SPIRIT OF HUMANITY
Trial By Fire: A down on his luck human gets the chance of a lifetime.
(*)
One thing that could be said about humanity is that it's quite… diverse.
From Earth, litteral billions of people have lived and died. Many have been remembered for their achievements, conquests, inventions and more but the majority will eventually be forgotten and fade to dust.
People can either be the epitome of good or the vilest of evil but, again the majority is far different from the minority. More often than not, humanity spawns many variants of grey.
And this boy…
Couldn't really care less about being remembered or being moral.
"Goddamnit! Get back back here you brat!"
"Kiss my ass, pig! I gotta eat somehow, ya dick!"
This man, who's just fifteen years old, has done just about everything to do just to survive.
At 5'11 and with muscles much more developed than most men his age, the average person would naturally be weary to piss this boy off.
With long, rough, blond hair and sharp eyes, anyone could tell he was naturally on edge.
The man wore a torn white t-shirt with an orange hoodie covering it, a brown backpack, ripped jeans and shoes that seem a tad too small.
His name was Olver Cadovo and he was running and dashing from alleyway to alleyway of New York City with what someone could consider a meal.
Soon enough, Olver managed to lose the police officer and managed to flee into a nearby abandoned building in the Bronx.
The building's windows were boarded up, graffiti was written all over the outside walls and just looked like no one had lived there for years.
As he entered it, sure enough, no one else was there. Good. He doesn't need to hand out jack.
As he opens the bag the first thing Olver decides to eat is a frozen pizza.
It's not so bad. Especially when you pinch your nose and imagine something else. The texture is off and it's cold, but when you have to scavenge for food, anything can be edible.
…God, how he wanted a freshly cooked steak.
As he opens a bottle of water to rinse down the taste, he opens his backpack and gets out a towel to cover himself up in.
"Tch. This blows." He says as he tries to warm himself up. It was October 31st. Halloween. While most people his age might be out partying, trying their first drink and a few might get lucky, here he is, fighting for survival.
Fuckin' pathetic.
There are a thousand different things he wished he would be doing right now. Listening to music. Getting a date. Eating actual food. ANYTHING.
One single misfortune essentially ruined his life.
It's so DAMN INFURIATING.
"GODDAMMIT!!" The delinquent shouts as he squeezes the plastic bottle in his hand and chucks it into the wall, "WHY THE FUCK DID IT HAPPEN TO ME?! It could happen to literally anyone on Earth, anywhere in America, ANYWHERE IN NEW YORK AND I LOSE EVERYTHING!" He shouts anger and begins to engulf him, "I've got nothing! The fuck am I gonna do?!"
He lays down as he tries to catch his breath.
'Why do the people at the top get so lucky?' Olver questioned himself, 'They step all over people all the time and jack happens to them. When I suffer, do I get karma? Retribution? Hell no! My life goes downhill! Where the fuck is my good luck? Where's my girlfriend? Where's my friends? Where's the air conditioning, queen sized bed, 50 inch T.V, and shit?!'
It didn't make sense at all. He suffered so much, so why won't anything go his way?
The 'foster family' he stayed with wasn't much better than where he was now. Too crowded, noisey and every week he would end up with a new bruise.
'At least I won't have to worry about getting suckerpunched while being all alone.'
He was a solid B- student too. Good enough to get by, but when he was pressured enough, he'd get an A. Now he just doesn't go to school.
After all, what's the point of trying when you've got nothing to lose or people to impress?
He was going to start a business from the ground up and make his parents proud but who ever heard about an orphan making it good in life?
Covering himself back up with his towel, Olver pushes himself back against a wall as he begins to take deep breaths to calm his nerves.
"Just… another day."
(Several Hours Later.)
"Ah… Dammit…"
With several bones popping and crackling, Olver stretches as he wakes up.
Despite sleeping on solid concrete, it wasn't the worst sleep he's had recently.
Olver puts his towel into his backpack and puts his canned fruit and meat in as well as he widens the cracks between the wood and checks to see if there are any officers nearby…
Nothing.
Sure enough, he made his way out of the building as he covered his head as he walked into the cool October air.
As he walks down the street, he notices that children are wearing various costumes.
"That's… right. Halloween." He sighs and walks down the street.
