Author's Note: Here's a helpful tip to all you faithful readers out there: while I don't really like any of you, I will be much more personable towards you if you read the author's notes, and, if when you review, you do so using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I might even begin to like you (Oh, the shock!) if you leave a review with more than four sentences. Seriously my dears, your reviews are boring me deeply. (The wondrous Phedre is an exception to these comments.) Due to my boredom, though, I have a proposition to make, a bit of a competition of sorts. Whosoever leaves the most hilarious review during the time that I am writing Chapter Six, shall win a prize of unimaginable fortitude: they shall be referenced in Chapter Seven. There may possibly be more to the prize, but I haven't decided yet. If the winner has any requests for a prize, they can tell them to me in response to the email I send that notifies them of their winning status. Now, onwards with the story.
Disclaimer: If I were the creator of DBZ or Sailor Moon, I would certainly not be living in the cheapest sort of dorm room. I also have no ownership over Pokemon or Hello Kitty, though I love both dearly.
Chapter Five:
Darien came home to an empty apartment after the movie. Turning on the TV, he plopped onto the sofa and lazily glued his eyes to the screen. It didn't surprise him that most of the reports were about Saiyaman; there were only a few about the scouts and a couple on mysterious earthquakes currently coming from a remote part of Australia. He turned it off immediately.
I'm so sick of this Saiyaman! I can't even get away from him in my own home! He crossed his arms and pouted. He then remembered that he had a live-in companion in his apartment. Hey, maybe I can go complain to Gohan…
He was about to get up to look for Gohan in the kitchen, which he deemed the most likely place, but was surprised when Gohan chose that exact moment to walk through the door instead.
He was out? "Hey Gohan, where have you been?" Darien mused, trying to act casual. However, he received only an angry glance as Gohan strode into the kitchen and promptly ate half the contents of the refrigerator. Since Gohan had left the movies, he had been training in Australia, trying to blow off some steam. He was in no mood to talk, let alone tell Darien about his training.
The angry look, though, was enough to silence Darien. After eating, Gohan immediately went to bed: he planned to train all weekend, so he needed to be rested.
Darien watched as Gohan left the room, puzzled by his behavior. What's with him? Raye's probably right, he just might be an enemy. Frowning, Darien went to bed as well, slightly disturbed that a probable evil was just feet away in the next room.
The next morning, Darien woke to find Gohan already gone. There was nothing left in the refrigerator either, except a half a cup of chocolate milk. As he sullenly polished off the glass, the news broadcast on the radio yet again spoke of Saiyaman's amazing feats and of continuous earthquakes in Australia. This is going to be a horrible day, he thought as he banged his head on the table a few times.
He eventually picked up the phone, and, not in the mood to call Serena, called Raye. An idea was beginning to form in his mind.
"Hello, Cherry Hill Temple," she answered grumpily. It was obviously too early in the morning for her on weekends.
"Raye, hello, this is Darien."
"Darien?" She was evidently surprised. "What can I do for you?"
"You can come over. Gohan's out and I have a feeling he won't be back until late."
"Darien! You have a girlfriend! What are you thinking?"
Darien finally realized how scandalous his words had been. "Oohhh no no no! Nothing like that!" He gave a quick, embarrassed laugh. "Gohan's suspected of evil activity by the Sailors, right? Well, I thought since he was gone, we could do some investigating. You know, like going through his stuff to find clues. Stuff the other scouts would think was too rude and wouldn't approve of."
"Oh. Ok! Sounds fun!" With that, she hung up, and roughly fifteen minutes later, she was knocking at the door.
"That was quick," he mused as he let her in.
"Yeah, yeah," she grunted back as she strode into the room. "It's scout business, what can I say. Let's get to work."
They both entered Gohan's room and began silently opening drawers, looking for anything suspicious. Raye accidentally opened the wrong drawer and gave a quick giggle as she pulled out a pair of his underwear.
"I guess Melvin wasn't lying about the teddy bears." She tossed them back in the drawer and closed it.
While they were looking high and low, the radio was meanwhile blaring news reports. One headline in particular caught their attention:
"Saiyaman saves hundreds from a near-fatal plane crash in Australia! He speaks perfect English too!"
"I wonder what he's doing in Australia," Darien pondered aloud while pulling aside several advanced level English textbooks.
Suddenly, Raye gave a pronounced "A-ha!" from the desk she was searching. She had found the jackpot.
