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 Starcraft or any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.
Chapter 6: Bigger Problem
We flew back to Capsule corp. quickly, as Videl seemed to be fuming about being asked to leave her dad's own water park, despite the fact that Trunks and Goten had trashed it a bit. But she didn't seem angry with us, just at the park officials. After we landed, Videl demanded we all take a bath to wash out the chlorine. Gohan took off right afterwards, saying he would be back tomorrow and had to get home to study. After she bathed Goten and Trunks, she shot me that angry stare and pointed to the bathroom as well. The boys snickered slightly, dressed quickly and rushed downstairs for their favorite show that I don't care to mention. Videl came in and slammed the door, startling me in the bathtub.
"Something wrong Videl?" I dared ask.
"I can't believe those people!" she screeched, reaching for the shampoo. Looks like I'm the target listener of the venting, wonderful…
"Well, they actually asked us to leave. They kinda wanted you to stay," I said, my voice a little unsteady.
"It's not that, I expected that. It was the people that came up to me whenever you guys weren't around. Sharpner was only the first one, calling you guys freaks of nature and dangerous aliens and all kinds of crap like that!" she screeched again as I winced slightly. Boy, she is really screaming her head off now, I dared to think out while my ears rang.
I shrugged it off, "Well, we're not exactly normal, I suppose. I was really hoping that they would at least understand us a bit better now after Buu, guess I was wrong."
"Now don't you talk like that, it's their own fault that they're so thick headed. You're not to blame, they are! Why do you think I kicked Sharpner so hard in the nuts, I was stopping him before you did something about it. Then when he grabbed your tail, I figured it would save some looks if I were the one who gave him the toss for calling you a freak, but they still kept it up after that. You probably didn't notice but I could tell just by looking around. Hell, even Erasa slapped the shit out of him when he dared to show his face again. How do you guys put up with that?"
I dared to breathe again once she was done ranting for a few seconds and then attempted to reassure her, "Simple, we have Vegeta to scare them away. This is what Gohan meant by Goten and Trunks not being the masters of control." I apparently didn't say it reassuring enough, as she got even angrier.
Videl gritted her teeth, "So it was a mistake taking you guys there today?" I sensed her extreme anger, but sadness behind it.
"No no," I stood up and held her shoulders with my wet hands, "It was a great time, it really was. It's just hard to hide our powers sometimes. You are right about something though, I would have done something rather, bad. Had Sharpner kept it up, well, I'm glad you saved me the trouble," I said, hopefully calming her down a little bit.
It worked a little too well as she smiled back, "Oh well thank you, I might reconsider asking the dragon to make you older again. Keep it up sweet talker!" She leaned forward unexpectedly and gave me a peck on the cheek. Should of known that line was coming, she's an unbelievable tease. I rubbed it off slightly, causing her to laugh before she squirted shampoo into my hair. I turned back around and sat in the water, letting her scrub my hair.
"Are you really serious about being older again Verto?" Videl asked after a few minutes.
"I said I wouldn't mind, but I wouldn't want to waste a wish on it. I don't mind being a kid again, and being an adult was literally a pain at times. But I can wait to grow up, I'll have to anyway," I said sternly.
"Aw, and I was hoping to have some fun before I settled down with anyone. Namely Gohan, poo!"
I smirked at her dismay, "Sorry Videl, you're gonna have to live with me this way for awhile!" I heard muffled sounds over by the door, like someone was out there. I did a quick scan, seeing it was the boys quickly moving downstairs.
"Okay, stand up so I can do the front!" Videl said, smiling. I groaned, I don't care if I am a kid, this is still embarrassing!
Interlude 6.1 –Scheming-
Trunks and Goten sat with their ears to the door of the bathroom. They were really hoping that Videl was mad at Verto, but frowned when she wasn't. They did however hear them talking about making Verto older again. Right afterwards, Goten stumbled, dropping Trunks to the ground from his shoulders. They quickly rushed downstairs again, the commercial break was almost over.
"Goten, I have a plan to make him older, you wanna do it?" Trunks asked.
"But I thought he said he didn't want to be older again, and the dragonballs won't be ready for three more months!"
"No, not by using the dragonballs! We don't have to wait that long, and I wanna do it so Videl falls in love with him and makes Gohan mad. Then he's toast for sure!"
"But how Trunks?" Goten asked.
"I know, my grandpa made something that reverses or advances age in all living things. All we have to do is use that!" Trunks claimed.
"You mean we could make him a baby or an old man? I say baby, then we don't have to deal with him!" Goten pouted.
