"Lord Beerus… wake up, Lord Beerus," a soft voice coaxed the god of destruction awake.
"Why'd you interrupt my nap, Whis?" Beerus answered with an irritated yawn, "it can't have been that long yet, and I was having the most riveting dream!"
"My apologies Lord Beerus, but that will have to wait; there is a situation on planet Earth that demands your attention immediately."
With a heaving sigh, the cat lifted himself from his bed, stretched, and faced his attendant. "Alright Whis, lay it on me."
With a wave of his staff, the angel displayed a video feed before the god, depicting a brutal scene.
A young man, engulfed in flaming golden light and armed with a deadly blade was slashing an adversary to bits. Beerus could barely make out the features of the butchered victim; it appeared to be some kind of cyborg with pale, white skin. Once the young man had blasted away the remains, he confronted his adversary's companion, a tall horned being, whom upon further inspection, Beerus recognized.
"That's… King Cold, isn't it?" Beerus realized, before the young warrior blasted a hole in the despot's chest, "er, was."
"Indeed, Lord Beerus."
"Huh.. wait, so that means that mechanical monstrosity was FRIEZA?" Beerus exclaimed, "What the hell happened to him?"
"Well.." Whis answered, shifting the scene with his staff, "He was defeated by a Saiyan named Son Goku, and almost died."
Sure enough, the scene showed Frieza battling a man on planet Namek with a similar golden aura to the youth's, ultimately losing and getting caught in the planet's explosion.
"Heh, serves him right. I told him to wipe out all those monkeys; if he hadn't done such a half-assed job of it, it wouldn't have come back to bite him," Beerus mused, before noting, "What really baffles me is that golden power Son Goku and this young man share. Any idea what it is, Whis?"
"Son Goku was only able to defeat Frieza after achieving a prophesied state of Saiyan legend: the Super Saiyan," Whis replied, "and it appears this boy holds the same power."
"Super Saiyan…" Beerus mused, "why does that sound so familiar… Super Saiyan…"
"God!" he exclaimed, snapping into realization, "I was dreaming about fighting a Super Saiyan god!"
Whis pursed his lips, "I don't believe I've ever heard of such a thing."
"Well then, we'll just have to ask these Super Saiyans ourselves, won't we?" Beerus decided, "good find Whis, though, how did you know to wake me for this? You didn't see my dreams did you?"
"Of course not, Lord Beerus. You see, this young man who just slayed Frieza and Cold is quite the anomaly," Whis responded, "there appears to be no record of him in history; for a Super Saiyan to have just come out of nowhere, only a year after the first one in a millennium no less… it's quite suspicious."
With a grave expression, Whis continued, "what's more, I detected a temporal distortion on Earth shortly before he showed up."
Beerus gaped in confusion and anger, "But that would mean—"
"He could very well be from the future, my lord." Whis finished.
"Well, if this mysterious youth really has broken the laws of nature, then he will pay dearly for it."
"Do you feel that presence, master?" Kibito, the attendant to the Supreme Kai, questioned worriedly.
"I do, Kibito; it feels ancient and powerful even by my standards," answered Shin, the aforementioned deity, "and it inches closer by the second. Stay vigilant."
With a blinding flash of light, two figures emerged on the Sacred World of the Kais.
Shin eyed the strangers suspiciously, before noticing the strangers' appearances. His calm demeanor noticeably faltered as he realized just who they were, but he quickly regained it.
"You're the god of destruction, aren't you?" he addressed.
"That's me," Beerus gave a smug, fanged grin, "so you better tell me what I need to know. Where is the standing Supreme Kai?"
Shin blinked in surprise, "I'm ah, right here."
Beerus's eyes widened before he doubled over in laughter.
"THIS LITTLE PIPSQUEAK? IS THE NEW SUPREME KAI? OH THAT'S RICH WHIS; YOU TOLD ME HE WAS GREEN, BUT THIS IS JUST RIDICULOUS!"
Kibito growled in anger, and was about to protest that this was no way to speak to the Supreme Kai, but was silenced by his master.
"Now now Lord Beerus, you shouldn't be so quick to judge," Whis chided, "especially when we're here on very pressing matters."
At this, Beerus ceased his laughter and cleared his throat.
