Apologies for the slightly late update. I am still on holiday until 07/07/2013 and have only just re-acquainted myself with the internet.…A few things to note as always:
1) Apparently magma sits at around 700 degrees Celsius to around 1,300 degrees Celsius - this is important to note for Shorai's comment later on regarding a Super Saiyan's inability to survive in temperatures that hot. This may be debatable considering how Goku emerges from the crust of the land after Gohan's re-appearance but I'm sceptical. I believe that Goku's Super Saiyan transformation could have elevated his speed and strength enough for him to deal with the magma effectively but I like to believe that he would still have some serious issues if it touched his skin, otherwise, why the hell did he take so long to re-emerge and why the hell did Gohan lose track of his Ki so suddenly?
2) Uuuuuuuuuuuh…I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to mention something about Shorai and Sensou's harebrained scheme in this chapter but I can't remember what as usual.
3) Spelling, grammar and important belly button lint has been checked. A note on the word 'taloned' which doesn't exist on dear Microsoft word but it worked so well as a description that I left it. I know, I should be taken out to the back wall and shot for my crimes.
24: Struggling
After the first few clashes, Goku realised that he was matched and even exceeded in almost every possible way.
If he aimed a well placed kick to the stomach, Frieza's own foot was there to counter, if he managed to draw a string of blood then the overlord had matched that injury elsewhere on Goku's body. It was like fighting a freight train, something fast and strong, barrelling towards him at an unstoppable rate and all he could do was stand there, waiting to take the hit, hoping to do some damage back somehow.
When they fell once again to one of the battered islands, Frieza tilted his head to the side.
"Where does a third class Saiyan like you get this kind of power? You certainly don't fight with usual Saiyan techniques…"
From his crouched position opposite the overlord, Goku smiled knowingly, wiping at a trail of thick crimson leaking from the corner of his mouth with the back of his sweaty hand.
"I'm not really a Saiyan," he said, watching as Frieza's eyes narrowed.
"I know you simians think that just by removing your tail you can pass for something worthwhile but I think we all know the truth here. If you're not a Saiyan, what are you?"
Goku planted his feet firmly on the ground and took a deep breath, feeling his muscles bunch up with flowing Ki.
"I'm an Earthling," Goku stated, letting the burning red aura of his favoured technique ignite around him.
"KAIOKEN…X…3!" He cried out, gritting his teeth against the strain on his body as the rivers of Ki inside him engorged and broadened, allowing room for more power to process. His muscles heaved, his bones seemed to stretch and he could feel his tendons tearing but even through the familiar strain, he could tell that this technique amplified to this level didn't take nearly as much effort as it had during his battle with the Saiyans. He knew that if he wanted to take this technique further now, if he wanted to break away from everything he had been taught to dive head first into the pool of innovation, he would be able to pull it off.
Frieza watched the display with interest, mentally cursing his lack of scouter. If there was ever a need to take a measurement of his opponent, it was now, and while Frieza was certain he was still unbeatable, he was also beginning to think that this particular Saiyan, if left to his own devices, may actually pose a very real threat in the very near future. Trying not to get worked up, the tyrant fought to place the Saiyan's age but before he could even begin to rationalise that this Saiyan could only be as young as the death of planet Vegeta, he took a fast flying fist to the centre of his face. His opponent's hard knuckles connected with the bridge of his nose and he heard a heart-stopping crack.
There was a moment of insatiable agony.
Discolouration between red eyes mad with rage and involuntary tears collecting on the edge of damaged tear ducts.
He pulled back and refused to raise his shaking hands to his face, watching with mounting fury as the Saiyan disappeared right before him only to appear a moment later behind him, aiming a hard elbow to the back of the overlord's exposed neck.
But the tyrant had caught up with the Saiyan's increased battle tempo and spun round to catch the elbow in a clawed hand, engaging in a new grapple. Goku inhaled sharply and tried to throw himself away but before he could shake the disbelief that someone was able to match his indispensible Kaioken technique and act, Frieza's tail had swept up from behind him to wrap around Goku's throat.
Sensou straightened on the grass before the dimension window, watching through focussed eyes as Goku appeared on the scene, asking Gohan and the others to take a step back so he could concentrate on simply beating the enemy in front of him. Carefully, the warrior god's eyes slipped from the picture presented on the screen to his brother who was still watching the battle intently.
"It's not over yet Sensou," Shorai muttered, knowing what his brother was going to ask.
The seer frowned as he watched Goku moving across the battle-worn landscape, feeling something tug at the back of his mind. Being a seer, he knew not to ignore even the slightest tingle in his nervous system, not to bypass it off as some misplaced paranoia even if neuroticism often accompanied the gift of future sight. Anything mistakenly brushed off could be a sign of a disturbance in the complex and delicate lay lines of fate. Tentatively, he let himself search the weave of fate, following the progression of the battle past Goku's legendary transformation to…
"Oh…Sensou we have a problem…"
Sensou glanced sharply at his brother's frightened eyes and felt the first inklings of dread saturate his system.
