Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball Z.
Response to Reviews:
To Sorceress Fujin:
Thanks for the review. Here's MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!
To vsd2oc:
I hope you'll still be reading after this chapter, we're losing our innocence, they're holding hands now, I think the worlds going to end. Seriously though I can understand your hesitance. I tend to avoid straight NC-17 or otherwise skip over the NC-17 scenes. Anyway, I'm glad you started in spite of your hesitance and like it.
Gohan and Videl should end up as a couple, somewhere in the future, but this is probably going to be another novel length fic. And I still need to finish up Life is Strange * sighs *.
Glad you like the prophecy, not too much more on that front in here, but some interesting other developments. Prophecy will hopefully be fully explained by chapter six or so, but I don't think I'll make it by next chapter, maybe in chapter five if I'm lucky.
Something really weird must have happened when you were posting your review though I think I got it about six or seven times.
To Ice Angel:
I agree on the evil cliffhangers, they're so evil I'm not doing it, but as this is my story... Anyway we get to see even more of Gohan's leadership qualities in this chapter, but I won't keep you any longer, just go and read it.
To Shin Vegeta:
Well Gohan is what you could call OOC, the last 7 years have been completely different so his character and most other characters are slightly different.
To Jer:
If I keep up this pace of updating Gohan probably won't be the only one working overtime :), but anyway I'm glad you like it.
To ~*Crystal Lily*~:
The fire is just the glow caused by the heat and friction as the space pod enters the atmosphere.
Dawn Of The Third Era
Chapter Three: Aliens
Gohan quickly flew over to where the space pod had hit, only a few hundred yards away. Of course the other three wanted to know what was going on as well and so they made their way over to it on foot.
"Kuso." Gohan muttered under his breath as he saw the pod and recognised its markings, the markings of the Zeldan[1] army.
Briefly he wondered how it could have made it to Earth but that wasn't important now, as the pod was opening and a Zeldan getting out, the blue skin and green hair unmistakable even in the fading evening light.
He quickly landed in front of his friends and powered up to Super-Saiyan, using the extra energy to create a Ki-shield around them, just as they were recovering from the initial shock of seeing an alien.
When they had recovered Thaw looked at Gohan and tentatively asked the question that was on his mind as well as on Videl's and Twister's:
"Gohan, what is he?"
"A Zeldan." Gohan answered, not taking his eyes of the alien. "They're the reason I was gone last week, they tried to invade Kerlon prime so we had to go there and stop them, apparently this one wants revenge."
The Zeldan then said something in a tongue Videl, Twister and Thaw didn't understand, and Gohan answered him, speaking the same language.
The blue man then fired a blast that created an impressive lightshow as it hit the Ki-shield and Gohan countered, dropping the shield only the last instant before he attacked, by rushing forward forming a ball of Ki in one hand.
His attack was quite simple, he smacked his open hand, Ki-ball and all into the alien's face, reducing the man's career options to acting and limiting that career to the role of a headless corpse all in one go.
Videl was about to ask what happened when Gohan produced a small rectangular object from one of his pockets and pushed a button on it. As she looked closer she could see there was something like a speaker or a microphone or maybe both on it so she wasn't too surprised when he started to talk into it:
"This is Star, I repeat, this is Star, with a code red, I repeat code red transmission to all units, please report."
A moment of silence passed before there was a sputter and voices started coming out of the speaker, rapidly following each other.
A female voice: "This is Whiz, signing in."
Then a deep male voice: "Prince standing by and it'd better be important brat."
A somewhat lighter male voice: "Disc standing by."
Another woman: "18 signing in."
A guy again: "Bandit standing by."
A very boyish voice: "Emperor here, ready to receive."
Another deep male voice: "This is Guard, I'm waiting Star."
A woman again: "439-base here, standing by."
And another guy: "Ma Jr. here, why on earth can't you contact me telepathically?"[2]
Gohan sighed. "We've been over this before, if I contact you telepathically I have to tell you everything, and then tell the others, and then tell you what the others said and tell the others what you said and..."
"Fine just get this over with."
"Alright. Now Whiz, what's the status of the planetary Ki-detection grid and the object collision detection grid?"
"They're both down for some maintenance, because of that meteor shower yesterday most of our satellites took damage or had to be taken out of position why do you ask?"
"Because I have a dead Zeldan army captain at my feet and I didn't invite him, so we may have more unwelcome company on the way."
"All right, I'll try to get the grids up as soon as possible."
"Good in the mean time could you launch a couple of wide range scan probes, and hide them in the Kuyper-belt, at least that way we'll have some warning if this guy turns out to be just an advance scout for a much larger group."
"You got it."
"Good."
"Say brat." Videl recognised the voice and choice of words as the guy introduced as prince. "I think we should treat this as if there were an invasion force on the way, at least for the time being."
"You're right, let's see, Prince you take the area around the western capital and watch it. Ma Jr., take the north. 18 You've got the south, and Disc, Guard and Bandit take the east. I'll stay here near the centre of things. Especially since I'm with three friends and I think they could be THE three."
The others shot him surprised and confused looks at his emphasis on the word THE as gasps came from his communicator.
"You're sure?" Vegeta, a.k.a. Prince asked.
"Not quite yet." Gohan responded truthfully. "But I'd say over 90% so it's imperative that they survive this, you all know what will happen if they don't."
A small chorus of agreeing noises and then a question from Krillin a.k.a. Disc.
"Any idea why that Zeldan showed up?"
"Two possibilities, he's a hard-line loner or someone has gotten the foolish idea to attempt to attack us while we're home again. It's happened before, but I kind of thought we'd put a stop to it just about permanently after the Dolxins'[3] attempt a few years ago. On the other hand we did do a couple of things that might have upset the Zeldan high command last week, so maybe someone snapped."
Yamcha a.k.a. Bandit chuckled. "Just a couple of things? I think this was their 10th attempt to invade another planet, just this year. And it also was the 10th time we've stopped them this year, of course they're upset."
Gohan chuckled a little himself and then decided to end it.
"Alright, we all know what we've got to do, everybody stay in place and on your guard until we get confirmation that the probes are working."
Another chorus of agreeing noises and then he switched it off.
A silence fell again, this time lasting only a couple of minutes until Gohan spoke up.
"If it's possible I'd like the three of you to stay in one location tonight, so it'll be easier for me to keep an eye on you. And I don't doubt you will want to talk amongst yourselves about all of this."
