CHAPTER 17:
Look at all the Bulmas!

The Capsule Corp. spaceship finally docked on the landing pad after having endured a long wait for authorization. Apparently, since they were the first ship from Earth to ever come to the planet Ladrone, some paperwork had to be filed, and in the process, Trunks, Pan and Goku were forced to sit patiently until they were given permission to land. Once the ship touched ground, it hummed for several moments and then the engines were shut off. Several humanoid mechanics were running around in gray lab coats, securing the ship and checking its gear. With a hiss, the lower portion of the ship opened and the ladder descended.

Pan didn't even bother to wait for the ladder to touch the cement. She jumped down with Giru in her hands and started jumping for joy. "Finally! Fresh air! Giru, we made it!" She danced in small circles with the robot, swinging him around with her. It felt so good to be in a large open area again. She didn't know how much longer she could handled being cramped up with Trunks and her Grandpa. They had their fun moments sometimes, but after a while, they just seemed to be irritating. The first thing she was going to do when on this planet was buy a different game console. They had to have some kinds of new games that she could play. Trunks did say that this planet was the most advanced and highly populated of the two in this particular solar system. They even had landing pads for their ship! If they had this level of technology, they had to have new games. Or books. Or magazines. Or something! Pan couldn't handle the boredom anymore. They were going to have to endure an entire extra week and a half just tracking down the seventh dragonball.

She heard feet hit the ground behind her and turned to see Trunks wearing his blue bandana over his typical black long-sleeved shirt tucked into khaki shorts. Pan's backpack rested on his right shoulder as he carried the remote in his hand. Pan sighed, shaking her head. He had several other outfits, including that cute jean jacket that he hid in his closet, yet he still tried to look as conservative as he possibly could get. She wondered if he always was this way. It was hard to believe that Vegeta's son could be so reserved all the time. Sure, he stayed out of trouble that way on Earth, but if he were to continue to be like that, he'd find that his life was severely lacking adventure. Especially after this trip, Pan could not imagine Trunks finding any happiness, even remotely, with a desk job again.

She saw Trunks walk over to one of the mechanics and start chatting with her, moving his hands in gestures that indicated that he was trying to explain something. The woman nodded her head and took down some notes. Her hair was a greenish blue that reminded her a lot of Trunks' mother. On a second glance, she noticed that almost all of the mechanics had that color hair. She blinked at all the Bulmas. How bizarre.

"Hey Pan, what's on your mind?" She heard a voice beside her and turned to see Goku smiling widely. "I can take a guess!" He leaned over, cupped a hand to her ear and whispered gleefully, "I saw you staring at Trunks."

"Grandpa!" Pan's eyes grew wide as her face flushed. "I… I was not!" She looked away in embarrassment. "I was looking at his outfit, that's all." Already, he was beginning to tease her. He did it every day in some way. It was so incredibly irritating, she didn't know how much longer she could contain her temper.

"His outfit?" Goku looked over to Trunks with an eyebrow raised in thought. He brought a finger to his chin, "Yes, I see your point. He does wear the same thing every day doesn't he?" Goku beamed and brought his hands down to dust his gi. "Then again, I'm not much better, and neither are you."

"I wear this when we go out because it's the only outfit from Earth that I brought with me! I'm not about to wear things like that hideous pink dress out in public. If I had other clothes that looked good on me, I'd wear them."

Goku nodded, "If I had other clothes, I'd wear them too, but Chi Chi seemed to think that I needed twenty of the same outfit. She did the same thing when I left for Namek. Twenty of the same outfit." He smiled wider, completely oblivious to Pan's rising ki, "But I'm not complaining. It gives me less to worry about when it comes time for the laundry."

Pan narrowed her eyes, feeling a vein protrude in her temple as she tried to bottle in her anger, "Grandpa, you don't even do your own laundry. You hand me your clothes and expect me to slave over them."

He laughed happily and clapped his hands, "Yup! And I know you'll never mess up."

