4 days after Lime's death
Gohan was sitting on a mountain peak staring over the forest in silence. He hadn't moved since he left the crime scene. He had just sat here and watched the world pass by. He knew he said he would get to protecting the world again, and he would for her. But it hurt damn it. And he was still afraid of what might happen if he lost control of his power. So for now, he was just sitting and thinking atop this mountain. Contemplating the frailty of human life. Right now you're probably wondering why he doesn't just revive her with the Dragonballs. THAT was a whole other story...
*FLASHBACK*
2 days had passed since the Cell Games and everyone was recovering from their wounds. The only person not resting was arguably one of the worst. Granted Gohan had a faster healing factor than any of the human fighters. But then that did not account for Piccolo who had the fastest healing factor, and yet the green fighter was still unconscious. Piccolo had suffered a serious injury to his head and Popo feared that he had damaged the organ in his brain that allowed him to regenerate and it was taking him into a hibernative state to heal. There was no telling if he would ever wake up. That had dealt a severe blow to the young Gohan who had now lost his two closest male figures in 1 fight.
*FLASHBACK*
Gohan had tried gathering all the dragonballs to bring Piccolo out of his predicament but they were nowhere to be found on the radar. They were told that they had probably gone with Piccolo into Hibernation and Dende was still learning what he could from Popo on how to be guardian. Basically, if they ever wanted Dragonballs again they'd have to hope for Piccolo to wake up, at least long enough to teach Dende how to make them. This had been like a kick between the legs for Gohan and had caused him a lot of emotional pain and anger in his youth. He couldn't get his father back, he couldn't get Piccolo back, and he couldn't get Lime back. Nothing could be fixed the easy way as it was now and so Gohan would have to be careful if he got back into fighting again. The whole world was like a city of glass and he had his hands full of stones. He could destroy it all if he wasn't careful so he'd have to watch it.
He breathed deeply and jumped off deciding to hide out in one of the trees nearer to his home. He flipped and somersaulted as he free fell before using his Ki to slow himself down before he hit the ground. He didn't want to disturb nature after all. He walked towards his home for a few minutes before picking a tree to hang around in. He leapt up into a comfy looking tree branch and fell asleep.
He was awakened from his peaceful dream about his father when he felt something hit him on the side of the head with not a lot of force behind it. His head tilted in the direction opposite the side he got hit from and his body sagged to the right. He heard a gasp and felt a strange falling sensation and he realised at the very last second. "Oh I'm falling out of a tree..." He thought dryly.
*THUD*
Gohan opened his eyes and yawned, unconcerned. Until he noticed there was a person underneath him. "What the fuck?" Gohan muttered, then his eyes widened. What if this was his mother and he had just cursed right in front of her? He would be dead for sure. With that in mind Gohan shot to his feet and offered his hand to help up the person underneath him and immediately realised that this was definitely not his mother. Sure it had the same dark Black hair as Chi-chi. But she was slightly too short to be the Son Matriarch and Gohan was fairly sure that his mother had never worn Biker shorts and pig-tails. "Videl?" Gohan queried in utter confusion.
The girl groaned in pain and Gohan realised how heavy he would have been to the small teenager, no matter how strong she was. He got on his knee and pulled Videl into a sitting position, using the trunk of the tree he had fallen from to support her. After a few minutes she seemed capable of talking and breathing normally when she looked him up and down and then smiled.
"Thank god you're okay, I was worried I wouldn't catch you in time." She said with the smile still stretching against her pained expression. Her statement confused Gohan for a moment until he realised when he started to fall she must have panicked and tried to catch him. He shook his head at the noble yet pointless gesture.
"You didn't have to do that Videl. I would have been fine." He assured her before raising a brow, "What are you even doing out here at my house, shouldn't school be on or something?" He asked her and she just looked at him for a long time with her lips pulled into a thin, grim line.
"Gohan you've been gone for four days. It's Saturday today. You haven't been to school and so I got your home number from the school and your mother asked us to come and try to help out." She explained to him before biting her lip and looking down thoughtfully, as if she wasn't sure if she should say something to him. She apparently decided that she should because she locked eyes with him and he could see she had steeled herself for whatever it was she was about to say to him.
