Many years have passed since any trouble has befallen upon the universe. Multiple threats have come and gone, being subdued by the might of the Saiyans. The gods have found some respite at long last. And even though the likes of the evil space emperor Freeza were still lurking around, there hardly been any incidents that would require the assistance of either the gods or the powerful Saiyans, Goku and Vegeta.
Each of them in fact have fallen into the loop of their usual routines. Whilst the Saiyans were relentlessly training, the creator gods have focused on their old habits of meditations and planning the new life throughout the universe. Beerus, the god of destruction, maintained his old routine, which involved nearly endless napping intertwined with visiting the Earth for the purpose of cuisine tasting. With years passing, he slowly reverted to longer nap times.
A time one of such trips, and therefore an awakening, was quickly approaching Beerus. The angel Whis, his faithful servant and teacher, was about to follow a classical procedure of waking him up.
He entered Beerus' bedroom hall, anticipating the nearing blasts from the alarm bombs. While a concept of a magical wake-up bomb would sound silly to a mortal, Beerus was quite fond of them, both as an alarm clock substitute as well as for some extra security.
The chamber was comprised of a small balcony, with the door through which Whis has entered the room, as well as a large open space, where the alarm bombs were floating around. They were orbiting a small cup like structure that levitated in the middle of the chamber. The top of this cup was Beerus' bed. The walls were furnished with sound-proof coating, that Beerus requested, due to the noise that their occasional visitors, the Sayians, have been causing.
Whis walked near the balcony edge wall, and spoke to the cup bed:
"Lord Beerus, it's almost your planned wakeup time. Would you perhaps mind to get up a little earlier this time, so we can spare some of these bombs? I admit that we use up quite a lot of them recently."
There was no response. As always, Whis knew that his efforts were futile. Beerus rarely ever woke up to anything lesser than a blast. Yet Whis did not give up on his desire to prevent the bombs from exploding:
"Perhaps a little song will help you to get up?" He summoned a small microphone out of thin air and started singing.
A few seconds after, an explosion happened. It wasn't any of the bombs though, instead the bed itself suddenly was subject to a strong burst of energy.
"Get away from me, you screeching monster!" A voice could be heard from the bed. Whis stopped his singing and looked at the bed with an annoyed frown, but then noticed that his master did not actually wake up yet.
Then, the first bomb has exploded. Beerus stretched on his bed with a huge yawn and proceeded to perform his usual sleepy parkour over the platforms in the chamber (there were a bunch of them there, including spare beds).
"Are you awake yet, Lord Beerus?" Whis asked, taking aim at the bomb that was supposed to explode next. There was a chance that Beerus would simply stop midway down and sleep again, forcing the use of another alarm, but Whis gained some faint hope that it would not be necessary.
"Hfffmfmm pthmfhmmmthm bthhh?" came the answer. Not the clearest one, but Whis understood it anyway. He had already learned Beerus' post sleep muffling language.
"Yes, my lord. The bath is ready and so are the wakeup snacks. You can proceed to whatever you see fit immediately."
"Hmfmfmreee, thank you" The muffling turned into an actual phrase.
Recognising that next alarm won't be necessary, Whis disabled all of them. If Beerus was making any attempts at audible speech after waking up, it usually meant that he will stay awake.
Beerus fell from the last platform to the balcony, landing exactly at the top of his head and remaining in a vertical upside-down position. Afterwards, he lazily opened one eye and muttered: "I will go to the bath first. If you could bring me some of those snacks over there, then I would be much obliged."
"Of course, my lord". With these words, Whis has left the chamber and went for the kitchen.
Beerus got on his feet and walked down the corridor into the bathing chambers. It was actually a small network of cave-like rooms, with a stream of warm water flowing through them, filling a few large basins. Beerus has entered his favourite, the largest one, an elaborate rock composition made from multiple hexagonal blocks. Having positioned himself comfortably near the edge, he waited for the arrival of the snacks. And Whis. In that order.
After a few minutes Whis indeed appeared, carrying or rather levitating a hefty bunch of plates and bowls.
Beerus jumped in excitement, having noticed a few of his favourites. "We still got instant ramen!? And those octopus balls...". He then looked at Whis with suspicion and asked: "You just had all of that in the fridge? How often you were visiting the Earth recently? And without me?" He tossed in that last one with slight annoyance.
"Quite often, actually." Whis responded. "I have been overseeing the progress of our two new teenage students. They will be arriving to begin their training today, by the way."
"Teenage... training... Ah, yes, I recall that one. Good thing that the soundproof walls have been installed in my bedroom. Wouldn't catch a minute of sleep without it, with some runts running amok. Remind me, why we are even doing this again?" Last word of this sentence were muttered with a slightly irritated tone.
"Well, I do remember you being enthusiastic about the new potential sparring partners. You were afraid of staying behind Goku and Vegeta, as well as about the fact that they are not going to live eternally." Whis said.
"Enthusiastic is a bit of an overstatement. I simply cannot let myself get behind some mortals. I am the God of Destruction after all. And unlike certain fat twerp"- he thought of his brother at this point - "I am not going to be inferior to any lesser creature." Beerus finished, raising his tone a bit near the end of the sentence. His memory was clearing up, as he was becoming gradually more awake.
"Maybe so, but I am inclined to believe that you do enjoy fighting, my Lord" said Whis with a smile. "After all, you are eager to encounter new challenges. And you are particularly fond of these Saiyans in that regard".
"Fighting is alright. Idiots and their children making noise and eating my food is a bit less. Uhhhh... but after all, power does take some effort to appear. Even mine was not that easy to achieve..." Beerus swam away in thoughts for a bit.
