Author's Note: Gonna be without internet until Tuesday except for when I'm at the coffee shop I work at. Will try to keep this blistering pace up with this and Wizard for Arthedain but we'll see how it goes once work starts up again.

I have so many interesting things planned post-Age of Ultron that I may be breezing through the arcs leading up to it but idc bc that's where the story takes a real bend into originality.

Chapter 10: Aftermath

Gohan sat in one of the Stark, now Avengers Tower, conference rooms with Tony and Director Fury.

"So this whole alien heritage thing is inconvenient now," Fury began.

"But also an opportunity!" Tony interjected to defend his friend.

"Yes, yes, Stark. An alien defending them from different aliens could hopefully stop a xenophobic backlash I get it. He gets it, too. But we are going to need a few weeks to set the groundwork before he can appear in public again."

"That's...actually perfect," Gohan chimed in, "You see...that transformation? That giant ape form? I need, well the full moon is in two nights so I need at least two full moons to try and fix this. Give me thirty days or so."

Fury nodded to himself, "That could work...especially if you could say you had the power of a transformation that could fight the Hulk under your belt by then."

That caused the Saiyan to frown, "I always had one of those, the Super Saiyan form just has a tendency to blow out my prosthetics. And fighting the Hulk one handed is as bad as fighting him underpowered."

Though he waved the thought away, "And that doesn't matter either because Bruce is completely in control now!"

"It's still a security feature that is nice for the public to know about."

"Well I guess...so what you are fine with me flying off to the Mojave or Sahara for a month or so? We're good?"

"Well since Trunks is going to finish the school year off at the Xavier Institute I think we are," Fury started to stand up.

"The metal from the Chitauri ships might help me synthesize something better for a replacement arm, Gohan. Or at least give me an easier time synthesizing what we know will work and just can't get together right."

Tony and Gohan both knew that a synthesis of the metals and polymers used in his arc reactor in his chest and Gohan's Saiyan armor would work. They just hadn't managed to make enough of it in the correct form to allow a full prosthetic arm to be made.

"Well I hope you can have it ready when I get back! I'm going to go meditate until the full moon and then see what happens," he frowned, "Waiting for the month to pass between this one and the next one is going to be boring. I may hit a few locations in Asia that my research into possible similarities between our worlds has made me curious about."

"Oh? Such as?"

"Well there's a few temples and places that suggest low-tier ki-usage, and I am definitely interested in finding other ki-users on the planet. As well as a few myths that make me think certain locations and objects from my world may also exist here."

"Well I wish you luck," Tony held out his hand for a handshake and then pulled Gohan in for a manly back-pat as well.

Two nights later found Gohan in the middle of the Sahara Desert waiting for the moon to rise. He had extensively meditated to calm himself and strengthen his sense of self in preparation for the change.

He had had some level of control, or at least subconscious restraint, when he transformed against the Hulk after being struck by Blutz Waves from Loki's scepter. He was hopeful that that meant that as a Saiyan grew older the transformation became more controllable.

Vegeta had certainly had control of it, and other than him there had been no recorded transformations of an adult Saiyan on Earth.

As the sun fell and the moon rose Gohan braced himself. Slowly over the next dozen or so minutes the sky dimmed and the moon continued its appearance.

He felt his body tense and pulse with anticipation. The more Blutz Waves that hit his eyes the worse it got, eventually the moon was completely over the horizon and he began to feel the shift.

Desperately Gohan grasped for his sense of self, his sense of control, as an irrational and all consuming rage began to build in his mind.

He fought back the fog of that rage tooth and nail.

And eventually a giant ape sat in the middle of the desert. Breathing heavily as it put its one single hand to its pained head.

Control hurt Gohan. Control was painful. A pounding and throbbing from bottling down the rage.

And he managed to hold it, for one hour, two hours, three hours...and then as the fourth hour and midnight crossed the boredom broke his concentration on his control and the rage boiled back forth and suddenly a thirty foot tall ape was stomping and screaming across the Sahara.

Luckily the rage was not directed, and thus after an hour of this Gohan was able to wrest control back to himself without straying so far that he reached civilization.

He didn't want to think about what would happen if he wandered into a city without full control in this form.

By morning he was exhausted, he was tired and hungry and hadn't slept all night.

Thus he made a fire, killed and ate a camel he sensed alone in the distance, and then passed out until the afternoon.

Once he awoke Gohan decided it was about time to head out to his first destination. He took off his Saiyan armor, which he had worn for its ability to shift with his form, and switched out a capsule from one of the belt pouches to garb himself in a variant of his father's gi.

"Well, no time like the present," He muttered to himself as he took off into the sky.

Across the desert he flew, up and across the Nile, over a sea and another desert, through forests and mountains, and eventually over...right past where he was aiming.

He slammed to a halt in the air and then flew right back at where he had been aiming.

And flew past it again.

And again.

And again.

Eventually he grew frustrated and stopped and closed his eyes and tried to think about a solution. It was obvious to Gohan that there was some sort of protection upon the location that was preventing him from seeing and finding it. Perhaps...ah yes, that might work.

Still with eyes closed, Gohan oriented himself on where he knew the building to be and simply flew at it.

Eventually he felt his feet clip the top and opened his eyes.

And saw Kami's Lookout, but ruined and dilapidated. He grimaced, this is what he had been afraid of. A world without a Guardian. Gohan wandered through the Lookout until he found himself outside of the Room of Space and Time. Here, just like in his world, it seemed Kami had died before he had the chance to ever use it. And the door itself was busted open and broken.

"Oh no...I wonder what happened here?"

"Piccolo happened, Wanderer."

With a jolt Gohan spun around and came face to face with the djinni, Popo.

"I-Mr. Popo?"

"You appear to know me, but I know you not. However did you find this place..." He saw the tail behind him, "Saiyan."

"How...how do you know of the Saiyans?"

"Why the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, was such a being. Many millenia it has been since he finally faded from this world. A puckish champion of the downtrodden to be sure. Are you also such a warrior?"

"Uh...I'm a hero in the outside world, yes."

"Then perhaps...have you come to take up the mantle of Guardian? While the mystic arts are heavily involved, a sage using ki can learn those over time."

"Oh...oh no, I...I would not make a good Guardian. I am not truly of this timeline, I come from some alternate version of this world. While I will gladly protect it I am not sure I belong in the position of Guardian."

Popo's face turned sad, "Oh...well that explains how you found this place. One of Kami's last acts before he and Piccolo annihilated each other was to block the finding of this place from all who did not already know of it or who learned only through a special book."

"However...Mr. Popo, I owe Kami and you much from my other world. I would gladly help seek out a person to take up the mantle of Guardian. You said a mystic with also martial training right?" Gohan put his hand over his heart, "I pledge to find a suitable Guardian, and if they are not quite ready to train them."

At this the djinni's eyes went wide and the first smile in five hundred years graced his face, "Thank you, thank you so much young Saiyan! However I must ask, whatever is your name? And how did you come to be in this world from your own?"

Gohan blushed, "Oh! I am Gohan! And well...it's a rather long story..."