Chapter 5: Fly Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A Bee
The trio, after the tough battle on Planet Imegga, were closing in on the stratosphere of the planet that Gill detected the first Dragon Ball in. As Piccolo, who was piloting the spaceship, was about to command a landing, Pan was fidgeting with their new robot companion.
"Say, what's this guy's name? We've been calling him 'Gill' because it's all he ever says, but he hasn't even told us..." moaned Pan as she kept playing around by opening his backside Dragon Radar compartment.
"Gill! Gill! My name is T2006," replied Gill, "full numerical component is decidedly or DB4649T2006RS!"
"DB4- what?!" said Pan, befuddled, "I don't think I've even heard a number that big in math class!"
"That's the robot's production number," said Trunks as he was lifting some specially built 100-ton weights he brought from Vegeta's stash of weights, "robots are mass-produced in assembly lines, so programming them with the knowledge of their production numbers helps keep track of each individual unit. As well as weed out defects."
"Well this thing definitely has to be defective," said Pan, "what kind of robot actually has an appetite? He could've just recharged himself instead of nom nom nom'ing our radar..."
"We're closing in on the planet," interjected Piccolo, "fasten your seat belts, the both of you!"
"Aye aye, sir!" replied the two as the environment around them darkened into a deep red as the spaceship penetrated the strange planet's atmosphere, at which point the turbulence caused Trunks to lose his grip on his 100-ton weights.
"Kyaaaaaaah!" yelled Pan as she ducked and barely managed to avoid having her head explode into a bloody mess from making impact with the weights. Trunks tried to grab his weights before they could destroy anything inside the ship, until Piccolo stopped the weights in their track with his psychic powers. Unfortunately, this moment of distraction caused the spaceship to fly off course and nearly land into the mouth of a humongous, turtle shell-adorned alligator.
"Oh shit," said Trunks as he unfastened his seatbelts and just managed to grab hold of his heavy weights, at which point Piccolo narrowly managed to steer OctoPUS 9000 away from the jaws of the titanic alligator.
"What is this, Gulliver? We've landed on some sort of giant planet," said Trunks as he put his weights down and sighed to calm himself down from the shock, "but at least unlike our last detour, I don't sense any particularly great Ki here. I think this first Dragon Ball should be a piece of cake compared to what we went through on our last stop."
"P-Piece of cake?!" cried out Pan as she shed a tear, "Just now I was 2 inches away from my head flying off! You better apologize, Trunks! This is no way to treat a lady!"
"Alright, alright," said Trunks, him still not having forgotten what Pan put them through when she first snuck on the spaceship, "that was my bad. My dad always taught me that a workout isn't a workout until you've completely tired yourself out. My arms were so sore, I lost my grip."
Trunks, Piccolo and Pan both stepped outside of the ship and locked OctoPUS 9000's door. Pan was still fed up with Trunks endangering her life, and bickered with him.
"That's enough of placing the blame, you two," said Piccolo, "remember, the time we're allowed on this journey is quite limited for scouring the universe. It's time to take what we came for."
Trunks lifted OctoPUS 9000 and hid it between a few trees.
"Say Trunks, why aren't we just shrinking it back to a capsule? The Imeggan scientists fixed our ship, right?" asked Pan, prompting Trunks to answer, "Because with how large everything is here, if we dropped our capsule case and it got lost somewhere, our entire mission ends up a failure. It's safer to leave it out of any of these creatures' line of sight."
The three then flew slowly away in search of the first Ultimate Dragon Ball.
"Those alligators seriously looked like they had mountains stacked up on their backs," whined Pan, "this place just gives me the creeps. Don't you think looking for one Dragon Ball here is like looking for a grain of sand on a beach?"
"That's why we have a radar-robot to help us find it," said Trunks, "although Piccolo-san, according to Gohan-san's research on the previous battles of our whole crew, aren't you able to turn into a giant anytime you want? Maybe we could just rest on your shoulders or something while you search this planet at a more appropriate size."
"That ability of mine I stopped using long ago," said Piccolo, "it doesn't improve my speed or power and just makes me a bigger target. There's no particular use for that ability other than as a surprise attack when you feel like increasing your weight to pack a heavier punch."
"I-I see..." said Trunks, as Pan suddenly stepped into a large flower stalk and then emerged in a bee costume, saying, "Hey, hey Trunks! Look at me, aren't I preeeeeeettttty?"
