Dragonball
Alternate Dimension
by Aoi Kami Sarah
Chapter Two
WARNINGS: This chapter contains some cursing and violence and some Japanese. There is a glossary at the end of each chapter.
The sisters' hijacked ship lay smoking an inch from the dojo. Three other boxy ships winked into the air just above Fukai, Hei-Hei, Gohan, Mira and Atsuko. They prepared to fight.
"Atsuko? Do they posses powers like yours?" Fukai asked.
"I'm fairly sure."
Gohan pounded his left fist in his right palm. He was ready to show his wife's abductors what he was made of. "Great!"
"What are we going to do? We are doomed!" Mira panicked.
"We'll see about that!" Atsuko took a couple steps towards the ship. Her ceremonial gown billowed around her. The door opened on the largest ship. Five Rashamen of varying ages emerged wearing sleek purple uniforms. Hei-Hei skittered off towards the house at Fukai's urging. Chonekken walked on air and shouted down at them.
"Lona! Surrender immediately and we won't destroy your friends."
"I don't think so, Chonekken!"
He smirked. "Very well. This shouldn't take too long." He motioned for his flank men to attack. The five descended on them. They flew right over Atsuko and took on Gohan, Mira and Fukai. Gohan flew up and blocked two soldiers from tackling Mira. She panicked and fell down on her butt. Four Rasha were soon amidst a flurry of Gohan's punches. Fukai powered up and took a stance against the fifth man. The Rashaman flew down at him foot first, but soon found that his foot was held fast by the elderly man. Fukai cracked a silly smile.
"Thought I was frail, did you?" He twisted the shocked Rasha's leg and slammed him face first into the ground. "Too bad."
Atsuko flew into the midst of Gohan's fight. She grabbed a stray warrior by the shoulder, spun him around and uppercut him into the ionosphere. He recovered a hundred feet up and rocketed back down, powering up as he went. Chonekken saw this and barked at the soldier.
"Do not harm Lady Chonekken, you fools!"
Gohan's head snapped around. "Lady what?!" He paused and took a couple punches without even noticing.
Atsuko, embroiled in battle high above their heads, did not hear this comment, but Mira caught it. She saw in Gohan the tell tale sign of a protective temper. She decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to excite his anger and his fighting power.
"Gohan! He means Atsuko! He married her against her will!"
Gohan's ki shot through the roof. Three Rashamen were blown in three separate directions. He rocketed out of the dust towards the mother ship. Chonekken was shocked. As they were fighting, one of the other ships deployed another twenty soldiers. He ordered them to attack. In the air, Atsuko's opponent fell limp to the ground. Fukai's did the same and lay motionless. The twenty men cut Gohan off and battle resumed. Mira saw the men barrel out of the ship and brought herself to her feet. Placing her palms together and closing her eyes, she began to chant.
"Do you think we can defeat so many air-born foes?" Fukai asked Atsuko.
"Taoreru!" As soon as the words left Mira's mouth, fifteen of the twenty men suddenly lost their power of flight and dropped to the ground with surprised looks on their faces.
"Whoa!" Atsuko spun around and looked at her sister. "Did you do that?!"
"Yes, but it won't last long!"
"Kame..." Gohan grinned and powered up more. "Hame.."
The grounded soldiers began throwing what looked like miniature bolts of lightning, similar to Atsuko's trademark electrical attacks, at him. Dozens of shots whizzed around the half-Saiyan.
"Ha!" His beam shot through the mess of energy and caught three soldiers. There were still too many for Gohan to beat at once, so Fukai joined in, fighting back to back with his pupil.
One by one, Atsuko sent four more soldiers to the growing pile of KO'd Rasha. Chonekken began to get nervous, but tried to hide it.
"So, you can fight. Isn't that nice. If you're going to put your health in jeopardy, then I will too!" He motioned for thirty more men to join in from the last ship. They began filing out.
"Oh no you don't! Tomaru!" Mira commanded the first man out to freeze. He was stuck in place and blocked the men behind him from leaving the ship. She turned to their leader. "Chonekken, if you want to rub in your imminent victory, why don't you tell Lona's first husband what you've accomplished with her?!"
