The terrifying snake deity lunged onward with its jaw wide open, hoping to either swallow the defiant mortal that stood against her whole or to impale her on her marble fangs. Chi-Chi vanished from the way of the deity, moving from harm's way and positioning over the colossal snake deity. The woman took careful aim and dived down with a kick ready to knock the feisty reptilian goddess out but the serpentine body of the deity allowed her to wriggle away from Chi-Chi's kick.
More so, the mortal challenger found herself in a predicament as rings upon rings of the snake deity's massive body found themselves surrounding Chi-Chi. In a blink, they closed in looking to crush Chi-Chi to paste instantly or to smother her to death but the martial artist extended her palms to the side, forming a howling Kiai bubble that shook and rattled the snake, jerking each of its sides to each direction while the Deity of the Snake Way collapsed, hanging on the monument to its own glory – the Snake Way like a dead snake on a tree branch.
Utilizing the moment while her enemy was out cold, Chi-Chi grabbed hold of the snake deity's tail and spun it around, coiling the entire divine being in the air like some supermassive vortex of majestic divine longitude before flinging her away, aiming diagonally down to the lemon clouds that separated the Snake Way from Hell itself.
"You dare!" The Deity of the Snake Way emitted a thunderous hiss as it snapped its body straight and propelled itself through the clouds as if surfing them. "What right does a mere mortal have to smite me down to Hell like some lowly scum!? Me!? The grand and elegant Deity of the Snake Way to whose glory the marvelous Snake Way was built, a monument stretching out through half of the entire microcosmos!"
"It's an eyesore is what it is!" Chi-Chi replied with a strict tone. "And I'm no mere mortal. Annin, the guardian of the Fortune Furnace chose me as her champion herself!"
"So… The sour loser has picked a mortal to do her work for her? It doesn't matter, even if she's given you some of the godly trinkets to play with, you don't have the authority to send anyone down to Hell. Only my husband has that authority!" the booming voice of the Deity of the Snake Way sent rippling shockwaves across the entire Snake Way.
"You've threatened to eat my boy and you've imprisoned my husband! I don't need anybody's permission to deal with you!" Chi-Chi pointed her finger to the Deity of the Snake Way even if she raised a good point. Annin told that Raditz and the Deity of the Snake Way deserved to be sealed inside the Fortune Furnace and roast for their crimes and not be just flung down to Hell. Whatever the reason was, Chi-Chi might have gotten a tad hot-headed about that.
The tail of the snake deity slammed into Chi-Chi's side, throwing her off the Snake Way and forcing the woman to resort to flight and stop herself in mid-air. It was just a diversion meant to soften her up though, due to Chi-Chi's recent feast on the honey of the Immortal Peach tree, she was tougher than that to soften up. The angered martial artist took off in a dash, tackling the Deity of the Snake Way right in the nose and properly throwing her off her game.
Chi-Chi continued to fly around and bash into the deity's snout and her entire rocker. With each successive tackle, the snake grew dizzier and dizzier. Eventually, it stopped even getting close to snapping its jaw right up at Chi-Chi's tail and began seeing stars. Having been given a neat idea, Chi-Chi stopped hitting her enemy and began guiding her in loops, guiding the snake's snout in circles and then through the countless donuts formed out of her own protracted body until she was just a ball of knots that slammed against the Snake Way, struggling to be able to move.
The Earthling martial artist landed beside her subdued, divine enemy and lifted her off the ground with one hand, beginning a slow strut toward the Fortune Furnace where this scheming serpent belonged.
Gohan charged at his uncle, clashing with his forearm against that of Raditz's as he scowled at his conniving relative. Raditz looked overjoyed to have the chance to pummel his own nephew. The pair vanished and clashed in mid-air again a few times before little Gohan managed to find an opening in his uncle's defenses, crashing into him from a mid-distance with a powerful blow from his right hand.
With a stout and balanced stance, in mid-air, Gohan continued to throw his fists in a barrage of blows before elevating himself to gain some altitude over his opponent and slam his elbow into his uncle's cheek and spinning his entire body to deliver a rocking, spinning kick to Raditz's chest. Seeing his uncle stunned and flinching in pain, Gohan extended both his feet and spun in the air like a drill, trying to invest more on the few successes he had at assaulting his uncle's ribcage. The force of Gohan's assault sent Raditz flying off and forced him to assume flight so that he didn't fumble off of the Snake Way as the Princess Snake Castle around them began to fade-in and out.
