Crash Course
For a moment, he thought a bomb had struck the mountain.
All signs seemed to point in that direction when the strange ball of light flared past his hut just as he was about to start making breakfast before crashing through the trees with a terrifying explosion. It took the old martial artist some time to recover from his shock after the ensuing tremors from the impact almost destroyed his modest dwelling, knocking most of his belongings to the floor and shattering half of his plates and his favorite tea cup.
Son Gohan frowned worriedly as he glanced around him, surveying the damage done to his home before he carefully began picking up the pieces of shattered ceramic to prevent his thinly slippered feet from stepping on one of the sharp shards while the dust that had been shaken loose from the cracked walls of his home began to settle on his clothes, hair, and furniture. As he deposited the broken pieces into a nearby pail so he could dispose of them properly later, the old man felt something tap lightly against his heel. Turning to see what it was, Gohan chuckled fondly when he found the orange orb with the stars that he had received from his Master rolling innocently by his foot. Grabbing the strange stone before it could get lost or damaged in the rest of the mess, Gohan righted the pedestal that he used to display the treasured gift and set it back atop the pillow, giving it a small, satisfied smile when it was back in its proper place.
After that was taken care of Gohan decided that the rest of the damage could be tended to later, after he investigated the source of the chaos that had descended upon him so suddenly on what had started as a peaceful morning. Grabbing Nyoibo from where it rested against the wall beside the door, the old man strapped the pole to his back before making his way outside.
He didn't have to wonder at which direction to travel in order to find out where the racket had originated from. A thin plume of smoke that rose up over the treetops served as the way marker to his destination, and he made his way confidently towards it. Picking a winding path through undisturbed wilderness, Gohan couldn't help noticing the uneasy silence that had fallen over the forests that surrounded his home. No birds sang. No predators growled or roared in the distance. There was no noise at all to disturb the sudden stillness that fell in response to the mysterious explosion, like the entire forest was holding its breath in anticipation. The unease didn't trouble Gohan though. He had chosen Mt. Paotzu as his training grounds precisely because the land was dangerous and exciting, constantly throwing new challenges in his direction each day. Danger and change didn't frighten him at all and so he pressed forward until he made his way past broken trees and scorched and upturned earth and found himself standing at the edge of the impact site.
The curious old man wasn't sure what he was expecting to find at the end of his investigation if he was being perfectly honest. Maybe the crash site of a jetcopter that some careless driver lost control of while flying through the mountain skies or some sort of meteorite perhaps, if he was going to wager a guess. Whatever it was didn't particularly matter, Gohan's biggest concern was making sure that no one had been hurt by the unexpected collision before he set to work on repairing the damage done to his hut. But what he found in the middle of the crater was no accident or unavoidable work of nature.
At the bottom of the smoldering crater sat a strange, orb-shaped vessel, completely round and white except for a circular pane of glass in a deep claret shade of red. It didn't look like anything that Gohan had ever seen before on earth, not even from the ingenious minds over at Capsule Corp. Fascinated, Gohan slowly descended into the crater, mindful of his footing on the steep decline, until he stood right next to the large white orb. He could feel the heat coming off the surface of the craft from it's dramatic entrance into the Earth's atmosphere, and took great care not to touch the exterior lest he burn himself.
Now that he was this close, Gohan could hear a faint beeping noises coming from inside the vessel, causing his brow to furrow. Was it perhaps some sort of bomb after all? Could it just have failed to explode upon impact? Before Gohan could consider these worrying thoughts for very long, part of the orb suddenly cracked open with a loud hissing noise that made Gohan jump back in surprise. The beeping got louder as the door to the vessel descended as a cloud of sweet smelling gas wafted out of the orb and dissipated into the mountain air. With the door now open, Gohan could her a faintly feminine robotic voice coming from inside.
"Status Critical; Oxygen Level Low. Status Critical; Sustenance Level Low. Status Critical; Oxygen Level-"
Frowning in concern, Gohan inched forward to peer inside the vessel as the voice kept chiming out its warning in it's apathetic tone, and his eyes widened at the sight he found waiting for him inside the pod.
Lying unconscious in a seat surrounded by flashing lights and beeping electronics that Gohan couldn't make heads or tails of was a young woman who looked no older than a teenager. She was very pale and had a short, slender build, with wild black hair falling just past her shoulders and all around her round, youthful face. And curled in her lap, nestled protectively in her arms, was a young child who's hair was even more outrageously wild than the woman's. Both woman and child were wearing some sort of strange armor that Gohan had never seen before, and the young one had some sort of mask strapped to his face with a tube that was feeding into a different part of the pod.
