Continuity
Chapter 99: Out of the Sun
The ambient nervous chatter in the room slowed to nothing. With an exaggerated movement, a suit-wearing, bushy mustache man with graying temples lifted the remote and shut off the large TV behind him. 'So,' he said, staring down the fifty-odd agents sitting at lines of desks before him. This isn't the time to panic.
Loud silence was the only response he got. The lead agent sighed. 'Look — that guy, Dr. Gero — we've received one threat from him already. We put every asset on finding those people the first time around.'
'And after all that,' a young agent shouted, 'he's gonna destroy South City!?'
'After all that,' the lead agent cut in, 'we have to think about why he's doing this.' In a motion that spoke of years of experience addressing a crowd of unsettled people similar to this one, he leaned back and crossed his arms and lifted his head in one clean and practiced motion. 'Why make a specific threat now? Could be he's unsatisfied with our progress in fulfilling his original request — securing those people he broadcasted. Could be he's feeling pressured by something else and felt the need to go public again.'
'What's making him feel the heat then?' A gruff agent asked.
'Dunno. But we have to consider every possibility, and continue to appear that we're working towards his original request in the meantime.' The lead agent sighed again — practiced and less natural this time. 'We've got half a day to keep working, and then whatever the World Government has got is being broadcast on all the major news networks. We've got two so far, and with us and the army and every other department and agency on this and evacuation, I'm sure—'
'Excuse me,' a woman raised her hand from within the crowd. 'What was that? We've… got two.'
'You didn't read the morning brief? We captured two from the list Dr. Gero published a little under two days ago. They're being held in a secure facility until we figure out what the King wants to do with them.'
The people around the woman parted slightly as she jumped up to her feet. Her face was strained. 'I see,' she managed. 'Um… okay. I need more coffee.'
She turned and rushed out of the briefing room. Whatever interruption she caused was soon supplanted by on-off chatter of her fellow agents. Back-and-forth question time with the chief, she heard, which meant she had picked not an entirely suspicious period to leave.
Nette's legs were trembling as she reached her desk. As if what I'm about to do isn't. Shit. She picked up her landline phone's handset and erratically punched at the numberpad. Shit!
0o0o0
Bulma turned off the TV before some announcer could panic-parse Gero's threat. Not one of them so much as breathed. Outside the ocean surrounding Kame House lapped peacefully against the sand.
'Okay…' Bulma started, finding her voice. 'Let's be calm about this.'
Mark slammed his fists against his couch. 'I'm — we're going! We have to!'
'Let's think about this, too,' Bez advised. 'For all we know—'
He blinked when he realized everyone was looking at him expectantly. '...For all we know, Gero might be bluffing. He might not be planning to destroy South City.'
'The timing's… odd,' Krillin said. 'Why make the threat now?'
Bulma knocked her hand against the coffee table placed between them all. 'There's a lot of unknowns — which is why we should be cautious, and why we don't need to go right away. Gero's threat is timed to the end of the day, and the sun just rose. We don't need to be hasty.'
'It's not like we can fulfill his request either by turning ourselves over,' Bez said. 'No clue where everyone on that list is right now…'
'We should wait,' Krillin said suddenly. 'We have until the end of the day, and that's about 12 hours from now.'
'Seems risky,' Bez said, considering. 'We'll be losing time to counterattack.'
'None of us are in tip-top shape,' Krillin argued. 'We're all tired from last night's searching. All I'm saying is…'
'We need a plan, right?' Bulma guessed.
'Yeah, that.'
Bulma weighed the tv remote in her hands until finally placing it down on the coffee table. 'Give me a few hours,' she said, 'to do a few things. Put together a new device that can ping those pagers I gave everyone. Maybe even figure out where Gero hacked the news networks from.'
'You can do that?' Mark asked, awed.
'Maybe.' She gripped her seat's armrests and pushed herself up. 'If you give me enough time. Let me get to work outside.'
She turned halfway to go, then appeared to remember something and grabbed the tv remote.
'On or off?'
They stared meekly at her. She wavered and placed the remote down on the table. 'Off. Alright…'
0o0o0
With a jab a forkful of syrup and carbs sliced through the air. 'You're lucky that I'm still figuring out our angle of approach,' Launch said through a mouthful of pancakes. 'Enjoy the meal while it lasts.'
Across the booth from her, looking either unimpressed or uninterested in the diner they were sitting in, his plate of pancakes, or his conversation with Launch, Yajirobe prodded his food with his fingers. Some give, and no bounceback. 'Your approach, you mean.'
'Whatever.' Launch swallowed and immediately stuffed her mouth with more food. 'I already let you sleep in. Least you could do is help me figure this out.'
'What's there to figure out?' Yajirobe said, looking out the window to his right. It was a bright, sunny day in Central City — made sunnier by the column of tanks parked on the nearby road, blocking any movement further into the urban areas and unintentionally shining light into passerbys' eyes — if there were any people on the street, which there weren't. As they quickly figured out after flying here, the entire city was on lockdown miles out from any important government buildings. Something had spooked everyone around, probably. He was pretty sure Launch didn't care to figure that out. And Yajirobe was too sleepy.
But whatever it was explained why there was no one else in the diner and the round, balding cook behind the counter looked hesitant to serve them. Money is money, Yajirobe guessed, and by the looks of it there weren't going to be any other customers today besides them. Perhaps that's why the cook ran off into the back as soon as he served them.
'Speaking of,' he said.
'Speaking of what?'
'Where'd you get the money to pay for this?'
Launch glared at him as she pulled off another impressive swallow. 'Do you think I'm some sort of — of a, what's the word — a cretin?' She finished, spraying flecks of food back towards her plate.
