~Tournament Saga~

Chapter 28 – Names are Given, Not Chosen

The month of October passed quickly. The orange, yellow, and red leaves had nearly completely fallen to the ground below, and the air was growing colder and crisper with every passing day. School passed by swiftly during the weeks, and every now and then he would go and help Videl when she got a call. She was strong enough at this point to be able to catch bullets or deflect them with her energy, but school was pretty boring and a chance to escape every now and then was welcome for Gohan.

On the weekends Videl along with Erasa and Sharpner would come over to train. The blonds still hadn't figured out how to bring their energy out, but every now and then they got pretty close. Erasa had actually once produced a small energy ball, but in a panic she caused it to go critical and it exploded right in her face.

Chuckling to himself as he pictured her expression, Gohan looked out as the sun was setting in the sky. He had gotten used to this rhythm that had become his life. Tonight however was the night of that school Halloween party, and he couldn't help but feel a little nervous. It would be his first party that wasn't with his family or family friends.

The Son house was unusually quiet. Chi-Chi had all ready gone to help set up the festivities and Goten had gone to Capsule Corp to have a sleep over with Trunks. Thus Gohan was all alone to get ready for the party. Taking his costume out of its bag, a childlike smile covered his face. This was gonna be interesting to say the least.

-DBZ-

Videl had reduced herself to training to keep the growing butterflies out of her stomach. Flying high up in the clouds, she let herself relax as she twisted and turned within the chilly air. Letting a hand drag through a cloud to her side, she sighed a very un-Videl sigh. It even caught her off guard. Was their a reason she felt like this? So what if that stupid Halloween party was tonight? It wasn't that big of a deal. That's why she had never gone before. But then why was she going to this one?

Gohan. Grumbling to herself, she couldn't help but conclude that he was the cause of her current torment. She had been training with him for a while now, so why would this party thing change things? She had found the Gohan she knew at home and the one she saw at school were more or less the same person, with the one at home being a tad more talkative. Gohan was nice almost to a fault, and he was pretty childish for his age. Yet at the same time he was very mature. Though after hearing the story of his past, she could tell why he seemed to act older and wiser than most other people their age.

At eleven, his father had almost won the world martial arts tournament. When Gohan was eleven, he had defeated Cell! That seemed to be a defining age for the Son's, and she kind of wondered what Goten would do when he hit that age. Goten was another interesting person to be sure. The cute little kid had all ready accepted her into their family and continued to call her big sister regularly. She couldn't help but blush slightly every time the little guy said it too.

Chi-Chi had also more or less accepted her into the family as well. Videl would every now and then catch her watching Gohan and herself training with this strange smile on her face. Chi-Chi even went as far as making sure that she always had a chair to sit in at the dinner table, next to Gohan no less. And in the Son household...she had learned that a plate and chair at the dinner table meant you were as good as family.

Closing her eyes, she plunged into an incoming cloud. The damp particles clung to her body, chilling her off even more as her body heated up from her thoughts. Things were going way to fast for the girl. Videl had never had a boy friend before due to her father, not that she had wanted any of the prospects anyway, but now that she kind of did have one she was so nervous all the time. Were things suppose to go likes this? Erasa had many boyfriends in her high school career, and things had never gone like things seemed to be progressing for Videl and Gohan.

Of course the circumstances had been different. Videl and Gohan had gone threw a few life threatening ordeals together. Was that why things seemed to be moving at light speed? Coming out of the cloud, Videl rubbed the water droplets off of her face. Maybe I'm just over reacting, and wishfully thinking.

It was a possibility. Ever sense her mother had passed on, she hadn't really felt like her family was complete. And when Gohan's family seemingly just welcomed her in, it felt like she had a real family again. And as much as it scared her, she kinda liked Gohan too. She kinda liked him a lot.

Her father was yet another piece of the puzzle that was her emotions at the moment. Hercule wouldn't accept Gohan as her boy friend, no matter what. Even though she actually had found a way around his excuse of only someone stronger than him could date her by actually finding someone stronger than him, she didn't think he would go down without a fight. He seemed to have forgotten about the whole Gohan/Gray incident as well. His hair might not have been as protective as she once thought it to be. After he had come to, he had no memory of the last 10 minutes or so. He just remembers some white haired kid in his house looking for her.

