Tony Stark and his Saiyan Sons

Chapter 4

With the crib finished and Goten snugly tucked into it, everyone heads back down to the lab.

"Do you think Goten will be ok by himself?" Gohan asks, worried about leaving his brother alone in another room, even if he's asleep the whole time. 

"Don't worry, Kid, JARVIS will be watching him the entire time and will let us know if the little monkey wakes up or needs anything, isn't that right, J?" Tony replies, hoping to take any stress off of the boy's shoulders.

"Of course, Sir. Don't worry, Young Sir Gohan, your brother is in good hands, metaphorically speaking of course." JARVIS answers.

"Heheheh, thank you JARVIS." Gohan responds, cracking a smile.

The group arrive back in the lab and Gohan puts the B.A.R.F glasses back on, his smile instantly vanishing. "Well, let's get back to it."

Concerned, Pepper takes a step toward the boy in hopes of comforting him, but she's stopped when Tony puts a hand on her shoulder.

They look each other in the eyes and have a silent conversation.

Tony shakes his head, Pepper steps back, and Tony drops his hand back to his side.

Gohan reactivates the glasses and a new area appears around them.

‐Gohan's Memory: Raditz's ship's crash site‐

Raditz tosses the crying Gohan into his spacepod then walks out of the crater.

"Let me out! Please, I'll be quiet, I swear! Don't leave me alone in here!" Gohan begs his kidnapper.

"Raditz locked me in his ship to hold me until my dad fulfilled his 'request', and so he wouldn't have to listen to me cry." Gohan says like he's ashamed of himself for being scared to the point of tears. 

"Gohan, you said this was over 7 years ago, right?" Pepper asks.

"That's right, Pepper, why?" Gohan replies, raising an eyebrow at what he sees as a non-sequiter.

"Well that would mean you were only 4 years old at the time, and from what I'm seeing, you were being very brave considering the situation. So don't take that tone when talking about yourself, do you understand me, young man?" Pepper turns her signature glare at the boy to emphasize her stance on the matter.

With both brows shooting up and a trace of fear gleaming in his eyes, Gohan stammers out, "Uh yes, Ma'am...sorry, Ma'am." 

"Good." Pepper replies.

Getting back on track, Gohan continues. "I was stuck in there for what felt like hours, when I finally heard-"

"Raditz! Give me back my son!" Little Gohan hears his father shout.

"Daddy! Daddy, I'm in here." The little boy yells, trying to alert his father to his location, then hears. "Well, Kakarot, you've found me, and I see you brought the green man as well. I take it you haven't killed 100 earthlings yet?"

"'The Green Man'?" Tony wonders aloud.

"He's talking about Piccolo, the guy my dad defeated during the final match of the tournament where he became world champion." Gohan answers. 

"You said he was dangerous at the time right? Why would he come with your dad to help save you?" Happy asks.

"At the time, Piccolo wanted to get revenge on my dad for defeating him at the tournament, defeating and killing his father before Piccolo was born, and for stopping both of their attempts at taking over the Earth. But Piccolo could sense how much more powerful Raditz was than himself and realized the only chance of defeating him was to team up with my dad."

"The enemy of my enemy is my ally huh?" Tony thinks aloud.

"Yeah." Gohan replies, then returns to the memory. "I couldn't hear much until-"

"You're a disgrace to the Saiyan race, Kakarot!! Now prepare to DIE!!!" Raditz screams.

Gohan winces and jumps every time he a clash or explosion shakes the pod, then cries aloud when his father begins screaming in agony.

"AHHHHHH! UHH! AGHGHH!"

"Oh, Kakarot, this world has made you go soft. Never show mercy to an enemy. Hahaha!" Radditz taunts his younger brother.

"I hate to ask, but what did the dirty shi-schmuck mean by that?" Tony asks, managing the save after seeing Pepper glare at him.

Not noticing the almost swear word, Gohan tells him, "When Piccolo told me about the fight, he said my dad managed to grab Raditz's tail, which if you don't train it, is a Saiyan weak spot that drains the Saiyan of all their strength and practically immobilizes them. But Raditz was able to convince my dad to let go by promising he would leave Earth. Falling for it, my dad complied and was promptly sucker punched for his kindness."

"No offense to your dad, Gohan, but how could he be so naive?" Tony asks, managing to say naive instead of stupid.

