The Birth of an Empire
Chapter 2
The Son's pulled up in front of
their new house, stopping behind the moving truck. Stepping from the car, Goku
and Goten stared up at the building that was to be their home. It was a small,
squarish house, painted white and with small windows. The yard was tiny and
houses were packed in on either side.
"Isn't it wonderful?" Chichi cried. "We'll meet lots of new
people, and make new friends and Goten will have lots of time to study with no
distractions!"
Goku was skeptical, but humored his wife. "I'm sure it'll be great!"
He said with a wide grin.
The tall saiya-jin felt a small hand slip into his own and looked down to see
Goten, looking rather nervous about their new accommodations. Squeezing Goten's
hand tightly in an attempt to be comforting, Goku sighed deeply before
following Chichi into the house.
Once inside, Chichi pulled Goten off to show him his room, leaving Goku to
wander about the house. Avoiding the movers carrying the furniture, he made his
way to the kitchen. Entering the room he gasped in horror. It was so small!
There was barely enough room for the stove, undersized fridge and a table.
Shuddering, Goku left the evil kitchen. Living here was going to be torture, he
just knew it. A loud bang and muffled shout interrupted his thoughts, and
curious the saiya-jin went to investigate. Arriving at the front door he found
a couple of movers struggling with the dining room table.
"Need any help?" Goku asked, pulling on his classic goofy grin.
"Heh, sure man, if you think you can lift this thing…" One of the two
strange men replied.
"Alright!" Grabbing the table with one hand he easily hefted it off
the ground and carried it into the kitchen, leaving behind the stunned movers.
Coming back into the hallway Goku as intercepted by the man he had spoken to
before. "Dude, with strength like that you would make a great mover, you
should look into it! The pay isn't too great, but hey, you have to take what
you can get!"
This actually seemed like a good idea, to Goku, Chichi wanted him to find a job
and here was one presenting itself to him. He new he wasn't the smartest
person, and that limited his choices some, but here was something he could do.
"Hey, thanks for the offer. I'll think about it." Goku said to the
mover, who in turn gave him two thumbs up before wandering off.
Deciding to continue his observations of the house, the tall fighter wandered
upstairs to his new bedroom. He stopped dead in the doorway, gasping in horror
for the second time that day. The walls were colored the most hideous shade of
pink he'd only seen previously in pepto bismol containers! Scratch the kitchen
being evil, this whole dwelling was worse than a horror house.
Not only that, there was a distinct unpleasant smell wafting up from the
off-white shaggy carpet. Making a face, Goku moved over to the window to let in
some fresh air…only to find it didn't open. The saiya-jin warrior resisted the
urge to run around screaming.
His already dashed expectations sank even lower at the view of the backyard
through the window. An overgrown weed garden dominated that entire miniscule
area except for a mucky pond, in which a dead frog appeared to be floating.
'This weekend cannot come soon enough.' Goku thought, resting his forehead on
the window.
"Absolutely not Goku! I will not have my husband be a furniture
mover!" Chichi yelled.
"But Chichi! I'd be good at it," The saiya-jin argued.
"We are not discussing this! You need to go out and find a respectful job!
Today!"
Goten sighed into his bowl of cereal as his parents fought. He hadn't gotten
much sleep that night, his room smelled weird and unfamiliar, and now today was
going to be his first day of school.
Hearing the bus honk from outside, he inhaled the rest of his food at light
speed, snatched up his book bag and lunch, received a kiss from his mother and
was out the door. He looked forlornly back at his parents standing in the
doorway before boarding the unfamiliar vehicle.
"Bye Goten! Have a good time at school!" Chichi called, before
turning to Goku with a dark look in her eyes. "Out of my house now! I
don't want you back till you find a job or it's suppertime! A respectful
job!"
Goku raised his hands in defense. "Hey, alright! I'm leaving
already!"
Walking off down the street he stared at his feet. He was glad to be out of
that demon house, but it was going to be agony trying to find a 'respectful'
job for a person like him.
