(The King's Office, afternoon)
The king's assistant hurried into the royal office just as the aging ruler was enjoying a fine cigar. It had been a strange day, and over the last hour the palace received reports of strange phenomena from all around the world. There was nothing he could do except order the military to increase alertness, and at stressful times like these he allowed himself the vice of a cigar despite his physician's warnings.
"My lord!" cried the assistant, "you have a very urgent call from the royal observatory!"
The king sighed, putting the cigar away for the moment. "Very well, pass it through."
The king sat down behind his desk and picked up the telephone. The person on the other side was clearly panicked, speaking loudly enough for the assistant the pick up a few words.
"sun... heat... radiation... gravity..." the voice went on and on for a few minutes, interrupted once in a while when the king asked for clarifications. Finally, the voice shouted "it's the end of the world!"
"I'll see what I can do, just stay calm. Your duty right now is to keep this to yourself. Goodbye," the king finished the call and leaned back in his chair. For a few moments he said nothing, simply staring into the air.
"My lord, what shall I do?" asked the frightened assistant.
"There's only one thing we can do," the king finally answered, "only one person in the entire world can help us now. Please, make the call and patch me through."
(Goku and Chi Chi's house, afternoon)
Goku's family and friends were gathered inside the house while the warriors meditated in Bulma's barbecue tent. Bulma and Eighteen were comforting the crying Chi Chi, who was sitting next to the round dinner table and hugging Goten close as if afraid to let him go.
Maron stood close to her mother, holding on to Eighteen's leg. Goten was trying to squirm away from Chi Chi's bear hug, but could not escape his mother's hold without hurting her. Eventually the child accepted his fate and joined the two women's efforts to make his mother stop crying.
Trunks, Mai, Pilaf and Shu were sitting quietly on the carpet in Goten's room. Pilaf was reading some kind of tech manual next to the napping Shu, while Trunks slowly gathered up the courage to take Mai's hand.
Roshi, Korin, Dende, Oolong and Yajirobe stood next to the open door of the house, looking outside and talking quietly to each other.
Buu and Mr. Satan were standing in another corner, Hercule holding Baby Pan's ribbon as the baby hovered above his head. Buu was contorting his face into impossible shapes, making the girl laugh.
Suddenly Mr. Satan's phone rang. "Excuse me, I have to take this," he said. Hercule gave Pan's Ribbon to Buu and went outside.
He returned a few minutes later, looking pale. "This is it, this is the end," he mumbled as entered, and fell to his knees.
Bulma, still holding Chi Chi's shoulder, turned to him and asked "What's wrong?"
"I just got a call from the king," answered Mr. Satan in a shaking voice. "He told me... he told me his scientists found a new sun in the sky, very close to Earth. It appeared suddenly a few minutes ago and it's getting hotter and hotter. It's already hotter than our own sun, and if nothing changes we're all going to burn away in a few minutes."
Goten's muffled voice came from inside Chi Chi's hug. "Oh no, that's Gohan! But the others are helping him!"
"Okay," Bulma said in a serious tone, processing the information. "let's think about this."
"What's there to think about?" asked a despairing Satan. "We're all going to burn up! How am I supposed to stop it! I only wanted to be a martial artist, where did it all go wrong!"
Eighteen smirked. "Oh please..."
Bulma ignored Satan's ramblings. "Okay, let's say Vegeta didn't push Gohan far enough and now he's putting out more and more heat from somewhere in space... hmm..."
Satan got up and ran over to Dende, who was looking at the others in disbelief after hearing the news.
"Dende, can you do something?" he asked the short Namekian deity, "What about the Dragon Balls?"
"I'm sorry," Dende shook his head. "I can't do anything to help against a threat like this. Unfortunately Gohan used the Dragon Balls just a few days ago, but even if he hadn't I doubt Shenron has enough power to withstand a calamity like this."
"We're doomed," Mr. Satan whispered, "we're doomed..."
