Dragon Blog Z #8: What If GOKU Was NEVER BORN? (Part 5)

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

based on a video by MasakoX,

Inspired by Dragon Ball, by Akira Toriyama.

Last time in Dragon Blog Z, I re-wrote the first four parts of the story to fill in some gaps and better integrate Mai, Shu, and Kumu into the earlier plot. It all came to a head when Piccolo's lack of tact caused Vomi's Evil personality to re-emerge.

I'm setting goals if you want to find out what happens beyond this part, so let's get it to a modest five likes and one hundred views.

"Why?" Vomi asked no one in particular. "Why?" The Room of Spirit and Time began to shake more and more violently with each repitition. "Why do I feel so empty!?" She screamed this last, a smoky ki seeming to emit from her pores, staining her skin a dark grey; the Evil Vomi persona had returned.

Tarble! Piccolo shouted with all his mental strength. Blow the door! NOW!

An instant later, the living quarters that marked the inside exit of the Room wavered and disappeared around them, leaving Piccolo and Evil Vomi trapped in the white void.

"What did you do?" she screamed.

"I made a choice to protect the people I care about," Piccolo said. "From the biggest mistake of my life. Now, we're both trapped in here together; forever!"

"Now, Vomi is empty! Hungry! Let Vomi out or Vomi will eat you!"

"You can if you want, but then you'll be stuck here, and with three more voices in your head!"

This thought, this perpetual, maddening emptiness and hunger, was enough to terrify even Vomi. She screamed into the void, louder and louder, making Piccolo dizzy with the increasing volume, and now there was a pink mist coming from Vomi's pores. She soon transformed back into Super Vomi, and her screaming continued, becoming ki as much as it was sound, such that (just like in the original) it tore a hole in reality: a hole to the outside world.

Upon seeing the architecture of the Lookout once again, Super Vomi leapt through the spatial tear, with Piccolo just managing to follow her before the hole repaired itself.

When he next laid eyes on Super Vomi, she was standing in a triumphant pose, her hand raised and gathering a ball of pink energy.

"Vomi will do you a courtesy," she said. "You," Vomi pointed at Tarble, "were kind to the one who gave Vomi this form, and you gave Vomi delicious, filling sweets.

"As for you," now pointing at Piccolo, "You tried to trap Vomi, but you also tried to help Vomi. Vomi also needs Dragon Balls, so Little Green will be spared, too. As will your loved ones. The rest of humanity must die!"

Locking onto the life force of everyone on Earth whom she did not promise to spare, Super Vomi unleashed billions of pink energy blasts. Everyone who could sense ki felt the near-instantaneous cessation of all human life on Earth, but none so much as Piccolo, who had inherited the Guardian sense from fusing with Kami, and he felt fully responsible for Vomi being in this state.

As such, it was his responsibility alone to stop her. But he wasn't strong enough, even after fusing with Kami, to defeat her as he was now. He combed through Kami's memories from when he was Earth's Guardian, and hit upon an idea.

I said in a past part that there wouldn't be any fusion in this version, and that will be one of the things I take back for this part. Shin and Kibito exist in this story, and Vegeta and Paragus are both in the otherworld. So it stands to reason that both Metamoran and Potara Fusion would exist here. Furthermore, because the Kai heirarchy exists in this story, an underutilized power from the original Buu Saga can be put to better use, too.

So, Piccolo uses his telepathy to communicate his plan to King Kai, Fortuneteller Baba, and everyone he can sense on Earth, then uses Instant Transmission to take them to the Sacred World Of the Kais. By the time he has gathered everyone safely, he's surprised to see that Vegeta and Paragus are also there.

As with Goku in the original, Paragus has been the one to participate in the Otherworld Tournament against the likes of Pikkon and Olibu, and has tapped into Super Saiyan 2 and 3 and learned Metamoran Fusion. I did this because Vegeta hadn't been dead long enough, he hates the Fusion Dance, and I thought it would be funny if Paragus was the one to teach it to Vegeta and Tarble. Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, Kumu and the kids pick it up, too, but the real draw for comedy and irony here is Vegeta and Tarble. With most of the world dead, this needs a bit of comedy....

Meanwhile, Shin and Kibito lead Piccolo to the Z-Sword, and his strength training goes about the same as Gohan's did in the original, with Piccolo eventually able to swing the sword with such ease that he accidentally breaks it on a large stone and releases the Old Kai. Old Kai offers Piccolo something more powerful than mere strength training, but says he won't share it without certain perks. This leads to Piccolo risking Instant Transmission back to Earth to pick up some of Roshi's...reading materials from Kame House, which catches the attention of Super Vomi.

Now, we know that Vomi knows Yardratian techniques, but the Z-Fighters don't. So they are taken by surprise when Super Vomi teleports in right behind Piccolo.

