Episode Nineteen
'Brat'
Tea in the King's palace was divine, if Bulma dared to use the word, and she did. The room where they sat was lovely and so white it defied uncleanliness with a garden just outside a window so clean you almost couldn't see the glass. The garden had a variety of colorful flowers that seemed all the more colorful thanks to the room where they sat to enjoy their tea.
Though the walls, floor and ceiling of the room were white the furniture was carved oak with white cushions on the chairs and the table was clearly mahogany, a fine material, very expensive or so Bulma had heard. There were Guards on one end of the room and attendants on the other awaiting their every whim, and Bulma had to admit that she could get used to living like that if she weren't careful.
It took the edge off at least, but of course their topic of conversation wasn't nearly as pleasant as the seating and surroundings. They were of course discussing Trunks and his . . . "spirited" decision to accompany their fighters to New Namek.
"And so you see in his own way, I think he was trying to help." Bulma concluded.
The King took a sip of his tea and nodded. "Yes, that was my estimation as well the moment I heard. I know your Trunks is a good lad and a true hero, but you mustn't mistake him for infallible, he'll make mistakes just like any young man."
"You're a lot more patient with him than I'd have expected." Bulma sighed.
"I just know there's nothing I can do about it." The King reassured her. "Your son is a force of nature, I can only thank my lucky stars that he's a benevolent one and sway with the wind rather than trying to stand firm against it."
"I have to admit sometimes I'm so glad I raised such a good son, sometimes I'm even amazed that such a respectful young man sprang from my DNA . . . and then every once in a rare while he does something impulsive like this and I think 'you're lucky your father isn't here to deal with you, you brat!"
The "old people" at the table shared a laugh at that, then Master Roshi spoke up to change the topic.
"Well in the meantime," Master Roshi said, "this new tournament . . . I'm not so sure it's a good idea to hold it right now."
"What do you mean?" Bulma asked. "Don't we want more fighters?"
"Sure. But what I mean is that while we should definitely start making the preparations for the tournament, until Trunks and the others are safely back maybe we shouldn't be distracting ourselves by actually holding it. The big ship's scouters were what let us keep an eye on everything, if someone attacks now they'll either have to be strong enough for me to sense them or close enough for the smaller scouters to work."
"I have positioned some elite elements of the military in key locations with some of the reverse engineered scouters," The King said calmly, taking another sip of his tea, "If anything should come by with a power level over one hundred they'll verify and inform your people. Wherever possible though the Royal Guard will try to respond with the new blaster technology. As you can see things aren't so bad after all. We should only require you for emergencies really."
"Hmm." Master Roshi nodded slowly.
"That's a relief . . ." Bulma said but it made her wonder why the King had asked them to tea if it was just to tell them that things were going to be okay. Surely he could have said that over the phone.
"There is another matter I'd like your help with, however, that is if you're done with your tea." The King said.
"What's that?" Bulma asked, handing her cup to an attendant while Master Roshi did the same.
The King put his tea cup down and an attendant rushed over to take it from him and to clear the table. Another attendant set out a large map of . . . well, the world.
"There's the matter of these new Namekian settlers. Humanity's rebuilding projects are mostly centralized in West City and Central City, as I'm sure you know, after all Capsule Corporation is doing a large amount of the work."
"Yes, your majesty." Bulma agreed.
"So given what you know about the Namekians . . . where do you think they could settle comfortably?"
Bulma blinked in surprise, "I beg your pardon?"
"As we lack the population to make the most of them I want to declare one of our former capitals Namekian territory, that is if they're willing to settle it and coexist with any natives who might remain. But there aren't enough of us Earthlings left to cover Earth anymore, I don't think we need to be stingy. The Namekians are the same race as old King Piccolo, a terrifying adversary but that means they'll be strong allies against the Arcosians, doesn't it?"
"It does," Bulma agreed, "or at least I hope it does."
She thought about it for a moment, but it was Master Roshi who said, "What about East City?"
"East City?" Bulma asked.