Goku's ears popped and he flinched involuntarily, provoking the overlord to smirk at his struggling opponent. With precise casualness, Frieza crossed his arms over his chest and adjusted himself so he was leaning with his weight on one foot.
"It is such a pity that it had to end like this, I was expecting a little more out of you considering what your son was able to do," the overlord said, examining his dark nails.
Goku let out a choked gurgle in response, his fingers digging into the pure muscle of the lizard's tail. His windpipe constricted and he bucked as panic-fuelled adrenaline flushed through his system like new blood but in a moment of rationality, he remembered what he had been taught about strangle holds and how to get out of them.
While there was no easy martial technique that could be used to escape a situation like this, it was imperative that he didn't let the reactive panic control him. Instead, he took a millisecond to calm himself, ignoring his opponent's useless banter to focus on moving his chin down slightly. It took a moment for Frieza to realise what his opponent was trying to do, pre-occupied as he was admiring the purple tint that Goku's face had taken on, and by the time he had even the vaguest idea, it was already too late.
Goku's chin dipped down underneath the tail, between his neck and his opponent's hard muscle, and opening his jaw wide, he bit down hard.
The tyrant's eyes went wide for a moment and his tail slackened on a reflex. Goku seized his opportunity and pushed forward, staggering onto the grass as Frieza gave out an un-dignified yelp and clutched at his damaged appendage.
"What is it with you parasites and my tail?" Frieza cried out furiously, massaging at the spot where Goku's teeth had sunk deeply into his flesh.
Goku simply spluttered uselessly for a moment, letting his lungs fill with sweet oxygen. Over the other side of the battlefield, he could feel his son's Ki rising anxiously and willed Piccolo and Krillin to keep the boy in check. In Goku's mind, he could still see Vegeta's planet killer bombarding the atmosphere, bathing the planet in resonating waves of fiery Ki and his son, his tiny son shooting through the air screaming for his daddy and launching an attack of equal quality to save the world.
He couldn't let his son do that again.
He tried to pull himself together but Frieza recovered faster, flying out to aim a taloned kick to the Saiyan's exposed neck. Goku felt it coming and was able to dodge so that Frieza's kick was thrown off course, connecting instead with Goku's muscular arm. A tremor passed over Goku's frame and he hissed as his body absorbed the impact.
Knowing that Frieza wasn't about to let up, he used the resulting shockwaves to launch himself back through the air away from the tyrant, giving himself a second to re-calibrate the angle of his stance before Frieza ploughed forward with a punch to the face and a chop to the stomach.
The two of them re-engaged in a grapple and Frieza was forced to admit as he was bombarded with a wave of solid Ki, that this was probably the most invigorating battle he had ever fought outside the few spars he had been allowed to engage in with his brother.
"We don't have much time," Shorai said urgently, beckoning his brother forward until Sensou was sitting stiffly in front of him. "Once Goku has transformed, there will be a moment where Frieza loses his composure and sends a devastating blot of Ki into the centre of planet Namek, causing the planet's core to become unstable."
Sensou's lips thinned and anxiety bounced around his stomach like a ping pong ball. Would Gohan still be on the planet when it became too dangerous? Of course he would. Sensou had to applaud the fates for bombarding his super weapon with such frequently life threatening situations. Perhaps Gohan was destined to become so powerful because he actually needed that power to simply survive.
"There will be a grapple which Goku will lose and he will disappear beneath the planet's surface to struggle with a pathway of magma. Super Saiyan though he may be, he's still not impervious to temperatures over 1,000 degrees and he won't be fully in control of his newly transformed state so he will need to take time out to pull himself out of that mess."
Sensou was frowning, trying to work out if the legendary Super Saiyan was actually supposed to die in this battle. He thought back to the compendium he had dug out of the recesses of the library, wondering why he'd never thought to see if it mentioned anything about this particular battle.
"Gohan will sense his father's Ki diminish and will assume that he's dead. He will take over the fight with Frieza – and here's where we hit the problem."
Shorai took a deep breath, running his hands through his hair as he fought not to fall into the crack that had emerged in the web of fate, eager to get everything out so they could start trying to figure out how to avoid this foreseen disaster.
"Originally, Gohan was to fight to keep Frieza at bay, managing to survive until Goku returned by enticing the overlord into a game of chase. Now…there's a rift…Frieza may very well just kill the boy."
Sensou blinked, his eyes bugging out slightly.
Frieza was just going to kill the boy.
A snap of his taloned fingers and the warrior god's super weapon would be no more.
He'd worked so hard to train the whelp…
It could not happen.
"What can we do?" Sensou asked, his voice monotonous as he tried to quell the rising dread inside him.
"I was hoping you might have an idea," Shorai admitted, looking hopefully at his brother.
Sensou took a deep breath in and held it as he frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose as he thought. There had to be some way out of this mess, some way to convince Frieza to…to what? Spare the boy? After what Gohan had managed to do to him? Impossible.
