Chapter 4: Let the Training Begin!
Jeremy woke up the next morning feeling a little tired. He stretched in his bed and sat up. He yawned lazily as he picked out a few things to wear and went into the bathroom. As he shut the door, he heard it click. He stood there for a second, then turned around and tried the handle. It was locked. He heard someone walking away from the door.
On the other side of the door, Bulma walked away calmly. "I'm a genius!" she told herself. The plan she came up with would help them figure out what they were to each other.
Jeremy was still staring at the door when the shower turned on. He whirled around to see, through a translucent curtain, someone with long, dark hair taking a shower. He looked at the opposite side of the room and saw another door, which he guessed led to the next room. Well, he knew who his neighbor was, that was for sure.
He walked to the other side of the room and tried its door, but it too was locked. "Uh, oh," he thought.
Chris slowly walked down the stairs as he made his way to the kitchen. "What's for breakfast, mom?" he muttered.
Bulma looked up from her coffee and she said, "Whatever you want; it's all in there." She then went back to watching the small screen in front of her.
He walked over to the pantry and pulled out a capsule. He pressed it without even looking and received a steaming bowl of calamari. He didn't care and ate it anyway.
Bulma looked at him strangely. "Americans are weird," she muttered to herself.
"Hey," he said. "Do you know where Jeremy is? He's probably up by now."
Bulma smirked. "Oh, believe me, he's up and wide awake, too."
Chris looked at her. "What are you up to?"
"Well, last night your friend came in here for a snack and we started talking. I asked him if he and that girl Eleanor had anything going on between them, because I saw how they acted around each other. He said they weren't sure yet, so I decided to help them figure out. I locked them in the bathroom together. She was taking a shower at the time."
Chris' eyes widened. "YOU DID WHAT?" he yelled as he choked on some of the squid.
"I was only trying to help them figure out their feelings."
Chris was rolling on the ground laughing. "You Japanese people are weird! Well you might as well drag them out of there, cause I know from a very reliable source that Jeremy only likes guys."
"That's not what it seemed to me last night while we were talking. And why would you want to spoil their fun?"
"Fun? Listen, you don't know Jeremy. He's gonna be quite embarrassed, and Eleanor might just kill him!"
Bulma pondered this and said, "Hmm, I didn't think about that. I mean, that's kinda how me and Vegeta…" she stopped talking aloud and turned red. "Anyway, how bout we watch on this?" She turned the screen around so Chris could see it, and Chris saw Jeremy standing in a misty bathroom.
He smirked, "You're a woman after Jeremy's own heart, you pervert you!"
Eleanor stepped out from behind the curtain and walked over to a towel, drying herself off and then wrapping it around her. She turned around and walked to the door that led to her room. She twisted the handle and found it locked. She looked at the door, then turned to look behind her seeing Jeremy sitting down in a corner, staring at nothing, and blood squirting out of his nose.
At first, she was shocked that he was in there. "Jeremy? What are you doing in here?" she screamed at him, but he didn't respond, he just kept staring. "Jeremy?" she asked when he didn't respond.
She walked over to him, clutching the towel tightly so it didn't fall off. He continued to stare even when she waved her hand in front of his face. She heard someone coming. They opened up the door that led to Jeremy's room. She looked and saw Chris and Bulma run in.
"My goodness!" said Bulma as she saw all the blood. "I didn't expect something like this to happen! C'mon! We need to take him into Science Wing to make sure that he's all right." Chris and Bulma picked Jeremy up and carried him to the Science Wing. Eleanor hurriedly got dressed and ran after them, still wondering what had happened.
A few minutes later, Bulma watched Jeremy's heart rate and brainwave patterns on a screen beside the bed they had put him in. She turned to Chris and Eleanor who were standing behind her. "Well, he's not going to die because of this… whatever it was that happened to him, but I don't know when he'll come back to reality."
"What happened to him?" asked Eleanor. She was very worried, but she wasn't sure why she was as worried as she was; the guy had been watching her shower for crying out loud, but didn't seem to matter anymore.
