"Hey Inu, check it out!" Malroth called as he hopped onto the worn-out couch next to the fox humanoid. He was a little rough with it though as it made her bounce on it a bit and squeal as a result.

"Eek!" She exclaimed, her fur bristling, before looking at Malroth with an annoyed look. "Why'd you have to do that?! I was concentrating!" She whined, smacking him on the arm.

Malroth grinned and snickered though before pulling a disembodied head out from behind his back. "Check out the souvenir I got this time! This one has three horns! I only have some with one or two horns!" He explained excitedly.

Inu practically screamed and scrambled back on the couch, almost falling off it even. "I-I don't wanna see that! You know I think your hobby is disgusting!" She pointed at him.

Malroth's snicker turned into full on laughter as he watched her scramble back. "I dunno why you act so squeamish! We kill armies almost every day!" He pointed out.

"Y-yeah, but that's not taking their heads and hanging them up in your room! This is why we don't share rooms!"

At this point Paragus, who was sitting on a chair a couple feet away, cleared his throat loudly, giving them both an irritated look. "You two are too loud. Keep it down." He grumbled.

The pair he was talking to looked at him and made a face at him. "Buzzkill…" Malroth muttered under his breath, shoving the head in his pocket.

"Just put that back in your room already…I don't wanna lose my appetite." Inu told him.

"Eh? Oh right! It's almost time to eat! So what's to eat Inu?!" Malroth got visibly excited, leaning in closer to Inu and practically drooling.

Inu leaned back again, to the point where her upper body was off the arm of the couch. "Nothing if you don't put that head away." She responded after a moment of silence.

Malroth's excitement turned into annoyance and he stuck his tongue out at her, but he did go back and retreat back to where the rooms were.

Haku, who was quietly watching in the corner, looked over at Lobo with a raised brow. "Is it always like this?"

Lobo was inspecting the executioner's axe Malroth was using on a workbench of some sort, but he nodded at Haku's question. "Mm, yes." He gave a short answer at first as he inspected some nicks in the executioner's axe, but then he continued. "It's only your first day with us, you get used to it eventually. But I still advise you to leave as soon as you can."

Haku got caught off guard by that statement and looking up at Lobo again to see the wolf looking down at him from the corner of his eye. "What?" He questioned, then he remembered how Lobo was one of the ones to tell him not to come.

Lobo heaved a sigh and went back to the executioner's axe, but did speak again. "You aren't ready for a life like this. Think of us as vigilantes, we go after a certain empire's armies with the purpose of weakening their forces. We do kill them though, we aren't merciful or anything."

Haku was quiet, but only for a moment, before opening his mouth. "I understand that much, I saw what happened on my planet, but what do you mean by a 'certain empire?'" He questioned, but then paused.

Lobo turned his head down to look at him. "Come on, kid, use your brain. You were trying to fight one of their armies."

"You…you mean…" Haku gulped quietly as he realized just who they were after. "You guys are…after Freeza?"

"Not just Freeza, we're after the whole Cold family!" Inu chimed in, settling back down on the couch.

Haku looked over at her and asked another question. "But why would you guys go after all of them? Freeza is the one sending armies out." He pointed out.

Inu laughed at his question. "Ha! You really think the other Cold members wouldn't do the same? They've been doing it for generations, it's like a family tradition apparently. So, we need to take them all out!"

"But…that's impossible! You can't stand up to them!"

"I'm fully aware." Lobo agreed with a sigh. "However, some people need to learn the hard way."

"So…then why are you here?" Haku pointed out, looking to Lobo again. Lobo went quiet for a good couple of seconds before shaking his head and going back to his work.

"Ah…it's a long story, Haku, and we're all pretty tired." Inu jumped in before hopping up to her feet and clapping her hands, or paws, together. "Okay! I'm gonna see what we have in the storage and start making food for us!" She announced before leaving the room.

"You should get acquainted with the others." Lobo told Haku after an awkward silence.