Shifting into a crouch, the warrior god turned to face the dimension window once more, churning over the information Shorai had presented to him. He watched vaguely as Goku took a bludgeon to the head and shot down into the peak of a volcano. The scene on the window shifted to Gohan as the boy's Ki spiked and Sensou could see his tail whipping out behind him agitatedly.
His tail…
"Shorai…you said Frieza's energy blast makes the planet's core unstable, correct?" Sensou asked slowly.
Shorai raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what Sensou was getting at.
"Yes?"
"Surely that would have detrimental effects on the planet…freakish weather etc, right?"
Shorai took a brief look at the landscape of Namek through the memory of his vision, cataloguing the devastation - the thick, tar coloured clouds, the lightning storms and the tornadoes touching down violently in water or on broken land.
"…Yes?" he said eventually.
Sensou's eyes were alight with cunning as he responded.
"If the sky is dark enough, the conditions would be right for a Ki blast that replicated moonlight…"
Shorai's eyes widened as he cottoned on to his brother's plan.
"Gohan would transform…"
"…and could keep Frieza subdued," Sensou finished, pulling a face. "I never taught the boy the technique to replicate moonlight…with Namek's suns; I didn't think it would be a worthwhile skill to learn for this battle."
Shorai felt his heart beat stagger in his chest and gulped uneasily. He had an idea of how this particular obstacle could be overcome but he didn't like it. Still, desperate situations called for desperate solutions and this was certainly becoming a desperate situation.
"We can ask permission of the Four Winds to create the ball of moonlight ourselves," Shorai said quietly. "Ma could take you so you could create the ball…"
Sensou's expression morphed from stoic concentration to intense disbelief. The change would have been comical under different circumstances.
"Have you lost your mind brother? We are not permitted to make physical changes in dimensions that are not our own. Our own fates could unravel if we interfere, I'm not even a seer and I know that."
Shorai nodded, waiting until Sensou was finished before replying.
"I know that brother but this is not exactly a normal situation. There's a rift involved and the rules can be bent to right things again if necessary. The least we could do is ask…I don't know about you but I don't exactly have a better plan at the moment and Goku's not far away from transformation."
Sensou regarded his brother through steely eyes before glancing back at the dimension window, watching his super weapon vibrating on the back drop of the green Namekian sky.
"Alright…how long have we got to make this request?"
Goku dodged beneath Frieza's attack and aimed a sharp jab up into the tyrant's exposed rib. Frieza jerked automatically as he felt the stab of hard fingers in a sensitive area giving Goku just enough time to gather the energy he needed.
"Ka…me…ha…me…HA!"
The sky was bathed in azure light as the energy flared to life in the air. It barrelled down towards the overlord much faster than Krillin remembered it ever being and connected. The ball of energy exploded so shots of wild Ki rained down over the battlefield, deepening the craters that had been left behind after both Gohan and Vegeta's earlier attacks.
For a moment, blind hope jumped up in Krillin's system but then he saw the monster appear behind Goku without a scratch on him. His hope slipped away but he tried not to let his facial expression change in case the vibrating boy beside him caught on to his despair and surged forward rashly to try and help his father out of a situation deemed futile.
Goku sensed Frieza's shift and moved reflexively, throwing himself back in the air for all the good it did him. The back of the overlord's hand connected with Goku's jaw and the Saiyan warrior staggered under the impact. When he managed to correct his stance to face Frieza once again, a new trail of dark liquid was slipping down from a cut lip to mingle with the dirt on his face.
"My, you are absolutely filthy," Frieza commented casually. "I don't think it would be wise to continue fighting with wounds that could become infected. Why don't you take a moment to have a bath?"
Before Goku could figure out what Frieza meant by that particularly cryptic taunt, the tyrant's fist had collided with the side of his face once more and he was sent free-falling down into the water below, skimming on the surface like a rounded pebble before sinking beneath the waves.
Frieza smirked unpleasantly and flew down, dipping his foot under the waves to rest on his opponent's head. His muscular feet locked in Goku's hair and in a moment, the pathetic monkey was panicking.
Goku struggled beneath the water, clamping both hands around the tyrant's leg but it was like trying to shift a vice. He could feel his lungs starting to burn and his vision start to waver as he fought to hold the air in but it was no use. In a moment, flashes of darkness seeped over his eyes and he lost the precious air he had been trying to hold in. The bubbles spiralled up in the water before him to break on the surface and Frieza's smirk widened when he saw them popping just in front of his water-logged victim.
"It seems it was too difficult for me to wash away the filth contaminating the Saiyan blood line. Oh well, I guess the only thing to do is drown the parasite infested creature so it can't spread the corruption," the tyrant muttered to himself.
Beneath the surface of the water, Goku sagged like a sack and closed his eyes, out of energy and out of time.
There was a wind.
But the wind was lonely.
It blew across a barren landscape littered with craters and cracks.
There had been a battle here.
Every so often, he'd be able to see the finer details of a village smashed to ruin with tinted glass littering the ground and fallen rubble crushing the many vegetable patches the Namekian's had obviously spent time and care nurturing.
