((To celebrate Across the Spiderverse releasing on Blu-Ray- and me patiently awaiting my copy in the mail- I've decided to finally pop out the notes for a mini Dragon Ball/Spiderverse cross AU that I've been jotting down over time between projects since I saw it in the theater!))
SETTING/WORLD-BUILDING
Also known as Dimension DBU6 in multiverse codes. The AU is set in a more New York-esque, in true Spiderverse fashion, Planet Sadala in an equivalent Manhattan, "Sadalhattan" if you will. While the planet's population is not 100% Saiyan, a few species immigrating there, the Saiyans are still the original inhabitants and dominant demographic. Numbers wise, the population comes closer to a highly populous state versus a full-scale Earth's worth.
Ki is either non-existent or a rare and discreet skill, so there's less focus on it. The Sadalan Defense Force becomes more traditional soldier combat focused similarly to the real world rather than a pure ki-CQC combination. They recruit similarly to the army/marines at about 18.
Bonus note: Dimension DBU6 has an equivalent Dimension DBU7 in which Goku receives the radioactive spider bite, taking on the Spider-Man name due to not yet knowing his heritage.
CHARACTERS:
THE HERO
Cabba
aka Spider-Saiyan
"My name is Cabba. I was bitten by a radioactive spider and for the past (x amount of time), I've been Planet Sadala's one and only Spider-Saiyan."
Rather than being the Sadalan Defense Force's prodigy fighter, Cabba lives a more domestic lifestyle as a high school student, planning to enlist in the SSDF post-graduation or at least pursue criminal justice- at least until the spider event occurs. Cabba is the type to go into hyper-anxiety, so he's desperately trying to disinfect and treat the spider bite, all while Googling his symptoms and being none the wiser on the "radioactive" part.
He's trained in jiujitsu and is very limber and agility-focused. He also has an interest in tactile and textile skills, so his Spidey-Suit is handmade.
Design: Similarly to AtSV's Pavitr Prabhakar, his iconic Saiyan spikes stick out of the top of the spider cowl. While the peaks end up slicked down into a waved side part, his front bang remains distinctive. In terms of the coloration, the suit's color scheme reverses the color distributions in the palette, prioritizing shades of blue over reds, and adds some gold accents, particularly on the spider symbol. There is a red headband pattern along the brow resembling Bardock's bandanna. Additions to the design incorporate elements from the main canon's SSDF uniform, including a reddish x-crossed double belt, the four lavender skirt tails (unintentionally completing the "eight legs" spider theme), and ankle boots in black rather than purple.
THE GAL PALS
Caulifla and Kale
Caulifla and Kale serves as this AU's equivalents to Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson respectively. Close to Cabba's age and grade in high school if not in the same year. Since Cauli is the Gwen Stacy equivalent, there is an alternate DBU6B where she receives the spider bite instead of Cabba.
Having this pair in play explores the fun what-if of Gwen and MJ getting together in the end. As a result, this means that Cabba doesn't get either end-game gal and he doesn't have a problem with that- love is love.
It's debatable whether Cauli will suffer the same fate as your average Gwen Stacy- she seems the type to be able to take care of herself.
THE POLICE CAPTAIN
Captain Renso
"Sadalhattan"'s resident police chief and Caulifla's older brother and caretaker due to their absentee parents. Unfortunately, if you've been picking up on the Spiderverse patterns, he ends up being Spider-Saiyan's canon event and loses his life.
Caulifla, who is normally apathetic about her brother, starts to become even more hostile and spiteful against the world. She acts particularly distrusting and vengeful towards Spider-Saiyan, putting him to blame and believing it was negligence on his part that got her brother killed.
If she's not gone completely moodily silent, Cauli will rant on and on to Cabba and Kale about her plans to bring Spider-Saiyan to justice- and Cabba just has to nod along.
Spider-Saiyan is bound to encounter typical street thugs, generic evildoers, villains of the week but...
THIS ONE
The Lizard
Villains of the week and your standard commonplace criminals come to pass but Cabba's recurring villain by moonlight manifests in the form of a scaly creature known simply as The Lizard. It only appears at night and resembles a draconic reptilian with sharp horns yet is oddly humanoid in build. It's colored in shades of blue, dons a mask over its mouth, and has piercing red eyes that glow in the dark. It communicates in mainly hisses and grumbles and is rarely verbal.
The Lizard always manages to elude capture and vanishes into the night.
Who knows where this creature disappears to once morning breaks? Perhaps there is another side to the beast.
