Dragonball Z

Alter Age

The Discovery

(That afternoon)

(Kami's Lookout)

The life of the Guardian of Earth was, for the most part, a very calm and serene one. Living on top of an immaculate, white marble palace chalk full of labyrinths and secret chambers, floating high above the clouds and looking down across the better part of the continent, set the stage for perhaps one of the most honored and respected jobs on the planet. Almost every day Kami, following his long night of silent meditation, would step out of the main building to stand on the edge of the levitating platform, and look down at the world that he was tasked with overseeing and protecting.

In his position above the planet, he was able to sense and hear everything going on down below. From the everyday achievements and struggles of the people, to the times of peace and war between nations, to the times of prosperity and famine, the elderly watcher of the world was able to see it all. Though in the last 300 or so years the guardian had been able to go down to the world to see for himself how the population was coping and to experience for himself the lives of mortals, those periods had only been mere, fleeting moments over a tenure that'd already spanned three whole centuries.

And yet, throughout all those same years, aside from the one spat with the only rival he ever had in the form of Garlic Senior and his conflicts with his other half, the most eventful and chaotic period he'd ever experienced came when Son Goku showed up on his front porch. Literally.

When that boy appeared to him, not only did his everyday life on the Lookout become a little more brighter and a little more active, he was also given the opportunity to go down to Earth and compete in one of the earthlings' hallowed martial arts competitions- as well as take part in battle with his counterpart's successor in combat. It'd been a harrowing and unnerving experience, but it was probably the most fun Kami could remember ever having in the past three centuries.

The guardian of the planet thought that that day could never be topped. That was until King Piccolo's son decided to turn up on his balcony.

While the elderly, staff-wielding protectorate of the Earth was out on his usual walk around the perimeter of the Lookout and Mr. Popo was in the process of watering the flowerbeds, the pair suddenly detected the approach of two very powerful figures. At first alarmed when they felt the size of one of those presences, the identity of the owners soon made themselves known seconds later, when Piccolo Jr. and Raditz suddenly came flying up from the planet below.

Touching down at the front entryway to the palace, the two differently dressed and intimidating warriors stood before Kami with cold, hard expressions in play. The arrival of the evil half of the guardian, as well as the Earth's most recent visitor, caused not only a cold chill to fall over the marble palace, but also a nervous sweat to build up on the protector's wrinkled head. Even Mr. Popo, who was so shocked to see the arrival of the pair, dropped his water bucket out of sheer terror.

Cape billowing behind him, the serious-looking Piccolo then slowly approached his other half, while Raditz remained in the back looking around at the new location he'd been brought to. This allowed the demon king's descendent to address his counterpart on his own terms and without interruption.

Leaning against his staff, the troubled and cautious Kami lowered his head toward his visitor. "Piccolo? This is a bit of an… unexpected surprise. I never thought I'd see the day that you of all people would come and visit me on my Lookout."

"Believe me, seeing your wrinkly, old face up here on this floating palace was the last thing I ever wanted to do," the young warrior in the turban responded harshly and abruptly, not even caring that he was breaking the metaphorical restraining order imposed on him by the old guardian of the planet. "Frankly I'm still a little bit conflicted about even coming here."

"And yet you still came," Kami remarked, raising his head a little when he saw Piccolo's eye twitch in annoyance. "As ironic as this all is, the fact that you were able to muster up the stomach to come up to the Lookout tells me that what you have to say is incredibly important." The elder then turned his attention to Raditz, who he could see was standing behind his counterpart silently and glaring across at him with an uncertain look on his face. "So… I take it that this is the man that was responsible for Goku's death."

This comment had Piccolo scoff before correcting his colleague. "Partly responsible. Don't forget, I was the one that fired the attack that killed your star pupil and sent him off to the next world." This ended with the green warrior lowering his head and smirking. "And I'd do it again if I had the chance."

Frown deepening, Kami then shot his other half a look. "What could've possibly compelled you to bring this person to my domain?"

Quickly moving back to the topic at hand, Piccolo's expressions deepened. "I want you to contact all of Goku's friends and allies, and bring them here. There's been a development."

