Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Guardian Might ❯ Lessons ( Chapter 5 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: LaurenaGarret 
‘In order for us to understand where you stand in relation to form and abilities we need to be able to see you perform. Unlike Az, we don’t have the luxury of watching potential team members whenever we like so it is somewhat tradition to have a tournament of sorts,’ Mount explained.
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Suspense / Martial Arts / Thriller / Action / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 07.11.2015 | Pages: 6 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 498 | Status: Work In Progress
‘In order for us to understand where you stand in relation to form and abilities we need to be able to see you perform. Unlike Az, we don’t have the luxury of watching potential team members whenever we like so it is somewhat tradition to have a tournament of sorts,’ Mount explained.
Anime/Manga: Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Suspense / Martial Arts / Thriller / Action / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 07.11.2015 | Pages: 6 | Words: 3.8K | Visits: 498 | Status: Work In Progress
AN: I'm not one for putting author's notes at
the beginning of chapters, unless it's something important and
related to the story itself. However this is needed.
I want to apologise for not uploading yesterday as I've been trying to figure out a way to answer a review. I prefer to answer questions as quickly as I possibly can when people review by IMing them back through their accounts to answer their questions in private. But I did get a review asking me not to make this fic completely OC centred because it never ends well and I couldn't reply back because it was a guest so I wanted to address them so they knew where I was going with everything.
RegardingOC's in this ficWhen writing fan fiction I find that sometimes you have to create OC's in order to further plot and the give it more bones. Sticking to the same old thing with a story is great, but sometimes you need to create new characters in order to extend already on a much loved fandom. In the case of Guardian might I need my OC's for the story in order to create a new world and a new dimension on an already fantastic word, in order to make it mine somewhat. However that being said the story isn't going to contain OC's all the way through. Right now I'm still setting up a lot of the plot and I need to get this out of the way in order to move on and get to where I'm going to to. This story is NOT going to be all about the OC's, but for the moment it is in order for me to create this new world.
I hope that that explains everything.
Also this is the first time I have ever written something with hand to hand combat, so I apologise if it goes too fast or too slow. I would love to hear what you think about it.
Finally namethe Elite. I hate being unable to properly pronounce names in stories so I thought that I would include how I pronounce these names just in case anyone was wondering.
Mount: Mount as if you were trying to say mountain.
Zean: Zee-n
Sergi: Sir-gee
Lynial: Lin-ee-al
Jeene: Jean
Sai: Sigh
Kai: Kigh
Trixx: Tricks
--------------
Chapter 5: Lessons
After Mount had declared that they were going to begin he had sent Trixx off with Sai, Kai and Zean to gage where she stood, before turning to Gohan with a glint in his eyes. Gohan had seen that glint a number of times in Piccolo or his Dad's eyes during training and it usually always resulted in a lot of double teaming and Gohan being sent face first into the ground below.
He knew that this wasn’t going to end all that well and he had been mostly correct.
‘I’m sure that Az has informed you that you’re going to be tested over the next couple of weeks,’ Mount said, leading the way over to the platform.
‘He may have mentioned something,’ Gohan said.
‘In order for us to understand where you stand in relation to form and abilities we need to be able to see you perform. Unlike Az, we don’t have the luxury of watching potential team members whenever we like so it is somewhat tradition to have a tournament of sorts,’ Mount explained.
‘Great, I go from one battle to another,’ Gohan muttered. Behind him he heard Lynial snort.
‘Lynial has exceptionally good hearing,’ Mount explained. ‘One of the natural abilities that come with her species. So you’ll have to be exceptionally quiet if you want to try and get anything past her.’
Looking over his shoulder at Lynial he wondered what abilities the others in the Elite had. Mount lead Gohan up onto the platform and they came to stop at the centre.
‘This is what is going to happen. One by one each member of the Elite is going to come up here and battle against you until either you or they are knocked off the podium. If you knock them off then you continue to battle, if they knock you off then everything finishes and we can move onto the next stage,’ Mount explained.
‘Easy enough,’ Gohan said.
‘Good luck,’ Mount said and then nodded to the other member of the Elite that were waiting off the platform. As Mount stepped off, Lynial stepped on and positioned herself opposite Gohan.
