Today was the day Krillin had been officially looking forward to for almost a week, and unofficially since he met her, Andriod 18, a being so beautiful he was willing to risk the fate of the universe just to save her, who haunted his every dream. finally after nearly 2 weeks of courting her he finally got her to say the magic word, Yes.
It had taken Master Roshi hours to get Krillin calmed down enough that he could actually get ready for the date. When he had woken up that morning he was convinced he was dreaming, but he wasn't he was actually at the mall with her. So far he had tried to hold a conversation with her a few times but it seemed awkward and forced on both of their parts, plus it didn't help that she kept getting distracted with things she wanted to try on.
'Come on Krillin if you can stand up to Frieza and Cell you should be able to hold a conversation with her, you can't let this date end badly he thought to himself as they rounded a corner heading towards yet another shoe store. Suddenly a scream rang out above all the individual conversations that filled the mall. Krillin and 18 both instantly whipped their heads around in an attempt to locate its origin. the single scream had turned into dozens of them as more and more people began to stampede trying to get away from whatever was causing the terror.
The stream of fleeing people completely blocked their vision on the ground so they both took to the air to get a better view. 'at least there aren't any Ki explosions' Krillin thought half relieved as he searched not only with his eyes but with with Ki sense also attempting to locate the cause of the panic.
Finally one of them saw what was causing the uproar. "Krillin look!" 18 said as she pointed out a group of 4 people who appeared to be bitin a struggling woman laying on the ground. "What the hell are they doing." Krillin asked dumbfounded. 18 just looked disgusted "I don't know but they're going to stop now" she said as she flew in at the group, faster than any normal being could've reacted to. Within a millisecond she was on top of them, her first punch sending a large man with a bite wound on his arm through a near by store window, she followed it up by round house kicking an elderly lady who appeared to be missing a chunk of her leg back the direction they appeared to have come from, and then she fired energy blasts right though the stomachs of the last two as they began biting into their victims neck. all of her attacks were finished before Krillin could even catch back up to her.
When he arrived he could tell she was very upset as she stared down at the young woman who was the victim of the attack she was a young about the age 18 was when she was kidnapped by Dr. Gero, she could already see the life fading from her eyes as she coughed up blood one last time before she was still. "another girl robbed of the prime of her life." 18 said a mixture of sadness and anger in her voice, before turning to see if any of the attackers had survived so she could make them suffer more.
To her surprise as she turned around she noticed both of the men who she had just blasted holes in their chests were very much still alive and were now walking back towards her. This was the first time she got a good look at their faces they were horrifying, their skin was pale, they both had scattered bite wounds scattered over their bodies,, but the part that really stood out to her was their eye's which were clouded over cold and lifeless. "What the hell are these things." she yelled before vaporizing both of them completely with a pair of small energy blasts..
It was then that she heard screaming coming from the store that she had kicked another one of the being's into. "oh no" she said as she started to turn suddenly she felt something grabbed her leg, as she looked down surprised that the girl she thought was dead was somehow alive and had enough strength to reach out to her, what she saw shocked her. the girl's eyes were clouded over, and her skin had paled immensely in the short time she had been lying there, and she was trying to pull 18's leg closer to… her mouth. 18 was in a state of shock. 'what is going on, she was dead and now she's one of them, how it that possible.'
Suddenly she heard a yell and saw Krillin kick the dead girl into a nearby wall. 18 spun around to yell at Krillin for jumping the gun and killing a severely injured girl, when the girl's limp body rose once more and started walking towards them.
"Well at least their not very strong" Krillin said as he vaporized her like 18 had the other 2. "Any idea what's going on" he asked his tone reflecting the severity of the situation.
"I don't have any more of a clue than you do." she responded her tone equally dire. That was when another scream was heard from the store with the other 2 beings in it. "Oh shit, i forgot about those 2" 18 said before flying through the shattered window, Krillin right behind her. what they saw again shocked them 2 people appeared dead massive bite wounds on various locations of their bodies, 3 more, the two original beings and now a third one were attacking a young boy. Krillin and 18 made quick work of the trio but, realized the boy was too far gone to be saved.
