So this will be my second story on Fanfic. It is unlikely more than two chapters of this will get out in the coming days, and others in the coming weeks as I do have many things to do. If you like this, check my other story called "Reaching Higher." R&R, please. It'll help get attention and spread greatness. There's also another Author's Note at the end that will make sense of why I make the characters in this (Gohan & Vegeta) the way they are.
Chapter One: Inferiority Complex
"Any last words before you die?"
"Actually, Bojack, there is one word that comes to mind. Kamehameha!"
"Aaaaaaggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
The threat of Bojack had passed. A world martial arts tournament on the scale of the one that had happened would surely never be seen again after the recent disaster. However, the traditional world tournament stage's rebuilding had received a generous donation from Mr. Satan, the supposed two time savior of the world. But that didn't matter to Gohan now. The world was safe again, he had reached heights like never before, and stood as the strongest in the known universe. It was time to enjoy the green grass fields around him, or the pure blue sky above him. While he could at least. It wouldn't be long until his mother called him in to study as she looked for a school to send the young hero to.
"Gohan, time for lunch! Then you have to go study!" Chi-Chi called out to her older son. She carried Goten in her arms, only one years old and still notably strong for an infant.
"Okay, mom," Gohan obeyed begrudgingly. "It's always about studying, I haven't even seen Tien, Yamcha, Bulma and her son, Krillin, Piccolo or even Dende," he thought, slowly walking back to the house. He yawned as he finally reached his home's door. He could hear the screams of a hungry Goten, and was reluctant to enter. However, he willed himself to deal with the aggravation that he could only guess at.
"Gohan, why don't you get a job? We could use the extra money. Gohan, could you take care of your brother while I go into town? Gohan, you should be studying, academics get you furthest on Earth. Gohan, you should be looking for a school because you have to go it. Gohan, stop going through the window, I swear I'll put bars on that thing if you do it again and we'll be living in a prison! Gohan, the way you're acting you're shaping up to be a delinquent." Gohan knew his mother wasn't a terrible person, but her demands can be so erratic to him. But he willed himself into his home, facing the things he hated of his current lifestyle.
In West City, it was raining. The large Capsule Corp. building was rather quiet, with Trunks taking a nap and Bulma typing away on a computer, programming a 3-D printer for a prototype of a new product design. Her parents had gone out, and Vegeta sat in bed pondering the events of the battles with Cell and Bojack. He wore his Saiyan armor from the Cell Games, perhaps holding on to something greater than he was now. Time sood still for the Saiyan, at all times it seemed.
"How could Kakarot give his life away so easily? How could he heave outclassed me, and his son too? Gohan has risen to such great heights that... it doesn't matter if I fight or not. He defeated Cell and Bojack, and I was carelessly discarded in both of those battlefields. I thought I could be useful... but I've become so... weak!"
The air darkened with the fall of night, and Vegeta still hadn't bothered to move from his bed. Even at the call for dinner, he remained as motionless as stone. He hadn't eaten anything but breakfast that day, and even that was small for a Saiyan. Only four bowls of food, and without a word returned to his room. However, he heard a knock on the door to his room.
"What is it, Bulma?" Vegeta said crassly. The door opened, whether he wanted it to or not. And Bulma came to his bedside with a tray of some food for him.
"There's more food downstairs if you want it," she told him, setting it on a nightstand. To this, the prince simply grunted, shaking it off. "You know, Trunks has been wondering where you've been."
"That's not true, he's only two, I doubt he even knows how to talk right," he replied. Bulma got closer and put an arm around his shoulders.
"C'mon Vegeta... I wanna see you get out of bed... and I'm sure Trunks would love to see you too. Besides, there's more food. C'mon, Vegeta," she persuaded kindly.
"Get off of me, I don't need your help," he uttered, pushing her away a little. She turned to her filled with anger, and perhaps some confusion as well.
"I'm just trying to help you! I could be annoying you about how you sit around and do nothing all day and I still have to feed you, but I'd rather just see you get up out of bed! But if you want to be miserable all the time, then there's nothing I can do about it!" she yelled. With that, she turned her back and exited the room, slamming the door. It wasn't long after until Vegeta went out to the hall and to the balcony outside. He looked up at the sky as it was pouring rain, and began flying to somewhere, but he didn't know where exactly. Preferably somewhere away from society to dwell on himself for some time. Bulma looked out of a window from the first floor, watching the Saiyan prince fly away.
"I hope you come back, Vegeta," she murmured, Trunks playing with his grandfather behind him.
"Where's he going?" Mrs. Briefs asked her, in her usual high-pitched voice.
