Chapter 1: Arrival

(Age 772, June 3rd, Capsule Corp. 11:27 pm)

Gohan took a deep breath as he looked onwards at, what was likely to be, the cause of his death. The portal was growing rapidly in both size and power as it tore through the walls of the laboratory, nothing capable of halting it's destruction. As he stared at the latest threat to face the earth, Gohan could not help but think back to how this all started, how could such a wonderful day turn out so disastrous?

(Five Hours Earlier)

Bulma

"Chi-Chi, Goten, Gohan! Come on in, everybody is still settling in for the party"

Bulma Briefs, president of the world renowned Capsule Corporation, trillionaire genius, and oldest friend of the Son's, was currently standing in the main entry way of her home's compound, welcoming the family of her best friend. Walking up to meet the trio at the duel front doors, the blunette couldn't help but smile at the sight of Goku's family, minus one important member. While she saw the family of three on a fairly regular basis, with their respective youngest son's being inseparable, Bulma always enjoyed seeing how they were getting along. Especially since the loss of Goku in the Cell Games five years prior.

'Ugh'. That retched event still haunted Bulma to this day, as it likely did the rest of the Z-Fighters. That was the day that they lost, not only their friend, but their knight in shining armor, the man who always found a way to save the day, the man who always brightened up a room with his genuine, simple, goofy grin. But none hurt more than two of the three people currently meeting her halfway down the hall, Gohan and Chi-Chi. On that day, Chi-Chi lost her husband, the love of her life, the father of her children, Bulma had no clue how the woman had stayed so strong throughout the years, and she commended Chi-Chi for it.

Gohan, on the other hand, was a different case. After Goku informed everyone of his intentions to stay in the OtherWorld, the boy simply put on a stoic smile and said that he understood, never showing any sort of resentment. But the gang knew what he truly felt, while he would never admit it, Gohan was a terrible liar, and it was easy to tell when he was faking happiness.

Bulma had heard of what happened when the cameras went out, how Gohan's power exploded, how he easily outclassed the Bio-Android, Cell, and how he failed to head his father's warnings to end the monster quickly leading to Goku's need to sacrifice himself. The women could only guess how Gohan felt after that. Really, she could only guess, it wasn't until after Goten was born that she began to see Gohan on a regular basis again. The woman could take a gander that it was Goten's birth that shocked Gohan out of whatever funk he was in, God knows how sad a day it would be to see a depressed Gohan.

But, thankfully, today was not a day of sadness, or mourning. Today was a day of celebration, it was the first birthday of Marron, Krillin and 18's baby girl!

"Hi Bulma!" shouted the trio at the sight of the family friend. Snapping out of her daze, Bulma immediately ran up and wrapped the family in a huge hug, which was gratefully returned. After some brief hellos, the group began walking down the long hallway towards the first floor elevators, Bulma struck up a conversation with Chi-Chi, while Gohan and Goten simply listened in, not surprisingly, the boys never were very interested in "girl-talk"

"Oh Bulma, the house looks lovely! Did you do this all yourself?" Exclaimed Chi-Chi as she looked around the home in awe. This was expected, Bulma knew her home was nothing short of immaculate! There were decorations everywhere; streamers covered everything from the doorway, to the windows, while balloons floated around majority of the tall ceilings. Each decoration colored in some variation of pink or purple. Perhaps, Bulma thought it was appropriate for a young girl's party, not that the child would even notice.

After a quick laugh, Bulma continued to direct the group as she responded. "Are you kidding? There's no way I could have done this without Trunks' help. With all that pent up energy, I have to find something for him to do besides being Vegeta's punching bag, and this was the best I could do on short notice.". Upon hearing the elder saiyan's name mentioned, Gohan decided to get involved with the conversation.

"Did you say Vegeta? What's he up to these days"

Directing her attention towards Gohan, Bulma replied. What did he think Vegeta was doing? The man practically lives in the gravity chamber!

"What else? Training of course, he is so hell bent on reaching your level! It's like he doesn't even realize that, at this point, his biggest rival is a Teenager!" It angered Bulma to no end, the antics of her husband. While Vegeta had his moments of sincerity, the prince was dead set on surpassing Gohan. However, currently, Vegeta had no chance of catching up to the demi, lest he ascends to the next level.

After getting on the elevator to the main floor, Bulma explained to Gohan the lengths at which Vegeta was willing to go in order to surpass him.

"He even has me working on a way to improve the gravity chamber. Again! I thought it was impossible until a few weeks ago, I mean, the chamber was already pushing the limits with it's current max output."