"It seems like the best place to me." Master Roshi shrugged. "It'll give them some room to breathe, good land for growing those trees they like, lots of water."
"I don't know if their trees can grow on Earth." Bulma admitted. "But we can certainly suggest it to them. A permanent Namekian colony on Earth . . . at least when my son bothers to be on it it is the safest place."
"Indeed." The King said, nodding. "The Saiyans will be a trickier matter of course if you're planning to bring them in numbers that might require a settlement . . ."
Ah . . . Bulma thought. So he wants to know what our plans are for the Saiyans . . .
"Is there enough room on Earth for three major species?" Master Roshi asked carefully.
"There is now." The King said evenly. "But a generation or two down the line who can really say? Hopefully by then we'll be a strong conglomerate. I have something in mind for that of course but . . . first, what do you think about the Saiyans? As I understand it from my officers still in the compound there are nearly a dozen of them."
"That's hardly enough to necessitate a territory of their own," Bulma said, "but I'll admit if ever there should arise . . . civilian element to the Saiyans we might need to take them out of Capsule Corp Headquarters and resettle them elsewhere."
"Not only that," the King said, "but a home of their own could help them to feel more invested in the defense of Earth. If Earth isn't just for Earthlings, but rather a place for them as well perhaps we can peacefully coexist."
Bulma nodded slowly, "I hadn't thought of it that way your majesty." She said. It wasn't a lie in the strictest sense, she had thought of trying to invest the Saiyans in protecting Earth but the idea of giving them their own city . . .
"South City." Master Roshi was the one to answer again.
"South City?" Bulma asked.
"It's isolated on that island, and not too far from where I live so I can keep an eye on them so to speak. More importantly they won't run into many humans since there won't be any natives to return to South City once it's repaired, the Androids took them all out when it started."
"That's right . . ." Bulma agreed. "So then . . . you think the Saiyans should settle in South City?"
"I think there are worse ideas than giving them a home of their own." The King said. "Not that they won't be welcome elsewhere, the same goes for the Namekians of course."
"That leaves North City." Master Roshi said. "Should that be some sort of multiracial hub?"
"Actually that was my vision for Central City," the King said, "for North city . . . well as I understand it there are aliens on their way to this planet, too weak to have conquered us themselves but aggressive enough that they hired the Arcosians to attack us in the first place."
"You want to give them their own territory?" Bulma asked.
"Well why not?" The King asked. "They just need a home so far as we know, and we're not ready to give up ours. But if they're willing to share our world with us I think I can convince our people to be willing to share with them. It beats the alternative, a long protracted war."
"Or a quick one if Trunks gets back." Bulma pointed out. Then she realized the full implications of what she'd just said, "Of course . . . that'd mean we're just as bad as the Arcosians for wiping out an entire species just because they got in our way."
"The situation is a bit different," The King said, "let's not go comparing apples to oranges just yet."
"We'll have to do more than wipe out a single race in self defense before we're comparable to the Arcosians, Frieza's people have done in more races than we even knew existed and they're still at it" Master Roshi said.
Bulma nodded, "Well then . . . if Central City is supposed to be a hub for all the races of Earth to gather and meet maybe we should plan for the races that aren't of Earth."
"How do you mean?" The King asked.
"Where should we put the Star Port?" Bulma clarified with smile.
The King chuckled and smiled for a moment before one of his servants suddenly burst into the room.
"Y-your Majesty, the watch station in Central City just reported, their scouters have picked up five power signatures over one thousand!"
"Oh my . . ." Master Roshi sighed. "I'd better go."
"I'll call Capsule Corp and let Cauliflora know as well." Bulma nodded. "Thank you for tea your Majesty, but we'd better run."
"Good luck to you both." The King told them, "I have the fullest confidence, and I will consider where best to place Earth's first Star Port."
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Chillax's scouter lit up all of a sudden, the Arcosian noticed there were five power levels all over one thousand.
"That's an impressive mercenary force," he decided, "but nothing the humans can't handle. What a waste of life."
"What is?" Karuto asked from the next cell over.
