Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ DBZ: The Kakarot Saga ❯ The Search for Goku ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Episode 2

The Search for Goku

“WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!!” screamed Golen to the night air. He looked around the crater again, two small tears glinting in the corners of his eyes. He looked down at the scrap of burnt cloth in his hand. What HAD happened? Had Goku's nightmares begun to be so bad that he had… had committed SUICIDE?! Golen groaned and tossed the scrap back to the ground. They should've paid more attention, they should've gotten him professional help, should've listened more carefully to him…

Golen's thoughts were interrupted when he heard shouting behind him. He turned and saw the other Z Warriors and his family flying towards the crater that had once been Goku's house. Even Piccolo was flying with them. They landed a little off to the left of Golen, disbelief etched into their features.

“No way! What… what happened here?!” asked Krillin, tears also in his eyes. Everyone turned to Golen, silently waiting for him to say something, but he just stared at the ground. 18 walked over to her husband and put her hands on his shoulder.

“Golen. What happened here? Where's Goku, Chi-Chi, and Goten?”

“They're gone,” he muttered dully.

“Gone?! Whatta ya mean gone?” shouted Krillin.

“He means what he said,” growled Piccolo, “Use your senses. Can you feel them anywhere?” Piccolo turned to Golen.

“Do you have any idea about how this happened?” he asked. Floating away from the crater, Golen, Gohan and Vegeta related what Goku had told them the previous day concerning the nightmare of the past two weeks.

“And you didn't tell him to go see a doctor?” cried Krillin.

“He was afraid they'd make him get a shot if he went to a doctor,” groaned Gohan. Everyone face-faulted, except for Vegeta who just rolled his eyes at Goku's childishness.

“It wouldn't have mattered anyway as we were the first ones he told about it,” said Golen, “If only he'd told us earlier…”

After a few moments of silence, Piccolo decided that enough was enough.

“All right well are we just can stand here crying or are we gonna go get the Dragonballs and fix this mess?”

“I'll go. I can gather the Dragonballs fastest,” said Golen and then teleported over to Capsule Corporation to get Bulma's Dragon Radar.

-DBZ-

Thanks to the combination of the Dragon Radar and Golen's Instant Transmission, the Dragonballs were gathered within two hours. By now everyone who knew Goku among his immediate friends had gathered near the crater that had been his home.

The Dragonballs lay on the ground in cluster glowing and humming. Golen stepped before them and shouted, “Come forth Shenlong!”

The ball flashed and the night sky began to darken, the stars disappearing, being replaced with black clouds. A column of golden light exploded upwards from the glowing Dragonballs, twisting and snaking into the air and then burst forth in a bright flash of light with a sound like a hurricane. When the light cleared, the sinuous snake-like form of Shenlong, the Eternal Dragon hung over the assembled warriors.

“You who have gathered the seven Dragonballs. I shall grant you any two wishes that you desire,” boomed Shenlong in a voice that shook the ground. Golen stepped forward and addressed the dragon.

“Shenlong we wish foe the damage down to Goku's home and the surrounding area be restored to what they were.”

“As you wish,” growled the dragon, its blood red eyes glowing. There was a flash of light and the crater was replaced by forest and the little house that Goku had built when he and Chichi had gotten married so many years ago.

“What is your second wish?” asked Shenlong.

“We wish that Goku, Chichi and Goten be brought back to life here on this spot,” said Golen. The dragon growled for a moment and then spoke, “The one called Goku is not dead but I will return the other two to life.”

This little announcement caused a ripple of shock to go through the assembled Z Warriors. Goku wasn't dead? So where was he then?

A flash of light in front of Golen heralded the arrival of Chichi and Goten. Both looked stunned and when Chichi saw where she was and that the dragon was floating over them they both burst into tears. Gohan ran forward to help them up as the dragon spoke for the final time.

“Your wishes have been granted. I now bid you farewell.” There was a tremendous flash of light and the dragon vanished. The Dragonballs rose up into the shy and then shot apart, scattering to the four corners of the earth once more, not to be used again for another year.

Chichi and Goten related events as they remembered, but they had both been asleep, so the only things they remembered had been the rumbling that had awoken them and then seeing Goku outside powering up and then oblivion.

“I don't get it. If the dragon said that Goku wasn't dead, then where'd he go?” asked Krillin.

“I know someone who can help us find him faster than anyone,” said Golen, who stood up, put two fingers to his forehead and then vanished.

-DBZ-

He reappeared on a lush green world, beautiful to behold. Before him stood two individuals, a very tall purple-skinned man with white hair that fell down his back and a much older man of the same race with much shorter white hair. The taller of the pair wore an elaborate red tunic while the smaller wore blue robes.

“Hey Kibitokai! Honored Elder! What's up?”

“My heart rate for one thing,” growled the Elder Kai, “Bah! Barging in here like that! Don't you understand that this is the world of the Kais young man?”

“Don't mind him Golen. What brings you here?” asked Kibitokai. Kibitokai had once been two separate beings, the Supreme Kai and his loyal servant Kibito. A pair of the Elder Kai's Potara earrings had permanently fused them into the being that now stood before Golen.

“Something terrible has happened and we need your help to find Goku.” Golen quickly told them of all that had happened recently. He was actually getting pretty tired of the story already.

“So you want our help to find Goku? Well if it was anyone else I'd say no, but the universe owes that man a few favors I'd say,” said the Elder Kai, conjuring a crystal ball out of thin air. They all knelt around it as the Elder moved his hands over the ball causing images to swirl within it. There was a tense moment of silence and then a great blackness engulfed the ball. As they watched, the image of Goku formed within the ball but nothing else. Goku just seemed to be hanging there in the black void.

