Chapter Hundred-twenty-eight
Everything Goes Wrong! As Wrong As It Could Possibly Go!
It started out fine. First, Hercule had given Boo some candy and chocolates, which Boo had appreciated and offered to share some of his own candy with Hercule in return. Which meant that, regrettably, Hercule had to eat people candy. Or, at the very least, chew on it and then spit it out while Boo wasn't looking. Then he had tried to soften Boo up with little handheld video games and comic books but they ran into a problem pretty quickly and it wasn't that Boo's thumbs were too big to push the buttons. Boo was able to do that quite easily, mystifyingly so, actually. Hercule couldn't see it, but Boo shapeshifted little nubs on the tips of his thumbs that were small enough to push the buttons. The problem was that, while Boo liked the colorful pictures and the sounds the games made, he just had no idea what to do.
"What these mean?" Boo asked, pointing at the words in a character's speech bubble. "Boo not understand squiggles!" Hercule looked down at the comic and then back at Boo, looking at him curiously, but not too curiously, since he didn't want to upset the being that could no doubt literally kill him with a breath.
"You don't know how to read?" he asked. Boo shook his head and that sort of derailed everything for a couple hours. Thankfully, Hercule had been prepared for that possibility and had brought some picture books for little kids so that he could teach Boo. Boo was a surprisingly quick learner, and he was already about as literate as Hercule in the space of those few hours. Though, for some reason, this didn't really seem to do anything to improve his capabilities with actual spoken language. Once they were all caught up on the English language, it was starting to get later in the day, so Hercule offered to make Boo something for dinner.
Unsurprisingly, Boo was quite receptive to this idea. "You like Boo's house?" Boo asked as he invited Hercule into his home.
"O-oh, yeah," his mustachioed guest assured him with a put-on, "I-it's great! Real homey and stuff. You did all this yourself?" Despite his pleasantries, however, Hercule's confusion and befuddlement at the entire situation of Boo's home only grew the longer he was inside of it. Mostly, he wondered how it had any power for lights, electricity, heat, or running water. He also kept wondering what it was even made out of and, perhaps most importantly, why every time a door or cabinet was opened or the water was turned on, it was accompanied by that distant, damned shriek he'd heard when Boo first opened the door.
The longer Hercule spent inside the house, the clearer the answer to those last two questions became and the harder Hercule had to try not to vomit once he realized just what he was standing inside.
Having guessed that Majin Boo was a man… creature… whatever, of substantial appetite and insubstantial patience, Hercule had brought some food he figured he could prepare a whole lot of in a short amount of time: Box Mac & Cheese and Sloppy Joes. He figured that was pretty safe since Boo didn't exactly strike him as an epicurean. He'd guessed right, as Boo scarfed everything down eagerly, while Hercule himself ate a bit just to be polite– he was too scared to have much of an actual appetite– and did his best to use this opportunity to subtly change Boo's behavior.
"Now, doesn't this stuff taste better than candy made outta people?" Hercule asked with an encouraging grin. Hercule Satan was not the most subtle of men.
Thankfully, rather than leave to go make a comparison, Boo merely agreed with a hearty "Mmmmhmmm!" and a nod. Hercule breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in his chair as he watched Boo inhale dinner. They were making progress. So far, Hercule's assumption was holding true. Dessert, and Hercule knew in advance that Boo was a creature who definitely enjoyed dessert, was a giant bag of gummy bears, which were colorful, in a fun shape, and Boo once again agreed that it tasted better than candy made from people.
After Hercule did the dishes, he and Boo played some video games– Hercule was once again baffled as to how or why he was able to plug the television or console into any kind of power outlet– and at first, Hercule always made sure to let Boo win. After a while, though, Hercule realized that Boo was learning the game even more quickly than he'd learned how to read and Boo was able to win no matter how hard Hercule tried.
"How do you keep getting all the friggin' stars?!" Hercule demanded, while Boo only laughed in response. As much frustrating fun as these games were, they also made Hercule think of Videl, since she was the one who showed him how to play these games when she was younger. It was one of the things Hercule had tried to bond with her over when he was worried that the only thing they shared was an interest in martial arts. Hercule couldn't help but wonder where Videl was and if she was alright. He knew his daughter could take care of herself, but, well, she was still his little girl. He had a right to be worried, didn't he? He just hoped that she was safe and that she wasn't alone during all of this.
OoOoOoO
Even though Bulma's capsule house had a full kitchen and dining room inside of it, everyone had opted to have dinner (a hearty meat stew over rice made by Chi-Chi and Yamcha) outside, since the night was so beautiful. Up on the Lookout, they were above the clouds, so there was nothing between them and the night sky. Bulma looked up at that starry sky and sighed with a mug of coffee in her hands, her gaze lingering on the full moon. Nowadays, she felt a little silly whenever she saw her face on it. It had been an impetuous decision that a younger, full-of-herself Bulma had made but at this point, it was too late and would be way too expensive to have someone go up there and remove it.
"Alright, time for bed," Bulma decided as she stretched out before looking through her pocketbook. The others muttered in agreement, though the children had already been put to bed inside the house a little while beforehand. "Anyone need sleeping pills?" she asked, holding up the bottle she'd been searching for.
"Wait," Roshi inquired curiously, "You just… carry those around?" Bulma shrugged.
"Never hurts to be prepared," Bulma replied. "Besides, I have a funny feeling we're all more than a little on edge but you do need to sleep."
That made Suno raise an eyebrow and look at Bulma incredulously, even as she held her hand out for one. "We need to sleep?" she asked. "What about you?" That made Bulma laugh.
