Chapter 2 - Unbridled
Otherspace, The Check-In Station
Vegeta felt groggy.
It felt as if he had been asleep for centuries when he, in fact, had only been dead and waiting in the hilarious excuse of a line. Guessing from the vaguely familiar faces, some of them were the victims he had slain to prove a point, something that now made his stomach turn. Others were obviously dead for a long time, though they lacked a distinctive bodily form his own ectoplasmic mass possessed.
That was, until he entered the Check-In Station.
He felt as if all the lights of the enormous proportioned office became too bright, causing him to raise a gloved hand to shield his eyes.
"A hand?" Vegeta thought with perplexion, looking down at his gloved digits. Raising his other hand, he took a quick appraisal of himself and saw that he had his body. His dark blue muscle shirt and slacks, the white boots with matching gloves, all were on his person.
Looking upwards, he narrowed his eyes at the peripheral glint of the halo that now hovered above his head.
"I have a body," Vegeta said aloud, tasting the words of the declarative fact, as if to make sure it was true.
The enormous sized ogre, however, heard his words enough to respond promptly, "Of course you do. I gave it to you."
Vegeta adjusted his vision at the house sized judge. Sitting on an enormous chair, wearing a business suit complete with a large wooden desk, various office tools to fit his gargantuan digits, and paperwork that seemed to be almost a mile high. Despite the ludicrously designed hat, the Saiyan Prince knew this was the man in charge, more or less.
"What do you want from me?" Vegeta asked pointedly, fixating a piercing glare at the large man, earning a trickle of beading sweat to fall down his red scalp.
Loosening his tie, King Yemma cleared his throat to explain the situation, "Normally I would have judged you and be done with the matter, but I have given you a body to serve a higher cause. Now this is no trifling matter, it is considered one of the highest-"
"Get on with it!" Vegeta snarled, balling his fists tight enough for audible cracks to be made known to the huge ogre.
"That line behind you," King Yemma pointed towards Vegeta's backside, towards the very occupied line of ghostly apparitions, "is the people of Earth along with my regulars from across the Universe. Majin Buu killed them all in his rampage and has yet to stop in his evil doings."
"Buu lives?!" Vegeta's voice hissed aloud, his face contorting into confusion.
"Yes. Why else would I give...you...uh?" King Yemma trailed off, seeing Vegeta's form shift from stoic to unadulterated rage.
"Even after all of that...laying my life down...you still survived? DAMN YOU!" Vegeta howled out loud, releasing a force that dwelled within him that shook the entirety of the Check-In Station.
Like a hurricane, the wind was so great that many ogre assistants were flung off their feet, tumbling in a comical fashion head over heels out various exits of the station's office. Even the large line of appartions of to-be judged souls were pushed back by the mighty wave of excess Ki, creating a domino effect that could be seen for miles upon miles of mingling souls.
"Oh...my," King Yemma uttered lowly, his eyes the size of pins at seeing such a earth-shattering release of pent-up fury.
"Count me in!" Vegeta pointed up at King Yemma, embroiled in a silhouette of azure-white light of his own aura, "I've got a score that needs to be settled!"
Earth, Central Region, Northern Crater
"So...where were we?" Majin Buu inquired with a dark smile, arms folded over his chest, taking pride in his newly fused form. Reveling in his newfound position of clear superiority, he couldn't help but enjoy the fact his opponent no longer held a smug disposition. There was anger and subtle underlying fear in those onyx eyes of his.
And that made the price of the absorption so much worth it.
"You monster!" Gohan shouted out loud, his aura still crackling mightily around his person.
"Come now, no need to be such a flatterer," The Pink Skinned abomination chuckled out sarcastically.
The fight, as it happened twice before, had took a turn for the other in a matter of seconds. An instant of Goku not taking in his surroundings, he had succumbed to the power of the Fused Majin Buu and paid ultimately by becoming fuel for the fire of energy now bristling within his core.
"Father...how could you drop your guard like that?!" Gohan thought with dread and indignation.
"You know, this really is your fault," The Homunculus said with a toothy smile, gesturing to the conical lobe on the side of his head, "had you put on that fancy earring, none of this would have happened."
"AH!" Gohan gasped aloud with frightful realization. There, dangling upon the lower part of what he could assume doubled as an ear, was the Potara Earring that his father was wearing. The fact that the earring was now attached to him meant that fusing with anyone else, if there was anybody, seemed like an impossibility.
