The Yamucha Chronicle

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Part 20: Another day, another disaster

On May 12th 767 A.D. we all gathered on an island outside of South Capital City. Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Tenshinhan, Krillen and I. Chaozu, Vegeta and Yajirobe weren't there but Bulma was. Bulma insisted that if the world was going to end anyway then she might as well watch. (sarcasm) How sweet of her to be so optimistic, hrm? How nice and considerate of her to have so much confidence in our abilities. (end sarcasm) Eh. Privately I agreed with her. But it's never a great feeling to have skills that you've worked long and hard for openly discredited. For the sake of morale, she could have at least pretended that we had a chance.

Bulma had brought baby Trunks with her. She introduced him to the rest of group - Gohan mostly, I think. Someone asked if Trunks was my kid. I said no and walked off. I probably should have said that Trunks was practically my kid. But I'd had a recent argument with Bulma regarding her lack of parenting skills. We were still mad at each other from that. To make a long story short, I had refused to babysit anymore. For two reasons. First, I had my own life and it was a busy one. Second, I thought - hoped - that if Bulma was forced to spend more time with her son then maybe she'd become a better parent.

I was age 34 at this gathering. Tenshinhan and Bulma were also each 34. Krillen was 31, Goku was 30 and Gohan was 10. Trunks was just over a year old. We'd known where and when to gather to wait for the appearance of the androids because future Trunks had given us that much information.

Yajirobe did eventually join us. He dropped by to leave us with some senzu beans in case we needed them later. Then he left. I really don't blame him. Yajirobe is samurai. Like most samurai, his training has included all kinds of marital arts but with a very strong preference for fighting with weapons. Yajirobe can fight without his katana - he'd just really rather not. And that's why he left. He must have doubted that his sword attacks would be effective on robots. Chaozu was staying out of this battle for similar reasons, he expected that androids would be immune to his psychic attacks.

So Yajirobe and Chaozu were part of our back up this way. If we had all gotten slaughtered then they would have still been alive to figure out how to wish us back to life. Pessimistic thinking, I know, but the idea had occurred to us. Piccolo didn't think we had a chance against the androids, Goku thought we might be able to beat them and the rest of us weren't really sure.

After waiting a while, I was beginning to think the androids wouldn't come. Wishful thinking on my part. As Yajirobe was leaving, something blew his aircar right out of the sky. We were all startled by the explosion - no one more than Yajirobe, I suppose. Gohan took off to see if he was okay.

The puzzle with androids is twofold. First, our ki had no real effect on them. It's strange. Because without even powering up, I can make lights flicker just by walking through a room - remember? And Goku can accidentally reset gravity rooms. And Gohan probably just has to frown at an electrical appliance to make it short circuit. And yet the androids, who were full of computer chips and electrical parts, weren't affected. Secondly - despite their immense power, the androids didn't have ki. So the androids could sense our energy signatures but we couldn't detect them. As I write this now, I can't help but pause and wonder if these two problems were connected. The androids must have had some fairly serious shielding devices to protect their internal computers. After all, they were able to withstand all the energy that an angry Saiyan could generate. So maybe the shielding devices are what prevented us from being able to sense their ki.

We saw the androids flying towards the city from a distance but as soon as we lost sight of them, we had no idea where they were. Nevertheless, we gave chase. We left Bulma and baby Trunks on the island. We reached the city and decided to split up to look for the androids. Splitting up was an utterly stupid decision on our part. Very risky. At the time, though, we thought that we'd cover more ground that way. Understand that we wanted to find those androids as fast as possible - before they had the chance to hurt too many other people.

Somehow I ended up on my own. Everyone else had paired off. Trust my luck... There I am, alone and then I end up flying over the one part of the city that was rapidly becoming a disaster area. I heard people screaming. Inwardly, I hoped that the cause of the screams was a car accident or something like that.

What I saw next was an awful sight that is going haunt me for the rest of my life no matter how much I try to forget. It was just chilling. There was this one dead guy with his head - just his head, mind you and the eyes were open - punched through the roof of his car. He was probably on his way to work. Heck, maybe he was on his way home from work. And... He gets killed like that. For no reason. There were other bodies as well - some charred, most chopped into pieces and others in twisted poses.