THE CLOSEST COMPANION
Frost
In this AU, Frost has a more humanoid appearance, practically a human AU design. He has blue hair and pronouns tied up in a messy bun and green and hazel heterochromatic eyes, though there's reason to suspect they're contacts.
He's not a Saiyan, obviously, but he's from an immigrant species family, somewhat of an Ellis Island type situation, about second or third generation. His family lives in an area of the city similar to Chinatown.
Frost has been described as "cool as cucumbers and gay as sunshine". He's one of Cabba's closest friends and they share a high level of trust. They occasionally have talks after school, usually while Frost is working part time in his family's small-business cafe.
"Do you think if you ever had to keep a secret... about who you are... you'd ever just want to tell someone just to ease a bit of weight from your shoulder?" Cabba's hand tenses on the strap of his bag, lightweight and flowy yet heavy with problems, fingers self conscious about whether the zipper is shut to hide the Spider-Suit he quickly stashed inside.
"An oddly specific hypothetical, my dear Cabba," Frost simply chuckles a bit, yet there's an odd twinge in his throat. "Even so, there is quite the risk in doing so... could you even do it without causing yourself more stress? Putting yourself in more danger?" There's a beat of silence, Frost still smirking but the corner of his lip still twitching. "But I digress, drink that tea you ordered before it gets cold~"
However...
Due to a mysterious experimental contamination, Frost experiences almost werewolf-like transformations into The Lizard by night- though these occurrences seem to worsen as of late, triggering more frequently and at less convenient times, making it harder to track the timing. It's a wonder it hasn't happened earlier in the day- or worst of all, in public or at school. His memory of what he does as The Lizard has grown less and less hazy of late.
Frost hasn't been up for sleepovers in ages, and adverse after effects lead people to believe this kid needs serious amounts of lotion on his hands.
Further down the road, these two discover each other's identities in the least pleasant of circumstances- with events leading to Cabba catching his friend with his face half-shapeshifted...
This one’s kind of a grab bag, like Episode 85 was, but the random stuff is better, so I guess it works out.
Let’s start with Piccolo training Gohan. They only have about a day to prepare, but Piccolo thinks he can get more out of Gohan. For one thing, he manages to get Gohan to use his “Ultimate/Mystic/Potential Unleashed” form that he used against Super Buu. Throughout this series, it’s been implied that Gohan just lost that ability, or forgot how to do it, but this time Piccolo just tells him to go ham and he does it on the first try.
Piccolo also tells Gohan he has two major weaknesses holding him back. First, Gohan uses his emotions to drive himself, which is fine to a certain point, but it can be dangerous to tie your power to your emotions. If he keeps thinking about his need to protect his family, it can make him afraid, or desperate, which can make him prone to mistakes, no matter how strong he gets.
Second, Gohan tends to get careless when he’s winning. Piccolo cites the Majin Buu fight, but I think we all know he’s only choosing that battle because the Cell Games are too painful an example. Of course, we’ve already seen a more recent instance of this when Gohan sparred with Krillin in episode 83. Krillin proved that he could outmanuever Gohan and score a ring-out, despite Gohan’s superior power.
This is best illustrated in the scene where Gohan manages to chop off Piccolo’s forearm, kind of like how Tagoma ripped it off back in Episode 22. That pretty much took Piccolo out of the fight back then, but Gohan doesn’t follow through with another attack the way Tagoma did. He just assumes he’s done, which gives Piccolo a chance to show off his new trick of firing ki blasts from severed limbs.
So Gohan is still making the same mistakes he did as a kid, while Piccolo is continuously adapting. He won’t be beaten the same way again.
Anyway, they plan to keep pushing to see if they can get Gohan to an even higher level before the Tournament, and Gohan suggests they work on some combo moves while they’re at it.
Meanwhile, in Universe 6, Cabba seeks out his old mentor from the Sadala Defense Force, Captain Renso. He asks him to join Team Universe 6, but Renso’s got a bum leg, and feels he would only slow the team down. Instead, he suggests that Cabba recruit his sister, Caulifla.
Cabba’s not too keen on that idea. While he’s confident in her fighting ability, they’ve never gotten along too well, mainly because Caulifla is the leader of a bunch of punks on the mean streets of Planet Sadala. Considering how shitty the U6 team was in the Destroyer Tournament, I’d say anything is an improvement. All I know is that Caulifla only makes a brief appearance in this episode, and she immediately became my favorite U6 character.
Meanwhile, Krillin and 18 are sparring in their backyard. 18 keeps whoopin’ his ass, and she’s already decided to claim his share of the nonexistent prize money.
Meanwhile, Trunks doesn’t know how to work a diaper.
