"Wow, Dende, you look so much taller. I can't believe I haven't noticed it earlier…" Gohan observed while the two old friends walked through the God Temple grounds. Initially, sharing this place of sanctity with what seemed to be the entire surviving Earth's population felt crowded and awkward but with a little bit of mind paid to the reason they were all here, the stuffy crowd just faded out of the mind and out of sight.
"So do you!" Dende objected with a warm smile. "You're a whole head taller than when we've left with Piccolo. I'm not familiar with the growth spurts of Earthling children, but from what I've come to observe so far, they're rather slow compared to ours. We basically grow up in just a few years."
"It's not just height… You feel way different too ever since you woke up. I can't put my finger on it though…" Gohan leaned back on his crossed arms behind him as he tried sniffing out why his friend felt like a whole different person. If it wasn't for his familiar look and that sweet bit of personality he's come to befriend years ago, he'd have hardly identified his childhood friend after coming back home.
"I feel different too. Sometimes… It just feels like I can do things, you know? Like when that Meta-Cooler was bullying you… I just felt like I could save everyone. Even if I was asleep before that, I just… Willed myself to do it all, you know?" Dende said, looking at his hands as if he was looking at a whole different person.
"Yeah, when I turned Super Saiyan, it felt a bit like that too. There's this sudden rush of power and, suddenly, it feels like you're strong enough to do anything. Still, it was so amazing to feel that there's even more to that dimension of power. I can't wait to talk to Trunks-san after he returns…" Gohan pumped his fists, eager to understand what the future traveler had accomplished on his battlefield that had shaken the entire world and sent golden lusters all across the entire universe, it felt like it.
"Huh… I think you should correct yourself. It looks like young Trunks is going to land here to talk to you…" Dende pointed at the sky where the Capsule Corps Star that merely hung submerged in the murky ripples of the evening sky began emerging from its bottom and swiftly moving up.
"Mr. Popo, prepare to dispatch the moment that Chayote and the rest report about their victory. The Earth is in dire condition, I'm worried it will take months to terraform it back to a serene and graceful state. It might be years until the pollution and gloom of Dr. Puri's stranglehold fully clear out from the planet… What the…?" Kami Upa halted in place, freezing up with his body tensed as he stared to the sky where the Capsule Corps Star was approaching dangerously close to the divine barrier fending off all technology from the God Temple.
"Isn't that Bulma's giant new spaceship?" Mr. Popo pointed at the approaching planetoid that threatened to cause far more extensive havoc upon the world unless it stopped.
"Can't someone call Bulma-san and tell her to stop?" Dende's mouth stretched out downward as he pulled on his own antennae and ears in duress. "I don't think even I could move such a massive object if it's moving in the opposite direction with everything it's got!"
"No!" Gohan yelled out in a scolding tone. "If you stop it now, the draft from the opposing forces will flatten the entire Earth's surface! It needs to stop gradually, losing bit by bit of force. If Bulma-san is still in control of it, she'll know how to do it right!"
"If Bulma is still in control…" Kami Upa observed with a grim face. "It may have been a mistake to bring this artificial planetoid here. Bulma should have been the last person to underestimate Dr. Puri and her control over all technology."
"She must have thought that we'd have won by now… We should have won by now…" Gohan scratched the back of his head before freaking out at the sight of a skyscraper-sized rod with shining beacons lighting up with all colors of the specter from both sides as all those fancy colors fused together to form a pale white energy mass.
"What is she doing? She'll wipe these people out if she fires that beam…" Mr. Popo pointed at the giant laser cannon produced by the Capsule Corps Star. "Not Mr. Popo though, Mr. Popo is a magical djinn, so he can only be destroyed through magical means…"
"That cannon looks like a focused Proton Beam. It doesn't get more hi-tech than this, so the barrier should hold…" Gohan looked around, unsure of his hypothesis. Judging from Kami Upa's sweating face, he wasn't right about feeling so confident.
