Even Further Beyond

Prologue

(This is a sort of 'intermission' or 'chapter 0' covering the time between last chapter and the 'actual' start of EFB. Next week will be Even Further Beyond, chapter 1.) I'm going for a sort of 'snapshots' effect, but who knows if it'll work.

I'll keep using the spellings/translations I started with, but if I was starting now I'd probably change a couple of things, like going with 'King Enma' over 'Yemma', but whatever. (Hey, another thing to vaguely tack on to the list of 'stuff to change in the comic if it ever happens'.)

Important: The events in the following chapter take place during an eight-year interval of time; they do not all take place at once, and they do not all happen around the time of the kids' fight with Cell. Last chapter, since somebody asked, Pan was eleven, Uub was twelve, and Marron was fifteen. By the police scene in this chapter, the eight years have passed completely, it's a full twenty years (well, not to the day, but roughly) after Buu, and if you can't be bothered to work out ages I'll put them at the end.

"…so they should be back before long," Raditz finished.

Goku, leaning against his house's doorframe, nodded. "I mean, obviously you went to help when it looked like they were in trouble, but you must have some serious emotional control to stay calm up until then, watching them getting the crap kicked out of them." He scratched his head. "You had a violent childhood, I guess…"

"My earliest memory is a warzone. Around the time you were born. Vegeta was eating someone he'd killed." Raditz shrugged. "Just a little violent, yeah."

"Right…any idea what Pan did at the end there?"

"Not a clue."

From the private journals of Son Gohan:

Pan is an interesting case. I think this is at least partly due to her genetics; not only is she the first quarter-saiyan we've encountered, she's also the child of two extremely powerful members of their respective races; at her time of conception, Videl was one of the strongest humans around, and I had already achieved Super Saiyan 3. I still don't understand how high ki levels retroactively influence one's genes, but apparently they do.

Whatever the cause, a few subsequent training sessions with her have at least let me gauge the effects with some precision. She is unable, for whatever reason, to access the 'standard' Super Saiyan forms. However, the same power resides within her, merely without the normal…structure. She has the potential to raise her power as high as any Super Saiyan, but it is entirely dependent on her willpower at the time—I don't think I can put her under enough stress to bring out the kind of power it took to kill Cell in normal training, at least not without risking serious injury, and as her father I can't allow myself to do that.

Anyway…her 'base' power always returns to its previous level when her 'transformation' wears off, though of course she can continue to train and increase it as normal. But as to how far her hidden strength can take her, I can only speculate. It did take her to low Super Saiyan 2 levels fighting Cell, which in itself is astounding. Will it 'max out' at the limits of a Super Saiyan 2? The third form is so otherworldly, separate from the others; I don't think it can be achieved by normal means. Does her well of power extend to that? What about the 'demigod' potential residing within a normal Super Saiyan? When she's older and more experienced, will she be able to reach that level?

Only time will tell, I suppose. As for myself, I continue to train; if another enemy like Bills shows up, I can't be unprepared.

Otherworld check-in station...

"Next…next…er—" King Yemma looked up, blinking. "Haven't I seen you before?"

"Undoubtedly," Cell grumbled, glancing disdainfully around the judge of the dead's office. "But that was a different me…don't worry, no resurrection shenanigans."

"Good." The giant ogre breathed a sigh of relief. "Those Dragon Balls always make so much paperwork for me. Do you know, those hooligans have resurrected an entire planet's population, not once but twice?!"

"They screwed up that badly?" Cell laughed.

An attendant coughed. "Er, sir, the line's backing up."

"Oh, right, yes, of course," Yemma stammered. "Anyway!" He slammed his stamp down on Cell's file. "Off to Hell with you already."

Trailing a stream of obscenities, Cell allowed himself to be marched off.

"All right." Yemma coughed loudly. "Next! And be quick about it!"

Hell...

Cell, mooching gloomily past a lake of blood, looked up with some curiosity to see himself approaching, the other him looking curiously at his surroundings. I figured he'd show up sooner or later, though the fact that he reached his perfect form as well is impressive… "You too, huh?" he asked.

"Oh, shut up," the new arrival muttered sulkily.

Break sauntered into her dorm room, whistling as she shut the door behind her.

The phone rang; Launch. "So how'd it go with Trunks?"

"It didn't, mom," Break sighed. "Don't ask, all right? I've got to study for once."

"Screw that. If you got in to university, you've done the hard part," Launch countered. "Go on, tell me about it. Was it that bad?"

"Not really. I mean, sure, I figured, it might be a cliché, but after a few failed relationships, hey, there's the childhood friend all grown up. But…"

"But what?"

