~Tournament Saga~
Chapter 26 – What Soothes a Savage Beast?
"Fine. Well, I'm gonna get going, I can all ready see the moon, so I suppose I should be getting home."
"Hmm?" Gohan turned his head around to see the full white orb faintly starting to become visible even as the sun was setting.
THUMP THUMP
…..
THUMP THUMP
Gohan's eyes flashed red, his body thumping in and out with his exaggerated heart beat. His arms fell limp to his sides while the rest of his entire being focused on the white moon. Videl blinked as he turned to face the orb, feeling deep down inside herself that something was coming, radiating from Gohan...and it was frightening.
"G-Gohan?"
Gohan's body pulsed again. His muscles bulged and then contracted. His mouth slowly opened as his teeth slowly started to morph into fangs.
"Gohan...Gohan stop it. Wh-what's going on with you?" Videl couldn't hind the feelings stirring in her body from coming out with her words. Though she really hadn't learned how to sense energy levels yet, she could feel this. It felt angry. Almost evil. And it chilled her to the bone.
Gohan's body fell from where it had been hanging in the sky, crashing into the unmoving earth bellow causing the scared Videl to fall backwards. The saiyan landed hard on his hands and knees, but seemed unfazed at the pain, like a wild animal running on adrenalin. Staying in that position, Gohan twitched and growled lowly. Videl tentatively picked herself up off the ground and walked over to the boy. Just as she placed her hand on his shoulder, Gohan's head whipped around at her. His blood red eyes and fangs sent Videl scrambling back in fear.
Closing his eyes, Gohan cupped his head in between his arms and slammed his own head into the ground. Between growls, Gohan opened his red eyes and forced air through his mouth. "V-Videl...ruuuuunnnn...snsgrrra!"
The last of Gohan's human mind lost control of what it had held onto and his body pulsed again. In a loud blood curtailing roar, he arched his back and his muscles ripped through his shirt. Videl could only watch with large frightened eyes as Gohan slowly started to grow brown fur over his now ridiculously bulging muscles.
As Gohan grew towards the sky, his mouth twisted and grew out into a snout, his teeth growing sharper. Fur slowly consumed him as his pants finally gave way under his growing body. His tail grew along with his body, unwrapping itself from around his waist.
The now more ape than human animal huffed and snarled as it continued to grow to huge heights. Fur finished covering his body and his tail stretched fully out behind him. Gohan's blood red eyes burned with rage as his Great Ape transformation finished.
Silence filled the air as Videl looked up at the great animal. It stood silently looking out towards the horizon. It was motionless, as if trying to find something. Its loud breathing started to fill the silent void as the animal tilted its head up to look at the moon.
After what seemed like an eternity, the monster flexed its arms and roared out over the landscape. The ground shook from just the roar alone, and Videl had to cover her ears to protect them. The monkey slowly took a step forward...its foot coming strait down at Videl.
Videl could only watch as the foot rose up into the sky and then slowly started to descend right at her. Her body couldn't move. As if it wasn't tired enough, the recent events had drained her of any she had left. This had to be a bad dream...right? Right? Videl closed her eyes, hoping she would wake up soon. It was a dream...had to be. Right?
A golden blur shot under the monster's foot, scooping Videl up and out of the way just as the foot came down onto the ground. Opening her eyes she found herself in the arms of a golden Goten.
"G-Goten!"
"Are you ok big sis?" Goten looked down at the girl in his hands, a serious expression etched into his young face.
Videl slowly nodded as the golden youngster put her down out of the Great Apes path. Turning to face the monster, Goten let his aura burn around him. "Stay here Videl."
In an explosion of energy, the super saiyan shot towards Gohan. The ape was currently climbing a large mountain, trying to get closer to the full moon.
-DBZ-
High above the earth where it's always sunny, Piccolo was in a deep meditation. Dende and Popo were looking over the plants that they grew up on the lookout, watering the ones that looked thirsty. Piccolo's eyes suddenly shot wide, moments later followed by Dende. Popo blinked, watching the Namekians as their moods suddenly changed.