"If you're right, it will, but… It's not entirely artificial. It's not a machine, just a manmade weapon, and it will eventually break through," Kami Upa clenched his fists and grabbed the collar of his poncho, preparing to throw it away and attack the approaching super-weapon.
"That's odd, I recall Bulma-san bragging about the Capsule Corps Star having no weaponry on it at the time…" Gohan scratched his head before everything went white for a single, overwhelming flash. When everyone's eyes learned to cope with the luster of the focused Proton Beam, some semblance of blurry vision returned. Just enough for everyone to see the panic on everyone's faces.
"Kami-sama, the civilians… They're running toward the edge. It seems like they think they're in danger and are willing to take the chance of dropping from the God Temple instead…" Mr. Popo pointed at the edge of the temple where a considerable bunch of civilians had rushed off to, pulling their significant others and children alongside them to flee the impending obliteration by the massive space laser. The magical djinn appeared thoroughly unaffected by the blinding flash of the Proton Beam and stood with his arm pointing at the problem presenting itself while his free arm remained bent behind his back.
"Those fools… They'll die for certain!" Kami Upa yelled out, unable to open his eyes to focus on the vast number of people fleeing his temple. "Inside the barrier is the only safe place!" he noted, raising his hands over his head to cast a spell and augment the barrier so that it did a better job of reflecting the light and reducing the blinding radiance inside.
"Not if I can help it!" Dende's eyes lit up bright azure as he extended his hands, halting the desperate stragglers in mid-air before manipulating them back onto the temple. With Kami Upa building a stronger barrier, the light and heat seeping inside seemed to dissipate somewhat which calmed the people down if just a little bit.
"Wow… You blocked that awesome energy beam! You're so amazing!" Dende yelled out in moral support of his mentor who leaned down panting and sweating.
"No… The Star… It stopped attacking, for some reason…" Gohan stared right up at the glowing barrel as it stopped emitting the Proton Beam. Judging by the luster around its shiny cybernetic patterns, it still had more than enough juice to fry the entire galaxy if needed. It didn't stop because of a limitation, it stopped because it wanted to.
"But… If Dr. Puri took over the Capsule Corps Star… Why would she not kill everyone?" Mr. Popo pointed out.
"Because she doesn't want to kill people…" Gohan looked down, recalling his conversation with Piccolo during training and on Planet Hath. "She thinks she's saving everyone by converting them into Androids. Looking at those people and how they reacted… What if that's the reaction Dr. Puri wants? What if she wants the rescued people to think that this place isn't safe anymore and come to her by their own free will?"
"That devious woman… I sincerely hope Chayote pulls her head clean off…" Kami Upa gnashed his teeth, turning toward West City, where he had lost track of Chayote's Ki a few minutes ago. Up in God's Temple, there was little to do but to protect the rescued civilians and observe the battles raging across the entire Earth for the fate of its future.
"She's not human, is she? Would that even stop her at this point?" Dende pondered, recalling the unnatural vitality of Meta-Cooler.
"No. She's not an opponent that brute force alone can defeat…" Gohan looked up before gently kicking off the ground and staying in a levitating position. This was the first time that he's been this defiant to everyone's requests for him to just stay put and live out what's left of his childhood before he has to take up responsibilities. Maybe it was time for Gohan to tackle responsibility head-on already?
"Gohan, what are you doing!?" Dende yelled out, putting his fists together and shaking them. "We need to stay here to protect the civilians!"
"That will not work. The only way to do that is to either stop Dr. Puri or to destroy the Capsule Corps Star and we can't do that because Bulma-san and Trunks are still there," Gohan replied while golden dust began accompanying the grime rising and whirling about from his crystal-clear aura. "There's only one thing that can stop Dr. Puri. She's a scientist. She thinks she's always right so she won't listen to reason and she's a terrifying Android so we can't just force her to stand down either. Only one person can still reach her and make her stop, with no one having to die."
"One person?" Kami Upa squinted his right eye in disapproval of this wild theory. "Who?"
