Chapter 34: The Good Times' End
(8 Months after the Destuction of Namek)
Life was good. It was the only way Videl could think to describe the current situation she found herself in. Not only had her mother been brought back from the dead, but after begging and pleading with her parents she was allowed to keep training with her daddy. Her entire family had even built a house on the island they were using for training and there was even a brand new school built by the government for her and the other children of the ever growing number of soldiers training on the island. Everything was going as well as she could imagine.
The five year old's foot tapped impatiently as she waited for kindergarten to end. Finally her patience was rewarded as the bell sounded signaling the end of the day.
Quickly the child gathered her things and walked with her new friends out to the bus. Saying her goodbyes at the door of the vehicle as she did every day.
With a little concentration she hoisted herself up using her Ki and took off back towards her home.
She easily beat the bus back and immediately rushed inside "Hi mom!" She greeted as she proceeded to tell her about her day while changing into her training Gi.
As soon as she was done, and had eaten her after school snack, she took off towards the lake she knew her father was training at today by sensing his energy.
"Daddy!" She called to her heavily panting father who had just finished his daily run with the heaviest Turtle shell master Roshi could provide.
"Hey sweet pea how was school." The Afroed fighter called as he caught his flying daughter in a tight hug.
Immediately the child repeated what she had told her mother as she began her stretching, her story ending when she was ready to go.
"Alright, on your mark, get set, go!" Hercule shouted as both began to swim as fast as they could, using their Ki to lower their need for air like Master Roshi had taught them.
Master Roshi's hands were full at the moment with a new large group of trainees so all of the advanced fighters who were not currently on training duty were training on their own.
It was while the duo were submerged in their frantic race to 100 laps across the lake, without taking a breath that something strange happened. The sky darkened above them as a dark mist spilled through the air, before fading away as quickly as it came.
Neither of the swimmers noticed this strange phenomenon though, instead they were too focused on their race.
When it was over Videl sprang from the water a look of glee on her face as she had 'beaten' her father by just the slightest of margins.
"Good job sweetheart- huh... Oh Master hello." He suddenly said with a bow as the Turtle Hermit and several other students crept their way.
"Master Roshi guess what? I beat my dad in a-" Videl started to say before being backhanded away as soon as she got close to the old man.
Hercules rage shot forth instantly "Why...you! Why'd you go and do that!" He shouted as a red aura surrounded him. His body straining even to handle Kaioken times 2. He didn't know what new training method he was trying out but Hercule wouldn't stand by and let anyone hit his daughter and get away with it.
That was when he noticed the strange darkness in all of their Ki as they continued to approach like hungry animals more than people. "Videl! Get your mother and get off the island now!" He suddenly shouted fearing something awful was happening and rushing the group hoping to buy Videl time to escape.
Videl was just sitting up, he head was swimming from the blow. "Ok...daddy..." She said as she shakily got to her feet fighting back tears in her eyes as she did.
She had barely made it into the air when she heard a yell from below. Her father was being swarmed by all the others, and one of them were biting him. "Daddy!" She shouted shaking off the pain ready to attack.
"Videl run!" He shouted again as he felt darkness overtake him.
The child couldn't believe what she was seeing but reluctantly shot towards her house tears streaming from her eyes. Her mommy would know what to do.
Immediately she burst through the door like she had after school, "Mommy help! Daddy is getting attacked." her mother stood at the far end of the room completely silent.
"Mommy didn't you-" Videl started to ask before being forced to jump backwards to dodge her mother's slap.
She looked back in terror as her mother's eyes were now purple and her teeth hung like fangs. "Mommy... It's me..." She whimpered realizing whatever was going on had already gotten her mother as she swung at Videl again.
The child didn't know what to do. Fear and sadness were overwhelming her. She couldn't take it anymore and shot back out through the door. She needed to find help, 'Gotta get help. Someone to help.' She repeated in her mind, trying to think of anyone who fit that description as she crossed into the open ocean hoping she could think of someone who could help by the time she made it to the mainland.
"Corporal Aden this is your commanding officer! Respond now or I'm going to kick your head in!" Major Meditrain, his promotion technically coming post-mortem, shouted into his communicator getting more irritated by the moment. "Damn it. Something big is going on out there..." The giant muttered as he stormed from the communication center of the Blue Force's underwater base.
Approximately 30 minutes ago all communication with the outside world was suddenly and inexplicitly lost. Every channel on the TV and radios were down, no one would answer at any if a dozen bases around the world; no one on Master Roshi's training island would respond either. Meditrain could only see 2 options 1 something was targeting his base in particular keeping him from sending or receiving signals or something had incapacitated the entire planet without killing most people, he could clearly still feel numerous Ki signatures, although the felt off somehow.
"Men get suited up we have a situation as of 1600 o'clock we have lost all communications with the outside world. So we're looking into this issue immediately. Caspin you take Aegean with you and see if you can find any devices on the outside of the base. Bengal you go to the nearest village and see if they are having similar issues with their communications. Adriac, you stay with me incase this is a ploy to trick us out of the base for some reason."