"Oh, believe me, I do remember your training just alright. Well, the new students will be here soon. From what I recall, they have mastered a few of the Super Saiyan forms and they have been also reported to possess a significant potential."
"And some actual intent to work on it, unlike Goten, Gohan and Trunks. Which is somewhat promising." Beerus added. "Go ahead, greet them and show them around. I will join you later." He then produced a huge yawn, before continuing: "For now, I am more interested in picking directions for our next trip afterwards."
"I remember that we were going to visit Earth. I would shortly report on our students' accommodation with their parents, as well as grab some extra food." Whis recalled.
"True, but I wanted to go somewhere else for a change. It's been a while since we explored the universe. Who knows, maybe there is some other culinary paradise waiting over there..." Beerus explained with a bit dreamy look at the end.
"Hardly probable, if we just stick to Universe 7, but there is nothing wrong with trying, I guess." Whis' expression suggested that he would rather stick to what he knew instead of experimenting. His overall memory of sentient species and planets throughout the universe did not help his enthusiasm at all.
Just before he finished that thought, his staff appeared in front of him and flashed a few times. It was comprised of a long handle, a circlet and a crystal orb within the circlet. None of these elements was connected to the others in any visible manner. The part that was flashing was the crystal.
"Oh, it seems that our guests are already here. Well, time to go." He stood up. Before he moved out though, Beerus stopped him, saying:
"Oh, by the way, leave me that staff, if you could. I will look after some potential planets to visit."
"Very well, Lord Beerus. Just do not try to reach anything in the staff, you might teleport yourself by accident to the storage space..." Whis was always weary to borrow his staff to his master, due to the latter's clumsiness.
"Hey, I know how it works. Just hand it over here" Slight impatience could be heard in the god's voice.
"Here it is" said Whis, placing the staff in Beerus' raised hand.
"Thank you" with that said, Beerus started his research using the staff's crystal. In the meanwhile, Whis flew out of the temple chambers into the outside grounds and towards the lake, near which their guests have appeared.
As Beerus stared at the orb, multiple images of various planets were appearing and disappearing in the crystal, thanks to the staff's searching and imaging powers. As he expected, they were mostly dead hits, devoid of life of any form, not mentioning food. After a while he concentrated on locating the worlds with life. The staff could adapt to its user's wishes either by thought or verbal command, and it did so this time as well to fulfil the god's desire.
He was disappointed however to only see the planets that he already explored. He chuckled a bit at the view of half planet that he once left over. After a while of searching Beerus almost resigned. He did not really expect to find anything sensible by using the staff. Whis was far better at utilising its scanning powers. However, he always hoped that he could find something interesting before handing it back, if he ever got his hand on it. His servant usually did not put much heart into the search, forcing them to either traverse the cosmos randomly or to revisit some of the old locations.
The play with the staff was also a decent time-killer. Beerus sometimes liked to spice up his eating sessions with some extra activities, especially the ones that did not really require him to use his hands.
He had no idea that his small hope was about to be realised. After a few more familiar hits, he found a planet that looked like the Earth. Initially he got fooled by the striking resemblance and summoned the next one, but then after a few seconds something clicked in his head and made him return to that world's view.
The continents were not matching. Beerus was not a big fan of geography, nor he had that good memory (unless he focused enough) but Earth's overall look was written quite well in his head. It was hard to expect otherwise, after all the visits he paid over there. Thus, the completely different shapes of lands on this new planet greatly confused him.
He then checked that planet's number. The creator gods (Kais) had a naming scheme for them: it was usually comprised of a universal zone number, a code name of particular division in that zone, and then a number of the star and planet combined together. The Earth he was used to had a number 4032-Green-877. Much to his surprise, while the planet's name was still Earth (Kais preferred to use planet's inhabitants' idea if it was possible), its universal zone was marked as 0003. The problem was that anything below zone 0010 marked the earliest worlds ever created by the Kais. Those planets were positioned relatively close in relative time and space to their own homeworld. And yet, despite its apparent age, the planet looked alive, at least from a distance.
Beerus had a slight sense of déjà vu from looking at that particular code. Where did I see this number before...? He thought. He did not remember anything precise about it, and its look was unfamiliar. The number, both the zone and the follow-up did ring a bell. And old, annoying memory, he suddenly thought. He decided to look at it more precisely with the staff's magic.
The focused scan looked promising. There was indeed sentient life present there: and in the form of humans similar to Earthlings, nonetheless. There seemed to be no one with particularly high power level on this world, but the lowest common denominator was a bit better than that of his Earth.
More Earthling-like beings grabbed Beerus' curiosity, but also some doubt. He did recall some particularly strong annoyance related to this world, but it was beyond him to recall the details. It must have been a long time ago, he thought.
While he was floating away deeper and deeper into his memories, he stumbled upon an octopus ball filled with wasabi. While normally he would recognise it from the smell and put it away to avoid an explosive sensation, right now he was too deeply focused to notice.
The intense flavour quickly broke his focus away and replaced it with pain. He jumped up high in the air, roared and then breathed fire of high intensity, propelling himself backwards. Indeed, it was enough to fly him out of the temple world into the surrounding space. After smashing into few nearby planets and blowing up one of them completely, he landed in a small lake, the very same that Whis headed towards.
The guests of the temple were already there. When Beerus put his head out of the water, he noticed two teenage girls looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and amusement.
Pan and Bulla, he recalled. The two prodigal children, similar and yet different to their relevant kin, Goten and Trunks, as well as to their mentors, Goku (Pan's grandpa) and Vegeta (Bulla's father).
