The Ripple Effect
Gohan could barely open his eyes. The androids had completely overtaken him and Trunks. Before the fight Gohan had tried to stop Trunks from coming along, but the younger Saiyan had come to fight with his mentor anyways. Finally Gohan managed to lift an eyelid. The androids hovered above the two fallen warriors, Seventeen's hand outstretched towards them.
"So do we finish them today sister?" the dark-haired boy asked. His sister, Eighteen, wore a denim vest and skirt that covered her black undershirt and leggings and had cowgirl boots to finish the outfit. Her brother wore a white long-sleeved shirt covered by a black short sleeve one with a red-ribbon insignia on it. Blue jeans and green socks covered his legs and blue sneakers finished off his motley assortment. Eighteen thought for a second before answering her sibling.
"No, they're way too much fun to mess around with. Let's leave 'em for later." She answered. Seventeen nodded and the two rocketed away. Gohan let out a sigh of relief before his eye fell on Trunks laying a few feet away from him. He wasn't moving and Gohan could barely sense any ki coming from him. No! I need to save him! He couldn't feel his left arm at all. With his right arm he reached over to grab the senzu bean pouch. all his fingers felt though was skin. The pouch had been incinerated along with part of his gi during the onslaught of blasts the androids had thrown at the half saiyans.
"Trunks..." Gohan managed to say as he slowly sank back into the dark of unconsciousness.
It was two years after Goku had beaten Frieza. His friends and family waited for him to return from space everyday. His son sat at his desk in their little house. Chi Chi made him focus on his studies the last couple years instead of training, but secretly he would sneak out every so often at night and spar with Piccolo in the forest. Currently he sat with his head in his hands staring at a math problem that had been in front of him for the last thirty minutes. Finally he circled his answer, x=7.
All Gohan could think of was the food Chi Chi was making for lunch. He could smell the fish cooking on the stove and Chi Chi's spicy ramen. Gohan could barely keep his mind on the homework. Suddenly a large ki signature sparked on his mental radar.
"Dad!" Gohan's head shot up. Then he noticed that it wasn't the pure innocent ki of his father, but a corrupt, evil power. The phone rang just as Gohan was wondering who it was so he leapt over and answered it.
"Gohan it's Krillin! Did you feel that power?" The bald monk asked over the telephone.
"Yeah! Did you recognize it?"
"Freeza. We have to go fight him. We won't let him take the Earth without a fight."
"Agreed. I'll meet you there as fast as I can." Gohan hung up the phone and walked over to a chest at the opposite end of the room and opened it. He gazed down at the saiyan armor he had kept from his trip to Namek. He slipped on the blue jumpsuit and then the yellow and white armor. "Mom I'm going out!" Before Chi Chi could answer her son he had flown out the window.
Halfway there he ran into Krillin.
"He guys! Headed for Freeza?" The saiyan asked the monk.
"Yeah, he's almost here, let's get going!" the short monk responded. They flew as fast as they could towards the landing point.
Once they got there the rest of the Z-fighters were gathered already.
"Where is your low-class father boy?" Vegeta spat as soon as he touched down.
"How am I supposed to know Vegeta? I haven't heard from him since Namek either." Gohan shot back. He noticed that no one had donned the armor as he had, Vegeta was in a pink button-up shirt even! Still, every one was ready to put up a fight for the planet they called home. Tien and Chiaotzu landed on the edge of the group, completing the Z crew. Yamcha, Vegeta, Picollo, Krillin, Gohan and Tien, Earth's mightiest fighters assembled for the first time since Vegeta and Nappa's landing. They could all sense Freeza and some other even more massive ki was going to land around a mile to the North of them in a few moments.
"Hey!" A shout came from behind them. Everyone turned to look and find a Capsule Corp plane coming their way.
"Bulma! What is she doing here, that idiot!" Yamcha yelled. Gohan thought that was harsh coming from him. She landed a few yards from them and Puar flew out, then Bulma jumped out in a long-sleeved dress that cut off around mid-thigh. she wore a vest over that and her usual Capsule Corp boots. Unusually her hair was pulled back and curled in the very back to an extreme, almost like an afro.
"What are you doing here?!" Yamcha hollered at her.
"I came to see Freeza!" She yelled back at the martial artist.
"What? Why would you do something so stupid?"
"Hey Freeza's strong enough to destroy this whole planet from space so it doesn't really matter whether I hide or not. Why not come here and watch? Plus I never saw him while I was on Namek!" The blue haired woman shot at Yamcha. Gohan thought he saw a smirk shoot across Vegeta's face for just a split second. They all tensed up as they sensed Freeza get closer and closer.