"Darien, are these those capsule things you were talking about?"
Darien moved to where she was knelt, holding a small black box with a few capsules, and a note addressed to Gohan. She read it aloud:
"Gohan,
Though your mother forces you to study like there's no tomorrow, I know you secretly like it. So, bring out that inner academic in you and use these capsules to do some research for me while you're there!
Love,
Bulma
P.S. If you don't, I'll be cooking for you for the next few weeks after you get back. And you'll be enjoying a stay in the Capsule Corp gravity room with my husband."
"Why's it written in Japanese? I thought Gohan was on exchange from China. And, what's all this nonsense about research?" Raye automatically turned on her suspicious reflexes.
"And what's a gravity room?" Darien asked as well. "I guess there's only one way to find out. Let's open the capsules."
"Alright," Raye responded. "But not in here. We should open them outside, since we don't know what's in them."
On the roof of Darien's apartment building, he and Raye prepared to open the mysterious set of three capsules they had found in Gohan's desk drawer. Darien pressed the button on the top, just as he'd seen Gohan do, and tossed it to the ground in front of him. To the utter shock of both of them, a small, dome-shaped house appeared in the resulting explosion.
"A whole house fit into that tiny pill?" Raye gasped as she slowly touched it to check if it was real.
"A whole house with a lab," Darien replied, looking through one of the windows. "Just look at all this technology! I've never seen anything like it in Japan!" He was about to open the door and go inside, but Raye stopped him:
"It might be a trap, and besides, what if it turns back into a capsule while we're in there?"
"Oh, right," muttered Darien, a bit disappointed. He quickly encapsulated it and, while putting it away, handed Raye the next capsule. "You can do the honors on this one."
She pressed the button and tossed it on the ground, waiting for an explosion. After a moment, and a considerably smaller explosion, a mechanical-looking object sat in front of them. Anyone from Gohan's universe would have immediately recognized it as a training bot from the gravity room. Taped onto it was a piece of paper covered in crayon marks that read:
Dear Brother,
Have fun training!
"This is kind of cute," Raye commented. "It seems his brother sent him a present. Weird pictures though. They kind of resemble people, only one of them is green and they look like they're shooting lasers out of their hands. You can never tell what kids draw though."
"Let's see what it is," Darien said while flipping the on switch.
Raye was about to stop him, but it was too late. The robot started up, and without warning, began hurtling water balloons filled with a variety of edible and drinkable items at them.
Soon enough, the robot was out of ammunition, leaving Darien and Raye covered and soaking in Jell-O, soda, tomato sauce, vinegar, raw eggs, and maple syrup.
"Encapsulate it. Right. Now." Raye seethed. "I'm going to use your shower."
Later, after both of them were cleaned and clothed, they once again found themselves on the roof with the last capsule. The explosion from it, however, did not reveal another terrifying prank, but a small plastic box. They both apprehensively approached it and, after a simultaneous gulp, slowly pried off the lid. Inside was a small electronic device.
"Do you think it's ok to turn this one on?" Darien asked. "I mean, it's too small to hurl water balloons at us."
Raye gave a quick nod and watched as Darien cautiously flipped the switch: seven red dots appeared on the screen.
"It looks like some kind of radar." Raye pointed out. "And it seems that whatever it's tracking, a few of them are pretty close by us. At least within the city."
"Shall we go see what they are?" Darien asked.
"But of course," replied Raye.
Monday at school, Gohan was rather anxious and irritable. He really wasn't sure why, but he had a gut feeling that something wrong was going on around him. This could have been the result of several bashful stares and eyelash battings from females within his vicinity when he entered the school and subsequently the classroom.
As he uncomfortably took his seat, Mina latched onto him with a bubbly smile that sent shivers down his spine.
"Gohan, did you see the flyers around school yet? The ones about the Halloween Costume Party Ball? It's a couple's dance the school is putting on! It looks like so much fun!" She gave him an exaggerated wink and nudge in the ribs. "It's coming up just next week, so you better ask someone quickly before the girl of your dreams gets taken!"
"Next week? Really? Oh, gosh, that's just, ah, too…short of notice. Yeah. Too short of notice. I already have plans." He gave a nervous, unconvincing smile.
"What plans?" Raye interjected with suspicious glare.
"I, uh, well, Darien…and I…were going to spend some, um, good quality man-to-man time together!"
