AN: I had the most brilliant idea at 3 AM and I discovered the identity of
the mysterious shadow, I am so HAPPY!! This chapter will be a little Gohan
torture for all you fans out there, nothing too big, I think that a little
comic relief is good every here and there though. Thank you all for the
reviews, I feel so loved. Here are some more imaginary cookies for you for
all your reviewers. Thank you. Don't forget to review at the end.
SO ON WITH THE STORY
Chapter 5 Meet the Saiyans
Gohan walked into school the next day, his feeling of deed growing with each step he took toward the large building. He sat down at his usual desk rather glumly, and barely heard what the others were saying to him all day. He went to class, and did the work he had to do, yet did so without even know what exactly it was that he was doing at all. The only thing he could think of was the newest enemy, one they didn't even know the identity of, the one that had taken it upon himself to torture Gohan, with a school project of all things. Granted, if he told this to anyone in his class they would say that all class project are tortures placed upon them by cruel, uncaring teacher, who would like nothing better then to see their students scream in the agony of actually having to do work, but then again Gohan was not one to be so easily tortured, he actually found school work fun, not to mention easy.
"Hey Gohan, you in there? HELLO?" Videl, after five minutes of screaming, finally managed to snap Gohan out of his daze. He blinked then turned and looked at her with rather unenthusiastic smile on his face. Taking the first show of emotion she had seen out of him all day as evidence that he was now paying attention, she continued. "Ok Gohan, we're all going over to stay the night at your house so we can work on this project, but I was wondering... How we're going to get there? None of us are allowed to drive that far away and my copter's too small to seat us all so I can't fly there. So, how are we gonna get there?"
"Umm... Well my normal ride is too small for us all to fit."
"Can't you get another one, cause we all need to get there Gohan, it's your responsibility."
"Hey, how did this become my responsibility? Staying at my house was all your guys' idea... Well, I think I can get a capsule copter big enough for all of us to use, we'll have to walk to my friend's place after school though."
"Gohan, it is after school..." Gohan did the Son smile and laughed, embarrassed. Videl and Sharpner rolled their eyes at him as they all followed Gohan out of the school and into the bustling streets of the city.
The quartet walked around the city, trying to keep up with Gohan's quick pace, for fifteen minutes before Gohan stopped in front of a large wall. The rest of the group was confused, especially after they looked up and read the lettering on the side of the large yellow dome behind the fence, a sign that read "Capsule Corps".
"Hey Gohan why are we stopping I thought we were going to visit a friend of yours?"
"Uhh... maybe you guys should wait here. My friends don't exactly take kindly to uninvited guests, especially ones like you guys."
"No way," Videl piped up, "there is this crazy guy who lives here; he has some obsession with blowing things up and the President of the company is this recluse who just builds all these crazy inventions all day, the number of explosions that come out of this place on a daily basis are innumerable. If the security people find us out here we could get into major trouble."
"Well, would you rather go inside?"
"What are you talking about Gohan?" Videl asked, becoming highly annoyed with Gohan's antics, "No one gets in that place, even my dad has never been allowed inside, and he's famous. The owner has this thing against him, I think, 'cause he walked by here once and all of a sudden the ground in front of him was blown to bits." Gohan laughed mentally at this, *Hmm, must have been Vegeta having fun, or possibly Trunks working on his aim. Either way they would have had too much unwanted attention if they had accidentally succeeded, Bulma would have been pissed by that one.* Outwardly though he only sighed and turned to the keypad that was next to the door. "And I've heard that if you type the wrong code into that keypad then it will explode and set off the alarms." As she spoke she slowly backed away from Gohan, who was still smiling rather oddly. At her words Sharpner and Erasa also backed away from Gohan, looking at him like he was insane. Gohan watched his friend's reactions for a moment before turning to the keypad and typing a code into it. The trio in the background cringed in anticipation of the explosion, but the only thing they heard was the "Whoosh" as the air-locked doors slowly opened and the computerized voice coming from the intercom above the keypad. They blinked in confusion as they heard the computerized voice say "Welcome to Capsule Corp. We hope you enjoy your stay here. Have a nice day." Gohan walked in the door and disappeared, his friends, on the other hand, just stood there, motionless. Moments later Gohan reappeared and shoved his friends through the entrance with ease, the doors shutting and locking behind them.
*What am I doing bringing them in here? Dende, if you have any sympathy for my situation, please keep Vegeta and Trunks away from my friends. PLEASE!* Gohan led his three friends thru the halls of CC (AN: That's Capsule Corp for all you people that didn't know that already.) and gave them a few warnings as they went.
"What Videl said before was almost right; there is this creepy guy here with a passion for blowing things up. He's kinda a former mass murder." Gohan laughed at his own statement but stopped when he realized his friends hadn't joined him; they were still gawking at him for being able to enter the fortress-like compound. "Anyway, make sure that you don't wander off, insult anyone, Sharpner I'm talking to you, or touch anything at all."
