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Disclaimer: DBZ isn't mine, Gohan is, well in my dreams he is at any rate.
Anything between /* and */ is just me budding in, so is anything after // up until the next hard return.
For those of you that realised, I'm trying to learn to program in C++ as a hobby, that's the origin of the commentary codes.
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General remark. I've decided to take a new approach to some of my notes by moving them collectively to the bottom of the chapter. There will numbered references in the text. Tell me if you like this better than the old system, or would prefer to see that reinstated.
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Extra Warning: rather a lot of fighting in this chapter, thought I should let you know in advance.
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Response to reviews:
To Pteska:
Thanks sis as requested by B, and you, here's the rest. As for the be afraid, be very afraid, you wish.
To Johnny Rage:
Why did I bring Frieza&co into this? You'll see. In the words of George Armstrong Custer, "Don't worry, I have a plan." Okay, so he said it just before the battle at Little Big Horn, also known as Custer's last stand if I'm not mistaken, but that's beside the point :). It will all become clear in this chapter and the next, mostly the next actually.
To Lady Queen:
No fair, you not telling your little bro who I am, I let you and Pteska know about each other. Just shows who the real evil parties are in the big sister little brother relationship.
I don't have a problem writing technical stuff myself, not much anyway, for example this chapter includes the term 'triaxular magnetic field'. But you should just stick with what you're comfortable writing about.
It isn't really Frieza and King Cold, but you'll have to wait to the next chapter to see exactly who and what it is.
Pulls out megaphone: "Evil little brothers of the world unite against your evil big sisters."
To Frozenflower:
It's not Frieza, but you'll have to wait till the next chapter. I'm afraid there isn't a whole lot of Trunks and Goten, but there is some.
To JessIchi:
Like I said at the end of Chapter 9, Cooler wasn't born in this AU, because I can't fit those movies in with the general story line, so no, it's not Cooler, wait for the next chapter to see who it is.
To kat:
Frieza does/did have a brother, Cooler, who is in some of the movies, but he's not in this fic, or in this AU for that matter.
To Barret9559:
My first e-mailed review, thanks. You really didn't have to go through all the trouble of working out that movie stuff for me, but I appreciate it. It probably won't be too much help for this fic, since I've decided to ignore the movies here, except for the flashbacks to the first movie during the Garlic Junior saga. But it may come in handy in the future. I rarely use the Japanese terms, (at least in this story) but can follow them.
To Everyone:
Thanks, I just love reviews.
*/
Life Is Strange
Saga: The Heir Of The Cold-Empire
Chapter 10: Heir Of The Cold-Empire?
"We have to go check this out." Gohan said, not even waiting for a reply before he took off toward the landing space ship.
"Wait up Gohan." Videl yelled as she shot of after him, with the two little guys hot on her heels.
To her surprise Videl noticed that she was capable of keeping up with the other three. At least now that they were in their normal state, but it was taking nearly all off her energy to do so and she was reasonably sure the others weren't going at it with their full power.
Suddenly a huge roar filled the air as what looked on first glance like five or so meteorites shot down just a few hundred feet in front of them.
The group came to a halt in mid-air and Videl heard Gohan mumble a single word.
"Pods."
When she looked down to the impact craters she saw that the 'meteorites' were indeed small spherical metal space pods.
"What's happening here?" She asked nobody in particular.
"I think we'd all like to know that." Gohan replied. "But for now I think it would be best to head to the Namek Village, because there are more pods coming in all over the place."
Videl looked around and noticed a lot of pods, signalled by the streaks of fire caused by the heat of their entry, coming down, mostly in the direction of the ship, but some seemed to be coming down in other directions as well.
"Okay, let's go."
"Go super okay guys." Gohan said, doing the same himself. "Videl, you grab onto me, this a time for speed."
Videl nodded. She didn't really feel hurt, she knew she couldn't keep up, not yet anyway.
I hope that didn't hurt her feelings. Gohan thought. But time is everything right now. Every single Namek on the planet has been dead once already, so we can't bring them back with Shen Long. That means that if Elder Mori dies our hope dies with him. Because if the keeper dies the Dragon Balls vanish.
He couldn't help but smile a little as Videl put her arms around his neck and he grabbed on to her waist. She didn't know it yet, but she was probably stronger than most of the guys they would face. There was really only one thing that worried him, he couldn't sense anything from the main ship. Only an undefined feeling of great evil.
With Super-Saiyan speed it only took them about two minutes to reach the Namek village, but it was already under attack. As usual the younger Nameks were fighting while the elders and children were hidden inside. Gohan let out a sigh as he sensed Mori's Ki in one of the larger houses, the Dragon Balls were still around.
Gohan didn't waste any time to jump into the battle, nor did any of the other three. There were three main attack groups that were attacking the town. Goten and Trunks, the inseparable duo rushed to the right to face one of them.
Gohan took on the largest group, which was the centre group.
"You take the ones on the left." He told Videl after checking their Ki. "They shouldn't be any problem for you to handle."
None of them are. He thought. She's already near the level of strength Vegeta was on when we first sensed him powering up on Namek. That had been enough for him to take out all but the highest elite fighters in Frieza's army. And these guys are definitely in some way connected to the Cold-empire. All of their equipment is from there and I recognise most of the races.
He shuddered at the memory. Vegeta had massacred the men left aboard Frieza's ship, and it hadn't been a pretty sight when he and Krillin walked through its halls. Corpses were everywhere, in all kinds of poses. But now that memory did at least some good. He could positively identify his enemy. [1]
Gohan didn't give himself any more time to think about it. The Nameks were strong, stronger than they had been the last time he'd met them, but there were alien fighters that were more powerful.
An alien fighter who reminded Gohan of Dodoria fired a Ki-blast at the Namek defenders as Gohan rushed forward. The blast was huge by the standards of the battle up to that point but Gohan positioned himself in front of it and just took it without even flinching.
The move had the desired effect, the Nameks behind him gave of a stunned silence for a while before cheering him on. The assorted aliens in front of him looked both scared and angered.
"Come on, we can take him together." The pink blob yelled, apparently angered by the failure of his attack.
Gohan dropped into a fighting stance. There was no reason not to make this fun by playing a little, his Saiyan battle instincts were taking over and though he would not repeat the mistake he'd made seven years earlier, he was enjoying the thrill of battle.
Trunks and Goten clearly found this an amusing game as well. They'd dropped out of Super-Saiyan mode and were just normally fighting the enemy, doing all sorts of fancy attacks together.
About five enemy fighters rushed forward. Three of them tried to kick his face at the same time, and two aimed punches for his stomach. But Gohan blocked and dodged all of their attacks without effort. When he countered they never knew what hit them, he moved faster than they could see to appear behind them, and deliver a few solid hits, knocking them unconscious.
The others in the group he was facing fled, except for the large pink fighter that reminded him of Dodoria.
I guess he's the strongest fighter in this entire attack. Gohan thought. But with some effort I think Videl could take him, he's certainly weaker than Dodoria was.
"So it's just you and me." Gohan said. "Tell me, why are you here."
"That is not your business." The alien said smugly. "The only thing you need to concern yourself with is your funeral, because I'm going to kill you."
"You really think you can do that?" Gohan asked, amused. "I suggest you check your scouter."
"I'll humour you." The alien replied, punching the scouter button to turn on the device. "Hmm. Wait this can't be right. The triaxular magnetic field we detected on this planet must be meddling with my readings."
"Oh, no it's accurate." Gohan stated. "I'll show you."
Hmm. How am I going to finish this guy? He thought to himself. Well, when on Namek...
He brought to fingers up in front of his head.
"Special Beam Cannon fire." He yelled.
The beams shot out, the second coiling itself around the first. Gohan knew he hadn't really give the cannon time to charge up, but he didn't need to, the difference in power was so large that it didn't matter.
A few seconds later it was all over. Pink boy had taken the impact of the beam and was left dead on the ground.
I really don't like killing. Gohan thought. But this guy didn't really give me any choice he was too powerful to lock up.
