"Just who on Earth… Are you?" Muten Roshi removed his shades as they've become dirty and grazed by the blast that reduced their jet to scrap in a flash. With a serious gaze, he scouted out the four demonic warriors hanging in mid-air over him.
"This man is no ordinary human, it seems. He's evaded our surprise attack and is not fleeing in terror at the very sight of our demonic splendor. Then again, humanity has not yet had the honor of being stepped on by the Makyan Emperors–the Spice Boys!" one of the demonic warriors floating above the group with blue skin and spiky white hair said as he extended his hand as if ordering his troops to attack.
Like vicious attack dogs, the demons did exactly that. A flying colossus of flesh and sinew, finely sewn together, dashed to Muten Roshi in an instant, with a hammering fist the brutish, lavender skinned demon with long and pointy ears took off like a missile, trying to impale the old martial artist on his horns that were sticking out from a furry, Mongolian-style hat. As Muten Roshi danced around the charging behemoth, tracking his movements to the best of his limited ability, a crushing blow made everything go white from behind.
A red, humanoid dwarf with long, pointy ears and whiskers rolled like a living cannonball from his initial position by his commander's side to slamming into Muten Roshi's back and knocking all semblance of sense out of the old man. The vicious, lavender-skinned brute grabbed hold of Muten Roshi's bald head and punched him in the gut before slamming him into the dirt, face-first. Both warriors promptly fled as a sky-splitting double-foot stomp hammered Muten Roshi's unconscious body into the ground and reduced the burning yard of the Parsley City Museum to rubble.
"So odd, I've never seen a human that can actually take what we have to dish out…" the lavender-skinned colossus fixed his gauntlet before spitting aside with a displeased expression. "He's just some old man too…"
A tall and athletic demon jumped out from the crumbled hole of his own making and landed beside his much bulkier comrade with a mean grin on his face. The features of the burly, red-haired demon decorated with sideburns looked even more alien because of his amphibian-like skin and facial features. All four of the ambushing warriors wore battle armor most similar to otherworldly extraterrestrial warriors that have been sieging Earth for the last few years like a plague.
"All the more reason to bring Garlick Jr. back from the Dead Zone and take over this joint. With the help of the Black Water Mist, these interesting humans will be under our command. Free to fight and break as we please." The fishy-faced demonic alien turned his lips upward.
A rough battle cry distracted the combatants as a green energy ball carrying a Frankenstein's monster lookalike in its core burst out from the museum, rushing straight toward the grouped up trio of aliens that were staring at the old man they've just battered. The rushing Artificial Human's eyes were completely whited out and all semblance of restraint had been completely lost. It was as fury itself had driven if the rushing mechanical monster.
The three demonic aliens put up their arms to block the oncoming rush together. Artificial Human No. 8, enveloped in a bubble of shimmering jade Ki clashed with their open palms as the two parties engaged in an uneven power struggle but a pair of blurry flashes distracted the demonic assailants, making them realize that this charging blockhead wasn't the only warrior to worry about. Chi-Chi and Nam charged past the duo, kicking off of the ruined ground behind the three demonic warriors as Chi-Chi's flying knee strike dug into the back of the fishy-lipped sideburns character while Nam's cross-arm dive hit the bulky, lavender behemoth in the back of the neck.
With the two side pillars collapsing, Artificial Human No. 8 roared on, pushing with all of his force and carrying the little, red-skinned dwarf off before turning for the skies so that Parsley City didn't suffer too much damage. After reaching the climax of his charge, Artificial Human No. 8 detonated his charging assault with an explosive uppercut that also formed a devastating nova of jade Ki which overwhelmed the Makyan demon. Chi-Chi and Nam landed from both sides of the fallen martial arts master while Artificial Human No. 8 plunged down from the skies with his arms extended, ready to protect all of his newly met friends.
"You bunch look like demons." Chi-Chi hissed, having met plenty of demons in her youth and not being much of a fan of the kind. "Though you wear the gear of spacefarers, which are you?"
"Narrow-minded human…" the azure-skinned leader of the group with spiky white hair widened his eyes with manic glee while twitching his left hand up as if trying to squeeze the woman's heart and crush it in his hand from all the way up there. "We are Demon Clan… From the Planet Makyo."
"Demons… From another planet? Alien Demons?" Artificial Human No. 8 gasped in shock as his records didn't suggest something like this being possible. "Wh-What's going on to me?" the gentle giant took a few steps back, brushing aside his two allies as his sensors began going wild.