"We know Gohan. We know what happened. I was one of the first ones on the scene since I work for the Police and all. I came alone but I didn't want to talk to you about it for the police or anything. I want to talk to you about it because I know you really must be torn up inside about this and I want to help." She took a deep breath after saying all that not knowing how Gohan would respond at all and if he did whether it would be a positive or negative reaction. Gohan just looked at her for a while after she said that, seemingly not knowing what to do or say to her.
"You're just like him" Gohan muttered more to himself than to her but she caught it anyway, "Always trying to help me." He added, this time even quieter, it was barely a whisper, but Videl was right in front of him so she still heard it. She frowned in concern for the boy who's face had gone completely blank and he had turned on his crouched heel and allowed himself to fall back against the trunk of the tree, sitting next to her.
Gohan could tell she was just trying to help him and he wasn't some kind of stranger to death who was dealing with his first loss badly. No, he was cut deep by Lime's death and it would forever become imprinted in his soul and had just added another bit of character to him, but it wasn't what had him so blank right now. What had him blank was that emotion she was trying to hide from him. Fear. Obviously he hadn't done anything about the body and had simply left it there in the street next to Lime's. If the police had found it and Videl obviously knew Gohan had been with Lime when the accident happened then it was likely she was afraid of Gohan and what he potentially did in regards to the dead murderer. Gohan knew that she wasn't use to death like he was but the fact that she seemed apprehensive to be here alone with him hurt his feelings a bit, though truth be told half of him wished she wasn't here at all right now.
He took a deep breath and sat in silence awaiting the questions he knew would come but was not exactly prepared to deal with. There was tense quiet between the two teenagers that neither wanted to break but Videl knew that if she wanted to help Gohan she'd have to talk to him about it and that required making the first move and asking questions about it.
"So...how did it happen?" She asked tentatively and Gohan, eyes still closed, loudly exhaled the breath he had been holding unknowingly. He knew this question would come and had already decided on the way to answer that was simplest. He steeled his nerves and practiced the words in his head so he didn't screw them up or cry or something.
"Me and Lime had just split up from you guys..." Gohan started, and immediately realised he would never be ready to talk about this like he thought he would be. Already his breathing became labored and stuttery as opposed to how he thought he would fare. He took another deep breath and swallowed hard before continuing, "We walked into an alleyway not far from where we left you to use as a shortcut...then some guy who has been following me recently rushed her and stabbed her from behind. He must have punctured a lung or something because her mouth started to fill up with blood really quickly and she was coughing and sputtering on it in my arms..." He recounted, trying to sound objective about it but even to him it was obvious how much emotion was in his voice. He tried to continue but his breathing was extremely broken and he was stuttering now and so he just dropped his head and clenched his fists.
He sat there like that and Videl turned to him and hugged him around the shoulders and rubbed his back. "It's okay Gohan, you don't have to tell me the rest, just know I'll be here to listen if you need it." She told him simply before pulling away and standing up and offering the teenager a hand. "We should go back, your mother said she was making dinner and wanted you home for it."
The fact that she was so helpful and polite and nice still made Gohan extremely angry due to how much she reminded him of his father but this time he didn't let it get to him. If he got mad at every good person that reminded Gohan of his sob story he'd never make friends as good as his father was and so he decided that, as much pain as it caused the young teen, he'd just have to push it to the side and take the good with the bad and learn to get past that and see them as an individual rather than grouping them all under his father.
With that in mind, he looked up and saw the hand she was offering him. He knew she wouldn't be able to pull him up on her own but it would seem rude if he didn't take the help she was offering him and so he took the hand but didn't put any power behind it and when he felt her pull on his hand he used his Ki to lift himself off the tree trunk, making it look like she helped him on to his feet. He uttered a quiet but audible thanks and they walked back to Gohan's home together where he could already smell a delicious home cooked meal being cooked. It was then that Gohan realised exactly how hungry and thirsty he was after all this time without a good meal and glass of cool water. His stomach growled louder than any of the wild animals he had encountered out in the wild these past few days and Videl laughed openly at that.
