The voyage continued uneventfully. The ship had passed the outer-most regions of the solar system with ease, warp drive taking them past Alpha Centauri and into the uncharted reaches of space.
Despite all the advances Capsule Corp had made in the last few decades in space travel, the technology had yet to reach the public. Very few had been beyond the Earth.
Vegeta(Jr) was the one who decided to start up a conversation.
"Thirteen...how did you end up in that capsule for so long?" Vegeta Jr. asked the Android, a genuinely curious expression on his face.
"I was brought in as a human. I had lost my entire family and my business, so I felt I had nothing to lose. placed me inside the capscule you found me in, it was the computer that modified me into the Android I am now." Thirteen said with a hint of sadness in his voice as he discussed his past.
"But aren't you technically a cyborg since you still are partly human?" Vegeta Jr asked.
"Maybe..but I reckon that doesn't matter much. The point is the man I was is gone...Thirteen is all that remains, and Thirteen is all I will ever be going forward. I have no desire to be human again." Thirteen said, his gaze focused on the tunnel of light ahead of them.
"Why?" Goku Jr asked.
"You sound as if there is anything remotely desirable about being human. I reckon there isn't a damn thing desirable about the human condition. I look over human history and what do I see? War, hatred and more war. I think I'll pass on being human thankyou very much." Thirteen said.
"I'm sorry I asked" Vegeta Jr said, looking at the floor of the cockpit for a moment.
"Now..can we talk about something else now?" Thirteen asked, removing his yellow hat briefly before placing it back on his head and resettling in his chair.
"Yes of coarse." Vegeta Jr answered.
"This is the same ship my grandmother used when she was young. I still can't believe we are inside it." Goku Jr said as the ship entered a blue nebula, the gasious enviriment clouding all else from view.
"So kids..let me ask you a question for a change. What ever happened to Goku..the orginal I mean." Thirteen asked.
Vegeta Jr raised his left eyebrow at the question. It was Goku Jr who answered.
"My grandmother never really told me the exact details. She once said he departed this diamension after fighting a great evil, that is all I know. I did meet him once though, when I was very young." Goku Jr said calmly.
"Really now? You aren't shitting me kid?" Android Thirteen asked, a slight smile on his face.
"Yes, it was when I found the four star dragonball. I was worried by grandmother and friend had died. He appeared and told me it was my courage and love that had revived them, not the dragonball. He was very kind. I never saw him again though." Goku Jr said.
"Is that so? Well damn." Thirteen said, almost soundly dissapointed.
A shadow suddenly passed over the ship. The large craft was mostly black and resembled a shark in shape. On the front of the vessel was a large human-skull-like decoration.
"What is that?" Vegeta Jr asked, pointing at a huge starship that was suddenly visable.
"I'm not sure but its pulling us in. Hold on to your asses, this could get rough." Thirteen said.
Meanwhile on the ship
A large well-muscled man with a black-tri-corner hat, black mustache and beard sat in a large chair where he could see his crew control the operations on what was clearly the ship's command room or bridge.
Various aliens of different species ran things on the bridge. All wore red bandannas and black, Saiyan-style armor.
The captain, the man in the chair also wore a round red eye-device of some kind.
"Captain we have the ship in our cargo hold." One alien said with a high-pitched voice.
"Good...I'll be inspecting our cargo immediately." The captain said before getting up from his chair, revealing that he was also wearing a long red cape in the process.
Inside the old grand tour starship...
"What should we do?" Goku Jr asked.
"We wait. It would be unwise to do anything until we know what we are up against." Vegeta Jr suggested.
"You got your head on straight kid." Thirteen remarked, narrowing his eyes when a large man with a hat, black outfit, beard and red cape appeared along with afew blue skinned, lizard-like aliens wearing old saiyan-style armor.
"You lousy terrestrial-lovers. I know your inside that junkheap of a ship. Now get out now and I'll make things easy for you." The captain said.
Goku Jr turned to the other two passengers.
"What do we do?" Goku asked.
"Thats easy..we kick some ass." Thirteen said, walking over to the ship's exit and opening the door.
Meanwhile...far away on a distant planet...inside a large white palace in a dark, shadowed room with a window that could see the entire capital.
The Queen settled on her throne. Her lips twisted into a smile. She was quite striking in her black dress, her crested head giving her a natural crown.
Her gaze fell on three individuals in front of her. All wore black, Saiyan-style armor without shoulder guards and green circular scouters. One was bulkier and more massive than the other two. He had waist-long brown hair, a beard and mustache and three horn-like objects on his forehead. The man wore black pants and green boots.
"It has taken awile, but I believe my queen that we have recreated the empire your husband and sons worked so hard to create." The large alien soldier said with a quick pound to the right side of his chest, apparently a salute of sorts.