It was only a few seconds before the child passed on. Krillin was just turning to speak to 18 again when they heard a moaning sound behind them the 2 'dead' bodies were no longer dead and now advancing towards them. 18 and Krillin quickly vaporized them like the others before continuing their conversation from before.
"I think I might know what they are, as ridiculous as it sounds, it all fits too perfectly for it to be anything else. they're Zombies of some sort." he said hoping she wouldn't think his idea was stupid. She looked at him for a minute and then towards the boy who had just died, whose hand was now moving slightly. then back to Krillin, "It's possible, it seems to fit the only problem i have with the idea is what's causing it, it's not like zombies are a common occurrence, at least not from what i've experience or in any of the data banks that monster Gero gave me." She said before vaporizing the body before it could reanimate itself fully.
"I don't really know, but i've seen enough things I thought impossible to let that stop me now." He said before chuckling at the fact he could say that. That was when the screaming started out in the main part of the mall again.
"Damn there must be more of them out…" 18 stopped herself oh no the 4th one I never finished the old lady off." She said panic swelling in her voice as she took off once more, it wasn't that she cared for any of the people at the mall per say it was mainly that she didn't want to feel like their blood was on her hands since she missed one of the zombies, Krillin was again right after her, though he was much slower than she was.
Outside panic was ensuing, there were nearly fifty members of the living dead most of whom already had victims in their clutches, 18 and Krillin didn't bother to just vaporize the attackers this time they knew it was too late to save anyone already bitten and decided it would be more merciful to vaporize them on the spot. each let loose a volley of energy attacks creating a series of out booms. that shattered the glass roof on the mall and echoed throughout the city.
"They're multiplying pretty damn fast" Krillin said his voice full of dread at all the innocent people dying all around them, they just couldn't kill the zombies fast enough.
"Yeah you can say that again, but at least it appears we got all of them in the mall. Too bad it seems like there aren't many normal humans left here either." 18 responded her head spinning with a mixture of emotions.
Krillin could tell 18 still wasn't completely right, "hey lets go outside and see if there's anything else we can do there." he said trying to help get her mind off of things.
"Yeah sure it can't possibly be any more depressing than in here." she said trying to act like she had a tough outer layer to hide how disturbed she truly felt.
the duo flew through the now shattered windows and stared in shock at the condition of the city, traffic was stalled everywhere, fires had seemingly sprung up randomly, and the city was filled with the screams of hundreds of terrified people. "Shit this is worse than I thought." Krillin mumbled to himself.
18 was already in action though flying up and down the city blocks trying to vaporize the hundreds of zombies before they could infect more people.
Krillin was right behind her, but instead of taking out the zombies he was focusing on getting people away from their grasps, mainly up on tall buildings where the living dead could reach them.
Finally after nearly an hour of non-stop attacking and rescuing the two realized they weren't getting anywhere. "This isn't working, for every one we kill two more people get bitten." Krillin said bitterly at the thought of leaving guarding the people he could save even for a moment. "I think it's time we gather up reinforcements." he continued.
18 looked around and noticed most of the survivors had hidden themselves inside for the moment, "Alright but lets hurry." she said before taking off in the direction of west city, the location of the closest other significant power levels.
It only took them about a minute to travel the several hundred miles separating the small city they were in and west city, but to them it seemed like an eternity.
Finally capsule corp was in view, it was surrounded by a wall of bodies. floating over the house was an irritated Vegeta. "What are you two doing here, I already have the situation under control." he grunted before firing another barrage of blasts down a nearby street creating a massive crater.
Krillin decided it might be a waste of time talking to Vegeta so he kept it short, "Just here to talk to Bulma, see ya Vegeta." he shouted as he flew straight towards the door with 18 right behind him.
Vegeta just crossed his arms and glared at the monk as he left.
"Hey Bulma!" Krillin yelled as soon as he entered the large building, he got a very distant reply a moment later, "Krillin? I'm in here."
