Yo! Son Goku and friends! Babidi Saga (Chapter 26)
Raditz VS Pui Pui
Objective: Take The Dragon Ball!
Pui Pui's face scrunched up as the orb smashed into his nose. The object was nigh unbreakable, certainly capable of breaking his face many times over before it would cave. Icarus cawed, raising its thick draconic brows as The 2 Star Ball slammed into the figure just metres away from the nest. Raditz blasted out of his apartment and flew into a banger of a left knee strike, sending Pui Pui far past the treeline. The ball didn't fly with him and Raditz let the sphere land on his hand before casting it behind himself, Nimbus doing his damndest to catch it before it fell onto the streets of Papaya.
"Nimbus. Just hold onto that one for me for a little bit. I don't think that was enough to do him in. I probably held back a little too much."
Nimbus nodded his shifting cottonesque frame in accordance with The Saiyan's wishes.
"Yup. Icarus!"
TwuWhee~
"GAAAAUUUUUUUUUUU!"
The epic dragon's roar bellowed out into the field, shaking the trees to their roots. Raditz pointed directly at Pui Pui as he wiped the blood shed from The Black Star Ball's crushing contact.
"Keep your eye on the birdie."
"That was a cheap shot. I'll make sure to repay you i-"
As the chastising response came crawling out of his mouth, Raditz and his pet dragon drove forward, flying in tandem at Pui Pui. With nothing left to say, Pui Pui put up his dukes. Raditz came from overhead, a weighty right haymaker. Pui Pui evaded it backwards but Icarus came through from the front, looking to chomp down on his head.
WHAMM!
Caught in the bottom of the maw, Icarus flipped backwards. Raditz covered the option from below with a chamber punch Kiai.
"HYEAGHH!" He roared.
Pah-POKK!
Pui Pui's guard was blown away as the wild winds impacted his arms. With no arms to block it with, he took another knee strike. The henchman of Babidi careened through the forest clearing as The Saiyan reared back for a double axe handle. Pui Pui drove both boots up and met The Saiyan's thick arms with his heels, blasting both of them back to neutral. During his spin, and before he stabilised, Pui Pui sent a surge of energy Raditz way. Before it even made contact with his body, Raditz stalled on the aether and walked forward, the Ki just dissipating into nothing but glitter.
Pui Pui's eyes widened and the brother of Kakarot smiled that Saiyan smile.
"Might want to try just a little harder than that."
Pui Pui's brow furrowed in thought but a rustling of leaves brought to his attention an attacker from below. Fire and flame bursted all around the man's frame but Pui Pui's decisive escape pattern got him out of trouble, but out of the frying pan and into the fire. Raditz reared back another knee. With the execution of a baseball player, Pui Pui ducked the strike by sliding along the wind on his own knees. Too little too late, and unable to dodge the backup, Pui Pui felt a sharp clamp, and a searing pain surge through his left boot.
"..!"
The Dragon's jaw crushed and mangled his foot between her teeth, allowing Raditz the time to double back and fly into a missile dropkick, sending his foe down into the jungle below, breaking down the foundations of the forest just outside his apartments in Sasebo.
Pui Pui's busted up body drug and dragged throughout the grassy ground as Raditz looked over at his companion.
"Hmm. You gonna eat that?"
Chomp!
Raditz provided a simple thumbs up at the notion.
"Tch!" Pui Pui scoffed, using the assistance of a not-so undug tree to stand, blood dripping from his new flesh wound. He conjured a phonebooth-like assortment of Ki and dug into the Earth, digging one little scoop at a time, each scoop a blitz of speed however. Soon enough, Raditz and Icarus touched down and saw the ethereal glass box.
"HAH-HAH! Found you! ..?"
Raditz opened the door only to find nothing. He looked down at the ground below, perfectly patched.
"..? ..! What!?"
A pulse of Ki Sensing brought back a faded ping at the end of the island. Pui Pui breached the sea, splashing up from not only the ground, but the water after the fact, an earthen dolphin shooting up for a breath, and then drifting back down into the waters below for another dig, crashing straight through a wellspring of bubbly fluids, opening up the natural air ventilation even further.
After that, nothing. Raditz pulsed another bit of his technique but got back a mystifying answer of faded energies.
"... Damn! Welp… you got his foot, girl. So… I don't think he's going to be too happy about that one." The Saiyan remarked as he scratched his itchy scalp, his mangled mane even more frilled and fuzzied at the early morning's beheaded behest.
Tien
Shuup. Tatap.
"Crane."
"What's up?" Tienshinhan asked as he cracked his neck and scratched his salt and pepper beard atop The Lookout.
"Hey Buddy!"
"Hi, Goku. Krillin? You called?"
"Did you not try to sense anything on your way here?"
"All you said was to get my ass over here. So I did. No. I did not."
"Well you might want to-"
Tien's brows couldn't shoot to the roof, because The Lookout was the highest point on the planet, there really wasn't anywhere they could go.
"What the hell's goin' on? That's like… 8 powers greater than ours. ..! Piccolo! What the hell!?"
The warm aura rippling off Piccolo forced a cold shudder to trickle along The Crane's frame as Yamcha strutted forward.
"Yeah… I'm just hopin' he doesn't freak out. Last thing we need is for this dude to power trip on our ass." The Wolf claimed as he squatted down on the tile only to sink in a bit. "... The Lookout was never this bendy was it?" He asked, looking for approval from the group as he pointed down at the warpy, gooey nature of the tile, almost akin to a trampoline.
"Alright. I'm gonna keep it brief you Mongrels. We wait for-"
"RADITZ!"
"-to get here and then we formulate a plan."
"Why'd you have to yell it like that?" Yamcha giggled to gills while he maintained the gremlin-like squat on the goopy state of the flooring.
"Might want to get some clothes. I'll meet back up with you guys in a bi-"
Zzzzt!
Before he knew it, Krillin was in a bright red tee, some sneakers and khaki coloured sweatpants.
"... That'll do I guess."
Zzzwerrztztt!
"Huh-Hah! Thanks, Buddy!" Goku hollered as he threw an arm around Piccolo, the classic blue boots with the red line down the middle spawning over his feet.
"Get the hell off me."
"Sure thing!"
Goku looked around at his friends, putting his hands on his hips particularly Goku-like and then cheesed big time. Krillin tightened the white belt strings protruding out of his khaki sweatpants. As the crew waited, Korin and Popo protruded out of the temple and sauntered forward, the tiny white cat brandishing the staff in Kami's stead, a little white robe over his frame brandishing the kanji of The Guardian of Earth.
"Hey. How's it goin' fellas?"
"Uhhh~ Nice shirt, dork. Where's Kami at?" Yamcha stated with a shiteating grin, flicking Korin on the forehead.
"I am Kami!"
"..." Yamcha just wore duck lips as he looked back at Krillin who in turn smacked himself with a Godfearing facepalm.
"Huh-Hah! Huh-Hah-Hah-Hah!"
The wind barreled in and The Saiyan showed his face, completely content to stand there in his underwear.
