Post by Son Gohan on Jan 5, 2012 21:01:06 GMT -5
((OOC: The Quest 'Long Live The King!' , Good Version.))
Things were going from bad to worse. The battle had dragged on far longer than Gohan had ever expected it to. All of his previous assumptions about Kaizer had been false, in truth they exceeded his expectations by double! He knew Vega had grown in strength and in turn had assumed Kaizer had an equal amount of strength, especially when split apart, but once he had begun fighting Kaizer properly it quickly became apparently that the sadistic other half of his comrade was far superior to him in almost ever way!
It had been an uphill battle from the start and things had not improved much when Vega had finally rejoined the battle. Kaizer appeared to be toying with them, to some extent, as if this was all just art of some form of deadly game to him. The crowd, who had previously been within this stadium as the fight had originally broken out, had now all fled. Even they had been able to understand that this was more than your average tournament battle, that their lives were in mortal danger. At least this meant that both Gohan and Vega had one less thing to worry about; they could focus on taking down Kaizer.
The determined hybrid, now a Super Saiyan, sprung backwards through the air and threw both of his hands up out in front of his chest, the bottoms of his palms pressed together horizontally, and a swirling ball of golden-yellow energy began to rapidly materialize against his open palms. "Haa!" he bellowed as the ball of energy exploded forward in the form of a beam towards Kaizer.
As it rushed in towards his sadistic opponent, Kaizer almost instantly formed a rather large ball of crimson energy of his own in his left palm. Firing it forward it flew through the air and crashed into Gohan’s beam, causing both attacks to explode in a cloud of smoke, cancelling each other out. At that moment Gohan couldn’t see anything through or past the smoke, though his knew his opponent was laying in wait just beyond it. His mind was rushing from idea to idea in an attempt to find some sort of weakness, some sort of advantage that they could build upon, but he was drawing a blank.
Just then the young hybrid saw his comrade fly towards the smoke, vanishing behind it as he went on the attack. However, the attack was short-lived. No more than a moment later Vega was sent flying back the way he came, his body crashing into the floor. Gohan could do nothing but watch as all of both his and Vega’s attempts to stop Kaizer failed. But I’m a Super Saiyan! he thought bemusedly. I should be able to defeat him alone! he just couldn’t understand it.
"Kaizer you fool! Stop! STOP!" Vega croakily screamed out from his position on the floor, partially imbedded in the now broken concrete. But his cries fell on death ears.
Gohan couldn’t help but look at Vega as he bellowed out his plea. Vega truly had grown in strength if he was still able to speak after the savage beating he had received within this battle. Gohan would have even gone as far as saying that they were now equals, not that it helped in their current situation. Though taking his eyes off of Kaizer’s position was a mistake that Gohan would forever regret making, if he was given the luxury of regretting it.
By the time that Gohan sensed Kaizer’s approach he didn’t even have time to turn and see his opponent before a connection was made. The hybrid Super Saiyan felt the top half of hid body lurch forward involuntary, it learning over the fist that had been firmly planted into the bottom of his gut. He turned his head and looked up at Kaizer, who was smirking down at him with malicious intent. At that moment Gohan caught a glimpse of Kaizer’s raised fist, which swiftly cut through the air and crashed into the side of his face shattering force that staggered Gohan to the side.
A blaze of white dots flashed across his vision as the impact shook his skull. His eyes widened and glazed over as the muscles in his body loosened and his legs gave out underneath the weight of his own body. As Gohan’s body slowly fell to the side, gravity having now taken over entirely, his aura faded completely as his golden hair darkened until it was it’s original black, as did his emerald eyes; he was no longer a Super Saiyan. Seemingly boneless, his strength all but completely gone from his body, Gohan’s head bounced off of the concrete as his body finally hit the ground, his eyes rolling back into his head as he slipped into unconsciousness.
He felt nothing, saw nothing and heard nothing, at least not until his eyes slowly creaked open again. How long he’d been unconscious for he had no idea, but he could hear Vega’s voice in the background.
"You…bastard!" Vega voice was drenched with venomous hatred and anger.
Good… Gohan groggily thought. …he’s still alive… which meant that the battle was still raging on. He had to get up, he had to help…but he just couldn’t get his body to move. His vision was still blurred, so he couldn’t make out anything particularly well, but his hearing was far better and if he’d had any major control over his body he may very well have jumped when Kaizer’s shrill and maddening laughter echoed through the arena.
"You and me both, brother! Just let me put the freak down…then YOU can have my full attention. I promise." he was coming after Gohan, to likely finish him off once and for all.
I can’t…let his happen! with a surge of energy Gohan’s body began to move, though it felt as if every muscle in his body was screaming out in protest. His body began to slide backwards, away from Kaizer, until he reached the wall not more than half a metre behind him, which he managed to press his back against; at least this way he would be sitting up, able to look his killer in the eyes as the final moment came.
“Even if you kill him and defeat me…” Vega began. “…what do you think it’ll achieve!? We’ll just…go back into the one body again-” but Kaizer quickly interrupted him.
“Ah, exactly brother! We will, but I’ll be the one in control!”
There was no amount of disorientation or confusion that could hide the true meaning behind Kaizer’s intentions. Those were now unquestionably clear, even to Gohan. This had been coming for quite some time, perhaps since even before Gohan had even met Vega. No matter what, this moment had always been coming, Gohan had just been the unlucky individual to get caught up within it and now he would be the next victim to be taken by it.
Gohan realised that his eyes had slipped closed and quickly reopened them only to be faced with Kaizer, directly in front of him and staring down at him. He wasn’t saying a word, but his toothy smirk spoke more than any words could have. This was it…but at that precise moment a flash of bright white light illuminated the entire sky. It instantly grabbed the attention of all three warriors, buying Gohan some time. However, Gohan could not take his eyes off of the energy that now completely enveloped the entire planet.
"What the hell!?" Vega suddenly exclaimed. Gohan could not help but ask himself the same thing. It felt unlike anything he had ever sensed in his entire life…and that noise, that distant screaming…who or what was it? Gohan knew that it didn’t matter, his senses were still perfectly fine, and in less than a minute the entire planet would be completely consumed.
"He exists!” Kaizer suddenly exclaimed. “And he's FREE!" Gohan had no idea who ‘he’ was, and neither did he care. Everything and everyone he had ever known was about to be wiped from existence…
“…Its…over…” and with that everything ended.
Everything was white; he could see nothing else, not even his own body. He had been to places similar to this one a few times before, but all of them had been within Otherworld after he had died. Had he died again? He didn’t feel as if he had died. What did he remember…he had to think.
He remembered taking part in the World Martial Arts Tournament, defeating his Grandfather in the very first round and losing to his own father in the second round. After he had images of himself battling Vega, no it was Kaizer, not Vega. It hadn’t been a match in the tournament, though it had been in the tournament grounds and the crowd had enjoyed it, despite Gohan remembering a dreaded feeling of worry at what was happening. After that things were a little bit blurry, he felt disorientated just thinking about it, so he stopped and tried to rid himself of the queasy feeling rising from his stomach.
All of a sudden Gohan had the distinct impression that something was moving. He could only just notice, but the white light around him seemed to be stirring; either he was moving forward or it was moving backwards. That queasy feeling returned, though this time he could not merely think of something else to rid himself of it. Things sped up until the white all around him rushed by in what was now a indistinguishable grey blur. He did not know where he was or where he was going, but he knew he had no say in the matter.
Suddenly the grey began to intensify in brightness and with it all vision of movement vanished completely; Gohan could once again differentiate nothing at all. For a time the deafening screaming, it sounded like screaming, sounded as if it was growing louder. It soon reached the point that Gohan couldn’t concentrate or hear his own voice, or was he simply unable to speak in death? No, he wasn’t dead. That made no sense. In truth he had no idea what was going on, but moments later the noise stopped as abruptly as it had begun and everything instantly turned black as the darkest night.
