Chapter 1 - The Prodigal Warrior
Earth, Western Countryside, Deadman Canyons
Pain.
It was something that the son of Goku was all too familiar with. The sensation that would tear away at his nerves, force his nasal to sting as tears would exude from his eyes. His head would thrum with a throbbing force that would cause his consciousness to be rattled with sensory overload. Most of all, his heart would ache and cause his blood to boil with grief-ridden rage, the source of his unimaginable power.
The power born through anger and sadness, was a terrible burden for the child. He had to endure so much, behold acts of despicable evil and watch the ones closest to his heart or complete strangers be tormented.
Again and again, the cycle continued, seeming to halt after his battle against Cell. But really, it was the long calm before the storm that Majin Buu wreaked across his home. Due to the lack of fighting spirit and training he had, he was unprepared for bulbous beast's power, easily beating him to the point of near death.
He had to endure pain much afterwards. Even after extensive training with the Z Sword, subsequently followed with his hidden potential unlocked by Old Kai. Confidence restored, he set out to pay back Majin Buu and show him just a fraction of his newfound strength.
But low, it did little to keep his state of ignorance to stop his fatherly mentor, Piccolo, and his little brother Goten and his friend Trunks from being absorbed. Endowed with incredible strength and mental prowess, Majin Buu challenged Gohan to face him as he was, ultimately toying with the Saiyan Hybrid as he pummeled away at him for what felt like hours.
This led him to the point where he was now. Having been blasted out of a chasm, caused by his own energy reflected back at him, Gohan groaned and spasmed on the earth. His skin bled profusely where it wasn't burned. His proud Turtle Hermit uniform he asked to have endow his body was in tatters, and he was now helpless on the battlefield.
"I'm so sorry, dad," Gohan thought, feeling hot tears escape his eyes, consciousness slowly fading from his mind, "I failed. I failed again!"
"Hold on, Gohan!" Dende's voice yelled out, his small feet rushing earnestly across the rough terrain, eager to get to his severely injured friend.
But the Namekian child's voice was all but a muffled call, distorted and warped to Gohan's failing auditory sense. Death seemed like it was creeping in upon him, ultimately aiming to claim him, like it should have so many other times.
"I deserve it. The Supreme Kai shouldn't have bothered reviving me. I'm no hero," Gohan thought, his coughing beginning to subside into a faint wheeze.
"GOHAN!" Dende shouted, placing his hands on his back to shake him, pressing his ear against him to find a heartbeat. It was so weak, he could feel the life force dwindling, escaping before his grasp. "WAKE UP! LET ME HEAL YOU! GOHAN!"
"I guess I'll see you soon, father," Gohan thought as consciousness began to lapse into the void, his breath seeming like it would be his last.
"Get up, Gohan."
"F-Father?" Gohan thought as his eyes squinted open, seeing his father stand before him, hovering above golden clouds, "is that...you?"
"Believe in yourself. Unleash your power, it's the only way!"
Blinking a few times more, he would find himself slowly able to breathe easier as strength poured into his being. The gashes upon his skin receded back to healthy fair complexion, his clothing restored upon the wave of restorative magic projected upon his being. As the pain vanished, Gohan found himself looking up at his childhood friend, Dende.
"Dende?" Gohan queried, blinking up at the Namekian boy.
"Thank goodness!" He cried out with joy, reaching out to hug Gohan around the neck, tears dripping down his grass-hued cheeks, "I thought you were beyond healing for a few moments...I'm so glad you're alright!"
"Take it easy there," Gohan chuckled happily, gently leaving the neophyte Guardian's embrace, standing up to his feet to look down at him reassuringly.
"A-Are you sure you're alright?" Dende asked, his big eyes blinking up at Gohan with a hint of wonder mingled with doubt.
Was he?
Gohan wondered about that, as he looked down at his hands, flexing them experimentally. Faint crackles of golden bioelectricity danced around his body, as he drew upon a newfound well of power that expanded since its awakening. Inhaling and exhaling, his eyes looked over at a dumbfounded Majin Buu, hovering a good distance away and looking at him with confusion.
"I'm fine, Dende," Gohan said with a confident smile, dancing tendrils of golden light flashing around his body, passively drawing his power further to the surface, "in fact, I feel better than I was earlier."
It was then, that the pink monstrosity chimed in.
"What is going on?! How are you standing back on your feet, without a scratch on-" Buu began to speak, cutting himself short as he saw Dende scurry away to his hiding place, a boulder not but ten paces to Gohan's right, "ahhhh, Piccolo knows. That Namekian can heal any wound with his unique powers. He's going to pay dearly for that."
In an instant, Gohan shimmered in front of the empowered Homunculus, causing him to recoil with surprise.
"Wha-NGH?!" He began to question aloud, suddenly feeling a fist crash into his face, causing it to stretch out the back of his head. Before the Majin could rearrange his comically indented face, a thunderous knee kick caved in his chest cavity, causing the fused being to lurch over. With finality, a downwards elbow jab struck the bulging skull, forcing his face to stretch out as he pinwheeled down into the earth.
