Chapter 3The Punishment and the Plot
Meanwhile back on Earth. (Thursday Night)

"Roshi, how could you?!?" Roshi's mother screamed. "I know strength runs in the family, but you can't go beating people up! It looks bad! And on the last day of school too! I just don't know what to do with you. That's it! When your father gets home, he is going to punish you right!"

Being a full human, Roshi's mother knew better then to attempt any physical punishment, she would only hurt herself. His father on the other-hand, well, he was the current Kamesennin now that the old Master Roshi had died. He would probably make Roshi fight him in a sparing match at some absurd disadvantage. Or just make him run laps with weights on again.

The last time he had gotten into trouble at school, is father had made him climb to the top of Korrin's tower fifty times non-stop while holding a half a ton of iron on his back. It was almost impossible. This time he had actually hurt someone.

'Oh man am I in for it.' Roshi thought as he ran up the stairs to his room. He one of his teachers had given his class an extension on their term papers, and Roshi needed to work on his. Roshi had decided to get his studying done early as he had a sinking suspicion that he would be doing other harder things once his father got home.

After a quick snack of a gallon of milk and 6 dozen cookies of course.

Roshi turned on his computer and sat down at his desk. "You have two recorded messages." It informed him as soon as the screen lit up.

Roshi smiled to himself when he saw that both of the messages had been left by Kit, or at least using Kit's computer. "Play messages."

Mariah appeared on the screen. "Hi Roshi, I am over at Kit's and I just wanted to thank you for what you did today. I was sure Rock was going to kill you when you pushed me away from him when he had that bat." Mariah got a far away look in her eyes. "Well I just hope your parents don't ground you. You said you were picking us up to go camping tomorrow at 9 right? Well, thanks for everything. Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow." She said and the message ended.

Next, Kit's message started. "Hello Mr. Hero." She said with a laugh. "You should have seen Mariah. She is so completely taken by you it isn't even funny. She was swooning." Kit raised her voice a bit so make it sound like one of the swooning women one always sees in bad movies. "Oh he risked his life to save me! He's such a hero." She finished holding her hands to her cheeks.

Kit rolled her eyes. "Don't get me wrong, you did save us from Rock today, but I guess I see it differently since I know you weren't in any danger. I am impressed that you didn't accidentally kill Rock though. I just find it kind of funny how Mariah can't stop talking about you. Anyway, are we still camping tomorrow? Give me a call. Later ape!"

Roshi laughed. He was the only one that was allowed to call Kit a fox, or vixen or any other animal derived name without her getting mad. She repaid him by calling him an ape. 'If that little vixen doesn't watch it she is going to give me problems.' Roshi thought.

Kit's people prided themselves on their honesty. Kit had a fairly large problem with the fact that Roshi had so many secrets. But she had promised not to tell anyone, and he trusted her.

Roshi was about to send a simple text e-mail reply when he heard his father yell from the entryway of the house. "Beth, I'm home!"

'Crap!! I'm in for it now.' Roshi cringed.

"Goshu, your son got into a fight at school today! He broke some poor kid's face!" his mother yelled back.

"I know, I got a call at work from the school's superintendent about it. I think I need to give him a little lesson in Ki control. Oh Roshi! Get your tail down here!"

Roshi's father was Kamesennin, and the current Master of the Budoukai, but the only thing he ever called work was the bookwork he did as a Co-VP of Capsule Corp.

"Ha ha, Dad! I haven't had a tail since I was born!" Roshi replied as he came down the steps. 'Please let him laugh, I don't want to have him mad while he trains me.'

Ignoring the comment Goshu continued, "Roshi, I stopped by the hospital on my way home to look at this Rock kid. If he is anything like his father I almost can't blame you for smashing his face like an over-ripe tomato, but your loss of control is not a laughing matter."

"Dad, I know, Principal Fierce isn't holding me responsible, but I shouldn't have let it get that far. I made a mistake and lost my cool. It won't happen again."

Goshu shook his head. "Sorry Roshi, but you are not getting out of punishment that easily."

Roshi grimaced and waited to hear what his father's choice of punishment was.

"Son, you need to control your ki better. You never seem to drop below around 500 times the normal human in strength. Not only are you easy to sense, but also you are almost dangerous to normal buildings and other objects. So, you need some special training. If you can learn to control your ki better, you will also be better at controlling your temper and be less likely to hurt people. Hmmm what would work?" Goshu pondered for a moment. "I know! Now we are going to play a children's game because you should have mastered this as a child." Roshi's dad replied sternly.

"Aww Dad!"

"Don't 'aww Dad' me. You came very close to killing that young man today. If you had not lost your temper you could have gotten your friends away from him and no one would be in the hospital. You have a responsibility not only to yourself, but also to this Rock boy to learn to control yourself so you don't ever do something similar... Or worse."

Roshi just swallowed and nodded.

"Now, we are going to play hide and go seek. You have 10 minutes to hide, every time I find you, I'll make my presence known. Now get!"

Roshi knew better then to think he had a chance. His father was one of the most talented people when it came to tracking ki. No mater how far Roshi went or how low he got his ki, his father would find him. Roshi slowed his heart rate and breathing. He then started emptying his mind of everything that was not necessary. This is not to say that he stopped thinking, just that he focused on himself and his surroundings rather than his worries and other thoughts. He then casually walked to a hollow tree near the Son family mansion and climbed inside. No sense wasting energy when he did not have to.

Little did Roshi know, but Goshu was happily eating Roshi's share of the family meal while keeping a constant sense of Roshi's location and ki.

Since Roshi had successfully lowered his ki, Goshu was going to let him get the privilege of sitting in that tree until he allowed his ki to rise above that of a normal human.

It only took four hours. Four hours of meditation on nothingness was all Roshi's stomach could take.

GURGLE, 'Man am I hungry. I need food. Oh crap! Dad...' BOOM!!! The tree and a good portion of Roshi's shirt were no more.

"You did good, Son. Now you need to practice keeping your ki down while doing normal activities."

'That's easy for him to say. All he does is meditate, teach and occasionally attend a board meeting at CC. GRRRR... why does he have to be so tough on me? He wants me to be strong so he makes me practice and carry weights. Then I get strong and he wants me to hide all my power.'

"You seem to be doubting what I am telling you, son. We are watched closer than most people because we are the descendents of Hercule Satan. If we are to blend in at all with normal people we must hide our true strength."

'Ha! Tell me something I didn't know. Why do you think I act like a helpless geek at school?' Roshi thought. 'All thanks to Hercule being a fameaholic.' Roshi thought that it made so much sense that the weakest of those legendary people was the most famous and most mythical to all the normal people of the earth. Mr. Satan's milking of his "Strength" was like a curse placed on the whole family.

"You also must realize that lowering and hiding your ki are two distinctly different things. Lowering your ki only takes relaxation and clarity of thought. Hiding your ki takes serenity of soul, mind and spirit. It is far superior because it costs you none of your strength. By hiding your ki you can also surprise your foes. You broadcast your strength before you spar and it will always be a weakness."

