Chapter 21: Poisoning the Earth? Destroy the Gas Machines!
Piccolo stood before Moori, the Grand Elder Namekian in terms of rank, but neither one was sure who was actually older now that Piccolo and Kami reunited as the Son of Katas. Trunks stood off to the side, watching as the two Namekians observed each other.
"So, the Son of Katas has returned, as a whole this time." Moori smiled, "It's good to see you alive and well, though you look much younger than I expected."
"That's a long story, but thank you, Grand Elder." Piccolo let out a nervous smile, unsure of what his reaction should be.
"Please, just Moori will do. Grand Elder Guru was our true leader." Moori turned towards Trunks, "Now, from what I understand, you are looking for a new..what was it..Guardian?"
"Yes sir!" Trunks confirmed, "You see-"
Piccolo cut Trunks off, feeling he should be the one to explain the situation, "Well, my other half, the former Guardian of our planet, was very old. Since he didn't want us to die, he willingly gave up his position to save my life. We promised we would find his replacement for him, and Namekians seem to have a knack for it."
"I see." Moori grabbed a small jug, holding it with both hands, "Well, we certainly owe Trunks a favor...but to ask for one of our people, especially when we have so few friends and family left, it is a lot."
Trunks interjected, "What if they were willing?"
"Oh, I'm sure there are a few who would be. A lot of us are willing to do anything to help you, Trunks. The Son of Katas also fought against Frieza, it was not something that was lost on us. But, it is still a lot to ask. It's not just a wish from Porunga, it's a member of our family."
"I understand.." Trunks sighed and looked at Piccolo, "What do we do now?"
Moori interrupted him quickly, 'I did not say it wouldn't happen."
Meanwhile, on Earth…
"What the hell is going on…?" Bulma sat in front of a large screen, the sensors on her computer seeming to be going crazy, "I'll have to get someone to go check it out.."
Mount Paozu, Son Home..
Gohan sat at the dining room table with a feast laying before him, cooked by his now gray haired Mother, Chi-Chi. "Mother, this looks delicious!"
"Eat up, my son!" Chi-Chi smiled as she looked on lovingly at her grown child, though she was still a bit weirded out by his new mechanical arm. "Father! Dinner's ready!"
The mountain of a man known as the Ox King came bumbling into the dining room, "Oh yum!" His deep voice rumbled throughout the Son family's tiny home, the chair creaking under him as his sat his massive frame down at the table.
Gohan smiled bright, it was an amazing feeling for him to finally enjoy a dinner at home, though he had been doing it regularly since coming back to life. Customary as it was for him, he dug right into the food like he hadn't eaten in ages, plowing through bowl after bowl.
"You still eat just like your father.." Chi-Chi was half smiling, half scowling, "Like an uncivilized animal." Gohan and his grandfather both let out uproarious laughter as Chi-Chi scowled on, slowly eating from her single bowl of rice.
Just as the Gohan finished his last bowl, hand rubbing his stomach gently, the phone rang in the other room. His mother got up from the table, "I'll get it." She walked to the other room, answering the phone quickly. "Woah, Bulma, slow down. I'll get him." The gray haired Chi-Chi yelled out to her son, "Gohan, it's for you!"
Gohan sprang up from the chair, walking over to the phone, "Yeah, Bulma?" His face went from cheerful to stoic in just a few seconds, "Alright. Where did you say it was? I'll go check it out." The black haired Half-Saiyan looked at his mother, "There's something strange going on, I gotta go."
She sighed, knowing that what her son said almost always meant certain danger, "Alright..be safe."
"Of course!" Gohan ran out the door quickly, blasting off into the distant sky.
Up on the Lookout..
Over the last day or so, Broly and Mr. Popo had gone through their pleasantries. They both were quiet, reserved beings and seemed to stay out of each other's way. The two were pleasantly, though sometimes awkwardly, coexisting on the floating palace as they patiently waited for Piccolo and Trunks to come back.
Mr. Popo was looking down over the edge of the lookout, onto the planet below. "There's something strange going on.." A worried look came across the Genie's face as he continued peering down onto the Earth.
Broly sat a little bit away from him, but not quite out of hearing range. The large Saiyan was cross-legged, eyes closed, meditating as Trunks had taught him to do, learning to be at peace. He stirred slightly at the black skinned Genie's revelation, opening one eye, the large Saiyan responded, "What is it, Mr. Popo?"
