A full moon shone in the night sky like a flashlight from space, illuminating the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth in the brilliant white light that bounced off of it from the sun. It was a pretty spectacular sight to see from Harbour City Hospital, as there was not a cloud in the sky and very few trees to interrupt the view. All this beauty was lost, however, on the many sleeping patients that occupied the hospital.
Save one…
A young man lay in the hospital bed in his room, surrounded by machines and tubes, eyes gazing out the window towards the full moon. His hands were bunched into fists as he clawed his way through every breath, willing his heart to keep beating, his brain to keep his bodily functions all in working order. A task that became more and more difficult by the minute, as Cancer proved to be a much stronger opponent. The beauty of the moonlight was the one thing he could focus upon to keep himself from giving up completely.
I can't die now, he thought to himself. Not like this! There's too much I need to do with my life! I have to live.
The sickness, however, didn't seem to care for the young man's struggling. He suddenly noticed that his breaths were becoming shallower, the tightness in his hands beginning to loosen, his mind threatening to jump out of his head at any moment. He kept fighting, however, willing his body to stay awake, doing his best to dig his way out of this grave. But he felt like the dirt was piling on too quickly for him, as the moonlight started to glow brighter and encompass more of his vision. He clenched his eyes shut as he tried desperately to beat down his most hated enemy: Cancer.
I can't loose to this! I have to win! I promised my family that I would come home healthy, and god-damn it that's what I have to do! As he thought this, he felt his hands go completely limp and his eyes soften. The white light of the moon had somehow penetrated his eyelids and was now swallowing the blackness that was previously there. The young man fought with his own body to get air into his lungs, but at this point it was like trying to breath water. There was no use anymore. He had lost his battle.
Or had he…
A burning sensation suddenly swelled in the young man's heart. His heart beat suddenly became more intense as the burning sensation began to spread, first down his left arm, then to his right, down both legs, up his back and spine, until all of his body was burning from the inside. His fists re-clenched and his eyes shot open suddenly as he began to suck air out of the atmosphere in one mighty deep breath. New energy seemed to pulse through his body with every heartbeat, bringing a new kind of life to it. Every beat seemed to pulse with life that washed through his veins. The man's eyes remained closed however, and he allowed himself to drift off to sleep happily, the feeling of slow steady breathing entering and leaving his lungs. And that's when he knew he had finally done it.
He had won.
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A family of four- a couple and two of their three sons- waited impatiently in front of a hospital service desk to see the fifth member of their family. It had been a week since they were told that the eldest child had miraculously recovered to full health, when just moments before, he was on the brink of death. Work had kept them from being able to visit, but now they were all anxious to see how he was.
At long last, a blonde haired nurse approached them from down a corridor leading to the patients' rooms. The woman of the family was first to speak to her.
"Can we see Zack now, please?" she asked the nurse, exasperatedly.
The nurse nodded in response before replying. "We've just finished taking a blood sample. You're free to check in on him, Mrs. Judzon."
The woman walked briskly down the corridor from where the nurse arrived from, leaving the rest of her family in the dust. She just couldn't wait to see her fully recovered eldest son again. As she walked down the white-walled corridor, she inspected a metal plate to the right of each of the doors, which had a number representing each room. There was one in particular she was looking for.
"Theddi, wait up," called the husband of the woman, a tall man with a large belly.
"537, 538… 541! Here it is!" She whispered excitedly, as she turned the handle and threw open the lime green colored door. The first thing she noticed about the room itself was that all of the life support machines had been removed, leaving only the hospital bed, a bedside table with a few assorted snacks and fruits strewn about it and a chair in each of the three empty corners. There, sitting upright in the bed, happily looking out the window to the hospital lawn was the man who she had waited so long to see again.
Her son, Zackary.
Tears instantly flooded her eyes, blurring her vision, as she rushed over to the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck. She felt her son shifting his position to face her before feeling two arms wrap around her. She sniffled as they held their embrace for a few seconds before Zack spoke.
"Hi mum," he whispered. "I'm all better now!"
