Hello! Son Gohan and his friends! Babidi Saga (Chapter 23)

Sharpner

In spite of all of the hubbub and his three friends' carrying on, the blonde youth was transported into another world of heroes and villains. Eyes nailed, stapled, glued, welded even, into the pages of Gamma.

"What are you reading, Sharpner?"

"..."

"Hey~" Gohan grabbed the top of his friend's head like a basketball, uprooting him from the ethereal world before him. "You good?"

"Yeah."

"What are you reading?"

"That thing I picked up from the antique store." He replied, shaking the thin pages of the booklet in his hand.

"Can I see?" Sharpner's brow furrowed at Gohan's question. "What? I'll try not to wrinkle it! Besides, I'm done eating anyway so there's no way I'll get anything on it!"

"Alright. I was just doing my re-read anyway. I've read this thing front to back twice already."

"What's it about?" Gohan asked as he slid the graphic novel out of Sharpner's hands with the delicacy of a cat carrying her kittens.

"Superheroes."

"Whoa! Superheroes!?"

"Yuh."

"Sounds awesome! So what's the story?" He asked excitedly, locking eyes with his admittedly embarrassed friend.

"Dude just read it! Don't ask me!" Cheeks flushed as he crossed his arms and leaned up against the tree behind them.

"Oh shoot, whatcha' doin'?" Erasa asked as she poked her head through both boys'.

"I'm reading Sharpner's comic book!"

"Brah…"

And so Erasa sat down next to him, the trio enveloped in the thin pages of parchment before the bell rang and they all goofed.

"No!" Gohan shouted, truly raising the eyebrows of the lunch students leftover and especially his friends. "I've never been late for class a single time!"

"Relax. Amagoopie likes you, brah. Ain't no way we ain't gettin' a free pass. No cap." Sharpner relayed, standing up and snatching the thin graphic novelette out of his hands

"I gotta agree with Sharpie on this one. She's gonna yell at Us, not you." Videl's Bestie replied, poking the elder brother of Son Goten in the elbow.

"Where'd Videl go?"

"Yeah…" Erasa commented, hands on her hips. "We would have been to Drama on time if she told us she was headed to class."

"So if you think about it, it's really her fault."

"You're kind of spittin' right now, Sharpie. Two for two."

And so the day went on as per usual, but the usualness stopped on a dime the moment Gohan finished the pages of the comic book the following day.

"Sharpner?"

"What?"

"Wouldn't it be cool to be superheroes?"

"... Yeah…" He mumbled, looking down at Konkichi's rambling on with his head in his hands.

"..."

"..."

Gohan

"A superhero costume? Really?"

"..."

"Like you're not bullshitting?"

Sharpner leaned over Gohan's shoulders, eyebrows raised as he looked down at the scarred blue haired CEO of Capsule Corporation.

"Wow. I've got a lot on my plate, Gohan. I can't just dedicate resources to building you a costume."

"Bulma~"

"What, Gohan?" Her sass was almost like a Ki blast of its own, the way she swiveled around on her loft stool.

"I know you're not some fashion designer. You've got a lot of important stuff to do. But you're not just some lifeless brainiac either. You Like new challenges. I know you want to test the limits of your creativity. You've been running yourself into the ground, something like a superhero costume would be fun. Besides. If I asked mom to make it, she probably couldn't make it fit into a pocket watch or whatever."

"..." Bulma looked down at the sketches provided by Gohan, a wrinkly piece of paper standing out on the marble countertop. "Wow… Okay, I like that."

Bulma is reminded of a simpler time, a watch-based design of her own.

"Did you draw this up, Gohan?"

"I came up with the idea, but no. Sharpner's really good at drawing."

The buff blonde dude was forced into the spotlight as Gohan stepped out of the way. The blushing teen crossed his arms before providing a peace sign to Bulma.

"..." She stared at the ripped edges of what appeared to be notebook paper with a wry smile, breaking away and forcing the now unfortunately ever present wrinkles donning her face to part. "Heh… Yeah. I'll do it. This'll be fun. Am I allowed to go crazy?"

"Define, go crazy?" Gohan asked sheepishly.

Erasa

"I gotta admit, Sharpie. This stuff is actually pretty sigg."