"Well, I guess seeing you take that shower triggered something in his memories. He's probably living those memories out right now."
"I wonder if this has anything to do with those visions," Chris thought. They all then heard someone coming down the hall. They turned to see Vegeta walking into the room. "Woman, why do you have this brat hooked up to all those machines? Don't you have anything better to do? I'm supposed to be tossing him around like a rag doll right now and calling it training!"
"Vegeta! This brat, as you put it, is in a comatose state."
"Why?" the prince demanded.
"Because of one of my mistakes!" she yelled back at him, her eyes misting over. "I tried to help them out but the 'experiment' backfired, and now the 'mice' are suffering! I thought I was doing the right thing!" She then threw herself into Vegeta's chest and started sobbing. Vegeta was not sure what to do.
He took her by the shoulders and said, "Come now! Stop that crying; it will do you no good! You can't let your feelings get in the way of what's important, this brat's life! You can't be weak when he needs you. Now, how did this happen?"
Bulma wiped her eyes and said threw a few sniffles, "Well, I locked him in the bathroom with her while she was showering."
Vegeta raised an eyebrow. "And that did this to him?" Vegeta eyed Jeremy strangely.
At this, Jeremy's father walked into the room. "Hey, what's going… My goodness! What happened?" he yelled when he saw Jeremy.
Bulma gave a sigh and said, "Well, Jeremy seems to have lost a lot of blood."
"What do you mean? We have to leave today!"
"Well, I think it might be a good idea to keep Jeremy here for now, along with these two friends of his, so that when he does wake up, he won't be so alone."
"Well, it's okay for Jeremy to stay, but I'd have to call the others families first."
"Feel free to use our phones," Bulma said, still feeling a little bit of regret.
A few hours later, everything was cleared up. Chris and Eleanor could stay with Jeremy, and Capsule Corp. would provide for the tickets back. Eleanor and Chris waved good-bye to Jeremy's family as they pulled off. They both went back inside and started towards Jeremy's room.
As they rounded the corner, they were met by a surprise. Jeremy was sitting up on the bed. As they came in, he looked up and smiled. "We pulled it off!" he announced.
"What? But you… What's going on?" asked Eleanor.
"Well, Bulma locked me in the bathroom with you, and I saw you showering. Then, the blood just came gushing out and I couldn't stop it. I eventually blacked out; everything got really fuzzy, and then it went totally dark. The next thing I know, I'm back in that lab place, right where the last vision cut off. The other tank has shattered, and a girl falls out of it. I looked at her recognized her from a vision I had had before. She woke up, and we both started running. We opened a door and found a huge flight of stairs. About halfway up, a siren goes off and we both speed up. We then open the door at the top to reveal a huge, office-type area filled with empty cubicles. We saw a door on the opposite side and started running to it. We broke through the door and found ourselves outside. We started running towards a clump of trees, then we heard dogs barking. Somehow, we were separated, and the last thing I see is the ditch I tumble into."
"Whoa," said Eleanor. "That's kinda weird. Maybe I should look at you naked and see what turns up." Jeremy looked at her and smirked.
"Just say when!" Eleanor punched him into the wall.
Chris, still trying to figure out what was meant by the last couple of statements, decided that it was a 'don't ask, don't tell' type of conversation. "Well, what do you mean by, 'We pulled it off,' and when did you really wake up?"
"Well, I woke up when my dad was talking to Bulma, and decided that this might be the type of situation we needed to stay, so I faked the unconscious bit." He got out of bed. "Now, for these sensors." He started pulling the sensors off his body. A little ways down the hall, they heard a scream.
"He's dead!" Bulma started yelling hysterically, running to the room that Jeremy was in. She skidded to a stop when she saw Jeremy standing there. Vegeta, who had heard the scream, ran up just in time to catch Bulma, who had fainted.