While the sleeping child seemed to be in fine health and was already beginning to stir, the woman's condition didn't seem to be fairing nearly as well. She was breathing very shallowly, and her lips had a startling blue tinge to them. While not a doctor, Gohan had educated himself on the human body in his pursuit of perfecting his martial arts, and he knew enough about the limitations of the body to see the woman was teetering dangerously at the edge of life and death and needed to be attended to quickly. Judging from the mask on the child's face and the warnings from the pod, they must have gotten into some sort of trouble with their ship and she apparently decided to forgo her own needs to make sure the young one survived, a truly noble and selfless act.
Gohan felt concern well up inside him at the sight. Strange and alien or not, potentially dangerous or not, he couldn't bear to turn away from someone who clearly needed his help the way this woman who would willingly die to keep a child safe did.
Reaching into the pod, Gohan detached the mask from the toddler's face just as his eyes blinked open. Setting the mask aside, the old man reached into the pod to move the child so that he could extract the woman and get her the care that she would need in order to recover from her brush with death. He wasn't expecting the reaction this simple kindness would garter him from the toddler.
Faster than the eye could blink, the child transformed from an innocent babe to a snarling wild child, snapping at Gohan's hand with his teeth and swiping at him with enough force to shatter the bones of a lesser man. Gohan's ingrained fighting instincts kept him from sustaining any injuries, but he drew back in surprise nonetheless. Less from the reaction itself and more because he could scarcely believe that such a small child could have as much power as the little boy before him did. The child in question was currently curling closer to his travelling companion for protection, snarling viciously at Gohan in warning lest he try to touch him again.
Gohan chuckled a little at the reaction, despite himself.
"Not very trusting are you, young one?" he observed, smiling as the boy only growled louder in response to being spoken to. It was then that Gohan noticed the long, furry tail that was lashing angrily behind the child, a bit like the tail of a monkey. How curious... His unusual visitors were getting more and more interesting every passing second.
Unfortunately, the woman was in danger and he needed to act soon, which meant he had to quickly find a way to get around the rowdy child who seemed determined to stay as close to her and who apparently took offence to Gohan's presence. Preferably without losing any appendages in the process.
Humming thoughtfully, Gohan calmly examined the snarling boy's body language, more feral animal than human, which telegraphed that he would try to attack again if Gohan was foolish enough to come within striking range.
In that case…
Flashing the child a gentle smile, Gohan let his form dissolve into an after image, which surprised the boy so much that he stopped growling to stare slack jawed at the fading illusion.
"Looking for someone?" Gohan asked playfully from where he now stood at the top of the crater, causing the boy to detract from his companion so he could lean forward to peer up at him with wide-eyed wonder. Little did the child know that the image he gazed upon was yet another after image, and Gohan had already moved to lounge casually on a nearby tree, "Over here! Over here!" he called down, laughing when the child's head whipped around to find him and he slowly made his way further still out of the pod in order to keep track of Gohan's movements.
"What's the matter, sonny boy? Is this old man too fast for you?" Gohan challenged after suddenly appearing right next to the pod, just outside of the child's peripheral vision. The boy whirled on the spot, surprised by how close Gohan had gotten to him and then, with speed that was quite remarkable for a toddler, the child pounced to try and attack the wizened martial artist, only to end up face first in the dirt for his trouble when he went right through yet another after image.
"Gotcha!" Gohan chuckled, reappearing behind the toddler to lift him up underneath his arms. The boy shouted angrily in response, his tail lashing angrily before it found purchase on Gohan's wrist and started to squeeze with a surprising amount of strength, "Come on now, none of that." Gohan scolded lightly before tossing the child straight up into the air. The move surprised the little boy, and he immediately released his grip on Gohan's wrist as he was flung almost fifteen meters straight up, well above the treetops, where he nearly gave some poor birds passing innocently by a heart attack before he began to fall straight back down to earth.
Grabbing some thick, sturdy vines off of a nearby tree, Gohan caught the child before he finished his descent, quickly tying him so that all five of his limbs- both arms, both legs and the surprisingly agile tail as well- were restrained. The child shouted indignant gibberish at him in response, to which Gohan smiled indulgently and patted the boy's head.