‘So you have excellent hearing, anything else I should know about?’ Gohan asked.
‘You’ll just have to wait and see,’ Lynial said with a wink.
A loud booming clap shattered the air and Lynial dashed towards him fast. Gohan had enough time to exhale before Lynial was feet away and swinging and he was dodging her attack. Punch, block, kick, block, dodge, dodge, block. Lynial was fast and efficient, learning quickly from every move that Gohan made and then moving faster to try and back him off the platform. Gohan moved just as fast, sometimes even faster to the point that from the sidelines it almost looked as if the two of them were engaged in some kind of dance. With every movement that Gohan made, Lynial countered with one that would throw Gohan off for less than a second before he came back faster and stronger.
From the corner of his eye he could make out the shapes of the other Elite members who were watching, but he couldn’t gage where he stood in their eyes. None of them were giving off any kind of sign through body language that they were impressed and Gohan didn’t know whether to be annoyed or disappointed. He shook his head. He couldn’t allow for his arrogance to get in the middle of a fight again. That’s what started this in the first place.
A deep growl vibrated in his throat and it shocked Lynial long enough to give Gohan the advantage that he needed to send her flying across the platform and onto the grass below.
There was no time to celebrate the win.
Sergi was next onto the platform, looking as stone face and irritated as Vegeta. The clap vibrated through the air once more and Sergi flew towards him. As big as Sergi was, the large man was quick and as equally strong. He instantly grabbed Gohan around the middle and started to head towards the other end of the platform, with every intent to just drop the demi Saiyan onto the grass below. The grip the older man had on the pre-teen was enough that Gohan was unable to get loose. Any blows that he dealt did nothing to phase him and he looked over his shoulder as Sergi lifted him above his head and sent him hurtling towards the ground.
He fell hard and fast, and was prepared to hit the ground when his body instantly reacted and he stopped falling three inches above the grass. From his horizontal position, Gohan looked up at Sergi, who stared back down at him in astonishment.
Gohan smirked.
With a yell, he shot up and grabbed the much larger man in a figure four choke hold, holding it long enough for him to feel Sergi’s legs begin to give out before giving him a hard kick to the back and sending him flying down onto the grass below.
The air behind him changed and Gohan moved a fraction of a second before a long glowing sword appeared where his head was. He spun around and looked at Jeene, who was smirking.
‘Impressive, I haven’t seen someone surprise Sergi like that for over two hundred years,’ Jeene said.
‘Bound to happen sometime,’ Gohan replied.
‘True, but it’s going to hurt his pride to know that it was a kid who did it,’ Jeene said before launching herself at Gohan, the sword raised high above her and coming down towards Gohan fast and deadly.
In the seconds before he dodged the second attack, Gohan’s eyes widened when he realised that what Jeene was holding wasn’t a sword at all but ki that had been shaped into the form of a weapon. He grinned slightly and made a note to ask her how she did it before blocking the a kick that she had aimed at his head and bringing his free arm down onto her hand, shattering her grip on the weapon and letting it fizzle out of existence.
Shaking her hand, Jeene attacked with an onslaught of attacks, trying to find a weakness that she could exploit while Gohan dodged and blocked waiting for his moment to launch into his own offence. When the moment came he ducked under one of her punches, causing Jeene to become unbalanced, before hitting her back dead centre and sending her flying into one of the pillars the lined the outside of the platform.
A kick to the back of Gohan’s knees sent him kneeling to the ground before a hand gripped the back of his neck and his vision started to go blurry, and he fell face forward onto the platform.
When he came to he was staring up at the ceiling and both Trixx and Mount were kneeling next to him. With a wince, Gohan pushed himself up into a sitting position before holding his head in his hands as the world started spin.
‘Easy,’ Mount said. ‘You’re going to be dizzy for a couple of minutes.’
‘What happened?’
‘Zean happened,’ Trixx said nodding toward where the dark green man was leaning against one of the pillars, his arms crossed across his chest.
‘He’d been watching the test and wanted to see how you would fair against him,’ Mount explained. ‘He did however have an unfair advantage as he was supposed to be with Trixx.’
