A/N: To go with FFnet's little "dont's" on their policy (i.e., no songfics) I've thus removed the lyrics from the previous song fic chapters. All future such chapters shall receive the same before posting here. Sorry.
Chapter Eighteen - The Shifting Order
"Kamehameha!" Kakkarotto cried thrusting his arms forward. The rush of energy flapped his hair straight out behind him as the blue stream shot toward Buu. The creature balled itself up to defend against the blast which soon engulfed it.
Gohan could see, from where he stood on the ground, Buu's shadow in the stream of energy as it was stretched and ripped apart. "I don't get it... he's a lot stronger than his defensive ablitiy lets on. Maybe... maybe he doesn't even really try to defend, just lets everything hit him? I suppose he doesn't see reason to try and do more than basic blocking since he can just regenerate anyway."
The stream of energy shrank down, blinked a few times, and then vanished into nothing as the attack ended. All that remained of Buu was a small pink blob floating in the sky. The blob rippled and then changed into a mini version of the small creature. Suddenly more pink blobs began forming along the trail the Kamehameha had taken until a good fifty of them filled the sky, each one turning into a mini Buu. All of them grinned and then mimicked the Sai-jin's earlier motions, blue energy forming between his cupped hands.
"What! No way!" Kakkarotto cried as the fifty Buus fired their own Kamehameha's at him. Quickly he raised his arms up to block the attacks. "This thing is as good at learning new attacks as I am!" he thought as the energies slammed into his arms and knocked him back. As he uncrossed his arms and looked again he saw the Buus charging toward him, flying into each other and merging as they did.
By the time Buu reached him again he was completely reformed. Once more the battle resumed at close-range. Every blow landed by Kakkarotto dented and deformed Buu for a moment before it popped back to normal. Every blow landed by Buu shot waves of pain through Kakkarotto which only drove him on harder, pushed his determination higher, and drew out more and more hidden reserves of power.
A hard left from Buu sent the Master crashing down into the planet. Not waiting for him to come back up, the creature charged in after him. Gohan followed the battle with his senses still as it now continued underground, apparently they'd found a cave. Each and every blow, blocked or not, caused the entire planet to shudder. Several caused the ground to bulge up, explode completely, or simply collapse.
Gohan turned as the ground several yards behind exploded up into the air as Buu was knocked up into the sky. Kakkarotto came charging back up out of the ground as well chasing after him. The two locked into combat again slowly rising up higher and higher. Kakkarotto let out a yell as he pulled his arms back and then thrust them into Buu's face firing a stream of gold energy at him point blank.
The energy ripped off the creature's head and drove him away. As the energy faded Buu's shoulders rippled and a new head sprouted. Buu glared at his opponent and frowned which caused Kakkarotto to laugh. "What's the matter, not used to fighting someone almost as strong as you?" he asked grinning.
Buu's frown turned into a scowl as he held out his arms, palms facing the Master. "Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" it roared as pink energy flashed around it's palms and then shot forth. The energy beam was massive and surged across the planet nearly a hundred yards up and still the ground buckled, collapsed, and was torn apart by the force of the beam. On the ground Gohan uncrossed his arms as it ended and stared up in wonder and shock at the attack. His worry about his father's safety only lasted a moment though.
When the attack ended Buu lowered his arms and started laughing. A massive trench had been gouged out along the planet and there was no sign of his opponent. "Oh? Did I miss a joke?" Kakkarotto asked from only a couple feet behind Buu, arms crossed, and grinning. Buu turned slowly to look, the shock on his face evident. But that soon faded into another scowl. "You really shouldn't waste energy like that." Kakkarotto said cracking his neck.
"I don't think he did..." Gohan realized as he felt out the powers above him. "Buu's energy is still at the exact same level it was when he fired that attack. Damn... his energy must be infinite! Dad's is already going down, at this rate he won't win this fight... not on his own."
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Xeno stood in front of the Cryostasis Chamber that contained Brolly staring in through the glass window at the Sai-jin. He was tempted to try and thaw him here and now, find out what exactly was going on. But he had a feeling that wouldn't be a wise idea. "Just what was it that happened 53 years ago? Hmm? What is it that's being hidden? What secrets are you hiding?"
"Here." Everfrost said walking up to him and holding out a cup of coffee.
With a nod Xeno took the cup. "What do you make of all this so far?" he asked after a moment.