"Somebody's hungry." She pointed out with a raised brow and a grin. Gohan only grinned slightly back in response but she could tell by the expression on his face that he was still hurting. Chi-chi of course fussed over Gohan and got mad at him for not coming home sooner and then seemingly at the drop of a hat it turned into her worrying about how much he had eaten and how skinny he would get if he didn't eat well and her muttering that she'd have to make him extra. And how she should have never let him leave home to go live in the city. After she finished fussing however she seemed to realise the gravity of the situation and squeezed her son half to death. Truthfully this was why Gohan had gone into hiding near his old home rather than hide out in his apartment. Because he subconsciously wanted to be nearer to his family for this. Videl decided she was overstaying her welcome and thought now was a good a time as any to start the long journey home. She quietly snuck out the house after giving one last look at Gohan hugging his mother and stepped out the front door, softly closing it behind her.
The morning 3 days later (Tuesday): 7am
Gohan woke up early and decided that this would be another training day. He had decided 2 days before that he should get back to training, in order to fulfill his word. That it was the day he had to move on for Lime. He already felt like he had left it too long and while by human standards, grieving for a few weeks even was considered normal and it was true that the pain of loss never truly left you, only became bearable over time, Gohan needed it to become bearable right NOW. He made a promise to that girl and he intended to keep it, effective as of that day. Gohan got up out of his bed that was still at his old house from before he left and made his way to his cupboard and opened it up. He had no Gi's to wear at the moment since he had outgrown his old ones and he hadn't had new ones made for obvious reasons, but until he got some new ones he figured it would be fine to wear spare clothing. He pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a zipless, sleeveless hoodie, a white long-sleeved undershirt and some dirty old sneakers. With that done he flew out his window and to the nearest wasteland.
Now that the inhibitor was gone his body ached for action, for exercise, to be worked and refined. Sure Gohan normally did that to some degree with working out but that was totally different to engaging in combat for a Saiyan. For a warrior Gohan knew the importance of refining his fighting ability otherwise all that power he had was for nothing. He practiced Katas and fighting form. Making sure his technique was impeccable. However even this Gohan knew was no substitute for real combat. In real combat his strategy as a fighter was tested as his enemy may have any array of abilities, strengths and weaknesses. He could throw a perfect punch a million times flawlessly and if his opponent was invulnerable to his fists it didn't matter. Being a warrior was about adapting and changing his mode of combat on order to fit the situation, which, was impossible without someone to fight.
Piccolo was out of the picture for obvious reasons, Vegeta was still too early in his rehabilitation to be useful as a fighting partner, and god knows the other's still weren't powerful enough. "Man this sucks..." He muttered as he threw punches and kicks at an invisible enemy that mostly seemed to take the shape of Cell in his mind but occasionally changed to look more like Frieza. Elbows swinging and knees flying Gohan pushed himself as he could without an actual enemy for another hour before deciding that this wasn't working. "This ISN'T working!" Gohan growled frustratedly and in anger he cast a blast to his right that blew up a small plateau. "I need SOMEONE to fight! I need REAL combat experience!" He shouted to no-one in particular but it appeared as if someone had listened as he suddenly felt a Ki.
He was stunned into silence and immediately all emotion but surprise evaporated from his being. He felt a fairly powerful Ki entering the Atmosphere over West City. "BULMA, TRUNKS, VEGETA!" Gohan yelled in fear as he shot to West City as fast as he could in his Base Form, not quite confident in the personality change of Super Saiyan. He broke the sound barrier and there was a sonic explosion as he rocketed out from the mountain area to the city that was a thousand miles away.
WEST CITY: Meanwhile
It was a slightly overcast, cool day in West City. People were going about their business and purchasing innumerable objects and items. Family's walked the streets with ice cream. People ate at cafes and restaurants in total calm, none the wiser to the mortal danger they would all soon face. Suddenly, with a crack like a gunshot, the clouds parted above them and a massive object took residence in the sky between the city and the sun. A certain bald ex-monk was shopping with his wife and daughter in West City when he heard the sound of the ship rocket into the atmosphere from hyperspace. He struggled to look over the many bags and boxes he was carrying trying to see what all the commotion was about.