He followed the voice back to Bulma's main lab, sitting before here was an isolation chamber, which contained what appeared to be the arm of one of the infected people. "Hey guys, sorry i can't talk much, there's some sort of new super disease killing everyone." she stated bluntly as she continued her work.
"That's what we're here to talk about, we were hoping you had some answer to what causing it." 18 responded.
"Other than the fact it's a virus, that spreads through the body incredibly fast, I really don't know much about it yet, it's unlike anything i've ever seen before." she said turning around to face them for the first time.
Suddenly the conversation was cut off as everyone present received a telepathic message from the guardian of Earth, Dende. "Um, Mr. Popo am I doing this right?" Everyone stopped what hey were doing for a moment to see if Dende would continue.
"Everyone please hurry and meet at the lookout there is a great danger to the people of Earth and we must stop it quickly, Bring your families also it's not safe to stay on the ground at this time." and with that the message ended.
"Well looks like we're going to the lookout, hopefully someone there has a plan to deal with all this" Krillin said, a small glimmer of hope in his voice.
"Yeah looks like it." Bulma said slightly irritated at all the interruptions to her finding a cure, but when the the guardian of the Earth calls, you have to answer, "Hey will you guys tell Vegeta i'll be ready in 5 minutes on your way out."
"Sure Bulma, I guess we'll see you there." Krillin said before him and 18 left again.
After delivering Bulma's message they flew low over the city taking out as many of the zombies as they could before they left the city, within a few minutes they had arrived at Korin tower. already most of the group had arrived, everyone had serious looks on their faces as they talked to one another trying to quickly come to a consensus on that to do.
"Why don't we just use the dragonballs to wish everyone cured." Yamcha suggested
his idea was quickly struck down by Piccolo though "the dragon balls wouldn't do us any good, the dragon's magic cannot affect acts of nature so it would only cure everyone, if the virus itself was man made, which is still a possibility, though it would take us too long to gather all of the dragon balls, thousands more could die"
Suddenly a new voice cut in, "The virus are definitely not man made, it appears to be a highly mutated, highly infectious, form of the Rabies virus." Bulma said just as Vegeta was landing.
"If everyone works together I bet we could wipe out the zombies before too many more people got infected." Goku suggested hopefully.
This time it was Vegeta who countered, "We still don't know how the disease got started even if we did kill all the zombies, as you call them, if we miss the source the illness could return. I have a much simpler idea." Vegeta said his smile growing dark. "We finish your childhood mission Kakarot, and wipe all life out on this miserable rock."
To say the group was shocked was an understatement everyone looked a Vegeta was mixed looks of shock and anger, a few of them got in their fighting stances.
"How would killing everyone do us any good, we're trying to save them not kill them! I thought you had turned over a new leaf Vegeta but i guess I was wrong" Gohan shouted taking a step towards Vegeta, as he powered up to his super saiyan state.
"Calm down all of you, As long as we phrase it right we can wish back everything we kill except creatures infected with the virus." he said his arms crossed a slightly amused look on his face from their reactions.
This time everyone was silent as they actually began to consider Vegeta's idea, Finally after a moment Goku responded, "I can't do it, I know it would be for their own good but i can't kill all those innocent people and animals. besides how will we know if we really got everything that could have the sickness" The de facto protector of Earth argued. The rest of the Z fighters shared similar sentiments, and doubts.
Vegeta frowned at the latest example of the apparent softness of the world's defenders. "We blow up the planet of course, it's the quickest, most surefire option." Vegeta said starting to get annoyed. "Besides if you all are too soft to do what needs to be done, then fine i'm more than capable of doing it on my own, you have no idea how many times I've wanted to kill some of these idiotic, weaklings. Kakarot teleport everyone here to New Namek, come back to get me in about a minute I should be just about done by then." The Saiyan Prince said as he began to float towards the edge of the lookout only stopping when Goku yelled out again."Vegeta stop there has to be a less extreme way."
