~Part 1/4~
Last time on Dragon Ball GB, Baezel and his friends had finished their training for a year in order to battle Parakress, who threatened them with death after Draft had killed Gangal, whom kidnapped Lemogras. The day Parakress arrived, he leveled a city to make his presence known. This successfully attracted the Grand Battlers and caused them to arrive near his location, where they then had to battle 100 Mutated Saibaimen. Baezel arrived to fight Parakress, and almost won. But then, Parakress became a Golden Oozaru and nearly killed our hero. Something awoke inside of Baezel, a power that had been locked away and left unused for what seemed like eons. He ended up unlocking Super Saiyan 4, and utterly humiliated and nearly killed Parakress. The elder Saiyan left the planet in disgrace, with no one really sure where he went.
It's been one year since that event. Baezel, Radichio and Lemogras are standing in the backyard. The spring wind blew through their hair, the sun shining bright in the sky, as it always did. Baezel's uniform was one he hadn't worn before - a yellowish orange gi with a blue shirt, blue wristbands, a blue obi, and blue boots with a white line going down its front, tied with a red string. Lemogras' uniform was similar to his father's; however, he had black boots and white gloves, and a skintight black shirt above his yellowish orange top. Radichio wore gloves and white boots, with dark blue pants, a black shirt and a gray sleeveless jacket with a golden-buckle belt.
"You guys ready?" Baezel asked the duo, going into a stance to signify he was ready for battle. "Always!" Lemogras and Radichio applied. The trio immediately transformed into Super Saiyan and leapt into the skies, both of the older Saiyans dashing towards Lemogras. With both of his wrists, he successfully blocked both of their punches, but was struggling to do so. Baezel disappeared with teleportation, and left Lemogras to block punches from Radichio while slowly flying backwards. Radichio had a slight advantage over the boy, and was able to get some hits in past his blocking. Lemogras hit back, slugging Radichio in the face, then following up with a surprisingly fast combo. He got in hundreds of hits on Radichio, who could barely block in time. Radichio temporarily used his full strength to kick Lemogras in the chin, drawing blood from the boy's mouth. He was sent flying towards Baezel, who knocked him out cold with one swift neck chop. Lemogras fell to the ground, unconscious, as Baezel and Radichio descended to the ground.
Baezel clasped his fists, as rocks began to rise up from the ground. "Now that my kid's out of the way, we can have a proper fight! Just you and me, buddy!" The Saiyan yelled as he burst into Super Saiyan 2, blue electricity generating all over his body. "Couldn't have said it better myself!" Radichio commented, as he promptly transformed as well. The 4 spikes of hair on his head rose up, now just one elongated spike on the side of his head. The two Saiyans burst dashed towards each other and connected fists, creating a shockwave that sent Lemogras rolling, ending near the wall of Baezel's house. Connecting fists 4 more times, they exchanged fists in a barrage of punches, both of them seemingly equal. As per usual, Baezel had the slight advantage in strength over him. He pulled his fist back, and thrust it forward at Radichio, who blocked it with one fist. This fist connection created an even stronger shockwave than before, this time shattering the windows in his house. Dana had to put up a ki barrier for her and Lemogras in order to be protected by the glass. Dispersing the barrier, she shouted, "Baezel, any more of this and you might obliterate the house!"
It turned out that Radichio had to transform into a Super Saiyan 3, for the sole purpose of protecting himself. He pulled his fist back upon hearing Dana shout. Baezel detransformed, and motioned for Radichio to do the same. Scratching his head, he said, "Oh...sorry about that! I got a bit caught up in the fight." Walking into the house, it was revealed that a strange fly-like insect was surveying the battle from above. Video and audio had been recorded, and photos were taken as well. It flew off back to the Northern Capital, entering a seemingly empty house through a window. The bug flew deep down and reached the basement, which was rather well decorated.
There were seven screens and a shelf, hooked up to computers. There were a few cabinets, and a gun rack as well. There was a human-sized tank with a green glass door, with a sleeping humanoid inside. His hair was long and black, had tan skin, and wore golden gauntlets. He had on a red sash and dark red pants, with gray boots. There was a second tank, obscured from view, which was filled with green liquid, and had a strange human-like organism in it. It was about as big as a baby. But the shocking thing was this...it had Baezel's hairstyle, color and skin tone. A bubble popped, indicating that it was alive.
Inside a wall, there was an empty cube-shaped hole, large enough to fit about 3 adults in it. There was a switch on the desk that would open and close it. On the wall, there was a picture of a scientist, and a frame with the text, Awarded to Doctor Akagane 'Erbito' Goukin for Ten Years of Service. He looked back fondly on his Centurion Army days, when he was the head scientist of the Ordnance Corps of the Centurion Army. Designing biological weapons was his profession, from demobilizing red dust to Tsar Bomba-level energy weapons. When Baezel was about to kill Platinum as a child, he got the call to start work on his greatest project - androids.
Landing on a small station next to the doctor, he turned around in his swivel chair and smiled. He pulled out a cord and plugged it into the bug's backside, which was hooked up to a PC. The monitor lit up, and he used his mouse to click on the most recently recorded video. The video contained live footage of Baezel's fight, with high-quality audio, no less. Despite the fact that it being able to accurately film it at all broke the known laws of physics, it was there to see, clear as day. Akagane smiled with glee. He now had even more footage of the gang to use, even if it was kinda messy. "Honestly, I'm surprised that I've been able to observe these fools for years! They haven't even batted an eye!" he said. "But who am I to complain? Results are results, no matter how they're obtained."
At around the same time, Radichio, using Super Saiyan 2, was intensely sparring with Draft. His anger influenced his fighting style, as his punches had more weight behind them. They felt heavier and were a bit harder for Draft to dodge. The cyborg blocked a punch from Radichio with both arms, and kneed him in the chin with his muscular knee. Draft was at Max Power Super Human, and unlike before, he could maintain it with minimal stamina draining. This knee to the chin gave him the advantage, and Draft quickly seized the opportunity to land several heavy hits on Radichio in his midsection. He punched Radichio in the cheek, then clasped his fists together like an axe and swung at him. He removed his fists from their clutches and chopped Radichio to the side, sending the Saiyan hurtling towards the ground.
He stopped himself by transforming into a Super Saiyan Grade 3, burst dashing towards Draft. The two 'roided-out martial artists were neck and neck, with Draft still having the slight advantage over Radichio. They began to yell, and their auras erupted to life, shaking the entire general area as they did so. Their feet, carrying so much weight, began to sink into the ground. Draft slowly began to overwhelm Radichio, tightening his grip on his fingers to the point where he was outright breaking them. Seeing that he was about to secure a victory for himself, he used his superior strength to quickly pin Radichio onto the ground, and hold him down for as long as he could. He managed to hold him down for 10 seconds, with Radichio firing a mouth beam straight at his face and Draft dodging it by turning his head in time. He grabbed Radichio by the hair, rising him up, and let him go. Before he fell down to the ground, he gut punched him, leaving him down for the count.
Radichio detransformed, holding his gut in pain. "Damn it, I lost again! Well, I guess it makes sense. I did hold back a lot. Even so, it pisses me off that Baezel's surpassed me once again! Well, NOT FOR LONG!" he said. He was motivated to become Baezel's equal once more, because he desperately needed to catch up. But how...? He took a minute to try and jog his memory, while Draft detransformed and was walking away. He had Super Saiyan, that was a good first step. He still had his tail, so that was the second step. Going into his memory of the Parakress fight for a moment, he remembered seeing Baezel transform from a rampaging Golden Oozaru to a calm Super Saiyan 4, but not before regaining his consciousness. Of course! All he had to do was just repeat what Baezel did!