"Right. I'm sure you've sensed the disturbance on Earth by now?"
Shin's eyes widened in horror.
"Earth?!"
"Obviously, you haven't," Beerus sighed, having half a mind to chew the young Kai out for his ineptitude, but decided against it before motioning to Whis.
With a tap of his staff, Whis showed Shin and Kibito the recent developments on Earth, and explained the situation.
"And so, we've come to see if our suspicions about this young man are true," the angel finished.
Nodding, Beerus asked, "and you have kept the time rings safe, I hope?"
"Of course," Shin responded, a bit weary of the god of destruction's attitude, "follow me."
The four then made their way through the planet, the Supreme Kai in the lead, until they reached where the time rings were being kept. Shin brought out a black chest and opened it for all to see. Inside the chest, upon a dark red cushion, sat two rings, one silver… and one green.
"All I needed to see."
Beerus eyed the green ring angrily, and with a growl, turned to walk away.
"Come on Whis!" he barked, "let's get this over with so I can go back to sleep."
As the pair began to leave, Shin quickly followed suit, panicking.
"Wait, Lord Beerus! What are you going to do?" he demanded.
"Isn't it obvious?" the god of destruction responded, "this arrogant child is messing with things that no mortal has any place in. I'm going to destroy him, and the Earth along with it."
"No!" the now panicked Supreme Kai pleaded, "you musn't destroy that planet!"
Furrowing his brow in irritation, Beerus admonished the young Kai's pleas.
"Shin, Earth has become the nexus for a completely volatile temporal distortion," Beerus explained, "even when Kais like yourself travel through time, they are meant only to observe. But this boy has meddled with the affairs of Earth; for goodness sake, he slayed a galactic emperor, and now he's interacting with the Earthlings! The planet has become a temporal anomaly; there's no telling what ramifications this could have. It must be erased!"
"Lord Beerus, I'm begging you!" Shin continued while falling to his knees before Beerus, "I promise I will take full responsibility for whatever the consequences are, just please… spare the Earth."
After a moment of deliberation and a heaving sigh, Beerus looked to Whis, who merely shrugged in response.
"Fine," Beerus relented, "I'll do this one favor for you; the Earth will be spared, but the boy still goes."
Shin nodded, and was about to thank him, before the cat grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off the ground, to the horror of the onlooking Kibito.
"Let's make one thing clear," the god of destruction said with a deadly stare, "if this little stunt results in so much as a teensy dip in our universe's mortal level, I will have your head. You understand?"
"I-I understand, Lord Beerus."
"Good," Beerus said before dropping the Supreme Kai and resuming his walk away
"Th-thank you very much for your generosity, Lord Beerus!" Shin exclaimed meekly.
Beerus turned his head towards the Kai, with a sly grin on his face.
"But of course my young friend. No need to thank me, I'm just trying to show some love to the new guy! Let's work together nicely from now on."
As Whis's staff glowed with light and the pair began to leave, the angel let out a small chuckle while regarding Beerus.
"You know Lord Beerus, threatening the life of someone who your own life is tied to might come across as a little hollow."
"Shhh, Whis! Not so loud… he doesn't know that yet."
With that, the two deities were finally off of the Sacred World of the Kais.
"Did… Did you hear that Kibito?" the shaken Shin asked his attendant.
"I… most certainly did, master."
The two kais looked at each other in confusion and disbelief at what had just transpired. After they brushed off their shock, Kibito asked the question which was on both of their minds.
"That ah, last bit of information withstanding, do you really think it's the right move to risk so much, even to prevent the release of Majin Buu?"
"I hope so, Kibito."
It had been quite an eventful day for Son Goku.
The Saiyan warrior was so close to finally getting home to Earth after a year on planet Yardrat honing his skills and reigning in his newly found Super Saiyan power. But things quickly went wrong as he sensed that Frieza was not only alive, but heading to Earth… with a three hour head start on him! He was going to make his move and use the Yardats' instant transmission technique to get to Earth once the fighting started, but was surprised when he found that another power appeared out of nowhere and took care of Frieza for him.
