Dragon Ball Next Generation
The Grey Saga
Part 1: The Atrocity
Chapter 6
The document was labeled "The Truth", so I was intrigued as soon as I began to read. The author was a woman named Bulma Briefs. She was the daughter of the creator of capsule transportation and the founder of Capsule Corp.
It was like reading a textbook. It wasn't a story at all, just facts. That is, if you wanted to call the information facts. It was extremely hard to believe.
It began with a young Bulma Briefs setting out on a journey to collect dragon balls. Dragon balls are seven magical orbs that, when are all found and placed together, bring out Shenlon, a great dragon who will grant a wish for the one who summoned him.
During her travels, she met an extraordinarily strong boy named Son Goku. Son Goku went though many adventures with her in order to acquire the dragon balls. After a blown wish, Son Goku went to train with Master Roshi to become stronger. I figured the Master Roshi Son Goku trained under was probably the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, or close to that, of the Master Roshi sitting across from me. He trained with Master Roshi until the 21 Tenkaichi Budokai. Then he went off on his own.
The document went on, mostly about Son Goku. It told of his defeat of the Red Ribbon Army, his defeat at the 22 Tenkaichi Budokai by the hands of Tenshinhan, his battles with the arch demon Piccolo, his fight with Piccolo's "son" at the 23 Tenkaichi Budokai, along with becoming the champion, the birth of his son, Son Gohan, the arrival of his brother.
I stopped there. I found it very hard to believe that Son Goku was a alien. I mean, he looked like a human, except for his tail. I went back to reading. As extraordinary as it all was, somewhere in my heart, I believed it, even though I didn't realize it at the time.
It went on to tell of the coming of the Saiya-jin, and many more villains, that all met their fate at the hands of Son Goku. It finally ended, after the defeat of Il Shenlon, and the wish to revive all those who had been killed. It ended saying that Son Goku, now once again a child, would go with the dragon, and he would return after a hundred years.
I rubbed my eyes and looked at the clock in the bottom-right hand of the screen. I had been reading for almost three hours! I closed the laptop, stood up, and stretched. I looked around the room, and saw that everyone else had left, with the exception of Master Roshi, who was literally drooling over an aerobics class on T.V.
"So," I began, my throat dry form letting my mouth hang open so many times as I read the "Truth", "this is all for real?"
Master Roshi turned to face me, looking a little annoyed that I had pulled him away from the flexible women. He nodded, and motioned for me to come with him. He stood up and walked out the screen door. I followed him.
As I walked out, I realized that was on an island. The ocean surrounded me, creating a soft breeze as the waves crashed on the sand. Master Roshi was standing next to me, looking at the sky. I followed his gaze.
What I saw was beyond comprehension, even after everything I had been through, even after what I had read. I saw John, Angelina, and the angel/man flying twenty feet above us! John and Angelina were side-by-side, both in some martial arts position, facing the angel/man.
John looked anything but dorky. He now had on a tight, blue jumpsuit that showed every muscle in his body. Another thing that detracted form his dorkyness was the fact that he was now holding a long, purple hued sword in his hands.
Angelina was wearing a jumpsuit also. I saw that she was not very buff, but she had a well defined body that made her look very strong.
The angel/man was also in a martial arts stance. He was wearing a white muscle shirt and black gi pants.
Suddenly, John and Angelina exploded with a white light, and flew at the angel/man. Angelina got there first, and kicked at him. The angel/man blocked the kick, and a white light surrounded him. He threw a volley of punches that looked like blurs to me at Angelina. She put her arms up, making her arms take the force of the attack.
With a yell, John appeared above the two combatants and swung his sword at the angel/man. The angel/man shifted to his right as the sword went past him, missing him by inches. Then he disappeared. Angelina and John did likewise.
In less then a second, I saw an image of them thirty feet to my right, their limbs moving to fast for me to see anything but blurs. Then they disappeared again, reappeared, again and again. Within seconds, there were seemingly five different battles going on around me. I stared in awe, my mind unable to comprehend their speed.