"You shouldn't have left Vomi alone, Piccolo! You shouldn't have taken Vomi's new friends away!" She attacks with a flurry of blows that Piccolo is able to block more easily than he could before the Z-Sword training, but he can tell by her ki that he still isn't strong enough for a finishing blow.

Meanwhile, the Old Kai is just sitting and drooling over Roshi's magazines.

"You want friends, Vomi?" Piccolo says during one exchange. "You can have plenty of strong friends to play with. And when you're done playing, you can take the rest of your frustrations out on me; how does that sound?"

"Are you crazy, Piccolo?" the Z-Fighters shout in unison.

"Vomi accepts," she says, sounding impatient.

Piccolo assures them via telepathy that he just needs them to stall her until the Old Kai does his thing.

With that, the Z-Fighters pair up to perform the Fusion Dance, with Yamcha and Krillin forming Yamurin, Tien and Kumu forming Kushinhan, and Vegeta and Tarble forming Tarjita.

Yamurin creates a giant nyoizan (basically a Power Pole made of stacked Destructo-Discs that he drops on the opponent like SonSon's hyper in Marvel VS Capcom 2), Kushinhan grows two extra arms, each brandishing a kienzan sword, and divides himself in three before surrounding Super Vomi and chopping her to bits. None of these work, however, as Super Vomi quickly regenerates, only leaving behind enough scraps of herself to absorb the two fusions and take on the form of Meta Vomi (just picture Majin 21's regular design, but with a puffy vest and some conglomeration of their hairstyles). Tarjita attacks next with a Final Galick Gun, even going Super-Saiyan 3 to make the move stronger. But between the transformation and charging the attack, Tarjita defuses and the attack fizzles out.

"Vomi is bored now." she says. "Hungry, too." And with that, she teleports away, leaving Vegeta and Tarble exhausted, and Piccolo impatient about the Old Kai's progress. All he's done is drone and chant nonsense while waving his arms in Piccolo's general direction. What is this old man's deal?

More importantly, where did Vomi go?

Well, her hunger drew her to a place near the Otherworld Check-in Station, where a certain machine was chugging away in the wake of so many new souls arriving there. With a wave of her finger, Super Vomi turned the purification machine's attendants into sweets and ate them before setting her sights on the main course. Using her Forced Spirit Fission powers, Super Vomi began to absorb the evil energy that the machine had collected. But as when she was merely an enhanced human, the evil consumed her instead, causing her to take on a third form: one that looked like a feminine version of Janemba.

Animeister's Note: I cannot draw consistently well, nor can I draw anything of quality in a crunch, so I looked online for existing images, tried several prompts in WonderAI, tried Photoshopping something together, and tried using assets from HeroMachine to piece together a "Vomemba" design, and nothing clicked with me. Until I Patronized the Dragon Ball Fusion Generator. It's free, but for a modest three dollars a month (cheaper, if you're a yearly Patron), you can get an even wider variety of characters and fan creations to fuse together, stage with various backgrounds and particle effects, and share online.

Meanwhile, Piccolo can sense the massive gathering of evil energy and snaps at the Old Kai to hurry up.

"I'm done," says the elder.

"What!?" Piccolo exclaims. "But, I don't feel any different."

"You will. Once you try powering up. You'll find that your ki is more unified than it was before."

Animeister's Note: For this, I consulted many Dragon Ball sources online to get a better understanding of how the Ultimate/Mystic form works. Since I can't use Super-Saiyan as a basis like the source material did (Piccolo is not a Saiyan, despite what whatever terrible, Westernized, censored dub you grew up with says), I went off the fact that Piccolo in this story has absorbed Kami, who is fused with Piccolo. I'm also employing a bit of a technicality here in that, while Piccolo has access to their memories and abilities, his ki up to this point has been compartmentalized; that is, he can access their fused strength, but the tiered nature of the fusion makes it feel almost like he's borrowing from someone else. Old Kai, in this case, has literally unlocked Piccolo's potential, such that all of that ki can be available to him at once, and more efficiently. I hope that clears things up.

Now better able to gauge and tap into his full strength, Piccolo teleports to the concentration of evil energy, and is taken aback by Vomi's new form.

He powers up into Ultimate, which has a more intense white aura, turns his skin a more yellowish shade of green, and curls his antennae slightly downward.

Vomemba chuckles at this and beckons him to attack, but quickly regrets her bravado when she finds herself doubled over in pain from a gut punch that she couldn't even track the movement of, and Vomits up the four human fighters she previously absorbed.

However, she still has Buu's regeneration in this form, and the dent in her abdomen pops out of existence. Now, she would get serious.

