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 17: Home at Last
Vegeta stood before us, the usual scowl upon his face, arms crossed. Even through his hard exterior, I could see he was actually glad to see us. I spent enough time with him to figure out what was behind that thick wall of pride. Despite that little fact though, it was still hard to tell.
"About time brats, I was beginning to think you weren't coming back. That would have been fortunate, but then the woman wouldn't have left me alone until I flushed you out," he scuffed and turned back around towards the exit of the wizard's chamber but didn't move.
"Nice to see you too Vegeta!" Gohan said politely.
"Save it spawn of Kakarot!" Vegeta snapped.
"Well, you performed quite well, not that I'm that surprised. It's good that you can handle things in other worlds, for you may have to someday, that was merely a test. Your arrivals and battles won't hurt those timelines, for the ones you have been to were already altered to my test," the old mage explained. Well that explains that…to an extent.
"The only one that was hard was fighting that Apocalypse guy, the rest were too easy," Trunks said in a mocking tone.
"Good, now listen up Wizard. If I hear about your trouble from the Kai's, you can guarantee a bad report from Dende to King Yemma. Then you will not enjoy the afterlife, I will see to that. Got it?" Piccolo barked and grabbed the mage by his cape collar.
"Crystal clear," the mage said in fear.
"Boys! Let's get going, your little vacation from training needs to be made up!" Vegeta ordered.
"Vegeta, they really did fight and use their energy up a few times. It would be the same as your training would it not? After all you Saiyans get a little stronger after every..."
"SHUT UP WIZARD BEFORE I BLAST YOU TO OBLIVION!" The mage promptly found his tongue and quieted it. With that said, Vegeta raised a hand and blasted a hole clean through the cave rock, and a chunk off the mountain.
"Enjoy your new skylight. Verto, Trunks, home, now!" Vegeta barked again. Waving goodbye to Gohan and Goten as well as Piccolo, we quickly followed Vegeta through the air, as the prince was not in a good mood, which didn't bode well for us later on.
"That was a test young one, one day you will call upon myself for assistance, I await that day, until then farewell." I shifted slightly when I heard the old wizard's voice in my mind. But nothing else seemed to happen so I shrugged it off.
We arrived back at home rather fast. However when we went inside to see Mom with a very stern look on her face, we regretted hurrying home and began to wish we were elsewhere right now. Trunks knew right away what that look meant, and attempted to high tail it out the door, only to run into the brick wall known as his father. I stood my ground, knowing that this could be bad if she was that mad. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and prepared myself for the onslaught. When it didn't come, I opened them to see her stern expression turn to a worried one, then to a crying one. Then before I knew it both Trunks and I were locked in a death squeeze from hell.
"Oh my poor boys, I was worried sick about you. I'm never letting you out of my sight again!" Mom began to ramble.
"Woman, they're Saiyans, they can take care of themselves!" Vegeta interjected.
"Well apparently not if they're getting stuck in different dimensions because you threw them out of the house for some nookie!" Mom screamed back, standing up and releasing us. Oh boy, I could see what this was going to turn into, Trunks must have as well, as he began backing off and turning the general direction of away. Fortunately the screaming match didn't begin, instead Mom turned her wrath away and gave us the worried expression again.
"You two go hop in the bath, you're filthy! Then you can have some dinner!" Mom ordered. I slowly nodded and released the breath I forgot I was holding.
"So you wanna take yours first?" I asked Trunks.
"Yeah sure, I hate baths. Dad says they're not necessary in a battle situation, in fact it provides distraction for the enemy, or so he says. That and Mom always demands to scrub me herself, its embarrassing sometimes," Trunks muttered.
"Well he's right about that, believe me I know!" I said remembering my training. Vegeta hardly bathed at all and the stench eventually got to everyone. It wasn't until Piccolo had the nerve to tell him he smelled worse then Nappa that he finally did something about it, well I think he did. He kicked everyone out of the palace area and threatened to kill us all if we dared come close while he was bathing. But then for all I know he simply powered up and removed the dirt himself, but I wasn't sure if that would really take care of the smell.
While Trunks was taking his sweet time in the bath, I sensed Gohan arrive for a few minutes. He didn't come inside, but instead talked alone with Vegeta out on the lawn, too far for me to hear. Though I didn't hear the conversation, I knew what it was about. It had to concern my transformation in one of the other dimensions. Trunks and Goten never saw it and Gohan had never told them. After chatting for a few minutes, Vegeta barked something to which Gohan lowered then nodded his head. Then Gohan took off, but not towards his home, more towards Kami's Lookout. Then I realized who removes Gohan's tail all the time, Piccolo. Vegeta came back in and came upstairs into my room.
"So did you hear the conversation?" he asked.
"Didn't need to," I muttered, staring out the window.
"Well the secret will stay with Gohan and myself, but this transformation stage gave me something interesting to think about," Vegeta continued.
"What's that?" I asked, turning around.
"I think you may need it as a trump card. I'll teach you how to make a fake moon blast, but only as a last resort. You've seen how tired one gets when leaving the form, you're lucky to stay standing without rest. As I heard from Gohan, you changed, but when returning to normal you were still conscious but severely winded. Therefore you should only use it as a last resort outside your Super Saiyan form. Since you don't turn into a giant reckless ape, you can use this to your advantage. While it may seem silly to do this as we haven't had an enemy that would require that amount of power, you never know, do you understand?" he finished.
I nodded, "Yes sir."