Stepping out of the elevator, and into the hall way, the small group passed what seemed like dozens of doors and passage ways. All the while, Bulma continued with her tirade about Vegeta. But, what the woman said next would prove to be very interesting to Gohan.

"But, I actually have to thank Vegeta, if it wasn't for him being a colossal pain in the ass, I would have never discovered a way to harness an entirely new source of power for increased gravity."

Gohan

This statement interested Gohan greatly. While many believed the teen's vast intelligence, for his age, to be based on Chi-Chi's excessive tutoring, the truth of the matter was that Gohan actually enjoyed studying. So much so that he often gives up training time, in his recent months, in order to dedicate more time to his own personal studies. While he was not as keen on training and fighting as other saiyans, or even other hybrids, were, the demi saiyan always found himself curious about applied sciences and anything of the like. So, naturally, hearing that his father's best friend had discovered a new form of gravity manipulation had piqued his interest.

Wanting to question Bulma's discovery further, Gohan was about to interject but was cut off by a loud yell of excitement followed by a crushing blow to his chest.

Now, there were few things on this earth that could make a super saiyan stumble, especially one of Gohan's caliber. Given his current location, and his brother's voice picking up in speed in an attempt to make conversation with his 'attacker', Gohan could only have one guess as to what, or who, knocked him over. Looking down at his, now wrinkled, attire, Gohan confirmed his suspicions. It would appear that, the six year old, Trunks had trampled Gohan in a fit of excitement.

Being around the two demi saiyan kids quite often, Gohan was pretty well adjusted to this sort of occurrence and, as a result, simply shrugged it off as an accident. Sadly, while Gohan knew Trunks had no ill intentions, Bulma was not keen on her son's manners, or lack thereof.

"Trunks Vegeta Briefs! What do you think you're doing?! What have I told you about flying in the house without permission?!"

Trunks nervously scratched the side of his head while looking away from his mother's scolding glare. "Hehe, sorry mom."

Gohan was feeling pretty glad to not be Trunks right now, everyone was well aware that, when she was angry, Bulma could be as bad as his own mother. However, that feeling of relief was swept away once Gohan noticed a very angry Bulma heading in his direction, with a sulking Trunks in tow. As the woman got closer, Gohan could, literally, feel the anger rolling off of her. Coming up to address him, Gohan noticed Bulma push Trunks in front of her before starting once again.

"Look at what you've done! Gohan got all dressed up, in a nice black suit and tie for the party, and now his jacket is all dirty and wrinkled. What do you have to say say for yourself, young man?" Looking up towards Him, Trunks gave the best apology he could muster.

"Gee, sorry Gohan. I didn't think that jacket was so important, was just excited to see you and Goten, is all." Hanging his head in, what Gohan hoped wasn't mock, shame, Trunks stood in front of Gohan, waiting for his response.

Hating to see the kid, who he saw like a second brother, upset, Gohan knelt down next to Trunks before responding.

"Hey, it's no big deal, squirt." he said, laying a hand on the boy's head.

"Really?" Inquired Trunks.

With a small laugh, Gohan leaned a bit closer to Trunks before whispering. "Yeah, to be honest, I never really liked the thing anyway. It didn't suit me very well, you, on the other hand…" Leaning back, Gohan took off his black jacket and wrapped it around Trunks' much smaller form. "…would look great. See, you're officially a grown-up, with a fancy suit and everything." Gohan smiled as Trunks grinned from ear to ear, all the while shouting "Wow, thanks Gohan, am I really a grown up now?"

"You sure are. Now, why don't you go hang out with Goten and teach him how to be an adult too. I'll calm down your mom for ya'." Gohan received a nod from the boy as he ran off to find Goten, and then go to god knows where inside the large complex.

"You're really good with him, you know."

Gohan turned around to see Bulma staring back at him, he had almost forgotten that she was standing next to him and Trunks throughout their entire conversation.

Scratching the back of his head sheepishly, the halfling responded. "It's nothing really, I just get a lot of practice at home, with Goten. Hey where did he and my mom go? They were here just a second ago."

Bulma directed the teen towards two double doors several feet to his left. Looking through the small windows on each, Gohan saw, what appeared to be , the main ball room of Capsule Corp. where the party was taking place.

"While you were lecturing Trunks, I told her to take Goten inside with everyone and get settled. The rest of the gang arrived a while ago, we were just waiting on you guys."

With yet another nervous laugh, Gohan spoke again. "Yeah, sorry about that, living in the mountains isn't always the best for travel. But, Bulma, if everyone else is at the party, what are you doing out here with me?"