"What was so important you woke me up this early for, Green Man?"
"Do you not feel the energy down below?"
The uncle of Son Gohan and Goten raised a brow, but the return fire he felt pulse into him was another story altogether.
"Whoa…"
"Tcheh. Don't tell me…"
"Hey." Tien interjected. "It's not as easy to sense for energy down there. Even if I did I bet I wouldn't have felt have the feedback I get up here. There's a lot, and… it's all different. The amount we're dealing with here is off the charts. Way worse than anything else we've felt befor-"
"Bruh." Yamcha counter, still squatting next to Korin as he pinched his chubby cat cheeks. "You got your ass laid out by that guy~ what was his name? Freezer? And you didn't even fight him. You just sensed his energy and went night-night."
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained. At least I didn't sit my ass back and watch the fight. Goku had an excuse, none of you Did."
A lone sweat drop drooped down Piccolo's brow but Krillin just shrugged.
"Hey. We're here now. It didn't end up too bad. But if we don't make any moves now we might not be here for long."
"Wait… Krillin, I thought you said earlier that he didn't seem all bad." Goku made sure to point out with a raised index as he stepped into the middle of the group.
"Nah, that was you. Apparently those guys are Shadow Dragons. Whatever that means. And they have some sort of boss. Forgot his name. Anyway, if what he says is true, The Shadow Dragons are all born from negative energy."
"What?" Tien's demeanor shifted on a dime, mirroring Piccolo's crossed arms with his own.
"These aren't good guys, Goku. Now I'm not saying you've been wrong in the past, but we really should be careful. Every single one of these guys is stronger than we ar-"
"Nope." Raditz answered confidently, laughing with his tongue out.
"... Are you going to elaborate?" Krillin asked as the soft gales of dawn brushed into his bright red tee.
"Nope! Heheheh~"
"They're all more than dangerous enough to pose a serious threat to the planet individually."
"I can agree to that." The Ex-Guardian, Ex Demon put forward, maintaining his cross armed mirror with The Crane.
"So how do we tackle this?"
"Divide and conquer." Piccolo proclaimed. "We need to take the strong ones out first, that or deliberately tackle the stragglers. The farther their backup is away from each other the easier it's gonna be to beat em' to death."
"Hey!"
"I ain't takin' no chances, Son Goku."
"But that's of the assumption that they're working together." Krillin countered, pointing his real index at The Ex-Guardian, Ex-Demon.
"True. So do we go after that goblin and his laffy taffy companion?" Piccolo asked.
"It'd be a good start. Those are the only guys we know that are working together."
Tien, Raditz, Goku, and Yamcha just kind of let the two talk amongst themselves. Yamcha, because he didn't really care too much one way or the other, Tien so that he could soak it in, Goku not one to interrupt, and Raditz thinking about everything he didn't know.
"Why does it matter if we go after these guys? Shadow Dragons? What if they're just here to hang out?" Yamcha asked as he yawned and spread eagle over the warped tile.
"I don't know what we're gonna do but I'm going with Piccolo." Goku claimed, smiling wide and leaning his elbow up onto The Ex-Guardian, Ex-Demon's cape pauldron.
"Tcheh." He scoffed, but also couldn't hold back a smile.
"Well first things first, Earthlings. Scouting. The mere fact that we can formulate a strategy means that that option is available to them as well. Before we do anything, we should scout them out."
"Can't hate that. Who shou-"
"I'll do it." Tien claimed first and foremost. "It's been a while since we've had a serious threat to our livelihood. Sure we had a few goofballs at The Budokai. But that's all they were. I'm gonna go check out that pointed… energy first. That one seems unreal."
"Huuuuhhh!" Goku gasped, jaw open enough that a bird could fly in at any time. "No fair! I wanted to fight that guy!"
"Hey, I didn't say I was going it alone. And I didn't necessarily say I was gonna fight him. You're skipping a couple steps, Goku."
"Be careful, Tien." Krillin made sure to impart as Tien dove backwards off The Lookout.
"Should we meet up at Capsule Corp!? Or here!?"
Tien's voice echoed along the aether and the rest of the group shot a couple of glances at each other, Goku and Yamcha's somewhat different from the rest.
"What is this aura?" Tien asked to no one, since he was the lone warrior piercing through the clouds. "It's… strange. I can't get a read on it. It's like it's… trying to read me back when I sense it."
Once Ki Sensing reaches a high enough level, certain ideas get attached to your energy and what you embody is given off to others. You need to be diligent in your expression towards the world around and your own Ki Control to alter this process.
"It's… wet. I've never felt an energy quite like that before…" Tien contemplated as the stretchy, slimy rubber band licked around his frame, giving him goosebumps.
Majin Buu.
Babidi
"Pui Pui, where the hell are you!? I need that Dragon Ball ASAP!"
"I'm almost there, Lord Babidi, but the thing is-"
"The thing is?" The Wizard quipped back with a raised brow as he looked deep into his crystal ball with one, veiny, reddened eye. "There's more? Go on?"
"I… didn't retrieve it…"
"OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T! Why wouldn't you!? I only recruited you so that you could fail me! My fault for expecting anything different out of you!"
"Sorry… sir…"
"Apologies aren't very useful to me! Just get your ass back here at once!"
"Roger that…" The man exhaled as the crystalline orb's magic coalesced and faded into obscurity.
"Buu. Check the perimeter around here. This is a nice little place they have here. I need this cleared out."
Fwuuuuuu~ Sshooff~ Fwooo~
The many orifices Majin Buu possessed shot out bullets of fog that ultimately didn't make contact with Babidi as he stared down with a building intent.
"What? You beat Kami. I have no idea why you're still so upset at me."
"..." The Madjinni said nothing, only walking forward into the red dawn of the castle walkway.
It almost felt like another plane of existence. Here along the empty airspace was another castle in the sky, a single path leading up from the side of a cliff. A silhouetted kingdom all on its lonesome set in the middle of a chasm, each pillar holding up the railless bridges a death defying stunt in its own right. Babidi floated behind Buu as he marched up the steps.
"Who goes there-"
WHAMMM! Fwuuuuuuuu~
The bloodied body of a guard flew into the abyss, never to be seen again, but most certainly to be heard from one last time as his body hit the bottom.
"You're doing too much, Buu." Babidi garbled out, shaking his open hands as the knightly warrior fell to his demise at the hands of The Majin's backhanded slap. "You don't have to kill them. You just gotta get em' to leave."
"WELL IT'S WORKING, ISN'T IT!?" He barked back, steam swelling as he pointed his yellow boxing glove at the members of the high society scrambling around the castle in the sky.
"Intruders!" The guards yelled, shouting to and fro before engaging with sharp weapons.
Their blades cut through alright, but the unemotive knight helmets still gave way to surprise as they shifted upwards and looked up at the giant gummy beast looking down at them with holes, but no blood, or any sign of deterrence. Buu went buckwild, slamming, slapping, and swerving guards out of the way, looking back at The Wizard with a sharp brow and his shining red eyes the whole time, capable of downing entire scores of men without even paying attention, his head swiveled an entire 180 degrees like an owl as he fought.
