Breakdown- Chapter 5; When the Mist Clears
Disclaimer- Samantha is mine, though she really isn't playing a very big role currently. The rest are the respective property of Akira Toriyama and I claim no right to them.
Note- A great big 'ol thank you to all of you have been reviewing! that's it... you can read the story now...
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Bulma took a small tissue and skin sample from Trunks, then one from Gohan. under the microscope, Trunks tissue cells looked more-or-less normal if not for a faint blue tint, while Gohan's cells looked entirly different. The nucleas seemed to be overcome with a green substance that definitely should not be there at all. The cell's activities seemed to have stopped where they were. A blood sample from Trunks showed perfectly fine red blood. Bulma magnified the power of the microscope. Interesting... there seemed to be strains of the same blue stuff that were in his cells. It was the same with Gohan, only more abundant. Bulma noticed that Trunks' white blood cells seemed to be fighting off the blue intruder while Gohan's didn't look like they were doing much of anything, almost like they were frozen in place. There, then, that was it! the colored substance was a viral infection that seemed to run its course and then vanish. But why? And why only the Saiyen warriors in this little gang? Bulma began working with the infected cells and blood, trying to find a way to determine what sort of disease it was and a way to combat it. Possibly someone had sent it along to incapacitate the stronger fighters in hopes of controlling Earth, or getting the Dragon Balls, or one of the usual threats. If that was the case, they didn't do a very good job. Trunks was already recovering and it seemed as though he would be ok once he'd rested for a bit. Samantha walked in.
"Hi, Sam," Bulma said with out looking up. Samantha looked over the un moving Saiyans.
"What happened here?" she asked. Bulma explained that they were sick. "Oh. Well, if you need any help in here, let me know. All of your problams are taken care of at the factory." Samantha handed Bulma a report which Bulma read approvingly.
"I could use some help in here. How are you on diseases?"
************************
Gohan blinked in the sudden green-ness. A minute ago he had been sleeping peacefully, and now he was in this strange place filled with thick, toxic looking green fog. He was faintly aware of a dull pain on his arm. When he looked down, a long scratch had appeared and was slowly trickling green... something. He wiped it off but it was replaced with a fresh trickle. He left it alone and glanced around him. This wasn't a dream- no possible way. The thick fog was quite stifling. As he tried to draw a breath to clear his thoughts, a soft, teasing voice whispered through the hush
"I know something," The voice seemed to be full of mirth as it glided around Gohan like a breeze. Unfortunately, it did not drive away the suffocating haze.
"Like what?" Queried Gohan.
"Like what is inside of you at this very moment," The voice was infuriatingly light among the heavy smoke. "What... or rather who... is dying to get out." Gohan whirled around, trying to catch the speaker. He was suddenly frightened.
"Why do you look so scared Gohan? You know you want to let it out." The voiced tingled in his eardrums. No, it wasn't possible... He was gone for good, Piccolo had said so... "My dear boy, when will you ever learn that your teachers are not always right?" The green became ten times thicker and Gohan fell to his knees in a severe coughing fit. Suddenly he felt another prescence and looked up. His eyes widened.
"Gohan. Long time no see." It was like staring in a mirror. The person across from Gohan was identical to him, right down to the toenails. Gohan stood slowly, wishing the fog would go away. He could feel it doing something to his body. His senses were muddled and he couldn't concentrate on his counterpart's chi.
"There's no way you could be Ice." Gohan reasoned. He hadn't felt any wrench from deep inside him, he hadn't tried to call forth to much power, he hadn't hit himself on the head lately, he hadn't done anything to prompt this unwelcome arrival.
"Shall we prove that theory?" Ice's hair turned blue along with his eyes, but Gohan didn't feel any rise in power, though it may have been the hinderamce in his senses making him think that. He tried to concentrate harder.
"No, you're not Ice. You haven't done anything proclaiming yourself a servant of Freiza yet." Ice- or perhaps the false Ice- narrowed his eyes.
"Freiza is dead. Why should I serve him?" That proved it. This was not Ice.
