Scars – Chapter 27
Goku led Vegeta out of Capsule Corps and away from the city. He really wanted a good spar today, and he expected they'd need some room. Vegeta didn't always agree to fight with him. Sometimes he'd be in a weird mood. He'd say things like 'get lost Kakarot, I've got better things to do than waste my time with you,' and Goku would train alone. But it was rare that Vegeta would refuse a flat out challenge. Goku had to agree with that one, he was the same way. Being headstrong is apparently a shared quality among saiyajins, no matter where they grow up.
The area he selected was remote and dusty. The sunlight was harsh on the sand, and there weren't any cliffs or rock formations left standing. Only craters and strange marks in the sand to indicate blasts and impacts from past battles. The place seemed filled with the energies of both warriors. They were the only ones who'd ever fought in this place. Neither of them really thought about it, but they were both stirred by an inexplicable sense of violence when they gathered together here. It was natural. Vegeta understood it better than Goku, but Goku succumbed to it just as readily as the prince. The hair on the backs of both Vegeta's and Goku's necks stood and they raised their energies, backing apart from one another and sliding into battle stance.
Goku's brows lowered with determination. Vegeta's face became a mask of concentration, and both warriors moved to attack one another at the same time, their fists contacting with a crack that rattled off the bare and sandy horizon, and sent pain spasming up both of their arms. They drew back, determinedly striking out at one another yet again, only to suffer the same consequences. Their fists smashed crushingly together as a gust of sand blew up to sting Goku's eyes.
Vegeta's teeth were grit with concentration. It would be foolish for the same thing to happen a third time. It would be ridiculous if he bothered to pause and point this out to his opponent. When Goku rushed him next, the prince sidestepped and smashed Goku in the back of the head with a tense arm, initiating the rage he so loved to provoke in the idiot saiyajin. Kakarot was much more respectable when he was pissed off. Vegeta felt pain in his back as Goku counterattacked and lashed out at him. He twisted in time to catch the taller man's next attack and push it off course. Goku turned this defensive tactic into a bad move for the prince, as he pulled Vegeta with him off balance and flung the prince into the dirt. Vegeta rolled and sprang back to his feet, a smirk on his lips as he felt his chest rising and falling quickly. A sweat was breaking out on his face. He saw darkness in Goku's eyes and felt the desire to battle rising strongly in himself. This desire was mirrored severely by Goku's black expression.
Goku lashed out at Vegeta again, driving into him with a knee, which nearly connected, but was quickly dodged.
"You'll have to do better than that, Kakarot," Vegeta taunted, sweeping the younger saiyajin quickly off balance. Goku caught his balance with his ki, flying into the air and depositing himself on the ground on the other side of Vegeta. The prince turned in time to receive Goku's next attack expectantly. They played like this for an hour or so, until Vegeta was forced into Super by Goku's repeated volleys of ki blasts. He needed the Super Saiyajin speed in order to deflect all of the blasts. Goku also transformed, And it seemed, that for once, he would simply not let Vegeta even slightly ahead. Goku was in a downright awful mood by this point, and battling, which normally made him relax inside, and feel normal and level, was escalating his buried anger instead. Now our hero wasn't about to lose his control or anything silly like that, but he continued to outclass Vegeta with the repeated violence and fervent harshness with which he attacked, until, several hours later, found the pair twisting high in the sky, invisible to everything but the glaring sunlight. It beat down on their browned flesh, which was covered in scrapes and welts and grains of sand that clung to the sweat on their skin. Goku wasn't looking too worse for wear, but Vegeta was being hammered repeatedly on this sunny cloudless day. He was smashed to the ground by the angry Earth-raised saiyajin, who flew after him, intent on knocking him down when he got up again. Vegeta didn't get up. He only barely dodged Goku's knee (which rushed at him from the cover of the glaring sunlight), rolling out of the way and back to his feet. He fell down again, and the sound of blood bubbling in his lungs caused Goku to grind to a halt, frowning.
