Wrath of the Dragon (part 1/3)

Small flashback for this chapter. Please, let me go back in time, a few months after Buu's defeat, when Vegetto was slowly adjusting to his new life.

It's about a story that many of you already know, but only in the point of view of the characters of the 18th universe. And what you have seen there is nothing but a reduced version of what really happened because it was just an animation that contained some incoherences. I hope you'll enjoy this story.

Dragon Fist Explosion: If Vegetto Can't Do It, Who Will?

Back then, Gohan's studies gave him enough free time to allow him to make a fool of himself. It was a good thing that he usually did it with a mask on his face. Videl went with him whenever he went to do it and both of them used that excuse to spend more and more time together. The father of this latter, Mr Satan, the 'World Martial Arts Champion', took a dim view of that relationship. He often wondered if it was an advantage or a drawback to be linked to this group of over-powerful mutants that he had seen for the first time during the terrible Cell Games. And now his daughter could fly and her strength wasn't human at all anymore. But as strong as she was, it was nothing compared with the Son family and their friends.

Whereas he had thought he could bring a tad of humanity out of the monster Buu that had terrified the entire planet Earth, said monster had transformed and gone. He even had killed every human but him, Satan. And then, Son Gohan's father (the warrior who had also been the first to fight Cell... Well, he looked a lot different, his hair was golder, longer and more ruffled than ever) had eliminated the demon.

Today, Mr Satan was just a useless old man who had lost twice during his last tournament. The first time, one of the boys of that family who had merely slapped him and the second time, he did win the title, but in exchange, he had to pay a dishonest and huge amount of money.

Mr. Satan was watching TV and quickly flicking through the channels in order to find the only topic that hold any interest in his opinion that could be told in the news since he was retired: the trials and tribulations of the Great Sayaman and his beautiful assistant.

Here they were! The cameras were zooming in the pair of super heroes that were doing their ridiculous dance. They were quite far from Satan City, but the inhabitants recognized them. The band of bandits had taken two people hostage in order to escape the police. As many, they thought that the couple of upholders of the laws were just fictional characters and there interventions were rigged. So they were quite surprised when they saw them in the flesh, arriving from the sky.

“Bugger off!” one of them yelled. His gun was on the temple of a frail old woman. “Or I blow her br...”

The masked heroes had teleported in front of him and his hand was on the weapon. In the next second, he had pointed the gun towards the sky. Then, as the guy was starring at him, utterly astonished, he crushed the gun as if it was made of melted butter.

The other bandit was so surprised that he didn't see that the masked heroine was near him. She disarmed him with a quick blow and kicked him so that he went flying away from his hostage.

“Guns are dangerous,” said the hero, moralistic. “You shouldn't play with it.” As the hostage was fleeing, he let several little metal pieces fall on the ground.

Satan bent toward the TV to have a better look. Those actions didn't interest him at all. What he wanted was to keep an eye on that couple. If that Gohan did anything to his daughter, he'd... he'd do what? When he was still young, that demon had killed Cell! Killed Cell for crying out loud!! The poor Mr. Satan couldn't do anything.

Bip. Bip. Emitted Videl's watch. They were called for a suicidal person. Were they mistaken for the firemen?

Videl grumbled, but Gohan willingly went there, so she followed him.

It was a strange old man, small and non-human – which was usual on Earth – and he seemed to be desperate. In retrospect, they never understood why.

Once he was saved, he enthusiastically told them about a super hero named Tapion. He'd have saved his planet one thousand years ago. Gohan was listening to that tale with that naivety that was part of his personality. Videl was getting ready to go back to school when the old man showed a lovely and well decorated box that had a handle on the side. Tapion would have been locked up in there because of an evil power.

All this was completely true.

At the Capsule Corp., that box proved to be a source of frustration for our invincible fighters.

Yet, even their strength wasn't enough to open, break or crush that box. Whether they used the handle, or tried to tear off the lid or even throwing it into the air and then riddling it with fire balls, nothing worked. The box had a strange power, as if fingers, hands, or ki attacks... well, actually, brutal strength just had no effect on it.

Ten years later, Vegetto would have travelled and learnt enough to open that music box. But for now, he could only make a fool of himself over the magical protection of the small item.

The old man had convinced them nevertheless: they wanted to free Tapion from that evil spell and, at his demand, they went in the search of the seven Dragon Balls. With the two Dragon Radars and some really quick travels or teleportation, the seven balls were gathered. The consequence of the excessive use of the balls during the last decades was that they could be found in the middle of nowhere and not between people's hands. That was because in so short a time, not many had had the opportunity to find them by chance and to put them in a museum or in their living-room.

Huge and impressing as always, Shenron appeared in the middle of the capital.

While Videl was in awe in front of the tall dragon, Gohan was wondering if the serious saurian wasn't thinking: 'What? Them again?'

“Could you release the noble Tapion from his cruel prison, please, eternal dragon?” asked the old man.

