Brrrrble.

That was but one of many noises those in Universe 9 were hearing, even if they were
drowned out by the intense fight between the giant Bergamo and Goku in the arena below.

Sprawled out dozing in the middle of the floating platform was a fairly round ball of
yellow fluff: the poison-producing coyote known as Lavender. His suspenders were on both
sides of his swollen middle, which was taking on a much rounder shape than it had mere
moments ago. The Saiyan within unconscious and being basked in his potent poisons from head
to toe, it was taking no time at all to break him down and digest him. It certainly helped that
Gohan’s body had already been greatly softened from the inside out due to being poisoned
before being devoured.

And now Lavender was catching a power nap to let his accelerated digestion do its work.
Flesh and bone alike were both being liquefied by those powerful enzymes he called his poison.
Gohan was stronger than most fighters across the multiverse, but once he was worn out,
submerged in caustic juices, he was just as quick to slowly dissolve.

Grrrrgle. Squeellllch. The coyote’s stomach noises would be quite sickening to most
realizing just what his meal had been, but it couldn’t be helped. There was no man inside
Lavender’s belly anymore. Just a thick soup of chyme, largely liquefied biomass barring maybe
the hardest of bones in Gohan’s body. Those from Team Universe 7, if they could make out the
orchestra of digestion, could only hope the prodigious student’s end had been quick and
painless. They would plan to simply bring him back to life… but they were unaware the young
man’s soul was not in a standard afterlife at the moment. Nor were they aware said soul was
being gradually altered deep within the monster that had consumed him… he would not even
agree to be brought back to Universe 7 in his current state of existence. Lavender was a toxic
being, able to corrupt both the flesh and the mind if one dropped their guard.

Right now, it was Gohan’s flesh that was of particular importance. His body now
liquefied, it didn’t take long at all for Lavender’s intestines to open up, starting to greedily drain
what was left of the heroic hybrid into themselves. Lavender’s gut, now a perfect roundness
considering it was mostly filled with fluid, shifted downward, a sound comparable to a flood of
water rushing down a sink (if more fleshy and guttural) audible as all of Gohan’s mass sluiced
through Lavender’s intestines.

After that, the coyote’s stomach deflated even more quickly than it had swelled out as
he swallowed the Saiyan alive. His bowels were more than up to the task of taking the Saiyan
into itself, even as those intestines stretched far beyond their normal size… but Lavender was
prepared. The Saiyan was but the most recent of many sentients he had eaten alive, and even
though he was far more powerful than the coyote’s average meal, he was still just energy at the
end of the day. Energy and nutrients to be absorbed… it brought a sharp-toothed grin to the
dozing coyote’s face to think that for as thoroughly as Gohan had beat him up, it would be the
Saiyan’s own muscles that would restore Lavender’s own.

…and make them even stronger than they were before. The average meal was simply
passed through, absorbed, and burned off. Gohan was no average meal… he was a powerful
warrior from a powerful race, despite how weak he seemed at first glance. As Lavender’s
stomach regained most of its normal shape, barring a thick layer of fat that left him with a slight
potbelly, the rest of Gohan had to go somewhere. All of the youth’s ki, his very life force, the
source of his power, started to flow through Lavender’s body, opening up every energy pathway
inside his hunched over frame…

Lavender’s eyes shot open as he felt his body temperature drastically rising. On any
other day, it would be easy to assume he was just coming down with a fever. But this… this was
different.

For a moment, a haze filled Lavender’s vision. He would not notice his big brother
Bergamo was in the process of finishing off Goku; he would just have to be informed of the
details later. For now, he was being consumed by his own predatory high, ignoring any external
stimuli as he got to his feet, arms at his sides even as his palms faced forward, his claws looking
as if they were grasping energy balls. Nearly every bit of that Saiyan’s power was his now… he
had not just eaten him. He had absorbed him, just like several villains from Universe 7 did to
their victims.

He knew that deep within his subconscious, he had overwhelmed the Saiyan’s will to
fight. There would be no resistance to letting Lavender take all that immense power for
himself… no resistance to letting him surpass even Bergamo in strength, at least temporarily.

Lavender gave a groan of both pain and pleasure. His spine… the bones in it were
cracking, realigning and snapping into a more natural position. With each crack, his hunched
over posture was slowly disappearing… before long, he was standing up straight, now just the
slightest bit taller than his little brother Basil was at full height. This was the first gift of Gohan’s
absorption… the crippled skeleton he had from his own poisons eating at him in his youth… it
was gone. The Saiyan’s own power and bones up to the task of repairing the body they were
now part of.

Lavender flexed his eyebrows, feeling his muscles starting to involuntarily twitch. While
he already had round pupils that set him apart from his brothers, the sclerae of his eyes…
started to grow lighter. That deep, sickly yellow that all the Trio brothers had was now a very
light cream.

The strangest of features the Saiyan-human would bestow on him, however, was the
mass of spiky black fur that was soon covering much of his scalp. It had the thickness of a
furcoat, yet the distinctive length and curves of a human’s hair. He certainly was showing signs
of not being any ordinary anthro canid anymore.

And then… the power. The power that, while taken for granted in Universe 7, was
unfathomable to someone from Universe 9. Lavender felt his knees buckle some as it coursed
through him, desperately trying to take in everything the Saiyan had. It was blissful, but
incredibly painful at the same time, jolts of the digested Saiyan’s ki flowing through his body.

