Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z
Chapter One
Capture
Satan city. Much of its former glory no longer remains. The city was brought to ashes 843 years ago today. 843 years ago, a force of evil came to the Earth. No one alive now knows who or what it was, but it destroyed much of humanity. Those who survived lived in underground parking complexes and buildings that had a basement large enough to hold the people.
Life after the attack was very hard on the people of the Earth, or at least the survivors. Over four billion people died in the two weeks the attacks took place. It is said that the leader of the attack was as powerful as Buu and as ruthless as Frieza. He alone was said to have destroyed tens of thousands of cities and millions of people. The purpose of the attack was quite clear after they left. They had drained the ocean nearly all the way. They wiped out entire species or animals for food. They leveled millions of square miles of forests. No one knew why they did it. Many have speculated about it. They're nomads maybe. They're planet was dying and they needed the resources.
Satan City was now a barren desert. The few ruined building that remain would eventually return to the Earth, but for now they provided shelter for animals and humans, but mostly animals. No human lived within hundred miles of these ruins. But one man came here every year. He was one of the few remaining people whose ancestors were actually from this city. On the anniversary of the first day of the attack is when he came from two hundred miles away. He doesn't know why he comes to the city anymore.
The first time he came to respect his fallen ancestors, but now he comes to get away from his life as a warrior. Well not a warrior, but a protector of the cave that he lived in. He stood on the edge of a cliff that would have overlooked the city. But now all he sees is ruins of the buildings of the city. The most noticeable is the old Capsule Corp. building. It has hardly any damage on it. The yellow paint is still on the building. Some of the windows are still in one piece.
The man on the cliff was a descended of the Briefs family, so whenever he came to this barren city he stayed in the building. The inside of the building was much like the outside, in very good shape. Except for the fact that it had no power; it would have been good enough to live it if people weren't afraid of this hollowed land. Most say it's haunted. Some just don't like being in a place where five million people died. But to this man. None of that mattered. He came here get more intone with himself.
The man was about 6'2, 200 pounds, he was quite well built. Very broad shoulders and hair that was a very bright shade of blue. He wore a worn out pair of black denim jeans and a white tee shirt stained with blood, sweat, and dirt. He also worn a black jacket, which was in surprisingly good shape compared to the rest of what he wore. The most stand out thing about his entire appearance was the sword slung across his back. This sword was said to have belonged to a man from the future that came to the past to save the world. Though many people laughed at that bedtime story, he believed it.
His name was Goku. Named after a man that no one but his mother had heard of. A man that saved the world more times that, Goku the second had left the cave. He was sixteen, but that age in his clan was the age of adulthood. The average length someone lived was about fifty years with the lack of medicine and training in surgery. Though this Goku looks nothing like the man he was named after, he has the heart of him. The way he never accepts failure from himself. The way he has always protected the ones he loved. He was much like Goku.
"Nightfall. I should get indoors," Goku said looking at the sun set on the horizon. As he was about to slowly make his climb down the cliff that he was perched atop, he heard a scream. Quickly looking around he noticed a little child running through the ruins, "Damnit. What is a kid doing out here?" He jumped off the cliff that was nearly one hundred fifty tall and landed on the ground of the city with a light thud. How he could jump that far and not kill himself was a big mystery to him.
"Mommy!" The child, who he could see was a girl, yelled as she disappeared behind a fallen building. When Goku got to the building he saw a woman, maybe a few years older then him, fighting a bearcat. A bearcat was a creature brought to the earth by the attackers that was as big as a polar bear but was as agile as a cat, and it looked a lot like a female lion. The woman, armed with a spear, was clearly losing the fight. Her shirt was cut in various places, and she was bleeding badly from her back.
"Down!" Goku yelled at the woman, as he unsheathed his sword and ran at the bearcat. She did as she was told and dropped to the ground as the creature swung its massive paw at her. Goku, too duck under the swing and swung his blade with all his might. He cut the monster in its side, and it let a monstrous roar as its blood spilled onto the ground. That attack diverted its attention from the woman to Goku, and it charged him.
"What are you retarded or something!? RUN!!" Goku yelled as he did a dive into a roll to evade the bearcat. It took the woman a few moments to let what was going on sink in, but she eventually got the messaged and grabbed her daughter and ran as fast as she could.
