It took a little while for the sun's light to flood back into earth's atmosphere and when it finally did, the damages caused by the battle between Gohan and Set became all too clear. Across the desert and a small portion of the cosmos, landscapes had been wrecked, planets had been blown up, and entire star clusters had been wiped clean from existence. Needless to say, the outcome of this epic conflict could've been a whole lot worse. But thanks to the courage and diligence displayed by the defenders of the terrestrial planet, any and all world ending threats posed by the vengeful goddess had been successfully dealt with.
Across the universe, every guardian and bystander who'd witnessed the fight firsthand was in full celebration. Galaxies swayed and kais applauded. Even the great leaders of worlds billions of light years away bowed their heads in gratitude to the ones who triumphed over the dark overlord.
Even Whis, who felt the energy restraints binding his arms together dissipate, smiled when he offered his silent compliments to the group for their stellar accomplishment.
Unfortunately, the ones who were supposed to be receiving all of this praise weren't exactly in the right shape to be accepting or returning them.
After managing to pull themselves out of the craters they'd formed, the beaten and battered team of Z-fighters all limped their way out onto the wasteland where the final showdown had taken place. Vegeta and Piccolo were the first to show up, covered in bruises, cuts, and both of them looking like they'd seen better days. The pair were then shortly followed by Krillin carrying Android Eighteen in his arms, and Paprika, Goten and Trunks soon after. Each and every member of the group was riddled with a variety of scuffs and open wounds, ranging from Piccolo after the beating he received from Frieza to Recoome after getting deep fried by Vegeta's blast.
On the plus side, all of them still had their teeth.
When the once scattered companions all gathered on the dunes, they found an utterly spent Zangya and Videl kneeling on the sand several feet from one another, and Gohan standing out in the open with his body turned side-on to them, his gaze directed upwards, and his once glowing red hair turned to gold.
After Krillin helped the winded crime fighter to her feet and Piccolo offered a hand to the equally shaken Hera, all eyes then turned to the demi-Saiyan to begin assessing his condition. From the way the teen held his station, covered in cuts and bruises, with his head held high, his hair blowing on the wind, and the endless landscape and sky stretched out behind him, there was no doubt in any of their minds that he certainly looked the part of earth's savior. What with all the insanity and wonton destruction they'd just witnessed only moments ago, he most definitely earned that title.
Sucking in air, Videl grinned and rushed forward, not even caring that her muscles were screaming in protest. "Gohan!"
Responding to the call, the shirtless hybrid glanced in the direction of the familiar voice. Despite his transformed state, the Super Saiyan's expression still managed to convey a sense of surprise and innocence you could only expect from a Son. When he saw the teenager running over to him with his friends all gathered in the background, a smile reappeared on the warrior's face.
"Videl." Almost three seconds after he uttered her name, Gohan heard the tomboy giggle before she threw herself at him. The blonde caught her effortlessly, wrapping the girl up in a hug that she gleefully returned. Due to the noticeable height difference between them, the Ascended Saiyan was able to keep her from touching the ground as he spun her on the spot, laughing joyously all the while.
That was pretty much the cue for Goten and the others to move in, with the former dashing bounding over the sands to meet his brother. The rest of the group chose to close the distance at their own pace.
When the elated Gohan eventually lowered Videl back to the ground, the teenagers took a moment to smile at one another until they were joined by the youngest member of their team. Looking down, they saw the child skid to a stop and beam a them through the cloud of dust with his usual, cheerful disposition.
The spiky haired hero smiled, "Hey there, squirt. What's shakin'?"
After inspecting his brother for a moment, Goten's expression then faltered when he saw the current form his older sibling had assumed and tilted his head in awe. "Whoa. Gohan… what happened to your eyebrows?"
Blinking at the unusual question, Gohan chuckled and reached up to pat his forehead area. "Heh. I'm not quite sure. They just disappeared on me after I transformed." He then glanced nervously at his best friend while the rest of their group stopped around him. "What do you think? Does it look bad?"
The raven haired crime fighter shrugged, "Not really. I think it looks alright." She then reached up and prodded the ridgeline above his eyes. "You do look pretty scary though. I bet this'll do wonders for your opponent's confidence in your next planet busting fight."