"What's going on, Artificial Human No. 8?" Chi-Chi complained about the rude back-dash of humanity's vanguard.
"I… I don't know… Something… Something's going on with my systems and… They seem to have jumpstarted by themselves. I can't quite… Can't control them. Battle data is going through my head, analyses, and calculations… It hurts!" Artificial Human No. 8 grabbed his head. "I don't want to fight but… I can't help it."
"These alien demons must be the mysterious party collecting the Dragon Balls. We cannot afford to lose to them here, or else they will have five Dragon Balls in their hands already," Nam turned to Chi-Chi, having decided to reason with the other human warrior as opposed to the android whom he didn't understand nor comprehended the current struggle of.
"It seems so…" Chi-Chi nodded. "You should stop resisting your call to fight, Artificial Human No. 8. These monsters beat up Muten Roshi and would hurt and enslave everyone you hold dear. They would sink the world in calamity and flames again and making Earth a living hell for humanity. That is a world that it is okay to fight against."
"That'd be quite enough babble. Spice Boys, crush these feeble humans and take the Dragon Balls from the rubble already. Kill anyone who resists," the commander of the Spice Boys instructed the other demons while descending to his line-up and declaring his own intent at taking part in the battle himself.
The battlefield became hectic as the humans and alien demons charged at one another, fists and feet, entire bodies mingled and shuffled into a dance of hectic chaos. The resonating shock wave threw the limp body of Muten Roshi aside while blowing out half of the museum and collapsing the ceiling down in a rumbling cave-in. Frightened museum staff and visitors fled to evacuate the museum as the dome shape of the collapsing building had been based on a sound foundation that provided the people inside the building the maximum time possible to evacuate before the building's debris hit the floor and crushed them.
Not even the most fearsome earthquakes or natural disasters should have threatened these buildings and yet the entire Parsley City threatened to collapse in on the weight of the colliding fists. The white-haired leader of the Spice Boys whizzed past Chi-Chi like a human bullet, knocking her around as the warrior toyed around with the human woman. Chi-Chi drew out from the hectic mess of fists and feet, drawing her opponent alongside her. A vicious tackle sent her hurling back through the air but once the cocky demon homed in on her again, Chi-Chi raised her knee to bash his bullet-like skull back before knocking the Spice Boys commander down and revolving in a flurry of kicks of her own before stomping Spice into the dirt with a diving kick and taking back to the air.
These demons were inhumanly powerful. Chi-Chi felt grumbling and searing burn in her forearms and calves, not to mention her gut and shaky noggin, where she took a few mean bumps. Even after all the training with Goku throughout the years and eating the honey of the Immortal Peach tree, it felt all the same as back then: her hits felt like a wooden stick poking at a brick wall whereas being hit felt like being smashed in the ribs with a war hammer. If she struggled to keep up, how will the others fare?
The tortilla-skinned, red-haired alien rushed at Nam with a fearsome cross but the human martial artist vanished from sight, appearing behind the aggressive warrior and chopping at the nape of his neck with what was meant to put him to slumber for ten whole days. It didn't seem that Nam's attack had the desired effect, as the fishy-lipped alien demon turned around with a full-fanged smile. Nam's decisive chop to the jugular cracked like lightning, but it didn't seem like Nam's hits were registering at all. The accomplished martial artist threw more and more chops to more and more vital areas, but all of them bounced off. None of his stiff, lashing kicks accomplished anything but made his own legs feel like injected with entire tons of lead.
"Soft and puny… You have no right to stand against the fearsome Mustard of the Spice Boys!" Mustard mocked Nam with his facial grimace as he grabbed hold of Nam's head and drove his knee into the native warrior's gut, then pulled the whited-out Nam in for a knee to his face that dyed Mustard's knee red with blood. A double ax-handle slam sent Nam crashing down with rolled-back eyes as his turban unraveled off of his head. Chi-Chi scooped out the plummeting warrior and placed him down on the ground gently before diving back into battle.
She met her forearm with one of Mustard's own. Their strength was around the same level, but Chi-Chi felt being slowly pushed back with every continuous second of their clash. His strength was just a bit greater. This was where Chi-Chi began feeling desperate and her ironed out and polished form of martial arts began wavering into desperate flurries–she was being pushed back by just one of the four goons out to get the Dragon Balls.
