Gohan's eye slowly opened, testing the light coming through from the outside world. Carefully he sat up and rubbed his head. It was dark outside; at least six hours must have passed since his sparring session. He cringed as he moved feeling a sharp pain in his back and realized he must have put his weight on his tail. A slightly amused laugh escaped his mouth as he watched the furry appendage he hadn't had since he was six sway around at his side.
Standing up from the floor mat he'd been deposited on, Gohan stretched his muscles making sure everything was in working order before stepping out of the side chamber of the Sovereign Manor.
The Sovereign Kai's planet was already mostly healed from the earlier sparring matches. One of the things that continued to amaze Gohan was how the magic of the planet would rebuild mountains and fill in craters after his training left the terrain badly scarred.
There were still a few power levels wondering about the planet that Gohan recognized as the ki signatures of the Serius Prime members. Most of them seemed to be in the manor asleep though. Gohan still had a lot on his mind and decided to try walking off his worries.
Gohan's fight with Lao had actually shown him a lot. All his life he'd always seen everyone so concerned with getting stronger, becoming more powerful, but Lao had shown him that with concentration and incredible technique that a weaker warrior could dominate one who was otherwise far stronger. It left him wondering how he could improve himself to reach for that kind of level.
After aimlessly walking, Gohan found himself atop a mountain. He walked across the summit not thinking too much until he bumped into something and tripped. Gohan shook his head finding it odd that he'd bump into something when he didn't see anything in his way, but a quiet curse from under him made his eyes snap open to take a better look.
Nothing appeared to be in front of him, but after squinting his eyes Gohan made out what looked like a body imprint on the ground. Slowly the entire body became visible and Gohan noticed it was Lao he'd run into and knocked over. The older warrior rolled over and crossed his arms looking up at Gohan with a mildly amused look on his face, "Sleep walking?"
Gohan looked confused at the man, "Sorry, I didn't see you… How did you do that?"
Lao sat up cross legged on the ground, "Do what?"
"You were invisible!" Gohan exclaimed.
Lao held a finger to his lips, "It's late at night, no need to get excited… Here, have a seat," Lao turned around and looked back the other way off the mountain side.
Gohan joined him and took in the view as well. He was about to make a comment about how nice of a place this was when he noticed down at the bottom of the cliff below them the Sovereign Kai and Laudria were speaking to each other.
"I wonder what they're doing down there?" Gohan looked curiously.
"No idea…" Lao spoke in an uninterested tone.
Gohan couldn't make out what the two were saying, but could tell the Kai was looking at Laudria disapprovingly. He shook his head and turned away from the girl and slowly walked away. Whatever it was that happened, Laudria looked upset and left in the opposite direction.
"That was weird…" Gohan watched the two leave, "Do you think she got in trouble for something?"
Lao shrugged, "If he's disciplining her then it's really none of our business."
Gohan nodded, "I guess you're right."
Turning his head just enough to make eye contact with Gohan, Lao went ahead and asked, "So what brings you out here at this hour anyway?"
It was Gohan's turn to shrug, "I woke up and was still feeling sore after our match, had a lot on my mind, so I just started walking around."
A chuckle came from Lao's throat, "Sorry, I really didn't mean to put you under. You're so strong that I thought I had to hit you in your weak spot with everything I had."
Gohan stroked his tail a bit, "I still don't know how you made this grow back… I mean it got cut off when I was just a little kid."
"There's a lot you don't know still. At some point you stop feeling overwhelmed by it since you're bound to run into someone eventually who's been training a lot longer than you have. Like I told you earlier, I've been practicing mystic techniques for hundreds of years. There's no shame for someone as young as you to lose in that kind of fight," Lao tried to sound as consoling as he could.
Gohan smiled brightly up at Lao, "I'm serious about wanting to learn still!"
Lao smirked, "Alright then, we seem to have a moment, what do you want to know first?"
"How did you go invisible?" Gohan asked almost immediately.
