Project Cloud


Chapter 13 - Next Steps

People remain in hiding - in fear of what's next to come. None were under the realization that King Piccolo had fallen, but the citizens of Planet Earth due to their lack of knowledge regarding Piccolo Daimao's current condition caused many to go crazy. People, living in fear, robbed and patronized others in the sole hope of surviving. The panic had such a ripple effect that there was doubt to whether or not things could ever truly go back to normal.

But Krillin, Upa, Puar, Oolong, and Yamcha couldn't do anything about the current hell that remained down below on Earth. They were receiving special treatment elsewhere.

The three young martial artists that were trained by Muten Roshi and Korin sat on the edge of a round look-out made of square tiles. Each of them sat six feet apart from another with their legs crossed and hands on their lap. Eyes closed, each of them individually focused on their own breathing, meditating, erasing any unnecessary thoughts from their body as they let the Earth resonate with them. It was initially hard to focus on their breathing when they first started training there because the air so far up was thin enough to make a cat want to jump back down to its death. Regardless, if they wanted to improve in mind and body, they needed to do as advised. There was just no other choice in the matter if they wanted to right the many wrongs done by outside forces.

Watering his planets, the man who refers to himself as Mister Popo, keenly keeps an eye on the three of them. Yamcha and Upa both appear to be doing just fine. After meditating for half a day, they were actually performing really well. However, one of them appeared to be lacking.

Krillin found himself dozing off for the past half hour. One moment, he's focusing on his breathing, and the next his head goes to nodding off. Every slight movement of the head, whether to the right, or to the left, made Krillin immediately make his body upright and try to readjust himself, acting as if he was properly meditating the entire time. But of course, he was caught slacking the very first time he started to lose focus.

This brought a slight smile to Mister Popo's face. For the past six months, he had been having Krillin and the others hone their meditating, with the ability to ground themselves as one with the Earth, which would be a great pay-off in combat. It would appear to him that now was the perfect time to help Krillin just a bit more - as well as the others.

He stops watering his plants and goes over to the entrance of Kami's palace. In the shadows under the bright rays of the shining sun remains a person just looking over. It isn't Kami, but someone else Mister Popo has been keeping away from all the others ever since their training's started. Mister Popo leaned over and whispered.

"Now, you get to reintroduce yourself."

The man grins and bursts from the shadows. Krillin started to nod off again as Yamcha was in his own world due to mindful meditation. Upa was the only of the three that managed to maintain a perfect balance of being aware in his own consciousness, as well as remaining cognizant that he was in the real world.

Feeling a disturbance, he opens his eyes. The slightest change of pace in the wind caused him to realize that someone was coming from behind. Getting up with great haste, Upa flipped over Krillin's head and blocked an oncoming punch to the back of the young warrior's head with his own elbow.

Now everyone's eyes come open. Krillin and Yamcha turn around to see Upa guarding a punch from a familiar face - a tri-clops.

Tien Shinhan.


Since they weren't fighters, Tights, Oolong, Puar, and Turtle all had no reason to train. Even then, Kami wasn't going to turn his back on them and just simply send them back to the hell down there that was on Earth.

Over the course of being there for half a month, they all grew to not really talk as they ate. They basically lived normally on a daily basis on the look-out - well as normally as they could any way. It was a big adjustment. In Kami's castle, there were a lot of rooms, most of them being empty, as if they were expected to be guest rooms, though there wasn't adventure up here. There wasn't television. No form of entertainment. Just pure boredom.

But that was a good thing.

It gave them all time to think on what's happened. Time to self-reflect. Time to analyze. What were they going to do moving on. And how to get Goku back.

Oolong and Tights didn't see there being much hope for getting Goku back. Right now, they simply put their faith into Yamcha, Krillin, and Upa. They were the strongest that the Earth had to offer now, so they had no choice but to deal with the only hand that they've been dealt. As much as Oolong wanted to get Goku back, he saw no point.

