Hey everyone! Really sorry this took so long, but I really had to nail something in this chapter so I let it marinate in my mind for a bit. Anyway I really hope you enjoy how it turned out!
Disclaimer: don't own anything from the mangas! just the stuff I made up!
Gohana slowly opened her eyes as she awoke from her slumber. She wasn't in her own room, but saw a green fabric instead. Then it came back to her that she was out camping with her friends, so of course she wouldn't be in her room. Still it felt nice, she felt extremely relaxed, and with how the tent fabric wasn't showing any sign of sunlight seeping through it, Gohana assumed it was still night time.
Trying to sit up, she had not noticed a weight on top of her. Looking down she saw a mat of black hair and she immediately knew it was Videl. Gohana couldn't help but get a little flustered though, besides Goten, Raina, Trunks, or Marron, no one else had ever done this to her. Still it shouldn't have been a big deal but Gohana just blushed a bit and tried sitting up more.
"Mmm, warm…" Videl softly spoke under her breath and gripped her harder, causing Gohana to blush a bit more.
'What do I do?' Gohana started going through her head as she just lay back down. 'Well there's no harm in it I guess. I mean it does get pretty cold out here at night.' Gohana reasoned to herself. Then again she never did find it really that cold when they came here, Raina either. But their mom did mention numerous times how cold it got at night sometimes. Come to think of it, even Bulma, Launch, and even 18 would always complain how chilly it is, yet all the guys and even herself would be just fine. Maybe it was just a female human thing? This was actually the first time she really seemed to put it together.
Looking back down at Videl, Gohana started calming down a bit and just decided to relax. Besides she wasn't going to train at all to begin with, and that's why she would always wake up so early. Or the few times she had to go get something for food, but that was also taken care of. So she really had no reason to even be up in the first place. It was most likely she just woke up out of habit.
'Maybe I'll just relax for a bit.' She thought to herself.
Gohana just took in a few deep breaths to help her body relax. Though she still felt rather stiff since she couldn't really stretch out with Videl clinging to her, just the deep breathing helped her not be bother by it to much.
A sudden hand on her face caught Gohana off guard and her first instinct was that someone was pulling a prank on her and she was about to bolt upright, until she heard Videl mumbling in her sleep. Sitting up as much as she was able to, Gohana could see Videl was in a very deep sleep, but seemed to be talking as well just under her breath. It was so low it was even a bit difficult for here to hear it easily, but she could for sure make out what she was saying. Even if it was all gibberish and made no sense. Chuckling to herself, Gohana laid back down and continued to try and relax. She had to admit though, it was very different having someone cling to her in her sleep, it was oddly relaxing. But she was still a little shy having Videl so close. Why did it bother her so much?
Erasa grumbled a little bit as she was abruptly awoken from her sleep. Getting up, she felt the poking again and smacked at it, feeling her hand hit another hand. Looking up, she saw it was Sharpner that had woken her up.
"Gaaaah, Sharpner! Why did you wake me up? We're on a mini vacation."
"Well, yes but you asked me to wake you up when I wake up." Sharpner defended himself. "And I thought you didn't want to miss that." He said pointed.
Looking at whatever Sharpener was pointing at, Erasa couldn't help but giggle a little bit. She saw Gohana flat against the ground and sound asleep with her arms out at her side, with Videl clinging to her nearly on top of her.
"Yeah, that's Videl for you." Erasa said chuckling a little bit and stretched her arms up over head as she yawned. Sharpner couldn't help but glance at her quickly at this moment as Erasa's eyes were closed. "So, should we wake them?" she asked as she softly tensed her legs to get ready to stand up.
"Um, well I figured that we should, it's about nine already."
Getting out of her sleeping bag, Erasa made her way over to Gohana and Videl. Squatting down next to them, she couldn't help but find it cute how content the both of them seemed to be. Then again she knew firsthand how clingy and cuddly Videl got when she was sleeping over at her place, but it was totally new seeing it from an outsiders prospective.
"Hey you two, wake up." She softly said and gently shock both Gohana and Videl.
Videl was the first one to start budging and she opened her eyes a bit and looked up at Erasa. Suddenly realizing what she was holding onto, Videl quickly sat up and made a slightly yelping noise as she did so, her face a bit red. Gohana just slowly woke up and sat up a bit with the sleepiness still evident in her eyes. Reaching forward a little bit, Gohana stretched and tensed the stiffness out of her body before sitting straight up.
"Mmm, is it morning already?" she asked.
"Actually it's a little bit past nine." Erasa answered.
"Oh wow, I can't even remember the last time I slept in this late. How did you sleep Videl?" Gohana asked looking over at her and then looked confused as she saw Videl's face.
"Oh, fine!" Videl said defensively.
"Um, okay then." Gohana just blinked at her. "Sooo, do you generally hold onto things when you sleep?" She asked, this having been the first sleep over.
Videl's face went even more red with embarrassment, it wasn't something Videl really did with anyone really except Erasa, and now apparently Gohana as well. She wasn't sure what to think about it, Erasa was the first person ever she was that comfortable around.
"Let's just say besides me you're the first person she's every gotten clingy with in her sleep. It's a good thing though, so don't worry about it too much. It just means she fully trusts you" Erasa said and stood up as she headed on over to Sharpner who had just left the tent.
"Oh well that makes sense. I woke up earlier this morning and you were holding onto me. You looked pretty relaxed actually." Gohana said with a smile on her face.
"Doesn't it bother you?" Videl asked a little confused and worried.
"Well, why would it bother me?"
"Oh, you have a point I guess." Videl said. Looking at the ground a little bit, Videl looked as though she was deep in thought, and the sudden awareness on her face was obvious.
"I didn't…say anything…did I?" she asked nervously.
"Huh? Well, when I first tried to get up you wouldn't let go of me and said I was warm. Beyond that I could only make out certain words like food and such. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason." Videl said with a hint of relief. She was so worried that she said something she didn't want to to Gohana, especially about what she knew. Or at least what she thought that she knew.