"Why didn't you tell me I broke your ribs Vegeta? Jeeze Bulma's gonna be ticked at me...." Goku panted, squinting in the sunlight. He was decidedly unsatisfied, he still felt the wrathful vehemence in him demanding satisfaction, but he was, as always, in complete control of himself, and he powered down, putting a hand on his hip
"I can go get you a senzu bean if Korin has any, and we can spar more. I'll be right back." Goku raised two fingers to his forehead, but Vegeta collapsed into the sand, blood bubbling form between his lips before Goku could do anything else. He sighed and went over to the prince, scooping him up, and IT-ing with him back to CC.
He brought them to the gravity chamber, and deposited Vegeta on the floor, heading to the lockers and getting the first aid kit. His anger was crawling back inside of him easily enough, it generally did. Goku set everything out that he'd need to wrap Vegeta's ribs, and he scooped the unconscious man up, taking him into the locker area. He removed Vegeta's clothes, and his own, and took him into the shower, cleaning himself and then rinsing the blood and sand off his prince. He laid Vegeta on a bench and carefully wrapped his ribs, listening to the bubbling in his breaths. Just one lung, he would be fine. He wondered why Vegeta had passed out. He frowned, leaving him there and poking through the lockers for some clothing. He found a spare spandex thingy for the prince, and left it beside him. For himself, he managed to secure some gray sweatpants that he'd left in the chamber for whatever reason at some point, and forgotten about. Goku put the pants on, and sat on the bench by Vegeta's feet, his mind drifting to Gohan. He felt his tummy twist, and just remembering the feeling, he immediately thought about Goten's freak-out the night before. It worried him terribly that his little boy had to suffer something that Goku himself had no idea how to help him with. Frustrated, Goku left Vegeta unconscious on the bench, and went into the Chamber, turning up the gravity and beginning some further training, as he simply hadn't had enough just yet.
+++++++++++++++
Goten watched Mirai Trunks and his big brother walk away down the hall. He thought that the Big Trunks was strangely identical to the real Trunks, but at the same time, a lot... sweeter, and softer. It was probably a very good thing for his big brother that this other Trunks was here, and that they could be friends. He smiled, and when they disappeared, he turned the knob on Trunks' door, and was surprised to find it locked. "Hey, lemme in Trunks.... I stayed here so I wouldn't have to go to the mall! I know you like going, but if you don't wanna go, then neither do I! Open the door Trunks. Please?"
"Go away stupid, I don't wanna play with a dumb baby like you!" Trunks shouted at Goten from the other side of the locked door. Goten felt that Trunks was feeling curious and investigative, but that he was also deeply disturbed. He could feel that Trunks did want him to come in, but that he was really confused. Goten sighed, rolling his eyes. His best friend, despite being super smart, was really a dummy sometimes.
"I wanna play a game or something Trunks, I'm bored! Please can I come in if I promise to be real, real quiet and stuff? Like a mousie, you won't even know I'm there!"
There were some muffled noises, and the sound of Trunks cursing as he always did even though nobody else was allowed to curse so much no matter how old they were, and the door opened, and Trunks grabbed Goten's arm, yanking him inside and slamming the door shut. Trunks had the thick drapes over his windows pulled completely shut, and the lights were off, and his computer screen showed the encrypted screensaver, which Trunks used to keep Goten from poking around on it, even though Goten had never once tried to do so in the history of their friendship. Trunks was often paranoid about silly things like that. Just like he was always worried he might get sick, even though he never had. Goten was glad Trunks trusted him, because Trunks rarely gave his trust to anybody else.
Trunks gave Goten an irritated look "Chibi, I'm working on some important stuff. I don't want you to bother me, I don't even want you to be quiet and watch. I want you to leave me alone today."
Goten's face grew into a pout against his will and he sighed. "But Trunks.... there's nobody else to play with. What're you working on? I can be your assistant."
"No, you can't. It's a one-man job. Top-secret research. I'm compiling a database of information that is top-secret. You shouldda asked me first before you decided to stay. Go away, I don't want to play today."
