((Author's notes:

Sorry it's been so long. Real life is busy. But the Buu saga is about done. After I wrap it up, I think I'll do a couple of stand alone stories based in the SMG universe. Bea still needs his origin story, and I think a look at the SMG in their full blown mercenary days would be fun to write. Anyway. Enjoy. As always I love getting reviews or comments.

Thanks,

-beepx22))

Chapter 36

Pikada let his shield drop. He stood on very spongy ground, and sweltered in a dank and dark heat. A sickly sweet smell laced with a sour acidic taint assaulted his nostrils.

"What the fuck is all of this now?" He asked out loud.

There was no one to answer. Pikada pivoted in place. A horrible thought dawned on him. He was inside Buu.

"My shield." He said. "Must have kept me from being absorbed. Shit. Gotta be careful or I'll start talking to myself…" Pikada looked around to find a path that trailed away in two directions. He nodded as he made a random decision and began to walk.

OoOoOoOoO

A knee slammed into Buu's back, sending him careening into a ribbon of blacktop. He bounced and landed. Then he gazed up.

"You!" Buu exclaimed. "I thought I had already sent you to hell."

Gohan landed, his feet kicking up dust as he slid to a halt. "Sorry, Buu. I'm a little tougher than I look I guess." He said. "On the other hand it seems like you've absorbed everyone on Earth. Now it's you and I."

Buu spread his hands wide and smiled. "Not everyone. The little brats? I killed them. Left their bodies laying on some desert planet. Probably been eaten by the wildlife by now."

Nobody had mentioned that to Gohan back on the world of the Kais.

Gohan narrowed his eyes in rage. "I guess I'll have to return that favor then."

White energy danced up around him as his new power flooded in. He eyed Buu carefully, he was dressed differently, with elements of Piccolo and the three Saiyans from the SMG apparent.

His ki was far more powerful now.

Gohan smiled inwardly. His was better.

Gohan's fist collided with Buu's face with enough force that the monster's neck stretch out like taffy.

One of Goten's favorite treats.

The thought of his little brother fueled Gohan's next move. He faded behind Buu and grabbed his head in both hands. With a pivot he began to spin, twirling Buu with him. He chucked Buu into the air and then with an amazing burst of speed Gohan zipped past the still rising Buu.

Gohan kicked down with both legs as he passed Buu. The double kick sent the monster speeding towards the ground. Gohan folded his hands together at his right side.

"KAAAAAAAAAAAMEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAA!" Blue ki erupted towards the flailing Buu.

"What?!" Buu exclaimed as he caught a glimpse of the kamehameha wave just before it slammed him into the already fractured earth below.

OoOoOoOoO

The spongey ground undulated beneath Pikada's boots. He reached out with his left hand to steady himself but quickly had to pull it away as the chamber wall was hot to the touch.

As Pikada watched in bewilderment that same wall began to bubble and steam. Pikada quickly launched himself away from the wall just as a brilliant light filled the chamber.

"That was an attack. Someone is fighting Buu." He said to himself. The light faded and Pikada watched in horror as the gaping wound quickly knitted itself back together.

"But who? Everyone is dead…"

OoOoOoOoO

"That's just an appetizer, Buu. I hope you enjoyed it." Buu's liquified form churned at the bottom of the crater.

Gohan held both hands towards the gelatinous Buu. "This is for Goten."

A sphere of energy blasted into the puddle.

"This is for my mom. Krillin. Yamcha. Trunks. Piki. Master Rossi. Bea. Vegeta. Pikada. Tien. Angel. 18. Marion. Videl…"

Each name was accented with another blast of ki. The list continued on and on.

OoOoOoOoO

The ground beneath Pikada shook every couple of seconds.

"Well whoever it is fighting Buu they're doing a good job…" He said to himself as the slippery 'floor' shook again. Pikada rounded a corner and gasped. He had just come face to face with all of the absorbed fighters.

"What the fuck?" He said to no one.

OoOoOoOoO

Gohan panted. Sweat trailed down his dusty face. Below the remains of Majin Buu sat burned and ashen. Gohan had revenged his family and friends. Now the distraction of mourning began to set in. He looked towards the sky and reached out with his mind.

He felt nothing. He was utterly alone on Earth.

Lost in his thoughts, Gohan barely had time to register it as a small pink tendril wrapped around his face from behind.

He screamed at himself in his mind as Buu absorbed him. How could he let his guard down like that.

Then everything went black.

OoOoOoOoO

Pikada has spent a few minutes examining the bulbs containing his colleagues. He tugged tentatively at the tendrils connecting Bea to the body of Buu. Bea's eyes remained closed and his expression remained slack. "Damn it." Pikada said to no one.

He walked around Angel's cocoon, poking it as he did.

No change.

Just as he reached Piccolo's slack face the ground beneath him shimmied. A thread of goo shoot from both the roof and floor of the chamber and joined together. Pikada leapt away.

A bulb grew and Pikada grimaced in despair as a face formed in front of him.

Gohan's visage would have been staring him in the face had its eyes been open.

That explained the fight then. And now Gohan was defeated. Buu had beaten everyone.

Buu was victorious.

OoOoOoOoO

Bulma screamed as a pink hand clamped down on her shoulder.

"Oh, Shit!" She turned her head upwards expecting the last thing she saw to be Buu.

Instead dark eyes set into a bulbous head looked at Bulma. A smile, thin but genuine, graced the alien face.

Bulma looked at the way it was dressed and gears began turning.

"You… you're a Yardratian!"

"Yes. And you're Bulma? You must be, you're just as Goku described you."