'Uh.' Yajirobe shrugged.
She fashioned her aggression back towards her plate. Yajirobe's attention drifted. In the far corner of the diner the front door opened. Out of the corner of his vision he saw someone knock the counter for service, then head towards them and dip into an alcove.
'You know, when I find them,' Launch spoke up, 'I'm not going to pull my punches. No mercy. Once I pull out Tien and Piccolo from their prison, I'm blowing the place sky-high.'
'Yeah, um… I don't think that's a great idea,' Yajirobe hedged.
'And together, we'll…' Her face lowered. 'Chiaotzu… huh…' She placed her fork and knife down and rested her head on her hands over her plate. 'Korin didn't mention where Chiaotzu is — with the mind thing, whatever.'
'Speaking of,' Yajirobe said again, 'when can you take me back? I'm tired,' he whined.
'Oh, shut up,' Launch snapped. 'You're one of the strongest people on Earth. You're tired?'
'I didn't sleep well.'
'Are you complaining about my choice of place for last night?'
'I don't think 'comfy' when thinking about forest floors.'
'Well suck it up!' Launch snarled. 'Seriously! The next time you go to the bathroom do you want me to wipe your ass, too?'
He ignored that. 'What do you even think they're doing to Tien and Piccolo in their scary prison, anyway? Poking them? You know they're, like, super strong, right? Worst the World Government can do is tickle them, probably.'
'It's the principle of it,' Launch said. 'Two people like that, imprisoned like that, with all the shit that's going on? When Rush and evil time travel and that PTO Battleship set to arrive in five days are all bearing down on us —'
'See,' Yajirobe said, 'I feel like you're taking this prison thing too seriously, and taking that not seriously enough.'
'I know a lot more about that PTO battleship than I do about what's happening to Piccolo and Tien,' Launch bit back. 'For one, I know one person on that ship lost to me like a punk. Him and his stupid Saiyan hair.'
'One person, out of how many people on the ship?'
'What do I look like to you, some sort of space navy math nerd?'
'Hi!' The new voice hit them before its speaker had even appeared to them. A woman in a suit with damp, almost concerningly messy long black hair, appeared at their table, panting not because of any particular exertion but from sheer adrenaline. 'I'm — I'm sorry,' she caught herself, leaning on the table. 'I'm sorry to barge in like this, but if I eavesdropped any more, I think I would have had a heart attack.'
Launch narrowed her eyes. 'You were doing what now?'
'Oh, sorry!' The woman extended her hand. 'I'm Nette. You're wanted by every civic person on the planet, and I'm going to help you break in and out of prison.'
0o0o0
The sun was crowning across the valley's rocky hilltops as he trudged upward, back-and-forth across a forested, natural switchback. A few times Bardock stopped at the edge and turned to the horizon. He was starting to get it — maybe. Earth certainly wasn't the ugliest planet he'd ever been to. And this place had its moments. The first sunset here was approaching, heralded by streaky orange and reds climbing stretching into the sky. He decided he wanted to see it.
When he reached the top, he gave a nod as he threw down the deer carcass next to a burnt-out fire. 'Son.'
Half facing him, half looking off the ledge, Kakarot gave a distracted mutter in response. 'What?' Bardock asked, sitting alongside his day's prize. 'Afraid Raditz is listening in?'
'He's not here right now,' Kakarot told him.
'I thought you said you'd keep an eye on him.' A rip preceded a leg of meat separating from the carcass and being thrown onto a rack above the fire. Bardock fed some ki into the fire's charcoal center and kicked up a flame. 'Keep tabs on him, what he's doing.'
'I never said anything. You just left.'
Bardock grunted. Whatever. He sat down and began to prepare his breakfast. First step was kicking up the fire.
The wind picked up and died in short order. Kakarot sighed. His father didn't look up as he approached and sat down next to him. 'I would be keeping track of him if he wasn't so… quick,' Kakarot continued. 'He can leave without me seeing it. He — he does leave without me seeing it. I think…' As he trailed off as a gust blew past them, swaying the growing flame, fed by dry branches thrown on by Bardock. 'I think he doesn't like being watched.'
'Noted.' Bardock ripped off another hunk of meat, and after exchanging some glances and gestures with his son, placed it on the rack closest to Kakarot. 'He's hard to track. So what do we think he's doing right now?'
'...We?'
'I don't have any ideas.' Bardock waited, grew impatient with waiting, and shot a look at his son. 'Alright. What do you think he's doing?'
Kakarot nudged the rocks surrounding the fire with his foot. 'Not sure. Maybe nothing.'
Bardock grunted. 'Come on. He's not doing nothing. It's not possible.'
'And yet we haven't sensed him at all.'
'So what? All his standing around when he's here is just… contentless?'
'Raditz's just…' Kakarot shaped a figure around the growing fire. '...caught up in a lot of thinking… I think.'
'Ah. So he's thinking.' Bardock unnecessarily poked the curling branches in the fire's heart. 'These really my kids?...' He muttered.
The smell of cooked meat began to waft over them. Kakarot took the opportunity to stand and move to the rock ledge's edge. The sun was very near the valley's perimeter now. 'We need a plan, you know,' Kakarot called back to his father. 'We can't stay here indefinitely. As soon as possible we need to figure out what exactly happened to Raditz… and get off this planet.'
'Huh?' Bardock scowled away from the fire. 'Suddenly you're eager to leave Earth? After all the time you spend missing it?'
