Hey guys, Liz here. Hope you guys had a good Thanksgiving, if you celebrate it, and that you're ready for December to come. (I know I am). Anyway, last we left off, the Son kids, Trunks, and Bulma were inspecting the second time machine when the group thought they were about to encounter whatever traveled in the machine to begin with. Will they find whatever that thing is? Find out now!

One quick note, this chapter is gonna shift to a Piccolo perspective of things since he plays a key role in revealing something about this version of Cell. (I'm so excited!) So for all you Piccolo fans, here's the big green's time to shine! Woo! Let's do this!

Son Squad Ch.42

The five Son kids and son of the prince of Saiyans waited with breathless anticipation for what was to come. Whatever this beast was, they'd deal with it together. It was six on one anyway, right? Odds were in their favor. (Unless this thing brought someone back with it or something). Regardless, they were ready.

However, what popped out of the bushes was not the creature, but instead, some little mountain critters that looked at the group before scurrying off like they were nothing. Everyone let out a sigh of relief when it didn't turn out to be some monster. Now didn't seem like a good time to be fighting some giant bug-like creature.

With that settled, the group parted ways with Bulma and began their trek back towards Master Roshi's place. While in the air, Trunks was trying to figure out what all this meant. What did this creature have to do with the time machine? Who could've sent it and why? And how could they have gotten their hands on the time machine in the first place? Could it have been stolen from his mother somehow? What does it all mean? Trunks thought to himself. I don't understand how this could've happened.

"Hey," Chibi spoke, getting Trunks out of his head. He turned and saw her right by his side, giving her a bit of a concerned look. Well, as concerned as Chibiko could get without dropping her signature scowl. "You all good?"

"Oh, sorry," Trunks apologized to Chibi, trying to act like he was okay. "Did you say something?"

"We were all talking about that skin we found back there," Chibi replied. "We were wondering how much bigger that thing is gonna get and who could've sent it back here."

"I'm still going with aliens," Daichi jumped in, flying slightly ahead of the others. "I mean, what else could that thing be but an alien egg? It's not much of a stretch to think that, either. Our Dads are aliens from space after all."

"It could be a mutant," Chinku hypothesized, flying right next to Daichi, who was nodding in agreement to this little proposal. He could see it as being a mutant thing as well. "Like, it came from a future of other mutant bugs and is coming here to lay its eggs and take over the world!"

"That's it; no more monster movies from you," Gohan scolded his little sister from the front of the flight group, earning a pout from the girl in question.

"No fair!" Chinku complained, not liking the idea that someone would take away her TV time.

"In all seriousness, though, that thing crawling around here for four years without anybody knowing gives me the creeps!" Chiyo shivered from her spot next to Gohan.

"Yeah. This just keeps getting weirder and weirder," Trunks remarked. "We'll have to be on our guard now more than ever."


Meanwhile, little Daichi was sitting in the living room at the Kame House sipping his juice box and watching cartoons on the TV. Master Roshi and Yamcha sat at the table discussing the whole situation, but the little boy was tuning them out. He didn't get to watch cartoons that much, and he was sure gonna take advantage of this opportunity. He laughed when the cartoon mouse hit the cartoon cat with a frying pan. "Good one!" He chuckled to himself.

Upstairs, meanwhile, Chi-Chi was tending to her sleeping husband. His fever was flaring up every now and again, but he seemed like he was on the mends. She rang out a rag and put it on his head to help him cool off. "Oh, Goku, I wish you would wake up, already," Chi-Chi told her sleeping husband as she sat next to him.

Right next to her, little Chibi was crawling on the floor after the turtle, who was trying to keep her entertained while Chi-Chi was busy tending to Goku. He did this for a while before he ended up stopping and turning to hide in his shell from the little baby, and she stopped and began to look around for him. When she didn't see his head anywhere, she started crawling around the mattress her Father was lying on to look for the reptile, not comprehending the turtle didn't outright disappear like she believed it had. Chibi soon sat on her butt and pondered what to do next after failing to locate her target when she let out a small yawn. All that crawling made her exhausted. She could go for a nap.

