Chapter 25 – Full Power
"What?" cried Omega Shenron in shock. "This isn't Earth!"
"You're damn right it's not!" screamed Old Kai. "This is my planet, and you'd better get off right now!"
Omega Shenron turned his head toward him. His eyes began to glow white.
"No!" yelled Goku as he rushed forward. The two beams shot from Omega Shenron's eyes just as Goku intervened. He swung his arm forward and shot a steady beam of his own, which destroyed the dragon's attack but did nothing to the dragon himself.
Kibitoshin pulled his elder to a safer spot. "Goku!" he cried. "You transformed! And your power is much greater than we anticipated! You're much stronger than Gohan now!"
"I know!" yelled Goku, who was unsuccessfully trying to block Omega Shenron's onslaught. Vegeta and Gohan were attempting to stop the dragon, but they barely made an impression on Omega Shenron's body.
"Will you stop talking about how great his power is and start focusing on the situation at hand!" screamed Old Kai. "For instance, why is my planet shaking!"
It took Goku a moment to register this. Then he realized that Old Kai was right: though not as violently as the Earth, the Planet of the Kais was definitely beginning to tremble as well.
"Oh, no," said Goku to himself.
"RAAAAAAAH!" yelled Omega Shenron, his entire hand glowing white and immediately firing a devastating ki ball at him.
Goku cupped his hands at his sides and thrust them forward. "KAMEHAMEHA!" he yelled.
The beam collided with the dragon's attack, and stopped in midair, being slowly driven back. Finally Goku could hold on no longer, and the ki ball plowed through the Kamehameha and knocked Goku into one of the hills of the Kaioshin planet. The hill collapsed on top of him, and he could feel deep cracks etching themselves over the ground he was lying on.
"No!" yelled Gohan, rushing forward to help Vegeta, who was now fighting Omega Shenron.
Trunks stood nearby, open-mouthed. He had missed everything that had happened, and was feeling very confused.
Feeling Goten stirring in his arms, Trunks put him down and helped him to his feet.
"Feeling better?" he asked.
"Yeah," gasped Goten. "I can move around...pretty well. But what's going on now? Where are we?"
"I don't know," admitted Trunks. "I have no idea what's going on. Look at our fathers! And the ki coming off of that shadow dragon! We're in way over our heads, Goten."
Goten nodded. "We can't fight that thing, especially in our condition," he said. "We don't even have enough strength to go Super Saiyan!"
They watched helplessly, wondering what to do. All they managed was to get out of the way of the fight and join the Kaioshins.
They watched Vegeta and Gohan each attacking in a flurry of punches and kicks, and Omega Shenron blocking them each with one of his arms. After a few moments of this, both of his arms glowed white, and a mass of ki poured out. Vegeta and Gohan went flying.
The planet was shaking and beginning to crack now...Goten and Trunks rushed forward to help Vegeta and Gohan...Old Kai was screaming something...Goku burst out of the rubble and rushed forward, spreading his arms...Omega Shenron laughed...
Suddenly, the scene flitted out of view, to be replaced by lush green-and-purple hills and trees, and frightened Namekians running in all directions. Goku had teleported them to New Namek.
The planet was small, and faring even worse than Earth had. Already a massive quake was sending the inhabitants tumbling. With a great booming laugh, Omega Shenron's feet began to glow.
"No more leaving!" he called out. "This planet will go up in smoke right here, right now!"
"No!" cried Goku.
The dragon's feet expelled the tremendous blasts, but the planet was not destroyed. In fact, the setting had changed to a barren desert-like world, with small people burrowing in and out of the ground. Trunks and Goten recognized it: it was the planet Metamor.
Omega Shenron's strike, however, had caused a large crater to appear in the middle of the ground. It was so deep that it led straight into the core of the planet, hot and bubbling underneath the ground.
"Perfect!" cried the dragon, and his finger glowed as he pointed at the core.
"Raargh!" growled Goku in frustration as he held out his arms yet again. Omega Shenron checked him, however, with a blast from his other arm. Goku went flying backward.
"No!" yelled Vegeta, Gohan, Goten, and Trunks simultaneously, converging on top of the dragon at once. A kind of shockwave emanated from his arm as he batted them all away, firing at the core. The beam hit its target.
Goku's scream was drowned in the noise the planet made as, recovering, his gentle wave of ki flowed over the six of them again. Even as they left, they could feel Metamor exploding around them.
"Damn it!" cried Goku, slamming his fist onto the ground of the Machine Planet M2. "You destroyed a planet!"
"And?" asked Omega Shenron. "I didn't destroy you or your friends yet, did I? You should consider yourself lucky."
Goten and Trunks were crouched near the ground, clutching their sides and panting. Vegeta and Gohan looked murderous, knowing they were helpless to harm the dragon.
"You can't keep running forever, Son Goku," said Omega Shenron darkly. "I'm just going to keep on destroying planet after planet until you all die." He lifted his hands over his head and a large ki ball formed.
The five Saiyans stood there, shaking. At once, they all leapt off the ground at Omega Shenron. Laughing, he tossed the ball up into the air and shot out both arms and legs. They all went flying backward. Stepping slightly to the left, the dragon allowed the ball to hit the ground, causing a gigantic crater to appear. For once, he looked surprised.
"What?" he said. "That ball should have destroyed the planet!"
"This planet," said Trunks, "is denser than the Earth. I noticed it the last time we were here."
"Hmm," said the dragon, aiming a blast at Trunks for his comment. "I see. Well, I'll just have to use a bigger blast!" Unimaginable energy seemed to be drawn to him as an intense ball formed in his hands once more. In desperation, Goku did the only thing he could think of.
Kaio-sama! he called with his mind. Find me a planet!
A few seconds went by.
KAIO-SAMA! yelled Goku as loud as he could.