At first Gohan was concerned that he had gone deaf, but the remnants of the noise continued to ring within his ears. The noise soon completely vanished from his ears and was replaced with complete and blissful silence; it was very much welcomed, deaf or not. What did this all mean? As long as it was over Gohan didn’t care, but nothing was ever that simple. Before anything else happened his hearing began to return to him, which in a way was a relief. Muffled noises that he couldn’t make out.
Suddenly he finally felt as if he once again had a physical body. He could feel the weight of it pressing down on his legs, which almost faltered from the sudden shock. He could feel the humid air against his skin…a level of humidity that he hadn’t felt just moments before at the tournament grounds. Something was wrong, besides the obvious. At that moment something occurred to Gohan. He was literally embarrassed that he had not thought of it sooner, considering the simplicity of it. Ever so slowly Gohan tried to open his eyes; it worked!
Everything was blurred, hazed and bright, in contrast to the dark grey that had surrounded him what felt like moments ago. He felt disorientated and queasy again, as if he had been spinning in circles and was now dizzy. However, as his eyes began to focus, and his surroundings came back into view, it quickly became apparent to him that he was not in the Otherworld as he had expected he was. In fact, he appeared to be in the middle of a city or town.
How had he survived the planet destroyed wave of energy that was enveloping the Earth in his last moments of memory? Not even him at his most powerful, which he had been far from re-attaining at the time of the destruction, not even he would have had the strength to have prevented or survived such singularity of such epic magnitudes; not even his father could have! And that was saying a lot, as far as Gohan was concerned.
However, against all the odds it seemed that he had indeed survived, and it appeared he was not the only one. All around him he could hear muffled voices and see blurred figures moving about; he was not alone in this place. Had he simply blacked out and was only now coming too? Had he imagined the whole end of the world, perhaps even his battle against Kaizer? It was a logical explanation, one that caused him to wonder what had happened to Vega and Kaizer. As these thoughts rushed through his still groggy mind, his hearing and vision finally began to return back to as they should have been.
With this new level of clarity, Gohan began to spin around in circles as he attempted to take in as much as his surroundings as possible; he was no longer inside the Tournament grounds, that was for sure. He recognised his location, he knew this place reasonably well. He was in Vegeta city, on planet Vegeta; home world of the Saiyan race. How had he ended up here? His mind worked frantically in its attempts to formulate some sort of solid theory as to what had happened, how he had got here.
His first thought was that he had never actually left planet Vegeta, that everything about travelling home and what happened afterwards had been nothing but a fabrication of his imagination. Perhaps even a hallucination? But that theory just didn’t sit right with him. The death of his wife, all the suffering and sorrow he had felt afterwards, that had been too real to have been a mere fabrication. No, the truth was still waiting to be found. It had to be.
It was at that moment that Gohan finally noticed the people around him, many of which were now stopping to look at the man stood in the middle of the street. He must have appeared somewhat insane to them, spinning in a circle with wide eyes and a rather frantic expression plastered across his face; he could only imagine. Though it wasn’t just that. It hadn’t dawned on him until now, in fact it may not have at all if he hadn’t noticed the people now staring at him, but he wasn’t exactly dressed in the proper Saiyan attire befitting a soldier such as he was; in fact he wasn’t dressed in any form of Saiyan attire.
Gohan stopped turning on the spot and looked down at himself. He was still wearing the majority of his Saiyaman outfit, the one he had worn for the tournament! Better yet, they were still tattered, torn and bloodied from his battle against Kaizer! It hadn’t been a dream! What other logical explanation was there for his clothing matching his memories? He couldn’t think of any, but then again his mind and emotions were racing so fast from the sudden exhilaration of the discovery of the latest evidence that he could hardly even begin to think properly.
Suddenly all thoughts and theories were sent crashing to the furthest depths of his mind, as a ground shaking explosion erupted somewhere behind him. Gohan span on the spot, turning to look in the direction that the smoke was now rising from; it was no more than a few minutes away, at the speeds he knew he could move. In that split moment Gohan decided that how and why he had been brought here no longer mattered, he could worry about the fine details later, right now he had to deal with the explosion and whatever had caused it. With that, be broke into a sprint towards the exploded area of the city.
It took him no time at all to reach the area in question, in fact he knew he was closing in on it well before he reached it due to the noises of what appeared to be battle, growing louder and louder with each passing step. This was obviously more than an accidental explosion, but who would dare to attack the Saiyan home world? Let alone their capital city! It was an insane concept, though he was no doubt sure there were people foolish enough to do such a thing.
As Gohan continued to run he noticed several other Saiyan soldiers, soldiers dressed in official Saiyan armour, were also making their way towards the site in question. One noticed and recognised Gohan, as they pulled in almost directly next to each other while running down a street.
“You’re Gohan, aren’t you?” he called out, glancing to his side at the hybrid. Gohan glanced back and nodded his head.
“Yes I am. Do you know what the problem up ahead is?” his voice was extremely calm all things considered, but the adrenaline and rushing of his blood had already begun with the mere thought of battle.
The Saiyan almost looked surprised by the question, Gohan saw it briefly in his face before turning his attention back in front. “It’s the Tuffles, they’re attacking the edge of the city again.” now it was Gohan’s turn to be surprised.
“The Tuffles? I thought they were all but extinct.” A short laugh was the initial response he received from the Saiyan, but then the Saiyans face quickly turned free of emotion.
“Word has been passed through the ranks of an order specifically for you.” he continued. “The King has specifically ordered that you deal with the Tuffle incursion, personally. Word has it he expects victory to be swift and without issue. As it should be!”
The King is here? Gohan immediately thought. The King had been the victor of the tournament, which means he should have been on Earth like Gohan…but neither were; could that mean Vega was also here? The King, if anyone, would be able to understand what Gohan was going through, perhaps he even had some answers that Gohan didn’t? It made one thing unequivocally clear to the young hybrid, he had to see his order through as promptly as possible so he could return and speak to the King. His mind returned to the moment at hand. “What should I be expecting?”
“You’re about to find out first hand.” and with that the two warrior continued to run the rest of the way in silence.
As the two raced round one final corner of a house they came across the outskirts of the city, and all hell had broken loose. A blast of energy shot towards them unexpectedly, almost as soon as they’d moved out into open space; it was clearly a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Without thinking Gohan reached out and slammed his palm into the other Saiyans shoulder, knocking them both off-balance and out of the way of the blast, which sailed through the gap now between them. The Saiyan had rolled as he hit the body, widening the gap between them even more, as the blast exploded into a building just behind them, showering the small group of Saiyans in pieces of debris. Luckily none were harmed.
The Saiyan looked behind him at what was left of the building, before glancing sideways at Gohan, who in turn looked towards the Saiyan from his position on the floor. It was a silent moment between two warriors caught in battle, a moment where the Saiyans simple nod spoke more words could, or the situation would allow. Gohan mirrored the nod before turning this attention back to the battle.
The sight in front of Gohan was one of battle, of a small scale war. These Tuffles, if that’s what they in fact were, were serious about doing as much damage to the Saiyans as possible, though even Gohan could tell that such a small force could never hope to stand a chance of overthrowing the Saiyan capital city. They’re just here to cause damage. Gohan quickly surmised. The logical course of action was to deter them as quickly as possible, before they could indeed cause too much damage. A singular, yet huge sign of power would certainly grab their attention, perhaps even cause them to retreat. that called for only one thing.
Without wasting another moment, Gohan pounced up from his horizontal position on the floor and moved out into the middle of the open area. All focus was on him now, with the rest of the Saiyan forces having taken cover behind various things and the so-called Tuffles firing attacks from hidden locations. Every muscle in his body tensed as he dug deep within himself in an attempt to unleash the Saiyan power from within. Moment after moment passed but still Gohan remained in the same position, stood out in the open street. Blasts of energy ripped through the air towards him from hidden positions up ahead, luckily all missing him - though some were dangerously closer than others - all the while Gohan remained where he was, his mind focused on his task; becoming a Super Saiyan. But nothing was happening.