"Oh don't worry," The Salmon-hued Demon said in a low tone, beckoning Gohan towards his own left auditory lobe with emphasis, "put it on. I'm sure the Fusion would be most assuredly to my own satisfaction."
"This is bad!" Gohan thought as he backed himself a meter in the air, "it was bad enough to fight someone who had Piccolo's mind and techniques, but now he has dad. I can't imagine what kind of horrors he could conjure if I give him enough time."
"No? Well that's too bad," Buu said with a wave of his hands, letting out a belated sigh exhale from his lips, "I was hoping this would end without resistance. But I'm afraid that a lesson in the subject of pain is on order."
Raising his fists upwards, Gohan prepared his guard, ready for anything that this monster could come up with.
"Hmmm," Buu mulled aloud his thoughts, stroking his chin with consideration. After a handful of seconds went by, he shrugged nonchalantly, "oh, why not?"
"Huh?" Gohan queried aloud, widening his eyes at the sudden lax behavior his opponent possessed. Was his father's temperament and attitude getting to him?
"I'll give you a single minute," Buu raised a hand with an upraised forefinger, smiling widely as he explained in a too-nice tone, "no more than sixty seconds. You may do whatever you please. Piss your pants, pray, run or attack. I don't care which you choose, just make sure you're ready to endure a whole definition of torture when I begin to have my fun!"
"A minute of reprieve? Buu must be confident as Hell if he thinks I can't do anything with that much time," Gohan thought with a slight exhale of relief, closing his eyes to think, "I have one Potara Earring. If he doesn't move I could get that other one...no, he's expecting me to do that. Better play it safe and get some distance between us."
"45 seconds," Majin Buu chirped out, his smile passively remaining as his arms crossed over his chest, "do hurry up. I'd hate to see you waste all of that time I've given you."
"There isn't anyone left on Earth who can help. Even Dende, his power as a healer can only help if Buu gives me an opening like before. I doubt he'll allow me to recieve a Zenkai this time around, not when he's got my dad and Piccolo's sharp mind to rely on," Gohan noted, his brows quivering with growing impatience.
"30 seconds," Buu iterated aloud for Gohan's benefit, as well as his own amusement.
"If only there was something else going for me. If only-wait!" Gohan's eyes opened wide as he felt a familiar bristling power level emerge upon the peripher of his senses.
"15 seconds!" Buu said with welling anticipation, his arms starting to unfurl.
"Is that...Vegeta?!" Gohan's eyes widened with both surprise and joy. If there was one man, despite his abrasive nature, who he could depend on it would be him. From what little he heard from the Supreme Kai, he managed to pull through and help everyone out when no one else could.
"10 seconds!"
"He's somwhere near where I left Dende," Gohan noted with opened eyes, stoically turning towards his left, "unbelievable. He's almost on top of him. Maybe he's honing in on his energy?"
"Five seconds!"
"Got it!" Gohan said aloud with an impassive visage, his body igniting in a flare of white light. In what took but a few seconds, the young man's form split the air in the form of a sonic boom, rocketing into the horizon away from Buu and back where their fight had originated.
Even as the linen adorned upon Buu's figure rustled in sync with his mock ponytail, Buu chuckled aloud, "I could chase you down, but I'm curious what you have in store. Should I follow you in a minute or two? Now that I can't decide..."
"There's the Namekian child," Vegeta spoke aloud, hovering above the mass of wrecked and ashen mass of land that used to be Dead Man's Canyon. His eyes were fixated upon a small green-headed speck, about a kilometer below his hovering soles. "I think I see a few others down there with him."
"This is as far as I go, Vegeta," Fortune Teller Baba said, hovering beside the levitating Saiyan Prince, "may you find victory this day."
"Hmph!" Vegeta grunted as he descended towards the ground, leaving the woman to float back to Other World.
"Certainly no Goku," Baba harumphed herself, just as her tiny visage disappeared into the horizon, "a chip on that one's shoulder, I'll say."
As Vegeta slowly lowered himself downwards, gaining clarity of the culmination of faces that were huddled by crevice in between the strewn boulders, he heard a distant rumbling. A glimmer of white light caught his eyes, and the energy source seemed to be foreign to his senses.
"That's not Buu," Vegeta muttered under his breath, turning to squint his eyes in the direction of the impending arrival of the unknown person, "then who...?"
