Inner Workings of My Mind
Chapter 12
Gohan landed lightly in front of his house. The boy sensed his mother inside, along with a smaller, but still strong ki.
Gohan entered the house, excited to see his mother and meet his new brother. The boy located his mother in the family room and entered to see her cradling his brother with an adoring smile. Even though the hybrid made no sound to indicate his entrance, Chichi looked upwards and a wide smile spread across her face.
"Your back, Gohan!" she exclaimed. Chichi stood up and crossed the room with the grace of a trained fighter. She cradled her youngest in one arm and carefully hugged her eldest with other. Gohan carefully leaned into the warm embrace of his mother and angled his head so he could view his sibling.
Gohan's breath caught in his throat as he viewed the new addition to the family. The infant hybrid looked remarkably like Goku with his already abundant, dark, spiky hair. "What is his name?" Gohan asked as his mother released him from her strong embrace.
Chichi looked adoringly at the infant cradled in her arms. "His name is Goten," she said softly. "He looks so much like your father, and he acts like him too. He is such a happy and energetic baby."
Goten smiled widely and gurgled in happiness. He fidgeted slightly in his mother's arms, as if to demonstrate the accuracy of Chichi's words.
Suddenly, the sweet family moment ended as Chichi's eyes hardened and her gaze focused on her eldest. "And where have you been, young man?" the Son matriarch demanded with fierce glint in her eyes. "You were supposed to return weeks ago!"
Gohan raised his hand in an attempt to placate his mother and to protect himself from her wrath. Chichi's quick eyes caught the glint of reflecting light off of the black bracelet on her son's wrist. With quick reflexes, Chichi snatched Gohan's arm and point at the bracelet. "What is this?" she asked.
"I'll explain everything, mom," the Saiyan boy promised.
To say Chichi was unhappy with the situation would be an understatement. A severe one.
Fortunately, Chichi understood the need for Gohan to temporarily live separate from them, so Gohan's currently unpredictable nature didn't lead to harming Goten. After forcefully extracting a promise from her son that he would continue his studies, the Son matriarch sent Gohan on his way. Gohan wondered how much longer his mother's compliance would last. There was only so much that the human martial artist could take before she decided to stop making allowances for her eldest son.
Gohan leisurely flew through the sky towards where he sensed Piccolo's ki. The boy landed lightly in front of his meditating mentor.
The Namekian cracked open a single eye at the arrival of his student before closing it and returning to meditating. "It took you long enough to get back, kid," he grunted out as a greeting. "What do you need?"
Gohan explained his trip with Vegeta and carefully detailed the current predicament that he found himself in. It was much easier for the young hybrid to talk with his Namekian mentor than his mother. Sometimes, Chichi could never fully understand her son.
Dark eyes now open, Piccolo watched his student, observant eyes taking the boy's form, waving brown tail, and intricate black bracelet.
"You want my help with your ki control," Piccolo concluded.
Gohan vigorously nodded his head in agreement. "You have the best ki control out of everyone, Piccolo," the Saiyan boy said, his brown tail waving behind him almost frantically. "Vegeta may have power, but you have control and technique. Out of all of us, you have developed the most techniques and at the fastest rate."
Pleased with his student's compliments, Piccolo did not immediately object. He, however, reflected carefully over everything that Gohan had told him. "I will help," Piccolo decided. "However, I am unsure if my methods will work because of the nature of your lack of control."
Undaunted by the lack of a definite guarantee, Gohan smiled. "Where do we start. Piccolo?" the boy asked.
The Namekian carefully thought over the question. "You said that Vegeta has been working with you to control your emotional responses, correct?" Gohan nodded in response and Piccolo continued, "I need to understand exactly how that bracelet affects your emotions. Explain to me the situation with the Bentol brothers in greater detail and how Vegeta has been training you."
Gohan frowned at Piccolo's demands and his waving tail stilled and wrapped firmly around his upper thigh. The hybrid did not like thinking about his loss of control and the ensuing massacre of the Bentol brothers. He shifted uncomfortably, but nodded nonetheless. The young hybrid began to outline the incomprehensible rage he had felt, and his actions. His black eyes darkened even further as he told his Namekian mentor the story. Unsatisfied with his pupil's distant gaze Piccolo began to formulate a plan.