Standing to his feet, Lao held his arms out to his side, "That's actually a ki manipulation technique. A little advanced but I'm sure you can grasp it pretty easily. It's a good one to learn since if you're planning on going on a mission with us anytime soon you're going to need to know how to camouflage yourself."
Gohan jumped to his feet and assumed the same position, "OK, I'm ready!"
"Down tiger! Remember this kind of thing requires a lot of concentration, you've got to be calm and collect otherwise there's no point to it," Gohan nodded and took a deep breath to quell his excitement. "The first thing to keep in mind is that your ki energy has great light properties. It usually lights up everything around you when you're powering up right?"
"Yeah, the more I power up, the brighter it gets most of the time," Gohan agreed.
"We don't want too much light ok?" Lao started to demonstrate, "This technique is called Tonko, the trick is to manipulate the light of your aura without giving away your position by outputting too much energy. You've got to stay undetectable otherwise there's no point in being invisible." Many small and dim particles of light began swirling around Lao's body. "The idea is you need to refract light energy around your body using your aura. You need to make your aura spin around your body. Your ki can absorb light, so what you need to do is force your ki to expel the light once it orbits around you to the exact opposite side of your body that way light particles can travel around you without being impeded upon by your mass and make you invisible to anyone watching you." Lao put two fingers to his forehead as his aura began to circle faster around his body, "Tonko!" with a wave of his hand to the side his aura moved quickly enough to solidify around him allowing Gohan to see right through him.
Gohan completely lost track of Lao's position. His power was pushed down enough that he couldn't sense him, and without being able to see him, Gohan had no way of knowing where Lao was. "That is really awesome!"
Lao appeared to Gohan's side with his arms crossed, "Alright, now you try."
Gohan thought about all the steps Lao had done and tried to mimic them. He put his fingers to his head and started concentrating. His aura lit dimly and started swirling around his body.
"Good, now concentrate on pushing the light energy with your ki," Lao coached.
Focusing harder, Gohan pictured what he wanted his aura to do and tried to pull it out, "How do you make ki absorb light?"
"Ki can absorb energy, and light is energy, so you would have to concentrate on absorbing the light energy around you. It's not an easy concept to grasp, but if you can gain enough control of your ki to channel energy in rather than out you can…" Gohan's ki actually started moving light around his body, "…Do something like that." Lao laughed slightly as he noticed Gohan refracting the light in the wrong directions making it look as if he were looking at what was behind Gohan from two different angles.
Coaxing Gohan further, Lao tried to give him more advice, "You just need to adjust it faster, you've got to throw the light particles out as they reach a hundred and eighty degrees around your body, and adjust their path to their original direction at the same time otherwise you just look ridiculous like you do right now."
"Give me a sec," Gohan strained his concentration but soon the images were shifting over to the right position. From the bottom up, the energy began to solidify, making Gohan's legs slowly disappear from sight. The vanishing slowly began to work its way up the boy's torso. It took a minute, but the aura solidified above Gohan's head and completely removed him from sight.
Lao whistled; impressed with how quickly Gohan picked up the technique, "That's it! I can still sense you though, so all you need to be working on now is lowering your energy so you won't be detected while invisible."
"Right…" Gohan still sounded strained in concentration, but his ki signature was slowly fading. For a moment Lao wondered if Gohan would actually be able to fully use the technique on his first try. As Gohan lowered his power, a hole opened up in his cover, but he was quick to close it again. Slowly Gohan's power faded away into nothing and Lao couldn't pick up on his position.
"Not bad," Lao whistled. When he didn't get a response he knew he was in trouble, "Gohan?"
Lao concentrated on sharpening his hearing to pick out Gohan's location. He barely managed to turn himself around as a young demi-saiyan tackled him, "Got you!" Gohan smiled.
"Oh man, pounced by the newbie, don't tell the others about this," both Lao and Gohan laughed as Gohan helped Lao back up.
"That was great, I never even thought of using my ki like that before, thanks a lot!" Gohan smiled admiringly up at the Serius leader.
"Don't sweat it, but there's still a lot more we have to show you. I think we should go on a field trip in the morning…" Lao rubbed his chin as a sly grin slowly formed across his lips.