Those words stirred something in Kakarot. That sentiment hadn't diminished. Standing here, now, with everything he had left to do here… 'I don't want to leave, but the situation demands it,' Kakarot said quietly. 'Whatever or whoever did.. what they did to Raditz — I don't want to meet them and find out they want Raditz back, whether that be the Humans or someone else.'
'Someone else?'
'Do you really think the people who captured us are capable of doing… that to Raditz?'
'Maybe not.' Bardock frowned. 'It could be some people we haven't met, but I understand.' He paused for a second to think. 'You don't think Raditz could protect himself if someone came for him? If he's really as strong as you claim he is...'
'What?'
'Maybe we don't need to run at all,' Bardock opined.
'Considering he thinks he just arrived on Earth and I've still got my tail, I wouldn't rely on him to do anything right now.'
'Hm.' Bardock's fingers stretched over a section of raw meat. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here.'
Kakarot shook his head. 'His mind, memories… it's all mixed up. We can't rely on them.' He turned back. 'We can't rely on him. More than that — we don't know what was done to him. Maybe there's some sort of chip in him that would turn him against us. We don't know either way. We just know… nothing.'
More pieces of meat were crisping on the fire now. Bardock successfully motioned for his son to come back over. 'Here,' he said, handing over a leg. 'Eat.'
'You don't want the first one?'
'I'm waiting for a haunch.'
Minutes passed as the fire's crackling and Kakarot's smacking and chomping dueled for audal supremacy. Bardock was content to listen — he was taking a cue from his sons and thinking.
'If we're going to leave,' Bardock spoke up, ' we need a ship.'
'I guess that's a given, yeah.'
'So we steal one.'
That got Kakarot to stop chewing. He swallowed. 'I'm not sure that's a good idea. Our captors—'
'Screw the earthlings. They lied to us. Raditz is alive.'
'So we steal their ship?'
'If I have to choose between that or staying on Earth at risk of turning into Raditz, I'll choose theft.'
'Again, but I don't think the humans did that.'
Bardock let out a clipped laugh. 'You think a lot, but you haven't even covered the basics. To the Earthlings we're runaways — even if we didn't run away by choice. Not to mention—' His face broke out into a wild smile. 'We did it during an unsanctioned, outdoors bathroom break. Can't imagine our warden is well respected among his friends right now.'
'...I see.' Kakarot rubbed his neck. 'I hadn't thought of that. It does look bad for us, doesn't it?'
'Yep. I doubt they're going to treat us nicely the next time we meet. So at the very least we need to find a ship.'
The fire wavered as another breeze swept across the ledge. Clouds roamed lazily across the sky.
'Sure,' Kakarot said. 'We try to get a ship and leave. But won't taking him from here… make it harder to fix him?'
'Are you saying you want to find whoever plated him with metal and talk to them?' Bardock asked, incredulous. 'Are you serious, son?'
'Not that. Just… wouldn't someone on this planet have a better idea of how to fix what was done to Raditz instead of some random alien? A while back Chi-Chi mentioned one of her friends was a… scientist, or tech person, or something. Maybe we could… Um…'
Bardock leaned in. 'Do what, son?'
'...take them with us, I guess.' Suddenly Kakarot looked uncomfortable. 'No, that's not—'
'Abduction,' Bardock interrupted him. 'Huh. I see. Not very Saiyan of you, but might be the thing to do in this situation. Exploit the Earth's expertise without actually being on Earth. And when we've reversed what's happened to Raditz, they can even take our stolen ship back to Earth.' Bardock's nodding sped up. 'Yeah,' he stood up, 'thinking about it like that—'
'No.'
The simple word accompanied a simple, straight, utterly inflectionless face staring up at him. Whatever doubt had been present in Kakarot before had been crushed. 'We don't do that,' Kakarot elaborated.
'It's a good idea, son.'
'It's not—'
'Not what?' Bardock felt some annoyance creeping into his body, his tensing fingers and tightening chest. He could make peace with his son being different — not being a Saiyan as Bardock would like. What he couldn't stand was indecision. Cowardice. 'You suggested it.'
'I regret suggesting it.'
'And yet you still suggested it.'
It took some effort for Kakarot to stand in an orderly, unaggressive way. Anger was flashing through his veins — just barely smothering the growing drum of shame echoing through him. That's not who I am. His jaw clenched. Not anymore.
'It's unimportant right now,' Kakarot said. 'I don't even know this person's name, let alone where they are. First we need to find a ship to steal and convince Raditz to come with us. That last part will be hardest.'
'...Maybe so,' Bardock said.
'When he gets back, we'll broach the topic of leaving Earth with Raditz today. Then I'll go look for that ship, and you'll stay here with Raditz and keep tabs on him.'
'Wait, why me?'
Kakarot jabbed a thumb at himself. 'I confuse him. You just anger him. Bringing him along while ship-searching would do both. Of those three, I prefer the second option.'
'Ugh.' Bardock let out a long sigh. 'We're trading duties, then? Alright.' He sat down by the fire and ripped free another section of meat.
The carcass was now more cooked than not. He gestured to Kakarot. 'Sit? Plenty of time for both of us to anger eat.'
Kakarot was pissed. They were both pissed. 'Let's eat,' Kakarot grumbled.
0o0o0
Getting in was time consuming and, frankly, annoying for Launch, but she had been assured that breaking down the doors to a super-security prison, even if it was for a few innocent people, would allow more than a few bad people who deserved to be there to run free.
As Launch raised her arms, resisting the very real compulsion to roll her eyes as a few guards patted down her sides, she stared down her lead conspirator. Nette appeared out of place in most spots with her full black suit, but that didn't stop her from making small talk with the guards tasked with assigning Launch a cell. She wondered what they were talking about. Launch could figure out what they were saying, but that would require paying attention, and Launch didn't care for that.
