EDIT: My Internet is down, guys, and I'm writing this from a phone with 3G. Chapter 99 IS done, and I've started work on 100. Will return to normal schedule as soon as possible.
Edit 2: Chapter 100 is done, but same situation. Also I'm told SOPA is back, you might wanna go petition against that or this site could be history.
Chapter 98: Running for the Future
So for reference, this story's Gogeta is currently stronger than canon Gotenks, but weaker than canon Gogeta.
And by the way, this opening scene with Tapion; we will come back to this subplot, in flashback. I just didn't want to delay the next story arc too much, or spend most of a single chapter on this.
Namekians, among all races of the universe, were blessed with a unique capacity to find satisfaction in monotony; they lived a simple life, but were perfectly content to do so. Planting and growing various vegetation (though not for food—Namekians only required water, and grew plants merely for aesthetic purposes), training the mind and the body, memorising the traditions of their people for preservation for the new generation—meanwhile, said new generation was running, and occasionally flying, in wild circles, enjoying their years of play before their adult lives' work began. Such were most days in their lives, and they were perfectly content.
However, they were not averse to the new and different (unless it involved unnecessary violence, like Frieza's arrival), so when Tapion strode into one such village, he was treated with nothing more irritating than pleasant curiosity. Casting a glance around, he observed the pastoral tranquillity of the quiet aliens' day-to-day lives, but not the object of his search. "Excuse me. Could anyone tell me where I might find a Dragon Ball?"
A gentle murmur sprung up, and the curiosity of the villagers was heightened.
"It seems," said a withered, weary voice, cutting through the low babble, "that the Dragon Balls are the only thing that aliens ever come to our world for. However, I suppose that there is not a great deal else that we can offer to those with such incredible technology, is there?" A wrinkled old Namekian in a blue cloak, supported by a walking-stick and flanked by two large bodyguards, hobbled his way out of the largest hut in the village.
"I apologise—" Tapion began.
"No, no," the elder said cheerfully, waving away Tapion's apology. "It's quite all right. I sense no evil in you. Merely…a great sadness…and a longing."
"Yes." Tapion bowed his head. "My intention in seeking the Dragon Balls…my brother, Minotia, has been killed—a poor reward for his great sacrifice in defending our planet, especially for one so young. I wish to undo the injustice, and restore him to life."
"Very well—I do hate to see young lives cut off, still so full of promise." The old Namek stepped forwards, looking Tapion up and down. "Yes, your wish is a worthy one, and I believe you speak the truth. However, you will have to prove your resolve—customarily, seekers of the Dragon Balls must pass tests of wits and strength to obtain their goal."
"Then let us waste no time," Tapion replied, bowing slightly. "I am ready to begin."
The elder sat, his bodyguards retreating a few steps to give them space, and Tapion sat opposite him. "Now," the elder intoned slowly, "your first test is a simple one. Answer me this and you will attain our Three-Star Dragon Ball.
Three lanterns light the way,
Evermore on high they stay,
Until the greatest rears its head—
Then, all lanterns, swiftly dead."
"Hmm…now that's an interesting riddle…" Tapion unconsciously fiddled with the gold circlet on his head. "…but I think I've got it. It's the Foreigner Test."
"I beg your pardon?" His confused questioner asked politely.
"If someone had just come barging onto this planet, without bothering to pay attention to anything but their goal, they probably wouldn't be able to answer." He made a rather grand, sweeping gesture at the sky. "I, however, have noticed your three suns. It's never night on Namek—it's daytime 'evermore'. And," he added, "before my ride here left, I asked him a little about your dragon, Porunga—and one interesting thing I learned is that the sky goes dark when it's summoned. Hence, 'the greatest' achievement of your race is the only thing that ever blocks the light on this planet. Well?" He sat back, raising an eyebrow. "How's that?"
The elder smiled warmly. "You have wisdom beyond your years, stranger."
"Yeah…" Tapion grinned awkwardly. "I doubt that. I mean, I have a lot of years."
Almost a year later…
Break dashed downstairs and snatched up the ringing phone. "Hello?"
"Hi there!" Answered a somewhat familiar voice.
"…Kuriza?" Break leaned against the wall. "What's up?"
"Your parents around?"
"Yeah, but I'd leave 'em alone, they're fighting again," Break explained.
Kuriza's voice became apologetic. "Oh…is this a bad time? I'm sorry…"
Break laughed. "Nah, I didn't mean, like, arguing. I mean actual fighting. They get bored." She held the phone out towards the stairs, where crashes and energetic shouts could be heard echoing down from the first floor. "I can take a message."
"Sure," Kuriza said. "See, Bulma's got a birthday coming up, and she wanted an excuse for a sort of reunion, so I've been given the job of inviting everyone—it's over here in six days." He paused as a crash came from his end of the line as well. "And that would be her, um, organising. For want of a better word."
