Chapter 3 – OR – Dinosaurs and Apes

"Oh hell no," Bulma placed her hands on her fists. "There is no way you're taking Hana off to train in the wilderness for a year!"

"This is not negotiable," Picollo glared at woman. "In one year, more Saiyans will arrive on this planet. As we are, we will be slaughtered. But Hana has the potential to fight these invaders."

"Goku just died fighting just one of these Saiyans, and you want to throw Hana into this fight!" Bulma raised her hands, outraged.

"Miss Bulma?" Hana tugged on the woman's pants to catch her attention. "I need to help. It won't be easy, but it's the right thing to do. It's what dad would want me to do."

"What about your mom?" asked Krillin.

"Hmm," Hana frowned. "She'll be mad. You might want to hide. But I think she'll understand."

"Great," Picollo interrupted, uncomfortable with the conversation. "Kid, let's go."

"Tell Mom I'll be fine," Hana looked at Bulma. "C'mon, Nimbus!"

Hana flew off on Nimbus, following Picollo.

Krillin looked sadly at Goku's body. "She seems to be taking this well."

…

Hana checked that the island was out of sight. Picollo was rather far ahead.

Good.

"Waagh!" Hana clutched Nimbus, wailing.

…

Picollo sighed, his enhanced hearing clearly picking up Hana's cries. This was going to be a long year.

"Survive," Picollo ordered. "I'll be back in a few months."

Hana shifted to look at Nimbus.

"And no using your magic cloud!"

Nimbus, aided in part bits its fluffy appearance, managed to look sheepish.

"I wonder if Krillin is still alive," Hana wondered aloud as she traipsed through the wasteland. "Mom's going to flay somebody for all of this." Hana kicked a stone fiercely, destroying a small plateau.

"Huh, that's new," Hana muttered, examining the rubble.

It had been three weeks. Normally, Hana would have started on the Son family tax forms by now. Mom would have to take care of them, this year, which Hana imagined would be quite a headache…depending on what the official story behind her husband and daughter's absence was. Was Goku dead in the eyes of law? Where was Hana right now, according to the authorities? Hana would really not prefer to return home only to be taken away by Child Protective Services.

Eh, Mom was the Ox Princess. She could handle it.

...

The day began like any other, out in the wilderness. Hana slept in a small shelter, constructed of wood, leaf, and stone, placed a stones throw from a clear stream. Shelter and water were not an issue for Hana. No, the real struggle came in gathering enough food to fuel her enormous appetite.

Before the hairy radish man attacked, Hana had done some research into the dietary needs of human beings. People, on average, need about 2,000 calories to live comfortably. Her father, Hana calculated, consumed closer to 25,000 calories daily, and showed no signs of gaining anything but muscle weight. Hana needed 15,000 calories to feel comfortable, but could go as low as 7,000 without losing any significant body mass.

In the wilderness, though, it was a struggle to meet even that lower goal. Hana's training in sensing energy was a necessity for her survival, allowing her to hunt in a wide range more effectively, though that process did not come without its own guilt. Most animals trusted Hana implicitly, settling around the young demi-saiyan without fear.

The first time Hana killed an animal for food, she dry-heaved, both seeing and sensing the slight spirit of the creature ascend into the Otherworld.

"Thank you," she cried, gathering up the broken body. "I promise, your sacrifice will not be in vain." This was her hunting litany.

Hana chose her targets carefully, not wanting to cause an imbalance in the ecosystem. In the early days Hana would run great distances to find new hunting grounds – later, she flew, a skill born of necessity.

Ki blasts developed in much the same way, with Hana starting out rubbing two sticks together and ending up blasting her kindling in frustration.

This skill wound up being quite useful on that one day that began like any other, out in the wilderness. Hana was hunting in a new section of the wilderness. She noted absently that the rock spires in this section were particularly pointy, and noted with far more apprehension the giant claw marks gouged into the sides of these rock spires.

However, these signs were not enough to convince Hana that there was a monster lurking in the wilderness. It took the emergence of a massive Tyrannosaurus Rex to convince Hana to react on an instinctual, animal level.

But fight, or flight?