Dende turned to Piccolo, a confused look etched into his face. "What on earth is that?"
"Stay here!" Not bothering to answer, Piccolo took off towards the Son household, flying as fast as he could.
-DBZ-
The golden blur that was Goten stopped infront of the Great Ape's face, his arms stretched each way. The ape finished climbing the mountain and looked at the small boy infront of him. Goten grit his teeth together, the monster doing the same.
"What did you do to big brother!" The large ape only offered a loud roar in response. The golden fighter held his ground against the wind the ape was producing. When it finally stopped, Goten shot towards the large beast. The Great Ape swung his hand in an attempted to swat the golden fly out of the sky, but the super saiyan was to fast for the slow monkey to hit him. Goten brought his right hand back, balling it into a fist. Then pouring as much energy as the small boy could fit into his arm, he thrust his fist forward, landing a solid hit into the monkey's stomach.
The Great Ape roared out in pain as he was punched off the cliff where he had perched himself before. The beast landed onto his back, taking out trees and flattening the landscape under him. Goten huffed at the monster.
"Serves you right, you bully!"
Much to the boys surprise, the ape slowly started to pick himself up. Upon standing back up, Gohan's blood red eyes stared the golden fly down. The ape slowly picked his arms up, and flexed them. Roaring out at the small boy, the Ape's fur started to flutter. Hitting the pinocle of the loud roar, the beasts brown fur flashed golden and slightly spiked together. Goten floated away, taken back at the monster's transformation. The ape pulled one of its arms back, and in a blur thrust one of its own punches at the boy.
Goten hardly had enough time to pick up his guard before the punch hit. The super saiyan shot backwards from the punch, crashing through an entire mountain before coming to a crashing halt on the ground.
The golden ape roared out at the sky, happy with its victory. Slowly, the beast started to walk towards the full moon once more, stretching its arm out as if it were trying to grab it.
Videl watched in horror as Goten was punched and sent flying through a mountain. Could the young boy survive that? Nothing made sense anymore. Had Gohan always been a were-monkey? Were such things even real? What the hell was going on! Videl shook her head in her hands, her fear of the current nightmare causing her to start to shake.
"Its just a dream...just a dream...Gohan's just a nice guy who happened to have super powers. He can't just transform into a giant monkey. People just don't do that! Its just a dream. Just a dream..."
Even though she could hear herself saying it, she couldn't help but doubt it. Gohan had just done that, and Goten had saved her just in the nick of time. Her body started to shake more and more violently. Videl felt almost sick as she felt the fear withing herself boiling out and causing her shakes.
"What's wrong with me?"
-DBZ-
Gohan, the real Gohan, woke up in a darkness that was slowly starting to grow familiar. Picking his head up, he could see the three energy orbs that made up his ki, though something seemed to look different about them. Closing his eyes, a dull pain shot through his body as he tried to pick himself up. Opening one eye as he struggled, he noticed a hand was stretched out for him to grab. Taking hold of Gray's hand, Gohan stood himself up.
"Thanks Gray."
"No problem..." Gray let his hand fall to the side after helping Gohan up, sighing slightly at the situation both of them were in at the moment.
Gohan scratched the back of his head. It had been some time since he had talked to Gray, and even longer since he had seen him. Turning his attention to what Gray was looking at however created even more questions.
"What the hells going on?"
Gray pointed at the large golden orb. "I...don't know...but that things freaking out..."
Gohan tilted his head to the side as he looked at the orb that had been identified as his hidden saiyan energy. Freaking out was definitely an understatement. It had changed to a golden color much like it does when he changes to super saiyan, but it looked different now. It looked as if someone had thrown a rock into the normally calm pool of energy. Ripples in the energy were crashing into each other from all angles on the orb. It looked more like a stormy sea now when compared to what it normally looks like.
Gray turned to Gohan, looking as depressed as ever. "What...happened out there?"