"Nice try Gohan," Raye smirked mockingly. "Darien's going to the ball with Serena" Her smirk widened as she noticed him whisper a curse at Dende under his breath, then she continued, "Though, if I were you, I wouldn't want to ask Mina either."
"Hey! That's really mean Raye! I'm not that bad! At least I'm nice to Gohan, unlike you!" Mina yelled at Raye, commencing a heated argument.
As they engaged in their all-out yelling war before class, Gohan happened to glance at Amy, who was unluckily positioned between the two. They simultaneously sighed, both sharing the same pained, embarrassed expression.
The bickering, however, was disrupted by the sounds of sirens wailing near the campus and the lockdown alarm sounding. Gohan suddenly felt several large energies heading straight towards himself.
Gohan immediately raised his hand and the teacher promptly called on him. "I really, really have to use the restroom!"
"Don't be ridiculous. Can't you hear those sirens? They're so close I wouldn't even be surprised if they were on the school grounds. It's too dangerous."
"Please! It's an emergency!" The class, of course, burst out laughing at his squirming antics.
"Oh, alright. But if you get hurt out there, your parents had better not sue me."
"Thank you!" Gohan called as he rushed out of the room.
"Yeesh, he was in a hurry – " Raye had begun to say, but she was cut off by a loud explosion as Saiyaman came crashing through the wall and into the chalkboard, leaving quite a large indentation in it.
To the shock of the class, he picked himself up quite easily and smirked. "Not even enough force to get me through two walls, Jeice? I'm surprised! You've really been slacking, haven't you?"
Mina screamed and the rest of the class gasped as four muscular and oddly colored aliens entered the room through the hole they had created with Saiyaman.
"It must be hard for you guys, since you were separated from Captain Ginyu. I mean, he gave you your name for goodness' sake: the Ginyu Force!"
Saiyaman suddenly dropped his joking demeanor and frowned, his eyes narrowing. In one fluid, but rapid motion, he fired a dangerously hot ki blast at the short, stout alien in the crowd. Guldo was quickly disintegrated into a pile of ashes, which earned Saiyaman several angry glances from the remaining members of the Ginyu Force, and one particularly mean look from Melvin, who would have liked to befriend the aliens, rather than kill them, for the sake of science.
Gohan merely shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry guys, but Guldo had to be eliminated. I didn't want him using that time freeze attack on me."
"Let's kill the cocky little brat! No bets this time!" exclaimed Burter, as the three aliens struck a hideous pose.
The class couldn't help but laugh a little as Saiyaman grimaced and scratched his head. "I don't really look like that, do I?"
He didn't get an answer, though, because at that moment, Recoome decided that firing a ki blast at a random bystander would make the team seem more imposing.
Gohan barely had time to react. In fact, he was forced to teleport to beat the blast to its target, which coincidentally happened to be Amy. It was only a foot away when he reached her, so, in order to block it, he pulled her into a tight hug and took the brunt of the attack. He held her for a moment before letting go.
When he released her, he turned to face the Ginyu Force. With an angry frown, he ripped off the remains of his cape and threw it on the ground. "Let's go. We're not fighting here."
The members of the alien team smirked and nodded. They were about to take off with Gohan, when a voice from the crowd stopped him.
"Saiyaman, wait!" It was Amy. "If you make it back, will you, um, w-will you please go to the c-costume ball with me?
Saiyaman turned a bright tomato flush and without thinking, nodded his acceptance very quickly and embarrassedly. "Uh, I'll meet you in the lunch area in an hour and we can discuss details. I suspect school will be cancelled for the rest of the day."
He turned back to the Ginyu Force. "Follow me, and hurry up, will you?"
As soon as they left, Amy was swarmed with questions.
"Amy! Why on Earth did you do that?" Raye demanded.
"Amy, you lucky girl, you! Make sure his costume is nice and tight so we can all see his muscles!" Mina had hearts in her eyes. Several other girls in their class agreed.
"Amy! Oh my! What gave you the guts to do something like that?" Lita asked. Her class had filtered in during the bit of a fight and had witnessed her exclamation as well.
"I – I really don't know. It was just instinct, or impulse, or something. He reminded me of Go – uh, I mean, someone I know." She gave a shy blush, which earned her several angry looks from girls who wished they were in her place and boys who were jealous of the attention Saiyaman was receiving.