"My dad always believed that everyone deserves a second chance to do the right thing, and while sometimes that belief did get him into trouble, it also resulted in several former bad guys to come to our side and become allies and eventually friends, including Piccolo." Gohan explains with a fond smile.

"Well I guess I can't fault that." Tony concedes, feeling a bit guilty now.

Sensing this, Gohan adds, "Don't worry, Tony, while it worked out in a few cases, it failed twice as many. It frustrated all of us one time or another." then gives him a light smile, hoping he's showing he's not offended by Tony's apprehension of his father's policy.

Tony returns the gesture, letting Gohan know he heard the boy.

Getting back to the memory, Gohan continues his explanation. "Hearing my dad in such pain, it triggered something in me, and I-" He leaves open ended as the memory gets to the first time he snapped. 

Tony, Pepper, and Happy watch in awe as little Gohan's expression instantly shifts from terrified to enraged.

The toddler jumps up, tearing through the roof of Raditz's ship like it was made of paper.

It explodes behind him while he flips into a standing position at the edge of the crater.

"Leave my dad ALOOOOONE!!!" Little Gohan demands, then with a large aura bursting out from within him, he lets off a near deafening scream, rockets directly toward his evil uncle, and collides headfirst into the man's chest; cracking his armor in multiple places and knocking him off his feet.

"Holy shi-cow, Kid! You knocked that son of a bit-scuit eater right on his as-butt." Tony mutters out, astonished of hologram Gohan's actions, but aware enough to watch his mouth around the boy or be faced with Pepper's wrath. 

Pepper, while shocked by what she's seeing, turns to Tony and gives him a glare that he knows means. 'You will meet your end at my hands if you aren't careful.' before asking, "Gohan, how did you do that?"

Meanwhile, Happy is standing frozen in silence; his jaw practically touching the floor.

Gohan stares at Tony as if he grew a second head from his odd phrasing tells Pepper, "This is the first of a few occasions that when pushed to my mental limit, I snap and channel an overwhelming power from within myself and brutally attack whoever is responsible for putting me into that state."

They all turn back to the memory only to see-"D-Daddy? Daddy!" Gohan exclaims, seeing Goku and seemingly just realizing he's out of his spherical prison.

"Go...G-Gohan...run away...hurry." Goku begs his son before the boy turns around and finds Radditz right in front of them.

"That was some attack, you actually damaged my armor." Raditz says calmly despite the fact he was radiating anger.

The next second, the whole scene turns black.

"That's when Raditz knocked me out. I woke up a while after the battle was over."

The surrounding hologram comes back on, surrounding everyone with water.

Hologram Gohan jumps out of a pond he was for some reason facedown in, revealing a wide expanse of land, along with a new face Tony, Pepper, and Happy figure to be Piccolo.

-Gohan's Memory: Piccolo's training grounds-

"Wha-where am I? Where's my dad?" Hologram Gohan asks, eyes darting around his new surroundings until he spots Piccolo standing before him.

"AHHHHHH! Daddy, help! That mean Piccolo man's got me! Daddy, where are you?!" the boy screams, running in circles while still in the pond.

"That's enough you sniveling brat! Now stop crying!" Piccolo shouts at the frightened child. 

Little Gohan freezes in his tracks and hesitantly asks Piccolo, "What's going on? What happened to my dad?"

Piccolo doesn't sugarcoat the answer in the slightest. "Thanks to the injury you gave him, your father and I managed to take out the Saiyan. But in the process, Goku died as well."

"Jesus! That's how you break that to a toddler?!" Tony yells, taken aback by how casually Piccolo tells little Gohan about his father's death.

"Oh my God." Pepper says, heartbroken for the boy.

"Oh, Kid." is all Happy can manage to say.

They all look at Gohan and are surprised at the complete lack of sadness in his expression. 

Noticing their stares and not wanting to appear as if this doesn't bother him, Gohan tells them, "Keep watching, trust me, you'll understand."

"Wh-WHAT?!" Little Gohan shouts, tears about to start pouring again. 

"NO! No more tears or I swear I'll give you something to cry about!" Piccolo shouts back at the distraught boy.

With his current approach failing, Piccolo calms himself and asks, "I'm sure your father has told you about the Dragon Balls, right?"

Gohan nods. "Ye-yes."

"Then you know that once your father's friends gather them all together, they will bring him back to life. So forget about that for now, we have a bigger problem on the horizon."

