To See the Old Neighborhood.....

Part 19

"Hey! The rain is stopping!"

Trunks, holding his sleeping sister agenst his shoulder, looked up to the sky. The rain did seem to be decreasing.

"Idiot! Haven't you ever been in a rain storm on Vegita-sei before?" Vegita asked harshly, he looked at the sky as he said the next words, "We're in the eye."

"The eye? Like a hurricane? Where the weather is really calm before it gets worse?" Trunks asked, he and Goten stopping to turn and face him.

"Yeah, of coarse! Where have you been?" He got no answer, "This planet gets very little rain because of the suns, but when it DOES rain, it's a huge storm! What we've been flying through was just a pre-math of what we'll have to go through in the last leg of the journey!"

"Is it really that bad?" Goten asked, looking concerned, "Cause I don't know if Brolly could survive anything too severe. He's still reconvering from that bad gash and he could get sick!"

"So? Let him get sick! He doesn't need to live!" Vegita said, and without another word he zipped off again. Goten glared at Vegita's back before taking off after them. Trunks followed with a shake of his head.

"Hold it, kids! Stop right there!" they heard a voice calling to them through cupped hands, "I have a few questions to ask!"

All three of them stopped, curious but also in a hurry to get back to the palace before the rain worsened.

They looked down to see a man in a full cape and hood, which permitted them to only see the man's face, though his hood was down revealing dark blue hair. Goten snickered and whispered to Trunks, "He looks girly!" Trunks snorted and nodded.

The man raised a hand and flipped a wet strand of hair from his fine powder blue face and looked at Goten, "My hearing is rather acute, young one, but I shall forgive your impudence as lack of knowledge. You don't know who I am, after all..........."

"An' we don't care, either!" Vegita said, then turned and yelled at Trunks and Goten, "Lets move or we'll never get outta the rain in time!"

"Ah ah ah," the fair faced man said, raising a finger, "I didn't give you leave. I have to ask you a few questions."

"You have no right to question the Prince of Saiyans! Good BYE." Vegita enveloped himself in his chi aura and sped off, not looking back to see if Trunks and Goten were following him.

"Sorry 'bout him........." Trunks said to the stranger, jerking his thumb after Vegita's depleating vapor trail.

"I am not affended by a monkey's words......," the man said and before Goten or Trunks could react, he raised his hand and fired a quick blast at the Saiyan Prince, knocking him out of his current path, but not doing any serious damage, though his cape was burned off, it's shreds blowing in the wind as it started to pick up.

He flew back to the group, looking as mad as only Vegita could and about ready to kill someone or something, "HOW DARE YOU!!?"

"How dare I? Quite simply and swiftly.......," the man said simply.

"Just WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!"

"Why, my name is Lomen.......," the man said, then added, "But if you don't answer me, you'll be beaten too severly to remember it or anything ever again."

"That's great. I'm Trunks an' this is Goten," the pale haired halfbreed said, and looked anciously at the sky, "But we really are in a hurry, so I'm afraid you'll have to find us another time." And with this, Trunks started to fly away, too, moving slowly as he rocked his sister back to sleep.

"Don't you Saiyan learn anything?" Lomen asked, and raised his hand to fire again. The blast was completely ignored by Trunks, who merely turned his back to the attack.

"What the......"

"Look, like Trunk said! We don' wanna get caught in the rain that's coming!" Goten said, trying to shift Brolly and Pan so holding them wouldn't be such a trial, but failing, "Brolly still hasn't healed all the way an' might not live if we don't get him someplace warm.....an' I might die if I don't get someplace with food!" The young warrior's stomach growled its agreement.

"Brolly?" Lomen raised an eye brow.

"Him!" Goten raised the baby up so Lomen could easily see his wounds.

"He won't live anyway."

"Yeah huh! He lived this long, so he should last til' we get back to the palace.....if we hurry!" Goten's last words were cut short as a huge roll of thunder sounded.

In the aftermath of the roar, Lomen said, "You misunderstand me. What I ment was that he wouldn't survive til he he got back to the palace."

Once again Lomen raised a hand and fired a ball of concentrated energy. Goten raised a hand to block it, but at the last moment it exploded into many smaller, faster blasts. They all crashed in of the little half-Saiyan at the same time, each hitting a different spot on his little body. A large cloud of dust and debris rose in the shock wave.

"Goten!" Trunks couldn't help being concerned for his friend, though he was quite sure the blast would have little to no effect.

"Is he okay?" Vegita asked, his harsh voice sounding a tad concerned.

"I'm fine.......," Goten's voice could be heard from within the dust cloud, "But Brolly.........he was hit........."

