Disclaimer, in case it wasn't obvious. I don't own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, or really any other property. Thank you.
The Long Road
Chapter 53: Beyond Ascension
Paragus: Hell
Even now all he could do was stare at it. He could just stare at the swirling hole his son had been dropped into what seemed to be an eternity ago. A prison he expected his son, the mightiest warrior in history, to simply cast off. But instead, it was just sitting there, blackened energy swirling from its very core. The twisting nightmare of distorted reality, edged with the screams of Hell's most diabolical creations, just exited, as if in a void. It'd all happened so abruptly. He could still see his Broly, defeated in three hits, before the two warriors plunged into the bowls of Hell itself.
He could almost feel his son inside of that mass, clawing and ripping at it to get out. It made it all the more painful for him as he realized that he couldn't. For all of his son's prowess, even as they rampaged across existence seemingly, defying the Gods and their pitiful rules, he was trapped within this storm leading to the next level of despair. Hearing the shriek of the souls within the storm, all the older Saiyan warrior could do was sneer. He sneered at the memory of everything that happened, just as much as he sneered at the pitiful beings of this world which worked to undermine and stop his inevitable rule of the afterlife.
The other Saiyans, Ogres, Bojack, Cell, Babidi and his minion, Frieza and his father, and all of the blasted heavenly warriors. They all stood their ground against the onslaught, and they all fell like dead birds out of the sky. None of them could hope to match his fury or his power, especially with them reunited. When he saw his son for the first time, when he saw what he truly was, the monster he'd turned into, Paragus only felt pride. When his son embraced him by destroying the first of his enemies without questioning his command, it was even more gratifying.
The only one who caused them any problems was his former cohort, Turles. A Saiyan with a power level barely at 30,000 when they last met, transformed into the same golden form his son possessed. The disdain Broly showed towards him was immediate, and he dispatched him dozens of times. Every time they came across him, his ruin was left to the wastelands only once Broly grew tired of brutalizing him.
With his son's might behind him, it was as if he was the King of Hell itself. All learned to bow before them before they even arrived, before they annihilated whatever insignificant fools they were.
"Broly," Paragus whispered aloud, staring into the vortex which so cruelly stole his son from him, and his power from his use. "How did that insect do this to you?"
Inside the massive, gaping hole in the floor of Hell itself, as Paragus stared into it, he could almost see it all unfolding again in front of him. He could see the confrontation as if he had just stepped back in time, into place. The look of pure joy on Broly's face when Turles appeared at the edge of the local cliff face was delicious.
The only problem was, there was an air of confidence about the other Saiyan which Paragus had never seen in their prior "battles". From the second he saw him, he knew there was something different about him, about the whole situation. He didn't like it from the second it started. And it didn't take long to turn this realm truly into a nightmare for him.
Looking into the void, Paragus stared towards it, hoping it would somehow stare back.
Revenge.
The word whispered through his mind, almost as if Broly had whispered it himself.
Yes. Yes he would need his revenge.
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Brass: The Multiverse
Being the strongest, that was all that really mattered. Even with the thin facade that they all cloaked themselves in, pretending as if things besides power mattered, truthfully strength was the only thing in the universe... in any universe... that held weight. Every world they visited was hardly a haven for the weak. If someone was weak, they lived only by virtue that the strong found use for them, or showed pity on them.
Every day for them was living on the razor's edge in some way. Every moment he was alive, every moment Brass lived, he was at the mercy of someone. At first, he was at the mercy of the Triumvirate in his own world. Raditz, Turles, and Vegeta dominated the universe, and he was born to a woman with no real choices in her life. A trophy held by his father and little else, she was weak, and being weak meant she could never amount to anything. Whose fault was it that she was weak? It was her own fault. She never gave herself the opportunity to be strong.
The strongest being knew was his father. The leader of the three pure Saiyans was a mountain in power. Even when they left their old world behind, he knew his father's power was something he could only imagine catching up to without changing the rules of the game.
"Sometimes, there is more to fighting than raw power, Brass," he could hear the first real trainer he had say. "My dad taught me that being a great warrior sometimes means fighting against the odds, even if you aren't the strongest."
It was always a bitter pill to take. He learned his own lessons from his half-brother in his death. He remembered watching from afar as Gohan finally achieved the power to 'confront' Turles, only to find out how much of a gulf existed. In all his training, with Gohan, Raditz, and Turles, he never saw something quite as amazing as the power of a thousand dead worlds, as his father always put it. Gohan had miscalculated, and never backed down. He watched his brother die in front of him, struggling to breath after Turles shattered his ribcage.
So, fighting against the odds just means you get killed, Gohan. Just like you got killed here.
Staring down at the corpse of this world's Son Gohan, Brass felt himself cross his arms as he stared down at the body. He'd not killed him, thankfully. It'd been Taro who'd taken this kill. He didn't mind killing just about anyone. Hell, on worlds where he'd purged planets with his uncle Raditz, or Vegeta, or Turles, he enjoyed purging anyone weaker than himself. But killing Gohan was something he always hated when he had to do it. Even if his half-brother had been a fool, just as his father Kakarot had been, he'd been the only true brother he ever knew. The other Saiyan had tried to look out for him, his only sin was trying to impart his weak philosophy on him, and he'd even in a strange way, repented for that as well. When Gohan died in front of him, he'd shown him the flaw of his beliefs. He'd shown him the flaw of being warmhearted, and weak in general.
When a wisp of hot air swept past him, the Saiyan's features remained stagnate for a moment, even though he knew the first of his comrades had returned. The last of the powerful on this Earth had been dispatched, and there were exactly any interesting intergalactic foes in this particular universe. He'd personally just finished killing Son Goku, the most powerful of this planet's warriors, about an hour ago. He'd finished killing his prey first, and now Junia was falling in line.
Turning his head to look over, he saw the Saiyan woman standing there, looking as severe as usual. Blood soaked into her left glove, likely from having just killed Vegeta. It was a hatred he never understood himself. Brass never hated Turles, Raditz, or Vegeta. All he ever wanted was a chance to overtake them in power, in the hopes that he could transcend their rule. It wasn't even about taking their spots as being rulers of the universe. Why would you want to rule the universe? What would you gain out of it? The real reason to be powerful was to challenge the nature of the world.
If you were the strongest being alive, you would never have to bend to the will of another. Years ago now, Taro had promised him that they could become the strongest beings alive, by moving from world to world and fighting the most powerful beings they could find. The first time they jumped through reality itself, yielded his own battle against Frieza. It was to this day, the greatest fight he had ever participated in. Blood, sweat, and mud best described the battle. When he'd finally managed to pull himself above Frieza after almost an hour of battle, the end was gruesome and well earned.
"I made it quick," Junia remarked, referencing the dead teenager in front of him, before going quiet.
Well, there was no mystery as to who killed Gohan in this world.
Of course you did, the only person you take your time killing is Vegeta.
Still, he never got her hatred of her father. Even when they were growing up, fighting across the universe together on multiple campaigns, he could see the disdain settle in more and more as she got older. It was curious, given that Vegeta had always been a figure who Brass had admired more than anything. Her father was the only man in the universe to be strong enough to command Turles's attention, to be more of a partner in rule, rather than a servant like his much weaker uncle Raditz. It was admirable that he'd become as strong as he had.