A mighty eruption of mineralized landscape took place when the being impacted, sending shockwaves of blistering winds to flow across the rocky terrain.
Softly, Gohan landed just mere meters away from the kilometer wide crater. He calmly stared with an impassive visage as his opponent rose up, breathing heavily in the air across from him. Clenching his fists, he allowed himself be totally aware of his enemy, not allowing the nefarious mind he had been gifted with to be used against him again.
"H-How can this happen?!" Buu yelled out with rage, clearly not understanding what was transpiring before him, "you couldn't have suddenly become my equal from a little healing! There's no way you can be my equal!"
"Oh, I'm more than a match," Gohan said with spiteful words, his onyx eyes flashing dangerously as raised his arms up in a cross formation in front of him, "in fact. I think I'm stronger than what your Fusion is."
"No way! You must be goading me, trying to make me think that you're stronger," Buu waved a hand out across the air, glaring with a dark smile of reassurance crossing his features, "yes, you're now trying to use mind games on me. Well it won't work. I'll find out the secret behind your power, and when I do-"
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Gohan's yell pierced the air, shaking the ground mightily like thunder. The ground underneath him buckled before quickly indenting, spreading in gait to be dozens of meters wide, sparking with cracks of overwhelming energy that made contact with the soil. With arms drawn back, the Saiyan Hybrid prodigy's body flourished with a silver lit aura, rivulets of golden sparks danced around his clothes and skin.
"N...N...No...way!" The Fused Majin Buu gasped aloud, his red-black eyes widening with horror, beads of sweat manifesting across his salmon hued scalp. Backing away in the air, he could hardly fathom the new well of power that Gohan achieved.
"I should thank you, really," Gohan said with a smirk, hissing gouts of golden electricity danced around his head and hair, in tandem with the vibrant thrum of his transparently lit aura of power, "if you hadn't taken your time beating me around, hitting me with everything you got, allowing your power to be made known to me I wouldn't have gotten this strong."
"HOW?! TELL ME, DAMN YOU!" The gummy adversary howled out, his hands balling up into fists as her glared hatefully at his Saiyan enemy.
A shimmering blur of motion carried Gohan forward, appearing instantaneously before the Fused Buu. This caused him to rear back and thrust out a punch, one of which Gohan bent his neck to the right to evade easily. Growling, he swung out his other fist, this time being sidestepped away without it ever making contact.
"Answer me!" Majin Buu shouted out, swinging his fists out in a flurry of motion, pink skinned arms all but seeming to be in dozens of places at once. Just like his attacks, Gohan seemed to be shimmering to and fro, easily dodging each of the attacks without any of them hitting him. "hold still!"
"It's a Saiyan trait that you can't use by stealing power from us," Gohan explained, his hands reaching up and grasping each wrist effortlessly, holding the straining limbs in place as he glared coldly at his nemesis, "it's called Zenkai."
"Z-Zenkai?!" Majin Buu stuttered out, his eyes twitching, looking through the memories of Gotenks and seeing nothing. When he searched Piccolo's, a dawning look of realization pieced what happened, "so...that explains everything. Dende's healing powers allowed your body to adapt at a rate faster than normal. You've grown stronger from the beatings you took."
"Yup," Gohan nodded, swinging his foot up in a snap kick, causing the goo-skinned monster's head to rear back at a painful angle. Another thunderous kick was landed into the creature's abdomen, causing him to lurch forward as his torso was indented and deformed, spewing out spittle and blood out of his mouth.
"HAAAAAAA!" Gohan shouted aloud as he pushed back against Majin Buu's body. The golden currents speeding up as he pushed forth real power into his arms as he pulled back. Stretching sounds were heard, and it seemed that Gohan was pulling back gum rather than actual limbs.
Then, the shoulders gave way, ripping straight off with geysers of purple blood erupting from pink stumps. Majin Buu floated back with a pain-ridden, bewildered visage. He looked back forth across his shoulders, seeing that they were indeed yanked out of their sockets.
"W-What have you done?!" Majin Buu yelled out incredulously, mingling his tone between growling and quivering.
"I'm through being patient with you," Gohan said decisively, lifting his hands upwards to hold Buu's limbs upwards, igniting them with twin discharges of azure light. Before his eyes, his limbs would be vaporized without a trace, and the glow of the blasts would give Gohan a vengeful silhouette, "it's time I show you...just what happens when someone pushes me over the edge!"
"Oh cry me a river," Buu snarled out, his sockets shaking for a few seconds before a pair of new gummy arms grew back in place, "I can't be blamed for what a failure you've be-NNNNNNNGH!"
A thunderous collision silenced Buu's utterance. Gohan's fist wedged firmly his chest, stretching out his back, forcing his body to hunch over. The stretching outline of Gohan's fist would suddenly glow, thrumming with priming Ki within the fabric of malleable flesh. Seconds later, a orb of golden energy would explode out his back, forming a distinct foot wide hole through his chest.