"What?" Gohan asked noticing the look.
"Just something great that you need to see," Lao explained vaguely. "I'll round up the team and we'll go once everyone's up and around, so why don't you get some rest in the mean time."
Gohan nodded feeling excited by the awaiting surprise, "Alright, I'll try. See you in the morning then!" Gohan waved Lao off as he ran back to his room off the side of the manor.
Several hours later, Gohan awoke with the first light and started getting himself ready. Once his uniform was on, he ran out of his room and found Lao already up and speaking with the Sovereign Kai in front of the main entrance to the manor.
"Good morning Gohan!" The Sovereign Kai greeted cheerfully.
Gohan bowed to the Kai, "Good morning sir!"
"Lao tells me you two spoke last night and that he wants to take you to a place sacred to us Sovereign kind," there was an edge of pride to the tone of voice the Sovereign Kai was speaking with.
Holding back his excitement as best he could Gohan nodded, "Yes sir, I'm all set to go!"
The Sovereign Kai had to restrain himself from chuckling. After being cooped up on this planet for so long he understood that Gohan must be anxious to see new scenery, "Excellent, the others are on their way and we will depart as soon as they arrive."
"You're going also?" Gohan asked to make sure.
"Absolutely! I'm not about to miss the initiation of my star pupil!" The Kai grinned.
Gohan cocked his head to the side slightly, "Initiation?"
Rolling his eyes the Sovereign Kai cleared his throat, "All will be explained when we arrive, here come the others now."
Shu led the pack of the remaining Serius Prime team as they approached the manor, "Good morning!" he shouted.
"Indeed it is!" The Kai smiled happily, "Now if everyone is ready, we shall depart."
Everyone nodded so Phips jumped into the middle of the group and started powering up his rifting abilities, "One quick group jump into the heart of oblivion, here we go!"
"To where?" Gohan asked just as they disappeared.
Immediately Gohan felt himself become weightless. Everything around him was pitch black, completely and perfectly empty. There was no light, no sound, no up, no down; perfect order. After a moment Gohan began looking around frantically hoping to see something. He couldn't tell if he was turning or even if his eyes were open. Finally he tried to speak, but no sound escaped his lips.
Panic was about to set in when a bright light flooded Gohan's vision and everything changed from complete utter black to brilliant white. The light faded and Gohan found himself sitting in front of the others, Shu was hovering right over his face, "Welcome to the void!"
Shaking the uncomfortable wave of nausea from his system, Gohan stood up only to find that the ground wasn't supporting him like he thought it would. Looking down he realized there was no ground.
The Sovereign Kai was holding a sphere of energy which illuminated the team, but everything else around them was dark, "What is this place?"
Approaching Gohan with the sphere of light, the Kai decided to try and explain in the way he felt Gohan would best understand, "This place is called the infinite void. It is the space that exists between the universes of reality. The best way to understand where we are is to picture a mathematical graph. Let us say for argument sake that the x axis represents space and the y axis represents time. A universe can be depicted on this graph a straight line parallel to the y axis. Within a universe at any point in time exists its own infinite amount of space but that would make this example more complicated so let's ignore that for the time being. On this same graph now picture a planar surface extending forever across both the x and y axis; a plane where all the other lines must cross through. That plane is referred to by us as the infinite void. That is where you are now, standing outside the reaches of any universe."
Gohan's breath hitched as he thought about how such a place could possibly exist, "Wow… I just… I'm trying to picture what you're saying, but how can we be standing outside of time and still witness time passing normally between us?"
The Kai smiled at Gohan's perception, "It's hard to explain, one thing that is hard for most to grasp is idea of all points in time taking place as one. From here a timeline of the universe can indeed be viewed from a perpendicular angle which means every event in that universe is happening at the same time. This is confusing because it leads some to believe that time is already decided, and that the fate of every universe is already known. This is not the case at all you see. Time is actually very fluid, and can be changed in an instant especially when outside influence is applied."
"You mean like from other dimensions?" Gohan asked piecing a few things together.