"Don't you get it you idiot every second you spend delaying me more of the people you claim to want to protect die and cannot be wished back. Now go i'll be ready for pickup in about a minute as I said before." with that Vegeta was out of hearing range flying straight for Satan city, firing massive blasts at several other cities as he went completely vaporizing them, today was the day he'd finally get revenge on that oaf for disgracing the names of the real heroes of Earth.
As he flew over the city towards the mansion of the man he intended to have the satisfaction of killing himself he couldn't help a smirk at the sight of what appeared to be a bunch of highschool students in an apparently stolen humvee trying to shoot their way through a massive wall of the living dead. he watched them for about a second before deciding to intervene, he formed a 'small' blast and blew up half of the city the humvee included, before continuing on his way.
Finally he arrived there was a large mass of the zombies trying to squeeze their way into the house. "Oh no you don't if anyone's going to kill the oaf, it'll be me!" Vegeta shouted as he fired a volley of very small, very precise blasts into the mass each one vaporizing their intended target.
As he walked in he noticed a large pile of the living dead, actually dead in the living room. His target was sitting there panting oblivious to the world, obviously in a case of shock staring at a large pile of bodies in front of him. While a young teenage girl seemingly around Gohan's age was single handedly fighting off two of the zombies, Vegeta was mildly impressed with the child and vaporized her opponents.
Before walking towards the girl "I'm mildly impressed you fought so well, did you take down the entire wall of monsters yourself?"
She looked at him with a mixture of surprise and appreciation for his help, "No my father helped he's guarding the back door now." The girl said pride in her accomplishment evident on her face, not even realizing her dad was huddle in the foetal position near his own pile of the dead.
'Ah so the clown did manage to help. Oh well it won't change anything.' "For your bravery and show of skill I will try and make this as painless as possible for you" he said as he reached out his hand glowing, intent on treating her like the rest, suddenly a fist slammed into his face, it didn't hurt him it, nor did it even manage to move his head in the slightest but apparently what he had said had alerted to oaf to his daughters own peril.
"You won't lay a hand on my Videl!" Hercule roared, before being backhanded by Vegeta and being sent back over the sofa, suddenly Vegeta felt soft punches landing on his stomach as the girl let loose a wave of blows at Vegeta "Leave my dad alone, he save the Earth you ungrat-"
Vegeta suddenly picked her up before she could finish the sentence, "Hn, so the liar even deceived his own daughter, I guess I should've expected that." Vegeta said staring over at the man with a look of disdain. "I suppose I should save you of the sight of your father death, he said charging another attack, but again he was interrupted by Hercule.
"Wait your… your one of the fighters from the Cell games aren't you!" Hercule shouted the color draining from his face as he recognised the first one of the demons that had arrived right after he had that awful day. "Please, I'm sorry I took credit for the Cell games, it's just all of you had left and no one showed up to take credit so i just rolled with it, please spare us we've already had enough trouble with all these monsters." Hercule said as he got on the ground and groveled.
Vegeta turned to the man whose antics had caused him a great deal of annoyance over the last year or so. "you've still stained the names of the planet's true defenders, but because i am trying to be generous, i am attempting to save your daughter from being punished too, now let me kill her so I can get your punishment over with." Vegeta said turning back to finish the girl.
"How does that make any sense, she's just a girl you don't have to kill her, take me instead." Hercule cried, Videl was still stunned silent from the sight of her father, groveling on the ground, it almost sounded like he had said he had lied about beating Cell.
"Of course she has to die, I'll be much quicker and less painful if I kill her this way than if she gets caught in the explosion of from me blowing up the planet, and if she gets bitten by any of the dead out there we won't even be able to bring her back, now shut up i'm running out of ti-."
"Vegeta, stop this now!" a voice is heard as Goku instant transmitted to the scene, "Damn it Kakarot i have to kill them anyway, I might as well make good use of it" Vegeta said glaring at his rival.
Hercule was thanking Kami that this mystery man had arrived and saved them, he didn't even care that he just suddenly appeared in the middle of their house, out of thin air.