"Augh," Pan's hand smacked her forehead and tried to pry off her face. "That's it. That's the final straw!" She tore her hand away to point at Goku, her face an angry mass of fangs, "I will not cook for you for an entire WEEK, you got that, Grandpa!"

His eyes shot open wide with guilt, "What did I do!"

"Ever since Trunks and I had to get married back on that moon, whatever its name was, all you've been doing is harping and teasing us about it. In addition, you had that stupid camera that you thought was the funniest thing in the world, and all it did was capture me with my claws out, ready to strangle you, every single time. And through all this, you expected me to cook for you, clean for you, do the dishes and sweep the floors, and above all, do your sweaty dirty laundry!" Pan stomped the ground, shaking the entire landing bay. "If Uncle Goten would have come on this trip, you would have been completely hopeless! You two are slobs and you would have driven Trunks nuts!" She threw her hands up and raised her ki, "And here I am, taking all of this, smiling through this while you embarrass me time and again in front of Trunks, thinking what you're doing is funny. You don't do ANYTHING productive. You've never worked a day in your life to support yourself. How does Grandma put UP WITH YOU!"

She felt something suddenly ram into her, throwing her against a wall, strong hands pinning her shoulders. "Hey! Stop it Pan, you're going to wreck this entire area! If you're going to release your ki, throw it upward into space or something. Don't just shake the whole planet!" Trunks glared down at her, his hair tousled.

She realized he was right. The world was trembling around them. She lowered her power and tried to relax. She looked around and saw that all the mechanics were either hiding under work tables, or gripping something stable.

"I….I'm sorry." Pan looked down from Trunks' scowl and concentrated on her feet. "I went a little overboard." A moment passed as her eyebrows twitched. She angrily brought her eyes back to Trunks' and pushed him off of her. "But it's all Grandpa's fault!"

"Is not!"

"Woah, you two. What's wrong? I've never seen you fight before." Trunks' eyes glanced back and forth between the two. "What happened that started this?"

Goku frowned sadly, "I don't know. She kinda went ballistic after I mentioned that I had twenty of the same outfit, and now she's not going to cook for a week."

"What! Did you miss my entire point!" Pan turned and banged her head on the wall, cracking it in several places while she released an anguished and frustrated wail.

Trunks' concern was replaced with a smile as he turned to the distraught girl. "Don't worry about his wardrobe, Pan. We're going to be buying some new and warmer outfits while we're here. Speaking of which," Trunks reached into his backpack and pulled out a money purse, "I am going to split the barter gems between the three of us. Whatever you don't spend, we'll return to the pile. I want to make sure we all have enough money to buy everything we need for this final stop before getting the dragonball. Then, we're going to head straight back to Earth. I don't expect too many detours along the way, if any. I don't want to get caught in any more crazy adventures while we're trying to race home."

"What? Are you telling me we aren't going to be stopping for the entire last month on the ship!" Pan's jaw flew down as she stared at Trunks in disbelief. She felt him drop something into her hands, but it seemed to distant to her as she felt a lump in her throat. An entire month of being cooped up in that ship again.

She might as well enjoy her time on this planet while she had the opportunity. That included shopping for new video games and anything else that could entertain her. "Okay then, let's go. I want to get out of here and explore!" Pan took Trunks' arm and began dragging him across several docks.

"Wait, wait Pan!" Trunks' resistance brought her to an impatient stop. "You're forgetting about Giru!"

"Giru?" Pan looked around and saw that the robot was missing. "Where did he go?"

"He went back inside the ship screaming something about 'Pan' and 'danger' right as I was closing the hatch and now he's stuck inside the ship. I was going to go back and get him. Don't you think we should bring him along?"

"That crazy 'bot can fend for himself."

Trunks jerked his arm away. "You're forgetting something, Pan. That 'bot' is our dragon radar. If anything happens to him, you know what that would entail."

Goku turned to the older saiyan, "I'll get him, Trunks. You go on ahead with Pan and do whatever you like. I'll catch up to you guys in a little bit. There is something I want to do first."