"Sigg?"

"Sick."

"So why don't you just say sick?"

"It's funnier that way."

"Erasa! Youse betta' than that! Don't let Galaxy Brain distract you in my classroom!"

"Sorry!" She shouted back from the top row.

"I don't need an apology! I need the consistency, girl! Don't make me throw the book atcha'!"

"I've dodged it before, I'll dodge it again!"

"Wily one!"

Erasa relinquished the Gamma comic book back into Sharpner's possession as the student body howled with laughter earlier in the morning.

"So you liked it?"

"Mmhmm. I'm not like a hater of that kind of stuff, but it usually always feels so samey. But maybe it's the movies that make it that way."

"EggXactly, brah. The comics are usually way more tightly written then their adaptations. The studios be cappin' on the track thinkin' they know better than the original authors or the fans."

"Well… I'm not so sure it's about thinking they know better, but more that they just want to make something marketable."

"You just read Gamma. You think it's not marketable?"

"I'm gonna keep it 100, Sharpie. Gamma 1 and 2 do Not look sigg. They just so happen to Be sigg. And normies aren't going to sign off on watching something unless it appeals strongly enough to one of the core senses. Ms. Amaguri taught me that one. That is the reality of the entertainment industry."

Gohan's utter and complete lack of commentary on the issue was second only to the pure intrigue provided by his high eyebrow raise and ability to also write down whatever Konkichi was talking about at the time.

"And you're not thinking about the investments these movie-making companies have to make. They're spending looney tunes money tryna get these ideas off the ground. Makes The Budokai prize pool seem like a child's allowance by comparison." Erasa stated as she let her head fall into her small hands and gazed downward at Konkichi's chalkboard.

"You know about The Budokai?"

"Who doesn't? Suggs that it got cancelled."

"Facts." Sharpner replied as he leaned back into his seat and crossed his arms.

Bulma

"Put this on." Bulma cooed as she placed the seemingly inconspicuous watch overtop Gohan's left wrist. She did the same for Sharpner and the boys just spared an unmistakably hype grin each other's way before slamming their hands on top of the glass. Bulma scoff-laughed and slapped her forehead. "Seriously?"

"What?" Gohan asked as the glass surely broke and the timekeeping mechanism stopped working instantaneously.

"The…" She mimed. "The side, Gohan. What you would use to change the time."

"Oh…"

"Heh…" She pinched the bridge of her nose. "You too, sweetie?"

"Yeah…" Shaprner laughed out as he scratched the back of his blonde lion's mane.

"Boys…" She groaned out.

Take two.

Juwuwuu~

"..? Okay..? Interesting." Gohan smirked as he looked into the reflection of the balcony sliding door, flinging his white cape around. "I like it!"

"No helmet or nothing?" Sharpner asked as he looked into his eyes from across the loft, feeling the tight fabric gripping his skin, a blue shade contrasting against Gohan's black bodysuit.

"Well… I was thinking I could have gone all the way and designed some sort of headwear but those accessories are definitely for you to decide, not me."

Their tops were like roman gladiators, hanging down with a flowing form and segmented at the belt line. Underneath were tight bodysuits. Gohan definitely looked more like a sidekick when wearing the form-fitting material, far more resembling his half a human rather than his half as a Saiyan. Sharpner flexed in the mirror, pursing out his lips and nodding in approval.

"Man you're pretty ripped."

"I do be." Sharpner agreed as Gohan touched his bicep. A tomatoey redness rushed to the surface of his cheeks as his friend groped onto his arms. "Quit it!"

Erasa

"Hey dad!"

"Hello, Jive Turkey!" Vinnie responded with a wide grin and a goofy embrace. Erasa lost it, giggling to the teeth as she walked in. "Wait… did your mother drive you all the way out here? Your car got stolen, didn't it?"

"Yeah, I filed a police report and everything but I still haven't gotten anything back about it. Videl let me catch a ride though."

"Videl's driving now?"

"Yes and no."

"Erasa…" Vinnie said as he walked over to close the door. "Why do you always say yes and no…" The Vinnie looked up to see a giant scaly beast with epic wings and horns, smog fuming out of its giant nostrils as it loomed over the 'Party' house.