"Oh…yeah, alright." Haku agreed before getting up to his feet and stretching. He glanced at Paragus, but didn't really want to get to know him seeing his previous attitude towards Inu and Malroth. Instead, he approached the cockpit where Natsume was. "Er…hello?" He called out awkwardly, looking at the chair in front of several buttons, levers, and switches.

The person who poked his head around the tall chair wasn't someone, or something, Haku expected to see. Natsume had a head that resembled a fish head, sort of like a salmon's head only more humanoid and blue and white colored. Natsume couldn't see the rest of Natsume from where he was standing, but he could barely make out tubes with some kind of liquid connecting to Natsume's neck right below his jawline, if one were to call that a neck. Haku could make out a smile on the strange lips of Natsume.

"Oh, hello!" Natsume's voice sounded slightly gurgled for some reason, but he also sounded rather young. "You're the new guy, right? I don't think we've met. I'm sure you know already, but I'm Natsume." He was quite cheerful and friendly. "I'd get up to properly meet you, but I kinda need to steer the ship…"

It took Haku a moment to collect himself as he was still baffled by what he was seeing, but then he shook his head. "Oh! No, it's fine!" Haku replied quickly, hoping his staring wasn't rude. "I can come closer if you prefer."

Natsume nodded. "Yes, that would be preferred." He agreed before turning back to face forward.

Haku stepped up so he was standing right behind the chair Natsume was sitting in, but he was close and tall enough to peek over the edge of the chair to get a full view of Natsume. Natsume was actually quite small, but he looked more human than fish other than his head. His body, while blue and scaly, looked human, but his hands and feet, which were bare, had some sort of webbing between the fingers and toes. Haku could see a fish-like tail draped on the seat next to Natsume, flicking and swaying around every so often. Not only that, but the tubes Haku previously saw attached to Natsume were also attached to a tank of sorts that had a murky green liquid inside it, it seemed to be pumping the liquid into something on his neck, which Haku presumed to be gills.

"So…" Haku cleared his throat, hoping his staring went unnoticed. "You know how to fly this ship? It looks pretty complicated." He noted, inspecting some of the buttons and switches.

Natsume smiled and chuckled though, seemingly not noticing the staring. "It's actually quite easy once you get the hang of it. Besides, this ship is similar to those on my planet, so it wasn't hard to learn everything."

"Is that so? We don't have technology like this on my planet…" Haku glanced over at Natsume again. "Still, I'm surprised a kid like you knows how to work a ship like this."

Natsume went quiet for a moment, long enough to make Haku start to worry he offended Natsume, but then Natsume laughed again, only a bit louder. "Kid? I'm not a kid! I'm actually 26 years old! We just age differently! It's not that uncommon though." Natsume explained.

"Oh…sorry, I didn't mean to offend-"

Natsume waved him off. "No, I'm not offended. It's a common mistake, I think nothing of it." Natsume looked up at Haku, but only for a moment, and asked something else. "So, what's your name? I don't think I caught it."

Haku mentally cursed at himself for forgetting to mention his name, even getting a little flustered from his own lack of manners. "Er, sorry, I forgot. I'm Haku. I'm a Caralian from, well, Caralie. I have the ability to change into animals."

"An anamorph? Like Inu? Wow, that's really neat! I think she'd be great for teaching you how to use that in battle."

"Oh, yeah, I suppose she could." Haku agreed, though he was more quiet this time.

"Hmm?" Natsume looked at him again. "What's wrong? You aren't used to fighting? I can't say I'm surprised, your planet wasn't very advanced or anything, and we couldn't find many battlefields or signs of many fights, so I'm assuming your planet was peaceful with little to no fighting, right?"

Haku nodded in response, but titled his head to the side in confusion. "Yeah, but can you really tell all that from just looking at the planet when you guys arrived?"

"Well, not exactly." Natsume leaned forward and flipped a switch that made a holographic screen appear in front of him, complete with a holographic keyboard. "See, this is a map of the universe, well what has been explored at least. Anyways, we can find the planet we're going to and I can investigate the planet and inform the others if there's anything to watch out for on the planet. It also tells me some things about the planets and its inhabitants. It's quite useful if we come across a dangerous planet or inhabitants." He explained.