"Now this is interesting… Someone like you must have taken part in the banishment of Lord Garlick Jr." Mustard dragged his fist back his busted fishy lip, clearing off a trace of blood and slobber off of it as he and Chi-Chi circled one another, looking to explode with a flurry of attacks at each other at any second.
"Garlick Jr.? You mean that miscreant whom even the Demon Clan shunned for being a snake? I wish I could have helped banish him, but that was all the others. I don't see why someone as scary as you would bow your head to a weakling like that though. You could kill him in one hit with that crazy power of yours." Chi-Chi answered.
"Silly human, don't you know that the strength of the Makyan Demon increases the closer their planet is to Earth? It's true that our power has now dwindled some, as our planets have crossed paths in the last few years, which is when we've crossed over from Planet Makyo on to Earth to free our master, but if Lord Garlick Jr. will be free once again, his power will exceed ours! He'll be immortal and invincible and humans will bend to our command, whether or not they like it." Mustard taunted Chi-Chi.
Artificial Human No. 8 and the lavender-skinned brute crashed into each other. Colliding with headbutts repeatedly and raising thunderous shock waves with each collision. The two rotated around each other as they ground their teeth and pushed on, shifting their weight around to prove superior in strength until an invisible Kiai shock wave blasted Artificial Human No. 8 away and the lavender-skinned brute regained his composure. The monstrous demon cracked his knuckles with a rich expression on his face.
"Not bad at all. You ain't as frail as any humans I've met. What's with all these crazy folks showing up out of the blue? Maybe we really should have tried taking over the world a few years ago, when our powers were at their peak?" the mount of muscles cracked his head with wild twists and smacked his cheeks in preparation to charge at Artificial Human No. 8 with all his might again.
The two powerhouses collided like two comets blazing a trail on opposite paths before throwing a mad flurry of strikes at each other while neither of them backed down from the other in the beginning. Once an explosive headbutt of the alien demon sent the android crashing down, the musclebound giant began pressing his advantage in power by stomping and hammering on his fallen foe, grabbing hold of him and dragging him across the ruined city streets, and sending him crashing through buildings before sending Ki blasts to keep Artificial Human No. 8 away. In his ability to conjure up ranged Ki attacks, the demon found his advantage and continued to exploit it to wear his opponent's stamina off before engaging in close distance beat downs again and claiming his triumph over a weathered-out opponent.
"Don't be ridiculous, Vinegar…" the dwarfish demon shrieked out. "Don't you remember what Spice said when we leaped over to this planet? The most powerful humans can destroy our Planet Makyo with ease. We must not give them the opportunity to rob us of all our power. We must wait until our home planet's embrace sufficiently powers us up, but the planet is far off away enough to evade destruction from down on Earth!"
He seemed to lack an opponent for the moment, thus he scolded his more arrogant comrades instead. What he failed to notice was the rise of a spirited old man with blood pouring down his cracked open face and the iron resolve of a rage demon as he raised his hands over his head. It was only when a leaf-green energy wave washed over the red, antennae-mustache-donning dwarf that he realized that Muten Roshi had awakened and settled on his ultimate ace technique.
"My master Mutaito-sama has sealed away the ultimate evil with this martial arts technique once before. I shall not embarrass him by shunning away from securing victory this way as well. I have hardened my body to where it will no longer claim my life and while as a martial artist I will carry the shame of sealing the evil away rather than crushing it, it is a shame I will bear!" Muten Roshi shouted out as he thrust his arms toward a piece of debris fallen off of the destroyed jet–the adamantine fuel tank surrounded by a coating of scrap that made it incredibly difficult to bust open or pierce. "Mafuba!"
The green wave became one with the undergrown and underdeveloped demon chubby. As the beaten yet still resolute martial arts master directed the sealing wave toward the discarded fuel tank, the entire wave howled and whirled toward the open hole. Muten Roshi charged onward to seal the fuel tank with a nearby chunk of plastic debris and while the fuel tank rolled about and struggled, eventually the green glow subsided and the closed tank settled in place.
"Salt!" Mustard yelled out, losing his focus. Like a slash of a drawn blade, Chi-Chi's kick turned her opponent around several times as she continued to overwhelm him with a flurry of kicks that seemed to have all been launched simultaneously and looked impossible to evade or block in his dazed state. Chi-Chi's foot knocked all sense out of Mustard, digging under his round and fatty chin, sending the alien demon spinning in the air as she prepared to unleash a powerful Kiai shock wave to break her opponent. A wave of warmth and a flash of bright light from behind her made Chi-Chi stiffen and sprawl out in pain as she flopped lifeless on the ground.