"I wouldn't exactly call it driving. But she does have a ride. This is Icarus. Don't worry, she doesn't bite."

"Come on in!"

"Icarus isn't mine. I'm just borrowing. See?" She said, brandishing the whistle around her neck to the wrinkly old youthful.

"Whatever you say, Erasa." The father of Videl's Bestie claimed as Icarus blasted off, beating her wings and taking to the skies.

"Thanks, Icarus!"

"ROWWWwwwww~"

FWOOOMMM!

"What brings you over, girl?" Vinnie asked, providing refreshments as a commercial blared on the enormous television in the back, requiring Erasa's father to lull the volume into submission via the remote.

"Well… I just don't know what I want to do with my life."

"Whoa… I wasn't ready for that one today." Vinnie answered back before retreating into his beverage.

"What do you do all day?"

"Pretty much just watch TV."

"I just can't believe you won the slots. What a life."

"Money's gonna run out eventually. Though if you budget things correctly then you're golden."

"So none of it's gonna go my way?"

"Well you already got that first car I bought you stolen. How can I trust that you won't just get another one fenced right out from under you?"

"Wow. That's cold, dad." She said with eyes like rolling waves, nevertheless a smile forming over her lips.

"So you don't know what to do, huh?" He asked, looking up at the disco ball hanging from the ceiling.

"Well… no, not really."

"No, not really as in you don't know, or no not really as in yes and no?"

"..." Erasa's cheeks bunched up as she laid her elbows on the coffee table separating them. "Yes and no."

"Of course, of course." Vinnie fired back with a shiteating grin.

"I want to work at Capsule Corp. full time but I'm just some dino-poop employee. I'm way not smart enough to be making things like Bulma does."

"Sounds like you do know what you want to do with your life."

"But I'm not smart, dad! How the heck do I become a capsule scientist when I'm just a regular girl!?"

"You're not a regular girl to me."

"You're supposed to say that so it doesn't count." Erasa replied as she sunk into the couch, hiding away as much of her flushed red cheeks as she could, looking much more like a couch monster than a teenage girl.

"Building blocks, Erasa. You just go ask."

"No! I don't just go ask! What the heck do you mean just go ask! That never works!"

"I mean there's gotta be some low-level position you can take for a company as big as Capsule Corp."

"Yeah! My position is so low-level that I shovel poop! And I'm not even kidding! That's literally what I do!"

"Just go ask. You'd be surprised."

"Oh Yeah~ I'll just go ask. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Sure." Bulma said with a smile.

"Uhh? Come again?"

"I said sure, honey. Trunks has a lot of growing up to do before he can handle the machinery. I've never really taught anyone the ropes before so it could be fun."

Erasa's jaw dropped as Gohan patted her on the back.

"Good luck, Erasa." The eldest son of Son Goku said as he waved her off, walking down the steps off the loft and disappearing into obscurity.

"Ms. Erasa! No sleeping in my classroom!" A tired old fogey yelled, all sorts of equations and variables thrust onto the chalkboard.

Not only that, but variables of all natures, far greater than the number on the board dotted her journal. Her baggy eyes prevented her from really even registering the teacher's form as she nodded at whatever verbal assault he slung her way.

"Bestie! Hello! Dino poop! I'm already like Wayyy done with this stuff! We need to get this shit categorised and you're slacking!"

"I'm not slacking."

"You're Literally not doing your job right now, bruh. How is that not slacking?" Videl asked as she overlapped her arms onto the tip of the scooping shovel.

"Do you see all this stuff I have to memorise?" Erasa fired back, another script rivaling Romeo and Juliet's length.

"I thought you were already locked in the play? You really need to practice more right now?"

"Nope. I'm trying to cram all this stuff about machinery and electrical currents. Shid's complicated."

"Electrical currents? What's that have to do with dinosaur poop?"

"It doesn't. That's what I'm trying to say."

"So you Are slacking!" Videl shouted, her shrill voice shrieking across the atrium as she pointed with a dramatic index declaration. All of the stray cats inhabiting the dome, little dinosaurs strutting and marking their territory, and other animals all looked her way at the sound of her fervent shout.

"Bruh."

