Disclaimer: <insert brilliant remark here>
Note: And we're back to two chapters at a time. I'm eager to finish this (personally I'm a little tired of this story line) so please bear with me as I attempt to put out about 4 semi-long chapters a week.
The Portal to Beyond: Chapter XV
"One thousand bottles of beer on the wall, one thousand bottles of beer!" Goten and Trunks sang. "Take one down and pass it around, one thousand bottles of beer on the wall. Ninety-nine bottles of beer..." And it went on and on.
It was about a week later and all present were bored out of their minds. They had exited the solar system some time ago and was currently some three light years away.
Vegeta, Goku, and all the rest were sitting in the chairs on the bridge having grown bored of sparring or training alone some time ago. They had even gotten tired of eating and that was pretty extreme for a saiyan.
Then a Klaxon siren went off. ChiChi rushed to the monitors thinking something was wrong and sighed when relief when she found out that it wasn't.
Gohan ran into the room, hair still wet from his recent shower. "What's wrong? Is everyone all right?"
"Hai Gohan. We're fine." ChiChi took her seat.
"Then what's going on?"
"We've just finally found a planet with the kind of metal that we need, that's all."
"That's all? THAT'S ALL?! We're finally able to complete our mission and you're acting indifferent!"
"Well we can't do anything until we rate the atmosphere and see if we can breathe it, send out a scouting party, gather our tools... basically we need a plan first."
"Fine." Gohan raised his ki to vaporize any excess water and sat down calmly. "So what do we do?"
"Uh Niichan, you're the smartest one here." He gulped at a look from ChiChi. "And ChiChi's the second. You two are the plan makers." The other saiyans nodded, leaned back in their seats, folded their hands in their laps, and waited.
"Okay. We first have to break into two different groups. The scouters and the miners. Tousan, you and ChiChi will be the group leaders. I'm sure you know which groups."
Both nodded and he continued. "Both Vegetas, Raditz, and Nappa will be in the scouting group with my Tousan. The rest will be miners. I made sure you were with ChiChi Kakarott."
"Arigatou," the saiyan replied.
During the planning period, ChiChi was checking over the air quality. "It's clean," she announced. "Although the gravity is twice that of Chikyuu."
Kakarott turned worried eyes to her. "Can you handle it?"
"I have no idea. I never trained in the gravity room because one person always need to be here to keep an eye on things and I knew Gohan would want to train some. I can only hope so."
"The onna should be able to," the older Vegeta spoke up, "She's strong enough."
"Well thank you for saying that but remember this for next time: I have a name."
"Sure you do *onna*. Whatever you say *onna*."
ChiChi growled and started to march up to him to teach him a lesson when Kakarott grabbed her by the waist. He was dragged a few feet before they both came to a complete stop.
"Well, now there's no doubt in my mind that you aren't my Kaasan," Gohan chuckled. "Though she's quite a bit more frightening."
ChiChi slapped at him playfully before she left the room for the storage area. "Someone better come help me carry this stuff or Gohan and I will be the only ones eating tonight!" she yelled back to them.
There was a stampede for the door and everyone of them go stuck. Goten wiggled through first and rushed down the hallway.
"I won! I won!" he shouted.
"Goten dear it wasn't a race." ChiChi said, smiling.
"Oh. I knew that," he gave her the classic sheepish Son smile and grabbed some tools.
***
After everything was piled before the door, Gohan waved the scouts out.
Five hours later they returned.
"What in the world took you so long?!" The ones that had remained on the ship asked.
Goku came in looking weary and sat down on the floor. "It was Vegeta's fault completely."
"Why? What did he do?" ChiChi asked.
Raditz growled in the older Vegeta's general direction and sat down in a nearby chair. "This planet has intelligent life."
"Oh?"
"Yes. They also have an area similar to Chikyuu's Los Vegas."
"Really?" Gohan asked, interested.
Nappa nodded. "Prince Vegeta got a little wrapped up at the roulet table."
"And?" Kakarott said. "That shouldn't have taken 5 hours!"
Goku sighed. "That wasn't we took so long. Vegeta won a lot of money."
"And?"
"He thought that he couldn't loose! So he bet one more time..."
"Go on!"
Vegeta came into the room and stared at everyone defiantly. "I bet it all on number 23 red. And I lost it all."
"That only took us 2 and a half hours though." the younger Vegeta replied. "We spent the other 2 and a half in prision."
Gohan and ChiChi both gasped. "How did you get in there?"
"The idiot tried to kill the dealer because he refused to give him his money back." Kakarott said grumpily. "They had ki supressors so they easily subdued us after we stopped Vegeta. It took us the whole time pleading with the cops! The worst thing was they couldn't even understand out language."
"English is the intergalactic trade language! I checked with Bulma before we left. Why couldn't they understand you?"
"Vegeta would only speak in the native saiyan language to give the officials a hard time. They wouldn't listen to the rest of us because he was the one who had actually done the crime. They had also remembered how former saiyans had destroyed their neighboring planet 200 years ago. Apparently those people hold lengthy grudges."
"I see. Where are we in terms of location?" Gohan asked.
It was Goku's turn to speak up. "We're about 200 miles away from the capital city."
"Okay then. Let's go!"
***
"You WHAT?!" Vegeta yelled.
"I said that you can't have that metal, alien!" A man with overalls asked. They were down at a mining company trying to get some assitance. The man speaking with them was balding, pudgy, he had a large nose with eyes that were too close together, and he was *extremely* ugly. He was that planets version of a redneck. "You wanna make sumthin' of it?"
"Look sir," Gohan began. "You obviously don't know what exactly is going on. If we don't get that metal, everyone in this dimension is going to die!"
"Yeah. Yeah. That excuse isn't new. Jus' last week I had a feller come in here sayin' his apartment buildin' needed the materials." The man spat on the ground and continued to chew. "It fell down last week but that doesn't mean that he wasn't lyin'!"
They whole entire group sweatdropped and Goku tried his hand at this. "If we do something for you will you give it to us?"
"Well I dunno. Ya see I reckon I would have ta take that up with the mayor of this here fair city."
"Well tell us where he is before I have to hurt you!" ChiChi grabbed the short man by his shirt and brought him up to her eye level.
"I can't. Ya have to have a appointment! The waitin' list's so long I've been waiting eva since last fall!"
ChiChi released him, angry, and stomped out of the office. The rest followed, each submersed in their own troubled thoughts.
"Stupid, uncivilized, redneck, RETARD!" ChiChi kicked a garbage can as she walked by it. "These fools don't even care that we're on a quest to save DIMENSIONS!" Kakarott approached her and slung an arm around her shoulders.
"ChiChi, they just don't believe us. Would you believe it if you were in their shoes?"
"No but--"
"You see? They can't be blamed for this. We'll just have to *make* someone listen..."
"I hear you're looking for the 'junsei metaru'," a black clothed figure stepped from the shadows of a back alley. He was about Gohans height and even his face was bathed in darkness.
"Who are you? And how do you know Japanese?" Gohan asked suspiciously.
The figure looked about him cautiously. "This isn't the place to discuss this. Follow me."
With the exchange of both confused and uncertain glances, the rather large group followed the man between two buildings and into a whole new world of sorrowful gloom.