-----DISCLAIMER-----
Nina © Capcom
Clint, Alex, Jason, Vernon, Devin, Dusty, Dan © Themselves
Goku, Radditz, Vegeta, Piccolo, Juuanagou/#17, Mr. Buu © Akira Toriyama
Heero Yuy © Sotsu Agency Co. Ltd
Steve Williams, Dwayne Johnson © Themselves (Their ring names are © WWE)
Paula © Shigesto Itoi
Jackson, Teresa © Me
-----------------------------
Part 8: Piccolo's New Hobby
(September 12, 2001 A.D.; 6:03am; Canton, Ohio)
Early the next morning, Vegeta finally managed to wake up from his ordeal the other night. When he did, he realized his head felt like it was in a vice, and he also still had vodka on his breath.
He growled, "Dammit. I must've gotten drunk again! Why did I have to be so stupid!" he thought to himself, and he slowly began to remember the events of his drink off with Goku, "I challenged that baka to another drinking contest, didn't I?" he then realized that Nina had probably also seen all the events that commenced.
Also, he looked painfully to his dresser, and he saw that he had a sensu bean lying on the table. Probably Goku's way of telling him there was no time to let the hangover wear off on its' own, which Vegeta couldn't help but agree with. He knew that he and Goku had to train Vernon, Jason and Alex today, because Piccolo and #17 had already made it clear to the elder two saiya-jin that they were going to run around and explore Canton today. He took the sensu off the table and ate it, and quickly recovered his senses. He felt a bit stronger as well.
He then began to wonder, "I wonder if Kakarott's in the same shape as me? Probably not. Last time we did that, he wasn't even the slightest affected after 50 shots."
He left his room, and sighed, and walked up to the bathroom door, and went in, soon cleaning up and taking a short shower. He realized the clock had read around 6:10am.
"Damn! I slept in way too much!" he growled, and quickly dashed down the stairs and left the house, jumping up and landing behind the house, where he found Goku, Piccolo, Mr. Buu and #17 were gathered up.
Alex, and Vernon and Jason were also in the back yard. All three of them were currently trying their damndest to keep hold on their SSJ levels as long as they could at once, knowing that like he and Goku long back, it was difficult to handle holding the transformation for the first few days or so.
Piccolo and #17 immediately noticed Vegeta's arrival, pointing it out to Goku as well.
Vegeta moved over to them, as Piccolo smirked, "Well, it looks like the drunken fool finally woke up."
"What the hell? How did you find out, Namek!" Vegeta growled, and then looked to Kakarott, "You moron! You told him didn't you? You idiots better not have told THEM." he sternly growled, referring to Alex, Vernon and Jason as "THEM".
"Calm down Vegeta, they don't know anything at all, although Nina does know, and I can't guarantee she won't say something to them." Piccolo replied.
"She'd better not. I hate it when that happens to me. By the way, who won last night?" Vegeta asked.
"Well, you passed out before you could drink your final glass, so I won by a glass." Goku said to him in a truthful manner.
"Dammit." Vegeta grumbled softly, "Probably made a fool of myself too."
"Anyways, it's about time you woke up." #17 announced, "We're only still here because we feel you needed to be up before we left. Buu's not the best substitute for you, as you know well."
"What the hell is he doing here anyways?" asked Vegeta.
"He wants to train. I guess since he lives close to here, and since Devin's group isn't really too strong yet, he came here to train with me and you." Goku explained.
"Fine, I could use a good spar for once! Maybe it'll get me over all the shit going on the last couple of days." Vegeta mused.
"Well, since you three are all awake and acquainted again, it's time #17 and I got to our task of looking around this strange place. Later." Piccolo replied, as he and #17 immediately floated upwards, and took off towards the northwest, to begin their exploration of Canton and southern Akron.
After that, Goku and Vegeta called Mr. Buu over and talked to him about a spar session of their own. Buu was more than happy to accept, and he told them of a place he wanted to go to try some things out. They called over to Alex, Jason and Vernon.
"Do you three want to watch us spar for once?" Goku asked them. The three younger Misfits looked to them.
"Well, I want to train this hold on SSJ." Alex replied, "Why don't you guys just go on without us?"
"Because you're still getting some lessons today. Besides, we're not going to be able to all fight here, because there's way too much risk to the property than just a stray crater or two." Vegeta explained.
Vernon shrugged, "If we keep trying to hold SSJ, we'll come along anyways. It's not often we can see you two spar with each other in person."
"It's me and Vegeta vs. Buu, not each other." Goku corrected.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't kill us." Jason said, although he looked to be trying hard to hold his SSJ, without going to 2nd grade, as the slight bulking in his muscle mass was showing.
"Jason, you've got to focus your energy more efficiently. There's a reason I and my future son had troubles with the higher grades in the first place. We weren't directing our anger properly. You're also relying too much on being mad to keep the level. You must learn to reduce the requirement of anger for a transformation." Vegeta explained sternly as he watched Jason.
Jason growled, trying to do just that, but when he did, his hair flicked back to brown for a moment, and then to gold, and back a couple of times, until Jason growled to keep at SSJ, "Easier said than done, Vegeta!" he growled angrily.