"I'll let you loose in a moment, son, but for now…" stepping away from the child, Gohan made his way back to the orb, ignoring the growling and shouting from the toddler he'd left tied up behind him as he reached inside and gently picked up the unconscious woman, carefully laying her down on the ground next to the pod. Frowning, Gohan took a moment to study the woman, who was scarily still and pale. Like the boy, she passed for an ordinary human at first glance, save for the fact that she too had a long, furry brown tail, but given the evidence that was piling up in the form of their strange attire, advanced transportation, and the boy's superhuman strength, Gohan was suspecting more and more that he had discovered something from another world. Well, regardless of where the child and young woman had come from, they needed his help. But while that much was clear, he wasn't sure if or how the woman would react to human medicines. It might not be safe to just give her anything and hope for the best.
Perhaps that mask can do something? Gohan wondered, eyeing the strange breathing tube that had been attached to the child when he found the pair. It was probably the safest thing he could try, all things considered. Deciding that it was worth the risk, Gohan took the mask he'd previously abandoned among the various beeping and flashing electronics and set it against the woman's face, slipping the band so that it stayed firmly attached to her head.
"Scans indicate an unregistered female Saiyan in unstable condition showing symptoms of Prolonged Hypersleep and Oxygen Deprivation. Initiating Emergency Healing Procedure G2809 in 3… 2… 1…"
A strange green gas began to filter in from the tube after the computer finished its countdown, and the woman's chest expanded dramatically before she suddenly began to cough violently. Gohan rested a soothing hand on the woman's back to support her as she coughed until her face turned red, though it was unlikely she felt it through the thick armor that she wore. After his coughing fit subsided, the woman breathed in a few shaky, pained gasps of air, curling in on herself a little and tucking her tail against her stomach in a rather protective sort of way.
"There, there. Easy now…" Gohan murmured to her reassuringly, "it's alright. You're going to be fine, my dear."
There was no reply from the woman at Gohan's words, but he didn't expect one in her condition so that was hardly surprising. What was surprising was the cry of alarm from the child he had hogtied on the other side of the pod, which drew Gohan's attention back to the toddler just in time to see him burst out of the vines using pure strength alone. Gohan was stunned at the sight, given that the vines were thick and sturdy and should have been impossible for an adult to tear through much less a small child, but he didn't have much time to consider this before the child came charging at him full tilt, growling and glaring murder at the old man.
Gohan dodged his first strike, rolling into a standing position and watching in awe as the boy's head drilled into the hardened incline of the crater. Pulling himself out, the boy wheeled around to growl at Gohan once more, tensing up for another charge. Instinctively, Gohan fell into a defensive stance, watching warily for the next attack.
"Kaka… rot…" a female voice called out weakly, making both the child and the old man freeze. Turning, Gohan was surprised to see the woman he'd been trying to save had woken up, and was reaching out her hand imploringly to the wild child she had brought with her. "Kakarot…"
"Mama!" the boy said as the angry, feral expression on his face melting away into childish joy. The old man forgotten, the toddler ran to the woman's side and threw himself into her arms as she held the boy close in a tender, if weak, embrace.
She's his mother? Gohan wondered, slightly surprised given how the woman appeared to be maybe nineteen or twenty at the most and the child was around three or four. Deciding that the woman's age wasn't important, Gohan opted instead to focus on her health.
"Feeling better?" He asked mildly, examining her with kind and gentle eyes as she turned her attention away from her son to focus on him instead.
"Did you… help me?" the woman asked weakly, looking confused and a little wary as she held her child close. Gohan kept a safe distance. If the boy was any indication of the strength of their race, than an adult would probably be far too powerful for him to handle on his own, even a weakened one like the woman before him. Despite that danger though, he couldn't turn his back on the suffering of another.
"I did. You and your son made quite a racket when you came flying through, you know. Almost knocked my whole house down," Gohan joked with a slight chuckle. The woman looked even more confused at his good humor, studying him carefully as though afraid he might try to attack, "easy, my dear. I didn't go through all the trouble of saving your life just so I could harm you or your boy there," Gohan soothed her. The woman relaxed minutely at the logic of those words.
"Is this the planet Earth?" the woman asked, looking at Gohan with curious wonder.
"It is," Gohan confirmed, feeling a little pleased that his suspicions of the pair's alien origins was quickly and readily confirmed, "we're in a rural area, far from the cities and towns. I am the only person around for hundreds of miles, other than the animals that live around here," the woman gave him a strange look at that admission.
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked, "why help me at all? You know nothing about me. What do you have to gain from this?"
