Chapter 38: The Divide Begins

Mr. Satan's eyelids slowly lowered, causing the road stretching out before him to blur. A sharp bark from his companion in the next seat jolted them open again. He shook his head and winced at the pain he felt afterward.

"Oh, Bee, I need some sugar to keep me going," he grumbled. Satan extended his right hand behind his seat to grab one of the many chocolate bars he had looted from town. He clumsily tore open the wrapper while fighting to keep his eyes focused on the road.

Bee watched hungrily as Satan ate the candy. He began to pant.

"Sorry, boy, but you can't have this. Don't worry; when we stop in the next town, I'll feed you."

Satan chewed the chocolate slowly and allowed it to melt on his tongue. Concentrating on the intense sweetness kept his mind off of his headache for the moment.

Hopefully, I'll wake up before we get to the next town, he thought to himself. I can't think of a better time to wake up from a nightmare.

Once he realized he wasn't going to receive any food, Bee sat down again. He turned his attention to the mountains in the near distance. The sky above them had grown darker suddenly. Flashes of light appeared sporadically above the snow-capped peaks. He began to emit soft whimpers.

Satan swallowed and set the chocolate bar in his lap to free his right hand. He reached over and scratched the pup's head reassuringly.

"Don't worry, boy, it's just a little thunder. I'll protect you!"

"Gohan, Hatsuko and I are going to use our new technique which binds our movements to strict combinations. Use your new strength to attack Boo first and we'll move in with a secondary blow!" Piccolo instructed. His voice was slightly muffled from Boo's howls sounding below them. The ground was shaking more violently now. The rumble of plates shifting deep within the earth could be heard through all the other jarring frequencies above ground.

Gohan swallowed as his colorless aura reached its peak concentration around him. He nodded in accordance with Piccolo's command. He stole a glance of Hatsuko beside him, looking determined and far away. He turned back to Piccolo and lowered his brows.

"I'm going now!" Gohan announced forcefully.

Piccolo tensed. "Right!"

In the same moment as Gohan's departure to Boo's location, Piccolo and Hatsuko joined their scarred hands together to initiate their bond.

Gohan readied his arms to strike by hardening his biceps while forcing chi into his open palms. The hair that normally grazed his forehead was now flaring behind him from the speed he was traveling.

I just need to strike hard and fast to knock him off his guard so they can deal some decent damage. I just hope this actually works…

Boo's frame quickly sharpened in definition as Gohan closed in. He clenched his forearms and extended them outward. His jaw closed in on itself from the impact that the chi had on his upper body. All his bones, sinew and muscle hardened and felt as if they would burst.

"HaaaahahhhhHHHHH!" Gohan called while he released the melon-sized sphere of pulsating chi he had conjured. His attack collided with Majin Boo just a second before his palms. In a flash, Gohan retreated to the sky above to make room for Hatsuko and Piccolo's counter attack.

A brilliant explosion of dust and golden light followed Gohan's energy blast. He squinted but fought to keep his eyes open.

Where are they?

Just as he thought Hatsuko and Piccolo had missed their opening, Gohan noticed a significant change in the atmospheric pressure. Majin Boo's chi had been stifled.

"Wh-what?" he stammered to himself. The cloud of dust cleared below him to reveal Boo's body in two halves, floating above the severed ground. The intense heat of the chi blasts had caused Boo's flesh to melt and hang in drooping globs. His face was disfigured but still able to display extreme anguish.

Piccolo and Hatsuko had moved so quickly from their target that they were now floating above even Gohan's location. Gohan located their forms and his jaw dropped in awe.

How did they get so fast?!

Hatsuko's body posture mirrored Piccolo's and was surrounded by a matching purple mass of chi. She felt her right arm extend itself before her while her left hand closed in on its wrist. Her nose wrinkled as chi flooded her arm, extending outwards into her right palm. She knew that Piccolo was forming the same blast just yards away from her.

Majin Boo's body parts began to bubble and pulse.

"He's regenerating!" Gohan yelled out. Before he could attack Boo himself, he witnessed another explosion. Hatsuko and Piccolo both released equally powerful energy blasts simultaneously that collided with both halves of Boo's body. The fighters all recoiled from the blinding light that ensued.

Gohan removed his arm from his face and concentrated to locate Boo's energy. He felt nothing. Piccolo and Hatsuko were now beside him, staring below at where Boo had been seconds before. He tensed.

"How did you guys…?" he began then trailed off. Piccolo and Hatsuko were not looking at him, but stoically gazing downward in silence. They seemed to be barely breathing. Gohan examined Piccolo, searching for an explanation.

Piccolo, what is this?

His thought was left unanswered. Suddenly, several powerful air currents ripped through the atmosphere, all colliding into the location where Boo was moments ago.

"He's still alive," Hatsuko and Piccolo said at the same time in near whispers. Gohan's eyes widened as he witnessed Boo's body reform completely.

Boo appeared, whole and completely dressed, in midair but oriented upside down. He wore a sinister frown on his face. His muscles were compressed and shook with anger while emitting steam from his upper body.

Goku's arms began to shake. With his eyes closed, he concentrated on absorbing any residual chi he could from his depleting surroundings. The energy he was siphoning had become less concentrated as time passed. The plant and animal life in his immediate vicinity had been either killed or driven away from Boo's outbursts.

Goku felt the ground buckle beneath the soles of his feet again. He lifted his face to the sky and studied the blue orb of energy floating above him some 50 feet in the air.

It's nowhere near enough to kill Boo.

The ground shook and jolted Goku's attention behind him. A small Capsule Corp hover car approached while following the only road in the area for miles. It stalled. Goku stood a sizable distance away from the road but was able to decipher a battered Mr. Satan emerge from the car. His mouth fell open and he released a huff of air in surprise.