‘You always need to be prepared for the unexpected,’ Zean said looking at Gohan. ‘You’re good kid, but you need to be more prepared to be assaulted at any given moment.’
‘Thanks for the lesson,’ Gohan groaned and got a smirk in response.
Pushing off the ground, Gohan climbed to his feet which earned him a cocked eyebrow from Zean and a couple of murmurs from the others.
‘Impressive kid,’ one of the twins (Sai, Gohan guessed) said.
‘Not many can shake off Zean’s suction like that,’ the other finished.
‘Suction?’
‘It’s what they call Zean’s ability to collect the energy of others. It weakens the suckee and increases Zean’s power for a short period of time,’ Lynial explained. ‘He doesn’t normally use it in training so I guess you could say that he must think high of you if he was willing to use it against you.’
‘Or he just wanted to knock the kid down fast,’ Sergi replied, rubbing the back of his head.
‘Are you ok?’ Gohan asked. ‘I kind of threw you down hard.’
Sergi let out a thunderous laugh. ‘Kid, it’ll take more than you to properly hurt me. You did however get pretty damn close.’
‘So what’s the verdict Mount?’ Sai asked.
‘We knew that Trixx was going to be a good addition, what you three,’ Mount indicated to Sai, Kai and Zean, ‘witnessed with her proves that. Gohan on the other hand, you’re a surprise.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Gohan asked. ‘Zean won.’
‘You got past Lynial, Sergi and Jeene before that. Not even the twins were able to get past Sergi and they cheated and worked together,’ Mount said.
‘We did not cheat!’ Kai said.
‘There was nothing in the rule that you dictated before the fight to indicate that we weren’t allowed to work together,’ Sai said.
‘Which is why the rules need to be updated so little dunder heads like those two don’t abuse them,’ Jeene said causing Lynial to giggle.
‘You have things that you need to improve on, but I’m impressed,’ Mount said.
‘He passed?’ Trixx asked.
‘You both did. Welcome to the team,’ Mount said.
‘It’s about to get a whole lot worse from here on in,’ Zean said.
Zean was not exaggerating. Training with his Dad and Piccolo did not compare to the training that Gohan found himself doing with the Elite. Each day was hard and gruelling, and always ended with Gohan collapsing into bed each night and falling instantly asleep, only to wake up the next morning and repeating the whole process once more.
Days started early with meditation, which was made harder by Sai and Kai trying their best to make everyone laugh by switching the music that played in the meditation room to their own creation. More than once Gohan had been on the edge of being fully entrenched when suddenly Sai and Kai’s own recording of walking through a forest and being attacked by men from Mars would start to play. It was amusing right up until the point when Mount would assign them extra duties for the week to try and teach them a lesson. It would never work and the twins would soon be back to their old tricks once more. Once meditation was finished, the group would have breakfast before heading out to the training fields to begin their exercises and to spar. Lunch would happened around noon (or at least Gohan believed that it was noon) and afterwards the team would return to the training field for drills. The days always ended with dinner, chatter and a shower before they separated to relax in their own private spaces before bed.
As the days passed, Gohan learnt more about his team members and started to enjoy himself more. He laughed with Trixx, pranked occasionally with Sai and Kai, and enjoyed sparing with the diverse team. It didn’t take long to learn that each member of the team had different abilities that made them an asset to the team.
Mount, the Commander, was strong (not as strong as Sergi) and fast. He delighted in battle and loved staying just out of arms range in a spar and would wait until you were sure you were going to connect a hit only to be twisted around and slammed into the ground. Gohan didn’t know how he did it, but he always managed to slam the demi Saiyan into the ground, round after round, despite Gohan knowing the trick. As much as the larger man delighted in battle, he was also an amazing teacher. Each time Mount would slam him into the ground; he would then help the pre-teen to his feet and show him where he had gone wrong, allowing Gohan to learn from his mistakes and improving for the next spar against the Commander.
