Bum ba-da-bum! Chapter two is here! First I just want to thank everyone for favoriting, following and reviewing the Tale of the Hybrid! Oh, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to put this in, but…
Disclaimer: I (like everyone else) DO NOT own Dragonball Z or anything pertaining to it!
enarmonios— I'm glad you liked everything I put in the last chapter! As far as the moon/great ape transformation goes, Tudadi does not in fact possess a moon. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to add it in… you'll just have to wait and see!
XxTerroKing23xX— Thanks again for another awesome review! I suspect a lot of people probably are suspecting what you're suspecting when it comes to the spaceship, but… you'll have to read the chapter! I will take your advice and take my time as well—I do want to do my very best on this story, and so I won't rush!
Lastly, I want to apologize for the large gap in-between updates. Rest assured, I will try to update more frequently!
But now that that's out of the way, I hope you enjoy the next chapter of Tale of the Hybrid!
Gohan jogged at a steady pace, not really in too much of a rush to get to the spaceship as he knew that it wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. He just hoped with all his might that whoever was in it was not an enemy, as he still wasn't very confident in his fighting skills—in all his four and a half years, not once had he truly fought or even sparred with anybody.
Suddenly Gohan slowed down his running and stopped, staring at the spaceship that was now about a hundred feet off as a thought occurred to him. If he was lacking in experience, and this was an enemy, why in the world would he be running towards it? Shouldn't he be running away from it?
"No, running away won't do me any good—if I hadn't run away from my 'uncle' then daddy would definitely be alive, and I wouldn't be in this situation. I can't run away—I'd rather die than do that again," he thought, mentally slapping himself for being so foolish.
So the hybrid continued running towards the spaceship, now prepared mentally, at least, for a fight. As he grew closer he could begin to smell the smoke that rose from where the ship's engine compartment apparently was. He could hear coughing, too—it sounded horrible and thick, like the person's lungs were filled with the black gas. Not wanting to initiate a possible imminent death, Gohan waited for the alien to emerge from the wreckage. As he waited, he suddenly saw a flash of blue and gasped as he felt something whack him in the back of his neck.
With a cry of pain, the demi-Saiyan fell to the ground, overwhelmed with blackness and silence.
Gohan looked around him, confused. How did he get into space? And why—more like how—did ne not need a spacesuit?
"HAAAAAAAAA!"
The hybrid looked to the left and just barely dodged a yellow energy beam.
"Who's there?!" he cried, terrified. He suddenly heard a laugh behind him and whirled around, startled. What he saw, however, was even more startling. Floating right there in front of him was… another him? Wait, what?
But… this Gohan was different—he was scowling furiously at him and had a flaming yellow aura around him that made the boy appear to be completely yellow, not another speck of another color existing on him. He looked thirsty for blood.
"Are you… are you me?" Gohan asked nervously. The yellow Gohan growled, baring his teeth in an animalistic way.
"FIGHT ME!" the clone screamed as he charged at Gohan.
The boy was terrified but he powered up. He didn't understand why yellow-Gohan wanted to fight, and he didn't want to either, but it seemed he had no choice. The hybrid powered up, noting the bright, royal-blue aura around him, and finished just in time to block a punch to the jaw. He frantically threw a weak punch at the yellow-Gohan's stomach, but yellow-Gohan caught his fist and started to tighten his grip on it, causing Gohan's fingers to cut deep into his hand and shattering the bones.
He screamed in pain as he started to cry, terrified.
"Please! Don't do this! There doesn't have to be violence!" he pleaded, fresh tears streaming down his face. Horror shot through his entire being as he stared at yellow-Gohan's evil glare.
"SO pathetically SOFT!" the evil counter-part hissed as he nailed Gohan hard in the side with his foot. Gohan screamed as he felt himself fly into space continuously, unable to stop himself when suddenly he felt another kick to his other side and was sent flying in the opposite direction.
Gohan continued screaming when he suddenly saw the yellow clone appear in front of him and catch him roughly by the shoulders.