About thirty minutes later, Goku and Goten landed in Capsule Corp.'s backyard. Goku's eyes widened as he saw everything. "I knew I smelt a barbecue!" Jeremy, Chris and Eleanor all sat up from lying on the ground, discussing a few things, to look at the new Saiya-jins. Bulma peeked from behind her shades, and Vegeta looked at them from behind a huge grill. Goku walked over to Vegeta, and Goten walked over to the teens.
"Hey, guys!" he said in the cheerful Son family manner. "Have you seen Trunks around?"
"Well, last time I saw him," said Chris, "he was saying something about embers jumping out of the barbecue and marring his perfect face for all eternity, so I think he's somewhere near water."
"Actually," said Eleanor, pointing over at the house. The boys looked and sweat-dropped when they saw him.
"Hey, Goten!" said the muffled voice of Trunks.
"Trunks, why are you in a radiation suit?" said the boy's best friend.
"Uh… I'm protecting myself from those dangerous UV rays! Yeah, that's it!"
"More like from flying embers," said Jeremy. "He then pointed behind Trunks. "Like that one!"
"AAAHHH!" Trunks yelled as he flung himself on the ground, covering his face and hair. He looked up when he heard the other teens laughing. "Ha… ha… ha. Very funny, you guys." Suddenly, a burning piece of coal landed on his helmet. "AAAHHH!" he yelled again, running around in circles as the hot piece of coal burned through the suit. Trunks then had a bright idea and threw himself into the pool. Everyone turned to look at a smirking Vegeta.
Vegeta turned around as Goku returned from inside with more meat. Vegeta had asked Bulma why they had to barbecue when they could just use some capsules when she suggested it, and she had said it would be more relaxing. Having your son make a fool out of himself didn't fall into Vegeta's relaxing file, but pulling pranks on him did.
"Good, Kakarot, you brought the meat. Now, if you plan on eating, you will also help me cook!"
"Aw, come on, Vegeta!"
"Now!" demanded the prince. As they were watching the meat cook, Goku noticed something odd.
"Vegeta, why does did someone scribble 'Don't' over 'Kiss the Cook'?"
Vegeta shook his head. "You really don't wanna know." It had been Jeremy's idea after Chris decided to follow Vegeta's every order, except for some which were either anatomically impossible or life threatening. Chris thought that 'Kiss the Cook' was an order. For some odd reason, there was now a human-sized hole in the wall and a dent about the same size in a metal building.
A few minutes later, the food was done. "Food's ready, called out Bulma to the five teens. They all ran over to the table. Even though they had expected it, Jeremy, Eleanor, and Chris were still surprised at how much food was on the table. Everyone sat down and started to eat. By the time Jeremy had all of the condiments on his hamburger bun, almost half the food was gone. Eleanor was staring at the Saiya-jins voraciously eating their food and said, "I'm not so hungry anymore." Chris nodded in agreement, watching Trunks snatch up the last hamburger. Jeremy was the last one to eat, still munching on his solitary hamburger, but he was sure not to let his guard down with the Saiya-jins hungrily eyeing it.
"Well," said Goku, after Jeremy finished eating, "now that we're done, how about we show these new kids some cool stuff, Vegeta!"
"Well… Yes! And I have the perfect idea for it, too." Vegeta looked at Bulma, smirking.
"Oh, no! You aren't going to try to saw me in half again!"
"Drat!" He looked at Eleanor, who shook her head no. "C'mon! I need a female volunteer for this."
"How about Trunks?" suggested Jeremy.
"Huh?" said Trunks, who had been looking in a mirror at the time.
"Perfect," said Vegeta, and snatched up his son, taking him inside to prepare him.
"Father, where are we going?" Trunks' voice trailed off into the distance.
"That's not exactly what I meant," said Goku.
"What did you mean?" said Eleanor.
"Well, we could teach you how to fight, or do something like that."
"What about us?" said Eleanor and Chris.
"Well," said Goku, "I could have the boys teach you how to control your chi, but it takes a while to learn. Uh, oh." Vegeta came out of the house with a big smirk, carrying a saw and a box, which a hysterical Trunks was in.
"No! I'm too beautiful to die!" he cried out.