His men immediate sprang into action donning their underwater survival suits. Or in Bengal's case just heading straight into the exit dock. Using his Ki he'd reach the surface in under a second barely even reason to hold his breath.
The situation seemed hopeless to the guardian of the planet, reduced to a fraction of his former size and trapped in a glass bottle by his capturer's strange powers. His only form of communication was with his alternate half, but so far Piccolo's stubbornness had ended any hope of immediate escape. He couldn't even sense if there were others free from Garlic Jr.'s control or not, all he could do it wait.
"Aegean...do you feel that?" Captain Caspin asked his subordinate.
"Yeah someone's coming and they actually have a decent power level." Aegean responded.
"Thought so. Let's head up and see who is paying us a visit." Caspin added before rocketing towards the surface.
Sgt. Bengal had also felt the energy heading their general direction and redirected accordingly to see just who had this unfamiliar power.
It only took a few minutes before he had caught up to it, and what he found shocked him. 'A little girl?'
Videl stopped as soon as she saw him, her guard was up instantly. If he could fly he had to be strong like her daddy or Master Roshi, and if he had gone crazy like everyone else she would need to make a fast escape.
"Hey girl...how do you know how to fly?" The Sergeant asked as he got within earshot.
"Master Roshi taught me. Who are you?" She added hastily uncomfortable talking to the stranger in front of her. But at the same time relieved he wasn't attacking her.
"Oh Master Roshi? That's the guy that trained me..." Bengal paused and looked over his shoulder, within seconds Caspin and Aegean had arrived as well.
"Videl what are you doing all the way out here?" Caspin asked surprised to see the girl without her overprotective father nearby.
Finally someone who could help. "Mr. Caspin it's awful!" She shouted suddenly. "Everyone on the island went crazy! They're biting my daddy! Please help!" She shouted her delicate composure completely shattering as she began to cry.
"What? Videl who's biting your dad? What happened?" Caspin had no idea what to make of the girl's story.
"Everyone. Master Roshi..., Mr. Aden... even my mommy tried to bite me." She said trying to control her tears.
Caspin, Aegean and Bengal all shared the same disturbed look. "Here Videl let's take you to the Major, he'll know what to do." Caspin said trying to buy time to think the bizarre story over more as he lead the girl into the underwater base.
After the situation was explained Major Meditrain wasted no time in deciding. "Caspin I want you to stay here with the girl and hold down the fort. The rest of you, let's get a move on, we're going to pay Master Roshi a visit." He ordered confident not only that he had surpassed his master but that he could handle anything else the apparently mad occupants could throw at him if the girl was indeed telling the truth.
With that the group split up, and Captain Caspin was suddenly left with the strange job of babysitting a distraught five year old.
It took the troops of the Blue Force less than 15 minutes to reach the island. From high above they observed the utter chaos taking place down below. Half of the buildings in one village was on fire. Fights were taking place seemingly everywhere, some of them clearly were using Ki attacks against one another. Seemingly not caring about the civilians caught in the crossfire.
"This is madness." Meditrain said as he watched things continue to spiral out of control. Both sides' Ki's having a foul taint to their feel. "Alright men, there is definitely something wrong here. Let's take them all out fast and interrogate whoever is left." Meditrain ordered as he and his men launched down into the fray.
Their element of surprise though vanished before they could even use it. It was as if every one of the people on the island detected them as outsiders and put aside their previous differences before they even got close enough to strike.
Meditrain stopped his downward dive by firing small blasts into two of the purple eyed warriors coming to greet him.
His men also attempted evasive maneuvers. Aegean simply crashed through the man rising to meet him taking him straight into the ground. Adriac mimicked the Major and used a small blast to stop his momentum.
Bengal also tried this method but unfortunately for him, the man rushing to meet him was none-other than Corporal Aden. Immediately Bengal dispersed his attack attempting to avoid friendly fire.
"Bengal fire!" Meditrain shouted, too late as Bengal and Aden collided. Immediately Aden wrapped up his similarly strong, former ally and bit deeply into his neck.
Aegean wasted no time rushing over and plowing his fist into Aden's unguarded face.
Immediately the zombie like solider launched backwards. Leaving a stunned Bengal staring off into space, his muscles clenching here and there.
"Hey are you alright? Bengal, do you hear-" it happened faster than any of the Blue Force could react, Bengal lashed out, his teeth extending into the same sort of fangs as the others on the island, and sinking into Aegean's arm.
Quickly the veteran slammed his foot into Bengals face knocking the corporal back, but not before he had already broken the skin.
Aegean turned to his commander a hopeless look on his face as he felt the unknown substance rushing up his veins. "Major order the retreat! I'll...I'll..." His entire body began to convulse for a moment before an eerie calm overtook him too.
"Aegean!" Major Meditrain shouted knowing it was too late. Whatever had infected the island had just claim the third member of his squad. "Adraic Retreat!" Meditrain relented, his voice just short of a snarl as his rage at the situation threatening to boil over.
That was when he looked back at his oddly silent subordinate only to find Master Roshi clinging to his neck.
A look of shock, and just abstract disbelief hit Meditrain like a ton of bricks. "Fuck!" He exclaimed.