"Sure we can all stay at my place." Videl said. "Dad doesn't really care one way or the other whether I have guests."
"What did you mean when you said you thought we were THE three." Thaw asked, stressing the word THE as Gohan had earlier.
"That would take too long to explain." Gohan said. "And I've given you enough to think and talk about, without explaining the entire prophecy to you. But in a nutshell the three have an important part to play."
Thaw nodded. All three of them knew he was right, their whole vision of reality had just been drastically altered, they didn't need more to think about. Less to think about sooner than more.
A few hours later Videl, Twister and Thaw were sitting on the floor in Videl's room. They'd turned of the light and so the moon[4] and stars shining in through the window where the only source of light. They'd been talking virtually non-stop since they arrived there about fifteen minutes after Gohan's revelations. Videl had asked one of the maids to bring dinner up for the three of them and so they'd talked between bites and sips during dinner.
When dinner was finished they'd just continued talking, keeping some water near at hand, to protect themselves from the otherwise inevitable dry throats.
They were just starting to talk about the day's own events, when there was a knock on the window as the light grew dimmer.
Videl turned to look at it and immediately recognised Gohan who was apparently floating outside. She walked over to open it.
"Hey Gohan."
"Hey guys, just thought I should let you know the scanner probes are in place so everything should be safe. If there are any others coming I'll come over here."
"Why don't you stay for a while?" Videl asked. "I think we'd all like to ask you some more questions."
"Why not. Just tell me if you want me to leave again."
"We will."
Gohan nodded and flew inside completely, landing crossed legged near the others.
Videl closed the window again and sat back down herself, aware of the interruption in their conversation Gohan's arrival had created.
"Do you mind if I ask you something Gohan?" She asked.
"You just did, but I don't mind questions, I'm sure all three of you have plenty of them."
"Alright then, why did you tell us all of this? Just because we're your friends?"
"Partly, if you were just close friends I might have waited longer, but if you are the three I don't have the luxury of waiting. There are various reasons for that, but let's not get into the prophecy before we have to."
Videl nodded as Twister asked the next question.
"I hope you don't mind my asking, but from your story your life's been pretty miserable all the way through, yet you seem pretty happy most of the time, how is that?"
"You just get used to it I suppose." Gohan replied after a moment's thought. "I've been fighting life and death battles since I was 5 or 6, depending on what you take as the starting moment. I'd killed by my seventh birthday, in self-defence of course, but I'd still killed. Over the years I learned to shut away my battle 'persona' as it were, though I rarely lose a certain amount of heightened observation. I guess that might be another reason I told you everything, I figured it was fair since I'd already discovered your secrets, at least a lot of them, and I could have had them all if I wanted to."
"You could?"
'Yes.' To the others' surprise Gohan's voice didn't come out loud but in their heads. 'Telepathy does take a lot out of me, certainly when I'm sending to a non-telepath, or several like now, but reading people's minds is relatively easy, if and when I so desire. When they're telepaths themselves it becomes different because they can block. And it would still be a strain, even with you, I don't specialise in telepathy and so this is more tiring for me than just normal fighting.'
"Wow." Videl whispered. "I suppose you could find out someone's secrets like that."
"It's actually pretty difficult, it's easy to read current thought, but to force someone to think of something takes even more power than a normal broadcast, and more still if you want to do it undetected. And like I said, I haven't used it to read you guys yet, I've grown quite skilled at observing all the little things that can give away thoughts and feelings over the years."
"Well I must say I'm quite amazed." Thaw said. "I just hope we're not going to have nightmares about everything when we go to our rooms later."
Gohan smirked a little. "Why don't you just get it over with and say room." He stated.
"What do you mean?" Thaw asked in surprise.
"Come on, I just told you I'm good at seeing the little things, you honestly think I hadn't figured out you and Twister were a couple yet, let me just give you a run down on what I noticed.
For both of you your pupils tend to dilate slightly when you're looking at each other, and you tend to blush just a tiny bit whenever the other uses an even remotely suggestive word. You also tend to sometimes look at the other and unconsciously lick your lips and finally you sometimes hold hands when you think Videl and I won't see."
"I uhm, we, uhm." Twister stuttered as both he and Thaw blushed so fiercely it was visible by the moonlight.
"Relax guys." Gohan told them. "I don't mind and I'm sure Videl doesn't either."
"Of course I don't I sort of suspected it myself." Videl said. "I may not be as observant as Gohan, but I thought I saw you two holding hands once too. I wasn't sure but I've had my suspicions since then."
Twister and Thaw looked at each other and the burst out laughing.
"And all this time," Twister managed to say between laughs, "we've been worried about whether or not to come out to you two."
"Well now you are out."
"Yeah I guess we are." Thaw said, taking Twister's hand. "It's kinda nice to be able to do this around others."
"Not to interrupt or anything." Gohan said. "But I think we got side-tracked. Do any of you have any more questions?"
"I have one." Videl said. "You've mentioned the prophecy a couple of times, and how we're linked to it, are you linked to it?"
Gohan thought for a moment as he didn't want to give away too much yet, but didn't want to lie either. "Yes." He finally said. "And while I will say again that now is not the time for me to explain the entire prophecy to you, I will tell you this, the choice of the three befalls me according to its words."
"What do you mean 'the choice of the three'?" Videl asked.
"There are three, and only three. Through several things we know they are from Earth, it isn't mentioned in the prophecy, but it is indirectly implied. Any three people from Earth could be the three. But the three just existing is not enough, they must be selected, and the right three must be selected, there will be only one chance to undo any mistake. To go short, the task of selecting the three is mine and if they aren't selected correctly they will not be able to play their part in the prophecy."
Videl nodded, she knew it would be pointless to ask what that part was, Gohan clearly wasn't going to tell them that yet.
Gohan let out a yawn. "Sorry." He apologised. "But I'm a bit tired, didn't get to sleep much last week. Too busy fighting the Zeldans."
"I guess we're all pretty tired by now." Videl remarked, stifling a yawn of her own. "Today has been pretty intense."
Twister and Thaw both nodded their agreement and Videl decided this was as good a time as any to call it a night.
"I think it's about time for all of us to sleep." She stated. "Would you like to stay here as well Gohan?"
"No thanks." Gohan said. "I can fly home in just a couple of minutes anyway. So I'll see you guys tomorrow."
