Chapter 1: Prologue Chapter 1
Chapter Text
July 5th, 1996.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first semi-final of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai!" The announcer yelled to the crowd which was going wild and was simply growing and growing. He smirked, there hasn't been this much attention to the Budokai since the 70's, and that was only a big crowd, now there was camera coverage and millions were watching from all over the world. These fighters were incredible, the preliminary rounds were hectic but he knew this wasn't just some tournament, this was like nothing nobody had ever seen before and the viewers swelled and swelled with every match.
Of course he recognized some of the fighters who had fought and beaten the demon king last year, an event which delayed the Budokai for a year. Now it appears these fighters have come back with a vengeance to prove themselves.
The announcer had been worried before the tournament when old, regular fighters like Nam and King Chappa didn't sign up, but these new fighters were much better, more popular and just plain good television. He didn't worry anymore after the first elimination round fight he saw where the young martial artist Yamcha quickly a deftly defeated the mutant assassin Psylocke in the first minute of the fight. The crowd had been going nuts ever since. And now the last 3 fights are going to be surely something to watch.
"Our first fighter of today is a crowd favorite, weighing in at 79 kilograms, standing 5 foot 10 inches and hailing from Zhengzhou, China. He is a world-renowned martial artist and member of the world-famous protectors! Here is "deadly hands of kung fu" Shang-Chi!" The announcer thought it impossible but the crowd cheered even harder as Shang-Chi came onto the arena floor. He quickly bowed to all four sides and then took his place on his side of the elevated battlefield. He was well-rested since yesterday after his tough fight against Hawkeye of the Avengers.
"Alright and now for his opponent. This young man has become quite the crowd-pleaser with his demeanor and utter skills. Weighing in at 62 kilograms, standing 5 foot 3 inches and hailing from mount Paozu Japan, he is the youngest contestant and famous for fighting alongside the Avengers and X-men during the King Piccolo crisis! Here is Son Goku!" And again the crowd went nuts as the young martial artist in his already signature orange jumpsuit and of course brown tail came onto the arena floor. He quickly bowed to the crowd and Shang-Chi and took his position.
The announcer noticed from the first fight that on his jumpsuit it no longer said "Kamesennin" but "Kami-Sama" so it appeared Son Goku had switched martial arts schools or had become religious. Anyway whatever he was doing, Goku had become significantly stronger since the last tournament.
Pride and UFC can eat their heart out, no contest is going to rival this one, mostly because they don't allow mutants and because they have way too many rules. Only rules here were no poking in the eyes, hair pulling or below the belt shots. Next to that besides submission and unconsciousness a ringout was also a way to win, something the other 2 contests lacked and was preferred over submission by these fighters, who catapulted or blasted each other out of the ring like what happened to the villain Taskmaster against Goku in the quarter-finals yesterday.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen with the fighters on their position it is time for this match to begin!" The announcer exclaimed. Both got into fighting stances, Shang-Chi into a Black Tiger Claw stance and Goku into the classic Kamesennin stance. The gong rang and they both dashed at each other. They went so fast it was impossible to see all their moves. Luckily they had high-speed cameras capturing all the action. To the crowd the missed moves weren't a bother, they were cheering and wooing as the 2 martial artists moved all across the platform. As they hit each other, sounds like thunderclaps were heard. It also seemed as if the wind had picked up a bit whilst they were fighting. Like in the last 3 fights the floor took a tremendous beating. The announcer had to take a few steps back to dodge some debris. They are going to need even higher quality concrete in the future.
This guy's body is amazingly reactionary. Goku thought to himself. He had seen Shang-Chi fight before but actually fighting him was a totally exhilarating experience. He must have been trained by Korin, it couldn't be anything else. He wasn't just fast, strong and agile, his reflexes were superhuman, his accuracy deadly and he didn't seem to feel pain which put Goku at a disadvantage as that was a trick he hadn't learned yet. He hadn't seen him use KI blasts though and wondered if he could. Time to put it to the test. Goku took a distance.
"Kamehameha!" He screamed and the wave shot towards Shang-Chi who reacted by whirling his arms like a tornado as the wave got closer, he did it in such a way that the wind around the KI wave caught it and now he could control its direction. He spun around, the wave following and then directed the wave back at Goku who was stunned for a moment. Goku managed to point the wave upwards just in time though before being struck. He looked bewildered at Shang-Chi who smiled.
"I had been waiting to see that. Very impressive. I now understand what school you belonged to, although I can sense additional training. I never imagined the turtle hermit still recruited students. One of the original, still in existence. Extraordinary." He said. Goku realized this guy knew more than he had thought. If he knows about the Turtle hermit he must know about the crane school as well and what else? Yeah, he definitely trained with Korin. That he knew Kung Fu was easy enough, practically everyone at the tournament knew some kind of Kung Fu but none had actual knowledge of where it came from, Mutaito. None were able to harness and control KI as the old students of Mutaito did. The schools of the now official Shaolin Kung Fu which didn't include the secret Turtle and Crane schools were all that was left of the old Kung Fu, Dragon, Snake, Tiger, Leopard, and Eagle. But weaker derivations of the original schools, now totally forgotten, almost no KI training involved those schools. Only a few people knew of the 2 old schools, and Master Roshi said there was also a third.
"How do you not seem to feel pain?" Goku asked bluntly. Shang-Chi just laughed.
"Trick of the arts my friend. How do you shoot KI blasts?" He asked back.
"Trick of the arts." Goku said. Shang-Chi smirked.
"I hope we learn a lot from each other. Shall we?" He replied and took a Shequan(snake fist) fighting stance. Goku took the casual Kamesennin stance but then decided to switch to a more basic karate stance, showing he had mastered several martial arts besides Kamesennin and modern Kung Fu. Shang-Chi only smiled slightly as he attacked.
"I can't wait to beat you and meet your friend, Tien, in the finals. He is from the old Crane school is he not? Yes, he too can perform some very amazing KI tricks. I just have to fight him." Shang-Chi was talking as they sparred. They were still warming up their muscles.
"I suppose you have also heard about the 3rd school that survived?" Goku decided to ask to throw him off. But he didn't seem to waver from that question.
"Oh, I have already found that one." He said. That threw Goku off his game. Shang-Chi, with some deft moves, managed to overwhelm Goku's defense and tried to hurl him off the platform. That was a serious attempt to knock him off and it would have worked if Goku didn't manage to keep his footing. Time to get serious. Goku upped his speed and the power behind his moves, Shang-Chi seemed to be able to keep up. But slowly and surely Goku noticed his ability to increase was far superior to Shang-Chi's abilities, his training with Kami had paid off. Goku went to the next level as soon as he noticed Shang-Chi was at his limit. Now it wasn't a matter of technique anymore, but sheer power. Shang-Chi tried everything he could to block the powerful punches and avoid the lightning-fast hooks and kicks. Goku could read the worry on his face, he wouldn't be fighting Tien in the finals, Goku will. In a sort of understanding moment, Shang-Chi looked Goku right in the eye as he blocked the final punches, Goku feeling Shang-Chi's muscle strain under the blows, it was just too much for him. He seemed to smile and give a slight nod before Goku's punches broke through his defenses and with a mighty blow to the chest Shang-Chi was knocked off the platform onto the grass.
"And that is a knock-out ladies and gentlemen. Son Goku is the winner!" The announcer said, the crowd went wild. As soon as he heard that Goku jumped off the platform and held out his hand to Shang-Chi who was still on the floor. He looked up at him and grabbed his hand.
"You are a serious competitor Goku. I didn't realize you had improved so much, I had watched you fight before, but to improve so much in such little time, truly impressive." Shang-Chi said.
"Thanks, you are not so bad yourself." Goku said.
"Yeah, I now know a lot more of what to do and where I stand. Thank you for that. I had hoped to fight the leader of the Crane school but unfortunately I underestimated you, I would have probably done the same with him." He said as they walked back up the platform still holding hands. There Goku was declared the winner and they walked back behind the screen.
"And now ladies and gentlemen the second semi-final bout." The announcer yelled standing in the middle of the platform.
"Our first fighter is a newcomer to this tournament. He is the leader of the Crane School of martial arts, one of the oldest and most mysterious martial arts schools in the world. Standing 6 foot and 2 inches and weighing 75 kilograms, he hails from the empire of Mifan where the Crane school has been set up. Here is Tien Shinhan!" The bald, three-eyed Tien came onto the platform, always a bit blushing for the attention he was given.
"And now for his opponent. He is known as a member of the famous X-men said to be over 100 years old and known for his mighty adamantium claws and uncensored attitude. Standing 5 foot 3 and weighing an impressive 135 kilograms, he hails from Alberta, Canada. Here is the Wolverine!" As he came on the announcer noticed he had switched outfits. In the preliminaries, he wore simple jeans and a sleeveless white shirt showing off his hirsute physique but right now he wore his distinctive blue and yellow fatigues, but lacking the X-men symbol on his belt. Time to get serious he supposed. They took position opposite each other.
"So, I heard you trained under Roshi." Tien said. Wolverine sniggered.
"Yeah, didn't take long though. I don't like being ordered to carry milk and boulders around and not allowed to smoke whilst doing it. Took about 15 minutes in all. Better this way, training on my own." He said.
"Yes, you have improved your martial arts quite a bit. I can feel your powerlevel has risen." Tien said.
"Can't really manipulate KI yet though." Wolverine said whilst taking a fighting stance.
"And that shall be your undoing." Tien said taking a similar stance.
"Fight!" the announcer exclaimed and the 2 went at each other like mad dogs. Their attitudes were clearly different from Goku and Shang-Chi's. They seemed truly out to hurt each other. As it went on Goku was watching on the sidelines, he was really interested to know how much Tien had improved and from the looks of it quite a lot. Too bad Wolverine wasn't an opponent that could put Tien at his limits. Wolverine's speed and strength had doubled, at least. He had refined his techniques, worked heavily on his temperament and awareness. Of course, his mutant abilities helped him a lot too, his body was even more resilient than Goku's and his adamantium skeleton made his blows land hard. But what Goku noticed the most was how much of the different styles and schools of fighting he had adopted and added to his repertoire.
It was pretty obvious who was going to win. Wolverine did his best, his stamina and reflexes helped him a great deal but he wasn't anywhere near the commitment, the talent nor the willpower of Tienshinhan. Goku just stopped looking. A few minutes later the announcer proclaimed Tien the winner by knock off. The 2 fighters went off the stage and back inside where Goku and his friends were waiting. Wolverine was spent, he was sweating heavily and panting, something Goku has never seen him do. He recovered quickly though. Tien on the other hand still looked fresh, just like Goku did.
"So, it is you and me in the finals." Goku said with a grin. Tien smiled back and nodded.
"I had imagined lasting a lot longer. Maybe I should have used my claws after all." Wolverine said as he shook Tien's hand. "Felt like all this training was for nothing." He continued. Tien shook his head slowly.
"You were my best opponent so far. You have definitely made huge leaps and I am happily surprised by that. I have to ask you to come join our school, you can become even better, perhaps one of the best." But Wolverine shook his head.
"Not my thing I'm afraid. But thanks for asking. I'll stick around for the finals, very curious about that." He said and walked off. Bulma came into the building.
"Hé wait up, Wolverine. Guys, I made a new invention. I was hoping to test it out of you guys." She said and she took something out of her pocket. It looked like a simple microphone but when she clicked on it, it unfolded into a monocle. She put it on her head, wrapped around 1 ear and covering her eyes with red glass.
"I call it an energy reader. Here, watch." She pushed a button on the side as she was facing Wolverine who had stopped to listen to what she wanted to show. Numbers appeared in the red glass, too small for the others to see what it read.
"Let's see now if I got the calibrations correct. I put an average human at 1 on all categories. You Wolverine, you are reading as 4 on strength, wow. That's pretty high. Let's see, 2 on speed, 4 on durability and 1 on energy projection. Hm, I think that is about right I suppose. Well, it is still calibrating I think. Let's try someone else." She moved over to look at Goku.
"Wait, you can tell someone's fighting stats with that thing? Amazing!" Goku said and took a fighting stance as Bulma pushed the button.
"Well, it calculates the power emanating from a person and it reads muscle density, vitals and cell structures to figure out the reflexes and toughness a person has. Wasn't easy to make I can tell you. Alright, your strength is at 4 as well. Your speed is 3, durability 4. Hm, curious. And your energy projection is at 3, wow. According to this Wolverine doesn't stand a chance. No offense though." She said. Wolverine shrugged and turned around, probably now more than ever wanting to train and get better.
"I'm getting something to eat. Catch you guys later." Wolverine said as he walked away. Bulma moved over to Krillin.
"Strength 4, speed 3, durability only 2 and energy projection at 3. So you 2 are pretty close. He stands a better chance already. Alright, now Tien." She moved over. Krillin was smiling from ear to ear.
"Strength 4, speed 3, durability 3 and Energy projection at 4. Wow, you guys are really something else. You know I calibrated it so that each point is about 10 times worth. So your energy projection is 10 times that of Goku's at least, but his durability is much higher. I wonder why that is though. Goku you got an idea?" She asked. Goku shrugged.
"My body has always been tough. I can stand a lot of damage and I always come out of it better than before. Never known why, I'm not a mutant though, Prof X has tested me."
"My enhanced durability is probably because of my mutant powers." Tien said. "And my energy projection from my training with KI. What is the maximum reading?" He asked further.
"Well I put the max at 6, but that's kept separate for people like Thor who probably has energy projection and durability at 6. God, what I wouldn't give to get his reading, then I'll know if my calibrations are correct. Are any Avengers here?" She asked but when they said Hawkeye had already left Bulma looked sad. Hawkeye as an ordinary human with high levels of training and experience, she had wanted to see those readings very much,
"No other X-men have shown up either, again." Yamcha said. His readings were identical to Krillin's.
"The Fantastic Four are here though." Goku said.
"They are still the Fantastic Three." Bulma corrected him. "Ben Grimm still hasn't returned from Korins. I heard they had their eyes on a new member whilst he is gone." She then intentionally stared at Yamcha who blushed.
"Yeah, still haven't decided yet." He said.
"Man, if they would ask me to join their team I would say yes in a heartbeat." Krillin said. Yamcha shrugged, he had been more relaxing lately, watching Goku and Tien go further and further, Goku thought eventually he will just give up trying to match.
"Well, I'm going to eat too, the finals are just 2 hours away and I'm starving. Anyone care to join?" Goku said, the others nodded.
"You ate not an hour ago..." Krillin mumbled as they went towards the restaurant.
Chapter 2: Prologue 2
Chapter Text
"Alright ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for the final match of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai?" The announcer asked, the crowd went wild. The stadium was packed, more people than it could handle, but people paid top prices just to get inside.
"Excellent to hear. Time to call in our two finalists." The announcer hurried along as Goku and Tien came onto the platform, which had been fully repaired since the last 2 matches.
As they stood ready the others of the party had taken their VIP seats in the audience, at the front row. Wolverine, however, was still watching from behind the contestants' preparation area, still wearing his X-men costume but he had put the X-men symbol back in place.
"Alright, without further delay, let the match begin!" The announcer exclaimed and the gong was rung. But as soon as Goku and Tien were ready to go at it both sensed a disturbance in the air, it rushed from above the stadium and shot straight at the gong. A wild explosion was heard as the gong exploded and the 2 people standing next to it flung into the air and onto the platform with loud shrieks and a big thud. Goku, Tien and everyone else looked up. From the open roof of the stadium 5 figures came down, their appearances blocked from the strong sun behind them. 1 of them appeared to have wings whilst 3 others were on horses and a third, who was a lot bigger than the others, seemed to simply float down. Slowly color and shapes became more apparent. Wolverine came onto the platform immediately, he seemed to recognize them.
The big guy landed on the platform first, Goku only now saw how big he really was, bigger than Piccolo, 2 and a half meters at least. He slowly looked around with a strange, deformed face. He was wearing a blue and purple mechanical suit with hoses coming out of his elbows. He spoke with a loud, cracked, synthetic voice.
"I AM APOCALYPSE! BOW DOWN BEFORE ME!" He yelled, stretching his arm out, pointing at the audience first and then at Goku and Tien. The announcer had taken cover behind the screen. The 2 people flung onto the platform were unconscious. Goku felt strange energy coming from this big guy, dangerously high levels. He felt the same from the one with wings.
Then the other 4 came down, their horses appeared to be fake, mechanical machines. The one with wings had colors and appearances much like Apocalypse, it took a time for Goku to recognize him. Angel!
"THESE ARE MY HORSEMEN!" He started to introduce them.
"DEATH!" This was Angel, Warren Worthington III. But something was very wrong with him. His eyes were cold and dead, he was completely changed in appearance, his wings were metal, his face blue and strange energies were emanating from him. Goku didn't like it at all, the energies were powerful but artificial. What did they do with him?
"FAMINE!" An old man with a big white mustache and big bushy eyebrows stepped off the horse, he was about 1 meter 75. As soon as he was off it the horse collapsed in on itself and a puff of smoke turned it into a capsule. The capsule jumped into the man's pocket. For a moment Goku thought he'd seen that face before too. Then he noticed the symbol on the man's hat, the red ribbon army. Impossible, they had all been defeated. They were either dead or in jail, there couldn't have been an escapee. The man smirked whilst looking at Goku. He raised his hand slowly and Goku noticed on the inside of his palm he saw a red ball attached into it. The man pointed at Goku. So strange, Goku felt his energy was normal, a weak human being, nothing more.
"PESTILENCE!" This one was definitely a mutant. A woman about 1 meter 65. She had a green face, no pupils and red lips. Her hair was red. A green aura radiated from her, something like a gas that blurred her features. Typical mutant energy signature, but also some artificial enhancers.
"WAR!" He and Pestilence had also dismounted their horses which had disappeared as well. War seemed to be a stocky guy, maybe 1 meter 50. His eyes were cold and blank, almost unhuman, his face was reddish with a thin black mustache. He too wore a hat with the red ribbon army symbol on it, he had short black curly hair sticking out from underneath it. Goku couldn't sense anything from this guy, not even weak energy, just nothing at all. That scared him.
"War, calculate their powers." Famine said. War started bleeping and its eyes showed numbers. With a highly robotic voice it said:
"Power levels. Humans, 5 to 10. Insignificant, threat level: Low. Wolverine, 250, threat level: Average. Tien, 550. Shang-Chi, 450, threat level: High. Goku, 600, threat level: Critical" It said. That seemed to shock Famine.
"Impossible. How did they get so strong so fast? Last time I checked they weren't at half that strength." He grumbled. "Hm, very well. War, engage."
Wolverine reacted first. He took out his claws and went for Apocalypse. But War got to him, stepped in into his path and slammed Wolverine across the face. Wolverine flung backward off the platform onto the ground.
Soldiers came rushing in from behind the screen. They wore heavy armor and big assault rifles. They surrounded the platform but none went onto it. Goku looked at Tien who looked scared. Not of their enemy but for the lives of the soldiers and the people in the audience. As soon as the soldiers came in the audience panicked and started bolting for the exits. Some climbed over the barriers separating the tribune with the battle floor and made a run for it past the soldiers.
In the confusion, the horsemen scattered as well. Pestilence and Famine jumped off the platform and mingled around the fleeing audience and confused soldiers. War walked up to Tien and Goku whilst Angel took to the air.
"Protect the people, get those 2 out of there!" Tien said as he confronted War. Goku nodded and jumped off the platform. Wolverine picked the 2 unconscious men off the platform. Soldiers started firing their weapons into the air at Angel and Apocalypse. They were not harmed by any of the high caliber explosive bullets.
"Insects! Death, get rid of them." Apocalypse said. Angel closed his wings around him and then opened them wide quickly. A volley of small darts were launched from his wings, dozens of them at once. They hit a lot of the soldiers and some of the audience. Goku managed to deflect 2 as he stood in front of Pestilence who had a person by the arm. The man was terrified and struggling. He was moaning that it hurt and Goku could see the man's face starting to blister and he vomited. Pestilence stood dead still and simply smiled at Goku.
"Let him go! Fight me instead murderer!" He shouted. Pestilence let the man go, he was dead. Around her people had taken a distance, her green aura was very toxic it seemed. Goku didn't seem all that affected by it yet, he stepped closer. Pestilence stretched her arms out towards him. Her aura expanded through her hands and came at Goku who could now smell and feel its effects. He went on his knees, bowing down towards the ground, struggling with the invasion of his body. He felt nausea, a headache, his joints ached. He squeezed his eyes shut as they hurt, he felt a liquid coming out of his ears.
"Goku!" He heard, it seemed far away. He did hear a loud bang and the effect on him disappeared. He looked up and saw Tien had jumped down as well and had punches Pestilence away. She had scrambled back up though and jumped onto the tribune and behind a group of terrified people.
"We can't fight them with all those people around. We have to lure them away." Goku shouted.
"I agree." He heard from behind him, Krillin, Shang-Chi, and Yamcha had joined them now. Goku looked worried at Krillin and Yamcha. he appreciated they want to help and they had trained with Kami as well but they were on a much lower level than him and Pestilence nearly killed him just now, she would have surely killed any one of them.
"Yamcha, Krillin. I need you 2 to get the people out. Shang-Chi, we need to get them outside of the stadium. Find the Fantastic Four as well." They all nodded and did what they were told. Ever since King Piccolo both had never questioned Goku anymore, they were a more solid team now with Goku as the clear leader.
Goku overlooked the situation. Apocalypse and Angel were fighting Wolverine who was keeping them busy enough, already steering them away from the people. Pestilence as not in view, they had to clear the field of people first. Goku did spot Famine and War though, also attacking the civilians. Tien was confronting War whilst Famine managed to sneak past Tien and seemed to be randomly grabbing people by the arms until they collapsed. Gotta stop that monster. He looked at Shang-Chi and pointed a Famine. Shang-Chi nodded.
"What is he doing?" He asked.
"I don't know, but I can feel his powerlevel rising every time he grabs somebody." Goku said as they rushed over to him.
"Stop!" Goku yelled as yet another person crumbled in front of Famine's feet. As Goku looked closer he gasped in shock as he saw this person seemed nothing but flesh and bones, a dried-up corpse. Like he had sucked the life energy out of him.
"You maniac. You will pay for what you have done." Goku said. Famine simply smiled.