"I don't know. Conspiracy theories have never been my forte." Everfrost replied. "I just find it hard to believe that there is one."
"Well..." Rain said walking over to join them. "It's not that far-fetched a possibility really. I've always figured that the Masters would eventually tear apart from the inside. Think about it. Frieza and Cooler's egos are as big as any Sai-jins. If they ever surpassed Master Kakkarotto I know they'd take over. The only thing holding them back from destroying Saiya outright and letting the Sai-jins suffocate is..."
"Kuriiza."
Rain nodded. "With Master Frieza's son buried on Saiya it's a safe bet the Changelings wouldn't want to destroy the planet. It's probably why Master Vegeta offered to have the young Changeling buried there after his death. Changelings have an odd sense of family loyalty and responsibility. Master Cooler and Master Frieza hate each other but neither has done anything to the other because they are family. It goes against their code."
"Hey guys, I'm in!" Eve called over her shoulder. The three by the Cryostasis Chamber glanced at each other and then moved over to where Eve was, Storm coming over to join them. The four leaned down to gaze at the computer monitor. "Which should we look at first? Brolly's or Kakkarotto's?" she asked with a glance.
"Let's see Brolly's first." Storm suggested.
The Nezorf nodded and, with a few clicks, opened up Brolly's birth records. "Let's see. Born on Feburary 3rd, Age 737, at 4:15 AM. Birth power recorded at 14,984. Parents Paragus and Rhubara. Blood type O. Nothing seems unusual here." she said, a bit disappointed.
"Why, then, would the records be sealed?" Storm wondered.
"There must be something in there. Somewhere." Rain said, looking closer at the screen. "Here, what's this?" she asked, pointing to a small symbol at the bottom of the file.
"No clue." replied the Nezorf, moving the cursor down to click on it. The file on screen was replaced then by a new file with the word Restricted emblazed in big bold letters at the top. "Oh, the medical records." Eve said, scrolling down the page. "What's this?"
"Find something?" Everfrost asked, trying to make heads or tails out of the text but unable. He didn't know how to read Sai-jin, only English and Galactic.
"During his exam right after birth Brolly's power spiked up twice. Once to 23,485 and once to 72,167." Eve said, reading slowly to make sure she got it right. "It also mentions an unknown abnormality in his genetic make-up..."
"What kind of abnormality?" Rain asked.
Eve shook her head. "I don't know the word. My Sai-jin is rusty. Here, I'll copy it out and print just that. We can ask one of the crew later." She copied the word over into a file and printed it out quickly. That done she scanned the document some more. "I don't see anything else unusual. The power spikes and the abnormality must be the reason for the file seal. At least for Brolly, let's look into Kakkarotto's file..."
The others watched as she closed Brolly's records and opened Master Kakkarotto's. It was Rain that read the first lines of text. "Born on Feburary 3rd, Age 737, at 4:15 AM." she glanced at the others then, before speaking again. "What the hell? They weren't just born on the same day but at the same time? Freaky."
Eve picked up the reading there. "What else is here? Birth power recorded at 202. Parents Bardock and Seripa. Blood type O. Ok, that's weird. Same birth time and blood type..." Looking down she saw the same symbol at the bottom and clicked it. Once again the medical records appeared. "Shit."
"What is it?" Xeno asked.
"During his Exam Kakkarotto displayed three spikes of power. One of 354, one of 582, and one of 5,274." Eve said slowly, shocked at the power spikes. Especially the last one. "And here it is again, Kakkarotto's got the same abnormality." She leaned back and stared at the screen. "That must be it then. The power spikes and the abnormality."
"We need to find out what that abnormality is." Everfrost said, picking up the print-out and looking at the word. "So far we still don't have any answers for what the hell is going on, it'd be nice to have at least one."
"I'll go ask." Storm said. "I'm the strongest, I'll intimidate them more." The others all nodded and watched as she left.
Xeno knelt down beside Eve and rubbed his chin in thought. "You're in their entire system, right?" he asked. The Nezorf nodded. "Could you see if there are records on the Tinto incident? No, wait, pull up Bardock's service record. Even if he was rushing around the Regen Tanks have scouters built in. There should be some record of his final power level."
Eve nodded and set to work on that. It only took her a moment to locate Bardock's birth and service records. The information in the birth records was extremely simple. Back at the time detailed records and tests weren't made. A disappointment to them as they were hoping to learn if he'd possessed the same abnormality as his son. Still, Xeno had been right about the service record.
