DBZ: The Darkness

Present day

Goku and Bulma stand back to back on a cliff, overlooking West City as darkness dissolves everything around them, slowly moving upward into the sky. Goku looks slightly nervous, a drop of sweat falling from his face, holding his ground. Bulma stands behind him with a scouter and a modified chi gun. Goku wears his blue sleeveless vest and white belt with dark pants and black shoes. Bulma wears a very long red dress that covers her legs and white tennis shoes. Goku looks back at her through the corner of his eye. "Are you sure you want to do this, Bulma?" Goku asked, a hint of concern in his voice. Bulma turns her head, answering him and smiling as she speaks, ready to face the matter at hand. "We started together, Goku; we'll finish together." Goku looks ahead again and makes a grim smile, now knowing that his oldest friend is ready to back him up. "Are you ready for one last adventure," asked Bulma.

"I'm ready."

A deep darkness completely dissolves upward as it finally claims the sky until nothing but darkness remains. A geyser sprays forth from the endless darkness, but the light from their bodies are still visible, allowing them to see each other. Goku sees a pair of glowing, red eyes in the darkness. Goku looks back at Bulma again, now with a serious look on his face. "What does the scouter say about its power level, Bulma?" Bulma pushes the button and sees something odd. "That's strange; I'm not getting a reading."

"You mean its power level is zero?"

"You don't understand, Goku. I'm not getting anything; no numbers, not even a zero. It's… creepy." Goku steps away from Bulma a little as she turns around to face him. "What about you, Goku? Do you sense anything?" Goku looks hard at the darkness in front of him, but makes a grunt of disappointment. "Nothing; no life-force, no energy, not even a power level. You called it Bulma; it's creepy." A black tendril wraps around Goku's legs and makes its way up his body. Goku struggles to break free, but his Saiyan might proves to be useless. Suddenly, darkness envelops Goku, covering up his body and lifting him into the air. Bulma can only stand and watch as her oldest friend is swallowed up by this darkness. "GOKUUUUUUU!"

Chapter 1: Super Saiyan Rachel

Six months ago

Her name is Rachel Landau and she has just started working at Capsule Corporation as a paid intern. Right now however, she can't make it to work because she is hanging on to dear life. She lies down in the grass on her back with her white dress shirt ripped open, exposing her white lace bra. Her long red hair slightly blows in the wind as she lays her head to her right with her arm laid out in front of her. Her eyes are heavily wavered with fear from the pain she went through as her bright green skirt is stained with the blood between her legs. Some of the grass has gotten onto her bare feet since her red low heels came off during the attack. A group of punks stand over her body with one of them crouching down, actually proud of what they did to this young woman. They found her on the side of the road and decided to have some fun with her. It's been a while since they have tasted the raw flesh of a beautiful woman, but this one put up a fight. There were five of them though, so she didn't have a chance.

The punk crouching in front of Rachel has just finished zipping up his pants. He slowly reaches his hand under her chin, slightly bringing her head up. "Was that good for you, baby? It was for us." He releases her, letting her lie there in her own blood from this assault. The five of them stand straight and turn their backs to Rachel, ready to take off on their bikes when a golden blast of light comes from behind them. The five punks look back to see Rachel's body pulsing with new life. Her flat body suddenly gains muscle mass as she is surrounded by a golden glow. She sits up, her teeth gritting from this sudden surge of energy as she places her hands on the ground to get up. Rachel slowly rises to her feet, having a staggered stance. The five punks look on in amazement, wondering how she can get up after they all sexually assaulted her. With one yell, she stands up straight and her hair stands up on her head, now golden and spiky. Her eyes turn into a greenish-blue color and these eyes look at her assailants, angry.

"I will never forgive you," growls Rachel.

Miles away, Goku and Uub are training in the desert when they sense a very peculiar energy reading. Goku and Uub float at least a mile above ground, staring over the horizon with Uub behind Goku. "Did you feel that just now, Uub?"

"I did, Goku; a massive energy release, somewhere near West City." Goku looks serious now, thinking to himself. "That's the energy of a Super Saiyan, but I don't recognize the person behind it. What is going on?"

Meanwhile, Rachel stares down her assailants, surrounded by a golden glow. The punk in front drops his scared look and begins to point at Rachel, speaking to his crew. "Come on, guys. She may look scary, but she's still just a girl. Remember how easily we took her down earlier?" The other four then drop their scared looks as well and regain their evil smirks. The one in front charges in, but Rachel plants one punch and sends him flying into his crew, knocking them over like bowling pins. They lie down in pain, but Rachel grabs the one in front, holding him up with one hand over her head. He begins to feel the fear again. "Please, don't kill me! We won't do it again, we swear!" Rachel only looks up at him in silence, but then an alarm sounds off on her watch. Rachel drops her serious look and puts the punk down, then looks at her watch. Her golden form disappears and her long red hair and black eyes return. "Oh no, I'll be late for work," shouts a worried Rachel. Rachel looks at the punk and knows that she can't leave him be, but she can't stay either. She kneels down in front of him and reassumes her golden form, putting the fear of God into him with her look.

"You get one warning. If I hear that you are even attempting to rape another woman, I will find you. Do you understand?" The punk simply nods his head. "Good." Rachel then leaps, heading toward Capsule Corporation, a few miles down the road.