"Most people don't talk to their mothers about this kind of thing."

"Most people's mothers aren't me. C'mon."

"Fine. It wasn't a terrible date or anything, but…he's just too distracted with all the secret projects and business deals and whatever other crap they've got going on, he really wasn't there." She 'hopped' into the air, hovering cross-legged at head height and flicking on the TV with a telekinetic nudge. "I mean, he barely looked at me all evening. So yeah, that's not happening again."

"Shame. He was such a good friend to you growing up."

"He still is a good friend. But that's it."

"Ooh, friendzoned."

Break frowned. "You know, the more that I think about it, it is weird to be talking about this with you. I'm going to hang up now. Also because wrestling is on."

Launch's sly grin was practically audible. "Right, I'll just let you get on with watching two sweaty, half-naked guys grapple with each other."

"Someday I swear I will fly over there and kick your ass, grandma!" Break yelled as Launch hung up, giggling. "Ugh. Parents."

Officer Blake sauntered into Anderson's office, dumping a pile of papers on her desk and saluting half-heartedly. "Sergeant."

"Oh, hell," Anderson muttered, rustling through the stack, "is this all today?" A nod. "Of course it is. Sum it up for me."

"Well, the big one's an assault case; the Gold Star gang out in full force."

"Right, we've had a warrant out on them for a while. Most of 'em mid class B power, right?"

"Yeah, a real handful." Blake nodded. "Anyway, it was another highway robbery. Target, Lance Fitzgerald, 78, former Wushu instructor. They—"

"Don't tell me, I know how this goes," she interrupted. "Seven thieves versus one retired old master? I'll cancel the warrant." She began to scrawl signatures and check boxes. "Just tell me what state he left them in."

"Well, they're going to need to stay in hospital for a few days before they can appear in court—" Blake was again cut off, but this time by Marron crashing through the wall and levelling the desk between the two police officers with the impact of her fall.

Anderson sighed, putting down her pen on what now amounted to empty space, letting it fall to the ground. "Thank you for destroying a good hour's worth of paperwork, but I do hope you're going to pay for that wall."

"And I hope not," Marron answered, shaking herself down as she stood up. "After all, I was the one punched through it. The one you want to arrest is the one who did the punching." Not that it hurt…I should've dodged it, to be honest. Really should pay attention more. She took a step back as a large man in camo-pattern jeans barrelled in after her, sticking her leg out and tripping him before throwing a chop into the back of his neck as he fell, putting him down, as they say, for the count. "Which is that guy, by the way." She fished around in his pocket, producing a small object the police did not, of course, recognise as a Dragon Ball—the Three-Star, to be precise. "Ah! Damn, had to go through a lot of trouble for this thing."

"Miss, what's that?" Blake asked pointedly.

Marron waved this away. "Oh, just something he, uh, took from me." She neglected to mention the other twelve aggressors back in the bar across the street, figuring what the police didn't know, wouldn't hurt them. "Got it back now, all good, be seeing you!"

"We'll need to ask you a few questions—" Anderson began, but the victor of the strange battle vanished midway through her sentence. "Egh. We should get the Pursuit team after her or something."

"Don't bother," Blake said, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "I'm on the team. Ki approaching low class A."

"And?"

"Couldn't see a thing." He shrugged. "Way too fast. No point chasing someone like that."

"Wonderful." She frowned, massaging her forehead. "All right, I'll need a damage report form, somebody to remove the suspect from the floor, a repair crew for the wall, and a desk. Like, say, yours."

"I didn't steal it!" Marron protested. "I took it as my rightful prize after emerging victorious in a traditional bar brawl."

"If it involves one or more roundhouse kicks, it isn't a 'brawl'," Pan retorted, smirking. She held up the Six-Star ball. "Anyway…got this in an antiques shop, twenty-five zeni, much less interesting."

They were stood atop the Guardian's Lookout, along with Kuriza, who'd supposedly had to wrestle an indeterminate number of crocodiles to find the Two-Star ball in a swamp. He tossed it into the air absent-mindedly. "I guess we just have to wait for Uub to get back with his, then we can go out for the other three—"

"Don't bother!" Uub called down from above, descending onto the Lookout with the remaining four Dragon Balls cradled in his arms. "Sorry…never had to hunt for these things before, and I got carried away…" He landed between his three friends. "So…shall we start?"

"Sure, let's go!" Marron, holding her Dragon Ball out behind her, ran at Uub with her other arm raised to block. Pan and Kuriza did the same, charging him from all directions. Smiling, he threw his collection into the air, then spun himself into a whirlwind of motion as the others reached him. A second or so later, he appeared a few feet away from them, all seven spheres floating in front of him.

