Chapter 56: Fearless

So that poll I mentioned is now up. Good times.

Music for this chapter, I guess I should probably do that. Some people like that. So, it's Strength of a Thousand Men by Two Steps from Hell. It probably depends on how fast you read, but I'd say put it on around the second time Goku starts counting to catch the most epic bit of music with the most epic part of the chapter.

"All right." Goku patted his son on the back. "Good work, guys. So, uh, Gohan...shall we go?" He'd thought he heard something—some kind of clicking, whirring noise—but it seemed gone now.

"What's this?" Vegeta snarled. "Your enemy isn't beaten! You can't leave now!"

"This is a feud between saiyans and Tuffles," Goku said, shrugging. "I don't consider myself a saiyan. It's none of my concern. I was only here to rescue my son."

"You are mistaken." Raichi's voice boomed from the screen on the tower. "None of you will be leaving alive. You have made several fatal mistakes." He paused, turning to some device next to him and examining it. "The first is assuming that you have beaten Hatchiyak."

Goku gulped. "You know...I don't like the sound of that."

"For once, I find myself agreeing with you," Vegeta muttered.

+++Gamma Protocol Activated+++

+++Continue Primary Objective: Terminate Saiyans+++

"Is that..."

"Don't tell me..."

Gohan took a step back. "It's still alive..." The silhouette that approached from the ruins of a once-mighty mountain seemed different somehow. It was back to normal size, for one thing, no longer in its giant form. More detail became clear as it drew closer—it seemed to be completely undamaged, having totally repaired itself. Its 'shoulderpads' jutted out a few feet from its body, and overall its armour had grown bulkier and more imposing, further increasing its impressive size. Each main gem was now ringed by smaller, blue gems.

"Huh." Vegeta grinned, trying not to let his doubts show. "So it put on some more armour and fixed itself. Doesn't matter—we can just kill it again. This thing is out of its league against even one of us. Who wants to—" Hatchiyak's gems fired up, blazing green and bathing them in its glow. Its ki reappeared, growing at an insane rate and finally settling at a level even higher than theirs. "Ah...hhh...uh...wha..."

"That..." Goku breathed, "...is the highest power level I've ever sensed. And I could beat Frieza by looking at him funny."

"Okay..." Gohan tried to calm his mind. Nobody's unbeatable. We haven't even started to fight...we're far from beaten. "KA...ME...HA...ME..." He stared into Hatchiyak's eyes as he charged his attack. The robot responded by raising one hand to block as it advanced. As expected. The idiot.

Without warning, Gohan's image scattered into the wind, reassembling directly behind Hatchiyak. "HAAA!" He released the attack, throwing it directly into the Tuffle machine's back, engulfing it in blue light.

"Now!" Goku shouted, and he and Vegeta leapt forwards to follow up on Gohan's surprise attack. "Hit him hard—gaaahk!" Hatchiyak barrelled towards them out of the glow of the Kamehameha wave, completely unharmed, flinging both arms out and slamming one into each Super Saiyan's neck. It stopped its charge there, launching a spinning back kick that sent Gohan flying. The three fighters hit the ground almost simultaneously.

Gohan lifted himself from the dirt, head pounding. Maintaining Super Saiyan 2 was difficult enough, but doing so while trying to hold back the rage that went hand-in-hand with the untrained version of the form was a monumental effort. He could already feel his control starting to slip—and he certainly wasn't going to revert back to a lower form to avoid it, not with Baby still a threat. "Dad! I'm gonna...lose control...!"

"That's not too bad," Goku replied, feeling blood trickle down his arm as he stood. "At least we're in battle...you have somebody to focus your anger on if you lose it. Still...try and stay calm. You come up with some pretty good plans when you're thinking straight."

"I...I'll try!"

Vegeta braced himself. "This is hardly the time for a father-son talk! Here it comes!" Hatchiyak was running at him, deceptively fast for such a huge machine. Vegeta tensed up, springing into action at the last moment and landing a swift punch to Hatchiyak's face. It didn't seem to notice, bringing both arms down and smacking the prince to the floor. Goku ran in from behind, putting his weight into a shoulder charge that made Hatchiyak stumble forwards. Vegeta, pushing himself upwards, swung both feet up into Hatchiyak's relatively unarmoured stomach, hurling it into the air. Gohan appeared above it, smashing it to the ground two-handed.

"Don't give it time to recover!" Vegeta yelled. The three saiyans formed up above Hatchiyak's prone form, unleashing a continuous stream of energy bullets. After over ten seconds of this onslaught, Hatchiyak finally managed to escape, jumping unsteadily away. Its impact on the rock behind as it landed threw out cracks around it as it attempted to regain its balance.

