Bojack Unbound
Chapter 21
The two weeks Tony gave himself came and went, and like he promised, he got ahead on enough projects to be able to take the time Gohan requested off.
Pepper smoothed it out with the board, and got some time off herself.
The board members all voiced their displeasure about this impromptu vacation, but with Obadiah gone, they wouldn't dare go against Tony and Pepper now, not with Tony pumping out one successful product after another.
And while Tony and Pepper were taking care of that business, Gohan began his Ki instruction with Bruce.
Much like Tony had when he started, Bruce was having a tough time with accessing his internal energy. Though he was making some progress on his connection building with Hulk.
Once all SI business was handled, Tony and Pepper began planning where to go for this training vacation.
Considering what Gohan wanted to work on, they decided to head to a private island Tony owned that he frequented in his younger years when he needed to get away from prying eyes.
After they decided on the location, they quickly packed their bags, had JARVIS make sure their place on the island was fully stocked with the necessities, then got a jet fueled and ready for take off.
As the time to head out got closer, Bruce admitted he was hesitant to go with them, not wanting to intrude on a family trip. Though once Tony brought out his secret weapon –getting Goten to say. "Pwea Bwu?"– The man gave in and agreed to come.
Tony tried the same trick with Betty, but with her nerves of steel, she resisted Goten's cuteness and decided to head home to try to work things out with her father, and also to find out if he was hiding any more S-Suppressor. (Just because she wanted to salvage their relationship didn't mean she trusted him.)
Before she left, she gave Pepper the memory card with all the pictures she took while they were in New York, much to Pepper's delight and Tony's faux annoyance.
After saying their goodbyes with the one good Ross, they were ready to go. Tony called Happy over to drive them to the jet, and once they got there, Tony convinced Happy to come along as well.
Though he seemed to have been expecting that, exiting the vehicle with a packed bag of his own.
The flight went by without issuse, and once everyone was settled, Gohan put Tony and Bruce through their paces.
They're a week into Gohan's training regiment. Having just finished their meditation, they're now getting ready to spar.
The 3 of them are currently standing on the large beach near the villa they were staying at.
Tony and Bruce are each a few yards away from Gohan with the boy in between them.
"Are you ready?" Gohan asks both men.
Tony gives a thumbs-up. "I'm good on this end, how about you, Brucie-bear?"
Bruce, still getting used to the gi Gohan made him; a purple overshirt and pants with green wristbands and belt, hesitantly waves an arm. "As ready as I'll ever be."
Gohan powers up a bit and shouts, "Start!"
Tony powers up, a white aura surrounding him, while Bruce lets Hulk out, his gi stretching to accommodate his body's rapid growth.
Hulk roars, then he and Tony charge Gohan at the same time, each pulling back an arm to throw a punch.
Gohan blocks their fists with his forearms and the force of the attacks kick up a cloud of sand around them.
Tony closes his eyes to keep the sand out, but the drop in his guard gives Gohan the chance to sweep both his and Hulk's legs out from under them.
Gohan quickly follows with an elbow to Hulk's gut, and a punch to Tony's.
The shots send the man and behemoth flying toward oppisite ends of the beach. While Hulk crashes into the ground, Tony manages to stop himself, powers up more, then charges Gohan again.
Hulk recovers a bit slower than Tony did. By the time he's back on his feet and running toward Gohan again, Tony's swinging a kick at the boy.
Gohan dodges by dropping to the ground on his back, bracing himself on his arms, then aims a kick at Tony's gut, shooting him up into the air.
Hulk closes the distance between himself and Gohan in a single jump, clasping his hands together to slam down on him from above.
Gohan flashsteps out of the way, and as Hulk lands, Gohan forms a Ki sphere in his hand and fires it at Hulk's back.
The blast connects and sends Hulk flying a down the beach few yards before it explodes.
The moment it does, Gohan senses a wave of Tony's Ki coming at him from above. He looks up and sees a barrage of Ki blasts hurtling toward him.
Gohan smirks as he deflects the blasts.
As the last of the blasts are redirected, Gohan's shocked to sense Tony above him one second, then right beside him the next.
The surprise that Tony was able to flashstep delays Gohan's reaction time enough for Tony to tag him with a tap on the shoulder.
"Gotcha, Kiddo." Tony says, trying to catch his breath while sporting a bright, cocky smile.
Gohan chuckles. "You did. That flashstep caught me completely off guard. When did you get that one down?"
Before Tony can answer, Hulk's roar steals his and Gohan's attention. The giant jumps at them, yelling, "HULK SMASH!"
Gohan grabs Tony by the arm and flashsteps out of Hulk's way.
As Hulk crashes into the ground again, Tony laughs. "I've been practicing as much as I could. Best way to avoid getting smashed if Hulk gets a little too into a fight."