Gohan was almost scared to death when Bulma began to erupt with laughter. Gohan was very confused. Was it something he said? He wasn't trying to be funny?

"Is everything okay, Bulma?" asked the confused teen.

Stifling back the next few chuckles, and taking a few deep breaths, Bulma answered the young man.

"Oh, sorry kiddo. It was just too funny that you didn't get it."

Now, more confused than before, Gohan asked yet another question. "Get what?"

"Listen Gohan, we all love you, and I have the upmost of trust in you. But, do really expect me to leave an unmonitored teenager free to wander around my home, a girl has to keep some privacy. You'd be wise to remember that. Now, let's get in there before everyone gets too drunk to recognize you."

Still a bit confused at what had just occurred, Gohan was caught off guard when Bulma suddenly dragged him through the double entrance doors, and into the main party hall. If he didn't know any better, Gohan would think that Bulma was already a bit tipsy.

(Four and a half hours later, around 11:00 pm)

At this point, the party was in full swing, everyone had drinks in their hand (save for those not of age, obviously) and everyone was having a blast!

When he first entered the room, Gohan was bombarded by all of his father's former companions. Sadly, most of them were plastered beyond belief. If he remembered correctly, Gohan could swear that Yamcha and Yajirobe attempted to give him the talk before falling over each other's words and getting into a small scuffle. However, there were those who had chosen to remain composed while participating in the festivities, Tien, a prime example of this, being his usual stoic and calm self.

Although, Gohan was confused to see Tien, of all people, with a date. Apparently, one of his father's oldest friends, a woman by the name of Launch, had been pining for Tien's affections for quite some time. It appeared as though the triclops eventually gave in to her wishes and decided to pursue a relationship with her. Aside from a slight case of multiple personality disorder, Gohan quite enjoyed Launch, and wondered why he had never met her before. Strange, some things will just never be explained.

Currently, Gohan was speaking to the family of the hour, the Chestnuts. Marron fell asleep several hours ago and was put in a nursery in order to give her parents some free time.

It didn't come as a big shock to the Z-fighters when finding out about Krillin's engagement to the cyborg, 18. Everyone had witnessed his fascination with her from when she was still on a rampage with her brother and 16. However, the group was thrown through a loop upon learning of their expected child. No one, not even the Chestnut's themselves, could have hoped for anything better than that. Now, here they were, on the anniversary of their daughter's birth, Gohan couldn't be happier for them.

"So, anyway, once we finally got Marron to sleep for more than an hour. Master Roshi comes waltzing down the stairs, fresh as a daisy, asking what was for breakfast. I swear, Gohan, after the scare 18 gave the old timer, I was expecting to revive him with the dragon balls. You should have seen the look on his face, priceless!"

"It's not funny Krillin! I was two steps away from killing that old perv, once and for all!"

"Hahaha! Wow, it's really great to hear that you guys are doing so well, I can't believe that little Marron is already a year old. Pretty soon, you guys will be warding off boys from taking her out on dates, and deciding on what career she wants to go into." It was truly great to see the man, who Gohan saw as family, have so many things going right for him. There were seldom few people who deserved a happy life more.

Wrapping his arm around his wife's waist, an embrace which was gratefully returned, Krillin simply smiled at Gohan and nodded in agreement.

"Honestly, I've never been happier. I have so much to be grateful for in my life, and there are two people who I have to thank for that."

Gohan stood in surprise as Krillin clapped his hands together loudly, getting the full attention of the room. Standing up on one of the set tables, the new father cleared his throat and began to speak.

"First of all, 18 and I would like to thank Bulma for hosting our daughter's first birthday party in her lovely home, and we would like to thank all of you for showing us your love and support, we consider everyone in this room as our family, and we hope you feel the same."

The residents of the hall all clapped in unison, agreeing with Krillin's speech so far.

"But, of everyone who is here today, I think that there are two people who will forever hold special places in the hearts of my wife and I. Two people who, without them, we would not be here today. The first person I would like to mention is, of course, Son Goku. That man, there's few things I can say about him that all of you don't already know, whether it be through stories or personal experience, everyone knew Goku. He was fighter, a husband, a father, and a friend, my best friend. But, above all else, Goku was a hero, and that fact is forever proven by his absence here today. He sacrificed himself, time and time again, for the good of others. If it were not for him, many of us would not be who we are today. So, let's all raise a glass, in memory of Goku, one of the brightest stars the universe ever spawned. To Goku!"

"To Goku!" The crowd responded in unison, some through teared faces.

Regaining his composure, Krillin tried his best to collect himself before continuing.

