A/N: My beta-reader has fallen seriously behind. As such this chapter hasn't been proofread by anyone but me so expect typos.
Chapter Twenty-one - The One Within
Gero sighed as he stared at the monitor before him. All the data from Gohan's last round of tests was displayed on this screen and three others around him. He was looking for something, anything, that could tell him what was occuring within the boy's body. He could see the shifting genetic information well enough. Gohan's DNA had, indeed, changed noticeably since his first round of tests. However, none of the changes really seemed to do much of anything. They all seemed fairly general and basic, nothing overly specific, but...
"Hmmm, now... what do we have here..." Gero wondered, bringing up a section of the DNA the computer had highlighted. Reading the line over his computer enhanced brain compiled the genetic code and created a model of it in his head. In a matter of moments he was looking at exactly what the piece of information would allow and comparing it with the existing data. "Oh, now that is interesting indeed." he said, leaning back in his chair.
Standing up he moved out of the room he was in and down one of the halls. He passed up a couple of doors before reaching the area he was going to. The door swished open as he approached and he entered the lab. There were a few members of his staff milling about doing things at various terminals but he ignored them and moved further into the lab. Passing by some terminals he pressed a few buttons on them and a door marked 'Restricted - No Entry' slid open to allow him through.
Stepping into the room he gazed at the woman incased in glass before him. The green fluid sloshed and bubbled around her as the automated systems ejected the day old solution and filled the tank with fresh fluids. Her blue skin glistened brightly as the tank emptied completely, the remains of the green solution running down over her nude form. Without the green fluids in the way to distort the colors of her body her blue skin and the red stripes stood out vibrantly. As did her purple hair which lay matted to her head and body.
Even with the wires and tubes running from her body she was certainly a beautiful sight. No one could deny that. "To think... this entire process started simply because I wanted to save you from the death that was coming." Gero said softly as the tank refiled. "We've gone well beyond curing you of that problem though, haven't we? Yes... you are my ultimate creation, the full power of Humanity pulled to the surface. With luck, that means your power will be comparable to that of Cell's." he shook his head then to snap out of his musings. He had come here for a purpose.
Moving over to one of the terminals he typed rappidly and pulled up the data he wanted. There it stood, the DNA strand compound he'd created to allow for genetic modification. The basic design had changed little over the years, though there was some varriation between the current model and the original. Still, in the end, it was basicly the same thing. And what he was looking at now was basicly what he'd found within Gohan as well. "So, my thoughts are confirmed, then." he mused, pursing his lips.
"It would seem something has been altering the base level of Master Gohan's DNA in order to enable and allow a sudden mutation of some type." He punched in a few commands and the genetic information for Gohan came up and mapped out in comparison with that of his own works. He decided to single out those most similar to Gohan in original genetic information, which meant Tenshi, Mitsuki, Cell, and a couple of early failed tests. Going over what he saw brought him to a few conclusions but also gave him new questions.
The form and construct was vastly differnent between what was occuring within Gohan and what he'd done for his subjects. His designs allowed for quick and fluid mutations via the induction of new material. It would combine the added information with the existing information. This construct within Gohan wasn't quite as subtle, as smooth, or as well formed. It would allow for quick bursts of alterations to direct genetic squences but with forceful backwash and extensive rejection upon initiation.
"That would explain his attacks." Gero said, reading over the data. "Each attack is a shifting of his genetic information." He pushed a few more buttons and shifted the screen to some other data. "Yes, I see." he said after a moment. "These two strands here, they were the beginning of the process. But how would they have been inserted originally?" Quickly he moved through his data files on Gohan's genetic information. He had everything going back to when the Master had only been five. And in each file the strands were present.
"Hmm, so, before my records then. Or, perhaps, from the beginning? Is it possible? Could the information have been inserted into Master Kakkarotto somehow with the intent of being passed on to his offspring?" Gero blinked. This called for further examination. Master Goten had never displayed this issue like Gohan had done. Nor had Mistress Pan. But he didn't have any current genetic information on them, their files were more than a year old now.
