"What did you do to my Grampa?!" Goku gave the red-eyed monsters coming at him his meanest look. His whole body was shaking, ready to take a piece of them. There was no way they weren't responsible for turning Grampa into a rock, something weird like that happening the night they show up? Goku wasn't dumb enough to miss that!
When they just snarled at him again, he put Grampa back where he belonged and rushed outside. The monsters were running at him then with Goku letting them get close. When they clawed at him, he slid under the middle one and extended Nyoibo mid-slide.
That tripped the monsters up good, giving him plenty of time to dish out some pain. Jumping onto the middle on, Goku kept one hand on its backbone and rammed Nyoibo through its chest with the other. He almost rammed Nyoibo through its black, ugly hide when its pals got on their back feet and clawed at him.
Goku jumped out of the way in time and only stayed on ground level for a second before bouncing back up, giving one of the creeps a spin kick to the head. A hit like that was strong enough to snap a tree in half, but the monster just smashed into the dirt, groaned and then got right back up!
"Okay! How about this!?" He let the kicked one take another swing at him and timed his punch for it. "Gu!" It stopped the monster's paw. "Chyoki!" He jammed two fingers into its left eye. "Pa!" Pulling his arm back as far as he could, Goku smashed his open palm into its snout and watched it go over the other two in a big, black hairy pile. "Janken!"
It didn't fly as high as the tiger did, it didn't fly at all really, more like tumbled back into its pals in the back. When it didn't get back up Goku thought for sure it was a goner. Until it did, bone snout cracked a but still looking mean and ready to fight.
"Woah... That was my best move...!" Goku stared at it, angry but wowed by how tough it was. That got him even madder, the monsters who messed with Grampa weren't supposed to impress him! He wasn't the only one angrier, the broken snout one charged him so fast Goku barely got Nyoibo out in time to keep it from eating his face. The second it bit down on it, he was off the ground and being tossed all over the place. The monster thrashed all over the place with the much smaller Goku holding on to the only thing he knew could hurt them good.
"Extend!" He shouted in the middle of the swing and Nyoibo dug into the ground at the opposite side the monster was moving its head. There was a nasty scratching sound followed by an even nastier snapping one. Before its teeth hit the ground, it stood up on its back legs and shouted loud enough to make Goku's ears ring a little. But he knew an opening when he saw one and took it. Ducking and jumping under its incoming pals, Goku jabbed Nyoibo like a spear and rammed it through the monster's jaw and into its skull.
He'd barely gotten Nyoibo out when one of them finally got him good in the back of the head. For a second, Goku's mind went blank from the surprising strength behind it before his instincts kicked backed in. Using his momentum, Goku spun away from a few more hits then snapped his extended staff at them which got them to back off for a second. With a second to catch his breath, he noticed a beating pain where they got him. When his fingers touched the spot, his whole arm jerked away from it.
"T-they got me!" Goku realized, feeling actual pain for the first time in a while. He couldn't even remember the last time anyone but Grampa Gohan managed to do that and his Grampa couldn't fight for a long time by then! He was still mad, but he couldn't shake away some of the... excitement from showing up again. He loved taking on Grampa, even if he got his butt handed to him every time, it scratched an itch he almost forgot he even had nowadays.
He was about to go for another round with them when his ears picked up more snarls coming from all over the forest, along with the ground shaking something fierce. Goku would recognize those snarls anywhere and the way the ground shook didn't leave much room to think of anything else. That's when he figured out how big this pack really was, not four, but closer to ten or even more, and they were all coming this way.
It made him mad, scared and yes, just a little bit excited all at the same time.
30 Minutes Later...
The last one, the fourteenth or the eleventh was limping, basically dragging its stabbed paw over the ground, trying to circle him. Half its mask was broken off and Goku was pretty sure one of its eyes was bleeding, it was kinda hard to tell. Goku could relate to it, he wasn't exactly having an easy time keeping Nyoibo in its direction. His head hurt from all the times they banged on it, his shoulder hurt even after he snapped it back into place and that bite on his leg was seriously throwing him off. He had to keep bouncing it off the ground.