"Hold on, WHAT?! Bring him back to LIFE?! Gohan, context please?" Tony freaks out, trying to rationalize what he just heard.

"You all remember that little, orange, glass ball with the four red stars on it that was on the top of my younger self's hat right?" Gohan asks.

When the other occupants of the room nod in confirmation, Gohan explains, "That was a 'Dragon Ball', a special object created by a race of aliens called the Namekians, which is what Piccolo is actually."

Gohan shakes his head. "Sorry, getting off track. They are made in sets of seven, each with a different number of stars on them from 1 to 7. When all are gathered together, and the special phrase is said, the Eternal Dragon –Earth's version is also known as Shenron– will appear and grant you anywhere from 1 to 3 wishes depending on the limits of the dragon. Bringing back the dead is one of the things it can grant, but after all wishes are granted, the dragon vanishes and the Dragon Balls shoot into the sky, scatter across the planet they're on, and turn to stone, unable to be used again for a full year of that planet's calendar."

Tony, Pepper, and Happy all stand in silence, processing that bombshell for a few minutes.

Tony is the first to find his voice. "Ok, bringing back the dead, that is a lot to absorb. I'd ask if you were just messing with us, but I disabled the part of B.A.R.F that alters the memories of the user, so unless you're completely insane –which I wouldn't have ruled out if I hadn't seen you and your brother fall into my yard from a portal with my own eyes– you must be telling the truth."

"I told you that you wouldn't believe me." Gohan reminds him with an amused expression.

"Yeah, well I wasn't expecting something of this magnitude of insanity to actually be possible." Tony defends.

"Well sit back and watch guys, it's about to get even crazier." Gohan playfully warns as the memory continues.

"What bigger problem do you mean, Mr. Piccolo? " Little Gohan asks.

"While you were unconscious, before the Saiyan died and after I let him know Goku wouldn't be dead for long, he revealed that the device on his face was transmitting everything that occurred to his Saiyan comrades, who he said we're several times stronger than himself, and will come here to Earth in one year Earth's time, so we need to prepare for their arrival with intense training." Piccolo explains.

"Bu-but why do I need to train if you and Daddy are there to fight these guys? Why do you need my help?" Gohan asks.

"Your father and I barley managed to defeat the man who took you today, and we were only able to accomplish that because of the power within you that you momentarily awakened." Piccolo declares to the boy. "With so little time to prepare for this oncoming threat, we are going to need every man available and that includes you."

"What?! But I'm just a kid, I can't fight with grownups!" Little Gohan cries.

"I don't want to hear it!" Piccolo shouts. "You have an immense reserve of power within you, and I will teach you to control it, but you need to realize that there is no other choice. If you want your friends and family to survive this invasion, you're going to have to be there on the front lines. Do you understand?"

"But...I don't want to be a fighter, I want to be a scholar." Gohan stutters out.

"When this is over you can do what you wish with your life, but if you want there to even be a future, you're going to have to be prepared for the coming battle." Piccolo bluntly replies.

"What the Hell! Putting all that pressure on you. You were way too young for something like this!" Tony protests, outraged for Gohan's sake.

Though the circumstances couldn't have been more different, it still reminds him of the heavy burdens he had to bear at that age for his own family.

"I wasn't exactly ready for that kind of responsibility, but there wasn't any other choice at the time." Gohan explains as the memory continues.

"O-ok, I understand, Mr. Piccolo." Little Gohan says. He tugs his over shirt off and asks, "Where...are we going to start?"

"Not we, You." Piccolo maliciously smirks. "Right now you're far too soft for me to work with, so while I train alone, you are going to be staying here to strengthen yourself. If you can survive out here on your own for 6 months, then your real training will begin."

Pepper gasps. "He can't be serious!"

"Oh he was." Gohan chuckles.

Tony, Pepper, and Happy watch in shock as Piccolo flies off and leaves the young Gohan alone in the wilderness.

"It was terrifying and difficult, but over time I managed to adapt. Then when Piccolo returned, the real training began." Gohan explains while memories of his days alone in the wild and his training with Piccolo flash before the others.

‐Gohan's Memory: The Final Days of Piccolo's training‐

"Hey, Piccolo? Is it true that you fought my dad at the last World Martial Arts Tournament?" Little Gohan asks, battered and wearing an outfit resembling his father's gi.

"Yes, and we will battle again after we get rid of these Saiyans, and I will take him down once and for all." Piccolo grumbles while staring at their campfire.