A smile crossed her face as she continued to think of her father. She was still upset with him about having taken Gohan's lime light for his own, but how could she be upset when even Gohan wasn't? After a lot of thinking, she figured things would work out perfectly in the end anyway. With Gohan fighting in the tournament, there would be no chance of her father winning. Both Gohan and her father would get what each deserved. And Videl was willing to live with that.

With a slight vibration, her watch started to beep. Bringing her out of her thoughts, Videl glanced down at the device that was reminding her that it was time to get ready for the Halloween event. Grumbling, she told herself that she never ran from anything...even from whatever these stupid emotions were causing. In a flash of white energy, Videl few off for home.

-DBZ-

Goten and Trunks had finished off the last of the video games that the richest boy in the world owned. Turning off the tv, both laid down onto their backs. Neither were extremely hungry, so they couldn't spend their time eating. Vegeta was doing some kind of secretive training in the gravity room, so they couldn't play with him. Bulma was also making the finishing touches on her scouter, and had made it perfectly clear that she didn't want to be disturbed.

Goten sighed. "Trunks, I'm bored..."

"Tell me about it...maybe these games would be more fun to play if they were realistic..." Trunks crossed his arms, much like his father. "Well, everyone's off doing something...oh wait, what's Gohan up to?"

Goten sat up. "He's at a...Hollaween party with his friends. Mom's there too."

"Its Halloween you idiot." Trunks sighed, sitting up as well. Honestly, sometimes his best friend could be pretty thick.

Goten's interest continued to grow in the subject at hand. He, like his older brother, had never celebrated Halloween before. "What is Halloween anyway?"

"Its a day when kids dress up in funny costumes and adults give them candy for it...its kinda like they're paying us candy for their own entertainment. They don't even give that much candy either. I went last year, it was dumb. I only got two full bags of candy!"

Goten face flashed from interested to shocked. "Only two?"

Trunks nodded in disgust. "I know, I could eat that in my sleep!"

"Well, maybe because Gohan's older, they give him more candy. Cause there's no way they could expect someone that old to only eat two bags."

Trunks thought about that for a moment. Goten had a point. The bigger the person, the more candy they should get, right? It...kind of made sense. "Maybe...wanna go see and find out?"

Goten's eyes lit up with pure excitement. "Ya!" But then another thought passed through Goten's mind, causing his face to strain in thought. "But we don't have costumes. They won't give us all that candy if we don't have costumes."

Trunks couldn't believe it. Goten had just come up with two good points in a row. From that moment on, Trunks knew there was no way this was going to go wrong. This plan had to be the works of Kami threw Goten, and no way one of his plans would fail.

"I know, we'll go as super saiyans! That way we'll have the best costume there! Just a sec, I'll even dress up like my dad!"

After a while, the two trouble makers were walking out of their current Capsule Corp building. With a few steps the boys flashed to super saiyan. Goten's golden hair and orange gi glowed softly with the light from the transformation. Trunks had blue spandex on with a mini shoulder-less version of saiyan armor that Vegeta had forced his mother to make for him when he was younger. The armor and cloths were to snug for the young saiyans liking, but if he got lots of candy out of this it would be worth it. In a blur of gold, the two took off for where they could feel Chi-Chi.

-DBZ-

"Acho!" A pale Dende was sitting in bed, his covers pulled up snugly around him. Only his head remaining visible. And no matter how much the guardian struggled, he couldn't break free. Silently he cursed his luck, wondering why the hell he kept sneezing.

"I see you still need some medicine, you're still sneezing." Mr Popo walked into the room with a tray full of randomly colored liquids in clear containers.

"N-no...please...I'll be...fine..." Dende was still feeling the effects of having taken this genie's medicine from weeks ago. His face paled even more as he got a good look at what the wide eyed man had brought in as Popo set the tray next to the bed.

"Looks like I'll have to use a stronger dose. You're looking even worse now."

"Nooooo..." The horse cry of agony from Dende was muffled by the walls of the lookout, leaving the poor Namekian to suffer his fate.

-DBZ-

Erasa and Sharpner were the first of the group to make it to the Halloween party. Both had gotten together and had made their own, hand made costumes. As they walked in, a few students glanced over to see who the new comers were and what they had on.

Sharpner had on a black vest with a gold stripe running down the side under the arm. The gold stripe continued down the black gi pants he had on as well. As his gi pants ended, they were wrapped in a golden fabric that clung tightly to the bottom of his leg. The wrapping didn't go far, as black shoes ended his ensemble.