"I know it's annoying. Trust me I hated myself when I found out just how outmatched those levels are." Vegeta tried to calm him down. After a few more words exchanged, the seven Misfits picked up to the air and flew off and followed Mr. Buu to the place he had picked out.
(September 12, 2001 A.D.; 6:28am; Canton, Ohio)
The first full day of Devin, Dusty, Clint, Heero, Virgil, Dwayne and Steve's new training at Devin's vacant lot would start off a bit on the slow side. Part of the reason was because Virgil desperately needed to be taught the basics of Ki, much as all the others had in the past. Devin decided he would at least be nice enough to give Virgil the pointers for him, while the other five would do their own training for a while. He had Virgil move over to a more open section of the lot and had him sit down and attempt to meditate. Devin found Virgil to be having a problem getting into the right position, but Virgil soon was ready.
Devin explained to Virgil that ki was the cauldron of the soul, and all the same jazz that Radditz had told Teresa the day before. Virgil took roughly 35 minutes to get it down right, and to finally grasp his ki completely. It took him another 40 minutes or so for him to get a firm enough hold to keep his ki at the surface.
Devin sighed at the wasted time, "Oh well, at least he finally got the hang it. I wonder just how long it'll take dipshit to learn how to fly." he said to himself, as he called Virgil over to start explaining how to fly. After hearing it, Virgil had a good idea of what to do, and tried to go and expel some ki downwards, although it found it hard.
However instead of expelling ki... BBBZZT! he had farted instead. Devin jumped back, having heard this and was cautious of some kind of killer gas coming through, but surprisingly, he didn't smell anything.
"Virgil, you're not trying to take a shit, you 'tard!" Devin growled.
Virgil growled and flipped him the bird for a second, "I'm trying god dammit!"
Devin sighed to himself, "Whatever, just remember, expel your ki downwards... nevermind..." he stopped, noticing Virgil was now lifting into the air, and starting to slowly move himself around up and down, and then started moving around diagonally, and then he had mastered slow movement, and began to speed up his movement.
"Good Virgil, good. Just keep plugging at it, and maybe, just maybe you can actually starting working off that fat!" Devin joked at him.
Virgil growled, "Shut up, you goony 'tard!" but he lost altitude and fell straight to the ground, actually causing a small 1.7 tremor when he landed. Devin floated up to avoid the shaking ground.
"Look, keep practicing. I need to join the others over there. When you get the hang of it, grab some heavy objects and start carrying them around as you fly!" Devin called, wanting to get to his own training.
Meanwhile, Clint had tried once again to power up to his Super Saiya-jin level, but he was finding it hard to understand why he could even do it. He had talked to his parents the other night about what had happened at Canton South. His parents had understood his anger at Al-queda, and they too had their own grief over the events. However according to them, Clint was not adopted, nor was be believed to have any kind of foreign DNA in him that they knew of. He had managed to transform again back at his house, but he then recognized something he had not seen the first time he did it. Instead of a pure-gold color to his hair, he could swear there was a slight twinge of light green to his hair.
He thought over it a little, until Dusty had called him over to do some of their weight training. He soon found himself wearing 650 lbs weighted clothing, lifting around 1,000 lbs in weights that Dwayne and Steve had ordered the night before. There had been a total of 6,400 lbs in weights lying around for the group to use for lifting, and they had a few weighted outfits to use as well. Clint had noticed that Devin had grabbed an extra-large sized weighted shirt and threw it to Virgil, telling him to slip into it for the first true part of his training, which he was going to take a bit from Radditz and how he had been trained himself, by making Virgil run laps around the lot with the clothing on, and then if he could, get Virgil to uproot boulders and larger rocks to carry around on his laps. Clint then went back to his lifting, wondering more on how he was going to master his new powers.
Heero was also training in a similar way to Virgil, except he was wearing a 2nd-level training shirt, unlike Virgil's 1st-level shirt, and he was also running around, holding up Steve on his shoulders as he ran, as Steve himself was lifting small to medium weights, trying to make himself and Heero both stronger at the same time. He also noticed Dwayne had gotten up and sat on Dusty's shoulders, having him do the same thing, except Dusty was in a '3rd-level' training shirt and not a 2nd level. They now noticed Clint attempting to do back flips and front flips while wearing his weighted clothing, but often he would fall over too soon and land on his back or on his stomach, peeling himself up to try again.
"Man, this would be so much easier if we had a gravity chamber or two with us." he said to himself. He wasn't the most impressed with weighted methods anymore after a few days. Weighted clothing wasn't good enough at equal distribution over the body in the most serious training situations. He also knew on Dragonball Z that Goku had used the 10x Earth's gravity to jump from 416 to 8,000 powerlevel in less than 4 months, and then up to 100x in less than 2 months to reach around 100,000 powerlevel. The point was that they needed a technical genius get them some gravity chambers ready eventually, lest their training would probably start to slow a little at a specific point.
(September 12, 2001 A.D.; 7:49am; Canton, Ohio)
Piccolo and #17 were flying around the city of Canton, taking note of places of interest, such as potential training locations for large groups, places of social interest(mainly #17's idea, not Piccolo's), and of course, places that could be considered high end targets to people like terrorists, much in the same vein as Al-queda were. Two places of interest were Canton's city hall and another was the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the landmark capital of football in the world, as they would discover it. At #17's request, they had gone to the Hall of Fame to learn more on the sport of football.
