Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Wish For The Past ❯ Lunch ( Chapter 28 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: If I owned DBZ, don't you think I'd be better informed about the details? *grins* The mere fact that I get so many facts wrong should tell you that I'm just a fan, not the owner. Still, I guess I should state it in case any lawyers are out there. I don't own DBZ. But I like to pretend that I own it. *smiles wistfully* Especially the bishounen characters like Bardock, Gohan, and Trunks. Speaking of which... *goes off to hunt down her favorite cute guys and make them go swimming with her*

A/N: Dubbies be warned: Nyoibo is Goku's Power Pole.

Trunks's lightning fast hands knocked out yet another fish the size of a house and grabbed hold of the tail as he dragged it towards the surface. He smirked in satisfaction as he added his newest catch to the other dead creatures he had stored in the capsule Bardock had given him. That should be enough to fill him up. He hovered over the surface of the water, looking for Goten and Goku to see if they were done catching their lunch yet. Both were heading for the shore of Roshi's island, so he used a burst of speed to catch up with them.

"Hey Goten, hey Goku!" he greeted, smiling as an idea popped into his head.

"Hiya, Trunks!" Goten cheerfully waved at his purple haired friend from the beach. "Me and tousan caught lots of great stuff. What about you? Did you catch anything neat?"

"Nah, just the regular things like fish and giant clams and crabs." Raking his eyes over the two boys, he objectively compared them to each other, trying to find any differences between father and son. Finding none, he smirked broadly. "Hey, why don't you two switch clothes! Wouldn't it be neat if everyone thought Goku was you, Goten, and you were your dad?"

Goten thought this over and giggled. Goku, however, looked confused. "Why would we want to do that?" he asked.

Realizing it would be harder than he thought to pull Goku into his ring of mischief makers, Trunks stammered a quick excuse. "Uhh... because then we could see if anyone really notices that you two are different!" he declared.

"Oh. Okay!" the youngest boy cheerfully agreed, finding no problem with that. With his usual lack of modesty, he quickly took off his clothes and his nyoibo, setting them on the ground next to Goten as his son from the future followed suit. Trunks was busy keeping an eye out to make sure that no one was watching, anxious not to have his fun spoiled just yet. Within a few moments, Goku was dressed in Goten's dark blue gi and Goten now wore Goku's orange Turtle Hermit school gi with the red nyoibo strapped to his back. The two grinned in delight as they examined one another.

"Sugoi!" Goten laughed. "I get to be you, and you get to be me! Remember, you have to called your tousan 'grandpa', and I have to call him 'tousan'."

"And don't forget that you have to pretend your name is Goku," Trunks added hastily, pointing at Goten, "and that you're Goten." He pointed at Goku as he said the second part. The two look-alikes nodded in unison and grinned.

"I'm Goku!" Goten chirped, pointing to himself.

"And I'm Goten!" Goku chirped back happily.

"Perfect," Trunks stated proudly. "Okay, now let's go inside and see if anyone notices!" With that, the three chibis made their way into the house to pester Lunch into cooking the creatures they caught. Krillen, Radditz, and Vegeta had already finished gathering their food and were now eating ravenously at the table. Only small portions of their food could be eaten at a time because there was literally not enough room in the house to decapsulize all of the food. From the looks of some of the sea creatures, they had been too impatient to wait for Lunch to cook everything and had ki-fried some of it. Handing their food-filled capsules to Lunch, Goku, Goten, and Trunks sat down and dug in hungrily, eating as fast as only Saiyans could eat. In the background, Master Roshi was starting at the five bottomless pits as they gorged themselves. And I thought it was bad when it was only Krillen and Goku... He shook his head woefully as he watched the food disappear at an unbelievable rate. It's a miracle that Lunch can keep up with them all!

At this point, Bardock got back from his fishing trip and stared in amusement at the scene of chaos taking place at the table. Since he had more self control, he decided he's wait until the children had finished eating so as to spare Lunch having to keep up with yet another Saiya-jin appetite. Sitting down next to Master Roshi on the other side of the room, he patiently waited for the turmoil to die down.

"Young man, I never did catch your name," Roshi grunted, glancing away from the spectacle that was lunch as Lunch walked by. Grinning like a loon, he reached out to pat the shapely woman's bottom but ended up getting his hand covered in rice as she suddenly turned the pot of rice she was holding towards the old pervert while she grabbed the spoon she'd forgotten. Oblivious to the dirty old man's advances, she continued to cheerfully serve the children. Bardock, however, was well aware of what Roshi had tried to do.