With her newfound timesink, Erasa's sleepy eyes drooped even lower during classroom hours near the end of the semester. Each class was a struggle to retain both what she was trying to learn about Capsule Corp. technology and whatever was on the menu for her classroom period.

"Is she okay, brah?"

"I'd just let her sleep." Gohan replied as Erasa's head slumped against the tree roots at lunch.

"So this is what's called a Dino Cap. This was the first model my father ever created." Bulma said as Erasa leaned in close on the thin tube. "Of course this is just a recreation. We don't make Dino Caps anymore, or at least we don't sell them to the public. It's a good reference point because this is the product of my father's hard work and the namesake of Capsule Corp."

"But it's not called Dino Corp."

"Well, Yeah. But it's still a capsule. A Dino Capsule. It took a while to draw up this diagram so you'd better pay attention."

"Yes ma'am." Erasa said as Bulma turned the laptop screen across from the marble countertop in the loft.

"So it starts with…"

"Ayy! What gives, Erasa!? I hesitate to say youse was a star pupil but youse definitely was a star attention-payer! Don't come to my class just to catch a nap!"

"Hmm?" She arose from the dead, purple bags marked into the pale skin under her eyes and her short blonde mop curling out in every which way from the sleepy stupor, her wristbands etching a redness into her cheeks.

"Ms. Erasa!"

"What?"

"That's not a script! What are you reading in my class?"

"It's uhh… It's…"

"What is this? Are you building something? This isn't woodshop, it's drama."

"It's mechanics and engineering. It's the concept of diminishing returns and why you should never put a capsule inside another capsule."

"Capsules? Why aren't you reading your lines?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mrs. Amaguri, reading for The Apothecary is really important. I should get on that."

"The nerve! How dare you talk to me like that. Just get back to reading, I have other matters to attend." She replied, pivoting around like a ballerina just so that she could march back to her office in the back of the classroom.

"Sorry Mrs. Amagoopie. Won't do it again."

"What'd you say?"

"Sorry, Mrs. Amaguri!"

"Hmm." She turned her nose up at Videl's Bestie and then closed the door. Erasa watched for a bit longer until her teacher sat down and was enveloped by the light streaming from her computer screen.

Erasa immediately began studying the notes in detail, tapping onto her temple with a pencil nearby.

"Aren't you one of Gohan's friends?"

"Hmm? What?" Erasa asked, eyes glued to the studying material as a black haired boy with blue eyes hollered at her from across the countertop, his stubby limbs barely able to breach the gap left by the bar stool and the table.

"You're one of Gohan's friends, right?"

"Yeah. I am."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm studying."

"Studying?"

"Yeah. I have to memorise these charts here and it's not gonna be easy. I've lost out on a lot of sleep already trying to keep track of it all."

"What are you memorising the charts for?" Trunks asked as he kicked his feet underneath the table.

"I'm trying to actually earn a position here at Capsule Corp."

"What does that mean?"

"Well… I'm trying to be an employee."

"Oh. That sounds lame. Why would you want to work for mom? She's cranky when things don't go her way. And things don't go her way a lot. I remember one time when she was working on that spaceship and it almost fell on her and even though I saved her from getting yopped I got grounded. It was a bruh moment for sure. I think that working on machines sounds kind of not heat at all-"

Erasa just looked down at the blueprints and breakdowns of a capsule laden out in numbered segments, detailed descriptions on each side of the centre piece as Trunks yammered on.

"You ready, kid?"

"I hope so…" Erasa whined, standing outside on the green grass as Trunks shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Gotta have more faith than that."

"I don't know. I'm kind of spread all over the place right now. I don't think it's gonna work."

"Never know until you try." Bulma replied with a wagging index.

"Sure…"

"..."

"So are you gonna throw the capsule, mom? Why are we waiting?" Trunks asked, waving his hand out to the picnic table and the singular apple adorned atop it.

"Well I'm not testing her proof of concept until she has more faith."

"What?"

"Yeah. What use do I have for an employee that thinks their inventions are whack? Zero. Better luck next time. Just go work at Pod Corp. then."

"Hahaha~" Trunks chortled out, bobbing his head up and down.

"What's Pod Corp?"

Bulma just looked down at her son with the most foul smile known to mankind, Trunks living it up even more.