Videl's head was spinning *How does a naïve boy from the mountains know a family as rich and powerful as the Briefs? Maybe that's why he treats me like I'm no one special, because he knows people richer and more powerful than my father. What the hell? I don't understand, first that baseball player and now the owners of Capsule Corp. He'll defiantly have to explain this later, or I'll beat the crap out of him.* As Videl thought of beating Gohan up she had a nagging feeling that there was some reason why she shouldn't, but since she couldn't actually think of any of these reasons why she would feel that way she shook of the feeling and resolved to beat the truth out of Gohan if he wouldn't tell it to her willingly. She smiled at that thought and returned her attentions to what Gohan was saying, she re-entered reality just in time to hear the end of Gohan's warnings.
Suddenly two blurs, one blue and one orange, came down the hall faster than any of them could see and tackled Gohan, but since he had seen them coming a mile away he had braced himself for the impact, so all the two children did was end up hanging off of him as he stood in front of his friends. The two children clamped onto Gohan's arms and started bombarding him with requests to protect them or hide them. After a moment though, they noticed the other teenagers standing behind Gohan, and let go of Gohan's arms to get a better look at the trio.
"Gohan, my mom's gonna kill you. You know how dad reacts to people like them." Trunks spat the last word like "they" were the scum of the universe, which to certain Saiyan royals, they were.
"Yeah Gohan, why're you here?" Goten chimed in oblivious to his best friend's disgust at their presence.
"Well actually we're here to see Bulma, I need to borrow something. And, for your information Trunks, I only brought them inside because if they were found outside without the proper protection, so to speak, then they'd probably end up dead." Trunks rolled his eyes at Gohan's statement, knowing full well that it was true. If his dad saw anyone he didn't like hanging around his home, he would kill the person. "Goten, what are you doing here anyways, Mom doesn't usually allow you to come over here when Vegeta's around."
"Yeah, she was really acting weird today; she said that I can stay here all night and all day tomorrow too."
"Well have fun Squirt, and don't play any pranks that could get you killed." *That'll keep him out of my hair at least. Thank you Mom!*
Goten smiled innocently, "Too late for that one Big Brother, Trunks had this great idea of..."
"I don't want to know!" Gohan interrupted, "Hey Trunks, where's your mom at, by the way?"
"Umm... I think that she's working in her lab, she usually isn't anywhere else anyways, but my dad is in the GR although once he finds out what we did we're dead meat."
"That's why we were running away so quickly, 'cause we don't want him to find us. I wanna live to turn eight, please help us Gohan."
"Don't worry bro. The two of you are too fast for him to catch, don't worry. And if he does catch you it's your own fault for playing a prank on him, you should know by now that Vegeta doesn't have a sense of humor," Gohan smiled at his brother, whose look of fear had instantly turned into a grin, one that was almost painfully reminiscent of Goku.
"Uhh... Big Brother, I think the weird people behind you are sick." Gohan suddenly turned towards his friends, having forgotten that they were even there to witness the exchange between himself and the two children.
"Oh yeah. Videl, Sharpner, Erasa; this is my little brother Goten and his friend Trunks." The teens continued to stare at the two boys and Gohan, "Trunks is Bulma's son and can sometimes be an arrogant brat, so you can ignore any rude comments that come out of his mouth."
"Yeah whatever. Am I glad I don't have a nerd like you for a brother," Trunks said callously. Goten got a hurt look on his face and was about to argue that Gohan wasn't a nerd, when Trunks cut in, "Let's go play with my new toys, Goten."
"Oo! Toys! Bye Gohan!" Goten had to yell his farewell to his brother down the hall seeing as he and Trunks had already bolted away to have fun. Gohan waved to them and rolled his eyes before turning to face his friends who looked pale from the shock of seeing, or not seeing, the boy's speed.
Videl was about to demand an explanation from Gohan when suddenly there was a flash of yellow light followed by the sounds of a large explosion. Videl, Sharpner and Erasa all ducked as a shockwave blasted down the hallway throwing things everywhere. Gohan, on the other hand, just stood there, in the middle of the hallway, looking annoyed. *Vegeta, what are you doing? And I do mean besides blowing up the GR, AGAIN!! I could kill you for this. Oh Kami, what am I going to do?*
Videl stood up after the shock wave had passed; it was then that she noticed the Gohan was standing in the same position he had been in before the explosion. "Gohan, what the HELL was that?" Gohan turned and faced his friends. Erasa and Sharpner were clinging to each other like it was the end of the world, and Videl was standing in front of Gohan, her hands on her hips and her face contorted into a angry scowl. "Seriously, you weren't even fazed by that massive explosion that just came through here. Why not, Gohan?"
"Umm... well you see..." Gohan put his hand behind his head and smiled sheepishly in the classic Son smile. He was at a loss for what to say to his friends, all of who were staring at him intently. "It was nothing, really Videl. It's just that around here you have to get used to the explosions."
