Haha! I finally managed to publish a new chapter in less than a month! Then again, this chapter is considerably shorter than what I'm used to. Meh, I'll take a victory where I can. If you were a fan of my previous story, then you would know that I was notorious for taking forever to upload, so I really hope I'm setting a good precedent for myself here and that this isn't a one time thing. We'll just have to see.
Already over 20 favs and 30 follows. Not bad. Let's see if we can get those numbers to keep rising!
Anyways, onto reviews!
Reviews
Guest 1: Thank you!
tank2u1wood: Thanks! Good to see you here as well, tank.
Hunter of Entities: There definitely will be more! I think the direction I take will surprise you. I will say that Alex is going to have a pretty rough time of it. While he might have Goku's body, he doesn't have his talent. Also, without giving spoilers, he'll be quite un-saiyan like in his attitude toward combat. As for being pure of heart, well you can probably guess the answer by now.
serus black antihumannature: Thanks and here you go!
KingPlotBunny: Really? That's interesting. I actually looked for a few to see if anyone had done it already when planning this, but didn't have much luck. Meta knowledge actually won't end up be as useful as you'd think, at least for OG. Haven't decided how I'm going to handle Z if I hypothetically get that far, but I agree that even without high martial prowess, his saiyan genetics would still eventually carry him to the top of Earth's power ladder, so the story will eventually have to shift away from an underdog focus to more butterfly-effect shenanigans and character development. As for Alex' development strength-wise, while he won't be some freak prodigy like Goku, I am currently considering giving him one major boon to smooth his journey somewhat, as without it I can't realistically see him making it past Yamcha.
MSPain: Glad you like it! In a world that relies predominantly on brawn to solve problems, I want to write a character that takes a more methodical approach. Expect some of his choices to definitely cause problems down the line though.
Ch 2: A Precautious Partnership
As he waited for Bulma to recompose herself, Alex mentally berated himself. Great. First time meeting someone in an alternate reality and I'm already making myself look like an idiot. He sighed. Well, as far as first impressions go, it's not as bad as trying to kill her, so point for me, I guess.
On a less depressing note, it felt like a small weight had been lifted from his shoulders as he realized he could understood what Bulma was saying, so at least he knew communicating with others in this world wasn't going to be an issue.
He looked her over. She was a bit different from the version of Bulma he was used to seeing in Z. Obviously, she was younger, seemingly around his age, er, well, his original age, anyway. In this new body, she easily towered over him. Being a midget is seriously going to take some getting used to. She had her blue hair— wow, actual blue hair— tied up into a braided ponytail adorned by a red bow, and wore a short pink dress that ended mid-thigh, showing off pale white legs. And finally, a small satchel was strapped to her waist with the butt of a small handgun sticking out from under the flap.
If Bulma was here now, then it seemed he really had been brought here just in time for the story to unfold. He wasn't sure whether to count himself lucky or not.
He perked up slightly. Now that I think about it, isn't this like talking to a celebrity but ten times more impressive? Sure, Bulma was far from one of his favorite Dragon Ball characters, but who else could claim they had actually spoken to a fictional character before?
The blue-haired beauty pulled herself to her feet and dusted herself off. "If food is the first thing on your mind, then you must not have taken much of a beating, huh, kid?"
Alex raised a hand to the scratches on his cheek. The slight tinge of pain had already begun to fade. Aside from that and his bloodied knuckles, he was pretty much unscathed.
She placed a gloved hand on his shoulder, looking him up and down again. "You're lucky I pulled up when I did," she said. "Didn't anyone teach you common sense? It's dangerous to be wandering out here by yourself."
Alex frowned. It had been a long time since someone had treated him like a little kid that didn't know any better. The two of them being about the same age mentally only made it more awkward. Yeah, no. He brushed her hand away brusquely. "Well, I'm fine, so you can keep your hands to yourself."
Bulma frowned, muttering, "Bit of an ungrateful little brat, isn't he?"
Thanks to his saiyan hearing, his ears easily picked up on her words. He coughed, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "Uh, sorry, but I'm fine, really. I'm not some fragile little kid. I'm actually pretty strong. But still… thanks." Ok, so he'd never been the most graceful at socializing. Sue him.
