Chapter 17: Rage Against the Clock

IDS BA-MYU

"Sir, I really don't think it's s a good idea to turn off coms." A random footsoldier stated.

"Don't care. Turning em off." Goku replied over the coms.

"But what if..."

"But nothing, I don't want any interruptions. I'll turn em back on once I've had my fun. Besides what's the worst that could happen it's not like my son's going to somehow escape or anything"

"Yes, Sir."

Forest of the Alpha Kai

"I think I see light." Piccolo stated.

"You're right!" Chronoa exclaimed she sprinted towards the light poking through the trees and out to a clearing.

"Yes! Yes! We're finally here!"

Piccolo was confused as he entered the clearing and saw nothing but a plain open field.

"There's nothing here." Piccolo stated.

"Vaka's place is here alright. You just gotta knock."

Chronoa took several steps in front of her before stopping.

"Alright, how does the knock go? Ah, right."

Knock. Knock knock. Knock knock. Knock knock. Knock knock knock knock. Knock knock knock knock.

Suddenly a simple wooden door appeared out of nowhere.

"Ah, so he's going minimalist this time." Chronoa stated as she turned the doorknob.

Chronoa and Piccolo stepped through the door.

IDS BA-MYU

Gohan carefully scanned the room. Trying to make note of any and every possible entry or in his case exit but due to the ship's design, it wasn't easy. He knew where the main exit was where foot soldiers would come and go from. He knew where the Vegeta's and Krillin's cells were and a place where a soldier would come by every so often and tap on a section to reveal a window that could give him a view of the outside. The window was small but big enough for him to fit through.

'That's my best shot.' Gohan thought.

Now all that was left was to figure out how too disable his bracelet. Gohan thought long and hard about how to go about this. Until something finally came to him.

'That's it...'

Each soldier had a device to trigger his bracelet should he get out of line. His father was gone. Tuse and Quil were out of commission and Isol/Celes hadn't returned yet. If there was any time to put his plan into action now was it.

"Um...Excuse me." Gohan said to a soldier in a faux scratchy voice.

"What do you want?" The soldier asked in a harsh tone.

"My throat's dry. May I have some water?"

"...Hold on." The soldier replied before leaving the room.

After a few moments, the soldier returned with a small cup of water.

"Here. Drink it quick."

"Thank you."

As soon as Gohan had the water in his hand he tossed at the soldier.

"Why you little..."

The soldier attempted to activate Gohan's bracelet but as he did Gohan stuck his bracelet to the device which caused a massive surge of electricity causing the Gohan's bracelet to short circuit as well knock him and the soldier across the room. The soldier slowly stood up as several others stormed into the room. Gohan looked at a pipe above the soldiers and fired a ki blast at it causing a torrent of steam to block their way. Without haste, Gohan ran to the wall where the window was located and tapped on it. He fired a ki blast at the window shattering it. He was about to leap through it when he suddenly stopped.

'…Mom...Krillin...Vegeta...My brother.'

Gohan looked back and saw on the screen that 17 was starting to struggle against Goku.

'Damn it, there's no time...I promise I'll come back for you.'

Gohan leaped out the broken window with the wall closing right after.

Vaka's House

The interior of Vaka's place resembled that of a monk's temple. Everything was made of wood with intricately carved but very simple designs adorning the walls. Sitting in the middle of the room in a meditative position was a male kai with white nearly translucent skin, no hair, and long pointy ears that were tied together behind his head resembling a ponytail.

"Is that..." Piccolo began to ask.

"Yes." Chronoa replied. "That's Vaka. The Alpha Kai. Wait here."

Chronoa slowly and steadily crept up behind Vaka before placing her hands on his shoulders and shouting "Boo!"

"Aaah! Who dares!?" Vaka exclaimed as he jumped to his feet and spun around.

"Made ya jump."

Vaka stared at Chronoa with a stern frown on his face before it changed to one of joy and excitement.

"Chronoa! It's been ages!"

"I like what you've done with the place."

"Oh do you? I was trying to go for a whole minimalistic zen vibe, You like my outfit? Or does it clash with everything? Vaka inquired referring to his out consisting of a long royal blue Chinese style vest with gold and embroidering and long white silk sleeves."

"Oh no, not at all. You look absolutely fabulous."

"Oh, you're too kind. And who is this? A Namekian. Haven't seen one your kind here in ages."

"This is Piccolo."

"It is an to meet you." Piccolo replied with a respectful bow,

"Ooh, you're an honorable one. You know that's so lost on people nowadays. So what brings you by?"

