The Training Begins
In Original Japanese:
Son Gohan an Enemy!?!? Super-Warriors Collide!!
(See Chapter 1 for a lengthy explanation of the original Japanese titles.)
And hereIs the Disclaimer
I am not a Japanese man. I am not a Japanese man named Akira Toriyama. Akira Toriyama created Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z in the mid-1980's, which is why I cannot possibly be, and I cannot emphasise this too strongly, him. After DBZ, he was often asked things about Dragon Ball GT, but we'd all rather forget that happened anyway. In the eighties, I was far too busy being born to worry about being Akira Toriyama. I am, therefore, not him. Although my story is set in his universe and among his characters, I am definitely not him, and consequently do not own his work or characters. There are several characters that are mine in this story, Goku's half-brother Tennin, his father, a kaio, and his mother Mirabi are the main ones, but there is also Genshu, Torren, Mushube, and a few others yet to appear.
And that
Was the Disclaimer.
"I win," said 18 in her smooth, sexy voice, laying down her cards. Kuririn stared at her moodily, his leg kicked over the couch in front of the card table. Yamucha sat in a chair beside them, staring at 18 with equal, albeit relaxed, displeasure.
"You know, you should really talk about other things," said Kuririn, "it's annoying when you just say 'I win' all the time."
"Only to you, dear," she said puckishly.
Yamucha sniggered in a way that he fancied was quiet but was more along the lines of rude and loud. Kuririn now turned his moody look on Yamucha. His eyes suddenly widened. "Hey, Yamucha, do you feel Goku and Tennin anymore?"
"Nope," Yamucha said, laying his fairly bad hand down.
"They're probably off training somewhere. That's all those Saiya-jins ever do," 18 said.
Kuririn stared at Yamucha. "Aren't you worried?" He asked as he laid his hand down and 18 won again.
Yamucha sighed and stared at Kuririn. "Oh, come on, Kuririn. You know we haven't done anything since Cell was here."
Kuririn frowned. "I fought Buu," he announced moodily.
Yamucha smiled. "I don't really think that the level to which Buu kicked your ass can be described as a fight." He announced this all while they drew new hands. "Face it, man. We're strategically obsolete." He then leaned back, smiled, and said: "At least we're funny, though," before laying out a winning hand.
18 and Kuririn stared at him moodily.
On Kami-Sama's Lookout, the two girls slept restlessly, their dreams full of the pain and anger from which both had been born, beads of sweat running down their arms and faces.
Dende stood at the door to the darkened room and watched the girls sleeping fitfully. He had done all he could for them medically, but now it was up to them to expel the evil from within them. When Dende had contacted Tennin telepathically, he had assured Dende they would do so. In accordance with his instructions, Dende had just let them sleep. Although he was sure after knowing him for even this brief a time that he wouldn't care, the Kaio blood that ran through the half-Saiya-jin's veins made him Dende's technical superior. The girls, who Dende was worried about, only seemed to be getting worse, and the one with long hair was letting out short gasps in her sleep. He shook his head and walked off reluctantly.
Something was happening to them.
The girl with long hair, lying on the right, began to choke faintly in her sleep. Her mouth opened and her breath was cut short, as she began breathing through her nose.
Her eyes shot wide open, no longer yellow and black but pure, unbroken blue, with a pupil slightly bluer than the iris. She began gasping painfully, her cheeks puffing out. Her voice was muffled as she gasped, something caught in her throat. Her thin, slender hands locked into a death-grip with the edges of the bed she lay on as she choked.
Suddenly, a worm made of black liquid lurched its way out of her mouth, slowly, pushing out bit by bit. She sank back into unconsciousness as it rolled down her cheek, leaving a trail of liquid, and crawled it's way off of her bed.
Seconds later, a similar creature came from the mouth of the other girl, and both crept off into the darkness of the room.
Both girls rested in total peace and tranquillity.
Tennin touched down on the grass soundlessly in an expanse of open land on Dai Kaio-Shin's planet, bordered by a mountain range far to the north, and a forest to the south. All around were jutting towers of rock, covered by grass on their top, some of them home to a small tree or two, a strange example of tree growth that Tennin found bewildering. Son Goku touched down about twenty feet away from him, and stood, smiling.
"You ready for a little training, brother?" He said, performing his usual stretches.
Tennin was loosening up as well. "Whenever you are."
"Alright!" Goku said, flipping back onto his feet. "So, should we start as Super Saiya-jins?"
Tennin smiled. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Why not see how we do without transforming first?" He offered.
"Sure," Goku responded again, dropping his stance. "Whatever gets you going!"
Tennin dropped into a stance as well, sizing up the defences of the legendary Goku, the man that every warrior in the universe trained to match. He seems a bit slower than me. . . mused Tennin, remembering how Goku had lagged behind him a little.
Tennin smiled, his usual reaction after he had finished being brilliant, which he did quite a lot.
Goku saw him smile, plant his right foot firmly on the ground, spin around and disappear in a black and gold -coloured blur. Immediately there was a deep, terrible, earth-shaking rumble that put Goku slightly off-balance. Goku tried to sense his brother, but found he couldn't. A look of confusion was all he had the chance for before it happened.