I heard a scream, and then Angelina fell to the ground five feet away from me, creating a small crater in the sand. In the air, John and the angel/man had stopped moving. The angel/man had John's sword between his palms, half a foot from his head. He twisted sideways, and pulled the sword from John's hands. Dropping the sword, he let loose on John, pummeling him with hits so fast that John could barely defend himself. The angel/man finished with a kick to John's side, sending him to the ground a few feet from where Angelina lay.
John and Angelina got up slowly as the angel/man drifted to the ground next to me. John and Angelina looked a little scuffed up, but they didn't seem to be really hurt. The angel/man looked at Master Roshi and me.
"Finished?" he asked me. All I could do was nod weakly; I was still amazed by what I had just seen. So, everything I had read was true! The Z senshi did exist, 300 years ago. The Earth had been destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed again. my brain felt like it was going to explode, there was just too much information to absorb. There was only one question left: Why was I here? The angel/man realized that I was staring at him.
"We haven't been introduced yet, I'm Xander Kain." He held out his hand. I took it weakly, half expecting to have it crushed. But he shook my hand gently; despite everything I had just seen him do.
I took my hand away and turned to John.
"Why am I here? I mean, what do I have to do with you?" I asked. John smiled.
"Why don't we resume our previous conversation in the house?" With that, we all turned and went into the house.
I took my seat on the couch, and waited for someone to start speaking. After a moment of silence, John spoke up.
"The reason you are here, aside from being healed, is that we thought that we could help you understand some of the things that has happened to you in the past week. We want to give you a choice." A choice? About what?
"You are very unique, Celic." Master Roshi said, interrupting John. "The reason that you were able to do the. things. you did."
"You mean, cripple a man with my bare hands, and kill another?" I said quickly. The others looked down at the floor, obviously uncomfortable. It was gruesome, but I felt it had to be said. I needed cope with what I did, and avoiding it would only make it worse.
"Yes, not only that, but surviving your injuries, traveling through Satan City after losing a large amount of blood, breaking the Greys' paralysis device, and surviving their attack." Master Roshi stopped, looked around the room, and then turned back to me.
"As I said, you are very unique. You have saiya-jin blood flowing through your veins."
It took a few moments to sink in. Finally, it hit me:
"You mean, I'm an alien!?" I was willing to accept most of what they told me, but this was too much.
"Well," John started, "You are not a complete alien, you are still part human." Then he reached into a briefcase behind his chair, opened it up, and produced some papers.
"While you were healing, we took a sample of your blood, to test it, and make sure you were what we thought you were." With that, he placed a sheet in font of me. It had a spiked line through the middle, with numbers above every spike.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know what this means." I confessed.
"This is the results of your DNA tests," John said, "See those numbers above the line," I nodded, "well, those are the proteins and enzymes that make up your DNA. Now, see where there are question marks above the spikes," I nodded again, "Those are unknown proteins, supposedly proteins exclusive to the Saiya-jin species." I stared at the paper, looking through the numbers and question marks that were supposed to make up myself.
"But, there seems to be a question mark at every other spot, so would that mean that." I trailed off, not wanting to say what I knew.
"That means that you are half Saiya-jin," Master Roshi said, "but you are also half human."
"This is very strange," Said John, "because the Saiya-jin blood has been less and less prominent with every generation. I tested my blood and only found an unknown protein every hundredth spike, or so, and I'm a direct descendant of Vegeta."
"So, how did I become this?" I asked as I held up the paper.
"Both your parents had an unusually high amount of Saiya-jin DNA, and that must have transferred to you. I could go further in the genetics, but I'm afraid that most people here would sleep through it," John said, with a quick glance to Xander, who held up his hands innocently.
"It seems," Master Roshi began, "that your mother was a direct descendant of Son Goku, and your father was a direct descendant of Vegeta." No one spoke again, and we sat there in silence, as all of it washed over me.
"You said something about a choice?" I inferred, looking around the room.
