Two stronger-than-usual energy signatures accelerated toward Bulma's plane.

Krillin. Yamcha.

Gohan mutely chuckled. This whole family crisis was eating away at his nerves, messing with his senses. His body flitted; the early morning breeze wasn't helping, but a warmer breeze blew in from the east as clouds moved out of the sun's rays. The glare was harsh. His breath visibly fogged, and he moulded it into a donut-shaped cloud with his energy.

18 blew an equisized donut that looped together with his. She asked, "How's that? I did it with my normal energy."

"Excellent. It took me years to start controlling my energy like that."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I couldn't even throw an energy wave until Piccolo trained me."

"Not your dad?"

"Nah, he was dead at the time. You should know. Check your files—" A tidbit hit him. "Oh right, your implants are out."

Her fingers ran through his hair. "I'm impressed you can remember, Professor Gohan."

"Come on, a lot is happening right now."

"I do recall my files said your dad can be quite daft at times. Like father like son." She blew another donut.

Nothing to say to that, he also blew a donut, looping through hers.

A minute later, Chiaotzu and Tien arrived. Gone were their green and yellow uniforms; they now wore white cloaks over unmarked dark-blue martial arts uniforms. They shared hushed words with Dende and Mr Popo, nodding a few times, glancing at Gohan between sentences. When their conversation ended, they didn't approach. Their discretion was greatly appreciated.

Mile by mile, Bulma's plane flew at an agonizing speed, and by the time they emerged through the clouds like a tiny yellow insect, it felt like hours had passed. Gohan did best to keep his mind away from Mom's extremely worry, Bulma's worry and anger, and Goten's unsuppressed impatient energy, which far eclipsed the other passengers. The little guy was very powerful for his age, stronger than five-year-old Gohan had been. Vegeta's training regimen was working.

The cargo plane landed at a safe distance from the Lookout's edge, its engines whirring. The cockpit's door opened, and Bulma hopped out. "Sorry for the wait, but we were held up with—"

"Gohan!" Mother screamed, sprinting down the line of trees. The whites of her eyes were a bit red, her hair was unkempt, and she nearly tripped on an empty flower pot.

Guilty, cold blood pooled into Gohan's feet. His body, inside and out, was numb and heavy. The only warmth was from 18's hand against his. He mumbled, "Hi, Mom, sorry for taking off earlier."

She was about to grab him in a bear hug, but 18 embraced him from behind, pulled him back a step. Mother shrieked, "Get your hands off him!" From within her yellow robes, she pulled one of Bulma's prototype hi-tech handguns. "Don't make me use this! Let go of my son!"

Gohan held up his palm. "Mom, don't. I told you, she's my girlfrie—"

"Like hell she is! What have you done to him, 18?! Have you been drugging him?! If you've done anything, and I mean anything, improper or illegal to him, I'll not only shoot you, but I'll have you know Bulma has your deactivation controller in her back pocket. Now let him go!"

In the background, Bulma sadly couldn't make eye contact.

A protective fury rose from Gohan's waist and gut. "Don't you know? We used the dragon balls to get rid of her implants, and I have eternal youth so I can be with her."

"I don't care what you have. You will always be my sweet little boy, and we'll fix this someway. You're coming home. One way or another I'm going to stop this—" Her voice voice broke. Tears brimmed as his scowl didn't relent. "Gohan, what's wrong with you?! It's like you've been possessed! She's fed you something, hasn't she?!"

He bit his tongue. His hands clenched.

"Well? Has she? What has she fed you?! Gohan!"

He shrugged. "I had some lemonade soda. It was nice."

Mother hissed, "What did you put in it, 18?! Start talking!"

18 sighed loudly. "I haven't drugged Gohan with any substances. He's a healthy teenage boy, and it's only natural for him to want a girlfriend, and I'd love to be. Your son is a true gentleman. He's treated me with nothing but respect. In my opinion, we haven't done anything improper. Do you disagree, Gohan?"

His face warmed. "I don't disagree."

"In your opinion?!" Mother pressed a button on the side of the handgun. An aiming laser shone a red dot on the tiles.

Gohan was ready with his finger.

"Whoah there!" a reverberating voice called, coming from all directions. The voice belonged to none other than Gohan's father. "Chi-Chi, let's put down the gun before we break a window. Mr Popo wouldn't like that, would he?"

Multiple people exclaimed, "Goku!" One person barked, "Kakarot?"

"Dad!" Gohan cheered, then asked without thinking, "Is that really you?"

"It sure is! You haven't forgotten what I sound like, have you?" Father laughed.

Mr Popo said from behind a tree, "No, I certainly would not like any broken windows."

Dende affirmed, "It's very annoying when they break."

And surprised joy had brightened Mother's expression—but it didn't last. She scolded, "Goku! Talk some sense into your son!"

"Some sense? About what?"

"He has ran off to be a woman twice his age! Tell him this isn't right! He's going to get hurt! She broke Krillin's heart."

Krillin said, "That's a massive exaggeration, wouldn't you say?"

Yamcha teased, "You were depressed for months, dude."

"Shut it." Krillin shrugged. "I've long forgotten. It's been, what, four years."

Father dismissively said, "Lighten up, Chi-Chi. If my best friend wasn't good enough for her, then I'm sure my son is. Right, 18?"

There was an awkward pause before 18 muttered, "Right."

"Goku!" Mother's foot stamped. "I can't believe what I'm hearing from you!"