Goten looked around, as he walked down the aisle of the bus, searching for a
seat. He found one at the very back of the large vehicle next to a mousy
looking kid with thin red hair, a spattering of freckles and thick, round
glasses. Sitting down, the demi-saiya-jin clutched his backpack close, unnerved
by the noise of so many kids assaulting his sensitive ears.
"Why are you wearing orange?" the kid next to him piped up.
Goten blinked and fingered his gi. "What's wrong with orange?"
"Its an ugly colour, especially with blue." The freckled boy replied.
"And what type of style is that anyway? What are you, a karate kid?"
"My daddy wears a gi like this. He's the best martial artist in the
world."
"Are you kidding? Mr. Satan is the best and everyone knows it! He beat
Cell." The kid said in a snotty tone.
"He did not!" Goten shouted. "He's just a big fake!"
"What delusion are you living in? You should get your daddy to take you to
get your head checked."
"…Huh?" the demi-saiya-jin responded cluelessly.
"Oh great! He's delusional and stupid!"
Goten frowned and continued to finger his gi. He wondered briefly if all city
kids were like the red-haired kid, and dearly hoped it wasn't so.
The bus ground to a halt, and Goten followed the throng of screaming and
yelling kids out into the schoolyard. The school itself wasn't very large or
impressive, a one-story, brown-brick rectangle, but the spiky-haired boy had to
give it credit for the schoolyard. There was a large field, some pavement for
games like foursquare and hopscotch, and a huge playground with slides,
bridges, ropes, rings…everything!
Goten grinned, maybe it wouldn't be so bad here after all. Unfortunately, the
bell rang before he could go anywhere. Sighing, he turned to the school and
trudged to the door.
Stopping a little ways from the door, he eyed the lines of children warily.
What was he supposed to do…? He didn't have much time to wonder as a ditzy
looking blond woman hurried up to him.
"You must be Son Goten!" she cried, seemingly ecstatic at finding
him. "I'm Ms. Shelby, you teacher! Isn't that great?"
"Um…yeah." Goten said nervously. The woman was scaring him.
"Now you go line up with your class! They're the ones closest to the
door." Ms. Shelby giggled.
"Okay…" the demi-saiya-jin walked over to the said line-up. Some of
the kids stared at him and began to whisper. His heart dropped.
After only a short time the line started moving, and Goten entered a school for
the first time in his life. His first impression wasn't pleasant as the smell
of hundreds of kids enclosed in a small space accosted his saiya-jin nose
causing him to sneeze repeatedly.
The line reached its destination and children filed into their classroom,
moving automatically to desk and hanging backpacks on the back of their chairs.
Not having an assigned seat, Goten stood awkwardly in front of the class,
waiting for the teacher.
Ms. Shelby skittered into the room and clasped her hands. "Hey class! This
is your new classmate Son Goten! He just moved from the country to here. Lets
all give him a big, warm welcome!"
There was a chorus of 'hello's' and 'hi's', varying in enthusiasm. Goten
fidgeted nervously and waved a hand shyly.
"Okay! You can sit in between Mary and Sydney." The teacher said
cheerily, pointing at a desk in between two giggling girls.
Slinging his book bag onto the back of his chair before sitting down, Goten
glanced at the girls on either side of him. This caused them to burst into
another round of giggles. The demi-saiya-jin whined mentally, this was going to
be a long day.
Goku stared at the tall buildings around him, wondering where the heck to go.
He couldn't really get lost, since he could always just fly above the city and
go home, but he couldn't go home without a job, and he had no idea where to go!
Walking up to a random person he asked, "Where can I find a job?"
The person just stared at him strangely before hurrying away.
'Well that wasn't very nice,' Goku thought.
After asking a couple more people and getting the same results, the saiya-jin
warrior started to get frustrated, and decided to try a different approach.
Spotting a police officer he wandered over.
"Sir, I'm new here, and my wife is making me get a job, but I don't know
where to go," Goku stated, "Could you help me out?"
The policeman eyed him for a while before answering. "Yeah sure, there's
an unemployment office around the corner, two blocks down and across the street."
"Thanks!" Goku said, flashing his classic grin before dashing off.
