To See the Old Neighborhood.....

Part 7

Goten and Gohan watched as Trunks was called up to fight first. Pan and Bra cheered in some unknown language that was full of gurgles and squeels, and everyone was in pretty much good spirits. Before the first match, due to the insistance on Trunks and Goten's part, the five part-Saiyans ate first.

"Hah!" Trunks called out as he hit his rival (which was literally about ten times bigger than him) in the stomach. The huge Saiyan went down and didn't get up again.

"Woo! I win!" Trunks called, raising victorious fists into the air. Goten cheered and hooted. Gohan wondered what they even found so darn amusing about it. Trunks's apponent must have had a power level of about ten thousand tops.

Gohan reasoned it must just be the fact that he won, and he clapped Trunks on the back as he passed out of the ring to move up a notch on the fighting circut. Goten was called up next.

Gohan smiled as he watched his little brother climb up into the ring. The littlest member of the Son family, save for Pan, hoisted the front half of his little body up first, then one leg. The other leg dangled for a second, then kicked up agenst the outer wall of the ring and he went rolling to a stop at the feet of his apponent.

Though he was probably the strongest kid Gohan had ever met, he still managed to make nearly everything he did look slightly clumzy and akward. The muffled laughter and comments arond him proved to Gohan that he wasn't the only one who thought Goten moved funny.

"Who let the runt into the ring!?" Goten's rival asked, looking to the Saiyan in charge of the match. The man just shrugged.

"It's okay!" Goten said cheerfully, on his feet now and brushing himself off, "I'm alot stronger than you think! Don't take it easy on me or you'll regret it!"

"Heh, sure, kid. Fine," the easy response came and without another word, he lunged at Goten. The boy's small, compact body jumped aside with an obvious speed advantage. Before the attacking Saiyan could compensat, Goten had appeared behind him.

With a swift kick to the head, the Saiyan was out cold.

"Hoo!" Goten cheered to Trunks, and they both did a victory dance. Gohan smiled and even found himself caught up in the childlike glee, cheering and making noise and being all around sore losers.

"Excuse me, are you Son Gohan?" a voice was heard over the din of yelling Saiyans.

Gohan turned to see where the voice was coming from. Behind him stood a very strange looking Saiyan.

He had no skin color at all. His face, neck, arms and anyother skin showing from under his common Saiyan armor was shocking white, with only a slight shade of pink under the fingernails.

Not only that, but the Saiyan's hair, though still with the full body and incredible height with over dramatic widow's peak was white as well. Even the fur on his tail was a yellow-white. The only other color on the Saiyan were his pinkish colored eyes, which he blinked often as though the sun were too bright.

This was a very rare thing for ANYONE to see, no matter what race or planet a witness should be on. This man was an albino.

An albino! An albino Saiyan! Gohan quickly looked down to avoid being rude. He was told never to stare.

"Yes, I'm Son Gohan," he said, not making eye contact, "How did you know?"

"The Prince Vegita.......er the older Prince Vegita wishes for you to come to the palace right away so that he may introduce his heirs to his father," his redish eyes studied the two children attached to Gohan. Pan was openly staring from where she was draped over Gohan's shoulder, while Bra was content to be under one arm and look quietly at the strange stranger.

"Oh, well, that's okay then," Goha forced himself to look up, but even making eye contact with the strange looking eyes made him feel embarased for staring.

"One more thing," the albino said, cocking his head to look Gohan, who was trying to look over his shoulder, in the eyes.

"Yo?" Gohan jumped as he looking into those pinkish red eyes.

"The Prince wants to speak to.......I don't think I heard him correctly.....no one?" the albino looked to the sky as he tried to think of what Vegita had said.

"What?" Gohan asked, looking behind him to make sure Trunks and Goten hadn't wandered off while he was talking.

"Well.........what it sounded like he said was that he wanted to speak to 'no one' and he seems to believe you have the means to do it."

"OOOooh, Noone!" Gohan said, konking himself on the head for the obviousness of it all.

"Then you know what I'm talking about!?" the albino looked relieved.

"Yeah, sure, Noone," Gohan said, self-consciously patting his pocket under his uniform that held the small comunication device Noone had given him if they needed to contact him.