"I...cant remember..." Gohan looked down at his feet, hopping that they would somehow know. Then it hit him, he had looked at the moon! And he had his saiyan tail still! It had been so long since he had a tail, he had let it slip his mind that full moons change saiyans to great apes. Gray poked Gohan's shoulder, a tad impatiently.
"You...remembered?"
"Ya...I looked at the full moon!" Gray's face matched Gohan's in shock and fear. The only time they had seen the Great Ape transformation was before anyone had learned how to transform into super saiyans. What would happen when a saiyan had learned how to do both transformations?
-DBZ-
The golden great ape finished climbing the current mountain he was on and stretched out as much as it could to try and grab at the moon. An energy ball shot from behind him, exploding into the lower back of the ape, just above the tail. The large monkey roared out in protest as it started to once again come crashing down off the mountain top.
Piccolo, glowing white in the dark night that it had become, looked down at the large creature. The golden coloration of the fur meant that the beast must have gone super saiyan. A super great ape huh? What would this make? Piccolo wondered to himself as the beast slowly picked itself up. That blast should have been able to take the tale off, but because it was super the tail remained. Piccolo grumbled as his student and best friend stood up and looked at him with those blood red eyes, roaring at the top of the beasts lungs.
"Well, if I can't take his tail off, I'll just have to take out the moon." Charging up an energy attack in his back hand, he thrust it forward towards the sky. The energy beam shot true, heading strait at the white orb.
-DBZ-
Gohan and Gray shielded their eyes with their arms when lightning started to explode from the golden orb before them.
Gohan grit his teeth together as the golden energy seemed to gain even more size and the lightning continued to dance around it with more frequency. "Great, now what?"
-DBZ-
The Golden Great Ape suddenly fazed infront of the energy ball, backhanding it off its current coarse towards the moon and back to the earth below. Piccolo's eyes widened in shock. As big as that thing was, its speed was ridiculous.
The ape roared out as it came crashing back down towards the earth. Landing on its feet, lightning crackled around the beast. Its hair was now more spiky, the strands clinging together more. Piccolo realized what the great ape had just done. It jumped to super saiyan 2. Flexing its arms, a large energy beam started to gather inside the monsters mouth. With a mighty roar, the golden beam shot out of its mouth, lighting up the darkness. Piccolo was just able to faze out of the way as the beam shot out into the sky.
Fazing back into view, Piccolo touched down next Goten, who was slowly standing back up after being punched through a mountain.
"You ok Goten?"
"I'll be fine Mr Piccolo..." The small boy had been just barely able to hold onto his super saiyan state, helping his body take the punishment from the Great Ape. Piccolo looked down at the mini super saiyan. Even if the two worked together, their chances of beating the ape were slim to none. The only ones that would have a remote chance at that would be either Goku, who was dead, or Vegeta. Piccolo looked up to the moon, and then to the small golden fighter at his side.
"Goten, can you distract that thing for a while? I got a plan."
"What's the plan?" Goten glanced up to mister Piccolo with a curious look.
"I'm gonna blow up the moon."
Goten nearly tripped over himself. "B-blow up the moon? But I like the moon! Its my giant night light."
Piccolo growled lowly, snapping the small boy back to the fight. "Just do it. I'll take care of the rest."
"Fine, but when everyone gets mad at you for blowing up the moon, don't come looking for me!" In a flash of gold, Goten shot up towards the beast. Piccolo huffed, closing his eyes as he brought two fingers up to his forehead. His special beam cannon would be the only thing fast enough to get past the large ape in case he saw it. Lightning started to crack around his fingers as his energy started to compress itself.
-DBZ-
Goku finished destroying his latest meal and leaned back into his chair. "Oh man, that was pretty good! Nothing like Chi-Chi's cooking, but still pretty good."
King Kai pushed apart some plates and dishes so he could see the person he was trying to talk to.
"Honestly Goku, did you have to eat so much? You're dead for peat sake."