As he walks down the alleyways, he notices that certain adults were celebrating in their own way.
As he walked near the drunken vagrants, the smell of alcohol permeated through the air, making him scrunch his nose.
"Fuckin' disgusting…"
He has to take a walk to clear his mind somehow…
As Olver crosses the street to a different alley, a man with yellowed teeth, frizzy hair and an empty bottle in his left hand follows him into the alley.
"Hey man!" The drunkard asks, slurring a bit, "Ya got a buck fifty?"
Olver squints his eyes in annoyance and pulls out his hoodie pockets, "Nothing man, I'm broke. Leave me alone."
The inebriated man groans in disappointment, "Aww c'mon man! I promise I'll pay you back!"
"No, I ain't giving you jack shit. Now piss off." Olver says with clear agitation. Just who the hell did this guy think he was? He just met him!
"The fuck did you just say ya little shit?!" The drunkard shouts as he grabs Olver by the shoulders, dropping and shattering the bottle on the ground. "I jus' asked for some cash!!"
That's it.
"I SAID PISS OFF!!" The delinquent teen shouts as he headbutts the drunken adult, breaking open the adult's nose.
Olver begins to release left hook after right hook, stomping on the man's foot to keep him in place.
First came one blow. Then another. Then another. The assault was just like his fighting style, quick, classless, brutal and no technique. While he certainly was strong at his age, if he fought someone that actually knew how to fight, chances are that he would lose.
The drunkard's face was bloodied and bruised. His nose was broken and he lost his front left tooth.
Seeing an opportunity, Olver grabs the drunk's shoulders and begins to rapidly jab his knee into his victim's stomach.
The drunkard steps back as he proceeds to empty his stomach's contents on the ground.
Olver grabs the bloodied drunkard's hair, "Ya done? You see when someone tells you to stop, you stop." A smirk stretches across Olver's face, "If you think about it, it's all your fault, and since you attempted to assault a minor, I'll get off scot free all while you go to jail. But seeing as how you didn't even busted my lip open, I'll let you go."
The adult slumps against the wall, hanging onto consciousness, moaning in pain while Olver walks away.
'Fucking bastard was asking for it! Who the hell does he think he is asking someone he just met for cash?! He was begging for it! That prick just had to come and ruin my night.'
As he walks by and sits by a nearby fire hydrant, he cracks open a can of Spam and begins to chow down.
For a brief moment, Olver could have sworn he was being watched by someone and gotten a horrible chill down his back but had shaken it off.
"Ugh…" Olver sighs as pinches his nose, "Your paranoid Olver. Ain't no one is going to get you."
As takes a deep breath, an odd stench enters his nose.
"Is that… smoke?"
As he looks around to the area he sees a ploom of smoke in the near distance.
Against his better judgement he begins to walk towards the growing ploom. Every last nerve in his body is trying to tell him to stop.
There was a crowd standing at a distance all watching in a mixture of shock and horror as several fire engines were trying to put out the burning apartment.
"The hell's happening here?" Olver asked, with his usual aggressive tone fading into that of nervousness.
"Apparently, there was an extremely strong power surge! I guess that's what must've caused the fire!" An older mustached man shouted.
As he looked at the burning building, a paralyzing sensation came over him.
A crippling fear completely engulfed his being as the inferno raged on, all while the firefighters tried to extinguish it.
His knees were weak and palms were covered in sweat. If he didn't have better self control or constitution, he may have vomited already.
'W-why the hell am I staying here?! This has nothing to do with me!? I'll just get out of here…' Olver mentally chastises himself as he shakes head to snap out of his trance.
What could he do? It was the official's job to take care of it and he sure as hell wasn't going to stick around and get burned.
As he willed himself to move and begin to shuffle his feet, a noise pierced through the air.
"HELP! I CAN'T BREATH…!"
'Shit…'
His blood ran cold as soon as he heard that scream.
"OH MY GOD! THERE'S STILL A GIRL IN THERE!" A woman shouts in horror as the crowd begins to clamor and shout in shock.
'FUCK…'
Olver began to feel numb in fear. The kind of fear where the person could not move for the life of them.
As the firefighters tried to put out the raging inferno, the young delinquent noticed that none of them were trying to make any attempt to go into the building.