Meanwhile, Gohan had given the Ginyu force a good beating, both in posing and in fighting, and nearly an hour later, he was flying worriedly back to the school where he had promised to meet Amy. What have I done now? Saiyaman is Gohan's alter ego, not the other way around! And alter egos don't go to dances! But I can't back out of it. I could never hurt Amy's feelings, whether I'm Saiyaman or Gohan. But I can't let her know that I'm Gohan. I guess "Gohan" will have to make an excuse to get out of the dance after all. And I'll have to disguise myself still. I suppose no one will recognize me if I go super and choose a fake name…He powered up to super saiyan just in case he felt compelled to reveal himself.
Arriving in the lunch area, he found that most people had gone back to their homes, but a few still remained, though they were hiding, to watch the exchange between Amy and Saiyaman. He spotted her sitting with Raye, of all people. With a frown of disapproval, he landed with a soft thump in front of them, startling them both. He crossed his arms over his chest, obviously not happy about Raye's presence.
Amy smiled with a light blush and a wave in greeting, but Raye's eyes narrowed. During the time that they had been waiting for Saiyaman, she had made a private call to Darien. Though it would be a feeble attempt, any opportunity to try and unmask Saiyaman was worth an effort. She abruptly stood up and stalked towards him. When she was within a few feet of him, she lunged with her hand outstretched to grab at his sunglasses.
Saiyaman, of course, was able to easily avoid her assault, but he was very surprised by her actions nonetheless. In fact, he was so surprised, he didn't notice that he had been backed into a tree.
"What's going on?" he asked incredulously. Looking towards Amy, he saw that she was just as shocked as himself. However, he never received an answer to his question, for he suddenly heard a sound and felt a ki coming from above him. He looked up to see Darien pouncing from the tree down at him. Unluckily for Darien though, Gohan merely took one step to the side. Darien's pounce was rendered a fall and he landed on his face in the dirt next to Saiyaman's feet.
Amy immediately ran up to Saiyaman. "I'm so sorry! I had no idea they were planning something like this!"
Gohan nodded in response; he could tell Amy was still trustworthy. Leaning down, he whispered to her so that no one could hear, "Would you rather meet somewhere else in about fifteen minutes so we get rid of them and the eavesdroppers?"
Amy was further shocked to hear that Darien wasn't the only snooping person in the area, but she still nodded and whispered back, "Meet me at Crown Fruit Parlor, but don't wear that. If you wear something normal while we're there, it will just look like I'm there with a friend and not the illustrious Saiyaman."
"Illustrious, eh?" He gave a short laugh. "Sure. I'll see you there." With that, he took to the sky.
"Amy!" Raye yelled from behind her. "Why did you let him get away? You could have discovered his identity so easily! And what did you two whisper to each other?"
"Yeah, I'd like to know that too!" Mina popped out from behind the bushes giggling.
"Nothing. We just decided to meet tomorrow instead," Amy lied. "I have to get going though. I have a lot of studying to do. I suspect school will be reopened in a week, which is midterms week, and our teachers wouldn't skip those for anything."
Serena and Lita appeared from around a corner rolling their eyes, with Lita speaking for the two of them, "We thought she'd changed for a little bit there, but I guess not. Let's all go back to my place, I'll make you all dinner."
The Sailor Scouts and Darien, who was rubbing rather large lump on his head, agreed that dinner sounded excellent at the moment, so they all took their leave of Amy.
Once they were out of sight, Amy rushed to Crown Fruit Parlor, where she had agreed to meet Saiyaman. She took a seat at the back table where the scouts usually sat, and pulled out a book while she waited.
Gohan walked in soon after, though slightly on the late side. He had stopped back at Darien's apartment for a change of clothes and to attempt to tame his spiky golden hair. It was, of course, a failed attempt. In the end he just settled for a baseball cap and the sunglasses from his Saiyaman costume.
He looked around the room and finally spotted Amy in the back. It seemed that she had spotted him first though, judging by her hopeful stare. With a short wave, he made his way to the table and sat down across from her with a shy smile.
"Sorry I'm late."
"It's alright," she replied, blushing. So this is Saiyaman as a normal human being. Wow, he's really nice. And cute, for that matter. Now, if I could just get him to remove his headwear…
"I just wanted to apologize again for the way Raye and Darien acted," Amy continued. "I had no idea they planned that, and it makes me really angry that they would do something like that after all the times you've saved us – I mean, uh, the city." Better not let anything about the scouts slip.