Looking around, she noticed the mattress right next to her and used her little arms to pull herself onto it. She crawled up towards the top of it, got under the blanket, and snuggled up right next to her sleeping Father.

Chi-Chi, who had turned around for a second, smiled when she saw the little baby girl snuggled up next to her daddy. She smiled even more when Goku, in his sleep, wrapped his arm around the little girl and held her there. Chibi responded to this by unconsciously reaching and grabbing his hands, wrapping her tiny hands around his index finger. It was one of the most adorable things Chi-Chi had seen and she wished she had a camera to take a picture of this.

Back downstairs, Krillin was sitting on the couch, getting ready to pass out from Daichi's cartoons. How did kids watch this kind of thing and not get bored? Still, it was a good distraction from everything that had happened today. That's when the house phone rang and woke Krillin up from his temporary nap. He was the closest to the ringing phone, so he got up to answer it. "Hello? Kame house?" Krillin greeted, not sure who would be calling the place.

"Oh hey, Krillin, it's me, Bulma," Bulma greeted on the other end of the line. She was calling from her plane as she left the spot where the second time machine and that weird shell was found. "Good to hear you made it to Master Roshi's okay. What about the others?"

"The kids?" He asked. (He referred to them as kids even though technically Trunks, F. Daichi, and F. Chibi couldn't really be considered kids. Well, either way, he was still older than them, so whatever). "They're not back yet."

"Okay, well, nevermind that for now," Bulma said. She had hoped they would've been back by then, but she wasn't too worried. She knew all six of them could take care of themselves if something popped up. "Listen, I need you to turn on the TV to the news, right away."

"Wait, what?" Krillin asked, trying to understand what Bulma was going on about. "What are you talking about it?"

"Look, just do it, okay?"

"Okay, okay. Hold on a second." Krillin pulled the phone away from his ear and reached over to begin tuning the TV to a news station like Bulma requested of him.

"Hey!" Daichi whined upon seeing this. He glared at Krillin, who just shrugged at the little toddler. "Cartoons! Cartoons!"

"Sorry, Daichi, but Bulma wants us to check out something on the news real quick," Krillin apologized and explained to Daichi. It didn't lessen the frustration from the young man, though.

"Wait, what's going on with Bulma?" Yamcha asked from his spot at the table across from Master Roshi.

"Bulma says we need to see something on the news or whatever," Krillin answered, not sure how else to explain it since he was confused as well.

Just as he did, the TV tuned in to a live news broadcast with a reporter who looked a bit shaken up as he held a few sheets of paper in his hands. However, he tried to remain professional as he looked at the camera. "We interrupt your broadcast to bring you this news story," The report began before looking to his papers. "We have more information in regards to the crisis in Gingertown. Now, if I'm reading this right, according to this new information, clothing of the missing townspeople has been littered all over the area with not a soul in sight other than reporters."

Immediately, Roshi, Yamcha, and Krillin were glued to the TV. Did they hear this guy right? How could people just disappear and only their clothes remain? Daichi, who wasn't sure what was going, just turned his head in confusion and took a sip from his juice box while the grown-ups grew more concerned.

The news then cut to a reporter who was actually in Gingertown. He looked even more shaken than the guy sitting at the desk. "Uh, we're here in Gingertown and there are few clues as to the fates of the over 15,000 men, women, and children who live here," The reporter stated into the camera. "All that remains are articles of clothing as if the people wearing them melted away." The cameraman then paned over to what looked like a park to reveal clothing just thrown about on the ground. The thing was, it wasn't like someone had dropped the clothes all willy nilly; in fact, shirts were paired up with pants and shoes, like the people had just faded. One set of clothes showed something peculiar, though; on top of the shirt laid a rifle, and the news reporter even pointed this out to the audience. "This weapon here might indicate that the people tried to fight off whatever took them."