"Who are you?" Gohan demanded. 'Ice' smiled evilly.
"I should have known you would figure it out." 'Ice's' form rippled and vanished as an image appeared behind Gohan- Fuzzy, female voice, the works. The Image waved her hand and the forms of the four weapons appeared again, along with the usual argument ending with the Image putting a mind bar on Gohan.
"I'm not taking one!" Gohan screamed trying to power up, although the image had already made sure he couldn't raise his chi beyond Super Saiyen.
"Yes you will!" The Image doubled her mind hold.
"No I won't!" Gohan doubled his resistance.
"Yes you will!" The hold was tripled. Gohan got an idea. He let himself drop out of Super Saiyan. His theory was that he was wasting energy maintaining his power and that he could fight this hold mentally.
"No I won't." Gohan stated calmly. He could feel the hold on his mind slipping. It was like Piccolo sometimes told him; It is not enough to have power- you must have heart and cunning too. Gohan supposed this included a strong mind as well. Besides that, Gohan had experience dealing with mental power from past encounters with Ice. The mental hold slipped and vanished. The Image let out a breath.
"Not bad. Not bad at all. I am impressed." She sounded sincere, which confused Gohan.
"What do you want, anyway?" He asked, confident now that he could take anything she threw at him.
"I want to know how powerful you are in every aspect." She answered. Gohan blinked. He hadn't been expecting a reply. "Show me." She said, and Gohan felt the restrictions on his chi lift.
"Do you really think I'm going to do anything you ask? I need a reason first."
"I can't give you a reason," The Image said, half to herself. "But, I can make you power up." The fog swirled and suddenly Gohan was surrounded by pictures.
Vegeta, Goku, Goten, and Trunks were all laying on hospital beds in the hospital wing of Capsule Corp. "I did this." The Image said. Gohan frowned. He was not going to show her his power. He didn't know what she wanted with it.
Piccolo was face down alone in some desolate region- he wasn't brething, or moving. "I did this." The Image said. Gohan faught to keep his power down.
Trunks was fighting against an unseen force. Electricity crackled around him and he was in pain. "I did this." She said. Gohan struggled harder.
Goten was floating in a black abyss. He was unconscious and bleeding heavily from multiple wounds. A force came out of nowhere and attacked him even though he couldn't fight back.
"I will do this." Gohan's power rose and a visible aura appeared. He was trying hard not to go Super Saiyan.
Goku was dead in the middle of a large crater. The land around him was wasted. Many other bodies lay around- some mangled beyond recognition. "I can do this." Gohan hit Super Saiyan.
"I will show you the future of Earth; What will happen if you do not do as I say."
The Earth was wasted. A huge battle had taken place there, but it was over. There were many dead bodies. People cried as they mourned the lost and dead. Over it all, someone laughed with pure delight. Gohan screamed as his power sky-rocketed.
"You wanna see my power?" He threw caution to the winds and went all the way up to his Mystic Level and increased his power to its maximum. He could feel the Image recoil, regretting her descision to provoke the demi-saiyan. The pictures of torment around Gohan shattered as his aura touched them. Even the green Fog was ebbing away. "Now what sort of evil, vile creature could you possibly be to be able to do all of that?!" Gohan demanded. Even as the fog cleared, the Image was fading. Gohan knew he was leaving this place.
"I am not a creature." The Image stated. It sounded far away now.
"Then what are you!?" Gohan yelled. The Image rippled and cleared. Gohan didn't recognize the girl standing there. "Who are you?" The Image rippled again and when it cleared, it had changed. Gohan was shocked right down into the first level of Super Saiyan. "That's impossible!" He breathed, not believing what he saw.
"Gohan, you must remember, nothing is impossible," The girl said. Gohan let his power flow away and relaxed. The girl was distant now, as were any images and smoke.
***********************
In the hospital wing, Gohan's back arched as his body took in a breath of air. Then all was calm and only three monitors were left to their irregular tones. The sample of Gohan's blood that Bulma had been examining suddenly began to clear as white blood cells sprang to life to defeat this invasion. Gohan seemed quite all right- exactly like Trunks. It looked like this epidemic would pass. It was very strange, though.
