Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Beneath the Surface ❯ A Disturbing Discovery ( Chapter 1 )

Dragon Ball Z Fan fiction

Beneath the Surface

(this script in no way follows the set story line for Dragon Ball Z, it is set in the time the elapses between the end of DBZ and the beginning of DBGT, all the things that occurred before this time, including movie events, still hold true, but anything after is yet to be determined. Enjoy!)

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ, or any of its characters. The only ones that belong to me are the ones I make up!

Chapter One: A Disturbing Discovery

It was early in the morning, daylight was delicately breaking as Goku awoke beside his wife. He knew he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now that he had seen the sun begin to peak over the horizon, so he lightly crept out of bed to enjoy the view from outside.

"Should I wake Chichi so she can see this?" he asked himself. "No, I will let her sleep, though she really would enjoy this, she hasn't been in the best of moods lately so I won't risk it." Goku tiptoed to the front door of the house and slipped his body gracefully outside the door without making so much as a squeak.

"Slick," he thought to himself, and chuckled softly. The horizon was now stained a vivid orange with baby blue creeping around the edges against the contrasting darkness of the leftover night sky. Goku took in a deep breath, breathing in the freshness of the trees, the flowers, the grass. "No one could live in a better place," he thought to himself, and with this thought he began reflecting on the past. The past that included Frieza, the past where Cell was reeking havoc on the Earth, and even the near past where Buu had killed his family and nearly destroyed the Earth for good. "But they are here and safe now," Goku reassured himself. "They are safe now." Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that something was not right.

He had been experiencing these flashbacks for the past few weeks. Everyday there was some moment where his mind all of a sudden traveled back to times that he would rather forget. He had never thought about them before, so why now? Goku knew that something was about to happen, and he didn't like it. "Always fighting," he thought to himself. Yes, fighting was a blast when he was younger, he hadn't been in a battle yet where he wasn't pushed to his limits and beyond. He only got stronger from battle, but then the next opponent was always just as strong as he was, if not stronger. When this occasion arose then Goku would have to resort to intense training to bring himself up to the right level. No doubt, training was fun, especially his training with Gohan during the times of Cell. "Those were the best times of my life," he thought to himself. He loved Gohan very much, he thought about how much he loved his son every time he got a chance. "And now he has a family of his own," he thought with a smile. Time seemed to fly before his very eyes nowadays.

But then, the time would seem to travel fast. While Goku had been dead for seven years, Gohan grew up, and he had another son, Goten, that he never even knew existed. " paid a terrible price for fighting," Goku thought. "I missed out on Gohan growing up, and I missed out on being Goten's father." Yes, he benefited from the training he went through with King Kai, and the other world tournament was out of site, but he would trade it all in to have at least been there when Goten was born, or just a little time to find out that Chichi was pregnant so that he would have known, then maybe he would have planned things differently…

"But that is all in the past!" Goku thought again. "What is important is that we are here now...safe…" They weren't safe. Something was coming.

"Hey sleepy head," Chichi whispered from behind, causing Goku to jump about a mile into the air.

"You scared me!" Goku exclaimed, still shaken up that he hadn't even noticed her coming, he usually sensed her, but this time he missed it…

"Shhh, Goten is still asleep," Chichi said quietly. She wrapped her arms around Goku's waist and whispered, "It's been a long time since I've seen the sun rise." The sun was now half way between the horizon and the unknown.

"Same here," Goku replied. *Stop thinking about that,* Goku told himself as he held his wife.

"No matter what, everything is going to be ok."

*****

"Now don't forget class," Miss Sanyu yelled over the class as they were quickly exiting , "there will be an exam in two weeks over the graphs of trigonometric functions."

"Yada yada," Goten said as he left the class. "I can't believe I let Gohan talk me into taking trig, this class sucks," Goten thought to himself.

"I'll never be ready for that exam," Damasuu said glumly as she passed by Goten. "This stuff is just too confusing ," she huffed as she swung her shiny black hair over her shoulders.