Kami frowned before glancing over at Raditz. "Does it have something to do with him?"

While the Saiyan frowned at the look the old man gave him, Piccolo quickly answered in his place. "Yes."

"Is the world under threat?" Kami asked immediately afterwards.

"Let me put it this way," his other half responded with an unamused glare. "If we don't get all of Goku's friends together and beat them into shape, in a year's time there won't be a world anymore."

OOO

(A couple weeks later)

(Somewhere in deep space)

On the outskirts of the Milky Way, far out of reach of any populated worlds, two Attack Balls could be seen blasting through the area on route to an unspecified destination somewhere in the furthest parts of the galaxy. Streaking through the territory side-by-side, passing outlying moons, planets and stars left and right, the two craft resembling the one that Raditz used to arrive on Earth, burned a trail across the void as their pilots rested comfortably inside- enjoying the scenery and the quiet offered to them by their flight.

It should be noted that unlike the pods that the low-class Saiyan and his allies used, these particular vessels had a certain symbol painted on the front of their hatches. This insignia took the form of a black shield with a downward pointing, white arrow head with four accented points, and a purple spot in the center. This identified the owners of the pod, as well as who they were aligned to.

As to the pilots occupying the spaces inside the small ships, though dressed in similar uniforms, were two aliens that were entirely different from one another.

The first was a large, muscular humanoid-alien with dark green skin and long, black spiky hair similar to Raditz's. On top of his bulky build, the man also wore a unique armor that was far different from the one the Saiyan wore, consisting of a single, light green armored vest, with a black torso piece with his pod's insignia on it, and a single brown accent that stretched over his left shoulder. With it, he wore a pair of white gloves, white boots, purple spandex underwear, and a white helmet with a brown center, with a yellow lensed scouter over his left eye. Of the two, he was the largest and clearly the toughest looking.

The second alien however was a complete opposite of the first one- an attractive young humanoid-girl around sixteen years old, with blueish skin, pointy ears, an athletic build, and short, spiky orange hair that was combed to one side and shaved on the other. Unlike her bulky comrade, the girl had a much smaller version of the same branded chest armor with the single accent, only this one not only showed off her generous cleavage, but also exposed a bit more of her midriff- particularly her smooth, toned abs and bellybutton. She also wore white gloves and boots with no lower body armor, and only a pair of tiny purple bloomers that accentuated her shapely legs and pert buttocks. Furthermore, on top of her built and pretty face, the blue-eyed female also had a pink scouter over her left eye, and single, gold, diamond-shaped earring hanging off her right lobe.

While the duo were of completely different races- the male being a Beppa-seijin from Cooler Planet 256 and the female being a Hera-seijin formerly of Cooler Planet 23- because they both wore the same uniforms, it was clear they were both allied to the same ruler.

Clearly on a mission to scout out this area of the galaxy, the boy and girl team continued on their present course. While they were busy resting, the green alien male clicked his tongue before radioing across to his comrade.

"Hey, Myra. This trip is taking forever. Remind me again why we came all the way out here?" the helmet-wearing alien asked impatiently, clearly not at all pleased about having to sit inside the pod for the last few hours.

Sighing response, the teal-skinned alien girl typed into the keys of her pod's control panel, as she then brought up a quick scan of the sector. "Salza said that one of our border stations picked up a distress beacon registering somewhere in the outlying territories of this galaxy, between Lord Cooler's and Lord Frieza's spaces. Since the signal was going out along the Frieza Force's frequency, the captain sent us out to this area to check it out." She then frowned and glared across at the pod she could see trailing alongside her through the window. "Didn't you listen to him when he called us yesterday, Dore?"

"Yeah… well…" the identified alien groaned while leaning back with his hands behind his head, "I guess I was only half paying attention. I'm not a big fan of scouting missions. They're boring and usually just involve us checking out a whole load of nothing."

"Ugh," Myra groaned while rolling her eyes, "Just pay attention next time, you meathead. Seriously. I'm getting really sick and tired of having to read back orders to you every time you and I team up because you're too busy- I don't know… daydreaming about your pro-wrestling days."