With a deep, almost suggestive groan, his fingers twitching, his chest surged forward
several inches, then a full foot. His biceps swelled to the size of cannonballs to match, his
forearms growing to avoid being left too far behind. Those newly-adjusted bones in his spine
strained, starting to grow, giving the coyote much-needed height so he could fill out
comfortably, his torso gradually growing broader as his hips and legs swelled with thick muscle,
each one nearly as thick as his lean torso had been prior to all this. Gone were his digitigrade
legs as well, the bones having shifted to a plantigrade structure as they were filled out with all
that power that had once been Gohan’s.

As if to offset how bulky the coyote had become, his belly suddenly ballooned outward
once more, as if he had swallowed Gohan all over again. But given a quick tap, it only shifted
slightly… what looked like a large amount of fat was actually fairly solid, a large mass of muscle
that would support either his legs or his arms as needed. A muscle that would generate absurd
amounts of poison that he could shower his opponents with, rendering him even more
dangerous than he already was.

Lavender gasped several times (a newly purple tongue lolling from his maw as he did so,
another hint as to how much his very nature had been altered) before sighing softly, his
predatory high finally starting to wane… he had done it. He had completely absorbed Gohan,
body and soul. The Saiyan was now happily a part of him, eagerly giving the coyote all his
power… and as for Lavender, the more humanoid coyote was so large he would loom over not
just Bergamo, but even Basil’s powered up form.

As he glanced over, said red wolf was actually looking up at him, his jaw agape at the
vastly-increased size of his older brother. All that mass gained without consuming a single drug…

“Bro, you’re huge!” Basil laughed with joy, rushing in and reaching up, trying to wrap his
arms around one of Lavender’s enormous biceps. His tail was wagging into a blur with
excitement, so happy to see his brother’s sheer size and power. This… was something he had
always shown for Bergamo, as well. To the red wolf, Bergamo’s pecs were like a pair of pillows.

It was a consequence of the giant blue wolf having served as their father as much as
their brother growing up; they both associated him with protection and unconditional love, and
they gave their unconditional obedience and admiration in turn. Lavender had grown up with a
physical condition that made him dependent on Bergamo… whereas Basil had a warped mind
that made it harder for him to function completely on his own.

Lavender smirked, responding to Basil’s reaching up by lifting his arm further up. Basil’s
face was one of wonder as he felt all the muscles of Lavender’s bicep shift under his gloves, the
red wolf unconsciously swinging in place… he was a warrior, sure, but he also had manchild
tendencies that were hard to suppress. Growing up, Basil always loved using Bergamo’s biceps
like a swing (he still would sometimes use them that way, if Bergamo was in the mood to make
himself grow larger for Basil’s sake).

Of course… Lavender was starting to feel tired. As much as he loved the enormous
power output of this form, he remembered why Basil had lost his match against Majin Buu: for
all his great strength and durability, Basil’s powered-up state drained far too much stamina to
keep up for long. In much the same way, Lavender knew his titanic form would quickly suck his
energy… he would have to find more efficient ways to tap his power.

The coyote focused… thinking of how air, under enough pressure, could condense into
an ice cube… a dangerous ice cube that was foolish to handle with one’s bare hands.
 Just as quickly as he had swelled into a tower of muscleyote, he condensed, returning to
a height only slightly larger than Basil, although his form was more filled out with muscle than it
had been before he devoured Gohan. He was not quite as muscular as Bergamo in this state, but
he was getting there… plus, the coyote grinned sharply… he knew that with Gohan’s strength
added to his own, he was more powerful than even his Big Bro now.

“Awww…” Basil was disappointed as suddenly he was no longer dangling from his
swingset, his tiny red boots making contact with the ground once more.

Lavender pulled his sulking little brother into a gentle headlock, ruffling his headfur,
“Don’t worry, little bro. Once I master that form, I can get big for you whenever you want!” He
grinned down at Basil, who responded by beaming in response. The crimson canid’s tail wagged
behind him, brushing against Lavender’s… while Basil was more than capable of turning gigantic
himself, he much preferred to remain the little one. He was emotionally fragile, and always
yearned for a larger canid’s protection…

Lavender’s ears had perked at some complements from his Supreme Kai and God of
Destruction on his newfound power. As usual, he ignored them. In fact, now with Gohan’s
intellect being his, he was starting to ponder if it might be possible to usurp them someday…
Universe 9 had gone down the toilet under their watch. It was time for a forced retirement.

But for now… the Tournament of Power had to be won. Universal survival was on the
line.

“Zen-Oh-sama is very pleased with what he has seen here today! As agreed upon before
the match, the rule that defeated universes will be Erased has been rescinded!” As if on cue
with Lavender’s thoughts, Grand Priest’s voice broke the coyote’s concentration. The canid
glanced at the small yet absurdly powerful Angel, fully taking in what he had just announced.

Then he saw Bergamo down below. “Down below” being used loosely, as the wolf was
in his giant state, causing him to tower above several of the universes’ platforms despite the
fighting stage being so far beneath them. And Goku… was nowhere to be seen.

Lavender – and Gohan within him – both smiled at this turn of events. No matter how
he did it, Bergamo had successfully crushed (perhaps literally) Universe 7’s strongest warrior.
…based on where Goku’s fading energy signature was from, however… it seemed Bergamo had
taken a page from Lavender. The energy was coming from inside Bergamo’s body. Another
Saiyan had their powers “borrowed” by one of the Trio de Dangers.

Universe 9’s prospects were looking drastically better by the second…