"Exactly!" The Kai clapped, "You see when an event takes place within a universe that was never meant to happen it sends a rippling effect changing the course of history from that point on down the rest of the universe. This can be viewed from the void because of the void's special properties. You see, instead of time moving across the y axis in the void as it does in the dimensions which exist within it, time in the void follows a z-axis. We refer to it as Hyper Time."
"It's time!" Torjuk announced as the members of Serius Prime spread out.
"Time for what?" Gohan asked confused.
"They're opening the wall…" The Sovereign Kai took a step back and watched as his guardians focused their energy to make the truth behind the void visible. Like a veil being lifted from around one's eyes, the darkness began to dissipate. Gohan squinted through the haze and made out light. Not just one light but many.
All at once great streams of energy shot through their surroundings. They were gigantic, oceanic and lucid, mostly a light blue in color and slightly wavy.
"I never get over how beautiful this is…" Saila watched the great waves of energy with a starry look in her eyes.
The Sovereign Kai put a hand on Gohan's shoulder, "Those streams of light and energy you see… those are the universes of reality; each one housing an infinity in and upon itself. They extend infinitely in both directions. It truly is a sight to behold…"
Looking down at the boy, the Kai noticed Gohan was just staring off blankly, the light of the dimensions reflected brightly in his eyes. His breathing was coming in deep gasps and sweat was building on his forehead.
Laudria also noticed Gohan looking pale, "Are you alright there Gohan?"
Gohan nodded, "Yeah… I think so… It's just… whoa…" he was actually starting to feel unbalanced, like he could fall off his feet at any moment.
"Uh-oh, he's wigging out!" Shu laughed and walked over to Gohan, "Come on man, everyone gets a little freaked their first time seeing this, just come with me, we'll walk it off and you'll feel better."
Gohan's couldn't hear any of it, his ears had just plugged up. The only the only thing he could hear was his own breathing and the beat of his heart. The thumping of his heart seemed to be getting louder, stronger. Gohan shut his eyes and shook his head to try and clear his vision which was shading over with red.
Sweat continued to build on Gohan's brow, "Oh man… I think he's going to pass out again," Shu said as he wiped Gohan's forehead with his sleeve.
The Sovereign Kai's eyes widened as he felt something unusual. Lao also had a strange look about him that confirmed something odd was happening.
Torjuk had joined Shu close by to Gohan, "Come on Gohan, breathe man breathe!"
"You'll be alright Gohan, just get a grip."
"Gohan…"
"Gohan?"
"…Gohan…"
With a sudden cold snap Gohan's head jerked up. His gaze was blank as he stared at the two Sovereign Guardians in front of him. His mouth opened wide, but instead of words or moans it was a deep ferocious roar that escaped from his throat. Shu and Torjuk immediately jumped back with a start.
Phips looked Gohan over with a concerned look, "I might not be the expert here… but I don't think a roar that loud and animalistic is supposed to come from a guy that small…"
"No kidding…" Shu agreed as he continued to watch Gohan intently.
Gohan's eyes squeezed shut as he seemed to be trying to deal with whatever was happening to him. His eyes snapped open abruptly enough to cause all the members of Serius Prime to jump back from the sight. His eyes had changed from their normal white and black to a solid red. A deep loud growl continued to grumble out from Gohan's throat and then he began to change.
The Kai and his guardians watched mystified as Gohan's face stretched and contorted. His nose elongated into a snout, his jaw following and his teeth growing to form sharp points. His muscles bulged and completely burst from his clothes as a thick fur covered his entire body. Within moments the Gohan everyone had known was replaced by a silvery monkey the size of a small sky scraper. Sparks of energy and spheres of light encircles all around his body.
"It's like… Monkey… the platinum edition…" Phips blinked as he stared up at his now monstrous friend.
"Have you ever felt anything like it?" Torjuk asked in awe.
"Nope," Lao replied coolly.
"What should we do?" Saila asked feeling a bit concerned.
"Maybe we should try talking to him?" Torjuk suggested.