Eventually though, there was nothing but the wind running over the landscape…
…and the body.
At first, Goku thought it was Vegeta. Someone had obviously dug the prince up though Goku couldn't figure out for the life of him why anyone would want to desecrate something as sacred as a grave. Sure, Vegeta's burial hadn't exactly been the state affair it probably should have been what with him being royal and everything but Goku had created Vegeta's grave out of respect and that, to him, was enough.
As he drew closer though, pulled by some invisible force, he realised that it wasn't Vegeta laying stomach down in the dirt, his face turned away to stare out at nothing.
The breeze tugged at the baggy fabric of his orange gi, the relentless sun glinted on his domed head. The eyes, still open in death, held an expression of fear though they were shadowed with the lack of life.
"Krillin?" Goku cried out and as soon as he uttered the bald monk's name, the invisible force pulling him forward changed direction, skirting around the lonely body on Namek and yanking him away.
There was a shift and the backdrop was fire.
He knew by the buildings and the bodies carpeting the ground that this was Earth. In the distance, he could just make out Bulma's home, the Capsule Corp as it fell to the fire, crumpling like it was made of paper Mache rather than bricks and mortar.
"No…" he whispered.
As he watched the decimation of his oldest friend's home, he tried to feel out the Ki of his loved ones, pictures of their smiling faces running through his head, superimposed over the fire to create something sinister.
He felt out for Tien and Chaotsu in the mountains but drew a blank. He felt out for Yamcha at the local stadium but drew a blank. He felt out for Master Roshi, Oolong, Puar, then Yajirobe and Korin, the Ox King of Fry Pan Mountain – even Kami and Piccolo…
Nothing.
With a terrible feeling in his heart, he felt out for Chi Chi at their home, picturing her face in his mind – the dark hair whipping over her face as she opened the window in the kitchen, the way the light caught on her porcelain skin as she dug up the garden on a sunny day, the way she would get so angry and lash out at him only to give him tender reconciliation later on.
But again there was nothing.
Then he heard it.
"Daddy!"
"Gohan!" Goku called out, his voice shattering the eerie silence that hung over the decimated city. He tried to take off towards his son, feeling the flickering Ki, the last life in the world, the most precious one of all but he was stuck steadfast watching Bulma's collapsing home.
"Daddy!" Gohan's voice cried out again, more terrified now and Goku fought with everything he had to break free of these bizarre restraints. What was holding him here? Why couldn't he shake it off to go to his son's aid? Why did it feel like an anchor on the top of his head?
"Help me!" Gohan's voice cried out once more before he heard the sickening sound of something skewering flesh.
"NO!" Goku screamed, feeling something deep within himself stir.
There was a primal shift.
A thudding heart beat.
And Goku felt his power output breaking the boundaries of conventional thought.
But even that power surge was not enough.
Through some bizarre twist of omniscience, Goku was able to watch as his tiny son crumpled in the rubble from his imprisoned position. As the light left Gohan's eyes and he fell, Goku was finally able to see the tyrant laughing maniacally, his right hand covered in blood and gore.
Everything went dark.
"Kakarot."
Goku whipped round in the inky black looking for the fallen prince of all Saiyans. His eyes fell on a shadow in the darkness slowly becoming more defined as Goku stared.
"What you have been shown is just a taste of what Frieza will do if he's actually able to leave this planet alive."
Ever so slowly, Vegeta came into focus and Goku could feel himself gawping openly. The Saiyan prince was completely naked, his muscles providing dynamic shadows as they were bathed in light from an unknown source. His tail had grown back, much longer than Gohan's and left freely to dangle behind him rather than wrapped around his waist as it had been on Earth, a sign that he had thrown off the confines of regiment that he had learnt under Frieza's rule.
Other than this, he was exactly the same as Goku remembered him though there was something different about the eyes. The prince still wore his patented look of condescending disapproval but the eyes were calmer, less full of vanity and pride.
"You can't be soft this time Kakarot," the prince said and his voice echoed through the dark nothingness.
"You have to have the guts to finish him. Avenge our people completely or watch your own world fall."
Goku said nothing in response, knowing somehow that he shouldn't speak.
"You can feel the Saiyan blood burning through you, I know you do. I saw the shift in your power, like your son's; I know you can become a Super Saiyan. You just have to grasp on to that legendary power and accept your heritage."
Vegeta's image began to fade back into the shadows and Goku felt a profound sense of loss though he wasn't sure why.
"Grasp onto that legendary power," Vegeta's voice was barely a whisper and Goku had to lean towards him to hear it.
Then suddenly, though Vegeta's visage had blended completely back into the shadows, it seemed like the prince was right behind him. His voice sounded in Goku's ear.
"Do it now!"
Frieza felt as Goku stopped struggling, his hands slackening around the overlord's ankle and dropping like lead weights into the water. Triumphantly, the tyrant tossed a glance at the others in the sky, regarding the aura of the young boy which was pulsating around him like a distant flame.
"Well, that takes care of that," Frieza muttered smugly.
