Episode 46
The Invisible Ship
Author's Note: Well, here it is: Season 2 Saiyan Blood! Thank you so much for your votes. Even though I didn't quite get the exact number I wanted, I know all of you would love to see a sequel. Also, most of you voted that I should update my Saiyan Blood series whenever I have free time, so thanks for your understanding. We all know how busy we can get, but I'll try my best to update this story a little bit faster than usual.
Please remember to leave only helpful and positive feedback. Any rude or disrespectful reviews will not be tolerated and they will be immediately deleted and/or reported. Thanks in advance!
Like Season 1, this is a completely revised and a complete remake of Season 2 Saiyan Blood, so I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Thanks for all of your support! Happy reading!
Some days had passed, the Z-fighters continued their journey to Namek in hopes of restoring their friends with the DragonBalls. Today was just another day in the ship. The universe itself was almost complete darkness every day, it took time for their circadian rhythms to get back to normal.
Raditz was sharing a bedroom with Gohan, Bardock with Krillin while Bulma had her own.
Raditz was sleeping by himself. He had pillows on his head and underneath his arms with his blanket over his abdomen, just exposing his torso. This was the first time in a long time he had a good night's rest. He and his father had done nothing but serious training for the past week, but he knew all this hard work will pay off in the end.
He then rolled over to his side and kept sleeping peacefully-
SLAM!
Bulma suddenly opened the door, hitting the wall with it, startling Raditz from his long slumber.
"Wha-what?!" Raditz exclaimed and sat up quickly. He was still half-asleep, half-startled obviously. At first, he thought that the ship was malfunctioning, but it was actually Bulma who caused that annoying racket. He growled at her for bothering him. "What are you doing? Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?!"
"You've been sleeping for eleven hours now," Bulma told him. "We still have a lot of chores to do."
"Chores?" Raditz tried to keep his eyes opened.
"You know the rules," Bulma crossed her arms.
Raditz pulled the blankets over him. "Just give me five more minutes…"
Bulma raised her eyebrow. "Hmph, fine, if that's what you want. By that time though, you'll be missing out on breakfast."
Lo and behold, the magic words were spoken. Raditz's eyes shot open and he could now smell this trail of delicious scent underneath his nose. It took just the mention of food to have him wake up. He finally got out of bed, pulling the blankets away from him. "Okay, I'm up."
Bulma chuckled, knowing how Saiyans cannot resist food. This reminded her about Goku when he was a young. He had a very voracious appetite, maybe even now.
During breakfast, Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan watched Bardock and Raditz with amazement and the number of plates they could eat in one sitting. Unlike Goku who seriously lacked table manners, Bardock and Raditz did have these, but the three had the same appetites, their plates were already stacking up in a pile.
"H-hey, you guys can't eat too much!" Bulma told him. "You're gonna deplete all our food supply!"
"Don't worry, Bulma," Gohan assured her. "We packed extra, extra food in the storage room. We all know how hungry my uncle and grandpa get."
Krillin commented, "It's amazing how they're not blowing up like balloons."
While the three waited for Bardock and Raditz to stuff themselves eventually, they talked for a while.
"I wonder what Namek looks like," Gohan began.
"Don't think it's all gonna be flora and fauna," Bulma said. "Do you remember what King Kai told us? The planet's going through changes still."
"But I'm sure we'll see something interesting!" Gohan thought.
"Huh, maybe," Bulma finished the rest of her orange juice. She then placed her hand over her mouth as she yawned. "Ooh! I'm just ready to collect the DragonBalls. I wonder what Namek's dragon will look like."
Krillin stood up, taking up his plate and silverware to the sink for cleaning. "Who knows? Namek is the place where the DragonBalls are first created. Maybe they could have special powers unlike our dragon back on Earth. I just had this crazy imagination that each DragonBall has a dragon inside and then when we make a wish, they all come out or something like that, hah, hah!"
Bulma placed a hand against her cheek. "Yes, you do have a crazy imagination, Krillin. I mean, seven dragons? I bet not all of them are gonna be nice." (Epic foreshadowing)
Bardock and Raditz had finally finished their breakfast. They cleaned up afterwards and started on their chores before heading back to training.
"It'll be good to clean up that mess over there," Bulma pointed to where the pilot seat was.
Krillin looked over there. "Um, isn't that your mess? You should clean yours 'cause we already cleaned ourselves. Besides, half of the mess in this ship is yours!"
"Too busy being the captain of this ship, you know! And you know what that means? I got important work to do," Bulma argued with him. "Just clean it up, it's not that hard. If you don't, you guys will be cooking your dinner instead," she then grabbed a can of root beer she left on the floor and drank from it. She then went ahead to clean the dishes in the kitchen at least.
Krillin rolled his eyes. "Geez, all she really does is cook and clean the dishes."
While Raditz, Krillin, and Gohan cleaned up the mess on the floor, Bardock was in the kitchen with Bulma, helping her dry the plates and silverware.
Bulma was at her last plate and gave it to him. "Here."