"Finally," Goku murmured before dodging around charge by the monster. Right as he recovered from that charge he felt a sharp pain in his back. Reaching around his back he removed a large quill. He had forgotten they could shoot quills from their backs. The bearcat let around roar out before it charged again to kill its wounded prey. This time however, Goku did not roll to the side; he rolled under the beast and drove his sword straight into its belly. A shriek came from the creature that can only be described as deafening. As the beast stumbled about as it lose the strength to walk, he let out one more cry, then collapsed. It's chest moved a few more times as it let out its dying breathes, then it was motionless.
"Damn. And that was just a child too. I would hate to fight its mother." He said, and then wiped the blood from his face and blade. His victory was short lived though, the roar of a older, bigger, and most importantly, more pissed off bearcat, was heard from a few miles away. The older ones are much faster then the younger ones. At full speed they could run about sixty-MPH. That in itself was a horrifying thought. 'I need to get indoors before it gets here.' He thought as he ran towards the Capsule Corp. building, but the sound of the little girl crying stopped him.
"Get up mommy…" She wept over her mother's body.
'Oh shit…' Goku thought as he watched the little girl cry over her mother. He bent down to check her pulse. There wasn't one, 'Oh shit indeed.' The beating of paws on the ground could now be heard in the distances. He quickly picked up the body, and grabbed the girl.
"We have to get inside!" He shouted as the bearcat adult was now visible on the horizon. He quickly took off towards the house, but it wasn't fast enough, "Go! Get inside the big yellow building!" He yelled at the girl and pointed at the building. The girl was very hesitant, but when she saw the bearcat, she didn't need anymore encouragement.
"Here we go…" Goku said quietly. The bearcat was hovering over the child, gently nudging it with its nose. It whimpered a few times before it looked at Goku. Thought it couldn't talk, Goku know what it would say if it could. Something like, "You bastard! You killed my son!" But now was not the time to feel sorry for it. The beast let a low, barely auditable growl from its throat, then it charged. Goku had barely enough time to react, it was that fast. It covered one hundred feet in four seconds. Fangs showing and claws extended, but he was able to dive to the side of it. With his backed turned; the bearcat revealed its quill firing device and fired one off. Goku heard it coming and dodged it by a mere two inches. It was a good thing too; the adult bearcat's quills are coated in a poison that renders the target paralyzed temporarily. Not that mattered much, if you did get hit by one, you would most likely be dead in a few seconds.
The beast, enraged by missing, charged again. Having no time to react, the cat hit him, and it sunk one of its fangs into his left shin. He yelled in pain as the cat threw him down rather forcefully and aimed its quill shooter at him.
"This isn't good," He said as he struggled to stand up. The fang had badly broken his shin. Looking at the back of the cat, just below its neck. He saw the quill dripping with poison, and then it fired. As quickly as it fired, Goku grabbed his sword deflecting the quill back at the cat. Success! It hit the cat in the left shoulder. Though the poison would not effect the beast, it gave him time to attack as it reeled back in pain. And he did; quite effectually too. He had cut the beast's head off, and he dropped to one knee. The sun had finally set. The light of the moon was all the let him see the building which he was walking too. Picking up the body of the woman, he never learned the name of, he limped over to the dome of Capsule Corp.
"Is mommy ok?" The little girl asked with hopeful eyes.
'How am I supposed to say this to her?" He could see the tears swelling up in her eyes, "I'm sorry but…"
She cut him off, "No! She can't be dead!" The tears began to free flow down her young face, a face to young to have to deal with this. Goku knelt down on his good leg and she hugged him tight for fifteen minutes, crying on his shoulder.
'Poor girl. I guess once my leg heals I'll have to take her back to my clan. They won't like me bringing her back, but I can't leave her.' The girl interrupted his thoughts.
"I'm hungry…" She muttered as she rubbed her eyes to wipe the tears away.
"Yeah me too," Goku said and stood up. He winced in pain.
"You ok mister?" She asked tugging on my pant leg.
"Oh, I'll be ok. You go sit in that chair over there," He gestured at a chair near a table in what was once the kitchen of the building.
He limped his way out of the building and made his way to he corpse of the bearcat. 'I've never eaten bearcat. I bet it will taste pretty good over a fire.' He thought as he cut a chunk of meat off its belly. Then an idea struck him. The poison on the quill. It come be used as a numbing agent with diluted with water. That would help what he would have to do with his ankle later tonight. He, after thinking for a moment, cut the back of the beast open. Removing a quill yet to be covered in poison and then remove the sack that the poison was stored in.
'Such a complex attacking method. This thing in the wild would move to the top of the food chain in a heartbeat.' He thought walking back to the house.