"If you want proof you may spar with me now."

"Umm, I thought you wanted me to just lower my ki so I didn't hurt people. Why are you now talking about keeping my strength while hiding my ki?"

Goshu laughed. "First, you tell me how this fight of yours started."

"Um... well, ah there's this girl, Mariah, at school who is kind of a book worm, but is really nice and all. Well, Rock hates her 'cause she is one of my friends and is poor. So he threw a soccer ball at her and knocked her over. When she fell, she dropped all her books and Rock started making fun of her. Mariah is one of Kit's friends and Kit tried to defend her, but that only caused Rock to get worse and he was calling Kit a dog and stuff. So I ah, well, told him to stop. He asked what I was going to do to stop him. He said it was not like I could beat him in a fight and he hit me. I took the punch to the face and ignored him. When he started ripping up some of Mariah's mother's art work, I got mad and after avoiding a bat, I well, ah hit back."

"Ha! I thought as much. Let me tell you a story about what happened to me while I was dating your mother."

Roshi's father then told him about how when he was dating Beth, she had had run a red light and hit a guy with her car. Since she had wrecked his sports car he was mad and started stalking her to "get even."

Well, one night he was outside her apartment waiting for her to come out when Goshu had arrived to take her to a movie. The man had confronted Goshu and tried to hit him. Roshi's father had hurt the guy so badly that he spent two months in the hospital.

"That you only broke his nose, a finger bone, and two of his teeth shows that you already have quite good control of your ki when dealing with those who are much weaker than you son." Goshu continued. "But you have never really worked on controlling your ki during a battle. Since I am supposed to be punishing you, I decided to make you learn what is truly an important ability. Sense goes hand in hand with how well you are attuned to your surroundings. You cannot attune to your surroundings without being calm in the spirit. Therefore, if you can learn to be at near full strength without projecting that strength to the world, you will also be able to feel and then determine what your opponent is attempting to do.

"To prove this to you, we will fight now." Goshu said as he flew away from the house.

"Aww, come on, Dad."

At that Roshi's father turned and shot a weak Kamehameha at him while directing him away from the house.

"Ok, Dad, I'll play your game." Roshi then flew to the nearest cover and tried to hide his ki. He quickly realized two things. One, that it was very hard to hide his Ki when he was excited about a fight and secondly, that it was much easier to detect his father when he attempted to focused his mind as his father has said. Not that sensing out Goshu helped much, he was usually about to attack before Roshi could detect him.

"Masenko!"

The shout from behind was all the warning Roshi got this time. He jumped out of the way at the last moment and fired off a few weak blasts at the general direction that he thought that his father was at.

"Wrong way," his father said as he kicked Roshi in the small of the back. "If you are not going to try to hide your ki I am just going to have to lower it for you." He said as another kick sent Roshi into a pile of rocks.

Roshi caught his balance and used the rocks to kick-off and fly in a different direction. He just couldn't get a solid lock on his father's position. If it had been daytime, that would have been one thing, but no! it was the middle of the night. Not only that, but it was cloudy and he couldn't see a thing. 'Man,' he thought, 'if only I could get a better sense of where Dad's ki is.'

Most of the time when he fought Tee, or Boxers, they fought at full power. It was easy to spot them. But his father just was too fast and too hard to sense. Of course, Father was the Kamesennin. Roshi had never seen his father at full power, but some of the other relatives had said that he had been in the upper sixty thousand range a few years back when they had all trained in the Gravity room at Capsule Corp.

"Auugh." A blow to the gut interrupted his thoughts. Almost by reflex he sent a ki blast out that nailed Goshu in the back. SLAP, Goshu spun and smacked Roshi in the side. Roshi pin wheeled through the air, and landed in a defensive stance.

The next thing he knew, his feet had been swept from under him. He used his hands to push off and caught a glimpse of movement to his left. With a bit of intuition he blocked to the right and caught his father's punch. They quickly exchanged a series of kicks, punches and blocks. Then they landed and stared at each other through the night.

"Ka-Me-Haa-Me-Ha!" both of them yelled at the same time. The beams hit and a ball of energy grew in the center.

Roshi decided to put more into it to show his father just how strong he had gotten. It would have worked. Unfortunately, he had focused on the Kamehameha, not his father. Goshu had slipped off his beam and was rapidly flying towards Roshi.

WHAM!! Roshi went flying into the ground. He quickly leapt back out of the hole he had made and was about to attack when his father signaled the end of the exercise.

"Do you understand the importance of what I have been saying tonight?"

"Yeah I think so." Roshi responded as he wiped some blood off of his face.

'Ouch, that hurt', he thought. 'I need to work on my focus or you will always be able to beat the crap out of me regardless of how strong or weak I am.'

"Roshi, you have come far in your training. Your strength and speed are impressive, but your senses have been ignored. When you could sense an attack coming you blocked and counter attacked well, but you could not always detect the attack. Could you? You need to focus your mind as well as your body to become a truly good martial artist. Hmm, you are done with school for the year, correct?"

"Yes, well, not exactly. I have a term paper that is due by 10 am. Then the summer break officially starts Saturday."

"Good, you need to take your mind off of books and any cute bookwormish girls and work on focusing your ki control. I leave for Namek in the morning for a long overdue trip and cannot take you along. But, I think I can trust that you will repeat this exercise every night until you learn more focus."

"Um, Dad, remember I was planning on taking a bunch of my friends out camping by Mt. Frypan this weekend. Can my punishment start after I get back?"

Goshu thought for a bit. "Is this Mariah one of the friends you are taking camping?"

Roshi blushed. "Yes, and so is Kit, and Carge, and Niko."

"Hmm, Kit is that Vulpine girl who comes around here every once in a while, right?"

"Yes."

"Hmmm, well she should be able to keep you from doing anything stupid."

"Dad!"

Goshu laughed, "Yes. On one condition though, when I get back, I expect you to be able to control your ki well enough to hide in the middle of Satan City without letting me find you. If you can't then the rest of your summer will be spent working very very hard under my supervision."

"Yes, Father." 'Man! This is totally uncalled for. Dad is the only one who I will ever have this disadvantage from, anyway. It is not like I'll ever actually fight anyone where I will have to sense him or her out rather then see them. I mean even if it will give me an advantage, it is a lot of work. I bet he just wants more food in the evenings. I am soo hungry I could eat a horse! At least he will be gone until early July, that give me some time to learn. Wait! If he is going to Namek, how will I repeat the exercise? He is the one who is truly good at sensing ki.'

"Ah, how am I supposed to train without you?"

"I don't know, possibly you could get your cousins to help. Most of them could use this training as well. Or maybe that Kit girl, didn't you teach her how to sense ki?"

"Yes, but she can't do it well, and she is totally helpless when it comes to even attempting anything else." Roshi commented.

"Ok, well it was an idea. Oh, or you could get Slip to use that scouter you two are so fond of."