Rachel lands at Capsule Corp., being in a slight panic. She buttons up her shirt and attempts to wipe some of the blood from her body. She then drops her golden form and runs inside. She makes her way to the nearest women's bathroom and looks inside. After she sees that no one is in there, she turns on one of the facets and uses the paper towels to clean herself off. She then leaves the bathroom and makes her way to the cubicle area of Capsule Corporation. She sits down at her cubicle in the office building and sighs, thankful that she made it to work on time. The only thing she has to worry about now is the fact that she lost her shoes. If President Bulma Briefs asks why she is barefoot on the job, she'll say she was rushing.

Goku and Uub arrive at a grassy area on the side of the road, a few miles from Capsule Corp. Goku kneels down and places his hand on top of a red, wet area of grass. Goku looks at the red liquid on his hand and examines it. "This is blood, human blood. It's still wet, which means whoever was attacked here left not too long ago." Uub looks out of the corner of his eye, seeing five punks lying down in pain. Uub walks back and grabs one of them by the shirt. "What happened here," asked Uub. The punk begins to shift his eyes back and forth. "We found a woman here whose car had broken down." Uub looks at the man with a suspicious look in his eyes. "You're lying to me. There is no car here, only a bus stop. Tell me what really happened."

"Well, the boys and I wanted to show the lady a good time, so…" Goku interrupts the punk, standing behind Uub as he wipes his hand off with a towel. "You raped her, didn't you?" Uub now growls furiously at the punk and pushes him down. "You son of a bitch!" Uub tries to attack, but Goku grabs his shoulder, slowly shaking his head as Uub looks back at him. "They're not worth it, Uub. We'll let the police handle them." Goku approaches the punks and looks down at them with his fists clenched tightly at his sides. "Alright dirt bags, this is your chance at redemption. Tell me, which way did she go?"

Rachel sits at her desk, typing up a report on her computer when a knock comes from behind her. She turns halfway, making sure to keep her lower body under the desk. Rachel looks to see who it is and tries to hold back her fear as it is none other than the president. "Oh, Mrs. Briefs. What can I do for you, ma'am?" Bulma wears her GT hairstyle with a dark blue suit jacket, orange shirt and dark blue skirt with black low heels. Bulma simply has a blank expression on her face, having her hands folded in front of her. "You're Rachel, right; the new intern that started here a few weeks ago?" Rachel makes a nervous smile and responds briefly.

"Yes ma'am, Mrs. President!"

"Sorry I haven't been able to greet you, but I have been preoccupied recently."

"Not a problem!"

"I always try to keep in contact with the workers to make sure their needs are met and if they aren't, then I try to make improvements." Bulma then looks under the desk where Rachel is sitting and notices her feet. "What happened to your shoes?"

"Oh, I was rushing this morning so I ended up leaving them." Bulma simply smiles at her statement. "Boy, I've had one of those days. Sometimes I want to pull my hair out every time Trunks gets into trouble." Bulma unfolds her hands and puts her hand on Rachel's shoulder. "I'll let you get back to work." Bulma then walks away from the cubicle with Rachel letting out a sigh.

Chi-Chi walks through a shopping mall somewhere near Mt. Paozu, where she lives. She passes up a young salesman who is holding up free cans of a new energy drink that is on the market. The drink cans are around 16 oz. and yellow in color with the word Persona in black letters. "Excuse me, miss. You look like you could use a pick me up," said the young man with short blonde hair and blue eyes. He also wears an apron in front of his green short sleeved shirt and blue jeans with gray sneakers. Chi-Chi looks at him curiously as he holds two cans with a can shaped backpack holding more of the drinks.

"Are you talking to me?"

"Hello, miss. My name is Mark Zuko and I am the president of Shade Industries." Chi-Chi becomes interested now, hearing about the company on television. "You're THAT Mark Zuko, the owner of a major weapons company?"

"Selling weapons is just a paycheck, but this is what I wanted to do. My Persona energy drink is my way of helping the community." Chi-Chi can't help but question what he just said. "And how is an energy drink supposed to do that, Mark?" Mark simply smiles.

"Ah, I'm glad you asked. This is no ordinary energy drink. It has minerals in it to actually make you smarter." Chi-Chi's eyes get big as she holds her knuckles in front of her face, hearing the one word that hits home. "DID YOU SAY IT MAKES YOU SMARTER?" Mark hands her a can and she opens it up. She allows a few drops to slide down her throat and stops, waiting for a few seconds until something pulses inside of her…

The next morning comes as the sun slowly rises over Krillin's bedroom. Android 18 feels the warm glow of the sun on her face and turns on her CPU, allowing her to wake up. She sits up from the bed, wearing nothing except a white lace dress. She looks behind her, seeing that Krillin is still asleep. She caresses his puffy, gray hair and kisses him on the cheek before placing her hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Krillin. It's time to wake up." Android 18 softly shakes him, but gets no answer. "Wake up, Krillin." She begins to shake him a little harder, but his body is still not moving. "Okay, seriously. It's time to get up." Android 18 begins to raise her voice, seeing this as one of his jokes. "Krillin, we have to go. Marron has her job interview today and she wants us to be there."

Android 18 begins to shake him violently now, trying to wake him up. "This isn't funny anymore, Krillin. Wake up!" She now speaks, her voice choking in fear. Eighteen then puts her fingers to his throat to check his pulse. She then places her ear to his chest to listen to his heartbeat. She withdraws from the bed and stands there, horrified by the cold hard reality before her, for words cannot describe how she is feeling right now. Eighteen falls to her knees as she places her hand on the bed. Tears begin to fall from her eyes, unable to contain herself as she lets out a soft cry.