Almost instantly he was surrounded on all sides by the hungry looking monsters his allies had become.
Without hesitation his hands rushed to the sides if his face He had never used this technique before but it just might save his ass. "Solar flare!" A bright light rushed out on all sides blinding his would be attackers.
Immediately he launched into the air. He needed to alert Caspin and confirm the girl's story. Hopefully between the two of them they could come up with a strategy to stop this madness from spreading past the island.
He had only made it a few hundred feet when a sharp pain erupted from his arm. His head whipped around as rage surged through him. Clinging to his hand was none other than Master Roshi. His sun glasses apparently blocking the surprise attack. The glasses did little to protect Master Roshi against Meditrain's next attack though as he plowed his elbow into Roshi's face.
Already the Major could feel some dark foreign entity rushing through his body, his arm was already shaking violent as he fought for control of his own body. He was left without any way to contact Caspin and keep his second in command away from the overrun island.
His mind was getting cloudier by the minute, he needed some way to contact the base. Finally inspiration struck him just as he was about to lose completely. Somehow King Kai had the ability to express his thoughts as a mental voice, he didn't have a lot of time to figure it out so he went with the tried and true method of brute force. Channeling all of the remaining Ki he was in control of, and amplifying it as fast as he could with Kaioken, he wrapped his next thoughts in all the Ki he could gather.
"Caspin! Believe the girl! The island is overrun! Get reinforcements and a plan! Lethal force authorized against all, even against me because I'm infected! Don't get bit!" He shouted in his mind just as he released his built up Ki in a large explosive wave. As soon as the wave passed his body went limp as the black water mist took hold.
His effort wasn't in vain though, his thoughts rushed out from him in all directions, viciously assaulting every mind it came across. Its force enough to stagger every one of the possessed warriors on the island as their minds were temporarily washed out in sound of Meditrain's voice.
Further away the voice was quieter, but its effect was the same, crossing the entire planet, the message was delivered to all, even the few scattered beings free from the black water mist's insidious side effects.
(In the Blue Force's base)
The message was as loud and clear as it was shocking. Something that he could only imagine was similar to a horror movie was unfolding on the training island. His mind instantly flashing to some sort of zombie, and based on what Videl had said earlier it sounded as if the 'zombies' kept their level of strength if they were able to take on so many powerful fighters.
He let out a frustrated sigh, he had no idea what was causing this mess, how widespread it was, or even if there were reinforcement left he could call for help.
"Mr. Caspin. What are we going to do now? And did he say you have to hurt my daddy?" Videl whimpered as tears built up in the corners of her eyes.
Caspin could only stare awkwardly down at the girl for a moment as he debated what he could tell her. Finally he decided to just tell the truth, "I...I don't know, it sounds like we might. But I will try not to if I don't have to." He explained as Videl began to cry anyway.
'Damn it...if she's the only one left besides me we might be screwed...'
"Krilli-poo, did you hear that voice?" Marron asked confused looking around the tiny island trying to find its source.
Her new boyfriend stood silently at the edge of the island, a look of discomfort plastered across his face as he stared out into the distance and sweat building up along his brow.
He hadn't noticed it before but there was a dark aura covering almost the entire planet. He hadn't felt until he felt Meditrain's power spiking in the distance, and then it quickly being filled by a new darker energy.
Suddenly his concentration was cut off by a hand waving in front of his face. "Krillin are you even listening to me?" Marron's pouting voice asked.
"Huh? Oh Marron, hey sorry about that. There is something weird going on...I feel something strange...I don't know exactly how to describe it to be honest." Krillin quickly inwardly debated how much he could tell her, they had only met recently after all.
"Oh I think I know what you're talking about." Marron suddenly declared catching the former monk completely off guard.
"You do?" He asked dumbfounded wondering if there was something deeper to his date for the evening than he had failed to notice up until now because of the obvious.
"Yeah it's probably gas. It can definitely be a feeling hard to describe." She explained with a bright smile like that of a child who answered a teacher's question correctly.
Krillin sweat dropped as he realized his original assessment of the woman was in fact correct. "Uh thanks Marron, but the feeling is a little different than that. Here let me try and explain it all" he finally relented as he realized she was one of the few people on planet Earth who would easily believe he was one of the heroes that fought the Saiyans on live TV.
"Launch, I have to go check this out." Tien said his face contorting similarly to how Krillin's had a moment ago as he heard Meditrain's voice and felt the darkness seep inside him.
Launch who was still finishing getting dressed from what she and Tien were up to before the dark wave nearly washed over them, held back only by an energy barrier he had hastily thrown over their bed, stared at her boyfriend for a moment before responding. "Check what out? The voice or that mist from before?" The blonde woman asked as she finished getting dressed.
"Both, that was Captain- uh I mean Major Meditrain. He's the leader of the Blue Force that helped us against the Saiyans. I felt the same darkness creeping inside of him that I felt from the mist. Whatever it is it feels like almost the whole planet's been infected." Tien explained.
"Well if the whole planet's affected, it should make getting into the banks a bit easier today." She responded checking the clips on her oozzies.
Tien turned around a stern, almost worried look on his face. "Launch I want you to stay here until I figure out what's going on." He ordered.
