Chapter Seven

Videl and Erasa ended up deciding to stay at Capsule Corporation until they were sent home, fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you viewed it Bulma was close to sending them home hence the decision to stay at Capsule Corp. If Bulma wasn't so close to sending them home they would've returned to the sewers with Sharepener. It was creepy going to her run down house every day with Bulma and Dr Briefs, it really made it hit home that they were in a different dimension and not just a different country. She'd ended up sparing with Gohan every day he was available which she found most enjoyable and hoped that her worlds Gohan could fight just as well so she still had a decent sparring partner when she returned home.

"Gohan told me there getting close to being able to send you girl's home." Sharpener told her sadly. She was spending the day with Sharpener since they wouldn't be here much longer and she didn't know when she'd get to spend time with him again since he was still really busy after moving the settlement. "I don't want you or Erasa to go, but I know this isn't your home, you need to go back to your world, to your me who I assure you will miss both of you girls very much."

"But it's not certain that we'll be able to go home" Videl responded no longer sure if she wanted to go home, she liked this world she'd been in the last few weeks even with the recent android attack and she found herself with conflicting emotions, she'd grown attached to this worlds Sharpener and Gohan but at the same time she missed her worlds Gohan and Sharpener.

Sharpener took her hand, Videl almost pulled away out of reflex and turned around and looked at the boy with messy blond hair that fell into his eyes.

He gulped nervously before asking his question. "If for whatever reason you can't go home, will you marry me?"

Videl looked up at him, with his caring loving eyes that seemed to be reserved for her and Erasa and no-one else.

"I'll wait for you as long as it takes." He continued when she still hadn't responded. "I feel like this is my second chance with you and I don't want to let this chance go by constantly wondering what if's."

Videl gazed at him and with this version of Sharpener she could easily see herself settling down and having kids but then those images changed to another boy, another Sharpener, the one she had grown up with her whole life, the one who devoted himself to her, the one that really did hurt whenever she rejected him the one she didn't even know she loved until she didn't have him bugging her everyday and met his counterpart and seen how mature he could be and then there was her worlds Gohan, she'd had a un-natural obsession with him since the day she'd met and spending time with this worlds Gohan made her want to learn more about the brilliant transfer student.

"I can't" Videl responded. "At least not yet, ask me again in a few years time if Bulma and Gohan don't succeed." As much as she enjoyed spending with this worlds Gohan she couldn't see herself settling down with him, he was still hung up on his worlds Erasa. Sharpener on the other hand was a bit different.

"Videl, do you love the other me?" Sharpener asked her.

"I didn't think I did, but now I think I do. " Videl admitted, she didn't tell him that she also though she liked her worlds Gohan as well.

She felt someone run and tackle her into a hug, an overly friendly hug.

"Get off me Erasa" Videl tried to peel her friend away.

"No way, you just admitted you love my brother! When we go home you're going to tell him." Erasa pushed the idea.

"Don't be stupid, your brothers a perverted pig who only thinks about one thing!" Videl shouted.

"Ah but that one thing he thinks about doing most with you" Erasa tormented her friend succeeding to embarrass not only Videl but Sharpener as well.

"What's that one thing?" Gohan asked. Videl didn't even see him there, apparently Erasa had arrived with Gohan and apparently this Gohan was just as oblivious as there worlds Gohan when it came to matters of the heart and lust. She couldn't wait to make her worlds Gohan squirm as she grilled him about his secrets, finding out what was the same as this worlds Gohan and why he thought he needed to keep certain things a secret. No she couldn't do that she reminded herself. She was going to get to know him properly.

"If you really want to know you'll have to ask your mother or Bulma" Erasa teased him, wondering if either woman would tell the teenager what they meant she highly suspected that Bulma would inform him in great detail.

One thing Videl had noticed was that Erasa didn't flirt with this version of Gohan and this worlds Gohan you could still see the pain in his eyes when he looked at Erasa.

"Gohan did you ever sleep with my counterpart?" Erasa asked bluntly. She was curious to know how far her counterpart had gone before she died and even though she'd been labelled as a slut she'd never actually slept with anyone she'd dated and the same was true for Sharpener even though the rumours about the twins said otherwise, heck some of the rumours even pointed to incest which simply wasn't true.

