I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the right to any of the music pieces you may see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.
Chapter 2: Birthday Tails
Wow how my life changed in less than a day. The first thing Trunks and I did was go back to my apartment to plan things out. He had on a special watch that could send a transmission back to Bulma quickly. Right away we called my mother to have her plan on a home dinner and to not worry about gifts as we had this announcement. Still bewildered she pressed me with questions of if I was feeling all right and such. That's when Trunks and I decided to drive down and give her the scoop in person. When she obviously didn't believe it, Trunks showed off a ki blast and a flight around the yard. I thought she was going to faint, she didn't but was a little shaken.
"Don't fret about the apartment or the belongings, we'll take care of that after the change. I just wanted to get the immediate family together for this, is it kind of important to me to say goodbye to them. I'll say goodbye to the Texas relatives and Dad's family as well as my Ohio friends all tomorrow," I said, hugging her.
She embraced me back, "Why can't you stay, even as a, what is it a,.. Saiyan? You're still my son," she said.
"We already told you the reason mom, I don't like it much either. Maybe I can after I learn my powers and can protect this planet properly I will. But until then, Trunks is right, I must leave so not to endanger you," I said, holding back tears.
"Well, Trunks is it, you're stronger than this Frieza aren't you?" she said to him.
"Very much yes, however he could destroy the planet from space. He could gain knowledge of us if we were to stay and if I were training him here. I can't breathe in space, Frieza can, so that will not work. Better safe then sorry," he replied.
"Look at it this way mom, the nosebleeds will stop!" I said with a slight chuckle.
Mom looked down, "Oh ok, that makes since, I'll go prepare the arrangements...get going on your errands." she said, leaving the room.
I called my Ohio friends first, asking for directions for their respective homes from a nearest highway. Trunks pulled out a capsule and opened it to reveal an air vehicle, two seated. And it flew fast, we got to the places we needed to get to in less than an hour, probably shattering the sound barrier a few times. I was a little worried that some random stealth fighter would shoot us down, but nothing ever did.
At first my friends thought I had tried alcohol a bit too early, but a quick demonstration by Trunks ended that. We kept it short and sweet though and got on our way. Something odd though, they didn't seem nearly as surprised as I thought they would be, in fact it was almost as if they expected it. Maybe they knew I was a little different, maybe they didn't, but they were certainly hiding something. I didn't press the issue though, the whole concept was still incredibly raw to me. Next we came back home to visit my great-grandparents, I knew that they wouldn't understand any of it so I just settled for seeing them one last time. After all they were both approaching the century mark and couldn't remember much anyway, which really made me feel bad that there wasn't anything I could do. After my grandparents we called it a night and Trunks stayed at my apartment.
The first thing I noticed the next day was him eating a huge supply of food, but I hadn't a slightest clue where it had come from. I didn't carry that much food in my house and I doubted he went to the store. When he saw the confused look on my face, he swallowed the current mouthful and held up an object.
"Food capsule, keeps it warm too. I know your appetite isn't going to be up to Saiyan specs yet, so I packed some for myself," he said.
I let out a sigh of relief, "Good, because mom would have to cook a lot to come close to satisfying that stomach." Then I looked up and saw what he was watching on the TV. "Now should you really be watching that?" I asked.
"What, it's just my fight with Frieza. It's my favorite one!" Trunks claimed. I saw my stack of video tapes were out of order slightly. Good thing my Buu saga DVD's are in my room.
"Whatever," I sighed and sat down, right about the time when Frieza gets sliced in half and then into chunks.
First thing on the agenda, I contacted my Texas family and found they were already assembled for their own family dinner. That worked out well so we didn't have to tell the same story constantly. Of course Trunks had to demonstrate some more, but it held a convincing factor, as well as a destructive one. Coming back home a bit early, I spoke to some other friends on the phone, but only told them that I was going elsewhere, like Seattle or Florida, keeping it simple. As the day wore on, I noticed a tingly feeling at the base of my spine.