This comment earned a sheepish grin from the warrior, "If you say so. Personally I prefer my appearance in Super Saiyan 2. It looks so much cooler in the mirror."
"Agreed," Videl answered fondly.
With smiles being worn all around, this presented the perfect opportunity for one particular member of their group to interject. Folding her arms over her chest and grinning widely, Zangya nodded towards the young man who'd saved their planet for the third time and spoke to him in casual inquisition, "I take it you finally managed to ascend to the third level then?" His enormous energy level was a dead giveaway.
There was so much of it sitting in one spot that she was positive even the people in Otherworld could now sense him.
"Yep." Gohan grinned back. During which time, Videl discreetly and rather shamelessly checked out his bare torso, whereas Goten decided to brush his brother's incredibly long hair to see what it was like.
"Neat. How does it feel?" the Hera asked.
The ethereal fighter held up his right hand and clenched it into a fist. "Pretty awesome actually. My body's got so much power coursing through it, I feel like I can split this entire planet in half with a single tap if I'm not too careful." It was this little announcement that had Krillin take a cautionary step back, which earned a quick backpedal from the powered-up teen. "But don't worry. I'm sure I can control it."
The short fighter stationed nearby grinned nervously, "If I were you, I'd watch your step, big guy. I mean, your Super Saiyan 2 is one thing, but this form…" He whistled and shook his head in amazement, "I'm surprised your muscles haven't ripped themselves to shreds from all of that energy blasting through your veins."
"Yeah. Me too," Gohan replied in his usual, carefree manner. Despite his response, he didn't seem too bothered by any of this at all.
Following up on their remarks, the senior fighter from earth and the young warrior's teacher crossed his arms and smirked in the Saiyan's direction. "I take it you'll be spending the next few months learning how to control it?"
The hybrid nodded to the Namekian. "Uh-huh. Since this has kicked the energy in my cells into a hundred percent overdrive, it's going to take a while longer than what it took to control my second form. Though I'm sure I'll get it down with practice, I'm still going to need a little bit of help." The demi-Saiyan then gestured to the Namekian. "What do you say, Piccolo? Are you up for the challenge?"
The former guardian smiled, "Sure. Why not?"
The spiky haired fighter then turned his gaze to Zangya, who'd also taken a step around to look the transformed warrior over more closely. "How about you?"
An affirmative nod was her immediate response, "Whenever you're ready, blondie."
His mood improving significantly, the half-breed fighter quickly turned his attention to the rest of the troop. After his gaze skimmed over the beaming Krillin and Android 18, as well as the cool looking Paprika, his eyes then focused on Vegeta, who he could see was glaring back at him with his arms crossed. Taking note of the man's battered form and serious contours, the demi-warrior shared a pleasant smile with him too before speaking. "What's up, Vegeta?"
The flame-haired man narrowed his eyes and looked away. "Good job, brat. You did your race proud today… both of them."
Noticeably surprised at the man's compliment, Gohan swallowed and beamed, "Thanks, man."
Shaking her head at her fellow warrior's gruff praising of the teen's success, Zangya then turned to her training partner with a half-grin. All the while, Goten and Trunks continued to walk circles around the older sibling, poking at his hair and staring up at his chiseled face. "He's just mad because you got to the third level before he did."
This only brought a chuckle from the young fighter, "That's what I figured." His little back-and-forth with the orange haired woman earned a grunt from the Saiyan Prince and prompted the full-blooded alien to turn his back on them. That being the usual response he'd expect, Gohan then focused his attention on Videl, whom he saw avert her gaze rather swiftly and sway on the spot in a very timid manner. "In any case, I'm just glad everyone's alright."
"Yeah. This whole thing was beyond intense…" Krillin sighed, placing his hands on his hips while glancing across at his wife, whom was standing directly beside him, "I sure hope we don't have to go through something like that ever again. Though with our luck, I highly doubt this will be the last time we run into somebody like her."