This had actually slightly interested the cyborg, and he looked to Piccolo, "This is quite a rough-contact sport, and in ways, it reminds me of a fun training session."
"#17, we're not using it as a training method on the others." Piccolo scowled, not exactly interested in this.
"Maybe not, but you must have some kind of fun hobby." #17 suggested.
Piccolo bared his fangs and smirked, "Sure, I've got a hobby. It's called scaring the shit out of weak humans!" he ended it with a growl.
"Surely you jest." #17 challenged, and then his eyes perked up, "Piccolo, I want to show you something. We just have to find the right place first."
Piccolo sighed, "Feh. Whatever, if you want to, it'll give us more a look at Canton anyways, but I don't think you're going to get me interested in whatever your talking about."
"Aw come on, don't knock it until you've tried it." the cyborg replied in a taunting voice as he lifted up into the air and flew over to a nearby phone booth, and grabbed a phone book, looking through the yellow-pages for a few seconds.
He then closed the book, "I know where we can go now." he said, as he lifted up and flew away. Piccolo grumbled incoherently, and picked up and flew after his fun-loving ally.
After about 5 minutes of flying, #17 suddenly landed down on the ground, in the middle of a busy intersection in the Northeast section of Canton. Piccolo landed nearby.
"So what the hell are we here for anyways?" Piccolo asked. #17 pointed up above him, to a sign that read "Carlson's Motor Lot. Special Sale Today!"
Piccolo growled, "A motor lot?"
"Follow me." #17 simply said and walked inside of the lot ahead of them. Piccolo cautiously followed, as he examined some vehicles, such as cars, trucks, motorcycles and even a few tractors from time to time. #17 walked up to a tall man near the back of the lot, who they soon found out was Leon Carlson, the owner.
"Well there, what can I..." then he saw Piccolo, in a semi grumble mode, and looked a bit surprised, but then talked more, "What I can I do for you?"
#17 replied casually, "I'm looking for a high-end motorcycle or two with good mileage."
Leon looked at them, "Well, I'm sure I can find you something worth your time." he replied as he led them over a little towards the eastern-center of the lot, where he had pointed to a pair of Harley Davidson motorcycles, which #17 looked at as if he were a little child at Christmas.
He had read up on the motorcycles and cars of the merged world, at least what he knew would probably be sold around Canton, so he had already had a good idea that this was right up his alley. Now getting Piccolo to try it... that was a different story.
"Hey Piccolo. I want you to try one of these out!" he called over, as to make sure everyone else around knew he was speaking to the Namekian, which Piccolo found just a wee bit annoying. Piccolo then looked over at the motorcycle with a strange expression one might have when looking at a dead cockroach.
"Are you insane?" he growled.
"Whatsa matter Piccolo? You scared of a little automated bike?" #17 taunted him, hoping to use the advantage of being in public to coax Piccolo into trying it to keep his dignity.
Piccolo growled, realizing this immediately, "You idiot! Vehicles and I do not mix!"
"Oh come on, I know you can drive, considering Goku told me about the time you two took a driving test and got into a race with each other." #17 smirked.
Piccolo's jaw dropped about 3 inches at this statement, "That imbecile! He didn't! For your information, Chichi forced both of us into it! She thought we needed a small taste of normal life when we ended up doing that!" he then tried to explain his actions, but he was hoping that #17 hadn't know of the goofy getup and hat he had to wear that day more than #17 being aware of the driving part itself.
"Oh come on! Goku told me that it wasn't "that bad"." #17 said.
Piccolo grumbled at him, wanting to smash Goku's head into the ground now that he knew the lesser-intelligent Saiya-jin told #17 about their driving test incident. However Piccolo realized that at motorcycle was smaller than a car, and it wasn't like the others would know if he did try it once. Everyone else, even Vegeta, had at one point or another joked about how Piccolo was always dead serious all the time and didn't like to have fun.
"Grrr... FINE! I'll try the stupid motorcycle! But if any one of the others see us, I'm going to give you a good ass-kicking later on!" Piccolo threatened, but giving in to his temptation.
#17 smirked, "I look forward to seeing you try." he said, as Piccolo begrudgingly walked up near the bike.
#17 asked Leon about the price of the motorcycles. He said it was a special sale at $750 dollars for each of them. He pulled out the required money, but Piccolo noticed this.
"#17, exactly where are you getting money?" he asked.
"Oh, you mean you haven't found it yet?" #17 replied, "I'll give you the full details later." he then handed Leon the money, and he boarded his own motorcycle, and Piccolo reluctantly boarded his own cycle.
After being given their ignition keys, #17 and then Piccolo turned on their motorcycles and revved them up for their test drive. Soon, #17 drove his way out of the lot and onto the road. Piccolo grumbled, and accelerated after him, and wondered what exactly #17 was trying to get him to do. The two would drive off and head back westward, heading down streets until they'd make a turn on Tuscarawas Ave. and drove westward down the wider road.
