Chapter 1: Sides of a Conflict
While the Super Saiyan descendants of Goku and Vegeta lived their peaceful years of youth involved in plenty of friendly competition under the secret, watchful eye of Earth's great savior, elsewhere trouble was stirring, trouble the likes of which the universe had never seen. Deep in the pits of the Demon World, the fiendish denizens went about their lives. Unbeknownst to them, Dabura's heir to the title of Demon King was scheming to take the universe by storm, and his first order of business was to ensure that there was no one on his world who would be opposed. That he accomplished in a most tyrannical way; eliminating the opposition...or at least he thought he accomplished it.
"I've got to get out of here!" Hiko cried. Hiko was a small statured red demon, and he was currently fleeing the aftermath of a massacre that he stumbled upon by chance. Those of his brethren who lay slaughtered in the streets were all against His Majesty's plan to conquer the universe, and to him there was a clear pattern to be observed. The king was without a doubt commiting mass killings of those of his own people who he believed would attempt to stand in his way. Unfortunately for Hiko he was being targeted same as the bodies found at the massacre. As he flew in the direction of his home he sensed that he was being followed. Suddenly a hand reached up out of a tunnel and grabbed Hiko's leg before pulling him into the tunnel. Hiko screamed and thrashed before the one who grabbed him put a hand over his mouth and whispered into his ear,
"Ssshhhhhh... You want them to find us?" Hiko looked at his apparent rescuer, surprise flooding his eyes as he asked,
"Huh?" In response, the tall, bulky black creature placed a hand over his own face, letting out an annoyed sigh before saying,
"I'm just like you. I'm being hunted."
"What? Seriously? But why are you running? I mean look at you!" Exclaimed Hiko. Suddenly there was commotion above, one of the Demon King's men looking around and saying,
"Hey, I heard something over here!" Hiko started to gasp before the black demon covered his mouth again. He looked up at the hole from an alcove in the cave, obviously nervous, worried that they had been found. The hunter looked into the hole and tried to look around, but before he could get a good view of what was inside he was called away by another's impatience. While this appeared to be a stroke of good fortune for the fugitives, things once again turned sour before long as the hunter who had been investigating the hole fired an energy blast inside before walking away. His intent was to kill, or at least flush out any fugitives who were hiding in the small cave. For that reason, the blast was one that would explode on impact with anything.
Even as Hiko wanted to flee, the black demon who was trying to protect them both held him back. He knew that to flee was to be discovered, so they were left with no choice but to brave the explosion. The black demon growled and positioned Hiko behind himself, prepared to die if necessary to save the small red demon's life. He was confident that Hiko wouldn't do anything crazy in the hope of getting revenge. As the mass of energy expanded and exploded, the black demon braced himself against the rock wall, and in doing so almost crushed Hiko. Suddenly it seemed as though the pair's hope for escape had been made a reality by a blue demoness who broke through the wall behind them and pulled them through, one in each arm, before making a run through a tunnel that had been dug out recently.
The explosion continued to expand, seemingly endless as the demoness ran tirelessly. Almost as suddenly as the explosion formed, it faded, leaving only smoke. The female dropped the two males before bending over slightly and pressing her hands on her knees, panting hard. Hiko and the black demon looked at the demoness and said together,
"Thanks for saving us." The demoness didn't look at them, but she did say,
"You two are disgraceful, especially you Dangu. People would think that with your physique you'd be able to take care of yourself just fine, but look at you! Hiding in a hole? Ha! Absolutely pitiful!"
"Yeah?" The black demon named Dangu asked, "and what about you Zanchi? You're in a hole!" Zanchi, the demoness, waggled a finger tauntingly in Dangu's face while saying,
"Tch tch tch, silly Dangu. I'm not hiding, in fact I had just finished leading a small village to the safety of these caves when I sensed the release of an energy blast. That's what led me to you two sorry cases. Now then, Dangu, Hiko, what say you two to putting an end to this madness?" Both Dangu and Hiko were clearly unsure, and for good reason. The king was an incredible fighter, and on top of his own strength he had his loyal subjects, which included a pair of doppelgangers who could simultaneously change everything about them, including their strength, knowledge, etc to that of any two others who were close to each other. Those two together could probably be considered more dangerous than the king himself, and with those three in mind, their low confidence sunk lower still. Zanchi shook her head in disbelief, and said,
"Come on! I have no doubt that we can do it if we ask Earth's hero Goku for help!" Hiko looked at Zanchi for several moments before saying,
"Zanchi, that's-"
"Absolutely out of the question, that's what that is!" Dangu interrupted. "You know as well as I do that Goku's been dead now for years, decades even! Besides, this is a demon problem! We can't just go up to someone who isn't a demon and start talking like they have any sort of obligation to help us! Now listen up! The only thing that's going to work is...hey! I said listen up!" Zanchi growled and turned around before saying,
"For your information, Goku was transformed into a child somewhere along the lines of a century ago and had to grow back up. Therefore, there's a chance he's still alive."
