true life videogame: chapter11

Tien sipped lightly on the fresh brewed coffee. The others were scattered all over the place. Yamcha was keeping his eyes of the others in the game. He would come down once in a while to give a progress report. Everyone in the game seemed physical fine but, it seemed to wear on their minds a bit. Understandable so. It was also strange that it was Vegeta, that was the one that seemed to know about these things the most, as they were useless, time-consuming devices that did nothing but rot your brain. You would figure that would be the last thing he would know about. Or even want to know about.

Piccolo stayed with Gohan with every step he took. His whole family was in a video game that could kill them for all they knew. Although Gohan seemed to keep it together, appearances were deceiving. Choasitue, he wasn’t sure where he was at the moment. He seemed to need so alone time. Probably meditating, he liked to be alone for that. It was easier to concentrate.

He heard stomps down the stairs. He guessed it was Yamcha, the man was a bit lead footed.

“Hey.” It was Yamcha

“Anything new up there?” Yamcha grabbed himself a mug and poured himself so coffee too. He looked like he needed a caffeine fix.

“No, not really. I don’t understand these things but it seems to be going according to the game’s um. . . . I think he called it the storyline.” Tien nodded although he was completely disinterested in the termatology. “They are playing to the game in hopes that ending it, that it will reverse everything.”

“We can only hope.”

“I think we should turn the game off.”

“No. That could cause them to be trapped forever in there.”

“Or it could stop it and they can return to their bodies!” A heavy hand on Yamcha’s shoulder caused Yamcha to jump slightly.

“Since we don’t know, we are not going to try it.” Piccolo’s ususal stoic ways were lost to him, as Gohan’s constant worry was affecting him too. A bond between student and teacher never fades after all.

X)(X

The virtual morning sun was rising. It always seemed to come up early here. The fake sunlight always seemed to hit everyone in the face no matter what side of the building they were on. That inconvenience was annoying. Even the early riser of the group would put the pillow over his head in response.

“When this is over. I’m going to sleep for a week.” He heard a groan next to me.

“I hate you sun. Go away.” Bulma whined like a four-year-old child, and then tried to bury her head into Vegeta’s side, to block the annoying rays. “Worse than my alarm clock.”

The sun only seemed to get more intense. The pillow Vegeta was using seemed to have no effect, like it was clear. It wasn’t working to block anything. Vegeta growled and threw the pillow off the bed, only to have it back at the head of the bed, almost smothering him as his was still face down. He lifted his head from the air-choking death pillow with a surprised gasp. Even he would have laughed, if he found any humor in any of this it.

“Something wrong?”

“Stuck in this game.” Even the bluntness of his voice didn’t provoke her.

“Anything else?”

“That tops the lists for the moment.” Bulma stopped fighting the sun and pulled Vegeta on his back, almost surprising him in the process. But after being a lack for a better word slave for twenty years, founding another of his kind out of all the planets out there, becoming a good guy, being partly processed by an evil wizard that was part of his own doing but who could have seen that coming? And now being sucked into a video game and his wife having the strength to pull him into his back, there was nothing that could surprise him anymore.

“You know we can’t do anything.” Vegeta stated responding to the smile on her face. Bulma eyes drooped and the smile faded into a lopsided grin which offset her true mood.

“And that tops . . . my list.”

The dreaded knock at the door sounded off again. It was softer than it had been. If Vegeta was a gambling man, it he would have betted Chi-Chi was knocking. She had a bit of a warrior’s spirt in her but outside anger she tried to be gentle.

“What now?” Bulma glared at the door willing the person dead on the other side. She was no morning person, waking up on her own or not.

“Bulma? Vegeta? Are you in there?”

“No, we are not in here. Get lost.” Vegeta said loud enough for the harpy to hear him.

“Funny, not! Hurry up! Everyone is waiting!” Vegeta’s eyes narrowed fully awake now.

“She’s going to the save point the hard way.” Bulma pulled him back by his shoulders.

“A few minutes more, hm?” Bulma placed her head on his shoulder. “Then send her to the save point the hard way.”

“Evil, aren’t you?”

“Well . . . it’s not like she won’t come back and you can’t really hurt her in this game. It’s a discomfort really.”

“Like that voice of hers.” She smacked his arm hard as she could.

“I love you Vegeta . . . but you really are a jerk.”

X)(X

Videl walked up to the Capsule coporation residential area. Since Buu and everything, her name was added to the acceptance list for those than could enter that part of the building. Entering the kitchen she saw the man called Tien with three eyes, and tall green skinned man that was close to Gohan. His name escaped her that the moment.