(September 12, 2001 A.D.; 7:55am; Canton, Ohio)
Earlier that day, Nina had soon woke up, only to find that Radditz had already left the house, probably to go train Dan and Teresa. She had more or less recovered from the minor hangover from the other night. Wondering just how Vegeta was taking things by now, she figured he was none to happy to lose to Goku apparently for a second time. However she was more concerned with her and Paula's to-be training. She had been given Paula's phone number the other night, and she went over and picked up the phone in her kitchen, and she dialed the number to her friend's line.
After the phone beeped about 2 times, it clicked, "Hello?" Paula's voice replied.
"Paula it's me." Nina spoke.
"Ah, I was wondering when you'd call." Paula said, sounding a little bored, yet slightly... distracted at the same time.
"What're you doing over there?" Nina was curious enough to ask.
"Just practicing my 'other' powers for our training session. I'm levitating the phone to my ear right now in fact." Paula replied back.
"Using ki levitation huh?" Nina asked.
"Not ki at all." Paula replied back, having Nina a little curious, "Hey, I'll be over there soon. Don't go far!" she then said.
"Okay, I'll talk to you later." Nina said, as she heard Paula hang up the phone on her end. Nina left her kitchen and had walked into her front room, a but crowded, but at least Radditz was using her basement instead of the main part of her home. She had been keeping a few heirlooms from her own times in Canton in others rooms on the ground floor of her house. She was also keeping a few of her own personal belongings in the attic upstairs. Her cat Oscar was also upstairs with those belonging, sleeping the day away lazily.
She heard a knock on the door though soon, and she walked up to the door, and saw Paula through the peephole.
Damn! That was only about 10 seconds! she thought to herself, as she opened the door to see the pink-clad girl looking up at her, "Well, you're here fast. I didn't realize you meant THAT soon." she said.
Paula laughed, "I didn't really tell you, did I?" she replied.
"About what?" Nina asked.
"My speed. I didn't use it too much in the earlier days since I didn't really feel I needed to use it, but I seem to be extremely fast moving when I need to. I've always been that way, and Goku could even vouch for me, or even Muten Roshi, that goofy old pervert." she then grumbled slightly, rolling her eyes at the thought of the old martial arts master.
"I take it you want to get this started soon as well." Nina realized, and she walked outside, and shut the door behind her.
"By the way, is Radditz there now?" Paula asked.
"He's probably off training Teresa and Dan right now. He's sure not here." Nina told her.
"Oh well, just curious. You told me you knew of a few far and away training spots. So I guess you can lead the way." Paula replied as if it wasn't a big deal.
Nina replied, "Yeah, it's up way north and a bit east though. Don't mind me though. I'm just a bit tired still. I do think I can get us started off fast. I'll explain when we get to our designated spot." The two women then flew up into the air, and Nina flew up and northeast, towards the spot where she was intending to go, Paula following from behind, probably slower than normal, Nina thought to herself.
Ironically, the place were Nina and Paula would stop at had only been looked at by Piccolo and #17 in their fly-over of Canton only 10 minutes before. It was a large forested area with a clearing here or there. It was located north of the Belden Village area, about half way from Belden Village to the Akron-Canton airport. It was also south of a candy factory known as Harry London's Chocolates.
Nina realized if Mr. Buu had ever found this place that he'd be visiting it often, and chuckled to herself.
"What's so funny?" asked Paula.
"I just thought of Buu's appetite for sweets. There's a candy factory a little north of this place where mostly chocolates are made. Buu would be going on a chowing rampage if he had found this place back when we all got back from California." Nina explained.
"I noticed there's a good deal of large trees and obstacles here." Paula said, looking around.
"Yes, unlike what the others seem to be doing, we're going to go for something a little different. I believing having obstacles to dodge around or jump over will help us get faster. You see Paula, you kinda have a good idea with being fast. I think I can also catch up a little by training here. Also, as for what I said when I have another method, well, here... I'll let you experience it for yourself." she said, raising her hands out and shooting a black wave at Paula, which then formed into a strange aura around her.
Paula grunted, feeling like her body weight had doubled, and had about fallen to her knees, "Nina, what the heck?"
"I overheard something from Goku and Vegeta the other night, about how they use high gravity to quickly train themselves. I realized a time ago that I can alter the field of gravity around individual people, and even myself, so I think that can help us." Nina explained, so Paula wouldn't think to attack for the wrong reason.
Paula blinked, and sweatdropped, laughing nervously as she had managed to get to her feet, "Ah... I see. It's like a better version of Goku's weighted clothing."
"Well, don't get too giddy. We'll be wearing that stuff too at times. We won't start off that way, though." Nina said, now grabbing one of her own arms with another, and emitting a black field of energy around herself. Nina almost doubled over from the now double-weight of her body, "By the way, this is 2.5 times normal Earth gravity."
Paula nodded and asked, "Now what? We run around?"
"Well yes, but we need to also try to do lots of laps around that clearing over there," Nina had gotten to standing upright, and had pointed to a track-like clearing about 140 yards around, "But we also need to fire off our ki better, and we also need to lift rocks, and other weights. At least to start off. We're probably actually do sparring another day. Now we're just gonna break our new 2.5x gravity in."