"I get it, you're upset. But what am I supposed to do, Buu? Let you go free or something? Sure. If I could trust you, I would. But you'd just gobble my shit up in an instant-" Babidi snapped, partly to reinforce his statement, partly to project a little bubble of magic that ate up one of the guard's shortswords with plasmic lasering. The guard drew back just a goopy hilt that sizzled before making a run for it, over hill and dale, dashing out to the highlands as he cleared the clearly unsafe bridges. "-If I could trust your little fit-throwing ass maybe we'd have a deal. But we don't! So for now, this is the best arrangement we could come to."
Buu was on a tear, as polite as his strained, malicious attacks were capable of. He slapped and headbutted, throwing awry all of the kingdom's defenses. In the chaos, along came a regal man in robes, bowing before Buu with his head to the ground.
"Buu. Hold on~" Babidi protested as The Madjinni looked to slam him with a boxing glove bop from overhead.
The people of the strange city in the middle of a dropoff ran for the bridges. The morning light seemed to skew in this region, providing a harsh orange red overcast instead of the glowing gold just past sunrise would usually offer. As the guards and citizens rushed out of the castle in the sky, the man in regal robes stayed quiet, pressing his forehead against the brick.
"Alright. Out with it." The Wizard asked with hands on his small hips. "We could let you go but if you want to beg I'm all ears."
"What?" The man asked, a crown atop his head.
"Ahh. A king. So this is a kingdom."
"Yes. The, Kingdom of Kress."
"I like the decor."
"It's a little…"
"Dangerous? Yes. This is pretty unsafe for those who can't fly."
"We were forced to relocate. The buildings and the bridges aren't quite finished yet."
"Well you know. I don't want to hurt you or nothing but this location would suit us much better, no? Seeing as we can fly and all that."
"~Of course…"
"I'm glad we came to an understanding. Off you go. Shoo." Babidi stated as he stepped around the groveling King, waving him away with his fingers.
It wasn't much longer after watching The King's cape waver in the red winds did Babidi breach the top of the castle.
"You know..? I really like this place. Gothic." He laughed out, pushing out his hands like a spell as he said it. "Don't you think?"
"..." Steam just poured out of his forehead, fogging up the courtyard around them. Despite there being dropoffs at every corner, the main building of the castle possessed a rounded courtyard and a lone tree planted right in the middle, standing tall above the columns littering the outside.
"Of course. You were never one for architecture…"
Snapp!
"Pui Pui!"
"Yes Lord Babidi?"
"We've found the place where we're going to set up shop. Interesting design. I like it. High up, and there's very few walls on the outside, I can broadcast from a wide range at this location. Get your ass over here pronto."
Fwoff~
A blue beacon pierced the searing red veil, far enough so that Pui Pui could see it from across the oceans, a titanic pillar of blue light, though thin from his location.
"I can see it, Lord Babidi."
"Well then get your ass in gear and get over here."
"Yes sir!"
The crystal ball's transmission fizzled out and Babidi smirked as he saw a throne in the middle of an open ended area. He smirked at the novelty of such a kingdom without even so much as a single rat running around.
Eis
The cold chill of Tsurumai-Tsuburi Mountains washed over a silvery turquoise man in what appeared to be a fishing wetsuit. But he wasn't a man at all, more like a draconic humanoid with a shark fin atop his head, thick lips and purple wings underneath the shiny scales that glittered in the far off sun barely clipping over the horizon line. He looked down at his hands and felt the chill.
"I'm really here right now. How interesting." His voice had a ringing, static-like cantor to it. It was smooth, but not quite the pinnacle. There was a feedback while he spoke. He closed his eyes and a surge of hot vibrance cut across. He had no nose with which to smell, but he didn't need it to feel the heat, nor sense the melting snow far below his flighted feet. "It's really like that, huh? Oh, come on~" His wiry voice petered out. "I can't have one day to myself where I don't have to see you?" The silvery, bluish dragon man cackled, looking behind himself to see a mirror image of his body, only a sunset metallic orange.
"I was looking forward to that too, Eis, but there's one problem."
"And?" Eis prompted, his thick brows worming around in intrigue as the snow continued to peel away on the nearby mountainsides despite the two of them floating high on the wind.
"There's only two Dragon Balls."
"So?"
"Earth has two sets. Don't you remember?"
"Yeah… Garlic."
"Garlic's mirrored The Dragon Balls this world's Kami already created. There should be 7 in total. There's two. The Two Star, and The Four Star. I can't feel any of the others."
You guessed it.
"You're riiight~" Eis let drag out, bringing his cold right hand to the bottom of his pointy chin. "Interesting~"
"They have to be shielded by a magical item, though I guess it could be warded in some way… That or housed in some pocket dimension."
"Sure sure, Hehehehe~."
"Who in this world is capable of that?"
"Hmm~ Why not go ask Smoke, Nuova?"
Nova's brow furrowed, and in response, the entire cliffside of the mountain bombarded into a snowfall, an avalanche due to the massive shifts in weight. The closer it got to Nova though, it didn't matter, the tumbling barrels of snow melted and scooped off of the mountains, revealing sweaty rock that hadn't been seen in thousands of years.
"I'm not trying to get caught in the crossfire. No thank you."
"He's gonna kill us all eventually, Nuova. Might as well look for the opportunity to take him out first."
"Why do you think I'm looking for them, dumbass?"
"Tsk~Tsk~Tsk~Touché." He said while waggling his finger, smiling to the gills.
"I have to find the five Dragon Balls that are off the grid. Any one of us could find The Two or Four Star."
Eis hummed, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.
"So do you feel like helping me, or are you going to be the most annoying little brother in Universe 7?"
"I was literally right behind you, but okay." He replied with jazz hands.
"You're so annoying."
"Heheh~ Beat it, Nuova. If I knew the answer I wouldn't tell you that's for damn sure."
"Why do I even try?"
Eis let out even larger than life chuckles that reverberated throughout the frozen, barren land of Tsurumai-Tsuburi as Nuova's hot wings blew and the ice melted.
FWOFFFF~Fwuuuuuuuu!
He looked less like a dragon and more like a phoenix the way he tore across the skyline of the mountain range in a meteoric blaze.
Syn
"Something's coming!" Piccolo shouted as his antennae broke through the wraps on his turban, forcibly removing the headgear from the top of his dome as an eruptive sonic boom clapped out from below and a hulking behemoth of a figure landed on top of The Lookout.
Shuup.
"This. Is the one." Goku claimed as he stepped forward, parting the sea of Yamcha, Korin, Piccolo, and Raditz. "You're strong."
The white scaly figure just smiled back in earnest.
"I'm glad I don't have to explain myself."
"Well you might have to anyway, because I'm still a little bit out of the loop." Yamcha rebutted, finally standing up from his squat to look over at the jagged edges of the beast. "Whew~ You're tall."
"I hesitate to say this is a very good look for you." Raditz remarked, stretching and rotating his shoulders as he turned around, still in his underwear, but not a care in the world at that fact.