"That's your tail taking shape, you should have it when you wake up in the morning. We'd better hurry to your father's place and then stay the night at your mother's house so to keep you out of sight," Trunks suggested. Dad's trip I saved for last, for a good reason, because I knew we would be there for a while getting the story straight.
After multiple demonstrations of Trunks' powers, Dad finally gave in, "Well kid, go on your journey, but come back here whenever your want. You'll always have a place here, just come and visit your old man sometime. I gotta get my gray hairs somewhere other than under a greasy engine," he said.
"Oh you know I'll be back sometime Dad. I gotta see you win a race for once, qualifiers don't count!" I said with a laugh. When Dad's middle finger went up, Trunks gave me a strange look.
"Don't worry about that Trunks, that's our signal to each other that you got me good, and I cant think of a good come back to that last statement. I'm usually the one holding it up so I'm happy," I said. That was true, me and Dad always insulted each other if we weren't poking fun of other things, made up for lost time when he divorced my mom. After all, quality time rarely came.
"Well Happy Birthday Kid. Come back when you can," Dad said, waving slightly as we took off in the air car.
"You and your Dad sure do get along well, better than me and mine..." Trunks said in a down voice.
"That wasn't always so, we used to fight all the time. Not physically, just verbally. We managed a good relationship after my Grandma died. To this day I'm not really sure why though, I guess it kinda pulled us together. We were both depressed for months afterwards, we kinda pulled each other out," I said, recalling that memory.
"Well let's get back to Gina's, Mom said that she would arrive in the morning around ten. I will stay there as well, I need to stay nearby just incase something goes astray with your change." Trunks stated.
"I thought it was just the tail tonight? Other than maybe some pain, what could go wrong?" I asked.
"Do the words 'full moon tonight' mean anything to you?" he asked with a loud voice.
"Good point," I said quickly. After my long day of goodbyes, I was mentally out of it anyway. Heading to my bed in my mother's basement, I crashed at about eleven at night or so. I woke up once for a bathroom break, when I saw a slight glimmer of moonlight, and I wisely strayed away. I did not have a tail yet and my backside was buzzing like crazy, kinda like when your foot falls asleep. I was a bit curious, but I decided that accidentally tearing up the house and stomping people wasn't worth the chance. I passed by Trunks, who was snoring loudly on the couch. The dog lay nearby, looking like she was covering her ears. I heard her whimper a bit when I turned the corner, but she stayed where she was while staring at me. She must sense it, she knows that I'll be leaving soon. I headed back to bed with that thought, hoping I wouldn't feel much in the way of pain.
I woke up with a bit of a startle and nothing felt different, but my head wasn't really together yet. Climbing out of bed, I immediately dropped and fell on my face. I tried to stand again, only to wobble and fall to my knees. Placing a hand on my hip, a felt a brush of fur go by and stroke my hand. Realizing that it definitely wasn't the dog, I felt the base of my spine. I found a stalk of fur poking out of my clothes; my tail had grown at last. Right away I found I couldn't move it much, it really liked to twitch on its own and roam free. I really had to try hard to move this new growth around in any direction.
"You'll adjust to that, mine was a pain when I first got mine," Trunks said from the doorway.
"I thought you got yours when you were born?" I asked, still trying to balance myself.
"I did, mother had it removed right away, but it can grow back. It did once when I was four when mother finally told me that father died to the androids, my reaction wasn't the best," he said softly. It was clear that he didn't like bringing that up.
"Well I can't say I don't have a temper, it has reared its ugly head a few times in the past few years. Now I know why, but for now, I am really hungry," I declared as my stomach growled.
Trunks grinned a little, "Sounds pretty normal to me." I found some scissors on one of my shelves and cut a hole in the back of my underwear and shorts that I was wearing. I managed to squeeze my tail through them, making it a bit more comfortable to move.
I followed Trunks upstairs, only to find Bulma cooking a meal on mother's stove. "Hey mom, I thought you were gonna be here later," Trunks said, surprised.