"Aaaaah...g-g-guah!" Majin Buu stuttered out, rearing back away from Gohan in the air. Before his red eyes would be able to meet Gohan's glaring onyx eyes, he knew that the punishment he would receive was only starting.
"Whoa!" Tien Shinhan gasped aloud, his triclopian eyes blinked at the swathes of destruction being carved into the canyon. While it took awhile to get close enough to watch without being noticed, he finally arrived at the battlefield, there to see Gohan in a mood he could only compare to when he fought Cell.
"Better keep my distance," Tien gulped, seeing a fissure of uproaring earth in the distance, seeing a sparking light following before causing an enormous explosion. The blistering wind ushered forth by the shockwave of the explosion forced him to raise his arms to shield himself from flying debris, causing his white weighted robe to flourish around his person.
Down below he heard a groan of dismay, coupled by distinctive barks of a domestic dog. "what's that?"
Lowering himself swiftly, he saw in a small patch of boulders and disheveled earth that Dende was among an infamous face: Hercule Satan, the man who claimed responsibility for destroying Cell.
"I really hope I don't have to deal with that guy," Tien thought as his trio of eyes narrowed, landing softly with a tap next to Dende.
"Tien!" Dende perked up immediately, seeing a survivor being a friendly face, "I'm so glad you're alright! I was certain that you were among those that Buu killed with his Human Genocide Attack."
"What a charming name for a technique," Tien muttered, before smiling genuinely at Dende, "yeah, Chiaotzu and I made it out alright. Our training allowed us to keep ahead of those beams no problem. I did tell Chiaotzu to go find any survivors around the planet just in case, but I'm not holding my breath."
"Yeah," Dende said in a low, solemn tone as he looked down at his feet, sitting upon a boulder-made seat, "so many people are gone. The entire planet feels so empty now..."
"Don't worry about it," Tien said with a grim smile, his face turning to bear witness to another erupting mushroom cloud of earthen debris rising up into the air, miles away from their location, "this isn't permanent. As long as we have you, the Dragon Balls will restore what was broken and the people who've been lost. Plus, I doubt Majin Buu will last much longer against Gohan."
"I guess...you're right," Dende relented with a nod, turning his gaze, extending his senses to view the battle more adeptly than if someone was relying upon eyes and ears alone, "be careful, Gohan."
Majin Buu emerged from the indentation of earthen slabs of rocks, bruised and bleeding from several areas. Steam was being emitted from various scorch marks across his face and chest, while blood trickled out of his nose and lips. The damage he took was unmistakably greater than any beating he took against Goku, Gotenks, or even his first bout against the vengeful warrior.
Even still, his wounds vanished in seconds of concentration, and any tattered shreds his jacket had been reduced to reformed perfectly. Looking up from his kneeling, crouched form he could see Gohan's form not but a handful of meters away, walking forebodingly towards him.
"C'mon," Gohan goaded, his voice devoid of playfulness and now steeled with an icy tone, "weren't you talking about how disappointing I was? How ashamed my peers, family, and friends were of me? Where's all that big talk now?!"
"You know nothing, boy!" Majin Buu growled, stretching his head tendril down to burrow into the ground behind him, feeding its length under the earth without alerting the angry Saiyan. "I'm still better than you and you know it."
"Do tell," Gohan stepped slowly forward, each step bringing him closer to the most despised enemy he's encountered in his life, feeding the fire that lit his onyx orbs that glared fully at the red-black eyes of Buu, "I'd like to see what kind of trick you have up your sleeve you haven't showed me already."
In an instant, Majin Buu smiled, initiating his plan in full.
Spearing through the earth, his skull-attached prehensile limb spun around in a dizzying arc around Gohan's body, fully binding him on the spot. Audible squeezing sounds were heard as Gohan's body moved against the constricting piece of gummy flesh. With the Saiyan's advances brought to a petrifying halt, Majin Buu allowed himself to laugh tauntingly.
"Awwww, what's the matter?! Didn't see my tentacle coming, did you? Well that's okay," Buu growled darkly, cupping his hands at his sides, charging an orb of pink energy at his side, "I'm going to make sure you won't live to regret your mistake!"
The diabolical instrument of Babidi's genocidal plans grinned sinisterly at the lack of verbal response. His gleaming eyes stared at the hardened, impassive glare of Gohan's. The same glare that seemed to permeate a glow that grew brighter and brighter, emitting an azure hue as it erased the whites of his eyes in seconds. It was then that Buu's confident visage reverted to a confused, then horrified realization.
"RRRRRRRRRR!" Gohan growled out, his eyes discharging an optical blast of vivid azure-white light, cutting the Homunculus's head off with an evaporating wave of searing heat. The expansive wave of Ki would barrel into the horizon behind the hunched over gum-man's body, cutting a fissure through the earth and sending vertically aligned pillars of flames to scorch into the skyline above.