"Oh just some idiots who just showed up to die. The Saiyan will handle them." Chillax yawned.
"Cauliflora?" Karuto asked, "I don't know if she knows. I better go tell her."
"Not her, the other Saiyan." Chillax scoffed, still not prepared to call Trunks by name.
"Oh . . . right." Karuto said a little too evasively.
Perhaps it was the strange evasiveness that put the Commander on his guard. Chillax sat up in his cell and asked, "What's going on? Are you hiding something?"
"Nothing . . ." Karuto said hesitantly.
Chillax considered for a moment what Karuto might be trying to keep from him. Based on what he knew of the child and what he knew of the Earthlings, Why would my mention of the Saiyan illicit a response like—and then the coin dropped and realization struck him.
The reason the Saiyan hadn't honored his request to meet him after he'd been so respectful to their new liaison, the reason his usual power level of 5 was absent, Chillax had just assumed he was living in a more comfortable number but indeed if Tathy was the thirty thousand and Cauliflora was the three hundred thousand . . . what more comfortable number could there be?
"He's not here, is he?" Chillax asked. Karuto was silent, which was answer enough. The young Arcosian Commander smirked, "Oh that fool. Well . . . I did warn them."
"Warn them about what?" Karuto asked.
"That our own people would never have so carelessly attacked New Namek." Chillax said with a yawn leaning back on his cot. "With that bounty out there's no way anyone would just start trouble on a planet so close to Earth, that is unless they hoped to get the attention of the people on Earth."
"Do you think bounty hunters are going to destroy Earth?" Karuto asked.
"They might try, but I doubt it. I'm sure the bounty our people put out would have specified not destroying the planet otherwise Admiral Frigus could have shifted himself off of Alpha Station and blown it up himself by now."
Karuto sounded worried, "I hope no one gets hurt."
"Stop worrying about them, they're your enemies!" Chillax scolded him.
"They're not my enemies, they're nice to me. They could be nice to all of us if we were nice to them too." Karuto said simply. "I hope they'll be okay."
"You make me sick sometimes." Chillax growled. "The world isn't like that you know, you can't just be nice to everyone and have everyone be nice to you. Sometimes people can't juts stop being enemies, sometimes there's lives lost to make you hold a grudge, ancient enmities, even differences in belief or culture so strong that your cultures are incompatible and the only thing to do is fight it out or leave each other alone. The best these humans can hope for is that our kind leave them alone, but then you and I will be prisoners forever."
"No, just you." Karuto said cheekily.
"I could get out of here, especially with that Saiyan gone. I just know better than to risk my neck for no reason." Chillax scoffed. "At least I'm not licking our enemies boots and helping them fight our people like certain little babies I know."
"Well at least I can go outside." Karuto told him and as if to prove the point he leaned in front of Chillax's door and made a silly face before rushing off.
The Commander scoffed. "Brat."
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Though she wasn't aware of popular belief at the time contrary to it Cauli was already aware of the five power levels that had landed just outside of the place the humans called Central City.
Nothing there but construction crews, Cauli thought, it's not unpopulated but it'll be sparse and spread out, whoever showed up probably wanted to try to pick some weaklings off the edge of the herd, or else they had the tech to notice me and Tathy in the bulk of the population and knew better than to get too close, but not well enough to stay away all together.
Cauliflora was flying at full speed of course, but she knew she wouldn't get there before a human or two was killed.
It'd be tragic but there was nothing for it, they hadn't had enough warning. Her own scouter had reacted not too long after they'd gotten the call from the King's men. She didn't know what system the Earthling army had put in place but early detection would only work if warning could be given with enough time to respond and this time there wasn't.
Cauli sped through the sky, Tathy was standing by at the Capsule Corporation headquarters in case this was just a diversion.
She watched her scouter carefully and thought Ah, looks like their leader's shown up. Four thousand, you adorable thing . . . well I guess we can't have all spent our youth training in an Arena. Four thousand would have been enough to get old General Nappa's attention anyway.
She just reported to her scouter, "See a new Power Level, four thousand . . . on my way to intercept."