Videl felt strangely excited when she rushed into battle. This was the first time she'd get to test her new abilities in a real fight, and also the first time she'd have a Ki fight in which she was stronger than her opponents. Also she felt an adrenaline caused by the knowledge that this was a life and death thing. She was more powerful than her adversaries, but not by so much that she could afford to make too many mistakes. If she did go wrong Gohan would probably appear out of nowhere to save her, but that would certainly leave her pride wounded.
A few Nameks were fighting her target, a group of about half a dozen unknown aliens, none of them looking friendly. She quickly read all of their Ki's and sped forward through the air, diving to shoot a series of normal Ki-blasts at them. Only three of them remained standing after that assault. The others dropped to the ground, dead, or just unconscious, she wasn't sure.
The ones that remained standing shot her a rather surprised look as she landed again in front of the Nameks.
Okay girl. She thought. Stay sharp, these three seem to be a little, if not a lot tougher than the others. How do we take them down? But of course...
She raised her hands, bringing her wrists together so hard there was an audible slap, and forming an X with her arms and hands.
"Super Twister Fire." She yelled, as the Ki charged up in her hands and then shot out.
The situation called for the development of a new variation on her attack. Rather than letting it shoot on as a single narrow beam after the two beams joined, she made it go on as a single widening beam, hitting all three of her enemies with the one shot.
She could feel resistance in the beam from the alien fighters and bit her lip in concentration as she mercilessly forced out her energy to keep up the attack.
About half a minute after she'd started the attack the resistance vanished. She immediately cut of the beam and looked, to her, pleasant, surprise all three remaining aliens were now on the ground. She checked their Ki, two of them were dead and the third was out cold. Of the three that had gone down in the first round none were alive.
She looked over to the rest of the action. Gohan was just standing in mid air, watching the kids with a smile on his face. She joined him, giving him a kiss on the lips before turning her own attention to the action on the ground as well.
About six alien fighters were running around screaming, trying to get away. But whenever they strayed out of a circle that had been marked on the ground, Trunks or Goten would appear to push them back in. One of them was always busy doing this while the other fought the aliens. Though they didn't do this at full power. In fact Videl could sense that they weren't even using her full power, they were just fighting hard enough to match their opponents.
It was really quite funny to watch, these grown tough aliens, running around in fear of two boys who were simply using them as cool interactive toys.
After looking at it for a while Gohan apparently decided that it had been enough.
"Okay guys." He called. "Playtime's over, finish it."
Videl continued to watch fascinated as Trunks flashed over to Goten and whispered something in his ear. Goten nodded with his usual goofy eager grin.
"What's going on there?" She asked Gohan.
"I'm not sure." He replied. "I couldn't really make anything out over the noise. But I think they're going to do some sort of fancy move as a last bit of fun."
Videl looked on and saw the two boys lock arms, Goten facing one way and Trunks facing the other. They stuck out their free arms, forming fists and then started to spin together really fast. Moving like that, as a sort of miniature tornado they moved through out the area, hitting bad-guys with their out stretched fists, driving them closer together until they were pressed against one an other.
Then Trunks went to one side of the group and Goten to the other. Both charging up their Ki.
"Ka...Me...Ha...Me...Ha..." Goten shouted.
"Gallick Gun Fire." Trunks called.
The two Ki-blasts shot out at about the same time, meeting at the group of unfortunate villains who were standing there, half way between the two boys. The blast only lasted for a moment. And when Videl saw the ground again all that remained were some scorch marks, the aliens had been completely incinerated.
As they landed in front of some of the Nameks, Gohan registered the look of surprise on the green warriors' faces.
"Thank you for helping us." One of them said. "But who are you?"
Gohan smiled as he transformed back into normal. He had changed a lot over the years so he wasn't surprised at not being recognised.
"My name is Gohan." He said simply. "I need to speak with Elder Mori as soon as possible."
"THE Gohan." The Namek asked.
"Yes, Dende's friend." Gohan replied. "But much as I'd love to chat, I really must see Mori. I'm not sure what's happening here, but if this battle is any indication these aliens don't have good intentions."
"I will take you to him." The Namek replied. Leading Gohan to the big house where he'd sensed Mori earlier.
The inside of the house reminded Gohan of Guru's house on Namek. The throne Mori was seated on was a lot smaller though. Gohan could sense that like Guru's Mori's throne, and its location, enabled him to know much of what happened on New Namek.
"Ah, welcome Gohan." Mori said, getting up of the throne. "It seems that we meet again in turbulent times."
"We do indeed Mori. Though I had no knowledge of the turbulence when I decided to come here. But that matter will have to wait for the time being. Do you have any idea who we're dealing with here? It's clear to me that these are forces of what used to be the Cold-empire, but why are they here, and who is their leader?"
"I'm not completely sure. But I believe they are here for the Dragon Balls. They must have somehow learned of our continued existence and the existence of the Dragon Balls. I suppose that like Frieza they have their own dark purposes to want to use the Dragon's power."
"And their leader? All I can sense from the flag-ship is great evil, but not a clear Ki reading."
"I'm afraid I don't know either. All I can tell you is that he is powerful, and evil. But then you seem to be a lot more powerful then you were the last time we met as well."
"I guess I am, I'm a Super-Saiyan now. I have been for seven years. But then it was ten years ago that we last met. As for the Dragon Balls, am I right in assuming you have one here?"
"Yes I do."
"Good, that way as long as this place is protected they won't be able to complete the set. Though I'm hoping to collect them myself. I have a wish I need Porunga for."
"What is it, if I might ask?'
"My father died in the Cell-games, I want to bring him back, and our Dragon still can't bring back those who have died before. Also I have a second wish, but that isn't important now. "
"Of course you may use our Dragon Balls. But I'm afraid you'll probably have to face whoever is leading the enemy before you can."
"I think that's almost inevitable. But we'll have to wait and see."
"I suppose so, now why don't we go outside so you can introduce me to the rest of your group."
Videl watched the building Gohan had entered intently from the moment the door closed to the moment it opened again. She was curious as to what was happening in there. From what she could tell this 'Elder' was the leader of the Nameks, how did you approach such a man? From what Gohan had told her the Nameks only had one gender, did you even call him a man?
She was surprised when she saw Gohan come out, apparently just chatting with a somewhat short, and undoubtedly rather old, Namek.
Is that him? She wondered. And is Gohan really just chatting with him like that, shouldn't he be, I don't know, bowing or something? I know I should have bought a 'What to do when you meet the leader of an alien world' info-book.
"So tell me," she heard Gohan say as the two approached, "how's your potting, had any time to work on your swing since you left Earth?"
He's talking golf with an alien in the middle of a crisis??? Videl's mind screamed.
"Well I don't have as much time as I like, but I have managed to keep in practice. We have a great eighteen hole course in the hills not far from here, if it wasn't for this crisis we could play a few rounds."
"I'm not that into golf, and you're probably still the Namek champion, so I think I'll pass."
"Actually I lost my title in last year's tournament, some of the pupils form my golf class have managed to surpass their master."
"My condolences, now let me introduce you, this is my little brother Goten, his best friend, Trunks, and my fiancée Videl. Guys, this is Elder Mori."
"How do you do, it's a pleasure to meet you." Mori stated.
Videl and the kids mumbled something in return.
"I am curious though," Mori continued, "what is a fiancée?"
"Ah you wouldn't know of course." Gohan said. "I keep forgetting you people are asexual and don't have the concept of romantic love, link with me telepathically and I'll tell you."
To Videl's surprise Gohan bend down allowing Mori to place a hand on his head. The two of them closed their eyes for several minutes, standing frozen in place.
"I see." Mori said as they opened their eyes again and resumed their normal posture. "my congratulations to both of you."
"Thank you." Videl mumbled, still a bit surprised at what she'd just seen.
"So what's the plan big brother?" Goten asked.
"We'll have to talk that over. But we'll certainly have to go looking for the Dragon Balls. Mori has the one star ball here, but the others are scattered over the planet."
"Shouldn't we leave some one here in case there are more attacks?" Videl asked.
"That's probably a good idea. Would you kids mind staying here?" Gohan asked, turning to Trunks and Goten.
The two boys turned to each other and started to whisper excitedly.
If I've gotten to know these two, that whispering isn't' the best of signs. Videl thought. But we'll have to see. I do hope you're sure about this Gohan.
