The Vicious Gods Warth
Chapter 9 - Revenge At Last!
11 Months Post-Resurrection, Earth
Oh man, what's taking so long? She didn't change her mind, did she? Nah, she wouldn't do that, right? I mean we've been dating for years now, and she seemed pretty excited about it when I popped the question. Then again, maybe she was only surprised I asked her at all, maybe she's cooled off and doesn't want to go through with this?!
These are but a few of the many questions coursing through the frantic mind of one Son Gohan as he stands at the wedding aisle, surrounded by friends and family and awaiting the arrival of his soon to be wife. That is if his multitude of worst-case scenarios don't come to pass.
At the forefront sits his family. To the uttermost left are Grandpa and Mom, both of whom barely contain their tears of pride and joy. The display is almost enough for Gohan's anxiety to vanish. Next to his mother is dad, sending him a big goofy grin while struggling to loosen the tie around his neck. Gohan can sympathize, his mother treats ties more like hanging nooses. Little Goten tries to keep appearances, but if his perpetually opening and closing eyes are any indication, he doesn't find the festivities too interesting. Gohan can't blame him, he didn't much care for weddings either in his age.
Directly behind his family are Bulma, Vegeta and the equally bored looking Trunks. Bulma takes a page from his mother, wiping her nose and sending him a little wave as a show of support. To her right, Vegeta tries to keep an air of indifference with his arms and legs crossed but when he notices Gohan glances his way, the Saiyan Prince gives him both a tiny smile and nod, a small gesture but one the soon to be newly wed, if things don't go horribly wrong as he expects they might, appreciates. Trunks, unsurprisingly, looks just as bored as Goten.
And so the list of familiar faces grows with Krillin, 18, Marron, Master Roshi, Oolong, Yamcha, Tien, Puar, Launch, 17 and his family. Even the reclusive duo of Korin and Yajirobe are here along with Dende and Mister Popo. The last four of whom would only ever leave their residence for a special occasion, Gohan feels honored by the fact they deem his wedding as such.
Gohan tries to find some comfort and relief in their optimism collective optimism, he really does. But the anxiety rears its ugly head soon enough, and every second under its influence feels like a lifetime on this Earth.
Uh oh, what if Videl does call it quits? Goten's won't talk to me anymore for dragging him to this 'snooze fest'. Dad and Vegeta won't be able to eat anything which means Vegeta will kill me. That is if mom leaves anything of me to kill-
Will you calm down already?! The sudden roar of Piccolo's voice reverberates inside Gohan's skull. I swear you were less afraid when I left you alone in the middle of nowhere for six months.
Gohan looks over to his best man, best friend and former mentor clad in a black tuxedo of his own making. If Bulma's stories are true, every tailor she tried for him couldn't get his measurements right, luckily, Piccolo's ability to conjure clothing out of thin air solved that problem.
But Piccolo, what if you're wrong? What if I completely messed it up?! A sudden realization for why she's stalling or worse, gone entirely, turns his blood to ice. What if she found out about the ring?!
Even Piccolo's usually neutral demeanor momentarily falters with a grimace. Two months prior, after a multitude of broken promises and rescheduling, Gohan finally found the time to spar with his Namekian teacher. It started out well enough with simple exercises to get their blood pumping, yet both of them quickly lost themselves in the thrill of it all. Gohan hasn't gotten much of a chance to practice martial arts and Piccolo clearly enjoyed partaking in a good fight, yet in their bout, Piccolo accidentally disintegrated Gohan's engagement ring.
If it wasn't for his ability to recreate clothing, Gohan would surely be a dead man. And so, a pact was made to never speak of this to anyone, his mother would kill them both, nevermind Videl.
Videl adores you kid, Piccolo's confidence returns. I'm not expert when it comes to this mushy crap, but trust me, I've seen that look on your mom's face when she looks at Goku. If she didn't want to go through with this, she would've said no a year ago when you proposed.
Do- do you really think so Piccolo? Asks a still nervous Gohan, noticing Piccolo's head turn towards the entrance of the room.
Why don't you see for yourself, He cryptically answers with a smirk, his eyes moving beyond Gohan who follows suit. He looks on in awe along with most of the others present in the room minus Goku, Vegeta, Tien, and Piccolo, as Mr. Satan leads his smiling, white gown wearing daughter down the isle. All his doubts are instantly swept away as he looks at his soon to be wife with a blush on his face, with it growing even redder when she winks at him. With the atmosphere only being enhanced by the procession music.