"Aww come on, there isn't any reason for you two to fight each other anymore. You're pretty much part of the family now, you're like my big green uncle." Little Gohan replies with a small smile.

"That's enough out of you! Now get to sleep, tomorrow's training is going to be the toughest yet!" Piccolo shouts, taken aback by Gohan's friendliness towards him.

"Uhhh! Yes Sir!" Gohan squeaks, quickly laying down and closing his eyes.

"Looks like you got the Big, Green Meanie wrapped around your little finger, huh, Buddy?" Tony teases Gohan, he knows embarrassed deflection when he sees it.

"Yeah, well, after sometime training together, I saw the good in Piccolo, and I wanted him to see it too." Gohan explains, a blush blooming across his cheeks.

His abashed demeanor quickly becomes serious again. "Then the day came when the Saiyans arrived."

-Gohan's Memory: Day of the Saiyans' Arrival-

Sensing a colossal power landing on the planet, Piccolo growls. "It must be them. They're early."

Little Gohan –now sporting an outfit matching Piccolo's– asks, "They're so strong, Mr. Piccolo. Will we be able to hold them off until my dad gets back?"

As he removes his turban and cape, Piccolo says, "Don't worry, Gohan, your preparation has been excellent, you just need to believe in yourself."

Filled with determination, Gohan nods. "Right."

They fly off to the area where everyone would convene.

Tony and the others watch as the Saiyans arrive, then Krillin and 3 unknowns join the party to back up Piccolo and Gohan.

"I recognize Krillin, but who are the two big guys and the little one who doesn't look much older than little you?" Tony asks.

"The one with the long black hair is Yamcha, he trained with my dad and Krillin under Master Roshi. The one with 3 eyes is Tien, he and the little guy next to him were from a rival martial arts school, but became friends with my dad's group. And the little guy is Chiaoutzu, he may look like a kid, but he's looked like that for nearly 20 years now, seemingly never aging."

"Are the latter 2 different types of aliens or something?" Tony wonders aloud.

Gohan shrugs. "Honestly, none of us were ever entirely sure about that, if they are they've never said anything."

The memory plays on with the big Saiyan –identified as 'Nappa'– pulling out a small vial and placing 6 seeds from it into the ground.

He pours a green liquid on them, and in moments, 6 green creatures a little bigger than memory Gohan sprout out of the ground.

"JESUS FUC-FREAKIN!!" Tony tries to articulate, but gets smacked on the back of the head by Pepper.

"I think Tony is trying to ask what those things are." Pepper translates for Gohan.

"Yeah, that." Tony confirms while rubbing the spot Pepper laid out the law on.

"Those monsters are called Saibaman. They're plant like creatures the 'Planet Traders' used on worlds they didn't believe were worth their foot soldiers time, to slaughter the population for them." Gohan explains.

"So they were saying you guys weren't worth their time to fight themselves." Happy huffs.

Gohan nods. "That, and they were also just killing time with what they saw as a game while waiting for my dad to show up, thinking that since he was the only full-blooded Saiyan, he would be the only one able to challenge them in any way." 

"Arrogant turds." Tony tests, checking if that warrants Pepper's wrath. He's is relieved when she doesn't react to it.

"Yeah, another major weak point of Saiyans is their ego and pride." Gohan explains.

The memory gets to the point where the heroes agree to play the Saiyans' game; also hoping to draw this out until Goku arrived.

Krillin steps forward, volunteering to go first, but gets stopped by Yamcha.

"Yamcha, what's up?" Krillin asks his friend.

"Krillin, I'm going to go first, ok? You all just sit back and enjoy the show." Yamcha answers confidently.

"Yamcha, I'll be fine, really." Krillin replies.

"Don't worry, man, it'll be better if I go first, so if the worst should happen you can all bring me back afterwards. But you and Chiaoutzu have both already been brought back to life before, so if something happens to either of you now we won't be able to get you back." Yamcha explains, hoping Krillin will step down.

"What does he mean by that, Gohan?" Tony asks.

"The Dragon Balls are extremely powerful, but they also have some limits. One of them being that if you are brought back to life with them once before, they aren't able to bring you back a second time." Gohan solemnly informs them before drifting into another tangent. "Well, that's the rule for Earth's Dragon Balls anyway. Namek's, –while unable to bring back multiple people at once like Earth's can if you can group their cause of death together– can bring someone back multiple times as long as they don't die a natural death. So Krillin and Chiaoutzu who were killed by Piccolo's father and his minions and brought back to life with Earth's Dragon Balls years before, can't be brought back by them again."

