Chapter 15 – The Mystery of the Dragonballs
Goten watched from over Trunks' shoulder.
"What the--?" he said, looking at the trembling radar blips that represented the Dragonballs. "What happened to them?"
"I don't know," said Trunks, brow furrowed, thinking about every possible explanation. His mind came up empty. "I can't even tell if this is a bad thing, much less what actually happened or why."
Bulma reached over and took the Dragon Radar from her son. She studied it for a moment. "I can try to run some scans on the locations indicated by the Radar. We might find something that way."
"Uh, guys?" said Goku. All eyes turned to him. "Why don't we just look for them?"
The job fell to Gohan. As he was capable of the greatest speeds among them, they decided it was best for him to collect the Dragonballs.
He soared over the countryside, following the closest blip on the Radar screen. When he was directly above it, he stopped in midair and looked down. He was floating above a forest; the Dragonball would be below the tops of the trees. He flew down.
Glancing at the Radar, he was surprised to see that the blip had moved a few yards away. Following the signal on foot, he came at last to a flowing stream. The Dragonball seemed to be moving downstream. But shouldn't it be floating?
Gohan frowned. Nevertheless, he rolled up his sleeve, reached his hand into the stream, and found the Dragonball with his hand. He pulled it out and looked at it in shock. Instead of a bright orange sphere, the ball had turned an ominous shade of purple. Gohan turned it over in his hand, and saw that on the other side, going right through the two stars on its face, was a long crack.
"What?" Gohan muttered to himself. Besides the obvious physical change, there didn't seem to be anything fundamentally wrong with the Dragonball. Still, years of experience had taught him to rely more on gut feelings than logic. After deliberating with himself for a few moments, he decided to collect the other six.
Gohan arrived back at Capsule Corp. at sundown. Bulma came out to meet him.
"Well?" she asked.
"There's definitely something wrong with them." He pulled out one of the Dragonballs to demonstrate his point. "We need to call everyone here and decide what to do about this."
Bulma looked the ball over carefully. When she was satisfied, she straightened up. "You're right," she said simply. "I'll tell everyone."
The next day, Gohan and Bulma looked at everyone assembled before them. Yes, they were all there: Goku, Goten, Trunks, Bra, Pan, Piccolo, Uub, Buu, Hercule, Videl, Chi-chi, Krillin, 18, and Yamcha. The cracked Dragonballs were piled up on the table behind Gohan.
"As you can see," he began, "The Dragonballs are cracked. I don't know how or why this happened. But I think we can all agree that there's a potential risk in summoning Shenron with them." He looked around the room. "Any ideas?"
"I say we just try it!" said Pan. "Whatever happens, we're all strong! We can handle it!"
"Physical might isn't the only possibility," said Piccolo, arms crossed. "We need to take that into consideration."
"Vegeta would agree with me," sulked Pan.
Goku's eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh, yeah!" he cried. "Vegeta! Piccolo, can you try to find him? You're the best at sensing ki, after all."
Piccolo smiled slightly at the compliment. "I will try, Goku." He closed his eyes and concentrated. After a few moments of silence, he opened them. "Nothing," he said. "If Vegeta's on Earth, he isn't using any of his ki. If he's somewhere else, that raises more questions. His disappearance could be connected with the Dragonballs."
Videl spoke up. "Well, I agree with Pan. Think of all those people who were killed by 17! Are we just going to ignore them because we're afraid of a bunch of cracked stones?"
No one spoke for a moment. Then, "No. We shouldn't use them," said Trunks. "This has the potential to go very bad, very fast."
"And what do you suggest we do about the damage?" asked Uub doubtfully.
"Learn from it and rebuild," said Trunks simply. "That's how people used to do things. If we attempt to use them like this, it could cause far worse damage."
Silence again. There was a general murmur of agreement.
"I think Trunks is right," said Goku. "We need to keep them somewhere safe for now, and figure this out later. Maybe they'll go back to normal if we leave them be for a while." Videl nodded reluctantly.
"OK," said Trunks, crossing the room. "I'll lock the Dragonballs in one of the vaults at Capsule Corp. I can check up on them every week or so, and see if there's any sign of improvement."
He reached out for the Dragonballs, but as he did so, there was a blinding flash of light. Trunks was forced a few steps backward; his hair blew violently back and he greeted his teeth as the cracked spheres shook tremendously. The sky grew a dark shade of red, which everyone saw only when a gigantic black form burst up out of the Dragonballs, ripping the roof off of the building.