A couple moments later, after discussing the plan with Draft, he and Radichio flew off to a flat grassy area, where they could do the least damage. They managed to find a grasslands area, with clear skies surrounded by gray, snowcapped mountains. It was quite the beautiful place. Might be a good place to visit someday. If Radichio got all the steps right, he would be able to catch up once again. He held his palm in his hand, and created a giant fake moon. It was white and bright, with yellow wisps. It was like he was holding a star. It kind of hurt to look at directly, but it wasn't too bad for Draft. Radichio threw it into the air, shouting "Burst open and mix!" The fake moon shot bolts of lightning out from it and became brighter than before, needing Draft to turn away.
Radichio was staring intently at the false moon, his eyes widening and his pupils dilating. He felt that same fire in his soul, that same yearning for primal power that was burning, raging. His muscles ached and grew in size, as his body forced himself into Super Saiyan. Radichio's muscles seemed to grow brown fur from out of them, which immediately turned gold. As his voice was getting deeper and more animalistic, he shouted out to Draft, "Be on guard! Don't hesitate to transform and fight back if I get out of control!!" His outfit tore off and black claws grew from his fingernails. His facial features contorted into that which resembled an ape, and his eyes became entirely red. He had fully transformed into a Golden Oozaru, and was struggling to retain his humanity. What was the last step...? He recalled his memory, back to that time a year ago...
DAD! PLEASE STOP THIS! We know you're in there, and we need you!
What the hell's wrong with you?! Stop doing whatever it is you're doing!
Closing his eyes, he clasped his fists and rose them into the air, as he belted out a deafening roar. His golden aura was enormous, blowing Draft into one of the nearby mountains due to the sheer force of it. His entire body glowed white, and he began to shrink down in size. His hair was growing out, just like Baezel's. Draft opened his eyes, and looked on in awe. Radichio was normal size now, but his hair was the same length as Super Saiyan 4 Baezel's. His fur was crimson, as was his tail and eyeliner. His aura looked exactly like that of a Super Saiyan. Looking at his hands, he realized that he had done it. He actually became a Super Saiyan 4.
Draft flew over to his friend and realized that it was a success. He smiled, saying, "I'm glad that this worked. Now we've got two Super Saiyan 4s to help us out!" Radichio then detransformed once again. This little experiment of his worked out after all, even if he thought it'd be a fluke. The duo headed home, and life continued as normal for the gang, for the rest of the day. Radichio washed up and went off to sleep, while Draft went down in the basement to start work on a new project of his. Parakress was living on a former Freeza Planet, after having been healed by the staff there. Baezel and his family finished up dinner and went into their beds, where they would doze the night away...
...for about three hours. At around 1AM, a knock was heard at Baezel's door. Initially, he ignored it. The knocking then turned into banging, and Baezel couldn't ignore it if he wanted to keep sleeping. He walked downstairs and opened the door, still kind of tired from having just woken up. He saw two muscular male humanoids, one with fully pink skin and the other with green skin. Their musculature looked like they were roughly sculpted out of clay. They had no hair, eyes, mouths, ears, noses or genitalia. They didn't have clothing either. It was pretty dark in the hallway and outside, since the lights were off, meaning that he couldn't really see who they were. "Who are you two?" Baezel wearily asked. He was then met with a powerful punch to the cheek, which drew blood. He was on the floor, and was in shock from the punch. His fingers trembled, as did the rest of his body. One of the humanoids then ran upstairs, and the second one cracked its knuckles as it looked down on the weakened Baezel. He slowly got up, but the humanoid backhanded Baezel, sending him flying down the stairs and into the basement. The house was abuzz with the sound of wood being ripped off and glass breaking. The last thing Baezel heard was his wife and child screaming out his name, with Baezel panting, as his eyes closed by themselves and he fell unconscious.
~Part 2/4~
The painful night transitioned into day, as Baezel had finally awoken from his unplanned slumber. About eight hours had passed, and he was still kind of woozy. What happened last night felt like a blur. One minute, he was comfortably sleeping. The next, he was unconscious in the basement. And he knew that Lemogras and Dana had been taken, but their ki was faint, like it was being masked by something else. He couldn't teleport to them with ease. Moreover, he couldn't sense the ki of whoever kidnapped them last night, and they were stronger than him. His first course of action would be to go grab Radichio first. If this was more serious than he thought, he'd get the rest of the team...that being Draft...into the situation. He could still feel his scar on his cheek, and he quickly went upstairs to put a bandage on it. He then teleported to Radichio, who was performing shadow boxing outside.
"Oi, Radichio! I need your help with something!" Baezel shouted out to him.
"I'm all ears. Speak to me," Radichio replied.
"Listen up. Lemogras and Dana got kidnapped, and I was attacked by a being whose ki I couldn't sense. And when I sense my wife and kid's ki, it feels like it's being obscured by something else," he said. Clearing his throat, he said, "I have a feeling that we're dealing with ANDROIDS here. I'll need your assistance, maybe Draft's as well." He shouted out the word "androids" to get Draft's attention. And it worked. Draft rushed down the stairs upon hearing the word, and looked outside to see Baezel and Radichio.
"Baezel? What're you doing here at this time of day?" Draft asked, somewhat confused.
"Androids kidnapped my wife and kid, and I can't sense any of them!" Baezel quickly blurted out! "Do you know of anyone, anyone at all, who could've been involved in this?" Thinking for a moment, Draft said, "I might. I'm coming outside." He walked outside, and began to discuss. "First off, I have the feeling that it might be something connected to your past again. You've discussed the Centurion Army with me, and sure enough, I have a bit of familiarity with them. That bastard scientist who turned me into a cyborg, brought them up once or twice."
"So what're you saying? Was he related to them?" Radichio pondered.
"I can't say for sure, but in all honesty? It's very likely that he worked for them," Draft explained to the duo. "He may have gotten the idea to turn me into a cyborg from a head scientist known as 'Akagane Goukin', or something."
"Goukin...?" Baezel said, scratching his head. "Did he go by any other names?"
"Only one. Erbito. I believe that was a nickname of his," Draft replied. "If we can find his address, we can probably find him and get your family back."
"That's great! Boot up your PC, and let's track this bastard down!"
Simultaneously, at Goukin's laboratory, Lemogras was desperately trying to escape from the prison, but he was having trouble with the energy barrier. Punching the barrier just led to him being electrocuted. Firing a barrage of ki blasts caused it to absorb the ki. Beams weren't much better, as they got absorbed too. "Goddamnit! Why aren't my attacks doing anything?!" the boy shouted, as he transformed into a Super Saiyan. He charged up a Kamehameha and fired it directly at the barrier, which simply absorbed it. This made Lemogras even angrier, and he was about to charge up another ki blast. "You really are your father's son, aren't you? I know you're Baezel's boy, so that yearning for freedom is powerful. You've got a powerful spirit, I'll give you that much." Goukin said. He walked over to the two and cackled. "But let me assure you...attempting to escape is futile. Especially for you, Dana. You're just a weak human. Even I could crush you at 1% of my true power."
Goukin's words lingered ominously in the confined space, his twisted intentions hanging heavy in the air. Dana gritted her teeth, her concern for Lemogras overshadowed by her own determination. "You're a damn coward, Goukin," she retorted, refusing to show weakness despite the fear gripping her heart. "You're too weak to fight your enemies head-on, so you kidnapped us as leverage. Isn't that right, you cunt?"
"You have no right to speak to me like that, woman," Goukin sneered, his smugness accentuating his power advantage. He approached Dana with an air of superiority, his malicious intent palpable. "If I really felt like it, I could kill you and that vile clump of cells in your womb with a flick of my finger. And as for your son," he glanced at Lemogras, "he'll meet a similar fate if he continues to resist. I will kill every last alien and hybrid on this planet if I have to. None will be spared."