In that instant, Buu's body twitched and lost control of the Kamehameha within its grasp, defusing the pink-hued energy as its extended and earth rooted limb fell limply off of Gohan's body.
Grasping the end of the pink tendril, Gohan pulled it out of the ground, allowing it to crack open a long crack within the ground it hid itself within. Swinging it around like a whip, the Saiyan ignited the stretch of putrid flesh with crackling golden energy, causing the skin to bubble and pop with intensity.
The moment that Buu regenerated a new head with an audible, if not comical "pop!", Gohan swung the crudely crafted weapon of energy right on top of Majin Buu's blinking face.
"GAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGH!" The killer of humanity gurgled and screamed out in a discontorted warble of grotesque expression of pain. His body shook and popped in a painful display of brutality, silhouetted by the cacophony of electric shocks his body was put through by the output of malevolent Ki, thrumming vibrantly through his face and throughout the rest of his being.
When the energy whip detonated into abstract smoke, Gohan admired his handiwork.
The beast's clothes were all but scorched off, leaving blackened charred areas all across his salmon complexioned surface. His eyes were bulging out, watering with an output of fluids and blood, also steaming from the shocking heat his being enveloped.
"Get up!" Gohan snarled, raising an open hand towards the writhing and slowly regenerating form of Buu, priming an orb of golden light in his right hand, "I'm not through with you yet."
The pinkish skinned being immediately stopped gargling, flipping itself back onto its haunches with a mighty thud, pulling its arms close to its body. Stretching his jaw out to wide proportions, a scarlet beam discharged from his throat, expanding out to encompass a dozen meter gait stretch as it roared forward. The Revenge Cannon would impact into Gohan within moments, not leaving him much time to react!
"MASENKO!" Gohan shouted with great declaration, his hand letting loose a smaller beam of energy that halted the wave of destructive power, causing it to curl around him him to burn the soil around a meter away. It speared through, cutting it in half, before the beam itself flew into Buu's mouth at the source of the energy's output.
This produced an explosion that rocked the wasteland of canyon trenches and craters, ballooning outwards a good kilometer before spewing upwards into the sky and deep into the ground. It was a chasm of epic proportions, billowing out a tower of smoke similar in gait to that of a skyscraper before taking the likeness of a mushroom in composition. Standing within its center, basking in the dank smell of scorched earth and simmering ozone was Gohan, glancing to and fro through the thick blanket of ghastly smog.
"Hiding again? Let me solve that for ya," Gohan said aloud to himself with a devilish smirk.
Stretching an arm to each side, Gohan clapped them mightily together, producing a Kiai shockwave mighty enough to dissipate the entire column of toxic fumes. In doing so, he saw a half formed Buu to his left, his lower half trying to reassemble back into the white linen and black booted legs he had adorned since Fusion. Upon seeing this, Gohan turned in the air to regard Buu with an amused expression.
"Looks like you're falling apart on me, Buu," Gohan mocked, eyeing him up with a menace, "don't worry, I hear that therapy usually solves that. Unfortunately, my kind of therapy usually involves plentiful volumes of violence."
A thunderous clap of igniting energy was sounded, as Gohan's brilliant divine aura flourished to life around him once more. Christened by a chorus of dancing bolts of golden currents, Gohan raised his right hand up to thumb towards his chin, cocking his head to the side as he grinned smugly at him, "Care to have a sample?"
"RRRRRRGH!" Majin Buu growled, looking livid as veins protruded across his pink scalp with emphasis, complimenting the dangerous flash of crimson sockets glaring at him with lethal intention, "FOOL! I'LL CRUSH YOUR SMUG CARCASS INTO OBLIVION!"
"Why don't you come over here and try?" Gohan beckoned with a curl of his finger, resisting the urge to chuckle at the furious visage his nemesis sported. The rage within Gohan was only quelled by the boiling blood his Saiyan veins for a yearning for vengeance. The desire to see them contort in suffering and agony, to see them be utterly humiliated. Gohan wouldn't be satisfied until he saw his enemy crawl away from him in fear, before administering the final blow.
"Shut up!" Buu roared out, swinging a fist towards the Mystic Saiyan, stretching it out in a rubbery fashion that aimed a corkscrewing punch towards him.
Gohan swiveled his arm around, allowing his forearm to absorb the javelin punch's force, creating a ballooning shockwave that rattled the earth below and bristled his hair. As the arm retracted with a snap, another limb thrust outwards, being deflected by the opposing arm's impervious skin. Losing all form of control, Buu launched a series of snapping thrusts, each of them easily evaded by the blurring form of Gohan.
"I will defeat you!" Buu declared with pride, laced with desperation and fury equally as he continued launching his attacks.
"Then beat me already," Gohan goaded back, his demeanor receding back into one of irritation and anger as he kept up dodging in a manner that seemed effortless, "I'm sick of seeing you boast empty talk!"