The fact that he'd promised him Junia herself? Well, that was an honour. He was to marry the daughter of the Prince of all Saiyans. There were political reasons behind it of course, no agreement happened between Vegeta and Turles without some kind of agreement or game behind it. But, Vegeta should have declared Taro to be the son he wanted Junia sent off to, the fact that he chose him showed Brass that he'd earned Vegeta's respect, unlike his half-brother Taro. Junia had been one of the only creatures he dared to think of as a friend before the arrangement, so as far as he was concerned she was the only woman acceptable to him anyway.
And now here they were, as usual, barely saying a word, all because her father had ordered her to marry him. She was immensely powerful now, though she was most certainly the least among the three of them, and that only built on the resentment he detected from her. Not that it mattered, he considered the contract between their father's valid, after this was all over, after he became the most powerful being in all of existence, after he returned to their time and killed their fathers, she was going to be his wife. Because the strong had say over the weak. Even if the weak were immensely powerful themselves, it never mattered, because there was someone stronger.
"You're not going to catch up to him now, you know," Junia remarked after a moment. "Taro, I mean."
The comment was deliberate, and of course he knew the intent was to insult him. The same disdain which Junia held for her father was beginning to slither over to him, if only because she was inherently defiant to her father's authority. So they're friends for years, and now that she'd been promised to him, she despises him? Ridiculous. They'd even fucked before the official arrangement was made, and hardly just once. It was alright so long as her father didn't approve, but now that he did, she despised him as well.
But her remark regarding Taro held... some merit. It all started to change when he confronted that Purple haired child in a world they assaulted years ago. The boy named Trunks, Vegeta's son in absence of Turles's defeat of Frieza. The strange fixation he had towards the man was disturbing. Yet more disturbing was the fact he started to call Junia sister after the fact. For months now, he was feeling the increased need to be near where ever Junia was, for fear that Taro may finally have completely lost his mind.
Junia and Taro weren't siblings, and he was increasingly not sane. The fact that he was using that strange technique, tearing away pieces of Trunks' ki was distressing. The fact he got stranger and stranger every time he killed one, 'drinking' their soul, as he put it, made it seem all the more depraved. He took on the guy's sword at one point. It was like an addiction, a lust, and Brass didn't understand it. Certainly he knew Taro well enough, they'd known one another most of their childhood's, but this wasn't reflective of the Taro he knew.
Taro had been always their father's patient servant, plotting from the side-lines to achieve his own greatness under Turles's nose. Even the quest they were on, was generated by Taro's greed. It was his plan to leave their own universe, and begin poaching through others at different points in time, to find greater and greater enemies to kill. That seemed like a great plan.
What did not seem like a great plan was hunting down Trunks after Trunks... and doing what? Drinking them? Certainly he was getting stronger and stronger with each victim, and terrifyingly so... but he was obviously losing his mind. Brass didn't even know the technique he was using, which meant if he wanted to emulate him, he couldn't.
All he knew, was that after hundreds of Trunks, both Junia and Brass expected Taro to fly out of control, and soon.
And when he does, I need to not be there. I'm sorry Brother... but your madness will end, and so will your quest, long before you find a way to become 'whole'.
The fact he referring to eating bits of their bodies, and their ki and memory, as making himself 'whole', was upsetting enough.
"I know," Bass finally responded, looking into the shattered ruins around them as he contemplated his brother. "But I will surpass his power after he dies."
Junia stared back at him, a rare glance of concern written across her face. It was enough to make him smirk as soon as it fleetingly appeared and then vanished.
"Dangerous talk," she responded. "Because if Taro hears you talking about his death anytime soon, that could lead to quite a quick demise for you, or me."
With an annoyed and reluctant nod, Brass understood. Because it wasn't just him that would die, if Taro discovered he was speaking openly about his inevitable death. A death which Brass knew Taro openly rejected as impossible. Not just a death caused by madness, or his body exploding from having so many other 'Trunks' trapped within himself, but any kind of death. Taro was not immortal, but seemed to increasingly claim he had more 'life'... from drinking his 'lost pieces'. Whatever it all meant.
He's fucking lost it. The second we met that kid he lost his mind. And now we're stuck with him. Fuck.
"Talking about my demise, dear brother and sister? I am hurt."
It was enough to make his nerves tremble for a second upon hearing his voice.
Across from him, Junia openly stiffened herself, so he knew he wasn't just hearing things. Swallowing, he felt a shiver go down his back. He wasn't nearly strong enough to fight Taro, the only one he knew was more powerful than his brother now, would be the father they left behind in his own universe.
"Everyone dies, Taro," Brass finally responded, turning his head slowly. "And so will you. Think about what you're doing. Think about-"
Before he could say another word, a hand locked around his throat, hoisting him into the air as Junia stood to the side, unmoving. She was abandoning him to his fate, and he didn't blame his betrothed for a moment. Even together, he doubted they had any odds to stop Taro as he currently was.
Grabbing his brother's wrist, Brass immediately remembered a time when he could overpower Taro, and without much effort. Even as a spark of golden energy wrapped around his form, he felt the hand remain almost unbending.
Staring down into his brother's blue... unchanged eyes, Brass choked desperately for air as he tried to break free, blasting ki from his body as he kicked his legs out. Inside those eyes, he could almost see an army of... Trunks screaming to get out. What was standing in front of him, was more a prison of misery constructed around one man.
There were no words however, before his brother just smiled back at him, letting go. When he fell from his grip, it was like death had just released him from its embrace. Gasping for air, the golden haired Saiyan hit the ground gasping for life.
"I don't expect anymore problems, Brass," Taro remarked bluntly. "I started us on this journey. I will find what I am looking for. If you want power like you claim, you can grab for it yourselves. You can always remain in the wake of my wave through the fabric of existence."
Walking ahead, he dumped out the capsule that contained their ship. Before them, a vessel appeared, as bleak as the world which they derived from.
Seeing his brother standing there, his back facing towards him, towering over him like a god... towering over him as their father towered over both of them, not so long ago, leading Brass to breath in. His obsession had given him this power, even if it was dangerous to everyone. So far he'd relied on the strength of his own arm, just as Gohan and Raditz had taught him. But Gohan was dead, relying on the strength of that arm. His father dominated an entire universe because of the power he obtained by stealing it from others.
And now, Taro was rising like a great tide, drinking the lives of hundreds of these missing 'pieces' of himself, leaving both he and Junia behind. The strength of his own arm, wasn't enough, which was painful to admit. No matter what he could achieve, he would always be left behind by Taro and his theft. It meant he could never become the most powerful being in existence himself... on his own. Like his father and brother before him, he would have to cut corners and steal what he needed.
Because strength, strength was the only thing that mattered. No matter how nice it would be to believe otherwise, power was the only thing that determined how free you were. It was something Taro understood, as well as Junia. If catching up to Taro meant finding a way to devour other fighters... then he would start doing what was needed.