"Bul-ma" A musical voice suddenly filled the room making Bulma jump. She looked over at Sam to see if she'd heard anything. Sam showed no signs of ceasing work. 'Oh, great, now I'm hearing things,' Bulma thought. 'I definitely need some rest.'
"Bulma!" The voice called again. Bulma looked around for a source. "Bulma, you are going to need to find a cure."
"No I'm not," She felt very silly talking to no one. "The virus is fading away." Samanthat looked at her oddly.
"They will not wake up if you don't find a cure."
"What makes you an expert?!" Bulma exclaimed. Samantha lifted an eyebrow
"Trust me... I am your subconscious." Bulma thought this over for a while. If it was really her subconscious, it ought to know. And even if it wasn't , it might be right. Trunks and Gohan didn't look like they were planning on rising and shining any time soon.
"All right. Just leave me alone! I have to concentrate!" Bulma snapped at no one.
"Bulma, um, do you want me to go?" Samantha asked cautiously.
"What? Oh, no, sorry, I was just talking to myself. We have to find a cure for this virus. I don't think they will wake up after it fades unless we help them." Bulma answered. Samatha nodded and got to work analyzing and recording anything she noticed in the virus. Bulma began trying to isolate it to see if she could take it apart and discover what it was composed of. The two worked well into the night at the same pace. Bulma was astounded to find that she had found a partner that did everything perfectly. Sam was even able to stay as long as necessary and could stay awake without constant shaking. 'What luck,' Bulma thought gratefully.
***********************************
He was surrounded with thin orange mist. Vegeta looked around for the source but found none. But he did feel another prescense.
"Kakarot! What the hell are you doing in my head?!" Vegeta demanded. Goku stepped out of the mist and shrugged. Both warriors had a thin scratch down their arms that was oozing orange.
"How do you know you're not in my head?" Goku asked innocently. Vegeta rolled his eyes.
"Shut up." Vegeta snapped. He wanted to know where he was and why he was with Kakarot of all people. This was no ordinary dream- he could feel it.
"For shame." A voice echoed around the two and they spun to see who it was- both in different directions. The voice sighed. "Bickering will get you nowhere. You should know that by now." The voice chided. Suddenly there was an Image to go with the voice. "The two of you are the strongest warriors of you little group, with the exception of perhaps Piccolo, and you seem to argue alot. That will never do."
"Why am I here?!" Vegeta shouted at the Image. "And with him!" He flung an arm out in the general direction of Goku, who only shrugged again.
"Simple," The Image spoke. "You two are total opposites, sharing only in your amount of strength. One is passive, the other agressive. One peaceful, the other violent. But in battle, if the two of you were to join, and I'm not talking about fusion, you could defeat anyone."
"Why?" Goku asked curiously. "I mean, why now?" The Image smiled.
"It just seemed like the time to do it." Goku smiled back. He didn't believe that for a minute. And by the look on his face, neither did Vegeta.
"Right. So there's a new threat and you're trying to train us to prepare." Goku interpreted. The Image got a funny look on her face.
"Maybe."
"Get on with it then! Are we here to train or not?!" Vegeta was quite beginning to loose his patience.
"Ok." The Image waved a hand and suddenly Goku and Vegeta looked like participants in a three legged race. That is to say, they were bound together by the ankle with a golden ring. They face vaulted, or at least, they tried to. With the ankle ring, it was somewhat difficult. They settled for a sweat drop instead. The Image continued with an annoyingly cheery voice. "The challenge is to find me. You can power up as much as you want, all you have to do is discover where I am hiding in this mist, then you can leave. Ready? I'm off." The Image vanished, leaving behind a final comment. "And remember boys; teamwork!" She laughed vexingly and disappeared all together.
Kay, I am stopping here because I am so eager to post!! Its Haloween, dontcha know, and the candy is going to my head!!! Comment, or I'll sic Ice on you! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!!! ok, I'm done now...