"Like hell I'm staying. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, I'm not going to let some zombies or whatever everyone's been turned into scare me away. I can take care of myself." She responded her glare daring Tien to challenge her.
"And what if you sneeze while out there Launch, then what?" Tien responded his tone actually angry for once. "Your other personality wouldn't know what to do and get bitten, what good will the money do us if you get infected with whatever this is..." He paused for a second. "And if there is no cure for what's happening..." His voice trailed off.
The blonde was at a loss for words, she had never seen Tien like this before. He had been acting different ever since he found out he'd have to wait another 8 months to get his friend back, and she couldn't in all honestly not see the point he was making, her other personality was pretty useless. Crossing her arms she let out a fake growl. "Fine...I'll stay here just this once. But you owe me Tien and you better not forget it." She relented trying to stifle a slight blush.
Tien let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you Launch, and don't worry I will make it up to you." He said before giving her a tight hug and turning to leave.
Launch watched him go for a minute before finding her voice again. "You better not get bitten out there!" She yelled after him.
Tien turned around and gave a half smile, "Don't worry I'll be careful." With that he took to the air heading straight for Krillin's power level.
Tien had been traveling for about 20 minutes when he noticed the first of the other non-possessed power levels. There were dozens of them gathered together just outside of West city. It only took him seconds to realize they were all Namekian.
Immediately he veered off towards them, Krillin so far was staying in the same place still so he could see if the Namekians needed any help first.
When he arrived he found the Namekians gathered around the remaining elders, each clearly nervous and confused.
"Are you guys alright?" Tien hollered as soon as he got close. A wave of relief seemed to rush over the entire gathering.
"Tien!" Cargo and Dende shouted in unison as they burst from the pack to see their friend.
"Hey guys. I'm glad it seems like you guys are unaffected." He said patting the children on the heads.
One of the Namekian elders quickly made his way to Tien. "A great evil has befallen your planet." He hastily said.
"Yeah I've never seen anything like this before." Tien admitted as he looked at the smoke rising from the metropolis in the distance. "Do you happen to know what that mist was before?" He asked hoping the Namekians had seen something like this before.
"We have not." The Elder responded. "It felt like millions of evil souls washing over us. Please do you know someplace safe we can rest while we attempt to figure out this madness?"
Tien thought for a moment before the perfect destination because obvious. "In fact I do know someplace that might work. It's probably the best place we have to get answers about it anyway. I've got a couple more people to pick up first though, but you're welcome to follow me." He offered.
"Thank you for that, but we wouldn't want to slow you down, if you could point us in the general direction we will attempt to get a head start on you." The Elder offered.
"Sure I shouldn't be long. Just go west across the bay and you will eventually come across a tall tower. At the top of the tower is the home of the Earth's guardian, I am sure he'd be willing to take you in." Tien explained.
With that the group separated, and Tien continued on his path towards Krillin.
"Mr. Caspin I think someone's coming." Videl said as she looked at the ceiling. In the distance she felt a huge power level crossing the ocean at a mind numbing speed heading towards the training island. Within a second the unfamiliar power was out of her range.
Caspin who had been making some 'kid friendly' rations for the girl to have for dinner looked at her confused not immediately sensing anyone in the direction she was facing.
Focusing harder all around them he finally sensed someone far in the distance with a sizeable power level moving generally in their direction.
"Wait can you really feel someone that far away?" Caspin asked with a mixture of surprise and interest. It would mean the girl's sensing ability had already surpassed his own.
Videl tilted her head slightly before answering. "It isn't that far."
Caspin chuckled to himself 'Videl has some potential I guess.' "Here hurry and eat up, I'm going to go talk to whoever's up flying around and see if they know what's going on."
"No I'm going with you." Videl replied adamantly
"I don't think that is a good ide-" Caspin tried to respond nicely but was cut off.
"I'm a fighter too! I want to help get my daddy back to normal...plus this place is kinda scary." Her voice falling off after a short pause as she looked around the shadow filled room.
"You want to fight whatever monsters everyone else became but you're scared of this room?" Caspin asked incredulous.
"I can help!" Videl responded defiantly her small hands on her hips as tried to puff herself up to look as intimidating as possible.
Caspin just shook his head. "Fine, I'll let you come. But you better be ready to stand on your own and do what needs to be done."
"Really?" Videl asked excitedly.
"Yeah sure." Caspin said seemingly reluctantly. 'Please let whoever that is out there be on our side.' He prayed when he realized this small girl was all the backup he had otherwise.
It only took him another 10 minutes to arrive at what was normally Master Roshi's island. On the beach next to a new capsule house stood Krillin and a blue haired woman not unsimilar to Bulma.
"Hey Tien! You wouldn't happen to know what's going on, or what Meditrain's message was about would you?" Krillin asked hoping it was nothing major.
Tien quickly relayed the little bit he knew about the situation and his plan to meet at Kami's.
"Sounds good Marron we'll be back in a while. We've got to go save the world." He declared heroically and striking what he saw as an impressive stance, trying to score points with her and causing Tien to sweat drop at the extravagant display. Something about Krillin's grandstanding reminded him of the Ginyu Force, and that was not a memory he wanted to relive.