"All the more reason to keep at it and continue our training," Piccolo spoke, arms crossed while his gaze moved to stare off over the horizon. "We're going to need to be ready to face whatever comes at us next, whether it's alien, demon or an angry God."
It was a fair prediction. The first four opponents they'd fought earlier today had been a tough group to deal with. Not only were they able to beat Gohan effortlessly while working in tandem, but they also gave the rest of their squad quite a thrashing across the desert. And that wasn't even counting their battle against Set. On her own, the red haired fox deity was able to pick each of them apart one by one, and even with Gohan's newly acquired transformation to Super Saiyan 3, judging from his ridiculously high output, the Namekian doubted the boy would've been able to beat her.
The form he'd assumed before, where his hair and aura had turned red, was different from the one he had now. Piccolo knew this much because he'd seen it. He'd felt it in his gut. That meant that some other exterior force had unexpectedly come into the equation that allowed his student to trade blows with and defeat the goddess single-handedly.
This was something he believed would become more known to them over time. But for now, the Namekian was just content with knowing that the world had been saved from yet another apocalyptic threat.
After sharing looks with his teachers and friends, Gohan then turned his attention to the two rascals pacing around him and prodding at his legs. When he saw the children move away and stare up at him, he then heard them speak.
"You look so cool, big brother," Goten exclaimed, his eyes shimmering with wonder.
"And you're wickedly strong too," Trunks added immediately afterwards. "I think you're, like, the strongest person in the universe now. Did it hurt when your hair grew out?"
All the older Saiyan could do was shrug and grin, "A little bit. It was mostly my muscles that hurt. It I could compare the sensation to something else, it felt like… pouring kerosene over my body and setting it on fire." Although, his eyebrows being retracted into his skin did sting like a bitch for the excruciating five seconds it took for it to happen.
It was this subject that inevitably drew a puzzled look from Bulma's son. "Why did your hair grow so much? Did you push it out using your mind?" the lavender haired tike asked while tilting his head at the person he also viewed as an older sibling.
Gohan reached up and ran a hand through his golden, spiky locks. "I think it has something to do with every single cell in my body accelerating from all the energy I was putting out. The nerve points in the head couldn't take the strain so it funneled the excess ki through the hair follicles, which caused it to grow out and change. If not, then it's probably something similar to a temporary metamorphosis, where the Saiyan's strength increases by altering the structure of the body."
"Ah… I see," Trunks murmured, scratching his neck thoughtfully. "Kind of weird though."
"Yeah. I think so too," Gohan chirped, reaching over to ruffle his little brother's head. The moment he relinquished his hand from Goten's cranium and smiled at him, his aura suddenly flared up and dissipated in the blink of an eye, leaving the older teen standing there in his base form. Noticing his sudden drop in power, the young warrior looked down at his hands while his friends blinked in surprise. "Oh… that's it I guess…"
Noticing the sudden shift in ki patterns, as well as how low Gohan's energy levels had dropped, Piccolo narrowed his eyes, "It seems that this new Super Saiyan 3 of yours has a very fickle time limit." That's what he was able to gauge after getting a bead on the kid's life force.
"Sure looks that way. Oh well," the demi-Saiyan shrugged. "It's not like I'm expecting to stay like this for hours on end the first time around."
Though this did earn a round of looks from the others and a momentary glance from Vegeta, the silence was once again broken by Videl stepping towards her best friend of many years. With one hand behind her back and the other tucking a couple locks of hair behind her ear, the teenager stealthily slid up alongside Gohan and nudged him in the side. Easily drawing his gaze, the girl then looked at him with a playful smile.
"So… Zangya told me all about what happened after I got shot in the chest," the raven haired girl said in a rather sly tone as she stepped around to stand in front of the hybrid. Taking a moment to admire his bare chest, the tomboy then tilted her head, "She said that you went bat-shit crazy when you thought I'd been killed and you started kicking Set's tail across the entire galaxy."