~mysticGohan33~
Disclaimer- Samantha is mine, though she really isn't playing a very big role currently. The rest are the respective property of Akira Toriyama and I claim no right to them.
Note- A great big 'ol thank you to all of you have been reviewing! that's it... you can read the story now...
**********************
Bulma took a small tissue and skin sample from Trunks, then one from Gohan. under the microscope, Trunks tissue cells looked more-or-less normal if not for a faint blue tint, while Gohan's cells looked entirly different. The nucleas seemed to be overcome with a green substance that definitely should not be there at all. The cell's activities seemed to have stopped where they were. A blood sample from Trunks showed perfectly fine red blood. Bulma magnified the power of the microscope. Interesting... there seemed to be strains of the same blue stuff that were in his cells. It was the same with Gohan, only more abundant. Bulma noticed that Trunks' white blood cells seemed to be fighting off the blue intruder while Gohan's didn't look like they were doing much of anything, almost like they were frozen in place. There, then, that was it! the colored substance was a viral infection that seemed to run its course and then vanish. But why? And why only the Saiyen warriors in this little gang? Bulma began working with the infected cells and blood, trying to find a way to determine what sort of disease it was and a way to combat it. Possibly someone had sent it along to incapacitate the stronger fighters in hopes of controlling Earth, or getting the Dragon Balls, or one of the usual threats. If that was the case, they didn't do a very good job. Trunks was already recovering and it seemed as though he would be ok once he'd rested for a bit. Samantha walked in.
"Hi, Sam," Bulma said with out looking up. Samantha looked over the un moving Saiyans.
"What happened here?" she asked. Bulma explained that they were sick. "Oh. Well, if you need any help in here, let me know. All of your problams are taken care of at the factory." Samantha handed Bulma a report which Bulma read approvingly.
"I could use some help in here. How are you on diseases?"
************************
Gohan blinked in the sudden green-ness. A minute ago he had been sleeping peacefully, and now he was in this strange place filled with thick, toxic looking green fog. He was faintly aware of a dull pain on his arm. When he looked down, a long scratch had appeared and was slowly trickling green... something. He wiped it off but it was replaced with a fresh trickle. He left it alone and glanced around him. This wasn't a dream- no possible way. The thick fog was quite stifling. As he tried to draw a breath to clear his thoughts, a soft, teasing voice whispered through the hush
"I know something," The voice seemed to be full of mirth as it glided around Gohan like a breeze. Unfortunately, it did not drive away the suffocating haze.
"Like what?" Queried Gohan.
"Like what is inside of you at this very moment," The voice was infuriatingly light among the heavy smoke. "What... or rather who... is dying to get out." Gohan whirled around, trying to catch the speaker. He was suddenly frightened.
"Why do you look so scared Gohan? You know you want to let it out." The voiced tingled in his eardrums. No, it wasn't possible... He was gone for good, Piccolo had said so... "My dear boy, when will you ever learn that your teachers are not always right?" The green became ten times thicker and Gohan fell to his knees in a severe coughing fit. Suddenly he felt another prescence and looked up. His eyes widened.
"Gohan. Long time no see." It was like staring in a mirror. The person across from Gohan was identical to him, right down to the toenails. Gohan stood slowly, wishing the fog would go away. He could feel it doing something to his body. His senses were muddled and he couldn't concentrate on his counterpart's chi.
"There's no way you could be Ice." Gohan reasoned. He hadn't felt any wrench from deep inside him, he hadn't tried to call forth to much power, he hadn't hit himself on the head lately, he hadn't done anything to prompt this unwelcome arrival.
"Shall we prove that theory?" Ice's hair turned blue along with his eyes, but Gohan didn't feel any rise in power, though it may have been the hinderamce in his senses making him think that. He tried to concentrate harder.
"No, you're not Ice. You haven't done anything proclaiming yourself a servant of Freiza yet." Ice- or perhaps the false Ice- narrowed his eyes.
"Freiza is dead. Why should I serve him?" That proved it. This was not Ice.