"What?! Took them?!" Roshi gasped, sitting up in his seat to get a better look at the screen. He was really hoping that his hearing was going because if it wasn't, then this guy on TV just said that over 15,000 people just vanished and left behind nothing but their clothes.

"Where'd they go?" Daichi asked, looking over to Krillin, who still held the house phone in his hand. He didn't quite get the gravity of the situation and thought that maybe this was like a game or something.

"I-It's gotta be those androids, Bulma!" Krillin stuttered to Bulma, who was still on the phone, completely ignoring Daichi's question. "They have to be the ones who are doing this!" He was starting to kick himself in the pants now. Because of his inability to jump in earlier, these things were carrying out Trunks' dark premonition and going around killing humans.

"No, I don't think it's them," Bulma replied, surprising Krillin. "Don't just take my word for it; I'm sure the others will back me up when they get there."

"But if it's not them- and that's a big if because I'm not convinced- you're saying this has something to do with the other time machine you found?"

"Definitely. The others will fill you in when they get there, okay?"

"….Yeah, okay."

The two friends then hung up, and Krillin turned his full attention to the screen.

Just as they all looked at the screen, Chi-Chi came down to inform everyone that Goku and Chibi were asleep and found the others all staring at the screen. She walked over to see them all watching the news, and she got a bad feeling in her stomach. Without saying a word, she walked over to get Daichi away from the TV. Call it a mother's intuition, but she had a feeling that something terrible was about to go down, and the last thing she wanted was for her young son to see something he couldn't unsee. She buried his face into her shirt and had him look away from the screen as she held him.

"Mama?" He asked as she held him like that. Again, he was too young to really grasp what was going on and just wanted someone to explain this to him.

A moment later, the group from the second time machine arrived and found everyone watching the TV and not even bothering to look up when they walked in.

"Uh, whatcha guys doing?" Gohan asked as he walked inside first.

"Good, you guys are back," Krillin said, turning to look at all six of them. "Come in here and watch the news to help us figure out what's going on."

"Wait, what?" Chiyo asked, blinking in confusion. What was happening?

Suddenly, what sounded like people shouting could be heard from the TV. People seemed to be shouting from a distance and what followed was rapid gunfire. However, the camera couldn't find anything to indicate where the noise was coming from. Why couldn't they see where the screaming was coming from? Surely, what sounded like several people screaming and trying to defend themselves, couldn't be hard to find, right? Then, just moments later, silence fell, and that just made everyone's stomachs sink.

At this point, Chinku ran over to her mother's side, growing slightly scared at what was going on. This was her first time seeing something like this, and it scared her. It wasn't like the movies on TV where she knew this stuff was fake; this was real life. She buried her face in her mother's side.

The news reporter continued, "All right, we're gonna try and go in for a closer loo-" He stopped mid-sentence as he looked behind the cameraman at something that caused him to look terrified. Then, the screen went to static.

Everyone jumped when this happened, and Krillin quickly tuned into another channel found one that was working. The camera was now on the ground, and gunshots and screaming could be heard in the background. "Help me!" The reporter from before screamed. Then it went utterly quiet.

Now seemed to be the perfect time to fill everyone in on what they found. Trunks and the Son kids told everyone what they found; the busted-up time machine, the egg inside, the data indicating that it had arrived four years ago, and the creature's shell. The others took this all in and couldn't believe what they were hearing. The thing from the time machine had to be what was attacking Gingertown. What else could it have been?

"I'm getting to the bottom of this," Trunks suddenly declared, getting everyone's attention. He turned and began heading towards the door to leave. He had to figure out what this thing was once and for all.

The others weren't just going to let him leave, though. No way was he going to go lone-wolf on them like his father would.

