Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Hope ❯ Accepting Assistance ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4: Accepting Assistance

"Please don't tell my mother," Gohan said weakly from beneath the oxygen mask over his mouth. "She worries enough as it is."

"And for good reason!" Bulma scolded.

She added a final strip of tape to secure the bandage around his ribcage and reached for the needle on the bedside table. When Gohan groaned and attempted to sit, she pushed him back down with one hand and prepped the syringe with the other.

"Oh stop complaining," she said and jabbed the needle into his upper arm. "I still can't understand how you Saiyans can get beaten within an inch of your lives, yet you are still afraid of a little ol’ needle."

Gohan winced, but didn't have enough strength left to cry out. The walk across the city had been longer than he anticipated and, with each step, his broken bones had ground together. By the time he reached the gates of the Capsule Corp. compound, the walk had proven too much for him. He collapsed in a cloudy haze of pain, barely able to breathe with one punctured lung.

The sedative Bulma gave him allowed Gohan to sink into a deep, healing sleep. He only wished it would have been dreamless as well.

He regretted how drastically he had underestimated their power and strength. He had been so sure that being a Super Saiyan would be enough. Now, he realized that he would also need a good strategy to be able to even have a chance against them.

Over and over again, Gohan saw his defeat at the hands of the two Androids in his dreams. Each time the scene got worse and worse until he saw himself as a little boy again and the two machines were enormous, scary monsters trying to eat him. He could even feel their breath on his face as they leaned in to bite him.

"Aahh!" Gohan cried out as he sat up in bed. The sudden movement causing sharp stabs of pain in his side as well as his head. He closed his eyes and grabbed his temples as if his head threatened to explode.

"Waahh!" came a loud noise beside him.

Gohan forced open one eye to see where the sound was coming from. A small boy was sitting on the floor beside the bed, rubbing his backside with one hand and his forehead with the other, tears streaming down his face. From the color of his hair, Gohan knew this had to be Bulma's son, Trunks.

"Trunks, please stop crying," Gohan pleaded. "My head feels like it's going to split wide open." The little boy abruptly stopped, his eyes open wide.

"Really?" he asked. Curious, he climbed on the bed to get a better look at Gohan's head. "It doesn't look like it."

"Well look who finally decided to wake up!" Bulma said from the doorway. "Trunks, what was all that noise for? I told you to leave Gohan alone." Trunks looked guiltily down at his hands.

"I just wanted to see if he was still alive," he said bluntly. "Then he bumped my head and I fell on the floor." He rubbed his sore bottom again.

"That explains the headache," Gohan said with a weak smile. He attempted to get out of bed, but Bulma, unceremoniously, pushed him back down.

"Oh no you don't, Gohan! I don't care if you do have Saiyan blood, you are in no condition to get out of that bed!"

"So how long have I been sleeping anyway?" Gohan asked, testing each limb for soreness.

"Three days!" Trunks answered proudly.

"What?! Three days?!" Gohan exclaimed. "Why did you let me sleep for three days!"

"You needed it," Bulma answered as she poured him a glass of water.

"You even slept through the fireworks!" Trunks added, bouncing excitedly on the bed.

Gohan froze with the water glass nearly to his lips. He looked over its edge at Bulma who gave him a look of warning before ushering Trunks from the room with orders to tell his grandmother that Gohan was hungry. The boy ran out the door, calling for his grandma all the way down the hall.

"The Androids attacked North City again, didn't they?" Gohan asked. When Bulma didn't answer, he sighed. "So how bad is it?"

"Bad," Bulma admitted. "Really bad. The entire west half of the city is completely gone." She turned and left the room before he could ask any more questions.

Despite Bulma's orders, Gohan just couldn't stay in bed. He paced back and forth, trying to come up with a plan to defeat the Androids. He knew they had destroyed half the city just because of him. Maybe it was a good thing he was asleep so they weren't able to track his energy to Capsule Corp. He would hate for anything to happen to Bulma or Trunks on his account.

"You know, no one ever listens to me anymore."

Gohan looked over his shoulder at Bulma, but no guilt showed on his face. There was only the look of serious concentration. Bulma leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms.