"Hrah~Hah~Huah! What a riot!"
"Come on guys! Let's see what he has to say."
"Wow, what a gentleman. My name is Syn, yours?"
"Goku."
"What the fuck is that?" Syn Shenron laughed out like a goblin as Goku extended his hand.
"Hand shake." The father of two replied, all smiles of course.
"I'm good."
"HAW-HAW-HAW!"
"Hey~ Who's side are you on, Piccolo?"
"Enough talk~ Where are The Dragon Balls?"
"They're not here if that wasn't already clear enough." Kami claimed, stomping the staff on the warpy, perturbed tile, fixing its shape back to mostly normalcy.
"I know that you little rat-"
"-cat." He spoke up with a raised index claw.
"-Whatever! Five entire Dragon Balls from The Black Star set just vanished off the face of the Earth. And I could last sense them here. Where'd you neanderthals put them?"
"You know… like… My girlfriend is always talking about supply and demand. Even if I knew, you're not really in a situation where you have enough leverage to bargain for it. We've dealt with your kind before so it-"
"My kind?" His gravelly, soundwavey voice gurgled back quick.
"-not what I meant, bruh. It's business talk. My girlfriend is a CEO."
"I don't recall ever asking-"
"Haven't you ever heard the principle of Sawcon before?"
"What is Sawcon?" Syn asked bewildered, pursing out his white scaly lips and shrugging his massive boulder shoulders, thick black spikes jutting out of him at practically every direction.
"Sawcon my nuts. Fuck outta here, we're not just gonna tell you where they are, fuck you mean?" Yamcha giggled, returning right back to his squatting position.
"Oh my~ Yamcha~" Krillin groaned, not laughing, but unable to contain a smile as he turned around and shook his head at the comment.
"You suck on my nuts, Earthborne!"
THOOOOMMM!
Syn Shenron VS The Z Fighters
Objective: Obtain The Black Star Dragon Balls!
With his Wolf's instinct, Yamcha didn't even comprehend the initial attack Syn blitzed forward with, but somehow evaded it. Shin's scaly dragon talons skidded along the newly fixed tile of The Lookout and he raised a brow. Before anyone could really react, Syn steeled himself, nodding a single time and exploding forward again in an unreactable fit of offence. The Wolf got lucky once, but wouldn't be so twice.
In a one-two, Syn Shenron whiffed a big boot only to double back into a stepping left side kick, smashing Yamcha right in the spine and sending him off into the clouds. Not only that, Syn leaped into action, looking to superdragon punch him back down into the Earth below. It all happened so fast, Kami's cat whiskers twitching a single time, along with Piccolo's. Finally realising what was happening, Piccolo's arm shot out like a whip, snatching the scaly, sharp ankle of The White Shadow Dragon.
Shadow Dragons don't think, they act.
"..? ..! Dragon Thunder!"
A roaring spark of electricity crackled and came to life, traveling down Piccolo's green arm and funneling into the rest of his frame like a lightning rod. The arcing storm didn't stop The Ex-Guardian, Ex-Demon, instead, Piccolo just smirked, phased, but not dazed.
"RRRRrrragh!" Piccolo howled, coming back to his demonic origins, ziplining his left hand back towards him, pulling Syn back into the lion's den.
"Back up, Korin!" Goku said as he pushed his back against Popo and the new Guardian of Earth. "We got this one."
"Hmm~" The new Kami licked his paw but did what was asked as the spiky ball of white and golden electricity pulled back into view. Almost a humanoid mace of some sort.
"Tyahh!" Krillin shouted as he gathered up a sizable bit of energy in his right hand, blasting it forward as Syn came ever closer.
"..!"
FshFshFushSwufFwshWsht! Ssszzt! Zzzt! Tzzt!
In a stunning display of draconic athletics, Syn ballerina spun out of Piccolo's grasp with ease, casting off the lighting in fraying arcs about The Lookout only to lock onto Krillin during his rampage, finishing the epic gyration into a swaying left roundhouse aimed at the small man's temple.
"HAH! Ossu!"
The Lookout tilted to its left side as Raditz leaned into a horse stance kata stomp and fired a Kiai punch right into the midsection of The Shadow Dragon.
Pwah-POKKK! Skweeeee~
Syn flashed in and out of reality, not through teleports, but through raw, unseeable movement by The Z Fighters, Piccolo the only one even able to see the tron lines left in his wake. Raditz' eyes sharpened as he felt the hot wind of The Shadow Dragon's pursuit from all sides, he looked around, but nothing, but he knew:
Fshah!
"Aaagh!" He yelled, striking nothing but the air in front of him.
that something was there.
THOKK!
Blood squirted from Raditz' nose as Syn kept it tight, no wasted movement on his right handed backfist, rabbit punching right through even the thick Saiyan mane he possessed. Raditz' stumble forward was met with a leap and an attempt to curb stomp him right through The Lookout only to have Piccolo bail him out at the last moment, casting the glassy projection just in the nick of time. Ki based glass trickled down and spilled onto Raditz mostly black but somewhat brown bush of hair. Syn raised his foot and looked to stomp again and while he met the tile, he missed The Saiyan.
"Are you okay, Raditz?"
"Yeah, yeah~" He scoffed, clearing his throat as his brother stood him to his feet.
"This guy really might be able to take out all of us…" Krillin sweat out, sharpening his brow towards The White Shadow Dragon.
Fuuuuuuuuu~ WHAMM!
Yamcha didn't even wake up when he hit the ground.
His foot almost leveled The Lookout, only two real hits and The Guardian of Earth's mantle was at the breaking point.
"Come on~ first day in office and I'm gonna have to replace all this already?"
As soon as Syn's talon met the tile, he shot forward, looking to trip the brothers up with a low chop block from the front, sliding on his knees and flaring both arms out. Raditz ate shit hard, falling right onto his nose but Goku tucked and tumbled, landing in a graceful turnaround front roll.
As he finished sweeping the legs, Syn pivoted on his left knee and swiveled his way into a right elbow drop, aiming the sharp blade edge protruding out of said elbow right at the back of Raditz' head, wanting more than just a rabbit punch this time.
Pah-POKK!
Raditz dropped off the front half of The Lookout with a burst of flight, scraping his chest on the loose tile's friction.
KRAMM!
It was done, that right elbow totally segmented The Lookout into 4/5th of its regular size, taking with him the outer edge that housed the ladder. He kipped off the falling rubble awkwardly, using a burst of flight to reposition as he scoured the clouds below for his target.
"Think…" Krillin grit his teeth, watching as Piccolo and Goku dashed off the leftovers of Kami's temple and entered their enemy's airspace.
All Goku did was furrow his brow, rooting his stance on the wind before realising Syn still didn't show single sign of respect for their offensive positioning. Goku balled his fists tight and flew in. Piccolo grunted and followed suit.
Fwush!
Without looking, Syn darted to the right, the brother of Raditz' fist missing just barely. Goku's face spit blood skyward and his head hung back as The Shadow Dragon gathered Ki in the same hand, another one-two play.
