Gohan wanted to hug his teacher as soon as he saw him, but the energy he felt radiating off of him kept him from doing so.
"Mister Piccolo, is that you? How did you get here?" Gohan waited for a response but was met with an unsettling silence. "I-Is something wrong? Your energy feels weird."
Gohan looked into Piccolo's eyes and saw nothing. No emotion, no love nor fear nor hate, he couldn't even spot the usual tough-guy look Piccolo carried around everyone. He felt a chill inch down his spine, this was not the Piccolo he knew.
"Nothing's wrong. I just came out here to collect some...data"
The voice reminded Gohan of Piccolo, but the inflection...the inflection was gruff and much older than usual.
"What do you mean collect some da-"
Piccolo quickly raised his hand and shot an energy beam at Gohan's upper right arm. Unprepared, Gohan took the blunt of Piccolo's surprise attack. His arm squirted blood as he went flying down into the ocean covered in thick, black smoke.
Still in shock, he hadn't felt the injury until he hit the water. The salt quickly poured into his bloody fresh wound causing unbelievable pain. He tried to scream but the water disguised any noise he made as bubbles of air. He covered the wound with his hand and tried to compose himself, summoning as much energy as he could.
Piccolo floated above the water laughing to himself. "What a pathetic little brat. How is it he's able to beat the most perfect creation in the universe but can't handle a simple Namekian?" He stopped as he saw the water beneath him boil until it erupted. Gohan emerged and charged the idle Piccolo, punching him with his left hand as hard as he could. A mixture of blood and oil spewed from Piccolos now disconnected arm, electricity jolted around the injury.
"Y-you brat! this model took weeks to build, even used some of the DNA from your dear master to make it more durable...Looks like I will have to do a little better."
Gohan recognized that voice now more than before; it was Doctor Gero.
"Doctor Gero?"
"In the flesh...or I suppose flesh and circuitry"
"How are you alive? The androids killed you! I saw it myself, seventeen crushed you!"
"True, but then again I am not the actual Gero, at least not anymore. I am just an android kept at a separate facility that has been endowed with his memories, genius, and charming personality. I have also been gifted something far, far more important: Gero's immense hatred for you and your father. After all, that's why I brought you here Son Gohan. So that I can use my past self's resources to destroy you and everything you love. Oh and do be careful, keep your eyes on your younger father," He chuckled ominously. "After all if he dies, then so do you."
Gohan continued to hold onto his wound that burned more and more with every minute that passed, he gritted his teeth and scowled "What do you mean!?"
"Stupid child, you haven't figured it out? The time traveler who came back to our timeline may not have been able to travel to his own past but that doesn't mean I couldn't. Regretfully, even for me, it would take far too long to develop the technology needed to travel back in our own time so I used the dragon balls to do it for me. I hate the idea of using petty magic over the brilliance of modern science but it was a necessary sacrifice."
Dr. Gero paused, he observed Gohan wince as his wound squirted out more blood. "It is quite interesting that you are still here at all. I figured after the death of your father, getting the chance to see him again, even as a child, would be too much and you'd spill your guts immediately. If only I was so lucky, maybe then you would have created a time paradox and accidentally killed yourself." He sighed, "You know, I am genuinely surprised you don't even feel any resentment towards the man considering how many times he's abandoned you, abused you, or put you in harm's way."
Gohan growled, "You don't know what you're talking about!"
Gero reached for his bleeding arm and pinched the metal artery shut. "He put you, a stupid, spoiled, eleven-year-old brat who still refers to his father as 'daddy' and wets his goddamn bed in charge of defending the world against the most perfect being to ever exist! If that isn't endangering then I don't know what is."
"Shut up!" Gohan felt his vision blur as tears filled his eyes.
Gero moved his hand to attempt to scratch a beard that wasn't there "And by god did he abandon you. Think about it, why would he stay dead, hm? Wouldn't it be more effective to stay with you, his only son, his 'baby boy', and train considering you are so much stronger than he is?" He scoffed, "It's quite sad really, your life has been nothing but one tragedy after another. I would laugh had my childhood not been so similar. The only true difference between you and me is that you had the chance to have a father. Your precious 'daddy' would have done anything to protect you, even die for you."
Gero paused for a moment as he silently reflected. He decided to continue after careful organization of his thoughts. "You were given your one opportunity, your one chance to prove that you were worth all of the whining and the moaning and the crying your father somehow put up with, and you failed miserably. Through your hubris, you allowed the strongest opponent any of you had ever faced to destroy your father while you stood there and did nothing. You let him die despite you being the only one capable of stopping Cell. Of course, I assume you know all of this and hopefully have been blaming yourself for your cowardice. Which leaves me to ask you the question: Are you even surprised that he abandoned you?"
