It had been about a half hour since the spar outside and Raditz was currently in a regen tank recovering. Bulma, Vadora, and Tien had just left the Regen Bay and Bulma was getting a tour of the palace. As they walked Vadora realized something. "You can't fight, can you?" she asked glancing over to Bulma.
"Huh? Well, no. I'm a brains person, not a fighter. Why?"
Vadora sighed. "This should be fun then. There's an old Sai-jin law, royalty must prove competancy in combat to maintain their position. It was made so Vegeta the First's descendants wouldn't slack off. But it applies to you as well."
"Wait, what? I can't fight."
Vadora nodded. "You'll need to learn. Just the basics. Punching, kicking, flying, and Ki blasts. Since you're working on adjusting to the gravity here it'll make it easier too."
"She's right." Tien said. "Gravity training makes the body adjust faster. You'll be walking around here like it's Earth sooner than you think, which will help with the Ki control."
"Tien and I can teach you that." Vadora said. "It's not as hard as you might think. It's not like you need to be able to level mountains, just show you can actually fight. We could start that today, now even, if you want. It'll help you to adjust to the gravity too."
"Well... ok. I mean, I've already been doing some Ki stuff with Vegeta..." Bulma said.
"Alright. Let's head off to the training grounds again."
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Sai-jin Palace, Throne Room:
King Vegeta had arranged for the confrence table to be set up before he'd gone to meet his son and Bulma. Now he and the Prince sat at it with Pug having a conversation. They'd been there going on twenty minutes now and had made little in the way of progress. "We already know things went horribly wrong before..." Pug said, still working at absorbing the matter of conversation. "Without the forewarning we have now everything the Empire did was reactionary."
King Vegeta nodded. "Yes, now we can actually work on the prevention. That's what we need to worry about Vegeta." he said glancing to his son.
While the Prince was willing to admit things could get out of hand he wasn't willing to admit any chance of complete failure. Still, his father did have a point. After hearing it repeated by both him and Pug for the past twenty minutes he realized he wasn't going to get them to budge. "Very well. What did you have in mind?"
"A barrier." Pug said simply. "We set up a quarantine around the Earth. Not instantly, of course. Only if things get too out of control. It's best to restrict this to one area."
"A barrier?" the Prince scoffed. "They buckle under the force of anything over a million. That wont contain matters to Earth."
"Under normal circumstances, no." King Vegeta said. "But I've been speaking with Dr. Briefs. I'm sure you've noticed Capsule Corp. has been overly busy lately?"
"I had noticed a lot of activity." the Prince replied with a small nod. "Bulma and Hotaru were almost always down in his lab..."
King Vegeta nodded. "He's working on a new system, using Earth, Sai-jin, and Tanarian technology. Unlike our previous barrier systems this one will be far more stable. On it's own it wont be enough, no. We don't think it'll withstand more than five million. But that's not where the power of this system lies. It makes use of the space distortion technology used in their capsules."
"Wait. You're going to capsulize the Earth?"
"Not exactly." Pug said. "The distortion field will surround the Earth only if the barrier field is destroyed. It'll rip apart anything that tries to pass through but will slowly dissapate. About a year later it'll fade completely. However, that's more than enough time to errect a new field. It's destruction will merely set the process into repeat. Hopefully it will buy us the time to think of something more... permanent.
"In the meantime, a counter device has already been designed. It arrived here a few days ago. If the threat is destroyed before the distortion fades we can use the counter device to eliminate the field instantly. It will be back to business as normal."
Vegeta nodded. "That works. You keep them on Earth, I'll make sure they end up dead."
"Don't get ahead of yourself Vegeta." his father said. "There's already three Super Sai-jins..."
"There will be four by then." he interrupted hotly. "I will become a Super Sai-jin. Even if Kakkarotto is as you say... he is still only a third class, I won't allow him, or his family, to be stronger than me."
"It is perhaps possible..." Pug said slowly. "That neither Kakkarotto or Bardock's powers are fueled by the Guardian legend."
The Prince turned his gaze to Pug, interest clearly carved onto his face. "What do you mean?"
"You know the two most common types of Sai-jins, correct?"
"Common types? You mean normal Sai-jins and those with reduced capacity?"
Pug nodded. "Sai-jins with reduced capacity gain power slower than the average. Tangerie, Vadora, and Appla are prominent examples of this type. Your father and I have been thinking. The likes of Kakkarotto and Bardock are not entirely without precedent. Two hundred years ago Orenja, born third class, rose to be the second strongest Sai-jin, surpassed only by the King."
"You're suggesting a third type, even more uncommon than the reduced capacity?"
King Vegeta nodded. "An extended capacity. They can gain in power easier than the average Sai-jin. Not to the degree of the Royal Family, but still beyond normal. Add to that the fact that both of them push themselves harder than any normal Sai-jin... As you know Vegeta, even though you are part of the royal family, you are also a reduced capacity. You managed to push yourself to where you are now, but with more effort than it took any of your ancestors. This is why they are able to keep up with you."
"What about Kakkarotto's kid, Gohan?" the Prince asked. "He too is..."
"An unusal specimen." Pug said. "One of the two only half Sai-jin half Humans there are. The matter of Gohan is beyond complex. While the child of Pasha, Videl I believe, is exceptionally powerful, it seems to be more the mixing of Human and Sai-jin blood than ability. Gohan, however, seems to have three things going in his favor, if we're correct that is. He, too, is an extended capacity. Plus there is the apparent effect of Human DNA enhancing Sai-jin DNA which further raises his capacity."
"On top of that. I now believe that he is the one. The Guardian powers have awoken within Gohan." King Vegeta finished. "The legend says that they will awaken when a threat to the Sai-jin race arises. The timing of all these events... Freeza, Slug, the conspiracies, this new danger... the universe began to enter this turmoil the same year Gohan was born."