Lemogras, fueled by both fury and frustration, coupled with the threat against his mother and unborn sister's life, attempted once more to break through the barrier, only to be met with the same shockwave of electrical energy. "There's no use, Lemogras," Dana whispered, attempting to quell his relentless efforts. "We need to find another way out of here. And we will."
Goukin wasn't finished with his twisted plans. "I have no interest in your Saiyan heritage, boy. In fact, I intend to rid you of it." His words hung in the stale air, chilling both Dana and Lemogras to their cores. "Filthy, inbred aliens like you don't belong in our future. The Centurion Army may be long gone now, but this world has no room for impure bloodlines."
Dana's breath caught in her throat as she realized the horrifying gravity of Goukin's intentions. The threat wasn't just about their escape; it was about erasing their very identities. Lemogras clenched his fists, his Super Saiyan aura flickering with desperation and rage. "Inbred aliens...?! That's a call for genocide! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"
"And why shouldn't I, brat?" Goukin shouted at the boy. "Need I remind you of the chaos that your kind has brought upon this world? Because of your kin, this world has become objectively more dangerous. The Tenkaichi Budokai alone should be proof enough of that. Didn't you see what had happened? Thousands died all so that your father and that cyborg could have a fight. Not to mention the city that got bombed by another one of your kin! Aliens and anyone who supports them are scum that must be put to death...the only aliens that I will allow to live on this planet are the kind that I create. The ones that are loyal to the Centurion Army's cause through and through!"
Lemogras' fury surged, a mixture of desperation and anger boiling within him. "Your xenophobia is sickening. My father isn't a threat to this world! He's done more to protect it than anyone else!" His voice reverberated with raw emotion, challenging Goukin's cruel assertions. Dana, just as terrified as her son, refused to succumb to her fear, her defiance unwavering. "Your twisted ideals are what's truly dangerous! You're the one bringing harm by targeting innocent lives. I won't stand for it, nor will my kids stand for it!"
Goukin's sneer was laden with contempt. "You're both so blind to the truth. You might love Baezel a lot, but the purity of humanity is the only way forward. Those who stand in opposition will face extermination. The Saiyan lineage will be a relic of the past, eradicated from the annals of history. And that will require him and his band of merry men to be corpses in the ground."
Dana's resolve hardened, her eyes burning with defiance. "You've forgotten something, though. Opposition is an immortal concept. Even if you kill us, you won't be able to get rid of your opposition entirely." Lemogras, seething with rage, was teetering on the edge of losing control. His Super Saiyan aura flared brightly, a manifestation of his emotions. "You think you're righteous, but you're just a coward hiding behind your twisted beliefs! We won't let you get away with this!"
As the tension in the laboratory escalated, Goukin's insidious plan loomed ominously over Dana and Lemogras. The threat of genocide hung heavy in the air, an appalling scheme aimed at erasing their existence solely due to their heritage. Goukin, infuriated at the duo, went to his gun rack and picked out the appropriate weapon. AR-15? No. Ithaca 37? Nah. HK33? Not this time. He grabbed what looked like an assault rifle. Lemogras and Dana's eyes widened in fear, as the holes in the barrel began to glow red. "You can't oppose me if you're too dead to do it!" he shouted. He put down the energy barrier and immediately opened fire on the duo, but Lemogras took the opportunity to dive out of the way. Now he was out of the barrier and ready to fight. The two androids were prepared to fight as well, going into battle stances.
Goukin continued to open fire on the boy, with the two androids firing a barrage of ki blasts at him in conjunction with the energy bullets. Lemogras blocked the attacks, but they were slowly starting to overwhelm him. He fired back with ki blasts of his own, blowing off parts of the androids. His ears perked up, as he sensed three familiar ki signatures arriving fast. It was the trio! "Mom! Dad and the others are coming!" Lemogras shouted to Dana with joy. "You're serious?!" she shouted back. "That's great! He'll be able to stop these bastards!"
Aiming his gun at Dana, he blurted out, "Not if I kill you first!" He fired off several rounds at her, but due to Lemogras having the speed and strength advantage, he was able to deflect them all towards non-living targets. The two androids fired barrages of dual ki blasts at him, and the child blocked them all. Their goal wasn't to kill him immediately with the blasts, but to wear him out by blocking. He performed an Explosive Wave to disperse the ki blasts, which also ended up destroying all 7 of the monitors. By the time he performed this last attack, Goukin was repeatedly pressing the button to open the container with the tan humanoid inside. The estimated opening time? 2 minutes. He sensed that Baezel and the others had arrived at the house, and he was going to die any minute now. Damn it, I'm gonna be dead before then...!! But at least my creations will be able to avenge their creator, he thought. Wait a minute...CRAP, THEY'VE ARRIVED! I GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE! He pushed past the two mangled androids and tried to run up the stairs, only to be met by Baezel, Radichio and Draft.
"Radichio, go down there and get Lemogras out of the basement for me. I'll deal with this asshole myself," he demanded. His friends did as asked, while Baezel teleported to the scientist himself and teleported outside, while holding him by his hair. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Baezel himself. Come to enact re - " he started to say. Baezel clenched his fist and shoved his face into the wall of his house, breaking his nose. He repeatedly slammed his face into the wall, ruining his face and drawing more blood. "Kidnap my family!" Slam. "Draw blood from my face!" Slam. "Threaten my wife with death!" SLAM. "I HOPE YOU BURN IN HELL!" He finished the bastard off by smashing what remained of his head into the wall, turning it into bloody goop with some pieces of bones in there. The headless scientist fell to the ground, bleeding out on the grass.
Baezel smirked with glee, but his face quickly contorted to horror. He just brutally murdered someone, in public, with evidence. What was wrong with him? He was already a murderer when he killed Pepkorn, but at least that was a long time coming. This...he just stormed someone's house and killed them on the street. Maybe if he destroys the evidence and shoves it into the back of his mind, he'd feel okay. He removed the doctor's jacket, and began to try wiping it off. It made it worse. Oh God, this is going horribly. He tried wiping faster, but it just started spreading. He was panicking, and to make it worse, the group of five came back outside. "Well, Baezel, I was able to get your fami...ly..." Radichio said, as he saw Baezel trying to wipe off the blood. Baezel was sweating and looked like he was about to cry, and in an attempt to try fixing this horror show. Dana shielded Lemogras' eyes, and as Baezel's eyes frantically darted around and the others stepped back, he leapt into the sky to fire a Kamehameha down at the building, obliterating it from the top down. He made sure to fire a ki blast at Goukin's body, so that no one could see his corpse.
Landing to the ground, he struggled to look at the others. He bowed his head, unable to form the words to speak. Dana, in an attempt to try and comfort him, said, "Look...I'm not going to try and spin this to make it sound like you're innocent. I'm not going to sugarcoat this for you. This murder, although you think it might be justified, is not only setting a distasteful example for our son, but it'll ruin the image of a hero that you're supposed to be upholding. You can't just violently murder whoever you want because they made it personal. But at the very least, I can understand why you did it. I understand that he is responsible for you losing your brother, for you and Radichio being kidnapped and enslaved as children by the Centurion Army.
But Baezel, let me be frank - I cannot sit here and try to make you feel better about yourself or try to immediately numb your pain. This kind of killing is unjustifiable. And this isn't even a situation where you can claim self-defense; I can compare both of your ki signatures, and there was NEVER a point in which Goukin would've been a threat to you at all. If I killed him, I can claim that it's in self-defense because he had an array of firearms and weapons to kill me with, and is physically superior to me. You are leagues beyond his caliber of strength. Murdering this guy, especially...smashing his head against a wall, was wholly unnecessary."