Across the planet, people gazed up in fear at the sky. No summoning of the Eternal Dragon had ever produced a color this foreboding. They murmured among themselves. What was going on?
Trunks stood rooted to the spot. He stared upward, eyes wide and mouth open. They all watched as the black cloud of energy began to take form. It shifted itself until it resembled a cruel, gas-like mockery of the real Shenron.
It glared down at them through the wrecked Capsule Corp. No one made a sound. At last, Gohan spoke. "Wh...who are you?" No response came from the mysterious dragon other than a low, rumbling growl.
Pan turned to her father. "Do you think it wants to kill us? Maybe it just can't communicate." She slowly approached the menacing beast. It let out another growl and began to steadily emit energy. Pan froze, but opened her mouth. "H...hello...?" she stammered. "Do you want something from us? Why are you--"
Don't say another word! screamed a voice in her head. Pan yelped and ran back to the others. Apparently they had all heard the voice as well. Where had it come from?
Only Goku and Gohan knew the voice. "It's the Elder Kaioshin!" exclaimed Goku.
That's right, it's me! bellowed the Old Kai to all of them. And if you want to get rid of this problem quickly, you'll shut up and listen to me! Everyone fell silent.
Good, he continued. Now, listen to me carefully. This dark dragon spirit has appeared because you've used the Dragonballs once too often. The Dragonballs were originally meant to be used once every 100 years or so, as it would usually take a person that long to find all seven throughout the Earth. You all, with your special radars and super speeds, made finding the Dragonballs incredibly easy, and in less than fifty years you've used them almost ten times! Didn't you ever think of the repercussions? No one had anything to say; they were dumbfounded.
I thought not. Well, the repercussions are very severe indeed. Every time a wish is made on the Dragonballs, it requires a large amount of power on the dragon's part. After this display of power, the residue remains inside Shenron's body in an equal amount of negative energy. You may not realize it, but this same negative energy flows through your own bodies briefly, whenever you perform a powerful ki attack. Goku started and looked at himself.
The only difference is, Old Kai went on, the energy dissipates from your bodies almost immediately. Shenron, on the other hand, is always sealed away until his next summoning, and the negative energy takes much longer--years, in fact--to dissipate. Seeking to avoid a catastrophe, Shenron transferred this energy into the Dragonballs themselves...but that turned out to be the worst catastrophe of all.
"So, what's happened? What do we do now?" asked Goku.
Shhh, not so loud, you idiot! shrieked Old Kai. I'm about to tell you that! Now listen: the negative energy increased over the years, and now it's caused the Dragonballs to crack! And all that energy has taken the form of this spirit you see before you. Now, be careful, and don't make any sudden moves.
"Why?" asked Gohan in a whisper.
It's very unstable, said Kibitoshin's voice suddenly. In its current form, it can be contained, even dissipated quietly so that all this will stop right here. But as you can see, it's agitated. The dragon spirit opened its mouth and began emitting low, restless growls. If you startle it, the energy could become more potent, and more solid than just wispy clouds. It's essential that you be careful and capture it calmly. If you don't, Earth could be destroyed right here and now.
At this, Hercule let out a whimper of fear. The dragon spirit whipped its head around and opened its mouth in a snarl. Hercule could no longer control himself.
"Yaaaah!" he yelled. "Don't let it eat me! I swear I won't do anything bad ever again!" The dragon let out a terrifying roar and shot his head toward the cowering man on the floor. Majin Buu leapt in front of him.
Stop! yelled Kibitoshin and Old Kai in Buu's head. It can't really--
"Buu protect Hercule!" yelled Buu as he shot both hands forward and fired a beam of ki at the black spirit's open mouth. Immediately the dragon dissolved. Buu lowered his hands and grinned, satisfied. No one dared move; they didn't dare let themselves think it was over.
And sure enough, a few moments later, the energy began to reform. It gathered, not back into the dragon spirit, but into seven smaller balls of energy. Everyone stared as the balls floated directly above the cracked Dragonballs. With a whooshing sound, the Dragonballs soared up into the air, each one finding a sphere of energy. Each ball took on a specific color: Trunks counted white, green, light blue, orange, purple, dark blue, and black. The next instant, the seven balls separated, shooting out of their sight and across the globe.