"We can take them with us when you blow up the planet." Goku responded, which caused both Videl and Hercule's eye's to bulge in shock.
"Fine but I will beat the clown to a pulp instant we arrive." Vegeta said to Goku before turning to Hercule "And you will undo the damage you've done to our reputations." Hercule just numbly shook his head.
"Great now that that's settled let's get going every second we waste is more people who we can't bring back."with that Goku grabbed Hercule and was handed Videl by Vegeta as the duo flew into the air.
Vegeta put a hand on Goku's shoulder as he charged his big bang attack before firing it into the surface, the planet had just begun to break apart when Goku transmitted them to safety, all the way across the galaxy to new Namek.
Hercule and Videl's eye's bulged yet again as they looked around at their startling new surroundings, there were a few human's gathered about 20 feet away talking, very serious looks on their faces, but the rest of the people around them seemed to be green men with antennas.
"Where… Where… Where are we!" Hercule shouted confused by his surroundings, one minute they were in his house, the next they were in the air with the planet exploding, and now they were some place surrounded by green men.
"We're on a planet far from Earth called New Namek." Goku responded as if appearing on a planet that was at least hundreds of light years away was a normal experience, and Hercule just from his experience from the Cell games couldn't help but think it might be.
Videl though wasn't ready to just accept the mans words on face value, "What do you mean were on another planet? What did you do to the Earth? Why didn't any of me or my dad's punches hurt any of you? Did you really get to see my dad beat Cell in person?" Her mind was going crazy with a multitude of questions as she thought back on all of the crazy things that had happened not even that day, but just the last 10 minutes. Then she thought of one that made all of the others irrelevant, as it crossed her mind she couldn't help but feel a flicker of betrayal move though her body, "Dad, what did you mean by taking credit for beating Cell?" she didn't want to believe her dad had not only lied to the world, but to her also, but she heard it straight from his mouth.
Hercule, felt the color drain from his face, that was the one question that could scare him as bad as the monsters all around him, the same monsters who had beaten Cell, and who had now blown up the Earth.
"Well… I… um…" Hercule tongue refused to work, he didn't want his baby girl to hate him for his deceit, but the damage was done, if he didn't tell her the truth now, not only would it be more painful for her when she found out later, most likely after the short man with the flame shaped hair beat him into telling the truth.
Finally he sighed, a look of defeat on his face, "It means exactly what it sounded like, I did steal the credit for beating Cell from these men, specifically from the delivery boy. Please forgive me Videl, I… I just did it so I could give you the kind of life I thought you deserved and It wouldn't have worked if you knew the truth."
Videl was stunned, she had already suspected it from what she had heard just a few minutes ago, but it didn't make the pain of the betrayal any less surprising or hurtful. tears began to stream down her face, "No, you did it for fame, I don't want to talk to you ever again." She said before turning around and fleeing the scene, she didn't want a bunch of strangers to see her cry, especially if they were the real heroes of Earth.
Gohan who was the leading the group of others coming to see how the destruction of their own home had gone, couldn't help but overhear the last part of the conversation. "Delivery Boy? What do you mean a delivery boy beat Cell, I was the one to?"
Hercule was suddenly torn, he needed to go try and make amends to his daughter, but at the same time he felt like he needed to apologize to the real world savior, "If you really were the one to beat Cell then you're known by most of the world as the delivery boy didn't you know?" Hercule asked surprised that the boy seemingly hadn't seen any of the news over the last year.
Another question crossed his mind, the boy did look radically different from the Cell games if they were the same person. "Also what happened to your hair the last time I saw you it was glowing, and there was lighting coming off you and…" Hercule was suddenly caught off guard as Gohan went super saiyan to prove he was the same person from the games. Hercules eyes shrunk to pinpoints, he had to add the ability to change the color of their hair color to the list of insane powers these people apparently possessed. "Um, well in that case… I'm so sorry for taking your credit please forgive me." Hercule suddenly shouted as he dropped to the ground and groveled, hoping it would be enough to avoid the shorter man beating him to death.
