To See the Old Neighborhood.....

Part 10

"Hello? Noone?" Gohan held a small device to his ear and spoke into it.

"Can you reach him?" Vegita pressed in to put his ear to the little speaker in attempt to hear what the other side of the line was saying. Gohan pulled the communication device away from Vegita and put it to his own ear again.

"Noone? Is that you-...........yes, it's nice to hear you too, but listen-.............YEAH, we all made it here safely but there's a prob-.............NO, WE DON'T NEED ANYMORE ASSISTANCE, JUST LISTEN!!"

"Any you thought *I* would yell at him.........," Vegita grinned, crossing his arms. Gohan gave Vegita a dirty look than turned back to his conversation.

"Look, you brought back people that weren't dead-.......YES, I SAID WEREN'T DEAD!!" Gohan held the microphone away from his mouth and said to Vegita, "He either has a hearing problem, or he has no right to possess the technilogy he does!"

"Probly both," Vegita grunted, leaning back agenst a wall in the small, private room they had selected to contact Noone in......or try to contact Noone it. So far, they had reached him, but had yet to have a reason to think he was accually there mentally.

"Look, you said you were going to bring back all the Saiyans that had died-.............Oh, so you brought them all back? Even the ones that weren't on the planet? Okay-...........NO, you brought back some that weren't dead!..........WEREN'T DEAD! Just don't talk for a second!-..............alright, thank you. Like I was saying, you seemed to have screwed up-...........okay, so that was a slightly harsh way of putting it, but you said you'd let me talk-..............alright, it's okay, just be quiet for a sec!"

Vegita rolled his eyes and sighed. This was taking forever! If he had been talking to Noone, this whole problem would be solved by now! The only comfort Vegita was enjoying was the way Gohan's face was slowly turning redder and redder as he tried to talk. It really was an amusing sight.

"LOOK, YOU BROUGHT BACK A YOUNGER VERSION OF VEGITA BY ACCIDENT, AND I DON'T CARE WHAT FIGURES YOU HAVE! THERE'S *TWO* VEGITAS IN THE SAME PALACE AND I WANT TO KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED!!" Gohan yelled into the mic, on the verge of smashing the damn device and be done with it! Vegita chuckled.

Gohan was quiet for a second as he listened to Noone's expaination. The maroon colour of his face slowly deminished and returned to normal as the expaination obviously checked out.

When Gohan did speak again, his voice was controlled once again, "All right, I understand. So there's nothing you can do about it?-............all right, that's okay. No problem here, just wondering what you did. Thank you.........yeah, you too. Bye."

Gohan clicked the off button on the mini-walkie talkie and looked at Vegita.

"Well? What did that faceless screw up do wrong?" Vegita's view on Noone was somewhat less that positive.

"He made a perfectly valid mistake," Gohan defended, heading for the door to rejoin everyone else still in the dinning hall, "He brought back all the people who died."

"But I'm NOT dead!" Vegita protested as he and Gohan walked out the door.

"Ah, but you did DIE before. He brought back all the people who DIED. I guess it didn't occure to him that some were brought back."

"I should have known he wouldn't be able to think that far ahead. Can't he fix the problem?" Vegita still felt uneasy being around a younger version of himself.

"Yeah, but it would take a while and we would have to be put in a world of limbo." Gohan faced ahead as he talked to Vegita, not looking at the peeved Saiyan Prince.

"Limbo? Why would he have to do that?"

"He would need us out of this reality in order to purge the universe of all the Saiyans on this planet, and he can't do that when we're still in this reality......I think. He didn't expain it very well and I wasn't up to asking him further. I already had a head ache BEFORE I called him."

"When I get my hands on that freak...........oh my will there be hell to pay."

"I don't doubt it, Vegita, I don't doubt it."

****

Bra and Pan sat and watched with the wraped attention and curiosity that only the young can have. They had been watching Goten, Trunks and the Prince since Gohan and Vegita had abandoned them to try to talk to Noone. The three boys were doing nothing, which was more than enough to catch the attention of the two young-uns. This state of non-movement was just so strange to witness when it was THOSE three that weren't moving.

They were just glaring at eachother. Gohan, Vegita, and the King had each reprimanded them for fighting in the dinning hall, and they had been threatened that if they tried fighting for the next hour, they would be knocked unconscious and thrown into the planet's core.

With there threats coming from both Vegita and the King, the boys were each smart enough to know they ment it.

So, forbidden to do anything else, they just sat there, giving eachother dirty looks........at first. It just started out with a mean glare. That glare soon turned into a scowl or grimace. Goten, not as good at scowling or grimacing as Trunks or the Prince, fell prone to making faces.

