Chapter 5 - Cover-up

GOKU

THE GLASS of water was refreshing, even though it looked kinda different. It tasted the same in his world, too. He smiled, and he went for another one. But Colleen asked him to go to the living room, so he went there with the glass in hand.

"Are you sure you won't drink this wine?" Colleen asked again.

"No, they're bitter, and they kinda sting my throat. ChiChi used to tell me it's made of alcohol, which I don't really like." When he turned around, the glass he held shattered, which made her angry again. "Sorry for the fifth glass."

Colleen just exhaled. "It's okay. Just be careful!" Then she went for the broom again.

"So you hate anything that is alcoholic?" Andy asked.

"Yeah." He scratched his hair.

"Well you seem to be a good influence, then," Mandy replied. Goku just grinned at that remark. "So tell us what really happened."

"About what?" But before Mandy could say another word, a weird sound just appeared. He soon realized it was from Colleen's pocket. "What's that inside your shorts?"

She flinched, and seemed to be nervous. She was still sweeping, and so he tried to help her, but she refused.

"Are you sure?" She nodded. So Goku just went to the dispenser and fetched a glass of water. He got satisfied after drinking. He went for Colleen, who had eyes that were now wide open. He looked at the device she was holding, and realized that it was just a cellphone. "Why are you so nervous? Who called you?"

She didn't reply. He knew how cellphones worked, so he just sat on the floor while waiting.

"Just put it on speaker," Mandy said.

"—so make sure you haven't had a party or you'll be grounded. Bye, honey!"

"Who was that?"

"Her mom," Andy told him. Goku was confused at that. Why would she get nervous at her? Sure, she was nervous of her ChiChi, but she wasn't her mom, and he never met her. "Let's just say that her mom is scary, okay?"

"Oh, alright . . . So is she strong?"

"No, she's weak against you," Mandy said.

"Oh, so she's just strict."

"Yep!" Mandy said. There was something red on her cheeks when she said that.

"You know ChiChi?" Goku asked.

"No . . . Well, you did mention her, so I just went on with that, so . . . you know."

"We'll get to that later, but now—my parents are going home!" Then she went on pushing the three of them away. Goku just followed, while the other two were grunting. When she managed to get the three of them outside her house, she gave her two friends instructions: "Try giving Goku space in—anywhere far away from here, okay? I'll handle all these mess!"

The door shut. Andy quickly grabbed Goku's hand; Goku didn't realize he resisted. He scratched his head and looked above. The stars there, too, were like his. The moon was in half, usually in weird forms. The wind felt the same; it still blew like the river when he would swim for fishes to eat. He was excited for new people to fight, yet disappointed to feel no surge of strong energy. So he just continued to look up. He didn't know what to do.

"The night is cool, just like ours. It's the same, but different." Goku flew for it, but Andy made him stop. His feet was already away from the ground, and Andy still needed to jump high enough to reach them.

"Goku, you shouldn't fly!"

"Why?"

"Because . . . it's unnatural! The thought of it per se is!"

"Your words are unnatural," Mandy said.

"Just shut up!"

He couldn't listen to the words from them after that, even if they were loud. He just thought for a moment, and just looked above and decided to sit at the edge of the roof. It felt a little weird: he was about to eat a lot of food in Bulma's place. Well, at least he was a little stuffed from all that pizza. The wind was better here.

From then on, he would fight till his heart's content and help those new people. He began to stand back up and made a fighting stance.

"Hey!" Andy shouted. "You're gonna wreck her house into shambles! Stop!"

"Oh, don't worry. I'll be careful, I promise." He broke into a grin. And there he trained. He gave light kicks and punches all around him, enough for the house not to be destroyed. It felt kind of strange not having Vegeta in Lord Beerus' place, or at least to train with ten times gravity with King Kai. Or at least spar with Piccolo.

Speaking of them, he wondered how they were doing. He stopped training, looking down at their applause. They were clapping for him, just like the time when he joined the Martial Arts Tournament.

He kind of missed it.