Taking a slight step back and laughing nervously, Gohan cleared his throat when he noticed Videl slowly closing the gap between them. "Yeah. Well… several galaxies actually. The whole thing's still a bit of a blur to me." She soon got so close to him that there was only an inch of space left between them. This caused the Saiyan teenager to lean back ever so slightly and chuckle some more, especially when his friend batted her eyes at him. "Let's just say things got a little crazy for a moment. Sorry if I scared you or anything…"
Videl grinned, "I wasn't scared. In fact… I thought that what you did for me was rather sweet." She then took another step closer, her hands held firmly behind her back. "Even though you did end up trashing an enormous part of the universe, I'm honestly glad you reacted the way you did."
The young Saiyan arched an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Uh-huh. Your little flare-up told me a lot of things that you weren't able to say to me before," the tomboy replied, a shade of red appearing on her cheeks as she took a moment to contemplate what she was going to do. However, all remaining issues of self-confidence quickly vanished when she saw the innocent and inquisitive stare the young warrior gave her, which allowed her to dispense all doubts and prompted her to take that final step. "And this is what I have to say to one of those things." Without warning or hesitation, she then floated up from the ground and pressed her lips against his in a single, fluid movement.
While the Z-fighters had admittedly seen a lot of crazy shit over the years, the moment Videl leant up to kiss Gohan had to classify as one of the most surprising events the group had ever witnessed. At first all of the martial artists were a little bit slack-jawed at the display, as was the demi-Saiyan receiving the gesture of affection, resulting in a deer-caught-in-the-headlights look followed by his face lighting up like a bulb. But when the moment eventually sunk in, all the members of the troop quickly relaxed and began viewing the situation with their usual demeanors.
Krillin grinned devilishly while Android 18 folded her arms and smiled. Goten and Trunks looked upon the display in complete surprise, with the latter making a gagging face and the former tilting his head curiously. Paprika meanwhile, stared at the duo in amusement, Vegeta looked away with a grunt, and Piccolo, who didn't care much for human expressions of fondness, remained neutral in his position.
Zangya on the other hand, was a mixed bag of feedback.
Though at first bewildered by Videl's boldness in making her move on the demi-Saiyan, the Hera then froze up and crossed her arms over her chest. Her facade taking on a discomforted and pained one, the orange haired girl then glanced away in disappointment, every so often looking back at the pair nervously. Her stomach doing tumble turns inside her ribcage, there was nothing Zangya could do to stop her own cheeks from reddening as her hold around her waist tightened.
Though a part of her wanted to tease them, another part of the Hera was reacting in a completely different way… and it was really starting to bother her.
In the opening seconds, Gohan didn't know how to respond. All he did was stand there and let the whole situation run its course. When he eventually felt the girl's lips leave his and saw her float back down to the ground, all he could do was move his mouth a little, but no words came out.
Unable to contain herself, Videl giggled at the teen's expression and smiled warmly at him, "That's for the first thing." Upon seeing the fighter's mouth close, the raven haired crime fighter beamed brightly. "Is there anything else you want to add to that, Gohan?" Fortunately she didn't have to wait long for an answer.
The instant she stopped talking, the demi-Saiyan wrapped an arm around her, dipped down and kissed her back. Initially balking in surprise, Videl was quick to reciprocate his actions and wrapped her arms around his neck.
The collective response wasn't as pronounced this time. Everyone standing in the area remained as they were, with Goten and Trunks sprouting grins and sucking in their breath for a jeer. But just before they could start singing something as embarrassing as the sitting-in-the-tree verse, Eighteen suddenly came up behind them and slapped her hands over their mouths, preventing them from uttering a word. Apparently she was one of those people who didn't want to ruin a moment, and simply watched on silently like the others did.
Zangya though, recoiling at Gohan's celerity and confidence, frowned a little and turned away, with feelings of awkwardness and envy flooding through her.
When the two broke away sometime later, the Hera looked across at them and bit her lip. "Am I also…?" Her fists clenching tightly, she then shook her head and took a deep breath to steady her tumultuous heartbeat.
Looking at one another intently, the Satan City duo used that opportunity to recover from their little performance before sharing a smile with one another. Those grins were expressions that reflected their most sincere feelings, as well as their satisfaction at finally being able to cross that tacit line.
"Videl?" the demi-Saiyan spoke.
"Yeah, Gohan?"
"Would you like to go on a date sometime?" he asked without a single tremor.