"Oh I thought I'd come help Gina cook, she'll need the help with two Saiyans here. Besides I'm sure you're almost out of capsule food son," she said, beaming at him.
Trunks looked down a little, "Yeah I have one more left, so that should help some with the food today."
"Well I should hope so, from what your mother tells me, you boys will have some nasty appetites! Now I know where it came from!" Mom said, coming in from the dining room and grabbing some plates. We both scratched the back of our heads and grinned sheepishly.
"Oh come on Mom, I doubt I'll be that bad. At least no more than usual," I said with a smile.
"Oh I've seen your stomach in full swing, but then I saw Trunks eat late last night. Bulma said most Saiyans are like that so I'm preparing for the worst."
My family arrived slowly, first my great aunt, then my uncle, who immediately set out to spoil the dog, Coco. Then a knock at the door, Trunks opened it up to find my Dad at the door.
"Well I have to say goodbye to ya kid, before you turn into someone else," he reasoned.
Mom saw him and scowled instantly, "You pick now for quality time?" she snapped. Dad just grinned, which caused Mom to frown even more.
Seeing how this was going to go, I stepped in quickly, "I talk to him quite often mom, I went racing with him every Friday remember?" I stated.
She just huffed a bit, "Well no smoking in here Mike, I can't stand the odor."
"Whatever," he said, heading for the deck where my aunt was already puffing away. Seeing my need of salvation before my parents started up, Trunks pulled me aside and into the living room, where my uncle was terrorizing the dog.
"Hey punk!" he said.
"Hey John, just escaping the events in the kitchen, I figured you'd be out riding the bike until dinner was ready."
"Nope not today, too windy. Besides I can't miss this, what's this about a tail? Is that what that brown thing is poking out behind your back?" he asked.
"Yeah that's it, haven't had it but for a few hours and its already a pain, but I wont have it removed," I said, grabbing it out of the air and pulling it around to examine it further. Brown and fury is all it looked like, but when I grabbed it, I noticed it was very sensitive, just blowing air across it felt like someone was running their finger over it. I squeezed it very gently and it hurt like I had just took a razor to it. "Note to self, don't squeeze the tail," I said aloud while the others were watching me inspect it.
Trunks laughed, "Tell me about it man, its hurts a hell of a lot when you first get it squeezed hard. Better keep that dog away from it if she gets close," At the mention of the word dog, Coco jumped up and looked around, and spotted the tail right away. Luckily she didn't pay it much notice for the moment. John had plugged in season two of The Osbornes, playing the third episode titled "The Ozzman and the Sea," my personal favorite. Watching someone like Ozzy Osborne go fishing with cheese is just hysterical.
"Dinner's ready!" Bulma called from the other room. As if a trigger went off in my head, I was up and rushing to the table, papers on the counter blew clear into another room. "Well someone's hungry!" Bulma said, smirking a bit as I passed by. I just sort of nodded and sat down, barely able to wait for everyone else to show up. The table was loaded with random food, some I had never seen before, some I had. I began to care less what was on the table, as long as I could eat it. The closest bowl was the broccoli casserole and egg salad. Now I usually am a picky eater, but my stomach didn't care and put me into auto drive, dumping a bunch on my plate and scarfed away. Mom and Dad just stared as I began woofing down stuff they rarely ate as well, never mind me. Trunks just shrugged and sat down and began the same process.
"Damn boy, slow down for the sake of the table. You'll eat that as well at the rate your going," Dad said after the first four bowls in front of me were empty and I was still going strong.
I got a chance to speak in between bites, "Don't ask me dad, my stomach seems to be on autopilot. I don't even care what's there, just as long as it ends up down my throat."
"Well that's a first," he muttered. Eventually everyone sat down and began eating, but only after I slowed my pace so that I wouldn't grab their arm instead of a turkey leg.
Bulma just chuckled slightly, "You'd think I'd be used to this by now, but I still have to stop in awe. Neither of these two have anything on my friend Goku or my husband Vegeta. They could eat the buffet out three times over before they got full, Goku probably more!" Mom's jaw dropped, my aunt's did too.