The two women both understood what was to be done, and soon set off to the track-field to start doing laps. They were going to try for 125 laps in less than 4 hours to start off.
(September 12, 2001 A.D.; 10:32am; Canton, Ohio)
Mr. Buu, Goku, Vegeta, Alex, Jason and Vernon had all finally arrived at the spot Buu had found for their spar. It was an odd place on the western side of the city, between the cities of Canton and Massillon to the west. It was in a way an abandoned stadium-like spot. Buu had chose the spot due to the massive area, and the walls made it hard for any outsiders to interrupt their match. Buu had been looking forward to a spar, as he hadn't had a real fight in some time.
He looked at Goku and Vegeta and said, "Buu gonna fight at full power! Goku, Vegeta need to transform!"
Alex, Jason and Vernon, sitting in some dug-out like stands nearby, had gone back to their training to hold SSJ as long as possible, while they were also going to try to keep an eye on the three sparring warriors. Goku stared over at Buu and gave a slight shout as his hair flashed golden, and grew down to knee height, indicating he was now Super Saiya-jin 3. And Vegeta screamed out, his hair flashing gold, and spiking up more wide to the sides, indicating he was a Super Saiya-jin 2.
Alex's ki sense picked his up, and he was overwhelmed, "Holy shit, that is sweet!" he cried out, definitely now going to aspire to reach that level and beyond. He knew doing so would make him the strongest Misfit, at least in his mind.
Jason and Vernon did not know how to sense ki, but the air flowing off of their bodies was still felt like a hurricane against their skin. If they had been normal human strength at this time, they'd have not been able to withstand it and watch as the three figures suddenly vanished from sight. Alex, Vernon and Jason's eyes widened.
"Shit, they're moving so fast we can't even pick their energies up!" Alex growled, not liking to be totally unaware of what was to come. Now Vernon had also began to realize some extent of what Piccolo and #17 could do if he had fought them at their full strength, as he saw a trench dug up by a stray blast near their location.
Goku charged in fast at Mr. Buu and delivered a kick to his back. Buu flew forward, but he barely registered damage, as Vegeta had formed a high-strength Final Flash which was shot directly into Buu. The blast tore through part of Buu's stomach, leaving a small hole in the side. Buu however calmly regenerated his injury, and then cupped his hands to the side, and fired off a medium-strength Kamehameha which flew straight at the Saiya-jin and smacked into his chest, and knocked him back and slightly downwards. Vegeta flew out of the shot's path after a while, and he saw Goku axehandle the Majin over the head, and sent him spinning in a cannonball towards the ground.
Mr. Buu however managed to turn his decent into a forward roll into midair, and quickly zanzokened above Goku and Vegeta and quickly charged a Galic Gun to shoot down at Goku. Goku prepared a Kamehameha and managed to fire his off a half-second before Buu shot his Galic Gun. The two blasts collided. For a while, the blasts held about even, but soon Goku's blast began to win out. Vegeta then cupped his hands in front of him, forming a second Final Flash which merged with Goku's blast and help boost it over towards Buu.
However Buu soon realized he was going to lose the beam war and zanzokened out of the way of the impending double shot. He reappeared from above Goku and smashed into him bottom first, plowing both of them down through the air, soon cutting a large hole into the ground, as both made impact. Vegeta looked down with a small drop of sweat on his forehead, while Vernon, Alex and Jason looked on in shock.
"Did he just do a body press!" asked Jason, and he began to wonder about something of his own in his head. He had been developing a physical move in similar structure to a body press except the hit was meant to be more horizontal, and the attack also was done with the moderate intention of grossing out his enemy.
Soon, Goku managed to powerup and throw Buu off of him, and jumped out of the hole in the ground. Vegeta quickly flew down at Buu, but Buu turned quickly and swung his leg into Vegeta's head, sending the Saiya-jin prince rocketing upward about 30 feet. Vegeta recovered and flew back down and shot a twin-handed blast, which looked as if he were to hit Buu from the front, but as Buu prepared to block it, Vegeta aimed it behind Buu and the double blast hit him in the back, burning a small indent in the Majin's body.
"Sneaky sneaky!" Buu replied, as he landed on the ground, "Me done! We train kids now!" he said.
Alex growled, "Hey you fatso, I'm no 'kid'!"
Vernon chuckled, "You let everything rile you up, don't you?"
"Shut up Vernon!" Alex growled back.
"Dur dur..." Vernon taunted.
"QUIET!" Jason growled at the other two, "I'm trying to concentrate."
"Whatever Jason." Alex grumbled, although Vernon did calm down. He didn't want to lose Jason as a competitor. It wouldn't so interesting if he dropped out of their race to power. Goku and Vegeta powered down to base level1, back to a point, where Alex could vaguely get a normal comparison of his power to theirs.
Dammit! I NEED to transform more! I'll never surpass them at this rate. Alex thought to himself.
The three elder Misfits had decided they would start training their students again. Buu had even decided he might pitch in a little to the training.