An instant later, Vegeta had his answer.
Arriving within a skidding halt, Gohan's aura defused in an instant, allowing him to appear just a handful of meters before a flabbergasted Vegeta. As his eyes appraised his appearance, he realized he somehow was sent back from Other World, and was given a body just like his dad's.
"It just might work," Gohan thought as his grim visage receded into one of relief.
"The Hell...Gohan?!" Vegeta swore aloud, his eyes widened and holding a certain amount of disbelief, "didn't you die by Buu's hands?!"
Mentally, Gohan rolled his eyes, remembering that his disappearance and near death encounter with the Majin back when he was a fat blob was overdramatized. Outwardly, he just shrugged and gave a typical smile, "You know me, Vegeta. I'm too stubborn to die."
"Ha!" Vegeta allowed himself to laugh, his startled disposition quickly fading away, his own hardened visage softening a fraction to produce a smirk of knowing, "that's what I like about you, boy. It's something we seem to have in common, despite dying twice now myself."
"Yeah, speaking of that," Gohan said in a much more serious tone, opening his clenched fist, showing a golden spherical and silver chained earring in his hand, "we're going to need to use this."
"Surely you must jest," Vegeta cocked a disbelieving grin, closing his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest.
"They're called Potara Earrings," Gohan explained, his words having a visible impact on the revived Saiyan Prince, "by powerful magic bestowed upon it by Supreme Kai we can merge our two consciousnesses, our power, and our minds into one materialized body. We'll be on a level that Buu could only dream about."
"Now you must really be joking!" Vegeta growled, his eyes opening to glare at Gohan, raising a gloved fist in emphasis before tossing it aside, "nothing personal against you, but I don't intend to join bodies with anything or anyone! I'm here to settle a score against that fat blob, and no one is going to take the honor of killing him from me! Be it you or a fused being in our image!"
"Yeah, about that-" Gohan trailed off, his eyes glancing to his side, suddenly widening with horror at a blurring visage that took shape to his right and Vegeta's left.
There, hanging in the middle of the air four meters away, was the Fused Majin Buu himself. Lowering his fingers from his forehead, he smiled with delight at his own accomplishment, staring at Gohan and the newly arrived Saiyan equally.
"Would you believe me that was my first attempt at using Instant Transmission?" Buu inquired rhetorically at the teeth gritting visage of Gohan, placing his hands on his hips, "it is a surprisingly easy technique to use. I didn't even need to use a paltry sum of my energy. Traveling this way is so much easier than flying under my own power!"
"Instant Transmission?!" Vegeta thought with an upraised brow, looking analytically at the body of Majin Buu. He had radically changed, transformed from a pudgy and laughably appearing tub of lard into an imposingly large demon. The one thing that disturbed him the most was the laidback tone, the obvious mimicry of Kakarot's weighted uniform, and the infamously recognizable technique demonstrated before his eyes.
"You...!" Buu voiced aloud, his eyes widening a fraction before narrowing, a pleased smile stretching across his visage, "I recognize you, you're Vegeta. You're the first one to give me trouble upon my awakening."
"I guess you really are that tub of lard I blew to Hell," Vegeta muttered evenly, his onyx eyes glaring at Buu's red irises, "but that doesn't explain why you are dressed like Kakarot. Where is he, what have you done with him?!"
"Oh?" Buu cocked his head to the side, his smile widening to bare his teeth, eyes briefly turning to Gohan, "he didn't tell you?"
"Stop being coy with me!" Vegeta snarled, balling up a fist to wave demandingly at the gum skinned creature, "where is he?!"
"Buu absorbed him," Gohan said with a grief-stricken visage, his eyes looking down with despair, his own hands balled up with intense regret, "he managed to pull a fast one on both of us."
"He's right!" Buu said with pride, thumbing his chest with his right hand while keeping the other to gesture appropriately, "I have all the memories, power, and techniques of the one you call Son Goku. I know all about your rivalry, the bond with his son, and the fact he was arguably the strongest opponent I've faced. That is, of course, until I fought his son."
Vegeta's eyes widened, his breath escaping in a gasp. Even as his throat clenched with the morbid realization that his archrival was gone, now fuel for Majin Buu's power, gave him a fraction of despair.
After seconds passed by, his disposition settled to one of elated joy, emphasized by a dark chuckle.