This whole plan was stupid. How she'd let herself be talked into putting on this charade, she didn't know.
One of the guards patted her right ankle and hit something metal underneath her clothing. 'What's this?' the guard asked.
Launch glared at Nette. 'That,' Nette said slowly, 'is an insulin band — hey,' she said quicker before the guard could lift Launch's gi to spot the device and likely before Launch punted the guard halfway across the planet. 'We can replace it once we get her into her cell, alright? Right now let's just worry about getting this one locked up,' she said, gesturing to Launch.
'Yes,' Launch said dryly. 'Let's.'
A fuming look over that last word passed between Nette and Launch as the guard searching Launch stood, apparently satisfied. 'Cell's in Wing A,' the guard said. 'Two lefts, and then follow the signs.'
'Got it,' Nette nodded. 'Thanks.'
Launch still couldn't believe she'd agreed to this. The pretenses to this were ridiculous. Dr. Gero wanted her and all her friends in custody, so he tasks the World Government to collect them? She could level this place with a sneeze.'
They made a left, and then a right, and started heading towards Wing B. Without stopping Nette turned and gave her a single nod.
'The cameras?' Launch said.
'They're off.'
'Sound?'
'Off, too.'
'Good.' Launch examined the handcuffs around her wrists. If they were any more uncomfortable she'd have busted their fancy and expensive-looking veneer apart long before now.
She pulled apart her arms. Bolts and strips of metal clattered onto the floor. Launch rubbed her wrists. 'Much better.'
'I didn't tell you to do that,' Nette said, keeping her face out of view.
'You've already told me enough to do today, thank you. You should be grateful I let you do this farce at all.'
'You know I'm going to lose my job over this, right?' Nette said cooly as she swiped a card through a card reader at three successive doorways. 'You don't have to sound like this is painful for you.'
'But it is painful,' Launch groaned. 'Pretending you could actually imprison me?'
'There are worse things to pretend to be.'
'Yeah, whatever.'
They came to a long cell block, cells spaced apart with huge and thick walls of concrete and metal spacing gaps between cells. Launch gazed into a few as they walked past. Almost all empty, and all fitted with some sort of harness attached to the back wall. It looked… weirdly familiar. Like something she'd seen Bulma use a long time ago.
'Any idea what those are?' Launch asked.
'Huh?' Nette was staring straight ahead, stopped. 'What?'
'The stuff on the walls?'
'Um.'
'What?'
Nette pointed forward. At the end of the hallway, there was a rather obvious person-wide hole in the prison's ceiling. They crept forward and stopped beneath it. At least four floors were cut through like someone had taken a hole punch to the prison, and even more strange, this tunnel to the sky went through unused and unoccupied rooms. Storage spaces, cleaning closets, that sort of thing.
'Welp.' Nette looked to her left at the nearest cell. Its hydraulic door was left open, teetering on its hinges, no sign of forced exit or entry present. 'Guess the hole explains that. Maybe I won't lose my job after all.'
'...Uh huh,' Launch whispered. 'Alright. Makes sense.'
'That was where Piccolo was,' Nette said calmly. 'There,' she turned around, facing the locked cell across from this one. 'Is… ah. Where Tien was,' she said, smiling.
There was a frightened guard inside, staring at them like he'd gone to hell and back. Seeing them stare at him made him scoot back to the wall. 'It's not my fault!' he cried. 'I was tricked! Please! I have five kids!-'
'I'm not your boss,' Nette said. She gestured to the door. 'Could you?'
Launch pursed her face. 'I thought you didn't want me to break anything?'
'I think the hole above us set the trend, right?'
'Hah.' Launch gripped the hydraulic door and ripped it off its casing. The guard's jaw hit the floor as Launch put down what was imprisoning him like it was a piece of cardboard.
Nette stepped forward and leaned in. 'Talk.'
'T-they escaped!' the guard babbled.
'That much is obvious? Were they helped? Or did they get abducted?'
'I mean… they went willingly! They were on friendly terms with — dear Kami, what the hell…' the guard muttered.
'It wasn't someone evil looking, was it?' Launch asked.
'Evil?...' the guard repeated. 'I… it was a little kid that broke them out!'
Nette's face soured. 'Huh?'
A beeping rang from Launch's ankle. Both Nette and the guard looked at her as she bent down and checked the device. 'Huh. Alright.'
'What?' Nette asked.
'Glad I brought my pager. Gotta go,' she said casually, waving to Nette, 'because there's no reason for me to waste any more time here now that Piccolo and Tien are gone. I've got to drop off one of my friends and meet up with some others. But thanks for getting me in here.'
'Wait!' Nette grabbed her. 'Are you—'
'I give you my word. We're going to stop Dr. Gero… and everything else you don't know about,' she added, muttering under her breath.
'What?'
Launch detached herself from Nette. 'Bye.' And burst through the ready-made hole in the prison's ceiling.
0o0o0
Even deep within the cave, between age-old rock and pockets of barely moving fetid air, the temperature shifted. Kakarot gazed towards the wider end, practically seeing the rays of heat float through the darkness.
'Dad?'
'Uh-huh,' Bardock groaned, getting to his feet. 'Let's go greet him.'
It was noon, or an hour to or from it, Bardock reckoned as they stepped out onto the rock ledge. Water below them momentarily stopped its never-ending fall to Earth as Raditz and his shockwaves bounced off the rock, landing before them. He was unchanged and unarmed. Like he hadn't just left for nearly a day.
'Kakarot. Bardock.' Raditz repeated their names as if to cue them.
