"Broly! Calm down!"

A dark figure stood towering above him. Broly tried to break free from the man's firm grasp, but no matter how hard he was thrashing about with his hands and feet, the man did not let go of him.

"You were only having a nightmare! It's alright, son, your father is here now." The young boy's cries softened as he held him in his arms, and the boy seized his frantic struggle, until he was quiet again, apart from his irregular sobbing.

"There now. Everything will be just fine. You should go back to sleep now." he said after the boy was calm again.

As he pulled the blankets over his son, the boy timidly asked him "Dad, will the bad man return when I go to sleep?"

Paragus looked him in the eyes, not very sure of how to answer that question. "No, he won't. I will watch over you in your dreams" he finally decided.

The boy seemed contend and had soon fallen back asleep. He was still sitting on his bedside, looking at the now again peaceful boy, with no real emotion in his eyes, other than curiosity. This boy was something special, that was for sure. He might prove to become of use to him, if he were a little older that is. Paragus was probably the only person alive that knew about the true extent of Broly's power. He saw it as a great opportunity. Others had seen it as a threat. Why else would they have tried to get rid of them?

Paragus sighed as he stared out of the window, unaware his eyes were subconsciously searching for a certain long-gone star. Like memories in cold decay, transmissions echoing away. Time had gone by so fast, along with his former glory. He had often spend hours gazing the heavens at night, longing for his old life, where he was respected and esteemed by the other Elite fighters and where the more common lot looked up at him in awe. And now? Now where was he? Stranded in some pathetic excuse of a planet, stuck with no job, no money, being left to steal and murder for their daily bread. But what he loathed most of all, was this whole masquerade, the fact that he had to play the nice daddy. That he had to be kind and patient and put up with all of the runt's whining, and all of his stupidities.

He looked back down at the snuggled up boy, but there was no love in his eyes. He had never felt anything for him, other than frustration. 'I know I can't be mad at the boy.' he thought to himself, 'but if it weren't for him, I would have fought side by side with my comrades. I could have made a difference. We could have defeated that Tyrant. But instead I was betrayed by my own men, thrown away like garbage. They left me to die, all because of this boy!' He noticed his fists were holding the blanket very tightly, so he closed his eyes, trying to calm down. 'I must keep up with him. I need him for my revenge on King Vegeta.' A dark smile came over his face. 'I will get my revenge on Vegeta. If not through him, then through the next best thing, his son! I know Prince Vegeta must still be alive, he was with Freeza around the time our planet got destroyed, I just know it!'

The man quietly exited the room.

Although he was asleep, Broly's hand slowly went up to his belly where the remains of a scar were still visible.

"Broly, are you even listening?"

Broly nearly fell out of his seat. He stared blankly at his teacher, turning red when he heard his classmates laugh at him. He was trying to concentrate, he really was. It was just too difficult and the teacher was really boring. Besides, the weather was way too nice to be sitting indoors, especially today. What he really wanted was to get away, away from all these people. He couldn't wait for the bell to ring, to announce his freedom.

"Maybe you would like to answer the next question? Which is bigger, twelve divided by five or ten divided by four?"

Every one was now quiet all of a sudden, and Broly felt really pressured. He wasn't very good at math, or any other subjects for that matter. The only thing he excelled at was gymnastics, because somehow he was a lot stronger and faster than all the other kids. Everyone blamed it on the fact he was different, because he had a tail and his hair wasn't a bright colour like theirs. His dad didn't really have an explanation for why they were so different, or at least he always changed the subject when Broly asked him about it.

He realized his mind had taken him elsewhere again, and his teacher was still waiting for an answer, whilst tapping his foot impatiently, with his hands in his side. "Uhm... Twelve divided by five?"

All the kids burst out laughing again, and one of them yelled "Monkey-boy lost his brains!" after which they laughed even harder. The teacher didn't do anything to stop the jeering however. He just stood there and sighed in a clearly disappointed way. "Broly, I want to see you after class. Now, the correct answer is.." He continued, silencing the class again, but Broly had already lost his attention.

'Stupid kids, stupid teacher, stupid math.' He thought, with his head down in his arms. 'They are always so mean to me. I hate them, I hate all of them!' His eyes started to sting a little, but he held his tears in, not to mention the bit of rage that was surging inside of him. Sure he hated them for being so mean to him, but secretly he just wanted to fit in, he wanted them to stop thinking of him as a freak. What he really really wanted was to have friends, like everyone else.

It was lunchtime and Broly was sitting alone like always. He had grown used to it, and now he was acting tough, like he didn't care. But sometimes he glanced over at the other kids, especially those older ones, whom he secretly admired.

His stomach was rumbling. His father didn't have a job, so it wasn't very unusual for Broly to not have much to eat at school. And even the few times his father had given him some lunch money, it would usually end up being taken by a couple of bullies. For some reason, they always knew, and they liked picking on him.

The rumbling started to worsen. "Shut up, stomach!" he whispered.

"Hey, pal, are you hungry?"