Snapping his limbs back, Buu writhed and balled up his hands with indignant rage. As golden energy coalesced between the recesses of his closed fingers, his body ignited a pink aura of his own, crackling wildly as he threw out his arms back out at Gohan.
"DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE!" The Ultimate Majin shouted out maniacally, his eyes practically bulging out as his hands let loose a stream of golden energy bullets towards Gohan and the horizon behind him. His rational mind that he inherited from Piccolo was being overridden by his own natural Majin induced rage, coupled with further stimulation by the Super Saiyan 3 wrath that Gotenks empowered him with.
And that move worked perfectly to Gohan's advantage.
Using his newfound speed and reflexes, Gohan swerved in and around each dozen aligned line of projectiles heading in his direction. It appeared as if he danced as gracefully as his father, while incorporating the fluid motions of Piccolo, all into his own unique instinct of evasion and approach. Ducking, weaving, spinning eventually lead him straight into Majin Buu's personal space.
"What?!" The pink demon exclaimed incredulously.
An earsplitting punch silenced the monster, discouraging further resistance as a fist wedged firmly into his abdomen. The force alone forced air to scream out in high pitched whistles from all of his air holes, drowning out the loud garbled shout of pain coming out of Buu's throat. When the knuckles finally receded from the indented gut, chaotic yellow sparks were left to simmer and crackle in place, a mark that didn't leave willingly from the Homunculus's skin.
"Look at you," Gohan sneered, his eyes met by glaring crimson sockets, his words casting venom and disgust, "for all the boogeymen I've faced, all the evil predators that preyed on good people, and all the dark emperors I've trembled before I've never had to face someone so pathetic and low as you. At least Cell had the decency to yearn to be the best. You? You're simply jealous of anyone who's better than you and will stop at nothing until you have that power or you destroyed it. Just like a rotten, selfish child."
"SHUT UP!" Majin Buu shouted out loud, charging a Ki ball as large as his chest in his right hand, "I AM MAJIN BUU! I AM SUPERIOR TO ALL OTHER LIFE FORMS! YOUR ONLY PURPOSE IS TO AMUSE ME BEFORE I RIP YOU APART AND FEAST ON YOUR AGONY! DEATH IS THE ONLY DESTINY THAT AWAITS YOU, BOY!"
As Majin Buu swung his energy coalesced fist towards Gohan, the Mystic Saiyan twisted his body to the left, raising his leg up to spin around towards the incoming Ki infused hand. Before it could bring the blast fully to bear, Gohan's foot made contact with the creature's wrist, flinging the beam to his right and into the horizon. He wouldn't have time to stare in shock or awe at the sight of the blast exploding in the horizon, enveloping a distant portion of the Earth's landscape in a brilliant scarlet detonation.
His eyes would only widen as the same foot that kicked his hand and blast away would come back around, this time side axe kicking him across the jaw. Buu's neck would stretch out to a length of an entire meter, his eyes wincing with painful twitches as his jaw was swollen inwards from the impact the heel made to his revolting pink flesh.
An instant later, Gohan would bend within the air with the momentum of his axe kick, rearing back his left leg before propelling it mightily into Majin Buu's chest. The air would split from the jettisoning kick, causing Buu's mangled body to pinwheel backwards, flailing and growling with protest.
The Mystic Saiyan would materialize behind the Fused Buu, thrusting a double snap kick into the undefended folds of his back. His chest would bloat from the indentations created by the offensive appendages, just before launching bodily upwards in a ragdoll spin, comically howling with pain and anger. The ascending velocity he'd create as he roared upwards would give off the sound of a rocket, rumbling the air ominously as he climbed up higher and higher in altitude.
When Buu forced his eyes open, he found himself staring at the vacuum of space, his body entering the upper atmosphere. There, an orange speck above his rapidly climbing form, would be his current oppressor that dominated him in every sense of the word. Due to the lack of air for vibrations to occur, he wouldn't hear the low toned chant coming out of Gohan's mouth.
"Ka...me..."
"This boy is too much! With all of this pain and punishment he's putting me through, I can't think clearly!" Buu realized with stark wide eyes, his body approaching him rapidly, running out of time to resist the next strike.
"Ha...me..."
"I have to gain an edge of superiority once more! I can't let it end like this! I can't-...OH NO!" Buu thought with a gaping wide mouth, his body now a handful of meters away from Gohan.
Silhouetted by the rightmost glare of the Sun, Gohan glared hatefully at the artificially created being. A single hand, partially clenched in a form of a clawed posture, pointed straight at the Majin's pectoral and sternum regions. An azure light flashed rapidly around his palm's pores, dancing before the pin-sized pupils of Buu, enveloping his whole being in a overcast of blue-white light.