"Which is excellent news Glunack...because if we taken any longer I would have had to make examples of some of my army to motivate the rest of the sorry lot." Queen Chilla said, a smile on her black lips and her gaze on the three soldiers standing before her, all of which but the tallest, Glunack, looked terrified.
The Queen then looked at her violet hands and black nails while she continued to speak.
"Which reminds me of our next goal. We will conquer the planet Earth...and claim the dragonballs. I will wish my family back to the land of the living, then we will all be immortal." Queen Chilla said.
"All that remains is finding the Earth. Apparently your husband, our late King, knew its location, as did the saiyans before Lord Frieza destroyed them." Glunack said, trying to avoid his Queen's gaze.
"Have you made any progress finding Earth Captain?" The Queen asked, her face very serious suddenly.
"No my queen." Glunack said, only to be blasted into the far wall seconds after speaking. Glunack's impact cracked the glass of the window, but it did not totally break.
"If you continue to fail in this simple task...well I'm afraid I will have no choice but to destroy you. I quite like you Glunack...so that would be..unfortunate." Queen Chilla said, her lips once again twisting into a smile.
"Everybit as cold and ruthless as the rest of her family." Glunack thought as he stepped off of the cracked window.
"There is no need to needlessly punish your Elite Guard my Queen." A new voice in the conversation said.
"Oh?" The Queen said, turning her gaze to the left, where another of her species entered.
It was a lean, tall and muscular humanoid with grey skin and green triangular markings on his shoulders, feet and forehead. The center of his grey chest was green, like an emerald planted in the center of an otherwise completely grey surface. The being had a long, lizard like grey tail. The alien's height caused him to tower over everyone else present. His head was ovoid in shape, and he lacked a nose. Other than the alien's face, which was grey with green lines running from his white eyes to his chin, his head was completely grey. Four grey spikes lay on the tall alien's back.
"I know exactly where Earth is." Nezomiiro, the grey and green alien said with a twisted smile.
"Oh really? The Queen said with a pleased tone.
"Long ago I compiled all Arcosian star charts. Our people had scouted out a primitive, but extremely beautiful world called Earth several hundred years ago. The king's father, Lord Glacier, wanted to move our capital to this world, but his plans were cut short when he was killed." Nezomiiro said with a smile.
"I killed that fool. He showed increasing amounts of mercy to enemies. His weakness would have destroyed our people." The Queen said.
"Well...regardless I managed to find his old star charts. The location of Earth has already been entered into the fleet's computers. All that remains is your command my Queen." Nezomiiro said with a smile of his own before bowing gracefully.
"We will leave for Earth in a week. I still need to put down rebellions and deal with the general decay here on the homeworld." Queen Chilla said with a tone suggesting deep thought.
Meanwhile...far away on the Space Pirate ship...
Thirteen, Goku Jr and Vegeta Jr emerged from the grand tour ship. Immediately the pirate captain's two henchman pressed a button on their scouters.
"What sort of power levels are we dealing with?" The captain asked
One of the lizard-like aliens responded while his scouter was trained on Goku.
"The one with the bandanna has a power level of 10,000, the other similiar creature wearing the gloves is around 10,050." The alien said.
"And what of the taller one in yellow?" The captain asked, looking at Thirteen.
"No power level detected. My scouter is working fine I don't understand why I can't get a reading sir." The alien said.
"No matter. These scurvy dogs are no match for me." The captain said, then turned to look his adversaries in the eye.
"Surrender now...and we will be merciful." The captain said with a hand on the hilt of his sword, which was next to his right leg.
Thirteen smiled.
"I have a better idea. You let us go, or its time for an ass-whooping." Thirteen said as he clutched his brown gloved hands into fists.
"I don't think you should do that." The Captain said with a grin.
"Oh, and why the hell not?" Thirteen asked.
"Because if we fight on the ship we could easily destroy it. I don't know about you but I can't survive in space. I think we should cooperate with him..for now." Vegeta Jr said.
"Vegeta has a good point." Goku Jr remarked.
Thirteen suddenly lowered his arms.
"Fine." Thirteen remarked, then muttered something under his breathe.
"Good choice. Now you scurvy dogs...take them to the brig." The Captain said.
Immediately several crewmembers, all green-lizard-skinned aliens wearing black Saiyan-style armor, flew down from the shadows of the room and began placing handcuffs on Goku, Vegeta and Thirteen.
Sometime later...
The three found themselves in a room with black walls and several cells. Once they were inside the cells, red energy bars came into existence in order to keep them inside.
Thirteen looked at the red energy and crossed his arms.