After getting a fire going and making the bed that he normally used for the girl, he started to work on the poison for the bearcat. Carefully cutting the sack open and pouring it into a bowl, he then put some on his blade. Though this poison was very dangerous to you if it were to get in a cut and hit your blood, on the skin it is harmless. Then he added water to the bowl and stirred it. And after searching the medical wing of the building he found a syringe. Heating the needle quickly over the fire and putting the diluted poison in it, he placed it in the hole in his leg. Then injecting himself with it, the numbness started almost instantly. He waited for a few minutes while the numbness spread to his foot and knee, but it stopped there.
"Yes! It worked!" He shouted in excitement, "Maybe I'll add more water so the numbing is just below my knee, but either way it worked." Now for the painful part. After walking around on his ankle for a few hours, it had started to bend to the left. He needed to correct that and get the splint on it he made. So he did. Closing his eyes and biting down on a wooden stick he found he forced his ankle to the right. A quiet crack came from his ankle, and the pain shot up with leg like a bullet but it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. He let out a sigh of relief and started to apply some bandaging to it and then the splint. After he got it on, he added a little more water to the solution and injected his leg again while it was still numb was it wouldn't hurt as much.
Hobbling back over to the fire he had made, he put the meat on. Didn't take long to cook and they were eating soon after.
"Wow, this is pretty good," He said giving himself a bit of reassurance, "and do you like it?" He asked the little girl. She nodded her head quickly and took another bit of it. Goku couldn't help but smile, "Hey. What's your name?" He asked her before taking another bit too.
"Nina," She told him.
"Well Nina, I'm Goku. Nice to meet you." He said with a goofy smile on his face, which made her giggle at him, "so, what were you and your mom doing in this place."
"Mommy was sent out to hunt for our clan," She looked at her mother's body, which Goku wrapped in a bed sheet he had found. That's how they buried people in his clan. Caskets weren't around and to put a person in a grave uncovered was disrespectful.
"How old are you?" Goku asked her.
"Six," She replied to him with a hint of sadness in her voice.
The rest of the night was pretty much quiet. Every now and then Goku would ask her a question, and she would answer it to the best of her ability. He knew what see was going through. He had lost his father when he was five. It had been tough, without a father, growing up, but he found a father figure in his uncle.
***
The next morning he woke up to a terrible pain in is leg, "Guess the injection wore off." He said hobbling over to the syringe he filled up the night before, then sticking it in is calf and injecting it. Numbing started almost suddenly.
"Much better." He walked over to his sword and threw it on his back, snapping the buckle together. Then his stomach rumbled, "guess I'm a little hungry."
He walked to the door of the house and walked out. To his horror, the carcass of the bearcat was picked to its bones. It had been the work of the Hawkvultures. Hawkvultures are basically just hawks with habits of vultures. They live off the decaying bodies of other animals.
"So much for that idea," Goku said crossing his arms. One of the buildings probably has a herd of deer or elk living in it, but he would be pushed to his edge chasing a deer on a broken shin. Another alternative would be to go to Satan Lake and catch a fish. The fish of that lake are bigger then cars. So he decided that's what he would do.
Before he left for the lake; he when back to check on Nina, to see if she was awake. She wasn't. Well, that would make leaving easier. So he started the hike to the lake. It was about four miles away and atop the cliff he jumped from yesterday. Once he got back and cooked, he would have to bury the girls mother. But he didn't want to think about that right now.
After an hour of walking, he reached his destination. Satan lake, it was a fairly large lake. About a mile wide and maybe 6 miles long. Probably about hundred feet at its deepest point. It was made by a small creek that came from the Satan mountain range to the east of the old city. No matter how much the attackers took from the planet, you can't stop a natural spring from letting water out. A forest surrounded one half of the lake. A rather young forest, only about one hundred years old. So of the decimated wildlife that lived in this region eight hundred years ago had once again started to flourish. The fish of this area were much like the ones the first Goku caught as a child and even a adult. While the ones he caught were mostly bigger; these put up just as much of a fight.
Goku stripped down to his boxers and threw his clothes and sword in a pile and dove in the lake. Relaxing for a few moments and letting his muscles stretch, he just floated on top the water. The water was like glass not a single wave or ripple was visible. He saw his prey. A large fish, looked something like a pike, but it was pretty fat. It was also about seven feet long and three feet wide. Slowly taking a breath in, he sunk under the surface of the water. The fish looked to be sleeping. So he slowly swan up behind it and grabbed its tail. Bad move. The fish woke up and took off as fast as it could. Goku hung on its tail for his life. Hoping the fish would tire before he could no longer hold his breath, he hugged the tail like he loved it. After three minutes of this, Goku was struggling to hold on. So he did what Goku the first would have done, charged a ki attack and fired. A hit! The fish came to sudden halt, and Goku when flying forward.