Fully getting up, Gohana reached up high and pushed her hands into the air as she tensed every muscle in her body, even standing now on her tip toes as she let her entire body wake up. Videl just looked in slight shock as she could almost hear Gohana's muscles releasing all the tension from them. She had never heard anyone's stretching be so loud. She had hear it before but not to this extent. Yawning and following suit though, Videl just looked around and debated getting dressed, but then thought against it. They were on vacation, and she had no reason to really change.
Noticing that Lime wasn't in the tent, or anyone else, Gohana thought this would be a good time to bring it up. Videl was the only one who didn't know, or at least she was pretty sure. Sharpner made it obvious he knew more than he was letting on but wouldn't ask. Due to not wanting to offend her or whatever, she didn't know or really didn't mind either. But she had to tell Videl! She had been determined to tell her this weekend and if she didn't tell her today she would have failed that. She had been lying to her for too long, and even having Erasa know as well, and not telling her would only make it harder for her once she did find out. How would Videl even handle being the last to know? Even Sharpner knew of her father, and that would mean he knew about his abilities. Which would logically make him suspect hers.
Taking a deep breath, Gohana figured she just needed to relax. She looked up towards Videl.
"Videl, I…" She stopped having not even realized she had left the tent.
Going outside, the scent of breakfast almost instantly hit her nose and she couldn't help but keep her mouth watering at the thought of it as her stomach growled. Looking towards the fire, she noticed that Lime had already set up the food that her mom had made for them, on top of getting a rather large fish sitting over the fire as well. Walking towards them, she could tell Lime had been up for a little while as the fish looked like it was pretty much already fully cooked.
"And it looked like that last of us is finally awake." Lime said with a smile once she noticed Gohana walking towards them.
"Lime, did you make breakfast for us all? What time did you wake up at?" Gohana asked.
"Well the last time we camped you cooked so this time its only fair I do. Besides I know how you get when you take a little down time from your training. You get even hungrier than usual." Which got a surprised look from the others.
"There's no way Gohana could even eat more than she already eats! She nearly out eats my dad's entire gym already!" Videl looked shocked, as Gohana just rubbed her neck a bit nervously.
"No, it's actually true. When I take a small break from training like I am this weekend, I generally do get hungrier than usual after just a few days. And Friday morning I barely got in a decent workout. More like a general warm up and just barely got started before my mom made me get ready."
"Hence I not only set up the food your mom made, but I went and caught Gohana a fish." Lime motioned towards the massive fish.
"That's all for Gohana?" Sharpner looked at the fish but at this point was so used to her appetite.
"Oh, don't worry you guys can have some as well!" Gohana waved it off, happily sharing some food. As long as they got it before she started on it.
Breakfast had taken them a little while to finish as they kept up the conversations as they ate. Plus they were in no hurry either so they were able to really enjoy the food. The food Chichi had made them was obviously far better than the lone fish that Lime had caught, but even then the way Lime had prepared it it almost reminded them of sushi. So it was actually fine as is. Still it was mostly Gohana who was eating it to begin with and she didn't mind how the fish tasted.
The sun still had not fully reached the top of the sky, and Gohana slowly started gathering all the stuff to put back into the capsule for storing all the dishes. Since Lime had essentially cooked she wanted to clean up. Once she was done, the others had finished up changing so she headed over to the tent herself to change as the others just relaxed over hot coco.
"I really want to see the valley from above! We should go to the top of the mountain like Gohana said." Erasa offered with her usually cheerful voice.
"But didn't she mention that will take a few hours? That would take up the entire day!" Sharpner countered the suggestion.
"Well why does that matter? This place is a dream! Why does it matter that it would be the only thing we do?" Erasa pouted at him.
"But, I kinda wanted to see the valley from above as well." Videl chimed in.
"Then we should hike!" Erasa said clapping her hands happily.
"Well do keep in mind, for Gohana it might only take a few hours just to get to the top. But that's not counting the trip down, or that she grew up doing that so it might take even longer with you guys here." Lime tried to remind them. Though in truth she actually had no idea anymore how long it would take to get up there for a normal person, even she could get up in just a few moments by either flying or jumping up along the ledges. She knew Gohana had guessed three hours only because that about the average time when Chichi goes up there.
"I had not thought of that." Erasa said with a defeated tone in her voice. "I really wanted to see the valley from above."
"Well, if you really want to see it that bad, why don't we just take the jet up to the top?" Sharpner offered.
"Oh don't be so dense Sharpner! That would defeat the purpose! We also wanna see the journey up." Videl somewhat snapped at him, though not in a mean tone.
"Well sorry, I didn't think of it like that. Wait, so Lime does that mean you have been up there?"
"Huh? Oh well um…yes actually. Again I live only a few hours away anyway and I've been friends with Gohana for quiet a few years now. She's taken me up there plenty of times. But again I also grew up here, and also trained under Gohana. So to me it's really not that bad either." She explained, catching herself and careful not to slip. Unlike Gohana, she could lie her way about their abilities much better having grown up without them and learning them in her early pre teen years.
"So again, maybe take the jet?" Sharpner offered up yet again.
"Hey wait a minute! We can just go sky diving!" Videl exclaimed happily.
"Sky diving? Are we even allowed to do that here?" Erasa asked confused, though deep down she wanted to do that as well.
"Well why does it matter? We only needed permission in and around the city due to sky traffic and safety. But were all qualified to do it solo, even Sharpner is a qualified instructor in it! Maybe he can just go tandem with Gohana?" Videl pointed out. "Besides we would be able to really see the valley, and with that rush! It would be so perfect!"
They could all tell how excited Videl was about his from her tone and her eyes. But they all did have to admit that it was a pretty good idea. Even Lime though it would be a good idea. They could get up much quicker, in maybe just a couple of minutes, and just float on down. They could even do it a few times if they really wanted to. The first time Gohana had taught her to fly and took her up high, she had to be carried by Gohana since she was so awestruck from the beauty that she couldn't hold the Buku jutsu. So letting them experience that as well sounded like a great idea.
