Tourniquet Divine

Dragon Ball Z
Tourniquet Divine


Chapter Opening:

What have we today? First off the reviews!
From Guice! Yeah sex scenes are great, I can’t wait to get to those either! (^_^)v Thanks for all your support!
And another from daisyINSANEangel, so glad to hear I have readers enjoying the plot line, I do so hope you continue to enjoy the story!
Well then, last time we left off with a pretty big proposal Trunks left with Gohan… Today we’ll see how he takes it! Please R&R!
Enjoy!

Chapter 6: Easier to Run


Gohan found himself aimlessly wondering the Capsule Complex. He’d already had breakfast, which was even more than the day before, and now he was just looking for something to keep his mind occupied.

His first thought to keep himself busy was to train. He headed for the training wing. He walked through the hall and found one of the gravity rooms. He walked right in without giving it too much thought until he approached the control panel for the gravitron. One look at it and he was already confused. Not only confused, but worried that foolishly playing with the thing might set it off to a thousand times normal gravity or something.

The door behind him opened and he jumped around startled.

“Whoa kid, sorry didn’t mean to scare you.” The one who had been introduced to him as Yamcha apologized. The other one, Tien walked in behind him.

“We’re you two going to use the room?” Gohan asked.

“We were,” Tien sounded rather cold, then Yamcha elbowed him, and all three eyes widened, “But we don’t mind sharing, really,” he added.

“Umm… OK…” Gohan wasn’t sure what to think of them yet.

Yamcha walked over to the control panel, “We might be at different gravity training strengths still, what do you train at Gohan?”

Gohan thought for a minute, “Actually, anything would be alright, but I’m not even sure how to work this thing.”

“Ahh I see, Well let me show you then,” Yamcha reached for the controls, “In order to get it going you have to hit the button that says “set” first,” Yamcha pressed the button and the machine started humming, “It takes a minute to warm up, then you use the keypad to type in the amount of gravity you want, it’s all in relation to how many more times the gravity of that of earth that you want it. I’ll go ahead and set it to fifteen.” Yamcha pressed the buttons on the pad, “As a safety precaution, after you tell it once, you press confirm, and hit the same thing again, if you punch in two different gravity settings it will reset, then you just hit activate.” He pressed it and the room’s hue turned red, “Now just brace yourself, cause here it comes.”

The room’s gravity became fifteen times stronger than it had been a moment earlier. Yamcha gritted his teeth as he strained to keep his balance. “So what do you think kid?”

Gohan fell forward and landed on his palms. Yamcha and Tien were concerned for a moment until he pushed himself vertical and pointed his legs straight up. He held that position for a moment and slowly started pushing his entire body up and down.

“I think he’s alright,” Yamcha said watching him.

“Yeah… no doubt…” Tien was equally impressed at the boy’s apparent strength.

Gohan shifted his weight and balanced himself on one hand and then held that position. “So what do you guys do once you’re in here?”

“Workout and spar a little mainly,” Yamcha answered.

“Cool…” The first signs of sweat began to form on Gohan’s brow.

Tien picked up a few weights off the floor and got to work. Yamcha soon followed with the dumbbells. Every few minutes they would look over to see Gohan still hadn’t moved an inch. He almost scared them when over an hour later he suddenly switched hands.

Gohan finally decided he needed to break the silence around here, “So could you guys tell me a little bit about yourselves, how’d you know my dad?”

Yamcha laughed, “Man, I ran into your dad back when he was about six or seven years old. Bulma, Vegeta and him came through my territory looking for Dragon Balls, and I decided I would get in their way since I had a wish I wanted to be granted also. Little did I know at the time that Vegeta had a fuse to his temper about as long as Tien’s hair. He might have even killed me, but it was your dad who held Vegeta back telling him he shouldn’t hurt me… Made me feel like a real wimp at the time. I found out later Vegeta had a soft spot when it came to Bulma or your dad, he bent for them where he’d pound through anything else. And that was Goku for you too, he was the nice guy, always played the hero and peacekeeper. I mean, when we were young, Vegeta was always the one who would rush in and beat everyone up… But there were a few times that things got even too out of control for him, and then Goku would always explode with some unheard of power and save the day.” Yamcha chuckled, “That’s just how it always was.”