Bulma looked over to where Alex had been fighting the sabertooth just a few moments earlier, crossing her arms and placing a finger on her chin. "Well, that was one heck of a blow you gave that thing. Hmm…"
She seemed deep in thought for a few seconds, and Alex would bet money that she was currently considering making him her bodyguard just like in canon. The question was: was he going to accept?
"Say," Bulma spoke up. "We haven't introduced ourselves yet, have we? What's your name, kid?"
"Hm? Oh, it's Al—" he cut himself off with a rough cough, and she gave him an odd look. "It's… Goku. Son Goku."
Her eyebrows lifted in surprise. "A clan name? Those are pretty rare. You must come from a well-established family."
He shrugged. "Maybe…" he replied absently, more focused on his split-second decision to introduce himself using Goku's name. He had almost used his own on instinct, but then realized that there could be some unforeseen complications down the road if he did. Didn't Goku meet his dead Grandpa again at some point? "So, uh, what about you?"
"Me?" Bulma turned to the side, her cheeks turning a little red as she suddenly seemed embarrassed. "Bulma," she mumbled.
Alex was a little confused by her behavior, and his eyebrows creased slightly, but he shrugged it off. "Ok… Well, nice to meet you, Bulma."
She blinked in surprise, and smiled, seeming a little more friendly. "Likewise, Goku."
His stomach growled again, and he gave an awkward laugh. "So… about that food?"
She raised an amused eyebrow. "Don't you have family to feed you?" She looked around. "Actually, do you really live around here? There isn't any civilization for miles around. You're not lost, are you?"
I woke up in a fucking shack in the middle of nowhere. So, yeah, I guess you could say I'm a little lost, he thought darkly. Obviously, he couldn't say that, so instead he just shook his head. "There's a hut nearby. My… grandpa and I used to live there together, but he passed away a while ago."
"What? You mean you've just been living on your own out here? What about your parents?"
"Nope. No parents," he said, then his eyes widened slightly. Oh, shit, what about his parents? What was going on back home right now? He knew he didn't exactly have the best relationship with them, but for him to just disappear like that… Had they already realized he was missing? A darker, more cynical part of his mind wondered: would they even care? Later. He pushed the thoughts away.
Bulma gave him a sympathetic look, but he shook his head. "It's fine. I've… managed, so far." He looked around. Walls of green lined the narrow curving road. "Although… I may have gotten a little turned around during that fight, so maybe I am a little lost." In more ways than one.
She hummed. "I may be able to help with that." She reached into her satchel and pulled out two bright orange orbs with stars on them. Dragon balls. The two-star and five-star balls to be specific. "Is there anything in your home that looks like one of these?"
He quickly caught on to what she was thinking but pretended to be surprised. This was all supposed to be new to him, after all. "Yeah, actually. Grandpa Gohan owned one of those, though his has four stars on it. Why?"
She giggled in excitement. "The four-star ball! I'm one step closer!"
She stored both dragon balls back in the satchel and retrieved a round metal object with a knob at the top. The dragon radar. She pressed down on the knob and the radar beeped to life. She hummed happily to herself, staring at the screen for a few moments before nodding to herself. "Alright then, your home is a few dozen kilometers west of here."
"Really? How can you tell?"
She smiled proudly. "This device lets me know the general location of dragon balls— that's what those orange balls are called, by the way— by picking up on the small electromagnetic pulses they give off. If you have one in your home, then I can use this to track it down. I'll have you know I'm actually considered a bit of a genius." She started walking back towards her parked jeep and waved at him. "Come on, I'll give you a ride."
The drive back to Gohan's shack was a bit awkward for Alex. As they traveled along the road, Bulma peppered him with questions, asking about his age, how long he'd been living on his own, etcetera. While he was no stranger to lying with a straight face, identity fraud was a new low. He kept his answers vague. No one would be any wiser if he made a mistake, but it was better to play it safe and avoid potentially incriminating himself later if something didn't add up. Still, he figured that as long as he was careful there would be no harm acting like his typical self. Trying to emulate Goku's stupidity would have been too much.
In return, Alex asked her a bit about herself, mostly just to keep conversation flowing and avoid awkward silence. That turned out to have been a mistake. He had opened the floodgates, causing Bulma to go on and on about herself, with more than a few references to how smart, beautiful, and talented she was. He droned out most of it but did manage to learn a few new things that the series never mentioned, like the fact that she apparently had an older sister. Neat.