"It's settled then! Will go sky diving." Lime said with a smile and a nod. "You guys are going to love the view!"
"So you've been skydiving here before?"
"Oh, yeah a few times actually." Lime caught herself.
"So I take it from that tone that you know what we are going to do?" Gohana asked walking out in just a standard short jeans and t shirt.
"Well we wanted to see the valley from up high, but since the hike might wear us out we decided to go sky diving instead!" Erasa filled her in.
"Sky diving?" Gohana asked confused, having no clue what that is. Though she could make a guess based on the name.
"Uhh, we call it just free falling." Lime diverted the attention back to her.
Gohana just looked over at Lime, still a little curious as to how exactly they were going to do this. She know knew what she meant from free falling. One of their favorite things to do when she was teaching Lime was to fly as high as they could fast and then just let their momentum carry them until they started falling back down to Earth and enjoy the view.
"Alright, I'll go get the jet ready and double check all the chutes. Oh wait we only have four of them." Videl suddenly remembered, and their ship didn't have an auto pilot either. Which meant either one of them wouldn't go, or they would all have to take turns.
"Hey, you girls seemed way more interested than I was about it so don't worry. I'll pilot the ship. Besides I may not be able to jump down with you, but ill still be flying the jet down. I'll be able to catch the view." Sharpner offered.
"You'd really do that Sharpner?" Erasa said slightly surprised.
"Yeah, besides it wouldn't be fair to let Gohana not take a jump the first time."
"Say, Videl. Could you go get the jet ready? And Sharpner could you help her out?" Erasa said.
"Um, I know how to check everything myself Erasa." Videl said with her hands on her hips annoyed.
"Well yes but not here. Now just go will you!" Erasa snapped back.
Videl really didn't argue with her but just sighed and turned towards the tent to get the capsule locket she had, dragging Sharpner with her.
"Um, is there a reason that they had to do it?" Lime asked as well confused at Erasa's actions.
"Gohana, do you know what sky diving is?"
"Um, well no not really. Again I learned to fly when I was only four. So not fully sure how it works for you guys." Gohana just gave Erasa a blank stare at her question.
"Basically you jump and then pull a parachute. Now when we get in I'm going to show you the cord. Literally you just pull it when we tell you. Can you do that?"
"I just pull a cord? Um sure I can do that. I guess?" Gohana answered a little confused. 'This will be new.'
Gohana had seen the jet they had shown up in, but they were surprised they had an even bigger one on them. They were all able to sit behind the pilot seat, as two rows of four seats were facing towards each other. Gohana just relaxed a little bit, still a little bit worried as she technically never sky dived and didn't want to mess it up.
"Hey Gohana, thanks again for inviting us this weekend. Even though technically it was your mom." Videl said as she sat down, already dawned in her pack and goggles. "Oh I almost forgot, this is yours." She said handing her an ear piece.
Taking the ear piece, Gohana just looked it over a little confused. She wasn't really sure what to think of it, but it did reminder her oddly enough of the old scouters that Vegita used to use. Although this had no eye piece wrapped in the front. Just the ear part, though it was a lot slimmer and didn't seem to stick out too much.
"Um, it's an ear piece communicator." Videl said noticing the way Gohana was looking at it.
"Huh, oh. Right. I've never seen one that looks like this before." She said looking back at it.
"Yeah, it's a little different then the one's I'm even used to. I usually use the pilot ear piece when flying, or a smaller one when helping the cops. But this one is a bit different. It's designed to stay on your ear with some type of suction device, that's why it doenst have anything to wrap around your head with. And it can even drown out all the wind noise. It picks up your voice form vibrations along your jaw bone, or something like that. You'll have to ask Erasa exactly how it works. She just basically explained it to me like that."
Looking back at it, she flipped it to look at the inside of it, and then suddenly it made sense why it looked similar to a scouter, Capsule Corp. logo inside of it. Bulma always did try to take tech from alien tech she had to improve the lives of people on Earth. Though it wasn't public knowledge either, she knew that her dad had obtained the tech for hover vehicles from some alien back when Bulma was little. She never did tell her all the details about that however, as Gohana was always more interested in also making the tech to improve people's lives. It hadn't mattered to her where it originally came from.
"Hey Videl, could you come up here for a sec?" Sharpner said.
As Videl excused herself and went over to see what Sharpner wanted, Erasa and Lime came over to Gohana holding her equipment.
"Alright, so just strap yourself into this." Lime said nudging the pack to her.
Taking the pack form Lime, Gohana looked it over a little bit and noticed it was similar to a basic backpack, minus a lot more straps to get it in and two cords.
"Ok, so the real jist of it is this. The big red circular cord is your main chute. That's the first one you pull. That smaller blue one is the emergency chute." Erasa gave her the extremely simplified version of it.
"Well, that seems simple enough. I guess." Gohana said and started strapping herself into it. Luckily just form looking at the others in theirs, she could see how to set it up. Tugging lightly at the straps to make sure it was in place she sat back down as Videl came back to them.
"Alright, so order up! Lime, you're going to jump first. You know this area better so you can help us get the perfect spot to pull the chutes! Next up I'll go. Followed by Erasa and Gohana you're last."
"Why am I going last?" Gohana asked confused about why they even needed an order in the first place.
"Well its standard procedure to begin with. Plus it's so you can get the most time in free fall. It's so freeing just feeling the wind on your face, and falling towards Earth! There's almost nothing like it!" Videl exclaimed happily.
'If only you knew.' Gohana smiled as she nodded.
"Alright, So Gohana this is the first time you've done this with us." Sharpner started as he hit a few buttons on the control panel and then got up from the pilot's seat, as they were at the correct height and now just hovering there. "So here's the safety notes. If for whatever reason the main chute doesn't deploy, the emergency chute will slow you down enough to I can get you."
"Wait, you mean you've had to do that before?" Gohana asked surprised.
"Yeah, a while back one of the regulars didn't get the main chute properly packed so it didn't really do anything. This jet is designed to fly downward a bit faster than terminal velocity, so the slowed chute will allow me to catch up." She explained and pointed up. "Oh and the roof opens up to catch them."