"Ahem! Okay, now I would like to bring up someone else. Someone who, unbelievably so, has touched all of us, and who we all owe, an eternal debt. This MAN, has shown that, no matter what life threw at him, he would always get back up, stronger than ever. This man is a hero in his own right, able to stand on even terms with Goku himself, or perhaps, surpass him. I have watched him grow up, tried to be there for him when I could, given him aid where it was needed, but he always wound up repaying the favor tenfold. If not for this man, the love of my life, 18, would not be here with me today, none of us would. It is because of his astounding character as a friend, a little brother, and a protector, that I name this man, the Godfather of my daughter Marron. I would like to ask him to stand beside me, in this moment, so that I may have the honor to shake his hand and give him a well-deserved toast." Turning towards his wife and Gohan, Krillin stepped down from the table and walked towards the two. Once he approached, the short man extended out his hand to the subject of his speech.

"Looks like 18 and I aren't going to be the only ones warding of Marron's potential boyfriends, ay pal? Oh, and she's going to be a doctor, no if's, and's, or but's"

Gohan could not stop the tears forming in his eyes. He never thought, never wanted to believe, that he had meant this much to Krillin's family, or everyone else. He had always thought that they blamed him for his father's death, that it was all his fault. But, hearing this speech, from his father's best friend, his own 'uncle'. Hearing that this man trusted the life and safety of his own child in his hands, Gohan could not stop himself from pulling the smaller man into a bear hug. The room had erupted in applause for Gohan, aside from the birth of Goten, this was the happiest day of his life.

Pulling himself away from Krillin, who was almost broken in two, Gohan looked around the room, and at all the people inside. He saw all of the gang, his mother, Goten, Trunks, Bulma, Vegeta, Korin, Dende, , Piccolo. All of whom, were smiling and clapping, even Vegeta.

Just as he was about to give his own speech, to thank Krillin and 18 for naming him Marron's Godfather, an earth shattering boom echoed throughout the hall of Capsule Corp, followed quickly by a thunderous shaking, that rocked the entire room.

'What the heck was that?' thought almost everyone in the room. ALMOST everyone.

Bulma

No, no, no, no, no! This couldn't be happening. This was impossible! She knew that she had cut off the power to the generators before she even started decorating. The only way that it could have reopened is if she had forgotten to disconnect the breaker….oh dear god.

"Vegeta get everyone out of the building. Now!" Looking towards his wife, the saiyan prince did not understand her current outburst.

"What the hell are you talking about, woman?! And what in the blazes was that sou.." Vegeta was cut off by a very angry, and very desperate Bulma. Grabbing Vegeta by his tie, Bulma attempted to yell some knowledge into him.

"That, my dear husband, is something capable of destroying the entire planet in a few hours! And it can't be punched, kicked, or blasted into submission! So, before you act all high and mighty on me, GET EVERYONE OUT!"

Knowing when not to challenge her, and realizing the severity of the situation, Vegeta immediately sprung into action.

"Namek, Triclops, Beta-male. We need to get these fools out of the building. Trunks, Goten, You two help your mothers' weakling friends and family out, while we get the servants and employee's. Go, now!"

No One

The building was cleared out in a few minutes, with no one left inside. The former occupants of the complex were now sprawled out on the large lawn. Everyone was so confused, how could this have happened? WHAT happened? All anyone knew was that something bad had happened, and it was only going to get worse.

Gohan

He was breathing heavily from inhaling some of the smoke inside the building. During the evacuation, Gohan had personally sought to getting Marron to safety. He had been named the child's Godfather only a few minutes prior, he wasn't going to fail at it now! Clearing out his lungs of any further smoke, Gohan noticed Bulma sitting on the ground, some distance away from the crowd. Concerned for her safety, the teen went up to her.

Upon his arrival, Gohan noticed how odd Bulma looked. Her hair was a mess, almost as if she was pulling it, and her make-up had been running, which could only have been caused by the tears flowing down her face. Gohan knew that Bulma was the first to react to the tremors, and that she likely she what the cause of them were. If he was going to stop it, he needed to know.

No One

(A few minutes later)

"You what!?"

"You heard me, Gohan! That's how I did it, how I found a new source of artificial gravity."

"How the hell could you even think of that!? The power that thing puts out is immense, and the gravity is anything but artificial!"

The yells of shock were cut short by Vegeta's entrance, along with Piccolo, and the other main Z- fighters.

"Brat, care to tell us what the hell is happening to my house!? Yelled Vegeta, in his usual tone. What does he even need to know, they were done. Nothing could stop what Bulma had unleashed, it was scientific fact. They needed a way to stop the most powerful natural occurrence in the universe.