Each of them reacted to his antics a bit differently. Pan, the more energetic of the two, shouted to him first:
"That was AWESOME! Can you do it again, please?" she was widely smiling, clearly entertained by Beerus' flight show.
The other girl just stood there, smiling faintly and observing him. Her overall expression was that of amusement but also discipline and focus: she apparently decided to withhold any verbal reaction.
Beerus flew out of the lake and moved over to the girls, landing right in front of them.
He taxed both shortly. They had a rather pleasant and peaceful aura, though while Pan seemed to be more innocent, enthusiastic and fun loving, Bulla seemed more reserved, self-absorbed and cautious.
Whis was there too, having greeted them already and observing Beerus alongside them. He was the one to break the ice:
"Please, my lord, welcome our two new guests. You already know who they are, so we might as well show them to their rooms."
Bulla decided to speak up:
"Greetings, Lord Beerus, it is very good to see you in good health. How are you doing today?" she followed that with a bow. Pan was a bit confused to hear such a formal greeting to a person they already knew quite well but decided to follow Bulla's lead and bowed as well.
Beerus nodded in acceptance and responded: "Quite fine, thank you. It is good to see that you developed some decent manners." He stopped for a moment, and then turned to Whis: "I found a new planet that I want to check out. Here you go, have a look."
With these words he gave the staff to Whis and turned back towards the girls. The angel had a short look. His face twisted for a moment into an expression of shocked realisation.
Beerus didn't notice that, as he already was turned away. Bulla however did. What did he see over there?... She thought. It was clear to her that Whis got visibly disturbed, or perhaps surprised by something. She got curious about it for a moment, but as Beerus looked at both of them, she pretended to not notice anything. Pan in the meanwhile was too focused on the god to pay any attention to Whis.
"Well then, runts, you will be staying here for a while, as we agreed." Beerus started, with a hint of impatience. "I am going away soon for a trip around the galaxy, so... here are some rules for you to follow: you are allowed anywhere within the temple, expect for any chambers that I am currently using. If you want to enter any place that already has me inside, you are supposed to knock, or ask for permission. Or both. "He paused shortly, and then added:" And show some restraint and common sense when bothering me. For instance, you may join me or Whis for dinner whenever you feel like it: I won't mind that. Do not even think about interrupting my sleep though, or I will be most displeased. Are we clear?"
The girls have already heard a similar lecture from their parents. However, they also knew quite well that interrupting Beerus' speech was a bad idea. Therefore, they responded: "Yes, Lord Beerus".
"Great" he said. After a short pause he went on: "You are allowed to do anything you want while you are here, as long as you do not break anything. If you do break something, report it to Whis and have it repaired, preferably before I notice that. Or again, I will be quite displeased. Is that clear?"
Both girls responded again: "Yes, Lord Beerus".
"Remember, first and foremost you are here to train. Whis will tell you what to do. I expect both of you to focus on that, as your talents are the sole reason I allow you to train under him. If your performance is unsatisfactory, I will kick you out."
"Yes, Lord Beerus" girls said yet again. Pan added on top of that: "Don't worry sir, we want to get stronger, for our own sake!"
"Indeed." Bulla joined "My daddy won't beat himself. I intend to get more powerful than him sooner or later."
"That's what I wanted to hear" Beerus' expression slightly cheered up. Then he noticed that something was missing from the picture: "By the way, how did you two get here exactly? I don't see anyone else here..."
"Oh, grandpa Goku teleported us. He already left, he said he had a sparring session with mr Broly." Pan explained.
"Heh, old bastard could have at least waited and said hi, or something." Beerus reacted with small smirk.
"He told us to greet you in his name, Lord Beerus" Bulla said.
"Eh, whatever. So, now you know the rules. Any questions?"
Bulla: "No"
Pan: "Why do you look like a purple cat?" She had completely innocent and curious expression when she asked that.
Pan always liked to satisfy her curiosity whenever she could. She was never able to ask that question beforehand without someone interrupting her or scolding her off.
Everyone present got stumped, even Whis, who was focused on his staff until now. And then Whis and Bulla got a bit nervous. The god was not known for his patience or tolerance, and this was essentially an insensitive question. Beerus, completely flustered, responded with annoyed tone:
"Why do I... What kind of question is that? I was born this way, there is no 'why' here."
"Well, I just got curious. I never saw a race of people like yours. Where did you come from?"
Beerus calmed down a bit, so did Bulla and Whis. Beerus realised that there was no mockery or ill will in her reasoning, while the other two noticed the god's relaxing. Bulla chuckled under her nose at the insensitivity of her friend. Pan was often out of touch with a basic sense of tact, always putting her curiosity first over any manners, and this was one such case.
Beerus in the meanwhile got a bit lost in thought, as if the question has stirred some old memories. He slowly began to speak:
"Well, that it a long story... I do not remember it that well now, it was so long..." He stopped here, and then suddenly regained his focus "Hey, there is no time for that now. When I asked: 'any more questions' I meant about your stay here and the house rules. If you want to ask random stuff, then another time. Right now, me and Whis are leaving."
"Oh, ok. Sure, Lord Beerus. I got no more questions." Pan responded, a bit disappointed, and stayed silent. Bulla gave her a short look that displayed a mixture of condescension and amusement. "What?..." Pan whispered, not realising what it was about. Bulla just chuckled and whispered back: "Later."
"Very well. Whis, are we ready to go?" Beerus ignored that little exchange and turned his attention towards the angel.
"Yes, we are. Mind you, I would still recommend to go to Earth first, as we discussed earlier."
