章節 452: The Rubber Saiyan

*DUM DUT DA DA🎶*

With each passing second that he held onto the Devil Fruit the drums got louder and louder within Alex's mind, while his gaze was completely transfixed on the fruit itself, like he was in a type of trance.

*DUM DUT DA DA🎶*

Alex didn't even hear Grant asking him if he was ok as the volume of the drums seemed to increase, instead, the next thing Alex knew his mouth was filled with a disgusting taste as juice flowed down his throat.

"Oh my god that's awful!" Alex cried out, drawing everyone else's attention as the piece of fruit he'd bit slid down his throat.

"What is it?" Present Bulma asked as she approached Alex and Grant, to which the former answered while fighting back the urge to gag,

"Nothing, I just ate something that tasted disgusting." Goku took one look at the Devil fruit in his hand and said,

"Well yeah, that thing looks rotten." Alex smiled wryly at the comment, and explained,

"It's not rotten, it's called a Devil's Fruit. Eating one with grant you incredible powers, but they taste incredibly nasty and will take away your ability to swim." As he said that Alex looked at the remaining fruit in his hand, wondering what it had been that drove him to eat the damn thing.

Alex had long since decided that IF he ate a Devil Fruit it would be a significantly powerful one, and while the Gomu-Gomu fruit could be powerful, it wasn't in the way Alex wanted. However what happened next caused Alex's brain to stall as he received a notification.

[NOTICE! The ability Gomu-Gomu no Mi(Hito-Hito no Mi: model Nika) has been acquired! The title 'Joyboy' has been acquired!]

For a moment Alex tried to process what he looking at, as he never heard anything about the rubber fruit having two names, until Lauren said to him,

'That's the actual name of the Gomu-Gomu fruit, before the world government changed it in order to hide its true purpose. Rather than a simple Paramecia(ability) type, it was actually a mythical Zoan(transformation) type that allows the user to turn into the Sun God Nika if they awaken. It was also the fruit that had been eaten by Joyboy eight hundred years before One Piece actually began.'

"Huh...how about that." Alex said out loud as he learned he hadn't eaten just any old Devil Fruit, but a god one.

"How about what?" Goku asked while Grant also looked at Alex funny since he hadn't expected him to just straight up and eat it then and there. Rather than explain everything he just learned though, Alex looked at Goku and said,

"This." He then raised his arm, drawing everyone's attention to it, and pulled on it so that it bent unnaturally, like it was made of rubber. He then released the hold on his arm, allowing it to spring back into place like a rubber band.

Smirking at the dumbstruck looks he was getting, Alex explained,

"The fruit I ate gives the person who ate it a rubber body." As he explained it to them began experimenting a little bit with his newfound rubber body, bending and stretching it in various ways. Needless to say the looks he got from the others were quite interesting.

There was one person in particular who wasn't at all amused though, as Vegeta Jr. angrily demanded,

"Where is your pride as a Saiyan?!?" Everyone looked at Vegeta with confusion, only to see that his father, Bardock, and Raditz were also giving Alex strange looks.

"Saiyans don't need stupid tricks! Any that are willing to use such things, have no right to refer to themselves as a Saiyan!" With the other three nodding in agreement, Alex just shook his head before asking Vegeta,

"Weren't you the one who was going to wish on the Dragon Balls for immortality because you were too weak to take over Frieza's empire otherwise?" Immediately Vegeta's expression cramped as he awkwardly sputtered,

"W-well, t-that then and this is now!" Smirking now, Alex then asked,

"And when it comes to 'Saiyan pride', weren't you the one who cried like a bitch and threw a temper tantrum because you wanted to become a Super Saiyan?"

"I DID NOT CRY!" Vegeta roared at the numerous looks he was suddenly receiving from those around them. However Alex then produced an image with Regeneration magic that showed Vegeta on the ground, tears streaming down his face while he repeatedly slammed his fists into the dirt.

For a moment no one said anything as they gaped at the image, until Vegeta's father uttered,

"Son..." Vegeta however held up a single finger to silence him, and spat out,

"Not one word.....from any of you!" Though many of them wanted to laugh at Vegeta's misfortune, none of the people gathered were dumb enough to anger a Super Saiyan, especially one as volatile as Vegeta... Well, there was one person aside from Alex.

"Wow Vegeta! I didn't realize you could cry like that!" Goku exclaimed without bothering to read the room, making Vegeta's entire face turn purple in rage as he silently raised his hand and started gathering energy.

Before he could unleash said energy though, Alex's arm extended in an instant to sink his fist into Vegeta's gut, knocking the wind out of him while Alex also forcibly dispersed the energy he gathered. He then look at his arm as it returned to its original state, and said,

"Neat. But it'll take some getting used to. I wonder what my wives will think though...." Just as Alex began thinking about what he'd say to them, a voice asked,

"What we'll think about what?" Everyone looked to see the girls in Alex's peerage, minus Kuroka and Kurumu, appear from a wall of mist as they arrived from Asora. Without hesitating though, Alex simply said,

"I ate a Devil Fruit." Needless to say they were more than a little surprised, as Alex had already made it clear that he wouldn't eat a Devil Fruit unless it was an exceptionally powerful one.