"So, you are Majin Buu plus Kakarot? Fine by me," Vegeta growled out, his eyes shifting into emeralds as his body became engulfed in a brief flash of light. When he emerged, his form became a vivid aura of golden tresses and crackling azure currents of bioelectricity, "I'll settle two scores in one blow!"
"Wait!" Gohan reached out towards Vegeta, his eyes wide with alarm, "you're no match for him as you are now, not even me!"
"SHUT UP!" Vegeta snapped back, causing the young man to recoil back, an angry glare sideglancing him before turning back to Buu, "this creature, the wretched excuse of a father he absorbed, have both humiliated and dishonored me! I gave up my life on not one but two lies!"
Gohan's eyes widened, batting a couple of times, unsure what to make of Vegeta's exclamation.
With upraised arms, Vegeta howled aloud as his aura crackled with an intensity that made him appear within the center of a dwarf star, crackling wildly with cobalt bioelectric tendrils, "THE SAIYAN PRINCE WILL NOT FALL AGAIN!"
"Great, Vegeta's too angry to listen to me," Gohan thought as he visibly winced at the proximity of Vegeta's roaring output of power, "guess all I can do is back him up."
With a growl of his own, Gohan forced himself to don his silver and gold aura, giving off a contrastingly complimentary aura that shined just as brilliantly as Vegeta's.
The sight of both powers presented in him caused Buu to chuckle with excitement. Raising both hands up in a goading fashion, the Fused Majin crowed out, "C'mon! I want to see just how far you can push me with the two of you together!"
"I'LL PUSH YOUR ASS INTO OBLIVION, FREAK!" Vegeta shouted out loud, his eyes wide and his jaw agape with livid fury. Without a moment's delay after his retort, his body hurtled forward, leaving Gohan's more cautious form behind.
His body streaked forward like lightning, thrusting out a punch towards Buu's head, missing it by only a few hair widths. Opening his clenched fist, he swung out a energy ball manifesting within a second, it too missing the bending head of the Majin. Before he could throw it back around, he felt a devastating snap kick connect into his solar plexus, causing a string of spittle to exude from an agape mouth.
"You're too slow!" Buu declared with a laugh, throwing his fist towards Vegeta's head. A vicious jerking motion pulling his head back halted the fist bare inches from the wincing Saiyan Prince's visage, causing him to gasp with surprise.
During the moment Vegeta distracted Buu, Gohan got behind him to grapple his head tendril, pulling it back with both arms with as much might he could instill. To his surprise he could only barely crane the monstrosity's head, forcing him to inhumanly stare at him upside down at angle only a Homunculus could perform.
A disturbing smile spread across the demonic entity's face, as if pleased that Gohan got him in such a hold.
"Nice one," He complimented, swinging the very fist he intended for Vegeta to bend around like a wrecking ball to hit Gohan in the side, "try to keep up!"
"AH!" Gohan gasped out, feeling a rippling wave of pain spread across his side, forcing an eye to shut while another widened with expressed agony.
Vegeta, however, had not lie idle to recover.
Practically pouncing forward into Buu's personal space, he thrust out both hands out, generating a silver sphere with azure outlines. Primed with an audible whine that caused Buu's eyes to redirect back towards Vegeta, registering the impending attack as soon as the Super Saiyan 2 shouted out, "BIG BANG ATTACK!"
A forceful head yank forward, Buu chuckled out as his chest seemed to split open, creating an open space for the sphere of deadly energy to pass through harmlessly. The still stunned Gohan, however, had failed to get out of the way.
"GAH!" Gohan's eyes widened with pain as his abdomen was bludgeoned by the volatile energy, hurtling him backwards a dozen meters, as the blast readied to detonate upon his person. With a loud Kiai, the Mystic Saiyan managed to propel it off his chest, proceeding to kick it away into the horizon and allow it to explode harmlessly in the sky.
"You bastard!" Vegeta snarled out, earning Gohan's gaze upon the briefly azure illuminated pair, as the prior began swing his fists at Buu's head with the occasional kick and knee thrust to hit his torso. Much to his dismay and Vegeta's chagrin, all of the attacks were effortlessly absorbed by the flurry of defending forearm to shin guarding motions, creating seismic cracks across the sky.