"Are you sure, Goku?" Trunks looked toward Goku with a slightly confused expression. "Alright then, just don't get into trouble." Trunks handed the Goku the backpack and watched as the boy flew toward the ship. He turned to Pan, "So what now?"

She clapped her hands and thought of all the wonderful possibilities of where to go. Where to start? She smiled toward Trunks and closed hey eyes, beaming "Souvenirs!"

––––––––

The marketplace in the middle of downtown was crowded with people and vendors. Although the air was relatively cool, the streets were steaming from all the body heat. It was the second time they had seen anything that remotely looked like this, and that was at the beginning of the trip, on the planet Imegga, almost a year ago. It was nice to be in the middle of a bazaar again with money in her pockets. Pan felt like a child in a candy store. This planet was absolutely perfect.

Trunks was leading Pan through the crowd with a hand grasped on her arm. They had almost gotten separated several times and he was making sure not to lose her again. The marketplace was loud and various sources of music were blasting over the noise, creating a cacophony of sounds. It was hard to hear individual voices over the mass of people and the shouting vendors.

Trunks turned to look at Pan, "I feel claustrophobic."

"What?"

"I said I feel claustrophobic! Let's head into one of the clothing stores!"

"But I haven't found any good souvenirs yet!"

"Once we buy some jackets, I promise I will treat you to any souvenir you like, okay?"

They wandered their way through the people and past several vendors and spotted a store that looked promising. They entered a glass door that led into a brightly lit clothing warehouse. Pan noticed that all the shirts were solid colors. She was half expecting some weird array of outfits, but was only slightly disappointed when she saw she could actually wear some of these things out in public. This planet reminded her greatly of Earth. With its blue skies, crowded cities, Bulma clones and technology, it made her think of how much she missed her family back home. It made her happy to know the trip was only going to take one more month.

"Look! Over there, those are perfect." Trunks pointed to the corner of the store where sweaters and jackets lined the walls. He meandered his way through the aisles and came before several winter coats of solid colors. Trunks took a larger blue coat off the rack and put it on, covering his head with the white fur hood. "I kind of like this one. It is the same color as my bandana."

Pan huffed and pulled out a smaller red coat that matched her shirt. "Who cares how it looks? All solid colors are good. If it fits, then wear it." She inspected the coat and held it up, "So how does this look?"

Trunks laughed, "You are such a hypocrite, Pan. I can't believe you can just go and contradict yourself within two sentences." Trunks smiled as he watched Pan try on the smaller version of his apparel. "You're so funny sometimes."

"Sometimes? I'm always funny! I would get worried if you ever took me seriously for a change." Pan grinned and stuck her tongue out at Trunks, smoothing out her coat.

An older woman approached them through the aisles, wearing a red uniform. They turned to look at her as she smiled, "Is there anything I can help you with today?"

"Oh, uh, no, it's okay." Trunks began to remove his coat, instantly feeling shy in front of the employee. He hated when people came up to ask him that. It made him feel so self-conscious. "We're just, uh, trying to find new coats."

"Would you like me to help you pick out a proper size?"

"No!" Trunks waved his hands, "No, it's okay, we can handle it." He felt his cheeks flush.

"Well, if you have any questions, I'll be at the cash register." She gave a slight bow and headed back to the front of the store.

Pan turned to him with a sheepish grin, "You got nervous in front of her, didn't you? You were practically stuttering!"

"No, it's not that. It's just that I hate shopping, and talking to employees just embarrasses me." He looked at the woman walking off. "I usually would be caught dead in a clothing store. I absolutely refuse to ever go to the mall with my mother or Bra." He turned to her, a glint in his eye. "It wasn't as if you were the most talkative person either, Pan."

"I had nothing to say."

"Sure you didn't. 'Oh, how does this look'?" He mimicked Pan, holding the coat up and batting his eyes.

She lightly punched him in the gut. "Don't make fun of me!"