Atsuko finished off the last man in flight and swung around to scream at her sister. "Mira? What are you doing?!"
Fukai blasted another soldier and kept an eye on the goings on around him. He kept his mouth shut.
Chonekken threw his head back with an evil laugh. "Yes! Once this little skirmish is over Lona will return with us where she will save her race! She will have my baby!"
Fukai back-flipped away from Gohan as he began to growl. Mira ran after Fukai seeking cover. Her plan was taking effect. Atsuko looked to Gohan pleadingly, but his eyes seemed to burrow through Chonekken. She dove down away from the ships and behind Gohan.
"What did you say?!?!"
The stop-motion spell wore off and Rasha began to pour from the third ship. Chonekken realized his mistake and furiously commanded them to attack.
"Destroy him!"
"You son of a bitch!" Gohan shot a huge beam at the third ship, blowing it and its soldiers to pieces. Fukai and Mira took cover in the doorway of the house. Shrapnel flew past them.
Chonekken grasped the edge of his ship as it was rocked perilously in the sky. "Retreat!" The few Rasha still alive fled back into the second ship. Atsuko swooped in after the blast and took Chonekken on.
"Surprise!" She punched him on the side of the face sending him several feet away from his ship. She swung around under him and knee-slammed him in the back. His scream was quickly stifled. Flying in over top of him, she brought both fists clenched together down on the top of his head. This croquetted him back into the mother ship. The men from the second ship poked their heads out to see what was happening to their lord just in time to also see Gohan's second blast barrel straight towards them.
There was only one ship left. Atsuko powered up. Chonekken made a last ditch attempt for his life. "How can you do this?! Lona! We are your people! Do you not want to see your kin prevail?!"
"I am not Lona Chogung!" She powered up. The electricity in the air gathered around her entire body.
He dragged himself to the edge of the door. "Then hear my words! You are nothing but an orphan whose family abandoned her and you will always be so!"
Fukai and Mira had come out of hiding. Gohan joined them on the ground.
Mira became angered. "As long as we love her, she will never be alone!"
Charged to the extreme, Atsuko screamed and let her rage fly at the mother ship. Her beam pushed the ship for a mile or so into the atmosphere before exploding it.
There was a strange silence after the blast. Then a sigh from Mira. Hei-Hei's jubilant, yet high-pitched shriek of victory broke the quiet and everyone started screaming for joy.
"We did it!" Mira jumped up and down, holding the master's hands. Hei-Hei circled around them. Gohan turned to Atsuko just as she lost consciousness. She moaned and slumped towards the ground.
"Suko!?" Gohan rushed over to her and scooped her up before she hit. Mira stopped her dance and ran over to them.
"Let me." She inspected her sister. "Bring her inside."
Fukai was already in the house opening doors for the invalid. Gohan lay her down on the bed she occupied next to his two weeks ago. He held her hand. She did not speak but clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. Her star wrinkled with her exertion.
"What's happening to her?" Gohan's eyes never left Atsuko.
"She's pregnant." Mira continued her examination. "She will be powerless for a while yet."
"But," he went on, still confused at his wife's pain and inability to speak. "I may be a guy, but I remember my mom wasn't this messed up when she had my brother, Goten." He turned to Mira for an answer.
"Really? Hmm." She knitted her brows. "Well, how long was she actually carrying your brother?"
"Ten months."
A large drop of perspiration appeared on Mira's head.
"That long!?" Fukai bugged out a little.
"Yeah, why? How long does it take Cymmlings, Master Fukai?"
"Six months!"
Mira laughed nervously. "Well it takes Rasha three!"
"Three months?!" Suko blurted out through her teeth. "Thank god!"
"You have a little more than two left. Let me finish my examination." She ran her hands over Atsuko's slightly bulging belly with her eyes closed.
"Well, how is she?" Fukai was getting nervous.