Shu stepped a little closer to the giant monkey and enunciated very slowly, "Gohan, it is me, Shu, are you alright?"
Another loud roar echoed across infinity as Gohan's mouth opened and massive energy began to gather.
"OH SHI…!" Shu didn't get a chance to finish as the energy was released and sent him hurdling away.
"He's out of control!" Torjuk shouted and the team scrambled into position.
Gohan swung wide with his huge left arm and swiped at the Sovereign Guards below. Torjuk took the brunt of the blow and was rolled away. Lao, Saila, and Laudria jumped over the attack.
"We need to restrain him!" Lao ordered.
"On it!" Saila moved in front of Gohan and created a sphere of light which kept flashing different colors to try and get Gohan's attention. Gohan watched the colorful sphere move as Laudria snuck around behind.
Forming whips out of her energy, Laudria pulled back and slung the whips forward extending them and wrapping them around Gohan's arm. Saila threw the colorful energy ball up into the air which burst and had the effect of dramatically increasing the gravity just around Gohan, "We got him!"
Gohan growled viciously and in one violent motion pulled his arms forward slinging Laudria around him and tossing her into Saila. The two of them rolled over each other over a great distance before skidding to a stop, "I don't think we had him…" Laudria rubbed her head as she got back up.
"Now you tell me," Saila untangled herself from her team mate and quickly dashed back to deal with the situation at hand.
Lao decided it was time for him to try his hand at the beast. He gathered his mystic energies causing spheres of light to circle his body. He split into multiple forms and started surrounding Gohan.
Faster than Lao was expecting, Gohan grabbed onto all three of his forms, one in each hand, and another he ensnared with his tail, "For as big as you are you're still pretty fast aren't you?" Gohan began to squeeze each of the Lao's causing his eyes to widen as the pressure around his midsections increased.
"LET HIM GO!" Shu was back on his feet and running toward Gohan. Shu's shadow enlarged and the blue dragon held out its hands and grappled Gohan as the great ape dropped Lao to the ground who immediately recombined himself.
Laudria and Saila used the opportunity with Shu distracting Gohan to try restraining him again. Creating many more whips, Laudria wrapped them around every one of Gohan's limbs as Saila encased Gohan inside an intense gravity box.
"Start reeling him in!" On command Saila and Laudria started pulling back on the binds hoping to bring Gohan to the ground.
Gohan roared loudly as he once again easily ripped the binds from body and started blasting everyone around him with intense beams from his mouth and eyes.
Everyone was knocked away. Shu was flipped over and rolled to a stop a good distance away, "I will not give up… I will not give up!" He clenched his fists tight as he stood back up and summoned as much magical force as he could and charged back into Gohan again, "FLARUS SWOOOORD!" His dragon shadow's fist ignited into magma and crashed dead on into Gohan. The area shook from the shockwaves of heat after the critical blow and flames and smoke engulfed Gohan entirely.
"Did you get him?" Torjuk stammered as he got back up and stood by his team's side.
"EVERYONE MOVE!" Lao shouted as a huge beam exploded from within the smoke.
Everyone jumped out of the way in time and stared at the still standing monkey, "He didn't even have to charge to fire a blast like that… this is nuts!" Torjuk stammered staring at the gigantic terror.
Shu shook his head, "It's like my most powerful spell didn't even faze him."
"This is indeed unexpected…" The Sovereign Kai looked down to Phips, "We are at a huge disadvantage knowing nothing about this state of transformation Gohan is in. Phips I need you to find someone with more knowledge on saiyan anatomy and ability."
Gohan threw a punch bowling over Shu and Saila at the same time. The attack was immediately followed up by a blast in another direction at Lao and Laudria. Torjuk was swatted away with his tail as he tried to sneak up from behind.
Phips nodded, "Sounds like a good idea, I'll be right back!" Phips snapped his finger and disappeared with a loud pop.
Inside the known universe on the small planet of a certain Northern Kai, King Kai was busying himself about on his tiny planet watering his plants when he heard a loud pop outside his house.