"Hey not fair! I want to go with you!" Marron shouted, before pouting.
"Uh... I don't...uh think that's...a good idea." Krillin sputtered his resolve already weakening under the power of her pout.
"Fine if you won't take me I won't be your girlfriend anymore." She said as she crossed her arms and turned away from him.
"Come on Marron please don't be like this. I'm trying to keep you safe because I care about you." He pleaded.
"Really?" Marron asked suspiciously.
"Of course." Krillin responded.
"Well I guess you can go then Krilli-bear" Marron relented.
Tien began to get more and more uncomfortable with the situation. As they both continued their word game back and forth.
Finally he could take it no more and cleared his throat loudly. "Sorry to interrupt but we need to get to the bottom of this mess."
That put a damper on their mood. "You're right Tien. Ok I'll be back soon." Krillin said before both fighters took to the air.
"What's a matter Kami, you seem a bit deflated." Garlic said with a sneer.
"You won't get away with this, Piccolo will stop you." Kami responded defiantly knowing his other half had no desire to get involved at the moment.
"Oh Piccolo will stop me? Ha! That weakling wasn't even a match for me during our first fight. Do you really think he could even touch me now?" Garlic said with a booming laugh. "I know I will even extend a special invitation to him to come, though I am sure you already have." Garlic chuckled as he walked over to the edge of the Lookout and shouted as loudly as he could. "Well then Piccolo, if you think you can stop me come and try! I will enjoy getting to grind your bones into dust!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.
With a smirk Garlic walked away from the edge seemingly satisfied that his challenge had been heard.
'So that imp still thinks I'm as weak as I was the last time we fought? Well then I might have to pay that pest a visit after all.' Piccolo thought to himself with an irritated smirk.
Krillin and Tien hadn't made it very far before they felt two more power levels coming in from the east, they were able to instantly recognize one of them as Captain Caspin.
"Looks like he found us after all." Krillin hollered over the wind as both warriors came to a halt.
"Yeah but who's that with him?" Tien added trying to read the mysterious, yet somehow familiar power level lagging behind Caspin.
"I'm not sure. Maybe there was someone who escaped the island?" Krillin guessed.
They both pondered the possibility for a moment as the duo continued to close the gap between them.
Within a minute they we in sight and to say that Krillin and Tien were shocked was an understatement. Floating next to the second in command of the Blue force was a small girl, no more than 6. Tien had seen her before at King Furry's summons, but he had no idea the girl was powerful enough to fly.
"Good we're not the only fighters unaffected." Caspin said visibly relieved.
"Hey Caspin good to see you too." Krillin responded before adding. "By the way who's the girl?"
"Back to the point. Do either of you have an idea what's going on with that mist?" Tien asked.
"Mist?" Caspin asked confused.
"Yeah the black mist that washed over the planet I'm guessing about the time it sounds like people started going insane all over the planet." Tien explained dumbfounded that he and Launch were seemingly the only humans to have seen it.
"I didn't see any mist. Me and my daddy were swimming and when we were done..." Her voice broke slightly as she fought back tears at the memories. "When we were done Master Roshi and some of the others were standing there and he hit me and they bit daddy. Then even my mommy tried to bite me." She added with a sniffle.
Krillin and Tien suddenly understood Meditrain's message better.
"And after she found you guys the Major led a mission to investigate right?" Tien asked.
"Yes. They were apparently wiped out." Caspin's voice was tense as he responded. He didn't like that his brothers had been taken out of the fight again so soon after being wished back.
"Any ideas on how to reverse this change?" Tien asked figuring he knew the answer.
"No clue. Do you guys have any ideas?" Caspin responded.
"Nope. We were actually about to gather on Kami's lookout to see if he had some idea that might work." Tien replied. "You two are welcome to join us."
"We don't have anything better to do right now. So let's do it." Caspin replied.
With that the four took off towards Kami's lookout. Caspin carrying Videl so she wouldn't slow them down.
After 30 minutes of nonstop flight to the North West the massive expanse of the forests of the land of Korin came into view. And so did two big issues.
Not only was Bora's medium sized power level as dark as any they sensed on the planet but there was also 4 large mysterious power levels gathered on Kami's lookout. Each so dark Videl couldn't help but get goosebumps upon sensing them.
"I think we need a plan we don't want to get trapped between Bora and whoever that is up there." Caspin responded allowing Videl to float on her own for a minute as they huddled up.
"Bora is quite a bit weaker than me so I think I can take him out fast enough that he won't even know I'm coming." Tien responded. "Just stay on the ready in case things don't go as planned. I don't really want to get bitten." He added.
"Don't worry Tien we have you covered." Krillin added with a smile.
"Alright then. Time to show Bora what I can really do." Tien smirked as he powered his Kaioken up to a times 5 just to be safe.
In a flash he was in Bora's camp. The giant warrior never saw the attack coming as Tien gave him a solid whack to the base of his skull, bringing him down in a single blow.
Caspin and Krillin were just landed by the time Bora hit the ground.