"What do you mean Gohan? I know that there are explosions from here all the time by why exactly are there explosions; is there some mad bomber who lives here or something? What's REALLY going on?" *More like a mad Prince, not to mention a mad scientist... wait that's it!*
"Um, no Videl. It's just that with all the scientific experiments that go on here sometimes wires get crossed or chemicals aren't mixed right and then things kinda go, boom. There are a lot I know, but that's only because of all the different experiments going on in there, some of which are very experimental making them very dangerous."
"Well, that makes perfect sense, doesn't it Videl?" Erasa said as she left Sharpner's clutches and went to calm Videl down before the young crime fighter killed "her" Gohan.
"Yeah, Erasa I guess it does." *But that doesn't mean that I believe you Gohan, I will get to the bottom of this, whatever the bottom may be.*
They began to walk down the halls once more, following Gohan a little bit closer than they had before the explosion, their eyes constantly darting around, careful not be caught too close to the next explosion. Gohan carefully avoided any halls that would connect to the GR; the last thing he wanted to happen was for his friends to meet up with an extremely ticked off Vegeta. He walked quickly as he made his way to one of Bulma's labs and opened the door.
The room was covered in machine parts and papers. There were shelves on the walls lined with parts that were either never finished, or destroyed somehow. The tables were covered in mounds of papers and yet more parts of things not quite in one piece. The only thing that looked like it could be a real finished project was a large machine covered in a tan colored tarp.
"Bulma!" Gohan called out, searching for the blue haired woman in the immense lab. Videl, Erasa, and Sharpner looked in amazement at all the odd things that were scattered about the room. It was only when Videl went to lift the tarp did Bulma appear, as if out of nowhere.
"If you touch that, young lady, I will make sure you die a slow and painful death, and trust me I know some people who specialize in that." Videl turned to tell the woman off. She was the daughter of Satan Hercule and no one talked to her like that. But when Videl turned, she was shocked to find herself facing the President of Capsule Corps herself, and the woman standing before Videl was nothing that the young girl expected a reclusive scientist to look like. She was wearing a short red dress and a pale yellow jacket with the Capsule Corps logo on the sleeve. Her blue hair was hanging straight down framing her flawless face, one that was currently contorted into a look of utmost anger. The anger faded, however, when she saw Gohan standing in the back of the lab smiling at them.
"Gohan!" Bulma ran up to the boy, gave him a big hug, and whispered in his ear, "Now is not the time to have outsiders here, Vegeta's gonna be on a rampage after that last explosion I heard." She broke away from Gohan and resumed talking at her normal volume. "What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in a while, and now you pop up in my lab with a group of strangers. What do you need this time?" Gohan did the Son smile and laughed nervously. "Oh that means trouble! What's going on Gohan, and, would you introduce me to your nice friends over there who are staring at me?"
Gohan looked over her shoulder and noticed his friends truly were staring at the two of them as they talked. "Oh, sorry about that Bulma. Umm... that's Erasa over there, and that's Sharpner. Oh, and the girl you just screamed at is Videl."
"Videl, now I remember why you looked slightly familiar. You're Mr. Satan's daughter, hmm. Gohan, make sure that Vegeta never finds out. I'll never here the end of it if he finds out that anyone related to Mr. Satan is in this house. So what did you come here for kiddo, I know you weren't dumb enough to just come over for a tour." She paused before adding jokingly, "That is unless you want them dead or something."
"Yeah Bulma, that's it," Gohan rolled his eyes at her. "Actually, I was wondering if I could borrow a ride to get us all out to my house."
"Oh yeah, Chichi told me that you were working on a project about..." She trailed off and lowered her head apologetically.
"So," Gohan picked up trying to act very cheerful, "can I borrow one of the planes you have?"
"I've got a brilliant idea, of course all my ideas are brilliant but anyway, why don't I let you try out a new experiment I'm working on?" She bent over to look through some cabinets. During this whole exchange Gohan's friends had actually remained silent. Videl was too busy with her own thoughts to speak; she was trying to think up a reason someone like Gohan would be so intimate with the most influential person in the world. Erasa had been rendered speechless in awe of the woman before her. She had thought that that kind of combination of beauty and intelligence existed only in TV and the movies, never in real life. Sharpner, however, was staring at her open mouthed, almost drooling. When she leaned over he almost died of shock, and probably would have too, had it not been for the sudden impact of a fist against his face.
Vegeta had entered Bulma's lab looking for her, it was her job after all to repair the GR. When he entered he saw the boy that was gawking at HIS woman. He restrained himself when he punched the boy but the human's body still flew into the wall of the lab. Sharpner hit the wall with a crunch and he slumped to the ground, moaning in pain. Everyone in the room turned to see what the commotion was about. They all looked at Vegeta like he was some sort of diminutive, psychopathic alien bent on ruling the cosmos, which was truer then the three human teens realized, as he glared angrily at the boy's contorted figure.
"Vegeta what was that for?" Bulma demanded angrily.
"He was staring at you inappropriately," Vegeta said as he walked up to Sharpner and grabbed the collar of the boy's shirt. Vegeta then proceeded to lift him into the air, and slam him into the wall, "and if you ever do that again brat I will kill you. Actually, I'm in a rather bad mood, so maybe I'll kill you now." Erasa gasped and covered her eyes at the harsh tone the man used as he threatened her friend. Videl, on the other hand, was fuming.