"Unnecessary?!" His voice, hoarse from the bitter cocktail of bile and guilt, cracked like ice shattering on a frozen lake. "After everything he did? He stole my brother, Radichio, our freedom! He enslaved us as children! Do you have any inkling of what that does to a child, Dana?" Each word was a barbed arrow, launched with the near-perfect precision of a wounded warrior.
Radichio, ever the loyal shadow, stepped forward, his own anger simmering just beneath the surface. "Dana's right," he rumbled, "Goukin wasn't just a monster, he was a puppeteer, dancing us on the strings of his depravity." His voice, raw and guttural, resonated with the shared pain they carried, a scar etched so deep it would forever mar their souls.
Draft nodded grimly. "I understand that pain all too well," he murmured, the taste of ashes lingering on his tongue, a constant reminder of the darkness he'd clawed his way out of. "Eight years with that sadistic bastard Edogawa...He ripped away my childhood, twisted my body, turned me into his Frankenstein experiment." But unlike the simmering rage in the air, his voice held a chilling restraint, the stoicism of a warrior who had learned to harness his demons. "But I never let it crush me, never let it define me. I came to live with it, and turned it into a source of my strength."
A harsh, grating laugh escaped Baezel's lips, sending tremors through the fragile peace. "You see? That's what I'm talking about. We're Saiyans! Warriors! We don't wallow in weakness like Earthlings! We fight, we claw our way through the abyss, and we never let it break us!" Yet, despite the bravado, his voice betrayed a tremor he couldn't suppress, the cracks in his facade revealing the turmoil within. "And yet here I am, shaking like a leaf, drowning in self-loathing over a piece of garbage like Goukin! I should be as callous towards him as I was towards Pepkorn, but...I don't feel the same way that I did towards him, and I don't know why!"
Lemogras, his small face mirroring the emotional storm swirling around him, reached out a hesitant hand towards his father. "Dad, it's okay to feel this way. You did something...something you thought was right, but now you see it wasn't. That's not weakness, that's being human. Even if I'm half-and-half." His voice, a fragile beacon of hope amidst the encroaching darkness, pierced through the fog of anger clouding Baezel's mind.
Dana, her expression a tapestry of empathy and concern, met his gaze head-on. "Lemogras is right, Baezel. Your emotions are valid. But letting anger consume you, becoming the very thing you seek to destroy...that's not who you are. That's not who I recognize you as. You're one of the Earth's grest protectors, one of its beacons of hope. Heroes don't become the very darkness they battle." Her words, gentle yet firm, were a lifeline thrown to a drowning man.
"Um, guys, you might wanna pay attention to - "
"Not right now, Draft. But your wife has a point. Goukin deserved worse, but we can't stoop to his level. We have to be better than that, for ourselves, for your son." His voice, a gruff rumble of solidarity, grounded Baezel in the present. Unknown to them, the looming threat of a certain being was about to make its presence known any minute now.
Baezel was about to let out a primal scream, a guttural roar that would tear through the tension, but he restrained himself. His pointing finger retreated into a fist. He hesitated. Don't snap, Baezel...not in front of them. Not now. Dana saw that Baezel was that close to snapping with fury. He was teetering on the edge of being overwhelmed with anger. But she saw that he knew better. He wouldn't dare to ever punch his wife. That being said, he turned around to the back of the now-destroyed building. He sensed a rising ki coming from below it, and began to sweat. The rubble started to rise, as Radichio stepped away. Baezel nodded to Dana to get out of here, and she obliged. She rose into the air and flew away, fearing for her own safety if she were to stay on the soon-to-be new battlefield any longer.
"I told you that we needed to get away from here!" Draft shouted, but it was too little, far too late. An unknown humanoid being burst out from the ground with long hair. He leapt high into the air, his body getting in the way, and he then landed on the ground so that everyone could get a good look at him. Sure enough, it was the long-haired tan person in Goukin's laboratory. His aura was on, and unlike most of their enemies, it was red. This didn't seem like the Kaioken, as his body wasn't tinted red and his muscles weren't bulging out. It seemed like his aura was naturally red.
~Part 3/4~
He cracked his neck and stretched his arms. "Ah, how good it feels to be freed from that accursed receptacle! Now then...I take it that Mister Bowlcut over here is Baezel, correct?" he said, exuding an aura of extreme confidence. He had just woken up, and he wasn't 100% sure what to expect from the group. Oh wait. Yes, he was - he knows exactly who they all are.
"Mister Bowlcut?! You look like you tried to become a Super Saiyan 3, but gave up halfway through! Childish insults aside, who even are you?" Baezel said, not having the slightest idea who this stranger could possibly be.
"Oh? You don't know? I get that. I literally just woke up and you've known me for less than a minute. But I'll cut to the chase to not bore you to death...I am Nori, Akagane Goukin's greatest creation!" Nori exclaimed to the world, proclaiming his existence with as much faith in himself that he could muster.
"Akagane Goukin? You must be talking about the headless corpse over there, no?" Radichio mockingly said, pointing to said headless corpse. "Baezel got rid of him with ease, and you're next." He folded his arms, waiting for Nori's response. He had the slight feeling that this might not end well at all. And his feeling was correct. Nori's expression shifted from confidence to a mix of grief and rage, as he balled up his fists and began to tremble. A vein grew on his forehead, as his ki began to rise. Draft leapt up into the sky and performed a Continuous Android Flash, a barrage of the Android Flash technique. The purple ki spheres shot out of his hands like bullets, but for some reason, it looked as though they went into Nori and he absorbed them. That's gonna be an issue.
"Bastards! You killed my creator...I'll do the same to you!" Nori said through gritted teeth, as his long hair became encased in white light with a yellow outline, which shattered to reveal fluffy golden hair. He let out a yell, turning his red aura golden and his eyes blue. Nori had just transformed into a Super Saiyan, and unfortunately for the gang, he was stronger than he would normally be.
"Welp, clearly this one isn't gonna be easy. I'll go get Senzu, you guys hold down the fort while I'm gone!" Baezel shouted, as he teleported to Karin to get the beans. Radichio nodded, as he transformed into a Super Saiyan to fight Nori. He dashed towards Nori and jabbed him in the face. He repeatedly punched him with slow, heavy punches that didn't seem to do much of anything. Nori grabbed his wrist and twisted his left arm, almost instantly putting it out of commission. He threw the Saiyan away and burst dashed towards him, with Lemogras and Draft following suit in chasing Nori. Nori teleported behind Radichio, with a red ki sphere in hand, and fired a large ki beam at him, overwhelming the Saiyan entirely. Radichio got up, holding his left arm in pain, as Draft finally caught up. He bulked up into Max Power Super Human and punched Nori in the head, knocking him down to the ground, as Draft opened fire with a two-handed ki beam of his own. It created a purple explosion, which Nori blasted right out of, as if it was nothing. He hit Draft with an uppercut to the jaw and a heavy kick to the gut, before blasting a mouth beam at him. Draft rolled over to get out of the way and leapt back up to his feet, flying towards Nori. Nori disappeared and reappeared behind Draft, holding him in a chokehold as he continuously kneed him in the back. With the last knee, he let go of Draft's neck. Draft coughed up blood, as Nori prepared to finish him off.
Lemogras transformed into a Super Saiyan himself and began to charge up a Kamehameha. A yellow ki sphere fizzled into life within the boy's hands, and not wanting to waste any time, he immediately fired it off at the lumbering Saiyan in an attempt to distract him. It seemed to have worked, as Nori turned around to greet the child. Lemogras gulped, as he didn't exactly think this far ahead. Nori opened his palm to Lemogras, and let out a fierce shout, creating a kiai that launched him into the air. With rather convenient timing, Baezel managed to teleport to his son, grabbing him by the cusp of his shirt. He looked down menacingly at the long-haired warrior, knowing that it was him that Nori wanted to fight. Descending down to the ground and laying him down for him to fly off, he clasped his fists and went into a battle stance. "Raddy, can you still fight?" he asked.