"Hold on a second!" F. Daichi shouted at Trunks. "You can't just go off on your own! What are you thinking?!"

"If you're going to Gingertown, then we're going with you," F. Chibi declared, causing her older brother to look at her with a nervous look.

"Wait, we're going towards the town with the creepy bug-thing going around and snatching people up?" He nervously questioned. He thought that they were just going to convince Trunks to not go.

"Yes, we are," F. Chibi stubbornly answered before looking at Trunks. "Look, you can't just go rushing into a situation where you have no idea what's going on. You especially can't go alone!"

"I'll be fine, you two," Trunks insisted, turning back to look at his companions. "I can handle myself out there. Besides, the androids are our biggest issue, not some giant bug.

"Well then, I guess you won't mind us coming with you, then," F. Chibi remarked, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at Trunks. She looked just like her mother doing that pose. "Since it's not such a big deal, you shouldn't have a problem with us tagging along on pest control"

There was no changing her mind about it, and Trunks knew it. Sometimes, he couldn't believe how stubborn this girl could be. "Fine, but let's hurry."

"Then we're coming too!" Gohan and Chiyo declared from the other end of the room.

"Yeah!" Chinku added in, gaining back a bit of confidence when she realized how dire the situation was.

"Oh no, you're not!" Chi-Chi interrupted. "I was fine with you going before, but now it's much too dangerous! And your poor father is still sick in bed!" (I feel bad for little Daichi who's still being held by Chi-Chi while she's yelling. His ears will be ringing for a while).

"But mom, they'll need our help," Gohan insisted to his mother. He couldn't be sidelined now. This was the time to prove his worth.

"Listen here, you three," Chi-Chi began. "I don't care if that thing spits fire or knows how to shoot acid from its hands: you're not going, and that's final!" She was not about to have her three babies go off to face some bug monster.

"But mom," All three whined at the same time.

Chi-Chi had to put her foot down here. The situation before was one thing, but now there was confirmation that whatever was attacking Gingertown was indeed dangerous. She was not about to back down from this, and that was that. She was just going to tell the future versions of her children the same thing, but when she looked up, they, along with Trunks, were already gone and racing towards Gingertown at high speed.


Piccolo, er, not Piccolo? What was he supposed to refer to himself as now? Kamiccolo? Picmi? The nameless Namekian who came to Earth all those years ago? Eh, he'd figure out the name later. For now, he would stick with Piccolo for himself but then tell others he wasn't him anymore. Or maybe, he was him and just now a whole new being? Gosh, this was so complicated!

Anyway, the newly remerged Namekian made his way to Gingertown, and, just as he expected with having Kami's knowledge, the town was empty. Not a person was in sight. However, Piccolo knew that it was there. Whatever had taken the people was there. Unfortunately for Piccolo, he wasn't sure on this creature's full details yet since even Kami himself couldn't quite decipher what it was. There was like a mental block or something preventing him from seeing what the creature thoroughly looked like.

He began walking around and listened carefully for any hint of noise. The slightest sound would surely alert him to the creature's whereabouts. He passed by empty cars and articles of clothes littering the ground. This was not how a city was supposed to be. It should've been teeming with life, with people walking about and talking to their companions, sitting down for a quick lunch, driving their cars down the road. This was a ghost town.

Coming to a stop in the road, Piccolo heard something approaching him from an alley. He turned to see the silhouette of something standing in the shadows, with the lower half of its body revealed in the light. In contrast, the upper half was shrouded in darkness. It was green and spotted all over, like some sort of bug, with two feet which spread out into three toes, an insect-like tail swinging freely behind it with a sharp end, and hands that were long and sharp just like claws. He could make out something on the thing's back that reminded him of wings almost. Other than that, he couldn't see much of the upper body due to the shadows. Even with his advanced vision, that was all a mystery to him. However, he could make out black-slitted snake eyes staring back at him.

