A/N: I was on a roll and wrote another chapter. Enjoy!

P.S: I made a slight change in chapter one: the Sanctuary is now guarded by Dende. Since he is a healer, I figured he would fit the part better.

Chapter 2: Server error

"Almost…got…it…!" Amy groaned while reaching for Android 17's lost bandana. A bird had taken it to it's nest in a tree and unfortunately, Amy was probably the worst climber of the Southern virtual hemisphere. That didn't stop her from trying, though. It was a bit of a childish challenge, but if she managed to complete it in less than 30 minutes, she would get 5000 zenni and a Mystery Prize! Zenni was the currency in the world of DBV and could be used to buy in-game objects like weaponry or a more advanced scouter model. The Mystery Prize could be anything from a new attack to a Capsule Case upgrade. Ami was hoping to earn enough zenni to buy some civilian clothing. All new players began their game dressed in a default long-sleeved black undershirt and a white gi with the DBV logo on the back. She hoped that once she got a customized outfit, she would blend in better with the environment, which could give her a much needed edge in the little cat-and-mouse game she and Cell had been playing since last week. A pair of jeans weren't going to give her a higher powerlevel, but at least she wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb anymore.

"WARK! WARK! WAAAAAAAARRRK!"

Amy rolled her eyes at the bird who had returned to defend it's nest. It was circling around the tree and tried to peck at her head.

"Hey, beat it!" she tried to wave the feathered menace away. "Shoo! Shoo!"

The bird, however, was determined to keep her from taking the bandana. It hovered in front of her and blocked her way to the nest. It lowered it's head while angrily flapping it's wings. To make matters worse, a bleep from her scouter told her that she had only 15 seconds left to complete the challenge.

"Ack! leave me alone, you overgrown parrot!" she growled. "Go bug Radditz in Saga Mode or something!"

Another sound caught her attention, but this time it did not come from her scouter.

Creeeeaaaaaak…

"Uh oh…" Amy gulped when she felt the thin branch slowly giving way under her weight. The bird almost seemed to smirk at her, a devilish gleam in it's dark beady eyes.

"No…" she whispered warningly, "no, no, no, no, no, no! Don't you dare land on that…"

With a loud wark, the bird sat down on the branch, causing it to snap in two. With a startled yell, Amy was sent plummeting towards the ground.

Fortunately, a player was only able to experience a certain amount of physical discomfort in DBV. The worst kind of pain that you could feel was like when you accidentally hit your knee against a desk or someone slammed a door on your fingers. This also meant that any injuries suffered during your 'super epic battle' against Dabura were only virtual and would vanish the minute you logged out.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…OOF!"

With a loud thud, she landed on a surprisingly soft surface.

"OWW! Amy get off me!" she heard a muffled voice yelling from underneath her.

"Jake?" she blinked after helping her friend up. "How did you get here? This isn't a multiplayer challenge!"

"No time, we need to hide!"

Without awaiting a response, he grabbed her hand and pulled her behind a large bush.

"Jake, what in the world is wrong with…"

He placed his hand over her mouth, and placed his index finger in front of his own as a sign that she needed to be quiet. Amy nodded slowly.

"What's going on?" she mouthed silently, but the answer to her question was already stomping and growling in front of their hiding place.

"KAKAROTTO!" the giant roared while smashing everything in it's path.

"What the hell is Brolly doing here?" she whispered. "You never told me you bought the movie expansion pack!"

"I didn't!" he whispered back. "I was trying to earn more zenni by picking up a couple of hentai magazines for Master Roshi, until that walking steroid over there suddenly appeared in the store and killed the cashier! When he saw me, I panicked and next thing you know… I was here!"

"Must be a server error or something," she mused.

"Yeah… maybe we should log out until the admins fix it"

"Are you kidding?" she smirked mischievously. "This is our chance to fight Brolly for free!"

"But we're in Challenge Mode!" Jake protested. "We don't have the same powerlevel as in Saga Mode! What are we going to do? Breathe him to death?"

"Oops, I forgot about that," she smiled sheepishly. "Well, if we can't battle him, then we'll just laugh and make weird faces instead!"