"Who are you?" Gohan demanded. 'Ice' smiled evilly.
"I should have known you would figure it out." 'Ice's' form rippled and vanished as an image appeared behind Gohan- Fuzzy, female voice, the works. The Image waved her hand and the forms of the four weapons appeared again, along with the usual argument ending with the Image putting a mind bar on Gohan.
"I'm not taking one!" Gohan screamed trying to power up, although the image had already made sure he couldn't raise his chi beyond Super Saiyen.
"Yes you will!" The Image doubled her mind hold.
"No I won't!" Gohan doubled his resistance.
"Yes you will!" The hold was tripled. Gohan got an idea. He let himself drop out of Super Saiyan. His theory was that he was wasting energy maintaining his power and that he could fight this hold mentally.
"No I won't." Gohan stated calmly. He could feel the hold on his mind slipping. It was like Piccolo sometimes told him; It is not enough to have power- you must have heart and cunning too. Gohan supposed this included a strong mind as well. Besides that, Gohan had experience dealing with mental power from past encounters with Ice. The mental hold slipped and vanished. The Image let out a breath.
"Not bad. Not bad at all. I am impressed." She sounded sincere, which confused Gohan.
"What do you want, anyway?" He asked, confident now that he could take anything she threw at him.
"I want to know how powerful you are in every aspect." She answered. Gohan blinked. He hadn't been expecting a reply. "Show me." She said, and Gohan felt the restrictions on his chi lift.
"Do you really think I'm going to do anything you ask? I need a reason first."
"I can't give you a reason," The Image said, half to herself. "But, I can make you power up." The fog swirled and suddenly Gohan was surrounded by pictures.
Vegeta, Goku, Goten, and Trunks were all laying on hospital beds in the hospital wing of Capsule Corp. "I did this." The Image said. Gohan frowned. He was not going to show her his power. He didn't know what she wanted with it.
Piccolo was face down alone in some desolate region- he wasn't brething, or moving. "I did this." The Image said. Gohan faught to keep his power down.
Trunks was fighting against an unseen force. Electricity crackled around him and he was in pain. "I did this." She said. Gohan struggled harder.
Goten was floating in a black abyss. He was unconscious and bleeding heavily from multiple wounds. A force came out of nowhere and attacked him even though he couldn't fight back.
"I will do this." Gohan's power rose and a visible aura appeared. He was trying hard not to go Super Saiyan.
Goku was dead in the middle of a large crater. The land around him was wasted. Many other bodies lay around- some mangled beyond recognition. "I can do this." Gohan hit Super Saiyan.
"I will show you the future of Earth; What will happen if you do not do as I say."
The Earth was wasted. A huge battle had taken place there, but it was over. There were many dead bodies. People cried as they mourned the lost and dead. Over it all, someone laughed with pure delight. Gohan screamed as his power sky-rocketed.
"You wanna see my power?" He threw caution to the winds and went all the way up to his Mystic Level and increased his power to its maximum. He could feel the Image recoil, regretting her descision to provoke the demi-saiyan. The pictures of torment around Gohan shattered as his aura touched them. Even the green Fog was ebbing away. "Now what sort of evil, vile creature could you possibly be to be able to do all of that?!" Gohan demanded. Even as the fog cleared, the Image was fading. Gohan knew he was leaving this place.
"I am not a creature." The Image stated. It sounded far away now.
"Then what are you!?" Gohan yelled. The Image rippled and cleared. Gohan didn't recognize the girl standing there. "Who are you?" The Image rippled again and when it cleared, it had changed. Gohan was shocked right down into the first level of Super Saiyan. "That's impossible!" He breathed, not believing what he saw.
"Gohan, you must remember, nothing is impossible," The girl said. Gohan let his power flow away and relaxed. The girl was distant now, as were any images and smoke.
***********************
In the hospital wing, Gohan's back arched as his body took in a breath of air. Then all was calm and only three monitors were left to their irregular tones. The sample of Gohan's blood that Bulma had been examining suddenly began to clear as white blood cells sprang to life to defeat this invasion. Gohan seemed quite all right- exactly like Trunks. It looked like this epidemic would pass. It was very strange, though.