…something’s…wrong… he could no longer ignore this fact. For some reason unbeknown to him he could no longer transform into a Super Saiyan! He relaxed his muscles and raised his hands in front of him, looking down at them as if they held the answered to his ever growing list of questions; they didn’t. An explosion hit a wall on his left, about five metres away from him, snapping his attention back to his surroundings. Just like his other questions, this would also have to wait, he had orders to complete and it was time for plan B.
Planting his feet firmly against the concrete below him Gohan pulled both of his hands down to his right side and began to pull on the energy within him, it was time for the now trademark move of the Turtle Hermit school and his family, the Kamehameha Wave. “KAAAMEEEE-” but as the swirling blue energy flashed into life it almost immediately fizzled out with a small puff of smoke. He immediately looked down at his hands in utter disbelief.
“What are you doing?!” a now familiar voice bellowed from behind Gohan. This caught Gohan’s attention, causing him to look back at the Saiyan, who was still laying on the floor. “You’re a sitting duck! Get out of there now!” but before he could even process any thoughts a blast of energy exploded into the ground directly at his feet, sending him flying backwards, where his face bounced off of a pile of broken rubble.
His eyes blurred but almost instantly began to return to normal, or at least it seemed like it was relatively instant. He hoped he hadn’t slipped unconscious again; was there a worse way to look weak in front of his men? He could hear the muffled shockwaves from nearby explosions, which meant that the battle was still raging. …Good…I couldn’t have been out for too long… it was a reassuring thought. Suddenly he felt a slight weight against his right shoulder as someone grabbed it, the drowned out sound of someone’s voice as they spoke to him.
“Gohan! Are you ok?!” it took Gohan a few seconds to clear his head enough to realise where he was and what had happened, let alone who the voice belonged to. It was the Saiyan he had spoken to on the way here, the one who had passed on his orders. “God damn it man, get up!” Shaking his head to clear the grogginess, Gohan quickly pushed his body up off of the floor with a grunt and got to his feet, in a crouched position, as he looked to his comrade. He had rushed across the battlefield from his previous position to get to Gohan; the hybrid didn’t forget such things. “You’re ok, good; there’s a battle to be fought.” his voice was emotionless.
His face felt numb in places, though the pain throbbing through his head was undeniable; it felt as if his skull was emphasising the pulsation. He had to ignore it though. What was a little pain when his life, and the lives of the men around him were on the line? “You’re right.” His mind back on his orders, Gohan turned and peaked over the wall to look in the direction he knew the enemy forces to be. The Tuffles were advancing on the Saiyans!
Who do they think they are?! Gohan felt anger explode throughout his body as his fists clenched. Spinning to glance back at his soldiers Gohan opened his mouth and bellowed his first order of the battle. “Charge the cowards! Slaughter them all!” The Saiyans raised their hands and cheered at the command, more than happy to oblige Gohan’s order. The young hybrid also raised his clenched fist into the air before turning on his heel and charging towards the advancing Tuffle squadron, a battle cry roaring from Gohan’s mouth.
As Gohan began to charge, the group of Saiyan soldiers following suit behind him, he noted that the Tuffles at the front of their charge seemed to falter, at least in their expressions. They were worried. So they should be. He thought darkly. When the two forces finally reached each other the real battle would no doubt began. However, the Tuffles did not wait that long. The Tuffles raised their arms out ahead of them and began firing blast of energy towards the Saiyans, from what Gohan could now see were wrist blasters; he found that most intriguing, but it was something he would consider at a later time.
Suddenly, as the enemy forces were closing in, almost all of them on the front few rows, which were the only ones clearly visible to Gohan, appeared to reach down to their sides and unattached something. Moments later those “something’s” extended in a snap and their points began to glow ominously, much in the same manner Ki did. They were preparing for combat at close-quarters. I never expected them to attack head on like this, not with what I’ve heard of Tuffles. Gohan thought, though almost as soon as he had his attention was brought rushing back to his surroundings as one of the spears rushed through the air towards the Saiyans.
It only took Gohan a single glance to notice that it wasn’t heading directly towards him, though with blasters still shooting towards him and his men a glance was all he could spare. Moments later it hit its mark; a young looking Saiyan warrior about three people to Gohan’s right, who took the spear in the centre of his chest. The force of the attack hadn’t been overly strong, after all the Tuffles weren’t a race known for their physical prowess, but its momentum combined with the Saiyan running towards it created enough force for it to break through his chest armour, burry into his chest and take him up off of his feet before he finally hit the floor.
The tips must be armour penetrating! it was a logical theory considering everything, which oddly enough caused a wave of calm to envelope Gohan; wearing his now tattered Saiyaman outfit, which included no armour at all, now seemed inconsequential. Whether he was hit with or without armour, there would be little difference. He did not know if it was the loss of a warrior or the knowledge of the enemy weapons, but as he neared the first row of enemies his lust for battle swept through him like a tsunami and whether he lived or died no longer mattered.
What does it matter anyway? I lost her…
The level of calm this realisation gave him was unlike anything he had ever felt. Not caring for his own life, his own wellbeing, it granted him access to attempt things he would never have dreamed doing in a battle before now, purely out of worry for his personal safety. He no longer had to defend against potential attacks, he could simply push forward and go on an all-out attack. As it should be for a Saiyan Warrior. a quiet voice whispered from the depths of his mind.
Gohan focused on the enemies he was charging towards, who he was now almost upon, and he screwed his face into one of anger, to make it that much more intimidating. This close it was clear that the Tuffles were far less pronounced in terms of height and a physical standing, so he no doubt looked intimidating enough to them. With a metre or so to go before the two forces reached each other, the Tuffles planted themselves on the spot and the first row extended their spears out ahead of them, clearly hoping to impale the approaching Saiyans.
At the last possible moment, when it appeared Gohan would run himself through with the spear held out in front of him, he span his body to the side, narrowly avoiding the spears tip, and darted along its length towards the now surprised Tuffle holding it. It nothing more than extended his left arm outward, slamming his forearm into the neck of the Tuffle, to put him out of commission. The battle had begun…
It had been a somewhat short battle, lasting no more than an hour in truth, which was considerably shorter than the battle that he, his King, Trunks and Nira had all been involved with on planet Galbrax. However, despite it’s short length, in the end the Tuffles had found themselves extremely out of their depth when it had come to close quarter combat with their superiorly strengthened opponents. Many Tuffles had died, though even now, as the body count was coming in, it was becoming clear that even a few Saiyan warriors had met their end in this battle too. Despite this, not all of the enemy had been destroyed, a handful of remaining Tuffle troops in the process of fleeing the battle area before they could be dealt with.
“Let them go!” Gohan shouted to the men who appeared to be giving chase after the Tuffles. The small group of Saiyan’s stopped immediately, their faces full of disbelief as they turned to face Gohan.
“We should finish them all right now! Before they can regroup and attack again!” one instantly replied, raising a clenched fist threateningly.
“Wasn’t it you who ordered us to slaughter them all!?” he had a fair point, Gohan had indeed given precisely that order.
“Let them go,” he repeated, in a far sterner tone of voice this time. “Let them tell their friends and comrades of the Saiyan victory today, and let it strike fear in their hearts!” it was not in mercy that he had let them go, at least not entirely.
With the battle finally over Gohan stood tall and took a deep breath, relaxing his body. It was only now that he felt the trickle a warm substance trailing down his left cheek. Reaching up to his face he ran his fingertips across his forehead and down his cheek, pulling it away to glance at what it was; it was blood. So he’d been injured? Like when he hit his head against the rocks. He had to be more careful, especially if he had lost his powers again.