"No dummy, make him a teenager just as old as Videl and Gohan are. She already likes him a lot, this is just taking another step! Even if his power increases a little and he comes after us we can always fuse!" Trunks explained to his absent-minded friend.
"Oh I get it, when do we do it?"
"We can get the device tonight but he'll probably be on guard. We do it tomorrow right after breakfast when he doesn't expect it! He won't even see it coming!" Trunks said as they both laughed sadistically.
-
"I'm afraid I still don't understand this bonding thing," Videl said, washing my back.
"And I do? Ask Vegeta when he gets back," I said as she dumped a glass of water over my head to rinse it.
"There, all done!" She wrapped a towel around me and held tightly to dry the water off.
"Videl, did you forget already?" I asked, powering up slightly to dry the water off.
"Oh yeah, man I need to learn how to do that!" she said with a frown.
"Yeah, let's get some dinner rolling!" I said with enthusiasm. I entered my room and threw on sweat pants and a blue shirt, coming down a half minute later.
As I passed the living room, Trunks and Goten were jumping up and down to the tune of "Pikachu, I choose you!"
"Ugh, let me see that rat for real, just once," I muttered as I went by. I entered the kitchen and found Videl was barking out orders to the robots, who were running around frantically, preparing dinner somewhere in the midst. I elected to stay out of the swarm until it was close to done.
As the food started to pile on the table, Videl sucked up a big breath, "BOYS, DINNER!" Two blurs instantly entered, taking their place and shoveling down food. I joined in a second later, causing Videl to grimace slightly at the sight. The robots barely kept up with the food and cleanup process, though they didn't have much of a head start today. I stretched out in the chair after finishing, satisfied more with the meal filling me up rather than the taste of it.
"Don't you have any shame?" Videl moaned slightly.
"About as much as your father," I blurted out before I could really think that over. CLANG! Ow, that got the blood flowing. Note to self, be extra careful when losing control of both mouth and thought from now on around Videl. Trunks and Goten had started laughing, but before I got smacked with the pan, thus earning them a free headache. Taking my losses, I got up, still holding my head slightly.
"Well, I'm going to hit the sack early tonight, we didn't exactly get a good rest last night," I said, still a bit sore from that whole ordeal with Twenty-one.
Everyone stopped moving, "But you never go to bed early, aren't you staying up to make sure we don't get in trouble?" Trunks asked.
"What's the use, you find a way to do it anyway," I said on my way to the stairs. That wasn't my real reason for leaving. I did want to get to bed, but I had a lot to think about. I reached my room a few minutes later, shutting the door and losing my shirt. Lying on the bed, I turned on my music player, loading up the randomizer. I'll fly out to see Vegeta in the morning. I have to know what the hell is going on with me and Videl. I didn't have the music that loud, but it was loud enough to not notice someone come in as I stared at the ceiling. Videl stood over me with a worried expression written all over her face.
"You left early because of me didn't you?" she asked. I snapped back into reality when she said that, turning off my music.
"What makes you say that? I'm just tired," I said in slight denial.
"You can't lie worth a damn and you know it, what's wrong?" she asked again, sitting on the side of the bed.
"I'm going to fly out to speak with Vegeta in the morning. I want to know if something somehow happened between the two of us. Vegeta told me that the mating bond is not complete until, conjugation, and that only one can be formed per person at a time. Which does not make sense because you and Gohan already have one going. The only way to stop one according to him is if the male dies or if there's some sort of separation ceremony," I said slowly. The look of horror that Videl had on her face made me regret saying that, she broke into a nasty crying session.
"You're wrong, were just good friends that's all! Don't you even think about killing yourself for me or Gohan! You hear me young man? Don't even think it!" Videl shouted as she grabbed a hold of my shoulders and shook them a little bit. The look of fear in her eye told me to just stop talking. I rose to a sitting position and let her hug me, patting her back slightly.
"Don't worry, that won't happen, I would never do anything like that to hurt you Videl," I whispered.
"You better not," she sniffed slightly, squeezing me a little hard before letting go.
-
As Videl left my room after drying her eyes, I felt sick for making her feel so bad. I slowly sagged off to sleep while playing with my tail a little bit out of boredom. In the middle of the night, I thought I heard an alarm go off, but I was in too deep a sleep to care. I awoke with the sun just rising out of the east, noticed that the clock said six-thirty. I yawned and stretched slightly, before the memory of last night poured back into me. I trudged downstairs, walking through the still silent house. It was Sunday, meaning no employees would be here today, not that there were that many in this building anymore. Dr. Briefs moved most of them over to the other building once it was done, and only a few labs remained active. Mom's private lab and the old west wing were a few examples. I walked along to the living room, seeing the TV was on. I saw Videl lying on the couch, passed out. I shut the TV off, the morning run of kiddy shows were just coming on anyway. I stood by the couch, watching Videl sleep. She really did look just as beautiful when she slept as she did when she was awake.