Theddi pulled out of the hug and placed a hand on her son's cheek. She watched as the edges of his mouth curled upward into a slight smile. She responded with a wide grin, with tears still streaming down her face.
"I'm so happy to have you back!" she sobbed as she pulled Zack into another long hug.
She held the embrace there for a few moments before the rest of the family arrived. Two young and slim teenagers, followed by the large-bellied man entered the hospital room behind her. Theddi heard the exchange of 'ooh's and 'aah's that the two teenagers exchanged and she pulled away from the hug once more. Zack rested his hands on his lap as they all crowded around the edge of his bed.
"How are you feeling, Zackie?" the larger man asked with a big smile on his face.
Zack nodded as he replied. "I fee great, dad. I feel stronger than ever, for some reason."
It was only after this response that Theddi noticed that his chest was bare, and the pectoral muscles were rather well toned. This toning also seemed prominent in his arms and shoulders as well.
"Have you been exercising in here?" she asked.
Zack responded by nodding. "I found myself getting bored this past week, so I decided to do some pushups, sit-ups and squats every day," he added. "Can't wait to get back into my martial arts training again, though."
"Vell, you vill get to leave viz your family today, Zackary," a voice with a thick German accent said behind Zack's mum. "But I vill suggest taking it eazy for the next veek or two."
The family turned around to see a rather tall, broad shouldered man in a white coat standing at the doorway to Zack's room holding a clipboard. His face was square in nature and he had angular features in his cheeks and jaw. He wore a pair of small circular glasses on the bridge of his nose. He greeted the family with a warm smile as they turned to face him.
Theddi smirked a little as she could almost feel her eldest son pout in annoyance. "But doctor Eichmann," he complained. "I've been in here for months! I need to get my muscles moving again!"
"And you have been," doctor Eichmann replied, still smiling. "But even your managing to do 100 pushups, sit-ups and sqvuats I do not agree viz, especially zis soon after recovery. Do you vant to go bald again?"
Theddi turned back to her son to see him hang his head in defeat. It then suddenly dawned on her that his hair was flatter, and a little spiky, not in a wavy Afro like it usually did when it got long. After thinking about this, another realization hit her.
"Wait," she began. "Did you say… 100? As in… 100… of… each…?" She stammered out the question as her mouth hung open in shock. Around her, the other family members had mouths agape as well.
Zack scratched the back of his head before replying with a big goofy grin on his face. "Yeah. I ended up getting to 85 before even feeling it."
"But… how…" the elder of the two teenagers stammered as they all stared wide-eyed at Zack.
Doctor Eichmann stepped forward to the foot of Zack's bed and adjusted the position of his glasses before addressing Zach's mother and father. "Ah, yes," he said. "Zis iz something I vish to discuss viz you before you go."
Theddi's heart leapt into her throat. Is there something else wrong with Zack? She thought to herself.
The doctor must have noticed her anxiety, as he put his hand up in a calming manner before reassuring. "Now now, zere iz nossing to vorry about. He iz all better, now. Zere are just a few sings about hiz recovery zat may be of interest to you."
Like what? Theddi thought to herself again as the doctor flicked through some pages on his clipboard.
"Az part of ze procedure for hiz serapy," doctor Eichman began. "Ve have been collecting regular blood tests from your son to track ze progress of ze cancer."
A reassuring hand on her shoulder from her husband stopped Theddi from exploding at the doctor right there and then. She managed to keep her breathing calm and steady as the doctor stopped at a particular page and continued.
"Ve found somesing very peculiar about hiz latest test, taken after he miraculously healed." He pulled a page from his clipboard and handed it to Theddi. It appeared to be two print outs of a DNA strand, side by side. They seemed to look exactly the same, until she noticed that the strand on the right side of the page seemed to have small spines sticking out from the sides and from each of the layers of DNA.
"Is this from Zack?" she asked.
The doctor responded by nodding, before asking, "Vich do you sink is from hiz healed blood?"
Theddi immediately pointed to the strand of DNA that didn't have spines, to which (to Theddi's great surprise), the doctor shook his head.
