Megamorphs 5: The Parallel Encounter
CHAPTER 1: Crossover
The first thing he was aware of was light, a bright light shining against his closed eyelids. The boy held up an arm against the offending glare, moaning softly.
"He's awake," a voice issued from nearby. "Perhaps now we can get some answers."
Confused, the boy opened his eyes, blinking against the harsh fluorescent light, momentarily disoriented.
Then it all came rushing back to him: The Cell Games, Android 16, Super Saiyan 2, Goku dying, the final Kamehameha...
Gohan. His name was Gohan. He was a Saiyan.
Yes, it was all coming back.
Sitting up, Gohan found he was laying on a small table. Everything around him had the look of a hospital room save for the lack of windows. Many people were in the room, checking machines and generally crowding around him.
However, to his surprise he saw two hulking reptilian creatures positioned on either side of the door! They were at least seven feet tall, with razored blades sticking out of their arms, knees, and snakelike foreheads.
Those creatures look like aliens! Gohan wondered. Where am I? How did I get here?
A man with a dark complexion nodded to the two hulking brutes. "Take him."
The creatures approached. Their entire postures practically screamed the word 'Threatening!'
Gohan narrowed his eyes and stood up.
"I don't want to have to hurt you," he warned them. "I'm stronger than I look."
The two creatures ignored him. They lunged.
With a slight sigh, Gohan moved himself away from them with a flash of disappearing particles. He reappeared behind them and heard gasps coming from the assorted people around the room.
"What the... how, how did he do that?" one person demanded in surprise.
"I told you," Gohan said dispassionately, "I don't want to hurt you."
The person who had spoken before shook his head, seeming to come back to himself. "This one will make an interesting host. Get him!"
"Haffnad obey flagrach!" one of the creatures said in some weird, mismatched language.
Gohan was ready for them this time. As they closed their clawed hands around the tops of his arms, he shrugged them off with a slight motion and planted a kick on the left one's shoulder. He went flying and smacked into the wall. He didn't get back up.
One more to go.
That one was quickly reaching for something on his belt, but Gohan aimed a punch that sent him flying right through the wall and out into a vast, cavernous chamber.
This had taken all of three seconds.
Three seconds for him to completely incapacitate them. The creatures weren't very tough.
He sent a fierce glare at the five people clustered around his former bed-table.
"Screw Visser Three!" one of them yelled. "Let's get out of here!"
Gohan let them go. There was no point in fighting people he could easily defeat. Besides, he tried to avoid killing people as much as he could.
Instead, he turned his attention to the hole in the wall and looked out into the cavern, trying to get a better feel of his location.
The place he now found himself in, wherever it was, was HUGE! It was at least the size of West City and would have plenty of room for a few buildings the size of Capsule Corporation. In the center of the cavern was an enormous, sludgy lake the color of molten lead. Gohan reached out with his Ki sense. In that lake was thousands of energy signatures. Thousands!
Scattered around that lake was different energy signatures. Some were Human, others not so much. But here was something peculiar: A few of those Human energy signatures had another Ki bonded to them; it was like they were two beings.
What was going on here?
Gohan opened his eyes and looked at the lake again. Now he could see clearly what was going on.
There were two piers. On one, those big, hulking creatures accompanied several groups making their way out to the end. Some were their fellow blade-creatures, others were bloated centipede-like creatures, and still more were Human.
Once they reached the end of the pier, they would hold down the Human or bladed creature until their heads were practically sticking down into the sludge. It was here that Gohan's Ki senses tingled. That additional Ki would release itself from the carrier Ki and, at the same time, a small gray blob dropped out of the carrier's ear.
The first time this happened, Gohan nearly lost it.
The person who had deposited the Ki thrashed and screamed in the bladed creatures' grip, yelling. With his hypersensitive Saiyan hearing, Gohan could hear every word.
"You filth! Let me go! You can't keep doing this! You can't keep enslaving us! Let me go! LET ME GO!!"
Gohan was almost sick.
Suddenly, it clicked, all became clear, all made perfect sense.
The Ki that had attached itself to the carrier was another living being. Somehow, once this being went into the ear, they could take control of the host Ki!
It was sickening, more sickening than anything he had seen, even including Frieza and Cell.
At least they killed you. At least they were up front about their evil.
This was darker, more insidious.
More cruel.
Gritting his teeth, Gohan decided then and there: These people needed his help. He would not sit by and do nothing while evil threatened.
Footsteps behind him announced the arrival of a dozen blade-creatures. Gohan could sense they too carried additional Ki.
So, they must be slaves, too.
He could not kill anyone here. What if they had been made slaves against their will? They would not die because of him and something they had no control over.
But maybe there was another way...
Several blade-creatures stopped in front of him, each holding some type of gun, bristling with malevolent energy. One of them stepped forward.
"Goshnad surrender, Human. You no match for us," it said.
Gohan growled. He would enjoy showing these creeps just how powerful he really was. But not here, and not against these beings.
"Sorry, but no can do," he said. "I've got to go. Be seeing you."
And he turned and jumped out the hole. Once he was outside, he flared his Ki and leapt into the sky.
The cavern was gigantic! Most people hadn't even noticed him yet.
But he would change all that.
"Haaaaaaaaaah!" he screamed, reaching down deep inside himself for the power he knew resided there.