"Who do you think you are buddy? You can't just go around and kill people when you're having a bad day." Vegeta turned and smirked at the girl before responding.
"Who's going to stop me girl, you? I don't think so. Humans," Vegeta spat as he dropped Sharpner's whimpering form to the ground, "you're all so weak. And yet, you have the gall to challenge me. I do respect your courage though, and for that I won't kill your friend or you for that matter, not today anyway. You amuse me." Vegeta laughed before turning to face Bulma. "Woman, those two little devil spawns sabotaged my GR, fix it!"
"Hmm... Vegeta, I think you finally got something right, Trunks is YOUR son after all and, as such, can't be a good influence on sweet Goten, so both are your creation. Making you responsible for any pain and suffering they may cause as 'devil spawns'." Vegeta looked angry for a moment before a triumphant smirk graced his features. Bulma saw his reaction but continued talking anyway, "Why can't you stop training for one minute, I constantly have to fix that thing for you. The least you could do is help me just a little."
"And what would you have me do woman?" His triumphant smirk turned into an annoyed smirk at her statement.
"Take Goten and Trunks out to eat while I help Gohan and his friends," Vegeta's eyes lit up at that and his eyes searched the room until they locked onto Gohan, standing in the shadows his ki lowered as much as possible, "then I'll fix your precious GR. Kami, Vegeta, sometimes I think the only reason you keep me around is to fix the GR." Vegeta returned his gaze to the blue haired woman and smirked deviously at her. Bulma rolled her eyes at him, "NOW GET OUT! I have work to do, find the boys and when you come back you can all train together, ok?" Vegeta, who was still rubbing his ears trying to stop the ringing caused by Bulma's yelling, nodded and walked up to Gohan.
"Well brat, it looks like you're off the hook today. But I promise, the next time you enter this house with weaklings like those I will beat you until not even your banshee of a mother will recognize you, do you understand me boy?" Vegeta had moved in very close to Gohan attempting to intimidate him, but Gohan didn't budge.
Gohan only smiled at Vegeta's, now expected, verbal assault, "Hey Vegeta, don't you have somewhere to be? I think you get to be the baby sitter of those two little monsters; that is unless you'd rather stay here and beat me up. Oh, but then you wouldn't have a GR anymore would you? Which is more important to you Vegeta, one fight or a lifetime of training?" Gohan smirked at Vegeta. Vegeta growled at him and stalked out of the room in a huff.
"What just happened?" Videl asked, still confused by the whole "humans are all so weak" line. Gohan did the Son smile and turned to Bulma.
"Bulma can we get going before Vegeta decides to take me up on my offer of allowing him to beat me into a pulp." Bulma burst out laughing at the thought of Gohan actually allowing Vegeta to do beat him up, she knew that Gohan's warrior, or maybe Saiyan, instincts wouldn't allow someone weaker then him, namely Vegeta to pound him into the ground. She showed him the capsule that she had fished out from the cabinets.
"Sure, Gohan. The Nimbus inspired this little invention actually." Gohan raised an eyebrow at her; his curiosity peaked by this odd statement.
After Erasa managed to help Sharpner to his feet, they walked outside and into the backyard of Capsule Corp. Bulma pressed the capsule and it opened, revealing the strangest car any of them had ever seen. It looked kind of like a modified jet but it was floating in the air; that was where the strangeness came in. Four clouds supported it; each one was cerulean in color and looked, to Gohan, like larger versions of his own Nimbus cloud.
"And they can ride it, unlike Nimbus, right?" Gohan asked when his friends were out of hearing range, awestruck by the machine before him. Bulma nodded.
"Yeah, they can ride it, I tried it myself. I never was pure hearted enough to ride Nimbus; I always envied Goku for that. Anyway, it should take you about half an hour to get to your house. And it has an autopilot so you don't have to steer. I programmed the location of your house into the computer since I had planned on testing it myself when I brought Goten back on Saturday evening. So here ya go Gohan, take good care of it for me." Gohan nodded and hugged her in thanks. "Come by and visit more often kiddo, it's kinda boring around here without the old gang around."
Gohan and his friends piled into the jet and Gohan programmed it for his house. He waved good-bye to Bulma and turned to face his friends, knowing that they would spend the next thirty minutes berating him with questions about what just happened. They looked at him blankly for a moment before starting in on the questions.
Once again distracted, Gohan failed to notice the cloaked figure that had leapt off the roof of the Capsule Corps building and landed on one of the clouds supporting the back of the jet.
RANDOM FACT: Dragon Ball Z holds the record for the longest five minutes in anime history. Freiza said that the planet Namek would blow up in five minutes but they continued to fight for many, many episodes (I actually never counted them...) before the actual destruction of the planet.