"You don't know who I am do you?" He asked.
"I recognize the red ribbon army symbol anywhere. Quickly, what is your affiliation with them?" Goku asked.
"It's simple, I was their leader. and you, you destroyed my army, my creations too. Made me hide away in a cave. Well, no more." He said and pointed at War.
"My latest creation, Android 12, will pulverize you and more of your kind. You mutants. You are filth, you don't deserve to live." He said.
"You work alongside mutants but you hate them?" Shang-Chi asked. Famine looked at Apocalypse and sniffed.
"Pffft, please. I simply use them to my advantage. Once we win I will dispatch of En Sabah Nur, that Morlock bitch and Warren Worthington. Then all the other mutants are next. But you first." He said.
"Well I hate to say this to you but neither of us are mutants." Shang-Chi said and attacked.
Famine didn't seem able to do much against their attacks. His powerlevel had not increased frighteningly high from absorbing energy from innocent civilians. His body was tough though, definitely something artificial about this guy even though he did register an energy signature, unlike the fully artificial robot Tien was still fighting.
Shang-Chi did notice Famine tried to grapple a lot, trying to grab hold of his arms or legs. The balls in his hand palms were obviously the way he stole energy so he avoided it as much as he could. Goku had figured out the same thing.
"Goku, can you handle this guy on your own? I'm going to help out Tien with War." He said. Goku nodded without being distracted too much. Goku had a good grasp on the situation it seemed so Shang-Chi moves onto Android 12.
When directly confronted Android 12 had hardly any weak points. Tien was having trouble breaking through its defenses. The point was it took too long, Pestilence was still on the lose hurting people, the evacuation of the stadium was still going on and Wolverine could only handle Apocalypse and Angel together for so long. Shang-Chi interfered to tip the balance. From the flank he chose his targets well. Against a robot kidney shots and throat shots didn't work. Instead, you had to hit the balance and joints. Shang-Chi went for the back of the knees and lower back. The metal was tough, well forged. Shang-Chi guessed its power supply must be fusion-based, but not fully effective. Once distracted and having to face 2 opponents that outmatched it the robot's ability to calculate and anticipate moves diminished until it hardly worked at all. That's all it did, it knew their moves. Tien blasted it with an energy beam sending it crashing backward against a wall. Its chest was smoking as it stood up again. Shang-Chi jumped up and planted a kick into his head, sending sparks flying from its neck. It staggered a moment but was still standing.
"No! Impossible!" Famine shouted. Goku looked at the staggering robot who seemed to go into overdrive. Lasers shot from its eyes which Goku had to dodge. The lasers burned the ground, cut through walls and the platform.
"Come here you!" Famine screamed and grabbed Goku by his arm with both hands. Goku felt his arm going numb, energy was being drained from it. The shock only lasted for a moment but Goku felt his energy plummet. He punched Famine in the face. He heard something crack, Famine's head was flung backward, blood flung into the air. Famine's head faced Goku again. A face with a broken nose and destroyed eye smiled at him. He struck him again. Again he heard damage being done, more blood, Famine made a gurgling sound. Goku struck his throat and Famine let him go. Goku dropped to his knees, panting heavily. He must have lost half his energy, he was only grabbed 3 seconds.
He heard a faint gurgling laugh as he looked up. Famine stood over him. His face was a big bloody mess, he missed one eye and his throat was heavily swollen and bruised, how was he breathing?
"Thank you, Goku." Goku heard him say, the identical robotic voice that War had, his throat was destroyed and Goku didn't understand how he was speaking.
"You are a robot?" Goku asked, breathing heavily.
"Your energy was very helpful. I'd like the rest of it now." He said a lunged at Goku but before he could touch him something cut his arm off at the wrist. It was Shang-Chi. From the bloody stump, Goku could see some kind of tubing, leaking some sort of liquid, like plasma. Famine yelled out in pain. Goku didn't understand, was he a robot or not?
"He's not a full robot. Goku. He is a cyborg." Shang-Chi said as he stood beside him holding his arm out. Goku took it and got up.
"He drained my energy." Goku said. "I need a senzu bean."
"We need to find Pestilence still, a lot of people are still in danger. War had been destroyed. Tien is helping Wolverine. We need to defeat Famine to start looking for Pestilence. Wolverine says the X-men are on their way." He said. Goku nodded. He had regained some oxygen again so he could move.
"Alright, I guess we have no choice. Delay as much as we can though, I need to get some energy back or we have no chance, his powers have tripled now." Goku said. Famine just recovered from having his arm severed, he looked furious.
"You, you freaks! You have destroyed my creation! Die!" He yelled and stretched out his good arm. From it he fired an energy ball straight at them. Shang-Chi jumped in front of Goku and caught it, straining against its force. Eventually, he managed to deflect it upwards where it exploded. Shang-Chi's body was shaking all over.
"Are you alright?" Goku asked.
"I think so. That was quite powerful." Shang-Chi said. Goku looked at Famine, he was trembling as well, holding the stump with his good hand.
"That cost him a lot of power. He can't replenish it, I can feel that. Once it's gone, it's gone." Goku said.
"I suppose that's because it is not his. His power is still high though." Shang-Chi said.
"Not as high as the 2 of us." Goku said as he stood up. He took a battle stance next to Shang-Chi. Shang-Chi took the same stance.
"Let's kill this monster." Shang-Chi said and they attacked. His powers were higher than their but missing 1 limb and his rage made him unable to hold it against the 2 martial artists. Feeling this coming Famine tried to take more and more distance. This gave him breathing space.
"Insolent brats. Mutants or not, you will pay for this. I have already gotten from the mutant scum what I need, the celestial technology will be very helpful." He said whilst going onto the tribune, taking a higher position and probably looking for an escape.
"Can't let him escape, can't have him let loose onto the world." Shang-Chi said. Goku nodded. "Move fast and silent." He said and they vanished. Famine was confused, where did they go?
If he had robot eyes like his Android he would have probably spotted them. They moved at a speed only people with trained eyes could follow. They managed to get close to him, took even more strength though. They only had 1 shot now or Famine would overpower them.
"Kamehameha!" Goku yelled on the flank of Famine who only managed to turn his head before the wave hit him. The wave wasn't strong enough to kill him but it knocked him off his feet and Shang-Chi was waiting on his other side and used the Varma Kalai technique to destroy nerves and blood vessels in his chest and neck in rapid movements. He didn't seem to have all these nerves and blood vessels anymore but some he could still destroy. Famine was stunned for a moment, couldn't move, couldn't speak. Then Shang-Chi charged up a KI attack with his fist and punched a hole through Famine's stomach. His body fell over the tribune down onto the ground. As Goku and Shang-Chi watched the body on the ground surrounded in a pool of blood they heard a yell behind them. They turned and saw a sight neither could believe. They saw the mutant Apocalypse standing 20 feet tall towering over the bodies of Tien and Wolverine whilst they saw Angel circling above. Shang-Chi and Goku rushed over, Apocalypse had picked up Tien's body. Luckily he was still alive.
Chapter 3: Prologue 3
Chapter Text
"Ah yes, the last of the Crane school. With that school gone, I have almost fully erased the legacy of Mutaito." Apocalypse said. Goku found that a curious remark.
"What do you know of Mutaito?" He yelled up towards Apocalypse as they stood near his gigantic feet.
"What? Ah yes, the Turtle school, excellent. Mutaito was like me, I met him millennia ago. If you knew what I know about him, child, you would not try to stop me. AAAHHH!" Apocalypse yelled as Shang-Chi had grabbed his foot and forced electricity through it with his KI. This caused him to let Tien go who woke up from the smash back on the ground.
"Insects!" Apocalypse screamed as he kicked at Shang-Chi who easily dodged the sluggish, big figure of Apocalypse. "You defeated 2 of my horsemen, no matter, they were gambles. All I need is the end of the disease that are these blasphemous schools. The destructive abilities they will possess, or possess already as I see you fight. It cannot be allowed to continue. You will destroy us all! Such powers are meant for the otherworld alone." Apocalypse's arm turned into a cannon and he fired energy blasts at Shang-Chi who dodged at his best.
"Kamehameha!" Goku shouted and the wave approached Apocalypse. Apocalypse caught it with his other hand though, visibly straining against it. He yelled in agony as the wave exploded in his palm. Goku jumped up and fired another Kamehameha wave with his last energy. This one caught the deranged mutant right in the face and he shrunk back down as he stumbled backward. Goku dropped down panting heavily, he couldn't stand anymore and his whole body felt like shutting down. Shang-Chi took over and stormed at Apocalypse. But then Angel came down and plowed Shang-Chi backward with a powerful hit. He stumbled and was able to keep standing but Angel made a somersault and hit him again. Shang-Chi was out for the count. Pestilence suddenly popped up onto the platform and grinned deviously.
"Kill them both." Apocalypse said to his horsemen. Angel swept back into the air and came down straight at Shang-Chi whilst Pestilence closed in on Goku. He felt sick just looking at her, the closer she got the more he felt it. He could hardly stand, let alone fight her.
"Stop!" Goku suddenly heard from above. A big red laser beam struck Angel in the side and busted up one of his wings and he came crashing down behind the stadium. Pestilence was lifted up by an invisible force and thrown off the platform into the screen separating the fighting stage with the fighters waiting room. Goku looked up and saw Iceman come sliding down from his own created ice ramp high in the air and he blasted a beam of ice at Apocalypse. Following him was Nightcrawler, teleporting short distances until he stood next to Goku and smiled.
"Gutentag." He said. Goku smiled back. Behind Nightcrawler came Jean and Scott. Scott put a hand on Goku's shoulder and helped him stand up.
"Mind if we take over from here?" He asked. Goku grunted a bit before answering.
"Sure. That sounds great." He said, giggling a bit.
"Alright, you did amazing, but this is our fight now. Kurt, get him out of here." Scott said. Nightcrawler went under Goku's arm to support him and they poofed away. They arrived in a grassy area close to a crowd of people press vans and cops. Bulma, Yamcha, and Krillin came rushing up to him.
"Goku! Is he okay?" Krillin yelled.
"Ja, he'll be fine. Still tough as a rock." Nightcrawler said. "He could use one of those senzu beans though. That'll help him." He said. Krillin took the bag he had on his belt and took out a senzu bean and gave it to the weak Goku. After swallowing Goku jumped up and stretched his legs. He felt his power had increased yet again. He was way stronger than Tienshinhan now.
"Where is the battle?" Goku asked, Nightcrawler smiled.
"We'll take over from here. We got a score to settle with Apocalypse and we need to get Angel back without harm. Don't worry, we won't forget what you did here, you and Shang-Chi and Tienshinhan. I'll get them out too." He said and teleported away.
"Goku?" Bulma was standing a bit away from Krillin and Goku. Goku went up to her.
"What is it?" He asked.
"That man you were fighting, the one with the big mustache. I recognized him. That was Dr. Gero. My dad and he met a few times a couple of years ago, said they were exchanging technology. He wanted to change the world he said, dad said he seemed kind of crazy so they broke contact. He didn't know he was part of the red ribbon army, if only we knew..." She said. Goku smiled and held her hand, he was almost as tall as she was now, but not quite there yet.
"Don't worry about it. How could he know? We didn't quite get rid of all of the red ribbon army it seems. We did meet robots at the base, Android 8 for example remember? This one he called number 12. I suppose he made quite a few over the times. He said something about obtaining celestial technology. Do you know anything about that?" He asked. She looked up with a frown.
"Well Apocalypse is using alien technology, we know that. The Capsule corps has never been able to obtain any of our own. We know the X-men use some in their mansion as well. I do know about Dr. Gero's research though. Robots mostly." She said. Goku shook his head.
"No, this wasn't just robots. Android 12 didn't have any kind of abilities that Android 8 didn't have. However, Dr. Gero had these holes in the palm of his hands. He sucked the energy right out of me. Know anything about that?" He asked.
"No, that's new for me. I haven't heard of any research like that at all. Are you saying Dr. Gero himself was an android?" She asked. Goku wondered about that.
"No robots don't have an energy signature, not even an erratic one like Apocalypse has. He had a regular powerlevel at first and then after sucking out my energy he had increased his own significantly." He said.
"Well, he must have some sort of cybernetic implants installed then, making him essentially a cyborg. What happened to him?" She asked. Goku looked up in surprise.
"Oh, I know. We defeated him and he fell off the stadium. Over there, let's go." He said and they went off to the spot Dr. Gero fell. Krillin and Yamcha followed.
Once they arrived though they found the spot to be empty, only a puddle of a mix of blood and oil remained.
"He escaped! We have to find him!" Goku exclaimed.
"He can't have gone far. He was nearly dead, he can't be walking around again, not after that kind of injuries. No way. His powerlevel had nearly dropped to zero so I can't detect him." Goku said.
"Well if he is some kind of cyborg there is a good chance he could stand a lot more injuries without dying. But he could be anywhere." Bulma said. Goku nodded. He hated this. Not only did they find out the red ribbon army isn't fully defeated yet but their supposed leader got away. He can only think that Dr. Gero will be planning his revenge with more robots. Well, if they were as good as Android 12 was Goku didn't fear it as much as he did Apocalypse or the rumored return of King Piccolo.
"I gotta go back into the fight. You guys with me?" Goku asked Krillin and Yamcha. They nodded.
"Good, we must find Shang-Chi, he hurt Apocalypse earlier. Come on, the X-men need our help." He said.
"Wait." He heard from behind them. It was Professor Xavier coming up in his floating electric wheelchair. Goku had never met him before but had seen him lots of times on TV.
"We have all underestimated you and your friends abilities, yet again, Goku." He continued as he approached them, they were all speechless, his presence had such an impact on people, no wonder people followed him and leaders of the world listened when he spoke.
"Such spirit, such energy. The courage. It fills my heart with hope. But you are going to have us take this fight further." He said as he reached out his hand to Goku who shook it still with big eyes and his mouth open, but he remembered to smile once he shook hands with the great Charles Xavier. The professor shook the hands of the others as well.
"I do wish to allow you an opportunity to join the X-men though." He then said, shocking all of them.
"Really?" Goku asked. Professor X nodded.
"Not just you, all of you." He said. "Certain things have been set in motion ever since you fought and defeated King Piccolo with Jean. She has managed to take control of the phoenix force inside her recently and it appears it has chosen to stay in her for a longer period, meaning there are still bigger things coming and King Piccolo wasn't the only threat we have to face."
"You mean someone like Apocalypse?" Yamcha asked. But the professor shook his head.
"No, I'm afraid someone even more dangerous than him. When Scott came back alive, which I haven't yet personally thanked all of you, so thank you, but ever since he has been back I have had this feeling, these visions of things to come. Hardships we must face. And I feel that any hardship we must face we can face much better together. I can promise you we have adequate training facilities that can bring your training to the next level. This KI that you have, I can feel it, like a force that links life. I wish to delve deeper into that myself. The danger room is currently being upgraded by Beast and the Capsule corporation increasing the level of difficulty substantially. The Capsule corporation was able to add a gravity machine. So what do you say?" Professor X stretched out his arms as if ready to embrace all of them. Goku looked at the others, Krillin and Yamcha shrugged.
"No thank you professor, but we have a very good training program already going which we will be returning to shortly, after the tournament if it will be concluded. We know how hard we must train now that you have warned us." Goku said. Yamcha stepped forward though.
"Actually, I think it is not such a bad idea to explore different training with different people. Count me in. Look, Goku, we are still a team and I'll come running if you need me but this is an opportunity of a lifetime. Even 1 of us in the X-men will be a great benefit for both sides don't you agree?" He said. Goku frowned for a bit from this surprising move by Yamcha but eventually smiled.
"Heck, you may be right. What about you Krillin?" Goku asked.
"I think 1 is enough, I agree with Yamcha that this can be beneficial. But I prefer to train at Kami's lookout. My team-up with other superheroes didn't work very well last time." He said. Professor Xavier nodded at him. Yamcha meanwhile walked over to the Professor and shook his hand.
"Good to have you with us Yamcha." He said.
"Thanks, I can't wait to test out the danger room. This is exciting." He said, he did look genuinely happy. Bulma had a storm cloud over her head though, realizing this will put their relationship on hold again.
"If I knew this would happen I would have never agreed to help upgrade the danger room and Cerebro. But, with the new technology the X-men have provided us our ability to compete with Stark Industries has risen again so I suppose I can't complain." She said.
"Hé, this reminds me of what Dr. Strange said about the consequences. So not Apocalypse showing up and trying to kill us but something else is coming as you say and we need to be prepared." Goku said. Professor X nodded.
Suddenly an explosion so big it shook all of them as the very ground they stood on seemed to wave. They all looked in awe as they saw Apocalypse growing even more in size a towering over everyone and everything. His arms swept something moving around his head away and the body of Iceman fell in front of the group talking to Professor X. The professor was able to catch Iceman before he hit the ground with his telekinesis.
"Bobby! What is happening?" The Professor asked. Iceman was still awake.
"Its Apocalypse, his powers are insane. I don't understand it, he is using some sort of new source, something celestial. He has upgraded his armor, his powers are through the roof." He said.
"The celestial technology? Dr. Gero was talking about that as well." Goku said.
"Really? I've worked with celestial technology before. Maybe I can access his suit. Hold on a second." Bulma said whilst she grabbed a capsule and brought a laptop into existence in front of them.
"Yeah, alright. Let's get to work people. We gotta keep Apocalypse busy whilst Bulma does her work." Goku said and went towards the huge figure of the crazed mutant. The X-men and others followed him.
"Do you think Dr. Gero upgraded his armor with some of his own technology?" Nightcrawler asked as he zapped Goku from one spot to the next trying to get closer and observing the surroundings in search of Pestilence.
"Could be. Bulma will figure it out, she'll have more info soon I hope. Look! There is Pestilence." He said, already dreading seeing her green aura. He had no defense against that.
"Gut, I'll get rid of her. You go for Apocalypse." Nightcrawler said. He dropped Goku off on the edge of the stadium, Apocalypse's towering appearance loomed over him, his shadow casting night over all of the stadium. Around him flew Angel, attacked by Bobby who got his act together, along with Rogue and Jean who seemed to be able to fly now. her new outfit caught Goku's eye, the phoenix inside her. He could still feel it, it was so powerful. Goku looked back at Apocalypse again. Alright, time to start harassing him like the rest. He fired a kamehameha wave. It hit his knee but he didn't seem to notice much.
"Goku!" he heard shouting from below. He looked and saw it was Shang-Chi. He jumped down. The martial artist looked pretty beat.
"My current on him doesn't work anymore. What happened?" He asked.
"Bulma is figuring it out, something to do with his armor. If we can take out the tech we can still beat him. Just keep him busy, that's all we can do. Have you see Tien?"
"I brought him to safety, he was out cold. He won't be helping us anymore." Shang-Chi said. Goku felt anger bursting up again. Apocalypse must be stopped. He powered up.
"Come on, give him all we got." He said to Shang-Chi who nodded. he powered up too. Still got some fight in him left. They jumped up together as high as they could, right up to Apocalypse's face. Goku shot another wave and Shang-Chi went in after it with a heel kick. But Shang-Chi was caught by Angel, followed by a really angry Rogue. She punched Angel and flung him down. Jean went after them along with Bobby.
"We got Angel, you keep Apocalypse busy." Jean said as they went on top of Angel trying to hold him down. Shang-Chi had recovered himself and had held on to Apocalypse's arm and had gotten up, no standing on that arm.
"MORE INSECTS!" Apocalypse creamed, his voice was so loud it hurt Goku's ears. Apocalypse punched his own arm to get Shang-Chi off but Shang-Chi just jumped onto his other arm and ran up towards the shoulder.
"Goku!" Goku suddenly heard in his head. "You remember our fight, fire the wave at me." He said, Goku understood what he was going to do. Go shot the wave at Shang-Chi as he got up the shoulder, Apocalypse didn't bother to push it away. Shang-Chi got control of the wave with his hands and directed it back at Apocalypse's face. it hit him right on his cheek as it exploded.
"AAAAHHH!" Apocalypse stumbled a moment. This gave Goku the chance to get Shang-Chi off him before he swatted him like a fly.
"Goku, Goku." He now heard through the earpiece he got. It was Bulma.
"I got it, I locked the system of his armor out, he won't be drawing power anymore from wherever it was coming from, he can only get weaker now." She said. Goku smiled.
"Great job Bulma, now we at least have a chance."He said before being hit by a punch from a fist as large as a house. He was flung into the stadium walls, all of it was abandoned by now, this place was like a warzone. Goku coughed up some blood as he felt the eerie presence of Pestilence again. She didn't talk, somehow that made it all eerier. Goku got up fast and kept his distance. He charged up a kamehameha wave. She stretched out her arms towards him, he blasted the wave at her at the same instant.
Now, the pestilent cloud coming from her wasn't KI, but it did have a mass about it and her mutant powers did affect the wave. But fortunately it wasn't enough and the cloud was broken as the wave passed through it and hit her squarely on the chest. She was flung backward. Goku immediately looked around for Nightcrawler, he might be in trouble.
Then something poofed behind him, he almost smelled the sulfur before he heard it.
"Danke Schön." Nightcrawler said. "I was having a lot more difficulties with her than I had thought." He said.
Now with Pestilence and Angel taken out, being dragged off to Professor X and put to sleep, they could all focus on Apocalypse and wear him down properly.
Shang-Chi was picked up behind some rubble, he was still able to stand. Yamcha, Krillin, and Iceman came up to them as well and they prepared for the final push. Luckily Tien was found as well, he was unconscious but alive, a senzu bean will clean him right up. The head of the crane school had certainly redeemed himself.
With his horsemen all taken out though, Apocalypse fled like usual.
All healed from a senzu bean or Bulma's healing powders they started saying their goodbyes. Yamcha went with the X-men as promised, whilst Shang-Chi joined Tienshinhan at the crane school to train. Goku was going to train again as well. The tournament has been canceled fully, probably wouldn't come back for a long time.