"Yeah, the scouter." WONDERFUL, now I actually HAVE to do the training. Well, at least when Dad is gone, I can get some food.

"Now, I am willing to bet you are hungry, I could hear your stomach from about a mile off when you were attempting to hide."

"Yeah, how do I keep that from giving me away?"

Goshu looked over at Roshi with just a little sinister twinkle in his eye. Then he smiled like he had just been told the best joke ever. "That's easy! You just eat a large meal before you fight!"

"Gee... thanks... Dad, that helps."

Goshu turned around and looked at Roshi, "Oh, and you will Hand write an apology and Personally give it to the boy who's nose you broke today."

Roshi was about to complain, but the look on his father's face stopped him. "Yes Sir."
* * *

Roshi woke early to see his father off. Roshi's father was riding along with Slip's parents, and since they were going on Vacation, the route they were taking would take ten days to get to Namek and then they would not return for a month.

Roshi was determined to impress his father with his ki control when Goshu returned. He decided that his cousin Slip would be the best choice, as she usually would do anything to get away from actual work and the Labs at the Capsule Corp. His training would have to wait for Sunday, however, as he was going camping. Carge, Niko, Kit and Mariah were already waiting in the park in front of Orange Star High when he flew up on the Kintoun at 9:00 am.

"About time you got here!" Carge yelled. "Heck, I've been waiting here a good twenty seconds!"

"Sorry I'm late, guys. I ran into a gaggle of geese and they didn't like me." Roshi said as he pulled a feather off of the Kintoun. 'And I had to deliver that letter to Rock. His father is just as arrogant as he is.'

"You didn't get hurt did you?" Mariah asked sounding worried.

Roshi chuckled, "No, but the collision broke it's wing and killed it, so I stopped to pick it up. It's in one of my coolers. I figured we could eat it for lunch or something."

Niko and Mariah didn't look like they were totally for that idea, but they didn't say anything.

"Do you know how to cook a goose?" Carge asked. "I mean, I can't see you doing anything but getting hurt in the kitchen."

Roshi just rolled his eyes and headed into the school. 'Um, yeah, let me think, does a pig like mud? Yes I can cook a goose.' "Yes, I can cook the goose. Anyway, I need to hand this in, and I will be right back," He said waving his term paper. "Oh wait," he said as he dug in his pocket. "Here is the plane, you guys can open the capsule in the parking lot and get your bags and stuff in it." He said as he tossed Kit the capsule.

As he walked away he heard Carge comment, "nobody said Roshi was going to fly us there. He hit a goose with his cloud, you trust him to fly a jet?"

Kit shook her head while she clicked the capsule and threw it into the middle of the parking lot.

Boom! A big fat thing that looked like a yellow minivan with wings appeared in the parking lot.

Kit turned back to the other three. "Carge, I don't think you will have to worry much. By the looks of things, I can run faster then this thing flies."

"I cannot believe Roshi is flying this hunk of junk." Carge said in awe. "It looks ancient."

Mariah walked over carrying her cooler and a duffle bag. She opened the big side door and looked in. "It is ancient. Look at the little calendar there on the dashboard. And when was the last time you saw anything with big fuzzy pink dice hanging in it?"

The calendar read September of 786. It was now June of 1291.

"Are you guys done drooling on my collector's edition flying brick?" Roshi said as he walked up.

"This thing actually flies?" Niko asked.

"Who cares if it flies, this thing should be in a museum." Carge kidded. "With all that money you have, can't you afford a newer vehicle?"

"Carge, behave yourself!" Niko chided. "Money isn't everything, you know!"
Carge glanced over at Mariah who was busy claiming the front passenger seat. "Oh, come on, I didn't mean it like that, you guys. I just expected Roshi to have something faster not... not the.."

"Flying brick?" Roshi chimed in.

"Exactly!"

Mariah turned around in her seat. "Oh, Please! You guys are really pathetic you know?" She laughed. "Just because I don't own half the planet like Roshi here does, doesn't mean I get offended by every little thing that I don't have. I was actually thinking the same thing. Why isn't this in a museum?"

Roshi climbed in at the driver's seat and looked around at them all. He poked the fuzzy dice and laughed. "Oh come on! Fuzzy dice, room for eight, an infinity engine, and a backbench seat that reclines into a bed. This here's my pimpmobile."

"Ha! You had better watch out, Mariah. Roshi's going to start putting the moves on ya." Carge teased from the back. They all burst out laughing imagining Roshi "putting the moves" on someone.

"I was only joking guys, sheesh!" Roshi said trying to move the conversation away from where it was.

Mariah, who was looking over some maps that had been sticking out of the glove box, looked offended. "What? Aren't I good enough to be putting the moves on? And here I thought you liked me."

"No, I mean, Yes, I mean, I didn't mean it that way! I was only making fun of my clunker of a plane!" Roshi said trying to fix his blunder.

"I think I speak for all the women present when I say a nice red sports car would work a lot better then an ugly yellow brick." Kit said as she patted Roshi's shoulder from where she was sitting behind him.

"Not to mention, I would like riding in one of those better too." Carge added. "So, ah where are we camping? You never really told us."

"Oh yeah, sorry, we will be camping in the foothills of scenic and historic Mt. Frypan." Roshi said trying to sound like a cheesy tour guide.

Mariah dropped her maps. "Mt. Frypan?" She asked, shocked.

Roshi turned to look at her, "Yeah, why?"

"Didn't some crazy king use to live there? I mean there are children's stories about this huge giant who ate people and Mt. Frypan is always stated as his home."

"Mariah, that's just a children's story. Children's stories aren't true! You know better then that!" Niko laughed from the back.

Roshi had forgotten about those children's stories. He clenched his teeth for a moment. "Actually, Niko, that story was based on a real person, the Ox King."

"What? There really was a giant who ate people and terrorized the people?" Mariah asked meekly.

Roshi laughed. "I hope the stories about him eating people are false, but he did cause quite a problem, I am told, after his mountain caught on fire."

"So, why are we camping there? I mean, wouldn't there be better places to camp then by a burning mountain with a possibly deadly monster?" Carge asked from the back.

Roshi actually burst out laughing. "Ok, just because the story says that his mountain will burn forever doesn't mean that it still is. Mt. Frypan was destroyed over 500 years ago. It is just a big pile of rocks and stones now. Besides, the Ox King is dead now, he was just a normal man, not some mythical monster."

"How do you know?" Niko prodded.

Kit kicked the back of Roshi's chair as she struggled to keep from laughing her head of. "Oh please! I can't help it. You guys are talking about one of Roshi's ancestors here. Oh this is funny!"

"What?" Mariah, Carge, and Niko asked as one.

"Ok, you know Son Pan was Mr. Satan's Granddaughter? Right? Ok, the Ox King was her Great Grandfather on the Son side of the family."

"Oh," Mariah managed to say.

"So, what side of the family do you take after Roshi, the heroic side of the nasty terrorizing side?" Carge asked laughing.

"I would say he takes after the heroic side." Mariah said from her seat as she turned around to glare at Carge.