Goten could feel all those scared thoughts and feelings stirring through his friend. He sighed, wishing Trunks wouldn't be so difficult. He would just have to be the same. He climbed onto Trunks' bed. "You won't even know I'm here."
"I already know you're here stupidhead, please Goten, just go away!" Trunks voice rose shrilly and in his frustration he climbed up on the bed and beside Goten, and kicked him off of it mercilessly. Goten hit the floor in surprise.
"OW! Trunks that hurt!"
"Yeah, not as much as it will if you don't leave!"
"Fine! I'm going... and I'm gonna tell your dad how much you like shopping and mint green and that you sleep with a big stupid stuffed animal like all the other babies! Meanie!" Goten stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind him. He didn't get very far, though, because Trunks opened it and ran after him, grabbing him around the middle and putting a hand over his mouth as he dragged him back into the darkened recesses of his bedroom. Trunks held Goten tight for a minute, and Goten could feel that he was scared and confused and upset, that he didn't want to let go. Goten twisted around in Trunks' grasp and gave him a nice warm hug, talking into his ear.
"I won't tell, I wasn't gonna tell... but you can't be mean to me like that. What's so scary Trunks...?"
"Goten..... I don't like it when you do that..... my feelings are mine, and you don't have any business doing.... doing.....whatever you do when you know them without me telling you. Just, shut up, ok? Don't say anything."
Trunks hid his face against Goten and struggled to understand why Goten always seemed to win their tiffs. He sighed and inhaled Goten's nice familiar smell, like cookies and shampoo. He started talking, even though he didn't really want to tell Goten this stuff, he did.
"I had a funny dream, and when I woke up this morning, uhm....don't tell anyone this... when I woke up there was white stuff on the sheets, and Little Trunks was standing up! And Mirai Trunks, he was there, cause I stayed in his room last night, and he told me that its supposed to happen. And... and he left and told me to figure it out. How to make Little Trunks go down. So.... I did. And there was this thing that happened.... I was in the shower, just me and Little Trunks, and I was thinking about my laptop, and it happened.... like... like a feeling as strong as if dad punched me, only it was a nice feeling, it made me want to...to....wiggle. and more white stuff came out of Little Trunks, not like pee, but from the same place as pee would come out, you know? And then Little Trunks was soft again, and all over I felt really nice and warm and sleepy. I fell asleep in the shower for a bit. And when I woke up I cleaned off and washed my hair and I didn't tell Mirai Trunks about it. I didn't tell anybody but you. This is a really big super top secret thing Goten, I'll send you to the next dimension in the most painful way I can think up if you ever tell anyone, got it?"
Goten nodded against Trunks. This had happened to him before, more than once, and held had the shivery punch feeling before too. He never really thought too much about it, but then again, Trunks was never even half as relaxed as Goten was. Goten put his arms around Trunks and hugged him "Don't worry, it happened to me before too."
Trunks pulled back, giving Goten an insulted look. "What??"
"It happened to me before, too."
"Why didn't you tell me Goten!?"
"'Cause, I didn't think it had anything to do with you Trunks."
"You shouldda told me! How long ago did it happen?"
"You mean the first time?"
"It can happen more than once??"
"Yeah, I do it like every day."
"Oh..." Trunks was not looking very impressed.
Goten sensed his friend's feeling of being oppressed, and he smiled. "The first time was a bit after I turned ten. I'm almost eleven now, my birthday's in a month and six days, don't forget!"
"Don't change the subject. This hasn't happened before, where you knew about something that I didn't know as much about. I read all about it in my computer and in the medical books, but I guess I missed some parts, I didn't know it cold happen more than once. Uhm.... look, this is really weird, lets just not talk about this anymore today. I wanna think about it by myself"
"Kay, do you think we can play a game, or spar, or do something cool? What're we gonna do today Trunks?"
Trunks was glad that the subject had been breached, and intensely relieved that the conversation was over with for now, He led Goten into his plot for spying on various targets throughout the day, a favourite pastime of Goten and Trunks'. He forgot about Little Trunks completely, and the pair enjoyed the rest of the morning, sneaking around and talking over mini-com units that Trunks had made out of walkie-talkies.