'I am sure, trust me.' She could hear Gohan's voice echo in her head.
'Gohan can you hear my thoughts?' She thought/asked.
'Right now yes. I'm a bit telepathically charged from my contact with Mori. It makes it possible for me to hear your thoughts, because I feel close to you. Anyway I've got it under control, they're probably planning something, but I'll make sure they behave.'
'All right if you say so.'
"Okay, we'll do it." Trunks said with a mischievous gleam in his eyes, causing Gohan and Videl to stop their mind conversation.
"Good." Gohan said. "I don't mind if you have a bit of fun while you're here. But don't do anything foolish or I will personally see to it that you don't eat for a while."
Videl noticed the two boys wince at this threat.
"Don't worry, we'll be good." Goten said, still looking horrified at the prospect of what would happen if they weren't.
"Okay," Gohan fished inside his Gi and pulled out a capsule. "there's a computer in this cap, and I transferred the games from the ships computer onto it, you can use it if you get bored. You can also train, but don't hurt each other too much, and don't go Super. If more bad-guys show up do go Super, so Videl and I know we should come."
"But Gohan, these guys aren't anything we can't handle." Trunks interjected.
"True, but if at all possible I want to question one or more of them, and I need to be here to do that. Also, if the guys that are knocked out wake up, work together with the Nameks to keep them locked up somewhere. Though I doubt any of them will wake up within the next couple of days."
The boys nodded.
"Okay, have fun." Gohan finished, tossing the capsule he was holding to Trunks.
Well with that threat hanging over them their behaviour should stay within reason. Gohan thought to himself. It's really a bit much to threaten two little kids with, but with those two only heavy threats have any kind of effect.
With that matter out of the way he jumped into the air, quickly followed by Videl.
"Okay, let's see what the radar has to say." He said, producing said device from one of the pockets inside his Gi. "Okay, there's two Dragon Balls, fairly close together, just a little north of here."
Videl just nodded and like Gohan adjusted her course so they were heading north.
Soon the countryside under them seized and the found themselves above the sea.
"Great." Gohan muttered. "Let's just hope they had the good sense to end up on an island."
"What do you mean?" Videl asked.
"Well, I know this sounds crazy, but while Dragon Balls can float, they can also sink. I still haven't been able to figure out what makes it happen, it just seems to be decided the instant one hits the water. The last time I went to retrieve the four-star ball I had to dive about a hundred feet to get to it.
Not all that difficult for a Saiyan, we can hold our breath longer than Humans can, but it was buried under the remains of a collapsed undersea rock formation. I was blue from lack of breath when I resurfaced."
"I see, but how did you even know that the ball you were diving for was the four star ball? Did the Radar show that?"
"I didn't really know, but I was 99% sure. You see the Radar only shows where there are Dragon Balls, not which ball is where. But it's not impossible to sense Dragon Balls, it's just difficult to locate them like that over long distances, however when you're near you can feel them and they each have a slightly different feeling. So if you blindfold me and hold a Dragon Ball in front of me I can tell you the number of stars, at least with the Earth's, with these I can't, they feel different."
"Hmm. Well one of them has had good sense if I'm not mistaken, there's something shining orange on that small island over there."
Gohan swooped down followed closely by Videl.
Small Island was almost too big a term for what they landed on. Large rock might be a better description. The Dragon Ball was easy enough to spot, it was lying securely in a small hollow.
Just as Gohan was taking it out he felt two Ki's behind him. Both of them certainly above average for the thugs they were fighting here. Quickly he got out the bag he'd brought along and put the ball into it before turning around to face the bad-guys.
"Well well." He said as he saw their two races. "I didn't know there was a Dodoria and Zarbon look a like contest scheduled around here."
"What?" The 'Zarbonian' alien yelled in surprise. "How do you know the names of the most elite warriors ever to spring from our races?"
"That's for me to know and for you to find out." Gohan replied. "Now what are you boys doing here?"
"We came for that Dragon Ball, so hand it over or we'll take it."
"I guess you boys haven't checked your scouters recently. Now I'll make this easy for you and push down my Ki, so you'll just be reading hers." He said indicating Videl.
The Dodoria look alike pushed the button on his scouter.
"This can't be right Zegan, it says 21,000." He said in a shaky voice.
"It must be broken Dakio. I'll check mine." Zegan pushed the button on his scouter as well and looked shocked as it showed the power level. "21,000, But how is that possible?"
"Simple." Videl said, and Gohan thought she sounded rather proud. "I was trained by the best." She gestured towards him.
"But I'm only reading him at 5,000." Dakio said.
"That's because I'm suppressing my Ki, moron." Gohan said. "Here I'll power up a bit."
Slowly he began to let his energy return to normal.
"This can't be right Zegan." Dakio said. "All of sudden he's shooting past 50,000."
"100,000." Followed a few seconds later.
Suddenly the scouters both exploded.
"It was reading 175,000." Dakio said weakly.
"That means you must have improved them a bit over the last 12 or so years." Gohan stated. "They used to blow at 20,000 or there about during fast powerups."
"I though you weren't at that level yet when you were on Namek." Videl said.
"I wasn't, not in the beginning anyway, but Vegeta was, and he told me that when he was fighting Cui, Cui's scouter broke when he hit 21,000."
"You know that repulsive, little monkey?" Zegan asked.
He'd better watch it. Gohan thought. My Saiyan pride may just get the best of me even if I generally don't like to kill.
Videl could sense Gohan getting angry at the use of the word monkey. To be honest she couldn't blame him, if she'd just had her race compared to monkeys she'd be angry too. Even though they did have a point considering the Oozaru transformations, but those were apes, not monkeys.
Oh god, she though feeling Gohan's Ki surge, I think his Saiyan pride is kicking in.
Her thought was soon confirmed as Gohan sent out a normal Ki blast that completely incinerated the aqua-blue guy.
"Never." She heard Gohan say. "Never insult the Saiyans when faced with one."
She looked over to him and then back up at the sky to see mister pink-blob, making a run for it. She didn't find that hard to swallow, she'd be scared to if Gohan attacked like that while she was his enemy.
"You're letting him go?" She asked Gohan.
"Yeah, I don't know if it'll do any good, he'll probably be dead in a little while anyway, but I don't like killing. I only do it when I have to, or when I get angry." He sounded worried, probably thinking about what she might think of him, having just seen him kill.
"It's okay Gohan, I understand." She reassured him, putting a hand on his arm. "Now let's go find the next Dragon Ball."
"Okay, when we have that one we'll go back and leave them with Goten and Trunks, no need to carry the whole lot around with us, especially since these are a lot bigger than the Earth's."
"Yeah I noticed, though I only ever saw the four star ball on Earth."
"Well their all the same size so all you missed was the other 24 stars."
"I don't know how, but I think I'll live." She couldn't help a small giggle from escaping her lips.
"Think that's funny do you?" Gohan questioned. "Well we'll just see who has the last laugh." With that he launched himself at her and started to tickle her before she could get her guard up, sending her into a fit of giggles.
"Well." He said smirking at her as she tried to get herself under control. "It seems you have the last laugh, but not by choice."
"Let's go get that next Dragon Ball." She stated, suppressing the last of her giggles. And deciding to drop the matter. It had lightened the mood again, which was what she had intended to do.
The second Dragon Ball was a lot harder to find then the first. It hadn't had the good sense to end up on an island but was clearly at the bottom of the sea. Finally after getting as close as possible using the radar, Gohan made a dive for it.
Videl watched, feeling slightly nervous as she stood in the air above the water. She kept glancing at her watch. Thirty-seconds... One minute... Two minutes... Five minutes...
She was starting to worry when suddenly Gohan's head appeared, looking rather blue from lack of oxygen, but wearing a triumphant grin non the less, he'd found the Dragon Ball.
She watched as he put it in the bag alongside the other and to her amazement saw both of them glow.
"What's happening Gohan?" She asked.
"Nothing really. They just react to each other when first brought together, it's a way to tell the real Dragon Balls from fake ones, as well as a way to see if you have two of the same set. The Namekian Balls and the Earth's Balls don't react to each other."