"Hey, I'm not as attentive and detail-oriented as you are. I don't give two licks about any of that admin and routine crap," Dore replied, cracking a smile and clenched one of his fists in the air in front of him. "I'm more of a… rough-housing, stone-smashing, frontline fighting kind of guy. Give me an assignment where all I have to do is punch and kick a bunch of fools, and you've got my attention for the entire mission!"

Myra sighed when she heard this before mumbling, "No wonder you're the lowest ranking chromosome in the group."

"Huh?" Dore asked when he heard this, "What was that?"

"Nothing. Nothing, Dore," Myra replied, before smiling cheekily. "Just go back to fantasizing about your gold belts and adoring fans."

"Hmph. Fine…"

While Dore was left to stew over the girl's comment, a red light suddenly started to flash next to the scanning unit of both of their pods. When Myra looked down at it before accessing the signal through the computer generated map, the female warrior blinked before grinning. "Got yah!" She then promptly radioed in to her comrade on the other end of the mic. "Hey! I finally got a lock on that signal!"

"Huh?" Dore exclaimed, sitting up sharply and looking across at his partner's pod. "You did?"

"Yeah! It's coming from that planetoid several dozen parsecs off of our starboard flank! Designation SOL-8887 orbiting Star 149." Myra replied, before quickly typing into her computer and modifying the trajectories of both her pod and her friend's. When the computer gave a loud hum, their Attack Balls' course was promptly altered, turning both vessels in the direction of said distress beacon and taking on a sudden burst of speed. "We're coming in on it now. Standby."

And so they did. The two space ships carrying the two soldiers rocketed towards the red and green world being orbited by two moons. Blowing past the satellites and piercing through the atmosphere, the ships made a prompt, yet gentle descent through the cloud banks towards the source of the red blip that was now pinging loudly on their radars. The multiple numbers displayed on screen counted down their approach, before the two vessels eventually slammed into the ground about a mile out from their target.

Once their ships made landfall, the hatches on their pods opened, ejecting the two warriors onto the strange and unknown world. When they jumped out of the two large craters their ships had formed, the pair immediately took to the air and floated beside one another- showing the size difference between the hulking green male and his blue-skinned, adolescent partner.

Upon achieving a high enough altitude, they then used their scouters to track the distress beacon, which eventually had them facing north.

"That way. Towards that stretch of lowland between the mountains," Myra stated, leaning forward and taking flight, with her companion sticking close behind.

Streaking across the sky and breakneck speeds, both armored fighters arrived at the spot where the signal was coming from and discovered another large crater resting in the middle of the wilderness. Their arrival scattering the pack of armored marsupials congregating around the fissure, the pair touched down on the edge of the hole, with Dore heading down first to investigate.

"Alright then. Let's see what we've got here," the Beppa-seijin remarked.

Coming upon the open Attack Ball, the man rested a hand against the top of its white hull and peered inside- narrowing his eyes on the interior. His yellow scouter beeped into life as he scanned its registration and model numbers resting along the rim of the hatch's opening, which quickly brought up a series of specs.

Myra, seeing her partner do something useful for a change, raised her head curiously as she watched him study the wreckage. "Well? Find anything?"

"Zip. The pod is empty. There's a hell of a big mess inside though. A lot of scratches and rubbish- probably from whatever slob decided to crack open his flight rations for a feed," Dore remarked, narrowing his eyes when the details of the pod's owner shot up after several seconds of searching. The green warrior frowned and straightened up, before looking back up at Myra. "Yep. This is one of Frieza's Attack Balls alright. Registered to one of his scouts. Doesn't say who."

The Hera-seijin blinked. "Any idea how it wound up all the way out here?"

Dore placed a hand over the earpiece of his scouter. "The log says that it was heading back towards Frieza Planet 79- but the navigational computer experienced a malfunction and shorted out on the way there." He then looked back inside and towards the control pad, where he saw a small hole smashed into it close to the stick, along with multiple sets of wires ripped out. This observation had the alien frown. "The entire main panel on the right-hand side is completely mangled. Whoever was piloting this thing smashed through the locking system and damaged the hardware. That probably explains why it crashed."

