DBZ Aftershock (A fanfiction Concept.) · 9:21am Apr 23rd, 2015
Following Emeral's council I have decided to make a Blog Post for fanfic concept so as not to distract form the Lunaverse discussions along with breaking it up. Opinions, critiques and ideas are greatly appreciated.
A little ways back there was a discussion about Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball related media in the Lunaverse Lounge. This talk eventually drifted towards fics & fics ideas. One particular fic concept that got discussed was 'future fics'. (That is to say fics set some point after the series ended.)
With that in mind I thought I might try and lay down a concept I've thought about for years but have never been able to discuss with anyone. I often fear if I did i'd either get hit with the "Hate OCs hammer" (Understandable all things considered). Or just get into a power level debate built on various theories and what is deemed 'impossible' or 'possible'. Maybe i'm a bit paranoid, but regardless I of want to get outside perspectives on it and people I know feels like a good place to start. I also kind of think, with a fair bit of tweaking, it could even work as an original story.
Setting/Timeline:
As usual the majority of the story takes place on Earth, or Chikyuu as it's been called in some fan series. But rather than following the canon timeline it actually takes place in the 'third or fourth' timeline. (Namely the one where Future Trunks defeated the Cyborgs but was killed by Cell who stole his time machine.) The story starts around ten years after these events transpired.
After the Cyborgs were destroyed people steadily came out of hiding to rebuild society. (Or in some cases just continued life as usual in areas relatively untouched.) Due to the collapse of the military and World Government various independent groups have taken up this task and not all of them work together. One of the leaders in this field is Capsule Corp still headed by by Bulma Briefs and assisted by Oolong. She is the nominal leader for one of the largest and most stable territories thanks to capsule housing. (She has no interest in a permanent leadership position though and is not the only high ranking individual in the fledgling Government). Her efforts are not not made easy thanks to how much the Cyborgs damaged the locality. This means that getting the right resources to produce capsules is tricky. Because of this metal collecting is a common and necessary thing just so houses can be built and shelters maintained.
Bulma & CC Corp are is not the only one working to establish order (or anarchy in some people's cases. These groups aren't all friendly, some of them are quite dangerous, whether it be access to advanced battle jackets (basically mech suits) psychics, magic or even Ki wielders.
Thanks to the Cyborgs exploits, the Earth defence force, as well as Gohan and Trunks's battles, Ki has re-emerged in the public's mind. Now knowledge is sought in many areas that might have otherwise been forgotten. People desperate to survive have managed to tap into their own ki, even if just a little and it's been growing as a movement along with a resurge in psychics and magic wielders. This development has been met with many reactions. Some express horror at people being just like the cyborgs. (Though due to the Cyborgs 'limited' actions few grasp how powerful they were beyond city destroyers.) Other groups hold them in awe at this brilliant new method for people to defend themselves. The exact reactions can vary form town to town, let alone territory to territory.
So the world is rebuilding, with some areas being quite stable, small city's and towns producing food and work. But lots of other areas are still torn up ruins and the wasteland quota has gone up by a lot. So there's multiple factions of varying views, attitudes and methodologies trying to rebuild. Some are allies, some are villainous and others hover in the middle along with independent rogues running across the spectrum. These factions would play an important role both in world building, but also as sources for potential stories, character development and conflict.
Another aspect I'd like to touch on would be space, aliens, the universe as a whole. With this Planet Trade Organisation falling into civil war once the Cold Family is gone I imagine there'd be some interesting things going on there and would like to at least hint at them. Interesting stuff like an alien named Ledgic fighting a body snatcher or a Galactic Police Force trying to bring about order in the chaos. (I may not have liked GT but some of those ideas,I thought, were potentially interesting.)
One means I'd have of doing this is to occasionally have space shuttles show up on Earth for trade, to hide, or just to restock. These would likely be independent groups or vessels and with Earth being so far in the middle of 'nowhere space' few think it's worth travelling there an I imagine the journey is treacherous. By the mains story point in the timeline a ships arrival would still likely be an 'event' but not world changing.
Also an interaction like this amuses me:
"It is a nice planet you have here. How much for it?"
"We're not for sale."
"100 Creds and I won't go one over."
"We're not for sale!"
Story:
Without the Dragon Ball there's less fodder to build a fetch quest around or serve as villain magnet. Because of this I feel that the early 'arcs' (purely conceptual) would be more about character interaction, world building and about finding one's place. Though obviously with some villains to fight and problems to solve while showing the world and people change. There might be a tournament arc where people can be introduced, fight and exposition at each other. So most enemies that fall into the 'need to be stopped now' category' likely wouldn't last very long, like movie villains or Cell.
Also the exact power scaling, especially early on is still pretty mixed. Though as note I am not operating under the idea of 'humans/none sayians cannot surpass Frieza' idea. Sure they lack a transformation and have a starting penalty cost but once the 'penalty cost' is overcome it's just a case of work, training methods, skill and techniques for how high they can go.
As to the rest of the cast. Roshi is basically the wise moral guide along with Korin, Popo and Bulma. Bulma also serves as a source of training equipment, possibly a cyborg maybe, and other tech related stuff. This is especially if they need something reverse engineered or her satellites pick something up like say an invading fleet. They are essentially 'mission command' and quest givers, for some of the cast at least.
Combat:
This is a pretty quick section, I'll cover the specifics in more detail later. But one thing I'd like to expand on in this idea is specialised fighting style and techniques. I feel these were more present in DragonBall over Z where it seemed more about power, though I'm not trying to say skill wasn't invoked.This would also lead to characters trying to keep 'special' techniques in reserve so others can't reverse engineer them and also involve fights being somewhat more strategic. This would also mean a great variety of specialized techniques.