"I see. Now, let's head back to the village. It's getting near dinner time and Goten and Trunks may start a revolt if they don't get fed."
"I could use a bite to eat myself. Before we go off looking for the rest of the Dragon Balls."
"A bite?" Videl chuckled. "More like a couple of thousand bites."
"Come on, race you there." He challenged.
"You're on. But you're not allowed to go above my Ki level."
"Deal."
Even with Gohan keeping his Ki down to her level Videl found it difficult to keep up with him. She knew that even with the Ki limit he could probably go even harder if he tried, it was just a matter of routine, both in flying, and in manipulating his Ki.
She continued to pour all of her effort into her flight non-the less. One thing that no one would ever say was that Videl Satan was a quitter. Gohan beat her in the end but only by about one body-length, his not hers though.
"I'm impressed." He said as they landed next to Trunks and Goten who were playing a computer game. "You've really gotten good at this. When we even out our Ki's I don't have much of an advantage over you, it's just a little more experience that helped me win that one."
"You guys had a race?" Trunks asked.
Gohan nodded. "So are you two squirts ready for dinner?" He asked, already knowing what their answer would be.
"You bet." Both boys yelled, jumping up.
"Their true Saiyans alright." Videl said with a smile. "Always ready to eat."
About thirty minutes later the four of them left the Z-48. They decided to eat in there, since they had to get it out for the kitchen and the supplies anyway.
Gohan took out the Radar again and studied the display.
"Hmm." He remarked for the benefit of those around him. "There's one ball to the west of here. I think that may be in the enemies ship. The other's all seem to be staying in place. Which means their probably waiting for us to collect all six others before they make a move."
"Why would they do that?" Videl asked.
"Well from what I can tell we have, almost everyone they have outclassed. That means that fighting us for every ball would cost them all their soldiers. But by just getting one ball, and keeping it, they can let us do all the work, we'll need to get that last ball anyway or they won't be any good to us."
"So how do we go about things now?"
"Simple, do what they want us to do. Go for the remaining three loose balls, and then when we have them go to their ship and get the seventh. It'll all probably end in a showdown between us and whoever their leader is. From what I know of these guys he'll be the strongest warrior they have."
"Okay, I take it the kids are staying here again." Videl said motioning to the two boys who were once again engaged in their computer game.
"Yes. We should have no trouble getting those three Dragon Balls by ourselves. And even if we were to take all the Balls we have with us, somebody would have to stay behind to guard Mori."
"Let's go then."
"Okay." Gohan said taking to the air and shouting down. "Take care guys, we'll be back in a while."
Gohan was right when he predicted no trouble with those last three balls. Videl thought as they returned to the village about an hour after their dinner had ended.
The only thing that had really taken up time was the searching, setting the radar to shorter and shorter distances to zero in on them before looking with your eyes commenced. And now after visiting a snowy mountaintop, a large plain of grass and a swamp they had all three remaining Balls, only one more to go.
"When do we leave for the last ball." She asked as they landed.
"I'd say we go now." Gohan said. "It'll safe us from having to hold watch during the night."
"But if we're going to fight, wouldn't it be better to wait for it to be light in the morning?" Videl wondered.
"It won't be getting dark." Gohan stated pointing to the easterly horizon where a sun was coming up. Videl glanced at it and then back to the west where the sun was about to set.
"How...?"
"Like Namek, New-Namek has three suns." Gohan explained. "There's always one in the sky. The term night is pretty academic around here. It refers to the time that our bio-rhythm wants us to sleep rather than anything else."
"I see." Videl said. Feeling that she should have expected things like this on an alien world. "So what do we do with the Dragon Balls we have?"
"We'll take them with us." Gohan said, looking thoughtful. "There's no real danger, these guys don't know the password and they don't speak Namek. You need both to be able to make a wish."
"Okay. Let's get this over with then." Videl said feeling a little nervous. Somehow actually going to the aliens' ship to fight them seemed quite different from fighting them in chance encounters.
"Goten, Trunks, come on." Gohan yelled, immediately attracting the two younger boys two him as he'd desired.
"You called Gohan?" Trunks asked.
"Yes. We've got six of the Dragon Balls now, but it seems that these aliens, whoever they are, have the seventh. We'll have to go to their ship to get them."
"Can we come big brother? Huh, can we?" Goten asked excitedly while Trunks nodded."
"Sure, I'm not sure if we're going to have to fight, but I have a feeling we will. So we need all the help we can get."
"Okay. Man this is so cool." Trunks said.
"Yeah." Goten said.
"Okay, let's go." Gohan took off, the bag with their six balls over his shoulder, closely followed by the two kids and Videl.
I needn't bother leaving someone to guard the village anymore. He thought to himself. I can be there if I sense any Ki moving in that direction, but from what I can sense they're all waiting at the ship."
His feelings were proven correct not too long afterwards. When they landed in front of the huge space ship. Hordes of alien fighters poured out of it to 'welcome' them.
Videl watched Gohan after they'd landed near the ship, and then turned to face the large group of aliens.
"My." Gohan remarked. "This entire welcoming party for us. Either they're really anxious to see us, or they think we're a threat."
"I think it's the latter." Videl replied in the same casual tone.
"You have defied the heir of the Cold-empire." One of the aliens stated stepping to the front. "For this you will die."
Gohan, Goten and Trunks all blasted into Super-Saiyan while Videl gathered all the Ki she could. Gohan took a small leather bag from one of his pockets and tossed it to Trunks.
"Here's three senzu beans, we may need them later. You look after them for now, I'll go in first."
The little boy nodded and Videl saw Gohan prepare to attack.
The soldiers on the other side had clearly been surprised by the change in their enemies, as well as the fact that it had blown every single scouter they'd had on them. Now however they were preparing to attack as well.
One of them fired a Ki-blast through the beam enhancer on his hand, he'd shot it at Videl, but just as she braced herself to defend against it, Gohan started his attack. He ran into the beam, shielding her from it and charged the man that had fired it, a simple chop left him on the ground. In the crowd Videl couldn't sense if he was dead or just knocked out, but she was guessing it was the first, there was no room for error here.
Gohan continued his charge and Videl couldn't help but marvel at his awesome form. He was like poetry in motion as he twisted and turned to avoid the attacks shot at him, even if they couldn't harm him, and still managed to send out as many attacks in return.
Finally between Gohan's chops, kicks and Ki-blasts only ten or so out of the hundred fighters that had originally greeted them were left standing. Gohan was about to go in for another round when a huge door in the top of the space ship opened and out came a strange looking alien. He had a fin over the front and top of his head and though he'd undoubtedly once been green now looked almost white from terror.
"The heir is coming out to fight him." Was al he said.
It was a short and simple sentence yet Videl could see the other's staring in disbelief. Suddenly she could feel a tremendous Ki, powerful but evil, starting to rise inside the ship, heading for the opening in the top the green alien had just come out of.
A strange black silhouette formed against the sky as the large and powerful warrior made his way out of the ship.
Next to her she heard Gohan, Goten and Trunks gasp, and she knew she must have done the same, they were just seconds away from finally seeing their enemy.
[1] Had to do some checking on this because of my sister who didn't remember Vegeta killing them, or bodies lying around Frieza's ship. I wasn't sure about the bodies myself but thought I could add them anyway. However in my check it turned out that:
A Vegeta does kill everyone left there, which is a fair number of people.
B There are plenty of corpses in the corridors of the ship when Gohan and Krillin are there to take Goku to the Regeneration Tank. And Gohan and Krillin seem more than a little uncomfortable with this.
(I think it's officially called an isolation chamber, but I like the term Regeneration Tank better somehow.)
/*
Who is this mysterious enemy, and how powerful is he. Will our heroes be able to cope with the situation their about to find themselves in? Find out in the next chapter of Life Is Strange.
Another cliffhanger. I'm really starting to like them. Even though I don't like them in other people's stories. I'm just hoping those other people are reading this so this can be my revenge. I'm hoping I'll be able to update again by Friday or Saturday, but can't make any promises. I've become a bit busier with other things that FF.net again, so I'll have to wait and see.
Please review. The more reviews I get the more motivation I'll have to write the next chapter and get you un-cliffhung.
