Chapter 7
Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Videl watched the strange portal swirl, still processing what all had just happened.
"That bastard..." Vegeta muttered. "He's the arrogant one; he thinks we'll just lie down and play by his rules...he is going to learn a very painful lesson... he will learn just how unacceptable it is to harm a Saiyan's mate! And our offspring! Although in time I have confidence the boys will join us in battle. He can't contain them for long..."
The Saiyan prince turned to Gohan and Videl. "One of you will need to find us once we enter that gateway then join us in the fight as reinforcements. Snow thinks he's clever, but we will not play his game!"
"But how will anyone find us?" Goku asked. "We can't trace where Snow is holding everyone, they could be in another dimension for all we know."
Gohan had to think quickly, the portal wouldn't stay open much longer. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an easily recognizable orange sphere sitting on a shelf. A three-star Dragon Ball. Bulma was most likely saving it to be ahead of the curve for the next hunt for all seven balls. He grabbed the ball and tossed it to his father.
"We should be able to trace this, hopefully even in space." Gohan thought out loud. "Vegeta, does Bulma have a more powerful Dragon Ball radar than the one we use on this planet?"
"She does have one." Vegeta quickly answered, he remembered Bulma ranting about the issues she was having with an interstellar Dragon radar in the event they had to look for Dragon Balls in space for some unforeseen reason. He looked over at the untested device sitting on a table next to the group. "It's still in prototype stages..."
Gohan quickly located the new radar on a table nearby. It resembled the pocket-sized radar but was about the size of a frying pan, needing more power to track objects in deep space.
"It's worth a try..." Goku said as he looked at the three star ball.
"Time's running out..." Vegeta strained. "Let's get on with this."
Goku nodded, Dragon Ball in hand and walked up to the portal with Vegeta. It was now or never. The two Saiyans stepped forward and blackness soon enveloped their vision. Back in the Capsule Corp. lab, Gohan shielded Videl as the portal closed in a flash of blinding cyan light. Gohan turned on the deep space radar and moved out of the plane of Earth to see the locations of all seven Dragon Balls. Sure enough, six were grouped closely together on Earth while one was missing. Gohan zeroed out more and his heart raced as he saw one light far out in the depths of the galaxy. That had to be the three star ball that his father had just took into the portal.
Goku and Vegeta surveyed their strange, new surroundings. This new planet was barren and dark, like they were on the surface of the moon during a perpetual state of nighttime. Even more strange, there were no stars out in the space surrounding them, just blackness. And it was hard to ignore the lit up giant stadium in front of them. It was sleek black, much like the store at the mall and bore the Ampheta organization's logo. The size of the building dwarfed the two Saiyans. It was not farfetched to assume it could fit an arena or several arenas inside of the massive compound.
Both men immediately felt their ki dropping for some unexplainable reason.
"I can't sense anyone here..." Vegeta observed. "Not Bulma or Trunks or any lifeform...Something is off about this place."
Goku held out the three star ball and placed it in Vegeta's white gloved hand. "Hang on to this." Goku said as he pressed his two fingers to his forehead. "I need to test something out."
"Hmph... " Vegeta scoffed. "As easy as it will be for me to punish this Snow bastard by myself, don't you want to join in on the fun?"
"I need to see if Gohan can see where we are." Goku answered. "You're right, something about this place is off. And I don't know about you but my ki is dropping. I feel like I'm being drained. I have to see if I can even transmit at all. If I can't, then we're gonna need Gohan and Videl to come get us."
Vegeta remained silent but he felt his ki level falling as well. "Very well but make it quick."
Gohan and Videl stared at the screen of the star chart until their gaze was abruptly broken by Goku materializing back into the lab.
"Did it work?" he asked. "Can you see where I brought the Dragon Ball?"
"Yeah, looks like with this advanced radar we can see where the ball is." Gohan answered, studying the radar and a map of galactic coordinates. "Based on the star charts, it looks like Snow is on some structure near a cluster of black holes, the Nil Cluster."
"Something didn't feel right when I transmitted here. There's something on that planet; whatever it is, it's affecting any technique I try to use. I'm going to test transmitting there one more time and then I'll try come back for you Gohan."