He didn't feel excited anymore, or mad, just tired and not in a good way. The monsters came at him faster than he thought they would before he even finished off the last two there were three more rushing at him. They didn't stop, which made it really hard for him to even catch his breath. Thankfully, this was the last one, the others tried howling for more help but as far as Goku could feel or hear, there weren't any around. Just this last one.
Trying to rush it wouldn't work, he wasn't sure his leg or shoulder would take it and after one of them nearly stomped on his tail, scaring him like you wouldn't believe, Goku wanted to end this fast but no risks. In the shape he was in, even an ordinary bear would probably have a decent shot at him, nevermind this twisted freak show. So he waited until it looked ready to jump and when it did, he stabbed Nyoibo into the ground and let the extending shoot him up into the air. He hung there for a second, looking at the big moon for a split second before retracting the staff then re-extending it for a big mid-air swing.
When the monsters snarling stopped and he saw half its head roll on the grass, Goku knew he'd done it. It didn't make him any less sore when he hit the ground, on his bad shoulder too.
"Ow," He groaned, using Nyoibo to pull himself back up. The monster was melting away just like all the rest of its pals, in fact, he couldn't even find the rest of them anywhere. Even their horrible smell was gone, mostly. He double checked again and sure enough, there weren't any more of them around from what he could hear, see or feel. They were all gone. "That's what you get for messing with my Grampa..."
Using Nyoibo to help himself walk, Goku slowly got back to the house which thankfully didn't get smashed any more than it already was. With the fighting over, he started thinking about some things he picked up on earlier. For one thing, the moon looked way bigger all of a sudden. Sometimes, when his Grampa was sleeping like a log, he'd take a peek at the moon and noticed how white and small it was. Now? It looked way bigger, like a hundred times bigger and it looked broken too, like a big cracked egg!
The second thing he noticed was the forest, it sounded and smelled... wrong. Not like the monsters, just way different. For one thing, the grass around the house was up to his knees when it was just under his feet before. Plus, he could hear lots and lots of tree leaves ruffling from the wind, except there weren't any trees so close to his home, it was in a big, open clearing. He couldn't hear the cliff with the pond either, the one he used to fish sometimes when he felt like it.
"This whole night is weirder and weirder..." He mumbled, feeling more and more sore the closer he got to his house. Luckily, his Grampa had a bunch of herbs and medicine there to make him feel better when he got hurt which wasn't often. All of these weird things made him forget for a second that Grampa changed too, he was still on his table, looking like a round rock and the worry he felt for him was ten times worse than any bruise or muscle pain.
Reaching into the cupboard, Goku first took out a bottle with some smelly white stuff and pulled the torn up part of his pants where the monster bit him. It didn't bite him too deep near his ankle but it didn't stop him from wincing when he poured a little of the smelly stuff onto his leg. Then, he took some white rope, shoved big green leaves into it then tied around the wound. He did the same with his head bumps and shoulder.
"Man, I'm beat,..." By the time he was finished with it all, Goku was feeling sleepy and hungry. As he sat with his back on the far side wall with Nyoibo in one hand and Grampa in the other, facing the doors leading outside, he almost thought about going out for a late night hunt. Whenever he got hungry, it made him feel really tired and that was when he wasn't beaten up too.
Then he looked at Grampa and decided not to, he could practically hear him wagging a finger at him and telling him to rest up first, that he might just get into more trouble by going out there at night and banged up. It made him smile a little.
"Good night, Grampa." With a long sigh, he closed his eyes and clutched the staff and Grampa closer before he drifted off to sleep.
The Next Morning...
Birds chirping was the first thing he heard followed by his own loud yawn. Rubbing his eyes open, Goku saw the sun shining through the window and wall cracks, a nice thing to look at after the creepy blacks and whites and reds of last nights fight. Grampa and Nyoibo were still in his hands and from what he could tell, nothing tried any funny stuff while he was out.
"My head doesn't hurt so bad," He said after gently patting the bandage around his head. Although, with so much of his hair tied back, it itched like crazy. Getting back on his feet, he gently moved his shoulder up and down, it still ached but he was pretty sure he could move it around easier now. The bite mark probably healed the least, which made sense. He took a few steps around the hose, only wincing a little when the pain shot back up.
All in all, it wasn't too bad. The worst problem was his stomach growling like a monster. Not for the first time, Goku wished he had some way to keep meat around the house without it going rotten, he could sure use something like that now.