Tennin flew at ridiculous speeds that challenged every social convention he had ever heard of or been subjected to.
He pictured Mirabi (she had always insisted he call her by her name) telling him, in her worried, motherly way, that he shouldn't fly so much or so dangerously. The ground was not only a blur, but a discoloured and almost totally featureless blur, and Tennin knew that he had been flying for far, far less than a second. He flew into the middle of a thick forest, weaving in and out of branches with skill and grace that did nothing to slow him down and that really made him quite smug about himself.
He was pleased with himself as he flew unscathed from the forest, and so failed to notice the mountain range, hundreds of thousands of miles away from the forest that he had just barely touched.
Tennin ripped through and into them, tearing a terrible deep gash through the middle of the entire northern mountain range and causing a series of violent earthquakes to rock Dai-Kaio Shin's planet. In the small instant that it took him to pass through, he reminded himself of how dangerous any speed remotely approaching the same vicinity as that at which he was flying could be. He saw a figure in orange with a large, spiky black thing on top of it looming on the horizon.
In several trillionths of a second, Tennin had circled the entire planet, and Goku was only now beginning to catch on. Just as the devastating punch that carried an incredible speed was about to connect, Goku spun around and ducked it clumsily, just in time.
Tennin spun on a dime in the air, kicking Goku in his left side, sending him sprawling into the air. Goku regained his balance and turned several hundred flips in mid-air before landing on his feet some way away and staggering back slightly.
Before he had a chance to regain his balance on the ground, Tennin had slammed his right knee into Goku's stomach. Goku blocked Tennin's right punch, meant for his face, with his right hand and a nervous yell, then shot his left hand forward, palm out, and knocked his brother back with a small ki burst. Tennin hit the ground with his right hand and flipped over in the air, landing on his feet, nimbly.
Goku stood, breathing hard, and smiled at his brother. "You're good, little bro!"
Tennin smiled and stood to his full, daunting height. "Thanks, Goku. You're not bad either. Most people never counter during the 'Yando'."
"What's that?" Goku asked.
"It's a part of Yubo, the Nubian Arena Style. It means 'Assault'. Nobody ever even tries to counter until the second bit, the 'Undo' or 'finisher'."
"So, this Yubo basically puts the opponent off-guard and tires them out with a barrage of powerful attacks, then finishes them?"
"Yup," Tennin said, pulling out a rock that was tangled in his long, white hair. "Ow," he muttered anticlimactically as some hair came with it.
"How did that happen?" Goku said.
"Uh. . . I kinda flew through. . . a few. . . mountains." Tennin said sheepishly.
"You should watch where you're going," Goku said; very obviously and with a total lack of sheep.
Vegeta phased in, smashing the fist of his right arm into the face of the lagging Mikkon once again, bringing a fresh flow of blood from his unfortunate nose.
Torren rocketed into the pockmarked ground, making another crater. Using his abnormal skill to regain his balance and composure, he flipped back out almost immediately, landing in a kneel, as Vegeta's legs dug into the spot where he had been, kicking the ground up in plates that snapped into smaller plates under their own weight.
Vegeta pulled his legs from the hole and rose into the air, smiling through the sheen of dust surrounding him. He folded his arms, cocked his head on one side, and smiled. Torren stared at him, breathless, and made a mistake.
He stood, unguarded, expecting a time-out, which was what Vegeta had wanted. He laughed slightly and phased out. Torren, instead of receiving a brief respite, received thousands of blows, smashing into bits of his body that he had lost track of years ago.
Vegeta kicked Torren into the air with his right leg, shot up as a blur into his flight path, then elbowed him down onto the ground.
Vegeta landed beside Torren as he rose painfully. Torren stood and pressed his teeth together in pain. "Ow," he said, looking down at the marginally shorter Vegeta.
"You're getting boring, boy," Vegeta said. "Don't you have any tricks up your sleeve?" His eyes moved to the hilt protruding from behind the Mikkon's back. "What about that sword? Must be good for something besides straightening your spine."
Torren smiled again. "Are you sure you want me to use the power of the Guardian Sword?"
Vegeta snorted. He had thought he might scoff a bit, but then realised he didn't know what the hell it meant to scoff, so he snorted instead. "You had better do something. I'm getting tired of winning so easily." He smiled.
"Alright then," Torren agreed. "But I warned you." His hand shot to the hilt of his sword as a circle of bright blue energy exploded around him.
Torren rose into the air slightly, grinning through the blue burst as Vegeta stood back and watched. The Saiya-jin arched his eyebrow as he felt Torren's ki increasing. There was a flash, a yell from Torren, and his level began to do what is normally called skyrocketing. It was increasing exponentially, so fast that Vegeta could barely keep up. The energy blast did very little to the ground around Torren, as it's attractive blue luminescence shone on everything. Torren slowly sank back to the ground.
The blue ball dissipated in a flash, almost quicker than it had appeared, leaving Torren standing, eyes flashing thousands of different colours simultaneously. "Behold the Shi Shin Ken Dao," Torren proclaimed, his voice echoing with many tones that were not his own. "The Power of the Ancestors."
