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Cosmic Castaway

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The basement laboratories of Capsule Corps....

Bulma, Tien, and Piccolo stood grimly in front of a view screen. Piccolo, having sensed Vegeta's sudden power up, and had flown over to see what had caused the disturbance. He had been quickly filled in on the situation, and had elected to stick around in case something went wrong. At the moment, the three of them were receiving a transmission form Vegeta. Or rather, from the ship Vegeta had commandeered.

"Hey, Piccolo!" Greeted an enthusiastic Gohan. "Tien, Bulma, long time, no see!"

Piccolo was the first to respond. "Good to see you too, kid. I assume you're on Vegeta's ship..."

Gohan nodded. "Uh, yeah. He and Trunks showed up at our house maybe a half hour ago. He spent a bit of time yelling at my Mom about how we had to get off the planet and stuff like that. Mom yelled back some, but I think he pretty much ignored her." Gohan cocked his head to the side. "I don't remember what happened after that, so I guess he must have knocked me out or something."

Bulma's expression became more concerned, while Tien and Piccolo openly scowled. "Anyone hurt?" Growled the Namek.

Gohan shook his head. "Nope. Everyone's fine. Goten and Trunks are running around pretending they're blasting Romulans, Vegeta's flying the ship, and, well, I just woke up."

"Where's your mother?" Asked Tien, feeling the need to stick up for his fellow Human. "Don't tell me Vegeta just left her at your house..."

"Oh, of course not," the teenager laughed. "She's still up in the cockpit yelling at Vegeta." Gohan gestured over his shoulder. "Can't you guys hear her?"

Bulma smirked. "We've got noise problems on this end too, Gohan..."

As if to emphasize her point, Yamcha yelled out from across the lab. "Okay, Doc! It's in place. Get that arc welder over here..."

From the spaceship, Gohan looked at the trio curiously. "Was that Yamcha? What's he working--"

"Alright," Yamcha called to no one in particular. "Everyone stay clear... Fire in the hole!" The dull roar of an acetylene torch followed this statement.

Tien eyed the spectacle warily. "Bulma, are you sure he knows what he's doing?"

"Oh, don't worry about him," Bulma casually commented. "Back when we were dating, that boy spent more time playing with my tools than he did with me." Tien now eyed Bulma warily, while Piccolo just scowled. Ignoring their reactions, Bulma turned her attention back to Gohan. "Yamcha's helping Daddy custom fit a cryogenic chamber to our lab's power supply."

"Oh." Gohan's eyed the ceiling for a moment, piecing together the word parts. "You're trying to freeze someone?" He asked, returning his gaze to the screen. "Why? Does that have something to do with why Vegeta grabbed us all?"

Tien nodded. "Yeah, Gohan, it does. We've got a... Situation down here. Involving a Saiyan. We brought her to Vegeta, and he freaked out. After that..." Tien trailed off with a shrug.

Gohan nodded, taking in what his friend was telling him. "Ah... So you three are probably wanting to talk to Vegeta about now, right?"

"Smart kid." Commented Piccolo. "All that studying is finally paying off."

"Thanks, Mister Piccolo." With that, Gohan turned to leave.

"Oh, but kid..." Gohan turned back around, and saw what passed for a good natured smile on Piccolo's face. "Vegeta knocked you out? I thought I taught you better than that..."

Gohan blushed slightly. "Yeah, well, I was still trying to study..." Turning around quickly, Gohan scampered out of view.

As the trio stared at the empty screen, the clamor in the lab quickly died down. A moment later, Yamcha joined them, wiping some grease from his forehead. "Okay, Bulma, your dad says the chamber is up and running. He's just tweaking a few things. As soon this little conference is done, we can put the Saiyan on ice."

"Thanks, Yamcha," replied Bulma, raising an eyebrow at her ex's appearance.

"We should be done here in moment," supplied Tien. "Gohan's just gone to get Vegeta."

With a smirk, Yamcha took a spot next to Piccolo. "Cool."

Another moment passed, then Vegeta sauntered into view. In the corner of the screen, Chi Chi could be seen following the Saiyan, still giving him a piece of her mind. Gohan, of course, was beside his mother, trying to calm her down. It wasn't working.

"Woman!" Yelled Vegeta, taking the situation into his own hands. "Will you please shut up?!"

Chi Chi lunged forward, throwing her son off her and grabbing the shoulder of Vegeta's shirt. "No! I will not shut up! Not until you tell me why you interrupted my son's studying and dragged all three of us onto this spaceship headed towards Kami knows where--"

"We're in orbit around Earth," interrupted Vegeta, in a slow, angry tone. "Or we will be shortly. And we will remain there until the current crisis is resolved!"

Chi Chi paused, taking a moment to realize that Vegeta had finally given her an actual answer. "What crisis?" The two stared at each other for a moment, before Vegeta looked back at the screen. Chi Chi followed his gaze, and for the first time noticed the quartet watching them. "Uh, what crisis?" She repeated, slightly meeker.