"[i]Beautiful,[/i]" said Trunks sarcastically, "but you really aren't helping us search much of anything. We've already wasted a few days on the Imegga detour, we need to get a move on-"
Just as Trunks was about to finish this sentence, Pan got onto a large flower and sipped the honey, saying, "Oooh! Sweet!" before sprawling her four limbs on the comfort of the flower, saying "this is real comfy! Just like the queen sized bed I always used to watch television on at Satan-Ojichan's house!"
"Pan, we really have better things to do..." groaned Trunks, as suddenly a large swarm of bees flew from a distance.
"W-What the hell?!" cried out Trunks as suddenly, the swarm grabbed onto Pan and took her far from the other two.
"T-Trunks! Piccolo-san!" screamed Pan as she was abducted and taken far away into the distance.
"P-Piccolo-san, what should we do?" inquired Trunks, "The Dragon Ball probably isn't far from here, and despite how Pan looks, she is a Saiyan. She can probably take care of herself..."
"Yes, you're right. The Dragon Ball is probably a higher priority," replied Piccolo, "I don't know how much venom those bees may be packing, but knowing the level of intellect that an average Earthly bee possesses, they probably mistook her for another of their kind. She should be safe for now. Let's search for the Dragon Ball first, grab it and rescue Pan and leave this planet afterward."
"Roger that," said Trunks, "I probably shouldn't be apathetic towards her after my weights almost took her head off, but the Dragon Ball probably comes first in this situation."
The two headed for the location of the Dragon Ball as shown on Gill's radar screen. They closed in a humongous apple tree.
"It couldn't have gotten on this apple, could it?" said Trunks as he scraped a bit off to take a bite, still tired from his training on the ship.
"There! I see it!" said Piccolo as he pointed to a faint, orange glow on the ground.
"Y-Yes, I see it too! I'll grab it right now-" replied Trunks as he haphazardly took too big of a chunk off the apple and caused it to fall. The apple fell right onto the Ultimate Dragon Ball.
"W-What?!" said Trunks, "I-I didn't mean to!"
Just then, a large bird swooped in and took the apple. The Dragon Ball was no longer where it was previously.
"The Dragon Ball must have been embedded on the bottom of the apple! Let's chase after that bird, Piccolo-san!" said Trunks nervously.
"Wait," said Piccolo, "the bird is heading in the direction of a larger Ki."
The bird landed on the fingers of a giant several floors tall. The giant pet the bird and dropped the large apple into his basket, then turned around and headed elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the scene cuts back to Pan as she was taken into a large beehive...
"W-Wait! All of you, where are you taking me?!" screamed Pan, as she was thrown into the inside of a huge beehive, where she was dropped next to a collection of large bee eggs.
"W-Where is this place?" said Pan, "Did you guys mistake me for a bee or something so you could have me mate with some boy bee?! I'll have you know, I'm 3/4ths Earthling! And I like my boys tall, dark and handsome, thank you very much!"
The bees then whirred loudly, causing Pan to cover her ears in pain and distress.
"Y-You guys... You know, I can bust this whole place into a mountain fire if I wanted-" said Pan, irritated, before suddenly the bee eggs hatched. She grabbed onto a new hatchling and her frown turned to a smile, at which point she shouted out, "Awww! How cute!"
Meanwhile, Trunks and Piccolo were observing the giant walk bristly away, generating footprints the size of cars.
"W-What do we do now?" said Trunks, "It'd probably be easy to knock out that giant and take our Dragon Ball, but I'd rather not hurt it after the cruelty we saw on Imegga."
"That giant appears to be unable to suppress his Ki, and we have the signal of the Dragon Ball on our radar," said Piccolo, "and for whatever reason, Pan's Ki is oddly small right now. Almost as if she's terribly relaxed. I'd wager she isn't poisoned, but it's probably a safer bet to go fetch her and then reconvene and get the ball from the giant."
"Roger that," said Trunks as he flared up a flight aura and together with Piccolo, headed for Pan's location.
En route, Trunks and Piccolo saw a massive spider web with a spider large enough to barely fit in an apartment, about to treat itself to what appeared to be a prey caught in its web, with bee antennae and wings.
"P-Pan! That's Pan, isn't it?!" said Trunks worriedly, "Maybe that spider got its venom on her and that's why her Ki is so small and 'relaxed?'"
"There's no time to waste," said Piccolo before charging a small Bakurikimaha attack, "Ha!"