But that was not going to be what they were going to train for. No, they need to prepare for something even bigger. Perhaps the whole world needed to. Goku had gotten the idea to contact SHIELD, the Fantastic Four and Dr. Strange so they can make some serious plans. Goku felt excitement coming, he wondered how far he could push himself and if he could push beyond anything they had thought possible before. Training at Kami's lookout was certainly helping a lot but Goku wondered if that was enough, if there wasn't something more they could do. They needed to explore, learn, observe as much as they could and not just KI. Something that was on his mind lately were the other powers of the kosmos Korin was talking about, how do they compete with each other? Well, time will only tell. It might be years before anything will happen. But Goku felt changes coming, felt power rising somewhere on the planet, but also when he looked into the skies.
END OF PROLOGUE.
Chapter 4: Chapter 1
Notes:
This is the start of the main story.
Chapter Text
4 Years later. April, 2000.
Chapter 1
Goku got out of the taxi. From the back, the driver got a duffel bag and Goku slung it over his shoulder. He paid the man with a good tip and waved him goodbye with a smile. He turned around and looked at the entrance of the 24th Tenkaichi Budokai training grounds. His heart started pumping. He was so excited to be here. A little further inside of the gates he saw a familiar face he hadn't seen for 4 years.
"Bulma!" He yelled. She still had her distinctive purple hair although she had let it grow much longer now. She was wearing a white shirt and red jeans, the shirt had the capsule corp logo on it. She was head of the company now and their chief scientist after her father passed away. Goku thought she must be 24 by now. How fast the time went by. He didn't see anyone close to her, maybe she was still single, no kids? As he got closer Bulma frowned at him like she didn't recognize him.
"Wait, don't you recognize me? It's me, Goku." He said as he stood in front of her. Her eyes lit up and she jumped around his neck.
"Goku?! Oh my god, you have grown so much. You are a handsome young adult now. My god, look at you, you look so strong and fierce. I can't believe it. How long has it been, 4 years?" She asked. Goku giggled.
"Yeah, something like that. You are looking good as well Bulma. Head of the company now huh?" He asked, she blushed.
"Well, somebody has to do it, its hard keeping up with the competition. But cooperating with Stark Industries helps a lot, Tony is great as a partner... No, not that kind of partner though. I mean he is great and all but he's nearly 50. No, Tony and I have taken over all military contracts. Even the sentinels program." Just saying the name made Bulma shudder Goku noticed. He heard about the attacks on mutants by the sentinels. The X-men all kept it pretty contained though, with the help of Yamcha of course who was not targeted by the things. They were able to get the upper hand quickly and the perpetrators apprehended. There were some casualties though, Morlocks mostly.
"Did you hear Professor Xavier's speech at the UN?" She continued. Goku nodded.
"Of course, I heard the one he gave last year, warning everybody about the impending Armageddon. I hope he prepared the world enough for what's coming." He said.
"Well, what about you? I haven't seen you in 5 years Goku, anything happen? Some girl or anything?" She asked. Goku blushed.
"Well, yeah there was this one girl I did meet a couple of years ago. Chi-Chi. We had a son together." Goku said. Bulma fell over.
"You have a son? My oh my, Goku has a son. Well the time does fly, doesn't it? Gosh." She said, then hugged him and congratulated him. His name was Gohan, he was 3 years old now. and yes, he had a tail too.
"Hm, you know we had done some analysis on your blood once, remember? Wouldn't mind getting my hands on some of his. You know, if you ever wanna find out..." Bulma said but trailed off.
"Find out what?" Goku asked. Bulma wanted to continue, but his face showed it wasn't a bother to him, so she decided to drop it, for now.
"So, anyone else here yet?" He asked.
"Goku, the tournament isn't for another 2 weeks. Nobody has shown up yet." She said. Goku looked disappointed.
"2 weeks away? Oh, I thought I had that calendar figured out... Aw man, what am I going to do for 2 weeks in the city?" Goku asked looking around helplessly.
"Well, somebody is here." Bulma said. "But..." She hesitated.
"Great! Who is it?" He asked.
"Well, I'm not sure. He is hooded. First time I saw him though I thought I saw a glimpse of something familiar. But I'm afraid to say it. It can't be him." She said, she looked afraid.
"Well, where is he?" Goku asked. She pointed inside.
"He's been standing in a corner for 2 days now. Doesn't move, doesn't eat, doesn't sleep." She said. Goku looked frowning at the building. He nodded at her and went inside to find this mysterious stranger.
When he got inside he immediately felt a strange and familiar energy, but very faint. Something else too, fluctuating like magic. The stranger was standing where Bulma had said, he approached him.
When Goku got close the head covered in a hood moved, revealing a little bit of the face. A pointy nose, a nasty smile with sharp teeth. No, it can't be.
"Hello, Goku." A familiar voice said. Piccolo! Goku wanted to attack him, every muscle in his body wanted to lunge forward, but something held him on his place. How familiar the energy was, there were also differences. Goku held back.
"How did you survive?" He asked. Piccolo sniggered.
"I didn't, my father was killed." He said. Goku understood now. He was another offspring, an egg. Piccolo must have given all his strength and being into this offspring.
"What are you doing here?" He asked next.
"You and I have things to discuss. You, I and, my guardian sort of speak." Another dark figure came out of the shadows. He felt like a normal human being except he too had magical energies. Goku knew the outfit.
"Dr. Victor von Doom I presume? So you found the egg I suppose and raised him?" Goku said. Dr. Doom didn't laugh, or even smile, Goku saw no facial expressions beyond that mask of his, but he couldn't hide his energy or his emotions from Goku. He did try though.
"Piccolo didn't need raising. He needed guidance, understanding, sure, but he was never a child. We educated each other. Just as we are about to educate you." He said.
"Is this about the tournament?" Goku asked.
"No, Goku. This is about being an adult and about being a hero." Dr. Doom said. "You do know what's coming, don't you? You have felt it yes, Piccolo says anyone studying Chi can sense it, they have to." He continued.
"Yes, I know. What's it got to do with someone like you? Why do you care?" Goku asked.
"Oh, Goku. All grown up but still just a child, yes. You do not seem to comprehend the seriousness of what is coming, what is already underway, and closing in fast. It's inside the solar system already to be accurate. It's not much longer now. Not long at all. But you have to understand, this threat is the biggest since Galactus came here. Maybe, even bigger. Do you know what an alien is Goku?" Doom asked bluntly.
"You mean like an extraterrestrial?" He said.
"Yes, exactly that. Did you ever meet one?" Doom asked. Goku started to laugh.
"There are no such things Doctor. Don't believe those rumors you heard... Wait a minute, you are serious aren't you? That's what's coming?" Goku asked.
"My naive boy, they are already here. They have been here for decades now. Different types too, not much, a lot die or leave again, but they are amongst us. What is coming however, that is a whole different level on close encounters. We do not know much but what we can gather they are part of an interspecies alliance or pact and they have their eyes on this planet. They have had it for a long time." Doom continued, but not Piccolo intervened.
"Galactus was the first of this pact that was interested in this planet. We do not know for sure how it happened but he had laid claim to it, to Earth. But then Richards and his family put a stop to him and now his claim is forfeit, so there are now others and they are coming." He said.
"What others?" Goku asked. Piccolo leaned back against the wall.
"We don't know. But whatever they are, they are powerful. Anyway, this planet does not belong to them. We must stop them. I propose a truce." Piccolo said. Dr. Doom nodded.
"Yes, for once I cannot do this on my own, this threat is too great to handle by myself I'm afraid." He said.
"I agree because you have helped this planet so many times before. I will know you will uphold the truce." Goku said sarcastically.
"You have no choice child. I have saved this world more times than you know. I know things you couldn't even imagine. Now, we will leave because I have to make many more preparations." Doom said and took off. A few seconds later Piccolo moved away too. Goku smirked for a moment causing Piccolo to stop.
"I've noticed your power. You have quite a lot more power than your father ever had." He said to him. Piccolo turned around.
"He is not my actual father. He is me and I am him. Same for Kami. I am Piccolo. Of course, I have become more powerful. First, it was to fight you and your friends. But I have pushed myself beyond my limits to beat this threat, much more than anyone worth it. I feel you are powerful too, but you will never match me, not in your current state. A shame really, I had wished it to be at least a challenge to take over this planet once again." He said.
"I guess we will see how things are when this is over." Goku replied. Piccolo took off.
Goku headed further on towards the tournament ring. As he looked upon it he reflected on what Xavier had said and now these 2, they seemed afraid. Goku could feel nothing but excitement. As he got outside to stand on the platform he saw a sentinel looming over the ring, the last of its kind since the war against the mutants. He heard Yamcha had been a great asset for the X-men during the crisis since at first, they didn't target him. But he had earned their wrath eventually and he was one of the most wanted enemies of the Sentinels. Goku thought about joining them in fighting, but felt that they could handle it, he had to focus on training. Despite casualties, they were victorious in ways Goku still didn't understand. Last time he saw Yamcha he had improved so much Goku couldn't believe it. He wondered about the others.
"Bulma." Goku said as he came back to the front of the grounds.
"Goku, did you meet the mystery... What is it?" She asked seeing his worried look on his face.
"The tournament is canceled. I need you to get into contact with everybody, everybody. The time has come. We must come together to face this threat. Start with The Avengers. I'll go to the X-men. Get Krillin, The crane school, Fantastic Four, SHIELD. Everyone. You understand?" He said, he looked so determined and authoritarian. Bulma nodded.
"Alright, I knew this day was coming of course. I'll get some senzu beans as well. Who was that you talked to?" She asked. Goku told her what happened. She was shocked of course, by both Piccolo being alive and him wanting a truce. But she got to work regardless, she didn't much intervene in the decisions by the "superheroes".
Goku was able to quickly find Yamcha's energy signature, he could do that from across the planet. He thought about going there by plane but it would be a lot more useful to do it himself so he flew using KI.
He arrived at the X-men mansion in Salem, NY. Yamcha and the other X-men came outside to greet him, Yamcha felt him coming of course. Goku saw Wolverine was present as well, good, that will save time. The professor came after the usual welcoming committee of Bobby, Kurt, Jean, and of course Scott. Goku saw some new faces as well, kids that were picked up from everywhere, or dropped off here.
"Goku. So good to see you, I wish it was at different times." Professor X said as Goku shook his hand. Goku nodded slightly.
"So you have felt it too huh? Or were you warned?" He asked. The professor closed his eyes.
"It is close. My powers sometimes reach outside of this solar system, something is coming. Jean has felt it too. But I'm afraid the Phoenix force has been very absent of her lately. Whatever is coming, it seems to be fearful of it." He said. Goku looked surprised.
"What can make the phoenix force afraid? I mean isn't it supposed to be the oldest power, the strongest?" he asked.
"The Phoenix force represents all life in the galaxy, in the universe even. What is coming, represents only death. It might not be able to stand against it." He said.
"Then we'll help it. Yamcha, I have seen you have increased in power greatly, I am very excited to see how far you have gotten." Goku said. Yamcha smiled.
"Yeah, the X-men danger room helped a good deal. You should try it out." He said. Goku smiled.
"I might just do that." He said.
Once in the danger room, Goku was told the basics of how it functioned. It was recently upgraded by the capsule corps to include a gravity machine and robots based on the red ribbon army androids. Goku asked to have it put on max but the X-men were sure that would kill him, even with safety protocols initiated.
"Alright then, set it at whatever difficulty Yamcha had it on last time." He then said.
"If that is what you want Goku, you got it." Cyclops said through the comms. The empty room started to change. Walls moved, devices appeared on the ceiling and floor, 4 robots appeared from the ground, Goku recognized the eerie design, but these were more humanoid than the one the red ribbon army used. The lights then went off and smoke entered the room. That surprised Goku a little, he didn't think the room was capable of that much. When he took a step through gravity set in and it was now twice as heavy. Lastly, the heat turned up to about 20 degrees. It was hot.
"That all you got?" Goku asked jokingly. The devices started to move and Goku noticed the robots had disappeared from their original spot. Now it gets interesting he thought.
He couldn't sense them, nor the turrets around him. He could hear plenty though. He turned off his eyesight, focused on his sense of hearing and the small detailed vibrations in the air like he had done many times before and sure Yamcha used when fighting inside here. The smoke crippled his sense of smell, it stung his eyes.
There. Goku moved, went low to the ground, and made a sweeping motion with his leg. He touched metal, he then kicked as hard as he could. The robot was tough, but not as tough as Goku was who came closer and finished it off with an elbow. He sensed another jump out of the smoke, going high behind him. He whirled around to avoid it, fully focussing on its size in his memory, where its limbs were. It was fast, it fired cannons from its chest and guns protruding from its shoulders. Goku dodged, he sensed a wall closeby and followed it. Turrets up ahead, he heard the small clicks and rattles of mechanics inside them.
He fired KI blasts at them, taking out one after another. The robot chased him but he was faster. He ran up the wall, the robot didn't seem to be able to react to that properly as it jumped up past Goku and clamped itself on the wall above him. But Goku was as maneuverable on a wall as he was on the ground whilst the robot was at a disadvantage. Goku rushed it and spun around it, its limbs followed him but were unable to get a lock before Goku got close and grabbed the torso of the robot and lifted it up whilst still on the move.
Carrying the robot he spotted a third one and threw the robot he had in his grips at it. They smashed into pieces against each other. Meanwhile, Goku was skipping and jumping to avoid the turrets, half of them left now so it was easy enough. The last robot had silenced itself, gone into stealth mode. Unfortunately for it Goku was used to his senses now more and even the tiniest click or even its simple existence let Goku know where it was hiding and he fired a Kamehameha wave at it whilst still racing over the wall. The thing burst apart. Goku jumped down on the ground, the light came on and the smoke was sucked out of the room. Goku rubbed his eyes when he heard clapping from the control booth. He smiled. He didn't even have to wipe sweat from his brow.
"I think that is a new record." He heard Cyclops say. Yamcha didn't say a thing.
Chapter 5: Chapter 2
Chapter Text
Doctor Stephen Strange, sorcerer supreme, looked around his office. It was a mess, as usual. If it was all neat and cleaned up he would become really worried and wonder where things were.
He had been busy, so busy. It was always busy as sorcerer supreme, but the last 3 weeks had been busier than usual. 3 weeks ago he had woken up with a question: Why were they coming?
He had been obsessed with it ever since. He didn't know who they were, didn't know when they came, all he knew is they were coming, but why? What did they want?
Strange had searched the astral plane, multiple dimensions, even other realities. The Dragonballs were his first guess, but nobody knew they existed, let alone they were on Earth. Only a handful of places in the galaxy contained texts and tales about their existence. These, people, who were coming didn't come from one of those places.
No, they were not after the dragonballs. Still, he had relocated the Dragonball in his possession from the dark dimension towards the sanctuary to keep it closeby and safer.
The life seed could be a reason. Celestial power was extremely rare and extremely powerful. But after intense investigation, he found out the life seed had been nearly depleted, hardly worth an entourage of what could be celestial gardeners. Could be Celestials to judge the planet, but he spoke to the gods, so many of them, devils as well, and they insisted this was not the case. Since they didn't tell what it really was it must be a non-cosmic threat, something that doesn't threaten reality or the gods themselves. Not even the Watcher bothered to show up yet. Strange had thought about going to the Kai, but he was kind of a goofball, though always very informative. Strange didn't have the jokes ready to keep him talking, he always seemed busier with his car anyway. Besides, like all gods he couldn't be bothered by the events on Earth, probably cares less than lesser gods like Odin and Zeus, the only difference being that the Kai will keep him alive, whilst showing up on Zeus's doorstep is a good way to get yourself killed.
So there was a mortal goal to these visitors. Money, power, fame. It could be something personal. It was driving Strange mad. Any hint could help them prepare, could help them survive.
There was only one place left to go, one person who could help him with answers. He let the cloak put himself around his neck, did a simple teleportation spell, and stepped into the nice autumn breeze of South Africa. Which surprised Strange a bit but you never knew where the old lady settled down these days. He walked up to a small cabin in the woods and went into it in his astral form as he noticed there was no door.
"Ah, Dr. Stephen Strange. Sorcerer Supreme. Haven't seen you in a while, you still owe me money you know, you cheap bastard. What makes you come over here?" He got asked by a voice in the dark corner. The figure floated into view. Hovering about a foot from the floor on a crystal ball.
"Hello, Baba. Your sister Madame Webb says hi." He replied.
"Bah, that dirty old hag. She still sitting on that butt ugly throne? Cassandra has no taste." She said. She was such a small woman, probably about 450 years old now, still wearing an old fashioned witches hat and outfit with which she got caught in Salem in 1692 and burned at the stake, at least they thought.
She used to be one of the most powerful witches in the world though and turned down the role of Sorcerer Supreme in 1750 and again in 1878. She retired in 1944, now she only does fortunetelling.
"What happened to your palace in the desert?" He asked.
"Sand everywhere, sand in places that give me nightmares. Had to get out of there. So, I take it you came here for a fortunetelling. Well, you know the price." She said. Strange obliged and put down a large sack full of gold and silver. Baba looked at it surprisingly.
"That's a lot more than I usually charge. What is the catch this time?"
"Something magical, as usual. Something you have dealt with before, of course. But I want you to draw it close, really close." Strange said. Baba didn't move a muscle.
"You don't just want to see the future, you want to actually touch it huh?" She said. Strange nodded.
"I suppose this has something to do with those aliens coming to Earth, wreaking havoc?" She said. Strange knew she must have already seen, she knows. But she won't intervene, she won't care. Unless you pay her.
"Well, Doctor. I can help of course. But you don't need to see the future to know what's coming. Instead, I'll take you to the past." She got off her crystal ball, it hovered over to a cushion and laid to rest there. She waved her hands around it and hummed. Strange got closer.
"Hmm, yes I see it now. Ha, well, you paid for it." She grabbed his arm and a moment later he was sucked into the crystal ball.
He fell through darkness, no weight to him until he felt something tugging at him. A planet doomed up from afar, closing in rapidly. This was way more intense than any adventures he had in the astral plane before. His body landed on the planet, didn't feel like he was attached to it yet. Eventually, his spirit returned to it, he vomited violently. He got up and looked around. The planet was devastated.
"Where am I?" He asked the air.
"Well, you are not in your precious astral plane for one thing. Not anymore." He heard Baba's voice loud in his head. She was always loud in his head, that was because she had to get above the noise of the parasites and demonettes crawling around in there, trying to eat or push their way out.
"You are in the past. This planet is called Kassyk. Maybe 100 years ago. Have a look around will you, I'll be back with you in a few hours, I got some tea on in the kettle you know." And she was gone.
Strange started walking. He didn't feel any magical powers here, nor cosmic. There wasn't much life, not what he could sense though. But there was power. Something... Strange stopped moving, behind the ruins of what seemed to be an ancient city he heard movement. He cast some spells on himself just in case. He sneaked around the corner. He saw 2 men sitting around a bonfire. One of them was balding, the other had spiky hair. The one with the full hair was quite taller than the other one, they both had black hair. They were wearing some kind of black and white striped armor and boots of the same style. Then Strange noticed it, they both had a tail wrapped around their waist.
The balding one then looked up from his food and quickly turned his head towards Strange. He saw him. He had a green device on his left eye that was bleeping. The man dropped his food and stood up.
"Look at that Shorty, I thought we had gotten rid of all creatures on this planet. Oh, how fun." He said. The tall one stood up as well, they both sniggered. Then, they attacked.
If Strange hadn't prepared then the first blow would have killed him. Thankfully the seven rings of Raggadorr worked like a charm, as they actually were charms. These buggers were fast though and had strange abilities. He had trouble adapting to the attacks which were merciless and fast. The 2 aliens seemed surprised enough though apparently, they haven't seen magic before. Or at least not in these kinds of levels. Strange used the mists of Munnopor to conceal himself from them.
"By the images of Ikonn!" Strange said and made duplicates of himself.
"Hé, where did he go? Ah, there he is... What the? He just turned into mist." Said the one called Shorty.
Strange had to think quickly what kind of magic would work best against the monsters. Probably Chaos Magic and Blood Magic but those came at a too high cost. He had no access to Technomancy or Atlantean magic, so he had to settle for the most obvious one, plenty of that around. Necromancy. The dead started to rise around him. There were a lot of them. Strange noticed a lot were wearing helmets and armor. Regular armies against these brutes. Why were they here? Did they kill the entire planet? Yes, they must have. Answers to this could help defend Earth.
He was worried about these monsters as well. Their abilities, it wasn't magical, they weren't mutants either. It was evolution. They much have had such a violent history, such hardships to evolve like this. They were warriors, born and raised for 1 thing. Had to have been for millennia.
The hordes of zombies were slowing the brutes down finally. The aliens of this planet had abilities too, they weren't pushovers. Yet these had managed to subdue the entire planet on their own. And similar monsters were coming to Earth, armageddon.
Strange relaxed a bit as the zombie horde overwhelmed the 2 aliens.
"ah, I see you have encountered what you fear. What we all fear." Baba's booming voice came into Strange's head.
"What are they?" Strange asked.
"They are called Saiyans. They are part of an organization that is in the business of planet trade, or slavery rather. These 2 are actually low-level warriors within the organization, send to planets with little defenses, low price. The ones coming to Earth are much more of an elite group, with their members specialized in all sorts of stuff, including magic and cosmic powers." She said.
"How do you know all this?" Strange asked.
"Oh, I did some research after the Galactus showed up. Was quite a mystery to me. Then I found out, Galactus is a client of this organization. I suppose after he was defeated his purchase was put back on the market." She said casually.
"You are talking about us." Strange said.
"Hé, I don't like it any more than you do. I happen to like this planet as well. Now come on back here." Strange felt a tug at his soul and the planet disappeared. He was back to Baba's place, with a cup of tea in front of him.
"Its special tea, herbs from certain places I can't mention. Try it, you'll feel better." She said as Strange vomited for the 3rd time today. Once he was done he took the whole cup of tea. He recognized the blend, special for magic users. He was able to recover.
"My God, what are we up against?" He said. "Aliens, very powerful aliens. Goku, he's one of them isn't he?" He asked.
"Yes, extraterrestrials are not new to this planet. Strangely humans haven't figured that out quite yet. They think the Galactus and some Skrulls were unique incidents, kept secret in fear of panic. The truth of the matter is, this place is crawling with extraterrestrial life. Some more problematic than others, some very helpful over the years." Baba said. Yes, Strange thought and more are coming. There was an alien invasion headed for Earth.