"Cool! How old's she gonna be?"
"Ah…better not to ask, you know?"
Hakaishin Temple, across the universe…
Whis idly patted his immaculate hair; yes, everything was in order. Well, time to make sure he wakes up, I suppose… He took his time ascending the rocky path that spiralled up the gigantic tower, metal staff clicking on the floor.
Eventually, he reached the summit, entering Lord Bills' sleeping chamber. An inverted stone pyramid floated in the centre of the cavernous room, surrounded by giant hovering sand-timers. Whis glanced at the sand remaining in one of them—it would only be a few seconds more, now. His timing had been perfect.
On cue, the alarm bomb detonated, blasting the slumbering God of Destruction.
"Hmmm…? Immma…" came a voice from atop the platform. "J'sss five mrr yearsss." Another bomb went off, drowning out the voice.
Whis sighed. "I know you can ignore the alarm bombs if you choose," he said loudly, "so how about I sing you a waking-up song?" He took in a deep breath.
"I'm fine!" Came the strangled cry. "I'm awake! I'm awake, all right?!" A purple, feline head peered down over the edge of his sleeping platform. "Don't. Sing."
"Heh." Whis smiled as Bills flopped and slid his way to the floor. "That always works."
The God of Destruction, a cat-like humanoid currently wearing a ragged nightgown, sprang to his feet. "The last time you tried to sing," he growled, turning and strutting out of the room, "it caused an extinction event."
The duo now sat at a long table, Bills eating noisily while Whis picked at some sushi. The dining room was surrounded on all sides by an aquarium stocked with exotic fish gathered from all across the universe. "So why did you want me to wake you up after only thirty-nine years, Lord Bills?" Whis asked.
"Mmm. Yes, that was hardly a nap," Bills concurred. "Hmm…it was something…maybe to do with the saiyans? I think I might have to swing by and destroy planet Vegeta later today."
"Actually, that planet has already been destroyed—by Frieza," Whis informed the Hakaishin politely. "You remember him?"
"Ah, not surprising—I think I need to do something about that Frieza sometime soon."
Whis coughed. "A…Actually, Lord Bills, Frieza's clan has been defeated—by a few saiyans."
"Oh?" Bills leaned back in his chair, frowning. "I didn't think a race like the saiyans had the strength to defeat Frieza…"
Whis raised his staff, a cloud of small green crystals flowing out and forming a rough rectangle, then projecting a viewing screen between them. Some kind of magically-recreated video footage began to play—Raditz, golden aura ablaze, dragging Cooler through the dirt, then hurling him through a lake.
"Hmm…" Bills peered narrow-eyed at the screen. "I thought saiyans had black hair…?"
"It seems they can become Super Saiyans now," Whis informed him, turning off the display.
"Wait…" Bills blinked a couple of times. "Super Saiyan…Super Saiyan…Super…Saiyan…" A thought hit him like a ton of bricks, not that the God of Destruction would have particularly felt the impact of a ton of bricks, and he leapt to his feet like a scalded…well, you know. "Super Saiyan—GOD!"
"Super Saiyan…God?" Whis asked, intrigued.
"Yes…I had a dream that a mighty warrior, the Super Saiyan God, would appear!" Bills proclaimed. "The challenge is enticing."
"A dream, you say…?"
"Shut up! It was a prophetic dream!"
Whis sighed. "Your prophetic dreams in the past have had very low accuracy, in general…there was the time you made a 'prophecy' of an entire galaxy of—"
Bills dismissed his concerns. "This one's different, and I'll prove it. Follow me."
Shortly, outside…
Bills, now resplendent in his elaborate official outfit—something reminiscent of a combination of Egyptian and Asian styles—now stood outside, on the bank of an expansive lake with Whis at his side, as ever. "Now where is that fish…?"
A few moments later, an upturned glass bowl, ornately decorate and half-full of water, with a small fish leaning out, floated over from the lake, hovering in front of the god and his attendant.
"The Oracle Fish?" Whis asked.
"G-Good day, Lord Bills," the fish piped up. "How are—"
"Yes, yes, all right." Bills jabbed a finger in the Oracle Fish's direction. "Now, thirty-nine years ago, you told me that in thirty-nine years a strong opponent would appear, didn't you?"
"Er…I did?" There was an awkward pause. Finally, the fish shrugged. "Well…let's just say I did."
Bills groaned. "Whatever. Come on, Whis."
Whis followed the departing god, humming to himself. "That wasn't very helpful."
"The Oracle Fish's prophecy, and my dream—it all points to a challenging opponent, the Super Saiyan God, appearing now!"
"Really, none of the evidence is very convincing."
"It's enough for me," Bills said firmly. "Where are the saiyans now?"