"Are you coming, brother and sister?" Taro's voice broke the silence. "We need to make the next jump... I need to find the piece of me that slipped away."
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Gohan:
It'd been days and he still didn't understand what Turles was trying to explain to him. The world burned around them every so often, consuming them in the fire and disrupting the "training". But he wasn't even sure what this training was. They weren't rushing around and throwing punches, or meditating like Piccolo. Instead, they were just walking through this nightmare of a place, and it was frustrating. What was he learning as they slowly moved over this blasted Hellscape?
"What am I even learning?" he finally asked, sounding annoyed as Turles began to slowly rise into the air to move over the next, massive fissure in the ground beneath them.
"Patience."
Oh come on.
As if that was something Turles ever learned, and as if he hadn't learned patience back on Earth. He was beginning to think all of this talk from Turles and Bardock had been nothing but something to run him around the fucking bend. Turles hadn't even told him what the Hell he was going to learn, all he told him was that it was just something 'beyond' ascension. Was that what he'd felt when he first arrived in Hell? Was that the barrier that held him in place when he felt his power almost overflow? Was he talking about getting past that barrier?
"Where are we going anyway?"
For a long moment, Turles paused as they were elevated to the highest ridge in the crisscross of barren wastes.
"We're going to where I found it myself," he said after a few seconds. "It's hard to explain how to find what I did. It's more than just power, or ascension. It's a way of... There."
Pointing into the distance, the man who raised him pointed towards a piece of scorched rock. It was different than everything else across this place. The normally grey dirt, was seemingly scarred by power. Even as they slowly approached it, Gohan recognized the ground itself seemed... touched by something made of raw power. Even when his own feet touched it, beneath his shoes, he could still sense it was different. It was as if all the energy had been sucked out of it. It cracked like glass even, as soon as he put any pressure on it. On Earth, this wouldn't have been all that difficult to accomplish, but beyond breaking the surface of the ground here, there usually wasn't much lasting effect left behind after an attack.
Slowly, the younger Saiyan began circling the blemish on the surface of Hell, before looking up towards Turles. He did that somehow, didn't he? It was the technique he was talking about. Whatever this thing was that let you increase your power to incredible new heights. It was enough to let Turles, someone weaker than himself, scorch the surface of Hell, seemingly permanently. This burn mark had even survived the firestorms which rolled past the wastes itself. Whatever could do this, even in his short time in this realm, had to be something beyond his own imagining.
Even now, his own power struggled to rival what Broly had been even at the zenith of his own power, and he very much doubted that this was what Broly had left behind.
"You did this," Gohan finally remarked, looking up towards his father.
There was an immediate grin on Turles's part, the same kind he possessed when he knew he had him beat when they trained before. But it just didn't seem possible that his power could increase that dramatically. How? What kind of barrier was he even talking about?
"I did. I wanted to come here to remind myself how I found it. It'd been years in this nightmare that you cast me into, Gohan. Years I travelled these wastes, only to find nothing but a recurring death. I feel nothing but a constant, nagging hunger for food, but with no food in sight. I see women, Saiyan women, and I can't fuck them. All I can do is fight, and all I can do is die. And now you are the same way," Turles commented, unable to hide his bitterness as he stepped into the middle of the blackened Hell he'd formed.
In turn, Gohan just remained quiet, feeling the air almost grow cold around them as Turles continued to speak.
"I stood right here, after that beast Broly and his pathetic father had me torn limb from limb again. They moved on to their next prey when I was left behind. Years of this place wares at the mind. I remembered how in the battle, no matter how much power I massed, I always hit a barrier. I always fell short of where I needed to be. Standing here, just as the flames threatened to overtake me again as another storm rose up, I reached out for that barrier and I grasped at it to see what it really was."
It was abstract, but these things needed to be. The barrier he was talking about was the same one he'd met in his own ascended form.
"The barrier is more than just a wall which the power of a Super Saiyan passes over. It's the failure of our race. It's the failures I experienced throughout my life. There was no way to force my way past it. I let the flames fall over me as I raged, hoping my body and mind would somehow peak past the barrier I always felt when my power reached its heights, just as it did the first time I became a Super Saiyan, and when I ascended beyond that," Turles said, his eyes staring into the distance, almost as if they were in a trance. "But it didn't work. Even when the storm came over me, burning me away from this nightmare, it didn't work."
"Why?" Gohan finally asked. "If there is a barrier, it has to be able to be broken."
"Ignorant," Turles responded in turn, turning to give him an annoyed glance. "Once you realize this barrier is there, all you want to do is claw at it, and throw everything at it until you break through it."
"I lived to be the strongest being in the universe, I lived to rule it all. It was my purpose for existing, nothing else mattered. No matter what I needed to do, kill or steal, I would take what I needed for more strength. I used my hatred for my fate to fuel my will to break past the limit, but every time I tried... it just... melted away. For all my rage, I could never achieve it. Even my bitterness at being unable to increase the power of my base form wasn't enough. I would be trapped in this nightmare, and worst of all, be nothing but an abuse sponge within it for some old fool and his pet."
With every word, the bitterness which he mentioned only grew in his tone, before he flexed his arms out, letting a Super Saiyan aura overtake him. Hair peaked up into the air as golden energy washed over it. Seconds later the hair spiked further, and lightning shot from his form. Turning around, Turles stared directly into his eyes.
It was immediately recognizable of course. He was ascended, and just as powerful as the day they fought on the Earth. Even now the blackened glass beneath him just trembled, but hardly flinched at what he was.
It brought back a rush of moments to Gohan's mind. A battle across a broken city. The flash where his right arm was blasted away. And the final moments of their Cataclysmic Duel.
"You're making it sound like you failed," Gohan commented, crossing his arms as he critically looked over the story he was being told. "You always told me not to drone on. What was the secret?"
Staring back at him, Turles stood his opposite, golden energy trailing around his frame.
"What do you see?" the elder asked, lightning streaking across his eyes for a brief second.
What the Hell kind of question was that? What did he see? He saw a Super Saiyan, an ascended one? He saw the man who raised him? He saw power? He saw the vanquished? What kind of answer was that?
"I don't get it, don't be vague."
An annoyed scowl immediately crossed the other Saiyan's face however, matching Gohan's own.
"You know full well that I don't mean that. When you see this form, when you sense it, what do you see? What do you notice? I can't be the only one who sensed it, looking in my own reflection."
Looking past the appearance, Gohan saw the same ethereal glow they all did within the energy of another. He could sense Turles's darkened ki, he could almost feel it vibrating around him. It was no different than before. It was no different than his father's, or Vegeta's in terms of how it was flowing through his body. What was he missing? Tactically, he could almost sense how the energy flowed through his frame. Thousands of barriers were unlocked to allow his energy to move this way, and an Ascended Super Saiyan was already among the most powerful beings in existence.
"I don't see it," Gohan finally said. "I don't notice any difference."
"There is no difference," Turles snapped, clearly annoyed. "Stop looking at the power. Look past it and you'll-"
"You..." a voice came from above, almost rasping.