Tien sighed, realizing it would probably be quicker to start from the beginning, again. "Earlier this morning, another Saiyan landed on Earth. Instead of trying to purge the planet like all the others have," Vegeta did not miss the glare aimed his way, "this one simply went mad. And for some reason, as long as she's conscious, she's an Oozaru. I knocked her out, twice, then brought her to Vegeta to see if he could make sense of the situation. He, however--"

"Did what was sensible," growled Vegeta. "Fortunately, so did you. It would seem that once again the mercy of this miserable planet has saved it..."

Yamcha blinked. "Uh, come again?"

Vegeta exhaled, and began explaining. "The 'tattoo' on the Saiyan's forehead marks it as a Black Brand Saiyan. The marks, however, were not put there as any sort of branding. It is a distinctive skin discoloration brought on by a particular disease. Auto Mutation Syndrome. I assume the Namek has heard of it..."

Piccolo shook his head. "No."

"You haven't?" Vegeta raised an eyebrow. "Lucky you. Auto Mutation Syndrome is a viral infection. Incurable. Once it infects a Saiyan, it begins evolving them. The Saiyan is transformed and its power level raised to impossible heights. But at the same time, the Saiyan looses control of its mind. It gives in to its primal urges, goes berserk, and attacks everyone and everything, whether friend or foe..."

"Which would have been me," commented Tien. "Well that actually explains a bit. Like why the girl seemed so terrified..."

Vegeta nodded his head. "Yes, I imagine she was. I doubt the virus' mutations were pleasant ones... Saiyan's are particularly dangerous when exposed to the virus. Out natural aggression, power level, and ability to transform makes us especially susceptible to the virus' mutations. That's why I had to get every person with Saiyan blood off the planet. To eliminate the possibility of one of us becoming infected."

Bulma bit her lip as she looked at her husband. "But Vegeta, what about non-Saiyans? Humans. Nameks. Can we get infected too?"

Vegeta lowed his head. "As a child, I was never told of other races being infected by the virus... But as a Saiyan, I would not have cared. I sincerely doubt that the virus could become so widespread by infecting a single species... So, yes... It would be foolish to believe Humans are immune to the virus."

Yamcha gulped, nervously.

"Is there a cure?" Asked Tien, anxiously. "Is there any way to stop it? Or does the Saiyan just keep mutating until it dies?"

"Yes," responded Vegeta. "It does. But when it dies, it does not die alone. When the infected Saiyan dies, all the viruses inside it are released. They spread all across the planet, and even into space, and they kill everything they come into contact with."

Even Gohan gulped at that.

"That," Vegeta continued, staring intently at Tien, "is how your mercy saved this planet. Had you killed the girl, instead of bringing her to me, we would all be dead by now."

"Well, that puts my day in perspective..."

"Okay," started Bulma, slowly. "So what do we do with her? We can't keep her frozen forever..."

Vegeta cut in angrily. "Quite the contrary, Woman, we can. And we will. That is the only way to deal with Auto Mutation Syndrome."

Bulma stared at her husband incredulously. "You mean to tell me that we're going to have a frozen Saiyan in our basement for the rest of our lives? Are you nuts?"

"No," corrected Vegeta. "We will keep her there until we can build a mobile stasis unit. Keeping her on the planet is too risky. Especially on this planet. Once a suitable stasis unit is built, we will transfer the Saiyan into that that one, then launch her into space. Deep space."

Yamcha scowled. "Uh, that's risky, too, Vegeta... Trust me on this, when you only deal with half measures, it'll always come back to bite you. Hard. Last time we didn't finish off a threat, he ended up coming back at us with five androids, and one genetically engineered monster... And before that, a cyborg and his father... And then before that--"

Piccolo grunted. "Point taken. Why not launch her into the sun? The virus can't do any harm, there."

On the spaceship, Gohan's eyes widened in shock. "Piccolo!"

Vegeta scowled again. "Perhaps I wasn't clear enough for you, Namek. We. Can't. Let. It. Die. At all! The virus can survive the heat of the sun. It can, and will, escape the sun's gravitational pull, and infect the entire star system. And even beyond. If that creature dies anywhere in this sector, we are as good as dead."

Gohan looked at Vegeta, an almost desperate look on his face. "But, Vegeta, we can't do that to her! We just can't! To condemn her to an eternity of being frozen--"

"She's already condemned!" Vegeta barked back. "And she has been from the moment she was infected. Her sentence has already been passed." Vegeta shook his head in resignation. "All we can do is carry it out."

A hush fell over the crowd. Finally, Bulma spoke up. "No, Vegeta. We're not going to just launch her into space."