Everyone had a good laugh and soon moved on to other conversation. Before long, they had landed near a wooded lake next to a large pile of rubble.

As they grabbed their stuff from the brick, Roshi noticed Mariah grab a big red cooler. "Hey Mariah, what is that? I told you guys all you needed to bring was your clothes and swimsuits."

Mariah set the cooler down and looked Roshi right in the eyes. "I didn't think it would be right for you to have to bring everything. So I brought a cooler of soda pop."

Roshi let out a long slow breath. Arguing with Mariah was futility at it's best. "You know you didn't have to do that."

"Yes, I did."

"Fine, then at least let me carry it over into that shady clearing there." Roshi said as he pointed to where he wanted to set up the camp.

Once he had lead them to the campsite he looked around and smiled. "Ok people, welcome to your home for the next two days. Here we have a nice fire pit with a rotisserie spike, and over up that path there is an outhouse and shower." Roshi said pointing to each thing in turn, "Then we have a nice big lake that is stocked with tons of nice fish. The beach is also nice for swimming."

Roshi called the Kintoun and pulled several capsules from it. "Ok, we have tents and sleeping bags here." Looking over at Niko and Carge, he continued. "One tent is for the guys, and one is for the ladies."

"Tents? What fun is that? And what happened to the five room Capsule house you had in the Kintoun yesterday?" Carge demanded.

"Guys, what fun is camping if you don't rough it a little? The capsule house is for if there is a storm or something. But if we don't need it, I don't want to use the thing."

Kit realized something. "Um, Roshi, just how much roughing it are we going to do? I mean you did bring food right."

Roshi shrugged. "I have a cooler with some fresh steak, and then some milk and cheese. Oh, and now the goose. But other then that, I thought we would eat the strawberries, raspberries, and fish, and possibly I would go catch a dinosaur for some nice tail steak."

Mariah looked like she was going to be sick. "You didn't bring food?"

Roshi walked over and patted her on the back. "No, this is supposed to be fun, don't worry about it. We will have plenty to eat."

"Hey, let's get off the subject of food before Roshi starts drooling. If he thinks he can find enough food then I guess he can. I mean we've all seen how much the guy can eat." Carge said. "So, what was this about a ski boat and skiing?"

'No kidding Roshi eats a lot.' Kit thought to herself. 'I just wonder if he can actually cook.'
* * *

It took the teens hardly anytime at all to set up camp.

"Ok, people, if you want to go swimming, or skiing, there is a bathhouse just up the hill. Last one in the lake is a rotten egg!" Roshi yelled as he casually started walking up the hill holding his bright blue swim trunks.

Mariah and Niko soon ran past him carrying towels and various other objects. 'It sure does take girls a lot of stuff just to get ready to swim.' Roshi thought as he saw Niko had at least six different kinds of tanning lotion sticking out of the top of her bag.

Roshi quickly changed and casually walked down the hill to the tents. He could hear the two girls were still on their side of the bathhouse, so he wasn't in any hurry. He grabbed his towel from the bench where he had left it, and continued on his way.

"Not going swimming?" He asked Kit knowing full well that she hated the water.

"Nope, and don't even try to get me to. I'll be fine soaking up the sun. Been a while since I had a nice nap in the sun." Kit said as she reclined in one of the chairs Roshi had set out.

"Kit, I hate to ask, but what is the point? It is not as if you will tan, you are covered in fur. Not only that, but you have that ridiculous white thing on now."

Kit grimaced and sat up. "This ridiculous white thing is called a Furzete and it is the only garment I have that is actually from Vulpe. Since I knew you people would try to get me into the water I thought wearing something that was priceless and extremely important to me would keep you from trying anything stupid."

As far as Roshi could tell, the Furzete was made out a material that seemed to have the weight of cotton, but the appearance of silk. It was really a robe of sorts. Kind of like a cross between a kimono, and the outfits that one would see on fictional genies and such. The sleeves were huge and ran down hiding her hands. A tight inner cuff blocked wind and allowed her to raise her arm without her sleeves sliding down. Strips of fabric ran loosely from the top of her shoulders down and crossed over her chest and before wrapping around her back to form a hood. The strips formed a deep v neckline that would have been quite revealing had there not been a gray turtleneck vest under it. The vest, however, was exactly the same color of gray as Kit's fur. While Roshi saw it immediately, most people would have to look at least twice before they realized that it was there. White cloth hung down from the cross pieces to the waist were they were tied with a large red sash. The sash held up a white knee length skirt that was slashed up to the hip on the left side. Beneath the skirt were loose fitting cuffed pants that seemed to match the blouse.

It looked extremely comfortable, but also really warm. "Isn't it a bit warm for that?" Roshi asked innocently.

"Actually, it is really cool. So, no." Kit replied before stretching out and rolling over onto her side.

Roshi took that as the sign to leave, and the other two girls were coming down the hill anyway. Roshi looked up the hill, and his jaw almost hit the ground.

Mariah was wearing a simple light blue one-piece suit. Thin and petite, at times she almost looked like one of those porcelain dolls. Her light brown hair blew in the wind, and when she saw Roshi watching, she blushed and smiled, her pale complexion causing the blush to stand out even more then her dimples. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The modest suit still hung like a second skin and left plenty for the eye and the imagination. Roshi thought she looked like an angel.

Then he saw Niko. Niko was a cheerleader. Niko was stacked. Niko was wearing the smallest thong bikini Roshi had ever seen. It left almost everything for the eye, and almost nothing for the imagination.

"Roshi, you're red in the face." The curly haired blonde laughed as she walked by arching her back even more.

Mariah laughed. "Niko said she wanted to give Carge something to remember. Judging by your face, I would guess she succeeded."

"Ah huh." Was all Roshi could manage.

Before long Roshi, Mariah, Niko, and Carge were out in the boat having a blast. Mariah absolutely could not ski. She couldn't see well enough with out her glasses, and didn't have the coordination or balance to stay on the skis when she did get up.

Niko and Carge on the other had were good enough that Roshi got out another tow line and let them both ski at the same time. For some reason, Carge kept getting distracted though.

After an hour or so, they docked the boat and started a nice campfire. Roshi managed to sneak away and catch two large fish without anyone seeing him catch them.

"Hey, don't eat all the smores now. Those are for tonight under the stars. You people really don't know anything about camping." Roshi said as he carried one of the huge fish into the campsite. He had decided the sight of him lugging one of the fish would be enough of a shock. He didn't need to pull both in and truly give away his strength.

"Oh, Dende! How on Earth did you catch that fish?" Carge said in awe as he dropped his smore.

Roshi shrugged. "This? There are fish this big all over in that lake."
"WHAT?!" Mariah gasped. "That thing looks big enough to eat me. Isn't it dangerous to ski in a lake with fish that big?"

Roshi plopped the fish down and pulled out Gohan's sword so he could de-scale it. "Nah, these fish only eat other fish. Besides, they are afraid of boats, so they would never attack us while we are skiing." Roshi looked up to see everyone but Kit gawking at him.