"What kind of fruit did you eat?" Rias asked, but before saying anything, Alex one again bent his arm unnaturally and said,

"A fruit that turned me into a rubber man." If they were shocked before, the girls were downright dumbfounded when they heard that and saw the way Alex's body now moved.

"So...." Shia eventually began. "Instead of a fruit that made you something like lava, you chose to eat one that made you rubber?" Alex could only smile wryly at her question, and replied,

"Well, it's more like it chose me." The girls looked even more confused when they heard that, while for Alex it was the only explanation he could think of since he recalled that supposedly Zoan type Devil Fruits had a will of their. And apparently, according to Lauren, the Gomu-Gomu no Mi was actually a Zoan fruit.

"Well-" Grayfia began with tones of irritation in her voice. "-at least we're in the world where you can wish to regain your ability to swim." Alex laughed awkwardly at Grayfia's biting remark, before adding,

"Yep, that's the second wish I need to make now." That got everyone else's attention as Bulma asked him,

"Oh? Is that why you called us here? Because you want to use the Dragon Balls?" When Alex nodded for confirmation everyone appeared more than a little annoyed that they had been called for such a 'small' thing, before Krillin even commented,

"You can't though. The Earth Dragon Balls are on a cool down for the next six months after we used them to bring back everyone Cell killed. Unless you plan to go to Namek." Alex however shook his head before saying,

"I know I can't use the Earth Dragon Balls, and I'm not planning to go to Namek... Well I wasn't, but I probably will after this to regain my ability to swim." THAT got everyone's attention, as Bulma excitedly asked,

"So are you saying that there's more sets of Dragon Balls out there!?" Alex nodded as he said,

"Yep, but before I start explaining about that, there's something I need to talk to you all about." Alex then adopted a serious expression as he told the group,

"The way you all use the Dragon Balls needs to change."

Naturally they were all more than a little confused at what Alex meant, and Yamcha asked him,

"What do you mean?" Alex looked at every single person before him in the eyes, and said,

"The Dragon Balls are essentially your most powerful tool to grow stronger or prepare for any threat the planet might face. And yet all any of you seem content on doing is using them AFTER a fight to wish people back from the dead, and otherwise undo the damages you've caused with your negligence."

Though several of them tried to protest Alex's claims, it was Vegeta who snorted and spat at him,

"Not everyone is as gutless as you! We don't need to wish for power!" This time Vegeta had several others on his side since they too were against wishing for power instead of working for it. Alex however deadpanned at them before saying in a mocking tone,

"Oh powerful Shenron! I wish for a magical training facility where we can control the space, time, and even gravity within!" Immediately everyone went silent as they realized what Alex truly meant by using the Dragon Balls to help with their battles. Meanwhile the Bulmas adopted a sheepish look since they had JUST recently started trying to create such a facility, instead of during the last three years when they needed to prepare for the Androids, and Cell.

Alex didn't leave it at that though, as he continued with,

"There's also 'I wish for the ability to make real life projections of opponents to train against!' Or 'I wish to learn the secrets of the Super Saiyan transformations!'" With each word the people around Alex looked increasingly sheepish as they realized that there had been a whole variety of ways they could've used the Dragon Balls, before he looked at Krillin, Yamcha, and Tien directly and said,

"And you three could have wished for the same potential as a Saiyan so you wouldn't get left behind. Or hell, you could've gone the full mile and wished to be Saiyans entirely." Though the actual Saiyans booed and hissed at the idea, Tien responded by saying,

"That would be the same as directly wishing for power, wouldn't it?" Alex however shook his head as he replied,

"No it wouldn't. You might immediately gain power with your bodies catching up to the level of training you've already done, but it would not actually put you on the same level as Goku and Vegeta. Unless you've all done the same amount of training that is. Or hell, you could have also wished that humans could gain a similar ability to the Super Saiyan so that you can increase your power for battle as well." Alex then looked over everyone present once again before stating,

"Regardless of if you agree with it or not, the fact is that any of those wishes would have been better than simply summoning Shenron just to bring people back because you failed. After all, Shenron can only bring someone back once, so what'll you all do when innocent people get killed more than once due to your negligence?"

That fact as well drove home Alex's point about their over reliance on the Dragon Balls to mitigate the damage caused by some of their foes. Hell, Goku went out of his way to go to planet Namek just to find a Namekian to come become Earth's guardian(basically God), and restore the Dragon Balls to use after they defeated Cell.

Then, surprising even Alex, two people stepped forward to support his concerns, future Bulma and Trunks.

"Alex is right you guys. If we didn't rely on the Dragon Balls so much, then maybe our timeline wouldn't have suffered so much when the Androids appeared." Bulma said, while Trunks nodded in agreement before he added,

"Yeah. It's nice knowing that the Dragon Balls can bring us back if we died, but I feel like it also makes us lax instead of taking fights as seriously as we need to." As he said this Trunks glanced briefly at Goku, who, upon exiting the Hyperbolic Time Chamber that could extend a single day into an entire year, spent almost the entire time they had to prep for the Cell Games relaxing with his family.