"Good, we can practice in the gravity chamber after Trunks and yourself finish training for the day. That way no one else can learn of it due to the shielding of the chamber," Vegeta said.
"What about Gohan? I saw that he took off in the direction of Kami's place, is he gonna have Piccolo remove his tail or something?" I asked.
"He is going to consult with the Namek first, however that should not be your concern. Tomorrow at dawn, I will teach you how to make a fake moon. Everyday you will practice it in the gravity room so you can adjust to your transformation, understood?"
"Yeah," I said.
"Good," he said, turning on his heel and exiting the room just as Trunks emerged from the bath.
He came down and looked in, "What did my Dad say to you?" he asked when he saw my small frown.
"Nothing major Trunks, don't worry about it. Nothing bad," I said. Depending on your point of view that is.
"Oh ok, hurry and get cleaned up, I want dinner!" Trunks said with the one-track mind and grin in place. After bathing quickly, and trying not to slip on one of Trunks' many bathtub toys, I dressed in shorts and a T-shirt and went back down to the kitchen. I was still having trouble in this big place, it didn't help that I seemed to be away a lot so I couldn't adjust. Fortunately I had Trunks' energy signal to follow, I didn't get Vegeta's, but he was in the gravity room, no shock there.
Trunks was pacing back and forth when I finally walked in, "Took you long enough, I'm STARVING!"
"Now Trunks, think about it when you have to wait for Goten when Chichi has to bath him, that wait was pretty mild," Mom said from the stove. On the table was a ton of food, of course, three Saiyans in the house it better be full of food. Vegeta emerged from the chamber and came in. Sitting down, he dug in right away, not waiting for anyone.
"And you say Trunks gets his bad habits from me huh!" Mom said with a frown.
"What woman? Your coofing your usifual bad meal, and I am acfually eating it, whaf more dof you wants?" Vegeta asked with a full mouth.
"Argh! Forget it!" Mom turned back around and muttered about cocky Saiyan Princes. Once Trunks saw Vegeta scarfing he joined in the action, I did once I realized the food might be gone before I touched it. Mom just collected dishes and began washing them by hand as we wore down the food supply. After dinner was over, Vegeta went back to his precious Gravity Room, Trunks went to one of the lounges and watched TV, and Mom continued working on the huge stack off dishes. After a few minutes, I got up and walked over to the sink next to her. She didn't notice as first, but when she did she looked annoyed.
"You're still hungry huh? Well it be a little while!"
"No, I was going to ask if you wanted some help doing those dishes?" I asked, feeling guilty I hadn't brought it up earlier.
Her expression changed to a sad face, "No that's okay, go have fun. You're too young again to worry about chores and things about responsibility," she said with a small grin, but I saw past it.
"Keep in mind who you're talking to, mother. I don't believe that anyone is ever too young to learn life lessons. How often do you get help on all these dishes?" I asked, making my point.
"Not since Trunks drank from a bottle," she said quickly.
"Okay then, want me to wash or dry?"
"Dry." I floated up to the sink and began drying quickly and stacking them neatly on the side of the sink.
"Thank you, glad to know someone noticed," Mom said sadly.
"Mother-son bonding right?" I said with a wide grin.
"It's not that he is too full of himself to help out around the house, he does help out once in a while, when I scream my head off at him. I just think he could do some of the chores on a regular basis, after all he doesn't hardly ever leaves during the day. I'm always helping Dad with the company and the chores are stacked up by the end of the night. The robots do rather badly with dishes so I do it myself," Mom said, "But in return I know I have his protection and loyalty no matter what happens. Whenever other guys around hounding around me, he chases them off when they stray too close, and whenever pretty women are hounding him, he tells them that they're all ugly and they eventually leave too. I remember back right after Frieza was killed that Yamcha and I had a big argument. Yamcha never helped with chores either and really lazed around here with other women while I working and demanded a meal when I came back. Vegeta came in one night during one such argument and stuck up for me, telling Yamcha he should worry about his training before the Androids arrived and killed him. Yamcha challenged him to a fight then and there, needless to say he lost horribly. It's a big reason Yamcha left and Vegeta and I got closer," Mom said, telling her story with a slight tear or two.
"Well that's one way to look at it. Tell you what Mom, I'll help you out with the chores. Just leave a list behind for stuff to do during the day, assuming Vegeta doesn't stick me in the gravity room all day. I can try to help out a little if I'm going to be staying here for who knows how long," I proposed.
"That's okay sweetie, that's why I have the robot maids. They just never do a good job on dishes because there are so many and their joints get stiff," Mom explained, grabbing the last dish, "But thanks for offering, I really do appreciate it, now run along. Vegeta would probably blow you away if he saw you slaving away at the sink," Mom said, giving me a little shove. I smiled and left her with her stack of clean dishes.
Strolling through the halls, I found Trunks in the lounge, but he had all kinds of toys out in front of the TV. Curiosity struck at the worst time and I entered to observe the TV show he was so into.
The answer came to me when Trunks held up a red and white ball and shouted in sync with the TV, "Pikichu, I choose you!" I quickly walked right back out and paled slightly, No, tell me that's not him and Goten's favorite show. Please, anything but that!
That answer came quickly, along with the loud sound of static, "No! Why does the cable have to go out in the middle of my favorite show? That's so not fair!" Trunks shouted. We now mercifully return you to our regularly scheduled timeline, have a nice day. I turned from the scene and went back up to my room and got an early sleep, seeing as I'd be up early anyway.