"Oh, don't worry about it Gohana. I checked all the chutes myself!" Videl boasted. "It's just each place does it a bit differently so we wanted to make sure that you knew how our set up and plane worked for it is all." She said waving her fear off.
"Oh, um well that's good to know." Gohana faked a smile. "So were going from this height then I take it?" she asked.
"Yeah pretty much! Though I'll want to have a second trip so that I can jump now that I'm up here! The reset should only take about half hour." Sharpner said and went over to the back and hit the button to make the rear of the plane open up so they could all jump.
Holding onto the safety railing and locking himself with the safety strap, Sharpner leaned towards the edge and looked down and the sight before him nearly took his breath away. Even Videl and Erasa were able to pick up on his gasp and both went over as well to join him. Even Videl let out an audible gasp at how beautiful the entire countryside looked form this high up.
"Told you guys it was worth it!" Lime said.
Grabbing her goggles, Gohana looked around for her backpack then remembered that it was actually at the camp site still. She had wanted to tie her hair back, but it didn't seem like that would happen. Placing the goggles over her eyes, Gohana felt a little odd having them on when she wasn't working in the lab. Still she didn't want to make them suspicious, so she just delt with it. Though the moment she put them on, it started showing up stuff on the display. Looking around her, she noticed that it outlined Videl, Lime, and Erasa, but not Sharpner.
"Hey, what's with these goggles? Its showing me some random stuff."
"Oh, right these are the new generation of sky diving goggles." Sharpner spoke up. "Long story short, it will track this plane, as well as the ear communicators. So even if you're not facing them, it will show a arrow along the sides what direction they are in. And the numbers on the left side are the height in meters." Sharpner explained out of habit from teaching the class.
"So how is it you all have this just readily available and know so much.
"Sharpners dad runs a sky diving company over in Satan City. You'd be surprised how popular it is really. But we all have a license to teach it. Plus we've been doing it a lot since we were all about eleven. Though not too often as we used to since my whole crime fighting days started. But we do it none the less. Sharpner even helps teach the class sometimes when he's not training for a upcoming fight." Videl answered.
"Okay, can we please stop wasting time and finally get to it!" Erasa said with her usually high excited squeal accompanying her statement.
"Hahaha, alright Erasa. Alright. You both ready?" She looked towards Gohana and Videl.
"I was born ready!" Videl looked super excited, as Gohana just gave her a smile and a nod.
Without even waiting another second, Lime just jumped out of the stationary plane and let out a scream of excitement as she started falling. Using her buku jutsu a tiny bit to just barely slow down a bit so she could find a good place to pull her chute, she wanted to make sure it was low enough to allow them to get plenty of free falling time, while still having enough time to enjoy the slow decent back to the valley below.
Gohana just watched her go down, and noticed suddenly the arrow Sharpner talked about when she was no longer in view. She had to admit that it was pretty good adaptation from the Saiyan scouters. She was very curious what else Bulma made from them as she typically helped with other things.
"Alright, im about to pull the chute, Videl your clear to go!" Lime spoke through the communicators.
Without missing a beat, Videl nearly ran off the platform and was instantly able to see for miles around them. She was glad the goggles had a slight contrasting enhancer so they could see the view better from so high in the air. Videl was enjoying feeling the decent, and the wind hitting her hair as it was whipping around behind her. She noticed that Lime was still a ways off but also a little bit over. She wasn't sure how she got so far over but she just angled herself to get towards her. She always had an odd knack at this. Even on her first jump with them she was able to maneuver better than any of them. She was always seen as a natural.
Videl got ready to pull her chute as she got close to Lime and braced for the sudden deceleration. Pulling the cord, Videl's chute flew out from the pack and jerked her to a sudden stop before slowly letting her fall at a safe pace.
"Alright Erasa, you're up!" Videl told her and then grabbed the handles to control her decent.
Pointing at the red cord, Erasa just nodded at Gohana as a friendly reminder about which color to pull. Nearly skipping to the edge, she turned around and blew a kiss at Sharpner.
"See you at the bottom Sharpy!" and just literally hopped backwards into the sky and started screaming and laughing as she flew down.
"They all sure do love this don't they." Gohana calmly said as Sharpner looked over the edge at them, though he could barely see any of them besides Erasa.
"Yeah, its so exhilarating. Though it does help we are about two times higher than normal." He said and looked over at Gohana. "So you ready? Your next."
"Yup, just waiting for my que."
Erasa had quickly found Lime and Videl and had angled towards them herself. Though she tried slowing her decent a bit by going spread eagle. She wanted to feel the rush just as much as Videl. Though she didn't like dangerous things like Videl or even Sharpner, she loved this.
Looking all around, Erasa couldn't stop laughing at herself at seeing everything below them for miles. She could easily see where they were camping, but even that she could see the entire river that ended in a massive lake. Gohana had not been kidding that it was very long, as even from this height it was very long. Looking around, She could see almost nothing but countryside in every direction. No city, or urban areas. Even when they went outside the city limits to do this back home you could still see the city and a few of the neighboring cities as well. But this was a totally different experience for her. For them all really.
Wanting to catch up a bit now, Erasa expertly dive bombed towards them. She had maybe a good twenty seconds before reaching them, and was getting ready.
"Gohana, you're almost up!" she gave her the update, which Gohana acknowledged with a simple 'okay'.
"It's about time you almost got here." She heard Videl say in her ear.
Brushing Videl's remake off, Erasa just laughed a little bit to herself. Grabbing her cord, she was getting ready to pull it so she would get right beside Videl and Lime.
"Well, looks like you're about to jump." Sharpner said to Gohana, hearing Erasa from the communicator at the pilots console.
"Hey, we should do another jump. And then you can go first! I can pilot the plane down next time." Gohana offered.
"To be totally honest, now that we are up here I really want to make a jump as well!" Sharpner said a bit excitedly.