“Heh, though I have to agree with Yamcha now, my first impression of Goku was much different. For a long time I couldn’t stand him. It was all because of pride I guess, but he dealt me my first big defeat in the martial arts world. I’d trained so hard to be as strong as I was, then out of nowhere a boy with a tail emerged and fought me with strengths that proved to be beyond my own. And even though I started pushing myself even harder, and was getting stronger, Goku’s strength rose exponentially, and after a short time I wasn’t even a challenge to him anymore.”

“Hey, stop feeling sorry for yourself,” Yamcha quirked in.

“I’m just being honest, it’s how I felt in the beginning, things changed though, something about Goku… I had to force myself to hate him, because in actuality, I really admired him. He was a great man, truly talented, and so selfless, he’d give up everything for a total stranger.”

Gohan realized that these two had both once been his father’s enemies, but that they’d been converted into close allies. It struck him somewhere, he sniffed and a tear fell from his eye faster than he could wipe at it collected with the sweat below him.

After another moment of staring at the floor below him, Gohan’s eyes refocused, a totally determined look came over him as he pushed off with one arm, flipped in the air, and landed firmly on his feet, “So either of you up for a spar?”

Yamcha and Tien gave each other a look before Tien set his weights down, “I’ll take you up on that… grapple match?”

Gohan nodded to Tien, “Sure.”

Yamcha set his dumbbells aside and got to a good vantage position to watch the match from.

Tien assumed his normal stance with his knees bent and his arms outstretched. Gohan, already being the shorter of the two by far, ducked into a stance that kept him even closer to the floor.
The two slowly inched closer to each other, no one’s eyes blinked, then Tien threw the first strike. Yamcha’s eyes widened as Gohan caught Tien’s fist and flipped his entire body around Tien’s arm building up enough momentum and inertia to lift Tien up by the same arm and fling him into the wall. Tien hit the wall upside down and slid down. “You OK Tien?” Yamcha laughed as he called.

Tien gave Yamcha a “shut up” look as he stood back up. Tien and Gohan nodded to each other and began again. This time Gohan had to block Tien’s fast charge, their forearms made contact and they just pushed against each other. Tien thought for sure he had the advantage, he was pushing down in a room filled with much higher than normal gravity. In quick boost however, Gohan was able to throw Tien’s arm up away from him, back flipped onto his hands and pushed forward launching a full kick toward Tien’s torso. The kick made contact and pushed Tien back, but Tien recovered before completion and grabbed both of Gohan’s ankles then threw him into a side spin.

Gohan landed on both open palms and tried to take Tien by surprise with a leg sweep. Tien actually saw it coming and jumped over it, before he was able to move again though Gohan leapt upward with an uppercut. Tien took the full force of that attack but countered with a roundhouse which Gohan blocked with his arm.

The next few moments turned into a rush of attacks and blocks. Tien threw his hands out and was able to push Gohan away by the abdomen. With his hands still outstretched Tien shouted as he released a power beam. The room filled with light as Tien’s beam fired at near point blank range. Yamcha’s eyes widened again thinking Tien might have taken things a little too far.

As the light faded Tien searched the smoke for Gohan only to hear a quick buzz above him. Gohan landed upside down, a hand on each of Tien’s shoulders, and with a kick of his weight lifted Tien forward, flung him around, and belly flopped him onto the floor. The impact actually made Yamcha’s dumbbells fall of their rack.

Gohan knelt down by Tien, “Are you OK Mr. Tien?”

Tien groaned, “I don’t think I’m going to be able to move at all tomorrow…”

Yamcha smiled, “Wow that was something else…”

Tien slowly climbed to his feet, “Yeah… I give… you Saiyans are just unbelievable.” Tien rubbed his sore shoulder.

Gohan looked down at the floor, “I’m sorry Mr. Tien, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Tien started laughing, “I think that comment alone hurts more than the beating did. Don’t sweat it kid… but if you guys don’t mind I think I’m going to call it quits for a while today.”