First, it was just a simple face. Goten pulled down the eyelid of one eye and stuck out his tounge. The Prince looked shocked at first. The fact that a third class would DARE to so openly defy him was mind blowing. Soon, though, by the time Goten had started using some of the more creative faces in his arsanol that involved stretching out various parts of the face like the cheeks, ears, mouth, and nostrals, the little Prince was ready to fight fire with fire.

Each face Goten made was matched with an equally funny face the Prince made. Trunks had joined the fray, and soon all three boys were making various sounds to go with their faces.

"Nyah!"

"Nyah nyah!"

"Neener neener!"

"Boogah boogah!"

"Nyak nyak nyak!"

****

The King had taken a stroll around the palace. He had quickly lost amusement in watching the boys just sit there and glare at eachother. As he made his way around the palace, he mused about how his son would turn out in the future. Vegita, though rather short for a king, had the obvious demenour of royalty. That was what counted, he supposed.

The King stopped quickly as he heard the sound of laughter coming from the dinning hall. He burst in, but found the truely unexpected.

The boys, unable to control it anymore, had given up on their faces and noises and had crumpled to the ground, rolling about aimlessly in laughter. A good, hearty laugh that only a long winded kid could muster without laughing himself to death. Even Bra and Pan were giggling, thought they didn't know why. They just laughed when others laughed.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" the King ordered. All five of the children on the ground stopped immidiatly. They looked up at the King.

"Why can't we laugh?" Goten asked, hopping to his feet and floating up to be eye level with the tall King, who didn't take this very well.

"How dare you be so dissrespectful!" the King yelled, his booming royal voice vibrating agenst the walls. Without a thought, he raised a hand and struck Goten back to the ground.

"Hey!" Trunks yelped, getting to his feet.

"S'okay," Goten grumbled, shifting into a sitting position where he had his legs crossed. He rubbed the spot on the back of his head where he hit the ground. It hadn't accually hurt, being hit, but it bothered him that it had happened. He had just asked a question! Was that so wrong?! What happened!?

"Calm yourself, Prince Trunks," the King said, his voice wary. He was not in a very good mood to mess with kids. Much less a would-be Prince and a third class half pint! Not to mention the two girls who had quit sqealing with joy the instant the King had cuffed Goten and had begun to cry. Sniffling and sobbing and many tears were NOT helping the matter. The Prince stood at a distance, not making a peep.

Then it seemed all the kids multiplied into a thousand as they all began to shout, yell, cry, blame, and anything else that could just eat one's nerves away.

"Ya din' hav' to hit me!"

"You jerk!"

"Waaaaahhh!!"

"Sniff, sob!"

"What did I do wrong!? It hurt!"

"How dare you hit my friend!"

"WAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

"WAAAAAAAHHH!"

"Waaaaaahh!"

"Now you went an' made him cry!"

Undable to take anymore, the King yelled, "SHADDAP ALL OF YOU OR I'LL-"

"Or you'll what?" everyone in the room turned to see Vegita and Gohan entering the room. Gohan didn't care if the King was frustrated. All he saw was that his beloved daughter and Bra were crying, his little brother was crying, Trunk's face was red from yelling and all the tention seemed to be coming from one person.

The King.

"What did you do?" Vegita asked before Gohan could get mad. He had noted the angry look in his eye and it was evident that the King didn't know what sort of danger he was in.

"He dared to float above me, as well as challenged my words!" the King said, the vein in his forehead incresingly visible as he pointed accusingly at Goten who was still clutching the back of his head and sniffling.

"So you HIT him!?" Gohan was hardly able to keep his voice from rising.

"As was my right." The answer was clipt. Gohan's eye twitched.

"Why don't you and the brats just leave," Vegita made his voice sound like he was issuing orders, but Gohan recognized that he was probably begging. Vegita DIDN'T want Gohan to screw this up any farther than it was.

"Yes.....Vegita," Gohan said, trying for Vegita's sake to sound even mildly respectful infront of his father.

Gohan scooped up Pan and Bra in his arms and let Goten climb onto his shoulders while he kneeled. As the small band was heading out the door, the King hollered after Gohan, "And take my stupid brat with you!"

The Prince looked up surprised. He hadn't expected this, "But Father...."

"Go. You instigated part of this problem as well."

"......yessir.....," and so little Vegita joined Trunks as they walked beside Gohan out the door.

"Why do I have the feeling things are just going to get worse from here out?" Vegita muttered.

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