Bardock took it and dried it with a towel.
"So, tell me, Bardock," Bulma washed her hands briefly with soap and water. "Why do you and Goku look so much alike? I mean, anyone can practically mistake you for twins!"
Bardock agreed. "Yeah, many have made that mistake. I don't know…he mostly got his genes from me, but Raditz got his from his mother. Well, appearance-wise."
"Oh," Bulma said. She turned off the faucet and drank from her root beer again.
While Bardock kept drying the plate, a vision suddenly appeared in his mind. He was distracted from his thoughts, but he tried to act normal. In this vision, he saw a sinister-looking creature that had these orange-colored gems sitting in front of him, the creature's red eyes fascinated by these gleaming orbs.
"-as you can tell, I mostly got my looks from my mom, but my brains from my dad," Bulma was having a conversation with him all this time. She noticed though that he was not responding and that he was gripping on the plate tightly than he should. He seemed to be struggling for some reason.
"Huh? Hey, you okay?" she asked.
The vision finally passed. Bardock realized he was still standing here, finishing chores. It took a moment for him to answer. "…y-yeah, I just…had a slight headache, that's all."
"Hmm, maybe you should take a break from training then," Bulma suggested. "You and Raditz are already strong enough! Why train even more?"
Bardock put the last plate on the shelf and closed the cupboard. In silence again, he stared at the blank, empty wall in front of him while putting his head down.
He did not say a word.
Bulma found this behavior to be quite strange. "Uh, hello? Earth to Bardock!"
His vision was fixed on the wall, his hands gripped on the countertop. He finally answered, "We just…have to…," the vision he received, he thought, foreshadowed a terrible omen, and he did not like the feel of it.
Raditz was mopping the floor while Gohan and Krillin were cleaning up Bulma's mess in a trash bag.
Raditz had cleaned the last inch of the surface. He had a bucket of water beside him, was about to pick it up until Bulma suddenly walked in and knocked the bucket to the side by accident, spilling all the water.
"Hey!" Raditz became aggravated.
Bulma was still drinking her root beer, but she did not bother to help him out. "Ooh! Geez, Raditz, watch where you put that thing."
"You're the one who hit it!" Raditz pointed at the bucket. "I suggest you come over here and help me clean this now."
"Don't have time! Can't you see I'm busy doing some work?" she went back to her seat and pressed a few buttons on the controls, the screen showing their current location and the overall status of their ship. "I still need to calculate a few things here. After all, I'm still the pilot of this ship."
Raditz's eyebrow twitched and his temperature was almost up to his head, but somehow, he was able to keep his temper in check. There was no use trying to argue with her. He went to the back door and grabbed some paper towels to dry the spilled mop water.
Krillin noticed the tension between them and tried to calm things down. "Just forget about it, Raditz. It's not worth it. You wouldn't want to get on her bad side."
"She just needs to do her equal share of work around here," Raditz demanded.
"I'll go try and talk to her, okay?" Krillin said.
There was silence and soon, everything was calm again. While Bulma continued to make her monitor the functions of the ship, she asked them all a question. "So, about Vegeta…"
They turned their attention towards her when she spoke the name of the Saiyan Prince.
"You said you let him get away. Where do you think he could've gone? I thought the Saiyans' home planet was destroyed a long time ago, so he must have a new home at least," Bulma mentioned.
"Oh," Gohan realized what she might be trying to ask. "I think I know what you're thinking. Since Vegeta was badly injured when we fought him, he should've retreated to some other planet where his wounds can be taken care of."
"Well, I certainly couldn't tell you where he is," Krillin had no clue.
"Raditz, you're once Vegeta's comrade after all," Bulma looked at him. "You guys should've had a place to live in before you guys came to Earth."
Raditz was putting away all the cleaning products in the back door. "You're right, but if you remember, I used to travel from one planet to another to conquer and sell them to the galactic markets. You could say all those planets belong to ours, so Vegeta could've gone to any one of those."
"I hope he's not planning to go to Namek. He can't possibly go, not with his current condition," Krillin believed.
"I don't know. Well, wherever he is, he'd better be far away from us," Bulma hoped, keeping her arms close to her chest.
Raditz had doubts about that, however.
In the farthest depths of outer space, a space pod was traveling fast amongst the cosmos and many galaxies. Inside, there sat the wounded Saiyan Prince. Even now, he was still reaching his destination as soon as he can. It was a miracle how he was still alive and breathing, enduring his wounds ever since, but with no proper medication, he was having a difficult time to recover.
"Ngh! I'm almost there…I just need to hold…on!" the Prince of all Saiyans said to himself.
Meanwhile, Bulma was finally doing some work now for herself. She was arranging her magazines and books in a box. Krillin and Gohan had just finished image-training and now, they were watching Raditz and Bardock in the training room through the window.
Bulma asked the two, "What are you guys doing?"
Gohan looked at her. "We're trying to watch Grandpa and Uncle train. Look at them go!"