Erasa's outfit was a little...well, a lot different from Sharpner's. She had a purple spandex on that covered her entire body. There was a sky blue sleeveless tunic over that however that went down past her hips and hung like a skirt almost. The outfit had a white belt with a gold spot in the center where the ends came together. It also had white gloves and white boots, the boots had yellow rings going around the boot near the toe, covering over where the spandex ended. Erasa also had a pink cape fluttering behind her. To finish it all off, she had a helmet that was almost an exact copy of saiyaman's, antenna and all, except it was white and pink with a golden heart in the center.

Videl quickly ran in after them. She had wanted to wear every piece of training gear she had, but Erasa wouldn't allow it. After some haggling, they had agreed on what she wore now. She had a long dress that went down to the her ankles. The dress was white with purple trim near the bottom. She also wore a purple dress shirt that went all the way to her wrists. Videl didn't like it, but a happy Erasa was better than an upset one.

Looking around the three noticed that Gohan had yet to arrive. The girls had been left in the dark about what Gohan would be waring. Sharpner knew, but he had zipped his lips and no amount of coaxing seemed to work on him. So they were slightly upset at the fact that they would have to wait longer before they were let in on the secret.

"Ah, Videl! Good to see you, hun." Turning, the three saw one Chi-Chi approaching the group.

Videl waved, along with the blonds when they noticed the woman coming. "Hello Chi-Chi. Good to see you too."

"So, what's everyone suppose to be?" Chi-Chi was fascinated at some of the detail these kids had gone through on their outfits for just one night.

Videl looked down at her dress, half embarrassed with herself while the other half just didn't accept the fact that she was wearing it. "Oh, this is just some random dress. I'm not really suppose to be anything."

"She doesn't usually wear dresses, so we let her get away with that being her costume." Erasa giggled, proud with the fact she had pulled off the impossible and gotten Videl in a dress.

Sharpner pointed to himself. "I'm the Golden Fighter! The mysterious man who every now and then comes to Satan City and helps stop crime."

The group chuckled at that, knowing full well that it wasn't a mystery to them. Then it was Erasa's turn to introduce herself.

"I'm Saiyagirl! She hasn't been seen in Satan City yet, but she's Saiyaman's mysterious and lovely partner in fighting crime!" Erasa giggled, striking a very saiyaman pose.

Chi-Chi blinked. "But I thought Videl was Gohan's boyfriend. I've never seen you wear that Videl."

"H-he's not my boyfriend! And there's no way I'd wear that thing!" A red faced Videl pointed at the costume her friend had on, trying to control herself.

"Are you sure? I kind of think it looks pretty cool!"

The group turned around to find the source of the voice. A tall boy was the one who said it. He had brownish red shoes. A slight bit of skin could be seen between his purple gi pants and his shoes. The baggy gi pants went up till a blue wrapping divided it from his purple gi sleeveless shirt. The shirt also seemed to have a small bowl of rice on the right side of it. He had matching blue wrist bands around his wrists and a white cape with broad shoulder guards drooped down his back. But to finish it off, Gohan had a big foam golden copy of his super saiyan two hair-do back when he was eleven. It even had a long golden bang that drooped to the side of his face.

Sharpner burst out laughing at the sight of him, while Chi-Chi's face slightly paled. Erasa and Videl however didn't catch on right away. Erasa poked at his costume. "What are you suppose to be?"

Gohan just chuckled, scratching at the back of his foam hair-do. "Me? I'm the delivery boy."

Author's Annotations:

Gohan's dressed as the delivery boy! Taking the name he was given and rolling with it as a joke, lol. I just think Gohan would be to childish at heart to pass that costume up. But unknown to him, some trouble makers will be showing up as well! Goten and Trunks are sure to bring trouble with them as well, even if they have no intention of it now. How's this all going to end? Reading the next chapter will be the only way to find out!

I hope you all get a big of laugh as I did when I came up with Gohan's costume. The bowl of rice on his shirt just makes it funny, for me at least. I also let out why Sharpner and Erasa are getting trained. Someone needs to look over Satan City while Gohan and Videl are training! Just think what would happen if they just left for a while...lol. And that will eventually lead into how they get Videl to wear the Saiyaman 2 costume.

Anyway, thanks to all those who review and please continue!