AN: Hello again, friends. We're back with yet another chapter. Joy of joys, right? I hope everyone's still enjoying my little tale. I do have a few things left to throw in this story—one of which I'm still working out the details of, but it should provide some opportunities for humor. Trust me. ^^ Anyhoo, on we go. I don't own Dragonball Z. Never have, never will…*sniff*…*SOB!*
Chapter Eighteen—The Prank, Part III
A week had passed since the interesting night on which Gohan had miraculously been returned to his eighteen year old self in order to attend his senior prom. And it had been one week since Gohan had woken up to discover that this metamorphosis was only a Cinderella story, and he had been returned to his seven year old state. He was definitely not very happy about this turn of events, but he didn't feel right complaining. After all, he was just grateful that he had been able to attend the prom at all!
So now he was back at home, back to what had become a normal routine: wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, go outside with Goten for a while, come home, study, eat lunch, study, go see Piccolo, get into trouble with Goten and/or Trunks, get smacked with the frying pan, eat dinner, study, go to bed. Occasionally, he would go to Capsule Corporation and spar with Vegeta or work with Bulma on some project or whatnot, as his brain was still eighteen and as fully a genius as his eighteen year old self. And on a few occasions, he had make visits to the Kame House to see Krillen and Master Roshi and the rest of the gang residing therein. But for the most part, his life was fairly routine.
And there were those other times, those times when he could just break free and fly away or go be by himself or something. Those were the times he loved best, when he could truly be a child and not have to worry about anything at all.
But every once in a while, something would come up in which Gohan would be required to use his full eighteen year old mentality and come up with a plan of some kind. Usually, a plan destined to cause annoyance, anger, and/or embarassment to a certain Prince of all Saiyans in retaliation for said Prince of all Saiyans having inflicted some kind of mild torture to Gohan.
After all, turnabout was fair play, right?
Like this morning, for example. Gohan had gone to Capsule Corporation to see Bulma and the others. He had been eager to fill them in on the success of his prom (leaving out a few mild details, of course), but this was the first chance he'd had to get over there.
Naturally, Bulma was delighted at the news that he had miraculously transformed back for a night and been able to attend the big night. Trunks, who was acting like his father at that moment, had wanted to know what exactly had transpired between Gohan and Videl, but Gohan had brushed off the subtly disguised interrogations and continued his conversation with Bulma.
Unfortunately, Vegeta was not so easily dissuaded as Trunks had been. The Saiyan Prince was hanging around, making all sorts of inappropriate, suggestive, and, for the most part, untrue comments about what Gohan might have done that night. Apparently, he was in a very aggressive mood, for not even the threat of Bulma's Frying Pan of Doom and Terror *insert theme music here* could make him stop. By the time he left, Gohan was shaking with barely suppressed rage and mild embarassment.
He already knew what had to be done. And his genius mind was already hard at work, formulating a cruel, devilish, devious, and altogether delicious plan.
Things had been awfully quiet around here as of late. It was time to disturb the peace again. And fortunately, he had the perfect battle plan already laid out carefully in his mind.
It was time to summon another meeting of the Order of the Prank. Which was also the Frying Pan Support Group on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and even Fridays.
*~*~*~*
The meeting had been hurriedly called, so the usual long, dark green robes and candles had been forgone just this once. They just didn't have time to go get them and get everything set up. There was too much work to do to waste any time on such trivial things.
They met around the circular table, as usual. Gohan quickly and carefully outlined his plan to his fellow conspirators. They drank in his words like a religious zealot would drink in holy writ. There was an unholy glee written quite plainly in their wide eyes.
"Gohan, my dad was right," Trunks said with an admiring sigh when Gohan had finished. "You really are the spawn of Satan."
"But…" Goten scratched his head in confusion, "I thought our dad's name was Goku."
Trunks rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"Anyway," Gohan said, calling their attention back to the matter at hand, "we must prepare for the next phase of our Supremely Amazingly Wonderfully Groovily Awesome Master Plan."
Three identically evil smiles were painted comfortably on three young faces.
*~*~*~*
The Prince of all Saiyans marched loudly through the hallways of the Capsule Corporation complex. As always, he made certain that the whole world knew of his impending arrival. But that's how he always walked around. And if you didn't know that by now, you haven't been reading the story very carefully, now have you?