Zean, the second in command, was cool and distant. Strategic, Gohan learnt early on that Zean would often be watching him out of the corner of his eye and then use that he had observed against him when they sparred. Like Mount, he had yet to win, but he did learn quickly never to let the dark skinned man time to get a good hold on any part of exposed skin. It always ended in darkness. To compliment his strategic mind, Zean was also a master swords man, often preferring to use a double bladed weapon instead of engaging in hand to hand combat. Outside of training, Zean was very much like Piccolo, preferring his own company and only talking when the need was there. Gohan would often catch the man studying each team member while deep in thought, and couldn’t understand why. When he mentioned it to Mount, Mount smiled and said that Zean was just like that; always trying to figure out how to better himself and like to keep his mind sharp by devising new strategic plays in his mind for future spars against his team mates.
Sergi was stronger than any man that Gohan had ever come up against, and would often steam train into you to try and wind you during spars. But as ferocious as he was in battle, off the training field Gohan found the older man to be something of a mother hen towards the team, and especially towards Gohan and Trixx. The large man would often refill their plates if he didn’t think that they had eaten enough, and come past their rooms late at night to make sure that they were asleep at a decent hour. If someone was injured, he was the first one there with the medical kit ready to treat any injury.
Lynial, as beautiful as she was, was deadly, Gohan learnt very quickly. Trained from a young age as an assassin, Lynial had turned over a new leaf when she had been ordered to kill the children of a King who was not doing as her bosses required. Refusing to have the lives of children on her conscious, she switched sides and instead started to help those who were too weak to help themselves. When Gohan told her that her story sounded similar to that of a comic book Character back home, Lynial smiled and said she was glad that people on Earth were reading stories that could teach them that people can change regardless of how they were brought up.
Jeene thrived under stressful situations, her blows becoming harder and more deadly the more stress that she was put under. Her use of her sword in combat was unusual for Gohan to witness and defend against, as it was something that he had never come up against or had even heard about. She had been easy to befriend for Gohan and delighted that he had been interested in her sword, agreeing immediately to teach him how to create an energy sword if he was that interested in it.
Sai and Kai had been the easiest to befriend, both impressed with how he had performed in the trails and the closest to him in age after Trixx. From the outside they seemed like very skilled hand-to-hand fighters, but it was their other skills that cause Gohan to be the most impress. They held a mind bond that allowed them to coordinate their attacks telepathically, and when they weren’t doing that they were able to both manipulate your mind to see things that weren’t actually there, or to disorientate you. That combined with their hand-to-hand skills made them an interesting combination that preferred to work as a team instead of separately.
Then finally there was Trixx. It took a couple of days before Gohan had a break in his own training to witness what Trixx as able to do. Her telekinetic abilities dwarfed those of Chiaotzu, moving and defending herself against attacks with easy and comfort that showed Gohan just how much training she had put in to master her powers. She could at time have a fiery temper and the twins learnt that quickly when they pushed her too far and they were sent flying into one of the platforms pillars repetitively until Mount asked her to stop before their brains bounced out of their heads. Her telepathic skills were not as developed if you compared her to the twins. While she was able to connect the team mentally so they could plan their movements, she wasn’t able to conjure the same illusions as the twins were which frustrated her greatly. Wherever it would happen, the air next to her would ripple slightly and cause Mount to frown as he tried to figure out the best way to help her.
Days and weeks passed in this manor with no external disruptions to routine. When Gohan commented on it, wondering when they were going to be called out Sergi told him to enjoy the downtime.
‘Right now it’s peaceful, which means that the other teams are able to control everything. When we do get called in it’s going to go downhill fast as we try to stop whatever bastard or bastette that is trying to disrupt the balance that is out there.’
Gohan knew he was right. His Dad had told him something similar leading up to the Andriods arrival, but even so it didn’t make him feel any less uncertain.
Weeks passed into months and after a particularly hard day Gohan collapsed back onto his bed, every inch of his body protesting as it hit the. His body hurt in more ways than he even thought was humanly possible. His muscles protested movement, his brain protested thinking, his ki kept fluctuating and he was sure that if he tried to do any kind of mediation it was just going to end badly for him.
Az had been right when he said that the Elite were going to run him ragged. Content just to lay there unmoving, Gohan closed his eyes and allowed himself to doze lightly. He didn’t want to move. He was quite happy to just lay here and enjoy the peace and lack of movement for the night.