"Growth good. Stable, healthy I dare say. 10 fingers, 10 toes.." She stopped her hand suddenly and gasped. Her eyes popped open.
Atsuko gasped at her sister's action. "What is it?"
"Is something wrong?" Gohan squeezed her hand.
"Well, ah... It's healthy.. but.. eh.."
"BUT WHAT?!" he growled and pushed a few blood vessels to the surface.
"Well, it has a.. a.."
"Mira! Just tell us, please!"
".. a TAIL!"
Gohan and his master fell over on their backs to the floor. Their feet twitched in the air. Atsuko let out a huge sigh and let her head flop back down on the pillow. "Mira! You had me so worried!"
Mira arched a thin, purple eyebrow and was stunned speechless. Gohan recovered, jumped back up and kissed Atsuko's hand repeatedly.
"A tail! Woo hoo! Dj'hear that! All right!" He did a little dance around the room. "Master! We're gonna have a quarter Saiyan!" He held the old man's hands and they both jumped up and down, laughing.
Mira was still silent, blinking at Gohan.
"Oh, I guess I didn't tell you Gohan's half Saiyan, did I? Oops."
Mira looked to her sister incredulously and fell over backwards.
*
Two months later the gang was in the same room. Mira was positioned between Atsuko's legs. Master Fukai and Hei-Hei ran around with towels and hot water, doing more to hinder the birth than to help it. They were freaking out to the sound of Atsuko's screams. Gohan urged her on.
"Push, push!"
"I am pushing, Godamnit!!"
Master Fukai caught a glimpse as Mira navigated the baby's head out and he fainted. Heihei handed the towels to Gohan and took up fanning his unconscious master.
"Come on Suko, honey! Almost there!"
"Yeah? Almost to hell! Ahhhhh!!!!"
"That's the way! A little more! Come on, push, 1, 2, 3.." Mira coaxed the contractions.
"4, 5, 6, 7.." Gohan let his wife nearly crush the bones in his hand.
"..8, 9, 10! All right!" Mira produced a screaming infant from the folds of the sheet. Its new-born face was bright red, in stark contrast to the blue of its fine hair and tail. Atsuko finished screaming and released Gohan's hand. The baby took up where Atsuko left off. The bundle was handed to its beaming father.
"It's a girl!" Mira announced. "With a tail!"
"Master Fukai, wake up! D'ja hear!? It's a girl!"
Fukai came to and shouted with glee. "Hey, what do you know? That wasn't so hard!"
Heihei rolled his eyes and fanned himself. Mira tended to Atsuko. Her color was ashen and she struggled to lift herself up to see. Gohan and Fukai were pre-occupied with the newborn.
"Mira.. What's happening to me now..?"
This obviously surprised the healer. She immediately began working her hands over her sister.
"No. No, not my sister! What can I do?"
In the other room, Gohan, Heihei and Fukai were doing a little dance of joy.
"Gohan?" They were interrupted by Mira's gravity. Gohan handed his daughter to his master and ran to Atsuko's bedside. At this point, even her star was greyish in color.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry, my love. These things happen," she whispered. Mira began to back out of the room, shaking her head and looking down.
"What? NO!" He glared at Mira. "Do something!"
"It is too late." She stopped at the doorway and stared vacantly at Atsuko. "Fatal toxins are shocking her system. The damage is done."
"NO!!" Gohan held her hand to his cheek and wept openly. Fukai entered slowly, followed by his pet. The Pudit hid partially behind the master and had what appeared to be tears in its beady eyes.
"My baby. Let me hold my baby." She reached out weakly for the still screaming infant. As it was placed in her arms, the blue-haired, quarter-Saiyan quieted and looked up at her mother in wonder. It reached up a tiny arm, trying to touch the fading purple star. Atsuko bowed her head and kissed her baby's own pale, purple star mark. "Hello there. I'm sorry to leave you. I can give you only one more thing besides your life and my love. Your name: Akiko."
Mira broke down and cried out loud. Her sister had named her niece after their long dead sister: the baby girl named Kiko, who's life ended so soon, and whose body had saved the infantile Lona Chogung. She rushed over to her sister's side and held her hand.