The attack instantly knocked the spider hundreds of feet away from the web, at which point Trunks dove in and quickly grabbed the ensnared "Saiyan girl." He untied the web to find that it was in fact a large bee, larger than the other bees in the swarm they saw earlier.
"T-This is the queen bee! The other bees must have been looking for it when they took Pan!"
Just then, Pan flew in their direction whining, "Sheesh! I keep telling them and telling them, I'm not the queen bee! Wait..."
"Pan! We're right here!" said Trunks as he waved his hand out. Pan, elated, jumped right into Trunks' reach and grabbed the queen bee, at which point she juggled it in mid air before kicking it toward the large swarm behind her.
"There! You have your queen bee among you now! So don't bother me anymore, okay?!" said Pan as she bid the swarm of bees goodbye.
"Now we've all convened together. It's time to search for the giant!" said Piccolo as he flared up an aura and opened Gill's radar component before flying off.
"Giant? What's he talking about-" said Pan as Trunks took off after Piccolo and then yelled frantically, "Hey! Wait for me!"
Piccolo, Trunks and Pan were heading within relatively close range of the Ultimate Dragon Ball when Gill's radar screen suddenly went blank.
"Huh? This thing went blank," said Trunks, "That's weird... I tinkered with the radar myself, it can't have malfunctioned."
"For these types of things, you just have to smack them senseless until they start to function," said Pan as she snatched Gill from her elders, "just like I do with Papa's microwave anytime it won't run proper!"
"Pan, that's dangerous," said Trunks, "robots are very delicate! If you break it, we'll have to go back to the spaceship and get the Super Radar, and if we lose that, our whole mission's a failure!"
"Energy insufficient, energy insufficient!" declared Gill, "Going into hybernation mode!"
"I-Insufficient?!" said Pan, worriedly, "That means it's out of power, doesn't it? I-I didn't mean to destroy the power-"
"It's not because you hit it, Pan," said Piccolo, "or it would have mentioned the damage it received. The point it's trying to get across is that its power is low. Going back to fetch the Super Radar is both risky and time-consuming, so let's just go after the giant. With any luck, we should find the Dragon Ball before sundown."
"H-How do we do that, exactly?" asked Pan, "with no radar signal, who knows if we'll run into the right one?"
"This place may pack everything in bigger shapes and sizes, but generally there's a different Ki signal for everybody, Pan," said Trunks, "we were able to save you in the first place because we felt your distinct Ki signal out of all the other creatures on this planet. And the apple the Dragon Ball is stuck on is distinct enough in of itself. We came this far, we're not leaving without getting the Dragon Ball first. My pride won't allow it."
"I see him! It's the giant," yelled Piccolo, "I memorized distinct ticks and tones in the way he steps foot on the ground! Let's hide behind that bottle and seize the Dragon Ball before he eats it!"
The trio landed next to the boat-sized bottle that they saw a few hundred feet away from the giant and waited patiently to plan their next move.
"T-Trunks, he's big, but his Ki isn't anything to write home about," said Pan, "how about we knock him out and get the ball before he eats it?"
"Don't do it, Pan," said Trunks, "I don't think you realize just how strong we are relative to the rest of the universal population. Your dad was already strong enough to take out the second-strongest Saiyan survivor by the time he was on Namek, and you're almost twice the age he was then! Hit him too hard, and you could kill him. This isn't like with Redjic or Don Kee, we're not dealing with a hostile enemy."
Just as Trunks said this, the trio noticed the apple that had the four-star Ultimate Dragon Ball roll out of the giant's massive basket.
"T-There, it's right there!" said Pan as she instinctively jumped out and tried to grab the apple. Unfortunately, she was suppressed during this time and the giant grabbed the apple and dropped it into his mouth first.
"G-Gah!" said both Trunks and Piccolo, "The giant ate that apple?!"
"Oh no!" screamed Pan, "Now what are we gonna do?!"
"I-I guess we could wait it out until it comes out the other end..." said Trunks, as baffled as Pan was.
"We don't have that much time. We have to do something," said Piccolo, "remember, we have less than six months. I feel bad for the giant, but I suppose punching him in the stomach to make him regurgitate the apple is the best option we have-"
Just as Piccolo said this, the giant suddenly cried out in pain, grabbing the right side of his cheeks and suddenly throwing punches frantically. Pan tried to avoid the first couple of punches, only to be thrown a mile away when the giant unintentionally backhanded her.