(September 12, 2001 A.D.; 10:27am; Canton, Ohio)
As the two rode around Canton in their new motorcycles, #17 and Piccolo had basically been about neck and neck. #17 had called back to Piccolo a short time after the two had taken off, and called him slow, so Piccolo had decided to speed up and compete with the cyborg.
"Don't bother! I'll beat you at your own game!" Piccolo growled over at him.
"Aw come on Piccolo! At least smile and show that you're having fun! You're gloom and doom face doesn't look right when you're enjoying something!" #17 replied back with a taunt.
Piccolo smirked, "Fine, you wanna play it that way, I want to challenge you then!"
"You got my attention!" #17 called back, as he followed Piccolo down a few roads, as they closed in close to the city of Massillon. Piccolo soon stopped his motorcycle and #17 looked at him in confusion. He then watched as Piccolo AND his motorcycle floated up into the air, until to the point he was at roof level with a nearby building. He set the motorcycle on the top.
"I see your little game." #17 mused, and similarly levitated himself and his bike onto the roof, and landed near Piccolo.
"So what, we're gonna jump from building to building?" he asked the Namek.
"No. We're going to see who can go the furthest through the air only on a forward thrust of Ki alone. No vertical flight." Piccolo explained.
#17 understood this, "Roger wilco." as he revved up his bike, "Better hurry Piccolo. I'm a real speed demon in the air!" he cheered on as Piccolo revved up his own bike and both shot off into the air. Using a ramp-like structure on the edge of the room to give them their own upward thrust as they flew off.
As they flew over the area, #17 realized Piccolo seemed to actually be enjoying himself. Although he wondered if it might have only been because he wanted to show the cyborg up so much.
That fool thinks just because he's stronger than me know that he's better than me at everything. I'll show his pompous ass! he then formed a smirk, and sped up his forward thrust.
Piccolo saw this and grumbled, turning up the juice as well. Both flew flying at a steady attitude, only slightly lessening every few feet. Most human motorists would see this as something only an act of God would allow, but the two aerial competitors knew much better than they did. As they flew forward, they began to see a strange looking stadium come into view. It was only then #17 and Piccolo then realized something.
Shit! Goku, Vegeta and Buu are at that stadium! Wait... so are Alex, Vernon and Jason. Piccolo thought to himself.
#17 had been thinking the same thing, but then he smirked, as he turned his cycle to aim towards the stadium. Piccolo saw this and copied after him, and both began to slowly increase in decent as they approached the stadium. Soon, they let down on the energy boost and let themselves fall conveniently low enough that they would fall inside of the walls of the stadium. #17 snickered as he saw Goku, Vegeta and Buu spot him and Piccolo flying in. Alex, Jason and Vernon had not yet noticed. However, soon Alex turned his head and sensed Piccolo, and looked up just in time to see #17 only a few feet from landing on him.
In an impressive feat of reaction, even for him, Alex had managed to just barely roll out of the way of the motorcycle and its' occupant as it finally hit the ground and left a few sparks behind as it zoomed ahead. Piccolo landed at roughly the same time, a few inches behind Jason and Vernon, and luckily found an open spot between the two and zoomed past them fast, causing them to spin around several times in place at high speed. As the two zoomed past the bewildered younger teenage saiya-jin, they came in closer to Vegeta, Goku and Buu.
"That look fun! Buu wanna try that!" Buu cheered as he watched the Namekian and cyborg zoom in close.
"Namek, Cyborg! What the hell are you two doing!" Vegeta on the other hand was annoyed.
"COMPETITION." both said flatly as they zoomed past him. Vegeta raised his eyebrow a little.
Goku chuckled, "Well, that brought back memories."
"You're not talking about your cursed driving test ordeal you two clowns had to take, are you!" Vegeta grumbled at him.
"Yep." Goku laughed, as he saw #17 and Piccolo lift up into the air, still on their motorcycles as they flew off out of the stadium, and then flying out of their range of sight, although not necessarily ki sense.
After that little ordeal, Piccolo grumbled at his cyborg ally, "Cute trick, but that's enough for today." and then he said, "We outta get these bikes back home in one piece. We gave them quite a bumpy landing."
"Fine, ruin my fun." #17 joked, but he too knew he didn't want to wreck his new toy so fast, so he decided to go along with Piccolo, "You still think we should look around?"
"No. We need to get back to thinking about training with the others. I know Vegeta's not gonna be impressed by what we did, but it serves him right for getting drunk off his ass the other night."
"Yeah, I wish I had been there to see that. I outta ask for the whole explanation out of Nina sometime." #17 laughed, "I still don't know too much from the first time he and Goku pull that little drink-off stunt."
The two zoomed off towards Vernon's house, but then they realized, "Maybe we should find a different place to land these." #17 suggested.
Piccolo shrugged. He was a little concerned Vernon, Alex, Jason, or someone else in their little gang might try to make off with his cycle, and although he didn't want to admit it to anyone, he was starting to actually like his motorcycle. The two zoomed off southwards into the distance to find their makeshift cycle place...