Leaning over his console, Dr. Raichi had a moment of doubt. Hatchiyak's visibly damaged...even in its Gamma form! I may have severely underestimated these Super Saiyans...

Hatchiyak crossed its arms, the light in the gems on its forearm brightening. It hung there for a few seconds, almost motionless.

"Whatever it's doing—don't let it!" Vegeta ordered. The trio flew full-speed at their enemy, but before they could reach it, it finished charging up, unleashing its blast again. This was the same energy wave it had used on Goku before, but now far more potent, flinging them all back like rag dolls and laying waste to the whole area in front of Hatchiyak.

"Urgh..." Goku heaved a fallen rock off of himself. "Gotta do something about that one...seems like we can just about take it when all three of us work together..." he flared up his aura, facing Hatchiyak's oncoming form. "But it seems to be pretty good at separating us—" he tried to dodge, but wasn't fast enough to avoid Hatchiyak's knee, which struck him on the chin, hurling him into the air. He landed next to Gohan and Vegeta, both still recovering.

"Dad—he's charging up again!" Gohan warned. Hatchiyak was indeed in its charge posture, gems burning green.

"Damn it all!" Vegeta took off, trying to fly out of range. Gohan immediately Shifted away, appearing several metres behind Hatchiyak. Goku, however, was still reeling from the last blow, and took the second blast full-force, disappearing in the cloud of smoke it threw up.

"You..." Something seemed to change behind Gohan's eyes. His rational mind finally gave in. "...LEAVE MY DAD ALONE!"

+++Alert: Significant Power Increase Detected+++

Hatchiyak backed away, catching Gohan's fist and throwing him overhead. Gohan spun in the air, turning back and flying back at Hatchiyak. It sidestepped, kicking him out of the air, but he kicked off the ground, blasting Hatchiyak at point-blank range with a two-handed energy bolt. It was undamaged, but momentarily off-balance, and Gohan kept up his attack, unrelenting, coming at it from every angle.

Vegeta, watching this take place, was about to rush Hatchiyak from behind, when something strange caught his attention. He dropped to the ground, next to the clearing smoke cloud where Goku's figure was becoming visible. "Hey, Kakarot. You weren't as unprepared for that attack as you pretended to be, were you?"

Goku, emerging from the smoke, shook his head. "Nope. I blocked it at the last second."

"Thought so. You barely lost any energy at all. But why the pretence? Were you trying to get the brat to use his full power?"

"No, actually. He's still not as powerful as either of us...he's keeping up the pressure on Hatchiyak, but he won't last long." Goku looked over at Gohan and Hatchiyak, still fighting. "Actually, I was trying to get a good look at that blast it has. Its defences drop while it's charging...we can use that. I just need to know exactly how long it takes, and I didn't quite get it last time. But, if you could get its to launch it at you just once while I wasn't in the firing line..."

"Understood. I'll lure it into a shooting match." Vegeta took off again, flying straight at Hatchiyak. "Just don't screw this up, or we're all dead!" As he neared the metal monster, it unflinchingly withstood a kick to the head from Gohan, smacking him away backhanded. Just then, Vegeta cannoned into it from the side, staggering it away. It turned to face him, and he immediately retreated, charging up an energy attack between his hands. Hatchiyak began to do the same, and Goku watched intently, counting the seconds.

One...two...three...four...

Vegeta grinned, feeling the energy sparking between his hands. This should be plenty. Kakarot won't even get his shot—I'll finish it now! He threw his hands forwards. "GALICK GUN!"

...nine...ten...eleven...twelve...

The beam flew straight and true, coming within inches of Hatchiyak, before—

...fifteen...sixteen!

—it opened its arms wide, firing the beam. It carved through Vegeta's Galick Gun as if it wasn't even there, smashing into him and throwing him to the floor.

"Gah!" He hissed, as he felt the intense heat of Hatchiyak's ki scorching his body. "Kakarot...I hope you're happy! Kill this son of a bitch already!"

"All right." Goku took a deep breath as Hatchiyak approached. He beckoned with one finger. "Come get me."

Hatchiyak, stony-faced, crossed its arms and began to charge up.

"Hyaaah!" Goku's aura flared up around him, his body filling with energy. I have to the count of fifteen to attack...his defences are down before he fires.

"Huh?" The strange energy his father was emitting snapped Gohan out of his rage. What's Dad doing? It feels like he's filling his whole body with energy, not just focusing it for an attack...is this some kind of new technique? And this energy...it feels like...the Kaioken? Only not quite. What is he doing? Even our strongest attacks haven't done any kind of serious damage to this thing!

Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Goku's entire body began to shake. Flame-like red arcs of energy swirled in his aura. He grit his teeth, his eyes wild. "Haaaaaa...aaaaaahhh...hrrrr..."