"Good thinking." Gohan tells Tony before asking, "Do you want to tap out while I go another round with Hulk?"
Tony lets out another breath and moves to sit down. "Yeah. First time I've used that much Ki, wore myself out. I'm gonna have to work on moderating my Ki expense."
Gohan nods, but tells him, "Don't worry too much about it, you're making amazing progress." Letting Tony know he's proud.
Tony smirks. "Thanks, Squirt. I'm good here, go give our jolly, green giant a good workout."
Gohan laughs and takes off to do just that.
Tony just sits back and watches them go at it for about 10 minutes, when he feels a small hand tapping on his back. "Dada!"
Tony turns and finds Goten staring up at him, with a big smile and wearing a little tank top and swim trunks.
"Hey, Monkey. What are you up to?"
Goten plops down next to Tony and starts grabbing fistfuls of sand and watching it slip through his fingers.
Goten giggles and continues pawing at the sand.
Tony chuckles and ruffles Goten's hair, then notices Pepper and Happy approaching, each with their own swimwear on.
"You guys get bored of scrapbooking?" Tony teases, knowing Pepper had Happy help her with printing out all the pictures Betty took in New York, and sorting them out in albums.
Happy aims a glare at his boss, while Pepper laughs and lays out a towel to sit on.
Before either of them can give Tony a response, an explosion catches their attention.
Everyone turns to watch Gohan wearing Hulk down.
Goten points at the sparring session. "Bubba an Huk pwayin!"
Tony laughs. "I guess you can call it that, Monkey."
Pepper tells Tony, "How about you get them to take a break? You guys have been working pretty hard lately. We were thinking about teaching Goten how to make sandcastles, I figured you and Gohan would want in on that. And maybe one of you can convince Bruce to join too."
Tony smirks, stands, and brushes the sand off his gi. "Sure, be back in a flash."
Pepper and Happy both gasp as Tony is next to them one second, then over near Gohan and Hulk the next.
Gohan notices Tony's approach, and stops Hulk's attack. "Timeout, Hulk."
Hulk growls at the interruption, but stops when Tony appears next to them.
"Hey, fellas, Pep wants to know if you would like to take a break to do some sandcastle building with Goten."
Gohan smiles and nods. "That sounds fun, ready for a break, Hulk?"
Hulk shakes his head. "More!"
Gohan raises his hands in an appeasing gesture. "I promise we'll go again later, ok?"
Hulk grunts, but before he can protest again, Tony flashsteps back over to the others, then back to Gohan and Hulk with Goten in his arms. "Ok, Monkey, work your magic."
Goten giggles, then looks up at Hulk. "Pwea Huk?"
Hulk looks Goten in the eyes, huffs in resignation, then starts reverting back to Bruce.
When the transformation ends, Bruce groans and rubs his head. "Ugh, are we done for now?"
Tony nods. "Yep, workout time over. Now it's sandcastle time."
Bruce raises an eyebrow, then shrugs. "Ok."
"Excellent, let's go. We need to get changed." Tony exclaims, hands Goten to Gohan, then grabs Bruce by the arm and flashsteps to the house.
Gohan chuckles at Tony's antics. "That's one way to get the hang of it I guess."
Taking a page from Tony's book, Gohan flashsteps over to Pepper and Happy, leaves Goten with them, then goes to follow Tony and Bruce to get changed as well, content to enjoy the rest of his day with his family.
-Secret Arctic SHIELD Prison-
Coulson walks through the bleak hallway past several guards and stops at the cell holding this facility's one prisoner.
Emil Blonsky, aka Abomination was rather subdued lately. He was no longer rampaging about, seemingly accepting that he can't break out of here.
The beast notices Coulson staring at him and roars at the man.
"Keep it down, Frankenstein!" a familiar voice shouts at the creature from beside Coulson.
Not reacting at all to the sudden appearance of a presence beside him, Coulson turns his head and greets the man. "Hello, Barton, what brings you here?"
Barton smirks and says, "Same as you I'm guessing. Heard we had Hulk's inbred cousin, wanted to see for myself."
Coulson lightly smiles back. "Well as you can see, the rumors are true."
Barton chuckles, but before he can crack another joke, an alarm starts blaring and an agent rushes to their side. "Agent Coulson! Agent Barton! There are 5 intruders approaching the facility!"
Coulson loses his smile, but Barton just raises an eyebrow, seemingly intrigued.
They both follow the man outside as other agents are also gathering to see the 5 figures of varying heights approaching.
Coulson slips a hand into his pocket, grabs his phone, and pulls it out, making sure it's hidden behind his back.