Then, the attack was launched with a mighty roar from Gohan, "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Majin Buu's scream ripped from his throat, just as the surface of his skin began burning away. The beam pushed him with the force of a meteor, causing him to hurtle down back into Earth's gravitational pull. Orange and red tongues of flames wafted around azure beam containing its captive, plummeting downwards at a breathtaking speed, bringing forth sonic projections of sound that rocked the land for miles around.
The expansive ravines, the wide plateaus, and mountain peaks began to shake violently as the Ki infused projectile hurtled ever-so closer to the Earth's surface. The gravity aided blast burned and crackled with chaotic power, roaring downwards with a nihilistic quality to its energy.
At the exact instant the Majin coalesced wave of destruction touched the ground, the Kamehameha exploded remotely. A maelstrom of cobalt flames swirled around like a hurricane, glassing the dust and sand of the dry soil swiftly. Any tall natural sedimented pile of earth was obliterated in the explosion's wake, releasing a deafening boom of the detonation's shockwave.
It was a blast that rattled half the planet, and would be seen as a blue wave of light all the way from orbit, below Gohan's feet.
"I wonder just what kind of shape he's in now?" Gohan thought to himself, his body still bristling with solar tendrils of bioelectricity. After only a few seconds of hesitation, his body descended down, clad in an aura of white light with dancing golden currents across his form.
"One way or another, this battle ends now!"
Otherspace, World of the Kais
Goku was troubled.
He had been excited to see the progress of his son's advancements through his training and the power he unveiled before him. It was greater than his own, even when he transformed at his most powerful variant of Super Saiyan. Gohan always held the potential to surpass him and he had done so once again by unlocking the power buried within himself.
But then, Buu turn the tables and absorbed people closest to his heart. Gotenks, the fused body of his son Goten and his rival's son Trunks, as well as Piccolo. Even though the initial bout promised that Gohan was still at a higher level than the fused Majin, it quickly turned into a one-sided slaughter. As he watched in dismay, he begged the Supreme Kais to help find a way to save his son and the rest of the Universe.
The Eldest of Kais proposed a radical proposal. Using magical artifacts called Potara Earrings Goku would join bodies with his son and become a warrior so strong that there wouldn't even be a need to transform against Majin Buu. With time as of the essence, Goku didn't care about the side affects. He just wanted to save the Earth, and protect his son from being murdered at the hands of Majin Buu.
Mere moments away from the Elder Kai himself sacrificing his life to restore Goku's, a sudden shift was felt across the planet, and Otherspace itself. It felt similar, yet very different from the power that Gohan demonstrated before them on this very planet.
"Is...that Gohan?" Kibitoshin, the result of a Potara Fusion of Kibito and Shin, looked around with perplexion and awe. The ground shook and an ominous display of golden currents of electricity snaked through the air, as if the resonating power that once was shown was linked to the boy whom was far away from the planet.
"My word," Elder Kai blinked sagely, shuffling back to his crystal ball to see Gohan, clad in a newfound aura of ascended power, "I don't believe it! Gohan got stronger than when his potential had been unlocked!"
"Wow!" Goku shouted with glee, hunching down to see his son take the initiative and begin ruthlessly assaulting Majin Buu with renewed vigor, "he doesn't even look hurt at all. I guess Dende must have healed him, allowing his body to adapt to his previous weaknesses. Really impressive if you ask me!"
"This is fantastic news!" Kibitoshin said with a jubilious tone, pumping his fist in the air, practically dancing across the grassy plains, "with Gohan stronger than ever, there's no way that he can lose! Majin Buu doesn't have anyone left to gain more power from, leaving him completely helpless!"
"You're wrong," Elder Kai said morosely, squatting on the ground as he looked on with solemn knowing, "he can't destroy Buu."
"W-Why not?!" Goku asked with incredulous disbelief.
"Elder, surely you jest!" Kibitoshin laughed in a doubting tone of his own, "if Gohan is stronger than Majin Buu, then by logic, he should be able to destroy him, right?!"
"He sure may be able to destroy his body, but it won't be at a level that he can't come back from," Elder Kai explained, turning his gaze back and forth, looking between the two who shared expressions of shocked dismay, "all Gohan is doing is building up the well of fury deep within his being. If Majin Buu abandons all form of reasoning, is pushed into a desperate corner, then there is no telling what he is capable of!"
"Drat," Kibitoshin swore, kicking the ground as he cast a glare at his feet, balling his fists with emphasis, "if only he could be defeated normally, we wouldn't have to worry about this right now!"
"So..." Goku tapped his fingers, squatting towards the Elder Kai as he blinked with understanding at the hunched over Elder Kai, "I guess this means Fusion is our only hope?"
"Yes," Elder Kai said with an apologetic bow, "I'm sorry, Goku, but there is no other way."
"Alright," Goku nodded, bending on one knee to accept the Elder Kai's blessing, "then we have no time to lose!"
Earth, Central Region, Northern Mountainside (now Northern Crater)
Agony.