"AHHH cool! Where'd you get the sword from?" Niko asked as she moved in to get a better look at the sword.

Roshi realized that all of them were waiting for a story, but he was hungry, and food came first. "Ok, look, I'll tell you guys anything you want to know, after we eat. I need to take this thing up near the bathhouse to clean it cause if I do it here, there will be more flies around our campsite then we will know what to do with."

The four of them nodded. So Roshi continued. "Anyway, there is another fish down by that bay over there, if you guys want to bring it up to the bathhouse, we can clean it as well."

Hindsight being what it is, Roshi belatedly realized that he should have just let them keep eating smores until he had all the fish cleaned. None of them knew the slightest thing about cleaning fish, and a 140kg fish was a big fish for three non-Saiyans to try to drag up a hill.

Since Kit hadn't changed out of her Furzete, she didn't even follow Mariah, Carge, and Niko down the hill, but rather followed Roshi up to the bathhouse. "You know they will never get that fish up the hill without your help." She said simply as she walked past Roshi.

Roshi plopped the fish down on the stainless steel table designed for cleaning fish and other game, and turned to Kit. "Good point. Here, you can try to clean the fish, and I'll get the next one." He said trying to hand over Gohan's sword.

Kit took three steps backward. "In this outfit? You have got to be kidding."

Roshi frowned. "Kit, please take this the right way. We are camping. You shouldn't have even brought that outfit. If you can't dress for camping, then I won't feel sorry for you when you get dirty. Now go change into something appropriate for camping, or I may just throw you in the lake while you are wearing that."

Kit tensed up. "You wouldn't"

"Don't bet on it" Roshi replied over his back as he ran back down the hill.

Luckily for him, he got to his other fish before Mariah, Carge, and Niko did. "Never mind guys, I'll get this, you three can just go pester Kit until she decides to join us in having fun."

Having the three of them pester Kit allowed Roshi to clean and prepare the fish in peace. Which, to be honest, is more then he had expected. Deciding that the two fish were not quite enough, Roshi cooked the goose as well.

Soon the three of them returned with Kit in tow. Kit was now dressed in a loose pair of mesh shorts, and a tee shirt.

"You happy now?" Kit asked as she sat down.

"Yeah, you four finally got your butts over here so we can eat. The fish are done and they smell really good." Roshi said as he pulled one of the fish away from the fire.

Mariah looked over the fish. "Um, Roshi, I know you eat a bit more then most of us, but don't you think that is a lot of food for five people?"

'No, if I would actually eat until I was full, these two fish would barely be enough for me, let alone the four of you,' Roshi thought as he smiled. "There is less here then you think. It should make a good meal."

"Who cares if there is some leftovers, this is a camping trip. We are here to have fun!" Carge said as he grabbed a paper plate and some plastic utensils and dug into the fish.

Carge's action ended the discussion as the rest of them were soon pigging out.
"Wow, Roshi, this is really good. I was worried for a bit, but you can actually cook." Mariah said between bites.

Roshi laughed. "This is campfire grilling. It isn't cooking. In the kitchen I could probably convince water to burn."

"Yeah, well it's better then I can do. My idea of a good home-cooked meal is heating up a can of soup." Mariah laughed.

Roshi looked at her incredulously. 'Please tell me that that was a joke.'

"Roshi's just embarrassed that he can cook. It's ok, you're a mamma's boy Roshi." Carge said before Roshi could ask Mariah anything more.

"Don't tease him, Carge! I think it sweet that he can cook." Niko laughed.

"We could probably make fun of Roshi here all day, but what are we doing after lunch? Or does our fearless Cook have nothing planned?" Kit asked getting in one last barb.

"He still needs to tell us where he got that sword. It doesn't look like any I have ever seen before." Carge said with his mouth full.

"Well, I want to see more of this beautiful camp he has here. It is a shame the public never gets to see stuff like that." Mariah said as she pointed up at several swans as they landed on the lake.

"Yeah," Kit spoke up, "I walked a ways up those trails past that bluff over there, and around the rubble from the old mountain. We should walk some of them and enjoy the scenery."

Roshi interrupted before they could say anymore. "That sounds like a great idea to me. We should rest a bit, and then in an hour or so, everyone be dressed for some hiking. Actually, I think I'll take you up to Videl's Lookout, so keep your suits on, but put something over them for the hike."

"Ohhh, what's at Videl's Lookout?" Mariah asked.

"You'll see when you get there." Roshi said with a laugh before heading over to where a hammock hung between two trees.
* * *

An hour later Roshi met everyone at the tents. "Ok, everyone, ready to go?"
After hearing affirmative replies out of everyone, they set off.

"Ok, I guess I might as well tell you about the camp." Roshi said as they walked up past the bathhouse and onto the first trail. "As you can see from that visitor's sign and the parking lot, it is actually a free public access campground and park. The reason no one is here is because it is so far from civilization people don't come out here."

"Who cares about the camp, I wanna hear about that nifty sword of yours." Carge muttered invoking an elbow to the side from Niko.

Roshi looked over his back and laughed. "Actually, Gohan, Videl's Gohan, was the one who had this camp built after he married Videl. The sword was also his. It was given to him by Piccolo, his first master."

"Ahh that's so romantic. You said we were going up to Videl's lookout. I bet he built it for her didn't he?" Mariah asked.

"Yeah, actually he did. It was smaller then. But then, his and Videl's grandson, Gohan the 3rd, expanded it and turned it into a retreat from Capsule Corp for his wife Chemise."

"Neat," Mariah said.

"Well, you had better get rich quick Mariah. Sounds like the Son's marry for money and then use their wife's cash to build them parks and stuff." Carge joked from the side.

Niko jabbed him in the ribs. "That wasn't very nice!"

Roshi just laughed. "Actually there are a lot of people who claim my family just married into the money, and in a way, they are right. But in reality as I said, this land was all owned by Gohan's Grandfather. While the Satan family was definitely more famous and probably had more spending cash, if you counted the value of the land, Gohan was probably more wealthy then Videl was."

"Yeah, but you can't claim that most of your families money doesn't come from Capsule Corp." Kit interjected.

"Well it does, but then again, even before Chemise married Gohan the third, the Son family was helping run Capsule Corp. Now we just own it too."

"I thought the Briefs family still ran and owned the Capsule Corp. I thought you were just related to them and got like kickbacks or something." Niko said, "and how do you tell who is who. Are you talking about two Gohan's or three? Cause you say Videl's Gohan, and then Gohan the third, but no Gohan the second and... Oh! Now I'm confused."

Roshi slowly took a deep breath and then shook his head. "If you went just by paternal sir name, then there technically has not been a Briefs as the president of the CC since the first Bulma's son Trunks."

"First Bulma?" Mariah asked.