Broly was a bit startled and quickly looked up. One of the popular kids stood in front of him. The guy was at least two years older than Broly, but he was looking at him with a smile.

"Don't you have anything to eat?"

"No, my dad..." a very embarrassed Broly uttered.

"Well, why don't you come sit with me and my friends?" the boy said while pointing back to the group behind him, some of which he could tell where having a hard time keeping a straight face.

"No thanks, I'm fine..." he mumbled to his feet.

"Great!" the boy said, grabbing Broly by the shoulders, apparently not having heard him. "I'm Jarom, by the way."

"Broly." he returned, while being ushered into unfamiliar territory.

"Come on Broly, let me introduce you to my friends." He said while patting Broly on the back. "Don't worry, they don't bite. Except for Kanta that is." He pointed at one of the bigger guys with a grin.

"Hey guys, look who I've brought for dinner! This is Broly."

Some of them said "Sup", others just nodded. One snickering kid received an elbow in his ribs.

"Hi Broly, I like your hair." one of the older girls said, making a few of her friends burst out in laughter.

"Can you believe he doesn't have anything to eat?" Jarom roared, while laughing along with his friends. "His lousy father doesn't even have a job!"

Broly clenched his fists. No one could talk about his father like that. But he didn't dare say anything, so he just turned around and started walking back to his old place. 'I should have known. Stupid kids. They think they're so cool, with their fancy...' he thought when suddenly a sharp kick hit him in the back and before he realized it his face met the floor.

"Freak!" One of the guys shouted. People started gathering around and laughing at the boy lying on the floor.

Broly crawled up and ran out of the building, with tears in his eyes. He kept running while hearing the laughter in his head until his side started aching from running. He let himself fall down on the grass. He had no idea where he was, but he didn't really care. As long as he was away from people. He slowly reached for his back to evaluate the damage when he felt something out of place. He pulled out a piece of paper with the words "Kick me."

"Jarom." he muttered as he squeezed the paper ferociously.

"Hey dad!"

"Hey son. How was your day?" He said without looking up.

"I got detention again." Broly mumbled, awaiting his father's reaction.

"That's nice." Paragus absently replied.

There appeared a grin on the boy's face. 'That's what I like about my father, he doesn't get very mad about this stuff. He's the only one who cares about me. It doesn't matter if we're broke, as long as I have him, everything will be alright. He's the best dad in the world!'

"Dad, do you remember what day it is?"

His father looked up with a puzzled face.

"It's my birthday dad! I'm ten years old now!" He happily said, waiting for a reaction. When it didn't come, he hesitantly continued "You didn't forget it again, right dad?"

"Ha ha! Of course I didn't forget! Happy birthday son." Paragus simply stood there with his hand behind his head, hoping the boy didn't catch on to him. "Yeah.. It was going to be... a surprise! I was going to take you to the park!"

Broly was way too excited to suspect anything. He was going out with his dad! He was feeling a lot better already since the little fiasco at school.

"Well, how about some ice cream, Broly?"

The kid mumbled something about money, but Paragus knew just the trick, and pulled a golden coin from behind Broly's ear. He gasped in excitement.

"Dad, where did you?"

"Don't worry about it!" the man answered with a big grin. "Go to that little shop, and surprise me with a good flavor. I'll wait here on this bench for you!"

Broly nodded and ran towards the ice cream parlor. 'Oh boy!' he thought, 'I can buy two scoops each! And I already know which flavors too!' There was only a small line, even though it was such a beautiful sunny day. It didn't take long for it to be his turn, and after paying he carefully ran back to the park with the two ice cream cones in his hands.

"Well, Paragus, thought you could hide, huh? You still owe us money, you scumbag!" There was a group of four big men, surrounding his father. This wasn't looking good at all.

"Dad?"

One of the men turned around to look at Broly, and everything after that went in slow motion. Paragus' fist hit the man in the jaw with a loud crack, angry shouts, one of the other men raised his hand, the deafening sound of a gunshot, and everything went dark before his eyes, as his father slowly fell to the ground. All the anger and fear inside him rose from the depths of his being, began to mix with his blood and pump through his veins.

"Daaaaad!" He screamed, while the men backed away.

It was like something took over, something that had always been there, been a part of him. A beast that had finally awakened. His body felt very light as he started floating. He how no idea how, but balls of light started to form in his hands. They felt like they had a little heartbeat. He looked down at the frightened men, his anger rose even more, and he started to throw the little balls in every direction, destroying huge parts of the city. He didn't know how he did it and he didn't care. He felt the adrenaline in his blood, and it felt great, and he started laughing darkly.

"Broly!" He felt a hand on his shoulder, but he wouldn't stop, they could never stop him! "Broly, it's me! Your father! Stop this destruction!"

He turned around and looked into a pair of frightened eyes. As quick as the rush had come over him, it disappeared. "D-dad! How? I t-thought you were g-gone." He grabbed his father in a hug and started crying. Paragus patted the sobbing boy on his back.

"There now, it's alright. Everything will be alright."