A short exchange of good-byes followed and then Gohan opened the window and flew out again, heading for the 439 mountain area.
Gohan arrived at his usual time of two minutes before the bell sounded the next day so there was little time for the four friends to talk. Not to mention the lack of privacy in the already nearly filled classroom.
As usual he unpacked his supplies in relative silence, but to the others' surprise he also lay his communicator on the desk as well as a printout consisting of strange symbols they couldn't make heads or tales of.
"What is that?" Videl whispered pointing at it.
"A report from our allies on New Namek." Gohan whispered back. "It's in Namekian of course."
Videl nodded as the bell rang, signalling the start of the lessons.
About thirty minutes after class had started everyone was surprised, if not startled, by a series of beeps. Gohan immediately clicked his communicator and responded.
"Star here, what's the emergency?"
"This is Whiz." Bulma's voice replied from the communicator. "We still don't have the detection grids up but we just got a signal from one of the scout probes. We've got a wave of pods coming in, estimated time to arrival two minutes. We're not sure yet but it looks like they're aiming for the Satan City area."
"Matches up with standard Zeldan attack protocol. They would aim for my location."
"Okay, just keep up your guard, should I send any of the others to your location?"
"No I can handle it. How many pods are we talking about any way?"
"Looks like maybe a dozen."
"Okay, tell the others to get to their designated areas and stay on guard, a couple of them may break off from the main group on entering the atmosphere."
"Okay, contact us if you need any help or if you've got any orders."
"Roger that but I think I'll manage, on second thoughts, THE three are with me, so tell Disc to get over here."
"I will, it'll take a while though, since he's still at Kame-Island."
"I can take care of myself until he gets here, but send him, just to be safe."
"Okay."
Before Gohan could even reply there was a beep to indicate that Bulma had switched off.
"Gohan what..." The teacher started to ask before being overpowered by a roar that filled that sky.
"Can't talk now!" Gohan yelled. Pocketing his communicator, opening a window and preparing to fly out in an instant. "We've got incoming!"
Then in a move that surprised everyone, except for Videl, Twister and Thaw, he flew out of the window and onto the sports fields as ten streaks of fire headed towards him.
Gohan had started to power-up the instant he took to the air and transformed into a Super-Saiyan shortly after landing. Behind him the class gasped in surprise, but he was only vaguely aware of it. The pods looked like they were headed for this location and he couldn't allow them to hit the OSH buildings. Powering up even further to just below the level two barrier he focused his energy, forming it into a shield that surrounded the entire building.
As he knew they would the pods bounced of the shield to hit the ground not too far in front of him, hitting some of the sports fields and the edge of the woods beyond.
Gohan dropped the shield, it was too large and took too much energy to be used in a fight. Instead he rushed forward, hoping to take the fight away from the school that way.
Meanwhile the pods were opening and the Zeldans were stepping out into the open. Gohan groaned as he saw a patch of metal on the back of one of their hands, they were cyborgs.
The Zeldans had been experimenting with this technology recently, and it was now something that worked almost like a cross between the cyborg technology used to reconstruct Frieza and the sort of android technology that Dr. Gero had used on #17 en #18, though fortunately these guys were nowhere near as strong as #18 yet.
However with 10 of them even he had to be on his guard. Especially since he had to try to keep all the other students safe as well, and right now they weren't making it easier. The whole school seemed to be spilling out onto the fields behind him.
Gohan came to a halt as the leader of the enemy unit approached him.
"We claim this world in the name of the Zeldan Empire." He told Gohan, in Zeldan of course. "Leave now or we will destroy you."
Gohan just laughed. "Perhaps the sleep in your pods has affected your brains." He countered in Zeldan. "Or perhaps you are terribly misinformed and do not know about me, either way you will soon discover that I have more power than the ten of you combined."
The enemy leader, a major, as Gohan now saw from the insignia on his wristbands, looked just a little scared so clearly he knew who he was dealing with.
The fighting soon started and Gohan let the Zeldans attack first, three of them rushed towards him at once but he quickly disposed of them with three blasts that left them unconscious. The others now looked mad and so Gohan decided to power up further, taking himself into level two.
Six of the others attacked him and he fought with them for a while realising, almost too late that one of them was now heading for the other students. Gohan let out a loud "Kuso!" and pushed himself even further, his hair growing out as he went Super-Saiyan level 3, while flying after the Zeldan.
Only a fraction of a second before the Zeldan would have reached the others, who he clearly viewed as potential hostages, Gohan caught up with him, seizing him and throwing him backwards, into the other aliens who were pursuing.
Gohan himself came to a halt in the air, only inches removed from Videl who was at the front of the group of students. As soon as he'd stopped he turned in the air, not even bothering to land and sent out a series of Ki-blasts, completely vaporising all remaining Zeldans.
Finally he landed again and dropped his power, going down through level 2 back to level 1 Super-Saiyan where he held, just in case.
'Too bad Krillin couldn't get here on time.' Gohan thought. 'This way I can't leave here to see what's happening else where, should any others come I have to be ready.'
Standing behind Gohan, Videl was about to ask a question when all of a sudden another alien appeared right in front of Gohan, seemingly out of nowhere. Videl looked around and noticed a group of about 50 of these aliens standing on the field perhaps thirty feet away.
Immediately she looked them over. They were short, about her height, which was short by Human standards, and their skin was a purplish pink. Their hair was short and of a very deep purple colour, almost bordering on black and their eyes appeared to be purple also, other than that they looked more or less Human, except for pointed ears and ridges on the backs of their hands.[5]
They were all dressed identically apparently in uniform, which consisted of what looked like a black Gi, similar in model to the one Gohan always used and a cape over it, also in black. The one that had appeared directly in front of Gohan was the only one that stood out in anyway, other than of course their individual faces, as he had not two, like all the others, but three golden stars on his left shoulder.
She was just starting to wonder whether there would be another fight when the alien directly in front of Gohan dropped on one knee, his right knee on the ground and his right hand touching the ground in front of it. His left hand he brought up behind his back, placing it there with the palm turned up as he bowed his head so he looked down before speaking.
"Lord Gohan."
Videl heard gasps around her and wasn't even sure whether or not she'd gasped herself, but Gohan seemed to be taking the whole thing in a stride.
"Rise Sosumi." He told the alien.
"Your lordship remembers me?" Sosumi asked, seemingly awed, as he got up.
