "The Future Ruler of the Saiyan Empire."  Bulma was able to get a few words in, mostly reminding the "over-muscled idiot" that the Saiyan Empire now consisted of three people other than himself, and two of them were related to "the person you constantly call a third-class baka".  Vegeta, who pretended she hadn't even spoken had pointed out the fact that Trunks "loves to spar, like any true Saiyan would.  Unlike that blasted Kakkarot."

      This argument went on until Bulma suddenly realized that letting the two of them train in the Gravity Room for a few hours would just result in them leaving her alone to work on the latest Capsule Corp project.  Deciding to let the Prince 'win' the argument, she sent them off to the Gravity Room, with a reminder to be careful, and a warning that she wouldn't fix the Gravity Room for a week if one of them (this comment was directed more at Vegeta) broke it.

      Vegeta gave a grunt, turned towards the stairs and yelled "Brat!  Gravity Room!  Now!"  And left Bulma standing in the hallway, with a happy glazed look on her face. Two hours of peace, why didn't I think of this before?  It was now about 2 ½ hours to lunch, and that last half hour would be used to create something for her husband and son to eat, or to call some sort of fast-food joint.

~*~

      Piccolo landed just outside the back entrance of Capsule Corporation, which was used by friends and family, the door didn't have any sort of visible security features, like a key-pad.  Rather, Bulma, in one of her more inventive modes, had figured out how the old Saiyan scouters worked and had rigged a scanning device to the door, which only allowed people within certain power-levels to enter.  She had also worked out a way for some of the 'weaker' friends and family to get past the scanner, by adding a visual check to the locking mechanism.

      This meant that while a person like Frieza may fit into the ki-level range that was needed, he would not be automatically granted entrance, as he was not in the database.  Piccolo could care less, it seemed rather odd to have all that type of security when any one of the Z-fighters could've just blasted through he door or the wall next to it without much difficulty, and even if someone else did get in, having Vegeta as a husband, with his reputation as the World's Most Dangerous Man, would easily convince a would-be intruder to reconsider coming into this particular building with the intent of causing mischief.

      The door slid open, and Piccolo strode into the family room.  Dropping Gohan on a convenient couch, he did a quick ki-check.  Vegeta and Trunks seemed to be quite close together, and their ki-levels were fluctuating slightly.  Must be training.  Now let's see, where's Bulma…  Locating her small ki-level, he left Gohan on the couch, not stopping to consider who may find the boy while he was gone…

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A/N:   I'm going to start a mailing list for those who would like me to let them know when I get a chapter done.  If you want to be in the list, leave your e-mail addy in a review, or if you're signed in, just put a note that you'd like to be on it... but please be obvious, as I will try not to send notices to anyone who doesn't want them.

And to all those Canadians out there "Happy Thanksgiving!!" I hope you were turkied up enough!  (To everyone else, take this in advance of whenever your Thanksgiving is).  A quick fact for those who are curious as to why Canadians do our Thanksgiving in October (as opposed to November – like in the US), it's because our harvest is over now, we've had our winter start, and there's frost (and snow!!) on the ground, whereas the US farmers are still harvesting.  Thought that was an interesting fact.