"..!"
Before Piccolo could even cover Goku, he was forced to cover himself, raising a guard as the charged draconic energy fired at him instead.
BAH-BOOOOOOOOOOOHHMMMM!
Fwoffffff~
"..?"
THLAMMM!
Syn rocketed down to the clouds below, spinning out wild as Piccolo kissed his teeth. He spared a passing glance for his cape, of course in tatters, mostly atomised from taking the blast. The Ex-Guardian, Ex-Demon grabbed Goku by the collar of his tank top, pulling him up to his level.
"Come on, Goku, we can't goof around on this guy."
"Huh-Hah! I wasn't! He's just good."
The Rival of Piccolo wiped the blood from his lip and looked down to see the clouds part. The wind roared and ripped in ferocious gales, billowing out in every direction. Popo and Korin looked on as Krillin stood on the upheaved tile.
"Krillin! You feel like helpin' our friends out there any time soon!?" Kami croaked as The White Shadow Dragon made himself known, slapping a left hand chop onto Goku's neck.
"There! What's your name!?" Krillin questioned loudly, pointing at Syn as he made his appearance.
"I already told you! It's Syn!"
Piccolo's brow raised in intrigue as The Shadow Dragon stopped in his tracks only to pivot back and look to pursue Goku's limp body falling through the air. Krillin zoomed off the platform with his flight, The Green Man hot on his tail.
"Krillin. What the hell are you-"
"What is negative energy, Syn!?"
"One of Lord Zalama's foundational principles for making the original set of Dragon Balls! There had to be positive, neutral, and negative energy! ..! Rat!"
Instead of laying a finishing blow on Goku's falling form, Syn Shenron burst to life towards Piccolo and Krillin.
"What is your negative energy?"
Syn grit his teeth as he stood right outside of range of the pair.
"I inhabit The 1 Star Ball. I was born from the negative energy stored in The Dragon Balls thanks to the end of Demon King Piccolo's reign. You all allowed me to live because you're too selfish to let life go on like everyone els-"
Zzzzt~ WHAMMMMM!
Syn's head almost snapped upside down from the fly-by left Raditz wailed in on him. Blue blood spilled but The White Shadow Dragon didn't even move despite The Saiyan literally flying past him as he did it.
"Not good…" Krillin remarked with shaky hands as Raditz' full commitment barely did anything more than a dainty suckerpunch to Syn's pointed chin.
"You Earthlings are privileged. I only exist because you're too stubborn to let the dead die. I am the byproduct of wishing everyone back to life after your hero Goku killed Demon King Piccolo."
Fwuuuuuuuuuu~
Piccolo stared back as Raditz got behind him and Krillin. Another gust brought Goku parallel, floating on the other side of Syn. The Shadow Dragon spared a few passing glances for his foes and:
FshFushWshWshtFshFuushWsh~
They all four dogpiled on him, each spacing out in a diagonal X shape, throwing shot after shot, crowding him and not letting The White Shadow Dragon out of their airspace.
FshWshWufFwuFshu~WHAMM!
Krillin.
FshWshWshtFwishFwsh~THOKK!
Raditz.
SwufFwuFwuFuuSwuFwuFwuf~THLAMM!
Goku.
Until there was nothing left but The Green Man trading blows, but more accurately now, dodging blows from Syn. His squad reeled from the single, but epic contact Syn Shenron made with every attack. Calculated and focused, when Syn hit, it hurt, as evident by Goku forced to take a moment's reprieve just to breathe.
"Kuuuu~" He whimpered out weakly, trying to gather breath.
Just the few blocks Piccolo was obligated to put up were blown to smithereens, purple and bluish marks denting in on his green skin. He was at the breaking point, sharp nose leaking fluid even though he hadn't been hit in the head once. Piccolo weaved a three-piece of punches backwards with stalwart flight in a last ditch effort to not have his block knocked off. The last of the combo, the fourth piece, was a draconic spartan kick, his left boot aimed high and looked to tear Piccolo's head off.
"AIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!"
Whah-WHAMM!
"Grrrrruraugh~" Syn Shenron gargled out weirdly as his own left talon slammed into his thick, V-shaped forehead.
In a can-can executed all the way from The Sacred Land, Yamcha kicked up Syn's calf armour and lodged The Shadow Dragon's foot all the way up instead of out. A miniature geyser spit out and blue blood leaked from the cracks in Syn Shenron's scales.
"..." Syn said nothing, only a brutish, intimidating glare as the morning light shined strangely in the skyspace just below The Lookout. He wiped the blood from his forehead and blasted forward. Krillin coughed up a couple mystifying substance and watched as The Shadow Dragon sped off towards his friend.
"What's your name!?"
WHAMM!
Syn only smirked as he connected, not sparing so much as a glance at Krillin as Yamcha took the dive, blasting through the clouds once again.
"Only one shot huh..?" Krillin grunted, taking on a stance on the air as he rushed to cover Piccolo, Goku meeting up parallel as the pair weaved through the aether.
The two weaved in and out of each other's alignment like dolphins only to break off, Goku high, Krillin low. Piccolo got slammed with a straight to the nose and was forced backwards as the first two turtle hermit students got in front.
"SOLAR FLAREE!"
ZNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN~
"Rrrrrrrgh!"
"Got him!" Krillin cried, shaking his fist only to get brutally denied by another right straight from The White Shadow Dragon.
"Uh-oh. Huh-Hah!"
FOOSH! FWOOOSHH!
The air compacted and burst with each righteous throw, Goku zipping out of the way with tight movement. The father of two deftly ducked and dipped, dangerously close to receiving his just desserts, but deserting the designation indefinitely. As he shot backwards, Syn blitzed forwards, forgoing trying to punch or kick and instead just latch onto Goku with a full dragonhug. The husband of Chi-Chi flew down just in time and landed a potent Kiai blast right into the scaly dragon's chin.
Pwa-POKKK!
Pha-PHOKKK!
Goku's nose bent from the blast as Syn returned a Kiai the absolute moment Goku's hit him, the return fire strong enough to send the brother of Raditz packing right into the grass near the huts of Bora's people. While it was near, he wasn't outside their huts or anything, he crash landed on the monument to the white cat from the high tower, breaking his back on the chalky statue, bouncing off the ground, and splashing into a waterfall only to tumble down the steps at the very end.
"DYNAMITE MONDAY!"
BVYUUUUUUUU!
The ethereal blue blast conjured by Syn didn't hit anything. His scaly brow furrowed and the reverb of his higher level Ki Sensing gave him The Saiyan chilling on top of The Lookout instead of where he just was. The sound barrier broke once more and the wind clapped at Syn's unbelievable movement, he came over the top with a right overhand, looking to slam it right onto the forehead of his target.
"AHHHHH!" Raditz roared with the true bloody inclination of a Saiyan, far more guttural than anything The Z Fighters were capable of. He stood his ground and attempted to trade shot-for-shot.