Just as Raditz recovered, Gohan was right up in his face again, flipping over his front with a crushing kick to his head, a sweep to his legs, and then another stiff kick to the ribs that sent Raditz flying further onto the Snake Way, reeling for balance and wincing in pain.
"Not bad, brat, I guess your old man showed you a few tricks…" Raditz grinned, lifting his hands up as he formed a pair of gleaming, violet Ki blasts and extended his hands out, unleashing both of them at once at his little nephew in the forms of charged up Ki waves. Gohan clenched his fists and let out an emanating battle cry, forming a golden Kiai field around him that just bounced both of Raditz's Double Sunday blasts.
"You're my dad's brother, aren't you? Why can't you just get along as real brothers would?" Gohan yelled out with a scorned and teared up face as despite having gained a slight upper hand so far, the child was still scared out of his mind to fight for real, despite having spent most of his life learning martial arts and training with both his parents. Little Gohan found real life and death fights to be far different from training sessions.
"Hmph, with Kakarot? He's the reason why I'm dead in the first place!" Raditz clenched his fists at his side as if being reminded of that fact made him finally get serious against his nephew and unleash his true strength at once. The Saiyan rushed in at Gohan but was outpaced, Gohan vanished from his uncle's sight and delivered a kick to his back that sent Raditz stumbling forward. The little snapper vanished again and crashed his fist into Raditz's jaw, sending Raditz flying down toward the lemon clouds but the Saiyan vaulted over himself and stopped himself from falling through the clouds and back into Hell.
"There's no way that could be true!" Gohan yelled out, shaking his head in disbelief. "My dad is a nice person, he'd never hurt you unless you were rotten deep down!"
"As if a loser like your father could do me in, brat." Raditz scowled. "Though he is the one to blame. Once I found out that my father had fired off my only brother into space toward some faraway planet all by himself, I felt confused. He wasn't supposed to be sent away that day so I had to catch up to him, it didn't help that working with prince Vegeta was hellish in of itself, being signed off on all the grunt work and constantly mocked by that cocky prick. I'd have rather helped my brother conquer his own planet anyway…"
"And then what happened?" Gohan wondered, having lost most of his fighting spirit.
"I'm… I'm not sure. I felt an intense heat and a white light as my pod was taking off and I woke up as a featureless blob up here, in the Otherworld. That damned boss ogre told me that I deserved Hell just because I followed orders because I killed people since if I wouldn't have – I'd have been the one killed for insubordination!" Raditz clenched his fist. "It was only later that I found out that prince Vegeta blew me up for trying to flee his squad. None of this would have happened if Kakarot didn't take off to Earth!"
"That's not true!" Gohan yelled out. "Dad's not to blame for that, prince Vegeta is the one who killed you, isn't he?"
"Shut up!" Raditz whizzed past Gohan in a blurry rush and slammed his elbow into the back of little Gohan's head, knocking him down on the Snake Way floor. The Saiyan warrior picked his writhing nephew up and pulled him in closer for some more punishment. "What the heck do you even know about those sorts of things? Prince Vegeta did what any commander would have done in his shoes if he saw one of his own squad fleeing, he executed the traitor. Your trash father is the one to blame for being born a weakling so shameful that our father had to get rid of him so that he didn't bother his eyes with his pathetic power level and bring shame to our family!"
This wasn't looking good. Just one strike seemed to suck all of Gohan's vigor out of him entirely. The child clutched at his uncle's wrists and tried to undo his grip but in that slight struggle, he felt the difference in their strengths. Raditz might have been at least twice his strength, that must have been why he took all those blows from Gohan and barely seemed to be reeling at all. He was just fooling around, trying to punish and torment Gohan since he couldn't do the same to his father. What an abominable, evil person!
"Stop!" Gohan roared out, forcing an outburst of Ki from his body that sent Raditz sliding back with a shocked expression.
"His power level just boosted? 1987!?" Raditz scouted the kid's grown strength with surprise. "What's the meaning of this?"
"Stop talking that way about my father!" Gohan roared out as he charged onward with a tackle, slamming right into Raditz's cross-shaped block as the warrior grunted in pain of the grown effort it took to stop Gohan's advances.