"Huh, so even something like magic, wish granting balls have limitations. Another weird sentence I never thought would come out of my mouth, but I'm starting to get the feeling that's going to happen a lot from now on." Tony jokes.

"Yeah, most likely." Gohan confirms with an amused smirk.

The memory continues to play out; everyone watches Yamcha take on a Saibaman and for the most part completely controlling the battle.

Though after he overwhelms it in a beam struggle, Tony, Pepper, and Happy are shocked to see the smaller Saiyan identified as 'Vegeta' kill the monster with a flick of a finger.

"Vegeta, why?! He hadn't lost yet!" Nappa asks.

"He wasn't going all out. I believe I made my instructions to them not to hold back very clear." Vegeta coldly states.

"But he was...all these Saibaman have a power level of 1,200, the same as-" Nappa tries to explain, but Vegeta cuts him off. "The same as who, Nappa?"

"As...as Raditz." Nappa answers.

"Seriously?! They could grow creatures as strong as your twisted uncle?!" Tony asks.

"Yeah. It turned out Raditz was on the bottom rung of the power totem-pole in their organization."

'Damn, how powerful are the things this kid survived? How powerful is the kid himself to even be alive right now?' Tony wonders.

The projection plays out with Yamcha fighting and seemingly defeating a second Saibaman, but as he turns his back to the creature, it springs back to life and wraps its arms and legs around him.

Yamcha struggles to free himself, but the monster self-destructs, consuming the man in an explosion.

When the smoke and dust clear, he's facedown on the ground, dead; bits and pieces of the Saibaman surrounding his body.

"Oh God!" Pepper shouts.

"Jesus." Tony manages to get out.

Happy isn't able to say anything.

Gohan is silent and just continues the play back.

"YAMCHA!!!" Krillin screams while dashing toward his fallen friend.

"He's...he's dead!" He tells the group in a broken voice.

"Well, I guess we'll call that one a tie." Vegeta says, clearly amused.

"How Dare You?!" Krillin shouts in rage.

"Oh quit your sniveling, you runt! You're all going to be dead soon enough!" Nappa declares.

"Have some patience, Nappa." Vegeta orders. "Give them time to clear this trash off the battlefield."

"THAT PIECE OF-"

"MOTHER FU-" Tony and Happy are about to shout, but snap their mouths shut when Pepper clears her throat.

Her expression is filled with rage that has nothing to do with them nearly swearing in front of the kid.

Gohan stays silent while the memory goes on.

Krillin shoots a powerful Ki blast in retaliation to Vegeta's words, hitting both Saiyans and killing 3 of the 4 remaining Saibaman.

But when the smoke clears, Nappa and Vegeta are completely unscathed, and the final Saibaman charges at Gohan.

The boy freezes in shock, but before he can be harmed, Piccolo stops the creature in its tracks, delivers a brutal punch to its gut, then tosses it into the air and reduces it to ashes with a Ki blast from his mouth.

"Alright! Short Stack and Big Green for the win! taking out those mutant lettuce head freaks!" Tony cheers. "I wonder if that's why the green fella's voice is so deep and raspy?"

Smiling at Tony's enthusiasm Gohan tells him, "Hopefully, you'll get to meet Piccolo and ask him that. I'd love to see how he'd respond."

Everyone has a quick laugh at that thought, but the mood drops again and Tony asks, "The real fight hasn't even started yet, has it?" 

"No...not even close." Gohan answers in a hollow tone. 

The projection continues with the battle, showing Nappa breeze through all of Gohan's group.

Chiaoutzu self-destructing like the Saibaman in hopes of taking Nappa with him, but when the dust cleared, the Saiyan was still alive, barely damaged at all.

To the brute literally punching Tien's whole right hand off of his arm. Tien then fought against Nappa alone, despite the pain.

After Chiaoutzu's death, he channelled the entirety of his remaining life force into a single blast.

He fired it at the Saiyan, but even with a direct hit, it also ended up dealing very little damage and causing the 3 eyed man to die from depleting all of his energy.

Piccolo and Krillin take Nappa on next, and while still at an overwhelming disadvantage, they hold out much better than the others had.