At the sight of what appeared to be a giant spaceship in the sky the boxes and bags dropped from his hands and off his arms. He sensed the massive power coming from the spaceship and realized immediately that this could only mean trouble. His eyes hardened and his fists curled in. "18, take Marron and get out of here." He told her, his voice deceivingly controlled, like the calm before the storm. 18 looked at him surprised before her face formed into a frown.
"Krillin if you think I'm leaving you here to fight whatever is up there then-" but the blonde Cyborg never got to finish her sentence as she was cut off by an angry yet panicked and urgent expression on his face. The look alone was enough to shut her up and she could see the deep-rooted fear in his eyes. 18 could not sense energy, she never could, but whatever Krillin DID sense up there was obviously big for him to be acting this way.
"I SAID GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" He shouted as people ran away from it around them. 18 looked back with worry evident on her face but she nodded in understanding and picked up their daughter who was asking questions, sounding afraid. She muttered for him to be careful before shooting off as fast as she could. With his family out of the way Krillin looked back at the spaceship as he saw 4 black dots drop out of the ship and hover beneath it for a little before making their way towards him. "Of course they come for me first..." He mumbled in despair as the figures grew closer.
Krillin's first surprise when they came into view was that they were wearing some kind of space armor that resembled, but was still overall different, from the armor Frieza's men used to wear on Namek. His eyes hardened and he glared over the 4 figures. He noticed what were definitely scouters on their faces as they appeared to be talking amongst themselves. The fighter really didn't want to have to deal with this kind of thing. They had 7 years of peace and he was starting to get used to it. Hopefully they could avoid trouble.
"What do we have here? An Earthling with an exceptional power who isn't running away?" One of them said in an amused tone. He was tall, probably almost Piccolo's height and he had purple, scaly skin. He had what looked like a dorsal fin on the top of his head and webbed fingers.
"Perhaps he isn't afraid of us?" One of them asked but judging by the tone when it was said, Krillin guessed that he wasn't being serious and he began to feel a sinking feeling. This one was only a few inches taller than him and he had skin that shone in the light and was marked all over like a golfball. He lacked a nose but retained small holes on his face for nostrils and didn't have any discernable lips.
"Or maybe he thinks he's going to fight us." One of them who was slightly shorter than the first and had an elongated cranium and yellow leathery flesh said with a sinister tone and Krillin gulped, eyes darting back and forth between them all as they slowly floated around him, surrounding him. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple and he saw one of them move for him from behind and so the fight began.
Krillin jerked to the side and barely avoided the first one who shot past him with his foot extended in the dodged kick. Immediately the two in front of Krillin charged in and threw flurries of attacks at him. Krillin dodged and blocked all of their blows with, admittedly, some amount of effort. He ducked a roundhouse aimed at his head by the tall golfball one all of a sudden and hopped up and kicked the alien in the chin. He spun around just in time to block a punch aimed at his chest with his forearm from the fourth alien who had yet to attack until now. He was roughly Yamcha's height and seemed mostly humanoid except for his pointy ears and deep Blue flesh with thin black lips. He had a kind of helmet on that Krillin knew was for soldiers who couldn't withstand certain atmospheres or who needed to go underwater. Krillin slipped another punch from him and grabbed hold of his extended arm and used him as a mace to smack the tall purple one, sending them both into the street below them.
The yellow one managed to get a kick in to Krillin's side and he flew off to the side and smashed through the glass window of an office building and rolled up against the far wall. He saw an energy blast coming at him and he got to his feet and backhanded the blast right back the way it came, hitting the golfball opponent in the face and making him fall from the sky. The short human shot out of the building like a bullet and kicked the yellow one in the solar plexus, folding his enemy around his leg. Krillin removed his appendage and followed up with a right uppercut and a spinning roundhouse to the body that knocked him away. Just then the one wearing the helmet came up from behind Krillin and put him in a full-nelson. The tall purple one was flying at the immobilised human with the intent to kill him.