Goku chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "I told you I was hungry. Anyway, as soon as this food settles I'm heading out for some training."
At that moment, a river of energy hit them. For once, it wasn't just Goku who felt his son's energy. Everyone who could sense energy in Other-World turned their head towards the direction of earth. Everyone froze in place as the monstrous energy rushed over them...and continued to somehow grow in power!
"Whoa..."
"You can sense that too?"
"Sense? Its more like you can literally feel it on your skin! How can we sense energy from so far away?"
The voices of some of the random fighters of Other-World continued to talk to one another, but Goku just stared off into the yellow clouds in awe at his son's energy level. If he wasn't mistaken...it put his newly discovered super saiyan three to shame.
-DBZ-
Vegeta sat up in bed with a jump. Bulma stirred in bed next to him, catching his eyes. She looked so peaceful, but his senses were consumed with this energy that was radiating from somewhere else on the planet. There was so much of it, it actually was hard to pinpoint the center of it all. It felt somewhat like Gohan, but it was wilder. Angrier. And it was huge.
"Hmm. Looks like the brat also discovered what Kakarot did." Vegeta silently grit his teeth together. He had felt it when his rival had ascended. But that had been from Other-World, and being closer made it seem like it was so much bigger...or was it actually bigger? Balling his fists together, Vegeta silently swore to himself that he would gain that power too.
-DBZ-
Gohan and Gray were shielding there eyes from the display the golden energy orb was giving. Large bolts of lightning arched around it as it slowly continued to grow. It was ridiculous to think that this was all happening inside of Gohan's body. As if that weren't enough, his body started to tingle and feel weaker. Lowering his guarding arm to see, Gohan gasped at the sight before him. The gold orb was consuming the smaller black and white orbs. Gray must have seen it too, cause his voice hoarsely filled reached Gohan's ears and causing to glance over at his depressing clone.
"Holy..."
The golden orb rapidly started to expand now drawing Gohan's eyes back to the light show, consuming the white and black energy orbs into itself until it was one large mass of energy. Its golden coloration shifted, changing to a silver one. The lightning grew even larger and more frequent, changing to silver to match the energy orb. It was so large now it was hard to look at it all at once. Gray and Gohan both jumped backwards at the same time to avoid the growing ball of energy.
Gohan was at a lose for words. His mouth was dry and he could feel the air pass over his lips as he breathed in and out. He couldn't believe what he was feeling. His senses had to be lying to him. There just was no way his body was putting out this kind of energy. It was just...unreal.
-DBZ-
The charging Goten was forced back by a sudden burst of wind. The ground started to shake under Piccolo, forcing him to abandon his attack on the moon. The Namekian flew up and caught the small Goten while shielding his eyes from the raging winds. The two fighters braced themselves from the raging winds. The ground below them started to crumble. What was left of the near by mountains crumbled to the ground. It felt as if the planet was about to explode.
Lowering his arms for a chance to see what the hell was going on, Piccolo caught sight of the Golden Great Ape. It was hunched over, twitching slightly. Lightning was roaring around its body as its hair started to spike together even more than before. The golden fur slowly changed to silver. The blue lightning also changed to a silver color. With a final roar, the Silver Great Ape let its energy fly from its body. Goten and Piccolo were blown back even further. The amount of energy this thing was giving off...there just was no way it was possible. It was like looking up at a large mountain with the clouds hiding the top. Was there an end to this things energy? If there was...neither Piccolo or Goten could feel it.
The beasts blood red eyes locked on the two that had been causing its torment. Neither of the fighters bodies could move. How could they? This couldn't be real. How was this happening? Could they even beat this thing? One punch from this beast probably could spit the world in two!
The monster opened its mouth, silver energy forming in its mouth. Silver lightning danced around the orb as it formed, snapping and crackling. The Silver Great Ape was just about to release its world ending blast when a small white blur flew infront of the beast and its pray.
"STOP!"
The beast showed no signs of stopping as the blast looked like it couldn't get any bigger.