That voice was familiar. It was distant, but it was a memory Gohan could trail back far enough. Looking upward, he could sense the dismal energy of the creature in question only seconds later. Breathing in, before exhaling, Gohan glared as he was greeted with someone more than deserving to be here. The taste in his own mouth suddenly became vile as the Saiyan struggled to stop himself from immediately launching into the creature in view. The only creature he knew he could hate with the same ferocity he always had, was right there.
Paragus.
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Babidi:
The more I must suffer the presence of all these meat headed idiots, the more I can feel my afterlife draining away from me. I'd almost prefer the unending torment and boredom to these insufferable miscreants.
A gust of hot air blew past the tiny sorcerer as his gaze slowly moved around him, peering at his servant Dabura, to Garlic, to Bojack and his group of fools. Each one of them had a weaknesses. One which they all shared in common however, was that they all lacked his genius intellect. All of them would find themselves manipulated into doing his bidding beyond just crushing the son of Goku, and all of them would find themselves as pawns in his game, even if that game was now being played from Hell itself. Just because he was trapped here, didn't mean his revenge wasn't possible outside of this realm.
The whole of the universe would need to suffer for his fate. And the simple way to ensure that was to find a way, even while trapped here, to release Majin Buu. Unguided, the perfect monster, created by his father, would unleash itself on the whole of creation. Nothing would be spared, and once it was all destroyed, he would rise above everything else inside this nightmarish reality, and become a new God of creation.
There were of course, still finer details to pick out, for instance, how to free Buu. Or how to escape Hell and then become a God far greater than any Kai. But these weren't the real obstacles. It was all about tactics. Son Gohan would most definitely be a spoiler for any plot where he was achieving what he wanted. If anyone wasn't going to fit here, it was going to be the one who killed Broly and sacrificed himself to stop Garlic junior. You could spot people with a "good" heart from a mile away. The best thing to do was to do away with him, just as Turles did away with Broly. After he was taken care of, everything else could find a way to fall in place.
Grinning with a nefarious glint, Babidi looked on across the blasted Hellscape, seeing a great lake of blood. The lake of blood which it was now increasingly understood to belong to Frieza and his family, as well as the creature known as Cell. They were exactly where they needed to be, finally, after spending days trekking and flying through this pit of a realm.
There was however, a deep, unsettled set of growls from Dabura and Bojack, the two towering monsters looking about cautiously.
"Mind telling me why you're so upset?" Babidi enquired, raising one of his eye ridges, as his huge eyeball focused in on the two.
"I suspect they don't like Cell, and given neither of them can detect energy, but have probably had encounters with him before, they know Cell's power is roughly an equivalent to their own," Garlic remarked. "Even when dead, so worried about getting harmed... it's sad really."
The dwarf just grinned at his two counterparts as he continued to walk ahead.
"Little man, I don't think you understand who you're talking to," Bojack boomed.
Making eye contact with Dabura, Babidi almost screamed to remain out of it, and the demon nodded towards his master. Silence quickly overtook the murder of Hell residence as they slowly landed at the edge of the lake.
Looking around with his tiny pupils, Babidi's large eyes looked about the huge expanse of the lake.
"Does anyone know where these creatures are supposed to be?" he asked, sounding annoyed.
Turning to Dabura, and then to Bojack and his comrades, Babidi saw them scanning around them as well.
Looking to his left however, Babidi saw Garlic looking up, his arms crossed with a small smirk. Another note to remind himself that of all of them inside their merry little band, only the tiny one could sense the energies of the others naturally. The little demon was acting as their ill willed bloodhound. Though from what Babidi himself understood, the creature known as Cell could also detect the powers of other fighters.
With his two eyes trailing upwards, Babidi blinked, seeing just over a half dozen figured staring down at them, their arms all crossed as grins appeared across their faces.
"Well, it certainly has been some time, hasn't it, Bojack? Are you still sore after that beating you received from my hands? Is that why you needed to bring some friends this time?" Cell's voice echoed from above, clearly amused. "We of course, are very impressed, aren't we Frieza?"
Another smug gaze cast over them as the former leader of the Planet Trade stared down at them all with a kind of confidence that could only be born in believing himself in the superior position.
"Why yes, of course we are. I wonder if you and those two children of yours will be more taxed than the last encounter you had with these pitiful-"
There was a clearing of Garlic's throat moments later, the little demon glaring up at the constructs and aliens above. Even Babidi managed to smile devilishly. Certainly Garlic was no Garlic, or Gohan, but he was certainly a league above the likes of Cell, Dabura, or Bojack.
"Look at this one, Cell. He's quite the intimidating little beast, don't you think? He must be the bravest of the idiots down there as well-"
"Quiet," Cell ordered without hesitation, staring intensely back at the small figure that moved into the air near them. "If you could sense power levels, you'd realize just how powerful this little creature is. I recognize you're energy. You're one of the two immense powers which clashed on the other side of this nightmare. Thought it is amusing that you are the inferior of the two. I sensed your power die significantly more often than the other, stronger warrior."
Slowly elevating himself up, Babidi pulled his arms behind his back, making the attempt to look more sagely. As always, Dabura brought himself up behind him, his unthinking muscle doing exactly what was expected for him.
Now, we can talk to these pawns with the right presence.
"Well, I'm glad you noticed," Garlic sneered, his irritation clearly showing through given how he'd been described. "But you should be even happier that we noticed you."
"What my friend Garlic is trying to say, is we're here to see if you'd like to come along with us to deal with Son Goku's son. The other power you felt when you arrived here was none other than Son Gohan," Babidi was quick to move in, trying to ease his voice as much as he could to give him a more friendly appearance.
The biggest one of the creatures in front of them, who Babidi only guessed was King Cold, scoffed with a roll of his eyes. Uncrossing his arms, the goliath of a alien floated ahead of the pack, gesturing towards him with one arm in a rather grandiose way.
"And why exactly do we care about this Son Gohan? Better yet, what is to be done with him? We all die down here all the time. And if he's stronger than Cell, certainly we would be foolish to challenge him."
Squinting his own eyes and leaning forward, Babidi smiled darkly towards the towering alien.
"Oh but we have a plan. Surely you were here for when Broly assaulted this reality for months, before meeting his end at the hands of that miserable loner, Turles?" Babidi inquired. "Broly wasn't just defeated in combat. The reason we've not seen or heard from the hulking idiot is because Turles dropped his body into the void that exists in the barriers between different levels of Hell. We intend to not only beat Son Gohan, but we intend to dispose of him, the same way Turles disposed of that ungrateful idiot Broly!"
All those years I shepherded you, letting your power grow. All of those years I allowed you to live on my ship. I let you thrive, and you repay me with insolence and betrayal? Worse yet, you betray me to just go joy ride with all that power! Well, now I hope you realize your folly, because you're worse than dead now, Broly.
Everyone was staring at him as he blasted off steam, and Babidi was quick to swallow the thick lump in his throat.
"What he said," Garlic grumbled. "We're here, united in our mutual disdain for our dear friend Gohan. Some of us, like that meat-head down there Bojack," Garlic gestured towards the increasingly annoyed blue giant. "Like the idea of making Goku's son suffer for what he's done to all of us. Though I am from the camp that I want to make Son Gohan suffer for what he's done, especially to me. I was the immortal ruler of the universe, and-"
Frieza leaned forward, staring at Garlic with two raised eyeridges, though also looking intensely smug.
