(Meanwhile)
On another part of the planet, far out of reach of the ongoing conflict, a pair of charcoal eyes flickered open to the sight of the clear blue sky high above. Groaning uncomfortably, Gohan took a few seconds to regain his bearings and reestablish a connection with his body's nerve endings, before finally deciding to move. His fingers twitching as he sat up, the teen's gaze then fell upon what he immediately identified as farmland stretched out all around him.
"Ugh. What the-? What did I miss?" the hybrid in the slightly dusty outfit asked out loud. It was by this point in time he turned to see the familiar form of Korin's friend and work partner kneeling beside him, dressed in his pinstriped orange robe with his trusted katana sheathed at his beltline. "Oh. Yajirobe. You're here."
"Yeah," the burly swordsman answered with a smirk, "Korin sent me down here to fetch you guys. Took me a while, but I finally managed to locate you after a quick sweep of the area. Looks like that Senzu bean did the trick."
"Sure seems that way. Thanks."
"No problem. You know, your girl friend must be pretty tough as well if she managed to survive a fall from that height. The blue chick too," Yajirobe remarked, his gaze never leaving the young man for a moment.
Completely overlooking the girlfriend jab, Gohan quickly addressed the man with his next immediately inquiry, "Videl and Zangya… are they okay?"
"Yeah. They're over there nursing their hangovers," the swordsman continued, thumbing towards the two girls behind him, who were just now sitting up in the small craters they'd formed several yards from each other. "I gotta say; you three really know how to pick a place to crash-land. Consider yourselves lucky that the ground here was so soft."
Massaging the bruise on the back of his head, which slowly faded away due to the effects of the medicine he'd taken, the young man then turned his attention to the setting. At first not finding anything wrong with his current location, when memories of the event that led to him being knocked out in the first place finally returned to him, the demi-Saiyan furrowed his brow and quickly turned to his group's supplementary member.
"What happened to the meteorite? Did we manage to stop it?" Gohan asked, quickly getting right to the point.
"If by 'stop it' you mean 'pissed it off', then yeah. You stopped it alright," Yajirobe responded sarcastically, eliciting a worried look from the half-Saiyan sitting in the dirt. "It turns out that 'meteorite' you guys shot at was an enormous alien monster disguised as a large space rock that is right now raising hell on the other side of the continent. Dende filled me in on the details while I was heading down here. The others are fighting it as we speak and I gotta say man, it's not looking so good."
Nodding his head in understanding, Gohan stood up. "Then we should get going." Groaning as he stood up from the dirt, the youngster turned his attention to where Zangya and Videl were sitting not too far from him. "How are you guys feeling? You holding up okay?"
"That all depends," Videl groaned, massaging the side of her head as she staggered towards the demi-Saiyan. Peering up at him, the raven haired girl squinted slightly, "My neck is stiff, my leg's cramped up, and I feel like I was just run over by a friggin steam roller. But other than that, I'm feeling great."
"Ugh." Zangya, rolling her shoulder a few times as well, groaned tiredly, "Did someone catch the number of that bus? What the hell was that thing?"
"I'm not sure," Gohan replied, turning heel and glancing across the countryside thoughtfully. "Whatever it was, it was powerful… and it was able to take all of us out in one shot without even breaking a sweat."
"So humor me a little. What exactly are we up against here?" Zangya asked, glaring at the teen as he slowly turned to face them again. When Yajirobe came to stand by their formation to listen in on their conversation, the Hera continued on with her assessment of the situation, "In all my years of traveling across the universe and conquering planets with Bojack's crew, I've never encountered a creature like this before. It was massive… almost the size of a small moon, and it had a powerful force field protecting it."
"That's probably the reason why our attacks didn't work against it," Videl murmured, glancing towards her best friend nervously. "You were a Super Saiyan and it shrugged off your strongest blast like it was nothing." How in the world could they possibly fight something like that?
His expression reflecting his immediate concern over the issue, Gohan glanced at the raven haired girl and narrowed his eyes. "There was also something off about its ki signature. Its energy… it wasn't reading like a living creature or an alien. No. This thing… it was reading more like a planet than anything else…"
This information had the group take a few moments of pause. However, while they were dawning on this newfound data and began trying to come up with an answer to the question as to what this terrifying invader was, they were suddenly interrupted from their train of thought by a voice echoing in from above.
"Gohan? Gohan… can you hear me?"
The nasally voice cutting into their conversation immediately had all heads shoot up in response to the familiar tone.
"King Kai? Is that you?" the demi-Saiyan asked.
"Yeah. It's me, kiddo. How are you three doing down there? Are all of you guys still in one piece?"
"More or less. We're still breathing and our limbs are still attached. That's all I can really say for now," the spiky haired fighter replied. "Where's dad at?"
"Oh. Goku? He's dealing with a revolt down in hell involving those idiots Cell and Android 13. It's gotten pretty messy for King Yemma, but I see you've got problems of your own going on."
"You can say that again." While the other three stood around him listening into the telepathic feed, Gohan continued with his string of questions. "Please. Can you tell us anything about the alien that's attacking our planet?"