"Took you long enough, you monster," Piccolo stated as the creature stared him down. As he did, a sudden shiver ran down Piccolo's spine as he sensed this thing's power. It wasn't the fact that it felt strong- I mean, it did- but it was more of the fact that it felt familiar to Piccolo. Too familiar. "W-What is that, power? I-It can't be!"

The creature said nothing from its spot in the shadows as it and Piccolo stared each other down.

In the creature's right hand was a larger man dangling unconscious, or at least Piccolo thought. The man slowly looked up and around and found himself in this thing's claws and began to panic. He looked up and saw Piccolo, thinking this green guy couldn't be as bad as the other green guy. "Hey, you there!" He shouted as he extended his arm out towards Piccolo. "Don't just stand there, help me! Please! Look, I'm the richest guy in Gingertown! If it's money you want, I'll pay ya!" He reached into his suit and pulled out a massive stack of cash, and waved it to Piccolo. "If you get me away from this thing, all of this is yours, okay?!"

Trying to calm himself down, Piccolo spoke to the monster directly, "Listen, I don't know if you can understand me, but let that human go free," Piccolo demanded of the hidden creature. "However measly his life is, it still has value."

The creature said nothing and just stood there for a moment, staring back at Piccolo in utter silence. Then, without so much as a word, it released the man from its grasp. However, before he could get far, the creature's tail swished behind its back and stabbed right into the man's back and started….well, the best way Piccolo could describe it would be sucking the life out of the man, but it was more than that. The man gagged in pain as his body began to shrivel up to the point his skin sagged as his muscles deteriorated, and his bones were all that was left. But even those too disappeared along with the man's skin until there was nothing of the man left except his clothing. The whole process took less than a minute, but it was enough to make Piccolo sick to his stomach. He had seen people die, sure, but he had never seen anything so slow, painful, and grotesque. Sweat visibly ran down Piccolo's face as he looked at the clothing and then at the creature that still remained in the shadows.

"I will absorb you next," The creature spoke from the shadows. However, its voice sounds eerily familiar. How could it be so familiar to him? He had never met this thing before, but that voice…. "Submit, Piccolo."

The Namekian let out an audible gasp. That thing knew who he was too?! He couldn't cower now. No, not right after he had gone through all this trouble to become whole again with Kami.

"Heh, I know everything there is to know about you," The creature creepily replied. It slowly emerged from the shadows, revealing the upper part of its body to the Namekian. What he saw shocked him; Piccolo expected this creature to look more grotesque the further up you looked, but right around the neck area, its insect-like body gained a sort of tan pigment to it that looked like it could belong to a human. The further up he looked, Piccolo expected to find the head of a monster, but instead, it was the head of someone he knew.

"What?!"

Before Piccolo could question it further, it started to emit powerful energy that sent all the loose clothing flying and caused Piccolo to become more confused and terrified. The power felt just like….but it couldn't be!

"How do you know to call me Piccolo?!" Piccolo demanded of the creature.

"I know exactly who you are, Piccolo," The creature continued, its slitted eyes staring directly at the Namekian warrior. However, the rest of his face and head was human, or rather, it belonged to someone who was half-human, half-saiyan. The purple hair in that bowl-like hairstyle was enough to convince Piccolo who it was. "But you'll never find out who I am~."


Back at the Kame house, the others were getting worried about the future trio going off to Gingertown. Something about the whole thing seemed wrong. Gohan, Chiyo, Chinku, and Daichi were upstairs in the spare bedroom Goku was resting in. All four of them were watching over the sleeping saiyan that still held the sleeping Chibi in his arm. (They all wondered how she managed not to get crushed by him, but chalked it up to Saiyan genes or something). They just wanted to shake him awake right then and there and have him help them, but they all knew it would be pointless to do so. The four Son children knew that their Father would get up when the time was right for it.

"Do you think Daddy's gonna wake up soon?" Chinku asked, looking towards Gohan and Chiyo.