Three sharp knocks to his door instantly awoke him and he groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. Opening his door, he came face to face with Mount who had a hard look on his face. Instantly, Gohan started to go through everything that he had done with the twins lately, wondering what he had done to cause the Commander to come to his room.
‘Get dressed, there’s trouble,’ Mount said.
‘Trouble?’
‘There’s a jumper trying to get from realm nine to realm ten.’
Gohan nodded. ‘I’ll meet you at the Portal room.’
I want to apologise for not uploading yesterday as I've been trying to figure out a way to answer a review. I prefer to answer questions as quickly as I possibly can when people review by IMing them back through their accounts to answer their questions in private. But I did get a review asking me not to make this fic completely OC centred because it never ends well and I couldn't reply back because it was a guest so I wanted to address them so they knew where I was going with everything.
RegardingOC's in this ficWhen writing fan fiction I find that sometimes you have to create OC's in order to further plot and the give it more bones. Sticking to the same old thing with a story is great, but sometimes you need to create new characters in order to extend already on a much loved fandom. In the case of Guardian might I need my OC's for the story in order to create a new world and a new dimension on an already fantastic word, in order to make it mine somewhat. However that being said the story isn't going to contain OC's all the way through. Right now I'm still setting up a lot of the plot and I need to get this out of the way in order to move on and get to where I'm going to to. This story is NOT going to be all about the OC's, but for the moment it is in order for me to create this new world.
I hope that that explains everything.
Also this is the first time I have ever written something with hand to hand combat, so I apologise if it goes too fast or too slow. I would love to hear what you think about it.
Finally namethe Elite. I hate being unable to properly pronounce names in stories so I thought that I would include how I pronounce these names just in case anyone was wondering.
Mount: Mount as if you were trying to say mountain.
Zean: Zee-n
Sergi: Sir-gee
Lynial: Lin-ee-al
Jeene: Jean
Sai: Sigh
Kai: Kigh
Trixx: Tricks
--------------
Chapter 5: Lessons
After Mount had declared that they were going to begin he had sent Trixx off with Sai, Kai and Zean to gage where she stood, before turning to Gohan with a glint in his eyes. Gohan had seen that glint a number of times in Piccolo or his Dad's eyes during training and it usually always resulted in a lot of double teaming and Gohan being sent face first into the ground below.
He knew that this wasn’t going to end all that well and he had been mostly correct.
‘I’m sure that Az has informed you that you’re going to be tested over the next couple of weeks,’ Mount said, leading the way over to the platform.
‘He may have mentioned something,’ Gohan said.
‘In order for us to understand where you stand in relation to form and abilities we need to be able to see you perform. Unlike Az, we don’t have the luxury of watching potential team members whenever we like so it is somewhat tradition to have a tournament of sorts,’ Mount explained.
‘Great, I go from one battle to another,’ Gohan muttered. Behind him he heard Lynial snort.
‘Lynial has exceptionally good hearing,’ Mount explained. ‘One of the natural abilities that come with her species. So you’ll have to be exceptionally quiet if you want to try and get anything past her.’
Looking over his shoulder at Lynial he wondered what abilities the others in the Elite had. Mount lead Gohan up onto the platform and they came to stop at the centre.
‘This is what is going to happen. One by one each member of the Elite is going to come up here and battle against you until either you or they are knocked off the podium. If you knock them off then you continue to battle, if they knock you off then everything finishes and we can move onto the next stage,’ Mount explained.
‘Easy enough,’ Gohan said.
‘Good luck,’ Mount said and then nodded to the other member of the Elite that were waiting off the platform. As Mount stepped off, Lynial stepped on and positioned herself opposite Gohan.
‘So you have excellent hearing, anything else I should know about?’ Gohan asked.
‘You’ll just have to wait and see,’ Lynial said with a wink.
A loud booming clap shattered the air and Lynial dashed towards him fast. Gohan had enough time to exhale before Lynial was feet away and swinging and he was dodging her attack. Punch, block, kick, block, dodge, dodge, block. Lynial was fast and efficient, learning quickly from every move that Gohan made and then moving faster to try and back him off the platform. Gohan moved just as fast, sometimes even faster to the point that from the sidelines it almost looked as if the two of them were engaged in some kind of dance. With every movement that Gohan made, Lynial countered with one that would throw Gohan off for less than a second before he came back faster and stronger.