He couldn’t help but consider what had happened throughout the battle, and now that it was over and he was actively thinking about it he realised he was remembering things that until a moment ago had seemingly been lost in the midst of battle adrenaline and rage. The Saiyans should have made quick and easy work of the Tuffles if everything Gohan had heard and read about them was true, but when it had come down to it the Tuffles had proved far more of a challenge than expected; if the others weren’t still so caught up in their own Saiyan natures they might have been able to see this too.
Though what was the cause of this? Was it linked to the event that had brought him here? Perhaps it was even linked to him being considerably weaker? Either way, whatever was effecting him seemed to also be effecting every other person he had seen. This, coupled with the fact that the Tuffles seemed to have been brought back to life in a much fuller force than they had been previously, meant that they were potentially a threat that the Saiyans could not ignore; nevertheless, Gohan had no doubt in his mind that they would do just that.
“Send a messenger to the King - tell him of our victory, tell him that his city is Tuffle free!” there was another cheer from the Saiyan soldiers at the sound of their victory; it was a joy that Gohan could also relate to. Winning such a life or death situation seemed to bring out an almost primal elation from within him, though he knew just ten years ago the thought of such a thing would have disgusted him; he had come a long way since then. However, his task was not yet fully complete.
“I want the rest of you to split into two teams,” he quickly continued, his voice bellowing out across the partially destroyed area of the city. “Team One will search the surrounding areas of the city in a spiral pattern for any Tuffle forces who have decided to remain unwelcome quests.”
“What do we do when we find them?” a Saiyan called out to him. He seemed positive that they would find more Tuffles, though perhaps it was simply wishful thinking.
“Capture them, alive. We’ll take them before the King for questioning,” a short laugh escaped his lips as he shook his head and sighed. “Feel free to have some fun with them first though, just try to keep them in one piece; ok?” the Saiyans cheered once again, his order clearly going down well with the troops; he had assumed it would do. “Team Two, I want a detailed report on the damage to this area of the city. Leave no detail, no matter how small. If there’s another Tuffle attack I want this area of the city to be as fortified as any other!” team two seemed far less excited about their task, but even they knew it was needed.
Raising his arm high into the air, his fist clenched, Gohan grabbed all of the soldiers attention before he continued. “For the glory of Empire!” with that he brought his fist down and placed it across the left breast of his chest, in the official Saiyan salute. In complete sync all of the soldiers in front of him mimicked his movements and repeated what he had said, before breaking off into their two teams and instantly going about their orders. Once again Gohan was left on his own with enough time to allow his thoughts to wonder back to his situation, something that the other Saiyans were clearly overlooking, though Gohan could not; there was something terribly wrong, and not just with him.
Glancing over the area of battle Gohan looked for the Saiyan who he had spoken to earlier, the one who had originally given him his orders and who Gohan had saved in return. The soldiers were dispersing by this point, which made it easier for Gohan to spot him amongst the crowd. Thankfully it was only ten or so seconds before the Saiyan caught Gohan’s eyes and with a gestured nod of the head, the Saiyan knew to make his way towards Gohan, which he did without a moments hesitation. When he had finally reached Gohan, who was still standing above everyone else on the remains of a wall, he joined the hybrid upon it and simply waited in silence. Finally Gohan spoke.
“I see you survived the battle.” he realised that the Saiyan had waited in silence because he didn’t wish to address his superior, which showed he was a man who liked to follow rules, or at least honoured them; it was an incite into his character that Gohan was looking for.
“It would seem that way.” the Saiyan simply replied, his voice as emotionless as it had been every time that Gohan had spoken to him. However, after a slight pause he spoke again. “Did you expect the result to be different?” Gohan glanced back over his shoulder at the Saiyan.
“No, I didn’t.” he admitted with a slight chuckle, returning his gaze back to the rest of the Saiyans moving about below him. “In fact I was hoping that you’d survive.” he continued.
“And why is that?” he asked, somewhat casually; this conversation had continued on quite an informal path, and so it didn’t surprise Gohan that the Saiyan was taking it as such. Turning around Gohan ignored the question and instead regarded his comrade.
“You held yourself well out there. With honour; a somewhat rare trait, even within an honour people such as ours.” Gohan laughed. “Though I guess they’re only half my people. I assume you’d heard as much, right?”
The Saiyan slowly nodded. “I did.” was his simple and short response.
“Yet this doesn’t bother you?” Gohan raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.
“Why would it?”
“Because I’m a half-breed.” He almost
The Saiyan let out a short and sharp laugh at this. “A half-breed who has proven himself to be one of the strongest our Empire has, on countless occasions.” With that he looked directly at Gohan.
“I see.” The young hybrid couldn’t deny that he liked this Saiyan. He had a good head on his shoulder, a rational sense of thought that wasn’t usually found in the general Saiyan population. Extending a hand out towards the Saiyan Gohan smirked. “Name’s Gohan, though of course, you already know that.”
The Saiyan looked down at the hand for a few moment, as if the concept was almost alien to him, though eventually he looked back up at Gohan and extended his own hand, taking Gohan’s in his and shaking it; his grip was equally as tight and firm as Gohan’s was. “Kabbar.” he said somewhat abruptly, though far from harshly.
“A pleasure.” Gohan responded, earning a nod of the head and a grunt from Kabbar. Gohan released his grip, as did Kabbar, the two regarding each other once more. “Despite sending word to him, I will need to speak to the King as soon as I’m positive that we’ve cleared up the issues here.” Gohan began, somewhat stating the obvious. “I want you to come with me.” he suddenly stated. This actually managed to surprise Kabbar.
“But why?” he asked, somewhat cautiously. “I’m just a grunt.”
“You were the one who got the order to me, he’ll want to know that, and seeing as you held yourself like a true Saiyan Warrior throughout the battle, when others fell, he’d be honoured to have you attend my meeting with him.” it was a half truth, though Gohan had something else in mind for why he wanted Kabbar to come with him. Kabbar would no doubt have to leave while Gohan and the King discussed some of the more sensitive issues, like while he and Gohan was here at all, but in general Gohan was quite excited by the concept of his idea.
“Is this an order?” Kabbar finally said, his voice once again somewhat emotionless.
This concerned Gohan. “Kabbar, I’m only your superior for this battle.” Gohan reminded him.
“Nevertheless, until everything is completed you are my superior officer.” Kabbar stated calmly.
“Will I have to make it an order?” he asked, somewhat sternly.
Kabbar considered Gohan for the briefest of moments before shaking his head. “Who am I to refuse such an offer?” the question was rhetorical, but nevertheless it meant that he would be accompanying Gohan as the hybrid wished.
“Excellent!” Gohan grinned widely at him, which even caused the somewhat cold Kabbar to allow the slightest of grins in return. “In the meantime, why don’t you join the second group and search the immediate area for any Tuffle remnants. I’ll send for you when I’m ready to leave.”
Kabbar straightened and pressed the underside of his right clenched fist against the breastplate of his armour, across his chest, as he bowed his head ever so slightly; the traditional Saiyan greeting, slightly altered for superiors within the army. “Yes sir.” and with that he turned on his heel and moved back down towards the two groups of Saiyans down in the area the battle had taken place in.
Just like that Gohan was once again left on his own, with nothing to keep him company but the thoughts that he had been trying to avoid. His adrenaline from the battle had subsided by this point, allowing his thoughts and feelings to slowly return to the forefront of his mind. It was certainly something that he could no longer ignore, he didn’t have the luxury to pretend it wasn’t an issue.
He needed to speak to King Vegeta, see what exactly he remembered, seek his guidance. There was a very good chance that Gohan was imagining all of this, that he was going crazy. It worried him. The only solace Gohan could take from all of this was that if he had indeed never gone back to Earth it meant that everything he had done on the planet hadn’t happened to, which meant that he hadn’t failed to save Videl from Legion; his wife was potentially alive!
It was a long shot, in all fairness, and even he knew that. Was it just him clinging to hope? Either way something was either terribly wrong with the universe and his wife was still dead, or he was insane and clinging to the hope that she was alive…he wasn’t sure which was worse…
7,029.