Theddi went right back into shock mode as the blood from her face seemed to drain away in an instant. She slowly looked down at the spiny DNA strand. She could slightly hear Zackary and his brothers chatting away behind her, but she was too focused and shocked at her discovery that she couldn't hear what they were talking about. Nor could she come up with any words to say about it.
It was her husband that spoke up for her. "I take it his DNA isn't supposed to look like that?" he ask.
"Human DNA in general iz not supposed to look like zat, Mr. Judzon," doctor Eichmann replied. "Zough it haz been suggested that zis is still the cancer at vork on his body, he iz clearly in far better shape now zan you have known him to be before he vaz even diagnosed."
"What could it be, then?" Theddi asked, suddenly looking up at the doctor with the same worry and anxiety she had before.
"No one here knows, I'm afraid," doctor Eichmann replied. "Ve are so unsure in fact, zat ve sent hiz latest test to Capsule Corp.'s medical office in Vest City, in ze hopes zat zey might be able to shed some light on ze matter." The doctor adjusted his glasses again before continuing. "However, I promise you zat he iz in fact, cancer free, regardless of vat may have been suggested my our medical research team."
Theddi sighed in relief before asking, "When will they have an answer for us?"
The doctor smiled before answering. "Ze Capsule Corporation haz a reputation for being very fast and diligent viz zere tests. If you do not receive ze results in ze mail in seven days, please give me a call."
Theddi nodded before turning back to her sons, to see that the Zackary was already standing up and pulling up a pair of black pants. It was then that she noticed his whole physique was different from when she remembered him. His rounded tummy was gone, replaced now with very clearly defined abdominal muscles. He had the look of a professional athlete now, with his body tapering down to his waist in a V shape.
"Well," Theddi said enthusiastically. "Ready to go?"
Zackary pulled a white T-shirt out of a blue box under his bed and replied, "am I! Let's go home!"
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Zackary gazed out at the greenery in front of the hospital as they pulled away from it in their Holden Adventura. As it got further and further away, he reflected on his fight with his illness over the last 11 months. He had spent his 20th birthday fighting this disease, and the moment they told him he was cancer free was probably the best day of his life.
To his right, his two brothers were watching an anime show on one of their phones, probably Jordan, the youngest of his brothers. As the sounds of their giggles filled his ears, his mind drifted back to his martial arts training and how much he missed being in that purple studio. He began to wander how much he had to re-learn for all the time he had been trying to recover.
"What are you thinking about, Zack?" he suddenly heard his mother's voice ask from the front passenger's seat.
"Just missing my martial arts training, that's all," Zackary replied.
"You'll get to return to your training soon, Zack," he heard his mother say. "But you've had a very long ordeal with your cancer and you need to recover for at least a week."
"Besides," Zackary's father's voice added this time. "We all missed out on quality time with you because of all this. Don't you want to spend your first moments out of hospital with your family?"
Zackary suddenly remembered that they were supposed to celebrate his birthday party on a Mexican cruise. Now he was back with his folks, he figured he should make the most of that time.
Zackary smiled as he replied, "Yeah, that would be nice."
Authors Notes: Welcome to Dragon Ball Harmony everyone! The summary says that this is a crossover between DBZ and MLP but it will actually end up being a number of different shows and characters mashed up into one big storyline. DBZ and MLP are the main two, though. This is my first fanfic so any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.
This story is a work of fanfiction. Dragonball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT are owned by Funimation, Toe Animation, Fuji TV, Bandai and Akira Toriama. My Little Pony and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic are owned by Hasbro Studios and Lauren Faust, RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is owned by Bethesda Softworks and Zenimax Studios. There will also be references to and characters from other shows which I can't quite fit into this disclaimer that are also not mine and belong to their respective owners.
Coming up next, Capsule Corp. is trying to figure out just what is in Zackary's DNA. Can they come up with an answer to his mysterious transformation, or will they need an outside set of hooves? Find out in the next Chapter of Dragon Ball Harmony!