Gohan felt extremely awkward, he was sort of glad that Mr. Satan had taken the credit for beating Cell, he really didn't want to deal with all invasions into his privacy that would follow if everyone knew the truth. He also didn't like the fact that Mr. Satan was groveling before him, it made him feel very uncomfortable. "Well... um... thats ok." Gohan responded the trademark sheepish son grin on his face. He needed to get away, "Hey I know I'll go get that girl so she can see when the eternal dragon gets summoned" he suddenly announced before shooting into the air towards the direction Videl had run.
He found her quickly enough, she was sitting by a small pond, her knees curled up hiding her face as she quietly sobbed, hurt by her fathers lies. Gohan landed a short distance away, approaching the last few yards by foot.
Over her sobs, Videl heard footsteps heading her way, she could only assume it was her lying father come to beg for her forgiveness. She wiped her head around, swinging her pigtails across her face in the process, and threw a glare in the direction of the sound. Her mouth dropped agap with shock at who she saw standing there, it wasn't her father but the real hero of the Earth, the delivery boy as her father had called him. He stood there with a concerned look on his face trying to figure out why she was crying, small bolts of bioelectricity left over from his transformation still danced over his body. She couldn't believe her eyes, which were locked on his seemingly glowing locks.
"Hey are you alright?" the boy who saved the world asked, she couldn't believe it, the actual world's savior was there, and he was asking if she was ok.
She suddenly felt very embarrassed that she had been crying and quickly dried her eyes before responding. "I guess, just upset with my lying, no good father, for stealing all the credit and lying to the whole world, and me included" Videl said with a huff as she crossed her arms, trying to put on her sternest face, before realizing who she was talking to. She suddenly got the urge to apologize to him, "Sorry about him by the way."
Gohan just looked at her puzzled, what did she care whether he got credit for beating Cell, "There's no need to apologize, I think it actually turned out better this way." Gohan responded much to Videl's confusion.
"But my dad stole all that money and fame from you, you'd be living like a king if it wasn't for him." she argued trying to figure out what he meant.
"I really don't care about all that stuff, as long as I have my family that's all I really need." Gohan said with such a sincere grin on his face that, Videl couldn't help but believe him "Besides I don't think I could deal with all the paparazzi always crawling around." Gohan continued with a cringe, which made Videl laugh quietly, before quickly covering her mouth and blushing.
'She's kind of cute when she laughs' Gohan thought, before instantly scolding himself for such a thought, a blush of his own spreading across his face as an awkward silence fell between them.
"Um… well… I think we should get heading back, you don't want to miss seeing the eternal dragon, it's really a sight to see." Gohan said fighting through a suddenly dry tongue.
"Eternal dragon? What in the world is that?" Videl looked at the world's savior with a look of clear confusion.
"The eternal dragon is… hmmm, how to best explain it, Well he's a giant dragon that appears when you gather all 7 dragon balls, and will grant you wishes. That's how we're going to wish everyone back." Gohan tried to explain, still feeling nervous under her inquisitive stare.
Videl wanted to believe he had just lied to her, but if all the amazing thing he did against Cell were real, and the other man blew up the entire planet, not to mention the third guy apparently transporting them across the universe instantly, who was she to call him a liar.
She suddenly stood up, if she was going to believe anyone right now it was going to be him. "Ok lets go." She declare before beginning to march back towards the village.
"Uh I have a faster way." Gohan said suddenly speaking up.
She turned around her blue eyes were really hypnotic to him for some reason. "Well… um… I can fly us there." he finally managed to say, beginning to regret speaking up at all.
"Oh yeah like the other guys right?" Videl said as she turned around and started walking back towards him.
She finally stopped in front of him just expecting him to pick her up and go. But he just stood there and stared back at her, which was starting to make her feel self-conscience again.
"Well are we going?" her tone slightly irritated at the fact he kept staring, her hands dropping to her hips.