Chapter 6: Chapter 3
Chapter Text
Meanwhile, 5 objects had appeared at the edge of the solar system. It was first picked up by SHIELD satellites and monitoring stations. Next came the Capsule corps, then by AIM and finally HAMMER Industries and the Fantastic Four. Of course, it was kept a secret and the rest of the planet wouldn't know about it until they reached the distance of Jupiter in approximately 3 hours. They calculated they will probably be decelerating and arrive on Earth 6 hours after detecting them.
"Give me all the info you have." Fury said aboard the Helicarrier Mark II number 6. Although it may not fully fit inside a single capsule, yet, a lot of the components had the Capsule corps logo on them.
"Energy signature unknown director, they aren't Skrull nor The Kree. It's not the silver surfer and the Galactus. It doesn't read as Namekian either." The monitor director said. So, a new energy signature, a new arrival on Earth. That is, as far as they knew. They had their suspicions the Japanese martial artist Goku was an alien as well and there must be a spaceship of his somewhere but they had yet to find it. With it, they had the evidence they needed. As of now, all they had is the evidence of the demon king Piccolo. They had found his spaceship 2 years ago.
Turns out he probably arrived on Earth some 800 years ago, got demon status at an unknown time and has terrorized the Earth since then until someone locked him up around the 1800s and finally he was killed by The X-men and Z warriors 4 years ago. There was a child however. Supposedly raised by Victor Von Doom. He was fully grown by now and much more powerful than the original demon king although he has seemed to have lost his connection with Hand and is somehow less ambitious to take over the world. It was hard to keep track of his movements though, Doom had some good counter-espionage going for him, better than SHIELD's. The Capsule Corps, their top weapons and electronics contractor, was looking into the Namekian(as they had learned from the language on the ship) spaceship technology and had been able to unlock some of its secrets and apply it to their research and development.
"So, a new player on the field, the ones Goku and Bulma talked about. Earth is a busy, hot topic on the intergalactic scale." Fury said whilst scrolling through the available Avengers. He called them all personally. Thor was again not available when they needed him most. But Thor was having some trouble at home with Odin going sick and Loki still missing.
"Come on people, give me something. Something we can work with." Fury insisted.
"Sir, I think I have new info. The dimensions of the ships. Yes, they are one-man pods. Round, they don't appear to have any weapons." The Scanner operator said. Good, Fury thought. So 5 aliens are arriving on Earth, from an unknown source, probably related to the use of the dragonballs as Dr. Strange predicted and Professor X virtually prophesized. They say this is more dangerous than Galactus coming, but more or less the same event. Whatever is coming out of those pods they have to treat them as Omega level threats. And SHIELD will be the first to welcome them.
"Alright, can our laser satellites target them?" Fury asked. The weapons operator nodded.
"Yes sir, no problem. They don't have any mirror or deflective shields. No countermeasures detectable." He said.
"Sir do you think it's wise to start shooting at an unknown alien arrival on Earth? They could be friendlies." Said Special Agent Maria Hill behind him, operating as the executive deputy director.
"There is no such thing anymore Hill. Get our defense grid up. Avengers, assemble. Satellites charge up and fire when in range." Fury didn't look back at her, he knew she disapproved. But Fury didn't have time to think, he had to act, for the survival of the US at first, now the entire world. His job had just been upgraded to world defender and he didn't have the luxury to give anyone the benefit of the doubt or at least a chance to explain themselves.
The helicarrier was working at 100 percent capacity though and everybody followed his orders to the letter and knew their jobs well. They had 5 more of these helicarriers, currently located at strategic parts of the planet. New ones were being built too, ones that could go into orbit if they had to.
"Targets locked sir. Firing now." The weapons operator said. "They don't appear to do any damage, sir. Firing again. Nothing. Orders sir?" He continued. Fury was watching along on the monitors, the round shape of the pods simply deflected the lasers. They must be made of very strong material.
"Alright, get the ship into position. We knew it was a long shot trying to take them out in space. We'll have to confront them." Fury said. The ship started to move, and when it moved, it really moved. They had been able to adapt the technology of the alien spaceship of Piccolo, Capsule corps did most of the work. It worked on some kind of gravity canceling tech. Inside they hardly felt it but the ship was doing Mach 3 easily. The pods appeared to be dropping down in South America, Bolivia to be precise. Fury wondered if this spot was intentionally chosen or just random. They had little in ways of metahumans in that area, the aliens probably wanted to orientate themselves, maybe establish a base.
"We'll arrive 5 minutes after they will land director." The flight operator said. Fury nodded. Well, that's the best they can do. Any other assets they had were on their way as well but they'd take much longer. He had ordered the Z warriors and Fantastic Four to stay where they are, same as the X-men. The Avengers were on board though, as well as X-force. They had the Defenders as reservists. Krillin was on board as well, he had greatly improved and was getting close to becoming Omega level along with the other Z warriors. Fury still couldn't understand how their abilities worked, being only humans and not even mutants. Iron Fist and Shang-Chi tried to explain it to him but he couldn't grasp the concept of this KI. All he knew is they were all heavy hitters, getting heavier by the day. Krillin was an unofficial member of the Avengers now, this is going to be his baptism of fire.
"Director we got some activity going on outside. These pods are giving off an awful amount of heat. We can't fully pinpoint their location. Once they are down we will have to look for them first." The monitoring operator said. Damn, Fury thought. Problems, problems.
"Fury, Rogers here, over." They heard over the loudspeaker.
"Talk to me, Captain Rogers." Fury replied.
"Permission to leave the carrier once we are over the target. We'll be able to track much easier on the ground." Captain America said.
"Negative Captain, you're needed to protect the carrier." Fury replied.
"Krillin here says he should be able to detect them through his enhanced senses. He has already felt tremendous powers inside those pods. They will be hard to miss. Once we are down we'll be able to make contact as quickly as possible to see what we are dealing with and report." Rogers said.
"Nick, they are right. It's much better to have people show up at the landing site than with a helicarrier. Much friendlier." Hill said behind him. Fury sighed.
"Fine, permission granted. Can Krillin be more specific about what we are dealing with right now?" He said reluctantly.
"He says at least 2 are beyond what he ever felt. 2 others are closer to what we are capable of and 1 hardly registers at all, although he does say something alive is inside the pod. He just doesn't know what." Captain America said.
"Acknowledged. Once you reach the site and make contact but don't engage. Wait for us. Excalibur and the New Avengers are also en route." He said as they had arrived and the Avengers exited the carrier. Cap came out first followed by Hulk and Krillin, then Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Black Widow last.
Chapter 7: Chapter 4
Chapter Text
The 5 pods crashed to Earth. They each opened with a loud hiss and 5 figures stepped out.
Vegeta came out his pod first as always and cracked his neck, so did Nappa.
"Man, that was quite a ride. The computer could have woken me up sooner." Nappa said. Vegeta sneered.
"What about you Raditz?" Nappa asked. Raditz came standing beside his fellow Saiyans.
"Felt alright to me. Look at this dump. What was it called again? Earth? Their sun is just a mellow yellow, no respectful creatures could have evolved from this. Was it really necessary for us to come here?" He said out loud, inside he knew what was what. His brother Kakarot was here and Vegeta had plans, large plans. He felt almost too excited not to start it right now. But Vegeta was the boss, they had to wait and be strategic with their moves.
"Quit your whining right this instant." Someone else said coming out of his pod. He stretched his purple legs, felt at his tomahawk hair to see if it was still neat, then sniffed the air.
"Captain Gladiator. You look around and tell me what we are really doing here? This has to be a breeze." Raditz said. Gladiator, real name Kallark, squinted his eyes. He had to agree, this place didn't seem like much. But he had read the reports and had gotten orders from Frieza himself. Can't underestimate these humans, not anymore.
"Let's just wait to hear what our Skrull spies have to tell us. Kl'rt? You are making contact aren't you?" Gladiator asked the giant Skrull stepping out of the final pod.
"Yes, Captain. They are already closeby and on their way." He said.
"Well tell them to hurry, I got a score to settle with them. Frieza's orders." Gladiator said.
"Here they are right now." Kl'rt said and pointed in the distance. 4 figures appeared before them, all seemed human. One of them was a woman wearing a red suit and small blades on her hips, her hair was red.
"On this planet, I'm called Elektra, but my real name is Prs'hj. I'm the main spy on this planet and I have a report for you Captain Gladiator. We hope it pleases lord Frieza to know that we have been able to weaken the humans in their defenses on several levels before your arrival." The Skrull said, changing into its real form as she handed Gladiator a small disc that Gladiator inserted in the scouter on his ear. The other Skrulls changed as well.
"Aw man, that makes it even more boring. I like fighting against enemy defenses." Nappa said. Gladiator gave a sour face as the data ran across his visor.
"Nobody asked you to intervene now, Skrull. Tell me, since there are 4 of you here I bet there are many more than there originally was allowed to be, correct?" Captain Gladiator said. The Skrull looked shocked.
"Yes, we were actually quite ready to take control of it ourselves, in name of Lord Frieza of course. But we had difficulty replacing their strongest members with our own. And new ones seem to be popping up every week now the last year." The Skrull said.
"Then you have disobeyed Lord Frieza for the last time. The Skrulls have hereby fully and permanently forfeited their bid on this planet and are banned from this system." Gladiator said, stretched out his arm, and blasted the Skrull into vapor. He looked at the other Skrulls who looked very terrified.
"You have 1 hour to leave this planet. Go." He said. They made a run for it. Gladiator looked back at the others. Kl'rt rushed before Gladiator and went on one knee.
"I promise I will repay the disgrace of my race for this vile disrespectful and disloyal behavior towards you and Lord Frieza, Captain Gladiator. I refuse to take any trophies." He said. Gladiator nodded slightly. The Saiyans grinned widely.
"Scouters on." Gladiator said. They all pushed a button on the device and they started bleeping like crazy.
"Powerlevels first. Switch to wideband and scan high and low, I want to know everything." After a moment they got results. Nappa whistled.
"Impressive actually. Several Chi user groups. The biggest group is called the Z warriors according to the data the Skrull spies gave us." Said Raditz.
"Nothing too worrying. The highest powerlevel I see is 3000 in a country called Latveria. A few are half that, but there are numerous in the hundreds." Vegeta said.
"Yes, mutation has developed fairly well on this planet too. Gen X is quite widespread. Millions of them, most untrained it says here. No sign of big groups of Eternals, but we knew that already. Hardly any deviants. Some kind of egg there underground? Those readings can't be right. The Celestials seem to have not visited this planet for more than 500 years." Kl'rt said.
"Alright, cosmic power next." Gladiator said. They pushed a button and the color of the display changed from green to blue. These calculations were done a lot quicker.
"There are a couple of hotspots here and there, a lot underground. Manual scan has some strange reading, must be recalibrated again, damn them, I hate having to wait for upgrades. The planet's life seed is intact. See a couple of individuals on borrowed time, Fantastic Four they are called. 1 or 2 really heavy hitters high in the skies, Gods as usual but they won't bother us. A lot of dimensional fractures, could be messy." Captain Gladiator said. "Alright, lastly Magical." He said. The screens turned from blue to red. Now the calculations went really haywire. Raditz grunted and Nappa started to sweat.
"Holy, look at that. This place is a general highway for magical powers. No wonder this place is such a high valued planet. You can do all sorts of fun here." Nappa said.
"Don't even think about any of that. Our client the Kree have won their bid and the planet belongs to them now. All the raw magical power is their property. We are just here to wretch it away from the local population so the planet is ripe for the takeover. We do it clean and ruthless, kill all magic users, subdue the lower level resistance, and leave the cosmic power users in the skies to me. If you do as I say then maybe I'll allow you to bring back a few trophies. Alright, team, I see humans approaching our location, 7 in total. Look smart. You all know your role. Let's leave a good first impression." Captain Gladiator said. The others did as they were told. The Saiyans were hard to handle but Gladiator felt he had earned their respect with his powers. That was all these Saiyans cared about anyway. Lord Frieza himself had turned these Saiyans into a force years ago but only recently made him the leader of it to keep these last few remaining Saiyans under control. Frieza had warned him that he felt they were going to betray him, they had only gotten stronger and stronger and soon they'll be able to beat their highest ranking force, the Ginyu Force. Gladiator was to make sure that didn't happen and any surpassing they did should be eliminated. That meant killing them if they got strong enough to revolt.
But so far they have been alright, Gladiator may even admire their fighting spirit. They never give up, they never make mistakes. So far they have done 3 missions as a force and all have been executed flawlessly. They always stood front and center when confronting everything, always ready to take all the damage and always working without mercy or regret.
"I can see them. One of them has a significant powerlevel on him. 1200 it reads. That's close to yours, Raditz." Nappa said sniggering.
"Pfft, he got no chance. Look at him, he is like a baby." Raditz said.
"Looks like a transport vessel is flanking them over at the distance." Kl'rt said. They could track any movements via scouter.
"Yes, let's wait for them to close up as well." Gladiator said. He noticed on his scouter there were more humans on board that held certain powers. No doubt they had a lot of different kinds of mutates walking around with strange and unique abilities. Gladiator was excited to face these individuals. Despite the Kree usually pacifying a planet once they claim it for real Gladiator felt it was necessary to give a good impression and show respect to the people brave enough to face him and his team in such hopeless odds. This was all being recorded one way or the other Gladiator thought and he didn't want to look foolish.
"That's close enough," Gladiator said out loud to the individuals approaching. The transport vessel had gotten close enough as well. "Line up," Gladiator said. The Saiyans deeply hated this part, but they had to show their introduction routine and pose. Usually, it went wrong with Nappa who didn't think on his feet much, but the Skrull and Vegeta did it alright. This time it went almost perfectly and Gladiator looked pleased with his team when they went back to their normal positions.
Once done the humans coming to meet them looked stunned beyond belief. Good, Gladiator thought, let them know what it is they face. Vegeta always introduced himself as the prince of the Saiyans and Kl'rt as the most powerful Skrull of all.
"Alright, Gladiator Force. We are going to split up." Gladiator said. "The Saiyans stay here and deal with the human mutates and technological armies, you must leave no spaceship or transports intact, I prefer you only subdue them but kill them if you have to. Super Skrull, you go to the country called Latveria and confront the magical hotspot there, my guess is they will back each other up so expect a lot of heat. I meanwhile will confront the highest powerlevels and cosmic power wielders at the island they call Japan. They seemed to have teamed up to face us already so no laziness. Move." As he said it the Super Skrull's legs turned into flames, took to the air, and went his direction whilst Gladiator went the other way. As told the Saiyans stayed behind and confronted these humans here. They better keep the planet intact enough.
Chapter 8: Chapter 5
Chapter Text
Vegeta watched Gladiator and the Skrull go. Good, he thought. He looked at the others and smiled. They immediately turned off the communicator on their Scouters and put them in private mode, only between themselves.
"Told you. He's trying to keep us away from your brother Kakarot. He knows that together we'll be too powerful for him and the Skrull. And he doesn't even know the real secret." He said, laughing out loud.
"Yeah, why don't we do it now then? Why not start wreaking havoc on this planet and wait for Kakarot to join us and then kill that clown?" Raditz asked.
"Don't be stupid Raditz. Let them be busy with these locals, they got their hands full on them. The longer they toil with them, the easier it is to get the upper hand. We need to surprise him fully, can't take risks with freaks like him. He has been trained and specially bred to fight the phoenix force. He has cosmic powers embedded into his bones, not just on borrowed time like these humans. Just follow my lead, I'll tell you when the time is right. Now, let us have some fun with these humans." Vegeta said as one of the groups of humans approached him. This one was carrying a shield and was dressed as a soldier. Vegeta didn't understand the colors though, must be something seasonal. He had seen the rest of the group, pathetic bunch although the big green one.
"My name is Captain America. We know why you are here so I'll skip any formal introductions and welcoming. I will warn you right now, only once. Leave this planet in peace and we will not pursue you. We don't want anyone to get hurt." The man said. Vegeta and the others laughed out loud.
"Let me explain something to you, Captain, we are here for only one purpose, to be freed. Your planet will be the battleground for the breaking of our bonds. You and your pathetic bunch of so-called heroes are nothing but practice for us. Yield to us and we will not harm you, stay out of our way and we will probably not destroy your entire pathetic world after we are done with our superior. Then you will bow down to us." Vegeta said. The Captain was taken aback by these words. Then he looked angry.
"We are not part of this, you want to be freed from your bonds, but still obey the orders of your master regarding our planet?" He asked. Vegeta smirked.
"Oh, I never said we didn't like our jobs. As I said, you are just practice. Raditz, show him what we mean." He said and took a step back. Raditz stepped forward. He raised one of his hands with a big smile on his face.
"Now, I call this one, keep your eye on the birdie." A ball of light emerged from his hand, crackling with electricity. From behind the human soldier, the small bald man stepped forward.
"Captain get away from him! He is charging an extremely powerful attack!" He screamed. The Captain stepped back as Raditz sniggered.
"Now, now. Keep your eye on the birdie." The ball grew larger. As Raditz was about to sling it the bald man ran forward. Vegeta's scouter started bleeping.
"He is charging up his power. Damn him, he's more powerful than we first thought. It's going up to 1400 now already and still climbing." Vegeta said. "Raditz watch yourself with him now." Vegeta said but Raditz didn't hear him and flung the ball of energy like a racketball towards the Blue/Red human soldier who didn't have time to react. The small guy created his own energy ball from his palms though and thrust it at the ball which it hit and deflected a couple of inches from the face of the Captain. He rushed up next to the Captain. Vegeta sniffed. This one was a martial artist alright, purely powerlevel based.
"Who are you then?" Vegeta asked.
"My name is Krillin. I am an Avenger. Whatever it is you came here to do, you will not succeed." He said. Vegeta's scouter alerted him to activity above them from the human transport ship. It deployed all sorts of weapons now, hidden energies fired up as smaller craft emerged from it headed straight for them. They were various shapes and sizes. Vegeta relaxed again, he thought for a moment they had some ace up their sleeves. He turned around.
"Nappa, they are yours." He said. Nappa nodded and jumped up, then flew towards the human fighters. They fired their weapons which Nappa easily dodged and then cut through several of them in one straight line, punching a hole in their wave of fighters. Vegeta watched the other humans look at it in shock. This is only the beginning he thought and they seemed to be horrified, petrified. Didn't they have a visit from Galactus once and beat him back? Who could they be so indecisive? Well, all except one, their Captain was staring right at Raditz and Vegeta whilst the slaughter in the air was going on. He had seen war before, Vegeta saw that. He was always able to recognize the one that could make a difference in a battle.
"Raditz pay attention." He said causing Raditz to look back at the people on the ground again.
"Avengers. Assemble!" The man shouted and attacked. He flung his shield at Raditz as his first attack which Raditz just barely dodged. The big green guy at the back jumped up meters high and when coming back down had aimed straight at Vegeta who merely went to the air to dodge him. He came down with a large impact and made a crater. Vegeta charged up an energy ball and shot it straight at him. The big green monstrosity lifted his arms and caught it to Vegeta's surprise. He heard the animal(of some kind) grunt under the strain, then he shouted. But the ball was too big, too powerful and it pushed him back into the earth until it disappeared along with the ball.
Raditz meanwhile was flanked by 3 at once, 1 of them a man in a metal suit with rocket boots and repulsors on his arms, firing away at Raditz. Vegeta aimed his arm at him, ready to take out this annoying one who seemed to be only one able to fly. But before he could take the shot he heard rumbling underneath him.
"HULK MAD!" Vegeta was surprised by the green one coming up from the ground and trying to use his head as a battering ram. Vegeta just barely blocked him and thumped the thing back onto the ground again. Vegeta was annoyed, he didn't fully understand their abilities yet. Apparently, the big guy could regenerate quite quickly and gets stronger as he fought on. Still, no match for him. He looked at Raditz with embarrassment as he was being overpowered by a man in an iron suit and a small martial artist.
Nappa meanwhile was done with the human attack craft and came back down, landing right next to the green guy called Hulk. This one went on the offense aggressively with Nappa who laughed as he was blocking and countering punches. This could be more than just a good warmup. Vegeta landed back down near Captain America. He showed his powers by charging up, showing a blue/white flame around him, causing winds and the ground to quake and split open. He shouted with all his might to show his full powerlevel, all chilling 12,000 of it, channeling it around him. He knew the small bald guy Krillin could sense his powers now. It worked, he stopped fighting Raditz enabling him to retake the initiative. Raditz quickly knocked out the 2 weaker soldiers who didn't seem to have any special powers. Then he charged up a large energy ball and flung it at the guy in armor who had to dodge.
Nappa got the upper hand against Hulk and punched him away, sending the big green monster flying and landing hard on the ground. He got up quickly though, Vegeta was surprised by its stamina. He hadn't seen a mutant like this one before. Hulk was getting angrier and punched the ground sending a couple of his own team flying and stumbling. Nappa charged at him. He punched but Hulk caught his punch in his hand, then lifted Nappa by the arm which surprised the Saiyan warrior. Then Hulk punched him in the stomach with enough force to crack his armor and send him flying into a rock.
"No way!" Vegeta exclaimed in surprise. Nappa had a powerlevel of over 5000, no way some simple mutant could overpower him like that. He saw some of the others communicating with each other. They seemed to be shifting their focus, understanding their opponents. The martial artist was left with dealing with Raditz whilst the rest of them except Hulk turned towards Vegeta. Vegeta smiled. He had hoped to watch them play around a bit more but they were smart. They knew he was the most powerful. The man in iron fired repulsors and the Captain threw his shield at the same time. Vegeta had no problems dodging and blocking though. The repulsors were weak and Vegeta was more than 20 times stronger and faster than their Captain. He admired their diligence though and he wasn't surprised they weren't getting any reinforcements, he bet usually this group handled the biggest threats. Plus, he thought they must be short a member or 2.
"Playtime is over. Time to put them in their place. Raditz, you are lucky we are so close to our rebellion, or I'd have killed you right here and now. Lets mop this up." Vegeta said. He charged up, he moved at his highest speed. He swept the legs from underneath the Captain, then headed for Raditz. With one punch he knocked out the tiny martial artist named Krillin. With a ball of energy, he took out the man in iron as well. Within a few seconds, he had taken out most of them, except for Hulk. Nappa was struggling more and more. Vegeta pushed on his scouter out of curiosity. Powerlevel 5500 on Hulk. Amazing, Nappa couldn't beat that thing and the powerlevel was only climbing as they had grabbed each other's hands and started pushing. 6000 now, 6500. Vegeta had seen enough, at this rate he would be over 9000 in a few minutes. He charged the thing and put an elbow into its side. It grunted, for a moment Vegeta felt its weight and power slowing him down but his force was too great and it was flung away rolling and skipping over the ground. Vegeta charged it again and with full power gave it an uppercut as it was still rolling. He threw it into the air and it came down and stopped moving. Good, Vegeta looked back.
