We're So Screwed [Gohan]

[Jean Briefs]

Leaving Capsule Corp was the right thing to do, wasn't it? He couldn't stay there anymore... there was no way, and, it wasn't as if he couldn't return there again sometime soon. Jean just had things that he had to do, well, at least he was trying to get them straight in his head. So far, his plan seemed pretty flawed...

First of all, he wasn't sure where to begin. If the dragonballs were gone, as they were in his own time, then it meant there was no way to bring his dad back... But, they weren't supposed to be gone, that never should have happened at all, not here.

The boy swung his pack over his shoulder and began to look around, walking only until he could make it to the edge of the city. If he could help it, he didn't want any sort of enemies spotting him, hence the reason why he was refraining himself from flying... but man, he really hated walking, so time consuming.

Honestly, Jean hadn't a clue as to why he was glancing back and forth as he was, aside from maybe keeping a look out for possible followers of Dr. Hypnos. Could never be too careful. Lay low, get out of the city, and then... what? Maybe he would figure it out on the way. Besides, anything was better than sitting on his hands waiting for something to happen. Speaking of, the boy decided to sit down for a moment.

[sonz]

Alright, before anything: Gohan needed to consult Bulma. Bulma was a like mother to the young man and the person that knows his father best next to his mother and Krillin. His unkempt black hair whipping through the air, he soared through the skies, his body tucked tightly together. He was approaching the only city that wasn't under Frieza's control, thanks to the Capsule Corp. boss herself. The demi-saiyan has known of Bulma's brilliance, the memories of him babysitting Bulla while he watched the much older blue haired genius at work in the laboratory. That was back in the day: during the days when Gohan was much more innocent and less ignorant in the ways of the world. However, he always knew what was going on the world. Ever since he was four and his father was killed by Dr. Hypnos, Gohan forced himself into training. That day, he realized that he was one of earth's last chances of peace.

There were people that could help him. That's what the teen was doing: searching for friends of his father. Bulma was his main focus right now, for he wanted to learn of Frieza's weapons and what she knew about the tyrant and his army in general. Maybe he could hear another one of her stories of when she was traveling with Goku when they were young. Gohan smiled. The stories were always a joy to hear.

Not wanting to draw attention to himself, Gohan quickly lowered himself to the ground as he entered the city. Once he was the edge, Gohan, clad in his father's siganture turtle gi, landed and began to walk. A powerful stride in his step though still approachable, the black haired man walked into the city. His features relaxed, and as Gohan walked, his gaze fell onto a (random) blue haired boy. The son of Goku noticed that the child's hair wasn't just a normal shade of blue, it was the same shade as Bulla's. That meant, this kid must've been a relative to the Briefs family. Examining the boy before stepping forward, this thought was confirmed: the kid was wearing a capsule corp. jacket.

Gohan walked toward the boy and although he had what seemed to be a neutral look on his face, it appeared as stern as face. The face of someone hardened by dark times and constant battle. Stopping in front of the sitting boy, Gohan kneeled down in front of the boy's way, noticing he was leaving the city. Attempting to pull off his father's signature Son grin, Gohan smiled at the boy. "...Are you lost, kid?"

[Jean Briefs]

Continuing to sit cross-legged in the middle of the street, the boy considered turning back for a single moment. But his thoughts were brought abruptly to a halt, recalling what he'd said to Bulla about having to leave, and knowing that he'd hate himself if he didn't do something. Well, that ended that. Okay, that settled it, he was definitely going to get out of this city... Huh?

Who in the world was that?

It figured, even as he tried to draw absolutely no attention to himself whatsoever, some goon still managed to notice him. Whoever it was, the tall figure was clearly approaching, and he was headed in the direction opposite of Jean. Further into the city, rather than away.

It wasn't long before the man was nearly shoving his face right into Jean's, or rather that's how it seemed, what with him kneeling down and getting so close like a creepy weirdo. At first, he raised an eyebrow, turning his head to completely face the orange clad person. What he was met with was a wide grin, not what he had expected in the slightest.