"I said STOP!"
This time, Videl's please reached the beasts ears. The blast ebbed and disappeared from the monkey's mouth. The winds died down, and the silver beast had a confused look on its face. Its red eyes starred down Videl, but the girl didn't budge.
The beast slowly reached out its arm. Goten, still frozen, found his voice. "V-Videl! Look out!"
The apes finger slowly reached up and softly touched the girl. Videl flinched, but continued to stand still. The finger that was easily as large as she was, if not bigger, rubbed against her cheek.
"Gohan...what's happening to you?"
Videl's voice was a whimper, but it took the beast back a bit. The ape stumbled backwards, keeping his eyes locked on Videl. The monster looked down at its own hand, looking as if it were trying to figure that out for for itself.
"Gohan...go back to the way you were. The nice boy who never thinks about himself. And who would be willing to lay his life down for who he cares about. Go back to the Gohan I know!"
-DBZ-
Gohan and Gray blinked, lowering their guarding arms to see the large silver orb that was now softly glowing. Silver lightning arched around it every now and then, but no where near as frequent as it had been moments before. The orb was calm, the ripples that had been all over it had stopped, leaving a perfect sphere.
"It...it stopped?"
Gray slowly nodded. Though he had no clue why, things had calmed down. "What...should we do?"
"Beats me..." Gohan looked to Gray, but then back to the mass of energy before him. Was this all really his? Could he really be the owner of all this energy?
It seems that Gray also wanted to find out. "Try and...power up...see if it reacts."
"M-me? Why don't you do it?"
"Cause...I don't really want to..."
Gohan didn't like that answer, but he couldn't help but feel curious about it. Reaching an arm out, he started to power up. The silver energy reacted, slowly flowing towards Gohan. Silver lightning started to crack around his body as he took in this silver energy.
"Whoa..."
That's the only word Gohan could come up with to describe this sensation. It felt like that time he and Gray and worked together to fight Darkon, but this time it felt much much stronger. A bit of excitement took to Gohan, and he started to take in as much as he could. The silver energy started to flow faster and faster into Gohan's arm. It was exhilarating. It was like the first time he had gone super saiyan, but this was on a whole different level completely.
With his mind focusing only on how this silver energy felt, he never noticed that it was slowly picking up more and more speed as it funneled into him. Gray how ever did see that.
"G-gohan...don't you think you're going a little to fast?"
"Hmm?" Gohan glanced over to Gray, his trance broken on the feeling of the silver energy. Noticing that it was flowing way faster than it should be into him, he tried to ease back on it, but to his surprise it continued to flow into him. Even as he lowered his arm it just switched, flowing into his entire body instead. Gohan's head started to thump as this huge mass of energy started to flow into him. His hands shot up to either side of his head to brace it against the continuous thumping, but instead it continued to get louder as more and more of the silver energy started to flow into him.
"AHHhahHHH!" Gohan yelled out in pain as the power started to make it feel as if his head were splitting in two. Falling to his knees, his body started to convulse and shake wildly.
-DBZ-
The Silver Great Ape suddenly gripped is head in pain as it roared out. Videl was pushed back from the wind the ape started to give off. Goten and Piccolo caught the girl, bracing her against the wind.
"What did you say to that thing Videl?" Goten looked up to the girls face. The girl only looked longingly at the monster as it thrashed around in obvious pain. Goten was taken back when he saw tears running down her face.
All three's attention was drawn back to the Great Ape when it started to flash. It was as if someone was turning the lights off and then back on again. The monkey slowly started to decrease in size. Even as it continued to shrink, the energy it was giving off didn't. If anything, it was growing.
Videl, Piccolo, and Goten watched from the sky as Gohan shrunk down till he was at his normal height. Slowly they started to descend themselves till they were on the ground. Gohan was consumed in a silver light, but they could faintly make out his body. His had pointy black shoes, baggy white gi pants, and a blue sash around his waist. His tail was silver, and it was twisting around behind him from the amount of energy the body was giving off. Gohan didn't have a shirt, instead his chest had silver fur covering it, except for his pecks and abs which were still bare. His hair was spiked up even more than normal and was colored silver. The one bang that usually hung down over his forehead was even forced up with the rest of his hair from the energy.