"Bul-ma" A musical voice suddenly filled the room making Bulma jump. She looked over at Sam to see if she'd heard anything. Sam showed no signs of ceasing work. 'Oh, great, now I'm hearing things,' Bulma thought. 'I definitely need some rest.'
"Bulma!" The voice called again. Bulma looked around for a source. "Bulma, you are going to need to find a cure."
"No I'm not," She felt very silly talking to no one. "The virus is fading away." Samanthat looked at her oddly.
"They will not wake up if you don't find a cure."
"What makes you an expert?!" Bulma exclaimed. Samantha lifted an eyebrow
"Trust me... I am your subconscious." Bulma thought this over for a while. If it was really her subconscious, it ought to know. And even if it wasn't , it might be right. Trunks and Gohan didn't look like they were planning on rising and shining any time soon.
"All right. Just leave me alone! I have to concentrate!" Bulma snapped at no one.
"Bulma, um, do you want me to go?" Samantha asked cautiously.
"What? Oh, no, sorry, I was just talking to myself. We have to find a cure for this virus. I don't think they will wake up after it fades unless we help them." Bulma answered. Samatha nodded and got to work analyzing and recording anything she noticed in the virus. Bulma began trying to isolate it to see if she could take it apart and discover what it was composed of. The two worked well into the night at the same pace. Bulma was astounded to find that she had found a partner that did everything perfectly. Sam was even able to stay as long as necessary and could stay awake without constant shaking. 'What luck,' Bulma thought gratefully.
***********************************
He was surrounded with thin orange mist. Vegeta looked around for the source but found none. But he did feel another prescense.
"Kakarot! What the hell are you doing in my head?!" Vegeta demanded. Goku stepped out of the mist and shrugged. Both warriors had a thin scratch down their arms that was oozing orange.
"How do you know you're not in my head?" Goku asked innocently. Vegeta rolled his eyes.
"Shut up." Vegeta snapped. He wanted to know where he was and why he was with Kakarot of all people. This was no ordinary dream- he could feel it.
"For shame." A voice echoed around the two and they spun to see who it was- both in different directions. The voice sighed. "Bickering will get you nowhere. You should know that by now." The voice chided. Suddenly there was an Image to go with the voice. "The two of you are the strongest warriors of you little group, with the exception of perhaps Piccolo, and you seem to argue alot. That will never do."
"Why am I here?!" Vegeta shouted at the Image. "And with him!" He flung an arm out in the general direction of Goku, who only shrugged again.
"Simple," The Image spoke. "You two are total opposites, sharing only in your amount of strength. One is passive, the other agressive. One peaceful, the other violent. But in battle, if the two of you were to join, and I'm not talking about fusion, you could defeat anyone."
"Why?" Goku asked curiously. "I mean, why now?" The Image smiled.
"It just seemed like the time to do it." Goku smiled back. He didn't believe that for a minute. And by the look on his face, neither did Vegeta.
"Right. So there's a new threat and you're trying to train us to prepare." Goku interpreted. The Image got a funny look on her face.
"Maybe."
"Get on with it then! Are we here to train or not?!" Vegeta was quite beginning to loose his patience.
"Ok." The Image waved a hand and suddenly Goku and Vegeta looked like participants in a three legged race. That is to say, they were bound together by the ankle with a golden ring. They face vaulted, or at least, they tried to. With the ankle ring, it was somewhat difficult. They settled for a sweat drop instead. The Image continued with an annoyingly cheery voice. "The challenge is to find me. You can power up as much as you want, all you have to do is discover where I am hiding in this mist, then you can leave. Ready? I'm off." The Image vanished, leaving behind a final comment. "And remember boys; teamwork!" She laughed vexingly and disappeared all together.
Kay, I am stopping here because I am so eager to post!! Its Haloween, dontcha know, and the candy is going to my head!!! Comment, or I'll sic Ice on you! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!!! ok, I'm done now...
~mysticGohan33~