--- Disturbance, Book 2: Divergence ---
Chapter D09 - Come What(ever) May
Disclaimer: The fun about this sentence is that by the time you realise it doesn't say anything, it's too late to stop reading it. Also: See first chapter.
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-Can you take away every single day-
"You go bye-bye now! Bye-bye Babidi!" Buu exclaimed excitedly. "No more tell Buu what to do! No more meanie!" The now headless body of Babidi twitched a few times in Buu's grip, before Buu tossed it away with an excited whoop, firing a blast and obliterating it completely. Majin Buu let out a cheer; he was free!
-That we have given to another false prophet?-
With a whistle, Goku appeared back on the Lookout as suddenly as he'd disappeared. "Daddy?" Goten questioned, before racing over to him and giving him a hug. "Daddy! You're back! You were great dad!"
"How are you feeling Goku?" Piccolo asked; for a dead man, Goku looked really exhausted. The deceased fighter just smiled, signalling he was okay
"Trunks and Liran found the dragon radar and are on their way back," Bulma commented, "So we've avoided one catastrophe."
"I know," Goku replied. "Now, even if Majin Buu does destroy West Capitol, we'll be able to set things right again." Suddenly, his head snapped to the side, looking back down to the Earth below.
"What's the matter?" Goten asked, sitting at his father's feet, "What's wrong dad?"
"Goku, what is it you're sensing?" Piccolo asked.
"It's... Majin Buu," he replied, "He's... He's killed Babidi." The statement was met by shock from the others.
"Well, this is a surprising turn of events," Piccolo commented dryly.
"I had a feeling that he might," Goku added, "They didn't really seem to get along."
"So," Piccolo questioned, "What happens now? Majin Buu has no one telling him what to do anymore. There's no denying that Babidi was definitely the brains of that particular operation."
"Maybe things will turn out happy after all guys," Bulma stated hopefully.
Not wanting to sound too pessimistic, Goku replied, "We can only hope."
-Can you give us all a reason not to fall-
"Buu so free! Buu so free like bird with no cage!" Buu exclaimed, flying through the air, for once, joyously. "So free! What do Buu do first? Buu have so much fun now no more Babidi tell Buu what to do!" Pointing towards the horizon, where he could see a city, Buu shouted, "Over there look fun!" Unknowingly, he had drifted towards West Capitol.
-Before you take away another broken promise?-
"Five minutes sir."
He nodded to the man, not taking his eyes off the figure in the mirror, as he went about making the final checks on his appearance. Satisfied he looked good, he took a few deep breaths, psyching himself up for what was to come. He was the strongest (normal) man on Earth, he was the (now-former) World Martial Arts Champion, he was the man who (was believed to have) beat Cell. He was Hercule Satan.
Prior to the tournament that ended a couple of hours, at most, earlier, he would have had no trouble living these lies. Cell was dead, he'd been there, and no one else had stepped forward to claim the victory as theirs. He had never, at first, claimed that he himself had defeated Cell; the reporters and such just assumed it was him, because he was all that was left. Once that lie began, he knew there was no going back, but, for the past seven years, everything had been great. There were no contenders for his title as Saviour of the World, and nothing else the world needed saving from.
Five hours prior, Hercule was confident he would continue to be the best the world knew about. And then they showed up at the tournament. After seven years, they had returned from wherever they'd been living since the Cell Games. In truth, given the competition, Hercule was fortunate to have gotten as far in as he did, coming away with 'Runner-Up'. In a way, it irritated him that he was no longer champion.
-Show your pretty face, hide the bitter taste-
-You're still the rapist of an entire nation-
It irritated him more that the man who was crowned champion - or would be once everything settled down again - was the first one to declare intentions to date his daughter, and succeed the challenge no less. Still, the boy had proven he could look after Videl, so, maybe he could finally let her go.
Then, just after the tournament's conclusion, some of the competitors went crazy. First, two of them stabbed the man who would have been champion, had he not forfeited the title, in the stomach, then, that same man, and one who looked like an older version of him, proceeded to blow up part of the stadium. And as if that wasn't bad enough, now they had this little yellow wizard thing popping up into their heads, telling them about how Earth was now his, and how that pudgy pink thing with him would destroy Earth if he didn't get what he wanted.