That's all that Buu felt at the moment. Every fiber of his being was in unbelievable suffering, having been degenerated to one of the lowest forms of anatomical substance. It felt as if he was born again, barely any sense of awareness as he began to take shape after an eternity of slumber. Truly, he hadn't felt any form of disintegration, mangling, or any physical kind of death to be as painful as the blast that Gohan had used against him.
"Am...am I going to die?" Majin Buu thought as he felt his gaseous form rise pitifully a meter off the ground, "will I...lose...to a lowly mortal...such as a Saiyan?"
The cloud of Buu's body slowly began to expand, taking upon the form of a head. When his distinct facial features and head-tail finished solidifying, the rest of his gooey mass began to regenerate from the neck downwards at a crawling pace. His browless, dark sockets squinted open, twitching with visible iration and discomfort.
"No," He answered himself, his torso slowly forming with a pair of pink muscular dispositioned arms, digits clenching into fists as his abdomen began to regenerate, "I am the Eternal Nightmare. Nothing in the Universe in the past could injure me. The Supreme Kais, the highest of gods, fell before my feet. These Saiyans, super or not, are a minor inconvenience at best."
By the time his legs had formed feet his complexion began to mold, his attire shifting and presenting itself officially. It still hurt to blink and move, but he knew the pain was temporary. Seeing Gohan land on the charred earth within his periphery of his vision, he began to formulate a plan...
"Wow," Gohan said dryly, crossing his arms as he looked at Buu in an appraising if not disappointing manner, "I knew my attack must have hurt, but I didn't know you would be in THIS bad of shape."
"Just what are you referring to, little-" Majin Buu began to retort, until his back felt the rippling of his own newly donned cape. Blinking with surprise, he looked down at himself and dropped his jaw. What was formerly an unbuttoned, yellow collared black jacketed form was now a pointy white pauldron adorned cape of weighted armor. "no! NO NOT NOW!"
"Your power has dropped significantly," Gohan said with a smirk, watching Majin Buu convulse with barely restrained rage, "from my guess, maybe thirty percent of the lion share of your energy has been depleted. I guess Gotenks finally separated, our battle sapping you of what small time you had left. Consider this fight over, Buu."
"No...No...NO!" The Pink Skinned Demon snarled, almost rabidly at Gohan. Red eyes glared hatefully at Gohan, framed by his pulsating vein covered browlines, his fists raising up to either side of his jaws, "you cannot defeat me! I am Immortal! I am Indestructible! I AM YOUR END!"
"Could have fooled me," Gohan said with a more solemn tone, his eyes narrowing deadly at Buu as he unfurled his arms, "you look quite scared right now. Just like you were when I first began showing you the fraction of power I had at my disposal. At this level, there's no way you can hold that ugly form of yours together. Not after a blast of that magnitude."
Upon the last sentence of Gohan's words leaving his mouth, the wrath fueled Dijin's eyes opened wide, followed by a sinister if not maniacal smile. The plan, as hastily as it was made in the span of a few seconds, was the best thing he could come up with.
Raising his hands up above his head, Majin Buu leapt up into the air, rising up to be a dozen meters to look down at the stoically glaring Gohan. His disposition would remain the same, even as a large pink sphere of expanding energy, casting an eerie gleam across the desolated landscape.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The Homunculus laughed aloud with insane glee, the sphere comparable to that of Frieza's Supernova in size, thrumming with chaotic power with black lightning crackling around its surface, "say goodbye to your planet, Saiyan!"
In that instant, something occurred that neither fighter expected.
A blurring form of movement would materialize behind the cackling murderer, manifesting a spinning disc of golden energy, hurtling it straight at his backside. His laughs would be cut short with a gargled gasp of surprise, the disc spinning away into the horizon over Gohan's head, exploding in the distance just as the blast was sent upwards into space.
Three things fell down from Buu's now eviscerated body: a piece of white cape, his legs accompanied by his waist, and a good couple feet worth of his skull attached tendril.
"D-Dad?!" Gohan gaped out with confusion, blinking away his stoic expression to be replaced by one of excitement.
"Wait!" Buu called out, turning around to face Goku bereft of most of his body, but still confident. Glaring with an appraising manner, he said with an understanding tone, "you must be Goku. How did you get here and how are you alive?!"
"Where I've been isn't important, and how I'm alive, well you can thank the Old Kai for that," Goku said with a cheeky grin, flashing his white teeth and innocent pair of eyes at Buu.
"Dad, what ARE you doing here?!" Gohan raised his voice, looking up at him past the floating severed mass of Buu, "did Supreme Kai send you?"
"Yup," Goku said with a nod, pulling out an earring from his gi top, holding it up for emphasis while cocking his right ear lobe for demonstration, "they said we need to fuse in order to destroy Buu. It's the only way without destroying the planet or exhausting ourselves."
"Fusion?" Buu thought, furrowing his browless sockets, "do they intend to do another variant of the Fusion Dance that Gotenks did?"