Standing and smiling once more, Vomemba wipes the remaining spittle from her mouth and disappears in a collage of red and blue cubes, only to reappear behind Piccolo, who senses her attack just in time to Instant Transmission out of the way and gain some distance. His fingertips began to spark. This was one of the attacks he'd been refining to work in conjunction with Kami's abilities. It took a long time to charge up, and he would need to put even more ki into it than normal if he was to secure victory, but he had a lot of defensive options at his disposal in the meantime.

The next ten minutes of the fight consisted of both Piccolo and Vomemba teleporting around each other and trading physical blows; Vomemba using cube portals to punch and kick from a distance, and Piccolo doing the same with his stretchy limbs.

Then, it was time: "Shin..."

A disembodied fist appeared on his left, and Piccolo blocked. "Kan..."

Teleporting to avoid a kick from the right, "Ko..."

And with "Sappo!", Piccolo appeared point-blank in front of Vomemba, and fired a massive, drilling spiral of energy that vaporized her from the waist up.

What remained of Vomemba's body fell backward on the ground, seemingly lifeless.

But Piccolo can sense this is not the case, and quickly evacuates Krillin, Kumu, Tien, and Yamcha back to the Kais' world.

"What happened?" Tarble asks when they arrive.

"My attack wasn't enough, and she won't fall for the same trick twice. Anyone have any other bright ideas?"

Though he knows how intelligent she is, Piccolo is surprised under the reality-ending circumstances, when Bulma is the first to speak up. "You said she got this way by absorbing energy, right?"

"Yeah?"

"So what if I just pull it out of her?"

Piccolo had honestly forgotten that she had Forced Spirit Fission. "No offense, Bulma, but you're not strong enough. Besides, what would we do with that much evil ki afterwards?"

With Roshi being there, he briefly pondered the Evil Containment Wave, but his memories of the other Piccolo led him to dismiss that as a temporary solution.

Shin then proposes the idea of Piccolo and Bulma fusing with Potara. The fusion would be stronger and more effective than a Metamoran Fusion, and combined with Ultimate, the Forced Spirit Fission would be more powerful as well. Though, it's never been tested on mortals....

Meanwhile to the team's brainstorming, Vomemba regenerates and teleports to the Sacred World Of the Kais, where she uses a cube portal to grab the broken Z-Sword, turning it into Janemba's classic weapon.

Having recovered with Senzu beans in the meantime, the Z-Fighters and Tarble and Vegeta fuse once again into Yamurin, Kushinhan, and Tarjita, and Paragus transforms into Super-Saiyan 3. Mostly, they are there yet again to buy time, but Paragus and the fused fighters will play a bigger role once they've served that purpose.

Using the Potara, Piccolo and Bulma combine to form Piccolma, and just as planned, the others hold Vomemba off long enough for Piccolma to tap into Ultimate and start using Forced Spirit Fission on her.

Created using the Dragon Ball Fusion Generator
at https://japeal.com/dbfg/

Once the technique starts working, everyone but Paragus backs off from the fight.  Kushinhan begins gathering ki from the World Of the Kais itself, Yamurin charges a Spirit Kamehameha, and Tarjita (in Super Saiyan 3) once again goes for a Final Galick Gun.

With Buu and the evil energy fully extracted from her body, Vomi collapses to the ground, unconscious, and with a combined Genki Kohou, Spirit Kamehameha, and Final Galick Gun, the threat of Majin Buu and the Otherworld's evil energy are wiped from existence.

For their assistance with ending said threat, the Saiyan and human fighters are granted Ultimate training as well (though Vegeta declines, viewing it as a handout; after what happened with Babidi, he resolved to gain power by his own merits), and Old Kai gives his life force to revive Vegeta and Paragus, fading away as their halos do the same.

Of course, there is the aftermath of the battle to repair.

Like in the original, the Earth and its inhabitants are restored, and their memories of Majin Buu are erased with the Dragon Balls. With two sets of Namek-level Dragon Balls in this story, though, there are three more wishes to consider. Strangely, Tarble sort of enjoyed the time he spent with Buu (when his life wasn't in danger), and wishes for the good Buu to be reborn.

Piccolo (having defused from Bulma because the concentration of evil ki damaged the Potara) kept tabs on Vomi in the weeks after the battle, to make sure she wasn't doing anything shady, and to monitor her recovery. When it came time to summon Shenron and Porunga, Piccolo insisted that Vomi accompany him. He then used the remaining two wishes to revive Gero and Gevo, for which Vomi was speechless and weeping with gratitude.

And with her family reunited and the world at peace once more, this is where the story will end for now.

I'm not jumping ahead to the "End of Z" like the original did, so if you'd like to see what happens in the Super part of this story, remember that we're going for five likes and one hundred views. Some comments would be great here, too.

Animeister and

MasakoX Fan,

Out.