"Hey! Why the fuck aren't you trying to go in?!" Olver bellowed in confusion and anger. "Are you fuckin' deaf?! There's a girl in there!"
"The flames are too violent, kid!" One of the firefighters exclaimed, "If we were to go in as is, the flames will burn us alive!"
"So, the fuck'll happen to the girl?!"
"We can only hope to put out the fire as soon as possible." The adult states as he begins to solely focus on putting out the flames.
'BULLSHIT!' The impetuous youth mentally shouted to himself, 'There's wishful thinking and then there's blind ignorance! You can hope in one and shit in the other and I guarantee the shit will fill up faster! That girl will burn alive.'
By all accounts, he doesn't have to be here. He could be hanging out and sleeping in his abandoned personal 'villa' but no.
'Goddamnit, this has jackshit to do with me! So why the hell am I so nervous?!'
He takes in a deep breath as he starts to walk away… until the scream returns as a tearful wail.
"OH THE HELL WITH THIS!!" The ruffian shouts as he runs towards the fire engine and steals a firefighter's axe.
"THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" A grizzled firefighter shouted as he saw the blonde haired youth rush into the burning building, via a broken window.
Olver didn't listen or really care about the crowd yelling for him to stop running.
'They can all shove it up their ass!' Olver thought to himself, trying to let his anger override a potential panic attack, 'They wouldn't do shit! They can go to hell for all I care!'
As he looked around the burning building, smoke burned his lungs. He crouched down and covered his mouth and nose with his hoodie.
The voice sounded like it was on the second floor as it sounded too distant to be on the first.
'Shit, it's too smoky! I gotta duck down!'
As he made his way up the stairs he began to think to himself.
'This will help me! People will notice me and I'll get rewarded! I'll get back to the top! I'll stop being stuck being in a negative place! I'll reach a positive point! THIS IS MY CHANCE TO REALLY LIVE AGAIN!'
As with many people, good actions may come out of selfish needs.
As he made his way up the stairs and up to the second floor, he called out, "HEY, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?! I-I'M HERE TO HELP!"
"S-SOMEONES IN HERE?!"
'She's in the middle left apartment!'
He quickly shuffled his way to the middle left door and busted it down with his axe.
"You're the kid that was screamin', right?!" Olver said, with clear anxiety lining his voice.
"Ar-are you h-here to save me?" The girl hiccuped. She couldn't be older than eight or so and her eyes were red with tears and smoke.
"Yeah. Hold on!" The ruffian shouts as he smashes open the window and shouts out to the people on the ground, "HEY ASSHOLES! YA GOT A LIFE NET OR SOMETHING?!"
In a heartbeat, the firemen widdend the life net for the two, "ALRIGHT! YOU DROP THE KID ON DOWN AND YOU'LL JUMP!"
Olver then grabs the child to drop her down only for her to scurry into a corner.
"The hell are you doing?! Why are you running away?!" Olver shouts to the girl, "They're going to save your life!!"
"I'm-I'm too scared!" She sniffles, "It looks too high!"
Alright, he was tired of this shit. "LISTEN!" Olver grabs the child, "You have a chance to make it out alive! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GOING TO DIE BECAUSE YOUR 'TOO SCARED' ?! ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE YOUR PARENTS SUFFER BECAUSE YOUR 'TOO SCARED' ?! GET YOUR ASS DOWN!!"
He was never that good with kids, he would usually leave the talking to his older brother.
Too scared to move, Olver picks up the girl and makes his way back to the window.
Only for the ceiling to collapse on him, letting go of the girl.
"FUCK!" He shouts as he feels like some of his spine breaks.
The girl stumbles back in horror as she sees the crippled man on the ground.
"I said.. get the hell out!" Olver winces, "You better not waste this chance!"
As the girl steps to the window she stares back at him, with snot running down her nose, "T-Thank you mister.."
And she jumps.
Olver could hear the people on the ground clamoring for him to get out but it's no use. He couldn't move.
'Is-is this how I seriously die? I mean… I guess there's much less glamorous and probably way more painful ways to die…' He thought to himself as the fire slowly began to surround him and soon he humeriously chuckled, 'At least I died in a literal blaze of glory… Pito, I'll see ya soon…'
He closes his eyes and braces for the flames to cook him alive.