"Oh don't worry Gina, the Saiyan metabolism doesn't allow much of a weight gain, he'll just burn it all up as energy," Bulma explained. She just slowly nodded, probably thinking of the ungodly money put into one meal, never mind many.
I slowly got up and stretched, then looked down and realized just how much I ate and gasped, "Wow it didn't seem like that much," I exclaimed.
Trunks snorted, "Yeah well it tends to get carried away sometimes."
"Well yeah when I ate probably fifteen times as much as I normally would, and even that was plenty!" I said.
"Hey punk, do you want to bust out the monopoly board or a deck of cards for old times sake?" John asked.
I glanced at Bulma, "Sure John, get out your games, were going to need to leave later tonight. My bracelet that keeps Trunks' power hidden won't hold up with two Saiyans around. It'll last through tonight though, I'm sure the kid would want some quality time with his family before having to leave for who knows how long. Besides I'm curious to play this monopoly, sounds like my kind of game," she said. We broke out the monopoly board and explained the game to Trunks and Bulma.
"Oh I've played something just like this! It was called Tycoon, instead of houses and hotels, you have stores and strip malls, and you charged money for buying stuff instead of rent. Though it never said what you might've bought, just the charges. I played that game a lot when I was a girl. Trunks never really had anyone to play with, besides he had his training to worry about. But we'd love to play this version," she said happily.
Rather then playing on the standard monopoly board, I pulled out the "Grinch Monopoly" board, where everything on it was based off "How the Grinch stole xmas". That was fun since we had so many people to play, we even had to break out the regular board for the pieces. The Grinch version only had six pieces and we had seven people, that and we needed the dollar bills from the original. Bulma turned out to be an absolutely brilliant trader and managed to get the right balance of stuff to easily win the game pending the roll of the dice. Trunks went down quick on one such deal when Bulma pulled the food trick out of her hat and said she wouldn't cook for him. Next roll he hit one a big hotel fee and was out of the game. Mom and my aunt spent most of the game in jail, lucky for them. Money was flying back and forth between hits on rent properties. I managed to grab a cheap monopoly and a medium one and lived off that one, upgrading when I could. Dad had seriously bad luck, but managed to sneak two railroads out of my aunt with cigarette trading, dirty pool, but it was ok. He went down at Bulma's corner up by the "go to the Grinch cave" space. John had grabbed the monopoly right after the jail and the one right after free parking when he got it from mom via trade for railroads. She went down on my expensive hotel space, giving me some money and cheap utilities. My aunt went down next, though John tried to keep her in by just simply taking a property, she ran out of stuff to give him and took bankruptcy. It came down to Bulma, John and me. Bulma's luck had been pretty good on the roll, she had tons of money and her whole corner was upgraded. Then all at once she passed go and hit two of my three properties for about 1100 total thanks to a snake eye roll of two. Next turn john rolled a seven and went to jail. My turn came and I hit a ten to hit the free parking pot of about 400. Bulma's next turn landed her on one of John's hotels and some of her hotels had to be downgraded to houses. Doubles for her twice, first one hit another one of johns in the same area, and again to hit my spot and eliminate her. It was down to John and me, but only for a few turns, I had enough cash to upgrade some of my newly acquired property and missed all of his. He hit three of mine in a row and that ended the game.
"Wow that took awhile, four hours to be exact," Bulma said, standing up to stretch.
"Yeah I've played some all day games before, they take forever as you might imagine. Once we left the board as it was, went to bed, and finished it the next day," John said, "For some reason it always comes down to me and David."
"I can see why, kid's got either a decent brain or a lot of luck. Well what now guys, its about 4:30 now?" Bulma asked.
"What about Bowling, we haven't all gone in a long time. Only David goes mostly, we could do that for his last night," Mom suggested.