"This is a choice that we have already made," said Xander, "according to John's information, the Greys are coming to invade Earth. It will take them about three years to assemble their forces from the corners of the universe and reach Earth, according to John." He glanced at John, who nodded. "We have decided to prepare for them, and defend the Earth when they come. Your choice is to join us, or go on with a normal life. Being a half Saiya-jin, you would be a great asset to us, but if you wish for a normal life, we understand."
"You mean, I could do all those things you guys just did, move that fast, shoot stuff out of my hands, fly?" I asked. Xander nodded.
"I don't know, I need to think about this, may I go lie down?" I asked.
"Certainly," Master Roshi said, "You can use the room you woke up in. I believe your things are already there." I quickly stood up, nodded to them, and left the room. I climbed the stairs, went into "my" room, and flopped on the bed. That's when everything hit me, and I broke into tears.
It hadn't even been a week since Ann and I had left the orphanage together, with the small purpose of going to the bank to deposit less then twelve zeni. Now, I was on some strange island, in a strange house full of people who could fly, Ann was dead, I had killed a man, more had died because of me, kids had drugs that I had supplied, I was half alien, and I was expected to give up my life to defend the Earth from aliens who would be coming in three years. It overwhelmed me so much that I could do nothing but lie there and cry. Tears of grief, self-pity, anger, and hate ran down my cheeks, soaking the pillow.
Eventually, I cried myself to sleep. A sleep without dreams, or nightmares, just peaceful, much needed sleep.
***
I awoke, grateful to finally wake up in a peaceful, failure place. I had sorted it all out. I knew what I would do. In less then a week, my home, my identity, my humanity, and my love had been stolen from me. I had no chance of a normal life now, no matter what I did. I had nothing to live for.
I got out of bed, and strode out the door, happy to finally have a purpose. I walked down the stairs, and found everyone still in the room I had left. Master Roshi had gone back to watching aerobics, Xander was sitting on a chair, his arms crossed, eyes closed, and a very serious frown on his lips, and Angelina and John were on the couch, her head on his shoulder (it finally hit me that they were a couple). As I entered, they all turned to me. I took a deep breath and said:
"I have decided to join you. I will fight the Greys with you." Unanimously, they all smiled.
The Grey Saga
Part 1: The Atrocity
Chapter 6
The document was labeled "The Truth", so I was intrigued as soon as I began to read. The author was a woman named Bulma Briefs. She was the daughter of the creator of capsule transportation and the founder of Capsule Corp.
It was like reading a textbook. It wasn't a story at all, just facts. That is, if you wanted to call the information facts. It was extremely hard to believe.
It began with a young Bulma Briefs setting out on a journey to collect dragon balls. Dragon balls are seven magical orbs that, when are all found and placed together, bring out Shenlon, a great dragon who will grant a wish for the one who summoned him.
During her travels, she met an extraordinarily strong boy named Son Goku. Son Goku went though many adventures with her in order to acquire the dragon balls. After a blown wish, Son Goku went to train with Master Roshi to become stronger. I figured the Master Roshi Son Goku trained under was probably the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, or close to that, of the Master Roshi sitting across from me. He trained with Master Roshi until the 21 Tenkaichi Budokai. Then he went off on his own.
The document went on, mostly about Son Goku. It told of his defeat of the Red Ribbon Army, his defeat at the 22 Tenkaichi Budokai by the hands of Tenshinhan, his battles with the arch demon Piccolo, his fight with Piccolo's "son" at the 23 Tenkaichi Budokai, along with becoming the champion, the birth of his son, Son Gohan, the arrival of his brother.
I stopped there. I found it very hard to believe that Son Goku was a alien. I mean, he looked like a human, except for his tail. I went back to reading. As extraordinary as it all was, somewhere in my heart, I believed it, even though I didn't realize it at the time.
It went on to tell of the coming of the Saiya-jin, and many more villains, that all met their fate at the hands of Son Goku. It finally ended, after the defeat of Il Shenlon, and the wish to revive all those who had been killed. It ended saying that Son Goku, now once again a child, would go with the dragon, and he would return after a hundred years.