Kakkarotto would be fun to get a sample from. Him and his asinine fear of needles would require several hours of work to get a blood sample. He'd need to exhume Master Goten's remains from the burial grounds... Mistress Chi-Chi wouldn't like that too much. He didn't think Kakkarotto or Gohan would like it much either, but it had to be done. And he'd need to get a sample from Pan as well, but with her so far away now... "I'll have to have someone there do the extraction and send me the information afterwards."
"Dr. Gero?" a female voice asked a bit suprised. Gero turned from the read-out to look behind him and saw Videl entering the lab area, a large box of papers in her arms. She sat the box down on one of the console tables and took a couple of steps his way. "I didn't expect to see you here now."
"I decided to get some work done." he said. "I see no reason to stop and wait for the outcome of the battle. If they win then things go on as they have. If they don't then they don't."
Videl nodded. "I'm just here to keep my mind busy. I was going to transfer these old documents over to digital format but that's boring as hell. If you've got anything you need help with..."
Gero rubbed his chin in thought for a moment. "Actually, there is something you could do for me. Though I doubt it'll be as much fun as the paper work. I need someone to tell Mistress Chi-Chi that I need to get a DNA sample from Master Goten."
Videl was silent for a long moment. Gero was right, the paper work was suddenly looking very entertaining. As she opened her mouth to speak a series of beeps sounded and their attentions shifted to the monitor they'd come from. Gohan's power level was now being displayed. That wasn't a good sign to either one of them. It meant that not only had he dropped down to the first level but he'd lost a good ammount of power.
And then the number, which had been declining steadily, plunged even lower. Gohan had just fallen to his base level. The two were so focused on the numbers and their implications that neither one noticed the activity within the tank. Tenshi stirred and shifted slightly. Her eyes opened a tiny ammount for a second and then closed again. And then all was still within the tank once more, no signs of her momentary activity remained.
Suddenly the machines began beeping again, wildly, as they detected the sudden shift occuring deep in space. The flashing ERROR reading for Kakkarotto's energy signal vanished and was replaced with a flashing question mark. "What the hell?" Videl wondered. "How could it lose track of Master Kakkarotto?"
Gero moved over to the machine and checked the readings on one of the display screens. "It didn't. It's confused by the input. Master Kakkarotto's wave form pattern has shifted apparently... That means..."
"Another transformation..."
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Cold and Inferna's ships were still several hours away from the edge of the Eye of Universe, the center of the universe. It wasn't exactly an eventful place, just the empty void of space, but it was a marker on their journy. The half way point, so to speak, on the trip. The journey was progressing at a much faster pace than Cold had anticipated. But the Valkano, Inferna's people, were highly adept at understanding the most complex of sciences. They had managed to devise a means of generating what was normally a naturally occuring phenomenon in space. Wormholes.
It wasn't possible to just open up one of these wormholes anywhere they chose to. Something to do with the density of space or something. As well as gravitational forces. But they had managed to generate one so far that had allowed them to cross the entire expanse of the North Galaxy in only an hour's time, instead of a month. Cold hoped they'd be able to create one or two to cross the Eye as well. He wasn't looking forward to spending five months in the middle of litterally nothing.
Currently, however, his interests weren't directed toward anything work related. He was, as he had been doing often over the last three weeks, having dinner with Inferna. It had been shortly after their meal had started that they had felt the battle beginning between Master Kakkarotto and the Buu creature. The woman had still been trying to grasp the ammount of power posessed by Kakkarotto and his son when the elder Sai-jin's power had shot through the roof to an even greater level.
"My word..." Cold said, setting down his fork as he focused. "That is most impressive indeed. So then, the fourth level of Super Sai-jin truly does exist. I'd thought Master Kakkarotto was mistaken but apparently not. The pattern is broken though, I see."
"Pattern?" Inferna asked.
Cold nodded. "The first form of Super Sai-jin is fifty times more powerful than their base form. The second and third forms are as powerful as their first. The second form is twice the power of the first and the third is three times the power of the first."
