Gohan Boils Over! The Truth of the Heart!
"Suno!" Goku cried out. Goten couldn't take any more of this. She flew straight through one of the windows of the luxury box, not caring about the glass ripping her clothes as she charged down to her mama's aid, powering up to Super Saiyan. Spopovich looked down at Suno's unconscious body with his head cocked to one side in bestial confusion before his face twisted up into a malevolent smile and he raised one boot over her head–
Before he was immediately knocked back by an invisible blow that sent him hurtling away to crash painfully into a wall. Goku, Gohan, and Goten stood in front of him to guard Suno, Goku's fist sticking out from the punch she'd thrown at him. Spopovich glared at them and Goku glared right back unwaveringly.
"Stay away from her," she demanded, her voice icy calm but full of barely-restrained rage. "It's over." She was angry at herself almost as much as she was at Spopovich. She should have moved in sooner. She shouldn't have let Suno put herself in danger like this. Spopovich took one lumbering step toward them and she would have killed him right there if Yamu hadn't stepped in front of his brother.
"Remember the mission," Yamu whispered as he grabbed Spopovich by the arm, leading him away like a stable hand with an ornery horse. "Remember the mission." Then he turned to the arena security that were rushing toward them. "I'm very sorry about my brother," he told them in a tone that sounded almost genuine. "Please, leave him to me, I'll get him out of here." Though by this point, the Son family had tuned everything out. Goku knelt down and scooped Suno's battered body up into her arms even as the medical staff rushed toward them.
"I can carry her," she told them firmly. "Just take me to the hospital wing." She cradled Suno in her arms as she carried her away, Gohan and Goten following quickly behind her and Videl quickly joining the procession.
"Just a… just a momentary break in the action ladies and gentlemen!" Ken assured the audience, trying to soothe their fears and screams of panic before turning away from the microphone so he could cough after his voice broke from his nerves. "We'll reconvene and continue the Budoukai after a… after a short break." He took out his pocket square and dabbed his forehead after letting out a long, weary exhale. That was probably the most… disturbing scene he'd ever seen. Even when compared to when Piccolo had been torturing Goku back at the 23rd Budoukai, this was somehow worse. He ran off quickly to check on Keri, making sure her nerves weren't too shaken. His poor daughter, having to see something like that…
"Mama's gonna be okay, right?" Goten asked in a trembling voice as she tugged at Gohan's cape. "The doctors are gonna make her all better, right, big bro?"
"Yeah, Goten," Gohan assured his little sister as he opened and closed his fists, trying to rein in his boiling rage. "E-everything's gonna be just fine."
OoOoOoO
Hercule stood off in a corner of the fighters' area and looked down at his trembling hands. Why had he let that happen? How could he have let that happen? How could he have just stood there? How could he have been so… afraid? He should have run in, yelled at Spopovich, thrown his boot at him, done something to get the bastard's attention off of Suno and onto him. It could have given her the opening to fight back or to kill him or to run. Anything! Anything other than… nothing. Which was what he'd done. Some hero of the world.
OoOoOoO
"We can keep her stable," one of the field medics was explaining to Goku as she looked down at Suno in the bed that she was laying in with tubes connected to IV drips that went into her arm and monitors tracking her pulse, "But we don't have the equipment to give her the medical treatment that she needs. She has several torn ligaments, broken bones, possible internal bleeding. She might even need a blood transfusion. She needs to get to a hospital. Now, we can airlift her to one but that will take a few minutes to get author–"
"Don't worry," Goku responded with a shake of her head before she closed her eyes. "I've just gotta get a fix on–"
"Hold up!" Goku heard Bulma shout, the interruption snapping her out of her concentration as Bulma shoved herself through the cluster of Gohan, Videl, Lazuli, Krillin, and Goten, who were all hovering outside but were not allowed in the room.
"Bulma?" Goku asked curiously as her friend fished a hand through her purse, looking for something and ignoring the medic's furrowed brow.