But Tights wanted her sister back. Bulma, leaving without a single word. She didn't call. Not as much as written her a note. For all Tights knew, Bulma could be dead on the side of a street somewhere or having her rotten body being eaten by scavengers. Every time she thought about it, it brought a tear to her eye. Of course, she never saw her little sister much over the years, as she was out with her own adventures and what not. But she'd be a damn liar to say that she didn't love her. She just wished she could see her again. And she'd do anything to get that chance. Even if it meant that she had to rely on three young ones to save the world. And one of them being Yamcha. She could only imagine how much hurt he was feeling.

Out of the four in the dining room, Puar and Turtle were most optimistic. As Turtle silently sipped on his water, he prayed that Muten Roshi was living well in heaven. He made a promise that everything would be made right in his honor and he planned to stick to it.

As far as they were concerned, the only thing that they had on their mind was hope.


A whole new world Bulma had been brought into from the moment Jaco picked her up. On the way to the Galactic Patrol station, her mind was buzzing with all sorts of scenarios. What if something went wrong back home while she was gone? She had instantly started to feel regrets about leaving. However, before she opened her mouth to tell Jaco everything, they had already made it to Galactic Patrol headquarters.

And she was welcomed there with open arms. People from different races and worlds were more kind to her than most people from her own world. Jaco told the Galactic King of her special skills and she was immediately added to the field of science and technology, which she had been helping them with for the past half year. After making some very great improvements, it was decided she was meant to be taken to the next level.

Training.

But who would have thought that the actual person to train her would turn to look just like the man who came back from the supposed dead to torment her world. Though he looked just like Piccolo, he was opposite of him in every way.

In a training room, she was being taught to use tools for combat.

On one knee, in galactic patrol armor, breathing heavily, Bulma has her gun pointed to the green man. He dodges the fired shots and glides his way over to her. Bulma lifts up her boot and engages the rocket sequence, bringing a big flash of fire right to his face, which had the force to propel her backward. Flipping over, she bounces off the training ground's padded walls and comes back with hand-cuffs. Grabbing the man's right wrist, she manages to lock one on. She then proceeds to spin around and tie her legs around his neck prior to grabbing his other arm.

The well-trained Galactic Patrol officer slams Bulma down, but she manages to break the fall with her feet while maintaining a firm hold of his wrist. She grabs a gun from her utility belt and fires the weapon. A loud, high-pitched ring derived from the device, causing her trainer to cover his ears. Seeing the moment of opportunity, Bulma runs over to him and gets his other arm to handcuff that as well.

With both hands cuffed, she shut the screaming gun off and put it back into her utility belt, smirking proudly. "How was that?"

After a little snicker, he stands up on his two feet and breaks the cuffs effortlessly. After wiping a few slight burns from his face, he comments, "Well done. You catch on quick. I didn't think it'd be this soon, but it's actually perfect timing. We have a very important mission that you will be perfect for."

"A mission?" Bulma's eyes glanced to the left. "You mean like a 'hey, go stir up some magical science stuff' mission or a 'hey, let's go fight some bad guys.'?"

He chuckles. "Hey...let's go fight some bad guys." He turns around, putting his back toward Bulma. The sudden light mood had all but faded away as his tone grew deeper. "Bulma...you remember the mentioning of the Freeza Force, yes? The same people everyone keeps raving on about? Our biggest enemy - the Universe's biggest enemy."

"Of course, Slain...is it a mission involving him?" Bulma has heard a bit and such about Freeza's Force, but never to the full extent. She asked around a few times, but nobody could really stomach the words to tell her. It was horrible.

But Slain didn't afraid in doing so. He told her about Freeza's business - and how it started with his father. The Freeza Force organization started off relatively small from a strong, unordinary man with a big dream. He wished to take over the Universe and so used his strength to grow and concentrate his forces. From then on, he would target planets with promising resources, wipe out the indigenous people, and sell it to those who wished for it. That was how alliances with the Force started. And even then, who was to say that they were safe as well? If a bigger fish were to show, Freeza nor his father didn't show any fear in throwing them under the bus. The women, men, elderly, children...and even babies. None were exempted from his wrath of death. After all, either they were killed by him or made his indentured slaves. Freeza's father used his influence to spread his power throughout the universe and carried it onto his son. They haven been thriving for decades...for what's felt like hundreds of years

Bulma couldn't even begin to think of the horrors that so many lives have been through. Just thinking about the entire population on Earth and multiplying it a million times over made Bulma realize that there was far greater evil out there in the world than she had ever experienced in her entire life. Was there an end to it? Or was she just really beginning to scratch the surface?