Trunks laughed as he stepped back, "Alright, alright!" He turned to look at the coats again. "Do you think we should get something for Goku, too, since we're here?"

Pan crossed her arms and looked to the ceiling. "He said he'd handle himself, so I'll let him do just that. I'm not about to go worry about him." She began to tap her foot and frowned toward Trunks. "Why do you think he wanted to separate from us, anyway? I find that a little strange."

Trunks had moved on to looking at several piles of sweaters. Trunks held a blue sweater up and turned around to face her, "Don't you get it, Pan? He was trying to get us to go off alone. I don't care, though. I'm actually kind of glad that he decided not to come. It gives us a break from his teasing." He laid the blue sweater on top of coat on his arm and began shuffling through the pile again.

"Well, as long as Baby isn't on this planet, I think I can trust him alone. It just scares me what he could be getting into right now." Pan scratched her cheek with her left index finger. "I bet he's probably eating something right now, knowing him."

They both chuckled to themselves as Trunks held up a red sweater. "Does this look okay for you? I suggest you help me pick out some more sweaters. We're going to really need to layer up."

Pan groaned and stepped up beside Trunks, looking at the different color sweaters. "They all look the same to me." She was itching to get back outside. They had spent far too long in this store, and she absolutely detested shopping. "Let's just grab ten for each of us and go. I have to get out of this place."

"Sounds good to me."

As Pan picked out ten of the first colors she could get her hands on, she noticed Trunks pick out every single blue sweater and throw them onto his arm pile. "You know, Trunks, let's hope the gems cover all of this."

There were three people working behind the counter, two women and one male. One of the women was elderly woman from before, wearing a vivacious smile that seemed to make her appear more youthful. The other was very pretty and resembled Bra, wearing a tight red dress. The man stood behind, leaning against the wall and not saying anything.

The mature woman gave them an acknowledging nod, "Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

Trunks and Pan dumped her mountain of clothes onto the counter. Trunks looked around the pile, "Actually, hand warmers would be really nice, if you have them."

"Oh my!" The younger woman put her hand in front of her mouth. "Going someplace cold, I imagine?"

"Yeah, we are." Trunks nodded as he watched the elder lady take some hand warmers out from behind the counter and hand them to him. "Hey thanks!" He pulled his money pouch out from his coat pocket and fingered it in his hands. "Listen, we're visiting from another planet and we have gems that we usually pay with. I was wondering if you could help me figure out the total in terms of barter." He dropped his third of the gems into a pile on the table and watched as both women gasped and stood back while the man slightly widened his eyes.

The elder lady blinked, "Those kinds of gems are extremely rare around here. I'd have to say that probably one of those red ones would be worth half the entire pile!" The woman gave exchanged a glance with the young woman beside her.

Pan saw the younger woman look to the man and whisper something under her breath. They must be in shock from seeing such expensive gems. Pan smiled as she realized she could probably buy a lot of good things here for cheap prices.

When the transaction was over, they found themselves outside again, each holding five stuffed bags of clothing. Pan looked down to their new clothes with a frown. "Now what do we do with all the bags?"

"I have it all under control." Trunks smiled to her and took the sky. He landed on the roof of the building and leaned over its edge, gesturing for her to follow. Pan nervously glanced at other peoples' stares and flew up to meet Trunks above the store they had just been shopping in.

Trunks pulled out a dyno-cap case. He opened it, studied its contents a moment, and ultimately threw capsule '58' to the wide open space of the roof. It exploded into a red sedan.

"Aww, the sedan?" Pan raised an eyebrow and grinned, "And here I thought you'd give me another chance with the convertible."

Trunks laughed and shook his head, "Heheh, maybe one day," He grinned to her. "When we're not driving around on the roof a building, that is."

Her eyes widened with surprise and delight as her voice raised in pitch, "You mean it? Really?"

His smile faltered a moment as he remembered that time on Imecka, when she drove that vehicle like a madwoman. That tended to be his first and foremost thought when picturing her driving anything. But then again, she was fifteen now…

"How about this," Trunks made his way to the left back seat door and looked at her as he opened it, "After we get back home, I promise I'll let you ride it in a parking lot."