Roshi quickly turned to look back. "I'll get to that in a bit. Anyway, when Chemise who was Trunks daughter, married Gohan the third who was Pan and Ubuu's son, she took the name Son Briefs. My direct lineal ancestor is Goku Jr. who took the name Son only. His sister, Bulma Jr. took over as President of the Capsule Corp and kept the name Son Briefs. The family has handed that name down every generation regardless of what the father's sir name is. For example, my cousin, Slip's mother is Teddy Son Briefs, her father is Frank Smith. Even though her parents are legally married, she goes by the name Slip Son Briefs."

"So what you're saying is that you are related, but directly, so since it is a private Corporation, you also own part of it too." Mariah said.

"Yeah, funny thing is, my side of the family actually owns more of it then Slip's even though her mother is the President, and my father is only a Co-VP." Roshi said with a chuckle.

"How so, and if my memory serves, didn't Trunks have a sister, and two daughters? What happened to that side of the Briefs family?" Kit said knowingly.
Roshi stifled a snort. He wouldn't be surprised if Kit knew more about the published history of his family then he did. Since her people's home planet was more or less uninhabitable now, she thought that history and knowing ones history was extremely important. Since Roshi's Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather Yohan had been one of the primary people to help rescue the survivors of Vulpe, Kit thought Roshi's family history was important to know. Especially after she found out he was part Saiyan.

"Well, Mariah was right to say that it was family owned. Suffice to say that my side of the family has multiplied the least. Whereas, Slip's side of the family has a lot of more directly related cousins. And to answer the second part of Kit's question, Bra was Vegeta and Bulma's daughter, and Trunks sister, but she never married, and had no children. Trunks did have two daughters, Chemise, and Bikini. Bikini was a skilled martial artist, but she wanted nothing to do with CC. Both Tee, and Boxers are descendents of her. That side of the family also owns, and works with and for CC, but in all actuality with the exception of Tee's father who is the other VP, that side of the Briefs family has little to do with the CC." Roshi explained.

"Ok, I guess that makes sense." Mariah said.

"No it doesn't, I'm still stuck on the Gohan's" Niko whined.

Kit couldn't help it, and she burst out laughing. "Sorry, I'm not laughing at you really, but if you expect Roshi to explain the fact that there have been like eight Gohan's and fifteen Boxers, and I think five Bulma's and many other repeating names in the past five hundred years, we are going to be listening to him ramble about his family forever. I know they are rich and powerful and all, but his family's history is about as dry as week old bread if you know what I mean."

"Exactly, thank you for pointing that out, Kit." Roshi said quickly, "My family likes to repeat names. I hate it. Which is why when I have kids I am going to name them something really odd like Tom, or Ben, or Amy, or Jill. You know, names that no one has. Just so they will be different."

The four of them had a good laugh and moved on to other points of conversation.
* * *

It was a good 17 km hike up to Videl's Lookout, and after about an hour the girls were complaining about being tired. Roshi solved that problem by calling the Kintoun and having them float behind him.

"Hey, that's not fair. Why can't I ride that thing? I just pass right though it." Carge complained after a bit.

Roshi laughed to himself. 'Well if you stopped gawking at Niko's chest like it was the best thing before or after sliced bread I bet you would be able to ride it. But I am not about to tell you that,' Roshi rolled his eyes. "I couldn't tell you. It just doesn't like you."

"Ha ha... That is so funny. By the way, how is it that you can set a pace like this? I mean, even Kit was getting winded, and she runs marathons for fun!"

'Hmm, I have been going a bit fast.' Roshi realized. "I don't know. I think being out in the woods is invigorating. Besides, we are here." Roshi said.

The path up to Videl's Lookout followed a small bubbling mountain stream. They had stopped to look at small pools and waterfalls the entire way up the Mountain, but that was nothing compared to what they saw now. Roshi lead them into a small cave that the stream flowed out of. The cave was actually a tunnel through a rock spire and it opened onto a large grassy bluff. The bluff overlooked the ruins of Mt. Frypan and the lake. Near the entrance to the cave, a small 8-meter waterfall fell down into a pool that fed the stream and flowed out through the cave.

"Wow! This is incredible!" Mariah said in awe as she looked out over the edge of the bluff.

"Yeah, this was one of Videl's favorite spots. Her and Gohan supposedly spent hours up here. And I can't blame them. Follow me." Roshi said as he walked to a staircase that was carved into the side of the Mountain.

It lead to the top of the waterfall and a crystal clear mountain pool that was about 15 meters across. It in turn was fed by a small waterfall that fell half a meter from a steaming 5-meter wide pool. A separate even smaller pool, which was fed by a mountain stream also overflowed into the large pool.

"What we have here ladies and, well, Carge, is a natural hot spring fed pool, and an ice cold glacier fed pool mixing in a natural swimming pool. The water in the hot pool is very warm so be slow if you get into it. Once you get all nice and toasty, the trick is to jump in the nearly freezing glacier pool and then the big pool."

Roshi looked at all of them. Even Kit stood there gawking with her mouth hanging open.

"Ok then." Roshi said as he kicked his shoes off and took his loose tee shirt off so that he could climb into the natural hot tub. As he had just driven the boat earlier, this was the fist time he had taken his shirt off all day.

"Holy crap! Roshi you have pecks, and abs! How the heck did you get such a bod?" Niko asked as she swooned over the shirtless Roshi.

"Um, I work out." Roshi said turning crimson as he lowered himself into the hot pool a bit faster then he would have liked.

"YOWCH!" Maria yelled as she stuck her foot into the pool and yanked it right back out. "Roshi! How can you sit in that? That water is hot enough to cook you!"

"Nah, just lower yourself into it slowly. It feels really good." Roshi said as he closed his eyes and tilted his head back.

Mariah smiled when she saw Niko had already forgotten about Roshi's shirtless bod and was teasing Carge about something. Luckily for her, Roshi didn't notice.
"Hey, Kit, you coming in?" Maria asked after she sat down in the pool and innocently scooted towards Roshi.

"No, Do you have any idea how long it takes me to get dry again?" I'm going to let you guys enjoy yourselves while I go follow this stream up to the snow. I want to see some snow again."

Mariah was about try to snuggle closer to Roshi when she realized that he had fallen fast asleep.

"Just my luck" she muttered to herself.
* * *

That evening Roshi cooked the steaks that he had brought from home.

"Kit, you should have really tried the pools up there. That was so much fun!" Mariah said laughing to herself about something.

Roshi coughed under his breath. "What part? The attempting to drown me part, or the part where the three of you threw me into the cold pool while I was sleeping?"

Mariah grinned mischievously, "Ummm both?" She looked at the other two, "Yeah, both."

"Thanks, anyway, how do you want your steak? Rare to Burnt cinders I will try to cook them how you like them.

Everyone but Kit wanted his or her steak cooked medium-well. Kit on the other hand wanted hers to be almost rare.

"Eww, how can you eat that?" Niko asked looking at Kit's steak.

"How can you eat that?" Kit pointed back to Niko's plate.

"Hey, at least she isn't eating it raw." Carge said trying to get Niko to leave Kit alone.

"What do you mean by that?" Kit asked sounding insulted.

