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The Impossible
Chapter Two – Impact
- Moments earlier -
"Are we done with this warm up?!" Vegeta snapped.
"400 times gravity is your warm up?" Goku asked acting surprised. He wiped some sweat from his forehead.
"Oh shut up Kakarot, I know you could handle twice this level without transforming," Vegeta growled. The two had been in the outdoor gravity pod sparring in their base forms after their quantifiable meal.
Bulma had specifically taken the indoor gravity room as out of bounds today, as she knew Vegeta would escape into it for the duration of the celebrations. It was handy having the ability to adjust the codes so that the room could not be opened unless it was by her.
However she hadn't thought to lock off the outdoor gravity pod that Vegeta used to train it when he first arrived on Earth.
In the last five years, Vegeta had cut his training schedule drastically to make some more time for his family, Bulla especially. Growing up, Trunks had never pushed hard for a lot of Vegeta's attention, not that he didn't wish he would attain it. But the demi heiress was a different case. She commanded the people around her to please her every whim.
Whist he would still train for a few hours daily, Vegeta had spent a great deal more time training his daughter or taking her the various places she commanded.
The unusual relationship between father and daughter was looked on with pride from Vegeta. Whilst she may not be regarded highly in fighting ability, he cherished the moments he had with her. He had loved her from the minute she existed and her existence only brought the unconventional Briefs family together.
Goku chuckled and prepared to get serious, he too had not put a lot of focus in training himself, placing Uub and Pan higher on his priorities. A decision that seemed to be greatly paying off, realising that it was only a matter of time before Uub would surpass him and take over as the Earth's protector.
The two rivals floated into the air near the ceiling of the portable gravity pod, locked in a stand-off preparing for battle. Vegeta aimed a remote at the gravity control panel and adjusted the setting to 600 x Earth's gravity, and then tossed the remote to the ground.
"You ready?" Goku asked through a smile.
Vegeta simply narrowed his eyes. Perhaps one of the reasons he enjoyed his daughters company so much was that she was not ridiculously upbeat or disgustingly cheerful like Kakarot and the rest of the Son family.
In a flash the two charged at each other mid-air but before first contact was made they began to fall. Crashing down hard onto the floor of the pod, destroying some of the tiles in the process.
"What the!?" Vegeta shouted, unsure what Kakarot had done to him. But it wasn't Goku who had hit him, as Goku himself was flat on the floor.
The gravity felt like it was increasing, the brunt of 600x Gravity colliding onto them.
The two men began crying out in pain, feeling as if they were being crushed between two planets, unable to scramble to their feet. Their bones pressing into their vital organs an unbearable sensation threatening their lives.
Vegeta was no quitter, he began to summon all of his strength to transform into a Super Saiyan so that he could front the gravity, but the energy wasn't there. He couldn't feel his own ki, or even that of Kakarot's. He began to wonder if his comrade was dead but this was proven false as he could hear the man screaming out in pain.
Vegeta glanced from the corner of his eye at the display on the gravity controls, which still read 600x.
'But that's impossible,' he thought, there is no way 600x gravity could affect them in such a way it felt more like 6,000x.
Wondering how much longer he could sustain the immense pressure, the gravity controls began to malfunction. Smoke and sparks appeared and the LCD screen went black. Vegeta felt the pressure begin to ease as the gravity returned to normal.
"V-Vegeta?" Goku muttered as he got to his feet, "Did you do that?" Wondering why his friend would increase the gravity to such an alarming rate.
Vegeta got up, ignoring the question. If the gravity machine was down, then the ki blocking mechanism would also be down. Why then, could he not feel anyone that was outside?
"I can't sense them," he said urgently getting to the door of the pod, his movements slow, slower than they had ever been before.
Goku understood, he couldn't feel anyone outside either, in fact he couldn't even feel Vegeta standing right next to him, and Vegeta's ki signature was the easiest one for him to detect from anywhere on the planet.
Vegeta pushed the door open and was greeted with the shrilling sound of their families and friends' screams.
"What's going on!?" Goku shouted.
Gohan was standing on the opposite side of the deep crevice forming in the earth to where Videl was. She was holding onto Hale and Pan was not too far away rushing to be by her mother's side.
The gap was too large to jump and Gohan couldn't manage to summon the energy to fly across.
'No?!' there was no more time they would all be hit by the impending wave and he couldn't protect them, his family.
"Videl!" he screamed out to her, contemplating attempting the suicidal leap across to her.
"Gohan!" she cried out after him, it was the last thing he heard before the impact.