I rubbed my eyes and looked at the clock in the bottom-right hand of the screen. I had been reading for almost three hours! I closed the laptop, stood up, and stretched. I looked around the room, and saw that everyone else had left, with the exception of Master Roshi, who was literally drooling over an aerobics class on T.V.
"So," I began, my throat dry form letting my mouth hang open so many times as I read the "Truth", "this is all for real?"
Master Roshi turned to face me, looking a little annoyed that I had pulled him away from the flexible women. He nodded, and motioned for me to come with him. He stood up and walked out the screen door. I followed him.
As I walked out, I realized that was on an island. The ocean surrounded me, creating a soft breeze as the waves crashed on the sand. Master Roshi was standing next to me, looking at the sky. I followed his gaze.
What I saw was beyond comprehension, even after everything I had been through, even after what I had read. I saw John, Angelina, and the angel/man flying twenty feet above us! John and Angelina were side-by-side, both in some martial arts position, facing the angel/man.
John looked anything but dorky. He now had on a tight, blue jumpsuit that showed every muscle in his body. Another thing that detracted form his dorkyness was the fact that he was now holding a long, purple hued sword in his hands.
Angelina was wearing a jumpsuit also. I saw that she was not very buff, but she had a well defined body that made her look very strong.
The angel/man was also in a martial arts stance. He was wearing a white muscle shirt and black gi pants.
Suddenly, John and Angelina exploded with a white light, and flew at the angel/man. Angelina got there first, and kicked at him. The angel/man blocked the kick, and a white light surrounded him. He threw a volley of punches that looked like blurs to me at Angelina. She put her arms up, making her arms take the force of the attack.
With a yell, John appeared above the two combatants and swung his sword at the angel/man. The angel/man shifted to his right as the sword went past him, missing him by inches. Then he disappeared. Angelina and John did likewise.
In less then a second, I saw an image of them thirty feet to my right, their limbs moving to fast for me to see anything but blurs. Then they disappeared again, reappeared, again and again. Within seconds, there were seemingly five different battles going on around me. I stared in awe, my mind unable to comprehend their speed.
I heard a scream, and then Angelina fell to the ground five feet away from me, creating a small crater in the sand. In the air, John and the angel/man had stopped moving. The angel/man had John's sword between his palms, half a foot from his head. He twisted sideways, and pulled the sword from John's hands. Dropping the sword, he let loose on John, pummeling him with hits so fast that John could barely defend himself. The angel/man finished with a kick to John's side, sending him to the ground a few feet from where Angelina lay.
John and Angelina got up slowly as the angel/man drifted to the ground next to me. John and Angelina looked a little scuffed up, but they didn't seem to be really hurt. The angel/man looked at Master Roshi and me.
"Finished?" he asked me. All I could do was nod weakly; I was still amazed by what I had just seen. So, everything I had read was true! The Z senshi did exist, 300 years ago. The Earth had been destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed again. my brain felt like it was going to explode, there was just too much information to absorb. There was only one question left: Why was I here? The angel/man realized that I was staring at him.
"We haven't been introduced yet, I'm Xander Kain." He held out his hand. I took it weakly, half expecting to have it crushed. But he shook my hand gently; despite everything I had just seen him do.
I took my hand away and turned to John.
"Why am I here? I mean, what do I have to do with you?" I asked. John smiled.
"Why don't we resume our previous conversation in the house?" With that, we all turned and went into the house.
I took my seat on the couch, and waited for someone to start speaking. After a moment of silence, John spoke up.
"The reason you are here, aside from being healed, is that we thought that we could help you understand some of the things that has happened to you in the past week. We want to give you a choice." A choice? About what?
"You are very unique, Celic." Master Roshi said, interrupting John. "The reason that you were able to do the. things. you did."
"You mean, cripple a man with my bare hands, and kill another?" I said quickly. The others looked down at the floor, obviously uncomfortable. It was gruesome, but I felt it had to be said. I needed cope with what I did, and avoiding it would only make it worse.
"Yes, not only that, but surviving your injuries, traveling through Satan City after losing a large amount of blood, breaking the Greys' paralysis device, and surviving their attack." Master Roshi stopped, looked around the room, and then turned back to me.