His response first consisted of him jumping back onto his feet, backing a few feet away from the person, and then his eyes momentarily widened in awe. That face. Something about it seemed familiar. "No, I was just thinking... about leaving. Um," he still wasn't getting it, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to leave it alone, so he just outright asked. "Do I know you?"

[sonz]

His eyes were warm yet stern. His smile was forced but seemed to do the job. It was obviously that Gohan was creeping out the boy. Something was extremely odd, though. Gohan felt like he knew this child: maybe he was a relative of Bulma? Maybe he met him during the many times Bulma brought one of Bulla's cousins over or something. Dropping his head in thought, Gohan's eyes fell to the ground. The child looked like a Brief's family member but if that were the case, Gohan should've met him before. As the boy answered, Gohan stood up straight and the height difference was now obviously: Gohan stood a good two feet over the blue-haired child. "Mm," Gohan muttered, staring down curiously at the mysterious youth.

"You're too young to be going anywhere by yourself, kid. Frieza's goons usually patrol the outskirts of the city." Gohan sat, still glaring daggers. When the boy voiced his questions, Gohan's stern face collapsed into innocence. Just like his father, he would look up into the sky thoughtfully, scratching his scarred cheek. "You shouldn't know me. Are you a relative of Bulma Briefs?" he asked, still looking into the sky.

[Jean Briefs]

The familiarity was eating away at the boy so badly, he wished the man would only answer his question. Instead, the orange-clothed man unintentionally insulted him by refusing to allow him leave to go! Jean knew full well that Frieza and Dr. Hypnos together had this whole planet in lockdown, there were probably patrols everywhere, but right now those kinds of things... as much as they did matter to him, knowing that he should try to avoid enemies like that. Well, if he did encounter them, he would probably be so furious that he would attack Frieza’s men without wasting a second to think about it. Those jerks deserved whatever they got.

Jean could feel his face growing tense at his own thoughts, and he was gritting his teeth it seemed as well. Back to reality now, the main thing about this man that was bothering him was the way he was glaring. It was like he was staring sternly at the boy, as if he had done something wrong. ”Listen, mister, I’m not afraid of any of those guys,” Jean folded his arms over his chest stubbornly, he just couldn’t fathom why this person would care enough to try to stop him from going when he didn’t even know him!

Now, there was something. The fact that Bulma was brought up seemed to help a bit. ”I am. So then, you must know her?”

[sonz]

Gohan smiled in response to the kid's bravery. The blue haired boy reminded Gohan of himself as a young child, ready to take on the world. This child showed some guts for sure. Running a rough hand through his black locks, Gohan looked to the sky as the boy looked at him. There was an awkward silence then the child spoke. Okay, so he was related to Bulma. How come the two have never met before? Gohan had met a majority of the Briefs family during their little get together, those serving as an escape from the life he lived. Constantly fighting for his life against the saiyans, living in seclusion with his mother. Those parties or events or whatever they were at the time were a breath of fresh air for the saiyan fighter.

"Hm, you're only a kid so I could've met you as a baby." Gohan reasoned, talking to himself more than anything. The adult adopted the typical thinking position, stroking his chin in thought. "Well, I'm Son Gohan." he said, not really knowing what else to do.

[Jean Briefs]

Nah, that couldn’t be it... There were plenty of reasons why the suggestion of this guy having possibly met him as a baby could not be possible. One of those reasons being that Jean never would have sensed a familiarity if that was the case, while the other, more reasonable explanation being that Jean wasn’t even from around here. Nah, it was something else.

The boy watched the older teenager, he was beginning to wonder if maybe it was getting to the point where instead of wasting his time further, he should just fly off and ditch the guy. Heh, that would really throw him for a loop! ”Yeaaah... well, okay then. I’m just gonna—“

It couldn’t be...

Jean could hit himself for being so stupid and not realizing it, he had seen a picture of this guy before, it was at his house! He looked so... well, he looked almost exactly the same, was probably the best way to put it. ”No way! You’re Gohan?!” a wide grin spread across his face, he had heard stories about this saiyan... Err, not this one because he was bound to be different from the one his father had known, but still! It was awesome.

”I’m Jean Briefs," he introduced himself with a sense of pride. And, if this Gohan was anything like the one he had heard about, then the boy knew that he must also be trustworthy. "Bulma’s my grandmother.”