"I'm not sure..it is strange though.." The Genie had some perception of what was normal on Earth, but he had nowhere near the sight of Kami on the Lookout. "There's a machine right below us, blowing some sort of strange gas. I wonder, could you go check it out, Broly?"
Broly was not normally willing to do such things, afraid of anything that might cause him to lose control, but he also wanted to do good. The black haired Saiyan sat silently, thinking to himself. Perhaps this was something good he could help with? Besides, it was just a machine, what could go wrong? He stood up slowly, "I'll go check it out." Broly jumped off the lookout, slowly descending below to the land of Korin.
Simultaneously, on the other side of the planet..
Krillin and Tien, who had still been staying with Bulma, were quickly notified of the strange happenings. They were both flying as fast as they could towards one of the anomalies that Bulma had pointed them in the direction of. The short monk turned towards his taller compatriot, "So, what do you think is happening?"
Tien had a stern look on his face, "I don't know, but we need to find out quickly. Bulma said that whatever is going on is affecting the atmosphere. Could be really dangerous."
As the two flew closer, they saw a strange machine on the ground. It was a large, dome like device with a vent on either side, blowing some sort of purple gas into the air. "This must be it." Krillin stopped, floating just above the machine next to Tien. "Let's take it out."
The two Humans each charged a Ki blast, firing it upon the machine, but they were both quickly swatted away. "What?!" Tien shouted, perplexed at the deflected blasts.
Two figures emerged from behind the purple cloud of gas. One was clad in black, Saiyan armor, and had a striking resemblance to Goku. The other was a large green figure, a Namekian, clad in orange clothes with a purple jumpsuit underneath.
An extremely puzzled look came across Krillin's face as he recognized the two figures with relative ease. "Turles..? Slug..?" the short monk looked to Tien, "There guys are long dead! This can't be real."
The taller, three-eyed human nodded, "Well, I bet we are about to find out."
Turles turned to Slug, a smirk across his face, "Let's show these Humans how real we are!"
Slug let out a boisterous laugh, "Agreed."
The two quickly charged their Human opponents, throwing punches that were as real as any Krillin and Tien had felt before. The two humans quickly blocked the blows, igniting their Kaio-ken aura's to match their enemies.
Krillin was matching Turles blow for blow, red aura engulfing the short monk as he thought to himself, "He was never this strong..I should be miles ahead of him. What is going on?"
Tien was keeping up with Slug just as well, landing a hard kick that sent the Super Namekian flying into the ground, "These guys shouldn't even be able to keep up with us..there's gotta be something with this gas." The three-eyed martial artist coughed a bit, "It's getting harder to breathe."
In the northern region of the Earth…
16 hadn't let the strange occurrence in the atmosphere gone unnoticed to him as well, finding the fourth machine far into the Arctic. The Android had managed to recombine himself into one being, taking a break from rebuilding cities to investigate the ongoing atmospheric anomaly. As he approached the strange gas machine, two figures emerged from the could.
"Oh ho hooo, it seems we have a visitor, brother." The voice was a high pitched and cut through the thick gas like a knife. As the figure came into view, 16 analyzed the white and purple alien with a long tail trailing behind him. Beside the short alien stood a taller one, almost identical, except he was more purple than white. 16 recognized the taller one as Cooler almost immediately, and though he hadn't seen him in color before, his Big Gete Star cells had much data on him.
With reasonable deduction, 16 concluded that the other one must be Frieza, as he called Cooler his brother. The large Android was a bit confused, as both Frieza and Cooler should have been dead, but he quickly concluded that this did not matter, he needed to destroy the gas machine. "Please step aside, I have no business with you."
Frieza let out a high pitched laugh, "Oh, but we have business with you, machine man."
Cooler let out a chuckle as well, "Brother, we should play destroy him quickly or the doctor will be disappointed."
"Oh who cares what that old man thinks, I'm gonna have some fun!" Frieza quickly rushed 16, but was met with thin air as the large Android disappeared, coming back into view behind the Frost Demon and grabbing his tail.
16 spun around briefly, throwing the shorter Frieza hard into his elder brother, smashing them together to the ground. "You are correct, this is enjoyable."
On the outskirts of Orange City, on the edge of Mount Paozu..
