Heavy footsteps echoed through the wasteland. Each step cracked the earth, sending tremors through what remained of the city. The air itself seemed to bend around the figure's overwhelming presence.
Red eyes swept across the destruction. Crimson fabric fluttered behind him as he moved through the rubble with casual indifference. Then he stopped. Something had caught his attention.
Vegeta lay crumpled against a broken wall, blood trickling from his forehead. But those dark eyes still burned with familiar Saiyan pride when they met his attacker's gaze.
Vegeta - "You think... this is over?"
A cold smile spread across the man's face. He crouched down, studying Vegeta like an interesting specimen. When he finally spoke, ice seemed to form in the air around his words.
Gohan Black - "Still clinging to that pathetic hope of yours? How amusing." His head tilted slightly. "I suppose you deserve to know who's about to end your miserable existence. The name's Gohan Black."
The Saiyan prince's instincts kicked in before his mind could process the situation. Pure desperation launched him skyward, golden energy erupting around his battered form. His hair grew long and wild as Super Saiyan 3 transformed him into something magnificent and terrible.
But even as power coursed through him, Vegeta knew it wouldn't be enough. It was never enough anymore.
His roar shattered what few windows remained standing. Golden light bathed the ruins, and for just a moment, the devastation looked almost beautiful.
Gohan Black barely glanced up from examining his fingernails.
Gohan Black - "Really? This is your grand finale?" Laughter bubbled up from somewhere dark inside him. "You're like a bug trying to bite a god."
Black energy swirled around the corrupted Saiyan's form. His hair shifted, silver streaks running through the darkness as violet power pulsed outward. The stolen Mystic form made him something beyond Vegeta's comprehension.
Vegeta - H-how did you Still his body and skills? I know damn well he is alive!"
Gohan Black lifited one finger UP and made sign to be quieto - "shii..thats my secret..Goodbye, Prince of nothing."
Goku Black them Launched a Massive Beam of Destruction.
What came next wasn't really a battle. It was an execution.
The blast consumed everything—buildings, streets, hope itself. When the light faded and the dust settled, only silence remained. Even the wind had stopped blowing.
Gohan Black stood alone in the crater where a city used to exist. He looked around once, expression unreadable, then rose into the darkening sky.
Somewhere far beyond mortal perception, three figures watched from their cosmic table.
Shadow Figure 1 - "This can't go on much longer."
Shadow Figure 2 - "Mortals playing with forces they don't understand. It's disrupting everything."
Shadow Figure 3 - "Then we need to intervene. Before it's too late for all of us."
The conversation ended there, but its implications would ripple across infinite realities.
Miles away, Bulma stared at her scanner in disbelief. The numbers didn't lie, even when you desperately wanted them to.
Bulma - "His ki signature... it just disappeared." Her voice cracked on the last word.
Future Trunks went very still. Color drained from his face as the reality hit him.
Trunks - "No way. Not like this. Not my father."
Future Gohan adjusted his glasses, a nervous habit from childhood that he'd never quite shaken. The scarred side of his face twitched with barely controlled emotion.
Gohan - "I told him we needed to stick together. That was our only shot against that monster." He slammed his fist against the wall. "What are we supposed to do now?"
Bulma collapsed into her chair, shoulders shaking. All the strength she'd built up over years of loss finally crumbled.
Bulma - "It's hopeless... we can't win this."
But Trunks was already moving, wrapping his arms around her trembling form. Something cold and hard settled in his chest where grief should have been.
Trunks - "He's going to pay. For Dad, for everyone he's killed. I swear it."
Gohan stared at the floor, mind racing through possibilities. Most of them ended badly, but there had to be something. There was always something.
Gohan - "The gravity chamber. Underground, reinforced against everything." He looked up, determination replacing despair. "We train there. Push beyond anything we've done before. Super Saiyan 3, Mystic form—whatever it takes."
Bulma wiped her eyes, scientist instincts taking over from the grieving widow.
Bulma - "The bunker chamber can handle ten thousand times Earth gravity. If you're serious about this..."
Trunks - "We're serious. Show us the way."
The underground facility felt like descending into another world. Reinforced tunnels stretched deeper than seemed possible, all of it built to survive the apocalypse they were now living through.