"Shut up brat!" Vegeta snapped back at him. He then looked back at Trunks. "Did you say beautiful?"
"Oh… uh… I meant handsome!"
"Vegeta," said Goku, "we'd really rather train than watch you cut Trunks up."
"Shut up, Kakarotto, I'll do as I… did you say train?" Goku nodded his head. Vegeta looked down at the saw, then back at Goku, and threw the saw into the ground. "All right, let's begin!"
Everyone except Trunks started walking to an open area in the yard. "Could somebody get me out, please?" he pleaded at the retreating figures. Bulma, still in the lawn chair, looked at him, then sighed and opened up the box he was in.
Vegeta would never have normally trained a human, but Chris had been very insistent. Vegeta also sensed that there was a large power hidden deep inside of Chris, so he agreed to train him.
"Okay, brat" said Vegeta in the gravity room. "The easiest way to train is to set the gravity higher. I'm going to set it to two times gravity, since you are pathetically weak."
"Whatever you say, Lord Vegeta," said Chris. Suddenly, his body weight doubled and his knees started to give.
"Stand tall!" Vegeta cried out. "You don't grow by failing, you grow by winning! Now, start running around." Chris slowly and painfully picked his leg up and set it down. "I said run, not crawl!"
"But Vegeta, it's impossible!"
"No, it's not! You've simply confined your thoughts to the average human's abilities. You have to think outside the box and know that you can do it. You cannot be normal if you want to be strong. You have to push your body to its limits and then some! You have to win! You have to be the best!"
"Yes," said Chris as he slowly trudged around the room, slowly speeding up. "I want to be the very best..."
"AND NO POKEMON THEME SONGS!!!"
"Okay," said Goku. "I want you to power up as much as you can." He held up a small headset-like device. "Do you know what this is?"
"Yeah," said Jeremy. "It's a scouter. It reads power levels and converts it into numbers."
"Well, I'm going to compare your power levels before and after you've trained. It will show you that training and becoming very strong takes a long amount of time. Well, start."
Jeremy, focused deep within himself, felt his chi and started pulling it out like a string. An aura surrounded his body as his power started to rise. But, for some reason, he didn't have the urge to start groaning or anything. As soon as he was at his maximum, he stopped powering up and his aura faded away, yet he was still at his maximum. Goku placed the scouter to his face and pressed the button on the side. After a few moments, there was a beep.
"Well, it says your power level is at 53; that's pretty good, considering you haven't begun to train yet. Well, it would help if you could use the gravity room, but Vegeta has already taken that over, so you'll just have to use these." He pulled out a capsule, depressed the cap, and threw it on the ground. After the smoke cleared, a pair of wristbands, ankle weights, and a weighted undershirt appeared. "These will have the same effect as gravity training, only you aren't confined to that room. Go ahead and put them on." Jeremy sat on the ground and took off his shirt, putting everything on. He then put his shirt on and slowly stood up.
"Whoa, this'll take a little getting used to," he said as he started wobbling. "How much weight is this?"
"Well, I think that it will be like 5 times gravity for you." Jeremy almost fell over.
"Five times? It sure doesn't feel like it!"
"It will later on. You have to remember that you are much stronger now than normally because you powered up. Here." Goku gave Jeremy a couple more capsules. "These are all the same weight as the stuff you have on. Now, try not to take them off unless absolutely necessary, like when you take a shower or they need washing."
"Hey, one more thing before we start training, how come I didn't have the urge to scream when I was powering up?"
"Well, most of the time when we power up, we scream because it scares the other guy, but sometimes it really hurts as your muscles grow and your skin starts stretching."
"Oh… Well, let's get started!"
Eleanor sat a little ways away from Jeremy, watching him. She then turned back to Goten. "Well," she asked, "what are you going to teach me?"
"Well, what would you like to do?" smirked the teen. Trunks then ran over and hit Goten on the head.
"Hey!" he said. "I want to train her!"
"Too bad, I got here first."
"So! I saw her first!"
"What does that have to do with it?"