"She is sooo hot!" Goten said to himself. "Hey Damasuu," he exclaimed, "I can help you get ready if you like."

"Ha!" Damasuu said haughtily, "if you stayed awake for half the class I might would take you up on your offer, but I'm not that desperate for help." She gave Goten a wink then quickly walked ahead and giggled noisily with some of her girlfriends.

"You'll regret that!," Goten yelled playfully to the back of Damasuu's head. The fact of the matter was, Goten was extremely good at math. He had received an A- on his last exam. He did rather poorly in other subjects, basically because it required a lot of memorization that he didn't have the patience for. Math on the other hand, Goten could handle. For him it didn't require a lot of memory work, only remember a few formulas and he was set. He had the ability to manipulate many different forms of on particular formula to solve whatever problems were dished out to him. His teachers didn't understand how he could do so well in math and fail biology, twice.

"'Sup Goten," a deep voice called from behind.

"Hey Trunks," Goten replied to that all too familiar voice. "Just trying to figure out how I'm gonna get a date with Damasuu." Goten stared longingly in the direction of Damasuu's disappearing form.

"Ha, good luck." Trunks said deviously. Trunks, now a handsome 16 years of age, had grown out of his mini-Vegeta attitude and mellowed a bit. His good looks and laid back attitude were the perfect combination to keep all the young women at his school drooling every time he so much made brief eye-contact with any of them. But his mischievous ways were always lurking in his aura, and surfaced every once in a while, adding a little character to his seemingly perfect existence. "I bet I could get a date with her if I wanted to."

Goten glared at Trunks. "Well you could get a date with the whole planet!" Goten said, as he stood at his locker, stuffing his backpack with books he would never open. As Goten finished preparing to leave, he looked up and began to laugh as he noticed the trail of girls Trunks left behind. "You sure have a way with women Trunks," he said. "What are you doin' that I'm not doin'? Maybe I should dye my hair purple, ya think?"

"Go for it," Trunks muttered as he grabbed Goten's arm and started dragging him down the hall towards the exit. "Hurry before they all follow me home! Yesterday my mom was furious because two girls just straight up followed me into me home, and they wouldn't leave unless I promised to say hi to them today at lunch…girls…"

Thirty minutes later Trunks and Goten were out of dodge of any unwanted followers, so they landed after taking flight as soon as they left school property, and walked in the direction of the Capsule Corps, chatting away about Goten's dream girl. "Seriously," Goten said "you need to ask Damasuu out, she is sooooo hot!"

"But you like her Goten, that wouldn't be right."

"Man I don't care," Goten replied. "It's just that NOBODY has been able to ask Damasuu on a date since she moved here. When was that, a year ago? She's a tease man. She looks good and she knows it, and she flaunts it so that guys like me nearly piss all over ourselves every time she walks by. But everybody knows she likes you Trunks. You're the only guy that has a chance. At least I could say I am the best friend of the guy that dates Damasuu, that will get me some girls!" Truthfully, Goten didn't really have any problems attracting girls, but he couldn't figure out if it was because he had the looks too (which was quite possible, Goten was a handsome guy himself) or because he was Trunk's best friend.

"She is just like the other girls," Trunks murmured, mainly to himself. He was primarily thinking of his relationship with his last girlfriend, which had been a downright mistake. "That's why I don't like her, she's not that pretty anyway."

"You are the only guy that can get away with saying that," Goten said, "'cause you're the only one that can actually turn her down. None of the rest of us can 'cause she don't even like us, plus that aint true, she is fine, and you know it……you're just in denial or something."

"Denial….gimme a break Goten. Denial about what?" Trunks asked.

"Hell I don't know, but something is wrong with you, turnin' Damasuu down, man that's low."

Trunks just laughed at Goten.

"Seriously Goten, you need to stop thinking about Damasuu. There are other girls that are just as pretty if not better looking' and she probably isn't worth all the time you spend dreamin' about her. I mean she may not have ever had a boyfriend, but that doesn't mean, she….well you know"

"Yeah I know," Goten said with a sigh. "I've heard those rumors a lot. But hell that doesn't change the fact that she's the best looking' girl in our school!"