Things were going from bad to worse. The battle had dragged on far longer than Gohan had ever expected it to. All of his previous assumptions about Kaizer had been false, in truth they exceeded his expectations by double! He knew Vega had grown in strength and in turn had assumed Kaizer had an equal amount of strength, especially when split apart, but once he had begun fighting Kaizer properly it quickly became apparently that the sadistic other half of his comrade was far superior to him in almost ever way!
It had been an uphill battle from the start and things had not improved much when Vega had finally rejoined the battle. Kaizer appeared to be toying with them, to some extent, as if this was all just art of some form of deadly game to him. The crowd, who had previously been within this stadium as the fight had originally broken out, had now all fled. Even they had been able to understand that this was more than your average tournament battle, that their lives were in mortal danger. At least this meant that both Gohan and Vega had one less thing to worry about; they could focus on taking down Kaizer.
The determined hybrid, now a Super Saiyan, sprung backwards through the air and threw both of his hands up out in front of his chest, the bottoms of his palms pressed together horizontally, and a swirling ball of golden-yellow energy began to rapidly materialize against his open palms. "Haa!" he bellowed as the ball of energy exploded forward in the form of a beam towards Kaizer.
As it rushed in towards his sadistic opponent, Kaizer almost instantly formed a rather large ball of crimson energy of his own in his left palm. Firing it forward it flew through the air and crashed into Gohan’s beam, causing both attacks to explode in a cloud of smoke, cancelling each other out. At that moment Gohan couldn’t see anything through or past the smoke, though his knew his opponent was laying in wait just beyond it. His mind was rushing from idea to idea in an attempt to find some sort of weakness, some sort of advantage that they could build upon, but he was drawing a blank.
Just then the young hybrid saw his comrade fly towards the smoke, vanishing behind it as he went on the attack. However, the attack was short-lived. No more than a moment later Vega was sent flying back the way he came, his body crashing into the floor. Gohan could do nothing but watch as all of both his and Vega’s attempts to stop Kaizer failed. But I’m a Super Saiyan! he thought bemusedly. I should be able to defeat him alone! he just couldn’t understand it.
"Kaizer you fool! Stop! STOP!" Vega croakily screamed out from his position on the floor, partially imbedded in the now broken concrete. But his cries fell on death ears.
Gohan couldn’t help but look at Vega as he bellowed out his plea. Vega truly had grown in strength if he was still able to speak after the savage beating he had received within this battle. Gohan would have even gone as far as saying that they were now equals, not that it helped in their current situation. Though taking his eyes off of Kaizer’s position was a mistake that Gohan would forever regret making, if he was given the luxury of regretting it.
By the time that Gohan sensed Kaizer’s approach he didn’t even have time to turn and see his opponent before a connection was made. The hybrid Super Saiyan felt the top half of hid body lurch forward involuntary, it learning over the fist that had been firmly planted into the bottom of his gut. He turned his head and looked up at Kaizer, who was smirking down at him with malicious intent. At that moment Gohan caught a glimpse of Kaizer’s raised fist, which swiftly cut through the air and crashed into the side of his face shattering force that staggered Gohan to the side.
A blaze of white dots flashed across his vision as the impact shook his skull. His eyes widened and glazed over as the muscles in his body loosened and his legs gave out underneath the weight of his own body. As Gohan’s body slowly fell to the side, gravity having now taken over entirely, his aura faded completely as his golden hair darkened until it was it’s original black, as did his emerald eyes; he was no longer a Super Saiyan. Seemingly boneless, his strength all but completely gone from his body, Gohan’s head bounced off of the concrete as his body finally hit the ground, his eyes rolling back into his head as he slipped into unconsciousness.
He felt nothing, saw nothing and heard nothing, at least not until his eyes slowly creaked open again. How long he’d been unconscious for he had no idea, but he could hear Vega’s voice in the background.
"You…bastard!" Vega voice was drenched with venomous hatred and anger.
Good… Gohan groggily thought. …he’s still alive… which meant that the battle was still raging on. He had to get up, he had to help…but he just couldn’t get his body to move. His vision was still blurred, so he couldn’t make out anything particularly well, but his hearing was far better and if he’d had any major control over his body he may very well have jumped when Kaizer’s shrill and maddening laughter echoed through the arena.
"You and me both, brother! Just let me put the freak down…then YOU can have my full attention. I promise." he was coming after Gohan, to likely finish him off once and for all.
I can’t…let his happen! with a surge of energy Gohan’s body began to move, though it felt as if every muscle in his body was screaming out in protest. His body began to slide backwards, away from Kaizer, until he reached the wall not more than half a metre behind him, which he managed to press his back against; at least this way he would be sitting up, able to look his killer in the eyes as the final moment came.
“Even if you kill him and defeat me…” Vega began. “…what do you think it’ll achieve!? We’ll just…go back into the one body again-” but Kaizer quickly interrupted him.
“Ah, exactly brother! We will, but I’ll be the one in control!”
There was no amount of disorientation or confusion that could hide the true meaning behind Kaizer’s intentions. Those were now unquestionably clear, even to Gohan. This had been coming for quite some time, perhaps since even before Gohan had even met Vega. No matter what, this moment had always been coming, Gohan had just been the unlucky individual to get caught up within it and now he would be the next victim to be taken by it.
Gohan realised that his eyes had slipped closed and quickly reopened them only to be faced with Kaizer, directly in front of him and staring down at him. He wasn’t saying a word, but his toothy smirk spoke more than any words could have. This was it…but at that precise moment a flash of bright white light illuminated the entire sky. It instantly grabbed the attention of all three warriors, buying Gohan some time. However, Gohan could not take his eyes off of the energy that now completely enveloped the entire planet.
"What the hell!?" Vega suddenly exclaimed. Gohan could not help but ask himself the same thing. It felt unlike anything he had ever sensed in his entire life…and that noise, that distant screaming…who or what was it? Gohan knew that it didn’t matter, his senses were still perfectly fine, and in less than a minute the entire planet would be completely consumed.
"He exists!” Kaizer suddenly exclaimed. “And he's FREE!" Gohan had no idea who ‘he’ was, and neither did he care. Everything and everyone he had ever known was about to be wiped from existence…
“…Its…over…” and with that everything ended.
Everything was white; he could see nothing else, not even his own body. He had been to places similar to this one a few times before, but all of them had been within Otherworld after he had died. Had he died again? He didn’t feel as if he had died. What did he remember…he had to think.
He remembered taking part in the World Martial Arts Tournament, defeating his Grandfather in the very first round and losing to his own father in the second round. After he had images of himself battling Vega, no it was Kaizer, not Vega. It hadn’t been a match in the tournament, though it had been in the tournament grounds and the crowd had enjoyed it, despite Gohan remembering a dreaded feeling of worry at what was happening. After that things were a little bit blurry, he felt disorientated just thinking about it, so he stopped and tried to rid himself of the queasy feeling rising from his stomach.
All of a sudden Gohan had the distinct impression that something was moving. He could only just notice, but the white light around him seemed to be stirring; either he was moving forward or it was moving backwards. That queasy feeling returned, though this time he could not merely think of something else to rid himself of it. Things sped up until the white all around him rushed by in what was now a indistinguishable grey blur. He did not know where he was or where he was going, but he knew he had no say in the matter.
Suddenly the grey began to intensify in brightness and with it all vision of movement vanished completely; Gohan could once again differentiate nothing at all. For a time the deafening screaming, it sounded like screaming, sounded as if it was growing louder. It soon reached the point that Gohan couldn’t concentrate or hear his own voice, or was he simply unable to speak in death? No, he wasn’t dead. That made no sense. In truth he had no idea what was going on, but moments later the noise stopped as abruptly as it had begun and everything instantly turned black as the darkest night.