Gohan listened in a combination of silence and dismay as Bulma explained the imbalance of hormones circulating throughout his body.
Realistically, the hybrid could see the truth behind the scientist's words. The diagrams and charts that Bulma was flourishing in an excited, scientific frenzy certainly helped to paint an accurate picture.
Bulma's sapphire blue eyes gleamed in barely contained excitement as she finished her explanation and asked the question clearly at the forefront of her mind. "Can I run some more tests on you?"
Gohan blanched. "But I already gave you samples," the young hybrid whined. "Why in the world do you need more?"
Gohan immediately regretted his question as the blue-haired heiress began listing off the various tests that she still wanted to perform and all of the absolutely amazing things that she could do with the data. And then, Bulma's blue eyes flashed mischievously as she leaned forward and whispered her latest plan. "If we pull it off, it would be amazing," she stated conspiratorially in a singing voice.
Insane Bulma's idea may have been, but Gohan couldn't agree more. Amazing indeed.
Gohan took a deep breath as he prepared himself. Vegeta and Piccolo stood on either side of him, braced for battle. With a sudden spike of his ki Gohan tightened his brown tail around his waist and lunged for the Saiyan Prince. Already powered up to the first level of Super Saiyan, Vegeta easily dodged with a confident smirk. Sensing a building ki, Gohan ducked as a blast from Piccolo soared towards him. The purple colored ray of ki soared over Gohan's dark-haired head and straight for the Saiyan Prince. With a growl Vegeta smacked the blast away and glared at the smirking Namekian.
"Watch it, Namek!" the Prince growled, teal eyes flashing in anger.
Piccolo grinned slightly, sharp fangs making him look all the more sinister. "You should know better, Vegeta," the green-skinned man mocked. "Just because we are fighting Gohan, doesn't mean you shouldn't be prepared for attacks from me."
The Prince of Saiyans growled before smirking and forming a blue ball of ki in his hand. "You should know better that to challenge me!" the Saiyan declared as the launched the ball at the smirking Namekian.
Gohan watched the exchange in annoyance as the attention of his mentors diverted from him and toward each other. The boy's tail loosened from around his waist and whipped through the air in anger. Black eyes briefly flashed to teal before he gathered ki in both of his hands and launched himself towards the other two fighters.
In a single fluid movement, his ki spiked and the hybrid jumped from his base form to the second level of Super Saiyan. He flashed in between the two quarreling mentors and blasted them apart. Ki crackled around him like lightning as he appeared behind Vegeta and forcefully slammed the Prince into the ground. His golden tail whipped through the air as the young Saiyan hybrid appeared next to Piccolo and slammed an elbow into the Namekian's gut. Air whooshed out of Piccolo's mouth and before he could recover, Gohan blasted him with a large ball of yellow ki. The battered Namekian fell roughly to the ground and his student landed lightly.
The boy looked upon his fallen mentors disapprovingly. "I'm sick and tired of you two always bickering with each other! You are supposed to be helping me achieve the third level of Super Saiyan and control my ki, not fight each other!" Gohan gathered his ki in his hands, rose up into the air, and said, "Now get up and fight me!"
With simultaneous growls of annoyance, the two elder fighters launched into the air after the glowing figure of Gohan.
"Sir, we have located Prince Vegeta, the Saiyan that served under Lord Frieza. He is currently living on a Planet named Earth in the North quadrant in solar system 71. What are your orders, sir?" a short, yellow-skinned and red-spotted creature reported. The alien remained kneeling in a submissive manner as he waited his superior's orders.
"Plot a course for Earth," a male voice commanded, his figure shadowed. A brief reflection of light showed glowing purple eyes and a dark colored tail whipping dangerously through the air. "Find any relevant information necessary about Vegeta. Power, skills, allies, friends, family," he spat. "Find out everything you can about that filthy monkey, including if there are anymore of his kind hiding with him."
"Yes, Lord Frigid!"
Lord Frigid leaned back comfortably in his high backed, floating chair. He carefully reflected on the recent discovery of the location of Prince Vegeta. His grip tightened on his arm rests as the trampling footsteps of his henchmen slowly began to die out, and his purple gleaming eyes peered out of the windows and into the eerily starless void of space. He chuckled low and deep in his throat at the thought of coming closer to Earth with every second that passed.