'Whatever works,' he thought, but then he feel his lungs begging for fresh air. Grabbing the dead fish he swam to the top like a bullet. He reached the top and gasped for air.
"Whoa. That was to close for comfort," He said to himself and swam to shore. After throwing the three ton fish on the beach, he threw his clothes and sword on.
***
Back at the Capsule Corp. building Goku started a fire outside the building to cook the massive fish and when inside.
"Where'd you go!" Nina said running at him, "I was scared..." She sat down and hugged herself.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I just when to get some food. After I cook it up, we can eat," he said has he put his arm around her and hugged her.
"Don't leave me again, I don't like to be alone," She said into his chest. He didn't say anything. Just held her for a few minutes.
Few moments later, after apologizing to Nina, Goku started to scale the fish with his sword. After washing it off first since he put the poison from the bearcat on the blade. After scaling, filleting, and removing the bones, he threw it on the fire. It only took a few minutes to cook, and it sure did smell good. Before he served the food, Goku injected himself with the anointment since it had been a few hours since the morning. Judging on the position of the sun, it was about three p.m.
"Foods ready!" Goku yelled into the house where Nina was, and she quickly ran out.
"Oh! Fish!" She yelled happily as Goku handed her a large piece of it. After eating and talk a bit, Goku started on what would be the worst part of his day. The burial of the girls mother, and so he started on digging the hole in which se would be placed.
"Well, I guess that will work," Goku said jumping out of the hole. Then he started work on the headstone. He would use ki to engrave on it and shape it.
He walked to Nina, "What was your mothers name?"
"Samantha," She told him quietly and he got to work. The headstone read after he was finished:
"Samantha"
"June 1, 1602 - October 14, 1621"
"A Mother, A Daughter, A Friend"
"Rest In Peace"
Goku Stuck the headstone in the ground, and he placed Samantha's body in the grave. Then he covered it. Nina stood on the edge of the grave crying, so after he finished Goku hugged her and let her cry on his shoulder. This went on for nearly an hour. It went pass the sunset, and when she stopped crying she fell asleep in his arms.
'I'll just let her sleep,' he thought because it was only 6 p.m. and they hadn't eaten dinner. He walked in the house, with a limp, and set the girl down on her bed. He went to the bowl of the anointment and injected his leg again.
"Goku?" Nina whisper quietly from behind him.
"Yeah?" He said turning around.
"Can you keep me company tonight? I'm to scared to be alone," She asked him in a fearful tone.
He smiled at her, "Of course I will." He got up and took her hand as they went to the bed. He laid down, then she laid next to him. Soon after, she was asleep, but he laid awake.
'Tomorrow we should start home. It'll be a bit hard on my shin, but I would rather get back to my family then stay here for the months it'll take to heal,' He pause to clear his mind, 'but what am I going to say about Nina? They didn't like it when my uncle brought the baby Ryian into the cave, but he's grown up to be one of the best hunters in decades." He slowly closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.
****
Goku woke up in the morning to the sound of yelling, "Strange. You don't normal hear yelling out here." He slowly sat up and realized Nina was gone. He heard more yelling and then a scream.
"Nina!" He shouted as he quickly jumped out of the bed and all his weight when on his broken shin, "Damnit!" He yelled falling to the ground.
"There's one in here too!" A very large man yelled as he stood over Goku.
"Get him and bring him out!" Goku heard a female voice yell out.
"Who are you?" Goku said attempting to get to his feet. The large man didn't say anything, he just grabbed Goku and dragged him out of the house. A woman stood, about 5'2" and about 105 pounds with black hair down to the small of her back. She wore black pants with a red shirt. She had a scar just below her left eye and she had two guns holstered on her hips. The large man threw Goku in front of her, she stood with all her weight on one leg.
"What is a boy doing all the way out here?" She asked as another man, more of a normal size, forced him to his feet.
"Boy?" Goku replied raising an eye brow.
"How old are you? 12? 13?" She said walking around him in a circle looking over his body.
"16" He said as he followed her with his eyes.
"Hmph," She then kicked his bad ankle and he cried out in pain, "That ankle doesn't look to good." One of the men with her handed her a small container of what appeared to be water. "I can fix that for you." She opened the bottle and poured about a ounce on the open wound on his leg. It instantly healed and the throbbing pain in his leg faded.