The Lookout caved under the pressure, Kami able to stabilise it since Syn's last contact but the whole temple went topsy turvy anyway thanks to the pair's contact. He lost, but that didn't stop Raditz from landing a good hit, doubling down on the only wound they were able to manage so far. Raditz flew from the top into the sanctum, crashing down into The Shinsekai. Unlike Syn, he pivoted and threw with better form, taking The Shadow Dragon's full brunt on his trap instead of the much more dangerous headshot trade.
"Kkkuhh~" Syn didn't even realise he let out until the panging sensation surged and a serious nervous rush filled into his system. Blood poured, not leaked, out of the broken scales in his forehead and he took a second to compose.
"Great. It's not like Kami handed me a notebook on this stuff or somethin'. I'm gonna have to learn how to fix this shit on the fly!" He shouted, aiming his voice down at The Saiyan writhing in pain along with the tune of the damned screeching from The Shinsekai.
Syn aimed his closed eyes at the white cat.
"Oh boy."
Before Syn could kick off the busted tile, Yamcha baseball slid under his right foot just before contact, pushing The White Shadow Dragon into a split. The Wolf kicked off the pillars of the overhang of the temple's entrance, leaping back into action with another volley of can-can kicks. A pulse of his sensory magics and Syn saw the legs coming his way, even in his split, dodging both with ease, Yamcha's body flying past.
BZYUU!
The Wolf closed his eyes and as soon as the plasma made contact with his body, it wrapped around like the bubbles in a lava lamp, shooting skyward.
DOOMM!
Syn kipped up, tucking his legs high before dashing forward in skyshaking stomps as he made his way towards Kami.
"Crap!"
Vwa-Vuish~Vwish!
Syn screeched to a halt as the pair of energy signs disappeared and then reappeared outside The Lookout, his weary eyes still preventing him from using anything else but Ki Sensing to locate his target. Krillin let out a breath.
"You got any beans, Korin? I'm officially fresh out of Ki."
"I mean I'm more than happy to help ya but it doesn't look like that guy's gonna give us some breathing room any time soon." Kami stated, pointing up at The White Shadow Dragon as he breached the skies, Yamcha right behind him in hot pursuit.
"..!"
FSHYOOOoooo~
Goku's flying dropkick missed by scales as Syn's next level perception instinctively drug his head backward. Following up, Yamcha bounded off the broken edge of The Lookout, leading with his left leg like an arrow. Another near miss.
Krillin landed with Kami and Popo, placing them down atop Korin's Tower.
"Nimbus!" He shouted, the orange cloud pulling right up to the dome shape only for Krillin to: "Yeah… thought so. Thanks for trying, friend."
The Nimbus raised its shifting form akin to shrug before Kami:
"Ayy, kid. Take this one."
Bwuwuwu~
The morning orange was replaced with an indigo night flavour and a purple cloud mirroring Nimbus pulled up right next to the other cloud.
"What?"
"Hey. I ain't get on your case all the time."
"Fair enough."
ZYYUuuuuuuuuuuu~
Just as Yamcha missed, Syn looked to blast a hole through the man, denied by Piccolo's fervent blast meeting his head on, a combustive explosion rippling out in all directions, the already crumbling nature of the front of The Lookout not looking so great.
"One last barrage! Throw everything you've got at him!"
Yamcha took it to heart, turning around in a scythe shape with his flight and rushing right in at Piccolo's command, Goku too. Krillin got within thoughtshot, The Dark Nimbus' navy blue trail glittering across the sky as he got just outside of range. The Ex-Guardian, Ex-Demon got in too. Finally, Raditz leaped from above, hot dropping right down onto The White Shadow Dragon's back.
The five combatants had a glorious mosh-pit of strikes on the clouds. Syn's natural advantages in speed, power, instincts, defence, and control were simply too much. A swift backfist, seemingly a favourite of The White Shadow Dragon, smacked into Raditz' brow, foisting him out of the running. A high left boot to the jaw left Yamcha stunned, and soon enough it was just Piccolo and Son Goku laying in as many shots as they could.
Krillin advanced inward, flying in on his dark cloud, zooming in and out of ranges sure enough to distract Syn so that Goku could land a left roundhouse at Syn's back.
"Gggeyehh~" Goku grunted, having to traverse in and out of the minefield that was The Shadow Dragon's jagged backside. "Phew~"
WHAMM-WHAMM!
Both Piccolo and Goku were knocked out of the park with a kick each to the midsection.
"..!"
"Solar Flare!"
"GRAHHHHHHH!" Syn shouted as the blinding light dug into his vision once again, having just cleared out the remnants of the last batch. A superdragon punch whiffed Krillin as The Dark Nimbus caressed his feet and pivoted him cleanly upside down.
Syn Shenron bellowed and screamed as the rage took him over and he truly blindly pursued the small man, weaving in and out of his strikes with harrowing precision. Syn whiffed a claw hand slash clean and Krillin came back in with a rooted punch, able to get the full contortion thanks to The Dark Nimbus' sturdy footing.
WHACKK!
"Rrrrghughle~" The Shadow Dragon zoomed off in a straight line backwards as blue blood trailed.
"I didn't hit him that hard, did I..?"
The Shadow Dragon grit his teeth, growled, and then pivoted, instead of pointing his thick black edges towards the skyline, he turned his back on The Z Fighters and made a b-line away from The Sacred Land, Korin's Tower, and Kami's Lookout. He huffed, puffed, wiped his forehead of the squelching scales and composed himself with a sharp inhale through his nose and a steady breath.
He intook another, and rubbed his eyes until full vision came back to him.
"Calm down~ Calm down~ It's not that big a deal. Ahemn! Hmph. Not so bad for a couple of Earthborne. I didn't think they could handle a Shadow Dragon, but it looks like they can if they all pile on one of us."
"Was that it?" The Wolf asked the rest of the group as they met up near Krillin's dark cloud.
"I don't think that'll be the last we see of him." Piccolo claimed, cracking his neck before spawning a new cape and turban.
"Why aren't we going after him?"
"We've got data now."
"Data? What data? That these Shadow Dragons are tough as nails? We should hunt him down, now! He's hurt! This is our best chance!" The brother of Kakarot stated with authority, pointing at Syn's exit route.
"We could…" Krillin said with a twinge of hesitation filtered into his voice.
"But I don't think it's a very smart idea. We got out of there pretty lucky. Could have gone a lot worse with how strong that Mongrel was."
"Tien!"
"..!" The group all looked at Goku simultaneously.
"That guy is clearly the strongest out of those dragon guys. But If they're that strong, we need to warn him."
"He can sense the energy, Son Goku. He'll be fine."
"I don't know. He kinda beat us up. Huh-Hah!"
Krillin cringed, looking out at the morning skyline over Earth with an inquisitive eye. He crossed his legs on The Dark Nimbus and wormed around his lip.
"I think we're gonna have to play the waiting game on this one."
"That's trash! We just let him go! We Could have played the waiting game if we just beat the crap out of that one! But now, playing the waiting game benefits them as much as it does us!"
