Chapter Three

Alternate Chapter Title: Goku Remembers Once Being in A Hospital—Poor Goku Remembers Squicky, Revolting Things Such As Needles And Carrots, Oh Yuck; Hospitals And Needles And Carrots, Oh Yuck; Hospitals And Needles And Carrots, Oh Yuck—Sounds Kinda Like “Lions And Tigers And Bears, Oh My…Okay, I’ll quit that really bad Frank Baum/Wizard-of-Oz joke…

(A/N: The word “Squicky” is a relatively new slang word I had learned on the ‘Net, and it’s a combination of Squirmy with Icky. It means *Very* revolting or loathsome, such as the fact that needles and carrots give Goku a serious case of the Squicks, the Squirmy Icks. Urban-Dictionaries-Dot-Com was the slang dictionary of my choice. As for why some BatB characters, other than the genetically strong Vincent, get to live so long, I can only say now that in Devin’s case, it is probably a combination of the proper nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle, along with some special medical technique and industrial-strength antioxidants and very good luck—he could’ve been poisoned by his antioxidants, or he could’ve developed a deathly allergy to those industrial antioxidants from constantly ingesting them in large quantities. Also, the Dating Systems, and The Great Mutation, and Vincent’s incredibly slow aging. See a/n in chapters 1 and 2. How did Devin become a licensed medical doctor, and what happened to friend, Charles, "the Dragon Man"? The answer to that question and to any other question is either I am not sure yet, or I do know for sure, but I really don’t like to spoil a surprise that I’m trying to cook-up. Please be patient; the details will come as needed. (~_^)…)

Goku and Piccolo were phasing in and out of semi-consciousness, and Piccolo overheard various snippets of conversation:

"You know, Mouse, when your ancestor of the same name was your age, he was in several ways just like you! Thank you! I miss that old man; you brought him back to me for this moment. Now: we need to bandage these two men and lay them on stretchers so I can carry them down to safety without injuring them. Even Catherine was not so mauled when I first laid eyes on her!" The voice speaking to a "Mouse" (the descendant of a previous Mouse) was a voice that had in it both the fearsome strength of a growling lion and the soft velvety gentleness of a purring kitten. Piccolo found the source of that voice to either be a potential friend or a very honorable, trustworthy, interesting foe----he wasn't sure which, as the pain of being moved and the comfort of being taken to safety seemed to had momentarily cancelled each other, and his half-sleeping mind was in no shape to go into serious bouts of reasoning and/or logic. All Piccolo can do is hope that the owner of that quasi-feline voice should prove to be a good man.

Goku and Piccolo had lapsed again into complete unconsciousness, and this time, it was Goku's turn to half-wake-up into semi-consciousness. He felt something binding him all over his face, neck, head, and body: they feel like bandages. ‘I Hate Bandages! Bandages are used in hospitals, and hospitals serve bad food, overcooked food! They overcook the vegetables, even the ones I normally like, and they also serve the ones I hate. One hospital fed me carrots, lots and lots of carrots, cooked carrots, mushy overcooked carrots----they smelled sooooooo damn bad! Soft foods----don't the staff realize that their patients would like to Chew their food!!!! Soft foods, including soft carrots! I hate all carrots, I even hate crunchy raw carrots, but I especially hate soft, cooked carrots!!!!!!!’ Goku was obsessed about thinking about his past bad experiences with hospitals and carrots, that he forgot to pay attention to what was going on around him, although he did notice that something feeling like a gurney or a stretcher was placed underneath him, and someone was busy tying that object to him, or him to that object, he can't tell which.

"Now look at his face, Devin! I say he's tortured with pain! Medicate him STAT!" That was a strange-sounding voice, having some feline qualities. "I don't want to carry him when he's in such hot, burning ----!”—then the feline voice lowered to a whisper—“Look in your toolbag, Dev! Certainly you have something clean and unused to kill that damned…”—reduced to an even softer whisper—“----pain! I know we don't want to overmedicate these poor men, but we don't wish the opposite, either!"

The other man responded, with a raspy, gravelly, elderly-sounding voice, a stereotypical "Old Country Doctor". The "Old Doctor", probably "Devin", said something about a "syringe"-----‘Hey, wait a minute, isn't a syringe a thing usually equipped with a NEEDLE on the business end???!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!’ But before Goku can move a muscle, something sharp had punctured his skin and went right home into his blood stream, and the sharp pain of a needle-puncture was soon replaced with a soothing numbness; so Goku lapsed into full unconsciousness………

To be continued...