"You were the ruler of the universe? And immortal? If you're so immortal, than how did you end up..." Frieza's eyes seemed to pause, his smug appearance disappearing within seconds as he realized, obviously, that Garlic didn't possess the halo they all did.
"H-he... He's alive!" the tyrant shouted, shifting back in aw. "Incredible! He must have achieved immortality with-"
"The power of the Dragon Balls," Garlic was quick to mention, his own smile now growing. "Though no matter how much it pleases me, we're not here to talk about me. We're here to deal with Son Gohan."
The once ruler of all he touched, Frieza, looked on in envy of Garlic. It was something Babidi found... surprisingly to see, to say the least.
"Well," Cell remarked. "To be quite honest, if it harms Son Goku in some way, I fail to see why I won't be involved. And if I'm involved, of course my darling children will be as well."
Children?
Looming behind him, two micro-sized Cell's hopped into the air, hovering behind their "Father's" shoulders.
"The more the merrier," Babidi grinned.
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Gohan:
Of course I'd get stuck down here with you.
Bleak eyes stared up towards the Saiyan, and Gohan entirely forgot about finding some 'new' form which Turles had mastered. Everything narrowed itself in on the first man to 'harden' him to the life which drove him down here by the end of it. Even when he battled Broly, every moment they exchanged blows, every time he bled or was blasted, he imagined Paragus in some form darkly looming above his son.
Slowly rising into the air, ignoring Turles as if he wasn't even there, Gohan's eyes just remained peeled ahead. The way Paragus carried himself was foreign to him. It was the sight of a man broken, well beyond what he'd seen in life. Certainly Paragus always contained a sense of regret, or disdain for himself, every time they'd met, but what hovered before him now, was a ghost of even that. It was near lifeless as he stared into his eyes. This was a remnant of Paragus, and little else. It was just as disgusting as his real, full self.
"I know you, don't I?" Paragus whispered to him, trying to somehow rekindle the flames of his soul seemingly. "That face... I... you're... you're..."
"Don't listen to this rambling idiot. Ever since I cast that son of his into the void beyond, he's been nothing but this pathetic lump. Isn't that right, Paragus? Miss that boy of yours?" Turles mocked.
There it was. The same old hatred which burned inside Paragus flashed awake before he turned towards Turles instead, his teeth grinding together. It was the same look that always crossed him when he took to beating him.
"Turles," he breathed. "You. I remember you. You're the one who took him away from me! You think that he won't return!? I can feel my son, suspending in this world beyond life! When he returns, you'll be the first one to suffer! He is the legend! His power-"
"Was never enough," Gohan cut in, causing the old man to pause and turn towards him, his eyes shrinking for several seconds as he did. "It wasn't enough on Earth, and it wasn't enough here. I should know, I'm the one who killed him."
Breathing suddenly overtook the old man as Gohan smiled, seeing the pain the words made clearly pour into the Saiyan. Slowly, his smile grew at the obvious distress as it grew. Was it cruel? Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't the example he wanted to set for his daughter, and perhaps it wasn't what his father would have expected from him. However, that didn't take into account everything he'd 'learned' from this beast. This was the man who walked him down his first few steps on the road to damnation.
He was even worse than Raditz.
"I know you," Paragus breathed in, his voice rasping angrily. "You're the substitute. You're that boy Cooler gave to me."
Slowly, the grin disappeared as Gohan stared back, letting his hatred and resentment slowly reveal itself. His jaw hardened as he just gave a hard look back towards Paragus.
This is what I became, in spite of you. This is what I became in spite of Turles, and he cared about me even. Even if I couldn't escape this place, I can say that I escaped becoming like you.
There was clarity in that second as the other Saiyan's rage boiled over, his arm swinging out in a slow sweeping motion. It was as if time had slowed to the pinpoint of a fraction of a second, letting the younger Saiyan live an eternity in the moment. There was something he could find as a silver lining in all this. It wasn't the violence against people who'd wronged him. It wasn't seeing Turles again, on better terms.
It was realizing that even if he was here, here in the world place he could imagine... he didn't end up like so many of the others. The Saiyans who moved as a great herd across Hell, frightful of their enemies, could have been his fate. To remain hateful and bitter like Paragus, left only to dream of the conquest of this ruined world around them. The same applied to Babidi and so many others as well. This place would be his prison, but it wouldn't be the prison for his mind.
So many regrets. Even if it wasn't enough, even if it couldn't be enough, I can at least say I tried... right?
Catching the fist out of mid air was a simple task, it didn't even require any true effort. Still floating there furiously, Paragus's arm trembled in Gohan's grasp as he dispassionately stared back at him.
"I can see it in you still, boy. You killed my son. You killed the only thing in the universe which mattered to me while I was alive. You killed my legacy," Paragus spat.
For a moment, Gohan almost wanted to follow through further and dispatch the other Saiyan as if he were nothing once again. Hell, part of him wished he could have killed him permanently, again. It would have been amazing to let all of his hate out of this pathetic creature, just as he had on Raditz earlier. But what was the point? What did he gain by beating a pathetic old, washed out Saiyan to death?
"Even if you hate me. The hatred I taught you, let you kill my son," Paragus breathed a second later, his own eyes widening at the realization. "That was where all your power came from. That is where it always comes from. Rage, fury, and hatred... I... created you..."
The last words were almost unsaid, but Gohan could hear an echo in his mind.
And I killed your son. Yea, I get it. Really don't need to go on about it.
Releasing his hand, Gohan slowly shifted back, leaving Paragus to hover by himself as he tried to control his 'breathing'. None of them really breathed, it was just an animation of a life lost. Despite how much he wanted to split the old man in two, Gohan restrained himself. What would be the point? Besides, Paragus's suffering was already there, he could suffer on his own for the rest of eternity, having lost everything in his life, and afterlife.
Slowly, Gohan began to descend towards the deadened gray soil below.
"Where do you think you're going?" his one time mentor seethed. "You can't just turn your back on me!"
"I think he can," Turles's voice cut in, sounding bored to say the least. "And I think I've had enough of this lovely reunion. We've got more important things to deal with, than a washed up, powerless old fool."
"When Broly returns, I will-!"
Opening his palm, Turles's hand raised into the air, and Gohan saw the world suddenly through a purple tinted reality. Everything shifted and changed in colour before the bright lance of violet energy was cast out from Turles's hand. It took only a second for Gohan to turn his head sharply and to see Paragus's frame struck by the bolt. It lasted only an instant as the half shocked cry echoed out. The body simply deteriorated in the light, before the bolt continued flying upward towards the ceiling of the nightmare they all persisted in.
"He'll be back soon, you know," Gohan remarked, though he didn't mourn Paragus's violent end by any means.
"Who, Broly? I doubt that."
"No, I mean Paragus."
"Oh, him," Turles finally said, before turning his gaze back towards Gohan. "Somehow I think we'll be fine."