"So it made an emergency landing on this world?" Myra questioned herself. The answer sounding plausible, the young girl then turned her attention to the landscape and began scanning the horizon. When several numbers flickered across her scouter, the Hera-seijin cocked her head. "Hm. Not a bad place to end up. But there's an awful lot of dangerous creatures running around. Most of these lifeform readings are registering around 4000 each." Seemed normal, considering the gravity of this place was ten times greater than normal.

"Hmph. That'd be unlucky if the guy's power level was a lot less than that," Dore answered as he craned his head a little more inside the ship to check out the back, but found nothing. "He'd probably be monster chow by now."

"Does it say exactly when the ship landed?" Myra asked, wanting to see if they could track down the owner of the ship. Depending on how long ago the pod touched down, she'd be able to extend her search to the appropriate distances.

"It says… around a month ago," Dore replied, before deciding to dispense with the search and leapt out of the crater. Landing beside his smaller partner, the muscular alien set his hands on his hips and looked down at his friend inquisitively. "If it's only been a few weeks, then our guy should be somewhere in this area. That is… if he hasn't been eaten by something already."

"Well, hopefully we'll have some sort of body to bring back home with us," Myra remarked, at the same time shaking her head. "It'd be a waste if we came all the way out here for nothing. And you know how much Cooler-sama hates wasted efforts." He was a very shrewd and efficient man after all. That's the kind of boss their emperor was.

All of a sudden, as the pair were busy looking around, both of their scouters suddenly lit up with numbers and the ground started to shake. Blinking in alarm, the pair saw multiple caution arrows and warning lights flicker across their visors, with the duo beginning to scan areas of land in two different directions. As they did, the trembling in the ground grew more violent and a low rumbling sound began to fill the air.

"Hey. W-What is that?" Dore asked, almost losing his balance when the ground tipped as it shook.

Scouter going crazy from the anomalous readings it was receiving, Myra looked downwards. "I'm picking up multiple lifeforms moving underground! I… I can't get a lock on them." The rumbling intensifying and the rocks around them splitting, the young girl realized that whatever was scurrying around beneath them and tunneling through the earth was closing in on the surface at an alarming rate. "Keep your eyes peeled!"

Just as the two of them took battle stances, the ground on the other side of the massive crater suddenly exploded and an enormous black mass shot out of the planet. When the pair looked up through the shower of rubble and dust that belched into the air, they saw the lifeform that'd appeared reach up into the sky and arc over them- its sheer size immediately casting a dark shadow over the area.

As the rumbling continued, both Myra and Dore noticed the landscape around them also give off more blasts of debris in multiple directions, as more and more of the lifeform's body coiled and jutted to the surface. When the haze of dust finally parted and the pair glared up at the skyscraper sized animal that'd appeared before them, they found themselves gazing up at the multi-legged mass of a fully armored and angry-looking centipede.

Unlike its regular-sized companions, this enormous titan of an arthropod stood about fifty stories above the two warriors, with its body coiling around the landscape for almost two whole miles. When the creature glared down at them and bared its enormous, bladed mandibles at the pair and a jaw filled with razor sharp teeth, its total power reading suddenly jumped up onto their screens, alarming both Myra and Dore when they saw exactly what they were up against.

"Battle power of 12,000?!" Dore shouted, not really expecting such a massive and dangerous-looking animal to just come out of nowhere. He then grinned broadly in excitement. "Damn! That's one crazy big bug!"

Myra, doing a quick scan of the multi-legged arachnid as it loomed over them and hissed, swung her arm forward and took aim. "It's probably an apex-predator on this planet. Don't worry. I'll get rid of it."

This alerted the green warrior and had him shout at his friend, "Huh?! Hang on a second, Myra! That's not fair! Let me kill it! Come on!"