There was no response, the control team of Basil and Thyme were gone, but Tathy was there and should have at least acknowledged her.
Cauli did wonder why her report was met with silence, but she knew Tathy well enough to know that if she had nothing useful to say she'd have said something useless so as out of character as her silence was it wasn't particularly concerning.
She instead became concerned when the four thousand power level intercepted one of the one thousands and in a trice the one thousand plummeted and was gone.
Then a second one.
"Master Roshi, is that you there?"
"No, Master Roshi is still en route in his hover limo." Tathy said, she was chewing something. "Do you know when he got that? I kind of want one, it looks fancy. Much slicker than that junker we stole from that Galactic Patrolman. Don't think it's space capable though. Hey do you think he's ever going to come here to get it back?"
"The limo?" Cauli was confused.
"Nah, the junker we stole. That patrolman, think he'll find us to get it back?" Tathy asked, crunching on something as she spoke now.
"Who cares—wait why are you eating?" Cauli demanded, "You're supposed to be ready to act if West City gets attacked!"
"I am." Tathy told her. "I'm just having a pre-battle snack to calm my nerves in this dangerous time."
"Four thousand's just downed a third one thousand," Cauli said, "Is that one of ours?"
"Can't help you. Hey, maybe it's the little mister—nope, nope he just ran in here. Hey buddy, which of the Earthlings has a power level of four thousand?" Tathy said.
Cauli shut her scouter's communicator off, it wasn't going to do her any good if Tathy wasn't going to take her job seriously. She flew on using the power levels to guide her. She could see the power level she was pretty sure belong to Roshi on its way, but she'd arrive well before he did.
The four thousand converged on the last of the one-thousands and then both disappeared. Cauli was closer now, she pushed herself beyond the limits, determined to see what had happened.
When she arrived all she saw was the ruins of Central city and a few fires that had been lit, probably by the blasts of the bounty hunters.
She landed by a body, it was humanoid but not human. Cauli inspected him, the gray skinned alien was clearly dead. She inspected the area for a while, finding a few shaken construction crews who were working to put out the fires and the five dead bounty hunters.
But no sign of whoever had had that four thousand power level.
She couldn't even detect its owner at a lower level. She folded her arms and sat on the corpse of one bounty hunter thinking to herself as Roshi's black hover limousine pulled up, hovering near her as he opened the door. He eyed the dead bounty hunter and asked, "Good thing you got here in time. Friend of yours?"
"Never met him, and I wasn't the one who got here." Cauliflora told him. "Someone else was here, someone with a power level at around four thousand. They eliminated the mercenaries one by one and then they disappeared."
"Hmm . . . then maybe we've got some kind of Central City vigilante." Master Roshi said.
"Vigilante?" Cauli scoffed.
"It's when someone fights crime without-"
"I know what a vigilante is, I'm a bounty hunter, sir," Cauli said with just a bit of amusement. She might have been in more of a laughing mood if she'd actually caught this so-called vigilante.
Instead she was left to think to herself, So the Earthlings have some kind of vigilante who chose not to join Prince Trunks. Poor fool doesn't know what he's getting himself into. He was lucky this time, but next time the enemy could be stronger.
"You don't seem terribly concerned that a stronger power level is skulking around your planet somewhere." Cauliflora pointed out.
Master Roshi ran his hand over his beard and said, "It's not that I'm not concerned, but it seems for the moment like things worked out for the best. It seems like someone is on our side and that's good enough for me."
"Not for me, they might have been a different bounty hunter who just eliminated these five to get rid of the competition." Cauli said.
"Do you know what species they are?" Master Roshi asked.
"Not at all." Cauli said. "It's a wide galaxy with lots of seedy types, they're humanoids but not Earthlings. Gray skin, big black eyes. Haven't seen their kind before."
"Well it's just as well someone dealt with them. Come on, hop in, I'll give you a ride back." Master Roshi told her.
"No thank you, I'll be fine." Cauliflora said. "I want to look around here for a bit."