"Raditz. You're not thinking clearly. I'm the only one that even saw the first Shadow Dragon when he showed up here. Whoever those guys were that summoned Shenron clearly aren't allied with them. Whatever moves they make are subject to change the same way ours are."
"We just have to make sure neither side sweetens the deal for the other. That's our only real checkmate scenario." Piccolo added on as he laid down on the air, crossing his arms and closing his eyes, grunting at the welts on his arms.
"Well… ya know… we could just get lucky and they're not here to destroy the Earth and stuff. That'd be sick." Yamcha stated as he cradled the bottom of his reddened jaw. "Ahh~"
"Not gonna happen. That wizard that summoned Shenron in the first place talked about 'Making this world a better place'. But I'm not so sure he really has Earth's best interests in mind. That's Kami's job."
"Hmm~ Bummer." Yamcha claimed as he crossed his arms and followed Piccolo's lead.
"So what? We just wait and see what happens? My blood is boiling right now. We have duties don't we?"
"Raditz. You can always do what you want. I'm not actually stopping you. You can go right now." Krillin said as he pointed out at the cloudy apparitions beyond. "I just don't think it's a very smart idea until we know what we're dealing with. An offensive approach right now is a bad idea considering we have… 8 unique energy signatures that are all stronger than we are individually. We scrapped it out against what looks like to be the strongest one, sure. But that was one out of 8. 8. The odds aren't very good for us if one of 8 beat us up that bad when we used our superior numbers and tactics."
"..."
Whuuuuuuuu~
The wind whistled on high as Yamcha furrowed his brow.
"Aight. I'm with Krillin. Goku?"
"..?"
"Bulma and Dr. Brief have been working on some security measures for Capsule Corp. For the time being do you think you could drop off Chi-Chi and the boys at Capsule Corp? They'd probably be more safe there."
"Thanks, Yamcha." The brother of Raditz replied as he floated over and threw his arm around him.
Newman
"I'm not the police! Get those boys and blue from the police department to do something about it! … What!? No! I'm not gonna waste valuable Pod Corp. resources on this shi… these shenanigans unless I have to!"
Newman opened up the blinds and revealed the mountainside of North City.
North City was surrounded on all sides by a mountain range, a natural barrier to most threats and a little difficult to travel to without any sort of skycar or other flying devices. Thanks to that, the people of North City were pretty much 'at the whim' of Pod Corporation. Pod Corp. was a fine company, it earned its reputation for sure, but the natural landmarks North City possessed made it far more convenient to purchase from them than from importing all the way from West City.
It was well understood enough by the populace that Pod Corp. had some pretty impressive technology. Enough so that the franchise could lend a hand in times of need.
"Fire!"
"Come on~ I'm walkin' hea'! Good grief." A giant purple mole stuck its head out through rocks and rubble, reconstructive surgery of the entrance cliffside of North City.
Ratatatatata~BANGG! BANGG! BLAMM!
"This ain't the mosst effective use of ya' time. Heh-Heh~" The giant mole said as he scratched his temple with his meaty claw hand, his red nose jumping up and down at the scents the cloudy gunpowder let off on each discharge.
"Crap~ where's Superman!?"
"I don't know!" Another officer shouted as he fired off a shotgun blast only for it to sink into the giant mole's flabby skin and ultimately do little other than scrape and leave a mark.
The police force of North City scrambled down the mountain with retreating fire, sending blast after blast the pink beast's way until they got behind cover.
"Well… If you are gonna keep bein' so rude about it, I might stop playing nice." He claimed, putting his hands on his hips all sassy like.
"We need backup! NCPD is outclassed! We have a Superman level threat in North City! I repeat! We have a Superman level threat in North City! Over!"
Newman's brow furrowed at the titanic nature of the beast. Even while half burrowed in the ground, whatever it was, still stood taller than everything but Pod Corp's gigantic facility.
"Can I fit something that big in a pod? I don't think so… It'd be a fool's errand to try it, but maybe it's worth a shot."
"Mr. Newman. You have another phone call."
"Tell them I'm not here~" Newman fired back with curled lips and crazy eyes.
Haze
Black fluid. Green, silvery rainbow like oil spilled all across the wide waters. The ocean heaved and splashed in titanic waves, as if trying to escape the grasp of the giant frog creature's influence. The green frog monster cackled, lifting up a few plastic containers from the dying life, removing a plastic tie from a fish's neck.
"Wow. Looks like these Earthborne were just fine without me. Good shit, boys. Heh-Heh-Heh."
"Haze!"
"Oh gosh~ What is it, Oceanus?"
"I picked this place. I don't want you stinking up the waters! That shit's gross!"
"Uhh~ I don't see your name on it. In fact, if we look around, this territory definitely looks a lot more marked in my favour than in yours."
The light blue skinned woman shook her hands once and then growled.
"Fine! I'll move! Because I'm nice! And because you always ruin Everything!"
"That's my job." He replied with an earnest nod and a thumbs up.
"Tcha~ I hope Syn kills your sorry ass."
"I may pollute everything I touch but at least I'm not an asshole, or a virtue signaller, or a liar, or a hypocrite."
"Fuck you." She lashed back, making it a point to glare him in the eyes one last time on the way out.
Oceanus' flowing blue dress shimmered in the morning light as she attempted to fly over the horizon.
"That was fuckin' rude, Oceanus!" He declared, pointing at her as she took to the skies, fleeing the bubbling swamps that should have been an ocean. Fish, turtles, sharks, dolphins, plant life, all of them floated to the surface with warts and marks, poisonous disfigurements even though the toxicity had just started. He smirked and laid back in the gas. "Well… If I start early then there's no way Syn can even get close enough to killin' me…"
Thrown out milk cartons, washed away by time and water, sunbleached to the letter floated on by and nestled into him before waxing out of existence. Haze's thick brow turned downward and he hummed.
"Hmm~ But what if Syn just destroys the whole planet? Then my strategy isn't very good. Well… he'd be pretty stupid to blow up Earth. Where would he go?"
Piccolo
"Sleepover, let's go~" Goten yammered on as he flung a blanket on the floor of the loft, plopping down in front of the television.
"Let'sgolet'sgo~" Trunks concurred as Gohan and Chi-Chi filed in behind them.
"So what's going on?" Gohan asked as he got a drink out from the fridge behind the counter.
"Possibly one of the most dangerous threats we've had so far."
Gohan's lips pursed out like a duck's bill at Piccolo's statement. Bulma and the rest of the crew strolled up the metal steps leading to the loft, even Oolong along for the ride. Krillin walked in with a bag of Sensu Beans in his hand and looked down.
"The bright side is that this is the most amount of Sensu Beans I think we've ever had. This is a lot."
Goku yawned, and stretched out on the couch behind the boys, resting his eyes a bit. Yamcha joined in, hopping over from behind and reclining, laying his legs on Goku's.
"That's not good, what's happening?"
"We don't really know. That's the problem. I think they want the second set of Dragon Balls that was created a long time ago."
"There's a second set!?" Gohan and Bulma asked simultaneously as they sat down on the stools at the marble countertop.