Inferna nodded. "I see what you mean. The the second and third merely add on the ammount of power generated by the first form to their current power. So the third form is 150 times the power of their base. This strength I'm feeling is certainly stronger than 200 times his base though."
"Indeed. More like two hundred and twenty or so, if I'm not mistaken. Which makes the power yeild greater than the previous two forms."
"I don't... believe it." Inferna said slowly as she felt Buu's power climb up rappidly and match that of the other Master."
"Well, nothing we can do from here." Cold said at last. He turned his focus back to the food on his plate. "May as well just enjoy dinner. Now that their powers are that close it is impossible for Master Kakkarotto to lose. He never has, you know. So, as I was saying before we got distracted, I have noticed some striking similarites between our peoples. Our cultures are more alike with each other's than with any of the other races in the North galaxy. Not to mention our old languages and physical similarities."
Inferna nodded deciding that not focusing on the battle would be a good idea for now. "Yes, I've noticed that as well. In fact, based on the genetic records I've seen, you have the most similar genetic structure to me as any race we've ever encountered. I do find that a little odd, since we're seperated by the expanse of the entire univerese."
"Now, perhaps. But maybe it hasn't always been so."
Inferna took a bite of her food and gazed at Cold as she chewed, thinking. A moment later she swallowed and spoke again. "How so?"
"I was looking into your histories earlier and found that they don't go back more than ten thousand years. Something about a cataclysm wiping out all previous records?"
She nodded. "A planetary core disruption generated a massive electro-magnetic pulse that fried every computer on the planet and in orbit. The natural disasters that came along with the disruption, quakes, super storms, etc, disrupted life on the planet for nearly a decade. The whole thing set back our technological advancement more than eight hundred years. We lost a lot of our knowledge and had to pretty much re-learn it all again. Hell, we were living in straw huts until just about six hundred years ago."
"Right." Cold said. "And I also read that your people have been searching for their heritage, their history. And while you've found some things dating back as far as twelve thousand years ago you've not found anything else. And your own genetic files of the life forms on your world show that your people are vastly different than them. I noticed that several of your minds believe that you came from a different world originally."
"There are those who think that." Inferna said after a moment. "I don't personally see it as plausible though. Our ancestors were advanced prior to the cataclysm, sure, but we're more advanced now than they were then. We didn't find any remanents of space travel technology anywhere on the planet."
"What if... that's because they gave it up?" Cold asked. "Your records say that a lot of the drive your people have for technological advancement stems from the cataclysm. You wanted to make up for lost time, reclaim your lost technologies, and then become even better. It is possible that, prior to that event, your people had the opposite mind set. Perhaps deciding they wished to remain where they were, isolate themselves from the other races..."
Inferna furrowed her brow. "That is possible I suppose, but it sounds to me like a lot of what-ifs and grabbing at straws. Why put so much thought into this, anyway?"
"A long time ago we Changelings didn't live on the world we do now." Cold explained. "We lived... elsewhere. Records don't say where, exactly. They merely call it The World of Origin. The only records we have of that world, and the reason we left it, is a single computer log that we managed to salvage from an old ship we found burried a few hundred feet below ground, thanks to the effects of time. The log says that our world was dying, centuries of high-speed technological advancement without any thougths toward the effects on the ecosystem had ruined the air, destroyed the ozone, poluted the water, and killed most of the plant and animal life.
"It says that a meeting of the races was held, that three different Changeling races inhabited our old world. The meeting was to decide what to do. Saving the world wasn't possible and each of the three races had a different view on what we should do. One race, my race, decided to leave the World of Origin for another planet where we would continue on as we had been. But with more consideration to the effects new technologies would have on the planet. In fact, they planned to scrap a lot of the existing technology completely because of its poluting nature and start over.
"The second race thought that wasn't enough. Moving to a new world was the only course of option for survival, they agreed on that. But they believed that all technology should be dropped. That they should return to a simplier life when things weren't so hectic and simple convieninces wouldn't cause millions of deaths. They decided to go to a different world than us and to throw away all of their technology leaving only the barest of things. The only computers they wanted to keep where for record keeping.