"You think I sleep anymore, busy as I am?" she asked. Suno gawked at her and Bulma laughed again. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" she promised. "I sleep but just for, like, three hours a night?"
"Bulma," Chi-Chi put in worriedly, "That just doesn't sound healthy. I don't care how smart or busy you are, you need as much rest as anyone else."
Bulma shook her head with a grin, tapping an index finger against her temple. "Nanites," she explained. "Another experimental batch. Gives me energy, keeps my juices flowing, and keeps me looking good." She pivoted to one side, showing her profile and gesturing to her figure.
Suno huffed rolled her eyes as she got up and stretched before unfurling her own sleeping bag. "I hope you're not gonna decide that nanites and nanomachines solve all your problems."
"Says the woman who'd still be in a hospital bed if it weren't for my nanites?" Bulma retorted, sticking her tongue out playfully at Suno.
"Put me on team nanomachines," Lazuli put in with a smirk, flexing one of her biceps. Krillin grinned and put an arm around Lazuli's waist, pulling her close as he looked up at her.
"Yep," he agreed with a mischievous tone, "They definitely have their benefits." Lazuli rolled her eyes and pushed Krillin away playfully as Suno put on a dismayed expression, a hand dramatically to her chest.
"My two best friends!" she maligned. "I've never been so betrayed!"
"Hey, I thought I was your best friend!" Bulma objected. Now it was Suno's turn to stick her tongue out and Bulma huffed, though she was smiling even as she did so.
"For the record," Suno added as she wheeled around and pointed a finger back at Lazuli, "I managed to kick your butt even with all your nanomachines and super-science, using nothing but martial arts skill!"
"Anytime you want a rematch, bring it on!" Lazuli challenged. They glared at one another and held it for all of two seconds before they broke character and laughed with Krillin and Bulma joining in. They'd needed that bit of a release after the day's stressful events.
While everyone else was enjoying themselves, Videl went over to Piccolo, who was standing on the Lookout's rim with his arms folded, gazing out over the horizon.
"Do you sleep?" she asked the Namekian curiously. Piccolo chuffed out an amused sound that startled Videl before she realized that it had been a chuckle. She… didn't know he could laugh.
"On occasion," he replied as he looked at her. "I've even been told that I snore, though I don't believe it myself." Piccolo looked at Videl for a moment, studying her expression. "That's not why you really came over here, is it?" he asked.
Videl shook her head. "I remembered what Dende said earlier about how you could see whatever was going on down there with your… god-vision or whatever. Do you think you could check on my parents?" she asked. "I've been meaning to call them, I just… I don't really know how to explain everything that's going on here, so I've been kinda reluctant and I was just… can you make sure they're okay?" she finally asked in a roundabout way.
Piccolo nodded and looked out again, his pupils dilating. "Your mother is fine," he assured her. "She's sleeping. As for your father," he added, "I already know where he is. I saw him when I was looking into what Majin Boo was up to."
"Oh, yeah," Videl muttered as she touched her chin thoughtfully, "I was wondering what you were freaking out about." Then her eyes widened as she realized what Piccolo was implying. "Wait, don't tell me– is he–" she shook her head in disbelief. "My dad's not trying to fight Majin Boo, is he?!" Had he finally actually bought into the whole "Hero of the World" nonsense? Or was he so upset about getting beaten by Suno at the Budoukai before that this was his way of trying to redeem himself?
"No," Piccolo replied, "Quite the opposite. I think he's trying to… befriend Majin Boo," his tone matching the disbelief on Videl's face. "What's even more absurd is that I think it's working." Videl blinked, staring at Piccolo in amazement. "If he can actually pull this off…" Piccolo almost didn't want to believe it was possible despite the fact that it would be an objectively good thing. "He really would be Earth's savior." For one of their conflicts to actually end without a punch being thrown… was such a thing even possible? Not only that but for Hercule to actually be willing to confront Majin Boo despite having no powers of his own, he was arguably the bravest man who'd ever lived.
Videl turned to look toward the horizon, even though she couldn't actually see her father, and clasped her hands as she shut her eyes tight. 'You can do it, dad,' she thought encouragingly. 'I know you can show everyone that you're a hero.' Even so, Majin Boo nearly killed Gohan. By everything that he'd told her, Gohan made it sound like Boo was practically evil incarnate. She hoped her dad wasn't putting himself in too much danger.
OoOoOoO
Gotenks stretched out their limbs and gave a victorious cry, power flooding through their veins with their tail swishing excitedly as their golden locks reached up and out even higher into the air and lighting arched off of their body. This was great! They were almost able to do what Goku did!
"Yeah!" they shouted triumphantly. "Look out, Majin Boo! Gotenks is coming for you!" On some level, though, they just wanted to get out of here. The majority of their existence had been spent stuck inside of a white, nearly-featureless void. They had seen the blue sky and the clouds and the sun but that had only been for half an hour and that was before they even knew who they were, so they were too busy panicking to appreciate anything. "I'm almost ready," Gotenks decided as they looked down at their hands. "Once I have mom's power figured out, I know I'll be strong enough to defeat Majin Boo. Then I can finally get out of here!" For now, they had another twenty minutes before they'd go back to dreaming, so they were going to make the most of it.
OoOoOoO
As they were two near-immortal beings and a dead person, neither Xī, nor Kibito, nor Goku needed to sleep. Not that sleep would have come easily with Pracya's ritual carrying on, anyway. However, with nothing else going on on Earth, Xī eventually got bored and walked off to see if there was any God business she could attend to while Kibito worked another one of his manuscripts. He was going to be trying something new this time.