"Great job Tien he didn't even know what hit him." Krillin cheered.
Caspin stood silently in awe of how much stronger Tien was than him even after trying his hardest to close the gap the last 8 months.
Videl hadn't even been able to follow Tien's Movements, or really even feel his power. Everything just happened in an instant from her point of view.
While the adults huddled up speaking she just looked at her hands. 'Will I be that strong when I grow up?' She asked silently in her head.
Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a rustling of leaves right behind Tien. "Lookout!" She yelled and leap into action.
Tien and the others had just started to turn and see what Videl was yelling about when he foot connected with the just emerging Upa's face.
The grown, although smaller, man stumbled backwards before collapsing on the ground unconscious, his mouth open revealing his fangs.
"Thanks Videl...that was close." Tien said looking uncomfortable at his close call.
Videl smiled "No problem." She almost shouted excited she got to help.
Caspin also noted that was very impressive of the girl with a head nod before saying. "Alright guys let's get a move on." as he took off towards Korin's home, the others right behind him.
Cautiously they landed, inspecting the home of Korin for any sign of the likely infected Cat warrior and his Samurai companion.
"Everyone be on guard, they could be anywhere." Krillin whispered as the group spread out, each prepared for whatever they would find.
"On guard for what?" A voice suddenly asked from behind causing all the fighters to jump slightly in surprise, before turning and facing the small white cat standing behind them on a stairwell.
"Yeah what's up guys?" Yajirobe added looking equally confused.
Videl tilted her head before childish wonder overwhelmed her causing her to shout "A talking cat!" She immediately lunged for Korin hoping to pet him. Instead he seemingly disappeared from her sight.
"Master Korin, we're glad you and Yajirobe are alright. It is crazy down below." Krillin said a worried expression on his face.
"Hold on a second, it'll be easier if I just read your mind." Korin said before focusing his mind on the three fighters in front of him. Then he stopped, "I think I understand, but just to be sure." He turned around and faced Videl, concentrating again for a shorter period of time.
"This is terrible!" He suddenly declared. He remembered all too well what happened the last time the Black water mist was released on the Earth. "You must hurry to Kami's lookout and release the sacred water! If Kami hasn't released it by now he is likely unable to release it for some reason. Even if you must manually distribute it over the planet, you must hurry it is the only cure for the widespread possession taking place below, the last time it was released we almost didn't get it released in time." He explained frantically.
"Possession?" Caspin asked confused.
"Yes the black water mist is a concentrated form of the souls of the Garlic Jr's father's minions who died in his previous attempts to take over the world. Instead of allowing them to pass to the other side Garlic used some sort of dark ritual to bind them temporarily to this realm. They can only survive a limited time without a host when released from their container though, so when the mist is released the souls quickly fill anything they come across, overpowering the soul of the host. The only way to rid them is through a powerful exercising force, like the sacred water." He hurriedly explained.
The human fighters were shocked, things were every bit as bad as they imagined. "So those 4 large power levels before, they must've been the ones to release this mist right?" Tien asked.
"I would guess so. Be careful, I imagine they are carefully guarding the sacred water whoever they are." Korin warned.
"Yajirobe we need your help." Krillin said looking the samurai straight in the eyes.
"Nuh-uh, I already saved the world once and I died for it. I don't feel like sticking my neck out to the chopping block again." The heavy warrior said turning his back.
"Please, we don't know how strong our opponents are, we're out numbered!" Caspin pleaded.
"But there are 4...of...you…" Yajirobe suddenly realized that the fourth warrior the group had was nothing more than a small child. His fear fought with his sense of honor for a moment before one finally won out.
"Fine I'll do it. But if things start to look bad I'm taking off." He warned, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.
"That's fine, we can't ask more of you than that. Besides if we fail today we will need someone to gather the Dragon Balls up later to try and reverse this catastrophe." Tien responded.
"Videl, we need you to stay here for now." Krillin said, trying to sound authoritative.
"Why I can help! I saved Mr. Tien!" She yelled back defiantly.
"We're not saying you can't help, we're saying that we need you to stay here in case we get into trouble and need help later. If we play all out cards at the beginning, the enemy can counter easier." Caspin tried to sound as persuasive as he could in his lie. He would rather not have the girl involved in a life and death battle at this point.
Videl thought quietly for a moment, "How will I know if you need me?" She responded crossing her arms and pouting slightly.
"You and Master Korin will know." Caspin replied.
"Okayyyy" She dragged out the last syllable indicating she still wasn't happy with the situation.
"Ok let's get moving." Tien said as he and the others launched into the air hopefully prepared for whatever awaited them above.
The four warriors stood still on the seemingly abandoned, ruined lookout, their eyes scanning every nook and cranny looking for the dark energies they had felt before.
Suddenly from the shadows deep within the lookout a voice rang out. "Oh good you saved me the trouble of hunting you all down. I was hoping to have a bit of entertainment before finishing today, a day that will mark the beginning of my immortal reign over the Earth." The voice ended with a sinister laugh.
"Who are you?" Tien shouted, his eyes locking onto the source of the voice as a small pale blue creature emerged.