"It's not big deal," Gohan replied. "It takes more than someone jumping out of a tree to unmask me." He gave quick laugh.
"But you're going to tell me, right? I mean, after all, we're going to the dance together."
Gohan's face blanked. Darn it, she's right. I can't go with her without telling her something. It would be rude. "I suppose I have to, don't I? But first, why did you ask me?"
What! He just turned the conversation around on me! "Um, well, I guess you just, uh, reminded me of someone. Why did you say yes?" She smirked, knowing she had finally gotten the upper hand.
Dang it, she's tricky. "Um, well, I guess you reminded me of someone too."
"Well, that's a bit of a coincidence. So are you going to tell me who you are now?" Amy had a hard time trying not to let her anxiousness show; it was impossibly strange, though, how much Saiyaman reminded her of Gohan.
He pursed his lips and nodded. Taking off his hat first, he watched her face carefully. At first she seemed surprised. Well, golden hair isn't exactly common… But then, although very subtly, her expression fell slightly into a look that seemed almost disappointed.
He frowned. "Are you alright?"
She instantly changed her demeanor and waved his concern off with a smile. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. For some reason, I just always imagined you to have black hair. Though I must admit, this color is much more fascinating."
He removed his sunglasses next, at first not daring to look her in the eyes, but then glancing up with shrug and a shy smile.
Amy couldn't help but marvel at the unnaturally bright and clear sapphirine color of his eyes. She stared for a moment, until she noticed his oncoming confusion. She shook her head to bring herself back into reality. "And your name?" she asked timidly.
Shoot. I forgot to think of a fake name! Think quickly Gohan! "Uh, it's, um, Goten. Goten Briefs." Gah. And I'm supposed to be smart. He held out his hand across the table for a shake.
"Amy Mizuno." She took his hand, amazed that it wasn't gloved in the traditional Saiyaman fashion.
When the handshake was completed, Gohan gave a quick laugh. "Wow, I never thought I'd be doing this!"
"Doing what?" Amy gave him a puzzled look.
"Oh, whoops. I said that out loud, didn't I? I meant, uh, I never thought I'd be going to a school dance." He continued as Amy's expression grew more confused. "Because I'm home-schooled, of course. It makes perfect sense." Geez, I'm getting good at lying. What would Nimbus think?
"You're home-schooled?" Amy had decided it was time to release her inner academician. As we all know, academics are constantly on a quest for knowledge. This is otherwise known as compulsive nosiness.
Now, although Gohan was a genius, he was also quite gullible and he fell easily into her trap. Complying to her request to know more, he continued:
"Well, yeah. My mom's a little overprotective. She wouldn't let me go to school because she didn't want me to feel isolated because of, you know, what I can do. Her rigorous teaching method would have had any high school teacher cowering in fear anyway."
So Saiyaman's a little eccentric, but he seems nice. He's naïve, but intelligent nonetheless. Maybe I'll be able to figure out a little more. "So do you have any ideas on what to dress up as? It's a costume ball, after all."
"None whatsoever. I was hoping you already had an astonishingly brilliant idea for that subject."
Amy looked thoughtful for a moment. "How about a couple of the people from the Cell Games movie?"
Gohan's face immediately darkened. "Absolutely not."
"Oh, come on. Why not? I could go as that blue haired scientist woman and you can be one of the guys with the spiky gold hair. You already look like one of them!"
"I said no. I'll go as anything except someone or something from that movie."
"You obviously have a personal connection to it. Would it be wrong of me to ask what it is?" Please answer! Oh, please answer this! I have to know!
"Do you really want to know?"
"Well, yes!"
"Alright, I'll tell you, but please, don't bring it up again."
"I promise I won't!" Amy nodded vigorously in affirmation.
"Ok." Gosh, how am I supposed to tell this without revealing too much? Careful Gohan… "Well, remember how I'm from an alternate universe?"
She nodded.
"Well, right before I left to come here, my brother and his best friend wanted to show me something. I told them I didn't have time to see it though, because I was busy with last minute preparations."
She gave another nod, signaling continuation.
"The only explanation I can think of is that they filmed themselves and slipped the film into my bag. That would account for the beginning scene, which was the only good scene, by the way. I'm never going to let Vegeta live that down. He looked like he was about to wet his pants." Gohan laughed to himself.