(September 12, 2001 A.D.; 2:31pm; Canton, Ohio)
Back on their own training field, Radditz, Dan and Teresa had continued their training. Now Teresa had been given some of Goku's type of training weights in addition to the spare armor plate Radditz had made her wear the day before. She wasn't getting nearly as worn out so fast. She realized this when she had compared her now 1,512 powerlevel to the 13.4 she started with the day before. It was more than a 100 times increase from the day before. Radditz was a little impressed, and he realized Goku more than likely knew more about the training methods than he did. He might have been many times stronger than the mere 1,200 something he had when he first died on Earth before, but he still had much to learn from his little brother and prince.
He then thought about to something he overheard Goku and Vegeta mention about using high gravity to train. Radditz knew most Saiya-jin where raised in an environment which was 5 to 10 times Earth's normal gravity. He also knew from Vegeta that his wife Bulma, and her own father had the genius to build artificial gravity chambers. He needed to find a way to incorporate this into his training schedule somehow. Another thing had been on his mind though too. He was wondering about his little plan about the sensu bean he had gotten from Piccolo the other night. His actual idea was that he wanted to try to grow a full-blown sensu plant, which would hopefully net them more beans in the long run.
He had learned the other night from Goku on the phone that an old teacher of his named Korin had been the grower of the beans. Radditz ended up admitting his little plan to his younger brother, who return promised to keep it a secret, but he warned that he wasn't sure if his brother's plan would succeed. Korin didn't usually grow very many beans in a long period of time. Sometimes the crop was excellent, like the first time Goku had even met Korin, where he literally had over 100 sensu available, before Yajirobe had eaten half or more of them that day2. But then there were times where he could only get as many as 3 in a period of 6 months or more. Radditz realized this might not he so easy as he had thought.
After the session was done for the day, Radditz had scanned Teresa and Dan with his scouter. Dan was now around 19,043, and Teresa was around 8,468. He himself had grown to around 65,536 at the end of the day. He smirked, wondering what that fat bastard Dodoria would say now to his new power. He was already double of what he had when he healed from his return to the living plane.
He then wondered to himself, Just why WAS I revived? I was sent to Hell for a reason. I wasn't supposed to come back, and I know it wasn't the Dragonballs.
Radditz had learned over his time dead that most sets of Dragonballs could only grant each wish once, and that people dead over a year were usually not able to be resurrected, so that was why he suspected there was a divine motive, something much like how Steve and Dwayne had explained it, some kind of voice had spoken to them before they had been all sent to meet with him and the others. He looked over to Dan and Teresa.
The new girl looked over and noticed the odd expression on his face, "You okay Radditz?"
"Wha... oh yeah... just thinking about something in the back of my mind." he replied.
"That idea of yours?" Dan asked.
"Not as much that, but more of why I came back." Radditz then admitted.
"Well, maybe fate wanted to give you a second chance. Sometimes it's best not to think too much on stuff you don't understand too well. Sometimes you get a headache if you think about it too much." Dan replied.
Radditz grumbled, "Yeah yeah, kid. I know. I guess that's a wrap for the day. Head on home, or train on your own. Whatever you wish. I'm heading back home. I have to think about something else too." Dan and Teresa nodded, and they lifted to the air and headed off for home.
Radditz soon had flown back northeast, landing over at the place he and Nina were at. He noticed she was out at the moment, and headed in, and looked around the ground floor a slight bit. Radditz might have shared a section of the place with her, but he never really understood a large amount about the winged girl. He knew that trying to point his scouter at her location that she had a strong enough powerlevel that she'd eventually blow the scouter up due to his newly found ki sense, but that was all he knew about her. He tapped into his new found sense, and searched out for her, and found her energy was close to... apparently Paula's. Both had a sense that they were strained on by something, and their powerlevels felt slightly lower than normal.
"Maybe they're training too and I didn't really think to ask her about it." he said to himself. Then his thought shifted elsewhere.
He wondered, "If Vegeta's mate isn't here to support us, we're going to probably need to get money soon. I know Paula has some, but she can't probably hold us up forever." he thought. He had learned from his experiences in the last week that businesses and jobs were a necessity to normal people to live, but he felt that such a thing wasn't thinkable for a Saiya-jin to do. Saiya-jin were fighters, not businessmen. But he knew that with the lot of the others training, maybe he should try to find a part-time job, as Nina sometimes would call them. He soon heard the door open, and he saw Nina walk in.
"Well, you're back a little early." he started, making her look to him.
"So are you." she replied as-a-matter-of-factly.
"I know. I got a lot on my mind. What about you? I felt your powerlevel being strained, and... WOAH! It's higher than earlier!" he realized as he sensed her again.
"You sure about that?" Nina tried to cover it up.
"You're training too, aren't you?" he asked.
Nina sighed, figuring with Radditz around, he'd find out sooner or later, "Yes. Paula and I are training each other. I don't think it's anything too serious though."
"Well I hope you all train the best you can. Maybe you can find a away to bring out that rage you used on that asshole back the school you went to." Radditz said, mentioning to her of Jackson.
Nina growled, "Don't remind me of that right now. Ugh! That little punk pisses me off so much! It's not just because he rats out on me, but because of his hate to Alex and the others, but especially Alex. You see, Alex and Jackson... they used to be good friends, almost to the point of best friends when they were in Kindergarten to 4th grade. However, after a while, Alex's Cerebral Palsy, which he no longer has now, became bad enough he started having to ride around in a wheelchair. When Jackson saw him like that, he turned around and stabbed him in the back, so to speak. From then on, he hated Alex, and Alex grew to dislike, and then totally hate him as High School came in."