"That's very impressive," said Vegeta in a voice that was too loud and far too dramatic, "but have you ever seen a Super Saiya-jin 2?"
Torren cocked his head as his eyes returned to normal, his voice steadying. The air of power and grandeur, however, remained. "What is a Super Saiya-jin 2?"
Vegeta chuckled, a smile spreading across his face. "Hmph. Don't worry. I won't need to go Super Saiya-jin 2 to best you, boy."
Vegeta laughed and extended his palm, launching a ball of yellow energy. His eyes shifted as he felt Torren's power behind him. He was struck in the small of the back by something that felt similar in force, thrust, weight, and shape, to the nose of a large ocean liner, and flew forward with powerful momentum, closely behind his own ball of energy. He laboriously thrust his arms forward, launching another ball, stopping himself with the thrust, planting his right foot on the ground long enough to rocket back towards Torren. The Mikkon ducked in, out, and around the hailstorm of blows that came from the returning Super Saiya-jin, pummelling Vegeta with thousands of blows and finally kicking him away along the ground. At the same time, both of Vegeta's ki blasts exploded brilliantly in the far distance. Vegeta stopped several thousand feet away and struggled up.
His bright green eyes looked up at Torren irritably. He was smiling. "Well, I think it's safe to say I won that round," he said, humorously.
Vegeta exploded angrily in yellow energy, flying up into the air and looking down at Torren. He made a head gesture which translated, in the language of those with asses that are bad, as 'come up'.
Erupting with blue ki, Torren followed Vegeta's lead, floating some way away from the Saiya-jin Prince. Vegeta smiled, a trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth. "I think it's time you saw a Super Saiya-jin 2," he said, jubilantly.
Genshu walked outside the borders of Satan City, taking in the lovely mountain range. It would be a perfect place to meditate, she decided. She had felt rather put off since those men had interrupted her vigorous bout of self-deprecation over Mushube.
Genshu was almost immediately in love with these mountains. She needed as much time as she could get to prepare for Mushube, knowing that she would probably not survive this encounter.
Standing at the edge of a tree-growth, she looked out over the picturesque mountains, the smell of fresh pine filling her nose. This planet stirred memories of Mikkona in her, of the beauty and ancient loveliness of her lost home world.
Although it was in Genshu's nature to care about these people and their world, she felt she lacked the kind of conviction and determination she had possessed on Mikkon. On Mikkon, concern for her friends and family, for Torren, for all the people who were close to her, had fuelled her compassion for others. But there was nothing yet on this world that she truly loved. . . although, she thought, smiling, there was the tall man Tennin who made her smile and lose her power of speech, which was usually so eloquent. Her heart, which had been closed and hard since her failure, had opened like the gates of morning at sunrise when she first saw him. Genshu had been alive for a very long time, but had been bewildered by her feelings.
She had now realised what they were, these feelings she had never had before, and knew how dangerous they could be to her concentration. She had instantly fallen into an unforgiving, indiscriminate, and utterly unremitting love with him, and he and her attraction to him were chief among her concerns.
Her teachers, her mother and grandmothers, had always taught her of the peril of the 'ludas', love-attraction, to the journey of the Itton. And now Genshu had fallen into it, and could not see a way out. But, she reflected, did she really want a way out?
"Haaaa!" Goku yelled, his voice echoing across Dai Kaio-Shin's planet as he went Super Saiya-jin, feeling a similar change in energy as his brother, whom he could not see for the dust, did the same.
Goku was right, as surely enough, a Super Saiya-jin Tennin came speeding through the thick, smoky cloud straight at him, his right fist drawn back.
Goku ducked under the super-fast blow, as Tennin phased through Goku's flipping right kick, aimed at his face, in almost the same instant. Goku barred his teeth in consternation as he completed the flip, and in the minute instant of time before the next attack, he thought of how any other warrior would have been off-guard when that blow came. Tennin's Kaio-Ken ability was getting the best of Goku.
Jumping over the sweeping left kick that lashed out from behind in the nick of time, Goku spun in the air, furiously exchanging thousands of blows for an instant with his brother, neither making any headway. Goku was waiting for it, and his chance came. Tennin suddenly did that imperceptible thing and would have hit Goku in the face, had Goku not anticipated and poured an inordinate amount of his energy into a force blast that knocked Tennin away. He thrust both hands forward and directed the blast straight into the middle of Tennin's torso.
The tall Super Saiya-jin flew through the air at hyper speed, dubiously conscious, before turning somersaults as he grabbed his consciousness again, and landing hard on the ground, stripping the grass up and sliding fiercely.
Tennin made a worried noise as he barely blocked Goku's punch. Goku took the opportunity to catch his surprised brother off guard and balance, whipping a punch across his face, and driving his left knee into Tennin's stomach. He then kicked him further off into the distance.
Quicker than Goku could react, Tennin's newly unconscious form exploded with brilliant yellow and circled round, slamming his knee into Goku's stomach as he elbowed him into the ground. Goku rose again almost immediately, winded and staring at his equally winded brother.
"Phew!" Goku let out, with a gust of air. "I'd say we're going about equal, wouldn't you?"
"Sure," Tennin responded cockily. "Right now we are. I don't know about you, but I've got a lot more to see."