"I think so. I'll have to use my right arm only, though," Radichio answered. His hair rose up as he transformed into a Super Saiyan 2, electricity jittering all around his body. Just this was enough for him to deal with Nori; the only issues were that his arm was out of commission and Nori was pretty close in strength to him. As though he had already put two-and-two together, Baezel hastily transformed into a Super Saiyan 2 as well, and landed a kiai on Nori, sending him flying towards Radichio, who performed a high kick to the chin. He leapt into the air and slammed the sole of his boot onto Nori's face, which he followed up with a spinning hook to the head. Nori's eyes went white for a moment, as Baezel, who had been charging up a Kamehameha on the ground, blasted it directly into Nori's face when he came close to ground level, overwhelming the Artificial Saiyan and blasting him sky-high. His blast dissipated by itself, as Nori stopped being shot into the air. He floated in the air, turning to Radichio and laughing. "What's so funny?!" Radichio shouted to him. "Thanks for hitting me with that blast, idiot," Nori replied, as he began charging his ki. His power level seemed as though it more than doubled just from the Kamehameha, and his speed was doubled as well.
Nori put his hands together, as though he was going to pray, and opened his hands out wide. What looked like a torus, or donut shape, was formed between his hands, made out of electric yellow ki. He launched the torus at Radichio, and it worked in a similar vein as a taser, electrocuting and stunning him. Baezel teleported to his friend and caught him, then quickly teleported around to a building, then back to Nori. He rushed the Saiyan, landing a punch to the gut, but Nori didn't flinch. Baezel performed multiple kicks to the chest, and it didn't even scuff up his body. Nori smirked, as he grabbed Baezel's leg and shot down to the ground, slamming him down on his back. He threw him around on the road like a ragdoll, before finishing him off by throwing him into the air. Simultaneously, Draft got up from his thrashing, rubbing his neck in pain, and tried to rush to Nori to try and stop him. Nori, as he was charging his Kamehameha, backhanded Draft into a building and fired his attack at Baezel with his free hand. Via quick thinking, Baezel retaliated with a Wild Cannon, starting up a beam clash. He didn't have a chance to try stopping it anyway, as he was already disadvantaged. He dispersed it and dashed towards Nori, but the Saiyan disappeared before he could hit him. "What the - " was all he could blurt out before he was caught in a Full Nelson.
Despite his struggles to get out of Nori's grasp, Nori leapt up into the air and began to charge an Explosive Wave. Baezel thought to himself, Son of a bitch! I didn't wanna have to resort to this, but he's left me with no choice. I need to use Super Saiyan 3. A yellow outline surrounded Baezel, as his ki began to rise and Nori's grip weakened. He used the backside of his fist to slam it in Nori's nose, catching him off guard and breaking out of his Full Nelson. Turning around, he instantly transformed into a Super Saiyan 3, his hair stretching down to his waist. His eyebrows were gone, and his strength in Super Saiyan 2 quadrupled. Heck yeah! This battle's over now, Radichio thought. The moment Baezel charges up a strong-enough Kamehameha, he'll be able to kill him in one go!
Nori was a bit surprised at such a jarring transformation, but his resolve was unwavered. He pulled back, and thrust his hand forward, launching out a quick red ki wave. This did nothing besides kick up dust, maybe. Baezel was unamused. Nori sweated a bit, but he remained confident in his abilities. "Look, if this is all you can do - " Nori cut Baezel off with a punch to the face, and Baezel continued to speak, albeit with what seemed like a lisp thanks to a fist being in his face. " - then I'm gonna hath to end thith fight now."
He clasped Nori's wrist and removed his fist from his face, and punched Nori back. The punch was strong enough that Nori got knocked outside of the city's borders, and hit a nearby mountain range. Baezel then opened fire with a barrage of ki blasts, which Nori was scared to take head-on. But he remembered - he can absorb ki with his body. And so he did that, taking the blasts while getting stronger and stronger. After absorbing what he thought was enough ki, he burst dashed back to Baezel, using his full body to ram into him and catch him off guard. Baezel fell to the ground, but dusted himself off and got right back up. "Step aside, Baezel," Radichio said from atop the building. "I can handle Nori myself."
As he raised his fists up, Radichio transformed into a Super Saiyan 3 once more, descending down to Nori's level. He glared at the Artificial Saiyan, as he rushed towards him, the two of them interlocking fingers. Radichio and Nori grit their teeth, both of their auras flaring, surrounding the two of them like a barrier. They disengaged, moving backwards, before engaging in a fist clash. Parts of the road around them began to crack, as it then ripped out of the ground and began to rise up into the sky, with a yellow outline around it to signify that it was encased in ki. The fist clash continued, with punches being thrown and dodged at insane speeds. Radichio seemed to have the advantage, as Nori was tanking more attacks than he got in successfully. It ended when both of their fists connected, creating a shockwave. They stood still, almost motionless in their position. The two of them removed their fists from their connection, standing before each other.
"Is Super Saiyan truly the best you can do, Nori?" Radichio asked. "Thanks to the amount of power I now have, it isn't. I could probably push myself further than that if I felt like it. As a matter of fact..." The chunk of road they were floating on began to crack again, as Nori powered up, surprising Radichio. His muscles began to massively bulge out, as he slightly increased in size and his already risen-up hair rose up a bit further. He finally finished his transformation into Super Saiyan Grade 3, and now Radichio was no issue for him. He stomped his way over to him and grabbed his head with only his hand, and threw him downwards, shoving him through a chunk of the rock and down to the ground. Nori then went back down to Super Saiyan, as he seemed to have figured out that bulking himself up like that would make him too slow.
He leapt down to the ground, landing on both feet with his arms crossed. His hair blew in the wind, as a grin of evil formed on his face. He let out both of his hands, as though he was charging up ki not for an attack, but merely just to power up. A faint rumbling could be felt in the city, as a subtle red outline formed around Nori. Lemogras felt it when he stood up, trying to figure out where it was coming from. Nori began to yell, as the rumbling became more intense. Red bolts of electricity danced around his body, as clouds covered the sky and darkened in response. Baezel almost immediately put two and two together and realized what was happening. He and Radichio both took a few seconds to charge up a Full Power Energy Wave and fired it at Nori at the same time, with the intent that overwhelming him with two ki attacks stronger than him would be able to stop him. However, Nori merely absorbed it like it was nothing, gaining even more raw power than before. His eyes temporarily flashed red, as though there was a glint in his eyes. Unleashing his strength in a similar fashion to an Explosive Wave, his aura burst from his body in the form of a black and red pillar of ki. It seemed to be generating heat as well, as Radichio could physically feel the road beneath them heating up.
Pillars of lava burst out of the ground and swirled around the giant aura, with the aura dissipating and the lava descending back down to the ground. Nori was still there, however, he had fully transformed. His muscle mass had vastly increased, and his hair turned from blonde to cadmium red. And his eyes were completely blank, fully white. Baezel, Radichio, Lemogras and Draft were all surprised by this new transformation, but they weren't sure just how much stronger Nori was. "I'll be sure to make you suffer," Nori said, holding up a single finger pointing at Baezel. "I wouldn't count on it," Baezel replied, as he and Radichio used the full power of Super Saiyan 3 and dashed towards him. Lemogras went back into Super Saiyan, and with the minimal strength Draft still had, he bulked back up into Max Power Super Human. The quad - otherwise known as a group of four - were all simultaneously attacking Nori from several angles, only for their combined attacks to not really do anything. Nori was standing as still as a stone, as he was just letting them hit him. Not even dodging, merely tanking. Almost instantly, he grabs Baezel's face with his giant hand and backhands Radichio in the head with it, throwing them both onto the ground. He used his left arm's elbow to shove it into Lemogras' face, stunning him and allowing Nori to frontflip twice and turn around backwards. Now that he re-positioned himself to be in front of Lemogras, he put forward his hand and charged up a generic red and black ki sphere.