"As I said, you are very unique. You have saiya-jin blood flowing through your veins."
It took a few moments to sink in. Finally, it hit me:
"You mean, I'm an alien!?" I was willing to accept most of what they told me, but this was too much.
"Well," John started, "You are not a complete alien, you are still part human." Then he reached into a briefcase behind his chair, opened it up, and produced some papers.
"While you were healing, we took a sample of your blood, to test it, and make sure you were what we thought you were." With that, he placed a sheet in font of me. It had a spiked line through the middle, with numbers above every spike.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know what this means." I confessed.
"This is the results of your DNA tests," John said, "See those numbers above the line," I nodded, "well, those are the proteins and enzymes that make up your DNA. Now, see where there are question marks above the spikes," I nodded again, "Those are unknown proteins, supposedly proteins exclusive to the Saiya-jin species." I stared at the paper, looking through the numbers and question marks that were supposed to make up myself.
"But, there seems to be a question mark at every other spot, so would that mean that." I trailed off, not wanting to say what I knew.
"That means that you are half Saiya-jin," Master Roshi said, "but you are also half human."
"This is very strange," Said John, "because the Saiya-jin blood has been less and less prominent with every generation. I tested my blood and only found an unknown protein every hundredth spike, or so, and I'm a direct descendant of Vegeta."
"So, how did I become this?" I asked as I held up the paper.
"Both your parents had an unusually high amount of Saiya-jin DNA, and that must have transferred to you. I could go further in the genetics, but I'm afraid that most people here would sleep through it," John said, with a quick glance to Xander, who held up his hands innocently.
"It seems," Master Roshi began, "that your mother was a direct descendant of Son Goku, and your father was a direct descendant of Vegeta." No one spoke again, and we sat there in silence, as all of it washed over me.
"You said something about a choice?" I inferred, looking around the room.
"This is a choice that we have already made," said Xander, "according to John's information, the Greys are coming to invade Earth. It will take them about three years to assemble their forces from the corners of the universe and reach Earth, according to John." He glanced at John, who nodded. "We have decided to prepare for them, and defend the Earth when they come. Your choice is to join us, or go on with a normal life. Being a half Saiya-jin, you would be a great asset to us, but if you wish for a normal life, we understand."
"You mean, I could do all those things you guys just did, move that fast, shoot stuff out of my hands, fly?" I asked. Xander nodded.
"I don't know, I need to think about this, may I go lie down?" I asked.
"Certainly," Master Roshi said, "You can use the room you woke up in. I believe your things are already there." I quickly stood up, nodded to them, and left the room. I climbed the stairs, went into "my" room, and flopped on the bed. That's when everything hit me, and I broke into tears.
It hadn't even been a week since Ann and I had left the orphanage together, with the small purpose of going to the bank to deposit less then twelve zeni. Now, I was on some strange island, in a strange house full of people who could fly, Ann was dead, I had killed a man, more had died because of me, kids had drugs that I had supplied, I was half alien, and I was expected to give up my life to defend the Earth from aliens who would be coming in three years. It overwhelmed me so much that I could do nothing but lie there and cry. Tears of grief, self-pity, anger, and hate ran down my cheeks, soaking the pillow.
Eventually, I cried myself to sleep. A sleep without dreams, or nightmares, just peaceful, much needed sleep.
***
I awoke, grateful to finally wake up in a peaceful, failure place. I had sorted it all out. I knew what I would do. In less then a week, my home, my identity, my humanity, and my love had been stolen from me. I had no chance of a normal life now, no matter what I did. I had nothing to live for.
I got out of bed, and strode out the door, happy to finally have a purpose. I walked down the stairs, and found everyone still in the room I had left. Master Roshi had gone back to watching aerobics, Xander was sitting on a chair, his arms crossed, eyes closed, and a very serious frown on his lips, and Angelina and John were on the couch, her head on his shoulder (it finally hit me that they were a couple). As I entered, they all turned to me. I took a deep breath and said:
"I have decided to join you. I will fight the Greys with you." Unanimously, they all smiled.