“Front room.” Piccolo’s voice was cold and stern but strangely almost friendly. How he was able to get that combination was beyond the others in the room. Videl ignored it and almost skipped pass Piccolo murmuring a thanks going past him.

She saw Gohan on the couch with his head in his hands. He was so quiet, so still. This wasn’t the Gohan she knew. If it was the mothering instinct or just couldn’t stand the depressed air coming off him, she walked over to couch and sat down next to him. He didn’t even notice there was another person next to him. In a quick movement she was able to pull him to her, his head right down under her chin. He didn’t fight the new position. Videl was wondering if he even noticed this at all.

“Gohan?” As if the cure for this condition was just saying his name, Gohan pulled up to look her in the face.

Videl could see the circles of worry on this face. His eyes bloodshot, cheeks swollen and red, his clothes looked like had been sleeping in them for the past couple of days. All in all, Gohan was a wreck and he smelled a bit too. Yet, she didn’t have the heart to tell him that . . . at the moment.

“What is going on? You haven’t been to school for a family emergency for days now.” Videl mind put together his mood and appearance and it came to a conclusion. “Did someone get hurt . . . or. . .” She couldn’t say it. Even with her not looking at Gohan’s face, it was too much to get out of her constricting throat.

“You wouldn’t believe if I told you.”

“Gohan. After everything that has happened. All you guys here flying, me myself flying, inhuman strength, transformations, wizards, being eaten by a pink monster, being dead, meeting the king of demons while being dead.” She shook off the shivers on that one. “He was creepy nice and kept spouting off ‘I have found the power of love’ or something like that. Creepy.” She looked back at his sad face. “What is there left that I wouldn’t believe?” Long moments stood between them before Gohan nodded and stood with his hand stretched out for her.

“I’ll show you.”

X)(X

The port town had nothing to it but a dock, ocean, a small ticket booth, and inn. Other than that it was a total waste land around it.

“So are we going on the boat?”

“No Kakarot. We are just to look at it until it gives us the next quest to defeat the game.”

“How long will that take?” Vegeta started laughing lightly.

“Nah. I’m not going to do that. That would be too easy.” He said quietly to said still laughing barely under his breath. The others looked on partly confused and a little afraid that Vegeta could be going insane.

“We need to finish this game before Vegeta loses it.”

“I thought he lost it years ago.” Eighteen said with an almost cruel smile on her face.

“I heard that!” Vegeta voice boomed back at them standing on the plantform to connected to the ship. “And for your information. I lost my mind long before I met any of you!” He continued to laugh going up the plank to the boat. Trunks watched his father’s steps as he walked up the plank. They were off a bit. Heavier and lacked the strange grace that was uniquely him.

“Goten. Hand me a remedy.”

“Ah . . . sure.” He looked though his bag finding one. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Trunks held it in his right hand. “Let’s see if this works.” Trunks took a running start and threw the boat at his father’s feet. The bottle crashed right behind Vegeta and green smoke rapped around Vegeta’s chest. The smoke entered Vegeta’s nose and mouth and disappeared completely a moment later. Vegeta coughed hard a few times before looking around almost amazed.

“When did I start getting on the boat?” He looked down seeing a quickly vanishing, green bottle at his feet. Sighing lightly as everyone started to fall into place inside his mind, he continued on his way.

They all watched as Vegeta’s form and walking ability improved drastically as he continued to the boat’s deck.

“What . . . was . . . that?” Bulma asked the question of nearly everyone’s mind.

“Remedy. It dispels negative effects on the characters. Dad must have gotten hit with disorientation or confusion back at the castle when we were leaving.” Goten jumped up excitedly.

“Which means sleep doesn’t cure negative statuses in this game.”

“Right. Good thing we found it before a battle showed up.”

“Why is that?” Krillen asked trying to understand all this. Trunks looked at him remembering that he and the others didn’t understand word one of what was going on.

“Confusion makes him attack friend and foe alike and disorientation causes lose of focus and magic powers.”

“Meaning if we got into battle with that ‘negative statuses’ on . . . then . . . he would be either attack us or he wouldn’t be able to cast magic well?” Goten and Trunks smiled.

“Close enough.” Both said in unison.

“Come on and let’s get on the boat Trunks.” Goten said tagging Trunks on the back in a silent ‘tag you’re it.’ Trunks gave chase as Goten started running around Vegeta to keep out of Trunks’ reach. Both knew that they had a limited time before Vegeta would break this up and not in a nice way.

The others came abroad seeing the two still running around Vegeta but not stopping it. He was reading something. A green tome, one the Bulma recognized from before in the first town. The directory that told you information about the game and such.