Haku stared at the holographic map in awe, his mouth agape. "W-wow…that's incredible…" Was all he could say.

Natsume snickered, scratching his upper lip with an index finger. "It's not all that impressive, just basic understanding of this stuff. I'd be happy to show you how it all works sometime."

Haku nodded eagerly. "Yeah! I'd love to learn about this stuff!" He agreed, quite the smile on his lips.

Natsume noticed the smile and chuckled before turning the map off and going back to steering the ship. "I do have to focus on steering the ship though, we have a long flight ahead. It was nice to meet you, Haku."

"Oh, yeah, you too. Sorry to distract you. I'll talk to you later." Haku waved at Natsume before heading out of the cockpit. As he was coming out, Inu almost ran into him, and she would've if she didn't have good reflexes.

"Whoops!" Inu exclaimed as she skirted around Haku rather gracefully, avoiding dropping a plate on the floor. "Careful newbie! There's some grub out there for you too!" She informed Haku as she went to give Natsume the plate of what Haku assumed was food to Natsume.

Haku was quite hungry though, he hadn't eaten since before the fight against the Cold army. Eager to get some food in his stomach, he headed to the main room to see a table had been set up with a few plates with odd looking food on each plate. There was what looked like some kind of meat, some kinds of fruit and vegetables, and a few other strange things, there was also a pitcher of what looked like water on the table. It looked like the others had already gotten their food already, though it was a surprise just how much was still left since Broly and Saji had a heaping portion of everything that was offered on the table. Malroth had a large portion too, but not as much as the other two, Paragus and Lobo had a decent amount. There were three plates left over, Haku assumed one was for him and picked one up. Timidly, he picked through some of the food and placed it on his plate.

"You shouldn't be picky. We get food like this every day. Be grateful." Paragus grumbled when he noticed Haku's actions.

Paragus' voice spooked Haku at first, making him look towards the older Saiyan. "Ah! R-right, sorry." Haku quickly put what he wanted on his plate and sat on the floor a few feet away from the couch where Saji and Broly were.

"Just ignore him." Haku heard a feminine voice call to him after a few seconds, making him look up. The feminine voice was Saji, who was currently slurping up what looked like a tentacle. "He is annoying. And a huge pain." She informed him.

Broly looked at her with a strange look and she looked back at him when she noticed. "What? He is. You know he is too. I know he is your father, but still."

Broly sighed a bit, but then shook his head and leaned towards Saji to wipe what looked like sauce of some kind off her cheek. "You had something there." He informed her.

"Oh." Saji paused for a moment before smiling softly at him. "Thank you."

"So…what's your guys' story?" Haku questioned, hesitantly biting into one of the strange meats.

"It is a long one, so here's the short version: We were stuck on a planet, Phoenix found us and picked us up. So that's how we got here. It has been rather fun though as we have been able to work on controlling our power and such."

Broly nodded in agreement. "It is true. It has been helpful to both of us."

"Oh, I see." Haku smiled at the two. "I'm glad to hear that from you two."

"As for me," Malroth popped into the conversation, plopping down onto the floor next to Haku and even wrapping an arm around his neck. "I saw how strong she was, even challenged her to a fight and got my ass beaten by her! From that moment on, I decided to stick by her. It's been pretty fun beating up Cold soldiers! Even more fun than just sitting back on my other planet hitting trees and such."

"O-oh really…?" Haku asked, a little uncomfortable with how close Malroth was. "That's…er…fascinating."

At that time, Phoenix came into the room, but instead of taking a seat next to the others she grabbed a plate, piled food onto it, and headed back towards her room without saying anything to the others. The only acknowledgment she gave to them was a glance and a slight nod. She was still wearing her mask and cloak, so they couldn't see her face or anything. The room had grown silent once she entered and even a bit after she left, until Haku spoke up again.

"So…does she ever take that mask off? Or the cloak?" He questioned, turning to the others curiously.

Lobo, who had been quiet until now, finally spoke up. "Never." He simply answered.

