Choice to be Different
Chapter Two: Accidents Happen
Disclaimer: Dragonball Z characters and situations belong to Akira Toriyama, I'm just taking them out for a non-profit spin.
The next day Vegeta had his first training session with Goku, Vegeta-chan and Goten as well as Trunks. Afterwards Bulma watched and shook her head as the five Saiyans decimated an ungodly amount of food.
"We're going to have to go grocery shopping again, I suppose," Bunny said.
"Are we gonna train some more?" the youthful Goku asked eagerly once the food was all gone..
Vegeta snorted. He'd started off training that morning with the GR set just short of being physically damaging for Goku to be in the room. His younger self had, naturally, grown up in a higher than Earth-normal gravity. The boy could have withstood more G's but his still healing injuries compensated for the different in the two full-blooded Saiyans. Vegeta knew very well that Trunks would have fled such a punishing training session within the first half-hour and had counted on getting rid of the brats equally soon. Goku and Vegeta-chan stuck it out until Bulma's mother called them to lunch and both boys were apparently ready and willing to come back for more.
"Hell no," Vegeta declared. "You think I'm going to waste a whole day training at a level you pitiful little brats can tolerate?"
Goku sighed, openly disappointed with Vegeta's decree. Vegeta-chan was already practiced at hiding most of his emotions but the slight slumping of his shoulders gave away the fact that he shared Goku's disappointment. Trunks and Goten traded an anticipatory grin: If training was over for the day then maybe they could entice their new playmates into some mischief.
The boys finished off the last of the food then Trunks, Goten and Goku headed outside. After a moment's hesitation Vegeta-chan hurried after them. When he caught up with the other three boys Goku was stretching to help relieve soreness from the morning's training session while Trunks and Goten schemed.
Goku's expression turned curious when Vegeta-chan joined him. "Why do you keep your tail wrapped around your waist?" he asked.
Vegeta-chan smirked evilly then, in a lightening fast move, lunged for the other boy's tail.
"Owiee!!" Goku wailed as Vegeta-chan gave his sensitive tail a painful yank. Goku's efforts at training his tail didn't hold up against another Saiyan's strength. He glared up at the other boy and demanded. "What'd ya do that for?"
"Well, you asked," Vegeta-chan countered smugly.
Goku's eye lit up in understanding. "Oh! You do it so people can't pull your tail! That's a good idea." And just like that the incident was forgotten and forgiven.
Trunks rolled his eyes at the other boy's naivety. He knew Vegeta could have just told Goku the reason but Trunks realized he would have done the same thing to Goten and Goten would have accepted any sort of flimsy justification just like Goku had. 'Dad and I are lucky they're so easy going,' Trunks though. 'Neither of us are exactly nice people."
While Goku worked out the mechanics of convincing his tail to stay wrapped around his waist and accustomed himself to his new center of gravity Vegeta-chan came up with a question of his own. "How did the old Vegeta determine our ki levels without a scouter?"
"Huh? What'd ya mean 'Geta?" Goku asked.
"Moron. Didn't you notice? He stopped just short of doing any real damage to us."
"Geeze, don't you know anything?" Trunks asked in a superior tone. "Of course Dad could sense your ki levels."
"Without a scouter?" Vegeta-chan asked with disbelief.
"Scouters are for babies," Trunks declared. "Real fighters don't need 'em."
Vegeta-chan scowled darkly at the smirking purple haired demi-Saiyan.
"Oh! I know how to do that!" Goku exclaimed.
Vegeta-chan turned his outraged stare on the other Saiyan. 'How dare that third-class idiot know something I don't!' he thought angrily.
"It's not hard," Goku said. "I bet you'll figure it out right away now that you know you can. I bet I could show you."
Vegeta-chan gritted his teeth. Then after a long pause he nodded.
"Okay! So this is what you do... Hey, I'm sensing a huge power," Goku exclaimed pointing toward Satan City.
Trunks and Goten concentrated for a moment. "That's Big Brother!" Goten exclaimed.
"He feels like my dad when he's training as a Super Saiyan," Trunks commented.
"Super Saiyan? Me?" Vegeta-chan mouthed in delight.
Goten looked worried. "Mommy got really upset when I went Super Saiyan."
"And your big brother is a goody-two-shoes," Trunks said. "He wouldn't have broken your mom's rules unless he had to. He must be in a really cool fight! Let's go see it!"
"Kinto'un!" Goku shouted eagerly as Trunks and Vegeta-chan took to the air.
"Trunks! Wait up!" Goten protested.
"Baby," Trunks said disparagingly.