Goku led Vegeta out of Capsule Corps and away from the city. He really wanted a good spar today, and he expected they'd need some room. Vegeta didn't always agree to fight with him. Sometimes he'd be in a weird mood. He'd say things like 'get lost Kakarot, I've got better things to do than waste my time with you,' and Goku would train alone. But it was rare that Vegeta would refuse a flat out challenge. Goku had to agree with that one, he was the same way. Being headstrong is apparently a shared quality among saiyajins, no matter where they grow up.
The area he selected was remote and dusty. The sunlight was harsh on the sand, and there weren't any cliffs or rock formations left standing. Only craters and strange marks in the sand to indicate blasts and impacts from past battles. The place seemed filled with the energies of both warriors. They were the only ones who'd ever fought in this place. Neither of them really thought about it, but they were both stirred by an inexplicable sense of violence when they gathered together here. It was natural. Vegeta understood it better than Goku, but Goku succumbed to it just as readily as the prince. The hair on the backs of both Vegeta's and Goku's necks stood and they raised their energies, backing apart from one another and sliding into battle stance.
Goku's brows lowered with determination. Vegeta's face became a mask of concentration, and both warriors moved to attack one another at the same time, their fists contacting with a crack that rattled off the bare and sandy horizon, and sent pain spasming up both of their arms. They drew back, determinedly striking out at one another yet again, only to suffer the same consequences. Their fists smashed crushingly together as a gust of sand blew up to sting Goku's eyes.
Vegeta's teeth were grit with concentration. It would be foolish for the same thing to happen a third time. It would be ridiculous if he bothered to pause and point this out to his opponent. When Goku rushed him next, the prince sidestepped and smashed Goku in the back of the head with a tense arm, initiating the rage he so loved to provoke in the idiot saiyajin. Kakarot was much more respectable when he was pissed off. Vegeta felt pain in his back as Goku counterattacked and lashed out at him. He twisted in time to catch the taller man's next attack and push it off course. Goku turned this defensive tactic into a bad move for the prince, as he pulled Vegeta with him off balance and flung the prince into the dirt. Vegeta rolled and sprang back to his feet, a smirk on his lips as he felt his chest rising and falling quickly. A sweat was breaking out on his face. He saw darkness in Goku's eyes and felt the desire to battle rising strongly in himself. This desire was mirrored severely by Goku's black expression.
Goku lashed out at Vegeta again, driving into him with a knee, which nearly connected, but was quickly dodged.
"You'll have to do better than that, Kakarot," Vegeta taunted, sweeping the younger saiyajin quickly off balance. Goku caught his balance with his ki, flying into the air and depositing himself on the ground on the other side of Vegeta. The prince turned in time to receive Goku's next attack expectantly. They played like this for an hour or so, until Vegeta was forced into Super by Goku's repeated volleys of ki blasts. He needed the Super Saiyajin speed in order to deflect all of the blasts. Goku also transformed, And it seemed, that for once, he would simply not let Vegeta even slightly ahead. Goku was in a downright awful mood by this point, and battling, which normally made him relax inside, and feel normal and level, was escalating his buried anger instead. Now our hero wasn't about to lose his control or anything silly like that, but he continued to outclass Vegeta with the repeated violence and fervent harshness with which he attacked, until, several hours later, found the pair twisting high in the sky, invisible to everything but the glaring sunlight. It beat down on their browned flesh, which was covered in scrapes and welts and grains of sand that clung to the sweat on their skin. Goku wasn't looking too worse for wear, but Vegeta was being hammered repeatedly on this sunny cloudless day. He was smashed to the ground by the angry Earth-raised saiyajin, who flew after him, intent on knocking him down when he got up again. Vegeta didn't get up. He only barely dodged Goku's knee (which rushed at him from the cover of the glaring sunlight), rolling out of the way and back to his feet. He fell down again, and the sound of blood bubbling in his lungs caused Goku to grind to a halt, frowning.