"Hang on, don't go anywhere!" Bulma emphasized as she pulled a capsule out of her purse. "Always carry one of these for emergencies," she said to no one in particular with a satisfied smile. She pushed down on the capsule's trigger and, in a puff of smoke, she was triumphantly holding up a syringe full of a swirling blue liquid.
"Excuse me, ma'am," the medic told Bulma, catching her attention and her ire as she glared at him venomously. "You can't be in here. This is a medical emergenc–"
"Excuse you," Bulma interrupted indignantly as she jabbed him in the chest with the pointer finger of her syringeless hand. "Do you know who I am? I'm Bulma, do you understand? As in 'President of Capsule Corp' Bulma. I own half this goddamn planet. Now get outta my way before I buy this whooooole island," she gesticulated wildly as she said this, swinging her hand in a wide circle over her head to indicate the island they were standing on, "Just to fire you. Got it?" The medic awkwardly shuffled out of Bulma's way and out of the room as she rushed toward Suno and got on her knees beside the other woman, flicking her middle finger against the needle of the syringe a few times and then tapping the side of Suno's neck. "Just stay with me, Suno," she murmured worriedly to the unconscious woman. "This is gonna feel funny and I apologize in advance." Then she pushed the needle into Suno's skin and pressed down on the plunger, injecting whatever the strange liquid was into the other woman's body.
Seconds seemed to tick by like hours as they waited before Suno suddenly sat up in the bed with a shot, the IV needles popping out of her arm like they'd been squeezed out and the small injection holes even sealing themselves as the redhead gasped for air, gulping it down, her eyes wide and frantic as she took in her renewed consciousness and, carefully patting herself down, her bewildering lack of injuries.
"What the heck was that stuff, Bulma?" Gohan asked curiously as Goku and Goten dove toward Suno with hug-based attacks. Bulma smiled as she turned to him, as relieved as she was proud.
"Some new fast-repair nanite technology I'm still working on. The ones we developed for commercial use would have fixed all of Suno's damage in about an hour but these puppies can do the trick in…" she looked at her wristwatch. "Twelve seconds, wow. They also degrade quickly and harmlessly. They'll remove themselves from Suno's system the next time she goes to the bathroom. Now," she continued, "I only packed the one with me so don't think this is an excuse to let yourselves get bludgeoned half to death. Plus, while I know how to repair physical damage easily enough, I still don't know how to deal with ki so it'll take Suno a little while to recover her strength. If I were you," she went on as she turned back to the recovering redhead, "I'd take it easy for a little while." Goku smiled and pulled Bulma in for a hug, patting her on the back.
"Thank you, Bulma," she said sincerely before her face got serious. "Now, I need all of you to leave. I need to talk to Suno. Alone." There was something in Goku's tone and in her expression that left no room for argument and the quintet awkwardly shuffled out of the room and down the hall while Goku took a stool from the corner of the room and pulled it over to Suno's bedside with her psychokinesis, never leaving Suno's side as she set the stool down and took a seat, looking directly into Suno's face.
"I know," Suno sighed wearily as she leaned back against the wall. "I know. You're proud of me for mastering Kaiouken on my own but it was reckless and I need to learn how to control it better and that if I just keep training–"
"No," Goku interrupted her bluntly. Suno blinked and stared at Goku, surprised by the sternness in her wife's voice and the worry on her face. "Suno… why did you do that? Why didn't you let us help you?"
"This coming from the lady who wouldn't let any of us help her when Piccolo was actively crippling her?" Suno asked wryly, trying to hide behind a playful smile.
"That was different," Goku replied. "Your fight was already over. You'd won. You wouldn't get disqualified if we helped you and you didn't have anything else to prove. You could have been killed, Suno!"