"I'm sure he'll be up soon," Chiyo tried to assure Chinku, although she was unsure as well. Surely her Dad would be getting up soon, right? Maybe his body needed more time to rest than they thought.

"You guys shouldn't worry," Gohan said, turning and smiling at his two sisters. "I know things seem crazy now, but Dad will be up before ya know it. And once he's up, we'll be ready to deal with the androids and everything else." To be honest, Gohan wasn't sure he believed his own words. Would his Dad even be able to do anything to help? After all, Vegeta, Trunks, F. Chibi, and F. Daichi were super Saiyans, and they couldn't really do anything to the androids, so what could Goku do?

"Fight!" Daichi cheered, throwing his hands into the air.

The other three laughed at Daichi's attempt to cheer them up but stopped when they all felt an enormous power in the direction of Gingertown. All three sat there for a moment, taking all of this in, when they heard the front door open downstairs and saw Yamcha, Master Roshi, and Krillin out on the beach. The three older kids ran downstairs and out to the beach as if that would somehow give them a better idea of what they were feeling.

"I-I've never felt anything like this," Krillin stuttered as he tried to decipher this power he was feeling.

"It's Frieza's power, and his father's, and more!" Gohan said, clenching his fists and trying to comprehend this.

"But…what exactly is it, though?" Chiyo questioned, sweat running down her head. "Could it really be that thing from before?"

"That's the only thing that makes sense about this whole situation," Master Roshi stated, light glinting off of his sunglasses.

"But then, why does it feel like Mr. Piccolo, Vegeta, Frieza, and Frieza's Dad?" Chinku questioned. She was still new to this whole energy-sensing thing, but even she knew that there was no way for just one being to emanate the powers of more than one person. All these energies were different yet somehow combined?

Suddenly, a new power was felt along with the other four, and everyone gasped when they realized who it was. There was no other person it could be; "D-Dad?" Gohan stuttered. He then hopped up and took a look inside the house and found his Dad still asleep on the bed.

"Gohan, Goku's still in bed, right?" Krillin questioned the young man.

Gohan looked down at Krillin and nodded. "He's still here, guys," Gohan answered before coming back down. "So that doesn't really explain his energy being there along with everyone elses."


Trunks, F. Chibi, and F. Daichi couldn't believe what they felt as they were flying through the air. The sudden burst of energy from Gingertown was enough to send shivers down all of their spines. Whatever this thing was, it was emitting the same energy as Frieza, his Father, Vegeta, Piccolo, and Goku all at once. None of this made any sense!

"Hey, I don't mean to be a wet blanket here, but you guys sure we shouldn't just turn back?" F. Daichi asked his companions as they cruised over the ocean. "I mean, this thing's got some serious power on it. Who knows what we'll be walking into."

"So what? We just turn away and ignore it?" F. Chibi questioned F. Daichi. "What's stopping this thing from going and doing that to every major city in the world? Besides, that thing has something to do with the time machine we found. We need to get to the bottom of this now."

"I get that," F. Daichi replied after Chibi was done. "But I hate to point out that we barely scratched the androids before. Even back home, we couldn't do much to the ones there. I think we're out of our league, guys."

"What other choice do we have, Daichi?" Trunks questioned his friend. "We can't just sit back and do nothing. Besides, it's three on one. I think we might have a few odds in our favor, right?"

"I hope so," F. Daichi mumbled to himself. He really didn't want to die today.

So….I'm sure you're wondering what the heck is going on with Cell, but I'll just say that I was inspired by amartbee on Twitter from around Halloween, so check it out if you want to see what inspired me. (More will be revealed in the next chapter). What does it all mean for our heroes, though? Find out next time on, the Son Squad!

Thank you all so much for the continual support! I hope you're ready for what's to come in the future and beyond with this story because I really want to continue with the story. Let me know what you guys think in the reviews and I might get back to you. ;) Have a good day everyone and remember to wash your hands!