*/
Disclaimer: DBZ isn't mine, Gohan is, well in my dreams he is at any rate.
Anything between /* and */ is just me budding in, so is anything after // up until the next hard return.
For those of you that realised, I'm trying to learn to program in C++ as a hobby, that's the origin of the commentary codes.
*/
/*
General remark. I've decided to take a new approach to some of my notes by moving them collectively to the bottom of the chapter. There will numbered references in the text. Tell me if you like this better than the old system, or would prefer to see that reinstated.
*/
/*
Extra Warning: rather a lot of fighting in this chapter, thought I should let you know in advance.
*/
/*
Response to reviews:
To Pteska:
Thanks sis as requested by B, and you, here's the rest. As for the be afraid, be very afraid, you wish.
To Johnny Rage:
Why did I bring Frieza&co into this? You'll see. In the words of George Armstrong Custer, "Don't worry, I have a plan." Okay, so he said it just before the battle at Little Big Horn, also known as Custer's last stand if I'm not mistaken, but that's beside the point :). It will all become clear in this chapter and the next, mostly the next actually.
To Lady Queen:
No fair, you not telling your little bro who I am, I let you and Pteska know about each other. Just shows who the real evil parties are in the big sister little brother relationship.
I don't have a problem writing technical stuff myself, not much anyway, for example this chapter includes the term 'triaxular magnetic field'. But you should just stick with what you're comfortable writing about.
It isn't really Frieza and King Cold, but you'll have to wait to the next chapter to see exactly who and what it is.
Pulls out megaphone: "Evil little brothers of the world unite against your evil big sisters."
To Frozenflower:
It's not Frieza, but you'll have to wait till the next chapter. I'm afraid there isn't a whole lot of Trunks and Goten, but there is some.
To JessIchi:
Like I said at the end of Chapter 9, Cooler wasn't born in this AU, because I can't fit those movies in with the general story line, so no, it's not Cooler, wait for the next chapter to see who it is.
To kat:
Frieza does/did have a brother, Cooler, who is in some of the movies, but he's not in this fic, or in this AU for that matter.
To Barret9559:
My first e-mailed review, thanks. You really didn't have to go through all the trouble of working out that movie stuff for me, but I appreciate it. It probably won't be too much help for this fic, since I've decided to ignore the movies here, except for the flashbacks to the first movie during the Garlic Junior saga. But it may come in handy in the future. I rarely use the Japanese terms, (at least in this story) but can follow them.
To Everyone:
Thanks, I just love reviews.
*/
Life Is Strange
Saga: The Heir Of The Cold-Empire
Chapter 10: Heir Of The Cold-Empire?
"We have to go check this out." Gohan said, not even waiting for a reply before he took off toward the landing space ship.
"Wait up Gohan." Videl yelled as she shot of after him, with the two little guys hot on her heels.
To her surprise Videl noticed that she was capable of keeping up with the other three. At least now that they were in their normal state, but it was taking nearly all off her energy to do so and she was reasonably sure the others weren't going at it with their full power.
Suddenly a huge roar filled the air as what looked on first glance like five or so meteorites shot down just a few hundred feet in front of them.
The group came to a halt in mid-air and Videl heard Gohan mumble a single word.
"Pods."
When she looked down to the impact craters she saw that the 'meteorites' were indeed small spherical metal space pods.
"What's happening here?" She asked nobody in particular.
"I think we'd all like to know that." Gohan replied. "But for now I think it would be best to head to the Namek Village, because there are more pods coming in all over the place."
Videl looked around and noticed a lot of pods, signalled by the streaks of fire caused by the heat of their entry, coming down, mostly in the direction of the ship, but some seemed to be coming down in other directions as well.
"Okay, let's go."
"Go super okay guys." Gohan said, doing the same himself. "Videl, you grab onto me, this a time for speed."
Videl nodded. She didn't really feel hurt, she knew she couldn't keep up, not yet anyway.
I hope that didn't hurt her feelings. Gohan thought. But time is everything right now. Every single Namek on the planet has been dead once already, so we can't bring them back with Shen Long. That means that if Elder Mori dies our hope dies with him. Because if the keeper dies the Dragon Balls vanish.
He couldn't help but smile a little as Videl put her arms around his neck and he grabbed on to her waist. She didn't know it yet, but she was probably stronger than most of the guys they would face. There was really only one thing that worried him, he couldn't sense anything from the main ship. Only an undefined feeling of great evil.
With Super-Saiyan speed it only took them about two minutes to reach the Namek village, but it was already under attack. As usual the younger Nameks were fighting while the elders and children were hidden inside. Gohan let out a sigh as he sensed Mori's Ki in one of the larger houses, the Dragon Balls were still around.
Gohan didn't waste any time to jump into the battle, nor did any of the other three. There were three main attack groups that were attacking the town. Goten and Trunks, the inseparable duo rushed to the right to face one of them.
Gohan took on the largest group, which was the centre group.
"You take the ones on the left." He told Videl after checking their Ki. "They shouldn't be any problem for you to handle."
None of them are. He thought. She's already near the level of strength Vegeta was on when we first sensed him powering up on Namek. That had been enough for him to take out all but the highest elite fighters in Frieza's army. And these guys are definitely in some way connected to the Cold-empire. All of their equipment is from there and I recognise most of the races.
He shuddered at the memory. Vegeta had massacred the men left aboard Frieza's ship, and it hadn't been a pretty sight when he and Krillin walked through its halls. Corpses were everywhere, in all kinds of poses. But now that memory did at least some good. He could positively identify his enemy. [1]
Gohan didn't give himself any more time to think about it. The Nameks were strong, stronger than they had been the last time he'd met them, but there were alien fighters that were more powerful.
An alien fighter who reminded Gohan of Dodoria fired a Ki-blast at the Namek defenders as Gohan rushed forward. The blast was huge by the standards of the battle up to that point but Gohan positioned himself in front of it and just took it without even flinching.
The move had the desired effect, the Nameks behind him gave of a stunned silence for a while before cheering him on. The assorted aliens in front of him looked both scared and angered.
"Come on, we can take him together." The pink blob yelled, apparently angered by the failure of his attack.
Gohan dropped into a fighting stance. There was no reason not to make this fun by playing a little, his Saiyan battle instincts were taking over and though he would not repeat the mistake he'd made seven years earlier, he was enjoying the thrill of battle.
Trunks and Goten clearly found this an amusing game as well. They'd dropped out of Super-Saiyan mode and were just normally fighting the enemy, doing all sorts of fancy attacks together.
About five enemy fighters rushed forward. Three of them tried to kick his face at the same time, and two aimed punches for his stomach. But Gohan blocked and dodged all of their attacks without effort. When he countered they never knew what hit them, he moved faster than they could see to appear behind them, and deliver a few solid hits, knocking them unconscious.
The others in the group he was facing fled, except for the large pink fighter that reminded him of Dodoria.
I guess he's the strongest fighter in this entire attack. Gohan thought. But with some effort I think Videl could take him, he's certainly weaker than Dodoria was.
"So it's just you and me." Gohan said. "Tell me, why are you here."
"That is not your business." The alien said smugly. "The only thing you need to concern yourself with is your funeral, because I'm going to kill you."
"You really think you can do that?" Gohan asked, amused. "I suggest you check your scouter."
"I'll humour you." The alien replied, punching the scouter button to turn on the device. "Hmm. Wait this can't be right. The triaxular magnetic field we detected on this planet must be meddling with my readings."
"Oh, no it's accurate." Gohan stated. "I'll show you."
Hmm. How am I going to finish this guy? He thought to himself. Well, when on Namek...
He brought to fingers up in front of his head.
"Special Beam Cannon fire." He yelled.
The beams shot out, the second coiling itself around the first. Gohan knew he hadn't really give the cannon time to charge up, but he didn't need to, the difference in power was so large that it didn't matter.
A few seconds later it was all over. Pink boy had taken the impact of the beam and was left dead on the ground.
I really don't like killing. Gohan thought. But this guy didn't really give me any choice he was too powerful to lock up.