"Damn it," Pan growled. "When'd you get that good?"

"If you can't be bothered to fight me for a couple of years straight, you lose track of my progress," he answered smugly. "So anyway, I guess I win?"

"Seems that way." Kuriza shrugged. "All yours, then. Any idea what you're gonna wish for?"

"Still not entirely sure…" Uub slowly ran a hand through his hair. "Why don't I take just the first one, and we can make a second as a group? Anything you guys want?"

"That's the problem with almost-unlimited choice…" Marron sighed. "What do we ask for?"

Various possibilities were thrown out, and shot down just as quickly, over the next couple of minutes.

"Eternal life?"

"No, eternal youth!"

"Infinite power!"

"The dragon couldn't kill an enemy stronger than Dende; I don't think it can grant power more than his, either."

"Telepathy!"

"You want to know what everyone secretly thinks of you? That'll ruin some friendships."

"More wishes!"

"That won't work, it can't generate more wishing power than it has."

"Resurrect Elvis!"

"He died too long ago. Plus, who'd believe it was him?"

"World peace!"

"How would that even work? Mind control so nobody declares war anymore? Sounds kinda sinister."

Uub snapped his fingers. "I've got it. I'm gonna ask now; you guys keep thinking about the second, I guess." He let the Dragon Balls drop, holding out a hand over them. "Uh…eternal dragon…um, come out and stuff. Hopefully soon." He paused. "Nothing's happening…did that—"

A crack of thunder heralded the sky rapidly darkening, and an orange glow began to emanate from within the treasured artefacts.

"So, what are you gonna wish for?" Pan asked over the roar of otherworldly energy as a bright dragon-shaped silhouette burst skywards out of the Dragon Balls.

"Majin Buu's memories," Uub said firmly. "I only know half the story…if I really was him in a former life, I want to know what it was like."

"Won't that be a bit much to have suddenly jammed into your brain? He caused a lot of death, and you'll remember it as if you did it…"

"Sorry, I just…need to know." He turned back to the forming dragon, shielding his eyes against the radiance. By now, it was starting to give way to the majestic creature itself.

"Um…hey…is it supposed to look like that…?" Marron asked warily.

"No," Kuriza replied, blinking a couple of times. "No, it is not." This dragon was dark blue and winged, overall more in the style of a Western dragon than an Eastern one. Coils of cloying smoke surrounded it, slowly spreading out to engulf the entire surface of the look out. "Uh…" Kuriza cleared his throat, calling up to the razor-toothed apparition. "Is it Shenron's day off or something? Who are you?"

"Name's Kokuen," the dragon replied offhandedly, speaking in a mocking voice. "So you're the tossers who've been making all these wishes the past few decades? Well done, you've only gone and killed everybody."

"Wait, what? Hold on, aren't you gonna grant any wishes or something?" Pan demanded. "I mean, that's how it works…"

"Screw that."

"Come on, since when do Eternal Dragons refuse to grant wishes?"

"Bite me," Kokuen spat. "Anyway, you might wanna look down at your Dragon Balls. Well, I say that, they've never been yours from the start—they're ours, not that you could've known."

They glanced down at his words, and were presented with an alarming sight—the balls were beginning to crack, and further streams of black smoke were billowing out into the open air.

"Bloody hell, they really are full up, an' it only took a few trillion years," Kokuen muttered. "The hell kinda wishes you been making?" He stared off to the side blankly, as if reading from something only he could see. "Wait, how many resurrections? At the same time? Oh wow. Fantastic. You poor sods."

A scuffle of feet heralded Dende and Mr. Popo arriving outside. "What happened?" Dende yelled. "What did you do?"

"I don't know!" Uub shouted defensively. "We just summoned the dragon, but got this guy instead!"

"Well, my time's about up," Kokuen sighed. "I would explain what's going on, but you're all about to die so it'd be kind of pointless. Plus, the confuzzlement on your faces is hilarious."

"That's not a real—"

"Bye now, kiddies! Have fun being torn limb from limb!" With that, the strange dragon itself dissolved into more smoke, which gathered itself into a vortex centred over the spot where the Dragon Balls had previously lain.

Barely two seconds later, the smoke was sucked inwards, the cloud shrinking rapidly into a single point and folding in on itself until the air was once again clear.

Standing where the Dragon Balls had been positioned was a group of seven…individuals, perhaps. People was not quite adequate, possibly. A few of them had slightly reptilian features or an odd aura, and all of them were attired oddly. Seven in all, they were standing in the same formation the Dragon Balls had been placed in.