"Me? My, I was sure everyone had heard of me by now. I'm Garlic Jr. the new guardian of the Earth. But enough introductions let's get started, where is Goku?"
Hey all, sorry for the delay the last few weeks of school were alot worse than I was expecting. That coupled with a serious case of writer's block and the fact that these more fighting-lite sections and chapters are always longer than I expect them to be resulted in the delay. Since it is summer now I will be attempting to get chapters up much more often, especially since I expect a lot of action in the next few chapters, which always helps with how fast I get them done.
Another note since it is officially summer for me; I figured this would be the best time to really focus on improving the story as much as possible so I was hoping to get everyone's opinion, what do you all think is my or my stories biggest weakness so far or other suggestions for improvement? Also I'm not sure if you'd remember this or not is there a chapter that you really didn't like to much for some reason, and if so why?
I think I will just jump straight into the reviews now. Thank you all again for the reviews, and your patience while waiting for this latest chapter.
Reviews:
RKF22- Wonder how much stronger Gohan will become now
The sky is the limit with the tree of might, as long as he keeps attacking planets and working hard he should be easily able to keep up with the Earth group.
anonymous- Nice surprise seeing this story updated
The dark shadow u said, is it by any chance garlic junior?
Also I think goku and tutles are gonna have a confrontation soon, after all he trailing gohan as well as turles both, and Instant transmission is way faster than any ship too
Well I don't think turles will be a challenge what with goku humongously outclassing him in base that he'll need hundreds of fruits to catch up only nt to mention ssj
Also well if u r going to be unable to write for a while then its okay, all the best fr the papers
I think it is a definate yes on Garlic Jr. lol.
it is true that Instant transmission is faster than any ship, the problem is that Goku still can't sense them over the distance of space, he is jumping blind using King Kai as a galactic gps system.
You're right Turles would not stand one iota of a chance against Goku right now, Goku would one shot him.
Thanks for the well wishes on my papers and finals, I think they went ok, I somehow managed to get a B in my Quantum Mechanics class, which was an awesome surprise. now I just have to hope I managed to get an A in my astrophysics class lol.
wheathermangohanssj4- Yes I did get angry about the Cold thing, because when most people imply that it is that, stronger then freiza's resting power, they also apply scaled power to his other forms that is the same as frieza's to make him a threat forgetting that A. Cold and Frieza were only there at the beginning of the arch as a bait and switch for the Androids B. That the point of the transformations, in universe, outside it's for fight escalation, is to contain their power so that they don't destroy every so if Cold is as strong as frieza's resting power, which is still more powerfull then all of his previous forms, why would frieza have to bother with his lower transformations if daddy can walk around with that power just fine and C. That Cold defiantly can't be stronger then Goku when he got back because Goku would have totally let Cold power up to max in the original timeline
Man, I hope Goku comes in soon and give a good old fashion Superman-
speech to get it trough some of your reader's heads that no what Raditz is thinking is not right to kill millions of people and destroy their homes just to get stronger, it's not any better then friza doing it 'because he can', and that they can't go around killing people for the same reason.
The z-warrior's need to use might For right, it's why I actually love the saiyaman arch, besides it being funny as hell, Gohan finally does what no one did the series using their amazing strength's to help people and not just sitting on their ass's reading porn(master roshi), or using it to 'cheat' at baseball (Yamcha).
Now some people think that Goku shouldn't have given frieza second chances, but that's just not fair, if he didn't give people second chances, Yamcha, Tien, piccolo and Vegeta would all be dead, non of them took his first or even his second treat to stop, some people just take longer to learn their lesons, of course clearly NOW we know frieza will never learn, 10 plus years in hell didn't show him that if you do whatever you want that's what awaits you when you die. Heck their being an actuall afterlife in the DBZ universe is the only reason that killing the bad guy's is even mild 'OK', it's not killing them so that the doen't hurt anyone anymore, it's doing it so that they can be sent to the only prison that can hold them.
So wait the second son is the one that always has clone properties of the dad? Does that mean Vegeta has/had an older brother in this story because Tarble is very clearly the younger brother.
Pretty neat explanations for why Goku look's like Bardock and Bardock look's like Goku...heh, and it kinda let's you make Goten be born whenever the heck you want ooooh idea Goten comes back instead of Trunks because of reason's, let's face it Goten is a bit dimmer then trunks so he might slip on who he is with more people and seeing all the Son Family being super saiyan's when he can't force it but know's he can be one, seek's out Tarble to force him to to make the Son's bow to the Royal Saiyan's family, but in his effort's to make him strong enough to be of use, because if those lowclass can become it then that disgrace should still be able to become strong. get's him to the threshold, but then threatens to kill Geru, tarble's mini wife to force him to come along, and then Tarble becomes a Super saiayian before Vegeta...no...no that's another fanfic in itself and doesn't need to go in this one, and I'm certainly not going to write it, my spelling and grammar are terrible.
Thanks for all the reviews btw.
As far as the Cold discussion, you have to remember that Cold could be much much older than Frieza (We don't know how long their race lives but it seems like Frieza hardly aged in the 20 years that Goku was growing up). In which case you would've had that much longer to learn how to control his power. Also Cooler was able to move around in his final form with no problems. I think Frieza would be capable of living in his later forms just fine if he ever put effort into learning restraint, which he doesn't. That would be my logic behind Cold's power anyway.