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Paragus: Broly's Reign of Terror
The swirling madness of the storm at the heart of the gateway to the next layer of Hell twisted violently as yet another victory was claimed by his son...
This was exactly what he always dreamed. For most, Hell was a nightmare of unending suffering and torment, but here, now, this realm had become the ultimate paradise, feeding his every whim for dominance and violence. The only tragedy he faced now was the fact it was stuck here, in this world. There were most definitely victims to be certain, tens of thousands of the most vile beings who have ever lived, if not hundreds of thousands, now fled in pure terror at the approach of the Beast that would Conquer this Hell.
A monolith of muscle and power floated only a metre from him, the product of his blood, not the product of the blood of King Vegeta. When his power flared, whether gold or green, this world seemed to buckle to him. Every Saiyan who was condemned to this place alongside him, from poultry no-counts all the way to their King Vegeta, were forced to bend their knee to Broly, and by extension him. The violence unleashed by his son against their former King was alone something which could have brought a tear to his eye. Every opportunity they had to torture the once high and mighty King to death, was an opportunity which couldn't just be wasted.
Mutilated and ruined, Frieza and his father followed in their list of victims. The green creature which resembled Frieza, Cell, followed in his son's bloody path of destruction. The green one had certainly put up a greater fight, as well as his replica midget bodyguards, but a better fight meant very little. None of them could have possibly harmed Broly himself. Watching his son flex his power was always incredible. These were some of the most powerful beings who ever lived, and they were nothing by comparison. When his wrath fell on Bojack and his crew, the results were even more spectacular.
Even the Fighters from above this realm, the ones which trained and whose powers had increased over thousands of years, were impotent to affect any kind of influence over his son's power. Pikkon fell in battle as well as the ones known as Olibu and Torbie. They were particularly delightful to watch being crushed into bloody pulps by the power of the Legendary Super Saiyan. It was sometimes almost impossible not to imagine all of this as some kind of euphoric dream, rather than the reality which had finally found him after decades of waiting.
"Soon, Broly, we will find a way to free ourselves from the confines of this realm," Paragus grinned, floating down to his son's side. "And then we will return to the world of the living and take revenge on the one who sent you here."
"Us here," Broly corrected. "He was the same one who killed you."
It wasn't the first time he'd mentioned, but it seemed impossible that... Gohan could have obtained the power needed to stop everything he was watching. Dabura and Babidi had been torn apart by Broly's power only an hour earlier perhaps... and when the waves of frost of fire overtook the realm itself, it was Broly's power that protected them from the elements.
"I hate him," Broly seethed, veins popping up around his arms and neck as he seethed.
"Yes, if it's Gohan that sent you here-"
"He did!" Broly shouted, snarling as he did this time as his bulky frame turned towards him.
Immediately fear spiked through Paragus as he saw how quickly his son's anger flared and turned towards him. Raising his hands passively, Paragus nodded in agreement.
"Then we'll make sure that his suffering is unending when you get your hands on him," Paragus finished, seeing the titan's frame slowly ease, before staring back towards him with his empty eyes. "I remember that boy. He was always trouble. It took him weeks just to kill anyone, and he had to be prodded into it. You remember the first kill I gave you Broly. You never hesitated, like a true Saiyan."
Smirking devilishly, Broly clearly recalled.
"I remember when he choked on his own blood. The life draining him his eyes was the most satisfying part," the Legend reminisced. "The first is always hard to follow. Every one since then is nothing but an imitation, no matter how satisfying."
There was the cruelty he expected from the merciless warrior of legend. The first time he'd seen the beginnings of Broly's true power... Paragus had seen his cruelty and lust for blood increase ten fold. It was seemingly impossible to control, but it was something never meant to be controlled. If they ever found their way out of this realm of hopelessness, Paragus would need to find a way to control Broly. For now, he moved in his wake, and saw his vision of his son vindicated with every passing moment. But one day he wanted to rule the Saiyan Empire, reborn.
And then King Vegeta's suffering would continue in the new world, when he had Broly crush his son's skull into wet pulp.
"No force in this universe of the next can stop us," Paragus said, his smile growing darkly. "I think we should pay more attention to our Ogre friends... perhaps with some persuasion, they'll be pleased to inform us how we can leave from this realm. And then imagine the havoc you'll be able to unleash."
Stepping over the corpses of the two warriors he'd just stumbled across, a large Namekian warrior clad in orange, as well as some sort of strange blue alien, Broly began to move forward, towards a huge cliff stretching across the wasteland.
"Ha... HA... HAHAHAHAHAHA!" the cackle darkly echoed across the realm it seemed. "This will be fun. I cannot wait to see these pathetic creatures try to resist me. These Ogres will come to find that I am not some resident of this place... I the Devil of this Hell."
In the distance however, as if in defiance to his son's proclamation, a single, tiny, violet bolt shifted through the stale air of this Hell. Another one of the fighters from the Otherworld's little sanctuary. Despite being amusing, it was utterly futile on their part. After the violence of Broly's dispatching of their other fighters, Paragus assumed they would learn the painful price of challenging the most powerful being in all of creation. Slowly, Paragus let a smile slip across his face as his eyes shifted downward, before his lids closed as he confidently stood behind the imposing figure of his son.
"Another pitiful excuse for a warrior has apparently come to make his challenge to you, Broly. Apparently the forces beyond this Hell are quick to forget your legendary strength. Do you think that ripping that green creature, Pikkon's, head clear away, wasn't a good enough indicator of the fate of all those who challenged the Legendary Super Saiyan? Or do you believe that crushing the large Saiyanoid's head wasn't a good enough indicator."
With his usual sadism broadcast from his devilish smile, Broly just stood ready, looking on at the newcomer to challenge him.
"I'll rip the bones out of this one once I cripple him. One bone at a time," Broly remarked, already starting to chuckle lightly at the thought.
As the figure grew closer however, it became more and more... obvious that it wasn't some kind of warrior of a heavenly persuasion. Instead, Saiyan armour was adorned by the figure in question, which served to only further confuse Paragus's standing. What Saiyan would charge wildly towards them? Someone to get on their knees and finally swear allegiance to Broly, the true leader of all the Saiyans? Well, the true leader was himself, but Broly could carry the title of course...
With a flare of purple energy, the ground in front of them shattered into a small crater, just big enough to barely fit the feet of the man who'd come straight towards his inevitable doom. So far, every warrior from the heavens had flown directly into their doom. But interestingly, the opposite was true of all the Hell based warriors. Every single one of them fled at the first signs of Broly, especially when his power was made evident. It took only seconds for the smoke to begin clearing to reveal exactly who had come to "confront" them.
The only other Super Saiyan in this Hell, and one who was obviously inferior to his Broly. Turles had been a victim of Broly more than anyone save King Vegeta. It was almost forgettable to the older Saiyan at this point. His son seemed to hold "Kakarot" in a state of true disdain. The third son of Bardock certainly learned to suffer beneath his son's boot. From getting vaporized, to having his spine and head ripped from his body in a wave of gore, to just being ground into pulp, the fool had seen an excessive degree of suffering from Broly's hands.