"Really? Are you sure?!" Gohan cupped his hands around his mouth, calling up to him from his solid perch away from the two of them, not wanting to antagonize the barely stable Majin, "I think I can take him as he is!"
"This is the only way," Goku said with a shake of his head, tossing the earring up in the air before catching it, bending to the side to throw it past Buu at Gohan, "catch!"
Raising his own hand to deftly catch the flying piece of jewelry, the surprisingly dense earring smacked into his palm solidly. Looking up at it, he could tell there was no pierce marks on it, making them more clip-ons rather than standard forms of decoration.
"Is this really our shot of beating Buu?" Gohan thought as he looked at the piece of jewelry.
In the meantime, Buu had used the time to put together a plan. From which an impatient looking Goku looked at him and back at his son appropriately, eager to fuse now. Seeing him visibly squirm caused Buu to chuckle.
"He knows that he's no match against me. Even without the boys fused, I have two Super Saiyan children and the Namekian bolstering my powers. My plan will go without a hitch," Buu thought with a dark grin.
"What ear is it on, dad? Left or right?" Gohan asked, raising the earring up to either side of his head. Though in that moment, his eyes picked up movement that caused him to shout in alarm, "wait, DAD LOOK OUT!"
Goku's eyes widened, turning his head over his shoulder to see the other half of Buu ram both knees into his back. As his eyes contorted with pain, the momentum of the attack hurdled him to Buu's direction, just as he lifted both hands over his head to ram them both against the crown of his skull.
"GAH!" Goku gasped out, blood flying out of his mouth as his body pinwheeled downwards. Much to his dismay, the head tendril that had been left on the ground expanded into a wide blanketing mass, catching his falling body perfectly.
"Dad!" Gohan shouted with horror, watching his father get consumed in the goo, watching him writhe with pitiful resistance. Looking up at Buu, he saw his body restored to its full stature, growling at him with an upraised fist, "let him go!"
"NOT A CHANCE!" Buu shouted with a victoriously devilish tone, gesturing towards the writhing mass that held Goku captive to rush towards him.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Gohan roared out, igniting his silver aura with golden arcs of electricity, leaping upwards to appear directly in between Buu and Goku's impending mass.
However, Buu had expected that, and sneered with a dark smile.
"I said, let him go-!" Gohan began to shout, until his eyes caught the glint of sparkling white light emanate from Buu's normally crimson orbs. A second later, a piercing screech of sound dictated the release of an Eye Flash, a technique that Piccolo used against Frieza years ago.
"AAAAH!" Gohan recoiled with pain and confusion, reaching up with his free hand to rub away the blindness in his eyes.
"Out of the way!" Buu said with a growl, grappling his throat with a vice iron grip. Not letting Gohan a chance to counterattack, he hurtled him over his shoulder with as much force as he could muster, causing the young man to tumble within the airspace. With no more interruptions, he waved both arms to each side in a beckoning gesture, laughing aloud as he shouting out, "COME HERE!"
The blanket of squirming goo glomped Buu, melting and flowing over his body. Dark currents of violet energy crackled around his body, transforming his figure and adopting the new powers with memories appropriately. The air bristled with his new rising power, sending searing waves of heated air that abrasively struck the land with its declarative new presence.
"No, I'm too late!" Gohan said with dismay, gritting his teeth visibly as he saw the orb of scarlet and pink light compress down upon the new body of Majin Buu.
When his back turned around, Gohan could see the Turtle Hermit uniform replace his absorbed mentor's weighted cape. Dark purple braces wrapped over his forearms, mirroring the tops of his mustard hued boots, with a white pair of gi pants leading up to the telltale orange and blue top. A single "M" buckle lied over the center of his belt, the final nail in the coffin of indignity of his father's likeness being used in such a sacrilegious manner.
A deeper, delighted tone escaped Majin Buu's throat as his arms crossed over his chest, "So...where were we, Gohan?"
A/N: And done! Phew, this chapter was action packed, I'll tell ya XD
Okay, before I get a rave of comments of people challenging my logic about a Zenkai being possible for Gohan to be used, let me be clear that it has been said that Saiyans don't have limits (iterated COUNTLESS times). Even if it was done by Magic, the form that Gohan employed was nothing more than all of his potential he possessed in his base form, nothing else. This doesn't mean that he couldn't have achieved Zenkai, though at this point, I'm not even sure our beloved Akira Toriyama remembered that tidbit XD
2ndly, I'd like to say to my audiences who follow my other DBZ series, "The Vegeta Chronicles" and "The Other World Saga" I shall be posting up both new chapters in the coming month. My new job, coupled with life issues, has left me pretty sapped in terms of normal upload scheduling is concerned. I can't say when, but expect it in the next month.
Lastly, I'd like to see how I did, so please leave comments below in the form of Reviews or just your thoughts in text form. I'd like to see if this pilot chapter was a good start to a potentially great new series
Until then, I'll see you guys on the next chapter of Dragon Ball Zenkai!