Even Mr. Satan sniffs and tears up as he reaches the altar though unlike in other high profile events such as this he'd try to keep this side of himself a secret. Not this time, this day belongs to his daughter and he's in no mood to put up an act on it, tabloid journalism be damned. He stays there for a minute, still holding his daughter's hand, remembering all of the times she made him the proudest he's ever felt, like when she broke her first plank of wood. Or when she made a rousing speech about how much she loved him at her first-grade career day.
With a heavy sigh, Mister Satan looks her right in the eye and smiles. "Go get em, kid." Gohan hears him say as he leaves to take a seat next to mom.
"I was worried you bailed on me," Admits Gohan with a whisper, earning a chuckle from Videl. "What's so funny?"
"I was worried you were gonna bail on me, like fly through the roof while I was coming down the aisle or something."
They both laugh at their respective, baseless worries, embarrassed by their silly.
"Dearly beloved," The priest begins with a soothing voice with enough strength behind for all to hear, "We are gathered here today to witness the union of Son Gohan and Videl in holy matrimony, which is an honorable estate, that is not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently and soberly. Into this estate these two persons present come now to be joined. If anyone can show just cause why they may not be lawfully joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace-"
The priest never gets a chance to continue, for, without warning, a loud and sudden explosion blows apart the roof of the church, sending chunks of rubble plummeting towards the attending guests. A thick cloud of brown and gray smoke engulfs the interior, sending everyone into a brief frenzy of coughing and confusion.
"What the hell was that?" Piccolo demands in the midst of the confusion.
"Why me, of course," A familiar voice from above silences everyone a moment ahead of the cloud blasting away from a strong kiai. Gazing upward at the clear blue sky, Gohan and the others find themselves paralyzed at the sight of one particularly being they never expected to see again. "The man did say I could object, after all, I was merely exercising my right to it."
"Freeza!" Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo declare in unison as the tyrant and a handful of his smirking troops hover in the air.
"Oh, so that's what he looks like!" Bulma chimes in.
"Is it really so surprising that I have returned?" He cackles. "My men did infiltrate your planet and revive me just under a year ago after all."
Gohan can practically hear Piccolo's teeth grind in anger as they both realize who the powerful yet scattered energy signature they, and all of the others felt almost a year belonged to.
"You scum," Piccolo practically spits the words out in disgust. "You must've figured out I was on to you and now you're here to make your move before your cover gets blown, isn't that right?"
"Very perceptive Namekian, unfortunately, it will do little to save any of you today. For you see," He places his hands on his sides with one foot before the either. "I've made extensive cybernetic upgrades to my body, my power is tenfold what it once was! And with this power, I will, at last, have my revenge and lay waste to your worthless planet!"
"Oh please!" Vegeta laughs from his seat. "If you think such upgrades will help you now any more than they did the last time you came here, you're more sad and deluded than I ever thought! Even my son here could take you down without Super Saiyan, isn't that right Trunks?" Vegeta turns to his son only to find him sleeping soundly despite the ruckus going on around him. An instant later, his fist comes down on Trunks' head, waking him up. "Get out there and prove my point, boy!"
"Why'd you do that dad?!" Trunks tries to ease the pain his aching head. "You don't wanna be here either-"
"Quit your whining and fight! This will make for good practice for you."
"Practice?" Trunks looks away from his scowling father and Gohan can practically feel the boy's enthusiasm twenty-fold as he lays eyes on Freeza. "Sweet! Alien bad guys to fight! If I knew this was part of the wedding I would've brought my gi!"
"It's not part of the wedding Trunks," Gohan tells him before turning his attention to the tyrant hovering overhead. "Listen up Freeza, if you want to fight us fine, we'll gladly oblige. But after the ceremony's finished, so I suggest you let us get that done at least before-"
Ignoring his offer, Freeza fires one of those finger beams Gohan vividly recalls shredding Piccolo to pieces on Namek. "I've neither the time nor the patience for such foolishness, you'll fight me now or die-"
With merely a glance, Gohan destroys the beam and springs into action, before Freeza can even realize he's standing right in front of him, Gohan's fist rams into the alien's gut, sending him reeling in pain.
"D-damn it! Kill him!" One of Freeza's men proclaims though Gohan has no intention of letting them, with the same speed as before, Gohan vanishes from their sight and with a quick series of simple yet deadly jabs to their skulls, takes all of them down with complete ease.
"Don't think you've won yet boy!" Proclaims the tyrant angrily, throwing any and all strategy to the wind, oblivious to the fact Gohan has absolutely no need to even evade his attacks. "I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve-" A swift smack to the face shuts him up, nearly knocking him right back down again.
"I already told you Freeza," Gohan growls with his rising temper. "If you want to fight, wait until we're done, not that it'll change the outcome."