"Oh yeah, of course!" Goku said, rotating his arm in its socket. "You ready for the next level?"
Tennin smiled. "Whenever you are," he then cocked his head and added: "But I think we should get some space between us before we get serious."
"I couldn't agree more," Goku responded personably. Then, his eyes narrowed and he leapt up into the air like a bullet, lighting on one of the towering bastions of land that jutted irrationally from the surface of Dai Kaio-Shin's Planet, his boot making a muffled tap in the grass.
Tennin smirked and shot up into the air, until his eyes were level with his brothers. Goku watched as the tall man balled his fists and gave a great yell as he was engulfed in power. Goku almost immediately did the same.
For miles around, plants were ripped from the ground by the hot wind their energies created, bits of grass and flowers swirling all around as gust after gust lashed across the green grass of the poor, poor, idyllic world.
When the yelling ceased, the two brothers faced off as Super Saiya-jin 3, Goku's bastion of rock shattered at the top, Tennin still floating where he had been.
The bright green eyes met in the unfathomable instance before they vanished.
Billions of light-years away, less vivid but no less interesting green eyes took in the streams, pine trees, and animals doing what animals do, that is trying to eat and have sex, in the mountains outside Satan City. Genshu was searching for a suitable place to meditate, her mind already as clear as the streams that surrounded her, thoughts tumbling through it in much the same way as the fish tumbled through their streams. Clarity did not, she reminded herself, always mean the same thing as emptiness.
Sitting down on a nice, open spot of grass, the insanely beautiful woman began to enter a meditative state. Bits of half-suppressed memory nagged at her, the sad day of her ultimate failure flowing through her mind with alarming speed.
She sighed in a way that would have brought men running had any been there.
. . . she had been confident and beautiful as she stood on the great tower, with her best friend and Guardian Torren at her side, as the great black rift had finally opened. Her staff shone with a bright green flame, the ancient magic coursing through her body.
And then, against all odds and at the worst possible moment, Torren caught her attention. She looked at him, thinly maintaining her concentration. "What is it, Torren?" She had asked him quickly.
He looked at her worriedly. "I am sorry Genshu, but I have some something I must tell you. . ."
And then Mushube had asserted his advantage.
A single bolt of black light lashed deep into the surface of Mikkona, ripping the tower apart in a great black explosion, her precious home-world ripping to shreds as she realised she had failed.
After that all Genshu could do was use her magic to take she and Torren to the Void Space between dimensions. And there they had spent some time, watching and waiting in utter silence as Mushube destroyed their entire universe. Genshu had been able to find where he would go next, and immediately took them there to warn the inhabitants, one of whom had been brought into the Void Space itself. . .
It occurred to her that Torren had never told her what it was he had to say.
Genshu stirred once more from her reverie, as something almost entirely incomprehensible to her delicate, spiritual sensibilities came over the ridge before her.
As Vegeta ascended to SSJ2, things ran away from him.
The air rushed away from him at ridiculous speeds, as did the grass that was torn from the pockmarked plain, and any small, ineffectual creatures within the distance were blown away savagely.
The only thing that did not move was Torren. The Mikkon fighter stood and stared at the all-powerful Saiya-jin as though he weren't the most totally terrifying thing he had ever seen, which pissed Vegeta off a bit.
Vegeta was not, in fact, the worst thing Torren had ever seen.
Torren stood coolly for a moment, his eyes flaring a thousand colours all at once. "Is that it?" He said then, calmly.
Vegeta smiled broadly and tackled Torren with his shoulder, sending the other off-balance. Quickly, Vegeta took advantage, lunging forward and hitting his opponent hard in the face, dislocating the jaw and, he imagined, ending the fight for at least a while.
Torren fell to the ground, swiftly avoiding Vegeta's intended finisher, landing on his hands and flipping up as he and Vegeta hit one another at about ten times the kind of speeds your mother warned you about.
They fell off of one another moments later, Vegeta's right hand around Torren's throat, his knee in Torren's stomach, and Torren's left leg buried painfully in the right side of Vegeta's ribcage. Both grimaced painfully, bringing blood bursting unpleasantly from their wounds. Torren fell to his knees, then to his right side, Vegeta simultaneously sprawling out backwards on the ground, both breathing in long, hard-bought breaths.
Through the laboured breathing and the constantly waxing and waning blood, Torren managed one word: "Breather?"
Vegeta took a few breaths, grimaced, bled, and then replied, over-dramatically as was his style: "Yes."
Both fighters lay on the grassy plain, bleeding, grimacing, and taking one hell of a breather.
Gohan screamed piercingly as he awoke into the red, pain-streaked world.
This was not far off from what he had been doing, except that before his screaming had been limited to an unpleasant, closed-off area of his mind.
Chi-Chi, who was taking a rare midday nap on a blanket by her son's bed, (rare as she was usually being overwrought about something right about now) awoke with a start from a dream about pasta and girls with large breasts trying to steal her sons. "I know what kind of girl she is!" Chi-Chi yelled blearily as she awoke to see Gohan writhing, his eyes wide and pure white, his screaming subsiding slowly.