"King Kai! King Kai! AHH It's a monkey!" Phips panicked while running across the planet.
King Kai stepped outside his modest home, "What's all the commotion?"
Phips saw King Kai come outside and hurried over to him, "King Kai, King Kai sir! I'm an aid from the Sovereign world and we have an urgent question for you!"
King Kai's eye brow quirked behind his sunglasses, "Sovereign world…? Oh well, sounds important anyway, what is it?"
"Do you know anything about a race called the saiyans?" Phips asked hurriedly.
A goofy smile played across King Kai's face, "I might know a little bit about them. They're almost extinct right now, but I've been keeping an eye on a few of them who are still around. What do you want to know about saiyans?"
"By any chance…" Phips thought of how best to describe the problem, "do saiyans like maybe… turn into giant monkey things?" Phips hoped he wasn't sounding completely ridiculous.
King Kai nodded, "As a matter of fact, you see whenever a moon is full and casts its light down upon a saiyan he will transform into a mighty creature called an Oozaru. Saiyans used to use this great transformation to decimate entire planets, thus conquering them and making them ready for sale on a galactic trade market."
Phips couldn't help himself as he said, "Sounds like these saiyans don't monkey around!"
King Kai tried to cover his mouth as he broke out laughing, "Saiyans, monkey around! That's a good one! Actually you could say they're in the monkey business!" Both King Kai and Phips started laughing together.
"Or maybe they just have a thing about going ape?" King Kai started laughing even harder patting his sides trying to calm himself down.
"You're a good one! Oh you can come work for me any day!" King Kai said as his laughing finally began to die down.
Phips was also calming down a bit, "I wish you would have told that to King Yemma a couple hundred years ago before he decided to kick me out of his dimension."
"Oh, you worked for King Yemma huh? And he did what?" King Kai asked while straightening out his glasses.
"Yeah, after firing me, you could say he gave me the boot!" Once again they both broke out into laughter.
Phips smiled to himself once his hysterics subsided and suddenly realized he left the team in a very bad situation that they were still dealing with, "OH YEAH!"
"Hmm?" King Kai noticed Phips sudden straightening of posture.
"King Kai, you mentioned that the full moon turns a saiyan into a giant Oozaru, is there anything besides the moon that can trigger that?" Phips asked hoping to get some insight on the situation.
"Well…" King Kai thought, "Technically it's not the moon that fuels this transformation. Saiyans absorb radiation that is given off by full lunar activity. Most of the scientists who have studied this phenomenon call the radiation bluntz waves. So it's possible for other heavenly objects to emit similar radiation patterns which could trigger similar transformations in a saiyan. The stronger the waves, the more radical the transformation I would imagine."
"So if a moon turns a saiyan into the Oozaru you're talking about… then a universe could… oh dear…" Phips face palmed starting to understand the situation they'd put themselves in. "Is there any way to reverse the transformation."
King Kai nodded, "Yes indeed, you see a saiyan absorbs radiation in through their tail which triggers the transformation cells within their body. They are unable to sustain their transformation without a constant supply of this radiation, so cutting off the tail will return a saiyan to normal. In fact most peaceful saiyans live without their tail specifically to avoid accidentally transforming and going on a rampage."
"Hehe… Rampage…" Phips chuckled to himself but quickly shook it off before the joke could continue, "So wait a minute… you're saying it happens because of the tail?"
"That's how it works," King Kai affirmed with a nod.
"Oh man, is Lao ever going to be pissed at himself, this is great!" Phips rubbed his hands together as he pictured Lao beating himself up for being an idiot. "Well it was great meeting you King Kai! I need to go now! Bye!"
Bubbles and King Kai both waved Phips off, "Stop by anytime!"
With another loud pop, Phips vanished.
Phips appeared inside the void as a large beam of power blasted over his head, "WHOA!"
"Phips, over here!" The Sovereign Kai called from where he was hiding. Phips ran over to him to seek shelter from the wild blasts Gohan was still continuously firing. Lao took a hard hit and was flung back toward the two.