"The only explanation for the rest of the film suddenly appearing in this universe must be that they accidentally taped on the back of the film Bulma, who is your blue-haired scientist, made of the Cell games when they actually occurred in my universe. I must have somehow lost it, and someone else apparently found it and made it into a major motion picture."
"But what's so bad about the Cell Games to make you hate it so much?" Amy protested. "I mean, that boy destroyed Cell and the people were revived by the Dragon! The world was saved in the end!"
"I don't hate it. I'm happy that Cell was destroyed and that so many lives were restored. But not everyone was brought back. That's why it's so painful to me: the one person who mattered the most to me was the one who didn't come back. It…it was the worst day of my life." Gohan's eyes had teared up as he thought back to the unforgettable day, so he looked down in order to avoid Amy's gaze.
"I – I'm so sorry…" Amy was speechless and embarrassed that she had brought back such a horrific memory for him.
Gohan, however, decided that a change in subject was necessary. "So, was there anything else you had in mind for costumes?"
Amy gave him a half-smile in order to cheer both him and herself up. "How about Team Rocket, from Pokemon? I'll be Jesse and you can be James, obviously."
He laughed out loud. She really does have a way with making people feel better. "Sounds great. My little brother loves Pokemon."
Amy giggled. "He must be such a cute little guy." She seemed thoughtful for a moment, then added, "I need to be getting home soon, though. Is there any way I'll be able to contact you for the future? You know, so I can let you know about plans for the dance and whatnot. I think my friends might have wanted to have dinner as a group beforehand."
"As of right now, no. But, I promise I'll pick up a cell phone or something on my way home today. It's high time I had one anyway. Speaking of going home, though, let me escort you."
"Alright, thanks." She smiled as they stood up and walked outside.
After a few moments of walking, the two of them reached Amy's apartment building. "This is it," she said, pointing at the large skyscraper that stood in front of them.
"Which floor are you on?" Gohan asked semi-casually while craning his neck to see how high the building was.
"The top one," Amy replied nonchalantly. "It's a pretty long elevator ride."
"In that case," Gohan smirked mischievously. "It looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"
Before Amy realized what was happening, and therefore also before she could protest, Gohan scooped her up in his arms and lifted into the air. The speed was quick, though not unbearably so, but Amy nonetheless let out a squeak of surprise.
"Oh my word… I-I'm flying!"
"Well, technically I'm transporting you to your floor in a more efficient manner in order to lessen the wasted time it takes for you to utilize the elevator."
"Oh shut up." She glared at him, but in doing so she suddenly realized just how close the two of them were. Her glare immediately turned into a blush.
As Gohan landed on the top of the building, he too found himself to be blushing. It took him a moment to set her down, but even then he didn't let go of her immediately. As the distance between their faces began to decrease, Gohan found himself to be thinking about how beautiful Amy was, something he'd never thought about a girl before. However, he also remembered that he was from another universe and that if she ended up liking him, it would be lying to her. Not wanting to hurt her, and not realizing that it was already too late to avoid her liking him, he pulled away with a shy smile and levitated a few feet away from the ledge of the building.
"I, uh, just remembered I needed to run some errands before it gets too late. And I have to train too. I'll stop by when I get that cell phone I mentioned." He blushed furiously then blasted away.
Amy watched him fly off while wringing her hands together and blushing as well. Oh my…Did Saiyaman – I mean Goten, and I just have a 'moment?' She shook her head furiously to get the thought out of her mind. I can't fall for him; he's from another dimension. But, it's already too late isn't it…
She unlatched the door on the roof and silently went inside her apartment.
Gohan, meanwhile, had landed in an alley, so that no bystanders would notice, and had walked out onto the street near Crown Arcade, still in super Saiyan form. He felt quite overwhelmed from the previous episode with Amy, so he decided to clear his head with some good, old-fashioned video games.
He eagerly strode into Crown Arcade, which was relatively unpopulated. Nodding to Andrew, who worked there, he heatedly set to work on the nearest fighting game. After several epic battles in Street Fighter and Tekken, he spotted a game towards the back of the arcade that caught his interest.
Sailor V… Goodness, they even make video games about these girls?
He set to work on the game, and soon afterwards had reached second place on the scoreboard. He entered his fake name, Goten, then glanced at the other owners of high scores.
Holy! He gasped. One single person held every other high score on the entire game: Serena Tsukino. There's no way I'm going to let that girl beat me at anything! He set to work on the game once again.