"Why is he so mad at you?" Radditz asked.
"Well, here's where I came into the picture. For one, look good at me Radditz. My wings are impossible to hide from anyone, and they stick out like sore thumbs. People thought I was a mutant, or some freak of nature. Most of the younger, more immature population at the school started hating on me, but it wasn't until Jackson started to taunt me about my wings, and even my height, that it became a fad." Nina explained.
"I see now. I guess that guy's really bad news. I noticed he seemed to know about Austin, er Steve. But he started hating on him after he saw Steve with us." Radditz commented, wondering how Jackson would react if he had gotten a glimpse of his tail in the open. He'd probably be called a freak for it as well, even if he could lay Jackson flat in one flick of the finger. Even after Nina had come close to killing him, he was still brave enough to utter a last insult at the group back at the school.
"Wait, there's more. I don't know if you heard it from anyone else, but I was the one who healed Alex of his Cerebral Palsy. It was only about 2 and a half months ago, but after that, Alex slowly regained his bearings again, and that's why he's even able to train now. He never admitted it to anyone else, but he did personally thank me in private over the phone one night. However, Jackson has this thing where he believes once you're a freak, you'll always be a freak to the end of your life. When I cured Alex, I destroyed part of his credibility, since he also hated on Alex in front of his friends, even though more of them liked him than me. His hate towards me skyrocketed, and his hate and disdain for Alex rose as well. He was bad enough before I healed Alex, but now he doesn't think half the time before insulting me. He's even done it in front of the teachers a few times out of reaction." Nina cut in and explained more to Radditz.
"Well, either way, you're powerlevel was impressive. I could sense it was higher than Piccolo's. I even heard him tell Dusty that he would've been an ant to you if he had been in Jackson's shoes instead." Radditz replied.
"Yeah, that's another thing that's been on my mind: Dusty. He's not a bad kid, and he's an excellent cook, having had many of his own dishes, and his friends are actually nice enough to me in the Heritage Room, although Viola seems to act slightly jealous when I'm around, it's usually more for fun."
"What is it?" Radditz asked her.
"It's almost as if he has a special place for me somewhere. He's never the least bit cautious to fight back verbally against Jackson, because he knows Jackson's friends admire Dusty too much due to his reputation and cooking skills, and they would side with Dusty before him. I've noticed a lot of his anger at Jackson seems more or less having to do with Jackson's hate towards me." Nina explained.
"You ever think he might actually like you?" Radditz had suggested, making a shot in the dark.
"Not really. I mean, if he does, he can hide it well from me. I don't think anyone else would know either if he did." Nina looked down, and said almost to herself.
"Well, I hate to cut you short. But I must get some lone time to think over my next move. I need to find a job, I believe. I don't think we can just expect to go stealing shit from people around here and expect to be treated like heroes. We need money, and I don't think Paula, Dwayne or Steve can keep us afloat there forever." Radditz then cut in.
"Alright, but you're a Saiya-jin, right? I know your kind eats much more than a human can." Nina spoke up.
"Yeah, although Kakarott is a golden-sheep in that area. He can eat 5 times more than any Saiya-jin I know can, even myself, and I can eat a lot myself when hungry." Radditz replied.
"Try to get a part-time job at a fast-food place, or at a restaurant. Usually employees will also get the bonus of some degree of free food. It might be enough to keep you going at the job, but I warn you, there are a lot of idiot people you'll run into, customers and employees alike." Nina advised.
"Alright, I think I'll start there." the tall Saiya-jin replied, as he walked back into the kitchen, and then through the door leading to the basement.
Nina sighed, thinking about her training with Paula. She was a good student, and while she was a little agitated about gravity training at firstlike about anyone not used to doing it, she soon got the hang of it, and was able to adapt almost fully to it. Nina herself had also become a quick study at it, and realized that they were going to have to bump it up to 5x or higher very soon. She did wondered a little about that burst of power she gave off when she almost strangled Jackson to death, and then the comment Radditz had given about her going up a good amount in less than a full day.
It was too bad she knew his scouter couldn't read a powerlevel as high as hers'. She knew his scouter could only go to 240,000 before it exploded, or just stopped scanning the person. She was well above that now. She figured she'd think more on it another time. She had just gotten home, and her talk with Radditz about her, Alex and Jackson's chaotic relationship had distracted her from going to her room to sleep. She opened the door to her room and walked in, closing it behind her.
Footnotes:
1 "Base" or "Base level" term used with characters who can transform. When the character has not transformed in any way at the current point, they are at their "base" level.
2 If you saw the Piccolo Saga in Dragonball, you'll remember when Yajirobe took Goku to Korin Tower, Korin had literally hundreds of sensu beans, but after Z started, he could only spare as much as maybe 3-4 per saga, maybe 8 at best. It makes little sense to me, although I will try to get into how that happened, and Radditz realizes without knowing where Korin tower is on the merged Earth yet, they might need an alternative source of sensus.