"I have an idea!" Bulma said suddenly, making everyone jump. "Look, if I had enough time to prepare I could build a global force field to protect the planet, but there's no time."
She crossed her arms, deep in thought. "Sure, after this is done I could snag a nice defense contract from the king, but for now only one other person I know can make force fields..."
"My brother," Eighteen interrupted.
"Exactly!" Bulma smiled at the blond woman. "I bet he can make a force field strong enough, you two are much more powerful than you were when cell showed up. Let's go ask him, he should be watching over the others in the tent."
And so the gathered friends returned to the tent, noting the slightly increased temperature and the new, bright star shining in the sky.
Seventeen was standing a few steps away from the meditating warriors, his armed crossed. The android looked at the group while they entered the tent and raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.
"Hey, Seventeen," Bulma said, "there's trouble." She explained the situation and continued. "We need to to put up a force field around the earth, just above the atmosphere. Do you think you can do that for a few minutes?"
The normally stoic Seventeen opened his eyes in surprise, but went back to his usual expression of mild disinterest after only a moment.
"I'm sorry, I don't think I can do it."
"Come on, young man," said Roshi as he came closer to the android. "I saw what you did in the tournament, your force field was enough to block Jiren's attack. Of course you can do it."
"I'm not being modest," Seventeen looked down at the old master. "Making a force field that big is not something I can do, especially for a long time. I'd need a lot more power."
"Wait," said Bulma. "What if you don't surround the entire earth, just the half that is facing Gohan? You know, like a giant umbrella?"
"I'm sorry," Seventeen shook his head, "I'd still need more power."
Bulma nodded and looked down, deep in thought once again. The others looked at each other helplessly while the blue-haired scientist concentrated.
Suddenly Pan laughed from her perch on top of Buu's head, pulling on the pink Majin's antenna. The sound made Bulma jump and stare at Buu for a few seconds.
"Of course!" she said excitedly. "This can work! Hey, Buu!"
Majin Buu stopped playing with Pan and looked at Bulma. "Yes?"
"Can you give Seventeen enough power to make a force field around the planet?"
Buu gave Pan's ribbon back to Satan, closed his eyes and started thinking. In fact, he concentrated so hard that his face went red and tiny bursts of smoke rose out of the holes on top of his head. Eventually his eyes opened and his face went back to its normal color. "No. Buu can't."
Bulma's turned pale. "Oh no... this was my last idea..."
"But he can give Buu his power," Buu continued, pointing at Seventeen.
"Excuse me?" asked the android. "What are you talking about?"
"Buu can..." Majin Buu struggled to find the word "ab... abs..."
"absorb?" asked Mr. Satan.
"Yes!" Buu jumped from leg to leg, happy to have his idea expressed. "Buu can do that. Then Buu will have his power and Buu's power, and Buu will be stronger. But Buu can't do it if he say no."
The others look at the android, waiting to hear what he had to say. "What do you think, Seventeen?", Bulma asked quietly, "As crazy as it sounds, will you let Buu absorb you?"
Seventeen's eyes were wide. His first instinct was to fly away, but he forced himself to stay in place. Eighteen left Maron with Roshi and approached her brother, standing protectively between him and Buu. "Don't you dare," she said coldly.
The temperature inside the tent seemed to plummet despite the rising heat outside.
"Come on, guys," said Bulma, "it won't be like before." She looked at Buu, "you can give him back after you're done, right?"
"Umm," Buu started thinking again. "Buu think so," he said after a few seconds.
"See?" Bulma turned to look at Seventeen and Eighteen. "It's a crazy situation but everything will turn out okay. It's not like you will be blocking all of Gohan's energy, only a tiny fraction of it is reaching us anyway. You should be perfectly fine."
"I don't think so," Eighteen said, "no one is absorbing either of us ever again."
Seventeen took a step forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, I'll do it."
The blond android looked back at her brother, surprised. "Really?"
"Yes, it'll be fine." Seventeen smiled at her and turned to Buu. "Go ahead, whenever you're ready."