"You are hopeless Goten, HOPELESS!" Trunks exclaimed as he ruffled Goten's hair.

"Aww c'mon Trunks," Goten said, "you're the most wanted man on campus. You have to like somebody, either that or you're a homo!"

"Well," Trunks said after a brief period of silence, " I have the perfect girl mapped out in my head, but she hasn't come along yet, and I'm not gonna settle for less, not after that awful relationship I had with Sawaar a while back, even if that means that I'm gonna be an old man before I find her. I don't want a relationship like my parent's. Granted, yeah I'm glad they got together or I wouldn't be here, but I wanna be able to talk to my wife, not grunt at her. I have not once seen them in my whole life, sit down and have a real conversation, only arguing every now and then, or they don't speak at all. And my father is forever training, its annoying. I mean, when I was little training was a blast, but now it just gets old. I don't see how he can just train for hours on end…….hey Goten, what's wrong?"

A shadow had passed over Goten's face, he looked very disturbed. "Yo Goten, what's up with you?"

"I was just thinking about my dad," Goten said in a low voice. "When you mentioned yours I started thinking about how he has been acting strange lately. He usually is always up for some sparring, or just talkin' about whatever, but here lately, he's been staring of in space and thinking about stuff. He has never really done that before, not since I've known him anyway. Gohan said he thought a lot before the Cell games, just thinking about stuff and not saying anything, so he thinks something is wrong too."

"Yeah I know what you mean," Trunks said gravely. "Though my dad always stares off in space, he just looks more pissed than usual, and it bothers me a little. But I've found myself thinking about the past a lot myself lately."

"Same here," Goten said, with a little surprise on his face. "Have you been thinking a lot about Buu?"

"Yeah I have actually," Trunks said. "It's like dejavu, that old familiar feeling of something not being right in the air, you know, I can't really explain it."

"You don't have to," Goten said. "I know exactly what you mean."

*****

"And why are we here again Kakarot?" Vegeta asked angrily, the following day in which Goku and Piccolo had called an emergency meeting for the Z-fighters. It had been quite a while since all of the Z-fighters had gathered together, years in fact. The last time that they had come remotely close to having a reunion was during the last World Tournament, the tournament where the Supreme Kai and Kabito showed up with the news about Majin Buu and Babidi. That was over eight years ago. Though that gathering had been purely to have fun in the tournament, a series of devastating events followed, so coming together again could only bring more bad news, if not worse than the last time.

"Jeez why are you so angry Vegeta, its only a meeting," the aging Yamcha piped up. Though Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo were not showing any signs of aging, Yamcha, Tien, and Krillin were looking a little worn around the edges. The worry lines and spots of gray were beginning to show more evident in them than coming any where close to developing in Goku, Piccolo, or Vegeta.

"Well Waves and Rocks was gonna air that stupid Cell program that shows that loud mouthed fool Hurcule defeating Cell and us getting our asses kicked. I just wanted to see it for laughs, that is about the only thing that can make me laugh nowadays. That is why this had better be good Kakarot!" Everyone stared at Vegeta in surprise, but no one caught his sarcasm. Vegeta was actually pre-occupied with the thought of losing training time for some petty meeting.

Videl was holding the now three year old Pan in her lap, and glaring nastily at Vegeta for his rude comments about her father. "And I'm sitting right here in front of him!" she thought angrily.

"What?!?!" Tien exclaimed. "There's a movie about us losing to Cell?" Tien hadn't been at the World Tournament when the mini-movie aired, so he was very surprised to hear of it.

"It's now on Turner Classic Movies since its so old now, ha ha ha ha," Krillin exclaimed, doubled over with laughter. "It should be on a comedy channel."

"I'm glad you all find this funny," Videl said through gritted teeth. Even Gohan had been laughing along with the other fighters at what a joke that movie was, but quickly stopped along with the rest who seemed to just now notice Videl's presence.