"The third race refused to leave the World of Origin. They said that it was the world that they were born on and so it would be the world that they would die on. They had brought about the death of the planet and so it was only fair that they stay behind and reap what they had sown. No doubt they died mere months after my ancestors had left the planet. The point is, our genetic similarities, the lack of records of your presence on your world more than twelve thousand years ago, the technologies you have found burried since the cataclysm, its just too much to be a coincidence I think.
"Even those ancient computers you've uncovered show striking similarity to the ancient Changeling technology. Minor differences in design styles and implimentation of features are about all that seperates them. The similar languages and cultures only further enforce my thoughts. You can't find anything of yours more than twelve thousand years old because twelve thousand years ago you lived on a different world."
"It... is possible... I suppose." Inferna said. "But it could be mere coincidence. After all, many races in the universe share much in common with language, culture, and genetics. Genetics being the most similiar of them all. I mean, how many races in this universe do you know of that are genetically incompatable with each other and can't have children?"
Cold nodded. The woman had a good point. As far as he knew, the only incompatible races in the North Galaxy were Changelings and Sai-jins. Though oddly enough both were fully compatible with the rest of the races. It was something about the Sai-jins specifically that caused the problem. Still, the large compatibility between races had been a long running matter of interest in the scientific circles and one that Dr. Gero had explored in detail as well.
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Gohan stood, side-by-side with the fat version of Buu, staring down the small version... inside of his head. He was still trying to come to terms with that. It didn't help that it still hurt like hell when he got hit, either. He'd pulled out every drop of his power that he could muster but it wasn't enough. Even with his full reserves out, which made him stronger than his father's third form, the little freak was just too strong.
This fat Buu was a little stronger than him but it wasn't quite enough. He could see now how futile the fight earlier had been, prior to his father's transformation. "We need to... think of something." Gohan said, hands on his knees, panting. "Can't my dad just... pull him off of me or something?"
"Fight go fast." Buu said. "Time go faster in mind. Many hours pass in single second!"
"Perfect." he muttered, frowning. "Well, back to it then!" he cried launching in once more. Reaching the small Buu he started lashing out with a series of furious punches but the little creature just dodged around them. Realizing the physical assualt was getting him nowhere he pulled back and thrust his arms forward. Blue energy flared up and then shot out engulfing the upper half of the little creature destroying it. But, just as it had done on the outside, the destroyed body regenerated.
"Damn... hey, how are we supposed to beat this thing?" Gohan called back. "It's energy isn't going down and it can just keep regenerating!"
"Energy decrease!" the fat Buu said. "Takes long time, lots of endurance and stamina. But energy go down."
Gohan frowned. He didn't doubt the fat one knew what it was talking about but... so far he'd not noticed any drop in its strength. His thoughts were broken as the fat Buu surged passed him and started attacking the other again. Pushing his worries aside about the outcome of this endevour the Hybrid followed after him and the two attacked together. That's when it seemed to have the most trouble, when trying to dodge both of them at the same time. Understandable since, on a scale this large, there really wasn't that big a gap between them, when going two on one.
Gohan and fat Buu lashed out with kicks at the same time and smashed the smaller Buu's head between their legs. The Hybrid's fist shot out next and indented the small blob's face. The other Buu moved around behind the small one and snapped out a kick into its back knocking it forward where Gohan's knee smashed into its abdomen. This time it recovered quickly, though, and fat Buu met with an elbow to the face as he went in to attack.
The larger opponent dealt with, at least for now, the small pink creature turned its sights on the Hybrid and threw a punch for his face. His short arm would have been too shoot but it stretched out toward its target even as Gohan dodged to the side. But the arm followed his movement and slammed into his face. It snapped back and then out again smacking him again. And then again and again until the fat one suddenly surged down from above and sat on the little one.