"Yeah, they're just like Goku!" Krillin exclaimed. "Saiyans always get stronger every time they fight."
"If you guys are so amused, why not you train with them?" Bulma asked.
Krillin thought it may be a bad idea though. "Are you sure? But there's no way I can keep up with them!"
"Oh, come on," Gohan tried to encourage him though. "We need some training ourselves, Krillin. Besides, I wonder what gravity feels like when it's more than 9.8 meters per second squared!"
"Uh…9.8 meters-what?" Krillin was disconnected easily.
"Oh, I learned that from one of my physics books, heh, heh," Gohan chuckled nervously.
The half-Saiyan then opened the door. They had to go through another entrance before entering the training area itself. Before they stepped inside the gravity room, they had to cover their eyes as a flash of light appeared, brightening the room for a brief second.
"Woah!" Krillin exclaimed.
Once the flash disappeared, it was Raditz who released an energy blast at his father, but he was able to cancel it with his right hand. They were about to resume battle until they saw Krillin and Gohan just by the door.
"Huh?" Bardock said.
"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" asked Raditz.
"Oh, nothing. We just came by to see you train," Gohan laughed a little.
"Actually, Gohan and I were wondering if we could join you guys, but of course!" Krillin was clearly nervous with them. "Not really fight you guys directly, but maybe Gohan and I can practice in that little corner over there unless you ask us to fight with you, of course. But that might pose a problem 'cause Gohan and I are nowhere to your level. I mean, I fought you before, Raditz, and I can already tell, I don't wanna mess with you, but maybe that's before, but then-!"
And he just kept on talking, unknowingly repeating himself but in different ways.
"Don't waste your breath," Bardock had to interrupt him. "Besides, can you two handle gravity that's heavier than Earth's?"
"We won't know until we try, right?" Gohan asked.
"Hey," Krillin started to get a little confident. "You can change the gravity to like ten times more and we won't be breaking a sweat."
Raditz and Bardock glanced at each other, considering they were practicing under much, much more gravity than Krillin claimed he could. Raditz walked over to the controls and set the settings to 10xG.
"Try it out then," Raditz said, but he was certain they couldn't handle this.
"Thanks!" the moment Krillin stepped in though, he suddenly fell flat-faced on the floor. "OUCH!"
"Whoa! Are you okay, Krillin?" Gohan approached him, already forgetting about the change in gravity and he, too, quickly fell to his bottom. "Ow!"
Raditz smirked. "I stand corrected."
Bardock laughed softly to himself. He then folded his arms. "You guys need to get used to this first. You sure you want to do this?"
Krillin struggled to get up. Instead, he gave a thumps-up. "Sure can!" he said in a muffled voice.
Gohan could not move at all. "I still can't get up…"
While Bulma continued to arrange her magazines, a message was suddenly sent to her through the controls of the ship. "Huh?" she checked to see what the message was. On the screen, she saw a blinking dot, which was identified as an unknown, foreign object. Bulma took a closer look and realized that this dot…was heading right straight for them?
Bulma began to panic a bit. "Uh-uh, y-you guys!" she stammered a lot. "You guys need to come here q-quick!" at first, no one answered her, so she had to yell, "Guys! Get over here NOW!"
Finally, they heard her. Raditz quickly set the gravity back to default and Krillin and Gohan were able to stand up again.
"What does she want this time?" asked Raditz, a little irritated.
"I don't know, but I hope it's not another errand from her," Krillin said.
When they came to her, Bulma was in total panic-mode, telling them that a foreign object was approaching them head-on and fast!
"Is it an asteroid or something?!" Krillin asked frantically.
"No!" Bulma shook her head. "According to the data here, it's another ship!"
"Another one?" Bardock was feeling quite nervous, too.
Suddenly, the alarm went off and their ship was now code-red. A warning was given out, informing to them that indeed, another ship was approaching them fast and they needed to take action as soon as possible.
The blinking dot on the screen was approaching closer, its signals becoming stronger. Everyone fretted.
"Turn the ship back, Bulma!" Raditz told her.
"I'm trying!" Bulma was gripping the steering wheel, but no matter which direction she tried to make their ship go, it was strangely stuck in one place as if it was being sucked into another object or some sort.
"Hey, guys, look!" Gohan pointed in front of them.
Outside, they saw that alien spacecraft, but to their shock, it looked exactly like theirs, like a reflection in a mirror.
"Wait, isn't that our ship?!" Bardock questioned, looking intently out of the window.
"But there's no way!" Krillin's teeth chattered. "This makes no sense at all!"
They did everything that they can to make their ship change their course of action and turn around, but to no avail. They immediately began to feel this forceful pull, dragging their ship closer and closer to this strange mirror in front of them. At the last minute, they could not do anything but stare with panic and fear in their minds. They screamed while Raditz and Bardock kept silent, but almost torn by terror. Once their ship made contact with this "mirror", the ship did not collide with it actually. Instead, it went through the mirror as if they had unknowingly stepped into an invisible realm.