Gohan seethed with new anger, he felt hate he hadn't felt since Cell. But this wasn't just hatred for Dr. Gero, this was also hatred for himself, every weakness and every failure flashed through his mind. He could no longer see Piccolo in front of him, he couldn't even envision Dr. Gero anymore, he only saw himself. He looked into his own face with such hate and disgust, so much so even his features that resembled his father disgusted him.
"JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!"
Gohan grit his teeth as he let go of his wound and quickly brought back both of his arms, despite the firey pain he felt while doing so. He prepared the only attack that seemed fitting to kill himself with,
"KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!" Gohan fired the strongest wave he could, instantly vaporizing the imposter that stood before him just seconds ago.
As the blast cleared Gohan felt something akin to relief knowing that Gero couldn't spit anymore of his poisonous words that seemed to touch all the nerves just right to break his already burdened spirit. Still, Gohan knew there was some truth within the doctor's words and would have thought about it more if it wasn't incredibly difficult to stay awake and even harder to stay in the air, the blood loss was rapidly taking its toll and he knew he didn't have much time.
Korin's tower...I have to get to Master Korin...
The old cat stared at the bottom of his steps as he saw a bloody child passed out on the floor "What a surprise! The son of Goku... and he's bleeding all over my floor. Great." He waddled over to the boy carrying a small sauciere.
"Guess it's a good thing I never thought about installing carpet."
He poured the soupy senzu liquid down Gohan's throat. "C'mon, get up kid..." Korin could see the boy twitch. "Don't be alarmed Gohan, I already know everything. You tend to look into discrepancies when you are stuck in a tower all day, and to call you a discrepancy is a massive understatement."
Gohan slowly opened his eyes and pushed himself up from the pool of blood he was laying in "I-I'm sorry Master Korin. "
"Don't be, it's fine. You aren't here by choice anyway." He paused as he helped Gohan, who was still woozy from the previous blood loss, find his feet. " C'mon We've gotta get you changed. I had a feeling you would be running into one of the mad doctor's experiments sooner or later so I had a pair of clothes already made. And don't worry they are identical to the ones you have on so no one will notice."
"Really?" Gohan lifted the dark purple outfit in front of him and tried to sound happy. "I-Its great Korin..."
Korin fiddled with his whiskers."You don't sound very excited."
"I guess I just have a lot on my mind right now," Gohan said.
Korin tried to keep his giggling down "Yeah, I heard the monologue. I think the guy needs a hobby or something. You'd figure the way he was describing it that he was watching you guys. I mean I wouldn't put it past him but what a loser, going on and on, 'you failed your father' this or 'disappointment' that."
He could see that Gohan wasn't comforted by his commentary and actually took Gero's meaningless mockings to heart "Hey, relax kid, you do realize he was just trying to get under your skin right? That's what those super villain types do. I see it all the time."
"Yeah, but it doesn't make what he said untrue." Gohan said, struggling to not break down in tears.
"Don't give me that. You are the son of Son Goku. He may be a little boy now but he will become one of the strongest, bravest most pure of heart warriors this universe has ever seen. Do you really think your father could hate you the way Dr. Gero believes he can?"
Gohan stammered out. "I... I don't know anymore."
Korin answered for him "Well I can see pretty far into the future. All I have to do is take a good look in one of my pots over there in the corner. You see em'?" He pointed over to three clay vases covered with an off-white cloth. "And I don't need to look into one to tell you that he couldn't ever hate you like that." Korin said, causing a slight boost in Gohan's mood. "Now, back to business. Get dressed and be quick because you need to be at that tournament as soon as possible. Your father's fight with Giren has already begun and you literally can't miss it."
"Okay, Korin." Gohan leaned in for a hug from the elderly white cat "Thank you."
Korin was surprised, he rarely got visitors and now he was receiving a hug for just giving out some measly advice "Aw, there-there kid." He gently grabbed Gohan's shoulders and pushed him forward so he could see his face. "Now you really gotta go. You literally have to be there for this fight. Goku's been worried about you since you left during Krillin's match and will lose his unless you make it back there. He's just too distracted by your absence to perform at his best."
"Right." Gohan said before running for the edge of the tower.
"Wait! I almost forgot, here's a going-away present just in case you run into any more of the good doctor's androids." Gohan turned around and caught a brown, cloth pouch filled to the brim with senzu beans "Now I'm no pharmacist so I won't trouble you if you need a refill a little early." He chuckled. "You never know what kind of trouble Krillin will get into next."
Gohan laughed a little as he ran off the tower and flew into the cloudless sky. He yelled back at korin as he was flying off "Thanks for everything korin!"
The old cat replied enthusiastically "No problem kid!". He watched as Gohan slowly shrunk off into the distance, he rubbed his chin as he thought in silence.
A very strange young boy, but he has a good heart. He'll make it. Hope he visits more after this whole Cell Business though.
Kami knows I don't get enough visitors.