But Vegeta does! Seriously, when did he get so good at this? I’m pretty sure he had Gohan give him lessons or something.
Beerus is annoyed that everyone is so care free about things, so he considers telling them about their universe possibly getting erased, if only so he won’t have to worry alone. But Whis warns him that Bulma will give him shit for it. And he’s right, she would. I mean, Beerus can blame Goku all he wants but Beerus could have stopped him if he gave a shit.
Meanwhile, Yamcha continues to fantasize about playing hard-to-get when Goku asks him to join the team. He’s starting to wonder why Goku hasn’t approached him already, but you kind of need to speak up if you want in this thing, man.
Anyway, fans complained about the terrible state of Yamcha’s apartment when this episode first aired, and I think the bigger issue is that the artists just blew off drawing his apartment. Like, this doesn’t look like there was any conscious decision to make it look fancy or crummy. There’s simply no aesthetic whatsoever. The furniture looks like it came from a motel, the chair looks like a child’s car seat, the bed looks like something out of a 1940′s cartoon, and there’s no door leading to the patio.
It’s the same problem we saw in Future Trunks’ bedroom at Capsule Corp. They just slapped some stuff together and called it done.
Pokemon of Choice: Various domestic Pokemon, low maintenance
Main Pokemon: Pidgeot
A Saiyan and the region's Pokemon Professor. His leg was injured long ago while he was working in the field with rambunctious Pokemon, so he can not journey as freely as he once did.
~Professor's Assistant~
Cabba
Pokemon of Choice: Rare species, tactical types, those with untapped skill
Main Pokemon: Altaria
Assistant to Professor Renso pursuing his own journey in his stead. Rather than a focus on becoming the strongest, his focus is on gathering data on rare Pokemon. He also trains his personal Pokemon in tactics and techniques based on their individual strengths, contrasting from Caulifla’s focus on brute force.
~Rival~
Caulifla
Pokemon of Choice: Whatever's strong, often Fighting types
Main Pokemon: Lucario
A young Pokemon trainer on a journey to defeat the Pokemon League and become Champion. She’s rambunctious and stubborn, craving victory and finding it hard to accept defeat. She and Cabba disagree constantly, the assistant believing her downfall is her lack of strategy. Caulifla believes the opposite, only wanting to push through obstacles as hard as possible.
~Pokemon Breeder in Training~
Kale
Pokemon of Choice: Gentle Pokemon, Fairy types
Main Pokemon: Togekiss
A shy and reserved type who tries to go against the lead of her elder sister figure, Caulifla, who wants her to join her on a Pokemon League journey. Kale, however, is opposed to Pokemon combat and would rather take care of them instead. She pursues the route of a Pokemon Breeder, caring for Pokemon she finds along the way as she follows Caulifla with hesitance. Her approach to Pokemon battles is “If I have to...”
~Team Admin~
Frost
Pokemon of Choice: Poison types, those with tricks such as status-inflicting moves
Main Pokemon: Skuntank
An Arcosian playing the role of a friendly travelling companion. However, he is really a villainous team’s head admin working undercover. His adaptness at escaping detection proves him to be a talented actor, even attempting to cover his tracks back up when his cover is nearly blown. His main Pokemon, Skuntank, was said to be raised up from a young Stunky he rescued from a thicket, though, due to his true nature, no one knows if this story is true. Despite his heavy affiliation with his team, he is only an admin... there is someone higher up lurking in the shadows.
~League Champion~
Hit
Pokemon of Choice: Mysterious Pokemon, Psychic, Dark, and Ghost types
Main Pokemon: Gallade
The strong and silent Pokemon League champion. He is surrounded in mystery and enigma and keeps to the subtle side despite his fame and status. He does not resort to underhanded methods of winning, believing winning to only be valuable if it is won by his own merit. His technique is heavily admired and his focus and will prove hard to break. As such, he has remained undefeated for years.
Vegeta: Simply a muscle shirt and basketball shorts. It's also a training outfit, but it's better than the tacky pajama sets Bulma buys him.
Goku: He could practically sleep in his gi if he wanted.
Frieza: An elegant and expensive velvet robe. It's in his favorite color: blood red.
Cabba: Button-up pajama set in blue plaid. A nice and pleasant pattern for a distinguished elite. It's also very comfy.
Caulifla: Nightgown with light flower print picked out for her by her brother, Renso. If you comment even once on its feminine design, you're bound to get punched.
Hit: Simple shirt and pants combo. The clothes weren't sold as pajamas, but it's what he can put on quick in a dark bedroom. He usually gets to bed late due to assassination missions.
Frost: Over-sized graphic tee. (May or may not belong to Hit)