Yamcha nodded and Tien walked over to the gravitron to shut it off so he could open the main hatch. “See you guys later!” Tien limped out.

“I think I’m going to take a break for a bit too,” Yamcha got up from the bench and walked out, “We need to do this again sometime soon, K Gohan?”

Gohan nodded, “Right!”

Yamcha smiled and walked off.

Gohan stood in the room a bit longer debating whether or not to use it a little more just himself, but decided against it for now and just wondered the halls.

He stared up at the bright lights of the long winding hallway. Usually he’d be wandering through here with Trunks, but today he had so much on his mind to sort out, he’d been kind of avoiding the guy.

Gohan sighed still not sure what he was supposed to do, what he was supposed to like or love or anything. It was all a concept he’d never given much thought to before, and now he was left confused and a little scared.

His thoughts continued until his feet brought him to the door that lead to the main lab at the bottom of the complex. He knew he couldn’t talk to Bulma about that but he thought it might help to talk to her anyway.

Gohan pushed the door open and floated himself down the working floor. There were lots of lab-coated scientists walking around working on one thing or another. Gohan was still amazed at all the sci-fi looking gadgets that filled the room. All against one wall were a bunch of different Mech Warrior armor looking things and tons of different pieces for them spread along the ground. Across the way he could see different models of fighter jets or maybe they could have been space fighters even.

While he was busy looking at all the contraptions he was almost startled when he heard yelling, “YOU FOOL! BE MORE CAREFUL WITH THAT!”

Gohan jumped and turned around. He saw an old man with long gray hair and a beard and mustache. He was standing over what looked like hospital beds with the sheets all pulled over people. He was yelling at someone who dropped a box with something that looked like a really high-tech pump in it.

Gohan’s curiosity got the better of him, he bit his lower lip as he slowly crept over to one of the beds to try and peak under the sheets. He lifted the sheet from the side and looked in. His eyes widened as he saw a huge man with a bright red Mohawk. He was clad in some kind of grey armor.

“What the hell are you doing in there?!” an angry voice sounded behind him. Gohan pulled out from inside the sheet and saw the old man staring right at him, “Well? And who the hell are you anyway?”

“I was just looking, honest! I didn’t mess with anything! My name is Son Gohan.” Gohan didn’t know why he was this nervous, the guy was just giving him the creeps.

The man took a step closer to Gohan and put a hand on the boy’s face using his fingers to pull his eye lids open and looked into his eyes. “You’re the son of Son Goku?”

Gohan nodded as best he could with the man’s hand on his face, “…Yes.”

The man scoffed as he let go of his hold on Gohan and turned to go back to work without saying anything else.

Gohan felt a little put off but didn’t say anything about it. His attention was still on the amount of hospital beds around that appeared to have bodies under draped sheets. “Are they all dead?” he asked.

The old man looked at the boy again over his shoulder, but said nothing for a long moment, “No, they are not dead, they are undergoing a stage of cybernetic transformation.”

Gohan cocked his head to the side, “Cybernetic Transformation?”

The man was starting to look a little miffed, “When they awake they will be cybernetic life forms I refer to as Androids.”

A young man in a lab coat and glasses came running over to them with a clipboard, “I have the data you requested Dr. Gero.”

“About time…” Dr Gero looked it over, a discerning look on his face, “This is no good, the new output is only 27% higher than the last time… There has to be a way to push more out of these power cells.”

Gohan still didn’t feel comfortable, he felt no life from any of these “Androids” and wasn’t quite sure how this whole thing worked… Though he wanted to know more he decided to leave Dr. Gero alone for the time being.

Gohan continued walking around the lab area looking for Bulma. This place was huge and he was starting to think he was going to have to start asking for her if he wanted to see her today when he caught glimpse of a familiar blue hairstyle. Several other people were talking to Bulma, and she looked deep in thought. She finally said something and waved her hand. The others around her nodded and she started walking away from them.

