A weary Gohan shuffled through the U.A. gate in the early morning hours just before the day would begin for the students attending the famed hero school and despite Hercule's display a few days ago the public was still nervous about him, it was obvious that even though he wasn't a threat there was a noticeable lack of trust surrounding him as the people on the street who recognized him gave him a wide berth and no one stood within more than a few feet of him. Even other U.A. students who had seen him around the school or during the sports festival had also looked at him like he was a ticking time bomb.
But that didn't mean his friends and classmates avoided him. "Hey Gohan." Uraraka smiled and greeted the young half-saiyan as he was walking up the path to the main building.
"Hey Uraraka." Gohan weakly returned the smile. It did make him feel better that his classmates weren't freaking out about his previous actions that did destroy the lunar body that orbited their planet.
"Nedzu said that the launch should be ready this afternoon," the brunette mentioned the latest news about the gossip in school as for the last few days the support department in conjunction with Capsule Corp was preparing to launch a spaceship.
To the public this was the first launch in over a hundred years since quirks had stagnated much of technological process, or at least the first that they would know of. The real reason for its launch was to provide an explanation for the reappearance of the moon in the sky after its destruction was broadcast live.
"Correct Ms. Uraraka," Nedzu smiled at the girl who stepped into the 1-A classroom followed by Gohan. Beyond the normal 1-A students and teacher, Bulma along with Vegeta and Thirteen the Space Hero were standing at the front of the room. "It also gives us an opportunity to disclose to the public the training that we have had our students undergo."
"Normally I would have preferred a different reasoning for doing so, but with your public display a few days ago, this might be the most opportune moment for our students to begin using the ki that they have trained with. That the public can now see that what you did was not...," The white furred principal paused while trying to find the correct words so as not to seem insulting or demeaning but still get the point across. "Abnormal. That everything you did was technically something anyone could do."
"So I get out of the limelight and you take it over to push ki to the masses?" Gohan tilted his head.
"Quite right."
"Yup, it seems this rodent here is pretty cunning," Bulma chuckled. "Since you've been kind of zoned out for the last couple of days, I placed a call into my sister Tights."
"You have a sister?" Gohan asked because this was the first time he'd ever heard of this woman.
"Yeah, and Vegeta has a brother." Bulma winked causing even more confusion.
"What?! What the hell Vegeta, why did this never come up before?" Gohan loudly demanded of the saiyan prince, because the existence of another saiyan seemed pretty fucking important since Gohan belived that Vegeta was the last pure saiyan alive in the entire universe.
"Shut up Kakabrat, I don't have to tell you everything about my life." Vegeta shouted right back at Gohan.
Seeing that she was able to lighten the mood a bit Bulma continued with a giggle. "Anyway, Tights talked with Jaco, he's a member of the Galactic Patrol. A small group of space police and asked them if they had anything that someone at least ten times stronger than Frieza could do to train in space and well…" Bulma grinned. "They at first thought she was joking but now that they know it's for real they have a few places that cropped up."
Bulma reached into her bag and pulled out a holographic map of the universe. "Seems that even with Frieza gone the Frieza Force is still trying to hold onto the power it had over other worlds so there are places that could really use some heroes."
"And that fool of a father you have had King Kai get the locations of some other planets that the Kai believes would offer good training for you and your traveling companions." Vegeta interrupted haughtily as he was still pissed about the spaceship that was chosen for the adventure. Bulma did promise to make it up to him but it still made him mad.
"Traveling companions?" Gohan questioned why other people were involved in this.
Bulma reached over and ruffled her young friend's hair. "Did you honestly believe that I'd let you go off into space on your own?"
"My dad went off into space on his own." Gohan frowned that he was being treated like a child.
"Pfft and the first thing he did was nearly blow himself up, it was sheer luck my dad had Namek's coordinates already put into the computer or he never would have made it." Bulma scoffed. "You're the strongest thing in the universe, but you don't know how to fly a spaceship, plus Chi-Chi would never let you go alone."
"Which is where U.A. comes in," Nedzu spoke up finally. "Thirteen here has been briefed on the controls of the vessel Capsule Corp is graciously providing us, so thank you Vegeta for the generous donation of your Gravity Chamber."