'I lied, burning to death is going to be the worst way to go!'
He waits… and waits… and waits…
But nothing.
He's not burning and he doesn't even feel hot.
As Olver opened his eyes, everything wasn't moving. It was like someone paused a movie and he was living in it.
"What the fuck…?" He mumbled as he moved his hand to see if wasn't hallucinating.
He wasn't.
"What the-?! What is this?!" He screamed as he broke a piece of wood off and threw it, only for it to float in the air.
"What is this bullshit?!" He shouted in panic only to be interrupted by clapping.
"Bravo! Oh bravo! You really interested me!" Came a jubilant voice, "You seemed like an interesting fellow and, sure enough, you were! What an interesting mix of selflessness and selfishness! You'd play a perfect part in my experiment!"
"What the-?! Who's there?!"
As Olver turned his head around rapidly, a sudden figure appeared before him.
The man's skin was purple in color, ears were pointed, irises were red, his hair was white and styled into a ponytail. He was around the same height as Olver, if a bit taller at six foot. He wore circular glasses with yellow lenses, a black tight fitting shirt that showed off his muscles that also had the symbols XI on both shoulders, with yellow pants and boots finishing it off.
But it wasn't his purple skin or interesting choice of clothing that shocked Olver. It wasn't even the fact that he appeared out of the blue.
He looked like he was right out of an anime!
He looked like he was two dimensional and was like a drawing that came to life!
"What the- WHAT ARE YOU?!" Olver shouted in shock as this cartoon character that came to life walks to him.
"Ah! How rude of me! I know your name without you knowing mine!" The otherworldly man said in mock shock as he stretched out his hand to help the delinquent up, "The name is Fu. A pleasure to meet you!"
Staring at the newly introduced Fu's hand, he hesitantly goes to grab his hand.
As soon as grabs it he feels a sudden surge of power rush through him. Bones that he thought were broken began to mend and burns began to heal.
"Wha- how did you…?" Olver said, asking out of confusion as he began to push the debris off of him.
"Healing a guy like you is pretty easy, all things considered." Fu chuckles, "Heck, freezing time here is a sinch!"
"W-wait! You… did this?!" Olver shouts as looks at the flames that were suspended in place, "Just what ARE you?!"
Fu slicks his hair back in confidence, "I guess you could call me a demon, but it's closer to calling me a mix of a demon and an android!"
"I- wha- are you…?"
"Need a minute?" Fu smirks.
"Y-yeah…"
As the human scratches his head and starts to walk around, he stares at the otherworldly man, "So… you did… ALL this?" Olver says as he points to himself andand around the room frozen in time.
"Bingo!" Fu nods, "And that's not all!"
The otherworldly being begins to fly and summons a ki blast to his hand.
"Pretty cool huh?"
Olver just looked more confused, "Did- did I die? I probably died. No. I AM dying and this is just a last minute hallucination as my body shuts down."
"No you're not~!" Fu chuckles as he flicks Olvers forehead, "If you're really hallucinating you wouldn't feel that."
"Alright! You're real!" Olver mutters in annoyance as he rubs his head, "So how did you know my name?"
"Easy!" Fu states as he puts his arms behind his head in a relaxed manner, "I've been watching you for a couple days!"
"Uhh… WHY?" Olver shouts, feeling creeped out and annoyed.
"Like I said, you would play a perfect part in my experiment!" Fu smirks as his glasses shone, blocking his eyes
"Not… really answering my question. What the hell is your experiment?" Olver raises an eyebrow, "Unless your experiment is to mess with a schmuck, then what the hell is it?"
Fu places his hand on his chin, "Alright, how should I start… I know that you read and watched Dragon Ball. Remember?"
Olver eyes widened slightly as pleasant memories began to resurface, "Yeah… I used to watch it all the time with my bro. From the start of the story to the end of the Tournament of Power arc…"
Olver then takes a closer look at Fu as he begins to realize something, "Wait… WAIT WAIT WAIT, WHAT THE FUCK?!"
"Language~!" Fu says in a sing-songy fashion, "I take that you're catching on to it."
"Y-you look right out of Dragon Ball! But how the hell is that even possible?!" Olver notices.
"Well, I guess you could say I am out of Dragon Ball!" Fu says as he pushes up his glasses in a condescending manner, "I bet you heard of alternate universes, but have you ever heard about alternate realities?"
