Gohan and Tien were munching delightedly on their lunches when Chiaotzu unexpectedly exploded.
Coughing, the Namekian he had been training with tried unsuccessfully to remove the soot from his cape and antennae. Yamcha was still trying to fix King Kai's car after becoming intimately familiar with the engine block the first day on the small planetoid. Every time he complained, King Kai would grin maliciously and produce a large black hammer, which quickly made contact with the Earthling's head. It was not long before Yamcha became durable enough to take any attack directed at him by anyone on the planetoid aside from the Kai, who, it seemed, was incredibly powerful despite his small stature.
Chiaotzu coughed and spluttered as the smoke surrounding him disappated. His new technique had backfired explosively, resulting in the aforementioned detonation. The small fighter recentered himself and began to spar again with the Namekian clone, while two others practiced in the shade of the tree.
Some time had passed since they had died, and having been informed via King Kai that there was a mission to Namek planned to fix the death issue, they were excited to see their friends again and have a chance to catch up.
They were all interrupted by a strangled gasp from King Kai, followed by gutteral choking sounds and inarticulate gargling. The Kai ran out of his house in a panic. "You guys are gonna be here forever!" he wailed. The assembled fighters froze.
"Mr. Kai?" Gohan asked timidly. "What do you mean? What happened?" The Kai began turning a peculiar shade of purple.
"Frieza went to Earth! No one on Earth can defeat him!" the Kai babbled. His antennae twitched. "He's there to get Vegeta!"
Chi-Chi's last sight on Earth was of her husband, anger filling his features. She knew that he wouldn't let her killer go unpunished, and that she would probably come back but... despite that, death is no small matter, Dragon Balls or no. Fear flooded her heart before suddenly everything went white. She found herself standing in front of a massive red-skinned ogre, reclining in a leather chair.
He eyed her, then sighed. "Lords above. If you're here, a lot of bad guys are going to follow. You're Goku's wife, right?" he asked. Chi-Chi nodded, still shell-shocked. The ogre grunted, then settled back in his chair. "Figured as much."
Popping sounds came from behind Chi-Chi as the line increased according to the red-skinned ogre's prediction. "Listen. I've had a long day, and it's about to get longer, so I'm going to do you a favor and send you to King Kai. Your son is there, along with all of the other people killed with him. It's not going to be too long before you're brought back anyway, so there's no point judging you right now." The ogre clicked his fingers and her field of view grew white, but just before it faded entirely, she heard an angry voice shouting and the sounds of fighting...
Her vision cleared and she stood in front of a gaping King Kai, with Gohan and the rest of the occupants of the tiny planet staring at him. Gohan stared at his mother, wheels spinning in his head, before it finally clicked...
If his mom was here, then...
A spark ignited.
It was around this time that a rebellious Frieza, freshly dead and thoroughly angry, appeared above King Kai's planet, unnoticed.
"M-mommy?" Gohan asked shakily. "W-why are you here...?"
"She's here, you little monkey brat, because I killed her. Your rebellious ape of a father didn't like that," a cruel, cold voice said. Everyone looked up. Color drained from Chi-Chi's face as she saw Frieza's third form once more. Gohan, however, sparked with anger.
"You...you hurt my mommy?" The words came out quietly.
Frieza laughed. "Of course I did, you moronic brat! Why else would I be claiming credit? If you want to blame someone, please, blame your idiot father for daring to defy me. I'm quite glad that you are all here for me to vent my frustrations on, though. It will prove very cathartic -!"
A soft whooshing sound cut the air. Unstable yellow flames flickered around an absolutely homicidal looking Gohan. With an animalistic cry, the tiny child ripped into Frieza. Without access to his full power, and with the training that Gohan had undergone in the Otherworld, Frieza was no match for the enraged Saiyan child. Pain once again became his existence.
Everyone on the planetoid fell silent, unable to tear their eyes away from the gory struggle going on above them. The most insane screams of rage tore from Gohan's throat as he ripped into the tyrannical overlord, his aura flashing gold for brief seconds. Luckily for Frieza, Gohan axe-handled him down into the clouds below. He did not come back up.
The child floated in the air, panting. His aura flashed brightly, then cut out as his burst of manic energy ran out, leaving him to fall to the ground. Piccolo flew up and grabbed the falling child, cradling him gently as the two descended. Sweat beaded Gohan's brow.
The sight of the Demon King's offspring cradling a child as though it was his own brought a smile to the faces of most of those present. Piccolo handed Gohan off to his mother, then walked off to ask King Kai exactly what had happened, as soon as the Kai recovered from the fishfaced seizure that had overcome him after seeing Frieza appear in the sky overhead.
Franz Z. Pands, CEO of SoroVestrin, sat at his desk in his retreat in the mountains, quite content with his lot in life at the moment. The company that had nearly taken over the entire tech sector would soon be a headless snake, a bear without teeth, and easy to take down without the force of the Briefs family behind it.