"Yeah, whatever. And then, to our new-found planet. What was its number again?"
"0003-Black-228". Whis afterwards returned his attention to the staff, apparently doing further research on said planet.
Beerus was struck again with that lingering feeling of annoyance, as he heard this code. The sensation was even stronger now, given that the name was spoken aloud.
"Oh, a new planet? Is there anything interesting down there?" Pan yet again could not keep her curiosity on hold. She however realised that she was not supposed to ask more questions (another condescending look from Bulla helped her with this). "Sorry..." She was a bit ashamed this time.
Beerus however was too confused about his murky memory to pay any attention. After a few seconds he registered that Pan have spoken in the first place. He assumed that it was something about accommodation , and therefore said:
"Mhm... what? Yeah, your rooms are in the western-most tower on the third level. You are free for the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow morning you will report to Whis to begin your training and he will let you in on everything else that you need to know. We will be back in a few hours, after which I will go to sleep. Are we clear?"
One final "Yes, Lord Beerus." has sounded.
"Very well. You are dismissed." he said, still a bit absent-minded.
The two girls produced a short bow and left in the direction of the garden.
Beerus then moved closer to Whis and asked:
"Are we ready to go? What are you still looking at?"
Whis was uncertain how to respond for a moment. He recognised this planet from the past. He also noticed the slight hint of anger in Beerus when he had heard its codename. He knew what was the deal with it, but he did not want to disclose it to his master unless there was no other choice.
Fortunately, he noticed something that would help him to redirect his master's attention.
"I just noticed that there is a Freeza army ship en route towards this planet. I do not know what it is doing there, but it seems that it will take them at least a couple years to arrive over there."
"Oh, are you sure? I wouldn't want to see this place blown up before I had a chance to check it out. Why are they going so slow anyway?" Beerus had a look at the ship, visible in the staff's crystal. Whis didn't really knew the answer himself, but he quickly formulated a theory:
"Perhaps their interstellar dive is damaged. Or perhaps this is an older vessel with an old interstellar engine." Whis was just happy that his master did not ask more question about the planet itself.
"Whatever, keep an eye on it, just in case. Now, let's go to Earth. All this searching and talking actually made me crave some decent sundae." Beerus changed his expression to a bit dreamy, as usual when he thought about food.
"Sure. Hold on tight." Whis was more than happy to oblige.
With a bright blast, they left the planet. Whis could travel through space with immense speeds, faster than any ship and most creatures. When he did so, it resembled entering an all-white tunnel of light, that led him to his desired destination.
As they flew, Beerus said:
"Hey, now something came to my mind."
Whis got unnerved again. This was not going to be an easy day.
"Do you know how many possible combinations of ice cream are possible to be made? Oh, or what flavours can or cannot be made into one? I wonder if, for example, crab sticks could be turned into an ice cream..."
Whis almost let out a small sigh of relief. Right now, if his master's mind was fixated on food, he was unlikely to think about anything else.
With a calmer voice, he proceeded to explain his knowledge of ice cream.
The ship that Whis noticed in his staff was indeed a Freeza army vessel. It was about 13 years old, belonging to the fleet that tried to keep the empire together during the emperor's absence.
It was relatively large, but it contained only two passengers: an older soldier from the same kind as Appule, named Pecha, as well as a member of Cui's race called Pegra. Pecha was a communication officer, while Pegra was a grunt.
Pecha, being disillusioned with the state of the Freeza Forces at the time, decided to desert. When he was stealing the ship to escape on, he was caught red-handed by Pegra. However, Pegra was a complete idiot. Pecha managed to convince him to desert as well by saying that the emperor demanded it. And while initially it was indeed an advantage, with time stupidity of Pegra began to get on his nerves severely. However, he couldn't (and didn't really want to) simply dismiss him or abandon him, due to his higher power level.
When they left, Pecha aimed the ship at a distant planet in an unexplored region of space. Pegra, for some weird reason, decided that it would be a brilliant idea to poke a finger at the picture of said planet: with enough force to break the panel.
Thanks to that, there was no control over the speed of the drive, and they travelled at the default minimal hyperdrive speed. They were in transit for almost a decade now, practically living on that ship. While Pecha would be more or less content with such a life on a ship if it was just himself, his companion made everything way more difficult than it needed to be.
If the hyperdrive control panel was the only thing broken, Pecha would have it repaired in half a year, maybe less. And that included learning how the damned thing worked in the first place. However, before he got any hang on the issue, his 'friend' went on a crusade to mess up every possible system that kept them alive on the ship. Be it air conditioning, food containment, matter manipulator (that was also used for generating food), or electronic locks on doors.
In all those years Pecha indeed became a master ship technician.
This time, he sealed himself off on the bridge. Pegra was nowhere to be found, and there were no alert lights flashing or emergency sounds beeping. This meant all the sweet hyperdrive repair time for the tormented little alien.
It did not last long though. While he was connecting some wires and checking what the output on the screen was, he heard a voice from behind the door:
"Hey, Pecha, can you remind me where we are again?"
Pecha heard that question every bloody day. With exasperated voice, he responded:
"The same as usual: in the middle of nowhere, en route towards a supposedly habitable planet a few years away. Do you have any original questions, for a change? Or will you please let me work in peace?"
Pegra did not seem to catch half of that. "Oh, are we? And what we are doing here?"
"We are hiding from the Galactic patrol, because they whooped Freeza Forces asses, as well as from Freeza Forces, because we deserted from them." Said Pecha, with an even more irritated look on his face. "This is a universal dead zone, nobody ever flies into that sector, as supposedly there were no intelligent lifeforms here. This planet was discovered shortly before we escaped, and I erased all data on it when we did, so nobody can follow us." This story was also repeated every day, multiple times on some.