"In this arid wilderness of steel and stone," Kibito narrated aloud as he wrote, scribbling with a large feather quill on the first page of a tall stack of sheets of paper while sitting at a desk in the middle of the endless green fields of the Sacred World of the Kaioushin, "I raise up my voice that you may hear. To the East and to the West, I beckon. To the North and to the South I show a sign proclaiming…" Kibito stopped to dip his quill into an equally large bottle of ink. "Proclaiming… proclaiming…" he ran the feather thoughtfully across his bottom lip. Proclaiming what?
Meanwhile, Goku was still watching the crystal ball. She'd figured it out surprisingly quickly and was using it to keep an eye on Goten and Trunks and their progress with Gotenks inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. She was so proud of them! Their fusion seemed so strong already, it was really incredible. Goku wondered if the strength of the bond of their friendship played into Gotenks' power at all. After a while, though, Goten and Trunks went to sleep, which left Goku with nothing else to look at, so she messed around with the ball for a little bit, spinning it around whenever she wanted to change where she was looking.
She saw a world at war with two armies clashing. One side was dressed like the guys who worked for Freeza and the other side was dressed like that Flash Parsec guy who had met Goku on Earth once. That seemed kind of important, though Goku couldn't figure out why she felt that way. She decided she'd tell Gohan about that after either he or Gotenks beat Majin Boo and let him decide if it was worth dealing with.
After giving the crystal ball another spin, this time Goku saw a man training in a room by himself. He looked a little bit like Freeza but he was a lot taller and he was mostly purple where Freeza had been mostly white. His body flickered gold a few times for a few seconds and Goku couldn't help but shake the feeling that this was important, too. She couldn't really do anything about it right now, though, so that'd be something else to tell Gohan about later.
With one more spin of the ball, Goku found herself staring at… the thin, elegant blue face of a white-haired man, his purple eyes twinkling as she realized that he was looking right back at her. He wagged a disapproving finger in front of his face with a "Tsk, tsk, tsk." Then he snapped his fingers and Goku was sent hurtling away from the ball, tumbling end over end through the grass before coming to a stop on her head, completely upside-down with her legs dangling in front of her.
"What the heck was that?" she muttered as she fell over onto her back. She didn't know who that guy was but she had the weirdest feeling that she'd bump into him again someday. She turned around and looked back toward Pracya, where the old man was still conducting his ritual, still sitting on the ground while Gohan was now hovering a good twenty feet in the air. Gohan's head was still thrown back and light was pouring out from his mouth, his eyes, and the tips of all ten of his fingers as he rotated in the air slowly. It was all a little… weird but she could definitely feel Gohan's ki growing as this went on. "Hey, Pracya!" Goku shouted over the distance. "I think it's been more like seven hours! Aren't you done?"
"The kid's got more power inside than even I thought!" Pracya admitted, shouting back at Goku over his shoulder. "Plus, I'm a little rusty at this! Not to mention," he added irritably, "It takes longer when people talk to me and break my concentration!"
"Oh, sorry, my bad!" Goku called back apologetically. "You keep doing your thing!" she gave him a thumbs-up but Pracya had already put his back to her again. She couldn't wait to see how strong Gohan really was! It just kinda stunk that she, well, had to wait.
OoOoOoO
Hercule woke up bright and early the next morning and looked down at his watch, frowning at it a little. He only had a few more hours until King Giran was going to make everyone leave the planet. He might have to speed this up a little bit. There obviously hadn't been a guest bed, since Boo didn't even understand the concept of friendship until Hercule had outright explained it to him, but Hercule had brought a capsule mattress of his own, so he'd slept alright in the room with Boo, whose own bed was a large circle, fitting his large frame, and looked sort of like a dog's bed.
"Boo," Hercule whispered as he gently nudged his friend awake. "Hey, Majin Boo!" Boo sat up out of bed with a loud yawn and a cartoonishly big stretch, wearing red pajamas that were more than likely also made of people that Hercule had to try extra hard to make himself not think about how they were made of people.
"Good morning!" Boo said cheerfully with a great big smile. "We play more today?" Hercule nodded as he sat on the edge of Boo's bed.
"Oh, sure," he promised, "Of course we will. But first, Boo, there's something we need to talk about." Boo cocked his head curiously again, which Hercule had figured out meant that he had the creature's attention. "Now, you like to fight, right?" he asked and Boo nodded enthusiastically. "That's good!" Hercule assured him. "There's nothing wrong with fighting other strong people for fun, or for self-defense. But Boo," he went on, "You need to understand that fighting people because you're stronger than them and because it makes you feel good to beat them up is not okay." Boo frowned at that but, thankfully, didn't look like Hercule had upset him. "Killing people," Hercule added, "Unless it's to defend yourself, is not okay. It's bad. Bad people don't make good friends."
Boo was silent for several seconds and looked down thoughtfully. He'd killed a whole lot of people… and laughed while doing it! "Is… is Boo bad?" he asked worriedly. He didn't want to be bad. If he was bad then Hercule wouldn't want to be his friend anymore! He didn't want to be bad.
"No, no!" Hercule assured the eldritch abomination made of evil incarnate, taking one of his huge, fingerless pink hands in both of his. "You're not bad, Boo. You just didn't know and that's not your fault. That Babidi guy wanted you to be bad. Now you know what's good and bad, though, so I know you're not gonna do any of that stuff anymore, right?" There was another pause. "Right?" Hercule asked, feeling his chest tighten even as he kept his expression friendly.
"...Boo need to think," Boo finally said after a moment. It was the first time in his life that he'd ever said that sentence. "Can Boo go fly?" he asked as he looked at Hercule again. Hercule nodded, trying not to look too relieved.
"Sure," he told Boo, "Go take some time to yourself. But no turning people into candy, alright?" he said in a voice like he was telling his teenage child not to stay out too late with their friends.