Gohan smiled and started following her. She didn’t seem to notice Gohan and walked over to a large black steel door marked “Thermal Generator - No Admittance”. She slid a card into the reader by the door and punched in a few numbers. The door opened and she hurried in.

Gohan thought about it for a second, then the door started to close, so he charged in. He hoped Bulma wouldn’t be mad but he needed to talk to her. With the door closed this hallway was very dark. Gohan followed it down slowly. Suddenly an eerie feeling came over him, an anxiety rush that caused his tail to fluff. He felt something totally strange down here.

The dark hall was steep as it circled further and further down. Gohan was sure Bulma had said the only thing under the lab was the main power generator for the complex. Maybe she was going to work on it was the only thing that crossed his mind. But that didn’t account for the strange twisting in the pit of his stomach. Once the hallway flattened out he started hearing voices.

“..and so now they think this instability could cause the whole unit to reach critical mass and explode if the coil is punctured. I was so excited hoping to finally put it into production… but now I’m just not sure it’s a good idea.” Gohan heard Bulma’s voice say.

“So? Are you just going to give up on this then? Do you honestly believe there’s no way that you can fix this “instability” of yours entirely?” A much deeper gruff voice spoke back to her.

“Of course not! There’s nothing I can’t fix, it’s just that it’s going to take a lot longer than I was hoping it would now,” Bulma spoke with more confidence this time.

“And a minor setback isn’t something to be overly concerned with then, so stop your stressing Onna!” Gohan peeked over the end of the hall and saw a room with a greenish hue glow. In the center of the room Bulma stood in front of a large control panel. The control panel circled what appeared to be a large round clear capsule projecting the image of a wire frame head with tall spiky hair. The head just floated between the two projector pads and animated facial expressions and lip movements as the other voice Gohan heard came from the speakers.

“And how are the cubs?” the head asked.

Bulma laughed, “It’s so nice to have them both here, you should see them, they get along very well.”

“How strong is Kakarot’s brat?” Gohan’s eyes widened, the head was talking about him?

“I’m actually not sure, you know how they are, it’s impossible to get an accurate reading with any type of scanning device on you Saiyans, you’re always stronger than the readings show. You’ll have a good idea yourself once your new sensors are operational.”

“Hmph…” This computer sure didn’t seem to be very friendly Gohan thought, “You know I mean you no offense when I say they are the only true hope left for this planet…”

Bulma sighed, “I know Vegeta… But I’ll be damned if I don’t do something to help them… I can’t let them face what’s coming alone, just like old times remember? I may have never been as strong as you, but I was never useless…” Bulma sounded like she was beginning to tear up.

“I know Onna… I know…” A tear finally fell from Bulma’s eye, “Be strong Bulma, for me… I don’t have a body to show you my affections anymore, but believe me when I say I do still love you. You are all the family left for our son and the son of Kakarot, you must be strong.”

Gohan couldn’t believe that the floating head was actually Vegeta… Trunks’ dad… “Uncle Vegeta”… but he was supposed to have died ten years ago. Gohan wanted to know even more now, but he knew this wasn’t a good time. He backed away hoping to remain unnoticed. He backed right into a wall which he was unaware doubled as some kind of control panel that activated on his touch. The panel made a few “bleep” noises as it turned on, and the light flooded the dark hallway.

“Someone’s here!” Vegeta’s holographic head called.

Gohan gritted his teeth and slapped his head, a fine job at being stealth indeed…

“Who’s there?! Come out this instant!” Bulma called into the hall. Gohan knew it was no use hiding and there was no getting around this so he slowly walked out from the darkness. Bulma’s eyes widened, “Gohan!”

Bulma found herself in quite the predicament and was going through several emotions at once. She had managed to keep the contents of this room a secret even from Trunks for the last ten years. She didn’t know whether to be shocked, upset, or maybe even a little angry. She took a moment to compose herself to keep those emotions from emerging though.

“Gohan… What are you doing here?” Bulma finally asked.

Gohan gulped, “I came to your lab looking for you… I found you in time to see you walk through the big door in the lab above, so I followed you in…” Gohan hoped that would suffice for the time being.