Short pause. Pecha was not going to speak any further, however he knew that it was not over. "Hey are you there? Pecha, you ok, buddy?" Sounded after like 20 seconds.
"Yes, I am here. Could you go and unscrew the pipes of the cooling system in the storage chamber nr 2?"
"Yes, right away! Pipes, prepare to meet your doom!" With an overly enthusiastic voice and an idiotic spark in his eyes, Pegra went to wage a battle with the unsuspecting pipes.
There was absolutely no point in doing any of that. Pecha had a short list of menial purposeless tasks that he would send Pegra on to keep him away from the important ship systems. And right now, he needed as little Pegra time as possible, for he was approaching a breakthrough.
Whis was lying on a beach bed in Bulma's private island resort. During their visit they managed to eat quite a lot of delicious treats, experiment with the weirdest possible tastes of ice cream as well as and observe the two girls that remained in Beerus' temple through the angel's staff. The two mothers of the girls, Videl and Bulma, as well as certain overbearing grandmother, Chi-Chi, were particularly pleased to see that the kids were very careful when moving around in there. After exploring a couple of chambers and putting their stuff away in their rooms (which they found before Whis and Beerus even arrived on Earth), they were now sparring high in the air above the temple grounds.
The whole ordeal was initially conceived to be a holiday distraction between two school years of the girls. Bulla and Pan were the originators of the idea, wanting to graduate from Super Sayian level into the godly territory. However, Whis felt that there would be not much point to train them for only two months and then having them perform no divine training at all for the next 10. Therefore, he intended to advocate an extension to their stay, while allowing them to keep up with their education in some manner.
While Goku and Vegeta, the two girls previous mentors were very excited about letting them train with Whis, mothers and grandmothers present were not so keen on it.
"Absolutely not!" Chi-Chi roared again. "I will not have my granddaughter stay in a magical temple on the other side of the universe and study via radio. Like hell she will. Do you understand how important it is for her to develop proper social interaction skills? Do you think that she can manage to do that in a bloody castle living practically by herself?"
Videl just smiled uncomfortably. She was more inclined to allow Pan to pursue whatever way of life she desired but arguing with Chi-Chi about it was always a pain in the ass, not mentioning that there actually was some point to it. Pan was already socially awkward enough as it was.
Vegeta thought otherwise. In his mind, the girls should train as much as possible. However, there was more to his point than his own love of fighting. The concern that he wanted to raise went as follows:
"You do remember that we are not going to live forever, me and Kakarot? We will need successors to protect the Earth while we are gone. We thought that either Goten, Gohan or Trunks will take the mantle, but neither of them is very interested in it. Trunks wants to take over Capsule Corp, Gohan wants to do research on interstellar travel and Goten insisted on being his assistant. We thought that we will have to push them into it, but then we discovered that Pan and Bulla have much greater interest in fighting than any of them ever did. Don't you think that it is a good idea to get the most out of it?"
"Hey, it's not going to happen any time soon. Like, I get your point" This time Bulma responded. "But seriously, they can safely manage to finish their education, settle down like normal people and THEN train, while you two are still around. There is no need to rush it RIGHT NOW."
Goku, who was also present there, has something to say too:
"Well, I don't know about it, Bulma. By the time they are done with all that stuff, they may lose interest in fighting. Goten and Trunks liked it when they were little, but then they sort of stopped... So it would be better to nurture that passion while it's there!"
"Of course, you would say that..." Chi-Chi was never particularly fond of her husband's obsession with fighting, and even less with pushing it on everyone around him.
"And also, even if we are around, I would still prefer to have someone to help, just in case. Some of those bad guys we fought in the past were really mean. I like to fight alone, but sometimes even us two need help."
"Look, if things get dicey during one of those battles of yours, you can always ask Broly for aid. Or Piccolo. Or Lord Beerus" - Beerus made a humph sound hearing that - "Or literally anyone else! You can't expect two children to..." Chi-Chi wanted to go on another full-scale rant, but she was stopped mid-sentence.
Whis' staff suddenly started flashing a red light. He grabbed it and investigated the crystal, slightly alarmed.
"Oh, my. This is a bit unexpected." He murmured.
"What, what's going on?" Bulma asked, curious. Everyone else moved closer to Whis. Beerus, who was busy eating a sundae during the whole exchange, now moved away from it as well.
"Oh, there is a certain planet that we wanted to visit afterwards. There was a Freeza Force ship approaching it, but we thought that it will still take them a couple years to get there."
Short silence. Beerus broke it.
"And!?"
"They suddenly started moving much faster. Now, it seems that they will be there in an hour or less."
Beerus' face became stern. After another short pause, he said.
"We are leaving. Now!"
"Of course." Whis said, getting up and moving away from the group a bit to initiate his warp ability.
"Wait, is Freeza attacking another world?" Goku asked.
"We do not know, we never interfere with his operations if they do not involve destroying entire planets. But given that Lord Beerus wanted to visit this one, we would prefer to keep his soldiers away from it for the time being." Whis explained. "Apologies everyone, we will finish this discussion another time. See you later!"
"Wait..." Bulma wanted to ask more questions about it but then a great flash of light consumed the two deities, as they disappeared.
Far in the cosmos, on the ancient and yet lush and lively world, few teenagers were sitting near a campfire, recalling the adventures that they shared in the near past. They were blissfully unaware of the mysteries and dangers of the universe, as well as of the fact that some of those approached them at an alarming rate.