Baezel stood up, his head still suffering from intense pain from being thrown into the ground. He saw what Nori was trying to do, and immediately tried to intervene, diving into the way. Lemogras screamed out, "DON'T DO THIS!" as Nori fired the ki sphere at him, creating a somewhat small explosion. Baezel was now on the ground, with the front of his clothes torn into shreds. He had an idea. If he detransformed and lowered his ki in order to make Lemogras believe he had died, it could trigger him enough that he'd snap and achieve a new transformation. Thinking it over more, he figured that even if Lemogras somehow went Super Saiyan 4, it still wouldn't be enough, so he decided to ditch that plan ASAP.
~ Part 4/4 ~
Cutting away to a far-flung Freeza Planet, Parakress was busy exercising by tying an extremely heavy object to his waist and trying to walk with it. In this case, it was multiple space pods linked together. His walking was slow, but otherwise, this was nothing for him. Suddenly, he sensed an incredible amount of ki radiating from Earth. How in the hell was that possible? He was literal billions of miles away from Earth right now, so there was no way that he should be able to feel it. And it was evil, too, which wasn't too much of an issue for him. But whatever it was, it was clearly enough of an issue that his curiosity was piqued, and he wanted to check it out. He thought for a moment. Did he want to fly there, or take a space pod? If he took a space pod, he'd get there safely, but it might end up being a waste of time if the threat's already dealt with. But, if he flew there, he'd risk running out of ki and dying in the cold, airless vacuum of space. Though flight was going to be a hell of a lot faster than a space pod. He figured that the increased speed that would come with flight was worth the risk. He levitated himself into the air and blasted off towards Earth, transforming into a Super Saiyan to speed himself up further. He'd be there in about 3 and a half minutes...
Meanwhile on Earth, Baezel and company were clearly losing to Nori. They figured it was time to stop playing around and use their full power already. The duo began to charge their ki, surrounding themselves in a golden coat of ki. As Nori threw a blast at the two of them, their coat of ki burst and destroyed Nori's blast, revealing Baezel and Radichio in Super Saiyan 4. The long black hair, yellow eyes, red fur, tail and eyeliner were seen once again. Initially confused at this sight, Nori was unfazed. Lemogras, however, was furious. "WHAT THE FUCK, DAD!?" Baezel turned to his son, preparing to tell him to watch his mouth. "Why did you only go full power NOW?!" He didn't expect his son to prepare to chew him out, but he figured that it was coming. "We were toying with him!" Radichio said. "We knew he would never be a challenge to us, but we at least wanted to have a good fight...so we exploited his ki absorbing ability to make him stronger."
"So - so let me get this straight. You were toying with him this whole time?"
"Yep."
"You could've solved this whenever you felt like it by going full power?"
"Yep."
"Yet you deliberately exploited his ki absorption ability to power him up and make the fight more fun?"
"Yep."
"So you let all of us get our asses beaten into next week, ALL SO YOU COULD HAVE A GOOD FIGHT?!"
"Uh-huh."
"...fuck you."
"Look, I'm sorry that I made us all suffer through this fight. It was selfish and inconsiderate of me and Radichio, and I'll make sure that it won't happen again from here on out. You can get your hits in on me if you - "
Lemogras didn't hesitate to give Baezel a heavy uppercut to the nuts, which felt as though his very soul was leaving his body. The punch was painful, but the pain was deserved. "Point taken...agh...alright. We'll finish this!"
"You mean YOU'LL finish this. In fact, since you wanted to have an equal fight, why don't you give Nori one more boost to put him on your level?" Draft mockingly said. Gritting his teeth, Baezel went into his battle stance, as did Radichio. They acknowledged that they had made a mistake, and put others into harm, even Baezel's child. But now they were going to make up for it by finishing Nori off themselves. Radichio pulled his hand back and fired one final ki beam at Nori to increase his strength for the last time, causing Nori's aura to turn on again. The Berserker Saiyan went into his battle stance, as the trio prepared to battle each other to the death.
Parakress was still on his way, flying through space. At this point, he was about three-quarters of the way there, and was roughly 45 seconds away. He blasted past asteroids in his way, while still holding his breath. He was kind of cold, given that he's been in space unprotected and whatnot, but regardless, he was still coming. By now, he was able to more clearly sense the ki of Baezel and the others. It angered him that Baezel was still alive, despite how he humiliated him so badly. Despite wanting to kill him with his own two hands, Baezel needed to stay alive if he wanted to have a rematch and defeat him. Now, just how would Parakress take this guy down...
Nori leapt high into the sky and fired a quick Galick Gun at the duo, which forced Baezel to use his quick thinking and fire a blast down at the ground, propelling himself into the air. Radichio rapidly flew through the beam itself and punched Nori in the face, sending him flying. Before he even started flying backwards from the attack, he barraged him in the face and chest with multiple one-legged kicks, before doing a spinning kick onto his arm to knock him through a window, into a building. He was about to fire a ki blast at him, but remembering his ki absorption ability, Radichio stopped himself and went into the building, continuing the fight there. Nori performed a barrage of punches, but Radichio dodged them all while standing and gut punched him, connecting fist to wrist once again. The pair of Saiyans clashed fists inside the building, as Baezel then teleported in behind Nori and put him into a full Nelson, allowing Radichio to beat on him. Nori kicked Radichio in the face, so Baezel body slammed Nori into the ground, sending him to the floor below. Baezel and Radichio backflipped out of the window, now on the ground floor with Lemogras and Draft.
Suddenly, Parakress had finally arrived, and had to take a huge breath. He was seriously out of breath after flying billions of miles through space for 3 minutes with no oxygen source or protection from the elements. Baezel, Radichio and the boys were all shocked to see Parakress at all, let alone see him at all. They thought he was here for vengeance, but unfortunately for everybody there, they were interrupted by a giant pillar of red and black ki blasting up from within the building, completely obliterating it. Turning to Parakress, Baezel said, "The interrogating can wait. Right now, we need to take Nori down!" Nori burst out from the smoke cloud and came straight for Baezel, whose hit he immediately blocked. Parakress tried to punch Nori multiple times, but none of the punches hurt him. It was like he was punching an immovable wall made of flesh. Nori shoved Baezel off of him and prepared to battle Parakress, but luckily, Radichio used a kiai to distract Nori. Turning to Radichio, he formed a red and black ki blast, and fired multiple at Radichio, who merely dodged every single one. "Face the facts, Nori," Radichio said as he walked towards him. "We were playing you for fools this entire time. The only reason you're still alive, is because you're giving us a great fight. But it's over now."
Radichio burst dashed towards Nori with speed that was too fast for him to process, and he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. When he looked down, he saw that Radichio's fist was right through him. He ripped it right out, with blood gushing out of it. The Berserker Saiyan collapsed to the ground, holding his wound in pain. He walked over to the Grand Battlers and waved his hand to try and get the blood off. "Alright. I'm done. Get your licks in while you ca - where's Baezel?" he questioned. It seemed as though he had somehow slinked away from everyone's vision unexpectedly. Knowing him, he was likely formulating a plan of some sort. So he shrugged, and let Parakress, Lemogras and Draft get to work. The first thing Parakress did was throw a giant false moon into the air, and stared intensely at it. Lemogras and Draft attacked Nori, and even though he was fatally wounded, their attacks were doing zero damage. Draft kicked him in the chin and Lemogras punched him in the throat, which would be a pretty fast way to kill a man. But Nori didn't even flinch. He grabbed both of their heads and slammed them into each other so hard that they were practically seeing stars. Lemogras was cast aside while Draft was tossed into the air. Nori leapt into the sky and prepared to sledgehammer Draft into the road, only to be met with a giant Golden Oozaru Parakress now being here.