"It's Bardock," he said, his eyes narrowed in disapproval. This man may be my son's teacher, but I'm beginning to wonder exactly what he was being taught besides martial arts. Despite the fact that he was a warrior and was well acquainted with the coarse humor and crude behavior that soldiers tended to have, it somehow irked him that a pervert had been training his youngest son.

"Erhem, yes, Bardock. I was wondering if you might answer a few questions I have." The Turtle Hermit turned an inquisitive eye towards the other man. Bardock nodded cautiously, aware that there were probably a thousand questions Master Roshi might have. "I've been told that Goku was found as a baby, abandoned in the woods, by a former pupil of mine. I would like to know how this happened." The words themselves were innocuous enough, but the tone held just enough of an accusation that Bardock flinched, looking down at his hands. Nothing was said between the two for several long moments as Bardock struggled with how to explain.

"My mate, Sereri, died soon after Kakarot - that was the name we gave Goku - was born," he said quietly, sadness weighing heavily in his voice. "Sereri and I were... close... and when she died, I nearly went insane with grief." It was harder than he thought, talking about that time, about what he'd been feeling and what he had done. He clenched his fists tightly, determined not to break down yet again. "I-I couldn't stand to have Kakarot around me, reminding me of her. It's customary among my people to send the weaker children to other planets in order to become stronger, and Kakarot was considered very weak. So I killed two birds with one stone and sent my son to Earth so he could become stronger and so I would not have to be reminded every day of what I had lost." Blinking back tears before they could fall, he added, "I regret that decision now."

Master Roshi blinked owlishly from behind his sun glasses at the man beside him as the warrior stared numbly at the floor, obviously in deep mental turmoil. "What do you mean, you sent Goku to Earth? You mean you're not human?"

"Ah..." Lunch's voice barely carried over the din of the people eating.

"No. I am Saiya-jin, from Vegeta-sei," Bardock explained, glad to get off the topic of Sereri's death and his decision to abandon his second son.

"Ahhh..." Nobody was paying attention as the brunette woman's nose twitched and she raised a hand to rub at it.

"Then that means Goku's not human either?" Roshi pressed, eyebrows raised, surprise evident in his voice. Yeesh! No wonder they're all so strong! And that explains the tails and the whole turning-into-a-giant-monkey-during-the-full-moon thing. Bardock nodded and opened his mouth to say something more, but was interrupted.

"Ah-CHOO!" Lunch sneezed violently, causing her hair to shift from brunette to blond, her black eyes changing to teal, and her whole personality to transform into someone completely different from the sweet, innocent, and somewhat naive woman who had been cooking for everyone. In her place, an irritated woman glared at everyone around her and pulled out a machine gun. "All right, what are you all doing in my house?!" she yelled angrily, waving the weapon threateningly.

"Whoa!" Bardock yelped as his eyes widened in shock, thinking that he recognized the transformation Lunch had just undergone. "She's a Super Saiyan?!" This was an unexpected turn of events!

Taking his outburst as an excuse to get violent, Lunch screamed in fury. "What did you just call me?! I ain't no Super Woman, you jerk!" She opened fire on the hapless Saiyan, emptying a whole round of bullets as she sought to destroy the man who had dared insult her. "If you're trying to hit on me, you're gonna regret it, buster!"

Even as surprised as he was, Bardock was able to react quickly enough to catch all of the bullets before they could damage anything or anyone. He could always have just let them hit him, since they wouldn't have done any damage, but they might have poked holes in his shirt. Since it was the only shirt he had to wear at the moment and was technically on loan from Trunks, he's rather not let that happen. This, of course, only made Lunch even more furious.

"You bastard!" Bardock didn't want to hurt her for, despite the fact that she was a Super Saiyan, she seemed to lack any real power. If he fought back at all, he might severely injure her. So he meekly let her attack him as he tried to fend off her blows, until he tripped on the carpet and sent them both crashing into a tumble of legs and arms. Lunch took advantage of her foe's awkward position with lightning speed and launched herself at him with fists and feet flying.

Thinking quickly, Master Roshi had instantly gone to grab the pepper from the kitchen, having long since gotten used to Lunch's 'mood swings'. He got back in time to see the beautiful blonde attempting, and failing miserably, to beat Bardock into the ground. One shake of the pepper in front of her face, and Lunch sneezed herself back to her normal, sweet self. She blinked in surprise, finding herself straddling the downed Saiyan man. Bardock blushed furiously as he realized how compromising their positions were.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Did I just... do something?" Lunch apologized nervously, standing up carefully.