Krillin managed to squirm out of the hold and threw an elbow backwards that smashed the glass-like visor to the helmet shattering Iit. His opponent made a distressed noise and Krillin spun and kneed him between the lungs, winding him. Krilling wrapped his fingers together behind his opponents head and flung him at the purple adversary charging him. This time he saw it coming and dodged his flying comrade, he kept his eyes on him for a moment too long and got a solid punch to his jaw from the short ex-monk. He saw the blue alien suffocating now that his helmet was compromised. He writhed on the floor with a look of panic and fear on his face as he clutched at his throat. Krillin flinched at this but knew it was him or them.
The other 3 opponents seemed to be enraged at this and charged Krillin with renewed vigour. He was managing to hold them off but if he made one mistake it was game over for him. He concentrated as hard as he could on all three of them, dodging and blocking blows. He could only do it for so long however and one of them managed to get a knee in on his nose, stunning him. He threw his arm out in a blind act of defense where he sensed one and made contact, knocking them into an alleyway. He then got punched in the back and he cried in pain. The one who landed the initial knee then side-kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying. He hit the road and was rolling end over end down the street before he managed to get his feet underneath him. Even hurt as he was he managed to throw himself to the side and roll to avoid a blast. The one who threw the blast came in to attack and Krillin fell back into his back and planted his feet on the chest of the charging assailant and rolled backwards over his shoulders and used their momentum against them, flinging them through a construction site where they smashed through a few beams before crashing to the ground.
Krillin continued his roll onto his feet but was too slow and received a punch to the temple that made him slide backwards along the ground until his back touched a brick wall. Then a knee was driven into his gut and the wall behind him cracked from the force. The human fighter dropped to his knee gasping for air. His eyes were beginning to droop and he looked up to see the 3 remaining opponents charging blasts. "Well, this is how it ends for me huh? I'll be seeing you then Goku..." Krillin thought solemnly and then the blasts were fired. Krillin closed his eyes and waited for death and found it appeared to be strangely painless and his face was hit with warm air. Actually it felt like nothing happened at all.
Krillin's eyes shot open as he heard someone yell, "What the!?" In surprise. Suddenly Krillin realised what the warm feeling was. Standing before him, taller now than he had been 2 years ago when Krillin last saw him, was the son of his best friend with a gold flame-like Aura surrounding him.
"Gohan!" Krillin exclaimed excitedly, "Boy am I glad to see you, I was just about to be toast." He explained sheepishly, ashamed he couldn't take down these guys by himself. Gohan looked at Krillin over his shoulder and gave him a small smile.
"No problem Krillin. Long time no see huh?" The boy said in response before his expression turned serious and he looked forward. "So who are these guys?" Gohan questioned his injured friend who seemed as if he didn't know before he even answered.
"No idea, they just showed up in some kind of ship and attacked me." Krillin explained. Gohan looked between the three of them thoughtfully. He looked in the distance and saw that there was a dead 4th one.
"Figures" Gohan thought, as he began lowering his power, "They aren't very strong at all, they just ganged up on him." Gohan dropped to his base form out of Super Saiyan and they looked utterly confused by this. Apparently, despite the fact that they seemed associated with possibly remnants of Frieza's army, they weren't aware of Super Saiyans. Or at least they don't know what a Super Saiyan is supposed to look like.
"What do you want?" Gohan asked them with a cold tone and a glare, standing protectively in front of the injured Human fighter. He really didn't expect a real answer from them and imagined they would say something like it was none of his business. Gohan had already roughly gauged their power, accounting for them having hidden power if they knew how to hide their true strength.
"We're here as our employer is interested in broking this planet and selling it for currency. This planet is quite beautiful you see, it should fetch a fine amount on the markets." The biggest of the 3, who had Purple scaly hide, explained as he adjusted and fiddled with his equipment. "Part of our job, I regret to inform you, is eliminate the more powerful lifeforms who may attempt to stop us." He said as his tone grew more foreboding and he fiddled with a dial on the side of his arm blaster.