What have you done! yelled Old Kai. You've just unleashed a horrible evil upon the world! That flimsy shadow dragon was bad enough, but now you've turned it into seven! This is the worst thing that could have happened!
"S...sorry," mumbled Hercule in a meek voice.
It's not just you! raged the Kaioshin. It's all of you! You're all responsible! You depend on the Dragonballs for everything! You people couldn't even tie your shoelaces without using them!
"The Earth keeps getting attacked!" said Goten indignantly. "What are we supposed to do?"
Live with it maybe! ranted Old Kai. That blue-haired woman should never have invented that cursed radar!
"Now, wait just a minute!" yelled Bulma angrily. "Who said this is my fault? If it weren't for Goku and everyone else with superpowers, the Dragonballs would still take a long time to find!"
"Guys!" yelled Gohan over the noise. "We can't just blame people for what happened, we have to deal with the problem in front of us! Now, Elder, what can we do from here?"
Well, I think you're all screwed! continued the old Kaioshin. If you think--
What you can do from here, interrupted Kibitoshin, is fight. If I've sensed correctly, each of the shadow dragons will be powerful. Some may be more powerful than the strongest of you can handle. I urge you to plan your battles carefully, and conserve your strength. These could be some of the most taxing battles you've ever fought.
Realization struck Goku. "Kibitoshin...is this--?"
What we were training you for on our planet? Yes, Goku. If there was ever a time for you to ascend, it's now. But the rest of you will need to help as well. Gather as many allies as you can.
"Kibitoshin," said Trunks. "We have a lot of powerful fighters among us. But...my father, one of our strongest, is missing. How can we fight without him?"
There was a pause as Kibitoshin thought about this. You'll have to make do, he said finally, and hope that Vegeta returns soon. I have faith that you can pull through this. Just remember this: it's very important that you kill the dragons without completely destroying them. They have the Dragonballs, so you don't want to destroy those. Good luck to all of you.
There was silence for a moment. They all stood and watched the sky slowly return from red to blue, thinking about what their first move should be. After a long time, Yamcha spoke. "Someone's coming," he said.
Bulma gasped. "Vegeta?" she cried hopefully. Yamcha muttered indistinguishably to himself.
"No," he said. "It's not the right signal. I think it's...Piccolo, can you make sure? Who does it look like to you?"
The Namekian stared at the speck Yamcha was indicating. He squinted. Even from that far away, he could see a brightly shining eye, much more noticeable than the two below it. He gave a slight smile. "You're right," he said.
"It's Tenshinhan!" cried Yamcha happily.
"And he's not alone," added Piccolo. "Chaotzu is with him."
Goku craned his head to look. "Hey, it is Tenshinhan!" he exclaimed. "Wow...his eye's so bright. Looks like he's been doing a lot of meditation!"
Tenshinhan landed on the floor in front of them, Chaotzu a few feet above. "Hi, everyone," he said in his usual gruff voice. Twenty years had changed him little, owing mostly to his intense meditative training. The third eye in his forehead, which had dulled slightly from years of combat, now shone more brightly than it ever had, though aging had put a few lines around his other two. His doll-like companion looked none the worse, if a little older. "Hi!" he echoed.
"Ten! Chaotzu!" yelled Krillin, running over to them. "What brings you over here?"
Tenshinhan blinked. "Is that you, Krillin?" he marveled. "When did you grow all that hair? And a mustache, too!"
Krillin's face lit up. "Not all of us have to stay bald forever," he said proudly.
"Well, at least you're still short." He laughed. "Hey, I'm just kidding! We're here, though, because of the sky. It's not every day it turns dark red at eleven A.M."
"Well, I'm glad you guys are here," said Goku. "From the looks of things, we could sure use you! Something bad's going on, so I think it's best for all of us to stay in one place in case we need to plan something quickly. As soon as we get settled in here I'll explain everything to you."
"Hold on, Goku!" said Bulma. "We can't stay at Capsule Corp! The roof was ripped right off! We'll have to stay somewhere that can put a roof over our heads!"
"Well, I'd offer my house," began Chi-chi, "except you all put a couple of gigantic holes in my roof too! Where are the Dragonballs when you need them?"
"You know," said Piccolo, "perhaps the Elder Kaioshin has a point."