Chapter Two
Over 40 years later:
Goku planted his feet, dropping his weight to his knees and preparing himself for the onslaught that was almost upon him. Five energy beams shot through the air, slicing the ground below them. Each one was a different energy concentration than the other ones, but all of them were tremendous in power. Goku tightened his muscles, summoning his energy. The fireballs were almost to him.
Behind the flying energy stood Ubuu. The young boy was exhausted, breathing heavily as he struggled to keep his arms stretched out in front of him. With all the strength left in his body, he pushed the beams towards his opponent. He had grown in strength over the few months that he'd been training under Goku, and his technique was sharpening. But would he ever be strong enough to match his trainer? Goku had never even turned super sayian during their matches, and yet always seemed to come out on top every time.
Goku was amazed at the young boy's strength. He was learning at an incredible rate, and growing in skill every day. But then, fighting against such a growing force made the trainer stronger as well. Goku could feel his power level rising little by little. Even now, as he was preparing to be hammered by oncoming energy beams, the sayian couldn't help but crack a smile at the thought of growing stronger.
In an instant, Goku began powering up. The ground around him erupted, the rising clumps of dirt tumbling in the heat waves of energy. He shoved his palms into the air, facing the attack. An energy field appeared in front of his hands and quickly ran around his body. This was it.
The attack struck the dome of energy like a freight train, blazing fire and smoke all around it. Ubuu watched as his attack emanated into a forming mushroom cloud, with a shockwave coming his way. The boy braced himself, shielding his face from his own attack. Once the dust clouds had blown past him, Ubuu looked up to find a large crater where the blast had taken place. But in the center of the football sized indentation was a floating sayian, still in his normal form, and smiling.
Ubuu smiled back, and then fell backwards. He was so tired he couldn't stop himself. Almost as soon as he began falling, Goku grabbed him, gently sitting him down. The boy was breathing deeply, his eyes closed tight.
"Careful, Ubuu," Goku said. "You don't want to overdo it this early in your training."
The boy did manage to nod his head.
"But still,"Goku continued, "That was one heck of a blast. I'm impressed."
Ubuu cracked open his right eye to see the smile on Goku's face. Despite being worn out beyond all reason, the boy was happy. His teacher was impressed with him, and that was all he wanted.
Goku picked the boy up and flew westward. The field they were practicing in wasn't actually very far from his house, and he knew Chichi would have a large meal ready for the two tired fighters when they returned. The thought of Chichi made Goku smile. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to have the life he lived. He shared it with a beautiful wife, strong boys who honored both he and Chichi, and friends who had, on many occasions, been ready to lay down their lives for him. To top it all off, he was training with a very strong lad, becoming stronger every day. Could things possibly get any better?
The trees passed quickly beneath them as they flew past mountains and hills; sometimes low enough to smell the aroma of pine needles and grassy fields. Soon they reached Goku's house, a small cottage resting near a quiet stream. As usual, Chichi was waiting impatiently outside, expecting them to arrive the same time they had every day before. She was smiling at him, waving as he touched down a few yards away from her.
Ubuu was feeling better now, and could walk on his own two feet, though not without it being obvious he was tired. Chichi's maternal instinct kicked in and she began checking the boy all over to see if he was badly hurt. She shot a wry frown in Goku's direction before accepting the fact that Ubuu was fine.
"Really you two," Chichi said. "Do you have to be so rough? One of you is really going to get hurt if you keep this up."
"Aw," Goku said with an innocent smile as he scratched the back of his head. "Come on, Chichi. We know what we're doing."
"Sometimes I wonder about that," the woman said in return.
"Please, ma'am," Ubuu said with a bow. "Don't be angry with us. We'll be safer next time."
Chichi almost laughed.
"Ubuu," she said. "As much as I love to hear you say that, I don't think Goku would listen to me anyway."
She gave the sayian yet another wry frown. In return, he just kept smiling and scratching the back of his head. Goku, as if coming out of a trance, suddenly stopped his innocent smiling and looked off to the West. He could feel a very strong aura heading their way, and two smaller ones following behind it. Goku smiled.
"Hey, all right!" the sayian shouted. "Gohan's coming for dinner."
"Yep," said Chichi. "I called Videl and asked them to join us tonight. I thought it would be nice to eat as a family again." She grinned. "This means you can't eat all the food this time."