The group consisted of four people: a bald teenager with arrow tattoos all over his body, clad in the robes that would suit a Tibetan monk, two slightly older siblings, one girl and one boy, both brown haired with a slightly dark complexion and wearing blue clothes, as well as one barefoot dark haired blind girl with beige dress that reached her slightly over her knees.
Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph. They just left the Cranefish Town, having finished their business with the Yangchen festival and the Earthen Fire Industries. They were now planning their next move before departing from the place.
"Ughhh, finally that boring festival is over." Top never failed to find a moment to annoy Aang, or to complain about something she disliked "Well, since that as well as the iron spirit mess is finally over, what are you guys planning to do next?"
"I got a message from Zuko few hours ago. He wanted me to join him and his mother on the way back to the Fire Nation. Apparently, there is some dark spirit issue that he wants my help with." Aang responded. He respectfully ignored the remark about the festival, having accepted Toph's dislike for such things beforehand.
"And in the meanwhile, me and Katara are headed back to the South Pole!" Sokka continued.
"I bet that Gran-Gran is worried about us sick... We should have sent her a message or something" Katara added with a worried look.
"Don't you worry, my sister, I already took care of that. Where do you think I send Hawky after all?" Sokka said with a proud smile on his face.
"I kind of forgot about that hawk. Is he at the South Pole now?" Katara was a bit confused.
"Yup yup, along with greetings, big smiley face, a request to take care of him and all the best news I could remember". Sokka replied with even bigger smile.
"Thank you, mister Schedule. As usual, you have everything in order." Katara said, smiling herself now. "When did you even send him? He never returned to us from delivering the letter to Toph's parents."
Both Toph and Sokka knew the answer to that. The girl spoke first:
"Dad brought the bird with him to this town. When we talked things through, he gave Hawky to me, thinking that he was mine, and I gave him to Sokka"
"Aahh, it was good to see him again" Sokka followed with a dreamy voice. "I hope he does not mind the cold too much."
"Hawky will be fine, Sokka, Gran-Gran will take care of him." Katara was quite sure that her grandmother could be trusted to accomodate a bird.
"And you, Toph? What are you planning to do now?" Aang asked.
"For the time being, we will return to the academy with lily livers. They are still too soft for my liking, I want to give them some extra training. Then, we will see. I am sure you will come to me with some trouble on your butts sooner or later." She grinned at the end.
"Alright then. Let's call Appa and get out of here. Would you like a..." Sokka started to speak to Toph, but something over the horizon grabbed his attention.
"What?" Katara asked, noticing her brother's unease. Then, she diverted her sight to the same point. "Oh no, another meteor?" She remembered the last time they saw something falling from the sky.
"What? Where?" Aang got up and looked at it as well. Toph also got up, saying:
"Well, I won't see it until it hits."
They stared at the flash of light moving through the sky, more or less in their direction.
"Ok, better get out of here. We do not want to be this close to the blast zone." Sokka stated.
As he said that, the light suddenly swerved. It seemed to reduce it's speed and move in a bit different direction. Aang was the first to react to this:
"Guys, since when meteors turn around? Or slow down?"
Sokka, enchanted by this display, suddenly connected some dots in his head and then shouted:
"That is no meteor, it's an ALIEN SPACESHIP!"
"Alien wha...?" Toph wanted to question this weird expression, but then she was stopped by a gasp from both Aang and Katara.
The light weakened, revealing a metal bagel like object with yellow protrusions on all sides as well as multiple oval windows. The interior of the bagel shape was filled with metal as well, making it look like a wide disk from afar.
They stared at it in awe, as it descended. They heard Appa roar a bit in the distance, as he was distraught by this weird contraption.
It slowed down even further and turned yet again, this time moving over their heads. Toph was confused, as a gust of windcould suddenly be felt around them. As she could not see the ship yet with her seismic sense, she did not know how to position herself.
Then, a set of needle-like legs have appeared on the walls. Afterwards, the ship settled down.
Toph finally could see it with her earthbending. She gasped loudly at the sensation.
"It's hollow inside. There is someone in there!" she spoke. After a short pause: "They are really weird."
Aang was visibly disturbed by it. When then ship started to make some whirring and buzzing noises, he said:
"Maybe we should get out of here."
Before anyone could react, the source of the noises made itself known: a hatch opened at the side of the vessel.
The two aliens appeared in the opening. They were looking right at the kids, apparently perfectly aware of their location in advance. Both of them wore weird pieces of armour, as well some glass and metal things attached to their faces. Avatar and his friends could not have known that these were scouters: devices that allowed to track location and strength of nearby life forms.
Sokka whispered to Aang. "You know, I was kind of joking about the spaceship thing. And right now, I think I would prefer if I was wrong."
"What do we do? Run, fight, talk to them?" Toph asked. She was unnerved both by the aliens as well as their ship: a metal contraption unlike any machine she ever saw. Trying to understand anything about how it using the earth sense was already giving her a headache. Even though some of the mechanisms and materials were somewhat understandable (she quickly realised how the ship's legs worked, at least in the mechanical sense), some of them were downright dazzling.
Before anyone arrived at any conclusion, the aliens moved over closer. One of them, a small blue one with a long head, spoke to the kids:
"Hello there. Can I ask you a few questions about this planet?"
This puzzled Team Avatar a bit. Saying that it calmed them down was an overstatement, but they were not as alarmed as before. Aang moved forward a bit and decided to speak up:
"Ummm, sure. What do you wish to know?" He did not think about introducing himself, or following any etiquette, still being confused about the situation.