"Why would I sleep with her, I live with my mum and she lived in the shelters, we were never with each other at night time to sleep with each other." Gohan scratched his head.

"She means sex and the answer is no, Erasa was never with anyone, if she had I would've known." Sharpener replied, he looked away from the group, both girls knew there was something more. "Besides this guys saving himself for marriage."

"The you of this world before she died she was raped by 17 like so many other woman before she was killed." Gohan looked into the distance sadly, thinking about Erasa. He should've made her his sooner, but didn't because he was worried about her safety. If he'd married her she'd most likely be with his mother instead of in a cremation jar in her old ruined house. He wiped away a few tears before turning back to his friends. "Bulma is going to do a test run of the machines this evening if you want to be there for the test."

DBZ

A couple of months had passed since the girls had both disappeared. Sharpener came to school but didn't go on any dates or flirt with any girls or participate in club activities. He went to most classes, spent time with Gohan on the roof when he couldn't take not knowing where the girls where and picking at lunch which were usually leftovers of meals his concerned friend had bought from home. "My mum made it" he told him when he bought in the first meal. "She knows what you and your father are going through." Sharpener went to protest about how anyone could possibly know but Gohan cut him off. "I haven't told anyone before, only my family and my parent's close friends know what I'm about to tell you; when I was four years old I was kidnapped and my mother had no clue where I was for a whole year, she didn't know if I was alive or dead, if I was being treated right or being tortured where I was being held, all she knew was who had kidnapped me."

"How did you escape?" Sharpener asked in amazement.

"I didn't, I made friends with my kidnapper and he took me home." Gohan replied. "I'm still friends with him now. He's actually a good person, but thought he had to take revenge against my father for what happened to his father. During the year I was with him he realised that his father was a bad person."

Sharpener stared in disbelief, how anyone could make friends with their kidnapper. But Gohan didn't lie much and when he did you could tell and there was no signs that he'd lied about being kidnapped.

DBZ

Gohan was finding it distressing not knowing where Videl was. He was now having trouble sleeping at night because he was subconsciously looking for both girls ki signature. He pondered to himself, never able to work out why he was more upset about Videl disappearing then Erasa. Sure he missed his blond friend but it was tearing him apart not being able to see Videl. Talking to Sharpener everyday helped and watching Trunks while Bulma worked on a big project kept it mind off the girls since he was so busy trying to keep the two feral children in line. He didn't know how his mother did it every day. His father didn't help with the children at all, he was just like a big kid and ended up getting Goten and Trunks so riled up on adrenaline it took forever to calm them down in the evenings before Bulma or Vegeta returned to collect the young half saiyan. It was amusing watching his father and mother fight about his training schedule and study schedule. It was almost like old times until Videl entered his mind again. One thing to be thankful for was neither girl was around to be killed by any of the Buu's.

DBZ

The meals had been appreciated by his Dr Stationary. The last thing he needed to worry about was meals after he'd got home from working at the Satan manor trying to find out what happened to his daughter and her friend. He was grateful that he had an understanding boss and even though he was not doing his normal research Dr. Briefs was paying him to find his own daughter and paying him overtime for any extra hours that he did while looking for her. If he was working for another employee he would've been fired or on leave without pay. He was grateful to still have a wage coming in so he could continue paying his bills.

"We need more help" Dr. Stationary called out, running the machines that had been setup around the location. "We're getting close but we need another person so we can run all four machines at the same time."

"Right you are my boy, I tried to teach Mr Satan and your son but they both didn't understand how to use the controls." Dr Briefs replied, he was currently installing a deep fryer onto one of the machines.

"Honestly dad, we don't need a deep fryer." Bulma sighed as she watched her father making the machine more complicated then it needed to be. "The space ship doesn't need a coffee machine to run, the gravity chamber doesn't need a massage chair or blender, the time machine doesn't need a toaster."

"But what happens if you get trapped in the Stone Age and want to have toast?" he asked her seriously. "And I didn't see Vegeta complaining about the massage chair."