"Is that really that big of a setback?" Suno piped up again, though the sarcasm in her voice faltered slightly with an edge of self-loathing. "I mean… I'd have been dead for, what? Two hours?" Goku's brow furrowed and her mouth screwed up in consternation.
"This isn't funny," she told Suno in a firm tone that took her aback. "Goten was watching you! How do you think she would have handled seeing you die? What's going on, Suno? What's this really about?" Suno's shoulders slumped and she looked down at her lap, letting out a long and exhausted breath. "Tell me," Goku asked gently as the softness returned to her voice, taking Suno's hands in hers. "Please." Suno was silent for almost a minute, a war going on behind her eyes as she fought with the desire to be honest with her wife while not wanting to admit… something.
"You're wrong," Suno finally said slowly. "I did still have to prove something. I… I had to prove that I mattered. That I could still fight, that I was still worth something. After you were gone, Gohan needed me. Then Goten needed me. They needed me to be strong for them, to watch over them and protect them. You needed me to take care of them. I just… I couldn't let you all down but I have, Goku." Tears began to roll slowly down her cheeks and she pulled her hands out of Goku's reach to ball them into fists, as if she were about to try and beat the weakness out of herself. "Tomorrow I'm going to wake up and you're going to be gone again." The reality of that statement sat in Suno's stomach with a cold, painful ache that spread swiftly through her and made her whole body tremble. "I couldn't even beat this stupid freakshow. How am I supposed to be strong enough to take care of my children? Our children?" She shook her head as the tears flowed more freely now, no matter how hard she bit down on her lip to try and make herself stop. "I'm a failure, Goku. I'm a failure of a fighter, of a mother, of a–" But Goku's arms were around Suno and she pulled her close, silencing Suno's self-defamation as she pressed her face into her chest.
"Don't say that," Goku told her gently as she rubbed her back in slow circles. "Please, Suno, don't say that. It's not true." She heard Suno begin some muffled protestation and shook her head. "Shhh. It's not. You're not a failure. You're not weak. You're the strongest person I know, Suno. You have such a strong spirit and a strong heart. They're part of why I love you." She let Suno away from her chest so Suno could breathe and also so that she could put a hand under Suno's chin and held her face so she could look into her eyes. "Gohan and Goten need you. Not because of your physical power," she explained, "That was never what I meant when I told you and Gohan to take care of each other. They need your wisdom and your guidance, your tenderness and your support. More than they need me. I could teach them how to throw a punch, sure, but you teach them so much more. I'm…" Goku stopped and chewed her lip thoughtfully. "I'm not great at this… mom stuff," she admitted slowly, "I know I'm not. But you are. You can be here for them when they need you, to answer their questions and quiet their fears. You teach them about the world, you help them grow and figure out who they are. That's why I can go back to Otherworld tomorrow without any worries or fear. Because I know that you'll be here for our children, to watch over them and to guide them. I know that they're safe with you. I know that you can protect them." She wiped away the few stray tears still rolling down Suno's cheek with her thumbs and smiled. "You're so much more than you give yourself credit for, Suno. Trust me."
Suno smiled weakly and even giggled as she put her arms around Goku's neck, pulling her close and resting her forehead against Goku's.
"J-jeez," she sniffled as her smile grew, "When'd you get so thoughtful and stuff?" Goku just grinned and shrugged. Suno laughed softly again and leaned forward to kiss Goku tenderly on the lips as Goku put her arms around her again and held her in a warm embrace. Hearing Goku say all of that, knowing how earnest Goku was and knowing in her heart that she'd meant every word, took a weight off of Suno's shoulders that she hadn't even realized was there. It was like she could breathe again. 'My Goku,' Suno thought adoringly, 'Back in the world for an hour and a half and she saves the day again.'