Getting up off of the ground, still shaking from the shocks her creation was making. Bulma explained the only thing that could stop a black hole.

"There's only one way. It's going to continue to grow at an exponential rate, once it reaches peak size, it will completely devour the milky way. Our only chance is to stop it while it's still small and controllable."

Walking up to Bulma, Piccolo asked how, exactly, they needed to go about this plan.

"It needs to consume something that can put off just as much power as itself, which will cause the rift to collapse and implode."

A sigh of relief escaped Yamcha's lips as he heard the "good news".

"Awesome, then all we need to do is fire a couple Kamehameha waves into this thing, then BAM, we're golden."

"No."

Yamcha's celebration was cut short by Gohan's dismissal of his optimism. Yamcha was confused, they had figured it out, hadn't they? They were saved.

"What do you mean, Gohan? Bulma just sai…" Yamcha was cut off by a suddenly enraged Gohan.

"I know what Bulma said, and she's right. But a Kamehameha won't work, it doesn't carry enough weight, or gravity, of it's own. In order to stop this thing, it needs to consume something powerful, very powerful, powerful enough to form it's force of gravity. I happen to know something that can do that." Gohan shocked the group by suddenly transforming into his super saiyan form. Getting the hint, Piccolo immedialty protested Gohan's plan.

"Kid! What the hell do you think you're doing?! There's got to be another way!"

Even Vegeta saw how crazy Gohan's plan was.

"The Namek's right, don't throw away your life like this. If you go in there, you will die."

Completely ignoring his friends' protests, Gohan asked them of one request.

"Take care of them, and tell them that I love them." Before blasting into his ascended saiyan form towards the, now destroyed, compound.

(Back on the lawn)

Chi-Chi, the boys, and the Chestnuts, all ran towards where they just saw Gohan take off.

"Where is he going?" asked the concerned mother. The response she received, while it broke her heart, made her proud to call Gohan her son.

Turning his head toward his disciple's mother, Piccolo looked back at the ground, clenching his fists, before saying. "To save the world."

(Now)

Gohan was face to face with the monster of a portal. It had completely devoured majority of the Capsule Corp. building, and was still sucking in anything that came near, including Gohan.

Powering up to the limits of his ascended form, Gohan dived into the portal, leaving no trace of him behind.

A few, slow, minutes later, the Black Hole began the dramatically decrease in size. This continued for a short time, until the edges of the vortex began to close in on each other. Eventually, much like Gohan, there was no trace that the Black Hole ever existed.

He had done it. Son Gohan had, single handedly, saved the entire galaxy. But, at what cost?

(Lexcorp, Metropolis. March 2nd 11:56pm)

This creature was interesting, to say the least. It showed enough brute strength to completely topple a 15 ton laser mine, with ease. It killed without mercy, no, not without mercy, without malice. The beast had no qualms about who, or what, it destroyed, it just wanted to destroy, that was it's purpose. But, why was it here, on earth? It was sent with a warning, of all things, meaning that it wasn't sent to exterminate, but to sleep.

"If an Alien race possessed the technology the trap that thing, but then use Earth as their personal toilet, that only means one thing. They couldn't kill it."

This thing, this creature, could be useful. Which means, it could give him an advantage against Superman, or possibly, it could put an end to Superman. Both those options excited Lex Luthor. If everything went his way, the big blue boy scout would be dead within weeks.

Gazing out towards his window, prospects of a world without the pest known as Superman, on his mind. Lex Failed to notice a particular shooting star in the night sky. However, while Lex turned a blind eye, the man of steel took a great deal of concern in this falling star, and he wasn't the only one.

(25 miles East of Metropolis)

"How far out are you?" Came Batman's familiar voice from the leagueintercom.

Pressing his finger to his earpiece, Superman responded to his long time ally.

"I'm about 2 miles, Barry is already there and waiting. I think Diana the farthest, but I don't by exactly how much."

"Affirmative, it seems that I shall be the last to arrive by a significant margin of time. Shall we meet at the Watchtower?"

"Agreed, Wonder Woman, you head back. We'll meet you for debriefing."

"Rodger, Batman, Wonder Woman out"

"Umm, Guys?"

"What is it Flash? Trouble?"

"Depends, Bats. Do you consider puberty to be trouble?"

"What are you talking about, Barry?"

"Well, you know the crash site, with the heavy amount of positron radiation, the one we're currently investigating?"

"Get to the point, Flash."

"There's a kid."

"What!?"

"There's a kid."

"Barry, what the hell does that mean?"

"THERE. IS. A. KID. IN. THE. CRATER."

"….and he's kind of, on fire."