'Nice to see you, son,' Bardock offered, somewhat gruffly.
'Is it?' Raditz sneered. 'What do you want? Why aren't you—'
'We're going to leave soon — to do what you want,' Kakarot spoke quickly. 'But we need to tell you what we're going to do—'
'While purging,' Raditz said.
'Yes, and—'
'Say it.'
'What?'
Raditz stared down his brother. His metal eye kept flicking up and down, left and right, always studying and analyzing and casting just as much suspicion on them as it did on him.
Beneath Kakarot's feet the rock suddenly felt very weak. Brittle. 'Purge,' Kakarot said, feeling but hopefully not hearing a part of him shrivel after saying that.
If his father noticed or heard anything, he didn't pause on it. 'We're going to get a ship — well, Kakarot is, while he's away from here,' Bardock said, crossing his arms. 'So us two are going to stick together, Raditz. Talk a little. Bond.'
The forced sarcasm seemed to confuse Raditz for a moment. 'Bond?' he repeated the word, his face deciding he hated it. 'Bond,' he said disdainfully. 'You and I, do that? What could we possibly bond over?'
In Raditz's still-flesh eye, a degree of lucidity was ringing its edges. There was something beyond the anachronistic sense of being there — a presence much more real and pressing.
Out of the corner of his vision Kakarot saw his father roll his eyes. He wanted to strangle him. 'Oh, I don't know,' Bardock said, painfully obvious with his lack of interest in this conversation. 'We can talk about the trees and birds of his planet, if you like, or those little furry animals that like to nip our boots in the cave.'
Kakarot elbowed his father. Hard. 'Stop it,' Kakarot whispered. 'He's—'
'He's what?' Bardock snarked. 'Does he look agitated? Annoyed? No.'
'There's something in his eyes. He's on the edge of something. If it's bad—'
'Why did you purge Planet Vegeta, father?'
The abrupt question snapped them out of their side-conversation. Despite the phrasing Raditz's posture was remarkably open, trusting. Even his metal eye had stopped its macabre movement.
'...What do you mean?'
'Cooler told me you betrayed the Saiyans. Cooler told me you helped Frieza kill every last one of them.' Silence. A breath. 'And then Frieza betrayed you, impaled you, and threw you into the planet's disintegrating core.'
Kakarot's eyes snapped to Bardock. His father didn't speak, didn't move. There was calm on his face Kakarot didn't know his father could summon.
'That isn't true,' Bardock said, patience underlying every word. 'That's not what happened.'
'Liar,' Raditz hissed.
'I'm not lying. I'm not delusional, either. You know how I know how?' Bardock's aura flickered dark blue as he stepped forward, suddenly unimpressed and unintimidated by his son. 'Because you're still alive. If I had done all that — if I was that important — Frieza would have killed you two.'
Kakarot's eyes raced between them.
'Liar,' Raditz repeated, the word morphing under the weight of fifty different emotions.
'I was never important, Raditz. I was always a rebel, never a traitor, and rebels die long before they're supposed to if they aren't smart.' Bardock laughed, flicking his aura higher. 'And no one's ever accused me of being smart.'
He was just a few feet away from Raditz now, aura reflecting on Raditz's metal parts. 'If I had done what you said, none of us would be here right now — we'd all be in hell, or moved on to whatever awaits us after that. Frieza would have even tracked down your brother and killed him. So.' Bardock forced Raditz to meet his eyes. 'Be grateful I'm not smart, whelp. Be grateful my suicide against Frieza was stupid enough that you lived, and got to your high and mighty perch here on this shitball planet.'
Raditz raised one hand to his head. Joints and wires twisted. '...'
'What? Out of stupid shit to say?'
'You're Bardock,' Raditz breathed.
'Yeah? So?'
'You're alive.'
It didn't hit Bardock nearly as fast as it'd hit Kakarot. Even then there was nothing he could do. His shout didn't reach his father in time before the shockwaves ripping out shoved it aside.
With a grunt Bardock landed between Kakarot's arms. A small maelstrom erupted around Raditz, energy coiling and spraying in wild, uncontrolled arcs, as the Saiyan's metal lining glistened and thrashed with every jerk of his body. Every limb and organ seem to convulse, gripping and releasing the power drilling through him until at last his neck throbbed and his head swung back, gaping.
'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!'
That infernal scream nearly ripped apart their eardrums, then shrieked to a stop as Raditz's aura shot him into the air, curving westwards. The ledge beneath them shuttered and cracked away from the cave, spinning and thrashing against the waterfall in its long and painful drop to the bottom.
'Go- go!' Kakarot shouted through the storm of energy, throwing both him and his father into the sky under thrust. 'If we lose him now, we might never find him again!'
0o0o0
When they returned to the Lookout, touching down among the broken stone and upturned rock that spoke of past carnage he had partly caused, Piccolo nonetheless felt an odd quietude take hold of his being. There was peace and solace to be found among the ruin, he reflected, and that was perhaps the first time he'd ever felt such warmth towards this place.
The sense of gratitude was infectious. Their rescuer stood a third of his height, beaming up at him, just placidly smiling. Piccolo lightly rested his hand on Gohan's head. 'You did good, kid.'
Tien checked the pouch fastened to his gi. 'You can say that again. Thanks, Gohan. Now — ah. Korin.'
Parting the ruin Korin advanced towards them, staff in hand, Marron tailing behind him. When she saw Gohan she ran past.
'Gohan!' She yelped, hugging him. 'You're alright!'
'Yeah…' he frowned. 'It wasn't bad.'
'But jailbreaks are scary.'