The gravity chamber hummed with contained power. Bulma's fingers danced across control panels, adjusting settings that would have crushed normal humans instantly.
Bulma - "This is it. Everything I know about enhancing training packed into one room."
Trunks rolled his shoulders, already feeling the artificial gravity pressing down on him. Golden energy flickered around his hair like candlelight.
Trunks - "Time to get to work."
Gohan stripped off his weighted clothing, muscles tensing as his aura flared to life. The chamber filled with crackling electricity as both warriors prepared for hell.
Gohan - "We alternate. Combat training, then meditation. If there's some hidden level beyond what we know, we'll find it."
What followed was pain. Pure, endless, necessary pain.
They fought each other with everything they had. Bones broke and healed stronger. Blood was shed and wiped away. The gravity crushed them down, and they stood back up.
Late at night, when their bodies finally demanded rest, they sat in meditation. Searching for new pathways, new methods, new hope.
Above them, Bulma worked tirelessly. Monitoring their vital signs, adjusting the chamber's parameters, pouring her grief into making them stronger.
Days became weeks. Weeks became a blur of sweat and determination.
They were Earth's last chance, and they all knew it.
Several Days Later
The gravity chamber reeked of sweat, blood, and determination. Bulma wrinkled her nose as she stepped inside, carrying a small device that hummed with energy.
Gohan and Trunks were taking a breather against the far wall, both looking like they'd been through a blender. Fresh cuts crisscrossed their arms and faces, some still bleeding. Their training clothes hung in tatters.
Bulma - "The smell in here is as strong as you guys' determination."
Both warriors started chuckling, but Bulma cut them off with a wave.
Bulma - "I came here to announce something important. I've built a machine that can calculate exactly how strong you've become—works like the old scouters, but since your power levels have reached insane heights, I've shortened the terminology. With this, I can finally tell you exactly how much you've grown and if it's enough."
She paused, her expression darkening.
Bulma - "Too bad I can't calculate Gohan Black's power. He keeps moving around, staying too far away for accurate readings.
Trunks sat up straighter, wincing as the movement pulled at his injuries.
Trunks - "You mean we'll finally know if all this torture has been worth it?"
Gohan - "How much stronger we've gotten?"
His scarred face lit up with genuine excitement for the first time in weeks.
Another brutal training session. Another day of pushing their bodies past every reasonable limit.
Gohan wiped blood from his split lip and noticed something that made him pause mid-combo.
Gohan - "Don't you think it's weird how the Mystic form can wield someone's full potential, but the normal transformations can't?"
Trunks stopped mid-punch, turning to look at him with confusion.
Gohan - "What if you could condense something like Super Saiyan 3 into regular Super Saiyan, then power up even further? That would increase the multiplier, right?"
Trunks - "Yeah... I guess."
He still sounded confused, but there was curiosity creeping into his voice now.
Gohan - "I think you've got that ability in you. You're already trying to master Super Saiyan 3, so why not experiment?"
Trunks - "Yeah, maybe I can try..."
Without hesitation, he transformed.
Golden light exploded around him as his hair grew long and wild—Super Saiyan 3 in its full glory. But instead of attacking, Trunks just stood there, breathing slowly and deeply.
Trunks - "Making the form more consistent first... okay, now I just gotta condense it into regular Super Saiyan, right? Let me try."
What happened next defied everything they thought they knew about Saiyan transformations.
Trunks' hair began to shorten, pulling back toward his head like someone was rewinding a video. His aura compressed, growing denser and more concentrated. But the power didn't decrease—it grew.
Gohan actually felt his body being pulled forward, like Trunks had become a miniature black hole.
The gravitational field in the chamber went haywire, warning alarms blaring as the equipment struggled to compensate.
Then Trunks collapsed.
The transformation failed, and he dropped back to base form, gasping and drenched in sweat.
Trunks - "T-that was... amazing. I could feel it working, but I couldn't hold it together."
Gohan got excited seeing this. Maybe he could pull off something similar? He started messing around with his Mystic form, trying to squeeze all that power down.
Two more weeks went by. Lots of pain, lots of sweat. But they were getting somewhere with these weird new transformations. Both guys felt like they might actually be ready soon.
That's when Bulma's voice came screaming through the speakers.