At the moment that Chi-Chi began doting, Videl burst into the room wearing nothing but a towel.
The pupils were starting to return to Gohan's eyes, as both women, who according to the laws of in-laws, which apply to all people in all places in all worlds, should have hated one another with a quiet, unrelenting fierceness, quietly held hands across Gohan's bed, watching as his pain subsided.
The black pupils returned to his eyes, his body still drenched in sweat. He blinked rapidly and his eyes came into focus. He looked from one lovely raven-haired woman to the next. Both had tears in their eyes, tears shed for Gohan's pain that had been all too obvious.
He looked at them curiously, with blind incomprehension on his face. "Uh. . . mom. . . Videl. . . was I dead or something?"
"No," Videl was the only one capable of speech through her tears. "No, but you were in pain."
Gohan wiped some sweat from his head. "Yeah, I remember that, but. . . what's going on? I'm totally confused."
Chi-Chi's eyes were brimming with tears, but she struggled to explain at least a bit. She spoke in fast, disconnected phrases, separated by small bouts of sobbing. "You were gone and, someone brought you back and your father, has a brother and someone's supposed to come, and destroy the earth and, I'm so glad you're okay!" She continued speaking, but her words were garbled by the fact that she wept uncontrollably and buried her head in the bed sheets fiercely.
"A. . . brother?" He looked at Videl. "Is mom. . . okay?"
She smiled. "Yeah, sweetie. Your dad really has a brother."
"Hm," Gohan said, and sat up in bed. "Well. . . what's he like?"
"Oh, he's so great! He's half kai, and he's really sweet!"
Gohan smiled at her as Chi-Chi continued soaking the sheets. "You guys should get together," he said mischievously. "Sounds like he's a lot more sensitive than me."
Videl smiled back with equal mischief. "Well, I would, but. . . well, actually, I think he's got a lot of chemistry with Genshu. And they both have that higher-plane-of-existence vibe."
Gohan sat and searched his memory for a moment, then asked: "Who the hell is Genshu?"
"Oh yeah," Videl said. "She's an alien from another dimension!"
"What!?" Gohan said. "How long have I been asleep?"
"About a day, give or take," she told him.
Gohan looked out the window grimly. "Things haven't happened this fast since Buu was around. I've got a bad feeling." He held his head. "I guess being mischievous gives me a headache." Raising his arm had given Gohan a sample of his currently unpleasant scent. He looked at Videl. "I stink." He leaned in close to his wife, smiling. Want to take a shower?" He asked.
Chi-Chi looked up, her head smoking from the sudden evaporation of her tears, which produced a sizzling noise that, all things considered, was very relevant. "Gohan!" She stood and folded her arms. "I know your father isn't bothered by that sort of talk, but I am a lady! Keep those things to yourselves!"
"Come on, mom! I'm married!" Goku said nervously. He quickly thought about it and smiled, remembering some select conversations with Goku. "And what do you mean, 'a lady'? You and dad have a more active sex life than we do!"
Chi-Chi flushed an artistically impossible shade of red, but didn't exactly look angry. She just looked embarrassed. "How would you know that? Has Goku been. . . talking?"
"I brought it up, you know?" Gohan told her.
Chi-Chi smiled a bit. "I'm going to have to punish him when he gets back."
"I've heard you punish him three or four times a week. . ." Gohan muttered.
"Well, I can see you're feeling better!" Chi-Chi said in an unnecessarily loud voice, and left the room, her shoulders raised above her chin.
Gohan chuckled. "That was kind of mean," Videl said.
Gohan looked at her. "But funny."
"Yeah," she responded, cocking her head on its side. "Come on," she said, leading Gohan out of bed. "I'm in the middle of a shower."
They walked out of the room together.
"Kaa – meeee – haaa – meee - HAA!" Son Goku yelled from somewhere near the stratosphere of Dai Kaio-Shin's world. He was beaten and bleeding, his clothes torn and face scratched by the millions of tiny shards of rock that seemed to be constantly in the air at this point, all from the fight at SSJ3 with his brother.
He launched the energy wave, a large chunk of his remaining power, down at the spot where he was fairly sure his brother was. He hoped it would exhaust Tennin's last reserves of energy.
What he did not hope or expect was, as usual, precisely what happened.
A mighty yell echoed from below, the sound coming to Goku's ears almost too late, as he saw the huge cloud of dust below pushed aside for miles around:
"Kaaaaaa – meeeee – haaaa – meeeee – HAAAAAAAA!"
Just as Tennin's almighty Kamehameha wave drove Goku's back almost the entire way. Goku, his hands burning under his brother's ridiculously powerful energy, pushed back, pouring his power into the wave, widening the warring energies exploding in the middle of the blasts. Goku smiled as he saw the widening crater below, surely where his brother must be standing, driven into the ground by the vast Kamehameha Gaeshi.
"Man," Goku said to himself and anyone else who might have been listening. "I've not had to try this hard in quite a while!"
He screamed, pushing even harder as his brother pushed back again.
