"Mr. Rhode is so strong!"
Gohan's eyes, wide with awe, tracked Rhode's every movement. When Rhode had first transformed into a Super Saiyan, Gohan had felt the overwhelming power. But now, without even that golden aura, Rhode was dismantling the terrifying androids with contemptuous ease. It was a level of power Gohan had never imagined possible.
Can I ever become this strong? A flicker of desperate hope ignited in his chest.
"Bastard!" Android 17, seeing his sister crippled, abandoned all tactics and lunged in pure rage. His fist, fueled by the full force of his infinite energy reactor, smashed into Rhode's face with a sound like a thunderclap.
Bang!
Rhode didn't flinch. His head didn't even turn. The punch simply... stopped, as if hitting an immovable mountain.
Android 17's eyes widened in disbelief.
Crack!
"AAHHHH!"
In the next instant, Rhode's left hand shot out, clamping around Android 17's extended arm like a vice. His right fist came down like a sledgehammer, and the sickening crack of bone echoed 18's earlier scream. Android 17 crumpled, his arm now a useless, broken limb.
What followed was not a fight; it was a lesson in brutality. Rhode's assault was relentless and merciless. Fists slammed into faces. Kicks crushed ribs. Ki blasts—small, precise, agonizing—detonated against their bodies in a continuous, percussive rhythm.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
He channeled his inner Saiyan Prince, unleashing a barrage that was part punishment, part catharsis. The androids, for all their infinite energy and artificial bodies, were helpless. They could only absorb the punishment, their cries filling the shattered landscape.
"Whew~" Rhode exhaled, the fury finally spent. He stepped back, surveying his work. 17 and 18 lay in battered, broken heaps, cybernetic limbs bent at unnatural angles, their bodies covered in scorch marks and dents. They were alive, but they were suffering.
"Mr. Rhode," Gohan's voice was hesitant, confused. "Why... why didn't you finish them?"
Rhode raised an eyebrow, his expression one of simple, brutal logic. "After all the evil they've done? Death would be a kindness." He looked at Gohan, his gaze softening slightly. "Besides, Gohan... they murdered your family. Don't you want to be the one to avenge them?"
The words hung in the air. Gohan's eyes widened. He hadn't considered that. The idea of personally facing them, of being strong enough to end them himself... it was a terrifying, exhilarating thought.
"Let them suffer for a while," Rhode continued, his voice calm. "Let them feel pain and despair. If they can recover, even better. Then you can face them as an equal and take your victory. If they can't, then the enemy is weaker, and your path is easier." He stated it as simple fact. The androids' fate was now a tool for Gohan's growth.
Gohan stared at the broken monsters, then at Rhode. For a fleeting moment, a strange thought crossed his mind: Mr. Rhode is scarier than the androids. But it passed. Justice was justice, and the androids' suffering was a fraction of what they had inflicted on the world.
"Alright, forget them." Rhode raised a hand, and a familiar silver portal shimmered into existence. "Come on. This is the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. One day outside, one year inside. My time here is short, so we'll use this."
"Time Chamber? A place like that exists?" Gohan's eyes lit up with new hope.
But then he noticed Rhode's strange look. "Gohan," Rhode asked slowly. "You've never heard of the Time Chamber?"
Gohan shook his head, puzzled by the question.
Rhode's frown deepened. What's wrong with this timeline? Goku died too young. The androids emerged soon after, wiping out the Z-Fighters in quick succession. Even Kami and Mr. Popo on the Lookout... they must have been killed. The knowledge of the Room of Spirit and Time, passed down for generations, was lost in the chaos.
This world was even more broken than he'd realized. Gohan truly had been completely alone.
Rhode's deductions solidified as he considered the timeline's grim history. After Goku's early death from the heart virus, the Androids had erupted with brutal efficiency. The Z-Fighters fell, one by one. Kami and Mr. Popo, isolated on the Lookout, were eventually discovered and eliminated, severing the last living connection to Earth's divine legacy. Fortuneteller Baba, the bridge to the Other World, was also killed. The line of communication with the afterlife was completely cut.
As for Goku... Rhode knew him. Even if he retained his body in Other World due to his heroic life, he would have assumed Earth was in capable hands. King Kai, overseeing a vast sector of the galaxy, wouldn't have focused on a single backwater planet being terrorized by mere androids—a threat insignificant on a cosmic scale. The result was a catastrophic information blackout. Gohan and the infant Trunks had been left completely alone, ignorant of even basic resources like the Lookout's Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
After leading a bewildered Gohan through the spatial gate and sealing it behind them, Rhode spent some time questioning him. Gohan's answers confirmed his grim suspicions.
"There's a real Time Chamber on the Lookout?" Gohan's eyes were wide with disbelief and a dawning, painful regret. All this time, such a tool had been right there, unknown and unusable.
"Your father trained in it as a child," Rhode confirmed. "But without guidance, and with the Androids watching, entering it alone was a gamble that could have cost you the Lookout entirely. And without someone to help you control your power upon exit..." He trailed off, the implication clear. It was another cruel twist of fate.
Seeing the complex mix of emotions on Gohan's young, weary face, Rhode shook his head. "The past is gone. Wondering 'what if' changes nothing." He gestured to the vast, empty white expanse around them. "We have time here. Compressed time. Let's use it."
Gohan straightened, forcing the regret down. Mr. Rhode was right. The past couldn't be rewritten, but the future could be fought for. He nodded, his jaw setting with determination. "I'm ready, Mr. Rhode. Please, train me."
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