"Oh well, guess I'll just do it ol' fashioned way!" Moving back to the table, he put Grampa on his pillow then walked over to the doors, when he opened them, he couldn't help but stare at what he found. "I-I knew it! The forest is weird!"
Spikier grass reaching up to his knees was suddenly all over the place, along with big, thick trees only a short walk away from the house. It was so thick in-fact, Goku who's eyes were pretty good at seeing stuff, couldn't do it here, the whole forest looked black with the heavy leaves blocking out the sun. The road leading up to the house was gone and when he took a walk around the house, he noticed that even their pile of logs was missing!
"What's goin' on here?!" He scratched his head, trying to figure out how everything could change in the middle of the night! Was this the monsters messing with him? Did they change the forest to throw him off? Whatever it was, it wouldn't make him any less hungry.
Walking back inside, Goku slapped his hands together and almost told his Grampa okay when he stopped all of a sudden. A really weird feeling creeped up out of nowhere, the last time he took his eyes off Grampa, the monsters changed him into a rock. He'd left him before a million times, but now everything was... off, like, if the forest was different, what if different animals were around all of a sudden too? Like a rock eating animal or something? He'd just fought one's that melted away!
"Looks like you're coming with me! Just like before!" He put Grampa into a pouch and tied it real hard around his belt, then they were off. This time, Goku always kept the staff in his hand, one for trouble and to help with his healing leg. His other hand was never more than a couple of inches away from Grampa's pouch.
Focusing on the forest kept him from feeling too hungry, there was a lot to take in. New smells, new sounds, with Grampa there, it felt like the first few times they went hunting together, he was getting to know the place all over again. He spotted birds flying around, squirrels jumping up and down but they wouldn't be nearly enough for him. After last night, he needed a big catch.
"A tiger would be pretty good about now," He liked his lips at the idea of chowing down on one again when he spotted some berries in a bush. "Ohh, those'll help!"
He wasn't happy to see them for long, picking them out Goku took a whiff of them and smelled something funny about them. They looked like the berries he sometimes ate between big meals, but the smell was anything but. Touching Grampa's pouch, Goku remembered his advice on foraging: don't eat anything you aren't absolutely sure about, and he wasn't with these, no matter how much he wanted something to chow down on.
"Guess I'll wait a little longer,.." He dropped the berries and went deeper into the forest, checking for any big animal tracks on the ground, listening to any loud breathing or any hard ground shaking. His belly was growling louder after a while, and he was starting to get worried he'd have to settle for squirrels or birds which were a pain in the butt to catch on the best of days, never mind when he was hurt.
That was when his ears picked up a sound he'd recognize anywhere: the sound of a river splashing close by. A second later, he thought of fish and was off towards it like his life depended on it.
"Please don't be weird, please don't be weird," He repeated on the way there and when he saw the blue water, looking, sounding and smelling normal, he knew a good meal was on the way. It was pretty wide from what he could see, it would probably take him a big running jump just to get to the other side but even in it, he could see delicious fishies swimming in it.
"Breakfast, here I come," He giggled out, taking his clothes off and putting them a couple steps away from the river's edge. Then he dipped his tail into the water and waited. Goku knew fish couldn't resist taking a bite out of him.
For a while, he stayed happy, thinking any second now something big and juicy would jump at his dipped tail. But besides some fishies occasionally swimming past it, nothing happened, besides his stomach growling louder and his hurt leg starting to ache from standing in place for so long.
"Aw man,..." He pouted, scowling at the river. "What's wrong with you?! Why aren't you tryin' t'eat me?!"
When he got no answer from the fish, which he knew they could do, animals talked, after all, he just gave them his second meanest look then walked back to Nyoibo.
"Fine, I've got 'nother way of catchin' you!"
Lifting Grampa's staff to the side of his head like a spear, Goku eyed the swimming fish real carefully than with a shout, jammed it into the water. When he pulled it out, he found one skewered right through the middle. From what he could see, it was about as long as his arm.
"I was hopin' for something bigger but it'll hafta do," He tossed it away then kept skewering more and more of them until he had a good pile of around 20 reaching up to his waist. "At least they'll cook fast!"
