Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball / Dragonball Z / Dragonball GT.
Happy reading!
"You fly it fast, and get back safe, okay?" said Goten before sending his brother on his quest. He then flashed him the thumbs up.
"Yeah. You too," replied Gohan.
With that, he propelled himself to the sky. There were some people who weren't pleased at all with this turn of events, though. "Hold it, you!" exclaimed the red-skinned mutant who was more human-like in appearance than his partner. They then planned to blast off onto the sky, intent on stopping the runaway kid, but before they could even think of flying away, with blinding speed—much to the blue fish-man's envy—Trunks and Goten suddenly phased into being right in front of them and stopped them from going anywhere.
"Ah-ah-ah. Not so fast," Trunks waved his index finger left and right like a metronome and spoke in a very condescending tone, "You think you can just gang up against one opponent? That's against the rules."
"Yeah, that's not fair! Fight us one by one!" Goten joined his friend in taunting their opponents while pumping his fist in excitement. The desire to fight had almost overridden his rational thinking he forgot his no-jumping-into-action-recklessly policy.
The fish-man was starting to grow vexed for being relentlessly mocked by common strangers. First he was hit smack dab in the face by their confounding speed, and now they were verbally assaulted? He wouldn't want to find out what was next. "You are just fools… do you really think you stand a chance against us? Hey, Jeice!" he then turned to his white-haired partner, "What are these two's power levels?"
"Their power levels are barely fifteen hundred, Burter, not even five percent of ours! They're just little pieces of trash!" replied the one called Jeice with a heavily accented voice, "Heh heh… brat, you just lucked out against Recoome. You won't stand a chance against us!"
"That's a scouter, huh? I'm warning you, there's more than meets the eye," Trunks grinned smugly.
"If fifteen hundred is not even five percent, then yours is at least… mmm… times twenty…" the younger hybrid did a quick mental calculation. After finding the solution which was clearly over the most interesting number known to man, he turned to his partner and gave him a cue with a roguish glimmer in his eyes. "Hey Trunks, what does your scouter say about his power level?"
Trunks was quick to catch Goten's flow. "It's over nine thousaaaand! Rahhh!" he replied dramatically, making a crushing gesture with his hand.
"What, nine thousand? That's impossible! That piece of junk must be broken!"
"Yeah, just like us. We're way too overpowered for these guys."
The hybrids couldn't resist succumbing to a fit of insane laughter at their little theatrical performance. From a distance, Vegeta was watching them laughing in glee, and thanks to his Saiyan hearing he was aware of what they had been talking about. How could they have known about that embarrassing moment leading to his loss to a mere third-class clown? As far as he could remember, the only ones alive at that point of time had been himself, Nappa, Kakarot, Gohan, and Krillin. Something was off about these strangers, alright, but for now he would just stand back and entertain his sadistic side by watching Burter and Jeice pummel them to kingdom come. But who knows, seeing what they had done to Recoome, the boys might be able to manage to land some hits to weaken them enough. At any rate, he would be the one to deal the finishing blow—or so he thought.
"Will you stop that, little rats? No one, and I mean no single soul, makes fun of the mighty Ginyu Force!" Jeice was steaming red with anger, although it wasn't exactly easy to tell since his face was already red in the first place.
"Trunks, what's a Cow Milk Force?"
There was really no telling whether Goten really confused the two words or he was doing it in purpose to annoy his opponent. Whatever it was, it proved to be the final straw; unable to take further insults, Burter burst out in indignation. "That's Ginyu, not gyuunyuu! Enough of this, now get ready!"
"Yeah, we're ready. Why don't YOU get ready?" Trunks grinned mockingly.
Not needing to be told twice, Burter first hissed, pulled off complicated moves reminiscent of capoeira, and finally stood on one foot with his hands fully outstretched to the side. "Feel the wrath of the Blue Hurricane! Burter!"
Jeice then joined his partner in the fighting pose. He bent forward and let his mess of white hair cover his face, flexed his right knee, and raised his right hand high up in the air. "And the good-looking Red Magma! I'm Jeice!"