Buu looked around at the others, then back at Seventeen. "Here no good," he shook his head, "too small, let's go outside."
Seventeen nodded, and both warriors left the tent. The others stood at the tent entrance to watch the process, feeling a mixture of fear and fascination.
Seventeen and Buu stood under the same tree where Gohan and the others performed the ritual. The wind died down completely, as if the world was holding its breath. Slowly, a pink blob the size of a large dog grew out of Buu's back, fell to the ground and started crawling towards Seventeen. The android followed its progress with his eyes wide open, until the thing stopped right next to him.
"Buu go?" asked the majin.
It took Seventeen a moment to realize that Buu was asking him if it was okay to proceed.
"Go ahead," whispered Seventeen, closing his eyes.
In a swift, smooth motion, the pink blob stretched up and to the sides, enveloped Seventeen and shrunk back to its original size. There was no struggle, no dramatic effort to escape, it happened in an instant. Eighteen turned her head away and hugged Maron close, thinking of her and her brother's fateful encounter with Cell.
The blob quickly crawled back and merged with Buu, making a strange, gooey sound. Buu's form became liquid, melting into an irregular column of pink mush. The column gushed and shifted for a few moments, and then slowly reformed. Majin Buu grew distinct legs, arms and a head, which then became thinner and more defined.
The entire process took only a few seconds, even if it seemed much longer to the people who witnessed it. When it was over, Majin Buu stood there in his new form. He was shorter than before and much thinner, almost as slender as Seventeen himself. His white pants reached his golden shoes now, hiding the black leggings. Strangely, he didn't wear a shirt or a coat at all, only a ribbon identifying him as a park ranger.
Buu's eyes, now clear blue in color, opened. He looked at the stunned people gathered at the tent entrance, and his aura flared around him. "Don't worry," Buu said in a clear, calm tone as started flying up. "Just make sure they fix this." He looked at Mr. Satan and nodded.
Before anyone could say anything, the newly transformed Buu flew up into the sky, vanishing from sight almost instantly.
Baby Pan broke the silence first. "Bah bah Buu!" she said, waving at the majin while hovering near Hercule.
Dende looked at the others and smiled. "I'm sure he can protect us now. His power is absolutely amazing, and that's without taking into account any artificial energy that I couldn't sense." Looking at Eighteen, he added "don't worry, even if Buu is somehow unable to release your brother, we could wait a year and wish him back with the dragon balls. Ordinarily Shenron wouldn't be strong enough to affect a being like Buu, but with Buu himself cooperating it will be an easy process. You can rest easy."
Eighteen nodded, relaxing a little.
(Upper atmosphere)
Majin Buu flew up, reaching the limits of Earth's atmosphere within seconds. He then stopped in place and hovered, lifting his arms. Above him appeared a circular sheet of glimmering, greenish energy about three feet in diameter, which started to expand rapidly.
The force field grew larger and larger, reaching across the world. Buu found it easy to continue even after covering half the planet, but chose not to do so. Seventeen knew a lot about the natural world, and something in Buu's new memories told him to stop there. Half the world was enough, like Bulma said.
Buu's thoughts were much clearer than before, much more focused. Coupled with his already immense levels of energy control, he could sense the magnitude of Gohan's rising power through the increasing load on his force field. If that was only a tiny fraction of the half-saiyan's full potential, what hope was there? At the rate Gohan was powering up, Buu estimated he could maintain the force field for less than ten minutes. A darker part of himself wished Gohan would burn away before everything Buu loved was destroyed.
Around the world, people in daylit areas noticed the sky turn slightly greener in color. Panicking, many ran to their television sets or radios, hoping to get more information.
Miles away from Buu, floating cross-legged in the upper atmosphere, hovered the meditating form of Piccolo. His clothes were almost completely burned away and his body was covered in burns. Without the protection offered by Earth's atmosphere, and with his guard down during the group's mental voyage, Gohan's power had damaged the namekian. But now he suddenly began to breathe easy again, no longer having to protect himself from the deadly energies released by his former student.