Two blocks later, the tall fighter spotted his destination. Waiting for the
flow of traffic to stop, he then darted across the street. He was about halfway
across when a car roared out of nowhere and careened into the wide-eyed
saiya-jin.
A woman shrieked as both the car and man were enveloped in smoke, and people
began to crowd the surrounding sidewalks. A hush fell over the clustered people
as the smoke cleared to reveal the car crumpled around a slightly crispy Goku.
That's when the mass of people freaked out. Some people started screaming and
yelling about demons, causing others to panic irrationally, and soon there was
a near riot in the street.
Goku's eyes widened at the sight around him. Were all city-goers so panicky?
Suddenly he heard a shout and saw the policeman he had talked to before running
towards him.
"What the hell happened here?!" the man shouted over the racket.
"I got hit by a car and everyone went mad." Goku said nervously,
putting a hand behind his head.
"You got…what?! You must be the cause of all this! I'm putting you under
arrest for disrupting the peace!"
"What?!" the saiya-jin yelped. Chichi was going to kill him if he got
arrested! Panicking slightly as the cop advanced on him Goku concentrated and
disappeared leaving behind a stunned policeman and upsetting the crowd further.
Goten was extremely glad when the recess bell rang. Some of the stuff he they
were learning he already knew from studying, but the new stuff he just didn't
get. Shoving his scribblers into his knapsack and pulling out his lunchbox, the
spiky haired boy dashed outside.
Climbing up into the playground, he sat on top of some monkey bars and opened
his lunch bag. Pulling out an apple he shoved it into his mouth and swallowed
it. As he was searching for more snack food, he heard someone yelling to him
from below.
"Hey kid! Get down here!" It was a large boy, probably 11 or 12.
"Okay," Goten said, blinking, before hopping down and landing in
front of the older boy. "What do ya want?"
"Give me your lunch!" the larger kid demanded holding out his hand.
"But if I give you my lunch I won't have anything to eat and I'll get
hungry," Goten said, tilting his head to one side.
"A wise guy, eh? Now give it to me!" the bully shouted, punching at
Goten, who easily caught his fist. "What the…hey! You can't do that!"
A crowd started to gather around the two boys. The bully punched out with his
other fist, which was also easily caught.
Goten was now frowning. "You're mean. You tried to take my lunch and hit
me." Letting go of the bully's fists the pint-sized warrior fell into a
fighting stance. "And if ya wanted a fight, you should have just
asked."
"Why you..!" the larger boy charged at the demi-saiya-jin.
Crouching low at the last moment, Goten ducked under the bully and flipped the
boy over his back. The older kid when flying and skidded to a halt at the feet
of the principal.
"What's going on here?!" the principal boomed.
Goten pointed at the bully. "He tried to take my food."
"Byron! I told you to stop bullying kids! It's about type one of them
could fight back!" The principal yelled at the large boy, before pulling
him to his feet and dragging him away. "We're going to go call your
mother!"
Everyone was silent for a while, then a cheer went through the gathered kids
and they hoisted a stunned Goten onto their shoulders.
Gohan was in the middle of teaching his class when he heard a yelp from above
him and something, or someone, heavy landed on top of him. Knocked off balance
he ended up sprawled out on the floor in front of a wide-eyed class of
students.
Tilting his head to look at what had fallen on him his eyes widened.
"Dad?!"
"Hey Gohan!" Goku said, grinning nervously.
Gohan stared in shock at his father. The older saiya-jin was covered in dark
soot and his clothes were torn and burnt. "What the heck happened to
you?!"
"Well, your mother threw me out of the house to get a job, and I got hit
by a car crossing the street and then everyone panicked and someone tried to
arrest me," Goku replied.
"Cool!" a random kid shouted.
That started all the students talking. "That's his dad?"
"He got hit by a car! Hee!"
"How did he appear like that?"
Getting up and turning to his class Gohan attempted to calm them down, to no
avail.
"Mr. Son!" a girl shouted, "Do you have any kiddy tales about
Gohan?"
"Sure! Lots of them! There was this time when he was 5-years-old and got
drunk-mph!"
"Dad!" Gohan shouted clamping a hand over his father's mouth before
dragging him outside.