"Of course." Gohan said with a smile. "Not twice has Yana[6] circled since our last encounter. And I would not forget the Colonel of the seventh battalion of the imperial guard in so short a time. I doubt that I could forget you even if Yardrat itself were to circle a hundred times since our meeting. Though I do not know whether I will live to see the day it has."
Sosumi nodded. "Yes, my lord, in the times that are coming non know how long they shall live."
"You speak wisely as always Sosumi, but why are you here?"
"Your lordship, I am here under orders from prince Asron. Two nights ago we received word from the 99th battalion that the Zeldan's might be plotting to attack Earth. The prince was sure that our presence here could be of use."
A smile touched Gohan's lips. "My brother knows me well. Though even with the improved training I'm not sure if you and your men will be a match for the Zeldans. However if only in the interest of safety I'm glad you are here. And I thank you."
"Your gratitude is a reward we can neither hope for nor deserve, we are only following orders."
"You under estimate yourself colonel, your voice ways heavily even in the highest circles. And you do deserve my thanks, and more, you and your men are knowingly taking a grave risk."
Sosumi looked like he was about to reply when Krillin arrived.
"Sorry it took so long." The short man apologised as he landed. "But I ran into a Zeldan on the way here."
"It's okay Krillin, I managed without you and we've been sent some more back-up." Gohan said, indicating the Yardrat troops. "Allow me to make some introductions. Colonel Sosumi, of the imperial guard's seventh battalion, my friend Krillin, a fellow Z-squad member. And while I'm at it." He turned and beckoned Videl, Twister and Thaw who stepped forward rather hesitantly. "Krillin, Colonel, allow me to introduce three friends of mine, Videl, Twister and Thaw. Guys, this is Krillin and this is Colonel Sosumi, but you'd probably heard that already."
A short exchange of greetings followed before Sosumi turned to Gohan. "Three, as in THE three?"
"I think so." Gohan replied. "Though it still amazes me that your ancient texts spoke of them as well. I have not yet had time to explain the prophecy to them though."
"The explanation doesn't matter." Krillin said. "Their survival does."
"Yes." Gohan agreed. "So Krillin, and Sosumi, this goes for you and your men as well. I want you to do whatever you can to protect them, with your lives if necessary, and as a special request to you Colonel, should it look like the defence may fail, get yourself and your men out of here, and take the three of them with you. Bring them to Yardrat, to my quarters in the palace and inform Asron and King Yardos of the situation."
"So you don't think this is over yet?" Krillin said, worried.
"No, you generally don't get about a dozen Zeldan hardliners all organising in a single coordinated assault, there is a larger force on the way."
"Hai." Sosumi stated. "The 99th battalion spoke of the departure from Zeldan prime of 30 pods and 2 battleships."
"The 99th?" Krillin asked.
"There are only 50 battalions in the imperial guard." Gohan said. "But the 99th is the codename for the Yardrat military intelligence."
"If I might make a request." Sosumi said, a little hesitantly. "Could your lordship inspect the troops? I think it would be good for morale."
"Of course." Gohan said with a smile. "You just watch things here and I'll go inside to get into my uniform. I can't very well inspect the troops out of uniform can I?"
"Of course your lordship. We will watch things here." Sosumi immediately replied.
"Sure I'll keep an eye out bro." Krillin added.
Gohan nodded and headed into the building, passing the group of still stunned students to get to the locker rooms.
An excited whisper broke out in the group of students shortly after Gohan had entered the school. People were starting to recover from the shock, and questions were starting to form in their minds, especially among the members of Gohan's class.
Who exactly was this Son Gohan? Videl, Twister and Thaw seemed to know at least some more about him, but they too were now whispering together so it seemed they didn't know everything either. And what was with all the aliens?
Videl, Twister and Thaw, while indeed more knowledgeable than most were feeling a little frustrated. Somehow every other alien to pop up seemed to know about them while they themselves didn't know, and this whole matter wasn't doing anything to clear up their image of Gohan either. Thaw made a remark about Sosumi speaking of a prince, and Gohan referring his brother in reply, but if Gohan was half Saiyan and half Human as he claimed, how could he be a prince to these Yardrat? Or at the very least have a brother who was their prince?
Finally after some discussion they decided that Videl would ask him about it when he came back.
It turned out they didn't have to wait long as only moments later Gohan emerged again from the building, dressed in a Yardrat uniform, with four stars on the shoulder. What caught their eye most though was the crown he was wearing though. It seemed to be made of silver and was made up of heavenly bodies, the main band around his head consisted of a planet, placed centrally on his forehead, and what seemed like four moons, two on either side of it. The back moons were linked to planets again, one planet on either temple, and finally the back of it consisted of just a band of silver running through Gohan's still light gold locks. Above the planet on his forehead was the last feature of this crown, a star with a large precious stone, quite similar to a Sapphire, though clearly different and probably of extra terrestrial origin set in it.
Videl, Twister and Thaw, and even Krillin were simply in awe as they saw Gohan like this. The whole look of the black uniform, elegant in all its simplicity and the crown seemed to make Gohan look even more imposing and powerful than normal. It seemed as though the symbols revealed the side of himself he normally kept hidden even better than his power up did. The uniform somehow emphasised his prowess in battle, and the crown his ability, and power as a leader of men.
End of Chapter Three
[1] Zeldan is my name for Zarbon's race.
[2] Codenames:
Star - Gohan (Short for four-star, the dragon ball that goes with the name)
Whiz - Bulma
Prince - Vegeta
Disc - Krillin
18 - #18 (She didn't want to bother with a codename)
Bandit - Yamcha
Emperor - Chaozu
Guard - Tien (He's Chaozu's body-guard)
439-base - Chi-Chi (She's their home base in the 439 mountain area)
Ma Jr. - Piccolo (His standard alternative name)
[3] Dolxin my name for Dodoria's race.
[4] The moon was wished back at some point, but in such a way that it's rays don't allow Saiyans to transform, even when it's full.
[5] As you're about to find out, if you've skipped right down when you saw this, these are Yardrat, as some of you may also realise they look different than they do in the brief flash we see of them in the series, one of the episodes where Goku has just returned during the Trunks Saga, but I'm using them for a substantially larger role so I've adapted their looks and culture to serve my own purposes, what they inherit mostly from the series is the Instant Transmission and some of the basic, purplish pink colouration.
[6] Yana is planet Yardrat's largest moon.