"What?!"
"Your android-like body might have let you get the jump on us, but you're sorely outclassed. I suggest you scurry off into space and spare yourself the embarrassment of dying again."
Underneath that seething anger and wounded pride, Gohan momentarily sees a flicker of reason in Freeza's eyes as the two stare one another down. The last light of common sense telling him to leave and fight another day, but just as soon as it appears, its gone.
"Perhaps I will die," A mad grin graces the features of his face. "But I intend to take you all with me!"
Ripping the synthetic flesh off his chest, Freeza reveals a series of highly advanced bombs placed where his internal organs should be, taking even Gohan momentarily by surprise. "With these wonderful devices, I've enough firepower to destroy your planet 5 times over! Even if you Super Monkey's survive the blast, I doubt the coldness of space will treat you well as you are now!"
Another memory springs to Gohan's mind, of how Cell tried and somewhat succeeded with a last gambit much like this one. Today, however, Gohan has no intention of letting something like that happen again, no one but this desperate lunatic is going to die.
"You asked for this, FFRRREEEEZZZZAAAAA!" Powering up to his zenith, Gohan grabs Freeza by the tail and with all of his might spins the yelping tyrant with such force the two become the center of a powerful wind ripping more of the church from the ground. With a final shout, Gohan lets him go and watches Freeza not only leave the confines of his home but well past the moon as well. When he and the attending guests notice a small flicker of light somewhere very, very far away, they know Freeza's threat has passed once again.
"Nice going Gohan!" Dad pats him on the back. "For a minute there I was worried I was gonna have to blow up another Kai planet to save the Earth!"
"He probably wouldn't like that much, I think," Gohan chuckles, quickly relaxing after this little detour. The two descend back to ground level with Gohan grimacing at the destruction wrought by this whole affair. "Man, what a mess. I was freaking out over a lot of stuff, but this was definitely not one of them."
"You think we should postpone the wedding?" Videl asks, clearly not really in a wedding mood after all of this. Not that he can really blame her.
"Nah, I got a better idea." Feeling a sudden rush of boldness, probably from the adrenaline and excitement, Gohan scoops her off her feet and slowly takes off the ground. "Let's just get to the honeymoon and sort out the rest later."
"Sounds like a plan." A mischevious grin graces Videl's features as she plants a sultry kiss to his lips. Though they know they'll pay for it later, Gohan and Videl take off, ignoring the cries of their mother and father and the multitudes of congratulations and good luck wishes from their friends and family.
PTO Command Ship
"Well, well, that honestly couldn't have gone better than actually did," Sorbet observes the entire incident from one of the spy bots. He sits on the bridge, enjoying a cup of coffee before summoning a second holo-computer screen. On the other side, he sees his master training on a world of exploding fire and magma underneath the latest version of their greatest invention yet: the suppression field.
A field of energy capable of both blocking out a users Ki to anyone outside of it and increasing the gravity for anyone underneath its cover. A perfect invention combining stealth and greater training gains, precisely what Freeza wants.
"This had better be good Sorbet, I'm finally on the verge of mastering my full power and I'm no mood for interruptions. Freeza warns in-between launchig a series of punches and kicks across the air. From what Sorbet can see, he's increased gravity to over 500 times that of the planet Earth.
"Your plan has worked Lord Freeza," Sorbet gladly informs him. "The fake Freeza and squadron we sent attacked the wedding just as intended and told them of your revival. The one called Gohan, Goku's son, has managed to dispatch him and the force we sent to Earth."
Freeza cackling laughter is a good sign for him. "Excellent news indeed Sorbet, truly you've proven yourself far more capable and resourceful than any second-in-command I've had in the past. Were it not for you, I would have found myself in a very difficult situation with the Namekian so set on investigating to use of the Dragon Balls. Now that they think me a dead, arrogant fool, they will arrogantly assume the matter closed, precisely how I want them to think.
"Think nothing of it Lord Freeza, it is my duty of course to serve you," Sorbet bows. "I've also news of our latest conquests, it seems the first batch of soldiers you commanded to train under our more primitive gravity machines have conquered over 8 worlds in the span of a week, with 12 the week prior. Our funds have skyrocketed in ways I've not seen in many years."
"Very good, see to it that our gravity machine training continues expanding, the more capable soldier we have, the sooner we'll not only return to our original strength but surpass it as well."
"It shall be done my lord." Sorbet bows once more, ending communication with his master, leaving him to joyfully continue his training. He is not alone in that joy, for his master's praise has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was most certainly a necessary step in reviving the Empire. And the events of this day as evidence of Sorbet's on worth inside of it.