Plus there was the fact that even if the group did go into a fight seriously, they would still have the thought in the back of their heads that even if they failed, the Dragon Balls would make everything better.

Even Master Roshi began nodding in agreement at Alex's concerns and Trunks' support, as he said,

"That's true. It'll be hard to take any fight seriously if you believe there will be no consequences for winning or losing, especially if the stakes are so high."

One by one the people before him slowly began to agree with Alex's concerns, especially if they were going to battle more powerful foes in the future.

It had mostly been future Trunks and Bulma that convinced them though. In their timeline, while Goku had died of natural causes and couldn't be brought back with either set of Dragon Balls, everyone else had been killed by the Androids when they appeared, Vegeta, Krillin, Tien, Chiaotzu, Yamcha, and then finally Piccolo.

When Piccolo died though, his connection to the Earths Guardian, Kami, meant that Kami also died and the Dragon Balls became useless lumps of stone. With no Dragon Balls of their own to use to bring anyone back, the people of Earth only had Gohan and the child Trunks to rely on, before the former also ended up dying to the Androids.

So, with an actual example of how much over relying on the Dragon Balls could do more harm than good, everyone had to take Alex's warning seriously.

Surprising even him, once again, Bardock of all people suddenly muttered as if to himself,

"I think I might've made a wish on something like those Dragon Balls once... Well, there was a Namekian there too when it happened." As he said that Bardock looked at Piccolo, while everyone else, even Gine, looked at him in shock.

"You made a wish once too dad?" Goku asked curiously, giving voice to what was going through everyone's heads at that moment. Bardock however shrugged as he said,

"I don't know. I was fighting at the time and the Namekian I was trying to protect asked what I wanted to wish for. I thought it was nonsense like trying to wish on a shooting star or something, but if he had some of those Dragon Balls too then it makes sense." Bardock then waved his hand dismissively at the story, as he wouldn't have even remembered it if it weren't for all the talk of wishing and stuff.

Vegeta Sr however seemed the most intrigued by Bardock's story, and asked,

"Which planet were you on at the time? Because I don't recall ordering an attack on a planet with Namekians." Immediately Bardock answered,

"It was planet Cereal. There were a few Namekians living there, and one survived the slaughter along with a Cerealian woman and her child. Since they were all that was left I decided to spare them, but then the Heeters showed up and tried to kill all of us because we overheard their plans to betray Frieza."

Vegeta Sr made a look that said 'I see' at the story, as if he was recalling the attack on planet Cereal himself, despite not actually being present for it. Meanwhile Gine began teasing Bardock for being a big softy, before Vegeta Jr sneered,

"Looks like being soft hearted was a family trait. Raditz was the only normal one out of the lot of you!" Raditz smirked when heard this, happy for the praise until his mother suddenly asked without paying Vegeta's comment any mind,

"So what did you wish for Bardock?" This brought everyone's attention back to the man in question, who simply shrugged again as he said,

"I don't recall, it was so long ago." This however earned him a pout from Gine as she tried to get him to spill about what his wish was, which Bardock refused regardless of how much she tried.

Alex however let his curiosity get the better of him, and used Regeneration magic to peek back in time to that moment.

Bardock- "Sorry Monaito, but I don't take orders from anyone. And I'm not leaving this place until I beat him!"

Monaito- "What's it going to take to make you see reason? Fine... Then tell me, is there another wish I could make for you? I'm just trying to help you."

Bardock- "What's this all about anyways? Are you trying to wish on a shooting star or something?

"But sure..... I'd wish that my sons end up thriving."

As he stopped snooping Alex looked at Bardock, who was still claiming that he didn't recall what he wished for, and said,

"That was a good wish Bardock, and exactly the type of wishes that I think should be made more often." Alex's remark drew every gaze directly to him, while Bardock clicked his tongue in annoyance that Alex 'peeked'. Of course, this also made Gine redouble her efforts to get her husband to spill on what kind of wish he made.

Alex then clapped once to calm things down, to which Gine told Bardock that she'll talk to him later, and said,

"Alright, now that I said my piece I think it's about time we take off. I want to head to Namek first to make my wish there, and then we'll go to what I really wanted to show all of you." As he said that, Alex pointed to an empty space in Bulma's backyard, in which a giant magic circle formed.

Everyone who hadn't seen it before stared in awe as Zenith suddenly erupted from the ground.

The massive and majestic ship flew up into the air, catching the eye of everyone who was relatively close to Capsule Corp as it made a loop, before coming back down to land right in front of them. Alex then patted the side affectionately as he said,

"This is Zenith, my familiar. She's been with me for a long time now." As he said that the ship groaned and rumbled contently beneath his hands, before Alex suddenly thought he heard a phantom child-like giggle in the back of his mind.

Though he investigated the surrounding area through his 'Domain', Alex couldn't find anything that could have been the source of the laughter. Dismissing it for the moment, he then said,

"Alright everyone, let's hop on board!"