During a lull in the conversation, his tail had unwound and began to wriggle about unconsciously. Bulma had screeched after noticing it, nearly driving them off a cliff. After righting the vehicle, she had demanded to know what it was, claiming she had thought it was just some weird belt. With a nervous chuckle, he answered, "Birth defect?" and when she didn't look convinced, he just shrugged and told her he'd always had it. "What a weird kid," she had muttered as he wrapped the wriggling appendage back around his waist. He'd really need to learn how to control that soon.
Following an uphill fork in the road, they arrived back at Grandpa Gohan's hut without any other incidents. The shack was as run-down and in need of some serious renovation as he'd left it. The surrounding hillside was dotted with bamboo shoots, small shrubs, and some scattered pieces of shattered logs that he assumed were a result of Goku's training. There was even a small-dried out drinking well which he hadn't noticed when he'd left.
"What a dump," Bulma whispered as she parked the jeep.
Alex led the way to the entrance. As he pushed open the front doors, Bulma shoved him aside and rushed forward excitedly. Rude.
"Ah! It really was here!" she said as she scooped up the four-star ball. "Only four more to go! Perfect boyfriend here I come!"
Alex rolled his eyes. "Uh, yeah, cool, but seriously, food? You got some, or don't you?"
Bulma rummaged through her satchel for a bit before tossing him a small metal case. He caught it and raised an eyebrow, turning it over. It looked way too small to be a lunchbox.
"You've never used dyno-caps before, have you?" she asked with a hint of amusement. "Open it up and find one with a food label and press down on the button. Oh, and be sure to toss it before it goes off." She promptly went back to admiring the four-star ball.
Alex nodded and cracked open the case. Inside were rows of small cylindrical capsules about the length of a finger, with a number plastered on each one. The top lid was layered with more numbers alongside some underlying text which could only be labels. Finding the food capsule would have been easy enough. Had he been able to read any of it!
He grimaced. Shit. That looks like Japanese. Why hadn't he ever bothered trying to learn the language instead of relying on subtitles all the time. All his weeb years were amounting to nothing right now. He sighed. I guess I should just be grateful I can understand Bulma without any problems. Silver linings and all that. He turned to Bulma. "Hey, I can't read any of this."
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You're illiterate, too? You're more of a country bumpkin than I thought."
He gave her a flat stare. "Dead family and I live in the middle of the woods. You try getting a decent education out here."
"Bit of a snarky brat, too," she muttered with slightly narrowed eyes, then held out her hand. "Here. Hand it over."
Alex did so, and after a quick look through she picked out a green capsule with the number three plastered on it. With a quick motion for him to stand back, she tossed the capsule toward the middle of the room as it burst into a cloud of smoke. Alex coughed, waving some smoke away to see a mini fridge in the center of the cloud.
"Help yourself to whatever's inside," Bulma said. "I have two other food capsules anyway."
He grinned. "Cool." While he ransacked the fridge, Bulma placed the four-star ball on the small room table, settling down on her knees. Then, she pulled out her own two dragon balls, setting them with the four-star. At once, all three began to glow brightly. A hastily put-together sandwich hung from Alex's mouth, nearly slipping as he stared on in awe.
Bulma grinned. "Quite the view, right? This is nothing, though. When you gather all seven, the majestic Dragon God, Shenron, is supposed to appear and grant any one wish. According to legend, the last person to collect all seven became king of the world. Our current monarch is supposedly a descendent of the original wish maker, though they wouldn't tell you that in the history books."
Alex nodded, still captivated by the glowing orbs.
She stood suddenly, smiling innocently as she swept all three balls into her bag. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Goku. I got what I came here for, so I'll be going now. You can keep the fridge."
Alex watched dumbly as she walked toward the exit. Wait, what? That's not how this is supposed to go! He rushed after her, grabbing onto her arm roughly.
She tried yanking her arm out of his grasp, but his hold wouldn't budge. "Ouch! Hey, what gives, brat? Beautiful girls are delicate, you know?"
With an inaudible curse, he loosened his grip, allowing her to pull away. He had to remember that he wasn't in his old body. If he wasn't mindful of his strength, he could seriously hurt someone. He shook his head and narrowed his eyes at her. "What gives? You're the one walking off with other people's shit."