Gohan reached up and wiped a trickle of blood off of his chin, the red fluid staining the back of his glove. He watched as fat Buu floated up and back to reveal a completely squashed small Buu. But that lasted only a moment, the pink blob quickly reformed itself with a scowl plastered on its face... both of them. It had formed a face on both sides of its head so that it could scowl at both opponents.
"What? Not as easy as you thought it'd be?" Gohan asked, a small smirk forming. He was wearing down, he knew it. And this thing wasn't, at least not that he could tell. But it was rather pleasing to know that he was annoying the thing. Suddenly he thrust his arms forward and blue light flashed from his palms. The energy surged forward catching Buu completely off guard and oblitterated everything from the knees up.
It reformed quickly enough but as soon as it had Gohan fired again. And then again and again and again every time it reformed. Suddenly his latest attack changed direction and flew off into the distance as Buu swatted it away, his scowl even deeper than before. "Well, this is fun." Gohan said, his smirk growing. Buu scowled. "What? I thought headless was an improvement over that ugly mug."
The small Buu clenched its hands into fists and then let out a scream and burst of power that knocked them both Gohan and fat Buu away. The Hybrid pulled to a stop a moment after the fat Buu did and stared on at the little one as it screamed. "I don't think he's very happy." he said, smirking a bit. "Guess the truth hurts."
"Bad Buu mad. This not good." the fat one said.
Gohan realized just how bad it was a moment later when steam started errupting from the small Buu's opennings as it had before. And then its body began to swell and its power climbed. A moment later the buffed up blob vanished. Gohan looked around for it but only barely caught a glimpse of pink before a fist smashed into his face and sent him sailing. A thunderous crack sounded a moment later as Buu appeared behind him and smashed his foot into his back knocking him the other way.
And then the creature was above him slamming its foot into his face driving him back down into the ground. Or, well, the solid though invisible surface that passed for ground in this place. He hit it hard and bounced back up again and Buu spun and smashed a fist into his gut. His battle armor there cracked and shattered under the blow. The fist stayed burried in his abdomen as the arm stretched and drove him back, and then it hooked and slammed him down into the ground before retracting.
Gohan rolled over onto his stomach and coughed up blood. "Ow... note to self. It is not smart to piss off the psychopathic bubble gum monster." he groaned, trying to stand up. He heard a loud growl from above him and got the distinct impression Buu had heard, and not approved of, his comment. He expected another bone crunching blow to come any second but the crack that sounded wasn't accompanied by pain this time.
Turning his head slightly he looked up and saw the fat Buu holding the other's Buu's fist in a gloved hand. The small Buu growled and then kicked the large one in the head knocking it away before resuming its attack against Gohan. It slammed down into his back feet first and then kicked him in the back of the head smashing his face against the ground. Then it stepped back and kicked him in the stomach sending him sailing away. As Gohan hit the ground again and slid he fought to stay concious but soon realized that that, too, was a losing battle. As he slid to a stop the world around him dimmed and then went dark.
The small Buu walked over to where Gohan lay, a satisfied look on its face, as the fat one stood again looking depressed. Suddenly the small creature realized there was someone standing behind it and it whirled around lashing out with a hard punch. There was a crack a second later as its fist was caught by a hand. The new arrival stood out amongst all the pink around him. He was a dark gray, almost black, save for a few points of red around his joints.
Suddenly Buu's eyes snapped open wide in pure terror and it started trying to pull its fist free. "So, you recognize me." the figure said in a deep voice that echoed within itself, before smirking. "Well, I don't know who you are but... this body has already been claimed. It's time for you to be leaving now!" The dark figure let out a growl as he spun and then pitched Buu into the air. He thrust one arm up after him and fired a stream of black and red energy at the creature. A second later it was engulfed in the blast as fat Buu stared on in wonder.
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Gohan had fallen to the ground no more than two seconds ago and Kakkarotto was about to move in to try and get Buu off of him when he felt an unusual power. Then there was a sudden blast of black and red and Buu was blasted apart and off of his son. He looked at the raining pink blobs for a moment and then made his way over to Gohan. His son was apparently unconcious but seemed otherwise fine.