At first Gohan was concerned that he had gone deaf, but the remnants of the noise continued to ring within his ears. The noise soon completely vanished from his ears and was replaced with complete and blissful silence; it was very much welcomed, deaf or not. What did this all mean? As long as it was over Gohan didn’t care, but nothing was ever that simple. Before anything else happened his hearing began to return to him, which in a way was a relief. Muffled noises that he couldn’t make out.
Suddenly he finally felt as if he once again had a physical body. He could feel the weight of it pressing down on his legs, which almost faltered from the sudden shock. He could feel the humid air against his skin…a level of humidity that he hadn’t felt just moments before at the tournament grounds. Something was wrong, besides the obvious. At that moment something occurred to Gohan. He was literally embarrassed that he had not thought of it sooner, considering the simplicity of it. Ever so slowly Gohan tried to open his eyes; it worked!
Everything was blurred, hazed and bright, in contrast to the dark grey that had surrounded him what felt like moments ago. He felt disorientated and queasy again, as if he had been spinning in circles and was now dizzy. However, as his eyes began to focus, and his surroundings came back into view, it quickly became apparent to him that he was not in the Otherworld as he had expected he was. In fact, he appeared to be in the middle of a city or town.
How had he survived the planet destroyed wave of energy that was enveloping the Earth in his last moments of memory? Not even him at his most powerful, which he had been far from re-attaining at the time of the destruction, not even he would have had the strength to have prevented or survived such singularity of such epic magnitudes; not even his father could have! And that was saying a lot, as far as Gohan was concerned.
However, against all the odds it seemed that he had indeed survived, and it appeared he was not the only one. All around him he could hear muffled voices and see blurred figures moving about; he was not alone in this place. Had he simply blacked out and was only now coming too? Had he imagined the whole end of the world, perhaps even his battle against Kaizer? It was a logical explanation, one that caused him to wonder what had happened to Vega and Kaizer. As these thoughts rushed through his still groggy mind, his hearing and vision finally began to return back to as they should have been.
With this new level of clarity, Gohan began to spin around in circles as he attempted to take in as much as his surroundings as possible; he was no longer inside the Tournament grounds, that was for sure. He recognised his location, he knew this place reasonably well. He was in Vegeta city, on planet Vegeta; home world of the Saiyan race. How had he ended up here? His mind worked frantically in its attempts to formulate some sort of solid theory as to what had happened, how he had got here.
His first thought was that he had never actually left planet Vegeta, that everything about travelling home and what happened afterwards had been nothing but a fabrication of his imagination. Perhaps even a hallucination? But that theory just didn’t sit right with him. The death of his wife, all the suffering and sorrow he had felt afterwards, that had been too real to have been a mere fabrication. No, the truth was still waiting to be found. It had to be.
It was at that moment that Gohan finally noticed the people around him, many of which were now stopping to look at the man stood in the middle of the street. He must have appeared somewhat insane to them, spinning in a circle with wide eyes and a rather frantic expression plastered across his face; he could only imagine. Though it wasn’t just that. It hadn’t dawned on him until now, in fact it may not have at all if he hadn’t noticed the people now staring at him, but he wasn’t exactly dressed in the proper Saiyan attire befitting a soldier such as he was; in fact he wasn’t dressed in any form of Saiyan attire.
Gohan stopped turning on the spot and looked down at himself. He was still wearing the majority of his Saiyaman outfit, the one he had worn for the tournament! Better yet, they were still tattered, torn and bloodied from his battle against Kaizer! It hadn’t been a dream! What other logical explanation was there for his clothing matching his memories? He couldn’t think of any, but then again his mind and emotions were racing so fast from the sudden exhilaration of the discovery of the latest evidence that he could hardly even begin to think properly.
Suddenly all thoughts and theories were sent crashing to the furthest depths of his mind, as a ground shaking explosion erupted somewhere behind him. Gohan span on the spot, turning to look in the direction that the smoke was now rising from; it was no more than a few minutes away, at the speeds he knew he could move. In that split moment Gohan decided that how and why he had been brought here no longer mattered, he could worry about the fine details later, right now he had to deal with the explosion and whatever had caused it. With that, be broke into a sprint towards the exploded area of the city.
It took him no time at all to reach the area in question, in fact he knew he was closing in on it well before he reached it due to the noises of what appeared to be battle, growing louder and louder with each passing step. This was obviously more than an accidental explosion, but who would dare to attack the Saiyan home world? Let alone their capital city! It was an insane concept, though he was no doubt sure there were people foolish enough to do such a thing.
As Gohan continued to run he noticed several other Saiyan soldiers, soldiers dressed in official Saiyan armour, were also making their way towards the site in question. One noticed and recognised Gohan, as they pulled in almost directly next to each other while running down a street.
“You’re Gohan, aren’t you?” he called out, glancing to his side at the hybrid. Gohan glanced back and nodded his head.
“Yes I am. Do you know what the problem up ahead is?” his voice was extremely calm all things considered, but the adrenaline and rushing of his blood had already begun with the mere thought of battle.
The Saiyan almost looked surprised by the question, Gohan saw it briefly in his face before turning his attention back in front. “It’s the Tuffles, they’re attacking the edge of the city again.” now it was Gohan’s turn to be surprised.
“The Tuffles? I thought they were all but extinct.” A short laugh was the initial response he received from the Saiyan, but then the Saiyans face quickly turned free of emotion.
“Word has been passed through the ranks of an order specifically for you.” he continued. “The King has specifically ordered that you deal with the Tuffle incursion, personally. Word has it he expects victory to be swift and without issue. As it should be!”
The King is here? Gohan immediately thought. The King had been the victor of the tournament, which means he should have been on Earth like Gohan…but neither were; could that mean Vega was also here? The King, if anyone, would be able to understand what Gohan was going through, perhaps he even had some answers that Gohan didn’t? It made one thing unequivocally clear to the young hybrid, he had to see his order through as promptly as possible so he could return and speak to the King. His mind returned to the moment at hand. “What should I be expecting?”
“You’re about to find out first hand.” and with that the two warrior continued to run the rest of the way in silence.
As the two raced round one final corner of a house they came across the outskirts of the city, and all hell had broken loose. A blast of energy shot towards them unexpectedly, almost as soon as they’d moved out into open space; it was clearly a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Without thinking Gohan reached out and slammed his palm into the other Saiyans shoulder, knocking them both off-balance and out of the way of the blast, which sailed through the gap now between them. The Saiyan had rolled as he hit the body, widening the gap between them even more, as the blast exploded into a building just behind them, showering the small group of Saiyans in pieces of debris. Luckily none were harmed.
The Saiyan looked behind him at what was left of the building, before glancing sideways at Gohan, who in turn looked towards the Saiyan from his position on the floor. It was a silent moment between two warriors caught in battle, a moment where the Saiyans simple nod spoke more words could, or the situation would allow. Gohan mirrored the nod before turning this attention back to the battle.
The sight in front of Gohan was one of battle, of a small scale war. These Tuffles, if that’s what they in fact were, were serious about doing as much damage to the Saiyans as possible, though even Gohan could tell that such a small force could never hope to stand a chance of overthrowing the Saiyan capital city. They’re just here to cause damage. Gohan quickly surmised. The logical course of action was to deter them as quickly as possible, before they could indeed cause too much damage. A singular, yet huge sign of power would certainly grab their attention, perhaps even cause them to retreat. that called for only one thing.
Without wasting another moment, Gohan pounced up from his horizontal position on the floor and moved out into the middle of the open area. All focus was on him now, with the rest of the Saiyan forces having taken cover behind various things and the so-called Tuffles firing attacks from hidden locations. Every muscle in his body tensed as he dug deep within himself in an attempt to unleash the Saiyan power from within. Moment after moment passed but still Gohan remained in the same position, stood out in the open street. Blasts of energy ripped through the air towards him from hidden positions up ahead, luckily all missing him - though some were dangerously closer than others - all the while Gohan remained where he was, his mind focused on his task; becoming a Super Saiyan. But nothing was happening.