From the corner of his eye he could make out the shapes of the other Elite members who were watching, but he couldn’t gage where he stood in their eyes. None of them were giving off any kind of sign through body language that they were impressed and Gohan didn’t know whether to be annoyed or disappointed. He shook his head. He couldn’t allow for his arrogance to get in the middle of a fight again. That’s what started this in the first place.
A deep growl vibrated in his throat and it shocked Lynial long enough to give Gohan the advantage that he needed to send her flying across the platform and onto the grass below.
There was no time to celebrate the win.
Sergi was next onto the platform, looking as stone face and irritated as Vegeta. The clap vibrated through the air once more and Sergi flew towards him. As big as Sergi was, the large man was quick and as equally strong. He instantly grabbed Gohan around the middle and started to head towards the other end of the platform, with every intent to just drop the demi Saiyan onto the grass below. The grip the older man had on the pre-teen was enough that Gohan was unable to get loose. Any blows that he dealt did nothing to phase him and he looked over his shoulder as Sergi lifted him above his head and sent him hurtling towards the ground.
He fell hard and fast, and was prepared to hit the ground when his body instantly reacted and he stopped falling three inches above the grass. From his horizontal position, Gohan looked up at Sergi, who stared back down at him in astonishment.
Gohan smirked.
With a yell, he shot up and grabbed the much larger man in a figure four choke hold, holding it long enough for him to feel Sergi’s legs begin to give out before giving him a hard kick to the back and sending him flying down onto the grass below.
The air behind him changed and Gohan moved a fraction of a second before a long glowing sword appeared where his head was. He spun around and looked at Jeene, who was smirking.
‘Impressive, I haven’t seen someone surprise Sergi like that for over two hundred years,’ Jeene said.
‘Bound to happen sometime,’ Gohan replied.
‘True, but it’s going to hurt his pride to know that it was a kid who did it,’ Jeene said before launching herself at Gohan, the sword raised high above her and coming down towards Gohan fast and deadly.
In the seconds before he dodged the second attack, Gohan’s eyes widened when he realised that what Jeene was holding wasn’t a sword at all but ki that had been shaped into the form of a weapon. He grinned slightly and made a note to ask her how she did it before blocking the a kick that she had aimed at his head and bringing his free arm down onto her hand, shattering her grip on the weapon and letting it fizzle out of existence.
Shaking her hand, Jeene attacked with an onslaught of attacks, trying to find a weakness that she could exploit while Gohan dodged and blocked waiting for his moment to launch into his own offence. When the moment came he ducked under one of her punches, causing Jeene to become unbalanced, before hitting her back dead centre and sending her flying into one of the pillars the lined the outside of the platform.
A kick to the back of Gohan’s knees sent him kneeling to the ground before a hand gripped the back of his neck and his vision started to go blurry, and he fell face forward onto the platform.
When he came to he was staring up at the ceiling and both Trixx and Mount were kneeling next to him. With a wince, Gohan pushed himself up into a sitting position before holding his head in his hands as the world started spin.
‘Easy,’ Mount said. ‘You’re going to be dizzy for a couple of minutes.’
‘What happened?’
‘Zean happened,’ Trixx said nodding toward where the dark green man was leaning against one of the pillars, his arms crossed across his chest.
‘He’d been watching the test and wanted to see how you would fair against him,’ Mount explained. ‘He did however have an unfair advantage as he was supposed to be with Trixx.’
‘You always need to be prepared for the unexpected,’ Zean said looking at Gohan. ‘You’re good kid, but you need to be more prepared to be assaulted at any given moment.’
‘Thanks for the lesson,’ Gohan groaned and got a smirk in response.
Pushing off the ground, Gohan climbed to his feet which earned him a cocked eyebrow from Zean and a couple of murmurs from the others.
‘Impressive kid,’ one of the twins (Sai, Gohan guessed) said.