"Is that…?" he asked himself quietly.

Majin Boo's veins appeared to be swollen so much that they threatened to pull away from their muscle beds. His pointed teeth were clenched. A thick cloud of steam surrounded him and filled his lungs as he tried to inhale. Suddenly, a lump formed in the back of his throat. Trying to swallow yet choking, Boo gagged audibly. Saliva suddenly spewed from his now gaping mouth. On his next inhale, he felt the lump rapidly engorge. He could not suppress it any longer. His jaw unhinged itself and stretched to a size larger than the whole of his body. With a forceful cough, the original incarnation of Majin Boo fell to the ground covered in a thick layer of pink goo.

Piccolo and Hatsuko both blinked in awe at the appearance of the fat Boo. They both turned to Gohan.

"Has this happened before?" they asked together.

Gohan, still unsure of how to address his comrades, remained silent for a moment and absorbed the scene before him. He scratched the back of his head nervously.

"No, not at all, but the original monster was supposed to look like that, according to what Dad told me. Apparently, the version of Boo that we've been fighting is a product from him absorbing Vegeta. I'm not sure what this means," he said. He watched as the fat Majin Boo stood up and wobbled back and forth for a moment.

Fat Boo steadied himself and shook his head. Gobs of plasma flung from his flesh and splattered onto the ground. He opened his slanted eyes and studied his surroundings.

"How Boo end up here?" he asked himself in his high pitched speech. He sniffed the air with interest.

"Boo smell something sweet."

Mr. Satan, leaving the door to his hover car ajar, made his way to where Goku stood. His head had resumed its pounding again and in turn intermittently muffled the sounds around him.

Maybe this is when I wake up…I'll talk to the guy from the tournament to snap me out of this! There's no way in hell any of this can be real! Why would he be in the mountains looking so burnt out? Satan finished his thoughts just as he reached Goku. He lifted his hand as a greeting.

"Hey there, friend, what are you doing all the way out here? Isn't there supposed to be a town nearby?" Satan asked rather loudly.

Goku raised his brows high.

"Mr. Satan? What are you doing here? Weren't you at the Budokai? It isn't safe; you need to leave!" Goku said, raising his voice. His eyes suddenly rolled to the left as Majin Boo entered his field of vision. The pink creature was stumbling towards the hover car.

"Hey!" Goku yelled in Boo's direction. The djinn paid him no mind and continued to close in on the car.

Mr. Satan turned around and stiffened at the sight of Majin Boo.

"Whuh-What is that thing?" he stammered as a drop of mucous fell from his nose.

Goku winced from his muscles stiffening. The position he held was causing his body to cramp unbearably.

Majin Boo approached the hover car while inhaling deeply.

"It's here! Chocolate!" he said excitedly. He pressed his round face against the rear window of the car to peer inside. When he decided that he could not decipher the source of the smell, Boo opened the rear car door to investigate. Bee barked at him from the front passenger seat.

"Huh? What are you?" Boo asked while sticking his entire upper body into the car. "Will you help Boo find chocolate?"

Bee cocked his head to the left and bit his upper lip. He then met Boo in the back of the car after climbing clumsily through the bloated sacks of supplies. The puppy sniffed the bags with enthusiasm. Boo stared blankly at the dog while blinking several times.

Once Bee recognized the scent of what Mr. Satan had been eating earlier, he looked up at Boo and barked once.

Boo's eyes widened and he reached his gloved hand into the bag beneath the puppy's paws. He removed three bars of chocolate and brought them to his face to sniff.

"You found it!" he exclaimed. Bee responded with another bark and began to pant happily.

Boo shoved the candy into his mouth wrappers and all. He chewed and swallowed, all the while enjoying the sight of the puppy wagging its tail.

Goku marveled at Boo's display of joy. The pink djinn was laughing and petting the puppy on the ground outside of the hover car now. He showed no signs of aggression at all. Goku began to perspire. He turned to Mr. Satan who was still gawking next to him.

"Mr. Satan, I need your help," he said in the most serious tone he could muster. Goku thought of Goten and Trunks. Their bodies would be better off left in tact for an easy revival process.

Satan pried his eyes from the odd sequence before him to answer Goku's request.

"I need you to take the two boys over by that ledge and put them in your car. Then, drive far away from here. You got that?" Goku's words left him etched with urgency. His voice had grown hoarse from fatigue.

Mr. Satan followed Goku's gaze to where the boys' bodies lay. His eyes widened.

The kids from the Junior Division…are they…? He thought to himself. He swallowed.

"No problem. I got them," Satan answered before sprinting away.

Goku sighed heavily and returned his attention to the battle below him. Majin Boo had fallen to the ground and was not easily visible anymore. Piccolo, Hatsuko and Gohan were still floating in the air while keeping watchful eyes on him.

"Do you think he's going to spit Vegeta out next?" Gohan asked.

Piccolo and Hatsuko both looked at him with their cold stares.

"I'm unsure how this creature functions," they both answered flatly before turning to look down again.

Below them, Boo was lying still on the ground. He slowly picked himself up by pressing the earth away from him with his forearms. He growled in pain. Steady streams of saliva continued to pour from his mouth.

"What…is happening?" Boo groaned.

"Now."

Gohan barely heard Piccolo and Hatsuko speak before he realized they had vanished. He gasped as he tried to locate their movements.

"Wait!" he called.

Piccolo and Hatsuko both made contact with Boo as their fists drove him through the ground, causing another large fissure. The earth shook from the damage it received.

"Guys! The earth can't take much more! Keep your fight above ground or the entire planet will explode!" Goku yelled from above. The roar of the collision had swallowed his warning.

When Boo emerged from the crack in the earth, his midsection had been dislocated and twisted around itself several times. His mouth elongated and emitted a roar of rage.