"Well just be careful," Master Roshi told her, "if you hunt a vigilante they might feel like they're being chased into a corner."
"I'm hardly going to be afraid of a four thousand power level." Cauli said dismissively.
"They might not need to overpower you, and a cornered dog fights fiercest." Master Roshi said. Cauli hesitated, wondering if he knew more than he was letting on, but he left before she could ask.
She folded her arms and scanned with her scouter.
"Vigilante my left eye." She muttered. "I'm an S-Ranked Bounty Hunter. If you're out there I'll find you, just you see if I don't."
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"Well? Do we have reports from Earth?" General Boreal asked.
"Kalt's satellites are still in place for some reason so we were able to tap in to them. There was a bit of a dust up just barely," Icebreaker told him, "but nothing major. Some dolts with power levels around a thousand showed up and got put down in short order. The highest power level we detected was a three hundred thousand."
The General chuckled, "Our Saiyan friend?"
"The long satellite's scouter did confirm Saiyan life-signs." Icebreaker nodded.
"He's teasing me," General Boreal said with a slight smirk, "He's trying to lure me in, making me thing I can take him as he is."
"Sir?" Icebreaker asked.
"Our Saiyan must have found someone to question before he exterminated Kalt's crew, must have learned my own power level of three hundred thousand sixty and thinks if we're watching him that I can be baited into attacking, falling into the same trap Kalt did. Little does he know that we received the final transmission from Kalt's ship, we know his true power level." Boreal explained. He shook his head, "As such little still does he know I have no intention of rising to his bait."
"Indeed, General." Icebreaker said. "But you know if he thinks he can lull you in to a false sense of security maybe we can lay some kind of trap. Let him battle you evenly, let him imagine that it's just a duel while Cooly and I bring the ship in on their population hub and exterminate the lot."
"It's a thought, but I feel like unless training yields unimaginable results any duel between he and I would be terrifyingly short, whether he chose to have a bit of sport or not, don't you?" General Boreal asked. Icebreaker shrugged.
"You might be sacrificed, but we would accomplish our mission."
"Perhaps. Better, I think, to follow our orders, don't you?" General Boreal asked and Icebreaker shrugged.
"How far away are we?" Cooly asked, speaking up to address the helmsman.
The purple skinned Appullatien said, "we'll be at our destination planet in another two weeks, sir, from there we'll be just six hours away from Earth at maximum burn for a pod, the carrier itself would still take a bit longer."
General Boreal leaned back in his command chair and nodded his approval. "Very good. We're well ahead of schedule. Keep an eye on the Saiyan, let me know if he rises above that three hundred thousand."
"Can I ask why, sir?" Icebreaker asked.
"Just a theory, I suspect the Saiyans can sense us from a distance greater than the scouters can detect. He's wearing my reported power level as costume to mock me no doubt but if he starts mimicking my true power we'll know that they can sense us on . . . what was the planet we were going to set up our base on? Rupert?"
"Pluto sir. Though our instruments insist it's not a planet, it may have been misrepresented to us in the educational broadcasts we intercepted from Earth." Cooly told him.
"Well planet or no it'll suffice for our purposes." General Boreal said, bringing up a map of Earth's system from his command chair. Out of curiosity he asked, "Which one is called Rupert?"
"None of them are called Rupert, sir." Icebreaker told him.
"Hmm . . . well one of them should have been. After we've annihilated the humans we'll rename Pluto, after all who's going to be left to argue?" The General chuckled and retired to his quarters to eagerly await the attack.
To Be Continued . . .
Next time on Dragon Ball COED . . . Karuto learns more about what happened to the Saiyans of Goulder once they arrived on the War World, he hears about their triumphs in the Spring Games and beyond, and he learns the shocking truth that led to their final conflict.
Note: Having trouble envisioning everyone? As a reminder character images are available on DeviantArt in my Xenoverse gallery (user Zoness1124) and this story is also being posted on Archive of Our Own with some of said Character Images along with notes and fun facts (user Zoness) Thanks for all the support I've received, and enjoy!