Gohan scooped Akiko up out of her mother's arms and held her to his chest. "It's not fair!" he cried.
"Life.. is not fair.. I'm sorry, my love." Tears stream down Atsuko's face. Gohan bowed over, still clutching the baby to him and kissed his wife good-bye. When he straightened back up, she was gone.
"Atsuko…"
Mira slumped down again by the side of the bed, buried her head in her arms and sobbed loudly. Fukai hung his head. He put his hand on the top of Heihei's head to comfort the shivering creature. Gohan stood up slowly and wiped tears from his face with his free hand. He crossed to Mira. She pushed away from the bed and sat on the floor. Gohan handed her Akiko. She took the child and stared at it, wide-eyed. She looked up to Gohan and watched him leave the room. She didn't ask him where he was going.
Gohan walked away from the tiny house till the tears came again. Then he ran. He stopped at last when he got to the middle of the vale. There, panting from sobbing and running, he began to power up. The grass flattened down in a circular pattern around him. He began to scream. It started low, and as the ki built up, the pitch of his scream went up. His scream was piercing; a wail of complete morning. The air around him finally exploded as he lost control. The dust settled and he was still standing, his clothes dirty, but intact. Dust stuck to his tear-stained face.
Mira was nursing a fussy Akiko with a bottle, still staring, bewildered at the squirming baby. Fukai was just leaving the bedroom. Gohan stared straight back through the door and caught a glimpse of Atsuko's sheet-covered body. The master closed the door behind him and stood in front of it. Gohan walked up to him.
"You don't have to go in there, boy."
"I have to pack."
Mira finally looked up, puzzled. "Where are you going?"
He turned and took Akiko from her. He stared into his daughter's blue eyes. He held her to his right shoulder and walked past Fukai into the bedroom. "Home."
*
Goku and Goten exchanged blows out in the woods under the shadow of the mountain. Father and son leapt through the air and bounced off trees in order to land or block punches, kicks and ki-blasts. They were going about life as usual. It had been years since the great fighter and his family and friends had had to use their incredible skills to defend themselves or the planet, but they always kept in shape. Whether this was because they wanted to be prepared for the inevitable or whether, as Saiyans, they just couldn't help it was uncertain. Chi-chi stepped out of the little dome-shaped house's front door.
"Gooookuuu! Goootennn! Lunch is ready!"
They stopped their sparring in mid-air and looked at each other gleefully.
"Race ya back!" The boy took off flying. His father laughed and zipped after him.
They sat at the kitchen table, wolfing down bowls of rice and heaping fish and game dishes. Chi-chi put another dish on the table as each one was emptied. She smiled at her family but suddenly the shadow of a wistful look crossed her face. She looked to the empty chair across from Goten.
"Was' wrong, hun?" Goku managed to notice her change in mood between mouthfuls.
"Oh," she sighed, "I just miss Gohan, that's all."
"You say that every day," Goten commented.
"Well I miss him everyday!" Chi-chi yelled at her son. He was used to her out-bursts and simply mumbled an apology. He turned his attention to fighting Goku for the last dumpling. Their chopsticks clattered faster than the human eye could see, but the dumpling evaded them both. Chi-chi hovered her sticks over the melee. At the right moment she popped them into the middle of the fray and came away with the dumpling. By the time the men stopped fighting, she had already consumed the treat and was up getting drinks. They shrugged to each other and found something else to gorge themselves on. Chi-chi finished pouring out tall glasses of iced tea and turned to take them to the table. Goku and Goten leapt to their feet as the glasses and tray crashed to the floor.
"Chi-chi! what's wrong?"
She was staring at the doorway. Goku spun to see what had startled her.
"Gohan!" the woman cried.
"Gohan!" They rushed to their son and brother. Chi-chi remained frozen in place. Gohan offered his free hand to his kin.
"You're home! What, you're so smart you graduated early?" Goku chuckled, but his humor had very little effect on his usually jovial son. Goten investigated the bundle in his brother's arm.