“Is that it?” asked Golen.

“Yes that's it. What were you expecting? A precisely drawn map? The crystal ball doesn't work like that. If you mortals were handed everything on a silver platter, then you would never grow, never evolve, never achieve…”

Golen stood up, cutting of the Elder Kai in his speech.

“Basically this means he's somewhere in the galaxy, some place very dark or evil or something like that right?”

“Perhaps,” said Kibitokai, “But what is obvious isn't always the right answer.”

Golen sighed mightily.

“Thanks for the help but I don't see…” Golen suddenly jerked then slapped himself with enough force to knock over s stone column. “I am such an IDIOT! The Namekian Dragonballs! Why didn't I think of that before? I really am getting rusty in my old age! Thanks again guys, see you around.”

And with that, Golen teleported out.

“That's the problem with youngsters this millennium,” grumbled the Elder Kai, “Always on the move.”

-DBZ-

Golen reappeared on planet New Namek, right in the middle of a Namekian village. After the initial shock of seeing an offworlder appear suddenly in their midst, the Nameks were more than happy to take him to see the Elder. But when they arrived at the Elder's village, they found a scene of chaos. It soon became clear what had happened.

“The Elder is gone? And the Dragonballs as well?! But who? HOW!?” asked Golen, growing increasingly frantic.

The Nameks had no answers for him so Golen was forced to depart with the unsettling knowledge that someone, somewhere was using the power of the Dragonballs, and rarely did that happen for good in a situation like this.

-DBZ-

Golen returned to Earth with more bad news than he'd left with. The fact that someone had taken the Namek Dragonballs was actually better received than the news that not even the Kais could figure out where Goku had gone.

“All we know is that Goku is somewhere in the Galaxy it seems, some place where it's very dark or very evil or both.” Vegeta curled his lip into his famous sneer.

“You've just described roughly half of the planets in the galaxy boy. I don't know about you but searching an entire galaxy will take a very long time.”

“No it won't!” piped up Goten, “We don't need to look because wherever daddy is, he's coming home. Right mommy?” Chi-Chi looked at her son with watery eyes.

“Of course honey. He'll be back, I know he will.”

Gohan, who was quietly contemplating the infinite off in a corner with Videl spoke up, “We need to search, not just for dad, but for whoever took the Dragonballs as well. We need to find out who they are, what they want, and what they did or are doing with the Dragonballs.”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Golen, “Bulma, I assume you've got a couple of spaceships we can use?” The beautiful genius inventor grinned.

“You're in luck because dad and I just recently finished refitting and upgrading a couple of the ships the other day. They've got all new features, upgrades to the rest and they are at least 200% faster than before,” she said proudly.

“Two hundred percent?” said Goten, very confused, “How can you have more than one hundred percent?”

“It's settled then,” said Golen, standing up and fixing his friends and family with a fierce stare, “We go. We'll find Goku and the Dragonballs, and be back home inside of a month!”

How very wrong he was.

-DBZ-

The next day, they had all gathered out in Capsule Corp.'s backyard where two very large, sphere-shaped spaceships awaited. They would be splitting up into two groups. The first group would consist of Golen, Gohan, Videl, Piccolo and Mr. Satan. Golen suspected that the reason Hercule Satan was coming along was, not so much that he cared about Goku but that he didn't want his little girl left mostly alone with Gohan for who knew how long. Golen was not happy about it; he'd never really warmed up to Mr. Satan and now was going to be stuck on a spaceship with him. With Hercule constantly trying to get between Gohan and Videl most likely. He mollified himself with the thought that, if things really got out of hand, Piccolo would probably kill Hercule or at least break his arms and legs.

The second group would consist of Vegeta, Krillin, Tien, and Yamcha. Vegeta was standing off to the side of the other ship, talking to Bulma and looked extraordinarily uncomfortable in his bulky, yellow spacesuit. Golen had no doubt that the Saiyan Prince would get rid of it as soon as possible. And then there was also the possibility that Vegeta and his “comrades” could possibly get violent with each other, but that was risk that they had to take.

The things I go through.

As they boarded their ships, Goten, Trunks, Galen, and little Goku stood next to their mothers, looking very put out. They had school after all and would've had gladly ditched to get the chance to go gallivanting off into space with their fathers and their friends.

Golen was the last up the ramp. He turned back and waved to his family and to Bulma and Trunks. Eighteen had a small smile on her face, the kind she saved for moments like these as she kept her arms on their sons, who were now waving and shouting goodbye.

“Don't worry!” he called, “We'll be back soon!” He turned around and strode into the ship, the door closing behind him. Both ships began to hum, the humming getting louder and louder, clouds of smoke and dust rising up from their bases'. With a mighty roar, both ships leapt into the brilliant blue sky and quickly streaked up and out of sight.

On the ground, Eighteen watched her husband's ship fly up into space with glittering eyes.

Come back safe Golen, and soon.

What will the Z fighters discover on their odyssey into space? Will they find Goku and the mysterious thief of the Namek Dragonballs? Find out on the next episode of Dragonball Z!!

Hey! This is Golen! On the next episode of Dragonball Z, we spend a whole year searching space for Goku! What the heck? Why can't we find him? What?! The Earth Dragonballs are missing too? And what are a nice pair of super saiyans like you two doing in a galactic dive like this? You better not miss this next episode of DBZ or you just might miss all the fun! Later!

Next episode:

THE MYSTERY IS REVEALED