"Well…" Whis tilted his head slightly. "One of them, with a half-breed child, is living on a world called Tech-Tech…charming little place, but he's never defeated anybody…the rest—the ones that can become Super Saiyans—are on a planet called Earth."
"Then I guess we'll head there first," Bills decided.
Whis shrugged. "I've got nothing going on today. It'll take us less than an hour to fly to Earth, so I'll only have time to watch a couple anime episodes…"
"My heart weeps for you," Bills muttered drily. "Let's go already."
"Oh my G…er…" King Kai hesitated, the labyrinthine nature of the pantheon of gods and demigods giving him pause. "…whatever. This is no joking matter—and that's coming from me! The God of Destruction has awakened, and…" He trailed off. "…who am I talking to?"
Well, I'm here, Kibitoshin's voice answered in his mind. My ancestor has just informed me of the news.
"Oh yes, it's a terrible business," King Kai agreed. "In fact, I—gah!"
What is it?
"If I'm not mistaken, he's heading for…I'll call you back!"
Capsule Corporation, Earth…
"…and so there's gonna be some kinda competition thing later," Trunks mumbled, shuffling his feet. "It sounds pretty boring." He was leaning against the wall of an outlying building, the sounds of the party drifting over from the centre of the complex.
"Yeah, but the prizes are pretty cool," Break countered. "I mean, you're pretty rich so most of them can't be too special, but a wish on the Dragon Balls is a pretty awesome first prize."
"Eh." Trunks shrugged. "If I could think of a good wish I'd already have gathered them myself. We do have a radar."
"You can't think of anything you really want?"
"Well, uh…" Trunks scratched his nose. "Nothing Mom's okay with, or that we can't just buy."
"Hey!" Came a call from above, and Kuriza descended from the sky above. "Food's all ready, if you're hungry."
"Sure!" Break answered, running off with Trunks just behind her.
It's…weird, living here, Kuriza thought as he watched them go. Gohan was like a twin brother when I first met him…but he's grown up with a kid of his own now, and in human terms I've only just entered my teens. How many generations of these guys will I be kid brother for, I wonder…?
Eighteen morosely poked a fork around her plate. Things were improving, slowly. Bulma had been making small modifications to her design every now and then, trying to restore things that the 'super android' 'upgrade' had lost her. Her sense of taste, which had previously been slightly dulled, had been one of the things returned to her, and she was at least able to enjoy food properly again. Krillin didn't know about these small changes; but then, that was chiefly because he didn't know about the problems in the first place.
Still, she was at least glad that when the initial process had been performed, Bulma had set up a factory-line-like machine to carry it out automatically; she'd hate to think what it would have done to Bulma to have to actually cut open and operate on her friend. Even now Eighteen winced at the thought of it; cold mechanical instruments cutting into her flesh, slicing her open, removing pieces of her and replacing them with hard, unfamiliar machinery, built to destroy life…she shook her head, trying to clear the thoughts away. She'd had enough dreams about this; she didn't need to spend all her waking time agonising over it too. Besides, she couldn't ruin the cheerful atmosphere of Bulma's party.
On the next table over, the tone was much lighter. "…so now you see where I got the whole Great Saiyaman thing from?" Gohan was asking.
"Yeah, it makes a lot more sense now," Videl said, passing the infant Pan to him to hold. "What with all the poses and the helmet and stuff."
"I'm amazed I could still find any Kamen Rider DVDs anywhere to show you, to be honest," Gohan laughed.
"Hey, you can find anything on the Internet." She smiled, squeezing his hand. "I mean, it's not really my kind of thing, but I can see how it must've left a big influence on you when you were growing up."
Launch walked over, several swiped bottles of wine under her arm. "So Gohan, I hear you've been putting in some training for a change."
"Yeah," Gohan answered, nodding happily. "I wasn't satisfied with getting beaten so easily last year—I'm not gonna get taken out like that next time."
"If you say so." Launch grinned. "Speaking of which. Raditz has been looking for you, hasn't he?"
Gohan's face fell. "Yeah…he keeps wanting to spar with me 'now I'm training and not totally useless'…I Shifted through a wall and hid my power level, and now he thinks I've run away so I doubled back here—"
In a hiss of rushing air, Raditz teleported straight onto Gohan and Videl's table, scattering food. "Gohan! There you are! C'mon, let's fight!"
"Leave me alone, you psychopath!" Gohan yelled, passing Pan back to Videl and tearing off across the green with Raditz in hot pursuit.
"Huh. Speak of the devil," Launch said, catching a falling glass Raditz had sent flying out of the air and draining it. "You look good too, Videl."
"Yeah, thanks." Videl unconsciously stroked her daughter's head. "I've been working hard too, to get myself back into shape after this little thing happened." Pan giggled as she was held up. "Once she's a bit older and she doesn't have to be watched all the time, I'll get back to serious training."