"Oh right, uh here." Gohan said, as he awkwardly picked her up, and slowly began to fly back towards the village.
Finally they arrived, both of them were blushing by that point, "Uh… here you go." He said gently setting her down.
"Thanks" was her only response.
Before any more conversations could take place, Dende walked up to the Dragon Balls "Porunga come forth!" he shouted before the balls began to glow.
Then a massive light shot forth, to the amazement of everyone present, even though almost everyone there had already seen an eternal dragon being summoned before, it was still a sight to behold.
The dragon was truly an intimidating being, his arms were larger than most buildings as he towered above the landscape. "You have collected all seven dragon balls, speak your wishes though I will only grant three." the imposing being boomed, his voice rocking the land for miles around.
Videl and Hercule's eyes were shrunk into tiny beads as they tried to comprehend what they were seeing.
"Please great Porunga, for the first wish reconstruct the planet Earth." Dende called out.
The dragon's eyes glowed for a moment, "That is a tasking wish…" everyone held their collective breaths, "But it is within my power, It shall be done. What is your second wish young one."
"Please return all of the organism of earth, except those who are infected with the plague that was attacking the planet at the time of it's destruction, also don't bring back the plague itself." Dende pleaded.
"That also is a complex task, it will take me a moment, but it shall be done." Porunga responded again before his eyes glowed again, this time for much longer.
"It is done, what is your third wish." the eternal being asked once more.
Dende turned to everyone, "anyone else have any ideas." when everyone shook their heads, he turned around a told the dragon, "You have fulfilled our wishes oh mighty Porunga and for that we are eternally thankful, we don't have anymore wishes we need at this time." Dende said with utmost respect for the legendary being.
"So be it, It will be No wishes shall be able to be made for two thirds of a year.." the being said as the balls flew up and scattered over the planet.
"whew glad that got taken care of. Thanks again elder Mori for letting us use your set of dragon balls again." Goku said a bright smile on his face.
"We are glad to help, any time my friend." the elderly Namekian said a large grin on his face.
"Well we better get back and make sure everything is really back to normal, everyone either put a hand on my shoulder or touch someone who is." Goku said as he prepared to jump back to Earth.
"Not so fast Kakarot, I have some unfinished business with the Oof." Vegeta cut in, determined to extract his revenge.
"Come on Vegeta can't we do th-" Goku started to try and delay once more, before being cut off, "No, I shall not wait one more second!"
Hercule was visibly paling once more, 'no no no no, please stop him again, crazy, teleporting guy.' he prayed, not even realizing Earth's guardian was standing right next to him.
Dende hearing his prayer could only sigh, 'sorry, but Vegeta is well above my ability to control.' the Earth's guardian thought glumly.
"Come here, oaf." Vegeta said starting to storm towards his target.
Goku and Gohan immediately moved to intercept, "Out of my way the insults to my honor will be repaid."
"Ok Ok Vegeta, I know you're angry, and he does deserve to be punished, but you have to promise me you won't kill him at least." Goku whispered trying to come to a compromise with his arch rival.
"hn, I won't make any promises but I will make an effort to not kill the weakling." Vegeta said trying to hide the excitement as he sneered at his prey, he didn't want Goku to realize his offer was acceptable so easily.
If Hercule was pale before, he might as well be translucent now, the way the man was staring at him seemed to indicate him coming demise.
Finally the huddle broke, the man still staring right at him, before the man suddenly disappeared, and then so did everyone else. The world was a complete blur.
Finally it stopped, he was in the middle of nowhere all alone. Except he wasn't really, right behind him stood Vegeta, ready to begin his 'repayment' of the man hailed by the masses as the hero of Earth.
Hercule "Yeah! woo hoo, apparently I was too fast for him after all. that damn monster won't get me after all." he celebrated jumping around.
"Monster huh?" an icy voice said from behind Hercule's eye's retreating to beads, as he slowly turned to locate the source of the words.
There Vegeta stood before him, an amused smirk on his face.
"I.. uh…" Hercule's words stumbled over his tongue.