Oh Verto, how pathetic are you, making her worry about you killing yourself when you were just trying to prevent her liking you too much. You should just take things as they come, not what they are supposedly going to be, my inner voice of reason said. And it was right, I had nothing to lose if she liked me more than she liked Gohan, it was still just like a big sister relationship. I almost started to cry just recalling what I had blurted out that made her panic. I sat down in front of the couch, cursing myself for my stupidity.
"Forget it, screw the stupid bond crap Vegeta talked about. If that's even what it is. Maybe it's just something she can do as a martial artist. Even if it isn't, who cares? If that's the way it is then too bad! It's not like were upstairs screwing each other's brains out. It wouldn't work anyway, just be a good friend to her," I whispered.
"Ya know, that is about the smartest thing I've ever heard you say," Videl muttered.
I scowled, "You were supposed to be asleep."
"Can't sleep when I have people talking about me right in front of my face," she said real smoothly.
"Oh I see," I replied. She sat up on the couch, only to put her hands under my shoulders and hoist me up there with her.
"Well, sorry for upsetting you last night. I didn't mean it to come out the way it did," I said, keeping my eyes forward.
"You're really sweet when you apologize you know that?" she cooed, playing with my tail that swishing around behind me. I sensed a certain two terrors start to stir and I got off the couch.
"The demons will be down in a sec, I'm gonna get the robots cooking breakfast," I said sharply, but the sense I got from her was better than it was last night. Walking down the hall, I punched in the alarm code to deactivate it, and then punched in a code for an instant breakfast to start up. Instantly the robots started swarming everywhere, prepping pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast, and whatever else came with breakfast for the day. Just as the food began to be placed, the devils walked through the kitchen doorway. What the hell, they walked in here? They sat down sleepily, barely awake from what I could tell.
"Late night?" I asked with a grin.
"Yeah a little," Trunks mumbled.
"Well nothing looks destroyed, let's keep it that way," I said though he barely noticed. He brightened up once the food appeared in front of him, the stomach taking over him. Goten and I joined in as Videl walked in. I hauled down about thirty pancakes and uncountable amounts of eggs and bacon, and whatever else ended up on my plate. The boys nearly choked as usual with theirs, but they got up and excused themselves, something I had never seen before.
"What did you do, invite Chichi over?" I asked.
"No, I didn't do anything," Videl said, just as shocked as I was. The doorbell rang, and Trunks was already there to answer it in the lobby.
"Oh boy, better get in there," I said, jumping up from my polished off meal, Videl chased after.
The door slammed just as we arrived, "Another stupid sales guy," he muttered.
"What did he want?" I asked, not that I truly cared.
"Something about some Jehovah dude's witness or something," he said, walking over to the couch where Goten sat. I noticed Goten was having a little trouble holding a straight face for some reason, but didn't pay much heed.
"So what is the plan today?" I asked Videl, since she was technically in charge.
"Dunno, it's not supposed to be a nice day. So just stay inside figure something out. What do you guys want to do?" she asked the boys.
"We want to do something for you big brother! Will you let us?" Trunks asked, a bit eagerly.
I lifted an eyebrow, "What is it?"
"It's a surprise!" Goten said, backing up his partner. I hate it when they do this.
"Okay, out with it, what did you two do? Or want to do?" I asked, closed my eyes and holding out my hands. Closing my eyes turned out to be a bad idea.
"Trunks, what is that?" I heard Videl ask. I opened my eyes to see some sort of device in Trunks' hands. It was a pretty good size, and highly technological, and I did recognize it as a Dr. Briefs invention. It resembled a shotgun with a single barrel, only the lights and tubes covering it said otherwise.
"What is that Trunks?" Videl repeated.
"It's grandpa's, it's really cool! It can make things older or younger, watch!" he said, turning the dial. Its the Ionic Pulser, how the hell did he get a hold of it?
"Trunks, don't even think about firing that thing, no don't!" I screamed the last part because he did fire it, straight at me. The beam hit and had an instant effect, and I started to glow all over. The first thing I noticed while I was screaming is that my tail grew a bit longer. Then my insides started to burn a little bit, but overall didn't hurt that much, still irritating though. I heard fabric start to tear, and discovered my shirt had just ripped to shreds, and so did my shoes. My pants were Saiyan style spandex, so they wouldn't rip easily. All of the muscles in my body bulged slightly, growing in size. The room started to shrink a little bit, but my vision was distorted by the heavy glow I was emitting. The glow finally quit, but my body shuddered some more, a heavy doze of dizziness hit my head as the room spun slightly. I opened my eyes and looked around before standing up. Trunks and Goten were cowering next to the wall in fear, they looked quite a bit smaller. Videl stood behind me, she looked a bit shorter too, and her jaw was shuddering open and closed at a high rate of speed.