What is this, Kakarot? Vegeta wondered, looking on. You can't control that level of power for fighting! There's no point just summoning up that much energy if you're not going to use an energy attack—and if you're going to do that, start concentrating it already! Damn it, you're going to get us all killed!

"Hyaaaa...!" Ten. Eleven. "Hah!" Goku's eyes narrowed. "Okay!" In a sudden, almost jerky movement, he swung his hands down, a swirling vortex of red and blue energy pulsing into life between them. Twelve. The energy simply flowed out of his body, into the attack, in an instant. "Here's a little technique I've been practicing. TIMES-TEN..." Thirteen.

+++Error: Power Level exceeds this unit's capability to detect it; Sensor overload imminent+++

Fourteen. "KAMEHAMEHA!" Straightening out his arms, Goku launched the blue-and-red beam, which almost instantaneously grew to colossal size, completely swallowing Hatchiyak. Instruments in Dr. Raichi's tower overloaded and exploded. What bodies of water existed on the desolate moon boiled and evaporated in a flash. The shockwaves cracked the foundations of the tower, and as they spread out completely levelled every one of the moon's mountains and cliffs. A passing asteroid was shattered into tiny fragments, utterly obliterated as the gigantic attack spread its destruction out into space like ripples through a pond (coincidentally saving the inhabitants of a nearby world, who would have all been killed by the asteroid had it continued its path unhindered).

There were no damaged, burning fragments of Hatchiyak. There was no clang as a last, cracked portion of its armour hit the ground. The greatest war machine the finest scientific minds of the Tuffle race could produce was simply gone. Obliterated. Atoms scattered to the wind.

Goku sighed as he settled to the ground. Actually...I'm surprised that didn't take more out of me...I guess I did take my time charging it.

"Where did that come from?!" Vegeta accused, landing next to Goku, Gohan not far behind. "For a second there, you were putting out energy that made Hatchiyak look like nothing!"

"Yeah!" Gohan added. "How did you do that?"

Goku leaned over, putting one hand on his son's shoulder. "Well, Gohan, remember Krillin's 'Kaiohameha' trick? Where he just focused the Kaioken into an attack, rather than power his strength and speed and so on, so he could make it even more concentrated and raise its power even more?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, that's what came to mind when I was thinking about that 'Super Kaioken' I tried against Cell. I couldn't sustain it for long enough to be effective. So I took Krillin's approach, and it's much, much easier that way—but I seem to have hit a limit at a Kamehameha times ten. Can't seem to go any higher."

"You do realise I don't know what you're talking about?" Vegeta said irritably. "In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been around when all these things you're talking about happened!"

"Oh, sure. But I was just talking to Gohan." Goku brushed him off. "Honestly, I don't care if you don't understand."

"Why, you...!"

"Your attention, please." Dr. Raichi's voice echoed throughout the now-flat landscape, now with some static interference thanks to the tremendous electromagnetic burst Goku's attack had thrown out. "I will remind you that I am not defeated yet. If I may remind you of the stakes..." The camera swung around, displaying the still-possessed Tarble and Paragus on the screen. "Baby, if you will?"

"Yes?" A harsh voice rasped from off-screen, the words simultaneously being spoken by Paragus and Tarble as well.

"The one-eyed one. Stop his heart," Raichi commanded, and on cue, Paragus collapsed, silently spasming, then falling still after several seconds. The red ring faded from his eye, and a faint sigh escaped Baby, who from the sound of things was standing right next to the camera, only just out of view. "Now." Raichi looked back at the camera. "If any of you try to leave, this one's death—" he indicated Tarble. "—will not be as quick. Perhaps I shall have him try to eat himself. You are to enter the tower, and we will continue our battle inside. Our science will overcome your strength, and I will at last...rest."

The saiyans were totally silent as they entered the tower, passing under the cavernous archway and into the gloom within. Their breath was visible, but the chill of the refrigerated interior was staved off by the heat of their auras.

"I'd just like you to know, Kakarot..." Vegeta whispered, "...in case we die in here...that you are the bane of my existence."

"And you..." Goku replied. "...of all the people I've met, you are the most hard-headed, arrogant moron ever to walk the universe."

Gohan smiled, supressing a laugh at the adults' bickering, before sinking back into his thoughts. We should make this quick...I don't know if I can maintain Super Saiyan 2 much longer. And the longer it goes on, the more likely I'll snap like I did back then against Hatchiyak...

"So what's your deal, anyway?" Goku asked loudly, staring defiantly up at the unlit ceiling. "I thought the saiyans killed your race."