"Enough, let's just get started." Vegeta said before fazing from sight, appearing just inches from Hercule, before giving him a 'light' punch, which sent him flying into a mountain.
Vegeta arrived right before his body could touch though and grasped the man by the arm, before throwing him back high into the air.
Hercule was silently screaming all of the air forced from his lungs, everything was a blur he had no idea what was going on other than the fact he had no air and his stomach felt like he had just been run over by a bus.
Suddenly he felt like he ran into a solid steel wall, his body felt completely crushed from the collision, as he struggle to open his eyes and see what he hit, the wall turned out to be the man who was torturing him.
"How was the ride." Vegeta taunted.
Hercule used the few seconds of break to try and catch his breath instead of responding.
"No answer, oh well here we go again." Vegeta said before 'gently' tossing the man back towards the ground.
Hercule rocketed back towards the Earth like a comet falling from the sky, his whole life flashing before his eyes.
Suddenly next to him a ball of light shot by before exploding ahead of him, the shock wave hit like a massive wave, but actually slowed his decent, so when he hit he was still conscious, just in severe pain.
As he started up at the sky, wondering why he was stupid enough to steal credit from the beings who had actually beaten the monster known as Cell.
The sky suddenly filled with ball of lights, Hercule couldn't even comprehend what was happening before a series of small explosion began all around him.
When the smoke cleared and Hercule stopped coughing he realized he was suddenly on a small hill, all of the dirt around him had been blasted away.
Vegeta floated there his scowl deepening, 'damn it this fool is too pitiful for me to even properly enjoy this.' Vegeta slowly drifted towards the man at least taking pleasure in the fear emanating from his eyes.
"You will announce to the world your lies the moment we get back." was all Vegeta said before rocketing away.
Hercule just lay there thankful he was alive, minute after minute passed, and after awhile he began to think about how to find his daughter, or move for that matter.
Suddenly the being who had managed to stay his execution twice showed up again, 'There you are, boy am I glad to see your still in one piece, when Vegeta came back all alone we all figured the worst." The man said with a maddeningly cheery grin as he reached down to try and help him up.
"What do you mean, In one piece, I think both my arms and one of my legs are broken, on top of it I think I might've cracked some ribs." Hercule wheezed out through the pain of his burning chest.
"Wow you're really lucky I figured Vegeta would leave you in much worse shape than that." Goku responded as if Hercule should be happy to have received those injuries.
Hercule just moaned as he was picked up, before they teleported once more.
As soon as they arrived everyone gathered around him and gawked at how beat up he must have looked, until a small alien walked up to him.
"Good, I thought this would be much worse, I can work with this." The green boy said as he reached his arms out towards him, a dim light began to emit from them.
Hercule immediately flinched expecting more explosions, instead a warm soothing feeling spread throughout his body.
After a few seconds the warmth faded, taking with it the last of his pain. Hercule gingerly attempted to stand, realizing he was healed by some sort of miracle he proceeded to celebrate, much to Videl's embarrassment, as he picked up Dende and began to dance, "Oh yeah, miracle healer in the house, Woo-hoo."
"Ok now that that's over, lets get going, It's almost dinner time." Goku announced as everyone gathered up and then were teleported back to the Earth.
"Never a dull moment when they show up is there elder?" One of the Namekian villagers asked after the large group had vanished.
Elder Moori just smiled, "No there isn't and I doubt there ever will be." The leader of the Namekians said with a laugh, that quickly spread throughout the entire group gathered.
And there you have it, the story of how the Z-fighters would react if a Zombie infection broke out roughly 2 years after the Cell games. I hoped everyone enjoyed it.
I kind of pull a 'DBZ movie' by having characters that should be dead take part, (Goku) but I couldn't bring myself to not include him in this story. If you see any issues with the story please let me know with a review, or if you like the story either way.
Since this is a one shot I won't be responding to Reviews in the same way I am for my other story, Culture Shock, So I'll either making a running tally of my responses on a second chapter or I will respond to all reviews through PM.