"Look, it does have his power reading from his stay on Master Cold's ship." Eve said pointing. Once again the text was in Sai-jin so it took her a moment to read through it in her mind. "No. Fucking. Way."
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Bulma was thankful for some time alone again, even it was the result of a threat to the entire Empire. Vegeta had been... persistant for the last two weeks. She didn't mind as much now as she had at first, Vegeta had slowly grown on her over the years. But she was getting old, her stamina wasn't quite what it used to be, and Vegeta had noticed. Bulma wasn't exactly thrilled with the Sai-jin King's idea of a fix to the issue.
After he'd worn her out he always went out hunting for another woman, which didn't take long because a Sai-jin of one gender could easily smell a horny Sai-jin of the opposite gender when they were out prowling like that. According to palace gossip, and she didn't doubt the validity of it in the least, he'd gone through twenty six women the day before the discovery of the creature on Endevon. That was, of course, not counting her.
Bulma shook her head and frowned, there was no use stewing over Vegeta's... over-active sex drive. There were some things about Sai-jins that just couldn't be changed. She'd even noticed Kakkarotto looking around at the palace women again. The blue haired woman was begining to wonder how much longer she and Chi-Chi would actually be remaining in the palace. Both of them were getting old, their beauty fading. Kakkarotto's roaming eyes were proof enough of that.
"How long until we're just discarded, I wonder?" She shook her head to clear it. No sense worrying about that. When it came, it came. She'd gotten used to that idea shortly after Trunks had been born. Turning her focus back to the chalkboard before her she gazed along it's length going over her calculations in her head. Thanks to Vegeta's persistance the last two weeks she'd not had the time to actually work on her equation in that time. Either busy with him or sleeping off the exhaustion.
She still wasn't sure what to factor in for the destruction of Earth, and then the entire Earth System. Not to mention the destruction of Endevon and it's system the previous day. Endevon was a bit easier, the world population was recorded there at about 48 million. Total power on the world was somewhere around 150 million. They had no records of the Earth population anymore. Too many people lived underground there. And the power levels... well, since the primary powers could supress their strength there was no record of that either.
"So what should I do about Earth?" she wondered to herself. "If I just guess I could be way off, and that would throw off my calculations. If I don't factor it in at all then I can't complete my calculations." She looked over what she had so far and then a thought hit her. Moving over to a nearby palace console she brought up the video of the previous day's meeting and listened to it play back. "One and a half billion." she said softly. "That was Master Kakkarotto's estimate of Buu's power."
Going back to the calculations she factored in everything she had so far and determined the amount of power displacement that had occured prior to the Earth's destruction. "That can't be right..." she thought. "The destruction of the Earth itself would have caused a displacement of about ten thousand, not counting energies that were destroyed. But the model says that it adds up. How can that work?" She double-checked it quickly, to make sure she had added the absorption and release factors for the death and two transformations three weeks previous but they were there.
Quickly she moved along the chalk board to an open space and started another equation. Writing this out would make sure her brain wasn't goofing up the math. As she went, the chalk clicked against the bored faster and faster, her writing intensified quickly. A moment later the equation was complete, the math finished. And the result was the same. Just short of one and a half billion. Factor in the displacement of the Earth and you would have just over one and a half billion.
"But that... that would mean that..." Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the numbers before her. The meaning of the numbers rung loudly in her mind. A small smile formed but faded almost instantly. Quickly she erased the small equation and moved back to her large one. The chalk moved quickly as she added in what she'd just learned, the data expanding on other elements of the model, and in moments it was up to date with the current time. The current total of displacement was about 1.7 billion.
As she sat the chalk down and glanced at the part of the equation that represented Earth she silently thanked Kami that she was the only one in the palace that could understand the model. Moving back to her seat she sat down and just stared at the chalk board, a small smiling forming on her face. "No one can ever say that we aren't a resourceful race." she thought. "Slipped right out from under Frieza's nose without even being seen. I have to find a way to let 18 and Marron know. The Humans managed to survive somehow."
Gazing over the entire length of the equation, which itself split into several equations along it's length, she bit her lip. By her model this Buu creature was a result of the displacement that had been occuring. She wasn't sure how to factor it in, however. It had been created thousands of years ago so it's presence existed from the beginning. Had it thrown the universe off balance upon creation? Had it's distortion been quelled by the passage of time? Or was there still some distortion out there from it, adding to what had been created in more recent years?