In true methodical fashion, the tyrant started to separate his remaining opponents in order of how much of a threat they posed. It was obvious that the boy would have to be the first to go. With his power and his naivety, Frieza would-
He glanced down sharply as the water around the foot still holding on to the unconscious Saiyan started boiling. For a few seconds, Frieza simply stared disbelievingly at the water before pulling his foot out and complaining mightily as he examined blistering flesh. With livid eyes, he glared at the water, wondering what the hell had just happened until there was an upsurge and a geyser of heated liquid erupted up and outwards.
Frieza scowled darkly as his opponent emerged with the full flaming aura of a pissed off Saiyan. He flinched when he saw the sparks of gold glinting within the bulging white of Goku's Ki output like a sign of the apocalypse. The overlord dropped back as the Saiyan touched down on the grass, his attire dripping.
Goku stared at the tyrant and his shadowed eyes were intense.
"Kaioken…x…10!" He shouted.
'Grasp on to that legendary power.'
There was an explosion that seemed to run the length of his veins, bathing his body in liquid fire. The aura around him resonated and burst outwards, creating a dome of violent red energy sprinkled with tiny static sparks of gold. He lost himself to the inferno, struggling to hold his body together though his muscles no longer felt like they were attached to his skeletal frame. He grit his teeth and felt the friction between his jaws, grateful for the anchor to his strained body.
In the back of his mind he could hear someone ranting and realised that it must be King Kai but the opponent before him was getting ready to move and to Goku, it seemed that Frieza was shifting in slow motion, his movements graceful. Like this, Goku could see clearly what he was up against, could see how smoothly executed Frieza's attacks were and in a weird way, he appreciated the overlord's precision, the obvious martial talent.
Goku took a moment to decide on a counter attack and fortify himself before propelling himself forward.
Frieza saw the attack before it was able to come to fruition and was able to block by jabbing an elbow out at the last possible minute. The high kick that Goku had been aiming to embed in the soft part of Frieza's back crunched against Frieza's arm and the overlord felt an unpleasant sensation run beneath his sinew and muscle. Surprise and irritation intermingled in his system as he tried to push the Saiyan off and was met with crippling resistance. Somewhere inside he could feel a twinge of fear blooming up like a flower in his system.
Where in the world was this Saiyan pest getting his power? What was the distinctive golden spark in the auras of both this Saiyan and his half-breed son all about? Why did Frieza feel this uncomfortable squirm every time he caught a glimpse of it?
Eventually, Frieza was able to throw Goku off to gain the upper hand, tossing out one of his favoured Ki blasts, a spike of energy designed to drive straight through his opponents so their innards decorated the ground. Goku saw it coming and simply extended his arm, batting the energy away like an annoying fly when it was within range.
Using Frieza's resulting confusion and with the light emanating from the blast to hide him, he darted forward, ramming a flat palmed hand to the side of Frieza's face.
Frieza felt the sting of the collision and was thrown backwards in the air.
'This can't be happening.'
He landed at a harsh angle and almost bent one of his arms back on itself.
'That monkey cannot be doing this to me.'
Reactively, he poured his energy into his arm, fortifying the bone so it didn't crack as he skidded along the dirt, pulling up defenceless foliage on his way past with little remorse.
'I won't allow that monkey to do this to me.'
He ground himself to a halt in the soil and made a point of standing straight back up, ignoring the swell of pain in his arm as he moved. Carefully, he felt around the substantial graze, prodding the puckered skin and staring at the blood on the tips of his fingers.
He growled as he turned to face his opponent this time, vexed that the burning red aura was still firmly in place.
On the other side of the battlefield, Gohan released his Ki so the aura around him dispersed, breathing out slowly as he focussed on the battle. When his father had been booted into the water, he'd jolted, intending to rocket forward with a Ki enhanced kick to the tyrant's face but Krillin had reacted, remembering how Gohan had taken off during the Saiyan battle when his daddy was in trouble, and gripped his shoulder hard.
"Goku's fine," Krillin had assured him. "Just feel his Ki."
Gohan had simply stared at the bald monk. His Ki? Couldn't Krillin see what was happening? Even if he was okay now in a few minutes, he'd lose the air in his lungs and die…
"Krillin's right kid," Piccolo assured him, putting a gentler hand on Gohan's other shoulder. Gohan had glanced up into his almost mentor's eyes, noting the serious expression on his friend's face and had made a point of exercising everything he had learnt about self control. The aura had inflamed around him and Piccolo and Krillin had released his shoulders, feeling the calming thrum shoot through Gohan's output. This was a way for Gohan to extricate unwanted energy, the way to keep calm in a scary situation and both older warriors understood it.