"Not exactly."
The bundle moved and babbled lightly as Goten poked at it. "Uh, dad.." The boy tugged Goku's shirt and indicated to it.
Gohan turned the bundle around and showed his family the beautiful baby it contained. "This is my daughter, Akiko."
Chi-chi fainted.
*
In a desolate castle in the outermost reaches of the Great Wastes on the planet Cymm, a short, greyish man with balding, silver hair stroked his long, braided mustache.
"At last!" he cried with a calm sort of mania. "Now that the boy is gone there will be no-one to stop me!"
A large bookshelf towered behind him, filled with dusty volumes, jars, jugs and bottles of different shapes and sizes, containing hundreds of unmentionable ingredients. The man was reading a large, illuminated book. He looked up and raised his arms. Water in a shallow pool in front of him began to boil. It glowed bright pink and frothed violently. He chanted in a mysterious tongue.
"Umarekawari. Hoshi-wakai josei..."
A form emerged from the water. He furrowed his ancient brows further with concentration. It thickened and took the shape of a woman. As the features became defined, the wizard smiled wider and wider. Soon, she was complete, right down to the yellow tank-top and purple star-mark on her forehead. Atsuko's body hung limply, suspended in mid-air over the tumultuous liquid. She moaned lightly, trying to fight what was happening to her. He motioned to a bottle on the bookshelf and it floated into his grip. Uncorking it, he chanted loudly.
"Tasu kore akurei!"
A black substance which seemed like an amalgam of smoke and ink oozed upwards out of the bottle. It hovered for a moment in the shape of a balloon. What appeared to be two cat-like eyes glowed bright yellow in the midst of the inky creature. It bowed to the wizard and flew at Atsuko's body. Her eyes popped open as the thing was barreling towards her. She cried out in reaction to being brought back to life and at the horrible sight.
"Goooohaaaan!"
*
It wasn't long before Chi-chi was up again and inquisitioning her older boy about his life. When she learned of Atsuko's death, she fell silent. She held her first grandchild close and stared into her mother's blue eyes. The baby cooed and smiled at her grandmother.
"All I could do was come home," Gohan concluded.
".. For the Dragon Balls!" a light went on inside Goku's head.
Gohan nodded. He had hardly cracked a smile since first seeing his family, but his father's unrelenting optimism slowly tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"All right!" Goten cheered. "Do I finally get to hunt them, Dad?! Huh?"
"Sure kiddo, if it's ok with your brother."
"Of course it is." He tousled Goten's hair and the corners of his mouth raised a little more.
They began their search by visiting the Capsule Corporation headquarters in the Western Capitol. Bulma Briefs, president of the company, was doing what she loved to do most. The Son family found her up to her eyeballs in gadgets, gizmos, thingamajigs and thingamabobs in her private lab. She looked up at them through an eyepiece which made her eye appear ten times larger than it was.
"Hey gang!"
"Hey Bulma! Is Yamcha around?"
"Not today, the lazy S.O.B! He's away with my son for the next week at a 'convention'" She used her fingers to make quote marks around the word convention. Goku laughed. He knew that although Bulma and Yamcha had a child and cared for each other, their relationship was always on-again-off-again. Yamcha worked for Capsule occasionally doing Kami-knows-what, but would probably never marry her. He didn't even seem to have enough ambition to sponge off of Bulma. He didn't spend a lot of time on the premises and was frequently seen driving an older model Capsule car.
"We need a special favor." Goku winked at her. Goten jumped up and down impatiently but kept quiet. She was surprised to see the entire family at once. "Oh wow, Gohan! Haven't seen you in a while! How's school?"
"He's home now," Chi-chi answered for him. Akiko fussed in her arms. Gohan took her from his mother and she quieted immediately.
"What a cute.." Bulma began. She flipped up the magnifying lens up to get a better look at the scene. "..baby? Don't tell me it's yours?!"
Gohan cradled his daughter and nodded. She babbled lightly.