AN: I'm proud of myself, this chapter is twice as long and it took me only a little over a day to post. Thanks to everyone who wrote me with an idea, I actually may have found a way to manipulate one or more of those ideas into something I can use. Please continue to send in your ideas I may be able to use some of them. So review and feel free to ask me any questions you want answered (but make sure I can get your email to respond). SO GO AND REVIEW, NOW!!!
Chapter 5 Meet the Saiyans
Gohan walked into school the next day, his feeling of deed growing with each step he took toward the large building. He sat down at his usual desk rather glumly, and barely heard what the others were saying to him all day. He went to class, and did the work he had to do, yet did so without even know what exactly it was that he was doing at all. The only thing he could think of was the newest enemy, one they didn't even know the identity of, the one that had taken it upon himself to torture Gohan, with a school project of all things. Granted, if he told this to anyone in his class they would say that all class project are tortures placed upon them by cruel, uncaring teacher, who would like nothing better then to see their students scream in the agony of actually having to do work, but then again Gohan was not one to be so easily tortured, he actually found school work fun, not to mention easy.
"Hey Gohan, you in there? HELLO?" Videl, after five minutes of screaming, finally managed to snap Gohan out of his daze. He blinked then turned and looked at her with rather unenthusiastic smile on his face. Taking the first show of emotion she had seen out of him all day as evidence that he was now paying attention, she continued. "Ok Gohan, we're all going over to stay the night at your house so we can work on this project, but I was wondering... How we're going to get there? None of us are allowed to drive that far away and my copter's too small to seat us all so I can't fly there. So, how are we gonna get there?"
"Umm... Well my normal ride is too small for us all to fit."
"Can't you get another one, cause we all need to get there Gohan, it's your responsibility."
"Hey, how did this become my responsibility? Staying at my house was all your guys' idea... Well, I think I can get a capsule copter big enough for all of us to use, we'll have to walk to my friend's place after school though."
"Gohan, it is after school..." Gohan did the Son smile and laughed, embarrassed. Videl and Sharpner rolled their eyes at him as they all followed Gohan out of the school and into the bustling streets of the city.
The quartet walked around the city, trying to keep up with Gohan's quick pace, for fifteen minutes before Gohan stopped in front of a large wall. The rest of the group was confused, especially after they looked up and read the lettering on the side of the large yellow dome behind the fence, a sign that read "Capsule Corps".
"Hey Gohan why are we stopping I thought we were going to visit a friend of yours?"
"Uhh... maybe you guys should wait here. My friends don't exactly take kindly to uninvited guests, especially ones like you guys."
"No way," Videl piped up, "there is this crazy guy who lives here; he has some obsession with blowing things up and the President of the company is this recluse who just builds all these crazy inventions all day, the number of explosions that come out of this place on a daily basis are innumerable. If the security people find us out here we could get into major trouble."
"Well, would you rather go inside?"
"What are you talking about Gohan?" Videl asked, becoming highly annoyed with Gohan's antics, "No one gets in that place, even my dad has never been allowed inside, and he's famous. The owner has this thing against him, I think, 'cause he walked by here once and all of a sudden the ground in front of him was blown to bits." Gohan laughed mentally at this, *Hmm, must have been Vegeta having fun, or possibly Trunks working on his aim. Either way they would have had too much unwanted attention if they had accidentally succeeded, Bulma would have been pissed by that one.* Outwardly though he only sighed and turned to the keypad that was next to the door. "And I've heard that if you type the wrong code into that keypad then it will explode and set off the alarms." As she spoke she slowly backed away from Gohan, who was still smiling rather oddly. At her words Sharpner and Erasa also backed away from Gohan, looking at him like he was insane. Gohan watched his friend's reactions for a moment before turning to the keypad and typing a code into it. The trio in the background cringed in anticipation of the explosion, but the only thing they heard was the "Whoosh" as the air-locked doors slowly opened and the computerized voice coming from the intercom above the keypad. They blinked in confusion as they heard the computerized voice say "Welcome to Capsule Corp. We hope you enjoy your stay here. Have a nice day." Gohan walked in the door and disappeared, his friends, on the other hand, just stood there, motionless. Moments later Gohan reappeared and shoved his friends through the entrance with ease, the doors shutting and locking behind them.
*What am I doing bringing them in here? Dende, if you have any sympathy for my situation, please keep Vegeta and Trunks away from my friends. PLEASE!* Gohan led his three friends thru the halls of CC (AN: That's Capsule Corp for all you people that didn't know that already.) and gave them a few warnings as they went.
"What Videl said before was almost right; there is this creepy guy here with a passion for blowing things up. He's kinda a former mass murder." Gohan laughed at his own statement but stopped when he realized his friends hadn't joined him; they were still gawking at him for being able to enter the fortress-like compound. "Anyway, make sure that you don't wander off, insult anyone, Sharpner I'm talking to you, or touch anything at all."