As it turned out, the mysterious warrior was a Super Saiyan from the future, and if that wasn't strange enough, he was also the son of Vegeta and Bulma! So weird. The kid, Trunks as he had called himself, had brought with him some dire news. In the near future, Goku was supposed to die to a heart virus, before a pair of killer androids show up and kill all his friends. Luckily, Trunks had come bearing gifts, as he now had medicine for the virus, and three years to train for the threat. So yeah. Quite the eventful day.
And now, he had to figure out what to tell all his friends.
As Goku made his way back to them his talk with Trunks, he realized he had absolutely no clue what he was going to tell them. I mean, what good way is there to drop such a bomb on your friends after seeing them in so long?
"Hey Dad, what did that guy want with you?" asked Gohan upon greeting his father.
"Oh uh, you know…" Goku stammered, "nothing really!"
"You really expect us to believe you spent all that time talking about nothing?" Bulma questioned suspiciously.
Goku just flashed his signature grin as he laughed while scratching the back of his head.
"Well, if you won't tell them, then I will," said Piccolo flatly.
"You heard all that?!" Goku exclaimed with a gasp.
"These ears do more than just look big you know."
"Please Piccolo," Goku panicked, "you can't tell-"
"Don't worry, I won't say anything that will endanger your friend," Piccolo assured, "But the rest of us all deserve a chance to change our destiny, not just you. That boy was from the future, and came with a dire warning."
Piccolo proceeded to explain the impending threat of the androids. The Z warriors listened in shock and disbelief before redoubling their resolve; they were determined to train and fight to save their future.
As they thought ahead to the three years of intense training which lay ahead of them, the group noticed a shining light in the sky.
"Hey look!" Yamcha exclaimed, "There he is!"
Sure enough, upon further inspection, the Z warriors could make out their new lavender haired friend in some sort of yellow flight vessel—presumably his time machine. The mysterious youth waved kindly to his new allies.
However, the farewell was cut short by a swift ki blast piercing the hull of the time machine.
The yellow machine began to fall until it crashed to the ground, with Trunks just barely able to escape the wreckage. Everyone looked around and expanded their senses, but they could not feel any presence which could have assaulted the young man. That is, until a purple figure appeared before him, clutching him by his throat.
"We have to help him!" the young Gohan exclaimed, and with everyone else nodding in agreement, the Z warriors took off towards the scene. As the group flew over at top speed, Goku couldn't help but feel uneasy about this new foe. They were manhandling Trunks with no effort, but he couldn't even sense any power from them! Something was definitely fishy.
Trunks knew that there were risks to time travel. He knew that things could end up going very, very wrong. But when he hopped into that time machine this morning, he did not expect that he'd end up suspended in the air, at the mercy of an anthropomorphic purple cat, who was presently choking him out while a strangely dressed blue man with a staff watched the whole thing idly. Out of the infinite number of mishaps that could incur with his mission, this was not one he saw coming.
"So, mortal," the purple cat demanded, "what gave you the arrogance to believe that you could so vilely violate the laws of nature, and face no consequence for it?"
Trunks gasped for air, making no sound more than a choke.
"Hmph, well, no matter," the cat said, "it's not like anything you say is going to save you now."
"HEY! LET HIM GO!"
At the sound of Goku's voice, Trunks turned to see that the Z warriors had come to his aid.
"Ah, it's you Son Goku," the purple being said cooly, "a pleasure to meet you. I was impressed to learn that you defeated Frieza, but it seems you needed this meddling brat to finish the job."
"I said. LET HIM GO!" Goku repeated, ignoring the remark.
"I'm afraid I can't do that," the cat sighed, "you see, this young man has already caused irreparable damage to this timeline, by killing Frieza. I must destroy him before he can cause any more harm."
"Harm?!" exclaimed an angered Krillin, "This kid's only trying to save our lives!"
"It matters not what his intentions are; there are larger things at risk here than your mortal minds could even begin to fathom!"
"And who are you to pass such weighty judgments yourself?" growled Piccolo.
"B-Beerus the destroyer!" stammered a shell shocked Vegeta.
Everyone's eyes fell on the Saiyan prince, frozen still, face pale with horror.
"You know this guy, Vegeta?" Goku asked.
Vegeta simply stayed motionless, reliving the trauma of his first meeting with the god of destruction.