"Okay!" Boo assured him before changing back into his regular clothes and flying off. Hercule watched him sail off into the sky and leaned against the wall, taking an exhausted breath. This was actually going to work! This was actually going to save the world!
OoOoOoO
Boo was left alone with his thoughts as he flew, which was something he'd never really done before. He always had Bibidi or Babidi telling him what to do and yelling at him, or when he was alone before he'd laugh and play the runaway game. But now he knew that Hercule said that wasn't a game, that scaring people and killing them was bad. He was very confused. His masters had always told him it was a game… but they were always really mean to him, too. Hercule was nice and he was his friend but now Hercule was telling him something that he did was bad! Did that mean Boo was bad?
"Hercule said Boo not bad," he reminded himself, "But…" Boo thought back to the little boy who couldn't see and how he'd helped the boy. It had made Boo feel good and he hadn't even hurt him. He'd liked that the boy wasn't afraid. That, Boo realized, was something good. He could still be happy and not have to hurt anyone. While Boo was thinking about this and flying over one of the cities he hadn't destroyed– he'd been purposely avoiding the ones that he had because now they made him feel bad– he noticed that there wasn't any energy coming from the city. It was like everyone had run away. They'd run away, Boo realized, because they were scared of him. Boo used to like that people were scared of him but now it was different. Now that meant he was bad. However, he noticed a very small energy coming from down in the city and flew quickly down to check it. Maybe it was someone he could help!
To Boo's surprise, the source of the energy was a small, furry creature, walking alone down the middle of an empty street. Boo remembered from one of the books Hercule had shown him that this was a dog. A small dog, he corrected himself, a puppy. The puppy walked with a limp, barely putting any pressure on its hind left leg. It was hurt, Boo realized, and all alone. Maybe it had owners who had abandoned it when they were running away from Boo. That made this his fault.
"Boo help," Boo said with determination in his voice as he walked toward the puppy. "Boo make it better." Then Boo crouched down to get closer to the puppy, whose tail wagged when it saw Boo and its ears lifted excitedly. A gentle glow radiated from Boo's palm and washed over the puppy, fixing its injured leg. The puppy barked happily and jumped up into Boo's hand, its tail wagging even more excitedly now that it felt better. Boo smiled at the pup and held it in both hands, bringing it close to his face. The puppy licked Boo's face happily, making Boo giggle and nuzzled the dog against his cheek. "Boo take you back home! Boo call you… Bee!" he declared enthusiastically. Bee barked in agreement and Boo laughed again before taking again to fly back home to Hercule. He was going to change. He was going to be good!
OoOoOoO
Archibald VanZant was a young man from an affluent family with old money. Despite the fact that he'd he'd never worked a day in his life, because he frequently got into fights at boarding school and shouting matches with his parents, Archie was convinced that this made him a rebel and his own man. Particularly when his parents had him committed to an asylum for erratically violent behavior and fits of psychotic rage.
So, naturally, when everyone started panicking and losing their minds over the fact that it was the end of the world, young Archibald was able to slip off of the asylum grounds undetected and returned home. Not alone, of course. Why, since his parents had gone through all the trouble of sending him away to get "better," he thought it would only make sense to bring along some of the friends he'd met during his rehabilitation!
Reginald and Bellatrix VanZant were understandably less than enthused when their son showed up with nearly a dozen chemically-unbalanced lunatics like himself, all armed to the teeth with weapons looted from a munitions depot during the riot. They certainly weren't happy when they proceeded to burn the house to the ground, although Archie made sure they weren't unhappy for long. For reasons entirely his own, Archibald decided to let the family's butler, who he called "Smitty", live. In truth, the butler's name was Ignatius Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe, but Archibald had called him "Smitty" since the day he was born and wasn't going to change now. Ignatius had refused to be addressed as such until Archie convinced him with the assistance of the greatest of communicators: a flamethrower.
So, Smitty it was.
For no reason other than, seemingly, for Archibald's own amusement, he and his band of hooligans dragged Smitty around on their drug-fueled rampage as they did their level best to loot, murder, and otherwise burn Ginger Town to the ground. Initially participating only under duress and under the threat of his own life, after a few kills of his own and a particularly nasty line of a drug cocktail, Smitty was taking as much enjoyment out of wanton destruction as the insane people several decades his junior.
That was when Archie saw Majin Boo flying overhead.
"H-hey!" he exclaimed, red-eyed and sniffling as he pointed off in the direction Majin Boo was flying in. "I say, chaps, there's that fat bastard that's got everyone all running about! I bet I could take him!" For a moment, the rest of Archie's gang was confused as to why he would want to stop Majin Boo, since the impetus for their entire rampage was the fact that the world was doomed anyway. "If-if-if I trash that Boo blighter," Archie told them with a manic gleam in his glassy eyes, "They'll let me do anything! I could become the King!" Archie stood on the burnt-out husk of a car they'd burned not an hour before. "Think of that, eh, lads? King VanZant! A human king! For the Kingdom of Man! Not a dog or a dragon or some other mongrel beast! We've had two hundred years of beast kings and where has it gotten us?" The gang gave a cheer, even Yertle, who didn't seem to know he was a turtle. "Who's with me, eh, lads?" Archie asked. "Come on! We've got the guns! Let's go send this guttersnipe straight to Hell!" They all cheered and fired their weapons into the air before driving off after Boo on their stolen motorcycles.
OoOoOoO
Inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Trunks collapsed to his hands and knees with ragged breaths, his whole body shaking as he dropped out of Super Saiyan. His long blue hair hung off of his shoulders and nearly reached his hands. Although he obviously didn't know it, by now he looked like a tiny version of when his future self had spent a year inside the chamber.