Videl's head was spinning *How does a naïve boy from the mountains know a family as rich and powerful as the Briefs? Maybe that's why he treats me like I'm no one special, because he knows people richer and more powerful than my father. What the hell? I don't understand, first that baseball player and now the owners of Capsule Corp. He'll defiantly have to explain this later, or I'll beat the crap out of him.* As Videl thought of beating Gohan up she had a nagging feeling that there was some reason why she shouldn't, but since she couldn't actually think of any of these reasons why she would feel that way she shook of the feeling and resolved to beat the truth out of Gohan if he wouldn't tell it to her willingly. She smiled at that thought and returned her attentions to what Gohan was saying, she re-entered reality just in time to hear the end of Gohan's warnings.
Suddenly two blurs, one blue and one orange, came down the hall faster than any of them could see and tackled Gohan, but since he had seen them coming a mile away he had braced himself for the impact, so all the two children did was end up hanging off of him as he stood in front of his friends. The two children clamped onto Gohan's arms and started bombarding him with requests to protect them or hide them. After a moment though, they noticed the other teenagers standing behind Gohan, and let go of Gohan's arms to get a better look at the trio.
"Gohan, my mom's gonna kill you. You know how dad reacts to people like them." Trunks spat the last word like "they" were the scum of the universe, which to certain Saiyan royals, they were.
"Yeah Gohan, why're you here?" Goten chimed in oblivious to his best friend's disgust at their presence.
"Well actually we're here to see Bulma, I need to borrow something. And, for your information Trunks, I only brought them inside because if they were found outside without the proper protection, so to speak, then they'd probably end up dead." Trunks rolled his eyes at Gohan's statement, knowing full well that it was true. If his dad saw anyone he didn't like hanging around his home, he would kill the person. "Goten, what are you doing here anyways, Mom doesn't usually allow you to come over here when Vegeta's around."
"Yeah, she was really acting weird today; she said that I can stay here all night and all day tomorrow too."
"Well have fun Squirt, and don't play any pranks that could get you killed." *That'll keep him out of my hair at least. Thank you Mom!*
Goten smiled innocently, "Too late for that one Big Brother, Trunks had this great idea of..."
"I don't want to know!" Gohan interrupted, "Hey Trunks, where's your mom at, by the way?"
"Umm... I think that she's working in her lab, she usually isn't anywhere else anyways, but my dad is in the GR although once he finds out what we did we're dead meat."
"That's why we were running away so quickly, 'cause we don't want him to find us. I wanna live to turn eight, please help us Gohan."
"Don't worry bro. The two of you are too fast for him to catch, don't worry. And if he does catch you it's your own fault for playing a prank on him, you should know by now that Vegeta doesn't have a sense of humor," Gohan smiled at his brother, whose look of fear had instantly turned into a grin, one that was almost painfully reminiscent of Goku.
"Uhh... Big Brother, I think the weird people behind you are sick." Gohan suddenly turned towards his friends, having forgotten that they were even there to witness the exchange between himself and the two children.
"Oh yeah. Videl, Sharpner, Erasa; this is my little brother Goten and his friend Trunks." The teens continued to stare at the two boys and Gohan, "Trunks is Bulma's son and can sometimes be an arrogant brat, so you can ignore any rude comments that come out of his mouth."
"Yeah whatever. Am I glad I don't have a nerd like you for a brother," Trunks said callously. Goten got a hurt look on his face and was about to argue that Gohan wasn't a nerd, when Trunks cut in, "Let's go play with my new toys, Goten."
"Oo! Toys! Bye Gohan!" Goten had to yell his farewell to his brother down the hall seeing as he and Trunks had already bolted away to have fun. Gohan waved to them and rolled his eyes before turning to face his friends who looked pale from the shock of seeing, or not seeing, the boy's speed.
Videl was about to demand an explanation from Gohan when suddenly there was a flash of yellow light followed by the sounds of a large explosion. Videl, Sharpner and Erasa all ducked as a shockwave blasted down the hallway throwing things everywhere. Gohan, on the other hand, just stood there, in the middle of the hallway, looking annoyed. *Vegeta, what are you doing? And I do mean besides blowing up the GR, AGAIN!! I could kill you for this. Oh Kami, what am I going to do?*
Videl stood up after the shock wave had passed; it was then that she noticed the Gohan was standing in the same position he had been in before the explosion. "Gohan, what the HELL was that?" Gohan turned and faced his friends. Erasa and Sharpner were clinging to each other like it was the end of the world, and Videl was standing in front of Gohan, her hands on her hips and her face contorted into a angry scowl. "Seriously, you weren't even fazed by that massive explosion that just came through here. Why not, Gohan?"
"Umm... well you see..." Gohan put his hand behind his head and smiled sheepishly in the classic Son smile. He was at a loss for what to say to his friends, all of who were staring at him intently. "It was nothing, really Videl. It's just that around here you have to get used to the explosions."
"What do you mean Gohan? I know that there are explosions from here all the time by why exactly are there explosions; is there some mad bomber who lives here or something? What's REALLY going on?" *More like a mad Prince, not to mention a mad scientist... wait that's it!*
"Um, no Videl. It's just that with all the scientific experiments that go on here sometimes wires get crossed or chemicals aren't mixed right and then things kinda go, boom. There are a lot I know, but that's only because of all the different experiments going on in there, some of which are very experimental making them very dangerous."