"Oh, I don't know... I think he's just used to being alone to sort things out, like after he first came to Earth or took the gravity chamber out into space, or even when he went into the Time Chamber alone. He just... I don't know."
Gohan held his baby brother in his arms after he finished his food. His mother was washing the numerous bowls of food Gohan ate from, and his brother wasn't crying anymore. He was reaching up to try and grab Gohan's hair or shirt.
"Alright, Gohan, I think you've spent enough time with your brother, you need to go to your room and study now," she told him.
"But mom, I always study a ton every day for hours, can't I take a break today?"
"No." The simple word struck confusion and a sense of anguish in him.
"What?"
"No. As soon as you take a day off you're sense of discipline's gonna be ruined, and when you do that you'll never study anything useful again, and then you'll end up in a worse gang than you already are in!" she falsely proposed.
"I'm not in a gang, mom-"
"A bunch of strong people that like beating other people up and fighting sounds like a gang to me."
"Yeah, I totally tried to go out and find people like Cell or Bojack to beat up. You got me there, mom!" he retorted sarcastically.
"Gohan, I am not in the mood for your smart remarks! Go to your room and open your books! I don't know why, but ever since Goku died you think you can do whatever you want, but that isn't the case!" she shouted. Gohan simply sighed and went to the doorway of his room.
"You're insane, mom," he said, walking into his room and shutting the door.
"Yeah, I'm insane. I'll show you insane-" Chi-Chi went on senselessly, it seemed to Gohan. Not wanting to deal with her ranting, he went to the window of his room and hopped out. He began flying away, faster as he grew further and further away so his mother wouldn't hear him. He went far into the forest, and sat down to meditate. He let his ideas freely roam in his head, jumping from one topic to the next before the idea of being an ascended Saiyan caught his attention.
"Maybe I can find a way to become an ascended Saiyan at will," he said to himself. He closed his eyes and began searching through his energy and powers. He found the easy route to Super Saiyan, and discovered the depths of that like his father, Vegeta and Trunks did in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, but this wasn't the same as a truly ascended Saiyan. It was a power-up, and he recognized it. Remembering what it felt like to ascend during the Cell Jr. attack or to defeat Bojack, he began looking for the path to enter that at will. "We have to find a way to stay make our Super Saiyan form seem natural to us," he remembered his father saying. But what heights could he reach if he did that with an ascended form?
"What am I doing?" Vegeta asked himself. "How can I train my son if I can hardly bear to see him or his mother? How am I to redeem myself?" There was a bit of silence as Vegeta looked up at the dark clouds above him. Thunder sounded and lightning stuck far away. There was a familiar loneliness similar to the one he met after his defeat with Android 18, as he stood in the middle of a rocky wasteland to sort his mind out as best he could.
"How!" he screamed, and his hair immediately turned golden with the aura of a Super Saiyan flaring up around him. His screams persisted as the rock under him began to crack, and he bulked not once, but twice as Trunks did against imperfect Cell. "There's one more level, one more!" he shouted, trying to reach the level an ascended Saiyan that his rival's son had. But as he tried, he could feel his body ripping apart, and unable to deal with the pain, he stopped. The golden aura became more calm as the size of his muscles receded.
"What's the trick? What am I missing?" He stood with his arms curled out some as he looked at his hands to ponder the solution of his inferiority. He looked out further along the horizon as he sensed a massive power he's only seen twice.
"That... that has to be Gohan. He's ascending... a half-breed and the son of low-level trash like him. How does he do it! Why can't I, the prince of all Saiyans do it! Why!"
A/N: So that's the end of the first chapter of Golden Ascension. As promised, I'll explain a few points I took into this as I wrote the first chapter.
So we see Gohan a little more resistant to his mother. Let's say Cell dies, a year later Bojack's encountered, and it's a year after that. We never see Gohan go through puberty, and typically, pubescent people are a little more short-tempered and extreme. Another thing you might say is that Gohan never trained during the seven years after Goku died. However, he does like to train, and that's seen when Chi-Chi tries to prohibit him from training various times and Gohan complains.
Vegeta is said to train the whole seven years Goku is absent. Well, I did put Bojack in this story's timeline, and Bulma does say in that movie that "Vegeta hasn't been the same since Goku died." And we hear some of the questions he asks himself after Cell dies, and we know the types of things he would ask concerning others' powers, like when Gohan slays Cell Jr's or when Goku fights as SSJ3, and again, after Cell dies.
I hope that would clear any questions you may have about the characterization of characters seen so far. The next chapter won't be out for another two weeks at least. But check out my other story, "Reaching Higher" if you like this!