"We need access to the Ether."

A more serious look came over Vaka's face.

"You know that is forbidden. Even for the Supreme Kai of Time."

"Please, Vaka. An entire universe may hang in the balance. Surely you must have felt the quakes."

"I have."

"Then you know what's at stake."

"It is unfortunate. It truly is, but the rules are what they are and if worse comes to worse Zen-oh can just erase the universe if he feels it become too unruly,"

"Not again..." Chronoa muttered under her breath.

"Please!" Piccolo suddenly exclaimed. "Please! We can't have come all this way for nothing. Right now there are people still fighting tooth and nail to stop their universe from being taken over. They are not willing to admit defeat and neither am I! You have something to stop this, but you're just going to stand by and do nothing!"

"...Those are some powerful words." Vaka replied with a sigh. "Damn, why do I have to be a big ol' softie?"

"So you'll..." Chronoa began to inquire.

"Yes. It will a little bit of time to gather but the ether is yours."

"Thank you." Chrona replied.

Royal Nature Park

After setting an unconscious 17 down safely out of the way Gohan turned his attention to his father.

"Huh, my shocking things not working." Goku stated as he attempted to activate Gohan's wristband. "You cheeky bastard you disabled it didn't you? You are a brainy little guy, I'll give you that. I feel like it's partially might fault though. I think I might have jinxed myself earlier. Oh well, I guess Imma have to just beat you back into submission with my new form. You like it? It's called Super Saiyan Blackout. Unlike the other guys I can access my blackout state anytime I want with this. Maybe it has something to do with my Saiyan DNA. Honestly, I probably don't even need it to beat you buuut since I'm already in it..."

"Dad..." Gohan replied.

In the blink of an eye, Gohan had taken his Super Saiyan 2 form and moved in directly in front of his father laying into him with a stiff punch to the gut.

"You talk too much..."

A slight look of shock came over Goku's face as Gohan fist sunk into his gut but it quickly changed to that twisted smile of his.

"Wow that almost to my breath away. I'm impressed, Gohan. You must be reeeeeally mad. I wonder why? Did someone kill your pet dragon? Wait do you have a pet dragon? I feel like you did but you also didn't...Weird."

"Stop talking!" Gohan exclaimed as he pulled his fist back and delivered a stiff strike to the side of his father's face knocking him back a few feet.

"Oof. Got me again but you're gonna have to do a lot better than that. Maybe you should try to get a bit madder. Ya know like reeeeeally P.O'd. I know why don't you think about your Tien and 18. No no. That won't do. How about Yamcha...No definitely not Yamcha. In fact, forget about Yamcha. How about Krillin and Vegeta. Ooh, that definitely struck a chord. How about your poor defenseless baby brother? I'm gonna groom him to be a much better more ruthless version of you. As for your mother. I'm gonna go grab her and keep her locked up tigtht in my own personel room. I think Imma make her my own personal prostitune...Prostitude? Prosti...A whore. I'm gonna make your mother my w...

"STOP IIIIIIIIIT!"

Gohan's aura being surging wildly around him while the electricity began striking the ground violently. The golden color became even more intense while a secondary blue aura formed around his body. Gohan's hair slightly increased in length and spiked up somehow even more than before. Gohan's muscles briefly expanded tremendously before returning to their normal (Super Saiyan 2) state and finally, Gohan's pupils disappeared completely.

"Oh, this is ne..." Goku began to say before Gohan laid into him with a fierce intensity perhaps greater than he had ever dish out before. The force of which caused clear expressions of pain on Goku's face. Each and every punch was delivered with pure unadulterated rage and hatred. The last of which sent Goku soaring back nearly two miles.

Goku however quickly recovered this assault and instant transmissioned back to his original spot now sporting a slight but visible bruise on his face.

"Alright! Now, this is getting fun!" Goku exclaimed.

Narration

After finally being pushed over the edge. A new strength has awakened in Gohan but will it be enough to overcome his father and his Super Saiyan Blackout form? Meanwhile, Chronoa and Piccolo wait patiently for Vaka to gather the white ether. Will they make it in time to prevent any more losses? Find out next time on Strained Bond: A Hero's Fall to Darkness!

A/N

I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter of Strained Bond. I decided to take a bit of influence from Super and utilize the Super Saiyan Rage/Super Saiyan Anger/ Strengthened Super Saiyan 2 (whatever you want to call it) form. I also decided to rename the Alpha Kai to Vaka. What do you think of him? Let me know your thoughts and as always, have a great day~TheUltimateMystic