"Hide your ki signatures now! They have scouters you fools!" Vegeta yelled at everyone. They all suppressed their energy as quick as they could as they saw the distant gleam of light they knew to be Freeza's space ship grow larger. Finally it blasted over their heads and landed just a mile or two West of the Z fighters.
"Let's go, and remember, no flying! They'll pick it upon their scouters if you do." Krillin reminded everyone. They all took off running towards the landing point of Freeza's ship. "So Yamcha, how do you like living with Vegeta?" Krillin added, trying to break the tension but also mocking the warrior.
"Shut up Krillin! He's a scary dude, I'm glad he spends most of his time training!" Yamcha replied.
"I am standing right here you idiots." Vegeta said with a scowl on his face. Just then they all felt a third much more massive power level.
"It's pointless to keep concealing our ki now, if there's a third one we're all done for anyways." Piccolo yelled. Then he took off towards the power levels as fast as he could, followed by Vegeta and then the others. They reached a cliff that overlooked the landing site and stopped to watch. Standing in front of Freeza and his small army was a man wearing an orange and blue gi.
"Papa it's him! That's Son Goku! That's the Super Saiyan!" The newly mechanized Freeza yelled at his considerably taller father. Freeza had been found floating in space by King Cold. Scientists had worked round the clock to rebuild his body and when they had finally succeeded Cold set a course for Earth to get revenge. In front of him and his small army stood a lone man wearing an orange gi with a blue undershirt. His hair was jet black and spiked on one side.
"Sorry, but you're only half right Freeza." The man replied.
"What? Half right?" The Acrosian shot back.
"I am not Son Goku and he is not the only Super Saiyan."
"What? It can't be! Are you telling me Vegeta is a Super Saiyan?" The shocked Acrosian screamed.
"No, I am."
"Who cares, kill him anyways." The King ordered. One of the front line minions took out his blaster and with his scouter checked the man's power level.
"Power level of 5 my lord, this will be easy." The bearded blue soldier took out his blaster and fired at his target. The mysterious man lifted his hand up and caught the blast on his bare skin. A smirk formed on his mouth.
"My turn now." Without moving a muscle he hit the soldier with a kiai that sent him flying away into a nearby mountain side. It was only then that Freeza paid attention to the man standing in front of him and noticed that he only had one arm.
"Now it's time to reap what you've sown Freeza!" the man leaned towards his right side and began charging energy in his palm. "Kame Hame-"
"Papa that was a move the Super Saiyan used on me!" Freeza managed to get out before the last word was uttered.
"HA!" The one armed man turned and released the energy in a brilliant bright blue ray that engulfed everything in it's path, including Freeza and his men. The man stood and watched as the dust cleared. Slowly a faint clap was audible.
"Good job," As the dust finally settled King Cold dropped back to the ground, still keeping up his clap. "Not many people could kill my son with just one attack. My empire is made of only the strongest rulers. What would you say if I offered you a seat by my side?"
"I would tell you to take that seat and shove it."
"Darn, that's a waste of a good soldier." King Cold sighed as he lunged for the Saiyan standing in front of him. All of his punches and kicks were easily dodged by the skilled fighter. Cold got angrier and angrier as all of his attacks failed. Finally he landed a blow that sent his opponent flying backwards. To his misfortune the man landed on his feet, his index and middle fingers on his forehead.
"King Cold, you're going to pay for all of the people you have wronged." Energy crackled around the two fingers resting on the fighter's forehead. "Here, take this!" He pointed the energy filled fingers at the Acrosian ruler and before he could react a beam shot forth from them that was a vibrant yellow. Another beam circled around it, joining at the front end, making the attack resemble a corkscrew. It shot directly through King Cold's heart, leaving him stunned as the life drained from his body. He coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"N-no, it c-can't be.." The father of Freeza slowly sank to his knees and then fell face first onto the ground, dead.
"Picollo wasn't that your move?" Krillin asked the Namekian warrior. The Z fighters had witnessed everything that had gone on between the unknown fighter and the Cold family. They were all shocked at what had just happened.
"Yes, but how could he possibly know how to use it?" Piccollo was truly stunned for one of the few times in his existence. He had only taught that move once and that was to Gohan when he was a child, and he hadn't been able to get a hold of it.
"Guys he's looking up here!" Bulma yelled. Everyone turned to look down at the warrior who had just felled the most powerful villain they had ever faced. He was waving with his one arm at them.