"Sorry Videl," Krillin mumbled. Android 18 and Marron where both sitting behind Krillin. Marron, now about 12 years old, was a spitting image of her mother, though she had favored Krillin in her early childhood. The only Z-fighter not present was Chouztu, who decided that whatever was happening, he was staying out of it.

"Is everyone here yet?" Goku asked somewhat impatiently, just as Goten and Trunks waltzed in, Trunks toting Bra on his back. When they saw the somber look upon Goku's face, they quickly took a seat beside Gohan and gave Goku and Piccolo their undivided attention. Chichi and Bulma were lingering behind Gohan as well, as they all directed their attention towards Goku and Piccolo in Master Roshi's front yard.

"Piccolo and I have asked you all here because we have found out that the earth is in danger, again," Goku said gravely. "This attack will take place a few years from now, but this is far greater a threat to us than Buu ever was."

"Well spit it out Kakarot we haven't got all day," Vegeta said impatiently.

"Vegeta," Piccolo said quietly, "we have to tell the whole story so that you will understand the course of action that we have chosen to take."

"Oh great," Vegeta muttered, "we're gonna be here for an eternity."

"Well I'll start off, since I've known about some of this for the longest," Piccolo said. "Brace yourselves, you may not understand some of it at first. This whole situation is about Brolli."

All was quiet. Everyone gave Piccolo a blank stare, Brolli?

"This whole little get-together is because Brolli might come back? Oh please, Goten and Trunks can take him single-handedly, even Krillin helped beat this guy down last time. I can't believe this." Vegeta folded his arms tightly across his chest, apparently annoyed. Krillin glared at Vegeta, quite insulted by his blatant remark. Everyone else seemed to have the same opinion, Brolli, so what's the big deal? Goku looked at Piccolo uneasily, no one was taking this seriously.

"If you all would let me finish, I would appreciate it," Piccolo said quietly, before Vegeta could reply. "That is only half of the story. The fact is, Brolli has been to this planet many times, sometimes he had come and was not even looking for Goku or any of us."

"Oh yeah?" Vegeta interrupted. "Then what the hell was he looking for?"

"Stop interrupting!" Piccolo barked. "You'll never get the full story if you keep cutting me off!" Vegeta's stare turned ice cold, but kept his attention fixed on Piccolo as he proceeded. "As I was saying, Brolli has been here many times, he is a little smarter than he looks. In saying that I mean he had enough intelligence to hide his ki when he didn't want to be found. Now here's the kicker, Brolli has three children, here on Earth."

A gasp swept across the small audience. This seemed to get everyone's attention a bit.

"What the hell?" Goten whispered to Trunks.

"I would have never guessed," Krillin said with a sigh. "That's just wonderful. Three Brolly's running around and a possible return by the man himself, oh that's convenient."

"So he has three kids," Yamcha said, "so what? I'm sure Goku and Vegeta can take them on too. It could be an all out Saiyajin battle, Goku, Gohan, Goten, with Trunks and Vegeta against the Brolli's ahaha, that would be kinda cool don't you think?" Trunks and Goten nodded, a chance to beat Brolli again, this was too good to be true! Goku and Piccolo on the hand, didn't agree.

"Well your turn Goku," Piccolo said after Vegeta's last outburst

"Well ok," Goku said, everyone else quieted down a bit. "I was summoned by King Kai last night, and he told me the whole story. Lord Iriyoku, from a very distant galaxy, a planet called Jepido, which is not even in the quadrant that King Kai looks over, is coming for those kids. Lord Iriyoku is very smart and very patient. Patient meaning that if he doesn't get what he wants the first time, he will wait around until he does, and I mean years. He is packing with him an elite army, that have been trained to track these kids down. They do not know the names of these kids, so they were trained to track down their energy patterns, and this puts our own children at risk, since they give off similar patterns and frequencies. According to King Kai, this guy has been studying Brolli for a long time, he is fascinated with his ability to generate so much energy, and since Brolli is now currently dead, he figures he can use his offspring instead."

"Use them for what?" Gohan asked.