"Haha, funny little people!" the other, taller alien suddenly exclaimed, with an overly extatic voice. This somewhat woke the team up, and Toph responded, a bit annoyed:
"Who do you call funny, freak?"
"Don't mind him, he is not exactly the sharpest knife in the crayon box. Pegra, shut your face and let me talk."
"Haha!" Another dumb sound. Fortunately, it stopped there for a moment. Pegra remained silent and started to mess around with his scouter. Sokka observed his movements, ready to throw a boomerang at him.
"My name is Pecha, and I arrived on this planet looking for shelter. However, I have to know a few things first. Have you perhaps heard of the Freeza Force?"
Kid's were dumbfounded. The name clicked in Sokka's and Katara's head as a reference to the word 'freeze', but Water Tribe warriors never referred to themselves as 'forces' and they were the only people they knew who would use cold-related references in names.
"Forces what?" Sokka asked, still maintaining focus on Pegra. "Freeze Forces? Who the hell uses such stupid names in an army?"
Pecha chuckled a bit, having just heard an offence to the emperor's name. If the actual Freeza was anywhere around, the poor boy would already be dead. And it was quite clear to him that these people had absolutely no idea that it was even a name.
"That's good to hear. I won't trouble you with details about it. Now to the next question: have you ever heard of the Majin Buu?"
"That sounds even dumber than Frozen Forces" Sokka said. He was completely confused by both questions. "I definitely did not expect that the space aliens would ask me about freezes or boos. Hell, how do we even understand each other anyway?"
"Tell me about it. What are you going to ask about next? Maybe if we ever fought the mysterious Sunshine Warriors?" Toph was also losing her tension.
"That's almost like the Sun Warriors!" Aang noticed.
"Or how about the Flying One Eyed Tentacle Monster of Doom!" Sokka decided to stretch his imagination.
Pecha smiled a bit. In any other situation, the kids' attitude would annoy him, but hearing that they had no contact with any of the universe's major threats filled him with some hope.
"I think I saw something like that last thing once." he said. "But..."
"Hey, Pecha!" Pegra interrupted. Sounding as dumb as usual.
"Uggh, what again, Pegra?"
"Let's conquer these weaklings in the name of Lord Freeza!"
Beerus and Whis levitated in the upper atmosphere of the planet, trying to sense what was going on down below.
"There is something off about the people on this world." Beerus said, looking down suspiciously.
"Indeed. It's like this entire planet is filled with very powerful mortal beings, who all suppress their energy. The fact that literally everyone follows this scheme is quite unusual." Whis continued, a bit confused himself. He did not expect to encounter something like this, and it was not looking good.
Was that how it was supposed to work? He asked himself in his mind.
"We have been here for quite a while, and yet we have not felt a single power level change" Beerus said, looking around at various points of the surface. "And I would expect those four" - He pointed towards a specific location on the globe - "to prepare for combat once those two thugs have landed"
Whis was pretty sure that the confrontation with the truth was inevitable. While he would think of some solution to the conundrum, he wanted to stall for time:
"Perhaps let's make a move towards them and observe the situation from up close. Maybe these people will reveal their abilities once in actual danger. I believe that for now there is no battle going on over there."
"Very well. Let's move"
With these words, they descended towards the power sources.
"Wait, so it was a name?" Sokka suddenly realised why the Freeza Force was named as such.
"Who do you call weaklings, you idiot?" Toph became angry. Alien or not, the dumbass was dealing some of the strongest fighters of their world.
Katara and Aang did not say anything. They assumed battle stances instead. The alien's words about conquest put them back on high alert.
"Calm down, everybody, we are not conquering anything" Pecha said to the kids, a bit alarmed himself. The problem was that he was much weaker than his comrade. If Pegra suddenly decided to attack, he would not be able to stop him.
On top of that, Pecha knew the difference in powers between the kids and Pegra. His power level lied on about 10000 in the Freeza forces scale. None of his opponent's reached more than 50, and that boy with the boomerang was closer to 30-something. Pecha's own was just about 1000.
If Pegra wanted, all of those unfortunate teenagers would be dead in an instant.
"Pegra, you idiot, we deserted from the Freeza Force, remember? And the Emperor is dead anyway. Calm down and let me do the talking. I want us to hide somewhere in this world."
There was a long pause. Pegra's brain was trying to calculate something. After a while, his face flashed with a sudden expression of amazement, making him look even dumber than before.
"Then I will be the new Emperor!" He exclaimed loudly.
Whis and Beerus focused intently. They were now floating about few hundred meters away from this scene sligthly above the trees and hidden by the bulk of the spaceship, remaining unnoticed. They heard clearly how one of the aliens has proclaimed himself the emperor of this world. This was the moment they were waiting for.
Pecha became visibly angry. After tormenting him for 13 years with his stupidity, now this idiot was going to waste their only chance at a peaceful life away from the empire. He moved in front of Pegra and spoke:
"Listen, you moron, we need to hide, not mess around with random kids. Do you want to have Galactic Patrol, the army or someone worse down on our asses? Just shut up and let m..."
He was not given a chance to finish that sentence. A powerful swipe connected with his face, sending him flying a few meters away.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Katara screamed. Pecha appeared sort of sympathetic to them, apparently trying to find shelter from some evil people. Yet this dumbass now attacked him for no reason. She moved towards the injured alien to check on him.
Toph felt that something was off. The motion performed during this attack did not look right. However before she figured out what was giving her that feeling, Pegra spoke again, distracting her:
"Out of the way, scum!" He shouted at Pecha. Obviously, with a longer delay and without noticing Katara. "This world will now give me all of it's goodies!" Then he turned his attention towards the kids:
"Kneel before your new emperor!" He screamed at them.