Just as the girl was charging up a blast to put a hole through the dragon insect's head, she suddenly stopped when she saw its entire body shudder. Blinking when its body swayed in a rather awkward manner, Myra and Dore then watched as the titanic centipede raised its head towards the clouds, gave a low, pained roar, before suddenly keeling over and collapsing towards the ground. A deafening thunderclap of an impact resonated across the entire country when the insect beast's upper body, as well as the rest of its undulating form, struck the ground and formed a massive, winding fissure across the rocky terrain.

When the shockwaves and dust from its impact finally settled, and the air cleared, both Dore and Myra blinked in confusion as they looked upon the now prone form of the predatory bug.

Bringing a hand up and pressing the button on her scouter, the female Hera blinked when she got a return reading of zero across all the boards. "It's dead?" All of its life signs just dropped all of a sudden.

"What the heck just happened?" Dore asked, looking across at the beast oddly with a rather flabbergasted expression. "Did it suddenly up and die when it saw us? Did it have a heart attack… or… multiple heart attacks?" He wasn't sure how many hearts a creature like this would have, but it would probably be a lot. Especially given its size.

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course it didn't," Myra replied, only to then recoil when a new number suddenly jumped up on screening. As her scouter crunched the reading, the Hera frowned. "Hold on. I'm picking up something else."

Both she and Dore watched for a full minute as their scouters began tracking something moving around the beast's body. Whether it was the centipede itself or something else they weren't sure, but their devices were detecting another new presence coming out into the open. When their units fixed their gazes upon the upper torso of the centipede, the pair suddenly heard the sound of loud squelching and cracking coming from inside its carapace.

Narrowing their eyes when they thought they saw one of its legs twitch, after a few more tense moments of listening to the noises grow louder and louder, they suddenly saw the underside of the toppled centipede explode outwards in a shower of entrails. Bits of shell and carapace splattering across the ground, the pair of grossed out fighters then looked towards the small hole that'd formed in the belly of the arthropod, where they then saw a tiny creature of some kind crawl out of its gullet.

Covered in steaming green slime, the miniscule figure crawled out into the open and slowly stood up. When it did, it shook off the slime covering most of his body and wiped down his arms. With most of the surface goo dripping off of him, the creature revealed itself to be none other than Gohan- the four-year-old wearing nothing but a pair of ruined pants, now transformed into tattered shorts, standing in the blood, guts, and stomach acid of the centipede he'd just killed.

Dore balked when he saw the half-naked youngster emerge from the insect's body. "It's a… kid?"

"What's a boy like him doing all the way out here?" Myra asked, also appearing completely taken aback by the sight. "And… how in Hera's name did he get inside of that thing? Did that giant bug try to eat him?"

Brushing the bits of gunk from his messy, soaking black hair, the unperturbed youngster then looked around where he'd emerged- only to have his attention drawn to Myra and Dore standing several yards in front of him.

After the two groups shared an awkward stare with one another, with a full several seconds of silence passing between them, the surprised Gohan's expression then became feral, as the child crouched low into a fighting stance and snarled. As his hair stood on end and posture hardened, Myra's scouter beeped as it finalized the reading of the boy, which caused her to blink in shock.

"His… His power level is over 13,000?" Myra gasped, unable to believe what she was reading as her scouter also gave her a bio-scan of the child. "Impossible."

Dore almost swallowed his tongue at that information. "What? A kid that tiny, has a battle power that high?" He also did a quick scan of the youngster, clearly unable to believe what his companion was telling him. "Come on. Your scouter must be fried or something. There's just no way a runt like him could-" He then stopped short when he saw the scanner finish analyzing the child's power output, which led to the Beppa-seijin's jaw dropping. "Holy crap, you're not lying."

As Myra slowly processed the fact that she was looking at a boy with a battle power well over the average sentient life form and soldier in Cooler's forces, the girl then saw something that caught her eye. When the child in front of her crouched down onto his hands and continued snarling in their direction, she saw a brown, furry tail whip out from behind him and wave in the air aggressively.

Upon sifting through all her acquired knowledge of intergalactic species in her head and recalling of the genetic traits of the most famous humanoid races on record, Myra was able to come up with a racial profile of the individual. She almost stumbled over when she realized what had come tearing its way out of the centipede.