Parakress roared at Nori, grabbing him with both hands and trying to crush him. Draft collapsed to the ground, as Nori yelled out in pain. He turned his aura on and broke free from Parakress' grasp, and landed a single kick on his chest to knock the giant down onto his back. His arms landed on a few buildings, and Parakress decided to rip an apartment building out from the ground and fling it at Nori, with the water tower facing him. He grabbed it by the cone, and began to spin the building around. As Parakress got back up, he slammed the side of the entire building on his cheek, shattering it into pieces and stunning Parakress. The gigantic warrior fell onto a knee from how much that hurt, brushing the furniture, glass and dead humans off of him. Unfortunately for Parakress, Nori had a hand raised to the sky and was charging up his final attack. Small black ki spheres accumulated into one spot above Nori's hand, to create a red and black ki sphere. It then rapidly grew in size, changing the color of the area to a red hue. Red bolts of lightning struck down to Earth from the ki sphere, as Nori was levitating upwards. Draft was about to fire one final ki beam at him, but put his hand down to not power Nori up even more. What the hell was Baezel doing?!
"I've grown tired of looking at your ugly faces," Nori said in a strained voice. "I might be fatally wounded, but if I die, I'm dragging all of you down to hell with me!" The ki sphere increased in size, penetrating the clouds and revealing the blue sky above it. Parakress stood up and tried to punch Nori, but he quickly fired a two-handed ki beam in both of his eyes, blinding the Saiyan and making him fall down again, writhing and roaring in pain. Nori cackled with glee, as Lemogras and Draft stood up, injured. They needed Baezel's help now, before Nori killed them all. However...Nori noticed something odd. There was a strange blue outline around his body. It was there for a while, apparently. Roughly as soon as Lemogras and Draft started fighting him after Radichio's fist. He was feeling himself getting weaker. That was strange. The decreasing ki could be contributed to the fatal wound, but what about the blue outline? Was it a hallucination? But it turns out, it wasn't. He was actively being made weaker. He didn't know who it could've been, as he didn't have any data on the Grand Battlers having ki siphoning of any kind.
In reality, it was all Baezel's doing. He had been forming a Genkidama the entire time, the first one he had formed ever since his training from Kaio all those years ago. Between the time of Gangal's death and the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, Baezel went on a six-year-long journey in which he trained with many masters, traveling across this world and the next. He went to Other World, where he temporarily trained under Kaio and learned his techniques. This Genkidama was fueled entirely by the genki absorbed from Nori. Majority of it had come from the ki blasts Nori absorbed. Baezel's plan was to take enough energy that Nori would be too weak to absorb it and gain power from it, thus allowing Baezel to finish him off. "HEY, NORI! YOU FORGOT ME!" Baezel screamed. This caught Nori's attention, and hearing Baezel's voice infuriated him to the point where he threw his ki attack at Baezel.
Parakress fired a massive, shotgun-like mouth blast at Nori's attack while he fired it. His mouth blast penetrated into Nori's ki sphere and moved it upwards into the sky, exploding and successfully avoiding Baezel. This infuriated Nori to no end, a vein of rage forming on his forehead for all to see. He unleashed his rage in the form of powering up, trying to regain the ki he lost. But it was too little, too late. Parakress stopping Nori's attack gave Baezel enough time to throw the Genkidama. He hurled the giant blue ki sphere at Nori, who was caught completely off guard by it. It sent him into the ground, forcing him to hold it back with his own two hands while he was laying down on his back, unable to stand up from the weight of the Genkidama that he was trying to carry. It felt as though he was pushing back the Sun itself, except it was made of ki that he stole. He was able to hold it, but he could barely push it back. Baezel was in his base form, which meant that he was too weak to push the Genkidama on him further, even if he had taken at least 70% of the genki back to form his attack.
Given that he had seemingly no other choice, he transformed into a Super Saiyan 2 and gave one final push, the death knell for Nori. The artificial Saiyan menace screamed in agony, as he was fully submerged into the Genkidama. His body burnt up and fully disintegrated, turning into little more than ash as the Genkidama detonated. It created an explosion that blew everyone in the surrounding area away, completely flattening the city below. Nori was finally dead. Baezel's hands twitched, and he detransformed, slowly descending down to the ground. He fired a shot at the giant false moon, which made Parakress forcefully detransform. Looking around for the others, Radichio was carrying Lemogras on his back, while Draft and Parakress flew over by themselves. Lemogras hopped off of Radichio's back, as the four of them faced Baezel directly. "I'm not gonna mince words with you guys. I...made a lot of mistakes today, and was acting uncharacteristically angry. I know I put all of us in danger, and I am sorry. I'm sorry for being so hotheaded. It's just that this started off as just another day in the life, and then things went from bad to worse. First my son and pregnant wife get kidnapped, then I get jumped by an android and sent down a flight of stairs to lay unconscious in the basement, only to go face-to-face with the guy who enslaved Radichio and I as kids. Today's been...a shitshow, for lack of a better term. And it's because of that shitshow that I did all this."
Draft looked solemnly at his friend, having taken in his apology. "Baezel. What you did today could've gotten us killed. All of us." Cutting in, Lemogras said, "But, Dad...you made up for it by taking down Nori like you wanted to do. Nori could've caused a lot of damage to the world, but thanks to you, he never got that opportunity. And I'm grateful for that. Grateful that we'll still be alive thanks to you, even if you screwed up some of the way there. I accept your apology." Baezel smiled a weary smile, sighing. It felt as though a weight had been lifted off of his chest. "Thanks, son. Just don't tell your mother about our outing today, yeah?" Lemogras winked at him while smiling. He was neither confirming nor denying that he'd keep today a secret.
Parakress was disgusted that a Saiyan would ever apologize for doing something normal. "Eugh, I've had enough being around you people. Baezel! I might have helped you today, but the day I come back is the day you lot die, and Earth becomes my new territory. Prepare yourselves!" Parakress shouted, as he transformed into a Super Saiyan and left. The Grand Battlers figured that Parakress wouldn't have the balls to try that again, because Baezel would easily put him down again. They recognized that they had to fix the city after essentially nuking it. So, they quickly gathered the Dragon Balls from multiple places - a backyard, a pyramid, underwater, and even a pawn shop somehow. After a quick hunt for the Dragon Balls, they put them all together and summoned Shenlong. The seven orange spheres glowed, as a giant pillar of yellow light erupted from them and turned the sky as black as night. If it weren't for Parakress having already left the planet by now, he would have been salivating at the chance to see the Eternal Dragon for himself. "You who have gathered the seven Dragon Balls, I shall grant you any wish," Shenlong bellowed, "but only one..."
Baezel, contemplating the options, initially considers wishing to revive everyone who died during the recent events. However, he quickly realizes the implications of such a wish. Despite his willingness to confront and defeat Akagane Goukin again if needed, he acknowledges that reviving him would only lead to further trouble and chaos. "I wish," Baezel begins, addressing Shenlong with a determined yet cautious tone, "to restore all the physical damage done to the Earth within the timeframe of last week." Shenlong nods solemnly, acknowledging the wish. With a powerful surge of energy, the Earth begins to heal, and the city is restored to its former state. Unfortunately, Akagane Goukin's house and laboratory had been restored as well, but that was to be expected.