Water. Giver of life. Taker of life.
The impact of the wave was the first concern as it was strong enough to knock you unconscious or worse, kill you. Whilst some of the Z fighters had managed to brace themselves against buildings or trees or anything remotely sturdy, some of them, like Videl, were out in the open, near the erupting earth, opening and splitting into a dangerous trench.
It wasn't the bone crushing force of the wave crashing onto her delicate body that hurt Videl the most, it was the utter heartbreak of feeling her baby escape the confines of her arms as she was pulled deep down under the surface, alone.
She began to swim to the surface, desperate to find her defenceless baby, but a second wave pushed her back down.
Air running low, her second attempt to reach the surface was blocked by torpedoing debris which cut her arm up as she tried to avoid the assault.
Hope would never evade a mother like Videl. On her third and final attempt she swam to the surface inhaling a life-renewing breath of air, but the horror was not over.
Treading water, she was being pulled by the wave as if it was a current. She searched desperately for Hale or Pan or Gohan, but nothing.
Unable to make her voice box work, she silently screamed to herself. Tears falling down her already wet face.
Marron pulled herself to the surface, after the second wave had pushed her down. She was cold and frightened, hoping this was just some horrible nightmare.
"Help!" she screamed, although it was stupid, she could here other victims in the distance calling out the same thing. She looked frantically around hoping to find her parents or anyone familiar but the water was still slashing against her face, impairing her vision.
"Marron," someone called from a distance.
Trunks was already exhausted from the impact but swam swiftly across the raging current to where Marron was.
"Oh Trunks, you're ok!" she screamed and grabbed hold of him for support. Without him she would likely have drowned.
Trunks could see the banks of a hilled section above ground which was not flooded in water, it was grassy and looked safe but was a reasonable distance to swim to, especially against a strong current. "Come on, we have to get to land before we are carried too far away," he instructed.
Marron was not a confident swimmer and was basically towed by Trunks the gruelling distance.
They made it to the bank but it was too steep and there was no easy way to grip it. Especially with it being so wet, it was too hard for them to pull themselves up onto the ledge.
Trunks urgently tried grasping onto the earth and pull himself and Marron to safety but was not succeeding. They were being dragged by the flowing water down the bank and Marron sliced up her hands on several tree roots before she got a good hold on one.
"I've got it," she shouted trying to pull Trunks within grasping distance also. But he slipped as the current increased in speed and was beginning to be dragged away from her.
Marron caught his hand in hers as she held onto the tree root in her spare hand.
"Quickly, pull us up," Trunks said between breaths. It was too difficult, she was not strong enough to lift both of their weights with only one hand.
She tried with all of her might but only felt Trunks slipping further from her, "I can't do it!" she cried.
Trunks noticed an iron picketed gate caught up in the debris of the current, up ahead of them. It must have been torn from someone's driveway during the impact and the sharp prongs were approaching them fast.
If they hung there, it would likely impale them both.
"Trunks?! Marron?!" Goten shouted from the banks as he rushed towards them. He must have freed himself onto the high ground from the other side and had noticed his two friends struggling to get to safety. Marron smiled largely when she saw Goten coming.
He rushed to help them out of the water. But Trunks knew he would not make it in time for them to avoid the gate.
"I'm sorry Marron," Trunks said.
"What?" she asked as she turned back to him, not understanding what was wrong.
Trunks released himself from her grip and allowed the water to carry him down the banks. Marron now with two hands free pulled herself onto the grassy ledge and with Goten's help was pulled to the safety of solid ground, seconds before the sharp iron of the gate could strike her.
"Trunks No!" she screamed as he was carried away by the water. He looked at her with what appeared to be a smile, satisfied that with what may be his last action he was able to save her.
She looked at him with utter horror and tried to run after him to save him. The iron gate charged towards him. There was no way she could reach him in time and had to look away, she couldn't watch him die.
An arm grasped the lavender haired boy by his right shoulder.
"G-Gohan?" Trunks managed as the older demi Saiyan pulled him from the watery decline.
"I've got you Trunks," he said.
Vegeta and Goku had remained inside the gravity pod when the wave first landed. They escaped into the watery rapids with minor injuries as the walls of the chamber began to crumble.
It was uncomfortable for them to not be able to fly or sense the ki of the ones they were searching for. But they were determined to rescue their families and friends.
They began to shout out various names, all falling onto deaf ears as the roar of the crashing waves had rendered the few victims around the area temporarily deafened.