Yes, it was mealtime, and Vegeta was off to the kitchen in search of something even remotely edible—in other words, something the woman hadn't tried to cook. Then he would return to his regularly scheduled activity—you guessed it—training.
But then he heard it. The faintest hint of sound. A voice, whispering something nearby.
He stopped dead in his tracks. His ears were on the fullest alert, listening intently for any further sounds. Since Kakarott Brat Numero Uno had been chibified, Vegeta's life had gotten a whole lot more complicated. He hadn't had a moment's peace, between the brat coming over to see the woman and the brat working together with the other two brats to pull prank after prank on the mighty Saiyan warrior.
And with all of that going on, Vegeta had become a little paranoid. At the first sign that something might be up, he went into full defensive mode. His eyes narrowed and glanced around furtively, searching for any glimpse of the trouble-making brats, but he saw nothing. He opened a mental eye and checked for their ki signatures—even the brats, in all their cleverness, couldn't possibly mask those…right?
Right. There they were.
Outside.
That meant he was safe.
For now, anyway.
But that was good enough for Vegeta at the moment. He was hungry, and the call of his enormous Saiyan appetite dwarfed everything else. Even the possibility that maybe, just maybe, a couple of vengeful and ingenius children…er, brats, where trying to get into position to do something extremely treacherous, or pull some incredibly brilliant prank on him. Even Vegeta would admit that the practical jokes were absolutely genius. Of course, he would never admit it out loud, but hey, he would admit it.
Once he reached the kitchen, he peered around. No sign of any trouble makers. Good. He crossed the room to the fridge, but paused with one gloved hand poised on the handle. With a patience and caution that was extremely unnatural for him, the Saiyan eased the refrigerator door open a few inches and peered inside. No beady eyes peered back at him, and there were no flicking tongues or scaly bodies destroying the food. Yup, it was safe. The only thing in the fridge was food.
It didn't take too terribly long for Vegeta to make his selections—he pulled everything out save for the bottle of vinegar at the back and the box of baking soda. Then he lugged this light snack over to the table, which buckled beneath the weight of so much food. He dug in; it took about twenty minutes for him to devour an amount of food that would have fed lunch to a small army.
Somewhat satisfied, the proud Saiyan left the mess on the table and stalked back towards his treasured Gravity Room. Let the woman or one of the underlings clean up after him.
*~*~*~*
"This is so good!" Trunks commented happily as they finished preparations for the next phase of their pranks against Vegeta, their Supremely Humongously Elephantically Brilliant Plan. And this newest stage was definitely one of their more interesting ones.
"Thanks," Gohan grinned back as he double-checked their stockpile. This had taken a little bit of set up, but it was all going to be worth it in the long run.
Goten piped up then. "Gohan, it's really gonna suck when you gotta go back to being a grown up again, 'cause then you can't help us with this stuff anymore!"
"I know," the teenaged chibi replied, "but hey, we'll have as much fun as we can while it lasts."
"Shhh!!!" Trunks whispered frantically, cutting off their conversation. "He's coming!"
*~*~*~*
Vegeta walked confidently out of the large dome that was Capsule Corporation, his mind intently going through plans for the complicated training exercises he was soon to inflict upon himself. So deep in thought was he that he lapsed a tiny bit in his alertness, and stopped really paying attention. He also somehow managed to forget that there were three devious children who really had it in for him, and were taking a lot of pleasure in making him miserable.
He remembered, though, a whole two seconds after walking outside.
More specifically, he remembered after something hit him in the head. Actually, a few something. Actually, a small barrage of somethings. A small barrage of somethings that left him soaked from the tip of his flame-shaped hair to the toes of his boots. By the time the assault stopped, dozens of little, brightly colored pieces of something littered the ground around me; an equal number was decorating his hair, like ornaments on a Christmas tree.
The proud Saiyan whirled and glared up into the sky, where three chibis were hovering, grinning in complete and total victory.
"What's the matter, Vegeta?" Gohan laughed. "Don't you like water balloons?"
Vegeta opened his mouth to yell something when he became aware of a distinct odor coming from somewhere nearby. He sniffed again, and nearly passed out from the awful stench. It smelled like rotting flowers strewn on top of a pile of wet garbage. It was the most revolting thing he had ever smelled.