Videl felt strangely excited when she rushed into battle. This was the first time she'd get to test her new abilities in a real fight, and also the first time she'd have a Ki fight in which she was stronger than her opponents. Also she felt an adrenaline caused by the knowledge that this was a life and death thing. She was more powerful than her adversaries, but not by so much that she could afford to make too many mistakes. If she did go wrong Gohan would probably appear out of nowhere to save her, but that would certainly leave her pride wounded.
A few Nameks were fighting her target, a group of about half a dozen unknown aliens, none of them looking friendly. She quickly read all of their Ki's and sped forward through the air, diving to shoot a series of normal Ki-blasts at them. Only three of them remained standing after that assault. The others dropped to the ground, dead, or just unconscious, she wasn't sure.
The ones that remained standing shot her a rather surprised look as she landed again in front of the Nameks.
Okay girl. She thought. Stay sharp, these three seem to be a little, if not a lot tougher than the others. How do we take them down? But of course...
She raised her hands, bringing her wrists together so hard there was an audible slap, and forming an X with her arms and hands.
"Super Twister Fire." She yelled, as the Ki charged up in her hands and then shot out.
The situation called for the development of a new variation on her attack. Rather than letting it shoot on as a single narrow beam after the two beams joined, she made it go on as a single widening beam, hitting all three of her enemies with the one shot.
She could feel resistance in the beam from the alien fighters and bit her lip in concentration as she mercilessly forced out her energy to keep up the attack.
About half a minute after she'd started the attack the resistance vanished. She immediately cut of the beam and looked, to her, pleasant, surprise all three remaining aliens were now on the ground. She checked their Ki, two of them were dead and the third was out cold. Of the three that had gone down in the first round none were alive.
She looked over to the rest of the action. Gohan was just standing in mid air, watching the kids with a smile on his face. She joined him, giving him a kiss on the lips before turning her own attention to the action on the ground as well.
About six alien fighters were running around screaming, trying to get away. But whenever they strayed out of a circle that had been marked on the ground, Trunks or Goten would appear to push them back in. One of them was always busy doing this while the other fought the aliens. Though they didn't do this at full power. In fact Videl could sense that they weren't even using her full power, they were just fighting hard enough to match their opponents.
It was really quite funny to watch, these grown tough aliens, running around in fear of two boys who were simply using them as cool interactive toys.
After looking at it for a while Gohan apparently decided that it had been enough.
"Okay guys." He called. "Playtime's over, finish it."
Videl continued to watch fascinated as Trunks flashed over to Goten and whispered something in his ear. Goten nodded with his usual goofy eager grin.
"What's going on there?" She asked Gohan.
"I'm not sure." He replied. "I couldn't really make anything out over the noise. But I think they're going to do some sort of fancy move as a last bit of fun."
Videl looked on and saw the two boys lock arms, Goten facing one way and Trunks facing the other. They stuck out their free arms, forming fists and then started to spin together really fast. Moving like that, as a sort of miniature tornado they moved through out the area, hitting bad-guys with their out stretched fists, driving them closer together until they were pressed against one an other.
Then Trunks went to one side of the group and Goten to the other. Both charging up their Ki.
"Ka...Me...Ha...Me...Ha..." Goten shouted.
"Gallick Gun Fire." Trunks called.
The two Ki-blasts shot out at about the same time, meeting at the group of unfortunate villains who were standing there, half way between the two boys. The blast only lasted for a moment. And when Videl saw the ground again all that remained were some scorch marks, the aliens had been completely incinerated.
As they landed in front of some of the Nameks, Gohan registered the look of surprise on the green warriors' faces.
"Thank you for helping us." One of them said. "But who are you?"
Gohan smiled as he transformed back into normal. He had changed a lot over the years so he wasn't surprised at not being recognised.
"My name is Gohan." He said simply. "I need to speak with Elder Mori as soon as possible."
"THE Gohan." The Namek asked.
"Yes, Dende's friend." Gohan replied. "But much as I'd love to chat, I really must see Mori. I'm not sure what's happening here, but if this battle is any indication these aliens don't have good intentions."
"I will take you to him." The Namek replied. Leading Gohan to the big house where he'd sensed Mori earlier.
The inside of the house reminded Gohan of Guru's house on Namek. The throne Mori was seated on was a lot smaller though. Gohan could sense that like Guru's Mori's throne, and its location, enabled him to know much of what happened on New Namek.
"Ah, welcome Gohan." Mori said, getting up of the throne. "It seems that we meet again in turbulent times."
"We do indeed Mori. Though I had no knowledge of the turbulence when I decided to come here. But that matter will have to wait for the time being. Do you have any idea who we're dealing with here? It's clear to me that these are forces of what used to be the Cold-empire, but why are they here, and who is their leader?"
"I'm not completely sure. But I believe they are here for the Dragon Balls. They must have somehow learned of our continued existence and the existence of the Dragon Balls. I suppose that like Frieza they have their own dark purposes to want to use the Dragon's power."
"And their leader? All I can sense from the flag-ship is great evil, but not a clear Ki reading."
"I'm afraid I don't know either. All I can tell you is that he is powerful, and evil. But then you seem to be a lot more powerful then you were the last time we met as well."
"I guess I am, I'm a Super-Saiyan now. I have been for seven years. But then it was ten years ago that we last met. As for the Dragon Balls, am I right in assuming you have one here?"
"Yes I do."
"Good, that way as long as this place is protected they won't be able to complete the set. Though I'm hoping to collect them myself. I have a wish I need Porunga for."
"What is it, if I might ask?'
"My father died in the Cell-games, I want to bring him back, and our Dragon still can't bring back those who have died before. Also I have a second wish, but that isn't important now. "
"Of course you may use our Dragon Balls. But I'm afraid you'll probably have to face whoever is leading the enemy before you can."
"I think that's almost inevitable. But we'll have to wait and see."
"I suppose so, now why don't we go outside so you can introduce me to the rest of your group."
Videl watched the building Gohan had entered intently from the moment the door closed to the moment it opened again. She was curious as to what was happening in there. From what she could tell this 'Elder' was the leader of the Nameks, how did you approach such a man? From what Gohan had told her the Nameks only had one gender, did you even call him a man?
She was surprised when she saw Gohan come out, apparently just chatting with a somewhat short, and undoubtedly rather old, Namek.
Is that him? She wondered. And is Gohan really just chatting with him like that, shouldn't he be, I don't know, bowing or something? I know I should have bought a 'What to do when you meet the leader of an alien world' info-book.
"So tell me," she heard Gohan say as the two approached, "how's your potting, had any time to work on your swing since you left Earth?"
He's talking golf with an alien in the middle of a crisis??? Videl's mind screamed.
"Well I don't have as much time as I like, but I have managed to keep in practice. We have a great eighteen hole course in the hills not far from here, if it wasn't for this crisis we could play a few rounds."
"I'm not that into golf, and you're probably still the Namek champion, so I think I'll pass."
"Actually I lost my title in last year's tournament, some of the pupils form my golf class have managed to surpass their master."
"My condolences, now let me introduce you, this is my little brother Goten, his best friend, Trunks, and my fiancée Videl. Guys, this is Elder Mori."
"How do you do, it's a pleasure to meet you." Mori stated.
Videl and the kids mumbled something in return.
"I am curious though," Mori continued, "what is a fiancée?"
"Ah you wouldn't know of course." Gohan said. "I keep forgetting you people are asexual and don't have the concept of romantic love, link with me telepathically and I'll tell you."
To Videl's surprise Gohan bend down allowing Mori to place a hand on his head. The two of them closed their eyes for several minutes, standing frozen in place.
"I see." Mori said as they opened their eyes again and resumed their normal posture. "my congratulations to both of you."
"Thank you." Videl mumbled, still a bit surprised at what she'd just seen.
"So what's the plan big brother?" Goten asked.
"We'll have to talk that over. But we'll certainly have to go looking for the Dragon Balls. Mori has the one star ball here, but the others are scattered over the planet."
"Shouldn't we leave some one here in case there are more attacks?" Videl asked.
"That's probably a good idea. Would you kids mind staying here?" Gohan asked, turning to Trunks and Goten.
The two boys turned to each other and started to whisper excitedly.
If I've gotten to know these two, that whispering isn't' the best of signs. Videl thought. But we'll have to see. I do hope you're sure about this Gohan.