"What?" I asked, noticing my voice had changed dramatically.
"Da, da, da, dude, my brother looks really cool nine years older! But at least he's still gonna be short!" Trunks said in some sort of celebration. I glanced over at a nearby mirror, and face faulted at my reflection. I was bigger, and older, my hair was sticking almost all the way up like Vegeta's except two sharp bangs still hovered over my face, very similar to Gohan's. My pants were slightly torn around the legs despite being spandex, my shirt and shoes in shreds as well. My head was spinning a hundred miles per second, and now I had conflicting thoughts that felt like they were taking over. I noticed Trunks was still holding the Pulsar at his side.
"Trunks, change me back right now. That thing is unpredictable," I said sharply, no doubt my voice sounded more like Vegeta now, scaring him shitless. Goten stopped him and whispered in his ear, causing him to smirk.
"No, I think you look better this way!" Trunks said in defiance. I growled instinctively, causing fear to lighten in his eyes.
"Change me back right now," I repeated, adding a rise in my ki level at the same time. Trunks set down the pulsar, and then held out his palm as if to destroy it.
"No, I don't feel like it." Something inside me snapped at him once he said this. My patience was already thin as it was, and now it had been wiped out. My ki rose impossibly high, and I let my anger fuel me, turning Super Saiyan right away and taking it up to full power. When I did this, the room shook very violently, and the boys had never looked so scared since the Buu fight. When I finally calmed enough to notice how high my power was, I nearly choked myself. And this is without my moon change or Kaioken, guess I did have something to look forward to, and no training to boot.
I powered down to normal and tried a calmer and more subtle method, "Trunks, please turn me back now."
He snickered again, "Nope sorry, and if you try to get the gun, I'll blow it up!" I felt a sudden urge to either eat raw meat of an animal. That or pound Trunks into the ground, then fry him and eat the remains as a substitute. The only thing that stopped all my raging emotions was Videl. She wasn't helping them though.
She had remained silent to the whole thing, "Hey, calm down, we'll turn you back later. Just stay like this for the day, sound like a deal Trunks?"
He was all smiles, "Yeah that's perfect!"
"Okay, go watch TV boys, let him adjust a bit first. Then maybe you two can fuse and have a good sparring match or something," she said, pointing to the hallway. Trunks bounded off with the Pulser in hand, Goten right after him. I heard a sharp crash a few seconds later, followed by a small pop.
"Trunks, you broke it!"
"Ugh," I stood with my head sagging down, until a hand turned it upwards.
"Hey, it's not all that bad! Well you were wishing to be older a lot, looks like they caught on," she giggled slightly. I sat down on the couch, head held in my hands. I wanted to cry, but I was too angry for it. I still felt like crap though, even as Videl tried to coax me down, but it was no use. Something in my head was going haywire and nothing felt right, and it was starting to drive me mad with mixed feelings about everything. I was quickly learning that going through puberty in ten seconds was not the best thing in the world, especially the aftermath.
"Well, what should we do then?" Videl asked after I was done moping around.
"What can we do," I replied, sounding really pathetic and I knew it.
"Well we could see what Gohan is doing. Wait a sec, well you promised a date with me right? Now it'll be even better! Now we can spend a day together for real!" At least she is happy.
"I meant about the whole age thing, he just broke it and the only one who can fix it is Dr. Briefs! That's if he can!" I said in anger, not directed at her though.
"We just wait and see what your mum says I guess, don't really have much choice do we?" Videl asked with an arm holding my upper back a little tighter to help calm me a bit. A ki level showed up outside a half second later, belonging to Gohan.
"Great, here comes the fun," I muttered while Videl opened the door.
"Hey Gohan, um, we kinda need your help. Funny you should show up now," she laughed a little.
"Yeah, I sensed a high power level go up over here but it calmed down pretty quick. It felt almost as high as Gotenks. I came over to see what was going on, and.." he stopped when he saw me on the couch. His jaw quivered, not that I could blame him, I was still shocked about it.
His first words were expected, "WHAT THE HELL?!"
"Do you really have to ask?" I grumbled.
"But how, or what, oh geez! What happened?" he stuttered. Yep, gonna be a long day.