"Her son…" Gohan replied before exploding with a golden luster all around him and letting his hair spike up and turn golden as well. The Super Saiyan took off full-speed toward the West City. He wasn't entirely sure where Dr. Puri stored her restored son, but it made the most sense to him the more he thought of it she'd have kept him close and within her own reach. Maybe in her own lab even…?
Android 21 strode around a round Ki blast and came in with a stiff kick before transitioning into a full-on pummeling. Her arms and legs had become blurry as the artificial woman set off some manufactured mish-mash of martial arts styles, sewn together and polished to perfection. The automated shellacking had rattled Chayote and driven her back like a rag-doll. The metallic, segmented tail once again slipped out from underneath Puri's lab coat and wrapped around the Saiyan's throat, spinning her around before tossing Chayote in the air.
Dr. Puri vanished, snapping up straight to Chayote before activating her scarlet and black Ki blades and thrusting them rapidly around various areas of the Saiyan's body where they would've caused grievous torment but wouldn't threaten Chayote's life. The Android's Ki blades worked curiously where they didn't penetrate skin this time, lacerating the insides like a proper blade, but operating strictly internally. Android 21 finished her elegant slicer with a flamboyant overhead kick. Instead of following through with the opening in her opponent's defenses, Dr. Puri ran her hand through her hair.
"Your mind is elsewhere… This won't be any fun at all if you're going to blank out, Saiyan. I need you here, facing me and feeling every ounce of punishment you deserve!" Android 21 hissed out while Chayote struggled to pick herself off the ground.
"I'm here…" Chayote muttered and straightened her body out. Even when standing upright, she couldn't help but wobble from the burning sensations because of the sum of her internal injuries and the earlier stab at her calf that made movement involving her lower body torturous. "Give me everything you've got."
"Photon Shot!" Android 21 yelled out, raising her finger and releasing a barrage of scarlet finger beams that hurled toward her shaken-up opponent in a scattershot. Chayote's entire body stiffened up on its own. As the successive beams collided with each joint and pressure point in her body, Android 21 wanted to hit. The expression of torment came out as a shocked gasp at first before transitioning into painful grunts as Chayote collapsed face-first on the floor. "Hmm…" Dr. Puri stroked her chin.
"What's the matter…?" Chayote forced her defiant expression, covered with cracks and bruises, to look up. Even if she couldn't stop her right eye from wincing over the trickling blood from her cracked eyebrow, Chayote challenged her foe to amp up the offensive as she's slowed down the pace ever since threatening the civilians on the God Temple. "Is that all… The piss-poor revenge you've got bubbling inside you?"
"I know what you're doing," Android 21 ran her hand through her curly auburn locks and corrected her glasses while giving Chayote a demeaning and bitter stare. "You're trying to keep my attention by giving me what I want so that I don't threaten your precious son anymore, is that it? If I can beat on you all I want and enjoy my satisfaction, I won't be reaching out for my other targets, correct?"
"If you… Won't come at me, I'll have to come to beat on you!" Chayote grumbled out through pain and fatigue as she flipped her open palm to point downward before manifesting a violet Ki blast and sending herself hurling across the distance separating the two. Rolling in mid-air, Chayote transitioned into a flying kick and slammed her foot straight into Dr. Puri's face.
Seeing her opponent unmoved by that flying kick, Chayote slipped her tail out and wrapped it over 21's eyes. Using it as an additional limb, the airborne Saiyan swung herself around and repurposed the momentum into another airborne roundhouse kick. This time, Android 21 seemed to bend out of shape sideways a little and stagger from the hit. Chayote shot out a knife-edge smash at the Android's throat before transitioning into a full-on dropkick and vanishing to pursue her airborne opponent.
Chayote scooped Android 21 out of thin air before the artificial woman could ever bounce off of her own laboratory wall and positioning her over Chayote's back in a fireman's carry across the shoulders. Spinning sideways vertically, Chayote delivered a spinning slam drop that left Dr. Puri's face and chest flat against the adamant ground as her lower body dangled upside down in an awkward pose. Chayote rolled on her back, panting in pain, as delivering even this much offense in her state hurt her more than it must've hurt her opponent.