Bulma nodded. "Are you Udon?"

The yardratian nodded. "Yes, I am. I am here to keep this ship full of refugees safe from Buu's desecration of the Void and his bastardization of instant transmission."

By this time others had gathered together, and Master Udon laid out what he knew of the events on Earth.

Everyone on the ship looked defeated as he finished. He said he'd felt energies disappear one by one, until on Buu's horrible ki remained.

No one was left it seemed.

Then Udon smiled. "There might be one last chance though…"

He began to explain.

OoOoOoOoO

Blurry light filtered through crusted-shut eye lids. Wind roared in ears that barely knew they were listening. A coppery tang of blood and salt touched his tongue as he tried to wet parched blistered lips.

A moan filtered through the wind. Then a voice.

"Alright, you two. Nap time is over."

"Huh?" Two voices in unison.

Each body attached to those voices suddenly found themselves hoisted into the air. Water splashed their faces and the desert was rinsed away.

Four eyes blinked down at a pink face. Eyes bulged back at them.

"You are from earth? You are Saiyans?"

Goten and Trunks glanced at each other and grinned sheepishly. "Yes, sir." Goten choked out.

"Good. Then hold tight"

Curi was pleased that he had succeeded in his mission. Udon, would also be pleased. He found his master's energy, and with a blur he and and his two new traveling companions flashed out of existence.

OoOoOoOoO

Pikada sat on a moist patch of what he was willfully calling ground. Buu had won. He needed to find a way out or he'd starve inside the monster. Which, he thought to himself, is better than being an actual part of him.

Buu seemed to be resting. Pikada figured it was simply a matter of time before he grew bored and restless.

He had absorbed Bea. He knew the instant transmission. In their attempt to save Earth, they had probably doomed the universe.

Pikada was a true warrior. Warriors didn't fear death, they courted it. What a warrior feared was failure.

And Pikada was part of the biggest fucked-up failure in history.

That didn't sit well with him.

Pikada began to plot.

OoOoOoOoO

Dende clapped his hands together. "All done. How do you guys feel?"

Trunks and Goten quickly flexed and stretched.

"Awesome!" Trunks said excitedly

"Great!" Goten chimed.

Udon and Curi stood together and watched in awe as the young Namekian healed the boys.

Udon spoke softly. "Most impressive."

Curi agreed. Then he asked, "Time for part three?"

"I believe so." Udon replied. Then he turned his attention to the boys.

"Are you ready to fight?"

"Buu?" They said in unison.

"Yes." Udon said.

"Let's go." Replied Goten resolutely.

"Yeah, let's go!" Trunks agreed excitedly.

Chi-Chi and Bulma began to protest. But Curi was gone, along with their boys.

"If this fails, the whole universe dies. There is no other way." Udon stated.

Chi-Chi burst into hysteric tears once again.

OoOoOoOoO

Curi knelt with the boys behind a boulder on the opposite side of the planet from Buu. "Okay you two. Do your dance. Then attack him at full power. One single vicious attack. No messing around. As soon as you fuse I'll transmit ya to him."

Goten and Trunks both nodded, then posed.

"Fuuuuuuusioooooon! Ha!"

A burst of light ripped from them. When it cleared Gotenks stood in their place. Power radiated from his super Saiyan three form.

"Let's go." Gotenks said in his peculiar stereoscopic voice.

Curi touched them and they appeared a few hundred feet above the resting Buu.

Gotenks held a hand up and a blast raced away from him. It curved down and slammed into Buu.

Buu screamed as his body was cleaved in two.

Gotenks laughed and held his hands in front of him. "FINISH FLASH!"

Buu's body blazed as the twin beams burned into it.

Buu began to die.

OoOoOoOoO

Inside Buu's body the walls began to glow.

"Oh shit. Time to go!" Pikada sprang to his feet. He glanced at his entrapped companions. Then in front of him he saw sky.

"Fuck!" He thought quickly of a planet many light years away and many years in the past. He and Bea had infiltrated a heavily armed complex as part of a SMG job. Pikada had killed a far stronger opponent. Bea grasped his shoulder and told him. "You did well, fast under fire. An opportunity is only an opportunity if you seize it."

Bea was right. Pikada would be back if he could, but for now he seized the opportunity.

Pikada leapt towards the sky.

He was met almost immediately by an Yardratian that he thought he recognized. Then he poofed away.

OoOoOoOoO

Gotenks stood in the air and surveyed the area. He could see no sign of Buu. Gotenks was immensely proud of himself.

OoOoOoOoO

The Kais danced. Goku frowned.

That hadn't been enough. No way had that been enough.

Through the crystal ball he watched and waited.

He didn't wait long.

He watched as Gotenks was absorbed. The fusion put up a struggle, but in the end he failed.

Goku slumped back.

They had failed.

Goku said it aloud. It hurt even worse.

Then old Kai stood beside him. "I have a plan." He said to Goku.

Goku listened.

OoOoOoOoO

Pikada poofed back in to reality, he took in His surroundings. He was aboard his ship, surrounded by the sole survivors of Earth. His shoulders slumped.

"I need to go back." He said.

"We need you to survive. To get stronger."

Pikada recognizes the voice. Bea's master, Udon. His companion was Curi.

Pikada slammed a fist through a steel bulkhead.

"I need. To go. Back!" He snarled.

"At least eat and rest." Udon said. "If he's willing and able let the little one heal you." He pointed to Dende who immediately nodded and went to stand behind Pikada.

"Fine. I could eat."

Pikada sat and watched the stars streak by.

He also had a plan.