Or had it's creation been a different way? Had it absorbed and stablized the universe, instead of displacing things? She knew the Master's displaced and absorbed nearly equal amounts of energy. 16, 17, 18, 19, and Gero didn't displace or absorb anything as they didn't use Ki but a synthetic form of energy which they generated and which was dispersed upon use. But what of Buu? It was Ki he used, but it wasn't Ki he'd produced. Based on what she'd seen of the creature's creation it was energy that existed already and was simply drawn into a new focus.
"How do you factor something like that in?" she wondered. "Perhaps... perhaps I should do two equations from this point? No, two isn't enough." She looked at the dozens of free chalk boards around the room. "I'll need to do four, at least. Each of the possible effects that Buu's existance could have had on the universe." As she went to get up her mind did some quick calculations and she froze. "By Kami, I hope that's not the way it worked." she muttered.
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Marron couldn't believe it as she watched the two of them going at it high above her. They were nothing but blurs to her now as they fought. And yet they weren't even really trying that hard. Suddenly a loud crack sounded as Bra landed a solid blow to her brother's chest knocking him backward. "Woohoo!" Marron cheered. "Go Bra!"
Unbeknownst to the blonde girl on the ground, high up in the sky Bra blushed slightly. Her eyes locked onto Trunks' and she grinned, her brother swallowing lightly. He was the superior in strength because he trained more, but Bra. Bra was the superior in skill spending most of her time doing katas and such to work on her form and keep herself in shape. He knew that in a full-out fight, a serious match, she could do some good damage and possibly even win, so long as they remained in base.
And by that grin and that look in her eyes. Trunks had the distinct impression that Bra was intrested in doing just that. And he knew exactly why. Marron's cheer. Bra felt like showing off, impressing the other girl. "Well, sorry sis, I'm not going to just let you embarress me so you can impress her." he thought, smirking. Bra understood the look easily enough. Her brother wasn't going to back down, he'd take her challange.
Suddenly both Hybrids vanished from Marron's sight. Thunderous crashes and bright flashes flared up throughout the room. First at one side and then other. The blonde stared up in amazement as she tried to watch but couldn't. She couldn't even see either of them move now. Not even their blurs as they arced through the sky. "Incredible."
"Finish Buster!" Trunks' voice echoed suddenly, as he appeared near the top of the room only feet from the far left wall. The golden orb of energy flared up over his head and then he thrust it toward his sister.
Bra appeared a second later, landing on the floor feet from the far right wall. Her arms moved rapidly before her as Trunks attack neared quickly. And then she thrust her arms up toward the attack. "Burning Attack!" she called. Her attack surged up at the other even faster than Trunks' attack was coming toward her. They impacted a few yards short of the center of the room and then exploded.
"Copy cat!" Trunks called down through the glare, as the thunderous sound of the explosion faded. "Using my move against me."
"Not quite." Bra said, her voice right beside his left ear. His eyes widened in shock but before he could do anything she had her arms and legs wrapped around him, restraining him. There was a flash of purple around her and she arced through the air diving toward the ground. Only feet above the ground there was a flash of gold as Trunks transformed, using the sudden rush of powre to escape. But it soon faded as he reverted to base and landed softly on the ground, Bra coming down to land a few feet away.
"Cheater!" she called, sticking out her tongue.
"Sorry Bra, I got enough of a pounding from dad a few weeks ago. I don't feel like spending even another hour in one of those damned tanks."
Marron saw the other girl push off but then, once more, she was gone from sight. Trunks followed suit a moment later. The blonde looked up at the sound of a loud crack and saw the two siblings high in the sky, fists pressed against each other. They floated that way for a second and then started attacking and dodging again. Suddenly the Princess pulled back, thrust her arms forward, and fired off a volley of energy blasts at her brother.
The Prince smirked and began swatting them away easily as they neared him. Bra's assualt ended a second later, as her eyes widened in fear. "No! Marron!" she cried. One of the deflected energy blasts was surging down straight towards the Human girl. In a burst of gold Bra transformed and surged toward the girl but she didn't think she'd be fast enough.
And then she felt it, as did Trunks. A blue glow formed around the girl and then flared up. Her power shot up through the roof. And then the golden orb of Ki reached her and exploded harmlessly. Bra landed in front of her a second later, the girl's aura and power already gone. Trunks just stared down at her in complete shock. His mind trying to comprehend what he'd just felt. "She's... only a Human. But... her power... it was at least equal with Gohan's base power. How is that possible?"