"And I thought Frieza killed yours..." Came the distant reply. "Still, I may as well tell you. Your executioners are not quite combat-ready yet...it will pass the time." Raichi cleared his throat. "It's true that we lost the war, that night of the full moon. But our scientists, even in those last days, were still hard at work, hoping for a miracle with which to drive back the monsters besieging us. Our King had entrusted the bulk of this task to me and my brilliant colleague, Dr. Myuu. He was killed by a saiyan scout party while en route to the capital, and his great work—Baby—was left unfinished. I, meanwhile, was working on Hatchiyak, but had to leave that too incomplete when I realised it was simply not possible to have it combat-ready in time to save us, as the full moon spelled our doom. So I quickly re-activated an earlier experiment—a machine, powered by a substance of my own creation I called Destron Gas, which would create the perfect soldiers—Ghost Warriors."

"Ghost Warriors?" Goku listened, wide-eyed, as he heard the history of his home planet, so long hidden from him. Is he...really the bad guy here? Can I blame him for wanting payback for his whole species? Wouldn't I want Frieza destroyed...?

"Indeed. The machine draws on souls in the afterlife, using their hatred for an enemy—in this case, the saiyans—as an anchor. I sent a rocket with this machine, plus the incomplete Baby and Hatchiyak onboard, away to a safe, uninhabited planet. Then, when a giant, transformed saiyan crushed me underfoot, the machine pulled me back to the land of the living in this form. I am the prototype Ghost Warrior...and...ahh, I see the newer models are now ready. These, you will find, look exactly as they did in life—my somewhat disturbing appearance is due to the outdated process of my resurrection. I have also taken steps to increase the fighting power of these Ghost Warriors by a great deal—you may find them more challenging opponents than you did the first time around."

"I have a feeling we're about to meet some old 'friends'," Vegeta muttered, glancing from right to left. "Come on, show yourself!" They promptly did so.

The Ghost Warriors emerged from the shadows, leering grins plastered on their faces. They spread out in a row, slowly advancing. Frieza. Cooler. Cell. Bojack. Lord Slug.

Goku tried to come up with a taunt, a boast, something—anything to boost his confidence. "I, uh...I got nothing."

"We're going to die, aren't we?" Gohan backed away, trembling.

Vegeta sighed. "It wouldn't surprise me."

Edging ever closer to that 1,000th review...thanks, everybody!

Q:are you gonna get radits to teach goku Instant Transmission would be cool to see goku use his signature move again

A:I don't think it's easy to teach Instant Transmission for a non-Yardrat. I mean, otherwise it would've been a pretty important thing for Goku to teach, well, everybody in canon.

Q: "The sleeper has awoken" Have you ever seen Dune before or was that just a coincidence?

A:I've read, and enjoyed, the book series, but haven't seen the movie or TV series. However, that line was a reference to the first time Vegeta went Super Saiyan in the Funimation dub.

Q: Well basically, after that preview you are just gonna have too wrap up the dbz part of the story in one or two chapters and just start releasing the sequel. Don't get me wrong, loving the story but we don't know how your 'gt' will play out as much.

A:You want me to wrap up the Dr. Raichi bit, Fusion Reborn, the Buu Saga, Battle of the Gods, and possibly Wrath of the Dragon...all in one or two chapters? Unlikely.

Q: I'm suprised that broly got beaten rather quickly by Hatchiyak. i thought you whent with the constantly keeps his energy high theory for lssj.

A:Sort of. It's just that Hatchiyak was an untiring machine of death that was stronger, faster and tougher than Broly.

Q: Well,Cell using Kienzan to kill 16 war,err... [chapter 29 review]

A:Was what? He knows the technique.

Q: Well,you say that Cell is "less prone to playing around" but he still lets them Train for a Week,so... [chapter 30 review]

A: He's still Cell. He just does a bit less sitting around on his ass and a bit more actively foiling the fighters' plans. Also it's a bit less playing around than canon's whole 10-days-and-I'll-build-a-fancy-arena deal.

Even Further Beyond Preview #4: Gaia Shenron

Also note the dragons aren't described in much detail. I haven't decided how dragonlike and how humanoid to make them yet.

"So...you're the third Shadow Dragon?" Goku asked. He and Raditz stood on either side of the near-motionless dragon. Its head flicked up upon hearing the question.

"We are Gaia Shenron." It sounded like many voices speaking in unison, almost singing. "You are here to destroy us."

"We're here to restore this world," Raditz replied, clenching his fists.

"We are this world," it chorused. "We are all worlds now. Our roots spread far."

"There isn't far to spread, with what you're doing to the universe!" Goku began to power up.

"So, we cannot prevent violence...very well." With frightening speed, Gaia snapped up a scaly limb, hurling a pure-white energy bolt. Raditz twitched to the side, watching it pass millimetres from his face, then continue on past him, detonating and forming a massive crater, the light temporarily outshining the sun.

"That was fast!" Raditz breathed.

Goku stared at the dragon with a new respect. "Was that...a Spirit Bomb...?"