And, as the dust cloud blew away from a sudden gust of wind that made them all aware the storm was about to burst, the saw what Goten ment. Even Vegita gasped. The little form of Brolly that was in Goten's arms was crushed. Somehow a blast had gotten through Goten's defenses and had smashed the infant in the head, killing him on contact. The little face wasn't even recognizable.

Goten dropped the body in horror, clutching a screaming Pan tighter agenst him.

"You MONSTER!!" Goten yelled, and raised a hand to fire a blast of his own. In his fury, the blast was rather strong, and Trunks shuddered at it's potency, "DIE!!"

The little boy, who in any other case was a sweet, good natured boy, had a killing intent as he hurled the unavoidable blast at Lomen.

But Lomen didn't seem to have any intention of avoiding it.

"What's he doing!-" Trunks shouted, but saw the answer before he finished his question.

"KYUSHU SURU!!" Lomen yelled and as the approaching blast touched his out-stretched hand, it flashed brightly before vanishing into his body.

"No way......," Goten said, his voice low, "How could he know kyushu suru? That's Dad and brother's manuver!"

"Did he just absorb that thing!?" Vegita, confused and angry, asked, flailing his fists in frustration.

"Yes, little one," Lomen said, and both Goten and Trunks gaped at the sudden power increase they felt in him, "Yes, I did."

"What's going on?" Goten asked Trunks, protectivly squeezing Pan.

"We're in trouble......" Trunks whispered.

****

"So I'm Son Goku."

"I thought you said your name was Kakarot?"

"Oh!............uh.......it is! I don't know where I got 'Son Goku' from.......heh.........,"

Radditz slapped himself in the forehead and said quickly, "Perhaps the....uh......royalty should be making the introductions?"

"First good idea I've heard today," Vegita said, though his eyes had an evil gleam of amusement at the way Goku was trying, and failing, to call himself Kakarot for the rest of the trip.

"I have no one who needs introduction," the King said, "My son is......out somewhere.......and my two favored servants are on Freiza's ship, guarding the prisoners."

"What are their names?" Goku asked, plotting in what the King would find to be an annoyingly casual manner into a large, comfortable arm chair.

"What does it matter?" the King said, giving glares that could curdle milk, but Goku was immune to them.

Gohan sighed and said, "Well, since HE won't tell you," the King snorted, "I guess I will. The albanary Saiyan is Tripnup, an' the normal one is Lotus."

"Albanary?"

"Yeah, it's the referative term for albino," Gohan explained.

"Al.....bin.....o?" Nappa asked, shifting from one foot to the other as he started to feel Saiyan sized hunger pains.

"Oh, jeez! In lamen's terms, the one with the light hair and skin with the funny colored eyes!"

"Like a Super Saiyan?" Nappa asked, matching the description with what he was more familiar with.

"No! Not like a Super Saiyan-" Vegita started to yell.

"SUPER SAIYAN!?!?" the King jumped to his feet from his throne.

"Don't mind him......he's just slightly touched in the head....heh.....," Gohan said quickly, tapping his temple to show what he ment.

"Oh........I see," the King said, smoothing his figuratively ruffled feathers.

Vegita made a 'tsch' sound and crossed his arms dismissivly and Turles shook his head as he carefully studied the tile on the cealing. Radditz and Gohan shared the impuse to bang their heads on the wall till either the wall or their craniums caved it.

"Well.......I can make an introduction!" Goku said, hopping back to his feet. He had been feeling hyper and excited since he had arrived on Vegita-sei.

"What is it, Kakarot?" Vegita said wearily. He was obsurdly tired of all this talking. Where was a good fight when you needed one?

"This," Goku clapped Bardock, who had been standing rigedly as he watched the casual exchange between his son and the Prince, on the back, making him stumble a few feet, "This man is my dad!"

"What?!" Gohan asked, snapping out of his thoughts of finding a nice long sword and going on a spree.

"Well....yes," Bardock said. He wasn't what could be called a shy man, but in the preasance of the Prince, King and his children that were his age or older.......was rather overwhelming.

"An' this," Goku drew Bardock's attention to Gohan, "Is my oldest son, Gohan."

"What sort of a name is Gohan?" was the first thing Bardock asked his grandson.

"Um......," Gohan tried to think of an intelligent answer, "It's uh........"

"Just a name," Goku said simply.

"Uh, huh," Gohan said, feeling suddenly rediculous. Why was he here at all? He didn't come all this way to have his long lost (and dead) grandfather make fun of his name!

Suddenly, out of the blue Vegita, Goku, Gohan and Radditz stiffened as they felt the chi's of Goten and Trunks. As Super Saiyans.

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