And now you're here to run headlong into another glorious death? I'd never taken you for a madman, Turles.
There was already a cackle rumbling from his son, who was even more amused than he was. Unable to help himself, Paragus began to join in on his son's laughter, though not nearly as enthusiastically. For what seemed like minutes, the two just laughed in the other Saiyan's face. But as the seconds past, something was strikingly off about all of this. There wasn't any worry or fear appearing on Turles's face, and he didn't look like he was about to bend the knee. Instead, there was something determined about how he was looking. It was the same look Bardock used to get when he and his crew were heading on dangerous missions.
"Kakarot," Broly finally uttered after his laughter. "How many times need I prove myself over you? I killed you on the Earth... and I kill you here whenever I please. Do you want me to kill you on your own whim, now?"
With a shine of confidence in his eyes, "Kakarot" tilted his head forward.
"No," Turles answered simply. "But I think you're about to find there is a difference in how I fought the last time you came at me, and this time. In fact, you could say that I'm a changed Saiyan. For all of that tough talk, and uttering of being a legend, you really can't back it up anymore."
Can't back it up? The last time you two clashed, you threw everything at Broly, and then he beat you in two hits? He has lost his mind.
"As far as Saiyans go, you're really second rate now. You're yesterdays news. You're like MK II Battle Armour, good in its day, but you pale in comparison to the Mark III. As you can guess, I'm the Mark III."
There was a slow, long chuckle which started to rumble out of Broly's form as his body began to blister with new energy. Green power swept over his body as the aura burned from the interior of his being. The entirety of Hell seemed to start to quake as blue bolts of lightning rippled over muscle and danced between patches of skin. The air, once stale, came alive with the power of this god before him. Without any semblance of the same kind of power, Paragus felt himself being swept away. As soon as the ki's force was strong enough, it uplifted him, throwing him back.
Focusing all of his power, the elder Saiyan managed to throw himself back against it, raising his arms to shield himself from the intensity of the force now pushing through the air. The ground beneath him slowly began to flatten further and further, before cratering around Broly in a rapid, dramatic fashion. It reverse domed around him for what seemed like dozens of metres, before a bright green light emerged from the centre of his being itself. The explosion of raw power lit the golden clouds above them into green flames seemingly, as the entirety of the reality around them seemed to shine with an emerald glow of destruction.
Left in the centre of all of this, as clouds of dust were blown away, was the floating above the crater, indomitable figure of Broly. Glowing with now a golden field of energy, he just started to chuckle deeply, pointing his finger forward.
"This time, Kakarot, when I finish you, I'll be sure to throw you into the vortex. Didn't you say that it leads to the next level of this place, father?" Broly asked aloud, smirking.
"Yes," Paragus managed, catching his breath, before starting to chuckle. "A place far worse than this one, according to all of the Ogres we've crushed so far! A more than fitting place for such an idiot! SO! Broly! Kill this pitiful fool!"
Breaking into laughter, Paragus awaited the utterly annihilation that was set to come.
"Kakarot," Broly voiced. "You can 'power up'. I want to see you flail while I kill you."
Something broke the entirety of the atmosphere a second later as the black eyed Saiyan stared down his son, hatred exploding from his once calm and normal features.
"I told you before, idiot! My name is TURLES!"
Immediately eyes lightened and shifted to blue-green, and his hair shot in the air as the familiar golden aura of a Super Saiyan emerged around him. It wasn't anything terribly impressive, just as before. Well, it wasn't anything impressive, by comparison to Broly. Even as the aura swirled around him, and while stray rocks and debris slowly lifted into the air, Paragus's smirk never left him, and a similar one never left Broly.
When Turles's hair spiked more heavily, and electricity rippled along his frame, it was hardly a change from last time. It was in this form which Broly delivered a crippling blow to Turles last time, shattering ribs before moving in for a far more grisly kill.
Slowly, the ground began to rumble as the Saiyan began reaching the zenith of his power. The aura shot into the air above him, spiking upward, but not peaking anywhere near Broly. But there was something different about this one, something strange was happening even as he observed it. It was as if Turles was preparing himself still, to power up. But this was his final form.
"All done?" Broly enquired, his voice filled with a grim amusement. "Did you really think this would be any different than the last time?"
Then it all started to happen. Reality began to quake, just like it had moments ago for Broly. In a single second, the aura around Turles's body raged violently, uncontrollably even, shifting around him in a violent swirl. Power burned from his form, being spent on seemingly nothing before lightning picked up around him. The ground beneath him reverse-domed, pushing into the crater Broly had formed, before it expanded out in under a second, the crater blasting out for kilometres. The ground beneath Paragus himself depressed as it shot past him, had he not already been floating, he'd have slid helplessly down into the massive pit forming beneath the two fighters.
Suddenly however, the huge crater pushed up, as debris, rock, and grey soil bulged upward, before blasting into the air in huge chunks and in waves of grey sand and dust. A scream of pure animal rage, or perhaps pain, was now coming from the golden aura floating across from his son.
"Broly!" Paragus shouted outward. "What's happening!?"
Even as he did, a cyclone of dust from below wrapped around the golden figure and his aura, as jets of pure golden energy emerged all along the giant twister as it violently swirled around this new, unbelievable power, or at least the explosion of it. The intensity of the energy finally impacted the area beyond the crater, as a new wave of pure kinetic force slammed into him. Broly, his son, flinched at it, but Paragus was helpless against it. Even with all his power at the fore, Paragus was cast aside, like a toy boat in an ocean storm.
"Do you think this is real power?!" Broly shouted against the howl of the winds.
His own aura expanded violently, crackling across the face of Hell, making another violent explosion outward. The two huge powers clashed across realm, green energy and gold mixing and twisting violently even without making contact.
Where did Turles find... find this kind of power?!
Roaring, Broly's power seemed to eclipse this new power as green and golden energy flared from him. It was almost uncontrolled.
Then it happened. The twister began to fade, and a golden bolt blasted through the wall of dust which had risen around him. Whatever that was, it was Turles. A main of pure golden hair framed him, and as his form ploughed into Broly's aura, his frame cut through it as if it weren't even there. Even Broly's frame shifted in shock and surprise. It was impossible to follow how quickly Turles closed, and only for a slip fraction of a second, with his Saiyan eyes, did Paragus see the blow land. Knuckles flew into his son's face, and the entirety of his body shifted back. Blood spat into the air at a hundred times the speed of sound, and the entire wall of green and golden ki he'd built for himself blasted in all directions as he was stopped in mid step.
Then, the shockwave rolled over him. Inside it he could hear bones breaking, skin impacting, and the sound barrier shattering more times than he could understand. The force of the blow was so great, even as far as he was away, Paragus felt his right side, the side closest to the blast, snap. Bones broke in his arm, followed by his collarbone, and then his ribs. Gagging in agony, Paragus could only watch as his son's frame blasted back and through the air with barely any resistance, only a gargled cry of shock escaping him before the grey armoured predator launched himself after him, the world wailing in its own agony at the very presence of such a power.
Barely, his eyes trailed after the two frames, but inside he already knew the outcome which was rapidly approaching. Broly would be defeated...