Goten scowled. "That's not fair! My mommy won't let me pester Big Brother into teaching me and she can't fly! You've got your dad to teach you."
While Goten was complaining Kinto'un arrived. Goku jumped on the little cloud and scooped up his future self's son to end the argument.
Gohan had been happily anticipating his mother's reaction when he showed her his perfect scores on the Orange Star High placement exam when he heard an alarm go off. "What is with these people?" he asked himself. "Every time I come into town there's a crime happening!"
He shook his head ruefully. Then he powered up to Super Saiyan to disguise himself and took flight. Gohan was just outside of the bank when he felt four more ki's zeroing in on his location. "Trunks, do your parents know where you're at?" Gohan demanded as he confronted the quartet of chibis.
Vegeta-chan stared at the Super Saiyan with a mixture of awe and envy. He wished for a scouter so he could tell just how strong Gohan was but even without one, even without any practice at sensing ki, he could feel waves of power emanating from the golden-haired demi-Saiyan.
"Goku was teaching 'Geta to sense ki and we felt you power up," Trunks explained to Gohan. "Are you gonna fight someone cool like the Androids or Frieza or Cell? Huh? Huh?"
"Would you guys go home?" Gohan exclaimed.
"Big Brother we just wanted to help," Goten declared tearfully. Trunks snickered. He couldn't believe how much trouble they got out of due to Goten's ability to look completely innocent and sincere while claiming good intentions.
Predictably Gohan softened. "Aww Squirt, it's no big deal. I'm just going to stop some bank robbers."
"Humans?" Trunks' nose wrinkled up in disdain. "You went Super Saiyan to fight a bunch of dummies with guns? What a gyp."
"Look! I don't want anyone to recognize me," Gohan explained. "I'm going to be going to school here in a few weeks. If people knew I could fly and stuff they'd think I was weird."
"You're not weird Big Brother, you're cool!" Goten insisted loyally.
"Thanks Squirt," Gohan said. "But see? This isn't going to be anything interesting. Why don't you four go home and I won't say anything to Mom or Bulma?" Gohan glanced around. "Hey, where's Goku?"
Vegeta-chan pointed to the bank and Gohan groaned.
Gohan wasn't the only hero who'd responded to the bank's alarms. Inside a blue-eyed girl wearing a loose tee-shirt faced off against the leader of the gang. A number of his flunkies already littered the floor in groaning piles.
"You're good, girl. I'll give you that," the leader of the bank robbers said. "You took out half my guys after all but I'm gonna bet that my bullet can get across this room faster than you can."
Videl Satan froze. The bank robber was about ten feet away from her, she didn't have anything to throw at him and even Hercule Satan's daughter wasn't bullet-proof.
A grinning little boy wandered into the bank. "Mister, it's not nice to point guns at people," the boy stated.
"What are you gonna do about it?" the man sneered.
Videl saw visions of the boy falling in a spray of blood and leapt at the bank robber.
The gun went off and Videl tensed in anticipation of pain. Instead she heard the pinging sound of a ricochet and the strange boy was standing in front of her with his bo in hand. Less cheerful now the boy frowned at the bank robber. "I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone so you should just go home."
The bank robber snarled and aimed his gun at the boy but before he could fire the boy was across the room and punched the bank robber hard enough that the man's body dented the wall when it hit.
Videl took advantage of the general shock and finished off the rest of the bank robbers before anymore guns could be brought into play.
The boy watched Videl efficiently take down half a dozen men, each one twice her size, with appreciation. "Hey, you're pretty good. I bet you're as strong as my best friend Kuririn*! Wanna spar sometime? I'm Son Goku by the way."
Videl's brain leapt from shock that a kid would think he could spar with her to the memory of this kid clobbering a huge thug with one blow and maybe knocking a bullet out fo the air - naw, that couldn't have really happened - back to outrage at the 'pretty good' comment. Pretty good? She was nearly as strong as her dad and he was the World Champion!
Before Videl could ask make up her mind as to how she ought to respond the Gold Fighter dashed in. He glanced around. "I guess I'm not needed," he declared then snatched Goku up and ran back outside.
Videl chased after them, but by the time she got outside both the Gold Fighter and the strange boy had disappeared without a trace.
"I'm going to find out who he is!" Videl declared.
*Author's Note: Goku is thinking of Kuririn's power level at the 22nd tournament.
In the end Gohan elected to escort the four boys back to Capsule Corp, just to be sure they actually got there.
"It's not fair," Trunks whined when Goku finished his story. "You got to fight! All we got to do was listen to him lecture." The purple haired demi-Saiyan glared at Gohan.