"Well, that makes perfect sense, doesn't it Videl?" Erasa said as she left Sharpner's clutches and went to calm Videl down before the young crime fighter killed "her" Gohan.
"Yeah, Erasa I guess it does." *But that doesn't mean that I believe you Gohan, I will get to the bottom of this, whatever the bottom may be.*
They began to walk down the halls once more, following Gohan a little bit closer than they had before the explosion, their eyes constantly darting around, careful not be caught too close to the next explosion. Gohan carefully avoided any halls that would connect to the GR; the last thing he wanted to happen was for his friends to meet up with an extremely ticked off Vegeta. He walked quickly as he made his way to one of Bulma's labs and opened the door.
The room was covered in machine parts and papers. There were shelves on the walls lined with parts that were either never finished, or destroyed somehow. The tables were covered in mounds of papers and yet more parts of things not quite in one piece. The only thing that looked like it could be a real finished project was a large machine covered in a tan colored tarp.
"Bulma!" Gohan called out, searching for the blue haired woman in the immense lab. Videl, Erasa, and Sharpner looked in amazement at all the odd things that were scattered about the room. It was only when Videl went to lift the tarp did Bulma appear, as if out of nowhere.
"If you touch that, young lady, I will make sure you die a slow and painful death, and trust me I know some people who specialize in that." Videl turned to tell the woman off. She was the daughter of Satan Hercule and no one talked to her like that. But when Videl turned, she was shocked to find herself facing the President of Capsule Corps herself, and the woman standing before Videl was nothing that the young girl expected a reclusive scientist to look like. She was wearing a short red dress and a pale yellow jacket with the Capsule Corps logo on the sleeve. Her blue hair was hanging straight down framing her flawless face, one that was currently contorted into a look of utmost anger. The anger faded, however, when she saw Gohan standing in the back of the lab smiling at them.
"Gohan!" Bulma ran up to the boy, gave him a big hug, and whispered in his ear, "Now is not the time to have outsiders here, Vegeta's gonna be on a rampage after that last explosion I heard." She broke away from Gohan and resumed talking at her normal volume. "What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in a while, and now you pop up in my lab with a group of strangers. What do you need this time?" Gohan did the Son smile and laughed nervously. "Oh that means trouble! What's going on Gohan, and, would you introduce me to your nice friends over there who are staring at me?"
Gohan looked over her shoulder and noticed his friends truly were staring at the two of them as they talked. "Oh, sorry about that Bulma. Umm... that's Erasa over there, and that's Sharpner. Oh, and the girl you just screamed at is Videl."
"Videl, now I remember why you looked slightly familiar. You're Mr. Satan's daughter, hmm. Gohan, make sure that Vegeta never finds out. I'll never here the end of it if he finds out that anyone related to Mr. Satan is in this house. So what did you come here for kiddo, I know you weren't dumb enough to just come over for a tour." She paused before adding jokingly, "That is unless you want them dead or something."
"Yeah Bulma, that's it," Gohan rolled his eyes at her. "Actually, I was wondering if I could borrow a ride to get us all out to my house."
"Oh yeah, Chichi told me that you were working on a project about..." She trailed off and lowered her head apologetically.
"So," Gohan picked up trying to act very cheerful, "can I borrow one of the planes you have?"
"I've got a brilliant idea, of course all my ideas are brilliant but anyway, why don't I let you try out a new experiment I'm working on?" She bent over to look through some cabinets. During this whole exchange Gohan's friends had actually remained silent. Videl was too busy with her own thoughts to speak; she was trying to think up a reason someone like Gohan would be so intimate with the most influential person in the world. Erasa had been rendered speechless in awe of the woman before her. She had thought that that kind of combination of beauty and intelligence existed only in TV and the movies, never in real life. Sharpner, however, was staring at her open mouthed, almost drooling. When she leaned over he almost died of shock, and probably would have too, had it not been for the sudden impact of a fist against his face.
Vegeta had entered Bulma's lab looking for her, it was her job after all to repair the GR. When he entered he saw the boy that was gawking at HIS woman. He restrained himself when he punched the boy but the human's body still flew into the wall of the lab. Sharpner hit the wall with a crunch and he slumped to the ground, moaning in pain. Everyone in the room turned to see what the commotion was about. They all looked at Vegeta like he was some sort of diminutive, psychopathic alien bent on ruling the cosmos, which was truer then the three human teens realized, as he glared angrily at the boy's contorted figure.
"Vegeta what was that for?" Bulma demanded angrily.
"He was staring at you inappropriately," Vegeta said as he walked up to Sharpner and grabbed the collar of the boy's shirt. Vegeta then proceeded to lift him into the air, and slam him into the wall, "and if you ever do that again brat I will kill you. Actually, I'm in a rather bad mood, so maybe I'll kill you now." Erasa gasped and covered her eyes at the harsh tone the man used as he threatened her friend. Videl, on the other hand, was fuming.