The cabin he was currently occupying was a heavy wood construction project he had commissioned from a foreign architect. It was two stories tall, elegantly built with cedar and pine. The interior was an electic mix of modern and rustic decor and design, though somehow it worked quite well. Isolated as it was, company was non-existent aside from those who he invited or called to come here. The seclusion of the mountains calmed Franz after long days stressing over his company.
It thus came as quite a surprise when there was a heavy knock at the door. Jolted out of a semi-trance, he nearly fell backwards from his chair in his scramble to get up to answer the door.
The man standing on his porch was tall. Very tall, to say the least. He was at least a head taller than the tallest basketball player that Franz had ever seen, and that was saying something. He also looked like if he hit a brick wall, the wall would apologize to him for existing. His muscles strained underneath his skin. He stood in a slightly slanted manner, favoring one leg over the other. As the air conditioning flew out the open door, it rippled the fabric, revealing that one leg was a highly advanced prosthetic. His suit was immaculately pressed, and he stood with the refined air of someone who knew he was powerful and knew how to use that power. His bald head glinted in the daylight.
"You are Franz Z. Pands, correct?" the man asked in a calm, level voice.
Franz blinked. "Who's asking, if you don't mind?" he stammered out.
"Someone who you should answer," the tall man replied. He stooped over slightly to enter, pushing Franz aside as if he were no more than a stalk of wheat. Franz had a sudden urge to urinate and flee. Trying to collect himself, he cleared his throat and adjusted his own tie.
"I'm pretty sure what you're doing right now is called trespassing, sir, and that's a crime. If you don't leave, I will be forced to call the police," said the CEO, with much more bravado than he actually felt. He didn't mention the concealed handgun under his jacket, thinking it best to keep that particular bit of information secret unless things turned ugly.
The tall man turned to face Franz, inspecting him with sharp, piercing eyes. He walked slowly around the house as he did so, pacing back and forth. "I see you are quite the hypocrite, Mr. Franz. You're one to talk about crime, when just earlier this week you ordered a hit on Bulma Briefs and her parents, scheduled to be carried out today." The man selected a couch to sit down upon, motioning for Franz to grab a chair to sit upon across from him. Fear sunk icy claws into the CEO of SoroVestrin, and he shakily sat down.
"What do you want?" he asked fearfully. The man laughed.
"Firstly, you should know that the hit failed, luckily for you. Your assassins are dead." A glint in the tall man's eyes gave little doubt as to who was responsible for the failure of the hit. "You have two options. One: you go ahead with the merger, forfeiting all bonuses for yourself and those in on the conspiracy, then turn you and those with you in. Or two: you can die miserably here." A malicious grin spread across the man's face. Franz yelped and scrambled out of the chair, making a mad dash out the door, barely managing to grab his keys as he ran out. The tall man slowly stood up, making no attempt to catch Franz before he reached his custom sports car.
Franz jammed the keys into the key slot and revved the engine, then took off down the road at nearly 140 miles an hour. He floored it as far as it would go, watching the needle creep closer and closer to the 200mph mark. The engine roared with power, overjoyed to finally be put through its paces.
Suddenly, a large hole appeared in the roof of the car. Massive hands reached in and grasped the sides of the roof, and suddenly the road seemed to get smaller. Franz gaped and screamed in terror as he realized the car was now airborne, and the owner of those hands was responsible.
Under the circumstances, Franz did the only thing left to him; rather than face the wrath of what surely must be either an avenging angel or a demon summoned from the depths of Hell, he yanked the door open and, after a moment's hesitation, leaped from the car to the now-distant cement. he closed his eyes as the wind rushed past his face. Time seemed to slow as he fell, and he remembered his life, from the start. His first dance, his first love...the first time he had succeeded in business. How had it come to this? He realized suddenly just how far he had gone off-course with his life, and how slowly it had been. When was the first time he had screwed someone over? Done something less-than-legal? Committed an outright crime? ...He did not know.
His end-of-life musings were violently interrupted by his fall being arrested by a pair of thick, powerful arms. The wind was knocked out of him as he fell into the grasp of the huge man, who was FLYING in the air.
Franz screamed again, in absolute despair and horror. It was a shrill shriek of absolute animal desperation, chilling to behold. He scrabbled at his jacket for his gun and wildly popped off the entire clip into the face of this inhuman creature.
He watched, horrified, as the bullets crumpled like little golden tinfoil balls against the man's skin, then fell to the ground below. He thrashed, desperately trying to get out of the grasp of whatever this thing was, but those hands held him firm. "Please, God no, leave me alone!" he shrieked. "Let me die in peace!"
The tall man grinned grimly. "You're going to come with me."
Cookies for whoever can figure out the name pun in this chapter.