Vegeta looked aghast. "Woman, didn't you hear a word I just said? We can't--"

"Vegeta, I've heard the words 'it can't be done' a lot of times in my life. And so have you." Bulma gave her husband a hard look. "And we both know just how empty those words are. We just need to figure how to get at the problem..."

"Woman, you're not making sense. What on Earth are you talking about?!"

Bulma smirked. "Something we have here on Earth, that most places don't have..."

Vegeta continued to stare blankly for a moment. Then, a look of realization came over Gohan's face. "The dragonballs!"

"Exactly," said a triumphant Bulma. "We'll just stick the girl in stasis for now, then break out the old dragon radar, gather the balls, then wish the girl cured!"

"We... Can't quite do that..." Suddenly, all eyes turned to Tien, who continued in a quiet tone. "At least not yet. The dragonballs are being... Recharged."

"Tien!" Cried Bulma. "What did you do?"

"Look," Tien said defensibly. "We had had four years where nothing had gone horribly wrong! It seemed safe. So Chouzu and I figured it would be okay to use them..."

"So..." Prompted Yamcha, not quite a accusatory as Bulma. "What'd you use them for?"

Sighing, Tien swallowed his pride and spat it out. "Lunch. We had the dragon... Stabilize... Her double personality." Tien shrugged. "And since we had a wish left over, a working sewer system. ...You'd be surprised how complicated that really is..."

"Oh." Bulma hadn't expected that, but it seemed like a good use for the dragonaballs. "So how long until we can use them again?"

Tien bit his lip, thinking. "Um, probably a little more than two months..."

"Well," continued Bulma, almost as confident as before. "We can still do that. We'll just keep the girl in stasis for a few months, then get the dragonballs and--"

"That still may not work." This time, all eyes turned to Piccolo. "There are limits to what the dragonballs can do. One of those limits involves 'natural causes.' If someone gets sick, and dies from that sickness, they can't be wished back. I'm not sure just how far that limitation goes. It's possible," Piccolo paused for a moment, "just possible, that we won't be able to wish her better."

"Piccolo, don't tell us 'maybe.' You--Half of you used to be Kami. You made the dragonballs!" Tien's voice didn't quite waver, but it held an unmistakable not of concern. "You know their limits! You have to!"

Piccolo lowered his head. "I don't. That sort of thing has never been tried with the Earth dragonballs."

"Dende, then!" Piped Yamcha. "He's the current Guardian of Earth, and he's a healer, maybe he knows something. Or can figure out something..." Yamcha exhaled nervously. "...I hope... But Bulma's right, we've got to do something..."

Piccolo nodded. "Agreed. Tien, get the girl. Put her in the stasis unit." Tien nodded back, turned to go fetch the girl.

Back on the spaceship, Vegeta was staring in disbelief. "You... You can't be serious! You don't have any idea of what you're getting into!"

A stern look came over Piccolo's face. "We rarely do, Vegeta. But that's never stopped us before." Piccolo paused, glaring at the Saiyan prince. "Yamcha's right this time. Whether we like it or not, this Saiyan is now our problem. She's a threat, and now it's our responsibility to eliminate that threat. Once and for all."

"But..."

"If you still feel that you have to remain up there, we'll send you what you need. Food, water, air..." Piccolo glanced at Chi Chi, anticipating her next comment. "Gohan's books..." Chi Chi smirked, glad that someone finally understood her. "We'll keep in touch down here, and contact you when we've beaten this thing. And trust me, we will beat it." With that, Piccolo switched off the connection.

Piccolo turned around. "Well, plans?"

"You get Dende," commented Yamcha. "It's his planet, he should be here. 'Sides, he may be able to help find some way to cure our girl. And, if nothing else..." Yamcha laughed, nervously. "He'll be able keep any of the rest of us coming down with it, too..."

Bulma scowled at her ex's half hearted joke. "Sure... Piccolo, after you're done with that, I want you and Tien to go back to where the Saiyan landed. There may be something there that could give us some clues as to how to beat this."

Piccolo just nodded, while Yamcha meekly raised his arm. "Uh... What'll I be doing?"

"Staying here," Bulma curtly replied. "Just in case the Saiyan wakes up." With that, Bulma walked off to inspect the stasis unit.

"Lucky me..." Muttered Yamcha as he crossed his arms. But his mood quickly lightened. "So, Tien used his wish on Lunch... I think I know what that means..."

Piccolo cast a sideways glance at Yamcha.

Yamcha smirked back. "Well, Piccolo, it looks like you and I are the only bachelors left in the old crew. Tell ya what, after we Kamehameha this thing into oblivion, why don't the two of us go hit a bar and see if we can't pick up some twins?"

Piccolo stared at Yamcha for a moment, then scowled. "Leave me out of your life's plans, Yamcha."

As Piccolo walked away, Yamcha smirked at the Namek. "Okay then! See you in twenty years, in Otherworld. We'll hook it up with some Demon babes..."

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