OoOoOoO
"Idiot," Vegeta scoffed as he watched Gohan, Goten, the bald one (with two eyes), the cyborg, and the human girl rejoin the rest of them in the fighters' area. "Should've let one of us handle it once it was clear she was outmatched. Instead, she almost lets her pride get her killed." As ever, Vegeta was astonishingly blind to hypocrisy. Gohan turned on him, that ridiculously red cape buffeting behind him, and started to advance. Vegeta smirked and had a remark prepared before the words were suddenly caught in his throat, as well as the air. All of this, he realized, was because Kakarot's hand was on his throat, squeezing and holding those things in.
"Don't," Kakarot warned him sternly. "I know that's your thing, Vegeta, I know it's what you do, but not now. Just don't. Not now." Then she lowered Vegeta back to the ground and left him to rub at his throat in ragged frustration and bewildered disarray. It wasn't just that she'd had the audacity to do that, to touch him without his leave, to presume to tell Vegeta, her King, what to do… but that he had been completely unable to stop her. He hadn't even seen her! She was just there! He hadn't even blinked! Had the gap between them widened even more? Despite all of his training?!
'No,' he thought to himself, 'No. Impossible. She had simply caught me off guard. In an actual battle, she would have never gotten that close. She would have never had the chance. When we truly fight, I will destroy her!' Yet even as he insisted these things to himself and actually began to believe them, he heard his father's words echo in his head, swimming up out of the dim and distant past to mock him.
'A King should always be on his guard,' his father had told him. It had been a sparring session, not unlike the one Vegeta himself had partaken with Trunks. Only, rather than tending to Vegeta or helping him to his feet, his father had kicked him while he was down. Vegeta shook his head to bury the memory deeply down again. It was nothing. He would win.
OoOoOoO
"Great Saiyaman and Kibito, please come to the ring!" the intercom instructed. "Great Saiyaman and Kibito, please come to the ring!" Gohan started to walking when he suddenly felt the air on his naked face and realized that something very important was missing.
"Where's my mask?" Gohan asked as he touched his face. "Where's my mask?!" Kibito rolled his eyes and exchanged a look with Xī as he made his way to the ring while Videl helped a frantic Gohan search around the fighters' area.
"It must've been blown off when you got pissed off and started to power up," Videl suggested.
"Well, did you see where it went?!"
"No! I was kinda distracted with your mom getting the crap beaten out of her!"
"Ohhh, great!" Gohan moaned as he kept looking, fighting the urge to pull at his hair. The last thing he needed was to pull out the black gel Yamcha had worked into it and show everyone Son Gohan's red hair. "Now what am I gonna do?"
"Great Saiyaman, you have ten seconds to get to the ring," the intercom interjected as the color drained from Gohan's face. "Great Saiyaman, you have ten seconds to get to the ring."
"Oh, just go out there!" Videl ordered Gohan aggressively as she put her hands to his back and shoved. "Erasa and Shapna's seats suck and they're the only people who'd recognize you, you'll be fine!" Gohan tried to put his game face back on as he walked out toward the ring, the crowd roaring when they saw him. He puffed out his chest and flexed his muscles, posing and laughing a laugh that only seemed a little forced.
OoOoOoO
Up in the stands, Erasa's eyes drifted up from the ring toward one of the giant screens above the stands. Originally, she'd only looked up to get a better look at that dreamboat Great Saiyaman but as she looked at his face…
"Hey," Erasa said to Shapna, elbowing him in the ribs to get his attention over the roar of the crowd. "Hey!"
"Ow! What?!" Shapna asked irritably. Erasa pointed at the screen and he rolled his eyes. "What? I get it, you think he's hot, why'd you have to hit me?"
"Doesn't he look familiar?" Erasa asked. Shapna squinted at the screen and shrugged. "I think that's Gohan!"
"What?" Shapna asked incredulously with a laugh. "The Great Saiyaman isn't Gohan! Gohan's got red hair!" Erasa frowned, tapping her chin. It sure looked like Gohan…
OoOoOoO
"Fighters ready?" Ken asked. Gohan nodded and Kibito moved his hands from behind his back to his sides which was… almost a stance? "Begin!"