Goku stopped smiling.
Vegita stepped out of the gravity chamber. He wore a towel around his neck, but there really wasn't a point. Even in his normal form, he easily handled the chamber's maximum of 500 Gs. He didn't even break a sweat. This frustrated the sayian prince more every day. Goku (yes, he finally started getting used to calling him Goku instead of Kakarot) was getting stronger every day because he was training with that kid, Ubuu. But Vegita, on the other hand, had no one near his level to train with. Sure, Piccolo would come over once and a while for a sparring session, but that was no fun either. If only Gohan would agree to train with him. Perhaps then he could get some real training done.
Still, at least he found a common ground with Piccolo. Bulma had started suggesting to him that he needed to expand himself socially. Personally, Vegita saw no need for being "social". However, he and Piccolo did share the same type of personality and sense of humor. The namekian was probably the only person he'd ever met that didn't annoy him.
The sayian prince took a quick shower and then left the training dome. Bulma had the Capsule Corporation construct a football stadium sized training facility for her husband to train in. It had twin gravity wells, and also included target drones for accuracy practice. The shower room was also huge, connecting to a long, glass tunnel that ran to the couple's house.
Once inside the house, the airtight doors for the tunnel slid shut behind him. The home was as futuristic and modern as could be, always being advanced by the newest technology. Nothing was average or mediocre. Even when Trunks was growing up, his toys were always the newest and greatest things. That was the advantage when you were married to the richest woman in the world.
After the whole Buu ordeal, Vegita finally accepted the fact that he truly cared for Bulma and Trunks. A part of him would always remain the prideful rogue prince, but he would not deny his emotions for the boy or his mother. He and Bulma were married shortly afterwards, and thus began the sayian's life as a family man. At first, it was hard to adjust to these new feelings he was letting himself feel, but they soon came naturally. He even found that the way Trunks was looking up at him gave him a sense of meaning and purpose.
He made his way to the kitchen, finding Bulma talking on the phone as usual. She smiled as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He kissed her on the cheek and then went for the fridge. He grabbed a beer and headed for large kitchen table. Sitting down felt surprisingly good to him, as did the liquor. Apparently the work out wasn't a complete loss.
Bulma lowered the receiver to her shoulder and turned to Vegita.
"Chichi invited us over for dinner tonight," she said. "You wanna go?"
Vegita hadn't talked to Kak – Goku in about a month. He wanted to see how much stronger his rival had gotten, and just how much farther he had to go to match him.
Secretly, Vegita admitted to himself that he probably would never surpass SSJ2, but he would try as hard as he could to match Goku in that stage.
"Sure," Vegita said. "But tell her she'd better make some more food. I'm starving."
Bulma replaced the receiver to her ear.
"Chichi? Yeah, we'd love to come. Uh huh…yeah, he's hungry…"
Vegita relaxed his senses and reached out with his aura. He wanted to see where Trunks and Goten were. They were close to the city, but far enough away to keep their training session from being dangerous to the public. Those two were becoming rather powerful now; there power levels probably reaching close to fifteen million or so when turned super sayian. Still, they had to fight as super sayians just to do anything against him in even in his natural form. But the sayian did enjoy training with his son. Normal dads play catch with their boys…Vegita fights his.
Gohan flew slow enough to let Videl and Pan keep up with his pace, but still fast enough to appease his eagerness to see his father. Ever since his daughter, Pan, was born, he and Videl had stayed at home more often, especially when she was just a newborn. But it was soon apparent that Pan, like Trunks and Goten, was no ordinary child. At age six, she could already fly, shoot energy blasts, and have a healthy love for fighting (which was attributed to her grandfather's influence).
Videl herself was also growing strong, despite not training nearly as much as she did before she became a mother. Most of her time was spent at home, taking care of Pan. Gohan worked the earlier part of the day at the local university, teaching upper level math and physics. During this time, Videl would actually train with Pan, and soon found the youngster to be much stronger than she was. It was then that Pan's training was put in the hands of her father.