Goten looked torn between agreeing with his best friend and defending his big brother.
"Ahh, I didn't really do much," Goku said. That other fighter took care of most of the bad guys. She was pretty good. Well I think the fighter was a girl-"
Gohan blanched as he remembered some of Bulma and Oolong's stories of their early adventures with his father. "Please tell me you didn't check," he begged.
Goku rubbed his head as he remembered Bulma's typical reaction when he checked if someone where a boy or a girl.
Gohan looked mortified. "You did, didn't you?"
"Of course he didn't stupid," Vegeta-chan contributed. "If he'd checked he'd know for sure."
"Hey that's right," Goku exclaimed. "You're pretty smart."
"Thank you Dende," Gohan whispered under his breath. He'd seen the badge on the girl's shirt. In just a few weeks she was going to be one of his classmates. Somehow he didn't think having his father-turned child grope her would get them off on the right foot, even if Goku's intentions were completely innocent.
"We're home," Trunks exclaimed. "Come on Goten lets go find something fun to do." The look he gave Gohan clearly indicated his disgust with Gohan's failure to provide him with entertainment.
Gohan shook his head and sighed. "Try not to get in too much trouble okay?" he asked.
Vegeta stalked into the Gravity Room in the pre-dawn hours and turned up the gravity to a setting that would reduce most humans to paste then began a rigorous calisthenics regime. "Damn brats screwing up my schedule," he muttered. It had been two weeks since his son and Kakarrot's brat had cursed them with younger versions of both Kakarrot and Vegeta himself.
After a few hours Vegeta powered up to Super Saiyan and switched to doing katas.
The light over the door went on indicating someone was trying to enter. Vegeta snarled in irritation as the gravity cycled down to a 'safe' level. So he'd managed to injure himself in a few, a very few accidents in the Gravity Room. It was no reason for the woman to install all sorts of annoying safety features!
Vegeta crossed his arms and scowled at whoever dared interrupt his training. The door slid open to reveal his younger self.
Vegeta-chan took in the older Saiyan's gold hair, teal eyes and palpable air of power. "How do I learn to do that?" he asked.
"Train, get stronger," Vegeta replied shortly.
"Well, I'm here," Vegeta-chan said.
"Hi! You guys are already started?" Goku said through a mouthful of food. "I was just going to have a pre-breakfast snack but I'm ready."
"Kakarrot! NO FOOD IN THE GRAVITY ROOM!" Vegeta snapped. "You have the memory of a goldfish!"
Goku quickly downed his last handful of food then smiled innocently. "I'm ready," he repeated.
Vegeta sighed in defeat. He reset the GR to a level that the boys would find challenging but not crippling then turned and smirked at them. "Both of you try and make me give ground," he ordered.
Goku traded a look with Vegeta-chan then both boys attacked together. Vegeta caught his younger counterpart's fist and forced the boy to his knees while he kicked Goku across the room. Then he tossed Vegeta-chan after the other boy.
Goku bounced off the far wall. He rolled to the side to avoid the Vegeta-chan-shaped-projectile. While he waited for Vegeta-chan to recover he checked that his sensitive tail was wound securely around his waist. He'd quickly learned that neither of his sparring partners would think twice about yanking on his tail if he let them. It was a cheap shot and everyone else who knew about the tail thing only did it as a last resort, but not them.
When Goku first realized that both Vegetas would target his tail any time it was vulnerable he'd sulked about it until the older sarcastically replied. "Oh yes Kakarrot, by all means. It's not fair for your opponents to take advantage of the openings you leave in your defenses." After that Goku made a point of protecting his tail from attacks.
Once Vegeta-chan was on his feet again they launched a second attack. This time Vegeta-chan pulled back at the last second in hopes of seeing an opening in Vegeta's defenses once he committed himself to blocking Goku's attack.
Vegeta gave the boy a superior look. He was more than capable of handling one attacker without leaving himself open.
Goku evaded several punches before Vegeta sent him flying. Vegeta-chan fired a ki blast as soon as Goku was out of his line of fire. Vegeta deflected the blast then knocked aside Vegeta-chan's follow up attack. "Predictable," he said.
Vegeta-chan bared his teeth at his older counterpart and bit back a complaint about Vegeta having insider information on their fighting style.
Gradually the pace of the spar picked up. After two hours Trunks woke up and joined them. With all three boys throwing ki blasts and attacking Vegeta had to work a little to block them.
"Yeah! We're going to get you Dad!" Trunks exclaimed excitedly.
