Chapter 9: Friends

Jake, Izzy and Cubby were gathered around Gohan, all of them looking supremely exhausted. Their limbs hung loosely by their sides like limp rags while their bodies appeared to be trembling from head to foot with weary fatigue from all the dodging, swimming, and running they had been doing.

"Gohan, please tell us we can take a break now," Jake pleaded, covered in various bruises and tiny cuts.

"Nope, sorry, Jake," Gohan replied, now back in his Super Saiyan 2 state. "There isn't any point in doing this if you keep taking breaks in between training. But believe me, it will get easier. Your body just isn't used to putting in so much effort now — give yourselves some time."

"Okay," Izzy sighed, rubbing her sore butt from all the hits the hard water had inflicted on her. "Ouch, it stings."

"Now what do we do?" Cubby said inquisitively.

"Now it's time for you to move on to your afternoon training," Gohan informed them all. He glanced at his friends, thinking hard on their next exercise. "Hm... hm... what to do now... oh, I know! Jake, Izzy, Cubby, please stand several feet apart."

Sharing exasperated glances, the three sighed and moved to do as they had been ordered.

"Excellent," Gohan said. "Now, this next exercise will be designed to improve your coordination and your reflexes."

He glanced at the assembled group of friends.

"Here is how the next part of your training is going to work. I hope you three are ready for this," Gohan told them as they got ready themselves. "Your job will be to catch every rock that's thrown at you and we're not gonna quit until you learn to catch every single one."

"Thank Never Land," Cubby sighed, sounding relieved. "Something easy to do now."

"Yeah, that sounds simple enough," Jake agreed, gasping for air.

"You think so?" Gohan smirked. "Well, you'll soon see."

Gohan then closed his eyes, and put his hands together, confusing the three. And slowly, small chunks of rock were picked up from the ground and were surrounding Gohan slowly.

"Is he moving things with his mind?!" Jake exclaimed in shock.

"On your marks, get set, GO!" Gohan hollered.

And like that, the rocks that were picked off the ground were now being thrown at the crew of pirates while Gohan was moving them as fast as he could.

"Whoa, this seems — whoa! — easy enough!" Izzy said, catching one rock after the other, although only barely.

"It's a good thing I don't have to do any of this. You guys have my sympathies," Skully told them as he watched the training unfold itself.

"I fell kind of sorry for them too," Gohan whispered in agreement. "But if they want to get stronger, then they'll have to go through this."

"Yeah, what's so — whoa! — hard about — whoa! — this?" the dark-skinned child added, and then, a rock managed to bypass his defenses and slam into him, directly in his forehead. "Ow! Man, that smarts!"

And then a bunch of rocks started getting past him.

"I can't catch that fast!" he said, trying in vain to catch all the flying rocks. "Stop, wait, whoa! Ow!"

"Hey, I think that's enough, kid!" the green parrot said.

"Oh!" Izzy said, snatching one out of the air. "Wait! Oh! Whoa! There's one! Stop! Hold on! Ow!"

Now encumbered by their added weight and already worn out from their previous workout session, Jake, Izzy, and Cubby began fumbling, losing their balance, and staggering around like drunken adults as more and more rocks started smashing into them.

"Wait! Ow! Stop! Ow! Ow! Whoa! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Cubby cried, shielding his body from all the incoming projectiles.

Izzy screamed, covering her head like a scared little girl.

"Don't just stand there!" Gohan said. "Catch them! You're letting too many of them get past you!"

"Is he being serious?!" Jake demanded as the rocks continued pelting against his body.

And so, they could be found an hour later, standing there with many big bumps and black and blue marks dotted across their skin.

"Okay, so that didn't work so well," Gohan stated with sweat drop.

"Didn't work so well?" Izzy repeated, sounding furious. "Didn't work so well?! It was a total disaster!"

And she stomped forward angrily, coming face-to-face with Gohan, and despite the awesome power granted to him by his Super Saiyan 2 transformation, he still cowered under the might of the girl, who reminded him much of his mother. Jake was surprised as well. It's not every day Izzy got really ticked off.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Izzy," Gohan said, feeling slightly guilty that he might have been neglecting his friends' welfare. "I told you this was going to be very hard. I know it's tough, but it really will make you stronger, I promise it will. It's just gonna take a little time, that's all. But you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm not forcing you to do this. If you don't think you're up to it then you can stop now."

Izzy sighed and folded her arms. Why is it so hard to stay mad at you? She mused.

"Well, I suppose you've got a point," the tomboy grumbled.

"What... do we do... next?" Cubby asked, sounding like he was literally seconds away from keeling over.

"Yeah. Even though I'm not doing anything, my wings are getting pretty tired," Skully added.

Gohan appraised his three students carefully. I don't want to push them too hard; they are normal kids, after all.