…something’s…wrong… he could no longer ignore this fact. For some reason unbeknown to him he could no longer transform into a Super Saiyan! He relaxed his muscles and raised his hands in front of him, looking down at them as if they held the answered to his ever growing list of questions; they didn’t. An explosion hit a wall on his left, about five metres away from him, snapping his attention back to his surroundings. Just like his other questions, this would also have to wait, he had orders to complete and it was time for plan B.
Planting his feet firmly against the concrete below him Gohan pulled both of his hands down to his right side and began to pull on the energy within him, it was time for the now trademark move of the Turtle Hermit school and his family, the Kamehameha Wave. “KAAAMEEEE-” but as the swirling blue energy flashed into life it almost immediately fizzled out with a small puff of smoke. He immediately looked down at his hands in utter disbelief.
“What are you doing?!” a now familiar voice bellowed from behind Gohan. This caught Gohan’s attention, causing him to look back at the Saiyan, who was still laying on the floor. “You’re a sitting duck! Get out of there now!” but before he could even process any thoughts a blast of energy exploded into the ground directly at his feet, sending him flying backwards, where his face bounced off of a pile of broken rubble.
His eyes blurred but almost instantly began to return to normal, or at least it seemed like it was relatively instant. He hoped he hadn’t slipped unconscious again; was there a worse way to look weak in front of his men? He could hear the muffled shockwaves from nearby explosions, which meant that the battle was still raging. …Good…I couldn’t have been out for too long… it was a reassuring thought. Suddenly he felt a slight weight against his right shoulder as someone grabbed it, the drowned out sound of someone’s voice as they spoke to him.
“Gohan! Are you ok?!” it took Gohan a few seconds to clear his head enough to realise where he was and what had happened, let alone who the voice belonged to. It was the Saiyan he had spoken to on the way here, the one who had passed on his orders. “God damn it man, get up!” Shaking his head to clear the grogginess, Gohan quickly pushed his body up off of the floor with a grunt and got to his feet, in a crouched position, as he looked to his comrade. He had rushed across the battlefield from his previous position to get to Gohan; the hybrid didn’t forget such things. “You’re ok, good; there’s a battle to be fought.” his voice was emotionless.
His face felt numb in places, though the pain throbbing through his head was undeniable; it felt as if his skull was emphasising the pulsation. He had to ignore it though. What was a little pain when his life, and the lives of the men around him were on the line? “You’re right.” His mind back on his orders, Gohan turned and peaked over the wall to look in the direction he knew the enemy forces to be. The Tuffles were advancing on the Saiyans!
Who do they think they are?! Gohan felt anger explode throughout his body as his fists clenched. Spinning to glance back at his soldiers Gohan opened his mouth and bellowed his first order of the battle. “Charge the cowards! Slaughter them all!” The Saiyans raised their hands and cheered at the command, more than happy to oblige Gohan’s order. The young hybrid also raised his clenched fist into the air before turning on his heel and charging towards the advancing Tuffle squadron, a battle cry roaring from Gohan’s mouth.
As Gohan began to charge, the group of Saiyan soldiers following suit behind him, he noted that the Tuffles at the front of their charge seemed to falter, at least in their expressions. They were worried. So they should be. He thought darkly. When the two forces finally reached each other the real battle would no doubt began. However, the Tuffles did not wait that long. The Tuffles raised their arms out ahead of them and began firing blast of energy towards the Saiyans, from what Gohan could now see were wrist blasters; he found that most intriguing, but it was something he would consider at a later time.
Suddenly, as the enemy forces were closing in, almost all of them on the front few rows, which were the only ones clearly visible to Gohan, appeared to reach down to their sides and unattached something. Moments later those “something’s” extended in a snap and their points began to glow ominously, much in the same manner Ki did. They were preparing for combat at close-quarters. I never expected them to attack head on like this, not with what I’ve heard of Tuffles. Gohan thought, though almost as soon as he had his attention was brought rushing back to his surroundings as one of the spears rushed through the air towards the Saiyans.
It only took Gohan a single glance to notice that it wasn’t heading directly towards him, though with blasters still shooting towards him and his men a glance was all he could spare. Moments later it hit its mark; a young looking Saiyan warrior about three people to Gohan’s right, who took the spear in the centre of his chest. The force of the attack hadn’t been overly strong, after all the Tuffles weren’t a race known for their physical prowess, but its momentum combined with the Saiyan running towards it created enough force for it to break through his chest armour, burry into his chest and take him up off of his feet before he finally hit the floor.
The tips must be armour penetrating! it was a logical theory considering everything, which oddly enough caused a wave of calm to envelope Gohan; wearing his now tattered Saiyaman outfit, which included no armour at all, now seemed inconsequential. Whether he was hit with or without armour, there would be little difference. He did not know if it was the loss of a warrior or the knowledge of the enemy weapons, but as he neared the first row of enemies his lust for battle swept through him like a tsunami and whether he lived or died no longer mattered.
What does it matter anyway? I lost her…
The level of calm this realisation gave him was unlike anything he had ever felt. Not caring for his own life, his own wellbeing, it granted him access to attempt things he would never have dreamed doing in a battle before now, purely out of worry for his personal safety. He no longer had to defend against potential attacks, he could simply push forward and go on an all-out attack. As it should be for a Saiyan Warrior. a quiet voice whispered from the depths of his mind.
Gohan focused on the enemies he was charging towards, who he was now almost upon, and he screwed his face into one of anger, to make it that much more intimidating. This close it was clear that the Tuffles were far less pronounced in terms of height and a physical standing, so he no doubt looked intimidating enough to them. With a metre or so to go before the two forces reached each other, the Tuffles planted themselves on the spot and the first row extended their spears out ahead of them, clearly hoping to impale the approaching Saiyans.
At the last possible moment, when it appeared Gohan would run himself through with the spear held out in front of him, he span his body to the side, narrowly avoiding the spears tip, and darted along its length towards the now surprised Tuffle holding it. It nothing more than extended his left arm outward, slamming his forearm into the neck of the Tuffle, to put him out of commission. The battle had begun…
It had been a somewhat short battle, lasting no more than an hour in truth, which was considerably shorter than the battle that he, his King, Trunks and Nira had all been involved with on planet Galbrax. However, despite it’s short length, in the end the Tuffles had found themselves extremely out of their depth when it had come to close quarter combat with their superiorly strengthened opponents. Many Tuffles had died, though even now, as the body count was coming in, it was becoming clear that even a few Saiyan warriors had met their end in this battle too. Despite this, not all of the enemy had been destroyed, a handful of remaining Tuffle troops in the process of fleeing the battle area before they could be dealt with.
“Let them go!” Gohan shouted to the men who appeared to be giving chase after the Tuffles. The small group of Saiyan’s stopped immediately, their faces full of disbelief as they turned to face Gohan.
“We should finish them all right now! Before they can regroup and attack again!” one instantly replied, raising a clenched fist threateningly.
“Wasn’t it you who ordered us to slaughter them all!?” he had a fair point, Gohan had indeed given precisely that order.
“Let them go,” he repeated, in a far sterner tone of voice this time. “Let them tell their friends and comrades of the Saiyan victory today, and let it strike fear in their hearts!” it was not in mercy that he had let them go, at least not entirely.
With the battle finally over Gohan stood tall and took a deep breath, relaxing his body. It was only now that he felt the trickle a warm substance trailing down his left cheek. Reaching up to his face he ran his fingertips across his forehead and down his cheek, pulling it away to glance at what it was; it was blood. So he’d been injured? Like when he hit his head against the rocks. He had to be more careful, especially if he had lost his powers again.