Having always been a sucker for superhero entries, Goten jumped up and down in childish glee, all while repeatedly screaming the words "cool" and its synonyms. His fascination with such flashy stuffs could be credited to Gohan who had introduced him to several action superheroes in TV shows during his childhood, and sometimes he would execute strange poses in front of the mirror in his bedroom when alone in the house. Goku once caught him doing this—complete with oversized helmet and cape usually donned by Gohan whenever he needed to assume his other persona—and laughed his heart out in genuine amusement; Goten wasn't exactly pleased with his father's reaction and would impose an embargo on every kind of communication with him for the rest of the day before being bribed with a fridge's worth of food.
"Uh… Goten," Trunks poked at Goten's shoulder in an attempt to bring him back to reality, "Even the Great Saiyaman is not as lame as them…"
"Hey! Don't talk bad about my brother!"
"Yeah, yeah. I bet he got his outfit from a gas station—ow!"
Courtesy of his loudmouth, Trunks received a weak energy blast on the back his head from his friend who was less than amused. "For the record, your mom made that outfit for him. So you're saying your house is a gas station?" he retorted. It was intended to be sarcastically intimidating but he blew it; he couldn't contain his giggle at the thought of Trunks sleeping by a gas pump.
"Hey, I was just kidding… whydcha always take things seriously? You could've burned my hair…" he said while rubbing the now warm area of his skull, "Oh well, whatever… let's just get down to business. There are two ways of doing this: the quick way, or the fun way. Which one do you prefer?"
"The fun way. We need to buy time for Gohan, remember?"
"The fun way it is, then."
And so both tag teams dashed toward each other, commencing a battle whose result had been determined long before it began. Judging from how Trunks and Goten effortlessly dodged and blocked every blow thrown by Burter and Jeice, one didn't have to be a genius to notice how heavily skewed toward the two Saiyan youngsters the battle was. They weren't even fighting in five percent of their full power, a total irony to Jeice's statement earlier. Even the mutants' signature move, Purple Comet, couldn't even singe their clothes; they retaliated with an impromptu attack tailored to satirise the failed team attack which they dubbed Dark Magenta Meteorite—the first two words being the combination of their hair colours and the third one a literally more impactful space object than a lowly comet.
Vegeta watched the fight in total bewilderment. If they could stand their ground against members of the Ginyu Force whose power levels averaged forty thousand, how much power did they really possess in those immature minds and body of theirs? At this rate he wouldn't even get a chance to fight, but what would he be fighting for anyway? His pride? It had almost been shattered to tiny morsels—he wouldn't admit it in his life, of course—after seeing them in action.
The boys were clearly out of his league, and yet they seemed to be still toying around with Burter and Jeice—"Gee, if you call yourself a speed demon, I must be a speed god. Wawawaah! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you! Why so blue?"—and were actually deriving fun from their opponents' helplessness. Even Vegeta didn't need a scouter to tell they had been hiding their power levels. How could they have possessed such incredible fighting skill? 'They can't possibly be… Saiyans, can they?' he asked himself, but was quickly corrected by his own mind, 'No, that's impossible… I don't see their tails. And a Saiyan's hair is either black or brown, not some sick-looking colour like that of one of them!'
Finally realising fate hadn't wanted them to win this battle, Jeice resorted to his final recourse: distress call. He could only hope his commander could manage to arrive before they meet their ends in the hands of bratty children. "C-captain Ginyu! W-we have… a situation here!" he said through his scouter.
"Not fair! You're calling for help!" Goten pumped his fist in protest.
"Heh! Life's unfair, kid, deal with it! He's on his way already!" Burter countered, "Too bad Lord Frieza is off somewhere. If he were, he would surely come along and vaporise you himself!"
Did he hear it right? They asked Ginyu—who was supposed to guard the Dragon Balls back in Frieza's spaceship—to come to their aid, and Frieza wasn't with him? Vegeta assembled together the pieces of puzzle in his mind and quickly concluded that the stash would only be guarded by small fries which he could very easily dispose of with only a flick of his pinkie if he so wanted. Never mind the kids he had no business with, let them have their way. Ultimate strength was now within his grasp and there was no stopping him from taking off toward the abandoned spaceship.
But poor him. It was a shame he flew away without knowing the special conditions of having his wish granted; he was too busy marvelling at how the senzu bean had worked wonders when Gohan was briefed about the requirements to summon the Eternal Dragon. From the beginning he hadn't been slated to be the strongest warrior in the universe.