Tien stood under the shade of a nearby tree, two eyes closed, the third staring off into space. I almost didn't come to this, he mused, but Launch wouldn't leave me alone until I agreed. I guess I'm glad—
Tien!
K…King Kai? He stood up straight, eyes snapping open. What is it? And it had better be important, he added privately, I was just starting to relax.
Great danger is headed your way! Everyone's in danger!
'Great danger' is hardly new at this point. Could you maybe be a little more specific? Tien winced. And also stop shouting, please?
Look, King Kai mentally snapped, I don't have much time! In just a few seconds, a terrible force is going to reach your planet! A being known as—
"Lord Bills. God of Destruction," a voice behind him growled.
"That's some interesting long-range telepathy," said a higher, softer voice. "You must be an unusual mortal, to be in such casual contact with the Kai of the North Galaxy."
Odd…I don't sense any ki at all… Tien turned, slowly, to face the pair that had somehow snuck up on him. "Sorry, but this is a private party."
Bills stepped forwards to face Tien, arms folded behind his back. His eyes narrowed.
Without warning, an immense, invisible pressure slammed down on Tien's shoulders, instantly forcing him to his knees. It was like being crushed under a million planets; his bones creaked; his vision blurred; rivers of sweat poured down from his body, darkening the ground. When it passed as soon as it had begun, he was left drained, all resistance crushed out of him, still gasping on his hands and knees. Bills hadn't moved a muscle.
"No," he said calmly, strolling past Tien with Whis in tow, "it isn't."
Gotta say I love the duality of silly and threatening with Bills and Whis. I thought that having been anticipating this for so long I might have kind of worn out the hype, but…nope, even just writing this introductory chapter I love it love it love it love it love it.
…Yes I'm FINE thank you very much.
Q: (comparisons between BTtL Hirudegarn and DC's Doomsday)
A: Haha, good point! Never thought of that.
Q: Thanks for the swift posting rate. Loving it. A bit more low-energy after the Buu Saga; that was art on the level of one of Randy Savage's confusing metaphor rants for WWE promos. Hoping you take the next saga at least to Saiyan Saga (yours, not Canon's) heights. By the way, I think you nail dragon ball humour better than 'Z' did, that's my favorite thing to see in a dbz fic (Vegeta! I can FLY!). Keep it weird, guy!
A: Reviews I want to frame and hang up on my wall, #362.
Q: Hrm, are you going to delve into Launch's past at some point then? It must be a future plot point, it can't just be to give them something to talk about. Feels too specific.
A: Yes, indeed I am.
Q: How does it feel being so close to one hundred chapters? :D
A: Weird. In a good way.
Q: I LOVE your story and I'm not saying that lightly. Your writing style has this certain charm, it's easy to read, and even though there's a lot more "telling" than "showing", it just seems to fit, in my opinion. Your story has a nice balance of action and humor, blending seamlessly in a way that's true to the original series. I'm so glad you've given the characters much more of a role in the story and how you've handled Raditz throughout. The best part: you've weaved the movies into the main narrative and have it make sense. I feel like this is what DBZ could've been like if Toriyama had planned a bit more. The amount of dedication you've put into this is evident and inspiring. I could go on and on, but I'll save that for another day.
A: Reviews I want to frame and hang on my wall, #363…
And now it's time for Captain Space Reviews Anime Stuff He's Watched Recently With Minimum Effort.
Saint Seiya: Heaven Chapter Overture, being a movie sequel to an animated series intended to get a whole slew of continuations going, using updated animation techniques, is kind of like Dragon Ball Z's Battle of the Gods. Except Battle of the Gods was good. This was not. (Disclaimer, just my opinion, I know some people disagree, etc.). Slow, overly pretentious, the main character spent the entire movie staggering around, and the ending was confusing as all hell. I mean, I think I know what happened, but you have to stick around until after the credits for it to even make complete sense, not to mention it seems pretty conclusive, and yet apparently this movie was supposed to start a story arc.
Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas (another recent thing, a prequel this time), on the other hand, is looking good so far. Just from the first episode and a half, fun action, engaging characters, emotional story. Funny, this is my favourite of these three things I'm talking about today, and yet I have the least to say about it.
Kill la Kill is insane. Beautifully insane. Apparently the fanservice is a metaphor; you can look it up, and probably should before watching it. It's weird because I once tried watching one of those crappy fanservice-centric fighters once, and it was honestly just boring, but with KlK I'm now so invested in the story I'm not even noticing the sexualisation. Still, I don't expect this one to be everyone's cup of tea. In addition to the whole fanservice controversy, it is, as I mentioned, absolutely mad.
All right, that looks very much to me like a chapter. And on time, no less. Signing out, see you next week.