"Yeah, I really think you'll love—"
"My chute isn't working!" they both heard Erasa's panicked voice over the speaker of the ship and both their hearts skipped a beat.
Without wasting any time, Sharpner was quick to grab for the security strap keeping him tethered to the back of the ship and quickly tried getting it off. He knew the emergency chute would be enough to slow her down but he didn't want to waste any time, but the buckle wasn't unlatching for some reason, causing him to panic a bit.
Erasa kept tumbling, though now not as gracefully as before. She kept trying the main chute a few more times, but was now passing Lime and Videl fast and she quickly grabbed for the emergency chute and tried pulling the line.
"Erasa pull you're emergency chute!" Videl screamed over the communicators.
Getting the buckle off, Sharpner raced to the console, knowing full well it would take about ten seconds for the auto pilot to fully disengage and get to full speed. "Erasa, just pull the back up. Were going to come get you. Gohana, hold onto something!" Sharpner shouted as he pressed the button to disengage the auto pilot stabilization. Pressing another button so the dashboard, Gohana noticed a similar display showed up on the main view window to her goggles display. But she noticed the number had not slowed down, either on her display or the new display on the screen.
"It's not working! The emergency chute isn't working! Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!" They could even hear Erasa tugging at the string over the wind, as Sharpner was now frozen in fear as it took him a few seconds to realize what was happening. Erasa just kept pulling the strings as hard as she could as she lost control and started tearing up her goggles.
Erasa was tumbling out of control and still trying to tug at both strings, at this point not even caring what one triggers as long as either of them deployed. She started hyperventilating now, and she couldn't even hear anything over the com's, or more accurately her brain no longer processed them as they turned to muffled mess of noise.
Videl watched as she tried screaming at her, not even sure what she could do and just watched her friend tumble out of control towards the ground. She knew if they didn't deploy there was no way the jet plane would even reach her remotely in time, and to Videl everything seemed to now go slower.
In the ship, Gohana smacked Sharpner upside the yelling at him to get started. But she suddenly saw tears running down Sharpners face, and even though he was so quiet, she could easily hear him over the ship. Gohana's eyes just widened in shock as they instantly changed color when she heard him.
"We…cant…make it."
A massive boom erupted from the ship, causing it to spin out of control, which was more than enough to knock Sharpner out form his daze as he tried to get control of them plane. Grabbing the controls, he was able to stop the sudden spinning and when he looked back, Gohana was gone causing Sharpner to return to his already panicked state as he looked at the screen. He was in shock at how fast she was moving, impossibly fast without a jet pack or something.
Hearing such a massive noise from above and through the coms', Videl looked up and barely had any time to brace from seeing a golden light speed past them, causing a shock wave to follow as it threw both Videl and Lime away from it. Grabbing a hold of the reins of her chute, Videl looked down and saw the same golden aura she had grown accustomed to seeing.
"No….way…" Videl barely managed to get out in her still shocked state.
Gohana quickly reached Erasa and grabbed a hold of her and immediately started slowing them down. She took just a few seconds to come to a complete stop and hovering there, but Erasa was still thrashing about for a few more seconds before she realized the Gohana had a grip on her. She was still trembling and just held tightly onto Gohana, crying as she couldn't stop trembling from the experience.
Softly rubbing Erasa's back, Gohana tried her best to comfort her friend, who she could sense was still in an extreme state of shock. Figuring she would quickly want to get to the ground, Gohana just slowly brought them down toward the ground. Erasa had fallen a pretty good amount, they were already more than halfway to the ground by the time Gohana had caught her.
Videl looked down in extreme shock at what she just saw. First her friend was in a free fall to her death, but then suddenly Gohana comes out of nowhere and saves her. And they were just floating there, in the sky. No chute or anything! Just what the hell was going on? Seeing the plane quickly speed past them was just enough to bring Videl out of shock, and she quickly pulled at the reins, trying to get down faster, though she knew it would take at least several minutes, if not more, to get to the ground.
"Videl, hold onto me."
Videl nearly jumped at hearing Lime right next to her but literally did thrash away seeing Lime now also floating, her chute totally gone.
"What…but…wait…how?" Videl's eyes were wide as saucers.
"Look either hold onto me or take the time to float down!" Lime stomped, though she didn't even hit anything.
Videl still wasn't thinking too rationally, but she just listened. The thought of taking so long to get down, which sounded like an eternity to her right now, was torture. Wrapping her arms around Lime, Lime held onto her with one arm. With her free hand, she pushed her ki out to make a small blade and cut the cords tethering Videl to the chute as it. Videl instantly held onto Lime even tighter at that, ans lime wrapped both arms around her and started flying down towards the ground head first, Videl screaming as they went.
Gohana gently landed on the ground and let Erasa slowly get her feet on the ground. Though her legs were incredibly wobbly, she held onto Gohana for support so she wouldn't topple. Gohana held onto her arms a little bit to allow her some stability.
"You going to be alright?" Gohana asked softly.
Not saying anything, Erasa just trembled almost uncontrollably and slowly sank to the grass. She couldn't ever remember being so glad to be on solid ground. In fact she couldn't even remember her own name at the moment, her mind was a total blank.
Squatting down next to Erasa, Gohana placed her hand on her shoulder for support, which Erasa happily held onto with one of her own. She really didn't know exactly how to comfort her right now as she had never needed to do something like this and she was now a little worried about what to do. She just hoped Sharpner and Videl got here soon. They would know better what to do.
And she would have to tell them everything now.
The plane nearly crashed into the ground as it arrived. Before Sharpner even had the plane on solid ground, he ran from the controls still a few feet above the ground. When it hit, it caused him to fall over, but he quickly got to his feet and ran right to them. A few feet from them, he knee slid almost right into Erasa and he just held onto her arms, his face still having tears running down them.
"You're really safe" she barely got out, still in shock as well.
Looking up a bit, Gohana saw Lime holding onto Videl, still a couple of meters above the ground now. And almost just like Sharpner, Lime had barely flipped them right side up to land and Videl was struggling to get out of her arms. Letting Videl go, she hit the ground feet first, throwing her goggles to the ground, shattering them, and ran.