Response to Reviews:
To Sorceress Fujin:
Thanks for the review. Here's MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!
To vsd2oc:
I hope you'll still be reading after this chapter, we're losing our innocence, they're holding hands now, I think the worlds going to end. Seriously though I can understand your hesitance. I tend to avoid straight NC-17 or otherwise skip over the NC-17 scenes. Anyway, I'm glad you started in spite of your hesitance and like it.
Gohan and Videl should end up as a couple, somewhere in the future, but this is probably going to be another novel length fic. And I still need to finish up Life is Strange * sighs *.
Glad you like the prophecy, not too much more on that front in here, but some interesting other developments. Prophecy will hopefully be fully explained by chapter six or so, but I don't think I'll make it by next chapter, maybe in chapter five if I'm lucky.
Something really weird must have happened when you were posting your review though I think I got it about six or seven times.
To Ice Angel:
I agree on the evil cliffhangers, they're so evil I'm not doing it, but as this is my story... Anyway we get to see even more of Gohan's leadership qualities in this chapter, but I won't keep you any longer, just go and read it.
To Shin Vegeta:
Well Gohan is what you could call OOC, the last 7 years have been completely different so his character and most other characters are slightly different.
To Jer:
If I keep up this pace of updating Gohan probably won't be the only one working overtime :), but anyway I'm glad you like it.
To ~*Crystal Lily*~:
The fire is just the glow caused by the heat and friction as the space pod enters the atmosphere.
Dawn Of The Third Era
Chapter Three: Aliens
Gohan quickly flew over to where the space pod had hit, only a few hundred yards away. Of course the other three wanted to know what was going on as well and so they made their way over to it on foot.
"Kuso." Gohan muttered under his breath as he saw the pod and recognised its markings, the markings of the Zeldan[1] army.
Briefly he wondered how it could have made it to Earth but that wasn't important now, as the pod was opening and a Zeldan getting out, the blue skin and green hair unmistakable even in the fading evening light.
He quickly landed in front of his friends and powered up to Super-Saiyan, using the extra energy to create a Ki-shield around them, just as they were recovering from the initial shock of seeing an alien.
When they had recovered Thaw looked at Gohan and tentatively asked the question that was on his mind as well as on Videl's and Twister's:
"Gohan, what is he?"
"A Zeldan." Gohan answered, not taking his eyes of the alien. "They're the reason I was gone last week, they tried to invade Kerlon prime so we had to go there and stop them, apparently this one wants revenge."
The Zeldan then said something in a tongue Videl, Twister and Thaw didn't understand, and Gohan answered him, speaking the same language.
The blue man then fired a blast that created an impressive lightshow as it hit the Ki-shield and Gohan countered, dropping the shield only the last instant before he attacked, by rushing forward forming a ball of Ki in one hand.
His attack was quite simple, he smacked his open hand, Ki-ball and all into the alien's face, reducing the man's career options to acting and limiting that career to the role of a headless corpse all in one go.
Videl was about to ask what happened when Gohan produced a small rectangular object from one of his pockets and pushed a button on it. As she looked closer she could see there was something like a speaker or a microphone or maybe both on it so she wasn't too surprised when he started to talk into it:
"This is Star, I repeat, this is Star, with a code red, I repeat code red transmission to all units, please report."
A moment of silence passed before there was a sputter and voices started coming out of the speaker, rapidly following each other.
A female voice: "This is Whiz, signing in."
Then a deep male voice: "Prince standing by and it'd better be important brat."
A somewhat lighter male voice: "Disc standing by."
Another woman: "18 signing in."
A guy again: "Bandit standing by."
A very boyish voice: "Emperor here, ready to receive."
Another deep male voice: "This is Guard, I'm waiting Star."
A woman again: "439-base here, standing by."
And another guy: "Ma Jr. here, why on earth can't you contact me telepathically?"[2]
Gohan sighed. "We've been over this before, if I contact you telepathically I have to tell you everything, and then tell the others, and then tell you what the others said and tell the others what you said and..."
"Fine just get this over with."
"Alright. Now Whiz, what's the status of the planetary Ki-detection grid and the object collision detection grid?"
"They're both down for some maintenance, because of that meteor shower yesterday most of our satellites took damage or had to be taken out of position why do you ask?"
"Because I have a dead Zeldan army captain at my feet and I didn't invite him, so we may have more unwelcome company on the way."
"All right, I'll try to get the grids up as soon as possible."
"Good in the mean time could you launch a couple of wide range scan probes, and hide them in the Kuyper-belt, at least that way we'll have some warning if this guy turns out to be just an advance scout for a much larger group."
"You got it."
"Good."
"Say brat." Videl recognised the voice and choice of words as the guy introduced as prince. "I think we should treat this as if there were an invasion force on the way, at least for the time being."
"You're right, let's see, Prince you take the area around the western capital and watch it. Ma Jr., take the north. 18 You've got the south, and Disc, Guard and Bandit take the east. I'll stay here near the centre of things. Especially since I'm with three friends and I think they could be THE three."
The others shot him surprised and confused looks at his emphasis on the word THE as gasps came from his communicator.
"You're sure?" Vegeta, a.k.a. Prince asked.
"Not quite yet." Gohan responded truthfully. "But I'd say over 90% so it's imperative that they survive this, you all know what will happen if they don't."
A small chorus of agreeing noises and then a question from Krillin a.k.a. Disc.
"Any idea why that Zeldan showed up?"
"Two possibilities, he's a hard-line loner or someone has gotten the foolish idea to attempt to attack us while we're home again. It's happened before, but I kind of thought we'd put a stop to it just about permanently after the Dolxins'[3] attempt a few years ago. On the other hand we did do a couple of things that might have upset the Zeldan high command last week, so maybe someone snapped."
Yamcha a.k.a. Bandit chuckled. "Just a couple of things? I think this was their 10th attempt to invade another planet, just this year. And it also was the 10th time we've stopped them this year, of course they're upset."
Gohan chuckled a little himself and then decided to end it.
"Alright, we all know what we've got to do, everybody stay in place and on your guard until we get confirmation that the probes are working."
Another chorus of agreeing noises and then he switched it off.
A silence fell again, this time lasting only a couple of minutes until Gohan spoke up.
"If it's possible I'd like the three of you to stay in one location tonight, so it'll be easier for me to keep an eye on you. And I don't doubt you will want to talk amongst yourselves about all of this."