'I am sure, trust me.' She could hear Gohan's voice echo in her head.
'Gohan can you hear my thoughts?' She thought/asked.
'Right now yes. I'm a bit telepathically charged from my contact with Mori. It makes it possible for me to hear your thoughts, because I feel close to you. Anyway I've got it under control, they're probably planning something, but I'll make sure they behave.'
'All right if you say so.'
"Okay, we'll do it." Trunks said with a mischievous gleam in his eyes, causing Gohan and Videl to stop their mind conversation.
"Good." Gohan said. "I don't mind if you have a bit of fun while you're here. But don't do anything foolish or I will personally see to it that you don't eat for a while."
Videl noticed the two boys wince at this threat.
"Don't worry, we'll be good." Goten said, still looking horrified at the prospect of what would happen if they weren't.
"Okay," Gohan fished inside his Gi and pulled out a capsule. "there's a computer in this cap, and I transferred the games from the ships computer onto it, you can use it if you get bored. You can also train, but don't hurt each other too much, and don't go Super. If more bad-guys show up do go Super, so Videl and I know we should come."
"But Gohan, these guys aren't anything we can't handle." Trunks interjected.
"True, but if at all possible I want to question one or more of them, and I need to be here to do that. Also, if the guys that are knocked out wake up, work together with the Nameks to keep them locked up somewhere. Though I doubt any of them will wake up within the next couple of days."
The boys nodded.
"Okay, have fun." Gohan finished, tossing the capsule he was holding to Trunks.
Well with that threat hanging over them their behaviour should stay within reason. Gohan thought to himself. It's really a bit much to threaten two little kids with, but with those two only heavy threats have any kind of effect.
With that matter out of the way he jumped into the air, quickly followed by Videl.
"Okay, let's see what the radar has to say." He said, producing said device from one of the pockets inside his Gi. "Okay, there's two Dragon Balls, fairly close together, just a little north of here."
Videl just nodded and like Gohan adjusted her course so they were heading north.
Soon the countryside under them seized and the found themselves above the sea.
"Great." Gohan muttered. "Let's just hope they had the good sense to end up on an island."
"What do you mean?" Videl asked.
"Well, I know this sounds crazy, but while Dragon Balls can float, they can also sink. I still haven't been able to figure out what makes it happen, it just seems to be decided the instant one hits the water. The last time I went to retrieve the four-star ball I had to dive about a hundred feet to get to it.
Not all that difficult for a Saiyan, we can hold our breath longer than Humans can, but it was buried under the remains of a collapsed undersea rock formation. I was blue from lack of breath when I resurfaced."
"I see, but how did you even know that the ball you were diving for was the four star ball? Did the Radar show that?"
"I didn't really know, but I was 99% sure. You see the Radar only shows where there are Dragon Balls, not which ball is where. But it's not impossible to sense Dragon Balls, it's just difficult to locate them like that over long distances, however when you're near you can feel them and they each have a slightly different feeling. So if you blindfold me and hold a Dragon Ball in front of me I can tell you the number of stars, at least with the Earth's, with these I can't, they feel different."
"Hmm. Well one of them has had good sense if I'm not mistaken, there's something shining orange on that small island over there."
Gohan swooped down followed closely by Videl.
Small Island was almost too big a term for what they landed on. Large rock might be a better description. The Dragon Ball was easy enough to spot, it was lying securely in a small hollow.
Just as Gohan was taking it out he felt two Ki's behind him. Both of them certainly above average for the thugs they were fighting here. Quickly he got out the bag he'd brought along and put the ball into it before turning around to face the bad-guys.
"Well well." He said as he saw their two races. "I didn't know there was a Dodoria and Zarbon look a like contest scheduled around here."
"What?" The 'Zarbonian' alien yelled in surprise. "How do you know the names of the most elite warriors ever to spring from our races?"
"That's for me to know and for you to find out." Gohan replied. "Now what are you boys doing here?"
"We came for that Dragon Ball, so hand it over or we'll take it."
"I guess you boys haven't checked your scouters recently. Now I'll make this easy for you and push down my Ki, so you'll just be reading hers." He said indicating Videl.
The Dodoria look alike pushed the button on his scouter.
"This can't be right Zegan, it says 21,000." He said in a shaky voice.
"It must be broken Dakio. I'll check mine." Zegan pushed the button on his scouter as well and looked shocked as it showed the power level. "21,000, But how is that possible?"
"Simple." Videl said, and Gohan thought she sounded rather proud. "I was trained by the best." She gestured towards him.
"But I'm only reading him at 5,000." Dakio said.
"That's because I'm suppressing my Ki, moron." Gohan said. "Here I'll power up a bit."
Slowly he began to let his energy return to normal.
"This can't be right Zegan." Dakio said. "All of sudden he's shooting past 50,000."
"100,000." Followed a few seconds later.
Suddenly the scouters both exploded.
"It was reading 175,000." Dakio said weakly.
"That means you must have improved them a bit over the last 12 or so years." Gohan stated. "They used to blow at 20,000 or there about during fast powerups."
"I though you weren't at that level yet when you were on Namek." Videl said.
"I wasn't, not in the beginning anyway, but Vegeta was, and he told me that when he was fighting Cui, Cui's scouter broke when he hit 21,000."
"You know that repulsive, little monkey?" Zegan asked.
He'd better watch it. Gohan thought. My Saiyan pride may just get the best of me even if I generally don't like to kill.
Videl could sense Gohan getting angry at the use of the word monkey. To be honest she couldn't blame him, if she'd just had her race compared to monkeys she'd be angry too. Even though they did have a point considering the Oozaru transformations, but those were apes, not monkeys.
Oh god, she though feeling Gohan's Ki surge, I think his Saiyan pride is kicking in.
Her thought was soon confirmed as Gohan sent out a normal Ki blast that completely incinerated the aqua-blue guy.
"Never." She heard Gohan say. "Never insult the Saiyans when faced with one."
She looked over to him and then back up at the sky to see mister pink-blob, making a run for it. She didn't find that hard to swallow, she'd be scared to if Gohan attacked like that while she was his enemy.
"You're letting him go?" She asked Gohan.
"Yeah, I don't know if it'll do any good, he'll probably be dead in a little while anyway, but I don't like killing. I only do it when I have to, or when I get angry." He sounded worried, probably thinking about what she might think of him, having just seen him kill.
"It's okay Gohan, I understand." She reassured him, putting a hand on his arm. "Now let's go find the next Dragon Ball."
"Okay, when we have that one we'll go back and leave them with Goten and Trunks, no need to carry the whole lot around with us, especially since these are a lot bigger than the Earth's."
"Yeah I noticed, though I only ever saw the four star ball on Earth."
"Well their all the same size so all you missed was the other 24 stars."
"I don't know how, but I think I'll live." She couldn't help a small giggle from escaping her lips.
"Think that's funny do you?" Gohan questioned. "Well we'll just see who has the last laugh." With that he launched himself at her and started to tickle her before she could get her guard up, sending her into a fit of giggles.
"Well." He said smirking at her as she tried to get herself under control. "It seems you have the last laugh, but not by choice."
"Let's go get that next Dragon Ball." She stated, suppressing the last of her giggles. And deciding to drop the matter. It had lightened the mood again, which was what she had intended to do.
The second Dragon Ball was a lot harder to find then the first. It hadn't had the good sense to end up on an island but was clearly at the bottom of the sea. Finally after getting as close as possible using the radar, Gohan made a dive for it.
Videl watched, feeling slightly nervous as she stood in the air above the water. She kept glancing at her watch. Thirty-seconds... One minute... Two minutes... Five minutes...
She was starting to worry when suddenly Gohan's head appeared, looking rather blue from lack of oxygen, but wearing a triumphant grin non the less, he'd found the Dragon Ball.
She watched as he put it in the bag alongside the other and to her amazement saw both of them glow.
"What's happening Gohan?" She asked.
"Nothing really. They just react to each other when first brought together, it's a way to tell the real Dragon Balls from fake ones, as well as a way to see if you have two of the same set. The Namekian Balls and the Earth's Balls don't react to each other."