"Just so you know, boy," Kibito informed Gohan in a tone so witheringly dry that it seemed to suck all of the moisture out of the air, "I thought it was a fool's game for the Kaioushin to enlist your help. Not only are you a mortal," he explained as Gohan looked at him suspiciously, "But a child as well. Look at you, dressed up and playing your games. What help could you possibly be to us? I know that the Kaioushin says that you have some sort of great power but I find that highly suspect. If you want my honest opinion?" Kibito smirked. "I believe that the only reason the Kaioushin has let you in on this matter at all is because she has a type."
That was it. That was the absolute last straw. Gohan had spent the last twenty minutes trying to keep his anger from bursting out of him. He had hoped that this would be a good outlet to calm and control himself, maybe even take his mind off of things for a minute or two. After all, he and Kibito were supposed to be on the same side, right? But now… but now…
"You wanna see how much power I've got?" Gohan seethed as he balled his fists, his ki flickering and crackling around him like a living, writhing thing. "Okay!" He threw his head back and roared, his cape instantly being ripped from his shoulders by the wind his ki had created and flying out into the sky. His black hair gel burst off a second later, his red spikes standing free and clear again.
"Look!" Erasa exclaimed from the stands, grabbing Shapna's face in both of her hands and making him stare at the screen. "I told you! I told you!"
Gohan's red hair flashed to gold and his eyes turned teal as he kept roaring and his power kept right on swelling. His spikes of hair grew even higher and lighting began to crackle and course along his muscles as he powered straight on through to Super Saiyan 2. Videl decided that after this fight, she needed to speak with Gohan. Alone. To… appraise his fighting skill. Yeah.
Lingering just outside of the arena, Yamu and Spopovich looked down at the Power Meter that Lord Babidi had given them to measure Kilis… whatever the hell those were. The device was trembling in Yamu's hands and pointing back at the stadium as the needle leaned sharply to the right, quivering from the speed at which it had reached that point. The two brothers shared a look and nodded. This would please their master.
"Incredible," Xī murmured appreciatively as she stroked her chin in thought. "Simply incredible!" She had sensed Gohan's power once, years before, but to actually be this close to it was even more impressive! She wasn't exactly thrilled at the way Kibito had gone about getting Gohan to display this power and she would definitely have to have a serious talk with her attendant later about what the hell he meant by "type" but this was still incredible!
"Eh," Goku said with an offhanded shrug. "I dunno. I think Gohan's slacked off in his training."
"Indeed," Vegeta agreed. "The boy was far more powerful years ago. His power's quite literally dropped in half." Xī looked at them in astonishment. He had actually been stronger than this?! Either way, Xī told herself, this would be too great a power to resist. Everything was moving according to plan.
"So," Gohan growled at Kibito as he got into his guard, "Was this what you were hoping for?" The pink-skinned attendant was as startled as Xī though he was far better at masking his emotions.
"Yes," he assured Gohan in a calm and measured voice. "I believe that will do." Gohan smirked and balled his fists, leaning his body forward as he prepared to spring into action. Just wait until Kibito saw what he could actually do with all of this power.
Then Gohan heard the audience's horrorstruck screams just before he felt something sharp being driven into the small of his back. His eyes went wide and he arched his back with a gurgled gasp of pain and started to thrash before two enormous arms wrapped around his throat, squeezing his neck and holding him in place as the thing pushed deeper into his spine. Pain shot through him like lightning, a burning pain that made his head pound so badly that he couldn't hear anything, a pain unlike anything he'd ever experienced. Then the white-hot suffering was gone and it was replaced by a cold, dull ache that spread through his body. It felt as if something were being sucked out of him, something vitally important that had always been a part of him that was crippling in its absence. He could feel his aura dim and his hair return to its natural red color as his eyes went white and his head slowly rolled forward. Then, everything went black.