The cavern began shaking in the throes of his power. People stopped and turned to gape in amazement at him.
Gohan let his hate and anger at this evil flow freely through him. It felt good to be angry. They had no right to be doing this to people.
With a thunderous explosion, Gohan's hair spiked up and turned gold. A single lock dangled in front of his face. He had become a Super Saiyan 2.
By now all activity had frozen. Every eye was riveted on him. Out of the corner of his eye Gohan saw the seven bladed creatures he had left in the hospital room come rushing out into the cavern.
"Ghafrash get! No escape!" one of them shouted.
In an instant, every blade-creature and Ki-infested Human was drawing their weapons.
"Your weapons are useless against me! Give up now," he ordered. "I won't give you another chance."
Over a dozen weapons were now pointing directly at his chest.
The same bladed creature spoke.
"Kill him."
Tseeeww!
Tseeeww!
A dozen red beams shot at him. Gohan didn't move. He wanted them to see how strong he really was.
BOOOM!
The blasts hit him, but instead of hurting him, all he felt was a (minor) itching sensation. Like an ant biting him. It was rather pathetic.
Their smirks were evident through the smoke. Once the cloud cleared, however, those smirks turned to grimaces of fright and awe.
"I told you," Gohan said angrily. "I told you to give up! Now I will show you no mercy!"
And he phased, moving his Ki rapidly to a point over the lake, situated dead center above it.
He began gathering energy to his palms. He drew back in midair and began an all too familiar chant.
"Kaaa... meee... haaa..." he stated.
A blue-white ball of light appeared in Gohan's hands. It glowed with the radiance of his Ki. He had to be careful, lest he go overboard and accidentally destroy the planet.
Tseeew!
More blasts hit him, but they were totally ineffective. He paid them no mind.
Gohan had guessed that the beings in the lake were the ones enslaving the carrier hosts; they had the same energy signature. The solution was simple.
Destroy the lake.
"Meee..." he continued.
By now, the ball was glowing across to the farthest corners of the chamber. Below him, Gohan saw people turn and run, the bladed creatures included.
That was good. He didn't want to kill them... yet. Living with this knowledge would be a lot worse.
"HAAAAAAAAAA!!" he finished the final syllable needed for the Kamehameha Wave.
KA-BOOOOOOOM!
The explosion that sounded once the blast hit solid earth was astounding! The power from even his low-powered Kamehameha was enough to shear through rock and pulverize crystal.
As soon as he sensed all of the Ki signatures in the lake were gone, Gohan cut off power to the Kamehameha Wave, and it slowly died down. A thick shroud of dust hung over the cavern floor. Eventually it dissipated, and the immense chamber came into clearer focus.
There was a large black hole where the lake should have been. It was at least a mile across. All around were expressions of pure, uncomprehending, world-shattering disbelief.
Not surprising. It wasn't everyday you saw something like this.
He looked directly at the bladed creatures. He made sure his facial features were as fierce as he could make them and spoke in a loud, carrying voice. He smiled inwardly as he saw each of them cringe, clawing helplessly at the ground and trembling like leaves.
It was very good to see.
He wanted them to be afraid.
"Your time on this planet is over. Surrender now."
Across the reaches of the universe, buried deep within the folds of space-time, two multidimensional beings conversed urgently with one another.
"First contact has already been initiated," said the first being.
He was in one of his many disguises and could have easily passed for an old Human male, except for the fact that his ears were rather pointy and his skin was a light glowing blue. In this dimension, he was known as the Ellimist, a champion of life.
"It will be more difficult with him as a piece," said the second being.
This figure had no physical form. He sat on a throne that was miles high, as much a part of him as the giant red eye that was his dominant feature. He spoke in a deep, rumbling voice. From his lines in space-time you could sense the malice he radiated.
His name was Crayak, a killer, a murderer.
A sadist of the highest degree.
"Yes, but don't you enjoy challenges, Crayak?" the Ellimist asked. "He would make a worthy opponent."
Crayak sneered.
"You must think me a fool," he replied. "Of course he would. He would tip the scales in your favor, Ellimist. With him as a piece, I will lose the game. No bet. Never."
The Ellimist spread his nonexistent hands. "I have an offer that will placate you, Crayak."
"Oh? Well then, do tell. I'm all ears." Crayak chuckled.
"There is an ancient being trapped in the universe, one as old as you or I, and if he were to become a piece, I believe the odds would be sufficiently evened to your advantage," the Ellimist said mysteriously.
Suddenly Crayak had a premonition. "You mean..."
"Yes," the Ellimist responded. "I do."
Crayak knew of the being the Ellimist was referring to, an old and chaotic lifeform that predated even him and the Ellimist, knew of it full well, and even he had never sought to meddle with such a powerful and unpredictable creature.
However, the Ellimist made a good point. With the boy now part of the equation, it would take something of equal power to counter. This could be it, a way to settle the score once and for all. The beginning of a final showdown between him and the Ellimist.
Winner take all.
What right did he have to refuse? You never got anywhere unless you took some risks.
His next answer sealed the fate of the entire universe.
"I accept."
P.S.: Hi. Yeah, a new story. The other is on the backburner. Next chapter: The Animorphs get a little preview of Gohan's work! That's all for now. And please review!