W-what? yawned the voice of the Lord of Worlds. Who's there? I was sleeping!
Kaio-sama, it's Goku! I need you to find me a planet! One dense enough to hold this kind of power!
What kind of power...? asked Kaio-sama. Then, WHOAH! That kind of power!
Hurry! yelled Goku, watching Omega Shenron's ki ball grow larger. The few animals left on Planet M2 scattered, alarmed.
All right, all right, I'll see what I can do! yelled the Lord of Worlds. But seriously, Goku...that kind of power!
"We have to do something, Kakarot!" yelled Vegeta desperately. "Don't you have another planet to take us to?"
"I don't...I don't know," said Goku.
Goten and Trunks sat clutching their sides on the ground. Gohan was attempting to catch Omega Shenron off guard, with little success. Goku and Vegeta stood by, resting to regain their strength, because they could do nothing else.
"HAHAHAHA!" boomed the dragon triumphantly. "Given up, heroes? It always happens eventually. Now--hrrrm!"
He had forgotten about Gohan, who has used that moment to kick the dragon's ki ball up out of his hands. He caught it. Omega Shenron glared up at Gohan, and shot upward toward him.
Goku and Vegeta reacted immediately, following the dragon and trying to pull him back down. Gohan threw the ball up as high as he could, where it passed safely out of the planet's atmosphere and into space. Omega Shenron bellowed with fury and threw Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan out of his way.
"It doesn't matter!" he raged. "I'll kill you all individually first if I have to!" He pointed at Gohan, and his finger glowed.
Goku! yelled Kaio-sama in his head. Northwest, about three hundred million miles, there's a planet called Mutek! It's got the densest surface I've ever seen on a planet, and the only inhabitants are some birds!
Perfect! cried Goku, relieved. Thanks, Kaio!
Throwing out his hands, he concentrated on the ki signal of the birds (it was incredible how he was able to find them in his new form) and poured out his ki wave again, blanketing the six of them. Omega Shenron's strike against Gohan was unexpectedly blocked by it. "What!" he yelled, as their surroundings blurred, to be replaced an instant later with a harsh, gray landscape all around, with short, sparse mountains and rocks in the distance, and a black, cloudy sky. A few birds flew in an odd formation overhead. They had made it to Planet Mutek.
It was a gloomy planet, but it was perfect for their fight. Omega Shenron looked around.
"Fine," he said. "If it makes you feel better, you can die here." He hurled three ki basts at Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan, and proceeded to fly around them, hitting them whenever he felt like it. Suddenly, a thought occured to him. "Where are the other two?" he asked suspiciously.
Goten and Trunks had flown a safe distance away. They were breathing hard.
"Goten..." gasped Trunks. "We can't fight Omega Shenron. Not like this. Without a senzu..."
"Wait!" said Goten. "I have one! I brought it with me when we went to fight Nightros Shenron!"
"I forgot to get one," said Trunks. "You didn't use it?"
"I was about to, but then I got possessed!" said Goten excitedly. "But we can use it now!"
"We?" asked Trunks. "Fighting at half strength won't do any good."
"We don't need to split it in half," said Goten, a smile spreading across his face. "We can each have the whole thing."
"But..." began Trunks.
"One senzu's not a problem," said Goten, "when you're one person."
Comprehension dawned on Trunks' face. "Right!" he said excitedly.
"Do you remember the dance?" asked Goten.
"Of course," said Trunks. "Should I lower my power level for you?"
"I don't think you'll need to this time," said Goten slyly. "One good thing about being unemployed and living in your parents' house: it gives you plenty of time to train."
Powering up as much as they could, they discovered that Goten was indeed stronger than Trunks. Once their power levels were equal, they got into position.
"Ready?" said Goten. "Fu...sion...HAAAAAA!"
Omega Shenron was batting his opponents away like flies. They were making no progress whatsoever.
"Damn!" yelled Goku. "We need to form some kind of strategy so we can power up or hit him with better attacks!"
"Yes, Kakarot!" cried Vegeta. "But he won't let us stop long enough to do it! There are only three of us fighting him, which is not enough for a distraction!"
Suddenly, Omega Shenron stopped hitting them and floated still in midair.
"What's going on?" asked Gohan.
"Who is that?" asked the dragon.
They all turned. Flying toward them very quickly was someone Goku had never seen before. Tall, muscular, and wearing a yellow-and-blue vest with white pants, he looked in better condition than all three of them. As he drew closer, Goku could see that his hair was black in the middle, with patches of purple on either side, and he realized who it was.
"Guys," he said, beginning to smile. "I think we've got some more reinforcements."
The figure pulled up in front of them, and looked straight at Omega Shenron. "Now you're in trouble," he said, speaking with Goten and Trunks' voices at the same time. "My name is Gotenks, and I'm going to destroy you."
The dragon raised his eyebrows. "You?" he said increduously. "You don't look very powerful to me."
"Oh no?" said Gotenks, getting into a crouch and cenching his fists. He began to scream as his power shot up. A golden aura flared up around him as his hair turned gold and grew down his back. Omega Shenron watched, his arms folded.
When the transformation was finished, Gotenks stood up straight again. "Aaah," he said. "This is great! I could go for the full half-hour now."
Omega Shenron smirked. "I'm still not impressed," he said. "You think that's enough to stop me? You're weaker than the others!"
"Yeah," said Gohan from behind him. "But take a look at the others."
The dragon looked around. Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan were floating behind him, all with flaming auras around them. Gotenks' distraction had given them all time to power up to their full strength.
"Fine," said Omega Shenron disdainfully. "Let's really start this battle. Here I am. No energy absorbtion. No body possession. No regeneration or reformation. All you have to do is kill me. Let's see how easy that is for you."
"I'm game," said Goku with a smile.