Hercule, for all his antics and shenanigans, wasn't an idiot. He knew this 'Buu' thing was way out of his league, just like Cell had been. He knew that there was no way he could beat it. He did, however, know one thing he could do: give the people hope. Even if it cost him his life, he would give the people of Earth hope that everything would turn out fine. Maybe, this way, he could earn Videl's forgiveness for lying to her these past seven years.
"Mister Satan? They're waiting for you."
He nodded, turning away from the mirror. He had a press conference to get to, and hope to spread to the people.
-You wanna be the man you gotta be a man-
-But you were nothing but a sad insinuation-
"Kaen, what are we gonna do?"
"I'm thinking," was his terse reply, his eyes closed as he racked his brain for a solution. With the fight over, finding their way back to their bodies had been simple, and despite the massive battle they'd been involved in that had taken up at least an hour in the real world, physically the pair of them were just fine; mentally they were drop-dead exhausted, but they were conditioned to fight on regardless. Now, they just needed to work out what, if anything, they could so to help.
From what his senses told him, both Gohan and Vegeta were dead, most likely to that black hole of dark ki he could pick up; the same dark ki that was heading towards West Capitol with surely malicious intent. For all his bravado, Kaen knew he and Pi couldn't win at their current power level, without possibly resorting to their trump card, and possibly not even then; after all, if this 'Majin Buu' thing defeated both Gohan and Vegeta, two twice-ascended Super Saiyans, what hope did they have?
Still, he knew they had to try; other than Goku, they were the only ones left who could stop this menace, and the deceased Saiyan warrior didn't have the best track record when it came to saving the world. Sure, he tended to be there and get the job done, but only after everyone else was either dead, or on the verge of it... Ironically, Kaen mused to himself, he was a tad surprised the current situation wasn't dire enough for Goku to win...
-(Oooooh)-
-How can we ever live this down?-
Opening his eyes again, he glanced over at his mate, still standing there patiently awaiting his answer. Taking a deep breath, he asked, "Pi, do you trust me?"
"With my life," she replied immediately. They both knew that nothing good started with the phrase 'do you trust me', but the truth of the matter was she did, in fact, trust him with her life.
"We may be testing that resolve soon..." He commented wryly.
"So what's the plan Kaen?" She asked, "Are we just going to attack Buu head on? You know we can't win that way."
"You're right, we can't win at our current power level," he replied, grinning before adding, "We can, however, slow him down a little."
"You do realise one, or both, of us might get killed?"
-(Oooooh)-
-How can we ever live this down?-
He sighed, "Yeah, I do. I'm kinda banking on it actually... Look, I understand if you don't want to-"
"Well, let's go then." Pi interrupted enthusiastically.
He face-faulted, "You're okay with this?" When she nodded, looking eager to head off to a suicidal fight, something clicked in his mind. "You were gonna go along with this either way weren't you? You just wanted me to explain the 'why' of it."
She nodded again, "Mm hm. You should know by now that that's my job. I'm here to be your muse, to give you the want, the need, and the inspiration to do better."
He levelled a wry look her way, "And here I thought you were my mate."
She just grinned, "Hey, I never said the job was without its perks."
He just shook his head, commenting, "We'll continue this conversation later. Right now, we have work to do." With a nod, the two blasted off, Kaen heading East and Pi West; first order of business: to get Buu away from West Capitol.
-Keep your fingers crossed, the truth is at a loss-
-Big decision for an ordinary coward-
With the roar of flared ki, three figures crested the side of the Lookout. About halfway back, Oran and Lime's fusion had worn off, leaving the two tired kids to fly back with Trunks, meaning the return journey had been longer than the outbound trip; after the fusion wore off, the twins needed a moment to recover which they didn't have, so that slowed them down a bit.
Racing over to the kids, Bulma cast a mother's eye over her son before saying, "It's good to see my little Trunks. You must be tired."
"Mum, I'm fine," He tried to wave her off. Ignoring her condescending reply, he turned to the approaching Goku, holding out the radar and stating in a soldier's tone, "Here it is sir. Confirm: is this your dragon radar?"
Goku smiled, "Con-firmed! Good job soldier. Mission accomplished."
