I'm back after my first full week of school. I don't know what to make of it yet but I have a feeling that I'm going to get a heavy flow of homework so updates will probably get kinda slow. But in the mean time…
Reviews!
Chico: I think I know what you're going to guess and I'm going to say…nah. Only 1 kid is coming from the old RP board and that's Eli. You'll have to wait and see what I'll do. Glad to hear you liked last chapter though.
Rejhan: glad you liked it, here's an update.
Son Oliver: you have a habit of knowing what I'm going to do…maybe this is too predictable…nah. Well here's what you asked for and hopefully a surprise.
Chapter 12: wish.
Goku smiled to himself as he stared out his bedroom window and at the beautiful blue sky that housed plant, shinning down like a new moon. Everything was peaceful and now was the perfect time to reflect whilst he waited.
He had killed Bebi easily after he had gotten an energy loan from his friends. They had all cheered once Goku had finished blasting the parasite into the sun and Goku had set to work on checking on Vegeta again. He had been fine but his pride had taken an awful beating.
After that Gohan had helped Kibito kai spread the holy water to free the humans and Zara filled everyone else on what was going on for the past week at the lookout. Dende had panicked when he heard that he had willingly let Bebi have the Black star Dragonballs but Zara had told him about how she had saved them. Naturally everyone had wondered if that meant that the count down had been reset but Piccolo had explained that the black stars were already going to blow up the earth and couldn't reset it. It still would have blown 1 year after the first wish, exactly one week later.
Now it was just over a week later and Goku had been a kid now for over a year as well. The Black stars were ready to be used again.
Footsteps were heard running up the stairs at an incredible speed and soon the door was nearly thrown off its hinges. There stood Pan, grinning at her pint-sized grandpa.
"Come on! Everyone's waiting just for us!" she yelled then disappeared again. Goku smiled after her.
"Great, time to get old again." He said rather flatly and then chased after his granddaughter.
Bulma was pacing in front of the glowing orange orbs that were the most powerful of the Dragonballs. Her whole family and Zara were watching her as she did so
"For crying out loud, onna! Stop that before we all go crazy!" Vegeta yelled harshly at her from the doorframe of the nearest building. They were on the edge of one of the empty cities with everyone spread out on rocks or against the same building Vegeta was against. Bulma was further out into the desert with the seven glowing orbs and she was ignoring Vegeta as she continued to pace, worrying about her preparations.
Bra looked at both of her parents. She had been avoiding them after the whole Bebi thing, especially Vegeta after she found out about his absence of an egg. This was the first time in a week that they were all together.
She turned to her big brother who was sitting on a rock next to a standing Zara.
"How come everyone is so on edge? Its not like Goku will miss this." She pointed out. The two adults looked down at her with a smile.
"He won't but it's not that that everyone is worried about. It's not everyday that we have to use something that might blow up a planet." Trunks answered and the looked back out to the desert. A whole line of people had appeared, each one anxious not to miss the event that was about to take place. Goku, his family, Gohan and his, Hercule and then Uub all quickly ran to the others, apologising about being so late on the way. Goku settled next to Bulma as the others found places with the Briefs.
"Sorry about being late Bulma." Goku said from the scientist's elbow. Bulma grinned down at him, waving her hand in a 'not to worry' expression.
"Don't worry about it. Are you ready?" she asked and Goku quickly turned his head to the crowd behind him, all were grinning with anticipation: except Vegeta. Goku then turned back and nodded with a rare serious look on his face.
"Lets do it!"
Bulma nodded and placed her hands out in front of her so that they were hovering over the Dragonballs.
"Arise dragon and grant me my wish!" she yelled.
The sky instantly turned a pitch black and the balls took on a blinding glow. When the glow didn't look like it could get any brighter, it shot upwards in a terrific bolt of lightening that soon took the form of the most impressive of the dragons they had had the chance to lay eyes on. The biggest dragon with the blood red skin and the gold scales round its neck surveyed the group carefully from its advantage point in the sky and then spoke in a booming voice like thunder.
"Name your wish."
The humans in the crowd shuddered slightly and those who had not seen a dragon before were in awe.
"I never thought it would be that big." Bra muttered shakily. Pan nodded and stared with her mouth slightly agape with the trio of young adults next to her.