“Temporary insanity.” Vegeta slammed the tome shut, which in turn stopped the two children from running around him. “There’s a new one.”

“The status?” Vegeta nodded only once.

“Same as confusion really. You lose control of your character for a short time. The type that got me was a mage insanity. Effects magic users only but a simple remedy dispels it.”

“Great there are two different types. We better stock up in the next town.” Trunks took the tome from his father’s hand and looked through it himself with Goten reading over his shoulder.

X)(X

Vegeta leaned up against the railing of the ship and was staring off into the distance. He couldn’t see land yet. The boys were up in the crow’s next on the look out. They know the same thing he did. There was going to be a plot turning fight here and soon.

“Hey broody.”

“Cute.”

“Seriously everyone knows it was a negative stat . .” Vegeta cut her off. He couldn’t stand to hear that again.

“There’s going to be a fight here soon.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s the first time we are crossing the ocean.” He said like it answered everything. To someone that s playing RPG’s it would have.

“So?” Obliviously Bulma never even looked at a video game much less an RPG in her life.

“There’s always a fight when you cross the ocean for the first time. It’s a video game thing. Don’t try to understand it.”

“Gladly but what is going to attack?”

“I don’t know. Anything. Friends of the king, killer flying . .

“Pirates!” Trunks yelled to the top of his lungs. Both Bulma and Vegeta turned to see a ship with a giant flag with skull and crossbones on it.

“Didn’t see that one coming, did ya?”

“What are pirates?”

“What don’t know what Pirates are?!”

“Would I ask if I did know what they were?” Bulma sighed lightly remembering he didn’t grow up here.

“They are a group of bad guys than rob any ship they come across. But they also kill or kidnaped the crew and destroy the other ship when they are done.” Vegeta crossed his arms still looking at the incoming ship.

“I can respect that.” Bulma looked to the side. If it was anybody other than him saying that, she would have taken her sword to them.

X)(X

Videl looked pale and her eyes remained bugged out watching Bulma and Vegeta on the ship. They were in the video game but their bodies were in the master bedroom. Trunks and Goten were in the same room as them. Asleep with their eyes open on the bed. But somehow they were also climbing down a rope ladder to the deck of the ship. The others too like Gohan’s parents and blonde woman and the short guy were there too. Their names escaping her for the moment.

“How is this possible?”

“Somehow Bulma’s invention and Trunks’ video game mixed and . . . it happened.”

“Strange.” She looked at Gohan’s face. “Not strange like in an alien coming down to release a pink blob monster that can turn people into food, strange. I mean strange as in shouldn’t be possible in any shape, way, or form.

“We know.”

X)(X

The NPC captain of the ship sounded to the alarm. The deck hands ran down to the bowels of the ship as others run up with swords and gunpowder guns in their hands. Krillen had to dodge to the running feet like a cat in the middle of parade. Finally with a hiss and jump, he landed out of the range of feet. A good ten feet away.

“Wow. Without ki that was a good jump.”

“You’re part cat now. That’s a given.”

“Maybe for you. I wouldn’t know what things certain types of people can.” Krillen stood on his two legs feeling strangely unbalanced for the movement. “So a battle again.”

“Yup.”

“For Sayians got to be loving this. Fight, fight, fight.” Trunks looked down with a grim smile.

“Actually . . . I rather play duck, duck, goose with Marron when it’s only three of us there.”

“She’ll hold you too that.”

“I’ll be lucky If I won’t be grounded for ten years for everything. By that time she may be too old for that game.” Trunks looked around. “Where is she anyways?”

“Where else? With her mother.” Krillen saw the little shiny dot that was his daughter almost buzzing around his wife’s head. “She’s a mother’s child.”

Trunks slid both of his axes off his back and twirled them in his hands. The new challenge has presented itself and he was going to meet it. Trunks watched the others got battle ready. It was strange to see his father climbing up to the crow’s nest, away from the battle. Yet, remembering he was a mage now and that he understood game dynamics and such. It made sense. He was a long distance fighter and low hit point character. All though he wasn’t sure of the range his attacks had. He hoped his father knew his own magic range.

Vegeta could feel questioning eyes on him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his own son was the one doing it. He would understand partly but he had an idea. The look-out platform was too high for his magic to be effective. But he played enough games to know in these types of battles, there was always something to help the characters fight the battle. The problem was finding it. Looking at the screen the game would give clues or hints to what you could use and not use. Like a star above the item or it sparkled a bit or it was brightly colored. Yet, in the game it seemed like you couldn’t see the signs. His eyes scanned everything and everyone calculating what could be used and what couldn’t. Finally he saw the cannons on the upper deck. There were six cannons but only two people operating them. Nothing else seemed overly plausible to use. Deciding that had to be it, he stepped down on the cargo netting that connecting the crow’s next to the upper and lower deck of the ship.