"I must say Goku," Oran stated, "I don't give you nearly enough credit. That half-baked plan of yours almost worked flawlessly."
-The only problem is your fucking rhetoric-
-We're more in danger then before you took power-
His grin widened, "See, I told you it would- Wait, almost?" He paused, looking around again, before continuing, "Thanks to your help, Trunks got the Dragon Radar," while still standing to attention, Trunks looked exhausted, and the twins were glaring tiredly at him, "Babidi is dead, and Buu-"
"-Is still going to destroy West Capitol." Piccolo interrupted.
"What?" Goku cried out in surprise.
"It would appear your very moving speech about waiting for a strong warrior to come defeat him didn't get quite the effect you wanted." The entire sentence was delivered with Piccolo's trademark dry, inflection-less voice, but even the dense Goku could tell there was a thinly veiled insult in there somewhere.
Goku nearly panicked at the news. "Crap, I've gotta go-"
"Wait," Goten piped up, "Do you guys feel that?"
The group on the Lookout paused for a moment, and, like Goten said, they could feel a pair of very familiar presences. Oran's face broke out into a grin, "It's niichan!"
-Now it's just a game; God you'll never change-
Majin Buu stopped his flight above the concrete jungle that was West Capitol; of course, he didn't know that this particular city was the West Capitol Babidi had been trying to get it to go too. All he knew was that this place looked like fun. That, and he was hungry. Buu grinned what would have been a combination of a malicious and a childish grin, taking a deep breath, and preparing to turn everyone in the city to chocolate, when a whistling sound drew his attention. Before he could turn around, however, he was struck abruptly from behind, the force of impact sending him flying.
-You'd sell us out if you could only find a buyer-
Kaen grinned to himself, shouting, "Batter up Fat Boy!" Having just flown halfway around the world at over mach speed, the force of the kick he had just delivered to Buu's spine - assuming he had a spine - was easily enough to send the butterball 'round the other half of the planet, assuming he didn't try to stop his momentum sooner. Still grinning, Kaen blasted off after him; best to make sure he kept going until he reached the appropriate destination...
-You don't give a shit as long as idiots-
"...And when I come back from my training, that Majin Buu is gonna be toast!" Hercule shouted to the crowd, raising his hands into his traditional 'victory' pose; the crowd roared their approval. If there was one thing Hercule knew, besides how utterly outclassed he was by Buu and pretty much everyone who'd entered the tournament, it was how to work a crowd. It worked fine, right up until someone noticed something approaching, fast.
"What's that?" A random person in the crowd shouted.
"I-It's..M-Majin Buu!" Someone else screamed.
Hercule began to sweat, and when someone shouted, "Save us Hercule," a sentiment soon shared by everyone there, he knew he was in trouble...
-Are in your corner you could set us all on fire-
For a creature comprised of nothing but evil, magic, and bubblegum, Majin Buu was decidedly heavy. However, due to the immense mass, when a sufficient amount of momentum was forced upon it, it took a long time to wear off; the fact the person who had kicked it in the back was chasing it through the air and ki pushing it along didn't help drop this momentum any. Still, eventually, the momentum had to wear off, and that moment was fast approaching. Before it could happen, however, a blur of green intercepted it from the front, ricocheting the pink monster skyward for a few seconds, before another blow landed.
-(Oooooh)-
Pi smiled to herself as she watched Buu fast approaching, changing direction slightly with a flare of ki to intercept. With a short burst of ki, she sent Buu skywards, warping up after him and clenching her fists together, volleyball spiking the pink blob down into the city, following him with a flare of ki; it was time for the fun to begin.
-How can we ever live this down?-
Hercule couldn't help but scream like a woman as Buu was sent careening into the city, missing the amassed people by, at most, two blocks, before sending up a cloud of shattered concrete as it struck the ground. Thinking quickly, he began herding the people away from the combat zone. Fortunately, City Hall had a bomb shelter underneath it large enough for everyone. After he got them all down there, well... That was anyone's guess.
-(Oooooh)-
-How can we ever live this down?-
This time, Buu was more prepared for the blow; it'd seen it coming. As such, it was able to adjust its mass so that it landed more-or-less on its feet. Gritting what passed for teeth, Buu clenched it's fists, glaring up at the descending green form, with steam shooting out of the holes in his body as it shouted, "Buu hate you! Buu make you die!"