"Hey, the city's back!" Baezel exclaims with a mix of relief and humor, looking around at the restored surroundings. "But why is the city still more dead than Radichio's love life?" he adds, teasingly. Before he can finish his jest, Radichio kicks him playfully, a hint of a smile on his face amidst the seriousness of the situation. Shenlong then explained, "That is because you wished to restore all physical damage done to the Earth in the last week. You did not wish to restore the lives of those that did not naturally pass away in the last week as well. But now that I have granted your wish, it is time for me to leave once again. Farewell." The dragon then disappeared into the Dragon Balls, which rose up into the sky and scattered across the planet, turning into stones once again. They would be undetectable for one year. The atmosphere became clear once again, revealing the blue sky above. Radichio looked down, asking what to do now. "I guess we can just...go home now," Draft suggested.
"Next time we meet...the world will probably be in danger again."
"I hope not," Baezel replied. "I like it when it's peaceful."
After the intense events and the restoration of Earth, Baezel, Radichio, Parakress, Lemogras, and Draft returned to their respective homes, each carrying with them a mix of relief, exhaustion, and a renewed sense of purpose. Baezel and Lemogras arrived home to Dana, who greeted them with warm hugs and kisses, relieved to see them safe and sound after the tumultuous events they had faced. The family shared a quiet moment of joy and gratitude, cherishing the peace they had fought so hard to protect.
Radichio decided to stay at Draft's house for a while longer, enjoying the camaraderie and friendship that had developed between them during their shared battles. They spent time reflecting on the challenges they had overcome and discussing plans for the future. Parakress, having fulfilled his curious desire and eager to rest and recuperate, departed for the Freeza Planet he had been staying on. Using the same 3 and a half minute flying route he had taken before, he left Earth behind temporarily, knowing that his path would likely cross with Baezel and the others again in the future.
With the Earth restored and a renewed sense of purpose, the heroes bid each other farewell and went their separate ways, each carrying memories of their adventures and the bonds forged in the heat of battle. As they settled back into their routines, they remained vigilant, knowing that new challenges and adventures awaited them in the ever-changing world they called home. Baezel and his companions look to the future, ready to face new challenges and adventures while learning from the lessons of the past.
~ Post-Credits Scene ~
The phone buzzed on the coffee table, Aogane glancing over at it from his laptop screen. He was in the middle of a research paper for his upcoming seminar, but the unknown number gave him pause. He picked it up, a neutral greeting on his lips."Hello?""Aogane Goukin?" A gruff voice rasped through the receiver. "This is General Chitan of the former Centurion Army." Aogane's posture straightened, his eyes narrowing. He knew that name – a notorious figure in the former regime, one his father spoke of with a chilling reverence. "What do you want?" Aogane's voice held a barely concealed edge. Chitan sighed, a heavy rasp. "It's about your father, Akagane. He... he's passed away."Aogane felt a punch to the gut, his breath catching. He hadn't seen his father in years, their relationship strained by Aogane's disapproval of his work with the Centurion Army. But the news still hit hard. "How?" Aogane managed, voice tight. "He was... killed. By that Saiyan, Baezel." Chitan spat the name with venom. Aogane's jaw clenched. Baezel. His father had warned him about the Saiyan, about the threat he posed to the Centurion Army's work. But killed? This was different. This was personal. "And you're calling me, why?""Your father left a will," Chitan continued, his tone strangely formal. "Should anything happen to him, his work was to be continued. By his heir." Aogane's blood ran cold. Heir? He hadn't spoken to his father about any such thing. "What work?" Aogane asked, his voice low and dangerous. "Project Baezel Yami," Chitan replied, a hint of pride creeping into his voice. "Your father's magnum opus. A biological copy of the Saiyan, far stronger and..." The call ended abruptly. Aogane stared at the dead phone, the words echoing in his mind. Baezel Yami. His father's final project. A cold fury settled in his stomach, a twisted sense of purpose rising within him.He slammed the laptop shut, a dark resolve hardening his expression. Baezel had taken his father. Now, he would take his revenge. And he had just the tool to do it. Aogane slammed the phone shut, his face a mask of cold fury. His girlfriend, Maya, looked up from her book, concern etched on her features. "Everything alright, Aogane?" she asked gently. He shook his head, his voice tight. "My father... he's gone." Maya's eyes widened in shock. "I'm so sorry," she murmured, reaching out to take his hand. "It's not just that," Aogane continued, his jaw clenched. "He was killed. By that Saiyan, Baezel." Maya frowned, a flicker of recognition passing through her eyes. "The one you mentioned before? The one your father worked so hard to stop?" Aogane nodded grimly. "He left a will. Said if anything happened to him, his work was to be continued. By me."
"Work?" Maya's brow furrowed. "What kind of work?"
"He called it Project Baezel Yami," Aogane replied, a dark glint entering his eyes. "A biological copy of the Saiyan, stronger and..." He trailed off, a surge of determination coursing through him. "I need to see it. Now." He grabbed his keys and headed for the door. Maya, sensing the urgency in his tone, quickly followed. "Wait," she said, catching up to him. "You need your tools, right? I'll drive." Aogane gave her a curt nod, his mind already racing. They piled into his car, the silence heavy with unspoken emotions. The drive to his childhood home was a blur, his anger simmering beneath the surface.
Reaching the house, they entered and descended the familiar stairs leading to the basement. The air grew colder as they approached the lab door. Aogane pushed it open, the familiar sterile environment greeting them. In the center of the room, a large, cylindrical pod hummed with an eerie blue light, containing a humanoid man with Baezel's same appearance. Aogane's heart hammered in his chest. This was it. Project Baezel Yami. His father's legacy. And his instrument of vengeance.
Maya's eyes widened as she took in the lab, her initial awe quickly fading. "Whoa, this is amazing!" she breathed, running her hand along a sleek metal panel. Aogane's face contorted into a grim smile. "It is," he agreed, his voice low and intense. "But it's also where my father spent his life... creating biological weapons. Loyal monsters, hellbent on world domination"He launched into a passionate explanation, detailing the Centurion Army's atrocities, the genetic experiments, the manipulation of life itself. He spoke of it with a chilling casualness, as if describing the weather, the horrors rolling off his tongue like facts from a textbook. Maya's stomach churned, her initial curiosity morphing into sheer terror. "But... those are crimes against humanity!" she stammered, backing away from him. Aogane's smile turned cold, his eyes flashing with a dangerous glint. "Necessary ones," he spat, his voice laced with venom. "And now, they'll be avenged."He lunged towards a cabinet, his movements swift and predatory. Maya's blood ran cold as she saw the glint of metal - an Ithaca 37 shotgun. She ran for her life, but before she could scream, a deafening blast echoed through the lab. BLAM. Maya crumpled to the floor, a crimson stain blossoming on her chest.Aogane stood there, the gun still smoking in his hand, his face devoid of emotion. He glanced at her body with a flicker of regret, then quickly dismissed it. There was no room for sentimentality in his new mission. He put the shotgun back into the gun rack and turned back to the pod, his eyes burning with a twisted determination. Baezel Yami. His father's legacy. His instrument of vengeance. He would perfect it, make it stronger, and unleash it upon the world. Baezel would pay. The Saiyan would suffer. The Grand Battlers as a whole, would suffer. And Aogane would be the one to deliver the reckoning.With a cold, methodical efficiency, he began his work. The first step: a complete analysis of Baezel's biology. The Saiyan's DNA, his cellular structure, his very essence – Aogane would dissect it all, unlocking the secrets to his power and surpassing them. He would create a weapon unlike any the world had ever seen, a being fueled by rage and vengeance, a living embodiment of his twisted inheritance.The lab hummed with the soft whirring of machinery, the only sound besides the ragged gasps of Maya's fading breaths. Aogane worked tirelessly, his mind consumed by a singular purpose. The line between scientist and madman had blurred, leaving only a cold, calculating entity driven by a thirst for revenge. The world would tremble before the creation of Project Baezel Yami. And Aogane Goukin, heir to a legacy of darkness, would be its architect...