"I think we'll do just one more exercise today," Gohan said.

"And what is it now?" Jake wheezed, looking completely terrified at the thought of whatever their half-Saiyan friend had in store for them now. "Sitting on top of a bed of spikes? Learning how to catch fire in our hands? Jumping off a cliff?"

"No, no," Gohan said, shaking his head. "I think we'll finish with a simple game of tag. You're all wearing weights; try and tag me a hundred times in the air and we'll call it quits for today."

"Wait, in the air? How? We can't fly like you," Jake said.

"Well, don't you have that little dust thing you can use?" Gohan queered.

"Yeah, but we only use pixie dust for emergencies," Izzy added on.

"Well, make this an exception. I'm sure it'll be no big deal," Gohan replied.

"Oh finally," Izzy said happily. "Something easy to do."

"Easy? Maybe," Cubby allowed, and then he sighed wearily. "But we haven't had a single easy thing to do yet."

"Aw, come on, Cubby, cheer up!" Jake answered. "What's so hard about playing tag? Just try and think of it as a game!"

Gohan nodded, and then his conscience wouldn't leave him alone.

"Also... I'm sorry that I've been pushing you all so hard. I know it's brutal, but it's the only way you'll get stronger," Gohan said with faint tears shining in his eyes. "Like I said, you don't have to do it. I only went along with it because you said you wanted to be trained..."

His shoulders shook with suppressed emotion.

"I can't imagine what you must think of me," Gohan said. "That I'm some cold, heartless monster. Please, if any of you have reservations about my type of training, just say so, and you can stop any time."

His voice grew hoarse.

"You're my friends and I don't want to hurt you," he concluded.

Suddenly, a hand on his shoulder made him up into Izzy's smiling face.

"Hey, you don't have to be sorry," she said sincerely. "I'm sure it's all in a good cause, right, guys?"

Jake nodded earnestly. "Yeah, I know you wouldn't be pushing us so hard if we couldn't handle it."

"Speak for yourself," Cubby mumbled. "I think I'm about to drop dead."

"Just ignore him," Izzy said. "He could use a nice hard work out."

Gohan nodded, feeling much happier than he had a moment again, despite the emotional strain of the Super Saiyan 2 form.

"Thanks, guys," he said, with a fairly discernible level of cheer making its way past his cool Super Saiyan 2 tone. "You're the best!"

So far, air tag was really fun to play, even though this was for training.

"For the first time today, I'm actually having fun training!" Izzy cried. "Well, almost."

And she flew forward, pressing her hand against Gohan, but he disappeared.

"You're too slow!" Gohan taunted. He was holding back for their sake but would make it harder for them.

"Man, Gohan. You are much faster than you look!" Jake groaned.

"That's one hundred!" Izzy said with a haughty smirk. "You're done."

"Yeah, guess so," Gohan agreed as they all flew back to Pirate Island.

They've been doing very well, He thought. I haven't told them yet, but they're showing definite signs of improvement. If they can stick with the training program, in only a few weeks they'll be ready to learn basic energy techniques.

He sighed suddenly. I never wanted to be the kind of a mentor Piccolo was for me, but I guess it's inevitable when you're training to push yourself beyond your limit. I hope they're not too mad at me when they finish. I couldn't bear it if they hated me...

After a long evening of training, and meeting ChillyZack, Gohan and his friends were now back home on Pirate Island, and they made sure lots of food was made for the half-breed.

"I swear, no matter how many times I see it, I'll never get used to it," Izzy said as she and the others watched Gohan gulp down all the food places in front of him at an unimaginable speed. They also started to dig in into their food as they were thinking about the training earlier that evening. As the meal progressed, they noticed one thing as time went on.

CRACK!

"Again?" Skully said, exasperated. "That's the eighth glass you've broken already!"

"Sorry," Gohan said, turning his fierce Super Saiyan 2 gaze on him, causing Skully to shiver uncomfortably. "I'm still not used to my power yet in the Super Saiyan 2 state. Just give me time, okay?"

Skully nodded, still a bit unnerved. "Sure, take all the time you need."

And several moments later, Jake, Izzy and Cubby all put down their utensils as they finished their meal, turning their heads to the side as Gohan kept shoveling down bite after bite of delicious-looking food.

Finally, a couple minutes later, Gohan finished off the last morsel of food.

"That was some great food," he said, his tone never changing pitch as he rubbed his belly. "Almost as good as Mom's cooking."

"Soo, we were wondering if you were going to tell us about your adventures," Jake said. "You did say you were going to, right?"

"Oh, yeah. It must've slipped my mind. I guess I should start from when I visited my dad's friends, when I was only four. My first three years were just a normal life, but I did study a lot. But, when I was four, that's when I first started learning about my dad being a Saiyan."