"Hmph…" Android 21 taunted Chayote, pushing herself off the unflattering position on the ground and vaulting through the air before landing gracefully on her feet, back turned to her opponent while checking up on her cracked glasses. "You're bluffing. You've no intention of actually winning this fight. You've given up on trying to defuse my dampening field and you didn't even assume either of your transformations, which would've been the only way for you to deal any actual damage with this brutish attack."
"What business is it of yours…?" Chayote panted while returning to her wobbly feet and assuming a simple boxing pose. "If I'm looking to win or not…? Does it matter to you either way if I fight back when you have your revenge on me?"
"A fair point. I suppose not…" Artificial Human No. 21 smirked, gently elevating into the air while she raised her index and middle fingers and produced a sparkling with black electricity scarlet energy spark at the very tip of her stretched fingers. "Photon Swipe!" Dr. Puri yelled out, swiping the arm that had channeled the finger beam right to left while creating a chain reaction of devastating detonations in the beam's path.
The sadistic world's savior marveled at the flames and smoke she's caused in her own test chamber, teasing herself with minor glimpses at her devastated opponent laying stretched out and helpless. There wasn't a hint of her wrathful bulk over Chayote's body, as her clothes had been almost completely ragged and the exposed patches of skin were covered with dire bruises, shiners, and burns. Chayote's hair, which usually hung out in a restrained ponytail or a bun, now laid sprawled out as the Saiyan drew meek sips of air rapidly through her busted ribcage.
Android 21 landed beside her defeated nemesis. She stared with a bitter and mocking look at the groveling Saiyan woman before kicking and stomping at her a few times. Not feeling her triumphant satisfaction growing at all, Dr. Puri let her segmented cybernetic appendage slip out from underneath her lab coat and wrap around Chayote's throat, elevating the busted Saiyan and leaving her and her rattled bones hanging in the air and slowly choking.
"I should hang you out to dry for when I get bored. I'm not fully certain that the rest will bother coming for you, but I need to prepare for it if they do. I'd rather not leave a single Saiyan alive with how destructive their influence on Earth has been…" Dr. Puri sighed while floating out through the opening that rolled back in a circular pattern at the back side of the building. The moment that the auburn-haired Android left her test chamber, a bright Ki blast slammed right in her face, covering her whole body in smoke. Shattered glass and snapped steel frame fell from the blast zone.
"Oh… Sorry, did I hurt you?" a cocky voice came from down below while a short, spiky-haired Saiyan wearing the standard Saiyan battle armor pointed at himself with his thumb. "I was so appalled by how you greet royalty I must have lost my temper, wench," Vegeta smirked.
"Vegeta…" Android 21 acknowledged the fact of the arrival of the Saiyan king with no emotional resonance with her acknowledgment. "What's wrong? Did things get awfully dull in that run-down little planet of yours or have you screwed everything up so soon without Frieza's ruling hand that you're relying on Earthlings to teach you civilization?"
"Got a mouthful just begging to be smacked, don't you?" Vegeta switched his pointing thumb into a fist while his face dropped the smirk. "The Earthlings got themselves into a war and they didn't really make any space for me. I figured I'd slip in and behead the queen while I'm sitting on my ass doing nothing."
"This is your last warning. I don't care for genocide, not even that of the Saiyans. Just because I've assimilated Mecha Frieza and have a fraction of his cells in me, it doesn't mean that I'm as unhinged and can't control myself. Pick up your litter and hit the road," Android 21 stared down at the brash Saiyan king from up high.
"That so? Well, we've got a problem then… You've got one of my own hanging on your tail and, as king, Saiyans are my people to hang. If anyone's going to discipline that one, it'd be me," Vegeta gave a moment's notice to Chayote hanging with a face that was going pale and gasping for air.
"Problem it is…" Android 21 sighed, turning around to build up momentum and flinging Chayote back into the test chamber as the round opening rolled back to welcome the Saiyan inside before closing shut again. "Just don't say I didn't give you lot your fair chance to scram."