In a sudden spike, Gohan's energy level reached even newer heights. His body straightened out, and the silver energy shot out from him. But as quick as the sudden spike came, it faded and in a sudden flash of silver, a normal Gohan revealed himself. The boys eyes rolled behind his head as he slowly fell forward to the ground.
Videl normally would have been to Gohan's side in a millisecond, but something stopped her. He was naked. Almost as quickly as the redness of a blush crossed her face, her hands shot over her eyes.
"What the hell!"
Without waiting any longer, and while the boys mate wasn't looking, Piccolo shot a thin beam of energy at Gohan's tail. Much to his surprise however, the tail remained. It seemed that the thing was there to say. Feeling a tug on his gi pants, Piccolo looked down to find Goten.
"What happened?"
"I think...that the energy was to much for Gohan's body to contain, and just as he was about to gain control of it, his body regected it sending him back to his normal state..." Looking down, he noticed that the small boy was looking more and more confused. "Er...um...he powered up so much that his body said no."
"And when his body said no, he went back to normal?"
Piccolo nodded a yes. Satisfied with the explanation, Goten turned to his brother. "I'll go get some clothes. Mom would kill us if we brought Gohan back and he was naked."
With a cheesy yet proud grin at how strong his brother was, and managing to forget that all that power would have been directed at him if Videl hadn't intervened, the small boy descended from his super saiyan state and started to slowly fly back towards home. Piccolo was still to stunned from Gohan's display of power to remember he could make clothes magically materialize, and let the small boy go.
Videl, who still had her hands over her eyes, fought against some crazy hormone drive to crack her fingers open so she could see that butt of Gohan's again. Why the hell was he naked? I mean, he did rip through his cloths when he became that were-monkey thing...but seriously! What the hell! And why the hell did she want to look so bad? Bad Videl! Why do you want to see that butt again? Why!...
Much to her reluctance, one of her fingers moved and her eye opened just enough to see Gohan's naked form once again. Snapping her eyes and fingers shut, the redness of her face continued to grow stronger. Damn it! Why'd I look! Why! Why? Why!
Gohan quietly groaned in protest of his cold sleeping spot and his tired body. Without really thinking, Videl cracked her fingers again to see where the noise had come from. As quickly as they had opened, they closed along with a new burst of red covering her face.
"Damn it!"
Author's Annotations:
This chapter just took the title of longest chapter so far! I must say, I had fun writing this one. I almost had Videl tell Gohan that she loved him there when she calmed him down. Almost. I just couldn't do it! It felt to early. It'll happen eventually though! Probably sooner rather than later.
And lets remember that Gohan is only 18ish, depending if you go by manga or the anime. And that's a lot of power to wield for a young man. Maybe if he was forced to pull it out (wink) he could control it.
Anyway, I'm early with this chapter! If its your birthday today, this is from me I guess. Anyway, I still have that free time coming up, so expect a chapter soonish. What's up next you ask? Well, first Gohan will have to explain everything to Videl. After all its not every day that the person you like turns into a were-monkey. I know I would want some explanations. And after that...I'll throw in one more little surprise/funny mini ark before Gohan and Videl start training seriously. I had always kinda wished that Gohan had taught Videl more than just how to fly.
Lets see...the reason Gohan hasn't been able to talk to Gray like he usually was able to will be revealed in time. Not saying any more about that. You're all probably wondering when the tournament will start as well. I mean, I did call it the tournament saga for a reason. Its gonna be one nice big tournament with no threat of the world ending or anything. My plan is to actually write down all the fighter's names down on paper and draw them out of a hat. Even I won't know who'll be fighting who till the time comes for me to write it! That'll be fun.
Anyway, thanks to all you readers out there. Please keep reading!