"Who do you think you are buddy? You can't just go around and kill people when you're having a bad day." Vegeta turned and smirked at the girl before responding.
"Who's going to stop me girl, you? I don't think so. Humans," Vegeta spat as he dropped Sharpner's whimpering form to the ground, "you're all so weak. And yet, you have the gall to challenge me. I do respect your courage though, and for that I won't kill your friend or you for that matter, not today anyway. You amuse me." Vegeta laughed before turning to face Bulma. "Woman, those two little devil spawns sabotaged my GR, fix it!"
"Hmm... Vegeta, I think you finally got something right, Trunks is YOUR son after all and, as such, can't be a good influence on sweet Goten, so both are your creation. Making you responsible for any pain and suffering they may cause as 'devil spawns'." Vegeta looked angry for a moment before a triumphant smirk graced his features. Bulma saw his reaction but continued talking anyway, "Why can't you stop training for one minute, I constantly have to fix that thing for you. The least you could do is help me just a little."
"And what would you have me do woman?" His triumphant smirk turned into an annoyed smirk at her statement.
"Take Goten and Trunks out to eat while I help Gohan and his friends," Vegeta's eyes lit up at that and his eyes searched the room until they locked onto Gohan, standing in the shadows his ki lowered as much as possible, "then I'll fix your precious GR. Kami, Vegeta, sometimes I think the only reason you keep me around is to fix the GR." Vegeta returned his gaze to the blue haired woman and smirked deviously at her. Bulma rolled her eyes at him, "NOW GET OUT! I have work to do, find the boys and when you come back you can all train together, ok?" Vegeta, who was still rubbing his ears trying to stop the ringing caused by Bulma's yelling, nodded and walked up to Gohan.
"Well brat, it looks like you're off the hook today. But I promise, the next time you enter this house with weaklings like those I will beat you until not even your banshee of a mother will recognize you, do you understand me boy?" Vegeta had moved in very close to Gohan attempting to intimidate him, but Gohan didn't budge.
Gohan only smiled at Vegeta's, now expected, verbal assault, "Hey Vegeta, don't you have somewhere to be? I think you get to be the baby sitter of those two little monsters; that is unless you'd rather stay here and beat me up. Oh, but then you wouldn't have a GR anymore would you? Which is more important to you Vegeta, one fight or a lifetime of training?" Gohan smirked at Vegeta. Vegeta growled at him and stalked out of the room in a huff.
"What just happened?" Videl asked, still confused by the whole "humans are all so weak" line. Gohan did the Son smile and turned to Bulma.
"Bulma can we get going before Vegeta decides to take me up on my offer of allowing him to beat me into a pulp." Bulma burst out laughing at the thought of Gohan actually allowing Vegeta to do beat him up, she knew that Gohan's warrior, or maybe Saiyan, instincts wouldn't allow someone weaker then him, namely Vegeta to pound him into the ground. She showed him the capsule that she had fished out from the cabinets.
"Sure, Gohan. The Nimbus inspired this little invention actually." Gohan raised an eyebrow at her; his curiosity peaked by this odd statement.
After Erasa managed to help Sharpner to his feet, they walked outside and into the backyard of Capsule Corp. Bulma pressed the capsule and it opened, revealing the strangest car any of them had ever seen. It looked kind of like a modified jet but it was floating in the air; that was where the strangeness came in. Four clouds supported it; each one was cerulean in color and looked, to Gohan, like larger versions of his own Nimbus cloud.
"And they can ride it, unlike Nimbus, right?" Gohan asked when his friends were out of hearing range, awestruck by the machine before him. Bulma nodded.
"Yeah, they can ride it, I tried it myself. I never was pure hearted enough to ride Nimbus; I always envied Goku for that. Anyway, it should take you about half an hour to get to your house. And it has an autopilot so you don't have to steer. I programmed the location of your house into the computer since I had planned on testing it myself when I brought Goten back on Saturday evening. So here ya go Gohan, take good care of it for me." Gohan nodded and hugged her in thanks. "Come by and visit more often kiddo, it's kinda boring around here without the old gang around."
Gohan and his friends piled into the jet and Gohan programmed it for his house. He waved good-bye to Bulma and turned to face his friends, knowing that they would spend the next thirty minutes berating him with questions about what just happened. They looked at him blankly for a moment before starting in on the questions.
Once again distracted, Gohan failed to notice the cloaked figure that had leapt off the roof of the Capsule Corps building and landed on one of the clouds supporting the back of the jet.
RANDOM FACT: Dragon Ball Z holds the record for the longest five minutes in anime history. Freiza said that the planet Namek would blow up in five minutes but they continued to fight for many, many episodes (I actually never counted them...) before the actual destruction of the planet.
AN: I'm proud of myself, this chapter is twice as long and it took me only a little over a day to post. Thanks to everyone who wrote me with an idea, I actually may have found a way to manipulate one or more of those ideas into something I can use. Please continue to send in your ideas I may be able to use some of them. So review and feel free to ask me any questions you want answered (but make sure I can get your email to respond). SO GO AND REVIEW, NOW!!!