Panic filled my face, "That may not work Ma, they kinda threw me out last week. I broke all the pins whenever I threw the ball, they had to shut down five of their lanes after I did it," I said, rubbing my head in shame. Mom's face was pricelessly funny, she just didn't know what to say. My aunt's was the same, Dad and John just shook their heads and laughed a bit along with Trunks.
"Well we could do some cards, they don't take as long and no damage. Besides I'd like to play a bunch of games so I don't forget how to play them. We tend to be card sharks here," I suggested.
"Well first lets slice some pie!" Mom said from the kitchen. She pulled out my favorite, chocolate dream pie she made herself, cheesecake, and apple pie. This time I didn't hog out on the food, mostly because I was helping John teach Bulma and Trunks how to play some of the card games, that and my aunt always had trouble remembering. We played Hearts, Euchre, Up and down the river, Spades, Pitch, and Texas Hold em' Poker. Not everyone ended up playing some of them, but everyone except my aunt jumped into Poker, especially when we pulled out the fake chips and tried to out bluff and outplay each other. I went down when I was trying to bluff and the dog nipped my drooping tail. To say it hurt was an understatement, and I lost all motor function for a split second just as Trunks shooed her away. It was enough to cause me to drop my cards suddenly, which in our rules means fold. Everyone offered to let me stay in, but for me rules are rules. After that I kept it wrapped up and away from her, though I think she learned her lesson after the first few screams. Anyway, the games finished up with my Dad and Bulma survived the rounds due to smart play and really good bluffs. Bulma won over him by out bluffing a flush with a pair of deuces to his three of a kind folding.
I don't like sad goodbyes, and its even worse remembering them. But it was a very heartfelt goodbye to my immediate family members. No one really said much, though mom and my aunt were crying a little. After everyone left, Trunks and Bulma took me back to the abandoned barn they had turned into a lab. Inside she directed me over to a table and ordered me to lay down on it, then both of them left the room. Trunks brought in a glass of water and set it on a nearby countertop. Bulma came in a minute later with a large red pill.
"Okay kido, this is the pill that will accelerate your changeover. You'll basically wake up in a new body, though I'm not sure what exactly will happen. That I know of, this was only done twice, and the first patient was not even close to Saiyan to begin with. He died during the change, the second succeeded though, well kind of. He actually looked humanoid so this should work," she said with a slight smile.
I gave here that bewildered look of mine, "That's so reassuring," I said sarcastically.
"Oh don't worry, I put the formula through several tests and even changed it up a little. I know it will work, after all I am a genius!" she said with pride.
"If this doesn't work, remind me to never take your pills again," I said, taking the glass out water and the pill in each hand.
"Oh hush and take it already," she said, exasperated. Maybe I should ask her for the blue one first. Taking the pill into my mouth, I took a huge swig of water and swallowed. Then I turned laid my head down on the pillow and stared upward, hoping this wouldn't be too painful. I heard a beeping sound, coming from what looked to be a radar screen of some kind.
Bulma strode over to take a look at it, "Uh oh, looks like Frieza's lackeys were patrolling near where I placed that marker. We better leave first thing in the morning!" she suggested.
"Good idea mom, I'll pack some stuff up tonight!" Trunks said.
"Trunks will be right next door, so he will be here in an instant if something goes wrong. Just yell for him or me," she said exiting the room with a happy grin, "Have a good night."
Trunks and I just stared and watched her leave, "Beam me up Scotty!" I said throwing my hands up behind my head. Trunks looked at me weird.
Catching the misinterpretation, I turned back to him, "Just a phrase, came off an old science fiction TV show. People often say it to mean "oh I give up" on the subject."
"Don't wear out that phrase, you may say it a lot around my mother," Trunks said, chuckling as he left the room. Hitting the lights on his way out, I was left to be the only witness to my transformation. I silently hoped again there wouldn't be much pain, but there was no turning back now. About an hour after I first laid down I noticed my muscles twitching a little, involuntarily, and my head began to spin. I got drowsy and began to drop out of consciousness. The only thing I could wonder was what I might look like when I awoke the next day.
Power levels not needed