"Yeah…unfortunately we've never seen her face or even her hair aside from a few strands." Inu, who came into the room, explained more. "None of us know what she looks like, and frankly we don't really mind or care. We trust her with our lives, and she trusts us with hers. We never say it, but it's true."

"Really?" Haku was a bit confused as to how they could trust someone so fully when they don't even know what the person looks like. Then again, looks weren't everything, and he didn't understand the bond this group had formed between each other. At least, not yet.

"Oh! I almost forgot! You need a room to sleep in!" Inu exclaimed out of nowhere, almost spitting out her food.

"Huh? A room?" Haku questioned, looking up from his food.

Inu nodded. "Yup! We all share rooms here, except Phoenix of course. Lobo and I share a room, Saji and Broly share a room, Paragus used to sleep in there too, but Saji insisted they kick him out, so he sleeps out here. Natsume, like, never sleeps! So he usually stays in the cockpit. You can share a room with Malroth! He has an extra bed."

"Whaaat?! I don't wanna share my room! I like having my own room!" Malroth protested.

"Stop complaining, Mal!" Inu scolded him. "You knew this was a possibility, so no complaining!" Malroth groaned and crossed his arms over his chest, irritated, but he didn't protest more. Inu nodded when she saw that, taking that as his compliance, before turning back to Haku. "Great! He can show you where the room is, as well as the lavatory and anything else you might need." Inu's words caused Malroth to grumble something under his breath, but he didn't say no, from what they could hear.

Haku could see the obvious displease on Malroth's face, and body language, but he smiled softly and nodded. "I would appreciate that, thank you."

After they were done eating, Inu took the plates, and Saji, to where Haku assumed was the kitchen to clean up. Malroth got up and reluctantly motioned for Haku to follow him, which Haku promptly did. Haku was quite tired and ready to get a good rest. Malroth walked towards the same hallway where Phoenix went to go to her room, which they passed along the way. Several doors were side by side on either side of the hallway, most of them were marked with either a symbol or words to indicate what was behind the door or whose room it was. Phoenix's had a phoenix drawn on it, no surprise there, a green dog/snake-like creature was drawn on another door along the way, which Malroth told him was Saji and Broly's room. Inu and Lobo's room had a fox head drawn on it, a fire symbol drawn behind the fox head. Malroth's, and soon to be Haku's, room had a massive executioner's axe drawn on the door. It looked like all the symbols were finger painted onto the doors.

"This is us." Malroth mumbled. "You can add your own personal touch to the door eventually if you survive long enough." He added as he opened the door.

"What?" Haku got caught off guard by that, looking at Malroth with a sense of panic.

Malroth looked back at him, not too concerned with what he said. "You heard me. You are going to fight after all. We don't want to officially add you on here if you can't last in a battle."

"I…I suppose that makes sense…" Haku acknowledged.

Judging by the earlier interaction between Malroth and Inu, Haku was expecting to be hit with the stench of rotting flesh, only to find the air was surprisingly clean. He stepped into the room and looked around with a perplexed expression on his face to see Malroth's head "collection" was all in glass containers, thank goodness. The room was small and basic, two beds, one on either side of the room, with a small dresser next to each one. One of the sides was taken over by Malroth and his head collection, the same side Malroth headed towards and jumped down on the bed, bouncing slightly.

"This side is mine." He stated the obvious, putting his hands behind his head on the pillow. "You got the other bed. You can decorate or whatever however you want, just don't touch my stuff."

"R-right…thanks for letting me stay here." Haku nodded at Malroth. Haku went to his bed and sat down, surprised at how soft it was compared to his usual hay bed back at home. "Wow, it's really soft…" He murmured in shock.

"Well yeah." Malroth said like it was obvious. "We don't got much, but it's good stuff. Can't fight too well if you don't have a good night's sleep, right?"

"I suppose that makes sense." Haku agreed, though he was getting rather tired already. He yawned and stretched out, ready to put this day behind him. "I think I'll go ahead and turn in for the night." He informed Malroth, lying down on the bed, which only made the pull of sleep stronger.

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead. I am too." Malroth said, yawning himself even.

Haku nodded again, but only slightly as he quickly nodded off to sleep