As Goku had emerged to confront Frieza once more in an impressive display of shooting water and red Kaioken enhanced energy, Krillin had watched Gohan relax and felt himself following suit. He had enough faith in Goku's abilities and it was obvious that his old friend was putting up more of a fight than any of the others had, the proof was in the grazes and bruises appearing on Frieza's body, in the way the overlord was starting to get frustrated, but Krillin couldn't help the uneasiness that came with watching Goku struggle like that. Even against King Piccolo, Goku hadn't had this much trouble, even against Vegeta…
Frieza's eyes seemed to be trying to pierce through Goku and he tried to prepare himself for what was to come, knowing that the overlord would increase his speed in response to Goku's Kaioken. He estimated that he had about 5 minutes of Kaioken infused energy left before it petered out and he was left exhausted in the dust, at the mercy of the tyrant. He knew it was a feat of astronomical significance that he was able to tap into so much energy using this technique without being torn apart but he wasn't entirely sure what state he would be in once that energy left him.
Aware that he was running out of time, Goku took the initiative and launched an offensive. Frieza saw it coming and smirked as he readied himself to perform his own interesting technique.
It was a technique that he had learnt fighting his brother in the wastes of one of their decimated planets. Cooler had been besting him for most of the match and, enraged by this, Frieza had inadvertently tapped into a strange ability, encompassing his brother's Ki in a bubble which allowed him to take full control of the body. Frieza had spent a delightful couple of hours whimsically smashing his brother into various ruins and rock formations. It was still one of the only times he had ever won a spar against that beast.
Of course, the downside of the ability was that, once the user released his hold, it left him quite drained. Frieza had spent the better part of 2 days asleep on one of his invasion ships and had awoken in a foul mood.
Still, it would be fun to really play with this monkey.
Stretching his arm out casually, Frieza created a binding web of intricate Ki and released it just as his Saiyan opponent was about to release a right hook to his stomach. To Goku, it felt like walking through a spider's web and he knew the moment that a deep yellow glow encompassed him that something was wrong.
With a flick of his index finger, Frieza forced Goku to halt his attack in mid-air, his muscles taut and bulging. Goku reeled back in surprise but found he couldn't even do that, stuck fast in the air before the wicked overlord, completely exposed. With a mounting sense of serious unease, he tried to move anything he could, trying first to wiggle his toes, then to move his fingers but even his eyes were stuck firmly in place.
"You know what I always liked to play as a child?" the overlord asked devilishly, moving around Goku's trussed up body like he was examining a work of art.
His lips curled upwards, his eyes flashed.
"Pinball," he said simply and kicked Goku hard in the side, sending him into the air. Goku felt a harsh wave of serious pain sweep through his system as he became haphazardly airborne though he was unable to move his arm down to clutch at his damaged side. Before the pain from that first attack could disperse, Frieza had appeared a few feet in front of him, aiming another kick to Goku's other side.
For the next few minutes, Frieza took pleasure in beating Goku around in a complicated game of 'pinball'. As the game dragged on, Goku's phenomenal Kaioken died and a number of concerning injuries started to crop up on his body. There was a gash on the side of his ribs that cut through the shredded orange gi and the blue shirt beneath to draw a harsh line of crimson blood, there were dark black bruises already staining his arms and shoulders. His neck looked like it had been punctured and all the while Goku took damage, Frieza smiled that crocodile smile.
"It seems we have come to the end of the road where this is concerned," Frieza whispered neatly in Goku's ear as he caught the Saiyan in the air. With a precise pull, Frieza released the shattered body of the Saiyan from his control, punching Goku into free fall so he landed with a ground shattering crunch on the side of one of the remaining rocky hills.
Goku felt as his back cracked against the jagged edge of the hillside and he let out an involuntary shriek as the agony shuddered through him, spreading out from his spinal cord. The hill side beneath him crumbled into rubble and as the rocks fell around him, he could hear the diabolical laughter of the tyrant.
'Goku…Goku?'
Goku concentrated on regulating his breathing as his body started to go into shock. He shivered harshly and curled in on himself.
'King Kai…'
'Goku…the Kaioken isn't working, you're going to have to use the Spirit Bomb.'
Goku kept his eyes locked on one of the skittering stones as it came to a stop. He didn't have much time; the overlord would be through the rubble in a moment to begin the game anew.
'It won't work King Kai,' Goku told his friend and mentor steadily. 'There's not enough life left on the planet.'
He took a deep breath in and held it as a spasm of pain enveloped him and only let it out as the spasm passed.
'So use the surrounding planets. The energy will take a little longer to get there but it will be worth it.'
Goku closed his eyes against the pain, wishing that he could just defeat this enemy with his own energy.
'I don't have that kind of time King Kai,' Goku tried to explain.
'Look, it'll be a repeat of the Saiyan invasion; your friends can keep Frieza occup-
'No! I won't put Gohan through anymore and I need Piccolo to watch him to make sure he won't disappear again!'
King Kai felt the sudden surge of genuine fear lining Goku's Ki from his position in Otherworld and his heart cried out to the man. It made sense for Goku to harbour a lingering despondency following the disappearance of his still very young son, a parental instinct that made talking logic very difficult to process. But this needed to be done; the Spirit Bomb had to be used.
'Goku, if you don't use the Spirit Bomb and end this now then your son will disappear anyway. He'll be killed, along with the rest of you.'