Also you have to remember that Goku got burnt badly letting Frieza transform in this story though, so Goku v Cold, Goku wouldn't likely make that mistake again. Also Vegeta base is stronger than Cold 2nd form in the way we are discussing, if Goku was going to let him transform who's to say someone else wouldn't step in to stop it like Vegeta or Piccolo one-shoting him with a Galic Gun or A Special Beam cannon.
Raditz is doing a pretty good job of shaping Gohan's outlook on life, Goku will have his hands full when he finally finds his son. Yeah the Z fighters do have a sort of 'let it be' attitude towards everything that is not world threatening. I think part of it is Goku lives so far away from the cities that he just doesn't realize what is going on, otherwise I think he would do more to stop it.
Vegeta could possibly have had older siblings. I image if King Vegeta can have a son as weak as Tarble, it is possible he could have had other 'disgraceful' children and sent them away as well. There is also the likelihood that there is a high mortality rate among Saiyan children since they are sent on dangerous missions at such young ages. Hence why he attached Nappa as Vegeta's body guard. Mostly what I was trying to do was provide a way to explain Bardock, Turles, Goku, and Goten's identical features. And yes Goten can be born whenever
That could be an interesting fic, having Goten come back first, and or Tarble going ssj first. I can't say I have seen stories with either of those story lines.
T51b Moridin- (Ch. 32) Lol here comes nappa and vegeta. Looking forward to it. I can see Vegeta insta killing pyro for being a dickweed.
Yeah I think Pyros would remind Vegeta of some pricks he didn't particularly like (Zarbon, Frieza, etc) so his life-span would definitely be stunted lol.
(Ch. 33) I can understand the additive effect instead of multiplicative. It being a multiplier would mean it would be smarter to just hit several small shit planets and you would still get a shit ton stronger. Additive makes more work. Shame they are targeting earth now. Was hoping they would raze more planets before earth became a target of teh tree of might. Would mean Raditz and Gohan would be stronger before they went back. Though to be fair straight training would be more effective as showcased by goku many a time.
First off thanks again for all the reviews lately, I definitely appreciate it :).
Yeah that is what I was thinking, it would make them too OP for what I have planned for them. They are not necessarily targeting Earth right now, the story isn't following the same sort of arc i imagine the Turles movie did. Turles is just going off in a random direction for a while because he doesn't want to attract too much PTO attention yet, since neither he nor his subordinates are at Ginyu's level or the level of the Armored Squadron yet, let alone any of the Frost Demons.
I plan on another flash into Gohan's life coming in 6 or 7 chapters I think.
Luke- Excellent! As always!
Thank you, I appreciate the review :) I will try to keep up to your expectations.
super mystic gohan- damn what a chapter! turles story interesting and the power they will get is unreal I wonder if radits will change thou there still so much you can do with him and gohan! also I think I know whats happening on earth.
Glad you enjoyed it! I think Turles's crew is going to be one of my favorite groups to write about for awhile. I bet you did know what was going on on Earth lol. Thanks again for the review :)
Sakuraus- Seriously, I love this story looking forward for more :)
Thanks for the review :). I'm glad you are enjoying it, I hope I continue making chapters you enjoy!
Vasir of the Reach- (Ch. 1) fuck yeah i voted for krillin because he is the strongest character in the whole dbz universe and the fact you portray him greatly.
i dare you all to disagree, i mean who could have bisected frieza in his second form ending the whole saga right then and there but chose not to because he was not the main protagonist. i hope you all understand how great he is and how he could have destroyed Nappa and Vegeta on Earth but didn't because of gohan's innocence. ) i honestly hope somebody posts this on a social media site just to read the comments
Thanks for the review, and the vote on the poll, you were one of just 4 people to actually respond on that lol. As of right now the poll is in a 4 way tie between, Krillin, Chi Chi, Nappa, and Gohan. And techincally Krillin could have if he had gotten the jump on Frieza or the Saiyans. That would be interesting if someone posted that, I imagine alot of angry responses would follow lol.
tarrangar- (Ch. 14)- Vegeta hasn't thought of a very important thing in his plan to use Gohan against the earth force, the moment he finds out his mother is alive you can be sure he will desert to their side.
Yeah I don't think Vegeta has really been focused on Gohan during that arc, I think he is more interested in skinning Raditz alive for selling him out at that point. Vegeta was likely planning on going back and finishing the job on Earth someday as well, probably after attaining immortality.
silverspetz- (Ch. 30) - Meh, I Think you are Selling Krillin short if you are making him weaker than even Yamcha, Love the rest though.
In this story so far Krillin is weaker than Yamcha solely because he never got his potential unlocked. The differences are not much though, only 20,000 or so. The differences in their work ethics should allow Krillin to regain the lead no problem. Glad you enjoy the rest of the story though.
Thanks again everyone for your reviews, I hope you continue to enjoy the story, see you all next time (hopefully faster than the last gap lol) :)