"Huh?" Goku said as he stood up and there was no pain.
"Phoenix tear," She held out the bottle in front of him, "Why don't you tell me what did that to you?"
"A Bearcat." She stopped when she stood in front of him.
"That must have been a tough fight," She smiled at him, "How old do you think it was?"
"I fought two. One was about two years old and the other was about seven," He said pointing at the two piles of bones.
"Oh my. Seven years old. Your lucky to be alive." She looked over that the bones of the older one, "Did it hit you with a quill?"
"I am still alive, so what do you think the answer is?" Goku said in a sarcastic tone.
"Indeed you are," She told him.
"I've told you about me. Now who are you?" Goku asked her.
"Oh, I'm not finished with you yet," She looked over at the large man. He nodded.
"What's this?" Goku asked the large man as he walked towards him. The large man didn't say anything, he just kept walking towards him.
"Stand still, He's not going to hurt you," The woman told him.
"Why do I not believe you?" Goku said looking at her quickly then back at the man. When the man was about two feet from Goku, he threw a punch, which Goku dodged easily. After that he threw a kick, which Goku too dodged. The large man continued to attack as Goku easily dodge everything he threw at him.
"Well, he could be a good gladiator, but he is too powerful. He could over throw the guards at the stadium," The woman told a man who was normal sized.
"Yes, he could. Should we kill him?" The man asked her.
"I will do it," She told him a walked towards the fight, "That is enough." The large man quickly stopped and walked away.
"What was that about?" Goku asked the woman who stood near him.
"That was a little test. You passed," She told him.
"That's wonderful."
"Perhaps you did too well," She said reaching for one of her guns, "You would be a menace if we left you alive. So," She pause and pointed a gun at Goku, and he removed his sword from the sheathe, "I must kill you." She pulled the trigger, and a millisecond later heard the sound of metal on metal. Goku stood in front her. Sword gripped in both hands, and it was slanting towards her.
"Nice try, but," She fired a few more rounds off. All were deflected back. "As I was saying. Nice try, but I move to fast for a bullet to him me."
"How?!" She yelled out, "Get him!" All the men with her ran towards Goku. One by one, they fell to the ground dead. Soon, Goku had the blade of his sword under the chin of the girl.
"Who are you?" He asked in a calm tone for a man who had just like four people.
"We are the elite guard of the Empire of New Satan City," She told him.
"Your name?"
"Akira."
"Well, Akira. Where did you take the girl that was here?"
"New Satan. She is to become the pet of the emperor."
"Pet? You would use a human girl as a pet?!" He yelled at her.
"Please Don't kill me! I was only doing my job!" She fell to her knees and pleaded for her life. Goku looked in her eyes and saw fear.
"Very well. You may live," He removed his sword from her chin and returned it to the sheathe. Akira slowly stood up and watched Goku walk away.
"Where are you going?!" She yelled to him.
Without stopping or turning around he said, "To save the girl." He keep walking until the sounds of Akira's warnings were no more.
****
Nina was in a small cage on the back of a wagon. There were two more cages, both had small children in them. They had been traveling for about four hours. After they were about a mile from the ruins of Old Satan City, the captors had placed a collar on her neck. They made her strip down until she was naked and threw her in the cage. She sat in the cage, crying since she had been in it. They told her to stop and when she didn't she got shocked.
"Damn, new ones always take awhile to break," One of the guards who was carrying the shocking stick.
"Yeah. The trainer will get them in line in no time," The other one walking beside him said. After taht moment of talking, they were quiet for awhile. Then one of them saw something coming from behind them.
"Something is coming over the horizon!" He yelled to one of the rear guard.
"I'll handle it!" The guard said as he turned around. He walked a few feet then waited. The thing was at him in a minute or two, and then thirty seconds later, the guard was dead. Goku quickly started the chase of the wagon again, and he was at the back of it in five minutes. the other rear guard attacked him with the spear he was carrying, and Goku jumped in the air, landed behind him and cut him in half at the waist. Before the guard driving the wagon could react, Goku turned him into ash with a ki blast.
"Nina!" He yelled running to the cage which held her, "Dear god. What have they done to you...?" He quickly knocked the lock of her cage and gave her his jacket. She stood behind him as he free the other children from there cages.
'What am I going to do?' He thought has he looked over the two other kids he freed. 'Can't send them to the city. They'll end up as with the same fate that they were in for in the first place.' He slowly looked around.
"Goku! Look out!" He heard Nina yell right before he felt a sharp pain in his back, and he passed out.