Goku bristled, uncurling slightly as irritation lined his features.
'I know you want to make sure that nothing happens to Gohan but you have to trust your friends too. They'll help you, all of them will, Gohan included.'
Goku took a deep breath in, taking just a single moment to appreciate how much he did not like this plan before exhaling the stress and standing, using the rubble to hide the fact that he was preparing to try and gather energy from the surrounding planets. Holding his arms up straight, he cleared his mind of his anxieties and focussed.
In the air, Frieza was honestly beginning to think that his opponent was dead, or if not dead then alarmingly close to it. Tossing a look at the Saiyan's useless companions, he started to descend into the rubble. As a young adolescent, Frieza had learnt early on to always check for bodies if the fight was particularly off-putting and though the tyrant loathed to admit it, this fight was definitely one that merited the term 'off-putting'.
Sheltered as he was by rocks and stones, Goku stretched out with gentle senses and started to tug the energy away from the planets that surrounded Namek, calling it to help quash a threat to the solar system. Carefully, he used the technique that King Kai had taught him to form the gathered energy into a growing orb in the sky and as the ball took form, Goku was able to measure how much energy he would need to stop the overlord. This particular power ball was going to be immense.
Frieza swooped low over the debris catching sight of the Saiyan standing with his arms stretched up to the sky and mistook the stance for a gesture of surrender.
"Putting your arms up is not going to stop me from shooting you," Frieza informed him, his feet resting easily on the ground as he landed.
Goku said nothing, praying that Frieza wouldn't look up in the next couple of minutes. The overlord regarded him through icy eyes.
"Come now, this isn't like when you were a child and you thought the monsters would go away if you simply stood still enough. I am paying full attention to you my friend, you should feel honoured," Frieza went on.
Again Goku said nothing, concentrating instead on feeling the tiny granules of energy streaking through the sky and grass.
For some reason, the lack of movement from his opponent irked Frieza and in a moment of wild agitation, the overlord launched himself forward to smack Goku clean through the remaining rocks into the ocean, glinting under the high sun.
Piccolo frowned as he watched Goku take the hit, confused when his old nemesis refused to fight back. It just wasn't like Goku.
"Oh man…" Krillin whispered beside him, blinking as he realised that he recognised that stance, the same stance he had seen his best friend take up when he was planning to use King Kai's 'Spirit Bomb' technique on Vegeta.
"What is it?" Piccolo asked sharply, aware that Krillin was somehow privy to what Goku was up to.
Krillin's eyes skirted up and sure enough, there in the sky like another sun, was Goku's gathered energy for the Spirit Bomb. The bald monk's mouth fell open as he tried to comprehend the sheer magnitude of that attack, a ball that lit the sky like a meteorite hovering on the stratosphere – waiting for the signal to fall from the heavens and decimate everything within the surrounding area. He could feel the heat glancing off of his head and found himself wishing, in all randomness, that he'd thought to put on sun cream.
"Uh…guys?" Krillin whispered, pointing disbelievingly at the orb in the sky.
Piccolo and Gohan glanced up as one and both of them wore identical expressions of shock and awe as they too tried to fathom the true magnificence of that attack.
The sound of splashing water had them dragging their eyes away from that awesome spectacle as Goku aimed a distracting punch to the tyrant's face, all the while keeping one hand raised in the sky to hold on to his energy. Piccolo twigged immediately how the technique worked, despite never really having seen it before, and judged that now was a good time to interfere with the fight.
"Listen up," he said gruffly so the others would pay attention. "Goku has to hold on to that thing while he gathers the necessary energy for it which means he's really just stuck out there like a sitting duck for Frieza. It goes against protocol for a fight like this but we're going to have to jump in."
Gohan nodded, a serious expression in place on his young face. Releasing the restraints on his Ki, he let his power build.
Krillin shot Piccolo a terrified look.
"I've got nothing left Piccolo," he admitted, grimacing as he remembered his freakish, reflexive attack on Vegeta as he had lunged for him in mid-air. Curse that Saiyan prince and his wild ideas. It had been a waste of time and energy in the end.
Piccolo grunted in affirmation.
"You need to stay back then, you'll only get in the way. Keep an eye on the proceedings. If it looks like we're in trouble, we might need you to try and muster up the energy for a surprise attack."
Krillin saluted earnestly.
"Aye aye sir."
Fighting the urge to roll his eyes, Piccolo took off with Gohan in tow towards the tyrant.
On the battlefield, Frieza was giving Goku a judgemental look as the Saiyan stood before him with defiant eyes, still holding his hands up to the sky like it was going to offer a solution to his current, futile situation. The overlord was sure he didn't know much about Saiyan religion and he knew even less about human religion so perhaps this was some kind of weird prayer?
"I'm not entirely sure what you're up to but I have to confess, it's beginning to irritate me," Frieza said darkly, frowning as he watched Goku's eyebrow twitch. "If you're trying to find some absolution from some great deity before I finally kill you, I'm afraid…you're…going to be…"
The tyrant trailed off as his eyes snaked up into the sky, following the direction of Goku's outstretched hands.