"I know. I'll never be able to get used to this." Chichi muttered from behind but was then shushed by Bulma.
The scientist stared confidently back up at the dragon and drew in all of her courage.
"I wish for Son Goku to be retuned to his rightful age!" she yelled. The Dragon's eyes glowed a brighter shade of red for a moment before speaking again.
"It has been done. Fare thee well."
Just as the dragon returned to the balls, the effects of the wish overcame Goku. The shame brilliant white light washed over him and the others could only just make out his form growing and aging through the intense light. When it finally faded, a thirty something looking Goku was standing there. Of course in reality he was about 60 but that was just how saiyans aged.
Chichi went teary eyed and soon had tackled her husband into a hug with her sons following. Goku looked round at the smiling faces of his family, and then to Zara and Bulma putting the floating balls into a bag further off.
Gohan clasped his hand onto his father's shoulder and grinned broadly.
"So, how's it feel to be full sized again?" he asked.
"Well, I miss being a kid," he started, looking round at his family and friends again, "But it does feel good to be full sized again."
His family continued congratulate Goku when he finally noticed the only family member that was missing. Goten was standing off from everyone else, glaring down at Uub who just didn't know what to do.
But he didn't have enough time to worry about it however, for Gohan had blocked his view as he announced that he was going after Bulma.
"I want to go find out what Bulma's doing in way of security for those things." He announced and then ran off. Goten had been pulled away from his place by Uub by then by his two friends so Goku pushed his youngest son out of his mind as he concentrated on his wife and granddaughter.
Bulma had made a vault deep underground in planet plant. Gohan had found her and Zara at the entrance that looked rather like a metal cave. It was a tunnel reinforced with a special alloy of titanium that the aging scientist had been working on. It had then been disguised with earth and rocks so no one knew it was there. Even the door had looked like a giant boulder but after Bulma had entered a five-digit code into a hidden control panel, it was obvious that it was more of the alloy that had been shaped and painted to look like a boulder. Gohan caught up with the women just as they were about to enter.
"So this is the site, huh?" he asked as soon as he caught up with them. Bulma nodded and led him inside, down a tunnel and down an elevator.
"It sure is. As soon as all the land agreements are over with then a new capsule corp. warehouse and testing area should be on the site as well so it'll be even safer." Bulma explained, remembering how hard it was to get the land. Now that there was a new planet that could sustain life above earth, many of the big businesses on earth were trying to get as mush land as possible on plant to try and build a new business community on it to make more room on earth. Bulma thought that eventually the earth's crowded population would probably spread to plant as well, but that was a long way off yet.
"So I take it that you thought of everything." Gohan mused as they wondered down a tunnel, snapping Bulma out of her thoughts.
"Oh, I have. Only a select few will be able to get down here. If anyone else tries to get in or breaks any of the control panels then this whole place will go into lock down. Nobody will be able to get these Dragonballs. As for security, just ask Zara. I had her test it." Bulma told the demi-saiyan with a grin. Gohan noted Zara shuddering at the memory.
"The security system is top notch alright. The lasers down here were enough to completely paralyse me. Then after that, Bulma designed it so that once you're down, the floor drops you into a reinforced pit that you won't be able to get out of. And since we're not going to be checking them all that often, you do not want to get stuck in there." she explained as they came to a halt. They had come to the tunnel the lasers were installed in. Bulma allowed the system to give her a retinal scan as well as scanning her fingerprints and voice. Then they continued down the hall to the final vault.
Gohan whistled when they came to it. It was yet another reinforced door with more lasers positioned at critical points round it.
"This seems a bit much for these." He pointed out as Bulma gave her id for the last time.
"It may seem it but I think it's worth it. These are the most powerful balls in existence. People can just wish you all dead if they wanted to and it'll happen. We'll no longer have our greatest defence. Not to mention if they're used then the planet will explode. Just having them around is too great a risk so we can't have them out in the open. This is worth it." The scientist told him and allowed Zara to go inside and place the bag on a pedestal within the vault.
Ten minutes later and they were topside again. They found that everyone had decided to give Goku space and now everyone seemed to be listening to Hercule persuading Pan to join the next tenkaichi budokai. It sounded like he wanted to retire and was going to hold the tournament to find his replacement as world champ so he wanted Pan to compete but was having a hard time.