Bulma - "It's him! He's about a kilometer from here on top of some destroyed skyscraper. He's looking directly at us! Even after I made that machine to make the ki signatures from here undetectable, he's still staring right here!"
Trunks and Gohan bolted. No hesitation, just pure instinct taking over as they hauled ass out of the chamber and through the corridors.
Bulma was jumping between different cameras, trying to figure out what that bastard was planning next. One second he was there, next second... gone. Screen went dead.
Being this close meant her scanner could finally get a proper read on him. The numbers made her stomach drop. His base form alone was kicking both their asses power-wise.
The whole building started shaking like an earthquake hit. That titanium door they'd installed? The one that was supposed to stop anything? It folded up like origami.
A single glowing red eye appeared in the darkness beyond, followed by that terrifyingly familiar face.
There he was.
Gohan Black.
He stepped through the ruined doorway and came face to face with Bulma, Future Trunks, and Future Gohan.
Trunks lost it. Completely fucking lost it. After watching his dad die, after all that pain... even if Vegeta was an arrogant prick sometimes, Trunks still loved the guy.
He went Super Saiyan 3 so fast it was like flipping a light switch. His fist connected with Gohan Black's face before anyone could blink.
No reaction. Nothing. But the bastard went flying anyway.
Gohan Black shot through the Capsule Corp building like a missile, slamming into a skyscraper so hard the whole thing just... fell over. Concrete and steel crashing down everywhere.
Trunks and Gohan knew they couldn't give him even one second to recover. Gohan powered up to Mystic while they both launched into the air.
Gohan - "Try compressing Super Saiyan 3 into one... I'll buy you some time."
Trunks just nodded. No words needed.
Gohan rushed in as the smoke cleared from the crater. There was Gohan Black, floating up while holding his face. His hair spiked up as golden energy wrapped around him.
Wait... Super Saiyan 2? Why wasn't he going Mystic?
Gohan didn't have time to think about it. He threw a punch, but Black barely dodged and countered with his own shot to Gohan's stomach.
Even blocking it, Gohan got launched backwards through the air.
Meanwhile, Trunks was doing something incredible.
Gohan could feel it happening - the compression actually working this time.
Then it was like a supernova going off without any of the destruction. Blinding light everywhere.
When it faded, there was Trunks in regular Super Saiyan form.
But his power... holy shit, it was way beyond Super Saiyan 3.
Trunks - "I call this Perfect Super Saiyan!".
His power was about 2.2 times stronger than before.
Gohan - "It's my turn to try that. Go destroy this monster."
As Gohan stepped back, Trunks flew in with a brutal combo rush. For the first time, Gohan Black looked serious.
He knew this power would actually hurt.
Even so, he stayed in Super Saiyan 2 as Trunks pummeled the hell out of him.
Gohan's eyes lit up with understanding. If Trunks could almost pull it off, then maybe he could too.
He started experimenting with the same concept, trying to compress his Mystic form into something more concentrated.
As Gohan stepped back, Trunks flew in with a brutal combo rush. For the first time, Gohan Black looked serious.
He knew this power would actually hurt. Even so, he stayed in Super Saiyan 2 as Trunks pummeled the hell out of him.
And damn, Trunks was absolutely wrecking him.
Gohan Black couldn't see a single punch coming. Trunks was everywhere at once - left hook, right cross, knee to the ribs.
Skyscrapers were getting demolished left and right as they fought, chunks of concrete raining down on the streets below.
Then Trunks spun around and landed a perfect 180 kick right to Black's face, launching him straight up into the sky like a rocket.
Trunks - "Now!!"
He pulled out his blade, pumping ki into it until the thing was glowing like the damn sun itself. His arm became a blur as he unleashed attack after attack.
Trunks - "Rampage Cut!!".
Hundreds of energy slashes tore through the air, all aimed at Gohan Black. The whole thing was building up to one massive explosion.
Just before it hit, Gohan Black spread his arms wide and flashed this cocky smile. Like he was enjoying it.
That made Trunks even more pissed.
Trunks - "Final Future Blast!!!!".
An enormous green and blue blast erupted from his hands, so powerful it turned the entire sky into some kind of aurora.
The boom that followed probably woke up half the planet.