He grimaced as he slid to a stop by the Sovereign Kai's feet, "Find out anything useful?" He muttered.
"You're going to love this!" Phips started, "Turns out the key to this whole mess is Gohan's tail! The reason saiyans cut their tails off is so that something like this doesn't happen!"
Lao looked grimly over at Phips, "Like I was supposed to know that…"
"Turns out Gohan's little weakness wasn't much of a weakness after all, huh?" Phips snickered.
"We'll talk about it later!" Lao jumped back to his feet and ran back into the fray, "Everyone, concentrate on the tail, we've got to cut it off!" The other members of Serius Prime were all looking badly beaten, but they stood to keep going anyway.
Saila floated close by Gohan and used her abilities to flip the direction of gravity to throw off his balance. As quickly as she altered the gravity's directional force, Gohan's energy would immediately compensate to keep him steady.
Laudria created another energy whip and tried to wrap it around the base of Gohan's tail. She was successful in her first endeavor, however her strength levels were depleting as she used the energy whip to squeeze the tail only causing to turn around and slap her out of the way.
Lao dashed quickly all around Gohan, leaving countless after images hoping to throw off the oozaru's sight. Gohan was hardly fazed by the attempt as he could follow Lao's moves as easily as if he were walking. With a harsh backhand, Gohan slammed Lao away from him.
"SHINUS!" Shu shouted casting a bright spell to blind Gohan for a moment. The spell seemed to do the trick, but as he moved around Gohan, the great beast slammed his elbow down onto his shadow dragon's back with enough force to snap the dragon back into Shu's normal shadow like a stretched rubber band sending Shu tumbling backward.
The whole team seemed to be going down when a shocked look of pain crossed the oozaru's face. Torjuk had spent the time the others had Gohan's attention powering up an energy disk which formed inside Gohan's tail, cutting it clean off upon expansion of the energy.
Gohan stumbled forward a bit and sank to his knees with a heavy crash. A grumble bellowed out from his chest sounding like he was in pain, but he wasn't shrinking down yet. Gohan's head angled up into the sky and he let out a loud howl as a new tail generated over the stump of the old one.
"You've got to be kidding me…" Torjuk grunted as he sank in his stance.
"Well that wasn't part of the lesson plan…" Phips blinked as Gohan's apparent tail regeneration ability.
"Something is different…" The Sovereign Kai squinted his eyes regarding Gohan's enormous form carefully.
Gohan had not yet climbed back onto to his feet. He remained on his hands and knees panting heavily and staring out at nothing. He was making no move to continue the violent attacks.
"Perhaps the painful shock of having his tail cut off has awoken some part of Gohan's actual consciousness…" The Sovereign Kai started approaching the towering giant, "Gohan!"
"No, don't get near him!" Laudria shouted to the Kai.
"Don't worry; I think it's alright…" The Kai tried to sound as reassuring as he could, "Gohan, can you hear me in there?"
An unintelligible grumble came from Gohan's throat.
"I can sense Gohan struggling within the creature for control," The Sovereign Kai floated up to Gohan's face and put a hand on his forehead, "That's it Gohan, reel in the savagery, make it work for you…"
"…IT'S… HA… HARD…" Gohan spoke in a loud deep voice fitting of his current form.
"But you're doing it, keep pushing through the barrier!" The Kai encouraged.
Gohan's mouth opened letting loose a deafening roar which seemed vibrate all across eternity. The Kai backed away as a glow overcame Gohan's enormous form. Waves of gold and silver encased him and began to swirl around him. The rivers of energy which made up the river like dimensions surrounding them appeared to be reacting and gave off a similar glow.
A strong pulse of energy created a shockwave which spread quickly from Gohan's body pushing everyone away from him. Everything around the Kai and Serius Prime began to quake as Gohan's entire body gave off a brilliant light.
"My word…" The Sovereign Kai watched from his prone position where he was knocked down to as Gohan began to shrink down from his enormous size. Underneath the powerful glow, his outline began take on a more human shape once again.