"Errr… Well, let's at least train her together so I can have something to do."
Goten sighed. "Okay, fine."
Eleanor looked at the two teens. "So what are you going to teach me?"
"Well, you seem to have a natural ability to read chi levels," said Trunks, "so we'll teach you how to reach your chi to refine that ability."
"The first thing that you need to do is concentrate very hard," said Goten. "Search inside of yourself for a warmth and start pulling it out. Once you have it, think about putting it under your feet. That is how you fly, but it will give you good practice at controlling your chi. Now, just start concentrating, and don't get frustrated if it doesn't happen very quickly."
Eleanor closed her eyes and relaxed, searching inside of herself for the warmth. She heard the birds, and the thumping of Jeremy trying to move around, but she paid them no attention. She lost all track of time and kept searching, searching… She felt it! Slowly, she pulled it out and put it underneath her. The ground seemed to slowly retract from underneath her. She opened her eyes and looked at an astonished Trunks and Goten. She smiled and slowly lowered herself back down to the earth.
"That… that was amazing!" said Goten. "Trunks, how long did it take her?"
"Trunks looked at his watch. "Thirty minutes!" he exclaimed. "No one could have learned how to do that in thirty minutes!"
"Well," said Eleanor, "obviously someone can! Otherwise I wouldn't have been floating in the air just now!"
"Anyway," said Goten, "now that you know how to reach your chi, it will become much easier every time that you do. Now, in order to read power levels, you have to learn how to use your sixth sense."
"To do that," said Trunks, "you must let your mind go out of focus, almost like you're trying to find your chi. Only, this time, focus on something with chi, like me."
Eleanor closed her eyes again, trying to find this sixth sense of hers. After a few moments, she had found her chi, but no sense. She still focused again, only floating in the air this time. Suddenly, she had a feeling become very prominent, then slowly dwindle back down. She opened her eyes to see Trunks coming out of his Super Saiya-jin form.
Eleanor lowered herself to the ground and looked at Trunks. "I felt your power grow," she whispered. "And, I don't know why, but a number came to my mind: 625,000.
Goten, out of curiosity, borrowed the scouter that Goku had. "Do what you had done before again," he told Trunks. Trunks flashed his Super Saiya-jin state again and Goten clicked the scouter. His eyes went wide when he saw the readings, and he handed the scouter to Trunks who looked into it. It read 625,000.
"She's… like a human scouter!" he said, dropping the mechanical one.
As dusk drew near, everyone went inside for a snack. As everyone was filling up, something strange happened: Vegeta and Goku actually had a conversation while eating.
"I bet that my student could beat yours, Kakarotto."
"No chance of it," Goku replied as he stuck yet another rice ball into his mouth.
"How 'bout we find out?" Vegeta said as he looked at Chris and Jeremy.
"Sure, but let's let them digest a little bit first."
About half an hour later, everyone was in the training room, except for Chris and Jeremy, who were in the gravity chamber. The gravity was set for 3 times normal, since this was really for training than competition. "Alright," said Vegeta through a microphone. "Start fighting!"
"Nothing personal, Chris," said Jeremy as he started to power up.
"Hey! That's not fair!" Chris replied at Jeremy's aura.
"No, Chris, what's not fair is, though you are under 3 times gravity, I'm under 8. I'd barely be able to move if I didn't do this."
Vegeta glared at Goku. "And you say I train too hard? You put that brat under 5 times his weight the first day! That's pushing it!"
"Yes, well, I knew he could handle it, because he could power up. Besides, I hear that all you did was basic training with Chris, which is all I did. This will be a pretty fair fight. Aw, man, I forgot to check Jeremy's power level. Too bad I don't have a scouter with me."
Eleanor heard this and closed her eyes. "I'm getting about 60 from Jeremy and 47 from Chris."
Vegeta turned and glared at her. He then looked at Trunks. "Go get a scouter, boy."
"But I wanna watch!"
"Do you value your damn face?" Trunks was gone before the sentence was complete.