"Gain?" Gohan repeated, shaking his head, "my dear, I am a hermit who has thrown away the comforts and luxuries of modern times and chose to live away from society to focus myself wholly to the art that I practice. I do not look to gain anything from helping you. The only thing I seek is to give help to someone who is in need," the woman looked stunned by his admission for a second, staring up at Gohan with an expression of awe that almost amused the old man.
Was it really so hard to believe that someone could help someone without demanding something in return?
Before Gohan could do more to reassure the woman that he meant no harm, a loud growl broke the air, surprising the old martial artist. The alien woman's eyes went wide too, before she grimaced down at her stomach, which her son was examining with a curious tilt of his head as he sucked on his thumb.
"Hungry, I take it?" Gohan asked, slightly bemused. The woman didn't seem to find her predicament nearly as funny though, biting her lip in worry as she glanced at the mountain jungle around her, "something the matter?"
"I… I'm too weak to hunt," the woman admitted shamefully, giving the old man a heartbroken look, "I can barely even move as I am right now. So I won't be able to find food for myself or Kakarot in the shape I'm in."
"Is that all?" Gohan chuckled, "nothing to worry about, my dear girl. I have plenty to eat at my hut. It's a little messy right now, mind you, but I can certainly provide you and your son with a meal."
"You'd do that for me? Really?" the woman almost looked ready to cry out of gratitude at Gohan's offer.
"Of course!" Gohan agreed readily, "it's been a long time since I've had company join me for a meal. And I've never had such interesting visitors in all my life. Please feel free to stay with me for as long as it takes you to recover," Gohan smiled at the woman as he made that offer, stepping closer to help the weakened alien to her feet so he could bring her back to his home. As soon as he got too close though, her child began to snarl at him from the safety of his mother's arms.
"Kakarot!" the woman scolded her child, looking mortified. Gohan, however, merely laughed at the display.
"That's quite a spirited little boy you have there, my young friend," he observed, "powerful, too. He'd probably be exceptional as a martial artist. With a little training, of course," crouching down, Gohan smiled at the little boy, who glared back at him mistrustfully, "Kakarot, is it? How would you like to come to my house with your mother for some food? I bet you're hungry after that long trip."
The mention of food seemed to calm the boy considerably and brought an eager smile to his young face as he started making grabbing motions at Gohan and babbling in a rather bossy manner. Gohan laughed, happy to have gotten the boy's approval at last, if only long enough for a meal. Crouching down, Gohan gently lift both the small alien woman and the boy she was holding into his arms before straightening up to jump out of the hole and happily carry both of them back to his hut.
"Don't worry, my dear. There's plenty to eat in my hut, so we'll have food in your belly in no time flat,'" Gohan assured her confidently. The woman looked up at him with that expression of surprised wonder again, as though she could barely believe the old man's kindness.
"Are all Earthlings like you?" she wondered. Gohan laughed loudly at the question.
"Maybe. Maybe not. I suppose if you stick around and explore a little, you'll find out for yourself," Gohan told her teasingly.
"I… don't plan on being here long," the woman told him quickly, hugging her son close, "my son's father was just worried something bad might be happening soon on our home planet so he sent us away. Once he knows there's nothing to be afraid of, he'll come and get us."
"I see," Gohan hummed, "well, nothing wrong with playing it safe, I suppose. Especially when it comes you the ones you love."
"'Love?'" the woman in his arms repeated, wrinkling her brow in confusion, "What's that?"
...Ah. Suddenly, the odd reaction the woman had over his basic human kindness was starting to make a little sense. Gohan slowed a little at the question, glancing down at the alien woman he held who was frowning back up at him, not a hint of malice or ill intent anywhere on her face or in her aura as she waited for Gohan's reply. After studying her for a moment, the old man began his trek once more, carefully considering his words for his answer.
"Love is what we on earth call the feeling that you must have for your son, if you were willing to sacrifice you own needs to make sure he made it here safely," Gohan explained. The woman seemed a little troubled at his description.
"We're I come from, we call that weakness. It means that you are soft, and unsuitable for battle," she told him with a sigh. That was certainly a troubling view for an entire race to have about compassion to one's own child, in Gohan's opinion.
"Have some experience with that, do you?" Gohan guessed, giving the woman a knowing look when she remained silent at his question, almost looking guilty over the fact that she felt so driven to protect her son, "well if it makes you feel any better, I for one don't believe that your feelings are anything to be ashamed of. And I think that putting little Kakarot's needs above your own is anything but weak."