He couldn’t help but consider what had happened throughout the battle, and now that it was over and he was actively thinking about it he realised he was remembering things that until a moment ago had seemingly been lost in the midst of battle adrenaline and rage. The Saiyans should have made quick and easy work of the Tuffles if everything Gohan had heard and read about them was true, but when it had come down to it the Tuffles had proved far more of a challenge than expected; if the others weren’t still so caught up in their own Saiyan natures they might have been able to see this too.
Though what was the cause of this? Was it linked to the event that had brought him here? Perhaps it was even linked to him being considerably weaker? Either way, whatever was effecting him seemed to also be effecting every other person he had seen. This, coupled with the fact that the Tuffles seemed to have been brought back to life in a much fuller force than they had been previously, meant that they were potentially a threat that the Saiyans could not ignore; nevertheless, Gohan had no doubt in his mind that they would do just that.
“Send a messenger to the King - tell him of our victory, tell him that his city is Tuffle free!” there was another cheer from the Saiyan soldiers at the sound of their victory; it was a joy that Gohan could also relate to. Winning such a life or death situation seemed to bring out an almost primal elation from within him, though he knew just ten years ago the thought of such a thing would have disgusted him; he had come a long way since then. However, his task was not yet fully complete.
“I want the rest of you to split into two teams,” he quickly continued, his voice bellowing out across the partially destroyed area of the city. “Team One will search the surrounding areas of the city in a spiral pattern for any Tuffle forces who have decided to remain unwelcome quests.”
“What do we do when we find them?” a Saiyan called out to him. He seemed positive that they would find more Tuffles, though perhaps it was simply wishful thinking.
“Capture them, alive. We’ll take them before the King for questioning,” a short laugh escaped his lips as he shook his head and sighed. “Feel free to have some fun with them first though, just try to keep them in one piece; ok?” the Saiyans cheered once again, his order clearly going down well with the troops; he had assumed it would do. “Team Two, I want a detailed report on the damage to this area of the city. Leave no detail, no matter how small. If there’s another Tuffle attack I want this area of the city to be as fortified as any other!” team two seemed far less excited about their task, but even they knew it was needed.
Raising his arm high into the air, his fist clenched, Gohan grabbed all of the soldiers attention before he continued. “For the glory of Empire!” with that he brought his fist down and placed it across the left breast of his chest, in the official Saiyan salute. In complete sync all of the soldiers in front of him mimicked his movements and repeated what he had said, before breaking off into their two teams and instantly going about their orders. Once again Gohan was left on his own with enough time to allow his thoughts to wonder back to his situation, something that the other Saiyans were clearly overlooking, though Gohan could not; there was something terribly wrong, and not just with him.
Glancing over the area of battle Gohan looked for the Saiyan who he had spoken to earlier, the one who had originally given him his orders and who Gohan had saved in return. The soldiers were dispersing by this point, which made it easier for Gohan to spot him amongst the crowd. Thankfully it was only ten or so seconds before the Saiyan caught Gohan’s eyes and with a gestured nod of the head, the Saiyan knew to make his way towards Gohan, which he did without a moments hesitation. When he had finally reached Gohan, who was still standing above everyone else on the remains of a wall, he joined the hybrid upon it and simply waited in silence. Finally Gohan spoke.
“I see you survived the battle.” he realised that the Saiyan had waited in silence because he didn’t wish to address his superior, which showed he was a man who liked to follow rules, or at least honoured them; it was an incite into his character that Gohan was looking for.
“It would seem that way.” the Saiyan simply replied, his voice as emotionless as it had been every time that Gohan had spoken to him. However, after a slight pause he spoke again. “Did you expect the result to be different?” Gohan glanced back over his shoulder at the Saiyan.
“No, I didn’t.” he admitted with a slight chuckle, returning his gaze back to the rest of the Saiyans moving about below him. “In fact I was hoping that you’d survive.” he continued.
“And why is that?” he asked, somewhat casually; this conversation had continued on quite an informal path, and so it didn’t surprise Gohan that the Saiyan was taking it as such. Turning around Gohan ignored the question and instead regarded his comrade.
“You held yourself well out there. With honour; a somewhat rare trait, even within an honour people such as ours.” Gohan laughed. “Though I guess they’re only half my people. I assume you’d heard as much, right?”
The Saiyan slowly nodded. “I did.” was his simple and short response.
“Yet this doesn’t bother you?” Gohan raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.
“Why would it?”
“Because I’m a half-breed.” He almost
The Saiyan let out a short and sharp laugh at this. “A half-breed who has proven himself to be one of the strongest our Empire has, on countless occasions.” With that he looked directly at Gohan.
“I see.” The young hybrid couldn’t deny that he liked this Saiyan. He had a good head on his shoulder, a rational sense of thought that wasn’t usually found in the general Saiyan population. Extending a hand out towards the Saiyan Gohan smirked. “Name’s Gohan, though of course, you already know that.”
The Saiyan looked down at the hand for a few moment, as if the concept was almost alien to him, though eventually he looked back up at Gohan and extended his own hand, taking Gohan’s in his and shaking it; his grip was equally as tight and firm as Gohan’s was. “Kabbar.” he said somewhat abruptly, though far from harshly.
“A pleasure.” Gohan responded, earning a nod of the head and a grunt from Kabbar. Gohan released his grip, as did Kabbar, the two regarding each other once more. “Despite sending word to him, I will need to speak to the King as soon as I’m positive that we’ve cleared up the issues here.” Gohan began, somewhat stating the obvious. “I want you to come with me.” he suddenly stated. This actually managed to surprise Kabbar.
“But why?” he asked, somewhat cautiously. “I’m just a grunt.”
“You were the one who got the order to me, he’ll want to know that, and seeing as you held yourself like a true Saiyan Warrior throughout the battle, when others fell, he’d be honoured to have you attend my meeting with him.” it was a half truth, though Gohan had something else in mind for why he wanted Kabbar to come with him. Kabbar would no doubt have to leave while Gohan and the King discussed some of the more sensitive issues, like while he and Gohan was here at all, but in general Gohan was quite excited by the concept of his idea.
“Is this an order?” Kabbar finally said, his voice once again somewhat emotionless.
This concerned Gohan. “Kabbar, I’m only your superior for this battle.” Gohan reminded him.
“Nevertheless, until everything is completed you are my superior officer.” Kabbar stated calmly.
“Will I have to make it an order?” he asked, somewhat sternly.
Kabbar considered Gohan for the briefest of moments before shaking his head. “Who am I to refuse such an offer?” the question was rhetorical, but nevertheless it meant that he would be accompanying Gohan as the hybrid wished.
“Excellent!” Gohan grinned widely at him, which even caused the somewhat cold Kabbar to allow the slightest of grins in return. “In the meantime, why don’t you join the second group and search the immediate area for any Tuffle remnants. I’ll send for you when I’m ready to leave.”
Kabbar straightened and pressed the underside of his right clenched fist against the breastplate of his armour, across his chest, as he bowed his head ever so slightly; the traditional Saiyan greeting, slightly altered for superiors within the army. “Yes sir.” and with that he turned on his heel and moved back down towards the two groups of Saiyans down in the area the battle had taken place in.
Just like that Gohan was once again left on his own, with nothing to keep him company but the thoughts that he had been trying to avoid. His adrenaline from the battle had subsided by this point, allowing his thoughts and feelings to slowly return to the forefront of his mind. It was certainly something that he could no longer ignore, he didn’t have the luxury to pretend it wasn’t an issue.
He needed to speak to King Vegeta, see what exactly he remembered, seek his guidance. There was a very good chance that Gohan was imagining all of this, that he was going crazy. It worried him. The only solace Gohan could take from all of this was that if he had indeed never gone back to Earth it meant that everything he had done on the planet hadn’t happened to, which meant that he hadn’t failed to save Videl from Legion; his wife was potentially alive!
It was a long shot, in all fairness, and even he knew that. Was it just him clinging to hope? Either way something was either terribly wrong with the universe and his wife was still dead, or he was insane and clinging to the hope that she was alive…he wasn’t sure which was worse…
7,029.