The question filled the raven haired girl's heart with an overwhelming sense of warmth and joy, when then had her nod her head enthusiastically and grin widely. "I'd love to."
"That's… great…" Gohan trailed off, his eyes suddenly becoming half-lidded.
Without warning, the boy swayed on the spot before suddenly keeling over and falling flat onto his back, his impact knocking dust into the air. Seeing the teen collapse had the people standing around him react in alarm and prompted those who were closest to him to rush forward.
Zangya, blinking in bewilderment, stared down at the demi-Saiyan's sprawled out form. "I think you killed him."
"That would be a first," Paprika exclaimed, massaging her neck while ignoring all of the other bangs and bruises covering her body.
"Big brother!" Goten yelled frantically, sliding to a stop next to his older sibling. "Big brother! Are you okay?!"
"Gohan!" Videl also shouted, dropping down next to the teen to cradle his head. "Hey! Snap out of it!" After shaking him a couple of times and receiving only a groan for her efforts, she then looked up at the others in fear and concern. "What's wrong with him?"
"Stop panicking, woman," Vegeta replied, glaring down at the girl from his position a few meters away. "The brat's fine."
The teen's sapphire blue eyes reflected her distress, "B-But…"
"It's okay, Videl," Piccolo interjected next, standing alongside the youngsters as the most worried members of the team looked to the Namekian for counsel. With his arms crossed over his bare chest, the green warrior gestured to his out cold student and began relaying to them the situation. "He just fainted. The battle with Set must have really taken it out of him. Just let him rest for a little bit."
Videl, her expression mirroring those worn by Goten and Trunks, stared back at the Namekian nervously. "A-Are you sure?"
"He looks pretty beat up," the lavender haired child spoke, looking down at his older brother figure to see him lying there with his body all wrecked and his face half-burnt. Taking all of these damages into account, you could understand the kid's present woes.
Standing alongside the former guardian of earth, Krillin beamed reassuringly at the children. "Don't worry. I've seen Gohan go through a hell of a lot worse over the years. He'll be alright." Head perking up in realization, the short fighter then reached into his pocket for his collections of miracle beans. It was only after tugging at his pant leg that he saw several large holes had been torn out of his training gear. "Ah, crap. I lost the Senzu bag. They must've been pulverized after I was sent bouncing across the desert."
Piccolo, hearing his comrade's plight, nodded in understanding. "Don't worry. We'll take the kid up to Dende and have him checked out." And maybe get him a sandwich afterwards.
Kai only knew how famished the kid would be after the fight he'd just had. Knowing how typical the Saiyan metabolism was, the Namekian wasn't going to put it past the demi-Saiyan to run straight for the kitchen the second his pilot light was back on.
Hearing the man's plan of action, Videl quickly turned to stare back down at her crush and best friend of seven years. While initially showcasing nothing but worry and uncertainty for the unconscious Gohan, the girl then smiled brightly when she saw he was quietly snoring away, and held his head gently in her arms.
As the group slowly gathered their wits and caught their breaths, atop the terrace overlooking the desert, the liberated, teal-skinned prisoner Whis, still bearing the marks of the trouncing he'd received earlier that day, watched the Z-fighters' actions from afar. Upon seeing the young warrior responsible for defeating his former student collapse from sheer exhaustion and have his head cradled by the ones he cared about most, the martial arts master and guardian of the universe allowed a small smile to creep across his face.
"Son Gohan… what an interesting young man," Whis whispered, eyes reflecting both intrigue and wonder. After playing back all of the awe-inspiring events he'd witnessed from that battle, the man knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would be hearing a lot more about this young man in the future, as well as the friends and family he surrounded himself with.
When he saw the team of fighters take flight several minutes later and head towards the planet's lookout, the wounded attendant telepathically shut the pyramid door with a wave of his hand, summoned a new staff out of thin air, tapped it against the ground and, using it to support his weight on account of his fractured leg, vanished in a flash of light. His body shot up into space in the form of an ethereal pillar, which carried him all the way back to the domain of his student, Lord Beerus.
All things considered, it'd been a hell of a long day.
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