His mouth fell open.
'What in the world is that?'
He had never seen anything like it. Even his own Ki blasts could never match the size of that thing, the rippling intensity. It was monstrous, overwhelming and completely superior to anything Frieza could produce. That thought alone was enough to unhinge the tyrant. He knew that he was the be all and end all of the universe, the core of existence itself. Not that he was arrogant enough to proclaim himself able to re-arrange the cosmos but he certainly had more input than anyone else. Planets had bowed down before him, he had created a systematic network of populaces that knew only his leadership…how could something like this even be possible?
A trick, it had to be a trick.
"How are you doing that?" Frieza asked crudely, pointing up to the power ball in the sky like a child. His eyes were small and panicked.
When Goku didn't respond, Frieza's expression seemed to warp into something almost…manic.
"I need to know how you're doing that, tell me now or I'll obliterate you!"
Goku caught the tone of hysteria lacing Frieza's voice and knew that his attack was almost ready. He could feel the surrounding planets literally giving the last of themselves to help destroy this creature. The nightmare would end today.
When Goku once again did not respond, Frieza lost it completely, screaming unintelligibly and vaulting forward with a distinctive pink Ki blast already forming in his fist. In a dark moment of surprise however, the tyrant felt as two completely solid objects impacted the sides of his face at exactly the same time. The overlord caught the brunt of both collisions on his ears and crumpled mid-attack, howling as agony and white noise enveloped him.
Gohan and Piccolo dropped down beside Goku, lowering their knees and widening their stances. Goku blinked first at Piccolo before throwing a lingering look at Gohan.
"How much time?" Piccolo snarled as the tyrant started to get back up.
"I only need another minute or so," Goku confirmed, wishing with everything inside him that he could reach out to touch his little boy.
"Alright, both Gohan and I are going to try and distract him for the time being. When that thing's ready, you have to let us know," Piccolo told the Saiyan – his eyes sharp as he observed Frieza shaking his head, trying to rid himself of the ringing obviously still plaguing his now sensitive ears.
"How?" Goku asked urgently.
Gohan glanced back at his father as Frieza fixed them all with an infuriated glower. Familiar black eyes met Goku's and the Saiyan felt a pang of acute homesickness when he could see Chi Chi reflected there.
"It's okay Mr Piccolo, I saw this move once before when we were on Earth against the Saiyans, I think I'll be able to tell when dad's about to throw it," the boy promised.
Piccolo gave Gohan a long stare but by this point, they were out of preparation time, Frieza was raising one of his hands to form a Ki blast while the other was pulled back by his side in a budding fist. Seeing this, Gohan shot forward to engage the tyrant with Piccolo flanking on Frieza's exposed side.
Goku felt a pull of serious parental anxiety in his gut as he watched his son start fighting the monster that even he himself had trouble dealing with but knew that he had to concentrate if he was to finish forming the Spirit Bomb in the next 30 seconds or so. The last of the trickling energy was pouring into that resonating light in the sky and Goku could feel the right time to launch his attack drawing near. His heart rate increased in anticipation.
Of course, Frieza wasn't stupid. While he hadn't heard the hurried conversation that had taken place, he knew a distraction technique when he saw it and despite Piccolo and Gohan's intervention, he kept aiming his attacks at Goku's vulnerable form.
For every blast he launched though, either Piccolo or Gohan was there to swipe it away, risking serious injury to do so. As Frieza's attacks became more frantic, the two warriors were starting to show the wear. Gohan was sporting a nasty gash to the forehead, blood seeping through his thick hair, slipping into his eyes so he had to keep blinking and flicking his head to clear the visual obstruction. Piccolo was clutching at his side which was starting to bruise beneath his thread bare gi, showcasing what was most likely a cracked rib.
Somehow though, despite the odds, they seemed to be surviving.
Then Frieza managed to grab Gohan's tail.
Shorai paused as both he and Sensou made their way across the meadow to the dimension door and crumpled on the grass until he was sitting in a hunched up, cross legged position breathing heavily. Sensou recognised the signs at once and his breath hitched as he fell back to crouch before his brother, his expression serious.
"No…no…" Shorai was whispering, terrified.
"What, what is it?" Sensou hissed, unnerved by his brother's frightened face.
"Frieza…will…"
He was finding it difficult to talk as he watched all paths converging into a single, negative line. Frieza had managed to grasp on to Gohan's tail and if he managed to remove it…if he managed to remove it…
Sensou watched with a shudder as his brother's eyes rolled forward, his forehead lined with a sheen of sparkling sweat. Shorai gawped up at the warrior god through blood shot eyes.
"Frieza has managed to get a hold on Gohan's tail. If he removes it, Gohan is destined to die," the seer said.
Dun, dun, dun! Will Frieza remove Gohan's tail? Will Gohan fall without it? Will Goku fulfil the legend and become a Super Saiyan as expected?
Find out next time on…ADVENTURE TIME!
(sings) Adventure time, come on and grab your friends…
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