"Let's retreat, I've retrieved the Dragon Balls." Spice, after blasting Chi-Chi from behind, showed his hand that had a Dragon Ball in between each of his fingers and in the cradle of his palm while his other hand held the limp body of Muten Roshi whom he threw aside. "If these humans know the Mafuba, we better off avoid engaging them until Lord Garlick can subjugate their minds with the Black Water Mist and make them our thralls."
"Humph… You lucked out, tin-man!" Vinegar bellowed as he threw a cross to Artificial Human No. 8's mid-section and moved in behind him and wrapping his immovable arms around Artificial Human No. 8's waist, spinning both of them down and driving his opponent into the floor with a spinning piledriver drop from the sky. With all of their opponents stunned, the Spice Boys cradled their hands together and formed an energy ball that they've launched at the region of the city, covering it all in a red flash pillar, surrounded by jets of green flames.
Once the deafening obliteration subsided, the enemy was gone. Muten Roshi could only twitch and whimper, barely mustering up enough strength to crawl closer to Nam and sense a feint breath under his nose despite his grim condition. It took the Turtle Hermit several more minutes until he could pick himself up and limp to Chi-Chi, to feel her heartbeat. While, for a second, it seemed like had none, sending chills down the old man's spine, the woman jumped back into action, full of vigor just a few seconds later.
"Damn it! Got me from behind those vipers!" Chi-Chi seethed with her fists clenched and shaking.
"Settle down, young lady, those aren't enemies that we can just beat!" Muten Roshi scolded Chi-Chi, who, despite a searing hole in her dress from the back and the scorched burns on her back and the grazes she sustained while fighting Mustard still wanted to give the fleeing alien demons pursuit. "Right now, they believe that any of us can just whip out the Mafuba and seal them away. That saved our lives. They feared that technique so much that they failed to even free their comrade, despite having an opening."
"Why would the Mafuba scare them that much? I thought Piccolo said that the demons have studied ways of countering it…" Chi-Chi looked at the blank point in the red evening sky as her enemies fled further and further to the south-east, toward the Red Sea.
"That is correct. However, these demons claimed not to be from the Demon Realm. Whether it was because they were too far away at the time, or because Garlick Jr. considered them too weak without the aid of their Planet Makyo's rays, he didn't bring them to the Tournament of Doom. That means that the Spice Boys have been separated from their master and may not have learned to counter the Mafuba as the rest of the Demon Realm horde." Muten Roshi answered. "That is why I even took the chance, to begin with. I also targeted the weakest out of them just because it had the highest odds to work."
"I guess you're not just a pervy old geezer after all." Chi-Chi wrapped her arms over her chest, settling down some. "Still, those guys are crazy strong. I could barely hold a candle to one of them and while I could have broken him in half with the King Kai's Fist, I'd have ruined my body in the process, there's no way I can fight off all of them, even with the King Kai's Fist."
"What… Incredible power…" Nam muttered with a husky tone of voice, rising off the ground with shaky arms. "Yet despite the difference in strength, we must give pursuit." He insisted.
"Nam-san…" Artificial Human No. 8 bellowed in worry. "You're wounded, those monsters are incredibly powerful, you can get killed!"
"Even so, they've got the Dragon Balls now and with their fearsome might, they'll get the other two in no time at all. We are the only ones that can stop them from freeing their master and what Chi-Chi said earlier is true–we cannot afford to allow them to realize their dream and subjugate all of humanity!" Nam declared, tying his turban back on. "If we had time, if that would help at all, I'd call for my students for aid but… I'm afraid that we have no time and it would only result in my students sacrificing their lives for naught. We are the only ones right now. The only ones that can react in time!"
"To attack them now is suicide. But without the help of the rest, I'm afraid we have little choice. We're the best hope the Earth has right now and we cannot afford to wait until Yajirobe joins us. His Ki appears to have stopped moving for whatever reason." Muten Roshi turned to the west with a worried look.
"Doesn't Yajirobe have another Dragon Ball? Maybe it's for the better that we don't wait for him. If we lose again, the Spice Boys will have all 7…" Chi-Chi turned to the west with a strict glare as well.
"I'll call Bulma on a payphone. I'm sure she can spare a capsule of a jet, at the very least…" Muten Roshi sighed in defeat that this entire impromptu assembled new Dragon Team shared together.