"I see. Now, let's head back to the village. It's getting near dinner time and Goten and Trunks may start a revolt if they don't get fed."
"I could use a bite to eat myself. Before we go off looking for the rest of the Dragon Balls."
"A bite?" Videl chuckled. "More like a couple of thousand bites."
"Come on, race you there." He challenged.
"You're on. But you're not allowed to go above my Ki level."
"Deal."
Even with Gohan keeping his Ki down to her level Videl found it difficult to keep up with him. She knew that even with the Ki limit he could probably go even harder if he tried, it was just a matter of routine, both in flying, and in manipulating his Ki.
She continued to pour all of her effort into her flight non-the less. One thing that no one would ever say was that Videl Satan was a quitter. Gohan beat her in the end but only by about one body-length, his not hers though.
"I'm impressed." He said as they landed next to Trunks and Goten who were playing a computer game. "You've really gotten good at this. When we even out our Ki's I don't have much of an advantage over you, it's just a little more experience that helped me win that one."
"You guys had a race?" Trunks asked.
Gohan nodded. "So are you two squirts ready for dinner?" He asked, already knowing what their answer would be.
"You bet." Both boys yelled, jumping up.
"Their true Saiyans alright." Videl said with a smile. "Always ready to eat."
About thirty minutes later the four of them left the Z-48. They decided to eat in there, since they had to get it out for the kitchen and the supplies anyway.
Gohan took out the Radar again and studied the display.
"Hmm." He remarked for the benefit of those around him. "There's one ball to the west of here. I think that may be in the enemies ship. The other's all seem to be staying in place. Which means their probably waiting for us to collect all six others before they make a move."
"Why would they do that?" Videl asked.
"Well from what I can tell we have, almost everyone they have outclassed. That means that fighting us for every ball would cost them all their soldiers. But by just getting one ball, and keeping it, they can let us do all the work, we'll need to get that last ball anyway or they won't be any good to us."
"So how do we go about things now?"
"Simple, do what they want us to do. Go for the remaining three loose balls, and then when we have them go to their ship and get the seventh. It'll all probably end in a showdown between us and whoever their leader is. From what I know of these guys he'll be the strongest warrior they have."
"Okay, I take it the kids are staying here again." Videl said motioning to the two boys who were once again engaged in their computer game.
"Yes. We should have no trouble getting those three Dragon Balls by ourselves. And even if we were to take all the Balls we have with us, somebody would have to stay behind to guard Mori."
"Let's go then."
"Okay." Gohan said taking to the air and shouting down. "Take care guys, we'll be back in a while."
Gohan was right when he predicted no trouble with those last three balls. Videl thought as they returned to the village about an hour after their dinner had ended.
The only thing that had really taken up time was the searching, setting the radar to shorter and shorter distances to zero in on them before looking with your eyes commenced. And now after visiting a snowy mountaintop, a large plain of grass and a swamp they had all three remaining Balls, only one more to go.
"When do we leave for the last ball." She asked as they landed.
"I'd say we go now." Gohan said. "It'll safe us from having to hold watch during the night."
"But if we're going to fight, wouldn't it be better to wait for it to be light in the morning?" Videl wondered.
"It won't be getting dark." Gohan stated pointing to the easterly horizon where a sun was coming up. Videl glanced at it and then back to the west where the sun was about to set.
"How...?"
"Like Namek, New-Namek has three suns." Gohan explained. "There's always one in the sky. The term night is pretty academic around here. It refers to the time that our bio-rhythm wants us to sleep rather than anything else."
"I see." Videl said. Feeling that she should have expected things like this on an alien world. "So what do we do with the Dragon Balls we have?"
"We'll take them with us." Gohan said, looking thoughtful. "There's no real danger, these guys don't know the password and they don't speak Namek. You need both to be able to make a wish."
"Okay. Let's get this over with then." Videl said feeling a little nervous. Somehow actually going to the aliens' ship to fight them seemed quite different from fighting them in chance encounters.
"Goten, Trunks, come on." Gohan yelled, immediately attracting the two younger boys two him as he'd desired.
"You called Gohan?" Trunks asked.
"Yes. We've got six of the Dragon Balls now, but it seems that these aliens, whoever they are, have the seventh. We'll have to go to their ship to get them."
"Can we come big brother? Huh, can we?" Goten asked excitedly while Trunks nodded."
"Sure, I'm not sure if we're going to have to fight, but I have a feeling we will. So we need all the help we can get."
"Okay. Man this is so cool." Trunks said.
"Yeah." Goten said.
"Okay, let's go." Gohan took off, the bag with their six balls over his shoulder, closely followed by the two kids and Videl.
I needn't bother leaving someone to guard the village anymore. He thought to himself. I can be there if I sense any Ki moving in that direction, but from what I can sense they're all waiting at the ship."
His feelings were proven correct not too long afterwards. When they landed in front of the huge space ship. Hordes of alien fighters poured out of it to 'welcome' them.
Videl watched Gohan after they'd landed near the ship, and then turned to face the large group of aliens.
"My." Gohan remarked. "This entire welcoming party for us. Either they're really anxious to see us, or they think we're a threat."
"I think it's the latter." Videl replied in the same casual tone.
"You have defied the heir of the Cold-empire." One of the aliens stated stepping to the front. "For this you will die."
Gohan, Goten and Trunks all blasted into Super-Saiyan while Videl gathered all the Ki she could. Gohan took a small leather bag from one of his pockets and tossed it to Trunks.
"Here's three senzu beans, we may need them later. You look after them for now, I'll go in first."
The little boy nodded and Videl saw Gohan prepare to attack.
The soldiers on the other side had clearly been surprised by the change in their enemies, as well as the fact that it had blown every single scouter they'd had on them. Now however they were preparing to attack as well.
One of them fired a Ki-blast through the beam enhancer on his hand, he'd shot it at Videl, but just as she braced herself to defend against it, Gohan started his attack. He ran into the beam, shielding her from it and charged the man that had fired it, a simple chop left him on the ground. In the crowd Videl couldn't sense if he was dead or just knocked out, but she was guessing it was the first, there was no room for error here.
Gohan continued his charge and Videl couldn't help but marvel at his awesome form. He was like poetry in motion as he twisted and turned to avoid the attacks shot at him, even if they couldn't harm him, and still managed to send out as many attacks in return.
Finally between Gohan's chops, kicks and Ki-blasts only ten or so out of the hundred fighters that had originally greeted them were left standing. Gohan was about to go in for another round when a huge door in the top of the space ship opened and out came a strange looking alien. He had a fin over the front and top of his head and though he'd undoubtedly once been green now looked almost white from terror.
"The heir is coming out to fight him." Was al he said.
It was a short and simple sentence yet Videl could see the other's staring in disbelief. Suddenly she could feel a tremendous Ki, powerful but evil, starting to rise inside the ship, heading for the opening in the top the green alien had just come out of.
A strange black silhouette formed against the sky as the large and powerful warrior made his way out of the ship.
Next to her she heard Gohan, Goten and Trunks gasp, and she knew she must have done the same, they were just seconds away from finally seeing their enemy.
[1] Had to do some checking on this because of my sister who didn't remember Vegeta killing them, or bodies lying around Frieza's ship. I wasn't sure about the bodies myself but thought I could add them anyway. However in my check it turned out that:
A Vegeta does kill everyone left there, which is a fair number of people.
B There are plenty of corpses in the corridors of the ship when Gohan and Krillin are there to take Goku to the Regeneration Tank. And Gohan and Krillin seem more than a little uncomfortable with this.
(I think it's officially called an isolation chamber, but I like the term Regeneration Tank better somehow.)
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Who is this mysterious enemy, and how powerful is he. Will our heroes be able to cope with the situation their about to find themselves in? Find out in the next chapter of Life Is Strange.
Another cliffhanger. I'm really starting to like them. Even though I don't like them in other people's stories. I'm just hoping those other people are reading this so this can be my revenge. I'm hoping I'll be able to update again by Friday or Saturday, but can't make any promises. I've become a bit busier with other things that FF.net again, so I'll have to wait and see.
Please review. The more reviews I get the more motivation I'll have to write the next chapter and get you un-cliffhung.
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