Goku looked over to Videl. "If I can't transmit again, we're going to need you to get a ship ready and meet us at this Nil Cluster then.
Before Gohan could reply, his father pressed his fingers to his forehead and transmitted away. Gohan could tell he struggled to locate Vegeta and transmit the second time. He looked over to his wife who seemed overwhelmed by everything that had just transpired. Several minutes passed and Goku had not returned.
"Why hasn't your Dad came back yet?" Videl asked, concerned that something might have happened back yet.
"I can't think of a good reason..." Gohan answered, growing more worried himself. "They are near black holes, which are known to siphon energy from other objects, could they be interfering with his transmission?"
Videl rolled her eyes. "Don't ask me, you're the science nerd."
"I think that could be it..." Gohan muttered, still deep in thought. "That means I have to do things the hard way. I gotta talk to Dr. Briefs and get a ship going. You need to stay here where it's safe."
"Are you kidding me?" she scoffed. "You heard your Dad, he told ME to find a ship ready so we can meet him wherever he went."
Gohan was really apprehensive about her joining him on this mission. "Are you sure?"
"I'm coming with, Gohan! I'm part of the family now and I wanna fight too!"
Gohan did not want to argue, she was too stubborn and there was no convincing her to not come with no matter how dangerous this mission could be.
"You really sure? We don't even know how long the trip is going to take, the Nil cluster is far away. I'm more worried about how you'll deal with the boredom than whatever Snow has waiting for us." Maybe this would dissuade her.
Videl stood up with a confident expression on her face. "I'm positive. I want to save them as much as you do."
Convincing her to stay behind was futile. "Well, alright. I do want to bring Krillin with, he's got experience with space travel. We went to planet Namek together after all."
"Then let's find him and get going already!" Videl exclaimed as she grabbed Gohan's hand. "What are we waiting for?"
It seemed Goku had only left Vegeta's side at the Ampheta Stadium for a few minutes before he materialized back. Instead of fading in instantly like when normally used the instant transmission technique, Goku faded in slowly. He was noticeably transparent for a moment, as if his transmission was slowed down to a degree.
"Well, that's not... right." Goku remarked. He held his fingers to his forehead once again and tried to transmit back to Gohan but was unable to. Goku scratched his head, puzzled and realized he was unable to draw any ki.
"Dang it..." he thought. "I was hoping I could transmit back at least one more time and bring Gohan here... I guess I can't..."
"You feel that, Kakarot?" Vegeta asked, the stress of the situation causing his voice to sound more gruff than normal. "While you were gone, my ki continued to fall. I felt it being depleted and made an attempt to power up but to no avail."
"Yeah... I could barely trace you back on Earth to transmit." Goku replied. He pressed his fingers to his forehead once again to try and transmit one more time but found he was unable to this time. "That must be why we can't sense anyone here. Something is sapping our ki and whatever it is must be really powerful to drain us like this."
"It's like this planet itself is sucking out our ki." Vegeta added, setting down the three-star Ball on the ground. " At this rate, we won't be able to transform to Super Saiyan or use any ki attacks. We will be forced to fight at our base strength and rely on basic fighting."
"Snow really hates ki, huh?" Goku speculated. "So much that he won't let any fighter use it."
Vegeta turned back to look at the large metal gate to the stadium. "We haven't even entered and he's already using dirty tricks to try and gain an advantage. But we have no choice, we still have to fight... for our families. There's no telling what Snow has done to them."
Goku nodded and faced the entrance with Vegeta. "Seeing how much is on the line we need to be on the same page from here on out."
Vegeta turned to look to Goku on his side. "There's no room for quarrels now."
Instead of giving Vegeta a response, Goku held his fist towards him. To his surprise, Vegeta fist bumped him in a show of solidarity. He was putting his pride behind for teamwork. As the two crept up to the large door, it began to retract upwards allowing them inside the ominous stadium. The three-star Dragon Ball was left unattended to, sitting next to a rock in plain view as the two Saiyans proceeded inside. The only thing on the minds of both men were the fates of their wives and sons.