All of his dreams died in that one blow. He would only come to realize it by the time the last one landed.
If Broly were the Devil, Turles had become the King of the Devils.
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Author's Notes:
Well, I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. I've had literally almost no time lately. Most of this chapter was written over a month ago, about half anyway, and I only got to finishing the last half over the course of about four weeks. Between stupid fucking weather, and overtime at work (I've been working 50 hours a week :\ ), I've just not had the time to write. So, we're back to fortress Long Road until I get more time to write.
When I get a bit more time, I intend to first update Being Alive, and then update The Catalyst. However, I do wanna try to give The Long Road a monthly update no matter what. It is my primary story, so it'll always take precedence.
I was a bit rusty when finishing this chapter off. I hope it didn't show through :(
Though I can say, because this took so long to get out, I decided to add the Broly flashback at the end, just to give people a bit of a taste of what happened between him and Turles.
Anyway. Lemme know what you guys think. Apparently I lower myself by fishing for reviews. So, I won't fish. Instead, I'm just gunna stand off to the side here and hold out a collection plate, which you don't put money into, but reviews. Remember I'm staring at you judgmentally the whole time.
See, that's much better than scalping. :P
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Reviewers:
Perfect Carnage: Well, we got to see some Double-Ascended action for the first time this story. Even if it didn't happen in real time! Double Ascended... it's like Double the Ascended. And Trunks is a Super Saiyan II, not a Super Saiyan III. He's a lazy bastard.
But also, to be fair. I actually thin Super Saiyan III isn't something everyone can obtain. I think some people 'understand' it and will learn to utilize it, and others just can't conceptualize how to achieve it. Its fundamentally a very different kind of transformation than Super Saiyan II or I.
Lmc9389: I tend to fish because I find reviews help me write. One feeds the other. So, yea. Sorry it bugs you. Do you have any extra bait? I could also go for a fishing rod right about now. ;)
RandomReader: I hope I've continued to exceed expectations. This saga is going to be a pretty slow built. We're at Chapter 53, and I don't expect to get near the final showdowns until at least the mid 60's or late 60's. I'm taking my time, and I'm going to be focusing a lot of characters. For instance, next Chapter, we're likely (if I can write it well enough) going to see the return of Videl to the spotlight.
Tomorrow4eva: I think the Saiyans were bags of shit before Frieza. Remember, they exterminated their neighbours. I see Vegeta as a classic immigrant from a backwards but prideful background. He doesn't like the local culture, but if he returned to his own, he'd not see it in the same light anymore.
Lil'Dynamic: My life's been too busy lately. And it'll be too busy at least until September. :\
Pyromania101: The Chapter title came because of it showing the battle between Goku, Piccolo, and Raditz. :)
mtthw8198: Oh most definitely. Lol... Hopefully Pan turns out miles better than Gohan though :\
Delias Starlight: It'll take a while to see those events unfold. I wanna get a lot of development in for Goten, Pan, Videl, Goku, and Piccolo. We'll see though. And for the baddies as well. By the time we see them arrive, they're going to have been through a bit of a journey of their own. And they're backstory is going to be getting a few flashbacks, as well as a dedicated chapter called "Utopia".
DBZsuperfan: I haven't decided yet. You'll get more notes on this next chapter.
DBZfanthefirst: Thankls!
EvaF: I'm not in France, I'm in Canada. But France is awesome though. Western Canada's had a major heatwave and drought this summer. :\
jaymunoz90: There are billions of multiverses now, and its ever growing sadly. Most of the universes the trio attack, or at least this version of the trio (as there are millions of them now, travelling across the multiverse, and millions of Buus and Cells and ect) tend to cap at Super Saiyan II or close to SS3. But we'll get to see more details on what they can do going forward. The Triumvirate are not to be fucked with :P
Insopor Angelum Kit: Uhhhh... you're welcome? I feel really guilty to be honest, as I've not actually read your story. I'll take a look at it the next time I get a chance to read, and not just write. I feel super bad now. Lol
zZ Sky Ninja Zz: If this were a gameshow, you'd get a prize. Taro and Brass are all the more fucked because of it. Next time we see the Trio, it's going to be from Taro's perspective to boot. It'll be... interesting.
Dayvon135: Because he's an asshole?
MaxPain32: I'm not gonna spoil anything about revivals, but I can say that if I get my way when the final battle does roll down for this Saga, everyone will be blown away. Either that, or it'll flop dramatically, and you'll all demand a refund. Hah, suckers! I give the story away for free! No refunds!
Guest1: I tend to only create OCs for certain roles. However, I will say, they're not really OCs. They are, but they're more twisted visions of other characters. So they're definitely original characters, but clearly are inspired by their real counterparts. But, you'll be getting tons more content with them leading up to the Saga's end. I think some people are going to be greatly surprised, which excites me.
RustKnight: I think I answered this one by PM.
Daughter of Vegeta: I hope it makes sense. I've still got some holes to plug in the Plotboat. But we'll see if I get um all patched by the end. Yar.
OpenSourceArtist: Answered by PM.
Reader: Thanks! You have an awesome day(s) until I get another chapter up :P
Guest2: I dunno, adult themes, nudity, violence, gore (like when Gohan tore out his own implants, graphically), or when he had his arm blown off by Turles. Or when I had slug tear his arm off, and described how all the blood and fat spilled as a result. Oh, he kicked Spopovich in half. Gohan getting maimed in multiple flashbacks as a child. Getting his eye blown out by Raditz when he was a kid. Yea. The M rating is there because of that stuff. It doesn't mean it happens every single chapter. And let's not forget Broly brutally murdering Goten, a child.
Brelic: Sorry that this didn't get up very quickly :\
DarknessRising111: The split is there so I can organize the story in such a way it can be functionally told. I quite honestly, can't wait for Gohan to come back to life. It'll get a lot easier.
MaximusSSJ: I don't think SS3 will be all that prolific. Including Turles, whose dead, there will only be 2-3 in the story. :/
I really don't want Piccolo to be tier 2, but that's just a hard one to sell unfortunately. There aren't a lot of ways that he's going to keep up sadly. I tried for a while to give him boosts and keep him in there, and for the moment he still is, but it's hard hanging with the guys post SS2. Piccolo in this right now, could take on a weak SS2, but it's just not realistic for him to get much further than that. :(
RaijuBlue: I hope you enjoyed all the fun and madness in Hell and otherwise. If you wanna see more madness, there is going to be some odd guest appearances in Chapter 55 :D
Aqua Roxas: It's intimidating? I didn't give the chapter a knife and a mean scar, and I didn't post it on the bad side of FF . net did I? Lol
G: I'm sure some of the Trio have been slaughtered doing that. But the way they travel, they accidentally are always making more of themselves. They're a disease across the face of existence. And in some worlds... they may have obtained the power to kill some pretty scary things. These guys do snowball the longer they're left unregulated.
VuvuzelaHero: It's Goku. He can't be a depressed character, not permanently. He'll always bounce back. He's Goku.
Luke: What can I say? Thanks!
ShadowFFD: Well, you got your first glimpse of SS3. I hope you enjoyed it. :)