"Well, you know, you're well Vulpine and well I just thought that..."

"No, you didn't think. I personally like my steak this way. Look at Roshi's steak, his is barely cooked any longer then mine. It has absolutely nothing to do with my being a Vulpine. My father likes his meat cooked to the point were it is practically burnt offerings! I just like eating it this way, ok?" Kit said before throwing her plate down and walking away.

Carge got up to follow her into the darkness. "I didn't mean..." He said sounding genuinely confused.

Mariah stood up. "We know. Something is bothering her. Kit's been a bit jumpy today. I'll go see if I can figure out what's up."

Roshi frowned. He had really hopped that this weekend could be fun for everyone before they all started the various things they were doing this summer. It didn't look like his plans were working out too well.
* * *

Kit's outburst more or less ended the evening, and everyone soon went to bed. Roshi didn't want anyone (namely Carge) sneaking out during the night, so he slept by the door of the tent.

As usual, he woke early before 6 am, and got up to do his morning katas and a few other various training routines. Seeing as no one else was awake, he flew up to a spot were a Budoukai sized flat clearing had been made specifically for this purpose.

Roshi started with slow Tai-chi-chuan movements and added a few coordination and balance toning moves from pentjak-silat. Once he was warmed up, he moved from normal ordinary martial arts to the forms of Kamedo, Kamido, and the few moves of Kaido that he knew. As he moved faster, he knew that he was now moving so fast that to a normal human, he would appear to be nothing but a blur of blue and orange moving in a slow circle over the grass. Moving himself into a quick set of snap kicks and then a back flip, Roshi pirouetted in the air and landed on a large granite boulder using his right pinky finger. Holding himself completely vertical on his pinkie finger without using his ki for balance, he slowly started doing on fingered, and one armed push ups. He moved from finger to finger and then finally pushed off with his left pinkie and smashed his right hand into the boulder. It shattered into millions of small pieces.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Roshi jerked his head up to see Kit dressed in a light silvery blue sports bra and silver mesh shorts leaning against a tree clapping at him.

"Bravo! I think this is the first time I have seen even a faction of your abilities. You let me watch before, when you were trying to teach me how to sense ki, but you always held back. I have to admit you move to fast for me to see, but when you slowed down, your movements were very graceful."

"Kit! What are you doing?" Roshi gasped.

Kit looked down at herself. "Um, I was running. I run at least 20k a day. I love the trails out here. I was just finishing up when I ran past and saw you start your workout."

Roshi looked at his watch, it was ten after eight. "You watched me for two hours and I didn't see you or sense you?" Roshi reached out with his senses. 'Yep, she's definitely there this isn't a dream. Maybe Dad was right, I need to work on my ki skill some.'

Kit grinned in a very predatory way. "Well you were rather busy at the time." She replied as she untied the laces on her unique running shoes.

Roshi watched Kit like it would make her go away. She slowly took her shoes off and wiggled her toes stretching them out. Although the only difference between Kit's hands and a normal person's hands was the fact that she had fur on the back of her hand, and she had smallish claws that were trimmed very short and filed down to be dull, her feet were a different story.

Kit had paw shaped feet. They really did look somewhat like a dog's feet. She had small heels, which only rested on the ground when she was truly tired or resting. Otherwise she stood on her big splayed out toes. She had small pinkish-gray pads on the bottom of her feet and toes, and small hooked claws. All together it made he feet look fat and round. Rather then long and slender as one would expect looking at the rest of her.

"Speaking of things not seen before, you always have on such baggy clothes. You are a lot skinnier then I thought."

Kit's ears dropped a bit and started to turn red. Along with the glare, that was about the only good way of telling she was mad. "AUGGGHHH NOT YOU TOO!!! I am so sick of everyone either expecting me to be just like them, or treating me like a freak when I am not! I am not skinny! I am NORMAL ok?!"

"Kit! Wait! I didn't mean it that way." Roshi said as Kit got up to run into the woods leaving her shoes behind.

'Great, this is just great. Well time to go hall Kit someplace so we can talk.' Roshi thought as he flew after her and grabbed her under the armpits hauling her into the air.

"AHHHHHHH!!! NOT OVER THE WATER!!!!" Kit screamed.

Not wanting to wake up the entire camp, Roshi quickly flew up to the bluff at Videl's Lookout.

"Kit, we need to talk. What is with your fear of the water?"

"I smell like a wet dog, I look like a drowned rat, and I sink like a stone. What is there to like about the water?" She asked while tears welled in her greenish-gold eyes.

"Kit, I've seen you soaking wet after a rain storm, you don't smell like a wet dog."

"Yes I do. Vulpines have special, oil or musk glands so that our fur doesn't dry out. When I get wet, people can smell it. Please don't patronize me."

"Kit, at the moment, you have just gotten done running, and are still practically lathered in your own sweat. I smell a heck of a lot more of your coconut shampoo then anything else. And you smell nothing like a wet dog. Besides, I have no idea how good your nose actually is, but I know I can smell things that normal Humans can't, so you really shouldn't worry about it."

"I still look like a drowned rat."

"And your point would be? Who are you trying to impress? Kit, we are your friends. You never used to be so self-conscious. What happened?"

"No one, that's the... You wouldn't understand." Kit poked at her small waist. "Like this morning, I knew you didn't mean anything by your comments, but at the same time, it hurt because the stupid school nurse made me go to these stupid anorexic help sessions because I was too skinny. I am a bit light for my height, but I run a lot and I am not under weight. My people are just lighter then humans. Even if I am barely shorter then you."

"Look Kit, I'm sorry if I offended you. You normally don't take offense to the little things. Seriously, what's up?"

"I don't know, I've been under a lot of stress, and I guess Rock just got to me. Actually, no, that isn't it. Everyone else just got to me. You stepped in and saved the day, but every one of the people watching should have been just as angry with him as you were. Why is it that you were the only one to try to help? It just reminds me how different I am from everyone else, and I guess I have focused on that a bit too much."

"Yes I would say so." Roshi said chidingly. "If you can't be yourself with your friends then we must not be good enough friends."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm still not swimming today. But I promise to be good." She said with a small smile.

"Yes, you are."

"No I am not! Repeat after me. Kit hates the water. Kit cannot swim to save her own life. Kit does not own a swim suit and therefore will not be swimming."

"What's wrong with swimming in what you are wearing right now?" Roshi asked innocently.

Kit actually growled at him. "Don't even think it Ape!"

"Ok, fine, I'm going back to camp. Later!" Roshi said as he jumped off the bluff.

"Hey! Don't leave me here you inconsiderate ape you!" Kit screamed at him before turning around and running down the trail towards camp.
* * *

Roshi was fast asleep in the hammock when Kit got back to camp. "I'm going to kill him!" She said through clenched teeth as she walked up to where he was snoring away.

"Oh leave him alone. He looks so cute there sleeping." Mariah said from where she was sitting basking in the sun.

"Good point, I have a better idea." Kit said and turned to walk down to the boat. She grabbed both towropes and carried them back up to the hammock.