"YOU'RE TOO…," yellow-Gohan cried angrily as he kneed Gohan in the stomach, causing the boy to double over in pain,
"GET STRONGER!"
Gohan felt yellow-Gohan's clasped-together fists nail the top of his head and himself falling into nowhere, screaming yet again. The hybrid boy then felt himself run into a body and began to turn around when suddenly he felt a yellow arm grasp his neck tightly and begin to constrict his airway.
"H-help… me…!" Gohan gasped.
Gohan awoke with a start, breathing heavily.
"Owwww… my head… where… where am I?" Gohan's eyes opened and he was greeted with blurry vision, unable to process his surroundings.
"Why… why do I feel... so… so weak…?"
Setting that weird dream aside for the moment, he inhaled deeply as he blinked, his vision starting to come back to him. For some reason he felt like he'd just ran three marathons in a row, low on energy and on strength. With all the energy he had, Gohan looked at the environment he was in.
The room was decently sized. The walls and floors were made of some sort of material—probably metal—that he'd never seen before, kind of like how Raditz's space pod had been made out of a foreign material as well. There was a strange object in the left corner that resembled a bed, and there was a table, a chair, and a picture of a strange creature that had feminine-like features in the other corner. On the wall in front of him, in front of a huge, rectangular window, there was a large, rather complicated control panel and a chair.
"I'm in the spaceship that crashed!" Gohan's mind screamed, causing him to raise his guard.
Suddenly there was a hissing noise, and he watched as a door on the side opened, fear shooting through him as a strange, bug-like alien appeared. The creature's exoskeleton-like skin resembled an insect's greatly, except it was colored a pale royal blue. He had odd spikes protruding from his shoulder blades, and he stood at an extremely tall height, but perhaps it was his eyes that startled Gohan the most—they were huge, perfectly round and bright red, looking like they were made of solid glass.
As soon as their gazes met the alien cursed and immediately entered a solid fighting stance.
"You're awake you little Saiyan brat!" he exclaimed.
A look of confusion passed over the boy's face.
"Saiyan...? Oh, that's what my dad and uncle are, Saiyans… he must think I'm one because of my tail... MY TAIL!" Gohan screamed internally as he glanced behind him. Sure enough, he was strung up to the wall, a scratchy rope tied way too tightly around his tail. That explained his lack of energy, as he'd had this problem before once when he'd been playing in the forest at home.
Gohan's attention snapped back to the alien.
"Please… mister, it's not… not what you think!" Boy, he didn't realize it was so hard to talk… curse his stupid tail for being so weak! Gohan watched as the alien folded his arms and spat on the ground.
"Tell me, did the others order you to follow me after you destroyed my planet?" the strange person demanded as he approached the boy. Gohan winced in fear.
"No… I don't… know… what you're… you're talking about…," he replied. The alien snorted, clearly unconvinced.
"Exactly. It's just coincidence that we happened to meet on the same damn planet, correct?" he inquired sarcastically.
"It… has to be… because I had nothing… nothing to do with those other… Saiyans…," Gohan explained. The alien stepped forwards, kneeling down to put his face up to the boy's, scaring poor Gohan to death.
"That's just what I'd expect you to say, you monster. Who sent you after me?! Huh?! Tell me!"
Gohan was unaffected by the intentionally hurtful words for some reason—perhaps it was the fact that he knew he wasn't a monster—and soon his intelligent brain began to work its wonders and theorizing, Gohan mentally thanking his mother yet again for his dreaded studies in the process.
"If I was sent to follow… you, then how did I… I get here before you?" he argued. This caused the alien to take a step back, and if his face could physically contort if would have appeared flustered.
"You have a point kid… but that doesn't mean I believe you! Enough with this petty crap, I want answers! And I'm going to start with where are we?!" he cried, startling the boy a bit. Gohan gulped, replying,
"All I know is that we're on… a planet called… Tudadi…."
The alien folded his arms and peered out the desert.
"Are there any other people living here?"
"I never tried looking because… because I was afraid that there was nothing but desert… desert out there."
Silence.
"How long have you been on this planet, kid?"