"ERASA!" she nearly screamed as she embraced her, tearing into her shoulder as she was to afraid to let her go as she cried into her shoulder.
Erasa was still trembling a little bit but she hugged Videl back with one arm, holding tightly onto Sharpner with the other. She couldn't bare letting the two of them go just yet. Feeling them both against her, Erasa was staring to calm down a little bit.
Taking her goggles and ear piece off, Gohana just dropped them onto the ground and walked the few feet to Lime. She wasn't even sure how to even help this situation at all. She was too afraid to make it worse. But she was even more terrified she would lose them anyway once she had to tell them.
Lime watched the three of them for a moment before noticing Gohana's ki. Looking at her worried, she could tell both physically and from her ki she was had seen her like this when she started opening up to her about her dad, but this was a little different somehow. Putting a hand on her shoulder, Lime looked up at her worried.
"Gohana?"
Clutching over her heart, Gohana knew what she was asking. She knew they were safe, but all of a sudden the thought of losing them was straining her. She just stared at the ground and tensed up a little bit, but before she could even go back down that dark hole again, she felt Lime grip her shoulders, though actually using a lot of her actual strength.
"Don't you dare!' Lime glared at her.
Gohana just looked back at Lime and was brought back from her mind a little bit. Looking back over to them on the grass, she couldn't stop the look of sadness on her face.
"But, what if-"
"What if nothing!" Lime shot back at her before she could even finish her question.
Gohana just continued to look down. Even though Lime was right, all of her fears and insecurities started coming back to the surface. She had not had to face losing anyone since her father, and she was only an eleven year old girl then. And it was her fault! But now she was terrified it would happen all over again. Even though it wasn't even the same, she wasn't able to distinguish it. She was fighting back her tears a little bit as well, which Lime noticed and just wiped them away with her thumbs.
"Just give them a chance before you do anything rash." Lime said, knowing full well best to try to keep Gohana in a better mood then where she was about to go. She couldn't see her friend go back down that hole of depression.
It was a while until any of them let each other go. Videl and Sharpner had both stopped crying, but they had refused to let her go. No words were really exchanged between them either. They didn't even need words. Sniffling a bit, Videl loosened her embrace a bit and pulled her head out of Erasa's shoulder.
"I thought you…"
"I know. I did to honestly." Erasa said, a little closer to her usual voice, though not as cheery.
Wipping her eye and nose with her shirt sleeve, Videl looked back over to Gohana and saw her sitting against a tree with her head buried in her knees. And it surprised her to see it looking like Lime was trying to comfort her. She didn't understand exactly what was happening with her, but she looked back to Erasa.
"You're chute. I even packed it up and double checked it myself!" Videl caught her voice in her throat and couldn't continue what she was about to say. She nearly killed her friend, if Gohana hadn't flown in and saved her... flown.
"Gohana, she…"
"I know." Erasa said, and leaned back a bit, now sitting more crossed legged rather than on her knees.
"But, how?" Sharpner asked.
Erasa really wasn't sure what to say. She knew exactly how, as she knew a lot but how could she explain it? Besides they full on saw her flying, and she could see Gohana's hair was still blonde, though it was Lime's worried look that caught Erasa's attention more so now. She knew Gohana's fear of losing them when they found out, and how scared losing anyone was to her. Gohana had now saved her twice, but she could tell Gohana now needed her now.
"Guys. I think you need to know a few things." She said, wipping her own face a bit, not really caring her makeup was smeared in with her own bodily fluids.
"But, what about you?" Videl nearly snapped back.
"Just…trust me Videl. I know your worried, but…" she stared back over to Gohana again. "You don't know what I do. I'll be fine, im just…a bit shaken up." Lime said and slowly tried making her way to her feet. She was still a little shakey but she assumed Lime knew what she was thinking, as Lime had gotten Gohana to start walking back towards them. Though it didn't look like Gohana was really in a talking mood.
Videl looked over back at Gohana, and she was now coherent enough to realize that Gohana's hair was now golden blonde, and standing up a bit more, minus her longer hair in the back.
"Wait, Gohana. You're…You're" Videl started once Gohana was closer to them.
Gohana's more shy and insecure nature was more previlant than ever. She was just holding onto her left arm as she instinctually did after getting her scar, and she just kept her dead down. She was trying hard to keep her fears down, but she was now having to face them head on.
"So, you are the golden fighter." Which Gohana just nodded without even looking at them.
"Look Videl before you jump to any conclusions, or yell, will you please listen?" Lime asked, knowing Videl's brash nature.
"But she lied!" Videl instinctually defended herself, before immediately regretting it as she noticed how visibly Gohana tensed up.
"Videl, please." Erasa asked softly wanting to help in any way she could.
"You…already know?" Sharpner asked and Videl looked in shock.
"She didn't want me to find out how I did either, but yes."
Gohana was just tuning everyone out a little bit. She was generally aware of what they were bickering about but she was already so lost in her own mind she didn't really pick up anything being said. But the stress was starting to boil up too much. She knew her limit and it was getting close to it. She already counted them as hating her, and she knew the intensity and the stress of everything was bringing everything to a boil and she was about to snap. But she wanted to tell them, now she had to. But they'll run away scared, and she had spent the last twenty or so minutes fearing this in her head.
"I'm sorry I lied to you." She managed to choke out from her breath, causing everyone to stop talking and look at her. "I wanted to tell you, but…I didn't know how. Everyone…that finds out becomes terrified of me…they call me a monster." Tears now rolling down her face, Gohana now just held her stomach tightly, but still looked down at the ground. "I didn't tell you because I thought I would lose you and I…I…cant lose…I…I can't." Gohana struggled to even continue her sentence as she kept seeing her fathers smile in her mind. That same smile that growing up always used to bring her comfort, that smile that was now causing her extreme anguish because she'll never get to see again because of her.
Gohana's mind just snapped.