Goten stopped in the middle of her attack, also dropping her transformation and looking at her friend in concern. She didn't think she'd hit him that hard. "Trunks," she said softly as she walked over to him and squatted down to look at his face, "What's the matter?" By contrast to Trunks, yet equally oblivious of her own comparison, Goten's hair had grown out so much that she looked less like her mom and more like her long-deceased uncle. "Do you need a break? Did I hit you too hard?" Over the near six months that they'd been inside the Chamber together, Goten had definitely taken charge and control of the situation. It helped that, thanks to spending so much time with her mother in the kitchen and learning from her, they actually had things to eat. If it weren't for Goten, they'd probably be eating mostly raw fruits and vegetables.
"I… I can't do this, Goten," Trunks admitted, sounding defeated for the first time in his life as tears rolled down his cheeks. "I'm just so tired, a-and it's not fair! This isn't right! We can't do this! We shouldn't be doing this! We're just kids!" Goten nodded slowly as she rubbed Trunks' back, trying to get him to calm down.
"You're right," she told him, "It's not fair. Big bro couldn't beat Majin Boo. Your dad couldn't beat Majin Boo. Not even my mom. So how can we?" she looked pensive for a moment, wondering what she could say to lift Trunks' spirits. "But even though it all looks really bad right now, we have to keep going. We have to keep training! Because we can do this," she promised as she stood up again. "This bad stuff isn't going to last. Just like how my mom didn't think she could beat Uncle Piccolo's dad, or your dad, or that Freezy guy, or how big bro didn't think he could beat that Cell jerk. But they won, just like how we're going to win. Because they were fighting for something."
"What are we fighting for?" Trunks asked in a watery voice as he looked up at Goten, wiping tears from his eyes. "My dad? Your mom? Gohan?" Goten shook her head. "What?" Goten held a hand out for Trunks and pulled him back up to his feet.
"For everyone," Goten explained. "Everyone and everything good in the world. All the people that deserve to keep on living!" Then she pulled Trunks into a hug and he hugged her back, breathing shakily. "You ready to keep going?" she asked. Trunks nodded, a look of determination on his face that his father would be proud of.
OoOoOoO
Hercule was surprised when Boo returned with a yellow lab puppy, not to mention the fact that he'd decided to keep the little guy and named him "Bee." Despite being over forty years old, Hercule had to make a concentrated effort not to snicker at Boo and Bee as he made breakfast, including extra eggs for Bee, since they didn't have any dog food.
"Boo has something to tell Hercule," the pink behemoth told Hercule as he actually stopped his endless consumption of pancakes for a moment. That alone was enough to get Hercule's attention as he leaned forward in his chair in the dining room of Boo's strange house.
"What is it, Boo?" Hercule asked, hoping silently that his experiment had paid off. He still had a couple hours left to call King Giran and call this whole Exodus thing off.
"Boo doesn't want to be bad," Boo decided. "Boo wants to be good. Boo won't kill anyone ever again!" Hercule smiled at Boo and was visibly relieved.
"Well, that's great, Boo," he told him enthusiastically, "I'm really happy to hear–" then Hercule heard a "BOOM!" and saw smoke and a flash of light out of the corner of his eye in the window behind Boo. "Look out!" Hercule cried, grabbing Boo by the cape and yanking him to the floor, instinct taking over even though reason should have told him that Boo would have survived the rocket no problem. It sailed over their heads and collided with the opposite wall, detonating violently and showering them with shrapnel and broken stone.
OoOoOoO
"Hey," Krillin was saying as those on the Lookout stretched and woke up, "The kids have been in the Time Chamber for almost twelve hours now. They gotta be strong enough by now. Or at least somebody should go check on them or–"
"Oh, goddamnit!" Piccolo exclaimed vehemently, startling everyone as he stood on his perch on the edge of the Lookout again.
"Hey, watch it!" Chi-Chi scolded as she cupped her hands over Ocha's ears and Yamcha did the same for Shouronpo.
"What's the matter, Piccolo?" Suno asked, wondering what could have caused such an outburst.
"Oh, nothing," Piccolo replied sarcastically, "Just humanity fucking itself over yet again."
"Hey!" Launch snapped as she put her hands over Kani's ears. Videl frowned at Piccolo's words. She definitely didn't like the sound of that. Was her dad okay?"
OoOoOoO
Archie and his crew drove around the smoking ruins of Boo's house, hooting and hollering and having a grand old time. Archie'd saved the world! He'd killed the monster! They were going to make the king of–
"Stupid sons of bitches!" Hercule bellowed as he burst out of the rubble, red-faced with rage.
"Holy shit," Yertle gasped, "It's Hercule Sat-AGH!" The "AGH!" was from Hercule knocking Yertle off of his bike with a flying kick. Hercule let out a bellow of rage as he grabbed the bike before it could go sailing off and hurled it at another one of the maniacs, hitting him dead on. He might not have any fancy powers or be able to fly, but Hercule was still a former Budoukai winner and a man to be feared when he was in a rage. He attacked the hooligans with a manic fury as he moved between their gunshots, sometimes moving so fast that they couldn't even see him. By blind chance, Smitty managed to clip Hercule in the side with one lucky bullet from the wild spray of his machine gun. It made Hercule stop, but only long enough to glare at the older man before he practically took his head off with an uppercut.
"I took a hit from Cell, you bastards!" he roared. "You think a bullet's gonna stop me?!" There were several loud bangs as Archie emptied his entire clip into Hercule's back. Hercule collapsed before Archie dropped his machine gun to the ground, gasping for breath, blood flowing out of his mouth and a large bruise forming around his left eye.