"A parking lot?" Pan faked a pout, but couldn't hold it as her mouth curved into a smile. "Ah well," she chuckled slightly, "I guess I'll take whatever I can get."

Trunks stuffed his bags into the back seat and grinned to her, "And maybe I could take you for a real ride once you learn how to drive manual."

Pan walked up to the trunk and opened it with a scoff, "Manual..." With a slight yawn, she stuffed her bags inside, and closed it. When she turned around, Trunks was already behind her, "Someday you need to make a car that's automatic."

"We do," Trunks smiled to her. "So, what now? We still have another few hours before we have to get back to the ship."

"I know!" Pan beamed as she clasped her hands together, "Can we go item shopping again, how that we got our chores out of the way?"

"Sure," he nodded. Then, after a pause, his eyebrows frowned a bit, "Just… let's not walk in the middle of the crowd this time, okay? Walking along the sidelines might be a little less of a squeeze. I really have a problem with people being that close to me. I don't like when people touch me."

"What? Run that by me again? You don't like when people touch you?" Pan felt incredibly naughty and poked him the shoulder with a grin. "So does this annoy you?" She poked him again on the chest, earning a grunt from him.

He pushed her hand aside. "I'm not talking about people I know. I'm talking about strangers." Pan poked him in the stomach with her other hand, causing him to jump back, "And yes, that poking does annoy me. Stop that."

She reached out to poke him again, but he grabbed her fist and poked her in her side repeatedly, causing her to erupt in an enormous laughing fit, "No! No! Stop that, it tickles! It TICKLES!"

She shoved him off of her and staggered back a few feet, giggling slightly.

And then there was a pause as some birds flew overhead. Pan stood there with a smile that vanished, leaving her with a wondering expression while Trunks was on guard for a counterattack,

He was half expecting her to throw a ki blast at him to get revenge, or to yell something, or even just to stand there and grin at him, but this particular reaction of hers puzzled Trunks. It just seemed to come out of nowhere, this completely serious side to her. And just a few minutes ago, she told him never to take her seriously. She really was a hypocrite. He smirked slightly at the thought.

The look that she had, though… He had seen her wear it several times lately when they'd be talking together alone, usually talking about home. It was almost one of longing, of quiet sadness, held in and bottled up, filled with secrets. He would ask her what she was thinking of, but she'd just smile sadly and stare off to the stars.

She walked up to him with her soft sad smile, completely silent, and then did the unthinkable… She wrapped her arms around his back and buried her face in his chest.

Trunks stiffened and gaped as she held herself against him. His eyes went wide as he looked down at her, his heart pounding in confusion.

It was one thing for Pan to hug him when drunk two months back, but this – this was completely uncalled for. He had no idea how to react this. This was awkward; this was embarrassing! He kept his arms rigidly down, unsure of what to do with them.

"You're my best friend, Trunks." She squeezed her arms around him gently. "I just… I wanted you to know that."

He could feel a slight tint coming to his cheeks. His hands twitched, but still stayed down. He suddenly wanted to tell her so many things, but he was sure that every one of his thoughts would in some way ruin her moment.

"Why are you so tense, Trunks? Please, hug me. Please? It something wrong?"

"I uh…" Trunks looked up, unsure of how to word his statement in a way that would not be offensive to her, "I'm a little… uncomfortable…"

"Why? I'm just hugging you." Pan loosened her grip and pulled back a bit to look at his face.

A slight flashback of his childhood threatened to prickle his memory. "I… it's…" His eyebrows went up in a frown as he breathed in and let it out with a sad fake smile. "This…is a little embarrassing…" The ridge of his nose was bright red as he looked down to his feet. "I guess I'm just not used to being held."

"Not used to being held?" Pan blinked and knelt down a little bit to catch where Trunks' gaze had wandered to, looking him in the eye with a mischievous smile. "Well, I can remedy that."