‘Not many can shake off Zean’s suction like that,’ the other finished.
‘Suction?’
‘It’s what they call Zean’s ability to collect the energy of others. It weakens the suckee and increases Zean’s power for a short period of time,’ Lynial explained. ‘He doesn’t normally use it in training so I guess you could say that he must think high of you if he was willing to use it against you.’
‘Or he just wanted to knock the kid down fast,’ Sergi replied, rubbing the back of his head.
‘Are you ok?’ Gohan asked. ‘I kind of threw you down hard.’
Sergi let out a thunderous laugh. ‘Kid, it’ll take more than you to properly hurt me. You did however get pretty damn close.’
‘So what’s the verdict Mount?’ Sai asked.
‘We knew that Trixx was going to be a good addition, what you three,’ Mount indicated to Sai, Kai and Zean, ‘witnessed with her proves that. Gohan on the other hand, you’re a surprise.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Gohan asked. ‘Zean won.’
‘You got past Lynial, Sergi and Jeene before that. Not even the twins were able to get past Sergi and they cheated and worked together,’ Mount said.
‘We did not cheat!’ Kai said.
‘There was nothing in the rule that you dictated before the fight to indicate that we weren’t allowed to work together,’ Sai said.
‘Which is why the rules need to be updated so little dunder heads like those two don’t abuse them,’ Jeene said causing Lynial to giggle.
‘You have things that you need to improve on, but I’m impressed,’ Mount said.
‘He passed?’ Trixx asked.
‘You both did. Welcome to the team,’ Mount said.
‘It’s about to get a whole lot worse from here on in,’ Zean said.
Zean was not exaggerating. Training with his Dad and Piccolo did not compare to the training that Gohan found himself doing with the Elite. Each day was hard and gruelling, and always ended with Gohan collapsing into bed each night and falling instantly asleep, only to wake up the next morning and repeating the whole process once more.
Days started early with meditation, which was made harder by Sai and Kai trying their best to make everyone laugh by switching the music that played in the meditation room to their own creation. More than once Gohan had been on the edge of being fully entrenched when suddenly Sai and Kai’s own recording of walking through a forest and being attacked by men from Mars would start to play. It was amusing right up until the point when Mount would assign them extra duties for the week to try and teach them a lesson. It would never work and the twins would soon be back to their old tricks once more. Once meditation was finished, the group would have breakfast before heading out to the training fields to begin their exercises and to spar. Lunch would happened around noon (or at least Gohan believed that it was noon) and afterwards the team would return to the training field for drills. The days always ended with dinner, chatter and a shower before they separated to relax in their own private spaces before bed.
As the days passed, Gohan learnt more about his team members and started to enjoy himself more. He laughed with Trixx, pranked occasionally with Sai and Kai, and enjoyed sparing with the diverse team. It didn’t take long to learn that each member of the team had different abilities that made them an asset to the team.
Mount, the Commander, was strong (not as strong as Sergi) and fast. He delighted in battle and loved staying just out of arms range in a spar and would wait until you were sure you were going to connect a hit only to be twisted around and slammed into the ground. Gohan didn’t know how he did it, but he always managed to slam the demi Saiyan into the ground, round after round, despite Gohan knowing the trick. As much as the larger man delighted in battle, he was also an amazing teacher. Each time Mount would slam him into the ground; he would then help the pre-teen to his feet and show him where he had gone wrong, allowing Gohan to learn from his mistakes and improving for the next spar against the Commander.
Zean, the second in command, was cool and distant. Strategic, Gohan learnt early on that Zean would often be watching him out of the corner of his eye and then use that he had observed against him when they sparred. Like Mount, he had yet to win, but he did learn quickly never to let the dark skinned man time to get a good hold on any part of exposed skin. It always ended in darkness. To compliment his strategic mind, Zean was also a master swords man, often preferring to use a double bladed weapon instead of engaging in hand to hand combat. Outside of training, Zean was very much like Piccolo, preferring his own company and only talking when the need was there. Gohan would often catch the man studying each team member while deep in thought, and couldn’t understand why. When he mentioned it to Mount, Mount smiled and said that Zean was just like that; always trying to figure out how to better himself and like to keep his mind sharp by devising new strategic plays in his mind for future spars against his team mates.