Gohan's face brightened significantly. He was starting to believe him! This was great! Fantastic! Spectacular! He was going to cry with joy, but opted to remain composed.
"A little over a month, sir." It was getting easier to talk.
The alien walked up to the control panel and started to press buttons rapidly on the massive device. Gohan watched curiously and heard the alien curse as an odd beeping sound was made, and the control panel hissed, spitting out smoke. The creature then walked over to a drawer and pulled out what appeared to be handcuffs. Gohan watched curiously as the handcuffs were secured tightly around his wrists. He untied the boy's tail, causing the hybrid to fill with relief at the release of pressure.
"The ship is pretty much dead, and I don't have the parts to repair it. I don't want to kill you just yet, so I'm taking you with me to see if there are any people out in this desert. If they're hungry monsters, then they can eat you alive instead of me!" the alien said mockingly.
Gohan inwardly screamed in horror at that thought… a whole bunch of disgusting, alien creatures ripping and pulling apart his screaming—
"You're probably thinking of bolting as soon as we get out, but I wouldn't do that. You see, those handcuffs are special. You know why? They're filled with jeta, a highly lethal poison. If you try to remove them without the key you'll be injected immediately. I wear the key around my neck, but don't try to take it—it has a button on it that I can press to inject you manually. Am I clear?" the alien explained, annoyed at the boy. Gohan didn't understand why he was annoyed but nodded, terrified. The alien nodded back in approval.
"Good. We'll be heading north—that forest nearby looks pretty desolate, and besides, if anyone were near they'd be running out here already. Alright, you brat, get going!" yelled the creature as he kicked Gohan forwards until he fell out the door. The Saiyan child landed with a thud on his knees and quickly stood, his energy having been restored quickly, and began to follow the alien as they began their northward trek.
"So… I'm Gohan. What's your name?" Gohan inquired after a few painfully silent minutes. The person walking next to him grunted.
"The name's Alto. Now shut up." he replied.
Gohan flopped down on his back with a heavy sigh. The first day had proven to be very exhausting. They walked all day, and Gohan felt like his feet were going to bleed or blister or something really painful like that. His shoes had been made for walking but they were well worn, and after a month he had grown just enough that they were just the slightest bit too small, almost like some cruel torture method.
The boy had tried to make conversation with Alto, but he quickly figured out his captor was not the talkative type. He didn't push for conversation too much either because he was shy himself. So he had occupied himself with thoughts of home.
"If mom and daddy are still alive, then they're probably worried sick for me. But I'm beginning to think that they're really dead… which means I'm an orphan and I have no home." The hybrid fought tears madly as they had walked, not wanting to annoy his captor any further, and tried not to think about it. These internal efforts passed the time rather quickly, and it seemed like minutes had passed when he noticed the two suns had set completely and he watched Alto light a small fire. Gohan had laid down by it and licked his lips.
"Do you… have any water?" he asked nervously. Alto glanced at the boy and pulled something out of his pocket. It was a small, silver remote that had a big yellow button on it. Gohan watched curiously as Alto picked up a large rock nearby, pointed the remote at it, and pressed the button.
A bright glow encased the rock and as soon as it faded, Gohan was surprised. The rock was now a tall glass of ice cold water!
"Wow! How did you do that?" Gohan asked, sitting up. Alto frowned.
"Are you stupid? Everybody knows that a Re-Former rearranges the molecules in something to create something new," he sneered as he handed the glass to the boy. Gohan frowned, a bit hurt, but gulped the glass down in record time. Setting it down, he felt the need to ask a very important question.
"Um… Alto? How come the other Saiyans… destroyed your planet?"
Alto looked up from his staring contest with the fire, and Gohan although not even his mouth moved in the slightest bit the boy could tell he was surprised by this question. He folded his arms and took a deep breath.
"You ruthless monsters had no reason to destroy it, kid. That's what you do—you kill pointlessly," he responded. Gohan shifted his weight a little, biting his lip.