"Come on Pan, you'll have fun!" he pleaded. Pan simply shook her head.
"No way! No one else is competing that'll make it a challenge! I'd be bored stiff!" she said stubbornly. Goten took this opportunity to embarrass his niece.
"She's just scared that it'll be some human that beats her." He told the crowd. A moment later and a hard rock had been thrown at his head.
"Take it back!" she yelled at him. Goten rubbed his head then glared at Pan.
"No! Not if you're going to throw stuff." He snapped back. Pan growled loudly.
"Take it back! I bet I could beat you!" she snarled, getting close to his face with her hands set firmly on her hips. Goten nearly backed of but ended up standing his ground.
"In your dreams." He said firmly, almost like he was spelling it out. Gohan ran a hand through his hair as he watched and sighed loudly. He was going to have to get involved.
He stepped up to them and pushed them apart.
"Cool it you guys, there is no reason to start world war three here." He announced. Pan turned her back on them and huffed. Goten frowned at his brother.
"Like you can talk. You haven't trained for years. I doubt you can even remember how to fight now." Goten pointed out. Gohan stared at his brother in surprise.
"I train." He said. Everyone looked at him in surprise. They really had thought that Gohan had given up.
"Since when? I never see you train." Pan said as she stared at her father.
"That's because you're in bed. Work and grading gets in the way normally so I don't have time until late at night. But I do train. Do you really think that after the Dabura thing I would stop?" he asked. Everyone simply stared at him. They had all heard the stories of the fight against Buu and how he had escaped so they all knew how poorly Gohan had done against the demon king. He had made so many amateur mistakes that it was obvious that he hadn't trained for years and had lost all feel for fighting. Gohan had wanted to never be like that again so he had taken to training to whenever he could. Just nobody had noticed.
"Look, I'll even take part in the tournament and show you guys there if you don't believe me. I'll just need someone to enter with me." Gohan announced. Goku grinned at this and stepped forward.
"I'll enter with you. I'll like to see just how much you've improved. Didn't get a chance to see properly before." He said and Gohan grinned and nodded at his father.
"I'll enter too." A gruff voice from behind the group interjected. Goku looked over at Vegeta who hadn't moved since his arrival.
"That's great Vegeta!" Goku said and then looked at the other warriors.
"I'll join if you do." Uub said. Goten frowned at Uub.
"Me too." Goten immediately said, "and so will Trunks and Zara." He added making the other two nearly face vault into the floor.
"I might have a meeting that day! And what happened to make you change your mind?" Trunks asked, frowning at his friend. Goten glared back at him, making him immediately shut up and agree.
"Well this should be…fun." Zara said with a sweat drop running down the back of her head as Goten swapped his glare to her, daring her to drop out. But everyone knew that when the day came then those two wouldn't complain and probably would enjoy themselves.
"Well if everybody is entering this thing then I will too." Pan stated, interrupting Goten's little glare out, "And so will Bra!" the teen added and pulled Bra in front of her, leaving the aqua haired girl to blush furiously and agree. She didn't exactly have a choice…
Goku grinned as he looked at the group and clapped his hands together.
"That's great! This should be really good now that everyone is competing." He announced and everyone agreed and soon after began to drift back home, leaving one man to stand alone and worry about what this meant.
"Why did I have to go and open my big mouth around them?" Hercule asked in a near whimper.
It was nearly evening and Bra had spent the day avoiding her father again, still unsure of what he would say.
Avoiding Vegeta tended to be easy, as he seemed to stay in his GR all hours of the day, until he was about to either drop from exhaustion or hunger. And with the tournament closing in he would be in there for even longer so she was in luck. At least she thought she was.
She was wondering the many corridors of the C.C home base, trying to make her way to the living room, when he stepped round the corner. It appeared that he had gone on a food run and now he had her cornered. Bra quickly weighed her options. She could stay and see if he would say anything or she could dive into the nearest room and hide. But it was already too late for the latter as Vegeta had stopped in front of her.
He stared down at his nervous daughter and thought carefully about what he wanted to say.
"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked in a near bark. Bra looked down and fidgeted nervously.