"Hey, I fed you, didn't I?" she protested. "Face it, you would've been tiger chow if if wasn't for me, kid. I even gave you a ride home. You don't think I did all that for free, do you? You owe me." She patted her satchel. "And I've decided I'll be taking your dragon ball as compensation. Besides, it's not like you're doing anything with it."
His glare hardened, and she actually sweat a little before her expression turned sly.
"Fine, if that's how you're going to be, then how about this?" She began peeling her skirt up. "If you let me have the dragon ball, I'll let you have a peek. I'll even let you feel a little if you want."
Alex blinked before grimacing. Ugh. That's right. She tries something like this. Honestly, he'd forgotten all about early DB's… cruder moments. I guess I should sorta respect her resolve in trying to get what she wants, and we are actually around the same age mentally, though she doesn't know that… Yeah, no, this is just fucking weird. He leveled her with a flat stare. "You do realize you just propositioned a twelve-year-old, right? I don't know what kind of laws you guys have in this place, but that has to net you at least a few years in prison, right?"(1)
Her face flushed red as she scowled, letting her skirt drop back into place. "Like a country bumpkin like you would know anything about the justice system!" Then, moments later, her expression shifted to a knowing smile. "Hey, I know! Why don't you come with me? That strength of yours is bound to come in handy, and it has to get lonely out here all by yourself, right? What do you say? Will you help me search for the dragon balls?"
And so, they had reached the heart of the issue. Alex took a breath through his nose. This was it then. The big decision. His last chance to back out. Once he committed to helping her, there would be no going back. Am I really going to go through with this?
"I have more food," she reminded him.
…That helped him make up his mind more than he would like to admit.
"You know what, we have a deal," he said, then held out his hand as she cheered. "But I'm keeping the four-star ball with me. Got it?"
"Sure, sure," she said, handing him the ball. "Just let me borrow it for a bit when the time comes."
After storing the mini fridge back into its capsule, she motioned in the direction of her jeep, twirling the keyring on her finger. "Shall we, partner?"
Alex offered a small but hesitant smile. "Sure thing… partner."
And so, their journey had begun.
Alex idly fingered the small pouch secured to his belt as they drove through the mountains. His eyes trailed after a passing cliffside before lazily drifting on to the next one. According to Bulma, they should be able to reach the nearest ball in about half a week if they continued at their current pace.
This time, Alex didn't try to keep conversation going and it soon died down to silence. That was fine. It gave him some time to think, and oh, boy, did he have a lot on his mind. First and foremost was the persistent back and forth on whether tagging along had been a mistake. But seeing as he had already made his choice, he decided to give it a rest and focused on something else that had been bothering him. That being his earlier battle with the sabertooth. Some things about the encounter just weren't adding up and it had been nagging at him ever since.
I know it was my first fight and all, but still, I shouldn't have had such a hard time, right? As far as Dragon Ball threats go, that thing was the lowest of the low. It's not like I was trying to go straight for the kill or anything, but I wasn't exactly pulling my punches either.
Something told him if it had been the real Goku fighting, the tiger would've gone down in just a punch or two. There were other things, too, like the power pole not working right and him not being able to reach those apples when it should have been easy. Something wasn't right. He should be stronger. Could it be similar to Captain Ginyu, where my soul or whatever needs time to adapt to this new body? Maybe, but that wouldn't explain why the power pole refused to work, though.
"...ku. Hey, Goku," Bulma called, jerking him out of his thoughts.
He blinked. "Hm, you say something?" Being called by a named that wasn't your own was really jarring. Maybe he should've gone with "Alex" after all?
"Geez, I called you four times, you know? You've been pretty quiet these past few minutes. Something on your mind?"
"Not really," he lied, shrugging. "Just wondering what you planned on doing once you collected all seven balls. You said they could grant any wish, right?"
Of course, he already knew exactly what she planned on wishing for. He just wanted to prevent her from probing. Despite his foggy memories of the original series, Bulma's wish, or rather the panty wish that became of it, was one of the few things that he remembered clearly. Although, he didn't actually remember all that much about how the panty wish had been made. It was the pig, right? Forgot his name.
Bulma started giggling gleefully. "You know, at first I was going to settle for an eternal strawberry, but after sitting on it for a while I've decided. The perfect boyfriend! That's what I'll wish for!"