"You tried to trick me. Did you really think I wouldn't notice that you gave me the second most comfortable cushion in the universe?!" Beerus exclaimed as he crushed the Saiyan king's head beneath his heel.
Watching from afar, the young prince Vegeta growled in rage before making his presence known.
"THAT'S THE KING OF ALL SAIYANS!" the young boy yelled animalistically as he charged the god of destruction. He did not get very far however; one look into the god's eyes and he was on his knees. That stare would haunt him for the rest of his days.
The very same stare pierced the prince's soul right now, rendering him completely unable to even speak. He was too weak back then, and he was too weak now; Vegeta was completely helpless in front of a god who could incapacitate even a Super Saiyan with ease.
"Well if it isn't the little prince Vegeta," Beerus mused with a touch of amusement, "how great it is to see you again."
"To answer your question Son Goku, yes; Vegeta here showed me quite the temper when I reprimanded his father for insubordination, way back when Planet Vegeta was still around."
"And to answer your question, Namekian, the prince is correct; I am Lord Beerus, this universe's god of destruction."
"And I'm Lord Beerus's angel attendant, Whis!" chirped his companion, though no one had asked.
The revelation of the deity's identity took a moment to settle over the shocked Z warriors. First Frieza, then time travel and Androids, now gods… today was just getting weirder and weirder.
"I don't care who you are, or what you think!" Goku said finally, "That boy is innocent."
In a flame of golden light, Goku ignited his Super Saiyan form.
"And I won't let you take an innocent life."
Goku charged towards Beerus, who casually tossed Trunks away; he could deal with the brat as his leasure. He had to admit, he was somewhat intrigued at seeing what Son Goku had to offer.
Of course, it turned out to be quite little. Beerus effortlessly evaded every blow the Super Saiyan struck at him. After his barrage of melee attacks proved fruitless, Goku remained unfettered, but opted to change up his strategy.
Drifting slightly away from the god of destruction, he took a stance and cupped his hands at his side.
"KA… ME… HA… ME..." the Super Saiyan began to charge all of his energy into a single attack.
The Z warriors watched in amazement as they could feel the absurd amount of energy emanating from their hero. But would it be enough?
"Come on guys, we have to help Dad!" Gohan shouted to his comrades, "MASENKO…" the boy began charging his own.
The rest followed suit; Piccolo removed his weighted clothing and charged a Masenko with his student, Krillin and Yamcha charged Kamehameha waves of their own, while Tien readied his Tri-Beam and Chiaotzu his Dodon Ray.
"The fools… they could never hope to even touch the god of destruction… they don't stand a chance," Vegeta thought to himself, electing not to engage with Beerus out of fear.
Beerus himself seemed completely unphased by the display of power and unity shone by the Z warriors, letting out a soft yawn.
"HA!" everyone screamed at once, pouring all their power and determination into their attacks.
As the blasts hurtled towards the god of destruction, they coalesced into one larger beam, shining a blinding white. Beerus held his position, not the least bit worried about the blast, which appeared to be about to overtake him.
But before it could, the massive attack was sent hurtling up into the upper atmosphere by a casual flick from the god of destruction.
The Z warriors panted from the strain of the attack and watched in horror as the blast detonated harmlessly at the edge of the sky.
Beerus sighed.
"Tch. And here I was thinking you might be the one to finally give me a challenge, Son Goku."
With that, the god of destruction let out another small flick, and Goku immediately felt a sharp pain in his forehead before falling out of his Super Saiyan form and to the ground.
"DADDY!" Gohan rushed to his father's aid, before turning an angry glare at Lord Beerus.
"Relax, child. He's not dead," Beerus assured "only knocked out."
"H-he took Goku out without even touching him," Yamcha stammered in complete horror.
"Now! Are you going to let me do my job?" Beerus demanded, forming a ball of deadly purple energy in his hand, "or should I take you, and your planet out with him?!"
The Z warriors still standing braced themselves for the god's attack. However, before it could come, a shrill voice cut the tension like a knife.
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, KITTY CAT!"
All heads turned to see a steadfast women, clad in a red dress and orange vest, and rocking a curly mane of lavender locks. Previously left behind by the others, she had finally made her way to the battlefield.
Bulma had arrived.