Vegeta's eyes widened as Trunks' power spiked to just below the Super Saiyan threshold.
Vegeta-chan saw the surprise on his counterpart's face and tried to take advantage of it. Vegeta reacted on instinct and slammed the boy to the floor. The sound of bones breaking silenced the room. Goku winced in sympathy. Trunks stared at his father in horror. Vegeta flinched in anticipation of a screaming child and a furious mate.
Vegeta-chan's ragged, pained breathing was the only sound in the room for several seconds then the boy collected himself. As the boy got back to his feet Vegeta remembered who the child was. "We're done for the day," he said. "Have the woman look at you. Your collar bone is broken."
"I'll go find Bulma," Goku announced then rushed off.
"Dad, help him," Trunks demanded.
"There's nothing wrong with his feet," Vegeta stated coldly.
Trunks glared angrily at his father and offered Vegeta-chan a supporting hand. The boy snarled at Trunks and drew back defensively. Trunks looked back to his father and caught a faint 'I told you so,' in the older man's eyes.
"The med-lab is this way," Trunks said and led Vegeta-chan out of the GR.
Vegeta sealed the door behind them and reset the gravity to a level that was punishing even for him.
Twenty minutes later Bulma overrode the safeties and stormed in. "Damnit Vegeta! You broke his collar bone!"
Vegta easily compensated for the rapid change in gravity. "I didn't hear him complaining."
"You broke his collar bone!" Bulma repeated. "I wanted you to train them not abuse them!"
"He's not Trunks," Vegeta said. "He expects his sparring partners to fight back."
"His power level isn't anywhere near Trunks'," Bulma replied. "You have to be more careful!"
Vegeta scowled. "Ask the brat if he thought I should have stopped the spar when he got injured. He doesn't fight in tournaments with ring-outs or the option of surrender."
"I know!" Bulma snapped. "I know what your life was like. I know what you've done. But I can't stand the idea that you're perpetuating the abuse. Just because you got used to being hurt doesn't make it okay!"
After a long silence Vegeta said "Trunks was on the verge of becoming a Super Saiyan. The brat tried to take advantage of my surprise. I let my guard slip then reacted automatically."
The tension drained out of Bulma. She touched Vegeta's shoulder briefly to let him know she wasn't upset with him anymore.. "I'll let you get back to your training," she said. "But don't forget dinner okay?"
Son Gohan had only been attending Orange Star High for a few days but Videl knew he was hiding something and she was going to find out what it was. 'I don't feel a bit guilty about sneaking a look at his school records to get his home number.' she told herself. 'And that boy, Son Goku, did ask me to spar with him. It's not like I'm doing anything wrong. I just don't want Erasa to know because she'd get all sorts of wrong ideas.'
As soon as she was outside of the school she called the number.
"Moshi moshi," an older woman answered.
"Hi," Videl said uncertainly. "I um... well... Goku said I should come spar with him sometime..."
"That won't be possible," Chichi said tiredly. "My husband passed away seven years ago."
"Husband? No, um I met him just the other day. He stopped a bunch of robbers. He said his name was Son Goku, a little boy with spikey, black hair-"
"You mean Goten," Chichi said.
"-and I know this is going to sound crazy but he had a tail."
The phone fell out of Chichi's suddenly nerveless fingers.
"Hello?" Videl called. "Son-san? Are you alright? Hello?"
"Goku," Chichi said. "Just the other day? Kinto'un!!" she shouted as she ran out of the house. When the little cloud didn't come at her call she jumped in the family pick-up . "Bulma will know how to find him," she said to herself as she sped off.
Many hours later Chichi dashed into Bulma's lab. "You have to find him!" she exclaimed as she grabbed Bulma. "She saw Goku! He had a tail! I had Goten's tail removed at birth but he had a tail! It was Goku you have to find him!"
"Chichi-" Bulma sighed. She tried to think of a gentle way to explain the situation to the other woman.
Vegeta-chan wandered into the room with one arm in a sling and an irritable look on his face. "They took off without me," he complained.
"Good for them," Bulma replied tartly. "I told you to stay in bed and let your collar bone heal."
Chichi stared at the child Vegeta in confusion.
Bulma grimaced. "Trunks and Goten got the Dragon Balls and wished for younger versions of their fathers," she said. "We though it would be best not to tell you. As soon as the Dragon Balls regenerate we'll have to send them back to their own time."
Chichi sat down, hard. "Where is he?"
"I told you: They took off without me," Vegeta-chan replied crossly. "Goku wanted to find someone call Kuririn and the other two went with him."