It was sent flying again, and again from a blow to the back, as a red-sheathed form shouted back, "Not on my watch Fatso!" Buu's forward momentum was cut short when Pi leapt into a spin kick the moment her feet touched the ground, sending Buu flying down the street to the right, before crashing into a building; the Saiyan couple were amused to note it was the high school, which was, fortunately, empty, due to the tournament holiday throughout the city.
With a pink explosion, Buu emerged from the rubble, it's normally slit-like eyes openly glaring at the pair of them, as it screamed, "BUU HATE YOU!"
Kaen just grinned as he took his place beside Pi, the pair drawing their swords as they fell into mirroring stances. Sharing a quick glance at each other, the pair turned back to Buu, grinning together as they shouted, "Bring it!"
-You never wanted to be-
-They only wanted a parody-
-You want the world to be free-
-But what the hell is free about it?!-
The mood on the Lookout was, to say the least, surprised by this little twist. In the end, it was Piccolo who spoke, "Well, that ought to keep him busy for a while."
"You do realised Hercule could get killed?" Krillin commented, lookout over the edge with the others.
The corner of the Namek's lips twitched in a pale imitation of a smile. "Acceptable losses."
Krillin just grinned back, "I wasn't complaining."
"What's going on down there?" the twins asked, rushing up to the adults, "We wanna see too!"
"Then just look over the edge," Dende replied with a shrug, "The Lookout is enchanted such that anyone looking off it can see wherever they want in the world, 'slong as you know where you wanna see." At the kids surprised look, he added, "What, you don't think the position of 'Kami' comes with super powers do you? I mean, I can control basic weather, to help prevent natural disasters and the like, but only from up here. It's the Lookout itself that provides power to whoever is in charge, and they, in turn, decide what to do with that power."
With a grin, the twins rushed to look over the edge, joined shortly by Goten and Trunks; they wanted to see this.
-Now we reached the end, just get it over with-
-But this is building to an adamant conclusion-
"About time they showed up," Avarrdo commented tiredly.
Jumping up and down slightly, excited at the fact her brother and sister were indeed fine, Kat asked the room, "I wonder what they were doing?"
"Where'd they come from anyway?" Truniz asked.
Looking over the data on his terminal, Kellre replied, "They just seemed to appear on the north-eastern ice continent, near the Red Ribbon's abandoned Muscle Tower. That's the general area we thought they were when they disappeared."
A confused look on her face, Raene asked, "So they just disappeared into thin air, and reappeared just as suddenly? How is that possible?"
Kellre shrugged. "Some kind of new technique perhaps? The only way we can know for certain is to ask them."
Truniz grinned. "I think they're gonna be a little busy for a while."
-Come what ever may, there's gonna be a day-
-When we have figured out a possible solution-
As Buu charged towards them, the pair shared a look again, before, with a nod, Pi tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword. The blade glowing with green ki, Pi shot forward, a cry of "Zantetsuken" being heard once she was stationary again, Buu equidistant between the pair of them. With a surprised, if annoyed, look on his face, Buu began to slide apart at the waist, his legs falling to the pavement below while his torso remained floating.
With a twitch, Buu's legs floated back up, merging back into his body. No sooner than the body part was in place it was severed again, this time by the white flame wreathed blade held in Kaen's hand. Again Buu tried to reform his body, only to find he needed to liquefy to join together again. This made Buu angry, a fact he made known with more steam venting, and another scream of, "BUU MAKE YOU DIE!"
-Every thing you've done is killing everyone-
-A little smile on a homicidal bastard-
With another shared grin, Pi's blade joined Kaen's in being wreathed in white flame, before the two disappeared from sight, appearing only as a vague red-and-green haze around Buu. By the time the gum-like body registered one cut, three more had been made; when the two had finally finished, standing a good fifty feet away from Buu, they were panting slightly from the effort. For a moment, Buu seemed unaffected by the swarm of cuts, before he suddenly fell apart into chunks of pink flesh, each no larger a matchbox.
Grinning tiredly at her mate, Pi commented, "That'll take him a while to regenerate from."