When a right upwards fist thrust past his left side, Buu swiftly grabbed the wrist with a vice tight grip, pulling him forward to headbutt into his crown. A spurt of blood sprayed from the split forehead of the Super Saiyan, causing him to shut his eyes and let out a grunt of pain, leaving him open to a knee kick into his abdomen and a right hook across his jaw.
Seeing Vegeta's plight, Gohan spurred on to charge Buu from behind once more, unknowing that Buu seemed to spread his smile wider. Feeling his energy rocket towards him, he bent his head to the side to roll it around in a complete circle, causing his head-tail to whip out and catch the charging Mystic Saiyan in the shoulder.
Before his sideways tumble could finish, Majin Buu grabbed Vegeta by the throat. Spinning around he stretched out his left arm around to bludgeon the dazed Saiyan Prince into the Saiyan Hybrid's chest with a mighty crack. With both of them grunting in pain, the devious Dijin twirled his extended limb around their bodies, twisting his hips around to throw them mightily towards the earth below.
A satisfying crash was created, followed by a dragging fissure of upheaved earth and splitting plateaus to collapse from their speeding forms. Grinning with pride, Buu dusted his hands as he said to himself jubilous, "Let's see if they can come back from that."
Vegeta felt his body groan just as much as his throat did. Already sporting a gash that profusely drenched the bridge of his nose and his lips with his own blood, he struggled to get back up from the broken slabs of rock, now devoid of his Super Saiyan mantle.
"Vegeta, are you alright?" Gohan inquired, his own lips sporting a trickle of blood from the impact though didn't look nearly as torn up as the Saiyan Prince.
"Of course I'm not!" Vegeta answered back in a snarl, reaching up to wipe away the blood upon his left glove, wincing as he stood back to his full height, "but not as much as he's going to...ngh!"
As he felt his legs buckle, he felt his left hand brace his fall on the uninviting disheveled rocky earth, bent down on a knee. Heavy breaths exuded from his mouth, causing him to growl with frustration, "Dammit!"
"Vegeta," Gohan said in a level tone, urging him despite the lack of visual confirmation from the stubborn Saiyan, "we can't go on like this. Even at the level I'm at, we're going to lose. With dad's power and techniques, he's going to waste us both a dozen times for every hit we get in on him!"
"So what?!" Vegeta shouted back, raising his rightmost proximate fist at Gohan, his eyes widened once again with unrestrained fury, "I've already died once and it was all on a lie! Your father, the so-called righteous warrior, lied to my face about us being equals! He coddled me and only used a paltry amount of his power! Don't deny it, I could FEEL lit from Other World!"
Gohan recoiled slightly, wincing at the visible hurt in the older warrior's eyes, clearly having lost a great amount of respect for the man he called father. But that quickly vanished as he focused on the severity of the situation, and how Vegeta was threatening to make it worse for them both.
"And what's more, he dares come back and then let's himself get caught in that blob's trap?! Who does he think he is? Answering to a simpleton like that damned Kai. The one who wishes to further my humiliation by donning a fusion that will rid me of my revenge AND my honor-!"
"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP?!" Gohan shouted aloud, his eyes wide with his own fury, enough force to cause the earth around him to indent and shatter. Seeing that Vegeta was silenced in momentary awe of Gohan's power and the release of wrath he was known for, Gohan continued, not restraining the harshness in his voice, "get a grip, Vegeta! This isn't about Pride or Honor! This is about SURVIVAL! Use your head! If we continue at this pace, Buu WILL kill us! He's already annihilated everyone we know and love, even Trunks and Bulma!"
Vegeta lowered his head, gritting his teeth as a wave of recalling of what King Yemma said hit him full force again. He had a feeling his beloved family was among those lingering in the crowd behind him, but he always had a sliver of hope they were gone. Barring the Namekian child and the triclopian fighter, he knew now without a doubt there really WAS no one left.
"Listen," Gohan said in a quieter, stern voice, "I hate it that I can't beat this guy just as much as you do. I wish I could have earlier, but I didn't, and that's that. But now the whole world, our families are depending on us bringing this bastard to justice and getting them their lives back. But I can't do it without you so please, just this once, help me."
Vegeta looked at the ground, drawn into deadpan silence. Any sign of revulsion to the idea seemed to disappear, clearly acknowledging what the situation is and what the stakes were. A long sigh exhaled as clenched fists slacked and eyes closed.