It was all I could do to not be sick.

I'll be honest. I was as scared as the people screaming. Because I knew that I couldn't really protect them. How was I supposed to defend anybody from an enemy that I couldn't even detect? The androids had already demonstrated that they had long-range attacks, they could have blown someone away right in front of me. I didn't want to watch a bunch of innocent people die. It's the helpless wanting-to-run-away-but-where-can-you-go feeling. Nowhere was safe, not for me or for anyone else.

Reluctantly, I landed. I couldn't just fly away from the terrified people below. Anyone that could have is either heartless or a survivalist. I tried to seem calm and authoritative (and failed miserably, I'm sure) in order to attempt to give the impression that things were under control. There were a lot of people down there. If they panicked then they would probably just hurt each other while trying to flee. So I didn't want them to panic even though on the inside, I was.

The androids were hovering right over me. The truth is that I didn't know they were there until they landed behind me. One of the androids was an old guy and the other was disturbingly familiar. 19, he was designed to look like a certain deceased emperor. Anyway. The androids I confronted showed zero remorse for their actions, in fact they seemed to be enjoying themselves. They happily took credit for murdering all the people in the area that were dead. Most of my brain was telling me to get out of there but I couldn't risk it. If I could have been a hundred percent sure that the androids would have followed me then yes, I would have left. In a heartbeat. I would have gladly flown off and lured the androids as far away from the city as possible. But I doubted that the androids would chase me. If I had left... They would have just stayed behind and killed the survivors of their earlier attacks. So I stayed put, more or less against my will.

I had time to recognize the insignia of the Red Ribbon Army before one of the androids recognized me and stepped forward. Then everything gets blurry. Not even a very painful blur, I was too numb to feel much. I'm not exactly sure how I managed to stay alive with a hole through my midsection. Seems like I should have bled to death.

The androids were draining my energy and it was slowly killing me. I thought about the weirdest things while I was dying. Wondered if I had left the porch light on at home and meaningless incoherent little stuff like that. For some unknown reason, I was retained enough awareness to sense energy signatures. I remember knowing that the other warriors were heading towards me - they must have noticed my ki taking a dive. Krillen and Goku were the closest to my location but still I didn't think that they'd reach me in time to find more than a corpse. I wondered if they would be upset with me for not training more often. Then I finally lost consciousness.

I don't know how long I was out but I was mildly surprised to regain semi-consciousness at all. I just kinda vaguely remember hearing Krillen, Yajirobe and Gohan telling me that I had to wake up now. Bulma was there too, I think. I'm not sure why we had left the senzu beans with her. Anyway. Someone forced one of the senzu down my throat which restored all my energy and patched up the hole in my midsection. Unfortunately, it also got rid of the numbness a bit too quickly. There were a few seconds where all the pain came crashing down on me before fading out of existence.

Once I had recovered from that, my main concern was that we wouldn't get back to Goku and the others in time to warn them about the androids ability to drain energy. I don't know why I felt the need to warn anyone. Goku and Krillen didn't need to be warned. They had witnessed the androids demonstrating their life-draining talents on me. Must not have been thinking very clearly. As I've said before, the senzu beans can heal your physical wounds but full mental and emotional recovery - that takes time. It had not been a good day for me. I was still a bit dazed. But if I had felt that Goku had stood a chance against that energy-draining technique then I wouldn't have gone back to the battle.

Krillen and Gohan accompanied me. I must have acted far more composed than I felt, they seemed to be surprised by how well I was doing. Krillen brought the senzu beans. We left Yajirobe, baby Trunks and Bulma behind with instructions that they should get as far away from the city as possible.

We arrived too late. Goku was getting the life beaten out of him by one of the androids. Literally. He was in Super Saiyan mode and still getting pulverized. Tenshinhan and Piccolo were also there but, much to their frustration, they had to stay out of the battle in order to give Goku a fighting chance. If they had interfered then both of the androids would have just killed Goku outright.