Gohan also found time for training, though he knew it wasn't as much as he should have. Still, he kept up his strength and sharpened his techniques. Though unable to turn super sayian any more, Gohan perfected his upgrade to the mystic state. In a way, it felt much like SSJ2 to him, except he had no golden hair. But the transformation was stronger than SSJ2. Vegita didn't like that too much, but Goku found it pretty cool. There was one regret though – no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to achieve SSJ3.
In fact, it was possible that no one else would ever be able to reach that esteemed level except Goku. Vegita had reached SSJ2, but it was only through the boost he received from Babidi. He may not even have reached SSJ2 without that extra help. But then why could Gohan reach it, and at such an early age? He guessed it was because he was Goku's son, and the bloodline of incredible power was in him as well.
Even as Gohan flew with his family to his parents' home, he kept running these thoughts in his mind. Could Goku have already gone SSJ2 when Cell was on Earth? Goku had told everyone that he reached that stage in the afterlife, but even so, was it still possible for him to achieve the higher levels of super sayian back then? Perhaps when Gohan transformed into a higher level, Goku realized that he might be able to do the same thing. Would he have had to die if he had made himself angry and transformed into SSJ2? If so, life would have been totally different than it was right now. But whether it could be better or worse, he didn't really care. Life now was absolutely perfect.
Piccolo sat atop the towering rock formation. Channeling his ki, he began raising his aura to its limits. Heat waves distorted the air and the rock formation began to crack.
The air around him started swirling away from him, the ground far below beginning to quake. Piccolo focused his senses on his body, concentrating his aura until he started glowing. Instantly, the rock formation crumbled to the desert floor far below.
While his body was concentrating energy, Piccolo now focused his mind on a mental battle, between himself and his virtual clone. This was what he enjoyed doing. There was no urge to take a break or even relax in his training. Striving to become stronger had taken over all his passions. He'd seen how powerful the sayians had become during the Boo incident, and though they were all his friends, Piccolo was jealous. He used to be right on par with Goku, but now he wasn't even close to attaining a level anywhere near him.
But he'd trained hard ever since then. His power level had nearly doubled, especially since he'd been having training sessions with Vegita. The sayian prince was actually a nicer person for the last six years, and Piccolo had grown to respect the sayian for his determination and power (note: he didn't say he liked him, because Piccolo just doesn't say things like that).
Over 40 years later:
Goku planted his feet, dropping his weight to his knees and preparing himself for the onslaught that was almost upon him. Five energy beams shot through the air, slicing the ground below them. Each one was a different energy concentration than the other ones, but all of them were tremendous in power. Goku tightened his muscles, summoning his energy. The fireballs were almost to him.
Behind the flying energy stood Ubuu. The young boy was exhausted, breathing heavily as he struggled to keep his arms stretched out in front of him. With all the strength left in his body, he pushed the beams towards his opponent. He had grown in strength over the few months that he'd been training under Goku, and his technique was sharpening. But would he ever be strong enough to match his trainer? Goku had never even turned super sayian during their matches, and yet always seemed to come out on top every time.
Goku was amazed at the young boy's strength. He was learning at an incredible rate, and growing in skill every day. But then, fighting against such a growing force made the trainer stronger as well. Goku could feel his power level rising little by little. Even now, as he was preparing to be hammered by oncoming energy beams, the sayian couldn't help but crack a smile at the thought of growing stronger.
In an instant, Goku began powering up. The ground around him erupted, the rising clumps of dirt tumbling in the heat waves of energy. He shoved his palms into the air, facing the attack. An energy field appeared in front of his hands and quickly ran around his body. This was it.
The attack struck the dome of energy like a freight train, blazing fire and smoke all around it. Ubuu watched as his attack emanated into a forming mushroom cloud, with a shockwave coming his way. The boy braced himself, shielding his face from his own attack. Once the dust clouds had blown past him, Ubuu looked up to find a large crater where the blast had taken place. But in the center of the football sized indentation was a floating sayian, still in his normal form, and smiling.
Ubuu smiled back, and then fell backwards. He was so tired he couldn't stop himself. Almost as soon as he began falling, Goku grabbed him, gently sitting him down. The boy was breathing deeply, his eyes closed tight.
"Careful, Ubuu," Goku said. "You don't want to overdo it this early in your training."
The boy did manage to nod his head.
"But still,"Goku continued, "That was one heck of a blast. I'm impressed."