Marron and Bra were still just starring at each other, both in shock, but not for the same reason. Suddenly Marron leapt forward the last few inches between them and wrapped her arms around Bra. "That was so close. Thank-you Bra." she said, holding her tight.
"Thank-you? What did I... she thinks that I stopped the attack? She doesn't even realize that she..." Her thoughts trailed off as she realized, then, that Marron was hugging her. Her face went red again as she slowly wrapped her arms around the other girl for a moment. Breaking apart she shook her head. "It's nothing. 18 wouldn't have liked it if you were killed cause of my brother and I being careless." she said, laughing lightly, and deciding it best the girl not realize she'd saved herself.
Trunks recovered as he caught the exchange, realizing the same as his sister. He landed gently beside the two. "Marron, why don't you head to your room, lay down for a bit. You're shaking."
The girl looked down at herself and noticed that she was, in fact, shaking. Badly. "G-good idea." she said after a moment.
Just as she reached the door Bra called out. "Hold on, wait there! You look like you're about to fall over, I'll help you in a second."
Turning back to her brother she locked eyes with him for a moment. He could see her entire arguement in her eyes but he shook his head and spoke softly. "You know what father said. He's to be told, immediately, if anything unusual happens with her. This counts."
"But... Trunks. You know what he'll do!" she pleaded.
"Maybe." he said. "But maybe not. We can't hide it from him forever. Her power could flare up again later, and then he'll find out about this and we'll be the one's facing the consequences. Especially me, since I'm older." He stared at her for a moment, looking into her eyes. "Alright. Alright. I wont tell him."
Bra practically knocked him over as she hugged him. "Thank-you Trunks." The Prince pulled back and frowned at her. She knew she wasn't acting much like a Sai-jin but at the moment she didn't care.
With a sigh Trunks walked off. He gave Marron a quick glance on his way out but she didn't notice. "Sorry Bra." Trunks thought as he left the room. "But father needs to know."
Bra stood in silence for a moment before heading off trying to compose herself again. She didn't want anyone to suspect that anything was up. Taking a deep breath she made her way over to the still shaking girl and started helping her through the halls to her room.
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Buu and his father were still going at it as fiercely as ever. Gohan couldn't believe it. His father's power would dip down for a bit and then suddenly he'd go right back to full strength. The Sai-jin kept pulling on power reserves that he just shouldn't have had. Not that it was that unusual a feat for his father, or even him, but it was still amazing to witness.
A hard right hook from Buu smashed into Kakkarotto's head knocking him down through a mountain and into the planet once more. Buu surged down at him passing into the new cave opening. Once again the fight had gone underground. The powerful Sai-jin was already on his feet by the time the creature reached him and they began to exchange blows once again. "I can't believe how fast and strong this thing is." Kakkarotto thought just barely dodging a kick.
He came back up and landed a knee to the pink blob's gut before spinning and snapping a heel kick into his head completely deforming it. He didn't give the creature a chance to recover as he slammed a fist into it's chest and then grabbed the odd antenna atop its head, spun around, and threw it into the cave wall. Thrusting his arms out he fired a Ki blast after it. It impacted and exploded, the entire cave shaking. And then the ceiling came tumbling down, the ground above collapsing into a massive canyon.
Kakkarotto floated back up above the surface again panting lightly. His energy had dipped down again and this time it wasn't going back up. In fact, it was dropping constantly, slowly, and steadily now. The strain of maintaining the form was starting to take its toll. Gohan held his breath for a moment, without even realizing it. Buu had just surged back up into battle and his father's power was declining even faster now.
He tensed, ready to transform, and then collapsed to one knee holding his left side. An intense pain was lancing through his body, lights swimminig before his eyes. "Damn it, not now!" his mind screamed through the pain. "What the hell is wrong with me?" Clenching his eyes shut he fought against the urge to pass out. A moment later the pain and spasms faded away and he got back up onto his feet.
"Gero better find out what the hell is wrong with me soon, and fix it." he muttered. And then, in a flash of gold, his power shot up rapidly, nearly matching his father's. Both warriors paused in their battle to look at the new power as Gohan shot up toward them. Buu grinned as Gohan reached his father and the two Sai-jins began to attack him together. Kakkarotto's power had dipped noticeably, though it was still higher than his son's. Even so, the two warriors were still having a difficult time against the pink creature.