"Whew," the albino said, and gestured Gohan to follow, "Now if you and the children can follow, the Prince made it seem urgent, and we mustn't keep him waiting!"

"Right, Goten! Trunks! C'mon, were leaving!" Gohan called to the kids, adjusting Bra and pulling Pan under his other arm.

"Awe, Gohan!" Trunks mooped, "I'm almost up again!"

"Me too!" Goten whined.

"You can play later, let's go!" Gohan said, giving them a warning look.

"Fine," Goten mumbled, kicking at a dirt clod.

"You're the boss, I guess," Trunks griped, pouting his face in an almost identical scowl to Vegita's.

The all followed the albino to King Vegita's palace.

****

Radditz was mildly surprised that Kakarot even knew how to put a Saiyan uniform on. He hadn't really thought that his younger brother would have ever worn one before, but he was begining to realize Kakarot was just chocked FULL of surprises.

Radditz got into a Saiyan uniform, too. It was identical to the one he wore on his first arrival to Earth, and seemed appropriate enough. They both looked at themselves in one wall that was rowed with slightly tinted mirrors.

Radditz paused and watched Kakarot as he turned a full circle in attempt to see his whole body in the mirror. Radditz brow knitted more than it was normally.

"What?" Kakarot asked, innocent eyes hardly darting from the mirror to look at Raddit'z constricted face.

"Your missing your tail," Radditz said, looking bothered.

"Yeah.....we went over that the first time we met, remember?" Kakarot stopped looking in the mirror and looked down at his feet as though ashamed of what he said next. "I've thought about it before and wish it WOULD grow back sometimes, but it's gone for good."

Radditz wasn't sure if he was ashamed of wanting it back, or getting rid of it in the first place, "I'm.......sure Father will understand. C'mon, lets go see him now."

****

After not-so-successfully avoiding the topic of who Noone was, Vegita had imidiatly sent for Gohan, who he knew had the means to communicate with the addle brained travelor from another reality. Vegita wouldn't have minded the whole misunderstanding if it weren't for his smaller self!

The younger prince Vegita was acting VERY suspicious, and Vegita had noticed early on that his smaller self was trying to trap him in his words and make him admit the truth. Vegita was even begining to worry he WOULD slip up and say something that contradicted his earlier statements. Vegita was accually worried the little Prince would catch him. Out-smarted by hisself.

Having another you around was trying for the senior Prince Vegita, though the King either didn't notice, or didn't say anything. Quite frankly, he didn't care.

The albino Saiyan Vegita had sent to find Gohan came running in just then. "My Lord....er....Lords. I return with Son Gohan and the royal family."

"Good, good," the King said, meeting the ruby eyes of the white Saiyan without flinching. "You've done well, Tripnup."

"This way." They were waved through many hallways as they made their way to an outside platform. On the platform, Gohan waited with Pan in his arms, while Goten stood behind his leg, overcome with a sudden sense of shyness. Trunks stood to their left, holding Bra since Gohan had his hands full getting Pan to hold still.

"Ah, so I see." The King said, studying each of their faces. "Let me guess which ones are my grandchildren."

Gohan stood tall and proud, but couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy about the King's presance. His face was as intense as Vegita's, but he was taller. He was even taller than Gohan.

The King scrutinized over each of them in a most careful way, then said to Gohan, "Are you Vegita's son?"

Gohan looked pretty surprised at this question, but the King was looking at Pan more than at him, so he didn't notice. "And is this your younger sister?"

"Um....sir....." Tripnup started to say.

"Don't interupt, I think I should recognize my oun flesh and blood!" He looked back at Gohan, very nearly in his face, "See? He looks like his father."

"I most certainly do NOT look like Vegita!" Gohan was closer than he planned to shouting, "And this is my DAUGHTER, not my sister!"

The King blinked a few and looked at Vegita.

Vegita flushed with embarasment but only said, "THAT'S not my son, THAT'S my son." He pointed at Trunks, who was trying to pin Bra to his chest, but was only succeeding in wiping her drool on his new uniform. He gave the King a quick smile.

The King raised his eyebrow higher than it should have been possible, and nodded his head to Trunks. He gave Gohan not another look the rest of the night.

To be continued.............