Putting his clothes back on, Goku smashed a bit of the nearest tree for firewood and sticks to cook the fish. He was halfway back to his meal, smiling at fishies when the ground started shaking and a loud howling noise rang through the trees. It sounded like a wolf, sort of.
Putting the firewood down, he readied Nyoibo in the direction of the growing noise. He heard birds flying away overhead, brushes and grass being stomped on and a hungry snarling noise getting louder and louder. Then, in the thick forest, he saw them: two big, red eyes.
"W-what?!" He shouted when the thing finally reached him, it was a wolf alright, the biggest one he'd ever seen. Just like the monster bears, it had a big, bone white mask over its face with a bunch of spikes all over its crazy long arms, legs, and back. It smelled just like the monster bears too, which made no sense because even the same type of fish he'd caught all had a different scent!
"How are you here, monster?!" He shouted, trying to sound tougher than he felt. If it got scared of him, it didn't show it. If anything, the sudden nervousness Goku felt about taking it on only made its horrible, red eyes widen, like he was looking at a big, juicy steak.
It scared him almost as much as the fact it was there at all. It didn't make sense, monsters were only supposed to come out in the full moon!
But how and why didn't matter pretty soon, when it charged at him, Goku had to focus on staying alive. If the bears from last night were slow, the wolf was a whole other league. It was on him so fast Goku barely got Nyoibo on the right spot to block an overhead swipe.
It was strong too, making his whole body shake from the impact, his shoulder, and leg suddenly hurt like crazy. He groaned and managed to push the claw away, barely avoiding another swipe from clashing across his chest when he lost his footing. He'd forgotten about the danged slippery rocks!
Next thing Goku knew, his back was hitting the rocks and he had to jam an extended Nyoibo into the monsters snarling mouth to keep it from clawing at him. It was relentless, never stopping to take a breath or try another strategy, forcing him to crawl backward while the monster it kept coming at him.
As much as he wanted to, winning this fight wasn't gonna happen, and unlike the last time an animal had him cornered when he was really, really little, there was no Grampa to swoop in and save him this time.
Grinding his teeth, Goku did the only thing that made sense and pushed the monster away fast enough to jump into the river. For a second, the cool feeling of it shook off the pain of his injuries and the hunger, it even made him relieved until the monster went in after him.
What happened next was a crazy blur of Goku trying to get away, using his smile size and the slower monster to stay away from it while the river pushed them on and on. One of its side spikes managed to cut him across the back but Goku got some payback by stabbing it in the gut with Nyoibo.
Then the river vanished all of a sudden, and both of them were in mid-air. When Goku saw why, how the river actually feeds into the biggest waterfall he'd ever seen, Goku couldn't help but use a nasty word his Grampa said once then told him to never use when he realized his grandson heard it.
If the monster was worried, it didn't show it, even with a fall that could kill both of them, it just kept flailing around for Goku. He tried to extended Nyoibo, maybe bury it in each side of the cliff to stop his fall and finally get away from the wolf but every time he thought an opening was there, monster swing in a way that forced him to block or duck.
As if things couldn't get any worse, Goku spotted a whole bunch of big, sharp looking rocks at the bottom. He almost cursed again until an idea suddenly came to him: use the rocks to his advantage.
If he could time it just right, he could use the monster to break his fall, letting it smash against the rocks and water while he got off easier.
When the beastie snarled at him again, Goku managed to stab the sack inside its mouth with Nyoibo. While it coughed and flailed around, Goku got around its back and buried his hands into its black hide. It tried to get him off, managing to come close a couple of times at cutting his head and tail but Goku just powered on through and hoped his plan would work.
Grampa was definitely looking out for him when it did, the monster hit a nasty looking rock with a big crunch that took its head off. The rest of it hit a few more on the way down and Goku actually thought he'd pulled it off when he too bonked his head to the side of a smaller rock and was out like a light.
A/N: As you can probably tell by this chapter, exams are done and were very successful to boot! Meaning I've got more time to continue the fic! For those wondering as to why the four star DB is inert, it's been taken away to another universe, cut off from God (Kami) and the rest of the DB set. Next chapter, we'll be seeing where exactly in Remnant Goku has ended up which I think will surprise you.