"Where have I been?" Bulma marveled at the baby girl. "Where's her mother?" She stroked Akiko's soft blue hair.
Gohan furrowed his brows. Chi-chi began to cover for him again, but he cut her off. "I'd like to borrow the Dragon Radar from you, Bulma."
"Oh," she realized. "I'm sorry, Gohan." She turned and rummaged through a large box of doohickies. "Of course you can borrow it. It's in here somewhere." Bulma tossed parts left and right looking for the device with which one could locate the legendary Dragon Balls. Goten tried to peek into the box, dodging the odds and ends which Bulma lobbed over her shoulder.
"Aha!" She finally emerged victorious. The radar device was nestled in a smallish, unmarked cardboard box amidst packing peanuts. Gohan handed the now sleeping baby back to his mother and examined the instrument.
"There it is, guys. Boy. It's been a while since we used this thing, huh Son-kun?"
"I'm kinda glad we haven't, Bulma, to be perfectly honest."
"Yeah. We've had a break the last ten years or so.." She shook her head and mumbled to herself. "Sheesh. I'm getting old." She handed the box to Gohan and rested her fists on her slim waist. She may have been almost fifty, but she hardly had a wrinkle and not a grey hair on her head. Goten vied for a turn to hold the Dragon Radar.
"Thanks, Bulma," Gohan handed it at last to his antsy brother.
"Wanna come along, Bulma?" asked Goku.
"As much as that sounds tempting," she zoned back in from contemplating her age, "I think I'll stay here and wait for Yamcha and the boy to get back. Chi-chi, you and the baby can stay here if you want."
Chi-chi looked relieved. "Thank you. We'd love to!"
Goku shook his old friend's hand. "Thanks a lot, Bulma! See ya later!" He began to run out the door after Goten. Chi-chi grabbed him with her free hand and 'reminded' him to kiss her good-bye.
Goten cried out to the sky, "Nimbus!!" The yellow cloud swooped down at his command. Goku jumped into the passenger seat of the family air-car and waited for Gohan.
"I'll be back soon, Akiko. And when I come back, we'll be a happy family. I promise." He kissed the sleeping baby and his mother good-bye, saluted to Bulma and joined his father in the car. They took off after Goten who was already a quarter of a mile away, heading in the direction of the nearest Dragon Ball.
*
Two weeks later, the amazing Son boys had managed to gather all seven balls together. They prepared to make Gohan's wish. In front of their house, Goku, Chi-chi, Goten, Trunks, Bulma, Yamcha and Gohan and Akiko were gathered around the familiar orbs. Gohan stood nearest to them. He set his jaw and made his wish.
"Shenlong! I, Gohan Son, summon you!"
The air grew dark and the magical dragon appeared before them, filling the entire sky.
"Make your wish!" the intimidating dragon's voice rumbled like thunder.
"I wish my wife, Lona Chogung called Atsuko Aoi was alive!"
There was a strange silence following Gohan's plea. The dragon twisted his coils in the air. After five or six seconds which seemed like an eternity to them, Shenlong spoke again. "I cannot grant your wish."
"What?!" Gohan's jaw hung open. His face screamed his disbelief.
"Choose another."
Gohan gritted his teeth. A large vein stood out on his forehead. He turned to his father. "Why can't he do it?!"
"I don't know! That's never happened before!"
Everyone jumped as the dragon became impatient. "Do not waste my time, mortal. Make your wish!"
Gohan hung his head. "There is nothing else in this world that I want."
"So be it."
Shenlong curled up. The seven balls clustered around him in the sky. They shone brightly as they re-absorbed the dragon, split up, and shot off in seven different directions. Akiko began to wail in her grandmother's arms. Gohan took her, but she continued to cry. He walked away from his shocked family and friends.
"I'm sorry. I know I promised." He kissed her head and closed his eyes. "It's just you and me now."
End Chapter Two
Glossary:
Yatsu Warui: guy bad
Taoreru: fall
Tomeru: freeze
Umarekawari. Hoshi-wakai Josei: new embodiment star young woman
Tasu Kore Akurei: add this demon