Ubuu cracked open his right eye to see the smile on Goku's face. Despite being worn out beyond all reason, the boy was happy. His teacher was impressed with him, and that was all he wanted.
Goku picked the boy up and flew westward. The field they were practicing in wasn't actually very far from his house, and he knew Chichi would have a large meal ready for the two tired fighters when they returned. The thought of Chichi made Goku smile. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to have the life he lived. He shared it with a beautiful wife, strong boys who honored both he and Chichi, and friends who had, on many occasions, been ready to lay down their lives for him. To top it all off, he was training with a very strong lad, becoming stronger every day. Could things possibly get any better?
The trees passed quickly beneath them as they flew past mountains and hills; sometimes low enough to smell the aroma of pine needles and grassy fields. Soon they reached Goku's house, a small cottage resting near a quiet stream. As usual, Chichi was waiting impatiently outside, expecting them to arrive the same time they had every day before. She was smiling at him, waving as he touched down a few yards away from her.
Ubuu was feeling better now, and could walk on his own two feet, though not without it being obvious he was tired. Chichi's maternal instinct kicked in and she began checking the boy all over to see if he was badly hurt. She shot a wry frown in Goku's direction before accepting the fact that Ubuu was fine.
"Really you two," Chichi said. "Do you have to be so rough? One of you is really going to get hurt if you keep this up."
"Aw," Goku said with an innocent smile as he scratched the back of his head. "Come on, Chichi. We know what we're doing."
"Sometimes I wonder about that," the woman said in return.
"Please, ma'am," Ubuu said with a bow. "Don't be angry with us. We'll be safer next time."
Chichi almost laughed.
"Ubuu," she said. "As much as I love to hear you say that, I don't think Goku would listen to me anyway."
She gave the sayian yet another wry frown. In return, he just kept smiling and scratching the back of his head. Goku, as if coming out of a trance, suddenly stopped his innocent smiling and looked off to the West. He could feel a very strong aura heading their way, and two smaller ones following behind it. Goku smiled.
"Hey, all right!" the sayian shouted. "Gohan's coming for dinner."
"Yep," said Chichi. "I called Videl and asked them to join us tonight. I thought it would be nice to eat as a family again." She grinned. "This means you can't eat all the food this time."
Goku stopped smiling.
Vegita stepped out of the gravity chamber. He wore a towel around his neck, but there really wasn't a point. Even in his normal form, he easily handled the chamber's maximum of 500 Gs. He didn't even break a sweat. This frustrated the sayian prince more every day. Goku (yes, he finally started getting used to calling him Goku instead of Kakarot) was getting stronger every day because he was training with that kid, Ubuu. But Vegita, on the other hand, had no one near his level to train with. Sure, Piccolo would come over once and a while for a sparring session, but that was no fun either. If only Gohan would agree to train with him. Perhaps then he could get some real training done.
Still, at least he found a common ground with Piccolo. Bulma had started suggesting to him that he needed to expand himself socially. Personally, Vegita saw no need for being "social". However, he and Piccolo did share the same type of personality and sense of humor. The namekian was probably the only person he'd ever met that didn't annoy him.
The sayian prince took a quick shower and then left the training dome. Bulma had the Capsule Corporation construct a football stadium sized training facility for her husband to train in. It had twin gravity wells, and also included target drones for accuracy practice. The shower room was also huge, connecting to a long, glass tunnel that ran to the couple's house.
Once inside the house, the airtight doors for the tunnel slid shut behind him. The home was as futuristic and modern as could be, always being advanced by the newest technology. Nothing was average or mediocre. Even when Trunks was growing up, his toys were always the newest and greatest things. That was the advantage when you were married to the richest woman in the world.
After the whole Buu ordeal, Vegita finally accepted the fact that he truly cared for Bulma and Trunks. A part of him would always remain the prideful rogue prince, but he would not deny his emotions for the boy or his mother. He and Bulma were married shortly afterwards, and thus began the sayian's life as a family man. At first, it was hard to adjust to these new feelings he was letting himself feel, but they soon came naturally. He even found that the way Trunks was looking up at him gave him a sense of meaning and purpose.
He made his way to the kitchen, finding Bulma talking on the phone as usual. She smiled as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He kissed her on the cheek and then went for the fridge. He grabbed a beer and headed for large kitchen table. Sitting down felt surprisingly good to him, as did the liquor. Apparently the work out wasn't a complete loss.