"You may as well come downstairs and get something to eat then," she sighed. "After that, I'll show you Vegeta's training room. You can stay here and use it as long as you want."

"Vegeta's training room?" Gohan asked as he followed her to the kitchen.

"You don't think Vegeta would have lived here without state-of-the-art training equipment, do you?" Bulma laughed. "He had my dad working on all sorts of gadgets and things while he was here. At least it kept them both out of mischief." Bulma's laugh sounded a bit forced to Gohan. He wondered if, deep down, Bulma actually missed the Saiyan prince.

~~~~~~~~~~

Gohan was amazed by all the technical training equipment Dr. Briefs had invented for Vegeta. Between the increased gravity and the robotic opponents, he knew his skills would increase much faster than his training regime alone in the desert. Even before his ribs were completely healed, he spent most of the day in the special room, working on strength and strategy.

"Gohan, you have a visitor," Bulma's voice sounded over the speaker.

"A visitor?" Gohan wondered who it could be as he terminated the programmed exercise and opened the door.

"Gohan!! My baby!!"

Chi Chi threw herself at her son and hugged him so tight, he could barely breathe. He winced slightly at the pain and patted her back, marveling at how much smaller she seemed.

"Gohan, you've grown so much!" Chi Chi said with tears in her eyes. She held him at arm's length so she could look him over better. Gohan was glad she couldn't see the bandages still wrapped around his ribs. "You look more like your father than ever."

"Thanks mom," he said with a blush. They went inside the cool house to sit and talk.

"You're looking healthy enough...but that outfit is a disgrace!" Chi Chi scolded.

Gohan looked down at his training clothes. Even though the Saiyan armor he brought back with him from Namek was extremely strong and able to increase as his size did, it was still a sorry sight. The dark material had lightened in the harsh sun and sand of the desert. The edges were ragged and unraveling and the numerous rips and holes were beyond repair. Before Gohan could explain that it was his last remaining outfit, Chi Chi placed a box on his lap.

"Go ahead," she said. "Open it."

Gohan lifted the top off the box and gasped when he saw its contents. Inside, neatly folded, was his father's gi. The orange uniform, the black shirt, belt and wristbands were just as he had remembered them. They even still had Goku's scent on them. The only difference was the symbol on the back - the kanji of Gohan's name.

"They're not the weighted ones Goku usually wore," Chi Chi explained with a sad smile. "He got those from Kami."

"Mom..." Gohan began, but Chi Chi raised a hand to stop him.

"I've seen what those Androids are doing all over the world. I know that no matter what I say, you will do everything in your power to try and stop them." She paused and sighed, looking lovingly at the orange uniform. "It's just what your father would have done."

"Yeah," Gohan said, sadly thinking of his own failure. "He would never have backed down until the job was done."

"Not necessarily," Chi Chi said, receiving a shocked look from her son. "Goku knew his limits. If he wasn't able to beat an opponent the first time, he recovered and trained until he was ready to try again."

"Bulma told you what happened, didn't she?" Gohan asked. Chi Chi nodded. "So what do you think dad would have done after a mess like that?"

"He would have done just what you did," she said. "But, then again, he probably wouldn't have been there alone in the first place. His friends always seemed to know when he needed their help."

"But there isn't anyone left!" Gohan argued. "All of dad's fighting friends are gone!"

"The fighting ones, yes," she agreed. "But there are others who helped him, too."

"You mean like Bulma?" he asked, still not following his mother's train of thought.

"Bulma is one. There's also Master Roshi, Yajirobe, Korin..." she recited, counting them off on her fingers. "The point is -- you don't have to think of yourself as a one-man army! Your father didn't think he had to do everything on his own, so don't think you can!"

Gohan went to his room to change into his new gi. He knew his mother was right. Even though he was a Super Saiyan, there was no way he could defeat the Androids on his own. He decided to go and visit Goku's remaining friends to see if they had any help to offer.

Chi Chi let out a gasp when Gohan rejoined her. For a second, she was positive that Goku had somehow come back to life and was standing right there before her.