"Why didn't you tell me I broke your ribs Vegeta? Jeeze Bulma's gonna be ticked at me...." Goku panted, squinting in the sunlight. He was decidedly unsatisfied, he still felt the wrathful vehemence in him demanding satisfaction, but he was, as always, in complete control of himself, and he powered down, putting a hand on his hip
"I can go get you a senzu bean if Korin has any, and we can spar more. I'll be right back." Goku raised two fingers to his forehead, but Vegeta collapsed into the sand, blood bubbling form between his lips before Goku could do anything else. He sighed and went over to the prince, scooping him up, and IT-ing with him back to CC.
He brought them to the gravity chamber, and deposited Vegeta on the floor, heading to the lockers and getting the first aid kit. His anger was crawling back inside of him easily enough, it generally did. Goku set everything out that he'd need to wrap Vegeta's ribs, and he scooped the unconscious man up, taking him into the locker area. He removed Vegeta's clothes, and his own, and took him into the shower, cleaning himself and then rinsing the blood and sand off his prince. He laid Vegeta on a bench and carefully wrapped his ribs, listening to the bubbling in his breaths. Just one lung, he would be fine. He wondered why Vegeta had passed out. He frowned, leaving him there and poking through the lockers for some clothing. He found a spare spandex thingy for the prince, and left it beside him. For himself, he managed to secure some gray sweatpants that he'd left in the chamber for whatever reason at some point, and forgotten about. Goku put the pants on, and sat on the bench by Vegeta's feet, his mind drifting to Gohan. He felt his tummy twist, and just remembering the feeling, he immediately thought about Goten's freak-out the night before. It worried him terribly that his little boy had to suffer something that Goku himself had no idea how to help him with. Frustrated, Goku left Vegeta unconscious on the bench, and went into the Chamber, turning up the gravity and beginning some further training, as he simply hadn't had enough just yet.
+++++++++++++++
Goten watched Mirai Trunks and his big brother walk away down the hall. He thought that the Big Trunks was strangely identical to the real Trunks, but at the same time, a lot... sweeter, and softer. It was probably a very good thing for his big brother that this other Trunks was here, and that they could be friends. He smiled, and when they disappeared, he turned the knob on Trunks' door, and was surprised to find it locked. "Hey, lemme in Trunks.... I stayed here so I wouldn't have to go to the mall! I know you like going, but if you don't wanna go, then neither do I! Open the door Trunks. Please?"
"Go away stupid, I don't wanna play with a dumb baby like you!" Trunks shouted at Goten from the other side of the locked door. Goten felt that Trunks was feeling curious and investigative, but that he was also deeply disturbed. He could feel that Trunks did want him to come in, but that he was really confused. Goten sighed, rolling his eyes. His best friend, despite being super smart, was really a dummy sometimes.
"I wanna play a game or something Trunks, I'm bored! Please can I come in if I promise to be real, real quiet and stuff? Like a mousie, you won't even know I'm there!"
There were some muffled noises, and the sound of Trunks cursing as he always did even though nobody else was allowed to curse so much no matter how old they were, and the door opened, and Trunks grabbed Goten's arm, yanking him inside and slamming the door shut. Trunks had the thick drapes over his windows pulled completely shut, and the lights were off, and his computer screen showed the encrypted screensaver, which Trunks used to keep Goten from poking around on it, even though Goten had never once tried to do so in the history of their friendship. Trunks was often paranoid about silly things like that. Just like he was always worried he might get sick, even though he never had. Goten was glad Trunks trusted him, because Trunks rarely gave his trust to anybody else.
Trunks gave Goten an irritated look "Chibi, I'm working on some important stuff. I don't want you to bother me, I don't even want you to be quiet and watch. I want you to leave me alone today."
Goten's face grew into a pout against his will and he sighed. "But Trunks.... there's nobody else to play with. What're you working on? I can be your assistant."
"No, you can't. It's a one-man job. Top-secret research. I'm compiling a database of information that is top-secret. You shouldda asked me first before you decided to stay. Go away, I don't want to play today."
Goten could feel all those scared thoughts and feelings stirring through his friend. He sighed, wishing Trunks wouldn't be so difficult. He would just have to be the same. He climbed onto Trunks' bed. "You won't even know I'm here."