Gohana nearly collapsed and fell to the ground crying. Lime quickly to try to help her as Erasa nearly jumped and tried to help her now as well. They both tried to bring some type of comfort to her as Gohana sat there crying into her knees as she held her legs tightly against her. Videl and Sharpner were both at a total lose. They had no idea what was going on or what was suddenly so wrong that it was causing them to panic a bit now.
"What's wrong?" Videl freaked out, now seeing Gohana on the ground crying.
"Gohana's can't handle the though loosing those she cares about! It literally causes her to have a break down like she's having now!" Lime flat out said, causing the both of them to visibly become very worried. Lime went back to trying to comfort Gohana by holding her close and telling her it would be alright. Even though after all these years, she never really learned how as it was never the same thing that brought her out of her depression. None of the other Z fighters could figure it out well either, though Krillin or Piccolo would usually be able to calm her down.
Quickly standing up, Lime flared her ki up then down three times quickly in a row, everyone else shot back in surprise as Lime suddenly looked like she had bursts of pulsing white flames around her. Even Erasa was a little stunned even knowing they could do that, and then went back to Gohana. Lowering her ki again, her aura disappeared and she immediately went back to trying to comfort Gohana.
"I hope he gets here soon."
"Lime, what the heck was that?" Videl said in shock.
"Look will explain everything once we get Gohana better."
"But what on Earth causes this fear of losing people?" Videl asked now kneeling next to Gohana as well not sure how to calm her down.
"Her father died because of her!" Lime shot out, and suddenly it felt like Videl's heart was shot.
Looking down now at Gohana, Videl felt some of her own sadness welling up but right now she was too worried about Gohana she didn't care about her feelings. Or even about what Gohana is to scared to tell them. She just felt she had to help get Gohana to calm down.
After a few minutes of seeming getting nowhere trying to get Gohana to calm down, a man fell from the sky breaking out of a white flame causing Videl and nearly fall over at the suddenness.
"Lime, whats wrong! What happened?" Krillin asked and immediately knelt next to Gohana and put his hand on her back, causing Gohana to twitch.
"Long story short, Gohana openly used her powers to save her friend, and the idea of them being scared and leaving her caused her to have another mental break down." Lime gave him the extreme short version of it, as that was all that was important anyway.
"Well, so far this is a lot better than the last major one. " Krillin softly shuddered remembering it.
"Hey kiddo, its me." Krillin softly spoke to her, trying to get some reaction out of her to see how bad it was. He let out a soft sigh of relief when she grabbed a hold of his hand on her knee and just held it. "Look, everything will be okay." He continued.
Standing up, Lime walked over to the others and tried to motion for them to follow her. She knew well enough that with Krillin there, she would be alright soon. But she figured she needed to give them some kind of primer for what they are about to hear. If she could give them the details that were more likely to cause her to snap, the better for her when she had to explain it anyway.
The three of them followed her, though they didn't go that far anyway. They were just a bit out of earshot from Gohana.
"You guys wanted to know the truth, here's a quick rundown. Videl you're correct on a few counts." She said just pointing to Videl without any further explanation. "Secondly, what's happening now…her father died saving her but when they tried to wish him back it wasn't allowed because Gohana refused to listen. So as far as she is concerned she basically killed her father wither own hands. She is almost unable to handle losing anyone anymore as a result, or she has a mental breakdown. And right now she's terrified of losing you guys as her friends. And thirdly, she is not like any of us. Nore are her friends or me for that matter, but that's not the point. She doesn't understand how to even relate to most people as a result of it, so she is terrified to let people in."
"But how did you find out about this? What can we do?" Videl asked worried.
"I meet her and her father before he died, so I somewhat already knew. As for what you guys can do, just listen to her. I think it's clear enough to me already that you won't stop being her friend, but that fear is too deeply ingrained in her psyche. It causes her to not think clearly."
"So, let me get this straight. She thinks we will treat her differently when we find out she's different? How does that make sense? Videl is different than most other people as well but we don't treat her that way." Sharpner asked confused.
"Yes Sharpner, we all know that but to her it's, well different. Look I know you guys will still want to be her friend. Hell I can imagine you'll want her to train you like I did to be honest. But just let her explain what she wants. She already wanted to tell you guys, especially after Monday. But she didn't know how and this is possibly the worse way for her it could have happened." Lime said and looked back worriedly towards Gohana.
They all just looked back over to Gohana as well, and they were somewhat pleased to see her head was now out of her knees, but she was still crying.
"So, can I ask who that is?" Erasa asked.
"That's her God Father, Krillin. Only him and her sudo surrogate father Piccolo are really able to calm her down. Not even her mom or siblings can bring her out when she gets like this." Lime causally said. She could tell from Gohana's Ki that they were out of the worse phase of this, and she let out a sigh of relief.
Lime just sat down against a tree and leaned against it. She knew just to wait a little bit and Gohana would most likely be able to walk again. She kept glancing over towards the others, and she could tell the were dying to ask more, but were keeping silent. They were not even talking to each other either, just sitting there. Though Videl really seemed to have a lot going through her head based on her facial expressions. Kami knows what was going through her mind, but she was at least glad things were calming down a bit now. Of all the ways this could happen, she was really sad it had to go this way. But she did have to admit, they were still here wanting to know, and in the end she had a feeling it would actually not only bring them close as friends, but help Gohana out with her mental issues.
For the longest time, there was no sounds other than the nature that was around them. None of them could really hear what was happening between Gohana and Krillin but they were able to hear them talking none the less to each other. But the wait was maddening for them. A part of them really wanted to know what she had to say, especially Videl. But right now they were more worried about Gohana.
Erasa sat next to the water of the stream and just watched as the water passed by as she threw in random blades of grass, watching the water take it with the flow. She had yet another extremely stressful day, though unlike Monday where it made Gohana show her some basic things, it now caused Gohana have a mental break down. And it was her that almost died that day. Yet she was still more worried about Gohana than herself.
"Hey, is this seat taken?"