"Right now, they are targeting a particularly weak race. They just happen to have a planet and right now that's all Freeza needs for a race who is in demand of a new home."

Initially, Bulma didn't know what to say. For any group of people to be able to depopulate an entire planet of its native inhabitants surely meant that they have some incredible forces. But then again, the galactic patrol has been battling against them for a long time, so they more than likely had their own advantages, too. Besides, saving a planet? It's like saving Earth, but on a much larger scale. If this was to prepare her to save her own home, then she was willing to do it by any means.

"What's this planet that we have to save?"

"Planet Mache," Slain answers. "Its people aren't no slouch, but they're not strong enough to hold off a Saiyan. But with the three of us, with our strength and your smarts, we should be able to get the job done"

"Wait...the three of us?"

Just then, through automatic sliding doors appears a tanned male with dark, short spiky hair and black eyes that would kill. Like Bulma and Slain, he's wearing galactic armor as well, albeit the color is purple. Leaning up against the padded wall, he introduces himself.

"Hello. I'm Tyber."

"He's especially perfect for this job," Slain tells Bulma.


Though working on Son Goku and converting him into a cyborg came with its complications, because of the fact that he shared quite the same bit of DNA with a human made it less stressful for him. But with Piccolo Daimao?

This was Gero's greatest challenge yet.

Despite the fact that Piccolo, like most inhabitants of Earth, took the appearance of a humanoid figure, he was anything but human. His genetic code was the most diverse and complex that he ever had to work on his lifetime. What he figured would take nothing but a few months time to convert him made him realize that this just may take a few years to create the perfect specimen. So he put all his attention into converting Piccolo.

Goku, on the other hand, found himself to be extremely bored. The kid found himself walking around Gero's laboratory. He went through robotic parts, constant talking computers, and other gadgets of material he wouldn't even dare trying to understand.

That was, until he stumbled upon a certain something...or someone.

In what appeared to be a coffin for androids, Goku spotted a big, burly creature inside. He appeared to be sleeping. Judging by the the red ribbon army logo attached to his green armor suit, he was definitely another experiment. Judging by his appearance, to Goku, he seemed complete. So he couldn't help but wonder: how come he hasn't been released yet?

Goku placed his face against the glass part of the large capsule, looking dead at him. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up."

He repeated this to no end, not realizing that it would take for Gero to open the hatch and activate him in order to wake him up. But before Goku could take his attempts to waking up the android any further, Gero was there to snatch Goku by the arm and hold him back.

"Just what in the hell do you think you're doing!?"

"What does it look like? I'm trying to wake him up."

"No! Don't. Do. That. Ever. Again." Gero took a glance over to the deactivated android prior to letting out a stressful sigh. "What you must understand, number nine...is that he is still a prototype. He is nowhere near ready to be activated. When the time is right, I will wake him up. But for now he stays where he lies. And that is an order! You understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good."

And that was all that needed to be said. Leaving Goku behind, Gero went off to continue with his own work. The mad scientist had his own little robots making lunch and drinks for him as he worked day in and out. The only time he didn't work was to use the restroom and to sleep. Other than that, he was a pure workaholic in and out.

Goku was bored, though. He was hoping to have someone he could hang with - or fight with for that matter. As he backed up and sat down on the floor against the wall, across from him lying on the other side of the android capsule was a table stacked with papers. Curious, he got up and grabbed it. Though not the best reader, he was taught well enough by Muten Roshi to read.

The most shocking discovery...was to find out that this android was based off Gero's son.

So Goku could only bring himself to one simple conclusion.

Gero was forming his one true family - a family that'd be all too powerful to be taken away from him. And quite frankly...

Goku liked that idea.

And this gave him an idea of his own: to recruit more.