Vegeta's sudden departure distracted Trunks and Goten and they were left wondering what he was up to. Seeing this, the two Ginyu underlings attempted to seize the opportunity to blast off to the sky and escape with their dear lives…
… except that the two playful demons weren't about to let them. Quick as a flash, they again materialised in front of them, à la Instant Transmission, triggering a spark of jealous rage deep down inside the blue mutant. There, in the air, stood Trunks, smirking in a Vegeta-ish style, and Goten, staring nonchalantly.
"Hey! Let's fight some more!"
"Looks like they're tired of playing. Well then, let's finish this, Goten."
Burter and Jeice's implored for mercy but their effort was in vain. The best friends then proceeded to bombard the helpless mutants with a somewhat overpowered salvo of countless energy blasts, creating explosions and sending dust and pieces of rock flying to all directions. The force was even felt by Gohan who was at least a quarter of a planet away from Trunks and Goten by now.
When the debris finally cleared from the air, the raven-haired boy was greatly in shock upon seeing his adversaries crash onto the ground. Horror daubed across his face, he landed by the remains and secretly hoped they were at least still breathing, but no. He poked the bodies with his finger to get any response, but no. He threw pieces of rock to see if they would react, but no. They were in every sense dead.
Trunks, finding his friend's antics amusing, hovered in the air just beside him. "What are you doing?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.
"Uh, are they… dead, Trunks?"
"Whydcha even ask? Of course they are! They should've returned to dust and scattered to the wind."
Convinced by Trunks's statement, Goten started freaking out. "Waaah! No! We overdid it!"
"Wh-what… do you mean, Goten?"
"I didn't think the blast would be that strong! I don't wanna go to hell for killing people! What if there are ghosts and scary monsters down there? I'm scared! I don't like monsters! You'll be coming with me, right? Because you also killed them! I don't wanna—"
"Shut it, you dummy!" Trunks interjected in exasperation at his younger counterpart's sometimes insufferable seven-year-old naïveté despite almost being a teenager, "Remember what Gohan told us? 'It is not a sin to fight for the good cause,' he said. Plus, when he was our age, he'd killed more people than us combined! And heck, you've killed Broly before, so deal with it!"
That was all it took to assuage Goten. He remembered that time when he went to a remote village in the mountains with Trunks and Videl to search for Dragon Balls only to encounter the Super Saiyan who kept referring to him as Kakarot—at that time the word was a stranger to him; he thought it was some kind of a vegetable, but now he knew it was his father's Saiyan name. Broly turned out to be too strong for them to handle, and with Trunks knocked out Goten had no choice but to shoot a Kamehameha wave toward him alongside his brother. With the help of their father's spirit, they managed to blast Broly all the way to—scratch that, THROUGH—the sun, essentially killing him. How the sun still managed to shine remained a mystery to everyone.
"Oh yeah, hehehe… I remember now. So I guess it's okay, huh, Trunks?" he grinned that famous sheepish smile exclusive to his family.
"I swear, you're such a toddler sometimes," the brighter of the two sweatdropped, "Now c'mon! Let's just catch up with Gohan."
Goten nodded, and into the distance they blasted off to join the little warrior.
Gohan pressed the power switch of the gadget on his hand. It turned on, and on its green display seven dots could be seen blinking, indicating the location of the Dragon Balls relative to his current position. It was such a marvel, he thought, how Bulma managed to come up with the idea of a Dragon Ball locator like this, since it conveniently reduced their efforts of finding the balls by a lot. When he grew up, he'd like so much to be a great scholar so he could contribute to the world as much as—if not more than—Bulma had.
To his delight, all seven dots on the radar were clumped together, meaning all the Dragon Balls had already been collected. The only thing he needed to do now was fetch Dende to summon the Eternal Dragon out of them. Finally, after a long period of wait, his mentor, who was also his first and true friend, could be wished back to life.