"It's just perfect, mom," Gohan said, bringing Chi Chi back from her imaginings. "You even put my name on the back."

"Well, I thought that since you've been training yourself, I couldn't really put Piccolo's symbol on it," she reasoned.

"If I had trained with dad, I could have had his symbol on it."

As soon as he said the words, Gohan wished he could have taken them back. He knew she felt guilty enough as it was. Even though it was Chi Chi who had kept them from training together, there was no way she could have known that he would die so suddenly. She had wanted her only son to have a good education and leave the fighting to the others. Now there were no others to fight.

Gohan walked Chi Chi out to her hovercar. For some reason, he was finding it even harder to say goodbye this time. She promised to make him more uniforms for when he needed them, and made him promise to keep himself safe. When she drove away, Gohan stood watching until he could no longer see the tiny speck in the distance.

"Planning on going somewhere?" Bulma asked from behind him. "You've got the same look Goku always had before disappearing."

"I'm going to visit dad's old friends," Gohan admitted. "There's got to be a way to defeat those monsters, but I can't do it alone."

"Well, that's better than going right out to look for the Androids, I guess," she sighed. "But if I were you, I'd rest up a bit more. I saw you wince when Chi Chi hugged you, and if you did run into the androids, you wouldn't have a chance!"

Gohan nodded, knowing she was right.

"Besides," she continued, leading the way back into the house, "Trunks would be devastated if you left already. He finally has someone around he can play with without being afraid of hurting them."

Gohan stayed a full week at the Capsule Corp. He trained hard, ate well, healed his wounds, and played with Trunks. The young boy was overjoyed when Gohan taught him how to fly and concentrate his energy into blasts. Trunks learned quickly and Gohan believed he was even stronger than he had been at Trunks' age. He wondered how powerful the boy would have been if Vegeta had lived to train him.

"Why do you have to leave?" Trunks complained as Gohan prepared to leave. "Don't you like staying here?"

"I love it, Trunks," Gohan reassured him. "But there's some things I have to take care of."

"Can I come with you then?"

"Sorry, Trunks," he said, ruffling the boy's hair. "But I have an important job for you while I'm gone."

"What? What kind of job?" Trunks asked, bouncing up and down excitedly. Gohan kneeled down to his level and looked at him seriously.

"I want you to keep practicing what I taught you. I want you to be able to protect your mom and grandparents."

"Protect them from what?" he asked.

"From...anything." Gohan almost told Trunks about the Androids, but knew it wasn't his place. He was still very young and had no idea what was going on.

Bulma handed Gohan a pack of capsules containing everything she thought he may need. Food, water, shelter, various supplies, and a few vehicles, even though she knew Gohan flew everywhere he went.

"Now you take care of yourself, you hear," she scolded.

"I will," he promised, then lowered his voice so Trunks couldn't hear. "Explain what's going on to Trunks. He needs to know."

"Do you think I want him going after the Androids with you?" she whispered back angrily. "That's just what he would want to do, you know!"

"But we're the last two Saiyans," Gohan reasoned. "We're the last hope for the earth! If anything should happen to me, it would be up to Trunks to save the people from those monsters! He's stronger than you think, Bulma."

"I know how strong he is," she admitted. "He's Vegeta's son, after all. But he's just a little boy!"

"So was I when we went to Namek. Remember?"

"I remember." Bulma sighed and gave Gohan a small smile. "All right. I promise to explain everything to Trunks. Just promise me you won't need him anytime soon."

"I just wish everyone else was still here. If we had known about the Androids before they were activated by Dr. Gero, we may have been able to prepare for them. Even without Dad."

"Did you hear they're close to finding a cure for the heart disease that struck Goku?" Bulma asked. Gohan groaned.

"It's too late now," he said. "If only we could travel into the past to give it to him, he'd be able to handle the Androids easily."

"Yeah," Bulma agreed. "Your father would have made a big difference."

They said their goodbyes and Gohan flew off. Bulma walked back into the house and straight to her workshop. Something Gohan said had sparked an idea and she was determined to try everything she could to make it a reality.