"Just wait a second, brats," said Vegeta into the microphone. A few moments later, Trunks showed up with the scouter. Vegeta grabbed it and put it on his head, pressing the button. He caught onto Jeremy and Chris' power levels, which were exactly as Eleanor had said. "Very good, woman. All right continue."
Vegeta also pondered this face. Goku had said that Jeremy had a power level of 53 without weights, but now, under 8 gravities, it was 60! That was a massive jump in power that any Saiya-jin would be proud to boast of.
Jeremy and Chris got into a fighting stance. Jeremy decided to test Chris' abilities. He dashed towards him and swung at Chris' gut. Chris took the blow, and skid backward a few feet. He then dropped to his knees and gasped, "I concede."
"What are you doing!" yelled out Vegeta. "What did I tell you?"
Jeremy said, "Actually, Vegeta, Chris had to concede. Look at him!" Chris spat a little blood out of his mouth. "I didn't mean to do that either! What were our power levels?"
"60 and 47."
"Isn't that still a big gap? Are you crazy?!"
"No, you don't understand!" said Goku. "In battle, you will come up against both those supremely stronger than you and pathetically weaker. If you want a decent fight or for the other guy to survive, you have to make judgements about them. That is why you never see any of us just jump into a fight."
"Kakarot is right for once," said Vegeta. "Except for the mercy part. Don't jump into the fight too quickly, and remember that this isn't a fight to win, but to train. And not just you, Jeremy, but Chris, too. It will be good exercise for you two to spar every now and then, but you don't need to go all out on Chris like you just did."
"Fine." Jeremy turned back to Chris and helped him back up. "Try to hit me."
"Don't worry about that," Chris said, sort of mad about being punched so hard. He lunged at Jeremy, who dodged out of the way. Chris stumbled a little bit, but quickly turned around. He then engaged Jeremy in a series of punches, which Jeremy blocked with his hands, sending a few of his own but, being hindered by the added weight, Chris found them easy to block.
"You know," he said a little way into the fight, "this is actually kind of fun. Now," he broke off combat and floated to a corner. "Prepare to spice things up a little bit!" He started forming ki balls of little damage in his hands. He sent one at Chris, who started dodging the attacks. After a few close calls, Jeremy sent one final one in Chris' direction. Chris saw it coming, and dodged it, but Jeremy was nowhere to be seen. He then appeared behind Chris and wrapped his arms under and around Chris' shoulders.
Chris struggled for a little bit, then gave up the struggle. Jeremy let go of Chris and sat down on the ground. "Whew! I'm pooped!" he said.
"Yeah, I'm tired too. I never thought dodging would be so hard."
"Alright, brats," said Vegeta. "You did fairly well for a first fight, not knowing any technique or form, but I expect better tomorrow."
"Don't worry," said Jeremy. "You'll get your chance to beat us up and not feel guilty yet!"
"Me? Guilty?" Vegeta broke off into a laugh. "That's a good one!"
Jeremy and Chris walked out of the gravity room and were surprised at how light they felt in normal gravity. They were both very sweaty and tired, so everyone went back to the main building, except for Goku, Goten, and Vegeta.
"Hey, Goten. Go on home, I need to speak to Vegeta about something."
"Sure thing, Dad." Goten jumped into the air and started flying off towards home.
"Vegeta, what do you suppose is going on with those three kids?"
"Well, it's obvious that Jeremy and that Eleanor girl are not human, but I don't know what they are. Jeremy seems to be like a Saiya-jin in the fact that his power level is rising quickly after training and fighting. And Eleanor has that natural knack for sensing chis, which isn't natural. And Chris, well, he seems to be a regular human, but I think there is something deep within him that is just waiting to be unleashed, something very powerful."
"Yeah," said Goku. "Those three seemingly normal people from another place are just, well, not normal! Well, we can think about it later. I need to get home before ChiChi kills me!" With that, the younger Saiya-jin placed his fingers to his head and Instant Transmitted to his home. Vegeta walked back inside, but not before being jumped by Chris.