Feeling a power building behind him he turned and saw Buu reforming again. A moment later the little pink creature was in one piece and wearing an expression the Sai-jin had never seen on him before. A look of pure terror. Suddenly Buu shot up into the air a few dozen yards and then started to buff up again. Kakkarotto turned ready to resume the fight but even after Buu reached full power it continued to let out wild cries and kept gathering more power.
"What the hell is up with that thing?" Kakkarotto wondered. "Its like its gone completely insane." Hearing a groan from behind him he looked back and saw Gohan coming too again. "Good timing, I think Buu's snapped completely. What the hell was it trying to do?"
Gohan blinked as he climbed to his feet, his mind a little hazy. But as the haze cleared he remembered and he was confused. "It... tried to absorb me." he said at last.
"Absorb you?"
He nodded. "Make me part of it, to use my power. That's what it was trying with you too but I guess you were too strong for him." He reached up and put a hand to his head still feeling dizzy. "I don't get it though... I lost. The fat one and I couldn't stop him..."
"Huh?"
"It's a long story." Gohan said. "But I fought him inside my head for control of my body and I lost. By all rights I shouldn't have been freed. Unless the other one managed to kick him out somehow..."
"Explain it later." Kakkarotto said as he turned his eyes back up to Buu who was still freaking out. Suddenly the pulsing pink aura around him flashed and shrank down until it was just surrounding his fists and that's when the Sai-jin felt it. Buu hadn't just been going crazy, he'd been pushing all of his energy down to his palms! With terror still filling its eyes it thrust its arms toward the two Sai-jins and let out a few more cries before firing.
"Shit!" Kakkarotto cried thrusting his arms up and firing a counter blast at the last second. The two beams met only feet from where he stood. Gohan tried to power up, to transform, anything, but his body was still drained and his mind too fuzzy to focus. Buu started letting out more cries obviously upset by the resistance it was facing.
Then, suddenly, it moved one arm away from the attack and turned sideways. Keeping Kakkarotto occupied with his first attack he quickly gathered another around his free hand. "What!?" the Sai-jin cried, seeing what was happening. "Damn it, he's going to blast the planet!" "Shit! If I move to stop the second attack this one will destroy the planet. If I don't move then that one will!"
Pink energy flashed at the end of his arm and then an energy ball formed. But no sooner did it appear Buu's energy suddenly bgean to drain away. It let out a startled cry and thrust its arm down shooting the blast off but it wasn't enough and only blasted a small crater into the ground. Meanwhile Kakkarotto's counter blast was having an increasingly easy time of pushing back Buu's beam.
With a cry and thrust of his arms he pushed his energy up through Buu's. The pink creature dodged to the side at the last moment as its attack faded away and its musscles shrank. "Do you think he's finally run out of power?" Kakkarotto asked, a bit confused by what was happening. Buu was now holding his head screaming. Then it started bashing its fists against its head and, to Gohan, its cries sounded vaguely like 'Out'.
"I don't think so..." he said, shaking his head. "The fat one must be doing something."
Buu hunched over and appeared to start powering up again as steam errupted from the holes in its body and gathered above its head. As the pink steam grew in size the two Sai-jins felt a slowly increasing energy coming from it. A moment later, as Buu relaxed, the pink smoke swirled around and then formed into the fat Buu. "Buu, Buu, Buu!" he cried happily, flexing his arms and legs. "Buu free, Buu free! Buu! Buu! Buu!"
"Geez, even that thing is stronger than my third form." Kakkarotto muttered.
The fat Buu turned and looked to the small one who was now glaring at it. "Buu no like you!" he said, crossing his arms. "Buu make you go Bye-Bye now! Bye-Bye!" Suddenly the big one turned into nothing more than a blob of pink and surged at the other quickly enveloping him. The small Buu obviously wasn't going to go that easily as his efforts to escape were easily seen as the pink blob distorted every which way.
Suddenly a burst of pink tore appart the Buu caccoon and the small one was free again, a deep scowl on its face. The fat one refromed quickly frowning. "No fair! No fair!" he cried.