The Prince of All Saiyans grumbled and looked away from the principal who had convinced his wife to use that ship since it only needed to be refueled and slightly modified rather than to build one from scratch. He was certain this was what little revenge the rodent could get on someone like him to inconvenience his training. But Bulma's arguments had been sound, Gohan wanted off the planet and the weeks that would have taken to get a new ship up and running would be forcing Gohan to suppress himself and having a gravity chamber already to go would more beneficial to him since there was already two chambers build on the U.A. campus, which Vegeta silently decided is where he'd spend much of his time, the school staff would just have to deal with it.
"Of course there is also the rest of the crew," Nedzu nodded and motioned to the class. With the clattering of her chair, Mina was scurrying over with a duffle bag full of stuff.
The pink skinned girl swept Gohan into a tight hug and squealed. "I'm so glad you let me come with you Gohan, it's going to be the greatest adventure of my life. It's a literal dream come true to see the stars and meet even more aliens."
Momo got out of her desk in a much calmer manner than her classmate and walked over to stand next to Mina. "I was chosen because my quirk can provide for any emergency repairs and materials that we may need when venturing in places that have very little."
Gohan rubbed the back of his head and blushed at the brusque description of why Momo was chosen. "I'm sure that you have more to offer than your quirk Yaoyorozu."
"Honestly if I didn't know that saiyans were monogamous, I'd be worried about Gohan going off alone with a ship full of cute girls," Bulma stage whispered to Vegeta who snorted out a laugh especially at how Gohan reacted with his face turning bright red.
"Yes thank you Bulma," Gohan growled indignantly. "We get it, I'm in love with Tomoko and nothing will change that."
"It also means that I don't have to worry about any of the crew coming back with extra passengers that I would have to explain to their parents." Nedzu teased but underneath that he was relieved that there wasn't the potential problem of Gohan and any of the other crew getting into that sort of trouble on the trip.
"Unless we meet hunky alien boys," Mina responded while sticking out her tongue. "Who knows, maybe humans and saiyans aren't the only species compatible out there."
"And I'll be going too," Uraraka commented, getting Gohan to look in her direction. "My quirk along with another's will greatly maximize the amount of supplies that we can take with us." She had been tapped by the teachers to go on the adventure of a lifetime since nullifying the effect of gravity on cases of dynocaps meant that particular limitation was no longer an issue.
Of course the chance to get rare and unique alien training along with going on an adventure with her favorite heroine Thirteen was an offer that Uraraka just couldn't pass up.
With that out of the way, the door slid open and Kan, bringing in two of his students from 1-B, entered the room. "Good we're not missing the briefing." Noticing that everyone was still in the room.
"Hey everyone," Yui softly greeted the room just before Setsuna more boldly grabbed her and waved to the 1-A students. The comradery the classes shared after all the training they've gone through together meant that there wasn't direct antagonism between them but a more healthy competitiveness.
"Man this is going to be awesome," Setsuna shouted in delight while also getting a high five from Mina who was on the same wavelength as her when it came to the impending cosmic adventure.
Gohan knowing the two 1-B students and their quirk's capabilities after having spent a week training with them all didn't need to be introduced.
"Today is a momentous day for not only U.A. and Capsule Corp, not just for scientific progress but for humanity as a whole." Nedzu opened his speech to the reporters. "Today marks the first of many achievements of our species to advance ourselves to the stars and to say to the galaxy that we are here and what we are truly capable of."
While the words might have seemed vague to most of the audience, the importance was not lost on those who knew that alien life was out there and that this was not simply just a means of contacting them, it was also demonstrating that Earth was not a planet that could easily be conquered. Even though Frieza and his father were gone and the Frieza Force was in shambles, there still existed other potential threats out in the cosmos.
"These brave ladies and gentleman are taking the first steps into a future where our current limits will be shattered and we will grow to be stronger and better than we once were," Nedzu continued as he looked around to see the reporters, politicians and scientists clapping for his speech. "So to them, I say thank you and wish you all godspeed."
"Woohoo," Mina cheered in excitement, feeling the ship's thrusters taking them all the way out of Earth's atmosphere in mere seconds. The combination of technology from the science behind the saiyan pod, Kami's ship and Frieza's mothership meant that this was quite possibly the most advanced space faring vessel in the universe.