Bolts of static surrounded Gohan as the light slowly faded and Gohan fell forward onto his normal hands and knees. Every member of Serius Prime was stricken in awe by the powerful aura Gohan was emitting. His hair was spiked up tall and was dark silver or platinum in color as well as his tail. Gohan's eyes opened as his breathing normalized and the others could see his eyes had become a striking gold.
Slowly everyone approached. The danger seemed to have passed, but the Sovereign Kai asked just to make sure, "Gohan… are you alright?"
Gohan slowly nodded, "I think so…" He could feel the new power burning within him. The same power which had threatened to consume him and everything around him moments prior he had managed to contain and place under his control. He looked down at himself and then back up to the Kai with a slight blush on his face, "I could use something to cover up though…"
Lao laughed and pulled off his tattered trench coat and draped it over Gohan's naked shoulders.
Gohan saw how torn up it was and looked at everyone around him realizing he was the one who had beat them up pretty good, "I'm really sorry everyone…"
"Don't be sorry, you didn't know that was going to happen," Saila hugged Gohan consolingly as he stood up.
"Yeah, it's alright," Shu reaffirmed, "If it wasn't for that being one of the scariest moments of my entire existence the whole giant monkey thing would have been really cool!"
Gohan smiled at the lot of them and bowed his head, "I owe you guys a lot still."
The Sovereign Kai sensed Gohan over trying to fully grasp this new form Gohan bore, "This is incredible Gohan. To think a race exists which could harness the power of dimensional radiation and unleash it with such force. And now you're holding that power under your control, it's amazing."
Gohan bowed to the Sovereign Kai, "I couldn't have done it without your coaching."
The Kai chuckled, "You are special, though this form doesn't seem to fit with your other super saiyan transformations does it? We're going to have call it something different."
The eyes of Serius Prime fell onto the Kai as he thought for a moment and finally held his hand over Gohan's shoulder, "As this form was triggered and attained thanks to the effects of hyper time, I dub this new form, Hyper Saiyan."
Everyone laughed and clapped at the ingenious naming scheme. Gohan held the coat tighter over his shoulders as he thought about the designation and smiled, "I like it."
Returning the smile, The Sovereign Kai signaled over to Phips, "Alright then, let's go home."
"Next stop, happiest place on infinity, all aboard!" Phips called as he started powering up his rift in the middle of everyone.
The Sovereign Kai chuckled to himself, "Sometimes you really make me wonder, Gohan; if your kind's exponential advancement knows no bounds…"
Phips opened the rift and moved them all back to the Sovereign world.
"And that's how Gohan was able to use that same power when he was fighting that nasty bad guy earlier today!" Phips explained excitedly.
"I don't know… hyper saiyan doesn't sound that great to me…" Trunks mumbled.
"I think it sounds awesome! I wish I was a hyper saiyan!" Goten exclaimed while imagining himself as one in his head.
"For his sake I hope Gohan wakes up soon or I'll get to the really embarrassing parts!" Phips grinned evilly to himself, "Or maybe I should hope he doesn't wake up until after I'm done."
"Tell us! Tell us!" Goten and Trunks whined.
Phips laughed and continued, "There's still plenty of story left! So once we got back…"
End Chapter
Well now this is definitely the longest chapter so far in the story. I've been trying not to make the chapters so long, but I didn't want to spend too much time in these flashbacks so we can get back to the main plotline as soon as possible.
OK so I know I'm going to hear about this so I wanted to briefly explain the "Hyper Saiyan" thing. Basically it's a reference to the DC Kingdom series of comic books. It's my way of paying homage to one of my favorite story lines. Goku and Superman have been compared and pitted countless times, but in Kingdom Come, Superman and Wonderwoman have a son who is partially raised by Batman who becomes Hyperman. So my take is a boy who is born to Goku(Super Saiyan) and Chichi(Wonder B!#$%) and raised partially by Piccolo would become Hyper Saiyan. Flame me if you want, but I'm sticking to it now.
Thanks for hanging out with me through this, and we'll see you next week when we finally dive back into some juicy drama!
'Till next time!