"I don't think it's a such good idea to go out there with zero armour and poke fun at a Legendary Super Saiyan…"

"Come on, you wimp! Where's your sense of humour? It's not like anything can hurt us here!" She grinned at him. "Virtual Reality, remember?"

Jake smiled at this. He had almost forgotten that the Big Bad Brolly was nothing more than a bunch of ones and zeroes. Then again, could you blame him? DBV was famous amongst gamers for it's amazing amount of realism. It had been one of the first Virtual Reality games that didn't make the player feel like he or she was trapped in their great-grandparent's computer. Unlike most of the older VR-games, DBZ had rich and vibrant colours and surround sound without the need of a clumsy (and expensive!) audio processor that took up half your living room. Round object were actually round and did not look like cubes with the corners chopped off.

The latest was due to the fact that the developers had not been fooling around with old-fashion polygons and cheap looking texture maps. If you stood eye to eye with Super Buu, you could actually see the pores in his skin and not just a bunch of bloated pink pixels. You could even smell the fresh air during your Dragonball hunt on New Namek, feel the pavement beneath your feet when walking on Snake Way and even taste Chi Chi's cooking at Gohan's birthday party. To make a long story short: the launch of the first version of DBV, marked the dawn of a new era in the history of Virtual Reality.

However, the special DBV VR-helmet that came with the game, was the real key. Instead of just sending signals to the eyes and ears like a regular VR-helmet, this model sent signals directly to the brain, making it possible to also fool the players senses into smelling, tasting and even feeling the digital environment. This kind of highly interactive gameplay was not only praised but also heavily criticised because unpleasant signals, like pain, were sent to the brain as well. Players were warned not to enter battles they knew they could not win, but accidents happened every now and then. When one player became severely traumatized after having his virtual arms ripped off by Nappa, a number of safety protocols had been installed, making it impossible to experience extreme pain. Some players argued that the limiting of 'discomfort' was ruining the realism of the game, but most players (and their parents) agreed that it was better to take certain precautions to ensure a safe and fun gaming environment for everyone. Jake and Amy both agreed. They were absolutely pro-realism, just not when an angry Super Saiyan (with poorly programmed linguistic abilities) was standing less than two meters away from them and not looking too happy.

"They say that some characters have a higher developed AI than others, but for some reason I wonder if Brolly has any kind of intelligence at all," Amy snickered as the Saiyan continued to thrash the field for no particular reason. Jake, however, was not really listening. Maybe his imagination was playing tricks on him, but he could've sworn he had just seen a shadowy blur moving behind the tree. Maybe he should let his scouter do a ki-sweep to be sure?

Nah… it was probably another glitch. Besides that, Amy always warned him that he seriously needed to stop worrying so much and 'chill out' every once in a while. If she caught him scanning shadows, he would never hear the end of it. Jake glanced at his lifelong friend who was grinning like a Cheshire cat, ready to pounce on her unsuspecting prey. It was no big secret that Cell did not rank high on her list of favourite DBZ characters, and she would definitely kill Jake if he told her that he sometimes spotted certain similarities between them. Suddenly, she jumped up and made a dash for the legendary Super Saiyan, but before she could do anything, he disappeared into thin air.

"Aww, man!" she exclaimed. "And I was just going to try and teach him how to ballroom dance!"

Jake couldn't help but fall over anime-style.

"You were going to try and teach Brolly to do…WHAT?"

"Come on, you know it would've been funny!"

"Yeah, getting turned inside out by a game glitch… hilarious…" he muttered under his breath. His friend rolled her eyes and threw her hand in the air.

"Really Jake, your acting like a total…" Amy trailed off when something else suddenly seemed to catch her attention.

"Hey," she started while turning her head to the tree, "did you hear something?"

"Amy," he whispered nervously while slowly moving away, "I really think we should logout now and leave this to the mods!"

"Oh, alright," she finally sighed in defeat, "I've had enough VR for today… Computer, log out!"

"Hey, wait for…" Jake turned to Amy only to find that she was already gone. "Ooh, I hate it when she does that!" he groaned. "Well, this place is starting to give me the creeps… Computer, log out!"

Jake closed his eyes and smiled as he felt his mind being pulled back into the real world, blissfully unaware of the chaos that was about to ensue…