"Sure we can all stay at my place." Videl said. "Dad doesn't really care one way or the other whether I have guests."
"What did you mean when you said you thought we were THE three." Thaw asked, stressing the word THE as Gohan had earlier.
"That would take too long to explain." Gohan said. "And I've given you enough to think and talk about, without explaining the entire prophecy to you. But in a nutshell the three have an important part to play."
Thaw nodded. All three of them knew he was right, their whole vision of reality had just been drastically altered, they didn't need more to think about. Less to think about sooner than more.
A few hours later Videl, Twister and Thaw were sitting on the floor in Videl's room. They'd turned of the light and so the moon[4] and stars shining in through the window where the only source of light. They'd been talking virtually non-stop since they arrived there about fifteen minutes after Gohan's revelations. Videl had asked one of the maids to bring dinner up for the three of them and so they'd talked between bites and sips during dinner.
When dinner was finished they'd just continued talking, keeping some water near at hand, to protect themselves from the otherwise inevitable dry throats.
They were just starting to talk about the day's own events, when there was a knock on the window as the light grew dimmer.
Videl turned to look at it and immediately recognised Gohan who was apparently floating outside. She walked over to open it.
"Hey Gohan."
"Hey guys, just thought I should let you know the scanner probes are in place so everything should be safe. If there are any others coming I'll come over here."
"Why don't you stay for a while?" Videl asked. "I think we'd all like to ask you some more questions."
"Why not. Just tell me if you want me to leave again."
"We will."
Gohan nodded and flew inside completely, landing crossed legged near the others.
Videl closed the window again and sat back down herself, aware of the interruption in their conversation Gohan's arrival had created.
"Do you mind if I ask you something Gohan?" She asked.
"You just did, but I don't mind questions, I'm sure all three of you have plenty of them."
"Alright then, why did you tell us all of this? Just because we're your friends?"
"Partly, if you were just close friends I might have waited longer, but if you are the three I don't have the luxury of waiting. There are various reasons for that, but let's not get into the prophecy before we have to."
Videl nodded as Twister asked the next question.
"I hope you don't mind my asking, but from your story your life's been pretty miserable all the way through, yet you seem pretty happy most of the time, how is that?"
"You just get used to it I suppose." Gohan replied after a moment's thought. "I've been fighting life and death battles since I was 5 or 6, depending on what you take as the starting moment. I'd killed by my seventh birthday, in self-defence of course, but I'd still killed. Over the years I learned to shut away my battle 'persona' as it were, though I rarely lose a certain amount of heightened observation. I guess that might be another reason I told you everything, I figured it was fair since I'd already discovered your secrets, at least a lot of them, and I could have had them all if I wanted to."
"You could?"
'Yes.' To the others' surprise Gohan's voice didn't come out loud but in their heads. 'Telepathy does take a lot out of me, certainly when I'm sending to a non-telepath, or several like now, but reading people's minds is relatively easy, if and when I so desire. When they're telepaths themselves it becomes different because they can block. And it would still be a strain, even with you, I don't specialise in telepathy and so this is more tiring for me than just normal fighting.'
"Wow." Videl whispered. "I suppose you could find out someone's secrets like that."
"It's actually pretty difficult, it's easy to read current thought, but to force someone to think of something takes even more power than a normal broadcast, and more still if you want to do it undetected. And like I said, I haven't used it to read you guys yet, I've grown quite skilled at observing all the little things that can give away thoughts and feelings over the years."
"Well I must say I'm quite amazed." Thaw said. "I just hope we're not going to have nightmares about everything when we go to our rooms later."
Gohan smirked a little. "Why don't you just get it over with and say room." He stated.
"What do you mean?" Thaw asked in surprise.
"Come on, I just told you I'm good at seeing the little things, you honestly think I hadn't figured out you and Twister were a couple yet, let me just give you a run down on what I noticed.
For both of you your pupils tend to dilate slightly when you're looking at each other, and you tend to blush just a tiny bit whenever the other uses an even remotely suggestive word. You also tend to sometimes look at the other and unconsciously lick your lips and finally you sometimes hold hands when you think Videl and I won't see."
"I uhm, we, uhm." Twister stuttered as both he and Thaw blushed so fiercely it was visible by the moonlight.
"Relax guys." Gohan told them. "I don't mind and I'm sure Videl doesn't either."
"Of course I don't I sort of suspected it myself." Videl said. "I may not be as observant as Gohan, but I thought I saw you two holding hands once too. I wasn't sure but I've had my suspicions since then."
Twister and Thaw looked at each other and the burst out laughing.
"And all this time," Twister managed to say between laughs, "we've been worried about whether or not to come out to you two."
"Well now you are out."
"Yeah I guess we are." Thaw said, taking Twister's hand. "It's kinda nice to be able to do this around others."
"Not to interrupt or anything." Gohan said. "But I think we got side-tracked. Do any of you have any more questions?"
"I have one." Videl said. "You've mentioned the prophecy a couple of times, and how we're linked to it, are you linked to it?"
Gohan thought for a moment as he didn't want to give away too much yet, but didn't want to lie either. "Yes." He finally said. "And while I will say again that now is not the time for me to explain the entire prophecy to you, I will tell you this, the choice of the three befalls me according to its words."
"What do you mean 'the choice of the three'?" Videl asked.
"There are three, and only three. Through several things we know they are from Earth, it isn't mentioned in the prophecy, but it is indirectly implied. Any three people from Earth could be the three. But the three just existing is not enough, they must be selected, and the right three must be selected, there will be only one chance to undo any mistake. To go short, the task of selecting the three is mine and if they aren't selected correctly they will not be able to play their part in the prophecy."
Videl nodded, she knew it would be pointless to ask what that part was, Gohan clearly wasn't going to tell them that yet.
Gohan let out a yawn. "Sorry." He apologised. "But I'm a bit tired, didn't get to sleep much last week. Too busy fighting the Zeldans."
"I guess we're all pretty tired by now." Videl remarked, stifling a yawn of her own. "Today has been pretty intense."
Twister and Thaw both nodded their agreement and Videl decided this was as good a time as any to call it a night.
"I think it's about time for all of us to sleep." She stated. "Would you like to stay here as well Gohan?"
"No thanks." Gohan said. "I can fly home in just a couple of minutes anyway. So I'll see you guys tomorrow."