“It shall be done...” thundered the great dragon. His eyes went bright red.

The little handle of the box started spinning naturally and a sweet music could be heard. Then the lid opened with a discreet cliking.

A bright light came out of the box and a form suddenly appeared above it. A great power was released and the old magician Hoi smiled, victorious.

Steams surrounded our heroes as well as two auras. One was evil... and the other was good.... very heterogeneous signals... And the music box fell apart.

The light dimmed and the form became visible. It was a man, non-human even if his body did look very much like the body of human beings. And he was playing the flute, or rather, the ocarina.

The evil aura disappeared all of a sudden and Vegetto hadn't had the time to locate where it came from exactly.

The hero Tapion's feet touched the ground and stopped playing, then severely looked at the audience.

“Why did you free me?” he asked them as if he was reproaching them.

“What? You're not happy about it?” asked Gohan.

Videl looked around for the old man but he was nowhere to be seen. He had gone away while every one was focused on Tapion.

“You shouldn't have freed me! You now are in great danger!!”

Tapion turned his back to them and left.

That same evening, a barbecue was organised at the Capsule Corp. and there were a lot of people. Trunks and Goten, discreetly in their opinion, managed to get brochettes and drinks and left the barbecue to go to the abandoned factories where they had easily found track of Tapion, the heroes who had been released from the music box. With his great presence and his big sword in his back, Tapion had made a great impression on the children who had described it with a 'Totally awesome!'. And they rightly thought that he might be hungry.

They put the food not too far from him but as they were about to strike up a conversation, he gave them such a black look that they ran away.

And during the night, Gohan, who was sleeping at Capsule Corp. after the long diner, was waken up by the sound of attacks and destruction.

He flew over the city, wearing his Great Sayaman outfit and crossed Videl's path, she was wearing her special outfit too.

Buildings had been destroyed and some fire lightened the rubble. Those marks of destructions gave the impression of having been made by a great beast, it was as if Godzilla had gone through the town. It really didn't look like the result of a fighter throwing energy balls all around.

“What can have destroyed the city like that, for god's sake?” asked Gohan out loud.

He found the answer to his question soon enough for the monster was still here. But it wasn't Godzilla. Rather half a Godzilla! A gigantic pair of legs with a long tail was devastating the buildings.

Videl flew towards the thing but Gohan stopped her.

“That creature emits a really great power. Don't go near it!”

And he broke the command he had just given her. Gohan flew in a flash under the monster and punched one of the legs so hard that he was sure he had broken it.

The monster felt the pain and violently reacted: his tail destroyed a block of houses in the same movement. “Darn.” thought Gohan. The legs weren't broken for all that and they started stamping their feet, hoping they'd squash the heroes.

But it was a waste of effort for Gohan was way faster. He punched the legs again, but that time his punch was upwards. He hoped he'd throw the monster out of the city. But it had no effect, the legs took the punch, even thought it was painful, as if they were made of rubber, and they weren't carried away.

So, he threw himself on it and caught it with difficulty for even the tip of the tail was really large. Then he flew into the sky.

The half monster followed without being able to escape. Gohan lead it to the clouds and threw it. Then, as he was beneath it, he bombarded it with over-powerful energy attacks.

But his attacks did nothing except exploding on the surface or slid on the monster's legs. The beast was going to fall in the city.

“No way!”

Gohan caught it again and threw it back into the air. Perhaps should he move it in a deserted place?

The legs suddenly twisted, as if they were in pain and became smoke, and then that smoke seemed to disappear.

The evil energy of the monster had disappeared.

What had happened? Gohan didn't know the answer to that question.

Vegetto had watched his son taking care of the monster from afar. What interested him most what the origin of that monster. That evil aura that he had felt when the music box had opened, that was it!

If he had had Piccolo's hearing, he'd have heard the sound of the ocarina that had made that pair of legs disappear... But in the smoke and the complexity of the town, Tapion had gone unnoticed. On the other hand, when the monster had become smoke, Vegetto had concentrated to see where it was going. And he had it just under his nose, even if it was some thousand yards away. That old Hoi was running, jumping from a building to another, like a ninja.

Vegetto kept following Hoi from afar.

“I'll wait for you to release the beast once again, little man. I'll not let go of you now, and you'll reveal your secrets.”

A few hours later, before sunrise, Vegetto, who was starting to get bored during his remote watch, felt the evil energy. But it didn't come from the place where Hoi was!!

Using his ubiquity technique, Vegetto sent one of his bodies to follow that energy. When he arrived, he had the time to see a gigantic monster, but this one had no legs, go up in smoke. In the middle of the scene, Tapion was playing the ocarina...

Vegetto had followed where had gone that part of the energy and he was sure it had gone into Tapion!

“So that was it!” he said. “A monster is cut in half and these two men are keeping the parts in them. One would want it to never be released while the other do everything he can to have it happens! A nice opponent in the offing... Too bad its strength is so low...”