Bulma lowered the receiver to her shoulder and turned to Vegita.
"Chichi invited us over for dinner tonight," she said. "You wanna go?"
Vegita hadn't talked to Kak – Goku in about a month. He wanted to see how much stronger his rival had gotten, and just how much farther he had to go to match him.
Secretly, Vegita admitted to himself that he probably would never surpass SSJ2, but he would try as hard as he could to match Goku in that stage.
"Sure," Vegita said. "But tell her she'd better make some more food. I'm starving."
Bulma replaced the receiver to her ear.
"Chichi? Yeah, we'd love to come. Uh huh…yeah, he's hungry…"
Vegita relaxed his senses and reached out with his aura. He wanted to see where Trunks and Goten were. They were close to the city, but far enough away to keep their training session from being dangerous to the public. Those two were becoming rather powerful now; there power levels probably reaching close to fifteen million or so when turned super sayian. Still, they had to fight as super sayians just to do anything against him in even in his natural form. But the sayian did enjoy training with his son. Normal dads play catch with their boys…Vegita fights his.
Gohan flew slow enough to let Videl and Pan keep up with his pace, but still fast enough to appease his eagerness to see his father. Ever since his daughter, Pan, was born, he and Videl had stayed at home more often, especially when she was just a newborn. But it was soon apparent that Pan, like Trunks and Goten, was no ordinary child. At age six, she could already fly, shoot energy blasts, and have a healthy love for fighting (which was attributed to her grandfather's influence).
Videl herself was also growing strong, despite not training nearly as much as she did before she became a mother. Most of her time was spent at home, taking care of Pan. Gohan worked the earlier part of the day at the local university, teaching upper level math and physics. During this time, Videl would actually train with Pan, and soon found the youngster to be much stronger than she was. It was then that Pan's training was put in the hands of her father.
Gohan also found time for training, though he knew it wasn't as much as he should have. Still, he kept up his strength and sharpened his techniques. Though unable to turn super sayian any more, Gohan perfected his upgrade to the mystic state. In a way, it felt much like SSJ2 to him, except he had no golden hair. But the transformation was stronger than SSJ2. Vegita didn't like that too much, but Goku found it pretty cool. There was one regret though – no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to achieve SSJ3.
In fact, it was possible that no one else would ever be able to reach that esteemed level except Goku. Vegita had reached SSJ2, but it was only through the boost he received from Babidi. He may not even have reached SSJ2 without that extra help. But then why could Gohan reach it, and at such an early age? He guessed it was because he was Goku's son, and the bloodline of incredible power was in him as well.
Even as Gohan flew with his family to his parents' home, he kept running these thoughts in his mind. Could Goku have already gone SSJ2 when Cell was on Earth? Goku had told everyone that he reached that stage in the afterlife, but even so, was it still possible for him to achieve the higher levels of super sayian back then? Perhaps when Gohan transformed into a higher level, Goku realized that he might be able to do the same thing. Would he have had to die if he had made himself angry and transformed into SSJ2? If so, life would have been totally different than it was right now. But whether it could be better or worse, he didn't really care. Life now was absolutely perfect.
Piccolo sat atop the towering rock formation. Channeling his ki, he began raising his aura to its limits. Heat waves distorted the air and the rock formation began to crack.
The air around him started swirling away from him, the ground far below beginning to quake. Piccolo focused his senses on his body, concentrating his aura until he started glowing. Instantly, the rock formation crumbled to the desert floor far below.
While his body was concentrating energy, Piccolo now focused his mind on a mental battle, between himself and his virtual clone. This was what he enjoyed doing. There was no urge to take a break or even relax in his training. Striving to become stronger had taken over all his passions. He'd seen how powerful the sayians had become during the Boo incident, and though they were all his friends, Piccolo was jealous. He used to be right on par with Goku, but now he wasn't even close to attaining a level anywhere near him.
But he'd trained hard ever since then. His power level had nearly doubled, especially since he'd been having training sessions with Vegita. The sayian prince was actually a nicer person for the last six years, and Piccolo had grown to respect the sayian for his determination and power (note: he didn't say he liked him, because Piccolo just doesn't say things like that).