They even manage to catch him off guard with a series of blows that end with them knocking him towards Gohan so the boy can attack him and deal some serious damage before the Saiyan can recover, but Gohan is so frightened of the giant after everything he'd just watched him do to the others that he's unable to act.

They luck out when Vegeta decides to give the 3 survivors a 3 hour reprieve to see if Goku will actually show up.

When he doesn't, Krillin and Piccolo come up with the plan to grab Nappa's tail to weaken him so Gohan can finish him off with a full power attack, and though the 5 year old finds the courage to follow through this time, the plan fails due to Nappa having already trained his tail out of that weakness.

Nappa promply knocks Piccolo out with an elbow blow to the head then nails Krillin with a Ki blast.

Krillin survives the attack, but he's no longer able to move, leaving Gohan the last one standing against the Saiyans

"Well, little man, looks like you're all that's left. Let's see what a half-Saiyan can do." Nappa taunts Gohan, but before the kid can respond, he gets brutally kicked into a nearby boulder.

"No...Gohan." Krillin cries, frustrated he's unable to help the boy.

Nappa is about to finish Gohan off, but gets blasted in the back by a reawakened Piccolo.

"You damn Namekian toad! You shot me in the back!" Nappa shouts. 

"Hah...sorry, I was aiming for your face, but I guess I got them mixed up." Piccolo retorts with a smirk.

Furious at Piccolo's quip, Nappa charges him, completely forgetting about Gohan, who instantly makes him regret it by kicking the giant Saiyan into a cliff side.

Though this move only enrages Nappa more.

He begins charging an enormous blast and fires it at Gohan.

The boy is so stunned by Nappa's quick recovery, he isn't able to get out of the way.

He's saved at the last second by Piccolo when he gets in front of the boy and takes the blast in his place. 

"Pi-Piccolo?" Gohan hesitantly calls, to see if he was ok, then watches in horror as his teacher falls face down onto the ground.

The young boy runs to the Namekian's side and screams, "Piccolo, I'm so sorry! DON'T DIE!! PLEASE!!"

"It's ok, Gohan. You...you need to get out of here...hurry." Piccolo tells Gohan, barely holding on.

"But Piccolo, you and Krillin are hurt, I can't just leave you. Don't worry, I'll hold them off until my dad gets here, you'll be fine." Gohan tries to reassure his friend, but the tears building up in his eyes say he knows better.

"I'm not going to make it, Gohan, but it's ok...I'm glad I was able to help you in the end...even though I was so tough on you...you never complained or gave up...and you treated me...with kindness...and for that I thank you...goodbye, my friend." Piccolo manages to say before his eyes close and he passes on.

"No...'hic'...Piccolo...NOOOOOOO! AGHHHHHHUGHHAHHHH!" Gohan wails, heartbroken and enraged at his friend's death.

He glares at Nappa, quickly pools all his power into a move Piccolo taught him and fires it at the Saiyan in retaliation. "MASENKO-HAA!"

Gohan launches the beam, only for it to be smacked off without much effort into another direction by the Saiyan. 

"Wow, kid, not bad. You made my hand go numb." Nappa taunts.

"'Huff'...'huff'...I'm so sorry, Piccolo. I failed you...I couldn't hold him off, and now I don't even have the strength to run away like you wanted me to." Gohan apologizes to his friend's body as he falls to his knees, spent of all his strength.

Pepper has tears pouring down her face, Happy keeps wiping his eyes and sniffling, and Tony's digging his fingers into his palms so hard, he's drawing blood.

None of them are able to say anything as they watch Nappa taunt Gohan while he casually strolls over to him.

He's about to kill the boy by actually stomping him to death with one foot, which was bigger than the child's entire body.

Their stomachs twist into knots as little Gohan close his eyes in resignation.

All 3 of them close their eyes when Nappa goes for the stomp.

After a few moments of silence Gohan tells them, "I didn't die. That's not how the fight ended."

With that minor reassurance, Tony, Pepper, and Happy all slowly open their eyes and see memory Gohan sitting on the Nimbus with Goku standing next to him.

"NOW HE SHOWS UP?!" Tony shouts, angry that it took Goku so long to arrive, to the point where he almost saved no one at all.

"Yeah, apparently King Kai –his teacher in the Other World– miscalculated when to send Dad off after the training was done, so it took him much longer to arrive, but he did manage to save Krillin and me." Gohan half-heartedly answers.