"Did you know that Roshi is ticklish?" She asked Mariah as she started to wrap the towropes around Roshi and the hammock.

This woke Roshi up. "Hey what are you doing?"

"Tying you up. So Mariah can tickle you to death." Kit replied calmly as she double knotted the ropes.

Roshi saw Mariah standing behind Kit. She had the most evil looking smirk on her face. "Hey Niko! Come help me torture Roshi!" She yelled out.

'Aahhh I'm doomed. These ropes can't hold me, but how do I explain breaking them to Mariah and Niko?' "Hey, Kit! This isn't fair. Oh no Stop! Please Make them stop! Oh It hurts, I can't breathe. Kit call off your hounds. Oh can't breathe." Roshi gasped between fits of laughter as he tried his hardest not to actually break either the hammock or the towropes.

"Funny usually hounds chase the fox, not the other way around." Kit teased.

"Oh yeah! Good point!" Mariah said as she turned to grab onto one of Kit's arms.
Kit's ears flattened. "And just what do you think you are doing?"

"I'd say this hound has herself a fox. Awwwwwwooooooooo" Mariah said as she bayed at the sky and then broke down laughing.

"Ah look the poor boy turned blue." Niko said as she untied Roshi who was panting to catch his breath.

"Thank you!" He gasped.

About that time the three girls started laughing and walked off closer to the beach.

They were intercepted by Carge who winked towards Niko and then whistled and spoke. "Damn, Kit. If you had yourself a wonder bra you could almost pull off the Barbie doll look better then anyone else I know."

He held up his hands as if taking a picture of Kit's chest. "One bodacious Vixen here! Get her while she's hot!"

Kit's tail looked like a wire brush. "WHY YOU LITTLE PERVERT!!! My chest is OFF limits!"

"Whatever you say, I'm going to get my camera. Bit of digital editing and I could make a fortune selling pin ups!" He said before turning around to run away from Kit.

"WHY YOU!" She screamed as she chased after him.

He had a 50-meter head start. He also didn't have a chance. Kit didn't care about anything except clobbering Carge. Which of course had been the plan.

Just before Kit caught him, Carge jumped off of a small bluff and into the lake. Roshi had to give Kit credit. She did almost stop herself. But then again, almost seldom counts.

"I've got you now! Why don't you make it easy on yourself and OH CRAP AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Splash! Splash!

Roshi was laughing so hard he almost forgot that he was supposed to go save Kit, since she really didn't know how to swim very well. "Great plan, Niko. Just don't encourage Carge. He was a bit too convincing." Roshi said as he ran past.

"I know. That's why it worked." Niko laughed as she and Mariah ran and got the boat.

Roshi dove of the cliff and "saved" Kit.

"Land. Take me to land. No no no no not the boat. Land!" Kit pleaded as he hauled her onto the boat.

"I hate you all. You are soo mean. I almost drowned!" Kit yelled as Niko and Mariah forced her to sit down.

"Sorry, Kit, but we all decided that as your friends we needed to cure you of irrational behavior. Therefore you are going to put this nice vest thing called a flotation device on, and go ski." Roshi said holding up a life jacket.

Kit mumbled something about stupid apes under her breath and grabbed the life jacket.

"Ok that should fit you, it's the smallest one I have at the moment." Roshi stopped when Kit looked up and glared at him. "Ok, bad choice of words. Once you get those on, we will see if the skis, that I had specially made last week after I stole your shoe, actually fit you."

Kit's jaw dropped. "You did what?"

"I borrowed on of your old worn out running shoes and took it to get measurements so that I could have this pair of skis that would actually fit you." Roshi said as he held up a pair of silver skis.

"How much did those cost?" Kit asked looking at them like they were vipers waiting to strike.

"Nothing, I had Slip make them." Roshi replied.

"You had this planned. That whole thing with Carge was a set up! You let me tie you up and then you... You... I hate you. You do realize that don't you?" Kit replied.

"Well, sort of. It was Niko and Mariah's idea to call you a Barbie doll, but yeah it was a set up.

"I really hate you." Kit said back. For some reason, she sounded more upset with herself then with Roshi.

"Yep. At least you will until you start skiing. I've seen the pictures of you alpine skiing up north with your family. This is the same thing, only different. Now, get your butt in the and enjoy yourself." Roshi finished.

"Yeah, and as soon as you are done, Mr. Rich and clumsy gets to ski. Roshi already said he wasn't skiing unless you did. So don't make us kill you." Mariah joked.

"Do you have any idea how long I am going to have to shampoo myself to get this lake stench out of my fur?" Kit asked.

Roshi laughed. "You were already in the lake. A second dip won't kill you."

Kit grudgingly got into the water and put the skis on. "Hey they fit better then the Alpine skis my dad had made!" She yelled back.

"Good!" Roshi yelled as he then instructed her how to get up onto the skis.

Kit was a natural as Roshi and the others knew she would be. Once she started skiing, she didn't want to stop. But, eventually Niko and Mariah convinced her that it was time to pick on Roshi.

True to his act of being a hopeless klutz, it took Roshi eight tries to get up onto his skis. He then made sure that he provided spectacular wipeouts for the four of his friends to watch.

He did however make one mistake. He performed a near perfect face plant into the water, and then didn't let go of the towrope. Torpedoing through the water on his belly getting dragged by the boat was great fun for his friends to watch. However, when the water caught his shorts, even his reflexes were not fast enough to save them.

'Oh this is splendid,' Roshi thought as he bobbed to the surface, and then quickly sunk down to his neck. He watched as his boat circled around and soon came back. Mariah was holding up his swim trunks.

"Hey, Roshi did you lose something?" She laughed. "You suck even worse then I do, and I'm blind without my glasses!"

'Thanks, I really meant to put myself into this situation.' "Um, could I please have those back?"

Carge shook his head. "I don't know. I think you should ransom them. You never know what you might get."

"Guys, this isn't funny. Please give me my shorts back."

Kit grabbed them. "No, I think after what you did to me you can come get them. I think we all could use a good show."

"Carge, I wouldn't be laughing about that idea if I were you." Roshi said flatly to try to get at least one of his friends to shut up.

"Hey, it's only fair, if Carge can confuse me with a Barbie doll, he needs an education. I'm not a Barbie doll, but you could probably pass as Ken." Kit teased.

"Nah, I'm just going to swim back to shore." Roshi said before he sank beneath the waves and quickly yanked the propeller off of the boat. 'My boat, therefore, my boat to break. At least I can keep my dignity.'

Half an hour later, Roshi pulled his stranded friends back to shore with a Jet ski.

The rest of the trip went fairly well. Roshi was still laughing about losing his shorts when he got home that evening and talked to Slip on the phone.

Very soon, Roshi would wish his problems were as simple and harmless as losing his shorts in front of a bunch of girls.
* * *

Once again, Thanks goes to Kitsune Maxwell for making sure this fic is actually written in English.

Oh, and I will try not to make anymore novel length chapters for a while. ;)

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