"Then you have a capsule that contains a toaster." She sighed.

Dr. Stationary just rolled his eyes at his boss, the proto type models always had extras that were deemed useless which were never included in the mass production model.

"Hey dad" he heard his son call out. He sighed when he saw his son had bought a friend.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Hercule walked up to the young man with an intimating look.

"Sharpener, I told you that you can't bring friends here." He sighed again.

"He's a close friend with me and the girls; he really is concerned about their wellbeing. He's the friend whose mum made all those meals for us."

"Ah you're perfect for our fourth person!" Bulma exclaimed, dragging her friend's son over to the panel that they needed to use. She went through with him what he had to do. Sharpener, Hercule and his father looked on in amazement and shock at how they would just drag a random person over and try to get them to use the controllers.

"There's an error in the calculations here" Gohan pointed out after glancing over the control panel he was to work on and got to work fixing the calculations. Dr. Stationary just looked at the two scientists like they were mad, letting a teenager tell them the calculations they had been working on for days where incorrect and then letting him change it at his own whim.

"Thanks' kiddo, you've always been a big help and thank you for helping out with Trunks over the last month, I don't know how I would've managed on this project without your help with him." Bulma responded."

"No problem, wish I could say he was an angel to watch but he's a little terror." Gohan told her about some of the antics her son and his brother had been up to together while the scientist was working. "I knew you were working on a big project at the moment but had no idea this was the big project, if I knew I would've come and helped."

"Bulma, you can't just let this high school student that we don't even know help out." Hercule finally yelled out not really paying attention to the exchange between the pair. Sharpener and his father on the other hand had noticed the exchange making both of them wonder how Gohan knew Bulma enough that she would let him babysit.

"Relax, believe me; I wouldn't just pull up a random person to help out. He was actually one of the two people I was considering calling to help out." Bulma told the afro haired martial artist.

"The other person being?" Dr Stationary asked.

"My ex-boyfriend Yamcha he was around enough Capsule Corp. prototype equipment and often helped me out in the lab while we where dating. He was my second choice if Chi-Chi wouldn't let Gohan help us out."

"Who's Chi-Chi, that name sounds familiar?" Hercule Satan pondered to himself.

"My mum" Gohan replied.

"She's married to my best friend Goku and watching my son Trunks while dad and I have been working on this. I've known Goku since we were teenagers and known Gohan all his life, watched him grow. He's family, like a nephew to me." Bulma told them.

"He's also number one on the National exams for my year level" Sharpener told his father, putting him at ease a bit that Gohan wasn't just Bulma's nephew he was smart too. Though wondering why he didn't mention anything about his famous friend sooner and then shrugged it off, Gohan was shy and maybe didn't want people to be friends with him just because of connections he had. Then again he may not even be aware of the connections he had.

"Okay we're all set" Bulma called out when Dr. Briefs indicated they started fiddling with the machines and a vortex appeared in the centre of the room and the display on the screen showed a group of people.

"Nice work Gohan" Bulma congratulated the teenager.

"I forgot to ask, what are we doing?" Gohan asked her, no hint of nervousness that Sharpener was used to hearing when the class genius asked questions.

"Trying to find the two girls who went missing here, I think they somehow slid into another universe."

"A parallel universe?" Gohan asked.

"Exactly" Bulma replied with a smile. "So are any of the girls your girlfriend." Hercule was furious about the suggestion Bulma made about his daughter having a boyfriend, and that puny guy at that.

"No, there both friends" Gohan replied, knowing exactly where Bulma was going with the conversation she'd gone in this direction many times before whenever he spoke to another girl around his own age.

Before they could continue the embarrassing conversation they could hear a voice from the display.

"Hello is anyone there?" Bulma's voice called out from the console Gohan was standing at.

"Bulma" Gohan greeted the other woman he could see on screen. She had long hair pulled back into a bun.

"Gohan, look how handsome you are, different then my Gohan." The other Bulma told him. "You look so much like your mum."

"Thanks" Gohan laughed at her.

"I'm a genius, we got thru to another dimension" Bulma yelled out and went over the screen to meet herself.

"The question remains, is it the right one." Dr Stationary asked.