Barton pulls out a small, black, staff-like object from behind his back, and it folds out into a bow. He grabs an arrow from the quill strapped to his back and nocks it while other agents aim their guns at the group.
When the figures get close enough to clearly make them out, the agents shudder at the sight of 5 bluish-green skinned people, 4 male, 1 female, with orange hair, and that give Coulson a certain weariness that he's only felt once before, when he saw the monsters Gohan faced off against in the boy's memory recordings.
Coulson pushes a button on his phone that Tony insisted on installing, telling him, "If something major comes up that you need our help with, Agent, just push this, and it'll alert JARVIS."
After pushing the button, Coulson calls out to the what he assumed were aliens. "This is a restricted area. Do you folks need something?"
The biggest one with a bandana and blue jacket chuckles and gestures to the small one in a turban and red jacket. "Bujin."
The small one, 'Bujin', takes a few steps forward and explains, "My master Bojack, and us, his loyal servants have come to collect the creature you call 'Abomination'. If you don't resist, your lives may be spared."
The biggest one, 'Bojack', the other two men, and the woman all laugh at the last part of that statement.
Before Coulson can respond, Barton retorts. "Sorry to break it to you, but the closest you guys are gonna get to him is in neighboring cells!"
"Clint, don't-" Coulson tries to warn, but Barton fires the arrow before he can finish.
Bujin catches it between two fingers, shocking all of the agents except Coulson.
Even though Clint didn't expect the arrow to be caught, he smirks as the arrow explodes. "Gotcha."
Coulson grabs Clint by the shoulder and tells him, "Trust me, you didn't." Then commands all the other agents. "Get inside now!"
Unfortunately the agents are too distracted watching the smoke clear. Once it did, the 5 invaders are still in the same spots without a scratch.
Bojack laughs, then addresses his crew. "Bido, Kogu, Zangya, Bujin, go have your fun while I wait for our Saiyan 'savior' that little silver guy said is on this planet."
The 4 called bow to Bojack, then each turn to the crowd of agents, all raise one hand, and simultaneously fire Ki blasts at them.
Coulson drags Clint and another nearby agent he grabs with his free hand into the facility as quickly as he can as the blasts hit their targets.
-Stark Family Vacation Home-
After helping Goten build, in Tony's 'humble' opinion, an amazing sandcastle, Pepper snapped some pics of 'Castle Stark' and the benevolent King Monkey knighting him and Gohan with a pool noodle.
Once the tide came in and wrecked their masterpiece, everyone headed back into the house to relax a bit before having another sparring session.
Bruce was standing near the kitchen counter, sipping a cup of tea. Tony and Pepper were sat on a couch with Gohan playing with Goten on the floor in front of them while Happy was napping on a nearby recliner.
So calm and peaceful, until JARVIS suddenly informs them, "Sir, Young Sir Gohan, Agent Coulson has activated the emergency beacon Sir installed on his phone."
Happy startles awake when JARVIS speaks, and Tony, Pepper, Gohan, and Bruce tense up.
Tony practically jumps to his feet, Gohan quickly following. "Can you give us any info on what's going down, J?"
A screen appears in the middle of the room, showing footage of 5 strange intruders at whatever SHIELD facility Coulson was currently at. "I accessed the surveillance system of the facility Agent Coulson is currently located, showing these 5 peculiar individuals approaching it."
They all watch the footage, and are surprised when the small figure takes a few steps ahead of the rest and tells Coulson what they were there for.
Bruce wonders aloud, "Who are these people? Why do they want Blonsky? And how did they even know where he was?"
Before anyone can offer any speculation, an arrow launches at the group that explodes shortly after its caught by hand by the smallest intruder.
Tony is about to make a joke about the trigger happy Robin-hood, but stops as they see the smoke clear to reveal the group of invaders completely unharmed.
Gohan's expression turns grim and he starts extending his senses.
For a moment, he thinks he senses two very familiar presences, but before he can focus on it, they're overshadowed by the 5 dark ones that are presumably attacking the facility Coulson is at.
When Gohan assesses how strong they are, he can tell 4 are definitely tough, but are nothing compared to the last 1.
Gohan shudders and staggers back a step.
Goten looks up at his brother, stares for a few moments, gets a look of concentration that's very strange on a toddler, and then starts crying.
Tony places a hand on Gohan's shoulder to steady him while Pepper pulls Goten into her arms and tries to comfort the baby.
"Kiddo, what's up?" Tony asks.
"These guys are strong, really strong. That big one in charge is at least as strong as Cell, if not stronger."
Tony, Pepper, Happy, and Bruce all go pale at that thought.
"I need to go, now." Gohan declares, then heads straight for the door.
Tony rushes to get in front of him. "Woah, woah, bucko. Hold your horses, you're not going alone."