After an hour of fervent button pushing, Gohan finally beat Serena's score. During this time period, the arcade had also been deserted, due to the oncoming evening hours. The select music that only played for the highest scorer began as Gohan grinned and began entering his name. However, a second later, he heard a voice.
"Serena, I thought we discussed this! You can't play video games until you do your homework! And – "
As the voice continued its lecture, Gohan glanced around the arcade, wondering where the voice was coming from. Seeing that it was empty, he peered around behind the Sailor V game and, to his surprise, he witnessed a small, purple cat staring intently at a computer screen and reprimanding Serena at the same time. Gohan gave an internal smile. The cat must have heard the music and assumed I was Serena!
The cat pressed a button, closing the computer screen, then jumped onto the top of the Sailor V game. It opened it mouth to continue the scolding, but suddenly froze in shock. That's not Serena!
Hmm, perhaps talking cats aren't so common in this dimension, and I wasn't supposed to witness that bout. Oh well, he gave a slight smirk. It was the cat's fault for being careless. "Hello Kitty," he said with a teasing smile, "What was it you were saying about my grades?"
Luna momentarily looked defeated, but then her face hardened into a warning glare. "You'd better not repeat this episode to anyone. If you do, you'll be signing you death warrant. I don't think you'd like – "
Luna was cut off by Raye and Darien bursting into the arcade and rushing back to the Sailor V game. "Luna!" Raye exclaimed, but was promptly silenced, jaw hanging open, with shock at seeing a young blonde man confronting Luna. "Who are you?" she finally was able to get out.
Gohan smiled. "I'm Goten. It's very nice to meet you two." He gave a knowing smile. I guess everyone in that group of theirs is associated with this 'Luna.' "Your cat thought I was someone named Serena when I beat the high score on this game." He gave it a pat.
"You beat the high score!" Darien exclaimed. "I thought no one was better than Serena at this game!"
"Apparently Luna here thought so as well," Gohan explained. "She started to give me a lecture about doing my homework from behind the game, and that's how I found her out." He left out the minor detail about seeing the computer screen. That would be investigated later, as he wasn't sure if Luna knew he had seen it or not. He continued: "And let me tell you, this cat's haranguing rivals my mother's, and that's not a good thing."
Darien gave a slight choke, stifling a laugh. Goten had succeeded in describing Luna to a tee, and the astonishment on Luna's face was apparent.
Raye, on the other hand, didn't find the whole affair too funny. "Now that you've had your fun meeting a talking cat for the first time, could you please leave us alone? We have some business to attend to with Luna."
Gohan looked confused. Business? Sounds important. He didn't ask about it, though, because he didn't want to seem too nosy, but instead decided to correct one error in her request instead. "Oh, Luna isn't the first talking cat I've met," he smiled nonchalantly. "I know two others."
"What!" Darien, Raye, and Luna exclaimed simultaneously. With Artemis around, it was possible to know one other talking cat, but two?
"Yes, and they both have much nicer personalities than dear Luna." He gave the cat a good, solid glare. "Threatening to kill people isn't something I would consider to be very nice."
Raye was finally fed up with 'Goten' wasting their time. "Look, can you meet us back here tomorrow at the same time? It would be a much more convenient time to discuss Luna's personality faults." Perhaps I'll even bring the rest of the scouts and we can have a wonderful little interrogation session.
"I'll consider it," Gohan smiled, but the smile was erased immediately and the color drained from his face as he witnessed Darien pulling something out of his book bag. Something small, round, and orange, with four stars in the center.
"H-hey, are you alright?" Raye was shocked to see him in such a state.
"Where," His face hardened into a glare set on Darien. "Did you get that?"
Author's Note: A ha ha! A cliffhanger. I'm so cruel. Anyway, though, I have another semi-interesting historical ditty for you, my lovely readers: So who remembers Bacterian, from the World Martial Arts Tournament in Dragon Ball, the very first one Goku participated in with his good buddy Krillin? Ok, so who also remembers his deadly farting technique? Lovely, wasn't it? Well, as it turns out, the deadly fart dates back hundreds of years in Javanese shadow play. It is the ultimate attack of the fat servant/clown character Semar, who is also incidentally a god who's related to Krishna, though he was punished, which explains his fatness and serving status. That's all for now, and be sure to remember the contest.