"I didn't know what to say or how you'd react." She said quietly. Vegeta stared at her then smirked.
"You can be foolish when you want to be." He commented and started to walk back to the G.R. Bra sighed a sigh of relief.
"Girl!" Vegeta called and made Bra instantly stop, holding her breath without realising.
"From now on you train with me, got it?" Vegeta called and then carried on down the hall. Bra sighed again and groaned softly.
"Kami Pan, what have you gotten me into?" she asked and then continued on her way to the living room.
When Bra arrived there, she didn't walk straight into the room as she could hear her brother having a conversation.
"You know he's been acting weird ever since Goku got back." Trunks was saying. He put a glass on the table and sat on the sofa.
"Tell me about it. I thought he was over the whole Uub thing." Someone said with a sigh. It was Zara. She had come over to help Bulma with something in the lab and seemed to now be finished.
"You know 'ten. He just suppresses his problems. Covers them up with corny jokes." Trunks said.
Bra stayed round the door and listened. She knew that Goten hadn't exactly taken Goku leaving well. In fact he had been pretty burned. He had felt like Uub had stolen his dad. He wasn't as used to losing Goku as Gohan and Chichi were. So once he had a dad he had wanted to keep him. Losing Goku to Uub just made Goten feel like Goku didn't want to have him as a son. He had moped around about it for ages, hiding it from everyone else until it was completely buried. Having Goku come back and now make everybody except Uub was probably having a bigger effect on Goten then anybody thought.
"I know that's what he does, and it's a shame. He just refuses help. We can't talk him out of it and now that he has a chance to take on Uub, who knows what he'll do." Zara said with a sigh. Trunks nodded.
"Well at least we'll be there to stop him. We'll just have to keep an eye on him."
"Yea. We'll talk to him. Besides, you have bigger problems then just him. We're both in this tourney now…" Zara pointed out. Trunks laughed slightly and shifted his weight to face the girl.
"If you think that you're my biggest problem then you have to be kidding." He said. Bra decided that with this change of conversation she could walk in. she didn't want to get in to a conversation about something she didn't fully understand. So she walked into the room and stopped at the sight of the other's position.
Trunks was sitting on the right side of the sofa with his arm draped over the back and facing Zara who was leaning closely towards him as she knelt on the sofa.
"We'll see." She said with a smirk then slid off the sofa and onto her feet.
"I better be going anyway. I'm done here and have a lot of work to do at home with my dojo. See ya." And then she was gone; leaving Trunks to stare blankly at the spot she had been standing in.
"Wow, she really does like you." Bra commented as she leant on the doorframe. Trunks jumped and stared at her in startled surprise.
"And if I didn't know any better then I'd say that you like her a lot back." Bra added and made her way to the sofa. Trunks followed her with his eyes, a brow cocked in confusion and suspicion.
"I don't get why you never asked her out." Bra finished as she fell onto the padded seat. Trunks shook his head then stared at his sister.
"Just how much did you see?" he asked. Bra laughed.
"Enough to know you two should stop tip-toeing around and just go for it. Answer the question." She pressed. Trunks sweat dropped and picked up his glass.
"There were a lot of reasons. Including annoying little sisters that ask too much questions." He said, making Bra laugh.
"Ok, I can take a hint. I'll stop but maybe you should just ask her. It's not like you haven't thought of it." Bra then pointed out and left, leaving Trunks to think it over.
Maybe it is about time I went for it…he thought and drunk the last of his drink.
On the other side of the world, a group of warriors were busy going all out in their training session. Goku was weaving in and out of attacks from Gohan and Uub, keeping on the move to keep them out of reach. They were so caught up with their training that they didn't even notice that someone had come outside to watch.
Goten stared at Uub in annoyance, taking in every move and every mistake. His face slowly narrowed into a frown.
I'll beat him…the young saiyan thought, never taking his eyes off of Uub. Then we'll see who's better…
A/n: ok, leaving it there. Who was expecting a tourney? I thought it would be a good time for some character development. So everyone has his or her own little dramas through this story but the main one will be with Goku, just so you know. I just don't want everyone to be pushed a side.
Expect the next chapter in a week, if not then…sorry. Ja'ne!