"Did you forget when we ran off to be together? We were around Gohan's age, and King Kai told me 18 is, well, eighteen forever. Gohan's fourteen now, almost fifteen; in a couple years, they'll be pretty much the same age… forever." His tone shifted: "Yes, Son, I know about your wish for eternal youth. You've caused quite a ruckus, even here in Otherworld. Grand Kai was very displeased when he heard the dragon balls were used like this, and I had to convince King Yemma to keep you off the naughty list."

"It's that serious?" Gohan asked.

"Yes. This isn't like Master Roshi's herbs. These sort of wishes cannot be undone and, if done too often, can disrupt the natural cycle of the universe in very bad ways. The dragon balls are more special than you or I will ever know; they're sacred. You have the attention of all the gods, Gohan, and from what I hear, they're not all pushovers like King Kai, no offence. I hope you understand the consequences of what you've done."

Gohan nodded. "I understand, Dad."

"Good, that was a mouthful, I hope I didn't misspeak," Father said, back to his cherry self. "Onto matters at hand. Remember what I said five years ago about me being the cause of all Earth's problems? Well, I've been proven wrong. Earth may be in danger, and I can't sit around here in the afterlife doing nothing. King Kai's already talked to the Namekians for me. My halo should be gone… any moment now. I wonder why it's still there. Huh."

Excitement and joy lifted Gohan off his toes. Certainly he had not heard that right! Father was coming home. After five long years. At last.

Everyone else, including Vegeta, shared the sentiment. Faces were alight. Mother was in tears, tears of happiness this time.

Piccolo said, "I just spoke to Elder Moori. They have one ball left to locate."

"Ah, great," Father said. "That shouldn't take long, I hope." He laughed nervously, then his throat cleared. "So from what I hear, people on Earth are getting their energy stolen by big guys with fancy Ms tattooed on their foreheads. Is that correct?"

"Yes," Piccolo said. "Over eighty villages and small towns have been attacked all in one night."

Father continued, "The Supreme Kai, Shin, told me an hour ago these guys are undoubtedly under the control of Babidi, who is an evil wizard from the demon realm. He needs the energy to unseal Majin Buu from a ball hidden somewhere on Earth. The easiest way to stop that is to kill Babidi, but Shin said wizards are very hard to catch; they can teleport right across the universe in an instant as well as other cool tricks. We'll have to prepare for the worst."

Yamcha asked, "What do Babidi and Buu look like?" Good question.

"Oh, Babidi is really short and ugly with brownish-yellow skin. You can't miss him. Buu, however… is pink and playful. I was going to ask more, but Shin had stuff to do. He said he'll be coming to Earth after."

Divine reinforcements from the heavens. About time.

But Gohan wasn't going to relax so quickly. He asked, "How powerful is Buu?"

Father said in a grim voice, "Stronger than any other opponent we've ever fought."

Yamcha ran a few steps for no reason, saying, "Even stronger than Cell?!"

"I'm afraid so."

"And how can the Supreme Kai be certain of that?" Vegeta asked.

"That's easy. I channeled my energy for him to roughly Cell's level. He said Buu is far, far more powerful, unimaginably so."

Vegeta's hoarse laugh was the only laugh. Fist balled, he proclaimed, "Then this will be a good battle. You will all see how much stronger I've become, especially you, Kakarot. Once I'm done with Buu, I want a rematch, do you hear me?"

"Sure," Father said enthusiastically. "But I'm warning you, I'm quite a bit stronger than I was during the Cell games."

"I'd be disappointed otherwise."

Trunks asked, "Dad, why do you want to fight Goten's dad?"

Vegeta smirked, "The same reason why you like to fight Goten, Son. It's in our blood, the blood of the great Saiyan warrior race."

Goten laughed and said, "You keep repeating that."

"So what if I do? You mustn't forget your heritage, boy."

Gohan's dad also laughed. "Wow, you're actually a pretty good father figure. I thought you would ignore Trunks like before."

"Times have changed." Vegeta's arms crossed. "It seems that you're the one who has been ignoring your sons, Kakarot. I've had to train Goten in your absence."

"You've got me there, Vegeta, and thanks a bunch. I bet you're super strong, Goten. Don't tell me, you and Trunks can transform into Super Saiyans already."

"Not yet," Goten said timidly.

"I'm pretty close," Trunks said. "I think I did it once for a split second."

"No, you didn't." Goten's tongue poked.

"Yes, I did."

Bulma said, "Are you telling lies again, Trunks?"

"Mom, I really did!"

Abruptly, Piccolo cleared his throat with a growl. "This isn't the time for a family reunion. We have work to do. It seems that Babidi's magic was able to block Dende's sight. Most of the attacks took place in West District, south of here. We will split up and search."

Tien said, "Are you sure that's wise? Majin Buu needs energy. If one of us gets caught—"

Piccolo interrupted, "What do you suggest? It's either us or innocent people."

Vegeta said, "I say we let this Buu hatch from his ball and we take care of him the old fashion way."

"Don't be a fool!" Piccolo yelled.

"I agree with Piccolo," Father said. "With my instant transmission…"

While they descended into a heated argument over strategy, Gohan's stomach grumbled. He stretched his arms, swept his gaze across his gathered friends and family, who were so delighted over Father's imminent return despite looming danger. Only Father could lift everyone's moods like this. Best thing, even Mother's anger toward 18 was placated, somewhat; they were having a silent stare-down. At least the gun had been put away.

Gohan did a double take, his eyes hitching on a young teenage girl in a yellow dress. She stood off to the side, behind Bulma's plane. She was extremely pale, almost bluish, and her large eyes were silvery-purple. Her braided platinum-blonde hair was almost white. He had seen her before. Yes, he had seen her at the festival back at North City.

She approached Gohan with a graceful gait, smiling cutely.