Slowly, the lead stranger took a step forwards, shaking her head. "Aaahhh...Adjusting to a material body always gives me a headache," she muttered. "Or maybe it's the sensation of being crushed into an object the size of a small rock and instantly exploding out of it…"

Hakaishin temple…

Whis, halfway through his daily round of the temple's grounds, froze mid-step. An expression of purest anguish crossed his face. "No," he whispered. Not so soon…not again! He swung around, swinging a punch that atomised both the wall and an orbiting moon that happened to be directly behind it. "No more!" he hissed.

Yes, Even Further Beyond has begun kinda sorta, and next week it will begin definitely really. And yes, Kokuen is my replacement for Black Smoke Shenron (his name just means 'black smoke'), and I removed the cigar and made him rude and British because of reasons.

Character ages (accounting for the seven years Raditz spent not aging in Otherworld, but not for one or two years various people spent in the Time Chamber):

Goku, Raditz, Chi-Chi—late 50s to early 60s

Gohan, Videl—38

Break, Trunks, Vegeta Jr.—28

Goten—27

Kuriza—no idea, but in human terms about 16 (finally getting closeish to young adulthood)

Pan—19

Uub—20

Marron—23

Everyone else—I don't know, but if you really want to know, ask and I shall make extremely vague guesses which probably won't be very helpful.

Q: [Pan's 'transformation']

A: I hope this chapter provides a decent explanation. If you still have questions, ask away.

AND A QUICK CLARIFICATION: Pan was not SSJ2 level in base. Sorry if that impression came across. She was only able to grab Uub away because Cell got carried away and wasn't paying attention, and later when Cell was like 'her power's rising, it's maybe even equal to mine!', that was her on the verge of transforming, beginning to tap into that power.

AND ANOTHER: It was inspired in appearance by 'False Super Saiyan' from the fourth movie. The rest, though, the effects, explanation, source, etc., are my ideas. I just thought the look was cool, but obviously couldn't just go with the movie version because it gives literally no explanation and is pretty much non-canon-compatible.

Q: Great chapter! A question, if Break and Trunks have a child would it be mostly human with power or would it be a complex hybrid?

A: Complex hybrid. But that seems unlikely now. Don't try and read too much into that scene in this chapter, by the way; I just partially wanted some character moments that weren't foreshadowing something (since almost everything else is), and partially I figured having a relationship fail (or fail to happen at all) once in a while would be realistic. I think it might be good for some cast members to eventually form relationships with non-cast members, to avoid the weird situation of this entire group of friends only going out with each other.

Q: Questions: is Nail gone forevermore or will he return one day? In your opinion how much Saiyan DNA is needed to go SSJ?

A: He is, sorry. I try to occasionally make character deaths permanent, or there's much less tension. And as for the second question, I don't know. Pan's the only quarter-saiyan in the story so far, and she's kind of a special case so can't be taken as the rule.

Q: To combate the straight genetics arument on why the saiyan kids are so strong, I'm going to have to use a ki presure argument.
This argument simply states that if you are around others who are as strong/stronger then you, the ki coming off their body will basicly be fighting everyones around them at all times, unless they could perfectly control it.
Aka, you are always working out, because you always have to push against-through the ki. (Its like walking through air vs swimming trough water)
Now, the Z warriors are all pretty good at keeping their ki inside them, and they have the option of lowering it, but when they power up, enough ki is sent off of them to send oponents flying.
To constantly defend against this while training is to take training up a notch. This is why weaker charecters can catch up to stronger charecters after training, and after a long time training (hyperbolic time chamber), the level of 2 diferent people will be around the same when they come out. (The weaker one will get stronger, faster, and eventually catch up.)
Of course genetics do make a diference, and how strong the parents are when the baby is conceived does too, but I feel that enviormental conditions should count for much more.

A: I like this theory.

Q: Hmm, I was expecting Raditz to get his revenge against Cell.

But the kids taking out a weaker Cell is cool too.

So that's what, three times he'd died now?

A: Four. And it's his fifth appearance, bearing in mind he didn't die in Fusion Reborn.

Q: How many more chapters are there?

A: I have no idea!

Q: Also, a fight on SSJ2 level should be felt everywhere on earth, because in the anime ( I dont know about the manga) even the people from Namek could feel Cells power.

A: Iguess other people could feel it, but the people qualified to intervene in a SSJ2 level fight basically came down to Goku and Gohan, who could probably sense where Raditz was and therefore that he had it under control, Goten and Vegeta, who could find out from Goku, Break, who probably knows when her father isn't around, and Eighteen, who can't sense energy.