They all continue to watch the memory in silence, but when seeing Goku hand Gohan and Krillin what looked like plain beans and them springing back up to their feet as if they were never injured after eating them, Tony can't help but ask, "What did he just give you and Krillin?"

"Those are Senzu Beans, eating one will heal any and all injuries, restore stamina, and keep the consumer's stomach full for 10 days without needing to eat at all in that time."

"Are there any other magic things we should know about?" Tony questions.

"With the Nimbus, Dragon Balls, and Senzu Beans-" Gohan counts off on his hand. "-I think that covers the majority of the magic stuff."

"Good, along with this horror show you lived through, I think I've had my fill of magic." Tony jokes, trying to raise the other's and his own spirits.

"Do you guys need a break? I'd understand, I mean this is some pretty tough stuff to watch." Gohan asks, worrying he'd overwhelmed everyone 

Tony glances over at his friends, watches Pepper wiping tears off her face and Happy placing a supportive hand on her shoulder while holding back his poorly concealed nausea.

It is definitely time for a break. "Yeah that sounds good, if you don't mind stoping here for now and starting back up after breakfast tomorrow? Gohan, Pepper, Happy, you all ok with that plan?" 

Gohan nods. "That's fine with me."

"Yeah, I think I'm at my limit, Boss." Happy replies. 

"That sounds good. We'll process what we've seen so far then get back to it tomorrow." Pepper responds after a few moments in her 'P.A' mode voice, trying to stay calm.

"Ok, let's all head back upstairs and get some sleep." Tony adds while Gohan turns the B.A.R.F glasses off.

As they make the trek upstairs, Pepper lets Gohan know, "We have a few spare rooms, you can pick whichever one you like. Also, there are some pajamas we picked up for you and Goten, if you want to get him and yourself changed again."

"Thank you, Pepper, that sounds good." Gohan replies before asking, "How did you get my and Goten's sizes anyway?"

"Oh, JARVIS got them while he was scanning you and your brother for injuries, and he gave them to Pepper when she went out to get Happy and the supplies we'd need." Tony answers for Pepper.

"Wow, that's really cool." Gohan remarks. 

"Oh, you flatter me, Young Sir Gohan." JARVIS replies to Gohan's comment.

After getting upstairs, Tony shows Gohan the multiple guest rooms, and even though the kid could do it himself, he helps him get Goten's crib in the room Gohan picked.

Tony leaves Gohan to change Goten and himself for bed, says goodbye to Happy who decides to head home, then trades goodnights with Pepper before she heads into the room she always uses when she stays over.

Feeling more drained than after his longest engineering binges, Tony heads to his own room and throws himself onto his bed facedown.

"This must be serious if you are actually tired enough to retire to your bedroom, Sir." JARVIS comments to his creator. 

"This is serious, JARVIS. Those boys come from another reality, which is, from what we saw so far, a special kind of Hell. Even if I figure out how to open another portal to get them back home, which I'm not too sure I can, I don't really think we should."

Worrying about what he should do, Tony asks his A.I, "JARVIS, you recorded all the memory projections Gohan's shown us so far. right?"

"Yes, Sir, I was also able to record the memories Young Sir Gohan had in mind that the B.A.R.F captured but he hadn't gotten to yet." JARVIS answers.

"Good, we can shorten the process of reviewing these nightmarish flashbacks, hopefully take some of the stress off the poor kid, and we'll have all that footage ready to show to anyone else who will need to know the situation." Tony rattles off.

"Who else would need to know, Sir?" JARVIS asks.

"Well definitely Rhodey, cuz I'm not going to even attempt hiding this from him, though he'll probably threaten to unleash his 'Evil Honeybear Stare' if I don't do right by these kids in whatever way I can. Maybe other super brainacs I recruit to help figure out dimensional travel to alternate realities, since that's a thing now, and possibly –though I'd rather avoid it– Obi. I'm worried he would just want to try and get Gohan to divulge the secrets to this 'Ki' stuff he was talking about, and that could be a major threat in the wrong hands, so best not pull the pin on that grenade."

"I agree with those assessments, Sir." JARVIS responds.

"Yeah, well those are things to deal with later. For now I just hope we can all get a decent night's sleep before this resumes." Tony says, though just as he's about to drift off, he hears Goten begin crying from down the hall.

"It appears you just jinxed yourself, Sir." JARVIS states.

Tony groans at his friend then covers his head with a pillow in the hopes of drowning out the baby enough to fall asleep.