"Ever since I was a little girl I dreamed of finally making it to the stars," Thirteen said in awe that her life had led up to this moment. It was part of the reason she had put together a presentation for both Nedzu and Mrs. Briefs on why she was the best candidate possible to lead the team that would be getting Gohan off the planet. Seeing that the science was truly there after all to get back into space ever since things stagnated was all she dreamed for.
"I'm just hoping I don't get my neck broken this time," Gohan said while rubbing the phantom pain from when Recoome nearly killed him as a child.
Setsuna nudged the half-saiyan playfully at hearing his worry. "Pfft, don't worry about that, you're like a million billion times stronger now and honestly if anything out here could even do that to you, we're probably all screwed anyway."
"That's not very comforting Tokage," Momo sighed at how the other girl was acting. Because even through all the training she had undergone that made her stronger than she ever believed possible, having Gohan on the trip was extra assurance that nothing would go wrong if they came across a powerful alien.
"Where are we headed first Ms. Thirteen?" Yui inquired, she like everyone knew the purpose of this venture and wanted to know what the first stop would be.
"Well that's really up to Gohan," Thirteen said while pulling up a hologram of the known universe.
Gohan hummed thoughtfully as his first instinct was to go straight to Yardrat so as to learn some of the race's techniques but a flashing red dot that was closer than that planet caught his eye. "Here," Gohan tapped the dot which sent the coordinates to the computer so the ship adjusted its flight path towards that planet while also bringing up that information.
"A planet called Frieza Planet… #899, seriously?" Thirteen commented on the absolutely insane naming scheme and looked to Gohan for an answer.
"Frieza basically owned seventy percent of the universe and with that many planets he just stopped giving them names so assigned numbers instead, I didn't have anything to do with it," Gohan responded while tossing up his hands. "At least it's not Frieza Planet #419, Vegeta said not to go there."
"Why?" Uraraka questioned why the saiyan prince would tell them to avoid that planet.
"Something about them always screaming future events at you, he said it gets really annoying and he already genocided them once but they somehow came back," Gohan shrugged.
"Oh yeah," Yui cringed from hearing that the saiyan prince had committed what on Earth would be war crimes. "I forgot that Mr. Briefs is not a good person."
Gohan sputtered a laugh. "Yeah that's one way to put it. I mean jeez, he puts every single bad guy in Earth's history to shame with his body count. But hey at least he's mellowed out now."
"Honestly I still think he's too intense," Mei shrugged. "But then again he and Mrs. Briefs got me and Shotodo to hook up so he's alright with me so long as he doesn't blow up the Earth while we're gone."
"What are the odds of that happening?" Gohan chuckled at the thought that Vegeta would try to blow up the Earth… again, for the third time.
"I will fucking do it!" Vegeta yelled as he charged up an energy blast aimed at the ground.
"No! All my stuff is here," Krillin screamed. "Yamcha, just give him the burger!"
"He called me fat," the bandit countered while keeping the sandwich away from the prince.
"I wish Gohan were here to keep the peace," All Might sighed as everyone else in the school's cafeteria hid under the tables for all the good it would do. With his gravity chamber at the Capsule Corp compound shot into space, Vegeta was spending much of his time at U.A., which meant that for meals he'd come to the cafeteria where the students congregated.
It really was just a matter of time before something like this happened. But that was the price they all had to pay for Nedzu's plan to introduce ki to the public. "Vegeta please don't blow up the planet, all your stuff is here."
Vegeta paused for a moment. "Shit, all my stuff is here. I like my stuff," dissipating the energy in his palms. "Give me that burger beta male!" shouting and lunging at Yamcha who just ran out of the room followed closely by a rampaging Vegeta.
A few moments later and a girlish scream echoed from the halls.
"Recovery Girl, Vegeta broke Yamcha's arm," Present Mic shouted with his quirk so the nurse could hear.
The school nurse just sighed and got out of her chair to go track down the injured teacher. "Honestly, the adults are less mature than the students."
"Nemuri for the love of god no, stop encouraging Master Roshi, we cannot handle whatever messed up lawsuit you two land the school in," Aizawa scolded both the old man and the heroine for walking past him with ladders, cameras, rope and some piston powered thing that for the sake of his sanity he was going to not look at.
Gohan just shook his head and turned back to the rest of the crew. "I'm sure they're doing just fine. Let's go save a planet."