Turning her head, Sharpner was standing there and without even waiting for an answer he sat down next to her. Though neither of them really said anything for a few moments, they just listened to the creek and the birds.
"So about…earlier." Sharpner started.
"Yeah, what part? We've had a few things happen already."
"Well, you know…you…falling." Sharpner trailed off, really hoping to not get her sad or upset, but really not having any clue how to continue his words. And now we almost wish he hadn't said anything.
"Oh, yeah. I think I'm done with Sky diving for a little while. At least unless Gohana's there. Or one of you learn to fly…" she said staring back at the water, trailing off with her own thoughts.
"It's my fault. I was the pilot, I should have checked everything. We always have two of us check everything, and this time we didn't. And I almost lost you." She said.
"Huh, what do you mean 'you'. Videl and Lime and Gohana almost lost me too." Erasa asked in confusion, as Sharpners face was now red. Though she couldn't tell as he had his face turned the other way.
"Um, nothing, I mean. Well you and I did meet first before we meet Videl." He tried recovering.
"Yeah by like a week maybe." Erasa reminded him.
"I just. Well actually I'm not really to sure what I mean. That is." Sharpner was just looking at the water trying to find the right way to word this, but before he could they felt a tap on his shoulder and saw Lime.
"Looks like Gohana's coming over." She said and just walked back to where Videl was.
"Oh, I hope she's alright." Erasa said and quickly got up and hurried over to where they were originally.
"Smooth one Sharpner." He said with a sigh to himself as he got up and walked over to them as well.
It still took Gohana and Krillin a few minutes to get there, but it was obvious that Gohana was doing much better. Though her eyes were puffy and red, she wasn't crying anymore. And when they did get there, no one really even said anything. More accurately no one even knew what to say. And this didn't really sit well with Krillin, as he always tried to lighten the mood when needed.
"So I guess you guys have some questions." He said more as a statement than anything, getting a nod from them all.
"I'm sorry about earlier." Gohana started.
"No, you don't have to be sorry about anything!" Videl was quick to help her out which did get a soft smile and nod from Gohana which made Videl happy.
"So, I guess you know now. I'm…different than others." She started, still trying to find exactly how and where to start.
"You know Lime and I can help fill them in if you'd like Gohana." Krillin looked up telling her noticing the long pause.
"No, I promise I can handle this." Gohana said a little flustered, though she still struggled to even start.
"Um, well first off earlier. I was trying to say, well I couldn't stand losing you as my friends." Gohana managed to get out, feeling a bit better just seeing them all still standing here wanting to know what the heck was going on and know more about her. "Or anyone. My dad he…" she paused and took a deep breath and repeating in her head what Krillin had told her. "I think I should just start from the beginning." She started.
"Um can I ask to just let me talk without any of you saying anything? I think I'm just more worried about being stopped." Which they all nodded.
"First things first, I wont really explain much detail about much right now, but here is the basics. First off, I'm not normal. I have powers and abilities that most don't have outside my circle of family." Gohana started and squeezed Krillin's hand a tad bit, which he squeezed back to comfort her. "Also, I'm…only half…" she paused and swallowed the lump in her throat.
"I'm only half human which is part of the reason I have such strength. It's also the reason I was able to defeat Cell when I was younger. But my dad, he died saving me due to my arrogance." Gohana fought back tearing up again, so she just quickly tried moving onto the next thing.
"The things I can do are real, they're not tricks like Hercule says. I've spent most of my life out protecting the Earth so I have no idea what it means to be normal which is why I act so weirdly sometimes. But I truly am being me…so…please don't hate me?" Gohana asked, having spoken a little fast mostly just so she could get it out. Throughout the entire short explanation she just kept looking down, it helped pretending they weren't there just to get them somewhat in the know. She knew she couldn't explain the details now, and even if they asked she doubt she could today.
Looking up at them finally, Gohana saw Videl and Sharpner really deep in thought. Though while Lime already knew all of this to begin with in detail, she seems to be very proud of her. And they didn't even seem remotely scared. They were still here.
"Gohana, can I ask something?" Videl finally spoke up.
"Well I um…" she started stuttering before Krillin softly squeezed her hand again, calming her yet again. "Yes."
"Were your friends, why did you think we would be afraid of you?" she asked with a worrying tone, and it was more evident on her face.
Gohana just stared at Videl for a few moments before another few tears started forming in her eyes. Sniffling a little bit as it finally hit her. Gohana softly rubbed them off with her arm and even thought she didn't mean to move fast, she suddenly appeared in front of Videl and hugged her softly crying a little bit.
"Because I'm a big dumb pain in the ass." Gohana whimpered a little bit, which seemed to throw Videl off for a short time before returning Gohana's hug to comfort her, recognizing the specific insult she gave to s certain someone almost daily.
'Yes, you are a big dumb pain in the ass, Saiyako.'
Pulling away, Gohana just rubbed her tears away with her forearm again. "I'm sorry Videl. I'm sorry guys. This weekend was so much fun until I ruined it all."
"You didn't ruin it. Technically speaking we were trying to become closer as friends. And I think you finally coming clean with us counts as becoming closer." Videl reminded her.
Gohana just couldn't help but laugh a little bit at that. "Well technically that wasn't what my mom had in mind." She casually threw out, causing Sharpner to blush a little bit.
"What really? No way! I can't believe Chichi is still so set on that!" Krillin laughed it off knowing what she was referring to as well.
"Wait what did we miss." Erasa asked.
"Um, I'll tell you another time."
"You promise?" Videl crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at Gohana.
"Yeah. I promise I'll start letting you guys in more."
"Well now that's settled, we still have a good afternoon ahead of us. What shall we do?" Sharpner asked.
On que Gohana's stomach started growling, causing her to blush a little bit at the suddenness of it. She didn't realize how late it was since they had breakfast, and she didn't get much to eat at breakfast either, just a large fish and whatever few bowl her mom made her. But after all that stress, the first thing her body wanted was food.
"Um, could we possibly get some food?"
"I swear you Saiyan's always thinking about just food." Krillin teased her, causing her to laugh a bit.