'Um…' Gohan agreed. 'Yeah, they are.' His mind locked up. How'd I do one, then?
Both kids were soon in their own little world. Korin turned away his attention. 'Well?' He asked, eyeing Piccolo and Tien. 'Did Gohan tell you bits and pieces on the way?'
'He did, which made it even clearer we had to get out of Central City immediately,' Tien said. 'It's nice to have Launch and the others back and all, but what Gohan told us about this PTO ship following them… We needed to escape.'
'Which, again…' Piccolo grimaced, as if he was about to do something painful, and then quickly levered his head. 'Thank you for getting the senzus to us, Korin. I'm not sure we could have left otherwise. That prison had a rudimentary power chain that made it hard to focus our ki, and as injured as we were…'
Korin held up a hand. 'I understand. Let us all be thankful that I could scrounge together the 3 last senzus on the planet, barring however many are grown in about six months.' He paused, choosing how exactly to approach this. 'I need to hear your opinions on some things. I got the general sense of what happened when you followed Traveler down to Earth, but no details.'
Tien glanced at Gohan and Marron, now both aimlessly laughing over disgorged tiles and teetering rubble. 'They're not listening,' he decided. 'We can talk here.'
Regardless Korin turned and began walking away. Tien and Piccolo followed. It became obvious where they were going in a second — theyreached the clearing of rubble Kami slept peacefully in, mostly under and bound by a pale white sheet. 'I sensed two strong kis during your battle,' Korin informed them. 'One, I assure, was Traveler's. To whom did the second belong?'
'It was brief? Raised only for several seconds?' Piccolo asked.
'It was.'
'Then it was Rush,' Tien said.
The mention of that name made Korin's eyes droop close, thought creasing his fur, breath forced out of his lungs. 'That was what I feared.'
'We've never heard of or seen him before,' Piccolo went on. 'You fearing him appearing means you know of him.'
Korin gave a nod, as if half-agreeing with what Tien had said. 'In a way. I must confess something. I know Gohan told you Launch visited here, and I sent Gohan to you specifically so Launch couldn't destroy Central City to rescue you two.'
'Understandable,' Tien said.
'When Launch came here,' Korin said after nodding, 'I shared with her what had happened in terms of you two, Slug, and Kami, mostly to explain why the Lookout looked like this. What I didn't share with her is that, when I connected my hand to her forehead to share what I know, I peered into her brain too.'
Tien's face titled as he massaged his neck with the heel of his hand. 'Any reason why?'
'You know that Launch can be bad at prioritizing the timely flow of knowledge when it conflicts with her acting.'
'Again, understandable.'
'So what did you learn?' Piccolo asked. He had no qualms with what Korin did. Out of everyone, he and Tien probably had the least issue with Korin doing this. 'And why are you being so cagey about this?'
Korin's vision drifted across the Lookout again. Gohan and Marron were still nearby, consumed with their playing. 'Let's talk somewhere else,' Korin said.
0o0o0
Below ground the Lookout's quarters were even more chaotic than above.'You know,' Tien said, bending underneath a broken, half-collapsed arch, 'this wasn't what I had in mind when we agreed to move venue.'
In the lead Korin made a half-acknowledging gesture; the hallway curved towards a small room set against the outside well of the Lookout. Half the wall curved with the Lookout's form and down, letting into the room a small amount of sunlight through two slanted windows. There were three surprisingly comfortable, padded, wood-carved chairs inside, old but venerable in the way age made some things better.
Korin sat in the furthest one. 'Is this better?'
Tien sat. Piccolo remained standing. 'You were saying?' the Namekian pushed. 'Why all this secrecy?'
He could detect what Piccolo was probing at. Korin rested his staff against his chair and laid his arms flat across his thighs. 'We have to be careful of what information we share because we're far behind our enemies. I sensed Chi-Chi at your battle — she was deferring to this Rush, wasn't she?'
'She was,' Tien confirmed. 'Before Traveler left us to the whims of the World Government, Chi-Chi used Rush as a source to claim that Traveler was working with the PTO, which sounds crazy to me—'
'We'll talk about Traveler in a minute,' Korin cut in. 'Rush is manipulating us, and especially manipulating Chi-Chi and others at Fire Mountain. If I had to guess, he's convinced everyone who fought against Dr. Wheelo that he's on their side.'
'Dr. Wheelo?' Piccolo asked, fangs flashing. 'Who is this?'
'Some associate of Gero's, operating out of the Arctic. He was defeated.'
A pause settled on the conversation. Piccolo would have said something if he hadn't noticed the stare pass between Tien and Korin.
'That's where Chiaotzu died fighting,' Korin said. 'But you knew that, already, didn't you?'
'I figured it out.'
'I apologize for trying to hide it from you.'
Tien shifted, kicking away a piece of rubble just outside the room. It skittered down the cluttered hallway until crashing to a stop against the curved archway. 'You know,' Tien said slowly, 'you shouldn't have done that.'
'Would you have been angrier if I told you earlier?'
'I was angrier. But that doesn't give you the right to decide when I should be angry.'
'So it would have been better if you were angry before agreeing to work with Traveler, then?'
'You admit it,' Tien's eyes bored into Korin. 'You manipulated me.'
The momentary enmity flowing back and forth through the room was concentrated enough for Piccolo to start cracking his joints, if only to fill the room with a more pleasant sound than what he was currently hearing.
'Try to understand my position, Tien — I'm trying to keep tabs on the whole world,' Korin muttered. 'I'm not perfect. I'm not even Kami. I have limited control over the Lookout and its powers.'