"So um… what was your home planet like… what was it called?" he inquired nervously. He didn't want to upset Alto, but he was curious. The alien's voice was filled with sorrow and longing as he spoke hesitantly, and Gohan absorbed every word.
"My home planet… was called Arlia. Arlia was the most beautiful planet in the universe—I remember going for long, wonderful rides through the desert on my giant worm Yumo with the rest of my people. That truly was my favorite thing to do. Everyone on Arlia was nice, I loved them all as my own kin. We were happy, peaceful and prospering, despite our rule under that awful king Moai—that is, until your Saiyan friends showed up. At first my people put them in prison, but those… monsters escaped and they killed the evil dictator we hated so much. Everybody was rejoicing, happy, and my brother Atla had finally gotten his wife back, but I had my suspicions…
"Brother, I'm going to go see Lemlia. Come join us in our celebrations!" Atla cried as he ran up to Alto. Alto looked at his brother and laughed, although it was an empty laugh. He too was happy that that awful Moai was dead, but something didn't seem right. He could sense it, something inside him warning him of something bad that was going to happen. He was too cautious of a person to ignore it.
"I will be celebrating with you in a minute, but first I have something to take care of," he replied. Alto's brother waved and turned around, running away as he yelled,
"Okay! Don't take too long, brother—the festivities will be glorious!"
Alto waved back and watched as Atla disappeared out of sight. He then sighed and walked off, heading for the planet's spaceship hangar. After fifteen minutes, he arrived.
The Arlian hangar was very different from an earth hangar—instead of a building, it was a large, empty field surrounded by a stone fence, and it held plenty of identical ships, each one labeled with a different symbol in the Arlian language.
Alto walked up to the spaceship marked as his and opened the door, approaching the control panel and turning it on. He had the ship running and was planning to use it as an emergency escape-route in case the aliens returned. He was about head back to the festivities when suddenly he looked out the window and saw a bright energy beam heading straight for the planet.
"Oh no!" Alto cried, running to the door. He hopped out of the spaceship and began to run to his brother, to save him—but as he looked back into the sky, he noticed that the beam was close. Too close.
"It takes me fifteen minutes just to get to my brother… there's not enough time… dammit!" he said to himself as he stopped his running. What should he do? He didn't want to die, but he didn't want to watch his brother die either…
"If I stay alive I can keep the Arlian race alive… to honor my brother, Lemlia, and everyone else. Yes… this must be done," he said as he turned around, hopping back into the spaceship. Frantically, he closed the door and typed madly on the control panel, pressing buttons and occasionally glancing up at the sky. The beam was getting closer by the minute—it was already too close for comfort. He knew he had a slim chance of getting out of there, but he was going to try. He had to.
The beam was closer…
It was almost there…
"Launching in 3… 2… 1…,"
Alto sighed in relief as he felt the spaceship lift off the ground, and he quickly steered it away from the blast and into the starry sky. He made it! He was alive!
But, his survival had a price.
Alto turned back to watch in horror as his beloved planet, his home, and all his loved ones exploded in a bright blast of light blue. If he could cry he would have been sobbing, but instead he felt nothing but a deep pain inside his heart. It hurt more than death itself, he quickly deduced.
"But I'm doing this for you, Atla… and you as well, Lemlia. I'm doing this for all of you. For the sake of Arlia, and the Arlian race, I will keep going, and will one day deliver justice to those Saiyans. I promise you, Arlia, my people, I will avenge you. Farewell forever, my friends…,"
There was a bitter silence as he stared at the space where Arlia used to float.
"I vowed right then and there to kill those worthless Saiyans, one day. But I don't see that happening, as that was two days ago, and I crash landed here. Who knows where those Saiyans are headed for now."
Gohan stood, staring at the ground with angry tears in his eyes and balled up his fists.
"Those Saiyans deserve to die. Your planet shouldn't have been destroyed," he said quietly. There was silence for a few minutes when suddenly Gohan yawned and fell on his back, staring at the stars as he said goodnight to his alien captor.