Bulma slapped her forehead for being so careless.

“Is that… Vegeta?” Gohan pointed at the hologram.

Bulma nodded, “For the most part…”

“How?” Gohan looked up at the hologram.

“Stop staring boy!” Vegeta demanded.

Gohan turned his gaze to Bulma, “What is going on?”

Bulma looked to the floor in thought for a moment and finally decided she might as well explain all this. Gohan was a smart boy, he’d understand. “It was ten years ago that Frieza arrived on earth, the Saiyans and the Z-Fighters all went to try and stop him. In the end Frieza killed them all… Frieza used his energy to disintegrate Nappa, your uncle Raditz, and your dad to ashes. He made Vegeta watch it all and killed his body by snapping his neck. I found Vegeta there lifeless… and I was horrified by it all, I couldn’t believe what had happened… I always thought Vegeta and Goku together were invincible… I was almost completely overcome with grief until the defibrillator read Vegeta was still showing signs of brain activity. I did the only thing I could to save him… I resurrected the forbidden technology developed by Dr. Willow to attach his brain to a computer. This is the result, the core computer for Capsule Underground, directly attached to the geothermal plant below us, and the remains of Vegeta’s living brain tissue.” Bulma turned on more light in the room to make the other computer components visible. High in the center of it all was a tank with a brain floating in it.

Gohan looked on in awe, at the sophisticated equipment that made it all up, and finally at the electrodes all attached to the still living brain. “So everything Vegeta was is still here?”

A low grumble sound was heard coming from Vegeta’s holographic projection. “There was still some tissue decay that happened before the system was able to fully take over, so sometimes things come out… fuzzy… but other than that, yes,” Bulma answered.

Gohan continued to look at it for a moment, “If the brain is still in tact and alive… why keep it attached to a computer? Why not have Dr. Gero make an android body for it?”

This time a growl came from the hologram and a few sparks and bubbles crackled through the brain tank. Bulma cleared her throat and the sparking stopped, “Dr. Gero… He’s the only other person that knows about Vegeta being in this state, believe me we tried… but the android process just wasn’t compatible with a Saiyan DNA stream.”

The look on Gohan’s face saddened, “Gosh… And Gero is the only one? What about Trunks?”

“You will not divulge what you have seen here today to anyone, including my son!” The hologram spoke demandingly.

Bulma shook her head, “Vegeta’s pride made it in there with him, he doesn’t want anyone else to see him in this condition and I think it would probably cause Trunks more grief than help him also… I wouldn’t want to see Trunks become obsessed in finding a way to help Vegeta like I was for so long…”

Gohan looked down at the ground, a saddened look still on his face, “Don’t worry Gohan, thing’s are fine this way,” Bulma told him already knowing what he was feeling.

“He’s alright Onna, he’s not crying,” the two of them both gave Vegeta a “shut up” look. “What? You think I don’t remember how much of a crybaby you were when you were little?”

Gohan shook his head, “OK I believe you that he’s fine.”

Bulma laughed, “Come on then, I’ll take you out.”

Gohan nodded, “I’ll see you later then Vegeta!” Gohan waved to the holographic head that made a sour look after that statement.

Bulma lead Gohan back up the dark hallway and opened the door to the lab, “So what was it you were looking for me for in the first place?” she asked him.

“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it…” Gohan looked around to make sure no one was close enough to hear them, “After seeing you and Vegeta though, I just wanted to say even with everything that’s happened you can see how much you two still love each other… it’s really sweet Bulma…”

Bulma wiped another tear from her eye, “Thanks Gohan… It’s hard sometimes… but that Vegeta never gives up either…”

“It makes it easier sometimes to still have him there for you when you need him doesn’t it?” Gohan asked.

Bulma nodded, “It does…” she smiled.

“Then as long as that’s the case, it’s all worth it,” Gohan smiled back, “I’m going to go have lunch, so I’ll see you later!” he waved and ran back to the main hallway.

Bulma shook her head, “Just like his father…”

Gohan walked out of the dining room after devouring another Saiyan sized serving and was nice and full again. He was so content with the meal that he didn’t notice who was around him until he heard, “Gohan! There you are!”