A short exchange of good-byes followed and then Gohan opened the window and flew out again, heading for the 439 mountain area.
Gohan arrived at his usual time of two minutes before the bell sounded the next day so there was little time for the four friends to talk. Not to mention the lack of privacy in the already nearly filled classroom.
As usual he unpacked his supplies in relative silence, but to the others' surprise he also lay his communicator on the desk as well as a printout consisting of strange symbols they couldn't make heads or tales of.
"What is that?" Videl whispered pointing at it.
"A report from our allies on New Namek." Gohan whispered back. "It's in Namekian of course."
Videl nodded as the bell rang, signalling the start of the lessons.
About thirty minutes after class had started everyone was surprised, if not startled, by a series of beeps. Gohan immediately clicked his communicator and responded.
"Star here, what's the emergency?"
"This is Whiz." Bulma's voice replied from the communicator. "We still don't have the detection grids up but we just got a signal from one of the scout probes. We've got a wave of pods coming in, estimated time to arrival two minutes. We're not sure yet but it looks like they're aiming for the Satan City area."
"Matches up with standard Zeldan attack protocol. They would aim for my location."
"Okay, just keep up your guard, should I send any of the others to your location?"
"No I can handle it. How many pods are we talking about any way?"
"Looks like maybe a dozen."
"Okay, tell the others to get to their designated areas and stay on guard, a couple of them may break off from the main group on entering the atmosphere."
"Okay, contact us if you need any help or if you've got any orders."
"Roger that but I think I'll manage, on second thoughts, THE three are with me, so tell Disc to get over here."
"I will, it'll take a while though, since he's still at Kame-Island."
"I can take care of myself until he gets here, but send him, just to be safe."
"Okay."
Before Gohan could even reply there was a beep to indicate that Bulma had switched off.
"Gohan what..." The teacher started to ask before being overpowered by a roar that filled that sky.
"Can't talk now!" Gohan yelled. Pocketing his communicator, opening a window and preparing to fly out in an instant. "We've got incoming!"
Then in a move that surprised everyone, except for Videl, Twister and Thaw, he flew out of the window and onto the sports fields as ten streaks of fire headed towards him.
Gohan had started to power-up the instant he took to the air and transformed into a Super-Saiyan shortly after landing. Behind him the class gasped in surprise, but he was only vaguely aware of it. The pods looked like they were headed for this location and he couldn't allow them to hit the OSH buildings. Powering up even further to just below the level two barrier he focused his energy, forming it into a shield that surrounded the entire building.
As he knew they would the pods bounced of the shield to hit the ground not too far in front of him, hitting some of the sports fields and the edge of the woods beyond.
Gohan dropped the shield, it was too large and took too much energy to be used in a fight. Instead he rushed forward, hoping to take the fight away from the school that way.
Meanwhile the pods were opening and the Zeldans were stepping out into the open. Gohan groaned as he saw a patch of metal on the back of one of their hands, they were cyborgs.
The Zeldans had been experimenting with this technology recently, and it was now something that worked almost like a cross between the cyborg technology used to reconstruct Frieza and the sort of android technology that Dr. Gero had used on #17 en #18, though fortunately these guys were nowhere near as strong as #18 yet.
However with 10 of them even he had to be on his guard. Especially since he had to try to keep all the other students safe as well, and right now they weren't making it easier. The whole school seemed to be spilling out onto the fields behind him.
Gohan came to a halt as the leader of the enemy unit approached him.
"We claim this world in the name of the Zeldan Empire." He told Gohan, in Zeldan of course. "Leave now or we will destroy you."
Gohan just laughed. "Perhaps the sleep in your pods has affected your brains." He countered in Zeldan. "Or perhaps you are terribly misinformed and do not know about me, either way you will soon discover that I have more power than the ten of you combined."
The enemy leader, a major, as Gohan now saw from the insignia on his wristbands, looked just a little scared so clearly he knew who he was dealing with.
The fighting soon started and Gohan let the Zeldans attack first, three of them rushed towards him at once but he quickly disposed of them with three blasts that left them unconscious. The others now looked mad and so Gohan decided to power up further, taking himself into level two.
Six of the others attacked him and he fought with them for a while realising, almost too late that one of them was now heading for the other students. Gohan let out a loud "Kuso!" and pushed himself even further, his hair growing out as he went Super-Saiyan level 3, while flying after the Zeldan.
Only a fraction of a second before the Zeldan would have reached the others, who he clearly viewed as potential hostages, Gohan caught up with him, seizing him and throwing him backwards, into the other aliens who were pursuing.
Gohan himself came to a halt in the air, only inches removed from Videl who was at the front of the group of students. As soon as he'd stopped he turned in the air, not even bothering to land and sent out a series of Ki-blasts, completely vaporising all remaining Zeldans.
Finally he landed again and dropped his power, going down through level 2 back to level 1 Super-Saiyan where he held, just in case.
'Too bad Krillin couldn't get here on time.' Gohan thought. 'This way I can't leave here to see what's happening else where, should any others come I have to be ready.'
Standing behind Gohan, Videl was about to ask a question when all of a sudden another alien appeared right in front of Gohan, seemingly out of nowhere. Videl looked around and noticed a group of about 50 of these aliens standing on the field perhaps thirty feet away.
Immediately she looked them over. They were short, about her height, which was short by Human standards, and their skin was a purplish pink. Their hair was short and of a very deep purple colour, almost bordering on black and their eyes appeared to be purple also, other than that they looked more or less Human, except for pointed ears and ridges on the backs of their hands.[5]
They were all dressed identically apparently in uniform, which consisted of what looked like a black Gi, similar in model to the one Gohan always used and a cape over it, also in black. The one that had appeared directly in front of Gohan was the only one that stood out in anyway, other than of course their individual faces, as he had not two, like all the others, but three golden stars on his left shoulder.
She was just starting to wonder whether there would be another fight when the alien directly in front of Gohan dropped on one knee, his right knee on the ground and his right hand touching the ground in front of it. His left hand he brought up behind his back, placing it there with the palm turned up as he bowed his head so he looked down before speaking.
"Lord Gohan."
Videl heard gasps around her and wasn't even sure whether or not she'd gasped herself, but Gohan seemed to be taking the whole thing in a stride.
"Rise Sosumi." He told the alien.
"Your lordship remembers me?" Sosumi asked, seemingly awed, as he got up.