Vegeta, age 35, finally caught up to the rest of us. He made a fashionably late entrance into the battle by showing that he'd achieved Super Saiyan. While Vegeta was smacking the androids around, we managed to drag Goku away from the battle. We gave Goku a senzu bean. It would be wrong to say that nothing happened. With senzu, something always happens. Goku had earned some bruises and fractures and scratches from his battle. With the senzu, most of those minor injuries were healed. Not all of them though. And Goku didn't seem to recover any energy. And he was still having trouble breathing. Piccolo said aloud what the rest of us were thinking - it was the heart disease. And Goku had left the medicine at his home.

Well, I'd been wanting an excuse to leave... I saw this as a chance to step down with honor. I offered to escort Goku home so that he could get his medicine. You know, almost being killed once in a day is more than enough.

I couldn't fly Goku home as fast as I would have liked to for two reasons: weight and memory.

Goku is in the habit of wearing clothes that weigh abnormally large amounts. His wrist bands alone probably weigh more than some cars. So yea, he is not easy to carry. If Goku hadn't been able power up enough to fly a little bit, I probably wouldn't have been able to move him at all. In truth, I wasn't really carrying him that much. Goku was flying and I was just doing the steering.

This is why memory is important. Goku was drifting in and out of consciousness. There were moments when he didn't recognize me. Nevermind androids, very little in the universe is as scary as having someone that you've known for the past eighteen years completely forget who you are. I was able to convince Goku that I was a friend of his. So he didn't attack me but he acted like he didn't totally trust me either. That kept my nerves on edge. It got worse as we continued flying. There were moments when Goku seemed to forget his own identity and at one point he tried to escape. If he hadn't been in so much pain, he would have been successful.

It was a bit of a comfort when I sensed Gohan following us at a distance. A bit alarming too. I was anxious to know why Gohan had left the battle. Had he been hurt or did he somehow realize that his father was being difficult? Or were the androids following me, was Gohan chasing them? That last possibility really bugged me for the simple reason that I didn't want to be leading the androids straight to Gokus house.

Chaozu and Tenshinhan are telepaths. I'd spent just over a year around both of them - on Kamis Lookout and then on King Kais world - so thankfully I'd picked up a bit of mindspeak. And guess who else had been on Kamis Lookout to learn it as well? Right. Yajirobe. He telepathically informed me that he and Gohan were escorting Bulma and baby Trunks home to Capsule Corp. Yajirobe said not to worry about the androids because Vegeta had already killed one of them and the rest of the group was currently hunting down the second android.

Even though I basically hated Vegeta, I was kind of mentally cheering for him at that time. He could be an arrogant jerk but he was useful to have around. Even if he was defending the world for all the wrong reasons - he was, at least, still defending the world. It's hard not to appreciate that.

Goku was in a haze when we finally arrived at his home. Which is a good thing, I guess, because I don't know how ChiChi would have reacted if Goku had been fully conscious yet unable to recognize her. ChiChi and I gave Goku the medicine - with only minor resistance from Goku once we had assured him that no needles were involved. We left Goku on his bed, he curled up in the middle and growled at us like he was an injured wild animal until he fell asleep. Then we were able to put some blankets over him because he'd started shaking visibly, as if he were very cold.

Mostly I stayed at the Son house because I was too exhausted - emotionally as well as physically - to go anywhere else. But I had also decided that I'd stay in case Goku tried to escape or do anything else that would ultimately just be harmful to his health. You know, what if Goku had started to fire off random attacks?

I hoped that Gohan would catch up with us soon. He did. When he arrived home, Gohan immediately went to check on his father. Then he spent a while comforting his mother. He even went out of his way to thank me for helping his dad to get home. The kid was ten but he rarely acted his age. It's kind of messed up actually. I consider Goku to be sort of like a younger brother but Gohan, I almost think of him as an equal in the sense of being someone my age or older. Maybe it's because Gohans first two senseis were Piccolo and Krillen. Maybe it's because Gohan has had a rough life. Maybe it's just because he studied so much. Perhaps all of the above. Whatever the reason, Gohan has always come off as serious and a bit too mature.

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