And it was coming from…
…him.
"Brat," he snarled through clenched teeth, "what was in those Kami-damned things?"
Gohan grinned, though his hands were starting to shake. "Well…we wanted to be original. Anybody can make an ordinary water balloon! So we filled our water balloons with perfume!"
At this point, Vegeta completely lost his temper. "YOU STUPID *beep beep beep beep beep beep beep* *censored censored censored* HEAD!!!!!" he roared in blind fury at the chibis in the sky. Then he launched into the sky at them.
A moment later, Bulma appeared. "Vegeta, what have I told you about killing the kids?"
At the sound of his mate's voice, the proud Saiyan landed and glared at her. "Oh, I have a very good reason to kill those disgusting brats!"
As he raged, Bulma suddenly sniffed the air, and nearly retched. That was vile! "Vegeta, what the HFIL did you get into? That's awful!"
"The brats did this," he glowered towards the sky, at the place where the chibis had last been. They had taken Bulma's interruption as the prized opportunity that it was, and had flown the coop, headed for parts unknown.
"Oh, good gods! That's gross!" the blue-haired beauty covered her mouth and nose with her hand and stumbled backwards. "Go take a shower or something! Please!"
Still fuming with barely suppressed rage, he stormed off towards the bathroom; in his wake, the smell permeated the whole building. It was thoroughly disgusting.
Even more disgusting was the fact that the shower really didn't do much, if any, good. It only dampened the stench a tiny bit. Nothing worked against the nauseating smell.
Vegeta would smell like rotten flowers for a week following the incident. On Bulma's orders…ah, request, he was confined to the Gravity Room until the smell disappeared.
But, alas for the poor chibis, they were not to get off so easily, either. They had gone to the Son household to formulate some kind of an escape plan that would probably involve them running off to live in the wilderness for a few days, or at least until Vegeta's ki level returned to normal.
Unfortunately, Bulma had possessed the presence of mind to call ChiChi and alert her to the latest in a long line of pratical jokes being perpetrated against the Prince of the Saiyan race. So the Son family matriarch was ready and waiting when they landed in front of her little home.
"Where have you been?" she asked amiably, not betraying her knowledge.
"Capsule Corp," Gohan said cheerfully.
"Doing what?"
"Nothing."
"That's not what Bulma said when she called a few minutes ago."
Gohan, Goten, and Trunks all went deathly pale. Then, if such a thing was even possible, they went a few shades lighter when ChiChi reached behind her back. They all cringed as they waited for her to pull out the Frying Pan of Doom and proceed to deliver their punishment.
But to their surprise, she pulled out not a frying pan, but a small black object. It was about eight inches long and maybe an inch or so in diameter. There was a small button on the side, but otherwise, it looked like just some strange black tube thing.
The three children let out visible signs of relief. They weren't going to be thwapped after all!
The relief died in a heartbeat when ChiChi pressed the button. A beam of bright green light shot out of the black tube and formed itself into the shape of a frying pan. She lowered herself into a fighting stance and gripped the black tube in both hands, holding it up in preparation to strike. *insert Star Wars theme music here*
Then, with deadly accuracy, she struck, and the chibis fell.
Once the punishment had been meted out, she pushed the button again, and the light disappeared. The black tube was returned to the astral pocket.
Humming to herself, ChiChi walked over, picked up the phone, and dialed a number. Three rings later, Bulma answered in a voice that was somewhat clamer. "Capsule Corporation. Bulma speaking."
"Hey, Bulma. I got 'em," ChiChi said cheerfully. "And hey, thanks for letting me test out this new light saber frying pan of yours. It works like a charm."
AN: End chapter. Poor Veggie. He's so fun. I've still got a few more prank chapters to go, and eventually, there will be a frying pan support group. Speaking of frying pans, kudos to my friends Rachel and Brandon for giving me the idea for the frying pan light saber. Praise them, I say! Hehe…
Next time, on Once Upon a Chibi, oh no! There's a bank robbery in progress in downtown Satan City! Who will stop these perpetrators from harming any innocent civilians? Three guesses…that's righ! The city's favorite superhero is back!