"Kamehameha!" Krillin screamed and hit Raditz full on his chest. Raditz was flung back and caught by Nappa who threw him out of the way. Nappa charged Krillin and simply broke through his defenses. He was helped by the Captain again though.
"Don't you realize you don't stand a chance?" Vegeta said and joined in, easily overpowering both, knocking Krillin into the ground and grabbing the Captain by his throat and ripping his helmet off.
"Steve!" The girl with the red hair who was still on the ground about 50 meters away yelled. Vegeta looked back at the Captain.
"Ah, so that is your real name I suppose? That's good, I always like to know the name of those who I kill." He said and charge up a ball of energy as big as he could, with his free hand he blasted it on the motionless body of the human superhero and vaporized him.
Good, Vegeta thought. Their leader is gone now so they can't cause any more problems. He looked back where the Hulk lay and saw he had been replaced by a small man with a hardly detectable powerlevel. Curious, it seemed he had transformed back to his original state and was in a coma.
"Alright, now that is done, let's find some more groups of these so-called superheroes. This battle was hardly enough for me to get my blood pumping, I need a decent workout. Also let's release some Saibamen, to keep the insignificant groups off our backs." Vegeta said as he smirked. Nappa took a small pouch from his belt.
"We got 3 blue ones and 2 gold ones. I wish we had a green one, they are based on Skrull DNA at least, not these blank templates with little genetic enhancements. Oh well." He muttered as he picked some small blue and gold balls from the pouch and pushed them into the dirt. After he was done he nodded at Vegeta. The 3 of them lifted off the ground and took off pushing their Scouters for possible targets. They found one the Skrull spies had called "the X-men" on the east coast of the continent America, they need to head to the north. They went there top speed.
Chapter 9: Chapter 6
Chapter Text
Piccolo looked out the window of the castle. He sensed they had arrived, and they were more frightening than he had ever predicted.
Victor didn't believe him, he didn't understand what he felt, what he knew. Dr. Doom still believed his superior intellect(which he had Piccolo had to admit) had prepared him enough and he was allowed to focus on other things, like the dragonballs. But his faith in his intellect was misplaced. As Piccolo was raised in this castle, this kingdom, he soon found the shallowness of Doom's rule, the demagoguery, and believing it. Mistakes his father made, looking at things way too small.
No, ever since the threats were made, the warnings were given and Piccolo learned the ways of magic from his tutor Doom, Piccolo had dug deeper than anyone ever had. With the demon status he inherited from his father he was able to ask the right questions to the right people(or things). He got into the background and the dark corners of the universe, far further than Doom every would hope or dare to get. Doom limited himself to dark arts anyway, Piccolo explored the entire magical spectrum. Conjuration seemed to almost go natural for him, restoration was bit of a problem though. He had a lot more control over chaos magic than Doom had, his biggest obstacle was blood magic which carried too much weight for Piccolo's taste. He rather stuck with his Chi control and manipulation which he had been able to increase simply by meditating. He knew he was way more powerful than any of the warriors that defeated his father besides the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix force. He had been searching all across the astral plane to look for clues to defeat it but simply couldn't find it.
Until now. He had devised a plan that involved these new alien arrivals. One of them was a powerful cosmic power user, perhaps powerful enough to stop the phoenix force or at least drive it away. The others were going to be easily defeatable, even if the most powerful Chi user of them was way stronger than Piccolo was, his magic could do him in. Though first, he had to kill the Skrull. He was headed this way as he was brooding over his plan.
The door opened, Piccolo knew who it was before the door opened. Doom was wearing his usual outfit, green and metal with a cape. Piccolo preferred lighter colors, purple suit, white mantle with shoulder guards, and cap to match. Its what his father wore, at first he thought that whats demon wore but he was soon educated by the deeper regions of the astral plane. The clothes and his appearance had a different explanation.
"There you are! Brooding again I see? How helpful. Our satellites have told me of one of the aliens headed straight for Latveria." Doom said. Piccolo remained silent. "My defenses are at full alert, the country is ready for the war. Are you?" Doom continued, as he always did. Piccolo looked at him slowly, he smiled ever so slightly.
"Of course you are. I have trained you well. Soon I will get my wish from the dragonballs, with the help of these aliens. This Skrull will have to be eliminated, he is of no use to my plans. Do it, fast and clean." Doom demanded, always lacking the comprehension that Piccolo merely allowed him to do it. Piccolo moved from the window, passed Doom without looking at him, and went outside. The castle defenses were activating as the alien came closer. As soon as it was in proximity they started firing projectiles in all shapes and sizes. Some were magic-based, Piccolo's creation. As he saw the shadow approaching without being hurt much by all the fire pressed on him Piccolo himself took to the air.
He hadn't expected much from the defenses, but it was a good way of testing the power of his enemy. The Skrull was firing fireballs at defenses and towns, mobilized infantry. He also used some kind of kinetic shielding to send attacks right back at the ground, without slowing down once. He sensed all sorts of energies in this one. Magical powers were certainly there, but so were cosmic powers. Wasn't like anything their leader had though, that one was truly a remarkable opponent. Something was off about this one's cosmic powers. It got closer, the first alien Piccolo had ever seen, although it appeared these Skrulls had been on Earth for quite a while, it frustrated Piccolo immensely his father didn't know about any of that. How can you rule the world without knowing everything that is going on?
The Skrull came in hot, his lower body was all flame. Piccolo recognized that from one of the Fantastic Four. Interesting. He came to a stop in front of Piccolo, surprised to be greeted in the air probably. He was wearing some device on his head that he pushed a button on, some kind of scanner probably.
"I am the most powerful Skrull in the universe! Bow down before the might of the Gladiator Force! Ha, powerlevel 3000. Quite impressive, but then again, you are a Namekian after all." The Skrull said. Piccolo frowned. What was a Namekian? The Skrull grinned at this.
"I see, it appears you have no idea what you are. You are an alien to this world, my friend, like me. An extraterrestrial as the humans would call us. You come from the planet Namek." He said. Piccolo refused to move his face, he didn't reveal his surprise yet understanding that this was true. He had creatures commenting him on it during his time studying magic. Nothing concrete, just the idea he wasn't from this planet, nor from another dimension like his father liked to believe. Now he knew Kami knew too of course. Forget him, he was insignificant. He replied.
"Tell me, Skrull. Do any more of my kind inhabit this planet?" He asked. The Skrull at first didn't seem to want to reply but he did.
"Nothing like you, no Namekians. There are others though, we have a list by now actually. 5 different species in total. Nothing strange about that, considering the Earth's position. A lot have left as soon as we were noticed though, you should have done the same. I didn't come to chat though, I have a job to do." The Skrull said. Piccolo nodded.
"Then you must not delay." He said. He flexed his muscles.
In all the ways he had readied himself over the years however, nothing could have prepared him for this. This Skrull possessed all powers of the Fantastic Four and Piccolo got the full-on demonstration. It combined the 4 powers perfectly. Piccolo could stand a lot of heat and his body was tough though. The Skrull had a great advantage by turning his arms invisible at the same time as turning them to stone to clobber Piccolo without knowing where he was going to hit. Even though Piccolo was faster, the Skrull was able to counter him with every move and whenever one of Piccolo's blows came through the Skrull used his ability to turn to stone to block it successfully. Because of this Piccolo's magical powers had little effect as they always included one of the elements that the Skrull could counter.
Piccolo had a surprise for this super-Skrull though. The Skrull could stretch its arms and legs, but so could Piccolo. When elongating himself Piccolo simply mimicked him so he could grab arms and block legs coming at him. The Skrull was not surprised though, apparently, this is a normal ability for a Namekian the Skrull knew all about.
"Yes, we have visited your home planet as well. Naturally, it was for sale. But then a cosmic event caused a natural disaster on the planet causing almost everything to die and the core to cool. It lost its value and was soon forgotten. Too bad, we enjoyed impersonating them. They were a very elusive species though, lots of lost history in their nomadic existence and ancient culture. There were secrets there, I know it." The Skrull said. Piccolo smiled as he heard this whilst they clashed. There were indeed secrets and he wondered if his fellow Namekians had their version of the dragonballs. The Skrulls seemed to be unaware of them.
With one advantage less Piccolo could focus more on the 3 other abilities and fighting skills of this alien. On his signal, he could get reinforcements, but for now, he was fighting contently. The stone transformation was the biggest obstacle once Piccolo found out to sense for the movements in the air when the Super-Skrull turned invisible and that heat-based attacks were useless against a foe that could absorb endless amounts of heat. He just couldn't damage the Skrull's stretchy body and whenever the Skrull got through with an enlarged stone fist Piccolo felt it, he felt it good. But he kept him close, as he was starting to figure out what was so odd about his powers. He opened his telepathic line of communication with Doom.
"Victor. I want you to scan for tiny emissions of radiation around us, something fast and direct. I believe I know our friend's secret." He said quietly into the earpiece. Victor replied like he was the one giving the commands.
"You will keep fighting him, do not stop. We are almost close to unlocking his secrets. I will release the doombots. Their sensors can help the scan close to him." He said. From all around the castle doors opened and doombots emerged, they looked exactly like Dr. Doom but they were simply cannon food and decoys. They attacked the Skrull from all sides, limiting Piccolo in his movements and reach. This annoyed Piccolo and he started to smash bots around him to get some space. The Skrull was overwhelmed at first but he soon found out they were not so tough as they looked.
"There! There is a signal coming from space directly towards him. They are high powered signals, nothing like we have ever seen. It's coming from a satellite right on top of us, alien in make, made by Skrulls it seems. Yes, they are supplying him with power through some devices planted in his body. I will attempt to block this signal. Very clever Piccolo, I commend you." Doom said.
Meanwhile, doombots were falling left and right, the Super Skrull had taken the fight to the ground and the castle was taking a beating from his giant stone hands and flamethrowers. Piccolo was able to get close again though and soon they were sparring again, through the castle. Doom was furious. Blinded by the excitement of fighting such a formidable foe Piccolo didn't notice that the Skrull was searching rather than fighting him fully. Eventually, the fight got down to the basement of the Castle and Piccolo finally realized what he was doing.
"Ha! There they are!" The Super-Skrull said, suddenly fighting much more efficient and deadly, knocking Piccolo away and blasting away a big wall that was reinforced with magic. Behind it what Doom wanted to keep a secret above all, 6 of the 7 dragonballs. The Skrull grabbed them all into his body, he wrapped himself around them and blasted straight through the floors back into the sky.
"You didn't think we would spend so much time on your planet and not know of the dragonballs do you? My scouter has also told me all about you and your race. Yes, you have dragon clan written all over you. I knew there had to be dragonballs on this planet. I was right. All I need now is the 7th and I can finally bring back honor to my family and retain the respect from my people. Haha!" He yelled and shot off, leaving a huge area of flames behind that set ablaze the entire castle and the surroundings. Latveria was in ruins as Piccolo emerged from the rubble. Doom was waiting for him with his arms crossed as always.
"I am thoroughly disappointed, my child." He said. Piccolo crossed his arms too.
"Don't blame me for the weak defenses of Latveria. Seeing them in action didn't impress me let alone that monster. It appears they know a lot more than we first thought. Those Scouters of them probably give them all the information they need, it scans, communicates, has its own database. The priority is to destroy them before facing them again." Piccolo said. Doom didn't seem to be bothered by his castle being destroyed though.
"I was so close getting all 7 of them, now this alien has ruined my plans. But, it doesn't matter much does it? No, I know now you are the creator of them. You never told me that, for that I am disappointed. But there is a whole planet of your kind, and they have dragonballs as well." He said. Piccolo didn't say anything. Doom walked around the ruins, looking out over the landscape. Without the castle defenses, the country was pretty much defenseless. Doom didn't seem worried.
"So, I suppose those Scouters can track dragonballs? Interesting. Let's make that our top priority indeed." Doom continued. Piccolo nearly sighed, he was so tired of his bullshit.
"I said to destroy them, not obtain one for our own. As long as they have them, having one yourself is pointless as you would just bring together all 7 for the Skrull." Piccolo said.
"You have a good point there, my apprentice." Doom said. He still didn't listen. He kept rambling on about the dragonballs and his own goals whilst forgetting the bigger picture. Piccolo felt it, people were being defeated and killed all over Earth. The aliens had split up, the Avengers had already lost against the 3 high powerlevel ones whilst their leader was approaching Japan and Goku. They didn't have a chance, not even with the reinforcements they were getting. The Skrull was heading back to South America with the dragonballs, probably not able to directly track the 7th but Piccolo was sure he had his contacts on Earth that he could use. They all had their own agenda obviously. Piccolo thought it over. Then he shot up in the sky with Doom staying behind looking irritated.
Chapter 10: Chapter 7
Chapter Text
Shang-Chi, master martial artist, deputy of the Crane school, one of the most powerful warriors of Earth stood shaking in his boots.
These last few years had been amazing for him. After making contact with the old schools of martial arts started by students of Mutaito his abilities with Chi and his body in general had been enhanced with every training. Tienshinhan, Chiaotzu, Goku, Krillin. All of them taught him more about martial arts than he could have ever imagined. His powers had almost tenfolded since the day he got up that platform at the Tenkaichi Budokai. Villains cowered before him and his new friends, the Z warriors. Whilst at first he had troubles fighting and stopping evil organizations like Hand, now he and Krillin mopped up the entire organization in a matter of weeks. The same was done to Hydra with Wolverine heading the offensive. Especially Tienshinhan and Goku were impressive though. They kept on going beyond the limit, time and time again. For example, Tienshinhan had beaten Juggernaut in single combat and Goku was once able to outrun Quicksilver, however shortly. This was all due to pure training, discipline, and willpower. Shang-Chi had also met and trained with the martial arts god Korin, as well as Kami, an actual God. In those places of supreme hardship he had learned how much the human body can actually handle and the potentials of Chi like he never knew.
Now though, nothing was certain. Like Professor X had predicted, the apocalypse, armageddon, or as Hercules called it, Harpazo had come. One of the aliens that had come down in South America was coming this way, straight for them preparing in Japan. When they were spotted in space all the heroes in the world and organizations working in defending the planet got into action and gathered in various ways in various places in the world. Some had ignored the call, like the Inhumans on the moon and the people of the savage lands.
They knew the Avengers had already been defeated by the 3 aliens called Saiyans that were left behind and also on the move now towards New York City. Goku described their powers as terrifying, especially their leader. Shang-Chi had not learned to detect and measure powers yet. But he was starting to notice the powers that burned inside Goku and Tien, something like a fire inside their stomachs. Bulma was working on ways to detect powers, that's how SHIELD was able to detect the aliens approaching so quickly.
"Reports are coming in from Europe, the country of Latveria is under attack. The cities are burning, watch these images of AA fire across the borders and the capital. Apparently, the alien flew without an aircraft towards it in a straight line, ignoring the airforces of the European nations, who fired missiles to no effect. Rumors have spread that sentinels have been deployed. The anti-mutant machines were banned under UN resolution 2 years ago and shouldn't even exist. The tyrant Victor Von Doom hasn't yet released a statement about the status of his country though reports did come in that the evil King Piccolo, said to possess terrible magical powers and is immortal, has been spotted fighting against the alien arrival above the Latverian capital. Also, reports have come in from strange alien creatures wreaking havoc all over the world, so far 5 have been identified, something the alien Saiyans called "Saibamen". They are dangerous and ruthless. When you see one you run and contact the police. Several heroes have already been severely injured fighting these things. Stay tuned for more updates." The TV broadcast was repeating for a while now.
Shang-Chi knew from Mr. Fantastic that the alien they mentioned on the TV was a Skrull, an alien species the Fantastic Four had previously encountered. They were shapeshifters and soldiers. They had never met one that could fly before, according to the reports and footage it appeared his lower body was in flames like Human Torch. This gave the Fantastic Four great concern that he might imitate him and others. But luckily Goku and the other high class Chi users could identify a Skrull imposter, they sensed something wrong. Shang-Chi was on his way learning this ability too.
They had set up their base in Stark Tower of Tokyo like the Z warriors did years ago with the Piccolo crisis. Capsule Corporation had a building adjacent to it, bigger, portable even. They cooperated well, for now, their military contracts had made them international monopolies that had beaten and destroyed any competition. Tony and Bulma headed their companies well, although Tony was also working hard as an Avenger and currently gone dark after the terrible defeat in South America. Bulma had temporarily taken over as CEO of both companies. Hank Pym was also cooperating with the 2 companies, it appeared his Pym particles and the capsule tech were very similar in a lot of ways, he and Dr. Briefs and Bulma herself were thinking of combining their techs to develop new ways of using the particles and capsules.
"Guys, I got some updates. Gather around please," Bulma asked as entering what they now called the briefing room. Besides the Fantastic Four(now with Ben Grimm returned), Shang-Chi himself, and the Z warriors Goku and Yamcha there were multiple heroes present. Chief among them were Black Panther and Namor, the heavy hitters. Next to that Iron Fist, a full time student of the crane school, had also shown up along with Daredevil and Spider-Woman, both now trained in the Crane and Turtle Schools martial arts, recreationally, and not official students.
They all gathered around Bulma who threw a capsule on the ground and out came a holographic transmitter showing the Earth in 3D. It was all blue, with green spots showing allies and red spots showing the 5 alien threats.
"We now know that one of the aliens is a Skrull, a shapeshifter with cosmic abilities. According to our latest update it got away with 6 of the 7 dragonballs at Latveria." Bulma said, people around gasped as they saw images of the Skrull and the dragonballs. Yamcha and Goku clenched their fists. Reed Richards streched himself to the screeen and took a closer look, rubbing his chin.
"Doom, he had them gathered. Bastard, after all our warnings and evidence he was still going to call the dragon for a wish. And now, he has put the whole planet in jeopardy by handing them over to this invader." Reed said. On the screen, it showed video images of Latveria burning and Piccolo going after him.
"Who has the 7th?" Daredevil asked.
"Only 2 people on the whole planet know that and neither are in this room." Goku said as he stepped forward to look at the picture better. He showed confidence, calm, leadership. He had grown into one of the best superhero team leaders of the world and they all listened to him and respected him like they did Captain America and Richards. When it came to combat tactics and strategies he was the man.
"We have identified the one heading straight for us as a Shi'ar operative knows as Kallark. This information came straight from Professor Charles Xavier who has been contacted by the Shi'ar empire before. He is a genetically altered being imbued with cosmic powers unlike we have ever seen before, rivaling that of Galactus. According to the Avengers, the other 3 are from another species, they are called Saiyans. The most distinctive about them is their tail, black hair, and muscular physique..." Bulma paused for a moment as Goku looked closer at the images they had of the 3 Saiyans. He bowed his head.
"Somehow I always knew. Isn't that what I am supposed to say? So, I am a Saiyan, an alien menace from across the galaxy that enslaves and destroys entire populations. Am I happy? No, I'm pretty pissed, to be honest." He said. Everyone nodded in silence. They weren't going to question his loyalties, not him.
"These Saiyans are heading straight for the X-men. We believe they have been all assigned a certain aspect of this invasion, to take out the resistance most efficiently so it is ripe for the takeover. They also unleashed a menace called Saibamen upon the world, smaller teams of heroes are dealing with them, trying tocontain their spread across the globe. We are advised to ignore them and focus on the 5 bigger threats alone. It appears these things are not an official part of team of 5 aliens." Bulma continued.
"Is this what Prof X had figured out?" Iron Fist asked.
"This is what his contact from the Shi'ar empire has said. They are part of an organization, a planet trade organization. The Saiyans are subjects of that organization, this is what they meant about obtaining their freedom. The Shi'ar Empire was once a subjected race as well but fought a mighty war against them for their freedom. They eventually won independence but are required to give a certain amount of recruits to the organization. Kallark is an example. Others like the Skrulls, Kree, and Galactus himself are their clients. The organization sells planets they discover to the highest bidder at an auction. The organization then cleanses the planet of any resistance depending on the contract and then hands it over to their client who can do with it whatever they want, mostly colonization or mining rare resources, sometimes breaking the planet to get to it." Bulma said. Thing spat on the ground. Shang-Chi felt a knot in his stomach.
"Monsters," Yamcha said. "They are just space pirates. Going from planet to planet, killing anyone who stands in their way. And they probably send their best troops to the planets hardest to subdue." He continued.
"Sounds like this Kallark character is an elite warrior, so they are threatened." Shang-Chi said.
"Remember what Bulma said. Galactus is a client. This planet has been sold before. But we defeated Galactus and he retreated. Now, they are not taking any chances." Richards said showing images of the Fantastic Four fighting Galactus.
"Skrulls probably bought it." Spider-Woman said. Richards shook his head though.
"Not likely, we have footage of Kallark killing a Skrull that met them right after they landed. Wouldn't do that to a client I think. Besides occasional clients the Skrullsare partners to the organization, doing work for privileges. Mostly spying work and clean-up. No, somebody else bought it this time. Not Galactus, not Skrulls. Someone who wants the organization to do the dirty work, they probably want to colonize. Most likely it's the Kree." He said. Bulma nodded.
"The professor confirms this, this time its Kree. They are an alien race that, like the Skrulls, have conquered their own galaxy and now want to expand into the milky way." She said.
"Who knows how many clients and partners this organization has? This not the point and not going to help us fight them. Now me and Yamcha are feeling some insane powers coming from this Kallark. I'm afraid we need more heavy hitters, we are not going to be enough." Goku said. Everyone went silent and nodded.
"Then we have to be smart about it." Bulma said. She switched the image to show space, it zoomed in on a space station.
"Meet the Stark-Briefs space station. A multi-billion dollar project built 50 percent by Stark Enterprises and 50 percent by Capsule Corporation. Its purpose, global security. It hasn't been tested yet and only an hour ago approved by the UN. It is a huge AI with a production facility and global coverage of pretty much everything. It calculates and responds." She said.