"What a devilish brat!" Raditz hissed, whooshing past Gohan's wrathful assault and kicking him to the back, sending the poor kid bouncing off of the bumps in the snake way and leaving him wheezing powerless on the top of it. "I'd better do away with you or else you'll pull a Kakarot on me and power up for no reason whatsoever again! I didn't get on that snake broad's good side for her to sneak me outta Hell just so I could be sent right back down there."
The Saiyan warrior raised his hand up in the air and formed a pink energy sphere, flinging it at his opponent as it crackled with intense electricity. It was a little present from uncle Raditz meant to eradicate his fallen nephew from the face of the Earth and all of existence as being dispatched of in the Otherworld meant certain and irreversible oblivion.
"King Kai Fist!" Gohan roared out, lighting up with an intense, red aura as the child leaped over the Saturday Crash and arced up to the seemingly infinite skies up in the heavens before stopping in his mad ascent for his life. Raditz followed Gohan's evasive action with petrified fear before realizing that his blast careened off by itself right toward the Fortune Furnace.
"N-No!" Raditz extended his hand out, it twitched helplessly as his attack ended up blowing a hole out in the side of the Fortune Furnace. A feat only possible from the outside as inside of the furnace was shielded by some of the most powerful magical barriers known to both mortal and divine beings. The shape of a spiky-haired warrior flipping through alongside a jet of scorching flames and landing onto the Snake Way just in time to catch his falling son in his hands met the shocked gaze of Raditz.
"Are you okay?" Goku looked at his son resting in his hands as the beaming flames of the Fortune Furnace showered Goku's back but to no avail, as the Saiyan had endured a certain hell inside of that furnace already, having lost half of his gi in the process as the few rags that remained would have soon burnt off as well.
"I'm… Sorry… Dad…" Gohan grunted in pain. "I used… King Kai Fist…"
"That's okay, always use it to save your or your mother's life. Or the lives of those dear to you," Goku nodded, turning to extend to his hand and emit a weak Kiai blast and tip the Fortune Furnace so that it no longer showered him with flames emitted through the hole of Raditz's making. Tipped over by Goku's shockwave, the oven flipped over and rolled around, beaming off its leaking hellfire into the skies which gave Goku a chance to put Gohan down and encourage him to retreat back to safety.
Then, Goku turned with a chilling stare aimed at his brother, making Raditz's heart sink down to his heels and his blood to freeze solid in his veins. Paled out in terror, Goku's brother took a few frightened steps back, shaking his palms out in front of him and offering just incoherent babbling and unintelligible excuses. Goku vanished with only a gust of wind left in his wake.
Raditz croaked in pain as the Saiyan's elbow slammed into his jaw, breaking it without much competition as Goku vanished once again, snapping to behind Raditz and kicking him up into the air. The infuriated Saiyan charged in pursuit of his airborne brother, punching him straight in the other side of the jaw before tackling Raditz while he was plummeting in mid-air, slamming into his spine before landing down and catching the broken body of his older brother with his arm raised in the air.
"Goku-sa!" Chi-Chi's voice returned the soft and goofy side of him back to Goku as he dropped the broken and utterly crushed body of his brother beside him.
"Chi-Chi! Whaaa! What are you doing with that!?" Goku leaned back, horrified by his wife's superhuman strength as he was still holding the world-wide wrangled body of the Deity of the Snake Way over her head.
"Is Gohan-chan okay?" Chi-Chi walked past Goku and passed him the body of the snake deity to hold as she approached Gohan and cradled him in her hands, stroking his hair carefully as her son appeared to be exhausted but overall quite alright.
"He used the King Kai Fist. If he hadn't though, Raditz would have blown him to bits," Goku explained.
Chi-Chi put Gohan down, watching if he could still stand by himself. With a bit wobbly and slow step, Gohan could. Grinding her teeth, Chi-Chi scooped up Raditz's limp body and began walking up to the Fortune Furnace.
"Come on, Goku-sa! We've got to drag this whole mess to King Enma. Let him deal with his wife and sort this mess out…" Chi-Chi hissed, seething with anger but knowing better than to delete every trace of her brother-in-law forever and cast his opportunistic lover down to Hell for it. "I'm done with all these gods and ogres! We're going on a trip next time, like a real family, got it!?"