Bulma watched as Vegeta was climbing the ship top to bottom. There was going to be battle and he was climbing the walls sort of speak.

“Battle stations men!” The captain yelled out as the enemy were coming in and fast.

X)(X

Videl helped Gohan with the homework and classwork he had missed the last few days. He seemed to catch on quickly. Like he was glad for the distraction for the drama in the house.

“Gohan. I think you need to get out here for a bit.” Gohan stilled his pencil on the last problem of the page.

“How can I? With them like this? What if they need me?”

“Gohan. They are stuck in a game. How are they going to need you exactly?” Gohan couldn’t ask that and didn’t even try.

“Come on. Sayianman outfit and let’s go fight some crime.”

“I didn’t know. I’m starting to think the whole Sayian thing was really stupid. I mean I didn’t want people to know I was . . . that I am . . . Ah! I can’t even talk!” Videl couldn’t stand it and grabbed his face.

“Gohan! Calm down. There are not dead. They are stuck in a video game. And here you have all your friends protecting their bodies. You don’t have to run yourself in circles.” She let go his face as her alarm was going off. She pressed to speak button. “Yes?”

“Miss Videl! A robbery down town is in process. Your men are pinned down. We need your help!”

“On my way!” She clicked off the button. “And you’re coming with me!” She grabbed Gohan by the arm and ran out of the room. “Out of the way! Emergency call!” Yamcha moved in time as a blur of Videl and Gohan was rushing out the door.

X)(X

Vegeta lit all the cannons with his flame breath attack. He had been right. The two would load them but it was up to him to aim and set them off. Loading time was insanity long for them. If he could, he would push them off the boat and do it himself but he couldn’t touch them at all. So in-between he would cast his lighting attack. It was an unfocused attack but the attack area expended. It killed off the weaken ones and weakened the others it didn’t kill off. The explosions to his right sounded off as all six cannons went off at the same time. The same area was being attacked each time. The enemies’ ship was taking heavy damage quickly. The technique style was working.

One final cannon attack and the pirate captain called them back.

“We done?” Vegeta was down from the upper deck so quick Bulma could have sworn he fazed down, yet with no ki here, that would have been impossible to do.

“No, this is a multi-part battle. In fact I believe we are due for a cut-scene here.”

“Multi-part battle?! How many parts are there going to be?”

“Well multi means more than one.” Bulma raised her sword ready to slice him for that remark when the ship started rocking hard enough to knock her off her feet.

“What now?!” She screamed over a loud, strange sound she wasn’t sure what it was.

“That sound.” Vegeta peered over the side and sighed seeing he was right. “ . . . must be universal sound.”

“What is it?!” Bulma screamed over to noise that was still happening.

“Something is raising out of the sea! If I had to guess the captain over there has a sea monster as a pet and is going to sic it on us!”

“Oh great!” Bulma pulled herself up with the help of the debris on the ship.

Huge, blue, tentacles started coming over the side, tipping it slightly. A big pointed head appeared above the railing with one giant eye in the middle of it. Vegeta actually looked repulsed.

“That the hell is that?”

“It’s a squid, dad.”

“Humans have these things on this planet?”

“Yes but they aren’t this size. . . . That we know of I should say.”

“And people thought my home world animals were revolving.” The ship tilted more as more tentacles found their way onto the ship. “The ship will capsize if we don’t get that . . . thing to back off.” Trunks cropped back on the end of one tentacle. The squid’s appendage moved back a bit.

“Everyone! Attack the tentacles! If the ship tips over, it’s game over for us.”

“In more ways than one possible.” Vegeta said that caused Trunks to recognize his meaning.

“I didn’t about that. If we do game over, we could be stuck here forever. No one there could think restart it. If that would work.”

“Trunks! Just kill the thing and we would have to worry about it!” Bulma said finding her footing and charged sword posed and ready for slicing. Trunks put that one fact aside and turned to his father.

“Try for the eye.” Vegeta smirked evilly.

“Gladly.”

Hey, I know it been awhile . . . again. Sorry. I have studying structure anatomy. Straight book learning was always my weak point and this was that class was . . . so I put everything on hold. Now I have kinesiology in the upper extremities and muscle injury treatment next. One book only class and one hands on class. Wish me luck. If this seems rushes I do apologize I wrote most of it in three hours before I posted it. I figured you waited long enough. Hope you like.