-You wanna be a man, you gotta have a plan-
-Another failure is a guaranteed disaster-
As if purely to spite her words, the chunks of pink faux-flesh seemed to melt into pink goo and flow back together. To make matters worse, the cloud of smoke, created from the fiery blades tearing through Buu's body, seemed to be swirling together as well. Within seconds, the goo had re-formed into Majin Buu, and, to their horror, the smoke had formed into a thin, grey Buu look-alike.
Kaen and Pi stared in wonder as the two Buu's stared each other down. It was the Fat Buu who broke rank first, a pink beam shooting from the tentacle on his head as he shouted, "Turn to chocolate!" It looked, at first, like Grey Buu was not going to act, until, at the last possible second, he blew on the beam, sending it back the way it came. With a small pink explosion, all that remained of Fat Buu was a chocolate bar, and, before the Saiyan couple could react, Grey Buu had dashed over to the bar, picked it up, and eaten it.
-(Oooooh)-
-How can we ever live this down?-
As they watched, the Grey Buu seem to fill out, his gaunt, frail 'muscles' expanding, his cape seeming to disappear, and his colour changing to the normal pink tone they'd come to expect from Buu's, both those on the battle front, and those watching from the Lookout, could only comment, "We, are in serious trouble."
The change complete, the new Majin Buu let out an evil laugh, turning his gaze upon his stunned audience; his power level had shot through the roof. Reaching a hand back, he formed a bright pink blast, shouting "And now you die!" as he flung it forward.
-(Oooooh)-
-How can we ever live this down?-
Time seemed to slow down as the blast approached, seconds stretching out seemingly to hours. All in all, Kaen mused to himself in his last moments of life, it was a fairly surreal feeling. At least, it would have been his last moments of life, if not for Pi's complete disregard for her own life; or, more accurately, her total dedication to him, regardless of the cost to herself.
Within moments of the new Buu's creation, Pi came to the realisation that at their current power level, no matter what they did one of them would die, and so, with an unyielding resolve that even her father would envy, Pi decided to prove to her mate, once and for all, the depth of her love and dedication to him. Just like she had done close to a year ago, she would throw herself upon the bullet meant for her soulmate.
-You never wanted to be-
-They only wanted a parody-
-You want the world to be free-
She knew his entire repertoire of techniques, including those he had never actually in combat. She knew he had the ability to undo events a few minutes in the past, as he had done close to a year ago. She knew, despite all this, that there was no guarantee that he would be able to bring her back, despite his reputation as a phoenix. Nevertheless, within seconds her mind was decided, and so she acted.
-She only wanted the world-
-You never wanted me-
-They only wanted a parody-
Diving forward, Pi threw her sword blade-first into the pavement as she flew past, and no sooner had she passed the sword the emerald half of the pommel flashed, and a wall of translucent green energy spread out on either side of the weapon. She knew the field created wouldn't prevent the blast from reaching her mate, but that was not its purpose; it was there to keep him from interfering.
-You want the world to be free-
-But what the fuck is free about it?!-
Without even a moment's hesitation, she sped headfirst into the blast, knowing that as weak and mostly one directional her wall was, she would have to detonate the blast a fair way away from her mate lest her sacrifice be in vain. Crossing her arms in front of her as the light of the incoming blast began to hide her form, Pi spared her final thought for the mate she was leaving behind, smiling sadly and whispering, "I love you Kaen..."
-What the fuck is free about it?!-
Her words were drowned out by the roar of the deadly pink blast headed her way, but she knew, deep in her heart, that they reached him. A lone tear fell from her eyes, before a massive pink explosion rocked the city, cracking windows in a two-block radius. When the smoke cleared, all that remained to prove to the world that the Saiyan warrior Pi had once stood here was her sword, the green glow fading from the emerald atop it. And as the light finally faded from what was now her grave marker, a roar of pain and loss wrenched itself from Kaen's throat.
She had been taken from him once more.
-What the fuck is free about it?!-
To be continued...
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Author's notes:
I keep leaving things to the last minute. I only finished editing the ending to this chapter a couple of hours ago. I've got to do a bit of work on the next chapter too, but that shouldn't take too long.
Also, yes, it did have to happen this way, so don't give me any grief about it.