They would think it should be relatively easy to find everyone, having been situated in the same area when the wave hit, however, with the earth shifting in an unusual fashion and the wave still pushing inland at a marvellous rate, their loved ones could be anywhere by now.
After their first failed attempt at finding the others, Vegeta and Goku managed to climb onto the roof of a home that had remained intact.
"Kakarot, can you fly?" Vegeta demanded, still frustrated at his own incompetence.
"No, can you?" he panted, exhausted from all the swimming.
Vegeta balled his fists, beyond frustrated at the predicament. He grabbed Goku by the collar.
"Use your instant transmission and take us to Bulma!" he yelled.
Knowing it was best to do as his friend said when the veins in his head appeared as if they were about to pop, Goku placed two fingers to his forehead, searching for Bulma's ki.
He spent a great deal of time concentrating before concluding that "It's no use, I can't find her."
Vegeta shoved him as he let go of his collar.
"We'll have to find her the old fashion way Vegeta," Goku said as he looked out at the destroyed and flooded ruins of what used to be West City. Well it was hard to tell if they were even in West city anymore, the current had carried them quite far.
"Goku?" a light muffled voice called out from the water below, followed by a serious coughing fit and desperate thrashing against the water to remain at the surface.
Goku was quick to dive in after her, knowing immediately that it was Chi-Chi. He didn't have to sense her to be able to tell that voice belonged to his wife.
She had lost her battle with remaining above the water and began to sink, drifting out of consciousness.
"Chi-Chi are you ok?" he begged, after picking her up in both of his arms and pulling her from the water. Her eyes were closed and her skin had turned the palest of whites.
She looked ghostly but he could feel her pulse and her soft beating heart. He brushed his hand through her wet hair attempting to dry her as he felt her shiver.
"Come on, I'll take you somewhere warm," he promised, fear evident in her voice as she didn't reply.
Vegeta watched the scene in a state of panic as Goku climbed Chi-Chi onto the safety of the roof, hoping for some of her energy to return.
Vegeta returned to the water filled streets. The current was slowing and seemed to begin to recede back to where the ocean had previously been. The people remaining in the flood water would be brought back out to sea, and if they were in any condition like Chi-Chi's they would likely drown.
"Bulma!?" he shouted, feeling the anger in his heart burst. This was not the way he would allow it to end.
A pale skilled female body began to float through the street and Vegeta waded towards her, pulling her in and clasping his hand at the back of her neck to look into her lifeless eyes.
It wasn't Bulma, or Bulla or anyone he had cared for. It was a young woman with short purple hair and green eyes that had no light, no direction, no life. Vegeta stared into those eyes that could have easily been the enchanting aqua ones owned by his mate and two children.
He let the woman go, and watched her float out into the abyss. A death without honour or pride.
He may have thought he had felt it before. Maybe at a time when he was to face his most fearsome competitors, or when he knew he would sacrifice himself for the earth, but he was mistaken.
This was the first time Vegeta had felt fear. Fear of what he did not know. Fear of what was the most likely truth.
"What the hell did you do that for?!" Marron shouted at Trunks after the four reunited on the safety of the solid ground.
Trunks lent over and coughed up the water he had ingested, choking for air after nearly drowning.
"Are you ok?" she asked kneeling by his side placing an arm around him, her tone changing to a gentle reassuring one. She hadn't understood why he would attempt to sacrifice himself for her. But she was eternally grateful he was rescued as well.
"Yeah," he managed to croak out. Marron felt herself begin to cry, cry at what could have happened to her best friend, what might have actually happened to everyone else she cared about.
Trunks pulled her into his arms and allowed her to try onto his shoulder as he slowing caught back his breath.
"Gohan?" Goten asked, "Do you have any idea what just happened?"
Gohan shook his head, his eyes filled with worry, "Have you seen any of the others?"
"No, I'm sorry" Goten frowned, he had managed to escape the brutality of the impact and make it to land quickly but it may have not been the case for everyone else. He could feel his brothers anguish.
Gohan balled his fists tight, 'if only I had of been standing with Videl' he thought to himself, feeling tears beg to fall from his eyes.
Goten placed a hand on his older brothers shoulder, "We'll find them," he said with utter certainty.
A/N
-Bit of a full on chapter, hope you are enjoying. Please pop a review, even if you didn't. I have great plans for this story so I will certainly finish it and I will attempt to update weekly.
-To the Guest who asked about Mai, sorry but it will be a little too confusing to introduce her into a story like this, but I'm glad you are enjoying her in my other story. I will probably eventually write a fic about her specifically so keep an eye out.