"Wow, you're so fast! You *are* Goku from Dragon—" Then Mandy was cut short by Andy. He scolded him. It looked funny, and the way they looked the same made it more funny. "Okay, okay, geez! I was just caught in the moment!"

"You could have spilled it!"

"Spilled what?" Goku asked, now interested. "I heard 'dragon.' Were you going to say 'Dragon Balls'"?

"Uh, no, we don't know what that is," Mandy said, a lot more quickly, kind of nervous.

"Oh, okay. Let me tell you what they are then."

"Please, tell us for some time later. Colleen's parent's are almost arriving!" Then Andy tried shouted, "Goku, please come down here!"

Goku jumped down just near them, grinning. "Hey, I've been noticing, you two look very the same. Are you two siblings?" He grinned some more when they nodded.

"Cool, two siblings that look just alike! Must be something our world doesn't have."

"We're called twins, Goku. It's normal. You flying isn't." Mandy said, now relaxed again.

"Well, in my world, flying isn't really called normal, but I'm not really a human. And I haven't really seen twins where I'm at." Goku smiled.

"We know, so please, Goku, try to be more considerate and help us cover you up from her parents! They don't know you, they haven't seen or heard of you before, and they don't take male strangers that lightly," said Andy. He was walking back and forth, kind of shaking, and was now sweaty.

"One last question: how'd you know I'm not human?"

That stopped Andy from moving. He was a statue now, only for a second, though. He wasn't shaking now, but he sure was sweating a lot. "I, uh," he said, "well, you know, human strength aren't of your scale in power, and it's just massively absurd to consider you one."

Mandy hit his side with her elbow. "What he means to say is, since he loves aliens, he just assumed you are one. Also 'cause you're super strong!"

"Yes, yes." Andy nodded.

After that, Goku was now ready to follow their orders and was just standing by Colleen's house. He was waiting for one of them to say a word. This took long than he expected, and he got bored. He was now sitting, and—wait, he would just meditate while he would wait for them.

But they were so noisy. Even if they were whispering, it could still be heard by him. So he should take a deep breath. That's what he did, and he floated midair.

"Goku! Stop doing that!"

So he just resumed his meditation without floating. He wasn't quite sure when was the last time he meditated, but he sure did miss the feeling. Now, all he had to do is leave his mind blank . . .

He wasn't quite sure of how long he lasted, but he did stop when Mandy tapped his shoulders. Goku gave a questioning look.

"For now, you must hide in her basement. Is that okay to you?"

Goku thought for a moment. "Will there be food there?"

"But you just ate!" Andy shouted.

Damn! Couldn't he be noisier? Goku just shrugged that off, though. "I'm not hungry. Just asking."

"Yes and no; it's complicated," Andy said, sounding unsure.

Mandy went for the door. "Colleen!"

Before he was back inside her house, the twins had had to get passed her. She had been enraged, but still frightened, when she had been disturbed. She had reminded him of Bulma. They'd managed to make her agree in the end. Now, Goku was looking at the living room, and any sign of pizza boxes, and also the broken glass, just disappeared. She did a good job cleaning all of it.

"Let's go, Goku." Colleen went to an old door that was near the door of what seemed to be the bathroom, and was led downstairs. The steps were wooden, he bet, since they were squeaky. It was dark, and he blinked twice or thrice before the lights turned on. Colleen faced him, and her eyes told him he was still angry. "Promise me you won't come out unless I tell you so."

"Okay, but, can't I just fly away from here?"

"And make you seen from the others? Not a chance. I promise it won't take long." Colleen climbed upstairs.

"Colleen?"

"Yes?"

"Can I pee?"

It was confirmed that the door near the basement's door was for the bathroom. After he finished, he went to the basement, with Colleen slamming the door shut next. He sat at the steps, waiting for her to say he could go out.

What was he gonna do here?

He began punching and kicking the air again, and he did it with minimal effort not to make a sound. After for a few minutes, he got bored. He needed someone to spar with, or at least some heavy weights to put on his body. But where can he find—

"We're home!" a woman screamed, and it was followed with a sound of door slamming shut. Probably her mother.