He was backing down, Piccolo noted, but he wasn't shirking from the beliefs that caused him to act. 'We're aware of this,' the Namekian agreed.
'The Earth's safety is already in enough doubt without me helping it along,' Korin said in a quiet voice. 'I thought… alright. I won't defend myself any further.'
'Hmph.' Tien swung back towards them. 'I understand your intentions, but never do that again. Do you understand?'
'I understand.'
'Getting back on track,' Piccolo cut in, 'We were talking about Rush. You don't need to tell us about who's side he's on, Korin. Rush stole our first pouch of senzus. It's clear where he stands.' Piccolo tapped his fingers against his armrest. 'Against us.'
Korin shook his head. 'I wish it was that simple. Rush — he's not from this time. He's a time traveler.'
Tien leaned towards them. 'You're serious? He's like Traveler?'
'He's worse than Traveler. Rush outright tried to kill Krillin and Rayne,' Korin added.
'It sounds like my original read on him was accurate, then,' Piccolo said. 'He's against us.'
Tien waved away Piccolo's comment. 'So Rush didn't succeed?' He asked. 'Krillin and Rayne are still alive? If they are, what does that mean if Rush meets them again?'
'They are, and nothing good, I fear.' Korin took to rubbing his legs, more out of nervous energy than any need. 'But attempting to kill them isn't the same as actually killing them. In other words, if his goal was just to kill us, I think Rush would have tried to do that. From what I parsed from Launch's mind… he's much stronger than any of us, perhaps as strong as Traveler.'
'And yet he's still here, in this timeline,' Tien growled. 'Which means he's looking for something.'
'Just the same as Traveler,' Piccolo added, feeling something click in his mind. 'Is it a coincidence they're both here right now? I'm starting to think not.'
'And who just stuck out their neck but none other than Gero?' Korin forced his hands to lay flat. 'There's something both Rush and Traveler want from Gero. That I'm sure of.'
Tien's voice caught momentarily. 'It's Raditz,' he said quickly.
Korin's face furrowed. 'The Saiyan who attacked years ago? What about him? He died.'
Tien and Piccolo exchanged a reluctant look. 'Yeah,' Piccolo said, 'turns out, he's very much alive. More specifically — he's been turned into an android by Dr. Gero.'
They both expected some shock, or at the very least a muting of Korin's affect upon telling him, but to their surprise he was seized by a rush of energy. 'That's it, then. That explains it all. You said Traveler abandoned you during your fight?'
'In a way,' Tien said. 'Though none of his actions were incompatible with what he told us here before we left. He had a goal in Gero's lab, and we agreed to fight Gero while he searched for it — at the beginning at least.'
'Then he began to fight Raditz,' Piccolo added, 'from what we could tell, at least. I can't think of anyone else who would have pushed Traveler to use as much energy as he did during that fight.'
'Hm.' Korin held his jaw. 'Perhaps he didn't expect to find Raditz in the lab — or at least, he didn't expect he'd have to fight him.'
'We'll have to ask him the next time we meet him.' Piccolo said, turning. 'Wherever he is or wherever he went. He left us injured on the field of battle, after Rush and Chi-Chi had left. We weren't at any risk of dying, but…'
Korin cocked his head. 'But what?'
'I think something rattled him,' Tien said. 'He was much more agitated then than we'd ever seen him before. Maybe it was fighting Raditz that did it. Maybe it was what Chi-Chi accused him of — of serving the PTO. I don't know.'
'I see.' Korin noticeably exhaled as he got to his feet. His joints were stiff. 'I understand. Nonetheless,' Korin was careful with his next words, visibly thinking them over. 'I think we need to trust Traveler.'
Piccolo and Tien's eyes met briefly. 'Forgive me for saying this, but that's dumb, Korin,' Tien said.
'You don't understand.'
'Then help us to,' Piccolo growled.
'Traveler is undeniably strong — even if we all fought together, I'm not sure we could damage him. And unlike Rush, he hasn't attacked any of us. It's obvious that he has some ulterior goal, and he's said as much to us. But he hasn't opposed us, which means he either has no interest in fighting us, or wants to protect us.' Korin smoothed his nervous standing fur down. 'Even if the best we can do is point him at Raditz, that helps us immeasurably.'
Tien crossed his arms. 'Nothing of what you just said convinces me he's trustworthy, or that we can rely on him not to abandon us when it's convenient,' he said.
'...' Korin wormed his hands, clenching and pulling at his bones as if he could reconfigure what he just said into something convincing. He gave up and sighed. 'Alright. I'll just say it.'
Korin took his staff and tapped the low ceiling. 'There's a reason I'm keeping Gohan here. Perhaps Krillin and the others haven't even thought about it. But if they suspect Gohan of anything, I'm not sure how merciful they'll be.'
'What do you mean?' Tien asked, though he had a twisting feeling in his gut that he knew the answer to his question.
'Traveler came from a timeline decades farther along than ours.' Korin paused. 'In that timeline, Traveler is Gohan, all grown up.'
The chair underneath Piccolo creaked. 'Oh,' the Namekian said.
'Do you see? If Traveler is Gohan, then even if he's working with the PTO in the future, you two need to keep him on our side in this time. As best we can. Because, unless he's turned into some sort of monster, which from what I've heard he hasn't, he probably wants to work with us as best he can.'
Tien scowled. 'I see.'
'So you two need to make sure he isn't pushed any further away from us.'
'What does that look like?'
Korin shrugged with his staff. 'I don't know. Just keep that in mind in the future. Perhaps use Gero and Raditz as a bargaining chip — offering them up in exchange for Traveler's help.'
'Much the same as before,' Tien said.