"It's hard to take that to heart when I am in a state where I need to be carried by an old man," the alien woman said dryly, giving him a pointed look.
"You might be weakened now, but your body will recover. And physical strength just requires proper training and exercise to obtain. What you have shown with your actions is strength of heart. That sort of strength is far less common, more difficult to keep or gain, and much more admirable in my opinion," Gohan told her with absolute conviction. The woman in his arms smiled a little at that, visibly touched by the old man who would help her without asking for anything in return referring so favorably to something her own people apparently believed to be a weakness.
"Ah. Here we are," Gohan said, smiling happily at his hut once they cleared the tree lines and his humble abode came into view, "it's a little messy at the moment, I'm afraid. I wasn't exactly expecting company to come crashing through my doors today," to Gohan's delight, the alien woman giggled a little at his silly joke, causing him to beam proudly at her as he carried her and her son inside and set her down on one of his Zabutons, hastily brushing dust and debris off the table with his sleeve to clean it as best as he could and returning Nyoibo to its customary place before he began to rummage through the food he kept stored away for emergencies. "I hope you like fish, because I have enough cold smoked trout and rice in here to last for half a year. That should fill that stomach of yours, hmm?"
"Thank you, sir," the woman told him with such earnest gratitude that it made Gohan blush a little as he chuckled happily, rubbing the back of his head in a sheepish sort of way.
"Think nothing of it, my dear," he told her happily, "and please, call me 'Gohan.' 'Sir' is a little too formal for a dashing young man like me, don't you think?" once again, the woman laughed softly at his joke, and Gohan smiled back happily in response. It was good to see her loosening up a little. The poor thing had clearly been through a lot, even before her near brush with death getting her and her son to Earth.
"Mr. Gohan, then," the woman complied, smiling warmly at the elderly martial artist.
"You mentioned before that your spirited little boy there goes by Kakarot, but I don't believe I've caught your name yet, my dear," Gohan playfully inquired he began to set the table for the mother and son duo.
"...Gine," the woman said, suddenly oddly shy as she introduced herself, Nevertheless, she gave Gohan a slightly timid smile as she held her fussing child closer when he tried to grab the bowls, "I'm Gine."
"Gine, is it?" Gohan repeated, "a lovely name, for such a lovely young lady as yourself."
Gine's smile became a little more confident at Gohan's quick acceptance, and the old man grinned back before filling up the bowls he had set out.
"Don't be shy now, my dear. Eat as much as you want! Trust me, there's more than enough stored away."
Gine and her son needed no more prompting than that, eagerly attacking the food that Gohan had set out for them and shoveling rice and fish into their mouths with their bare hands while completely ignoring the chopsticks that Gohan had set out next to their plates. Gohan didn't even have a chance to sit down himself before the bowls were empty, though from the looks of disappointment on the two alien's faces, it clearly wasn't near enough.
"Let me, ah… Let me get you some more," Gohan said, trying to recover from the shock of seeing a child and a tiny and seemingly timid woman eating so aggressively. Hastily turning around, Gohan refilled the plates again, doubling both of the portion sizes in hopes that that would be enough to sate the hunger of his strange new guests. He had no way of knowing that he'd be serving Gine and Kakarot bowl after bowl until his emergencies stocks, which had months worth of food stored away in case of storm or injury or any other disasters that could keep him from foraging or hunting, were completely depleted.
But when he finally collapsed into a cushion and caught sight of Gine and Kakarot happily curled up with one another for a post-meal nap, Gohan couldn't help but smile a little and feel that the damage done to his pantry was well worth it to help the misplaced mother son duo.
Things were certainly going to be much more interesting around his little hut, at least for a while.
AN: Hello one and all! Thank you for giving this new fic of mine a shot! This is actually a story I wrote a long time ago (way back in early October of last year according to Google Docs) and then shoved into a corner to focus on Dreams of You and I instead when a bunch of other people started writing similar stories based on the MasakoX what if series scenario right around that time. But since I've hit a small roadblock with Dreams, I came back to this idea again to reread and edit and decided maybe it was worth a go after all. But one thing I want to state right off the bat is that I am NOT going to be using MasakoX's idea as a template for this fic. Don't misunderstand me here, his idea is awesome and I always love to see when he adds more to it, but my own idea for Gine on Earth and what that would mean for her and all the other characters is very different than his, and I'd much rather do my thing, especially since there's already a few other fics exploring MasakoX's idea.
Anyways, please leave a review letting me know what you think of the story! I love hearing people's thoughts, and it motivates me to write and update faster.