"Wait there is?" Raditz asked, his brow finally contained by the ceiling of the loft this time around.
"Where are your clothes at, Raditz?" Chi-Chi asked, craning her neck over like his concerned mother instead of just being an in-law.
"Hey~ Saiyan's used to fight in their underwear all the time back in the dark ages. Unfortunately I was never around for those so I think I just wanted to feel something for once. Green Man offered to change before I got here but uhh… I think I'll just rock these for a while."
"Nu-Uh, mister. You are putting on some clothes right now. I'm not letting your sweaty ass get all over my couch or my stools." Bulma fought back, pressing her hands down on said stools and preventing Kakarot's brother from taking a seat.
"It's like that, huh?"
Tink-Tink.
As soon as the sliding glass door knock was heard a strange darkness spread over the loft, casting shadows over everything, more importantly Goten and Trunks' game.
"Hey! What gives!"
"..?" Goten's chubby face looked about the ethereal thoughtscape and he saw the others in the room occupy the galactic happening.
"Shit! We're in some sort of Telepathy construct!"
"Right!" Krillin answered back immediately.
It was as if a saran wrap of the cosmos had been rolled over everything. The items were still there, Chi-Chi, Bulma, and Gohan were all sitting on the countertop, but instead of greyish marble it was all purples, dark blues, and gaseous black galaxies, a faint pulse bursting through like veins.
"Is this thing on!? Hyahaha-Ha-Huh-Heh-Hah-Hah! Of course it is! Hello! My name is Babidi, son of the great wizard Bibidi and I am from a long line of illustrious mages! I'm going to be your new ruler from now on! This planet is a great choice for my goals because many of you aren't pure, far from it! Being as weak as you are too from a person-to-person basis means that I can just do this~"
Zzzzt!
"And control you from this far away! It's kind of unfair really. I want all of you to report to~ Here! Now. It's come to my attention that there's been a little speedbump in my strategy-"
As Babidi spoke, the veins and the star system inhabiting the loft surged with energy, rotating and warping the shapes surrounding. Oolong, Chi-Chi, and Bulma's eyes grew dark, bags started to show more clearly, and more so than anything, a seraphed M started to mark into their heads at the behest of Babidi's magical prowess.
"Wait! Piccolo! Isn't that what happened to you?"
"Things just went from bad to worse. I'll be back."
"Piccolo! What the hell's going on here!?" Gohan shouted as he put his arms around his shaking mother, the bloodstream showing more and more evidently as her skin ran cold and sheet white.
Vwa-Vuish!
Va-Voosh!
Piccolo's leather shoes hit the tile and he walked the cracked corridors and broken foundations in search for a back room. He hobbled around the dusty palace fractured by Syn and found a tucked away room in the back. Popcorn decor littered not only the ceiling but the floor, warped 'whatever' designs titillated the feet to walk on as Piccolo marched on to the back. Various large jars and pots of clay had symbols and kanji all over them. A few in particular had Kami's logo emblazoned boldly on its front.
"Might as well take two. Who knows what'll happen. Screw it, three."
As he hoisted the heavy clay pots over his shoulders, coaxing the third to float towards him he assumed the position, waiting out the time necessary until the final container of water pressed against his chest.
Vwa-Voosh!
"Just calm~ down~"
Bulma attempted to make a break for it and Oolong transformed.
Bom!
But it wasn't long before Piccolo snatched onto Oolong's missile shaped body and dunked him in the mix.
Sgloosh!
"Oh! Good heavens, he's got me! Run for ya lives! Iss no use, you just gotta give up! He'll get ya keista' anyhow~ Huh?"
"Tcheh."
Oolong blinked as his butt made contact with the loft floor.
"Sacred Water?"
"Worked well when The Lookout was attacked last time."
"Uhh~"
"Don't worry your pretty little head about it, Mongrel. It's not that important. What's important is-" He grumbled, dunking Bulma's head in without a second thought.
"Ayy! Easy! That's the mother of my kid, dude!"
"Whatever. Deed's done, Mongrel. You dunk her head in next time."
As the pair glared at each other, Goku smiled as Chi-Chi fought back with wild punches, hammerfists, knife edge jabs while he laughed and threw her in the vat.
"Thank you."
"What happened?" Piccolo asked to the rest of the group as he squatted down with the other two jugs.
"Well uhh~ whoever that gross-sounding dude is looking for The Dragon Balls or whatever. I don't know why he wants to look for em' tho. Them shits is broken."
"Trunks! Language!"
"Mom, you only care about that stuff when company's over. Talk about a hypocrite."
Bulma's face ran beet red as Yamcha's chortles echoed throughout the loft.
"So it's not anything we don't already know?"
"I mean I didn't know that." Trunks claimed as he hobbled up onto the couch, crossing his fussy little kid arms over each other.
"Well he did say one thing I was surprised about."
"What was that?" Piccolo asked back, turning around to face Krillin.
"He said verbatim: 'And you Shadow Dragons know where to find me'."
"What?"
"Yeah. Maybe he knows something we don't. But… Babidi is the one who has that second set. Advertising it at all with his Telepathy means that The Shadow Dragons would come looking anyway."
"An open challenge, huh? I like the balls." Raditz claimed as he flung open the sliding glass door, normalcy returning as if the gaseous space was being wiped away by painterly strokes in real time.
"Oh! That's why he doesn't have a girl~" Yamcha laughed out as he rubbed a towel over Bulma's shimmering blue bowl cut. "He likes the balls."
"What!? Nah~ I mean~ That's not~"
The whole squad was laughing, minus Piccolo, his grumbling demeanor razor focused on The Black Star Dragon Ball The Nimbus carried into the loft with him.
"Hmm~"
He strutted up to the cloud, extending his hand out.
Vwerrt!
"Hey!"
Vwoomp!
"I'm trying to help you little Mongrel!"
"Nimbus! Whoops~ sorry, Buddy." Goku yelped, flopping back down on the sofa and smacking Trunks on the way. "Cut him some slack."
"Bulma!" Krillin shouted as it came to him, watching the tiny Dragon Ball cup into Piccolo's large green palm.
"What?"
"Do you know if you can fit a Dragon Ball in a capsule?"
"I don't see why not."
"Remember Pilaf?"
"..? I'm not following, Krillin."
"When Goku was looking for the last Dragon Ball at Baba's Palace. Some things can hide a Dragon Ball's presence. There's no way a capsule couldn't do it, right?"
"Nice thinking." She laughed out, slapping Krillin in the back of his bald head for good measure.
Clicc.
"So now what?" Bulma asked the group as she brandished the capsule.
"How bout you put it in the fridge? No one would know. One of the best places to hide something is in plain sight." Gohan claimed as he pointed towards the blocky box in the back of the loft.
"Are you serious?" Piccolo spoke up immediately, furrowing his brow at Son Goku's eldest.
Krillin did not speak up, but a smile and a wagging of the finger said all it needed to as The CEO of Capsule Corp. complied with the suggestion and tucked it in between a vat of tea and some leftovers.