"Well a master plan he has devised. He wants to rule over the east quadrant of the universe, which of course includes the Earth. He has full control over the south quadrant of the universe as it is, and is seeking to expand his power. He also plans on resurrecting Brolli sometime in the near future, as Krillin already predicted." Krillin winced at this remark.

"These children have not been trained to fight," Goku continued. "They are totally innocent of knowing what they are. They may or may not be aware of the energy and power that they truly have. That is why it would have been a few years before they struck, since it would have taken some time for Iriyoku to whip them into shape. But if Iriyoku is to get a hold of them, and train them, well, King Kai says one of these kids is capable of ascending past the level of SSJ3 if given the proper training. ((keep in mind that this not the GT series so they have never seen SSJ4)) Iriyoku has done his homework as well. He knows all about our bout with Buu, he knows about Majin Buu, and the magic Babidi used to transform his henchmen into much more powerful beings. Iriyoku will make use of this as well. Now King Kai says that one of these kids can ascend past SSJ3 naturally, with the proper training. But what about a combination of the proper training and some Majin magic? No telling how powerful he or she would become." Once Goku mentioned the word 'Majin' everyone tensed up. They had all seen what Majin did to people, with Vegeta being a prime example. It made them stronger and more evil. Brolli already had hatred brewing in himself for Goku, if he went Majin, this could prove to be a much more serious problem. Plus, his children appeared to be stronger than he, to make an SSJ3 go Majin, that was absurd!

"Why is it that I have suddenly lost my appetite?" Krillin asked morosely, the seriousness of the situation finally sinking in.

"Generating power like that would cause massive destruction for the whole universe, not just Earth or the east quadrant, whatever that means," Gohan said.

"That's right," Piccolo agreed.

"So what's the plan Kakarot?" Vegeta asked, a solemn look pasted on his face. He looked convinced now.

"King Kai suggests that we find the kids first, and train them ourselves," Goku said. "Killing them wouldn't be right, they don't even know who they are."

"But it would save us a lot of trouble," Vegeta muttered.

"I heard that," Bulma said evenly.

"Train them!" Trunks exclaimed. "Train Brolly's kids, are you serious Goku? What if they are just like him when we do, you know, have some sort of built in will to destroy us after they have reached their potential strengths like Brolly did for you and the rest of us? They are his kids you know, they could have it instilled in them."

"If we get them on our side, it will be harder for Iriyoku to over take them mind wise, and we will have them to fight with us against the lord and his army. His army is very talented, so that fight alone will be challenging, but impossible if Iriyoku has control over those kids. Plus don't forget that I mentioned how patient Iriyoku is and how that is disadvantageous to us. If he fails to defeat us with the kids on our side, he will just hop to another planet and try to gain control, then try to take over Earth again, and will keep coming back until we destroy him. He is not without his own strengths. Unlike Babidi, Iriyoku can hold his own if he is attacked, and the amount of energy he generates himself is unknown to us, so we would be fighting blindly with him, and destroying him will be very difficult, so we will be fighting a continuous battle with him that may last several years. Don't worry Trunks, King Kai said these were actually good kids, they haven't ever hurt anyone, yet anyway."

"And just how are we supposed to find them, in a short period of time because if this Iriyoku guy is on his way, the clock is ticking as we speak," Vegeta stated.

"Well that's going to be kinda hard," Goku said, characteristically scratching the back of his head. "The kids are kinda spread out…they all have different mothers…" Goku paused for a second, deciding whether he should elaborate but then realized everyone got the general idea so he continued on with the information.

"Well we do know something that might help," Goku stated, "we know that Brolly had two daughters and a son, his son being the middle child and the girls being the youngest and oldest."

"We have to pray that they generate a decent amount of energy," Gohan said. "something even a little above a regular human's power level, because we have no names, no descriptions, and only ki, if they have come to the point where they can generate ki at a relatively low, human level, we could pass by them and not even know."

"That is why we must be extra careful when looking for them." Goku answered.

"Hey Mom," Goten asked mischievously, "do I get to miss school for this?"