[sonz]

Gohan stood there, now adjusting his sleeves awkwardly. The man was a near-spitting image of his father and if this boy was related to Bulma, then the boy should've seen the resemblance between the two warriors. Bulma had a lot of pictures of herself and Goku over the years anyway. His eyes narrowed and Gohan looked down at the kid once more, the feeling that they knew each other biting at him. The kid's response surprised him, Gohan stumbling back and throwing his arms up into the air. "Yeah..I'm Gohan.." he muttered awkwardly, just as surprised as the saiyan hybrid in front of him.

Then the kid introduced himself as Jean Briefs. That confirmed his suspicions, he was indeed a relative of Bulma. His black eyes lit up in response, the strained Son signature grin appearing once more. "Oh, so I have to--" he paused at the secondary part of Jean's introduction. Bulma was his grandmother? She only had two kids, Bulla and her sibling were both too young. This must've been a joke. His smile faded into a frown, Gohan now examining the boy known as Jean. His paranoia was starting to kick in once more: what if this was one of Frieza's tricks to draw him out and allow Vegeta or any one of the saiyans to swoop in from no where to finish the job. Gohan took a cautious step back, clenching his fists and looking around.

His gaze finally landed on Jean once again, Gohan now gritting his teeth. "Bulma doesn't have any grandchildren! You're lying!" he shouted, his clenched fist uncurling and a dim light appearing in the middle. This boy had about ten seconds to set his story straight or Gohan was going to attack. Maybe in another time, Gohan would've been able to walk around without worrying about anything, but he was a Saiyan. A Saiyan not under Frieza's rule and fighting for the good of earth. "Who are you!?"

[Jean Briefs]

Uh oh... What had he done to make this guy so upset? Jean nervously took one step backward... and then another, just for good measure. ”Ah, yeah well...” why was he in such a habit of making people think he was lying to them...? Seeing a light begin to emanate from Gohan’s hand, that was cause enough for him to make haste with his explanation. His eyes widened at the presence of fear, he hoped now more than ever that this Gohan wasn’t so vastly different from the one he had heard about.

The boy gulped nervously and waved his arms out in front of his face. ”That’s right! At least, the one you know doesn’t have any!” quickly he tried to explain the situation, but here came the most difficult part, what if Gohan didn’t believe him? And honestly, he didn’t know what assumptions the saiyan had drawn from what he thought was a lie. He didn’t have to threaten in such haste...!

”I told you my name already. The thing is, I’m not entirely from around here... There’s sorta this other timeline and well, if you don’t believe me you can ask my grandmother yourself!”

[sonz]

Gohan listened to the boy, the light in hand dimming down and then completely washing away. His eyes watched the boy warily, dropping his arms back to his side while he stood up straight. Another time? What nonsense was this boy spewing? Had he hit head too hard or something? The child could be a young soldier of Frieza's army, designed to draw the pure man's attention. No, that couldn't be it: Gohan was just being way too paranoid. Paranoia is something that has haunted him for the past couple of years, ever since he first encounter with Frieza's soldiers. The thirteen year old (at the time) had been forced to watch his back, train crazily every day just to end up short during his fight with Vegeta. Now, some kid claiming he was related to Bulma was now claiming to be from another time. Was time travel even possible?

"Explain yourself." Gohan said sternly, looking down at the boy.

[Jean Briefs]

"It's not gonna be easy to explain... you already doubt me," the boy muttered stubbornly. Was it ever easy to explain anything to someone who already had his or her mind set on the fact that you were lying? Jean wasn't sure what he could do to break that in Gohan, there had to be some way he could prove that he was telling the truth. Adding the fact that someone could be listening in on them on top of everything else, and he was becoming a bit wary himself about explaining the whole truth of the matter.

"Okay, but you better believe me, Gohan... My dad said you were a good person, aren't you? So you'll listen right?" he sighed but remained hopeful. Lowering his voice, the boy brought it down to a whisper with the intention of being as secretive as possible... Messing with time wasn't exactly something that many people should know about, Gohan was the only one who Jean felt he could trust enough to tell, if anyone else heard... that would be bad.