Tennin, on the surface, stood tall in his crater, his arms locked into the open-handed Kamehameha stance. His yellow Super Saiya-jin hair whipped out behind him, as did the gold sash around his waist. He too was ripped and torn, his gi burnt almost entirely off, hanging on by a strip of cloth on the left shoulder, his golden sash whipping in the super-hot wind. He dumped loads of energy into the blast in one last effort.
Goku, above, felt the strength of the blast and immediately cut off his wave, ready to intercept the incoming beam. He crossed his arms over his face and set himself for the impact.
The explosion was visible as a lovely blue and green meteor from an entire solar system away. A primitive life form, crawling from the new world's primordial soup, saw it and decided it was God, and immediately put to death all of it's peers who disagreed.
Goku floated in the sky in the burnt, windy aftermath, his arms burning painfully. He took his arms down and gasped nervously at the huge, smoking grey crater that spread out below. Quickly using Shunkanidou, he appeared in front of his brother, who was now standing, albeit painfully and with lots of blood.
Tennin smiled widely at his brother, a strange sight for a SSJ3. "That was fun!" He said excitedly.
"Yeah," Goku agreed, "but just look at this place," he gestured to the great smoking crater that stretched for miles. "Dai Kaio isn't gonna be happy."
"Yeah. Maybe we should wrap it up."
"Good idea," Goku agreed. "But first we have to learn each others Special Techniques." Goku's hair returned to its normal state.
Tennin made a light noise as his did the same. "Yeah. I have a couple up my sleeve. . ."
"Hey, you're the guest. Let's see yours first!" Goku told his brother.
"Well, alright then. . ." Tennin began.
Gohan stood outside his parent's house, tying the belt of his orange and blue Gi, the standard outfit of the Z-Senshi.
His mother stood behind him, holding a box that Gohan simply would not take. "Won't you take your lunch, Gohan? Please?"
He looked back at her. "Mom. . . sorry, I don't have time for lunch. Now that I know a little bit about what's going on, I've got to go see Piccolo, since I can't sense dad. I'm sorry. But this is urgent, you understand, don't you?"
Chi-Chi nodded mutely. "I just wish things didn't always have to end up this way, Gohan."
Gohan looked at the sun, which was slowly moving west. "Believe me, mom, so do I," he said intensely. He gave Chi-Chi a heartfelt hug before he flew off.
Gohan knifed through the air, heading straight towards his old mentor.
Something jumped into Gohan's shadow, far below on the ground. The black of the shadow deepened as it sank in.
Piccolo sat in the air and stared at a tree.
He considered the tree, all of it's parts, the earth that was gathered around it's base, the seed it must have long ago been, it's ancient and vast arboreal predecessors, and how it had simply not been there that morning.
It was a small tree, barely taller than Piccolo. It's aura was not evil, but wasn't good either. Piccolo, with all the infinite wisdom of Kami-Sama, was unable to fathom just what it might be about.
A wind blew that made his cape sweep out and the tree waggle slightly. He almost felt that this was a sign of disrespect in his direction, but forgot about it quickly.
He considered his problem and how it might be solved. He suddenly opted for the quickest and most obvious route. "What are you!?" He asked dramatically.
The small red-skinned tree shook in the slight wind.
Piccolo frowned. He did something he rarely did, and stroked his chin. "Hmmmm. . ." he breathed.
The tree, as if in response, suddenly broke, fell over, and died simultaneously. It turned a deep shade of decayed black and sank into the ground. Sweat beaded on Piccolo's forehead.
The arboreal antics were forgotten as he sensed Gohan in the distance. It occurred to him that he should have been training. He lighted on the ground and turned to the direction Gohan would arrive from.
Moments after, the yellow ki flared in the distance and Gohan landed in front of Piccolo. Piccolo gave a brief smile. "How's it going, Gohan?"
Gohan laughed awkwardly. "Well. . . I feel a little behind the times."
"You had everyone worried with that episode of yours," he said. "Let's not do that again."
"Yeah," Gohan said, nodding. "It's not something I would recommend. So, what do you think about my dad's brother and the aliens and all that?"
Piccolo stared at Gohan. "You know what I think." He turned and looked absent-mindedly at the spot where the tree had grown. "I think that if there's any possibility they were telling the truth about this guy, that we can't prepare enough."
"And what if they weren't?" Gohan asked.
Piccolo turned back to him. "Then we'll have a whole new set of things to worry about," he said.
Gohan nodded, then smiled. "You know, you were right."
"About what?"
"I did know what you thought."
Piccolo smiled. "Where are Trunks and Goten? They should be here, too."
Gohan considered. "They're probably at school. Man, they're almost out of school! Seems like a few days ago that Goten barely came up to my waist."
"You should see your father's brother," Piccolo said. "I think most people only come up to his waist." He cleared his throat in a business-like fashion. "Go and get Trunks and Goten out of school. Right now, training is more important."
"He's taller than you?" Gohan asked. "You're pretty tall."
"That doesn't matter! Go get Trunks and Goten out of school," he said, a bit angry that someone taller than him had arrived.
Gohan frowned openly.
"What?" Piccolo said.
Gohan crossed his arms and sighed. "I'm glad you feel like you can just delegate things like that. You don't have to deal with my mom."
"I'm sorry I can't fight that battle for you, too," Piccolo said, smirking sarcastically.