"Hey guys! I'm waiting for Son Goku! You can join me if you'd like!" His voice boomed up the cliff with a commanding but somehow friendly tone. He threw a capsule that contained a refrigerator and took out a water.
"I want to meet this guy!" Bulma said, curious to meet the man that beat Freeza again.
"He doesn't seem evil at all." Gohan chimed in.
"Something about his ki is very, familiar." Piccollo thought out loud. With the general consensus being that the man wasn't going to harm them they slowly made their way down to him. Once they got closer they noticed more about him, his gi was almost similar to Goku's except for the insignia on it. He had a scar running down the left side of his face, and as they all had figured by now, his left arm was gone.
"Hello, Son Goku should be here in about half an hour or so, seems that his ship picked up speed once it got a little closer to the Earth."
"Enough! How were you able to defeat Freeza so easily when he could wipe out an entire race with just the flick of his finger?" Vegeta yelled, fuming that another person had seemingly surpassed him with relative ease. "Even Kakarot almost died in the fight between him and that monster! How could you finish him off with just one move, not even being a Super Saiyan?"
"Heh," A wide smile crossed the mysterious youth's face as he scratched the back of his head, "ya see I'm just a little bit stronger than you guys are right now."
"It's rude to lie to those seeking honest answers, Gohan." Piccolo said matter-of-factly. All eyes fell on the Namekian standing on the edge of the group with his arms crossed, then to the one-armed man who was now awkwardly laughing.
"What?!" Bulma yelled, voicing the opinion of the rest of the Z fighters as well.
"Haha, shoulda known you would figure it out, so what gave me away Piccolo?"
"Your ki signature is vaguely familiar, you're wearing your father's gi and the only person that I've taught the Special Beam Canon to is Gohan. On top of all that the insignia on your gi is the old Japanese symbol for 'Han' for Kamis sake. That was too many coincidences, you had to be Gohan. The only question now is how the hell are you standing in front of us?"
"Darn, I was hoping that we could wait for dad to get here to tell everyone, but I guess it can't wait now." Gohan took a deep breath. "I am the same as the boy standing next to you guys, except I'm about fifteen years older than him. In two years my father will die of a heart virus, there is no medication for it yet, though a few years later they will be able to create one. About a year after that there will be an attack on South City. Two androids, a boy and a girl, destroy it, kill everyone there, all of us included. I was barely able to escape. They decimate us all, we were completely outclassed." His eyes began to mist. "In the ensuing years they started to wipe out the human race, only about twenty-five percent of us remain alive by most estimates. They decided to make a game out of it after a while, that's why they never killed me off, I'm just a slightly harder game for them to beat, but only slightly."
"After awhile us survivors came up with the idea to send me back in time, warn you about the androids, and more importantly to give you the medication to cure dad. Train for these three years, train harder than you did for Nappa and Vegeta, harder than you did for Freeza. Train as much as you can. The world depends on it."
"Bullshit!" Vegeta screamed. He powered up, showing off how much training he had done in the past couple of years, and charged Gohan of the future. With one swift move Gohan moved to face Vegeta with his left side and caught the Saiyan prince by the throat.
"YOU ARE THE FIRST TO GO, VEGETA!" Gohan yelled, his face now stern and voice commanding. "You foolishly think that you can take them both on at once and they annihilate everything that you are!" Energy began to swell around Gohan as he grew angrier. Suddenly his hair stood on end and turned a bright yellow color. His eyes became a blue-green and his face grew even more stern, his energy created a gust that blew everyone back a half a step, Bulma lost the Scientist monthly magazine that she had been reading before coming to see Freeza to the breeze. Gohan's voice got quieter as he brought Vegeta closer to him. "I could kill you right here and now just by squeezing a little bit, and these androids, they're strong enough to take my left arm from me without even trying."
Gohan released his grip on Vegeta and he slumped to his knees. The prince had an expression of pure shock and sorrow on his face. This was the second time that Piccollo had ever seen Vegeta look so broken, the first being during the fight against Freeza. Everyone was stunned, both by Vegeta's silence and by Gohan's transformation.
"Wow you're pretty strong!" Everyone turned to look behind them all to see a familiar face smiling back at them.
Alright that's the end of the first chapter of Ripple Effect! I realize that it was very short and isn't the best grammar-wise, I will possibly come back and fix this later. Please stick with the story a couple more chapters before you decide whether or not to continue reading! Around chapter 5 or 6 Full Power, a great author whose story Second Chance is amazing, started beta-ing for me. Needless to say the writing becomes ten times more bearable and it is just all around better.
One other note is that from chapter 9, Ripple Effect will update every other Sunday.
Cya next time!
treeger