Gohan floated above the strange machine, assessing what was going on below him. It seemed that this machine was contaminating the air with some sort of gas, but the Half-Saiyan was unsure of what the purpose of the gas was for. Landing not too far from the machine, Gohan walked slowly towards it, coughing as he got closer.
As Gohan was getting close, within a few feet of the machine, two familiar figures stood in his way. The Half-Saiyan ignited his yellow Super Saiyan aura at the sight of them, his anger was only matched by his surprise, as standing before Gohan were the Androids known as 17 and 18.
"You're supposed to be dead! Trunks destroyed you!" Gohan took a quick defensive stance, completely thrown off by the strange encounter.
Android 17 smirked and cracked his neck, "Oh Gohan..it's been a while." Turning to his twin sister, the black haired cyborg's smirk got bigger, "What do you say Sis, wanna have some fun?"
"Let's beat down blondie, just for old times sake." Android 18 quickly rushed Gohan.
Gohan's own speed should have been more than a match for the Android, but his mind was racing and it distracted him enough for the blonde cyborg's punch to land square on the Super Saiyan's face, knocking him backwards.
17 joined his sister's assault, but this time Gohan didn't let his thoughts get in his way. The pure speed of the Super Saiyan astonished 17, as Gohan quickly disappeared from his sight and landed a thunderous elbow to the side of the black haired cyborg's head.
As soon as 17 got to his feet, Gohan erupted his yellow aura, blowing both him and his sister away with it's ferocity. "I'm not the same as before!" Taking his father's familiar fighting stance, Gohan let out a smirk of his own, a strong thirst for vengeance boiled inside of him, "This isn't gonna be fun for you."
At the bottom of Korin's tower…
Upon finding the machine below, Broly had also been met with resistance to it's destruction. The large Saiyan was dodging the punches of two figures he had never actually met before. One of them was definitely a Saiyan with a strong resemblance to Vegeta, but he had a goatee and a cape. The other figure was a large alien, horns at the top of his head, also donning Saiyan armor and a cape.
Broly had been desperately trying to avoid conflict, but the two figures pressed on relentlessly. The goatee clad Saiyan laughed at Broly's passiveness, "Some Saiyan you are, avoiding a fight!"
The other figure laughed as well, "Come on Vegeta, I thought your people were warriors!"
"Yes King Cold, I thought so too." Swinging another fist that narrowly avoided Broly, King Vegeta struggled to keep up with the large Saiyan.
At the realization that the figure he was fighting was King Vegeta, Broly's mind raced, flashbacks to his father telling him stories of King Vegeta backstabbing them. Visions of the vicious Saiyan King trying to kill Broly as an infant echoed in his mind. The large Saiyan's anger spiked briefly, flashing a golden Super Saiyan aura and landing a crushing, two handed blow to the smaller Saiyan's back.
Floating above the fallen King Vegeta, Broly was slowing his breathing, trying to calm himself as his aura flickered, green flashes periodically making an appearance. As Broly reverted to his black haired, natural state he was bombarded by the large figure of King Cold, landing a large fist across the Saiyan's face.
Back in the Arctic..
16 had been having a relatively easy time fighting both Frieza and Cooler, dominating the Frost Demons, but not making any progress towards the Machine. Everytime the Android got close to the machine, he was interrupted by one of the brothers, despite believing them destroyed. Simultaneously, 16 was aware of the other fights going on across the planet, sensing the individual powers of Gohan, Krillin, Tien, and Broly in some sort of conflict.
Calculating to himself, there was only one solution that 16 could come up with. He stood still for a moment, slowly splitting himself into three full copies. Two of the 16's immediately engaged Cooler and Frieza separately as the third made his way towards the machine.
The third Android 16 quickly drove his fist into the machine, pulling out wires and watching as the machine sparked and shut down. Individually, Frieza and Cooler slowly faded into nothing as the gas surrounding the area disappeared. After their enemies disappeared, the three individual 16's each went in separate directions, blasting off towards the other gas machines.
Above the planet, in the large spaceship
The elderly figure known as Dr. Raichi floated on his orb, watching the events on the planet on his gigantic computer screen. The computer again spoke up, "The northern Destron Gas Machine has been destroyed, Doctor."
"That is unfortunate.." The blue skinned man stared at the screen intensely, "Computer, begin preparations for plan B."
"Affirmative, processing the start of plan B. Project Hatchiyack is underway."