"H-how about twenty, you stupid, up-jumped street rat?" he spat, hocking a glob of blood onto Hercule's back. He kicked Hercule while he was down, laughing to himself. Not only had he killed Majin Boo but he'd saved the world from its false hero! He was invincible! He could do anything! He was a God!
The thought had barely left Archie's head before Boo, who was quite adept at killing Gods, rose slowly from the rubble of his home, a malevolent glare in his wide-open eyes and a grievously-wounded puppy in his arms. Archie reached for a weapon capsule and Boo glared a kiai at him, giving Archie barely enough time to scream before he burst apart on the subatomic level. The others screamed and ran for their lives, except for the abandoned Yertle who was stuck on his back. The only reason they were able to get away was that Boo was too horrified by what he'd just done to chase after them.
"Boo… Boo said he wouldn't kill anymore," he muttered weakly even as he healed Bee in his arms. He set the puppy down as he knelt beside Hercule, trying his best to heal his only friend without hurting him. "Bad men hurt Bee. Bad men hurt Hercule! Make Boo so angry… Boo so angry… want to be bad! But Boo wants to be good!" Smoke started seeping slowly out of the holes in Boo's head and arms as he made a pained noise between his clenched teeth.
Hercule gasped as he sat up, touching the spots on his chest where he knew he'd felt bullets go through him. So this was twice now that he'd died. He sure hoped he wasn't about to make a habit out of it. "Boo!" Hercule cried out, relieved and grateful to his friend. "You saved my life! I… uh…" his expression turned to one of concern as he saw the agony that Boo seemed to be in. "H-hey, Boo, are you okay, buddy?" Hercule reached out carefully for Boo, only to have his hand swatted away.
"Hercule… needs… to go!" Boo told him, his voice so strained that it was like every word was a titanic struggle to hold onto his sanity. He just felt so angry, so angry, and he didn't want to hurt Hercule. "Take… Bee… and go! Now!"
"No," Hercule insisted as he shook his head. "Boo, I'm your friend! Let me help you!" Then Boo locked his eyes onto Hercule and when he spoke, he screamed with the angry voices of every creature he'd ever killed.
"GO! NOW!" Boo shrieked in the voice of the legion. It was the most terrifying sound Hercule had ever heard. He nodded wordlessly and scooped Bee up in his arms, even as the puppy squirmed, whined, and barked in protest. Hercule ran away from Boo, looking over his shoulder in concern for his friend even as he tried to disappear over the hills. Boo struggled to stand before he fell to his knees again, gripping the sides of his head as he whimpered in pain, smoke pouring out of his body. He didn't want to be bad anymore, he didn't want to hurt anyone, he didn't want to kill! Boo opened his mouth and screamed out in pain, rage, and even fear, as a great jet of pink steam erupted out of him, shooting up high into the air. When the steam finished leaving his body, Boo was clammy, sweaty, and gray, but at least all the bad thoughts were gone.
Then the roiling, writhing ball of smoke began to coalesce on itself and Boo looked up in fear, wondering what he'd just done. He just wanted to be good…
OoOoOoO
"Soooo, everyone felt that, right?" Ocha asked nervously.
"Felt it?" Tenshinhan echoed as he held Launch and Kani to his chest. "I'm pretty sure we all heard it." They'd all definitely felt it. Now there were two kis like Majin Boo, although the first one definitely seemed substantially weaker now.
OoOoOoO
There was a blinding flash of light as the pink smoke burst from its humanoid shape and turned into… another Majin Boo. This one was pink like Boo had been, but he was tall and rail-thin with a long, malevolent face and hatred in his open eyes and a scowl on his lips. His eyes locked onto the fleeing rioters down below and he flew toward them, cutting off their escape. Before he could strike a lethal blow, however, Boo attacked him, crashing into him with as much force as he could muster. As Majin ground his feet into the Earth two hundred feet later, however, it seemed that Boo couldn't muster that much force. Boo glared at his evil self and unleashed a rapid-fire barrage of punches and kicks, determined to fight even if he couldn't kill. He was good! Pink Boo was bad! He could win!
The problem was that none of Boo's attacks seemed to be hurting Majin. With an utterly contemptuous and dismissive backhand, Majin sent him sailing away with a high-pitched cry of pain. Majin caught Boo mid-flight with a kick to the back, sending him sailing high into the air before he slapped him back down to the ground with a sickening thud. In three hits, Boo had been beaten nearly to death.
Boo struggled to his feet and brought his hands to his side as Majin floated down toward him slowly, disgust and hatred in his eyes. "Kamehameha!" Boo screamed, throwing his hands out in front of him. Majin stretched his hand out and expanded it so that it could envelop both of Boo's hands, the ki blast letting out nothing more than a muffled "Fump!" and a brief flash. Boo looked up at Majin in horror before his other hand grabbed Boo by the throat, squeezing and lifting him off the ground, his hand actually sinking into the flesh.
"Weak," he snarled scornfully as Boo kicked and flailed desperately, helpless and terrified, screaming in pain. Where Boo's voice was almost comically high-pitched, Majin's voice was impossibly deep, a resonant bellow that vibrated through the very ground beneath his boots. Pink smoke billowed around the pair and enveloped them as Majin laughed, as terrible and as wicked as any laugh had ever been. Black lightning arched out of the smoke and, through the smoke, Hercule could watch from his hiding place as the silhouette of Boo finally stopped struggling and went limp before shrinking down into nothing. Majin went silent as his silhouette stood up straight and then grew even taller, his emaciated frame filling out with muscle. Then the smoke was absorbed back into his body and there stood Majin Boo.