I promise, your sacrifice will not be in vain.

Hana chose to fight. Gathering her ki, Hana launched herself away from lizard king's monstrous, bounced off a rock, and planted her foot square in the middle of the T-Rex's jaw, knocking the creature off balance. Imagining herself in front of a campfire, Hana straddled the massive beasts snout, and fired twin ki blasts from her palms into the Rex's wide eyes, killing the creature.

"Thank you," Hana floated into the air, and watched the T-Rex crumple to the ground. "I promise, your sacrifice will not be in vain."

Then the small demi-saiyan fainted.

…

That was pretty metal, Picollo admitted, if only to himself. He flew closer to the small girl, his gaze lingering for a long moment before he struck a meditative pose, keeping vigil over his unconscious pupil.

…

Hana regained consciousness slowly, blinking to clear her blurry eyes. A vast array of stars blossomed before Hana's eyes, transfixing the girl. In that moment, Hana could internalize the multitudinous nature of creation for the first, her sharp eyes finding and failing to count the stars glowing so far away.

A grin lit up Hana's face – she had never seen the stars before. To think that, ultimately, part of her heritage found its origin somewhere in that vast expanse…

Hana turned, and found her gaze transfixed by the seemingly largest figure in the nighttime sky, the moon. It was a massive, Hana observed, and she absently considered eccentricities of orbital paths that could have contrived to make the moon so enticingly close. Perhaps, if she could fly a bit closer, she could touch…

A hot rush of primal fury overcame Hana, and she thought no more that night.

…

My pupil is turning into an ape! Picollo panicked. Hana had already multiplied in size several times over, her body entirely covered with coarse brown fur.

"Goku, I blame you for this!" Picollo shouted at the sky. Perhaps the idiot could hear him in the Otherworld.

The great ape reached the size of a large house, then stopped growing any further. Though, Picollo corrected himself, Hana had not turned into a great ape precisely – she possessed a tail, and her snout somehow looked more canine than any true ape would wear.

A roar, far more fearsome than the T-Rex's, erupted from the beasts mouth, followed shortly by a beam of pure energy and a fearsome sweep of her claws at a rocky pillar.

"Dammit, Goku!" Picollo swore, strategically retreating out of reach of the ape's energy blasts. "If it weren't for your genes…" and Raditz's genes. The tail was an exploitable weakness!

Not giving himself time to come up with a more reasonable plan, Picollo sped forward and grabbed the tail before the ape could strike.

"Got the tail!" Picollo shouted to nobody, glad that at least one part of his plan had worked. The ape froze, and its ki blast disrupted. It turned, menacingly, to destroy the pest thwarting its advance, roaring in the face of the green man.

Picollo frowned, his antennae flopping backwards from the force of the wind. Thankfully, there had been no ki blast to accompany that roar. Picollo considered his next move for a long moment. He could kill the moon, the apparent originator – beside Goku – of this transformation, but he discarded that notion on the grounds that he didn't want to accidentally destroy the Earth as well. Severing Hana's tail was another option, but Picollo didn't want to risk causing the girl permanent damage. In the end, Picollo went with the option that felt right:

"Son Hana!" Picollo yelled, locking eyes with the ape. "Stop this right now, or so help me…" tail in hand, Picollo flew right up to the ape's face, "I will tell your mother."

The ape reeled back, as if struck, and curled in on herself.

…the hell?

The ape shuddered, and blinked several times, before opening her eyes anew. She surveyed the wanton destruction, and knew that she was the ultimate cause. How many animals had she slain in her rampage?

"Hana," a steady voice pierced through the primal perception of the ape. "Calm down. You're safe."

Hana believed him, heaved a breath in, sighed, and fell asleep.

In moments, the massive ape shrank into the form of a small child, with a long tail. Picollo considered for a moment, and recreated a version of her father's iconic orange gi for the girl with his clothes beam.

…How was he able to do that again?

Thanks for reading! Just so you know, this story does not have a set update schedule, or guarantees of completion. Sorry about that! Reviews and ideas are appreciated here (I'm kinda flying by the seat of my pants). Blame any continuity errors of DBZ Abridged, lol.