Despite having expected that answer, Alex couldn't help but snort.
She scowled. "And what exactly do you find funny about that?"
Alex smirked. "Nothing. It's just, a boyfriend, seriously? You could wish to end world hunger or eternal youth, but you choose a boyfriend? Just seems like a bit of a waste to me. No offense."
She growled. Offense had clearly been taken. "You can be pretty rude, you know that? I wouldn't expect a little brat like you to understand matters of the heart!"
Alex frowned. He was being treated like a little kid again. "I already agreed to help you, didn't I? I really couldn't care less what you wish for."
She huffed. Women, he thought, rolling his eyes. His mom had been the same. Honestly, he wondered if they were all so easy to set off, or if those two were special cas—
Something was sailing toward them.
"Hey, watch out!" he yelled, pointing. Bulma quickly spotted it. She twisted the steering wheel, swerving the car to the side as something smashed against the trunk, shattering glass and flipping the vehicle onto its side. Alex clenched his eyes shut, gritting his teeth as the jeep skid along the road. The horrible sound of grinding metal screeched in his ears until the car finally slid to a stop.
"You okay?" he asked after an uneasy breath, stretching toward the back seat for the power pole as he fumbled for his belt buckle. Bulma turned to him with a pale face and wide frightened eyes. The jeep's sudden flip had forcefully pressed her against the car door, but otherwise she seemed fine.
"Y-Yeah," she replied shakily. "W-What was that? Things don't just fall out of the sky like that."
That's what I want to know too. "Stay here," he told her. The jeep had been oriented so that his passenger door was facing up. After a brief struggle, he managed to force his door open and climb out. A large tree jutted out of the back end of the trunk. It had split down the middle upon impact, crushing some of the car's metal frame under its weight. A tree? Open field surrounded them on all sides; they had left the mountains behind not too long ago, so the tree couldn't have just toppled down on them from above. Then he noticed the roots. They were splintered and jagged, like they'd been torn out of the ground. This tree had been uprooted. He cursed as his nerves began to flare up. Did something like this happen in canon? Damn it, I really should have rewatched the original series.
"What is it? What do you see?" Bulma asked. Suddenly, he was struck with a wave of vertigo, turning his legs to jelly. His muscles spasmed and he fell to his knees. Sluggishly twisting his head to the side, he saw Bulma pulling on his unwound tail, using it to haul herself up. Forgot… about… that. Thankfully, she quickly let go after hoisting herself onto the top of the jeep, and the nausea subsided after a few moments.
"A… A tree? But… how?" Bulma said, her voice laced with shock.
A large shadow descended on them. Alex's senses screamed at him, and he leapt out of the way as a large figure landed on the upturned vehicle with a loud heavy thump. Bulma wasn't so lucky. She screeched as the figure grabbed hold of her.
"Gyahaha!" the figure, an enormous blue pterosaur, cackled. "I was hoping the tree would have finished you off, as I do hate it when my meals make a fuss, but, oh, well."
"Goku! Do something!" Bulma shrieked, smacking her fists against the dinosaur's larger meaty one.
Alex gulped with widened eyes, hesitantly getting into a fighting stance as he reached for the power pole. Another fight already? It hadn't even been that long since the first one.
A dinosaur. It just had to be a fucking dinosaur.
As he prepared himself for his second fight of the day, he once again questioned whether he had made the right choice in deciding to follow the plot.
(1) I'm not gonna lie, I cringed a little while writing this section. While I do plan to tone down the gag antics of early dragon ball(No, Krillin, you can't win just because you don't have a nose!), I felt this moment characterizes Bulma really well by showing what she's willing to resort to to get what she wants and it would've felt weirder not to include it. Thankfully, I think I'll be able to maneuver my way around any more of these early "fanservice" moments.
Two chapters in and we still haven't even finished the events of the first episode/manga chapter, but the pacing should start to pick up a bit from here on, I think. Originally, I was going to include the entire dinosaur encounter here, but I didn't really want to tackle another fight scene so soon. Ch 3 was going to be pretty short anyways, so moving the fight will help make chapter length a bit more consistent.
Next chapter will finish off the events of the first manga chapter as well as my brief take on the second along with a little surprise. Hope to see you all there! And remember to leave reviews!