Gohan tries to step around Tony, but the man keeps cutting him off. "Dad, you need to leave this to me."
Tony puts his hands on Gohan's shoulders. "Sorry, Squirt, but that violates our agreement. I'm going with you."
Gohan shakes his head. "No way! These guys are too dangerous. And the more time we waste arguing, the more likely Mr. Coulson and all those other agents there will be dead before I can get to them."
Tony shakes his head. "Kiddo, you're not going without me, so you're right. The quicker we stop bickering and leave, the better chance we have to save Agent, and all the other SHIELD-lings there."
Gohan wants to protest, even briefly considers knocking Tony out so he can go. But he knows his dad would just come after him as soon as he woke up. The boy sighs in resignation and nods. "Ok, we need to go now."
Tony smirks. "Alright, time to suit up." Then looks over Gohan at Bruce. "You coming, Brucie-bear?"
Bruce resists the urge to roll his eyes at the nickname. "Yeah, what better first outing for the team than this?"
Tony raises a finger. "Alright, wait here a sec." He dashes to the lab, (because of course any good vacation home should have a lab) and comes back with some capsules in hand. "Really wish I could thank the Breifs family for these little gems, so convenient."
He activates the capsules, and out of them comes Tony's suit, and another suit that looks nearly identical to the gi Gohan wore during his rescue of Tony and during his first encounter with Hulk.
Gohan is somehow surprised and not surprised at the same time. "How did you find time to make this?"
Tony smirks. "Turns out I didn't need 2 weeks to finish all those projects, so I spent the rest of that time working on this."
Gohan chuckles. "I should of guessed as much."
Tony suits up, then gestures to Gohan's armor. "Ready for a test run?"
Gohan nods, but before putting on the armor, he quickly changes into the gi Tony based this suit on. He then approaches the armor, and once he gets close enough, it opens up, and he steps in it.
It closes around him, but instead of a helmet like Tony's coming up around his head, a new visor and mask come up instead.
Gohan looks to Tony. "No helmet?"
Tony raises his faceplate, revealing another smirk. "Well I know you grew fond of the visor mask combo, I just made sure it kept you from being gassed again." Then he points to Gohan's hair. "Plus, you would have the worst helmet hair."
That gets a little laugh out of Gohan before he gets serious again. "Bruce, do you think you can handle a fast flight as is, or do you want to swap with Hulk first?"
"It's probably better if I let him out now. He can definitely handle the speed you're gonna need to go." Bruce replies.
As Bruce goes to change into his gi again, Pepper and Happy walk over to Tony and Gohan with Goten sniffling in Pepper's arms. "I know I can't talk you 2 out of this, so just please be careful. Make sure you all come back."
Gohan retracts the visor and mask. "I promise we'll be back."
Tony closes the distance between himself and Pepper, and assures her, "Yeah, Pep, we've got this." Then plants a kiss on her cheek.
Next he crouches down to Goten's eye level.
The boy still has a few tears threatening to spill, so Tony tells him, "Turn that frown upside down, Monkey. We'll be back before you know it." Giving him a quick peck on the forehead for extra assurance.
Goten giggles a bit, and flashes a small smile.
Tony backs up, looks at Happy, and asks, "Would you like a goodbye kiss too, buddy?"
While Happy declines Tony's offer, Gohan gives Pepper and Goten a hug and again promises, "We will be back."
Pepper nods. "I know."
Bruce returns dressed in his gi. "Ready when you are."
Tony slides the face plate back down. "Let's move out."
Gohan's puts the visor mask back on and they all exit the house.
Pepper and Happy wish them luck, Bruce lets Hulk out and grabs Gohan's arm. Tony places a hand on Gohan's shoulder and magnetically locks it in place, then he and Gohan take off.
Gohan follows the sinister Ki signatures as fast as he can, and within minutes, He, Tony, and Hulk arrive at the SHIELD facility.
Gohan lets Hulk down and Tony frees his hand from Gohan's shoulder.
They stare at the ruins of the building. Rubble, flames, and agents' bodies are strewn about.
As they approach the toppled building, Gohan warns Tony and Hulk, "Stay sharp, these guys are dangerous."
Before either can respond, the five intruders appear before them.
Hulk snarls and attempts to charge them, but stops when Gohan raises his arm in front of him.
"Why have you come to this planet?" Gohan asks them.
The largest one they heard addressed as Bojack in the footage JARVIS showed them takes a few steps forward while the others all laugh. "So the Saiyan boy has finally arrived."
Gohan manages not to outwardly react to them knowing him, and just repeats the question. "Why are you on this planet?"
Bojack smirks. "Well, we didn't really choose to come to this world. We actually have you to thank for our presence here. Or I should say both you and Goku are to blame."