"My father is Bulma's son... but it looks like he was never born in this timeline, too many things went wrong, I guess. But that isn't why we're here, we came here to help...!"

[sonz]

Gohan looked at Jean with the same stern and disbelief. Time travel was impossible? This kid had to be smarter than that, however. Maybe if he were lying, the blue-haired boy would've made up an even better excuse. However, Gohan wasn't fully convinced yet. "Damn right I already doubt you." he said, pointing at Jean. "You better have a good reason, Jean, if that's your real name." Gohan said before walking forward and kneeling down to come to eye-level with the supposed time traveler.

"Your father?" he muttered. Gohan closed his eyes, a vein bulging out of the side of his way in aggravation. Why was he even wasting his time listening to this kid's bull? Gohan should've left and headed to Capsule Corp to talk to Bulma about his father's friends. Once Jean said something about something going terribly wrong, Gohan was intrigued. "Well, what went wrong then?"

[Jean Briefs]

"My father, yes, Trunks Briefs... And why would I lie about my own-- never mind, it doesn't matter I guess," the boy sighed once more, finding this whole thing to be plenty more difficult than he had thought it would be.

"Dr. Hypnos happened... he shouldn't be here. At all," of course, now the boy was betting on the hope that Gohan knew who this man was. He had to know though, didn't he? The doctor had been messing around in this timeline for a while now, it had to be long enough for someone like Gohan to notice! "You do know him, don't you? He... stole the Briefs' time machine and ended up in your timeline before my dad could stop him... My grandmother spent years making a new one just so that we could try to fix things."

Jean waited to see if what he had said would sink in with the saiyan... Judging by the response Gohan had given earlier where he had so kindly almost attacked him, the boy was even standing there prepared to brace for an attack or something... He didn't want it to have to be that way, as much as he liked to believe he was strong enough to fight people, there was no way he'd ever be able to last against his father's mentor.

[sonz]

Gohan was still skeptical but what the boy was saying, it was only a vocal interpretation of what the entire population of earth was thinking. Dr. Hypnos, Frieza, his whole take over, it wasn't supposed to happen or rather, they wished it didn't happen. This oppression was ridiculous and maybe this kid was just trying to escape the facts by fabricating his own little world. His own little world where Dr. Hypnos. Indeed it did sound like a lie but young Jean was hell-bent about it, so set on proving to Gohan that he was correct. All the Briefs had above average intellect (except Bulma's cousin Ed, but let's not talk about him) and would've put on a bigger and more believable lie than that. Having his arms across his chest, Gohan nodded. "I do know who Dr. Hypnos is: Frieza's adviser."

After hearing Jean out, Gohan simply looked at him and sighed, bring a hand up to his face. "Huh, you don't say." he said sarcastically. "You and your father, Trunks, came to fix things. How's that going?" Gohan was giving this kid one last chance to explain himself fully. Actually, the adult still though the short boy was a child spy of Frieza's and was ready to wipe him off the face of the earth. Then again, ti was a child and...what if he's wrong? What if, by some small chance, this kid was telling the truth?

[Jean Briefs]

"Agh! You're impossible!" Jean knew full well that Gohan was displaying sarcasm as opposed to understanding, and that was... that was just plain frustrating. If he hadn't already decided judging by who he was that the man could be a possible ally to them, then he would probably have abandoned his attempts at explaining already. With each new comment from Gohan, Jean's attempts began to seem more and more hopeless.

"I don't make a habit of lying to people, okay? My mother always said it was obvious to her whenever I tried to lie because I had too many tells. That's why I don't even try anymore. So believe me when I tell you that what I have to say is no lie," he had a feeling that even his explanation would have no impact on the older saiyan, but it was worth a shot regardless... Especially since it was the truth.

"It's not going so good anymore... My dad was at the North Pole, trying to help, when someone k--killed him," the boy spoke sadly, glancing away from Gohan, hoping that he wouldn't see how upset it made him every time he had to say it aloud. "I need to bring him back somehow... I can't help anyone without him... That's why I left Capsule Corp."

[/blockquote]