"Zanchi, no." Dangu said adamantly, "I told you, it's a demon problem and you know it. I'm sorry, but we have to solve it by ourselves." While he and Zanchi bickered about what was right and whether or not outside help was necessary, Hiko began to wander curiously and discovered something small and white on a far wall of the cave. Poking at it some, he soon noticed a flashing red nodule on the device that alerted him to the nature of the mechanism.
"Dangu, Zanchi, we've got a problem." The red demon said, though while his companions expressed some concern, they knew that Hiko could be jumpy and thus wanted to make certain. Hiko led Dangu and Zanchi to the device, and immediately the flashing node on top started flashing more quickly. Even without it the larger demons still knew that it was trouble.
"A bomb! Hiko, get away from there! We have to risk evacuation or else we'll be buried alive!" Zanchi exclaimed, to which Dangu responded with,
"What? We can't go out there! The blast will doubtlessly alert the enemy to our location!"
"There's no time!" Zanchi said, "Now come on! I need you both alive!" As much as Dangu hated it, he also didn't want to spend the rest of his life miserable in a makeshift tomb. He grabbed Hiko and took to the sky, following Zanchi at full speed, and the energy surge detonated the bomb almost immediately. On top of it all, the energy being given off by the three demon fugitives instantly alerted the king's men to the presence of individuals that they were looking to have killed. However, they also heard the bomb explode, and in response one of the doppelgangers that served the Demon King smirked and said in a cocky tone,
"Looks like they found our trap. I wonder if their bodies are still recognizable?"
"Oh come on, brother," said the other doppelganger, "you know as well as I do that they avoided the blast. We can still sense their energy." At the same time the obviously more mature demon said his last sentence, the apparently more naive one said the same thing in a tone of mockery. The more mature brother growled and yelled,
"Stop that Hemea! Be serious!" The less mature doppelganger, Hemea, laughed at his brothers attempt to get him to stop and said,
"Come now Demea, how do you expect me to be serious when you can't possibly be doing so yourself?" Demea growled again and bellowed,
"Enough! Just stop talking Hemea!" Hemea laughed at Demea again before they both took flight. Just as they were about to go after Hiko and his companions; however, another demon who swore loyalty to the king stopped them with his mere presence. Hemea stopped and asked,
"Wait, so Gonro's going? Great, it's going to be over before we get a chance to play!" Demea laughed at Hemea's disappointment and said,
"So who's got the last laugh now? It's always about the kicks for you isn't it? This is serious, don't you know that?" He then looked at Gonro and said, "Go ahead. There'll be no arguments from us." Gonro nodded silently. The pale colossus took flight just as Hemea and Demea landed, and the former took off in the direction of the explosion. As the king watched, he thought,
"Perfect! With my loyal army I didn't even have to lift a finger to rid myself of the opposition. Very soon, the entire universe will fall before me! Oh, I can't wait!" While he was busy being overjoyed, Dangu had become aware that someone was coming after them. He told Zanchi and Hiko, then said suddenly,
"Okay, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to call on Goku's help, considering how powerful that guy is." Zanchi gasped in surprise and said in response,
"That 'guy' is Gonro! But I don't understand why he's allied himself with that scumbag of a king! Wasn't he our friend?"
"Maybe he was," Dangu said, "but he's not now. Come on, we need to get out of here! The way to Earth is this way, isn't it?" He pointed north as he asked. Hiko nodded, but as he thought he ultimately said,
"But isn't that also where Gonro is coming at us from?" Zanchi sighed and Dangu growled, but they all came to a consensus before long, deciding that they had to risk it just like before. As the trio raced toward the portal, Gonro sensed them approaching and decided that there was no way they were coming to meet him. It was then that he realized they were headed for Earth. With that calculation in mind, he felt compelled to stop them from getting to their destination. The trio's travel to the portal went surprisingly smooth, and they were shocked to find that they had beaten Gonro to the portal. Not wanting to wait for him, they continued to race forward only to find none other than Gonro having jumped out of the shadows.
"So he did beat us here," Zanchi said softly. Dangu growled in frustration, thinking,
"So close..." As the trio faced off against their former friend Gonro, each of the three was thinking about how to get their companions through the gate, even if they themselves didn't.