"Responds?" Spider-woman asked.
"Yes, its threat assessment. It will construct any type of weapon it deems fit to counter the threat. Thanks to capsule technology and what limited android tech we have, combined with Stark energy supply and weapons tech it should be able to construct weapons that can counter omega-level threats." Bulma said.
"Sounds dangerous." Goku said. Bulma sighed.
"It's perfectly fine. Tony and I have personally supervised all designs and protocols around this thing. Just watch, it will help." She said.
"Well, it better hurry cause this Kallark will be here in less than an hour." Richards said. Bulma nodded.
"It will deliver. It has been gathering info and started building the moment they arrived, its now focussed on Kallark alone." She said reassuring.
"Alright, then we must now decide on a strategy." Goku said and they all arrived at a new location and gathered everyone not needed elsewhere.
Shang-Chi looked over his shoulder. On the horizon, he saw the Stark tower. They had chosen a good location to face the alien, far away from populated areas. They were sure the alien will come to them and not attack the country. This proved true when they arrived here together, Bulma from the tower confirmed Kallark had changed his course and was headed for them, ETA 5 minutes.
The plan, for now, was simple, when he arrives get as much information from him as they can and delay so the space station can deliver its weapon to assist, whatever it was.
"Alright now, here he comes. Remember the plan people, stick to it, listen to our orders. We delay him as much we can so the station can send reinforcements, hopefully, to defeat this guy. Don't be a hero, not now." Goku said through their earpieces. Goku, Yamcha, Iron Fist, Chang-Chi, and the Fantastic four were standing in the open, whilst others were scattered around, hiding, or on tactical positions.
"Psst, Shang-Chi. Where is Tenshinhan at?" Shang-Chi suddenly heard whispering behind him. He looked behind him, it was Daredevil. Shang-Chi wanted to shrug but thought the better of it.
"It's not like I can tell him what to do. We left Chiaotzu in charge of the school and when we left he said he had to do something first and he would meet up with me again. Can't contact him in any way." He said and looked forwards again, feeling a sudden pressure building up from over the horizon. It was a strange sensation, like the Earth was getting heavier.
"You feel that?" He asked Iron Fist. He nodded slightly, Shang-Chi looked at Goku, who had a face like he was already fighting. He was sweating heavily, same with Yamcha. Their eyes were staring, unblinking, at the horizon. The Fantastic Four were fine though.
"I see something." Susan said. Shang-Chi peered out to the horizon and confirmed it. Here he came.
He came down gracefully Shang-Chi had to admit. With his blue mohawk, purple skin, and a strange outfit he looked very alien indeed. Shang-Chi felt a terrible kind of pressure coming from him like he was pushing against him with his mere presence. It was terrifying. He couldn't imagine what Goku and Yamcha were experiencing right now.
"So, here you are. This planet's mightiest warriors. I commend you for facing me, instead of running. So many run." He said, walking calmly to the 8 of them. He peered at them individually, then kept staring at Goku.
"Ah, the Saiyan. We are most disappointed in you. Kakarot." He then said. Everyone looked at Goku, who was sweating, obviously not sure what to say.
"His name is Goku, he is of Earth. He will defend this planet along with all of us." Human Torch said. Kallark looked at him and then back as Goku again without flinching.
"Yes, as I said. Very disappointed. You were supposed to soften this planet up, for the coming of the Galactus. Cost the planet trade organization a lot of money when he found this planet ready to defend itself. Lord Frieza himself wanted this planet erased. But the Kree changed his mind." He said. Shang-Chi noticed the name of who and what he was working for. So it was true, they were in the business of planet trade. Goku finally found words.
"Whoever send me here or for whatever purpose, I belong here. You, nor anyone else can convince me otherwise. Now leave this place immediately, you have no right here." He said. Kallark started to laugh.
"We have every right, slave. Lord Frieza owns the Milky Way galaxy, just like how the Skrulls own the Andromeda galaxy. You will learn soon enough." He said. Reed Richards walked up.
"My kin and I were the ones to defeat the Galactus. Under your logic, by doing so we have established ourselves as the highest bidder of our planet." He said, giving his best poker face. Kallark just laughed though.
"HAHA, I admire the effort, human. But unfortunately, you are not a client of the organization and therefore you can't have a claim. I seriously doubt you have the money to pay the price of this planet anyway." He said. Now Shang-Chi stepped forward, eager to keep Richards bluff going.
"We have plenty of resources and materials to offer to seal any deal that would buy us the planet. Name the price." He said. It was true they had a lot of resources, including possible technology to trade, he doubted they had enough though. Kallark frowned at him, didn't seem amused by the idea.
"You expect me to contact my superior and relay this offer to him? Do you think I'm stupid? He will turn your miserable little planet into a lifeless rock, with me on it. Do not insult me or my boss again, or you will feel the consequences." He said. This gave them a lot of info, info they didn't really like. To think this powerful alien being was afraid of his boss. Richards came closer to him and whispered into his ear.
"We got to delay him as much as we can, wait until the station has created us some backup." He said. Shang-Chi slowly nodded. He focussed on Kallark again.
"Please. I am sure we can offer you at least something. We have technology, gold, food. Perhaps your boss is interested in weapons, or genetics? We have dragon..." Shang-Chi quickly cut off his sentence. This made Kallark's eyebrow raise, then he smirked.
"Ah yes, the dragonballs. Thanks to our spies we now have all information on them as well, the information has already been sent back to my boss. We cannot have interest however, everything on this planet belongs to the Kree. I have no personal interest in these dragonballs." He said. Now Goku stepped forward.
"Your team members seem out of control. Are you sure you can handle them? If I know my species right, they are just going to go further and further until there is nothing left to salvage. Surely your Kree clients don't want that?" Goku said. Smart, Shang-Chi thought, playing with his priorities. Kallark looked angry.
"I know a lot more about your species than you do, Kakarot. They pose no threat to me, not in this state, not if they were 10 times stronger or 20. Don't you see it? Can't you feel the power emitting from my body? I have defeated the Phoenix Force. Yes, you know about it, don't you? Its here, I felt it already. It fears me you see. It won't come out, won't help." He said calmly. Yamcha stepped forward.
"Well, fighting people stronger than us is kind of a specialty of me and Goku." He said. Shang-Chi shook his head, not smart. Don't dare him.
"Really?" Kallark said. He moved without really moving. Shang-Chi couldn't really describe it. Not even Goku, who was twice as fast saw anything happen. One moment Yamcha was standing there, the other he was gone. They heard a loud crash behind them and a grunt. They looked back and saw Yamcha was flung back about a mile into a rock. Spider-Woman ran back and picked Yamcha up from the rubble.
"He is still alive?" Kallark said. He had an eyebrow raised. "Hm, maybe you humans are tougher than you look. Let's check it out." He said and pushed the button on the device on his ear whilst focussing on Yamcha.
"Powerlevel 1250? Interesting. Yes, he was hiding it. Its declining though. Let's adjust to that on the scouter, shall we? The woman has an insignificant powerlevel but has mutant abilities. Let's see here." He started scanning the others as he was pushing buttons. "1400 for the man in the white pajamas, boring, 1000 for the bandana, boring. Hm, only Kakarot has a powerlevel worth mentioning. 2000. That's higher than his low-level brother... Oh, oops." Kallark said and smiled wide. Everyone was shocked.
"I have a brother?" Goku said, stammering.
"Wait, one of the Saiyans who landed is Goku's brother?" Shang-Chi said. He thought about that, all of them did. 2 of them were extremely strong, the strongest was their leader and probably not Goku's brother. One of the other ones was bald, so it was more likely the weakest of them was his brother. If only they could study the images now. Goku's face changed from shocked to angry.
"He is no brother of mine. I already got 2 brothers, they are called Yamcha and Krillin." Goku said. It was true enough. Shang-Chi didn't blame him, this guy was a space pirate who has probably killed thousands. Goku then powered up, channeling his powers and attacked Kallark. As he hit Kallark's chest there was a sonic boom and the wind-blasted towards all directions. Kallark never even flinched though. Goku punched again, and again, but it was like watching a child punch a brick wall. Nevertheless, as Yamcha came rushing on, so did Iron Fist and Shang-Chi himself. The FF meanwhile surrounded them all. In reality of course they had the best chance to keep him busy without dying themselves in the process. But the harassment had an effect for a short while. Iron Fist's punch gave quite a kick and that mixed with some KI blasts from both Goku and Yamcha fave the needed distraction of the fantastic four to take positions. They went for their 4 elements attack. Shang-Chi and Goku jumped out of the way, satisfied with the distraction they were able to provide but terribly disappointed in how little their increases in power meant against a foe like this.
"Its clobbering time!"
Thing hit the ground with his fists, catching Kallark by surprise and taking him out of balance. Invisible Woman made a forcefield around Mr. Fantastic as he stretched and wrapped himself around Kallark super fast. Then he squeezed tight.
"Johnny! Light him up!" Richards yelled and Johnny went flame on and fired his flames at Kallark. Reed was protected by the forcefield as Johnny's flame went hotter and hotter.
"Contain it, Susan! We nearly got him!" Reed yells as the flames start spreading and go over safety measures. Susan tried as she might but the powers were getting too much. Even with Thing helping a lot of the flames flared out, making Susan lose focus on Reed's protection. Goku and the others couldn't even get near as the flames roared like a gigantic torch. They heard Reed scream in pain.
"Johnny, stop. Stop!" Susan screamed and Johnny let his flames die down. Susan went on her knees. Then, an air blast blew Reed up like a balloon, stretching him beyond his limits. Goku and Shang-Chi caught him as best they could as he turned limb and unconscious. They looked at the smoke that was left behind by the flames and saw Kallark standing there. His face was burned, his clothes ripped, but all they did was made him furious.
"Its clobbering t..." Thing was going forward but a quick swipe by Kallark's arm punched him away and into a rock.
"Attack!" Goku yelled and threw a KI ball at Kallark. Shang-Chi came in with his feet, Black Panther shot forward and presented his claws, all the others around them charged Kallark. They had to do it now or they couldn't stop him. Iron Fist came in first and threw a punch but Kallark grabbed his wrist and stopped him dead center. From above they were surprised by another arrival, Elektra. Kallark looked up as she came in and fired high energy beams from his eyes right onto her. She was caught in mid-air and screamed out in pain as they burned her and punctured her skin. The beams went straight through her and a large part of her body turned to ash. Her corpse fell on the floor. Then Kallark lifted Iron Fist as he was punched and kicked by 6 people at once, he didn't even flinch. He broke Iron Fist's wrist and threw him onto the ground. Then, he stomped on his head, killing him instantly. Everybody immediately took a distance again, Goku and some others had shocked looks on their faces as they saw Iron Fist die. Goku looked around.
"Retreat!" He yelled, nobody had to be told twice. They had the smallest of windows and it was gone. The plan for the retreat was Roshi island. Kallarks eye beams shot around the retreating heroes, injuring several but some could withstand the beams, like Black Panther's armor, so they could shield the ones who didn't.
"We couldn't even take out his scouter!" Yamcha yelled out as they scattered and tried to getaway.
"Suppress your powers! That should give us more time." Goku yelled. Shang-Chi tried as best he could to take his powerlevel down, he managed to make it half. That wouldn't be enough, but it will have to do for now. They had Capsule corp and Stark industries vehicles ready nearby to take them away. The wounded(amongst them Reed Richards and Spider-Woman) were loaded onto a bigger transport.
"Bulma come in!" Yamcha yelled as he and Shang-Chi reached a vehicle.
"What is going on guys?" She asked.
"Any word on that space station bringing some reinforcements?" He asked as Shang-Chi fired up the hovercraft and took them out of here.
"Negative Yamcha, there is no indication yet. I am sorry, I must have miscalculated the speed at which it would work. Wait a minute. It's activating right now. Its firing multiple rockets down towards your location." She said.
"Well we are retreating, I hope whatever it is it can hold Kallark long enough for us to escape." He said and looked out the window at the sky. Shang-Chi did the same as he flew. In the sky they saw 5 smoke trails coming in fast, they overshot their vehicle and raced towards Kallark's position. A few seconds later they heard loud explosions behind them as the air turned red like a volcano just exploded.
"I don't think anything can stop him. It was like fighting a mountain." Yamcha said, fear in his voice.
"Or a God." Shang-Chi added with a surprised tone, still looking behind them to make sure they weren't followed.
As they got close to Roshi Island they saw several vehicles already standing there. Goku had arrived, so did Susan and Johnny. They said Thing was still with Reed, he got hurt too. Master Roshi was outside as well, all over Susan.
"We hope whatever the space station brought down on him has slowed him down long enough for us to regroup." Goku said.
"Regroup? We just got our asses whooped. People died." Johnny said.
"Kallark isn't destroyed by that firestorm back there?" Roshi asked casually. Shang-Chi looked out over the horizon, even here he saw the orange glow from the island they just came from, all the way near Japan.
"That's going to do a lot more damage than it first seems. I hope Namor and others are busy underwater holding down tsunamis and preventing typhoons. Did you hear that last explosion?" Yamcha said Shang-Chi as they both stared at the madness. Shang-Chi could only slightly nod.
"Here comes Black Panther in his ship. Looks like he brought some reinforcements from Wakanda." Shang-Chi noticed. In the distance, he saw the big royal vessel from Wakanda followed by some smaller types of the same style, 2 dozen in total.
"Bulma is coming as well, I just got off the radio with her." Goku said. "The station weapon didn't work, Kallark is currently taking out every Stark and Capsule corps facility in Japan, the Japanese military is powerless." He continued. Shang-Chi balled his fists, they should be there helping those innocent people.
"He won't stop, what should we do?" Yamcha asked.
"We go back there, help those people!" Shang-Chi yelled. He went back to his ship but the extended arm of Reed Richards stopped him.
"You will die." He said. Shang-Chi worked back tears. He looked at Goku, he saw he was shaking. He wanted to go too, Goku hated it not being the strongest, being powerless. Shang-Chi stopped resisting.
"All this training. So much time wasted." He said. Goku looked up.
"Wasted? We have become more powerful than we could have imagined. But it's still not enough. How do we get to their level?" He asked himself more than everybody around him. Meanwhile, Black Panther had touched down and met up with all of them.
"I have brought as much as I could, but I fear it is not enough. We don't have weapons capable of harming him." Black Panther reported.
"We need to retreat further. Roshi Island is not enough." Goku then said, stepping towards them.
"Go where? Retreating to Roshi Island is all we got. Its secret, small, in the middle of the ocean. Can't get safer than this." Yamcha said.
"We are not here to get safe. We are here to make a new plan and do what we do." Goku said, looking at Yamcha with a warning look. He continued. "Roshi Island is not good enough, we need a defensive position. Somewhere we have access to equipment, abilities, where we have room to work. Any ideas?" He looked around. Black Panther shrugged.
"I suppose we could go to Wakanda. We got decent protection there, defenses. But nothing much more than Latveria got and the Super Skrull easily took out that country." He said. Goku shook his head.
"No, I will not put you people in that kind of danger. It needs to be safe, away from civilization." He said.
"You are talking about something like Dr. Strange's mansion or the Savage lands?" Yamcha asked. Goku thought about that.
"Strange's mansion is too risky, its in the middle of NYC. I know it has strong magical barriers but we don't know if they can hold that monster. The Savage lands are hard to find, could be an option. It can help us buy time but it has no defenses and a lot of mutants living there, none powerful enough to defeat Kallark." He said. Master Roshi then came in between them all and coughed.
"You youngsters always think too hard about these things. Don't you remember a place that has mystical properties, is far away from any civilization, and has some pretty darn good defenses high up in the air?" He said. Goku yelped.
"Of course. Kami's lookout. I remember. It suppresses cosmic powers. It's perfect. If we lure Kallark there he will be depowered and then we have a chance." He said. Everyone nodded. That was the best option. Shang-Chi hadn't been there yet, Korin didn't want to tell him how to get there.
"Fine then, lead the way." Black Panther said.
"Better hurry it up, guys. Kallark has found us. He is coming." Bulma said. Everybody started moving towards their vehicles. Goku and Yamcha didn't bother, they lifted into the air. Shang-Chi wanted to follow them but he was only half as fast. He was better at flying a plane than himself though.
"Just follow our energy signature." Goku said as he and Yamcha shot off towards the west.
Chapter 11: Chapter 8
Chapter Text
The world was in utter chaos. Armies from all over the world had mobilized and were coordinating and uniting their forces to fight these alien invaders.
To no avail. Superheroes from all over the world implored the armies of the world to stand down to prevent any unnecessary human loss.
Destruction was everywhere. Since the defeat of the Avengers at the hand of the Saiyans, there has been no stopping them. After the Avengers they paid a visit to the X-men mansion and destroyed it, the X-men got barely out with their lives. Then they went after every SHIELD facility on the continent and left nothing but craters, probably on direct orders from their leader Gladiator after he destroyed all facilities of SHIELD, Stark industries, and Capsule Corp in eastern Asia.
The Super Skrull popped up now and then in various places all over the world, leaving behind death and destruction. He appeared to be searching for something, a behavior different from the Saiyans who destroyed everything they saw without investigation.
Their orders were simple, and they were extremely efficient in carrying them out. They were even enjoying themselves.
Then there were the Saibamen. They were hard to find and snuck away frequently to pop up somewhere else and wreak havoc. 1 was killed by Spiderman in New York, but only one of the weaker blue ones. Heroes from all over the world were on active duty.
Many heroes died, mostly mutants and small teams that confronted the menace alone or couldn't get away and were targeted by the Scouters.
Gladiator, the alien known as Kallark, was seen rushing through the pacific, harassed by Atlanteans and various supervillains like Tiger Shark. This was until Gladiator was seen diving into the water before popping out later and after that, he was no longer harassed. He found a small island and destroyed it. Then he appeared to shoot up straight into the sky until nobody could track him.
Well, no technology could. Dr. Strange looked at all with worried eyes. He was especially interested in the Super Skrull, who now had found the 3rd decoy Dragonball and had smashed it to bits, growing more and more furious.
"Eventually he will find it." Wong said, standing behind Strange as he peered at the orb of agamotto looking at the world in chaos. Strange nodded slowly.
"I wish I could tell the world how important it is that he doesn't acquire it. Not like this." He whispered the last 3 words.
"Well, the world is currently busy with more pressing matters. Perhaps you should join in as well?" Wong asked, almost sarcastically because Strange was not known for listening.
"Absolutely not. The moment I leave is the moment the Sanctorum is vulnerable to attack. I can't let that happen." He said. Wong frowned. He didn't understand. He will, but it's best he didn't know just yet.
"It's here isn't it?" Wong asked looking at Strange with both skeptical and terrified eyes. Strange sighed, so much for keeping him out of the loop. He nodded slowly.
"Of course it is." Strange said. Wong's eye got bigger, he punched the wall.
"Are you mad? Don't you realize what you have done? You will bring them down directly on top of the Sanctorum. Everything we are protecting, everything we have collected, everybody who depends on us. He will destroy this place, utterly and totally. Not even the eye can help us." Wong said, fuming, he was throwing things around like a child.
"The Dragonballs are more important than the eye, or even the Sanctorum." Strange said plainly. Wong was speechless, but as always, only for a moment.
"I can't believe this, meeting my final hours defending a relic from a lost species during a lost time. These dragonballs are only an imitation of the original ones, and even they were never used, nobody knows their power, we can only guess from the ancients texts and direct analysis of them. And frankly, I'm not impressed." Wong said.
"Did you know you could wish for an infinity stone with these?" Strange asked. Wong stopped throwing a tantrum, after staring at Strange for a time he started cleaning up. Before he exited he looked back.
"We should be glad the originals were destroyed then." He said and closed the door. Strange kept looking at the orb, something was heading their way and it was not the Super Skrull.
"If only." He said and headed outside. He looked at the direction the approaching bogey was coming from. He had identified it already, his name was Tienshinhan of the Crane School of Martial Arts. A mutant, an ally. He landed in front of Strange, he didn't know how Tienshinhan was able to detect the Sanctorum without magic abilities.
"He is coming." Was all he said.
"I know, I have been preparing for him." Strange replied.
"Not well enough it would seem." They heard a voice from the shadows of the roof of the Sanctorum. A figure came out, Piccolo Daimao. Strange and Tien jumped in unison, prepared to fight. Piccolo held out a hand.
"Please, if I wanted to fight you would already be bleeding." Piccolo said.
"He is more powerful than me." Tienshinhan said. "I can't beat him on my own."
"He has mastered a lot of magic as well." Strange said. He felt the magic channeling, dangerous magic. Must have learned it from Dr. Doom initially, but this was far beyond what Doom would dare to do. It was like it came more natural to him. Piccolo looked at him curiously.
"You can feel it can't you? The power flowing through me? Yes, I have been to places, places not even you have seen, sorcerer. I found something out about me today, something that gave me perspective. Now, my motives have shifted, turned into a grander direction. The world doesn't matter to me anymore, not even the dragonballs matter. No, I have seen the powers that bind the universe. Powers beyond any mortal, any demon, even beyond gods. I have seen the path and I need to follow that path. To do that I need to see this Super Skrull dead. I suggest we team up." He said. Tienshinhan and Strange looked dumbfounded at him.
"What is the catch?" Tienshinhan finally asked. Piccolo seemed surprised by that question.
"Catch? Don't stand in my way after this, this crisis. I do not wish what my father wished, but I do wish. I wish to become the next sorcerer supreme." He said. Strange took a more relaxed stance and looked at Tienshinhan.
"Is that all? If you want the job you can have it. I'll give you the eye of Agamotto right now if you wish... Oh, you want the other thing. Yeah, that's not going to happen." Strange said.
"The Skrull already has 6 of them, give me the 7th and I'll wish to become sorcerer supreme and with that power, I can defeat Gladiator." Piccolo said. Tien went closer to Stephen.
"He can do that?" He asked. Stephen thought about it a moment. Then nodded.
"Yes, you can wish for that, the Dragon will make sure it's official and fully. His powers will all be enhanced, his access will be unlimited and, as with all Sorcerer Supremes, he will own of the eye. With that, he might be able to do what he claims he can." He said.
"So why not give him the eye so he can kill Gladiator?" Tien asked.