Gohan’s eyes widened as he heard Trunks approaching. In a panic he looked around hoping some excuse to leave would dawn on him.

“Hey Gohan!” Trunks stopped right next to him, “What have you been doing today? I haven’t seen you!”

“Oh I’ve been real busy! Training real hard, seeing new cool things, you know…” Gohan was audibly nervous, and Trunks picked up on it.

“OK… so what are you doing now?”

“Oh I’ve still got lots to do, so I better get to them! I’ll see you later then Trunks!” Gohan waved and started to walk off.

“Hold up, what kind of stuff are you still going to do?” Trunks stopped him.

“Umm… I was uhhh… going to go train some more right now,” perfect excuse Gohan thought.

“Oh great! I’ll come with you!” Crap…

“There’s no need really! I’m sure you’d much rather train at higher gravity levels than I can anyway,” Gohan tried to sound convincing but wasn’t working.

Trunks was beginning to have enough of these antics, “No really, any setting would be fine for me right now.”

“Oh well… ummm…” Gohan mentally slapped himself as this path of excuses had reached a dead end.

Trunks grabbed Gohan by the shoulder, “Come here.”

“Huh?” Gohan was confused as he was being dragged back through the residential wing and towards Trunks’ room. Trunks opened the door, and pulled Gohan inside, “Trunks wait!”

Trunks shut the door behind them, took a moment to look Gohan over, and finally sighed, “Gohan… Have you been… avoiding me today?”

Gohan couldn’t make eye contact with Trunks, “I…”

“Just tell me Gohan…” Gohan still looked to the floor, closed his eyes and nodded. Trunks sighed, “…Why? Is it because of yesterday?”

“It’s… well… you see…” Gohan stammered.

Trunks fell to his knees in front of Gohan, “Gohan… I told you no matter what… I don’t want to stop being your friend, even if you never return the feelings I have for you that’s fine with me… I just don’t want you to stay away from me completely…” Trunks eyes were almost welling up, he looked very hurt. Gohan’s gaze was finally focused on Trunks face. That hurt look… it hurt him too to see Trunks like that.

“Trunks… I… I…”

Trunks was quiet, waiting, “What Gohan?”

Finally Gohan broke… All the thoughts he’d been subduing came rushing to the surface all at once. He fell onto Trunks and started crying onto him, “Gohan?” Trunks whispered softly.

“I want to love you Trunks! I want to so bad… But…” he sniffed a little, then all at once released the horrible thoughts plaguing his mind to Trunks, “Every person I’ve ever loved… they’re all gone Trunks! Frieza burned my dad to ashes! My mom screamed in pain for hours before she died and there was nothing I could do to help her at all! The people I admire and get close to end up never coming back…! I don’t think I could take going through that again…”

Trunks held Gohan tighter to him as Gohan continued his crying. Trunks knew Gohan had already lost both his parents, and he had no clue how many friends he may have lost on the street…

Finally he held Gohan out from him so he could look into his tear stained face, “Gohan listen to me! Right here and now I promise you… I will forever do my best to make sure nothing ever happens to either of us! I’ll train even harder than before and I’ll see to it that I can defend us from anything!”

A few more tears escaped Gohan’s eyes, he understood this wasn’t a false promise that nothing would ever happen to him, but that he would always do his best to try.

As Gohan stared into Trunks face after that promise, he realized it whether he wanted to admit it or not… he was in love with Trunks. He continued to just stare into Trunks eyes, neither said anything.

Everything was silent for a long while. Trunks waited patiently as Gohan was obviously in the middle of a big mental debate. Finally a soft smile came over Gohan, he leaned into Trunks and whispered into his ear, “Then seal your promise with a kiss.” A shiver ran down Trunks spine as they wrapped their arms around the other and locked their lips together in a passionate kiss that spoke beyond desire. After a few moments when they separated from the kiss, Gohan rested his head on Trunks’ chest, “I love you Trunks…”

A tear fell from Trunks’ eye, “I love you too Gohan… forever…”


End Chapter