"I already know you're here stupidhead, please Goten, just go away!" Trunks voice rose shrilly and in his frustration he climbed up on the bed and beside Goten, and kicked him off of it mercilessly. Goten hit the floor in surprise.
"OW! Trunks that hurt!"
"Yeah, not as much as it will if you don't leave!"
"Fine! I'm going... and I'm gonna tell your dad how much you like shopping and mint green and that you sleep with a big stupid stuffed animal like all the other babies! Meanie!" Goten stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind him. He didn't get very far, though, because Trunks opened it and ran after him, grabbing him around the middle and putting a hand over his mouth as he dragged him back into the darkened recesses of his bedroom. Trunks held Goten tight for a minute, and Goten could feel that he was scared and confused and upset, that he didn't want to let go. Goten twisted around in Trunks' grasp and gave him a nice warm hug, talking into his ear.
"I won't tell, I wasn't gonna tell... but you can't be mean to me like that. What's so scary Trunks...?"
"Goten..... I don't like it when you do that..... my feelings are mine, and you don't have any business doing.... doing.....whatever you do when you know them without me telling you. Just, shut up, ok? Don't say anything."
Trunks hid his face against Goten and struggled to understand why Goten always seemed to win their tiffs. He sighed and inhaled Goten's nice familiar smell, like cookies and shampoo. He started talking, even though he didn't really want to tell Goten this stuff, he did.
"I had a funny dream, and when I woke up this morning, uhm....don't tell anyone this... when I woke up there was white stuff on the sheets, and Little Trunks was standing up! And Mirai Trunks, he was there, cause I stayed in his room last night, and he told me that its supposed to happen. And... and he left and told me to figure it out. How to make Little Trunks go down. So.... I did. And there was this thing that happened.... I was in the shower, just me and Little Trunks, and I was thinking about my laptop, and it happened.... like... like a feeling as strong as if dad punched me, only it was a nice feeling, it made me want to...to....wiggle. and more white stuff came out of Little Trunks, not like pee, but from the same place as pee would come out, you know? And then Little Trunks was soft again, and all over I felt really nice and warm and sleepy. I fell asleep in the shower for a bit. And when I woke up I cleaned off and washed my hair and I didn't tell Mirai Trunks about it. I didn't tell anybody but you. This is a really big super top secret thing Goten, I'll send you to the next dimension in the most painful way I can think up if you ever tell anyone, got it?"
Goten nodded against Trunks. This had happened to him before, more than once, and held had the shivery punch feeling before too. He never really thought too much about it, but then again, Trunks was never even half as relaxed as Goten was. Goten put his arms around Trunks and hugged him "Don't worry, it happened to me before too."
Trunks pulled back, giving Goten an insulted look. "What??"
"It happened to me before, too."
"Why didn't you tell me Goten!?"
"'Cause, I didn't think it had anything to do with you Trunks."
"You shouldda told me! How long ago did it happen?"
"You mean the first time?"
"It can happen more than once??"
"Yeah, I do it like every day."
"Oh..." Trunks was not looking very impressed.
Goten sensed his friend's feeling of being oppressed, and he smiled. "The first time was a bit after I turned ten. I'm almost eleven now, my birthday's in a month and six days, don't forget!"
"Don't change the subject. This hasn't happened before, where you knew about something that I didn't know as much about. I read all about it in my computer and in the medical books, but I guess I missed some parts, I didn't know it cold happen more than once. Uhm.... look, this is really weird, lets just not talk about this anymore today. I wanna think about it by myself"
"Kay, do you think we can play a game, or spar, or do something cool? What're we gonna do today Trunks?"
Trunks was glad that the subject had been breached, and intensely relieved that the conversation was over with for now, He led Goten into his plot for spying on various targets throughout the day, a favourite pastime of Goten and Trunks'. He forgot about Little Trunks completely, and the pair enjoyed the rest of the morning, sneaking around and talking over mini-com units that Trunks had made out of walkie-talkies.