"Besides trying to beat the tar out of me?" Bardock asked wryly as he sat up. He dropped the bullets he'd caught and rubbed the back of his head self consciously as he studied Lunch in more detail. She didn't look Saiyan, but she had just transformed into a Super Saiyan. "No, not really."

"I hope I didn't hurt you," she said with concern.

"Nah, you just surprised me when you transformed into a Super Saiyan."

"Eh, Bardock, I don't know what you're talking about," Master Roshi started to say, glancing from Lunch to Bardock, "but Lunch is as human as I am." And a darn good looking human at that! he added mentally. "She has two personalities, though, that she'll switch between whenever she sneezes."

"What's a 'Super Saiyan'?" Lunch asked curiously.

Bardock glanced over at Goten, or the boy he thought was Goten, and Trunks. "One of you care to demonstrate?"

Immediately noticing the confusion plastered on Goku's face, Trunks leapt out from under the table where the boys had all hidden when Lunch had transformed. "I will, Bardock-san!" he volunteered hurriedly before Goku had a chance to open his big mouth and accidentally reveal that he wasn't Goten. Krillen, Lunch, and Master Roshi watched with curiosity as Trunks walked over to the center of the room. He smirked in anticipation of the reactions he was certain he would get as he prepared to power up.

"Wait!" Bardock yelled in alarm before Trunks could begin, realizing something. "Maybe we should go outside for this..."

Glancing at Bardock in puzzlement, it suddenly dawned on Trunks what he was talking about. Powering up inside Kame house might accidentally damage something or someone. He quickly nodded in agreement and headed for the door.

"Why should we go outside?" Roshi muttered in confusion as they all followed Trunks outside.

"Because this isn't something you should do in an enclosed place that hasn't been reinforced by steel or something stronger," Bardock muttered, more to himself than to Roshi. "Okay, Trunks, show them whenever you're ready."

With a wide grin on his face, Trunks quit suppressing his ki, instead working on raising it as high as he could. In less than a moment, it was powerful enough to create a miniature whirlwind around him, picking up sand and twigs and lifting his hair away from his head. Yelling triumphantly, he crossed the threshold between his normal state and Super Saiya-jin, his eyes flashing from their regular sky blue to the brilliant sea green all Super Saiyans had. His hair separated into spikes that defied gravity, sparkling with raw energy until they, too, changed, becoming a brilliant golden color.

"That," Bardock stated, smiling faintly, "is a Super Saiyan."

To Krillen and Lunch, it was merely an impressive light display, albeit one with interesting effects like the wind and floating rocks. To Radditz, it was something of a shock. He had already heard from his father about Trunks and Goten being Super Saiya-jin, so while he was somewhat prepared, it still took him off guard to actually witness the transformation. It didn't even take him reaching out his ki senses for Master Roshi to know that he was now facing a being even more powerful than Bardock. The old martial artist's eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his head and he thought that any minute his heart might give out on him. Dear Kami, his power! And I thought Bardock was strong! But this... it's beyond comprehension! And he's just a boy!

"Neato! Your hair turned yellow!" Goku squealed, jumping up and down in excitement as he completely forgot that he was supposed to be pretending to be Goten. Bardock glanced at the boy in confusion, puzzled by his reaction to Trunks's transformation. A niggling suspicion formed in his mind and he frowned, examining the boy he had thought was his grandson.

"Goten?" he asked doubtfully. Trunks groaned as he realized that the switch had probably just been discovered. Goku, you baka!

Realizing that he'd just blown his cover, Goku looked up nervously at his dad. "Er.. hai, t-grandpa?"

Because he was looking for it, Bardock caught the minor slip. That and Trunks's groan told him everything he needed to know. He smiled in amusement and reached down to scoop his son up. "You can drop the act now, Goku," he chuckled. "I know you're not Goten."

Instead of being dismayed at being caught, Goku grinned in delight. "You noticed! Trunks told me and Goten to switch clothes so we could see if anyone could tell us apart, and it worked!" he crowed happily as he gave his father a hug.

"Trunks said that?" the pink-and-black haired warrior asked, grinning as he shifted his head to the suddenly sweating Super Saiyan. Trunks gulped and anxiously rubbed his arm in an unconscious gesture of nervousness. "I see." Unable to maintain the necessary focus to stay in Super Saiyan, Trunks's hair shifted back to purple as he powered down. Bardock laughed gently. "Don't worry, Trunks, I'm not angry. Actually, I'm just amused that one of your pranks fell through before you could do whatever you were planning." Still grinning, he picked up Goten with his other arm and carried the look-alikes inside. "Now, if I'm not mistaken, there are a few explanations in order, so why don't we all go back inside and sit down so I only have to tell the story once."

Please review.