Suddenly, a blade of pure Ki sprung from the barrel. The blade of Ki was rougly a foot and a half long and he charged Gohan with it immediately. He saw this coming and ducked the horizontal swipe. He pushed backwards and up away from his attacker who landed where Gohan had just been before smirking devilishly and pushing up to catch his prey. He caught Gohan in the air and lunged forward trying to run Gohan through with the blade but the Saiyan twisted his body so that he was side-on, making the blade pass by him rather than hit him in the rib area. The attack had the invader's whole force behind causing him to drift by unbalanced as Gohan followed through with his twist, floating around till he was behind his off-balanced opponent who spun around with his blade in a backhand swing that Gohan tilted his head back away from.
Now that the scaly foe was face-to-face with Gohan he wasted no time in launching a flurry of angry swipes at the spiky-haired nuisance. Gohan, without ever lifting a finger, dodged each of these attacks with grace and it was clearly getting on his opponents nerves, who just now growled in annoyance.
"You're faster than you look huh? Berri! Yo-gert! Let's get this punk!" He screamed. Yo-gert was the first to charge and he was the one with blue golfball skin. Berri seemed to hesitate though as he looked at Gohan, before shaking it off and nervously charging in with the other two. Now the three of them attacked him from any point they could trying to catch him off guard. Gohan simply continued dodging all 3 of them effortlessly before the golfball alien leapt up and fired a huge blast that Gohan phased away from, seeming almost bored as the attack nearly hit his ally with the blade who managed to deflect it into the sky at the last moment. Gohan happened to be floating in the sky right infront of Berri who saw his chance and began to gather Ki for a blast, shaking off the nervous feeling.
He cocked his arm back to throw it but was suddenly face to face with the one he feared. Gohan was there looking into his eyes with that killing intent. The eyes of a savage killer. He froze up in that moment, his heart began to beat against his chest and if he had sweat glands he was sure he'd be soaked. He shook violently and even forgot to breathe as Gohan stared him in the eyes as he distantly heard his teammates charging the murderer before him. Berri's eyes widened dramatically when Gohan smirked at him and said something, "See you in hell asshole." And with that Gohan jerked his head to the left and the last thing Berri saw was the point of his ally's Ki blade.
Yo-gert exclaimed loudly at the brutal show of friendly fire as the offender himself merely stared in shock as Berri hung lifelessly by his skull at the end of his blade with his original target leaning slightly to the side. Gohan threw his elbow back into the blade-wielders liver before spinning around and kicking him hard across the face, putting him straight through a tree and then a building before he came out the other side and hit the ground, barely conscious and with multiple broken bones, laying in a shallow trench made by his body.
Gohan then turned to Yo-gert who was staring in fear at him before steeling himself and charging with his fist cocked. Gohan slipped (boxing term for dodging by just angling the head out of the path of the punch so it 'slips' by them) that first cross and ducked a hook. Yo-gert followed with the motion of his hook and spun around, bringing his leg out in a spinning kick that Gohan leaned his head backwards away from. As that leg came back in position the alien brought his other leg up and then down for Gohan's neck and felt his heart soar as it made contact with his trapezius muscle. However his hopes were crushed when he felt Gohan's arms wrap around his leg and toss him down the street where he bounced off a car, went through a light pole and cracked head first into a building.
Yo-gert struggled to his feet and looked up to see Gohan standing right there with a blast in his hands. "You picked the wrong planet to invade you bastard." And then the last few moments of Yo-gerts existence were occupied by a searing feeling of being disintegrated and a blinding light completely swallowing his being until eventually there was nothing...
Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I had a bunch of assignments due and spent literally all my free time working on them. Hope you like this chapter and the early introduction of a semi-major threat. After this Gohan will go back to being a normal vigilante and high school student for a little while before the next one. I want a good mix of action scenes and character development and life in this. I hope I haven't utterly crushed you guys too much about Lime not being able to come back but I feel if she could just be revived then it would have had little to no impact on Gohan's psyche. Also I know a lot of the details on what exactly happened to everyone at the Cell games is unclear but I did that on purpose. It'll be revealed with time. Until next time yo.