"Wait…? Dragon Ball is real…?" Olver mutters in confusion.
"Technically every story is real!" Fu chuckles, "If someone makes a story, chances are, a reality of it exists!
Olver puts a hand to his forehead as he thinks to himself, 'So… does EVERY ANIME is real…?'
"Alright… So you're from Dragon Ball…"
"Yep."
"And you came to the real- I mean my world?"
"That's correct!"
Olver sits down and sighs in exasperation, "So… Can you tell me WHAT'S the rest of the experiment?"
Fu finger guns Olver, "Gladly! You see… I like messing with time. Experimenting with alternate timelines and seeing what happens! Sometimes I put people who've died into places where they shouldn't be, give boosts to fighters to make them win their battles, etcetera! The bigger the change, the greater the success of the experiment!" Fu chuckles with childlike glee.
"Alright… I get ya…" Olver nods.
Fu gives Olver a thumbs up and grins, "Glad to see you understand! So about a few weeks ago I started to find someone suitable to help with my experiments. But I didn't want anyone from my reality! Oh no! Sending Raditz to Earth early or sending Bardock to the future! I want someone entirely NEW! I also didn't want someone entirely good or evil either! So when I found you, someone that gives no regard to the law but saved someone that had no connection to you, and you know the outline to the story of my reality, well, you're the perfect specimen for my experiment!"
Olver begins to realise what Fu's getting at, "Wait.. do you want to send me to Dragon Ball?"
"Bingo~! You're smarter than I thought!" Fu laughs, "Yep! While nothing compared to someone like Goku when he started the story, you are stronger than the average human. Plus, it's not like I'm going to send you right when the 'story' starts, I'm going to send you a few months before it so you can train up! Aren't I a nice guy?"
Olver goes to look out the window and sees the crowd frozen in the middle screaming in terror.
"I don't have anything here. My brother is gone, lifes been shitting on me left and right and I don't have any friends. I deserve better dammit!" Olver begins to grit his teeth, "Screw this place! I've been struggling to survive! I don't want to survive, I want to live for fucksake!"
Fu places a hand on Olver's shoulder to calm him down, "Olver, you benefit from this too! Like you said, you have nothing here, but in my reality you can be a superhero, an emperor, anything you want!"
"Yeah…" Olver fumes, "Yeah, you're right! This is my second chance! I can be someone!"
"Now you're thinking positive!" Fu nods, "Plus you've got knowledge on your side! If you plan it out right, you could go toe-to-toe with Vegeta and Goku or even pass them!"
"Now this world I'm sending you to will be a bit different to the Dragon Ball you know but you should be alright. Nothing like all of the Sayians living or anything like that." Fu states, giving Olver a warning.
Olver smirks, "Alright, I'm sold… so what time am I heading to?"
Fu shakes Olver's hand and has a beaming grin, "Glad we could come to an agreement! You'll be heading to November first, Age 748. About 10 months before Bulma meets Goku. You'll have plenty of time to get strong enough!"
"Alright, just give me a minute." Olver states as he stretches his body and picks up the fire axe, "Gotta have a weapon to start off with, right?"
"Now you're thinking smart!" Fu jokes, slapping Olver's back. "Now… Time Cutter: Reality Cross!"
The demon unsheathed his sword with a purple glow surrounding it, and slashed it in an X pattern, creating a wormhole.
Olver whistles in surprise and awe, "I can't wait until I can do that stuff…"
"You ready?" Fu asks as Olver takes a step back.
"You only live once!" Olver shouts as he takes a running start and jumps into the portal.
"Ha! I REALLY like this guy's style!" Fu cackles as he follows Olver into the portal.
(12:00 AM, November First, Age 748.)
"Yeah…!- OH SHIT!" Olver shouts as he plummets to the ground, with Fu floating down beside him, " You could've at least warned me… Christ that hurts."
"Yeah but you kinda ran right into that. Literally!" Fu chuckles.
As Olver looks around, he notices that they are in a densely grown forest with a lake nearby. "So where the hell are we?"
"Well… if I had to hazard a guess, I believe that we are a few miles east of South City." Fu places a finger to his chin while pointing east.