Gohan couldn't help but shed a tear upon remembering the days following his father's death when Piccolo took him under his wing to train him in preparation for the Saiyans' attack. During that long, gruelling year, he had developed a bond with his mentor. He always knew deep down inside, although he seemed harsh to him, Piccolo had also experienced a change of heart thanks to Gohan's bright and cheerful nature. He would hide it from him, of course, but it was finally brought to the light of day when he made his noble sacrifice to save him from Nappa. Now, in honour of him, Gohan took it under his responsibility to bring him back to the land of the living.
Having been lost in memories of the past, he didn't realise he had overshot Guru's abode by quite a distance, so he backtracked and carefully made his landing on a high-rise rock pinnacle where a white hut stood majestically. He first made sure nothing was off before asking for permission to enter the abode, which he was granted. Nail came and greeted him, asked him what his re-visit was for, and—after a quick explanation from Gohan—took him upstairs to see Guru. Just like his previous drop-in, the wise elder read his mind and was surprised upon learning about earthlings who possessed prior knowledge about the conditions to summon Namekian Dragon.
"I see…" said Guru with a voice laden with gentle authority, "I know nothing of these youngsters or where they have learned about our Dragon Balls, little one, but they are most correct."
"So, does this mean I can take Dende with me?" asked Gohan.
"Certainly, if you want to have that wish of yours granted, you will need to. Do you know where the balls are?"
"Yes… it seems they have been gathered together in one place."
"Ah, most convenient. Well then, Dende…" the grand elder then turned to his youngest offspring, "My son, come here for a second."
Dende complied and stood before Guru who placed his hand on his head. A yellow light engulfed the kid Namekian as his latent power was awakened. "I have unlocked the potential hidden deep within you. You can now use that power to heal your friends," explained Guru, "Now go… I'm afraid someone with evil intentions is heading right this way."
Gohan was shocked at this revelation. Who could it be, and what could he possibly want here? However, being a smart kid he was, he quickly found the answer for his latter question: none other than a wish making-related affair. That would mean it was someone with Dragon Balls in his possession. Could it be that purple-skinned alien called Captain Ginyu? Or could it be Vegeta, since he had been itching to be the universe's strongest? There was only one way to find out; he carefully extended his energy to identify the owner of the energy signal. When he did find out, though, he became visibly distraught and stood still in horror.
"What is it, Gohan?"
"Dende, I… I've never felt so much power before…" the young hybrid stuttered, "I've never seen him before, but this is… Frieza. I'm positive. His power level is just… ridiculous. He's coming here, and fast…"
Hearing this, Dende too joined Gohan in his fear. Not only for his safety, mind you, but for Guru's as well. The wise elder would rather die than reveal the secrets to unlocking the Dragon Balls' wish-granting power to such an evil being, and if by any chance he passed away before they could even reach the place where the balls were, Gohan's efforts of coming all the way here would be in vain. To wage a race against time to the balls and do it as quickly as possible was the most sensible thing to do, but he wasn't at all fond of the idea of leaving his elder unattended in times of danger like this.
Sensing his young's emotional turmoil, Guru attempted to console him. "Don't worry about me. Nail is here to protect me, and hopefully he will be able to buy you some time. You need to go, and promise me… that you will aid Gohan in his mission."
"The elder's right, brother," the warrior Namekian asserted, "I'll keep watch over here. I won't let anyone hurt him, even if it costs me my own life."
"Nail… I…" Dende hesitated for a while before Gohan put his hand on his shoulder, giving him strength and affirmation, "Okay, then. Gohan, let's go. We don't have much time. And elder…" he then turned to Guru, "Thank you for everything. Please, stay strong."
"Elder Guru, thanks for your help," Gohan politely expressed his gratitude, "And Nail, I dunno what to say, but… good luck."
"Thanks, Gohan. You're a very nice boy, it's been great knowing you. Now go before Frieza arrives. I'll stall him for you as long as I can."
The Piccolo look-alike took Gohan and Dende downstairs and wished them luck. Before they departed, he proposed that they take a detour to avoid being detected by the space emperor, a suggestion which was met with the kids' approval. After bidding what was probably a final farewell to his brother and watching them blast away into the distance, Nail then stood bravely on the front porch of Guru's abode and prepared himself for the battle of a lifetime: a battle where his victory existed only in the realm of dreams.
Post-note: As with many names in the original series, Ginyu is a pun. In this case, it is derived from gyuunyuu, which literally translates into cow milk.