"Yeah!" Trunks taunted, crossing his arms behind his head and waddling away. "You might as well quit while you're behind if you don't even know who Pod Corp. is. I'm a kid and I Still know."

"Trunks. Be nice to our guest."

"Alright! Fine! I studied incredibly hard for this! I gave up a lot of sleep and maybe an A in a class or two! My mock-up capsule is gonna work!"

"Class? You actually think high school matters?"

"Huh?"

"I'm just messin' with ya, kid." Bulma said soothingly, ruffling her blond mess of a haircut before walking over and promptly capturing the apple in the unlabeled metal device.

Erasa's fists shook as Bulma reveled in her new pupil's anticipation.

Bom!

"Well well. Looks like all that skipping class paid off."

"Hey! I didn't skip class! I just… mighta… caught a few extras Z's is all."

"I didn't even finish high school, kid. I'm yankin' your chain. Good work."

"Huh? You didn't even-"

"Yeah." Bulma replied immediately, shoving the shiny red fruit onto her chest. "I figured out pretty early on that I didn't really need to do all of that. My time was better spent elsewhere, I skipped class."

"You what!?"

"Mom! What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, Trunks. Go back to your room."

The Capsule Corp. Kid shrugged and walked through the electronic double doors as Bulma gave her a nod of approval.

"You got the job. I need you in the lab as many days as you can spare to create and design capsules for any kind of application."

"Any kind?"

"Any kind. Could be better storage, resource management, R&D for how we could better optomise the models we're currently running on the market… Hell, product design. Improving capsules image for the consumer."

"All that?"

"Yeah. All that."

"Okay… at least it's better than organising dinosaur poop."

"I can't believe that you had the get-and-go to get it done. I'd never do that in a million years. That's why we have robots."

"That's what I was saying! Why don't you just get robots to do it!?"

"The dinosaurs are really sensitive to the automation. They are not big fans, sent a bunch of models to the scrapyard before you came along."

"So those big ass T-rexes were curb stomping the robot cleaners before you put those ads in the paper!?"

"Yup."

"And you hired high schoolers!?"

"Yup."

"Bruh!"

"Hey. You're in Capsule R&D now. That ain't your job."

"Oh yeah. It's not." Erasa said with a smile, wiping away everything else as it came crawling across her lips.Gohan

Gohan's jaw wormed around as he looked out the window of his room. A sweeping sense of something breezed into his frame, not of wind, or cool air, but of something indescribable. His brow creased trying to come up with what exactly was poking at him but only memories of a bygone era responded to his thoughts. A faint memory of reading books outside, the encyclopedia of bugs.

"Some cicadas are larvae for 13 years, but most of them are larvae for 17 years. That's just crazy, I couldn't do it."

He returns to reality.

Gohan looked down at his hands. A weird thought cut across like he had just realised it for the first time.

"Wow… time really flies by so fast…"

His view of the mountainous region of Mount Paozu was torn away and he looked down at the wood flooring and homely carpet beneath him.

"I'm… almost done with school. Wow. I never thought about it like that…"

The ceiling fan was the only real noise Gohan had to keep him company as thoughts ran wild. He crossed his arms and shifted his gaze to the opposing side, losing himself in the fan blades swinging above him.

"That's so crazy…"

Gohan could hardly focus, only blearily staring up at the fan, not even registering its existence. He swallowed once before sitting up straight and looking down at the script, the notes, the homework. He shook his head and smiled.

"I'll make you proud, mom. I'm gonna do something amazing one day, though… I have No idea what that's gonna be."

Gohan's head fell into his hands as he lost himself again, only this time completely falling into the routine of pencil to paper, running on perfectly executed autopilot to the menial tasks of high school homework.

Angela

The stage lights bit into her flesh, even as early as stepping on stage, the costumes didn't do anyone favours. The olden bits of cloth and leather garments, boots and the like combined with the steadily packing arena slowly but surely added temperature. Angela watched the student body combined with teacher and parent alike stomp down the steps and take their seats on either side of the arena. The lights out back were dim, none to speak of at the entrance and leading down to the stage, but on stage, the golden glow glimmered with brilliance.

She breathed in sharp through her nose after taking in the surroundings, checking the buoyancy of her red curls and pressing her fingertips together.

"Show time."