"Ya want to tell me again why we agreed to being captured?" Thirteen asked
"Because if we fought we would." Vegeta started
"Just shutup." Thirteen said, sounding annoyed
"Excuse me." Vegeta Jr said, also sounding annoyed.
"Where are they taking us?" Goku asked
Outside the prison, the Captain was speaking to a hologram. A grey alien with green marks on his shoulders was speaking.
"Sir I have captured some interesting prisoners. I believe they are from Earth." The Captain said.
"Oh? Interesting. Describe them." The alien said, sounding intriqued.
"One is clearly some sort of cyborg, I don't know how strong he is because our scouters can't seem to pick up any power level from him. But the other two are humans." The captain said, trying to look as regal as possible before his employer.
"And do they have names?" The alien asked
"Yes..the cyborg calls himself Thirteen, while the humans go by the names Vegeta and Goku." The Captain answered.
"Excellent..so they finally left that dustball they call home, just as I predicted they would. Anyways Captain Crowe..drop your prisoners off on Planet Valora." The alien said with a wicked smile.
"You intend on adding them to the imperial army?" The captain asked.
"What I intend is none of your concern. You will be paid generiously for this Captain. Don't ask questions that could terminate our...business relationship." The alien said.
"Aye. They will be delivered as promised. I doubt you will be the one paying me though..who do I talk to to get my share?" The captain asked.
"Now that is a far more reasonable question my dear Captain. I'm sending the Elite Guard. Glunack, Paican and Bruk will be on Valora when you arrive. That is all." The alien said before his hologram vanished.
"I wonder why those three are so valuable to him? Oh well..I only care about me money." Captain Crowe said to himself.
In afew hours several small green lizard-like aliens wearing the same black Saiyan-style armor with the grey shoulder pads and black chest arrived in the prison area of the ship.
"You three are coming with us." One of the aliens said with a high, raspy voice.
"Whatever you say." Thirteen muttered.
"We should cooperate with them for now." Vegeta Jr remarked.
"Yes you should..if you know whats good for ya." The alien, apparently the leader of the group of three said once again.
The three were placed inside a small, shuttle vehicle which was shaped almost like a saucer and was white in color.
Inside Goku said something.
"I feel like you haven't told us everything about yourself Thirteen." Goku remarked, himself, Vegeta and Thirteen all had their arms cuffed with some kind of black metal.
"What makes you say that?" Vegeta Jr asked.
"Why did you want to know so much about my ancestor. Why did my name interest you so much? And why do you hate humans?" Goku Jr asked Thirteen, ignoring Vegeta Jr's question.
"Honestly? I was programed to kill the orginal Goku. I still get that urge when I see you kid. I could kill yer ass easily if I really wanted to. But I don't." Thirteen answered truthfully.
Goku Jr seemed surprised and hurt by Thirteen's response.
"I..I appreciate your honesty Thirteen. But why? Why spare me?" Goku Jr asked
"Because you two have given me a new purpose. I feel something I haven't since before I can remember. You asked why I hate humans so much? Well...I wasn't entirely honest with you when I said how and why I became an Android." Thirteen said with a hint of sadness in his southern accent, even as the three could feel the shuttle begin its flight.
"Why? What happened really?" Goku Jr asked.
Thirteen liked the kid. There was no judgement in his eyes when he mentioned any of his intentions or past, only understanding. He had lost his own family..something Thirteen could identify with. But he did not let it destroy him.
"I was a truck driver when I was human. I know I know, you probably figured as much by the way I dress or my whatever, but listen. I did lose my family and my business. But it was my fault. One day coming home I was drunk. I wasn't fit to drive yet I did anyway. My only son was waiting for me to get home...and I hit him. He died afew hours later. I felt I had nothing to live for...I hated myself. I blamed everyone else. I wanted a way to escape the pain. So here I am." Thirteen said.
"I'm so sorry." Goku Jr remarked.
"Well..whats done is done right? So..tell me about you. What do you hope to gain by this journey of ours?" Thirteen asked.
"I'd like to fight strong opponents, to become stronger, to see the universe. I'd like to be powerful enough to defend the Earth..if it needs defending I want to be able to do it." Goku Jr said.
"Noble..I wish I could say the same. What about you Vegeta?" Thirteen asked
"Same as Goku. I'd like to get stronger, to prove I'm every bit worthy to call myself the descendant of the great Saiyan Prince Vegeta." Vegeta Jr answered.
Suddenly the door opened to the right of them. A tall, muscle-bound alien and two smaller aliens of a different species, all wearing black saiyan armor with black chestplates and brown shoulders with some kind of insignia on their right chest area, were immediately seen when the door opened.
"So you three are the ones he is interested in. I don't see anything special." Glunack said with a cruel smile on his face.