"Freeza was a thorn in our sides longer than that." the Prince said, not entirely satisfied.
"True." the King continued. "But it is not just Freeza. Think about it a moment. I could have stood against him and possibly won. Goku did. The Guardian powers were not needed for him. But look at the bigger picture. Some threat, larger than the Cold Family, has begun to make itself known. Things are starting to come to a head. I don't know if perhaps the events on Earth are part of the main thing, or just some extra, but something very big is coming Vegeta. Something far more dangerous than the Cold Family ever was."
The King paused as the doors to the throne room opened and a soldier with orange skin and pink hair came running in. Reaching the table he quickly kneeled. "King Vegeta sir."
"What is it?"
"We detected a ship about thirty minutes ago." he said hurriedly. "At first we thought it was a ghost reading, we were barely getting anything, and then it cleared. But a moment later it vanished completely from our sensors. It's course was for Planet Vegeta. The others said it was nothing but you've asked us to report anything unusual."
The King leaned back in his seat in thought. "Yes, very good. You may go." he said not even paying attention. The man nodded, stood, and walked from the room. "So then, we have someone passing through our space and coming here..."
The Prince snorted. "You heard him, it vanished. There was probably nothing there, just a space echo."
"Perhaps." the King nodded. "But these warriors for the conspiracy that still runs, they have to be travelling somehow, no?"
The younger royal stiffened up at that. His mind insantly went back to his recurring dream.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Training Grounds:
Vadora and Tien had come across Mango, Tangerie, and Toma on the way back out to the Training Grounds and the three Sai-jin had decided to come along to try and help with her training. At the moment Bulma was sitting on the ground doing as the four Sai-jins and the Human were directing. Vegeta had already taught her to tap into her ki, but it was far too low to really be useful.
Mango was looking at the reading on her scouter as she watched Bulma's power fluctuate betwen 9 and 12. After the higher powers on Earth had been removed from the planetary scans a more accurate average power of 8 had been established for the Human race. So Mango saw the reading as quite impressive for the young woman. She wasn't a fighter, just kept herself fit. And on such a low scale 9 to 12 was a pretty impressive range. Even if Chi-Chi ranked in as the strongest Human female at 72.
It still wasn't quite enough to do what was needed. A power of 15 was needed to generate ki attacks. And a power of 30 to be able to fly, although badly. They'd need to raise Bulma's power to at least 50 in order to get her to a competent fighting level. Still, that wouldn't be too difficult. The gravity would help with that, plus the training. Mango figured they'd have Bulma flying by the end of the month. Fighting, decently, would take longer. But she'd be ready.
They stood there letting Bulma focus for a while and then Toma began showing her some moves. Mango was rather impressed with how easily the woman took to the motions. Apparently the style was similar to a workout method she used back on earth. /Maybe she'll be ready faster than I'd thought./ A little later the small Chaotzu returned from his earlier trip into Saiya City and joined the others in training Bulma.
It was nearly an hour later that they finally stopped, Bulma quite tired from the exercise. "I say we head into town." Toma said smiling as they began to leave the Training Grounds. "I've not had a night out for months!"
Tangerie laughed. "You mean you haven't had a night out in months that you can remember. We just went out the other night and you passed out from too much to drink."
Toma shrugged. "A Sai-jin needs to have fun now and then. Besides, I've been bored, what with all the missions being cancelled lately." He turned and looked at Bulma who was being carried by Tien. "Tien here knows something, so does Raditz in fact, but they wont say anything. What about you? What's going on?"
Now all the Sai-jin's attentions were focused on Bulma and the woman fidgeted a bit. "It's nothing." she said at last, but not looking at any of them. Toma shook his head and then concentrated on where he was heading.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Somewhere on Planet Vegeta:
An odd sound echoed over the landscape, low and rumbling. The ground shook, dust flying into the air and rocks bouncing across the ground. Suddenly the rock began to crack in ten seperate places as though something of great weight was pressing into the ground. And then the rumbling and shaking began to fade, the dust settled slowly, and then a hissing sounded. A crack of light appeared in mid air and soon formed into a doorway that led into a metal hall.
A set of stairs lowered slowly and then clicked as it hit the rock. Silence fell over the area once more but only for a moment. The sound of hundreds of footsteps on a metal surface began to sound. And then beings of all shapes and sizes emerged from the doorway and moved down the steps. They all wore blue and white armors and had scouters upon their faces. It took a few moments for the six hundred soliders to emerge from the ship and gather about beneath it.
A moment later three new forms emerged from the doorway. They, too, had scouters and armors. But their armors were green and brown, and oddly formed. Instead of two shoulder fins like the others each only had one fin. As they reached the bottom of the stairs they turned to look up at the doorway. And then another new form emerged into the daylight. As he gazed down at his troops his tail smacked against the floor of the hall a few times.
The man's eyes looked over his troops and then out across the landscape around him. "We're about five miles from the Sai-jin palace and Saiya City." he said at last. "That is to the North. The Sai-jin's have a research center to the east about ten miles, it's also the central communications hub. Take it out and they're voice to the universe goes with it. To the South West is the primary training facility for the new generation of Sai-jin soldiers, about 8 miles away.
"It's time to teach these Sai-jins the meaning of power! And show them what happens when they mess with the Cold Family! Dore, you and your troops take the communications hub. Neizu, you and your troops have the training facility. Salsa, you and the rest of the soliders are with me. You will hit Saiya City, I shall deal with the King and his brat."
"Yes Lord Cooler!" they all said at once.
"Move out!" In a matter of a second the space was empty once more, the soliders all doing as ordered.