Trunks' eyebrows turned up and he let out a nervous cough. "Eh..." He pushed her gently away with a cautious smile and shook his head. "Let's, uh, get back to the marketplace. Okay?" He began to turn away, but was caught by Pan in mid-stride.

"Wait." He felt her hand wrap around his arm, bringing him to a stop. He looked at her questioningly. "Am I your best friend too?" She looked so incredibly vulnerable, her eyes sad, her face patient, her body tense, as if expecting to hear an answer that could make her cry.

He didn't want her to cry. He knew that it was really easy to get her emotions to plummet, and once she hit rock-bottom she usually dragged his mood down with her. He didn't want to hurt her. He wanted to say anything that could get her to smile and get her mind off of doubt, even if it meant telling a slightly white lie: "Sure, Pan-chan. You're my best friend." He sighed softly and briefly ran his hand along her bandana, bring a friendly grin to his face, even though he was feeling more uncomfortable than ever at the moment.

It really was an unexpected question for him. It was something he knew he'd be thinking about in the cockpit later on. How close was he with Pan? How close would they be later on? Even though he hadn't been maintaining the closeness with Goten nowadays, would that make him less of a best friend and Pan more of one since she and he had gotten into more epic adventures than Goten and he ever did? What exactly defined a best friend? How much could he actually trust Pan?

He had been staring beyond her, at a building several blocks down. He realized he must have spaced out because when he snapped out of it, he realized she was hugging him again, her face buried in his shirt and her hands soothingly brushing his back. His own hands were rigidly down as always. He couldn't remember the last time he hugged someone back. He somewhat remembered several past girlfriends of his, several years ago, complaining about how, although he felt quite comfortable doing absolutely everything else with them, he never could bring himself to hold them. He had guessed it was just a female thing, the need to be held. It irritated and embarrassed him more than it comforted him.

However, he had no problems of sharing intimate moments with someone. However long ago it was now, since that incident on the Planet Vidal when he kissed Pan on the forehead, he had shown that he was able to be close to her, to express his friendship. Even when she was drunk on Kikaru and holding him tightly, he had run his fingers down her back to soothe her… But actually hugging her… That just… It would never happen. He just didn't hug people. Not like that.

He found himself once again pushing her away from him. "It's about time we got back to shopping, don't you think?"

"I hate shopping. I'd rather just sit and talk with you." She watched sadly as he began backing away from her.

He chuckled and walked over to the sedan, running his fingers along its frame. "I thought you wanted to buy a new video game?" His hands found the button he was looking for on the driver's door. As he pressed it, the car made a giant POOF! sound, and capsulized back into a small cylinder.

"I do. What kind of games to you like?" Pan watched Trunks pick up the capsule and stick it into his dyno-cap container.

"I've never really been into fighter games. I'd much prefer to do the real thing." Trunks walked over to the edge of the building and looked down to the crowd. Pan followed him, standing to his side and looking up to watch his face.

"You say you like the real thing, but you can fight a lot more in a video game than you do in real life. Honestly, Trunks, when was the last time you even sparred?" She crossed her arms as he looked down to raise his right eyebrow at her.

"I'd have to say… um… two months ago?" Trunks suddenly jumped from the building and landed on the sidewalk below, scaring some pedestrians as they shrieked and backed away from the person that just appeared from the sky.

Pan jumped down beside him, her eyes wide, ignoring the confused onlookers who were all trying to casually walk away as if nothing unordinary had just happened. "Two months ago! With who!"

"With Goku, silly. Come on, let's go." He began walking alongside the noisy crowd.

"And I missed this! Where was I! You have to be kidding me!" Pan screamed out in anguish, flailing her hands up. "I can't believe I missed out on a sparring match between you guys!"

Trunks stopped her and put his index finger to her mouth. "You would have been killed if you were there. I was letting out a lot of steam that evening, and I'm glad that I let it out on Goku because you were in no state to take a beating."