"Alright," Vegeta whispered out, his stoic visage looking up at Gohan with dispassion, curbing any hint of regret in his voice, "I'll do this Fusion with you. But ONLY because it is you, and not your idiotic father."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Gohan smiled, sighing with relief through his nostrils. Looking over his shoulder, he noted that Buu had remained idle in the air, seeming to be in the exact spot where he had hurdled them from, "seems Buu's guard is down. I think we can get the other earring from him this way."
"And how do you propose on doing that? Asking nicely?" Vegeta drawled on sarcastically.
"I'm workin' on that-" Gohan began to say, interrupted by a sudden mental ping.
"Mind if I help with that?" The telepathic voice of Tien chimed within their minds.
"No offense, but I hardly doubt someone of your level could assist us in the slightest," Vegeta quipped harshly.
Ignoring Vegeta's jab, Gohan quickly inquired psychically back, "Do you have something in mind?"
"Just get his attention on you guys for a few seconds. Leave the rest to me," Tien finished with confidence.
"I guess we'll just go along with it. We don't have anything else to lose," Gohan muttered lowly, turning his head to the now standing Vegeta, "think you're up for this?"
"Tch, I'm more than ready!" Vegeta said with a smile, igniting a cobalt-white aura around his body, conserving what energy he had at his disposal.
With a nod exchanged between the two fighters, they both hurtled upwards into the sky, barreling back towards their enemy. A handful of seconds passed, and the two would defuse their auras accordingly, bringing them to a halt in front of the surprisingly patient Buu.
"Took you long enough," The Ultimate Majin quipped with a smirk, cocking his head to the side with a widened grin, "what's the matter? Did you two have a falling out?"
"You're surprisingly patient, Buu," Gohan deflected the question with his own observation, narrowing his eyes at the gum-skinned Dijin, "I thought you'd want us out of the way as quickly as possible. What happened to your sense of urgency?"
"At the level I'm at, I can't see myself being in any danger from any strategy you formulate in your minds," Buu said with a cheeky grin, putting his hands on each hip, haughtily laughing out, "face it, you know you're beat, and I just want to have fun stretching it out as long as I can. Permitting you don't die before I've had my fill."
"You're pretty confident for someone who's about to be in a world of hurt," Vegeta snarled out, holding up balled up fists for emphasis, his eyes projecting a glare of daggers at Buu's crimson orbs.
"Really?" Buu said with an amused tone, crossing his arms over his chest, bending his head forward to spread a toothy grin, "do tell how you of all people is going to introduce me to this fairy tail world of pa-"
An instant later of Buu's talk, he found himself unable to, as a triangular arranged trio of searing beams cut a hole through the side of his head. His eyes bulged out with surprise and bewildered pain, as both sides of his head fell out of the now hollow gummy skull of his.
Darting forward at unrelenting speed, Gohan snatched the earring attached to the conical ear, ripping it off before twisting around to deliver a thunderous kick into Buu's chest.
"KAMEHAMEHA!" Gohan shouted aloud, discharging a kinetically charged beam of cobalt-white energy from the tip of his boot, hurtling the disoriented Majin Buu down into wrecked canyon landscape far away. Before the two wads of pink meat could fall much further, Gohan twisted around and launched a duo of Masenkos from a clenched fist and a open palm, incinerating the separated pieces of flesh before they could be used against them.
"Incredible," Vegeta muttered aloud at what he just saw, looking down in the direction where Tien was.
Hovering partially in the air was the triclopian warrior, his robbed figure levitating stoically, albeit heaving slightly from exertion. His two human eyes remained tightly closed while his third eye remained wide open, emanating a divine glow of pure white light. Veins protruding around his skull indicated the pressure this eye created, slowly reverting to normalcy as both extended hands lowered to his sides.
"Tien's come a long ways, despite his limited power," Gohan said with admonishment, waving back at Tien, earning a thumb's up from his father's rival and dear friend.
"Yes, he did good, now can we get this over with?!" Vegeta said in a hasty, if not grated tone.
"Uh, right!" Gohan nodded, snapping out of his daze to the task at hand.
Quickly, the two of them dropped from the air, landing on the ground apart from each other heavily.
"Here!" Gohan called out to Vegeta, tossing the earring he just liberated while reaching into the fold of his gi top to fish out the other one.
"Got it!" Vegeta said triumphantly, palming the dense piece of jewelry, looking at it questionably, "now what?"