Korin nodded. 'As long as we think Rush is also going for Gero or Raditz, we can make sure Traveler and Rush fight. We just need to make sure Traveler is in the area when Rush makes his move.'
'So we need to find him,' Piccolo argued.
'Eventually.'
Piccolo stood. 'Alright. A solid plan.'
'So,' Tien said to Korin, 'do you know anything more about this PTO ship?'
Korin shrugged. 'Launch fought some Saiyans, captured some others, and now a PTO battleship is coming to Earth in a few days. Unclear who could be following them. We don't know much about the PTO.'
'Best case scenario, some grunts we can easily take care of,' Piccolo said. 'Worst case scenario, Cooler and his court.'
'Let's hope it's the former.'
'Who were these prisoners?' Tien asked.
'The prisoners aren't important,' Korin urged. 'Bardock, and Kakarot —'
His name made them freeze. 'Kakarot,' Korin repeated. 'Raditz's… brother. I just put that together. Well suddenly, that feels very important.'
'If they meet up with Raditz, would this get… worse?' Tien wondered. 'Or better? I don't know.'
'We're never going to finish this conversation,' Korin muttered. 'Luckily, we don't need to today. Now that both of you are up to speed, you should know that Gero made a threat on South City today. He threatened to destroy it by sundown.'
Piccolo stood. 'That so?'
'How do you feel?'
'Better than ever,' Tien smirked. 'And whoever tries to take our one senzu is going to have to kill us first.'
'So you can handle this?'
'We can; we'll go,' Piccolo said. He nodded to Tien. 'Let's go.'
0o0o0
White pain shot into Turles' vision. Sweat sprung off him as he rose in his cot. 'Auch! Agh!' He held his throbbing head, glancing around. 'Where…'
His surroundings were unfamiliar; he had woken up in a different room than the one he's fallen asleep in. 'Where the hell?...' He gripped his head again. 'Auch… shit…' Something on this planet was constricting his veins and pumping pain through his blood. Maybe the suck-ass air. Bad industrial chemicals could also do this. Just as he thought Earth was a shithole.
Acrid thoughts plagued his mind as he slowly stood up and clambered out of the room. He felt the bandages clinging to his temples as he went down a wide corridor towards what looked like light. By the time he knew it was the sun, his eyes were screaming in pain as he limped out, hand shielding him from the sky, anger and irritation pouring out of his scowl. Images slowly came into shape. Outlines of people milling around a pink building.
'And what's going on here?' Turles said, trying to sound amused, even though he couldn't actually see half of what he was mocking. 'Ants scurrying?'
Across the island Krillin stared at Turles with an odd mix of intense distaste and pity. He had stumbled out of the aircraft half-lucid just to insult them. You could see as much by the sway of his posture.
'Hey, you,' Krillin snapped his fingers, 'shut up. Get back inside.'
'Or what? You're going to—'
With a flicker of ki he appeared in front of Turles, wind pushing past him with the motion. 'I'm not going to ask again. Inside.'
Whatever satisfaction Turles was feeling earlier drained from his face. 'Yeah, whatever.' He turned and started to clamber away. 'Watch yourself, Earthling.'
Krillin waited until Turles was back inside his bunk until sighing. 'You alright?' He said, turning to Bulma.
Without lifting her goggled eyes from the workbench, she flashed a thumbs up. 'Still on track to get this done by tomorrow morning. Still on track…' she muttered to herself.
'That so?' a voice called from inside. Brushing past Krillin, Launch appeared on the Kame House's porch. 'Good,' she said, stretching. 'When I head over to South City, I want to fly with the knowledge that tomorrow's gonna be a wonderful day.'
0o0o0
They spent the entire day encamped on a bluff overlooking South City. People had long deserted it by the time they arrived. On the wide streets cars, trucks, and buses lay shuttered, devoid of any life or activity. Piccolo and Tien could recognize a successful evacuation. The wind was light, present enough to pull at Tien's gi and tug Piccolo's cape towards the horizon. By the coast, the South Sea was calm.
Most of all it was eerie to see an entire city empty and still. It was as if they'd already failed to save lives when they got here.
Far to the northwest the Sun began its dip below the horizon. In the eastern skies blue chased black and red light.
'No one,' Tien said into the wind.
'Not one person,' Piccolo echoed.
'I think someone just wasted our time.'
'What was the point?' Tien gestured to the laid-out city. 'Gero gave enough time so that everyone could get out.'
'I don't know. To scare people, maybe.'
'Or just blow up the city, maybe. Deprive more people of their homes, lives.'
'Hm.' Piccolo squinted towards the reddening horizon. 'End of the day?'
They waited another hour until the last brushes of red and orange and yellow were gone from the world and everything was dark under a waning crescent moon. The city remained as it was — whole and deserted.
Piccolo adjusted his cowl. His eyes tracking something in the distance. Nothing more than a speck in the night, hovering over the empty city. Doing nothing. Being nothing.
'I think there's someone who wants to talk to us.'
'I see that,' Tien said. 'I can't sense their ki. Could be hiding it.'
'Everyone on this planet is hiding their ki right now.'
'Could be an Android.'
'Well.' Piccolo threw out his arms, sending a small ripple of force through his clothes and cape. 'Let's not keep them waiting.'
A/N: I wanted to get this chapter out quickly, so in a change of form, I'm going to address any reviews for last chapter, Chapter 98, at the bottom of Chapter 100. Also bear in mind that there might be more errors than usual in this chapter. Point those out to me!
We're quickly approaching 100 chapters! That's crazy! Big occasion! I hope you're pumped! I know I am. Until then, be well.