"Alright then," Gohan relented. "I'll be back. But I'm telling mom this was your idea."
"Tell Chi-Chi whatever you want," Piccolo said calmly. "Just hurry."
Gohan flew off towards Orange Star High School.
A large man with unnecessarily poofy black hair came over the ridge, dressed in safari gear. His appearance was utterly bewildering to Genshu, because:
It did not fit into her cultural reality, and
Even if it had, the man was surrounded by the equivalent of an expensive restaurant's worth of food and people pointing things at him, and could not, in any conceivable reality, have been on anything like a safari.
Genshu quickly and quietly hid herself in the foliage, to observe this strange and bewildering spectacle, obviously some ritual of this culture that she did not understand.
A small, spectacled man with a handlebar moustache ran up to him.
"Oh, Mr. Satan, that was wonderful! But could you do it once more? A bit more dramatic, you know?"
Mr. Satan smiled widely. "Sure! Drama's my speciality!" And retreated back over the ridge. A man dressed in grey came and smacked the black thingy together. "'Mr. Satan, Rugged Outdoorsman, Ruggedly Explores the Rugged Outdoors' scene 6b, take 573, action!"
The man retreated over the ridge, and then busily rushed back up it once again.
His hands on his hips, he dramatically surveyed the scene before him. "Ha ha!" He laughed in an even more over-dramatised way. "What a beautiful day!"
"And. . . cut!" came the word from the cameraman. The small, spectacled man ran up again.
"Oh, Mr. Satan, that was utterly super! I couldn't have done it better myself!"
He beamed. "No one would expect you to, friend!"
He looked into the sun. "I think we'll go back to the hotel for today, people."
Genshu stared wide-eyed from her place in the foliage, not certain what to think now. She knew they would be leaving soon, and felt she had to ask just what the hell was going on. She stepped out silently and walked up to Mr. Satan.
Normally, someone would have questioned her, but this was not normal.
As soon as she had stepped out, most of the men were immediately immobilised due to certain unmentionable difficulties.
She walked out to him gracefully, her bare feet making no noise at all on the soft grass.
Mr. Satan stared at her unknowingly as she approached him. "Uh. . . do you want my autograph?" He asked.
"Um. . . no," she said, looking about in intellectual fascination at all the equipment surrounding her. "No, actually, I was just wondering what you were doing."
"I'm makin' a movie about what a rugged outdoorsman I am!" He said loudly, as though it should excite her.
She stared at him blankly this time. "What's a 'movie'?"
"Uh. . . a film?" He tried.
"Oh yes!" Genshu said triumphantly. "I know what that is."
"You want to be in my movie?" Mr. Satan asked the amused and bewildered Genshu. He smiled and took her in. "You sure are a pretty one, but you're not dressed right for a Satan Productions flick! How about I just. . ."
"Get out of here!" The bespectacled man shouted at Genshu. "Mr. Satan will not be signing any bits of your anatomy! Mr. Satan is a family man!"
Genshu looked down at the huffy little man. "Oh, I'm. . . sorry. . ." she said, with great confusion. "I'll leave then. . ."
She turned and left, slowly, as Mr. Satan argued with the man.
On Dai Kaio-Shin's Planet, Tennin was worrying about his clothes.
His outfit had been clean and neat when he arrived on the planet. Now, his outer black gi was ripped off almost entirely, hanging on by the left shoulder. His grey shirt was rather ragged at the edges. The gold sash at his waist was in tatters. Tennin's black pants were the worst off, with holes in both knees, the left leg exposed from calf to knee.
Goku's clothes were ripped up as well, but he obviously wasn't worried about it.
Tennin looked down at himself. "Wow. I've destroyed armies in these clothes and they've looked better than this."
"Sorry, Tennin," Goku said, noncommittally. "When we get back, I'll have Chi-Chi repair them." Goku got in his brothers face. "Now come on! You said you were gonna show me your special techniques!" He danced around worriedly. "Hurry up!"
Tennin laughed. "Okay, okay. Well, of course there's the Kamehameha. . ." He spoke slowly on purpose.
"I know that one!" Goku said. "Show me something new!"
"Well, my most powerful technique is called the Tenjin Baku. It's a little like your Genki Dama, except it not only draws on the energy of a planet, but also upon the faith that people put in the person using it."
"Cool!" Goku said. "So show it to me."
Tennin smiled. "Alright."
Tennin set his feet firmly on the ground and concentrated. He brought his arms up to his chest level, and held his hands, palms together as if in prayer. With a flash, blue ki began to burn around his body, whipping his long white hair about, and ripping loose the left shoulder of his failing gi. There was another, brighter flash, and blue ki began to glow from between his palms. Tennin now held a small, glowing blue ball between his palms, which Goku felt burning with fierce energy. Tennin barred his teeth as the power surged through him, and then the small ball erupted with the energy of a blinding blue star, filling Dai Kaio-Shin's planet with a pure white light.
Everyone that could see it saw the birth of a universe.
They saw hopes and dreams for the future, the exploration and adaptation of indigenous species, the beginnings of life and the development of intellect. It was a bright, warm light that shone forth on all beings within its sight, and filled them with happiness, hope, and well being.