"What?" Goku said, staring at his son innocently as they reached the
hallway.
"Dad! I'm working! And you can't tell them things like that!" The
demi-saiya-jin shouted.
"Jeez Gohan, I'm sorry…" The tall man said, looking rather
downtrodden.
"Why did you show up here anyway? You should've gone home and gotten
cleaned up first, at least!"
"But then Chichi…" Goku started to say, then sighed. "Never
mind, I'll just go." Placing two fingers to his forehead the saiya-jin
disappeared.
"Dad wait!" Gohan said, too late. Groaning, he turned and walked back
into his classroom.
Vegeta whirled, a flurry of fists and feet as he trained by himself in the
gravity room. Suddenly a familiar form appeared in front of him without
warning.
"Gyah!" Goku yelped as a fist stopped millimeters from his face. A
bead of sweat rolled down his face as Vegeta glared at him, unmoving.
"Um…hey 'Geta!"
The older saiya-jin growled. "Don't call me that! And I thought I told you
not to use that damn technique around me!" Turning away he shut down the
machine and walked to the door.
Stopping, at the door Vegeta turned his head slightly. "By the way, what
do you want Kakarrot?"
"I got hit by a car and need to get cleaned up, and I can't go home or
Chichi will kill me."
The shorter man sighed in exasperation. "I can't really say I'm surprised,
Kakarrot. Well come on already!"
"Hey Vegeta," Goku said, catching up to said person. "You won't
tell Chichi, right?"
"No, baka, I already said I wouldn't tell the hellcat if you came
over."
"Thanks."
The prince merely snorted.
Fists hit flesh, and auras meshed as the two super-saiya-jins fought, tangled
in an intricate dance of destruction. Sweat dripped down chiseled muscles, and
near identical smirks graced the faces of both fighters.
Dropping back and landing facing each other the two warriors stood panting,
waiting for someone to make a move. Standing up, straight Goku grinned goofily.
"Hey, It's almost suppertime, I should be getting home now." The
taller saiya-jin said.
"Hn."
"And thanks for the spar, I really needed it."
"Hn."
"Well…bye!" Goku shouted over his shoulder to the saiya-jin prince
before blasting off home.
Bulma blinked and walked over to Vegeta. "Was that Goku?"
"Hn."
"Hey Chichi! I'm home!" Goku shouted as he entered the demon house.
But he currently felt as if nothing could get him down, he was so happy!
"Daddy!" Goten cried before leaping into his father's arms.
"Goku!" Chichi said, "Did you get a job?"
Putting a hand behind his head the saiya-jin laughed nervously. "Sorry
Chichi, I ran into a bit of trouble. I'll try again tomorrow!"
Chichi huffed. "What am I going to do with you? Now come on and have
supper."
The Sons sat down in their cramped kitchen and started to eat, when the phone
rang. Chichi got up and answered it.
"Hello?" she said, "Oh hi Bulma!"
Goku coughed on his food slightly. She couldn't have seen him with Vegeta,
could she?! His hopes were dashed as he saw Chichi's eyes narrow, her hand
clenching around the receiver.
"Thanks for telling me. No everything's just fine. Bye." Hanging up
the phone Chichi turned to her husband, eyes blazing. Reaching over to the
counter the raven-haired woman grasped the handle of her frying pan.
"Ch-chichi! C-calm down." Goku stuttered hoping out of his chair and
backing away. "I can explain!"
"I TOLD YOU TO STAY AWAY FROM THAT MAN!" the enraged woman shrieked.
"AND THE MOMENT YOU'RE OUT OF MY SIGHT YOU'RE OFF TO SEE HIM!"
Goku tried to dash away, but unused to the smaller room didn't make it as his
wife charged at him. Wielding the frying pan above her head she brought it down
hard on the back of his head.
The saiya-jin was only slightly stunned; his head was hard enough to stop
bullets, let alone a frying pan. Then a sudden sharp pain lanced through his
skull, and he screamed. Dropping to his knees Goku clutched his head.
It felt like it was going to explode, memories, images, something else…all
flooding into his head. It was too much, too fast. Going to explode…
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