"Well, at least there's civilization nearby." Olver rubs his back as he walks towards the lake and looks at his reflection.
His hair was still blonde but looked like a shorter version of Yamcha's hair from the Emperor Pilaf Saga, while his facial features look like a mix of Tenshinhan and Vegeta. Eye's resembling Tenshinhan's but a bit more round, green irises with smaller eyebrows and his jawlines being like that of Vegeta.
"Not bad… not bad at all…" Olver nods, eyeing his reflection.
Fu nods, "Welp, looks like my work here is done!"
"Wait, you're leaving already?!" Olver asked, shocked.
"Yep! But don't worry, I'll be keeping an eye on you and I'm sure we'll meet from time to time!" Fu states as he starts to fly up.
"Wait! I… owe ya one!" Olver speaks up, "So better be damn sure we do meet again!"
Fu smirks and gives Olver a two finger salute, "Best of luck! Ciao!"
And he flies off.
Olver looks around and starts to head east, wanting to make some progress to the city.
As walks through the forest, Olver takes in the shining stars in the sky.
The sky was much more lit up with stars in the sky than in his world, all shimmering, glistening and shining.
"Actual aliens exist out there… damn…" Olver mutters as he continues on his way.
He was used to traveling long distances, living in New York did that to him, so this wasn't much.
"I gotta admit, it's pretty nice going from a concrete jungle to an actual jungle."
The crickets chirping broke up the silence that was in the forest.
Olver was spinning his axe in his left hand all while humming to himself.
"Damn… this is so quiet." He sighs to himself.
He opens up his backpack and drinks a Mountain Dew to keep himself going.
'How much is a few…? Five miles, ten miles? Twenty?'
"Alright. I have ten months to get ready. Ten months to make myself a decent fighter and to join Bulma and meet Goku to find the Dragon Balls. Then to get trained by Roshi." He rubs his head, "What was the grand prize for the Tenkaichi Budōkai? It has to be enough to gather so many people. So I'll just ring out the last opponent, I'll get the cash reward and I'll rent an apartment!"
It wouldn't be that easy.
*GROWLLLL…*
"Hell's that?" As Olver looks around, trying to find the source of the noise…
Only to see two gleaming eyes belonging to a large bear approach him.
Olver begins to back up very slowly, as not to make any sudden movements.
'FUCK! Are you serious?! It's been about an hour and the first thing I meet is a goddamn bear?! Alright, don't make any sudden loud noises and it might leave you alo-'
*SNAP*
"…Piss…"
Sure enough, the large bear began to run towards the teen with a fierce look in its eye.
"SHIT!" He screams, knowing damn well he can't outrun a bear. In self defense, he swings his axe and-
*Crack!*
"O-oh… that wasn't that bad…" Olver murmurs, looking a bit green in the face as the bear slumps over dead with an axe in its forehead.
"I should… get the hell out of here." He gags and shudders as he pulls out his axe.
(Thirty minutes latter)
After finding a clearing in the forest, Olver wraps himself up in his towel and tries to go to sleep.
"Alright Olver, this is your big chance. You'll get famous and become a celebrity. Hell, I could even get godly powers! I owe Fu big time. I will get past my negative point and I'll be able to reach a positive." He yawns and his eyes begin to close, "Pito, if only you could see me now… heh."
(???)
Fu sighs as he stretches and begins to watch a screen in his laboratory, watching Olver drift off into sleep.
"Alright Olver, best of luck to you buddy! Whatever changes you make, positive or negative, we'll benefit!"
(*)
Power Levels
Olver: 7.5
Drunkard: 4.5
Average Police Officer: 7-10
Prime Athletes: 15-20
Goku (start of the series): 50
Fu: Realm of the Gods.
Welp folks this is my second fanfic and I bet you're wondering why I made a protage stay a Human?
Well, Humans got a bum rap from Z onwards and I desperately want to show that Humans could still go toe to toe with the Sayians and villains.
I also wanted to make the protagonist start off as not necessarily a good guy but not a bad guy either. A more morally light grey character that will improve and become more good as time goes on.
I also have a pairing plan for Olver but I'm not telling so leave a guess in the reviews!
Olver Cadovo's name comes from Avocado Oil, as with most Dragon Ball names it comes from a pun.
Thank you for reading and Adios!