"Put it on your left ear!" Gohan said with haste, already attaching his own to his right ear lobe.
Vegeta began fiddling with the earring, trying to get it to clamp it on, growling with frustration, "Dammit, c'mon!"
A distant explosion of scarlet energy signified their time growing shorter. Both heads turned to see a pink-hued being rush towards them, rapidly gaining distance. The Evil Majin himself, fully healed and having revenge on his mind, was about to launch his counterattack.
"Nice try, but I got you now!" Buu laughed aloud with imminent victory on his mind.
"Hurry up, Vegeta!" Gohan said with widened eyes of alarm, daring not lose sight of the swiftly approaching Homunculus.
"Stupid earring!" Vegeta growled, trying to get it to clasp and have it remain on his ear.
"Vegeta-!"
"I'M WORKING ON IT!" Vegeta barked back, fiddling with it even more.
"Fusion, eh?! I won't allow that!" Majin Buu shouted aloud, charging an orb of crackling scarlet energy in his left hand, his pink-silhouetted form gaining on them with only seconds of room.
"TRI-BEAM..."
"Wha-?!"
"HAAAAAA!" Tien shouted aloud in a declarative tone, his body enveloped by the shine of his own technique, discharging the instantaneous blast of paradoxically shaped energy.
Buu felt himself veer off course, defusing the energy in his palm as he tumbled downwards, narrowly halting a crash onto the ground. As steam rolled off his shoulders, he glared at the triclopian warrior as he landed opposite of him, standing in between the space between him, Vegeta and Gohan.
"Sorry, but I can't allow you to pass," Tien said gravely, holding firm between him and Majin Buu.
A distinct snap was heard by Gohan, causing him to turn around and smile gratefully at Vegeta, "You got it!"
"Of course I did," Vegeta huffed, allowing a slight smirk escape his visage, as the earring attached began to thrum with a cobalt glow, "nice knowing you, kid."
"Honor was mine," Gohan nodded, as his own earring glowed brightly, giving Vegeta a thumbs up, "Vegeta."
As the two beings felt an ominous, gravitational pull tug at them both, causing their heels to skid across the ground the stand-off between Tien and Buu continued.
"I could crush you with my thumb, Tien," Buu said knowingly, using the familiarity of the 3-eyed clansman from Goku and Piccolo's memories.
"You could," Tien said with a grim smile, "but I don't think you will."
Buu crossed his arms, disappearing from view within an instantaneous blur. When he reappeared, his back was but inches behind Tien's, causing the 3-eyed man to flinch with slight trepidation.
"You're right," Majin Buu said lowly, smiling as he now concentrated on the fusion unfolding before his eyes, "you're nothing but cannon fodder. Your demise will come in due time, after I defeat this new fusion with my own two hands."
Tien felt sweat bead down his brow line, even as he walked away from Buu, muttering under his breath as he turned to watch from his own relatively safe location, "Can't wait."
It was then, that it happened.
When the two fusees finally had their torsos collide, a sound similar to thunder followed by brilliant blinding flashes of white and black light followed. The humanoid shapes contorted into a single spherical one, the energy brilliantly thrumming out for all to see, casting an azure silhouette on the two observers.
By the time it receded, a new being stood stoically at the glow's epicenter.
Garbed in a short sleeved, dark blue gi with a black undershirt, the entity stood around a head taller than Vegeta and a head shorter than Gohan. White gloves with matching boots were donned on the appropriate limbs, while a single black sash wrapped around the waist tightly. A dark brown, almost black crop of hair stylized in a widowspeak tilted at an angle backwards, while a single strand of hair hung out near the rightmost brow.
A visage that resembled Gohan's with Vegeta's piercing eyes being the most notable feature, finally cracked a smile. Raising a thumb towards his chin, the newly born fused warrior said with a perfect blend of Gohan's upbeat rhythm and Vegeta's deep grated tone, "Name's Vegehan! A pleasure to meet you, Majin Buu!"
A/N: And done! Wow, didn't think I could pull it off, but as I've said before about inspiration, I had to pull it off XD
With Vegehan emerging, the battle between Fused Beings can finally get underway. But how will these two very different beings face off? Will things go similarly the way they have before, or is there an unknown dramatic twist lying in wait? Find out, on the next chapter of Dragon Ball Zenkai!
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