"Because he needs the title, a title I can give him, unofficially. But I don't pick my successor, only 1 can do that. The dragon can overrule him though, it's that powerful. But I won't allow it, such a change can destroy the very fabrics that hold the universe together. It's too dangerous, it's mad." He said.
The Sanctorum itself was not in a good state to fight in, Strange had planned to fight outside, use its outside defenses. Fighting inside will unleash powers beyond anyone's ability to fight. He can't fight Piccolo on this now, he needs him. "We'll see after we deal with Super-Skrull who'll be Sorcerer Supreme okay?" He said, Piccolo nodded and then shrugged. Tien was not getting any of this, he went along with Wong to get a weapon of some kind.
"He is using some kind of technomancy, some kind of satellite in orbit is communicating with him. Doom is currently looking for it. If we take that out we take him out. Meanwhile though we have to keep him away from the Dragonball. Where is it?" Piccolo said as they walked around the Sanctorum. Tien got back with a mystical flail.
"I think you are right." Strange said, Piccolo only raised an eyebrow. "He is finding the doors, the gateways through dimensions, but not on his own. Technomancy is hard to detect, easy to screw up but almost impossible to crack. All you can do is find the source. This is the only shot we get against him though. As long as he is connected to that satellite we can't beat him. Not even us." He said. Tienshinhan sighed.
"Great, the sorcerer supreme, a demon king, and one of world's last old school martial artists can't stand up to one alien." He said sarcastically.
"If you would have trained properly you would be twice as powerful and we would have a chance." Piccolo said to Tien just to piss him off. He hardly lied though.
"An alien with access to technological gadgets that cost more gold than we have on this planet and the abilities of the Fantastic Four at his disposal supplied by the satellite with a power output that rivals Galactus." Strange said. Piccolo sniffed. Tienshinhan groaned.
"Those old school martial arts you mention have a lot more potential than you know currently." Piccolo said as Strange's magic picked up the Super Skrull approaching. They went to the roof and took a small distance from the Sanctorum, going roof to roof until Strange halted them. Piccolo meanwhile kept explaining.
"Mutaito was more than a martial artist, some say he was an External but I have a feeling he was an Elder God, one of the oldest entities of Earth, born directly from the lifeseed of Demiurge. I might dare go as far as to call him Amon-Ra, or Atum, the sun god. He probably took on a human form somewhere around 200 BC when he was cast out of the last council of godheads. He was like Prometheus you see, bringing fire to the mortals. His "martial arts" are his way of bringing humans closer to godhood, through life. Like always though, it failed horribly once people in power found out about it, like En Sabah Nur, Apocalypse," He continued.
"His mortal body was destroyed all those decades ago, not by King Piccolo my father though, but by a joined effort of mutants and Inhumans. The 'Mafuba' is the last ritual for a human to ascend, if he is ready that is. Works on demons to cast them out as you conjure up a lot of cosmic powers when doing the ritual they get caught in." He finished as Super-Skrull approached and touched down in front of them, fuming.
"I'm angry. No, I'm really, fully, pissed off now. Your delaying the inevitable has caused me to reconsider sparing your planet from my wrath." He started, piccolo walked forward, as he did he got rid of his headgear, his mantel, his wristband,s and his shoulder guards. Only now did Strange and Tienshinhan notice the differences in his appearance with his father King Piccolo. He was not a full-on clone.
"We don't need to hear your speech, plenty of humans give speeches like that, its getting old. Why don't we get this over with?" He said and powered up. Strange and Tienshinhan took a step back as he did, it was terrifying. Not only did he have a lot more power in reserve that he now unleashed but the true scope of his magic power came to light now. It was pure, raw magic. Strange hadn't anticipated this, he has just been storing raw energy inside himself to use on his own. He draws way too much attention to himself that way, too dangerous. The Skrull looked at him and pushed on the scouter on his head. He then looked shocked.
"Powerlevel 4500 now? That's almost as much as that animal Nappa! And your magic reserves have increased. So, you were holding back earlier huh?" he said.
"Yes, I was." Piccolo said then moved so quickly nobody could detect him. A small blast was heard and the Skrull screamed in pain as he grabbed his ear. The scouter was his target, and he had succeeded in destroying it. Super-Skrull was beyond rage.
"That was a pointless effort. I don't need it anymore. I know where the last one is, I can almost smell it. If not I'll beat it out of the humans." He said and attacked.
He fought direct, quick, without hesitation. His main focus was Piccolo of course, who utilized his magic alongside Strange but their magic was ineffective. The technomancy protected him, its influence a lot higher than when Piccolo fought him in Latveria. Again, and Piccolo told them this, he was constantly looking for the Dragonball as they fought.
"Well, lets lead him to it then." Strange suggested when they were being forced closer and closer to the Sanctorum. It was like the Skrull was drawn to it. The scouter was guiding him towards the magical hotspot at first, but now he didn't need it anymore it seemed. Tienshinhan took the lead, using his martial arts to deflect Super-Skrull's cosmic attack, based on the Fantastic Four. Tienshinhan had studied the Fantastic Four thoroughly and developed tactics against their elemental attacks. Strange was impressed.
"You use your Chi like I use my magic, adapt it to suit your needs. Very well done, I had no idea it was possible to manipulate it this way." He remarked as he opened a portal into a part of the Sanctorum that could take a beating for a while, Super-Skrull followed them into it. This room seemed to have infinite floors. It confused both Tien and the Super-Skrull. But Strange and Piccolo seemed to be more relax here, like they let go of some heavy burdens.
"I'm getting closer. I can sense it, we Skrulls have a sixth sense for power." Super-Skrull kept saying these things during the fighting, which became weirder and weirder as Piccolo and Strange kept conjuring and summoning weirder things. The Super-Skrull, although confused, held his own still. Without his scouter to help him, he was now more reliant on his abilities taken from the fantastic four.
"There is no denying his connection with his powers are almost like that of a mutant, they are second nature to him." Tien mentioned. Strange was leading the Skrull away from the Dragonball as much as he could but he seemed to be able to find his way back to it nonetheless. The source of his powers had something to do with it.
"Don't try to elude me from my goal. I know where it is, I will get to it. It's so near an opening, like an open door to me. All I have to do is reach out." He said, with his elongation he reached into several floors and dimensions at once. He grabbed various objects, causing confusion, opening new doors, and closing the old ones. Even when Piccolo confirmed the satellite giving him power was destroyed he still managed to take them.
Eventually, Tien lost track of it all and got lost, they didn't see him anymore as Piccolo's duplicates and Strange's conjures were picked off one by one from all sides. He was overpowering them, until, eventually.
"Haha! I got it!" The Skrull exclaimed. Piccolo now too had lost track of things but Strange saw where he was at. He decided to close the doors, make the moving room smaller. But it was true, he had found it. Strange stepped back into the real world, just outside the Sanctorum. Piccolo got out as well a few seconds later as the Skrull was picking himself together again, only then they saw the Dragonball in his hand. He shot up and got away. Strange turned and jumped back through a portal. A few minutes later he came out with an exhausted Tien. Piccolo was waiting quietly. He grunted.
"Why did you let him get away?" Piccolo asked. Strange wiped his forehead with a sleeve.
"That's not the real Dragonball either. Do you think I let something as important as that be protected here on Earth? No, I send it to the one place where it would be safe. The Guardian." The sorcerer supreme said with a smile, knowing he outsmarted Piccolo. Piccolo looked stunned.
"But that's impossible. If Kami knew, I would have known too. I... He doesn't know? Does he?" He asked then. Strange smiled.
"Well, he does now I suppose. Doesn't matter now, the Skrull can't track it anymore and we have destroyed his satellite. Now we can focus on the big problem, Gladiator." He said. Tienshinhan came standing next to them.
"I hate to tell this to you guys, but I know where Gladiator is going. He is headed straight for the lookout." He said.
Chapter 12: Chapter 9
Chapter Text
"They are coming, they all are at the same time. When exactly did we get this stupid?" Yamcha said as he was looking over the edge. He and Krillin were about the only ones who were able to give any information about what was going on down there. A lot of people were here, including what was left of the Avengers and X-men. They had all been able to gather after Bulma send out a call across the globe to anyone they could trust. The lookout was the last stand.
They hadn't thought about the consequences of being here though. Without technology, they couldn't get in contact with any of their allies, not SHIELD, not the Capsule Corporation, not Stark Industries. The X-men were not even able to contact Xavier at the school, their powers just didn't reach through the cosmic barriers this place had.
All they had was 4 Chi users looking over the edge and tracking energy signatures. The plan they had left was luring Kallark here and take him out before any of the other invaders were able to back him up.
The Saiyans had been on a rampage around the globe. Relatively, the damage had been minor, which gave a big relief. No more heroes had died yet, although Bruce Banner was still critical.
Now they appeared to have stopped their rampage and were on their way over here, along with Kallark coming from way further. The Super-Skrull seemed to be arriving here first though, a lot sooner than the other 2. Since he lost most of his powers nobody was worried about him, he'll probably wait on a safe distance and wait for the others.
Goku and Shang-Chi meanwhile had entered the hyperbolic time chamber, after convincing Kami they could survive it. They had been there for nearly a day and were soon to come out. Can't be soon enough, Kallark might be depowered from the lookout's influences, but not the Saiyans. And like with Goku, they only seemed to be getting stronger.
"Super-Skrull is doing what we predicted, he is hanging back. The Saiyans will be here next, about 20 minutes." Yamcha continued and stopped looking over the edge to stretch his neck.
People were walking around, laying on the ground, sparring somewhere. Having nothing to do was hard for a lot here, like Wolverine and Spiderman. One was getting grumpier by the minute and the other just wouldn't stop talking. Still, they were one of the more useful people here. Tony Stark was stuck here and couldn't do anything without his armor working, the same went for Black Panther's tech(although his claws seemed to be working). The planes and weapons he brought had become useless.
"Still can't get a signal. My most powerful satellites have to be right on top of us, I've never been this close to them with my suit and I just can't get a signal." Iron Man was saying, Tony only had the helmet on by now, it was hard to move without power to the armor. Lucky for him he didn't need the arc reactor to keep him alive or he would have been in real trouble.
"I can't stand this waiting, I am used at confronting the enemy, to be there at the frontline. How far is Gladiator now?" Black Panther said. Yamcha looked out over the edge again.
"He is picking up speed, he might be here first." He said.
"Patience is a virtue. One of the most famous and truest human expressions." Kami said, walking outside amongst the restless human superheroes. "Even with his powers reduces he will not be taken out easily. Truer than that, once he figures out his powers have been reduced and he jumps down, nobody will be safe, not even me I'm afraid." Kami looked over at Krillin shortly.
"We have a plan," Krillin said sternly. "Or rather, Goku has a plan. What does the clock say?" He asked loudly so Gardener could hear.
"15 more minutes." He said calmly. Yamcha grunted.
"I say Kallark will be here in 5. The Saiyans, a couple of minutes after that. Guess we'll have to improvise. Again." He said.
"Look alive people. The moment is finally approaching." Black Panther said, who had become the de facto leader and most respected person of the entire group with Goku gone and Cap dead. People got to their feet quickly though, although, the ones that felt useful. Tony Stark just stayed where he was. Black Panther walked up to him.
"Nothing works?" He asked again. Tony opened the helmet and looked at him with half a smile.
"Just my watch to be honest, the dials are moving it seems. Other than that, nothing." He said. Black Panther nodded slowly.
"Alright you and the others that are vulnerable just stay behind, when it gets too hot, jump off. Tony, I'm sure the tech will come back soon enough for you to react." He said. Tony would have jumped off sooner and get his defenses online and start a patrol around the lookout but Gladiator would easily catch up on that and destroy everything with his laser eyes from miles away. They had to wait for him to be on the lookout.
"Alright, you all know the plan. Keep him here, keep him busy. Krillin, you and Yamcha get on top of him and use everything you got. Then, when the Saiyans arrive we all rush them, the rest of us. If we can keep them occupied, we have a chance. 10 minutes. We can manage 10 minutes." He said, looking at Kami for a short moment who twisted his hands to say he was doubtful. Black Panther looked back at the group and took off his hood.
"We have to, for Earth. This is our last shot. If we fail here, no more Avengers, no more X-men, no more Guardian." He said. They all nodded and sighed. He saw fear in them, worry. Too much worry.
"He's here." Wolverine said, the only one watching the edge as T'Challa was giving out tactics and positions, he had put his hood back on. They all turned at once and saw Kallark hanging a few feet above the platform slowly sliding over towards the group. His face was more of agony than anger. His head was boiling like he was in a sauna.
Then he touched down on the ground in front of everyone. He didn't seem affected though. He walked up slowly.
"You." He whispered. T'Challa stepped in front of everyone and held up a hand. Kallark's eyes went bigger and then turned red. He fired his lasers but T'Challa dodged them. They hit the floor of the Lookout but didn't seem to do any damage. Kallark stopped dead center.
"What is this trickery?" He said as he looked at his hand and clenched his fists. "My powers..." Before he could react further though Black Panther jumped back.
"Now!" He yelled and Yamcha and Krillin jumped up.
"KAMEHAMEHA!" They yelled and blasted Kallark full-on with 2 waves bigger than they had ever produced. Kallark held up his arm to block them as best he could the explosion sending people flying and dust blinding everyone. When the smoke cleared though Kallark stood there, his hands smoking and trembling from the force. Krillin and Yamcha came down on top of him but Kallark blocked both their arms. Others rushed him as well including T'Challa whilst others surrounded him and went closer to the edge. Wolverine went to the edge as well to keep track of the Saiyans.
"Pin him down!" T'Challa said and jumped onto Kallark. He punched him away though as Krillin and Yamcha tried to grab his arms from behind. They grabbed the wrists with one hand and the other pushed against his elbows, forcing him to face the floor and go on his knees.
"AH! You dare touch Gladiator?" He screamed and pushed off with his feet, knocking Yamcha and Krillin back. They rolled backward and fired another KI blast at him as they jumped up as well. Yamcha fired several more smaller blasts, slowing Kallark down as he was rising. Despite his loss of power, he was still insanely strong. Krillin went for an elbow on his head and the hit stopped Kallark from rising, but Krillin felt like he hit a concrete statue. Yamcha came down with a knee as well and they managed to slam him down a few feet. As Krillin tried again he was grabbed by the ankle and thrown towards the ground though. Spiderman was there to catch him.
"Our blasts did nothing to him. He is still pretty much invulnerable." Krillin said as he stood up and looked up at Yamcha surrounding Kallark with blasts everywhere. Krillin jumped back up again and wet full speed at him, arms stretched. He hit Kallark in the side and Kallark for the first time seemed to feel something. Yamcha planted a foot in his face and finally, Kallark fell towards the ground again. He landed neatly though on one knee.
"No," He whispered as he stood up. Again both martial artists charged him from up high as T'Challa and Spiderman came from 2 sides. Spiderman shot his webs on him and attached them to the floor so he couldn't jump up. He left the torso free of webs as T'Challa came in with his claws and swept them over Kallark's torso. No damage. Kallark punched T'Challa away and with his lasers cut away the web as Yamcha and Krillin came down on top of him. They grabbed Kallark and held him down, forcing him to the ground with all their strength. Things were looking well, they felt Kallark was getting more tired, his powers flowing away more and more. That was until Krillin felt they had more company. He let go for a split second and that gave Gladiator the momentum to wrestle free and jump away from the 2. He grabbed Yamcha and flung him towards the edge, nearly causing Yamcha to go over. He looked at the edge along with Krillin, the others followed. Three figures appeared, the bald one had an unconscious Wolverine under his arm and dropped him onto the lookout platform. The bald one fired up a Ki blast and released it onto the unconscious body of Wolverine, killing him. They touched down.
"Vegeta, Nappa, Raditz," Kallark said. "Help me. Kill them and destroy this place." He said. The Saiyans were unresponsive. Vegeta smirked. Meanwhile, Krillin rushed to Yamcha who was coming around again, Krillin helped him up and they stumbled back to the others, everyone had gathered ready for the fight they had all been waiting for.
"Excellent," Vegeta said. "Now nothing can stop us from wrestling ourselves free. Your time is up Gladiator." Everyone around didn't move, they planned to attack them immediately but their presence, even though nobody could sense their powers it was quite obvious they couldn't do a thing, not just them. Then the gardener came forward from the house.
"They are out." He said and behind him, 2 figures appeared as well. Goku and Shang-Chi had emerged from the hyperbolic time chamber. They both looked amazing, well-rested, and strong. Goku especially looked much more muscular and taller. Shang-Chi looked a lot leaner but powerful. They had a constant aura around them, Goku's blue and Shang-Chi's white. The Saiyans looked at them curiously. Vegeta tapped his scouter. As it was done he looked surprised.
"Powerlevel 20,000 and 15,000? How? What did you do?" He asked. Goku didn't say anything, they both just kept on walking forward until they faced the Saiyans. They had a quick look around, saw Kallark sweating, he went down onto one knee, he seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. The looked at the crater where the remains of Wolverine's body was smoldering. They looked at the bleeding T'Challa and Yamcha and helpless heroes all around.
"Stop this now. We are both stronger than any of you now. You can't win, surrender." Goku said to Vegeta. He only smiled.
"This is perfect actually. Gentlemen, our rebellion can now officially begin." He said. The other 2 smiled. Vegeta open the palm of his hand, he was preparing a KI ball, it had a weird light. As it released and went up everyone followed it, then it disappeared into the sky, like a star fading. Shang-Chi, Yamcha, Krillin, and the others stopped looking at it and looked at the Saiyans. They were still looking up. So was Goku.
"What..." Goku whispered.
"What is happening?" Yamcha asked. Krillin shrugged. Then, the stuff of nightmares happened. Right in front of their eyes, the 4 Saiyans transformed into horrible, huge apes, 40 feet tall. Goku was the first to transform, violently, his clothes tore off as he grew rapidly to tower over the lookout palace. Vegeta smiled widely as he saw him grow and then grew himself, his face turning into that of an ape and brown hair covering his body that got larger and larger. The 2 others transformed as well, the clothes they were wearing growing along with them. In just a few seconds 4 huge apes stood on the platform. One of them, the naked one that used to be Goku roared and beat his chest.
Krillin ran up to Kallark who looked down onto the floor, sweat dripping from his face.
"What is happening? What are those?" He asked. Kallark looked at him, his face all in a state of defeat.
"This is the true strength of the Saiyan race, the Oozaru. In this state, their powers have increased tenfold. This puts 2 in the region of my powers if I was at full strength. Vegeta's level is now at 120,000, the others 50,000 and 15,000. Your Goku is something else though, powerlevel of 200,000, that's truly rare and dangerous. Rivals anything I have ever seen except Lord Frieza." He said. Oozaru Goku stomped on the ground, causing everyone to stumble and flyers to leave the ground. He hit the palace with his fists and reduced it to rubble. Then he fired a KI blast with his mouth at everyone standing on the platform, they all managed to dodge just barely.
"Why is he doing that?" Krillin asked.
"Your friend has hardly transformed before, has he? They transform by the light of a blue moon, very rare on this planet. It has happened in his lifetime of course, once they turn 10, but I suppose he was indoors or there were clouds? Yes, at the first few transformations it is known they lose control, they go on a rampage. See the other 3?" He asked. Krillin looked. The other 3 were standing there looking at Goku rampaging, then turned towards everyone.
"They are in control, fully aware. My task was to kill them when they decided to rebel, Frieza's direct orders. Like this I can't do anything, at full strength I can overpower them. Now excuse me." Kallark said and pushed Krillin away and made a run for the edge. The Oozaru Vegeta noticed that tough and jumped up. He landed right on top of Kallark, killing him instantly. It turned to Krillin and fired a Ki blast from his mouth. Krillin jumped away but was flung away much further as the blast hit the ground.
"What do we do?" Spiderman asked as he swung with his webs in between the towering apes.
"Keep them on the platform, keep them... Oh no." T'Challa was giving orders when he saw Oozaru Goku stomping towards the edge, looking down and then jump off. Shang-Chi meanwhile, more powerful than any of them was blasting huge KI blasts at the apes, his powerlevel was equal to that of Raditz's ape form so that was a plus, but they still had 2 unstoppable apes on the platform.
"Tony, Angel, Wasp, anyone that can fly. Go after Goku. Try everything you can to make him see sense, you have to make him stop!" T'Challa said as he got the attention of the Nappa Oozaru who moved in on him, he was forced towards the edge.
He couldn't even damage the hairs on this thing, it had him cornered too. For a moment he thought about jumping off the edge as well until he noticed the sky above them changed color. It turned dark.
"Are the dragonballs...?" He questioned, the Nappa Oozaru looked up curiously. Clouds formed, rapidly, unnaturally. A rumbling was heard in the clouds and it started to rain heavily. Then a lightning strike hit the ground near the Nappa Oozaru who roared in anger.
Chapter 13: Chapter 10
Chapter Text
"Look!" Krillin pointed up in the sky. They saw a familiar and very welcome sight. An even bigger lightning rod came down and hit Nappa right on his head, it was followed by a man. No, not a man, a god. Thor's hammer struck the great ape right between the eyes at the speed of sound. A loud, deafening thunderclap was heard as 1.21 gigawatts of electricity and the weight of a neutron star hit the Saiyan. The shockwave went down into the ground of the lookout, sending pieces of it flying and large cracks to appear. The power surge engulfed the body of the great ape and it nearly caught fire as it fell backward onto the lookout floor. Thor landed next to the lifeless body of the Saiyan brute, which was still smoldering.
"Fang det, thy tainted fiend!" He said. The heavy rain made it hard to see but T'Challa and everyone still able to walk rushed up to Thor, glad to finally see him.
"I am sorry my friends, my allies. Asgard had much need of my aid. My father however alerted me of the situation here on Midgard and I came as soon as I could. I humbly ask you forgiveness." He said. They greeted him quickly of course, Oozaru Vegeta was momentarily stunned but was recovering. Shang-Chi kept him distracted as he was tiring Oozaru Raditz out.
"You are very much forgiven Thor," T'Challa said, looking at the dead great ape which was transforming back into human shape. "You have taken care of 1 great threat, as you can see though there is one more and he is 3 times as strong as that one was. We don't know how they became this, there must be a source for their transformation, the moon is not out." He continued. Thor turned and looked up at the Oozaru Vegeta who was having difficulties getting his hands on Shang-Chi who was only dodging and getting Raditz in the way of Vegeta's attacks.