"Of course." Gohan said with a smile. "Not twice has Yana[6] circled since our last encounter. And I would not forget the Colonel of the seventh battalion of the imperial guard in so short a time. I doubt that I could forget you even if Yardrat itself were to circle a hundred times since our meeting. Though I do not know whether I will live to see the day it has."
Sosumi nodded. "Yes, my lord, in the times that are coming non know how long they shall live."
"You speak wisely as always Sosumi, but why are you here?"
"Your lordship, I am here under orders from prince Asron. Two nights ago we received word from the 99th battalion that the Zeldan's might be plotting to attack Earth. The prince was sure that our presence here could be of use."
A smile touched Gohan's lips. "My brother knows me well. Though even with the improved training I'm not sure if you and your men will be a match for the Zeldans. However if only in the interest of safety I'm glad you are here. And I thank you."
"Your gratitude is a reward we can neither hope for nor deserve, we are only following orders."
"You under estimate yourself colonel, your voice ways heavily even in the highest circles. And you do deserve my thanks, and more, you and your men are knowingly taking a grave risk."
Sosumi looked like he was about to reply when Krillin arrived.
"Sorry it took so long." The short man apologised as he landed. "But I ran into a Zeldan on the way here."
"It's okay Krillin, I managed without you and we've been sent some more back-up." Gohan said, indicating the Yardrat troops. "Allow me to make some introductions. Colonel Sosumi, of the imperial guard's seventh battalion, my friend Krillin, a fellow Z-squad member. And while I'm at it." He turned and beckoned Videl, Twister and Thaw who stepped forward rather hesitantly. "Krillin, Colonel, allow me to introduce three friends of mine, Videl, Twister and Thaw. Guys, this is Krillin and this is Colonel Sosumi, but you'd probably heard that already."
A short exchange of greetings followed before Sosumi turned to Gohan. "Three, as in THE three?"
"I think so." Gohan replied. "Though it still amazes me that your ancient texts spoke of them as well. I have not yet had time to explain the prophecy to them though."
"The explanation doesn't matter." Krillin said. "Their survival does."
"Yes." Gohan agreed. "So Krillin, and Sosumi, this goes for you and your men as well. I want you to do whatever you can to protect them, with your lives if necessary, and as a special request to you Colonel, should it look like the defence may fail, get yourself and your men out of here, and take the three of them with you. Bring them to Yardrat, to my quarters in the palace and inform Asron and King Yardos of the situation."
"So you don't think this is over yet?" Krillin said, worried.
"No, you generally don't get about a dozen Zeldan hardliners all organising in a single coordinated assault, there is a larger force on the way."
"Hai." Sosumi stated. "The 99th battalion spoke of the departure from Zeldan prime of 30 pods and 2 battleships."
"The 99th?" Krillin asked.
"There are only 50 battalions in the imperial guard." Gohan said. "But the 99th is the codename for the Yardrat military intelligence."
"If I might make a request." Sosumi said, a little hesitantly. "Could your lordship inspect the troops? I think it would be good for morale."
"Of course." Gohan said with a smile. "You just watch things here and I'll go inside to get into my uniform. I can't very well inspect the troops out of uniform can I?"
"Of course your lordship. We will watch things here." Sosumi immediately replied.
"Sure I'll keep an eye out bro." Krillin added.
Gohan nodded and headed into the building, passing the group of still stunned students to get to the locker rooms.
An excited whisper broke out in the group of students shortly after Gohan had entered the school. People were starting to recover from the shock, and questions were starting to form in their minds, especially among the members of Gohan's class.
Who exactly was this Son Gohan? Videl, Twister and Thaw seemed to know at least some more about him, but they too were now whispering together so it seemed they didn't know everything either. And what was with all the aliens?
Videl, Twister and Thaw, while indeed more knowledgeable than most were feeling a little frustrated. Somehow every other alien to pop up seemed to know about them while they themselves didn't know, and this whole matter wasn't doing anything to clear up their image of Gohan either. Thaw made a remark about Sosumi speaking of a prince, and Gohan referring his brother in reply, but if Gohan was half Saiyan and half Human as he claimed, how could he be a prince to these Yardrat? Or at the very least have a brother who was their prince?
Finally after some discussion they decided that Videl would ask him about it when he came back.
It turned out they didn't have to wait long as only moments later Gohan emerged again from the building, dressed in a Yardrat uniform, with four stars on the shoulder. What caught their eye most though was the crown he was wearing though. It seemed to be made of silver and was made up of heavenly bodies, the main band around his head consisted of a planet, placed centrally on his forehead, and what seemed like four moons, two on either side of it. The back moons were linked to planets again, one planet on either temple, and finally the back of it consisted of just a band of silver running through Gohan's still light gold locks. Above the planet on his forehead was the last feature of this crown, a star with a large precious stone, quite similar to a Sapphire, though clearly different and probably of extra terrestrial origin set in it.
Videl, Twister and Thaw, and even Krillin were simply in awe as they saw Gohan like this. The whole look of the black uniform, elegant in all its simplicity and the crown seemed to make Gohan look even more imposing and powerful than normal. It seemed as though the symbols revealed the side of himself he normally kept hidden even better than his power up did. The uniform somehow emphasised his prowess in battle, and the crown his ability, and power as a leader of men.
End of Chapter Three
[1] Zeldan is my name for Zarbon's race.
[2] Codenames:
Star - Gohan (Short for four-star, the dragon ball that goes with the name)
Whiz - Bulma
Prince - Vegeta
Disc - Krillin
18 - #18 (She didn't want to bother with a codename)
Bandit - Yamcha
Emperor - Chaozu
Guard - Tien (He's Chaozu's body-guard)
439-base - Chi-Chi (She's their home base in the 439 mountain area)
Ma Jr. - Piccolo (His standard alternative name)
[3] Dolxin my name for Dodoria's race.
[4] The moon was wished back at some point, but in such a way that it's rays don't allow Saiyans to transform, even when it's full.
[5] As you're about to find out, if you've skipped right down when you saw this, these are Yardrat, as some of you may also realise they look different than they do in the brief flash we see of them in the series, one of the episodes where Goku has just returned during the Trunks Saga, but I'm using them for a substantially larger role so I've adapted their looks and culture to serve my own purposes, what they inherit mostly from the series is the Instant Transmission and some of the basic, purplish pink colouration.
[6] Yana is planet Yardrat's largest moon.