Sergi was stronger than any man that Gohan had ever come up against, and would often steam train into you to try and wind you during spars. But as ferocious as he was in battle, off the training field Gohan found the older man to be something of a mother hen towards the team, and especially towards Gohan and Trixx. The large man would often refill their plates if he didn’t think that they had eaten enough, and come past their rooms late at night to make sure that they were asleep at a decent hour. If someone was injured, he was the first one there with the medical kit ready to treat any injury.
Lynial, as beautiful as she was, was deadly, Gohan learnt very quickly. Trained from a young age as an assassin, Lynial had turned over a new leaf when she had been ordered to kill the children of a King who was not doing as her bosses required. Refusing to have the lives of children on her conscious, she switched sides and instead started to help those who were too weak to help themselves. When Gohan told her that her story sounded similar to that of a comic book Character back home, Lynial smiled and said she was glad that people on Earth were reading stories that could teach them that people can change regardless of how they were brought up.
Jeene thrived under stressful situations, her blows becoming harder and more deadly the more stress that she was put under. Her use of her sword in combat was unusual for Gohan to witness and defend against, as it was something that he had never come up against or had even heard about. She had been easy to befriend for Gohan and delighted that he had been interested in her sword, agreeing immediately to teach him how to create an energy sword if he was that interested in it.
Sai and Kai had been the easiest to befriend, both impressed with how he had performed in the trails and the closest to him in age after Trixx. From the outside they seemed like very skilled hand-to-hand fighters, but it was their other skills that cause Gohan to be the most impress. They held a mind bond that allowed them to coordinate their attacks telepathically, and when they weren’t doing that they were able to both manipulate your mind to see things that weren’t actually there, or to disorientate you. That combined with their hand-to-hand skills made them an interesting combination that preferred to work as a team instead of separately.
Then finally there was Trixx. It took a couple of days before Gohan had a break in his own training to witness what Trixx as able to do. Her telekinetic abilities dwarfed those of Chiaotzu, moving and defending herself against attacks with easy and comfort that showed Gohan just how much training she had put in to master her powers. She could at time have a fiery temper and the twins learnt that quickly when they pushed her too far and they were sent flying into one of the platforms pillars repetitively until Mount asked her to stop before their brains bounced out of their heads. Her telepathic skills were not as developed if you compared her to the twins. While she was able to connect the team mentally so they could plan their movements, she wasn’t able to conjure the same illusions as the twins were which frustrated her greatly. Wherever it would happen, the air next to her would ripple slightly and cause Mount to frown as he tried to figure out the best way to help her.
Days and weeks passed in this manor with no external disruptions to routine. When Gohan commented on it, wondering when they were going to be called out Sergi told him to enjoy the downtime.
‘Right now it’s peaceful, which means that the other teams are able to control everything. When we do get called in it’s going to go downhill fast as we try to stop whatever bastard or bastette that is trying to disrupt the balance that is out there.’
Gohan knew he was right. His Dad had told him something similar leading up to the Andriods arrival, but even so it didn’t make him feel any less uncertain.
Weeks passed into months and after a particularly hard day Gohan collapsed back onto his bed, every inch of his body protesting as it hit the. His body hurt in more ways than he even thought was humanly possible. His muscles protested movement, his brain protested thinking, his ki kept fluctuating and he was sure that if he tried to do any kind of mediation it was just going to end badly for him.
Az had been right when he said that the Elite were going to run him ragged. Content just to lay there unmoving, Gohan closed his eyes and allowed himself to doze lightly. He didn’t want to move. He was quite happy to just lay here and enjoy the peace and lack of movement for the night.
Three sharp knocks to his door instantly awoke him and he groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. Opening his door, he came face to face with Mount who had a hard look on his face. Instantly, Gohan started to go through everything that he had done with the twins lately, wondering what he had done to cause the Commander to come to his room.
‘Get dressed, there’s trouble,’ Mount said.
‘Trouble?’
‘There’s a jumper trying to get from realm nine to realm ten.’
Gohan nodded. ‘I’ll meet you at the Portal room.’