"These creatures are channeling a tremendous amount of power, unlike we have ever seen on any of the other worlds. Not even Jodenheim. These kinds of powers are ancient, raw, limitless. This species has the potential to become... more. They are improving rapidly, this has not gone unnoticed on Asgard and many more places. It's truly a shame they use their powers for evil. What I did to the now dead one was a charged attack, can't do that again and I'm not sure if it will work on the strongest of them. Black Panther, Spiderman, Wolverine, we need to find this source. The holy lookout is no place for a fight like this, but it is better than down on the planet. We have to keep them here, fighting here weakens me as well but as long as they are here Earth is safe." He said. T'Challa looked at the others.
"I'm afraid our ally, Goku is also of this species and has already jumped down onto the planet. He is mighty strong, stronger than this one even. But we cannot kill him. There must be a way to stop him, to end his rampage!" He yelled at Thor as he thought about what they might be forced to do. Thor put a hand on his shoulder.
"It is not his fault, I know. Goku cannot be stopped by the superheroes of Earth, they have to try and cut his tail off before he destroys civilization. My people call this time Ragnarok, and only the bravest can survive it and it will demand great sacrifice. I will try to cut off the tail of this one, whilst you all try to find the source, it's outside of the lookout, away from its influence." He said.
"Perhaps I can help with that." They heard over at the edge. It was Piccolo. Everybody got ready for a fight, but Thor kept calm and walked over to him. Piccolo didn't flinch, instead, he held his hand out.
"I can help. Doom's satellites are still online, through my magic I can still communicate with them. The Saiyan Vegeta launched a ball of energy higher into the mesosphere, perhaps higher. It's this ball that gives them the transformation. I can find it, you all stay here and keep Vegeta and Raditz on the lookout." He said. Thor simply nodded. He looked back at the others.
"It is the best plan we got. Help Shang-Chi now!" He yelled and started slinging the hammer around and around until he was flung towards his target.
"Avengers assemble!" T'Challa yelled. Everyone was an Avenger now. All they could do was ground control though to keep the two apes on the lookout by guiding them away from the edge. Thor meanwhile scored some good hits on Vegeta, although not as much damage as you might expect. He had trouble getting to his tail though, Vegeta was fully aware and knew what he was after.
But, Raditz was too occupied by Shang-Chi to pay enough attention and Thor managed to get behind him and grab hold of it. Raditz Oozaru was stunned, didn't move a muscle anymore as his tail was grabbed. Shang-Chi moved in and uppercut the big ape, it went down with a large crash. Before Vegeta was able to get to them Thor charged up lightning in Mjolnir and unleashed it on the tail, cutting it off at the stem. Immediately Raditz changed back to his normal self. He was unconscious. Thor looked at Shang-Chi who took a moment to catch his breath. He looked at Thor and nodded. Thor flung Mjolnir and attacked Vegeta, a few seconds later Shang-Chi followed him.
"That couldn't have taken much longer, I can feel my powers fading. Soon I won't be of much use against this brute. We must hope Piccolo can find the source soon." Thor said and they kept the monster busy as best they can, the other heroes occasionally finding an opening to help out. They were able to keep him on the platform well enough, it just was difficult to keep dodging his attacks and prevent themselves from being grabbed without anyone getting injured. As Thor was slowing down, and Shang-Chi was getting tired.
"If only we can grab his tail as you did Raditz. They seem to not be able to move if their tail is grabbed. We must tell this to the people down on the planet trying to stop Goku. If they can stun him the biggest danger is removed." Shang-Chi said.
"Nobody here can get down there now. Only you, Shang-Chi, and we need Thor here." T'Challa said. Shang-Chi looked at Thor. He nodded.
"Go, we can hold him off. I Still have some tricks up my sleeve." Thor said. Shang-Chi knew he had to do it.
He just hoped Piccolo will be in time to find the source and change them all back before Vegeta was able to get off and join Goku's rampage on Earth. He jumped off the platform, he had learned how to fly from Goku in the time chamber.
It wasn't hard to find Goku of course, his energy signature was huge. Pretty quickly he saw the giant shape of the Oozaru on the horizon. He was stampeding across China, on his way to Mongolia. Several airborne superheroes were circling him, including Iron Man, Rogue, Human Torch, and The Wasp. They were all throwing everything they have at Goku but nothing seemed to affect him.
"You have to go for the tail!" Shang-Chi yelled as he got closer. Everybody turned as he came in at full speed, the white aura around him lighting up like a beacon. Oozaru Goku noticed it too and immediately fired an energy beam from his mouth at Shang-Chi which he only barely dodged. He got close to Iron Man as he toned down his white energy signature. Tony open his helmet.
"I saw the lightning up there. Thor is back?" he asked. Shang-Chi nodded.
"Yes, one of the Saiyans is dead, the other knocked out. They are just fighting Vegeta now. Piccolo is trying to find the source but it might take a while. Meanwhile, if we can cut off the tail he will transform back to his regular self." Shang-Chi replied. Rogue and Johnny got closer as well.
"But we can't even touch a hair on him, how can we cut his tail then?" Johnny said.
"I might be able if I get close enough." Rogue said.
"Alright, sounds good to me." Tony said as he closed the helmet again and shot off. Rogue flew around Goku, nearly being swatted away by one of the huge arms waving around, smashing buildings. She came up behind him and tried to grab the tail. It swung back a forth randomly, so it was hard to get close and not get hit. Smart as she was she got close to the stem of it and was able to grab a hold. She then put her feet on his ass and started to pull with all her strength. But even at her full strengt,h she couldn't tear it off.
"Hold it steady, I'll try to shoot it." Iron Man said. aiming the laser on his wrist at the stem. The intense laser was strong enough to cut through thick steel, but all it did was make the hairs smolder as Rogue had to let go from the heat. Her gloves burned off her hands. She noticed too late as she grabbed the tail again.
Oozaru Goku stopped dead center. He stopped screaming and his eyes bulged. Rogue on the other hand gave a mighty scream that turned into a roar.
"Let go, Rogue!" Shang-Chi yelled and rushed towards her. Seconds it had been now and they saw her eyes turn red and her body bulge. Shang-Chi got to her, grabbed her around from behind, and tried to pull her off but she was too strong.
"Help me!" He yelled and Iron Man and others rushed in. The tried with all their might to wrench her arms lose from the tail she was grabbing, they saw her fingers grow hairs as they did. She was holding on too long, any much longer and she would drain all the energy out of Goku. Her body didn't seem to be able to cope with the amount.
"Knock her out!" Spiderman said. Shang-Chi let go and elbowed her in the back of her head. This finally caused her to let go, but she wasn't knocked out. She turned to look at Shang-Chi, her face was horribly misformed, her eye sockets were huge, her teeth grew out her mouth, her hair was growing all along her face and neck. She grabbed Shang-Chi by his collar and flung him out of the way.
Meanwhile, Oozaru Goku got to his senses and started roaring and punching his chest again. Rogue noticed this and in her rage shot up towards his face. Right in front of it she hovered as she raised her arm and fired a concentrated Ki blast at him. It caught him square in the eye, he stumbled back. he grabbed his face with his arms.
"This is our chance!" Shang-Chi said as he had recovered from Rogues throw. He landed on the ground and raised one arm above his head.
"Kienzan!" He yelled and a white, spinning disc of KI energy appeared. He threw it at the Oozaru tail. The Kienzan cut it off right at the stem, a perfect throw. Would have been impossible if he was still moving around. Goku again stopped, he stared into the sky. Then he let out a final roar and he started to shrink and shrink.
"We did it!" Shang-Chi said. Then he looked up and saw Rogue was still raging around, nobody could contain her. He shot up and grabbed her by the arms, careful not to touch her skin.
"She took up too much of his energy!" Storm said as she got closer and helped Shang-Chi contain her.
"What will happen to her?" Iron Man asked.
"Last time she took the powers of an alien it stuck with her. She can shake off the immediate effects of other mutants, but Goku here isn't a mutant. His energy is huge, too much for Rogue. We have been working with her for so long to control it." Storm said. Jean then came closer.
"Let me." She said and held her head and made contact with her telepathically. She groaned and showed great distress.
"She took his memories and more. I can feel his instincts in her, the Saiyan race, his legacy. AAAAAHHH!" She was blasted away by Rogue who screamed and then went limp. Storm caught her as Iron Man caught Jean.
"Jean! What did you see?" Cyclops came running up as they brought her to the ground. Colossus came up with the naked Goku over his shoulder. Jean came around and looked at Goku's body.
"I saw pain, so much pain. They are the last of their kind. Their planet blew up. Some catastrophe, I see great evil, a great struggle in the past. And a golden man, glowing, so much rage." She said. She struggled up. "I've managed to calm her down. But she's going to need a lot of work. Goku will be fine now, without a tail he can't transform. Perhaps it's a good idea for him to let it be fully removed just to make sure." She walked over to Goku is Colossus's arms and touched his forehead. Shang-Chi came standing next to her.
"The danger isn't over yet. We still have Thor fighting Vegeta up there." Shang-Chi said. But Jean shook her head.
"Not for long. Piccolo has found the ball of energy creating the artificial moonlight. He had destroyed it just a few seconds ago. We should get up there though. See if anyone needs medical attention." She said. The ones who could fly went with Shang-Chi and her. They took Goku to a helicarrier to rest.
Once upon the lookout, things seemed to have calmed down. They saw the Saiyans had been transformed back. Vegeta was on his knees on the floor, shaking, his head bowed down. He knew he had been beaten. Thor came up to them as they arrived.
"It is over. My powers might have been turned down but not low enough for Vegeta to beat me in this state. Though he is strong like I haven't seen in a while, but he is no match for Mjolnir." He said.
"We should kill them for what they did." They heard from above. It was Piccolo.
"Not a chance. Not when we are still around." Jean replied.
"So what do we do with them? Imprison them? How exactly? I mean he killed Captain America! Wolverine too!" Shang-Chi asked.
"We let them go." Thor said. Everyone looked shocked.
"Are you crazy?" Shang-Chi asked. Thor looked angry at Shang-Chi.
"They have betrayed their employer, broken their bonds. They did what they came for. Now let them chose their own path. Who are we to kill them? The apocalypse has been avoided, Gladiator was the real threat and he is dead. Just let them know they can't return." Thor said.
"Don't worry, I have no intention of returning to this shitty planet. You do however realize that with us failing the Kree might be coming here themselves to claim the planet. Along with any pirates who might try and take a shot at the bounty." They heard Vegeta say.
"Your pods should still be on the same spot they landed. Go now, before someone here changes his or her mind." Thor said. Vegeta picked up Raditz and jumped off the platform. Just like that, without any repercussions to what they did.
"This doesn't make any sense." Krillin said as they watched Vegeta leave.
"There is more going on than you know. Kami?" Thor said. Kami came out of the shadows.
"He is right. What Vegeta said is not to be ignored. The consequences of using the dragonballs have been paid. However, one thing led to another and I'm afraid this cycle will not stop on its own."
"What do you mean?" Shang-Chi asked.
"The Dragonballs are ancient, mystical artifacts. My race, the Namekians, are not naturally the masters of the balls and dragon that resides within it. I always knew I was only borrowing the power, not even the guardian of the Earth has control over everything. I have asked questions, in the Shinto pocket dimension, through them I have discovered the secret behind the ancient power. Turns out it has a lot more to do with some ancient figures we all know than we thought." Kami said. Shang-Chi gasped like he realized something.
"Mutaito." He said. Kami nodded.
"Yes, Mutaito, amongst others is responsible for the power of the balls. I think we should call for the dragon and ask him ourselves however." He said.
"Use them? Again? After everything that happened?" Iron Man asked. Kami calmed him down.
"We will not ask for a wish. We can never do that again. No, I wish to ask the dragon if we can stop this cycle from continuing. Before something comes we cannot stop." Kami said.
"Fine then, but first we have to find them." Krillin said.
"Leave that to me." Thor said. Within a few hours, all dragonballs were gathered, Thor collecting them from all over the planet without the use of a radar or anything. Dr. Strange and Tien had arrived at the lookout as well when they were ready to summon him.
Dr. Strange, Thor, and Kami stood upfront as the dragon was summoned and its body filled the space above the lookout. Shang-Chi and the others who hadn't seen it before, including Thor, staggered back.
"Amazing! It is huge! Wait a minute..." Shang-Chi said.
"You have summoned me, tell me your wish now!" It boomed. Nobody moved, nobody said a thing. Kami walked forward.
"Shenlong! I am Kami, creator of the dragonballs, guardian of the Earth! The wishes we have made have cause terrible consequences for the Earth and we fear it will not stop! Please tell us what we can do?" Kami asked. Porunga didn't speak for a while. Then he spoke again.
"Is it your wish that I tell you?" He asked.
"No, no. We, we, uh, will not wish. We request." Kami said, stammering a little bit. Shang-Chi stepped forward now, passed Thor and Dr. Strange, passed Kami. He looked up at the dragon.
"I have seen your kind before. Does the name Fin Fang Foom ring a bell?" Shang-Chi asked. The dragon's red eyes lit up.
"Do not speak that name! A traitor! Conqueror, murderer!" The dragon stirred, its head moved closer.
"Tell us about him, about your history." Shang-Chi said, calmly, not intimidated by the huge dragon head in front of him. The dragon waited long to reply.
"Centuries ago my race came to a crossroad in its history. Most of us were ready to ascend as a species whilst others turned away from enlightenment. Fin Fang Foom led that faction. As a result, the rest of our race led by Porunga called upon help from a group of individuals called the lost gods. They wanted to help our race ascend but Fin Fang Foom disrupted the ritual. To save our race they destroyed our physical bodies and put us in small clay statues. Fin Fang Foom and his bandits fled our word whilst we were put into the custody of these lost gods." The dragon explained.
"Was Mutaito one of them?" Shang-Chi asked. The dragon's eyes lit up again.
"He has had many names. But our spirits were not put into his care. The one known as Guru created the plan to scatter us across the universe, keep us safe on various worlds. He created a race from his own body called Namekians. Each statue was given to one Namekian and send to a distant world, like Earth." The dragon said and looked at Kami.
"There were others present but I do not know their names. One was a towering robot and one was a fiery being with wings." He said.
"The phoenix force and a Celestial? That doesn't make any sense." Dr. Strange said. The dragon looked at him.
"You are the sorcerer supreme. You should know this story. Not all Celestials are part of an order." Shenlong said. Dr. Strange shrugged, it had been a long time since he had known so much. But digging deep in his memories, all so scrambled and chaotic, he found some recollection from ancient texts.
"They were rogues, making up their own rules as the Chaos King was on his killing spree." Dr. Strange said. Shenlong nodded.
"Your best bet is to ask guidance from our eldest, Porunga." It said.
"So then we must travel to Namek, gather the Namekian dragonballs and summon Porunga." Krillin said.
"Yes, and we can have a word with this Guru as well." Thor said.
"Well, if you are not going to make a wish, I will leave." Shenlong said. His body moved, his head rose into the air and his entire body glowed. He grunted and then disappeared, the dragonballs scattered again. Kami sighed.
"If I had known... When I decided to become the guardian of the Earth I split my soul, when I did, I lost a lot of my memory. We have been treating the dragonballs like objects, mystical objects. But Shenlong is alive, has a soul. It's a terrible crime to abuse the powers like that. I knew it, deep down I knew something wasn't right." He said. Thor came up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Your sins have been forgiven, guardian. I think it is time we developed a plan to find Namek and fix the mess we have made here on Earth once and for all." Thor said. With that they all left, Kami went with them to help explain it all to SHIELD, the Avengers, and Goku, who was still in the hospital.
Chapter 14: Epilogue
Chapter Text
EPILOGUE
"Hello, Chi-Chi." Krillin said as they entered the hospital, an entire entourage of people, weird people. The staff was all staring without blinking as Krillin, Thor, Nick Fury, Jean Grey, Kami, Piccolo, and Baba went through the corridors and into the room where Goku was recuperating.
Nobody on Earth of course knew it was Goku that destroyed half of Asia, rampaging around, firing his mouth rays at everything that moved. It had cost him a lot of energy, especially losing his tail, but Kami had a senzu bean with him that should restore his health to normal. Kami and Thor had been distributing senzu beans around the planet, hoping to make amends for the damage caused, the carelessness of the guardians of the Earth.
Goku had a room all to himself, his wife Chi-Chi and their son Gohan were there already. Goku's bed was surrounded by balloons and flowers.
"Hey, Krillin! Wait, who are all these people?" Chi-Chi asked as they all filled the small room, surrounding Goku's bed.
"Am I in trouble?" Goku asked, he had some bandaged around his head, Gohan was sitting beside him on the bed, a smart-looking young boy of maybe 6. As the kid stood up between his father's legs Krillin gave a yelp. The others stared as well. A tail swung behind the young boy, long and brown like his father had. Krillin looked at the others, most just looked concerned, annoyed even.
"Uhm, Goku. Do you see what we see?" Krillin asked. Goku looked surprised, then smiled and grabbed Gohan's tail.
"Oh this? Ah, don't worry about it. As long as we know there is no blue moon out he'll be fine with it. I've already spoken to Master Roshi and Tien about it. They agree with me it is of no concern as long as we keep an eye out, Roshi has given me a full timetable of when blue moons will appear." He said cheerfully.
"I can tell you we are looking out as well, we rather the boy had his tail removed permanently like yours, but if you insist he keeps it, thats your right of course. We will be watching him closely though." Fury said, surprising others he already knew. It was logical of course Gohan had a tail like his father, despite being only half Saiyan.
"So, again. Am I in trouble?" Goku asked.
"You have given us enough trouble already. We are not here looking for more." Nick Fury said.
"I want to make things right, I need to make things right with everyone. The things I did, and those Saiyans." Goku said, anger washing over his face.
"You can." Baba said. "As soon as you are out of here, there are quite a lot of tasks to perform around the planet, fixing all that was destroyed, finding back which was lost. All the other teams are already doing whatever they can." She continued.
"Here, this will help you back on your feet." Kami said and tossed him the senzu bean.
Goku nodded as he chewed the bean and swallowed. His muscles bulged. Krillin noticed a power spike, even though he had not been injured much during his rampage. Piccolo must have sensed it too.
"How do you feel?" Kami asked. Goku picked up Gohan and put him on the ground and then he stepped out of bed. He flexed his muscles.
"Amazing," Goku said. "So, has everyone been brought back by the Dragonballs? Everything I and my kind did?" He looked expectantly at Fury, then Krillin, then Kami. Kami spoke up and explained to him what the deal was with the Dragonballs.
"Namek?" Goku asked, looking at Piccolo. "Are you going?" He asked him.
"I don't think so." Piccolo said. "No, me on that planet is gonna disturb a lot of things. I'll stay here. We have already put together a team to go to the planet and find Guru and talk to Porunga." Thor stepped forward.
"I will go. Mjolnir could take me there in just a few hours but I'm afraid I can't take any equipment we might need with us so we are going by ship." He said.
"The others going are the Fantastic Four, which includes Yamcha, Bulma, and you." Fury said. Goku looked at Piccolo.
"What will you do whilst still here on Earth?" he asked.
"I will train your son, of course Goku. He is a Saiyan too and his potential is quite obvious for people like me. Ask you sorcerer supreme. Such a powerful ally can't be denied. Certainly if he keeps the tail." He said. Goku was in shock as he looked at his son. He was doubtful at first, but then he thought about it for a bit and agreed.
"Excuse me?" Chi-Chi said, furious. She was going to need a lot of convincing to allow all that, but Goku promised her it will be okay.
"Don't worry, we won't let Piccolo do this alone of course, SHIELD will supervise his training as well, we got some of the best trainers in the world." Fury said to Chi-Chi. This did seem to calm her down a bit.
"Alright, we have already developed a ship that can take you to Namek. Finding Kami's ship was a lot easier when he told us where it was. It both has coordinates to Namek as well as training facilities. Tony and Bulma have been working around the clock to create a gravity machine, with some ideas from Pym of course. Even Thor can exercise properly in it. This way you and Yamcha could train to surpass even your current powerlevel." Fury continued.
"Alright then, sounds like a plan. When do we leave?" Goku asked.
"In about a month, after we have repaired all the damages." Thor said.
"Can't make it much later than that. I've talked to my sister, things are brewing over there. Large forces are converging, destructive forces. The planet Namek is about to be a theatre that will decide the fate of the universe." Baba said, very ominously all of the sudden.
"And you are telling us this just now?" Fury asked. Baba rolled her eyes and waved her hand.
"Don't worry, there isn't much your presence is going to do, the results are inevitable. Just go, help the Earth, and come back alive. That's all I can say." She said.
"Is there enough food onboard?" Goku asked. Krillin sighed.
Meanwhile, Captain America, Wolverine, and Iron Fist woke up in a strange world. They were surprised to see each other at first. Of the 3 Wolverine was the last to die, but hours after Iron Fist. Why did they wake up at the same time? They had woken up in regular clothing, not the outfits they were wearing when they died. Wolverine immediately noticed he was missing his adamantium skeleton. Makes sense, since it wasn't a natural part of his body.
They looked around, a curious place. There were yellow clouds everywhere. They were standing on what appeared to be a long road made of white stone. It curved and swung around in both directions, seemingly randomly.
Then one of them looked up. In the distance they saw a small sphere in the sky. They decided to go towards it. Once they got underneath it they noticed it was a small planet.
"What do you suppose that is?" Wolverine asked.
"Looks like a planet to me. It has a road going all around it it appears, and there is a tree." Iron Fist said.
"How do we get up there?" Steve Rogers asked.
"I think I can." Iron Fist said and lifted up, showing he had the levitation ability.
"Yeah, never got around to that." Wolverine said.
"Me neither." Steve responded.
"I'll go see what is up there and report back." Iron Fist said and moved towards the planet. They were all extremely curious about what they'd find there...
THE END.
Axa89 on Chapter 11 Fri 22 Dec 2023 11:57PM UTC
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Lionhead123 on Chapter 11 Sat 23 Dec 2023 08:42PM UTC
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Axa89 on Chapter 11 Sun 24 Dec 2023 12:18AM UTC
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