"He's a… Saiyan?" the Hera stuttered.

"Huh? A Saiyan?" Dore balked, squinting at the child and noticing the tail too. He then shook his head in surprise. "What could a Saiyan brat be doing on a remote planet like this?"

Did he have a family here? A home? Was there a clan of other Saiya warriors living somewhere out here in this deserted and hostile location? If there was, they would've probably detected them on their scouters by now. But all they were getting were other life form readings- none of which consistent with a sentient alien's scans.

Quickly mulling over what they already knew and what they'd just found out, Myra suddenly had a brainwave, which caused her to straighten up in a surprised manner. "He must've been on the pod that crash-landed here." She then stepped forward as she watched the child continue to make eyes at them, obviously as a way to try and drive them off. He didn't like what he was feeling from the two powerful newcomers. "Yeah. Now it makes sense. He must've stolen it from one of Frieza's men and caused it to land here while he was escaping."

Dore looked across at his partner in confusion. "What? Are you saying he was a prisoner of Frieza or something?"

"I don't know. But what I do know is that he is incredibly wild and strong… and that he's probably been stuck her for a few weeks, surviving off of whatever animals he could hunt," Myra said, a rather big smile suddenly forming across her lips as she looked at the boy baring his fangs at them. "He must've been attacked by that giant centipede while he was out exploring the planet and got swallowed by it. When the bug couldn't digest him, he then smashed his way out of its stomach and ravaged its internal organs, killing it."

The summary of the possible events that'd transpired for the kid drew a laugh from the tough-guy Dore, who then set a hand on his hip. "I'm not gonna lie, that's pretty fuckin' metal." After his scouter switched off, the elite soldier then glanced across at his Hera-seijin teammate. "So what do we do with him?"

Thinking on it for a few moments, the orange-haired adolescent's smile returned even wider than before, as she then puffed her ample chest out. "Since we came all this way out here to find a distress beacon of a crashed ship, it would be a waste to go back home emptyhanded." Myra then nodded towards the boy as his fingers dug into the ground and steam continued to lift off of him. "Let's take him with us. I'm sure Cooler-sama will be very interested to meet with this boy… especially since he has a battle power close to some of Frieza's strongest warriors. He might even make a great asset for him some day."

"Heh. Can't argue with that," Dore replied, banging his helmet a couple of times before deciding to walk forward. "Alright. Let's bag em' and tag em'." Casually ambling towards the child, the green alien raised his hand and waved to the snarling youngster, whose hair stood on end as the alien elite closed in on him and the pool of centipede blood. "Yo there, runt! How's it going? You want to come with us?!"

With one last growl of warning, Gohan then sprang from the ground and flew towards Dore in a blur, giving a loud growl as he lunged in with his claws and teeth at full bare. He then lashed out at the smirking green warrior, who nonchalantly stepped to the side and dodged his attack. When he saw the boy fly past him, he then watched the kid go for Myra instead, dashing towards her in a zigzag pattern to throw her off, before lunging at her from the side.

Just like Dore, the Hera stepped back and avoided his attack. However, instead of just moving out of the way, she swiftly raised her hand and chopped at the kid's neck, hitting him square in a pressure point and knocking him out. A stunned look came over Gohan's face and his eyes instantly went blank, a split second before his body dropped to the ground. However, before he could hit it, the sole female member of Cooler's Armored Squadron caught him by the chest and slung him over her shoulder.

Prize grabbed, both Myra and Dore shared a nod with one another, before both of them turned around and took off into the sky- heading back to their ships.

While they had no idea how Lord Cooler was going to react to them bringing a Saiyan child with them back to his capital ship, they were positive that his strength will definitely peak the planet destroyer's curiosity.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author's Note: So? What do you guys think?

Gohan getting taken in by Cooler's Armored Squadron? Should be interesting.

Plus, with the addition of Myra, an OC Hera-seijin on Cooler's elite, she and Gohan together will make an interesting foil for the story to come.