Sleep soon fell upon the hybrid Saiyan, and he was thrust into a world of dreams. Little did he know that as he slept Alto was watching him with curiosity. The truth was that the alien was surprised at the boy's words—he never knew a Saiyan to condemn others of his kind for killing before.
"Could there possibly be more to you than meets the eye?" Alto wondered as he too drifted off into a light sleep.
When Gohan awoke at first he was confused at the bindings on his hands—than heavens he didn't try to remove them before he remembered why they were there. He sat up and yawned loudly, looking around at the desert. Alto was nowhere to be found, and that worried him a lot. He didn't want to be lost in this desert alone, and his captor also held the key to his handcuffs! His mind was drifted completely, however, as he noticed the large display in front of him. His mouth drooled and a grin spread over his face.
Right in front of him was a huge feast of foods that were strange in appearance. They looked odd, sure, but Gohan didn't care—he hadn't gotten to eat anything yesterday, and he was too afraid to ask his alien captor for food. He silently thanked the stars for the Re-Former that he figured Alto had used to make the food and dug in like a starving animal.
"Aren't you done yet?" Alto asked angrily as he approached the camp minutes later. Gohan looked up with a full mouth and swallowed hard, wiping his mouth with his arm.
"Where did you go?"
"I went scouting twenty miles east, then came back and went scouting twenty miles west. There were no people—we're going to have to keep heading north," Alto replied. The half-Saiyan nodded, gulping down one last glass of water before he stood.
"We can go right away if you want—I'm ready now."
Alto nodded in approval and the two unlikely acquaintances began another day-long trek into nothingness.
"Can we please take a break?" Gohan whined. He was hot, tired, thirsty, and bored, and this caused his inner child to be brought out. He flinched as Alto unsheathed his sword.
"If you ask me again I will mercilessly slice off your head!"
"Hey! No fair, you can't use false threats!"
"False threats?! Why the hell do you think I wouldn't kill you?!"
"B-because… you're not like them. The Saiyans. Right…?"
Alto paused in his walking and stared at the hybrid boy who kept walking. Once Gohan realized his captor had stopped, he paused as well.
"What's the matter? Ooh, are we taking a break?" the boy asked excitedly. Alto sighed and folded his arms. He was getting irritated, but the boy had been patient so far… he guessed.
"Fine. But only for one thousand trolias!"
"What's a trolia?"
"Well, a thousand trolias is the equivalent to half a universal hour. I didn't know you were stupid."
"I'm not stupid!"
Gohan sat down with his legs crossed and his arms folded, sticking his tongue out.
"What the hell are you doing, brat?" Alto asked angrily. If this was some kind of weird witchcraft or something… he watched as Gohan put his tongue back in his mouth and gnawed on it.
"It's an earth thing. You wouldn't understand," he replied angrily. Alto huffed as he stood there, putting his sword away contemplating on leaving the boy here, when suddenly the very brat he was thinking about cried out,
"Hey! What's that on the horizon?"
He snapped out of his thoughts and glanced in the direction the boy was pointing and noticed that there was indeed something on the horizon. It was a thin line of black, stretching miles-wide on the horizon. Suddenly he heard Gohan cry out,
"Hey, there's something over there too!"
Alto's head whipped around to see another thin line along the horizon in the opposite direction. A faint marching noise could be heard by Gohan's Saiyan ears, and Alto could feel the synchronized thumps through the ground.
"What in the world are those?!" the Arlian cried.
"I think… I think they're people…," Gohan replied nervously, gulping. Fear grew in Alto's chest as the hybrid's words sunk in.
"You mean like army formations?"
"That's… exactly what I mean."
Aaaaannnd… cut! That's the end of that chapter, so I hope you liked it! Were you expecting the alien to be an Arlian? I was hoping to surprise you there! Also, I want to know if the fight scene between Gohan and yellow-Gohan was clear, as it was hard to distinguish the separate actions of two people with the same name.
What is going on? Are there really two armies marching right towards Alto and Gohan? And are they looking to fight the two foreigners, or is it something bigger? You'll have to find out in the next chapter of Tale of the Hybrid!
See you then!