He needed information. If they had any chance of stopping whatever the hell this titan was, then he needed to know everything about it; its history, its strengths, its weaknesses, it's mannerisms… any bit of data that could give them a shot of either kicking it off of their world or destroying it for good.
The overseer of the Northern Quadrant took a deep breath at the teen's inquisition, a bead of sweat breaking out on the side of his head. "I don't know how to break this to yah kid, but it's even worse than it appears." The news had all four fighters present open their ears wide and tune in to the guardian's lecture. "The entity that you three encountered is descended from an ancient race of creatures called Asters, which inhabited the furthest corners of the universe millions of years before the first Kais even came into existence. They're enormous asteroid sized aliens that wandered between planets, feeding on their life energy and leaving behind nothing but death and decay. The people of Sariel called this particular entity Zeru; which translates to 'Planet Eater' or 'Wandering Death', and was regarded by many as a God. But in truth, it's actually a veracious parasite that sucks entire worlds dry of all their nutrients… turning them into empty, lifeless husks."
Videl felt her spirit sink at this piece of info. "Well that's comforting."
"Because it feeds primarily on planets, it doesn't register as an organic life form. More like the planets it's previously absorbed. This not only grants it enormous levels of energy, but abilities that allow it to cope with the harshest conditions imaginable."
Gohan glanced down considerately at the news. "That probably explains why we didn't know it was alive until it unfurled itself and attacked us." In all honestly, that was a real slap to the face if there ever was one.
"Nothing but a good, old-fashioned butt kicking to remind you never to judge a book by its cover," Zangya added as her face hardened at the realization of their group's most recent blunder. "So what's the deal? Are there even more of these things flying around out there… or is there just the one?"
"There used to be hundreds of them. They were like locusts, wiping out entire galaxies in a matter of hours. But they all died out many years ago. This one may very well be the last of that long forgotten race," King Kai informed, clenching his fists tightly as he continued feeding the group his two-cents on their adversary. "Be careful. You're dealing with an entity far greater than anything you've ever faced before. It's incredibly powerful, able to carve through entire suns without even flinching, and is able to distort light and space around it. There's no telling what else this creature is capable of."
"We gathered that much. Thanks, King Kai," Gohan replied, nodding towards the sky and turning back to engage with his friends. "We'll be in touch."
"Good luck," the guardian replied, cutting out a few seconds later.
As soon as the Kai's voice went quiet, the trio stood in place for several long seconds. The information being allowed to percolate in their heads for a little while, filling them with a mixture of thoughts and feelings, their attention was soon pulled over to Yajirobe, who held up the bag of Senzu beans to their team's leader.
Juggling the contents a few times, the rotund warrior spoke, "You're gonna need these."
"Yeah. I think so," Gohan murmured, taking the bag from the swordsman and weighing it in his hand.
"It's times like this that I don't envy you super-powered types. I'm not gonna lie. If it was me out there fighting the big battles… honestly… the earth would probably be long gone by now," the stout fighter informed while crossing his arms seriously. "You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up with you later."
Acknowledging the man's words, the demi-Saiyan then turned to the two girls standing alongside him. Upon assessing their current states of dress and physical conditions, he quickly held his fingers out to them and, with an effortless grunt, fired a white beam at each of them in turn. When the electricity faded, it revealed Videl standing in a brand new orange and blue gi and Zangya dressed in a pair of white short-shorts, a white tube-top with golden buckles, black arm sleeves, golden boots, and a purple cowl wrapped around her waist. As soon as they found themselves adorned in their signature martial arts attire, they immediately began checking themselves out.
"There goes a one-thousand, five-hundred zeni dress," the blue-skinned alien sighed as she inspected her uniform, made especially by Son Gohan Incorporated. "Oh well. It was a tacky thing anyway."
"Could've fooled me," Videl replied, exchanging smirks with the Hera before turning to speak with her best friend. When she did, she saw the teen's outdoor clothes transform into his signature orange and blue gi, which he wore proudly like the devil himself. The sight put a smile on the teen's face, "So… what's the plan, Gohan?"
The half-Saiyan smirked back at them, "Easy; we get out there, pull our friends out of the fire, and save the world."
"I thought you would say something like that," Videl answered, bringing her hands up and slamming her knuckles into her open palm in a guts-pose. "Alright. Let's do this."
Appearing excited, the hybrid then glanced to his right and flexed his shoulder to the orange haired woman behind him. Quickly catching the hint of what he was asking, Zangya stepped forward and grabbed his gi. As soon as she had a hold of him, the alien fighter then watched the sole human member of their trio loop her arms around Gohan's free one. As soon as he was certain everyone was aboard, the demi-Saiyan turned and saluted Yajirobe.
"See you around, man. And thanks."
"Yeah. See yah," the rotund fighter nodded and watched the three vanish in a golden flash of light. When the area finally cleared, the swordsman looked around the field he was standing in and, taking note of the ruined patches of land and the farm in the distance, grunted indignantly. "Well. No sense in hanging around here anymore." He then turned heel and headed for the flying car he had parked over by the stone wall.
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