"Pan! Are you alright?" said Trunks as he turned Super Saiyan and hurriedly grabbed her in mid-air before she could crash into a tree, "that was really dangerous. Suppressed as you were, you would've gotten seriously hurt if you'd crashed into that tree."
"The way that giant is grabbing his mouth, I'd wager something got into his teeth! It could be the Dragon Ball, we need to search inside his mouth!" yelled Piccolo, "I'd do it, but the attacks I have are too lethal! Internally damaging his head could seriously hurt him!"
"G-Grrr..." said Pan, fumingly, "I'd rather get in the damn things mouth and knock out all his teeth than wait for him to crap that thing out! And I'm not letting my pretty face get soiled with his smelly freakin' poop! I'd rather the Earth explode than that!"
"Pan, it's not like he meant to hurt you..." said Trunks, "I'm not one to talk, but your anger is a little misplaced!"
"Misplaced, my butt! I'm going in!" yelled Pan as she flared up an aura and then jumped right into the giant's mouth, deftly avoiding his fists. The giant tried to spit her out, only for her to smack the top of his mouth and cause him to collapse onto the floor in pain.
"Ka... Me... Ha... Me..." said Pan as she charged her grandfather's signature attack, "HAAAAA!"
A bluish-white wave of Ki emerged from the giant's mouth, busting the cavity that contained the four-star Ultimate Dragon Ball right out. Pan then flew out of the giant's mouth, covered in his saliva.
"Y-Yuck! Whenever we get on the next planet with a Dragon Ball in it, I'm definitely taking a long-overdue shower!" said Pan, as she used her bee wings to wipe the saliva off. Trunks deftly grabbed the tooth before it could land on the floor and get stuck on another apple or fly off somewhere, and then plucked the four-star Dragon Ball out.
"I see. This cavity must have been hurting him badly," said Trunks, "the Dragon Ball slipped right into the part of it that'd been eaten away. Here, big guy! The cavity that was hurting you is here. If there's some kind of dentist on this planet, I recommend you find a replacement pronto!"
The giant was confused at first, but smiled and understood Trunks' kindness, grabbing the tooth and soon bidding them farewell.
"Hmph. So it's as I declared, we found the first Dragon Ball before the day is done," said Piccolo, "but this is just the beginning of our journey! We head for the next Ultimate Dragon Ball without a moment's haste!"
"Aye aye, sir!" said both Trunks and Pan as they flared up auras and flew with Piccolo to the location of the OctoPUS 9000 spaceship. Once there, they recharged Gill and asked him again, "So what is the name of this thing? Do we call it that long-winded DB-whatever name, or..." said Pan as she kept tapping onto the robot as it recharged, "or how about we just call him... Gill?"
"That's the word he uses the most and I agree his name is quite hard to memorize, so let's just go with that," said Trunks, "but you know what, Pan? The four-star numbered Dragon Ball actually goes back far in both our family lines! It's the first Dragon Ball that your grandpa Goku-san brought on his journey with my mom, and the one he kept on him after defeating the Red Ribbon Army up until fighting Piccolo-san's henchmen!"
"That's my father Piccolo," said Piccolo, "I am a reincarnation, a spore produced from within his body in his last moments to carry out his will. I may have inherited his memories, but little of his evil. If I had, I couldn't have seen the error of my ways through my friendships with Gohan, Goku and Kuririn."
"Well, I am told that you did try to kill Goku-san in the Budokai you fought in," said Trunks mischievously, "and actually succeeded doing it, five years later!"
"Grr..." moaned Piccolo, "You just have to bring up a past that I'd rather forget. Anyway, none of that is relevant. Trunks, drop and give me three hundred push-ups with your weights on your back, now!"
"W-What?!" said Trunks, shell-shocked, "B-But I already went through such a workout, my arms are sorer than when I fought Redjic!"
"Silence! If you're going to defeat him without my help, I won't have you whining! Do it or I'll make it six hundred!" yelled Piccolo, clearly vindictive to an extent.
"Y-You can't be serious..." said Trunks, clearly forcing himself into push-up position, "I-I probably won't be able to feel my arms!"
"Do it before I put weighted clothes on you! Do it now!" yelled Piccolo firmly.
"Hahahaha! You'd better nut up and do it Trunks, before Piccolo-san just makes it harder!" said Pan mockingly.
"The journey for the Ultimate Dragon Balls has only just begun! And we aren't letting even a single moment go to waste!" lectured Piccolo as OctoPUS 9000 headed for their next location...
To be continued...