OoOoOoO
"Okay," Suno whimpered as they felt Majin Boo resort to a singular ki, far more monstrous than either that they'd sensed before, "Someone needs to go get Trunk and Goten." But everyone was too terrified to move.
OoOoOoO
Majin Boo looked down at his ten fingers, flexing them as he turned his hands over to look at his black fingernails and then balled his hands into fists. In addition to no longer having oven mitts, his lean and muscular form had abandoned the vest and cape and was adorned only in his ruffled white pantaloons and black boots, sunlight glinting off the yellow buckle on his belt with the black 'M' insignia. His eyes were black, save for his white irises. He opened his mouth impossibly wide as if to yawn, cracking his neck from side to side
'O-okay,' Hercule thought as he held Bee to his chest, hiding behind an outcropping of rock and peeking around the side to see the new Boo, 'S-so he's just back to where we started. He just looks a lot scarier. I-I can fix this!'
Then, in the blink of an eye, Majin Boo appeared in front of the vagabonds again, who had been too terrified to flee properly. He looked at them for several long seconds with a neutral expression before his face screwed up in contempt and he opened his mouth with a horrible roar. The ground cracked under his feet from the sonic shockwave of his rage and every single one of them was flayed to the bone, then their bones burst apart into dust. There was no ki behind Boo's attack, it was simply the volume and force of his roar ripping them apart. As he'd been at the front of the pack, Smitty was the first to go. The echoes of Majin Boo's roar echoed across the plains until everything was quiet and his eyes found Hercule. Hercule froze in terror, wondering if he could try and get Boo to remember him, if this thing even was the same Boo he'd been talking to before. Then Majin Boo tilted his head to one side, completely disregarding Hercule's existence as he seemed to focus on something else.
"...Power," Majin Boo snarled before rocketing off into the sky. Hercule was left alone with Bee and an unmistakable feeling of dread. When the world had needed him, when he'd really stepped up and tried to be its hero… he'd failed.
OoOoOoO
Piccolo turned away from the rim of the Lookout and walked purposefully toward the temple. "We need to get Goten and Trunks out of there," he said firmly. "Majin Boo is coming here."
"I hate it when Lapis is right," Lazuli muttered under her breath even as she hugged Marron to her chest.
"Don't suppose anyone asked Gohan to teach them Instant Transmish-?" Krillin started to suggest but there was no point in asking. Before he could even finish the sentence, Majin Boo was standing in the center of them all, power and evil radiating off of him like heat off of the sun itself. Piccolo turned slowly to look at Majin Boo, having the very rare experience of having to look up at someone, and swallowed.
"Strong one…" Majin Boo growled. "Where?" Piccolo started to stammer something out before Majin Boo stomped his foot impatiently, the Lookout trembling under his feet. "Gold woman told Boo there was a strong one for me to fight," he said before looking around, lips twisting up into a sneer. "Not any of you, though," he pointed out. "Where?"
"The strong one… isn't ready," Piccolo told Majin Boo, struggling to keep his composure and thinking that he might be able to turn the creature's relatively simple mind to his advantage. After all, if Hercule could do it… "If you want to fight the strong one, you have to wait one more hour." Majin Boo cocked his head to the side, clearly not knowing what an hour was. Piccolo held out his hands and a large hourglass materialized between them, full of green sand. He turned it over so that all the sand was in the top. "When the sand reaches the bottom," he explained, "That's an hou–"
Majin Boo ripped the hourglass from Piccolo's hand and smashed it in half with a swipe of his antenna, watching as green sand rapidly spilled out of the bottom before tossing it over his shoulder. "Sand… gone," he observed. "Strong one. Now." Piccolo swallowed as his mind raced for any option he had left to try and stall the demon before him. He had one more idea… but he had to suppress the revulsion from the part of him that was still Kami as he said it.
"Before you can fight the strong one," Piccolo told him, "...I want you to kill everyone on Earth."
'Piccolo!' Suno hissed inside his head, 'What are you doing?!'
'Trying to buy Goten and Trunks as much time as I can,' Piccolo explained, his attention on Suno so that he wasn't watching Majin Boo point a finger down past the edge of the Lookout and fire a single spark of ki down into the clouds below. 'Besides, Dragon Balls, remember? We can just undo everything la–'
"Done," Majin Boo declared as he snapped his fingers. Piccolo blinked and stared at him in horror.
"What… what do you mean 'do'-" and then he felt it. Then they all felt it.
OoOoOoO
All across the world, even as King Giran was beginning to mobilize his humanitarian units to get people ready to load onto the ships for Project Exodus, everyone watched as the sky turned a bright shade of pink. At first, it was… actually beautiful.
Then streaks of pink lightning fell down from the sky, one for every man, woman, and child on Earth, and everyone began to die.
OoOoOoO
In Jingle Village, Eighter tried to shield people with his body, but the bolts ripped right through him, tearing through his central power unit, and he fell lifeless to the ground. The light faded out of his eyes as he watched the village that he'd come to love and call his home for so many years died.
OoOoOoO
As lightning streaked toward him out of the sky, King Giran bowed his head solemnly and tried to face dignity. In the face of his own death, his only thoughts were for his people and how he had failed them.
OoOoOoO
Shapna held Erasa to his chest and spun around, trying to take the blow that was meant for her, but it went right through both of them and they were dead before they could even hit the pavement.
OoOoOoO
Monty looked up at the pink sky and waited for the man in the cape to save him again. The one who'd fixed his eyes, Boo! He was like a superhero, he could stop this! When no rescue came, however, Monty's dying thoughts were that he wished he could have seen his parents. He wished he could have known what they looked like.