Everyone on the Team Avatar became very angry. Katara stopped mid way to Pecha, feeling an additional unease. She was now standing at the shortest distance to the hostile alien.
"Get lost, before you get hurt, you idiot." Toph said, assuming an earthbending stance.
Pegra did not pay attention to that. He instead finally noticed Katara being near him, and said the following:
"You there! Lick my boots!"
Katara's expression became completely disgusted. Aang felt a surge of hatred in him, similar to the one that he felt when he found Appa's kidnappers. He was inches away from entering the Avatar state out of rage. He was already mad at Pegra when he hit the smaller alien, but this was too much.
"What did you just say?" his voice almost brimmed with a familiar echo.
In the meanwhile, Pecha regained consciousness. He saw all of the kids looking at Pegra with hatred. He moved slightly out of everyone's way.
"Run, everyone, he is too dangerous!" He decided to shout. However, his words fell on deaf ears.
"Over my dead body, you freak!" Katara finally voiced her disgust at Pegra's derogatory order. She did hear Pecha, but she did not understand how that dumbass could have any chance with any of them, let alone the entire group. He was more or less of human posture, without any visible weapons.
This resistance of hers awakened something in Pegra. For now, he appeared completely idiotic to everyone, voicing random bullshit and not responding to half of what was said to him. But, after hearing an open challenge, all of this dumbness dissipated. What was left there was a monster, excited with aggression.
The real reason why such an idiot was even allowed to be in the Freeza Force has just surfaced.
Everyone on the Team Avatar noticed this shift of tone. If it was not apparent from his expression, it was from his voice.
"As you wish, little girl." A cold hiss.
Out of all the kids, only Toph's senses were acute enough to track what happened.
A shock wave was the first thing that Aang and Sokka felt. They managed to notice that where Katara stood, now there was Pegra, with his fist in the air.
There was a rock behind Aang and the others. They sensed the second shock wave.
Katara's body hit the rock with great force. There was blood on her hair and in her mouth.
Toph could sense that all of Katara's ribs were broken. She did not even want to guess what the internal damage was like.
Aang managed to turn his head. Katara, by some miracle, was still conscious. Her expression shifted to that of pain and terror. She tried to say something, but only a bloody gurgle came out. Her eyes became glassy. She tried to move her hand, it jerked and twitched instead.
Blood became visible through the clothes on her chest. She then fell to the ground, like a ragdoll.
"KATARA!" Sokka's scream could be heard from a large distance.
Toph just stood there, horrified. She had the most battle experience out of all kids, and what she just sensed out was incomprehensible.
Sokka bolted towards his sister. He lifted her up and felt her blood on his hands. He was in complete disbelief, terror slowly creeping up on his face.
Aang stared at Katara for a moment. Blood was rushing in his ears. Everything else fell to ringing silence.
He then turned towards the alien. His eyes and tattoos were already glowing.
He felt as if the Sozin's comet has exploded within him.
A jet of flame roared, engulfing Pegra, the ship and the substantial part of the forest behind it.
The fire was not strong enough to seriously damage the ship but is successfully encouraged Pecha to jump far away.
When he did, he noticed the two silent observers in the distance. He checked his scouter quickly, and then flew far away, in terror.
There was no reading or even any signals of their presence. He knew what that meant.
These two were gods.
Flames slowly subsided. Aang teared up, his rage being slowly replaced by fear. He wanted to move over towards Katara, but he was too afraid to look at her.
And yet, she probably needed him right there and now.
Before he managed to make the first step, he heard a voice.
"Nice fireworks, boy!"
Pegra was still there, staring at him with a violent spark in his eyes. Apparently completely unfazed by the flames. Toph was still in the same place, unable to speak. It looked as she was about to scream in horror.
Aang, already out of the Avatar State, wanted to join her.
"Now, here is your reward!"
His body jerked again. Toph really wanted to pull herself together and scream a warning to Aang, but she knew it would be over before she opened her mouth.
She tried, anyway. And when she did open it, it just remained silent.
His second attack was just as incomprehensible as the first one, and yet it was stopped. Between Aang and Pegra there stood a purple cat-like person. This being have just stopped the alien's punch by catching his fist.
Now Toph realised what she felt when Pegra attacked Pecha for the first time. It happened again when Katara was struck, again when Aang was about to be attacked. And then again right now, when this cat appeared out of nowhere to block said punch.
There was no effort in any of these moves. Not the slightest sign of strain. All of them appeared as light as swatting a fly to the muscles that performed them, despite the unreal force they carried.
She had no chance to become horrified by this realisation, as another terror has replaced it immediately.
The cat spoke. His voice was a mixture of annoyance and indifference.
"You annoy me."
Pegra had no time to process this. Sudden appearance of this cat guy threw him off so much, that his familiar dumbness returned to him. Before he did anything, another sound has filled the air:
"Hakai"
Pegra's body began to disintegrate. When he realised that is existence is ending, what was left of his brain prompted him to scream loudly. Even as he lost his throat, it still echoed, as if the dying soul itself was still screaming. Soon there was nothing left.
Sokka was too busy staring at this new occurrence to notice that Katara have moved. He looked at her and saw that all of her injuries were completely healed. She edged a bit closer to him and hugged him. She was trembling in shock and fear.
Right next to them there was a pale blue man of incredible height, holding a weird staff.
There was a pause.
"I have some questions for you."
Beerus was now looking at Aang.