Son Goku, who had always been honest with himself, could not see his hands or any part of his body or, in fact, anything. He found it a deeply spiritual experience, and bathed in the light while it lasted.
As quickly as it had appeared, the blinding, beautiful, lovely light was gone, and everything whose image it had obscured rushed back into the eyes of those who had seen it, like a series of freight trains carrying something particularly disgusting, because nothing could be as beautiful as the light had been. Nobody, least of all Goku, who stood, dumbfounded, knew why it had been so beautiful.
Quickly realising that he had to forget the light, Goku looked at Tennin. He stood upright, looking relaxed and unfocused. Between his palms he held a perfect ball of beautiful, fascinating light, full of enormous energy. The orb pulsed slightly, and within it could be seen the images of stars and swirling energies, as though a new universe had, indeed, begun within it. It was not very large, about 36 inches around, but it was incredibly dense. Tennin's white hair was still standing straight above his head in the hot wind enveloping his body, as his orange eyes finally looked to his brother.
He smiled. "Well, what do you think?"
Goku was speechless. "Tennin, that was amazing! Where did you learn a technique like that?"
Tennin smiled, and the fascinating orb of energy vanished, Tennin's hair falling back into place. Goku suddenly felt stronger. "Well," Tennin said. "It was initially a technique that my father spent his whole life creating. However, he could never use it. I was the only one who could." He smiled cleverly at Goku. "But I suspect you'll become the second."
"I sure hope so," Goku said happily. "Well," he sat cross-legged on the grass. "Teach me, I'm the student!"
Tennin smiled happily once more.
Trunks, Goten, and Gohan landed several feet away from Piccolo's waterfall. Piccolo sat in the air in plain sight, his back to them. "What took you so long!?" He said, which was apparently intended as an unorthodox form of greeting.
Gohan grinned nervously. "Sorry, Piccolo, but Trunks and Goten had to go home and get dressed in some training clothes."
Piccolo spun around in the air, still sitting. "For two and a half hours!?" Following this, he growled deeply in his throat. "Just how much time do you think we have?"
"Um. . ." said Trunks, who was only just age at the age where he was self realised and felt confident around women. He was far from the age where he felt confident around Piccolo. "Didn't that Genshu girl say three to four years?"
Piccolo bit his lip. He sighed to himself. He wasn't really angry with anyone, he was just frustrated by all the flora that kept on popping up and dying. While Gohan had been gone, an impressive vine cover had grown on a tree and died about thirty seconds later, and two more trees had sprouted and died. The one thing they had all shared in common was a strange crimson colour. But as neither Piccolo, Kami-Sama, or Nail could make anything of it, hethey decided to give up.
"Forget it," he said, dropping to the ground and approaching them. "We better start training." Goten and Trunks nodded, but Gohan simply stood still with his eyes open. Piccolo stared at him momentarily. Nothing happened. "Gohan?" He tried. Gohan seemed to be trembling slightly, and perspiration was forming on his forehead. Goten and Trunks both stared. Gohan's mouth slipped open slightly as he made a strange noise. "Gohan!" Piccolo shouted. This time, Gohan started in surprise and looked up.
"Oh ah, hi. . . Piccolo." He smiled nervously.
Piccolo's instincts flared so intensely it burned, but he didn't let on. He merely arched his eyebrow. "Are you all right?"
Gohan smiled again, less nervous. "Yeah, I'm fine! Sorry, I don't know what was wrong with me there."
Piccolo smiled, keeping his cool against his flaring senses. "Well, we better go." As the test, Piccolo turned around and walked for the edge of the waterfall.
He only barely managed to phase through the incredibly fast flying kick that would have severed his spine.
He phased out and back in immediately behind Gohan, roundhouse kicking him with his right leg. Gohan flew away, hitting the ground and sliding off the edge of the waterfall. There was a splash as he hit the water far below. Piccolo was perspiring. He had felt the power of whatever it was inside Gohan just then, and knew that it was far from down.
Goten was confused. "Piccolo, why did you do that to Gohan?"
"That wasn't Gohan," Piccolo said, dropping his stance. "Something is inside him." He looked over his shoulder at both of them. "It will be coming back! Get ready!"
Knowing better than to disobey their old master, Trunks and Goten immediately dropped stance. Piccolo looked on, waiting, his senses extended, feeling for the power. It feels like those kids did, he thought. If Mushube has even a fourth of that power, then I don't see how we have a chance. . .
A huge ball of water erupted into the air, sending tidal waves in all directions. Much of the stone of Piccolo's ancient waterfall collapsed in upon itself, bringing water pouring over the edge more frenetically than before. From amidst the cacophony, Gohan rose, arms at his side, eyes staring at the three warriors. Streams of water swirled around him at high speeds, and a horrible smile lit his features.
His eyes travelled from one to the other, slowly. Two voices came from his mouth, as though he were fused. "None of you are the one we seek." He floated forward and landed on the ground about eight feet from Piccolo. Trunks stood to the Namekians left, Goten to his right, in a triangle formation. The smile widened evilly. "However. . . you will do for now."
Gohan rushed at Piccolo, faster than the Namekian imagination could function.