"H-Heh, yeah, I could use a few bites out on the town myself for a couple of days…" Goku rubbed his itchy nose with a goofy giggle. "I'm sure that Gohan could use some of that too."
"Goku!" Krillin yelled out overjoyed when Goku and his family walked out from the God's Temple onto the light and met the gathered crew. Tenshinhan and Yamcha nodded in acknowledgment and gestured an unspoken hello to him too while Chiaotzu floated over to Goku and bumped fists with him too before becoming enthralled with making faces at Gohan since the little Saiyan found it to be quite entertaining. It was of little wonder as the ghoulish face did appear somewhat clown-ish from a certain perspective.
"Yo, guys! We're back!" he announced with a smirk before noticing his father keeping it in the back. After Krillin noticed it, he let go of his best friend and gave the others a stern look after which they all turned and gave the Saiyan way to walk up to his father.
"Yo!" Goku raised his palm up. He wasn't particularly overjoyed to see his father but he wasn't mad at him either. From the looks of it, the Saiyan was just scouting where the two of them stood. Gohan however cowered behind Chi-Chi's lap and understandingly so.
"Hey, sorry I crushed and killed you. I of all people should have understood that you've made your own life down here with these guys that you've come to call your friends," Bardock closed his eyes and apologized in his own, least apology-like-looking way. "I'll understand if you don't want to see me anymore but I might need your help soon. If it's okay with you, I'd like you to help me rescue your mother too. Earth seems like a nice planet and I was hoping that we could make something here, away from Frieza, Vegeta, and his loudmouth pipsqueak and all that other bullshit."
"Okay," Goku nodded his head, still looking somewhat neutral with only a slight tip of his lips upward.
"Okay," Bardock nodded his head and looked away.
"I can't sense Piccolo or Chayote. Did they get killed or something?" Goku turned to the rest of the crew wondering.
"Umm… No, I think they left off-world. Mr. Popo once mentioned they might have gone to Planet Namek to leave Piccolo there. I think Piccolo asked Chayote to bring him to the home of his ancestors. I say good riddance…" Bulma explained. It was only then that Goku noticed the auburn-haired scientist assistant standing beside his lifelong friend.
"Hmmm… Who's that?" Goku wondered, pointing at the curly-haired woman who appeared to stare at Goku with a rather passive-aggressive look and a pout to her red lips.
"Oh? You haven't met her? She's Dr. Puri, she's Bulma's assistant. She helped us out during a little pickle with Dr. Wheelo and his bio-warriors and she ended up just kinda getting caught up in this whole thing…" Krillin rubbed the back of his head, laughing it off.
"Yo, I'm Goku!" Goku greeted his new acquaintance who just beamed a spiteful glare at him, as hateful as she could get away with without seeming outright rude.
"I know…" she muttered. "My drones have seen you a few times," she rushed to explain her statement when the rest of the Dragon Team looked at her acting confused.
"Hmm? What have you done to upset this woman, Goku-sa?" Chi-Chi pressed her knuckles to her waist while she loomed over her husband, terrifying him.
"Whaaa? I've only met her for the first time right now, Chi-Chi, I swear!" Goku waved his arms around getting worked up in explaining himself. Everyone just laughed it off, even Dr. Puri let out a slight giggle to ease some of the tension she accidentally allowed to build up.
"Anyway, we better wait until Chayote returns before leaving for Planet Vegeta, right?" Muten Roshi looked up to Goku who dropped the goofy look and got serious for a second, nodding in agreement with his martial arts master.
"Yeah, if we go there to rescue my mom, we better go there as strong and prepared as possible," Goku agreed.
"Remember what you promised Goku-sa, no training, we're letting Gohan live a normal life for a little bit!" Chi-Chi yanked Goku's ear forcing the Saiyan to shriek out in pain as his wife's newly acquired, divine strength seemed to even reach his immense, peak of power when she wanted it to.
"Right, right… I meant it, my own body could use a couple of days off too after King Kai's training…" Goku shrieked out in pain while everyone else erupted into laughter again. Only Tenshinhan looked somewhat stumped by how much control Chi-Chi had over the man he once considered an insurmountable wall and a mighty rival while Yamcha rubbed his cheek, seeing a lot of his own past relationship with Bulma in this display of violence.