"Buu!" Gohan called up, an idea forming in his mind. The fat Buu looked down at him curiously but when the small one saw him again the fear came back to his face. "Come down here!"
"Okay!" he called dropping down to where the two Sai-jins stood.
"I'm totally spent, but you're still fresh." Gohan said. "I think, together, you and dad can take that little freak."
Buu blinked and then looked over to Kakkarotto who was looking back at him. Kakkarotto smirked and Buu nodded. "Buu can do! Buu can do!"
Kakkarotto turned to face the small Buu still floating up in the sky and smirked more. "Alright shrimp, your time is up!" Kakkarotto then cupped his hands at his side and braced his feet on the ground, blue energy flaring up between his palms. Buu thrust his arms up into the air and started charging pink energy. Up in the sky the small Buu growled and powered up again, quickly bulking up its body.
"Kame... hame..." The blue energy between Kakkarotto's gloved hands flashed and swelled up and then he thrust his arms up into the air. "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"Buu Cannon!" The ground cracked under Buu's feet as his gathered energy flashed twice and then a massive stream of pink shot up to join the blue. The small Buu had just finished bulking up when the attacks started up. With no time to fire a sufficient counter it instead simply thrust its arms down and caught the attacks. The impact drove it up higher into the air and it struggled to hold the twin beams of energy at bay.
Suddenly he let out an ear splitting screech and his body began to ripple and swell more. And with it his power. "Ugh... no way!" Gohan cried. "He still his more reserves!?"
"We have to keep pushing!" Kakkarotto called. "Our attack is still stronger than him."
"Do you have any more power?" Gohan asked, looking at the fat Buu. The round creature simply shook his head. Gohan was out of ideas now. His father was right, the attack was stronger than Buu, but it wasn't by much. If only he had some power left! Suddenly he left out a cry as he collapsed to his knees, eyes clenched shut, a severe pain washing through his body. This was different than his previous attacks. He wasn't sure how it was, or how he knew, but he knew this one was different.
And as the pain faded he realized what was different about it. Whatever had just happened to him had restored his power. At least, some of it. In the shape his body was in it wouldn't be able to manage his full power. But he had half of it back and that would be more than enough. In a burst of gold he transformed to the second level and added his own attack to the assualt. "Masenko ha!" he cried, the golden energy surging up, merging with the others, and meeting Buu head on.
Buu's arms started to bend back, the attack was too much for him to hold off much longer. Kakkarotto and Gohan both dug down into their powers and drew out any energy they could find pushing it into their attacks, focusing more and more power. And then Buu left out a loud cry and was engulfed in the swirling streams of energy. The attacks continued for several moments more before fading away.
Gohan was spent again and as he lowered his arms he reverted to base. His father flashed gold a second later and dropped down to the second level. Only fat Buu seemed unphased by the recent strain. Gohan couldn't feel the other Buu anymore. All the other times it had been blasted apart he'd sensed the little bits and pieces of it. But not this time. "Did we... get it?" he asked.
The fat one looked around blinking. "Buu no feel him." he said. "Buu no feel him anywhere."
Kakkarotto let out a sigh as his aura flared up and then faded, his power dropping quickly as he reverted to base. "That attack should have atomized him. So unless he's immortal he's toast." he said, wiping off his brow with the back of his arm. "And I could always sense him a little before. And if he's not gone for good then we'll just blast him apart again next time he surfaces."
With that he turned to face the fat Buu and crossed his arms. "Question is, what do we do about you? You're the second strongest being in the entire universe now..."
"I'm more interested in where that power came from." Gohan said stretching to work some kinks out of his sore musscles. "I've never had an attack that's restored my power before."
Kakkarotto frowned. That was a new occurence and something the Doctor would definately want to investigate. "Well, we'll figure it out later. Let's head back to Saiya for now."
"Buu come too?" Buu asked, looking back and forth between the two.
Kakkarotto shrugged. "Sure, why not."
"Yay, yay! Buu have new friends!"