OoOoOoO
In West City, Dr. Brief put an arm around Panchy and scratched Scratch behind the ear as he watched the end of the world coming for them. He was saddened that, for all his brilliance, he had no way to escape this. But, he reflected, at least it wouldn't be the cancer that killed him.
OoOoOoO
Even as Ken watched the pink lightning kill people by the scores, no matter how they tried to run or hide, he still hugged Keri to his chest and turned her away so that at least she wouldn't have to see it coming. It was the leas a father could do for his daughter.
OoOoOoO
Lapis saw the lightning rushing toward their house and threw out his arms, hoping he could get the barrier up in time. "Kids! Amy! Adrian! Get inside, quick!"
OoOoOoO
Spopovich watched his lightning bolt come toward him and sighed, tilting his head back toward the sky and closing his eyes as he accepted his fate. He just wished he could tell Yamu he was sorry…
OoOoOoO
"That's it," Korin muttered as he watched the pink lightning fall out of the sky, "I'm moving." Then he flipped off the sky and waited defiantly with both middle fingers up for his own death to come.
OoOoOoO
'Mutaito,' Shen thought as he fell down slowly from the mountain he'd been meditating on, 'I shall return to you at last, master…'
OoOoOoO
Pilaf did not fear his death as it came for him. The only thing he hoped was that a life spent paying a living wage, donating to charity, and starting up various scholarship funds, had redeemed his previous failings. He really, really didn't want to see any ogres or blood fountains this time.
OoOoOoO
The color drained from everyone's faces as they stared at Majin Boo, feeling the ki vanish from every living being on the planet below. Dende, in particular, looked like he was going to be sick. It was like Namek all over again but somehow even worse. As Guardian of the Earth, he held a connection to all of its inhabitants and could feel their terror and fear as they died, could feel the pain of each death.
"Wait…" Majin Boo muttered as he looked around. "Boo not kill everyone yet…" As his words set in on their minds, Mr. Popo grabbed Dende by the back of his cape.
"M-Mr. Popo," Dende whispered as everyone else got into fighting stances, more out of defiance and for the principle of the thing than for any expectation that they could actually put up a fight, "What're you doing?!"
"My job, aren't I?" Popo asked. "Geronimo!" Then he hurled Dende off of the Lookout with all his might, sending him sailing off into the open air. Dende looked back up in time to see a blinding flash of pink light. Then he disappeared beneath the clouds, feeling utterly sick to his stomach.
OoOoOoO
"So…" Majin Boo drawled as he held a paper bag full of chocolate bonbons in one hand and held Piccolo up off the ground by the throat with the other. "The strong one. Where?"
SSV/N: As an extra little bonus treat for the next few chapters, we'll be including Omake of deleted or alternate scenes from the writing process. To start us off, here's Zel's interpretation of the scene that led to the creation of the device that allowed Gohan and Goten to be born!
Bulma groaned as she struggled to open her eyes. Her entire body felt like it weighed three tons and the sunlight streaming in through the window might as well have been streams of fire as far as her eyes were concerned. The cacophony of the city- usually something she'd be hard pressed to even notice- was now impossibly loud and served to make her aware of a headache so great that she was positive even God couldn't cure it.
Just what had she been doing last night? The last thing she recalled was talking to Suno about kids. She had been drinking some wine but she didn't drink that much, did she? With another groan, she forced her head off of the desk she had evidently fallen asleep at and took stock of her situation.
She was alone in her room and fully clothed so that was a good start. Her clothing was also stain-free so that was another good thing. What wasn't a good thing was that she counted at least eight empty wine bottles and... was that a rum bottle? She hated rum. What on Earth possessed her to drink so much?
That's when she saw it. There was something on her desk that wasn't there before. It was a strange device that looked like it was meant to be worn around the waist and had two somewhat long protrusions of equal length; one going inward and the other going outward. Now that she thought about it, it looked kind of familiar in a rather perverted way. It had no identifying markings that she could see other than a label that had "For Suno & Goku From Bulma 3" written in truly immaculate handwriting. It showed characteristics of Bulma's own handwriting but her handwriting was nowhere near that good.
Bulma really wasn't in a state to be examining this device but she couldn't put it down. It wasn't even the mystery of how, when, why or what that drew her towards it but rather the fact that every fiber of her being was screaming that what she was looking at was impossible. She still wasn't even sure what it was but she was certain that it was impossible. Ever a slave to science, Bulma pushed past her hangover and started to study the device.
OoOoOoO
Several hours later, Bulma collapsed into a chair. Her instincts had been right; what the device did was impossible yet it was doing it perfectly. To the best of her understanding, what the device did was take an egg cell through a rather… interesting process and somehow converted it into what was functionally several billion sperms.
The only problem was that Bulma had no idea how it did it. No matter how closely she observed it or how much she tried to remember the events of last night, she could not even begin to get an inkling of understanding into the device's inner workings. If it wasn't for the fact it showed several hallmarks of her designs, she would have begun entertaining the possibility of it being extraterrestrial or mythical in origin. The only thing she was certain of- as trials using borrowed cells from rabbits confirmed- was that it worked perfectly. Under any other circumstances, she would have immediately disassembled the thing to try and figure out how it worked but she wasn't certain that she could put it back together again and that was enough to give her pause every time she saw the label.
Bulma was faced with a choice: She could disassemble the device and figure out its inner workings or she could give it to Suno. It could easily take her years to figure out exactly how the device worked and be able to replicate it and who knows what could happen between now and then. It could very well even take Bulma the rest of her natural life depending on how things went and that wouldn't do at all. Did she use this to potentially advance science ahead by decades if not centuries or would she make a friend impossibly happy?
To Bulma, there was only one choice she could make.