"So you're not partying after all. Andy, Mandy, it's nice of you to be here." It was his father, he bet.

"Colleen, you reeked off alcohol!" It was the woman again. "Ugh! I'll let this pass for now. The business trip was are stressful!"

Goku, getting bored, climbed up the stairs and listened closely.

"We came here 'cause we don't want to bore Colleen out of her mind," Mandy said.

"Where's Aliza, Colleen? It's a surprise not to see her today. I hope you're not having a fight with her again." But she didn't seem like she meant it.

"She went home early; her dad disallowed her to stay late for today."

"What did she do this time?" It was her Colleen's father again.

"Gerard, you're making them uncomfortable . . . I'm sorry; please, have a seat. It must be tiring for you to just let you stand there," her mother said.

It went quiet for a little while. He thought about what they said. Goku knew Andy was lying. Who was she? And, why did she run away?

Oh well . . .

"Nothing much," Colleen said. "Her father just got . . . drunk again, that's all."

"Oh, really? Well, why won't we call her father?" Gerard said.

"No, you don't have to, Mr. Wilson," Andy urged.

"Kid, your father and I are close. We're practically brothers; I need to know how he's doing," Gerard said.

"But Dad," Colleen said, "aren't you disturbing them? Aliza said he needed privacy!"

"Since when did you have the decency to respect someone's privacy? I'm making this call," the mother scolded.

Even if Goku wouldn't be found, they'd still find out that something's wrong. He couldn't do anything about this. He'd just see how would this turn out. He took a step back—

One of the steps broke.

"What was that?"

He jumped, spun in the air, and backed away just in time before he could break it even more while

"Esther, stay here with the kids . . ."

Footsteps were slowly getting louder. Gerard would open up the door of the basement any sooner. That made him steady himself, getting ready, and he made him thrilled. There was a click.

The creak came with a loud thud as the door opened. Gerard didn't see him, though, that's for sure. He flew past him, but he was sure Gerard felt gust as he flew past him. He was lucky enough that Colleen's parents, especially her mother, didn't notice him running—

The door was locked.

Damn, he couldn't just run for it; he'd destroy it. "What was that?" he heard Esther.

He moved for the staircase, and it led toward a hallway. Thankfully, no sound was made, and they didn't seem to—

"Honey, I think someone's upstairs!" Esther shouted. Colleen and her friends were denying it, but they stopped once Gerard told them to shut up. The sound was rather too loud for their own good.

Then he heard the sound of running. He looked around. It was just a wide hallway with pink walls and four doors—and a doorway! He ran for it and leapt into the air and flew, curiously looking at Gerard who was scanning the hallway.

The first thing he noticed was a gun. And he was gritting his teeth, and he was rather bald. He moved from door to door, and then he stopped. He looked outside and saw Goku, barely, when he rose high up.

He was with the clouds now, and the night air was all to real to be fake. Everything in sight was different, wherever he looked. The city lights were beaming like stars.

He indeed was in a different world. He couldn't bring himself to believe it. This was probably the only situation of his life where he was completely clueless. He just flew toward somewhere.

And in that "somewhere," that's where he would start. He'd probably have a chance to find a special place to train here. *Now, we're talking!*

But he remembered what Colleen said. He couldn't just turn down her orders. He wanted to, though. He looked up; it was getting late. For now, he'd stay at Colleen for now. That's it.

Sighing, he descended, and sat at the roof of Colleen's house.

"Gerard, I told you we need to repair the stairs of this basement!"

He didn't listen to them shouting anymore. He'd just sit there for now. He stood up, punching rapidly through the air again. Training was what he could think of at that moment.

Well, he could sleep there, too. He yawned, outstretched his arms to exercise, and was jumping slightly. He was ready for sleep. He sat, smiling. But before he could lay down and sleep, something caught his attention.

Someone was standing by their fence that resembled that of a bush. He was staring at him. His eyes were wide, and he was smiling.