A loud roar erupted from the crowd. It appeared that some competition had just begun and everyone in the marketplace was screaming in the streets. It was getting hard to hear her own voice. "Are you talking about our wedding night?"

Trunks just grinned and began to edge his way through the crowd, his gaze wandering over people's heads to see what all the commotion was about.

Pan knew she'd regret drinking so much that night. At first, she was only mad for allowing herself to get such a large headache the next morning. Now, she was pissed because she missed out on one of the rarest battles of the millennia. She had never known Trunks to ever take on her grandpa. Even she had never taken him on before. She had to ask. She was itching inside to ask the question, even though she was almost positively sure of the answer. "Who won?" The screaming vendors and mass of shouting people engulfed her question.

"What!" Trunks turned to her, trying to hear her over the people.

"I said 'who won'!"

He grinned mischievously. "I did! As always!"

Pan felt her breath catch in her throat. "Really?"

He laughed and shook his head. "No, of course not! You know I'm just kidding. I'm nowhere near as strong as him!"

Pan thought of how great the battle must have been. Several rude shoves from strangers quickly brought her back to reality. "You know you could have, with you going Super Saiyan 2 and all. I'm sure you could have done some good damage to him!"

Trunks spun around, unsure if he heard her right over the crowd. "What!"

"I said, you know, you could have, with you going –"

"I heard you the first time! What are you talking about, Super Saiyan 2? I can't go Super Saiyan 2!"

"Trunks, I can barely hear you! Let's go up to the roof again or something!"

Trunks looked around and saw there was an alley within a close range. It would be quieter to talk about this. He needed to know what she was talking about. This was no joke to him.

He took her hand and wove his way through the crowds over to the shady pass between two buildings. The entrance to it was still loud, so he brought her in a few meters deeper where he could hear her properly. "Okay, so tell me again. What are you saying about me going Super Saiyan 2?"

"You don't remember that?"

"Remember what?"

"When Baby was inside you, you went Super Saiyan 2 and threw him out of your body. There were blue lightning bolts and everything coming from you. I've heard about it from my dad. It was definitely different than the regular Super Saiyan form."

"Are you absolutely sure of that?" Trunks' heart was leaping as he was discovering an ability of his that he didn't even know he had. "I mean, are you completely one hundred percent certain?"

"Why don't we have a spar and we can both test it out?" Pan smiled with a glint in her eyes. "I've wanted to spar with you for a long time. I think your dad might be angry with me for getting out of shape this past year.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. You should hear how much he harps on me, saying that I'm a disgrace for settling for a desk job versus training. And then, this! Imagine what he'd say when he finds out I can go Super Saiyan 2 and he can't!" Trunks began to laugh heartily at the thought. "I think he'd just explode!"

Pan laughed alongside of Trunks, "Yes, I can see it now: 'Ahh'," she mockingly crossed her arms and raised her nose, " 'Not you too! All this training and what do I get? A bunch of clowns running around throwing legendary power as if it were a pillow fight'!"

Trunks laughed harder, "You forgot the part where he complains that he's the 'Prince of all Saiyans' and he should be the most powerful warrior in all the universe."

Pan tried to control her breathing but failed as she leaned against the cement wall of the alleyway, "I'm surprised you're making fun of his title, Trunks. I mean, you also would be regarded as a prince."

"Do you realize how many times in my life I've had to hear him whine about that? Every time we talk about Goku, all he can think of is catching up to 'Kakarot' in power and then defeating him once and for all." He cracked a grin, "And then who would he rule over? You, your father and Goten. Honestly, I think he'd rather just stick to keeping 'Kakarot' around so he'd have some blind goal to look forward to."

"Yeah, really, it's not like there are any enemies around nowadays that would threaten the Earth."

"It's great not having anything to worry about. No predicaments or sticky situations. And, even for us right now. So far we've stayed out of trouble on this planet. I wonder how long that will last?"

A cold voice started behind him, "Till about right now!"

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10/29/04

Continued on Chapter 18…